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At 10:54 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2001, millions of people in Western Washington lived 45 seconds they’d not soon forget: the Nisqually earthquake.

Were you one of them?

Monday marks the tenth anniversary of the 6.8 magnitude quake that struck the area, and news station KING/5 wants to share your memories. Just post where you were the moment the quake struck on Intersect and see it stream this weekend on KING5.com.

KING/5 is already “borrowing” your Nisqually stories into the KING 5 Nisqually Earthquake storyline and featuring headlines on both the KING5.com home page and the station’s special earthquake page.

KING/5 staffers are even sharing their own experiences. Would you believe KING’s Ryan Subica was watching a compilation of top natural disaster TV promos when the earthquake struck?

Sharing your experience is easy. Just:

• Sign up (it’s quick – we promise)
• Tell a bit about what happened (just a headline is fine)
• Put the time of the quake, 10:54 a.m. Feb. 28, 2001, in the Time field
• Put where you were in the Place field
• Hit Publish. You’re done.

Once KING “borrows” your story, look for it on the KING 5 Nisqually Earthquake map. You might be surprised who else posted memories nearby.

Oh, and if you’re on Twitter, you can connect your account on the Account page to turn your headline into a tweet, and even include a hashtag. KING/5 suggests #nisqually.

Late last week we opened up custom URLs for user storylines, and we knew pretty quickly — you really like them.

Got yours? Go to your Account page to pick one. And hurry: It’s first-come, first-served. And if you know someone who’s thinking of joining, let them know that now might be a good time.

Custom URLs weren’t all that we released with the latest version of Intersect. Improvements to email notifications, search and the story page as well as an easier way to tag (just include a ‘#’ next to a word in the headline or text to see it added as a tag) were all part of the rollout.

Read more in founder Peter Rinearson’s story, where he hints at the existence of a couple early, semi-secret features we’ll be rolling out more broadly soon.

For a sneak peek at one of these, check out what Alicia Aho, Kurt Clark, Kristi Waite, John Siebenthaler and Carl Setzer just added to their websites ….

Whether it’s cars, photography or “the stunning Mrs. Clark,” it seems Kurt Clark will never run out of delightful things to write about. The Bellevue, Wash. dad took time this week to reflect on his stories.

Kurt Clark

Tell us about what you’re posting on Intersect.

Personal experiences and family history make up a bulk of what I write about. Occasionally there will be a picture of a place or item that caught my eye. The stories I write can pertain to something as simple as a 1st grade photo, or something as complicated as procrastination. I also have a series of stories called “Kurt’s Cars,” where I show a picture of a vehicle I’ve owned and share something about it. Since 1978 I’ve owned over 30 different vehicles, so there’s lots to tell! Cars in general figure highly into much of what I do on Intersect.

A while back I noticed that another Intersecter wrote in her story line that she wanted to archive her life for the children she didn’t have yet (I tried to find the quote but could not locate it again) [Kurt, is it this quote from Dana? - Moni]. Turns out I was doing the same thing, for my own sons. I hope to document all the stories that have been rattling around in my head for years, sometimes decades, before it’s too late.

As it turns out, I discovered that the more I write and interact with others, the more I remember from the past. Events that were buried and silent suddenly awaken when reading a story from another Intersecter. That is the beauty of this site; intersections and story topics seem to come naturally, and ultimately the topics in my story line become self-feeding and more diverse. I currently have over 20 stories in Draft form; as I look at the story line now, I realize that I’ve done a lot more than I thought in 40+ years. It’s almost like I’m viewing a blueprint of my life. Wow!

Understand that the stories aren’t always happy and shiny. Some topics are very dark, and in recent years I have chosen to explore emotional issues I haven’t thought about in a long time. I was just commenting to someone recently that the tears we shed while crafting our stories can be therapeutic. Sometimes a story I add to Intersect represents the first time it has been written down ever, mostly because it was difficult to address in the past. Occasionally I find myself becoming very emotional as I try to tell the tale, because the feelings start coming back in waves as I write.

I could never do this with a pen and paper, because the story and the emotions come at me too fast to capture with a Bic ballpoint. I’m very thankful for keyboards and high school typing classes. In the end, I have a desire to get the story right the first time, and to do the story justice. Tears just come with the territory.

I also share artwork on Intersect that I’ve done in the past; in one post I recreated a drawing in 2010 that I had originally drawn in 1970. Occasionally I will post a short story that I wrote many years ago, giving it the time stamp of the year it was written. The timeline feature at Intersect really hooked me, because I remember things by date. It’s easy to simply click on 1974 to read that I was delivering newspapers in North Seattle. Sometimes I will transfer one of my older relevant blog posts to Intersect from another service like Blogger, to take advantage of the timeline feature.

What’s your favorite story (fiction or non) of all time?

Josef Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness. This story is amazing to me on several levels, the first of which being that it still reads with some relevance. Madness, compassion, honesty, and the brutality of life are all played out. It is so beautifully crafted, which makes it amazing yet again because Josef Conrad was Polish by birth – and English was his second language. I read it for the first time in college, after seeing its story line in Apocalypse Now several times.

Who’s the most interesting person you’ve ever met?

