TS Morakot

So we have this little tropical storm sitting out there churning up. Right now it is not forecasted to be higher than Cat 1 by the time it hits us, but I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will ramp up a bit and give us a good storm.

If you look at this picture, where the last little marker is, is where we are...so we are looking at Thursday night/Friday morning right now. I am trying not to get too excited about it, although I did send out a word of caution and advice to some of my friends here that haven't been in a decent storm yet...just to be on the safe side.

I will see how things go tomorrow before I start getting too busy with strapping stuff down and the like...I have cargo straps for anything I plan to leave outside and then we have a garage area for protection for the car. I don't really have a lot outside right now...and the teak table and chairs are pretty heavy but I usually collapse them and strap them together to be safe...last thing I need is for a chair to get smashed through one of my wall-sized plate glass windows.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Now You See It, Now You Don't

Bring On The Heat

So it is 7am and these are our current conditions. It will only get hotter today and if we do get the 30% chance of rain, more than likely, it won't cool things down, it will just increase the humidity.

I really don't mind the heat here...I even enjoy the humidity too, but you do get used to sweating a lot, all the time. I guess I am just used to the fact that summer means sweat and I try to plan for outdoor things first thing in the morning or in the evening when the sun is low (or gone).

We had a picnic the other day at the beach and even in the shade, we were all sitting there sweating. Of course we didn't have any wind either and that is a huge factor here. We need wind.

Currently, there are no typhoons on the horizon and we could really use one. I love them and we haven't had a decent one in ages.

Anyway, I better get off here so I can get a couple of things accomplished outside before it gets too warm.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Hitting Bumps But Living Through It

Marking The Day

Happy Anniversary my love!!! These really have been the best years of my life and I am thankful everyday that we found each other. You are the best!!

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...My Love

Solar eclipse shrouds Asia in daytime darkness

It was so cool to be so close to the total solar eclipse today. We only had a 92% total here but it was still very cool. The sun was only a tiny sliver (much like the moon looks when it is just starting out for the month). My sister and I always called it a fingernail moon. This was a fingernail sun at the fullest part.

The sky was darkened like we were in a shadow and the temperature definitely dropped. We had some thin cloud cover but the camera and welding glass still allowed me to see through it to the sun. It seemed like it lasted a long time but it was really only a bit over 6 minutes.

I was kind of suprised that I couldn't see the moon at all as it approached the sun or even as it covered...it looked just like a circular shade was being drawn.

I found that the welding glass was the best for taking pictures and the reverse binoculars worked best for watching the progress when I wasn't taking pictures. I didn't want to watch it much through the glass because I didn't want to hurt my eyes even a little bit.

I think I actually got a few decent shots even if the sun looks green in them. I would like to get a solar filter for my telescope so I can check out the sun more often with it and perhaps get some shots of solar flares or spots sometime.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Catch Up

My Only Recourse

This may be it...I will be experimenting with different options for a pin hole viewer for the eclipse since the eclipse glasses seem to be sold out here on the island...I found this blog post that has directions for a pretty simple one...we'll see if I can get one that works for me...

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Still At The Open

Solar Eclipse

Looks like I might get to see a "very close to full" eclipse of the sun on the 22nd of July around 10:50am. The full eclipse will be just north of us so we won't get the full meal deal but pretty darn close, which is cool since I haven't been in a location to see a solar eclipse in forever.

I remember when I was a kid, my dad went off to see one, I am not sure where he went for it but he brought back some cool pictures. I thought it was prett interesting. As kids, our parents were always pointing out the unique things in the skies to us. We would watch lightening storms from under the picnic table in the back yard. We watched for days and days for Skylab to fall in the 70s and we always watched the meteor showers in the August skies.

I have a pretty decent telescope now but I need to see if I can find some solar eclipse sunglasses here somewhere. I would like to get some pictures and even some video if I can through the telescope but I don't want to chance hurting my eyes. According to Wikipedia's website, you can watch it through a video camera or digital output without hurting your eyes but just going through the telescope, viewfinder on a camera or looking at it directly could be very bad. If I were to get the full eclipse, I could watch that but since we will be a bit off, it will never be complete and therefore dangerous at all times during the event.

This site has a lot of info on the eclipse as well as the links for webcasts from my part of the world if you want to check them out.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Lunar Eclipse

Update to Mishka's Reading

I updated my reading blog today with my reads from February thru June 2009. Check them out if you have a chance...

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Bogged Down

Suicide bombers kill 8 at Jakarta Marriott, Ritz - Yahoo! News

This is why my mom gets nervous when we travel...

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Grand Theft Auto

Cicada Time

July is a big month for cicada here in Southern Japan...they are called semi. They are very big and noisy here. We had them when I lived in Texas as a kid but I don't remember them being this huge or loud.

Anyhow, this year has been particularly loud...apparently some years there are lots more than others so perhaps this is a busier year. They seem to like the little tree in the middle of our pond so we are forced to be audience to their loud song each day during "semi season". Soon they will be gone.

