GekkoFyre

I know that there hasn't been an update for quite some time but an awful lot has happened since returning back to my home in Victoria around the end of February. Most of the events revolve around my university course where I did have a good start for the year and even managed to complete the twice postponed exams (the second time was due to a family crisis), but eventually a decision was made to take an intermission until next semester shortly thereafter, forgoing the rest of a scholarship in the process.

Without going into much detail, it can be said that I essentially burned out around the final exam time of last year. I took on far more work than my mind could handle by doing a double-major full-time and slowly discovered my limit as a result, which is why I have no regrets. My limit would've been discovered at some point in my life anyway! While I did have a wonderful time over the following holidays, spending months with my dragon in Sydney whilst also visiting Electra in Brisbane at one stage (but not for long enough!), I had wrongly hoped that any long-term stress would just simply disappear. Well, this proved to not be the case due to the extent of it and therefore my reason for the intermission. At least now I have plenty of spare time to purely focus on just this, to get myself sorted out prior to the start of the next semester, and to develop a heap of strategies for dealing with any stress in the future. But it cannot be said enough that this only a temporary problem for me which can and will be solved. The mother typically did not take the intermission decision well, seeing it as yet another End of the World (TM) scenario. Friends have reasoned with me though that this is something that I need to do for myself and I do agree with them, plus I was never able to take a gap year before starting uni because of parental pressures. I have been studying for 15 years now so I deserve my first extended break more than ever! =)

So as of late, I have been mostly working on the server to keep myself motivated while gradually pushing myself into the neglected hobbies again, namely electronics. I think I might post one or two of the server related things in the hope of saving others time Googling along with the much postponed events that I had with Electra (see the first blog post).

Speaking of things which need to be done, I also needed to get around to taking photos of the immediate bushfire affected areas. It's quite a surreal experience to walk amongst blackened trees as far as the eye can see.

Finally, Blackmane has recently done an absolutely wonderful piece of dragony me which can be viewed by [clicking here]. It was intended to be a 'simple' icon but the amount of work that has been put into this piece is just staggering. No amount of praise could do it proper justice ^.=.^ *coughs* There's also a new sub-album in that one for those who want to investigate >.=.>

It seems that for now my home is officially safe due to those north-easterly winds while the Bunyip fires themselves have subsided, after having consumed 24,500 hectares already. This means that as of 2:45 PM, the urgent threat message no longer applies to all the surrounding towns which is wonderful news ^.=.^ From what I understand, two nearby towns have sustained damage but the actual number would almost definitely be higher. It's difficult trying to ascertain what is exactly going on due to the lack of information available on the internet. The rail lines and main freeway to/from Melbourne continue to be blocked as well, probably due to the danger which is still posed from the fire and the fact that they haven't been able to investigate any damage sustained by the rail lines yet.

Unfortunately, there are still many more wildfires burning throughout the state of Victoria. There is a large firestorm north of Melbourne that is 115,000 hectares in size as the result of separate fires linking up together, and another to the north-east that is 93,000 hectares in size. A total of 35 people have already been confirmed dead with 12 of these in just a single town, primarily because of how fast these fires can move. At least two towns have been reduced to almost nothing (Marysville and Kinglake) while many more are burning and being evacuated as I write this. There is also a 40,000 hectare wildfire burning in the Latrobe Valley near where my university campus is located and there are worries that it may impact on the operation of nearby power plants which supply most of Victoria's electricity.

The Federal Government is apparently bringing in the army to help bolster the heavily fatigued firefighters who are doing a fantastic job, whom can also provide much needed large equipment like bulldozers which can help with containment lines. I want to send out my enormous thanks to them all for their wonderful efforts as so many people are losing their livelihoods and homes in these tragic events.

EDIT: I decided to attach a map of Victoria which shows the locations of all the fires as of 5:00 PM. The latest updates can be seen by [clicking here].

Update (5:30 PM): It has been confirmed that 65 people are now dead which has surpassed the Ash Wednesday death toll of 47 for Victoria. At least 640 homes have been destroyed too.

Update (9:00 PM): The confirmed death toll is now at a total of 76 people with most deaths occurring north and north-east of Melbourne. The firestorm to the north which is named the Kinglake complex, according to The Age, is now at least 80 kilometers (or did they mean 8 kilometers?) wide and 220,000 hectares in size after several fires merged. I'm not sure what kind of fuzzy math they are using if it's the former so I'll just assume that it's a bloody big fire front ;) The one to the north-east that is the Murrindindi blaze has merged with the Kilmore fires, where it is now approximately 100,000 hectares in size.

Update (10:00 PM): I only recently noticed that the V/Line rail service between Melbourne and Traralgon did in fact resume service from mid-day onwards. There are eight partial road closures along the main freeway to/from Melbourne to limit access to the fire-affected area in the north, but other than those exceptions it is open.