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The Library Pigeons are returning to their daily perching spot.

 It had been several months, since I updated news about the Downtown Los Angeles Central Library’s pigeon flock, and there had been some unfortunate turns of events, in that the flock slowly began to migrate out of the area, eventually fully abandoning the perching spot, up on one of the library’s walls. My guess was that some of the new birds who had joined the flock had some attachments to where they came from, and they began to stray, slightly, from the flock’s flight formations, eventually leading them back to places where they came from, and the library pigeons, who were homed there, for years, followed them, possibly for adventure. 

The other day, I saw several pigeons return to their library wall perch, one of them, I call Ruffles, because he always has ruffled feathers around his neck. They came for a meal, which I offered them, and Ruffles ate out of my hand. 

Here’s a video recapping some of the closeup photography I got to do of the birds eating out of my hand. I had posted the photos, previously, but they ended up being still photos, instead of Live Photos. Here, you can get a sense of the action of the birds eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with live moments interspersed with the still images that were captured. 

iPigeon.institute is about to reach 400,000 views!

 It seemed like just a little while ago, I was waiting to hit 300,000 views patiently, and now, we’re on the brink of reaching 400,000.

Now, granted, a good portion of views has been, recently, in part, inflated ghost views (I commonly find short periods of just minutes in which 1,000 or so hits come in to the blog, and it happens almost daily. Sometimes, I check, and the numbers of views roll in much more organically, which is more pleasing, since it implies that someone is browsing and reading the blog, or looking at pictures, or something. 

Here’s a list of the most popular blogs that people have clicked on, in the past week.

The recipe for iPigeon Udon Noodle Soup is #2, with over 50 hits, and it’s an old blog post. Man, I must have made that Udon noodle soup really good that night.

Thanks for reading! 

My hit counts, as 400,000 becomes imminent.

Is click work for real? Some perspectives on task-based earning opportunities.

 It happened again, to me. In the course of seeking employment, I came across a platform with a contentious air about it; namely, it ended up involving me needing to put up my own investment funds in order to earn money, this time, in the form of commissions, from having completed a click work task. 

Part of the marketing materials from the click work platform I joined.

What is click work?

Given its surface features, click work seems like the ideal remote freelance work opportunity - daily earnings made from completing tasks that require no formal education or training, that is to say: it’s easy work. Sure it is, it just involves clicking. Such is the basic premise behind many an online platform, yet I’ll refrain from naming the one I’m involved with, for privacy reasons, namely, since I’m more a believer in the platform’s premise, despite some aspects of the initial selling points having gone unfulfilled. For example, the marketing material said that there would be no investing involved; this was partially untrue: I was “paid” commission money ($67 USD) that I could withdraw, upon completing the onboarding and training process, although I was instructed to bump up the balance in my work account, which started with a $0 balance, up to $100, which, it was claimed, is the minimum balance required to do tasks. 

The tasks, I would come to learn, were micro-investments (micro, for starting with $100) which earn a commission, starting at 0.5%, going up to 5%. The larger commission tasks would invariably put the user’s account in the negative, which I encountered, during the course of continuing training on the platform, further. At this point, I was instructed to contact Customer Service (CS) to deposit more money, in the form of USD, converted to Bitcoin, which I then withdrew, from my account, in to the company’s Bitcoin wallet - a trusting move, and, as I’d discovered, several days out, upon starting with the platform, one that would summon the chagrin of many an other click work platform inductee, who had gone on to write an article decrying the inferred iniquities of said click work platform(s), such as in this article I came across, serendipitously, just this morning. The similarities between what this author describes and my situation are uncanny. Going on, to research the contextual subject matter of the platform potentially being a scam, like this author writes about, and, which is the viewpoint and perspective that several other authors, and even the FTC, make out of the features described, here, to be hallmark features of an inevitable scam.

The image is blurred to ensure privacy for the platform.

I even consulted with ChatGPT and Gemini about the click work platform’s premises and claims, and they both strongly advised me that it was a scam. Now, granted, I had the same inclination, having recently been scammed, myself, with a credit card number processing and Bitcoin wallet transfer operation. Yet, this being the case, I came in to this opportunity fully aware and wary of promises. Despite this, I suppose I was feeling a bit adventuresome, and, being that click work is sometimes referred to as gamified, it resembles a game, or gambling, loosely, on one hand, although I felt that the platform deserved some credit, since, for one - I had been duly walked through the onboarding and training process, in this case, and the support personnel and onboarding representative were very responsive and intelligible - two features which I consider, subconsciously, perhaps, even, to be characteristic of well-run businesses. After all, for every one person who can see the bright side of the click work economy, there are dozens of naysayers and jilted participants who distrusted the entirety of the platform, particularly at the point at which it was discovered that personal financial investment was required, which, as I’ve stated, is where I happened to differ, in this case. 

