someday, this place is gonna burn

after i got over the "I want to be an astronaut" thing when i was five or six i wanted to be a paleontologist like Phil Currie. then when i didn't totally get over that ever (ok never...) i decided i wanted to be a geologist. this pretty much went from grade 9 to grade 12. except the difference in grade 12 was that when we went to University Day or whatever it was at the U of A i found out that when you take geology there you get to specialize in an area after your first year. so then i decided i wanted to be a vulcanologist because volcanos are cool. i still say that the next time St Helens goes on a total frenzy im so finding a car and going down there to watch.

ok, so, while i still maintain an geeky interest in rocks and exploding mountains, i've come to realize that living in an area where the ground will someday get very angry is altogether not that comforting. i just watched some show on the discovery channel about what's going to happen to the west coast when the Cascadia subduction zone decides to snap.
let me say this right now, the only reason i will never ever ever ever ever live in a tall building in downtown Vancouver has absolutely nothing to do with high prices of living and everything to do with earthquakes. seriously, this is not something i spent a great deal of time considering when i lived at home or in ottawa. kind of hard to do that when you live on solid granite or in the middle of the prairies. seriously. like when i moved into rez at sfu three years ago and in the rez admin office you find a stack of "what to do in the event of an earthquake' pamphlets. at the time i thought it was funny. now i dont think it's so funny and sometimes i'll walk around downtown between tall buildings looking for places to run too if the ground gets mad.

here's my list of reasons for a potential move out of vancouver ever:
1. i get a job somewhere else.
2. the Discovery Channel induced paranoia of an uber quake that will flatten the city
3. not being able to afford a place to live.

you see how this screws up priorities? honestly, while i was watching the show i was looking around my living room going "ok, well i could stand in that doorway or i could run outside into the middle of the street to avoid things falling on me...how much canned food and water do i have...where's my flashlight...will wireless networks still be up in the event of so i can grab my laptop and live blog the aftermath..."

no seriously. that last one actually did go through my head. y'see??? you see what happens when you mix technology and the fear of a natural disaster?

ps, i still like rocks and some part of me still wants to be a vulcanologist.

someday, this place is gonna burn