rainy day in the 'burbs

So it's raining outside- These instantaneous rainstorms that have been coming through the Syracuse area lately remind me of the south. I miss that place and the people that live there way too damn much.

I've been painting the apartment this afternoon to pass the time. My wife has been of some help of course. We chose not to go to the state fair in the area because it will more than likely suck an awful amount. So this is where we are- listening to some Pat Green and painting drinking some PBR dreaming of being back down south. Some things that remind me of home-

>Shiner Bock
>Heat(100 deg+)
>country music
>chips&salsa
>nice people
>Shiner Bock
>family

alright, so it's pretty obvious that im homesick right now. Lay off me!

welp- enjoy the storm, and ride it out.

1153355497571367_file.jpg (JPEG-kuva, 591×397 kuvapistettä)

one of my favorite movies.
1153355497571367_file.jpg (JPEG-kuva, 591×397 kuvapistettä): "

via http://images.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=http://fs1.us.cyworld.com/data1/2006/07/19/097/1153355497571367_file.jpg&imgrefurl=http://us.cyworld.com/club/common/club_main.php%3Fclubid%3D208000000307&h=397&w=591&sz=50&tbnid=K2Do-c6GP4QzmM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=135&hl=fi&um=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djason%2Bschwartzman%26start%3D54%26ndsp%3D18%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dfi%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:fi:official%26sa%3DN&frame=small

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RoyalTea: Tea bags

innovative.
RoyalTea: Tea bags: "

The RoyalTea Tea bags designed by German design company Donkey Products. You can have a “TeaParty” with you favorite characters or strippers with the RoyalTea, DemocraTea and StripTea sets. Each one has five tea bag sachets.

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RIP: London's First Living Wall Isn't Any More

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! this is awesome. The epitome of the green bullshit saturating the architecture profession at the moment. (love the 'paradise' street sign.)

RIP: London's First Living Wall Isn't Any More: "

Living walls can be complex things, with pumps to supply water and requiring a fair bit of maintenance. They are also relatively new concepts, and there is still a bit of trial and error going on. DSDHA designed this one three years ago with 30 kinds of plants growing through a thirty foot high wall. A rep from the Islington Council is quoted in the Architects Journal:

‘‘The wall was the first of its type to be installed in the UK and, as with anything new, carried a certain element of risk.

Of course we’re disappointed that it hasn’t thrived. It seems this could be down to its design and we are looking at t... Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Selectism.com: Home > Archive > Selectism - Maurice de Mauriac Chronographs

looks like my m.h.bertucci dive watch. but definetely not.

Selectism.com: Home > Archive > Selectism - Maurice de Mauriac Chronographs: "

via http://www.selectism.com/news/2008/12/08/maurice-de-mauriac-chronographs/maurice-de-mauriac-watches-01/

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US senator 'Ted' Kennedy dies at 77

I hope this means that something will finally get done with the healthcare system in this country. It's a shame that such a good human being is not with us anymore. I'm sure he will see it through from his great view in the heavens.

US senator 'Ted' Kennedy dies at 77: "Brother of former US president John F. Kennedy dies after battle with brain cancer."

but does it float

interesting.

but does it float: "

via http://butdoesitfloat.com/35951

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MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS!!!

These next few weeks I will be preparing myself mentally for the next year of grueling academia. I will start by sleeping in until 9am everyday and avoiding any kind of architecture paraphernalia. I will drink plenty of booze while enjoying a nice camping trip in the Adirondacks this coming weekend. At the very last moment before actual classes start, I will simply reignite my academic discipline with the application of a rudimentary thinking cap.

They're+not+pets,+Susan+1+-+blog.jpg (image)

They're+not+pets,+Susan+1+-+blog.jpg (image): "

via https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdjvuUeTmSygVC43XI4Qs8mX0vLE72FiPv5BY5p4XidwoXxEG22opcHMvwofhp7mL2orbRMNrAesOL8rLDJc5vv5HuKngeXn2ktJq3VVbsx4WqBs3zgvt_YfZMrImGT3zmoWk_/s1600-h/They're+not+pets,+Susan+1+-+blog.jpg

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This image is taken from a visit to a mortuario in san marco de chomula in mexico (not sure what distrito). It was such a peaceful place right outside of the main city. This is one of the places from my trip to mexico I remember most vividly. I rode out by horseback to get to this village. The village was very small and on the way were many peasant commune farms littering the road on both sides. The town was pretty high in altitude- I remember this because it was pretty cool air for mexico. My professor had warned us that the town's population still practiced paganism- which of course is one of the more important reasons to scope it out in the first place. When we got there we got the usual white tourist hopping off a stallion stares that I'm sure were very similar to the one's hernando cortez got when he first made contact with the new world. This place was so authentic it blew my mind. Immediately I felt this sense of calm and the whole time that feeling never receded from my body. I walked around and explored the main piazza that included a cathedral that had originally been built by the catholic church but had since been converted back to a pagan temple. The catholic references were still quite obvious in the architecture. Once inside this cathedral there were no pews in sight. Just a marble floor with a countless number of burning candles on the floor and pine needles smoldering to produce an emphemeral and aromatic atmosphere. It was so foreign to me but I tried to act completely normal, mirroring the locals of course. Right as I had gone past the crossing of the vaults there was a curtain concealing any activity that happened in the apse. They were sacrificing animals to their gods that they worshipped- Gods that were very very very familiar to me as a christian. The statues of saints from the original catholic church were still in the temple and now served as the idols for these pagans. It was one of those moments in my life that was completely eye opening. I have these flashbacks every now and then that I really enjoy, but the horse ride out to this place made the experience complete. It was quite remote to say the least. We were stationed temporarily in San Cristobal de las Casas.

