To Start.

Wow, I'm so good at posting entries.  Good thing blogging isn't cool anymore or I'd be even less cool than everyone else.  But you know what.  I'm still way better looking in out-dated baggy jeans than about 98% of the douchebag crew and their tacky ass skinny jeans.  Hipster fashion looks lame.  I'm not even going to say gaye because I'm in the center of Gay and we don't do skinny jeans.  SF gays to comfy and kind of well dressed, but with way less effort than our outermerican counterparts.  You can always tell a new gay by how much time/money (s)he spent on dressing up.  Real gays don't spend, we inherit and own whatever it is we choose to don and everyone else can suck it.

Parker Posey.

I was feeling low this morning.  Not sure exactly why.  OK, I have an idea, but I'm not going into it here so fuck off Rhoda, I'm the Mary.  Anywoot, went to bed at like 8pm just to flop around in a comfy bed, woke up at 10 then went back to bed.  Woke up this morning with my usual 630 and snoozed until 7, contemplated even staying in bed.  Like I said, feeling low, no real reason, just was.  So I'm on my way in and my book is done so I'm flipping through fag mag Out which has a surprising number of totally readable articles.  Enter one of said articles on our maiden of the indy Parker Posey.  Fucking love her.  She could be my moon goddess and I her doting man slave (salve?).  I would go gay for her if she wre to only ask.  I'd make a good piece of arm candy and she's so super fantastic.  So it's an interview with her and about her career and the quips of hers are so genuine and dry and funny that I was snarfling back guffaws on the BART this morning.  I was all ready to have a great day until it started off with two cranky bitchy shit storm emails.  Emails where people who don't need to be CC'd are CC'd because the people originating the email want to make it look like I don't love them in they way they want to be loved.  By 10am, all was well.  Did some good clensing of some office space to give my helper monkey a new office that I can see and so the day went well.

Utilikilt

For my birthday I asked not for presents but donations toward a single big gift, a Utilikilt.  Normally I don't want things for my birthday, I don't even like doing the whole birthday party thing, but I figured it was the big 30 so I should do something special, dispite me being new to this side of the Mrka mass.  And I'm not exactly new, I'm just reintroduced.  I'm from here for crissakes, I can't exactly be new.  And as it's coming up on a year I'm feeling less and less a NYCer and more and SFister... though you can never convince me that SF has a functioning mass transit infrastructure or that its policies on getting new structures built isn't even worse than NYC's....

The Gay Agenda

1. G.Y.M.  Keep up with the gym and try try try to finally have that line thing in between my man chesticles.  Just think it would be cool to have a hot bod at least once in my life.
2. Art.  WTF, d00d, when did a hiatus from art become a mantra against creativity as a whole?  Enough time has elapsed from archischool wherein the creative must be once again expressed and rejoiced upon and within.
3. Friends.  Its universal that the norcal mantra is, "oh sorry, I forgot."  People in NYC may be mislabeled as rude, but at least they'll tell you to your face when your shit stinks, read you for filth and kick you to the curb when need be.  Norcaliens smile and say "let's see each other soon" and then forget and don't call back.

More soon, I promise.  In theory.

So, I work now in the non-profit sector, a big change from my NYC days of uber capitalism working IT for shady hedge funds or worker bee hell as a consultant.  Now before anyone says, "wow, what great work you do," bear in mind that I'm support.  I'm the IT Manager which means that in the morning I step off BART, walk through the quickly changed demographic of our neighborhood and after passing the huddled and pathetic masses I walk up two flights and into my office.  It has a door and the door locks and I share my floor with the executive staff.  The clients seldom come up here and when they do they're lost (well, they're always lost within the greater context of society and metaphorically, but when they're on 3 they usually want some other floor for some service which we as an organization provide but which I as an individual do not really help with).

That being said.  It's the holiday season.  People everywhere are crowding the malls (don't get me started on malls) and buying crap for people who probably don't need or want the crap that they've picked out just to be sucked into some store and buy themselves a little something they don't really need to justify spending money on people they don't really like all that much.  That's just the shit part of it, though, on the plus side, it's the time of year when everyone gives a shit.  It's like valentine's day for the poor.  Maybe it's because it's cold (well, as cold as CA gets), maybe its to curb their guilt, but people give and donate their time and help their fellow man.