Fayrouz Eldebani’s blog article, Click Work - It’s Complicated, featured on superrr.com.

By the way, the last link I just posted, “Click Work - It’s Complicated,” which is in support of click work for women and for other potentially disadvantaged worker demographics, I found, is a highly intelligent and insightful blog article that goes in to issues of feminism and post colonial work economy, as they pertain to click work. The article discusses click work as an accommodation of certain work-life balance traits of the subject demographics discussed, rather than that click work enterprises necessarily take advantage of people. I found that I could relate to the women and domestic workers, as such, myself, given that I’m committed, on a daily basis, to ensuring that the local pigeon flocks get fed - the ones that I can cover, and care for, at least. 

Sure, it’s frustrating to see an account balance go in to the negative, thus requiring a personal investment, in order to reap the profit and returns, or commissions. Perhaps, even, some of the platforms involving click work recruiters contacting people, truly are scams, as a basis. So far, I find some promise in the platform I became acquainted with, with some short term benchmarks to come, which I can update on, when the time arises. What I would offer, as a suggestion, should one come across a click work opportunity, as a job-seeking, vulnerable person, is to take account of one’s own limits and boundaries; for example, “do I have a reasonable amount of savings I can put in to such a thing as this,” as one of the questions one might ask, and know, of one’s self. Fortunately, the platform I’m involved with involves a spread of up to 300% of the user’s work account balance, and I find, so far, that having several hundred dollars available, perhaps $1,000, or so, is sufficient to cover most any circumstances encountered, in the course of completing a batch of 40 tasks, as the costs rise, at times, during the course of completing the tasks, and thus require reinvesting money. It takes some trust of the company that the user is involved with, and some common sense, as to what can be afforded, and risked, in such as situation, given that, at least, in my case, the funds are real, withdrawable funds that go back in to my own Bitcoin wallet.

A look at the history of the transactions in my work account, along with the commission payments. 

Right now, I’m stuck on this $956 transaction, with a negative $524.56 balance, which I had to do some work on, in order to clear the transaction. I had $431.44 in my account, at the time I encountered that transaction. The profit for that transaction will be $76.48 once I clear the transaction, though. Not bad, given my usual experiences with investing. 

All in all, I see the situation as that, for the potential of the proclaimed earnings to be real, it is, somewhat a gamble, but, I suppose, in my case, I was somewhat up to the challenge of discovering whether or not things work out as stated. One of the techniques I’m planning on employing, moving forward, is keeping my initial work account balance at $100, to start, and withdrawing funds, mid-batch, should I get a “rush” order, which comes with a higher (5%) commission, although it puts my account in the negative, requiring me to deposit more funds - once I complete the transaction, I’m planning on withdrawing funds, again, so the 300% limit threshold doesn’t become unmanageable. I’m still learning the platform, but since I was able to withdraw real Bitcoin funds in to my own CashApp Bitcoin wallet, I have some confidence that the platform works, and is functional, at least, for as long as the site stays up, and for as long as I stay in touch with CS and my onboarding agent. I think that the AI Chatbots are perhaps biased towards erring on the side of caution, lest they stir up controversy for users, with what ends up being poor advice, because, of course, it’s easily foreseeable that a scammer could potentially shut down a site, or deny functionality to a user, and steal their funds. For all I know, perhaps other platforms paled in comparison, with their policies regarding order limits on dollar amounts, or there may have been something else wrong about sites that other people encounter. I find that the site I’m on has very responsive customer service, and the onboarding experience flowed smoothly, as well - all good signs, so far. 

In essence, the concepts at play seem to mirror that of Liquidity Mining, in Decentralized Finance. Here are some basic concepts pertaining to Liquidity Mining, from Google Search AI Overview:

I deposited the money, the next morning (today), and I completed the transaction that had gotten me stuck, previously. Here, you can see the $956 balance, plus the $76.48 profit I had received.

This is where I ran in to a snag with the company. They denied my withdrawal, because they have a policy that says I have to complete a full batch of orders on the day I want to do a withdrawal, which they didn’t tell me about. Since I don’t want to put any more money in to this, I guess I have to chalk it up to that this whole thing I got involved with was a gamble, which I lost money on.

Dingo and Pigeon Smoking Pair Fan Art Page.

