The first kiss is almost subtle – a hello not a blatant invitation.  We explore the moment, not rushing to the main event.  On our knees, his hands on my ass, my hands on his chest – slowly letting it expand around us.  Not a maelstrom, but a gentle and increasing rain.

He pulls back to smile and I meet his eyes.  He kisses my collarbone, my neck, working his way up to the spot he knows I will feel between my legs.  He is far from a younger man wanting to be rubbed as quickly and firmly as possible.  This is a man with time to spend, and who knows how to spend it.

He slides his hands up to my waist, still licking my neck.  I arch my head into him, making a gentle noise in my throat, moving my lips to his neck.  His smell intrigues me – pheromones being what they are – and I drink it deeply.  I undo his shirt (did I tell you how much I like a white shirt?) and slide my hands inside.  His skin is warm and his body taught.  I run my hands around, working the shirt out of his pants, as he slides his hands down the back of mine.

I see his hands in my pants and raise him an undone belt.  I pull back from our kiss – no longer a gentle rain, but a rumbling thunder in the distance – and look him right in the eye as I unzip his pants, giving him my best ‘your going in my mouth’ smile.

I lick my way along the top of his boxers, gentle licks and kisses, teasing. He shifts his hips forward for more.  I slide my hand up his leg to gently rub that part – you know the one I mean, below the shaft where you like to be rubbed – while I took him in my mouth.

He lets me have my way with him for a minute – licking and sucking while I look in his eyes.

The storm is right above us.  He quickly pushes me back on the bed and returns the favor, divesting me of my clothes with an increasingly frantic series of touches and kisses.  I see him, between my legs, open white shirt and black boxers, looking at me with his dirty eyes.  How can I girl help from moaning at a time like that?

He gets rid of inconvenient clothes (did I tell you how much I like a white shirt on the floor?), slides up, smiling as he slowly glides into me, extending the moment.  He holds himself there, poised in me, looking down at me – that indescribable moment where you connect, where the world beyond that second ceases to exist.  We lost ourselves there, not needing to move at all.

And then the tempo of the rain increases.

We take our time, speed up and make noises I am sure the people in the next room hear.  To continue the analogy: There is most definitely lightning.  I can’t describe the sex, so fluid and so consuming that I don’t remember it as a series of events.  In my mind it is a state of being, not a series of acts.  Normally a girl who does things consciously, I am surprised to find that I lose myself in the experience.  I don’t do it, I feel it.

It feels good.

A storm is coming...

What if the recent blizzard that hit the East Coast of the United States was induced by man? What if that same blizzard was actually a weapon? What if that same blizzard occurred as retaliation for an earlier attack elsewhere in the world?

It may sound far-fetched but it may actually be closer to the truth than what we may want to think it is. The C.I.A. has spent considerable amounts of money investing in weather-manipulation technology to use for military applications… and they’re not alone as other major espionage agencies around the world have done so too. We’ve even seen some of this technology in practical use:  the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China had weather-manipulation technology in use to keep the weather conditions at their best for the sporting spectacle.

Here’s a scary thought: nations inducing specific weather conditions to cause violent weather conditions. Tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, thunderstorms and lightning storms, hailstorms and more unleashed on enemies or even on friendly neighbours for whatever gain is required. Be it for economical gain by inducing drought conditions on the crops of other nations to raise the value of a nation’s own crops; be it for military gain by inducing intense damage to foes and then moving in for the kill; be it for a practical gain to simply let others suffer instead while a nation enjoys sunny skies. William Meyer said that weather-manipulation technology could become a more important weapon than the atom bomb…

The fine balance of our ecosystems and natural equilibrium could seriously become distorted by man’s lust for control and greed… and it could be our undoing.

“Mention this to me, watch the weather change…”
- Tool (Disposition)

Hello world!

Christmas is near!!! Super near!!!! And the weather today, hot The weatherman said that we will get a huge thunderstorm… and so far it has been a big fat lie!!! I want rain rain rain!!!! Anyway, like what I said yesterday, I have an assignment to make more than 40 cupcakes with Christmas as the theme~ Made the cuppies yesterday and today, to decorate them~

Put so much effort this year, and I came up with four different patterns

Christmas Wreath

Christmas Mistletoe

Silver Snowflake

Christmas Tree

And this is what it looks like!!!!!! PRETTY!!!!!

Just be happy when you’re in a middle of decorating, cos it will shown on your work in the end~

Happy decorating guys~

XOXO,

Aby

If you’ve visited my other nature blog, Berkeley, Naturally! you know weather is one of my great passions. In my post “Escape from New England-a weather nut’s confession,” I describe how I looked forward to the big summer push of moisture from Baja, Mexico, that gave us our July and August thunderstorms in Las Vegas.

