February 16, 2009

This date might lose significance as we proceed. But right now, it’s the baseline. This is the earliest admission at a world-class continental architecture school that I’ve found.

ETH in Zurich, Switzerland has a Spring enrollment which begins accepting applications tomorrow.

The down side is it’s in Zurich, which is sleepy even by Swiss standards. But the program is pretty rockin.’
There’s fun to be had in Cincinnati, and likewise I’m sure there’s fun to be had in Zurich.

The significance of this is the fact that that’s probably the earliest I could get over there on a student visa, without having to resort to any other complexities.

Of course, mid-March brings the possibility of going on a tourist visa, and even though I might have to leave and reenter the country to start a student visa, still getting over sooner rather than later.

Give a shout with other opportunities that you may know of to go to graduate school on the European continent, or England.

Time to Go…

I am a gun advocate in concept. Very much so.
In application, guns have absolutely ZERO place in civil society – especially in cities.

“Unfortunately and disappointingly, the Supreme Court opted not to uphold the three-decade-old handgun ban in the District of Columbia,” Mayor Adrian Fenty said.
“More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence,” he said. “It is important to both respect the court’s authority and then to act quickly.”

This will be the crime wave of the seventies and eighties all over again, mark my words. These laws are getting dropped into a depressed
economy where people will do extreme things to get by, and they are pushed closer to the edge already.

These laws are being dropped into a country with thousands of vets with nothing to lose, and possibly – undiagnosed mental problems. I am not judging these people, I am stating fact.

It is not just gun ownership that is the problem. In an abstract sense, whenever there is a change in state, the effects tend to take time to find equilibrium. There will be waves of greatly increased gun violence washing over our cities for the next decade until some law tempers it, or the inevitable “gun fever” just simply calms down.

The most important lesson here is that we need a president who will bust-up this hopelessly out-of-touch reactionary court.

Weight Loss

I have been riding a bicycle for a couple months now.
Even with impediments to serious riding – thus < 100 miles in the last month – it has definitely increased my overall metabolism. And I quit drinking alcohol 3 weeks ago.

These two factors have combined for good and bad effects.

The good side: Those hip muscles (you know, the D’Angelo ones) are becoming visible again.
The bad side: With the recent haircut and a thinner face, I look sorta like Trevor Goodchild.

The lord giveth, the lord taketh away, right?

The Tragic Story of Honzo

A project with the usual brilliance of monochrom.
These guys are the most awesome media commentators out there.
I saw Johannes give a talk and sing along about corporate anthems a few months ago.
The guy is a machine.

Check out the whole site, especially the Kiki and Bubu videos.

Six Months

It has now been over six months since I have had a cigarette.
That’s all.

Hell yeah.

George Carlin

Goodbye, George. You did us a world of good. Our view of our leaders and our language will never be the same.
You opened our eyes to things we would not have otherwise seen. You turned stand up comedy from fart jokes to serious social commentary.

Your genius was that you never forgot the fart jokes, too.

Hoooooooley Shit.

Fifteen points.

Very early in the game. Still time to increase that lead.

“The latest numbers on voter dissatisfaction suggest that Obama may enjoy more than one bounce. The new poll finds that only 14 percent of Americans say they are satisfied with the direction of the country. That matches the previous low point on this measure recorded in June 1992, when a brief recession contributed to Bill Clinton’s victory over Bush’s father, incumbent George H.W. Bush.”

This could turn from McSame to McMondale.

Turn Bush’s Desperation Into Our Future

The rebate checks from the government were a cheap ploy by the White House (and government in general) to make the second quarter of this year appear to have positive growth.

The falsely inflated second quarter was supposed to be a relent between the first and third, which at the time of the drafting of the legislation, were basically guaranteed to be recessionary. By dividing the recessionary quarters, they could claim that we aren’t in a recession at the time of the election, because the definition is having two straight negative-growth quarters.
This plays into the hands of the party in power.

Granted, the first quarter turned out not to be contractionary, measured by the government’s chosen finicky metric. But like I said, they thought it would be at the time of the legislation.

shiny_objects

 has an amazing idea she told me about. Instead of playing the game they want her to and consuming, she is giving a portion of her rebate check to the Obama campaign.
I would do the same, were mine not already paying down credit cards, but join her in turning your bribe money into positive political change!

122193

It was time.
I didn’t have any pictures of myself WITH hair and  a shirt, so I thought I’d refrain from grossing everyone out with a shirtless longhair pic.
Growing my hair as stress builds in my life, and cutting it all off just after a breaking point is the one ritual I hold in my life.

Usually the growing is accidental or out of busyness or laziness, but the cutting is always deliberate.

The Great American Pile-On 3

This is the crank arm off of my bike. This is supposed to stay on the bike at all times.

This fell off the day after my accident – while I was on the bike.