The Santa Anas woke me up this morning before my alarm went off at 6am. ::sigh:: So now there are two fires, one near each of the riverbeds that border town on the north and south. The one on the hill on the north end of town by the Ventura River is 70% contained at 30 acres and has 33 units on scene. They had a couple choppers working on it and ( Read more... )

The Wizard of Oz is this weekend's movie in the park. Why do all tornado movies involve a flying cow? Did this one start the trend?

If you got this in an email already, apologies for the double hit.

I'm part of the User Experience department at work, and we're looking for people outside of our company to participate in our Usability Feedback Program. Would you be willing to spend 30-60 minutes of your time with us in exchange for a $25, $50, or $100 gift card?

If so, please ( Read more... )

+ Maggie Gyllenhaal beat the pants off Katie Holmes ( Read more... )

The Gap Fire is now up to 50% containment, thanks in large part to the foggy weather we've had the past few days. It only grew about 200 acres yesterday, and those were not in the direction of town. When the fog cleared yesterday I could still see a smoking spot at the top of a peak, but that's much better than flames more than halfway down the

Below is the Entertainment Weekly's list of 100 Classic Movies of the past 25 years.
Bold the ones you've seen, underline the ones you plan to. I'm copying jessimuhka and also adding an asterisk to ones I've kind of seen, i.e. on cable, but only the second half.

( Movieness )

The Gap Fire has grown to over 9300 acres, but we didn't have quite so much wind last night, so containment is up to 28% and the flames are less than five feet high. SB County finally has a dedicated fire page, with the best maps I've seen so far ( Read more... )

The fire has now grown to 5,400 acres but is 10% contained. We have generators at work but no power, as they decided not to power the generators over the weekend, especially a holiday weekend. Can't say I really argue with that, but it's going to be really stuffy and hot inside the building come Monday, I have the distinct feeling. The Gap Fire is ( Read more... )

The fire grew to 2400 acres overnight, moving along the hills so that it is now behind all of Goleta. There was a widespread power outage last night, taking out Goleta, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and everything in between. It sounds like the mandatory evac area has been expanded a bit, but only one of the three reliable sources has changed, so ( Read more... )

By the time I left work, the sky was thunderstorm dark and I could see the flames from the parking lot. I am so working from home tomorrow.