Never break the Rule of Three... Without having three yet.

This is day 2 and 3 and 4 all bunched together. See? THREE!

The 2nd day wasn't too terrible. I learned a few names, made no friends, and had to introduce myself to everyone...

"Hi, my name is Yehuda Mann--"
CAN YOU REPEAT THAT??!!
"Uhum... Ye-Hoo-DUH Mann! But you can change my name to anything. It could be Huda, Juda, Mann, Guy..."
BUT WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE CALLED??
"It doesn't matter to me."

[Dies of laughter]

Yep, I'm quite the charmer. The critics name-- they're not professors or instructors, just critics-- Greta Weil (While). Nicest person in the studio. And the only one to remind me how confusing the first day can be without a syllabus.

Don't get it? That's ok. I didn't get a syllabus either. And I had to make up all the work.

The first day of Physics was pretty cool. The teacher is Jewish and a Rabbi from Brooklyn. So... Yeah he has an interesting teaching style.

He WANTS us to talk in class!

Although we're all to shy and awkward to do that.

Day 3:
Back to drawing classes! And... my face is on the wall. Speaking of exposing ourselves...

Day 4:
Back to Studio!
They like my project. Why not complicate this and turn an 8x8x2 model into a full 8x8x8 cube?!!
That's what I have to do now.

First Day of Classes

Now we get ourselves into the goodness of it all!

Class started at 8:30am sharp. Professor Meuschke comes in, and the first thing he says is, "I plan on keeping you here until the end of class, but I did not sleep at all last night... If I start to doze off, you can leave sooner."
Already he seems like a really nice guy and funny. He went around the room asking things about ourselves so we would become comfortable with him. Although, there should have been some icebreakers for the students... it was too quiet and every person was just staring at their cellphone.

At one point he asked, "Who of you can draw well?"
I and one other raised their hand, and luckily he picked the other guy.
"Can you draw this girl?" pointing to a girl to his left.
"Uhh... I guess."
"Ok. Draw her now. Now, who else in class can draw?"

Looking around and no one raising their hands, he starts mocking us with, "Oh, I don't want to raise my hand, I don't want to draw the other students."

It was great.

Occasionally he would ask what the time was, and would always be surprised to find out that the time was moving slower and slower with each time he asked.

10 o'clock finally comes and he gives us a break and... everyone whips out their phone in awkwardness. I went to search for a bathroom or a water fountain (since I'd left my bottle at the bus stop in Monsey), I couldn't find either so I went back to the classroom only to pass by the professor who smiled politely as I tried to keep a socially-acceptable amount of eye contact.
I'm not sure if winking was appropriate.

After the break he began to ask each of us about why we chose architecture or what our favorite architect/architecture was. I used the former question to shamelessly discuss my Sukkah project. Prof Meuschke was fine with it since it wasted time. He also found it interestingly coincidental that I and Jewish professor for another class both mentioned the number 24.
(See: http://architalmud.blogspot.com/2013/09/emunah-vpachad-faith-fear.html)
Other students had mentioned many interesting architectural structures. And the Time Warner building next door tended to be one of the bigger topics.
Toward the end of class, Prof Meuschke told us we'd be going to Central Park to start drawing. And so we did.


Out on the fields, there was a man playing a guitar and singing, many beautiful women tanning were out, and there we were sketching buildings and trees.
First was a line drawing, and then we needed to do the shapes themselves. It was a wonderful way to spend a class. I finished my work quickly--since I only brought a pen and therefore was limited in shading area--so I took a look around to see others works.
It's amazing how stellar all of these people are at drawing!
It feels good to be around other artists. Especially those that also want to succeed in the Architecture program.

After all was said and done, Prof Meuschke gave us two assignments due for next week:

1) Just using Line drawings, draw the back of an appliance.
2) Self portraits. With charcoal or pencil.

These would then be pinned up to the wall and critiqued.

Shana Tova, dear reader.

I'll post picture later.

~ArchiTalmud

Emunah V'Pachad ---- Faith & Fear

(eh-moo-nah veh-pa-[Jewish CH]-odd) 

My project’s concept is called “Emunah v'Pachad”.

You have to have faith that the roof stays up...

And fear that it doesn’t fall down... 

And “Rosh Pasuach” to keep an open mind. Or, in this case, an opening in the roof to signify that idea, but that would have only worked if the roofing plan didn't change. Every part of the Sukkah was virtually thought up, researched, and drawn before construction began.

