[Espy]

honestly, earthquakes, to me, are just... a lot of shrugging?

I used to volunteer at the Tech Museum (good shit in you’re ever in San Jose), and there’s an earthquake exhibit w a platform that simulates the exact movements of historical eatthquakes. We have the Loma Prieta, Northridge, Hokkaido earthquakes, as well as half a dozen others. Obviously that 8.3 Hokkaido one is the most requested, even though you’re supposed to just let the quakes cycle through in order.

One day, there was this family from Ukraine who tried the 8.3. I made some small talk w them, and after the simulation, they were like, “How can you possibly live in California? Isn’t it scary with all these earthquakes?”

And I had to explain to them that, during my then-seventeen years in Cali, I’ve never sat through anything over a 5.2 magnitude quake. And even that one was barely noticeable. (I was in class, and there was a great cracking sound in the distance and maybe the ground jerked for half a second?) You get to the point where quakes don’t really phase you, you learn to not put fragile items too close to the edge in display cabinets, you have a medkit and small quake package sitting in the storage if you ever need it...

They told me, “but it’s still very scary to us!” And I had to stop myself from blurting out that honestly, I’d be too scared to live in Ukraine.