Rediscovered Pleasures

The other day my sister voiced her longing desire to play the Sims for PS2, a game she thought her boyfriend had lost. Almost immediately after the words left he mouth, I quipped that the disc was in the CD binder with all the other game discs. Of course, she didn't believe me. Long story short, I was right, and we've been playing the Sims for a few days now.

If you don't know, the Sims is an Electronic Arts property based on guiding a single person or multiple people, called Sims, through life. I don't really care for that part though. What I enjoy is the short part that comes before you take over the role of god: building and furnishing the house.

I love building things. This love probably resulted from a childhood filled to bursting with Lego, but that's another story.

Architecture and building design in particular have special places in my heart. When the family takes a trip to France or the Czech Republic and tours around the old castles, I'm not reading the information panels on local history. No, I'm staring at the walls and ceilings and staircases and the entire built form of whatever it is we're visiting. I guess that's why I've started to lean toward urban planning and community design as a career path.

I also have a casual interest in interior design, the way spaces are made and composed. A good portion of my high school years involved back-to-back episodes of Trading Spaces and While You Were Out, two design shows that were television and cultural phenomena in their day the same way cakes and cupcakes are now (I still don't understand that).

Again, long story short, I now have a design itch. I want a house to put things in. I want an unlimited budget, or unlimited time and skill to DIY anything and everything. I want to be a greater part of consumptive society!

That, or I want the first couple seasons on Trading Spaces on DVD.

both photos by Andrew Dupont