USGBC 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition

February 9, 2010

A group from the GCCDS is entering the United States Green Building Council’s 2010 Natural Talent Design Competition. This is a competition for emerging professionals or students to design an efficient green house for an elderly client in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Ultimately, four designs will be chosen for construction, and these will be evaluated based on the project criteria to choose a ‘winner’. Meeting these criteria will be no easy feat. Here’s an idea of the difficult (some might say crazy) program requirements: 2-bedroom, 1.5-bath, 720-880 SF house LEED Platinum $100,000 construction budget Elevated 7 feet above …

Blogging and personal life

February 9, 2010

Writing this blog has been an interesting balance between public and personal life. I think the best blogs are those that decide one way or another. In other words, some focus on thoughts and ideas of a primarily public nature (with a few coming-out-of-the-closet stories), of interest to some portion of the general public. Others focus on the daily happenings of private life — interesting for friends and family, but terribly dull for strangers. With this in mind, I’ve decided to re-focus this blog away from personal posts. For things of that nature, Facebook seems a more appropriate setting, and …

Abita Savage 7

January 25, 2010

Team ippi is the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s only ultimate frisbee team. Now, I’ve been playing Tuesday night pick-up ultimate since I arrived here in Biloxi in the fall of 2007. That game, which was started through friendly competition between volunteers from Habitat for Humanity and Hands On, is still going strong 5+ years after Hurricane Katrina. But it’s a non-competitive, casual game full of beginners as well as skilled players. This January, for the first time, Biloxi’s ultimate players decided to try to find a tournament and put a competitive team together. We signed up for the Abita Savage 7, …

A House for John, 2

January 19, 2010

Volunteer group Christian Aid Ministries has returned to the coast for another season and they are once again blowing us away with the speed and quality of their work. On the morning of January 4, John’s house in East Biloxi was nothing more than a floor raised in the air. Two weeks later, a fully framed house stands ready for roofing, siding, and windows.

Off to New England

November 20, 2009

I’ll be in Boston and New Hampshire through next Thursday. Posting to this blog will not be significantly affected… because it’s been pretty lax anyway. Let me know if you’ll be in the cold wint’ry north as well.

New Orleans Bike Trip

November 16, 2009

Two days, 180 miles, Biloxi to New Orleans and back, with Jesse and two NCCC volunteers, Meredith and Liz. Perfect weather – high of 73°, sunny, light wind. Yes, you can get a (mild) sunburn in November in Mississippi, if you’re on the road for 8 hours a day. Pictures below and the full set here.

Biking to New Orleans

November 13, 2009

I’ve been thinking about a bike trip to New Orleans for a while, and this weekend it happens. The weather is sunny with a high of 74°. The 90-mile ride follows US Highway 90 across the Mississippi coast, through Bay St. Louis and Pearlington, into the lakes and wetlands and finally through East New Orleans into the city. It’s time I’m bikin’ to New Orleans I’m bikin’ to New Orleans I’m going to need two pair of shoes When I get through bikin’ to you When I get back to New Orleans –Fats Domino (Adapted)

Abita Brewery Tour

November 12, 2009

Abita is an excellent local brewery based in Abita Springs, Louisiana, just north of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. Last Saturday, Sam, Molly, James, and I drove up to Abita Springs to tour the Abita brewery and, more importantly, to sample their many delicious beers (all for free). They’re all pretty good, but the one I most highly recommend, if you can get it (it wasn’t available on the tour) is the Abbey Ale.

Make your slideshow interactive with page links

November 5, 2009

A slideshow is typically a one-dimensional presentation tool — a series of images that the presenter advances while she talks. But what if a slideshow could be more like a website — an interactive, multi-dimensional tool for exploring complex or layered information? It turns out that it’s not hard to add page links and other interactive elements. I’ll show how to use Adobe InDesign CS3 to create an interactive PDF, although similar effects are possible in PowerPoint. The background: here at the GCCDS, we wanted to create a slideshow that would display a ‘matrix’ of ideas: three aspects of our …

Lorena’s Dedication

October 22, 2009

This morning, IRD held a ceremony to dedicate Lorena’s house, which is now finished thanks to the hard work of Training U, Pathfinder Mission, and YouthBuild. The house looks great; this YouthBuild class has learned a lot and done a great job.

design, build, learn. repeat.