I found my own personal pigeon friend.

 Yesterday, when I was out feeding the pigeons, I noticed that one of the pigeons stayed behind, while the other birds left, after their meal. He was puffy feathered, which indicated that he might be under the weather. I tried picking him up, and, surprisingly, he let me pick him up. 

I'm not sure why he's not flying away, but I took him to another pigeon-feeding spot, and I let him wander around, with the new pigeons, and, after their meal, he let me pick him up, again, so I took him home. 

He's an adorable puffy pigeon. He slept next to my bed, and I gave him a water dish and some cookie crumbs, while I'm out, for the day. 

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep him, for the long term, just yet. I have to figure out if his condition is temporary, or not, and see if he stops letting me pick him up, after a few days, or so. He seems fairly healthy, aside from the puffy feathers, and he might make a good housed pigeon, for me to keep. 

Update: the pigeon succumbed to whatever was ailing him, and he passed away, 2 nights ago. I had one day with him, which was nice :)

Some fond memories of my adorable little black puffy pigeon:

If you're interested in adopting (purchasing) your own personal pigeon friend, yourself, I recommend Farid's Pet Shop, at the corner of 6th at Maple in Skid Row, Downtown Los Angeles. He has a variety of pigeons, from time to time, and he currently has some pigeons (Late October, 2024) in stock, I saw them just yesterday. It's a good start to establishing your own small pigeons and avian pet friends hobby, with hand-feeding the young, as the next step in having a tame bird as a pet. As you can see, pigeons are adorable birds!

The return of Snooker, and pigeon pox, amongst the Central Library flock.

Readers who have been following along, recently, would recall that Snooker had been missing from the DTLA Central Library's pigeon flock, whereas he had been a favorite amongst the pigeons, there, since he is a uniquely-colored bird, and, therefore, important to the flock's genetic development in to becoming fancy birds, as a Pakistani High Flyer breed pigeon. 

I noticed that Snooker had finally returned to his regular perch, after seeming to be absent for over a week, from the Library flock.

Snooker was the first, amongst the flock, today, to swoop down and await their meal. I had peanut butter and jelly with marshmallow creme sandwiches and water ready for them, today, and I'd been on the lookout for Snooker to return, since it would seem unlikely that he would go missing, permanently. 

The DTLA Los Angeles Public Library Central Branch's pigeon ledge, out on 5th St, featuring the pigeon flock.

Another update, with regards to the flock, is that another bird had caught pigeon pox, which appears to be the name of the condition wherein the infected birds develop large ulcers on their non-feathered portions of their face and head area, such as their ear holes. The pigeon pox outbreak seems to be infecting the younger birds, mostly, and there's two, in this flock, that are affected, currently. Thankfully, the infection is said to not seem to bother the birds, much, except that the wart-like growths could potentially detriment the birds' vision. 

One of the birds which have contracted pigeon pox. Notice the bump on the birds' head, and the protruding lumps on the sides of the face.

A rear view on the same bird (center), with the protrusion clearly visible.

Another view of the affected bird, feeding amongst the rest of the flock. 

This condition has been affecting only several birds, and it is the first year, in seven years, that I have noticed the condition appearing in the pigeon flocks, locally. One explanation could be the presence of rats, living nearby the pigeons, and, being that the rats have to search much harder to gain food, in general, the rodents are, conceivably, more susceptible to harboring infectious diseases. Rats had also shown up at the library flock's feeding pen, which is a dirt planting area, for decoration, beneath the ledge, where the birds spend their days. I had also seen the condition affect another bird, all the way on the other side of downtown Los Angeles, nearby Venice at Main, where I do recyclables returns at the recycling center, there, underneath the freeway. 

It's a good thing that Snooker is back. In addition to being an attractively-colored bird, he is also making a reputation for himself of being one of the flock's leaders, being that he has successfully mated with another pigeon. Oftentimes, Snooker would be observed overlooking the rest of the flock's meal time, whereas he would stand aside, and simply watch, at times. 

Twice the number of pigeons showed up at the DTLA Central Library, today.

Today, when I showed up to feed the pigeons at the Los Angeles Public Library's Central Branch, there was a longer-than-expected line of pigeons perched at the ledge, where the typical flock of pigeons hang out, while they wait for their meal. Not a huge problem, since I had a whole loaf of buttered bread, enough for two flocks, or more, already, along with me, for the birds' daily meal.

Today, at the library, there were nearly twice the amount of pigeons that had shown up. 

Some of the long(er) row of pigeons that I encountered, while visiting the library, today.

