Recently in Manhattan Beach Category

I try to walk along the Pacific as much as possible since I live less than a mile from it. (If it weren't such an elevation change, I would walk to the ocean, but the walk back up would be brutal for an "old man.") I love the Pacific because it's always in a different mood.

This afternoon's walk was hotter than any of the times I spent sitting by the ocean this summer (all wrapped up in a blanket, might I add!). It hit 83º here in December! But, on the flip side, the air was completely clear. I could see great detail in Santa Monica and Palos Verdes. Even the tip end of the north bay past Malibu and Catalina to the south were clearly visible!

The sun is now starting to set and wash everything in the warm light of magic hour.

Lovely.

I've blogged about my recent encounters with @Verizon when upgrading the TiVo with the Fios service here at the house.  In addition to the Twitter replies to me from Verizon following up, today I got a followup phone call from Ralph, the technician who installed the M-CableCard and got everything working wonderfully.  He wanted to be sure everything was satisfactory.

Since I groused about my really, really bad customer service experience, I feel equally compelled to rave about my current really, really good customer service follow up experiences.   OK, so Verizon and I have kissed and made up.  This was really pretty easy for me to do because I do so love their Fios* service and my MiFi card that I use all over the country.

Also of note:  loving the new high capacity TiVo Premiere XL in HD!

*According to an independent report that has nothing to do with Verizon, here in Manhattan Beach we're in the top 1% of household internet access speeds.  It just rocks my world since I do so much work on the internet!!  And I'm reading that Verizon just announced a whopping 150 megabit up and 35 megabit down upgrade from our supposedly current 15 up and 10 down!  (Our actual speed just clocked in at 30.54 Mb/s up and 22.51 Mb/s down.) My God, that's fast!  This makes cloud computing a bit more realistic.  Their goal:  10 gigabits per household in a few years!  That's just insane.

Related articles

• Verizon FiOS Readies Super Fast 10GB Per House Connection (beet.tv)
• @Verizon Customer Service Is Horrendously Wretched! (timtyson.us)
• Corporate Offloading (timtyson.us)

It's the season.  Busy, busy, busy!

The last few weeks have been crazy:  the Haunted House extravaganza for Halloween (we do it up big here in the hood), a three day business trip to the east coast, a two week vacation to Budapest and Prague, returning home to put away the Halloween Haunted House and set up the Christmas decorations, create the holiday cards, the 2011 gift calendars, the newsletter, fold/stuff/stamp/seal/mail the cards and newsletters (huge task), jump online for the gift-giving rituals, then the Thanksgiving meal...

Today, the cleaning crew is finally back. Thank goodness!! (They missed last month because of vacation plans.)  The house is one giant dust bunny and fur ball all rolled into one.  My allergies have been insane.  I'm almost finished with the laundry now.  The last load of clothes is in the drier.

To finish the holiday gift shopping I had to run to the Apple Store to get the Sistoid Unit's gift.  (No worries.  She already knows what she's getting from me—an iPod Touch, so she can Facetime me and mother.)  The Apple Stores are always much too close to where I live!  This one is at Manhattan Village Mall.

No one in their right mind wants to go to a mall on Black Friday:  the crowds, the rudeness, the snatch and grab, the ill humor, the parking fiascos.  Manhattan Village Mall isn't a large mall at all, but the parking is always hell on earth!  I was so not looking forward to this quick one-stop shopping trip.  I got there and found a parking space with no difficulty!!  But then...

Oh!  For Pete's Sake!

Who in their right mind?!

What a wretched, horrid, bad, bad, bad idea!!!!!!!!!

On this, the worst day on earth to shop at a mall, the Manhattan Village Mall decided to have a full blown parade IN THEIR PARKING LOT?!  The high school marching band, the police cars, the fire trucks (yes, there were two of them in the parade), the little security Segway, the little three-wheeled security vehicles, throwing candy...

I couldn't even back out of my parking space.  The whole parking lot was grid locked.  People, blocked in the one way parking lane, were trying to turn around, which was so obviously impossible--three cars.  Now they were stuck!  Duh!  Nobody could move because of this stupid parade blocking the main artery of the parking lot!

