Santa Ana evening

[isomeme]

Last night I left work around 7:15, stepping out into deep twilight in the alley between my office and the buildings on Third Street Promenade.  We're just a couple of blocks from the ocean, so it's always cooler here than further inland; in the fall, it usually gets pretty brisk out as the sun sets and the onshore breeze blows the fog in.  So as I

Comments

[baal_kriah]

Or Pavlov's dogs hearing that bell ring.

[isomeme]

It's interesting to me that, in our culture, the archetype of "Pavlov's dog" is seen as almost completely negative. You can just as easily construe it as a beautiful demonstration of the power of learning to transcend heredity.

[baal_kriah]

I don't use it negatively, just as shorthand for stimulus-response conditioning. That's what your pedestrian experience seemed like to me.

[isomeme]

That was definitely an element of it. The part I found interesting was the instant social decision making. Without any words at all, a dozen people cross-checked to see if everyone agreed there was a problem, determined the nature of the problem, and concluded it was safe to proceed. All that through changes in expression and posture, and small movements. We use nonverbal communication all the time, of course, but having it happen so obviously and efficiently among a dozen strangers was fascinating to watch.

[chimpstop]

It was still 80 last night when I went to bed around 11:30 PM. Late in the afternoon hot winds came out of the North...the lost souls of burned up Vegas gamblers heating our day and night.

Hotter down here today.

Santa Anas always seem surreal or meta-real. And the last times we've had weather like this at this time of the year the whole world has gone on fire.

I think I may actually be getting tired of living on the coastal edge of this desert.

"O to be on North Island, now that spring is here..."