I had initially encountered this influx of refugee pigeons several blocks over, on Broadway at 7th, where some new street construction had just cleared, and the streets had opened up with new bike lanes. Being that the birds were there, they were potentially seeking out better meal accommodations, and I'd fed them some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I recall, possibly giving the birds there an inclination of that they could spot some better fare in a different part of town, being that they had gone searching, to begin with. These new birds had ostensibly discovered the flock already perched at the Library's famous pigeon ledge, and, collectively, saw an opportunity - a possibility for a tastier meal ticket, to come, if they wait, alongside the birds, and figure out why the flock sits perched, there: which, of course, would garner them access to my feeding services, and hence, I gave them all a meal, and a drink of water.

"Snooker," the resident Pakistani High Flyer pigeon of the library (in white, below), was a bit visible anxious, being that a near-doppelganger, similarly white, (but not quite decorated with a Pakistani High Flyer's mottled plumage), was amongst the new faces in the crowd, and, as such, he was the first amongst all of the birds present to swoop down, in order to receive the day's meal.

Snook, snook! With all of the new birds present, some of the birds (including Snooker, the Pakistani High Flyer, pictured here), experience some anxiety over whether or not they'll all be fed the same amount of food.

Quickly, a crowd arrives, awaiting a meal, along with some water, provided along with the buttered cinnamon sugar bread I had prepared, for the day.

Being the only Pakistani High Flyer pigeon, amongst the darker-feathered pigeons, it may have been a bit unnerving that a similarly-colored pigeon had shown up, causing Snooker to be a bit neurotic. Nonetheless, I made sure to feed all of the birds present a sufficient meal and drink to fill their bellies. There is also another bird at crisis' amongst the regulars in the flock. He has a swollen face; I'd suppose that he got some kind of skin condition, or perhaps he was picked on, although that started a couple of weeks ago, and he's doing better, now.

This poor bird, so far unnamed, was another recent addition to the Central Library's numbers of pigeons. He had shown up, from miles away (I believe; I had spotted another pigeon with nearly the same skin condition, the day prior to him showing up, here, under the freeway, with some other birds). It would be a miraculous thing, if he had somehow found his way to this flock, from out of being virtually blinded by the swelling on his face, now seen through to a nearly full recovery, at this point. 

At the end of the meal, all of the birds' anxieties and worries over being fed, for the day, end up satisfactorily dealt with, after a tasty meal had served them all.

Today's mealtime was more crowded than typical. Will tomorrow see the same new birds show up? 

It's a heat wave out there, being that it's summertime, so I guess I ought to touch up on these other flocks of birds, in town, as my focus, over the next and upcoming weeks, since I offer the birds water, along with their bread, when I feed them, to ensure that they get sufficient hydration in their food regimens.

I finally got my room clean; it's midsummer, 2024.

 I have some undisclosed projects in the works and making, in here, and the management wanted me to do a way with my crumbs; I thought, "impossible, my crumbs, even?" But yeah, they were serious about it. I was laid up, in bed, since, like, the 12th, or something, but I finally got it done, come the 28th. I had a particularly hurt back, and it was a major undoing, since I would have gone to the hospital, yet I really could only barely get up to use the restroom, for at least a week. Thankfully, I got a considerate extension on cleaning up my room. It hadn't really been such a case, with former places, where I'd been housed. 

Anyways, I'm trying to maintain (or, establish) my standardized sort of outgoing performance expectation, for a given work day, which is generally every day, in many cases, because I have upkeep and novel distractive expenses pop up, and, on that note, I'll disclose a not-so-secret divertimento of my inner psychological aspirations - I kind of play mock-up pop up shop tables against my inhibitions, but this month's (upcoming month, that is) would-have-been (supposedly) opportunity, for a person to set up pop up shop stuff comes too early, before, well, every month, it comes early. I have to get used to that, but only "just maybe." I think that the local economy won't stomach that one, all that much - the street farers. There's brick and mortar establishments that are at feature, in this context. 

Anyways, I felt that I could use some help, bolstering my purpose and self-esteem, about someday doing a street side pop up thing, or, perhaps, it would be somewhere "outta town..." because, well, I just estimate that people would be like that, out here - otherwise preoccupied and taken care of, well enough to not entertain the local... hmm. What's my flavor of homeless person, now? I'd have to consider. "I still know that this guy is still, even recently, a hard-core trash-diggin'." A treasure hunting bum, still, lately. But I bought a new jacket, this past month - that's why things are different. 

