As the Boehner would have it, we'll develop those cellulosic fuels! Lol

... I'm glad I'm a Californian. Goodbye Schwarzenegger, I was your biggest fan.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images.....on-custom1.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11052732/Feds.jpg

I was doing some thesis research on desert urbanism and came across the...

http://www.radicalurbantheory.com/_.....abbitDrive.jpg

... the Annual Antelope Valley Rabbit Drive.. giddyup!
ca. 1910

What's up Wisconsin?

I must say this city has exceeded all my expectations - which were not all that low. Lot's going on here.

WAAYYY CAFFEINATEDD 123456789

My thesis is on the move again, but more on that later; until then, come on America, get with the program:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/u.....7pollute.html#

I love these thunderstorms. The wind bats at my window, as if to flaunt its ability to break something, yet it never pushes hard enough to knock out my 4th floor screen (yet). Still the rain comes in, but I let it be my guest. I serve it tea and let it water my plants by the window. It's not obliged but enjoys every visit.

Weather like this makes me buy more espresso (and more New York Times), but perhaps then this is a good moment to consider my love hate relationship with Starbucks. Their latest advertising strategy struck a chord with me with "Take Comfort in Rituals," or something to that effect. Perhaps they know too much about us all, but that's when I'm most at peace with Starbucks. They do offer consistent coffee, and to be honest, I feel that my coffee there has much more to do with how I'm treated by the staff. Still, they bought out my two favorite coffee shops in Orange County (the better of them never to return, the lesser reincarnated as Kean Coffee). I may never have an intuitive grasp of what post-colonial African nation has supplied my beans, but at least I know a good latte when it arrives.

But fall has arrived hasn't it. In southern California, the easterly Santa Ana's should begin their annual march from the desert, and the cold Noreasters are beginning to evolve out of the westerly frontal squalls. I must say that the tree across my street has turned bright red a full month earlier this year. That and the chilly nights tell me it's time to adopt the proper mood and reverence. As fall begins to roll-in and deep thoughts meander with deeper shades of brown, beige and orange, I find myself increasingly craving some way to drink to that. Perhaps, this is the moment I need to graduate to whiskey. Any advice besides Jack? This is why I like a Lienenkugel's Sunset Wheat, it's an all season breakfast beer, and if you know what I mean you are clearly on a higher plane.

Until next time, I'll offer you some rooibos tea and leave you with this:
http://ae-lib.org.ua/texts-c/chandl.....d_wind__en.htm

Any Milwaukee furs out there?

http://sully.byethost18.com/index.htm

Doesn't have any of his best work, but at least I'm not the only one.

The new banner sucks.

CRAZY DAY IS CRAZY

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/academic.....quirements.htm

lol, next stop, 3rd floor, then 4th floor...

Well I'm heading up to school soon but will be visiting my folks in Nevada. Cousin Gabe is visiting as one of his parents is ill and will be out of commission for a while. I asked Dad if he could stay in his study, but Dad simple responded that he was occupying his study. I like to think of myself as one of the smartest of the young people in my family, but I'm sure Gabe will just try to show off and impress my parents in my own home, even if he is a bit younger than me.

There will be, of course, the debate about who will sleep where, but I'm not putting up with any attitude; he can sleep on the floor.

Perhaps he and I will see eye to eye sometime, maybe work on the train layout Dad and I started years ago, or go swimming in the pool. As usual, Dad will be reading his newspaper rather than joining in on the fun.

Sometimes, life imitates art.

---
In other news, I decided to go to the PS this weekend. I hadn't gone for over a year and was frankly afraid to return to the body odor and fondling by strange creepy furs. Actually, it turned out to be a really nice PS, maybe even one of the best I've seen. There must have been 200+ people there (a good 20 or so fursuits). Finally met the Dogbomb in all his awesomeness and hung out with some really good friends. The PS seemed to have a really good, clean, festive, and not too weird vibe, and it was really nice. I saw so many people I hadn't seen since early last summer; all around a good reunion with a lot of good friends.

---

They should install a culture center and mosque in that building near ground zero (or infill replacement - haven't seen the plans). That fellow Americans shudder and recoil, as they replay the image of the explosions and collapses on 9/11, is natural, understandable, and an experience I myself share. However, to fill that smoldering void in ourselves with increased guardedness of our cultural and spiritual territory is to play into the hands of the perpetrators. Engendering more hate, they hope to find us in the wrong, and highlight our potential greatest failing - cultural imperialism. If we do this, they will be absolutely correct.

There is a seething nostalgia in what Oren Yiftachel calls the North West - particularly in the Unites States. We see it everywhere, from post-modern design exercises to the political appeals of the right-wing. Onto what are we holding? The only true historical value of America's past qualities, was that it gave no head to the past. Yet we are nostalgic at times when the future seems dark, clinging to past successes like a baby blanket. Just so, many Americans (and Europeans) are caving to their fear of a world more mottled and aggregated than one that passed generations before.

In a more physical and pragmatic prism, we must consider the ramifications of excluding anything within any emotional radius from any ground zero. In so doing, we establish a hazy disk shaped zone on the map, which says one group or religion shouldn't plant seeds therein. Ruminate on this and what it means - passionate, historical, self-conscious zoning. That is dangerous, and smacks of ethnic planning regulations in post Soviet bloc states. The only fit alternative then would be to allow only silence - no religious institutions for many blocks.

