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First of all, Happy Halloween, I'm staying inside. San Francisco is going to be a bit sketchy tonight with the Castro shutdown and all. For those of you that never made it there while the parties were happening, you missed little. In recent years, it's just gangbanger thugs running around drunk and causing problems, like shooting nine people last year. It's actually a good thing to be shutting it down I think. That party (and most others) have seen their good times die due to the current trends in culture.       But on an unrelated note that's actually much more important, we have a whopping good earthquake here yesterday. The effects of the 5.6 were much more pronounced 50 miles away at the epicenter, but as we were sitting in bed chatting about this and that, everything started to do that swirly bit that happens when an earthquake hits. A lot of people don't realize this and they think that an earthquake is this up and down jarring motion you see on when these things are in films or recorded. In reality that look is the cameraman shaking the camera. To know what a real earthquake is like, try getting out of a waterbed when you're drunk. If you're saying, "Yes, but I did that last Friday night and it really didn't feel like an earthquake", try it again, but without the tequila shots.       Thankfully, this caused little damage to us here, as we build for these things. It was however a little bit of a wakeup call. This was the strongest trembler we've had since the big 1989 earthquake. For those who have gotten complacent, the Red Cross has been promoting a serious "Be Prepared" campaign to get people to remember that we do indeed live on top of live earth, which some builders still refuse to acknowledge.

Man, it seems when we're not dealing with screwy weather lately, we're getting hit with earthquakes. We've had two decent-sized trembles in the last week alone and then there was the slew of quakes we had at the end of last December. Obviously none of this has been life threatening, but it is still a bit unnerving. The worst part being when they wake you up out of a dead sleep, or if you're like me and have the same instinct as dogs and cats, you wake up about five seconds before it hits so that you're completely awake and can't just brush it off as a bad dream. Fun.       While we obviously can't predict when these happen, we do have a wonderful site where you can see what happened. As you'll notice, they have maps for quake prone Los Angeles as well. Fun!       While that shows what happens, what is an actual quake like? Well, lemme tell you. First there's this boom that usually hits which you might mistake for a big truck going by outside. But then there's this wavy kind of swirling around that happens and you just sit there hoping it will stop soon and that this isn't The Big One. Of course, I'm not usually too worried, I just go for my bed. Bed? Yes, bed. You see, doorways are great and all that, but they're still part of the building that could possible crumble (mine was actually reinforced seismically about ten years ago.) My bed is something like a boat or maybe aeven an Arc if I felt like positing a delusion of grandeur. I hand built it from raw two by sixes, using one by threes for the crossmembers and reinforced with two by fours across those. I just plan to ride down on it and my mattress to safety and then have a nice place to sleep when we're all naturally homeless after said Big One.       And just in case you were wondering, my Bed Project was a reactionary bit to seeing this piece of IKEA junk and thinking, yes, I can build it stronger, better, and cheaper. I forgot to think heavier as well since it weighs in at about 250 pounds. Still, you ain't riding IKEA to safety when all is said and done.