Today, something of interest happened. The most interesting thing was that it was practically right under my nose, and I didn't notice at all.

The event in particular occurred around 10:09 am, Pacific Time. It was something caused by the Earth. By the tectonic plates beneath the Earth. The friction between two of them, which happened to be CONVENIENTLY located in California, must have built up again, because the event I am speaking of is an earthquake. Find more information about it here.

I didn't feel the earthquake, so I didn't hear about it until the afternoon, when I called my mother.
Mom: Did you feel the earthquake?
Me: No, when was it?
Mom: Around 10:09.
Me: Hmm...I didn't feel anything.
Mom: Really? But it was pretty close by. We had to evacuate the building.

When my parents came home, I double-checked with my dad. For him it was even worse since his company building is even closer to the earthquake's epicenter. My mother found it surprising that I didn't feel a thing. Someone she knows who lives in the neighboring town felt the earthquake (then again, that town is a bit closer to the epicenter than mine).

I guess we were safe from the earthquakes. Either we were far enough away, or the design of the classrooms is quite sturdy. At the time, I was in one of the "portable" classrooms (although I believe it can be moved around, and it looks kind of boxlike and the ceiling isn't as high nor are the windows as large as a "built into the ground" classroom) and I heard once that portables are more earthquake safe.

But then, if the other students had felt the earthquake, wouldn't they have mentioned it when talking at brunch or lunch? Perhaps it wasn't felt at all? Maybe it's not too bad to live where I do. (Though it is still certainly within the danger zone if an earthquake is in a different place. I mean, I was in an earthquake in late October - the day before Halloween or something close like that - a few years ago, and I definitely felt that one. But it had a slightly higher magnitude) But I still always feel like it's dangerous living in California, since in the movie 2012, the first place to go was California.

Some places are worse off when it comes to natural disasters, though. I keep email correspondence with an old friend of mine who moved to Taiwan years back. She said that not all that long ago they had a huge earthquake, but their building was fine, as buildings are designed to be earthquake-proof, even apartment buildings, which can reach high heights. There are also typhoons in Taiwan. Sounds like a pretty wild place; I guess the Earth's pretty excitable over there. I don't really understand why one of my friends says I should visit Taiwan sometime if it's so dangerous and it's pretty polluted. I don't even know where I would go there, besides Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world (is it still?). But if you know someplace cool to visit in Taiwan, let me know.

I've also wondered whether I should visit Korea. What I mean by Korea is South Korea, since I'm not sure whether North Korea is an ideal place to visit. Anyhow, though, I only know of one place in Korea, and that's the capital, Seoul. I'm afraid I'm not as well-versed in the world as I had previously thought.

Luckily, I had some good loot this year from Christmas. XD Although I am Santa, I have elves who give me gifts. One of the things was a world atlas, which is something I wanted (I already had one, but it was a thin one with not much information that I ordered through the "book orders"). If I were retired already, then I could spend more time looking at it...Sigh...

Ah, before I end this post, I wonder if you have noticed the new blog layout, which I put up just yesterday. (If you are new to visiting this blog, then you might not have known). I've made a few changes to the coding, because the original text size was rather small, which bothered me... And the layout is aligned to the right, so if you expand your screen it will still stick to the right of the Internet window. I hope that doesn't trouble you. I thought I'd try a different color this time.

Labels: 2012, atlas, black, blog, building, california, catalog, classroom, earthquake, font size, layout, location, natural disaster, portable, taipei 101, taiwan, typhoon, world

I just realized that I had made a mistake in the previous blog post, " ' Tis the Season to be Jolly ". Though I'd submitted the Monday cooking recipe as Baguette Costrini, it is actually Mozzarella Costrini. Pardon the error. (Did anyone notice on their own?)

Today I got distracted from my math homework and ended up browsing a few of the online catalogs of local libraries. What I found funny was that some manga books which were copyrighted back around 2001 were only just bought, in 2009. I guess the library isn't reliable when it comes to buying books as they come out. Maybe because it's cheaper to buy a book once it's old?

Then I took a look at my hold requests. I requested a lot of books online. Two of them are ready - one is Full Moon o Sagashite (a manga by Arina Tanemura) - and the other is Inkdeath, a book in the "Ink" serious written by Cornelia Funke. It turns out I requested that back in December 2008, and it is only just ready, even though there are probably many copies of the book. Whew.

I was afraid we were going to run the mile today in PE class, but it turns out it was postponed because the track is still muddy. We are instead running tomorrow. I don't know whether to be relieved or freaked out. I guess it is a mixture of the two.

I'd heard strange rumors from other people in Village I about the video we are watching in science class. Someone said that all of a sudden, in the video, a girl wearing a swim suit runs out of nowhere onto the screen. I kept my eyes open for that, since I wanted to know if it was true, but seeing as our class is behind on watching the video, we didn't see that part.

Which then reminds me, it seems like we always watch old-timey videos in class. I think we have a DVD player but don't use it all that much. Mr. Blair's videos, well, you can tell they're old since the image is just slightly fuzzy and it seems awfully cheesy. I prefer Discovery/History/National Geographic Channel documentaries since they have good imagery. And then Mr. Brown's videos also look like that, except for a few which seem slightly more modern. I guess this means they have been teaching for quite a while.

Mr. Blair has a collection of Olmec heads. Apparently he used to make his kids make a miniature one as a project. He opened his whiteboard/cabinet thing and showed us. One of them is green and is sitting on a fake toilet (I don't really understand it, but whatever) and another one is white and made out of soap. Mr. Blair thinks we ought to bury it in our backyards, and when we move out of Cupertino, one of two scenarios may happen.
1) Wake up in the morning and suddenly remember Olmec head. Drive all the way back to Cupertino, to the old house, and sneak into the backyard to dig it up.
2) New resident of house wants to do some landscaping and digs up the Olmec head. Thinks it is a rare artifact when it is actually just a kid's abandoned homework.

By the way, here is a picture of an Olmec head. (It is not the same as the Moai Statues of Easter Island) They are believed to be portraits of Mayan rulers. They can be over 8 feet tall and weigh 10 tons. If you haven't learned about the Mayans yet in 7th grade, if you have the same textbook, you may eventually read about it.

Labels: books, catalog, error, full moon o sagashite, homework, inkdeath, library, olmec head, PE class, videos

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