:: the wonderSphere ::

EnviroHint #1: Do Your Dishes Right!

2008-07-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I promised to start talking a little bit more about simple ways to live a healthier and more environmentally sensitive life. I'm going to be taking cues from various outside sources and trying to integrate them with my own experiences and the experiences of friends and family. I have the tendency to lean towards the vague in my own general writing, but for the purposes of these posts, I will be as specific as possible.

For my first "hint", I will reference a tiny booklet from Vanity Fair magazine called A Green Guide to Life and its list of "50 Ways to Help Save the Planet." Today's discussion addresses #3 on that list and something that ALL of us have to deal with: doing the dishes. According to Consumer Reports,

"pre-rinsing dishes does not necessarily improve a dishwasher's ability to clean them. By skipping the wash before the wash, you can save up to 20 gallons of water per dishload."

Interesting and I did not know that. But what if you don't have a dishwasher? Then you have to hand wash your dishes in the sink. Well my suggestion to you, whether you wash your dishes in the sink or the dishwasher, is not to pre-rinse but to let them soak before washing. Basically it's like all those dish soap commercials say....they are concentrated to "cut through the grease"..... but no matter what type of dish soap you use, all you need is a little dollop and then some water to soak on the soiled area of the dish. To give you an example, I find that this works particularly well with dishes that have had oatmeal in them. Oatmeal gets crusty quickly and is hard to wash off. If you stand there and scrape at it by hand for 30 seconds or more, you are wasting more water than if you fill the dish with a little water, let it stand and let the crusty bits soften for a while, and then go back and wash it properly in just a few seconds (when the old food presumably washes away).

This is kind of gross and not terribly "wonder-full", but I've found that it does save a little bit of water and that's the gist of the discussion. Also to my Mother, who for many years has thought I was trying to avoid doing the dishes entirely....this is what I was doing! Soaking them!

Los Angeles and the Art of the Picnic

2008-07-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Time for another installment of random observations on Los Angeles culture. For a city with a near-perfect climate year-round, you can tell when summer actually arrives by the amount of events that start popping up which are picnic-friendly. Cinespia is the name of the weekend classic movie screenings in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Every Thursday night, there are concerts on the pier and beach in Santa Monica. Hollywood Bowl is the picturesque venue for concerts set in the hills just north of the Walk of Fame. All of these are staples of LA's summer calendar, and at each one of these events, a picnic is not only encouraged, it's desirable. And when I say picnic, I don't mean peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and grape juice.....I mean, a spread. I mean, brie, prosciutto, olives, and Italian red wine. I mean strawberries, potato salad, cupcakes, and beer. And did I mention red wine? I've attended a show at each one of these locations in the past few weeks, and each picnic got progressively more and more elaborate. That said, there is nothing quite like enjoying a glass of cabernet and some hummus and pita with 3000 of your closest friends. Below, the scene at each.

The view at Cinespia

Picnic at the Hollywood Bowl

Did you think I was kidding?

The Bowl in all its glory

Personal Manifest Destiny

2008-07-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

To quote Wikipedia, Manifest Destiny, for those of you unfamiliar, was "the belief that the United States was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean."

I've always thought that this was a rather anti-climactic definition for what was otherwise a really cool-sounding concept. Kind of lame, even. Say it out loud: "manifest destiny." Sounds super cool, right? And then you find out that it's just about acquiring territory in the birth of our country, and while that's impressive, I want to use the phrase for something different.

I am therefore proposing a new concept, which I will refer to as "personal manifest destiny." This is my belief that the people of the United States are destined to expand their minds and capabilities from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. This is a rather fruity way of saying that I think Americans are capable of a lot more than what we're doing right now. Maybe it's NAFTA, and the export of jobs to China and India that have got me thinking.....we're supposed to be a society of self-starters, entrepreneurs, and innovators. And lately - OK, in the last 30 years or so - I feel like people have gotten lazy. This is not an accusation or a criticism on any one group or thing in particular, but just a philosophy that I've come to settle on. I feel like one of the reasons that Americans have evolved into such voracious consumers is because we have no idea how much it takes to produce whatever we consume. We've outsourced those jobs and most of us never see the inside of a manufacturing facility.

All of this meandering thought on my part is to say the following: I think Americans have forgotten what hard work is like. I think we could benefit from learning a trade, taking an apprenticeship, picking up a hammer, or getting a little dirty. I think there are many people in this country with unrealized skills or gifts that would flourish in jobs they may have never considered before. And I think this realization is going to be critical in the months ahead as the country flounders in - just admit it - a recession like we haven't seen in a long time.