Because of this influx of generosity we give out bags of groceries.  Loaves of bread, cans of vegis, probably enough food for a family to have between one day (fat fucking poor families, don't get me started) and a week.  And it's a success!  There's a line that wraps back and forth more times than an amusement park going through our parking lot and then it takes up half the sidewalk down the block.  Then it goes up the street.  Then it goes back down the block, and then it finally ends where it starts.  That's between 5000 to 10000 bags served, all before noon.

Wow!  Hooray for us.  We fed 10,000 to 30,000 people today, probably more.  But what really doesn't sit well with me is how America is supposed to be a "Super Power" and yet we don't care enough for our poor to provide them enough food at the holidays.... or the rest of the year. 

Honestly, I wish there was no line.  I wish we were able to swing open our doors and say, "free food!" and have maybe 12 people come in and say, "eh, I'm full, but why not.  Maybe I can find someone who needs this back in my neighborhood."  And honestly, I think that's how most decent people would like to see the world if they really thought about it.  It would be nice to not walk over the homeless and pretend they don't exist, nice to think that we as a society could take a couple hours out of our weeks and donate to hand out enough food to feed those who can't feed themselves.

It's strange to be in an industry whose success is measured by the overwhelming failure of a society to provide for its people at a fundamental level.  The higher our numbers, the better the nation is doing at pretending this problem doesn't exist.

I guess it begs the question, "what could we have done domestically with the money spent on Iraq?"  Could we have paid down instead of doubling our national debt?  Could we have paid our school teachers enough to live within the communities they serve?  Could we have implemented and funded universal health care that focuses not on the needs of insurance companies, but on the needs of the patient?  Could we have killed the Olsen twins and given Brittney back her sanity?  Could we have hired architects with vision and good ideas for our great buildings?  Could we have implemented high speed rail nationally and funded solar research?  Cured cancer?  Figured out how to make air travel comfortable and affordable? 

Oh, the list and how it does go on.  Ah, to have a dream.  I had a dream.... no really, it was kind of like a cross between harry potter and the subtle knife... no, not that dream, um, yeah.

So here's to you non profit sector for helping out and depressing the shit out of me.

Wasn't sure I was even going to continue the blog what with EVERYTHING being different.  What's everything you ask?  Good question. 

1.  I'm in CA now
2.  I'm single-ish
3.  I'm not in school anymore
4.  I'm back working in computers

How's that?  Enough for you?  Here's a little bit on how we got here.

I stopped going to school two weeks before the end of last semester.  Just woke up one morning and thought, "no, I don't want to do this."  I'd just registered for fall classes, 5 of them, and had yet to be inspired by a rather dull library project we'd been given.  In fact, that entire last semester sucked my ass in studio.  The professor was boring, the class was disinterested and the work was just tiresome.  Probably was a bad idea to start the semester stoned every day for the first month, but that added challenge was really the only part that was making it at all interesting.  I don't know what changed, but I know that I'd had enough of losing my weekends and nights (days I'm used to not having) and the thought of three more years of this just to make less money than I was making at 21 was really unappetizing.  So yeah, I stopped going.  I still got a C+ in studio for an unfinished project... the same grade he gave to peple who presented.  So that's how bull shit all that was.  Nonsense.

Having stopped going to classes I decided I should go out and fool around and waste time in general.  My relationship was already strained from me really never being there, not having any money to do anything fun, and the general sense of distance that had been gathering over time.  Our relationship had become like dust on knicknacks you placed years ago and forgot about but see every day.  We were in the same house but never together, our conversations had regressed to roommate speak and as had been the case for almost two years, we weren't having sex.  Not a good recipe for making a happy relationship, or even keeping something to salvage for later.  The 20 years between us had become greater as the honeymoon ended and as I was changing/growing/reverting to adolecense by returning to school.  No matter how old you are when/if you go back to school you still manage to have some of the symptoms of when you're 18 and in school for the first time.  You fuck up, you change, and if you're with someone who's not doing the same thing as you, you lose something of what you had before.  We parted on good terms and I wish mannimal the best.  Nothing more to say on that right now.

