This may have been my first post ever on alt.architecture-- 7 years ago to the month, (although it's uncertain, seeing as Google may have affected the accuracy of the information, although again, that seems about right):
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I recalled a few names I'd forgotten and even a few conversations.
I wonder what will become of alt.architecture. The posts are about the lowest since it began around 1992 or 1993.
I wonder where many of its users have gone. I wish them well.
Yes, I caught some of Bob's old posts yesterday, and while new, years ago. We shared the same west coast wind-storm as recently as about ~2006/7 just before he was diagnosed. He was down in Washington State on the peninsula if I recall.
Sorry to read about your friend mentioned in your other post. Life certainly isn't always easy. Myself, while still quite fit, thankfully, I'm having to work ever harder to keep the bad habits in check, and I'm also in the process of dramatically restructuring my own life.
Thank you. If all goes well, I may be on the west coast, possibly for the last time, as soon as this May or June to August or later. If I can, and it suits you and wife, I'll see if I can swing by. After that, before the weather gets cooler, I might relocate semi- permanently to Halifax. I suspect I've posted before to alt.architecture from there. :)
As fate would have it I think of Bob all the time because the name of the road I live on is Morrison. Yesterday while shoveling snow off the north deck it occurred to me that more of my life is behind me than in front of me. I thought about all the stuff I have done and how none of it amounts to much at all, unlike the dreams I held when I was quite young and dumb. I have lived through the duration of 1/4 of the time span of this country and it all went by so fast and the time that's left will go even faster. I see the days getting longer, an indication that summer is approaching, yet the days go by even faster, funny how that works. Though there is lots of snow everywhere the temps are in the 40's today, so I'm in a t-shirt and shorts putting more insulation up in the workshop ceiling.
The architectural work has dropped off tremendously down to almost nothing. My distant network is collapsing and everybody everywhere is scrambling to hold what they thought they had. With a solid one two punch the gov't has managed to knockout an entire industry, construction, and broke it off at the roots, banking. There will never be a recovery from this fatal attack.
I've spent the past 3 years trying to expand my design business here in the great white north but the doors were closing all around me. None of my old methods worked anymore and the new ones I tried failed as well. So I've spent the past year examining my business model, scoping the horizons and assimilating my skills and knowledge base to determine what direction to go and quite frankly no direction seems clear.
The old paradigm that worked well for me for almost 4 decades is now dead with a stake driven all the way through its heart. But you know what? To be honest I have been burned out for more than a decade but just too stubborn to recognize it. Now I have, and I concede. I want to do something else. So I rediscover all the things I have told others over the years, others that were wanting to strike out on their own and the one solid thing that stands out is that I will do things that I enjoy no matter what they are. If you don't love what you do you won't do it well. If you don't do what you do for reasons other than money then you will fail. Its the *fun factor* that will carry you through when all else fails.
The trick is to separate the things you *think* are fun from the things that really are fun, then find a way to make money doing them. What do I mean by *think* are fun? You like to eat chocolate ice cream right? Now imagine eating it for 50 hours a week, 52 weeks a year for 20 years. It'd get old pretty quick wouldn't it? Plus, its not really something that will hold your attention for very long and don't forget about the creative factor. I HAVE to create stuff, its in my genes. That's just all there is too it.
Last week was my wife's birthday and because we were snowed in I couldn't get out to get her a cake or even a cake mix. So I found a recipe online and we had all the stuff so I made my first home made cake from scratch and it turned out perfectly. Blew away any other cake I had ever eaten anywhere. Briefly I thought about starting a cake making business. But then I thought it to death and I eventually came to the conclusion it didn't have the long term fun factor I require.
All things wood. As some of you know I have been delving into all things wood for the past coupla years and specializing in the wood lathe process. I am captivated by it. In the past year I have spent hundreds of hours doing lathe stuff with most of the results ending up spectacular, to my surprise. There have been some tragic failures, some of which Kenniff knows about, but each failure was a very valuable learning experience. So I trudge on. Don't know where I'm going except I'm aiming toward Funville, USA and I keep the sun at my back.
I'll always design buildings for that too is in my genes and I cannot escape it. In fact, right now I'm working on a 24' octagon log home that came to me in a dream. Its my hobby, that once was my fortune but no longer is.
Sadder still to watch it die than never to have known it, for you the blind who want to see, the bell tolls for thee.
What did Mr Spock find in the toilet? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The captains log.
. . . . . . . . . "Stardate: 2432.4
First Officer's Log
Leaving orbit of the planet Risa, after a much deserved shore leave, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott reported an unusual problem with the solid waste disposal system after tracking it to the Captain's quarters. Determining that it was not an equipment malfunction, I felt compelled to further report this to the Chief Medical Officer."
"Can I help you, Doctor?", Kirk asked.
"The real question is: Can I help you?", Bones asked of the Captain. "What the hell did you eat down there?"
You see... it was really Scotty that found the Captain's log... Spock was just the one that "reported" it.
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