Today I experienced the "largest earthquake in living memory" in Hawaii, a respectable rumble measuring 6.6 Richter-scale. See the article I wrote on the topic here: Quake Shakes Hawaii into State of Disaster.


"Just after seven I was working, I heard that something was vibrating, and I felt my chair was shaking," said an interviewee of mine, Tony.

"Then I looked up and all the fridges were shaking. It lasted about 20 seconds."

The strange thing is, I didn't notice the earth moving. I was with a group of Falun Gong practitioners doing the exercises at Waikiki beach in Honolulu. As is always the case in Falun Gong, I was by no means in some sort of trance, but instead rather acutely aware of everything around me -- except, apparently, this. None of the practitioners on the beach noticed anything, in fact.

Quake time, 7:08am, came and went.

Some minutes later another practitioner, a building engineer by trade, came by to tell us that there had been an earthquake, and that he would likely be very busy dealing with the fallout for the rest of the day. We all noted that we hadn't seen or heard a thing.

Later, a few of us went to Chinatown and had some of the best dim sum ever, though we ate in the dark. In the afternoon we were going to go on a hike up to Diamond Head, as part of a birthday party / gift for a friend's daughter. Instead, we stayed home and the renowned Meatball the Clown came partially out of retirement to help lighten the day for some energetic young children. The birthday girl is 2nd from the right.

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