With my relationship now over and school something I was on the fence about I knew I would at least have to get a part time job to afford a new and shitty apartment.  The prospect was not appealing.  I woke up the next morning and thought, "hey, I have a family and friends back in CA and there's nothing holding me to NYC right now.  Let's give SF a shot and make a fresh start."  This meant moving home with my parents initially until I got a job, picking up my life and possessions and heading across the country.  There was the thought of driving cross country, but pricing and timing didn't work out, so it was a moving truck and an airplane that got me here.  Not so romantic, but it got me here.

My folks went out of town for two weeks the week after I arrived so I actually got some time to myself.  Nice.  Spent that time smoking pot, hanging out with friends, and having a bit of a relax.  I'd set up some interviews for when I got there and one looked promising, but it was for a consulting firm and I hated the idea of consulting.  They offered me the job but low-balled me on salary (apparantly school lowers your net worth in the short term, go figure) so I told them to lick my balls.

So finally on one of my latter rounds of craigslisting and after another couple offers that didn't pan out I got fast-tracked on this job requisition for an IT Manager for a non-profit in SF.  Took the job and have fallen back into the grind of work pretty easily.  The pay's less than what I would like, but it's passable and it's a start.  It's also a really great organization so what I've lost in salary I've more than made up for in social cachet and good karma.  It's great.  I do my job like any other and never actually have to deal with the homeless other than to walk through them on my way in.  I get to support the people who have devoted their lives to the unwashed masses of SF.

And what a huge f'ing mass they are.  With so many organizations here set up to do good and right by the indigent and working poor, not to mention a climate perfectly suited for vagrency, SF is a shit hole of homeless.  I'm just saying, they outnumber the pidgeons, and there's a lot of those as well since they take the bread we give them and feed the damn birds.  Oy.

So my first three weeks were spent commuting from SR down to SF by SUV.  Everything I ever wanted to not be a part of, car culture, shit commutes, wasting gas, increasing my carbon footprint... all at once.  My newly found karma was being lowered by the number of baby seals I was clubbing just to get down here.  So I started craigslisting again, this time to interview for my nights and weekends, ie, a roommate share.

Now I figured I'd be a good candidate for a roommate.  I now had a good job, I'm funny, I'm only partially obnoxious and I'm a great roommate (I think).  Unfortunately, if you're normal and looking for roommates September was just not a good month.  With the housing market going to shit and I'm sure a bunch of college kids beating me to the hipster punch I was runner up a half dozen times to places I was totally ready to jump into.  Fuck.  As great as having no rent can be, the commute was killing me and I was, after all, 29 and living with my parents.

"Have you tried looking at Oakland?"

I'm sorry, but as a native NorCal boy, Oakland has about as much to do with SF as Staten Island does to NYC.  Sure they're in the same area, but they may as well be other planets.  Oakland is where NorCal keeps its dark or foreign people.  Rents are cheaper but you may also get shot if you're in the wrong part of town.  Not that SF's much different in some places, Halloween's canceled this year because someone got shot and killed last year.  Bummer.

Anyway, I swallowed my pride and gave a look.  Huge places, parking included, close to BART... um, maybe I'm not so hip as all that.  Besides, when I switched my craigslisting from roommate hunting to apt hunting the results were just as bad.  50 people looking at shitty 2br's with 1 small bath and sucking it up that their rents were about $500 more than what the places were worth.  Sorry, but location's just not that key for me.

I ended up in an area of Oakland called Jack London Square.  It's kind of like a second city DUMBO.  It's a warehouse district near the historic part of town that's undergone and undergoing a residential urban renewal.  I got a 1200sqft 2br 2ba for within my budget and they threw in a month free rent as an incentive.  Got my IKEA on and thanks to the friend who helped me find the place in the first place furnished the place on the cheap with stuff that looks great.

