Photos Of The Lot - The Campus

I remember when we built our new building, a member of our Board of Directors was upset at how much concrete was around the campus.

She donated money to "Green" up the lot and this area is the highlight of the effort.

We put in a few benches that commemorate former staff and changed out the trees that we had before, to make things a bit more parklike.

It came out pretty nice, actually...well, minus the fountain I highlighted a few days ago. ;-)

The Mighty Mississippi...Always

They don't look anything alike, but if I am not totally out of my mind, my girlfriend and I went over the Mississippi in 1979, at this same place as the Google photo down below.
No matter, this is I-40 in Memphis, TN and it crosses the Mississippi River, in my case, a very swollen Mississippi River. I remember going over it with just a little fear and trepidation. We were right to be concerned, because a few days after we did, the river overflowed its banks. I actually have 4 photos of the river, that's how impressed we were at the way the river looked that day.

I have been watching the rise of the river this past week or so, via Facebook. They send updates on what spillway or floodway is going to be utilized, opened or in one case, levee blown up, to relieve the pressure on the river. Bird's Point New Madrid Floodway was the first one and Bonnet Carre Spillway second. Now comes the Morganza Floodway, due to be opened sometime today.
Each one that gets opened causes different problems, but they have to weigh the good vs the bad.

Flooding the bayou is bad...but flooding New Orleans is DEFINITELY much worse.

5 months into this year and we have had quite a year, disaster wise. I hope we catch a break, soon.

Mexican Feather Grass

Blogger is STILL having trouble. What they finally did was roll us back to a "Restore" point ahead of the upgrade on Wednesday night. What that did was make my post from Thursday disappear totally. Post and comments. It's like the Tiki Ti never existed.

So we move on. Here is Friday's Post...finally.




These are Mexican Feather Grass.

I pass them on my way to work in the morning and I really love how wispy they are and how they gently sway in the breezes.
I never knew their name until recently and when I went Googling, I found out that this grass plant is an invasive species. Which means that they are almost impossible to eradicate, even after you pull out the original plants.

I guess that fact alone makes me realize that I should not plant this in my yard.

A real shame, because it is so pretty.

Tiki Mug In Hand

Blogger was unavailable to me last night, so the scheduled post didn't happen (I think). But since something substantial happened to me yesterday, I would rather post this, instead.

Tiki Ti turned 50 last week and in honor of this milestone, they designed a wonderful Tiki Mug for their customers. I have a friend who wanted one, so I joined their Facebook page and found out that yesterday was the day that I could buy one.

I was there right at 4 and the poor bartender (young Mike) had no clue about the mug situation. A minute or so later, along came the person who is dealing with the mugs and all was right with the world. I had 2 really lovely tiki mugs to call my own...well, until I deliver my friend's mug. :-)

Gonna miss that place when we leave our current location, so it is nice to have this. If you wish to order via their Facebook page...the mug is $35.

Fruita

I pass a cart with fresh fruit, each morning.

The man is busy peeling the fruit, so it is usually not this nice to look at. He was done today and I thought the colors and the way he stacked them up, as nice.

On a personal level, I have a real problem buying fruit out on the streets. How sanitary is it? I have no idea, honestly.
In his defense, he does put the fruit into a clean bag and gives them a fork to spear them with...but it somehow doesn't feel like it is enough.

Anyway, enjoy the fresh fruit.

National Train Day 2011

We had to go to Anaheim on Saturday morning. After we finished doing what we were doing, we decided to catch some lunch on the way home. Thankfully it was just noon and we could make a detour to Chinatown to get some Dim Sum at the Empress. That makes my son so very happy and even my husband was OK with the choice. Especially since I said that we could leave the car at the Empress and hop the Gold Line to Union Station, where National Train Day was going on.





Chinatown Station happens to be a beautiful place and I decided to try again to get a photo worthy of the "Metros: The Art of Transit".

I thought it came out nice, with the colors and the train arriving. We will see if he goes for it this time.