So many human travesties have occurred within New York's constituent cities. American's once faced the full might of a British amphibious landing in western parts of Brooklyn and the southern tip of Manhattan. The battle was two sided, but lopsided. In the eyes of the British, the rebels were unrighteous and unrepentent as they kicked-off the empire that rode them. The importance of this is that the subsoil under Brooklyn is probably stained with more human red blood cells than any other part of New York, and yet there is nothing sacred about it (especially the Gowanus).

The reasons could go-on.

If the United States purports to be the fastest minded, most a-historical, forward looking, and innovative nation, then it should accept this as a radical experiment and support the Islamic culture center (with mosque). While they are at it, we should ask for a Shinto shrine in Pearl Harbor and flood Cuba with American tourists (talk about an injustice). This country's memory is getting too good, and only needs to remember that it is at its best when it lives in the immediate present and possibly the future. We must stay fast and forward-looking.

Back in New York, the attendees of this mosque can implore Allah for peace.

HOTBOX!

In regards to:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4153472

"Dear Jonathan,

thank you for sending the collage. There is a striking likeness in the two.

Kind regards,
Kaan Ozdurak"


---
Maybe they'll hire me now?

Quick.. does anyone know how I can post a Quicktime QTVR to FA? I want you to see this...

Rainy day in Kyoto.

:)

KOCHIIIIIIII


;lksdjfl;kadfj sal;fkj

I'll be studying the relationship of urban development following the Shingon Buddhist 88-Temple Pilgrimage and conflicting habitat conservation goals. This is essentially a journalistic study of spiritual infrastructure and it's impact on nature.

Naruto
Jul 15 - 19

Matsuyama
Jul 19 - 22

Kochi
Jul 22 - 25

Kyoto
Jul 25 - 29


http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/s.....nny_white.html

I'll be studying the relationship of urban development following the Shingon Buddhist 88-Temple Pilgrimage and conflicting habitat conservation goals. This is essentially a journalistic study of spiritual infrastructure and it's impact on nature.

Naruto
Jul 15 - 19

Matsuyama
Jul 19 - 22

Kochi
Jul 22 - 25

Kyoto
Jul 25 - 29


http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/people/s.....nny_white.html

Are there any furries in Kyoto, Nara, or Kansai?

---

In other news:

Sorry I haven't been uploading much art in the last few months. Furry art is essentially where I spend surplus time, energy, and patience, all of which I have none at the moment. This what happens when you're mixing full time employment, research, and making travel plans usually in the same day. Art is happening though; two pieces were started last week (one a commission). Additionally, I've been tweaking with a mural that's a year or two in the making.


The only con I might make in the next year will be Furfright, although this usually depends on how things are going at school.

I'm up in Reno, Nevada for a few weeks doing some work and taking in Northern Nevada again. I feel at home once I smell that sweet nutty odor of wet sagebrush under the summer thunderstorms here. Right now, at night, it smells more like wet reeds. The loudest sound outside are the frogs in a nearby creek. What's interesting is they all quiet down by midnight. It's still a bit cold of the coyotes still. Each night the thunderstorms dissolve into this high mist that diffuses a waxing moon as it rises from the desert side of town - heading toward the Sierra side. I love Nevada.

I bet I could tell which city I'm in based on smell by now.

Heading to the OC for a while. I'm taking a suitcase of books.

Finally finished my 1st year at Harvard. That was way more than I expected - but we're just getting warmed up.

Tonight, I was just thinking of what the next 12 months of my life are going to mean - quite possibly the last year in an academic design studio. I've heard that the thesis students are working really hard this weekend - the defense presentations begin at 1 on Monday. This is their defining moment. Man that's gotta be intense. All these emails keep showing up on the student-announce email list of someone asking for more time on the robots or lasers or printers or whatever.

That will be me in 12 months, putting the finishing touches on some model of parametric streetscape, self generating aleatory urbanism, who knows. It's kind of overwhelming to think that the moment for which I've been preparing for so many years is already upon me. How can I possibly address a concept that is worthy of standing up to the manifestos of Rem Koolhaas, Thom Mayne, or Farshid Moussavi (all who were in my exact position). I've been practicing in theoretical design studios for 6 years now, so I guess I can't be any more ready than this. I'm so psyched about it though, and really excited to own this from beginning to end.

Basically, I'm going to spend a lot of time this summer reading up on some ideas. I don't know what kind of urbanism needs to be created, but I feel ready for that creative task. It has to be polemic enough to draw the criticism of "bullshit" until the hour of presentation leaves the jurors enthusiastic and credulous.

Man I'm tired.

---
PS if you're curious: This goes way beyond what is required to become an architect. You can get a license with 5 years of college and 3 years of internship if you stay focused. The urban design program is post-professional, many of my colleagues are working on their 3rd masters, but this is as high as you can go in a design studio. After this, one would go fully into becoming a writer/professor who does very little actual design.

MINI FRIDGE!
So excited...

also...
I'm designing a city in China, kthnx

The oil spill is completely under reported. Now they are masking the problem with dispersants (sort of a colloid killer, not unlike detergent). This oil might biodegrade at lower concentrations but now we are adding manufactured chemicals to the sea floor. It all reminds me of the PCB and DDT dumps in Santa Monica Bay back in the 50's and 60's - but this is on a much larger scale. Sadly, I listen to these shmucks in the South complaining about toxicity and livelihoods, yet this has been the case for decades along the northern and south-central African coasts - unabated. What goes around will come around:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europ.....ex.html?hpt=C2

My reviewers include XXXX, XXXXX, XXXXXXXX, XXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXX, etc... (redacted)

,,,basically the field of urban design and landscape today

*sweatdrop*