Biloxi North 40 May 26, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Explorations, Life.add a comment
I took my new Trek out on its maiden voyage this morning, doing a route called the Biloxi North 40 with my friend Anne. The land here changes pretty quickly as you head north of the coast. Biking just a couple miles inland, the cities of Biloxi and D’Iberville morph into a rural landscape interspersed with concrete distributors and uninspiring subdivisions. The coast’s southern live oaks are replaced by scrubby forests of longleaf and slash pines. We headed out around 11, so we had a hot and sunny two-hour ride. The bike was a good choice; it’s a hybrid road bike which rides fast and smooth but can handle gentle trails if necessary. I was reluctant to leave my mountain bike at home, but there just aren’t that many mountains around here.
What a fun and productive Memorial Day weekend! I found a great house to move into next month, test-drove a car that I’m thinking about buying, and did some other errands. (I rented a car to get all this done). Saturday night, people from Hands On and Habitat gathered at Sweet’s for Leah’s birthday. Sunday, we celebrated the return of Air Force Alan, who’s been in Iraq for five months, with an All-American party featuring grilling, American music, beer, and lots of red, white, and blue.
And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the men who died,
who gave that right to me!
Return May 25, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Entertainment, Life.add a comment
Planning to get back into regular writing. In the meantime, I’ll suggest a book: Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member. I’m about 15 years late with the recommendation, but it’s still an interesting read — a straightforward look at gang violence from the inside.
More houses! May 9, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.Tags: 314 Crawford, 420 Division
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Construction is happening fast! I really want to be outdoors helping build, and when I finish up my current set of plans I’ll probably see about working construction for a couple of days. Anyway, here’re a few more updates. Below, I found Mr. Lai working on his house along with Habitat (Peter and Deubs have been out there this whole week and their crew is doing some great work).
Another house that is going up is this one on Division street for Mr. Tran and his family. This is a really interesting house and is right across from our office. It was designed by Jason and features an unusual U-shaped roof that slopes inwards, collecting water that will run down the central space into a cistern. From a distance, this gentle concave roof suits the house well as it is cradled among the massive live oak trees:
Below, the center of the ‘U’ where the three sides of the roof will come together, leaving a small gap. Water will come down here along a downspout or chain of some type, to be collected in a cistern for garden use.
Connections coming together. This house is among the highest we’ve done.
Bad ass! Emily is one of the volunteers from Hands On who are rocking this house alongside Hopeforce.
Framing on Hung’s House May 8, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.Tags: 314 Crawford
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It took a while to get going, but now that it is started Hung’s house is going up at a great speed! Habitat for Humanity and their NCCC volunteers are doing some good work over there. This will be an exciting house to see go up. This week, they’ve put down the floor decking and begun framing and sheathing the walls:
“The Post-American World” May 7, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Politics, Random.add a comment
In the absence of something more original to post, here’s a link to a very interesting article in Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380
Read it! — it’s a good global perspective on the modern world, not something you get much with CNN or the like.
AHHHHGH May 2, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Architecture, Residential Design.add a comment
This house is driving me crazy!
Economist: Wright’s wrongs May 1, 2008
Posted by Vincent in Politics.add a comment
As usual, a thoughtful analysis by The Economist. An excerpt from the article:
AFTER he became notorious as the man who urged God to damn America, Jeremiah Wright claims he wrestled with two impulses. The first was to heed the proverb: “It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” The second was to “come across the room” and fight back. Mr Wright’s decision to come across the room with his mouth wide open is proving a disaster for all concerned.
Mr Wright, who was Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years, has reason to be angry about the way he has been caricatured. The video clips that made him famous represent mere seconds of the thousands of hours he has spent preaching (207,792 minutes on Sunday mornings alone, according to his church, the Trinity United Church of Christ). Mr Wright volunteered to serve in Vietnam and spent six years in the armed forces. That, as he pointed out, is six years longer than Dick Cheney.
