Topic Title

My Uncle who spent years at International Paper as a plant designer (and was responsible for first getting me interested in drafting) sent me this today ( I especially like # 26 - NEVER EVER did use the silly darn thing



You know you are an old Draftsperson when...

1. You know how to control line weights by rolling your pencil.

2. You know that a French curve isn't a grade change on a language exam.

3. You remember when blueprints were blue.

4. You've erased sepias with chemicals.

5. You know a scumbag isn't just a derogatory comment about someone.

6. You know what drafting dots are and how to use them.

7. You know that a Leroy Lettering Set is not a ACAD font.

8. You've had a roll of toilet paper on your drafting board.

9. You remember when templates were plastic and not a type of electronic

file.

10. You know what sandpaper on a stick is for.

11. You know that a compass draws circles not to find the North

pole.

12. You remember the head rush from the smell of ammonia.

13. You own a roll of masking tape so dried out, it will never be

tape again.

14. You've played with a drafting dot ball.

15. You know what the phrase "asses and elbows" means.

16. You've done cut and paste with scissors and sticky back.

17. You've etched your initials into your tools.

18. You have had a brush tied to your drafting board.

19. You've come home with black sleeves.

20. You've made hooks out of paper clips to attach to your lamp.

21. You know an eraser shield isn't a Norton program.

22. You've used "fixative" spray.

23. You've had a middle-finger callous harder than bone.

24. The words "sepia changes" still gives you a headache.

25. You've used Pounce.

26. Having an Ames lettering guide and never using it.



And finally...

1. You have a permanent spine curvature from bending over your table

its really, really sad when you can identify with all of these items...I've used them all, and hated many of them....thank goodness for CAD, ..I mean, Datacad..

YIKES!!! There are only a couple of items on the list that I'm not familiar with. Now I feel REALLY old!

Guys,

Don't look at it as if we're OLD - look at it as we are just very experienced (VERY, VERY experienced! I'm only 45, but have been doing this stuff since the 9th Grade, when I took my first drafting course - of course using a T-Square!!)

You know you are getting old when:

• Everything hurts and what doesn't hurt doesn't work.
• The gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals.
• You feel like the morning after and you haven't been anywhere.
• Your little black book contains only names that end in M.D.
• Your children begin to look middle aged.
• You finally reach the top of the ladder and find it leaning against the
  wrong wall.
• Your mind makes contracts your body can't meet.
• You look forward to a dull evening.
• Your favorite part of the newspaper is "20 Years Ago Today."
• You turn out the lights for economic rather than romantic reasons.
• You sit in a rocking chair and can't get it going.
• Your knees buckle, and your belt won't.
• Your back goes out more than you do.
• You sink your teeth into a steak, and they stay there.
• You have too much room in the house and not enough in the medicine
  cabinet.
• You know all the answers, but nobody asks you the questions.
• You're asleep, but others worry that you're dead.
• You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the
  room.
• You buy a compass for the dash of your car.
• You are proud of your lawn mower.
• Your best friend is dating someone half their age...and isn't breaking
  any laws.
• Your arms are almost too short to read the newspaper.
• You sing along with the elevator music.
• You would rather go to work than stay home sick.
• You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.
• You consider coffee one of the most important things in life.
• You make an appointment to see the dentist.
• You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.
• Neighbors borrow your tools.
• People call at 9 p.m. and ask, "Did I wake you?"
• You answer a question with, "because I said so."
• You send money to PBS.
• The end of your tie doesn't come anywhere near the top of your pants.
• You take a metal detector to the beach.
• You wear black socks with sandals.
• You know what the word "equity" means.
• You can't remember the last time you layed on the floor to watch TV.
• Your ears are hairier than your head.
• You get into a heated argument about pension plans.
• You got cable for the weather channel (sometimes referred to as "Old
  Folks MTV").
• You have a party and the neighbors don't even realize it.

Whats sad is that I'm only 27 and know ALL of those are true. (Four years on the board in H.S. and two at a Tech. school) But I enjoyed every minute of it, and actually miss most of it.

Another little something like that...
But "You know you're living in 2005 when... '

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.

7. You make phone calls from home, you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.

8. You've sat at the same desk for four years and worked for three different companies.

10. You learn about your redundancy on the 11 o'clock news.

11. Your boss doesn't have the ability to do your job.

12. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home.

