the art of working without working

so for the past 8 hours or so, i have been practicing my philosophy of the art of working without working. it's a philosophy that i am constantly trying to master in which i appear to the normal naked eye that i am actually working when in fact i am not. it's pretty exhausting.

stop or i'll explode!

braille detail

so my buddy here at work was working on a stair signage detail. we had to represent certain words in braille and needed to show that on the detail. so all the monkeys in the office thought of a good idea to have a little fun with braille.

check out the detail that was drawn. below the detail is a blow up what we labeled in braille. then check out the braille alphabet chart and decode our little secret message.

shhh! if you decode the message, do the same on your details and spread the word. so whenever we look at drawings from other companies, we may someday stumble on a detail with braille and recognize what it says. it'll be our way for fellow monkeys to say hi to each other.

straight up da vinci style!

10 reasons to see the da vinci code

so i saw the da vinci code this past weekend and here's my top 10 reasons to see the movie.

10. gandalf. dude, gandalf is in the movie. that kicks ass. he did get a haircut and trimmed his beard but it's all good. he still kicks ass.

9. magneto. dude, i thought magneto doesn't come out on theaters until next weekend but he was totally in the movie. he was acting like a cripple though and living in the x-men mansion, but they called it a chateau or something instead, but i'm sure it was all a ploy to lure the x-men to their death.

8. remember that movie powder, yah that guy was in the movie too and he dressed like a jedi wearing his cloak and all, but instead of a light saber he used his bare hands to kick ass. awesome.

7. speaking of jedi's, the guy from the professional was in the movie. and the professional also starred natalie portman and she's hot. and she was queen amidala. so that alone is worth seeing the movie.

6. doctor octopus. i guess after getting his ass kicked by spider man, doc oct is hiding out as a high ranking priest. way to fool spidey! brilliant.

5. forrest gump. man, forrest learned to talk normal and he grew out his hair a bit. he also got a lot smarter from the last time we all saw him but still talks a lot of mumbo jumbo about symbols and stuff. he kicks ass in the movie.

4. the chick is hot. dude, she was french. even when she was angry, she was hot. i'd go watch the movie all over again just to see her for 2 1/2 hours. and the best part, with her strong accent, i couldn't even understand a word she was saying. that's hot.

3. knights templar. these guys were like samurais on steroids. they were the mafia back in the day protecting secrets and stuff. all the gangstas today ain't got nothing on these templars. that's why it took a bunch of priests to order their execution. these templars are second only to ninjas. and ninjas kick ass.

2. anagrams. anagrams are crazy. they rearrange a bunch of letters and forms other phrases for people to descramble and stuff. i'm going to start training in anagrams so everything i say and write won't mean what i mean because i'm anagramming everything. for example.... video can cure lids = da vinci code rules. sweet.

and the number one reason to watch the da vinci code....

1. I.M. fricken Pei! i waited throughout the whole credits and i knew they were going to mention thanks to the Louvre, but wondered if they were going to mention the architect. and low and behold, there was I.M. Pei's name. that right there, is worth the ten bucks and 2 hours i waited in line for. yeah.

what dimension plan?

what dimensions? we haven't given the contractor any dimension plans and he hasn't called us requesting for dimension plans? how are they framing walls up with out a dimension plan? why are they framing walls up when we don't even have a permit?

oh, they're going off a drawing that we did for the framer to "bid" the project with room sizes on the drawings, but with no dimensions as to where to build the walls. so he's just using his scale and measuring off the drawings to locate the walls.

you see, there's this communication gap between the contractor and the architect. contractor wants drawings for "bidding." architect provides drawings for "bidding." contractor uses drawings for "bidding" for "construction!"

next time i send out drawings for "bidding" i'll make sure to make a note..."NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION. IF YOU START BUILDING WALLS WITH THESE DRAWINGS YOU ARE AN IDIOT. THANK YOU HAVE A NICE DAY."

do you still call yourself an architect?

last week i posted "do you call yourself an architect". in that post, i linked an article on how a judge rules for councilman in 'architect' case, in which a judge ruled for someone calling himself an architect because he "did not describe himself as an architect to solicit business but to educate the voting public as to his educational background."

well here's an article i found of someone who did call himself an architect and will have four months of weekends to think about it. check it out here at, weekends in jail for man who pretended to be queens architect.

the senior partner

mcdonald's makeover

so i guess the hamburgers at everyone's favorite fast food place isn't the only thing getting flipped. apparently Mc-E-Ds is going all loungy and starbucky.

i remember back in the days when fast food was just that, fast food. the chairs were all plastic, hard and uncomfortable so that one can hurry up and eat their food fast.

but i guess now, they want you to hang out longer, stay a while and use their broadband internet that they are now offering, or study. check out McDonald's tricky makeover and see how the nations most famous food chain is adapting to our modern "contemporary" times.

tiffany & co. and gehry

for all the ladies out there, gehry got his own tiffany & co. collection. talk about branching out in other mediums. check it out here, the frank gehry collection. there's also an interesting 8 min clip about his design process. here's another link with images of the frank gehry jewelry design collection. way to go g-man.

the monday list

so it's monday. again. i got in this morning and was informed that the pm is out sick today. cool. one down. a couple of minutes later, the man emails that he has a bunch of "meetings" today and won't be in the office. woo hoo. two down.

so what does one monkey without adult supervision do for 8 hours on a monday?

