Discovering Perspective

When pieces fall together is it just our brain trying to find meaning and patterns?

I've been working on my thesis proposal on the 'Jewish home' and Jerusalem and odd coincidences might be interpreted to think that I was 'meant' to do this topic.

1. the bible portion which refers to G-d's promise to Abraham that his descendents would return to their land is Lech-Lecha. Lech-Lecha is my bat mitzvah torah portion.

2. Yitzrak Rabin was trying to bring a peaceful resolution to Arab-Jewish relations in Jerusalem when he was assassinated November 4, 1995; the same day as my bat-mitzvah.

3. the torah portion this coming November 4th (a Saturday as in 1995) is Lech-Lecha, meaning the hebrew and gregorian calendars are back to within 2 days of their 1995 sync.

4. the hebrew word for house is beit or beth - my middle name.

Labels: Architecture

Shana Tova!

I'm amused that Blogger doesn't recognize 'blog' in its spellcheck (or apparently 'Blogger' or 'spellcheck').

Ahh... Feels good. Always feels better after a bit of procrastination.

I just sent my advisor a revised thesis statement which focuses my original topic around a specific hypothesis that I am very interested in seeing where it leads. Should be able to fit my final paper for Asian Architecture in nicely as well as some previous research papers and work.

I think it's needed the time to digest and absorb all the stuff running around in my head.

The plan is to get a website up sometime soon to keep track of thesis work so I'll leave posting the actual statement til then. I found the studio blog last semester really useful in organizing my thoughts/progress and keeping in touch with my prof.

Labels: Architecture

I was always jealous that my brother got to have glasses so when I started having problems with my eyes the last few weeks I was strangely excited by the possibility that I might need glasses. I think glasses suit my personality. But my appointment with the optometrist today confirmed that I still have better than 15/20 vision (that's as small as the letters on the chart get). Appears to just be a bit of an allergy and some oily residue in my tears. Just need some eyedrops.

*sigh*

Week three already. Time to catch everyone up.

Week one was relatively tame. I spent the week working on the annual all-school drawing competition which for once was actually very therapeutic and a good kick-off for me. It usually results in an embarassing drawing (probably from trying too hard) and I spend the first few weeks wondering if I'm a fraud who's managed to slip through the cracks. This year I made it to the final round and was happy with that.

Apparently, things aren't quite ready for thesis students so we're all kind of in wait mode but at least being around the school has helped to rekindle the get stuff done mode. I've got through a good chunk of the articles I've been collecting and talking to everyone else about my topic has been a good sounding board in the process of trying to clarify intentions.

My elective was a bit of a surprise. Advance Studies in Culture and Symbol is a course on meditation. It seems interesting but not related to my thesis in the way I was hoping so I've decided to add Asian Architecture to my course load to feed that craving and will keep Culture and Symbol for my own interest. Asian Architecture was a bit of a surprise too. I had originally passed it over because I am not specifically interested in say Chinese or Japanese architecture (at least not high on the list). I hadn't considered the Near or Middle East as "Asian". This year's topic is Venice and alterity, which so far actually appears to be quite relevant to my thesis.

I've also recently come across MIT's Jerusalem 2050 and the proposed competition to be announced soon which may also be a good resource for my thesis. I'm getting excited and reassured by how current and prevalent my topic is in the field. There is a lot going on which also means there's a lot to be done.

Other than school, I've gone through my brief Tetris Worlds addiction following Mekki's latest acquisition of an XBox. I've also been watching through seasons one and two of Grey's Anatomy. CTV was airing it in the mornings for about two weeks and then stopped. Nothing amazing, but it's kinda cute and a good brain rest.

Had a good time at Tracie's birthday dinner. With the change in weather and the back to school, we haven't been getting the group together as much.

I've got an appointment with the optometrist tomorrow. My eyes have been acting strange the last few weeks so I figure it would be a good idea to get them checked out. It's hard to believe that it is no longer covered by OHIP. How is caring for your vision not considered a medical necessity? Luckily I'm still covered under my dad's insurance since apparently Carleton doesn't seem to think vision care is worth including in their policy either. As much as I value my teeth, my eyes mean a lot more to me. I haven't been since first year so it's probably a good idea. After that I guess I'll just have to eat a lot of carrots for the next forty years and hope for the best.

Mekki and I managed to get out for a game of tennis with the good weather yesterday. Probably won't be able to find to many more nice days for it.

Let's leave it at that for now. I'm sure there is more to come.

Labels: Architecture