I’ve been monitoring the fallout from the earthquake in China all night, wondering what would happen if one of that magnitude struck here.

The last major quake we had on Oahu a few years ago I remember vividly. It was 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning and I turned on the tube to watch the NFL early game. New Orleans was playing, and that was as far as I got.

By the time I figured out nobody was shaking my bed, I looked out the window to see the lights on our eighth-floor tennis court at our condo swaying like palm trees, nearly touching the ground to the left, then the right. The tenants on the 40th floor, I could only imagine how much our building swayed and what they were going through.

Not long after, all power was gone. I had to use a flashlight to make it down 10 flights of stairs to the parking garage, then drove through downtown to the office with no traffic lights to help along the way.

First in the office and it was pitch black and eerily quiet. All the landlines were out so we started calling reporters on cellphones to assess damages throughout the islands and we posted updates through the use of backup generators.

Blogger Cat Toth was working for the paper at the time and was on vacation on Kauai. She had her laptop with her and was one of the few people who could post any info so we fed her info and vice versa.

Earthquakes are freaky.

You want to get outside and your mind tells you if you do, all the shaking will stop. You want to believe it would be like leaving a fun house at a fair or carnival.

Nope.

When I was in the big earthquake in Tacoma in 2002, I remember getting out to the parking lot as other co-workers jumped under desks. When I stepped outside I fully thought everything would be normal, but I remember seeing everything rocking and all I could do was look at the ground and wonder if it would open up suck me in.

Living in Hawaii, we also have to worry about tsunamis an earthquake may bring. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center does a great job of posting updates whenever there is a threat, but when nothing was posted overnight to say if Hawaii was in danger from the China earthquake, I called.

The China quake was too far inland to cause any rift with ocean waters was the basic response. But even better, they were continuing to monitor the quake and asked for information on casualties. They’re human, just like us.

I can only imagine what the people in China are going through today. If you have an earthquake experience, share it here.

And if you’re wondering about the overnight shift, two sites we check all the time are the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and the Hawaii Volcano Observatory for earthquakes in Hawaii.

If one hits, we want to be as ready as humanly possible, and we want you to be ready, too.

Admit it, no matter how old you get, no matter how far away you move, a part of you will always be a momma’s boy or girl at heart.

I have no problem owning up to that, particularly on Mother’s Day.

I haven’t lived in the same city as my folks since 1989 and I left our homestate in 1996, but in some ways I’m closer to my mom and dad than I’ve ever been.

Maybe it’s because as you grow older you can appreciate what they went through for you growing up. Technology has made it so much easier for kids to spread their wings and fly and yet never be further than a plane ride away from home.

And email? It is my personal conduit to back home.

There is a sort of comfort in knowing that every day at about 2 a.m. here in Honolulu I know I can check my earthlink account and there’ll be a message from my mom back home in North Dakota.

If I tell her I’m going for a bike ride, like I did earlier this week, the next email will include a safety tip to “be careful.” If I’m looking at buying a house, the next email will include all the pitfalls: “There’s insurance. Garbage. Electric bills. Taxes … it’s not like renting you know …”

Most of the time it’s nothing but an extended hello just to let me know they’re ok: “Nothing happening here. Dad is going golfing and I played cards with the girls. Lost 35 cents. We’re going for a walk and then to Don’s for supper … the kids next door came over. God, are they handful. They jump all over the place. If you had done that …”

Straight and to the point. What else could you ask for from a mom’s email?

So reliable are these daily e’s that not having one show can only mean one of two things: a) I haven’t called lately so she’s being stubborn, therefore I have to call — which is similar to having to restart a computer; or B) Something is wrong, in which case I need to call immediately.

Fortunately, the latter rarely occurs.

My mom may kill me for doing this, but since it’s Mother’s Day I thought I’d share part of her latest email. I always get a kick out of them. I hope you do, too:

“It’s snowing! The ground is white, can you believe it on the 10th of May? We got an invitation to Maureen’s daughter’s graduation open house next Sunday. Chris called from Texas yesterday man her & Scott are doing well. I was thinking about the day you were learning to ride that little two-wheel bike with no training wheels. I think we spent the whole morning giving you a pushes up & down the sidewalk but you got it mastered.
luv u mom”

Happy Mother’s Day. Feel free to share your own stories and memories here.

Has this ever happened to you?