Go ahead, call me Scrooge.  This was THE most hair brain idea of the year!  Who ever planned this on the busiest shopping day of the year had to be high on cocaine!

Insanity!

Time to fold the laundry.  :)

Well, we had a little earthquake last night: magnitude 2.4. I find them to have personalities. This one shook the house in what felt like a north/south direction and actually originated just a few miles south of the house, out in the bay itself.  (Click to enlarge.)

Related articles @ tt.us

• My Malaga Cove Time Lapse 1
• My Malaga Cove Time Lapse 2
• Sunset in Rancho Palos Verdes

All hands on deck!  We're having a real live thunderstorm here in Manhattan Beach.

This is glorious!

Wind.  Rain.  Thunder.  (Haven't seen the lightning, though.)

Aside from the dreadful bondage of my being chained to my computers as I rebuild hard drives, the weather here in Manhattan Beach has been a delightful change:  heavy overcast, cool, and a steady drizzle!  I love it!!

Working in the yard this morning, trimming back the bougainvilla, a neighbor walked by and said her children couldn't wait to return to the haunted house at our house again this Halloween.

Little do the tiny preci know:  this year's Haunted House will even be more terrifying than last year's!

Today was the hottest day (EVER) on record in LA:  113º!

It even reach 100º here in Manhattan Beach.  I had to turn on the air conditioning! Thank god we don't have humidity, or I certainly would be a puddle now.

Another absolutely perfect Fall day!

The Friday laundry cycle has begun.

In a few minutes I'll be off to the Tonsorial Parlor for another amazing haircut.  My hair is so long now, I'm not sure if it improves or interferes with the neighbors satellite TV reception.

Then, it's off to the cleaners to drop off and pick up.

Next is the grocery shopping.  (I know.  Unbelievable.)

And after catching up on emails, I'll wrap up the day with the writing project.

Full day.

Yesterday was my first visit to The Tonsorial Parlor -- a barbershop/hair salon in Manhattan Beach.

I have been searching for the past 2.5+ years for a good place to get my haircut. I found a guy that did a great job. The salon where he worked was just ridiculously expensive. While he always cut my hair waaaaaaay too short, it was an even, non-lumpy haircut. Then one day, he was gone. The other places I have tried give horrid haircuts.

Yelp sent out an email focused on barbershops and hair salons in my area. As much as I use Yelp, I'm surprised I hadn't thought about using it find a barbershop. The name of this one caught my eye: The Tonsorial Parlor. The reviews were extremely complimentary. One customer writes:

Tonsorial Parlor is a real gem, a cozy, funky, one-of-a-kind fusion of hair salon and barber shop. It looks like something straight out of a Clint Eastwood western, boasts a highly competent staff who charge very fair prices and sits just blocks from the beach. 

Dale, who has cut my hair here for decades, epitomizes the place. He's also a stage and screen actor, a talented musician, a martial arts master, drives a motorcycle to work and serves as a cowboy on cattle drives. He probably could do anything for a living. He CHOOSES to do this. And I choose to drive 30 miles to just to get my haircut here. Now you know why..."

The photos of the shop on the web site were out there cool. It was reasonably priced. I had to visit.

I sent the owner a text message to set up my appointment. Not only did he live up to the rave reviews of his customers, his shop is way cool. He has been in business there for nearly 40 years I think.

This is absolutely one of, if not THE, best haircuts I've ever had. Need a reasonably priced barbershop in the south bay area? You have got to go see Dale!

I already posted a time lapse of the installation at this link.  But the lighting and the camera settings were a huge challenge.  So you really didn't get to see what the shutters look like, until now.   They are 4" shutters made by Avalon.  The top of the top shutter is 18' from the floor.

About a month ago they measured. This week they installed.

The shutters completely change the feeling of the living room.  Tim likes.

Here you have about 4 hours of worked distilled into 1 minute and 20 seconds. Enjoy.

EVER!

I swear.  I've never had a summer in which I was so cold!

