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.

The new era of handheld USB(-C) [Li-ion battery-chargeable - sometimes] home and garden small appliances. (Updating)

It’s been about high-time for some change in our domestic lives, tech and lifestyle-wise.

It’s more than ingenious - the feeling of charging a device, on the same basis; the same cord, if you will, as we had gotten used to charging much more familiar things, in our metropolitan lifestyles, powered by e-commerce giants such as Amazon. AMZN (Nasdaq). It’s the empowerment of the consumer, by simplifying the essentials in our lives; it would seem both inevitable, as well as incredible, to consider.

Here, I’ll showcase several devices, offered on Amazon, which make use of USB-C power and Li-ion batteries, just like the latest smartphones, tablets, and laptops that we use, and have come to expect - have a compatible and universally recognized power supply. Okay. I might include a few Micro-USB devices, just because - it’s not been fully integrated in to the manufacturing process of some of these devices that I’d come across yet, but for the sake of inclusion in to my lifestyle marketing pitch, here, I’ll include some of the stragglers, and perhaps update this article in the months and years to come (originally posted in May of 2022). 

Tool Daily - Grass/Hedge Trimmer - $31.99 

This is a beauty of a USB-C chargeable device. It makes the task of gardening so much more relatable for our daily lives, which had become stalwart stand-off events, in the context of being glued to web browsing, newsfeed tidbits, and social media finger-flipping, trying to find some way to make use of technology for our benefit, especially for those of us who had been unemployed, here, in California, during the pandemic. With that notion still fresh in our minds, with many people, here in Los Angeles, still wearing masks, the tendency, for the jobless, is to search and strive to find some way in which we can monetize our particular individual strengths and skill sets, without sacrificing our dignity, or personal standards in how we expect to be treated - I’ve been there, before, in feeling pulled, by the hand, in pursuing some sort of superficial escape from daily strife and instability, of a casual offer of friendship, I’ll say, gone awry. Be certain - this sort of lifestyle accommodation is by no means a trap that we must face, for all our lives - for the willing-to-work demographic, there are social institutions in place for the sake of bettering our lives, through government programs, for example, which “sustain” us, at a minimum, and they provide us with regular reminders of that life ought not feel completely hopeless; in this case, I chose gardening services to offer to clients, on craigslist, as my occupation du jour, to pursue. People have been generally forthcoming, in the small numbers in which I am reestablishing a new professional identity, after many years, in my late 20’s, in to age 30, or so, which marks the time in life in which I once again significantly fell from grace, and failed, in professional and personal circumstances. It’s virtually bound to happen, for some of us aspiring and practicing entrepreneurs, of a self-styled “business.” Yet, as millennials, give or take, we’re coming of age, in to our 40’s, now, and it would seem to be less “affordable” to continue forth, in doing anything, of an irresponsible and unaccountable nature, within the scope of professionalism. The consequences are real, but rest assured - there are good people out there, within the community, who are willing to hire the right person, on craigslist - it happens regularly, but don’t just search for gigs, or jobs - that’s my advice; try out the services section - it only costs $5 to post an ad for something that the poster might specialize in, and the elves will go to work, behind the scenes, checking user intent, trackable data, perhaps, and the marketing identity of the user, and hopefully, those things will have checked out alright - have you been offering user data to developers, for example? Certain allowances, rather than disavowals, in the subject of data sharing - are invaluable, to some entities - there are rewards and programs offered for the willing contributor of a desirable marketing demographic. For example, I started getting in to white blood cell donation, for $250, every five weeks, as well as research studies, which are more randomized, rather than reliable, as income sources, yet I’ve landed a few, in the past several months, via my Facebook feed, which - all of a sudden, somewhat, turned in to a precious marketing resource of opportunity, as for myself. In my experience, the vast majority of craigslist transactions are well-executed, on both ends, although people are wary of flakes, and it might take a bit of practice and intentional composure, on the service provider’s part, to maintain the job’s basis. Check out my blog article on some best practices in composing a classifieds ad, such as on craigslist.

