I've experienced many quakes. Most just little jolts of small consequence. I've also experienced two big ones- 11 miles from the epicenter of the San Fernando quake in '71, and 6 miles from the Northridge quake in '94. The SF quake wasn't that bad, but the Northridge quake was pretty scary in its violence. I was shoveling up glass and china shards into 5 gallon buckets for disposal. We all came out of it fine in the Fireball household, though.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
