You know you watch too many spy movies when...

So, i'm at work, running to catch an elevator. I yell, asking the guy in it to hold it, but he doesn't. I'm thinking he's just a jerk, but when I catch the elevator, I see that he's in a suit with a briefcase handcuffed (handcuffed!!!) to his arm. Around the briefcase there is a little tag that says property of the US government: if found do not open call 1-800-i-just-found-the-severed-arm-of-your-agent (or something like that.) So anyways, the elevator door closes, and I start thinking to myself, I should take the guy, steal the suitcase and make some sort of spectacular death-defying escape (in case you are wondering, yes, I do think things like that alot.) In the end I decided it probably wasn't a good idea, and anyways, without proper recon, I would have no idea that he was carrying. For all I know it was just plans for the invasion of Canada, and who'd want to risk thier lives for that?

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خوبی؟ بد نیستام مرسی

-i'd much rather be happy then right.
-well, are you then?
-that's where it all falls apart then, isn't it?

Three hours until my final, my brains are fried. I've had enough of planning-programming-budgeting systems and the statutory requirements of impact bargaining for a good long while.

I just read in the star tribune that the met council is trying to lower the amount of public transit in Minneapolis because of a 60 Million dollar shortfall in the budget because of a decline in "auto sales revenue tax." So, fewer people are buying cars therefore we must have less public transit, says the city the I moved out of based, in part, on the lack of working transit opertunities. I am annoyed. Here's an idea, if fewer people are buying cars, spend less on public works for drivers. I've always had a vague idea that I would like to put a mark on Minneapolis somewhere, nothing large, just a park or train station or something. A place that people would love to be. Like Hackeschermarkt in Berlin or the East Boston Piers Park have been for me. And, it has felt that Minneapolis had been moving in a direction to take the place that a city its size should have; a place that I wouldn't mind returning to in 20 or 30 years, but it is such an uphill battle. Compare Minneapolis to St. Louis. Minneapolis is bigger, has a better cultural scene and (opinion here) a better culture. Yet, St Louisians think of themselves as a weltstadt, and Minneapolisers just don't. Result: St Louis has better transit, more tourists and better civic architecture. That sucks. Minneapolis has to stop thinking of itself as an oversized farm village and start acting like a city if it is ever going to be anything more then Winnipeg-south in peoples minds. grrrr.

In the catagory of things I'm looking forward to: I've got an Urban Development Symposium this weekend that I think is going to rock. The topic is "Reinventing the Urban Village," and it sounds like they are going to be a lot about focused density increases. The Director of Commonwealth Transit-Oriented Development, as well as the planning directors for Boston, Seattle and Chicago will be speaking. I've also been looking for a good internship, so hopefully I'll meet some interesting (or interested) people there.

OK. Back to the Urban Management notes. Four more hours and I can forget everything I ever knew.............

also...hitchhikers guide=disappointing / interpreter=rocks idi amin's ass to russia with a belt...

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What Country Are You?

You're Mozambique!

You're tired of fighting with yourself. For years, you fought battles
with yourself over every little thing you could, but now it's finally time to move on. Just
forgetting about it looks like the best way to move on, though you really like graphic representations
of machine guns for some reason. Rebuilding yourself is going to be a challenge, but with
the inner peace you feel now, it's looking like a possibility. Just take the machine gun off
your flag.
Take
the Country Quiz

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Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

For someone like me, who loves cities, New York is, quite possibly, the greatest place on earth. It is like old faithful, the grand canyon and glacier national park all rolled into one for nature lovers. Growing up in Minneapolis, where the actually "city" ends somewhere around 36th (and that is being generous, especially since about a third of that is parking lot), being able to go uptown to 50th, 75th, 110th, 140th without seeing the urbanity disapate is wonderful. That is why I was really surprised that I really didn't enjoy my first time there all that much.

This time, however, was great. We totally just clicked there. We spent most of our time just walking. I swear if/when I ever move there, I'm just going to map out the whole island and spend my weekends walking up and down until I'd seen everything.

Whenever we go on these trips, Jessica and I can't help mapping out what our lives in a new place would be like. Me: working at an architecture firm designing waterfronts and campuses with a little time left over to lecture at Columbia. She: Dean of International Students at NYU. Together: one daughter, going to a school with cute little uniforms; living in a pre-war two bedroom walkup on the upper west side or in the east village.

We went to game at Yankee Stadium. Yankees lost 3-1 (which is fine with me). New Yorkers love the self-depriciation when it comes to the Yankees. The guy next to us was making fun of them the whole time. It wasn't in the same sort of way we make fun of the Twins. In Minnesota, we're the little guy struggling against the odds. In New York, they know they are paying for wins, and when they lose, you get the feeling that they know that the universe was being just. I think, if we ever did live in NY, I'd have to be a Mets fan. I need that drama and heartbreak that the Yankees just can't give. (Side note on universial justice: Jessica's brother just took a job with an oil company, combine that with her dad working for defense, and we've got an awful lot of zen to balance. sounds like we'll be stuck helping people the rest of our lives. That should piss off Winston Churchill.)

For now it's back to Boston, living in an expensive ghetto, waiting for "adult" life to begin.

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