A Visible Comet

Lately I've been catching news of a comet that's apparently gone boom! and has increased dramatically in brightness. The news articles call it an "outburst", but it must be quite an "outburst" to have it's brightness increased a million-fold. An article from where I work posted yesterday reads the following:

Catch a Comet - No Telescope Required

Usually comets are challenging little no-see-um fuzzballs. To see one often requires a dark sky, a good chart or a telescope that can "go-to" the object automatically. This week there is a newly visible comet in the sky and it can be seen with the unaided eye! Last week, Periodic comet Holmes (17P/Holmes), a very faint comet far from the sun experienced an outburst and brightened a million times in just a few hours. The comet puffed up (it's still expanding), changed color and wowed viewers around the world.

The Astronomy Photo of the Day for October 30 shows the comet's current apparent size in the sky - compared to Jupiter, which you can also see in the west after sunset.

To see the comet, all you have to do is step outside and look to the Northeast. You should be able to see the "W" that is the constellation Cassiopeia - it's standing on its end. One and a half "fists" away to the right is a bright star in the constellation Perseus. You probably won't be able to see all the Perseus stars, but the bright one - Mirfak - should be visible. It marks the top of a triangle, which is about the size of your thumb held at arms length away. The triangle's lower left corner is the comet! Use our sky chart to help you find the comet.

The comet will stay with us for a while, so weather permitting, you'll get a look this week or next.

I've included several relevant images here. Truly a wonder!

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A comparison of the apparent size of the "outburst" (click for animated image).


How to find it in the night sky.


A picture of the bloom taken by amateur photographer Gary Spiers.


A picture of the core taken by astrophotographer Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York.

Fright Fest

My wife and I got a babysitter last night and went over to the local roller coaster park (Six Flags Magic Mountain) for what they call "Fright Fest". Basically, they decorate large portions of the park, have people dressed up in "scary" costumes (with pretty good makeup, by the way) walk around the park, and put together several "mazes" and "haunted houses" for the visitors.

We arrived at the park at about 5:30 after a quick bite to eat, and immediately headed for the "Goliath" -- the biggest rollercoaster in the park that goes up to 85 miles an hour (but it has no inversions ...); it's one of my favorites. Each of the major roller coasters at Magic Mountain have cameras set up at some point on the ride to capture your face at that particular moment. The park hopes to sucker you into buying the pictures, which, of course, are sold at exorbitant prices. Usually the cameras are placed at the bottom of a particularly big hill or coming out of a loop. In "Goliath's" case, it's after the second major drop.

Well, dinner wasn't sitting too well with my wife, so she didn't exactly enjoy this particular ride (though normally she would have). Coming (hobbling?) off the ride, my wife and I went to look at the picture of us, and it was really funny. There I was with my mouth open, shouting, with a smile on my face; and there was my poor wife, face scrunched in a pained expression that looked like she had just tasted something horrible. Turns out she had almost thrown up on the ride! Despite her discomfort, the picture was still very funny -- she wouldn't let me take a picture of it, though, with her camera phone ...

In any case, we moved to the next ride pretty slowly, watching the tail end of a "eat something really gross" contest that had been set up for Fright Fest. Some guy ate a super-hot chili with a worm wrapped around it and won a bunch of "Flash Passes" for use around the park.

Our next stop of the evening was to the ride called "Scream." This is one of my wife's favorite rides, and by this point she was doing a little better and enjoyed it a little more. For Fright Fest they had turned the lights off most of the coasters, so it was a different experience altogether. Quite fun!

We then went over to the "Gotham City" part of the park where they had a "haunted house" set up, called "Brutal Planet". Both my wife and I had grown up in Utah where they have some pretty spectacular haunted houses, and we were definitely expecting something more out of this. As it turned out, the haunted house consisted of people dressed up in spooky outfits who would jump out and scream at you when you came around a corner. With so many people moving through, you usually had some advanced warning when somebody was going to jump out. It wasn't terribly frightening, since they weren't really allowed to touch you. In our case, however, we were walking in front of some skittish girls, who screamed at everything, so it was entertaining just watching them! Also, I found out afterwards, that people would often walk behind my wife and breath on her neck. She didn't really like that, and put her hair down for the next one ...

Anyway, after leaving there, we went over to a different "maze" (which wasn't), called "Deadman's Bog." They basically turned the line for one of the rides into a pathway that they filled with smoke and covered with camouflage. Along the way, they would have people jump out at you from the mists and they'd have people just standing in line looking spooky and trying to stare you down. The highlight was when there was some guy (dressed up, of course) behind some of the camouflage who would push himself forward so you could see him, who kept repeating over and over again the words, "My bog!" His tone of voice and the environment were really quite funny.

