Keyboard Orange Trees

2009-05-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, and It's got a new name. Studio Life no longer seemed relevant since studio is no longer all that I see, eat, and breathe.

2009-05-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Perhaps I'll start blogging again. Because, you know, my life is so incredibly interesting and because so many people read this.

Um, no.

I did actually have a [small] following back on livejournal, so I don't exactly know why I gave that up to come here. One of life's mysteries, I suppose.

I haven't been on this site in so long...

Maybe if I won the lottery...

2008-09-08T09:34:00.001-07:00

This weekend:

Friday: Anna and I went to see the baby elephant at the zoo. We ended up getting in line twice, the first time because we though the elephant house was closing soon and the second time because the line was short. He was asleep the first time and was little more than a breathing grey blob in the sawdust, Rose-Tu standing over him in case any of the visitors on the other side of the glass decided to try something. The second time he had moved to another spot in the enclosure, but was again sleeping. His ear was flicking, however, from the sawdust his mother had started to throw around. It was obvious by the way she was acting and standing in front of her baby that she was getting tired of being looked at. And who wouldn't blame her? I feel sorry for the zoo animals. Yes, they are well taken care of, but all that pacing around their enclosures is a sign of going insane with boredom.

Other than that, it wasn't a terribly exciting day at the zoo. One of the hippos was swimming around and playing with a ball. She got really close to the glass so I was literally about a foot away from her at one point, which was kind of cool. As well, one of the new cougars was pacing around her cage, following a predictable pattern, which meant we got pretty close to her as well when she returned to her den (which has a glass wall in it). In said den, there was also the remains of some animal. It looked like a goat from the jaw that was about two inches from the glass.

Saturday: Mum and I went to the Street of Dreams. All of the homes were ridiculous and way over designed. That being said, our favorite was the most expensive of them at just shy of $3 million. But who could blame it with it's home theatre, indoor pool and hot tub, massage room, wet sauna, dry sauna, wine cellar, three amazing terraces with views all the way to Washinton and Mt. St. Helens, two master suites, and some 10,000 square feet. I told my mum that she could buy it and that I would happy pay rent to live in the smaller of the two master suites.

She didn't go for it.

It wasn't that she didn't want to live there--which she would happily--it's just that if we sold all of our possessions, there's no way we would be even close to being able to afford it. So, I told her that she should get one of her rich relatives to buy it instead and that we could just spend most of our time there. Surely now that my grandparent's are back down to one house, they're itching to have another?

Right. In my dreams. Maybe when I'm a rich and famous architect I can design myself an ostentatious house and live myself an ostentatious life. Or maybe if I marry myself an heir from Vermont I can design that house. Or if I suddenly come into a ridiculous amount of money and choose to thumb my nose at my humble beginnings.

Because, you know, those are all feasible options.

Brain dead

2008-08-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

I don't feel like thinking, but I feel like posting, so here is some thinking I did last week some time. It's an exerpt from a [terrible] KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic--a video game...) parody I'm working on in my free time. If y'all hadn't figured it out by now, I am a terrible geek and also something of a nerd. Still, I can't believe I'm posting this. It must be my ego getting the better of me.

An Exerpt from How to Save the Galaxy, Vol. One:

When Thane entered the cockpit, the viewport was filled with the idyllic blue sky and green grass of Dannon. Though he couldn’t make out details at this height, Thane knew there were packs of probiotics wandering around down there in the grasslands, hunting down unwary travelers, praying on lactose deer, and swimming in trugoy bogs. The air outside smelled of fruit and dairy due to the fields of invasive blackberry and the herds of cows that spotted the landscape.

Millenia ago, Dannon had been conquered and re-settled by large blonde warriors from the land of the midnight sun where the hot springs blow in the Northern Reaches of the galaxy (which lay just beyond the Rhineland Sector in the Outer Limits; the hammer of the gods). They brought to Dannon their particular sense of dress (mainly fur and horns), their culture of trade (“I’ll give you a strapping blonde baby if you give me your village and all your valuables”), and the strange probiotic hound whose spittle was filled with nutrients. The fur and horn look had been outlawed some years ago by young and idealistic animal rights activists, but the probiotics had flourished in the trugoy and the trading tradition now persisted in the form of other-worldly merchants who only conquered (unless you considered their prices a form of wallet-rape.).