Cefrank Store - 8 x 1 watt | 10 slot 5v 2a 6,000k LED Spotlights - $42.90

People who have become acquainted with my historical social media (Facebook) data, which is publicly available, would attest to my fascination with effect lighting, within the scope of personal interior design and decorating. This sort of pursuit had formerly been largely fulfilled by the likes of IKEA - yet, on Amazon, we see a much more open-air market sort of competitiveness, with manufacturers being capable of dealing direct, from as small as a single individual, potentially - capably marketing their goods, and having Amazon provide fulfillment features, such as processing the payment, advertising sellers’ items on third party platforms, such as Google Shopping, and, at times, the shipping is also handled, perhaps partially so, or perhaps, that Amazon even provides warehousing for some of sellers’ products. Amazon truly does it all, in fulfillment, within their umbrella of organizations and brands. 

Much more than might be realized, and yet, how far had Amazon come, since the days of Jeff Bezos’ bootstrapping young, talented aspirations, coming to light, with his stacks of books, at hand, and with books, having been the basis, initially, of Amazon’s premise, for consumers. People might even forgotten Amazon’s beginnings, from what it has become, as a company. 

The expanse of product offerings extends in to yet more miniaturization of a commonly-beloved decoration staple - the spotlight, or track lighting, nearly (or, it could be used as track lighting, in a pinch) - here, offered as an 8 x 1 watt array of LED lights, on a swivel base, with holes for screws, for installation, and screws included. It’s elegant, in its simplicity, and what could be more cute, or more tasteful? 

Here, the performance and quality of spotlights, compared between IKEA and Amazon’s offering, through the Cefrank Store, sees the Amazon seller’s offering as a higher quality aluminum casing design, versus memorable plastic spotlight LEDs, with fewer slots offered (4, versus 8 lights, with this seller, and 10 slots available, in total) - the Cefrank Store’s offering also rounds out to a cheaper price than IKEA’s comparable offerings - granted, I didn’t bother to check their latest offerings in miniature track lighting, I’ll say, but I had previously purchased their track lighting, back in 2010, or so. I’m eager to get to a professional camera and lighting store, to nab some great colors, in terms of lighting gels, otherwise recognizable as clear, colored sheets, for the sake of filtering (and thus, changing) the color of lights. 

AICase Store - Biometric Fingerprint | Thumbprint Authentication Lock Box - $39.99

In the days of free-wheeling and open access on the internet, for so many possibilities of life, including new methods and means of perpetrating crimes upon victims, I wound up relating to this neat-o device, as a means of effecting greater security, on top of that this lockbox works great with most of my product line, which happens to be fragrance extracts and isolates, as well as aroma chemicals. The device is made well enough to evade most intruders’ willingness to intervene in a person’s say about what constitutes appropriate and sociable interactivity. The design is sleek, with a view-roof, at the top of the box, to keep belongings in view. The lock itself is just a slotted rod, but it does the job, well enough. On top of all of that, the device’s documentation claims that the box will stay charged (via USB-C) for around 2,000 openings of the box, upon authentication, with a built-in 280 mAh Li-ion battery. Best of all, the impressive significant basis of this particular lockbox is that it is fully run by fingerprint or thumbprint biometric authentication, reminiscent of an Android smartphone or iOS | iPadOS device. It’s truly a beautiful thing.

“Sunset” lamp, with 16 color variations, by Yicen Trading Co., Ltd

This lamp, available on Amazon, is unlike any other lighting product I’d ever encountered. It’s simply amazing, right? The coolest thing about it, aside from the lighting aspect, is that it can be taken around, with you, on a mobile-cool stuff lifestyle outing, perhaps involving a feature piece of artwork, or doing photog work for a client, where this lamp would illuminate both the subject and the background beautifully - and it can all be done on USB (it’s actually the only possibility - [USB-A]). Although I hadn’t set it up, at the time of this writing, my idea with this lamp, initially, as the name implies, is that I’d implement it, plugged in to a timer, perhaps, to simulate the sun’s rise, in the morning, rather than have it as a sunset effect, although, upon considering it, why not? The device is quite sturdy and well-made, and it is a bargain at $25.99 (although at the time of writing, it’s being offered for $17.99). It’s arguably the most beautiful light available in retail, especially for the price. 

