Jobs, Architecture, and ambivelence

This blog has been quiescent for some time, mostly because I've have been focused on staying afloat financially instead of school.

The persistent problems with MSU financial aid department hit the point where it was financially impossible for me to attend school...(like having better then 1/2 of my student loans go missing for half the semester... not once but two semesters in a row!)

The resulted in me dropping to half-time and then as my student loan payments became active seeking full time work.  Which after a couple of false starts I have found.

For the last six months I have been a contractor at a terrific establishment, and on Monday I become an official employee.  It's a great job that challenges me daily, but draws on my 15+ years in the it industry.  A job where I am valued, trusted, and treated with respect.  It's also a job where I get to map out the road map for their technological future.  The bonus is that my coworkers and boss are a pleasure to work with as well.

Where does that leave Architecture school?   Good question.

In this economy it's a pretty poor time to be junior Architect with no work experience in the field.

Also, my new job offers to pay for (not reimburse... pay for) the maximum IRS amount for schooling as long as it's job related.   Which in my case means some IT type degree.  A quick google shows that the amount the offer is easily over half of what full time tuition and books cost for full time attendance.

So I can go back to school on works dime.. but only if I change my major.

Worth it? I don't know.  Frankly I'm going to have to ruminate it's implications towards my future.

Hullo Interwebs...

This is not quite how I envisioned my return to the endless sea of electrons, but here it is.

Some minor updates, as you can consider this a post to get the old brain pumping as I get back in the swing of things.

First, my nickname for the next couple of weeks is "Pinky" although there was some discussion of making it Lefty. I have managed to remove the tip of one of my fingers. Again. Some of you may have recalled this happened with frightening regularity previously because sleep deprivation + exacto blades are a poor mix.

The upshot of this is discovered my lovely lass handles herself in a crises when there is blood involved with aplomb and alacrity. I've never had a better assistant while self ministering.

Second, dog is fine and hasn't jumped out any windows or other heroically stupid acts. Still moderately gassy, though after year with out pig ear treats both volume and potency have decreased dramatically.

Third, I received my Green belt in Kenpo. This means I am technically qualified to teach everything up-to and including Green. 3rd brown is going fast, and most of the 2nd brown techniques I learned in the Green belt kata, so these next two belts should be over and done with soon. I also have 4 ladies who would like to start official Kenpo lessons, but I have to find a place. All the dance studios and gyms I have contacted rent out at either what my hourly rate would be, or more... so I would break even or lose money renting from them.

Fourth, school is on hold. At least until next fall. More on that later.

Fifth, I got a great computer job in the mean time, started about a month and a half ago. Good pay, great location, and a great group of people to work with. It's a six month contract, but may turn into a permanent position. One that may include the flexibility to continue with school, with a guaranteed paycheck.

That's all for now, all this typing is making my finger hurt.

My first monolith.

My roommate's senior thesis show is this weekend. He built a touch-screen driven interface for the art building and asked me to build an installation to hold a computer and support the touch screen.

For less then $200.

And it needed to look tech/slick.

I think I did okay...

From Furniture pics

From Furniture pics

One hand givith...

The other taketh away...

I commented to some friends the other day that in doing the reading for my Arch class I was pleased and amazed at my ability to comprehend Arch subjects that previously bored or baffled me.

However, this apparently has shut down the part of my brain related to processing Japanese. I have spent the last 2 hours studying for my 8:00 am final and realized I had read the same damn sentence three times and still couldn't figure out what it meant... even after reading the helpful translation at the bottom of the page.

*sigh*

I think I will stop, get up early and study some more before the test. Hopefully retain something.

Model Building part 3

Here is the final barrel vault we built last weekend.

As always click the linkee below to see the complete photo set. (there is even a bonus dog photo.)

Arch 332 - Model 3

The material was air hardening clay.

Model Building Mehem...

Apparently I forgot to post the pictures of our barrel vault test that we made earlier in the semester. Here are the pictures up until the camera batteries died.

Click the pretty picture below to view the photo set.

Barrel Vault Photoset

About 10 seconds after battery died we removed the form and due to a flaw in the form's construction it snagged one of the bricks and the whole thing collapsed.

