You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May, 2007.
Funny video interview with these two giants. Interesting to have a small insight of a more involved relationship that any will ever know. I can’t help but look at them and wonder what is going through their minds or how they might behave at a conference table.
It looks like I can’t embed this link so it plays here. You’ll have to CLICK to connect.
The design-build process has begun for a rental house that I will be putting on Willow Lane this summer. The house will be the first phase of what I hope will be a two phase project. Phase one entails cleaning up the property, site work, landscaping and a rental house. Phase two will entail more landscaping, addition of a coi pond and fountain, and the construction of a straw bail house.
I created a floor plan that was a mashup of two models from Bar Vista Homes. Of course, I made some tweaks. Pre-fabs are meant for that, dammit! Bar Vista is a front-range factory home builder. I found them last summer after interviewing a number of pre-fab companies and, most importantly, talking with some builders who had studied the field for clients.
These pre-fabs are built in a controlled environment using stick-built practices. They assemble the walls into boxes using a manufacturing line model. Shear walls are put up everywhere ’cause these boxes have to travel at 65 MPH. Try that with your custom built house! I’m trying to utilize their efficiencies and do as much work in the factory as possible. The less site work the less additional or higher cost. Labor and materials in the Roaring Fork Valley are substantial.
The thing about a pre-fab is that there are certain design elements that when studied, scream “modular!” or “mobile home!” or “cheap housing!” An attempt to subdue those qualities may fool the viewer into believing this was a stick-built custom home.
Who knows, I may actually achieve my goal of building a house for a reasonable square foot cost. I’m shooting for $150/sq.ft. in an area that is double and triple that cost depending on the finish. The devil is in the details and I’m workin’ those details!!
Here is a link to the most current elevations where the window placement went from shite to improved. The factory designer appears to be fairly lazy and didn’t put the windows on the elevations where the floor plans had indicated. Additionally, the roof won’t have bird-box fascia and eave endings. Also, the roof pitch is 7:12, not the displayed 5:12.
Tomorrow the manufacturer will send back my initial numbers. I’ll post those… just because I can… and someone actually may benefit from my research and work.
More later…
We arrive again at a day of remembrance that has lost its original meaning. Memorial Day has something to do with old soldiers, but the true thinking surrounds the details of a trip- where we can drive and how much will the gas cost?
What does it mean to me and how should I communicate it to my children? This is where I must always return…
I would say that Memorial Day is a time to remember fallen soldiers. Young men and women who died in the ultimate political expression- war. War is, after all, a political tool wielded by those in power who have determined that words and actions can no longer achieve the desired results. Thus we go to war to force our perspective of “right”, our interpretation of “moral” and our world view over the other group. War is about domination and controlling the message.
But what do I tell my children?
I will take them to a cemetery and show them that when young people die, the world loses potential. That the liberties and ideals that we wrap around wars, the words of democracy and freedom- those things were never enjoyed by those that have perished.
They have lost the ability to grow old. They will not have the chance to feel what it is like to raise a child through the various stages of maturity. They will not be able to pick flowers and give them to a beautiful woman. They will not participate in bettering a community. Their potential will never been seen.
Most likely, the fallen soldiers of past wars, died in fear. They died holding a gun, sweating, panting, aching and paranoid of what lay around the next corner. They died knowing the instant before they were hit, that their life was about to end. In most cases, death in a war is not glorious. It is frightening. It is painful. It is pointless…
I don’t want to hear President Bush utter one word about the glorious sacrifice of our nations youth to combat terrorism. Coming from a man who did everything possible to skip out on his duty, the words are hollow. His words are meaningless platitudes. He plays a role and the act of this actor is not worth observing.
I would rather go have a picnic in a cemetery and observe the loss of potential.
So, here we are five years after 9-11-01 and footage of that days events are still coming out from personal sources. I just happened to come across this video on Google Video. It serves as a reminder to the events that have changed our country.
What is difficult is that as it recedes in our memories, its impact also diminishes. My children have no remembrance. It doesn’t affect my daily life. Neither does the war which began and continues to this day. These images were used as a pretext for other agendas.
I hope this video stays up for years to come so it can be accessed… lest we forget.
This summer I will be building a small house (1406 sq. ft.) on a piece of property that is 1.5 acres. It’s a beautiful lot with trees, privacy and flat ground.
Over the coming months, I will attempt to keep on ongoing record of the process. This blog will serve as my online construction journal with movies, pictures and questions…
Here is a quick video of what the property looks like right now.
To continue the rant on Bush’s incompetency, I thought it appropriate to post the impeach Gonzales video that (if you look past the hyped editing style) does demonstrate another appointee who fails to inspire.
