Bidding war

Earth to BEA management:

You can't have a bidding war when there's only one bidder.

BEA management may have blown it

That palm tree's not looking too happy

Ashes

This is another of those "I almost lived a block away from there" stories, which are making me feel more and more lucky that I moved to this house instead of one of the other choices, which also included this lovely location in La Jolla.

Rancho Santa Fe, off La Soldadera. The entire canyon all the way down Del Dios Highway to here pretty much looks like the moon, for miles.

Use one of these solutions

My favorite use of sarcastic quotation marks today comes from Apple. (If you're about to install Leopard, it is actually good to check whether you're affected by this now, and save yourself some grief. I already uninstalled APE from my machine.)

You may have third-party "enhancement" software installed that does not work with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Use one of these solutions.

Full article is here: Mac OS X 10.5: "Blue screen" appears after installing Leopard and restarting

Siracusa on Leopard

John Siracusa's extremely detailed review of Mac OS X Leopard is out. Whether you agree with him or not, there's certainly a lot to think about in here. I haven't actually gotten my copy yet, although I'm expecting to install it this week. (And after reading his review, I have this odd combination of enthusiasm about trying it out, and desire to wait for a year or so to see if they fix any of the new problems -- not sure what to do with that... )

Just wow.

I don't know what to say about this. Wow.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20071026-01
October 26, 2007

Iraqi Army at Besmaya Installation Support San Diego Fire Victims
By U.S. Army Sgt 1st Class Charlene Sipperly
Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq Public Affairs

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Members of the Iraqi Army in Besmaya collected a donation for the San Diego, Calif., fire victims Thursday night at the Besmaya Range Complex in a moving ceremony to support Besmaya's San Diego residents.

Iraqi Army Col. Abbass, the commander of the complex, presented a gift of $1,000 to U.S. Army Col. Darel Maxfield, Besmaya Range Complex officer in charge, Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq, to send to the fire victims in California.

The money was collected from Iraqi officers and enlisted soldiers in Besmaya. In a speech given during the presentation, Col. Abbass stated that he and the Iraqi soldiers were connected with the American people in many ways, and they will not forget the help that the American government has given the Iraqi people. Abbass was honored to participate by sending a simple fund of $1,000 to the American people in San Diego, to lower the suffering felt by the tragedy.

The Roman tribunes never tried this one

Governor creates a 3.86% tax increase out of thin air that was never passed by the legislature -- by using his veto pen.

'Frankenstein veto' debate gets new life

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle's use of his veto power to kill specific words and numbers, and then stitch the remaining fragments together to create something that never passed the Legislature, rekindled the Capitol fight over what has come to be known as "Frankenstein veto" authority - and whether it should be repealed.

Not going to find bad news here

St. Isaac Jogues

I first learned about him while visiting the shrine in Auriesville years ago. The harrowing story is here.

More about smoke

http://www.sdapcd.org/air/smoke/smoke1.html

Smoke plumes

Yeah, there will be some of this

Everything's pretty covered with ashes here...

San Diego County officials offer this advice on cleanup:

As some residents are allowed back into their homes and neighborhoods, there are several precautions they should take as they begin the task of cleaning up:

· Avoid disseminating ash into the air; do not use leaf blowers or non-HEPA filter vacuums.

· The Regional Water Control Quality Board asks that you avoid washing ash into storm drains if possible.

· Wear gloves, long-sleeved shirts, and long pants to avoid skin contact.

· If you do get ash on your skin, wash it off as soon as possible.

· Wear well-fitting dust masks; those rated N-95 or P-100 provide better protection than simple dust or surgical masks. Persons with heart or lung disease should consult a physician before using a mask.

· Lightly mist indoor and outdoor hard surfaces before gently sweeping ash, followed by wet mopping. On lightly dusted areas, a damp cloth or wet mop may be all that is needed.

· Collected ash may be disposed of in your regular trash collection. Ash may be stored in plastic bags or other containers that will prevent it from being disturbed.

Normal?

Things are more "normal" here today.  The evacuation order for this neighborhood was lifted this morning.  The weather looks better, I can open the windows to the house again.

Status

Currently back at my house (although it's still under mandatory evacuation, so I'm not supposed to be.)  Will see how things go...  I've got a "just in case" hotel reservation at the same place I stayed last night in Oceanside.