Hanging out with the USC dumpster pigeons, a displaced Los Angeles local pigeon flock.

Being that 

I’ve been doing this pigeon-feeding thing for about 5 years now, on a regular basis, by this point, I’ve come to track the progress and movements (or whereabouts) of some of the flocks and even some of the individual members, between flocks. It’s important for diversity to flourish, as well as for the fact that they have an opportunity to take in differing diets, from other feeders, although I try to treat my flocks that I cover with special consideration - I offer them bread with rich, sweetened dairy products - soaked completely, with a bit of water. It gets tossed out to the birds in a broad swath, and they come to recognize the food, and the feeding gesture as a welcoming and non-threatening deed, for them, since I’m not particularly trying to get them to be comfortable with coming in to close quarters with their feeders - there are still people who are trying to trap the pigeons, at this point in time; I figure that this will continue on, for years to come. 

In any case, however, I do like that this particular flock, which used to be “homed” over at Hoover Park, by USC, I would imagine - since I don’t see the flock over here, any more, 

The USC dumpster pigeons’ previous daily setting, out at Hoover Park.

is now at a more public-transit frequented location. Perhaps it’s simply easier for them to find food, here, and the employees at Dirt Dog do offer them daily bread, I’ve observed, although it’s tack-dry bread. When I encounter that the bread had been tossed out to them, on some days, I take it and re-wet it, to ensure that the birds get some essential fluids in them.

Although they’re not quite as well-positioned, on the way to becoming wildlife | domesticated birds, out in the public sphere, that could be changed, over time, with some dedication and care, as far as their nutritional intake and supplementation goes. I suppose that that would be my job. Be sure to check them out some time, just off the Ortho Institute Expo Line Metro Train Stop.

How to compose a proper personals and classifieds ad for success.

Last night, I wound up nearly accepting a “hang out” offer, from some guy that sat near me on the train home from Santa Monica. 

The first premise, at issue, here, is that I generally take issue with “guys” and “hanging out,” somewhat as a flat-out decree, being that people who pay attention to me, personally, and as a person - generally, (post-university years, especially) are the types of people who failed at school, they have nothing to do except bet on that I’d be an unrelenting gay hooker, and they sit around, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, laughing amongst themselves with a notion as trivially slight as that, and some forces of networking and psychology get put out, on the loose, and eventually - the victim of such intentions having played out, in life, become the rhetoric upon which demographic typologies are forged, and a litany of followers ensue - as casual stalkers, out on the streets, somehow - “just” how, I’ve never bothered to figure out, but people wound up treating me a little bit differently, today; some guys, for example, and they greeted me, whereas more commonly, it’s typical for people to ignore me, out on the streets. It hadn’t always been like this, I can recall. Here and there, I recall a time, yet not the place, off-hand, where people would greet each other,, much more commonly than we do, in these times. On one hand, Covid-19 caused us to be conditioned for social distancing to have become the standard. The anarchists rebelled against this sort of premise, and they proceeded onward with assaults upon people’s personal and private spaces alike, and even more people than ever started finding ways in which they could keep to themselves, or gather in more exclusive circles than ever - I, for one, being particularly isolated; introverted, by nature, that is, to say, couldn’t possibly suit the sort of personality type discussed in articles that featured accounts of discrete Covid-19 circles being established - I’m a bum; a pigeon-feeding bum, as my most prominent sort of bum, and it’s generally taboo for people of the middle or upper classes to associate with a bum, by and large, although here and there, small tokens of acknowledgment are witnessed, such as considerate food or drink offerings are left out, and, in many cases - recyclables are left out. It’s suggestive of that people would like to see a working person, as well as a hungry person, out of the sort of people who have wound up at the end of their rope, in life - so to speak, and who else, but an otherwise unhoused person would have to seek out novel accommodations of food and general interests? For one, a stalking victim would have to, a knave, a mentally I’ll person, here and there - a few, or several types, that is to say. People who were observing me, earlier today, noticed that I was acting out imprints of having been a bum, whereas I had just secured confirmation of that I had a promising serendipitous moment happen for me, in finding a client for my gardening services offer, which I’d put up on craigslist, the other day. My budget is tight, but it’s only $5 for a services ad, and I figure that craigslist features a rich trawl of both interested, as well as valid - employers, for jobs, big and small, as well as clients of all sorts - I’ve personally landed several thousand craigslist gigs, to be sure.

