Downtown LA Walkabout #4

I can't remember the last time I woke up at 6:00 AM on a Saturday morning when it didn't involve Search and Rescue. I didn't even set an alarm, but when I woke up and rolled over it was just a few minutes after six. I am really enjoying this early rising thing. I used to think I was more productive at night, but now that I'm getting up early I realize that I am actually a more effective worker in the morning.

As I mentioned the other day, I've been following the Zen Habits morning routine, although instead of fixing lunches for the kids, I feed the cats. I have also started getting ready for my day before I go to bed, again per Zen Habit's recommendations. I have really been enjoying the last point, reading myself to bed.

Today after breakfast I went for a brisk 45 minute walk around Downtown Los Angeles. I brought my camera along, and here are a few of the photos I shot:

You can check the rest of my Downtown LA Walkabout #4 photos here.

BarCampLA 4 : Geek Portraits

Here is a selection of the portraits I shot at BarCampLA4:

Richard M. Stallman (RMS)

Dan Kaminksy

Jhonen Vasquez [wikipedia]

Penelope Bullock

Eliot Phillips

Daniel Hengeveld and Zoetica

Ori Neidich

Xeni Jardin

Mack Reed

Crystal Williams

Eric Richardson

Heather Vescent

You can check out the rest of the photo here in my BarcampLA4 gallery.

Bassrush, Tesla Coils, Robots and Fire Pods : Coachella Saturday : Part 4

I ended up falling asleep before these were done uploading, but here is my final set from Saturday:

4 LA Things

Jim tagged me [as did Shannon] so here we go:

• Four Jobs I’ve Had In My Life in LA:
  • * Equipment Reducer @ Los Alamos Sales Co. AKA the Black Hole (Los Alamos is technically an LA)
  • * Sr. Web Programmer @ World Industries (actually in El Segundo)
  • * Sr. Web Programmer @ America's Printer (actually in Buena Park)
  • * Programmer / Freelance Handyman @ eecue [my consulting company]
• Four Movies About LA I Could Watch Over And Over:
  • * Blade Runner
  • * Chinatown
  • * Falling Down
  • * Pulp Fiction / Reservoir Dogs / Jackie Brown [3 way tie]
• Four Places I’ve Lived All Over L.A. (With Food Memories From Each):
  • * Long Beach on Anaheim & Orizaba - only recently I've been back to the area and I tried Joe Josts which rocks.. I like pickled eggs
  • * Long Beach on Broadway & Redondo - Coco Renos has great shrimp burritos
  • * Hollywood - Koji's at H&H is good.
  • * Downtown LA - too many to list... watch my blog for more!
• Four LA-Themed Shows I Love(d) To Watch:
  • * The Shield
  • * Three's Company
  • * Sleeper Cell
  • * The Monkees
• Four Places I Would Vacation At In LA:
  • * New Otani Hotel
  • * The Standard Downtown
  • * Hollywood Hills in a mansion
  • * Catalina Island
• Four LA-Based Websites I Visit Daily [with my RSS reader]:
  • * blogging.la
  • * blogdowntown
  • * laist
  • * lavoice
• Four Of My Favorite Foods Found In LA:
  • * Natto and Mountain Yam @ Suehiro
  • * Coconut Seafood Soup @ Sanamluang
  • * Delmonico @ LA Prime
  • * Danger Dogs
• Four Places In LA I Would Rather Be Right Now:
  • * My Loft in Downtown
  • * Huntington Gardens
  • * In my fiance's arms
  • * In the Mojave desert (not quite LA there)
• Tagged:
  • * Peneloper
  • * Brian Humphrey
  • * Don Garza
  • * Eric Garcetti
• Permalink
• Comments

Los Angeles From an Auto part 4

This edition in the series of scans from the 1906 electric coach tour guide entitled Los Angeles From an "Auto" takes us deeper into the Old Chinese Quarter and then to the original heart of the city, when it was just a tiny Spanish pueblo. This portion of the book is less of an advertisement for the hotels of Downtown and more of a glimpse into the unique history of the City of Angels. In case you missed them, the first three sections can be found here: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Check out the google map which shows the locations of the buildings shown in the guide along with a few (soon to me many) photos of the buildings as they exist today. The engravings from this section will be posted soon thanks to the historical address finding wizardry of Eric Richardson, who has already helped find several of the addresses for the map.

UPDATE The story has been boingboinged[oops they said 1909 instead of 1906] fixed... thanks Cory!

Looks like it has also been picked up on blogging.la and gridskipper

OC Hacking Summit IV - No Protection version 4

For the last three years we have brought you panels of security experts from
some of the members of the most elite hacker groups in Southern California.
This year we present the Orange County Hacking Summit IV - No Protection
version 2.003. This year we will be presenting some of the best and
brightest security engineers and hackers of the So Cal hacking and computer
underground community.