| "Ok, so we're kind of agreed on that." |
[Mar. 15th, 2006|02:03 am] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| |  cheerful | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | Beta Band - Eclipse | ] |
( Here's what I did tonight... )
In other news, I'll be working for the Thornton Tomasetti Group in Chicago this summer. As a company they are responsibile for the structural design of some of the world's tallest buildings, including the Petronas Towers and Taipei 101. The division I'll be in - LZA Technology - takes on structural investigation, repair, and retrofit. Notable projects include the WTC Site reclaimation (lots of crane foundation engineering), the Chrysler & Empire State Buildings facade restoration, and other random projects like building a 32 story hotel on top of a 6 foot thick suspended concrete mat.
The latter is the structural equivilant of playing god: "there might not be usable ground up here above this existing building's atrium, but we shall construct some."
------
Combine these two personal milestones and it's not strange that my dreams have involved engineering in Chicago. What does cause wonder is that they have also included structural failures on a massive scale. But not so much in a "oh shit, that's my fault" kind of way; more like a "wow, whoever was responsibile for that did a number of things terribly wrong" kind of way.
I'll take that as a good sign. |
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| Found my passport |
[Feb. 16th, 2006|01:24 pm] |
Monday, February 27th, 4:15 PM -
Chicago:Amsterdam:Berlin:Prague?:Berlin:Amsterdam:Detroit
- Sunday, March 5th, 5:30 PM. |
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| Nothing too exciting, really. Certainly not proofread |
[Jan. 29th, 2006|10:08 pm] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | sleep mix | ] |
Finally, just hanging out for a bit. Acknowledging the smoke in the lampshade and taking a minute to reflect. When your mind prompts justifaction for unscheduled thinking, you know you are in trouble.
The weekend wasn't too bad. Bailed on my architecture group Friday night. They were OK with it and I made up for it by adding irreplacable credibility at the review. Friday night started with some fruitless essay writing. I have a hard time writing heartfelt "topic of your choice" essays. Heck, I have a hard time writing coherrant "topic of choice" essays. At ten thirty I leave for Amici's. Right outside the door I'm hit with the gut-wrenchingly notstalgic smells of spring in Royal Oak - warmer, moister air, fabric softener coming hot out of the dryer vent, walks at night, the park down the street, my old car. It was intense, but all I did was recognize it as emtion and continue down the drive unphased. Got to the bar, it was packed with artsy middle-agers and some younger misfit-not-quite-hipsters. Enjoyed a few drinks. Made nice with the bartenders - the cute, friendly, supposedly vacuous younger one and the chill middle-aged lesbian owner. Went out and got blazed in the parking lot with JYD on his break. Came back, got another drink and waited for Justin to get off. He leaves to go shower, and I kill time by stopping at taco bell. Never a bad decision. Hit up hazel park, get blazed off my gord seeing as I haven't smoked in a month plus. Hit up Ferndale, smoke some more and play fetch with this kid's dog whose only mission in life is to play fetch. Entertaining. Went home and passed out to Friday night cartoons (NOT Adult Swim).
Saturday, some Architecture then more fruitless writing, still at the folks' house. Get discouraged, pass out for four hours in the afternoon, then wake up and make dinner. Writing more doesn't sound like it's going to get me anywhere, plus I haven't left the house all day, so I walk to Royal Oak, grab a coffee at 11PM and walk around the city. I barely recognized it. Lots of poeple out. Lots more places to live IN downtown. A Turner sign on the Fifth's construction fence - that was weird. I guess I considered Royal Oak immune to the presence of any company I might want to work for. Get home and try to write. Start hating life, go fold laundry and watch cartoons. Run through a ton of angry, confrontational thesis statements. Find one with promise and run to jot down an outline. It works, but I want to give the idea time to cool off. Go back to laundry and cartoons. Go back later and kick out a killer essay - pulled it out of my ass. Spend some time refining a hard copy, then go to bed.
Or try.
Long naps + latenight coffee => I'm left watching black and white movies with no contacts in. That sounds like a line from a 90's alternative song, something by Pavement or even They Might Be Giants.
Sunday went to Detroit which I always enjoy when I have a purpose such as reviewing our finals for the preliminary projects and exploring the sites we can choose for our semester-long project followed by Margaritas and Pacifico's at Agave. Good times. Quick stop at home to pick up my gear and tie up loose ends.
Tonight, can't do homework because my bag's on the far northside in the car where I left it.
Tomorrow I work, kicking off a week that promises to be more managable than the last but not less rigorous. Hopefully this weekend will be satisfying. All I need is for it to carry some hint of cooking dinners, seeing movies, talking, getting messed up, and lying aimlessly in bed. I see this as a likely prospect, and those qualities are hard to miss. It must be something about.....well, about any number of things (a mirror-full, if you will).
