Internship in conlusion-This paper is worth is 3 credit hours, well and the internship itself.

As a student in the Landscape Architecture program of the California Polytechnic State University, I have learned many things about myself. I can be an efficient worker. Creativity is a must in whatever I do. I can lose myself in hours of projects I enjoy. And I don’t like homework. While working in an internship with Kevin J. Small, a Landscape Architect and alumnus of Cal Poly, I learned that all these things about myself will provide for me some great opportunities.

In Santa Maria, California, the landscape architect, Kevin Small has an up and coming firm called PleinAire Design Group. This firm works in a wide variety of projects. They design places and spaces for the city of Santa Maria, Corporations, and private citizens, when there is time in the schedule. There are also several community service projects that they help with throughout the year. It was one of these projects that I contributed to during the summer of 2006.

The Santa Maria Valley Botanical Garden or SMVBG has been a goal of many citizens of Santa Maria for a number of years. They got together with PleinAire Design Group and me to create a conceptual design. The design was to be presented to a board at the Santa Maria Airport. As the airport is doing some service projects of their own, they are distributing some land to the public for uses such as a potential botanical garden. The first concept would be presented to the board for approval so that approximately 15 acres would be given to the SMVBG.

I worked on the design for the garden over the entire summer. I met with members of the board to get input and views of what the gardens should be. There were a number of times where my clients wanted things that were not actually possible in the places that they wanted them. But I suppose this is something that has to be dealt with in the job. We however accommodated and came up with a design we both agreed upon.

While working at the office, I worked on other projects as well. I helped Kevin with projects inside the office such as filing and correcting references. It’s amazing how much LA 353 helped me with the comprehension of such things. On my resume I had written that I knew Photoshop and was at least introduced to AutoCAD. This worried me. I came to find however that my knowledge of Photoshop far surpassed most of the employs in the office. I spent many days working on graphics and renderings. I helped improve office images and corrected seams in project spreads from magazines. My self-introduced AutoCAD abilities were even enough to be able to draft for the office.

The biggest lesson that I learned working this summer had to be about fear. I learned that just because people work in offices doesn’t mean that they are smarter than me. It doesn’t mean they know so much more than me. They have just been doing it longer. I know that whatever I do, it will take me awhile to acclimate myself to the working experience and the ups and downs of the job. But I also know, now, after my experience this summer, that I will enjoy this career, no matter which way it takes me.

Decision

Is a shooting star falling in its blaze of glory a positive sign when you finally have come to a conclusion to one of life's hurdles?

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.

On a lighter side, the movie to see right now is Stranger than Fiction. I found it funny and romantic, but not in the usual Hollywood classification of romanticism. More in the, "that painting is beautiful" kinda way. Will Ferrel actually showed that he could act, and the sequence of ironies was almost poetic. So, I say, "Go see it."

Old

I realised something tonight, as I drove home. I'm getting old. I'm in my fourth year of college. My sister's married. My other sister is just a year away from the BIG 3..O. Our last young'un, well i suppose I can't call him that, turned 21 today. Happy Birthday Doug. The last of the, finally! you're old enough to do something birthdays. Alcohol allowance aside, we're adults now, no longer children. Though some of us (hem..hem) may still be dependent upon our parents, soon enough, we won't be. So maybe I'm not getting old. I'm just getting adult. Looking at all the Yosemite Tower One people that I am still friends with, I'm rather suprised. Of all the things we've been through, all the changes we've made to ourselves and our lives, we still come together as friends. That leads to the question. Did we change together? Or just adapt to our changes, good or bad? Maybe we just walked the path together, keeping us attached. Other friends chose a different path, when I see them, they seem so different to me, but they're not. I just didn't get the chance, the time to acclimate to them. How different am I from the Laura of freshman year? Or the Laura of High School? Would my friends from those years see me so differently? How would, will I see them? Have my sister's changed on me too? So little discussion with them in the past four years, hours literally, are they people I don't know? Maybe I'm just home sick and studying about the world of globalization and economy is just making me pessimistic, needing my bed at home. But I can't go home, not to the one I know. My sister is married, my dog is gone, and things change, like growing up.

"Save the cheerleader, save the world."

Its amazing how quickly I have found I judge people. As I was driving to school the other day, I was waiting at the light. I saw what seemed to me a rather disreputable guy. He was wearing a do-rag and was dressed like basically a wannabe gangster. I made sure my windows were locked, as someone (ahh-hem) trained me to do. When the light turned green, much to my suprise, the guy ran accross the street only to help a woman, holding a white cane walk back accross the street safely. My bad?

