That's it, I've cracked...

Yes, its true.

Something inside me looked around at the artificial deadlines, the racing towards... towards what, exactly???

...and popped.

And I think it might be permanent.

The way we "do things" doesn't work anymore. No, Really. Think about it. We're carrying baggage from a lot of old "ways of doing stuff" that just simply isn't a good fit to where we are right now...

I had an old college mate ask me if we really do still print mylars / use paper when we send out drawings. We do. We kill trees. And we really do fight with MYLAR sometimes. But that's mostly for government agencies.

Alternate? One of my colleagues just received a memory key in the mail with an entire catalog of manholes on it. Not a paper brick that can fall off a cube divider and kill someone with ninja papercuts and a blunt hit to the skull.... A memory key. Mailed with a regular stamp (whatsit now, $0.41?)

My first computer didn't have a hard drive. My first PC, hand-assembled by my dad and my cousin, had less than 3% of the storage capacity than on a standard CD-R disc, available at any CVS drugstore for a couple of bucks...maybe.... in a multi-pack.

When I was in middle school, my english teacher wouldn't let me use my PC (that's personal computer) to word-process and print out my essays, because it gave me an "unfair advantage over the other kids". In my one act of rebellion in all of my then-years, I typed and word processed my papers and wrote them out longhand. Go ahead Mrs. Miller, take my grade back. I dare ya.

When I was graduating from high school, one of my honor-roll classmates asked for my recommendation if she should get a PC or a word processor as a gift from her parents for college. I said a PC, and that it was much more useful. She asked for a word processor. To this day I don't know why.

When I was in college the web had just started becoming something worth considering, and email had become common, at least for us. That same word-processing friend indicated a bit of dismay at my tackyness when I did a "form letter" to my non-emailing friends as an update to them all on what I was doing with myself, mailing out copies to them all (at $0.29 I think) because they didn't have email in college. I was also editing video using an analog dubbing deck system, after recording it on VHS tape (SVHS if I was very very lucky). And in my senior year I purchased at great expense something called a "floptical" or something like that, to store larger quantities of data on what was basically a rewriteable CD.

I'm 35 years old and having the "when I was your age" conversations with people who are 28. Seriously, what is With THAT???

People used to send each other love letters. In the mail. People used to go check their answering machines at home, and maybe anticipate a fun phonecall from a friend. Now, there's emails, text messages, cell phones, blogs, and social networking sites. And yet, I owe an old friend a phonecall from his call to me early last week, and to sit down and make that call? (Have I done it? noooo... Joe, I will call very soon....) I've taken to sending mass-texts on my phone to invite people out at 6pm to do something at 7pm. (it is new york after all)

"Feeling screwed up at a screwed up time in a screwed up place does not necessarily make you screwed up." (-- Mark Hunter in Pump Up The Volume) I think its time to eat my cereal with a fork and do my homework in the dark.

And still, companies still insist on dragging vendors from picket to post, to call on firms, but not answer questions expediently (or properly), and clients need answers at the speed of light... ON MYLAR. Come on... really... Mylar? Why? get us to send you the PDF file, to scale, and send them digitally hither & yon to your heart's content!

I am nostalgic for my books, but those are heading the way of cassette tapes, mark my words. My dad, ever the futurist (who built the first microwave probably in the whole TOWN, and built the computer, and, and, and...) is now hot on his Kindle.... and still has stacks of old books and magazines.

So, my point is, DeClutter. Declutter your home, and your business practices. There's a lot of dead weight hanging around that really is unneccessary. If it isn't nostalgic to you, by all means, GET RID OF IT. Sell it on Ebay to someone it is nostalgic to. Really, you're going to need the money in your Pay Pal account to upgrade to the next whizbang thing that will come out next year that you didn't even know you needed, but will suddenly become essential.. Hell, my Ipod is already obsolete...

I know what this is, the darwinistic evolution of the species known as technology!

No, actually my point is, life is moving pretty freaking FREAKING fast now, and that doesn't mean we've evolved. Utilize technology, but do it efficiently.

