Star Trek - The LOST Generation

Another awesomely funny and geeky video from YouTube. The good people there seems to know my taste in these crazy videos and keep piling these treasures to my "Recommended For You" list. Thanks, guys! And now it's your turn to enjoy this hilarious parody of Lost played by J.J Abram's Star Trek characters. Nice use of action figure there!

The Muppets sing Bohemian Rhapsody!

I decided to make a new label entitled "Video Ga-ga" in order to show you guys some funny, witty, awesome, and of course geeky videos I find on the 'Net. I decided to name it Video Ga-ga as some sort of a homage to Queen's song "Radio Ga-ga" and since the first post in this label is a cover version to one of the greatest rock song of all time, Bohemian Rhapspody. (yes, I'm a Queen fan. Sue me.)


The Muppets are still as hilarious as they were once that I remembered in my childhood. So, here they are!

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Iron Man 2 Trailer!!!

Marvel just released the first trailer for Iron Man 2 and once again I have a nerdgasm. Enjoy the video here, folks!

Sweet Asgardian Poster

Recently Marvel published Tales of Asgard limited series. Basically it's a collection of old Thor series by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, re-colored with today's technology (something lovingly named Photoshop, maybe you're familiar with that?).


What's cool about this limited series is the covers by regular Thor artist, Olivier Coipel. What's even cooler is that Marvel decided to release a poster, combining all these covers into one awesome vinyl spread of 10 feet (approx. 3 meters) long! Check out below, and click to enlarge it, as always :





There's a who's who poster in Marvel website, but unfortunately it's not that clear to me.


If you're interested in knowing one or two characters' names, you can download the above picture, circle the face you want to know and re-send it to me via e-mail.


Now, excuse me while I make a phone call to my favorite shop.

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Top 10 Reasons To Date An Architect

This has become some sort of internet meme, copy-pasted in various mailing lists, and online forums, but since this joke may not be as popular as, say, Chuck Norris jokes because of the somewhat limited exposure of the joke (well, I found this mostly on architects' forum, to be honest); I feel this is my obligation as an architeture graduate to spread this funny list below.




Top 10 Reasons To Date An Architect :


1. all night long, all night strong.


2. we are damn good with our hands.


3. if we can commit to chipboard, relationships should be easy.


4. you should see the things we errect.


5. use to doing things over and over again.


6. finishing early never happens.


7. we know the true meaning of interpretation


8. creative positioning.


9. work well in groups


10. entry and passage are always exciting.




What else is the reason do I post this? Apparently, there are many people that thinks that being architects are sexy, like the scanned article below (click to make it larger), but since I haven't met anyone told me how sexy I am; well, let's just say I need a confidence boost.

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God and real life

This post is copied from Paolo Coelho's blog. Paolo is one of my favorite authors (go find The Alchemist in Amazon.com and read it, if you haven't already) and since he wrote in his post that we're free to share this post, I think I'll do that simply because of its awesome inspiration for me and I hope I can spread the good message to all of you, especially if you belong to any of the Abrahamic religion below:




Christian tradition


A protestant priest, having started a family, no longer had any peace for his prayers. One night, when he knelt down, he was disturbed by the children in the living room.


"Have the children keep quiet!" he shouted.


His startled wife obeyed. Thereafter, whenever the priest came home, they all maintained silence during prayers. But he realized that God was no longer listening.


One night, during his prayers, he asked the Lord: "what is going on? I have the necessary peace, and I cannot pray!"


An angel replied: "He hears words, but no longer hears the laughter. He notices the devotion, but can no longer see the joy."


The priest stood and shouted once again to his wife: "Let the children play! They are part of praying!"


And his words were heard by God once again.

Muslim tradition


A blind man was begging on the road to Mecca, when a pious Moslem came over and asked whether the people were giving generously - as the Koran commands. The man showed him his little tin, which was almost empty. The traveler said:


- Let me write something on the card around your neck.


Hours later, the traveler returned. The beggar was surprised, for he had received a large amount of money.


- What did you write on the card? - he asked.


- All I wrote was: Today is a beautiful spring day, the sun is shining, and I am blind.

Jewish tradition


Dov Beer de Mezeritch was asked:


"Which example should one follow? That of pious men, who devote their lives to God? That of scholars, who seek to understand the will of the Almighty?