I eat out a lot, no r-e-a-l-l-y a lot. And one the things that really frustrates me with today's restaurants is portion size and cost. Frequently a dessert will cost about $7 and be of an obscene size, large enough for two people. This actually disgusts me as it promotes eating too much and is wasteful. I've shared my thoughts about this before as I almost always am boxing up lunch for the next day from a full portion size of leftovers.

Last weekend I ate at the Macaroni Grill. I've eaten here before, but this visit was different. The menu had changed. The food was exceptionally tasty, of reasonable portion size, and reasonable price. Dessert was under $3 and also a reasonable portion size.

I was delighted. I shared my enthusiasm with the manager who was glad to hear it, fearing that the new menu would receive a poor response.

This is something I wish all restaurants would do. Congratulations to Macaroni Grill for being the first to do the right thing!

Today I went to Patty Brown Physical Therapy for physical therapy.  I have never had physical therapy before, but the issues with my shoulder are just impacting my basic living to such an extent that I decided I had to do it.  This morning I almost had my mouth in the bowl of cereal because I can't lift the spoon to my mouth.  Getting dressed and showering have become time consuming and difficult challenges.  I can't pull the seat belt with my right arm or shut the front passenger's door.  ENOUGH!

I dreaded the appointment.  If I move my arm/shoulder in various unknowable ways I have a variety of incredibly intense pains, sometimes lasting for up to 10 minutes.  I just knew this was going to hurt like hell.

Patty happened to be my therapist.  She is amazing!  I won't bore you with the details, but the appointment lasted about two hours.  At no time did she or any of her assistants cause me pain.  They were all knowledgable, professional, and genuinely warm people.

Astoundingly, I had immediate results!  When I reached into my pants pocket to get out my phone to input three additional appointments, I realized I could do so with no bizarre physical contortions and absolutely no pain.  This would not have been possible before the appointment.  I would have had searing pain and barely been able to get my phone out.  Tonight at dinner, I could lift my fork to my mouth like normal!

Already, with just one visit, I highly recommend Patty Brown Physical Therapy.  Her office has a positive, friendly energy about it.  The people are all genuinely pleasant, and I think that flows from her inner nature.  I have always believed that the energy of a space flows from those who lead what goes on in that space.  So if you need physical therapy, I recommend Patty Brown.

Apple isn't a victim of their own success.  They are badly managed at the distribution and retail levels — abusing their customers to feed their hype-driven marketing machinery.

It starts with my trying to reserve a phone on the date Apple themselves said everyone could place an order.  Their system, probably AT&T's databases, were overloaded and my first attempt to place an order didn't work.  I received a browser message to try my order again later.  I immediately did.

This time I tried to have the phone delivered to my home address.  The order went through!  I got my phone yesterday.

I then got an email saying my first order had also worked and I should pick up my phone at a specific Apple store.  What?  How weird!  But, OK.  Cool.  I could give that phone to the HU, who planned to get one anyway but hadn't placed an order.

My subsequent attempts to order a phone for my mother all failed repeatedly and said I had to go to the Apple store.  The nearest Apple store to her is about a 6 hour drive.  At her age, she won't be doing that.

Yesterday I and the HU went to the Apple store to be sure I could give my phone to the HU.  We were told that as long as we were both there I could.  Cool.

Today I drove by to check out the line.  Apple advertised that they will have two lines:  one for those customers who pre-ordered their phones and one for those who were just hoping to get one.  One line extends from the Mall entrance all the way off of the mall property and all the way down to the golf course at the Marriott.  Literally thousands of people are standing in this line that is probably a mile or more long!

I asked one of the store employees who was near the mall entrance how long the line was for people who had pre-ordered the phone.  He said, in not too pleasant a tone, that he had no idea.  It was all one line.  The store didn't divide the line up until people got to the door of the store.  What???!!!!  So the people that pre-ordered are having to wait even longer because of the people who didn't pre-order?!  That makes zero sense!

He went on to say that if I wasn't standing in the line (currently in the blazing sun) when the store closed, I would lose my reservation.  (A female employee had just told another customer the exact opposite.  Who go the correct information?!) He said that hundreds of people had spent the night in line.

