Update

I am now officially, as of today, the only full time acoustical consultant in the DC office. Hmm...hopefully this won't last too long.

Cool well outside the Museum of the Native American (you can see the Capital in the background). Kids seem to think this is just the coolest thing...and are then apparently compelled to lunge towards it. All my pictures of this with kids in the frame involve their parents having to hold them back.

Front shot of the Smithsonian Museum of the Native American. I guess the deal is there aren't supposed to be any right angles or something...? Allyn, do know anything about this? Do you file all the corners off your furniture? 

Perspective shot of the Smithsonian Museum of the Native American. I heard a few people just calling it "Allyn's House". 

Loved this side by side shot (yes they actually sit there like this) of the US Capital next to the US Botanical Gardens. 

Small Groups

I have now attended two different small groups that are sponsored by my church. The first is one you have already heard about, the Chronicles of Narnia small group. The second is a new one for me, Church History.

The Chronicles of Narnia group is an great fit for me for many reasons, it’s main topic being the most obvious reason. It has been quite fun though to get to know the other people in this discussion group, and I’m quite looking forward to getting together more with them. There have been murmurs of doing a general Lewis group next “semester”. That could be a fun way to continue the thread we’re on right now.

The second group I alluded to, the Church History group is lead by my friend Keelan. He has his doctorate in Church History, and as such has more than a bit of background in the area. I need to get the book we are using as our “text”, but that should be more of a delight than a chore. It looks like an interesting book.

I haven’t done a stellar job of putting myself out there and making zillions of new friends here in DC, but looking back on my life thus far – that doesn’t seem to be my modus operandi. In the past I have focused on developing deep friendships in lieu of broad reaching acquaintances. Whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, or a thing completely lacking in moral or ethical value, I don’t know. I also don’t intend to delve into that, at least not at this juncture. All that is simply to say that I see this happening again and find it interesting and that it is hard to change things that are a deep part of you. I’ve thought about intentionally making more friends and it just isn’t how I’m “wired”.

That would be a good topic for another blog, the subject of friendship. I think I’ll stop here and continue on with that later.

PS. Go read some of the Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis is a genius at British humor. So freakin hilarious. I just can’t stop laughing at some of the lines in Magicians Nephew (it helps if you read them out loud and see for yourself how absurd they sound).

That Minutia I Mentioned in the Header...

As indicated by the title, I just wanted to update with a few things that are going on in my life. Consequently, today’s post should be skipped by anyone wishing only to cull the fine strands of wisdom that are ever so carefully woven about this page.

JOB:

First announcement: I’m going to go ahead and let the cat out of the bag: I’m getting a promotion in June. My superiors have been telling me they appreciate what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and the situation I’m in; and at my review I found out they are going to show me their appreciation as well. Certainly this makes my decision about what to do about my job just that much more complicated, though it is nice to see they can act when it is called for.

Every time I talk to people I get asked how my job is going, so to help minimize the frequency of this question…As far as the WORK itself goes, things are going swimmingly. I can look back on where I was when I started in January 2005 and am astounded by how much I have grown – in technical acumen, comfort in front of clients, and ability to manage projects. As far as the environment goes, things are a bit more gray. We are down to 2 full time people in my branch office, Abigail and myself, with the president of the company, Victoria, coming down to triage the situation until a more stable solution is secured.

Additionally our Marketing Assistant, Jen, has moved on to a larger company where she can focus less on administrative tasks and more on marketing. At this job she will have people to work with on marketing matters in her office. It was definitely a good choice for her. However, we had gotten to be really good friends and not seeing her every day at work is quite a downer. It hasn’t really hit me fully since this week (first week she has been gone) has been absurdly busy.

I co-led a presentation to the DC chapter of the American institute of Architects last night. It was part of a continuing education series designed to give AIA member the credits they need and educate them on the impact of acoustics in learning environments (classrooms mostly). Apparently it was one of the best attended lectures they have had recently. It was pretty exciting to be standing in front of all of them going through this presentation. Good times.

HOME:

I’m seriously considering vacationing in Lawrence again this summer. The only question right now is if I take a week in May or a Week in June. Any thoughts?

I was up until 2:00am Monday morning doing laundry, and putting together more IKEA shelving and storage. My room has been a disaster area, and the main culprit is clothes. I just have too many clothes. Oddly enough, I can never find what I really wish I had. Sigh…consumerism.

I’m attending a book discussion my church is sponsoring; it’s part of their small group program. We are studying the Chronicles of Narnia which has been immensely fun. Unfortunately I have missed the last two weeks, but I’m back full force tonight.

The Kennedy Center is putting on performances of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and I’m desperately trying to find people to go with.

One of my acquaintances/friends, Beth, is going to see an improve act in Gallery Place/Chinatown Friday and I think I’m going to check that out with some of her friends.

