Wow. To have such a wonderful weekend followed by such a terrible catastrophe. Unless you've been living on Mars, under a rock, with your fingers in your ears, you've most likely heard about the massive earthquake (8.9 on the Richter scale) near the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, which caused an unheard of tsunami that has killed or severely affected 20,000 people in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Somalia, along with hundreds of tourists from Europe and the US. Boing Boing is doing a fantastic job covering the news on this event, including links to animations of the tsunami and blog coverage from that side of the world.

Further infomation can be found at a new blog set up for information about the event and about relief efforts, including links to make donations.

And yet, amid all this death and destruction, the mind goes to those close to you. As Janet sez, "Singapore is in South East Asia (and I repeat as usual, not in China) and to my irritation, remains unlabelled in many of the online maps showing the epicenter of the quake. It is at the southern tip of peninsula Malaysia, on the east side of Sumatra -- and because of its position, was a southeast Asian island untouched by any oversized sea waves. It might have felt mild tremors."

The Singapore Straits Times backs this up (you may need to register to see the link). So thankfully, Janet's family was not affected by this tragedy. Also, Mary Anne's family in Sri Lanka, both immediate and extended, all seem to be out of the country at the moment, and have escaped the damage. And according to The Slush God (aka John Joseph Adams), sf legend Arthur C. Clarke, who lives in Sri Lanka, seems to be okay.

My heart and good feelings go out to those who've been affected by this natural disaster.

***

In more personal concerns, I've now accomplished all the goals set out in this entry except for the last one, which I'm working on now. So here's the updated list:

1. Submit PhD applications to 7 schools (12/29/04)
2. Finalize layout of Off the Map and get to printers (1/15/05)
3. Write article thingy for The Virtuous Medlar Circle (1/15/05)
4. Rewrite "Last Fare" for thesis (2/1/05)
5. Finish writing "In Jurong" for thesis (2/1/05)
6. Pass out thesis to committee members (2/15/05)

There's also some stuff afterward about scheduling an oral defense and getting a copy of the thesis to NCSU's ETD in PDF format, but I'll get to that stuff later. One thing at a time.

Now Reading:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling

Stories Out to Publishers:
8

Books Read This Year:
66

Zines/Graphic Novels/Fiction Mags Read This Year:
35