Niff's Notes

2007-01-25T19:27:00.000-08:00

Hello again,
Turns out my computer was fine all along, no battery recall like I thought. I’m relieved! So I'm back. And I've got to say that I love my old Dell. I used to hate, hate how big and ugly it is. But you know, it's dam sturdy and pleasant to use even.
This new year finds me still in San Francisco, still at my work but with a new job title that I worry I haven't been living up to. But I think things will all fall into place now.
I'm still in the same house. This time around we have been having wonderful potlucks every Wednesday. Last night brought my new friends from the weekend. And we drank a giant bottle of champagne that was purported to taste faintly of pencil shavings.

I’ve got a lot of San Francisco in my future but we’re making the best of it, trying to visit New York when we can and enjoy this city for what it has. We were in New York a few weeks ago for Joyce Leslie’s birthday. We swam in a lovely pool right in the middle of a bar!

We’ve got to find something like that here.

2006-08-24T20:18:00.000-07:00

Back in SF, enjoying my sweet secretary job only three blocks from my house. I went to the movies last night and am in general living the life. There's nothing like two months on the road to make you totally love being at home. I love America. It's so gosh darn cheap!
I've been back a week and I'm still sorting out everything. And I love to sort. Except for the part where I screamed at some condescending jerk at UCLA on the phone. I'm still dealing with that shit hole. Ai ai ay.
We spent the night on Mt. Tam the other day. It smelled great. The view through the trees and clouds of the ocean was magnificent. I realized that I live near one of the most beautiful places on earth. And I might just be loving hills. The part of Europe where we spent the most time was also the most flat.

2006-07-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

Now we're in Ghent, recovering from Ghentfest, an annual ten day party where Ghent citizens of all ages stay up all night drinking and dancing to U2 cover bands and Cuban music. Fortunately it rained last night, otherwise the town would smell more heavily of urine.

We've been really punking it up here in Belgium, staying in squats, exploring abandoned buildings, and table diving. Last night at 1 am I even bathed in a shower I discovered above a bakery. Refreshing. Meanwhile Damian enjoyed a €3 Chimay at the sidewalk cafe downstairs.

The squat we're sleeping at used to be the service yard for Ghent's street sweepers. It's the biggest squat I have ever seen with 25 residents but no shower for us guests.

Belgium has been wonderful. The biking infrastructure isn't as blatant as in the Netherlands but it's still about one million years ahead of America. We've been hitting points all over Flanders visiting the breweries. The other night we were in some tiny village swimming in a canal with local teenagers and they were like, "Why they hell would you come here?" Everyone is happy when we tell them for biking and the beer.

Damian never found his camera so we'll just have to tell you all about what we saw in Germany and the Netherlands. If we skip the Delirium Tremens brewery, our next stop is Bruges where will take our fourth canal boat tour of the trip. I just can't get enough of these things!

2006-07-12T05:59:00.000-07:00

I am in a tiny little library in a tiny little town in Belgium. Damian just realized that he didn't have his camera. He is currently biking up to the actual highest point in Holland (which is actually pretty high) to see if he can find it. Yikes! It has almost all out pictures so I certainly hope he does.

This highest point in Holland also happens to be by the Dreilande Punkt, or the place where Holland, Germany, and Belgium meet. It's like a mini amusement park there. The only other people our age there were the wives of American solidiers, chaperoning a field trip of American army brats. We met these other Americans while trying to get through a hedge labrynth. So much fun. I really hope we get the pictures from that.

Last night we slept in the Aachenwald (Aachen Woods) near some dog poo that smelled of sausage.

Yesterday we finally got out of Holland to go to Aachen where we toured the Cathedral built for Charlemagne. Ser gut. But otherwise we weren't so won-over by Germany and we turned back west to Begium.

2006-07-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

The trip has been super fun. Lots of canals, bikes, windmills, and farm animals.

A few nights ago we were setting up camp in a park surrounded by farms when some cows started to approach us. Damian was scared an started to hop up onto a log. I pretended I was a cowboy and told them "NO! You go that way!" I pointed to the left and sure enough they went left. It was as though they understood exactly what I was saying. We must have been on the tallest peak in Holland. On the horizon we could see the Haag, hear the freeway, and smell the cows.

