D E S I G N /// ck

For some reason, this made me very happy last Saturday:


An old truck at the Farmer's Market selling Christmas wreaths, with bits of that morning's snow sticking to its hay bales. After that, I was officially ready for the holiday season.

After a flurry of blogging last month, it seems I've slowed down here at DESIGN///ck. I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what's going on. Right now I'm reading C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy, currently on That Hideous Strength. I took a break from The Fountainhead, but I'll probably finish it up later this month. It's always a good reminder why I wanted to be an architect in the first place. Some friends that are on vacation lent us their Wii for a few weeks, so I've been busy getting my skill levels up to Pro on Wii Sports. See why I haven't been blogging? We've been landscaping our yard and putting out our garden. Alice has been ambitious, and I think we'll have tons of vegetables this summer. But we want to can a lot of them and save them for winter and save money on food. She also put in a beautiful flower bed around the tree in the front yard. I built the brick retaining wall in front and mulched it. Also, I bought a lawnmower on Craigslist and have mowed more than I ever have since I moved out of my parents' house. The joys of home ownership! We've been keeping Colleen's dog Callie this month and training her, but she'll be heading up to Indiana to rejoin them this weekend. We're going up to see Colleen and Cevin's final projects presentation, and to celebrate Mother's Day with Mom and the family. My company has reduced all of us down to 4 days a week and 4/5 pay, so I have more free time (three day weekends!) but less money to do anything (reading and Wii, see?). I'm starting to pick up odd jobs to make up the difference, the first of which is a small trim carpentry job I'm starting tonight. On a grander scale, it looks like I'll be taking a few weeks off and building a garage for the 'rents in WV. Tomorrow I'm looking at bidding a reroof for one of the pastors at my church. So God is good, and provides ways to make money to those who aren't afraid to work hard. Let me know if you guys have any projects for me! With Alice off school in two weeks, she may be able to help me on projects, which would be cool to spend more time with her. This spring has been hectic for our schedules. Hopefully summer will be slower and she can relax a little. One more thing, I'm starting to take on organizing and coordinating the building projects for the Friends of Fort Liberte nonprofit group in Haiti. I'm also master planning and designing the next phases for the orphanage down there. So more work in my free time, but it's definitely a labor of love. And it looks like I'll be getting back into the groove of going to Haiti every year, something I've missed. I'm set to go in December, and I hope Alice and I can go in May together. She really wants to get involved with really helping other people, and I think Haiti and her will be a good fit.

So that's the main stuff. Now you know about as much as I do about my life right now.

More from that infamous night at King Tut's. I like the above picture a lot. Maybe the photographer could frame it for me as a present?


I wish I could explain this picture. Moe can talk me into anything.

...of my daily office life. Sketching, drafting, printing, modeling... hopefully making good ideas into buildings.

I found out yesterday that the mom of one of my best friends had died. I had known her mostly in my childhood- thinking about her triggered lots of memories from that era. When I found out, I was working on a architecture project timeline graphic. As I drew the timeline and thought about life (as death often makes you do) I wondered what my life would look like mapped out. Were there patterns? What would it look like in another thirty years? So here it is:


click image to enlarge for full effect.


If you can't tell, the graphics rising and falling have to do with bad times and good times. I noticed that after a major change that things got much better, with one notable exception. Also, with Alice my life has taken a more stable sine wave pattern instead of gradual rises with drastic falls. Looking back, I see I have much to be thankful for, not least of all the present.

This was an offhand shot I took at a party at our house, but has slowly become a favorite of mine. It encapsulates how our house has become a home, how we've learned to have fun again, how we're trying to share in the lives of old and new friends. Having a true home has really opened a new door for us. Take what you what from that statement, but know that this winter was very good.

I've been trying to take more pictures lately of the stuff that's happening in my life. A favorite of mine is the above one of Lila (my second cousin-in-law?) at her first birthday party in Franklin. I'm starting to learn that you just keep taking pictures until you get a good one. I won't explain the rest, but hopefully you can get a good feel for the last few weeks of my life.

Today I put a somewhat humorous, somewhat really-meaning-it "tweet":


A while later, the Weather Channel wrote back!


First of all, Weather Channel is a liar, but they like me so I'll let it slide this time. Second, holy crap! This is like the weatherman reaching out of the TV and grabbing you, whispering sweet sunny nothings in your ear. What the heck? Oh Twitter, maybe you make me TOO connected.

New photos are up on Flickr. Just click the "photos" tab above.

Last weekend Alice and I felt ambitious while buying garden supplies and got a little bird feeder to hang up outside the dining room. And it was great! We were the life of the bird party on our block for a week. Then, the "little thugs" of our neighborhood started muscling in on the action. We saw one squirrel looking at it from above and I thought, "Good luck, buddy! That thing is WAY out on a limb."

I underestimated the squirrel thugs.


Apparently, one of them hung by a claw and chewed his way through the plastic to the seed. The party's over. Nothing but a few seed shells scattered about. Aren't they supposed to be hibernating? Well, as they say, THIS MEANS WAR. I shake my fist at our thieving treetop neighbors. Watch out, or I might build something like this.

What a day.

I turned in the last documents to the mortgage company this morning, and even the dour faced lady there looked optimistic about closing soon. So things were looking good! They looked so good that I walked out into the sunshine feeling great and walked back to my office. ...and forgot that I had driven there and parked in a loading zone.

Fast forward two hours...

I walk out to go to a meeting. I look for my car in the garage. I look on every level. And I realize that it's still at the bank. Or is it?

