DanT1999

Wednesday, November 18

1) It was really cold (by LA standards) this morning, so I didn’t run opting instead to stay in bed where it was warm… That wasn’t my only excuse, however. I think I may have injured my knee (the right knee specifically) more than superficially when I fell a few weeks ago because after I ran Sunday morning my right knee was pretty sore for a couple of days… It’s frustrating because I feel the desire to run but don’t want to risk further injury if I’m not fully healed yet…

2) Almond butter and jelly sandwich… I like almonds better than peanuts, so I guess it’s natural I would like almond butter better than peanut butter…

3) Today was just another really boring day, but it wasn’t really a bad day… I guess that’s something to be happy about…

Tuesday, November 17

1) Today was a really boring day and traffic was really bad, but at least I can say that I was happy that a meeting I didn’t want to go to was cancelled…

2) I was bored driving home on the freeway this evening but was entertained by a sign on the back of the truck I was driving behind. There was an arrow with a happy face pointing left with the words “passing side”, and an arrow with a dead face (i.e. sad face with “x” eyes) pointing right saying “suicide”... I thought it made the point pretty clear, pass big trucks on the left side, not the right side…

3) I went to the Thai restaurant across the street to order take-out, and I smiled when the waitress smiled at me and asked me if I wanted the same thing as usual.. I’m that predictable…

Monday, November 16

1) I was really dragging this morning and had no desire at all to get out the door and go to work, but I was happy that it was a beautiful morning (see the photo I took)...

2) I was happy that a meeting I had with the internal auditors was less scary than I was expecting it to be…

3) I went for a walk during my lunch break to the Miracle Mile area of LA and saw a couple of western gulls bathing in a fountain in front of an office tower. I recognized them because of their pink legs. According to my field guides, although western gulls are common at the beach, they are supposed to be rare just a few miles inland. Well, here they were anyway…

Ryan Adams, “Rock N Roll”

Although this is not my “number 1” album, this is the album that I actually listen to the most. I do most of my music listening while sitting in my car stuck in LA traffic, and this album has lots of upbeat (or at least uptempo) songs that are fun to listen to while driving. I find that listening to something a little bit hard and loud helps me to release the tension that builds up over the course of the day or to help get me pumped up to take on the day, whatever the case may be. A coworker recently told me that she listened to classical music while she commuted and suggested I should try it because it might make me feel more calm. Well, I tried it, and I thought I was going to crash because I was starting to doze off. I’m sorry, classical music fans… It’s not that I don’t appreciate the beauty in the music because I do, it’s just that music without words bores me to death after more than a few minutes.

Anyway, my favorite track from this album is So Alive. I do feel more “alive” after listening to this song. Here are my favorite lines from the lyrics:

If this is how I feel
Then nothing now is true
And nothing now can ever be taken away from you
Sinking in the past
The things that shouldn’t last
Just put to bed and stand beside me
Stand beside me

Always on your side
I’m on your side
And so alive it isn’t real

(Pelecanus occidentalis) I shot this photo in the late morning at Malibu Lagoon State Beach in Malibu, California on November 14, 2009. These birds were basking on a sand embankment, and in this photo there is a double-crested cormorant among them. I often sees cormorants associating with pelicans. The pelicans in this photo belong to the California subspecies (P. o. californicus).

Brown pelicans are found along the west coast and the southeastern coast of the United States as well as in scattered parts of Mexico and Central America. They are the only dark pelican. They eat fish which they catch by plunge diving from the air, a practice that no other pelican does. One interesting fact I learned about the brown pelican from allaboutbirds.org is that they incubate their eggs by standing on them. This practice made them vulnerable to the effects of DDT pollution which weakened their egg shells, causing them to crack their own eggs inadvertently. Since DDT was banned, brown pelican populations have stabilized, and according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service there are about 100,000 birds belonging to the California subspecies.