"The best example is that of the child," he answered.


"A child knows nothing. It hasn't yet learned what reality is," people commented.


"You are all quite wrong, for a child possesses three qualities we should never forget," said Dov Beer. "They are always joyful without reason. They are always busy. And when they want something, they know how to demand it firmly and with determination."




Have a pleasant and inspiring day everyone!

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Another World Architecture : The Ultimate Work of Sir Norman Foster

Another World Architecture is my attempt to combine two of my favorite things in life : architecture and comic books-which is one of the reason why this blog exists in the first place. Under this label, I will try to write about the sometimes silly and always awesome architecture in the comic book world. There are always interesting building in the comic book world ; from the small apartment of Peter Parker in New York to the hi-tech tower that is the Baxter Building, from the dark dungeon of Doctor Doom in Latveria to the majestic royal palace of Wakanda.


And that's from Marvel alone.


Don't worry Marvel-haters, I will of course do some things with the architecture from DC Comics and other publishers as well. Who wouldn't wanna see the layout of Clark Kent's apartment? Or the Batcave? Or the "psyche-tecture" of Mr.X? Or Astro City?


I also plan to someday include architecture in the video game world but right now I don't have time to play video games anymore so maybe it will be very rare to do an article from a video game.


Let's begin our first installment!


Ask any architecture students or any architects you can find, chances are you're going to find they can tell you at least a thing or two about who Sir Norman Foster is. Even better, you may also find they mention two or three of his most famous works; be it the Central Office of Willis, Faber, & Dumas, or the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank. But I'm willing to bet that they have never heard of his work in Manhattan, New York. A multi story, super hi-tech building called The Triskelion.


What?


This is building doesn't exist in our world. It exists in the Marvel Ultimate Universe. For those of you not in the know, the Ultimate line is Marvel Comics' attempt to refresh their legendary icons in order for them to stay hip, current, and up-to-date in the 21st century. Our beloved Marvel heroes are being revamped, reintroduced as if they were new, and given new lives free from baggages of history and years of continuity. Indonesian readers perhaps remember when these titles are translated into Bahasa Indonesia several years a go-Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Spider-Man. They were around for several issues before completely disappeared from the market.


The Marvel Ultimate Universe doesnt't necessarily replace the Marvel Universe proper though. The "classic" Marvel Universe (or "Earth-616" for us geeks) still exists and some might say becoming even better because of (or despite of) the appearance of the younger, fresher universe.


Anyway, enough with the backstory, let's return to the topic. In the Ultimate Universe, the Avengers that we all know and love is technically not a super-hero team, at least not in the traditional sense. They are formed by SHIELD (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage, Logistic Directorate) to counter the growing number of "super-terrorism" after the event of 9/11. These super-soldiers are not even called superheroes, but rather "PMD" or "Persons of Mass Destruction". It is of course, as opposed to "WMD" or "Weapons of Mass Destruction".


In the third story arc, the U.S government even sent the team to Iraq in the current invasion. Apparently, George Bush of the Ultimate Universe thought why risk sending thousands of soldiers to invade a country when a dozen people can achieve the same results?


Perhaps writer Mark Millar (who loves to pepper his comicbooks writings with socio-political themes) intended to satirize our current culture and condition. Be it the war in Iraq mentioned above, or even the celebrity worship phenomenon we currently see everyday. As the premiere superhero team, The Avengers gain a rather luxurious treatment ; a toy line, magazine and TV interviews, a planned feature film, and yes, a kick-ass headquarters.


And this HQ is designed by none other by Sir Norman Foster himself and it's called the Triskelion.







The scan above is from Ultimate Avengers #1, cover-dated October 2009. The establishing shot of the Triskelion under re-construction. The building is almost demolished during the last bru-ha-ha with Magneto in the event called Ultimatum.


And this dialogue between Ultimate Nick Fury (modeled after a famous actor who then portrayed him in a cameo in two recent Marvel films, can you guess who?) and Hawkeye is the proof of who is the designer of this tower.









It's ironic to see that someone like Nick Fury still thinks design work is a luxury and feeling a little overcharged by Sir Norman like some newly-rich Indonesian people who thinks that paying an architect is merely paying for a worthless picture and an architect's work is secondary compared to...uh sorry. Got a little carried away there!


