ethanwhatsgood

I drove to LA for a day. I don't like cats. I hung out at the Cat Cafe Lounge on South Sepulveda Blvd. for an hour. Elevated two stories above the streets of Los Angeles, exists the Cat Cafe Lounge, a sanctuary for rescued cats. These cats are refurbished, brought into the cafe to serve for an undetermined length of time, and will then hopefully go home with a customer who is willing to adopt them to live out the rest of their days. A more personable approach to the traditional no-kill animal shelter. A narrow stairway leads up to the cafe A tough sell to the Cafe is the price of admission. Although it includes tea or coffee, it may be quite steep to the casual cat person.  Once you pass the admission with your drink in hand, you enter the double chamber doors to enter the Cafe itself. I was impressed with the construction of the place with its shelves, bridges, and towers for cats to parkour on.  I was bummed out to find that most of the cats don't do...

On a work trip to Tempe, Arizona, I stayed right across from Sun Devil Stadium at Arizona State University. The surrounding town is littered with these shareable electric scooters from two companies, Lime and Bird. My work group was intrigued by these things and decided to try them out to commute to places around town. We used both Lime and Bird. Here's what I thought about them. Convenient  These scooters are easy and convenient to hop on an go. There are no docking stations, so you just grab an available one that' s standing on the street, scan it with their respective app, and then scoot on your way. The Lime app is easy to use. I didn't have any problems aside from connecting my Google Pay account at first, but within 5 minutes of initial setup, I was on my way.  These things are dangerous  These scooters top out at around 18.5 mph, and most of the time, you'll be traveling at that speed. You're supposed to share the bike lane with these things w...

My E46 in the Angeles Forest. At the rate that I've been driving, I'm guaranteed to hit 200,000 miles in my E46 this year. I'm very proud of the miles that I've racked up as it is not easy maintaining a high-mileage, out-of-warranty German vehicle. This car hasn't seen the inside of a shop since 2013, aside from receiving alignments. At the time of writing this, I am currently at 191,891 miles. In order to make it to 200K and eat up the remaining 8,109 miles in the coming months, I plan to tackle some work that ranges from basic maintenance to a complete overhaul of some systems. Basic maintenance. The easy stuff. 1) Oil and filter replacement. I use Mobil-1 0W-40 European Car Formula engine oil. For the filter, I use either OEM BMW or Mann Filter . 2) Tire rotation 3) Differential fluid flush Cosmetics. 1) Every change of season, I like to clay and wax the paint. I'm overdue for another round. Currently, my preferred wax is Collinite No. 845 ....

My Disney-carry is sacred to me. What is the result of years of experience, including my year as an Annual Passholder visiting the Disneyland Resort, I have perfected an essential list of items that I need while spending an entire day expressing my Disney side. If you are interested in any of these items, I've set up Amazon Affiliate  links to purchase them.  1)  PacSafe Vibe 25 PacSafe makes some incredible anti-theft baggage. Is it effective? Don’t know. But it offers some awesome peace of mind while traveling through thick crowds, such as those at a Disney park. The Vibe 25 is perfect for travel. It’s my personal item on flights, my urban explorer bag, and even my main hiking bag. It’s the perfect size for storing tons of items without being too large. That’s what you want for underneath and airplane seat, covering miles throughout a cityscape, or in this case, storing on the floor of a roller coaster train while you launch into the first inversion o...

Scrolling through my Google Photos account. Here are some highlights from my 2018.  January 4th. Solo exploration of downtown Seattle: February 4th. Pali Lookout in Hawaii:  March 3rd. Demi Lovato made me feel like a teenage girl again:  March 18th. Realized that I needed a mountain bike: March 27th. Drove 568 miles in my E46 to the Bay Area and visited my hometown, Fairfield, California: April 4th. First time performing with my new band in downtown Vegas: April 23rd. Played with a random band that I met on Craigslist to get my stage fix:  April 25th. Produced a killer video on mindfulness to present to my class: May 5th. Shot a multi-angle video at a house show:  June 15th. Dominated the mosh pit at New Found Glory at the Brooklyn Bowl:  July 8th. Watched Travis Pastrana jump over some stuff on The Strip with a Fat Tuesday in hand:  July 21st. Solo trip to LA for some canyon carving: ...

I'm a guy with some specific needs. That why I always travel with at least 3-4 pairs of headphones. I have found that listening requirements while traveling aren't always consistent. For example, I'll start off with a flight, land and then drive 2+ hours, and then hit up the recommended running route from the hotel's front desk. From there, I'll head to a Starbucks and work on homework for a couple of hours. That is at least 3 different scenarios that call for 3 separate sets of listening requirements. Maybe I'm crazy or "extra" but I hate being out in the field with the wrong tools.   Sony MDR-V6 plugged into the headphone jack of my iPhone SE Flying: Philips SHB8750NC or Bose QuietComfort 20 When flying, active noise canceling is the only option. How do people sit through a flight with their Apple-supplied EarPods? Actually, "Why don't people immediately toss out their Apple-supplied EarPods once they unbox their iPhone?" is ...

i Phone. Mac.  i Pad . Beats. Watch. I went full Apple stupid  in 2018 for cheap.  But why?   In my circle, I’ve always been known as a diehard Windows and Android guy. It’s just what works for me. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Apple.  W hen I already have a way of doing things, why would I transition over? Get rid of my current lineup and pay a premium for another way of doing things? Not very practical. But what if I could have it all? Living in different ecosystems at once. Windows, Android, MacOS, iOS. I wanted to make it happen so I went digging. Here’s what I figured out.    My iPhone of choice: iPhone SE. Main reasons? Form factor, features, PRICE.  These things can be had on eBay all day for under $200.    Mac: 2011 Mac m ini.  The best value in my Apple lineup. Dual-core i7. 8GB ram.  A n o brainer. Holds up well, 7 years from its inception. Runs  pro Apple  apps good enough for my u...