It isn't. I walk down to the bank and its gone. I know where it is. Knoxville's Finest have put my car in jail. I walk back to the office, feeling not so good. I miss my meeting. Now I'm waiting for my wife to take me to the impound lot. What a day.

Well, here we are. This year is hopefully going to be different than 2008, maybe more of a Sabbath year, some time to rest and get into a groove for the first time in a long time. I feel like the page has been firmly turned on my "post-college era" and some kind of new, completely adult era is being entered. Alice has a job and a routine (no more college!) and I am doing the same thing (architectin') I've been doing for four years. Luckily each new project is always a different challenge, so it hasn't gotten monotonous yet. We're both truckin' along now, getting experience and pursuing careers(!). The rest of the time we're just trying to find out how to live meaningful lives and making do in this crazy world.

So here's to 2009 and blogging about it. I'll be updating this week about all the house stuff and getting back to putting more thoughts here instead of just internet content. 2008 was the year I really got into putting my life out here on the interwebs, and I plan on continuing to do so in the coming year. So c'mon back!

I'm in the office this morning trying to keep my current project going forward, but in reality I'm lucky to get 25 hours a week in here. The rest of my time is spent tying up the millions of loose ends I'm swamped with at the house. Now I have all the little stuff to get together, all the half hour projects that add up to days and days of work to get a house "finished". Sigh...

I've uploaded some photos of the progress to Facebook, because it's easier to upload them directly with the FB widget (you need to catch up and make an iPhone widget, Blogger!) than to put them here right now. So if you're my "friend" go there and check it out.

In other news, I early voted last week. So today is the day to see how it'll all turn out. I think both men would do a good job (I'm just glad my choice wasn't between Hilary and Mitt), but in the end I took a chance. I won't say here, but let's say I helped make sure Cullin owes me a steak dinner.*

*back in the primaries, Cullin assured me Obama didn't stand a chance. So we did what any gentlemen would do- we bet on it.

Alice and I got back from our long weekend in Chicago last night. What a beautiful city. We had a great time and got to meet Colleen's boyfriend Cevin. I'll post some of the pictures up here tomorrow.

Now on to the hellacious month working on the house!

Yesterday was Alice's birthday, so give her a call if you haven't already. We kept things simple and stayed in last night to watch the NBA Final and eat Harbee's Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza (by far the best in Knoxville).

Earlier we played with the Volley Llamas (and won all three games). During the second game Alice got an extra special birthday present from the largest guy on the team: a full-on body slam to the ground! They were both going for the ball and she went down HARD. Alice soldiered on for the next game but didn't feel so good afterwards. Hence, staying in for her birthday.

and now we have the t shirt to prove it (design by yours truly)

You may have noticed in the last post that I mentioned selling Greta. For those of you who don't know, Greta was the butterscotch VW bus that faithfully served me for four years after college. Alice hated her, I loved her, and I hung on to Greta as long as possible after her engine seized up last spring. Greta holds most of my car records:

Most nights slept in on the side of the road

Longest road trip

Most sheets of plywood hauled

Highest number of breakdowns

Highest number of MacGyver roadside repairs

Most dog poop cleaned up in (Thanks, Bob)

Most rivers forded off-road

I actually got a little choked up as I watched her get hauled away. I didn't know I had that much attachment to that big ugly box-on-wheels.
Here's to Greta- she was a great car. I sold her to a guy (Owner #6) who is going to fix her up for one of his kids. I bet she has two more decades of driving in her.

I started getting a cold Sunday afternoon and it went full blown yesterday. A whole carton of orange juice later, I think I've beaten it into submission with a massive amount of Vitamin C. Now all the bad stuff is trying to get out of my body, so lots of coughing today and I'm blowing my nose every few minutes. I did ride my bike to work, though. Gotta represent for Earth Day.

Reading The Crossing currently, which is turning into an amazing book. McCarthy's western novels are simpler, more sparse. The book's sparseness gets my imagination filling in the gaps vividly. It feels similar to Big Two-Hearted River, which means I love it.

the title says it all. if i'm not working, i'm sleeping. i'll find something to put on here one of these days. but how 'bout some comments, people? i need some encouragement to keep this endeavor going.

Good news! I'm up to the fourth page on a Google search for "Christopher King." This post is getting pathetic.

Over at the Wigshop, there's been some strange and malevolent commenting going on. My post earlier this month about Cliff Clark has made someone very mad. You won't find the comments anymore, they've been deleted. But they were just nasty stuff. I don't know if it's Cliff himself or someone who has strong opinions on the matter. I chose to address this individual and try to talk to him/her. Alice (who does not like conflict) quoted Proverbs 26:4 at me:

"Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself."

I've thought about this all afternoon and read through Proverbs. She's right, for the most part. I don't think you can reason with a mocker "according to his folly." Proverbs is pretty clear he won't understand and will despise you for it. However, 22:10 says:

"Drive out the mocker, and out goes strife; quarrels and insults are ended."

Also, 19:25 says,

"Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence."

The latter proverb voiced my main feeling about all this. The commenter may never respond to kindness or reason, but other people who see it may learn something. I don't want to "flog" him/her, but I do want to expose their folly and malice, so that other readers can see it and gain knowledge. Blogging is more public than we think- we all put our opinions out here for literally the whole world to see. Sometimes we might draw hate from people we've never seen. I think it's good for others to see the pitfalls and snares of the blogosphere. Hopefully we can all learn something. I pray for wisdom in dealing with this situation, and for good things to come out of it.