Space & Scale
Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
4F and clear tonight, going down to zero.
So, last entry I was talking about the, "big winter snow storm," that was only three inches.
And we had a couple more dustings on Thursday and Friday, but then Saturday began our second, and probably final, big cold snap of the winter... with highs in single positive ditigts, and lows in single negative digits.
And that'll last the rest of the week.
Friday was Valentine's Day, and Monday was President's Day.
My Saturday & Sunday were decently productive... up both days before 1PM, and got all the errands and chores done.
But I was procrastinating about working on the album, and my main focus was on talking to Fernando on Monday.
On Monday, I was down in the office by around 11:30AM, and told Fernando I was interested in a 1BR.
He asked, "What style of 1BR?"
I said, "A Benton," because I know there's also a style called, The Downer, which is more expensive.
He said, "We have two kinds of Bentons! The, 02 units, which face west, are smaller than the 05 units, which face east.
I told him an 02 would be fine, because I used to live in 1702, back in 1999, and my memory was that it was plenty big enough.
He knew from Alex, that I was interested in 1202, and told me that somebody had just qualified for 1202 this morning, but it was currently vacant, so he could at least show me an 02, just to make sure I'd be okay with one.
So we went up to 1202, which was the unit I'd been crossing my fingers all weekend about snatching up and moving into on March 1st.
But THANK GOD somebody beat me to it, because that unit was WAY SMALLER than I remember!
The main reason the 02 Bentons on the west side of the hall are smaller than the 05 Bentons on the east side of the hall is because the west face of the building kinda... cantilevers inward, until it hit's the 01 units, which jut back out.
This means the 02s are affected most by that cut.
The East face of the building, on the other hand, is just flat & square, all the way across.
So, at any rate, 1202 may technically have more square footage than my studio, but not much!
And because of that angled wall, the living room and bedroom are not square... which is a limitation... and the kitchenette is so huge, that what you're left with for a living room is just this tiny trapezoid!
And that tiny trapezoid has a window/radiator on one wall, and a doorway on another wall... so it just has almost NO useable furniture space!
I knew immediately there was no way to fit all my desk units in there, in any contiguous configuration.
They'd have to be split and spread around the space, leaving no logical place for the rocker to go, much less that little kitchen table I have in storage!
Fernando was like, "You don't need a computer desk!.. just put your laptop here on the counter, and sit on a high-back stool!"
He doesn't get that I have two desktop workstations, each with their own hutch, one for general purpose work, and a second for the recording studio, and a printer, a scanner, and 8 drawers full of audio, tech, and office related supplies and paraphenalia!
Not to mention a very comfortable computer chair, thank you very much!
The whole point of moving out of the studio is to keep what I have and get a little more space!.. not throw out my prized desk set in favor of a counter top!
I asked him, "How much more money are the 05 units?"
He said, "Well, that's the thing! They cost the SAME!"
So what I decided was to hold out for an 05 unit, when one comes available.
Unfortunately none are available now.
He told me residents are supposed to give 90 days notice, though some only give 60 days, but he hasn't gotten any notice at all for an 05, so it could be at least two months, if not many months longer.
So... guess I'll just have to be content with the studio, and then keep checking back with him about an 05, so he doesn't forget... and then eventually something will come open!
When I was back home, I did go online and scrutinize their 3D view of, The Benton, because it's clearly an 05 model... as you can see that the windows face east!
And that 3D interface has a virtual tape measure, so I was turning that unit around and upside down, going into dollhouse view and back, measuring this wall and that wall, and taking notes... and consulting my old list from last spring with the measurements of all my furniture... and then double checking my furniture again with a tape measure.
Because I'm so tired of being deceived in this building, when it comes to space!
But what I've concluded is that I can set things up pretty nicely in an 05 Benton.
The rooms are square, so that helps a lot!
I can fit my desk set into the living room, with just one change to the configuration.
Right now it's all in a straight line, but in an 05, with the corner desk in the northeast corner, I can have two modules winging off along the north wall, and the third module winging off along the east wall... where it may slightly overlap the radiator, but that's fine, because I'm overlapping the radiator here in the studio.
That configuration would also give me a little more desktop space where I'm seated, which is actually an improvement... and I won't be sitting directly in front of the window anymore either!
And then there's still room on the south livingroom wall for both the small kitchen table, and the rocker, with room to spare!
Meanwhile, in the bedroom, there's plenty of room for both the twin bed and the dresser, with enough extra space for a second chair, similar in size to the gliding rocker.
The bedroom's too small for my other rug, BUT... I can just cut that rug to fit, and then the whole floor will be covered, which is fine!
