The first time not solo

I've never worked on an architecture design project with someone else before. Did the same project as everyone else and commented on each other's designs, yes, but I've always had my own scheme, and had to cover every aspect of the design--from conception to presentation drawings--by myself. Kinda like the way most people write papers.

In entering this Design Competition, I wanted to work with someone because I didn't think I had time to do everything by myself! The guidelines were issued on Saturday morning, and our drawings due on Monday morning. And I have things to do, like attend Mattia's play (depressingish Russian comedy, Chekov), make an appearance at the UCU girl's social (Ben and I won the couple's look-alike contest! And no, I didn't wear a fake beard or anything), go to a job interview (I'm applying to be a barista at the coffeeshop in the building where all my classes are:), go to church and a meeting there (volunteer to host a fondue party, um, yeah) make it to the UCU officer's meeting (only two more to go), and of course, do homework.

Anyway, I'm working with my old friend Clayton, who's a year ahead of me in school. And it's fun! Using doing design is usually a chore, but for some reason in this real-life situation, with only two days to do the work, it's intriguing. And we can divide tasks! For example, I'm pretty good at constructing perspective drawings of a space, but not much good at drawing people or toning it in. But Clayton is! Yeah! And we can win money! Possibly:)

So I'm really enjoying this design competition thing, and slacking on my design project for class. I'll probably do all the work for that Monday morning. Well... back to the drawing board;)

God bless. He is indeed good.

I'm entering an intense design competition this weekend! It should be quite the experience!

My goodness, I've had so much trouble getting work done these last couple days. I get on the computer in my room, which is connected to the internet and also has addictive games like freecell and bridgebuilder and of course, AOL IM. I also have a phone and roommates who like to talk.
So last night I escaped! Kate and I ran away to Starbucks together to study for midterms together!... and unfortunately spent an hour and a half talking.
Sigh.
So I punished myself into staying up til 2:30 to work on a paper. Well, not punished, persay, but wouldn't let myself sleep until I had a certain amount done. I think I really didn't get much done until 1 am, when the house was starting to quiet down, and I was starting to get frustrated with my unproductiveness.
So I am undisciplined. But God does provide a spirit of discipline. Need to rely on him more, like I finally did last night. It was good.

More on the design competition, and on my summer internship later!

Walking down the street today, I was feeling really good about all the commuting by foot I do. "So much exercise!" says I to myself, "And I really appreciate the space, and experience the weather, and I don't pollute the environment with exhaust and need to pay for a car! I want to express this identity as a pedestrian in a tangible way! In fact,

they should make a bumper sticker that says Pedestrian Pride!

But wait, where would I put it?

Um, ahem.

Nevermind.

Colorado here I come!

This summer I am going to be an architecture intern with Engineering Ministries international, based in Colorado! I am soooo excited! This is going to be such a great learning and growing opportunity, Lord willing;)

I have a candle with coffee beans in it.

More later (tell me if you want to *financially support* me in this missionary endeavour!)

Ecclesiastes 7:21

It's interesting, and certainly scary, and occasionally encouraging, to try to picture how other people see you. These are all things that have been said about or to me. All except two of them in the past year, and all by different people.

note: most of the negative things said about me were probably out of earshot. See above passage. You can create them yourself:) Just don't tell me, unless it would m'prove my character.


"Your silly sense of humor, I may never understand..."

"The realness of the supernatural which you live is a challenge to you, but you live in that reality."

"Lisa. Weird chick."

"You're the quiet one."

"You have been such a great friend..."

"Doesn't show good understanding of design hierarchy."

"Talking to Lisa is like going to a grocery store only to discover it's been a comic book store all along."

"No offense, but you either have light, shallow conversations, or you go really deep one-on-one. So forgive me if I don't spend much time in groups with you..."

"You are beautiful and truly amazing."

"You can be really selfish."

"Shows significant improvement."

"God is just a part of your being."

"I love the randomness of your character."

"The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

Shriek!

Someone I know, as in: my age, as in: I've spent time hanging out with in the past, as in: read his website occasionally, is published!

Check it out

The strange thing is that the novella in this book, The Women of Andros, was a hot topic of discussion when I was counselling at Lake Retreat back in 2001. Tim was editting it; apparently most girls who read it were offended by it at the time, and most guys liked it. I never got to sample it.

Sigh... :) Lake Retreat memories. Makes me want to play Star Wars mafia and go swimming in the middle of the night. Um *ahem* not that I ever did that...

Today is important!

It marks the first all-nighter of this quarter!

Or maybe the second.

It is the day we will nominate new officers at UCU. My retirement is near.

It is the day I register for next quarter's classes.

It is the day of the mid-term review for my studio project. (hence the all-nighter)

It is the day that I will find out and decide where I will be this summer, and next fall.

To be continued...

Last night I clowned around at Java Night.

