ToasterWaffles

So as you probably know, most of San Diego is on fire. I’ve been stressed out about it all day. I’ve been worried about friends, family, and co-workers all day long. It’s exhausting worrying this much.

The internet has either made all of that easier or much worse. It depends on how you look at it.

First some background: we don’t have TV. We don’t have land-lines. We have cell phones and a cable modem. This is the extent of our connection to the outside world from home. We’re progressive. Or incredibly foolish. Your choice.

Throughout the day we’ve stayed well informed. Interestingly, we’ve been better informed than relatives using traditional media sources.

Here’s what we’ve been watching:

• Local NBC (KNSD) has a live streaming feed of the news
• The Union-Tribune has had a blog going all day. It’s had various URLs as they’ve tried to find a way to handle the load
• They’ve also had a Google Maps based burned/evacuation zone map that’s been flapping on/off-line all day.
• KPBS has a section on twitter.com with brief news blurbs

That’s a brief list that probably won’t stay relevant as the fire goes out.

We’ve also been IM’ing all our friends and co-workers to keep in touch and know that they’re safe. I think the network connections would stay up well past the telephone system.

In short: hooray internet!