I've been working with, playing with, thinking about, building, or demonstrating the wonders of technology for decades. I am a freelance consultant in Los Angeles supporting some of its most creative residents and businesses. This is a writing exercise and in truth I don't know if I will lean more toward the technical or the bizarre. Either way, expect to see some technical writing here in the near future. This is just a place for me to ramble, rant, rave, or reticulate. Got something to say about it? leave a comment.
The Promenade mall was an iconic mall in the valley for decades. i watched countless movies at that AMC. i waited in line for some of my first iPhones in that mall. For years it was just a movie theatre and a half abandoned food court. I took this epic shot from the top floor of the warner center. you can even see the Rams training facility and of course, P.F. Chang’s is still there.
i was called by a scammer this morning. i was bored so i decided to keep him on the line. here is the end of our txt conversation and the call recordings i made. enjoy.
i was called by “general manager David Sawyer” (CID 779.222.0815) who claimed to be of the Mega Millions Sweepstakes (775.208.9213). At first they wanted me to pick up gift cards. i then recieved a txt message about where to send the a postal money order. “David” insisted he stay on the line the whole time, so i did. He even provided helpful tips like “don’t tell anyone my buisness.”
TXT from +1 (775) 208-9213:
License financial officer: Edward Sanders, address:4840 w Haddon ave Chicago, IL 60651
this first audio file is the final call. It was after the above txt chain. it’s much funnier and shorter. the second file is actually the first and main call. i was deliberately wasting time and asking dumb questions. it’s over 34 minutes even edited.
During a visit to the Getty i scanned a few sculptures. Here, i’ve included the files i hope you can make use of them. let me know how it turns out. Scans were made using Scaniverse.
It took over a year, but i have FINALLY federated my WordPress blog. Mostly it was my Cloudfront settings that were keeping it from working. i rekajiggered the caching into what we have now. you can now follow or comment from within the federated Internet.
Great weather inspired the visit. i was curious how much it had changed since the fires. unfortunately it changed a lot. There were more than a few fire scars, a couple of missing oak trees and some different trails. i met some brush cleaning goats.
Ages ago, i built a php app for processing pdfs made of mupdf. i even made a go at a MacOS version. it was never very good and it broke with MacOS updates. This new complete rewrite now available! enjoy.
Continuing my exploration of these hills, i found another trailhead. This time in Simi Valley and despite a understated entrance, we found some exciting features. Including this wash under the 118! Respite from the sun and incredible acoustics. There was a cave that none of the trails we found seemed to head towards. We met another hiker who gave us an idea of how to find it. Next time.