In other news. I'm getting sick. I have tried all I could to keep it off. I have taken my vitamins, drank my milk, taken naps when I have the chance, but the sore throat is catching up with me. In unrelated news, I am probably going to get my flu shot tommorrow. It was recommended to me to get a flu shot for travelling to Europe so that I won't get sick there and slow the group down in my illness. Not me, not this time. I'm gonna be the healthy one. Maybe I will even lose weight carrying all my possessions for the trip with me accross Europe ;).

OK, so good tv. I have made a mistake. I watched every episode of Heroes to date. I Love It! Better than Smallville ever was, sorry Kara. It's better than Lost too, sorry, it just is. How I met your Mother is a good show and Grey's anatomy is up there too. Im actually amazed at the level of good television that has arisen in the past few years. Oh, and Office. Haha, so much for claiming I don't watch TV anymore. I'm out.

Halloween

Finally finiahed the Halloween costume. I wasn't as creative I have been in years past, but the price was right on this one. It cost me a sheet and a necklace. I am going to be Nike, the Grecian goddess. And guess what color my toga is? Haha, no guess necessary, its blue. I was thinking of using a less than standard color for myself, but after researching Nike, it had to be blue, I mean first place is ALWAYS the blue ribbon, not the green, red or purple one. Yes, my costume is a toga, but it is definitely more than just a sheet now. I designed it with one strap. It has darts to fit in an empire waist and wraps around the front so that I can pin it to drape in the front. So it is A-line, but not. It also has one sleeve that too drapes. Weekend plans Halloween party and haunted corn maze to come. I hope, possibly I can convince poeple to go look at the stars again, but we will see if that works out. With Halloween on Tues, we can probably carve pumpkins on Monday, then wait the next day for our 6 trick-or-treaters.

Colors

I came to a somewhat disturbing realization today. I miss autumn. As I was walking from class to my car. I saw some brown trees in the distance between all the green trees and in front of the brown hills. In the area, if it turns color, it usually turns to brown. There are no Sugar Maples here, or atleast very few, and the leaves just turn brown and fall off. Most of the trees are evergreen, not pines, but mediterranean evergreens. No bright reds and yellows and no smell of dusty dry leaf piles. In my plants class we learned of plants that color in the fall, but its usually one simple color, like a tulip tree turning yellow, or a camphor tree turning red. I miss the riot of color that self paints anually. As I neared my car I passed the one type of tree that does provide me with some solice, Liquidamber styraciflua. I pulled a leaf off the tree to glance at the twisted colors within. Greens, reds, oranges and yellows, brought a smile to my face. But yet, I still miss seasons. I have decided that if I intend to live in California longer than academy requires, I need to live near the mountains. There I could reach my dose of snow and surround my home with a grove of Liquidamber. Where I can rake them into piles to fall in, so that I can smell my fill of dusty dry leaves in the fall.

haha

#15. "Relax; the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll
stretch out after you wear them awhile."

#14. "Take your hands off the car, and I'll make your birth
certificate a worthless document."

#13. "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12. "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? In case you didn't
know, that¹s the average speed of a 9 mm bullet fired from my gun."

#11. "So you don't know how fast you were going. I guess that means I
can write anything I want on the ticket, huh?"

#10. "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't
think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I am the shift supervisor?"

#9. "Warning? You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do that
again or I'll give you another ticket."

#8. "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are
drunk or not. Is Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7. "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you
go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy, and step in monkey •• ••."

#6. "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."

#5. "No, sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to have quotas,
but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we want."

#4. "Just how big were those two beers?"

#3. "In God we trust, all others we run through CPIC/NCIC."

#2. "I'm glad to hear the Chief of Police is a good personal friend of
yours. At least you know someone who can post your bail."

#1 "You didn't think we gave pretty women tickets? You're right, we
don't - Sign here."

100th Post!

Wow, that took too long to get to 100. But sad news comes with it. I will be taking only one final during finals week. Unfortuneately it is on Friday of finals week. I emailed the teacher about possibly taking an early exam, but all he could offer was taking an incomplete and finishing the final during winter quarter. That is something I definitely don't want to do. So I can leave for home on the day after Friday the 15th of December. :)

Thanksgiving Plans-Jeff, Doug and I are staying in town. Doug's parents are coming down, and his mom is going to make us dinner. Hopefully his mom will let me make the stuffing. I am very particular about my stuffing. ;)

Sharks!