Better than leaving the rug in storage or throwing it out!
Of course, the best thing about an 05 Benton is that I'll still be able to see the trains and the Paramount, and all the other stuff I've come to love from my vista here in 1106.
As for storage space there IS a LOT more!
There's a TON more cabinet space, and the bedroom closet is HUGE, compared to the tiny broom closet I have here... but there's also a linen closet that is narrow, but very DEEP!
And both closets go all the way up to that high ceiling, so... plenty of room for all my journals, my other two computers, and other stuff that's currently at Public Storage!
So... an 05 will be PERFECT!..
But Heaven only knows when one will become available!
Okay, so it's time to look at the mystery of... WHY did I remember 1702 as being so much BIGGER than it actually was in reality?
Cuz it's not like I was smaller, back when I was 29!
I think partly, it's due to the fact that my life was smaller?
But also, this was the age of padded carpeting, and people in their teens and twenties LOVE sitting on the floor!
Like, I remember that in the bedroom I had a folding couch bed, and a coffee table!
So that couch took up one whole wall, but that was fine, because the only other piece of furniture in there was the coffee table.
And then at night, I'd move the coffee table to the other wall, and the folded out bed would take up basically the whole room.
But I REMEMBER sitting on the floor in that bedroom, and using that coffee table as an ordinary table!
My 4-track recorder was set up on it, and I'd record in there just sitting on the floor, with my bass guitar!
Meanwhile in the livingroom... all I had was a little wooden office desk, just big enough for a desktop PC and a CRT monitor.
And it had that standard front desk drawer, and three on the side.
And was perfectly comfortable sitting at that little desk to do web design during the day!
The kitchenette was also not quite as big, back then... and the island separating it from the livingroom was open underneath, so you could essentially see through it... it didn't feel like a hard separator of the space.
And I had two stools at that island, which were tucked underneath most of the time, but made it easy to use that island as a kitchen table, or a work table, etc.
And I don't think there was much else in that livingroom, except maybe a random chair of some type.
And I remember talking on the phone in there... just sitting on the floor!
When Kate & I were dating, we spent nearly the whole night in that living room, just sitting on the floor!
Drinking, smoking, drawing in sketchbooks, playing music from a boom box, looking at photos... and sitting on the floor!
And 1702 was the first place I ever held down by myself!
Prior to this, I'd shared three different apartments, with another room mate, and those were bigger places than this, but... when it's either, a girlfriend, or a fellow bachelor, there was always that huge entertainment center hogging the space, and friends over and stuff.
In my mind, I wasn't comparing my first solo apartment to those!.. I was comparing it to having just a single bedroom to call my own at home.
So, small as 1702 was, in my mind, I guess I thought it was huge, because it DID have a bathroom and a kitchennette, and the living space WAS split into two rooms, with a door between them!
I mean... that's like a SUPER bedroom on STEROIDS!
Especially if all you do is sit on the carpet all the time!
But yeah!.. like I was NOT conscious, or cognizant of ANY of that, before Monday!
My memory said it was a huge space!... so it was gonna be a huge space!
And I was just STUNNED by how small 1202 was!
Like, I've said that the first two times I saw this studio... on the initial viewing, and then the walk through a few weeks later... it literally made me queasy how small it was!
But somehow?.. seeing 1202 was even more of a shock!
And I'm sure now that when I get to see an 05 unit for the first time, I will AGAIN, be shocked at how small THAT is!
That's why I made sure to do all the calculations after I got home!
Because if I go into it knowing for CERTAIN, that all the stuff I have now can fit into it, with space for a few more pieces of furniture... without it being any more cramped than this studio is now... then I'll be able to ignore that gut reaction!
It is true that spaces feel smaller if they're empty, than if they're furnished.
But, I guess what I learned on Monday is that life experience also warps your concept of space!
You experience living in different sized apartments and houses, and your life gets bigger...
You accumulate more stuff and... spend less time sitting on the floor!..
And meanwhile, your memory is exaggerating the size of the past spaces you've lived in... because at the time, you didn't think of that space as being small... so it must've been comparable to what you're happy with now!
But those are all, kinda context & framing illusions!
Humans are actually pretty BAD at conceptualizing space, on any scale!
Like, here in the US, we think of our country as being, almost a small town!.. because we can either drive or fly everywhere within a few hours... and those few hours are sitting in a little comfy chair.
But if you had to WALK... anywhere? you'd realize that your home state might as well be it's own planet!
On the other end of the scale, you can have one drawer!.. One small drawer in one small desk... that becomes so FULL of little shit and junk that you'd think it was a bottomless pit!
