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Wednesday, August 28

An iPigeon.institute artisanry aspiration - another homemade cheese.

As some of my longer-term readers would know, I had started an effort in making cheese around Christmas this past year, using eggnog.


May 7, 2019 · Learn a recipe for an all-seasons pigeon health supplement: pidgin cheese.

This time around, I'm attempting a more savory-layered cheese culture, with liquid malted milk, tapioca, for a starch, heavy whipping cream, and rennet. 


Here's the cheese as I originally had prepared it, in various layers. I had decided that I would let the layers stay still, instead of homogenizing the mixture, in order to investigate the effect of the rennet culture upon the various components of the cheese. 

Within a day, the layers had separated, and curds had formed in the layer of cream, at the top of the mixture.


Day 2 of the cheese-in-the-making. I took a taste of the top of the cheese, off of the lid, and it reminds me of a cream fraiche sort of mild and rich cultured cream, nearly a sour cream. Not very sweet at all. 

I let the cheese out on evenings so that it has alternating cold and cool environments for it to culture and form, without risking that it spoils, like I imagine it could, as a partly dairy cheese, and only a half-tablet of rennet, to begin with. 

Tomorrow, I'm going to separate the layers, or, perhaps, dig in to the bottom layers and take a taste of them, to see if they might be essential aspects of the final product; the malted milk liquid layer and tapioca, as starch, as experimental culinary adventurousness. I'll keep this blog post updated with the results.

Day 3:

I took a smell of the cheese, as I had left it out overnight, once again, and the layers had definitively separated well, and I knew that some of the product was waste from the microbial rennet culture. 

My new cheese bowl, after dumping the top layer and liquid middle layer out, over cheesecloth and mixing it all together. It had a sour smell, but when I mixed it with some honey bunch grain cereal, it made for a delightfully sweet and slightly tart morning dish. 

Compared to cottage cheese, which I had never tried before, because I had thought that it must taste gross (it doesn't, it just looks curdy):

Perhaps somewhat similar in taste, although my cheese was much more basic in ingredients. 

That was all! Just three days to a homemade cheese.

I’ve discovered another pigeons’ roost.

Here, at the 4th St. underpass at Figueroa in Downtown Los Angeles. This one fills in some of the blanks as to where and when flocks could be found; importantly, if I or no one else has gotten around to feeding them for more than a day or two, or more.

Once again, I discovered a low-lying ground scout, out and about, pecking around, as a simulation of eating. I had just found some extra food about a half-hour ago, so I was well-prepared to feed the dozens of birds here, nearby the lawn outside of the American University Preparatory School.




Someone was particularly appropriate today in an in-trashcan finding (for the pigeons).

I found this great bag of next-day's doings for the pigeons - 

A bag of white bread, some smoky sausage and hot dogs, and a recyclable bottle of Sprite. Thanks!

I was happy to see this left out for someone. Thanks again!

Tuesday, August 27

A cool new tech project - the self-lighting lightbulb apparatus.

I came across this video on YouTube, after eyeing over some Fox Video news clips. 

It shows how someone can come up with a self-lighting lightbulb apparatus using simple technology - some wires, a loose speaker, a spark plug, and a lightbulb.

Thanks, Share Tech, for sharing this with us!







Monday, August 26

A common day’s routine of morning pigeon feeding in DTLA. (A photoblog).

Pigeons, in an urban locale, have many various micro-localities and behaviorisms, to be seen, of expositional formations of a flock in garnering a meal, hopefully, from the public.

This sole avian creature, I might imagine as the “scout.” This is the first seeker, or perhaps he was left out of sufficient food enough, from the previous day. Other birds loom and perch nearby as they keep an obvious eye on this one.

After observing the fortunes of this one, having been tossed some breadcrumbs, or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, broken up into pieces, (pigeons, at this stage in cross-species socialization with humans, [late August, 2019] are tentative about eating from ‘particularly’ human food resources.

A tentative pigeon?

Upper left.
The tentative pigeon, as one of the ostensible pigeons that might be encountered in attempts to feed or tame the birds, as feral pigeons. 

A tentative pigeon.
Perhaps the flock had been roused or rough-housed by some passersby, prior to this (most ostensibly, this type of thing does happen in Los Angeles). The tentative pigeon sometimes serves as the scout for the rest of the flock.

I hadn't fed the popular (and large) Broadway, between 5th and 6th, in a week or more, partly because of cost concerns, and also because I was keen on making gains in taming the smaller flock of pigeons and sparrows by the Grand Park Children's Playground; also to be found at the LAPD Central Division Park on some afternoons, this time, on account of there being music, dance, and performance events for the summer, at the park.

The LAPD DTLA Central Headquarters, next to City Hall and Grand Park, and Little Tokyo and the Arts District, (on the other side), features a popular dog park; potentially pigeons and sparrows like it also, after events at Grand Park, where I had become accustomed to feeding them in recent weeks.

