Earthquakes and server changes

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The past week and a half was kinda hectic for me...lots of work to do. Perhaps the most eventful part of the week was the earthquake in Seattle that measured about 6.8 on the Richter scale. You could feel the quake in Vancouver, although there wasn't any damage or injuries here, like in Seattle. I was sitting at home, listening to my Massive Attack's "Blue Lines" CD when all of a sudden, the house started to move. Literally.

At first, I thought the bass was on a little strong, but I quickly remembered that my subwoofer isn't that powerful. For the next second, I dismissed the shaking as merely a large train passing by. As the shaking continued and I finally realized it was an earthquake.

My brain quickly reacted: "Hmm...maybe this is the 'BIG' one...better hit the deck and get under the table or something." For years, scientists have been warning residents of Vancouver and Seattle that we are due for a huge earthquake--somewhere in the 8.0+ Richter scale range. They have told us that in the event of an earthquake, the safest thing to do is to stand in a doorway or get under a desk. The desk provides shelter from falling objects, while the flex of a doorframe would also provide some protection.

Supposedly.

My body, on the other hand, had other plans: "Get under the desk? Hmm...why bother? This chair is pretty damn comfy..."

By the time my body was convinced to move to a safer place, the shaking had already stopped. It was reassuring to know that my survival instincts are blindingly quick.

Sigh.

Actually, now that I think of it, in the event of a 8.0+ earthquake, I would probably get squashed by my desk. My computer desk already has 300 pounds of equipment on it--I'm quite sure it would break from stress and collapse on top of my body.

I walked outside, to query my mother: "Hey mom! Did you just feel that? I think that was an earthquake." She responded nonchanlantly: "Huh? An earthquake? Where?" Obviously she didn't feel it...

Anyway the electricity in my neighbourhood went out, while my phone lines went dead for about 20 minutes. Surprisingly my net connection was still alive... Nothing was damaged in my house, so all in all, I can say that I survived the first quake of the new millenium.

In other news, I switched web-servers about four days ago. I had signed a contract with my previous webhost for 100 MBs of space, but recently they changed the policy to only 50 MBs of space. I thought that was a little small, so I decided to change my web-host. My new host allows me to store up to 200 MBs of files, and seems a tad bit quicker than my previous host. My site went offline for a couple days while I was switching and copying files over to the new site.

Anyway 'nuff writing for today. Better get back to my other work...

Posted by Dave at March 08, 2001 11:07 PM