Almost forgot there's one of those tropical storms that get recognized as typhoons blowing around somewhere in Southeast Asia and I told the Mrs that I'd better post something about it here.
As you can see, I'm high and dry. The wind is blowing and some rain but, I don't think the typhoon is really gonna whack us like that last one did. It's just a baby typhoon and doesn't look like it's coming close enough to Okinawa to do any harm.
Here are a few links for those who would like weather maps and forecasts that seem fairly decent:
This one is all in english and was provided by TIME 2 PCS a pretty cool site I just found.
Another, I hope works for folks around the globe, comes from YAHOO WEATHER I like this site because they somehow, know Nago City is the closest weather station to me. They even call the place Nago-shi, like maybe they speak Japanese, or something cuz that's the way folks talk around here. But, the site is in english and even says the strongest winds will be around 40 MPH. Gimmie a break!
That's not bad at all. Last typhoon we had winds over 100 MPH and my house is still standing.
It's Friday night here. Beer drinking time. So, I gotta go. I'll update if there's any drastic changes in the weather, later. Have a great weekend, wherever you are and don't worry about Okinawa and our l'il typhoon, OK ?
UPDATE: SATURDAY MORNING AS THE TYPHOON MOVES AWAY FROM OKINAWA. GROAN.
THESE WEATHER PREDICTOR-PEOPLE ARE NUTS !!!
FIRST, LET ME POST ANOTHER LINK FOR YOU.
THE US EBMASSY has a fairly decent TIPS FOR TYPHOONS list and a few good links that are updated frequently so, it's worth checking into. Just poke around all the buttons and eventually you get to see up to date weather maps. Some sites, you may have to wait a few seconds for your Google Translator thingy to kick-in but, it's worth the wait, I think.
Now, I don't have any kinda fancy wind-speed-meter so, I have to give you my update from the seat of my pants. Here's the real-deal coming to you live from on the ground in Kin Cho Kin Okinawa, Japan.
I left the house about 9AM Japan Standard Time (JST) to come to my office. It was only sprinkling a bit of rain but windy. I debated whether or not to carry an umbrella. I have a collection of twisted umbrellas (sounds like a rock band huh?) from previous typhoons. Just before leaving the house to walk here, I told the wife maybe I'd take one of my twisted umbrellas in case the wind died down and I'd need it to walk back home in the rain.
Halfway to the office, it started raining hard. So, I opened the umbrella. The rain was blowing every which way you can imagine and a few places you probably never would have guessed.
The dangbanged wind, that wasn't supposed to exceed about 35MPH, according to the knucklehead weather-persons, decided to exceed the speed limit. It took my umbrella and twisted it some more, turned the contraption inside out and almost poked one of my eyes out before I wrestled it to the ground and stomped on it so I could hogtie the damn thing and get it under control.
That wind had to be doing 50MPH or better. I can't show you any photos because I try to keep this site family friendly. I made this windspeed estimate by the seat of my pants. They are hanging from my REDNECK COOLING TOWER right now while I sit on top of a stack of old newspapers hoping they'll soak up all the water from my underwear before it gets to the felt upholstery covering my barstool.
Once the seat of my pants gets dry enough, I'll switch them and let the underwear dry. Meanwhile, I hope no customers come by here looking to buy a drink. This typhoon won't harm anyone. It's just a little stronger than expected with plenty of rain. I really wish it would give me a break !
VISIT MY WEBSITE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY
FULL MOON PHOTO 3:10AM JUN 16, 2011
Here's a blow by blow account from Okinawa, Japan concerning this month's full moon.
For me, it all started at 7:15PM last night, the 15th of June. Ryukyu Rusty sent me an instant message, or whatever you call those emails that come through your cell phone. It said "Lunar Eclipse at 0300". I replied, he could come by the house and get my 500mm lens. No way, was I going to be awake at 3AM.
Well, he was so excited about the full moon, he never came by and went with that girl of his to shoot reflections of the full moon over the ocean, somewhere. Hope he got some.
Anyway, I walked back to my office and Googled the full moon Jun 2011 and came across this article in the HUFFINGTON POST. They were talking about a "moment of totality" and this hasn't happened this good since July of 2000 so, I said "The hell with it". Then, went home and asked the wife to look outside at 2:30 in the morning and see if she could see the moon. I told her it was a special event, where the moon turns red. I'd get out of bed for that. I didn't want to get out of bed if it was so cloudy you couldn't see the moon.
At 2:30AM, I was awakened. Groan. "Did you see the moon, I asked her"? "Yes, she says. It isn't red". Groan, gripe, get coffee, put lens in camera, mount everything on a tripod and stumble up the stairs to the roof of the house to see what the moon looked like and there it was. It didn't look any different than any other full moon I ever saw. Why am I doing this after only getting 3 hours sleep? Groan, again.
After shooting about 50 frames of the moon at different camera settings, I called it a night. I was starting to think Huffington and Rusty were full of crap. Maybe there was some confusion about the date between when the eclipse takes place over Japan vice the USA.
So, I groaned some more, took the big lens off the camera and put all my toys away. Wide awake, full of mosquito bites and coffee, I decided I might as well take the SD card out of the camera and go to my office, uptown, to download and see how my moon shots turned out.
It's a few blocks walk to get to my office. I stop at a machine close to the place and grab a few iced coffees to drink while the PCs are doing whatever they do warming up everyday.
Well, just as I turn the last corner, to get to my hangout, the moon appeared.
It looked like this around 4AM. I watched for awhile, to make sure it wasn't just clouds. It wasn't clouds.
Sonovagun, the moon was going to have an eclipse at 4AM instead of 3AM. I was sure.
So, I emailed Rusty's cell phone to let him know it was SHOWTIME !
This photo was taken at 4:11AM using Pentax K5, Tripod, Cable Release and the Sigma 50-500mm lens.
It was 4:19AM when I took this shot and I'm still waiting for that "Moment of Totality" to happen.
At 4:39 I took this photo and was starting to feel somewhat totalled but, wasn't sure if it was quite there, yet. This isn't the way I'm used to getting totalled so, some scientist will have to be the judge on this eclipse of the full moon thingy.
A bunch of clouds rolled in and blocked my view several times so, after I took this shot at 4:45AM I called it a day. I'm really not sure if I witnessed the totality, or not.
The other thing I got wondering is what the heck is that thing at about ten o'clock just outside the moon. Somebody spyin' or did we leave space junk up there awhile back ?
NOTE: THE SIGMA 50-500MM, ONE OF MY FAVORITE LENSES IS AVAILABLE FOR CANON, NIKON, SIGMA, SONY AND PENTAX DSLRS AT ADORAMA CAMERA A COMPANY, I AM PROUD TO SAY, I AM AFFILIATED WITH AS I HAVE HAD SUPERIOR SERVICE IN MY PAST DEALINGS WITH THEM. THEY DELIVER PROMPTLY.
SEE A 15 SHOT SERIES OF THE LUNAR ECLIPSE HERE
VISIT MY HOMEPAGE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY
