Gap Fire

current events, GapFire

gap-fire-map-7-3-08.JPGA quick update on the Gap Fire in Santa Barbara County and its impact on us. So far (11:00 pm on July 3) we are fine. As you can see on the map (the blue markers are area landmarks either in the fire or near the fires boundaries), we are out of the danger area. The fire has burned over 3 000 acres and threated over a 1 000 homes, but so far no structures have burned. We know folks who have been evacuated, and Diane and Laura’s home is just outside of the current Evacuation Warning area.

Power has been iffy, so I’m glad to get some time to update the blog. There is a lot of smoke, but the winds haven’t been too bad so far. The biggest problem we are having is getting current information. The latest we’ve heard is that we are now designated as the most important fire in California, and so more resources are coming in to fight the blaze. I imagine this is because so many homes are threatened.

I’m going to keep this brief since the situation is changing so rapidly. Again, Harriet and I are safe, and we are keeping an eye on Diane and Laura’s home in case they are designated as an evacuation area.

Take a deep breath …

events, health

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Well, here they are. The before and after pictures (please excuse the hairy back).

After much discussion and waffling, the big event occurred just minutes ago. The hair is gone (sort of – I kept the pony tail!), and I feel great. It was quick and easy, and yes I like it.

Harriet is still adapting to the new look. She says she likes it, but is trying to get used to this new guy in the house. The dogs (bless ’em) don’t notice a thing. I still have hands to pet and feed them.

I wish I had something more clever and profound to say about all this, but I don’t. So, I’ll keep this short and just show you the documentation to prove it (I’m not that good with photoshop).

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Obama at Comic-Con

comics, current events

Okay, the coolness factor at Comic-Con just went up a notch. It turns out that the Obama campaign is exploring the idea of having their candidate show up at Comic-Con. There isn’t a lot of information beyond the fact that an exploratory call was made, but I can see how an appearance would appeal to the youth vote.

Or at least the geek vote.

And I bet that’s a much bigger demographic than most folk realize.

Link

MacWorld 2008

events, technology

img_5622.JPGMacWorld is probably the coolest of the geeky events I’ve attended so far this year. Harriet and I spent a day and a half (January 17 and 18) checking out how the (for me) other half (8% more precisely) lives.

We’re a mixed family: Harriet is an Apple disciple and I’m a member of the PC Priesthood. However, I admire the Mac’s style, I love my iTouch, and I envy every photo book my Mac-Ninja neighbors casually produce from iWhatever. So, it is with a distinct lack of snark (okay, maybe a little) that I visit MacWorld each year and anxiously await Steve Job’s BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.

img_5613.JPGBy now, most of you know that this year’s talisman was the MacBook Air. And yeah, it’s cool. It’s thin: really thin. And light. And surprisingly full featured with a comfortable keyboard and a great display. I’m not going to do a review of it here since there are a lot of good reviews available on the inter-tubes, and they include descriptions of the device’s limitations. But damn it’s cool. And they looked impressive on that wire, hanging like a mobile (we didn’t try the ones on on the wires since Apple had a lot of them set up on counters for us all to play with).

MacWorld has been getting a little bit smaller from year to year. But this year it was about the same size as last year, and it was laid out much better. It wasn’t just iPod World, and Harriet had a good time checking out the cool accessories, as well as sitting in on some Photoshop and InDesign tutorials.

Plus, there is a mighty fine dim sum restaurant right next to the Moscone Center.

We stayed at the best B&B in San Francisco. The Herzfeld has been recently renovated and now boasts the finest dining facilities in the city. And their fruit salad is to die for. Pretty reasonable rates, too: a bowl and a dreidel and they treat you like family (and yeah, this paragraph has a lot of inside references – sorry).

Casa Mañana

general

img_4857.JPGWow, it’s been 5 months since my last entry. I was definitely having trouble getting back in the habit of blogging again, so I thought a quick note of catch-up would help unblock the muse.

The last entry indicated we were having trouble with our inter-web access from Guatemala. That problem wasn’t resolved until we got back to Santa Barbara, and then events just kept us from finishing the last entries about our trip. At some point, Harriet and I will make those final entries and complete our Guatemala trip report, but we’ve named the old homestead Casa Mañana for a good reason. We’ll get to it … tomorrow.

In the meantime, we’ve been busy with quite a few projects, activities, and trips, so I’ll be interspersing current events with ‘retrospectives’ on what’s been happening the last few months. We’re all friends (and family) here, so let’s keep it informal. I’ve got other blogs for the formal stuff.

Okay, that’s the ‘just get started again’ entry. Now on to the more interesting stuff.

Fair warning: I’ve been doing a lot of travel the last couple of months, and much of it is pretty nerd/geek centered. My favorite quote came from Debbie, who responded to my dilemma of trying to decide between a slide-rule collectors’ convention and WonderCon (a comic book convention) with “That’s the geekiest thing I’ve heard you say.”