friend of the built environment

There are three basic types of results from the activity of the creative mind: the raw, the refined and the contrived.
“Raw” is not necessarily normative, and describes the results of creativity in its most basic form, prior to any true product or end result. The raw result of a musician’s creative process is in most [...]

It is often baffling to me how small-thinking our leaders are when it comes to the issue of immigration. It’s a hotly debated topic these days, but it seems that neither “side” of the issue have the concept down correctly, nor understand the wider implications of the issue.
The “left” views immigration negatively due to its [...]

The fever of Olympiana has once again consumed the world. Every few years, the governments of the world, both autocratic and democratic, rally their minions to their flags to support an institution which purports to enshrine values which every human should supposely appreciate: national pride, athleticism, cameraderie, etc.
All the while, we never seem to question [...]

I’ve become especially sensitive lately with the way every public medium and social institution today seems to be less concerned with its own specialized role and more dedicated to a sort of “catalogue” response to the world. This spans everything from social clubs to political candidates, public issues to editorial stances. I’ve written about it [...]

America’s Demographic Future
Americans, as a group, are clamoring for more restrictive immigration laws in the US. The populist reasoning behind this is the perception that the primary immigrant class today are low-skilled Latin-American workers, and that their entry into the US is placing an unacceptable burden on the economy of this country. The rhetoric usually [...]

It’s been seven years since I bought my first new Mac. Over that time, I’m been a pretty intense Apple fanboy. For the first few years I was repeatedly amazed at the things Apple hardware and software enabled me to do that I didn’t even realize I wanted to do.
My oh my how times change. [...]

Djarum Blacks are already selling for $30/pack on Ebay, four days before the sale ban. I assume Ebay will not allow listings after Monday.
All the shops I’ve casually stopped in in SF are already sold out - they haven’t placed any new orders for a couple months for fear of being stuck with inventory they [...]

I’ve spent about 7 years in San Francisco. I tend not to think about the past four years of my life as years spent in San Francisco, since the majority of my home life has taken place in NC and Pittsburgh, but in fact the majority of my time since 2005 has been spent in [...]

Last night was the first New Years Eve in memory that I did not watch Dick Clark. This was because I was in San Francisco where I do not have a television, rather than for any conscious reason.
Giving it up has crossed my mind many times in the past few years. But the description of [...]

In the spirit of Sublime Oblivion’s revisitation of old political and social values declarations, I thought it would be fun to do the same: contemplating what I used to think or believe (either from the archives here or just from my memory) and making some values statements that I could use for comparison and review [...]

Home ownership is bad (or at least it causes people to care about where they are too much and less about being skillfodder for corporate needs); mobile corporate slavery is good - keep your skills current and be on top of every recruiter’s list. Don’t get attached to anything or anyone, lest you miss that [...]