Biking here is super easy. There are seperated bike paths and lots of signage. The ride Monday from Schipol Airport to Amsterdam was particularly impressive. The moment we exited the terminal there we signs pointing us to a bike path all the way to the city. We didn't have to look at a map once!

We spent the fourth at the Anne Frank house and paddle boating around the canals of Amsterdam. Then we had dinner at a squat. In Amsterdam we stayed with a friend of a friend. It was a former squat in a cute neighborhood. Or so I thought until some little kid pegged me with a pebble with a home made slingshot. It really hurt and left a bruise. I was pissed so I yelled at the kid as though he understood English. Damian through his slingshot into a canal. Later we fantasized throwing the kid himself into that canal. Still, I think we did the right thing.

Friday we had breakfast in Haarlem and Damian talked to an old Turkish man who was a ``kirkemaaker,`` a churchmaker. Then we biked to a trashy beach town on the North Sea and ate lunch in the dunes. I insisted that we go to the Tulip Park which I imagined would be a botanical garden with only tulips. It wasn´t. but it was closed anyway. We missed tulip season by months.

After biking 76 miles yesterday and still being nowhere near Germany, we decided to cheat and take the train. Tomorrow we will be in Achen.

2006-04-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

She dead.

2006-04-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

We damned the rain Tuesday night and rode to Sausalito in the middle of a storm. There's not such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. And when it rains every fucking day you just can't stop living.
We visited our friend and roommate who was docked on a fake pirate ship. The crew of the ship reminded me a bit of engineering students.
Today, the day before I depart for Hawaii, the weather is amazing. My boss lady and I took a nap in the sun. It pays (occasionally) to work in a park.

2006-02-21T19:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday Justin rescued an abandoned chicken. Now she's living in the backyard and living off our compost pile. She's big and pretty and looks like an old-timey illustration of a chicken. The first night we had her we kept her in the bathroom room. She couldn't stop staring at herself in the mirror. Then Justin turned the light off and she went to sleep. Chickens fall close there eyes the moment it is dark and only wake once it is light again. My roommates built a coop so the raccoons can't eat her at night.

2006-02-14T15:52:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Eve festivities put me into a food coma early in the evening. I woke up this before dawn this morning. Malcolm and I road bikes up one of this cities many spectacular hills, sat on a rock, ate muffins still warm from the oven, and watched the sun rise. And then I missed a board meeting I said I would be at. I felt bad.

Otherwise things are great. Damian built us a bed out of the scaffolding that was abandoned in our back yard. Being above the ground I feel human.

2006-01-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

Successful potlucks and lovely birthdays are making me fall in love with this city again. San Francisco has decided to play nice and it's hard to plan on leaving.
This weekend four roommates and I drove down to Los Angeles. They got to meet Grandma Lois and stay in her infamous crooked house. We rode the glass elevators at the Bonaventure and ate Canter's matzo ball soup for dinner.

2005-12-24T22:50:00.000-08:00

My mom and I just got back from her friend's Christmas Eve open house in downtown Sacramento. These downtown friends are the kind of people that make me defend Sacramento when people in the Bay Area dis it. Downtown is a lovely place full of people who trying to save this goddamn world.
Today we were going to spend the day making flans and delivering them. Instead we spent too much time eating breakfast and book shopping, drove to the La Superia, and bought the flans, like real Cuban-Americans. Conveniently, the La Superia was across the street from my favorite store, 99 Cents Only. I got a ton of our favorite tea. Mum waited in the car. 99 Cents Only reminds her of her painfully poor days. Her loss.

2005-12-18T22:58:00.000-08:00

I just broke a sweat dancing with my roommates to Madonna's "Holiday". Yeh for Christmas time. This year is looking to be great. Today I convinced my mom into to not going to her farmer boyfriend's house this Christmas. Instead we're going to keep it simple going out for fancy Chinese food and watching movies. sigh.
Tomorrow I take my final at Berkeley. I feel ill prepared. It's actually making me anxious. I lied awake in bed listening to the rain. I even am now ditching my work's holiday party to study. Which is why I'm not dancing anymore. And why I must be going.

