Seasons change

As I sit and write this posting, I have only eight more tests to correct. If my head wasn't shaven, I would've likely pulled all of my hair out by now. It's so maddening. I've gone into a fully nocturnal scedule for this correcting binge. Seems to be working well - I head to the convenience store, load up on dried fish, yogurt, canned coffee, and a few other snacks, flip on CNN to listen to the non-stop coverage of the localized apocolypse for this month (more on that below), and then dig in and bear down. Not looking forward to doing the same thing next semester, that's for sure...
My thoughts on the localized apocolypse for October(we've been averaging one major natural catastrophe a month now, doesn't it seem?), the massive quake in Kashmir. And with the events in Guatamala, it's actually two mini-apocolypses simultaneously, but Guatamala seems to have been forgotten with the massive nature of the Kashmir quake.
During my time living in Japan, I felt quite a few earthquakes, and nothing's scarier. The one thing we all take for granted is the ground beneath our feet - one thing we all trust, no matter what. When that comes into question, what a frightening time. And the sound that the buildings make is horrendous. The strongest I ever experienced was about a 5 on the Richter scale. Not terribly strong, as it only lasted a few seconds (I heard that the quake that caused the tsunami lasted nearly a minute,) but it was strong enough to stop some trains. I was in the shower when it hit, and I was certain I would have to go running naked out of the building. Thank God it stopped.
Recently, several of the natural disasters have hit areas with long-standing, bloody conflicts. It's been interesting to see how it has affected the conflicts. In Ache, the hardest-hit area in the tsunami, it was an impetus for a peace deal which recently saw Indonesian troops leaving that war-torn province, and the rebels turning in their weapons. In Sri Lanka, it deepened the conflict, as the government refused to allow any aid to go to rebel held parts of that island. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on Kashmir.
In other bad news of a much lighter nature, the Badgers lost for the first time this season. So it goes. Their national ranking has dropped from 14th to 23rd. But it's good to see Joe Pa and Penn State doing as well as they are. And the Yankees are done. This shows that there is some justice in the world...
The rainy season seems to be over here. Umbrellas are being used still, but now to block the sun rather than blocking the rain. We're entering the most comfortable few months of the year, where the temperatures are relatively cool (even getting near freezing some nights in the more mountainous north) and rain storms are few and far between. Should be nice.
Looking forward to getting out of town soon. Other than that, I've been putting off a large rant about Turkey and the EU, so I'll try to do that in the next posting. Hail progress!