My North Hollywood Station shot was not used and I am not totally sure why.









After we walked around, track side, we went up into Union Station proper and found even more food areas have sprouted up and lots of exhibits.
Then we walked around to the front of the station and I saw people going into the Ticketing Area, which is normally off limits.
So I made a fast detour into that area. It was filled with children watching a stage show with lots of loud music from a band. It was noisy as all heck, but that didn't really matter to me, because I immediately saw a shot I liked. At the last minute, something made me turn around and I saw this better shot of another window with the chandelier, too. I knew it was going to be spectacular. As you can see...it is. Since I was submitting the other shot, I sent this one, too. He will probably hate it because it doesn't have a train in it. Grrrr...

Anyway, it was nice hanging out together, the three of us...enjoying our mutual love of trains.

========================
Photo:
The top photo is my two guys
looking at the Steam
Locomotive they had on display
Track Side.

Photos Of The Lot - Familian Plaza Fountain

My Water Post For Today.

Yes, I have combined a water post with my Photos of the Lot subcategory...so sue me.

This fountain has been kind of a like it hate it kind of thing with me. It is nice to have water flowing from a fountain...but it's shape has always seemed just a little bit (OK, OK, a lot) phallic. :-)

I was going to post this as a goodbye to something on the lot that we were leaving behind, but then I got an email from my President who informed me that yes, we get to take this lovely water fountain with us. Great...

Enjoy the water falling down the Familian Plaza Fountain.

Happy Mother's Day 2011

Happy Mother's Day to Mother's Everywhere.

This photo is taken on my 2nd Wedding day, back in 1990. As I have mentioned many times, my Husband and I had two weddings, 10 years apart.

For this wedding, we had a professional photographer and she did a fabulous job.

Here are my Mom and Dad, looking at me. Yes, it's a contrived shot...but I like it.

It was 2 years later that I lost my Mom, so I was glad that she made it long enough to see this second wedding. She also got to see my son be born, just 3 months after this photo was taken. Yes, again for any who don't know, I was indeed pregnant that day. :-)

My Mom was an amazing woman who collected baby chicks (aka: other children, besides her own) and she obviously passed that nurturing gene on to me, her daughter. I carry on in her name and consider it a privilege to do so.

Not like she was perfect, because my siblings and I can attest to the fact that she was not, but for the most part, she was someone to be proud to be related to.

Happy Mother's Day Mom.

I still love you and miss you.

Your number 1 daughter.

A Cross On Easter Sunday And Other Churchly Thoughts

This post was supposed to go up on May 1st, but it got pre-empted by the Festival of Books post.


This was what greeted the parishioners who came to our Church on Easter Sunday and got stuck in the old Church (now called the Church Hall). Note that you really can't get a handle on how large it is. It was a decent size.

Considering it was so far in the back of the complex, I was really quite impressed that they did such a nice job decorating. Besides this lovely cross, they had many, many Easter Lilies in the room, too, no surprise there.

As things are settling in with our new Church Building, we are also in the midst of major change. We are about to lose our Parish Administrator.

More on that, in June.

Architecture: 60's Style

When we went to USC last week, our parking structure was right next to a building called the Birnkrant Residence Hall. When I looked at it, this time around (I have been to USC several times over the years), I immediately noticed that it had the look of some buildings I had seen last year in Chicago. It bothered me enough, that I took a photo of it and decided I wanted to do research on it. What I found out is that it was built in the 60's (as I expected) actually 1963, by Albert C. Martin and Associates (an L.A. firm).



So then I went back to Marina City and the corn cobs, that I posted on last year.


They were built by Bertrand Goldberg (A Chicago Architect) in 1964. Obviously, not the same person. But yes, I do see a similarity in the shades above the windows.



If you want to take it a bit further, I see a bit of a similarity to the Capitol Records Building, too.



Though in the case of Capitol Records, it was built in 1956, so you could say it was a forerunner of the other two and maybe influenced the style a bit.