You could spend 20 minutes trying to find one thing in that drawer!.. and if, God forbid, you decided to organize that drawer?... that's your whole day!
I'm gonna end this entry with more thoughts about the US, as a conglomeration of states... as awkward a segue as it may be.
I saw a TikTok today saying that most empires only last 250 years... which sounds pretty dubious to me, cuz I thought they lasted for thousands of years on average?.. but, we'll allow it!
The argument was that the US is turning 250 years old next year, so that means it's the end of our empire.
And, "end of the empire," is supposed to mean, the end of American deomocracy and the total collapse of civilization in North America, with everybody living in primitive huts without electricity, ruled over by uber-wealthy elites who've enslaved us all to work in the diamond mines, or something.
But that's not what would happen.
What the US is, is fifty fairly HUGE countries... each with their own democratic government, consisting of an executive, legislative, and judicial branch with checks and balances!
So, the only thing in danger right now is the Federal government... which is this very weird extra layer of that same tri-cameral democratic style of government, that's meant to tie the 50 countries together as one larger entity.
Hence, the united states... of (north) America.
But if the federal government vanished tomorrow... all 50 countries would be perfectly capable of operating independently, as autonomous democracies!
All the infrastructure is there!.. and in many ways, state governments are much more dynamic and resiliant than the federal government ever has been!
You can get an ammendment passed in your state!
Whereas, getting a federal ammendment passed anymore, is considered impossible!
The Federal government is turning 250!
Far more than half the state governements are nowhere near that old!
The Federal constitution was originally worked out, for a nation of 13 smallish states on the east coast... with quill pens, and by candle light, because electricity didn't exist yet!
And yeah, they had a pretty solid idea for a good democracy anyway!.. but none of those assholes ever thought it would grow to 50-goddam states, stretching to the Pacific seaboard... most larger than any country in Europe!
Even by the time of the Civil War, there were only 33 states!
And half of them were trying to secede!
Lincoln justified that war on the idea that the union was eternal!.. And therefore it was impossible to secede!
And that all seemed very noble at the time, but...?
I mean, it's like the way my parents felt that divorce was impossilbe, in the eyes of God!
Like... you can force people to stay in a comittment... but... you can't make them like it!
It was probably a good thing, that the federal government went on to esablish the rest of the 50 states of it's "empire," and get everybody fully formatted with the tri-cameral style of democracy that now defines the whole western world.
But, in the mean time, the US Federal government has become, the oldest living government on Earth!
Like, every other nation on Earth has a more modern government!
And our Federal government lost it's elasticity DECADES ago!
All it is now is this overly gamed, totally gridlocked, wasteland populated by career criminals so old they're in the grips of dimentia, and wearing adult diapers!
And all the younger people around them are just bottom feeders, put there by wanna be oligarchs!
And their only agenda is to loot the place, before it goes up in flames!
So, yes, I do tend to agree, that on the Federal level, the US is on the verge of collapse... which would technically end the, "empire."
But that doesn't necessarily trigger any kind of civil war, or world war!
I'm starting to think it's more likely, all that happens is... the US Federal government simply get's ignored by both the 50 states, and the rest of the world, simultaneously!
And it just shrivles up and dies, as the rest of the world goes on about it's business!
It has no money, resources, or manpower... save from what it's given by the states!
It has no oil, influence, or currency... save from what it's granted by the world!
So it doesn't matter if one man, or one movement, takes over all three branches of Federal government!
All that means is, that layer of democracy... has outlived it's usefulness!
And it was just an extra layer of democracy to begin with!
Once upon a time, it was critical in helping democracy spread throughout the world, but... now that democracy HAS spread throughout the world... it can only remain relevant if it's being constructive both globally, and domestically.
And now that it doesn't want to be... who needs it?
We've got the internet and AI now, right?
That's probably more than we need to manage a world with 50 independent countries in North America, being added to the global scene!
To work out the trade deals, alliances, immigration policies, and whatnot?
All 50 of those countries are free to incorporate as much or as little socialism into their capitalism as they like.
And a few will turn into facist ethno-religion states, sure!.. but they'll have to deal with the rest of the world!.. instead of trying to do it under the protection of the empirial executive, and is supreme imperial court... who no longer exist.
Like the last entry, where I took a local weather event, and wound up talking about national bullshit...
I've done it again, by turning the viewing of a smaller than remembered apartment into an analysis of national bullshit from a different angle.
An I DON'T mean for this to be a thing?
But national bullshit is kind of back in vogue lately!
So it's hard not to go there.
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