This is insane.  This is inept management.  This is inexcusable.  Sure, it was fun the first time, but Apple has had 4 tries now to get this process right.

I told him Apple had lost their mind and that they could keep their precious little phone.  I wonder who will get the phone I ordered not realizing that the order had even worked?!

This is pure horse pooh!

Just wait until they all get their shiny new devices only to realize that the marvel of engineering, the new antenna system that is the outer edge of the phone, doesn't work so well when you hold the phone with your hand.  But then, who actually holds the phone in theirs hands when they place a call??????

Related articles:

• iPhone 4 has folks lining up in droves at Apple Stores worldwide (edibleapple.com)
• Apple iPhone 4 Release: Lines Grow As Frenzy Kicks Off (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Hundreds line up to buy new iPhone (washingtontimes.com)
• IPhone 4 sells briskly on first day of sales (cbc.ca)
• IPhone 4 Launch: The Scene From Austin (blogs.wsj.com)
• New iPhone selling briskly as hundreds line up (mysanantonio.com)
• iPhone Lines 2-3 Times Bigger This Year, Stores Are Selling Out (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)

No, really!

I complain so often about AT&T that I feel compelled to say something, anything, good about them when ever I can.  Today I can.

My new iPhone 4 was having connecting issues in the house, even with the MicroCell.  I called the support number the AT&T rep at the AT&T store gave me in case I had any problems.  The first thing that completely and utterly blew me out of the water:  a real live human being that spoke English as his native language answered the phone on the second ring!  But even more than that:  the real live human being that spoke English as his native language that answered the phone on the second ring was the actual tech support guy that immediately and courteously fixed the issue.

Now, ladies and gentlemen:  that's astounding!!!!  But it gets better.

When the phone was up and working with a re-invigorated signal strength, the tech support guy set up a return call for me on a specific time this Friday to make sure the fix solved the issue!  Someone from AT&T's technical support group will confirm the steps we took today worked?!

My god!

Now, that's what I call customer service!

Last night, around 2:00AM and just now, we have had two earthquakes that shook the house.  These were very short in duration and located out in the bay, just off the coast here in Manhattan Beach.

This is a link to the data about the most recent earthquake.  And this is a link to the data about the earthquake in the wee hours of the morning.

Related articles:

• Hundreds reported feeling Santa Monica Bay earthquake, 3 aftershocks (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• 3.6 Earthquake Strikes Santa Monica Bay (laist.com)
• Los Angeles Earthquake... "Peace, be Still" (beliefnet.com)
• Breaking News: 3.6 Earthquakes rattles nerves in Santa Monica/West Los Angeles area (economy4abc.blogspot.com)

I received several email responses to my blog post about The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! Most everyone suggested it was the smoke detector battery. I have had to replace several smoke detector batteries in the house, all upstairs, even though they are also wired into the house electrical system. But I actually hadn't even thought of this as being a possible cause of the beep!

I went into the kitchen and searched for the smoke detector. The house has them everywhere except in the kitchen/den area. Great! Where is the most likely place to start a fire? Maybe the gas stove which actually creates fire??

Then this sickening thought occurred to me: What if the smoke detector is up there (on the 11 foot ceiling) but was covered up by the builder when they put up the fake beams. Much to my distress, this scenario made sense because the beep sound is muted! (See picture of the ceiling.  Click to enlarge.)

In a state of horror, I stood on top of a chair near the ceiling, with the top cabinets open (in case the smoke detector was enclosed above them). It took 12 minutes for the next beep.

No. The beeping sound, where ever it was, was definitely below me —over by the iMac on the desk in the corner of the kitchen. Why does it always sound like its over by the iMac??!!

Steve suggested that the sound might be coming from the electrical panel on the back of the house, which, interestingly, is on the outside wall behind the iMac. But electrical panels don't beep.

This morning, my mother sent an email with the subject: "beeping." She says: "try smoke alarm battery or alarm system". But how could it be the alarm system, which has never been activated? None-the-less, after breakfast, I decided to explore Steve's and mom's ideas. I went to the electrical box on the back of the house.