Another experience that came out of the beautiful city was the moonshine made by the local indian village women. It was quite tasteless and effective to say the least. I walked around aimlessly in the markets of chomula for a few hours until i came too.

Wonderful experience there with the indians.

if your not first- your last.

For all you crazies out there-

So I've been living in Boston for a year and a half and I have no blogs to show for it. Damn. Much has happened since I last made any kind of peep through this baby (baby being my crappy p.o.s. dell laptop). Things like kristen and I gettin' hitched and spending our honeymoon in Greece to getting a job at a well respected arch. firm in Cambridge. I really have nothing to complain about right now- everything has fallen into place in such an unreal manner. Now that I mention it though, I am remembering one distinct thing that has happened to me in recent memory: getting hit by a car on my bike.

Here's a tip: don't get hit by a car unless your in one- otherwise it hurts... ALOT. I broke my knee cap in two, with a piece of it floating around in my leg the size of an almond. Pretty sweet huh? As luck would have it, my doctor said I was lucky to be young letting me know my knee would heal just fine. He did neglect to tell me I would soon become a human barometer with the ability to give a better forecast than most weathermen.

Another cool thing that happened since I've moved up to Boston is 'the recession'. I mean 'cool' in a very sarcastic manner. That's about all I'm going to say about that.

Kristen and I are doing great right now after just completing our first year of marriage. She just finished up with her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance at Boston Conservatory, and I'm about to become the dependent back in school for my M.Arch II at Syracuse University. We will soon be moving to upstate NY where the lake affect snow is tremendous compared to the snowfall accumulations were both used too in Texas. (haha).

For all the new news, I figure, it will be hard to squeeze everything on my mind into this first blog in at least a year. I do pledge to start back up at this thing since I would like to become more connected technologically speaking. Hell you may just have to put up with some really mundane bullcrap blogs...

remember- time is of the essence.

'brother of comp studio'

School has begun and i've already started to experience 'brother of comp studio' and its differences. Im not worried yet to tell the truth. Im sure once everything starts to pile up then I will feel some kind of frustration or stress. The way the faculty are working right now, and the way they are treating the class definitely reconfirms my long standing suspicion of architecture school being a game to them. Any way I haven't learned anything new from them yet. Well see how they progress.

On a different thought, I think that it has been great to be reunited with some old friends and the rest of my studio class. It kind of rejuvenates my willingness to participate in scholarship and academics like the good old days. If only the rest of the class wouldnt be lazy and find a little motivation.

Lets hope this semester is a good one and the end remains within sight.

It has been a while since my last blog post- so (as usual) I apologize to the one reader out there who checks every now and then. I feel like this is one of the only places that I feel like I can voice my true feelings most clearly. Its a shame that it is a virtual social interface tool where I must do this and not a true forum. Am I too cowardly to voice my feelings, or not activist enough to take a stand for my beliefs? Perhaps I just dont know the right outlet for the appropriate actions I can take.

Im assuming that I'm not the only one feeling this. Sometimes, when watching political activists of the 60's and 70's and the protesting in that era of American history, I wonder why my generation seems so much more silent. It's as if weve been mass-tranquilized. Why is our generation so self-serving in general? Or did the generation before us feel silent as well? Where is the compassion and selflessness that the previous generation have neglected to hand down to our generation? And why do I feel like the act of protesting has been deemed meaningless. Im convinced that protesting is now a useless tool for any type of social collective taking an opposing position against our sovereign American government. Why does protesting seem to be so much more successful and well, uh, 'violent' in other countries across the globe? Hear me out- I am not endorsing violent protest in any way. But to me it seems like there is some void that cannot be filled with a peaceful protest in most cases. Where is the heart,passion, and 'sacrifice-for-the-greater-good' in a peaceful protest? After all it is somewhat prehistoric and animalistic for a human to use physical action to express themself in a situation. (no im not talking about steroid abusers) There is also a marked difference in the way one can express themself physically and verbally. Across the globe throughout history, humankind has been trained to command their body (also their physical existence) straight from the womb. The next step, commanding our tongues to work in conjunction with our body is a relatively modern step.

At this point in time, I know there are those people out there who have it in their blood to be heard. I know that there are people out there who have already made their opinions. But for that number of people, there are 50 more spectators on the outside who have yet to make one at all.

my biggest worry--how do I invest my trust in a government that is so deceitful to its own people? Is it wishful thinking to hope for our leaders to have a bit more integrity? How can people put such blind faith in the government and still remain silent with no questions asked considering everything happening in the world around them? Above all these are my concerns as of recent.

Im still alive and kicking! dont worry I have lots of stuff going through my huge head right now... so stay tuned for a few days and well see if i stick to my word.

Earlier today I was in a teacher's meeting in an airy conference room when the campus clock struck noon. I heard the bells of Old Main ringing and echoing throughout the arboreteum among the rustling leaves. I immediately thought about how sad i was that I couldnt come to conciousness to the gong of church bells and birds chirping right outside of my room window on a mexico city morning.

So I guess I was just wishing i were somewhere else, and daydreaming about not being in my TA meeting that made me late to meet my friends for lunch. DAMN.

our nation is going to crap.

so im sitting here in studio right now talking to my girlfriend and im just about ready to get the crap out of here. I was just thinking how much the world has gone to crap lately... it is quite scary if you think about it. Everyday I get on cnn.com and theres a suicide bomber in Iraq, new countries wanting to go nuclear, and new Al Qaeda members being captured. I feel politically naiive in saying this but am I the only one confused about all the things that are simultaneously happening around the world. I hope that there is some order to it and I hope that the leaders of our country recognize that order if it exists.... well im just going to go home and lay in bed and forget about everything that has happened today so maybe I can wake up not being so insensitive about the news I am presented with tommorow...