Ok, so not much happened this weekend. It was Kevin's birthday during the week, so we got together for some dart games and a movie. Very quiet, very nice actually, well other than being the only female present, but what can you do? Most of Saturday I loafed around, took a nap, did some laundry and then Jeff and I planned to go to dinner at Firestone's Grill. We got downtown, only to find that there were crowds and crowds of people. Apparently there was some Bible Study Convention in town that brought everyone out on the streets and to any place Jeff and I decided to go to dinner. We finally ended up at IHOP. The only place without a line. But I got good food and that it what matters. Later, after a rather dissapointing game of DOTA some of us decided to go for a drive. Doug ended up taking us up to Santa Margarita, where there stars are probably the clearest Ive ever seen them, except maybe in high altitude, or in Minnesota in the winter. We saw so many shooting stars. They were so good, the trail was left behind them. I probably spent too long looking up, but it was rather peaceful in the country, with just the sound of a snickering horse, the wind through the brush and the lingering twang of someone's radio half a mile away. I love when looking at the stars makes you wanna fall in to it. Wwe were lucky I suppose that we decided to do this last night, as there was no moon, just stars from horizon to horizon. The drive home was rather interesting. But there was a sad part too. Doug ran over a hare. It wasn't his fault, he slowed down, but it was just the hare's time. Luckily we did not run into any other animals on the road. Not the cat, not the skunk, not the grey fox and not the random steer walking across the road.
Road trip coming up on November 18. Jeff is a big hockey fan so he is driving me, Doug and Kevin up to San Jose to see the Sharks and Flyers(Jeff's Team) play in the HP Pavilion. We will also be going to Sanra Clara so that Kevin can see the area he will be living in during his internship this summer.
Fifth week starts tommorrow. I can't believe it. I'm out.

Napolean Bonaparte

OK, so the last few days have been kinda annoying. I lost internet two days ago and after much time spent troubleshooting, I could not get it to work. It wasn't the router as we all could pick it up, there as just no internet. So, I called AT&T and got a trouble ticket ordered. Finally today, I thought I would give it one last try. I Moved the system away from my computer and tried different jacks throughout the house. BTW, apparently this whiole house was strung for Broadband connections as I found a box in the Laundry Room with labels of what goes to what and which lines go where, which then explains why most of our telephone jacks in the house don't work. Anyway, as i moved around the house, i noticed some bare wire on the cord that connects from the wall to the router. I looked at it carefully and saw only a tiny bit of wire connecting what was actually a large wire. In my looking, it would actually disconnect, but touch when straightened. We were getting internet from one wire touching the other, not from an actual connection. Apparently we were getting internet this way for atleast 6 months. Since Julies pet rat, Napolean Bonaparte chewed it. Im suprised it lasted that long, but I am also glad I noticed the problem before the cable guy embarrased me by finding the fact for himself. Thank goodness for the "one more check". I'm out.

Goodbye fisheries?

First midterm of the quarter tommorrow. Its in my Politcial Science class. Let me just say that this is only for my gen ed requirement and not because its what I want to do with my life. I find the class rediculous and pointless. The professor spends two hours lecturing on global issues we should all know about anyway, and leaves the class feeling as though we are meeting the end of the world. Most of the global issues presented, we have talked about though my own course in Landscape Architecture, but would you believe it, we do a better job at it. You know why? Because we actually discuss solutions and new ideas, as opposed to showing one sided information that is meant to brainwash the common people taking the course. Of course there are more people in poverty now than there were 50 years ago. How many more billion people are on our planet? Oh well, just gotta get through it the way the prof wants us to. I just dont like wasting my time in a class that leaves me depressed with all the doomsayers.

Thursday

Not much happening here, just trying to get through the week. Tiin brought me my passport today. I had forgotten that I got my passport on September 12, 2001. It's kind of that it will expire on the tenth anniversary... This week, I think due to the boringness of it, has been kind of melancholy. Due to my odd class schedule, there are some friends that I never see anymore, especially since they changed my desk to the dungeon of Dexter. It's also kind of odd not having any classes with either of my roomates, I barely see them now either. What with their early bedtimes and such. It rained last night, first of the rainy season. Hmmm, lets hope the weekend brings a better week. I'm out.

Light Load

This quarter has the potential to be very laid back. My schedule includes, an internship credit course, the extended fieldtrip prep course, Regional Analysis, Survey, and a Polical Studies Course (Bleh).
Today I had one class, lets call it a meeting, where we discussed our trip to Europe in the spring. We will be doing lots of research on the countries we visit including, Italy, France and Germany. My hope is that my parents will meet up with me after the quarter is over, but with a family wedding in the plans I am not sure this will be possible, but we shall see. hint....hint.....

