i moseyed my way to belmont around noontime, attaching the gopro hero9 to my handlebar with the clamp mount. i set the camera in timewarp mode, 4K. because the camera was mounted behind my windshield, half of the screen was obscured by the windshield bars. how was this different than my old riding time lapse videos? not that much apparently. maybe the horizon is a bit more stabilized, but if you were to compare the two, it'd be very similar. the game changing piece of equipment wasn't so much the gopro as it was the clamp mount, which i could securely attach to a bunch of different places around the motorcycle. next time i'll try riding with the gopro mounted to a chest harness.

when i arrived in belmont, my mother said they were waiting for me, in case i wanted to go with them on a supply run to baifu in boston. i quickly had a bowl of leftover noodles before we left by around 12:30pm. i grabbed my gopro, figuring i could mount it somewhere in the car to shoot another timewarp video.

we took the element, which doesn't have good side window views, and the only clear window was just the front. i clamped the gopro to the grab handle by the door above my mother's head, pointing outwards. then i realized i could reconfigure the clamp mount so the gopro could point to the windshield from the side. the camera was smart enough to orient itself 180° when it detected it was hanging upside down, i thought that was pretty cool.

traffic was surprisingly light today. the last time we drove through boston to get to baifu, it took forever because of road construction. baifu AKA foodpak is situated at the epicenter of methadone mile. most people just see it on the news or read about in the newspapers, but we've seen it firsthand for months, even years, whenever we come to baifu for restaurant supplies. there's lot of recent news about clearing up the tent city. to their credit, all the tents were gone on topeka street, in its place wire cages lined the sidewalks so people return to set up new camps. however atkinson street on the other side of baifu was still a mess, crowded with tents, the homeless, and drug users.

my parents ended up spending around $750 on supplies. a big chunk of that money went into takeout containers, the price of which have increased since the last time they were here just a few weeks ago. they didn't find out until at the checkout line, my father decided to buy the containers anyway.

leaving baifu we exited out from atkinson street. people crowded the street, made worse by the fact that a store decided to stop in the road to either chat with people on the street or hand them food. a car was honking but we were afraid to honk for fear of angering the mob. a police showed up to see what was going on, the car blocking the road finally decided to sort of pull over a little bit so other cars could pass. even then it still took a while to get out since people were just shuffling in the street, no a care in the world that a line of cars were waiting to get out.

passing through the berklee school area, we spotted a fancy looking sports car. it was an orange-bronze colored maclaren, which sells for $200-300K. just imagine: a car that's worth more than what i paid for my condo. i can't even imagine how anyone can drive a car like that through boston and not worry about it getting damaged. just a simple scratch might be worth thousands of dollars in damage.

we arrived at the cafe by 2:30pm to drop off the supplies. we ended up staying there for nearly an hour as a big order came in and my mother was helping my sister and 2nd aunt prepare the food. my sister forgot to give tea eggs to a customer who specifically asked for them. when she tried calling him back he didn't answer.

my father was busy in the cafe basement organizing the shelves after we brought down the supplies. we finally left by 3:20pm. normally the cafe is closed on sundays, but my parents will open tomorrow for a special holiday-related local business event.

back at the house, we watched the SEC championship game between alabama and georgia. georgia had an undefeated record this season, but the crimson tide managed to win their sixth championship in the last 8 years. we ate some chinese youtiao and my father finished the rest of the pecan butter melt.

for dinner we had some bread porkchops served with noodles. i left around 8:20pm. i brought my handlebar mitts, having learned my lesson last week. i put a new battery into the gopro and used the chest mount to shoot a timewarp video as i rode home.

i don't think i've ever done a night time riding time lapse before. the video shot with the gopro was mostly dark, illuminated intermittently from passing street lights or cars. i think the camera was mounted to low, and the lens was too close. next time i'll set the lens to superwide and mount it higher. and if it's another night time timewarp, i'll push the ISO higher to 1600.

i got back home by 8:30pm but spent an hour in the dark putting up my christmas lights in the living room window. i had three strands, and in the past i managed to put one on each window, but i couldn't figure out how to do it this time around, so i only ended decorating 2 windows instead, and sort of had some extra lights running inside the house. i used clear rubber suction cup hooks to secure segments of the light in place against my windows. i went outside with my remote and turned on the lights so i could see them in action. i think i'm the only house on my street that's put up christmas lights this year. maybe my little display will encourage others to put out their holiday lights as well. i think the last time i put up my christmas light was november 2011, 10 years ago!

with the porter square target still open, i decided to go there and pick up the suppositories my mother ordered for pick up earlier today. i got on my bike and pedaled down to porter square. they asked for an idea but i used my nickname to order, not my legal name. "can you describe the item?" the cashier asked me. "they're like...suppositories?" i replied. "say no more!" he disappeared into the backroom to get my order. i also bought a bag of salad.