The Last Question.

One of my favorite writings by Isaac Asimov. It’s short but a good read.

The Last Question

Filed under: 30 , asimov, literature, scifi

Across the Atlantic and back.

Got back from London this past Sunday. It was a great trip and the only thing that ruined it was arriving at Newark International at midnight finding out no public transportation is working. If hell exists, it is Newark International Airport.

Here are the photos from the trip.

Filed under: photography, travel

London-town!

I’ll be in London next week visiting a few friends in Kensington.  Pictures to be posted when I return.

Filed under: photography, travel

Bags of Sand

Something to put things in perspective.  If you’re lucky, you got 81 years to live.  Your lifespan measured in bags of sand for an hourglass (1 bag = 30 days).  LINK. Yup.  That’s it.

Here’s some more work by the artist that created this piece, Michael Marcovici.

Filed under: art, off topic

Things Never To Ask Me About My Profession.

Here are some things you should never ask me regarding my job.  I will try to be as brief in my reasonings.

1.  What style of work do you do?

I don’t get this question often, but when I do, I have the sudden urge to get up and leave the conversation.  This question bothers me mostly because of the perception of the individual asking the question, and their belief that architecture is simply a visual vernacular.  I will not go any further.  Just imagining someone asking me this question makes me cringe.

2.  Who is your favorite architect?

This is a question I hate because it’s personally very hard to answer.  I’m not egotistical enough to say “Me”, nor is there any one architect/firm that I believe to be my favorite.  My interest is in architecture, not the architect.  So I can’t give you a singular favorite.

3.  Do you know ____________(insert name of famous architect)?

I have a confusing time dealing with this question.  Is the person asking me whether I know OF the individual, or are they asking me whether I personally know them?  If it’s the former, chances are, I do.  I’ve been studying/interning for almost 10 years now, and in that span, I hope I learned more about architecture than that one time you read a back-issue of Wallpaper Magazine.  Now, if you are asking me whether I personally know them, then you’re just an idiot.  Of course I do.  I’m awesome.  (I kid.  Though there is a chance that I’ve seem them in person at a review or lecture, unless I worked for them or was a student of theirs, I probably won’t have their digits in my cell phone.)

4.  Do you know __________(insert name of cousin/friend/etc.)?  He/She is an architect too.

Now, this question would bother pretty much anyone who has a job.  Of any kind.  If you met a plumber, would you ask them if they knew another plumber simply based on common profession?  Of course not.  Now, if they had went to the same schools, live/work in the same neighborhood, then we have a lead.  But as small as the architecture circle is, there are still about one million architecture students in the world.  I only wish my network was as extensive as you presume it to be.

Filed under: off topic, office

Ridiculous aspiriations not pertaining to my career.

I started writing out the goals for the year, but that list quickly evolved into a list of things that I would like to achieve in my lifetime that, by all convetional logic, have nothing directly related to my career.

1.  Be cast in a Wes Anderson film.

2.  Learn to fly a helicopter.

3.  Become quad-lingual.  (If this is too hard, I will just make up two languages)

4.  Earn a poker nickname.

That’s about it for now.  Yes, they are odd, but I am convinced that all of these goals are related to eachother in some way.

Filed under: off topic

Idiotic in Retrospect.

With about 9 hours of 2008 left, I’ve been spent time thinking about what things were like when there were 9 hours of 2007 left.  I try to note the things that have changed.

It’s nice to think about the things you’ve accomplished or attempted to accomplish in the past year.  Even if they didn’t yield the results that you wanted, I am convinced that on some personal level, none of it has been a waste of time.   And if you are very lucky, you can laugh at your failures and remain humble of your accomplishments.  Because who knows, your gloating of accomplishments may look downright idiotic in retrospect. Take these computer ads for example. [via oobject.com]  At their times, it was the pinnacle of computational technologies.  Today, I would find it very hard to believe that my “lust for power” will be fulfilled by 1K of RAM.  I guess one of the more important things I’ve learned in 2008 was that not everything happens for a reason.  In most instances, things just happen largely by probabilities and coincidences.  It only becomes meaningful because we attach a reason to it.  Let’s see if this postulate holds true.

