A wise pilot i know says, “it’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground.”
I was hoping to fly Tuesday, but wind gusts were too much for my little Mini 2. I flew Wednesday instead. not quite as clear, but the haze was truer to character for Los Angeles.
Filming the mural that is called, “The Great wall of Los Angeles.” i crashed my drone by being a terrible pilot (i need more practice in tight spaces}). I had to fish my DJI Mini 2 out of the LA River. good thing it crashed onto a dry patch and suffered minimal damage.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles is a mural on one wall of a one mile stretch of the LA River. If you don’t know that, it is the flood drainage system of Los Angeles. There was a river at one point, but now it is a concrete riverbank accented with chain link.
At first i thought i just needed to flip it over and i could liftoff. alas, i had to construct an elaborate fishing pole of entangling loops attached to a telescoping dusting pole i had. Just out of reach, it took nearly 30 minutes and countless attempts to ensnare my little mini.
It was an incredible show at a beautiful Los Angeles Theatre, the Belasco. Amazing energy as always!
I traveled to The Salton Sea to meet some of the alternative communities and see the incredible artwork coming from the area. Also it’s a great place to get in some drone flights.
Continue reading “I Visited Niland, The Salton Sea, and Slab City.”
After reading of its impending destruction, i was hoping to pay the Encino Avenue pedestrian overpass a final visit. Unfortunately visits were discouraged. The messaging was a bit mixed, as the fence was literally tied up with string. i took pictures without trespassing. The 101 will shutdown between White Oak and Burbank over the weekend for the bridge’s demolition.
I’ve produced an updated time lapse. only a few missing days with the camera down, or poor lighting. 220 days in 50 seconds, enjoy.
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A saw some great acrobatic flying including a helicopter doing loops and barrel rolls. The sky was full of Jets, skydivers, simulated strafing runs, a water drop, and so much more. On the ground i was able to check out a lot of incredible machines including a jetpack and aquatic aircraft called the ICON. There was a STEM hanger where kids could operate basketball playing robots.
I managed to get a few pretty cool pictures with my iPhone. We even made a sort of camera obscura and projected the moon onto a piece of paper.
I’ve kept working on my garden. i have this sweet Home Assistant panel. I am still working on automation, but integration is coming along nicely. I am using Home Assistant as my platform. Most of my garden sensors are command line sensors. I even figured out what i was doing wrong with command line switches (using capital letters). Now that I have had my camera in place long enough, I have a pretty decent test time lapse.
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Mama Musubi is something I’ve loved from my farmers market for years. Unfortunately it was shuddered during the pandemic and still has not returned to my market. They did open up in a shared kitchen of sorts in Pasadena called Kitchen United. It was to this location that my desperation would bring me. The spot is mostly for delivery drivers and doesn’t have much for customer service. The menu is a little different from what was offered and entered by app or kiosk. It was amazing to enjoy after the long absence, but not exactly the same thing i was craving. Maybe i’ll try them at one of the other markets where they still operate.
