I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive.

Those words from Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer have always meant a lot to me. I don’t think that they have ever been more relevant than they are right now, er, except that I do have resources and hopes. The money thing is interesting. I spent nearly $600 bucks on the plied project (many sheets of $20/sheet bending poplar, 3 large jugs of glue, $100 printing, router bits, etc… It all adds up) and I haven’t even received my student loans yet. I have to believe it will all pay off and I love making and creating.

My morning was spent on the construction site of the East Valley High School in North Hollywood. The design is nothing to write home about, but seeing the construction and the way steel frames go together and the way rooms with different programs are handled during construction i.e. the wall mass of the drama room for soundproofing. An additional delight was seeing the figurative balls of the construction workers. It is incredible to see them climbing somewhat makeshift ladders several stories up with seemingly no fear.

Then I had studio and we were given our new project. I don’t feel like typing too much right now so I won’t go into details. I will just say that I really like it and the first portion of it is group work. I usually despise group projects, but this time I have 100% faith in my partners (a couple of my best studiofriends) and I don;t feel like I have to do all of the workload. Sigh of relief. By next Tuesday, we must have a site analysis consisting of a detailed plan, detailed elevations, detailed sections, Rendered 3D Model, physical model and photo collages. Yeah, by Tuesday.

Studiomate Danny has a Cabin with Wifi in Big Bear, so we are going there to do all of our work. We all need to get away while we have a chance. Aside from our studio work, we also have to watch Alphaville and write an essay about Godards vision of Dystopia. We are gonna do that with beer. Lots of beer.

So yeah. I’m happy. Like totally happy. And it’s kind of weird.

The only thing I am upset about is missing a Rem Koolhaas lecture about Power + Architecture at the Hammer Museum on Sunday.