how the rain sounds

The sound of rain falling on the roof at night is wonderful. It is improved if I have a hot cup of tea or am tucked into blankets. It is degraded by the sound of traffic that whizzes by. I remember falling in love in an unusually rainy winter in L.A., and the sound becomes magic.

$2 coin-operated car wash.

I finally washed my car today, after several months of neglecting to do so. The accumulation of filth upon my car had seemed gradual, but I think it had lately reached a level where the amount of additional dirtiness necessary for me to perceive that it was actually becoming more dirty was severe.

I learned something about this fact of human perception, perhaps in my high school psychology class. When a stimulus is rather strong, the amount of increase necessary for humans to perceive the change becomes greater. I think the example I learned from back then was sugar in iced tea. If you have no sugar in the iced tea, after you add a heaping tablespoon you can notice the change. But once you've dumped half a cup of sugar into your iced tea, the addition of a tablespoon will not taste like much. Unfortunately I don't know what this phenomenon is called, so I cannot cite it here.

So anyway, my car had reached a level of dirtiness that caused additional dirtiness to be imperceptible. I started to feel embarrassed about the uncleanliness of my car. And in a series of events over the last several days, which included 1) dreading that my mother would see my dirty car when my parents came to attend my thesis defense, 2) attending a friend's wedding at a fancy house in the hills and having to hand my car over to (and pick it up from) valet attendants, and 3) deciding to park around the corner from my parents' place, so as not to smear our mothers day visit with dirt from my car. So this morning I knew what had to be done.

I pondered the manner in which I should wash my car. The first option was to wash it in our apartment's tiny parking lot -- once when I had talked to my neighbor about my dirty car with chagrin, he offered the hose he had for the water spout out back. Also I could take it to one of these hand car was places (although maybe they are a combination of machine and hand car wash) all over Los Angeles. But an investigative report that the Los Angeles Times printed a couple of months ago made me feel like these are shady operations. I didn't really want to get involved. Finally, I could take it to a coin-operated car wash and spraying it clean myself. There are also quite a few of these places around L.A. And option #3 is what I chose.

The coin-operated car was is a pretty good deal. It cost me $3, or 12 quarters, which is a pretty good deal considering that I spent $1 somewhat frivolously on 4 minutes of car VAC, not that there was so much dirt inside my car. So the wash itself was two bucks. The nozzle sprays different liquids. I used the spot free stuff (a foamy blue cleaner) and HIGH PRESSURE RINSE. The hose really sprays water out in a high pressure way. I felt as though, if bad guys approached or something, I could turn the hose on them and blast them into oblivion, or at least knock them onto their behinds. There wasn't a really good way to dry the car off afterwards. They didn't have any blow dry equipment as far as I could tell, though a couple people were using rags to wipe their cars down.

All in all, the car is now clean and I am proud. Why didn't I think of doing this a long time ago?

$2 coin-operated car wash. Small price to pay for a bit of self worth, confidence, pride.

popsicle stick crafts

On my evening walk along Venice Blvd (always heading west, then coming back up east) I saw a bird fly by with a stick in its beak, as though it were collecting construction materials for its nest. I turned my head as it flew by, and my eyes followed it to a ledge above a convenience store. It landed and walked towards its nest, presumably to add the popsicle stick it had just procured from the streets of Los Angeles.

best supermarket checker ever

Is it appropriate to call them checkers? Checkout person?

I started shopping at Vons (associated with Safeway and Pavilions) when I moved to Palms at the beginning of grad school. I noticed that, unlike at Ralphs, where I'd grown accustomed to shopping in college, at the end of VONS transactions, they thank you and wish you a good day, referring to you by name (or the name printed on your receipt). Employees in the store, whether reshelving, stocking produce, or some other activity, always ask how you are doing and whether you're finding everything okay. And this is all good. But one supermarket checkout clerk goes above and beyond the call of awesome.

She appears to be middle-aged, and her English carries a heavy Cantonese accent. I first made mental note of her when she refused to sell me grapes.

She refused to sell me the grapes because I had picked up green grapes, which were not on sale. They were something like 3.99/lb, unlike the red grapes, which were .99/lb. that week. She told me she could just keep my stuff there, and I could put back the grapes I had picked up, and get the correct grapes, come back, and finish being checked out. Not being particularly wed to the green grapes, I complied. Pretty cool, I thought.

She is also unwilling to let customers miss out on VONS Club savings. If a customer comes through the line without his card and could potentially miss out on VONS Club savings, the checker lady will ask other customers in line whether or not they will lend the fellow a swipe of their card.

My most recent visit to VONS included such an experience, and I happily let the other customer take advantage of my VONS Club savings. The supermarket checkout lady pointed to the two cartons of ice cream among my grocery selections and noted that they were Buy One, Get One Free that week. Remembering the incident with the grapes, I asked whether she memorized all the week's grocery deals. She said she HAD, and that before coming to work each Wednesday (the day that the grocery stores' weekly specials kick in), she goes through all of the grocery store flyers for the local chains.

