Time

I can't believe how quickly time is going by on me. It seems like we just started winter quarter and I had ten weeks ahead of me to get things figured out, but that is no longer the case. I have only one jewelry smithing class left, and I feel as though I have barely started. I only now finished my first ring, making it a grand total of two things I have made, though I will have time to finish whatever I want the rest of the quarter, when I have free time...if I have free time.
My final project design needs to be complete by this Friday so that we can have more than ample time to fully render the final boards to our liking. I think I might do mine entirely in pencil. It's been awhile and I think I would have fun with it.
I decided after only one day that I don't like my new cell phone. I already called in to tmobile to get the facts on how to return it and will do it tomorrow, or wednesday. It's kind of sad, but the phone is too wide and thing for me, I need a more substantial phone.

I bought a comb today.

San Diego Trip: Part Two

Wow, really long weekend. The zoo was so much fun! I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good day at the zoo before. The leader of the group, Azlynn, grew up going to the zoo almost daily because her mother is an animal behaviorist there. She got us the connection so we could save almost $100 a piece. Mary and I started the day at 730 and were at the zoo early, even before it opened. When the group of us finally got together, one of the architectural coordinators of the zoo, Robyn Badger, gave us a small tour of the latest phase. She kept saying that she was an architect, an architect, but we all knew with what she did, that she was acting as a landscape architect. When we went to the new orangutan exhibit Azlynn showed us how one of them, who grew up around humans would interact with us. She was very interested in the boy who opened his bag, and the things he would take out of it. She was also especially interested in the sketchbooks all of us had with us. We then broke for lunch, and Mary and I split a hot dog combo and a bag of cotton candy, they both were actually pretty good. After lunch, we went with a girl named Laurie that Azlynn worked with in the camps. She took out some of the animals in the children’s zoo so that we could see them including a pygmy falcon, a hedgehog and a 3 banded armadillo. After the small show, an older woman joined us to start the “special guest” tour. We all followed her through closed doors to the back of the rhino exhibit. The room was covered with paintings done by the resident, and one by a near by elephant. We went through with a pail of apples and the girl Laurie called for Graham. It didn’t take long for him to come, and we were all shocked at how calm he was. Laurie started feeding him and called us over to pet him. Well, I now know, rhinos feel like warm dry semi-deflated old leather basketballs. After we left Graham we all got on a bus for a tour of the zoo. We learned a lot of the behind the seen information and about the construction processes. Once, we stopped the bus on the path to get out at the camel exhibit. Ok, I will clear up the whole “watch out they spit thing”. From what I have seen, camels do not spit, they just drool about twice as much as a Great Dane in front of ham, only thicker. There fur is rather coarse and kind of oily, but still not as matted as it would seem. We all got to feed them camel biscuits of some kind. We then finished the bus tour that concluded with the giraffes. Again we went in the backside to call them over for some acacia branches. Apparently it was the first time to baby had come over to feed from guests, so it was kind of neat. I got to feed one named Silver, and to see first hand, the large purple tongue. The rest of the day we finished most of the cat canyon, and once Azlynn had us stop to howl in the middle of the path. Apparently there is a wolf, who lived behind the scenes, who was not on display, would answer back. Answer he did. It was very eerie as we couldn’t really see the source. In the cat canyon we saw a number of large cats who actually were moving a lot for that time of the afternoon. One, a lynx would actually play tag with you, back and forth across the exhibit. Once he got frustrated that he wouldn’t catch you, he would jump up on his branch to brood and watch. He was our last animal of the day, and we said thank you to the tour guide and Laurie.

Mary and I left early the next day and met up with Sahoko for breakfast in Huntington Beach, and then continued on with one more. We didn’t get back to town till 2 pm, but it was a fun drive none the less. A fun weekend too. Though, very tiring.

San Diego Trip: Part One

OK, so, its been a long couple of days, but it is far from done. We drove down here to San Diego last night. Leaving SLO at 4:30, with a dinner in between, we got to Mary’s friends apartment at 10:30. Luckily, we didn’t hit too much traffic. Sahoko, Mary and I spent the night on a pull out couch. We woke up at 7 am to shower and get ready to visit the first firm. We went to KTU+A where they gave us a breakfast of fresh bagels, spread, juice and fruit. We visited with the Principals and met up with some Alumni. At a firm of 34 people, they had 21 people from Cal Poly. No….they don’t have favoritism, not at all. Cough….cough…. We then left to go to lunch. Since our friend Logan always talkes about a burrito place in San Diego, we decided to make him jealous that he is halfway arounf the world. The burritos, I must say, were delicious. They were cheap too. 3.60 for your while luch is not half bad. We then went to a firm called Burton Studio in Solana Beach. The frim was a little trendy for me, but I was very excited about their 29 inch monitors for each work station. They also had a whole wall in their retrofitted warehouse full of books of design in any field. We left early to bring Sahoko to downtown, so that she could interview for an intership at the San diego branch of EDAW. While she was in their, Mary and I walked downtown to the embarcadero, where we saw both an old sail boat, with 3 masts and a large cruise liner about to disembark. Eventually, Mary and I found our way to Little Italy where there were many different small restaurants and we found ourselves by the Blick Studio store, where I purchased some large tubes of paint at a ¼ of the price as they would have been in SLO. We then met up with Sahoko. As we were supposed to then go to the Fort Rosecrans National Cematary, we headed towards the peninsula. We never actually met up with the rest of our group there, but we did explore the cemetray. There was a computerized system of finding the graves, so I was curious to see if there were any family members buried there. I actually found one. A Carl Minkkinen was buried there with his wife Doris. I took some pictures and was rather happy that my relative’s grave has such a nice view above the sea. When we left the memorial, we finally got cell phone reception and met up with the SCASLA group. We went to Old Town, the first settlement in California for dinner where we ate at a Mexican Cantina built in 1827. It was very good food, even though I only got a salad, I nibbled everyone else’s. After dinner, our car went back to mary’s friends apartment, then brought Sahoko to the train station so she can go see her brother. We then went downtown to walk around and see the place. Mary and her old friends ate dinner at a Tiki Restaurant, I had water…ehh, I wasn’t hungry. We then bought brownie mix and I am going to sit and start my reading before the brownies are done, and I go to bed, as it is already 10 pm and we all have a long day tomorrow. Yay, San Diego Zoo.

Thursday

Well I dont think i should be particularly suprised, but today in my speech class, after a horrible altercation with my Econ test, we were all lectured on the subject of respect in the classroom. After the somewhat, shall we say, perturbing muttering during my own speech on Tuesday, I can't say that I can disagree with the professor for the time used.
I dont have much free time these days and I have to complete four more drawings for design tommorrow. TGIF. I also need to decide another debate topic, make a senior project proposal, and clean my room for someone to look at it for a sublet.
I am excited at my progress in the preparations for Europe however. I got my concentration of Landscape Perception signed by my advisor, and have finally determined the direction of my senior project. I want to do some sort of interactive park. I know that in Europe, they have playgrounds for adults, but I want to make one for everyone. I might even try include a universal access park, maybe one that isn't even boring? I still need to find a location for my stimulating construction, but atleast I now know where I am looking. I also believe that my independent study will be through the peoples interaction with the landscape. I could probably also distill that more later.

Yay, I also got $94 in rebates today. I should be getting $30 more in the next few days.


Quote of the day. "It takes genius and bias to do great work"
-Some guy from SWA