bikes and things

I’ve posted before about how ridiculous LinkedIn is sometimes. The most ridiculous thing is the endorsements feature. I mean, I’m an Architect and I’ve been working in the profession since I was 16 and qualified since 2009, but somehow I still need to be endorsed for Architecture. The question is posed to others “Does Andy know about Architecture?” – of course he fucking does he’s a qualified Architect. If you can’t see from my CV that I can do Architecture then something has gone wrong.

So I started playing with it a little. Endorsing people for ridiculous things like, waking up, Microsoft Word, Turning a computer on, Herding cats and the like. And others similarly played with it such as Peter Guthrie who endorsed me for Laughter Yoga – ha ha ha ha hahahahahhhaaaha. Seriously search YouTube for it, it’s hilarious. Emma also endorsed me for dogs and making coffee.

What I hadn’t realised is that all these skills I’ve added, or had added for me get emailed round in a newsletter to others. So a few days ago Daisy Froud sent me this image. Hilarious. I hope everyone sees the funny side. You can’t take these things too seriously now!

Last week was probably the toughest I’ve been through in a long time, if not ever. I want to write more shortly but have a lot more thoughts to process before I do and collate a bigger post.

I got to work on Monday and was greeted with the news that Rick had passed away over the weekend. I was, and still am, completely devastated by this and most of last week was a complete daze. A number of things stand out which made me smile though. The incredible messages of condolences, the friends and colleagues sharing ‘Rickisms’ and memories of working for him as well as this Hellman cartoon which eschews his normal acerbic wit for a touching tribute to Rick.

I also found this portrait on the server whilst doing some image research for other images of Rick. Such a great portrait which was shot by James Bolton.

Bizarre that I know the day to some perhaps, but I very clearly remember the 12th March 2008 and starting my current job. Previously I had moved around a bit, doing at most two years in one place before moving on. So it’s been great to finally find a place to settle in to and whilst moments have been hard and challenging, overall I’ve really enjoyed it. As an Architect it’s hard to separate work from your life as it’s intrinsically linked together for most part. I feel very fortunate to have a job I love and enjoy as well as having the responsibility I’ve always wanted. Hopefully they’ll let me stay for another five years.

Somehow I managed to come across this disk in the office earlier, promptly taking me right back to my first job in an Architects office in the summer of 1998. This was a summer job before I started my degree. Obviously the tech is fairly ancient but this used to be required to print work from the CAD package of the time – ClarisCAD which in itself was a fairly basic bit of software to a pen plotter. The pen plotter was quite literally a set of pens which looked like mini rotorings and came in different thicknesses. The software would then tell the plotter which pens to pick based on which lineweights you’d used in your drawings. Nine times out of ten it would be out of action due to the obvious flaws of using pens to create A1 drawings at high speed.

In those days all drawings would be printed on trace and then any copies would be made on a dyeline machine which used some pretty awful chemicals along with bright yellow light sensitive paper. The Architects always threatened me with making me clean it as a joke. All admin was carried out in reception by two amazing secretaries. No typing you own minutes and letters. And I also just remembered that there was tea and coffee served on a trolley at 9am and 2pm to all staff. Some things are due for a comeback I think.

I’ve been having a bit of a play with time-lapse this week on my commute. Always thought that video would just be too boring so instead I went with 1 shot every second and have stitched them all together after into a movie.

The GoPro seems to struggle a bit with the changing light conditions – from light to dark etc and often overexposes. Still the effect is there. Might try one looking back at the cyclists and traffic behind me next time. The one coming home is a bit trippy due to the blurred lights.

There…

And back again…

At home today after working some silly hours this week for a pre Stage E coordination deadline. Feeling a bit better after a good old sleep this morning. Going through some shots from the last few weekends and processing and sending to Flickr. Might try and get into the habit of updating this site again soon. IN the meantime coffee and a stroll beckons.

Going all minimal again. Nice to be using the camera in hand and without a tripod for a bit.

So I’ve been in my current job for that long. Today is a good day because all the time I’ve been here I’ve had a planning application waiting to be submitted. It’s taken all that time to get to the point where it can go in through lots of negotiations and a series of large documents being submitted. Today it’s going in and I get to work on another project for the next year or so.

A think a beer is in order.

So I finally had my first encounter with the law, or rather a Police Community Service Officer, whilst taking photos in a public place. I spent a fair bit of time last Tuesday in Hammersmith taking pictures of a building for some CGI renders. I was there during the afternoon with a tripod, dSLR and a fairly large shift lens as well as remote shutter release. About 30 mins after I had set up I was approached by a PCSO. Uh oh! I was told that I had been “seen” on CCTV and he would like to know what I was doing. Now, I’ve been through this scenario in my mind a number of times in anticipation of this situation. Most of them revolved around a smart arse reply such as, “…there’s a reason you haven’t made CID yet isn’t there?”. However all I could muster was an apologetic explanation of what I was doing. I was on work time so didn’t really want to cause a fuss. I needed to get these shots for the next morning and being arrested wasn’t on my list of things to do that day. I was asked for my details, name, date of birth, contact number etc. He was polite enough about it all. I did make the quip that I couldn’t have made it any more obvious what I was doing, it’s not exactly a discrete set up.

So I got my shots delivered for the next morning but I still felt as though he had no right to inquire about what I was doing. It was fairly obvious and it is a public place. He also had no right to have my details. Annoying but next time I think I’ll try and stand up for my rights a bit more.

Anyway, here’s the shot I came away with later in the day.

The shot is a horizontal stitch of three images taken with the amazing Nikkor 24mm PC-E lens. Each shot has the lens shifted up higher each time then assembled in Photoshop.

On my ride home yesterday I was thinking just how nice it was riding my bike during the winter months. the roads are relatively clear and it’s been fairly peaceful on the roads. a few things have really made a difference this year though. The first has been buying some proper winter tights. Having something thicker underneath as well as more material over the knee area has made an enormous difference. The other has been fitting full length mud guards to the fixed. Ok it doesn’t look too cool but it gets me to work relatively dry. So winter commuting isn’t so bad if you have the right kit.

Well I’ve been up all night and I am about to go an get something to eat and then go and hand in my final 10,000 word career appraisal and PEDR log sheets recording all my professional experience to date. It’s quite a milestone for me so it seems like a good time to reflect on the cost of getting to this stage. So the vital stats are as follows.

11 years overall. Sept 98 – Sept 2009
5 years full time in University.
2 years part time at University.
7 practices worked for.
15,500 hours of professional experience recorded in PEDR sheets.
£45,000 debt (give or take a few k)
And a bit of a belly…

Fingers crossed they let me in. Just got to wait for the interview in September now.