2015 Mar 15 | West LA VB, LABV

The electronic lock at the 3rd and Vermont Wells Fargo ATM is gone again.

It's still nasty inside.

You don't see this "one lane" construction traffic in LA, but if you got out of the city a bit, there are smaller communities that will do it.

Something on the floor of our apartment complex. Maybe somebody's dog threw up?

Why you don't have the guy fill out the wedding officiant consultation form.

Waiting for the post office to open to buy some postcard stamps. They're twice as expensive on Amazon and none of the grocery stores or pharmacies that sell regular stamps have the postcard ones.

A lot of flowers start to smell really nice this time of year.

Custom license plate from Arizona.

Pretty green hillside with a few trees.

I ordered these wrap-on glasses from this company because I saw some at another office that came in a very compact box rather than all wrapped invidually. I ordered them, and they sent me the invidual ones instead. I emailed them about it, and they said they only get one or two shipments of the compact boxes every month from the manufacturer but they'd send me them then next time they got any. I guess I could unwrap all of these and do it myself, but that seems like a lot of work if I can actually get them already in the box.

Pretty flower.

Somebody put the sun blocker on their side window. I guess that makes sense if more of the sun is coming from that direction.

They got me a birthday cake at work on Thursday.

Blowing out the candle.

A nice, big house.

A smart license plate for a Smart car.

Obama was in town on Thursday. I think he left in this Osprey.

A different angle.

There were some helicopters escorting it, too.

Nader bumping.

I like when the photo is timed to show the ball smooshed in.

A little tap.

Flying to the side.

Long stretch.

Great form.

Me hitting it.

Eyes on the ball. At least I would assume.

OK, definitely eyes on the ball.

Here too.

Just a little tap to get it over.

Me reaching.

Going up.

Me too.

Diving.

Good platform.

A lot of open space in the middle of this shot.

Me hitting, everyone watching.

Leaning.

Getting low.

I like how you can just see his eye behind his arm.

Sunset.

Block coming.

Fighting at the net.

Serving.

Aw, Ogii put a birthday card in my computer.

No, I'm not going to pay $15.39 in S&H for two pair of free trial contacts.

Some car enthusiasts hanging out near a downtown bridge.

I'm not sure exactly what car that is, but it looks fast.

Lights on the bridge.

A light inside the arch on the bridge.

Downtown in the background as the train comes.

Kind of interesting if you blur everything.

A shot from the middle; I made sure no trains were coming from either direction before standing here.

A different feel by pointing more downwards. The previous one emphasized the sky; this one emphasizes the rails.

Birthday cake from Ogii.

Presents from Mom and Dad.

It's really not Monopoly rules at all, and there's no strategy, but it sounds fun.

Ants were all over our hummingbird feeder so we sprayed the chain down with ant killer.

Dumb computer did this again. Thankfully it started up normally after a few tries.

The beach was really busy on Saturday because it was almost 90 out. This poor car got a ticket...

... for parking beside a ramp. But there are no signs saying you can't park there and I don't think anybody uses the ramp.

Hitting it over.

George spiking.

Diving.

Reaching.

Big hit.

Flying.

Tito spiking.

Everything in this shot is angled up-left.

Hitting.

George hitting it to the side of the blocker.

George showing a new member how to bump.

Angle the back.

Lift the elbows.

And practice.

Hitting the ball out of the net.

Valerie setting.

Going up for a big hit.

Punching from the ground.

Valerie serving.

And bumping.

Long reach.

Huge jump.

Serving. I like how she's up on her tiptoes to get a little extra height.

Eyes on the ball.

Diving.

A funny vehicle we saw on the highway.

I thought it might be a kit car, but it's a Polaris Slingshot.

For my birthday, we went to Der Wolfskpof, a new German bar in Pasadena. They had Berliner Weisse Grun, which I hadn't had since being in Germany.

Then we went to Neon Retro Arcade.

You pay $10 per hour for unlimited play.

David on Joust.

Marie Grace and Ogii on pinball.