Our grandparents made it through the Great Depression AND fought a war that saved the world. What have we done lately? Gone to Starbucks? I think it's time we roll up our sleeves, take a deep breath, and get to work. Embrace your personal manifest destiny, and find the work that is fulfilling to you, and hopefully it is helpful to society as well. Americans are capable and intelligent people* and we'll come out better for it on the other end, as long as we persevere.

*I can't vouch for people who voted for Bush twice. I wouldn't describe these folks as intelligent.

An Elusive Goal

2008-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Hawaii. When I arrived there for the first time in March, I saw rainbows - in the sky, on their license plates, on the sides of buildings. In fact, it is one of their state symbols. So I decided that I would get a t-shirt from Hawaii with a rainbow on the front.

This proved to be a most daunting task. All I wanted was a t-shirt, with a rainbow on the front, that said "Hawaii". On my trip in March, I searched each day, and asked many friends and shop keepers if they had such an item. No one knew where to find this. I found this quite strange being that the rainbow is their state symbol. When I went back to Honolulu on the 4th of July, I was even more determined. Each time I passed a shop I looked through stacks of t-shirts, and came up empty. I even went to a vintage shop, and couldn't find anything. The best I could do was this unfortunate looking item.....it's not even a full rainbow, and besides that, it's ugly.

As it turns out, I had to go all the way to Maui to find a t-shirt that fit the description. On the second-last day of my trip, I found this lovely item.....it doesn't say "Hawaii" on it, but it does refer to Paia, Maui, which was my favorite little town on the island and the place where I found the shirt.

So, thanks to Paia, for actually getting it. And here are some more photos from Maui, where we explored the northeastern coastline and biked down the dormant volcano, Haleakala. It was awesome!

The world's largest banyan tree in Lahaina, Maui

Eastern Maui from the West side

On the road to Hana

Looking into the crater of Haleakala

Looking back on Maui from the road up Haleakala

Declaring my independence

2008-07-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

We've just passed the one year anniversary of the launching of the wonderSphere, so I thought it might be a good time to sort of reiterate what the heck I'm doing and why, and perhaps give a little more direction to the blog itself. Let's review....this time last year, I:

Quit my job working as a project manager at an architecture firm
Sold my car
Bought a bike
Packed up everything I owned in a truck and moved to Los Angeles
Started grad school at USC

I started this blog for anyone and everyone who was interested in my progress, and I've also used it to talk about things I am passionate about. But the reason that I do this, and really the reason I went back to grad school, is because ultimately I am passionate about trying to use my God-given gifts to make the world a better place. Yeah, I know.....it's such a cliche. But it's true. A few days ago I checked the stats for this blog and I saw that I was getting an average of nearly 70 views a day.....that really amazed me, not only because I didn't imagine that that many people could think I was interesting, but also because that meant that I had the chance to tell up to 70 people a day something new, or interesting, or something that could help them live a healthy, more efficient, more earth-friendly life. So ultimately what this journey is about for me is trying to figure out how to become independent from all of the unnecessary hardships that our consumer society has brought upon itself - like a great experiment. And in turn, I share my experiences with others in the hopes that someone will be inspired to do something extra to help change their world for the better.

It's along the same lines of what I am trying to accomplish in my graduate thesis. I've mentioned it a few times on here but never elaborated too much....essentially with my thesis, I'm focusing on residential architecture, because I think homeowners have the potential to make a huge impact in the fight against global warming. But as much as we need to reduce global warming, I think we also need to prepare for it. So with my thesis, I'm going to see if there's a way to effectively communicate with the American homeowner about how they can change their home to make it more energy efficient in the simplest and most cost-effective way possible. It's a huge task, or as my thesis advisor likes to say, it's a "big bite." I know this, but as you might be able to tell from my other blog, Living in Los Angeles Without A Car, I am not one to shy away from a challenge.

In the weeks and months ahead, I've decided to intersperse academic and personal updates with helpful hints about how to live a more environmentally sensitive life. I know this is the "popular thing" to do right now, but if you 70 people a day don't mind reading about my adventures horseback riding, then I figure you won't mind extra posts about changing your lightbulbs and what not :o)

Happy Independence Day, folks, and here's a fun fact: only 200 days left in the bizarre, unfortunate, and sad chapter of the country's history known as the Presidency of George W. Bush. Here's to hoping we change the country for the better in our quest to save the Earth!

The City of Angels from all angles

2008-06-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I went horseback riding in the Hollywood Hills, then shopping.....later that night I went to Cinespia at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where I saw Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (which was awesome). The horseback riding was a big step for me since the last I spent any time on a horse was years ago in the Czech Republic, and I got thrown off....but I digress. Sunday I went biking along the beach from Santa Monica to Marina Del Rey and it was lovely. From the hills to the cemetery to the beach - only in Los Angeles! Some photos below.

