A desert tigress crouching for prey in the overgrown lawn.
“They created a wasteland and called it peace” – Calgacus
-
OPM.43 Bluebeam Markups
When I joined the Division, I was assigned an office that was so large that I brought in a spare table from home for extra desk surface. It was a great setup for reviewing the three university projects that I was managing.
Then the pandemic hit. I grabbed a laptop and went home.
I quickly learned to mark up PDFs in Bluebeam. It turned out to be easier than paper. Review on screen, make notes as I go, and email the the PDF back to the architect. No more long write-ups for comment letters!
A couple of years later, I discovered the Markup List feature. Now the computer will automatically compile a letter from my markups!
The default setting creates a new PDF file, but “append and hyperlink to current pdf” will add the comment summary as new pages to the back of the PDF.
I request written responses from my architect, so appending the summary gives them an option to respond in the body of the PDF or on the centralized list. I’ve tried moving the summary to the front of the PDF, but it messes with the hyperlinks, so I just leave them in the back.
I use a yellow pen to highlight things as I go, marking what’s been reviewed. My actual comments have a red outline. Before processing the summary, I filter comments by color, hiding the yellow items.
Architectural Drawing sets often have custom names for the pages, which leads to odd results when sorting by Page (General sheets end up after Electrical!) The fix is is to sort comments by Color. The markups will follow the order they appear in the PDF file.
Pull Up the Markup List. 
Sort the comments by page (or color if the pages have custom names).
Filter out comments you don’t want to be included on the list.
Then create the PDF Summary.
Click on the Append and Hyperlink option to the process. Bluebeam is a powerful program. But like the rest of tech world, the next evolution is to collaborate on shared markups in the cloud. I’ve talked to architects about their experiments in this direction and I hope to explore it with the next round of projects.
~
Some Links
This has been a technical OPM letter, so here are three fun newsletters that publish on daily schedule.
Weirdo Poetry is a daily haiku webcomic. That alone would be a fun pairing, but Jason McBride also adds a short contemplative letter to each post. It’s a rich three course meal to start the day.
The Heron Dance Art Journal pairs a watercolor with inspirational quotes from luminaries through the ages. Follow the link embedded in the newsletter to find extended notes and additional quotes. The art is always ethereal, an aptly named pause for beauty.
Erica Drayton publishes a story with exactly 100-words) in her 100 Words Daily. These drabbles are always delightful and often a touch horrifying.
~
The Huming Birds, Ireland, 6 December 1924 ~
Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA -
He asked for another sheet of paper as the molehill of ballots grew on the craft table.
I was on the couch,
She was practicing Chinese,
Mom was on the computer.He handed each of us
A small slip of paper.
“Vote.”On the front, he wrote “For”
He drew a line with a dot on the back.
“Write your name.”
My wife wrote her name.
I wrote “爸” (dad)
The girl added hearts to her name.He called for
(a) “Cottage Cheese” (container)
for a ballot box.We searched the cabinets,
Only found big
Yogurt tubs.
Never mind.
“It’s late!”
Time for bed.䷧䷿
shoot falcons
liberating sheep
skipping over
cushioned walls -
Clothes (just presentable)
One thing my parents nailed was their Pareto Principle approach towards clothing. (If flashy isn’t the goal, 20% of the effort gets 80% of the results.)
As a man, it’s easy to be decent — button-down shirt, slacks, and dark non-sneaker shoes. That should work for anything outside of a wedding, job interview, funeral, or legislative hearing. (It’s also the most comfortable way to dress.)
I blend in by making sure I’m not the most underdressed guy in the room. If in doubt, I’ve got a cheap sports coat stashed in the trunk of my car, and I slap on a tie. (Yuck…Tuck in that darn shirt…Double Yuck.)
I wear the clothes until they wear out, and then I wear them around the house until they fall apart. Then I thank the rags and move on to the next Costco special or hand-me-down. (I recently got a haul from my retired uncle.)
It’s not minimalism. (It’s a lot easier.)
-
AI can write what I write, but it can’t be who I am.
Three disconnected links.
Tears in the Rain
Borges on Rewriting a Classic
Inhabiting the space to (re)create the work — “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote”
Mixing Bible Stories
1 Kings 19:11&12 (to Elijah), Exodus 3:14 (to Moses)
And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
And God said, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
-
He carefully studied his sister as she drew emoji’s with her friends before wielding his scissors and markers.
He cut two long rectangles,
Colored them blue,
Held them against his face.
😭He cut an oblong shape,
Sharp corners at each end.
Colored it red,
Lips.He cut a square,
Drew a face,
Colored it brown.
???䷏䷿
drink and feast
but no wet heads! -
kampMATE firebox, 2021
We’ve been a couple of weeks away from camping, for years.
Last year, we slept in the backyard to test the tent, the sleeping bags, and pads, and stayed properly indoors for the rest of summer.
The year before, we spent Memorial Day weekend testing the kampMATE firebox. It’s a simple contraption: five interlocking stainless steel plates that create a small wood cooktop.
On Friday, we learned that harnessing one of the four elements takes a learning curve! We’ve never cooked with fire before, so we wasted wood to boil water and scramble eggs.