 One of my favorite fan art themes is the dingo and pigeon sharing a smoke, while the bird is perched on top of dingo’s head. In doing some creative exercises on my iPad Pro, I familiarize myself with some of the extended use applications and how to manipulate images, while working from a generative AI backdrop, which allows for huge shifts in temperament and theme, at a moment’s notice. Some of the images evoke notions of things we have seen before, such as cartoons, perhaps an artist, or an art movement in history. Using this simple subject matter as inspiration, I try to discover, invent, or manipulate the thematic and compositional contents of the premise, and it serves as a rich playground for uncovering new meaning.

One of the original Generative AI renders of the dingo and pigeon smoking pair.

This is the basic vector image ink-drawing-styled template, from the Vector Q app.

An SCN app manual alpha channel glitch image.

I found inspiration in the simple lines and playful colors in this randomly generated version.

The triangles and shading in this image caught my eye.

I liked the humorous cartooning lines, here, to top off some fortunate shading effects, of the triangles.

I played around with this image, a fair amount, but I kept the divergent contrasting color theme somewhat intact.

I felt that this dusty rose vector cut out, with a blank background, would be the type of image I could use, later on, as compositing material, in to new compositional settings. 

I liked the bold primitives and gaudy color palette of this one, that I worked on.

This was a randomly generated image that came out pretty neat.

The Fauvist allusions in this randomly generated image are glaringly apparent, I feel.

The dingo and pigeon smoking pair pack of cigarettes.

These nesting pigeons have made it their daily routine to show up at my window to eat.

 

This cute pigeon pair shows up together, for a meal, after one of them scouts out the ledge, to make sure there’s food out. That’s when I spot them and put seeds out for them.

Product Review: I got packed, at CiggiesWorld. Updated: No USA shipping, now.

 Typically, I’d say that I go with the flow, and I complain about things minimally, largely based on my participatory roles and level of influence, but also because I commonly don’t pay too much attention to emerging issues. Given that, one of my pet peeves is how smokers dropped the ball when the legislation to ban flavored and menthol tobacco products came out, and the law was passed. It’s a mostly sorry time, where I live, when it comes to tobacco, but, on the other hand, it’s a flourishing time of open-air settings, where entrepreneurs sell cigarettes (menthols, even), in these dire times, so I went a long time without doing anything about this issue that ruins my smoking experience. 

Being that I’m also homeless, and recently coming from living on the streets, I picked up the bum habit of diving for “good” cigarette butts that I pass by, on the ground. This is no small town, and there’s hardly any benefit to trying to scale the social status ladder, especially for someone like myself, I figure, so I go ahead and do it, but tasting full flavor tobacco, and, commonly, cheap varieties, for that matter, left a bitter taste in my mouth too many times, so I went wandering around, in this arena of cigarette butts lying around, on one hand, and cheap varieties of whole cigarettes going for as cheap as 25 cents each, on the streeet. 

I have to admit, the ground-scraping cigarette butt diving persona had its perks, mainly, in that sometimes, (but regularly enough), I would get a taste of a higher notch of tobacco, small that it might be, and sometimes, they were exotic varieties, even - these were just cigarette butts that had been lying around, on the ground, that I picked up and smoked. Recently, I started to become aware of exotic varieties of Marlboro cigarettes being floated around, somehow, when I came across a couple of Marlboro “Forest Mist” cigarette butts on the ground, at a filming location in DTLA. 

After finding some Forest Mist Marlboro Vista series cigarette butts on the ground, I became intrigued with discovering what I could about this exotic flavored tobacco variety. Here, I have a pack of my own, now. 

I went online and searched around for what information I could find on Forest Mist Marlboros. I found some Reddit forums, some social media pages that mentioned the cigarettes, and I came across some purported suppliers. After mulling things over for a couple of months, or more, I came in to a time in life where I had some budget surplus, and I decided to bite the bullet, so to speak, and decide upon how, and where, I would go about in procuring Forest Mist Marlboro cigarettes of my own. 

I happened upon several websites that claimed they provide the cigarettes, internationally, but I had to do some sifting through potential scam sites, and I settled upon ciggiesworld.ch, which, ostensibly, would be based in Switzerland, although I’ve now found that they operate out of South Korea and Indonesia, two countries that I’ve come to know as that their people really, really like their tobacco, and, apparently, flavored, at that. The politics of the naysayers are such that they’d put a global ban on flavored tobacco, altogether, yet, some of these countries, where resistance is minimal, put forth a fertile grounds for tobacco companies to flaunt their latest and best (in tobacco). 