They have a Wii set up on the back with Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart, but those might only be for parties.

Marie Grace and Dmitry.

Me vs Ogii; Rampart is kind of like Tetris, but I've obviously played before.

These two games have the exact same controller setup.

A little Street Fighter II.

I was finally authorized to drive for Lyft, so I drove someone the next day.

I had two hours between offices, so I figured it'd be easy. I picked him up south of downtown, but he had to run to a bank in Chinatown first.

And then we went back to his office because he forgot something there.

Finally we went over to Hollywood.

Then I had to drive back downtown to work. We should have been cancelling the original ride request and creating new ones, but since I was more interested in just completing a ride to try to get the $1000 bonus rather than making a bit more money on this ride, I just kept it as one ride. I didn't want it to mess up and give the ride to someone else or something.

Google Maps says taking Olympic will save 11 minutes. The problem is there's no way to turn from Commodore onto Olympic because traffic is also backed up on Olympic and you'll never get across traffic as it's a stop sign for you and nothing for them.

I made $21 for the 2-hour ride, but it looks like I also got the $1000 bonus, so it was worth it.

A six-handed knockout tournament, so you want to play a bit more aggressively. I would have preferred making a straight on the river, not a pair.

We kept reraising each other until we were both all-in. I'm ahead, but not by much; this is about a 55/45 coin flip.

I held on, though.

I raised preflop, bet the flop with the intention of shutting down if he called, and then hit a nice card on the turn so I bet again.

I almost played this, and I would have been excited about making a pair on the flop, but I'm pretty sure I would have given up once they kept betting. Too bad for the AJ guy.

That's probably a pretty good flop for me.

I bet his other card was a diamond, too.

If I would have been a little more aggressive, I probably would have won this, but I checked most of the time; I only bet the turn.

I bet the flop and he folded. He could have already had a flush, but I definitely didn't want to see any more diamonds.

Why you have to be careful playing aces with weak kickers.

I knocked someone out of the tourney.

I bet the flop and won. I'm probably winning there still.

I checked the flop because it was all low cards, hoping the opponent would hit a card on the turn, he did (a jack came), he shoved, and I won.

That would have been tempting if I would have still been in on the flop with the nut flush draw, but I'm still behind any ace, which both of them had.

Three of a kind, nice.

He has second-bottom pair; I'm surprised he was still in by the river.

That's tempting, but it's not worth 6,000 more when the pot is that small.

Aw, I would have hit my straight. I guess me shoving would have been better. I didn't think he'd raise that much, more like to 3,000, but then my next raise if I would have raised would have put him all in, so the best idea is if your opponent's next raise would put you all-in, it's better to shove yourself.

I bet the flop and the opponent folded. Knowing the next card, I probably should have checked.

He shoved on the turn and I called. Probably a bad call, although it depends on the bet size.

Worked my way back up to 10,000 and knocked another player out with my pair vs his straight draw.

And the same situation.

We both just checked it down.

I bet flop, he folded. Even though the turn would have helped me, any diamond on the river would have been scary.

I called a raise, bet the flop, and then checked. Probably lost about the minimum doing that, other than checking the flop and folding to any bet.

This one also went check check on the turn and river. I'm just glad we didn't get it all in preflop.

I called a preflop shove, and I was ahead, but he caught the river.

I have QQ, but the ace on the flop is too scary, especially with two diamonds and a possible straight draw as well.

Yep, good fold by me. I wonder if the other guy had a higher kicker with his ace until the winner caught the two pair then full house.

The hand that knocked me out. I shoved all-in preflop, he called even though he has a horrible hand, and he hit two cards that he needed.

19th place.

Only good for $32.24. At least I made a bit more with the knockout bounties.

I wonder if "Movie" is any good.

1-minute games, I throw my bishop into the line of attack of his pawn like an idiot, but at least he runs out of time.

Check with the knight. If he takes my knight with his queen, I get his rook with my queen, and if he moves his king instead, I take his rook with my knight. Good for me either way.