Thane knew he had been to Dannon before—especially now that he was looking at it—but he couldn’t for the life of him figure when or why. It certainly didn’t seem like the kind of place he would willingly come to. There were too many rolling hills and groves of trees for the likes of him. Still, there was that niggling little voice in the back of his mind that told him he had grown up here. It was the same voice that told him what the Jedi tattoo on his arm meant, so he promptly ignored it.

Well, that and the floor suddenly fell out from under him leaving Thane to grapple for the back of Garth’s seat in order to not end up in a heap on the floor.

Damn inertia.

The Velour Pigeon rocked in a cloud of coolant and engine exhaust as Garth came to a jerking halt on the landing pad. The tall duracrete walls blocked out the rolling hills and groves of trees and Thane could almost pretend he was in the middle of some greasy city instead of on a grassy planet. Still, there was all that fresh air out there that sparkled in the sunlight rather than the processed air inside the ship or the polluted stuff on the worlds Thane liked to occupy, so suffocation would be a key thing to avoid. Thane made a mental note of it.

Once the boat had stopped rocking and vomiting gaseous bile, Thane smacked Garth up one side the head and down the other.

“Nice one.”

“We’re all in one piece, aren’t we?”

CRASH!!

“Well, almost,” Thane said. “But I was talking about bringing me to a sparsely populated planet. If the fresh air doesn’t get me, the lack of attention will. Or maybe the sunlight. I’m kind of a mole.”

Brazilla turned to look at him. “You really are unbelievable. I don’t think I have ever met someone who complains quite so much as you.” She then frowned and looked at Garth. “What was that crashing noise?”

“I think it was the port side stabilizer,” Garth responded. Everyone seemed far too nonchalant, all things considered.

“We need that,” said Thane, stating the obvious.

Garth gave him a parental Look. “I’ll put someone on it.”

“I don’t think that’ll help much. What’s he gonna do? Stand there and twiddle his thumbs? Have a little rest when he really should be reattaching it to the ship?”

“I meant that I’ll get someone to fix it. If I can find anyone to fix it. Dannon might be fresh out of mechanics and all of the tools it would take to fix the stabilizer. There’s no way we in this lonely band of travelers would be able to do it with the lack of tools we have. And even if we did manage to fix it, exiting the atmosphere would be just too much for the majestic Pigeon to handle and we would start falling apart, piece by piece, broken heart by—”

Thane noticed the guitar beneath the dash for the first time as the Republic soldier, country-western star wannabe reached for it, no doubt to pick a heartrending tune to accompany his lyric.

“They had better fix it quick, then,” he said, cutting Garth off. The other man’s hand snatched back from the bridge of the instrument, disappointment painting his features like a lonely sunset that spilled out over a vast and empty plain, hailing the dark, cold night that would follow—two lovers destined never to meet…

Everyone in the cockpit frowned, especially Garth for being outdone.

“I have a feeling we’ll need to get out of here quickly,” Thane said, getting back to the topic on hand. He seemed to be looking at a spot several inches beyond the plane of the viewport, but when he blinked, it was gone. Garth figured it was either his secret Jedi training getting the best of him or a growing concussion. The weal on the devastatingly handsome, would-be smuggler’s forehead told more than Thane would ever admit to.

“You’re not afraid of a few probiotics, are you?”

“I barbeque probiotics,” Thane said with a snort. “And eat their fuzzy little puppies. Those hounds are nothing. Less than nothing. No. I just have a bad feeling about this. And I don’t get bad feelings. It’s not in my genetic make-up.”

“I suppose you’re made of sunshine, too?” Garth said, standing.

“I am. And sunshine people don’t get bad feelings.” Thane gave them a single, resolute nod. It showed that he was unyielding, unwavering, and even unbendable on the subject. Thane Sunrider, Alcohol Consumer of Lore and Conqueror of Virginity never got bad feelings. It was a definite and stanch fact, one that he was firm and stubborn about it.

