As the world sleeps... there's a light bulb on in Chicago.

Damn… I shouldn’t have done that… well y’all know that I haven’t been sleeping because my project was due [yesterday]… so I’ve been staying up and working on it… after class I came home and was going to watch a couple movies [yeah… that’s right… a couple meaning more than one] but I was kinda tired… so I figured I’d nap. That was a bad idea… and as I was doing it... as I was laying down… I was thinking this is a bad idea. Yeah… its 3:30 in the morning and Carl’s sleeping pattern is not completely f*cked up. But there’s an upside, I’m here… with you… well technically I’m not… but it feels like I am? Anyways…

So the review was today… and I must say it was clearly lopsided. The jurors really only liked that loud and obnoxious ones (masks… that is). There were roughly two people that thoroughly enjoyed the small and detailed ones… but most of the detailed ones got no love. I also only presented 2/3’s of my mask… I didn’t have enough time to put on the entire thing, I didn’t know we’d only have less than 4 mins to strap up the mask… mine is the only one of that design… completely adjustable… so as I moved it to different people I’d have to account for that. Now, what I could’ve done was, I could’ve had it so it was already pre-fitted… but I was forced to work on it. So based on those two factors… I didn’t get very much love on presentation day… it’s okay it just makes my decision to not work for a big firm a little bit clearer. I said something to my partner (for the mask project) during the presentation… something along the lines of “if you look at all the things SOM (Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill) complete… all they make are loud big things… they never get any attention for small projects.” And I think it’s rather true… SOM only really gets attention for the Sears Tower, John Hancock, Durj Al Arab, et cetera. And yeah it would be cool to be on those projects… but for the rest of my career… I dunno. So part of me wants the big firms to be beggin’ for me… but the other half wants to do small projects and do passion pieces. As it would seem… I’d prolly be doing both… which would be kinda cool. Hehheh… imagined me signed at two firms… Ooo now there’s an idea. Signed to a big firm… but own my own firm… only drawback it would be spreading me out… and unable to focus… knocking out an 80 hour week. That would be pretty rough… but still appealing. I wonder how many of my fellow architecture students would honestly find that appealing… seriously some kids just shouldn’t be here. That especially should out when the jurors asked “so what was your concept with this… why did you do that” and we heard answers like “I thought it looked cool / it was found by mistake / it was suggested by someone else” ::shakes his head:: get the f*ck outta architecture… please… wasting my professors time. I think there are far too many graduates in our Architecture school… and granted only about 20-30 pass the Architecture License Test… I just wish it wasn’t a business (school, that is). I think the amount of graduates should be equal to the amount of professors in the program. Example: there was 6 in first year, there’s 6(?) second year… so at least 12 graduates plus the amount of professors for the next two years. And some professors do more than one year, Douglas Garofalo (this guy’s like one of Architecture’s Top Architects [the next big thing]. He gotta be a machine... seriously… owns his own firm... and teaches 2 grads and I think 3 undergrads… not to mention administration stuff.) So with that in account the total would be slightly move down. So roughly under 30 graduates… which is about equal to the amount of students that are accepted into a grad school anyway (less than 20 at UIC and partially taught by Douglas Garofalo). So my goal is to cut down my class size. I don’t want to be part of a graduating class of 70. I think that would be an incorrect representation of actual Architects… but that’s prolly suppose to help out how the graduates look. But back to the proposed idea… this would ensure that the professors’ time isn’t spread out and wasted on someone that isn’t going to develop into an architect. It would also force the industry to keep pushing the bar in all areas of development… if all the schools only allowed a 1:1 ratio of students then that core of students really belong in the industry and are innovative, (overly) creative, and always the crème of the crop. It would also help the number of Architects never to over inflate. I can see how graduate school already does that… but the amount of bachelor degrees in Architecture still should be cut down. If I get very high administratively involved in Architecture School… definitely going to pinch that idea over the water cooler… maybe a little bit more formal than that.

Man… I wish I could post for often… but I really only post when I got something to say… or something is on my mind… hehheh… Sean Paul’s “Never Gonna Be The Same” just came on. [pausing for a moment of silence]. Alright, I’m back… I would post more… if I my body didn’t demand sleep for me to be completely functional. I’ll work on dat, make a consensus effort, I promise [so you know it’s true]. But right now…y’all… Imma go watch a movie (or a couple of movies) or something… till class at 10. First up, the Interpreter… then some Unleashed… then some Batman… order subject to change. Out.

ps. did you figure out the title means? Light bulb as in idea in the mind... c'mon y'all... pick up the slack.