Safe But Shaken In Christchurch

For those of you who know I am now living in Christchurch, my family and I are safe and fine after the 6.3 quake yesterday afternoon. 

My father was trapped in one of the collapsed buildings (Pyne Gould), but was thankfully rescued after an hour with only cuts and bruises.  He’s hobbling around like an old man today!

The Pyne Gould Building, my father was in the top right hand corner.

I went around to my sister’s place and we spent the afternoon outside, as the aftershocks were frequent and strong.  Phones weren’t working properly so for several hours we only knew Dad was safe because my aunt had seen him climbing out the window on the TV.

I’m house-sitting for a friend and not working yet so I was at home.  I tried to get to a doorway but fell over and couldn’t stand up.  The dresser beside me was swaying and I put up a hand to catch it, but it fell on top of me.  It didn’t hurt as it’s not heavy but I had trouble lifting it off me as the centre of gravity was all wrong.  Only my knees are hurt,  skinned from the carpet and bruised and swollen.  Funny how much skinned knees hurt, I will be more sympathetic to my niece in future!

My place has power, phone (and surprisingly, internet) so my Nana and her dog are here with me.  Looking outside (and I’m not far from the CBD) it doesn’t look as bad as you see on the TV, but driving to pick Nana up this morning, there was a lot of liquidifaction and cracks in the roads, I saw one car that was half inside one crack. (Most of the cracks are small but some of the bridges are unsafe)  It is a very strange and surreal feeling.

No-one got more than two hours sleep last night, there were lots of aftershocks.  Still some today but not as frequent or as strong.

My thoughts are with the families and friends waiting to know if someone is safe and those who have lost someone.

Jokes

How did the violin greet the guitar?
Cello!

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart?

Consciousness: That annoying time between naps.

Feathers are light.
The sun gives off light.
Therefore, the sun gives off feathers.

Sculptures From Hard Drives

See more sculptures here

Frozen Grand Central Station

From Improv Everywhere, the people who brought you Surprise Wedding Reception, comes another piece of public performance art.  This time they’re freezing in place in New York’s Grand Central Station.

Updated About Page

I’ve just updated my About page, so if you want to know more about this blog and/or the person who posts all this stuff, take a look.

Men of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

Kelley Armstrong has written nine books in her Women of the Otherworld series, beginning with Bitten, the tale of Elena, the only female werewolf in the world.   The short stories and novellas in Men of the Otherworld focus on the male werewolves.

Infusion is the tale of the conception and birth of Jeremy, the current alpha, and explains a lot about his relationship with his father.

Savage is about Clay, Elena’s lover.  He was bitten and turned into a werewolf as a child and was living feral in a swamp when Jeremy rescued him.  Acsension is about the fight for pack alpha between Jeremy and his father.  These two novellas give a lot of background into the complex pack politics and increased my understanding of both Clay and Jeremy’s personalities.  (I want to go back and reread Bitten with my new insights)

Kitsunegari finally gives some answers to Jeremy’s mysterious heritage.

All the stories except Kitsunegari were previously available as free fiction on Kelley Armstrong’s website.  From the Introduction:

All of my proceeds from these volumes are going to World Literacy of Canada… The stories were originally intended as a gift to readers and now they’ll be “regifted” to a worthy cause.

A second volume, Tales of the Otherworld, will be published in 2010.

Christmas on Chiron Beta Prime

Merry Christmas!
I hope you are having a wonderful day (and if you’re not, then I hope that your day gets better.)
Here’s a Christmas song that should put a smile on your face : )
Chiron Beta Prime

It looks like I’m posting a day early, but I’m in Australia, we get Christmas first!  (Well, not really first, that would be New Zealand, but we get Christmas second sounds silly.)

Still Learning…

I’m still finding my way around WordPress, and slowly learning how to do what I want to do. With my time off at Christmas (2 four day weekends) I should have plenty of time to figure it all out – maybe!

Hello world!

I have just started this blog.  It will be a learning curve to getting this set up the way I’d like and it may even turn out to be a passing fancy.  Hopefully it will will stay fun and be a useful place to collect all the interesting stuff I find on the web in one place.