My roommate, her horse, and our guide

The Hollywood sign, as close as I've ever been

A smaller Hollywood sign above the horses of the Sunset Ranch

Well, hello there.

This horse jumped for the first time while we were there!

Later, at the cemetery: no horses, just Shauna, Katie, and about 3000 other folks

Anybody want to bet me?

2008-06-27T16:02:00.000-07:00

Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado think that there is a 50/50 chance that there will be no polar ice at the geographic North Pole at the end of the summer. Apparently they have an informal betting pool going. I am not one to miss an opportunity so I am wondering if anyone wants to bet me. The bet is $5 plus a canvas grocery bag. Winner wins grocery money and bags to take it home in.

So, I am betting that the ice will completely melt away by the end of the summer. If anyone wants to bet that there will be ice at the North Pole by September 21, then you count as a NO bet. If there are multiple NO bets, and you win, you'll split the pot (and the canvas grocery bags). If you want to bet that YES, the ice will melt away by the end of the summer, then please bet YES plus a date. That way, whoever bets closest will win, and we'll have just one winner. IF it melts, of course.

Please register your bets in the comments below. Here I'll go first:

Me: YES, August 25

Anybody else?

Feels good to be a renter

2008-06-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Now that the housing bubble is less a sphere and more of a soapy mess, oil is up over $140 a barrel, the stock market is at its lowest in 2 years, and the economy is just basically in a huge rut, I would like to congratulate my fellow renters who didn't succumb to peer pressure and buy an overpriced home that costs them $300 in gas a month to commute from. Fortunately I don't think anyone I know falls into that category either, but sadly, many Americans do, and they are now seeing the value of their homes plummet dramatically. 10 grand lost over a couple of years of renting pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of dollars some people are watching go down the drain as their house's value simply evaporates. As a self-professed urban pioneer, green economics junkie, and transportation aficionado, I'd like to make a couple of observations to those of you who might consider buying when the market really hits bottom, and those houses are, once again, cheap.

Use your NY Times graphics. I have long been a fan of the outstanding NY Times infographics department, so when they put together an interactive infographic, you can probably assume its going to be top notch. Here, they ask if it is better to buy or to rent, and they let you input all of your own variables. Don't be a tool! Use this tool! (Sorry, couldn't resist)
Don't buy too far away from your city center. Where do you work? Where do you buy groceries? Where do you go to the movies? How much gas is it going to take to get to all of these places on a regular basis in an average month? This is an issue, folks. Gas isn't getting any cheaper or more practical. $140 a barrel oil could be $300 a barrel oil in a matter of a couple of years. But, don't take it from me.....take it from the experts.
Have an environmentally-conscious architect or contractor friend check out the house independently. You would take a used car to a mechanic friend before you bought it, wouldn't you? So why not have someone who knows about buildings check out your home before you buy it? What if it looks great and has a stellar maintenance record, but poor insulation? A severe lack of insulation will impact your energy bills drastically when the seasons change, and the cost of energy isn't going down either.
Chose something with manageable landscaping. Pretty green lawns take a lot of maintenance and use a lot of water. If you're going to get one, and take care of it properly, for god's sakes, at least get a hand-powered lawn mower (see point #2 for why) and don't complain to me when your water bill comes back.
Don't forget to calculate your homeowner's insurance. And don't forget to add disaster insurance if you live in flood, tornado, or earthquake-prone areas. Global warming isn't going anywhere - and the earth is already angry. Add it in and compare it to the cost of losing, oh I don't know, everything, and take that into account.

So, there you go. Not trying to scare you, just trying to point out some realities that we'll have to face in a world with so many changing paradigms. Happy (house) hunting!

Epilogue, 27 June 2008: Treehugger points out that you don't necessarily have to buy OR rent with this great article. So many options!