Come on, Nick! Good design is good business!


Alright, now that I'm feeling better, let's see the interior!







I say the deck and the steel frame is quite convincing to give us the impression of a Foster design. An impression of futuristic, neo-constructivist style that is his trademark although the frame kind of reminds me of Calatrava a little


While this style can give us a cold, unfriendly, industrial feeling but oh,...no! Ultimate Sir Norman can also give us a warm, cozy, and yet minimalistic interior office design...







...so minimalistic that the table looks like my 6th grade school desk.


Or perhaps Ultimate Sir Norman DID overcharge for his design work that it hurts the furniture budget.


So, what do you think? Although if it's up to me, I'd rather have Calatrava or Hadid to design my superhero HQ!

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Why BIM?

You may have been using ArchiCAD, or maybe Revit. Both applications are called Building Information Modeling alias BIM. Actually, BIM applications are not limited to just just those two. There are many existing BIM applications. But both are the most popular in Indonesia. Of course, there are major vendors : Bentley Architecture and Nemetschek VectorWorks just to name a few. Also there's a whole load of another software dedicated to modeling and MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing).


So as the title says, why using BIM? Maybe you've heard that in BIM software you can create a 2D plan, and directly obtain its 3D model. Creating a section or elevation drawing is also easy : just define the line where the section and/or elevation should be, and the section will be obtained automatically. Or you can even get the schedule automatically. Or even get a quite excellent rendering How about that?


However, BIM did not stop there!






I often hear complains from established AutoCAD users. They assume difficulties if switching from their traditional CAD software to Revit or ArchiCAD. I do not mean to blame such assumptions. However, in most cases that I find, these complains come from reluctance (to substitute a much harsher word, "laziness") to learn new things. Something I find ironic considering the creative nature or architecture field (and what are creative people if not ones who are willing to do, to learn something new?). Although BIM applications could actually make draftings like the one they use to make, but BIM applications not only about draftng or images.


BIM is a digital model of a building, so it can study the building, without having to actually build it first. Model produced by BIM applications can be analyzed in detail. Drawing is just one part of the BIM.

It differs from " traditional CAD " (eg AutoCAD) in the parametric nature of it. Let's say you draw plans, elevations, and sections in AutoCAD, If there are any design changes, you have to goto each sheet and change MANUALLY. This could get very complicated and confusing, and errors are introduced this way.


BIM software tries to solve this problem by making user(s) draw OBJECTS (instead of just symbolic 2D lines) eg. walls. By doing so, the building is 'virtually constructed', (in 3D with material information and sometimes even cost of material built in) The software do all the relevent revision for you. So if say, you change the position of the window in a wall, all the plans, section, elevations, are changed accordingly and automatically by the software.


That's in the simplest level.


In a more complicated scenario, a user could group a set of design, and change one single design and have the BIM software do all the relevent changes in every level according to the "rules" setup by the user. It is the power of that "parametric-ness" (is that even a word?) that makes BIM so powerful.







So you see, compared with applications such as AutoCAD drafting ... not fair, not really an apple-to-apple comparison. For individuals, BIM is probably not an attractive thing (certainly not for me, though). Especially those already entered into the comfort zone with CAD applications used today (Come on! Do not stay too long in the comfort zone! We're supposed to be creative people here!) But for the engineering company who handle the multi-disciplinary design, BIM is very important.

BIM may also help you analyze the structure of the building. In the past, analysis of building structures should be modeled on the re-analysis applications such as SAP, STAAD, ETABS, or others. I've tried using Revit Structure is connected with the Robot Millennium. Very impressive. The model, including structural properties such as columns, beams, etc., directly analyzed by Robot Millennium. If there is property that must be changed, such as the size of the column is not big enough, a change in the model structure will also change the model. What else can be done with BIM software? Solar study is one them. We can see how the influence of sunlight on the interior or exterior of the building.


Furthermore, you can make green building analysis with software like Autodesk Ecotect, Green Building Studio or a special add-on for ArchiCAD called EcoDesigner.

Other? Facilities management, visual time schedule, high-end rendering, building cost calculation, and probably other things I'd never find.


