Case of the Mondays….

So Saturday started for me at 8 am. Yeah, I know, I am never up that early. I tried to go back to sleep, I really did…it just wasn’t gonna happen. So I eventually got out of bed defeated, and got ready for the day. I joined some guys from work at the SoccaFive Arena up by the Olympic Stadium to play some indoor football. The place has about 5 or so ‘fields’ to play on…the largest being about the size of a basketball court. Not as big as I was hoping for, but they field was surrounded by nets so it kept the ball in play all the time. And the walls made passing to other players or back to yourself interesting. It was like each team had double the amount of players due to the sneaky wall passing. The ground was pretty soft too, felt cushioned underneath, but that also made it a little more difficult to run, even in my muddy cleats I haven’t cleaned since last weeks game….oops. And because of the size of the field goals came quick…not that we kept score or anything…but I did manage to put a few in the net.


Blurry action shot...


Far right...coming back victorious...


And how’s this for double parking? I mean seriously, it’s not like it’s in my way, it’s just ridiculous the things you see when people are trying to park close to their apartment. This area is the worst for finding parking also, but I mean come on.

The audacity...


So I did a little internet in the afternoon on Saturday…even made a few Skype calls with my fancy new headset, except it was about 9am on the west coast, so most of you were asleep or recovering from Friday night, whichever. Hopefully our internet at the house is hooked up by tomorrow, thanks to Allen staying home so they can come by. Then I can stop paying 5 Euro at the coffee shop for one day of internet. Phhh.



Saturday night, back to Atomic café…where they were finishing up with some 60’s ish band. I thought the music would change afterwards but they played 60’s all night. The place was as empty as ever but it filled up slowly to a nice crowd by 3, when we left. But I was really miffed because myself, Curtis, and Reijo all paid 7 Euro to get in…totally was not worth paying any money to be in there with that music and no crowd. Oh well, lesson learned…plenty of other places to check out in the city. I should be traveling on the weekends anyhow.


Slept in til 1:30pm on Sunday, ouch. Still getting over my cold and going out Saturday night didn’t help. So I woke up, watched a little Artificial Intelligence, and then headed over to the Deutsches Museum which is about a one minute bike ride from my apartment. It reminds me of the science center in Phoenix a little bit. If you can get past the screaming kids running around all over touching everything you can begin to enjoy the museum a little. Sidenote…I thought it was free on Sundays…turns out it’s 8.50 Euro, damn. But they had a lot on airplanes and aerospace, all the way down to nuclear physics and musical instruments. Pretty much covered the basics of technology since the Industrial revolution. My favorites, seeing how the ‘car part’ of the museum is in a different museum, were the jet engines. Many of which they had a cut-away or exposed view of the mechanics, which blew my mind thinking how someone would even go about creating something like this…even back in the 20’s and 30’s. I mean I’ve seen engines before, but these turbine and rocket engines were pretty amazing. All in all, I got there around 230, place closes at 5, so I had to really rush through to see everything. One would need a good two full days in there to take it all in. Guess I can go drop another 8.50 Euro if I really feel the urge to go back….but I think my next adventure is to the car museum.

'Best View of Munich'...or so the Museum says...plus they want an extra 2 euro to go up there....phhhh.


Landing Gear up close...


Turbine Engine...now that is some power...


Close up on the turbine...


Your average European country...350 kg of trash in 6 months....United states about 850 kg...per person! They are just saying that to make us mad...


Outside of work one night...Porsche Carerra S


parker

Fleethorse...because riding a horse in the city is for cowboys...

I've been to the website...www.fleethorse.com....and this thing is for real. Someone actually thinks this idea is feasible! Althought they don't mention anywhere on the website about the costs of owning a horse...hmmmm....cheaper than a car? I don't think so. More efficient? probably not. Zany salesmen from India? most likey. Video Gold? Yes.

parker

My day at work...an averaged equation.

So I know some of you know where I work...but I know some don't know what I do. And since it's the middle of the week and I'm not traveling...I figure I'll take a minute and fill you in.