Beforehand, I was stressed because I was in charge of the food and hot drinks, and I snapped at people. It wasn't good. I took deep breaths, and felt guilty, and was nicer. Raeleen saved the day by bringing her espresso maker and being a barista the entire time. People ate the cookies some of the girls had made. Andy came too, and got volunteered for some improv comedy, which I thought he pulled off pretty well. Ben helped out a ton-- with the setting up and my moodiness:)

Bryan MCed, I got cast as the Lovely Assistant, and Pete led some worship. Kate was amazing playing one of the Monty Python guys playing an old lady in a skit about murder. She also played the drum set! My sis is quite the talented one; she is so cool. Joel and Luke did sound. The guy who sits behind me in astromony did nothing. Allen did, well, half of the show practically. I think my fav was his finale: called "Ode to Springtime," a song about "Poisoning pigeons in the park." Andrea went up to the mike between acts and burped loudly (my roommate is quite the gal). Jon, Pete, Mark, and Aaron sang dramatically to "Bohemian Rhapsody." (wow). And I, as said before, clowned around to "Sleep" by Riley Armstrong. Cheryl (my other cool sister) choreographed a dance to the chorus a couple of weeks ago for me. I made a mockery of the whole "dancing" thing, but fortunately, it was funny. Jaime played the guitar with a group doing "Worlds Apart" by Jars.

So it was a good night. I'm not sure how many people reading my site actually know these people, but that's okay:) You can imagine them.

OH, and Lost in Translation. We watched it afterwards, and it's a great movie. Slow, and definitely depressing. But well filmed, and gets you thinking and asking questions. It even got worked into my dreams last night.

There is nothing that makes us love someone so much as praying for them.

William Law


It makes sense!


Design is a parti-colored, odd bird. There are design absolutes, but those are few and far between. What the designer is left with is guidelines, forebearers, logic, and lots of intuition-- designers make decisions with a peculiar mix of abstraction, facts and psychology.

Generally, each design has a "thesis"-- a main point, or theme. The functional elements necessary to the building being used all support this thesis, and are a product of cascading decisions derived from the first important decision.

But in the past, and sometimes today elements arrive because "that's just the way it's done," or because any other way is physically impossible.

Some people design to simply to maximize space-- to fit the most possible into the lowest economic range. But that can starve the life from a building. Imagine taking some great work of literature and trying to cut out as many words as possible. Sure, you could get the story a whole lot shorter, but at what cost?

Imagine:

A young scholar studies old books in December. A bird knocks on his door. He lets it in. It squacks something that sounds like a word. The young man falls into a melancholy mood, grieving for his dead lover.

What was this originally?


The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe.

Seriously, I know which I prefer. Why are so many average buildings so... average? Humdrum? Blah? Sometimes, because they are starved of poetry, and cut to the basics.

Other times, because the designer is just no good:)

New favorites:

Stash's Black Peach Tea (meaning that the tea is black, not the peach) Yum.

Oregon Chai -- it comes in packets now! Very portable yumminess.

Making your screensaver come out of the computer: mine is a tropical waterfall, and with a vase of flowers next to it, it looks like the foliage is emerging from the screen!

The New Treasury of Tea -- it's a novel as well as an encyclopedia of teas. Surprisingly, the story of tea's history explains a lot of world history AND is entertaining to boot! The guy who wrote it was originally a wine conessouir, but became an alcoholic. So he turned to tea to stave his cravings, and eventually learned to love it too. I'll have to look up his name.

Mini popcorn packets! No idea where to find these, but some girl in my studio makes them. I end up making a whole bag and eating it myself all too often... so these look practical. I wonder if they have them in kettle.

Ballad!! Why did Kate say it was boring?!

Operation World. An amazing prayer guide. For example, did you know that Samoa is 40% Mormon? And that Antigua and Barbuida are strongholds of weapons smuggling and drug sales? I never know what to say when praying for "the world," I mean "I pray for all the missionaries and that people come to Christ"? Good prayer, but it's so vague that it's hard to mean it. This book gives enough info to pray measurable specific stuff.

Expressions like "Boo-yeah!" "Hiccy-biccy-boo." And the wonderful ol' skool "Sike!"

Starlight Cafe on the Oasis. It used to be Still Life on the Ave, but either someone bought it out or it felt the need for a fresh identity.

No clothes on this list. I dress the same way I have for the past few years.

Similar comment for music. I hear new music I like, but I haven't bought a CD in quite a time. I think my spare money goes more towards... food.

Heather-style chicken is good, and that's free! At UCU, similarly take a couple frozen chicken breasts out, and defrost in the microwave. Then cook them in a pan with a bit of butter and Johnny's flavoring until they're slightly brown. De-licious.

I'm designing a cinematheque in Ballad.

How many people read this site for a spot of escapism? How many to "keep up with me"? How many because they deeply care about me?

It's curious that I don't have much idea, and honestly, I don't want a head count... I just find myself wondering this as I glance at other's blogs with sheer voyerism and for the joy of stories... and the stories written on blogs, though much more fragmented than novels, can be more interesting because they are true (and not written to sell!)

Sometimes I look into the lives of people who are "famous," but not with a worshipful attitude, and not with any addiction. I would rather read about the day in the life of someone I can learn from-- someone "real." Not that "famous" people are not real. I just get the impression that to attain such a position, edges and layers are built up-- that may not be as easily undone. Pretense is not very interesting.

