DYFI

 TIL I learned about "DYFI," or a commonly asked phrase in California apparently that I was never privy to: "Did you feel it?" after earthquakes were reported. Either I got extremely lucky, or I just have very low sensitivity for sensing the ground beneath me shaking. I've never felt an earthquake, nor have I ever expereinced a tornado, a fire, or any other natural disaster that they trained us for in school; I guess I'm just a blessed person. There was even an earthquake inside Dodger Stadium one time, all the baseball players felt it, and I didn't feel it. I've never been part of a hurricane evacuation, or blizzard. Not that I'm asking for it, but if you lived my life you'd think the Earth was perfectly fine, nothing out of the usual or lifethreatening happening, ever. 

Hurricane season in America is apparently August- October, and this year is especially active with super-hurricanes Helene and Milton. Hurricanes are rated from Category 1 to Category 5 (5 being the strongest) on the Saffir-Simpson scale. There was talk of adding a "Category 6" hurricane due to the severity of Milton that just passed. MJ and I have only been on the residual end of hurricanes, but even hundreds of miles away, you can feel the rain and thunderstorm and the power of the weather. The weather taketh, and the weather giveth away. My parents are now in Maine during fall leaves season catching the beautiful orange and red of Acadian National park and all the foliage changing colors and lobsters and lighthouses, a nice peaceful trip for my mom who's been battling cancer all this year and last year. 

The last week or so I've been forced to put my phone away for work, and I realized how much of a load off it is, the days just feel completely different, my eyes feel different because they're not as strained looking at a rectangular screen in my hand all day, my ears feel different because they're not listening to incessant political ads and cell phone games or learning academies guaranteed to increase my score on the SATs (what??? why am I getting those ads 20 years too late?) and most importantly, my mind feels different, like I don't wander off and think about "who is fighting at the next UFC event?" every few seconds which leads to more inquires which branches off into more inquires, all of which are answered by using my phone to get the answers. It's no way to live life, just sitting at home every day on the phone. I imagine it's similar to what opium users in China did, never even leaving home anywhere due to everything they ever wanted being right around them at home, just living off of them and depending on them. I realized for the last few months slowly but surely I had been increasing my usage of the phone, my screen time was going up, and I was being less productive in other endeavors (like studying trivia, a better use of time, or studying languages) because I was so engaged with the phone. It's a silent time-killer.The downside of course is that I don't get to see all those trending hashtags like "DYFI" (Did you feel it) about in-the-moment stories like earthquakes, but the upside is, I don't really care and don't really need to care anyway. If I felt it I felt it, and if I felt the middle of it, I would be dead. I don't need to feel it.