Not much to say. Had a pretty laid back weekend. I stocked up on groceries today and prepped the backpack. I have class in the morning and will be crashing two classes. Hopefully I get the world history, if not i will go for the speech class. Let's hope tommorrow goes quickly.

Can't remember much of what I did yesterday, but last night I did something that was on my life list. It was a small thing in itself, but I was quite proud. We went bowling at Mustang Lanes, which I have had less than good experiences at. Mainly because the lanes are poorly kept and very old. But anyway, I had a pretty good starting game with 5 spares and 2 strikes. I finished with 153. In the second game I wasn't doing very well in the first couple frames but on the 7th.8th, and 9th frame, I got all strikes. Thats Turkey! Ive never had turkey before, so that was kind of exciting. It has now been checked off my list. I finished with a 9/ and a 9. which led me to 166 a personal record for myself, which I think I pretty good considering the lanes are in such disrepair. Now I am looking for something to do on my last free Friday, other than cleaning my room. I'm out.

Tuesday

Not much happening today. I went in to studio with Mary and Jackie to claim desks. Unfortuneately they are still moving things around in there so we are not allowed to claim them until Thursday. Maybe I will go in on Wednesday night so that I can get a window desk. I talked with my boss today and I will be going to down to Santa Maria tommorrow to set up a remote desktop so that I can do work from the office at home, and only go in on Thursdays when I dont have class. I only plan to work 8 to 10 hours, so that shouldn't be too bad on top of the potential 21 units I will be taking.
Yesterday Jeff and I went to the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero, it wasn't that large of a zoo, I felt as though the admission was more of a donation than anything. They did have tigers though, they were pretty cool. The neat thing about the zoo was that it was so small and had so few visitors, that the animals were not bored by the presence of humans, in fact they watched us. When Jeff made a quick movement, the african porcupine raised his quills to react. The tigers watched us as we walked by and the emu and lemurs followed us. My favorite thing they had was a Fossa (foosha). It was like a giant Mongoose with long legs, very pretty. Jeff liked the Duiker. It was very small. We then came back down the coast on highway one. We ate lunch in Morro Bay at Haufbrau, I got a delicious french dip and jeff ate something called a Rothskeller. YUM!.
Now I am trying to think of something that I could do this week to say goodbye to summer, in the fun way. Maybe on Thursday, as I am going in to work tommorrow. If you think of anything, please let me know. I'm out.

Golfing

I did something for the first time ever today. I went golfing. No, not at a mini-golf course, real true golfing. Doug took me under his wing to teach me the game he's played for 17 years. After many miss-swings, and well, foul words, I managed to be able to hit the ball atleast once every two swings. I have blisters on my hands and suffered some mild embarrassment from my lack of ablities, but atleast when passersby commented, it was on the fact that i was either swinging too hard, or swinging like a baseball bat. It wasn't on my lack of athletic ability. It was kinda funny, I felt myself trying to open up in the swing, when it should be kept closed. I blame that act on one odd thing, Discus. Too many sports with too many different swings. I was actually not too bad at putting and I even suprised Doug on one that I made. We didn't keep score, it would be too embarrassing, but on the last hole I managed a double bogey, sounds bad I know, but I was rather proud and intend to do better next time. Yes, there will be a next time.

Sorrow

It seems like I have been reminded yet again how tenuous our grasp is upon that thing we view as life. I weep for my friend and what she is going through. We've all been there, and we all know what you are going through, my dear. We're here if you need us.

~Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

Despair...despair in my soul

What on Earth could make me so sad? So lost? Something that people everywhere will ache from. My hero, the one celebrity i would ever try to meet is dead. Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter has passed away. He was stabbed in the heart by some freak accident with a stingray. The irony lies in that stingray injuries are rarely lethal. I myself, and i am sure others always believed that he would die at the hands of one of his own saw-toothed Crocs. Crikey! Rest in Peace Steve.

Not much in the news today...but something kinda cool.

