Datum? I hardly even know him.

So I kinda like data.  I like making things into something I can understand.  I like numbers and ways of making sense of numbers, with graphs or otherwise, that can reveal hidden interesting information.  For example we have four professors in our design studio.  Each professor has their own students they personally meet with, and we had group projects, four groups per professor.  We pinned them up, we all voted.  Yes, its interesting to see who got the most votes, and why.  But more interesting?  Adding up votes across all projects, and see which professors students got the most votes (or in this case, the least- by FAR).  Now THAT is interesting.  Goes beyond the projects and students to say something about the professor!  Or maybe not.  But its interesting.

Here's more data I like:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122211987961064719.html?mod=yhoofront#articleTabs_interactive-PERSONALITY08%26project%3DPERSONALITY08

Me.

My favorite website, as of late.  

This is kinda what my brain is like sometimes.

Hold your mouse over the comic for a sec when you're done reading it.

http://xkcd.com/439/

The Noise in My Head

I made the wrong decision

Apple stock tanked

I have too much to do today

I need to exercise

Moving is gonna suck

How am I supposed to get all this work done?

Dammit I hate money

Why didn't I sell at $180

I hope Chris is happy at his job

I need to sell this stuff

Am I cut out for this?

I wanna watch a movie

What would I do without music

I need some chocolate

I hope I can sell this computer

I'm an idiot

This is just a down time

It'll turn around

I hope Nathan is happy at school

I gotta call about my credit card

I hate money

Just gotta get through the semester

Dammit I want an iPhone

I hope Tiffany is happy with ME

I'm not good enough

Am I good enough?

I can do this

I can't take this

I need my iPod

I can't get all this work done

I'm tired

My head is too noisy

Not sure I can take this

Breathe...................

IRISH.

Given the heavy workload we had for this coming week, I chose to go to the Notre Dame-Michigan game.  I chose "weisly".  Highlights include:

-Not spending all weekend studying

-Seeing Josh's girlfriend Andrea's sweet new circle couch

-Going to Corby's for the first time in like a year

-parking for free at Uncle Paul's dentist's office

-Andrea's friend buying the 82cent box of snozberry PopTarts from CVS

-getting soaked walking to tailgating

-having my first veal bratwurst

-having a tasty brew of Jack and Coke

-seeing Uncle Dave, Zach, Ross tailgating

-seeing Sper-uh-BRIAN LONG, and friends (Dolan Cross Hagan)

-making it to the band show on time

-sitting with Josh  Andrea Gobel and later Tiffany for the game

-seeing two ND touchdowns in 4 minutes of football

-seeing sleventeen Michigan turnovers

-seeing Michigan fans sit down often and leave early

-getting poured on in the 4th quarter and not caring

-seeing how pumped up the Irish got AFTER it started pouring

-running through "Stonehenge" water fountain with Tiffany and Andrea after the game

-eating chili at the Fulchers with some beer and wine

-watching Clausen throw a perfect TD pass to Golden Tate on Tivo at home, over and over.

-sleeping.

-eating and drinking tasty things at my parents house: Bailey's Ice Cream, Very Vanilla Silk, Jordan Almonds (Italian Wedding Almonds), pasta, Ruby Red Squirt.

-getting new batteries for my watches, and glasses for Tiffany, and Nutty Bars, at Walmart- and getting the opportunity to mutter "Irish" to myself every time I saw Wolverines apparel

-cleaning up the floodwaters in my parents basement before we left town

Now back to the grind.  Deciding about an apartment tonight.  Moving soon hopefully.

A Brief One (Its About Underwear) (No Its Not)

Whats funny is that with everyone texting, we have conversations like "I hate when I type 'go' and it substitutes 'in' instead" and people know what you're talking about.  'Home' always ends up 'good'.  Well here's some words that get substituted when the real words aren't in the phone's dictionary cause they're swear words.  Ha.

Dual

Eval

Duck

Dial

Econ

Shiv

Coal

Remis

That's all I got.

Its now back to work for me.  Looking at apartments, packing, doing school work, going to (a) Notre Dame game, can keep you busy.  But I'm already done with three of my sixteen weeks of the semester already so there's that.  Sweet.  Gotta go.  Irish.

Twitter

I am thinking in Twitter-length posts lately.  Probably because my mind is more scattered and busy, with starting school.  Though I also realize that it was a way I adapted last year and have immediately taken on as the way I need to be, and maybe I need to rethink that.  Could actually feel my mind and pulse race on the first day.  Just not necessary.

Twitter, ps, is like blogging except in 140 characters or less, but multiple times throughout the day.  Its a way of keeping up with people's thoughts and daily activities.  Yes, it sounds boring or invasive or both, but it turns out to be kinda addicting, for some anyway.  Once I get an iPhone, I'll be posting to it like mad, because I have lots of one-line thoughts that I wish I could tell someone or put somewhere.

Like:

How many department chairs at this university wear bright blue plastic watches?

This year I get to see the Trump Tower be finished out my window!

This damn chair's squeakiness is driving me crazy.

