no2self.net

Back on the epee blade again at fencing last night. Not such a successful evening as previous weeks - lost both bouts. Took a few pictures with my phonecam of the coach using the sabre and swapped some via bluetooth with one of the guys at the club (the first two are mine, the third is one he’d taken at the Birmingham Open).

I need to brush up on technique, as I’m getting rather sloppy. Just found some manuals published by the Canadian Fencing Federation and it would probably do me no harm to remember the advice published over at fencingsucks.com.

The following are well-recognized scoring “moves” in fencing competitions. Some require additional props, but most can be improvised.

The Back up the Stairs Retreat
Usually executed mid-match, this maneuver features one combatant backing up a set of stairs to a landing from which there is no means of escape but a hanging rope. (See, Swinging Back into the Fray)

Swinging Back Into the Fray
Normally via chandelier of hanging rope; in gymnasium climbing ropes may be substituted.

The Circular Flip Weapon from-Opponent’s Hand Move
Executed with a deft circular motion of the wrist, this maneuver deprives your opponent of his weapon. Bonus points awarded if weapon then seized from air by its grip. (points deducted from grabbing blade.) Self-satisfied leer optional.

The Dagger Parry
Having been divested of his weapon by the Circular Flip, above, the fencer may draw a six-inch dagger from his belt and proceed to defeat his bewildered opponent. (Psychologically devastating to opponent, and a real morale-builder for your team).

Cutting Chandelier Rope to Drop on Pursuing Team Members
Successfully executed, this move can really shift the momentum in a competition. It involves use of one’s weapon to cut the rope holding up an overhead lighting fixture so that it falls on opposing team members. Extra points awarded if fixture is of circular design and actually confines the pursuers. (See “Encirclement Points”) A basketball backboard and hoop can be substituted in most gymnasiums; however, in such case encirclement points are limited to one, given the small diameter of the rim. If burning candles on the chandelier ignite other objects, or competitors, additional bonus
points may be awarded.

Stabbing Cask Instead of Opponent
This is actually a way of LOSING points. It occurs when a fencer backs his opponent into a cask or barrel. By sideways feint, the opponent causes his hapless aggressor to stab the barrel, rather than himself. If liquid spurts from the barrel or cask, subtract an additional point; if liquid is flammable (ex: brandy) and comes into contact with downed chandelier candles, add 3 excitement points.

Weapon Lodges in Solid Object
Another momentum-turner, this occurs when a fencer’s weapon becomes lodged in a solid object (other than an opponent) and its end breaks off. Distance points may be awarded, however, if remainder of weapon is thrown ineffectively at opponent.

The Veg-o-Matic
Extra points are awarded when ever an errant slash dices organic material (again, other than an opponent) such as apples or melons on nearby training table.

The Whittler
Employed after loss of main weapon, this maneuver involves the use of a wooden object to parry an opponent’s slashes. Points are awarded for the number of successive slashes which reduces the wooden object to a nubbin (often followed by “desperation throw,” described above).

Seize the Amulet
This move can be pivotal in competition. Each competitor wears a hanging pendant around her neck. The match is over when a fencer corners her opponent and flicks the pendant from its chain with her weapon. Extra points if caught in free hand. (normally followed by a sprint to the team bus).

The Graffiti Slash
Originated by a fencer named Zuckerman at NYU, this maneuver is used to inscribe one’s initials on an opponent’s uniform. Bonus points awarded for script. Neatness counts.

Tag-Team Moves
While not exactly politically correct, these moves foster strong team spirit. They involve members of the women’s team in, essentially, a supportive (if not downright decorative) role. Some of these are:

• The Cowering Behind the Fencer Backing up Stairs Move
• The Swinging on Rope with Male Fencer Escape
• The Weapon Replacement Toss
• The Cradling Head of Dying Male Fencer Pose (dying fencer must remember to recite: ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve)

taken from Everything I Know About Fencing I Learned at the Movies

I’m about to step on the tram that I catch to and from work for the last time; tonight I collect my new car. I’d rather ride on public transport - it’s one of the few times in the day that I get chance to read - but I need to have a car for work, so it’s back to the traffic jams for me.