13. Every commercial on television has a website at the bottom of the screen.

14. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

15. You get up in the morning and go online before getting your coffee.

16. You start tilting your head sideways to smile.

17. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

18. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

19. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

20. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list. AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.

While grappling with the problems of the world last night (insomnia), I was pondering this thread and came up with some questions.

1. Why is it that after almost 50 years of being perfectly content with its home on my scalp, my hair is now deciding to pack its bags and move to places on my body that were never designed for hair: like in and around my ears. Is this evolution's way of compensating for my decision to trade my ear-muffs for a baseball cap? Does this new-found hair growth act as some sort of infra-sonic filter to protect what's left of my hearing from that loud thumping sound coming from the car next to me at the stoplight?
   
2. After over 40 years of no changes, why are my eyebrows now becoming some sort of mutant swamp grass that even my barber feels compelled to trim during my visits? Is this nature's way of providing shade for my bifocals?
   
3. Why is the skin under my eyes looking like that of a center-fielder in a sunlit August baseball game? Does my body really think I need permanent glare reduction tattooed under my eyes? Doesn't it know that in just a few ever-shortening years, I'll never leave the house without a pair of huge, wrap-around sunglasses that make me look as though I've just come from the optometrist?

Just thinking out loud.

Dave

Top 10 ways you know you are an old CAD:

10. An enlargement meant a trip to the xerox machine.

9. In your first CAD class you got to use the computer with the BIG 40 MEG harddrive....

8. When Pen settings were how you loaded the pens in the plotter's carousel.

7. The first CAD program you used isn't nearly as advanced as one you can buy at Wal-Mart for $9.99.

6. ALL your drawings for a project fit on one floppy.

5. You couldn't believe the wealth of hatch patterns.... all TWELVE of them.

4. NONE of your filenames were over 8 characters long.

3. A 3D model involved BALSA WOOD & STYRENE.

2. A reference file was your spiral notebook.

1. You STILL have 5 1/4" floppy backups.

Top 10 ways you know you are an old CAD:

10. An enlargement meant a trip to the xerox machine.

9. In your first CAD class you got to use the computer with the BIG 40 MEG harddrive....

8. When Pen settings were how you loaded the pens in the plotter's carousel.

7. The first CAD program you used isn't nearly as advanced as one you can buy at Wal-Mart for $9.99.

6. ALL your drawings for a project fit on one floppy.

5. You couldn't believe the wealth of hatch patterns.... all TWELVE of them.

4. NONE of your filenames were over 8 characters long.

3. A 3D model involved BALSA WOOD & STYRENE.

2. A reference file was your spiral notebook.

1. You STILL have 5 1/4" floppy backups.

Hmm ....

I resemble (and remember) ALL of the above - as well as the original list ...

So ... just what exactly are you saying about me?

I'd scorn those that couldn't draw without the aid of a lumpy flexible curve.
But I do miss the smell of Fixative in the morning ...... very much !
And my old cardigan - with the leather patches sewn into the elbows.
And still I can't bring myself to throw out boxes and sheets of Letraset, I still have my burnishing pen

Cheers
Sean.

Regarding the Old Drafter List: I always did #17 with #11.....

I may be an "ol' fogey" at 46, but I STILL say that Architects should be trained in hand-drafting BEFORE they're allowed to turn-in design work done on CAD. Not necessarily the pen-and-ink stuff, but they should get an organic feel for pencil-drawn work and understand how elevations are "thrown". And damned-few seem to understand sections. They need to learn to think with the end of a pencil or marker on a roll of yellow-trace....

As part of my practice, I review other Architect's work for Builders or Lawyers involved in mergers and aquisitions of pending-projects; and too-often their actual drawings SUCK..... No line-weights; Too-large or too-small lettering in "clever" fonts; Incorrect spatial relations between adjacent elevations; Improper use of "white space" and inappropriate levels of line-work detailing; Improper use of symbols and a total-lack of cross-referencing.

I'm seeing way too-much reliance on trade-school CAD graduates to replace trained Architects, and way too-many "Architects" who do not see their design work and construction drawings in 3-D in their heads. They now rely on the technology, and make obvious mistakes through their inability to integrate mentally what they are seeing on the boards or on their screens.

Grrrrrrrr....

It is my opinion that the profession has really slipped and that quite a few Architects are more worried about their "His & Hers Jaguar" payments than they are about the quality of the work coming out of their offices.

Sad.

Jaguar? What Jaguar? It's the mortgage I worry about.