Hurricane Sandy Open Thread

Checking in from Boston. Barely drizzling here, and it looks like Sandy will mostly miss us, but a lot of stuff’s been cancelled tomorrow anyway.

It looks like Vermont might get slammed again like they did with Irene, which makes this ex-Vermonter nervous and sad.

This isn’t about Sandy (obviously the new kind of woman-hurricane going for the alpha city of New York, what’s wrong with Fort Lauderdale?), I just want to complain about something and this thread is OPEN:
Why, oh why are DVD releases in Japan so delayed after the cinema release? I need my hit of (actual name) Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A’s 🙁 I*m in need of some trashy stuff that I like, rather than the trashy stuff that populates the current anime season. As an additional woe, my current favourite manga (Sweet Blue Flowers, which is awesome) got licensed by JManga, and I*m pretty sure they don’t have the license to distribute it to Europe.

Now that I’ve gotten my never-been-hit-by-a-natural-disaster whining out of the way, I really hope everyone here and everyone else make it through Sandy ok, it’s a bit wild to see the projections given my own calm corner of the world.

If memory serves me correctly, this is the second time a big storm has whomped the East coast. Heck, I’ll leave this post from Pharyngula here since it’s relevant to this thread: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/10/26/please-stay-safe-eastern-north-american-hordelings/

The article mentions that voting will be complicated due to power outages that could last through election day, which is just splendid (end sarcasm).

Some Hurricane Sandy links:
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201218_climo.html
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/frankenstorm-worse-sum-nasty-parts-17579750#.UI2vilGjnLk
http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/hurricane-sandy-makes-national-weather-service-go-jersey-in-warning
The last link in a more readable form (from the National Weather Service):

This has the potential to be an historic storm, with widespread wind
damage and power outages, inland and coastal flooding, and massive
beach erosion. The combination of the heavy rain and prolonged wind
will create the potential for long lasting power outages and serious
flooding.

Preparations should be wrapping up as conditions are expected to
worsen tonight and especially on Monday.

Some important notes…

1. If you are being asked to evacuate a coastal location by state
and local officials, please do so.

2. If you are reluctant to evacuate, and you know someone who rode
out the ’62 storm on the barrier islands, ask them if they could do
it again.

3. If you are reluctant, think about your loved ones, think about
the emergency responders who will be unable to reach you when you
make the panicked phone call to be rescued, think about the
Rescue/recovery teams who will Rescue you if you are injured or
recover your remains if you do not survive.

4. Sandy is an extremely dangerous storm. There will be major
property damage, injuries are probably unavoidable, but the goal is
zero fatalities.

5. If you think the storm is over-hyped and exaggerated, please err
on the side of caution.

We wish everyone in harm’s way all the best. Stay safe!

Checking in from Mass, things seem fine here.

(Then again, I busted my knee a few days ago and live in an uninsulated attic, so, y’know, if the roof shingles get hauled off, I’ll be sure to let you guys know that I got snowed in the face while indoors.)

Check in from coastal Maine…nothing at all yet here, although there was some panicked restocking of food in my area, making work almost as busy as mid summer, as opposed to almost November (I work at a supermarket).

On a completely unrelated note, are any of you fellow MB regulars going to do NaNoWriMo this month (or even know what the heck I’m talking about)?

I know what NaNoWriMo is from a writing website I’m on. Can’t imagine putting myself through that, though – writing at speed and in bulk isn’t my thing! 😛

RE: Nano

A LOT of my buddies are doing it; I’m passing. I did it once before, but I have a bunch of other writing and comics projects right now; far more important is that I do edit and revisions than try and slam-bam out a new project.

WILL be revising a past Nano project, though!

Doing NaNoWriMo for the 4th time this year; I’ve got something a little more serious than 2010’s time-traveling cyborg teen romance. If anyone wants to natter, my username is Katz.

Stay safe, everyone!

Hey David. I know you’ve written about her before, but there is a newish scandal revolving around skepchick and this year old video she made regarding the situation of being approached in an elevator by a guy at 4am. It’s sent a large wave of misandry cries back to the youtube video. I’ve been on there off and on trying to reason with these idiots to no avail. They’re convinced that she’s saying no man should ever want sex and they are horrible for doing so. So just in case you’re hurting for material, here are the links

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/10/sexism_in_the_skeptic_community_i_spoke_out_then_came_the_rape_threats.html

And here is an excellent comment worth noting because it was a great burn

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcmnxaNlnH1qzfyf3o1_500.png

On topic. of school gets canceled for the week I’m gonna be the happiest woman alive.

Going to face a direct hit here, methinks… After the hurricane last year, I’m beginning to question my love for the east coast.

I wish I had the perserverence (not to mention time and energy) to get that much writing done! I’m doing memoirs and they’ve been bogged down for the better part of a year. Every time I look at ’em I just think YUCK.