Touch the sky
Imagine yourself sitting on a hill; it's a large hill but not quite a mountain. You look in one direction as the hill drops off, far below you lies the city from where you came. You can't see anyone from this height, but you know there are hundreds of thousands of people below you going on about their daily business - working, shopping, having fun.

In the opposite direction are the mountains. You may be on a hill, but you are only on the foothills of a much larger range. There land in that direction is rugged. Buildings and roads are very sparse. In nature's reign there's a different sort of business, as hundreds of thousands of animals going on about their daily business - hunting, being hunted, or just basking in the sun.

On Saturday I hiked up Monument Peak. I was expecting to be able to drive up the hill, but it turned out to be a 3.5 mile, 2300 vertical foot hike. The top of the hill had a number of microwave and radio antennae and satellite dishes, but was otherwise deserted. Atop the peak, staring eastward into the Californian coastal mountain range, it's a different world from the suburban sprawl to the west. I'm reminded of Paul Tokunaga's comment about retreats of solitude, and the top of a hill is as good a place as any to spend some time alone.

Here's a 360° view from the peak. The axis of rotation wasn't quite vertical, hence the resulting image looks kinda wavy (imagine it wrapped around, you'll see how it looks like a ring at an angle). If anyone knows of a good piece of software for stitching panorama shots together, let me know!

I find Matt and lyds have had highly amusing blogs lately. Especially the 'discussion' (girl vs boy). Guys, denial's just the first stage.

As for wongz, I think the last line is "but this is for the extras... what? no tip?"