I just drank a huge cup of coffee and I am still tired. What the hell is the matter with me??

Julie's big day

This past weekend I attended a wedding for a friend of mine whom I met really pretty recently. Julie was one of the first people I got to know at my current job. She has been a great friend and it was awesome to be there with her on this beautiful night. Her wedding was gorgeous, not in a church but in a small space in downtown KC. This space used for many different activities was the host of a fashion show a few weeks ago which I went to and on this night looked like a completely different building on the inside. I will stop typing now for I am very tired and post some pics I shot on this night for you viewing pleasure.

Breakfast of Champions

I am taking a break from my job which requires ways to many hours of my life, to write this blog. I have had it, too much work not nearly enough play. I love Architecture but I don't know if I am ready to sacrifice all my time to it just yet. I do, however, find time during lunch to grab an hour and read. Over the past 4 weeks, an hour at a time, I have been chipping away at Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I finished it on Tuesday of this week, and I must say I enjoyed the hell out of it. It was written unlike any book I have ever read. The characters were written about in manner almost making them all equal... so that there were no main characters, or ALL the characters were main characters (however you want to look at it). One however, did eventually stand out. He goes the name of Kilgore Trout. I will not say much more about the book in hopes that you will read it and find out the whole story for yourself, with no expectations or inclinations as to what may happen.
I will say that this book made me laugh out loud on several occasions. My reading spots consist of either LatteLand, Starbucks, or Panera all on the plaza. I make my decision on where I will read each day based on three criterion.
One) whether or not I am going to eat while I read. Most days I bring my lunch and eat it at my desk while I work, so to be able to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee and my book without the trouble of sticking food into my mouth. My mouth is the whole in my face located just below my nose where the majority of my air enters and exits my body, It also contains all of my teeth used for breaking food into small enough pieces to travel down my throat into my stomach. If I choose to eat, I opt for Panera and all it's deliciousness.
Two) What the weather is like. For instance, if it is a little chilly, I would like a hot cup of coffee. LatteLand's coffee is significantly better than Starbucks in my opinion so I would opt for LatteLand. However, if it is warm out and I would like something cool and refreshing, I hit up Starbucks for one there divine caramel Frappuccinos. Damn are they exquisite.
Three) Kind of related to the second, If I would like to sit inside or outside. On the Plaza at least, Starbucks has premium outdoor seating. Whereas LatteLand's is nice, but small. Even though there are two LatteLands on the Plaza, there is more outdoor seating at the one Starbucks than at both LatteLands combined. So If I am feeling the indoor vibe, I go LatteLand. Outdoors, Starbucks.
Next hour increment book: Island, Aldous Huxley

It's like heaven in your mouth

So over my lunch break I have discovered something that maybe you all were already aware of. This discovery I speak of goes by the title IZZE. This is a juicy, sparkly, fantastic mixture of sparkling water and 100% pure fruit juice. The flavor of choice today was "sparkling pear." Two sweet pears have been bottled and blended with the perfect amount of sparkling water to create a beautiful, crisp, refreshing beverage. Other flavors offered by IZZE are blackberry, lemon, clementine, blueberry, and pomegranate just to name a few. If you have the time I highly recommend you pick of a bottle, while you are at it pick up some ETHOS water and save some kids. (I will blog about that another time) . I just love finding new beverages that satisfy my tastebuds, I might even consider it a hobby of mine...If I see something that I have either never heard of or just never tried, I will purchase it at least once and give it a fair shot at becoming one of my favorites.

Monday morning blues.

So I want to take a moment to discuss the feelings that float throughout a monDAY. First of all, monday morning...I wake to the sound of my alarm clock and instinctivley I hit the snooze button in about .5 seconds. I repeat this about 3 times. I am telling you this because Mondy mornings bring with them an incredible regret for ever getting a job. Waking on a these mornings is incredibly difficult for me, infact I marvel at hard it is really is for me to rise. Once I am up, I am in the shower as quickly as possible, I need the hot water to keep me awake or I will fall off of the awake wagon in record time. After the shower is when my thoughts start to clear up and become more reasonable. I arrive at work at around 815 or so and begin my workday. around 930 is the time I realize that Mondays really are not that bad, It's just the 5 day outlook that gets you down. You know, the weight of the next four days bearing down on you is hard to handle some times. Having said that,however, no matter times I go through this process of hating Monday mornings then realizing that there really not that bad...come next monday at 715 when my alarm begins singing is hell song. I will forget all I have learned and hate Monday morning again, at least for an hour or two.
Monday night is a different story. I love Monday nights. This is my thought process:

ahh i got through another monday already, oh ya tomorrow is already tuesday_ wow after that its already hump day, thursday then friday...hmmm. do I have plans for friday, I should call kingsley and get something figured out...I am going to play golf on saturday...man i love saturdays.