Leaving there, we then went over to "Riddler's Revenge", one of my wife's favorite roller coasters. There was practically nobody in line, so we got right on ... the front row! By this time, my wife was feeling much better. She had never been on the front row before, and it was totally awesome. The ride was smooth, the wind was crisp, and, with the lights off, the views around the park were spectacular. To make it even better, we were able to ride it four times in a row! The third time we had to move to the second row, which reminded me why that ride wasn't my favorite (it's kind of bumpy and throws you around a lot -- issues not felt on the front row ... hmmm). In any case, with nobody in line, the front row was definitely the place to be, and we later agreed it was the best time of the entire evening. Good stuff!

We then headed up the hill in the center of the park towards the "Superman" ride. It had a much longer line (as compared to no line ...), so we only rode it once. By this time it was getting kind of late, so we went over and went through an even more disappointing "haunted house" called "Willoughby's Haunted Mansion".

After, we went over and rode on "Tatsu". This is the newest ride in the park, and is tied with Goliath as my favorite. With the lines so short, we decided to wait to sit on the front row. In my opinion, it was definitely worth the wait. Most of the time when we're at the park, it's during the day, and so it is that riding the coasters at night is a totally different experience. In this case, being on the front row and with the ride the way it is, we had a very expansive view of everything around us, and it was amazing.

By this time, we were pretty tired and so we headed home. We had never been to Fright Fest before, and it was fun. However, if we didn't already have season passes to the park, it probably wouldn't have been worth buying tickets just to go there for that reason.

In any case, we had a great evening!

How Our Local Fire Got Started

The fire near our home was called the "Buckweed" fire, and when I logged in this morning, I caught a news article about how it started, as follows:

Boy confesses to starting California fire

A boy playing with matches has confessed to starting a wildfire that destroyed 63 structures near Los Angeles, officials said on Tuesday.

The unidentified youngster, believed to be a preteen, was questioned by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators on October 22, a day after the Buckweed fire started rampaging across 38,000 acres in the Santa Clarita area, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The boy "admitted that he had been playing with matches," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

It was initially believed that downed power lines had started the fire.

The boy was sent home after confessing, and the District Attorney's office will consider whether to press charges.

The Buckweed fire was one of about two-dozen conflagrations that ravaged southern California last week, destroying 2,300 buildings, according to the California Office of Emergency Services. The fires have been responsible for 12 deaths and 78 injuries.

Arson is being blamed for a blaze that has destroyed 15 homes in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, and a reward of $250,000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever started the fire.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

So, there's a lesson in here: never play with matches on a day with winds gusting to 70 miles per hour. Or something like that.

My Wife's Thirtieth Birthday

Yesterday (Saturday), my wife turned 30! When I met her she was just turning 20, which means that I have known her for over one-third of her entire life. The wonderful part is that the portion of our lives we will share together is only going to grow.

For her birthday, we went out to an "improv" show -- an improvisational comedy show where the actors make up everything that happens as they go along. This particular show consists of actors who are predominantly LDS. They keep the show clean of obscenity and innuendo to make it family-friendly. We'd been there before, and my wife decided she'd like to go again as part of her birthday celebration. I was pleased to comply as it was quite funny the first time. Now, I'd have to say that it wasn't quite as funny the second time around, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

I had invited some friends from our church to attend with us, and only three people took us up on the offer (tickets were $12 per person, so it was a pricey date), but it was very good to share the experience. Afterwards they came back to our house for ice cream and stayed up talking until about 10:45 pm. It was a great evening.

Come her actual birthday, the stars magically aligned and we had absolutely no commitments for the day. So, what did we end up doing? Absolutely nothing dramatic. Really. We mostly stayed home with the kids, played games with them (Jungle Uno, Rummikub, and Mexican Train Dominoes), and had the kids help make the meals (actually I did pretty much all the cooking, but they felt involved), allowing my wife to not cook or clean for an entire day (not entirely, but as best we could). My wife really wanted some alone time just to relax (what we call "decompressing"), so I sent her off to go shopping while I took the kids to the grocery store (which actually went fairly well, all things considered). All in all, it was a very good day (and I appear to really like parenthetical comments).