2005-12-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today at work our bike-mechanic/food buyer/former soldier DJed. And it was really good. It made the store feel somehow cool.
I've been working more now that I'm broke and totally resigned to finding real work until after I take the February LSAT. But the other day I was talking to some undergrads they told me that I should go into city-planning so I could be an advocate and still use what I learned in architecture. They were like, Duh! And maybe they're right. Of course... maybe.
I've started reading A Fine Balance for millionth time. It makes me be in something like awe of people who have been to India. I bike pass the Indian Consulate everyday on my way to work. The people outside are either kids in dreads or Indian.
A couple nights ago Damian, Thera, and I went to a puppet show at the Goethe Institute. Since our German as at child's level, we had a ton of fun. Those little Germans really lost their shit when the Oma puppet beckoned them, "Kinder, wo ist der Wolf?"
"Im Fenster!" Sehr gut.

2005-11-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

This week I've been suffering from a annoying bout of self-doubt and distraction, climaxing in this afternoon. I was at school all packed and ready to go to the British Virgin Islands on a sailing trip with my family. I was to take the train straight from school to my family's house. Then I decided to double check and see if I brought my passport, which I typically carry with me as ID. I couldn't find it until so I went all the way back to San Francisco only to find that it was in my bag the whole time, right where it was supposed to be!
I attribute this troublesome state of mind to my recent decision to not return to architecture school and to pursue law instead. Change, even positive change, can feel like a real failure sometimes.

2005-11-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a really fun party and so did the fratty upstairs neighbors. Our party was loosely themed The Seven Seas whereas they did redneck. Once their booze ran out the faux rednecks made their way to the Seven Seas. One tall dude was dressed as woman in a long blonde wig and a one piece Budweiser bathing suit. Remember the ones from the commercials where the entire can is printed on it as though the woman herself was a can of beer? Anyway, dude was dancing which was funny enough but then his lady friend in a wife beater went down on him! In the one piece! In our living room!
It was some might funny shit and then dude gave me and Damian a lap dance. He was so good! He had these sweet little moves like letting the strap fall down his arm while is ass was in our face. We laughed our booties off and when it was done he shrugged to his friends, "I didn't make any money on that one, but it was good practice."

2005-10-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

In class yesterday we were learning about some rather sexy Hindu temples in northern India. "Why not celebrate life," the lecturer asked. "Copulation is one of the most wonderful things a person can do!" We all giggled. When I came home I told my roommates, one of whom was lived in India not long ago and she mimiced the ritual one does when one visits the lingum (i.e. phallus). It looked like a Catholic ritual on fast forward.
I love my house. It's really starting to fill up nicely with food, friends, plants rescued from an abandoned office building, and furniture off the street.

2005-10-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

We didn't make it into the De Young grand opening. even though my track-bike-riding TA gave me his VIP bracelet. The only person I know who made it in cut in line. We tried that too and this lady freaked out. But dammit we had VIP bracelets. We probably could've made it if we hadn't each had two of Jeremey's brownies. One really would have been enough. I couldn't stop blinking. It was scary.

I other news, invasive species no match after all.

2005-09-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Back at school this time only taking a couple undergraduate courses, one at Berkeley, one at City College. I can't stay awake for my my mid-day Berkeley lectures. I tried drinking coffee but it only made me sick to my stomach. figures. What's weird is that I'm getting a lot more sleep than I used to.
Meanwhile, I've moved in with my friend's radical mom in her house in Bernal Heights. She's one of those only-in-SF types. It's wonderful. Tonight is my first night there but I'm so relieved to not be the univited guest anymore. Pay your way, that's what I've learned this summer.

2005-08-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

At work this weekend we sold our only doggie life vest. It went to a poodle mut whose new owners live on boats. I thought it was adorable. I was mostly alone in my assessment.
Dogs are great. Paul and I saw "Grizzly Man" Friday. It was documentary made of footage a guy took of himself spending summers in Alaska with grizzly bears only to be eventually eaten by one. The guy was an idiot. The bears were never particularly nice to him before they decided to eat him (and his girlfriend). Foxes on the other hand were happy to play and nap with the man. The foxes were so sweet and cuddly but did this guy decide to devote his life to them? No instead he said, "Spirit the Fox here has joined me in saving my friends the bears in the Grizzly Maze. I love you Spirit the Fox."

2005-08-23T11:29:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling a bit like the common enemy bringing his roommates together. You know it's not my style. But I guess it's my turn. My mom said, "This is good for you to have to take care of yourself. I mean I did it... Actually maybe this isn't good for you. I can't say."