"So you know the deals at Albertson's and Ralphs?" I asked. (their rival stores)

"Yes!" she said. And proceeded to tell me that chicken was on sale at Ralph's this week, telling me how much per pound of what.

I am humbled by her dedication to her work.

I always wondered who gets the non-fruit toppings.

pinkberry with fruity pebbles
Originally uploaded by eraine.

I saw these being constructed as I waited for my own, and was intrigued by the combination of fruit + fruity pebbles + granola, so I asked the designers if I could perhaps photograph their yogurt cups.

Being rather boring, my own yogurt just had toppings of fruit.

Real, Korean kimchi

real, Korean kimchi
Originally uploaded by eraine.

Ever since our visit to Korea in January, I've been regularly craving kimchi. I didn't go out of my way to find any. I just put some in my basket while shopping at VONS. But while telling some people about this, the Real Live Koreans expressed dismay that I had been eating VONS kimchi and recommended that I get some higher quality kimchi from the Korean market.

So yesterday on my way home from campus I went through Koreatown and stopped by The Galleria at Olympic & Western in search of quality kimchi.

At the supermarket, it took me a while to get to the kimchi section. I entered near the produce and made my way across the store to the frozen section, and I felt a sort of buildup as I wondered when I would run into the kimchi. When I finally saw it, I was not disappointed. The humongous jars of kimchi I saw were Costco-worthy, and now I am really curious as to how long the huge jars ($18.99) would last a Korean family of four. Cathy at Epikorean tells me -- about a week, or two weeks MAX. The kimchi section had kimchi for sale in pouches, in addition to the stuff in jars.

I went home with this (pictured above) 48 oz. container of kimchi. I would say this is a mid-sized container, relative to the rest of the options I had available. I got nappa cabbage kimchi, which I think is the most generic (common?) sort.

About this kimchi, it's pretty spicy. It's more intensely red and spicy than the kimchi I've picked up at VONS in the past, and Alex said "it's because you're white and wimpy". I disagreed about my being white.

So now a question I have is, how much kimchi consumption is too much? Are there dangers of eating too much kimchi? As a probiotic, it's supposed to be good for your intestinal tract and improve your digestion. But all those spices have to be taxing on your system, right?

overdressed

I may be overdressed, being mildly bundled up in a fleece while it is 75 degrees outside. I don't feel silly because there are lots USC undergraduates ambling about campus in sweatshirts and jackets. The weather was cool all day yesterday, and last night's observed low was a chilly 42 degrees. The temperatures for tomorrow, December 4, are forecast by weather.com to include a high of 79 degrees. We are all confused.

stomping, or loud upstairs neighbors

This post is actually supposed to be for Sunday. Even though I can set the timestamp to read any date and time, I don't want to set this back because it seems dishonest.

Neighbors upstairs have been stomping lately. I don't know that they're really stomping, but that's what it sounds like from here. Either they are stomping or performing a dozen jumping jacks every once in a while. They might be moving furniture in some odd manner. I don't know that moving furniture should sound like stomping, but I've heard that when people move furniture it sounds loud from adjacent apartments. At one point when there was more continuous stomping I thought, "Maybe they're playing DDR." I should be happy about the idea of people playing DDR, but I don't think DDR players should live above the first floor.

There was also loudness of a different sort at what seemed like 4 in the morning. I don't know whether I preferred it to the alarm clock incidents of several months ago.

Maybe someday we'll live where we don't have to hear our neighbors.

chilly and gusty today

It is nearing the end of September and for the first time, actually beginning to feel like it. So far all semester, I've heard students and colleagues complain about how cold it is inside our building. It has been warm out, so it seems not unreasonable to go to class wearing shorts, flip flops, and tank tops (at least for students, if not professors). But air conditioning is always cranked up inside, which contributes to warming on a global scale, but many freezing students and instructors. Today I actually heard two different people mention it being cold but referring to the weather outside! Although I dislike being cold, the cool weather comes as a pleasant surprise. As an added bonus, the next two days' forecasts look like rain...

cheap stuff

Most recent Craigslist exchange was my $10 for someone's ikea coffee table. Super cheap, but I think this is the second time I've bought this exact same model of table for $10 off of someone from Craigslist. I don't think it's the same one, because last time I bought it in the Bay Area for temporary summer furniture, and this time I'm in L.A. But I like the possibility.

I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Having things below eye level increases the likelihood that I will bruise my knees or shins, but I figure I can recoup my ten by resale if needed.

at least one sentence per day?

Today I walked to Lincoln (the street), which is 2 miles from here and makes the round-trip a 4-mile walk. From my old place in Palms, I used to do a 4 mile walk up and down Venice from close to Bagley to the 405. The weather this time of year makes an evening walk a bit before sunset very pleasant. Although I don't mind walking alone -- I like to take in my surroundings -- it's also nice to walk with someone else.

20 dates for under 20 dollars

20 dates for under 20 dollars. In case anyone was wondering, I came across these via Digg, not browsing Yahoo Personals. I was pretty excited when I saw the title because I thought all 20 dates would come out to a total of under $20, or an average of $1 each! Alas, I think they mean each date is under $20.