For her birthday, we gave her a bag of her favorite M&Ms, the peanut butter variety. It's a tradition for her birthday that we all get to enjoy, since she graciously shares with us. She was pretty funny because she commented on how I always get her these M&Ms for her birthday, and I just replied that it's analogous to how she always gets me a Dilbert calendar for my work desk every Christmas; it's predictable, yes, but something I always want.

My wife is really funny, though. In the weeks or months prior to a gift-giving holiday, she will often pull me over to the computer and tell me to look at what's on the screen. Then she'll tell me to buy that for her for the gift-giving holiday, and I have to do it right then or else the sales price won't be good and we will have missed it. I usually scramble to a different room, grab my laptop and buy it right then and there on her request. It's only because I do it from a different room and she's not involved in the actual transaction that makes me feel even remotely comfortable getting gifts for her in this way. Needless to say, her birthday gifts don't usually end up being a great mystery to her. Clearly, this ruins the whole birthday-surprise thing, but it's how things get done around here.

Nevertheless, I try to pay attention to things she says off-handedly to see if she says anything that would give me clues to something that she'd like that she wouldn't normally go off and buy on her own (or point me to). This time I think I nailed it -- she was surprised and pleased, and for once I got her something that she didn't have to return or go exchange. You see, our oldest son takes tennis lessons, and some time ago she had lamented how she missed playing. So, I went and bought her a tennis racquet for her birthday. My oldest son was so happy to "give" it to her, and she really was pleased and looks forward to having the chance to play. The racquet is even one that's quite feminine: a pink racquet with the pretty swirls that she adores so much!

First thing out of her mouth, though, was whether or not it was the right size for her. My jaw dropped. I hadn't even considered that there could be different racquet sizes. The possibility that she might need to return or exchange this gift completely took the wind out of my sails. When we later read that the racquet is good for most adult women, the printed word was pleasing music to my ears.

That evening, once we finally got the kids to bed, we just spent some good quality time together. I find it interesting that I've been with this woman for ten years now, and the conversation still isn't even close to getting dull. It seems as time goes on, this good wife of mine continues to surprise me, inspire me, and support and encourage me. With each passing day, let alone year, she becomes more and more my best friend.

A different friend of mine nearly died in a car accident on Friday (he's fine!), but the event prompted a conversation about who we really want to spend eternity with. The answer for me is very simple: it's the woman who holds my hand as we walk down the street together. She just turned 30 yesterday.

The Long Drive

Yesterday morning (Friday) was my monthly shift to work in the temple. I had previously got up at 5 am and made it to the temple by 7:30, over half an hour earlier than I really needed to be there. So yesterday, in my early morning stupor of thought, I decided I could sleep in a little bit past 5 am and still have plenty of time to make it. You see, I had forgotten that the I-5 freeway south through the Newhall Pass has the truck lane closed due to a horrendous accident from a few weeks ago, which congests and slows the main freeway lanes significantly. In a further lapse of judgement, I decided to avoid a portion of this, and stay on the city streets to avoid the traffic, which slowed me down further. At the point when I normally would get on the freeway, the traffic looked so bad I figured I'd try staying on the city streets even longer.

All of these were huge mistakes -- it took me 1 1/2 hours from the time I left my house until the time I actually got on the freeway -- a trip that normally takes 25 minutes. This conveniently put me going south on I-405 at the height of rush hour traffic, which, interestingly, is this fine nation's worst/slowest freeway for commuting. By the time I actually got to the temple, 2 1/2 hours had elapsed -- a trip that I have made in the best of traffic in under 45 minutes. It was awful.

So on my way, in the very slow, bumper-to-bumper traffic, I decided to start recording the personalized license plates that I encountered on the way. Some describe people's likes, others their self-conceit. For some, it's a business opportunity and yet for others, it's just a matter of expression. I think for some, they just want to confuse the reader. So, for your very own amusement, they are (with my translation, where possible and when it's not obvious):

Those apparently related to careers:
-- C*LLME2 = "Call me, too" or "Call me #2" -- A real estate agent?
-- AG FENC7 = "Agricultural Fence #7" -- it was a truck loaded with chainlink fences on it's flatbed.
-- KIDIDOC = "Kiddie Doctor" -- must be a pediatrician.
-- ALS CPTS = "ALS Carpets" -- truck from a carpet dealer.
-- H2O PSI = "Water Pressure" (PSI = Pounds Per Square Inch) -- I'm an engineer, so I actually got this one.

Here's some lifestyle ones:
-- CLB8 LFE = "Celibate Life" -- a Catholic Priest?
-- N2 LAKRS = "In to Lakers"
-- LOVNG LA = "Loving Los Angeles"
-- 4SHIZAL = "For Shizal" -- uh huh.

