In which I ramble about things, as usual..

[remula]

1. VELLUM
   So my thoughts on Vellum (furniture competition at my school) -- make a bookshelf! My roommate bailed on me for being partners, so I am sadly doing this endeavor on my own. =( But anyway, I thought about doing a chair, but I was like, "Dude, everyone does a chair!" so yeah. I figured that a bookshelf was the best alternative because I doubt many people will make bookshelves! XD
   
   Anyway, this weekend I spent, maybe thirty minutes googling bookshelf to find inspiration and like, some were nice, but didn't really seem all that usable or efficent. -_- And then I saw some cool maze-y looking bookshelves and I was like, "Dude, I want to make something like that!" In my lameness, I didn't save any pictures and I don't have the links on hand anymore, but whatever! You can just imagine, like, those mazes people draw, but extruded up and, you know, rotated 90 degrees so it can function as a shelf. XP Seriously, this that is my design plan of attack, LOL. Feel free to tell me that this is an awesome idea to make me feel better about what might potentially turn out to be not-so-cool. Or, if you actually have a better idea for me, I am all ears! But I feel like I need to lock down my (non-existent, haven't even started sketching yet) design by the end of the week so I have enough time to do my drawings, buy materials, and actually build it before the deadline. x_x
   
   Also, my concern is that I want to make something stable, but not too heavy. Because I am a small person and I can just imagine the trouble I will have if it's too big or too heavy! =( I was thinking, make it out of metal! But I don't really know how to actually work with metal! (It will be a learning experience!) Also, I kind of like the look of wood better? =( IDK, this is hard. Darn you, Vellum! I wish I was super amazing at using the machines at the shop so I could bust out something super amazing, but I am not really a fan of the shop! =/ (Really, I try to go in there as little as possible, and only when absolutely necessary! Also, I am still pissed that we need to pay to use the shop now! I wish I could build something that requires no use of the shop, but I dunno if that is possible!)



2. STUDIO
   So like, I think there's this misconception of what studio actually is from non-architecture people. Like, a lot of people ask me, "What do you actually do in studio?" and honestly, I'm only bringing this up because my roommate asked me this today! And she's been living with my other roommate, who is an architecture student, for two years before they both moved in with me, so it's kind of weird! But I digress... The point is, people see my schedule with those five-hour blocks of architecture studio on MWF and they are just blown away by the craziness of 15 hours a week of just one class! (Okay, I was blown away too when I was a wee first year, but that was when I didn't know any better and believed that 16 units actually equaled 16 hours of class -- obviously I have learned my lesson!) Anyway, this is my take on studio -- obviously this isn't the same for everyone and it probably depends on what school you go to, but I would imagine that most architecture schools are somewhat similar, lol.
   
   In a nutshell, studio is pretty much time to work on our projects. Generally speaking, the beginning of the term starts off with more sitting around listening to lectures or whatever because we're not settled into a project yet, but as the quarter progresses, it pretty much turns into designated work time. Sometimes there may be an hour or so of getting together as a group in the beginning of class just to keep everyone updated, but besides that, the rest of the time is "unstructured class time". During this time, the professor is just kind of around, you know, talking to students -- there's usually a sign-up list with time slots, so we can talk to the professor and get feedback or whatever. But besides that, it's generally just free-for-all time where we kind of do whatever we want which, I think, kind of gives other (non-arch) people the impression that it's just free time or wasted time.
   
   So yeah, at any given time, you can walk into a studio and find people watching TV or movies online, people on FB, people talking on the phone, people who aren't even in that studio visiting their friends, and people doing god-knows-what on their laptops. (But there are some studios that are too quiet! And I don't like that and can't handle working in such an environment! So I am that person, you know, the one who is annoying and blasting their music! XP) And somewhere among all of that, there's people doing work too, because, if nothing else, architecture is TIME CONSUMING. Instead of quizzes or tests, we have pin-ups, which is exactly what it sounds like: you pin up / display the crap you have to show your progress and everyone presents. Instead of midterms, we have midterm reviews, which are crits halfway through the quarter, where you show what you have so far and the reviewers kind of look down on you and go, "That's all you've done?!" and then give you their advice / criticism on where you should go from there. And at the end, we don't have finals, we have our final review where you basically show what you did for the quarter and the reviewers pretty much tell you how much you sucked and why didn't you do this or that instead (and then your professor kind of agrees with the reviewers and you get all annoyed b/c they kind of led you down that direction during the quarter! But that's neither here nor there..)
   
   Anyway, the point is that even though it seems like we have all this free time and could potentially leave class early (if your professor doesn't force you to stay the whole five hours), you have to remember that anytime we're NOT working in studio, we are going to be making that time up (and more) during our own time! So yeah, there's awesomeness in that we get the freedom to do what works best for us since we're not necessarily regulated on the day to day basis, but just like any class, we have work to do as well. And if it doesn't get done during class hours, well, it has to get done sometime, right? Which is why there is generally people in studio during non-class hours as well.
   
   Yeah, that was my little rant-y thing because I always get annoyed when people are all, "Oh, you don't do anything in studio" because, uh, yes I do. Granted, some days I don't actually get around to working on studio stuff and might spend the day doing homework for other classes, but still! Of course, there are days where I'm like, "Oh, studio is so long! The amount of work we get done in five hours could really be done in two!" or whatever like that, but that's just reality -- most people just DON'T use the whole five hours to work on their projects, and the only time it DOES happen is when it gets close to crits! Anyway, after I just wrote that, I feel like I kind of undermined my point, but whatever. Basically my point is that yes, studio is "unstructured" in the conventional class sense, but just because it's not like a typical lab class doesn't mean we're not doing anything!



3. FICS
   So, I was thinking about it this weekend and like, I actually read a lot of fics! I mean, obviously I'm not reading as much as I did during the summer because that was kind of an unsustainable lifestyle, to read fics all day long, but yeah, I still am reading a good amount (despite how much I complain otherwise). Even on days where I'm like, "Ugh so busy!" I generally do end up reading at least one thing somewhere during the day. @_@ And it's kind of weird because sometimes I honestly don't know when I actually had time to read during the day, but when I look at my To-Rec file, I see fics there! (Okay, sometimes they are fics I read a day or two ago and hadn't gotten around to posting yet because I'm trying to maintain that daily recs thing and I would be sad if one day I ended up with nothing to post, but still!) It's just kind of weird, I guess, because I never realized how much I read until I started reccing regularly. But this is probably just proof that I'm actually a slacker and that I need to stop reading and get to work, LOL. XP

Anyway, it's already 8PM and I haven't gotten around to writing my reflection for my CRP class, so I need to get on that. Then I need to finish writing up my objectives for my thesis project! GAH!

Comments

[johanirae.livejournal.com]

You know, I second your bookshelf idea so much I can't wait to see it (and maybe even buy it ZOMG MAZE BOOKSHELF SQUEE :D :D :D)

[remula]

I feel like it's a good idea in theory, but I am not very confident in my building skillz, hahah. Hopefully it turns out as awesome as I hope it'll be! XD