Sorry...Again

Wow. Sorry, you guys. I'm totally neglecting this blog. I guess I just haven't wanted to talk about me lately. The party is really on my LJ blog. However, I don't do daily life stuff over there, so...

Went to an Oscar party last night. Had a lot of fun. I suck at picking Oscar winners, though.

Work is better, but still in a state of flux. With winter hours, there's a lot of bitching and whining. The real problem is that some people are basically being given new jobs without those "new jobs" being posted so anyone else can have a chance. I mean, thank goodness some people are being guaranteed hours while educators, who actually teach the programs, are just scraping by. That's all I should really say about that.

Some of you know that our most recent baby elephant died. Her mother had some serious complications from labor and couldn't really nurse the baby. We couldn't get the baby adjusted to formula and she got weaker and weaker. In her compromised state, she picked up a drug-resistant Staph infection, among other medical problems. Poor baby.

On the other hand, we have 7 healthy baby lion cubs right now and they are so cute all on exhibit together. In education, we also got a new pygmy falcon, named Maximus (haha). He's still getting used to everything, but he is sweet and friendly and I can't wait to snuggle him. Right now I'm snuggling Opossums. I recently finished training with a Great Horned Owl.

I hope some of you are still checking this every now and again. Really, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail. Love you all.

Current Kiki Events - Part II

My vacation was, however, cut a bit short when F called me Monday morning to tell me there were fires all over the place near our apartment. This was on top of a fairly sleepless night, thanks to a tornado siren that went off by accident for over an hour (starting at 3am). I guess a lot of you have been following at least some of the fire news. The Witch Creek fire threatened our home and both of our places of work. I thought F's workplace would be bad because it was across a major street from a burning neighborhood. His building is fine, though. It turns out the Park was even closer to danger. Most of the eastern half of the property (the undeveloped half) is burned. The fire went right up to (and once over) animal areas and around the northern end of the Park to catch the property to the West of us. More information is available here. The reason the Park was around to open yesterday is that the fire management programs are well-planned and the Park was ready to deal with any fire right after finding out the Santa Ana winds would be so bad.

As to our personal story, our apartment never came under mandatory evacuation orders, but the evacuation zone was about half a mile away and the fire came within 2 miles on Tuesday. F evacuated on Monday with my kitty. I flew back into town Tuesday night. The flight over the mountains with fires on either side of the plane was amazing, but the flight right over the Harris fire was awesome. Fires in the distance looked like lava in the darkness. It was indescribably beautiful... Back in reality, I stayed with a friend in North Park for the night, then drove up to meet up with F in the LA area Wednesday. Then, I got up at 3:30am to move my cat back to my apartment and go to our department meeting and help with Park clean-up. Thank goodness for my fitted face mask; the air is still awful here, though generally getting better.

Already, it's mostly back to work as usual (though with much lower attendance numbers). Savanna Safari was amazing Friday because it goes right through one of the areas that burned. I also handled our Great Horned Owl for the first time. So cool! Yesterday I dressed up for a Halloween Weekend shift...and, oh yeah, I dyed my hair black...

On the gaming front, we finally are going to play again. Mutants and Masterminds this time. I'm still trying to come up with all my character stuff but I'm having a hard time. I like superheroes, but it's not as much my thing. I'd love to get back to D&D but I'll really play anything, since I just enjoy the company of my fellow nerds. D (the main GM for this adventure) wanted to help me better understand the tone of the setting and give me character-development ideas, so I now have homework: five trade paperbacks to read by Wednesday evening. It will be especially tough since I also have to rewatch all of Eva by November 7th (it goes back to my brother then), in preparation for watching the movies (or at least the 2nd movie).

I think that catches you all up on my life. Thanks for hanging in there for two long posts. I'll try to get back on top of it, now that I have a computer again (my parents' ran slow, mine was in LA until today, and updates at work can be difficult).

Weird Morning

Hey. I'm back. Just had to write about this. I agree with Newt Gingrich. I'm watching C-SPAN right now and he is talking about his proposal for changing election debates. If you get a chance to pick up any snippits of it (if they let it onto YouTube...non-governmental items on C-SPAN are in a legal limbo), I recommend it. I say this as a former debator who is totally bored with the debate format currently used with candidates. I don't think we get any info on our candidates this way. Also, the way this system is currently run, candidates implode because of how they have to act. My example is Al Gore, though I'm sure his non-fans could come up with a better example. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to change the channel a couple of times because of things Newt said, his debate premis really struck a chord with me.

The Horrors of Chance

I really can't even begin to be able to tell you about my current state of mind. I just got some grotesquely bizarre news. You may have heard about a shooting at a mall in Kansas City, MO. The sister of the shooter is a person I knew and worked with at times in KC. And, although the victims of the shooting were total strangers to the perpetrator, I knew one of those that was killed. Leslie Noble was a senior when I was a freshman at Blue Valley High School. Upon hearing her name, though I had not seen her in 15 years, I immediately recalled her face to mind. I remember how she dressed for debate tournaments. I remember how bright she was. I find myself regretting that I remember little else about her. I am moved by the role of chance in this tragedy and find myself awhirl in thoughts about my own life. I hate to be so selfish, but, perhaps, even a distant brush with death can change one's thinking. I need to process all of this...

Notes on a Tragedy

I want to point out a couple of issues stemming from the Virginia Tech shootings. I don't want to linger here, because I'm sure it's all been said already and I can't begin to understand the grief and anger those at Tech or who know folks there must feel. However, I have been angered by some of the surrounding bullshit that has come from people who have to have an answer or who must use this horrible act to make a point.

First, here's an article that I liked asking for everyone to not rush to judgement in the blame-game, especially where technology is concerned. Second, as an athiest, I am offended by the usual rhetoric...again, I don't even want to go there because I just want to feel what sadness I can over this incident (being far removed as i am) and not have my feelings clouded with this crap!