Ben wants to meet his favorite authors. I do not. There are several reasons for this, but one is that I feel I have such an odd view of who they are-- I can infer some very personal things, but don't know a lot of the basics. Where do you go from there? So instead I appreciate their works, and don't pursue starting a relationship on such an awkward, uneven basis. My pride partly contributes to this. I have a strong aversion to pursuing any level of a relationship of someone who has no interest in me, and no way that I can give to them.

I actually got to spend some quality time with Ben and with God this weekend. Went to Whidbey Island, and Ben and I read our Bibles in my parent's vacation house. Then we walked the beach, and explored the forest:)-- I took Ben out to tea (he liked it after he got over all the pastels) and he taught me how to skip rocks, and then we went to dinner with my parents, and went and heard some Irish music. It was a good Valentine's Day:)

Today I delivered packets of info to people in my church about our move to a new building. It's so exciting that we're going to have a ton more room to accomplish all the purposes that God sets out for us! Also watched an anime -- Millenium Princess -- (I never quite get anime, though I do enjoy it half the time, and half of those times because I'm laughing at what I don't understand).

Okay, serious need to get off the computer, I "ought to be in bed."
(recognize the line? Probably not. Hint: in a musical)

This morning was sunny. My roommate Heather threw open the window exclaiming "It's summer!" and then went to put on a pair of shorts. Andrea, on the other hand, keeps insisting that it is not summer. Apparently she had actually been outside.

Holly O. has food poisoning from Ivar's. I'm glad that I've never been food poisoned. I thought I was once, but it was actually the flu. Not nearly as much fun.

Pete thinks that I'm running around school wearing a fishnet shirt and purple hair, but I'm actually not. I snuck out of the house in normal clothing, and I'll change into all that stuff for my performance tonight when I get back.

I lost the bet.

So... I haven't updated much lately. I guess the most exciting parts of my life right now consist of

A) Architecture projects/my progress, etc. Which is cool but often difficult to explain and not very interesting to most.

B) Sorority/UCU activities. I love the stuff going on in my house right now. But I feel so exclusive writing, "And then Hannah had Megan for Pixie week! The day the guys did the Root Beer mile (I hear Tim, who has a mullet for the week, did some impressive projectile vomiting) we initiated the new girls, and it went over fine, except that issue with the loud music on second..." I mean, seriously. UCU stuff brings so much fun into my life, but it often turns people off a lot-- because it's all about people you don't know doing activities with names you've never heard. It's one thing to say "One of my roommates is one crew," and another to say something like the statement above. UCU isn't meant to be exclusive... but it is a part of my life that no one except the people I live with can really relate to. Except maybe Ben, who visits frequently, and he still feels out of the loop a lot. That could be partly because I invited him to the Tuesday all-girl's dinner last week;)

Come to think of it, architecture and UCU are similar in this way... the people in my program could care less about UCU, and the people in UCU are interested in me, but can't really follow the architecture thing.

C) The future. I'm making a lot of decisions right now. Well, actually more like 5 or 6, but they're pretty huge. I'd rather write about them when they're set. I'm fairly sure where I'll be in life next quarter, but after that, I'm not sure at all. And there's so many thoughts buzzing around in my head, keeping my brain constantly busy, that it would take forever to write them out.

Putting brownie mix in hot chocolate makes it taste better.

The first library ever in Seattle was burnt down by its crazy librarian.

If I loose a bet this week, I have to dye my hair temporarily pink, and do a Pink karoke in front of both UCU houses.

Sorry about that. The links are for my studio class. they're pictures of old Ballard, and current Ballard.

20th toward Ballard.jpg

ballard high school.jpg

ballard locks.jpg

bridge.jpg

city hall.jpg



mill.jpg

railroad.jpg

streetcar.jpg

swedish evangical lutheran church.jpg

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A Poem (not written by me)

My name is Pride, and I am a cheater

I cheat you out of your God-given destiny
Because you demand your own way

I cheat you out of contentment
Because you “deserve better than this”

I cheat you out of knowledge
Because you already know it all

I cheat you out of healing
Because you’re too full of me to forgive

I cheat you out of holiness
Because you refuse to admit when you’re wrong

I cheat you out of vision
Because you’d rather look in the mirror than out the window

I cheat you out of genuine friendship
Because nobody’s going to ever know the real you

I cheat you out of love
Because real romance demands sacrifice

I cheat you out of greatness in heaven
Because you refuse to wash another’s feet on earth

I cheat you out of God’s glory
Because I convince you to see your own

My name is Pride and I am a cheater

You like me because you think I’m always looking out for you
Untrue … I’m always looking to make a fool of you

God has so much for you, I admit, but don’t worry…
If you stick with me, you’ll never know.

The Word is Life!

"The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

I can't accurately describe how this truth gives me hope! If the God of the universe is rejoicing over me... man, life is worth living. He loves me!!

Since that strongbad email, I've been in the mood for a good text-based adventure game. And I found one!

http://www.robinjohnson.f9.co.uk/adventure/hamlet.html

You are Hamlet, and must kill Claudius! Good times, indeed. Try it!