Here's the LAPD lawn and popular dog park, where I spotted the pigeons and sparrows of Grand Park, after they fled, due to a series of evening and daytime events for DTLA revelers and partiers.

There's a pretty white-feathered pigeon; a mottled pigeon, and plenty of feral pigeons and sparrows that follow them around, as a dual-species flock in the area and neighboring locales. 

Back to the Broadway on South 500-600 (mostly there, anyhow).

I noticed that there was a great deal of bird physical size variance here; most obviously due to age, as it was perhaps breeding season recently, and this large flock would inevitably feature the new young birds in town. It's grown to what might appear to be nearly a hundred birds, or so. A daunting task for keeping them all fed. Thankfully, the nuns at the Sisters Disciples of the Divine Master and some of the shop owners where the pigeons flock and roost toss the birds seeds. At this point in time, it seems like the birds don't prefer or differentiate between one sort of food, or another. The other feeders must be keeping them well fed, at a sustainable pace.


The pigeons here on 500-600 S. Broadway eat their meal, then, with a powerful flutter, fly away in formation, a theatrical move to complement their considerate societal behavior.


One tentative pigeon remains, perhaps he just hasn't learned, as the rest of the flock has.


Sunday, August 25

I’m starting to show some age in my face.

Jay Ammon at around age 37 during the year 2019.
I have a curious asymmetry about my face - I have one Asiatic eyelid, from my Chinese (Cantonese) mother, and one Eastern European eyelid, from my father’s Lithuanian roots. It makes for that I sometimes squint in one eye only. My old dog, named Biscuit, (passed away 😔) would sometimes wink at me. He was mostly always a good dog, good in friendly spirits, especially with women.


Friday, August 23

Today was cookie and tortilla day for the pigeons.

I cooked some peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie chunks up in the oven at my apartment early this morning. I couldn't sleep last night, and I definitely didn't want to finish an entire two packs of cookie dough. I found the tortillas out on the street this morning.
The birds identified that cookies are particularly tasty, and they pursued an incensed flurry of feathers flapping to get to the inside of the action forming around where the cookies were tossed.

A baby pigeon flaps its wings, early on in the out-of-nest feeding phase of growing up. A very young pigeon will squeak "Bay!! Bee!!" in an attempt to get fed by its elders.





It's oftentimes a competitive duel between the grownups as to how the food gets to one and each other.

Today was a particularly hot competition for food, given the weather, and that it was cookies being tossed at them.






Here, at the Los Angeles Mall, there is a drinking fountain where the birds have established a mid-afternoon (1:45 p.m.) routine. I figure that I might find them here more regularly, if they're not at the park lawn.




In this next photo, Old Ironsides entrusted the food by me on the ground, as I was sitting on a bench; I, perhaps, might some day be able to adopt him and take him in on a more restful place to roost, rather than that he has to use his one-footed leg, the other one cut off at the knee, giving him a limping hard time walking around, which is important for pigeons in their societally-capable lives.

The Symbiosis of Quantum-Timed Conversations

I've been noticing that Quanta-style programming novelties work their way in to my day(s) in various curious manners. 


"We are aware of every hiding spot that you have." A young hyphy guy says "alright" on the phone. He happened to be obviously paranoid after he passed by me. [I would have liked to photograph him, after I decided on pursuing this topic for today, yet I was acutely aware of and considerate towards his most-probable fears of being photographed by a stranger, particularly given the (or « no » ) circumstance}.

Here, in this article, I'll show (and update, periodically, with) some of the ingenious moments captured by me (it would seem... «_«), yet, ...

I see a police cruiser just after I pick up some stimulants in Skid Row. I hear "fuck!" [The last time that happened to me (someone yells "fuck!" around me), was last week, when I hopped the train fare for free (considerately, yet not in actuality, as it would be seen to have turned out as; per the situation as it transpired). I was arrested soon afterwards]. I didn't document this incident online, as of yet. This actually happened, this morning. I felt like it was a special morning, since I successfully picked up my iPad from Target LA Central, this morning. In fact, everything I write about (well, some of it is fanciful), is factual and true. I hope I don't get arrested again today for something foolish «_«.

 I, of course, would champion Google's publicated efforts, on that they had developed, as far as Quantum programming, or, (as well), the trending underlying technology keywords by which these computer science languages may be known; i.e. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Google AI Quantum is advancing quantum computing by developing ... and novel quantum algorithms to help researchers and developers solve near- term ...
I blow my nose (rudely, as a dual-snot rocket), at ROW DTLA, the other night, and I hear a young lady across the street say, "good morning;" ingeniously, I must say. 
Over time, I'll investigate on these matters and publish on user-friendly steps to take to establish Quantum-timing in your own life.