Gonna call Chicago next week, check up on the prospects. I already have an offer from Lansing and the Career Fair is that Friday. Let's see what Chicago has to say about that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 23rd, 2006|11:38 pm] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | working | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | aks mama? | ] |
In the last 20 hours I succesfully learned and applied Laplace Transformations. Having taken Diff-EQ in the summer, my teacher decided we didn't need to cover them. I told this to my Structural Dynamics professor who responded, "He should be shot!" That class is going to blow my mind on a bi-weekly basis.
In other news, shirking responsibilties in favor of other, cooler/more pressing responsibilities is my new favorite pastime. This just in: skiing doesn't blow; being sick does. |
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| See Also... |
[Nov. 30th, 2005|01:17 am] |
'Pataphor (noun):
1. An extended metaphor that creates its own context.
2. That which occurs when a lizard's tail has grown so long
it breaks off and grows a new lizard.
Example 1
NON-FIGURATIVE:
Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line.
METAPHOR:
Tom and Alice stood side by side in the lunch line, two pieces on a chessboard.
PATAPHOR:
Tom took a step closer to Alice and made a date for Friday night, checkmating. Rudy was furious at losing to Margaret so easily and dumped the board on the rose-colored quilt, stomping downstairs. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 13th, 2005|11:55 am] |
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Samuel Alito, inconsequentially, is an anagram for "I am a sellout". |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 18th, 2005|12:30 am] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | straight up tired | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | the "Party Like it's 20-xty-6" Mix | ] |
this weekend was wacky. friday was kind of whacky - cowboy bebop sans adam pero con BEL, then drinking alone - but saturday made things right. (back to) the lab, where I ran some tests in an effort to design lightweight sand (yeah! all right!!). last little bit of 'instant classic' football. Wound up at amici's with pat dimanin and then some random party in southfield with justin. that was crazy - russians, pols, assholes in dreadlocks getting wasted and starting shit; girls that look my sister's age but are 32? with a kid? and the father was the boss DJ who was her housemate but they weren't together so it worked out ok. i love that things like that happen. cool names help too. someone landed some muta and it wasn't justin? went home too late for taco bell but not too late for the empire to strike back.
woke up at 1:30 on sunday - some vitek, taco bell, lions, underwater soccer, blackened tuna, homework and cartoons. today worked long, hard, finally feeling hungover from saturday. got my laptop back; bought a case for it, some groceries (2 weeks overdue). more homework, maybe some work on the morrow.
looking forward to chicago. to taking the train and new beds and possibly getting my car fixed while im out of town (in no particular order). also my iPod has come back to life because I am awesome. $$$ |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 13th, 2005|11:48 pm] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | buyakasha | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | David Byrne - Glass, Concrete, and Stone | ] |
It's Tuesday night; I'm thinking about this weekend and not next weekend.
I realized last night that I have $3650 in accounts receivable and decided to go after some of that money. Then maybe I can feel better about my accounts payable. So Today was busy because it's Tuesday = 9 hours of class + whatever I feel like I need to take care of.
This weekend should be pretty laid back. Missed a party this past weekend but have been promised a new one - no worries. Plenty of time to do homework at work while beams simulate tunnel loading. Why isn't dirt faster? EMU football? Perhaps.
CAH golf outing this Sunday. Pay for your own golf, company buys food and Prizes. Everyone I talk to says sweet things about the prizes: "Last year they gave out all sorts of sweet stuff, like a Chainsaw! And an LCD tv and some other stuff...But the chainsaw was awesome." Also from work, few weeks ago:
"Going away present, sweet."
"Don't get too excited, it's not that sweet."
"Yeah, remember what we got Shorkey for his 25th year?"
"A roll of duct tape and half a can of spray paint, if I recall correctly."
Other items of interest:
+ bendable plywood
+ MDF, Rhino, MasterCAM, and the CNC Router
+ Steel Bridge?
+ My laptop gave up; too much hard, awesome work.
--+ IBM is out to inadvertently prevent me from exacting revenge.
+ New hard drive coming.
Not even two weeks of school yet. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 3rd, 2005|10:10 pm] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | soulEctro Funk (folk?) | ] |
Tonight I perfect a column design spreadsheet even though I'm not sure what it means anymore. I wish I was designing columns...
Sweetest picture ever - Just try and get a sense of scale, I dare you:
( Read more... ) |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 2nd, 2005|01:03 am] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | ~~~ | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | NIN - ONLY | ] |
So timing is everything, right?
I ought to have drank more. Because this week has only begun to the sound of warehouses crumbling and air compressors rolling backwards. A few more days until our worlds share any kind of relavance, for better or worse, until our deaths do the other in. (Yes you best believe that is a preposition).
I've been listening to the same 30 songs loudly for the past weeks. My neighboors want to know who kicks out jams like that and I am forced to say, "God sent them, I signed for them, here they is." I think what we have now is the perfect combination of skill, passion, and chance.
Hellz knowz thatz the way wez roll.
¡Viva la Musica Tropicando! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 1st, 2005|12:21 am] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | We Fear Change | ] |
I have recently reaquainted myself with the following concepts:
+ LiveJournal? List-based entries in particular.
