Don't Feed The Peafowl

So, today started with a trip to the mall... to get some 8x10 prints made of pictures I've taken to decorate the dorm room. Then I saw the peacocks. There is a neighborhood east of Pasadena where peacocks randomly call home and that has signs that say "Don't feed the peafowl". No joke.

Naturally, because I was out riding my bike, I decided to go get some In-n-Out. I visited the Rosemead location, which was opened in December of 1978.

Although Valumart is remodeling, they're open for bussiness. In case you were wondering. I know you were.

"Why You'd Want to Live Here"

It's lyrics time.   


Death Cab For Cutie:  "Why You'd Want to Live Here".

I'm in Los Angeles today...
It smells like an airport runway.
Jet fuel stench is in the cabin
And lights flickering at random.

I'm in Los Angeles today...
Garbage cans comprise the medians of freeways always creeping
Even when the population's sleeping.

And I can't see why you'd want to live here.

I'm in Los Angeles today...
Asked a gas station employee if he ever had trouble breathing
And he said "It varies from season to season, kid."

It's where our best are on display...
Motion picture actors' houses
Maps are never ever current
So save your film and $15.

And I can't see why you'd want to live here.
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings,
"We are not perfect - but we sure try."
As UV rays "degradate" our youth with time.

The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place
In the belly of the beast that is Californ-i-a,
I drank from a faucet and I kept my receipts
For when they weigh me on my way out
(Here nothing is free).
The greyhounds keep coming
Dumping locusts into the street
Until the gutters overflow
And Los Angeles thinks,
"I might explode someday soon."

It's a lovely summer's day
And I can almost see a skyline through a thickening shroud of egos.
(Is this the city of angeles or demons?)
Here the names are what remain...
Stars encapsulate the gold lame
And they need constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.

You can't swim in a town this shallow - you will most assuredly drown tomorrow.

George Washington

Money can fix anything. It's been proven.

Ha! I just wasted 5 minutes of your day.

My Tire Will Explode Soon

The In-N-Out Tour

Back in the day, when In-N-Out burger was still a novelty, I would eat the Karl Three Two One (KTTO) quite regularly. The KTTO includes three burgers, two fries, a chocolate shake, and 2420 calories. I would have the occasional Karl Four Two Two just for fun, too. I've cut back to only two burgers, a fry, and a shake, which comes to a measly 1720 calories.

So I've decided to tour the LA area. I'm going to visit all of the In-N-Out locations within 25 miles of Caltech por mi bicicleta.

There are 10 within 11 miles of campus. That's 17,200 calories at my current rate. 740 g (that's three quarters of a kilogram!) of fat.

Alright!

So I started my tour earlier, by patronizing the local In-N-Out several times over my first few hours on campus. (I really love it.) Yesterday night, I decided to ride to UCLA. I left around dinner time, about 6:30, and it took me more than four hours to get across LA. As it turns out, I am very popular and ended up talking on the phone and walking or riding my bike very slowly for about an hour. Alan called me from Massachusetts, then Kristin called me from Rapid City, and I ended up talking to Nic, and yeah. The trip there was slow. Here's the route. Did I mention that LA sucks?

I ate at the In-N-Out burger by the UCLA campus, and witnessed some USC and UCLA rivalry.

I finally got home at around 4 AM and woke up today at noon. After working for most of the afternoon on Math 1a and my early modern Euro class, I decided to go to In-N-Out again. This time I picked a different one... in Azusa. So two days, two In-N-Outs, 80 miles, and waaay too many calories later, here I am. I have a lot more to visit. I'll keep you updated.

Is This Bad?

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out how that happened. And I'm just procrastinating. Anybody know if my tire is going to explode soon?

Blogbert™: That's Embarrassing

It looks like I've fallen into the trap of bad journalism. I underestimated the literacy rate of my readers and assumed nobody read my posts.

What actually happened was I tried to take a screenshot, but couldn't remember the key combination (that's another reason Windoze is a superior operating system, Windows boxes have a "Print Screen" button that works!) and spent about 5 minutes figuring that out. By then, I figured I has wasted enough time, I might as well blog it, so I spent another couple minutes in photoshop trying to selectively "dim" the background. Ummm, yeah.

It turns out, to take a screen shot in Mac OS X, you have to press Apple + option + 4, and then click and drag over the area of the screen you wish to capture, and then a Picture01.tif file is created on your desktop. Who uses tif? Seriously?

Soon, I'll put up some more Caltech pictures/crap/etc. That's enough, I have to go to class. And I'm embarrassed.

That's Embarrassing

Apparently, the Dow Jones industrial average rose an unprecedented 6056 points to 17,727.26.

Rotation

Rotation is over.

For those of who haven't been reading my blog, rotation is the somewhat tedious process by which Caltech freshmen are placed into the appropriate "House", or dorm. Frosh get to know the eight undergraduate houses and then houses and frosh rate each other.

I'm now a Scurve.

Ricketts House is unique. These lines from Wikipedia sum things up very well.

'Ricketts House was known for athletics and student government in the 1950s, but in the past decades Ricketts has been known less for these activities, and more for activities which push the motto "Take me as I am" to the limit.

In 2005, the administration pressured Ricketts to make their website private because many of the pictures and quotes on the website were considered to be potentially offensive.'