I have only one burning desire

(poor taste? probably)

So, things have been eventful. First, as most of you probably know by now, I am not on fire. I am, however, off work for the week due to poor air quality, and am slowly losing my mind. It's funny how I was able to spend 6+ months unemployed without any trouble, and now that I'm working, three days off is enough to drive me stir-crazy. I've been playing Steamband, which ig recommended, and doing some reading and cleaning lots of things. By the end of the week this place is going to be cleaner than it's ever been. I should probably have people over or something.

Steamband is a pretty good game. It's a variant of Angband, which is a roguelike ((like nethack) (see also here)) with a lot of emphasis on skill trees in character advancement. And Steamband is, yes, steampunk-themed, so that in addition to there being the typical character classes like rogue and adventurer with skills involving stealth, trap detection, and the use of swords, there are also naturalists, engineers, and aesthetes, whose skills include things like clockwork chassis, velocipede, and even art appreciation. The monsters are all literary references, and the armor consists of top hats and petticoats and such. I think I've plateaued, though, since I keep getting killed by White Fang. He gets like 8 attacks per turn, so the instant I see him, I might get one action in which to teleport away, if I'm lucky. It's almost reached the point of a running gag, the consistency with which it happens; I get up to about level 4 or so, feeling pretty good about my hit points, armor class, and ranged attack, and "oh look here comes White Fang." Then he bites me like 20 times and I die. Screw you, White Fang.

Anyways, here are some useful fire things to look at, if you promise not to check them obsessively. Fire blog. Story about KPBS's fire services map. As scary as the map makes things look, everything I've read suggests that my part of town is pretty safe, so at this point I am mainly just hoping the eastern half of it doesn't cause too much more damage

And some other internet diversions, for those of you who, like me, are really pretty bored with this whole staying-at home thing. The complete Calvin and Hobbes. Lots of educational websites (some of which you probably know, but it's nice to have so many in one place). And this, via I-forget-who, possibly Pinguino.