So I graduated in April, 2007, with my Bachelor of Science Degree in Transportation Design. I design, draw, and make models of cars. The company I work for is RTT, Real Time Technology (www.RTTUSA.com). RTT receives 3D car models in the computer, and utilize programs called Deltagen and Maya to clean the data...make it look good...and then output it to high quality car brochures, web car configurators, movies, pictures, xray views, etc. The program Deltagen can also be used to evaluate design, get measurements, cutaways, and basically view the car in the computer before ever having to make a physical model. We are basically the only company that works for all the major car companies...as data confidentiality is important in this business and we have earned the trust of many companies.

I am out in Germany to take advantage of the large work force the company has in Munich, as the U.S. is currently developing it's offices and no one is there to really 'teach' me the RTT workflow. Three of us came from Pasadena, myself, Allen, and Curtis...two very good friends of mine. So they put us each in a specific department to work. We each get a computer, desk, and free run on water, carbonated water, apple and orange juice drinks, cokes, coffee, cookies, fruit, peanuts, chips, beer....ok well there are bottles all over and people do drink during the work day, usually around 5pm, at their desk, while working. This is not something I partake in. I believe there are over 150 people at RTT. It takes about 3 minutes to walk from end to end, and there is also a floor below us that is half the size. It's huge.

8 am - Wake up.
Wake up, shower, change, grab my bag, jacket, umbrella (never know when you're gonna need it). Head out the door by 830. It takes about 5 minutes to walk to the Fraunhoferstrasse train station. Fraunhofer is the street name, strasse means street...they combine a lot of words in Germany. Down the escalater below street level I go...I take the U2 towards Messestadt-Ost, trains come every 5 minutes in the morning...so you don't have to wait long. On the train it's quiet, no music, no one talks, people glance at each other and look away, it's slightly uncomfortable. The sound of the rails screetching at ear pearcing level can be heard if you happen to get on an older train. My stop is Karl-Preis-Platz...which is about a 10 minute subway ride. I hop off the train and head up from the underworld to the rainy streets of Munich. It's about a 7 minute walk to work from the train station, so it takes about 30 minutes to get to work all together. Sometimes I stop in Red Coffee and grab a bagel, but lately the sesame bagels are hard as a rock, and I know it's not 'German' to serve stale bagels...

9 am - Start of the day
Right now I am in data preparation. I come into work around 9am (on a good day), check emails and things and eat my bagel and cream cheese for about 20 minutes. It's always nice to sit down and have a bunch of email from family and friends...although the generalized bank, amazon.com, or ebay emails creep in there. Plus I keep getting these emails about student loans and having to repay them....weird. Anyhow, after my round of emails and responses, I open my programs, either Maya or Deltagen, depending on the task. I open my 3D file, and begin to 'clean' the data. The parts I work with are the various parts of a car, inside and out, that you will see when looking at the car from normal viewing positions. Nothing inside, like bits behind the dashboard or the material underneath the seat cushion are necessary, throw that out. The reason we clean this is for making the web configurators and such faster and easier to use.

12 pm - Lunchtime
Around 12, I go to lunch at a place called Volksgarden...which is basically the RTT cafeteria. RTT employees get coupons to get food for 3 euro, but since I am not paid through Munich I am not able to get these. Not a bad deal because you only get two food choices per day and a drink. I did get a free drink coupon, but I can order whatever I want because I pay full price. You only go to Volksgarden if you work in the buildings surrounding it, you'd never come from outside the area to eat here, it only exists because all these people need to eat somewhere close and cheap. Ando don't expect good service, a smile, or for them to remember you don't speak German very well even though you come in four times a week. I am getting good at the 'I have no idea what you just said' face. I do go to other places...but if I want to eat with friends from work, I go there 95% of the time.

1230 pm - Racing
So, lunch is over, so Reijo and I go back to work and go to the simulator room. This is where they have two racing seats hooked up to the computer with a racing game called R Factor, steering wheels, paddle shifters, pedals, the whole bit. We race for about 25 minutes, the winner going off to have a great day, the loser to be angry and say 'this game sucks!'. But then it's about 1, so it's back to work.

3 pm - Fussball
Two hours later at three about 4 to 6 of us go downstairs to the fussball table (table soccer, kicker, etc). We play about 4 rounds of this, first team to six. And depending on who you play at the end it's either 'good game man' or 'biggest losers of all time!'. Yes the competition is high and everyone is very good....almost too good. I've never seen some people play this game the way they play it out here. My first day I was like 'yeah i play', then I went down and got my ass kicked hard. But after a month of my daily regiment of table soccer, I'm becoming a pretty threatening opponent. It helps to play with someone who is really good on your team.

