Feeling extra stupid today?

Well, I have a solution to your woes...watch this video and, in no time, you will feel like one of the most intelligent people on this earth (well, at least you'll know you're not the dumbest):

"THE SPRINKLER RAINBOW CONSPIRACY!"

What the heck are "Metallic Oxide Salts?????" Hilarious.

Two weeks and counting...

For the next two weeks, I will be finishing up my first semester of grad school here in Charleston. Lindsey and I are moving back to the upstate on the 17th. Until then, if I don't answer my phone, facebook, or eMails, no offense, I am just really busy. We will be in the upstate for Christmas, spending time with friends and family before next semester rolls around.

Speaking of next semester, we are moving to Genoa, Italy on January 6th and, from there, Lindsey and I will both have a lot more time to blog about our experiences (in fact, this whole semester has really been a blogging practice run in preparation for next semester's blogging adventures). So, stay tuned for the European Chronicles!

Also, if you read my blog, and you don't comment on my posts, how will I know if you are reading? It's a lot more motivating to write and post pictures when you know that friends/family are actually reading this thing! so...comment, comment, comment!

No more ITC !!!

For the first half of the semester, I have been taking a class called: "Introduction to Craft" or "ITC". It's basically woodshop class with an emphasis on traditional joinery techniques. I took the class for 1 credit hour (instead of 3) which means that it only meets for half the semester...
At first, I was a little disappointed that I had to do this (due to an overloaded schedule) but now that I don't have to meet for the class every Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 9-9:30ish, I'm glad I decided to do it.

So, what did I do with my first real night off from ITC? I went to the mall with Lindsey...woohoo! I had almost forgot what it was like to do something recreational during the week! Here's a picture of our glorious meal at the food court:


(Notice the Japanese food with all the white sauce..as well as the remnants of a pretzel)

It was the most fun I've had on a weeknight since back in August when we would drive around looking for furniture for our first "home".

Oh, and in case you're wondering...here are a couple of photos of the box I made as my final project for ITC:


(Here it is drying after the final coat of finishing oil was applied the night before it was due.)


(This is a picture of the box on display along with some of the others at the review.)


(I designed the box -which had to fit within preset dimensions: 12"x5"x9"- as a house for our remote controls. Since we currently have no coffee table, we had no place to store the remotes except at the TV . . . which defeats the purpose.)


(Here is a photo of the box on the floor beside our futon holding our remote controls.)

Architecture School

Anybody wondering what kinds of things we learn in architecture school?

How about an excerpt from an assigned reading:

"Intuitively we may guess that the beauty of a building, its life, and its capacity to support life all come from the fact that it is working as a whole. A view of the building as a whole means that we see it as part of an extended and undivided continuum. It is not an isolated fragment in itself, but part of the world which includes the gardens, walls, trees, streets beyond its boundaries, and other buildings beyond those. And it contains many wholes within it -- also unbounded and continuous in their connections. Above all, the whole is unbroken and undivided. This rather obvious idea, though we may assume it to be true, does not yet have a precise counterpart in our professional or scientific analysis of buildings...
The general idea is that the wholeness in any part of space is the structure defined by all the various coherent entities that exist in that part of space, and the way these entities are nested in and overlap each other..."

If you actually read all of that...kudos, you now have a basic understanding of Christopher Alexander's explanation of "wholeness"...now, if you'll excuse me, I have to write a paper on how this notion of wholeness, along with the theory of centers, could begin to explain the varying degrees of "life" that can be found within all material systems. (PS- in order to do this, you have to free your mind from hundreds of years of Cartesian logic in which everything measurable can be deduced to its rudimentary machinistic method of operation)

What saddens me the most

I am saddened that the candidate I voted for was not elected...

I am saddened that the political party that most closely reflects my personal views will not be represented in the white house...

I am saddened that the political party that supports beliefs directly opposed to many fundamental Christian principles has majority control of the senate...

However...

What saddens me the most is simply this:

...that drinking fountains, buses, public places, restrooms, schools, voting booths, workplaces, politics, ......and now the white house..... have all desegregated before the Church.

It is time for Christians to wake up and become prayerfully and faithfully committed to freeing themselves from the bonds of segregation. The one institution that has been given the charge for acknowledging the equality of men, under the grace of God, since the days that Jesus Christ walked the earth, should have never become the last institution to do so...

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 15:5,6

"For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body......But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." -1st Corinthians 12: 13-16, 24-26

"Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called 'uncircumcised' by those who call themselves 'the circumcision' (that done in the body by the hands of men) - remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." -Ephesians 2

"But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of it Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, [red, yellow, black, or white], but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:8-14

To the Church of Jesus Christ: Arise and unite as one body!

Studio...in progress

A live pin-up session to plan out our upcoming client presentation (this coming monday afternoon)... we're going to be here all night.

Drayton Hall Plantation Field Trip

more to follow

Fire! Fire!

This was our excitement for the night (it was in the Walmart parking lot...of course). Yes, that's a car on fire beyond the trees...

The Whitlocks

After Hailey's wedding, we took Kate to her parent's house in Easley. It was good to see the Whitlocks again....Bill let us borrow their bike rack so we can bring our bikes back to Charleston with us...