S.N. F.A. F.U.

So...

Yeah.

Remember how I said my finaid was sorta moving forward?

Forget that. Not only was the amount of the expected refund wrong (I.e. they quoted my the entire year's pell grant instead of this semester) so instead of a $2700 refund check today I got a bill for $200...

But also... my Alaska Student Loan still hasn't been submitted.

5 weeks after AKLoan sent the local finaid office the paperwork they haven't sent it back.

I hate life.

Details Matter...

In the course of my weekend reading I just discovered the mentor of my Arch History professor was the favored student, employee, and protègé of my second least favorite Architect.

So my Professor's Professor's Professor was someone who's designs I dislike greatly*.

This is important, because I am apt to bring up one of said Architect's buildings as an example of pretty but failed design.

However, not in this class.


*In fairness his ideas are frequently great, it's just the niggly little details that make the buildings usable for humans he kept screwing up.

Oh yeah... he'll go far.

Last post of the day, I swear.

A few minutes ago one of my Architecture classmates came over and made small talk about the Architecture History class we have together.

I was flattered he recognized me out of a class of 172 students considering we have never met previously, though in retrospect... I am one of two middle aged guys in the class and we both sit together at the top, whereas he looks just like all the other backwards ball cap wearing Gap clones that populate the campus.

ANYWAY.... the point being is he spent the better part of 15 minutes ranting about what a waste of time the class was, how boring the reading was etc...

When he finally wound down, the girl sitting at the table next to us leaned over (she is also apparently in the class...) and said "Do you know the phrase 'Those forget History are doomed to repeat it?"

"Yeah." He muttered in surly tone.

"Do you think by examining past mistakes and successes we stand a better chance of being better architects?" She raised one eyebrow and waited.

This clearly was to much for him. He muttered something under his breath and shuffled back to his group.

"Dumbass." She muttered as he left, and then turned towards me with one eyebrow raised, a fierce expression on her face.

"Don't look at me," I raised my hands in mock surrender "you said what I was thinking."

She snorted dismissively and returned to her reading.

In further retrospect I should have introduced myself before she got up that's the sorta person I'd rather work with when we start on the projects in a couple weeks.

FinAid... slightly less screwed up.

One of the batches of checks has shown up... almost exactly 30 days later then they were supposed to.

And by showed up I mean, they are here on campus and I have signed them. The U still needs to cash them, process them and then cut me a check for the identical amount and mail it to me.

I should (in theory) be able to eat again Friday or Monday. Probably Monday.

I'm excited.

The person who was manning the FinAid desk was actually the person responsible for this being as screwed up as it is. There was a little surreal moment when I asked if there was a way I could arrange to pick up the checks instead of having them mailed to me and she said to me:

"If I get them processed today, accounting will pull a batch report tomorrow and print the checks the next day, and mail them the day after. They only mail them, no pickup, sorry." *she gave a little laugh* "That's assuming I get it done today, I'm a week behind on everything."

She then accidentally met my eyes. I can't imagine what the expression was on my face, but she stopped laughing.

Very carefully I said "And what exactly would it take for you to process these today?"

"I just have to fill out this form and send it over to accounting." she gestured a stack of pink paper.

My eyes rested briefly on the stack of papers, and then met hers again. The silence stretched out uncomfortably.

Her eyes dropped and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair, reaching out she pulled the pink form to her. "I'll just fill this out right now."

I also extracted from her that she sent the AK student loan stuff in, only a week after she promised me she would. Since it takes the loan people 4-6 hours to get them in the system I think I will call tomorrow and see if she actually did it.

Textbooks redeux and Finaid is in fact still screwed up.

It's taken me almost a week to write this post without swearing.

I had been told several times by several different people that there was now way to get access to my expected financial aid to buy books except to wait for the check, cash it and then buy books with the cash.

They were wrong.

One of the financial aid officers (while I was standing in line) mentioned to another student that his book loan had been approved. When I got to the front of the line I enquired, and for a $30 fee I could take a loan out up to $500 against my expected return.

So I did.

It took them a couple hours to process it and when I got out of class I verified that there were funds on my student account and then marched over to the book store.