Your Star Wars Name and Title

Your Star Wars Name: Laumi Gofai Your Star Wars Title: Nenora of Mas

Your Star Wars Name and Title

Finally

Well, a month later and after being berrated by a number of people about not updating, here is the story of my first trip to Oregon. We left SLO at about 5 in the afternoon for Dougs house in Sacramento, after about 6 hours of traffic and classic rock music, we got to Doug's. His parents warmly welcomed us and even had us take a dip in the pool mto relax our stiff muscles from the car. After the swim, we all went to sleep. The next day we left rather early heading to Oregon. I saw Mount Shasta for the first time, What i was told is the tallest mountain in California. There was snow on it. As the lay of the land got rockier and hillier, i knew we were nearing the border. We all took turns driving, and we drove through Medford towards Crater Lake. It was 1 and half hours out of our way, but it was truly worth it. It was so beautiful that i wanted to hug it and take it home. We had snowball fights on the hills and drove around the 5 mile diameter and 1550 ft deep lake. It was so blue! its too bad its was hazy. We didn't get to Jeff's aunt's house until about 10 that night, but we brought our own dinner and fending for ourselves. Jeff's aunt had two dogs, one was wonderful and one was, well a big puppy. The puppy was a chocolate lab that was still young and loved shoes. The other was an 8 year old husky named Diega. Dona Diega de la Vega. She was quite beautiful and again, i wanted to hug her and take her home. The next day we went to the Oregon Caves. They were so neat. some of the rooms reminded me of the Temple of Doom. I would hate to be the first person in those caves. While we were in the Caves, Jeff's mom had driven down to spend time with her sister and with us. We spent the rest of the day talking and joking and we also watched a movie. On the third day we loafed in the morning, then Doug, Jeff and I went rafting down the Rogue River. It was supposed to be about 2 hours and it was quite funny because at the first white water...Doug fell in..haha. It took him awhile to get back in the boat but he was alright. I enjoyed the ride and the water. It had the right kind of smell and you could actually see the bottom as you floated down it. Between the white water areas, i decided i wanted to swim, so i left the boat about 3 times to just float with the current. It was cold, but clean water, and definitely worth it. We came back to SLO, tired and sore, but feeling that the trip was definitly worth it. The only thing we paid for was food and gas, as i had my sister's natuional parks pass, and jeff's mom treated us to the boat ride. After the small road trip, I have basically spent my weeks going to work and weekends with friends. I did spend a weekend selling flowers for chirstine, but this job was probably not for me, as there were too many lewd comments and inuendos. I will however be filling in for Christine in two weekends, as she is going to dive for her SCUBA class. Work tommorrow, well after the eye appointment.

Vacay

So, I went on a small weekend vacation with Jeff and Doug last weekend to Oregon. There was much fun to be had, but I am home now and working so i am very tired. I will give a full update probably on Friday when i am not working.

Da Plane

OK, so I am writing a blog entry to be added later due to where I am. It’s July 5, 2006 8:30 PM EST and I am sitting on an airplane waiting for the stupid flight to end. There are many families aboard, in fact, more than I have ever seen on a plane at once. Upon boarding Christine and I counted 8 strollers to be checked in the elevated tunnel thingy. You can tell that I am bored, on board. I mean I am blogging without internet, but that’s ok. Some people are asleep and I wish I were but I guess I kinda got one in after our gross snack thingy. I think I might have to join Tiin in going to TGI Fridays for dinner, because I am getting pretty hungry. Be seeing you.

The Wedding

So its done, it finally happened, Kara's wedding is over. We're all worse for ware and very tired but its finally behind us. Saturday the first started with too many people using one bathroom in the morning. With guests, five is just too many to use one room, too bad the bride had to wait an hour and a half. So the bride, the maid of honor and I went to be the first shift for hair, being done. After Kara's pile of hair was done, I went. My hair was ok, nothing special, but then again, it wasn;t supposed to stand out. I then left to go to a rehearsal at the church with my cousins for the musical trio. Mia was on the harp, Melissa was on the flute and I was on the cello. The rehearsal took longer than expected and i didn't get to go back home to get ready so all my things were brought to me by the well prepared maid of honor, Lacie. It was a rush but we got ready and took some photos. The ceremony went well, and Kara looked Beautiful. Stunning actually. Unfortuneately there was a mix up with the last minute tuning on the harp and poor Mia was flat by half a note on every string. She was so flustered despite my efforts to get her back in the music she never really found her way. We did however finish the last note together and that is all that mattered at that point it was the best we could do. My solo of Jesu went well while Kara and Brandon lit the unity candle or atleast tried to. When the wedding was over, the party along with the ring bearer and the four flower girls headed off in the limo to the art museum for pictures. This is where the irony comes in. There were 7 other bridal parties at the museum taking pictures as well. Ive never seen so many brides in my life, let alone in one day. It became the joke that we were Blue team as we had blue dresses and the other groups were other gangs, that we should start snappign our fingers like we were in Westside story. We then drove to the zoo, went to the carousel for photos and finally got to the reception hall with air conditioning as it was horribly hot and humid. The couples first dance was lovely and the song worked out so well for them. Lifehouse- You and Me. Then the dance party ensued and sleep was upon me at about 2 am with an 8 am rise for breakfast for was turned into 8 families spread through the morning. So now it is time to sleep as its late here in Ohio. I'm out. Oh, Happy Birthday Jeff. You're 21!