Interesting...

Next to the electric meter is a rather large box built into the wall itself. It was labeled, "Communications." Maybe it was the phone/cable system?

Electric screwdriver in hand, I unscrewed the case. Inside the box are two large plastic systems all sealed closed with numerous flickering lights monitoring the status for the house's fiber optic cable/internet/phone systems and the alarm system. All of the lights were flickering green except for one: the light next to "Replace Battery" on the alarm system!

My über geek mother was right!

I was afraid to try to force the plastic system cover open as it appears rather committed to remaining closed. I was afraid to press any of the buttons for fear the whole of the Manhattan Beach SWAT team might descend on the house if I set off the alarm system and woke the whole neighborhood, not knowing how to turn it off.

So, for a short time anyway, the beep persists. However, once the alarm company comes out to replace the battery, I will no longer suffer the beeping of his hideous heart.

Related articles:

• The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! (timtyson.us)
• The Mystery Beep (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Smoke Alarm Maintenance How To's (eon.businesswire.com)

I am living in Edgar Allen Poe's, Tell Tale Heart. And it's driving me similarly mad.  The only difference:  it isn't the beating of his hideous heart incessantly ringing in my ears.  There is a distinct yet soft "beep" in the kitchen.

The beep sounds intermittently but about every 20 minutes or so.  It has been beeping for months now.

I can't find it!

I don't know what it is!

It's driving me mad!

At first I thought it was the UPS for the iMac at the desk.  I replaced it and was shocked to hear the beep a while later.  No!

I've unplugged everything in the kitchen that requires electricity and that can be unplugged.  The beep continues to mock me.

If the refrigerator requires a change of a filter, I can find no documentation of it.  And I still hear the beep when I turn the refrigerator's sound feature off.

What makes the beep maddening is the imperceptibility of its location.  No matter where one stands when hearing it, it always sounds like its over there—even when you're standing "over there."

It is the beeping of his hideous heart!!

A better picture...

Don't mention to Beast that he needs to lose weight.  It upsets him at dinner time.

Tonight I ate at one of the regular restaurants in my rotation. It was chilly (and extremely windy) eating out on the patio, but nonetheless, many of the tables were taken. Being Mother's Day, they were unusually busy.

After having ordered, across the restaurant I heard a patron complaining rather loudly and angrily that he and his party had been waiting to order for over 20 minutes. Well, I knew the 20 minutes claim was a bit of an exaggeration as I had seen them come in and be seated—maybe 10 minutes. But certainly, to be fair to the man, they should have had their order taken by this now.

The table cleaner to whom they complained had a waiter come and immediately taker their order. But here's what was so ridiculous: the grumpy old man who had raised such hell about not having his order taken for so long still had no idea yet what he was ordering. He took forever to look over the menu and decide.

So what was he really complaining about? What expectation did he have that was not being met by the restaurant staff?

Rather makes me think of the idiots that drive so recklessly dodging in and out of congested traffic during rush hour in very congested areas. They never get anywhere any faster than anyone else. They just place themselves and others at risk of accidents. But why?

Pity that our society promotes this type of ridiculous behavior by rewarding the Alpha Male Type in so many ways.

Perhaps because one of my high school music teachers is retiring at the end of this year (after many years of service) or because of what I saw at the beach yesterday, or maybe both, but this song from my high school music days in the Singers came back to me.

Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.

Listen with your eyes,
Listen with your ears,
and sing everything you see,
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing along with me.

Yesterday I was surprised to see that the lifeguard stations along the Pacific all have had their banisters painted one of five different colors.  I'm not sure if the remainder of each station will be painted the same color it currently is, the color of the banister, or a completely different color.  Time will tell.

Tim likes!

(To hear the song, click here.)

This time lapse, from yesterday, is better than my first because I used manual focus! :)

It's also more interesting because you can see the stars moving through the sky as well as the fog come rolling in off of the ocean during the night. You can even see the moving fog outside during the day! (Look closely. You can see it.) Because this is a time lapse, the fog appears to be moving very rapidly. The truth is, it was going down the street faster than you could comfortably walk!