--

And if you care to read more, my ego is telling me to direct you HERE. Erm, yeah ...awkward self promotion...

Weather

2008-08-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have been in thunder/lightning storms both here and at the coast this weekend (well, yesterday and today), which is awesome. I love electric storms even though we don't get anything near the caliber of the storms we get out in Colorado (or maybe they get since the longest I've ever lived there is three months). Still, it's fun watching people's reactions who aren't used to the storms.

Though, last month when we got one of these storms in the middle of the night, I sort of freaked out. I think it's because I had been watching something about ghosts and ghost hunting and because of the way my mind works, I immediately thought of slasher movies. So, I stuck my head under the covers and refused to turn towards the sliding door to the back yard in fear that the sillouette of an axe-murderer would suddenly appear in one of the flashes. I even went to dig out my John "The Sheep" Sheppard stuffed sheep because, you know, stuffed animals can save you when an axe murderer comes a-callin'.

Boy, is my mind a chunk of pure logic or what.

Though for the storm that is currently underway, all I can hear is the thunder since I'm surrounded by managers who are (obviously) hogging the windows. And I'm in a half-cube with 5-foot walls. Still, when I got the chance to look outside, it was all rather ominous looking and the Nanaggedon song from the Mighty Boosh sprang to mind. More than anything, though, it brought a smile to my face just thinking of Julian Barrett and Noel Fielding in granny drag. One of the best episodes, in my opinion.

Okay. Back to work...

Stuff

2008-08-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't much to say, so I don't really even know why I'm wriing. Maybe to waste some time while I wait for something to plot off. Or to just waste time. Whatever.

Lately I've been working on my KOTOR parody because it's fun and it's one of my few successful humor pieces. Now, it takes about six months between chapters to get back into the mood, but that was mostly because school depressed me. I'm not saying the work won't depress me, but since there isn't much of an outpouring of creativity in the life of a CAD monkey/Intern, all that juice might go towards a story. Maybe even a real one that is all of my own creation. Lots o' words are just sitting around in my head, waiting to be put down on paper.

Wow. I must sound like such a nerd.

I love it.

New Home

2008-08-04T08:37:00.000-07:00

So, even though I know basically no one on this site, I've decided to move here from LJ. I don't know what prompted the move, but here I am on a blog that was originally created for a media class. Whoop-dee-do.

So, this isn't going to be important like one of my friends who basically gets paid to blog over near the Big Apple. It's just sort of a place to let my inner dialogue loose on the general population. Maybe it should come with a label: Warning, crazy person.

I don't know, I don't know. Maybe when I go off and travel the world and build schools for children in Africa before heading to grad school for a couple of years this thing will get interesting. Still not important, but interesting.

Last summer, I ran an experiment that I never reported the results of. Basically, I found that by writing everyday at about the same time, the writing production and quality of my creative pieces went up some tenfold. Because I was forcing myself to write something, anything, every day (except, usually, the weekends), when I sat down to work on one of my stories, words flowed a little easier. And when I stopped blogging every day, my writing production quickly went into a tailspin. Now, of course, there is the whole variable of school to take into account, and once I started my terminal studio, I barely had the time to write even a oneshot. And now that I have to find hobbies or else go insane, I think turning off the TV and writing at least a oneshot (fanfiction, geeky, I know) or a scene every day will help me get back up to that production level I was at last summer.

Architecture is still what I want to do with my life, but I can't quite imagine living without creating a world, some people, and what they say to each other in text.

a return to blogspot?

2007-10-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

...probably not, but I haven't blogged anywhere in some time (obviously not here and not over at lj since the beginning of the school year) and suddenly felt the urge to write something that isn't in Danish, isn't in the form of a short story, and has nothing to do with another person's short story. So, yeah. Here I am. On a site that I rarely come to anymore (unless you count lurking around and reading other people's blogs). So it's nothing magnificent. People don't even look at this thing since the class ended. Hell, I haven't looked at this thing since.

Right.

THIS is my actual blog. Don't know if anyone cares and don't know if I really should be putting this info up, but there you go. A peek at this little thing I like to call life.