Today is warm enough to wear a skirt and I'm getting the first good look at my legs in weeks. Apparently that sunburn I got kayaking way back has decided to peel. Warm weather here in this San Francisco summer is such a novelty. I still can't get over how cold it is here. I bet it's warm in LA.

2005-08-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

Good hair days now make me nervous I'm pregnant again.

We're house sitting for a lesbian family in the Outer Mission. They have two dogs, two cats, two parrots, and two fish called Spic and Span. As they were introduced, "You have to say both their names together; otherwise it sounds funny." The birds got somewhat indignant about going back in their cage last night. After some pleading, I put on the oven mits and showed them what's what. Once we scared them off their perches they lost all their tude and hopped right on my begloved hand. I felt like a falconer.

2005-08-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to starting work on my new portfolio so I can get a job at a place other than Sports Basement. I did the work in a coffee shop. People I know in San Francisco all seem to hang out at the same places and do the same thing. I've never been in such a central scene, except for very early in college before everyone moved to various neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Yes, San Francisco is like being a freshman.

2005-08-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

I've decided to not return to UCLA in the fall. I don't know when I'm returning.
I guess I'm realizing that I don't need to struggle so much to have what I want. This sort of thing is what summer break is for, right?
In the meantime, San Francisco has been very, very good to me. Again.
I dread moving my stuff out of Los Angeles. It may be time to seperate from my wonderful, wonderful bedroom furniture. The junkie subletting my room probably destroyed it anyway. Just as long as she didn't do more than $700 worth of damage, I'm still profitting from her sublet. There were surprisingly few callers on my lovely room in Brentwood.
As far as I know, she's been locked out of the apartment anyway. I'll miss LA but it will be nice to get centered again. I feel like I'm approaching a better balance already.
Yesterday Damian and I went kayaking around Sausalito and I was either quoting that horrible/wonderful hotel band from "Lost in Translation" which was also called Sausilito, or singing Go Sailors "Good Day for Sailing."
And now my legs are sun burnt. So much for my summer tan.

2005-07-25T20:42:00.000-07:00

Back in San Francisco. Maya and I are writing cover letters, coaching each other in getting our shit together.
After a painful three day road trip with my mom to LA and back, I'm more motivated than ever. The trip was a rough one because a) at 25, I am just now learning to drive, b) my mom had a few lectures she seemed to be saving for the occasion, and c) once I made it to my apartment in LA to pick up my bike I discovered that roommate had subletted my room to a junkie. Nothing nicer than seeing candle wax, ash, and nail polish solvent all over your nice mid-century modern furniture and linens. Errrr. The positive side in this fiasco is that my roommate is in the process of kicking the junkie out. And the junkie was so far gone that she didn't even wake up as I cleared my room of all my personal documents... except for 15 years worth of journals, not particularly incriminating stuff.
So back to the cover letters.

2005-06-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

The abortion clinic (which p.s. was in the basement of my mom's work) played Iron and Wine as I woke up from the general anesthesia. Wasn't that nice of them?

2005-06-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

If I don't come back to LA next fall, I will miss the way it smells. Especially on cool misty nights like tonight when the air is full of flowers and eucalyptus.
Tomorrow is my final review and the insanity will be over. I haven't even started my model. I'm not really worried yet...

2005-06-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

I miss Dan. And I miss New York. I only have like 2 weeks left in LA. So much to do.

Beth actually said that I have to stay in grad school because it's in LA. I used to hear just the opposite.

The future is a big question mark which is stressful and exciting.

This afternoon's meeting with the director of first year might be defining. Probably not. Things happen slower than I expect.

2005-06-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

We got out of bed too late to catch the last morning bus going south Rancho Palos Verdes Drive. The obvious plan B was to hitchhike. Maintenance workers repairing above ground pipes in the landslide area, kept the traffic slow. We got to make eye contact with the drivers as they passed us by. Multiple old men in Jaguar two-seaters put their hands up like "What can I do."

Before I had a chance to finish our sign, we were picked up by a man called James. We asked for a ride to the bus stop in San Pedro. He took us all the way to the Long Beach Airport. "You would have spent the whole day on the bus. God sent you an evil angel today, flying around in circles with one wing." The man was awesome. He told us about his "minor felony conviction", crime in San Pedro, his work in Hollywood with Tarentino's brother-in-law, his $500 haircut, acid trips in Davis, California, and his autistic nine-year-old daughter. He was a total So Cal bra, straight out of the Big Lobowski. He used words like hooptie.

