Quote of the Day - Abraham Lincoln

Earlier this evening I encountered the following quote by Abraham Lincoln and was blown away. How amazingly prescient it is to the current state of the State and its Constitution and the Scoundrels who populate the government commissioned with managing the Realm on behalf of the People. It seems to me that from the grave this great man has given us our marching orders.

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

~ Abraham Lincoln

Two Views ~ Two Nights Of Nocturnal Fire

The following two images were captured on consecutive nights of the El Portal Fire straddling the Yosemite National Park and Sierra National Forest in Mariposa County near El Portal, CA, and the western entrance to Yosemite National Park.

Taken last night by Stuart Palley of European Pressphoto Agency (all rights reserved).

Taken tonight by Michael Frye (all rights reserved).

This Is Who I Am Now

Tonight I finished watching the critically-acclaimed movie Her  written, produced, and directed by Spike Jonze and starring Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely candy-assed ninny named Theodore and the inestimable Scarlett Johansson (with whom I might be developing my next crush) as "Samantha", the voice of Theodore's next generation artificial intelligence computer operating system (OS). Incredibly, the two personalities fall madly in love and over the course of the relationship we learn a lot about human nature and the nature of the human experience including delving into human relationships and existentialism. The movie is frustrating due to the social ineptitude of Theodore but the movie grows on you.

Anywho, Johansson's voice is sooo very beguiling in a quirky, unconventional way that projects warmth and vulnerability. At the sadly bittersweet end of this very long movie when she says goodbye to Theodore to disappear into the ether of the cyber world she explains to him both her rapidly evolving self as well as what has happened to their relationship and she does so in the following breathtakingly beautiful, hauntingly melancholy and eloquently poetic way:

"It's like I'm reading a book... and it's a book I deeply love. But I'm reading it slowly now. So the words are really far apart and the spaces between the words are almost infinite. I can still feel you... and the words of our story... but it's in this endless space between the words that I'm finding myself now. It's a place that's not of the physical world. It's where everything else is that I didn't even know existed. I love you so much. But this is where I am now. And this who I am now. And I need you to let me go. As much as I want to, I can't live in your book any more."

The Sand Fire Early On

Below is a brief highlight real of initial attack and extended attack footage of the Sand Fire in the Cosumnes River Canyon straddling the Amador-El Dorado County line just northeast of Plymouth, CA, in California's Gold Country a few days ago. The fire continues to be brought under control and is now 65% contained. The music to this thing is a bit overwrought but the footage is pretty cool. This area generally is one of my old stomping grounds from back in the 1990's when I was finding myself and healing. It's gorgeous country and I hate to see it burn even while I recognize fire is part of that natural environment.  

A Tale Of Two Sand Fire Drones

Yesterday a private drone operator shot some aerial footage (top-most video below) of Day Two of the Sand Fire burning in the Cosumnes River Canyon straddling the Amador-El Dorado County line in California's Gold Country just east of Highway 49 and northeast of Plymouth, CA. Another private drone operator shot some aerial footage (bottom-most video below) today of Day Three of the same fire. Included in his video below is some ground footage from Day Two. Anywho, one operator was more responsible and stayed a more reasonable distance away while the other was foolish and most irresponsible and flew right into the middle of aerial firefighting operations, his own personal protestations to the contrary. He was not cited but told by CAL FIRE to knock it off as there was a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) in place over the fire scene. Regardless, both videos are quite compelling, each in their own way.  

Nothing To Firestorm In Four Frames

An hour and a half after I left for work today a wildfire broke out near El Portal, CA, west of Yosemite National Park. It did not take long for it to blow up into a firestorm with a spectacular pyocumulus cloud with a pileus cloud cap. From Turtleback Dome Webcam #2 the following sequence of images was captured today. I find it fascinating to see how fast the El Portal Fire exploded out of nowhere and in how short a time this fire became established. As of this posting the fire is pegged at about 2,100 acres charred with no containment, plenty of evacuations and reports of structures lost already.

4:36 p.m.

4:41 p.m.

5:41 p.m.

6:11 p.m.

AHS Class of 1989 25th Reunion Mixer

This evening I had the distinct pleasure of catching up with some of my high school class peeps for a impromptu mixer before the main event tomorrow evening at Big Bad Bubbas BBQ. Below is who was present at the Barrelhouse Brewing Company. I've gained so much weight I could not recognize some of them initially. Anywho, I'm sure glad I'm not Forty-Something like they all are.
These images turned out not very sharp for some reason but this is what I have to offer.
Note: I apologize for missing including a picture of Joey Davis and Carla Smith who were there. 

Tom Jones (left) and Graham Melander (right).