Yawn. Now I need to go buy some pita bread and translate some Danish.

ioPen Fun - Rendered

2007-03-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the big shed section/perspective that was drawn with the ioPen, manipulated in Illustrator (line weights and basic colours), and then "painted" in PhotoShop. I'm pretty proud of it but I won't know what it really looks like until I print it out. Perhaps I'll test it with Foster before I commit to it on my final printout.

More ioPen Fun

2007-03-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

This is my baby. I'm thinkin' about using the Dennis (or whatever) technique to render this thing. I'm so happy with how it turned out. Yay!

ioPen Fun

2007-03-11T01:19:00.000-08:00

Constructed. Drawn. Line-weighted. About to be rendered. Wee…

Photoshopping SALTS

2007-03-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Random Play. Enjoy.

8.1 Leaves on That Water Thing

2007-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

An experiment with the layering technique we were talking about in class. Because I don't have a full model of the building I am designing a lighting fixture for (or, indeed, the lighting fixture itself) I decided to use this little water vessel I built as a Nurbz cross section expiriment. Wee…

6.2 S.A.L.T.S. Heritage Shipyard

2007-02-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

I chose to use my studio project for this digital drawing exercise. The program is rather complex but is, basically, a new set of buildings for S.A.L.T.S., a program that is based in Victoria, BC. S.A.L.T.S. both builds large wooden ships and teaches young people (18-25) how to sail them. Currently, S.A.L.T.S. has two ships in their fleet and is planning on adding a third within the next ten years.

In the past, I have worked with the idea of inverted shadows (where the black becomes the object and the white becomes the shading) and decided to continue my explorations here. It is an interesting experiment and one that I quite enjoy, but I think that I need to work on it a bit more.

Yay pirates!

5.4 windcatcher by aurora designs

2007-02-20T09:07:00.000-08:00

Though the Windcatcher captures light rather than wind, it recalls the beautifully simple design of its outdoor cousin. One can almost imagine this luminaire spinning in a light breeze even while sitting under it in the calm atmosphere of a small café.
The Windcatcher was designed to be used in small cafés or restaurants where a certain mood or ambiance is desired. It is meant to be used in multiples as accent lighting rather than for the main lighting source but that does not mean they fade into the background. Indeed, the Windcatcher calls attention to itself with its soft golden glow and hint of movement.

5.4 Windcatcher Images

2007-02-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

Images of windcatcher by aurora designs. The top two are pictures of the physical model; the third image is windcatcher in a room that I built (the picture on the wall is a tiled image of my younger brother's kitten, Hank); and the last image is a simple axon of windcatcher.

4.2 Peacock on My Desk

2007-02-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

Like its predecessor, the Desk Peacock is a luminaire that allows for a number of different tasks to be completed be it working in the home office or creating the perfect ambiance for a dinner party. Though varied, the ligt it projects is varied and adds interest to any room or occasion simply by being switched on.
The two light shades of the Desk Peacock is what allows for this variation in light. The heavier, perferated fabric of the rear shade casts shadows back on to a wall in order to create visual interest while the thin, glass panel on the bottom allows for light to fall evenly on the task at hand. In this way, the two different elements work harmoneously together to ensure the user both tranquility and productivity.

4.2 The Desk Peacock (A Teaser)

2007-02-06T00:09:00.000-08:00

Like the title said, this is just a teaser of the finished product. No layout yet, but the model is done. I took Jeff's idea about this being a desk lamp and decided to add the glass element. As well, this form was created using Nurbz rather than using the hyperbolic parabaloid of the previous Peacock generation. Wee…

4.1 Nurbz Are Not For Noobz

2007-01-31T23:15:00.000-08:00

Some experimentations with the Nurbz Cross Sections tool. After creating a cross section, I used the Nurbz tool to create the shape and then had some fun from there. The first is a simple water vessel placed in a scene of its own. The second is a strawberry I created and placed in the scene from the Rarebit Fiend and Metal Cheese bit from earlier. It is entitled The Strawberry Fiend.