Or maybe my point is to find out who's recycling electronic components and buy stock in their company.

Actually I don't know what my point is.

Nevermind the Environment, It's The Economy, Stupid!

(somebody has to say it!!)

I'm reminded of the scene in Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" where Col. Brandon marries Marianne Dashwood, and the Coloniel throws gold coins to the cheering mass of well-wishers.

What? I thought this was about the Economy?

Oh yes. It is. Work with me, it's my blog and I can say what I like.

Here we are, as a country, embarking on a new adventure. A brand-new President, all huzzah-ed and popular, and everyone (i'm generalizing) is feeling REALLY GREAT about this brand new world we're stepping into.

...And anticipating the sweet sound of cha-CHING! that happens (just like that scene in Sense and Sensibility) when something Big happens. The brand new new deal. I pronounce thee, Mr. President. Leader of the Free World. Dispenser of Funding for REALLY important projects.

Let me tell you what is probably happening.

All over our fair nation, city, state, and federal agencies are dusting off projects that are "done" and making sure they are "shovel-ready" to propose when the moneybags open. Because when those moneybags open, you'd better be goddamn good and ready to bid that fucker for construction. Because those are the projects that will get funded...if not, the press will have a field-day with "well, we HAVE all this money, why aren't we SPENDING it?" (ala the energy conservation measures Bush promised the last time he was elected) .

Let me let you in on a secret: Projects don't get designed unless somebody somewhere has an idea that they'll be funded. Otherwise, why put pencil to paper (ok mouse to... mousepad) and design something you won't get paid to design?

P.S.? New projects take time to design. A lot. And everybody comments on this stuff. But nobody out in "the real world" sees that time. They just notice when they're stuck in traffic because a construction crew is tearing up roads and scratching their butts.

Which means??? That it is projects that were put on the shelf that are going to be funded. And possibly more-worthy projects who are like the biblical virgins who let their lamps go out will not be chosen when the bridegroom comes through (it doesn't matter HOW long the virgins have had to wait for the bridegroom... that oil had better still be burning).

Nor will the projects be chosen which are being re-done for more energy conservation measures... Why? Because conservation measures cost money, so if it's NOT required and there's no obvious economic benefit, its not going to be designed...SO, these projects aren't sitting around on shelves to be picked. And to go to "green design" paradigm from standard engineering design is like changing from thinking like a man to thinking like a woman. You can't simply flip a switch and it's done. Designing a building as a green building requires a different kind of thinking. A holistic thinking, that, unless that choice to go green is made up-front, long before "shovel-ready", duct-taping green-stuff on later doesn't happen efficiently and doesn't work anywhere the way its supposed to. We're dealing with Frankenstein-green projects...

And because the press doesn't know squat and they love to make politicians look bad, and they will WHINE that "Nothing's being done!!!" and somehow the general public actually believes them, and the general population doesn't understand that you can't just buy a highway, and an engineering firm pulls it down off the shelf and hands it to the client... Well..it'll be projects that the politicians can be certain will be ready to roll, because politicians want to be elected by the general population who presumably listen to the news (because how Else do you find out what's going on?).

And now, you see what projects are going to be funded. Where does money tossed to the throngs go, exactly??

Did we really need that road?

If it was so important, right now, why didn't we have money for it to begin with?

If we're creating opportunity and more energy efficient design... YOU HAVE TO FUND THE DESIGN, NOT JUST THE CONSTRUCTION. But hell, engineering isn't as sexy as construction. When was the last time you saw engineers on a beefcake calendar?

And still...ya gotta stand with your hands out, ready for that cha-Ching. Because you KNOW it's coming, and you're happy that someone, somewhere, will be kept from being laid off. And you hope it's you.

Where is our brave new world coming from?

Where are we going, peeps?

1/14... PS! Someone else said it too!! Apparently I'm as smart as people who work at think tanks!!!
Commentary: Obama must get infrastructure investment right
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