[10.28.08]

After typing the last post I remembered some things of last summer. A client out in California was talking to me about the "little speck of a city named Norman", and said that it was one of the nicest places to live in the United States. I shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself: how in the world did this Eastern Indian gentleman, who has never even been to the Midwest region of the United States, come to the conclusion that Norman was one of the top cities in the United States to live in? I came to the conclusion that he was talking out of his ass, and making fun of Oklahoma, just as he had been making fun of our accents [my boss and me] all week long. I had not even thought of that moment ever since it happened. Until last Wednesday. Dr. Bozorgi proved it: Norman, even being a "little speck of a city" is the sixth best small city to live in. Check it out:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2008/

10.28.08

Hello all. Well as we all know, the Monday deadline for the completion of our model was not met. Hopefully by Wednesday the entire model will be set up and glued. I have not seen the progress on the model as of today, but I am sure that it is fabuloso. I am willing to put in a few hours tomorrow and Wednesday morning gluing down the residential and commercial; that will take some time. Anyway, we are coming to a close in this grandiose adventure, and even through the many tough times, I believe we will come together as a whole in the end, and create the perfect master plan for this little speck of a city named Norman. Peace!

P.S. I am feeling better than I was earlier; the doctor said I was going to live. [This time anyway!]

[10.16.08]

I was taking a look at some of the pictures I have taken throughout the semester, and I couldn't help but notice that peeling the top layer off to give contrast to the roads was one of the best decisions we have made as a whole this entire semester. Take a look:













It is like day and night. Our model has about as much contrast as our studio class does. I know there has been much 'compromise' and 'discourse' among our class over the past few weeks, but it has not always been really tense. Take a look at the pics from the day we were choosing the colors for the houses and commercial buildings. We all look pretty high on life:

Here are all of us agreeing on the color of paint. Finally, something is agreed upon! This is also one of my favorite pictures too. I know that we are all excited to get on with this project and start on our own design; I just hope that we ALL realize this whole year is going to be a collaboration. I just hope we can all get along for another 7 or 8 months!

[10.15.08]

The time has come! Our model is well underway, and due for completion by the end of next week! There is still a whole lot to do on the model, but it is totally feasible to wrap it up in the next 10 days. I think for this post it is reasonable to introduce the studionauts involved in this massive effort of collaborative model making. So here we are, 1 by 1.

1.] Sean Jackson
2.] Regina Savini
3.] Matt Savini :)
4.] Katie Edgar
5.] Mike Ruark
6.] Candice Fleming
7.] Waylon Becker
8.] Jennifer McAlister
9.] Marc Wright

[10.07.08]

After a long weekend in the model shop, we have come to the conclusion that the roads do not have enough contrast against the green mat boards. This can be seen from the picture to the right. We have been exploring different ideas, such as markers and paint, but the best idea was to peel off the top layer of the mat board, which exposes a cream colored middle layer. It matches the green very well, and is a lot easier to accomplish than painting in between 2 lines. Almost all of the contours have been cut out, and gluing is well underway, so hopefully, we can wrap this portion of the project up and proceed recreating a miniature Norman with all of the houses and businesses. More to come later. Best!