thankfully my friend Martin is ok after the whole earthquake in hawaii. here's an excerpt of his reporting from the ground:

You actually knew more than we did, cuz the lights were out here until 11 45 pm. They are back on now. [M]y neighbor was able to go out and get meat at half off cuz the local Safeway opened up to get rid of their perishables. First time I've eaten meat in chunks since 2004.... We kept abreast of the goings on by listening to a local radio station who received reports from a United passenger stuck on the runway in Denver on a Honolulu-bound flight. He reported everything CNN was saying about us, and talked about the KITV (local TV) feed to the mainland. It was funny.

Things are okay. No significant damage. Some of the drywall that serves as ceiling has shaken loose. Gratefully, my landlord was out on the mainland cuz I wouldn't want to have someone worrying over every little detail of my apartment when there wasn't any where else to go. Was already awake at the time of the earthquake and jolted out of bed when the walls started dancing. Went to the bathroom and bolted the apartment when the ceiling and the walls moved in opposite directions. (You'd think someone from so. Calif who lived through the first Northridge quake and who worked the evacuation of the Los Angeles County Medical Center in San Fernando would be used to this. After all I got my first employment as a tri-lingual [interpreter] at LA County Med Center cuz I volunteered after the earthquake there in 1978.) Fossil and D Wayne suvrived well. They thought the bed moved cuz I was snoring.