Selecting only the needed items brought my total to $416. I happily marched up to the register. Standing in line I overheard people at the front complaining about problems with their cards. I didn't know if they meant their student account cards or credit cards. (See it's helpful to pay attention to your surroundings)

I got to the front, we swiped my card, and it refused to print a receipt giving a "Cannot connect to host" error message. Subsequent attempts to re-ring up the sale were declined at three other registers and the customer service desk. I was the directed to go to the bookstore accounting office in back where they would help me.

This was in fact a lie.

The swiped my card and discovered that I couldn't buy books because I only had $84 on my card. Me being a clever bloke pointed out that $500 - 416 = $84. Please print me off a reciept so I could go.

However the office person would be having none of that. I pointed out that I had already paid for the books, she assured me that the sales droid had canceled the sale (by writing cancel on the error receipt printout) Her solution was that I wait until Wednesday when she would manually refund the money to my card and then I could buy the books then.

10 minutes of arguing ensued...

I won. I won't bore you with the details. But suffice to say I out-stubborned and out-escalated her.

Oh and regarding the financial aid.

Let me present to you two sentances:

"We are waiting for the paper checks from the loan provider"

or

"We failed to fax back the paperwork the loan provider sent us three weeks and they are waiting for us to do our damn jobs so you can get your student loans."


Do these sentences look even remotely alike? Do any of my beloved readers think these sentances have the same meaning?

Because one of them, I have been told every single time I have gone into the financial aid office since class started last week, and the other one is what really happened. I will leave it to you, dear reader, to discern which is which.

Oh, and just to give you the tiniest hint... only one person processes loans in the Finaid office. That person went on vacation the week school started, the single busiest week of the year for them. Anything that wasn't processed before the vacation is only being looked at now.

I swear to god if this keeps up they are going to have to prescribe me anti-psychotics.

Text Book Ruminations

So as I sit here contemplating an unsatisfying bowl of cold ramen before class and wait for my financial aid check to show up I have to consider just how slightly screwed up the situation is.

Now, complaining about text books is one of those universal gripes that all college students have, but considering the lead time between when you are expected to have the books and when you actually get money from the school to buy those books it's particularly irksome. There is no way to transfer money from your loans to your school account before they issue you a refund... you have to wait to get the check, cash it, wait for it to clear the bank (5-7 days if the refund check is over $1000) and THEN transfer money to buy book and supplies.

I guess they expect you to pay for the books out of pocket and reimburse yourself later.

Problem is that I may in fact be setting a new personal record for textbook costs this year. One Architecture class alone has 10 books, 5 required, 3 strongly recommended and 2 optional. If I just buy the required texts for the class I'm at $453. Oh, and one of the books has been out of print for 30 years and they have ~50 copies for a class of 102 students. My language class is going to cost me $134 for books and finally math is $99.

That is $686 just for books. I haven't gotten into the supplies.

I did mention I'm eating Ramen, right? What student has $700 just lying around to blow on books that isn't earmarked for anything else?

And before you ask, there is a copy of the language books in the library, math text is not, and 2 of the 5 Architecture books are available at the library. The other three were checked out (not supposed to be possible) and never returned.

If you will excuse me I have to go sit in my math class and pretend I am following along in a text book I don't have.

S.N.A.F.A.F.U.

Situation Normal All Financial Aid Fouled Up.

The local FinAid office has record of my putting in needed paperwork back in May but managed to lose the paperwork. Let me repeat that: they have a record of it being submitted but apparently no-one did anything with it and it has since been lost.

Because I'm paranoid I checked with them a month before classes started, and 15 days before my bill was due just to make sure the ducks were in a row.

They, of course weren't.

So I re-submitted the paperwork in time for their weekly meeting, making sure I included Information A, B and C which I verified with them.

Committee took a look at the information and denied the claim because I didn't include information D and E... which they didn't tell me I needed when I asked.

Resubmitted the paperwork and waited for their weekly meeting again.

And... it was rejected again. Because apparently anytime the paperwork has been rejected by the committee it has to go to the Director instead. So sorry you had to wait a week, we'll get it to her right now so she can look at it.