"You'll see, when you get to be 37 you won't care about mischief anymore. You'll want to just go home and watch TV. Even though LA sucks, it's the best city in the world because you can watch four hours of 'Seinfeld' a day."

Lest you think I flew out of LBA, I'm back in studio hard at work.

2005-05-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

Don't worry. The next day I have completely recovered from the two hour bellini hangover that followed the parade of famous buildings. When Ceci decided to go to architecture school she promised her boyfriend that she would never go to a party where people dressed as buildings. And she wasn't there last night. I miss my friends from outside of UCLA.
okay, back to diagraming slope.

2005-05-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

The "marine layer" was in full effect today. At dusk up on the cliff the fog gave all the buildings a hallow. And outside felt more inside than usual. And the live jazz coming from the roof patio of a dorm sounded canned.

The old building where I was meant to do yoga smelled like my old CCD classroom. The yoga teacher never showed so I did my own thing by the an unused pool in an empty field that ended in a little amphitheater. It was really nice and strange to have so much space to myself.

2005-05-04T00:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to take the bus because I didn’t want to be sweaty while I tried on clothes. Hollywood isn’t super far from my school but it was a warm day. But then the jerk off bus driver didn’t let me on his bus. It’s not that he didn’t stop; he just shot off before I had a chance to put my bike on the front rack. But I’m pretty fast on a bike so I chased him down. I kept loosing him going up the hills. Every time I was ready to give up and wait for the next bus I would crest a hill and see his smug ass at the bottom of the hill. My early morning rage combined with the indignity of being passed by a bus and gave me the energy to take a whole lane on Sunset Boulevard and speed through Bel Air and then Beverly Hills.
We’d just made it into West Hollywood when I got him stuck at a red light letting passengers in. I turned in front of him and put my bike on his rack. He was honking and waving no. But I was fucking sick of not getting my way. Plus I mean, he’s a bus driver. He’s supposed to let people on at bus stops. I came around to the door and he kept honking like a maniac. So I joined him like a good displaced New Yorker, screaming, “Open the door and let me in!” I couldn’t really hear what he was saying but I didn’t care. He wasn’t going anywhere with out me.
People on the bus got out of their seats to see what the commotion was. One sympathetic guy got off the bus and said that he would be my witness. I was screaming, “What the phone number of your boss?” I’d already recorded the number on his shirt, which was 16973 on the 2 bus numbered 5054 in the MTA system here in Los Angeles. My ally told me to call 1 800 COMMUTE. I started to call it but then Asshole began to drive away with my bike. Ally told me to let him drive away with my bike to get him in real trouble. But that seemed pretty retarded to me.
I bolted in front of the bus and my phone flew out of my hands and the battery fell out and it wasn’t happening. Some queen told me to give up. Fine. I stood in front of the bus as the light turned green for the third time since I first put my bike on the front bike rack. I slowly put on my helmet, adjusting it so I was comfortable. I gingerly released my bike from the rack. I didn’t put the rack up like you are supposed to. He could do it if he cared so much. And I sat my ass right in front of him and waited for the light to turn green.
I rode as slow as I wanted blocking him from accelerating to the double digits. Soon enough the traffic was so bad that I could comfortably ride as slow as the automobiles. I saw a #2 bus stop with lots of people figuring he would have to let me on with them. Some of them were handicapped so they were bound to take awhile. And I stood in the gutter to block him from passing us. One of the handicappers warned me to get back on the sidewalk. She was right. “I bet this guy doesn’t stop for us.”
I was right. Dick. I felt bad for my disabled friends but I couldn’t hang back while this jerk sped ahead of me. By the time I was back on my bike he was pretty far ahead. But I had adrenaline on my side. And I rode so fast that I almost threw up the birthday cake I ate for lunch. It felt like the time I was being chased down by a pig last spring in New York. And he was on foot and I was biking against traffic and all his pig buddies were laughing at him but I was still scared that I wouldn’t make it.
At the next red I got in front of Jerk Face and I stayed in front until I got to my street in Hollywood. In fact I was very far ahead of him. Traffic was just too slow.
I was sweaty when I met T at the thrift store which made me full of rage. That and I had just battled with a bus driver.
The positive side of all this is that I feel increased confidence in my biking ability. Those Sunset Boulevard hills weren’t so hard. Also I’m not scared about there not being a bike lane or a shoulder in the curvy part in Bel Air because I can just take a lane for myself New York style. And I feel pretty good about beating the bus which I guess is no great feet for those used to cars.

