New Music

By way of my friend Chad Gore, check out THESE GUYS

On the opposite side of the spectrum:
some interesting new electronic music by M83 and Crystal Castles.

Listened to anything new lately?

And you thought you wouldn't hear from us for a whole week.....pssshhhh.

One Week Hiatus

In celebration of our one year old blog, we are taking a blogcation for the rest of the week. Honestly, it has more to do with our life being crazy right now as we get ready to go to my brother's wedding this weekend but the blog anniversary just sounds better. A trip to TX and a wedding will give us plenty of new material and finally we'll have some new photographs to put up as well. We'll see you next week.

Dear Lock Service Guy.....

Thank you so much for quoting me an outrageous amount of money to come unlock our car after I locked my keys inside. Especially since you are literally two blocks away from our house (seriously dude, I can almost see your van from our front yard). I know it was a Saturday night, but I'm glad I did not agree to your ransom to free our car from bondage. As it turned out, it ended up being one of my better decisions. By standing firm and not succumbing to the fear of "Oh no! How shall we survive? What if we need to drive to the Walgreens at 2 in the morning?" I allowed myself to rise to the challenge and learn a lesson on determination, focus and just being a better man.

I know, big wup, I got my car unlocked. You weren't there though, and because of that I was totally in the zone. It was a thing of beauty. I got my wire hanger. I made a hook. My first try at pushing the unlock button....failed.

Not to worry, I pulled my wire out, re-grouped and developed a new strategy. I'm going after the lock latch itself, I'm making this wire a freakin' finger that is going to unlock that bad boy. Oh yeah. I get my wire finger on the latch and start pulling.....the wire bends...not enough rigidity.

Ok, ok, re-group. Third times a charm right? So I re-design my finger to make it stronger and I go in again. I'm getting into position, my wire finger is grabbing the latch. It's like a scene from Mission Impossible (yes I know that was a horrible, horrible movie. you got a better reference?) Anyway, so I start pulling very, very slowly and just when I think the wire is going to start bending again, the lock starts to move and before I know it I'm seeing red, which as everyone knows, means your doors are unlocked (also that you're looking to murder someone, but not for this story).

For a few seconds I stood in disbelief, motionless....I actually did it. That really just happened. When I came to, I went upstairs and did a victory dance for Tiff. It went something like THIS

Un-realtor-like

So I went back and forth about my business card. They say that having a card with a photograph is very good for business. I question the cheese factor of that. After many arguments with myself before falling asleep at night I voiced my delimna to some friends. They said that a picture would be to my benefit due to my unrealtor-like appearance.

I thought that made sense so yesterday Joshua and I fought the wind and rain to get said "unrealtor-like" picture.

This isn't the one we picked for the card but there were only 6 of 200 we took that didn't have my hair flying everywhere so I felt like it deserved to see the light of day.

Our Empire

I think there is a true advantage to some time without billable work in a business. Since Joshua and I have decided we are staying in Nashville we have dug in to the marketing and networking side of things and have become machines. Without realizing it we are working 10 to 12 hour days.

Step one is the development of a business blog.

We are trying to get that up and running technically. In the meantime, Joshua has cranked out some great designs and has 7 articles in the bag for that. I know you just can't wait.

The other part is planning and dreaming for the future of our business.

When we started FYK Architecture we didn't have time to really do much planning. I was still working at Lifeway and Joshua had too much to do all by himself. After I came on board we worked with Scott Lee to visually develop the brand, but that was it. This week we have made it our job to write mission statements, make larger plans and start setting our company up to be bigger than it is right now. Its only Wednesday and we are coming along swimmingly.

The big decision of the day is our plan to develop the FYK name and brand to encompass our future ventures. That means that FYK Realty Group will be forming shortly. Luckily, we decided this the day before I officially designed my business cards. Normally this would be a conversation we had the day after we got them back from the printer.

Score 1 for FYK!

"London Baby!"

WARNING: Architectural nerdery ahead. Proceed with caution.

Although more cluttered with baggage carts and kiosks than Sir Norman Foster perhaps envisioned, the Stansted airport terminal is a great building. The basic design concept is a grid of tree like structural squares that house the mechanical equipment at their base. By keeping all the systems at the floor level (or below), it allows for the roof to be open and light. The skylight design at each grid offers diffuse natural light, so there is very little need for artificial lighting. Not just is it interesting to look at, it reduces power consumption in two ways: it eliminates the energy consumed by light fixtures as well as reduces the heating load caused by those fixtures.

Here’s my favorite part. The experience of Stansted is very straightforward. The design and organization of the terminal creates a clearly defined progression from entry, to ticketing, to security, to your designated gate and off you go. No guessing where to go and no need for signage typical of most airports; just a soothing, pleasant airport experience.

However, if you’re thinking you can just walk around taking pictures without being interrogated by security, well then you would be wrong. That blur on the left was the security officer who all but patted me down to confirm that I was not going to use my photos for evil.

Sentri-key

This week my real estate license posted so I am legal to enter any home for sale in Nashville. Joshua and I no longer have to wonder what we will do with our evenings any longer. Tutoring will be over next week so maybe we'll turn Tuesday evening into our home expedition evening. It will help us professionally but honestly it'll just be fun.

We just went down the street to test out my key because I knew there was a vacant house. I am not looking forward to the call from the listing agent asking how my client liked the house. I am opting for an honest answer of "No client, just me. I just got the key today and I just wanted to make sure it worked. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about the leak you were fixing downstairs."