Some that were self-identifying:
-- MST4LOU = "Mustang For Lou" -- it was a Mustang.
-- HY-O-MINI = "Hy-o Mini" -- it was a Mini Cooper.
-- R QWIKI = "Our quickie" -- I'm assuming it was the owner's fastest car.
-- KR BMR = "Car Beamer" -- it was a BMW, but that's all they can come up with?
-- 4SOFIYA = "For Sophia"
-- PUGLVX2 = "Pug Love Times Two" -- New VW Bug, but they must really love their pug.

Some that are probably inside jokes:
-- 2TFLU T = "Tootie Flutie"
-- GET FRED
-- NO CHALK = So ... they don't like chalk?
-- ACORN 26 = No clue on the significance here.
-- BLUEMTL = "Blue Metal" -- the car was black.

A few that made me scratch my head:
-- DRAKUL = I was clueless here.
-- XTATANX = Uh ... didn't know this one, either. It was a VW GT.
-- XXFTWXX = Ditto here. It was a Mitsubishi Montero Sport.
-- A 888 W = No clue.
-- IDRESU = No clue.

A few of my favorites, clearly for the thermally-challenged mothers:
-- HOT MOMI = "Hot Mommy"
-- REDHOTMM = "Red Hot Mom"

And my all time favorite:
-- DUKNSNG = "Duck in Song" or "Ducking Song" -- Either they like ducks that sing, or they regularly have things thrown at them and sing about it.

My Daughter's Essay

I lrd at grl sgaoowts to beprprperd.

This year ther wus a fire and i kept woshenu the noos and I kept dooing it ses the fire stoortid. And on the noos it sed that the fire wus moor then 200 degrees.

And on then noos it sed that moor then 9 hames had bi destroyed.

My wife helped her with "year", "degrees", and "destroyed", but aside from that, it's all her. At her age -- first grade -- they're transitioning from the "I don't care how you spell anything as long as you're writing" mentality to the "Let's work on sentences and paragraphs" mentality. Spelling still isn't that big of a deal as that will come with time. It was just good to see her do this on her own!

The translation:

I learned at Girl Scouts to be prepared.

This year there was a fire and I kept watching the news and I kept doing it since the fire started. And on the news it said that the fire was more than 200 degrees.

And on the news it said that more than 9 homes had been destroyed.

What I Could Have Been

Have any of you wondered what you could have been had you decided to make some different choices in your life? I'm not talking about mistakes that you've made, but rather about fundamental choices about how you wanted to live your life, particular with regards to your career or your family. I'm a big fan of alternate history, time travel, and anything similar that comes from science fiction -- Star Trek episodes where they time travel have always been my favorite.

I also am a big believer in the adage that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Essentially, little choices can have huge ramifications down the line. In thermodynamics, a slight tweak in the initial conditions of a thermal analysis can dramatically alter the end result. In a steel beam, a very small flaw can significantly decrease its overall strength and stiffness, eventually causing a catastrophic failure. In orbital mechanics, a very small maneuver performed in space can cause an astonishing change in the trajectory and final destination of a spacecraft.

So it is that very small or simple choices can cause very big changes in our lives down the line. For me, there have been several key points in my life where my choices have led me where I am. I'll try to enumerate a few of them here:

Experience 1:

When I was in high school, I desperately wanted to be a pilot. My test scores were really good, so I actually had the chance to go to the Naval Academy for a "Summer Science and Engineering Seminar" the summer between my junior and senior years. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know the environment, be exposed to military life, and to strut my stuff. I had the skills, the build, and the brainpower (I think) to do it. What I also had was a desire to serve as a missionary for my church and to have a family. At the time, these two didn't really go well together.

My experience at the Academy showed me just how morally loose most people are when given a little bit of latitude, and I concluded that the Academy was not the place for me to prepare to serve a mission. In addition, at the time, they weren't allowing LDS cadets to leave for two years to serve a mission mid-program, which wasn't something I could accept. I also learned that they only took the top of the class into pilot training, and I wasn't willing to risk not making the cut (I was/am a little cocky, but I also had/have a grasp of statistics ...). Needless to say, I passed on the Academy, thereby passing on my opportunity to be a pilot, and passing on a life in the military.

