One class down... unfortunatly, it was the one I liked the most.

Here are some perspectives from my final project. Last semester I did a master plan for a chunk of land overlooking the harbor in Boston for a final group project, so this semester I actually did a design for one of the buildings that we had called for.

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Spring Cleaning

Hey, I figured out enough html to change my header! Now I'm not exactly the same as several million other blogs! yeah!

On top of that, I've done a little other rearranging. All of the people I actually know are under Friends Blogs now (democratically arranged in alphabetical order) and I made a bigger section of planning and design blogs including several internet people I know and read a lot (like Urban Compass from Springfield Mass or BldgBlog from California) and some Magazines I like (like Next American City and Dwell).

I've still got the five books that I've most recently read or am reading (which does not equal a recommendation) and then I added my tags so that the blog is easier to search.

I do this stuff when I'm putting off writing papers.

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Baridi Night African Refugee Art and Photography Exhibit

This is very late notice I know, but one of J's friends used to work at a refugee camp in Zambia. While there, she set up an arts center for the camp. 2 years later, it's still running. Tomorrow (Saturday) there is going to be an exhibit of photographs and artwork taken/made by children from the camp. Some of the stuff will be for sale (at very good prices) to benifit refugees in Africa.

The show is from 1 to 5 at the sacred space at Northeastern University (On the 2nd Floor of Ell Hall, 260 Huntington Ave).

The photos will be for sale for $10. You do have to have a student ID to attend.

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So, here's a question... is it possible to get yourself into Wikipedia?

Anyway. J and I got to go see Glenn Murcutt last night at MIT. He's an Australian architect that won the Pritzker Prize a couple years back. He does pretty amazing stuff with natural ventilation and renewable resourses and sustainable building practices and so on. It was a pretty interesting lecture, although the combo of the Australian accent and trying to get through 6 projects in an hour made it a little difficult to follow. I wish I could throw some photos up, but my flickr doesn't seem to be working.

J and I finally got all of our travel arrangments worked out following her upcoming graduation. We will for sure be in NY from 6-9 May and Philadelphia from 9-12 May (Phillies/Cubs, yeah!) if anyone wants to get together. J leaves for Thailand on the 13th. She'll be in Vietnam and Myanmar for sure too and might throw in a side trip to KL or Singapore. I think I may also be in Mpls for a weekend in June for my brothers graduation.

And speaking of Phillies/Cubs: One of J's professors, Alan Klein, does research on the anthropology of baseball. I just read his book Growing the Game, which is about Baseball and globalization. It was really interesting. I'd highly recomend it for all the baseballers out there. He's also got a book on Baseball in the Dominican Republic and one on a team that plays in both Loredo and Nuevo Loredo that I'm planning on picking up.

Just three more weeks/two papers/one building away from the end of the semester!

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One would think the semester should be winding down, but it seems like I've still got a ton of stuff due. I just spent all morning working on this project for my architecture class:

now I've got to build that out of wood. Not that I don't love doing that, but it's still going to be time consuming.

On top of all that, I'm starting to look seriously at which grad schools I'm going to apply to. Right now, I think it's going to be CCNY, Pratt Institute, Columbia, McGill, U of Toronto, University of British Columbia, MIT and Harvard Design. I'm still considering throwing UCLA in there (I'm not really excited about living in LA, but they've got a great program). I'm really looking for somewhere that is really strong in design. If anyone out there has any other suggestions I should look out for, please comment. J has pretty much decided that she's going to work for a few years instead of applying right away, so I'll really get to concentrate on school for my masters.

Anyway. J is graduating in a little over a month! I think she's only got three more weeks of actual classes. She's had one interview already for work after school, although she's going to be leading a student trip to the "golden triangle" (that's where Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet) for a month and then for two weeks in Ho Chi Minh City to visit her "family" there before she starts working.

So yeah, that's about it for us. We're going to be in NYC for a couple days at the beginning of May and then either in New Mexico or Cascadia for a week after that if anybody wants to get together.

btw. I'm watching the Braves and Phillies right now. It makes me really happy that baseball is back... but at the same time, it's a little sad that I live in a city where it's too expensive to actually go the the games. What happened to baseball for the people man?

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