mirando al techo. (una tarde en madrid) / looking at the ceiling. (a madrid afternoon)

En cualquier otra situación hubiera seguido haciendo cosas, si hubiese estado en la oficina seguro que seguiríamos trabajando, el paquete lo tendria la secretaria, mi ordenador seguiria siendo mi ordenador, y la vida seguiria igual, sin un pensamiento de mas. Si tuviera una buena conexión a Internet seguro que habria pasado el tiempo mirando las paginas habituales, comentando en twitter, actualizando cosas, leyendo articulos. Pero no, estoy en una casa que pese a ser de mi familia me sigue siendo extraña, y sin conexión a Internet. El paquete esta enfrente de mi, apoyado en la pared, un tubo de planos de 70×12 cm, con un cd y un sobre, todo envuelto en papel kraft, deberia decir mal envuelto. Espero que los de la mensajeria lo recojan para llevarlo a Atenas. Eso es lo que hago, nada mas. Mirar al techo y esperar. Después he quedado con el grupo a tomar algo, y mas tarde a cenar con una amiga, pero hasta entonces espero, estoy aquí atado, por mi paquete, por el futuro, por la ilusion y esperanza del ignorante. He hecho una llamada de telefono, he colgado y ahora espero. Podria leer, he traido libros conmigo, pero no conseguiria pasar de la segunda o tercera linea, podria ver la television, pero no conseguiria centrar mi atención. Bloqueado en la espera. Divagando sobre los 3 dias que voy a pasar en Madrid, pensando en toda la gente a la que voy a ver. Es raro la condensación de encuentros que me provoco cada vez que vengo. Una lucha entre el quiero ver a mis amistades y el me gusta estar tranquilo y no hacer nada. Nunca veo de forma tan seguida a tanta gente. Parece que mi vida se sigue basando en el principio todo o nada. O no pasa nada o pasa todo a la vez. Pasados estos tres dias, ire a Portugal a encontrarme con una amiga de Australia. Desde luego no hay manera facil de hacer las cosas, o al menos no debe ser tan divertida. Oporto-Lisboa-Faro y después por España.  Nota al margen. La conoci en Londres.

No todo es tan interesante como parece cuando uno lo escribe, ni tan emocionante, es simplemente normal. Mi normal.

En fin que estoy mirando el techo, esperando al de la mensajeria antes de irme a tomar unas cañas. Todo lo que voy a hacer en Madrid estos 3 dias parece muy absurdo mirado desde una perspectiva, todos son compromismos y objetivos que me he auto impuesto y elevado a la categoría de obligaciones, se supone que se hacen por gusto, pero eso depende del momento, y por supuesto ninguno reporta dinero, asi que son un hobbie. Vaya hobbies mas raros, con lo bien que una esta en casa, o no.

Sigo mirando al techo.

how much do your books weigh?

mines (and ain’t so many) more than 200 kg. tough to believe.

 

Information Technologies. what you can do with.

This s how I enjoyed and experienced last night Champions League games here at home.

On my TV, ITV1 channel with the Manchester United vs. Inter Milan game, on the computer at full screen ITV4 channel with Arsenal vs. Roma game through www.itv.comwebsite, and on my headphones, the other 2 games with spanish teams (Barcelona-Lyon, Atletico-Oporto) through spanish radio Cadena Ser. At the same time I was texting through my phone to germany and chatting through skype.

 Now, thanks to Internet my way of following the games and the European Champions League of soccer has changed completely, I am able to watch 2 or 3 games between TV and laptop and listen spanish radio in London.

Sometimes you live in the future. ITV has its 4 channels available live on its website (amazing), BBC has an iPlayer with videos of their radio interviews, available an hour later than they were aired. Spanish public television and radio is so far away in the past, and no body cares.  Just the coverage on BBc website about U2 is amazing, and all the links and the historic videos and all the media they make available.

