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Everyone was far more independent and free back then. I’ve been to many of the estates, and it always impresses me how much these guys actually did. There are no modern day equivalents, not even close. I feel very lucky to live where I do so I can see all of this historical stuff just a few miles down the road.

Do you think this is because we are…[Read more]

I work the 4th concert at the US Capitol every year. Despite the high heat, 30K people walked through the gates, with an untold how many more were on the Mall proper. People from all walks of life joined together to celebrate the nation’s independence. Especially heartening were the immigrant families. Thousands showed up with red, white, and blue…[Read more]

I went to two parades yesterday (Barnstable and Hyannis) and they were both hugely attended with lots of people having a really good time despite the fact that it was really hot out. They seemed much more attended than last year in both cases (my daughter is in a marching band).

No one seemed negative, not even when the Republican float cruised…[Read more]

It takes all the energy I can muster to put my head down and go to work, literally and figuratively these past few weeks.

It’s Summer, the economy is worse than ever, I’m underemployed, the middle class is in an uproar, the ocean is dying and all I want to do is play in the mountains.

Keep in mind it is just not our profession that is screwed, look downstream. If the U.S. doesn’t completely become a third world country, I believe that there will be many public works in next 3-4 years. All of these tradesmen’s unemployment will run out, the government will have to be the one to put them to work when it runs out of teargas. The…[Read more]

Wow. The silence is deafening. I guess Land8 peeps aren’t feeling too patriotic this 4th. As to the bit about Americans striving to make this world a better place, well, I just don’t see it where I live. I see a lot of people trying to trip each other up and make life worse for those they see as their competitors and those they can exploit. Of…[Read more]

It was primarily because they couldn’t bring the fees in, per their partnership obligations. Still, I’m not sure that the days of the rainmaker are over – if you can’t bring work in… how do you pay for a practice? Firms that treat their employees as ‘cad monkeys’ are hopefully going to be killed, but that won’t diminish the fact that even the…[Read more]

One firm I worked for did something like that, but within the company. It is a multinational civil engineering firm with offices all over the US and Canada. The manager just called around to other LA offices and asked if they needed help with any projects. Through his contacts, I got to work on projects in British Columbia, Alaska, and Utah from…[Read more]

Jason, instead of getting a reply to you very interesting post, you get somebody wanting to quibble about the semantics of the word “realist”……HUH?

Nate – it’s very simple in concept. My partner and I both left a rather large firm, which has weathered the storm well (overall – they’ve had some layoffs though). They subcontracted two of our employees for a fixed duration of time – pretty much it followed a particular phase/timeline they had. We did have a one page letter of agreement…[Read more]

Great comment! Russell you dared to mention some real problems, which will not go over well in this LA, LA Land Forum. You will be accused of being negative for speaking the truth as you see it. The people here want to talk about nonsense in extremely convoluted egghead language, rather than face the truth and offer solutions. So rather than…[Read more]

Gregory –

I was intrigued by this statement “We also had to ‘lend’ two employees to a larger firm in town for several months – basically they hired them from us for just their direct costs (salary, insurance, etc.) They were still on our payroll, etc. and we eventually brought them back over. ”

To me, this sounds like a brilliant idea. It also…[Read more]

Great comment! Russell, you dared to mention some real problems, which will not go over well in this LA, LA Land Forum. You will be accused of being negative just for speaking the truth as you see it. The people here want to talk about nonsense in extremely convoluted egghead languge, rather than face the truth and offer solutions. So rather than…[Read more]

Hi all – relatively new to this particular forum (and an architect to boot), but hopefully I can offer a little different set of observations on the topic…

First, I’m one of two partners in a small, 6 person firm in Atlanta- we’ve been in business since 2005. Like most people, we had a sharp drop in work (3 major, for us, projects canceled in…[Read more]

I had no idea there was a paperback even out yet. The Hardcover is looking to be a little less then I was saying on some sites too though…

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Landscape-Architectural-Graphic-Standards/Leonard-J-Hopper/e/9780471477556/?itm=1

OK, First, brand wise, I would look at Toshiba, Gateway, AlienWare, and HP. My Fiance’ has a Toshiba Laptop, and the things are built like tanks. HPs are also very well built. Gateway and Alienware are good proformance machines, although their good builds might be a tad out of your price range (1200 and up or so). I wouldn’t go Sony, as you seem…[Read more]

It’s the FW series. I chose it because it fit all the requirements of the LA department and was $200 cheaper than the other computers the salesman showed me. I think I looked at the NW series, but the college requires a larger screen size. I’m sure you don’t face any weird restrictions like that, though.
Before that I had a Toshiba that lasted me…[Read more]

My last IT guy claimed Fujitsu’s are the best for reliability and performance. And a sales guy at a local Fry’s Electronics claimed the same thing. I’d go for something with an Intel i5 processor for speed and a good graphics/video card. A lot of graphics programs list cards they recommend on their websites.

I’m a fan of the spiral-bound “Site Construction Details Manual”, which you can get with a CD of the details in CAD. Since its also by Time Saver Standards, maybe you already found that. If you’re studying for the LARE, try to be aware of why details are the way they are, such as in regard to frost lines, soil types, how a material behaves in…[Read more]

Seems like it can be found for far less.
In the meantime, test drive it!

http://books.google.com/books?printsec=frontcover&id=4Toh06XEqMoC#v=onepage&q&f=false