Pluots

2008-06-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is of very little consequence in the grand scheme of things, but as long as you're stopping by, I need to tell you about these things I've been eating lately called "pluots" or "plumcots". As you might expect from their name, they are 1/2 plum, 1/2 apricot - and 100% tasty. Perhaps some of you know of this fruit hybrid already, but if you don't, I have to say.....they are delicious! I've been getting them from the Farmer's Market on Wednesday mornings and although I walk away with a bag full meant for coworkers, I usually end up keeping half of them for myself because I can't stop eating them. It's nice to know that something good for you can actually taste good too.

image courtesy of seasonalchef.com

Florida, Florida, Florida

2008-06-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

I'm watching Recount right now on HBO (free for 3 months, woo hoo) and it's bringing back some really awful memories. I was actually in Spain during the election in 2000, and I remember calling home to find out what was happening since all the papers were in Spanish and I couldn't read what they said. I was incredibly confused when I found out that there wasn't a president yet, and when I arrived home 4 weeks later, we still didn't have one. That said, this movie is frightening. Then Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris was such a moron. The only bigger moron that I can think of is George W. Bush. And here we are, almost 8 years later, when everything is spinning out of control, and all I can think of is.....Florida, Florida, Florida. Like Tim Russert said, it all hinged on Florida. And maybe if some people down there hadn't been such morons, or if they had done their jobs, maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't have lost over 4100 soldiers in a needless war....we wouldn't be in the middle of a global climate crisis....we would have a justice department that we can trust....we wouldn't have lost the respect of every major ally country on the planet.

I'm so ashamed of the people who did this. I didn't even do anything wrong and I'm ashamed. Can we get an interview with Katherine Harris now? No, forget that, once a moron, always a moron. Can we just have a do-over? Start over from like, January 2000 and go again? Maybe it would look like this:

Summertime

2008-06-20T17:22:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again!

BEFORE

AFTER

Derrie-Air*

2008-06-17T17:37:00.001-07:00

As a follow-up to my recent post about the airline industry's woes, I am delighted to tell you about a new way of flying that finally makes sense. It's called Derrie-Air, and the pricing structure is quite simple: the more you weigh, the more you pay. New routes don't charge a flat fee, they charge per pound. Based in Philadelphia, you can fly to LAX for $2.25 a pound, to Denver for $1.90 a pound, or to Chicago for as little as $1.40 a pound. And if that weren't sensible enough, they are completely carbon neutral! According to their web site, "Derrie-Air will be the only airline that plants trees to offset every pound of carbon that our planes release into the atmosphere." Absolutely stunning! Sign me up!

*Unfortunately, Derrie-Air is not real. It's a product of a marketing stunt. But is it just me, or does this sound really sensible? I mean, I would end up paying more than some but reducing weight - on both planes and people - doesn't sound like a bad idea at all. I'm just saying.

I won a big check! On a big boat!

2008-06-16T00:08:00.001-07:00

In the interest of academic news, and since my journey through graduate school at USC is one of the reasons I started this blog, I might as well update you on one big thing that I've done for which I was recognized over the weekend. Last Saturday night, at the Lumen West Annual Awards Banquet on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, I won the Saul Goldin Memorial Scholarship competition for student lighting design. The total winnings were $10,000, and as the first place winner, I got $5000! And they gave me a huge check to boot. Here is my winning entry board - a small explanation of the lighting design follows.

The program was to design the lighting of a "hip" sushi restaurant. My roommate, Gretchen, helped me with the name of the restaurant, "Miso Pretty", LOL. Since it was a sushi restaurant, I thought that the lighting should be crisp and white so that the food would be displayed in the best possible light. I went backwards from there, thinking about the nature of white light, and how it's made up of red, green and blue light. I used that to separate the restaurant into three "zones", the front/blue room being for private parties or additional dining area, the middle/red zone being the bar area, and the back/green zone being the sushi bar and primary seating area. The banquet along the back wall uses strip LED lights that can be all white, just like a fluorescent tube, or that can change colors to tie the spaces together or create a particular mood. The entire lighting scheme is meant to be flexible, changeable, and energy-efficient. And fun!

Here is a picture of me with the big check:

Plans for the gigantic check include endorsing it with a gigantic pen, stuffing it in my gigantic purse, and depositing it in a gigantic ATM.

Here are some pictures of the Queen Mary, which I didn't even realize was docked in Long Beach until this weekend. This thing is like the Titanic! Except, not at the bottom of the North Atlantic.

I told you it looked like the Titanic.

Here's a shot of the banquet hall with some people in costume. Everyone there was a participant in the lighting design industry in some way, and the theme for the costumes was "+/- 3000 degrees K" which is the color temperature of white light. (Newsflash, designers are dorky! And I love it)

The band that played before and after the awards ceremony was called Magical Mystery Tour, and as you might notice, they were a Beatles impersonation band, with wigs, fake facial hair, and funny costumes. They sounded pretty good too.

Gretchen inexplicably got drafted into photography service by the head honcho of the awards banquet shortly after I won my award. Her knees hurt for a while after, but at least she looked great in that vintage dress!

Shortly after I took this picture, I walked forward several meters and attempted the "king of the world" pose on the bow of the boat. Too hard to do in heels, though.