Another really good website is the U2 website. They even have put the youtube video from their performance on the french TV,I think embracing open source and interactive social networking is a must in the future, you cannot give your back to those things, I think incorporating them to your own space enriches you a lot.  They have made available to online listening the whole new album one week before official release (yeah, I know, there was  a leak in australia) and they have tons of stuff and personal videos (ok, some of it for subscribers). It’s amazing how close you can get to some things through the Net, and how deep and personal can it all become. Open source is not a weakness, it’s a strenght

questions

Today I had a lot of questions, but I was not brave enough to ask all of them. Normally when I start making questions, one questions leads me to another one, so I end up with hundreds of questions and no answers, but normally I ask that type of questions that normally don’t need an answer….. more or less.

BACKGROUND.
Today I had an appointment for lunch with a friend (it sounds more formal that it was, but I didn’t know how to write it), sometime before we were supose to meet I got a call from my friend telling me that she was going to be 30 min late, basically because she was not able to take a shower before because her flatmate was taking a very long shower.

ok, so…
why people are always late when they meet up with friends? why are they never late when they go to a job interview, or to work, or to catch a plane? (i know some people are late in those situations, but percentage in hugely smaller) do they do it because their jobs are something that give them money to live? does that mean that money is more important that friendship? if so, why people say the opposite and assure that friendship is the most important thing in life? why do people tend to believe that jobs are only temporal and that sooner or later you’ll change your job while they think that friendship should last forever and ever? but then they are late when they are meeting friends, not when they are going to work. If it is not the money, is the fear and hierarchy what determines that people are not late to work, maybe  the power of the superiors? so, being late when meeting a friend is a sign of abuse to their feelings and patience?

how can an adult say that is late to an appointment because someone else not related to the appointment was taking a shower? how can you be a “successful” professional and cannot use the shower at your place whenever you need or want, and if you have to share a flat, cannot you talk with your flatmates to see the daily schedules and make the necessary adjustments so everybody is on time to their respective meetings? why people don’t make those small efforts?how architects can build a 4 bedroom flat with the two bathrooms inside two bedrooms, so 2 rooms have to go through another bedroom to access the bathroom? why nobody cares? how can someone say “i started walking out of my place a bit late, I’ll be 15 min late” and not be terribly ashamed? didn’t you know how long does it take you to get to the place? why didn’t you check? what was the reason that made you walk out of your place late?….. and this is only about a small, tiny issue like being on time to your appointments and meetings and the abuse of friendship.

sometimes people ask me, why are you such a solitary person?… I guess answers are easier than one normally thinks, but normally you don’t want to hear them.

not related
Why am I so lazy with household stuff? because I don’t care a shit, but my conscience tells me I should care.

I am proud to be lazy.

I am lazy and it takes me forever to do things I don’t like if I don’t have pressure on. It took me forever till I decided to organize all my papers and do a general cleaning at home. I did it today and I am really proud of how nice my place looks. (no worries I won’t put pictures, you have to come over and take a look)

If I get pressure on me I over perform and make things happen really quick, I can handle 5 things at a time, I can be like speedy gonzalez (do people from UK and US know about this mouse), I went once to a radio school contest and the presenter nicknamed me “snake” because i was laying back on the chair like bored listening to the other team or to the questions but when I knew one I just bent over the mic really quick to answer. My teachers used to say that I was lazy even for sitting on a chair and that I normally lay down on them, not sit on them. So I have a really long story with this. I’ve tried really hard to change this, but I got to the point when I decided that it was better not to change it, but to assume it. So I am lazy, I work like a mule for a thousand hours but sorry I am just lazy. but if don’t i just let it go once and again till I do it.

I am lazy to meet people, I am lazy to go out, I am lazy to have stupid chit chats that lead to nothing, one tip, just be funny dudes, people have seen me getting asleep in a bar when having dinner with a group of friends. Actually people have seen me getting asleep in class, sorry but 8.30 am classes should be illegal, asleep on trains, planes, cars, at work, almost everyday after lunch in front of my computer, at the cinema and in dinners. I guess that there is no better place to be bored that at home, so why bother when you know is not worth.

Today I feel lazy and I am proud of it. I have to recharge my batteries for another 3200 hours at the office in a year. yeah, yeah, 3200. (2700 job + 500 research) go figure.