Everyday since I have called and have been told it is "On her desk and she will look at immediately."

Well, except today, when they told me she will look at it sometime next week. Problem is they only process the Federal financial aid inputs on Thursdays, and bundle up the paperwork on Friday and then it takes 7-10 business days for them to process that, but they only cut check's on Mondays and then it takes ~ 3 days for the check to get the 200 feet from the Accounting office to my P.O. Box. I am not kidding, they mail all the checks offsite and then they get delivered BACK to the university post office.

So at this point, even if she looks at it first thing on Monday (unlikely) the soonest that they would actually process my aid is the 28th, 7 days for accounting to deal with it is the 4th, cut a check on 7th and maybe... just maybe I will have it on the 11th or nearly two weeks after school started.

Why am I doing this again?

Metalsmithing final projects

I will replace these somewhat crappy pictures with better ones once I am moved into my new place and get the photo booth set up.


Second to final Project: Enameling. I did prayer beads / rosary.


The total length of the piece is ~2.5 feet.



Here's a close-up of the colored beads. There are actually two beads fused into one to create a shape reminiscent of Tibetan prayer wheels. There is also supposed to be text baked on... it didn't take.


Here is the disk at the end. It has the phrase "god is great" rendered in different languages. The etch isn't as clear as I would like but in person gives the piece a worn well loved look.

I have had an offer from a classmate to buy this, and a second classmate who wants me to make one similiar but in different colors.

Final Project: Pewter-smithing. It is a single serving tea-pot.



Brushed pewter and copper balls. Holds ~ 10oz max. Really only 8oz comfortably.


I really enjoyed the pewter-smithing. I found that most of the problems the other students were having resulted from them being to heavy handed while soldering or fusing.

I intend to make a set of matching tea cup and saucer this fall.

As a matter of fact, I am supposed to take independent study Metals in the fall and focus on these two techniques: enamel beads and pewter-smithing.

Secrets of the box.

You all remember the box, yes?

How about a close up of that lid?


Shall we look inside?

How about a close up of the inner plaque?


What could be nestled among those dividers I wonder.

Lets look...


Oooh... Airship tokens! Where on earth could they take us?

Victoria Station - Shibuichi alloy, nitric etched and tumble polished.

E.R. Burroughs Barsoomian Zoo - White bronze, nitric etched, brass brush polish.

Jules Verne Naval Academy - Shibuichi, nitric etched, brass brush polish.

H.P. Love Craft Aquarium - Copper, ferric chloride etched, liver patina.

Lemuria Crystal Mines - Copper, ferric chloride etched, liver patina.

All of them etched pretty well except the bronze, which wouldn't etch at all in the ferric chloride and etched really fast in the nitric acid. However, since I wanted the coins to be representative of survivors of some temporal holocaust from bygone age/alternate timeline I didn't mind. Same with the chew/claw marks on the Lovecraft coin. Started off as a flaw and I just went with it.

A huge thanks to "The Girl" for doing the finished artwork for the etching and "The Dad" for doing the typography.

*Edit* Corrected for spelling and Answer.

Shibuichi is a Japanese alloy that is 1/4 silver to 3/4 copper. It is a grey pink in color and patinas a variety of different colors depending on what you use.

*Edit 2* I forgot to include the lid close-up. So there it is for Ook.

What is in the box my Preciousssss?

My last project has been returned to me. I'll make you a deal, if you can guess what is in the box I will make you your very own Steampunk something. However, if you helped me with the construction/design work you don't get to guess. (Sorry dad.)

You have 48 hours.

A change in my life...

So I've been struggling with this decision for some time, even going so far as to deny what has been clearly a fundamental truth about myself that I couldn't admit even in the privacy of my own mind.

I'm have been dishonest with myself and others, and it's time I came clean.

I want to get an MBA.

This architecture whimsy and predilection to the arts have been nothing more then a sham to prop up some retrograde fantasy with the humanities and design.

I want columns, spreadsheets, profit and loss statements, board meetings, and hostile mergers.

God, I LONG to run down Wall street (okay... be driven in my chauffeured limo) with a sharkskin briefcase and stack of Accelerated Depreciation forms like loaded six shooters at my side.

