Fires

The view from our apartment today (Sunday) at 2:30pm:

This shot is towards Mount Wilson, which you can barely see. Anything you see in the sky is smoke, not clouds.

This shot is looking more to the west of Mt Wilson, so towards Altadena / JPL.



Useful reference sites:

www.iscaliforniaburning.com

Mt Wilson Webcam (UCLA Observatory) (May have loading issues, it's being hit pretty hard. Especially interesting pictures at night.)

LA Times google map.

ENPLAN Wildfire map.

Possibly more pictures here if I take any other interesting ones. The view from our apartment isn't that great.

A powerful statement

Jimmy Carter makes a powerful statement. I always had a good impression of Carter as a president when I was growing up. I found out later that may not have been terribly accurate, but I still think that his work after being president has been even more important. I hope many people read the linked article and are affected by it, to change in good ways. I know most of the people who read this blog are not those who need to be changed by it, but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

Barney

Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) pulls a Leeeeeroy Jenkins. (via Bluesnews)

Today on: "I'll believe it when I see it."

So, playing my new baseball game, I naturally have started up a franchise mode, playing the Braves. We're now 7 games into the season and won the opening series against the Phillies, gave up a game to the Nats but won the other two, and started off the first series against the Marlins with a come from behind 4-3 win (with Chipper hitting 3 solo HR's and McCann entering for a pinch hit RBI walk that tied it). Ok, so it's already stretching the likely happenings in the season, but at least the injuries appear to be consistent with the Braves' luck: Josh Anderson twisted something badly during the first game and is out for 98 days, and Javier Vasquez's second start got cut short to one inning when he threw a fastball so hard he broke a rib. Yeah, really. No, he didn't get hit with a ball or anything, so it must have been that crazy arm of his.

Anyways, aside from those oddities... I decided to take a look at what the standings were like, to see if it might be a decent predictor (ha ha). AL East: NYY 1st (6-2), Red Sox 2nd (5-4), Blue Jays 2nd (5-4), then the Rays (4-4) and Orioles (1-7). So far so good.

AL Central: Royals 1st (7-2) ... what? ... CWS 2nd (6-3), Twins (4-5), Indians (3-6), Tigers (3-7).
Ok, at that point I went yeah, not predictive. :)
The rest, for those curious:

AL West: Rangers 1st (5-3), Mariners 2nd (4-4, including a surprise 8-7 win against the Angels in 18 innings!), Athletics (5-5) and Angels (3-5).

NL West: D-backs 1st (8-1), Padres 2nd (4-4) Dodgers 2nd (4-4), Giants (3-4), Rockies (2-6).
NL Central: Cubs 1st (5-3), Cardinals 2nd (6-4), Astros (4-3), Pirates (4-4), Brewers (2-6), Reds (1-7)
NL East: Braves 1st (6-1), Mets (4-3), Phillies (3-4), Nats (3-4), Marlins (3-4)

For the Dodgers, Manny is 10-30, with two doubles, no HR and 5 walks.

There's a few weirdnesses. The first is that the AI bats very aggressively, even in simulated games, so pitch counts are a decent bit lower than expected. There's also a VERY annoying bug when trying to make a catch of a flyout in the outfield - sometimes it misses inexplicably when the animation looks perfect. It doesn't credit as an error. Of the three runs the Marlins had in the last game, two were because of this error causing H. Ramirez to get a pair of triples that should have been outs. It's not actually that common, but it's very annoying when it does show up. (Both of these are said to be fixed in the upcoming patch that's in testing, whew.) I'm also a very impatient hitter, so the Braves have a lot fewer walks than would be expected, but I'm working on that!

Oddity

Grant Park had an unusual visitor today. He was over near the tennis courts, in part of the outfield which never really gets used for much besides volleyball. It took me a while to figure out what he was doing, but it turns out that he was a fisherman. Had a rod and reel and was practicing the casting motions.

Strange.

Top List 2008

Keeping with the usual blog post themes for this time of year, here's my list of top media things of 2008. As usual, my memory is poor going back to the beginning of the year, so I may forget some items that probably deserve recognition.

Top Movies:
#1: Wall-E. Needs no explanation, simply the best Pixar movie so far.
Runner-up: Dark Knight. Even though it could have ended 2/3rds through and I'd have been happy.

Top Albums: (that I got this year, not necessarily released this year)
#1: Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
#2: Offspring - Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

These two I like to listen all the way through, though there are certainly a few tracks that I especially like - [Celebration Guns; Calendar Girl; and Your Ex-Lover Is Dead] from Set Yourself On Fire, and [Fix You; Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?; Rise And Fall; You're Gonna Go Far, Kid; and Nothingtown] from Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace. There's several other albums I got this year which I like, but usually specific songs or sets of song (other Stars albums, the Killers, Fall Out Boy). Yeah, I don't get much new music...