This morning, I decided to get out and video tape some so I could have the sound as well as the pictures. I also took this picture with our video camera so you could see the detail of one and also see how big they are here. This one was about 3 inches from the top of the head to the edge of the wing.

I know I will miss them when they are gone as they are always a reminder that summer is finally here.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Heading Out

Me, Myself and I

Over the last few years I have noticed that the verbal (and now written) use of the word "myself" has evolved into something that is slowly driving me crazy. I do not claim to be an expert in grammar but this one is a peeve I just can't ignore. I have heard this incorrect usage spill from the lips of Americans in all spectrums of society (educators, sports figures, journalists, politicians, movie stars, students....etc). I don't watch enough international television to notice whether it is worldwide or not, so for now I am limiting my peeve to Americans. Now I am starting to see it in written word as well and that is very scary...

I think it stems from the fear of when to use "me" and "I" correctly. This is something that is drilled into all of us at a very early age. Regardless of the trama, substituting "myself" does not correct this or ease this confusion. It is becoming so commonplace that I expect that Webster's will adopt this new use and there will be no going back. Therefore, I am announcing my issues with it again, so I can say I made an effort.

Okay, so here it is. You CAN say "She bought the cake for my wife and me." You CAN NOT say "She bought the cake for my wife and myself." It just doesn't work that way, because if you were to take the wife out of the sentence (the true test if something is grammatically correct), it would be "She bought the cake for myself" and that just doesn't make sense. You can also say "Jack and I were married yesterday." You can not say "Jack and myself were married yesterday." I don't tend to hear the use of "myself" substituted for "I" as often as for "me" but it does happen on occasion.

Now that I have mentioned it, all of you will hear it all the time and it will drive you crazy too....so you can thank me later...ha ha. Great, I feel better now, getting that off my chest. Please remember that I am not an expert, and I am sure there are 47 other grammatical errors in this little blurb that someone could point out. I just had to get my particular peeve out in the open again (and now that I have, let us hope that I don't ever use "me, myself, and I" incorrectly or I will have hell to pay).

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Me, Myself, and I

Chirping Madness

Okay, a similar little guy to this image almost drove me crazy last night. He was in our bedroom and would chirp super loud pretty much once an hour. Finally this morning, I was able to figure out where he was and chase him until he got tired and shooed him out the door. I knew I couldn't do another night of him in my room chirping for a girlfriend...it would have driven me insane.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Irritation

New Friend....Not

It is a good thing that I am not the one in the family that hates spiders because this dude decided to take a little cruise out from the side of my desk while I was here on the computer earlier and at first I just saw it out of the side of my vision and thought it was our cat...then I remembered that she was outside so I looked to see and he was just hanging out next to the office trash can.

Of course, I can't let something that big crawl around in my house while I am sleeping so I had to get the Raid out and kill it but at least it didn't give me the heebie jeebies like it would have someone else I know.

Anyhow, this guy had a pretty decent wingspan so I tried to spread him out a bit after he was dead and put the thumbtack in there for perspective. He was easily 3 inches from leg tip to leg tip if not a bit bigger than that. This is the second big one like this I have seen in or near the house this week....must be spider season again.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Family Reunion

Flashback

Okay, I know this is a late post but I was in another country without Internet access when I found out about Michael Jackson's death. I was getting ready to hit the hotel gym and just turned on the BBC news for a second when I saw the "breaking news" story. At first, I thought it had to be a joke...I guess I didn't realize he was in bad health at all and I found it so hard to believe he was actually dead.

Anyhow, I am not a celebrity kind of person...yes, I have artists or actors that I like but I don't go all crazy over them and I don't feel like they are a member of my family when they die. So while I was completely shocked to hear of his death, and I did shed a tear, it wasn't so much for him or the loss of his talent on the planet as it was for more selfish reasons.

As my mom pointed out in her post Michael was a bid deal in my house when I was in junior high school. He was one of the first artists that I found on my own (most of my music interests up to that point were influenced by my parent's great taste). At the time, I didn't know his past, all I knew was that this great album came out with this really cute guy on it and the music made me want to dance. I grew up in a small town and we were a bit behind on trends but I did get the "Top 40" on the weekends and we had just gotten cable so I was glued to MTV. I remember when the Thriller video came out and it was such a huge deal. I "loved" Michael Jackson and did wear a single white glove at my junior high graduation (I wish I had the picture here with me to post but it is in storage). I learned to moon walk and taught my dad how to as well during that year of MJ. I loved all the songs on that album and I have it on CD now.

I stopped listening to MJ after the Bad album as my tastes changed but whenever I hear a song from the Thriller album, it takes me back to that year. It reminds me of being in between being a kid and being a grown up and not really being aware of anything outside my little world of school, friends and family. So I guess when I saw that he was dead, I was sad for his family and the loss of his talent for those generations that won't get to know how great of an artist he was, but I was a little sad for the loss of the icon of my preteen years and how much his music influenced my life and brings back those memories for me.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Ocean

Typhoon Linfa

This may be the only day we can call it that...right now it is at Typhoon Category 1 but it is not forecasted to stay that way...we will definitely get some weather from it but mostly just more rain....

