In which she does something pretty cool
Sep. 25th, 2010 10:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zeborahSo my bad day yesterday didn't get overly better. I was finally home relaxing and tinkering with my job application when we got a 4.4, which, pff, is nothing. But I had a whim to check out Twitter, and first thing I saw was someone say the North Island had had a big one.
If the North Island had a big one that felt like a 4.4 here, that'd be a *big* one. Probably an 8 or something; almost certainly involving dead people. So I was desperately refreshing Twitter, kicking Geonet, and trying to make my radio give me something other than static or pop music, mentally screaming, "TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!"
Then someone on Twitter pointed to a map which showed green squares (magnitude ~5) on the east coasts both of the North and South Islands. Which was good (no dead people!) but also a bit worrying: with 5s sensed that spread out, did that mean there'd been a big one offshore instead? because if so, did we now have to worry about a tsunami?
And then finally we got the details from Geonet which was that there'd been a 5.6 in the North Island and three minutes later an unconnected 4.4 in Darfield.
At which, in relief, I broke into mild hysterics. And after I got my breathing back under control I decided that I was going to watch Yes, Prime Minister until I fell asleep, which I did.
So this morning I felt much better. Until there was a 4.3 which sent Boots scampering and proved my own equilibrium wasn't exactly stable. And then a market researcher guy phoned and I nearly sent him packing until he explained he was phoning on behalf of Civil Defence and other people and his survey was about the earthquake, which seemed worth while, so there I was saying I "strongly agree" that I'm coping well, while crying and trying not to sound like I'm crying, because when one cries people always get the wrong idea.
So then I spent the rest of the day watching Yes, Prime Minister. Oh, and sitting on the phone waiting to report to my ISP that I've lost access to some websites, including LiveJournal. And you know my pet hate? When they tell you you're going to have to wait 17 minutes, and then they play some pretty music, except every two minutes they cut into the middle of the pretty song to apologise for the wait or - as in this case - tell you to turn your modem off and on again. Every two minutes. In case you didn't hear them the first time I guess? This is a pet hate of mine anyway, but the last day or two in particular I've gotten very irritable, so this was one of many things which has been triggering my "GRR RAGE!" impulse. However I fortunately squashed it, and talked to the nice call centre person, and did some traceroute stuff for him, and several hours later the ISP finally fixed it.
Around 5:30 I went around to my parents' place and tried to work on my job application some more. I did get a bit further. Then I heard an earthquake coming, which was a novelty: first I heard it shaking the living room, and then it shook the bedroom where I was with my sister. Very exciting. Then fifteen minutes later it did it again, at which I said ,"For goodness' sake!" Then another ten minutes later we got another one which actually set things swaying, and my sister said, "Seriously?"
About then Mum called us for dinner, so we went out, and got a fourth one and then a weak fifth one. But the first four had seemed like mid-4s (I reckoned the third as 4.6) so we were startled when Geonet finally told us they ranged 3.8 - 4.1. Until we looked up the coordinates and found that the epicentres had all been in Christchurch, and that third one had been three or four blocks away.
(One of the news channels tweeted asking for the experience of people who'd been at the epicentre. I emailed and told them that it'd definitely felt bigger than the 4.0s we've been getting out of Darfield but other than that it felt pretty much like an earthquake. I do admire their determination to try and eke some kind of news value out of what's being referred to as JAFA (just another fecking aftershock). They politely replied thanks and take care.)
Anyway I'm trying not to think too hard about the fact that no-one knew there was a fault right under Christchurch, and instead concentrate on the fact that they were piddly little 4s.
We had dinner with fish fingers, after having finished which Mum asked if we wanted custard. (Am I allowed to do this with grammar? I think I ought to be allowed, not just because allowances must be made for my state of brain-friedness but also because it seems to me an awesome sentence structure with all sorts of potential. But is it normally allowable? I find it hard to judge things at the moment.) My sister and I both expressed what a pity it was that we no longer had fish fingers to eat the custard with. We had it with ice cream instead but I do intend to try the experiment sometime because I think little Amelia Pond was way too judgemental on the matter.
