Grab your light saber and celebrate! It's Star Wars day here in Los Angeles. Only in L.A. would the city council:
"RESOLVE to DECLARE May 25, 2007 as Star Wars Day in the City of Los Angeles and also recognize George Lucas’ 1977 film Star Wars for its tremendous impact on the citizenry of Los Angeles, the film industry and the world, and for continuing to inspire after thirty years millions of people to explore movies, fantasy, literature, and science as means of achieving their goals and dreams..."
(More hyperbole and a full copy of the resolution can be found here: http://la.curbed.com/2007-05-starwarsres-big.jpg)
Meanwhile here on earth, Chewbacca, one of the illustrious characters from this fabled story, can be found here in Hollywood in front of the Grauman's Chinese Theater much to the delight, or horror, of tourists. In the spirit of the day, maybe Mayor Villaraigosa will pardon him since Chewbacca was arrested a few months back for head-butting a tour guide who said Chewbacca shouldn't be begging money from the tourists. How far we've fallen since traveling around a galaxy far, far away as Hans Solo's reluctant sidekick fighting evil. Another Hollywood story gone bad.
Thirty years ago today Star Wars was released. I wish I could say that Star Wars exceeded my movie-watching expectations but the truth was that it set the threshold. The only two movies I remember seeing previously were Pete's Dragon and Snow White, which were fairly calm experiences. The buzz from the movie was so great that I already knew it was suppose to be a great movie even before watching it. I wasn't surprised by the experience. Actually, as an adult, I would have hated the first time I saw Star Wars. We went to a matinee showing on a hot summer day and and the theatre was packed full of kids who kept talking during the movie and running up and down the aisle to go to the bathroom or to purchase more candy to continue their sugar high. As an eight-year-old kid, though, it was all very exciting. I remember returning to school in the fall and all the kids were talking about seeing the movie during the summer. Some even saw it more than once! This one girl's older brother saw the movie eight times. We all thought she was so cool because of that...well, that and the fact her brother attended a Kiss concert during that summer too.
Happy 30th Anniversary Star Wars! The movie and merchandising industries haven't been the same since.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
JPL Open House
As promised, I'm posting some pictures from JPL's open house, which is an excellent opportunity to see many of the ongoing projects there. The long lines and waits were worth it. (If you click on a photo, you should be able to enlarge it.)
This picture is inside the Mars Laboratory. The environs of this lab replicates the surface of Mars and has been used to help figure out solutions from issues the Rover has encountered on Mars. Remember when the Rover got stuck on Mars a while back? The solution was figured out here. This lab has extended the Rover expedition on Mars by several years.
If you have 3-D glasses, you may be able to view the surface of Mars in 3-D in this photo.
Inside the Robo-dome.
Information on current JPL projects.
One of the more unique road signs on Earth. 
View of the San Gabriel Mountains from JPL.
Near the entrance of JPLSaturday, May 19, 2007
Saturday Morning
Ahh...Saturday morning, my favorite time of the weekend. Time to leisurely drink some coffee, read a little, write this blog and plan my weekend. Two whole days that do not belong to my employer. It's sad to think five of the seven days of the week belong to my employer. Girl's gotta make a livin', though.
June gloom has begun to settle in the Los Angeles area. The above picture is the view from my kitchen window. This year, since the L.A. area is going through a drought, it's a good thing. (As I was writing this post, I heard on the radio that National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) predicts the next time the "Southland" will get rain is this fall!) The hope is the cloud cover and moisture from the gloom will help minimize the wild fires. Native Californians like to complain about the June gloom but I like the cooler and cloudy mornings. Perhaps it was my upbringing in the Upper Midwest where beautiful days were to be relished but I always felt this pressure to go out and enjoy the sunny California weather and not stay at home. June gloom gives me the excuse to stay at home and get some things done here. Besides, the cloud cover will burn off by afternoon.
This weekend is one of those weekends where a lot is happening. Tonight, I'm going to see Wicked with some friends from my old job. The theater is in Hollywood and since I live the closest, I invited everyone to place for a cocktail before we go to the theatre. My old boss, "Broom Hilda", frowned upon the managers socializing and tried to forbid us from doing so. I smile at the thought of her finding out about this. I am so glad I'm no longer under her thumb. I am not the best of housekeepers but last weekend in anticipation of having guests this weekend and as a result of the fire, I did a lot of spring cleaning: washing windows, wiping down the baseboards, etc. so my apartment is pretty clean. I just need to tidy up before my guests arrive.
Tomorrow, I plan to go to the Open House at JPL. I hear it's a wonderful event. I'll take my camera and post some pictures. And that, my friends, is my weekend.
Hope all is well with everyone. Go Sox! Beat the Cubbies!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
The Fire
The big news here is the Griffith Park fire. Last Tuesday evening, the Griffith Park that I know burned and burned -- approximately 800 acres, nearly 1/5 of the 4,300 acres in the park. The fire started around 1:30ish in the afternoon. A colleague of mine heard about the fire while she was driving home so she called me to tell me about it. At that time, the fire was moving NE of where I live. In fact, I work in the La Canada/Pasadena area and the smoke was visible from there. The smoke and ash assaulted you immediately when you went outside, it was so strong. When I got home at around 6:30 p.m., the fire seemed as if it were contained. In fact, it just seemed as if it were a normal day. I decided to go to the gym.