In the 1980s I worked with a guy named Bert Hill. He was adopted, an Air Force veteran, a tireless tinkerer, and a man who could fix just about anything with supplies picked up at the hardware store – or even by the side of the road. He smoked the long More-brand cigarettes and drove a cheap Pinto station wagon that had his hand-made forward-facing auxiliary light box bolted to the top (for off-road driving…in a Pinto – only Bert would do that).

Eventually he bought a Toyota Landcruiser, and moved his light box to the new rig. He taught me many things about self sufficiency, at a time when I needed to learn. How to look at a pending problem from several angles, how to catch fish the cheap way, and even how to fix just about anything. Because of what he taught me, I was eventually able to revive a single-speed wiper motor for a 1959 Chevy Impala with little more than a screwdriver, bearing grease, and sandpaper. Tackle Box Innovation for the win. Any time I’m up against a wall with a mechanical problem that seems unsolvable, Bert is usually in my thoughts. He was a character; I’ve never met anyone like him since.

Most of Kurt Clark's stories center around the city of Bellevue, Wash. Click the image to see Kurt's time/place story map.

What’s your favorite place you’ve ever been?

Whitman County, Washington: The speed of life “On The Palouse” is addictive to anyone who can find relaxation in a Sunday drive between rural towns, or a night sky blanketed with stars – viewed from the hood of a car on a dirt road. Some of the best motorcycle riding I’ve ever done has been on The Palouse. It helps that Washington State University is in the county’s largest city of Pullman, which is where the stunning Mrs. Clark and I graduated from. We have fond memories of living there year-round and enjoying the beautiful hilly terrain at sundown. Had we found work in Pullman, we would have stayed.

What’s your favorite place you’ve never been?

Argentina: A long-time Internet friend – and mutual fan of 1959 Chevy cars – runs an eco-tourism business south of Buenos Aires; I have an open invitation to visit him in the region called Villa Ventania. I was also invited to visit Catamarca in the rugged northwest part of the country, by a missionary I met several years ago. Argentina’s history and terrain are very intriguing. Their music and dance is alluring and meaningful. And since I love steak, I would be right at home in a country filled with some of the best beef in the Southern Hemisphere.

If you could relive one day in your life, what day would it be?

In 1986 I started a warm summer day in Seattle by nearly destroying an early-issued pressing of Led Zeppelin’s first album, by leaving my turntable on automatic; Side One played for two hours straight while I was gone, and turned grey from wear. I was really upset, but I hadn’t seen the worst of the day…yet. That afternoon my girlfriend and I got spit on in traffic during a road rage incident (did the term “road rage” even exist in 1986?). At the end of the day we witnessed an accident that has haunted me ever since, shared on Intersect as “Night of The Ninja.”

If I had the opportunity to relive it, I probably would have left town for the day instead.

If you could go back and give your 10-year-old self advice, what would it be?

“Worry less about what people think of you, and learn from a mistake instead of fearing it.”

Dogs or cats?

Cats. Long history with cats going back to Byl The Cat.

Print books or digital?

Print books for pictures, and digital for reading. I read mostly online.

Smart phone or cell phone?

Smart phone. I helped launch and support the AT&T Wireless “PocketNet” wireless data phone in 1997-98, the text-only great-grandfather to the iPhone. The flexibility of having data that close hooked me then and continued on.

Coffee or tea?

Coffee that is black enough to suck the light from a room.

Ski vacation or beach vacation?

Beach vacation, hands down. The Clarks love Ocean Shores and Long Beach WA.

Give a shout out: Who’s another Intersecter whose posts you enjoy? Why?

I enjoy following Patti Aro, because her stories and the feeling she injects are similar to what I feel when writing about the tough stuff. Her writing flows very well, and is sometimes filled with emotional honesty. I also enjoy the “story-series” model she uses, with one story that has links to the next one or the previous one at the bottom of the page. Very innovative. It’s hard not to read her stories!

Keep up with Kurt on Intersect at intersect.com/kurtclark and on Twitter at @kurtclark.

For those of you near Seattle – Kurt is hosting a meetup of area Intersecters featuring an odd Canadian snack known as poutine on March 12. RSVP if you can go!

When were you at the Eiffel Tower? (Photo from Travel Monkey)

Ever since we gave you a way to show where you’ve been and when on your own interactive storyline maps, many of you have been filling them with moments from your neighborhood and around the world, sparking story-by-story conversations about some pretty interesting places.

Like the Parisian Eiffel Tower.

Peter Sessum saw the landmark in June 2007. Drew Inglis was there one year earlier, in June of 2006. As for the Travel Monkey — let’s just say he was there in spirit in May of 2004.

Did you know that the lights on the tower are copyrighted, so publishing images of the tower at night can be illegal? Kurt Clark filled us in on that.

To build your own storyline map, just share moments and photos through the Create a Story link and tag them with both a time and a place. You can upload photos from your computer, a URL or, if you have one, your Flickr account. If you’re on Twitter or Facebook, you can connect your accounts on the Account page to easily share your posts with those networks when you publish:

See your stories on your storyline map by clicking the Map link under the You tab. Double-click to zoom, and click on a thumbnail to see what stories are there.

For a particularly full global example, check out Dean Allen’s interactive storyline map (screenshot below) here.