Content here is by Michael Still, mikal@stillhq.com.
So, I’ve been fascinated with American nuclear history for ages, and Chet and I got talking about what if any nuclear launch facilities there were in LA. We found LA-96 online and set off on an expedition to explore. An interesting site, its a pity there are no radars left there. Apparently SF-88 is the place to go for tours from vets and radars.
I also made a quick and dirty 360 degree video of the view of LA from the top of the nike control radar tower:
In what amounts to possibly the longest LAX layover ever, I’ve been hanging out with Chet at his place in Altadena for a few days on the way home after the Nova mid-cycle meetup. We decided that being the dorks that we are we should do some geocaching. This is just some quick pics some unexpected bush land — I never thought LA would be so close to nature, but this part certainly is.
When leaving the US, I stayed in the Wild Palms Hotel. I selected it for three reasons: I’d stayed there before; it is part of the Joie De Vivre chain which I have had good experiences with before; and it was very cheap on Expedia ($77 compared to an average rate in the area of about $150). I learnt some interesting things I thought I’d share:
So, overall this hotel was “ok”, apart from some minor annoyances. I’ll keep staying there so long as they’re cheap. If they’re not running a special, then you’re much better off staying further north.
Its 5am my time, and I’ve been awake since 3am. Not from choice though — its the downstairs neighbours waking us up yet again. They’re shift workers you see, and must either sleep with construction hearing protection on, or be deaf. Either way, they seem to think its ok to stand outside our apartment at shout at each other at 2am, or slam doors at all hours, or listen to music so loud it vibrates stuff in our apartment basically all night.
We’ve asked them nicely to turn it down (we used to get on quite well with them at first). We’ve asked the complex to please do something. We even rung the complex security folk when its happening, and asked for some peace. Its really done nothing to help — they perhaps turn the music down for 30 minutes until security leaves, and then turn it right back on again.
So, we’ve run out of ideas, apart from ending the lease early (which will cost an unknown amount of money), and moving somewhere else. We’re so serious about doing that that I have started looking around Craigslist already.
Perhaps the floor between apartments is too thin, because the bathroom fans this neighbour leaves on for literally days at a time also vibrates things in the apartment, but either way I think Central Park has pretty much failed to provide us with a livable apartment. We don’t want a lot, just some peace after 10pm like the complex rules say we should get.
Grumpy.