One more craigslisting (fucking hell).  This time for a roommate.  Now the shoe was on the other foot and I would get to do the interviewing.  Now I assumed that there'd be tons of responses, but not so.  Enough people feared the Oaktown that my responses were slim.  Then, when hope had started to wane, came a recent MIT grad PHD girl making nuclear bombs in Livermore to save the day!  She turned out to be very sweet and I'm very happy I made the offer to her, so the living situation is all taken care of and getting put together.

So while work is working and home is being put together I'm also out having the occassional drink.  Man cannot live on Trader Joe's alone.  I had started myself dating over the summer, but nothing serious.  My heart was just not ready for anything new.  I still miss and missed my now ex husband, but I'm glad we decided to move on.  Still, if I was going to get my life as a whole back on track that would involve going out and meeting people and reestablishing a social network.

The guy who introduced me to Oakland was someone I was kind of dating, but there were too many similarities in personality between him and my ex, only my ex had done them all so much better and this new guy needed some training and was getting really posessive and not all that kind as a boyfriend, so we drifted a bit.  I went out one Friday after work and met this great group of guys and took specific interest in one.  We've been dating about six weeks now and it's good.  I don't know where it's going because I'm still not ready to date, but this one's really sweet and has been great about introducing me to a lot of things here in the city, so my social network is rapidly expanding.

Beyond dating (which I don't really want to talk about right now) I'm taking rowing lessons at the lake a few blocks away from me.  Been wanting to learn how for a long time and am really enjoying it.  There's also a gay rowing club I want to join once I get through the lessons.  I'm also really wanting to get a kilt which is totally unrelated, but something I tried on at Folsom and have decided I simply must get in a few months.  Next year when I'm a little more settled in my finances I want to take some smithing classes at this place down the street that offers classes in blacksmithing, glassworking and fire eating.... how cool, right?

So I'm not quite fixed in my own head, but I'm making progress in many directions and working through what wasn't working out for me in NYC in my own time and in my own way.  Figured I'd get back into blogging because shit still amuses me and hopefully will amuse you as well.

Oh yeah.  I had my 10 year high school reunion a few weeks ago.  I have to say I'm really glad I went.  I was kind of hoping for some really impressive train wreck or some amazing success story, but all I got was that just about everyone I knew (who showed up) is doing well.  I think 10 years is still to close to HS to see where people will end up.

My criticism for the reunion:  Too expensive, Rohert Fucking Park Double Tree (need I say more), cocktail attire, low turn out.  None of the people I ran with my senior year (the people I considered my close friends) showed.  Not that I expected any of them to, but it would have been nice to be surprised.  I like people to do that.  Just sayin is all. 

Too expensive?  Yeah, $55 presale, $75 a month before the event and that didn't even cover an open bar.  There are ways of stretching a buck and I just don't think those ways were employed.  It's really easy to criticize something you had nothing to do with planning, so I do give mucho mucho thanks to AC and MC for putting it together.  YOU GUYS ROCK!

Rohnert Park?  Yeah, I know.  Anyone from SR knows that if you want people to not show up you put something in RP.  It's a generic hotel in a planned town in the middle of a wide expanse of strip malls.  Ugh.  Not a destination.  The food was actually good, but the presentation was horrible (what were those fucking baby food carrots?).  NorCal is known for good food, good wine and relaxed and unique places.  Even our prom was in a more inspired place.  With all the people in the wine industry there had to be some connection with some family's winery that could have put us somewhere other than RP.

Oh, yeah.  Sit down dinner?  Too formal.  DJ who played the macarena and the hokey pokie?  BAD BAD BAD.  And what was with him switching from 90's to today's stuff?  The whole point of a reunion is to act as a flashback.  There was tons of bad music that could have brought up nightmares from our adolecence.

But that bitching aside, it was a really good time.  I'm really glad I went.  In fact, I recommend to all people to go to their reunions.  They only come along every 10 years so you don't really have an excuse.

   But why the hell not.  Dem's sweep midterm elections.  About fucking time.  Not that I'm expecting great things to happen, but I can sleep a little better at night knowing that we're not dominated by self-loathing closet cases anymore.  What strikes me as sad is how fucking long it's taken to get the majority on board with moving forward into the future instead of trying to hold on to a past that never really existed.