Historically, craigslist had been acknowledged as one of the Big 5, of the internet - inclusive of Google, Apple, Microsoft, hmm… I don’t remember the other one, but craigslist had been notably mentioned, in my encounters with content, on the internet, of having that distinction. Today, it apparently stands in the top 20 - not bad.

Product Review: Liberty Natural - Licorice “anise” Air Freshener.

 Recently, I’ve been having a significant hankering for the scent of licorice, and for designing fragrances around a licorice fragrance. That being the case, and being that licorice, in and of itself, is not all that much thought, per se, in perfumery - I came up against some challenges, during the course of my inquiries in to what “stuff” available there could possibly be, on the internet, as far as licorice extracts, etc., of various sorts, for example. I was searching for a licorice absolute, which apparently had been made available, at some point, in the past, at a very small number of suppliers, I’d discovered, after fairly rigorous extents made, of “search,” as it were. At this point, however, I did not discover any supplier for a licorice absolute. 

After discovering Liberty Naturals’ Licorice “anise” Air Freshener, I’d put a small amount of thought into it, and I figured, “hey; they do fragrance extract products fairly well, I’d suppose that this product is fairly well enough, if they say it is an air freshener.” On one hand, that was a fairly well enough thing to suppose, as it turns out, since I purchased the bottle, and it says that it contains 100% essential oil. In some sense, on the matter, getting one or another fragrance extraction, per specimen or per species of plant, will give the creator of a fragrance ingredient, isolate, or extraction product - various options, on one hand, various outcomes, on the other, with variable desirability, with cases in which a particular “this or that” sort of solution that works for one type of plant, winds up not being desirable or ideal, for a different type of plant. In this instance, perhaps a licorice absolute isn’t quite desirable, in industry-informed “types,” such that there could be, upon the topic of licorice, as a fragrance. 

LibertyNatural.com’s product, Licorice “anise” Air Freshener.

I get it. A person finds themselves significantly hooked - fetishistically, even, in a sense, when it comes to some sort of purist decree, or something like that, on a licorice search, of all things. Sure, there’s star anise, fennel, and maybe one or two other things (in short), that smell “like” licorice, and on the other hand, this product ☝🏼 “is” fairly much licorice, and it says that it is licorice essential oil, for that matter. I suppose that star anise and fennel might be slightly distinct, but perhaps not. I’ll have to look in to that matter, at some point in the future. 

The company isn’t quite the quickest to ship things, but they are, as a basis, a farm, as a business, and I’d suppose that the people who work and manage the operation make a slim taking, on a sale, and that much of the time and attentions paid to things, of their business dailies, for example, end up being tending to the farm. But if you end up purchasing from them, please don’t give them a hassle about anything - they do ship their stuff they have listed, and it’s standardized and pure as any other decent supplier. They do also offer other licorice-like fragrance products, in their online offerings. Perhaps I’ll look in to experiencing those, as well, at some point, and I’ll report back on this topic. 

Just buy it from the site I told you to purchase it from, not some other place - you’re reading this, and I know how it is - having that feeling as though good enough isn’t good enough, when it comes to a licorice fragrance. This one is perfectly good and fine licorice fragrance, and perhaps there couldn’t be better, for that matter. 

