Category: News

the earth moved for us

Wednesday, 13 August, 2008 at 8:51 pm

I know I am about two weeks late in posting this, but at least I am posting?

All right, August 29 there was an earthquake somewhere around Chino Hills? 5.4, according to the USGS page on the quake. I’d heard numbers from 5.8 to 5.2, but I guess it’s settled down to 5.4 finally. Felt all the way to southern San Diego county (because it’s sandy there).

Where was I? With my family and Noelle’s family (sans her dad) in Anaheim, standing outside our hotel, just starting our 3-day vacation to Disneyland. Bwahahar!

Yes, we live in Southern California, what the heck do we need three days at Disneyland for? Well my brother, the one who recently has really fallen in love with Disney, never really went to Disneyland when he was a kid. Whereas I went quite often with my Girl Scout troop with our cookie sales money, and thusly got sick of it. (Mum said that it was much more crowded in the 90s, aka the Eisner years.) But now that my brother is working full-time, he has money to drag us all to Disneyland. *grin*

We didn’t just go on most of the rides there, but we looked through stores, caught some shows, and just generally took in the Disney atmosphere.

But before we got to that, we experienced an earthquake! This was the first time for everyone (I think?) that we felt an earthquake while outside. We were standing on the sidewalk, just talking about I have no idea what, when I felt this weird boom underneath my feet.

For a second I thought we were standing on a metal plate over some electrical works or something. But no, it was solid concrete on solid ground next to solid asphalt on solid ground. I automatically asked, “What was that?” and then the ground started moving sideways. :o I put my hand on my dad’s shoulder because I thought I might fall over, or maybe it was just for security, haha.

My mom asked, “Is that an earthquake?” and my dad said yeah, look at the windows of the hotel rattling. Then we noticed some hotel guests on the first floor standing outside their room.

Then it was all over, and everyone talked about what they thought and blah blah blah. Hidek and my dad tried using their cell phones, but they didn’t work. :( Worked about an hour later though.

All in all, best ride of the day! (This entry is very long and Mythbusters is on in a short while anyway, so … hopefully I’ll write up our Disneyland trip. :x)

and L.A. goes on

Tuesday, 7 August, 2007 at 11:37 am

I can’t believe Hal Fishman is dead. I can’t even write a nicely worded post for him. He’s just … gone. A part of L.A. has died.

I remember when Larry McCormick died, but this … is so much worse. Hal was always on the news! (Er, during the weekdays … when he wasn’t on vacation.) I never watched anyone else regularly like I did with him. I’ve watched the news since … elementary school, the 90s.

Mum worries what the news will be like without him. :( He had such integrity, she said, and no one else has all his experience. (Yeah, don’t know many newscasters that have been around since the 1960s, they’re all in their 30s and 40s, maybe 50s, now.)

It may be lame, but I sort of want a DVD collection of all his commentaries. XD; He’s just a newscaster, not a celebrity, but I want to be able to watch him again. How can he not be here?? :(

eta@5:56pm: I found out from the KTLA Prime News Tuesday broadcast that Hal Fishman was in Germany when the wall went up in 1960, for KCOP. dood, I didn’t even recognize him in the footage! o.o

Bush and moral values

Thursday, 5 July, 2007 at 10:09 pm

When respondents were asked to pick the one issue that mattered most in choosing a president, “moral values” ranked first at 22 percent, surpassing the economy (20 percent), terrorism (19 percent) and Iraq (15 percent).

Above from an old article I posted here November 2004 (Election Reinforces U.S. Religious Divide).

Those assembled [at “impeachment headquarters”] cited various Bush actions or policies, including “lies that led the U.S. into war.”

They also said that Bush-Cheney policies precipitated torture, illegal spying on American citizens, and the curtailment of privacy and civil rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

The latest irritant was the president’s decision to commute the prison sentence of former Cheney aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, whom a jury convicted of obstructing justice.

From an article in the L.A. Times today (A Place to Push Impeachment). But of course what’s in the first and second paragraphs aren’t immoral, those actions were meant to protect good God-fearing Christians from heathen-induced suffering.

And the third paragraph? Who really knows what’s going on there? It doesn’t impact most of Americans’ daily life, so of course it’s of no consequence. Just like Nixon being pardoned didn’t hurt anyone in the 70s.

storm on Saturn

Saturday, 11 November, 2006 at 11:40 am

I thought this was interesting.

A colossal, swirling storm with a well-developed eye is churning at Saturn’s south pole, the first time a truly hurricane-like storm has been detected on a planet other than Earth, NASA images showed on Thursday.

Doesn’t a storm require an atmosphere? Does Saturn have that kind of atmosphere?

“I’m hoping that as we puzzle over it, it will become even more exciting as we start to connect the dots in our brains. But right now, the wheels are a little creaky,” [Michael] Flasar said. “We’re all arguing with each other about what it might or might not be.”

XD I wanna know too!

How long have we been watching the planets, anyway? The article never says. :( I mean, is this the first storm we’ve seen in 20 years, 50, or 100, or what?

(Full article in the “more” section.) Continue reading “storm on Saturn”

Kerry joke

Wednesday, 1 November, 2006 at 8:36 am

I don’t know about you, but I thought the original joke was pretty funny:

[John] Kerry’s office said … he had intended to say, “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush.”
—article

Too bad he messed it up.

But at least he apologized for the messed up part of it. (I read an article about an hour ago where he wouldn’t apologize.)

I’m running a bit too late to really write what I think about it. Plus I didn’t get enough sleep and my head is at that stage right before I might possibly get a headache if I make a wrong move.