As you can see it really only is the Monday morning part of the week that I have problems with, and that only lasts an hour or so. Now that I have let you have a rough peek into my monDAY thoughts, tell me about yours...what goes through your head on monDAY??

I am back baby

I finally have internet in my new place. It is amazing how reliant we, or maybe just me, have become on this connection to the world. I remember in highschool I never was the kind of person to just sit down at the computer and "surf the web" let along start a blog and somewhat keep it updated. Now after sitting in front of a computer for the last 3 years, basically solid. I seem to feel some comfort knowing that this connection is just in the other room for me to find solice in whenever I want.
Well, I really have nothing else for you now. I have been working way too much lately and have had no time to do anything. Not even get my apartment clean or make it my home. there are still boxes and piles of things just screaming to be put away. I look at them and quitely promise to get to them after work. but when I don't leave work until 10 or so i have to look at said items when I get home knowing that i will probably tell the same lie to them tomorrow. Hopefully this week will be a little slower and i will have time to start taking care of some of these things. I will update with pics of my space once it starts to take shape.

two top 5 lists for your weekend pleasure

first of all..the music:

5 selected songs that must, if they don't already grace your collection [vol. 2]

1.Tegan and Sarah_Time Running
2.The Shins_Caring is Creepy
3.Rent:Original Broadway cast_entire 2disc soundtrack
4.Pavement_The Killing Moon
5.Michael Buble_feeling good (a little corny I know but still really good)

next in true weekend fasion:

5 drinks that you must give your pallate the pleasure of experiencing:

1. Chimay blue (belgium beer)
2. Moretti la Rossa (italian beer0
3. Tanqueray No. 10 and tonic
4. Caucasion (white russian)
5. either Meyers, or Appelton Estates Rum (both equally as exquisite dark Jamaican rums) and a spash of coke.

the weekend is in sight!

the longest week EVER!!

So this week is seeming to take especially long to pass. This morning I looked at the clock at 9.52am and then went back to work for about an hour and a half...only it wansn't an hour and a half. I looked at the clock and it read 10.17am...25 minutes...that is all the time that had passed, perhaps one of the most depressing moments of the past 3 days. The reason the week is taking so long is because of what I have to look forward to this weekend. I am finally moving!! Yep, stop the press, you heard me correctly, I am changing locations from the extra bedroom filled with antique furniture at my mom's house to a kick ass loft in the river market area of kc. The move commences promptly at the wake up hour on saturday morn.

Also going down this saturday night, is the return of ben folds to kc. I can't wait for this show, he will be perorming with rufus wainwright and ben lee. The stage happens to be just down the street from my previously mentioned new place of residence. so pre-show festivities are a mi casa for my close friends. the night will most definately be momorable.. or perhaps not! it you know what i mean. anyway I am sure some pics will make there way onto this blog on monday or so. they should be mildy entertaining.

Architecture vs. the computer...

...the computer wins.

Well first of all I will apalogize for neglecting my many (1 or 2) blog frequenters for about the last 2 weeks or so. I have been absolutely swamped at work. Our 100% construction document were due monday morning at 12 noon. However, a little kink has been thrown into the equation...
...I arrived this morning in usual fasion, around 820 in the am. Knowing that I had an unusual amount of work to do before the noon hour struck I sat down and opened autocad, bypassing my usual pre-computer cup of coffee and morning discussion with the gentlemen who resides next to me on current events or the workings of his latest hobby project [usually re-building a car or something of the sort] and went right to work. This particular morning I was updating some previously finished elevations, but that is beside the point. The point is, at about 930, a solid hour into my work autocad crashes. All work gone, my fault for not saving but you know how it is when you start something and get a good flow going, saving doesn't always occur to you as it probably should. The interesting part of this short anecdote is that the whole office came to a screatching hault. You see my autocad crashed because there was a problem with our server and our drive that houses our cad and all cad files is non operational at the moment. Looking around, every person in our office is standing around and doing nothing. With the computer out of commision our Architecture stops, completely. This happening is showing just how reliant our profession has become on the computer. [or at least my office, but I feel that it would be a similar scenario at almost any other office]. Just something to think about, plus this little hiccup in our server has givin me time and a subject to blog about.

next on the agenda:

album vs. compact disc

the album wins....