   What a great day as well that we are finally rid of Rumsfuck.  Not that it gets us out of Iraq, but it shows that the lame duck monkey in the offal office is instantly shifting with the changing winds of a landslide democralection.

   Politics aside, people who crack me up right now: Foley, that guy Ted Haggard who ran the conservative church who didn't and then did hire a male hooker and then didn't and then did buy meth and then said he'd bought it, but not used it, only to have a quoted telephone conversation quote him as asking for the "stuff", "again".  People who use drugs (rather than those who do not or simply buy them to look at) generally don't ask for a repeat of some prior purchase.  Drugs aren't exactly like collectable plates or figurines.  If you're asking for something again, chances are you bought it before and chances are if you bought it before and are asking for it again, you used up that which you had already bought.  But that's just my theory.  Or else, he's buying it for his 5 kids or his wife... Hmm...

   So yeah, what's been going on?  School, that's what.  I'm in studio hell.  OK, I'm finally out of a slump that was causing me to question whether I should really be doing this whole archischool thing.  I'm hoping that the house I'm making tonight for review tomorrow is at least partially well received by my professor because I'm getting pretty tired of disappointing him.  So much for being one of the stars.  My goal is to get back on top.  We all have our moments of self-doubt and lapses in inspiration. 

   I suppose my own lapse was from trying to do something that was not me and make it mine.  I'm already trying enough with the studio I'm in this semester, the last thing I need is to try to reinvent how I think.  Not that I haven't learned a lot from getting stuck over and over and trying to get myself a house out of an obcessive study of this silly text I had to analyze and got stuck in a spread sheet that kept getting more convoluded and didn't get me any closer to a house.  I basically fell into the same hole that all of the other kids in our studio fell into at one time or another.  I really shouldn't be all proud of myself just yet, the prof has yet to see my house and wish me well.  Not that I'm looking for his stamp of approval only, but it sure does help to have your prof on your side of the field when you're trying something.

More later, I promise.  Oh yeah, leave me a comment if you read this.  Always nice to hear a hello

With the semester into its second full week we come to the conclusion of our first house of a series of 3 or 4 that take us through the semester.  Each fast-house has a 2 week turn around where we have to evaluate site information and lay out a house based on the given information and our own position of the program and the information given.  Behold my first house. 

Is perty, no?  Glad you think so.  Let me walk you through.  The gray box is the garage, below the rest of the house.  This deals with the stupid submerged portion of the site.  The path we were given ends up following a staircase up to the main level of the house.  The blue shapes around the garage are the living/dining and kitchen areas and the blue squares going up and to the left are the bedrooms and bathrooms.  the green thing is kind of patio/yard.  The purple blob is the entrance to the house.  It makes sense in my mind... now to just draw it out on mylar and show it.

School has begun and today was the first day of studio.  I'm so glad to have something interesting to take up all those brain cells that have been hibernating all summer.  First day we get our first project, take a paragraph of metes and bounds instructions with height variations listed as changes in gravitational potential energy and determine a site plan to be used for the designing of a series of rapidly designed houses.  Whee.  What's the big deal, bitches?  Glad you asked.  height variables listed as GPE are dependent upon mass.  Greater mass, less height, so you have heights that are either 11ft or 25ft above or below a zero height, depending on the weight of the person who took the measurements.  Fun.

The project is designed to show us how words and reality are not always the same thing.  Our site plan has to somehow dig into the subtext of this.  My solution, show all the potential heights of the site.  It'll look all dynamic and stuff.  Since it's late and I'm tired, I'm just going to post my notes.  Man, where's my bong.

Notes

Interesting to note its continued use in the eastern US.  Places a sense of history and timeliness to the type of data that is gathered and presented.  Fallible, open to interpretation, subject to dispute.  Not intended to clarify, but seems to maintain a status quo of some previously acceptable system.  Why is this still in use?  Is there a migration towards GPS-based land plotting for these surveys?

Gravitational Potential Energy varies upon the height of a mass.  Gravity is a constant and therefore height and mass will vary in proportion to one another in relation to a value of PE.  The given equation is rearranged to yield the value desired, in this case height, and a range of masses is selected based on average human weights.

