I think -- I think -- the first time I heard about the earthquake was when I logged onto my e-mail for the first time.  Yahoo!, in case you don't know or remember, gives you (or at least me) some headlines below the message where it says you have so many new messages.  The first, main headline when I logged on late last night was something about an earthquake.  I remember it saying it "8.9," but honestly, I didn't think anything more of it.  After all, it's in Japan, very far away from me, and an earthquake, something that never happens here and often enough that news of it is just noise to me, even with the high mark on the Richter scale.

Then I read an article about how the city of Glendale, Ariz. is basically giving taxpayer money to the Phoenix Coyotes so they'll stay in the area is bullshit.  I wanted to tweet it.  But when I went on Twitter and checked my feed real quick, the only thing I found were tweets about the earthquake.  And that is the moment when I understood that this wasn't your ordinary, run-of-the-mill earthquake.

I feel guilty about not appreciating the scale of this disaster from the outset.  My thoughts and prayers go out to those in Japan personally affected by the earthquake and tsunami, and to those with loved ones there.