

Still having a lot of fun with all the photo apps for the iPhone. The black & white settings in Toy Camera are particularly great.
An uncharacteristically long post by The Skeptical Hypochondriac, but I really appreciate it. As a vegan skeptic, I feel a bit fringe for even the fringe. I’m not, however, a militant vegan or unreasonable one. My greatest wish is that people would sincerely evaluate their diet and see if they couldn’t reduce the amount of meat they eat, if they could determine to only eat meat that comes from wholesome sources, and if they couldn’t switch soy, almond, or rice milk for their milk intake.
Also, using battery-cage hens for eggs should be fucking outlawed straight out. It’s utter bullshit. And the industry argues that ‘free-range’ hens don’t even bother going outside the shed, so why bother? Well I’ve seen healthy barred rock laying hens living in a hen house with a yard and they love nothing better than to wonder out for free time (when they can be watched so they don’t get sniped by coyotes and raccoons), so if your hens don’t want out, there’s something fucked up with them and people should just FUCKING NOT STAND FOR IT.
We don’t need meat, we don’t need it by far. I know that’s hard for some people to wrap their heads around, but going vegan saves far more environment than changing to a fuel-efficient car. If you couldn’t personally do the things to animals that are done to them in order for you to eat them, then I just don’t think you should eat them. But again, I don’t expect the whole world to go vegan. I’d just like an improvement.

corner alexandria hotel sign (via awecelia)
You know where you’ve seen this before? That episode of the X-Files with the genie and Mulder wishes for something like world peace and runs out of the building to see that everyone in the world has vanished? The Alexandria is the building that he apparently runs out of. There is, however, no cute sidewalk cafe with white table cloths. Just Mexican swap meets and crack heads. It’s exactly like the hotel that Marla Singer lives in in the movie version of Fight Club, which was built at the same time, and is just one block away.

model unit bathtub, Alexandria Hotel (via awecelia)
Someone in Los Angeles made a killing in 1936 selling bathtubs and tile. This is a model bathroom, post 2007 renovation, in the Alexandria Hotel downtown.
To think! I caught the bus across the street from that place for five years and all I knew was that it smelled like piss, was on an episode of the X-Files, and was home to welfare families. I didn’t realize that it had THE EXACT SAME tile and bathtub as Dan’s aunt’s house where we currently live. The same tile, not coincidentally, that’s used in the house next door to us.
I know why they haven’t ripped it out. We ripped the tile out of one of our bathrooms and our kitchen because after 70 years, the cracks were too much. It turns out back in the day? They took their mud jobs fucking seriously. There’s a three inch bed of cement under that tile. The problem is, in Los Angeles that cement will crack eventually. The older the house, the bigger the cracks. Once the underlayment cracks, the tile cracks and nothing is water tight.
The black tile behind the taps is where they obviously tore out old fixtures to be replaced and since no one has this exact shade of aqua/turquoise/jade green tile, the only thing to replace it without ripping out tons of concrete is black.
Also, that’s our same tub. And inset soap dish with handle.
Dude, that tile guy’s descendants are still living off the proceeds of his 1930’s boom time. And actually, I know where they can get more of that green tile if they want it.