October 2015 – andrewl435's blog

Mesoamerican Ballgame

The Mayan ballgame has a lot of interesting components to it. The objective of the game is to get rubber balls into stone hoops. The two to five players on each team were only allowed to use their bodies and Monolpa, because hands and feet were not allowed. The Rubber ball was made from the rubber tree. The ball was usually about eight pounds but the size varied from that of a softball to that of a beach ball based on location. The uniform was used for protection but still had to allow fast movement. Many players wore Yogiuto, which are wooden pads worn on the knees possibly to help hit the ball. Cloth yokes were worn for protection around the waist. The Manolpa were stone figures held in the hands of the players and used as a bat to hit the ball. The court was mainly made up of a center playing alley. There were slanted walls along the length of the playing alley with hoops protruding high above the ground. On the remaining sides of the alley there are two end zones that make the court look like an capital I.

The Mayan ballgame was more a religious ritual than a sport. In order to keep balance in the world sometimes a player of the loosing team- which was often war captives- would be sacrificed to the gods. During the game, such as during the half-time, other sacrifices would be made to the gods like maize or the sap of the copal tree. Before and after the ballgame the players would dress in stone yokes for ceremonies. They would fasten Hacha onto their yokes. Hahca are stone figures made for ceremonies. The courts were also painted brightly with scenes of sacrifice to the gods and the power of the local ruler. Songs of honor to the gods were played before and after the game along with during the halftime.

Time Capsule Project: Retirement

My retirement fund starts lower than my income but grows at a faster rate. There are two reasons for this. The first is that my income grows at a rate of 2.5% annually while my interest rate on my retirement fund is 7.1% annually. The second reason is that the interest earned is a percentage of my invested money. When my income goes up, the amount of money I invest goes up as well. Since there is more money, the value of the percentage goes up as well, and therefore earning me more money. At the end of the 14^th year investing, the value of my investments exceed my annual income. Nine years later, at the end of year 23, the value of my investments will be more than double my annual income.

Time Capsule Project: Budget

My budget shows a monthly representation of expenses making $32,256 annually working as a full-time intern at Geller architecture firm. My budgeted expenses are broken down by category. The largest category is income taxes which consumes 29% of my monthly expenditures. The second largest is car expenses which includes car payment, insurance, and gas. My living expenses include groceries, data services, personal care (hygiene), and clothing. My home expenses and savings are approximately the same, but home expenses are $27.43 more. Home expenses include my mortgage (which I share with William Coley), insurance, real estate taxes, and utilities. The other category includes donations, miscellaneous (extra savings for random occurrences), and entertainment. My total savings are comprised of an ordinary savings account and a retirement fund. My smallest category is total debt. My only debt is of student loans from graduate school, which I pay $202.49 monthly.

I did not have a lot of discretionary income, but the little I did have I chose to spend on data services, donations, and entertainment. I chose to get 15 Mbps (megabits per second) of internet bundled with television services for $50 a month, but since I have a roommate I only pay $25. Separately I have cell phone service for $32/month. Every month I donate $10 to Cary Academy for all of the wonderful experiences I had there. For entertainment I bought a Wii U with Mario Cart 8 and a small television all with my roommate.

Sticking to my budget will be fairly easy because I have enough money in each category to both deal with unexpected events or expenses and be lenient when it comes to wants. I should not have to worry about buying a new book every once in a while because my entertainment budget has extra money each month- a Wii U is a onetime fee. Even through this leniency my budget will have to change drastically about five years out of graduate school, when I move from an Intern to an Urban Design Planner. My salary will be more than three times my current, so I will, even with the increased taxes, have much more money to use to shape my life.

Mesoamerican Cultural Analysis

The Maya did have extensive trading relationships with other cultures which led to cultural diffusion. From roughly 1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D., the Mayan civilization existed. During that time other cultures/civilizations were also present in the Yucatan, such as the Mixtec, Toltec, and Aztec. A few common themes between the Maya and those neighboring civilizations are sun-based calendars, figure-based religions, and thick history in art, especially pottery and stonework. A specific example of pottery and stonework is the Maya Polychrome ware, or painted pottery, and the Mixtec mosaics made of small, painted, squares of clay. It would make sense for the Mixtec to trade with the Maya to get polychrome for their mosaics. The two cultures would influence each other through this trade, creating cultural diffusion.

Time Capsule Career

Coming out of graduate school I will work for the Gensler architecture firm as an architect intern making about $16 per hour. My focus as an intern will be on urban design and planning. I hope to design master plans for mixed use development. After five years I will move to New York City and work for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP as a Senior Urban Designer. Senior Urban Designers create plans, documents, presentations, models, and scale visualizations of the buildings and sites. They check all of the coordinate calculations and scales. Finally they coordinate with building teams and the consultants such as the main Structural Engineer on the project.

The requirements to be a Senior Urban Designer at SOM are completion of a five-year architecture program, graduate of a two-year urban design program, at least five years of urban design/planning, and demonstrated knowledge of urban design, urban history and theory, environmental law, and private and public development. Not including cash or stock bonuses I will start out making about $100,000 a year.

A Snip of My CultureVerse

When I was four years old I started to sketch and explore art. I found that it was a fun, interesting way to express feelings and convey messages. I mostly did little drawings, but by the time I was five years old I was trying to make bigger, grander pieces. I figured out that it is much easier to draw nicer pieces if there was not anything to model my artwork after. For example: it was much easier to draw a random, improvisational pattern or mismatch non-humanoid face then a person or an animal. Because of this I looked into abstract art and Wassily Kandinsky. I admired his work enough that in second grade I traveled with my mother to Washington D.C. and the National Gallery of Art to see his work. That inspired me and I started to take art classes and camps along with looking into other genres. I found interest in surrealism, impressionism, post-impressionism, and many modern sculptures.