another LA blog

July 29, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I noticed this little bit at the bottom of an LA Times story on PAC-10 Media Day:

USC announced that Leinart has started a blog on the Internet that will feature daily entries. It can be found at http://www.MattLeinartBlog.com.

Now, let's get a couple things straight here right off the bat:

The site's hosted by OCSN, the people that host pretty much every NCAA school's official athletics site. That means this is basically an official USC publication. So while I would really enjoy seeing the NCAA equivalent of Mark Cuban's blog, I don't think you're going to see that. I'm sure this is just USC attempting to be "cutting-edge" as they start the Leinart for Heisman campaign.

Imagine if some college athlete really did start a blog, and really was honest about the refs, the opposing team, etc. Do you think the NCAA would stand for that? I don't, even with the new kindler, gentler, student athlete friendly NCAA.

remaking a failure

July 28, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Over the past few days the long awaited sale of 1100 Wilshire has finally completed. The synopsis background for this maligned structure is provided by an article in today's LA Times, titled "Buyers Seek a Home Life for Empty L.A. Tower":

The 255,000-square-foot tower, whose construction was finished in 1986, has never been more than 10% occupied. It has been empty for a decade, its shell an eerie reminder of the city center's construction boom and bust.

Even before I knew any of its story, 1100 Wilshire interested me just in how set off it is from downtown, isolated from the rest of the tall buildings by the 110. It's a funny looking building, too, the actual glass tower rising from 15 stories of red brick parking.

An article from last year titled "Empty Downtown L.A. Office Tower May Be Getting Its Fill" (available several places, including here) had some fascinating bits:

Martin's firm was hired to work on the Wilshire tower by its first owner, East Asian businessman Tsai Ming Yu — but to this day, AC Martin Partners doesn't want to be known as the building's architect. "We couldn't believe he wanted us to do something this bad," Martin said of Tsai. "We were severely criticized for attempting to change the design," Martin added. But "he was the supreme owner, ruler, emperor of this project. Nobody was to question him." Martin thought that the ramped parking structure, which rises 15 levels, would make drivers dizzy and that the building's triangular shape would turn off tenants who were accustomed to laying out space in more efficient rectangles.

So now the new buyers get to try and disassociate the building from years of bad impressions, spending $60 million (on top of the $40 million purchase price) to take this thing and make it into somewhere people would want to live. The building has an unmistakable upside; that's not in question. Being west of downtown offers it an unobstructed view in three of four directions, so that will surely be a big selling point, as will easy access to the 110, the 101, the 5, and the 10. But, wow, $100 mil? That's a pretty big project.

car update

July 28, 2004 by Eric Richardson

University Auto Center just called, letting me know what was up with my car. Apparently the problem is the ignition coil. My first thought was, "what's an ignition coil have to do with a car while it's running?" The internet provided my answer, in the form of this ignition system article at about.com:

The battery is the source of the voltage for the spark we need to ignite the mixture at the proper microsecond in the cylinder. This spark requires thousands of volts to occur, as much as 120,000 volts. Where do we get these thousands of volts? The ignition coil is the source of the high voltage we need.

Ah... That makes sense. All in all, not a terrible thing to have die. With parts, labor, tax, etc, it'll be $330. And they say they'll have the car ready by 3pm. Let's review the timeline here:

  • 7:40am, car dies
  • 9:00am, car's at the auto center
  • 3:00pm, car's ready

That's not bad at all.

morning troubles

July 28, 2004 by Eric Richardson

It's been a long morning. I got up, took a shower, made coffee, got in my car, started to work... only to have my car die in the intersection of 7th and Broadway.

I pulled up to the red light, sat there waiting for it to turn green, it did, I started to go, the car sort of jerked once, and then it turned off. I pushed it across the intersection, into what would have been a meter spot were it not in the 7-9am no stopping time, and tried to start it back up. Nothing happened.

To make a long story short, I called AAA, they sent a tow truck, and I got the car towed to the University Auto Center right next to my old apartment. They'll call me back when they've taken a look at it. So now I'm on campus at USC, trying to salvage the day and get a little work done on my laptop.

Bright sides:

  • The spot I pushed my car into was right next to a news stand. I got to spend the time I was waiting talking to a guy hanging out there (I thought he was working, but apparently he was just waiting for something/someone). We talked about cars, work, Australia (he saw the boomerang in the back of my car), and Mexico.

  • The tow truck driver was prompt and friendly.

Oh well. Now I just get to wait and see what they say the damage to my wallet's going to be.

Five Song Sampler

July 27, 2004 by Eric Richardson

I've been listening to her Five Song Sampler CD for two weeks now. I do like it--she definitely is in the same vein as Jewel, Plumb or John Mayer. Can't wait till I get the full CD...