5.8 Earthquake in Virginia

So I was at work sitting at my desk looking up some information about traveling to Japan and such since I am planning on going in May. All of a sudden the building started to shake around and at first I thought it was a low plane that came by but it continued. I heard my co worker on the other side of the room ask, "Hey, is this an earth quake?" "Yep," I replied and we stood up and looked around as the building shook.
It lasted longer then I thought it would and was a pretty steady shake too.
Of course cell service had stopped so I couldn't get anyone on it.
It was a 5.8 officially out in Mineral which is out in Louisa County Virgina. That is where we went to go get our Christmas Tree for Christmas. It is pretty close to North Anna Power Plant, which is nuclear but it's fail-safe system auto-shuts it down when an event like this occurs.
1:51pm is when it struck and it was reported to have been felt from North Carolina all the way to Massachusetts.
There has not been an Earth quake quite this large since the late 1800s in Virginia. Luckily it was not a surface quake or this would have been a lot stronger and caused more damage for people in the area and other states. D.C. reported damage and that is 100 miles away.
So, pretty interesting event today but no way was it as large as other Earth Quakes have been this year through out our planet.
I am awaiting for after shocks if they are coming.
We also have a Hurricane that is hitting South Eastern portion of the U.S. (Florida) early this week and will reach up to Virginia by Saturday. I wonder how much rain will come with that and if it will be loaded with a whopping load of precipitation and if the wind will be high. By the time that it reaches Virginia, if it does, it probably will be a Category 1 or might drop to a tropical storm rather then the Hurricane that it is now.
Now I know that 2012 is right around the corner, is this a preview? a warning?
I am not sure, this is a natural part of our planet and will happen. Earth Quakes happen way to often, more then 100 happen everyday on our planet, obviously not quite as large as ours today but it is part of our earth system.
So, does anyone want to share their experience? Please comment below because I would love to hear, I mean read! :)

Turkey Point Lighthouse

So when I was at my grandparents painting their house last month I walked to Turkey Point Light house which is in Elk Neck State Park in Cecil County, Maryland.

Below is the map of where you can find the Light house!

View Larger Map

So the actual light house is on a 100 foot cliff out on a peninsula. It is a nice walk and I do love it every single time. 

That is my nani below walking ahead of me. She is all set with her fanny pack and her epi pen. She likes being active. 

So  this light house has been here for a while but the original house that the light keeper lived in is long gone now. There use to be fields out here so they could grow food for themselves and such and you can find wild plants that were once part of the farm.

I took my time machine and went back about 100 years to grab a photo of the dirt road that they had to come in on. Almost looks the same, all over grown. 

Lots of green. There are large vines in these woods and reminds me of a prehistoric time of dinosaurs. I love it honestly, I love to see a dense forest every once in a while. 

There is a large field out there on the walk that a lot of bird watchers go to view. That day there was a deer!

Down the road at the bottom of a gully there was a fawn still whit some white spots on her. 

There is a on of things I love about nature. Even snarled up trees in the cover of thick vines. How the tree wants out but the vines wont let go, it is all to interesting to me and grabs my attention way to easily haha.

There is a lot of wild life out here and there are a lot of butterfly bushes and plants that attract them.

So they have been working on restoring a lot of the light house parts. A lot of it was torn up because of looters and such but now it is being watched and put back together. I knew the guy that put the wooden spiral stair case inside and did a fantastic job at replacing it.  

It has a great look out down the bay from where it stands up on the bluffs. Boats can see it for miles and miles.

So if you are in the area, you should take a stop by the Turkey Point Light house. IT isn't that long of a walk and if I lived near by I'd go quite often probably but I am 3.6 hours away haha so I wont be gong back anytime soon. 

Back from Otakon 2012, and My car is dying!

Hey everyone, it has been a while since I updated my blog period really. Since last month!

So my car has been dying recently and I have started to look online for ideas on a new car but I am pretty sure that I am going to go with my parents Mazda 6. It is fairly new (2007) and has great mileage and looks nice. Also I will get it cheaper!

I drove to work this morning and my car started to make a new noise and also it started to smell like a burning smell so I turned the vent off so it wouldn't blow into the cab. I could still smell it since my windows were down (because I have no more A/C).

