natecooper.net

I finally got around to fixing up natecooper.net. It didn’t take that long because I basically just tweaked a standard wordpress template. I thought I might want to build my own from scratch but this seemed like a better way to get a decent looking site up in a relatively short amount of time since the old theme was effectively broken.

Pretty happy with it and I got to do a lot of house keeping things that I’ve been wanting to do and also try out some new stuff. I’ve surprised myself with my grasp of CSS in comparison to where I was when I first installed wordpress it’s quite impressive. Enjoy and let me know if you think it needs any improvements.

I found this article Libertarian socialism Wikipedia [link] fairly engaging from the perspective of self-identification.

I especially enjoyed this line in particular:
‘This is sometimes characterized as a desire to maximize “free creativity” in a society in preference to “free enterprise.”‘

Heard a podcast discussing the ideas of Christopher Alexander [link] and started digging around for a wikipedia entry. It’s surprising how little there is on this considering his ideas led directly to the development of wikipedia. The most descriptive article (in terms of volume) I’ve been able to find is this article on Pattern language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fascinating ideas. As is the idea of QWAN the quality without a name.

Reading these bits and piecing them together I’m aware at how difficult it is for my brain to learn something new. I’ve heard it said when I was a lad that learning just gets more difficult when you’re older and perhaps I’ve just forgotten it for now. Let’s just chalk this up to complex stuff that takes a little exposure before it sets in.

– On a personal note it’s nice to know that Chris Alexander was awarded the first PHD in Architecture from Harvard. One of my former students just started the program.

natecooper.net is making it appear as if all I’ve been reading is cracked.com and BLDGBLOG. Could be worse I guess. BLDGBLOG’s discussion of “extreme signage” [link] does pique my interest. I don’t know if I fully agree with the assessment of this fountain as “public signage that no one can read”. Seems to me that it may be simple enough to read if the amount of gradation is not so much on a sliding scale but on minor variations (ala red light, green light, yellow light). Furthermore I’ve often thought that Los Angeles needs more and more large scale public (art) works projects. The city is so flat and widespread that dramatically scaled structures with aesthetic value would help define the landscape better (the Watts towers not excepted).

On the topic of extreme signage I’d throw my hat in to vote for the Clock in Union Square. I’ve even have it explained to me and I still feel totally inept at my inability to read it. Luckily the Gothamist has a little primer [link] if you’d like the mystery ruined.

Another amusing article From Cracked.com.

Gotta love any top # list where each topic is sub-headed with: “So Where Does the Poop/Pee Come in?”

Coffee is a singular experience in New York. Though I have yet to experience the perfect cup of Joe here at the very least it is plentiful and there is a fair amount of independent shops — far fewer per-capita than should be but fair none-the-less. There is, however, a unique ritual to the purchase of coffee at the numerous corner stores (Bodegas in Brooklyn, Delis to Manhattanites). I don’t pretend to be an expert on East Coast culture (candle pin bowling? wtf?) so perhaps the experience is wider spread but to a transplant from the west coast it seems a New York enough thing.

First off when ordering coffee you wont find a little side counter with choices of sugar and creaming agents. Maybe its just a space issue but I’ve found even in coffee shops where space is less premium than at my bodega they insist on filling your coffee for you. This is sort of like traveling to Oregon for the first time and realizing you are not allowed to fill your own gas tank. What results is sometimes a light brew far too milky for my tastes but an experience which makes you feel like you are getting white-glove service. The delivery of sugar being in increments of 1, 2, or 3 is far more reserved and I find a much better fit as I tend to over-sugar my brew.

If the full-service coffee event is easy to adjust to the coffee doggie bag is simply odd to the out of towner. Being from an environmentally-minded town in California I’m probably more sensitive than most to the wastefulness of bags given out almost everywhere. No, thank you, I don’t need a bag for this water bottle that I’m about to open and enjoy instantly, Ms. Duane Reade. But if you visit a corner store in New York with any amount of regularity (usually meaning twice in a week) you may find the same being asked about your to-go coffee. A bag? For coffee?

What a delightfully wasteful practice! How so very much New York. Having moved here two years ago I am happy to have missed the plethora of styrofoam I would have inevitably been exposed to and forced to dispose of on a daily basis. Coffee to-go still comes in a paper cup with a sealed plastic lid like the rest of America. So what’s with the bag offer? Perhaps its an offering to the walking and public transit riding New Yorker who, unlike the rest of the U.S. may suffer convenience for lack of cup-holder in their Urban Assault Vehicle.

Despite the wastefulness, the New York style coffee doggie bag does present a nice little pleasantry I’ve not found elsewhere in the U.S. Often folded closed with care and packed up nicely-fit the bag is often full service with napkins neatly pressed up against the coffee so as to let the cup stand straight upwards and avoid spillage. Not only do the bag and napkin arrangement prevent wet clothing on the run to the subway they also provide a gratifying unwrapping experience. Its like your parting gift at a birthday that you can’t wait to unwrap and when open is overwhelmingly adequate and expectant as well as lacking the splendor of a personal gift. It’s one of the few occurrences in New York I’ve found that celebrates the mundane and whose procedure lends a bit of ritual to everyday life — even if most of the time when asked if I would like a bag I just respond with “No thanks.”

Eric mentioned to me the unique design ofthis parking garage in Melbourne it’s sort of hard explaining verbally but very interesting to look at.

Basically directions/signs for how to enter, exit and move around this parking garage are painted in such a way so that they are only clearly legible when facing the correct direction. Very novel design.

On a recent visit to Boston I found myself looking for the healing scars of the massive Big Dig. Mostly I was interested in the city spaces created above the buried freeway. BLDGBLOG has an interesting article [link] that wonders how the psychology of individuals in a city might be affected by public work projects. Interesting..

Started reading this entry in conservapedia about Atheism [link]. It sort of boils the blood but at the same time there is something comforting about this contrarian view. Perhaps I’ll write more later but I certainly encourage you to explore.

McSweeny’s has a great piece by Sarah Walker

“Assure Susan that you are a doctor and be sure to have made up a doctor badge that you can show her. It should be made of pure gold with something like five snakes engraved on it. You probably aren’t a doctor. If you are, good for you. That must’ve taken a long time. You must be very proud and possibly wealthy.”