2005-04-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

"I don't want to give you money because I don't even have enough money for vacation."
"But Mum didn't you just spend a week scuba diving in Honduras?"
"That was then. This is now."
"Whatever. I'm clearly too old to be arguing that you keep giving me money."

In other news, I just got Noise Addict's Young and Jaded from ebay. My original copy was my favorite EP of high school. It didn't survive my undergrad roommates. I have a crush on 14-year-old Ben Lee covering the Modern Lovers.

2005-04-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

First real review of the quarter and I didn't arrange to be videotaped as a teacher suggested. I decided to pretend I was being videotaped. Obviously I didn't sleep much the night before. I was rocking sweat pants and the silk sweater my mom bought me at Christmas. Always a good look.
Still, I thought things would be okay. Then the visiting professor asked, "So did you just decide to completely ignore the assignment?" which was to use a contemporary "perfomative" landscape practice as something like a model for our design for an old train yard on the LA River. Performative is a word that architecture people use when they don't want to say functional. Central Park was my studio instructors idea, not mine. Plus I think the park is plenty performative.
"No. It was Victor's idea. He said, 'I want someone to graft Central Park onto the site.'" Everyone laughed because it was true and of course absurd. All review long Victor had been comparing people's projects to beef stew (though the LA-native used the French word for beef stew). I don't mind. If you're going to be pretentious, you may as well be silly about it.

I might be in trouble with this project...
Or it might be both funny and fun.

2005-04-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

The panty liner in front of the parking garage has been there for at least a week. You can't miss it.
And this morning, I was too sleepy to bike to school, so I was waiting outside my building for a ride from t-dawg, and I almost sat on a used tampon. What's with the new theme?
From the passenger seat I realized that just three blocks east of my home is a Winnebago encampment on San Vincente. I figure they're veterans who need to be close to the VA, also located on San Vicente.
Brentwood is being to feel less sterile.

2005-04-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Four days after my first gymnastics class and I'm still freaking sore. gosh.

In school I'm grafting Central Park circulation onto the land around the LA River. why not?

2005-04-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

To answer Lockheed's question, I am in San Francisco on spring break.
Yesterday I left my leftover work from last quarter to ride bikes with Damian to the Presidio.We got drunk on Franzia, the new (or perhaps the original) 2 buck chuck. Multicolored barges and naked hippies glided in the foreground of the sunset. The clouds were fluffy and bright and Damian said, "I can understand why people thought heaven existed."
We were the last ones to leave the beach.

2005-03-31T16:08:00.000-08:00

Now I'm working on Damian's porch. So nice.

Yesterday I journied back to the homeland and bought the 1963 edition Joy of Cooking from Beer's Books for 50 cents. Evan and I started watching "Mame" which features Bea Arthur as a drag queen. I love 1970's does the 1920's. Even more than 1980's 1950's.

Industrial Plastics on Canal Street is closing. So sad.

This weekend I decided that I like Golden Gate Park more than Central Park. What can I say, it has a windmill, bison, and it's on the beach. Magic.

2005-03-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

This Easter Monday finds me at my friend Jenny Rose's office at the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford.
I fucked up and didn't finish my model or drawings this quarter at UCLA. So instead of having fun in the sun with my sweetheart in SF, I'm at my friend's school still working on my project. But the change in scenery is nice.
She just brought me some Chinese food she stole from a room where a German robotist is speaking. Being a grad student really is fun. It looks like my school is going to let me stick around awhile longer so I'm half relieved, halfed anxious to finish up this GD model. It's beginning to be kind of pretty even it got a little busted on the trip up from LA.

It's funny to be in Jenny's office because it's like the more grown up version of what I used to do in undergrad when at the end of the term, I would have a ton of drawing to do, and I'd take the train uptown to her dorm, where we would do our final projects together. Nothing is more focussing that being with a friend super focussed on her own work. It's great.

Back to work for me.

