Green Rascal Design

In my third semester architecture design studio, there was a project explicitly about baggage. We started out innocently enough thinking about our own baggage, and then we moved on to studying nomadic cultures. Our focus of research had been Somalian nomads. Our task was to literally design a bag or suitcase and the contents we would each put inside of it if we were refugees. I did very poorly on this assignment.

My bag was simple and clean. I still have it somewhere and now it is full of stuff. At presentation time it was empty, though. Back in the day I suppose you could say I had no baggage. Or maybe I was trying to pretend I didn't have any baggage. I didn't have any photographs or mementos in my bag. I didn't put any tools or clothes in there. It seemed to the professor that I hadn't really understood the assignment or the nature of the nomads we had studied. And I was a combative student - always trying to challenge the assignment. (I suppose it didn't help that the professor had a hidden agenda to fail all of us in the class.)

Like I said, now my bag has tons of stuff in it. Literally, I started saving every little thing: movie ticket stubs, parking passes, birthday cards, notes left on my desk in studio, fortune cookie fortunes... It's all in a box somewhere. Figuratively, I can't forget anything that made an emotional impact. It is more of a curse than a blessing, I think. Perhaps that will change. But I can remember all the hurtful shit people have said to me, all the times I got an award or sincere compliment, creepy things strange old men say, the looks on my friends' faces when I showed up to visit as a surprise, great advice and especially bad advice... It's all in my head.

Sometimes my husband is astonished that I remember the entire conversation we had about paisley shirts in our very early email conversations almost 4 years ago. Heck, my mom chided me for remembering crap my older sister said about my denim skirt to hurt my feelings back when I was 8 years old. They say to forget such silly things, but I can't. No matter how much meditation I try it always comes back. And I'm actually fine with it because, like in my third semester architecture studio, I'm still challenging what people tell me to do.

So I made an uneasy peace with my accursed memory and continue to save fortune cookie fortunes. Someday when I'm old maybe I'll make a big collage or series of collages of these things.


I'm looking forward to learning about some other people's baggage today. For some reason it fascinates me. I think these old things help me understand individuals better, and while I might get some details wrong about people I've just met, some pieces usually stick, and I like that. Do you remember the old saying about how some friends are there for a season, some you make for a reason, and some are there for a lifetime? I tend to have lifetime friends more than season friends, and even my reason friends I like to keep in touch with. Each person is a little treasure because they took the time to tell me about their baggage. lol.

Maybe I just like listening.


This post is for today's blogoff: What are you carrying? Hopefully you have time to check out what some other awesome bloggers are carrying today. Just follow the link to the blogoff page, and from there to the rest of today's submissions!

This week has been unbelievably busy with networking and other things going on. So it's Friday again, and here are some fluff pics to get the weekend started.

I thought I'd share some of the babies looking a bit crazy because that's what they have been lately - CRAZY. They refuse to sit still!

In other news, I had a really nice TPLP lunch on Tuesday, followed by a fun AEC - Networking meetup that night. Wednesday involved a trip to the feed store for supplies and bird food galore. Yesterday was filled with general office work and an Entrepreneur Philly meetup later in the day.

Today has been mostly shuttling chickens back and forth between their home and the Fluff Utility Vehicle/mobile unit. The fluffs have been very needy lately! It has been really nice having them want to be held and petted, and egg production is up. Also, if anybody needs eggs, please take them! We have way too many eggs! haha.

That's all. We will now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

I'm pleased to see that Clover continues to develop some color around her head. And it looks like she's still got blue eyes. We'll see how long that lasts.

Pumpkin continues to develop her royal personality. This includes jumping out of the box whenever we pick up Clover first.

And we are starting to teach them how to be held - rather than letting them sit on us all the time. The dangers of letting baby chickens roam around unchecked are great indeed because poo can strike at any moment. (I keep telling myself that poo is my favorite substance on Earth, but I still haven't been convinced.)

It is very nice out today, and I *may* consider bringing the chicks outside for a short time. It depends on how warm it actually gets.

Have a good weekend!

I spent my morning learning more about modern tribes by watching videos of TED talks from around 2 years ago. This was part of going through some old RSS posts I had yet again put off, and a reaction to yet another architectural disappointment. But let's not go there. My gut says this tribe thing deserves a try.