Experience 2:

The summer after my junior year in college, I had the opportunity to go to work by San Francisco at Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, CA. I knew nobody who lived there, and literally packed my stuff in the car and took off to live with complete strangers. When I got there, I quickly discovered that my roommates were not exactly golden boys: one would lock himself in his room and smoke weed on a regular basis (and yes, he was a church member! Barely ...), and the other was just plain weird -- girl-obsessed but socially awkward in every way. In any case, we didn't get along, so we spent very little time together. I found myself effectively on my own, completely alone. Nobody had any preconceived notions about the kind of person I was, and nobody could or would pass judgment on my decisions.

I had a choice to make: what kind of person would I be when faced with a fresh start? Would I go crazy and do all the morally questionable things that I had been taught my whole life? (And had taught to others as a missionary.) I was most certainly girl crazy, with lots of girls around who did not share my church's standards. However, I also had something else inside of me that encouraged me to make good choices. I continued to study my scriptures, say my prayers, and attend my church meetings. I would be a very different person today had I made different choices that summer.

I always remember something somebody told me: "The measure of a man is what he does when nobody is watching." I have no idea where that came from, but it seems appropriate, and I've always remembered it. Am I a perfect person? Absolutely not, but I try hard.

Experience 3:

I was in college and was starting to get pretty serious about a girl I was sort-of dating. She was a good friend of mine with whom I had had many classes. Over the course of the years, our friendship grew into something a little more, and we soon began to spend a lot of time together. In my head, I was convincing myself that I wanted to marry her, even though I wasn't really quite in love. She was a very good choice, a very good woman, and probably we would have had a perfectly content life together. Nevertheless, she knew better than I and made other plans that didn't include me -- I was devastated.

In my emotionally destroyed state, I went through the usual stages -- denial, anger, recklessness, sorrow, and finally got to being jaded. Coming back from California (see Experience 2, above), I decided to move to a totally different place at the university and to date as many people as I could. I simply didn't care about establishing a relationship with anybody, but just intended to date and date and date.

Well, that didn't last long. After I had thrown in the towel on getting into a meaningful relationship, I met my wife. She was perfect for me in every conceivable way. I just couldn't see it for a while -- a whopping seven weeks. At the end of those seven weeks, I made the most important choice of my life: I was going to marry this girl. The problem was that I was too afraid of being rejected again. Interestingly enough, my wife had known that she wanted to marry me after knowing me only a week, and felt a spiritual confirmation that it was right. She was patient, held her cards close to her chest (hence my doubt) so as not to scare me away (which was wise), and just let me express my flippant attitude towards our relationship.

The day I proposed, I picked her up for a date and while I stared straight ahead at the road in front of us (we were still parked), I said, "I think we should start making some long-term plans."

I still think this was a brilliant statement. It was sufficiently ambiguous that if she really wasn't into me she could have interpreted "long-term" to be anything she wanted, even just "several weeks" if that suited her fancy. I had my out that would allow me to extract myself from the relationship if things weren't going as I hoped they were. Much to my astonishment, she replied, "Well, it's about time." Within minutes, we had both expressed our love for each other, and were planning our wedding date. It was seven weeks from meeting to engagement, and three-and-a-half months to the marriage. It was far too long.

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So, sometimes I play the "what if" game in my head, going through some of these decisions and wondering. Nevertheless, my choices have led me where I am today ... and I'm happy.

The Fires

So I'm pretty much the last person to actually write anything about the wildfires that have been nearly surrounding my house. Last Sunday, mid-day, there was a plume of smoke that rose above our house. We live in an area that burns fairly regularly, so we weren't too alarmed at the time. However, we are also experiencing very strong Santa Ana winds, so the fires have spread like ... well, wildfire. Some paragraphs from the "Wikipedia" entry:

Santa Anas are a type of föhn wind, the result of air pressure buildup in the high-altitude Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. This high energy wind spills out of the Great Basin and is pulled by gravity into the surrounding lowlands. The air circulates clockwise around the high pressure area bringing winds from the east and northeast to Southern California (the reverse of the westerly winds characteristic of the latitude)...

The air is then forced down the mountain slopes out towards the Pacific coast; the air mass is further heated by compression as it drops in altitude before reaching the Los Angeles Basin, western San Diego County, and Tijuana (Baja California) at typical speeds of 35 knots. The southern California coastal region gets some of its hottest weather of the year during autumn while Santa Ana winds are blowing. During Santa Ana conditions it is typically hotter along the coast than in the deserts and the humidity plummets to less than 15%.

As the Santa Ana winds are channeled through the mountain passes they can approach hurricane force. The combination of wind, heat, and dryness turns the chaparral into explosive fuel for the infamous wildfires for which the region is known.