Anyway and then I took my bus, which drove me home right over the epicentre of that 4.0. Is this or is this not pretty cool? I bet none of you has done anything this cool today!
If the North Island had a big one that felt like a 4.4 here, that'd be a *big* one. Probably an 8 or something; almost certainly involving dead people. So I was desperately refreshing Twitter, kicking Geonet, and trying to make my radio give me something other than static or pop music, mentally screaming, "TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON!"
Then someone on Twitter pointed to a map which showed green squares (magnitude ~5) on the east coasts both of the North and South Islands. Which was good (no dead people!) but also a bit worrying: with 5s sensed that spread out, did that mean there'd been a big one offshore instead? because if so, did we now have to worry about a tsunami?
And then finally we got the details from Geonet which was that there'd been a 5.6 in the North Island and three minutes later an unconnected 4.4 in Darfield.
At which, in relief, I broke into mild hysterics. And after I got my breathing back under control I decided that I was going to watch Yes, Prime Minister until I fell asleep, which I did.
So this morning I felt much better. Until there was a 4.3 which sent Boots scampering and proved my own equilibrium wasn't exactly stable. And then a market researcher guy phoned and I nearly sent him packing until he explained he was phoning on behalf of Civil Defence and other people and his survey was about the earthquake, which seemed worth while, so there I was saying I "strongly agree" that I'm coping well, while crying and trying not to sound like I'm crying, because when one cries people always get the wrong idea.
So then I spent the rest of the day watching Yes, Prime Minister. Oh, and sitting on the phone waiting to report to my ISP that I've lost access to some websites, including LiveJournal. And you know my pet hate? When they tell you you're going to have to wait 17 minutes, and then they play some pretty music, except every two minutes they cut into the middle of the pretty song to apologise for the wait or - as in this case - tell you to turn your modem off and on again. Every two minutes. In case you didn't hear them the first time I guess? This is a pet hate of mine anyway, but the last day or two in particular I've gotten very irritable, so this was one of many things which has been triggering my "GRR RAGE!" impulse. However I fortunately squashed it, and talked to the nice call centre person, and did some traceroute stuff for him, and several hours later the ISP finally fixed it.
Around 5:30 I went around to my parents' place and tried to work on my job application some more. I did get a bit further. Then I heard an earthquake coming, which was a novelty: first I heard it shaking the living room, and then it shook the bedroom where I was with my sister. Very exciting. Then fifteen minutes later it did it again, at which I said ,"For goodness' sake!" Then another ten minutes later we got another one which actually set things swaying, and my sister said, "Seriously?"
About then Mum called us for dinner, so we went out, and got a fourth one and then a weak fifth one. But the first four had seemed like mid-4s (I reckoned the third as 4.6) so we were startled when Geonet finally told us they ranged 3.8 - 4.1. Until we looked up the coordinates and found that the epicentres had all been in Christchurch, and that third one had been three or four blocks away.
(One of the news channels tweeted asking for the experience of people who'd been at the epicentre. I emailed and told them that it'd definitely felt bigger than the 4.0s we've been getting out of Darfield but other than that it felt pretty much like an earthquake. I do admire their determination to try and eke some kind of news value out of what's being referred to as JAFA (just another fecking aftershock). They politely replied thanks and take care.)
Anyway I'm trying not to think too hard about the fact that no-one knew there was a fault right under Christchurch, and instead concentrate on the fact that they were piddly little 4s.
We had dinner with fish fingers, after having finished which Mum asked if we wanted custard. (Am I allowed to do this with grammar? I think I ought to be allowed, not just because allowances must be made for my state of brain-friedness but also because it seems to me an awesome sentence structure with all sorts of potential. But is it normally allowable? I find it hard to judge things at the moment.) My sister and I both expressed what a pity it was that we no longer had fish fingers to eat the custard with. We had it with ice cream instead but I do intend to try the experiment sometime because I think little Amelia Pond was way too judgemental on the matter.
Anyway and then I took my bus, which drove me home right over the epicentre of that 4.0. Is this or is this not pretty cool? I bet none of you has done anything this cool today!