BIM applications continues to develop the exchange of data with the format of the IFC (Industry Foundation Classes). It is not perfect yet. Then again, what is in this world? As long as the format continues to be made better and gains worldwide support, all will be well. At some point you will even perhaps be able to open the Revit model in ArchiCAD or vice versa. And I can guarantee there will be more software for the analysis of building models (quake analysis anyone?). The development will be more aggressive because it is not intended to be for one specific software. In Indonesia, sadly, BIM is not too popular yet, but it does not mean not going to develop in Indonesia. With people show more appreciation for original software instad of pirated copies, the days of expensive CAD software which only is capable of doing single task will soon be over. Why waste millions of rupiahs for CAD software and another millions for 3d modelling software when with something like ArchiCAD you can achieve both?

The future is already here, it's just that not everyone knows!

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The First Iron Man 2 Poster!

Yahoo! Movies has debuted this first poster for Marvel Studios' Iron Man 2, which Paramount Pictures will release in theaters on May 7.


The poster gives you a first official look at War Machine!



Pretty awesome isn't it? I think I'm having a nerdgasm!


Now I have one more reason to gasp beside imagining Scarlett Johansson in the Black Widow outfit.....









...or Mickey Rourke as the baddie Whiplash in a costume which I consider way,waay better than the comic book S&M version :

I don't know why, comic book Whiplash always made me go 'meeh'. I mean, he wants to beat someone who's basically a living fighter jet with a porn movie props?That's really disturbing!


Fortunately, in the coming issues of Invincible Iron Man, Marvel decides to re-design his outfit (see below) to make it more resembles its movie counterpart. I usually hate movie costume re-design, especially if it's too radical. But in this case, I think I can agree with the new look; although for the how it's going to work in the comic book, we still have to wait and see:









Anyway, I can't wait fot this movie which I hope to be another blockbuster for Marvel!

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Top 6 Funniest Architecture Bumper Sticker

I love bumper stickers. When you're stuck in the traffic jam, one of the short, yet delightful distraction from all those annoying car horns and everything is reading bumper stickers in the cars in front of you.


They're often humorous or witty, offer you a glimpse of smile (or even laughter) between the hectic day you're having. Sure, some can be not funny at all or even offend you. But hey, isn't that all jokes sometimes do?


It turns out that many websites offer various types of bumper stickers (yeah, what business owners in this day and age that don't have a website?). Yesterday I browsed these various sites and found some interesting and funny bumper stickers.


Of course, they are in architecture and/or comic book/geeky stuff themes.


So, I present to you a long internet tradition that I have only begun to do, the list articles! (come on, you know that various news, feature, or even comedy sites often do what basically is listing stuffs they think are of their readers' interest!).


Here they are, in subjective rank from 6 to 1 :







I didn't know Magneto had an opening in the Brotherhood.







Then again, if Magneto had an opening...


Wait a minute, what if you had to pull an all-nighter being a CAD monkey and the world needs you?







This is more like it, both architects and ninja ARE creatures of the night.









Innuendo, I like it. I just hate the font they use on main text.




Another innuendo. Who needs the little blue pill when you're an architect?







Yes, it's an innuendo also, but I can't help it. It's so simple and sweet. As the great Stan Lee used to utter, "Nuff Said!"



So, what do you think, gentle readers? Which is your fave? Or do you have one of your own? Feel free to send me!

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Archi-text-ure - It's too good to be true!

Found these images below somewhere on the net, and I think it is a hoax. So what do you guys out there think? Architecture models by Tamiya? Personally I think this is a good idea. But, the market for demands like these are virtually non-existence, I think. Well, except for a geeky fanboy type like me I guess.


But seriously, how many architecture students would want to buy it? Or architects who would buy this for his/her kids? Or...secretly for him/herself. Again, I don't know if there is a real market for these. So let me ask once again, what do you guys think?


Nevertheless if it's true, I'd think there'd be issues regarding privacy and security. Would the owner of the house or the building want the whole world to know the overall layout of the house? ("Here's where the magic happens.", said the owner while pointing to his/her master bedroom a la MTV Crib)


It is too good to be true.


Still, fingers crossed.

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Comic Book Stuffs - Superheroes' Facebook status

This page is from Vengeance of Moon Knight #3 which guest-starring Spider-Man, currently on sale.