I’m not much for New Years resolutions, but there are some things I will accomplish in 2009.  A list will be posted shortly after New Years Day.

Filed under: off topic

Holiday Highlights

We had our office holiday party last Friday.  And in spite of the current state of the economy, our office has had a decent amount of work to keep us busy and because of this, I was expecting a relatively joyous holiday party, without the worries of incumbent layoffs and cutbacks.

What I hadn’t counted on was my +1 to become so intoxicated that we had to send her home as soon shortly after appetizers.  Now this isn’t your typical drunk-story.  You know, the one where so-and-so passed out in the bathroom, and so forth.  This is the kind the kind were the person keeps on blabbering non-stop making weird comments about “truffle oil” and “people in the food service industry spitting in your food”.

After I put her in the cab, I thought to myself, “This is going to get me fired.”  I kept quiet for the rest of the night, avoiding any eye contact with the boss, so I wouldn’t have to see his face of disapproval (if there was one).  After most of us went home for the weekend, a few of us hopped around some bars in the area and I drank heavily in hopes that I won’t remember what happened tonight the next day.  When I woke up the following morning, I had a headache reminding me what a stupid idea that was, along with an even more vivid recollection of the preceding night.  Bummer.

On the bright side, when I saw my boss on Monday morning, he said to me, “Thank you for inviting the highlight of the evening.”  So what am I most thankful for this holiday season?  That my boss has a good sense of humor.

Filed under: office

The M-Word

It’s been about a month since I’ve started working again, and things are going even better than I had expected.  This is quite an accomplishment, since I’ve had the tendency to be overly optimistic or over-anticipate some situations, it’s very rare that those self-imposed expectations are surpassed.  Work and life are well.  I’ve even had the chance to meet up with some long-lost friends and colleagues to update each other’s status.

One of the more frequent questions people have began been asking me at these meet-ups is whether I’m currently involved romantically with anyone.  Being a straight guy in his late-20s, I’m assuming that the line of questioning is in tune with whether I’ve begun to consider taking steps toward a serious relationship towards marriage.  It’s happened often enough that it’s begun to annoy me, and now I give an immediate response of “Ew. No.”

Now to clarify things, I’m not saying relationships/marriages are terrible, nor am I the type of person that casually dates (and/or bangs) a plethora of women.  I hardly date.  I’m pretty certain that I don’t even fully understand the definition of what a “date” is exactly.  A decent portion of my friends and colleagues are engaged or married and I am genuinely happy for them, and I wish them all the happiness that they deserve.  They are great people and even greater together.

But it’s become quite apparent the differences that exist between those friends and me.  I’m not going to bore anyone with a list of what those contrasts are, but I will say that I don’t do well in relationships.  This is largely due to the fact that the majority of the relationships that I’ve been involved with have turned out to become terrible inconveniences.  As happy as I am with someone, I’ve always been the type to have multiple pursuits (no, not in women), and have prioritized anything that captures my fascination over the significant other.  This has lead to many disputes about, well… my priorities.  Spending late hours and weekends at the studio/office under my own accord, last minute snowboarding trips, venturing off to hone my photography techniques.  The list is constantly growing.

Though my family and social context suggest that I look into “growing up a little” and become more catering to the person I’m with, this whole restructuring process can be entirely avoided if I just simply avoid dating altogether.  That would be the least path of resistence.  That’s what’s worked for me up until now, and contrary to popular belief, I’m sure it will continue to be that way.  Screw minivans, I’m buying a motorcycle.  And what the hell is a scrapbook?

Filed under: off topic

First and Done.

I spent my lunch break this afternoon running around the Bryand Park area in search of a shipping company that will send a 1.2m by 3.6m print-out to Copenhagen, Denmark for under $100.  FedEX was $130.  So was UPS.  In the end, I went with USPS for $40.

And as soon as I left the package in the good hands of the Postal Service, I’ve officially completed my first competition.  I worked on this one with Michael Ka’ainoni, a fellow alum from grad school.  Now I am taking a break for a few weeks (from working on competitions, not day-job work) and spend the time catching up on my reading (finally finish Don Quixote), and hopefully learn some Flash to start compiling an online portfolio.

Here’s a link to what he submitted.  Hope you guys like it, and feel free to comment.

Filed under: competition, design