It was dusk when I returned from the gym and I noticed that the color of fire looked a brighter orange/red. I just figured that the color was more brilliant due to the contrast of the now darker sky. The traffic was also really heavy along Franklin and Los Feliz. Normally, I can drive to the gym in approximately 10 minutes but I just chalked it up to the Looky Lous who wanted to see the fire. That night it took me closer to 20 minutes to get home. When I returned to my apartment, the power was out, the fire appeared to be moving closer and closer to my place, traffic was being diverted from Los Feliz, the homes north of me were being evacuated and the media swarmed to my neighborhood. In the hour-and-a-half I was at the gym, the winds had shifted and the fire moved dangerously closer to the Griffith Observatory and Greek Theatre.
I'm not sure how much danger I was actually in since I live at the bottom of the hill and what chance the fire would jump and actually move down the hill. I didn't want to take any chances. I made a couple calls to some friends to see if I can crash at their places should I need to evacuate. My neighbors and I talked about those chances happening against the continuous wail from the fire engines trying to move through traffic to go up the hill. Half of the building had evacuated by this point. I pulled the cat carrier out of the closet and packed a suitcase --just in case the fire department (or police?) decided to begin evacuation the homes south of Los Feliz. I barely remember what I packed. I'm not sure if any of the clothes would have matched. I did throw in a prodigious amount of underwear because I remember thinking the clean underwear would be a good thing to have should I become homeless. My emotional state at this time was percolating just under panic level. It's a nerve-wracking process to determine what to grab when everything you own can be gone in twenty minutes. You just realize most things are just stuff at that moment. I wanted to grab some books but couldn't decide what to bring in that rushed time. Books are replaceable, cats and photos are not. It was also dark as the lights were out and I couldn't fully read the titles of my books.
After putting my brand-new laptop (a week old! The one no-brainer item I knew I wanted to bring) and hastily thrown-together suitcase in my car, I joined my neighbors on our front lawn to watch the fire. By about 12:30, the media had left, the crowds had thinned. We spoke to the traffic cop on our corner to find out what was happening. He said that if the area were to evacuate they would use loud speakers (probably bull horns) to evacuate the 'hood. I decided to go back in to try to get some sleep. I did have work the next morning. The wind calmed down overnight and by morning the fire was 40% contained and no longer a threat to the residences of Los Feliz.
Today (Saturday) parts of the park reopened: the zoo, the observatory, golf courses and museums. I plan to walk up there tomorrow to view the damage. I can see a lot of it down here. While there was no human life lost or homes lost, it's still sad to see the damage. The hiking trails I use all the time are gone but wildfires are part of the ecosystem. Shortly the vegetation will be growing again. I heard on NPR this morning that it appears that some the plants' roots may have survived the fire, which is a good sign. I'm including the photos I took of the fire. The pictures turned out horrible because I used the night-time setting on my camera but in the excitement, I couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a good picture. I should have known better. I plan to take some pics tomorrow too of the damage and will post them later. Casey and I have survived our Los Angeles baptism by fire.
It was dusk when I returned from the gym and I noticed that the color of fire looked a brighter orange/red. I just figured that the color was more brilliant due to the contrast of the now darker sky. The traffic was also really heavy along Franklin and Los Feliz. Normally, I can drive to the gym in approximately 10 minutes but I just chalked it up to the Looky Lous who wanted to see the fire. That night it took me closer to 20 minutes to get home. When I returned to my apartment, the power was out, the fire appeared to be moving closer and closer to my place, traffic was being diverted from Los Feliz, the homes north of me were being evacuated and the media swarmed to my neighborhood. In the hour-and-a-half I was at the gym, the winds had shifted and the fire moved dangerously closer to the Griffith Observatory and Greek Theatre.
I'm not sure how much danger I was actually in since I live at the bottom of the hill and what chance the fire would jump and actually move down the hill. I didn't want to take any chances. I made a couple calls to some friends to see if I can crash at their places should I need to evacuate. My neighbors and I talked about those chances happening against the continuous wail from the fire engines trying to move through traffic to go up the hill. Half of the building had evacuated by this point. I pulled the cat carrier out of the closet and packed a suitcase --just in case the fire department (or police?) decided to begin evacuation the homes south of Los Feliz. I barely remember what I packed. I'm not sure if any of the clothes would have matched. I did throw in a prodigious amount of underwear because I remember thinking the clean underwear would be a good thing to have should I become homeless. My emotional state at this time was percolating just under panic level. It's a nerve-wracking process to determine what to grab when everything you own can be gone in twenty minutes. You just realize most things are just stuff at that moment. I wanted to grab some books but couldn't decide what to bring in that rushed time. Books are replaceable, cats and photos are not. It was also dark as the lights were out and I couldn't fully read the titles of my books.
After putting my brand-new laptop (a week old! The one no-brainer item I knew I wanted to bring) and hastily thrown-together suitcase in my car, I joined my neighbors on our front lawn to watch the fire. By about 12:30, the media had left, the crowds had thinned. We spoke to the traffic cop on our corner to find out what was happening. He said that if the area were to evacuate they would use loud speakers (probably bull horns) to evacuate the 'hood. I decided to go back in to try to get some sleep. I did have work the next morning. The wind calmed down overnight and by morning the fire was 40% contained and no longer a threat to the residences of Los Feliz.
Today (Saturday) parts of the park reopened: the zoo, the observatory, golf courses and museums. I plan to walk up there tomorrow to view the damage. I can see a lot of it down here. While there was no human life lost or homes lost, it's still sad to see the damage. The hiking trails I use all the time are gone but wildfires are part of the ecosystem. Shortly the vegetation will be growing again. I heard on NPR this morning that it appears that some the plants' roots may have survived the fire, which is a good sign. I'm including the photos I took of the fire. The pictures turned out horrible because I used the night-time setting on my camera but in the excitement, I couldn't hold the camera still enough to take a good picture. I should have known better. I plan to take some pics tomorrow too of the damage and will post them later. Casey and I have survived our Los Angeles baptism by fire.
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