My mother-in-law stepped in the next day. Unlike pampered Americans, she grew up cooking with coals. She danced between wood scraps and charcoal briquettes to build a proper fire. We stir-fried ground pork, added white beans, and stewed for an hour. We switched pots to cook rice. After the rice was cooked, we reheated the stew with cauliflower. It was a legitimate meal, but it took forever. We used 42 briquettes.
On Sunday, I started the fire using charcoal, paper, and dried leaves. We made a savory stew with stir-fried onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, and garbanzo beans. Surprisingly good; more surprising than good. The meal was supplemented with veggies and rice cooked in the house as the stew simmered for two hours. We used 20 briquettes.
We celebrated Memorial Day with an all-American chili. We filled the box with rocks to pushing the charcoal up to the pot. Unfortunately, the red beans were uncooperative and took hours to soften so it still took 20 briquettes.
We closed the long weekend buying a dutch oven from Home Depot. We planned one-pot meals by adding rice to the stews and watched outdoor bread baking videos.
The firebox spent the summer in the sun before moving permanently into the shed. (The dutch oven is a cast iron bread box on the kitchen island.)
Still, $25 was a cheap diversion for a long weekend.
I wonder when we’ll go camping, two weekends from whenever.
-
Coyote America, Dan Flores, 2016
The story of man versus fauna in America is a dreary one, starting with the ancient forebears who came across the Bering Straits, the spread of Europeans in the 1800’s, and the industrialization of death in the 1900’s.
The one bright spot amidst the devastation has been the coyote, which has used its persecution in the 20th century to spread throughout the nation, entering its final state (Delaware) in the continental United States during the 2010’s.
Having evolved as both predator and prey, they can’t rely upon their alpha physique like wolves. Instead, coyotes are whip-smart. They’ve developed a unique social mobility with “Fission-Fusion” tactics, being pack animals when it suited them and becoming loners if necessary. Howling is their means of long distance communication, which influences the local coyote density affecting their litter sizes (ranging from two to nineteen!).
Aside litters from nineteen, the coyote’s story is quite similar to ours — chatty creatures in the middle of the food chain with a wide range of social flexibility.
Unfortunately, we also mirror the coyote’s ingeniousness with our deranged attempts to eradicate these “prairie wolves”. It’s a story of brash humans coalescing government power, aiding corporate cronies with cruel policies. As always, it’s appalling to read about our blindness to the destructiveness of our obsessions, even if things have slightly improved with the rise of the environmental movement in the 1970’s.
Through it all, the coyote survived and spread. It was ranked lower than a cockroach in the 1950’s opinion polls. Now it has admirers among city slicker liberals. It is regaining its place as an avatar god of this land, even among the colonizers of this new world.
Unlike most nature books, this one does not end on a dreary note. But that’s no credit to us. Almost every other creature has disappeared under such slaughter. This time, we’ve been outwitted by the trickster, much to our delight.
~
I started the audiobook at 1.5x but slowed down to 1.0x before the introduction was over. Even though the high speed narration was perfectly intelligible, some books are meant to be savored. It would be disrespectful to rush through such a well told story.
I wrote the initial draft of this note this two years ago and publishing this post reminds me to listen to it again. It’s still a two month wait at the library, not bad for a book that’s been out for seven years.
~
As a complete tangent, I just stumbled across the album Prairiewolf. It has nothing to do with coyotes, but it’s a chill groove and I hate to ignore synchronicities.
-
Dragons dare not dawdle during devilish dances — drunken dervishes desire dramatic delicacies.
The kids caped up and whirled to programmed songs on the keyboard. After she was dragged off to study Chinese, he ran around the house as a ghost. The beanie-veil combo is a fresh innovation in our house.
-
OPM.42 Fence Sitting
Make a decision!
The Owner needs to decide.
Already?
Right now?Yesterday? (oops!)
But if decision isn’t ripe yet,
The OPM should live with the discomfort of uncertainty.
Straddle the fence.There’s at least three parties on a project:
Users
Contractor
Architect.Three of agendas to juggle.
Yeah we’re a big happy team.
But each of us are beholden to the demands of our organizations.
Who signs whose paychecks?The OPM’s job is to sort through the conflicts and develop a synthesis.
Part of this game is to play the game.
To develop a good conclusion.It might take a some fence sitting to sort it out.
Ponder each team’s agenda.
Understand why they conflict.
Inhabit their perspective.Time’s up.
Then get off the fence.
Make a decision. Communicate clearly.Delay further and it’s opportunity cost.
Time’s a wastin’.~
Some Links
I’ve been following Jeffery Saddoris ever since coming across his long running podcast with Bill Wadman.
On Taking Pictures went on hiatus for a few years, but they recently returned to bless us on a sporadic basis, whenever the guys feel like turning on their microphones together.
In the meantime, Jeffery hosts several podcasts and writes an introspective newsletter. Iterations consistently make me ponder my own life, choices, and art.
~
Far West boy feeds a swan, Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, 1935. Ted Hood ~
Thanks for reading!
Justus Pang, RA