I think I'm failing Nanowrimo

[verte_grez]

Loads happened at school, and I am so glad it's almost over :P If it weren't for the oppressive heat that grows with each year, I'd REALLY be cheering on the summer holidays. But as it is, I'm just worried I'll be away from the house during bushfire season and the insurance won't cover my laptop and wacom tablet. As soon as I can, I'm getting a

Comments

[six_demon_bag]

Ya know, I THINK my CD's would be covered by our property insurance if they did get sucked up in a tornado, but I'd still never be able to replace half of them. Haha a friend recommended I get a big fireproof box to keep them in. I should build a bunker like the ones meant to be safe from nuclear warfare and fallout just for my CD's. =)

I'm ignorant and don't watch much news, but this Black Saturday vaguely rings a bell. Care to fill me in?

Neil Gaiman, who I love, is the only author I'm familiar with of the ones you named. I'll look into the others and maybe pick up a book to add to the collection I'm already neglecting to read. I suck. : / I haven't read Good Omens yet -- just Neverwhere and I'm halfway through American gods. Did you see Stardust?

Oh, and by the way, I'm very envious of you living in Australia and just now entering summer. It was 25 degrees farenheit (-3.9 celcius) here this morning when I had to scrape the frost off my car and drive to work. My hands were numb for about half an hour! Oh well, I'm actually glad we get a taste of all four seasons. I just wish winter would retreat like in late Feb instead of April. : /

[verte_grez]

You could probably back them up on a computer, but then having the cds is so much better sometimes :) Maybe you should do something, if tornadoes are a serious risk.

So far as I know, it's the worst disaster to hit Australia in living history. A bushfire got unbelievably out of control, thanks to the drought, heatwave and the high winds. It went for at least a week, although I think the saturday was the worst, and injured hundreds of people, killed over 173, and destroyed over 2000 homes, sweeping over 4500 square kilometres. It came past my area, and it took 12 firefighter trucks to keep our house safe from the blaze, but we were lucky.The numbers, particularly in relation to the dead and injured, vary a lot. I believe the US rose over $73000 to help the ones who lost their homes recover, and we had many fundraisers ourselves, of course. It was a very big event and now everyone's on high alert for bushfires. I'm not sure how this compares to disasters in other parts of the world, but the entire country, at least, was absolutely shocked, and couldn't act fast enough in response. The fire was just absolutely horrific. If you search "black saturday" in google, the second website contains hundreds of stories and pictures of the fires--well, probably not the fires themselves so much, because the extreme temperature of the fires wouldn't allow anyone to get close, though there are far off shots, and many, many pictures of the aftermath, and a timeline of events. But I'll stop talking about it now. :P

Yes! Stardust was lovely. :3 I highly recommend Good Omens. It's a collab between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, in fact, and I think contains the best of both. It's very funny. I read the graphic novel of Neverwhere, but not the book. I probably should sometime soon.

Living in Australia isn't as safe and lovely as it's made out to be, I think. Summer looks a lot nicer in other countries. I swear, we're right below the hole in the ozone layer, because you cannot go outside for more than half an hour without sunscreen to protect your skin from burning, unless you're lucky enough to have dark skin. Skin cancer is a huuge risk. Our summers are getting worse and worse, and last summer (besides the whole black saturday thing :P) we had a heatwave so bad that the train lines were down, and you couldn't go driving because the road/your tires would start melting. There were quite a few heat-related deaths, like this old lady whose name I forgot, who went for a walk on a 42 degrees celcius day and got heatstroke and died. :P I'd rather freezing temperatures than more heatwaves, although maybe that's because I have to live with the heat and you have to live with the cold that we'd prefer to switch :P

[six_demon_bag]

Tornadoes aren't that big of a threat -- we do get them in our region, but it's extremely rare one actually comes through our town (knock on wood).

Wow, and Black Saturday was just this past February. There are wildfires in the southwest U.S., but not that bad. And it would have gotten your home if not for the twelve firetrucks? Crazy. The biggest disaster we've had in the U.S. in recent years is Katrina.

It gets hot here, too, but not melt-your-tires hot. Trust me though, the cold gets bad, too. There are times we have to stay inside because you'll get frostbite just for being out in the cold wind for three minutes. Still, I'm content. =)