A set of friends (Nathan, Caitlin, Patrick) and I have started documenting our respective/collective job searches on our homemade whiteboard. Called "The [ ]hiteboard" or "Wall of Rejection", it displays lists of places we've applied; documents interviews, fade-outs/no-responses/empty sets; and acts as a gallery for tangbile rejection letters (so far we have only two--email seems to be the rejection m.o. in these economic times). So far I feel good about it. Maybe we'll have a party when we hit a big figure, i.e. 30 rejections (so far we're at 16) or 75 applications (currently at 45). So far I've applied to the fewest jobs, but have the highest interview:application ratio (3:8), so I'm feeling good(ish) about things. There are planning jobs out there, I swear it--we'll all be gainfully employed, or at least close to it, by the end of August.

I took Mao to the groomer's for a Lion Cut on Monday (see it here!). He's so far garnered at least four new nicknames: Muskrat, Brook Trout, Tiny Lion, Possum. I expect more to develop.

Once, in early June of '09, I junketed to the west coast. With Sacramento as a home base, Nathan, Patrick, sundry others (we kept trading off respective sets of friends), and I blitzed up to Portland, back down to San Fran through Davis, up to Berkeley, over to Oakland, and then finally through Santa Cruz before returning to Sac and ending our travels. Each city was unique, but I think I got a decent sense of a general west-coast ethos/lifestyle/whatnot: (somewhat) relaxed, chosen, and relatively independent of the other 49 estados. Some superlatives: I most liked meeting Portlanders, watching San Franciscans, enjoying the arid sunny climes of Sacramento, admiring the gardens in Berkeley, and feeling the morning haze burn off into a glorious, mild afternoon in Santa Cruz. Take me back!

The pickled beets (last post) were delicious, but too sweet.

Lately, the architecture/urban planning listserv has been peppered with emails about the program's newly acquired laser cutters. I can't imagine having to use one myself, but due to frequent stream of emails I now feel pretty knowledgeable about their quirks (overheating, shorting out, etc.). A word cloud and some facts:




* total emails about laser cutters (past 30 days): 8
* email frequency rate (average days between emails): 3.75
* total instances of 'laser(s)': 21
* average 'laser(s)' per email: 2.63
* total instances of 'tutorial(s)': 13
* total instances of 'sign-up/out': 13
* total instances of 'fablab' (administrative entity sending emails): 8

In an attempt to get rid of a head of red cabbage I [accidentally?] purchased last week, I've been eating a lot of ad hoc stir fries lately. Tonight's was especially delicious: onion, garlic, pickled ginger, cabbage, carrots, beets, tomatoes, tofu & rice. Victorious (the cabbage is almost gond!), I've found myself with about five lbs of beets to dispose of; no idearrrr how that's gonna happen. Maybe I'll pickle some of 'em (I didn't realize it was so easy!).

I've been reading HTWFAIP for a policy class, and it's a pretty entertaining go-round: lots of common sense instructions, advice on how to treat my wife, and quaint anecdotes. Bonus: my book was published in 1936, weighs about 0.0037 oz, and every page tears immediately upon use.

I can't stop:

It's been awhile, but my muse is gone. Gone gone gone. [update: with the new Animal Collective album and a little help from Byrne & Eno, it's back on some level.] Blam. Pow. A lot has happened since October '08's glorious Nica trip. Some snippets, in no particular order:

(a) My roommates and I created a whiteboard and painted one dining room wall a glorious orange (15 years of pumpkin pleasure). Quote from the Scio township Lowe's paint mixer as he opened the freshly mixed can for the first time: "and a roar goes up from the crowd as the pleasure pumpkin is revealed." It was a beautiful moment.

(b) I spent a glorious Thanksgiving in NYC (blitz round two), and then a month later enjoyed a kinda bizarre New Year's and winter break on the east coast: Dave, Chris and I drove from TC to NYC, I bussed to DC for New Year's celebrations, was chauffeured up to Baltimore a few days later, and then flew back to the Detroit area. I enjoyed my red hot second in NYC, saw more of DC than ever before, and was taken with parts of Baltimore. Some hitches: (1) all of my clothing minus that on my back was stolen on the way to DC. Fortunately Jess was kind enough to outfit me for the rest of my travels, with some supplemental intimates from Macy's; (2) my Baltimorean host, known to some as "Bunny", became violently ill on day 2 of my visit and I spent most of the day watching a (kind of boring) Ravens victory and lounging with borrowed parents.

(c) School's back in session. I'm excited about all my classes and capstone project, and am set to graduate in May. Future plans TBD, but be assured that they will include planning the pants off of some urbans, somewhere.

(d) We have a new prez. I keep forgetting!

