landplanner

Alrighty folks, I have had enough of the emotional hand-wringing here, the pity party for the paltry and some ill-informed commentaries. My turn to respond to all of those.
 
From bottom-to-top.
 
The planner position in Houston. Really read the announcement. Certainly, it pays a slightly better than pauper’s wages, but don’t forget the huge p…[Read more]

Hey Ada, try this on for size, because I am sure it will be a snug fit.
 
How about emphasizing or, in a very rapid-fire sort of way, develop some really marketable and valued skills sest in this beyond hyper-competitive job market for starters ?
Do you really want to drive yourself deeper into debt by pursuing a masters program so you can just…[Read more]

Leslie:
 
I first thought that when I looked at your hyperlink to the “10 worst college majors” that you had found the one that has been circulating that I believe places architecture right at #1 for now given the beyond dismal employment prospects that show no signs of improving any immediate time soon.
My first response would have been if you…[Read more]

Within the next 30 days, there will be a several part topical series on this very question, and ones related to it.
Suffice it to say, a random sampling of websites related directly (or indirectly) to all the major design professions, indicate that the same percentages or ratios of design professionals out-of-work since the onslaught of the Great…[Read more]

Boilerplater:
 
Looks like you have (temporarily ?) left the southwest.  How did your job interview go ? Brooklyn is a long way from the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, but maybe you needed the distance and change of scenery. Good luck out there.
 

Refreshing design dialogue here. Good to see again. My own dimes worth….
Like most of us posting here, we probably pride ourselves on having a well-honed sense of design, biased from whatever sources, inspirations or personal prejudices, but an appreciation of design nevertheless and in whatever form or expression,.
On this particular topic, I…[Read more]

Mike:
 
I am not going to tell you how to operate your business, but I feel a need to point a few things out here:
 

• You seem to be getting a lot of frequent flyer miles from Land8Lounge by posting as often as you do here. Other companies with services or products related to the profession of landscape architecture, for the most part, do n…

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Perhaps even a more potent song as the 2012 political conventions approach. I hope we are in the streets in a massive presence. Last time round, it really changed the political dialogue, but then again “law and order” was the prevailing knee-jerk reaction and we elected another ultra-paranoid  jerk named Nixon. I always felt one the great…[Read more]

Boilerplater:
 
A great selection too in my mind, and not just because I am a Springsteen fan and opened up this forum with a quote from him.I have always felt that not only the title cut, but the entire “Ghost of Tom Joad” CD was a scathing commentary of the economic seizures and convulsions of that period (the Depression) and the life-altering w…[Read more]

There are incredibly wide-ranging and divergent viewpoints on the OWS movement, just as it should be.
 
One enlightened mind whose weblog I read from time-to-time, is Charles Hugh Smith. You can find him and his web essay blogs on rainbow of topics (mostly national and global economics and finance) here:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
 
No ma…[Read more]

Jon:
 
The thoughts you express here are as moving and worth contemplating as those of Hedges. I’m curious, though if you do not see OWS as becoming a political force, how will its message, will and staying power be of consequence to breaking the syncophant relationship between Washington and Wall Street ? I share your great concern about the…[Read more]

I now live and work in SW China so let me assure you there is outright blockage of certain well-known websites. The kind that were attributed to allowing for more widespread communication during a few of the Arab Spring uprisings earlier this year. Without a VPN workaround, one cannot commonly access YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Hulu, even Rolling…[Read more]

The wordy weight of the debate in this thread has become a little overbearing. I have contributed my fair share.
Time to lighten things up a bit. I offer this in that regard.
 
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/fiore/

Russell ….good to see you here and your comments, while dripping with sarcasm, are also relevant and real. Many of the Big Shot firms from the states are already here or have alliances with Chinese firms (essentially a front to look more “indigenous”) but that also can be said for the Brits and Aussies.
How are things going for you in AZ (do I…[Read more]

 
 
“But when you have eliminated the impossible, as Sherlock Holmes told Watson, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”
Ross Douhat NYT columnist 
Or as a more familiar line goes….“Somewhere between your version and my own, lies the truth”
This article along with some fairly indisputable statistics and charts, lean in th…[Read more]

I like the Constitution myself, I just don’t maintain a strict and rigid interpretation of it, as if it were some immortal dictatum, frozen and forever at the time of its drafting and adoption.
Whether we like it or we don’t, were all crewmembers on USS America Without a Rudder, but we all have paddles. We should use them individually, and…[Read more]

I so appreciate your contributions to this scintillating philosophical about the crucial direction or mis-direction and accompanying trajectory our country is currently on. You viewpoint, while a bit edgy, are useful here. A couple of unsolicited suggestions might help you in your next reply:

• Drop the use of the Ayn Rand manifesto cliff…

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Hey Mr. William Davenport (a.k.a. Ayn Rand automotan or cretin) read any one of these great citations, get brain chemicals (or whatever other ones you take) and by all means respond !!

Jason:
 
First up, I have always appreciated your insightful, cogent and well-crafted sarcastic commentary here. Your a welcome voice here at Land8Lounge. I too view the AIA billing index, mostly through the lens of Calculated Risk.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/
This finance and global economics blog checks in periodically with this index…[Read more]

Hey nrschmid (or whatever other alias your using these days)
 
stick to your new schtick in oil and gas until we reach the end of oil/post-carbon age, which we are just entering now. This profession and certainly the planning one, will not miss you. Don’t become a fossil when the fuel runs out.