Circle-fan or Teeth?

Back in December, our washer (aka washing machine) wasn't working in the intended manner, in that it would stop right before the spin cycle, leaving the laundry in a pool of water.

During this several week period, I got to trek all my soiled sundries 1 mile to the launderette, where I was greeted by toothless Cockney service woman. Apparantly "most people" pay for the laundry service, which means that you don't have to sit there ensuring your clothes are not stolen through the washing cycle, but some of us students would rather eat than waste money on service charges.

There was something very odd about reading very serious academic books about urbanism whilst the attendant smoked half-cigarettes and watched the soaps. This turned out to be a bit longer than I'd hoped, as I chose to spend a few more pence to dry my clothes a bit rather than lug home an additional 5 pounds of water weight.

I felt rather ridiculous about the whole ordeal, particularly when it turned out that our washer wasn't so much broken as the pipes were backed up. The pipes, that run from the sink to the washer, were blocked with a delicious backup of sink gunk and limescale, a wonderous substance present in London's hard water. I was indeed present when the plumber pulled out what looked to be a solid grey turd. lovely. In the coming months, we plan to clean out our pipes a bit more thoroughly.

I should mention too that learning to use the washer and other appliances has proven somewhat challenging as well. Our washer has several numerical settings, indicating a type of cycle. I suppose this is relatively straightforward, though I do prefer the nearly-failsafe American system that we have on our washer at home in Oberlin: whites, darks, delicates. However, I've seen other washers in London homes that allow you to specify the RPM of the spin cycle. While I understand why one might want such a feature, one friend's washer fails to indicate what these numbers in the thousands indicate; we joked that the washer doubled as a kiln.

Actually, I believe that the reasoning behind this lies in the intention of producing universal products, e.g. that can be used anywhere and that overcome language barriers. Ovens that I've seen, for example, use both temperature and a symbol to indicate the type of heat. On our oven, a three-pronged fan with a circle around it means convection, and a jagged zig-zag seems to indicate broil.

Though I think it a wonderful idea to provide universal symbols, I had a difficult time deciphering the meanings of these symbols, and found myself asking my flatmates whether I should cook something on "circle-fan" or "teeth". Our oven also has "plain-fan" symbol, but this function no longer works.

Additionally, there are still quite a few interface issues that make it all the more difficult to figure out. The oven in the flat my parents recently moved into required that the clock be set before you could turn on the oven, regardless of the fact that you might not even be using the timer during your cooking process. I appreciate the thought of trying to make things universally accessible, but create a few difficult operations, and once you've lost the guide and some foreigner moves in expecting to be able to cook things, all hope is lost.

Frayed Ends

2 weeks into my second term of study, I'm finally finishing up my term 1 work
(no, I'm not late, these were the deadlines). I turned in my papers on Monday, but haven't really stopped thinking about them. Apparantly the AA is under review this year by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), so they'll be reviewing our papers as well. Actually, I'm unclear on whether this review of student work happens every year, or if it's part of the RIBA review. I should say that the AA is not an accredited institution in itself, but is accredited by this group called the Open University. That almost makes it sound like I attend some crazy "school" set up by someone in their backyard to make money. If that's the case with the AA, they've got quite a scam, and have thousands of people convinced of its wonderous merit. This just reminds me of an episode of Mr. Show which follows the events of several separatists who declare independent nations within the U.S., and then hold an Olympic Games. Such nations include:

• "Freemania",
• "The New Republic of Gary",
• "Hank Dobson's Mini-Mart and Country"

Certainly such comparisons indicate that I obviously don't understand how accreditation works.
Well, I must say, I do work awfully hard for an institution I'm not sure is "for real". My design workshop group really worked hard on a booklet of our term 1 work, and I think it shows, thankfully.
In my individual work, I'm starting to focus on urban housing forms. To save myself a few moments, I'll just cite my individual work essay-thingy:

"Though my interest in urbanism and the study of cities has grown, so has my interest in how people live in the city. To my mind, this is not simply a question of housing, but of making a space, in the larger sense of the entire city, in which people want to live. In Public Spaces Public Life, Jan Gehl discusses the importance of quality and location of public spaces surrounding housing forms for the success of the housing.

I think that looking at the issue of housing is another way in which I can use my background in and understanding of sociology and cultural studies in order to determine and further design. Through this programme, I want to begin to move away from a strictly cultural, socio-political approach to these problems, as I have stated previously, and attempt to address such issues from a design perspective. Panerai et al call this the "relative" autonomy of urban design: though we might consider it to be the most important aspect, social, political, and economic factors play smaller yet still integral roles in the workings of the city, its growth and production. Yet, no factor is sovereign in the production of the city, and neither can any of these factors be disregarded. I trust the actuality of this reasoning, but I want to continue to test and develop in my own research. "

Well pardner, I'd best mosey on over to that "school" I'm throwing all my money at.

A Short Diatribe on Airplane Manners, and Other Things

I know I said I would try to avoid rants and pointless banter in this context, but I will break my own rule this time, probably because I'm overtired and possibly delirious.
I just awoke from a much-needed nap, after arriving late this morning from my overnight flight from the states. A young man spent the entire night blabbing on about his many exploits in life, including his brush-with-death-track-race and other tales, which he somehow managed to have made sound like a lifetime of death-defying adventures despite his being only 17.
I attempted to listen to music while I slept, but something about the timbre of his voice carried extraordinarily well, which was very unfortunate for me and anyone within a 15-foot radius who was trying to sleep.
I probably should've said something. But, he kept starting and stopping his stories, such that just before I would fall asleep, he would start talking again. I'm surprised that no one else said anything, either, but he seemed to be surrounded by young people who generally wouldn't dare to ask someone to be quiet. Actually, I think someone did ask him to pipe down, but it didn't seem to make much of a difference. By the time I was just about fed up with this chatter, the flight attendants announced it was time to wake up. boo.
Also, one last complaint: there is no elevator/lift at my rail station/tube stop! Horrors! I had to help some woman carry her baby carriage -- with baby inside -- up the stairs! As well as my own suitcases full of books!
Well, that's certainly enough of my complaints about unimportant things. Call it procrastination, avoidance from the things I really need to do. But I'm tired.