So, big weekend here! I hope everyone gets to enjoy a big check sometime in their lives. It's big fun. :o)

Unimaginable loss.

2008-06-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

In memoriam, Tim Russert, 1950-2008.

image courtesy of msnbc.com

It's difficult to describe the sense of loss that we feel when someone who lives their lives in the public eye passes away suddenly. I never knew people like John F. Kennedy, Jr., David Bloom or Heath Ledger, but it's hard not to feel sadness, as if this person had the potential to change the world, and their lives were senselessly cut short. Multiply those previous events by about 10 and that's how I'm feeling after the sudden death of Tim Russert. It's just so sudden, and so unfathomable, and it leaves such a massive void.....whether you liked his tone or not, it's hard to deny that his influence on the current and potential leaders of our country was enormous, and he was always tough, and always fair. It's even harder to handle when you hear the stories of how good a father, boss, and person he was. People who are extremely good at what they do are hard to come by; people who do it with a smile, and with such enthusiasm, and with such love for the people around them are just plain rare. And beyond all of that, I mean, he was just here.....like, just a few days ago, we saw him on MSNBC.....and then he had a heart attack, and he was gone. Tim was such a good person and so good at his job, NBC will have a very hard time filling his shoes - he is truly irreplaceable.

That said, please everyone try to lose those extra pounds, and get your cholesterol checked! Stay healthy, be a good person, and live every day like it's your last. Life is too short to let it pass you by.

Dwell on Design, and why my Google Reader is driving me bonkers

2008-06-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

Since school let out for the summer, I've been indulging in one of my favorite activities, which is catching up on current events. Give me access to my favorite news sites and a few blogs to look at and I could stay busy all day, staring at the computer screen. This is one of the reasons I don't partake in fiction as often as I'd like.....most of my daily reading time is spent on politics, economics, or other aspects of real life that usually are, as they say, stranger than fiction.

Lately I've been on a tear adding blogs to my Google Reader, which is my version of a consolidated RSS feed that I'm sure many of you use to keep updated on sites that you like. I think I've got over 25 blogs on there at this point. Sure, 2 of them are mine, and a few belong to friends, but that still leaves nearly 20 blogs that I get updates from every day. I am mentioning all of this because I've been meaning to tell you about the Dwell on Design Conference I went to at the LA Convention Center this past weekend. I took pictures, grabbed some literature and generally scoped out the whole thing. I've been meaning to tell you about it but....I've been too enraptured by my Google Reader, and well, I just got distracted. Now, without further ado, here are my highlights from this year's Dwell on Design Conference.

Marmol Radziner Prefab. This pick is appropriate not only because Dwell is strong proponent of prefab housing but also, Marmol Radziner has a blog, and yes, they are on my Google Reader!
Mythic Paint is a 100% non-toxic, ultra low-odor paint with no VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Or as they say, safe for people, pets, and the earth!
EcoSmart Fire places burn on denatured ethanol and require no flue or hard connection. And they look cool (see below).

Noritz tankless water heaters heat water through a heat exchanger and don't require a tank of any kind. They save space and only use the amount of energy required to heat the amount of hot water you require at that time, rather than heating and reheating an entire tank of water every time you need hot water. They therefore use less energy overall, and as a bonus, they have longer lifespans and recyclable parts.
Claudia Endler's jewelry designs aren't earth-shattering but they are clean, simple, and reliably modern, and definitely more my style than a lot of mainstream jewelry designs. This ring is typical of her offerings:

image courtesy of claudiaendlerdesigns.com

And here is the strictly pictoral portion of the post:

Look! A solar-powered outdoor shower. Surrounded by panels of pressed vegetation. Super cool!

Sweet, it's like a giant IKEA-style fun house for your backyard! (No idea who makes this)

Who doesn't like yurts?

And now for the ooh and aah portion of the conference....this is a Tesla, the much-talked-about electric sports car that you can own for a cool $90,000 and after waiting years on a waiting list. Despite the hurdles to its release, it is awfully cool. The awning above it is made of solar panels that charge the car, which makes this entire system completely off the grid - and of course, this means no carbon emissions. Yay for progress!

Anyway, there was a lot more but hopefully you get the picture. Lots of good and green design. I'm going to go read this post on my Google Reader now :o)

Don't Fly American Airlines.

2008-06-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is so disgusting, I had to share it. American Airlines recently forced a passenger to ride in a urine-soaked seat. I've never been a fan of American, can't quite pin-point why but I've taken a lot of planes in my life and not one of them has been an American flight. But this takes the cake! Like one of the commenters on the post said, "Either deal with it and sit in urine for two hours, or risk a tantrum and playing musical chairs with the following flights? Yeah, that's a tough choice. I might have picked the seat like [your passenger]." So do yourself a favor, save the $15 bag fee and don't fly American! (Sounds ironic when you put it that way....)