Today the sun is actually out and so is the humidity...so all that complaining everyone has been doing about the rain will be about how hot and humid it is today...haha. But we'll be back to rain probably within a few days.

Hope all this is not going to affect our attempt to fly out on a long weekend vacation next week...

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Recycling

TS Linfa

Our first storm of the official season...isn't typhoon strength yet but might get there if conditions allow. We have had a few weeks of rain here (which is great for the area but not so great for outdoorsy fun). This storm is coming up near the tailend of that so we are looking at some more rain even if it doesn't hit typhoon strength.

We'll see if it turns, or pittles out before it gets near us....this second picture is from the Weather Underground and they only have it forcasted through Sunday with Taiwan as its target...we'll see how things progress.

In the meantime, I have been enjoying the thunderstorms but if we could get a hold on the rain for the evening time so we can enjoy the Salsa festival, it would be great!!!

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Family Reunion

Why It Is Hard

My Mom just emailed me and my sister that our Grandfather is having problems. It is to be expected that as a person gets older there are various things that crop up but when you live far from home, it is hard to hear and imagine because everyone pretty much freezes (in your mind) at the time you left.

We have not lived in the same town with the majority of our family since we have been married...work and school just wouldn't allow it, but we were able to stay on the West Coast for a long time (which is where most of our family lives) so that was okay...we were only a car ride away.

For the last few years though, we have been a plane ride away and right now I am a very long plane ride away...it makes me feel terrible because I am not there, and I feel disconnected from my family.

I am hoping that the news we got is "worse case scenario" and things are not as bad as it sounds but I guess I need to prepare myself for the worse. I HATE that I am not there (although I don't know how much I would be able to help). I know it is hard on my Grandma to see him get older so much faster than he was before.

He will be 98 in September this year. I hope he knows I love him very much even from this distance.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Lights Out

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | North Korea in plutonium threat

Is this guy just stupid? Does he not see that his little bit of power over his unfortunate country could be gone in a flash if he doesn't start to deflate his ego a bit? I feel sorry for the North Koreans having to deal with this guy and any of his relations.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Weight Loss

Darkness

Okay, it is so dark in my house right now that I need to turn lights on even though it is 9am...this is because we are in the midst of several days of thunderstorms. I love the storms...don't get me wrong but the waves of clouds do have me turning lights on and off periodically....haha.

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Four Years Ago on In My Words...Father's Day Trials and Tribulations

Elderly gunman kills guard at Holocaust Museum - Yahoo! News

Good grief...human beings never cease to astonish me...and in this case it is not a good thing. How do we even get crazies like this in the gene pool?

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2 Years Ago on In My Words...Recycling

15 Books

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I'm interested in seeing what books my friends came up with (I'll tag people once this goes to Facebook from Blogger).

1. Hitchhiker's Guide the Galaxy Trilogy - Douglas Adams Discovered these in high school and immediately fell in love with his humor and way of thinking...helped me to start thinking outside the box and fueled my desire to write myself.

2. Last Chance to See - Douglas Adams
Read this one after college and it grabbed me from the start. His humor and horror at the way humans treat the world and the other beings in it helped me to see how much we need to change our ways.

3. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
This book just sticks in my brain from childhood...I think it was one of the first times I realized you can get a bit scared by a book.

4. Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
This book helped me to visualize and express all the things I already knew about the world and just hadn't be able to put into words or pictures. It changed my life and I highly recommend it to anyone.

5. The Shining - Stephen King
I am a huge Stephen King fan, have been since jr high, and this book will always hold a place in my mind because it was really the first full novel I read of his and it scared me to death.

6. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
Was turned onto this series in 3rd grade and loved everyone one of them. Own them and read them over and over again.

7. The Griffin and Sabine Series - Nick Bantock
Discovered these books the night before heading to Japan the first time and they started me down a postcard road that I have not returned from, thankfully.

8. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Read this in highschool and just felt like the author knew what was in my heart.

9. A Wrinkle In Time - Madeline L'Engle
Had this book read to me in 4th grade by Ms Capp and couldn't stop until I read the entire series...I think it inspired the science side of me as well.

10. Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Read this book a few years ago and decided that one person can make a difference.

11. Contact - Carl Sagan
Another one that inspired me to look at the world differently and also pushed me towards science.

12. Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
Read this in jr high, I believe, and fell in love with his version of the world.

13. Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
My favorite young adult author, read everything she wrote and really related to the characters at a time when all girls are feeling very awkward.

14. The Lorax - Dr. Seuss
My first inkling of environmentalism...I was so saddened by the destruction of the land and trees.

15. The Salmon of Doubt - Douglas Adams
Finished after Douglas Adams died, but has some great insight to his life and beliefs, and made me think outside the box once again.

So there you go, they aren't all the deepest books but they all affected who I am today and the interests I have in science, the environment, volunteerism, and in writing.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Final Draft