Cloudy in a bad way


That was the sun this morning. The air is so full of smoke and ash that it looked like it was a normal overcast morning... until the sun glowed red behind the clouds. I slept very badly last night, and woke up having slept through both alarms, dehydrated, with no voice, and feeling like someone had hit me with a truck. My ribcage hurts every time I breathe in. Scratch that; it hurts constantly, but worse when I breathe in.

I want to find the arsonist who started the Santiago fire and roast them over a fire. Hammurabic justice is apt in this instance, don't you think?

exciting in a bad way [fires]

200710222345

this is Really Not Good. that west edge of the fire is awfully close to my family. if the wind changes, life could get very, very interesting. so i'm staying home from work tomorrow to be ready to move them, if needed.

Color wheel


Color wheel, from saturday. Besides noting that the white balance on the treo is insanely jaundiced, i'm posting it to show why this is a fiendishly hard assignment. Not only do you have rings of three different chromas and saturation, each wedge of the color should have the same value within itself, regardless of the chroma. I knocked this one out in 4 hours, and am proud of it.

10/22/07 smoke and flame


smoke from the fires, as seen from the 55 south at 6:15 p.m.

A friend who was flying into LAX last night remarked this morning on how much LA looks like mordor right now. The orange county fire authority is unintentionally furthering that simile by naming the santiago canyon fire, 'ORC 2536512.' (or some random number like that.) so, I can't help but wonder -- does this orc get special commendation for wreaking utter havoc near my house? Does sauron give this pyro orc a bonus for every thousand acres burnt? he and his 18 hordemates are doing a bang-up job on southern california.

i've been anxious today, waiting to hear if my grandparents will be evacuated from their house, since they live in an area under voluntary evacuation. Embers from the fire are blowing west for miles, and i'm probably going to soak my house and roof (it's wood, ack!) tonight.

winds near my house have been going anywhere from 16 - 60+ mph. Fun times.