Amboy Crater

We couldn't see meteor shower, but saw shooting stars here and there. Amboy Crater is a desirable place to see stars. The view from the bottom of crater is framed in circle and the ridge blocks out far city lights. Thanks to Barry and Daniella for nice pictures.

Alameda Exposed

I made a clip with Ye, Ji, and Carlos as a site study. No story behind it. It shows our interpretation of Alameda Corridor.

Fridays @5

Here we are at Fridays @5 again. The original inspiration was from light-growing columns at LAX, but many people said "beer cactus." Six sheets of 3'x8' plexi-glass were lasercut and wrapped around existing poles at the parking lot. Each column was filled with bags of ice. We wouldn't have any problem sticking beer bottles into lasercut X-scores! .........it didn't quite work that smooth. The X-scores were slightly too small for bottles. We ended up supporting cracking columns with plastic wrap.

The importance of mockup, working with others, and how many unexpected issues come up during construction...I learned these design-build experience through Fridays @5.

Chile

I came back in LA once and left for Chile right away. My backpacking plan for this end of the summer was to practice my survival Spanish. In Santiago, I was alone most of the time, but in a bus to visit small villages, tourists were obvious to each other. I met a couple of Europeans. Conversations between them shifts smoothly from German to French, Italian to Spanish. Once I joined them, we talked in English. My Spanish was horrible. I was asking simple questions, knowing that I wouldn't comprehend the anser anyway.

Small towns seems to be relying on tourists for the majority of its income. But I was surprised they were not aggressive at all. In San Pedro de Atacama, price of tours to visit certain location are exactly same in any office. Since they don't have to compete for some reason, the atmosphere was pretty relaxing.

Shanghai

Visiting other countries is more fun if it is to see somebody I know. I visited Sky in Shanghai for a week. He was doing internship there. We walked around Shanghai half a day and the rest of the day, we sat down in a nice cafe to read and study. In Japan, people will pressure you to leave when customers are hanging out, but in Shanghai they didn't seem to care.