14 posts from July 2008

We had an earthquake today!  A 5.4 in Chino Hills!  Very exciting.  The last earthquake that we had that was any sort of deal was the Hector Mine quake in 1999.  I was still living at home, it was the middle of the night, (as big earthquakes tend to be) and I got to the kitchen just in time to watch all of the transformers blowing up down in the valley (I lived in the mountains at the time).

This one was odd because it was in the middle of the day while I was at work.  There have been super minor (feelable) earthquakes during the day, but they're pretty short and barely noticeable.  When this one happened, I knew right away what it was.  When it didn't stop, I went under my desk, thinking to myself, "this desk isn't sturdy; I might be crushed to death if this gets any worse."  And the shaking did get progressively worse.  It was a nice rolling motion though.

There was an incident two years ago where a desk fell on one of the cleaning crew people.  They're not secured at all. They're just kind of resting on two filing cabinets of sorts.  It's for ease of removal.

Anyhow, it let up after about 30 seconds, I came out, and realized how many people that I work with are not California natives and haven't been here long enough to know what an earthquake feels like.  They didn't really seem to know what to do, either.  It was cute.  It's been a long time since we've had a good shaker.  Good times!

Seriously, I'm glad it didn't cause any major damage or hurt anyone.  It makes it much more enjoyable that way.

It will be really easy for me to vote yes on this proposed initiative come November.

Walkscore.com recently ranked America's most walkable neighborhoods and cities. Where does your hometown land in the rankings? And how much do you actually find yourself walking instead of driving?

Where I live now has a ranking of 78 and a walkability score of 39.  Not very good compared to the rest of the greater Los Angeles region.  I'm not really sure why it's so low.  I feel that there are more walkable parts of Glendale than of Eagle Rock, which was ranked 29th, and got a score of 70.  There are parts of Eagle Rock that I would never want to walk, especially alone, especially at night.  But that could have something to do with the fact that I've been followed to my car there.   I like Eagle Rock; it's charming, and one of my favorite restaurants is located there, but it's not somewhere I've ever considered just walking around.

Downtown Glendale is actually quite pleasant to walk around, and if I'm going to see a movie, 9 times out of 10, unless it's a time or heat issue, I'll walk instead of drive.  Sure, there are busy streets, but there are contiguous sidewalks and plenty of pedestrian crossing areas. 

So I pretty much disagree with the rankings. 

So the weird, 1:00 -  3:00 AM things that what I'm guessing are ocular migraines are back.  I woke up, somewhat violently, with this horrible sensation of the left side of my sinuses exploding, and my left eye participating by having severe irritation, blurriness, and wateriness.  I got up, stumbled into the bathroom, rinsed my eyes with water, and blew my nose.  By this time, I realized that I've experienced this before.  I wondered at the time.  For whatever reason, I knew it was 3.  2:56.  So I was four minutes off.  I feel like I can set my watch by these things.  It's always on the hour.  

Show us the book you're reading right now.
Submitted by Strive2Be.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Christopher Moore

I Was Told There'd Be Cake

Sloane Crosley

I'm reading two books right now.  I need to hurry up and finish at least one of them because I'm annoyed at how long it's taking me to get through them.  I really like both of them so far.  I'm also in the middle of this one, but I've taken a break from it because it's very long and somewhat repetitive:

Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness

Jon Kabat-zinn

How do you travel to and from work - personal vehicle, bus, subway/train, pedal power? What does it cost you per week in gas or fares?
Submitted by Jan.

I really hate when the print is small and the vox buttons do nothing.  

Anyhow, I travel to work by rocket ship.  Or my 2003 Honda Civic SI.  It's almost like a rocket ship; it's a hatchback.  It requires about twenty bucks a week in gas.  As long as I don't go far from home or work, that is.  This weekend will probably push that total up a bit.  

This is a really boring entry.  Damn.  Sorry.

I used to commute really far, about 50 miles each way to and from work.  That was back when gas was under two dollars and I had a car with considerably better gas mileage.  I can't imagine doing that now.  And for those of you that do it, I have great empathy for you.  But seriously, move closer to work.  It'll save you in the long run in every area.

President Bush lifted an executive order banning offshore oil drilling on Monday. Do you think this is a good solution to the high prices Americans are paying for gasoline?

This is really just an excuse for me to get on my soap box about this.  I think it's a terrible, short-sighted idea.  It has been estimated that all of the known oil resources (which includes the areas opened up for drilling) in the United States makes up about 2% of the world's oil resources.  Guess how much of the world's oil the U.S. uses?  Around 25%. 

Or so I hear.

Any relief that we'd see at the pump wouldn't come for a good minute, and it certainly wouldn't be anything to write home about. 

How about we start figuring out what the hell we're going to do when the oil runs out instead of further damaging the environment we've already done a really good job fucking up?  Or at the least, finish conquering Iraq so all of the U.S.' big oil companies can have no bid contracts.

Mr. Bush is sure on a roll this month.  First the FISA bill, now this.  I wonder what kinds of other things he'll do in the remaining months of his administration...

I just had wine for the first time in 8 months.  Damn.  Wine apparently gives me a headache and makes me feel tired.  

I'm not sure how many people in the States here are aware, but the FISA bill was signed into law yesterday.  Forty five minutes later, the ACLU filed a suit to get it overturned.  So there's a bit of a silver lining there.

I'm depressed that it passed with an overwhelming majority, and I'm depressed that Senator Obama voted in favor of it, though I think I know why he did.  Now that we're in the general campaign, he doesn't want to come of as soft on terrorism.  It just sucks that the only thing that this so-called compromise really does is compromise the integrity of the Constitution. 

Now, if you''re of the belief that wiretapping helps to make us safer, I totally respect your right to believe that.  I think it's a tool that when used appropriately can be quite useful.  However, in this instance, I really feel that it stands to violate the Bill of Rights.

For more info on the ACLU action, here's the website:  http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/35942prs20080710.html

Have you ever broken a bone? If not, what's the worst injury you've sustained?

A broken heart.  *cries*

But seriously, I haven't really had any big injuries.  I sprained the shit out of my knee at the climbing gym in the summer of 2003, and I was on crutches for like, a month.  Of course, knees hold grudges, so it's still messed up.   A few months later, I was at the climbing gym again, and sustained a severe rope burn on the inside of my hand when I fucked up a belay and the rope ran about 5 feet through my hand.  2003 was a rough year for me and the climbing gym.  Just to add insult to injury, I also had an eye infection at the same time as the knee thing.  And a lot of confusion in my life.  Hell, 2003 was just a rough year all over.