The downside of the fog: during the day this caused variance in the brightness of the individual shots in the time lapse. I experimented with removing that with a filter that averaged exposure values over time. It worked amazingly well but dulled the fog's motion outside the window. So, I decided to leave it as shot.

You can view full screen by clicking on the full screen icon in the timeline. (It only appears, in the bottom right, when you mouse over the movie.)

Notes to myself on workflow:

• To resize the finished video file, export from FCP with QuickTime conversion out of FCP at the desired size using H.264
• THEN export that file out of MPEG Streamclip at 100% as an mp4 file for the web.
• Otherwise MPEG Streamclip takes insanely f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

Tonight's sunset was different from the norm with its clouds hanging low in the sky, but then, what exactly is the norm for the Pacific Coast? It is always expressing a subtle shift in mood.

With a recent storm having come off the Pacific, coupled with the Chilean 8.8 earthquake and its ensuing tsunami warning, the Pacific Ocean here in the South Bay Area, has been the most active I've ever seen it.  In this short video I shot yesterday with my iPhone, the sandy beach, which typically begins out where you see the waves starting to break, is completely gone.  No one was in the water.  You could even see some of the currents zipping around as waves would head back out to sea crashing into the waves coming in from the sea.  It was a spectacular site!

Related articles

• BREAKING: Violent 8.8 quake hits Chile, sends tsunami towards Hawaii (crooksandliars.com)
• Chile Earthquake, Tsunami Warnings: Science of a Disaster (abcnews.go.com)

In my earlier post, I mentioned that the surf has been out of control with the storm and earthquake.  The life guard stations had to be moved inland—waaaay inland, and the surf still almost got to them.  Here you can see that the sand was completely eroded away by the surf, creating the sudden drop off that was as tall as me!  (Click to enlarge.)

Normally, along a seashore, one expects to find seashells.  Well, not so here in the South Bay.  Regrettably, the dumping of LA's sewage has long ago killed such sea life.  But what I found even more distressing was the amount of trash the surf brought to the shore line.  It was unbelievable!  Thousands of plastic bottle caps littered the shoreline as if they were the missing seashells! Bits of styrofoam, in various sizes, were everywhere.  This is outrageous!  We have turned the Pacific Ocean into a sewer. Click the image below to see two different pictures.

This picture was shot of a rose picked from the garden yesterday. Only in California!

The devil's mask was just too frightening for the younger children. It had to go, and it was much too hot. Then my standing on the balcony over the front door shooting silly string terrified a few unsuspecting parents. (I didn't shoot the young children. Middle-aged children begged to be shot.)

The entrance to the house was also just a little too frightening for some of the younger children--that, I didn't anticipate. Perhaps they found it scary because of the loud sound effects from the DVD playing in the lower main front window, or maybe it was just so busy with scary things: pots of fire, large hanging bats, a hanging mummy, tombstones, a spider skeleton (I didn't know they had them either), a jar of eyeballs, chains, a giant rat, etc.

Unexpectedly, about half way through the evening, the fog machine set off the smoke alarms, adding even more drama to the scene. I then moved the fog machine to spray the fog out the front door.

But many parents said the house won the award for best haunted house in the hood. In the beginning there was a large caldron full of candy--24 bags of candy. It was all gone by 8:30pm. Hundreds of children came by.

Favorite quotation from the night:
"What do you say honey." after the child took candy from the caldron.
"May I have a fourth?" answered the child.

Clicking on any of the pictures will enlarge the shot. And, presented below, is a short video I shot of the DVD that was playing in the lower main front window of the house along the street where many children and adults stopped to watch. Showing the DVD, Hallowindow, while the haunted house was "open for business" was my favorite part of the evening. You can click on the movie to watch a brief excerpt, but to see the movie, visit Mark Gervais' site. He really did an awesome job with these animations!

Halloween will be a little out of control around here. The iron front door already lends itself to something of a haunted house. Here's a little preview.

At the front door (Click to enlarge)

And a wonderful Halloween animation will be playing in the lower front window of the house. Here is a shot of what it looks like "behind the scenes."