This is the breakdown of my wish list of expenses; I'm mostly interested in the 5 major fragrance ingredients that I'll be procuring, ostensibly, for individual, small-container retail. But, actually, the zeolite is pretty exciting, also, if you know zeolite. I can't divulge the source, outright - perhaps you'll be fortunate in discovering it, in some way, as I'd also discovered it.

I've been in the habit of assembling a picky-picky wish list of expenses, month in, and month out, recently. This one is my latest.

What are you guys allocating your funds towards, this summer? For the welfare demographic, it's all about the day that the benefits come in, and, as for myself, I've been doing a fragrances haul. These would be a lovely scent experience, for the passersby <_<... something like that. If I could do some things better, I would, but I'm nearly just suitably "packed," or chock full of as much as I'd like to have, of fragrance resources, for my marketing persona development cycle to have run its course, in this sort of thing. I'll be better next month, I figure, and I'm getting there, little by little.

Thanks for reading!

iPigeon.institute turns 7, officially.

 Yesterday marked the 7th anniversary of this website's founding. I nearly had it aligned with my readers' 200,000th visit to iPigeon.institute. Thanks for all of the support, throughout the years, and still, on such an ongoing basis. I feel that this year will see some exciting developments in the website's offerings, as I'm learning to manage product developments at scale, and my primary support systems are well in place.  

Thanks again! 🤯🤧🎂

I landed as the 199,177th hit on my blog, here, in anticipation of reaching 200,000 hits, soon.

Pigeon-watching hotspots to see in town - # 1: The 7th at Metro Station Pigeon Family.

Here in Los Angeles, pigeons that frequent Metro rail stations are generally nothing new, but don't these novel and sometimes adventuresome pigeons make the stations something out of a storybook? They get to live in the stations, at all times, even in the off-hours. It's a trade off - of convenience, for being housed, so to speak, for security and warmth, essentially. 

2024's 7th at Metro baby pigeon, out at night, looking for a bite to eat. 

His parents roost nearby, overseeing his safety and progress in development. 

In this case, a (literal) small family of pigeons roosts at what could be considered some of the most illustrious of locales in Downtown Los Angeles, CA, with beautifully crafted skyscrapers and trendy malls, all within a block, or so. It's a great place to start out, as a Downtown visitor, and these pigeons serve as (sometimes) nightly ambassadors. Take, for example, baby pigeon, standing there, on his own, in the middle of the sidewalk. He's waiting to see some breadcrumbs tossed at him, or perhaps, some pieces of sweet pastries, or seeds. Baby pigeon is currently in the "sweet baby" stage, where the baby has not yet been abused, and hopefully that will last. 

The pigeon family, here at the 7th and Metro Station, has the tradition, and tourist attraction feature of being night owls. This feature about this small and peculiar family of birds makes for a great nighttime stop, to check and see if the birds are out on the sidewalk, or perching nearby the escalators, where they roost at night. A night owl showing of pigeons is always an exciting sort of bird to observe, since they'd become comfortable in socializing amongst their human caretakers, at odd hours. Being that this street intersection is such a well-known metropolitan foot traffic hotspot, this pigeon's roost serves as a testament to urban avian wildlife's potential; as ambassadors: for nature and for recreation, both. 

Checking in: What’s happening, and what’s there to look forward to, at iPigeon.institute.

 I’d been a bit absent, lately, 

in recent months. This has been due to personal difficulties, on account of various things:

• Back and neck pain
• Budgeting challenges
• Poor weather
• Perceived, or actual threats, to my personal security
• Persona developments
• Remote sensing acquisitions of my time

The truth is, I’d become a bit apathetic, and worry-worn, due to constant challenges and negativity surrounding me, essentially drawing a dark cloud over previous years, in which I’d had eccentric bursts of creativity and prolific resource of novelty and humor. These days, I find it difficult to drum up the same personal rapport and morale, being that the situations suppose, even more than I’d experienced, previously, since I began suffering from bouts of hearing persecutors voices, and from then until now - largely, now, have a distinctive dark taint of familiarity, amongst the characters whom present themselves to me, as harassers, which envelops my subconscious mood and fears of ever establishing yet another dysfunctional relationship, that I bring myself in to.