I recently visited a friend of mine's house the other night. We sat out on his back deck and drank beers while listening to music. Wer were listening to the usual music format these days, the cd [actually the typical music format these days is probably more acurately .mp3, .mp4, .wma or whatever the newest file type is, but for sake of argument we will go with the cd]. We then decided to switch it up and turn to vinyl, my choice of band. I parused the collection, which is quite impressive for a young man just out of college, with bands like crosby, stills, nash, and young, steely dan, hendrix, simon and garfunkle, eric clapton, and the list goes on. My final choice was Jethro Tull Aqualung, and damn was it exquisite. the music though lacking the extreme highs and lows that the digital format brings to the table just seems to have a different life about it. The band feels as if they are in the room playing a little show just for you. Maybe it's the nestalgia that I have knowing that this particular piece of vinyl was around when all of the world events which were being so elequantly described in the music where actually taking place. Or the idea that this album may have switched hands with as many as 25, 50, 100 owners since it's creation, effecting each listener a different way. Or perhaps it just sounds better. Any way you cut it, the vinyl is my choice.

WITH GORILLA GONE,

WILL THERE

BE HOPE

FOR MAN?

WITH MAN GONE,

WILL THERE BE HOPE

FOR GORILLA?

Thursday's

5 selected songs that must, if they don't already, grace your collection. [vol.01]
[this is something new that I am starting. every thursday evening i will prepare you for the weekend by suggesting 5 songs i feel are essential for your personal music library.]

the list is as fallows:

1. Dilate_ani difranco
2. Wondering_ben folds
3. Neigborhood #3_the arcade fire
4. We might as well be strangers_keane
5. Hands down_dashboard confessional

*if you have trouble obtaining one or more of these glorious musical endevours, drop me a line as i may be able to help

emotions

last night my little brother and I took a last minute trip to Manhattan to finalize my move. Originally I had until Aug. 1 to get completely moved out of my apartment, a new development occurs, tenants want to move in early. Now we have to be out by July 17, however, earning us a little extra cash for the effort.

After some genuinely hard work from around 8.30pm-1.00am, the apartment was looking good. Good, that is in the destroyed, beer stained, treeted like a playground look. It was at this point that I realized something...

It is really over. I hate to get all sentimental about leaving college because all I talked about during my final sememster was how ready I was to get out and get a job and a place etc... While I am still enthusiastic about all of those said items. I am realizing how much I will miss my previous lifestyle. I am really beginning to see how lucky I was with the friends that I made. And while I know they will be my friends always, it's cause for a moment to just sit back and remember.

a sudden burst of skill

So I attended a ku med intramural softball game the
other day, which coincidentally abbey was playing in, and aside from the man-eating gnats making dinner of me, I had a pretty fantastic time. Abbey used to play softball with me on my team in manhattan; however, the scene was much different there. I recall Abbey [i will cut her some slack, i do believe it was her firt jaunt with the sport] nonetheless, I remember her more often then not, completely missing the ball. If she did make contact, she would hit roughly 07% of the ball and it would creep across the ground to the pitcher like a wounded animal preparing for death. But wait, what is this i see, full swings, no running starts at the ball, a step forward and a cut that would make any northern woods lunberjack proud. She figured it out! All of a sudden she has turned into one of the best female softball players I have ever seen. It's like one day she showed up at the field and just decided to be good. My hat is off to you dear Abbey.

so here are some more pics of my work space at ellerbebecket. Sorry the pics are so small but I wanted to put a lot up without taking up ton of space on the screen. anyway, let me know what you think. we are moving soon to a new office in a new building, but for the time being we are moving down a couple of floors in the building that we are currently occupying. I hope we end up somewhere downtown either in the crossroads district, river market, or the downtown loop. I dig it down there...Alright, back to work.

my work space at ellerbe after one month and one week of use.

inspired

so i have recently been inspired by the author of studio 109 to take the time to make this blog a little more personal. i have spent the better half of an entire evening on this machine trying this, and trying that only to end up with a blog which i don't enjoy looking at. it has been taking me kind of a long time to get into the workings of the blog for this is my first encounter with html language. i think i am getting the hang of basics though so look for something a little more pleasing in the future.

i am going to make a genuine attempt to blog more than i have been lately, but i am too damn tired to look at this computer screen anymore tonight.

until later, in the words of my good freind j.c. stoner....

