The Earth Moved…

Around 5 am on Monday morning (6 August 2012) a shallow earthquake of magnitude 4.4 with the epicenter below Kattegatt occurred off the south-west coast of Sweden. It was felt in both Sweden and Denmark and woke up a lot of people.

Earthquakes with a magnitude 3 occur almost every year in Sweden but earthquakes like this approx. every 10 years. It’s said to have lasted about 15 seconds. No damage has been reported.

In a village on the coast south of Halmstad, people first thought that a freight train must be derailing near the community. Others report that their first thought was  that a heavy truck must be passing by just outside their home, or something like that.

Today (Tuesday) my local newspaper informs me that the quake was felt by some even as far inland as in and around this town.

At that time of morning, if I felt the earth moving a little while I was asleep or half-asleep in bed, I guess my brain would have interpreted it as just another a train passing… Living close to a railway, I’m used to heavy freight trains shaking the ground a little a few times a day (and night).

A reminder that in a global perspective, our little corner of the world is still, after all, rather quiet and secure.

Weekend Reflections: Upside Down

A reflection of the gable of a house in a puddle of melting ice. This photo was taken a week ago – a day of blue skies and with hope of spring in the air…

Since then we’ve had a relapse into winter, snowstorms alternating with rainstorm. For the fourth day in a row, wet snow is falling outside my windows as I write. I’ve not been out for three days. Having enough supplies at home, it seemed better to just stay in. Now the road is beginning to look more wet than icy again. On the other hand the stuff falling down from the sky just now is definitely frozen…

Let the photo also illustrate how quickly our world can be turned upside down – thinking of the terrible tsunami that hit Japan.

This morning through our local newspaper I found out that a Swedish family I know are living in Tokyo now. (Obviously I don’t know them all that well since I wasn’t even aware they were in Japan.) The newspaper had interviewed them via Skype. The mobile phones weren’t working but the internet was. They had left their home when they felt the quakes, but were able to go back after a few hours. Things had fallen down from the walls etc, but otherwise they were okay. One of them was at work when the quake occurred, but managed to get home. They were too high up to be hit by the tsunami.

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Visit James at Newtown Area Photo
for more Weekend Reflections

Sky Watch/News Watch Friday

Had to focus on the trees rather than the sky here just so that you’d see the snowfall… Not really the right time to moan about a bit of extra snow though, since I just heard about the tsunami hitting Japan.

This is the second time in… what? has it only been 2½ weeks?! … that I first learned about world news of this magnitude through a personal blog, rather than through media.

The quake happened around 7 am our time. I didn’t listen to the TV or radio in the morning, as often I just read my local newspaper (yesterday’s news) at breakfast. Around noon I learned about the tsunami in Japan - from a blogger in the Netherlands.

It’s hard to take in and I really cannot find the appropriate words. But it does make our own snowstorms over the last couple of days feel rather insignificant. Especially since I haven’t even had to go out but am perfectly warm and safe inside…

 

Macro View That Makes A Difference

“Birds view” from decorated window at the Textile Museum.

for Macro Monday at Lisa’s Chaos

 

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“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
~ William Jones ~

 

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William Jones who? The mathematician? The philologist? The anthropologist? Admiral or soldier? British, US or New Zealand politician? Man on the street? Blogger? Sorry. I have no idea!!! I just saw the quote somewhere – probably in the gadget in my sidebar – and added it in my notebook… Whoever the man was who said it… I like the double twist of the quote. One of those you can chew on for a good while. (Er? But? Hmm. Yes. Or?)

 

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My thoughts with this photo and quote go to New Zealand, to the people living in or otherwise affected by the earthquakes in Christchurch: May you be able to hold on and get ‘a new grip’ and once more rebuild your future, even if vision may seem blurry and confused right now. “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”

 

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If you did not already read my post from last Tuesday: Lace, Punch Cards and the World Wide Web, there are some related thoughts there. I refer you back instead of repeating them again.

 

One thing the news of the earthquake in NZ made me do was to ask myself if I know where blogging friends live. The answers vary between exact address (only a few) to not even being sure of the country. What’s more, on my Blogger dashboard list, it happens that I find myself staring at some title, unable to connect blog with blogger. (I suspect others may have the same problems with mine!) Comes from adding quite a few new ones lately that I’ve come across participating in various ‘memes’. 

 

So I spent some time this week on updating my ‘blog rolls’. One advantage of the sidebar gadgets (compared to the dashboard list) is that there I’m able to add a bit to the standard info; giving my memory a bit more to hold on to about who’s who.

 

One of the links I recently added goes to Fi at Four Paws and Whiskers in Christchurch, NZ. A blogger I’ve not been following on a regular basis, but yet familiar from the comment sections of other friends’ blogs. Familiar enough that I did remember her location; so when I heard of the earthquake I thought of her.

 

She has been been doing some really admirable reporting this past week, in the midst of chaos. A living example of acting as if what you do makes a difference. It does make a difference! I’d call some of her posts a “macro” view of the situation – focusing on detail in a way that gives a better understanding of the whole.