To be sure, it’s mostly guys that do this to me. With women, I’m much more optimistic, of that they could be “fixed,” perhaps, if necessary, or set aright, in some manner, if it came to that - it’s just sort of a feeling, more than that anything’s materialized; encounters with females are scarce, and not much of anything, although I have been feeling sparks of inspiration, in romance, in recent days and weeks, I’d suppose, and I guess that I’ve been working myself up to dipping my toes in the water, once again, so to speak. It’s a raw deal, that I run, being that I’m fraught with such a defensive and secluded personality framework spectrum of “possible” me’s, which I could make available, and secure some kind of workable sociability profile, for a lady, being that I’m picky, I’ve got formative standards and boundaries set for myself - I don’t tolerate much of any kind of conflict, or distaste, or aversion, to something that’s “not right,” or worse, in a relationship setting, being that I’m a very high 99th percentile degree of honest, and forthcoming, in life, I “don’t smoke (any drugs),” I’m very much present, in the moment, when it comes to opportunities to judge people, and on top of that, my neurotic spectrum of tendencies is still of that I’m generally shy, not much really capable of coming up with a right way to casually wedge my way in to some young lady’s life, and circumstances, and, furthermore, I’m somewhat expected to not even try to date, while on the job, for various reasons and rationale:

• I’m a bum
• My clothes are oftentimes messy
• Sometimes I sweat a lot
• I have a bunch of baggage - literal, bum and pigeon-feeding bum sorts of carry-along baggage
• My nose leaks and drips, endlessly
• I feel like crap, as far as limber qualities - I carry a lot of bags, as I’d mentioned
• A lot of people (women) could run circles around me, in socialization standards
• I’m there for the pigeons, and I can’t afford to look like a creep
• It’s a better trade-off, to be silent, keep to myself, and persist, in feeding pigeons
• I run a strictly fairly conservative Christian Protestant profile, of not much talk, or socializing
• I just keep to myself
• I have to protect my iPad Pro
• Sometimes, I feel like people are following me
• I have people making appearances in my mind, all the time
• I feel like some people definitely don’t like me, categorically, and sometimes, they show up, in town
• I feel like it would look funny, or scandalous, if I somehow materialized some kind of idealized female counterpart, at my side
• People put my personal private time at issue, and they criticize ostensible things that I do (or not)
• I have to do a sit-in job, while out and about, of performing licensed talk and behavioral therapist, marriage and family therapist, some sort of amalgamated public and mental health capacity type of fill-in, sort of work profile, lumped in
• Maybe these are just the “toilet can years” of this pigeon-feeding gig’s enterprise

The importance of classical music education.

Oftentimes, 

I’m issued an obscure, yet demanding task - to contend against invisible adversaries who speak down towards me, in my mind. Far be it from me to feign the belief of that everyone can understand my plight, and dilemma, yet I feel that there is a strong subset demographic operating amongst us, who secretly, and intently, contribute to this obfuscation of the facts (plus more), as singular, or collective, remote sensing interlopers. 

On one hand, some contingent factors must be kept in mind, at all times - one of them, is the understanding, and expectation of that not “everyone,” per se, would reasonably be included within any off-hand remote sensing event, or experience. In other words, it’s important that observants, subjects (of focus), and or participants in remote sensing occurrences keep the potential for grandiosity to flourish in check. Similarly, I commonly observe that some participants, in remote sensing events, at times, brazenly disregard the genera public, and the potential for their communications and participation to fall upon unintended audiences’ “ears,” or, more rightly, their “minds,” since these are aural experiences, perceptually, yet they can not be recorded, via conventional technology means, at least, at the consumer level, at this point in time (March, 2023). 

Other considerations aside, what a tragedy it is, that many people are wrongfully wrought up, in to cult-like sects of sadistic ritual abusers. It’s an unimaginable travesty. 

Rather than focus on this type of occurrence, as a phenomenon, I’d rather maintain objectivity, and rationality, yet the aforementioned dilemma largely prefaces my current underlying circumstances in life, as I find writing to be a self- and identity-affirming practice, through the process of composition, in and of itself, and I largely only get around to writing, textually, these days, although I do make some small gains, here and there, for upcoming and developing musical projects and works to be derived, later on, from future practice and learning, within a musical context. 

Music is truly one of the fundamental intelligences; to be certain (although, this is a time in which shoddy journalistic and publishing practices dominate former standards in intelligence; therefore, valid information of our youth’s learning and education becomes much more of a challenge to discover, for reference, on the internet). Recent seminal works had documented musical intelligence as one of the 9 primary areas of intelligence, for example. We must not diverge our resources available to us, and cast them to the wind, so to speak, by allowing inferior intelligence streams, whether it be our own search patterns, on the internet, or through our news feeds. Yet, this being the case, it’s somewhat all a fluke, given that musical intelligence is something of various forms of virtue - hand-eye coordination, memory and recall plays a significant role in performing and in thinking about music, fine motor muscle skills are developed, through musical training, and musical practice assumes a disciplined lifestyle and household, to at least some degree, in order for musical learning to take place, and take hold, in the mind. 

