Your Democracy

Great article by Bill Moyers.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/02/24/restoring_the_public_trust.php

George Bush is talking alternative energy - we're screwed

You know when oil lover George Bush is harping on alternative forms of energy (finally) that there is an energy crisis in the works. We're screwed.

CITYCRAFT

Had a good meeting with my client (first official) today about the house addition I am working on for them. They loved the plans I put together (though we changed 50% of them) and we had a good schematic design working session. I think I enjoy smaller, more personal jobs. I have heard, and know from experience that they are more difficult and you make less money but there is something about the satisfaction you see on people's faces or their excitement that makes it worth my while. That is not to say that I won't get sued by these people (Logan reading this licking his chops) but still - for now it is fun. My company name is 'Citycraft' unofficially - Chi and I are not taking it too seriously and just seeing where it goes. Spread the word - the ship is afloat.

The Trials of Teaching

As many of you know I am TAing for a class called Architecture and Society. My duties include teaching a seminar to two different classes each week. It is interesting how different one class can be from another. I have the same amount of students (27) in each class but it seems to be a lot harder to run a good section on thursday night. I have three students in the class that are 'bad apples' and they seem to be tarnishing the bunch. One of them came to me at the end of today's session and asked if we could get an evening study group together to prepare for the quiz (it's no coincidence that he was late for class and had not read the material). I told him that we had just finished with our study session - it in fact is the whole point of the seminar. I am having fun however and the majority of the students are interested and are there to learn.

In other news:
It has been four days since the vice-president shot anyone in the face. Yeah!!
Benny got his hair buzzed! Cutie.
Christopher is a creative genius I think - scary.
Emilie is wonderful at just about everything - and even loves me a little still.
Saw Brokeback Mountain - was good but I sensed some homosexual overtones (hehehe - jk) - no really, it was very good. Now I know why cowboys wear tight pants.

Communism - and Presidential Blow Jobs

I am doing a tremendous amount of reading for 'Soviet Architecture, Art, and Film'. Consequently, I think I am becoming a communist. I learned for instance that Lenin, on his deathbed (early death too, 42 I think) wrote a letter to the soviet governmental council begging that they be careful and not elect Stalin as the next president. Stalin intercepted that letter and the rest is history. Trotsky would have taken over the presidency from Lenin (Trotsky's views were more in line with Lenin's) had the letter not been intercepted and Russia would have had an entirely different history. To put it in distinctly American terms:

Lenin was a good guy (who did what he felt was right for his country)
Stalin was a bad guy (who killed a lot of people)
Trotsky was a good guy (similar to Lenin)

No communism ever existed in Russia - what they had was a dictatorship that was a modified capitalist system (similar to what we presently have but with more concern for the working poor).

A good idea:
I think as an apology to Bill Clinton the republicans should allow him to take office for a third term. The republicans can make deals with him like, "if you balance the budget for us like you did in your first presidency we will allow you 5 free blow jobs", or "if you help us pay down this outrageous national debt that Bush has created we will allow you ten free blow jobs etc." Imagine what he could accomplish!!

Barcelona and Bush Bashing

Been a long while. Saw Francie this weekend and she inspired me to write in the blog again.

Quick update since last we spoke: Texas won football national championship (due to my influence as a student of course), I am a teacher's assistant and have two classes of 27 that i'm responsible for (I know what you're thinking - "HIM?"), did well last semester, 4.0 for those interested - first time since 3rd grade I think (I was also class president then!! I am on a ten year cycle of achievement), I just got my first 'big/little' job as an independent practicioner of architecture, I am in the Barcelona studio here at school - segway...

We traveled to Spain for 8 days tromping through the wonderful streets of Barcelona. By our estimations we walked btwn 15-20 mi/day...my old bones felt it - but I kept up with the younguns. We are working on a project for the 'Mies van der Rohe Foundation' across from the Barcelona Pavilion, a famous and instrumental work of the early 20th century. Hard project. A little america bashing is in order here - we are very very far behind socially. A professor told us an interesting statistic the other day: 98% of America's wealth is held by 2% of its population. Of course, I think he is a communist (not sure). That just blew my mind.

Made two books over the christmas holidays - still a goal of 500 books before death. School and work are getting in my way though.

Bush wants another 70 billion for Iraq. I thought his initial estimate was 80 billion total. Aren't we at 300 billion now - and counting? I would like a list of the people who voted for him - they should be paying for this war. So much for the liberals being the spenders. Republican Americans are a strange lot - they seem to care more about eliminating adulterous sex then about mass murder and violence. and they thought there were 'rape rooms' in Iraq before we invaded........