Today is the first time I drove over to my internship since last Wednesday, it has been a while and there really sin't that much work to be done here.

My girl friend has been out of town for a few days so I have been chilling at home and going to work every might at my retail job. Yesterday I was able to do some painting on the models outside because the humidity level was low (first time in months it felt like).

Oh man, I haven't even talked about Otakon this year yet! I was going on and on about how much fun I would have this year and I have yet to really talk about it. Unforunatly I never took many pictures at all (I found like 5 photos from Otakon on my card). I carried my camera around the entire time but never took photos at all. I am disappointed in myself really as I wanted to take TONS of photographs. Oh well >_>

My girl friend had a great time as I had. She enjoyed her cosplay (Zero Suit Samus) and many people want her photo.

We both went to a ton of panels (like 5ish or so) and we kept pretty busy the whole time.

On Friday we went to the Figure panel at 9am and that was very interesting and fun to go to. I would go to it next year for sure (If I go to Otakon rather then Japan....idk). We also attended Voice Actors After Dark on Friday night. On Saturday we attended in the morning Crazy Japanese Commercials, if was pretty funny. I liked some of them and showed some friends when I got back. Later that day Joe the Peacock (nick name) had a panel on the Effects that the Animation AKIRA had on the United States and the industry. He also brought some cells with him (he has the largest private collection of Akira cells in the world) and displayed them in the Artist Alley Hall. He has the "Art of Akira" exhibit at the Toonsueam in Penn state and I probably talked about him at some point on here. I had emailed him or his co-fellow about coming to Otakon and hosting a panel or bring some of his exhibit with him and I am so glad that he could come. I follow his blog and I want to give a shout out to you if you read mine at any point. Thanks for coming, really great panel and very informative! After that panel my girl friend and I attended the Gundam Panel which was a disappointment and stuff. I wont go to it next year, seen it once never again type of panel. After that I was excited for the Bandai After Dark panel because I heard lots of good things about it but I accidently stepped on my girl friends sandals and it broke so we left it so we swapped shoes and she wanted to go to the dance instead. She went with her friends and I left hoping to make it to the Bandai panel but by then it was over so I went to play video games in the game room and watched break dancing at the fountain room in the center. Only disappointment on the trip was missing that panel :(

On Sunday we attended the Crazy Japanese Music Video panel at 9am and it was pretty funny. I am hooked on the videos and songs lol and also attended the No-sew cosplay panels about cosplaying without the need to sewing anything.

I purchased a few things. I ended up with lots of artwork and had to frame it all and I still need to frame on last one. I got Majora's Mask artwork, Okami artwork, Ghibli Artwork and Samurai Champloo Artwork. Looks all great! As for the dealers room I got three models, two figures, Hobby Japan magazine with model with it and I got a free poster with Johnny Young Bosh signature on it. It was a good raking in of things. Free t-shirt as well.

I enjoyed it and I made a few new friends that were in our hotel room. Other then that it was a good con, it felt like it flew by though way to fast and I still can't believe that it is over already. It is depressing as I might not be going next year at all and it is sad to think about it like that. IT got to be over 31,000 people this year. Oh did I mention that I loved the Blu-fin booth this year, it was fantastic!

I talked about this last month and how my grandmother wasn't doing to well. She was able to go home a while ago and she has been there since. People in the family and from the home go there and help her out since my grandfather in his wheel chair can't really help as much and need full time assistance. I can't say she is getting better because what she has is slowly killing her and my dad is having a tough time right now even if he isn't showing or saying it. He hasn't been acting like he usually does and it is rare to see him down or crying but he has in the past few weeks.

Will keep you guys updated more often. I got school starting around the corner, oh noes!

I think I will do a photo post soon too!

Leaving for Baltimore

I will be leaving for Baltimore in about an hour and a half everyone!

I'm excited and if you are going so should you!!!!

I'll be at the festival today, probably wearing my urahara hat if you want to meet me!

My Anime Girlfriend

My Anime Girlfriend Channel
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I am enjoying this very much hehehe XD

Day at Summer School

So I told you that I took some photos of a typical day at summer school. I have quite a few pictures.. sorta.. anyways enjoy!