Recently I was asked "what do you like to do?" The question was not about the kind of architecture I like to do, or the project types I like to work on, or even what role do I like playing at a firm. It was simply what do I like to do. The broadness of the question shocked me as if I'd never been asked before. So I decided to do a diagram of all the things I like to do broken down professionally and personally, and in the end what I like to do can be summed up as solving problems and helping people with a nod toward doing no harm toward the environment. There are lots of specific things that point toward these three boxes, but generally that's what I like to do.

Ok go ahead and criticize. I'm not in Haiti helping earthquake victims. I'm not spending every waking minute volunteering in soup kitchens in the city. I'm not out on the highway picking up trash. But everybody views "helping people" differently, and I would argue that making connections is a good way to help people.

For example, some years ago I was becoming good friends with an aspiring dj. At the same time I was paying a fair amount of attention to the local techno scene around these parts. One day I saw that somebody in the techno community was looking to unload some big speakers, and I simply forwarded the info to my friend. He was elated. I had helped him out BIG TIME, and it was just by paying attention to his needs and making a connection. This story warms my heart when I think of it - and so this kind of helping people seems to mean something to me. Maybe that is why I'm not too afraid to comment on others' blogs and such.

Also, I've kinda made it a mission to show people other ways of using their space. Generally this means promoting different sustainable gardening techniques, and hopefully at some point this will expand into building techniques too. Though the latter seems to be taking its sweet time.

So after some thought and exploration, and a lot of fence-sitting and self-doubt, I guess its time to find my tribe and start nudging. While architecture is a great overall direction, perhaps this addition can help create true purpose.

I've gotten a lot of advice along the way, and picking a single most important piece of advice seems daunting.

Older architects all say "draw more by hand." This is sometimes paired with, "go build something yourself." Ah, those were the days when one could spend all their time drawing and building things by hand. Personally, I don't have that kind of time anymore. The digital age is in full swing, and to deny it is death. As a young designer sometimes the only advantage I have is being able to learn and use advanced softwares in an impressively short amount of time.

There are other pieces of advice which are more readily adaptable to the current situation such as "follow through," and "be true to your word." Collectively I believe these kinds of lessons to be very valuable in life. Perhaps business is different. In business I have rarely been rewarded for being truthful, and it seems follow-through has gotten me bupkis as well.

Nevertheless, I think it is important to do what you say you will do, and do it when you say you will do it. It seems to me to be fairly common sense. The timing aspect of it requires more practice than I have had, unfortunately, and then it always behooves me to be honest and let whomever is depending on me know that I miscalculated when I would be done. Actually I'm usually done well before expected. That is probably why such honesty has been beneficial. I could just sit on my hands until the expected hour arrives, and get paid more for lying. Hardly admirable, such behavior never sat well with me.

Ultimately, the best advice I have ever gotten was from dear ol' ma. Among her many tips was this gem: "follow your heart." Or it was something like that anyway. She may have said "gut" a few times too. At the end of the day, if I have followed my heart then things usually work out for the best, and I am happy. A few times I have been forced by teammates to complete things in a way I would not otherwise do, and those projects always left a bad taste. My memory for such mistakes is incredible, and when those memories pop up it hurts me. So in all things I try to follow my heart and do what's right for me.

This advice works great on all kinds of things. Ever take a test where you second-guessed yourself and changed an answer only to find out you were right the first time? It used to happen to me all the time, and then I decided to just go with my gut. Ever get sorta lost in an area you should know better, and over-think what to do about it? Going with my gut always gets me to the right place, whereas being distracted or overly logical always gets me more lost. Ever want to go somewhere that your head said was too risky? Following my heart always lead to wonderful discoveries.

I wasn't going to post a blogoff today because I was busy earlier and hadn't prepared the post in the morning like usual. But who knows. I'm hoping that going with my gut this time will turn out to once again be a good thing.

Go mom!

Another week has gone by, and Pumpkin looks a little like a baby golden eagle right now. She's really growing up nicely.

Clover is starting to have a little tiny bit of color around her neck, and I'm anxious to see if the trend continues.

She likes to flap her wings a lot lately. I kinda feel like a helicopter landing pad.

[What is this big shiny silver thing doing in our box?]

That's all I have for today. It has been one heck of a week!
Have a good weekend.