20 minutes of this, and back to work. I finish out the day working away on the computer with different car models. At the same time I juggle between cruising the internet, emailing people, and listening to music. This is a very simplified version of my day at work, almost a little to 'on the surface' of what I do. I'll save my personal thoughts for a smaller broadcast. But I get paid to work with car models all day, live in Germany for another 3 months, and then go back to Pasadena. And on Monday the 17th of September, I will be going to the Frankfurt Auto Show in Germany. Sweet. That is also my birthday...I always wondered what random city in Europe I might be spending my birthday in...now I know.

6-7 pm - Head to the train station
Or bike home, but with the rainy weather this is less and less feasible way to get to work and back. I like to arrive home at night relatively dry. Plus it's getting pretty cold out. I take the U2 towards Feldmoching...and exit the train at Fraunhoferstrasse, and start my five minute walk home.

Wish I could put some pictures up of work, but that isn't going to happen. Cheap clipart pictures of and old 35mm camera behind a big circle with a strike through it all over work basically say 'do this and get fired, idiot.' So I will leave you to your imagination of what it looks like...it'll probably be better that way.

parker

Neuschwanstein Castle - where dreams are made of....or something.

"Neuschwanstein Castle is a 19th century Bavarian castle. Located in Germany, near Hohenschwangau and Füssen in southwest Bavaria, the castle was built by Ludwig II, King of Bavaria, as a retreat and as an homage to Richard Wagner, the King's inspiring muse. It is the most photographed building in Germany, although photography of the interior is not permitted, and is one of Germany's most popular tourist destinations."

…wikipedia you are awesome…

I officially have driven on the Autobahn! I rented a car though work at a rental agency called Sixt…well for a few reasons. One, I wanted to go to the Neuschwanstein castle…and two I wanted to drive on the autobahn. I knew I had two choices of cars when we made the reservation, either a VW Golf or a Mercedes A-Class. I was hoping for the Mercedes because I’d rather drive cars you can’t get in the states…obviously. But when I got there they had neither car, so I was given a Peugot 307. A little 5 door hatch, 4 cylinder diesel motor with a manual transmission. Manual…oh yes it has been too long. The sound if completely different from regular unleaded engines, and it is turbo so you get a slight whisling noise when you accelerate…in fact they engines almost sound “clunky” compared to cars in the states…but they are cleaner and more efficient…yada yada.

I went to the castle with Reijo, a Finnish friend of mine from work. It took about two hours to get there, driving though the German countryside full of barns, cows, farmland, and rolling green pastures for miles. Lots of pine trees also…it reminded me of Michigan, or even Flagstaff a little bit. Driving on the road proved to be not as difficult as I had imagined. And I don’t think the section we were on was the fastest, although I was traveling at about 80 mph in the right lane and cars were flying past me at over 100 mph easily.









As far as the castle goes, it is not very big from far away, maybe because the surrounding mountains trump it in size. The castle had a mystical early morning fog at the top when we got there…I was still hoping the rain would hold off even though it had been grey skies all morning. You have to be on a tour to get into the castle, and they don’t allow photography inside (strange). So we got our tickets and did the touristy thing. From what I’ve heard this castle inspired the Disneyworld castle. It actually is only 1/3 completed…it was never finished because of King Ludwig II’s death (murder - look it up). They deposed him by saying he was legally insane, then they found him dead in shallow water two days later with his doctor also dead, and ruled it as a drowning, sound fishy? Anyhow…walking around this castle seems like you are at an amusement park…it’s just not as old as other castles and does not really have any history to speak of, being only 150 years old. It basically was ‘built’, lived in for a year by the king, then opened for public tours 6 weeks after he was killed. So anyhow I snapped a few photos…but the main one of the castle is from Mary’s Bridge, behind the castle looking outward to the country.





More to come later. Have a nice day!

parker

Tourist is my middle name.

I think my eyes are going bad…too much computer usage…crap.

