Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by Tectoniic

I like bringing up the Metric vs Imperial debate, it's almost as good as MT vs AT

M>A M>I

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

Right now I am using the "it's too freakin' hot scale" of measurement.

Ahhhh... perfect.

[p1l0t]

I got my Airline Transport Pilot certificate today.

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[ScoobsMcGee]

AC is broken in my apartment, and I can't open the windows because the neighbors have been chain smoking on their back balcony. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, which sucks. Solution: rum. Tomorrow may suck, but I won't care much longer tonight.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

AC is broken in my apartment, and I can't open the windows because the neighbors have been chain smoking on their back balcony. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, which sucks. Solution: rum. Tomorrow may suck, but I won't care much longer tonight.

Have a couple more then go try to read Squady's posts. Maybe you can make sense of them then.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Tectoniic

I like bringing up the Metric vs Imperial debate, it's almost as good as MT vs AT

Fun part is I am completely neutral in both the subjects so I get to debate on both sides.

[p1l0t]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

AC is broken in my apartment, and I can't open the windows because the neighbors have been chain smoking on their back balcony. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, which sucks. Solution: rum. Tomorrow may suck, but I won't care much longer tonight.

Maybe you should KILL THEM before they kill you...

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[soulreapersteve]

Originally Posted by fumanchu1

guess what I scraped this morning Ray wheels, 57extremes now with a footlong scrape along the lip :S

Nooooooooo!! I was looking at the 57extreme... and then the FXX... now looking at the Homura. Too bad they don't come in 17's. Looks so nice!

Originally Posted by Andrew025

08
Right before they got big and ugly.

Yay! I also think the first gen is more appealing to the eye than 2nd gen.

[ScoobsMcGee]

Originally Posted by p1l0t

Maybe you should KILL THEM before they kill you...

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As an Irishman, this is the exact reason I'm not drinking whiskey.

[ichitaka05]

Alright this gonna be long ass post, I would recommend have some popcorn ready or skip it to TLDR. lol

Some of you know that I was gone 2 wks to help people in Kumamoto Japan. What happened there? Lil over an month ago, Kumamoto was hit w 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Result wasn't bad as one in 2011, but it hit hard enough to destroy several towns. Deaths & casualties were very small, but mentally it affected. In the month, they had over 1400 earthquake that's below 1.0 magnitude. Over 200 earthquake that's between 2.0~4.0. These people are living in fears. Even minor earthquake hits, I've ppl shakes in fears... Worse I've seen whole family cry. It was very painful seeing these kind of things.

Due to not enough support nor volunteers, ppl are still living in tents without any privacy nor easy access to anything. Here are some example.

This photo shows one of the group of ppl who still lives in tent due to their house was destroyed by the earthquake.


FYI they have very limited bathroom (aka porta-potty). This area only had 2, one for men & one for women. I didn't have a chance to count, but that area had roughly 100 ppl living in the tent from the photo Above. There are other area that have more ppl living in the tent. Not sure about you guys, but not sure I can live in the tent like that & go to porta-potty for over a month.

Anyways, here are some photos. This house was called "Unsafe" house. People from city look at the damage and see if it's okay for the owner to go back. They have red "Unsafe", yellow "Limited Access" & green "Safe". 75% of these red houses, storages, poles, ANYTHING, will get destroyed by next earthquake that's stronger than 4.0. Result, they have to break these houses. The house here, was completely flatten, due to earthquake we had 2 days later (4.5 magnitude) after I've taken the photo.


All these houses you see are "Unsafe". They all have to get torn down. Ppl live there have to choose what they need vs what they want. Because most of them are moved to tent, so they have limited space.


Here's a photo of where powerline was tilted and was claim to be "Unsafe", so this area don't have any power... & when I left they still didn't have power. What over a month without a power in that block of area.

Why is it taking long time to get house made or get them better house? Simple, there's not enough worker to clear out all the debris from the aftermath. Japan is very picky on how we throw away garbage. Need to divide them into so many classes EVEN after these kind of disaster. We had to separate them out into several genres.
- Woods
- Live trees / branches
- roof titles (Orange)
- roof titles (concrete)
- Rocks
- Concretes
- Glass / porcelain / ceramics
- Plastics / papers / anything burnable
- Metals
- Tatami
Makes thing harder, those doors that have glass, we had to break the door and separate the glass. Good thing all those doors were made out of woods, but it sure wasn't easy.

My grandfather bought himself, my uncle, my step-dad, me & 16 employees of his that requested to volunteered for 3 wks volunteer work. Sadly, I couldn't only stay 2 wks due to work and other issues.

Here's a photo of one of the area we worked on. As you can see, on the right is cleared up, while left side it's still have debris that needed to clean up.


Here's one family's story. Couple on the left is Mr. & Mrs. Ookubo.