I still haven’t bought a laptop computer.

I still owe 10 billion dollars to the IRS (it’s close enough to 10 billion given the amount of money I have).

I still love where I live - so close to Adam’s Morgan, U Street, Dupont Circle, and Work.

If you made it thus far, congratulations. Any questions I didn’t answer or areas I didn’t update feel free to ask about in the comments section and I might answer them.

Faded Black and White

Previously written at the Hirshorn while contemplating ,”Plastic Construction of Noise and Speed”

She wants me to live like there is no absolute truth. He wants me to accept that our view of right and wrong is just evolved conditioning to promote survival of my species. They want me to cast aside the concept of Holiness and Evil, black and white in favor of their comfortable gray sweaters. I have to admit the idea of curling up on the couch in a well worn faded sweater is very appealing.

The problem is – as good as that sounds, I can’t accept that the idea of that gray sweater solves all my problems. Without a black and a white, all the grays are lost. What does it mean to say one is “darker” than another, or “lighter” than another. There is chaos.

I want to embrace the idea of grays because I look around me and they seem real. Every day people are faced with decisions that do not easily break down into an embracing of Right or a Denial of it. It seems that the problem is not in the existence of the grays, but in the banishing of black and white.

And so I ask myself which system seems more honest. A system that acknowledges a black and a white but scoffs at and derides the grays that appear everywhere? A system that sees the multitude of varying valued grays and disallows the ordering of them because to do so would be to recognize a black and a white? Or a system that recognizes a black and white as the organizing scheme by which we make sense of all the grays we see in this foggy world?

It is written that some day we will see Him even as He has seen us. I wonder if on that day we won’t say, “This is the white I have always seen hinted at but now realize I never saw. And that over there is the black I always felt pressing in but, Thank God, realize I never truly saw.”

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NKJV) For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (MSG) We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

I went to a wizards game on Wednesday evening. My friend Malcolm had access to some extra ticketes. I don't think I'd ever buy a ticket to go see them but going once off a free ticket was a worth while experience. If nothing else I got to try my hand at being a sports photographer. And our seats were on the 2nd row, I was seat B-06. 

More Narnia?

Just a little note, there’s a new post on the Narnia blog I started. Anyone still interested in doing a discussion on the Chronicles of Narnia series should check it out. The short of it is that I’m attending a weekly book study here in DC and at the very least will post some of the stuff we talk about for further discussion with anyone else who’s interested. If this sounds appealing to you, leave a comment on the most recent post at:

http://friendsofnarnia.blogspot.com

I’ll probably make up my mind by next Friday, so try and add a comment by then even if you’re just curious.

Mike

But then when it rains...

6:00 PM Tuesday night: Did my taxes.
9:00 AM Wednesday Morning: Shredded my passport application.

I guess if I'm to look on the bright side...at least I hadn't already bought my plane tickets or payed for my passport yet. My only remaining hope is that my friends going to europe will take lots of pictures and I can once again see europe through someone else's eyes.

Sometimes life sucks. Here's to living in the real world, Cheers.

Random Rays

Have you ever had one of those days where:
You wake up and you aren’t really tired. Eh, you could roll over and snooze for another 6 hours, sure, but today…something just feels different. Despite your most sincere attempts at squeezing every last minute of sleep out of that juicy, juicy pillow your body just keeps telling you, “Nope, I’m ready to get up now.” So you roll out of bed, make your way to the bathroom, find the usual cloud of grogginess parted even before the scent of the soap tickles your nose. Huh, that’s odd. After your shower you find that while you haven’t done laundry in about a week and a half you somehow have just the right outfit starring you in the face.

You step out of your door only to be greeted by a brilliant sky and even though it’s the middle of February you’d swear you can hear birds chirping. To silence those nagging reminders of spring you plug into your favorite mp3 player and let loss a tidal wave of cheerful upbeat music (Beastie Boys…Girls?) instead of the sad bastard music you’d usually listen to in an effort to pump up for the day ahead.

When you get on the elevator to go up to your office you are followed by 3 girls in their mid twenties who look like they just stepped off a run way in Milan, and they are all going to the floor above yours. So wearing your positive attitude on your sleeve you uncharacteristically find yourself talking to them. You'd ask them if they all worked at the same office and, when they said yes you’d actually be so on your game you’d come up with the reply, “Man, I’ve got to change jobs!” delivered right as your getting off the elevator. If that happened to you I’m sure you’d hear them giggling pleasantly as the doors shut, and I’m sure it would feel wonderful.

Unfortunately I can’t remember the last time I had a day like that. Well, the last time before this morning anyway. It’s nice sometimes, to get a great beginning to the day in the midst of all the crappy ones.