He has not the acumen, the intelligence, the moral compass nor the communication skills to hold the awarded post. Go to the bottom of this entry to see the video. However, before you do, I couldn’t help back up my claim of “another appointee who fails to inspire.” I like lists, so here are a few others scandal riddled Bush-men that come to mind on my WALL OF SHAME:
- Lewis Libby this former vice presidential chief of staff was convicted of four felony charges relating to the Plame affair by a federal jury on March 7, 2007.
- Jack Abramoff (In 2000, Abramoff was named to George Bush’s presidential transition team for the Interior Department, helping select the new Republican leadership team)
- Steven Griles (associated with Jack Abramoff and Lobby-gate)
- Roger G. Stillwell was tried and convicted in the Lobby-gate scandal. He was a coal lobbyist and then Deputy Secretary for the US Dept. of the Interior (wow, another appointee from the energy sector… how odd…)
- Lester Crawford, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to an October 17, 2006, Associated Press article, Crawford “abruptly resigned” from the FDA in September 2005 and pleaded guilty to charges of “conflict of interest and false reporting of information about stocks he owned in food, beverage and medical device companies he was in charge of regulating” in October 2006.
- Brian J. Doyle, former deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. On September 19, 2006, Doyle “pleaded no contest to seven counts of using a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor.”
- Claude A. Allen, former assistant to the president for domestic policy. Allen resigned in February 2006 after a January 2006 police investigation concerning multiple fraudulent returns to a Target store in Gaithersburg, Maryland. On August 4, 2006, Allen pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor theft.
- David H. Safavian, a former chief of staff of the General Services Administration. Safavian was found guilty of lying and obstructing justice in June 2006. Another Lobby-gate conspirator…
- John T. Korsmo, former chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board. On April 7, 2005, Korsmo “pleaded guilty to one count of making false statements to the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which oversees the Finance Board, and the Inspector General for the Finance Board.”
- John Ashcroft (paranoia is good for the nation and good for our policies…)- not convicted of any wrong-doing, but surely a candidate for ridicule…
- Michael D. Brown (former FEMA fiasco czar) was never convicted of anything except being non-responsive and uninterested in the position he held. Interestingly, after the Hurricane Katrina debacle and his subsequent dismissal, he became a critic of the Bush Administration (a case of back-stabbing the back-stabbers perhaps?).
That’s all I can write on this subject as I am again totally dis-heartened by the stupidity present in “our” government…
There is something so irritating about the way politics seems to lag behind public opinion. For months now, President Bush’s public approval ratings have been abysmally depressed. The toll of 6.5 years of blatantly pursuing policy, both domestic and international, that radically departed from former administration norms caused alienation from many constituents.
Now ex-President and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Jimmy Carter, has spoken out about W’s administration. He pulls no punches when stating they are the “worst in history.” The White House has taken a standard approach from their well-worn play book- marginalize opposition. As usual, they brush off any criticism as being irrelevant to the “real world’s” reality.
What would prompt such an undiplomatic statement? Why would a man accustomed to the tempered and measured language of politics speak such condemning words? I think that it reflects the frustration of the country as a whole AND the safety of speaking out. Carter follows numerous high-profile power players who have chosen dissent over silence (see my entry on Lee Iaccoca as an example).
I believe these critics are sensing that this administration has strayed too far outside a comfort zone the public is comfortable with. What were and are those issues? Let me list what comes to mind:
- Faith-based initiatives receiving HUGE federal grants. This is completely unacceptable for a country that must have separation between politics and religion!
- Twisting of legal interpretations to serve an agenda that targets opposition. Examples? Try the Valerie Plame Wilson outing or the firing of numerous Attorney Generals by Gonzales.
- Constantly ignoring many world policy organizations treaties and rulings regarding energy, environment and social initiatives. As the greatest consumers on the planet and with the greatest corporate reach, we are forsaking the future for short-term greed, err… gain.
- Oil and gas drilling on public lands (were the people ever consulted? Not here in Colorado where our “public” lands are being raped… literally). We live in Garfield County where one of the world’s largest natural gas fields is being exploited. Sickness of neighboring populations, despoiling of private lands due to off-gassing fumes, construction noise AND trespassing with cross country pipe lines.
- Failing education system
- Mounting debt!!! Where are the fiscally responsible Republicans of old??!
I can’t bear to go on. I’m getting too angry and becoming increasingly apathetic. When will this administration be stopped?
Just found a bunch of images of Mt. Sopris that I took from a tripod last year in June. I wanted to capture the changing moods of that spectacular mountain. Each day from 6/1/06 to 6/30/06, I snapped a photo. It’s kind of interesting and probably a tad long, but…
I created a HUGE video that is probably downloading right now… There’s no reason why it was put to the Stones… only thing available at that moment.
cheers/ce
