mustang84

For my architecture independent project, I have been working on a site analysis model of downtown Des Moines. My project is a light rail transportation hub with retail and public space, and the site of the project is adjacent to the rail tracks running by downtown (in the image below, there are two surface parking lots next to two purple parking garages and a couple overpasses...those lots are where the hub will go). For those that have ever played SimCity, the color scheme should be pretty easy to recognize: Green = residential lofts / apartments / condos Blue = commercial office & retail Yellow = industrial / warehouses Orange = civic buildings, federal buildings, government offices, library, recreational buildings Violet = parking structures Red = skywalk system (not done yet) Brighter shade residential, commercial, and civic buildings are ones that have been built within the last 5 years. See-through buildings are under construction or proposals that are pending approval. I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out so far. I checked a couple "postcard views" and the proportions seem to be accurate. All I had to go off of were some heights for the taller buildings, so the shorter ones are guesses based on photos and Google Earth. I like 3D modeling...so much more fun than Autocad. The foreground is the neighborhood I work in

Unwrap 1992 Land Cruiser, place in microwave for 3 1/2 minutes until evenly melted, serve.

Looks like another sludging-style fiasco is on hand. Toyota will ignore the problem until voices become loud enough.

Iowa is full of strange town names.What Cheer, IA is small enough that it probably isn't a very cheerful place to be. Cumming is south of Des Moines. California Junction is located nowhere near California. Same with Pacific Junction. Hard Scratch doesn't even exist as a town anymore, but it still shows up on maps. Lost Nation is lost in a sea of corn. There there are all the odd Indian-named ones: Keokuk, Oskaloosa, Osceola, Ocheyedan, Maquoketa. Don't forget about Diagonal and Gravity. And then there is Carter Lake, which has a normal name but an abnormal location. It's located across the Missouri River on the Nebraska side in Omaha, even though it is part of Iowa. It's because the Missouri River used to have more bends but was straightened out for ships, and Carter Lake got separated from the rest of the state.

Congrats on the new job Sixty8, hopefully it treats you better than the dealership. It's been two years since I've had a job with manual labor and sometimes I wish I could go back to it just for a bit. No real thinking was required where I used to work, just that you could keep up and limit your mistakes. I was sore when I went home but it was also good exercise, something I don't get as much of with an office job. My uncle in Chicago works for FedEx...he's always talking smack about UPS.

I picked up Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails the other day. It's kind of a hard album to find. I've been listening to it a lot lately...good stuff.

How about Norfolk? I'm pretty sure the proper way to say it is the way it's spelled, but I always seem to hear it Nor-fik.

List some city names you hear butchered on occasion Pueblo, CO - I heard someone call it "Pweeblo" one time, I actually laughed at that one Des Moines, IA (should be pronounced Deh Moyn...it's French so you don't pronounce the 's', yet some people in this state still say it wrong) Sioux City, IA (should be Soo City, not Sooux City or Seeoux City) Council Bluffs, IA (the lady on the local radio station in my hometown says "Consul Bluss"...come on, try at least) Boise, ID (Boy-see, not Boyz-ee) And not a city, but Buena Vista University in Storm Lake; nobody in this state seems to know the right way to say it unless they've taken Spanish...they say "Byoona Viss-ta" instead of "Bwena Veesta"

Happy birthday!

GM just needs to wipe the floor clean with Hyundai, Toyota, and all the others that wrap themselves in the stars and stripes. Put out a full two-page ad listing all the American plants, how many workers they employ, average parts content, how many jobs are impacted (suppliers, dealers, etc), how much they contribute locally, total annual donations and grants, total R&D dollars, and then put a big ass picture of the Renaissance Center with bolded "Detroit, Michigan Worldwide Headquarters" underneath it.

The video is down but I'm 95% sure I know who you guys are talking about.

Holy moldy thread, Batman!

Reg, I don't think your mom is 20 years old.

Wow, the chick in blue looks very much like somebody I know...except without bigger...

Not a fan of it. All the extra stuff looks tacky and I'd rather see the grille wider than longer. What could've been...

The Land Cruiser either needs to move up to Lexus, become the FJ Cruiser (call it Land Cruiser instead), or be killed. There is no market for a $50,000 Toyota-branded SUV, especially with the Sequoia here. The rest of Toyota's SUVs all kind of have a place, just like GM and Ford have them spread out to cover all areas. I don't really understand the 4Runner though...it seems like another that could probably be axed. Give the Highlander a V8 option and kill the 4Runner.

and old people.

Ahh Hyundai, that "American" brand that has been selling econo-priced cars in America since 1986. The brand that has no styling identity of its own and has only recently moved up in the quality rankings. How many people does Hyundai employ in America again? What's the American parts content percentage of an Azera or a Santa Fe? How many dollars does Hyundai annually invest into R&D and the local economy? :rotflmao: Hyundai's treading on thin ice here.

The stock markets have been in such turmoil lately. They're comparing it to the big sell-off in '87 and saying it could get worse. Every week since July the market has been fluctuating wildly...up a lot, then down a lot more. It rebounded early last week only to drop like a rock by Friday.

Where the hell is the 1986 Hyundai Excel? This list sucks.

Some more classy after-market ideas for BV

Yep, a good chunk of my mom's side of the family is in farming and the Tundra is a joke to them. All the '07 Tundras I have seen have been in shopping mall parking lots and driving down the freeway. A fat chrome grille and lots of horsepower won't cut it with these guys.

I thought I remember you talking about a Cutlass a while back, so I'll guess that.

FOG, those were GREAT! I nominate your posts for Cheers & Jeers 2007.

I was thinking the same thing as Griff. Toyota would never let an American become CEO, so he really had nowhere else to go up in the ranks. If he does good things at Chrysler (Mulally with Ford too), they will earn their place in automotive history books. Execs at that stage of their life are looking for more of a challenge, and the attempt to revive an ailing automaker is a more noble cause than sitting 2nd rank as president of NA operations. As much as Press's little one sentence commentary always annoyed me at each sales monthly sales release, I'm excited to see what he will do at Chrysler. Toyota lost a valuable guy.