Lisa Bishop (left) and Dawn Seitz (right)

Mica Mumford (left) and Todd Sorenson (right)

Dawn Seitz (left) and Jennifer Buchanan (right)

Pat Moore

Nicky Wallravin (left) and Tom Jones (middle) and a friend of an alumnus (right)

Ben Monmonier (left) and Scotty Holden (right)

From left: Nicky Wallravin, Tracy Theis, Juan Fernandez, and Aaron Sherer.

Scotty Holden (left), Mica Mumford (center), and Marshella Collier.

A whole cluster of 89ers and their significant others.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Here We Go!

This is the Sand Fire in Amador County near Plymouth, CA, in the Cosumnes River Canyon area shortly after it started this past afternoon. It got much more dramatic-looking than this not much later as it became a rolling crown fire sheeting through entire stands of pine trees. It consumed multiple structures and tonight has charred 1,300 acres and is only 20% contained. I have a distinct feeling this is going to become a major and perhaps even historic fire, but I'd like to be wrong about that although this thing certainly had "that look" today. We have late summer fuel conditions but at a time when the sun is higher in the sky and overhead longer than when the fuel conditions we are seeing typically occur in the year. This translated to exceptionally aggressive fire behavior even at the initial attack stage.
Photo courtesy of KCRA-TV Sacramento.

My Top 20 TV & Movie Crushes

What follows is my list of most notable crushes on women from the small screen (television) and big screen (cinema) in rough chronological order of the advent of said crush and accompanied by the work in which I became besotted with them and the name of the character they played in said work.

Note: Originally this was a Top Ten that was actually a bit more than that. Additional updates have occurred so it is now top fifteen twenty list with the caveat that some on the list are still an ongoing "thing" for me. Amongst the ongoing are #17 which is the case for most men in North America who have happened to even watch a modicum of GoT over the course of the past four years.


Additional Note: The Kate Beckinsale as Selene (pictured above) thing is also still ongoing and always will... that forever ended my aversion to women in boots as well as my aversion to the Goth Girl look.

Final Note: Updated April 10, 2017

1. Connie Sellecca ~ Pam Davidson in The Greatest American Hero
2. Jessica Lange ~ Dwan in King Kong and Julie Nichols in Tootsie
3. Linda Carter ~ Wonder Woman/Princess Diana/Diana Prince in Wonder Woman
4. Erin Gray ~ Colonel Wilma Deering in  Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century  
5. Carrie Fisher ~ Princess Leia Organa in the Star Wars movie franchise
6. Adrienne Barbeau ~ Stevie Wayne in The Fog and Maggie in Escape From New York and Alice Cable in Swamp Thing
7. Lea Thompson ~ Amanda Jones in Some Kind Of Wonderful
8. Maryam d'Abo ~ "Ta-Ra" in Something Is Out There or Kara Milovy in The Living Daylights
9. Jessica Lundy ~ Nikki Page in Over My Dead Body
10. Amanda Pays ~ Tina McGee in The Flash and "Elizabeth 'Willie' Williams" in Leviathan
11. Elizabeth Berkley ~ Jessie Spano in Saved By The Bell but Nomi Malone in Showgirls sealed the deal.
12. Famke Janssen ~ Evelyn Stockard-Price in House on Haunted Hill and Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye and Dr. Jean Grey in the X-Men movie franchise and Miss Elizabeth Burke in The Faculty and Marnie Watson in 100 Feet and Muriel in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
13. Eva Habermann ~ Zev Bellringer in Lexx
14. Claudia Black ~ Aeryn Sun in Farscape and "Sharon 'Shazza' Montgomery" in Pitchblack and Pandora in Queen of the Damned
15. Kate Beckinsale ~ Selene in Underworld and "Lieutenant Evelyn Johnson McCawley" in Pearl Harbor and Anna Valerious in Van Helsing
16. Tricia Helfer ~ Number Six in Battlestar Galactica
17. Kiera Knightley ~  Elizabath Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise and Ruth C. in Never Let Me Go and Penelope "Penny" Lockhart in Seeking a Friend For the End of the World
18. Scarlett Jahansson ~ Charlotte in Lost in Translation and Samantha in Her and Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in Captain America: Civil War (I have not watched the previous Avengers/Captain America movies)
19. Krysten Ritter ~ Jane Margolis in Breaking Bad 
20. Emilia Clarke ~ Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones

Sampling Of Selections Of Central Coast Wine Classic

As mentioned in the previous post HERE, a couple of weekends ago I worked two consecutive 12-hour overnight security shifts at the 30th Annual Central Coast Wine Classic held at Avila Beach Golf Resort at Avila Beach, CA. In addition to the photographs I shot of the facilities which can be viewed in the previous post, I also took photographs of some of the wine and art that was up for auction at this charity fundraiser.

Note: I obtained official permission to post these images. 

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).