Discovering the fragrance of the Carnation flower, through various USA suppliers. (Product Reviews)

 In a sense, it’s a strange notion, for aspiring botanists, with some experience in having visited botanical gardens, for example - the thought of that carnation flowers could have a fragrance made, of them. 

People who have been around carnations in bloom - and at that, if you happen to be reading this article timely enough, you’d be able to visit a local botanical garden to discover this for yourself: carnations do not particularly seem to have a smell to them - they would seem to be a simply ornamental flowering plant, yet they bloom in May. It’s a perfect time to get in to having the experience of visiting a botanical garden. The carnations flower’s attractiveness and similarity to the rose, visually, would invoke the thought of that they smell strongly, such as the rose flower does.

From Wikipedia:

Having an existential crisis in front of someone is only attractive to socially immature individuals.

 On one hand, I suppose that

it would be the case, that I thought about attraction, in the context of having met an attractive young lady today, although I shrugged off the superficiality of the encounter by walking away. She had walked up to me, for that matter - it wasn’t quite me that had met her. 

The thing that was distinctive about her was that she was going through a borderline personality disorder moment; she spoke about regrets over having lost someone (something like that), and that she was looking for her husband - a vague reference, but in this case, it could have meant that she was already with somebody who was taking care of her. 

The point being, is that I felt like many types of guys I would imagine, in life, even at the age that we are - amongst those I had grown up with; I just turned 40 a few weeks ago. She was less than half my age. I recognized signs of that she damages relationships, on account of her not paying attention to people, and possibly, for that matter, she has an excess of narcissistic supply, in being an attractive young lady, of her sort (I won’t get in to details, for the sake of privacy). She was perfectly adept in firing up an encounter with a stranger - a useful social skill, yet I knew that I would probably fail miserably, in my own eyes, as well as in the eyes of others, should it have been the case that I try to pursue her romantically. She was engrossed with some sort of dilemma that she didn’t quite enumerate for me, and she was somewhat flighty, herself, in having so much to talk about, yet she wasn’t all that well composed, or considerate, in explaining exactly what was going on. This sort of person has problems in relationships - because they would come so easily, and to her, as a narcissist, she would be capable of easily undoing the relationship, should some kind of unsustainable distraction take her by the reins. 

I somewhat felt that I could be a simple, temporary confidant, or slight mentor, for her, if I thought of some things to say to her, although she wasn’t all that interested in stuff that I had to talk about, such as my fragrances, and stuff, although she did say that I smelled great, with the fragrance that I was wearing.

So I ended up walking away, asking her if she cared to join me, and she went about her own way, just as easily. This is the test of non-attachment qualities of a person; a thing that establishes criteria of detachment and professionalism, or maturity, in the subject of psychological wellbeing and best practices. 

Update: April 21st, 2022: despite making my best efforts to keep the young lady out of my head, the young lady seemed to pop up, in my mind, here and there, as I would make my common rounds about town, and she was portrayed as various things, in my mind - many of those things pertaining to violence and coerced sex acts, as well as other tragic outcomes for her that she would have conceivably run in to, being that she is an attractive young lady. I somewhat simply believe that many guys would act like that towards her, for having much less experience and less of a tempering of sexual attitudes; the streets are a dangerous place, at times, I felt. I also heard that she had put herself out of her home, and that she stayed with her parents, and that she was looking for her husband, for example, and that that would have been their housing accommodation - a charmingly romantic thing to suppose, and her parents had not wanted her to fornicate with a partner in life, ostensibly, in a sinful manner; that is to say, that the young lady was willing to sacrifice having access to the privileges of home for living in a tent, in their back yard. I heard things such as that she was one of the visitors to my room, where I live, where perhaps the home’s manager had been allowing people to enter in to my room, because they were fascinated by it, and perhaps she did do that, and she became infatuated with the notion of meeting with me - ostensibly, a far cry from understanding if this is true or not.