Home

Ok, so I AM at home and keeping busy busy busy. I have spent the daytime of the last couple days working on either the yard and its many many weeds, wedding planning or in the house cleaning. I think I should head to bed soon though, as it is Ohio time.

Thurs

No CM today...so happy. I also got my planting page done. Woohoo! so nice. So I have my grading page, llustrative plan and cover page left. :) Going to go buy tickets for X-men 1201 showing:)

Weird day

So what could possibly have happned to me today that would distract me so much that while in the shower, i would use my body wash as conditioner? I have my theories, but it think the biggest reason could lie somewhere in my visit to the post office. After being wonderfully helped by a nice old man, i turned to see an old lady smiling at me. She said, "Are you expecting?" I say "expecting what?" hopong she will continue adding to the question. I was wrong, she was embarrassed at my negatory response. She was embarrassed, why does she get to be embarrassed? She's not the one who was basically told that her belly sticks out so far that it appears she has another lifeform inside her. Bullocks! +1 for the diet's side. But seriously, whats the point in losing 25 lbs if people still see you as fat? I went home, sulked and had a long nap. After my irregularly small dinner, i worked on CRP homework. Did you know that suburbs are a disease that are spreading accross the world? Ha. So for the end of the quarter...1 1/2 weeks left, i have very little todo. So little infact that i can list it without much thought. Ok, go. CRP paper on planning commities, CRP test on Thurs, ARCHE deck model, and 4 more corrected layout pages with approximately 6 hours of work each. Not too bad. I should finish the paper this week and hopefully the majority of the layouts. I will make my model this weekend to get it done, and Dead week should just be that, dead, boring infact. I have also come to another conclusion. I want to change my hair. Not cut, not colored, but permed. I am sick of not being able to wear it down b/c i had it in a pony tail for 10 min. Plus, i want bangs. But this will be done at home. Ohio, wear they dont charge you 40 bucks for a trim. Yes, i think i should make an appointment. The question is, before or after Kara's wedding, maybe i should ask her, she might not want permed hair in her wedding, and she loves the random wedding decisions. :) Alright, No class tommorrow till 1. I'm out.

Cadd

So when did I sign away my life to an ever vowed CAD? Are all landscape architects Cadmonkeys? Or just the new ones. I realized today that I haven't picked up a pencil to draw in 6 weeks. Normally that thought would make me exstatic, but not when Cadd is my pencil, ruler, and yes even my eraser. No word yet on the Blood tests, and I am still taking the steroid drops 3 times a day. My poor eye. Oh and a new development, my ear lobes swollen. I don't understand why. Its not even swollen near the piercing hole, nor was i wearing earrings when it developed. I hope taking some benedril will bring the sweelign and its fever down. No big news, plan on going to the jazz concert with Jeff this weekend. Otherwise...I'm out.

Weekend

So started the weekend off with a nice Saturday morning. We went to the mission to meet up with other classmates and other citezens of the town. The goal was to lable all 4000 gutters in the city with a tag so that people know that all water that goes down the drain, goes into the creek. It went well, and we even got on tv. The 6 of us put down only 24 of the 4000 stickers. Saturday night, a group of us did a night hike up Madonna Mountain. Safe wide path, but once we got to the top, the only view we had was of the rocks around us. As the clouds were so low that we were in them. Today, I didn't do much. I showed the free room to a guy in Biochem. Nice guy, I'll update later on who we finally choose. I also went to a forum for my CRP class. A man with the name of Goodstein gave a talk about his book, OUT OF GAS. He is a physicist and he told of the options of the US after the loss of oil. An issue for either the near future or a far one, take your pick. He supported ethanal as an option, one of many, and now i need to write a paper about it. Let's hope i can make my professor think that i believe everything i write.