Much of many people’s discontent and “acting out,” which I find to be prevalent, in my most near-to-me proximity (or, for that matter, as commonplace, in my remote sensing event occurrences, lately) border upon suggestions of modeling of society, itself, now, as an anarchistic domain, to become developed. Are we in our end times, for the sake of a lack of trying to do better? There’s very much a large helping of apathy, amidst discontent, whereas music, whether it be experiencing live or recorded musical pieces, or through practicing and playing music, oneself, both in solitude, and amongst others of a musical inclination. There seems to be so much detrimental, in attitudes about society at large, as a suitable “victim” for one’s own inequities and shortcomings, in life, whereas, I feel that music would fulfill that gap, and need, in life, which we all have, and that being said, it is a blessed offering to ourselves, our wellbeing, and for others. 

Downtown Los Angeles’ new pigeon babies - season by season (Updating: 2022 - *)

In most cases,

A typical pigeon that a person would come across is simply a standard pigeon. Over he years, however, with some dedication, investment, and care, the creatures become slightly diversified, of their physical appearance, in various ways. Here, in this article, I’ll document some of the images of the young, whom I can identify, of the season’s offerings of pigeon and sparrow babies, of some notable distinction in their appearance, compared to the standard varieties of wild pigeons or sparrows that are to be found, as adults - whom may, themselves, be newly homed or released birds, whereas I also attempt to manage the general day-to-day presence and feeding of the birds, within the Downtown Los Angeles area. I’m beginning this documentation at the end of May, 2022, a well-enough point in the season for babies to have hatched, been fed in the nest, by their parents, and now, they’re capable of getting out and about, and they’re capable of feeding themselves. They would also have taken on enough plumage to demonstrate their fully-adult appearances. 

2022 - Doe eyes and soft pastels, and a squirrel pigeon.

During this season, at the end of May, when I began documenting these birds, for the season’s developments, in the birds’ appearance, I noticed that some of the young, whom I could identify as fledgling pigeons or sparrows, had taken on some development around the eyes, as more pronounced, or outlined - in some cases, nearly decorative and cosmetic changes had seemed to have become established. On one hand, my task management capability here in town is somewhat a quite broad and challenging effort to fulfill - I’ve gotten up my daily small-localities visitations up to a definite 5 areas, whereas there are easily perhaps anywhere from 75-200 or so birds that show up to eat. Some breeders and pigeon specialists are capable of establishing very regimented and impressive defined features in their birds, such as alternating feather color on the wings, for example, but I’m not particularly going for that type of establishment, in these birds - mostly just focusing on keeping them fed. One of the challenges is that the birds seem to be getting poached, or targeted, for capture and abuse - I currently had recently taken in “Virgil,” so-called, a pigeon whom I found, out on the street, about a week ago. I found him with string, hair, and a metal spring tied around both of his feet, and fortunately, I was able to win his trust, take him home, and assist him, as best I could, in removing the objects that were binding his feet, although his skin was already very inflamed around the trauma areas, and the string bound the skin deeply, more than I cared to injure the pigeon with, in attempting to remove the string any further. 

June 2022: Cheetah zazzles and more doe-eyed pigeons.

Three doe-eyed pigeons; one, perhaps, a parent.

How to [or who to]…? pick a post-pandemic (Delta variant timescale) - persona, for success.

 Let’s face it.

How rude a statement would that be, for someone? 

People are scrambling to avoid being caught in the crosshairs of propagandist ideation sublingual suggestive peripheries from taking hold of our young socialite upstart aspirations and takeovers, however distant and fartlorn we are, away from the nation’s capital, all the way at the other end of the country. Thankfully, in Los Angeles, the heatwaves haven’t been all too severe, and if it feels like it,

A fallen Japanese beetle, at the foot of an ominous, shadowy figure.

 

it probably is an infrared beam of “spotted you, eh?”

 

sorts of “dun, dun, dun…” 

how could a person possibly shake that sort of fate, and come out unscathed? I get scared, all the time. It’s always gangland wars, voices in my head, and sometimes, things, of all things, seem to become unseemly familiar, as far as that I feel I can identify people doing these things to me and my loved ones, and I can’t (usually) find a typology alter ego and spiritual boost timely and well enough to propel me in to quite, understanding and empathizing with what they claim is going on, in my life, and amongst people I’ve known, or my family, for example. 

I feel that some people take the concept of familiarity as appropriate grounds for dysfunctional catharsis to break ground and egotism platforming au contraire, for the sake of the fact that I… I just don’t do stuff like that. They’re the ones that are mad at me. 

