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Beware of burn areas as 2 major storms are on tap for Southern California

By: Roger Ewing

This is a friendly reminder to pay special attention during this week.  2 major storms will hit, the first on Monday, December 7th and the second, more impressive storm, will begin late on Wednesday, December 9th. Forecasters predict the 2 storms will cause widespread power outages and flooding in burn areas.  Also, be sure to keep an eye on your home.  Beware of clogged rain gutters and leaky roofs.   It’s also a great time to shut the sprinklers off and save a few extra bucks on your next water bill.  Drive safe and have a good week.

To view the rain and snow forecast go to Snow and rain levels.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

• Roger Ewing
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Posted by Roger Ewing on December 7th, 2009

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I am excited to announce the launch of our new web site design, including new features.

By Roger Ewing

In a short time we will be launching our newly redesigned web site at ewingSIR.com.  It may take us a few days to get the kinks out and some of our links may temporarily not work as a result of the new theme installation.  Please be patient with us, we are doing our very best to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Over the coming weeks, we will also be updating our Community Blog sites as well.

We will be adding a new link to our Community Newz sites, where you can subscribe to receive current statistics for your community by zip code.

When our new site is launched, please let me know your thoughts and your feelings about the new design.  We greatly value your input and recommendations.

If you would like to see your community featured on our community blog list, or if you would like to become a Community Newz contributor for your neighborhood,  please let us know.

Best wishes,

Roger Ewing

• Roger Ewing
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• " . $name . "

Posted by Roger Ewing on October 25th, 2009

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JULIE & JULIA: “If no one’s in the kitchen, who’s to see?
By Roger Ewing

I put on my sunglasses and fake moustache, and walked quickly through the parking lot with my head down, thinking no one would recognize me when I went into the theatre. For two weeks my wife had been asking me to see the movie Julie & Julia with her and my 86-year-old mother-in-law. Not that I mind going out with the two of them, but being seen entering a theatre in my home town to see a movie about Julia Child and cooking was, well, somehow not very macho.

The Nora Ephron written and directed movie features Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell. The film is actually two stories in one. It flashes back and forth between Julia, as she begins her cooking career in 1949 Paris, contrasting her life to Julie, a woman in 2002 Queens, New York who aspires to cook all 524 recipes from Child’s cookbook. Stanley Tucci, brilliantly plays Julia Child’s husband Paul Childs, opposite Streep.

Less than ten minutes in, I suddenly realized this film is the first major motion picture based on a blog. Off came the sunglasses and fake moustache; on went the light bulb inside my head, blogging is something I could wrap my brain around.

It turns out, the real life Julie Powell started to blog as a means of getting in touch with her inner desire to someday become a writer. Her life had led her to an unhappy place. She lived in an apartment above a pizza parlor and spent her days in a sad cubicle-job working for the city of New York. She was in desperate need of some self-realization. Blogging became Julie’s passport to a meaningful existence. Her goal was to cook all of Julia Child’s recipes inside one year and to blog about it each day. The project quickly became an obsession for her.

I checked out Julie’s original blog, The Julie/Julia Project. Not that impressive. No exotic links, no theme, other than her first person rambling about life and cooking. Which leads me to an important conclusion for my own blog, www.rogerewing.wordpress.com.

There is no need to be fancy in delivery, only a desperate requirement to connect to your readers on a level they understand and identify with.

Compelling content is a constant requirement for successful blogging. Julie’s blog is very conversational. It’s as if I am in her kitchen listening to her while she cooks. Her written words are merely the extrapolation of her thinking onto a computer screen. Why is this so readable and why is everyone so interested in what she is thinking on any given day?

On Friday, August 13, 2004 Julie writes, “Without you here (Julia Child), I would be a different person – a smaller, a sadder, a more frightened person.” There were 238 comments posted to this particular blog. That’s impressive. It is clear she is willing to expose her true feelings to the world and has no fear of transparency. This is an important point.

One must blog from their true heart, without fear. Be willing to commit to treating the world as a welcome friend.

Julie Powell’s blog became a memoir for “Everywoman”. Julie’s writing is simply a revealing expose of a year in the life of someone just like you or me. She writes about herself, a real person, whose life is filled with joy, sadness, fear, pain, exhilaration, passion, and every other emotion that makes the human condition so complicated and entertaining.

This is a wonderfully simple film that is filled with delights, as well as a realistic sampling of the kind of challenges we all face in our everyday lives. It is also a lesson on the strength of social media and the power of the written word. I highly recommend Julie & Julia.

See it, you’ll be better for it.

• Roger Ewing
• Web Site
• " . $name . "

Posted by Roger Ewing on August 21st, 2009

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