"I'll see yas when I see yas"

I'm making a comeback tour.

So I have totally fallen off of the face of the earth since starting me new job at Ellerbe. I haven't posted anything since, I believe my first day of work. Speaking of work, all is well. I am finally starting to feel really comfortable here after one month. My roles are beginning to take shape and become apparent to me. One thing I can't seem to get used to however, it getting up at 645am. That really sucks. I feel like a bear coming out of hibernation and will do anything in my power to stay in bed for just one more minute.

I am definately not seeing enough of my girly. She is even busier than I am. Abbey has only been at KU med for about 3 weeks and has already had about 4 tests and 10 quizes. [she finally knows the struggles of school taking up more personal time than it ever should...something she used to harp on my all the time for when I was in Architecture school]

A friend of mine, Jason Bervert, has a wedding rapidly approaching and that mean that a bachalor party is on the way. YESSS!! [oh how I love bachalor parties] So this weekend we are kicken the day off with some bbq and beer and then the night will just go down hill from there [i am reluctant to further endulge you on the specifics of said evening for fear that some church going folks or children under 18 may wonder onto this blog.] As you can imagine, it will be a good time.

That is all I have time for now, I promise I will get some new pics up soon. until then

pace [that is peace in Italian]

my work space at ellerbe

first day of work

so, i just finished my first day of the "real world" here at ellerbe becket. it seems like a cool joint. the office is pretty chill and wide open. I have a feeling I am going to be doing a lot of 3d type things which is ok, that seems to play a huge roll in their design process, hopefully meaning i may have the opportunity to offer my hand in some design decisions. however, as you know 3d max has the inate ability to be the prime source of all my frustration. ( maybe that was just knox induced)...we will find out.

I will have pics of the office and my space up soon. until tomorrow....peace.

i will say one thing...i can't wait until i am out of this immature, self-centered, politically currupt college we call capd.

So this is a project some of my of my buddies have been working on for past few weeks, and finished this evening. The project was to design and build a viewing box to be places in downtown Kansas City. The approach taken in this case however, was to capture sound. The "coffin" is to be placed on unused train tracks in the crossroads district. A user ( sorry wendy) then sits in the box, closing the door, being directly connected to the auditory life of KC. Acoustically the coffin is ment to capture sound and let it reverberate with in the space. Overall I think this project is pretty nice. it definately took a more tectonic roll and didn't just take the project at face value, like many of the other projects.

53 hours and 20 minutes left of architecture school...WOW what a ride.

anything to get me away from max

so yesterday i began my maiden voyage with
sony's vegas film editing software. my task, to create
a moving logo for our film which we have been working
on all year long. the film is set to premiere friday the
6th of may at 8pm here in seaton hall. the logo venture
went fairly well, things are still real rough and need
a lot of refinement; however, look pretty decent.
the above image is a still frame when the name of
our team is revealed. the people below are us, the
manifest studio.

a little ani for ya


people used to make records as in a record of an event
the event of people playing music in a room
now everything is cross-marketing its about sunglasses and shoes or guns
and drugs you choose
we got it rehashed we got it half-assed
we're digging up all the graves and we're spitting on the past
and you can choose between the colors of the lipstick on the whores

-ani difranco

Now that is a big head!

And so another day begins.



If any of you know what this is, than you understand my angst when seeing this image. I have started every day of my final semester in architecture school gazing into the emptyness of this window on my computer screen. "five more days" that is what I have to keep telling myself.

sony center in Berlin Germany [i am in the middle on the left]


This photo was taken while traveling through Europe, after living and studying in Italy for 5 months. These 3 other cats and myself traveled to Switzerland, Germany, and France together after our studies had subsided. I will never in my life forget those travels and the time spent abroad. Architecture, art, friends, and Abbey even came and met me in London for spring break. It was beautiful.

deep thought @ cafe ignorante

smiling because was in Italy.

b[kroll]

So this is the begining of what I fear may be an addicting hobby which yanks me from my everexiciting work in studio.