Update, June 11, 2008: According to MSNBC, United is the worst airline ever. I don't know....I haven't heard of anyone on a United Plane sitting in pee lately. But it's possible. I'd avoid both, just to be safe.

What makes an architect, an Architect

2008-06-02T23:49:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to my frustration of a few days ago, and in response to the news that Brad Pitt will be "designing" a hotel in Dubai, I've been thinking a lot lately about what separates architects from just anyone who has a good idea for a design. I recently had a brief and vibrant email discussion with some of my college classmates about the subject of licensure after we learned that one of us passed all of the exams and got his stamp. Many of my classmates chose not to pursue a career in architecture after college, and of the ones that did, a smaller number will chose to take the exams. But I'm beginning to think that the ones who chose not to are selling themselves short. What's the point of years and years of learning in a university, and then several more years of internships, if not to ascend to the highest accomplishment of your profession? What if passing those exams is the only thing that truly makes us an Architect?

Some of my friends expressed concern over the notion that gaining a license, and therefore a stamp, opens you up to a whole world of liability, i.e., lawsuits from unhappy clients. And that may be true if you are a sole practitioner but the majority of young Architects won't start stamping their own drawings right away, since many work in larger firms. In fact, the decision to stamp drawings - and therefore assume responsibility - is your right as an Architect. Just because we get a stamp that doesn't automatically mean that we have to start stamping everything we touch. If you work in a larger firm you could go your whole career and not use your stamp, because you'd be using the partners' licenses. But, this choice - to stamp or not to stamp - is what makes US the Architect.

And it's not just passing the exams either....it's the opportunity to pass them. Brad Pitt may be a gifted designer but if he wants to be an Architect, he'll have to go through years of schooling, just like the rest of us. He can pay for it, for sure, but would he put forth the time? Probably not. So in a way I feel bad for him....he can design that hotel but he can't own the design. (And then I think about his gorgeous family and his piles of money and I don't feel as bad for him anymore....)

In conclusion, I guess I'm just thinking that taking those exams - and passing them - is the whole goal of architecture school. If you want to design buildings but you're not interested in an architect's stamp, then why go to architecture school? Be an illustrator, a graphic designer, or just go to law school so you can actually afford to build the buildings you want....and then when you're done, call me. I will definitely have passed the exams by then and you're going to need an Architect to sign and stamp those drawings ;o)

The Beach and the Mountains

2008-06-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

What fun is living in Southern California if you can't enjoy all that it has to offer? It reminds me of those California tourism commercials that the Governator does.....we have a lot of natural beauty in the country's most populous state, and I'd like to try to experience some of it now that I have a break from school. Here are some photos from recent outings - a hiking trip to Temescal Canyon and a relaxing afternoon at the Beach in Marina Del Rey. I know a lot of people make fun of LA for its smog problem, but nothing beats the whiff of fresh air that you get from both the mountains and the beaches here.

mountains + city + beach + ocean

beach + ocean

ocean + beach + city + mountains

I love design but I probably should have gone to law school

2008-05-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

So for the past couple of days I've been drooling over the news that Apple filed a patent to infuse their products with thin film of solar cells. If this is true and if we start to see Solar MacBooks in the near future.....well, I will probably achieve complete zen. (Nevermind that I have a perfectly functional MacBook Pro with a pretty new screen.....oh by the way, Apple can't recycle their own products yet, did you know that?)

Image courtesy of www.inhabitat.com, obviously

And this news is all fine and good, but the reality is that items like this are rarely within my price range. Has an architect or another designer ever told you about how little we make? No? Then you probably don't know one, because let me just clarify: the amount of money that an architect makes is quite often woefully inadequate in comparison to how much schooling we have to go through to achieve licensure in our profession. To get a law degree, you need about 7 years of school and then you study for a few months, and you take the Bar Exam, and then you get to start charging people an eye-popping hourly rate. To get an MBA, you need about 6 years of school and then, oh I don't know, go to Wall Street and start making piles of money. To get an MD, you need what, 8 years of school? Isn't some of that residency? I don't know how doctors work or how much they make because I freak out about blood and can't really pay attention to them for long, but I still think it's more than architects. Who, by the way, need at least 5-6 years of school (7 at the rate we're going), 3 years of internships, and after July, we need to take 7 exams to become licensed. (It used to be 9 but they "scaled back").