Gavin DeGraw

the end of Chariot

Large Lunch

Rob and Ashley had us over again today for lunch (they have been taking care of us pretty much all the time...). I had to post a picture of the nachos they fixed....

It was goooooooooood.....

Installing the Installation

This has been a crazy week. The installation had to be fabricated during the first half and installed during the second half. My group members and I spent countless hours heating plexi, shaping it, and clamping it to let it cool. We obsessed over connections, method of installation, and schedule. The image to the left is the final piece of our "aquaduct" which transports water (melted from ice in another art installation) across the ceiling and drips/drops it to a collection device two stories down.

As soon as I get pictures from the camera and grab some from my classmates, I will post a detailed explanation of the final product. Until then, here are a couple of shots of the installation process...

(The image below is of the 24ft walkboard we set up on scaffolding to span the two story gap in order to set up the aquaduct. I spent Wed-Sat up on that thing, coming down only to eat and sleep. You can see the first few spans of the auquaduct, on the left, already hanging from the ceiling.)

Forming the Plexi

This is a form like the one you saw in an earlier post (the one we cut with the laser). We are using heat guns (like the ones for stripping paint) to heat the Plexi, and then we are forming it into a slight "channel" to transport water. If that doesn't make sense, it will soon. As soon as we finish the installation, I will post pictures describing the project and how it works...

The gallery exhibition is opening on Saturday evening and we have to be finished with the fabrication and installation of our piece before then...

Triangle Char and Bar

Sunday, Lindsey and I had lunch at Triangle before I had to go into studio. I got a great pulled-pork sandwich with slaw and she had a massive omelet with grits and fruit.

After lunch, I dropped Lindsey off at Ashley and Rob's place to do laundry (thankfully, they have been letting us use their washer and dryer as much as we need to). I went to studio until supper and then came back to the Large's to help Lindsey finish the laundry and work on my internship journal (which is required by Clemson for course credit). The four of us had Sonic for supper.

When the laundry was finally finished (about 12:30am...10 hours, 7 loads), we stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up some felt for my studio classmates. I dropped it off on the way home and finally got to bed by 2...which was tough considering I had to be at work at 8am this morning...

"Tropical Storm" Hanna

"Tropical Storm" Hanna was a dud. It came down sideways for about 20 minutes at around 7pm...then....nothing. It just barely sprinkled the rest of the evening. Lindsey and I ventured down the block to Norm's for some supper. I snapped this shot of Lindsey just outside the door (Those are the sandbags all the stores/restaurants put out in front of their doors to keep the water out). The original image was dark, and from my cell phone, so this is the best I could do to bring it back using iPhoto...

We love Norm's.....

The Calm Before the Storm

This is a photo of the clear skies on Friday at around 5pm. Tropical Storm Hanna was supposed to blow in about 2 hours later...rather scary how deceiving the weather is isn't it?

At the same time, Friday was the "last" day of design before we had to begin fabrication of our installation. So....in a sense...it was also the calm before the storm...

The Results from the Laser

This is a form for a plexiglass piece of our installation...

The Laser Cutter

This thing is fun...

We Finally Opened Rock Band

This game is addictive...just ask Rob and Ashley...

Medway Plantation Fieldtrip

Dinner With The Family

This is our first family dinner at the (new) kitchen table. LinZ and our daughter Lydia are eating clubs...I have a burger.....mmmm

A Place to Rest Our Heads

We got this from Ikea...and we love it. It sits lower than a standard bed (bc it doesn't require box springs), and has a modern look that fits in perfectly with the rest of the room.

My Walk to Work

I pass this construction site every morning on my way to work. It's going to be interesting watching this thing go from steel frame to completed building during the next four months or so...

One Month Anniversary Dinner

Mmmm....pizza!

A Place to Sit!

We got this at Walmart earlier today. It was the most affordable one we could find....and it looks good in the den!

Our First Piece of Mail

to: Mrs. Lindsey Edens
from: Mrs. Muchell Moore

Welcome Mat

Welcome to our humble abode!

Our New Mattress

Our bed frame hasn't come in yet (and won't for at least a week...blah), but our new mattress makes a very comfortable palette. (These things are expensive!)

The Mess

This is a shot of what the den/dining room looked like last night before we took the trash out.

Carts

These carts came from target. We didn't have a lot of counter-top space...

Kitchen Rack

We didn't have a lot of storage space so we got this heavy duty kitchen rack at Lowe's. We're thinking about hanging our pots and pans on the side...as soon as we can afford to buy the hooks (ha!)...

The First Addition

Our first addition: bamboo blinds for the kitchen. 

(By the way, most of these home-improvement posts are coming directly from my cell phone...which is why they are short and sweet.)

The 'hutch'

The apartment came with this old hutch that displays our dishes quite nicely. Lindsey's sister helped us unpack and place them.

The Moving Trailer

This is the trailer that we used to transport our things from home. My dad and I spent three days loading it and securing it. We loaded the back of his truck, Lindsey's car, my mom's car and pulled the trailer (and another full luggage buggy) down HWY 26 on Monday.

Charleston Living

This is a picture of our new apartment. We are on the first floor and have a huge front porch. Some of the pickets of the railing are missing but it was ok because it made it easy to pass all our boxes through while we moved in.