[Keeker]

Hope you feel better soon Keeks. Try some hardcore onion tea - I know it is vile but it does work. And rub some goose fat on your chest before bed. I'd offer to do this for you but I suspect you would knock my head off, even in you lurgified state.

Had some unawesome news of my own today, but not able to share right now. Not trying to be cryptic. Just not facing it let alone sharing right now.

Thanks for the wishes Billy ... as it happens I have got a SECOND cold just started overnight on top of the existing one. Different virus and symptoms, still not fun. At least the cough has subsided a bit though.

Sorry to hear you have woes of your own. Hope all turns out well in due course.

Hope you feel better soon Keeks. Try some hardcore onion tea - I know it is vile but it does work. And rub some goose fat on your chest before bed. I'd offer to do this for you but I suspect you would knock my head off, even in you lurgified state.

Had some unawesome news of my own today, but not able to share right now. Not trying to be cryptic. Just not facing it let alone sharing right now.

Thanks for the wishes Billy ... as it happens I have got a SECOND cold just started overnight on top of the existing one. Different virus and symptoms, still not fun. At least the cough has subsided a bit though.

Sorry to hear you have woes of your own. Hope all turns out well in due course.

Hope things pick up for the two of ye soon. If not at least it's Paddy's Day next week so you can just get blind drunk.

Grumpy old man complaint - the fucking price of petrol is gone mad. I spotted that it's €1.52 per litre here now in most places along my drive home. It's essentially doubled in about a year and a half. Mental.

Massive Earthquake hits Japan

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... tml?hpt=T1

I'm thinking about djskrimp right now. Anyone know where he's at over there?

[Octillus]

Scaaaaaryyyyyyy.


Lots of tectonic activity these days.

Stoney said on facebook he's alright. Hopefully it'll stay that way.. It's scary looking stuff.

The devastation in Japan. Sigh. Lots of devastation around the world these days.

[Keeker]

Massive Earthquake hits Japan

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... tml?hpt=T1

I'm thinking about djskrimp right now. Anyone know where he's at over there?

Yeah, he's okay. He has no electricity or heat at his house but can communicate via Facebook occasionally from his work. They've not to drink the water either.

My thoughts and best wishes are for those who are suffering and those still finding hope in Japan.
Big love.

http://news.nationalpost.com/photo_gall ... -on-japan/

It's absolutely astonishing devastation... That wave height indicator thing is particularly harrowing. By the sounds of it though the Japanese are incredible at dealing with these sorts of things so I hope things work out as well as they can in a situation like this...

[Octillus]

Honestly words to not express. It hurts sitting in an office where people are just gabbing about the iPad 2 all day when real shit is going on.

The harbor in my hometown actually got pretty messed up by the tsunami. They're saying around a couple million in damages, and 4 people were swept away, though only one person is still missing.

I didn't really want to talk about this because it seems petty compared to what's going on, and I don't presume to even begin to compare to any of the toll or devastation, but I had a bit of a scare this morning.

I walk to work every day on this two-mile stretch around a lagoon, with the coastal highway of the bay side of San Francisco on the other side of the road. It's absolutely beautiful and the best way to start the morning in the world. You see all kinds of marsh birds and rabbits and if you're lucky, a few hawks. So, I listen to music and rock all the way to where I work, an office building in a very lovely office park on the bay.

Anyhow, about one mile down the walk, I get an urgent call from my mom who is frantically telling me that I'm walking in a Tsunami warning zone minutes before it's supposed to hit the coast. Mind you, I have no way of verifying this, and I am smack-dab in the middle of nowhere basically. Now, I figure on my left side there's an extremely busy highway, and on my right, a still body of water. Basically, I feel like I'd be okay, but I have this moment of reflection and decide that my only course of action is to move a bit more urgently to work, because well, you never know.

I get to Sierra Point (the office park), and it's just basically high tide with a fast current. I feel like such a jackass. I laugh a little bit, I cry a little bit

Now, I understand why she was frantic, because Santa Cruz did actually get pretty messed up by the aftermath of the Japanese quake, but I feel like a jackass for having this rush of self-importance in the wake of a real tragedy.

And what do I do when I get here? I talk about Dragon Age, and the iPad and a bunch of shit without meaning.

Sigh. This office is making me go a little stir crazy today.

It seems inevitable that the damaged nuclear core will melt.

It seems inevitable that the damaged nuclear core will melt.

That would be such a disaster. The people there, the world...recovering from that...it's almost too much to think about. So scary.

And Octillus - don't feel like a jackass. Nothing like a tragedy/disaster to snap you into real time and force you to stare mortality straight in the face.

[EphelDuath666]

I too hope that anyone who is a member of this forum and lives in a Japan or has loved ones in Japan is safe and sound. Same goes for anyone else in Japan of course. I'm glad Stoney is OK. Man, this is some scary stuff. Just horrible, horrible stuff. Nature surely has gone bonkers lately. Just as people have recovered someone from a huge natural disaster, the next one happens somewhere else. It's crazy.

[Octillus]

There is some slightly better news in regards to the reactor, apparently they've been able to cool it down by just dumping massive amounts of sea water onto the reactor. Sadly, despite this, 3 people have suffered radiation related illness and others were injured from the explosion, but the overall outlook on the reactor, at least, is a localized accident and not a Chernobyl-type disaster.

Edit: Well... it looks like it's getting a bit worse as time goes on.

Man... what a horrible situation.

[JuZ]

Really glad to hear Stoney is ok.

What a horrible situation. I've never seen anything like that aerial footage of the tsunami destroying everything in its path. Watching those cars and trucks with nowhere to go, just getting swept away... not ashamed to say I teared up. Must be so terrifying.

Apparently the island of Honshu moved 8 feet eastward.

10,000 people unaccounted for in Minamisanriku. Looking at the footage, there's just about nothing left. Only the hospital... everything else is either gone or buried.

This is just the definition of UN-awesome.