I’m editing this post while listening to Quincy Jones’ album You’ve Got it Bad Girl, by way of Phacyde’s “Passin’ Me By” which featured a sample from “Summertime in the City“.
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Two years ago, I bought a brilliant Magma red from Birmingham Pens which I used on this Earth. I love their inks but it’s frustrating that they cycle through their catalog.
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I used a special brush used for painting grass. I gravitate towards large widths that force me to indulge in my tendency to fill the entire page—even to the point of abbreviating the letters in fast.
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Cancer, from Inktober 52’s astrological series last year.
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The curves felt appropriate with the word noisy.
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I suspect Finish was a reminder to self, I have a projects that need to be closed out.
Cya next time!
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PS—Trusted Advisor
Ego leads to commodity,
Empathy leads to Trust.
The role of the Architect is to be the guide —
Obi-Wan, not Luke.
The User is the Hero!
They rarely get a seat at this table.
—August 2021
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PPS—The crapwork in your job
I was torn about Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open a few years ago. We all have crapwork, but we’re not forced to perform such drudgery in front of the world.
Then again, we also don’t have FU money, so we do it.
The Grand Slam organizers seemed heavy handed in their response when she declared that she wasn’t gonna participate. But I would be equally heavy handed if one of my consultants skipped out on one of their duties, even if it was ancillary to their core deliverables.
It’s a tough situation, but she does have FU money and the French Open doesn’t need any specific single individual, so worked out for both parties.
Ultimately, I’m happy she chose her sanity over chasing another grand slam title. After grabbing four of them, I suspect she realized all that glory is temporary. Either way, she’ll have to get up and train for the next one. Like many of us, maybe she just needed a break.
—June 2022
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PPPS—Las Vegas Small Town Stuff
I was in a meeting with my Deputy Administrator and her former boss in private practice to discuss structural questions on a renovation.
As Deputy Administrator, she was the highest ranking person in the room, while the structural engineer would be the lowest ranking person in the room, since he was a sub consultant to the architect who worked for me.
Work doesn’t happen on an org chart, things are done in the realm of humans. It was fun to watch her dip into old habits, bantering with her old boss, questioning his decisions.
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A few years ago, I hosted a college student from UC Berkeley to show what architects do on a daily basis.
Coincidentally, my mother-in-law used to work with her mother, and my daughter had just been to a party at their house a week before she visited my job.
That college student now has a job in city government, as a colleague with my best friend from Rice.
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An agency project manager suddenly submitted their resignation.
Less than a day later, my architect on my college project mentioned that she met the new project manager on her other project for a theater.
Yup.
And that theater project had an opening because their owner’s PM left to become a VP at the college of my project.
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A former coworker recommended me for a job.
His former manager had recommended my coworker for that job. This manager eventually became the administrator who hired one of my former interns based on me and my coworker’s recommendations.
When things went sideways, guess who helped my old coworker find a gig at my new place.
—May 2023
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PPPS—Practice
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