Despite being hampered by endless technical problems* (vandalised ticket machines, power cuts, doors that won’t shut) and numerous social issues (people refusing to pay, violence towards the conductors who were employed to replace the vandalised ticket machines and BMW drivers who meet a grisly end after shooting the lights in front of a moving tram), it’s been a good service that has served me well. I suppose that a certain amount of technical problems were inevitable, since I hear that the firm who built the line and supplied the trams, returned to their home country upon completion leaving only a few sheets of instructions; all of which were in Italian.

The images posted here (along with others posted in my gallery) were taken during various trips over the last year. Some of which were used to make the graphic at the top of the site.

* just as I was writing the words ‘technical problems’ the driver announced that there is a power cut that meant the tram will only be going as far as St. Pauls. Luckily, that’s my stop.

Undergraduate architecture students take note: you need to have at least this much imagination or you’ll never make the grade.

Wanted: undercover special ops. team to travel through time and prevent the publication of a recent paper by the European Committee for Standardisation - Prevention of Crime - Urban Planning and Design. If these fools are allowed to have their say and their proposal for the construction of more gated communities leaves an impression on other fools, we may as well admit that Thatcher was not only right, but prophetic. In the report the ECS suggests that;

…crime can be reduced through ‘territoriality’ - people extending there control over their immediate surroundings - and recommends using ‘ barriers’ to ‘maximise private space and minimise public space’.

It gets worse. Apparently, barrier walls should have anti-graffiti surface protection, chain link fences and bullet proof windows.

Under the section ‘The Fence’, it advises that fences be supplemented with anti-intrusion sensors, CCTV, shock lighting and alarms.

Imagine a world where each street has a security guard at the end of it. Imagine a world where you need your ID card checked just to walk down a road that was previously public space. Imagine having to pay extra home insurance because you can’t afford to live in a gated community. Imagine the riots that will erupt over the arguments about whether the gated community next to you should pay less tax than you do because they employ a private firm to empty their bins.

I spend my days redesigning housing estates that have barely lasted 20 or 30 years before declining both physically and socially. Yes, a small part of this is to do with the architecture and construction techniques, but the root of it is found in the history of divisive housing tenure policies and it’s effect on social inclusiveness. That’s before we even get to any discussion about gated communities.

The source for this entry was the Big Issue, which is a little embarassing. It’s not that I’m being derogatory to the magazine; the Big Issue is a fantastic publication and the current layout looks great - it’s just that I really should have picked it up sooner, since it’s so relevant to my job. I’ve downloaded the document now so I can have a proper read. I’ll add an update if anything else needs mentioning.

This topic was also recently covered by the BBC as part of their If? series.

Also wanted: WiFi on the Birmingham Metro tram line so that I can post this as soon as I’ve finished, and someone to tell me how to get my SuSE Linux OS to recognise both my touchpad and my mouse without one uninstalling the other.

Of these two items, the former is fairly unlikely, as I seem to be the only one in the West Midlands who uses a laptop/PDA on the tram; the latter will hopefully be solved either here or here.

It’s a few years since I last visited the Interbuild exhibition. So long, in fact, that the last time I went the atmosphere was sufficiently un-PC to allow for a collection of under dressed women to be seen demonstrating the baths and jacuzzis. No such luck this year.

The actual work related content was pretty disappointing too. None of the big manufacturers had a presence and there didn’t seem to be any eye-catching innovation. I suspect that, for many, the internet has changed the need to rely on exhibitions to deliver information. A lot of products also fell foul of the critical appraisal skills that comes with being a parent (a skill that I had yet to acquire on my previous visits). Plenty of potential death traps and cleaning nightmares; such as the radiator with perfect size holes for inserting a banana. Irrelevant design problem? Ask a two year old.

There was, however, some interesting IT solutions that we left feeling enthusiastic about. The most impressive of which was Sketchup, a 3D modelling application that tries to strip out all the complexities normally found in CAD packages and perform in a more intuitive fashion. Push bits, pull bits, punch holes, extrude a roof, cast a shadow and cut a section. Very tactile and immediate, it looks perfect for carving out initial concepts. It’s only Achilles heel is that you can’t export designs in orthographic. Which means drawing your design from scratch when you move into the production stage.

