Brains!

Writing.
Writing comes and goes in my life. Right now I'm in a heavy writing phase. I feel like everything I do I need to write about. Sadly this weekend, I never really sat down to write, so now when I try to write, I'll probably forget half of what I wanted to write. Instead I kept posting random sentences from my journal, which in the time it took to do that i could have written other stuff. The other problem, is that I'm backed up on yelp reviews which I can't stand. I'm so OCD about them. The reason I don't wait to write them, is because when I let them bunch up my writing gets shitty. (See that entire paragraph = shit writing cause I waited to long)

The fires.
For the past what is it, like 13 days practically now the Station fire has been burning in the San Gabriel's east of Los Angeles metro. There's something strangely satisfying and disturbing about my "told you so" attitude towards the whole thing. When my parents bought there new house in Altadena less then a mile from the edge of the last foothill house, I kept trying to interject how dumb it was, all the risks involved. After I took all my geology and geography classes, I have a problem with pointing out all the things wrong with buying a house anywhere in southern California practically. I'm not a very good person to be around. As one drives along the 118 to the 210 on my way to Altadena, it's easy to see how close the fire came to houses along the foothills. Commuters drive past signs that labeled street names and communities everyone had been hearing in the news. The funny thing is, that California is so dead and parched, some of the burned parts look like the non-bunred parts. Basically lumps of death.

Anyway, the ash from the Station fire snowed on my parents house for a good 3 days when the fire was at it's worst on the west side of the mountains. While I was at their house, they pointed out the ridges where each night they watched the flames climbing up the sheer faces of the relatively young mountain range. Water rigged airplanes and copters were still flying over to the east side of the mountains, but overall it was like nothing had ever happened. And now that the staiton fire is threatening the east side of the range, the communities of Palmdale, and Acton places no one in LA metro really cares about, we hardly hear about the fire on the news anymore. This morning when I was driving down the 118 from Simi to get on the 405 south I had a clear view of the smoke still mushrooming back there. Clearly the fire is still just as bad.

Anyway what I would be most worried about now, is not that the fire will come back, but that the mountains will now be even more prone to huge slides, which people seem to think only threaten the people who live on the very edge of the wildland-urban interface. All you have to do is read The Control of Nature by John Mcphee to realize how far slides can actually flow. The entire San Gabriel and San Bernadino foothills are previous slides fanning out across the valley. I couldn't very well tell my parents buying a house was a mistake, but its amazing what happens when you know shit. You turn into the person who comes over to say, why the fuck do you have a grass lawn in a desert? Am I a bad person for thinking that New Orleans is the stupidest city in the world? I mean really under sea level? In fact anyone who lives along the Mississippi is retarded. It's a wandering river, you can't control it, and you definitely can't control it with ancient levees. Do you want to know how much tax money is spent on controlling that freaking river? It's nutz I tell you nutz! Okay I'm going to stop ranting, before I make too many enemies.

Movies.
Is it just me or is 2009 the year of mediocre movies? I saw Extract last night, and it was literally so bad I wanted to leave. In fact I haven't been inclined to see anything that's got less then %80 on Rotten Tomatoes because I now think that every movie this year is crap and I don't want to spend the $10+ to see something. The only movies that are above average, and even great to me this year are Star Trek, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, The Hangover and The Hurt Locker.

MaryJane.
I still get a lot of street cred for having attended Humboldt. I got out of jury duty for it, people approach me when they read my decal on my car, and now that Jordan's moved in to a stoner's house I'm super popular, even though I don't partake in anything pot related. Now I say 'stoner' with affection, although at some point it's hard for me to understand spending every second of everyday being stoned. Don't people want a couple days of clarity, reality? I still don't get it. It's funny, I feel like I've been exposed more to chain weed smokers in SoCal then I ever was in Humboldt. I mean even though my ex-roommate smoked every day, he mostly did it for his ADHD. From what I can see Jordan's roommate has no reason to, but does all the time. I feel like in SoCal with all the new medical shops you can go to nowadays, it's turned into a hobby of gigantic proportions. Yesterday at the BBQ everyone sat around for like hours smoking bowls, and discussing who's glass was better, where to get the best shit in the San Fernando valley etc. For someone who doesn't understand the culture, the need or whatever you want to call smoking, sitting a group of people who do for hours can get incredibly boring due to repetitive low energy conversations. I mean I guess it's picking between the lesser of two evils, so to speak. Drunks can get nasty, and into fights, break shit, get loud and annoying. At least people who smoke all day are relaxed and aren't likely to punch anyone in the face, even if it is boring.

Simi Valley.
Simi is...well what is Simi? How do I explain it. Here is a list:
-As you drive up Jordan's street, which is on the North side, the 'rich' side of Simi, almost every driveway has an RV, or a Boat. If you look in the open garages, you see men and boys working on their dirt bikes and atvs.
-Almost every shopping center is newish and suburban. There are hardly any stand alone restaurants or shops in Simi.
-There are plenty of rednecks, in fact it's kind of like redneck-ville. That might be offensive, but it's true. There are plenty of Christians, the other day I drove past Simi's government complex and there were two girls no more then 9 with their mothers holding signs that said "Do you trust Christ or the Government?" I have no idea what they meant by that.
-As far as I can tell, Simi is a sleeper community, most folks commute out of the valley for work, so it's almost all residential. Jordan and his work friends are practically the only people I've met who actually work in the valley.
-I can't wait to spring, because the hills and rocky peaks surrounding the valley will turn lovely green and the valley will be so much prettier.