The need to be right

As this is also a personality trait of mine I feel I need to outline the pro’s and con’s of this incessant need to always be right that many people have. First off I’ll explain how I came about this…

I was in my legal studies class. The tutor was just about to give an example of an interesting case to do with the use of the Fair Trading Act, and was warning the (because of past experience with opinionated and argumentitve) students (mainly myself) that this case was very sensitive to peoples personal morals (show me one that isn’t). So anyway he starts to write the case up on the board.

“A Real Estate Agent advertises a house with ‘Not a cent to send’” the tutor then goes on to say, “but what he really means is ‘Not a cent to spend‘ and that’s a pun – a play on words” CON: a person with the need to be right can often confuse the rest of the population when they insist that something they have said is correct when in fact it’s not.

What?

Excuse me???

There was uproar in the classroom (I had to bite my lip) CON: the inability to shut up and let it go “ummm is that a pun?” I ask.

Of course at this point in time that particular tutor then goes on to tell us that yes that is most definately a pun and that it is a PLAY on WORDS which is a PUN a PLAY on WORDS and that a PLAY on WORDS is a PUN.

We left that one there, happily listened to the rest of the case (in which whether or not the sentence was or was not a pun actually didn’t matter) and actually agreed with what he was saying about the case (very rare).

After the class though, I was not settled. PRO: the inability to let it go. A Pun? ummm I know that we’re not english literature graduates or anything like that, but isn’t this 5th form english stuff? So I decided to check out what the dictionary and the internet had to say about the definition of a pun:

My trusty Oxford Dictionary:

‘noun a joking use of a word sounding the same as another, e.g. ‘Deciding where to bury him was a grave decision’

Answers.com (had a few definitions):

dictionary = ‘n a play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words’

literary dictionary =

‘pun, an expression or emphasis of humour by contriving an ambiguity, two distinct meanings being suggested either by the same word or by two similar-sounding words.’

Grammar dictionary =

‘A humourus substitution of words that are alike in sound but different in meaning.’

This all being said, I fail to see how “Not a cent to send” is a pun. PRO: finding out that you may be right and may possibly save yourself and others from walking around with incorrect information. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, all I ask is that you explain with more than “a PUN is a PLAY on WORDS” exactly why that sentence is a pun.

A Creativity Block

There seems to be two ways that as a design student and hopefully somewhat of a creative person, I operate in. One way is when I am creative and designing and not really functioning as a normal person. The other way is when I am in a Creativity Block (I feel that because this is a recuuring stage in my life it gets to be written with capitals, much like a day of the week like Sunday).

I have found that when I am operating in creativity mode, that all of a sudden I have too many things I want to do but not enough time. This can become quite frustrating especially when I come to a Creativity Block mode. Because if I begin a project and on switches Block mode there is absolutely nothing that I do that helps me. I have tried countless times to look back at previous Creativity mode times to not only try and figure out what it was that got me going, but to also see if there was any idea that I had put aside (lack of time) that I could use and work on.

Unfortunately for some reason a Creativity Block doesn’t just effect the new ideas, it effects everything. There is no possible way to do any type of design work when you have a creativity block.

This is when people tell me I am procrastinating.

I don’t believe this is the case any more. The reason I get distracted easily and can think of a million other things that I could do is not procrastination, it’s a Creativity Block. I am physically and mentally unable to come up with any work, and if I force myself to do it anyway it will never last the cut.

I’ve put it to the test. If I start a project before I have that creative too many ideas buzz it will fail. Miserably. It’s the drive and the excitement about what you’re designing that makes a design that extra bit better.

Distinct differences between interior design, interior architecture, and interior decoration

Why is this necessary?

Well because I’m getting increasingly frustrated by people not really understanding what exactly it is I have been studying for the past three and a bit years, and also because there are fundamental differences in New Zealand, between the three catergories that can be quite frustrating when you’re misplaced as one of the three but spent your studies so far working towards another. Don’t quite understand what I am getting at? Well take it from a different point of view; an architect has to spend four to five years studying towards their degree. They then have to spend a further ridiculous amount of accumulated hours working as a graduate BEFORE they are able to register themselves as an architect when they have been accepted, then and only then are they able to call themselves an architect. see; http://www.nzrab.org.nz/default.aspx?Page=123 So you can understand why they may get annoyed when called something else. For reasons not quite as extreme, interior designers, interior architects, and interior decorators have the same problems

Interior Designers

As this is the field that I am on my way to graduating from, it is probably going to be the most sensitive to me. Also the one that I know most about, and the people that get most annoyed with the misplaced naming and misinterpretations of what we do.