Yep, that's exactly what's happening. We're getting explosive growth in these fires and after three days they're not even close to being contained. This image is a comparison of the fires above Los Angeles, and illustrates how quickly they grew in just a few hours.

The thing that's crazy about all these fires is that they keep appearing. On Sunday, I heard there were three fires in the Santa Clarita valley where I live. After hearing where they started (at sites near freeways, i.e. with quick in-and-out access), I immediately had the impression that some lunatic was wandering around starting them. Now the authorities have intimated that it looks very likely, as well, at least for the ones here in this valley. There are lots of fires all over southern California.

The ones by San Diego have affected the most people, but the one right by my house was actually the largest of the bunch. The following image shows the fires all over southern California. The second image is zoomed in and shows (exactly!) where my house is. Notice the direction of the plumes -- they're going west! Where we live, per what was written above and by my own experience, the wind nearly always blows to the east off the ocean, but not right now! The Santa Ana winds are very real.


So Sunday night, some friends of ours whose house is about 2.573 miles from here (as the crow flies) were told to evacuate their home due to the fires encroaching on their neighborhood. The husband of this family stayed at his house for a long time and ended up taking quite a few pictures of the fire above his house. The following picture is of the sky above his house, which looks like something out of a movie!

He watched the gnarly-looking helicopters and planes fly over his house and drop water over the fire.


It didn't appear to do much good as the fire continued to chase over the hill. Later that night the fire was quite dramatic on the hills.

His house was never really in danger, but he and his family stayed the night with us since they have a 3-week-old daughter whose young lungs don't deserve to be abused by smoke.

In any case, come the next morning we heard a knock on our door. It was a highway patrolman who told us to evacuate, and said, "You have 15 minutes." Uh huh. I was skeptical because my house is in the middle of hundreds of houses, well-surrounded by streets and other things that would serve as fire breaks. To top it off, my house is a new build with stucco walls, tile roofs; young, green trees, and block walls surrounding my yard. If my house ever goes up in flames because of a wildfire, then there are much bigger problems than what we have witnessed in the last few days.

Nevertheless, as law-abiding citizens, we quickly packed up our stuff (took us only about fifteen to twenty minutes, and that was taking our time) and headed out. We felt bad that our friends ended up getting evacuated twice, and they eventually flew out to Utah where they have some family. We ended up staying at our local church where, ironically, the air quality was far worse than at our own house. My family eventually went over to a friend's house who lived nearby where they could be a little more comfortable, while I waited things out at the church. We had people there who didn't have any place else to go, and I decided to stick around and help out.

Anyway, when we were evacuated, we took the following:
-- Our family.
-- Both vehicles.
-- Our 72-hour kit (which is somewhat outdated ... we need to do something about that)
-- Our cellphones.
-- Our computer box (just the box, no peripherals), which has all our family pictures and family history in it.
-- My work laptop.
-- Our safe with important papers.
-- Our insurance paperwork.
-- Telephone directories.
-- Our family photo CDs and (little) video tapes from our camcorder.
-- Some sleeping paraphernalia, including sleeping bags and pillows.
-- Two changes of clothes for each of us (in one suitcase).
-- Some snacks.
-- Some toiletries.
-- A few other odds and ends.

Since we didn't know how long we were to be gone, we let the kids take some favorite things, like my daughter's favorite blanket; but by and large, everything but the people and the family photographs/videos are replaceable, so we left it all behind. With our credit cards with us, we weren't really worried about much else.

After I sent my family off to the church, though, I stayed behind and checked on some neighbors and friends. It was a really enlightening experience. Some people were quite prepared and were able to get out without too much trouble. Others had no plan as to where they'd go or were completely clueless about what to do.

One man I spoke to was stuffing clothes into his truck. When I asked if he had someplace to go, he just said, "Not really." I told him he was welcome to go to the church where I'd just sent my family, but he shrugged me off, and went back into his house to grab another armful of clothes.

A teenager who lived across the street was just standing on the sidewalk in front of her house, staring in horror at the smoke chasing across the sky above us. She had absolutely no idea what to do. I asked her if her mother was home and she told me she was. I asked her if she knew we were supposed to evacuate, and she just looked at me like I was a space alien. I then told her she should probably take a sleeping bag or something, in case we couldn't come back that night, and she started nodding intently, as if that was the most brilliant idea that she'd ever heard. It was funny in a way, but also a little unnerving since she clearly was in way over her head.

Driving around the neighborhoods, I saw all sorts of things. One family was busy trying to pack all their television sets in the back of their truck. A few other families were just standing around, their kids playing, the parents just discussing the fires as if they hadn't even heard about the evacuation order.