When first wave of earthquake hit, everyone was out at farm and no one got injured. Came home seen messy house dressers fallen and cups/plates everywhere in the kitchen. So Mr. Ookubo told his parents to sleep in the livingroom because there's no dressers or other big furnitures tip over when 2nd wave of earthquake hits. 2nd wave hit, it was dark in the night. Next thing they know, house couldn't handle and 1st floor crumbled dropping 2nd floor straight down. Mrs. Ookubo woke up enough to hide under the table. Mr. Ookubo was lucky enough that 2 dressers made a tent covered him from getting crushed. Sadly, Mr. Ookubo's parents weren't that lucky. Father of Mr. Ookubu was crushed died instantly while mother of Mr. Ookubo was crush breaking 7 ribs next to him, but survived. In the pitch dark Mr. Ookubo had to quickly dig himself out, find his parents and dig them out, father wasn't breathing so do CPR to bring in back alive and mother from dying, while his wife stuck still inside the house. His neighbor helped dig his parents and wife up and gave CPR to his father, but wasn't able to bring him back. Without giving him time to mourn for death of his father, he & his wife rushed to hospital to save his mother from dying. When they got to the hospital, they were declined. Not because they didn't have money or anything. Hospital were too full, they didn't have space for his mother to stay safely. After countless phone calls to all the hospitals, they finally found one that they were able to take her in to get it treated. His wife stayed at the hospital to keep an eye on her mother-in-law. While Mr. Ookubo went back to put his father in blanket. Stay outside waiting for the morning to come. He told me that, everything happened suddenly that, he wasn't sure to be sad and cry or be angry. He said that "I just stair at the stars trying to figure out what happened. It didn't really click to me that, father who was working at the sweet potato field 6 hrs ago was lying dead next to me til morning."

He told me a lot of stuff they went through... but that's just small part of this disaster. Where were more family affected same or worse than Ookubo family.

While volunteering, it was required to wear long sleeves & pants, gloves, mask, long boots w steel toes & steel soul... Even in hot sunny day. We worked in temperature mid 80's to low 90's. All my grandfather's employees worked hard and not even one said "Too tiring" or "Too hard". As for me? Not gonna lie, I did say those words, but mentally & physically tiring. Work 8am to 4:30~5pm everyday, lifting heavy stuff and get cut from nails and glass is no easy task... but my grandfather was working in same condition as me without giving up, I couldn't shame him, so I kept going.

Within 2wks I was there, I was able to help 7 families (7 houses, 2 storage, 1 farm field).

Overall it was exhausting, but good experience.

Under 200 1.0 magnitude earthquakes & seventeen 2.0~4.0 magnitude earthquakes 2wks I was there. Make it more crazy, one of the meteor hit 4~6 lights away from my aunt's place when I was there.

TLDR; Earthquake hit Kumamoto Japan, so I went back to help out.

[Teseo]

Real hero doesnt need a cape or a cowl. Any charity for a donation?

[Ultramaroon]

A little hard to read. Too real. Very sorry for all the families. You're a good man, ichi.

[ichitaka05]

Originally Posted by Teseo

Real hero doesnt need a cape or a cowl. Any charity for a donation?

I know in Japan, they have some Kumamoto charity funding happening. Not sure if there's one in US.

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

A little hard to read. Too real. Very sorry for all the families. You're a good man, ichi.

You telling me. That was just one of the story I heard from one person, there's more... but I think, that's good enough. Some are more private, so prefer not to talk out loud.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

AC is broken in my apartment, and I can't open the windows because the neighbors have been chain smoking on their back balcony. I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, which sucks. Solution: rum. Tomorrow may suck, but I won't care much longer tonight.

Reminds me of a back-in-the-day story about picking and de-linting cotton in the central valley of California in July.

Yep, I picked cotton (for experimental pesticide residue samples) in 105 degree F heat. Sat down under a tree in a pecan grove to extract 2 pounds of seeds from the cotton balls. (now, THAT gives one an appreciation of the cotton gin).

After a spell, I wrestled only about 10 seeds from the bowls, so I decided to drive 2 hours to Shafter, where the USDA station had a hand gin. Got there after the station closed.

I got a room in the old Shafter Hotel, that had a small window air conditioner that was struggling. I turned it on "HI" and went down to the restaurant and bar and had a meal and a few drinks.

Went back up to my room, which was still HOTTER THAN HELL! Went back to the bar and sat under their big air conditioner and drank whisky till the bar tender kicked me out at 2AM.

The room was still HOT! So, I put a wet towel over my naked body, stick one leg out the window and passed out.

The next morning it was still 90 degrees and I was in a small, tin building hand cranking on a hand cotton gin. Now, that put a whole new light on the term ....... hangover .......


humfrz