More fire info

http://fireblog.signonsandiego.com/

Planning to evacuate, just in case

Currently planning to get out of here this afternoon, we're inside the evacuation zone in San Diego, so we really shouldn't be here.

We're on the very west edge close to the ocean, but the fire is being unpredictable and moving fast. Already have a motel reservation made, etc.

Here's a map of what's going on with the fire... We're in the yellow zone.

Phrases you don't like to hear

"This fire is 0 percent contained." (The mayor of Malibu, talking about the fire up there.)

Witch Creek fire

Looks like sunset at my house, at 3 pm. Big wildfire up the road from here.




Witch Creek Fire burns 3,000 acres near Ramona


UNION-TRIBUNE
3:17 p.m. October 21, 2007
RAMONA – The 78 Fire has burned 3,000 acres between Ramona and Santa Ysabel. Many homes near Witch Creek and San Diego Country Estates have been evacuated to Poway High School on Espola Road at Titan Way, county emergency said.
Cal Fire Battalion Chief Kelly Zombro said he's notified the cities of Ramona, Escondido, Poway and San Diego that the fire is headed their way.

“It's just like the Cedar fire. It was just like the Cedar fire right off the bat,” he said.

Zombro said the fire is burning in a swathe of land untouched by the Cedar and Paradise fires of 2003. It is north of where the Cedar burned and south of where Paradise burned and headed toward Ramona.

“We're right in-between the two,” he said.

Zombro also said attacking the fire by air is on hold because the wind is gusting up to 60 miles per hour.

It was not clear at 3 p.m. whether any homes had been damaged by the 78 fire, which started near Witch Creek at about 12:40 p.m., a sheriff's spokesman said.

A brush fire broke out today in Witch Creek, a rural community several miles west of Santa Ysabel on state Route 78, Cal Fire officials said.

The blaze was reported about 12:30 p.m. and had spread to more than 100 acres on both sides of Route 78 by 1:40 p.m.

Residents of homes near Witch Creek were being ordered to evacuate and the cause of the fire was being investigated.

Residents as far away as Rancho Penasquitos and Carmel Valley reported the air was thick with smoke and ash was raining from the sky.

County officials have begun posting fire updates for the public at www.sdcountyemergency.com.

Residents were being asked to call 211 for all non-emergency calls related to this fire. If the call is initiated from a cell phone, 211 can be reached at 858-300-1211.

Donation Statistics and Stuff

Here are some interesting graphs about the Ron Paul campaign. I just find the graphs colorful and mesmerizing for some reason. Data visualization is your friend.

Hello

Man shoots, kills intruder after parrot's alert

Twitter

I've added my Twitter account to the links on the right side.

They don't play like this anymore

Greatest banned baseball player ever!

He's not the only one who can see you

Putin Gets New Awesome Superpowers For His Birthday

I hope you're happy

(xkcd.com)

My house doesn't have any of this

Fungi in Chernobyl that feed on radiation, apparently.

My house doesn't really look like this though

An amusing toy for you to play with. Go to the web site and build your own house.



Click here to view my house

The results I got were:

Based on your drawing and the 10 answers you gave this is a summary of your personality:

Your house tells the world that you ought to be a leader. You are a freedom lover and a strong person. You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You are very tidy person. There's nothing wrong with that because you're pretty popular among friends. Your life is always full of changes.

You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You see the world as it is, not as you believe it should be.

You are not a romantic person by nature. It also safe to say that others don't see you as a flirt. You don't think much about yourself.

Toys

Interesting photos of toy manufacturing in China.

The 5 million dollar man

Ron Paul raised a truckload of money in the last quarter. And you can be sure these are donations from individuals, not the big professional political donor types.

I'm not sliding

I almost rented a house on this exact block of Soledad Mountain Road. Good thing I didn't. I thought that house looked awfully precariously balanced.

A landslide swept away a chunk of an upscale hilltop neighborhood Wednesday, destroying a home, damaging five others and opening up a 50-yard chasm in a four-lane road. There were no injuries, but at least 110 homes were evacuated by Wednesday afternoon.

Be a part of it

This is kind of a San Diego inside joke, and probably the best use of this statue to date.