The Vista series of Marlboro cigarettes is essentially a variety of shapes and flavors of cigarettes, which have the feature of having flavored pop balls in the filters, to flavor the smoking experience, at the time of smoking each cigarette. There are dozens of rebranded and remarketed Marlboro cigarette varieties for sale on Ciggies World, and they carry what I found to be an intriguing variety of flavored pop ball cigarettes by Marlboro, as well as flavored ball cigarettes from other brands. Their site, although not perfect, is designed well enough to be an e-commerce establishment, I figured, so I went ahead and tried them out. 

Another aspect of the global politics of tobacco is the price. For example, the pro-smoking countries see much cheaper prices on tobacco than we get, here, in the United States, due to legislation about things such as associated health care and advertising that comes with tobacco use. On Ciggies World, most of the premium brands are priced at $6.90, or so, for their popular varieties, yet some of their offerings are even cheaper. 

Marlboro Tropical Burst has emerged, from my buying haul from Ciggies World, as my favorite amongst the variety that I sampled from them, with a basic clove flavor to a slim cigarette profile, with two added tropical burst flavor capsules. The price per pack is less than $5.00.

The checkout for the site, while fairly standard and automated, which people would expect, comes with some unusual requirements, such as that the buyer self-manages the payment for the transaction, after figuring out the fees for shipping, in combination with the price of the packs selected. One of the quirks of the company, I’ve learned, is that they do not ship more than 10 packs per box, regardless of how many more packs the buyer purchases. For example, I bought 13 packs, the total for shipping and the cigarettes came out to $130.60, or about $10 per pack. Not bad, for premium flavored cigarettes, especially comparatively, given that they’re not available in America, but the shipping price goes up, incrementally, (I think), based on multiples of 10 packs, so it’s more so worth it to buy them in multiples of 10. So I made the purchase and sent a bank transfer of the funds to Ciggies World, via a Zelle transaction, and I waited. The waiting is an aspect of the transaction that was a bit nerve wracking for me, being that I knew I was going to have to wait for my tobacco to arrive, whereas I would have liked to smoke the flavored tobacco immediately. I read the forums, though, and the people said that the company is reputable, and there were numerous good reviews about Ciggies World. 

All in all, it took a couple or a few days, or so, (it seemed like) for the company to acknowledge my payment and get the items shipped. Once the shipping labels had been made, there was an additional wait for tracking information to show up, which was kind of irksome, but, once the first shipment arrives, all of the anxieties and nervousness subsides. Their products are good, and the variety of cigarettes you can buy is top notch. They specialize in flavor capsule cigarettes (more popular in South Korea) and clove cigarette varieties (which are popular in Indonesia). The shipment, from the time of purchase, to the time of receipt, was about 10-14 days, or so, which beats the site’s estimations. The cigarettes are shipped via Airmail (I got them as registered mail and priority mail, but the shipments both arrived on the same day, despite the tracking saying otherwise, during the process). The buyer has to sign for the shipments upon receipt. A tip on shipment tracking: 17track (the company’s recommended tracking software) will track the shipment until it reaches the destination port - something like that. My two shipments tracked differently from South Korea and Indonesia. If you check the USPS site with the tracking numbers, once they’re shipped, you’ll see more detail after the item reaches US customs, whereas support on 17track stops, at this point. 

Smoking the flavored tobacco is a pleasure. The slim varieties are a bit like a “snack” of smoking, and they’re tempting, to smoke them incessantly, for a little while, although I think I’ll get over it (I just picked up my shipment from the post office earlier, yesterday). It’s nice to have a variety to choose from, and hopefully, the cigarettes I purchased will last a while. 

My packs of cigarettes, in bubble wrap. Packed!

Reviews of the flavors:

As I mentioned, I purchased 13 packs, this time around, and the main attraction to purchasing from Ciggies World was the slight discount - about 15% or so, on cigarette packs, as well as the added feature of having dozens of packs and brands to choose from, which, amongst them, include flavored capsule varieties of packs - a feature that is banned in the US; it’s required to source flavored cigarettes internationally. Some of the varieties had a 3 pack minimum purchase quantity, per order, namely, in this case, the Marlboro varieties. Here are some notes on the other packs that I got from Ciggies World.

A pack of Marlboro Vista Tropical Splash cigarettes.

