just a brief message to all members whereever in the world you are, i hope after the sad events of todays earthquake and tsunami, everyone is ok.

i know we are a global community and have members in asia, the far east, pacific and australia which may be directly affected.

my thoughts are will you and hope you and your families are ok.

Hope so too, Paul.

Same here. I hope everyone is well.

I know we'd all love to have check ins at some point. Everyone is in prayers.

Great thread - and great for discussion. But should be in "Off - Topic".

Likewise... hope everyone is safe.

I've spoken to many friends in the Tokyo area and they are doing fine. Lots of powerful aftershocks have them unnerved, but life is pretty much normal there. The school I used to work at in Tokyo is calling school off for the students on Monday (today) and the they are considering pushing Spring Break up a week. I guess it was just chaos on the day of teh quake. Some teachers took students home with them since their parents were unable to get them from school. Fortunately, everyone I know is located South of the quake. As for the Northern regions, it's just devastating to see the level of destruction. My heart aches for Japan. I called the country home for 5 years and I have nothing but love for the people of that country.

I remember the 89 Loma Prieta in San Francisco when I was a kid. I remember the damage and death toll being over exaggerated right after the quake. I hope and pray that the death toll is nowhere near what being reported now.

two of my colleagues were in Kyoto when the first one hit, they were actually staying in Tokyo itself and they have only been able to use transport occasionally due to power outages on the train system.

Another one of my colleagues is on Oahu for his honeymoon, all three are fine though so that's a great relief.