My current best advice is to always walk according to proper traffic-light timing, and always push the button, when it's available. It makes a difference. 

Target has yet another Apple iPad Sale Event going on this week.

I finally sealed the deal for my own new Apple Wi-Fi only 32 GB device through using Affirm.com.


To have some credit extended to me for the purchase of the device has been a huge boon, I'm sure. I feel like I'll responsibly (and easily) handle the amount loaned to me (about $128 total).

Using Affirm.com is easy enough. 

Affirm takes a miniature credit check stance; apparently it doesn't affect the consumer's credit rating. Although I did get some notices the last time around I tried to use Affirm, in the beginning of this month, to make the same purchase, this time the process went very smoothly; I was able to alter the amount I needed lended to me several times as I was changing Target in-store pickup locations. The amount owed to Affirm as a down payment varied from pennies to several dollars, depending on where I wanted to pick up the device in-store. 

A deal like this is a rare find. Target.com had the same deal happening early in the month, and through not having my CA ID, I wasn't able to pick up my item from the store the first time I made this order for the same iPad model.
Now I have my ID, thankfully.
Although it looks like I have a mullet, I don't, in fact, have a mullet.

Thursday, August 22

A Nordstrom Pigeon-[perhaps] - beautiful iconic hen design.

This iconic design-by-primitives and ornamentals caught me by the pigeon's tail the other day as I was perusing through the Downtown LA garbage receptacles, so I thought I'd share it. 

This is one side of Nordstrom's current shopping purchase bag for retail customers. 

This lovely (imaginably-) hen bird-pigeon form reminds me of one of the ostensible pigeons of my Lé Lyceé Françoise trifles of formative  pigeon sorts that might be seen, in the case of the preening pigeon; one which I have not caught well on camera, by the time I've posted this blog (August 22nd, 2019). 


In any case, I found this shopping bag from Nordstroms gorgeous, so I felt like I ought to share it with my readers. 


Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 20

The Shopify LA event spotlight - Kirsty Godso






I'm attending the Shopify LA event spotlight series' first meeting (this year); this one hosted by Kirsty Godso.


Shopify LA event spotlight. Come meet and network with successful Shopify Masters and hear their stories on how to launch successful brands.
EVENT
AUGUST 20, 2019, 6:30 youPM

Merchant Mentor Session: Kirsty Godso

In this edition of our Merchant Mentor Session series, Nike Master Trainer, Kirsty Godso, will be here to chat about the commerce of cardio and what it means to be in the 'business of bodies".
The event space itself is gorgeous - a modern E-commerce brick and mortar retail and services shop aimed at helping aspiring and established Internet entrepreneurs establish a Shopify presence; set amongst the significant new development for entrepreneurial enterprises in Row DTLA, located where the old American Apparel factory was located during it's heyday.

The Broadway at Manchester District Development Initiative has some momentum.

At the Los Angeles 9th District neighborhood council site, known as canndunc.org, it appears that the area in which I live is due to see a major revamping in transportation and housing initiatives.



The initiative adds pedestrian and bicycle lanes, housing, mixed-use lots, and retail locations. 





The initiative provides $24 million in funding and spans an area of 2.8 miles, according to urbanize.la

A particularly exciting note on the project (for me) is the declaration of a mixed use hydroponic farm lot at the corner of 94th at Broadway - just several streets down from where I live now. It seems like the notions I had floating about in my mind about these developments had turned out to be true. It's great to see that these initiatives are coming through, in reality.

Wednesday, August 14

The pigeons of Wilshire at Normandie are developing near-tumbler flight.

What is a tumbler pigeon? 

A tumbler pigeon is a skills-developed pigeon; ostensibly in a well-established flock such as is the flock here at Wilshire at Normandie.  

There is a row of restaurants here on Wilshire, and the flock's main roost is on the south side of Wilshire on Normandie.

The difference between a tumbler and a regular pigeon is that the tumbler has a greater capability over its flight strength and hovering (which I've not seen established well in other flocks in the nearby area. Ostensibly, in later years and generations, the pigeon tumbling will take a more significant form in literal flight tumbling. 

More to come, in the future. :)




I found a discarded box of donuts in the alley behind the nearby Catholic church .

In future years, I estimate that the pigeons here will learn to do in-flight tricks like tumbling. 

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf DTLA got a new(-ish) out-front recycling dumpster. (A photoblog).





Tuesday, August 13

The DTLA Central Branch Los Angeles Public Library birds got a special treat this morning.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with milk. 


A crosswalk perspective of the pigeons vulturing outside the LAPL Central Library at the corner of 5th at Grand; a favorite pigeon haunt, as it features one of the busiest intersections in DTLA foot traffic.


The birds at the park-side (west-end) of the library got a huge midsummer belly's-full of nearly a whole loaf of bread's worth of PB & J sandwiches today. 


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