Last year in October, wildfires ravaged through communities just north of where I live in Poway and Rancho Bernardo. There was much devastation and those families are still trying to rebuild their lives.

Five years ago, wildfires ravaged through my neighborhood of Scripps Ranch, and we were told to evacuate and we settled in a Holiday Inn somewhere closer to the Pacific Ocean, escaping the devastating wildfires of 2003.

Right now the wildfires continue to burn from Montecito near Santa Barbara to the Los Angeles area, fueled by strong Santa Ana winds. Here in San Diego it’s eerily quiet. And I wonder if we’ll experience those wildfires once again, having to evacuate and quickly pack up our belongings and personal items, photographs, important documents, etc…

I pray we don’t, but my heart goes out to those families who are being affected by the fires north of me… to those families who’ve lost their homes… I pray for them.

Via Reuters:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wildfires hop-scotched around Southern California on Sunday although calmer winds slowed flames that have destroyed almost 1,000 houses, forced tens of thousands to evacuate and turned some neighborhoods into scenes resembling war zones.

A pall of towering, choking smoke blocked out the sun in much of the Los Angeles area and in Orange County to the south-east after flames ripped through tinder-dry brush. The fires jumped freeways and reduced mobile homes, multimillion dollar mansions and apartment blocks to ashes in about a dozen communities.

I saw this on the news this morning…

This is one of the most terrifying things a parent could ever experience… a three year old girl slips through the fence and nearly falls off a 150 ft. cliff in Oregon. Fortunately, an adult relative quickly hopped the fence and grabbed the little girl before she could fall off the edge.

I’ll bet someone’s going to make that fence a heck-of-a-lot more safer.

While on a family vacation on the Oregon coast, three children posed for a picture next to a dramatic ocean cliff when the 3-year-old fell through the railing. Maggie Rodriguez reports.

Looking at my Google Analytics for this website, I thought it would be interesting to review the top 10 pages that people have found through the Google search engine. So, here I present to you the Best of the “Zen Garden”:

1. Are Filipinos Asian?

Enough people have asked, that this question warrants some further exploration. Indeed, Filipinos are unique in that many people have been confused as to whether we are Pacific Islanders or Asian. Despite our Spanish heritage and influence, The Philippines is indeed a part of Southeast Asia just as Singapore and Thailand and other countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Here I try to explain our true origins, which also links Filipinos to the aborigines of Taiwan.

2. Keith Jarrett Tour Dates!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, then I’m sure you’re aware that I am a devout Keith Jarrett fan. But, to my surprise I’ve been getting a lot of hits to this page from other Keith Jarrett fans looking for his touring schedule. He’s currently not on tour at the moment, but I feel obligated to keep this page current, since it gets a lot of hits from Google.

3. I Carry Your Heart: by E.E. Cummings

A couple of years ago (as a prelude to Valentine’s Day) I decided to re-interpret E.E. Cummings’ poem “I Carry Your Heart With Me”, not changing the words but re-interpreting the lines. E.E. Cummings has always had a very unique style of presenting words in a poem (called orthography), so I thought, “why not restructure the words who I would normally write one of my poems”. And, I haven’t gotten any complaints from any E.E. Cummings scholars, so thanks for understanding. I first heard of this poem from the movie, “In Her Shoes”, starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Colette.

4. The 10 Wealthiest People in the World

Apparently, people are often wondering who the wealthiest people in the world are! Back in September I wrote a post that listed the 10 wealthiest billionaires at that time. I noticed that in 2008 the top person kept fluctuating between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, but according to certain sources, in September, the wealthiest person in the world was Carlos Slim Helu, a Telecommunications billionaire from Mexico.

5. Yes, Filipinos Are Asian!

This post was a reply to a blogger who, with a very racist mindset, posted that Filipinos were wannabe “Fake Asians” who latched on to Japanese culture in an effort to identify themselves as Asian. Fact is, people the world over are influenced by Japanese culture. Well, this person’s blog has since disappeared after I linked to him within this post and told him that Filipinos definitely ARE Asian and have always been a part of Southeast Asia. There is so much confusion as to whether Filipinos are Pacific Islander or Asian, I just had to do some research on this. And despite our Spanish heritage as stated above, Filipinos are Southeast Asian.

6. Amy Poehler: Rap For Palin

When I first saw this on SNL that Saturday night, I was laughing so hard. And how surreal was that? To have Alaska Governor Sarah Palin actually on the show, sitting there and groovin’ along to the beat! I quickly found the video on the SNL website (at the time I couldn’t find it on YouTube), and suddenly I started getting a LOT of hits to this one post. I still watch the video now and then. Seeing a very pregnant Amy Poehler rapping about Sarah Palin is just too funny.

7. Quiz: How Liberal or Conservative Are You?

I’m sure that people who are extreme right-wing Conservatives or left-wing Liberals know where they stand and don’t need to take this quiz. But, during the whole Presidential race of 2008, many Republican Conservatives were accusing Senator Barack Obama (now President-elect Barack Obama) of actually being too far to the left… a Communist… a Socialist. I’ve always considered myself more Liberal than Conservative, but at the same time I am a bit conservative in some respects. So, for those who wanted to find out exactly where they stand and want to see some percentages, this is a good Quiz to take.