Spidey's comment regarding superheroes' Facebook account got me laughed and then got me thinking, "Yeah. What if superheroes had Facebook account, what would their status update be like?" Fortunately, before I got up from my lazy behind to make a fake Facebook accounts for our favorite heroes, a friend of mine sent me this Photoshop work of what my little fantasy would like. I assume it's not his work so if one you his its original creator, kudos to you, Sir! (or Ma'am, for that matter). Enjoy :











It's all really funny don't you think?


Which one is your favorite?


My personal favorite is the Punisher. I know how you feel Frank, I'll go nuts too if I get Mafia Wars invite everytime I log on to Facebook. How 'bout Farmville?


Oh, can't help it, I can't resist to post this cap, I know this isn't superhero-related but...really, I can't resist the urge to post this baby, courtesy of Lamebook.

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Thor and the mistake of not trying

Comic Book Wisdom is an effort to find great and inspiring quotes from the pages of comic books. If you're not regular reader, or one of those people who still thinks that comic books are only for kids (Boo, shame on you!), you may be surprised by the numbers of great quotes in the comic books out there.
I am going to try to share as many of these wisdom as possible under this label, Comic Book Wisdom.
The page above is from Thor #10, published by Marvel a few months a go.
Never in my whole life of reading comic books, have I ever been a fan of Thor. I love Marvel Comics but one thing that bugged about Thor is the Shakespearean English. For a non-native English speaker like me, just try reading those "thou" and "thee" is enough to make me suffer from a headache.
Marvel hired J. Michael Straczynsky (or lovingly known by fans as JMS) the writer of the newly-relaunched Thor and Frenchman Olivier Coipel as the artist. For those of you not in the know, JMS is a famous TV and comic book writer. His previous comic book works are a legendary run on Amazing Spider-Man, his own work Midnight Nation (which also won appraisals from both fans and critics), and many more.
But for those of you Indonesians, he's probably most widely known as the producer/writer for the 90's sci-fi space opera Babylon 5.
He also recently wrote an Angelina Jolie flick Changeling and his other movie is soon to hit theaters near you-Ninja Assassin (hit imdb for further reference).
JMS wisely used "poetic" English but doesn't let himself be trapped with the Shakespearean English used since Stan Lee wrote the book. For an illustration, the English used in the current incarnation of Thor is similar to the dialogues in Lord of the Rings movies : poetic, beautiful, yet doesn't make you want to scratch your head every five minutes.
JMS also makes Thor a very contemplative and spiritual comic book, like his aforementioned Amazing Spider-Man. How many superhero books can claim that?
Read the dialogue above ( second panel, first row) and see what I mean.
For those of you having trouble reading it, it says,
"Biggest mistakes I ever had were in listening to guys like that, instead of listening to my own heart...what my granddad used to call 'the tyranny of reasonable voices'."
"Mistakes you MAKE can always be worked out, the mistakes you DON'T make because you do NOTHING, because you don't TRY, you don't RISK, those are the ones that haunt you when you get old."
"REGRET, that's the real killer."

How can you not love a dialogue like that?

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The Coolest Conversation EVER!

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty. He asks one of his new students to stand and.....


Prof: So you believe in God?


Student: Absolutely, sir.


Prof : Is God good?


Student: Sure.


Prof: Is God all-powerful?


Student: Yes.


Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm?


(Student is silent.)


Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?


Student: Yes.


Prof: Is Satan good?


Student : No.


Prof: Where does Satan come from?


Student: From...God....


Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?


Student: Yes.


Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?


Student: Yes.


Prof: So who created evil?


(Student does not answer.)


Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?


Student: Yes, sir.


Prof: So, who created them?


(Student has no answer.)


Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?


Student: No, sir.


Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?


Student: No, sir.


Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?


Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.


Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?


Student: Yes.


Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?


Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.


Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.


Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?


Prof: Yes.


Student: And is there such a thing as cold?


Prof: Yes.


Student: No sir. There isn't.


(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)Student : Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold . Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat . We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy . Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it .


(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)


Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?


Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?


Student : You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light.....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?


Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?


Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.


Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?


Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?


Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.


Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?


(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)


Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?


(The class is in uproar.)


Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?


(The class breaks out into laughter.)


Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?


(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)


Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.


Student: That is it sir.... The link between man & god is FAITH . That is all that keeps things moving & alive.


