It's no secret, everyone in the world covets a mac. I covet a mac, but I'm more partial to tablets at the moment... talk about full circle, but that's a story for another day. So I was reading this article about Steve Jobs' war against buttons and it made me wonder: who actually in the design industry uses Macs? I decided to dig deeper and do some research.

Just by watching movies, it's easy to believe that everyone who's anyone uses a mac. They're pockmarked across movies like: The Devil Wears Prada, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and Firewall. My Super Ex-Girlfriend really caught my eye because the guy in the movie worked as a project manager for a general contractor and his boss used a mac. The funny thing is, I interned at a GC called Robbins & Morton and Dell was the de facto machine of use, even for laptops.

The first question I decided to ask myself was, "If I were using a mac, what software would I use?" So I did a quick google search to find mac engineering software. The first program to blatantly stand out was ArchiCAD. ArchiCAD is billed as the industry standard for CAD users in the mac community and with good reason. It can export to AutoCAD and other Autodesk programs and can also switch seamlessly between 2d and 3d drawings. Another perk is that students can get ArchCAD for free with purchase of a mac, so there are many reasons to give this program a look.

A second program to use is PowerCADD, which is a 2d drawing program meant for technical drawings. This program is geared more towards structural engineers and drafters. It's also useful for graphic artists etc. This program is not as widely used as ArchiCAD, but it's a start towards the mac's acceptance in the Building and Design community.

There are more programs, but these two are the most consistent. Tune in to my next article which details the type of hardware available including accessories.

I've added some architecture/construction news feeds to the blog with the hope of making this feel more professional as an outlet for my academic wanderings. I still have plans on editing alot of code so that this blog can get just the slightest bit more personalized, so watch out for that also.

Today I read an interesting open letter about how a woman felt her Architect friends were poor and useless. Lucky me, lol. I just want the degree, I'll take a P.E over an Architect license any day.

So this summer, besides reading and writing out memos, I decided that I should change my major. As much as I love the fast and furious life of computer engineering, something's missing in this whole situation for me. For one, I've said since I was old enough to hate my desk in the second grade that I don't want to be confined to one for the rest of my life. That statement is as true today as it was years ago before I even knew what a desk job was.

It's no secret, I'm a closet FOSS lover. That's free and open source software, for those of you who didn't know, but I think I'm going to keep my love for such things relegated to hobbyist fantasies. Yeah my main desktop runs Kubuntu, and yeah I plan on destroying it 50 billion times before I'm happy, but it's just going to stay a hobby.

So why the change? Well, after reading Hill Harper's Letters to a Young Brother I realize that I don't just have to do just one thing that makes me happy. I did the ACE program in high school and loved it, and really loved the whole idea of going out "in the field" to job sites and the like to check up on the progress of a building, or traveling to a client's office and present to them my company's plan for building their building. Project Manager sounds like my idea job. With computers, I see myself toiling away at a desk 10 hours a day five days a week. I can't do that; well I can, but I don't want to. I know TSU's architectural engineering program sets me up for that career, but what's also good is that I'll still have options. I could still work towards a graduate degree in structural engineering, architecture, or even law. I know one day I'm going to have to stop doing that. Making decisions that only lead to more options, but I'd rather have that than a dead end.

It's the end of July, and fall semester doesn't seem so distant anymore. Even now as I write into my blog I can feel my time at home doing little of anything getting shorter. In lieu of this, I decided that this summer I was going to read more and so I have. In all honesty, reading and writing are two ends of a long rod of creativity. When you read, you shape the world that the author writes about as your own, that way you can discuss different views of the text and you overall have the freedom to warp the world in your image of it.

With this knowledge in hand, sometimes having someone give you guidelines for you to make your own world is still TOO constricting, and that's where writing comes in. The truth is, no one will ever read your words exactly as you intended them too, and no one's mind will ever have a picture as cinematic as the one you develop for you own words. 

With that in mind I've decided to read four books this summer, and in between those readings, I have also been working on my own novella. The saying goes good writers are great readers. So if you want to write good, READ READ READ. I cannot express that enough. Trust me, in the entire history of literature there IS a book out there for you. Find it, read it, love it, it's yours. I've read everything from sci-fi to social commentary. If books, for whatever reason, are not your cup of tea then read the newspapers. Read current events, it's all there for you. For once, give your brain an exercise in being creative, rather than only being able to recall images of something you've seen.

Here are my picks this summer. The list is limited, but effective.

1. American Gods, Neil Gaiman- Hands down the best book I've read in years. The story follows a guy named Shadow who's hired on by a guy named Wednesday to seek out mythical figures like, Anubis, Bastet, and other gods to battle the gods of the new world. These new world gods: media, internet, television etc. aren't going anywhere, and thus is the end of the book. The truth is, the set-up is better than the punchline, and that's what makes this book so great.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K Rowling- The last Harry Potter book. I've already said too much about it

3.  Letters to a Young Brotha, Hill Harper- The actor gives advice and acts as a distant mentor to today's African American youth. He talks about everything from the future to girls, a great read for any young black guy with nothing to loose but doubt.

4. TBA

In addition to these books I've read this summer, I've also been writing my own short story, as mentioned above. The name of the story is Toon Town. It's my take on 50s noir style detective stories complete with social commentary. It's still in early development stages, but it's chugging along nicely. I'm going to try and keep up with this blog for as long as I can, I'll probably start linking stuff to this and this is definitely getting linked to my facebook profile. Until next time, thankyou for reading.