Ä Potential Energy

U=mgh

h=U/mg

U= 24,320; 18,240; 12,160; 6,080 (values both – and +)

m= 100-200lbs (determine extremes for these values)

m= 220lbs (my mass)

g=9.8 m/s²

Determine height extremes and mean.

m=100  U=24,320          h=24.82

122                               20

m=150  “                       h= 16.54ft

m=200  “                       h=12.41

220                               11.29

m=100  U=18,240          h=18.24

122                               15

150                               12.41ft

200                               9.31

220                               8.46

m=100  U=12,160          h=12.41

122                               10

150                               8.27ft

200                               6.20

220                               5.64

m=100  U=6,080            h=6.20

122                               5

150                               4.14ft

200                               3.1

220                               2.82

Why these values?  Why the correlation between various heights at different weights?  A logical assumption is that because this is an exercise and not a real world scenario, the values should have an originating weight to equal a height variation that is a real number and a common unit of increase.  This type of measurement is dependant upon who took the measurements and this exercise is to show us the variation in human components and/or language when creating precise measurements.

Determine the possible weight of the surveyor

m=U/gh

h=20     U=24,320          m=121.6lbs

h=15     U=18,240          m=121.6

etc…

My assumption based on a simple height value is that the site surveyor was approximately 122lbs.  As this document was compiled by our TA, I am assuming the heights were calculated according to her own weight.

Placement of a House

This type of measurement for variances in height creates an increasingly flat site as a person’s mass increases.  My own mass (220lbs) creates a landscape of almost indistinguishable variance (3-11ft above or below base), while the mass of a smaller student (100lbs) would yield a landscape more than double in height (6-25ft).

This degree of variation would create significant problems for planning a house unless a standard mass can be determined or accurate height determined.  This type of imperfection would necessitate a house that is flexible in its construction and layout, or else a house situated within a flat part of the site.  This variance would create potential strains on budgets for excavations and foundation considerations.

Any map of this site should convey the potential variation in elevation.  Areas with the least degree of variation based on difference in mass should be given preferential consideration in house placement if budget is a concern.  This is assuming there is no means of recalibrating the site, such as a secondary site survey with an accurate and absolute measure of height.

Not the weather, though that's been eerily mild for August in NYC, but back in the fridge that is my office here at school.  And by my office I mean the temporary space I share with people who actually make this their living.  How anyone could stay in an academic career for the insanely long times that these people have (one guy has been here 13 years, another over 20) is beyond me.

We actually got back last Monday around 1am, but I'm just now getting back to work.  Proof that I hate computers and hate sitting in a room that bores me.  I'm fighting off the urge to nap right now.  It's actually nice to get out of the house with a purpose and I do have a big one right now, my classes are all fucked up.  I didn't pay my fall tuition because last semester it was taken directly out of... *oops, forgot to finish...

...

Needless to say my classes were put back on track.  Work's kind of on hold since no one really knows what to do with me and that's just fine.  If I needed the money it would be something else entirely.  I probably should have just lied to my parents and said I had a job when I really didn't, but at the time it seemed like I should get a job and at least appear responsible.

...

How was CA, you ask?  Good.  As usual, our time on our own was way more fun for mannimal than family time.  Something about my mom being a control freak and mannimal being very anti-control freaks makes them not get along.  They play civil, but I end up hearing all his bitching and getting stressed out.  He really needs to get better about that (hopefully he's reading this).

We did the Claremont in Berkeley and were massaged and wrapped and facialeded and pampered.  We had aweful Thai food that kept me up till 4am going to the bathroom every 15min (literally, no exaggeration, for 6 hours I was up and down every 15min).  Skip ahead to the next day and it was amazing tea and soup and salad in Hayes Valley and dinner at Eos in the Haight.  Good times, just remember folks, if you've got gays, let them choose where to eat.  We're bitchy and complain, but we make decisions instead of just letting things happen (OK, not all of us, but usually we just know better so yeah).