NB: I believe you have enjoyed the conversation....and if so...you'll probably want your friends/colleagues to enjoy the same...won't you? you can share this wonderful conversation to them.... this is a true story, and the the student was APJ Abdul Kalam, The Well Know Nuclear Scientist and also The Former President of India.

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A thank you note to Zoundry Raven

First time blogging I use the default online Blogger editor. Then since I found out that I have more ideas for my blog offline, I searched for an offline blog editor. Turned out there are so many of them. After tried almost all of them, I fell for two freeware applications: BlogDesk and Zoundry Raven. They both are in my opinion the most powerful blog editor, but in the end, my choice is Zoundry Raven.


The reason why I have chosen this editor and writing about it is that I could install it as the portable version (it will be automatically named as Zoundry Raven 2 Go) on my usb stick. I really love portable applications because I don't have Internet connection at home and like I said, I tend to have more ideas while I'm not browsing.


Well, the number of posts on this blog doesn't quite show the number of ideas I have, I admit. But, right now, all I gotta do is write them down in the Unpublished section of the 'Raven and hopefully, it'll be worthy of publishing one of these days.


So, thank you Zoundry Raven!

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Nihonbashi House

Object : Nihonbashi house (Tadao Ando)


Reference : many, but mostly from Tadao Ando - The Complete Works


CAD work : ArchiCAD 11


Modelling : Google SketchUp 6


Render : Vray for Sketchup


Aftertouch : GIMP 2.6.6, what do you know? It's as good as Photoshop and it's free!

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Render-vaganza - Dwelhouse - a study of modern tropical house and V-ray rendering engine (oh, and Sketchup!)

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Spectrum Corps' Oath

What kind of fanboy that doesn't get excited by Blackest Night? In lights of this event, here's the lights for the various "Rainbow Corps" currently run amok in the DC Universe :

Red Lantern Corps
Spectrum : Red
Emotion : Rage
Oath :
"With blood and rage of crimson red,
Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead,
Together with our hellish hate,
We'll burn you all -- That is your fate!"






Agent Orange
Spectrum : Orange
Emotion : Avarice
Oath : not yet revealed





Sinestro Corps
Spectrum : Yellow
Emotion : Fear
Oath :
"In blackest day, in brightest night,
Beware your fears made into light.
Let those who try to stop what's right,
Burn like his power--Sinestro's might!"






Green Lantern Corps
Spectrum : Green
Emotion : Willpower/courage (this really puzzles me, is willpower an emotion?)
Oath :
"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might,
beware my power--Green Lantern's light!"






Blue Lantern Corps
Spectrum : Blue
Emotion : Hope
Oath :
"In fearful day, in raging night,
With strong hearts full our souls ignite,
When all seems lost in the War of Light,
Look to the stars, for hope burns bright!"






Indigo Tribe
Spectrum : Indigo
Emotion : Compassion
Oath : another yet unrevealed thing






Star Sapphire
Spectrum : Violet
Emotion : Love
Oath :
"For hearts long lost and full of fright,
For those alone in blackest night,
Accept our ring and join our fight,
Love conquers all--With violet light! "









Black Lantern Corps
Spectrum : Black (black is not a spectrum, I know. Heck, it's not even a color)
Emotion : Death (yes, I know what you're thinking)
Oath :
"The Blackest Night falls from the skies,
The Darkness grows as all light dies,
We crave your heats and your demise,
By my black hand--the dead shall rise!"









All we've got to ask now is, who's responsible for all of these wonderfully corny oaths? Is it you, Geoff Johns? I love them! Who knew something so boy scout-ish can be something cool, scary even in case of the Black Lanterns.

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Architecture Is The Weirdest Thing

Architecture is the weirdest thing. its like a science – calculated and physical, and like an art – creative and thoughtful. and in this, it is in constant strife with both itself and everything around it. architecture can only progress through conflict: conflicting its contrary concerns and conflict with everything around it.
There is only war with architecture and the world. the battle is massive, but the gains are relatively minimal. but architecture prevails in its comparative chaos because it understands people, the people just fail to understand it. so we wage on in this war unaware of how it erodes our souls and builds our bodies.
Architecture is the work of angry gods. chipping away at physicality, until everything reaches perfection.
So ends this first post.