+ Alcohol
+ Pat Dimanin
+ Big Ten Burrito
+ Vodka
+ Tonic (with a twist of lime?)
+ the 'Jane, in moderation
+ Qualifying clauses, from time to time.
+ Cartoons, however worthless
+ A desire to stay in graduate school for 4+ years
+ A desire to enter the professional world immediately - with hilarious consequences!
+ Frustration over competing Midwest Metropoli
+ Distilled Spirits
+ Registering for grad-level Architecture courses.
+ EARTH SHATTERING, MIND PLASTICIZING BOREDOM, INDEPENDENT OF LOCATION OR ACTIVITY
That's it, really. Getting hooked on a drug I can't have sounds like the perfect excuse to resort to cruder, more available distractions.
Coming up Next Week: Reassembling the will that satisfaction and money have destroyed. Maybe. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 6th, 2005|12:26 am] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | good evening | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | U2??? | ] |
work-at-home busy. with a raise to boot. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 4th, 2005|01:00 pm] |
If that wasn't weak, nothing is. Though I suppose it's nothing more than you showed in the car. As Ken Booth sings, "beautiful and dangerous: there is nothing to discuss."
RIP Nugglet. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 22nd, 2005|11:29 pm] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | waiting | ] |
I want bright white skin and red hair.
Or maybe I just want ass. Add a tent, a bridge, and some palm trees. That ought to do. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 15th, 2005|07:47 pm] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | sexless Sunday (neutral) | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | david bowie - warhol, as in halls | ] |
Last semester was a frenzy. Thus after February, whenever a new item of importance revealed itself, I remarked that my summer would be brimmin' with free time and all would get done. Here is a list of items I thought I'd finish in a jiffy:
- "Apply" to grad school
- register for the Fundamentals of Engineering exam
- design a sweet CMU building and render it six ways from Sunday
- stay active with bridge
- learn Finite Element Analysis and model next year's concrete canoe
- learn Linear Algebra and/or Differential Geometry
- ride my bike all over the place
- get a membership to the food co-op
- buy and find uses for a mitre saw.
I have three of those half-done and the rest I'm just kind of remembering now. So far I've done the following:
- reveled in last semester's glory (neutral)
- played golf (+)
- drawn (+)
- worked a lot (+) and not slept much (neutral)
- seen kung-fu hustle (+)
- get paid (+) and realize that no matter how much I make or how rich or poor I think I am, I am always just breaking even (neutral, duh).
That's not a bad list so far. The last one is kind of a downer even though it shouldn't be. There is plenty of time to make money. Also there is something to be said for moderate debt - it keeps you productive. The razor's edge, so to speak. Home equity! But there are only so many places where I'd want to put that kind of debt into service. With construction I'll have a lot of freedom and a lot choices in the next few years. Better get back to work on my priorities... |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 26th, 2005|09:30 pm] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | rocksteady | ] |
See, I think I got what my problem is - I can't trick all five senses at once.
I never wanted to be the man who got everything he always wanted I don't think. It's the grossest tragedy the world has ever seen. I'd much rather be frothing at the mouth in search of new conquests, never satisfied.
I don't think our nation's schools promote violence like they should. Also I should probably get rid of the cats.
---
Of course, hating this for long enough might just make me again. |
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| Because I'm retarded and so is LiveJournal |
[Apr. 20th, 2005|01:14 am] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| | FREE TIME | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | The Herbalizer's "Starlight" | ] |
Tomorrow: Detroit or Taylor? 94 or 96? Both ways happen to be five-eighths a gross more than my 351 exam. This beauty never ends, says I. I am a hero in my own right (mind).
Truthfully though, there's only one end for this mania. But you better believe I'm going to fuck it proper before it amounts to "what another whack rapper said." |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 10th, 2005|11:30 am] |
| [ | give me an axe b/c |
| |  groggy | ] |
| [ | brevity is th |
| | The suond of beautiful weather | ] |
An Ode to North Campus on Sunny Weekend Afternoons
crazy little kid on you're three-wheeled bike
slow the fuck down before I take a life
no one wants to see all your blood and guts
so check your damn riding before I bust my nuts
your asian parents just smile and wave
sayin' "look at our little boy, ain't he brave?"
no he ain't brave cuz he's dumb as rocks
he better slow the fuck down before I bust my glocks
I rode my bike to North Campus yesterday to do homework and wound up reading a book on insulated cavity walls for my own benefit. It's beautiful out. Went and grabbed dinner with Mike & Co. (including Katie and Mike^2) then went to Mike's to celebrate 22 years of existence. Drank a lot; I forgot I could drink that much. Everyone was safe I found out though I feel like I should have kept a better eye on a couple of kids for no reason in particular. Talked about cell phone carriers, made a cell phone call, came back and played video games after talking about how I can control when I play them.
Today I get to drive home and do launry and homework and eat a big meal. Also, I have an extra week to "study" for that test. No worries there. |
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