In any case, we have done the following in the Los Angeles area:

2. Go to a museum -- The Getty, where we actually joined up one night that they had a free lesson in figure drawing and we practiced on sculptures

4. Go on a romantic hike -- Well, we may not have been on a romantic hike, per se, but we have been hiking and we go for evening walks around the neighborhood.

6. Beat the heat with an ice cream date -- Yes, we do eat ice cream.

11. Stroll through the botanical garden -- Huntington Library has beautiful gardens, and Alex particularly likes succulents. (Free to visitors the first Thursday of every month.)

13. Build a bonfire -- We used to do fires in the fireplace when Alex lived with one, but I expect it would be nice to do an evening bonfire at the beach. It probably wouldn't be worth it unless we had a bigger group though.

We could but haven't really:

12. been bowling -- Since there's a bowling alley down the street from where we live, there's not really a good excuse (besides Wii Sports bowling).

15. paint pottery together -- This is pretty specific, but I think the idea of making stuff together more generally would be nice.

running late -- how to catch a flight

LAX Motion
Originally uploaded by bullish1974.

I haven't solved the mystery of what happened to my alarm on Saturday morning -- whether I turned it off without realizing or never set it correctly in the first place. I used a travel alarm clock that I rarely use because my phone provides a sufficient alarm. For some reason I decided that leaving my phone off and using the travel alarm instead would save me some battery.

Some thoughts re: catching a flight at the last minute:

1. Ultimately, it's probably bad to have this additional positive reinforcement after showing up at the airport so late. This only increases the likelihood that I will be slow in getting to the airport next time when I figure I can make it. (Though the intentionality of it is questionable, we have certainly done it before).
2. The extra hour of sleep was probably worth it, since we'd gone to bed only about 5 hours earlier. Saturday was a long session-filled day at ICA 2007, the conference I was attending, and I barely made it through the party USC was hosting from 7-9pm.
3. 3. Things that undoubtedly helped me make the flight (besides Alex waking me up):

• online check-in and printing my boarding pass on Friday night
• having everything packed and ready to go
• trying to make a Saturday morning 7:15 flight -- any other time would have more traffic in LA
  
• having a driver ready to drop me off curbside (and the fact that we're close to the airport)
  
• the sense of possibility and urgency that Alex instilled when he dropped me off curbside and explained, "If you're going to make it, you've got to be pushy and make it to the front of the line. Tell people that your flight is boarding and you need to go." The woman checking boarding passes and ID before the security lines told me to cut to the front.
  
• not needing to check any bags -- only taking carry-ons
• my willingness and ability to run -- though dressed for the conference, I wore running shoes (I typically do). The fact that I've been running more lately and improving my speed and capacity undoubtedly helped. I heard an announcement for my flight's final boarding call as I sprinted (as much as possible while wheeling a suitcase behind) through Terminal 5.
  

I don't recommend making a regular habit of cutting in line, but some of the other aspects certainly helped. I intend to keep my running practiced.

Arex previously blogged some tips on how to get through security checkpoints quickly.

* photo LAX Motion Originally uploaded by bullish1974

Getting a parking un-ticket in L.A.

Since living in Los Angeles (I'm going on 8 years now), I have definitely gotten my share of parking violations. Between morning street cleaning in Westwood, Palms, USC, and Mar Vista; expired meters at UCLA and USC; one ticket for parking against a red curb (I parked late at night and didn't see); and one ticket for parking on Vermont in Koreatown into rush hour (I didn't think lunch would last that long), I would be a whole lot wealthier were it not for my careless non-driving.

So after leaving campus on Monday last week, as I approached my car from up the street, I was definitely not shocked when I noticed that a small, white envelope had been tucked under my windshield wiper. Usually I know when I may be unlucky because I've been kept late and my parking meter has probably expired, so I started to become confused and angry at L.A. and myself.

I extracted the envelope and examined the paper inside, scanning it in attempt to determine my fault. Imagine the pleasant surprise and relief when I found a reminder from my Figueroa Corridor Community Ambassador informing me that my radio faceplate being visable (sic) might lead to a future car break-in. Various sorts of crimes occur with some frequency in the area immediately surrounding USC. I was regularly reminded of this by the weekly (or more) crime report emails sent to USC until I set up a filter to remove them from my inbox.

What the Figueroa Corridor Partnership is doing to try to prevent car break-ins seems helpful and interesting, although I wonder about how effective it will be in deterring car crimes. Though this completely anecdotal, I am the worst when it comes to protecting my car from break-ins. I regularly go to my car to realize that I have left it unlocked, I have left my window half-way rolled down, my wallet sitting on the passenger seat, or similar things. As far as I know, my car has never been broken into. I have friends whose cars, on the other hand, have been broken into multiple times. Alex's car was broken into (stereo and other things stolen) when he had parked in my apartment complex's gated, locked garage. His stereo was fancier than mine, but his car also looks like a kicked-in aluminum can. My CD player doesn't work, although you wouldn't be able to tell just looking at it.

I'm unlikely to remove my radio face plate as a result of the un-ticket notice, but getting one does make me feel like the area around USC is a little bit friendlier.