The Internet: Where Everyone's a Source

January 02, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I was wandering the stats today, as I do most days (I don't know why... They never have anything interesting to tell me). A new referrer had popped up for the main site: Abortion and the Rights of a Child. I'm a little fuzzy on how the dates are working for this, but in any case a paper I wrote Freshman year -- Refuting Judith Jarvis Thompson -- ends up in the footnotes.

That sort of thing's always struck me as a little funny. I put my papers online, but I don't usually expect people to actually read them. Every now and again, though, I find myself quoted or referenced in a well-reasoned work. That always trips me out a little. It's cool, I'm just not used to it yet.

Taking Back Your Bad Advice

January 01, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Every day I have two google news searches I check out: downtown "los angeles" and "los angeles" mta. Today the top story for the MTA query deals with the rain and taking transit to the Rose Bowl. One of the stories grouped as related is an LA Times piece that google lists as being titled "Going to Rose Bowl Game? Take a Bus and an Umbrella." However if you click the link you'll find a story titled "Going to Rose Bowl Game? Take a Bus and a Raincoat." Hmmm... I wonder if it was a little late in the day when the editors at the Times realized that umbrellas are prohibitted at the Rose Bowl?

A Little Love from the Downtown News

January 01, 2005 by Eric Richardson

The January 3rd issue of the Downtown News is now up, and one paragraph mentions this blog as one of Five Sites to Bookmark in 2005. Here's their blurb on my site:

Downtowning With Eric: Eric Richardson, a USC Communications major and a representative on the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council, is a fresh voice in a crowded field of urban bloggers. Richardson articulates views on the media, urban planning and local politics (blog.ericrichardson.com). But the bulk of his details focus simply on what it's like living Downtown.

Good stuff... I wrote a lot more in answer to the questions they asked me, so I'll stick that in the body in case you're interested. — Continue Reading...

Yes, It's Water, but Different

December 31, 2004 by Eric Richardson

Every so often I wander the bottom of the LA Blogs blogroll. Though the idea of a blogroll is that the sites at the top are the ones who are updating, the imperfections of the internet mean that those at the top are really just the ones smart enough to ping the appropriate spots when they update. Today I ran across a post from amandarin titled "It pours". She chides LA people for being soft when it comes to rain:

People, it's water. WATER. You carry it around by the designer bucketful, is it really so scary when it's loose? You are not going to be trapped in your home for days on end. No one is going to drown crossing the street. The pilates studios, Whole Foods markets, and tanning salons will all remain open.

How true... — Continue Reading...

A Bad Setup Made Worse

December 31, 2004 by Eric Richardson

One of the biggest headaches any time you're going to be going to the Rose Bowl is just getting there and finding somewhere to park. The area surrounding the stadium itself has nowhere near the necessary spaces, so people resort to things like parking in nearby neighborhoods and walking in or taking the Parsons shuttle. And then this little storm came along and dropped a heck of a lot of rain on LA, and in particular on the Rose Bowl's adjoining golf course. On normal game days that course holds 14,000 cars. For the Rose Bowl it'll hold a number that's pretty close to zero... — Continue Reading...