Marlboro Vista Tropical Splash - $6.80

At first, I was kind of on the fence with this citrusy mango menthol-flavored cigarette, but the flavor capsules grew on me, and, even aside from popping the capsules, the flavor of them is slightly imparted on to what otherwise would be a fairly standard 6.0 mg tar 0.5 mg nicotine Marlboro full-flavored cigarette - not bad tasting. I found that popping one or the other capsules gave less of an “ice” menthol flavor, and, as the cigarette burned down, sometimes, I would pop the 2nd capsule, for an icy finish effect of the smoke. 

Marlboro Vista Summer Splash is more of a berry-minty flavor.

Marlboro Vista Summer Splash - $6.90 

The names get kind of confusing, since both this pack and the first pack have “splash” in the name, and they are generally similar cigarettes, in and of themselves - a standard Marlboro cigarette that has two flavor capsules, except, in this case, the flavor is more berry, with the second capsule a bit citrus-minty. Actually, once again, the effect of both capsules, when they’re both popped, is kind of strongly icy minty, and I started to pop one at a time, with this one, as well, so I could learn to distinguish and choose which flavor I wanted to start with, and perhaps I’d finish off, popping the second one. This one has 3 mg tar and 0.2 mg nicotine, according to the Ciggies World site. 

A clove cigarette, by Djarum, with a cola flavor capsule. 

Djarum Super MLD Fresh Cola - $3.50

Many people who smoke cigarettes have been familiarized with Djarum “cloves,” which are actually labeled as little cigars, and they feature brown or black paper, here in California (Ciggies World has dozens of Djarum varieties on the site). These, by comparison, are much more bright and smooth cigarette tobacco ciggies. The cigarette is flavored as a clove, as is, and the cola flavor is very mild and not very noticeable. Regardless, it’s a cheap pack, and it’s not bad, especially for the price, and for the smooth tobacco flavor and experience.

The Marlboro Vista Forest Mist cigarettes are amongst my favorites, out of the packs that I ordered.

Marlboro Vista Forest Mist - $6.90

These slim cigarettes, with 1.5 mg tar and 0.2 mg nicotine, are very enjoyable, quick little treats of a smoking experience, with a flavor capsule that imparts a berry, floral sort of flavor. I wanted to smoke one after another of these, at times, but thankfully, I had a variety of packs of cigarettes available, so I could alternate and distract myself from smoking too many of these, too quickly. 

Another tropical-themed Marlboro cigarette, but this one starts off as a clove.

Marlboro Vista Tropical Burst - $4.90

I mentioned earlier in this article that this one was my favorite, but, I suppose, all in all, I like the variety and choice of having several various packs and flavor options to choose from, and I enjoy switching between packs, to have different smoking experiences. Wouldn’t that be the point, sort of? This one is a mild clove cigarette, as a basis, with tropical and minty citrus flavor capsules, with 12 mg tar and 0.8 mg nicotine, per cigarette. The clove cigarette, on its own, is bright and smooth, and the flavor capsules provide a good compliment to the smoking experience.

The Esse Change Applemint cigarettes are just okay.

Esse Change Applemint Capsule Superslim Kretek Cigarettes - $4.80

This is another single-capsule clove kretek cigarette, like the Djarum pack that I purchased. I didn’t really notice, all that well, the clove flavor of these cigarettes, but the website says that it’s a clove. I thought that it was just a standard superslim cigarette with an Applemint flavor capsule. The flavor of these capsule is okay, it’s a bit too minty and icy for me.

The Esse Change Icy Double is a very tasty clove kretek cigarette, with a minty option.

Esse Change Icy Double Kretek - $3.50

Oddly enough, the Icy Double Esse Change Superslim Clove Kretek cigarettes are less icy than the Applemint. The first impression of the cigarette is that it’s a fairly standard cigarette, and the orange capsule gives it a nice, fragrant clove flavoring, while the second, blue capsule, gives it a minty freshness. I really enjoyed tasting this cigarette, and I’d definitely order it again, especially since it’s currently on sale!

Final thoughts:

Having flavored tobacco is a much more novel and enjoyable experience than plain old full-flavored tobacco, without any flavor options. It makes the smoking experience smoother, and the flavor capsules might help cut down on the smell. I recommend trying Ciggies World out, for yourself, with these reviews as reference for packs that you might try. 

Update:

I tried out putting out one more order of cigarettes from Ciggiesworld, and at the end of the transaction, they sent me a message, or there was a page, perhaps, that stated that they no longer ship to the United States, on account of the de minimis tariffs imposed by Trump. I instead opted to order cigarette flavor beads off of eBay. Not a bad alternative, it’s still flavoring, you just would have to insert the flavor yourself, but the flavors are pretty nice. I tried out peach ice.