Don't get me wrong: I love what I do. I like living simply and I love the economy of IKEA as much as the next person. But it is awfully frustrating to realize that my hours of toil and research and careful planning to keep that roof from falling on your head are worth only a fraction of what a lawyer's time processing some paperwork is - according to the market, anyway. How did it get to be this way? Granted, designing a building takes a heck of a lot longer than defending or prosecuting a case, in many instances, but are we, as architects, too reliable? Are our practices and techniques too open for mimicry? Should we all start screwing up some buildings so we'll be paid at least on par with what entry-level attorneys make? Is desperation the path to earning a living wage?

I don't know where all of this came from. I guess now that I'm out of school I have plenty of time to think about these things. :o)

New Blog!

2008-05-23T19:36:00.001-07:00

This idea has been stewing in my head for a long time and now that school is out, I decided to take the plunge. Yesterday I launched a new blog, called Living In Los Angeles Without A Car (LILAWAC for short), which is, uh, what I do currently. I would like for this blog to be a resource for anyone in the Los Angeles region who is interested in alternative forms of transportation, since the cost of owning and fueling a car certainly isn't going down anytime soon. I will be speaking from experience, obviously, but I am also looking for contributors to share posting duties, probably once a week or so. If you know anyone else who lives in Los Angeles who doesn't own a car, or is bike- or bus- or train-friendly (and savvy), please pass this on. Also if you are interested in contributing yourself, I would certainly appreciate your help, so let me know! Thanks :o)

Nails on a Chalkboard

2008-05-22T14:44:00.001-07:00

I got my computer back yesterday and just in time.....I should have made this post a long time ago.

In July of last year, I wrote a blog post about how I had just seen Barack Obama in Cincinnati, and how he had inspired me. In February of this year, I wrote another, very measured and careful blog post about why I was supporting Obama over Hillary Clinton.

In the 3 months since I wrote that last post, many things have happened in the Democratic primary process which have disgusted, disarmed, disappointed, and downright depressed me. Almost all of them have been perpetrated by Hillary Clinton and her campaign surrogates. I have sat by and watched, in disbelief, as Bill Clinton has insulted the African-Americans of this country; as Hillary has lied about avoiding sniper fire on a tarmac in Bosnia; and as the Clinton campaign has gone against its previous stance and urged for the inclusion of the Michigan and Florida primary delegates (despite the fact that Clinton advisor Harold Ickes voted for them to be excluded last year). These are stand-out events amid the daily sludge that her campaign has generated as she has gone from presumed candidate to a trite and sad version of the Senator that I thought we all knew. Gone are the days where we can be proud to say that we had a great woman running for president; we've entered a time where I can't listen to her or read anything she says without feeling embarrassed.

But what was really the last straw for me, and what led me to write this post, was recently finding out that Hillary compared the situation with the Michigan and Florida delegates to the recent fraudulent elections in Zimbabwe. ZIMBABWE. Which is to insinuate that the heinous dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, who "refused to abide by the will of the people" as she put it, is in some way akin to Obama, who apparently is trying to keep the voters of Florida and Michigan down. Or something. Even if you don't draw that comparison from what she says, the situation is clear - Hillary Clinton is unhinged and will say or do anything it takes to take the nomination, and if that means stealing it, then so be it.

Nevermind that the polling numbers in Ohio and Florida, which show Hillary beating McCain but Obama losing to him, are being skewed by Hillary supporters who are so vindictive that they are claiming that they will vote for McCain if Hillary does not get the nomination. If, as Andrew Romano puts it eloquently in his article for Newsweek, you factor in even a small portion of those people who find their way back to voting for a Democrat in November, Obama will win both states. None of this seems to matter to the Clintons, who have shown how utterly unprincipled they are with their crusade to include the delegates from Michigan and Florida, after they voted to exclude them, and even when Obama's name was not on the ballot in Michigan.

And let's talk about Hillary's claim that the race has been infused with sexism (to her disadvantage) but not racism. Let's definitely talk about the fact that she's a woman, because if this is the way that our first viable female candidate for president is going to conduct herself, then I doubt we will have another viable female candidate any time soon. What of future elections....will people say, "oh she's a great candidate, but remember when Hillary went bat-shit crazy in 2008?" As a woman, I could not be more ashamed that she is representing us in this way, and I could not be more distraught that she is potentially damaging future female candidates' chances.

