short update

i've been thinking about blogging for a few days now, but i can't get my thoughts in order. writing definitely helps, but with the number of pages that need to be written in the coming weeks, i think i'd better save my best for them.

there is a wildfire burning just to the north of me. so far it has consumed over 105,000 acres. that's 164 square miles. it's big. my favorite professor's neighborhood was evacuated, but his house was just out of the evacuation zone. thankfully, the fires were kept out of his town and he and his neighbors are all fine. as i write this, mt wilson, the historic observatory that overlooks los angeles, is in danger. the fire is approaching from 2 directions, and it has been deemed too unsafe for the fire crews to maintain a physical presence there. the fire is mainly fuel-driven, which is better than wind-driven. but it's still more than a week away from being contained, so who knows how much will really burn.

all of that to say it is a weird thing to watch. from my balcony, i can see the fires glowing red at night. the smoke is unbearable at times, but thankfully most of it is being blown north of here, out of the los angeles basin. it's strange, this fire. it's so amazingly beautiful, as mesmerizing as a campfire but on a much grander scale. but it's also a bit like watching a tornado - amazing in its power and wrath, but you hope it doesn't go near any civilization.

i'm looking forward to writing some of my papers. other, not as much. we'll see what actually gets written in the next few weeks. i had one paper due tomorrow, but i decided to take the option that requires one long paper (due later) instead of 2 shorter ones (one of which is due tomorrow). i'm probably making the wrong choice and giving myself an excuse to put the work off even longer, but we'll see. it's for my prophets class. i'm going to be looking at fasting in the prophetic books - what fasting meant to different characters, what isaiah meant in ch 58, what purpose it served, and the spirituality of it. i'm looking forward to it, but not to writing the long essay that is now required (5000 word minimum, approx 20 pages!). ah, well.