t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i had a bowl of muesli cereal for lunch as i waited for the temperature to warm up in the early afternoon so i can bike into boston. it tasted like dried oatmeals mixed with shaved nuts combined with milk, had a rough mouth feel, but i couldn't deny it was healthy.

i left by 1pm, the temperature hovering around the lower 30's, blue sky and bright sun. the one advantage of the cold weather was there wouldn't be a lot of people outside, which made it perfect for drone flying. i'd already gotten the zone clearance for boston flying last night, and had two places in my mind where i could potentially launch: in the parking lot next to c-mart (where i've flown before, and also the last time i biked to chinatown, more than a month ago), and on the esplanade directly north of copley square.

i headed to chinatown via a new route, one where i crossed boston common after coming out from charles street, and then down tremont street directly to c-mart/ming's market. while riding through boston common, i realized it was the perfect place to fly the drone. i found an empty park bench (around the rotunda) to lean my bicycle against, then quickly unfolded the drone and set up the remote and had the drone in the air in a matter of seconds.

there's probably some law against flying above government buildings, but none that i'm aware of, and the massachusetts state house wasn't location locked like some other buildings (for instance, jails). i surprised myself by getting almost next to the golden dome, but i didn't want to get too close and crash. i don't think anyone knew what i was doing, as far as they were concerned, i was playing video games in the park. a nearby helicopter distracted me and made me nervous, i didn't want to crash into it even though i was nowhere near the helicopter, though i could hear it. could a copter pilot even see such a small drone in the air?

because of the close vicinity to logan airport, there's a height restriction of 200ft for much of boston. but i was surprised that i managed to fly above that. however, when i flew above the boston public garden, i started getting warnings that i was above the height restriction. later when i checked the geo restriction map, turns out the space above the public garden is actually in the direct path of an airport runway, hence the warning. otherwise, for much of boston, i can still fly above the 200ft limit, as long as i don't stray into a runway path.

after having had enough of aerial sightseeing of boston, i brought down the drone, after first making sure nobody was nearby that might get clipped by it landing. i packed up my gear, got back on my bike, and continued down tremont street.

i went to ming's market first, to get a few things, before swinging by c-mart. however, i ended up getting so many things at ming's market, i didn't need to go to c-mart (i had too much stuff anyway, it would've been very inconvenient). a few things i was searching for they didn't have: angel rice leaven, taiwanese brand osmanthus syrup, zhoujunji-brand hot pot base, tonkatsu sauce. i left ming's by 2:15pm.

i swung by haymarket. i haven't been there since early december, so i was overdue for a visit. it was also my first visit of 2022. there's not much to be had there during the winter, and depending on the weather, sometimes you run the risk of buying cold-damaged produce. a lot of vendors had set up draft curtains around their tents, so you couldn't see inside unless you went inside the tents. my haul: 5 blood oranges ($2), 3 bags of mini persian cucumbers ($3), 1 lbs. of ginger ($2), 2 boxes of strawberries ($2), 2 sleeves of turkish garlic ($2). the big boxes of navel orange vendor wasn't there, a few other sellers had oranges, but i was already carrying so much stuff, i couldn't buy any more.

i left haymarket a little after 3pm. my mother called, asking me to get some tea egg spices, but i'd already on my way home. she asked me to bring the supplies to the cafe, so i spent half an hour peddling the 4.8 miles. thankfully it wasn't cold, and i even opened up my jacket and took off my gloves, it was just far, and because i haven't been doing a lot of biking lately, i lacked the stamina.

after dropping off the supplies, i returned home, getting back by 4:15pm. i went out again, this time to star market, to get some grapes and pears on sale, as well as some bacon. they had a sale on corned beef, i'll probably come back and get some, but cheap corn beef should be plentiful for the next 2 weeks up to st.patrick's day. march is corned beef, and april is easter ham.

i finished watching anything for jackson. it was scary, but the scariest movie of the decade? there's plenty of other films that are way scarier. it's good though, if you're into the horror genre.

for dinner i heated up a brick of on-cor lasagna. it takes an hour to bake, so by the time i was getting hungry and decided to have lasagna, i had to wait another hour before it was ready to eat, which by that point was close to 9pm. i really should make my own, it's been ages since i made lasagna.