Not even a country boy, I grew up in the largest city in Virginia! It's just not nearly as large as LA bsky.app/profile/berf...
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The first time I flew into LA from the mid-Atlantic I was astounded. You fly over city for ~20 minutes before you land. Even the New York airports are nothing like that.
aug 29, 2025, 12:57 am • 7 0 • view
aug 30, 2025, 9:54 pm • 0 0 • view
4700 square miles in LA county, and there are at least 6 relevant counties in So Cal. And almost nothing was there 130 years ago. It’s the best reminder I can imagine of the productivity and persistence of humans.
aug 29, 2025, 4:22 am • 1 0 • view
Los Angeles is like your Aunt Edna's ass: it goes on forever and it's just as frightening. clip.cafe/parenthood-1...
aug 29, 2025, 12:57 am • 7 0 • view
Greater LA: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater...
aug 30, 2025, 9:59 pm • 0 0 • view
First time here. Mrs and I flew in to SNA and spent two days in Anaheim (Disney) back in 2022, before driving down to San Diego. Never made it into LA proper bsky.app/profile/esp1...
aug 29, 2025, 12:54 am • 53 0 • view
I guess I'm feeling homesick since I'm still reading your post but did you just say "Just time here"??
aug 30, 2025, 9:49 pm • 0 0 • view
25 😆 Just not a normal thing for me to see bsky.app/profile/itsj...
aug 29, 2025, 12:57 am • 42 0 • view
Yep. Population roughly half-mil, also very spread out bsky.app/profile/knif...
aug 29, 2025, 1:27 am • 28 0 • view
The first bird I saw after arrival was... ... ::drumroll:: ... ... a rock pidgeon 😂
aug 29, 2025, 1:36 am • 51 0 • view
Which was also the first bird species I saw in London And the first one I saw in Tokyo Truly a universal bird!
aug 29, 2025, 1:37 am • 57 0 • view
Good friend + mentor who helped me immensely at GitHub is retiring and moving abroad, so primarily dropping in on his farewell party bsky.app/profile/coac...
aug 29, 2025, 2:59 am • 22 0 • view
Santa Monica Pier was nice! Didn't get sunset over the ocean, but sunset over a mountain beside the ocean is close enough
aug 29, 2025, 3:05 am • 92 2 • view
Hoping to see the Tar Pits either tomorrow or Sunday! bsky.app/profile/bigp...
aug 29, 2025, 3:07 am • 51 0 • view
Lander’s Pastrami sandwich. 7th and Alvarado. Parking one block east. That is all.
aug 29, 2025, 3:30 am • 2 0 • view
💯
aug 29, 2025, 5:46 am • 0 0 • view
Crowdsourced an absurd quantity of recs a few weeks back, have them all in a textfile and piecing the itinerary together as I go 😆 Happy to take more if you've got them though, worst case it gets added to a list for next time bsky.app/profile/fran...
aug 29, 2025, 6:11 am • 26 0 • view
Los Angeles and NYC are the only places I've seen building-wide advertisements for video games And I love it 😄
aug 29, 2025, 7:13 pm • 39 1 • view
Phillipe’s for the Lamb Dip.
aug 29, 2025, 8:37 am • 2 0 • view
ok just one then—Chengdu Taste will blow your doors off if you’re into VERY spicy food
aug 29, 2025, 6:27 am • 1 0 • view
I assume somebody told you about Howlin Rays since you’re downtown?
aug 29, 2025, 7:16 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m sure the Getty museums are on that list: the art museum in Bel Air/Brentwood (I would go at least for the view), and the Villa on PCH. Lived in Westwood for three years and started law school at Southwestern.
aug 29, 2025, 3:33 pm • 1 0 • view
Me Me Me, I'm part of the crowd!!!
aug 29, 2025, 12:34 pm • 0 0 • view
If you're going to be in La Brea you should go to Versailles (10319 Venice Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034)
aug 29, 2025, 6:20 am • 0 0 • view
Loved going there. Watching the researchers through the window was wild.
aug 29, 2025, 3:16 am • 1 0 • view
I live a few blocks from there. It's a nice little park, with several museums nearby.
aug 29, 2025, 6:32 am • 0 0 • view
The the Tar tar Pits is so awesome. Please go to Osteria Mozza for me if you get the chance!
aug 29, 2025, 4:59 am • 3 0 • view
And order the budino for dessert!
aug 29, 2025, 5:30 am • 2 0 • view
good choice it’s awesome
aug 29, 2025, 5:02 am • 0 0 • view
@gregdoucette.bsky.social It's been overcast lately, and unseasonably so. Hope you get some of the famous sunshine while you're here instead.
aug 29, 2025, 7:02 am • 1 0 • view
Tar Pits are great, the LA museum you should see is the Academy Awards museum
aug 29, 2025, 3:07 am • 1 0 • view
Also go to Jumbo’s Clown Room and Comedy Store.
aug 29, 2025, 3:08 am • 1 0 • view
@gregdoucette.bsky.social Make sure you take a moment to enjoy the tableau out front of a mastodon getting swallowed by tar as its family looks on. Getting a little traumatized by the highly anthropomorphized scene is a rite of passage for LA kids on field trips.
