Have no fears. I am ok.

At 4:50AM, a large earthquake (8.0) hit off the coast of the island of Hokkaido. Guess where I am? You guessed it. Hokkaido. If you want to hear the news aspect of the earthquake... here's the CNN article on it.

So, what was I doing when the earthquake hit? It was 4:50AM. What do you think I was doing? I was sleeping. And as many of you know, I am a heavy sleeper. This is coming from a guy who slept through his roommate dressing him up in a ridiculous costume made up of a surgeon's mask and sunglasses among other things. Well, surprise surprise, I woke up this time around to the earthquake.

My first thought? "Ehh, I ride this one out." Then I started hearing Mrs. Weaver, my 1st grade teacher saying, "If you feel an earthquake, duck and cover." So, I thought about it. Should I duck and cover? Should I run over to the sturdy table and curl up like a sow bug? Mind you, I'm thinking while the ground is shaking. I'm still thinking... and about 10 seconds pass.

By this time, I just thought, "Ehh, the earthquake can't last much longer. It's not worth the effort to get out of bed." But sure enough, it kept going, and I kept waiting. I was playing chicken with an earthquake. And I won. Yeah. Stupid? Yeah.

So now, in the aftermath, I'm living in an official tsunami warning area. That's pretty cool. Oh yeah, and there's an ever present volcano eruption warning in this area too. When I first moved in, I got a poster with a map of the area and its nearby volcano saying, "Be careful if you live within the colored area on the map." The colored area encircled the volcano and its surroundings. Sure enough, there was my neighborhood colored in yellow. At least I'm out of range from lava flow. That would not be cool.

In related news, go check out BET's blog about his conquests over Hurricane Isabel.