I don't have time to meet all these new people.

How is it that practicing and teaching architects can have such mastery of design software and still be so inept at using the basic functions of their computer?

And so on.  Twitter.com.  You can sign up and "follow" me, and then see who else I'm following or who is following me, and add them as well.  Another way of networking, which people love these days.

As you may have surmised, I've started school again.  I have a new studio (upstairs) with a balcony behind me overlooking the old one, and a window in front of me looking at the skyline instead of into my director's office.  I have 47 or so classmates, instead of 18.  All of whom I think are either younger than me or exchange students.  I have four less hours of class this year, and probably more than enough extra work to make up for it.  I no longer have 8am classes.  But I have class until 6pm every day.  There are already three party-ish things happening this weekend, all which I'm missing.  Oops.  My butt is already sore, I'm waiting for a new iPhone and laptop to come out, and I already knocked off a hefty to-do list the past couple days.

Year two is underway.  Damn this squeaky chair.  Everyone hates it.  Next week I start running again and start learning Spanish.  T-minus one year until Barcelona.

Tiffany started class too- Human Anatomy.  She gets to learn all the stuff Jenny did.  Til 8:30pm, Mon/Wed, all semester.  Wow.  Time for me to go and do something useful.

Another Side Note

One thing I've thought much about recently is future plans.  Tiffany and I have talked about her grad school a lot- where that would be, what it would be, etc.  She wants to go to Houston for school to be near her family.  She also wouldn't start until next fall.  So if she has a two-year program (the first semester of which I'll be in Barcelona for school anyway) then presumably I'll be moving down to Houston when I graduate.  That's when I'm buying my Mini Cooper.  Hopefully at that point we'll only need one apartment.  

After SHE graduates, we've talked about moving to Dubai, if jobs are really as plentiful as they seem, and if I could make enough money in a year or two to save up a bunch, and get an employer to fund flights home for holidays.  Thankfully her (our) friend Shubair shook hands that he'd move there if we did, since he has family in town there and his dad might move there for a job.  So at least we'll have someone to keep us company.  Chris said he'd come if he could :)

So it'd be nice to be able to come home from Dubai with enough cash in the bank to buy a house, or better yet build my own.  I'd also like to buy an electric car by then- unfortunately currently, they're at least 80 grand, if I bought a Tesla or more for a four-door Fisker Karma.  We'll see about those plans.  Where this house would be is the next question.

Its gorgeous though check it out:

http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/index.php/vehicles/features/

Going Home

We slept in, we got woken up by housekeeping (housekeeping, are you checking out today? housekeeping, are you checking out today?  housekeeping, are you checking out today?) and rode the train downtown just to have lunch at a waaaaay expensive German beer hall (shoulda just gone to "Innn-Out Burr-jah" and Jamba Juice), and then stopped to check out a water fountain TIffany recommended.  The weather was great again, I really enjoyed this city.  The only other place I've been besides Chicago and NY with a genuine real worthwhile large walkable downtown and extended city-scape.  Not Houston, LA, Denver, Atlanta (though they have a decent downtown) are that seamless to be able to walk 19 miles and seeing stuff the whole time.

Then we got back on the train, and after a million people took their time getting off so we could get on, the train driver decided to shut the doors and leave halfway through people boarding, so my dad and some girl also going to the airport got left on the platform while Chris and I drove away on the train.  Ridiculous.  They literally snapped shut between us.  Lame sauce.  The airport better have free wireless.  (Yeah as you can see, it didn't- dammit).

Last Day (ish)

So our last day was full.  Of walking.  According to my phone pedometer, 19.1 miles.  Rockin.  A trip record.  Due mostly to my destinations around the city- thankfully Chris was mostly in agreement and my dad assuaged to my plans.  Not only did we see Thom Mayne's Federal Building (more hideous than I had expected) and Daniel Libeskind's Comtemporary Jewish Museum (less interesting than I had hoped, but still cool) we got to see a small Frank Lloyd Wright building, built after The Guggenheim both in time order and in design aesthetic, the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park by Herzog & de Meuron, and across the way the new California Academy of the Sciences by Renzo Piano, which I forget was even here until I saw it.  That was a close one- almost missed it!  

We also walked through Japantown, where were underwhelmed by the pagoda thing but pleasantly surprised by a sweet Catholic Church (St. Mary's) across the street, and walked way way down Haight St. and saw miles of hippies and hookah shops and record stores.  We even saw the SFLBC in Golden Gate Park.  Yeah thats the San Francisco Lawn Bowling Club.  Old people wearing all white playing sort-of Bocce on a putting green surrounded by fence. 

I also found out this morning that we literally walked right by my friend Amy's work, BCV Architects, yesterday in a place called The Cannery, right near Ghirardelli Square in the Wharf area- I remember seeing the office and thinking hmmm, thats nice, I bet this is a cool hip area for lots of architects' offices- I wonder if Amy works around here?  Turns out YEAH.  

