DanT1999

Monday, February 8

1) When I was driving to work this morning down Wilshire, I saw this old lady (well, she was wrinkled and had white hair) wearing colorful pants and platform shoes. I thought it was cool and one of those things you’d only see in LA…

2) I went for a walk during my lunch break while trying to organize my thoughts about how to approach certain problems I’m working through…

3) Traffic was really bad driving up Vine toward the freeway this evening. I was really annoyed. Some lady waved at me asking if I would let her cut in front of me so that she could make a left turn. I didn’t want to let her in, but I did anyway and she waved thank you…

Sunday, February 7

1) Yuan came hiking and birdwatching with me this morning at the Santa Fe Dam. The rain had cleared out over night, and it was a beautiful, crisp morning. It was nice chatting and getting caught up on stuff from the past couple of weeks. Yuan brought a field guide for identifying trees, so we did that in addition to identifying birds. We didn’t do so well with the trees though…

2) It’s funny that I was just talking to Yuan this morning about how I wasn’t planning to buy a new computer for at least another year. Well, when I got home my computer totally died. Fortunately I was able to recover the hard drive, and rather than trying to repair the machine I just bought a new iMac…

3) I ignored anything having to do with the Super Bowl and spent some time figuring out my new computer and, unusually exhausted, ended up going to bed a couple of hours early…

Saturday, February 6

1) I stayed in all morning since it was raining most of the time but ventured out to Veterans Park during a lull in the storm. It was nice walking among the pines (see the photo I took) and smelling the freshness of the air after the rain is gone. I didn’t really see many birds, and after about half an hour it really started to pour again. Fortunately, I didn’t get too wet as I ran back to my car…

2) I was at the mall, the Glendale Galleria, this evening, and I went into the Lego Store there. I had never been to a Lego Store before. It’s awesome. I loved legos as a kid, and I would have thought this place was paradise. They also had stuff for collectors and adults, like this Star Wars set that costed $350, which is insane…

3) The chief actuary at the company I used to work for throws this big party every year with games and stuff like that at his house the night before the Super Bowl. Although I left the company over 8 years ago, I still get invited to this every year. I didn’t go the past couple of years, so I thought I’d better go this year. I wasn’t all that excited about it, to be honest, as it seems I recognize fewer and fewer people every year and I hate having to try to socialize with people I don’t know very well or at all. However, I was happy that I did see some old colleagues and an old boss that I got to spend some timing talking to, so it was worth going…

Friday, February 5

1) I had a 7:45 AM meeting this morning, and luckily I made it just in time. I’m not a fan of early morning meetings…

2) It was raining today, so instead of going for a walk during lunch I just drove out to get a Jamba juice and then sat in my car reading and listening to talk radio…

3) I had falafel for dinner at this place in Northridge called the Falafel Palace. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was kind of nice to shake up my routine a bit…

I never actually planned to get a Mac. My PC suddenly died yesterday, and since it was 4 years old I decided to buy a new computer rather than spend money trying to repair it. I was thinking about getting a PC laptop, but Andrew was with me and strongly urged me to consider getting a Mac because of its ease of use, applications, supposedly fewer vulnerabilities and greater energy efficiency. With his insistence and also some advice from a knowledgeable sales person at Fry’s (although ultimately I bought my computer from the Apple store), I decided to make the jump.

I ended up getting an iMac, the desktop rather than the laptop. The laptop was several hundred dollars more expensive, and I decided that the cost of portability was probably not worth it to me and anyway the computer I was replacing was a desktop. Anyway, I’ve never used a Mac before, so there’s many things that are different that I’m trying to get used to. It’s kind of exciting (albeit a little frustrating as well) to explore the different features and capabilities of an unfamiliar operating system…

(Bombycilla cedrorum) I shot this photo in the early morning at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area near Irwindale, California on February 7, 2010. This bird was part of a loud, noisy flock of waxwings which had descended upon the trees in the area with small berries. I like this bird for the pointed crest on top of its head, the subtle red barring on its wings and the bright yellow on the tip of its tail.

Cedar waxwings can be found throughout most of North America depending on the season and specifically are found in Southern California during the winter months. Their appearance in the region, however, is irregular depending on the availability of berries, their primary food source.