Who could I possibly be, or have been, in order to not have become placed amongst these bingers on drugs type of judgmental and persecutory figurative individuals whom I’d known, or know, or some sort of vagueness that develops beyond scarcity of identity exchange, this being the remote sensing medium of communications and self | identity transmissions. It’s big, in Los Angeles. We do big things, out here, and some of us are without apologies or excuses for how, who, why, and what, and where? It happens to be, out here, that people are as slight as the breezes out here, in the hot summer nights. 

Just don’t… just - just… nah, you just really ought not to… I’d say. There’s something that sounded like screaming outside. I should go and check on it. Goodbye. 

Never mind. I don’t know… and then, South L.A. has been making lots of news stories happen, recently. 

Hmm. Sorry, I’m still adapting to this concept of that I am (just slightly) having my content served on Google News.

I was thinking that the hobbyist parfumerie enthusiast thing was the thing, for me, but I’ve got to be agile and swift, and I can’t do all things, or all people, and I can’t much solve my own problems, lately, because I don’t really know just who is doing what, and how I could better gain people’s good side. 

The JoyBuy miniature misting fan thing is blowing up, now that it’s summer. I bought four of them, and I think that some of them were broken by someone else, playing with the crumbs and knickknacks of my room.

Then there was idiot deluxe, the most everything guy (or lady), butt shittle, definitely, it would be ladies and gentlemen’s only - prowess, to become: the one who says the most iconically irreverent fwopp.

The put-off slight home exhibition, of the iPigeon.institute art effects and fragrance-making collection: the stand-off days.

 Days and night, on end. 

No regard, whatsoever, for typical formalities, I’m becoming aware of, of the casual “village idiot” for the crumbs and knickknacks offer of playing around in my closet; this notion-deprecation had instilled itself as permeably “aught could be” more respectable, of a generalized notion, in that the general public might also appreciate patronizing the art collection and collected documents and transcripts of the early days of establishment of my iPigeon.institute pigeon-feeding enterprise, of a story based upon a travails anecdote of a guy who “made it work” in Los Angeles, through dedicating time to taking care of others (the pigeons), while making his (or her) way out of homelessness, and the pitfalls and shortcomings incurred, in establishing sociable currency and relevance, amongst the common people, and their good graces, in the land of fables, of greater Los Angeles, turn of the 3rd millennium. 

Yesterday ended up being a strange standoff kind of day, where I was stuck on pwsshh… fwipp - smashhhhing people with the iPad Pro, busy with it sort of thing that I’d established, while the stranger next door was completely keeping to himself, sort of thing, although I must say, of on pissless shift he must have been pulling, of some sort. There was this notion of a constant threat, of my room’s security being defiled, on consequence of enforcing an of on pissless - the identity and embodiment, thereof - the guy. It’s typically mostly always a guy, except that the bwipsies eccentric girl had murmured some unintelligible notions, of that she finds herself cute, and then - some other stuff, of an intimation of that there’s something that needs to be done out somewhere else, such as at some place that I couldn’t really hear her say, as her defining traits. I figured that she just can’t compose herself as formatively congenial enough, of an impetuous sub-superficial need to be shameless and un-humble towards me; I figure it’s because she’s discovered things about me online, and she doesn’t care to admit it. She’s never give, me her name. She’s kind of borderline like that, and she was framed, towards me, recently, of that she had shown up to play with my fragrance ingredients collections, as the village idiot, for the crumbs and knickknacks notion that I had flouted, although these people constantly flout the rules as dismissible, of that there be some tacit agreement and supervision involved in the village idiot indulging themselves around aerosol-industry sort of slight manufacturing environment, that it is. 

Could they possibly seem just simply better, for skirting the premise of speaking to me about it, whatsoever, for … I dunno. I just see worse of them, and for that matter, it’s not everyone who appears to have been framed in this particular manner, leverages upon this fragrance ingredients thing. It implies  a gross notion of childishness and entitlement, and worser things tend to come snowballing out of that establishment, quite easily.

Sweating it out, after having been a stark schizotypal paranoid one, in a mid-day’s hot water and medicinal oils-infused bath tub.

It’s slim pickings, at the end of my food supply, for the Figueroa at 4th underpass pigeons, today.

I'm at the end of my food supply for the birds, out here, in Downtown Los Angeles, and it's been a rough patch for this flock,over the past week, in my care and watch over them, which I'd been making sure to get to. I do 4 flock areas, in Downtown Los Angeles, when I come out here.