Wall

OK, so i finished my CADD drawing for tommorrow, just have to have it printed.... The wall, yes the infamous retaining wall did not go as well as planned. But first, an annoyance. In this day and age, when woman asks for everything a man has, the same rights, the same pay,the same respect, wouldn't she expect that in other ways then aswell. Maybe it's the hands on person in me, but i have to admit at being bothered when asked for strong men to do heavy lifting, but i accept it. But when I am asking for a stool to lift a 10 gallon bucket of sand, and a fellow female tells me to ask a guy to lift it, it just perturbs me....more than a little. Oh well, respect goes, where respects due. Ok, so the wall. All my pours seemed to be alright, but i had to patch the back of my fountain. It didn't seal and when time came for it to fill, the water just left outside the back, never reaching the awaiting precipice. :( No waterfall, but according to the prof, the complexity of the pour style allows me to go in tommorrow to seal it. Then i can photograph it properly and show you all, the process...as odd as it went. Alright, CM reading, then I am out.

Finished my homework for Friday. Yay CADD, maybe I can get ahead of the game tomm. Goodnight.

CADD- computer aided drafting/design

Ok so quick update. as it's late. CAD has the steepest learning curve i have ever seen in a computer program. I lerned more today alone, than i would had i taken two quartres of the cad classes offered here. Good. Yes. Problems with CAD, many more than one ways to skin the cat. This causes issues in troubleshooting for common problems. Also....never forget to hit enter. Oh, layers are my friend. I spent 15 hours today Cadding minus the class hours and trip to the gym, where we have new tvs for every machine :), so, 11 hourse, break for dinner, home at 1030. So tommorrow, will there be more cad? heck yeah. This issue causes a lack of entries, as once i am done working, the last thing i want to do is work on a computer, unless it it a videogame, movie, or tv show ;). night

Day

Long day, thought id fill all...haha...of you in. Went to class at 8 am as always, to Construction management class, took an hour long nap on the gross couch in studio, went to work, and worked on my construction documents from 1 in the afternoon to 10 tonight. No joke, no breaks except for the mac and cheese i ate for dinner. Just finished researching different permeable paving materials and the like, so now i am off to bed. :)

Tuesday

So....guess what. I am sitting in Jeff's living room, writing a blog, while borrowing wireless from a neighbor, on a brand new laptop. It's beautiful. It even matched my cell phone, down to the brushed metallic look. :) It runs very smoothly and smells of new hardware Yum. I'm joining Jeff, Doug, and John for dinner and then we might go to Best Buy and Staples in order to get a case to proetct my parents' beautiful investment. All i need to do now it to figure out how to remove some of the prrograms from the startup tray. I'm out.

Design week friday

So Friday morning i went in at 10 am in order to help finish up the detail sketches, sections and overall package. I did a couple drawings of our apartment buildings and the shotgun house neighborhoods. Our presentaion went rather smoothly and we got all our information out as far as i can remember. When watching the other groups, it was very exciting to see what ideas they had come up with. One group in particular decided to help the problem by using what they called a redundant levy system. the plan contained the original, but improved levy with a large park dileneated by a larg ridge that would act as a temporary levy in an emergency situation like there was last summer. I loved it. hours 10-530

Thurs

Hours 1-530 730-12 Ok, so its late, i know, but i gotta get this down. So i joined the group after class at 1 this afternoon and worked on the final design work with Buck and Tricia. We managed to delineate the higher and lower density areas, as well as adding in the schools, and civic center. We accommodated for most of the removed homes that are in our wetland area and retention ponds. Later from 730-12 we worked on detail sketches and final drawings. We are going to meet at 10 tommorrow morning to finish the renderings, sections and details before the presentations at 1.

DW wednesday

Ok, i missed yesterday, i know, time logged, 10-12 2-5. Ok, so yesterday to start off, i had to redo some diagrams we had done the day before on flooding zones, commercial areas and historical buildings, not too bad. Then after CRP class, we evaluated what areas should not be built on again. The areas way below sea level that gave the citiznes a false sense of security will be used as retention areas. The only buildings placed there will be for educational purposes on flood water management. We presented, and were told to go ahead to the next step.
Today-1-5 While i was at work and in class, my group further delineated the areas and what types of use they would be for. Only 1 church and two schools will be moved. The commercial areas will be relocated for easy access to the neighborhoolds. and the main streets will become green corridors to connect residents to the proposed light rail, schools, churches and comercial areas. I'm out, got some river front sections to do.

