[matt2500]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the weird slow motion that happens when you're in a near-death, high-adrenaline situation. When I was in high school I was riding with a friend in his Ford Ranger pickup, and he mistakenly let his truck veer into the gravel shoulder while he was looking for something under his seat. He overcorrected and we ended up flipping over two or three times, and the whole scene seemed to unfold in slow motion. I couldn't believe how many thoughts I had in those couple seconds; everything from how much it would suck to die at 17, how my family would take it, and also trivial observations, such as how the roof seemed to not crush too much when it landed on the road.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a good point. I was in the Seattle earthquake in 2001, working downtown (for those that don't know, downtown Seattle is built on landfill; 100 years ago, Seattle had hills as big as San Francisco, but they were all washed down into Elliot Bay, which is the fill downtown is now built on). I was also in a brand new, earthquake-proof building, meaning it's built on rollers, basically. When the earthquake hit, the building did exactly what it was supposed to do, which is roll with the waves. But while in the building, it feels like the whole building is coming down.

The earthquake lasted about 30-40 seconds, but I remember it felt like half an hour. And I went through a whole thought process that started with, 'Hey, this is cool, I'm finally experiencing a real earthquake,' to, 'OK, it would be nice if this would end now,' and finally thoughts of the building collapsing, how this might be it, and I'd really like to talk to my family right now before this building caves in so I can tell them I love them.