Wait, what? You don't know everything? What the hell... I've been mislead this whole time...

For me, knowing things is like a security blanket. The more I know about something, the safer I feel. This is why grad school was a very depressing time...yeah, I was learning more, but I was also learning how much I didn't know and would likely never know--scarey :eek:.... So, while I would like to understand the entire workings of the universe down to what goes on in the human brain and the results of the interplay of human consciouses, and so on...I begrudgingly accept that it may not be possible.

But maybe there are other ways of "knowing" than hunting down facts. Ever try to think without putting words to your thoughts? Can you see a situation and understand it without placing words and labels on any part of it? Maybe instead you communicate about it with a drawing, or maybe not even that. It's a fun brain exercise--perceiving without attaching language to something.

I'll stop rambling... for now...:cool:

Well, we could call everything that happens in the mind "thought" or "knowledge", and that would be a different way of looking at it. I'm just trying to free myself from a narrow focus on fact/word/left brain mental activity, and give the rest of it a chance. That makes me restrict the definition of "knowledge" to what I used to do, and seek other terms for the rest of it.

malign, I hope you're ok, it seems like the real earthquake was by you?

Earthquake? methinks I should seek out some news....

hope your ok big bro........

Looks like it just happened half an hour ago. 5.9 centered in Virginia. Haven't been able to find too many details yet. Hope you're ok, Mark.

is virginia near where mark is ?

I have no idea where Mark is other than east coast. He's probably fine, but I did notice he isn't online anymore. Here's what wikipedia says about that magnitude of earthquake:

"Can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well-designed buildings."

It's considered a "moderate" earthquake.

an article: http://news.yahoo.com/quake-rocks-washington-area-felt-east-coast-181550612.html

i hope you're ok too marky.

Oh, that is scary. Mark, hope everything is okay.

Just heard from Mark, and he is ok. Their building was evacuated, but there was no apparent damage... he's on his way home.

Oh, good.

Thanks for the update, finding. (Enjoy your day off work, Mark!)

thanks finding, good to hear:)

Hey all. Thanks for the caring. :-)

I'm fine; everybody in my family has checked in with somebody, and we're all fine.

I think it was luckily just below the damage threshold ... First one I've ever felt, though. Was kinda cool being on the tenth floor of an office building and knowing that nothing else could make us move like that.

I kept having to restrain myself, given that all the people were work people, from saying "Did the earth move for you, too?"

So you know I'm okay if I'm punning again. ;-)

glad your ok big bro

That's all we get? No play by play of the drama as it unfolded? Were you afraid for your life? Running from fires? Anything?

well big bro did leave us with a really funny pun before he went off line!!! :D

Um, there was just one play ...

I wasn't afraid, really. I figured that if it was big enough to bring the building down, there wasn't anything to do, anyway. There were no fires, and although some people panicked, there was no real running, either. On our floor, I didn't see even a ceiling tile down, much less "damage". I stayed up on the tenth floor until after it was over (in fact, I posted the comment at 2:12 yesterday, server time, shortly after it happened.) But, they made an announcement to clear the building, so I had to go, too quickly to say anything to y'all, first.

Well atleast you got the rest of the day off work big bro.

hows things?

I figured that if it was big enough to bring the building down' date=' there wasn't anything to do, anyway. [/quote']

How do you ever manage this??

I saw all of the stories on the news about people running out of buildings in Albany. I didn't even feel it. :confused:

I'm doing fine, Sue. Back at work today; nothing's really been impacted much. Though apparently, they've closed the Washington Monument for a while, to study a crack in it up near the top.

I guess I managed to remain calm because it never occurred to me to be otherwise, Beth. I get scared about some things, but this just seemed interesting to me. I thought about what I should do, and when it didn't seem like there was anything to do, I just watched it and felt it, with a deep interest.

.....:cool:

Probably good that I wasn't in the building.... I don't even like being up high in buildings, let alone in buildings that are shaking..

I'm glad no one was hurt.