Mid-Semester Update

(Note: I started this post in November - and apparently didn't finish it, then forgot about it. It's now the middle of the following semester, but I thought I'd go ahead and post it anyway!)

Hello all,

I will soon stop apologizing for not posting regularly, because I realize that I will never be a regular post-er. So without further ado, here are some of the things I've been working on here in my first semester of architecture school.

We begin, of course, with food! Now that I'm in grad school, my primary recreational activity is cooking for myself. Not that I have much time - I probably only cook once or twice a week. When I do, this is what I like to make: chili! We begin with ingredients... and then the final product. Very tasty.

I also decided to try my hand at pumpkin pie, which meant I saved my Halloween pumpkin, roasted it (and the seeds), and pureed it in tiny batches in my tiny food processor. Then froze it. Eventually I'll make a pie! Next to the roasted pumpkin is the pie I actually made at the time - apple, I think.

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Book Review: "Theory and Design in the First Machine Age"

Reyner Banham's Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960) is an engaging overview of the important theoretical developments of the early 20th century leading up to the "International Style" of the 1930s-40s. Banham does a fairly good job, in my opinion, of avoiding excessive editorializing, although he has a clear viewpoint on the Modern Movement and finishes with a strong conclusion. In opposition to his teacher, Nikolaus Pevsner, whose own history of modernism came out in 1936, Banham dismantled the "form follows function" credo that became the stereotype of modernism, arguing instead that formalism (a preoccupation with style and aesthetics) was an important, if not overriding, concern of Modern architects. Two sections of the book struck me in particular: his analysis of Le Corbusier's famous book Vers une architecture (Toward a [new] architecture) from 1923, and his Conclusion (chapter 22), where he breaks the link between functionalism and …

Vertical Bike Rack

The work of our hands!

A little backstory: We bought two bikes as soon as we could after moving here, so we could both bike to work. After a few uneventful months of chaining up our bikes next to our car in the carport of our apartment building, Justin's bike was stolen. (Mine was mysteriously left behind, together with Justin's pannier, which the thieves helpfully folded up and placed on top of my bike. My only guess is that the chain holding my bike was harder to cut than the chain on Justin's.) Since then, we've kept our bikes inside, hauling them up and down two flights of stairs to our third-floor apartment every time we take them out, which is usually a few times a week. Ugh. Better than buying a new bike every few months, though.

We needed a rack that would keep the bikes off the floor, off the walls, and in as small a footprint as possible, without requiring us to drill into or otherwise damage the walls (or floor or ceiling). This proved a challenge t…

Voter's Guide - June 5, 2018 Election, Santa Clara County

If you're like me, you spend a lot of time figuring out who to vote for, because there is no single place to get all the voter information you need. So, since I have already spent the last several hours deciding how to vote, I've compiled all the information I used here, so you can decide for yourself! This is relevant to the Santa Clara County election here in California, so if you are looking for San Francisco-specific information, you can try SPUR or other sources. Obvious disclaimer: I am looking for progressive candidates who support strong liberal policies on the environment, housing, education, human rights, and the economy. If you disagree with me, you may want to look elsewhere.

For each position or proposition, I'm going to list the position, my recommendation, link to my sources, and then note other viable candidates (if any).

State & National Offices

Governor: Gavin Newsom
Former SF mayor Gavin Newsom has an almost overwhelming amount of policy object…

Not Built in a Day

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