Cynicism Shined Through

Friday, Friday, Friday . . . oh how I love thee!

Went to the game last night (with the Sutter clan), the last against the Cubs series . . . and it was a glorious sweep! We had bleacher seats, and they were awesome! On a side note, I better see my hat again . . . in ONE piece and alive!

My cynicism shined through as I tried to convince Emily to stay away from the nice boy who is way too nice for his own good. My argument is that the nice guy is just a front. Everybody is mean . . . so I'd rather know your degree of meanness when I meet you up front rather than have you break my heart later. See, the nice guy is the lure, and eventually the nice guy will have you chained to the basement wall. Stop rolling your eyes at me! If you think about it, you know it's true!

I rode my bike into work today so I could go to lunch with others to the Crown Candy Kitchen! This is going to be so fun! Yippee Skippee!

Now . . . I have something very exciting to show you. If you know me at all, you will know that my favorite architect (despite his poor ability to provide quality construction) is Frank Lloyd Wright. One of my favorite toys are Legos (click here for cool Lego dude). So what could be better than FLLW Legos?



Sweetness pours over me! Okay, seriously, keep your head out of the gutter please!

Now, to Drew and Becky, THANK YOU for being awesome peoples that also use made up wordifiles. I had started to wonder if I was the only person to have a unique vocabulary. It's not that I like to brag or anything, but this obviously means we are quite brilliant!

To Chris, THANK YOU for finding me cheap junk yard glass for my car! And thank for saying you will put my car back together. You don't have to do that. But I'm not going to turn down the help either! I'll get you a check when I get home. We need to remember to go to the bank so I can put my ASCE reimbursement check in there this weekend!

To Jeremy, THANK YOU for the recommendation for T-Shirts @ T-shirthell.com. Deadly stuff . . . wrong and deadly stuff!

To Amanda, I believe I have thought of a solution to your problem of having too much on your plate . . . either A) get a bigger plate (but the not the ideal solution) OR B) find another plate to shove some of your "food" onto (seems enough people are doing it to you) OR C) Get that dog Emily wants and shove some of the "food" onto the floor, most dogs will eat anything!

. . . this brilliant mind needs to get to work, so onward I shall go . . .

Word-
purse out: To not do something because of a girly reason, to wuss out. Generally used from one male to another.

10 Questions with Steph

I'm doing something different today, an interview with myself! I could interview someone else, and maybe I will later, but for now, this is my blog, I think I should interview myself. So, ten questions taken from various interviews I've recently read:

Q: Tell us about your background.
I am Steph. I was born in 1979. I didn't have what I would consider the greatest childhood, but I had always thought it was the norm, so I never knew anything different until I was an adult. I became an overachiever at an early age, which is what I believe instilled me with the strength to do things that are scary. I was a shy kid from the beginning, gaining my only friend Eva because her mother told her to be nice to me. We are still great friends, best friends even! I went to SIUE where I gained skills for becoming a structural engineer.


Q: What is it that you do for your job?
Good question, few people know what a structural engineer does. I have two ways to describe this to people: architects make buildings look pretty, they make them functional, make them livable. I make them stand up. OR, you know when you buy a shelf that you have to put together, it comes with instructions on putting it together? Well, I make the instructions for putting a building together.


Q: What do the letters HOK stand for?
This is a question that people at HOK get asked all the time as a getting to know you thing, a sort of "make up your own verbiage" for HOK. My answer is Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum. I'm not clever or witty, I am literal. Sorry.


Q: What kinds of projects are you working on?
Confidential!


Q: What makes design great?
Functional! Seriously, I love art, I love to look at art, I love to use art. But design of structures is different. I believe they can both be artistic and functional.


Q: What do you do outside of work?
Play on the Internets, blog, read, listen to music, travel, daydream


Q: Who or what inspires you?
Seeing my faith in humanity being restored. I get inspired when people do good things, make choices while facing the fears of the unknown, for making the right choices when the wrong one was so easy.


Q: What advice would you give to young people?
Make your own mistakes, make regrets, but be sure to listen to what everyone has to say. Do something before you die. Just try to be a good human!


Q: What is the best trip you’ve ever taken - where and why?
Ireland; I got to go with Eva to one of the most beautiful places known to mankind, and I got to see my Shane Brain


Q: What was the first space that you noticed?

I've always found this question amazing. Now trying to answer it, I find it difficult. My first thought is the old two family dwelling I lived in as a small child. Brick, Victorian. But what I recall about that space was the partial turret that created a sort of bay window. I loved that the space was not square. As I grew up and started seeing the functionality of space, I became appreciative of Frank Lloyd Wright's work, very functional, simplistic and elegant. That would be the first time I really noticed space. Chris and I still really enjoy just going for car rides and looking at houses and neat buidlings. It's a passion for which I hope to never lose.

Word of the day-
derection: What a guy gets when he looks at somebody really ugly.