Without fail, though, the families that were members of the church were ready to go when I came by to check on them. Each knew what they would take and what they would leave behind. Each knew where they would go, and even though some elected to stay where they were, they were ready to go if things began to look more dire (which they never did).

As for my little family, we rendezvoused at the church where the kids played a while. We had the foresight to bring a basketball, so they played with that for a while, but as the air quality was so bad, we quickly wanted to go someplace else. A friend of ours offered up her home for a while, which was good since it allowed our youngest to take a nap.

I stayed at the church and helped with people who wandered in and out. Around lunchtime, I went over to Papa Johns to buy some pizza for the people who were camping out at the church, but they were so far behind that I ended up buying chicken at Albertson's to feed the masses. It worked out all right, and the masses ended up only being a few families, but that's all right.

Almost the entire ward that is adjacent to ours was evacuated at one point in time. We expected a flood of people to show up at the church, but as it turned out, nearly everybody found someplace else to go.

What was really impressive was how everybody pulled together for this. It seemed like our cell phones were ringing out of our pockets the whole day, and news was passed quickly from place to place. The fact that families who were out of harm's way were so willing to open their homes was quite impressive.

I hear, though, that some families slipped through the cracks and were never effectively checked on or evacuated. It was a good lesson, I think, and I have no doubt that we will be having many discussions on how we can improve our emergency response times and effectivity.

Come yesterday afternoon, the church was empty -- people returned to their homes or went elsewhere. I closed up the building with the other man who stayed with me, and we, too, went to our homes. It was quite the experience. The fires still rage -- further west of us now -- and even though the freeways are a mess for now, life goes on and is returning to normal quite quickly.

Now, if this had been an earthquake ...

The Art of Misunderstanding

Today during church there was apparently quite a bit of drama. In one of the meetings called "Relief Society", where all the women meet together, the teacher was discussing the roles that women play. According to our understanding of the Gospel, women and men are partners, neither superior to the other, both required and necessary; and both normally play distinct and special roles. Some of the roles of women include the nurturing and rearing of children, being the primary care providers. Men are typically the bread winners for their families, responsible for their care and protection.

Now, I wasn't there, so I didn't see all that happened. Nevertheless, apparently while the teacher was talking about the former, one of the women in the audience raised her hand and said that she was "offended" by the discussion, as she was a woman who could not have children and had a full-time career. The teacher then tried to clarify, doing a bad job of it, and things just went from bad to worse. Eventually, the teacher closed the book from which she was teaching and walked out of the room. The other woman also tried to get up and leave, but the women around her prevented it, consoling her as she was quite upset. The teacher, too, was stopped soon after leaving the room and calmed somewhat. From what I understand, it was such a bad experience that there were plenty of tears shed by the women in the room.

To me, I can't even fathom this kind of an experience happening in a meeting room filled with men. I would imagine things would come to blows or more angry words would be said, but in this case, it didn't go down that way -- just a lot of hurt and misunderstanding.

So these two women now have difficult choices to make. Will they allow their hurt to turn into anger? Or will they allow it to fall into crippling embarrassment? In both of these scenarios, these women could choose to simply not attend church anymore -- to not face those who witnessed this experience again. This would be nothing short of prideful and cowardly, and I hope it doesn't come to that for either of them.

In the best of all worlds, these two good women would contact each other, sit down and discuss what happened, and try to come to some sort of understanding. The unfortunate thing is that I can't see that happening -- which is even more sad considering that I know that both of these women are very kind women who only try to do what's best in their lives. I don't believe either of them intended to hurt or offend the other, but sometimes people get so caught up in the apparent difficulty of their lives that they just can't seem to do what is right.

A scripture from the New Testament comes to mind. In First Corinthians chapter 13, verses 11 through 13 it reads:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

A few things here are of interest. First is putting away childish things. This can be very hard, and, in particular, fruitless bickering is such an easy childish thing to do as an adult.

Second is the "glass" part; this particular passage is meaningful to me because it seems that I myself am unable to truly ever communicate what I really mean. This life is just like that. People of all walks have a particularly difficult time clearly expressing their thoughts so that others can completely understand what it is they really feel or think. To make matters worse, even when one does have the ability to communicate well, the flip side is in the understanding -- how well do we truly listen and comprehend what is being said? All manner of human misery is caused by this inability of ours to communicate. This is one thing that I'm looking forward to in the afterlife -- the ability to finally and deeply understand each other.