2005-03-16T08:13:00.000-08:00

I never get around to this thing blog unless I'm in charette.
The funniest thing that happened yesterday was Damian telling me about how in his writing course a retarded student wrote a story called "The Difference between Rich and Poor" about a poor guy racing a Fiat he turned into a hotrod against a rich girl in a Ferarri.

My classmate is watching Zoolander while he drafts. Over the my itunes I hear his Homer Simpson giggles. I love my fellow students because they helped my dry off my laptop when I spilled soy milk all over it at 5 am this morning. And then we ate breakfast sandwiches as soon as the coffee shop opened at 7:30. The LA sunshine was blinding and warm.

2005-02-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

Today I got a check which feels so much better than what I got last time, a check minus minus. So I feel a lot better.
Mind you, I'm in grad school and I'm lusting after the elusive check plus the skinny girl always seems to get.

2005-02-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

He said they might fire me from school.

2005-02-17T20:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a million years because I've been actually doing work.
Yesterday I met with my instructor and he drew some drawings of somethings I might try. And I swear one of them looked just like a vagina. He was like, "See this center part is actually two lines seperating the two masses." And the center lines lines were ever so thin and slightly shakey. Of the hook.

2005-01-31T10:01:00.000-08:00

After the party Friday night, I should have guessed that my friends wouldn't have made it to Silvia's book signing in Los Feliz. But what I didn't foresee was that I would be the only student among all my teacher from school. Ha! Just me and the faculty and their uber-hip babies. I guess when your boss speaks you have to go.
Stephanie's excuse for missing Silvia was that she slept in. As I recall it was already dark outside when by the time I got to the bookstore.
After the Q and A I had to wait a half hour for my friends to meet me for dinner. I hid in the zine section. I felt like an intruder in the teachers' lounge. Some friends I have.
On a more positive note, the 12-mile bike ride home to Brentwood was entirely down hill and just a tiny bit chilly, the way LA gets at night. The wide, well-lit, curving, and empty streets of Beverly Hills reminded me of American River Drive back home in Sacramento. LA is a bikeable city after all.

2005-01-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

One fun thing about being an architecture student is buying supplies at places like the model train emporium in Culver City. My lucky friend Mikey saw Gary Coleman there last week. Apparently the former gubernatorial candidate is really into model trains and he's friends with the guys at the store. When Mikey was there, the train shop employees and Coleman were making plans for dinner and Coleman said, "You know what I want for dinner?"
"What's that Gary?!"
"I'll tell you what I'll have. A blonde with big titties!"

2005-01-20T23:03:00.000-08:00

Today the architecture students were an hour late to the anti-Bush/war march in Wilshire because they we were still working on our sign. But when we got there we were proud to have the coolest looking sign there. But then I felt kind of funny later because it really made no sense. "Stop porquin' us!" above a puffer fish with a black-eye. Hmmm. On second thought I think the best sign read, "I blame Bush." Couldn't say it better myself I suppose.
Then I say my partner from Sustainable Design class in blackbloc. And to think I thought he was just your run of the mill urban planning grad student... maybe he is. What do I know?

2005-01-19T09:56:00.000-08:00

Last night, on my bike, I was caught in a swarm of motorcyclists. It was the middle of the night on Wilshire Boulevard right before the entrance to the 405.
Some of the cyclists had girls on the back wearing tight, primary colored, leather jackets. Amongst that motors I felt like I was in a Kung Fu movie.

2005-01-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

New Year's was pretty good. At midnight chunk riders lit their bikes on fire. Some dragged chicken wire baskets full of firecrackers. Other bikes shot bottle rockets. Fireballs got loose and rolled down the street like tumbleweeds. People were laughing and laughing even as they were hit by wayward sparks. I luckily wore a somewhat fire resistant dress.
People we recognized from New York knew all the words to Auld Lang Syne.

2004-12-22T11:08:00.000-08:00

Last night Ellen and I went to coffee but couldn't get a seat because a bunch of whimsical, ugly, Ren-fair types had already taken over Weatherstone with their Winter Solstice. Their costumes were a mixture of Hot Topic and A Midsummer's Night Dream. Once they went outside to drum and we weren't so cranky about not having a place to sit, we laughed and laughed. Ah Sacramento at Christmas.
And then we drove to Tahoe Park to see the lights and plywood cutouts. Ellen would say, "Look how pretty." And I thought, "Wait really?"
Tomorrow I am getting together with friends from elementary school. Apparently I am like the only person from our class who isn't gay. Or maybe it's just that Herman only keeps in touch with people who go to Sacramento gay bars and I only keep in touch with Herman. And Al. I wonder how Al is doing.