Basically, these forms began life as a series of lines. Rather than just drawing a couple of random lines, I chose to create one and then rotate it to create something that looked like a 3D object. After that, I selected all of the objects before applying the Cross Sections tool. Once I had the cross sections, I selected the circles that were created and applied the Nurbz tool to create the solid planes. After that, I decided to have some fun (ie, add water and leaves, respectively).

(Okay, so somebody else claimed the Nurbz tool, but I needed it to actually do something with the cross sections. Sorry to whoever claimed it!)

3.2 Inspiration Pieces

2007-01-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

Peacocks: The Oregon Zoo's majestic vermin and the inspiration for my luminaire.

(images from www.albanyhill.com and gallery.hd.org, respectively)

3.2 The Peacock

2007-01-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

The Peacock is a luminare of many faces. It can cast sharp shadows or emit a simple glow; it can illuminate a place of work or stand on its own as a piece of functional art. In this way, the Peacock can enhance the ambiance of any restaurant, bar, or private home.
Though simple in form, it is a piece that attracts attention by the same elegance and poise of the majestic creature it was inspired by. The tail of feathers, so to speak, sweeps out from the body of the luminare to illuminate the area below and celebrate the area above.

3.1 lightfixture.ohone

2007-01-24T22:19:00.000-08:00

One light fixture. Three different ways.

2.2 Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend (or the Metal Cheese Lamp)

2007-01-22T13:12:00.000-08:00

Light is power and reflections tell us stories; shadows speak to our darker nature and colours emote. Light and its variants make up our world and without them we would be lost. Here, there is still light but there is also an odd softness to it all. It is as if stepping into a strange dream where worlds continue beyond solid surfaces and everything has a smooth quality to it rather than the harsh edge generally created by light. In this particular image, shadows create the scene and colours set the mood. Though the main fixture is reflected in the smooth surface of the backdrop, those reflections are secondary to the way the light is reflected and how it seems to go on beyond the surface of the mirror. This world is limited, that much is clear, but that does not mean it has to be bound.

("Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" is borrowed from a comic strip of the same name that is written and drawn by Winsor McCay)

2.1 YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE A SECRET PLAN

2007-01-18T09:49:00.000-08:00

For this image, I was inspired by the message that is projected onto the backdrop: YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE A SECRET PLAN. I found it on an electrical (?) box in Finland and thought it brilliant. Anyway, what I wanted to create was the feeling of isolation that comes with having a secret plan. This isolation, however, is not the lonely sort for one can have a secret plan while being around others. Still, I wanted only one figure that could be read as an actor while everything else in the scene is read as set. The glossy pieces are not only to reflect and refract the light, they are also there to literally show the inner reflection one must have while creating this secret plan.

1.2 Sketchy SketchUp Shadows are Sketch

2007-01-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

There is a certain exoticness to layers upon layers of rounded arches. Perhaps this comes from the halls of arches seen in many Islamic temples or from the masonry screens seen in the same part of the world. Whatever it is, I wanted to explore the use of this form in my project by first creating a model out of layered arches and then casting shadows to evoke the special nature of my chosen form. Through experimenting with the time of day and the orientation of the camera, I was actually surprised by the number of new forms I could create from the single model I built. There are towers, there are piles of arches; everything can be jumbled together and everything can be separated clearly. This is what I wanted to achieve with this project: to create one form that in turn could create many, many different forms.

1.1 Lights, Camera…

2007-01-15T12:55:00.000-08:00

These are the images I was unable to bring into class due to my studio site visit to Victoria, BC. My inspiration came from the arches of Islamic Temples and, specifically, Cordobas La Mezquita. The image of this temple is shown here with my shadows.

I suppose that when I was choosing the different shadows to use I thought about how the harsh light of the Islamic world would fall upon the abstraction I created. In the middle of the day the statue would be most clearly read through it's shadow while during the extreme parts of the day—dawn and dusk—the shadow would be elongated and elegant.

These images were created in SketchUp, hence the rather static and rather uninteresting shadow. I do not currently have FormZ installed on my computer which would have given me the ability to cast a much more interesting and varied set of shadows.