I'm cheating a bit here because, while this IS something that annoys me, I can't honestly say that it shouldn't. In fact, it probably should. Architects: Why can't they do their jobs? I may (or may not) have mentioned that my day job is building inspector. Yes, I am one of those nameless, faceless minions whose sole purpose is to make any simple home repair job infinitely more expensive and more complicated by asking people to do the work in accordance with the [dreaded] building code. Which, by the way, is established BY LAW as the minimum standard for safety. So when someone asks if they can get by with less than what the code requires, my first inclination (which the town governing lemmings tend to frown on) is to ask, "Well, the code is the minimum for safety so, exactly how unsafe did you want to make your house?" I also review plans for commercial projects, and that's where things really get ugly. There's one project for which we have reviewed and rejected the drawings seven times. Got a new set of plans today (different project) for which the architect (I checked -- his license is current) doesn't even know what edition of the code is in effect. Not that it matters, because the mistakes he made wouldn't have been okay under the previous code, or the one before that, or any code since the Code of Hammurabi. This afternoon, one of the other inspectors heard me ranting about this architect to the boss, and asked the architect's name again. Sure enough -- my colleague just got off the phone with the same clown over a set of plans for a house addition. On that one, he cited a building code that has not existed since 2000. To the best of my recollection, we have not seen a single set of plans for a commercial project that we could approve on the first submittal. NOT ONE. By way of background, I am a licensed architect as well as a licensed building official. I have worked for some of the best architecture firms in the country, so I have a bit of an understanding of how a set of construction drawings are supposed to be put together. But ... I'm a certified olde pharte. There's a new generation of architects out there today who seem to think that all the should have to do is draw a pretty picture and leave everything up to the contractor regarding how to, like, you know, BUILD the damned thing. Last week I asked one architect to add some information to his plans that's clearly required by the building code, and his response was, 'That's not in my contract." Okay, then, but issuing building permits on the basis of incomplete construction drawings isn't in my contract, so go tak to your client about why he doesn't have a permit. /end of rant
Bureaucrats. All I can say is, it's a good thing this clown retired from the state government. One of my high school classmates went on to take a job with the department of public works at the state. He spent his entire working life there, and rose to be one of the senior managers of public works construction projects. Every architect I have ever spoken with agrees the guy was a total asshole, VERY impressed with himself and generally incompetent. Since our class secretary has more or less given up since her husband because seriously ill, this guy has taken it upon himself to create a class address roster. If I didn't know the guy, I would say it's impossible for anyone to have created something this bad. He has this address list in Microsoft Word. Not in a database, not in Excel, not even in a table in Word -- it's just a Word document. He apparently never learned how to format tab stops, and every once in awhile he just uses spaces instead of tabs to try to align things. There is no consistency or coherency whatsoever. It's what we call "a hot steamin' mess." I'm sure governments the world over are filled with guys like this. And we wonder why governments don't function. Here's why -- because guys like this are in charge.
No one had a chance. The actual secretary never said she wanted (or had) to step down from maintaining the list, Mr. Bigshot just took it upon himself to usurp the role.
Ummm ... actually, no. I know what it looks like, of course -- it's iconic. I've never seen or heard any stories about its design.
So he is truly the Peter Principle in action. (I can hear a certain someone hollering "so, fuck off" out there because I began a sentence with "so." )
Basically they started with a sketch and a concept, got the contract, but had no idea how to actually build it.
Sounds just like every set of plans I've reviewed in the past year. Talking to the architects has been an awakening. Me: I can't find any information in the plans about [___]. Can you tell me where to find it? Architect: That's not in my contract. Me: But the building code requires that information before we can issue a building permit. Architect: It's not in my contract.
The story that I heard (that I can't find a cite for so grains of salt) is that the original sketch was on a napkin and it was approved from that. Even my CAD and 3d printing has more thought than that.
"The Open". Most golf tournaments are 'opens', and this one is properly called The British Open. While I'm at it, I occasionally play a nine-hole par-three course that was thrown together by a local apartment complex as a perk for their tenants that's maintained better than the treeless scrubland that is the legendary St. Andrews. All links courses suck.
Considering that the design was an entry in an international competition that included entries from many of the greatest architects in the world at the timne, the napkin sketch story has zero credibility. That's not how international competitions are run.
You'd love living here. The major newspapers all take one day a month, every month, completely off. Major department stores used to as well, and my local supermarket isn't open on Wednesdays, while the dry cleaners is off on Thursdays.
I guess we're past that here, except for the occasional 'blue law'. When I moved to my previous city in 1972, there was one auto parts store open on Sunday (9 AM to noon) in a city of 125,000. Now you can't swing a cat without hitting an Advance Auto or Autozone store open 24/7.
Illinois used to, maybe still does, ban the sale of automobiles on Sundays. It was because the small dealers couldn't afford to pay staff to work on Sundays. Guess what kind of profession offers the flexibility to also be in state government?
Our local newspaper doesn't print papers on Monday or Tuesday. One can access those issues online. Tics me off. I cannot do the crossword puzzles online. It was a fine daily newspaper with an equally fine free weekly until a national publishing corporation bought both out and screwed them into the ground. The corp fired the decent reporters and hired a couple from out of state who write stories about the mysteries of where they are currently forced to live. Fact check? Nope. And they apparently depend heavily on spellcheck for editing. Sucks.
Yeah, but until 2004 or so the ATMs closed at 10pm and weren't open on national holidays. We still pay double ATM fees "outside of business hours." Guess robots get more overtime than human staff (OT is 125% here, not time and a half).
The fact that your Amazon’s ‘Recommended’ page is nothing more than a list showing your purchase history.
I don't know if this should annoy me or not, but it does. I never actually use Instagram (and honestly forget I even have an account most of the time), but today I got an email saying that I had my first follower: my landlord.
That's S.O.P. for newspapers these days. Not so much the transplants, but they now generally don't have much in the way of an actual editorial staff. Most of the reporters are "stringers" who may or may not even have a desk at the newspaper's office. They submit their stories on-line and the stories go directly to whoever does the page layout, apparently with zero editing or fact checking.
Years ago I wrote science articles for the daily newspaper and features for the weekly. The editor liked me because my research was solid, I turned stuff in well before deadline, and he never had to edit my articles. I quit freelancing for the papers when they changed editors and I found out they were publishing my articles online without notifying me or paying me. We Were Not Amused.
The misuse of the word literally. I overhear people on the bus all the time saying things like, “I was so embarrassed, honestly. I literally could have died!” Or “… and when he said I had to work late, that was it. It was literally the final straw so I quit and walked out.” And while I’m here talking about overhearing on buses, being forced to listen to other people’s lives on my way to and from work.