From Berkeley it was off to Tulloch for waterskiing.  Mannimal was bored, but we did manage to get him out of our room for some sunning and tubing.  I had a good time skiing as usual (thanks for fixing my ski, Dad!) and chipped my tooth on a fork to everyone's amusement.

Tulloch led to Yosemite.  A late start out took us straight to our hotel that afternoon before coming back into the park for dinner at the Ahwahnee.  I was much more impressed with my food than the last time we were there, but as always, how good can food be when it has to be shipped in from godonlyknows where every day.  Next day I drove us up to Glacier Point and had a good look at the valley below.  Well worth the trip and it inspired me to get us to go all the way up to the top of Vernal Falls.  1.6mi, not far, you say, but what they don't tell you is the last .3mi is straight up a series of narrow stairs.  It was totally worth it.

Headed off to Disco Bay for Sam's 1st birthday.  It was a great time and she took to her cake like nobody's business.  The kid's a lot cuter than when she popped out all wrinkled a year ago.  My brother and Mistress are natural parents (complete with control dramas with grandma -do you see a theme here?).  Thankfully mom and dad left so we had a day just us normal people and cousin Kate.  Somehow she went from being a baby in my arms to 11 really fast, I'm going to have a talk with her mother about that.

That was CA.  Some drama, but not much.  Mannimal and I got along well and hopefully this time next year we'll be on a cruise around the Med.  Be nice to have an actual vacation one of these years, but being a poor student the dream usually remains that.

So I'm working, finally.  The head of IT here at school got back to me after I sent him my resume at the beginning of the summer.  I'm working on video conferencing and streaming which is actually kind of fun since I never really got to put my teeth around it as much as I would have liked at previous places and with the glut of bandwidth the world will have it will only make sense to understand how video/multimedia data is being shazamed across the planet and into our skulls.  I'm trying to imagine how this can all work with my actual career in Architecture and so far it's only on a peripheral level (people live places, places need architects, places have TV's and phones and all that fun stuff).

So I'm in a nebulous position again like at Prism where I was a "staff specialist".  I'm working between two departments on my own nifty project and answering to 2 bosses.  So far I haven't even bothered going down to the help desk because I'm sure it will bore the shit out of me.  I've been using my time to research and chill and focus on my tasty little project up here.  So far it looks like I'm doing good, but this is my first time working in academia and it's already a bit different.

For one, the bureaucracy here is insane.  Departments are shifted across the org chart like mid season replacements on Fox.  Heads are new, heads roll, money is coming but not quite here and redundancy is pretty much the norm.  So far everything that I've done has probably been done by someone else (one of my bosses) and I'm just retracing his steps without his input because he's on vacation.  I don't want to make any official statements until he gets back and he and his boss are able to get on the same page.  I don't think I have any actual authority, but hey, I have time to blog (not that I didn't when I was sitting on my ass all summer at home, but here at least I look like I'm working).

The best part (is not the pay) is that I can only work 23hrs a week, the school is closed on friday and I'm generally left to my own devices.  It's really boring, but I'm headed to CA for a family visit and the last thing I need is to show up unemployed after my parents were so kind to extend my stipend throughout the summer.  Basically I'm working here to get money from my parents.  It's pretty shifty, but it sounds good and if I don't pee my pants I should be able to save up enough for a cruise next summer with my mannimal.  That's the really important part.

My question of whether I'm being a know-it-all stems from an email I sent to an underling of the networking division.  I have yet to have any interaction with them even though my experience would have been best utilized as a netops guy and not helpdesk/AV, but hey, who am I to correct someone who doesn't know the difference (or lack their of) in physical transport media between IP and ATM at the endpoint level.  Sheesh.  So yeah, I emailed the underling requesting a comprehensive network diagram with subnet information, equipment types and bandwidth utilization and got an email back from his boss saying he would be taking care of it... something tells me I know more than I should.

It's kind of funny, actually, to be studying something completely unrelated to where I have almost a decade of diverse and extensive experience.  Most people my age haven't run the gamut from PC repair to digital imaging to network infrastructure and management to wiring to training to vendor management and I guess I just forget that.

See, I sound like an ass hole know-it-all, right?