At this point the nomination is almost a done deal for Obama, but I fear for the weeks ahead, because we will finally see how low the Clintons are willing to stoop in their desperate attempt at power-grabbing. I used to think about Bill Clinton's presidency fondly but I can't even do that anymore without cringing - the Clinton legacy is now tarnished by their own petty and petulant actions when they simply were out-run - and it makes me really, really sad. Like Evan Handler writes in his blog, I would like to imagine a graceful exit by Senator Clinton where she uses her stature as a public figure to point out the historic nature of this year's campaign. I would like to imagine it, but instead, all I hear in my head are nails on a chalkboard.

~~~~~

Epilogue: Friday, May 23, 2008. In maddening desperation, Hillary Clinton says the following:

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."

.....which, for all intents and purposes, means that Obama could be assassinated at any moment, which could mean her path to the nomination. I think Bob Cesca makes a good case for her as the worst person in the world at this point.

PS. I love Keith Olbermann!

Computer Limbo

2008-05-17T18:35:00.001-07:00

So let me elaborate a little on the sad event that I mentioned in my last post, re: computer accident. I was in the midst of my very last project, which was a doozy, and I was getting ready to go into school for a meeting I had to attend. I was packing up my stuff when my computer slipped out of my "nice" computer bag, and took a small tumble to the floor. This is not the first time this has happened, and I was especially not concerned this time because the computer had its new pretty pink plastic case on. But when I opened it up to check on it, the screen was totally busted. There was no apparent physical damage, but there was nothing on the screen, except for some really crazy looking pixels.

I don't know how to describe what I felt next. I skipped that "sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach" feeling and went straight to the "indignant annoyance" phase, after which I quickly went into panic mode. Basically as I sat there looking at my blank and obviously distressed computer screen, I said to myself, "are you kidding me? I mean, seriously? NOW?" Lucky for me (EXTREMELY lucky....I cannot stress how lucky this was), I have an external monitor and was able to boot up with it on and see that nothing had happened to my hard drive and that everything was still there. And all of my work was backed up anyway, but still....I had a busted screen.

Long story short, after finishing my last major project on my external monitor and new USB keyboard, I had to take my "WonderMac" in for repair. It's now in the shop and in good hands, but I'm a little lost without it. I'm writing this from my (very continuously generous) roommate's computer, and as soon as I get my own back, I'm going to launch a NEW blog, which I'm very excited about. So stay tuned and enjoy my limbo....I'm going to go watch some movies!

A weight has been lifted....

2008-05-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

I finished up school last week, in a mad flurry of presentations, paper writing, caffeine, and one very unfortunate computer accident (which is now being repaired). It was difficult at best, and the reason that this is my first blog post in more than a week. But it feels like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, and once I get the chance to decompress a bit more, I'll do a wrap up of all of my classes and the direction that these have given me with regards to future work.

Speaking of being a bit lighter on my feet.....I am currently in Chicago covering the GRAVITY FREE interdisciplinary design conference on behalf of Archinect, with whom I am closely affiliated, and the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, for whom I am a Student Advisory Board member. I am blogging live from the conference on Archinect, which you can view here, and I'll be writing some things after I get back as well. So check it out! And I'll see you soon...

Handwriting

2008-04-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

I would like to share with you a phenomenon that I have only recently become aware of. That is, the apparent disintegration of my handwriting as a result of using the computer so frequently. I discovered it when I was trying to write evaluations at the conclusion of one of my classes.....these are pieces of paper with a few questions that encourage us to evaluate our professors and give suggestions on how to improve the class. This meant that I had to write sentences, and as I struggled to write a couple of comments on the sheets of paper, I realized that I had lost the natural syncopation that I used to have when writing by hand. I was able to write something eventually but it was, as some might say, a "hot mess."

And as it turns out, I'm not alone....several of my classmates experienced the same phenomenon. In most of my classes, many of us typed our notes into the computer because frankly it was faster but when it came time to write down more than just our name, it was a challenge.

What a strange byproduct of the computer age! I spent a long time trying to develop a handwriting that was compatible with my profession (if you've ever seen an architect's handwriting you know what I'm talking about), so this is a little disconcerting. Should I go back to practicing my letters on lined paper? Maybe I should write out all of my blog posts by hand before typing them in?!? THAT would be an exercise in patience....

Automatic flush toilets are a waste of water.

2008-04-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Oh come on. You know what I'm talking about. Raise your hand if you've been in some airport or city building and you tried to use the toilet and the darned thing started flushing at a really inopportune time.

Of course the device that isn't a waste of water is the automatic sensor on the faucets that turns them on when your hands are in front of them and off when you're gone. So naturally you can imagine my frustration when I go into restrooms that have automatic flush toilets and traditional manual faucets. Um, no....it should be reversed! Everyone who's ever specified a toilet or faucet in a public building, please take note!