Top TV Shows: (watched this year)
#1: Torchwood (season one) - excellent characters and a different style than Doctor Who. More character based than big bad based. Best episodes: "Countrycide", "Out of Time", "They Keep Killing Suzie", and "Captain Jack Harkness".
#2: Chuck (seasons one and two) - also very character based, and they are excellent ones. Episodes: "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater", "Chuck Versus the Nemesis", "Chuck Versus the Crown Vic", and from season two, "Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer", "Chuck Versus the Seduction", "Chuck Versus the Sensei" and "Chuck Versus the Delorean".
#3: Doctor Who (seasons one and two) - I like the Doctor, and some of the stories have been excellent. Notably "The Girl in the Fireplace" (my favorite episode), "The Satan Pit", "School Reunion", and "Bad Wolf".
#4: Bones (season one) - David Boreanaz is awesome. So is Emily Deschanel.
#5: Heroes (seasons one through there) - Season one was excellent. Season two was horribly stunted by the writer's strike shortening the season. Season three started poorly, but is actually coming out to be pretty interesting.

Honorable mention: BSG (seasons one-two): interesting characters, can't stand the story most of the time. How I Met Your Mother: hilarious. Also, legendary. Would probably make the top 5 except I only just started watching it - first four episodes of season one last night.

Best Tabletop Gaming (RPG's and Board/Card Games):
#1: D&D 4th edition. The system did not disappoint. It's not the same as 3.x, nor is it supposed to be. Very tactical, fun fights, and DM'ing is so much easier. My one experience as a player was also awesome.
#2: Zombie Fluxx. I didn't like Fluxx that much, but somehow the zombie theme really makes this version work.
#3: Pandemic. A very tough co-op board game that's pretty fun. I like the challenge, and it's a game that requires a lot of cooperation.

Honorable Mentions: Munchkin Quest: much more fun than plain Munchkin, I love the exploration and roving monsters parts. Order of the Stick: takes a long time to play, but an excellent game nonetheless. Exploration and stacks of incredible monsters.

Computer/Console gaming (by category):

RPG's:
#1: The Witcher (PC): adult story, classic RPG style but done very well.
#2: Mass Effect (360): Bioware does it again. Has some slow parts, but the story and characters kept it going. (Though this came out before 2008, I only played through and finished it this year).
#3: Infinite Undiscovery (360): Square does a non FF RPG. It's very reminiscent of FFXII.
#4: Fable II (360): Not terribly deep, but fun action RPG style. Plus you can own a town!

Honorable Mention: FFVII: Crisis Core (PSP), FF Revenant Wings (DS).
Did Not Play: Fallout 3, FF Tactics A2 (if we call it a RPG), Chrono Trigger (DS).

Strategy/Simulation:
#1: Civilation Revolution (360). Sid Meier, your Civ games continue to rock. This one pares down all the extra cruft from the latest Civ games and just uses the fun stuff. Must play another turn...
#2: Red Alert 3 (PC). Same campy style, same crazy unit selection. I haven't been able to play Co-op mode, but even without it's a great game. Only complaint: skirmish mode CPU players are HARD! Please send tips for beating medium or harder CPU players.
#3: Sins Of A Solar Empire (PC). Space strategy at its best. You don't notice the micromanagement, and the ships are beautiful.

Honorable Mention: Animal Crossing: City Folk (Wii), Hinterlands (PC), Civ: Colonization (PC)

Arcade/Short Games:
#1: Geometry Wars 2 (360): Six modes of awesome, and co-op craziness. Pure top-down shooter.
#2: World Of Goo (PC - OSX): Construction game of excellence: can you build that bridge? How about a tower? Oh man, my 30m tower fell... *sigh*
#3: Castle Crashers (360): Beat-em-up RPG, great co-op multiplayer. Only complaint is that it's hard on the hands if you play for too long (which you'll want to do!).

Honorable Mention: Braid (360): Great gameplay, but the story really fell flat for me.

Driving/Sports:
#1: Burnout Paradise (360): Crashes. Oh yeah. And the multiplayer really works, just hit the button and you've got other players also driving around the city with you. Also, really great support and added features over the year with free DLC.

Can you tell I don't play many games in this category? Heh... Oh, maybe GTA IV? It's a good game, but not in my favorites, really...

First Person Shooter/Action:
#1: Left 4 Dead (360, PC): Co-op survival action. Best zombie game ever. Now excuse me, need to go play another game.
#2: Gears of War 2 (360): Campaign story totally awesome - insane set pieces, cinematic fights, etc. Co-op and solo in the campaign is great. Multiplayer: Horde mode is a blast, co-op against waves of enemies. Other modes suffer from poor matchmaking protocol that takes a while to actually start a game.
#3: Battlefield: Bad Company (360): Hilarious single player campaign. Great multiplayer, with destroyable terrain. It doesn't matter if I suck, so long as I get to completely destroy entire buildings!
#4: Mirror's Edge (360): Parkour action. The fighting is meh, could have been left out completely, the exploration and motion is awesome on it's own. Looking forward to the DLC with just time trial levels.

Did not play but probably deserves a spot on this list: Call of Duty: World At War. Played the beta and it was awesome. Been meaning to pick up the full game, especially since the price drops.

Top 5 games of the year:
#1: Left 4 Dead
#2: Rock Band 2
#3: Gears of War 2
#4: Civilization: Revolution
#5: Geometry Wars 2

See you all next year!

Oh Noes! (Part 2)

So, as chronicled over a year ago in Oh Noes! our 360 has done that dreaded thing again: three flashing red lights. Super crash. Must be repaired. At least the repair's free for this one.

This is a fairly good sign that the previous console which suffered this fate was replaced (rather than repaired), and by a console which still had the same defect. Ugh. Oh well, now to wait and hope it gets fixed quickly. I was just starting Mirror's Edge.