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chrysal
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Name: Christie
Birthday: 1/15/1982
Gender: Female
Interests: Truth, art, design, science, architecutre, literature, expression, spirituality, metaphysics, discussion, ideas, reason, puppies.
hobbies: piano, flute, tennis, shopping, dining, dancing
Expertise: i'm an excellent shopper.
Occupation: MArch student @UM
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  sashiaobaby, email me yours because i block non buddylist
Member Since:
3/8/2004
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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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|  @Bab's Underground, post Thesis reviews
It is the end of an era. I am finally done with school. most likely. forever!!!!
--and with that, no more annoying xanga posts ranting about how tired/stressed i am!
Graduation was exactly 1.5 weeks ago. That does not seem like a lot of time, but that is early may to mid May, and I can already see that this summer will go by so fast. My brain breathes a sigh of relief, but I am still pretty busy. I wish I had some time to really really do NOTHING, but I'm already busy studying for the LEED exam that is at the end of May. What is more, I landed a very lucky summer job! I am working with one of my favorite professors, KM, on a couple projects, a book and an installation. I'm so glad that I took his course this semester when I didnt even need the additional credit- because that is surely how I got this job, along with several other classmates. You have to thank God for the coincidences like that. So that started only less than a week ago, but already we are busy working on that. It is a little unnerving that we do not have regular hours- but that we just work at home and log hours, and meet with him every few days to discuss the work. I only hope that I can get enough hours to pay rent and eat a little. I told Kevin that he can pay for my food, because.. he not only got the same job as me-- but he also got a job working on a research project with our dean, Monica Ponce de Leon who... if you are not into architecture, i will tell you .. is kind of a big deal!! He will be working steady 40 hrs a week, and he will continue to work for KM on the side. He is getting some heavy resume builders in this one summer!
Summer in Ann Arbor is lovely, and it seems that there are enough of my friends leftover after graduating mulling about, that I will not get too bored! I started a mini garden in the backyard. but there's a lot of work to do when thistles and dandelions outnumber your actual garden plants. I have a couple tomato plants, a basil, and a rosemary.
I am bit worried about this LEED exam. It is mostly a lot of memorization, and I think I shoudl be able to do that- it's just that with KM's project to work on, on top of wanting to build some more furniture before the school's router gets shut down is all competing for my time-- on top of just having adopted a lazier summer tempo. Hey, sleep is a wonderful thing. It is so nice to get up in the morning and feel energized, ready for the day- compared to the past 3 years of waking up being the hardest thing to do. I want to get a little regimented in my schedule, so that I can dedicate a few hours here and there to these disparate projects to make progress on things without getting too weighed down by any of them. Another goal is to get more healthy with food and exercise. The past 3 years i have acculumlated a layer of cushioning that I could really do without. So many little goals.
Post May 28, post the LEED Exam, I will be free to focus more on the KM project, and any projects of my own-- as well as the biggest project of working on my portfolio and sending out applicatons for full time jobs.
Hello, California? The job outlook is grim as of now, but given the circumstances, I'm so glad for what I have. I'm feeling optimistic. 
Hopefully by the end of this summer I will have:
*passed the LEED exam
*made and sold some pieces of furniture
*done some excllent work for KM
*enjoy my vine ripened tomatoes with fresh herbs
*lose about 5 lbs
*landed a great job out west!!! -- as well as Kevin getting a job in the same city!!
* ... what else..????
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| sometimes i stumble across gems in my architectural theory readings. if I had all the time in the world and more brains i'd love to study these things more and get a phd, but i don't have the energy.
from The Nature of the Modern Fragment and the sense of Wholeness
by Dalibor Vesley
"..the contrast between the isolated nature of the fragment and the sense of wholeness reveals the gap between our ability to form concepts of totality, wholeness and infinity and the impossibility of experiencing them on the level of the finite, sensible experience in one place 'hic et nunc' (here and now). Strangely, at the end of the eighteenth century, this gap became a source of fascination and creativity, as a domain where it might be possible to come to terms with the infinite through the experience of the sublime...
The inner essence of the absolute, that in which all resides as one, and one as all, is primal chaos itself. In that sense chaos is a basic intuition of the sublime. 'This intuition of the sublime, in spite of its kinship with the element of the ideal and the ethical, is an aesthetic intuition.' (FWJ Schelling). We find the sublime in the experience of inity, 'which the senses and the imagination despair of grasping and representing, while the reason creates and holds it fast.' The tension between the potential presence of the infinite and the finitude of our sensible experience is the key to the enigmatic nature of the sublime."
Something about this passage rings so true of the nature of our lives, for those of us who believe in infinity. It stirs my soul and I tremble, for I know it is indeed possible to experience infinity in the 'hit en nunc' here and now! The sublime is the despair and tension of not being able to fully express this thing that we somehow intuit. It is that heartbreak and yearning. the ironic beauty of the poetic f*edupedness of life.
Too bad that my interests reside in popular 18C thought, and are rather unpopular now unless in the context of art history. Too bad we'll discuss this reading in class tomorrow with 20 people and somehow manage to intellectually discuss this reading with no mention of the elephant in the room: God. We somersault and dance around the topic, mental acrobatics about everything but.
Infinity, God? No, this is a passage about representation in the age of modernity!
And so my insides scream so sublimely.
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| i'm listening to worship music on Pandora radio.
I think that the societal pressure of grad school has made me a little closeted. I miss being like this:
Anywhere, like at my desk in studio. it just takes a moment for Him to take you away. Despite all my wanderings, in a moment of focused meditation, I find my center, in God. I'm thankful that He remains. I feel that I've been without focus lately. It's hard for me to care about school that much. I guess I'm just burnt out. I've been depressed. I guess I need to spend more time with God. That is the solution I used to prescribe to every problem 10 years ago. Has life gotten so much more complicated, or have I just obfuscated the obvious with tangential foci?
My thesis is not overtly religious. that would be academic suicide. But it would be impossible to develop a project that is personal to me that does not deal with the spirituality that is the lens with which I view the world.
My thesis deals with the control systems of society, hinting at a lack of transcendental experience in modern culture- evidenced by the nature of the counter cultures that develop around seeking that experience. It is a critique of capitalism that basically says: there's something wrong with the world today.
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| Coldplay
Viva La Vida lyricsI used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own
I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemies eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"
One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world
(Ohhh)
It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People could not believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries Wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never an honest word
And that was when I ruled the world
(Ohhhhh Ohhh Ohhh)
Hear Jerusalem bells are ringings
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
I know Saint Peter will call my name
Never an honest word
But that was when I ruled the world
Oooooh Oooooh Oooooh ---- i liked this song when i heard it on the radio, and looked up the lyrics, and it's even more beautiful than i thought, it made me tear up! good stuff. i guess i better get the new Coldplay album. | | |
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