As someone with friends in both New Zealand and Japan, I am saddened by all of these earthquakes. Remember also that Haiti still struggles to recover from their earthquake last January.

There are many developments in modern buildings that save lives in these disasters, though. Hopefully re-building these areas will make them much safer. And we all should use this time to consider what we can do now to prepare for such disasters.

Love and Light, as the kiwis say.

It is kinda hard to tell, but the chicks are much bigger than they were last week.

In case you're wondering, yes I have a special bird shirt just for times like these. It makes for some awesome baby chick naps. It keeps the mess contained, and then it gets special cleaning treatment.

Anyway...  have a good weekend!

When hubs and I went to the Grid Philadelphia magazine release party for their March issue (which contains my story on page 30), we met the subject of their cover story about Fracking in the Delaware River Basin, Iris Marie Bloom. Since then I have been receiving daily emails about the fight against unusual natural gas drilling practices. Here is part of today's email:
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DRBC just granted a 30 day extension to their March 16th public comment deadline.  That's terribly short, considering the outrageous violations of environment and health going on.  But it's great to know we've had an influence:  New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Army Corps of Engineers ALL voted for the extension and only Pennsylvania voted against it.  The more progressive Commissioners proposed 45 days (thanks to your voices!) but New Jersey opposed that and cut it to 30 days.

A second New York Times article confronts industry denial head-on, confirms the shocking PA policy that allows gas drilling waste to be used as brine to tamp down dust on roads and de-ice roads; and as salt to de-ice roads.  That means it goes straight into streams, rivers, aquifers, estuaries, our drinking water.  This second NYT article confirms that toxic radioactive waste is classified as "residual" not "hazardous" due to a dangerous exemption.  And it shows the rampant disregard for public health which results from the revolving door between government and industry, especially in Pennsylvania.

...

ACTION A = CALL GOVERNOR CORBETT!  His phone number is 717-787-2500.

When [Iris] called Weds. afternoon, his office said they were getting plenty of calls from "the other side." If you can speak for an organization, please do.  Please demand he vote to maintain the moratorium on gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed! Other demands: remove the exemption that allows hazardous gas drilling waste to be treated as "residual" waste; extend the moratorium statewide; stop selling our state forests and parks. Be kind to whoever answers the phone, but don't mince words either.

ACTION B = CALL / WRITE PRESIDENT OBAMA:   His number is (202) 546-1111.

ACTION C = Don't feel like talking to any government officials right now?  Fine, just hit this link from Clean Water Action:  www.bit.ly/ActionEPA  

In a few seconds you can write your U.S. Rep. and Senator to DEFEND the Environmental Protection Agency against right-wing attacks at this crucial time.  We need the EPA fully funded and strong.  They are just beginning to step up to regulate the gas industry a bit more aggressively and their ability to curb air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions must be expanded, not curtailed.  E-actions like this are something Clean Water Action is great at, so please do it, thanks!

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Thank you for sharing. I send out emails about this stuff, but that gets old for the recipients, and I feel weird about it. I've already commented on the document several times and written to my senators, etc. Anyway, pass on the word. If you drink water or eat food grown in the Delaware Valley area, your health depends on it.

No, not computer code... I'm in the midst of reading volume 1 of the International Building Code (and commentary). It's super awesome. And by awesome I mean boring. It effectively puts me to sleep every night after only 2 or 3 pages.

I am on section 414.2.4 out of 3412.9.1 (I believe) sections. At this point I think I'll stop reading every word and just start skimming or something. Yes, I admit to giving up! This is very unusual for me - giving up. But if you had to lug the IBC around, you'd come to the same conclusion and probably sooner than I have.

The benefit of lugging the code around, though, is that everyone who sees it becomes curious about it because of its noticeable size. So I guess if I were out for attention that would work nicely. And the IBC does have something else going for it. The cover is an eye-catching purple!

This takes up all my reading time, which is why I have not posted any readings in several months. Commenting on the code and commentary seemed a bit redundant. But if any of my non-architecty friends would like to quiz me on building use and occupancy and special detailed requirements of those uses and occupancies, please be my guest!

I am soooooooo looking forward to the much slimmer International Mechanical Code, International Plumbing Code and the National Electrical Code. Woo!