I understand that for many of you this will be hard to accept, but please bear with me during the difficult time. It took a lot of courage for me to admit this and you support is appreciated.

Lego Necklace

I finally got my project from last semester, which immediately after grading, was placed in a student art show. The poor person for whom it was a Christmas present only was able to wear it for about a week before it was whisked off to another town for two months. However, it has finally returned and have taken some photos.

Some background before the pictures.

We were doing an plastic/organic burnout project. In the project instead of spruing up wax models to be burned out and cast you sprued found objects, pine cones, insects, seeds, green army men and the like. My plan was to make clockwork dinosaur pins. I spent nearly a day chopping up and modifying little toy dinos so they looked very steampunk.

They didn't burnout. Apparently even though they felt like plastic they were actually rubber.

I bought more dinosaurs, different brand.

Same thing.

Repeat for third and fourth batch of dinosaurs.

However, in the midst of all these failed castings I had cast some Lego and Lego knock-off bricks with the thought of someday doing something with them. But after wasting three weeks on failed dinosaurs and only having 5 days til I had to turn in something.... thus the necklace was born.


Some notes about the necklace. The chain/torc/thing articulates to lay flat on the chest, angle up across the collarbones, and then conform to the neck. Since the hinges are rotational, that meant the hinges on either end of the spacer bars had to be at different angles. I managed to get it right in spite of doing it at 3am the night before the project was due. I actually had a minor little panic attack in the middle of the night when I realized I had lost track of which ones were supposed to have which angle. As luck would have it, I didn't screw them up.


Also you might notice a slight bend in the left bar. The morning of our crit one of my classmates dropped it onto the cement and then kicked it while trying to pick it up. In addition to bending that bar it bent the center bar and broke a hinge... all of which had to be fixed in less then an hour...

Click picture below for center closeup.



The picture below is a close up of one of the hinges. As you can see it only rotates around the center pin making free movement around the neck impossible. Also those flat bits, if you look at them wrong they tend to break off. Flush face solder connection not the brightest idea I've ever had.



Below is the the clasp for the necklace. I nearly melted it in a moment of inattention while soldering it together. The clasp is pure silver and has a loooow melting point.


Things I would have done differently:

1) Since I was extremely rushed for time the finish (solder spills etc...) are not cleaned up to my satisfaction.
2) It is fragile. Since the construction I have figured out no less then three different ways to make nearly the identical necklace with the same movement and do it in a way that was not so prone to breakage.
3) There was supposed to be a set stone in the center piece and in the clasp, but I ran out of time.
4) Steampunk dinosaurs! I mean it's a pretty necklace but I really really wanted the dinos.

The good news is the girl loves it.

Metalsmithing Teaser

I took some pictures of our crit today and there is picture of my work on the table.

Mine is the little box with a brass top in front of the coffee cup... not the coffee cup (which actually was part of someone rather cool metal smithing project.)

Oh... and the medallion to the left. Pure bling. In fact, since I was the one critiquing it they made me wear it.

Umm... yeah.



I have no idea what my hands are doing, I just held my hands how the told me too.


The real owner of the piece...

Snow, etching, and madness

We have had an extremely weird week weather wise. Monday it was sunny and 60's/ Tuesday Sleet. Wednesday it dumped 8 inches of snow and white out conditions. Today... cold and windy. Supposedly more snow this weekend.

In other news, it's midterm season and I'm pretty certain I've done well on all of them.

Also my previous metal-smithing project was a stylistic success but actual mechanical failure. It actually broke into component part falling 2 feet onto the seat of my car. I'll post pictures and let people guess what the hell it was.

My current project (etching and turned in today) however was a huge success. Not least of which because only a 1/3 of the class seems to have actually gotten their project finished in time fore the crit today. I will get pictures of it too when I get it back.

Kenpo is also doing well. I have completed blue belt, and now we are doing review and ramping up to blue-belt test. That's going well, but I need to schedule more time for practice since my retention currently not doing so hot.

Oh... and a building blew up downtown. Never been to any of the shops mentioned so I have no particular opinion about it but it was the talk of the campus today.