(Update): I had recalled that I found a container of some sort of rich beef soup, and I gave it to them. This past week, it seemed as that there might have been some people present, in the nearby vicinity, and the birds weren't perching at their regular location, in a notch, under the underpass bridge. The birds were super excited to get some food in them, as this spot is most typically my last stop, in visiting the birds of DTLA.

The At-Home Parfumerie - How to mix like a semi-pro.

 After procuring a shelf-rack, or so, of fragrance ingredients of your choice and specialty, it’s time to employ “interval-mixing” in to the creative and manufacturing process.

The iPigeon.institute slight return shelf rack of perfumer’s ingredients, essential oils, and aroma molecules.

Making a simple “natural” smelling fragrance is not difficult - just purchase expensive and high-quality ingredients. But, in order to attain the scent profile of a higher-end cologne for men, for example, it requires some ingenuity in the logistics of “what’s going on | in” the fragrance. 

My mixing palette | my working process. I tried out what I would call “interval mixing,” which capitalizes on the notions of the deeper underlying chemistry behind the individual ingredients.

On one hand, the fragrance ought never quite completely fall out, from the bottom, itself, in to a poor-smelling thing. If you’d done this, don’t dump it - it’s largely against the law, internationally, and it’s poor morals. Instead, just save the fragmented artifact of manufacture, as a token partial that could be returned to, that might slightly fulfill some future need, even it it’s just drops of the stuff.

On my most current excursion and creation, however, I managed to deftly control the flow of creating a fragrance, with a collection number of ingredients totaling about 100, or so, give or take, without having created a poor-smelling product, which had been how many of my attempts to create a distinctly masculine-smelling fragrance product had turned out. I’d been getting some tips, through nightly searches about the facets and characteristics of ingredients, their expected percentage fill, of the entirety of a composition (fragrance or parfum base - which, in and of itself, take up perhaps 15-30% of the bottle, and the rest is water and alcohol (40-50%) and perhaps the rest of the fill is made up of quick notes, nuances, clean-ups, and touch-ups with essential oils, terpenes, crystals, musks, colors, etc.).

I wanted to do a men’s fragrance that was light-feeling, syrupy sweet, yet rich in savory background, such as that it would entice the olfactory sense’s relationship with the visceral and primal urges of hunger, upon encountering it. Easily gourmand, yet imagining a rich and eloquent debouter of enterprise and establishment to follow - picture a starving population, for example; yet many people refuse to eat, when offered food, or when found asking for charity. What could spark and inspire their neglected self-care better than a timely happenstance passersby encounter, on the street? What better disposition could there be, alongside the context being well-fed, in the American way? (or French, in nature, as I sometimes refer to). 

The secret to my creative process, in this instance, was to come up with a decent enough floral base - I chose Narcissus, in this instance, with 3-4 or so full and generous squirts from the dropper, although just 1, to begin with, in a pool of perfumer’s alcohol, in the bottle. 

Then I started to work my way around the fragrance’s underlying inspiration, which would be a light, crisp, and refreshing citrus assertion, for which I used some terpene ingredients, such as Limonene D. There was kumquat oil, as well. After this stage, I went back to tradition and rounded off the composition, as it was, with Lavandin Grosso. Then I grabbed my powders and crystals, to musky up the scent, and ground it, with concentrated force. I employed Ambroxan to ground out this first stage. 

The next phase I went in to was to add the primary natural characteristics that would shape the quality facets and natural appeal factor of the fragrance, using primarily essential oils, at this stage. I used Ginger CO2 (don’t ever get a ginger that’s not at least a CO2 extraction - my lesson learned), myrrh oil, tonka bean absolute (lots), jasmine tea perfume extract, citron oil, ylang ylang, cedarwood (atlas), and teak (just a little). Here, in this stage, I found that I wasn’t ruining the fragrance, by this point, so I decided to test out employing my crystals, which smell good, in and of themselves, but I’d read up on their common usage recommendations in a fragrance composition, and it’s typically at the 1%, or 0.1% or less. I have Exaltone, by Firmenich, and Ambrocenide, by Symrise, which I used, in this stage. 