Asthmatic Kitty

As sort of an in-between-posts post, I'd just like to say I've been listening to the Sufjan Stevens album "Come on Feel the Illinoise"

Pretty good album. I first saw it on a couple of Best Album's of 2005 lists on NPR, then I saw it in a couple of magazine reviews, then a friend (Malcolm, thank you very much!) loaned it to me. So I guess you could say it’s getting a bit of buzz, though I still think your average person has no clue who Sufjan Stevens is, let alone how to pronounce his name. The label he's on is called Asthmatic Kitty. That's great.

As far as the album itself goes, I must say I love his track titles, such as “A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze” (a 19 second track). Sure, MAYBE it's sort of gimmicky, maybe if every artist on every album was as verbose about their song names I would want to burn all of my cd's. However, for a single album by a single artist, it works.

I started to review the album from a musical standpoint and realized after getting 3 paragraphs in, that this wasn’t what I wanted to do. I just wanted to tell you I’m listening to this album and enjoying it. THAT IS ALL. You are dismissed.

Interesting Job Situations

Well the principal at our DC office (yes, my boss) had his last day today, so it is official and I can talk about it so what am I going to do? I guess not talk about it. I don't really know what to say right now. This has been a rather interesting first job.

Mike

View down an Alley towards a cool building. 

Neat (church?) building around where I work. Just kind of nestled in among other buildings. 

A building. It has a shadow on it. 

New Years Resolutions

No, actually I didn't make any of those. I probably should have though.

Things I didn't do last year:
1. Kill anyone.
2. Go bancrupt.
3. Get in a wreck.
4. Lose a limb.

Things I did last year:
1. Move half way across the country
2. Start a new job
3. Start exploring our nations capital
4. Pay my OWN bills
5. Make some new friends
6. Eat at some great restaurants
7. Read quite a few books (but not enough)

I think the only thing more depressing than not accomplishing much is seeing how much others have accomplished. Some times I wonder, though, if other people aren't just better at "telling their story".

100 days of reading

I don't know for a fact that it took me 100 days to finish 100 Years of Solitude, but it was close. Sometimes you read a book and it just does NOT suck you in. Usually that's when you decide not to finish the book and just say, "Well, at least I tried". I'm glad I didn't give up on this one. And I'm now going to have to re-read this book.

The rest of this (hopefully not too long) post will be about why, exactly, I'm going to have to re-read this book. As I read through the book I kept getting bogged down by trying to remember who they were talking about at any given time. 90% of the characters have some derivation of 1 of two names, either Ursula or Aurelino, the matriarch and patriarch of the family. Additionally they timeline gets switched around quite a few times. Also, there are long stretches where the only thing happening is character development (that very important task of bringing your flat characters into the third dimension so to speak), without any Hollywood-esque action sequences. No single one of these things would have put me off the book, however the frequent overlapping of each of these characteristics was enough to make the book a chore at several intervals.

So why re-read a book like this? That is a question easily answered by a reading of the last page of the book. In my humble opinion, the genius of this book is that it takes the story of many generations of a family, essentially from its genesis to its quite literal extinction, and uses the lives of these characters to reveal the story of an entire village and its people. The way in which he combines figurative with literal is nothing short of magnificent. I'm left wondering if there actually was a cloud of yellow butterflies that constantly followed one character around, even marking his death, or if that single drop of blood really did navigate an entire city all the way to the room in which the victim's mother was sitting just to announce his death?

Any one of the reasons I liked this book could possibly (I said possibly) be considered gimmicky. However, having all of them in one place and tied together by masterful narration, it's impossible for it to be a fluke, or beginner's luck. No, the reason I wish to read this book again is that now I understand how to view it. When I first started reading it I had no idea what to look for, no idea where certain things were going. And if this book has a fault (from my perspective) it's that it is hard to read until you know what to expect. Sort of like that uncle that is hard to appreciate until you really get to know him - at which time you realize just how well intentioned he really was and can finally appreciate his actions and words.

Also, I completely understand why there is a family tree at the front of the book. More useful even than the maps in the Lord of the Rings books.

Mike

Holiday Wrapup and Seasons Greetings

Went home for the holidays as the saying goes. I want to keep this short because I'd like to post something more “reflective” (i.e. longer) shortly. Let it suffice to say that I had a wonderful time getting to see my oh so amazing friends (missy, there’s no way that seeing you all could ever let me down, no way). I missed seeing many of them, but I know I’ll see them all again, hopefully sooner rather than later. I also got to see most of my mom’s side of the family. With over 20 people including many small children in one house it was pretty crazy, but then it usually is.

For those I got to see, it was SOOO AMAAAAAZING to see you again. Thanks for coming out and hanging. For those I missed, I am so utterly sorry and consoled only by the thought that hopefully I’ll see you again soon.

Hope your holiday was either exciting or relaxing…or maybe a bit of both and if I don’t post before Jan1, Happy New Year!