LiveJournal 2002-03-11a

2002-03-11 14:24:44

9/11

Seeing as I had no LJ then, now seems as good a time as any to get my doings on 9/11/2002 for the record. At the time my only Tuesday class began at 10:30 AM, so considering my regular schedule I probably got up 8:30-ish. Yada yada, eventually showered. Going towards the living room to put on my shoes while having a brief appointment with Dr. Hawkeye Pierce. However, my grandma tells me a plane has hit the World Trade Center, so I sit down and watch. At first I take it to be a "normal" disaster. Some accident or something has caused a plane to crash into the building, and the people on the upper floors look like they're pretty much screwed, but life will go on. That's when I notice the Washington Monument on the screen. "The hell?" I'm thinking. Not that I've made it a point to memorize the locations of major landmarks, but I was pretty sure the Washington Monument was in DC, and the Twin Towers weren't. I think that's when I realized it was a terrorist attack; only been watching for 30 seconds, and hadn't gathered much info yet. I couldn't really tell you when chronologically I noticed not only one of the towers had been hit or what my immediate reaction was; just too fast. Big Newsman (I'll guess Rather, but I saw plenty of Jennings and Brokaw that day, too, so I could be getting my old white guys confused) is talking to someone on the phone, and the view is back to the burning towers. Looks like something extra happened on the one on the far side of our (and Newsman's, I suppose) view. Phone guy: "The south tower has collapsed." Newsman: "The upper floors have collapsed?" Phone guy: "The entire thing." Newsman: "... My God." I wonder if I've ever been witness to such a mass death live before, and don't think so. I really realize this isn't just another normal disaster now. Watch a bit more, head to school listening to radio, see Chad briefly before class, talk a little of the happenings, and then I must class, though I'm not as alert as I could've been. Afterwards I had planned to work on a C++ assignment at school, so I go to the computer lab. Overhear other people talking about and confirm on CNN.com (which by then had changed to a stripped down form for bandwidth preservation) that the other tower fell. I realize I wouldn't be able to concentrate on my project anyway, and what am I going to remember 50 years from then? Or even 6 months, say. I leave, heading towards Chad's place. I remember thinking to myself "Tuesday, September 11. Might as well get used to remembering that date." and wondering what fancy schmancy name they'd come up with for it. Arrive at Chad's, and he is of course watching the news. He's decided to skip his canoeing (or canoing?) class for today. We watch the news for hours. Amazed by the sheer not seeing caused by the debris cloud covering such a large major area. I make stupid little jokes MST style about the people we see on the news ("Thanks Woody Harrelson!"); can't let myself get TOO serious and depressed. Ever the optimist, I bet that the crash in Pennsylvania has no connection to all these happenings, and think it interesting how what would any other day be a major news item gets relegated to the side. Hear how tens of thousands work at the buildings. I defend (and learn how to spell) bin Laden; famous terrorist or no, I consider making conclusions so soon after a major event a Bad Thing. See thousands leaving the island on foot. See newspeople futilely hanging around empty temporary medical places set up for survivors; when a zillion ton building falls down, though, you don't have very many of those. I eventually call and return to the grandfolks' place, where I... watch news. See Building 7 collapse. Eat supper. See bombing going on in Kabul. At that time I hadn't yet been inundated with info on Afghanistan, so that there was already a long conflict going on there was foreign to me (pun unintended). Then go off to my first night of tutoring. I make some lame jokes about "See what happens when I work?" and stuff like that. At the time, there were many tutors. So people obviously began talking about the subject at hand. But in a little room with no media, we soon already knew what we would know, and decided to give it a rest. Outside of the building you could see people gathering with candles and such. Things you see on the news and in the real world are usually so disparate, I always find it interesting to see things actually affect things... though I usually see it in the happier context of things like game release dates. I write some lame haiku. I still have one of them written down here. I crash into things Hijack hijack hijack hi Kiss your buildings bye Go home. Watch news. Still amazed by the smoke. Think it's been quite a day. Sleep. Another of those "might make me look bad, but I'm not going ot lie" things: it did make for some riveting TV. Current Mood: contemplative <a>Original</a>