Before the summer began I was sitting in Yeshiva spending mornings in Mishnah Berurah looking up the Halachos for Kosher construction and measurements and the acceptable practices in which to do it. From what I learned, it’s apparent that many of the Sukkos that the majority of people use or buy became kosher after its commercialization. Don’t get me wrong! The sukkos are not posul, but how they reached the status of kosher is through the popularity.

Other days I spent in Masechta Sukkos, looking up the halachos of a round Sukkah. The Chachomim discussed the minimum amount of space that the interior should have, based on the understanding and close approximation to then recently discovered Pi (3.14159265359) which they rounded to 3. This gave a 3:1 ratio for the circumference of the sukkah to the radius.

The Chachomim said that the minimum size for a round sukkah should be able to sit 24 people, each with a 1 Amoh (1.5 square feet) space per seat. This means that the circumference should be approximately 36 feet (24x1.5). Therefore, and by doing some arithmetic, the radius of a minimum round sukkah should be 5.73 feet. Which then equals a 11.46 foot diameter. A square sukkah with the same circumference, or perimeter, of 36 feet would only have 9 feet per wall. Already it’s understandable that a circle has a larger Area than a square or rectangle Sukkah.

In terms of Calculus, the maximum and minimum area can be found using derivatives to solve for the relative maxima, if possible. But why bother with all that tedious work...

What interested me most in even thinking of trying to build a 'well-rounded' or an octagon sukkah was a small article I found that mentioned briefly the effect that a curve in a wall could do to/for airflow. After the old sukkah was knocked down during Hurricane Sandy (22-31 October 2012), which had high winds that reached 115mph, I was certain that reducing the risk of air force should be a priority.

With this in mind, the first post was placed on the Northern point to directly break/split the wind to go around the structure, rather than the older model that had the wind push straight into it. The following seven posts were put down in order by placing 2x6x8’ boards on the ground. After getting all of the posts up, it was vital to attach them from the top because there was a chance, and it happened, that one fell over. The top half was quickly done the following week.

Standing in the completed frame wasn't enough. We had to add doorways or else visitors and guests might trip over the lower frame. The doorways were added and the feeling of being able to walk in was inspiring. I ran around dancing for a while, running in and out of the doorways like a hyperactive child.

4 August 2013 - We brought ourselves to finally put the center support beam for the roof on. It was scary for the first hour- especially with the amount of hands we were working with and the extreme weight and length of the beam (23 feet). Also, the extra hands that were helping accidentally dropped it on a table that was relaxing below it...
Watching it sit snug in its spot 9.5' over our heads, on a beautiful day, really made me proud to be working on the project. Too bad we would have to share it once the holiday starts.

Over the course of the next week, we got the remaining 6 beams up and 16 cross beams at varying lengths that creates both a spider-web AND a sundial when the sun shines. It's marvelous! The wall panels and doors were put up to ensure that the project would have an interior echo system that would allow neighbors to hear what we were saying about them.

Luckily, the echo is lessened by the increase of items and people that absorb the sound waves. Sadly, I was looking forward to being the loudest family on the first night of Sukkos. Instead, we'll have to settle for being trend setters. Yes, we are the first ones to do an octagonal Sukkah in our village. This blog is proof of it. Why? Because it's written on the internet. The internet doesn't lie.

Come check out the Sukkah, dear reader. 
If you know where it is...

~ArchiTalmud 

Cross My Wires and Hope To--- BBZZZZZAAAT!!!!

Insects may have been harmed during the writing of this post.

 

Up until recently, I had no idea how to wire anything unless I had taken it apart previously for fun. Thanks to my dad, I now confirmed that Electricians have a required ability to see colors.

Electrical Wiring is COLOR CODED 

(Color coded). There are some technical bits of "12/2" or "18/4".

Allow me to shed some light (get it?) on this matter. The first number is the size, the second is the amount of wires within the larger wire.
Now on the basic level of wires, you have the Ground wire (rhymes with Brown), and you have a White wire, then you have the Green wire.
I haven't finished learning all the business, but I do love my colors.
Next you have a Black wire, and then a Red wire. These allow you to alternate switches. What does "alternate" mean? Let's just say it gives you a choice.

In order to correctly wire switches and outlets, all you need to do is match up the wires to the correct colors and VIOLA! 
You're on your merry way to becoming the next Dr. Phil


So why is this important? Well I'll tell you! You need to know this so you can mess with people in the future.

Just make sure the power is off before you start messing with all of the wires. Or else you might very well end up like the next Dr. Phil...

Til next time, dear reader.

~ArchiTalmud