2004-12-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

Last night they lit Hannakah candles here in studio.

2004-12-08T13:37:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday my aunt took us to her neighbors Joe and Pepper's house because they had Michael Moore over to talk to members of the Pacific Palisades Democrat Club. I love that in tradition of rich wives having dog names, the hostess' name was Pepper. One of NYU's bigger donors is called Dodo Bobst.
It was an enormous house but still it was super packed. Moore talked about how famous people (who happen to be women) in the media(Katie Couric) and politics (Hilary) don't do the things they believe in because they're scared of losing their jobs. He said that when Katie Couric asked tough questions to some republican, Dick Cheney called NBC and told them that he didn't like Kate Couric's tone. And then NBC told her to keep it down with the journalism.
The reservist on the news this morning didn't see to worry about loosing his job in Iraq when he asked Rumsfeld why his equipment is so busted.

2004-12-02T10:08:00.000-08:00

Another installment in the Canada is Full of Freaks series.

2004-11-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

SOUTHLAND SHIVERS: Martha Orelas bundles up today in L.A. where the high was 65 degrees. (Al Seib / LAT)

2004-11-30T10:32:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I had about the worst desk crit yet so I really need to get my booty into motion. but first I had to check the bulletin board on friendster. Look how cool my friends are in New York with their posters and what not. If I didn't already have nice wallpaper wallpaper on my computer, I would definitely use their posters.
In other great news Joyce is back in America. He thinks LA is really cold. It has been cold at night, in the 40's but it's super nice here during the day. But I guess it's warmer in South East Asia.

2004-11-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA! I think she has extensions. WHOOOOOOAAAA!!!! WHOA!!!"
- Aunt Leni last night at the end of Celine Dion's Thanksgiving show here in Las Vegas
My mom cried as Celine sang "What a Wonderful World" only to realize later that it was Louis Armstrong that originally sang it, not Ray Charles.
I laughed my booty off at Celine's mimes, wire tricks, and apocalyptical projections. Seriously, the Celine Dion show was worth whatever my family paid for it.

2004-11-23T02:41:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I woke up looking like the elephant man. For real, my eyelids were so swollen I could only see out of the edges of my eyes. And my forehead bulged out like a tumor. And my upper right lip swelled one way while my lower left lip hung the other. I amazingly disfigured. I didn't get so many weird looks at the pharmacy but then I decided to stop at the farmers market on the way home and people were freaked out. The vendors wouldn't look me in the eye, rather they didn't look me in the eyelid since no one couldn't really see my eyes. Hours later after most of the swelling went down I felt so pretty. It was crazy how quickly I got so ugly and then went back to normal.
I could have been something I ate or stress. I don't know. But it kept me from doing my work this weekend which was a real drag.
The Benedryl and other drugs did help me catch up on my sleep.

2004-11-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

I used to say that I wasn't impressed by whoa-crazy architecture and design, that I liked clunkier older stuff. But then I did the Columbia summer program and got a glimpse of how fun theory and that sort of thing can be. And now I am supposed to design a store for whoa-crazy chairs and it's kind of exciting.

2004-11-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

You say you can't comment. This is a test.
I am not at my review right now because I was a little tired, bored, hungry, disappointed, and in need to confirm plans to see Le Tigre tonight. Which will be a nice end to a grueling 30 hours of school.

2004-11-17T02:36:00.000-08:00

We're staying up all night finishing our drawings and models at the last minute. Some one who was playing Missy is now blasting Le Mis which I can hear through my new headphones.
I think it's really sweet to see my classmates work in pairs and trios. We're like Santa's workshop.
Food tonight has been tomato pizza and Hit cookies.
Le Tigre played live on the the radio/internet today which was actually inspiring/nostalgic for me. Kathleen Hanna was wearing a bluestockings t-shirt.

2004-11-14T22:43:00.000-08:00

Back in California.
I'm in architecture school which presently means that I make diagrams of a facist building aptly called la casa del fascio.
When I am not making diagrams I am either feeling bad about not making diagrams or laughing my ass at the 2001 Creationist Science Fair up in Canada.

2003-12-29T09:28:00.000-08:00

back in brooklyn