I digress, much like a blog should do, right?

By Randy Thoms

            These blogs have been hard and liberating at the same time.  Here I go with “bi-polar” thoughts again. Do I talk about purely architecture? Do I talk about life?  What is a blog?  This semester was the first time I have ever written…anything….for the world to see.  Well, I did self-publish a small artsy, college student cookbook back in my other college days, remember, I am what is called a Non-Traditional student, it just means your “older”.  I sold about 100 copies, then the next the next year I work with an environmental club on campus to include member recipes and sold them as a fund raiser.

            I digress, much like a blog should do, right? Let me get back to this week’s blog, which, unfortunately, was late.  Last week was Fall Break, in the sense that the calendar said so, but an outsider would not have known that by the other deadlines imposed on all the Master students.  I guess the Professors have not looked up the term “Fall Break” in the sense it means, an escape, a vacation, a break from responsibilities, but that was not how they saw it.  But all joking aside, Mid-term review boards were due on Wednesday, the day after break. Yes we are all doing a fast track Master’s program, so I guess we all should expect it, but when it actually happens, it was just tough but it was not that bad as one might expect.

            This is where the “hard” part comes into play.  All the hours spent staying up late, for other never going to sleep, (us “Non-Traditional” folks cannot do the all-nighters, all the time…anymore) only to have the presentation be proposed to Friday, or have only 12 minutes to spill you guts about a project you have labored over for those so many hours. But this is also where “liberation” comes in as well.  If you are one of the lucky ones to go first, and I do mean lucky as in grateful, in the since you are done, and then just listen, discuss and enjoy (is that too touchy-feely?) all the other presentations, and stop worrying about what you are going to say.  Then over the next few days, I can concentrate on other coursework, like writing a blog, and get caught up.

              Another aspect of all those hours spent developing a board and what to present, is the “hard” part of generating all those diagrams and sketches.  While using a computer is easy, working through all the programs, switching between formats, reworking designs and all the headaches that go into them, sometimes, just drawing on a piece of paper is “liberating”.  When sketching, expressing ideas as fast as you can brings about all the iterations in design.  Especially using color ink.  As you use a permanent type medium, it allows one to throw caution to the wind, once you start you cannot stop and it frees up the creative process.