You start a diet and exercise program, follow it diligently for more than a week and you’re “sure” you’re already feeling results so you decide it’s time to step on the dreaded scale.

That’s when reality hits: Weight loss? Zero pounds.

You rub your eyes. You step off. You give the scale a second chance before flinging it off the lanai.

You step on again and this time, it says … same as two weeks ago?

What the … ?

Now, I don’t expect to move mountains in just 10 days, but a baby step or two would have been nice.

Zero pounds?

You mean to tell me that eating oatmeal, brown rice and salads offers the same weight results as a bacon double cheeseburger and fries? And don’t tell me of portions or eating small meals is the key, I’m trying all of that, too.

Reality bites and I feel like I just got punked.

My first reaction was to look up Pizza Hut’s  phone number, but fortunately my cell phone was in hiding and not within reach.

A calmer, gentler me minutes later rationalized the biggest mistake of the day was stepping on the scale so soon after starting the diet.

I have to believe that if you’re feeling better from dieting and working out, it will work out in the long run.

Right?

But I’m curious as to how many people this happens to and how you deal with it.

Let me hear some success and failure stories.

How do you cope?

This year’s NBA playoffs have brought one of the funniest sports commercials I’ve seen in a while.

It’s when Dwayne Wade baits Charles Barkley into talking about why Philadelphia hasn’t made a statue of him yet. Barkley’s “You tryin’ to be funeh?’ line is classic.

Check it out at Charles Barkley and his statue

It still doesn’t top my all-time favorite “Chicks Dig the Long Ball” commercial Chicks Dig The Long Ball that features former Atlanta Braves Cy Young award winners Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, but it’s right up there with Miller Lite’s “Tastes Great, Less Filling” classics.
Anyone else got some memorable — funny — sports commercials to share?

X X X

I get a lot of flack from friends on the Mainland who aren’t able to enjoy the outdoors year-round like we can here, particularly because I’ve become a workout hermit of sorts lately.
Instead of hitting the beach or hiking trails I’ve recently been turning to the illiptical machines, stairmasters and treadmills for hours at a time.
The allure is the TVs on the newest equipment. Since I started this recent diet binge — or maybe I should call it attempted lifestyle change — I’m timing my workouts to watch the NBA playoffs.

I’ll be sweating out today’s Hawks-Celtics Game 7 for a lot more reason than just hoping Kevin Garnett finallly gets his ring.
The 40 games in 40 nights or whatever they call it has been a godsend for me. Great games, great young talent to watch.
This is my first extended look at Chris Paul and New Orleans. The way he sees the floor and changes gears is incredible. With Paul, Tony Parker and Deron Williams the new wave of superstar point guards has taken over, just as Dwight Howard has become the most dominant, athletic big man in the game today.

Anyone think Lebron James and the overlooked Cavs can sneak back into the finals?

I’m off the midnight shift for the rest of the week, as usual.

Since I work one day shift a week on Wednesdays, I have one of the most eclectic jobs in the newsroom.

One day it’s a traffic story, another day it’s about saving a dog, and today it was all about the Hawaiian Kingdom Government taking over the Iolani Palace grounds.
I don’t get into sides on these issues, but I appreciate the passion and beliefs that people stand up for. It ended peacefully, which was probably the best news of all.

* * *

Diet update: I (heart) Country Cafe is great for dieters. Brown rice, greens and furikake salmon or mahi. I need to be more Cat-like and start taking photos of these dishes.

After the long stand off today my big meal was at Karen’s Kitchen — brown rice, salad and mahi. Of all the great food over there I think this may have been the healthiest choice, and to me that’s an A-plus of a baby step.

Exercise-wise, played a little basketball after work yesterday, biked and did 35 minutes on the illiptical machine.

Bottom line, I know weight loss is slow but I’m tackling this about as head-on as you can.

I know “patience is a virtue” and “good things come to those who wait,” but if I were to gain weight after all this I’d make up my own fortune cookie and it would read something like this: “Eat what you will, because sometimes, you’re just screwed.”

* * *

Spike’s Ultimate Fighter is on tonight. I think it’s the best of the reality shows, next to the Deadliest Catch, of course.

Having Rampage Jackson and Forrest Griffin as the coaches was a stroke of genius by Dana White. It’s the best matchup of coaches since Randy Couture and Chuck Liddle in the show’s first season.

I’m a Rampage fan. You? Feel free to vent your UFC thoughts here, because I love this sport.