Lucky me, it was a nice day when I went to class that day. Plenty of sun, not to to hot and it was a Wednesday


So I drive a Ford Taurus, it is a comfortable car but has some problems. When I took this photo I had needed a new tire and the transmission was crewed up. Now my car has a new tire but I need to replace the clutch and condenser for the A/C which I am not doing because of the $1,000 price tag on the job. So now I enjoy my 100 degree weather days with my windows down. By the way it is still hot lol




Look back at the house, "bye bye house" haa ha not really, but I love where I live, nice an quite!



So when I got into my car I had an empty tank so that means I have to stop on the way to school to fill er' up!



Recently this summer a new Wawa opened up on 301, so that is where I stopped to get some gas. Some pretty cheap prices in the area!



Ok now I am off! It is easier to take 301 all the way since Monroe Campus is off Belvidere Street.



Driving through Chamberlayne. In this area back in past fall, I drove through a torrential down pour one evening. It was the same day that had all the tornadoes that touched down in the metro area. A few trees were knocked over along this road because of one that touched here.



I can see downtown in the distance!



So I was parking along Laurel and Cherry streets over the Down town express way. It gives me a goooood walking distance to my class on Grace street!



Now I am on foot, there are a lot of old houses and some house that should be vacated and redone. This red house is on the corner of Laurel and Cumberland Street.



I walk up Laurel Street most often, some nice people that live along there and of course there are a few college students that live along there that litter like no ones business.....



I sometimes cut through Green Alley but I didn't need to that day.



In the left side of this photo is the residential building that takes up a block. I'm at Laurel and Carry street at this time.



Never been inside the building but I hear that there are some big and small dorms inside. I can't get inside unless I have a key or what not to go through the security



So now I am reaching Monroe Park. This is Laurel at Main Street where the Landmark Theater is. I haven't been to a show inside of it for a very long time now.



I usually cut through the park during the day. There are still homeless people that sleep on benches or hang out with one-another all over the park. Don't cut through it at night!



I believe that VCU campus security or ground keepers keep this city park cleaned. They usually drive through to pick up trash or cut limbs that have fallen off trees.



That is the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, I had come down to class the previous week on a rainy day and there was a funeral being held at the time.



Anyways, I made it over the seven blocks to Grace street where the Physics building was to take my first class. We been using clickers in the class to ear participation points and so he can keep track of who is there and not. Now that the class is over I found out that my final grade was a B! I thought I wasn't doing to hot in the class.



So class ended, it was a boring lecture that day. I guess that is what physics is because it can't retain my attention for a whole lot. Which stunk because I took it every day of the week >_> Since my next class isn't for a while I take the long route on Franklin to reach Temple building.




I like this house that is still on Franklin. IT is used as an office building for VCU I believe. I think it is the Scott House. It looks very Victorian and in the metal works era or something like that. I wonder if that is all copper on the par t of the building.



Behind it is a seldom used area where people don't walk through to much.This is where you can get to the Anderson gallery.



A better look at the Scott House.



So I keep cutting through to reach Park Avenue and continue to reach the Student Commons.



All across campus we have recycle containers for mixed paper, bottles and cans. OF course also trash. Outside we have these fancy looking trash cans/recycling containers that have solar panels on top. I am not sure what the solar panels do for the containers them selves. I wonder if it just takes the energy and it is channeled back into the build that it is near by or maybe for the street lights. It is pretty cool no matter what the energy is used for since the cans will always be sitting in the sun.



So on the other side of Main street from the Student Commons is the temple building where the physics lab is held but I still have more time to burn.



I chill in the underground area of the student commons build. It isn't really used much during the summer so it is quite and I am no bothered.



So I attended the lab and now I am heading back to my car to pick up my girl friend to go out to eat at Red Lobster. It happened to be our 2 year anniversary that day.



Off on Belvidere!



I have to take 64 East to reach 360 North. Some one lost there things on there luggage rack on top of there car and caused some traffic on 64. bummer



Weeeee! Entering Hanover after this bottom. It is the Chickahominy Swap and River.



Now in Mechanicsville to get her. Mechanicsville is a very large area!




So that is some photos on a typical day in the summer at school for me. I am glad that classes are over because now it is more lax. I am now currently preparing for my Otakon trip which I leave for Thursday morning! So excited!