Yes, I can finally be found on Twitter (again, actually) as @TheKinzuaKid. You might try to say I am behind the times but you would be wrong.
Back in 2007, those of us in San Diego County were just having a ball with our second round of wildfires in 4 years. This pass was particularly nasty, multiple fires having started almost simultaneously in some dangerous parts of the county. They were not the worst we have seen but they felt like it. Over 300,000 acres burned that year and my mother’s home was only just barely spared the inferno.
Why is this important?
I was lucky. I am perched on a hilltop in the northwest corner of the county and I could see the flames from my backyard, miles away but creeping closer. As the fires ran up and down canyons it looked like the we were surrounded. The problem (other than the exploding eucalyptus trees)? News sources utterly failed to communicate anything useful. They simply could not keep up with the fast-moving blazes. Twitter, however, could. I had signed up with Twitter earlier in the year and kept abreast of the latest flash points through a constant stream of tweets, mapped in real time. We never had to evacuate but my mother’s neighborhood did and the power of real time data was made clear to even the dullest of spectators. I was sold on Twitter.
Shortly thereafter, my very young son somehow managed to commandeer my account. The name and password changed and I was utterly incapable of rectifying the damage, until now. My old handle is unavailable but the new one suits me just fine. Since I do not Tweet much myself this has not been a major problem. That said, it has been 5 years and we are probably due for some fires, an earthquake or a tsunami.
@TheKinzuaKid is ready. Again.