What is it that we do?

We design Interiors (astounding I know). In the most basic of breakdowns this begins with either a space within an existing building or working with an architect on the design of a new building. We then use the information from the client as to what sort of use the interior is going to be put to, to design an appropriate interior environment. We create flow, decide on sizes and placement of rooms if any, how the space is partitioned, how the internal structure is working or not working, where facilities go, what fire safety and other building code requirements are necessary and how they will integrate with the design, lighting -where it is and what it looks like, furniture (which can often be custom designed and specified by ourselves), where fixtures and fittings are placed, and the overall look and feel of the entire interior. And the interior decoration ie. floor and wall coverings, furniture, fixtures and fittings.

How do we get to do this?

3 to 4 years of full time study towards a bachelor degree

Interior Architects

The way I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, is that interior architects are interior designers who got sick of being called interior decorators. This also as I understand has become somewhat of an annoyance to architects who have such an intense registration regime to get the coveted title of ‘Architect’
that they don’t really want to be passing the title off onto anyone to attach to their name.

“At a more pragmatic level, the use of the term ‘interior architecture’ is a response to the uncertainties inherent in the title ‘interior design’. These uncertainties have been accentuated by the increasing use, in magazine articles and television makeover programmes, to describe the process of choosing curtains, furnishings and surface treatments: activities which might be better titled ‘interior decoration’.” (Coles and House, 2007, p. 9)

Interior Decorators

If it sounds like I’m ragging on interior decorators I appologise because I totally respect what they do and have no intention of making them sound inferior, it is simply that they are trained specifically to do one aspect of what interior designers do. They are specialists in the interior decoration area.

What is it that they do?

Again my understanding is that interior decorators do-up an existing room by coming up with a new concept for different rooms. They pick new wall and floor coverings, new furniture, and new fixtures and fittings. They also rearrange the space to give rooms a better feel.

How do they get to do this?

1 year of full time study towards a certificate or 2 years of full time study towards a diploma

It’s just a courtesey request, a matter of calling a knife a knife, instead of a fork.

new job new blog

Just started my new job as a dough chef -very technical stuff- there’s a fine balance between timing and quality you either work fast and the trays look only half lined (with dough), or you work slow and they look amazing (and full).

It’s taken me a while to realise that they don’t HAVE to look amazing (it’s the designer in me that thinks that they should) and that people would prefer their pizza in a reasonable amount of time, as they never even look at how perfectly round the base is.

This takes me back to a recent professional studies class in which we were taught about the Project Management Triangle which basically gives you three options: time, quality, or cost. I have now realised that this doesn’t just apply on a project management basis, or a pizza making basis (which comes under project management in its own way) and that it applies all the time. For example I just finished a building evaluation assignment which I have had since the beginning of March to work on. I started it on Monday this week, finished it on Wednesday and took it to get bound on Thursday.

Now for the first part of this assignment the cost corner of the PMT doesn’t apply. But of course if I had actually started the project when we were first given it, it probably would have been a little more fleshed out and in-depth. Also of a higher quality and I would have felt that the effort it would take to change the binding machine to black wire, well worth it.

Of course because I am an excellent procrastinator when I’m of a mind to be, this wasn’t going to happen. So I sacrificed the quality corner of the PMT for the time corner, that is concentrating on getting the work done in the littlest amount of time and less concentration on the quality of the work completed.

And I can think of other times that I have had to sacrifice two of the three points of the triangle whether it be in a project that I am underway in, or if it’s because I choose the cheap scummy food in the supermarket because it’s a few dollars cheaper than the nicer stuff. Or if I buy the specials for the same reason even though I know it’s not going to last as long as the things that aren’t on special.

So from now on, instead of just making things look pretty cause that’s what I like to do. And instead of procrastinating because i don’t feel like starting something, I am going to analyse which two corners of the Project Management Triangle (cost, time, and quality) I can afford to sacrifice or rather which one is most important so that when I do things such as make pizza dough, I know straight away how to attack the problem.

For next week’s shifts no more pretty pizza bases!