Before leaving, we paid a visit to the RIBA stand, hoping that we might get cheered up by the Will Alsop designed pavillion. Whilst it’s dangerous to critique something for which you don’t know the brief, it’s fair to say that we were distinctly underwhelmed. Essentially an exercise in surface decoration, the uncomfortably proportioned box tried to create a glamorous enclave amidst a world of dowdy building products. Judging by the number of darkly dressed architects at the bar (we they always wear black) this seemed to fool at least a few people. On reflection, it may have been the mirrored floor that was the cause of the odd proportion - everything doubled, leaving you in the centre of the vertical space, instead of at ground level where you expected to be. The wall of the bar was a beautiful, polished red but your view of it was always disturbed by the black and white zig-zag patterns on the wall. Refusing to leave your peripheral vision and daring you to look straight at them. I suspect that both the brief and the budget were all but non-existant.

Al, who’s been sufficiently upset by Alsop’s work in the past to write an inspired letter to the AJ, found it particularly difficult to keep his cool. Let’s hope this doesn’t cause too much tension when Alsop comes to Oxford Brookes Uni to critique his final post-graduate project next year.

Perhaps it was the lingering memory of bananas in radiators that had put us in such uncharitable spirits.

Some much, much better news is that I see from this morning’s press that MVRDV are the next practice to design a pavillion for Hyde Park. I can’t wait. Their work is both beautiful and rigorous - I’m a big fan. I also owe them for paving the way for my Pigs in Space project, which I worked on as an investigation of the ideas put forward in their Pig City.

A few months ago I quit drinking alcohol and left caffeine behind. Don’t worry, I’m not about to mount a terribly high horse, unveil a soap box or give a sermon - I did it because I had to for health reasons. Drink what you like, I couldn’t care less.

However, it’s difficult to resist passing comment about the benefits of green tea when you find articles like this: Green tea polishes hard drive heads.

The researchers combined chemicals from green tea with synthetic proteins and an abrasive chemical it produced a mixture well suited to removing microscopic imperfections. By binding to these particles, the mixture gives them an electrostatic charge, causing them to be repelled from the platter’s surface.

Found via the web site that makes us all lazy.

ahem…of course if you use each image twice for am and pm, you’d only need half as many photos - but where’s the fun in that?

I was out with Matt on Saturday night; he’s a friend from the Wolves LUG. We talked, amongst other things, about the now infamous Daniel Libeskind. Over the weekend I’ve been trying to source some of his early texts, to supplement our conversation about the complexities of architectural thinking. A quick Googling has let me down so far, so I shall have to resort to the printed page. How quaint. I did, of course, land on daniel-libeskind.com and enjoyed the stripped down, but tactile, design. It uses an interesting technique of switching between black on white / white on black, in order to highlight links.

I have mixed views about his work and can’t avoid the nagging feeling that he’s a one trick pony, but he writes with passion and elegance. Witness the opening page of his site;

In one … of my favorite books, by Henri Louis Bergson, Two Sources of Morality and Religion the author comes to the conclusion that the universe, to paraphrase loosely, is a machine for producing gods. It seems to me that architecture is, in fact, the machine that produces the universe which produces the gods. It does so not fully through theories or reflections, but in the ever non-repeatable and optimistic act of construction. The qualities of its resistance, which are as pragmatic as the materials from which it is built, form an irascible and volatile field whose smile is not that of Buddha.

Almost everything I read at the moment, from Arthur Koestler to Gaston Bachelard, seems to reference Bergson. I shall have to catch up and try some of his work.

Some interesting confluences there with our discussion about religion, don’t you think Matt?

By the way, it’s worth noting here that Matt and Jono are also involved in an interesting project to increase Linux awareness.

There’s a link to a designboom.com article buried in the Paul Cocksedge comments above, I’ve just taken the time to check the front of the site and it looks interesting. Worth a look.

Last week’s copy of The Architect’s Journal, carried an article about the winning entry for the redesign of Nottingham’s Old Market Square. The winning design is by Gustafson Porter.

I like the proposal, it should open up the square much better, as it is currently dominated by grand fountains that break up the space too much. The new design includes water, but it’s low level and of a more human scale. I hope they have more luck than we do at work with the health and safety obsessed crowd who think the public can’t be trusted with a puddle.

I also hope that whoever used to dump what must have been several bottles of washing up liquid into the fountains when I was a kid - filling the fountains and square with bubbles that blew across town - returns to continue the practice with the new water feature. It was a delight that I remember fondly.