It just amazes me how much the 60's stand out as a decade apart from any other. A Jetson's feeling, as a matter of fact. Maybe it was the race for the moon and all those things that made architects move into a really unusual style.

But I must admit that I do like it.


I hope you enjoyed it, too.

Photos Of The Lot - The Educational Telecommunications Center

Another in my occasional posts about photos of the KCET Lot.



It's a pretty impressive building.

This is the building where I currently work. It's called the ETC or the Educational Telecommunications Center. I work on the 2nd floor, all the way over on the extreme right (which is out of the photo). Engineering is housed in the front and the News Department is around the back. One section on the back left, used to also have part of our news team, but it is currently empty.

The left front side of the buiding, was originally designed to allow inner city children who did not have access to computers, a chance to "Surf the Web" and learn about technology. Now days, our New Media team are up in that area, making web pages and creating things to bring us to new audiences, who may not watch traditional television.

The bottom level is where our Master Control and Ingest, Edit Bays and Control Rooms live...we also have Studio C there. That is why the first floor of the building is so tall. We needed a tall ceiling for the stage.

You may note that the staircase is totally outside. We have another outside staircase on the back side. You might wonder why.
It was a cost saving measure. Unfortunately for us, we have to deal with it every day and even more so, during the rainy season. (oh and for anyone who cares, it cost 10 Million to build back in 1999). It is the newest structure on our 5 acre lot.

I hope you enjoyed a small look at my immediate world.

The First Babies of 2011

I can't resist showing off this Mama's new babies.

There are 4 of them, just recently born and so cute and fuzzy, you just want to pick them up. What surprised me was that Dad wasn't around. Maybe he was finding food for his new brood. Mom kept them as far away from me as she could. They are not stupid, these ducks.

Enjoy.

Chinese Music Under Banyan Tree

This photo was taken at USC on Saturday, though the children climbing the tree could literally be from any location around the world. If you took away the college buildings, I could definitely picture some third world Country for the setting of this photo. Some things are totally universal...like children playing in the most unexpected places. Who needs sophisticated computer games. :-)

The tree is a Moreton Bay Fig and a member of the group of trees known as Banyan Trees. They propagate by sending out new growth from the tree branches and in some cases strangle the tree that birthed it. Survival of the fittest, is what you see in operation here.

Somehow it makes the lyrics from Aja, which I always felt were so peaceful...seem just a little sinister.

We're Back!

My Water Post For Today.

I dragged my long suffering Husband back to Bridgeport on Tuesday and we started walking each evening, for the rest of the week. Boy, were our legs tired! lol

It was wonderful to be back and the waterfowl greeted us by doing what the other birds and bees are up to. The first night I saw this one duck attack the back of the neck of another and when I tried to get them separated, my Husband said that I was not going to be successful...it's just that time of year.
He was, of course, right.

I hope you enjoy a welcoming view of the sunset, without ducks, on Bridgeport Lake.

LA Times Festival Of Books 2011

This is KCET's booth at the LA Times Festival of Books.

In the past we were usually in the section with the Children's Stage, but this year we ended up near the Cooking Stage, instead. It was definitely quieter, but that's not saying much. The amount of people walking around this book fair, is phenomenal.

I love the fact that in the age of Nooks and iPads and Kindles, that people and their love of books, bring them to something like this.

At our booth, we had The Royal Wedding running on our air, which was a perfect backdrop for our talent. It happened to be Patt Morrison, who not only hosted our Royal's Week, but did the play by play at KTLA the night of the wedding. When I talked to her, she was quite thrilled to find out she could still pull an all nighter...on TV no less. :-)

It was nice day and a nice event. Next year, the Expo Line will be running...so getting there will be even easier. Now days, the hardest part of getting to USC, was the line of traffic at the off-ramp. It must have taken close to a half hour to exit.

As we gazed at the Jefferson Blvd/USC Station, we both hoped that we would attempt it again, at some point.