utah 2008 - the drive home

I drove back from my annual trip to Utah and arrived home last Friday to attend a wedding last night. The drive on I-70 was amazing. I wish I had brought a better camera to capture the scenery. Here are some photos taken with my HP Photosmart M22. It is a great little camera for these trips because it is durable, weather resistant, small and inexpensive in case something should ever happen to it on these trips. Here is a video of the landscape just west of the San Rafeal Reef.

utah flood

On the last day of our trip, it rained. We hid in the back of the car to try to wait it out, but when the rain kept going, we decided to pack up and leave.

It didn't rain so much where we were shooting, but enough in the mountains so that the road was flooded out. The videos show the jagged curve in the road caused by the water. On the other side of the road, the water was pooling and as the water receded, the ravine on the right side of the video revealed itself. We ended up digging trenches and packing the tracks down for the wheels of the car. Where the road rises at the far end of the video, we dug out the mud and added rocks to create a more solid ramp on which the car could drive. The photo below is what happened to my shoes after we dug the tracks.

Beginning of the Flood (yes, the noise is the water)

Receding of the Flood

vivian's bag

This was one of the first bags I made after I moved to Southern California. It is made of sample upholstry fabric from my friend Vivian for my friend Vivian. I liked the butterflies.

the pan that did!

I did it! I passed the California Supplemental Exam!!! I totally ignored this blog and studied and studied and studied and passed! It was so worth it. So for anyone who is curious as to what, how much and when I studied for this exam, leave me a comment and I will answer. But for now, I would like to end my blogging of that exam and move on to future can dos.

my first mock

Today, I had my first mock oral. I was given nine questions from two categories: organization of architectural practice and professional responsibilities and conduct.

Feedback for both me and my classmate included:
Make more eye contact
Speak with more conviction
Speak more slowly
Pay attention to the phase in which the question is asked
Work the panel (?)
Stay away from personal experience
Try to give textbook answers
Focus on what is being asked
Try to give concise answers

We were audio taped. I will have to allocate time to review the tape and how I sounded.

test date here!!!

I just looked at CAB's website and the 2008 oral exam dates have been posted. My exam date is either March 17th or March 18th. http://www.cab.ca.gov/oral_dates.htm

I have just under 6 weeks to study. If I study at least 16 hours per weekend and 10 hours on the weekdays, that gives me almost 96 hours to study for this exam. I want to go over the AIA contract documents: A101, A111, A201, A201/CMa, A201 SC, A305, A310, A312, A501, A701, B141, B163, B352, B431, C141, D101, D200, G612, G701, G701/CMa, G702, G704, G704/CMa, G706, G706A, G707, G707A, G709, G710, G711, G712, G714, G714/CMa and M107. (40 hours)

I also want to make flashcards as I review the codes (CBC, California Energy Code, Coastal Act, etc.), their purposes and what agencies enforce them. (20 hours)

I have to also read the list of material provided in the package from CAB which includes the Architects Practice Act, Essential Services Building Act, etc. (20 hours)

This leaves 16 hours for review of how to structure my answers.

I think I may have to increase the weekday and weekend hours. But that is my rough estimate.

getting started

Last last Saturday, while I was in an overview class for the California Supplemental Exam (oral exam), my best friend had her first baby. Yay!

The agenda of the class was to go over the topics on the four subject categories of the oral exam: Professional Organization; Professional Responsibilities and Conduct; Research, Programming and Analysis; and Project Scope and Implementation. Each subject lasted about 45 minutes. Areas that I need to review further are: responsibilities of the architect during the design phases, the AIA contract documents and codes, their purposes and what agency enforces each.

Last Wednesday, I had my second class. There are only two of us in the class so we received more personal attention from the instructor. We were able to give examples of our exam questions and to get possible answers from the instructor. Our homework assignment was to write down the problem and questions we can remember from our last exam, dig up our scores to identify our areas of weakness and prepare for our mock orals this Wednesday.

Tomorrow, I will layout my plan for the areas I need to study more.

Chick-fil-a!

Daniel and I had free chick-fil-a breakfast sandwiches this morning. The Chick-fil-a in Tustin is having their free Friday breakfasts thru the end of February. Yum!!

full rainbow

This weekend on the way to Eric's 30th birthday in Las Vegas, Daniel and I saw a full halo rainbow. At first it was only visible through my sunglasses, but a couple of hours into the drive, the full rainbow came out to the naked eye. I made Daniel pull over so that he could see it. At first, he only saw part of the rainbow so he didn't want to pull over, but then he looked out the passenger side window and saw the bottom of the halo as an inverted rainbow. We pulled over and enjoyed the scene for a moment.

lush

Daniel got some lush products this Christmas from the white elephant gift exchange at his office. We've been using the Seanik Solid Shampoo by LUSHsince and it's been great. The lush products seem to be pretty green with less than average synthetic products. I love the way this solid shampoo smells AND it's a greener product because there's no packaging. When we finish all of our other bottles of shampoo, this solid shampoo is the way we're going. We even bought a new soap holder today for our bar of shampoo.

Also in his gift was Ocean Salt Cleanser by LUSH which is a face scrub that makes your skin tight and smell clean and fresh. The soap, Sandstone Soap by LUSH was ok. It dissolved pretty quickly, but did it's job. It had a lemony scent. I couldn't get used to the Buffy Body Butter by LUSH, but it does scrub and moisturize. The body butter also dissolved quickly.