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

This is apparently a phrase from the famous story The Three Little Pigs. (I may not have gotten it down exactly right.) I had a similar experience to this recently.

On Tuesday, where I live, there was some surprisingly stormy weather. It rained and poured until nighttime. I hadn't brought my umbrella, nor had I brought my raincoat, and so my not-so-waterproof jacket was my only protection. The rain started to become a hassle because my shoes weren't so waterproof either, and so my socks became soaked. It's a good thing that a teacher had her classroom open and I went indoors to eat my lunch.

Come fifth period, multiple kids were drenched from having to go through the rain to get to the classroom. The math classroom is a "portable", I think, since it has a ramp and the ceiling is not so high and such. And whenever someone stomps you can feel the room shake a little bit because it's not as steady as the "actual classrooms". (But schools still insist on having these "portable classrooms" for some reason) We were being punished for talking too much - for some reason, my math class has a lot of people, and so it is even louder - and we were not allowed to speak to each other. It was eerily quiet in the classroom, except for one sound...The sound of the wind. The wind was beating very hard on the classroom and it sounded like we would be blown in, like the Three Little Pigs' houses, but nope, it didn't happen. In fact, the teacher never even looked up. I guess not much can faze him.

PE was canceled that day because it was far too rainy. We were all hustled into the gym, which was muddy too (it being the last period of the day, and many shoes having already been in and out). We watched some Comcast Sportsnet videos, which were showing the "science behind sports". Apparently a golf ball can go farther if it is warm than if it is cold. So, couldn't you become better at hitting long distance by simply incubating your golf ball and then hitting it? (Though why you would incubate golf balls, instead of incubating chicken eggs like you should, is beyond me)

Does good handwriting matter a lot in life? My math teacher always stresses that we need to work at having neat handwriting. He said that sloppy handwriting is NOT a "style" of handwriting, and that teachers grade less harshly when you have good handwriting. "And don't go running to your parents saying how unfair it is! That's life! That's HUMAN NATURE!" he'd say. "If you have messy handwriting, then I have the urge to pick it apart for mistakes. I might overlook a mistake or be more lenient if you have good handwriting." I am going to try and work on mine. I think it is legible, but someone said I didn't "write like a girl". That's so sexist. Not all people write the same. I even hold my pencil differently. D: I started holding my pencil that way when I was young and I don't think someone corrected me, so now I'm stuck that way since I feel awkward if I hold pens and pencils the way almost everyone does.

Nowadays I sometimes draw things with pencil, then scan it, and color it in with the most basic of GIMP brushes (in other words, plain old circle brushes which come with GIMP when you download it). It's always so messy, though. In fact, I think my drawings might look better in black and white... o_O;; I've heard of something called Copic markers and I've been curious to see what they are. Does anyone have them, by any chance?

Labels: art, classroom, colors, copic, drawing, fantasy golf, gimp, handwriting, human nature, incubate, life, markers, pencil, portable, rain, storm, story, three little pigs, weather, windy

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