Exhaustion is setting in

Originally Posted:
Saturday, July 8, 2006
6:58:00 PM CDT
Feeling Quiet
Hearing Head Automatica CD

I'm zapped. This has been a demanding week. Last Friday's Habitat assignment that was due yesterday involved researching, rewriting a chapter of Habitat's home building manual and designing a total of sixty floorplans. We figured out what does and does not work for out group as far as collaboration is concerned and realized that we need to meet as a group almost everyday (if not everyday as a group, then everyday to work in pairs). We met on Sunday at 1:00 to review the chapter changes and then again on Monday evening for several hours to pin up and critique our floorplans so we could make the necessary revisions. We divided the floorplans into type (ie: 2 bedroom, 1 story; 2 bedroom, 2 story; 3 bedrooms, 1 story...) and came up with ten plans each. The only problem with this plan of attack was that this Historic Preservation (HP) students aren't draftsmen, nor do have a concept of space allocation. I give them props for being willing to try, but they needed help with the drawing part so that meant more work for me because I'm the only one in the group with Autocad skills. Sorry, PITA knows Acad, but (a) didn't have time to help and (b) prefers to submit his drawings as sketches because they have a rough/in process appearance. Whatever. Tuesday I spent the afternoon drafting Lorainne's (HP student) plans before taking an hour off to walk to River Street to celebrate Independence Day and watch Savannah's fireworks. Wednesday I met with the group for a few hours in the evening, went to Starbucks for a Frappucinno, then stayed up until 5:30 am redesigning Adam's (another HP student) plans. Thursday I went to the pool for a couple hours and dozed as I drifted around on my raft before coming back up to my room to put our presentation for Friday morning together. By the end of it all, I had created 25 original floorplans, produced 18 presentation quality drawings, done the layout design for the Habitat manual chapter rewrite and put the presentation together. Oh, and I've also gained the respect of PITA. I guess I've proven myself to him and am now worthy. He listens to me when I speak, asks for my opinion when he needs something critiqued and has totally backed down from taking an Alpha Male attitude with me. I guess the voodoo doll worked ;-) (Just kidding!!)
This week's assignment: We narrowed our drawings down to three options of each type for a total of nine drawings. We have to revise the plans according to our professors' recommendations, create furniture plans, draw exterior and interior elevations, do sections and write a blurb about how great the plan is for each one. AND, on an individual basis we are supposed to create a proposed template for the book cover, table of contents, and interior pages using In Design which we'll vote on in class for the best layout. The "winner" will "get" to continue working on the book after the five week class is over and get graphic layout credit in the book notes. No rest for the weary.

Death by PowerPoint: For the past two Fridays all the Habitat groups have had to present their weekly projects via PowerPoint. I used to like PowerPoint...but now it's killing me in the form of a slow and painful death. SCAD students are great. I mean like Tony the Tiger Grrrrreat! BUT (BIG BUT), their presentation skills leave a LOT to be desired (A BIG LOT). On average, each group's presentation lasts about an hour. With the other groups it's 45 minutes of a boring, drawn out, big word filled presentation and 15 minutes of Q & A. My group has a track record of doing lively 20-30 minute presentations with 30 minutes of Q &A because our professors get all excited when we present and they spark a crazy 30 minute dialog about our stuff. The Q & A sessions can get fairly brutal. These students love to put each other on the spot and challenge one another. Anyway, I have found that presenting is like Kryptonite for these SCAD Super Students. It's their weakness.