So this weekend was again another adventure…barely spent any time at home except for sleeping, which there wasn’t much of anyhow. Saturday I woke up and hoped on my bike to head up to the Munich Olympic Stadium. I used this architecture as inspiration for my senior car project at Art Center…so I really wanted to spend some time exploring this place I never imagined I’d be able to go to. The twisting taut surfaces and flowing canopy structure were unbelievable…they go from covering a building to a walkway effortlessly. Also being able to get right next to the support beams that shoot a hundred feet to the roof is pretty amazing. And it being Saturday…there were plenty of people taking in the sites. They have kind of a small market fair at the bottom, with a huge lake that people were sunbathing next to and getting around in little four passenger paddle boats.

Olympic Stadium from the Freeway...


Another Shot...


Up Close...


Moving on…at the top of the hill is the BMW Museum. So naturally I paid my 2 Euro and went inside. Not as big as I’d imagine…but the future home of the museum is under construction…and it’s gonna be huge. But the museum had a lot of history of BMW, from their start with making airplane engines…to motorcycle racing, to the modern day 3 series and hydrogen 7 Series. Another car I looked at for inspiration in my senior car I designed was the BMW Mille Miglia concept. It was based on this original car, called the BMW 328 Touring Coupe “Superleggera” from 1939, which I though was one of the best cars in the gallery.

M1 Procar and M3 GTR


Superleggera...


Late afternoon on Saturday…back to the Englisher Garden…this is the standing wave that people can just use at will. Surfing inside of Munich…with a crowd to watch non the less. This river flows throughout the Garden…it comes from the Isar river that passes through Munich. Pretty amazing to see how big the wave is, maybe 4 feet or so…but it’s caused by huge concrete blocks at the bottom of the river which I heard can hurt like hell if you fall on em…

Standing Wave in the Englischer Garden


Ok, so then Saturday night I went to a place called M Park with two guys from work, Reijo and Clement. None of us speak German fluently, being they are Finnish and French, respectively, so we all struggle as one to get around the city, which is getting easier by the day. If I can tackle to Munich train stations, I can get around anywhere in America. M Park is a two room dance club with techno in one room and hip hop in the other. Take your pick, both are packed, both hold about 200-300 people, and there are bars at every corner of the room in case you get lost. No pics from this place, I wouldn’t even think about taking a camera here. And since the bar is open til 6 you spend a lot more money than you would if the bar closed at two…although no one goes out until 11 or later so it’s very different from what I’m used to.

So, I get to sleep around 6 am on Sunday, wake up around 1230 and hop on my bike to the Nymphenburg Palace. This is a baroque palace in Munich that was the summer residence of the rulers of Bavaria. The center pavilion was completed in 1675 (thanks to Wikipedia for the background info). So this place is over 300 years old. When you look at a map of Munich, this place is about the size of the city center. I walked it twice front to back, maybe more, I should know. It’s very peaceful here. Many of the people inside the park area are just couples sitting on a bench, or maybe they have thrown down a blanket and are just laying in the grass. You can sometimes hear the trains in the background…but the view of the city is gone, and you can almost feel like you are in a different time. I like to imagine how people lived back I this time, no iPods…no phones….no electricity even. The main building was under renovation, so good photos were not going to be found of it on the day I went…I’m sure there are plenty online if you are interested. Well I finished out the experience by checking out a gallery with the old carriages and buggies that were used back in the day…I even came across a side view painting of a carriage that I think may be the beginnings of car design illustration, who knows.

View of Nymphenburg


Ceiling fresco in the Steinerner Saal (Stone Hall)


From the fountain on the West end...


Monopteros


Pimp My Ride Bayern


…and then…. I saw the Simpsons movie (in English)…which was pretty funny. Basing it around Homer was probably the best move, Bart is only good in small doses and everyone else are just supporting characters anyhow. Pretty full weekend for just stayin in Munich. Who knows what will happen next weekend. We accidentally bought train tickets to NurNburg instead of Nurburg for the DTM race next Sunday…and anyhow tickets for Nurburg are sold out so that plan is cancelled all together. Have to make some spontaneous trip somewhere.

Aesop Rock’s new album “None Shall Pass” comes out Tuesday…tomorrow…can’t wait to get it off iTunes at work, woohoo! And just my luck he’s touring in the states til December…right when I get back. Timing issue gone awry…

parker

Car Design News!!!