(e) A set of friends and housemates traveled to Chicago this past weekend to visit a handful of Chicago residents. Parts of the weekend were chill, and parts were less so. A summary of locations and scenarios: delicious Thai Pastry, an amazing breakfast at Leen's corner diner, Special Export, stretching on air mattresses, hot water bottles, a round of Celebrity, the Green Mill at 2:30 a.m., Sabertooth (the band), boiling in the Phoenix Lounge, and some Obama-approved soul food. It was a relatively awesome trip, and a great way to kick off the semester.

Enough for now. It's good to be back, intermittently.

The picture above documents a taxi ride my Nicaragua travel fellows and I shared from Rivas to Bahia Majagual (more or less) in the SW of Nica. Beginning at 6:30/7:00 a.m. and lasting through close to 9:00, the ride provided nonstop entertainment including but not limited to some brazenly blasted "Take My Breath Away", a necessary nescafe/coca-light stop, some Foreigner, a demi-size steering wheel built for the racetrack, a tinted windshield, accusations of 7:00 a.m. rum drinking, a satisfying banana/lime/rum/gallo pinto stop, many a perilous road crossing (resulting once in complete rutting-out, which required at least 6 Nicaraguan caballeros to push 'er through the slick mud) and a river drop-off. Nicaragua: bless.

Last night, instead of doing some pre-Nicaragua* studying, I blitzed to see ze Baltimore Round Robin's "eyes night" at the MOCAD. The concept sounded a little wacky and certainly interesting, both of which it was. It was also nice on the eyes and, at times, really quite good. Post-dusk trips to Detroit have underpinned the semester's regular goings-on --> Greektown, a trip on the people mover, and sigur rós at the State/Fillmore were all amazing a few weeks back.

*I'm heading so Nica with some dear friends from the 16th through the 22nd of this month. Un nuevo traje de swimmin' just arrived in the mail and I'm ready to go; bring it Manags,.

Sometimes, in Chicago, I really miss things like O2-saturated air and hills. On the flip side, there are certain peerless joys here, like the portion of my commute (if I choose to do it on bike) that takes me past Blommer's, which is consistently and tantalizingly aromatic.

The south side is really growing on me, friends. A number of work- and frisbee-related ventures have brought me down as far as 103rd (the 103rd street bus garage: exempt from my affections) this summer, though the usual destination is Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and 55th (Washington Park) for summertime ultimate.Blitzing down Michigan from 33rd is rapidly turning into one of my favorite bicycle stretches in the city; the traffic is sparse, the old growth is luscious, the loitering is plentiful, some of the houses are incredibly beautiful; in general, the vibe is cool. Blitzing back up north to Danielle's, where I'm staying now and for the next 2 weeks, is less enjoyable, especially when the trip comes with a coupling of (1) serious tornado-like activity in the vicinity & (2) torrential downpours. This sound along with some other eerie noises cut my ride tragically short on Monday, and I was forced to cower in a corner under the freeway on 26th until I felt safe enough to dart to the nearest bus. Bless the summer fun pass and quick-drying orange shorts!

Urban Detox, anybody? Yes, please.

This past weekend was a confusing one in Ann Arbor; ah, the highs and lows of returning to the motherland. Mainly, a pulled muscle in my neck (Source: Epic bike ride #1 to Schiller Park with backward seat post on Monday? Sleeping in the fetal position on the floor that evening? epic bike ride #2 down potholey MLKJr Boulevard to the site of the future Olympic Stadium on Wednesday?) became increasingly more painful over the course of the weekend, and kept me from fulfilling my packing intentions as I'd hoped. That unhappy progression aside, it was simply glorious to blitz through a jungley Arboretum at dusk on Saturday, sit on the porch reading Murakami for the better part of Sunday morning, attend hipster house parties with a nalgene of g&t in hand, see fellow planners, stock up on By The Pound goods, recieve musculoskeletal advice from enCat's visiting dad and sister, and declump/brush/nuzzle large-and-in-charge Maotse (bringing back the hipster spelling for Summer '08) for hours on end.

Finally refreshed after nine hours of bolstered-neck sleeping (yesterday's shockingly early morning car ride, despite layers of Ben Gay, ice, and Patrick Watson blaring through the speakers, paved the way for a pretty uncomfortable day), I am back in Chicags and ready to add to last week's fun., which included hobnobbing with the Mayoral Fellows at the Parthenon, playing wino on the Metra up to see Feist at Ravinia, and cycling to ultimate games all over the city. This week there are movies in the park, Murakami on the porch in lieu of ultimate, and -- this weekend --Sandblast, for which I'll hopefully be able to turn my neck. Holler.