Then, my inner animal 🦔 perhaps, started to perk up, and I thought about the ingredients, and their place in fragrance-making, which is largely based on descriptions of the properties, chemical name, and organoleptic properties of the material. I thought about ketones, which I’d read, are sometimes characterizable as metabolite products of the body. (Wikipedia). Oh, yeah. And just prior, I’d put some stuff in to the mix, like anisaldehyde and oud base, one of which had been touted as “the smell of the bathroom, toilet included” sort of thing. I figured, “well, these things have some basis in how they are created, as by-products of microbial, fungal, or plant life (even animals, in the past mostly), 

but, continuing forward, though, given that the ingredients had an appeal, on top of that I was creating this composition, as my main aspiration, and meanwhile, the fragrance base hadn’t turned bad on me, just yet, I figured that it was time for me to try and encapsulate the essence as it was, in this stage, so I added some musk ketone powder, for the sake of the fact that it (ketones) affect biological processes; I imagined that the oud base, or the dimethyl anthranilate, or pyralone (it was all of these, perhaps, in the end, to be honest; a modest amount of each of them) - these components, and the bacterial sorts of processes of interaction, reaction, or metabolism, of the energy products available, based on the richness of the ingredients, in and of themselves, much different, and more natural-smelling, since I was employing essential oils, mostly, at this stage, (some farnesol, also), and I’d formerly tried to employ these ingredients, of the [toilette] - means to an end (like, eau de toilette), and the mixture would end up getting worse and worse, the more I added to it, from here. 

Now, I didn’t actually add orange flower absolute, but I did do an ad-hoc Schiffs base, although I added the hydroxycitronellol in an equal amount to the iso butyl quinoline (pyralone), because I wanted to emphasize the citrusy character of the composition, and because the source and main composition was so rich in material, to begin with. All in all, at this phase, I threw in a small (mini) scoop spoon’s worth of musk ketone, in to the mix, because I figured that the ketone element, added in to the composition, would detract any ongoing (and eventual) free-radical occurrences from proliferating, and, in turn, I end up with a garbage composition. The musk ketones would keep the developing energetic processes distracted, and meanwhile, I have the buffer of these expensive crystals as the basis of what the mixture [could] eventually smell like, if needed; although it still hadn’t turned bad on me, which is important. 

Then I threw in some Iso E Super, after gently gyroscope-rotating the mixture around, and making sure that the crystals became well-incorporated in to the existing mix - 

Oh yeah! I forgot, at first, I started out with some very primary facet components of many to any type of fragrance composition - rose petals, jasmine sambac absolute, neroli oil, from Morocco, (at some point, in the composition; perhaps later on), and santalol, in modest amounts, each of them, yet somewhat only at the time being, of how small my beginnings were, in creating this mixture, and these ingredients, for having been expensive. (They still are expensive, for that matter, yet they’re quite essential in a fragrance composition, for how the smell’s purpose and character become modulated in to a new olfactory experience, at the command of the hand of the perfumer.

Some small vials of expensive essential oils and rich absolutes.

Having taken on this new, and progressively (intervals-bounded) methodology in manufacturing a fragrance composition, which I’d found somewhat difficult to do, for men’s sorts of fragrances, in the past, I now felt more at ease, in applying more ingredients, such as gurjun balsam, rhodinol, lauryl acetate C-12, para cresyl isobutyrate, nectaryl (to peach sweeten things up), beeswax absolute (for even more, and long-lasting sweetness), as well as two scoops of ethyl vanillin (with the small flat scoop).

Every invested gourmand would understand, as well, the fascinating combination and compelling novel effect (which I called “mooshy-moo”) that black pepper oil has upon a richly-established vanilla, as the “latest thing.” It’s a quite comforting and warming sensory experience. 

I didn’t want to leave any trails unmapped, so to speak. In intervals, I had planned to do the dump of crystals, such as Nerolin bromelia, as last-stand additions to the mix, yet I ended up tossing some in, a bit before I finished, since the perfumer’s alcohol works fast, yet I gyroscope-rotate the mixture, at this stage, to speed the musk ketone reactions up.

Then I thought, 

Hey, I have some celery ketone, as well! How about that, for the gourmand floral fragrant citrus (petitgrain got it’s own intervallic development ketone-assisted cycle in on it).

That’s about all, for now. 

Except for the onion skeet skeet - just 4 drops, (not of pure onion oil - significantly diluted, a few drops to 2 or so fl. oz.) - for the acrylates (thanks, Calvin Klein, for that tip off [context]).

Oh, yeah, there was Cetalox, as well. Benzyl Benzoate, and I topped off the composition, once I was fairly satisfied with it, with benzyl alcohol, to have a solvent base to incorporate the insoluble oils and water (also added at the end) together in to a miscible solution. I put some Yellow (Lake) and Basic Fuschia (2 drops), for color. There was trans-2 decanol, a tiny bit of humulene, and several drops of cinnamon bark oil. I put a drop of Geosmin into it, as well.