So they (finally) posted our graduation show from April on CarDesignNews.com...here's a link

http://www.cardesignnews.com/site/process/college_exhibitions/display/store4/item85984/

Im at the top on the second page...not the best photo, but it does the job. I should be updating my portfolio in the next month or so with some new stuff, so look for that later on...

www.DesignByParker.com


parker

Get clear, we're goin to Trier...

so, how and where do i begin this adventure. Step one, Allen makes the gameplan (and I use that term loosly). Gameplan is we will go to Trier, Germany to see a WRC (World Rally Championship) car race. And might I add, the Subaru Impreza WRX has been one of my favorite cars for some time, and they are big in these events...Step two, meet up with Curtis and get on the train to Trier. It's about a 6 hour train ride from Munich to Trier, with one stop in ???????. When we do get on the second train it is full, and by full i mean I'm pressed up against the door, hoping my weight doesn't accidentally force itself to open while travelling 70 mph or so on our last one hour leg to get to Trier. Our initial thought was, "are all these people here for the race tomorrow?" Turns out no, train emptied out by the time we got to our stop.

So we arrive, just after midnight, maybe one. There are a few bars open just by the train station, and we see about 15 people in 'Subaru' jackets. After talking with them we get a map for the races, realize there are probably gonna be no hotels available, and realize we need a ticket to get in to the race for tomorrow. Crap. At that point I was imagining a 70 Euro ticket just to get in, on top of the 160 Euro we spent for the train to get here. So we proceed to walk around, eat McDonald's (Trier is not so small after all thank God), and then walk around some more. The low down...no hotels, and the bars have roudy Irishmen, Germans, French, etc. packed to the brim, not a place three American's wanna be, especially seeing that we were all carrying bags with us. Walking down dark alley after dark alley is not the way you want to 'discover' a city. But, the reality of the situation was that we went into this knowing this could happen, and planning ahead is for sissies. After all this new exercise being in Germany, walking everywhere, biking, playing soccer, biking, walking, etc....my left calf finally decides it needs a break, and tells me this by becoming excrutiatingly painful, almost to the point of not being able to walk, but I had to push through because we were still trying to explore the city. All the while thinking we had to stay 'in' the track area so we could maybe bypass security the next morning. We find a nice corner off the beaten path and scope it out for awhile. This is the point were we begin to feel homeless. It is now 3 in the morning and we are cold, tired, and a bit hungry again (well me anyhow), and knowing we cannot stay anywhere is becoming more real by the minute. So, we grabbed some beer and tried to relax, sleep, whatever, on the steps. I think Curtis slept for a bit, but lying on the concrete stairs was more cold than I could imagine, and i definitely did not come prepared for this. I tried moving to the phone booth, but that felt gross and awkward being in there at 4 or 5 in the morning, so that didn't last long.

Ok, fast forward. It's about 9, and we are sitting in the Race Pass only area, thinking we were clear. Nope, got busted, so we left. Now we have to buy tickets. Curtis made a sign, and after about an hour of waiting around we finally found a lady nice enough to offer one to us. Perfect...now we can just rotate and check out the cars all day, which turned out to be a pretty good deal. The view was not the best at first, but any glimpse of a car passing by, the sound of the engine, basically ice skating on the road, the control the driver's possessed, was awesome. I walked around for a bit to try and get a better view...there were many of us without tickets trying to peek through the fence. Polizia kept coming over yelling at us in German and then smiling, almost knowing as if there is nothing they can do about all the people. Finally about half way through they tore down the tarp covering the fence so all of us non paying folks could see the races. But I did get inside the race area 4 or 5 times during our rotation with our one pass. My favorite had to of been the Subaru WRX driven by ??????, and even enjoyed the Suzuki Swift, and Renaults. And top this day off with some hot Lancia Stratos action, pretty much rounded out the day nicely. Photos and videos follow...

Curtis put together this sweet video of all the footage he took. Big ups to CeeMonk...



I would have liked to see the rally in the mountains, but I guess that trip can come later. I have always loved to watch the WRC races on Speed Channel, but now I can say I've been there. I just wish this type of racing was bigger in the US, Nascar is for hillbillies! So for now, my heart is set on getting a Subaru WRX STi...and I will try to forget the fact that I haven't been in a car or drove one in three weeks. And it's funny because no matter how much I type about this trip, there seems to have been so much more. Guess the rest will settle into memory, tell some tales about Trier later or something around a campfire...

Parker