aug 29, 2025, 4:27 pm • 1 0 • view
The Tar Pits are one of the coolest things about LA (especially the gurgling noises that really are voices of thousands of years of earth history). Also, it’s fun to notice that the surface streets in the immediate area tend to be a little tarry too. The stuff really bubbles up from the ground!
aug 29, 2025, 4:20 am • 1 0 • view
Are you not a Tar Heel?
aug 29, 2025, 6:25 am • 1 0 • view
Remember: No matter how enticing any food stuck in the tar pits looks, don't go in after it. That's how you get your skull on the wall.
aug 29, 2025, 7:17 am • 1 0 • view
A lot of LACMA may be closed because they are finishing a new wing. Website will say what is open. If you are a car guy, in the same area as Tar pits, LACMA, and Academy Museum you will also find Petersen Automotive Museum (which is fun) share.google/hjCEIQJg2quy...
aug 29, 2025, 3:16 am • 5 0 • view
The Farmer's Market is not too far from the Tar Pits, that's a good spot for lunch
aug 29, 2025, 7:18 pm • 0 0 • view
When I was stationed at pendleton I used to fish at the Oceanside Pier. In 2007-2012 you didn't need a license to fish on a pier. Not sure if that's still true or you fish but it might be a cool fyi.
aug 29, 2025, 3:09 am • 0 0 • view
I think that mountain might be Malibu.
aug 29, 2025, 3:09 am • 0 0 • view
But did they have all their toes? That’s the real question. I am sad to say that Atlanta’s pigeons are reduced to stubs.
aug 29, 2025, 1:40 am • 9 0 • view
20 years ago at my first DragonCon I noticed that Atlanta’s pigeons have very weird feet. Too many toes. Not enough toes. Weird growths. Really distressing sign about their environment
aug 29, 2025, 1:42 am • 7 0 • view
I don’t know about too many toes, but mangled feet are common in some cities and absent in others, and I’m really not sure why. There are theories involving prevalence of anti-bird spikes and/or human hair, but nobody seems to have nailed it down.
aug 29, 2025, 1:44 am • 14 0 • view
My wife and I had a train stopover in Chicago on our way to NYC and the one thing that really stuck with me about the city is that it had the FATTEST pigeons I have ever seen. I dunno what they're feeding them there but they're thriving.
aug 29, 2025, 2:28 am • 1 0 • view
And people say things about urbanization, but absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen was on the island of Hawaii, whereas Warsaw’s pigeons had spotless feet.
aug 29, 2025, 1:46 am • 15 0 • view
It might have something to do with inadequate nutrition? We're told not to feed native birds here in NZ because it can lead to their beaks and feet deforming. It's mostly peanuts, but people have fed them all sorts of random junk food.
aug 29, 2025, 2:08 am • 0 0 • view
My first thought, given the non-native ness of pigeons, would be to suggest a lack of genetic diversity in a local population...?
aug 29, 2025, 2:52 am • 0 0 • view
There was a vid I saw recently of a bloke who spends time catching pigeons and unwinding the hair and other things strangling their toes and other parts of their feet. Dabs on some antiseptic and releases them back to wander.
aug 29, 2025, 6:34 am • 6 0 • view
We need more people in the world like him
aug 29, 2025, 6:35 am • 4 0 • view
It was under heyitstommm on tiktok
aug 29, 2025, 7:18 am • 0 0 • view
da da da da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
aug 29, 2025, 1:38 am • 0 0 • view
That’s about the size of Long Beach
aug 29, 2025, 1:37 am • 1 0 • view
I was about to say, isn't VA Beach just like 6 suburbs in a trench coat?
aug 29, 2025, 1:58 am • 1 0 • view
Hometown love!
aug 29, 2025, 1:29 am • 1 0 • view
This is how you know Olympic sprinters train in SoCak
aug 29, 2025, 1:57 am • 1 0 • view
The Last Bookstore.
aug 29, 2025, 11:24 pm • 0 0 • view
The expanse, plus rush hour traffic, means a drive from one end of LA to the other takes about the same time as driving across Virginia
aug 29, 2025, 1:01 am • 6 0 • view
So many great neighborhoods in LA. I have friends that live in Los Feliz, Sherman Oaks, Pasadena (okay a different city, but still great) and Santa Monica (ditto). I really love the different character of all the different areas.
aug 29, 2025, 12:58 am • 3 0 • view
I spent a few weeks there for work a while back. I was mostly too busy to see much. One Saturday I went to the tar pits in the morning, had lunch on Wilshire Blvd, and spent the whole afternoon in the County Art Museum. That was just amazing.
aug 29, 2025, 3:01 am • 2 0 • view
Check out the ivy restaurant nearby!
aug 29, 2025, 2:25 am • 0 0 • view
VA Beach?
aug 29, 2025, 1:02 am • 1 0 • view
I grew up in a town of 900 in rural Illinois and moved to Chicago after college and felt at home instantly.
aug 29, 2025, 5:02 am • 0 0 • view