Design week, day one

Time logged, 945-1045, work, 100-600.
I have to say, this design week will not be as frustrating as last year's. I think that my group is sincere and will end up being a pretty hard working group. Ideas were thrown out quite proliferatly and thats just awesome. While some may not actually work, and some may not be conceiveble to do, they were still good thoughts. The only thing i hope for is that someone other than myself will be doing the drawings. No one made me do them, but i was the only one that seemed that they would step forward and get them down in the time allotted. The presentations and videos were rather eye-opening. To know that the destruction is still so prevailent is a little alarming. There were photos of messages written on homes byt the owners saying that they will be back. Some said please dont tear down my house, while i am away and waiting for my insurance to kick in really got to me. Some of these people have no choice about going home. I know i would be extremely frustrated and annoyed if the govoernemnt told me i could not return to pick up the broken pieces of my home, i dont know what i would do. Oh well. IT hasn't happened to me yet, and lets just hope it never will.

Design week

Well my new ipod is atleast in the right country and state, but whatever. My first true attemp at teaching myself autocad was a little of a bust. I dont think it would have been too hard to make a title block, but i couldn't successfully set the drawing limits. Oh well, tommorrow is another day, full of autocad amatuers. :) Tommorrow also is the beginning of design week. That time of the year when all the larcs get together in one room and try to design for a week. Yay.:-P It should be interesting i guess. Ans like last year we are required to log the info of what we have done that week, so i will try to use my blog as that. Atleast this way, i wont have to type the info twice :-D

Goodnight.

So my ipod has departed from Indianapolis. Lets hope it comes early this week.

Saturday

Not much news. Kevin Stewart is in town from what i hear, and I went up to Paso yesterday with Jeff. WE found him new shoes, but no shoes for Kara's wedding for me yet. Though i did get quite a pretty dress for $20, i juts need to lose some more weight before it looks just right. :) But i shall try, if not, i'll give it to kara, cause i think it would look pretty good on her.

What movie is this quote from?

"This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."
"

Interview

Well actually, i would like to say i went to an interview today, but that wouldn't be true. I went to visit a firm in Santa Maria called Pleinaire, check the link. There are 2 Cal POly alumn that work there and 5 others. They do half residential half commercial work. I should be getting a call tommorrow from the Principal, so here's hoping.

I'm back

Ok, so after winter Quarter when Omar owned my soul and i was consumed by 20 units of class, i now have time to breathe, relax and reflect. I got a 3.495 in the quarter btw so atleast it was not money wasted. I finished Omar project of 150 homes on a 26 acre site and received and A- in the class, not too shabby if i do say so myself. And wonderfully, over spring break, with Christine, i did something i have never done, and something i haven't done in over a decade. I went to Yosemite and i went skiing. Both were awesome, inspiring, and influencing of annual visits. I only fell twice skiing, and there was more pain in the getting up than the fall. It was on the first day of spring and it was snowing at Badger Pass. Ahh, yes, it snowed about 8 inches in the 4 hours of snow. The rides on the ski lift left about an inch of snow on christine's and my laps. Yosemite was more beautiful than i iomagined, and let me tell you, the pictures will never do it justice. Never. It might have helped my veiw of it that it was foggy as we went into the valley and i first veiwed El Capitan when we were directly under it. Wow. If anyone would like to join me on a return visit, you are more than welcome. Oh we got a letter that the lease is being reoffered at the LARC HOUSE. Yay, but unfortunately, two of my roomates will not return. Kelly is going to Italy for the year and Julie will be studying in Athens...no not in Greece, but in Georgia. Good luck to them both. So if you know any LARC females looking for a place for next year...let me know. Ok, I'm out. goodnight and Gracias Cesar Chavez- Don't ask, just look him up, or atleast look at our academic calendar. :-D

Click the link.

I'm an Artisan...what are you?

New Year

The first update of the quarter, and New year. But in my defense i have been very busy. I am taking 20 units, the most ever and will soon be learning how much work that really entails. I am no longer working at the garden grill. Atleast for this quarter and I am not taking the class for New Orleans, a few less stressors, but that doesn't mean it wont be hard. I am taking the normal design, but with Omar, an Indian design nazi. I am taking a planting design class which is supposed to take just as much time as a normal design class. I am taking professional practice. Environmental decision making and an irrigation class, complete with the rain bird manual. To top it off i am taking Gary Dwyer's infamous portfolio class. One he came out of retirement to teach. But i think he is glad to do it. Usually a hard-ass he gave me two seperate complements today, well i guess it was the same one. But it was said 6 hours aprt. Apparently i am a person good with words and he remembers that from being my prof once, over a year ago. So a pick me up for a school day that was 12 hours long. Well atleast i dont have class till 12 tomm. Sleep in time for me :)