We also saw some other churches, and found out that while the streets are on a grid, the addresses are not so much, because while they follow a linear pattern, if you follow a street you might see a 2300 on the cross street at one block and then 2200 at the cross street of another.  Stupid, hard to find addresses that way, and hard to understand the map.  Oh well. 

Lastly, we went to dinner with an old employee of First Response, a good friend of my dad's.  And her husband and son.  We went to an Italian place called A16, had appetizers, pizza, pasta, wine, and wine, and then proceeded to a pub in Oakland to have a Belgian beer.  Tasty, and perfect for us weary travelers.  By a recommendation we're also gonna have lunch and possibly a beverage at a pub before scooting outta town tomorrow.  And hopefully finding wireless and seeing the Ferry Building that Tiffany told me to see.  

Now its time to give Chris a sensual back massage for his messed up shoulders, and go to bed.  Oh Motel 6 I shall miss you.  And sleeping on the edge of the bed while Chris sleeps in the middle with his grandma knee-pillow in my back...

Victory!!!

I'm not so much relishing my being correct as I am amazed and excited by the fact that I was indeed correct and it happened once again.  We ran into someone we knew.  I was just thinking earlier today that the trip was almost over and we hadn't seen someone we knew yet...and then out on Fisherman's Wharf we crossed paths with Mitch Walorski, the dad of one of my old grade school friends (who I've also run into in Chicago when he was with my cousins).  And I thought back on all the minute choices that has us walking right through there, right then, to have the opportunity to run into him.  Unbelievable.

Today was swell, aside from failing to see the one thing I'd wanna see in SF.  We found out the Alcatraz tickets were sold out until Monday.  The night tickets were sold out months ago and we never got day tickets ahead of time.  Punch myself in the crotch.  We got lucky with a room in Yosemite, but not so with Alcatraz.

We had already had an interesting morning- after Chris spending an hour last night and us spending another hour this morning, trying to figure out where to stay in SF, we ended up literally driving into the street and back into the next parking lot to the Motel 6 and spending half as much for a room.  Its clear you get what you pay for- but still not bad all in all.  The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit- train) goes from a mile from our hotel, in Oakland, to downtown SF, in like 20 minutes.  Just as good as walking to a damn hotel downtown SF, without the price.  Our hotel is right by where the A's and Raiders play.  Kinda a junky looking stadium.  We did have a decent free contintental breakfast this morning, highlighted by the magical drink Very Vanilla Silk, which they had in weird tall little juice box type things.  Yeah I took three.  Its the nectar of the gods.  One of them is still on ice here with a leftover piece of pizza, since this ghetto-ass place doesn't have a fridge.   Yeah we left the white-people hotel last night and came to the black-people hotel tonight.  Sorry if I offended anyone but look outside and tell me it isn't true.  Its like night a day, from one parking lot to the next.

What I don't get about this whole place is first, why Oakland is a separate city and not just an extension or suburb of SF (though I guess the same applies to St. Paul, MN) and second, how the hell does Oakland manage to support, and NEED, their own baseball and football team?  I don't really get it.  Oakland is a decent sized city and all, but its literally right across a bridge (albeit a 2+ mile one) from SF.

We got to see The Church of Christ the Light before we left Oakland this morning, once we made our accomodations decision, and that was sweet, since its the most expensive Catholic Church in American history (200million I think?), and isn't finished, and we got some lady to walk us into the building.  Its pretty inspiring inside.  We then got to drive to SF and across Golden Gate Bridge before ditching the car and starting the hiking portion of the trip again, up and down and up and down the hills of San Francisco.  The stories weren't kidding.  We even saw the Crooked Street, which was pretty sweet slash ridiculous slash sweet.  It'd be cool to live there.  Golden Gat was so foggy we couldn't see half of it and couldn't see jack once driving across it, and the fog was visibly drifting rapidly.

Fisherman's Wharf and all that came with it, was like Navy Pier times a thousand, and was lots of people, shopping, food, and repeated identical camera shops and trinket shops.  Seriously, the exact same yellow sign saying "Convert Memory Cards to CD" in three stores, in one block, exact same displays in the window.  How is that possible.  We also saw over 200 sea lions chilling on the docks.

Chinatown was quite...Chinese, and hopefully we can see Japantown tomorrow.  Its farther west along with Haight and Asbury and Golden Gate Park.  We shall see.  We had lunch in some place with some Tsing Tao beer.  Tasty.  The weather is temperate and breezy, high of 63, and we got to wear pants.  The breeze feels great.  Was sunny too.  We walked around and saw a few churches, Little Italy, and ate dinner there, ACROSS from a more expensive place Tiffany recommended called The Stinking Rose: A Garlic Restaurant.  

We also saw Crooked St., climbed up and down a million ridiculously steep streets, and generally marveled at the weather, the hills, and the architecture.

Tomorrow we see all the cool buildings on my list (okay 2-3 of em, cause we already saw TransAmerica) and then have dinner with First Response's former HR person Bev, who loves wine.  Friday our flight is at 4:20 but checkout is at noon so then we have our bags and probably unfortunately just go to the airport and chill.  Nuts.