a. try to decide what time to play either 9 or 18 holes of golf?
b. send one monkey on a search and recover mission for heineken or heineken light.
c. have a corporate outing at either the brass rail or the kit kat club (i heard they have a free lunch buffet...at least, that's what i heard)
d. study for the leed exam. wtf?
e. work on side jobs, so i don't feel guilty for not actually working.
f. practice my poker skills.
g. practice my minesweeper skills.
h. walk a couple of laps around the building.
i. catch up on some sleep.
j. decide which chair in the office is the most comfortable.
k. see how many times in a day i can check my email.
l. watch youtube all day long.
m. practice putting skills in the office.
n. burn all the neccessary details i'll need for whenever i start my own office.
o. dream about having my own office.
p. burn all the work i've done so far to update my porfolio.
q. start my portfolio.
r. email everyone in my address book individually.
s. play counterstrike all day long.
t. try to out surf the internet.
u. restart my computer over and over again.
v. update my myspace page.
w. search craigslists for real estate i can't afford and jobs i won't go after because i'm just way too comfortable over here.
x. bid on everything on ebay.
y. actually work on projects....hell no.....just kidding
z. take the time to come up with this list.

grand canyon skywalk

so here's the new grand canyon skywalk that's set to open late this year. yeah, i heard it get's windy there. maybe i'll let a few people break the bridge in first before i go and check it out.

image of the architect

do you call yourself an architect?

question: "so what do you do?"

answer: "i work in an architecture firm."

question: "oh, so you're an architect."

answer: "?"

so i've been following this thread on the A.R.E. forum, if you are not licensed, what do you call yourself? this has been an ongoing, never ending debate about what to call oneself during architecture school and after.

me, personally, i have used the term junior architect, architect associate, unlicensed architect, etc., all of which are "illegal" because of the use of the term "architect." i believe the law says, and correct me if i am wrong, that in no way, shape or form am i allowed to use the term "architect" to describe what i do.

i've even used the term "designer," which i'm sure a lot of people call themself because it sounds good, even though we all know that most of us are cadmonkeys working for the man.

then i read this article, judge rules for councilman in 'architect' case. it talks about how Jack Johnson, a coucilman in aspen, colorado, was directed by the colorado board of examiners of architects "to cease calling himself an architect or face possible criminal sanctions." Johnson then repsonded with a lawsuit, which he won.

the judge in the case concluded that "Johnson did not describe himself as an architect to solicit business but to educate the voting public as to his educational background." you see, Johnson referred to himself as an architect, but explained that he had a degree in architecture but was not licensed as an architect in colorado.

there is a time and place in which you can "legally" call yourself an architect as long as you use that term in a "noncommerical context."

so whether you call yourself an architect to family and friends, because it's just easier and makes you look all "professional" and all rather than explaining to them what you truly do or to that girl in the bar whom you just described yourself as a "sexy architect," just to get her number..... it's all good.

call yourself an architect. i mean, c'mon, do we really have to wait through 5 years of school, 3 years of work, and 9, some 10, exams, just to be called architects? by that time, i could've called myself a doctor.

architecture studio ball

i found this vid on youtube that a couple of guys from the university of washington made in their architecture studio. takes me back to the good 'ol days of studio. no work and all play. i didn't think i'd say it, but i sure miss those days. does anyone have any cool videos like this back in the day? if so, please do share.

houston, we have a problem.....no internet!

so last friday, me and another buddy monkey was home alone at the office with no adult supervision. and we was like "alright! free day!" but there was one problem. our internet went down in the office. and being the lame, computer illiterate, only know how to do cad and check email all day long, monkeys that we were, we had no idea how to get the internet back up.

we were pacing up and down the office wondering what the heck are we gonna do now. you see, only the pm holds the knowledge of how the server and internet works in the office and he wasn't there. and we weren't about to call him to tell him the internet was down, 'cause he'll just say, "what are you doing online anyways, aren't you suppose to be working?" whatever.

so the whole day friday, we had no internet. it was the most unproductive day of my life. i don't know how many times i clicked on the explorer shortcut hoping and praying that the powers above signals the almighty forces to send internet back into the office so that a friday, of all days, when there was no adult supervision, would not be wasted.

it's a good thing my buddy monkey lived near by. he went home, got a computer game, we installed it and played all the rest of the afternoon. so i guess it wasn't an unproductive day afterall.

architechnology

so the man has me working on this presentation. he wants me to take digital pictures of some project boards and convert those digital pictures into slides for his slide projector presentation. i told him that "we have those boards on file. i can just take those images off the computer and make a power point presentation for you." the man, being the anti-techo man he is, refuses my offer, and says "i prefer to use my slide projector."

so i make calls to ask photo labs if they can convert digital pictures into slides. after a slight "did i just hear what i thought i just heard" pause, they respond by saying "we can convert slides into digital files, but not the other way around. you going backwards in technology."

you see, the man is old school. i mean, c'mon! convert digital to slides? you wouldn't take your engine out of your car and add horses to your front bumper to run your car, now would you? he says that he doesn't want to deal with the wires and the laptop crashing if he does a power point presentation. he likes his slides.

if funny. on the night of the presentation, the slide projector bulb dies. and i promise, i had nothing to do with it.

frank gehry movie trailer

with all this talk about trailers, thanks to my inside source in the gehry headquarters, here's the link to frank gehry's new movie, sketches of frank gehry, set to release may 12th in NYC, may 19th in LA, and sometime after that to a city near you. man, first the simpsons, now his very own movie. what next? a reality show? frank gehry's the architect intern, new this fall on nbc. i can see it now. i wonder what his catch phrase would be? any ideas? way to spread the passion frank.

trailer architecture?

so ownly-1 passed on this article from residential architect to me about "office of mobile design." does that sound familiar to anyone? the picture of the architect is on the left. she sure does look familiar, but yet different? i skimmed through the article but mostly just looked at the pictures. i guess it talked about how they attached a trailer to a house and dressed it up all nice inside and called it architecture. anyways, i guess green materials are in, according to the article. but can't get over the pictures. could it be? no? i don't know. what do you all think?