8. Akiane: Amazing 12 Year Old Art Prodigy

A fellow musical colleague of mine emailed me a link to a story about a young art prodigy named Akiane Kramarik. I was amazed at how gifted this young girl was, and quickly found a YouTube video documenting the girl’s amazing story. The amazing detail and clarity of her work reflects experience well beyond her years. At the age of 10 she was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on CNN.

9. A Quote From “The Forbidden Kingdom”

Music is a connection between Earth and Heaven…

I was watching this movie on DVD and the above quote caught my attention. At the time I just thought it was pretty inspiring. But, I didn’t expect to get as many inquiries about this quote via Google. Hmm… interesting.

10. Tina Fey Meets Sarah Palin on SNL!

The presidential election of 2008 proved to be an exciting one, and I’m sure it will go down in history as one of the most notorious as far as “negative campaigning” goes. But, Tina Fey’s uncanny resemblance to Sarah Palin was just too hard for SNL to resist, and TV ratings turned out to be their best in 10 years, as everyone anticipated Tina Fey’s impersonations of the Alaska Governor. The culmination was when the “real” Sarah Palin finally her match in what turned out to be a very funny, yet surreal experience!

. . . .

And this pretty much wraps up the 10 most popular posts here, based on Google search engine results. And special thanks go to Google Analytics for compiling the results. Maybe I’ll do another Top 10 post at the end of the year, in case the list changes…

I’d been struggling the past 24 hours to write an entry, and whenever that happens I think it’s best to just jot down a few random thoughts.

I’d been feeling out-of-focus lately…

My wife had the day off today, and so we slept in. I still had to drive my 16 year old and his cousin to school today, but when I got back I plopped back into bed and crashed out. And slept for another 2 hours. My wife said I was snoring, and she was reading in bed.

We saw “Changeling” today, starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Clint Eastwood. I’ll just say that I thought it was an exceptional movie.

Afterward we ate at a Cafe in Del Mar. I had a vegetarian spinach wrap and some iced tea. It’s hard to get raw food unless you go to a full-fledged dedicated raw food establishment. So I had to make an exception here. The food was vegan and mostly raw.

We picked up our 20 year old at the train station in Oceanside. We ran into lots of traffic on the way back and it took almost an hour to get home. Then I had to rest for a half hour before heading out again through the traffic to get to the gig.

The gig was nice as usual. Had a lot of fun playing in the trio, and I love playing drums with brushes and using the “cajon” for bass drum, and while playing snare drum and hi-hat cymbals. We play standards from the Great American Songbook, we play light so it’s easy on the ears, and we play to an older audience who appreciates those old songs so we get a lot of tips.

Anyway, on the way back home I dropped by the supermarket to buy some groceries for the family.

I get the feeling that people are just glad the elections are over. I think, with the economy, and all the harsh negative campaigning that I believe only hurts America more than benefits it, people are a bit tired and exhausted from all the drama. Of course, the Republicans are more than likely upset still regarding the loss, and Senator McCain conceding so early on election day. I think it’s been a rough few months for all.

Somehow, the American people must now put all this behind them, and work together, and just get on with our lives again… but I have to say, with the economy still in turmoil, people are going to continue to suffer. For my family, this is going to be a lean holiday season. And, we are going to do the best we can to reduce our monthly living expenses.

It’s hard to be thankful this time of year because of the economy. But, with Thanksgiving fast approaching there is still a LOT to be thankful for and I don’t take what I have for granted… but, the next few months for me will be to concentrate on living frugally… on saving every penny…

It seems these elections are getting the better out of everyone.

Just now I checked my email and received several emails with hateful messages from someone apparently using a fake name and email address.

The messages included:

“Your site is garbage asshole!”

“faggot bitch”

“fuck you spammer”

Wow. That’s really intelligent and mature.

Dear Mr. Charles Clinton:

1. It doesn’t help you appear credible when you hide behind an apparent fake name and email address.

2. And it doesn’t help you appear intelligent and smart by resorting to profanity and hateful language to get your point across.

Perhaps you were offended by whatever thoughts and feelings I was expressing with regards to the upcoming elections. But you are not a good representation of your political party if you can not express yourself thoughtfully and intelligently. I welcome everyone’s thoughts when they wish to leave comments. We might not always agree, and if you have reasonably logical points to make that goes against what I’ve said, then I welcome that too.

And what’s up with leaving your link to some dead aryan/nazi website?

Boy, an African-American runs for the office of President, and I swear, the Neo-Nazis and Racists come out of the woodwork. These are sad times we live in, folks.

Still, I maintain hope and compassion for humankind. Somebody has to do it, and take the responsibility.

God Bless us All…

A definitive classic from the 80s! Just going down the 80s memory lane tonight. And I do believe (?) this one was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as well… with Paula Abdul doing the choreography and a cameo appearance?

Too bad the only video I found (above) is pretty fuzzy and of poor quality.