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Credits
Photos taken on a Sony DSC-P3 digital camera by myself and Long Lam.
The title of this gallery is not an endorsement of setting fires to get
time off from work. Please use less anti-social, conventional methods,
such as calling in sick or filing for worker's comp.
Tired of that
phony Windows XP desktop "Bliss?" Download the official "Black
Sky" desktop picture and make your day a little gloomier.
(1280 x 1024, 148kb)
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FIRE
: One Way to Get a Day Off
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
August 19, 2002.
Sometime around 3:45. Working. Miding my own business. Until somebody
yells, "Santana Row is on fire!" I have to admit, it put
a smile on my face. Not many people who live or work around here
care much for the place. I had a personal stake in hating it, after
my little bicycle episode,
so I felt quite justified in gleefully yelling, "Sweet Justice!"
I walked down to the corner office to have a look. There it was,
a moderate fire burning in the building closest to us. I went to
get my camera and when I came back - lo and behold - it was a full-on
blaze! Cheap, hurried construction goes up fast, I guess. Soon,
we had to evacuate the building, which gave us the opportunity to
poke fun at closer range. And get pictures for our respective web
sites.
The
view from the corner office at our building. Work has never
been so interesting. |
I took the opportunity to get artsy with the reflections.
What do you think of my new piece?
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This
artistic silhouette shot of me conveys one particular message:
"Bad hair day." |
A
few onlookers gawk and yell into their cell phones. I'm digging
the reflections. |
At this point,
you may wonder, "Why are you taking this so lightly?"
The fact of the matter is, as it was a building-in-progress, there
was no one in it. The construction workers, at last count, all made
it out, and no retailers' spaces had been occupied yet. This grand
symbol of Silicon Valley overspending had suddenly become an inferno,
and all we could do is poke fun at it. After all, here are a bunch
of us - suffering through the Dot Bomb collapse and watching as
CEOs and CFOs laugh all the way to the bank with millions - seeing
the local icon of opulence taken down by something some caveman
discovered maybe a million years ago. Fire.
Long
gives us his "Oops, I did it again!" pose, while
Frank's just happy to be outside. |
We tend to look serious when we don't know the picture's about
to be taken.
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Sometimes,
the sky would go totally black. You could see the sun poking
through, with embers as big as your head flying up.
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The
fire seemed pretty steady, but then the wind started picking
up. |
By the numbers:
$1,850. That's how much a one bedroom apartment in this complex
was set to start at upon its October opening. $15,000. The high
end of the range. 3 million. That's how many square feet of retail
and residential space this place is to occupy. 40. The number of
acres the land mass takes up, while poor saps commute from the likes
of Stockton and Tracy because even with their bloated salaries,
there's no room to live here. $500 million. How much this place
is costing its Maryland developers. The revenue it generates doesn't
even benefit the community? 3. The weeks of pain I endured after
being thrown to the curb by a chunk of concrete that rolled out
of this place and landed in front of my bike's tire. Is it any wonder
we feel no sympathy?
And
it grew bigger... |
And meaner...
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Until
the walls buckled.. |
And
the whole building was consumed. Oh well. |
I learned this
year not to be bitter or vindictive. When bad things happen to me,
I don't need to take revenge, and I don't need to get overly upset,
and I certainly don't need to file suit. Karma will take care of
things. After my bicycle accident, many people asked, "Why
don't you sue the developers at the construction site?" Why
should I, when karma's got such a good turnaround time for biting
people in the ass? ;)
I
only feel bad for these workers (click to see 'em), whose
labor was totally lost. It feels bad enough when you lose
a file to a hard drive crash or virus. Imagine losing a whole
building. |
The Day After
>>> |
Ok, I also feel bad for these people, the ones who lost the
roof of their apartment. The Fire Dept folks were too busy
dousing an empty building to get the houses across the freeway.
Oops! |
The
view of the aftermath from the corner office. To think, only
a day ago, a behemoth of a mall/living complex stood there,
with the potential to make millions and draw thousands more
cars through the area. Darn. |
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