Finally is the third part of this passage where it speaks of charity. We understand "charity" to be "the pure love of Christ." This is not a very useful definition unless one understands what is meant by it. (See? There's that communicating part again ...) What it means is loving one another even as Jesus Christ himself loved each of us so much that He was willing to give his life for us. Do we ever really do that?

But these good women should apply a bit of other advice, too, as written in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5, verse 25:

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Now there's no judge here, and certainly no prison, but the first part is applicable. If these two women allow this to fester, then there may never be a reconciliation between them made. And that would be nothing short of tragic.

Jungle Uno

When I was a kid, my sister came home from college at Utah State University and taught me how to play what she called "Jungle Uno". It's an awesome variation on the "Uno" game, with rules that make it much more interesting. Through the years, I've taught it to countless people, some of whom really get into it, others who can take it or leave it. Nevertheless, it's become a staple game to my family (both my own small family, and my parents and siblings) and one that we greatly enjoy. To that end, I've decided to post the rules to it. Here goes!

Standard rules for regular Uno apply.

Rule of “1”s:
-- A player may trade hands with any other player whenever a “1” is played.
-- However, the player who laid the “1” must trade hands before the next player places a card on the deck.
-- The easiest way to ensure that a trade succeeds is to place your own hand on the table upside down in front of the person with whom you are trading as soon as you have played the “1”.
-- If a hand is “inherited” that has only one card (i.e. Uno), the recipient of the hand must proclaim “Uno!” upon touching the card or risk having “Draw 4!” called on them.

Rule of “0”s:
-- When a “0” is played, ALL players must pass their entire hand to the person next to them in the direction opposite the way the cards are being played.
-- The reason the cards are traded opposite the direction of the game play is so the same hand does not play twice.
-- When a “0” is played, all play stops until everybody has passed their hand to their neighbor.
-- If a hand is “inherited” that has only one card (i.e. Uno), the recipient of the hand must proclaim “Uno” upon touching the card or risk having “Draw 4” called on them.

Rule of “Matching”:
-- ANY TIME during play (except after a “0” has been played or if somebody is forced to draw), if you have the same card (same color and number) in your hand as has just been played, regardless of whether or not it is your turn, you may lay that card on the deck, effectively skipping everybody who would have played before you.
-- The player usually says “Match!” when doing so.
-- Gameplay then continues with the person who would be following the player who just matched the card, NOT where the game play was interrupted.
-- At this point, the player’s turn is over, and the player may NOT place another card.
-- However, the player may match with several cards simultaneously, but again, ONLY if they are the same color and number.

Rule of “Building”:
-- If a player has laid a “Draw Two”, and the recipient also has a “Draw Two”, that card may be played, and the third person would then have to draw four cards.
-- This is additive, so if many “Draw Two”s are laid in series, the end recipient may end up drawing many cards.
-- “Matching”, as above, may be applied here, but only if the “Draw Two” is the same color as the one last laid.
-- Similarly to this rule, “Draw Four”s may also be built upon and matched, however, “Draw Two”s and “Draw Four”s may not be interchanged.
-- Once a player is forced to draw, the additive nature of “building” can begin again.

Rule of “Reversing”:
-- If a player places a “Reverse” on the deck, and the person who would have played next before the “Reverse” was laid also has a “Reverse”, regardless of color, that person may use that “Reverse” to effectively cancel the reversal of game play.
-- Doing so ends the turn of the person who cancelled the reverse.
-- “Matching”, as above, may be applied here, but only if the “Reverse” is the same color as the one last laid.
-- Each reverse laid changes the direction of game play.

Rule of “Skipping”:
-- If a player places a “Skip” on the deck, and the person who would have been skipped also has a “Skip”, regardless of color, that player may place the “Skip” on the deck, instead skipping the next person to play.
-- Doing so ends the turn of the person who laid the second skip.
-- “Matching”, as above, may be applied here, but only if the “Skip” is the same color as the one last laid.
-- Each skip does NOT add an additional jump in gameplay – only one person will ultimately be skipped, regardless of how many were played in series.

Rule of “Drawing”:
-- A player is not required to play a card from his or her hand; instead, the player may choose to draw from the deck until a desired card is received to play on the person next to them.
-- If a player draws because they can not play, that player must continue to draw until they can.
-- If a player begins to draw for either of these two reasons, then the game play stops until that person has played, meaning that one may not belatedly “match” the last card played.
-- If a player is forced to draw by receiving a “Draw Two” or a “Draw Four”, that player’s turn is over and game play proceeds to the next player.

There you go. Hopefully you can make sense out of it. Have fun!