So today, and after putting upside down my place I am gonna use my couch for a few hours.

happy trip to Rio Sara, we’ll miss u in London.

las vueltas que da la vida

looks like almost everything in life comes down to timing. Timing and will.

During these days thousand things happen in a really short period of time, from dead to back to live, from calm to storm, and the only thing you can probably do is open your legs, stand firm on the ground and stick to your ideas. If you are going to fight, fight for your ideas, fight with your ideas, do not fight with some other’s boots, it is too dangerous.

I truly believe that our ideas and our position as professionals should not be modified because a singular economic situation. I am not talking about actions, I am talking about principles. Conditions change and so it that your reaction and your short term responses, but your ideas, your long term plans should not change because a change in the direction of the wind.

do we have principles and ideas worth fighting for, can we define ourselves beyond the situation?

In the meantime let’s get ready for another alnighter on Tuesday….

foam models

bigger is better
more number of options is better
more detail, though with no intention is better,
we can show that we can do it
don’t think, just put hours

you think you can impress the client if you print things bigger, if you make your models bigger, it is about weight and not quality, about images and no ideas what you base your work on. And that is the easy way, because that only requires money and resources, a bunch of cad monkeys

the investment on quantity and not quality is product derived from the social-democratic point of view of society, in which fear and jealousy control the situation and therefore we don’t want to make choices just in case we make a mistake so we follow through all the options and some other decide.

————————————

Tolerance to some kinds of behavior are something we should not allow and if at the beginning it might look like a positive way because of the reward you might get, as time goes by normally it would turn into something negative for you. If you don’t set up your principles and your priorities and stand for them, then the rest would not respect you, and you will be always the poor slave attached to the wishes of others. If you don’t think before doing, if you don’t think before saying yes you will loose the possibility of saying no in the future, and I bet you shouldn’t give away that possibility.

Things are going too fast around here, and nobody wants to realise about that, so we keep going as if nothing, like the violinist group at The Titanic, playing till the end.

If you are gonna die, die with style.

I feel like

I feel like not going to bed, I feel like not staying late at the office for nothing again and again and again, I feel stupid because I don’t think we are making a difference, I feel tired of being the only one saying that’s crap, that’s crap. I feel like meeting my old friends, then I fell I prefer not to, I don’t wanna smile and fake, I feel like too many things and when that happens I normally end up in the couch sleeping and doing nothing. I feel like we normally do and only think afterwards, I feel like it should be the other way round, I feel like living at nights and sleeping during the day, I feel like isolating myself to write, to think, to do, I feel like writing  for the shake of writing, I feel that getting rid of 35 is not gonna solve your problems, I feel like we are afraid to address the real challenges, I feel we are not able to think what we need, to know what we want.

I fee like we are just stumbling again……

everything you KNOW is WRONG

What if everything I / You / we know is wrong. Why do we take for granted so many things? why we have to stop Saturdays and Sundays if we are not religious countries any more?  Why if Dubai wants to be the centre of the western world do they stop on Fridays, and only put Mosques on their urban plans? why are they truly trying to achieve with the new islands? why should we reproduce an urban model that was obsolete and a failure since Le Corbusier presented Plan Voisin?

Why don’t we challenge everything that they tell us to believe.

CHALLENGE EVERYTHING. BECAUSE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW IS WRONG.

It’s no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest.
It’s no secret ambition bites the nails of success.
Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief;
All kill their inspiration and sing about the grief.

95% of my ToDo list for today

Today i managed to do 95% of the issues listed on my “ToDo” list for monday (ToDo list is really funny for me ’cause in spanish todo=all), which is quite a lot. I have a huge list of things  from now till Friday. It gets busy.  But overall I got a question around my head the whole day, actually two.

 
1. Why everybody think that there is nothing to do on the submission or presentation day? Experience has not taught us that are plenty of things to do?

2. Why everybody dissapear and then get surprised when you tell them that you hanged around waiting because at some point there is going to be a call asking for some last minute stuff and that there has to be someone to get that call? Experience has not taugh us nothing??