But aside from those summer thunderstorms, weather was pretty boring in Vegas, although the summer heat was fierce. So, as a young boy, I used to read all the books I could on weather. In the heat of summer, I’d go to the Las Vegas library and check out 12 or more books. Then come home, climb in my favorite chair, and read for hours in air-conditioned comfort while the desert heat beat down outside.

The Ethereal Waterspout

In my weather reading, I was always fascinated by the extremes of weather—thunderstorms, tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, hail storms—you name it. If it was powerful and exciting, I loved it! And maybe because I lived in the desert, waterspouts were especially fascinating to me. They are so beautiful and so much more ethereal than their more violent brethren, tornadoes.

The Tornadic Waterspout

Some “waterspouts” are simply tornadoes that form or move over water and are thus are called “tornadic waterspouts.” Like any tornado, they form in violent thunderstorms called supercells.   Tornadoes almost always appear in a rotating area of clouds that extends beneath a severe thunderstorm called a wall cloud.  Here’s an example of a tornadic waterspout—a tornado with its associated wall cloud that moved over lake Michigan:

Fair Weather Waterspouts

Fair weather waterspouts, as the name implies, typically form during calm, warm weather along the base of developing cumulus clouds. They start to develop on the surface of the water and then spin their way up into the cloud, whereas a tornadic waterspout, being a tornado, develops downward.

This doesn’t mean a tornado might not first be visible by swirls on the ground; it just means those ground swirls are created by a column of air descending out of the cloud, whether or not the descending column is visible. Fair weather waterspouts are thought to be start as vortexes formed by horizontal wind shear at the water’s surface that spin upward because of the updraft at the face of a developing cumulus clouds or thunderstorms.

Since most waterspouts rotate slower than weakest tornadoes (about 67 mph or less), I wondered what it would be like to sail into one of them with a boat. I imagined it be a little like experiencing a mini-tornado, a little scary but not too dangerous. (There are some reports of fair weather waterspouts with winds well over 100 mph.)

Encounter with a Waterspout

Then I came across a wonderful story of an actual encounter of a ship with a waterspout written by a turn-of-the-century author. It was great account, but I long ago forgot the author’s name. To my delight, I rediscovered the story while researching this article.

The story is called “A Waterspout” and was written by Edward Sylvester Ellis. Here’s an edited excerpt, with all the “good” parts left in:

“The Slavonia, of the Hamburg line left Brunshausen, on the Elbe, on February 26 last, under the command of Capt. H. Schmidt. She had only two passengers. The weather was squally and the air full of mist when she reached the outer Banks, 900 miles from New York, shortly after sunrise on Sunday, March 16.

The big vessel was heading west by north, when, at 7 o’clock, Second Mate Erichsen, who was on the bridge, saw emerge through the mist on the starboard side of the ship, at the distance of about a thousand feet, a towering column which united sea and sky. The column was in front of the ship to starboard, and was moving in a southeasterly direction, apparently at the rate of eight knots an hour…

On rushed the Slavonia, heading west by north: nearer came the waterspout, heading south by east. It soon became evident that the spout could not get by before the Slavonia reached it, and it was now too late to slow up–indeed, a collision was manifestly unavoidable from the start.

[The waterspout] hit the steamer’s bows on the starboard side. A rushing noise accompanied the column, and the water foamed in its wake. Immediately above was a great black cloud from which clouds less dark descended to form a funnel, or inverted cone. The middle of the column was white, apparently because it contained snow.

The column’s narrowest diameter was about twelve feet, while it was three times as broad as its base, which reproduced in water and inverted the cloud-formed funnel above. The whole column rotated with a spiral motion.

The Slavonia shook under the shock caused by contact with the column of water, but kept on her course none the worse for the collision. A few flakes of snow on her bow were the only evidence of the collision after the pillar of water had passed off to port.”

A large ship like the Slavonia would receive little damage from a waterspout, but smaller craft should definitely avoid them. A strong waterspout can easily knock over or swamp a small pleasure boat or sail boat. Waterspouts are also a real danger to aircraft because they are often nearly invisible and carry significant turbulence. Helicopters are especially vulnerable to the rotating winds in a waterspout.

So, where can you see a fair weather waterspout? You’re most likely to see a waterspout in the tropics, given their need for relatively calm, warm, moist air and developing cumulus clouds. People in Florida and the Florida Keys see as many as 400 to 500 a year, but waterspouts are reported in mid-latitude areas as well, such as the Great Lakes and over large bodies of water in Europe.

How Waterspouts Form

If you were watching a waterspout form what would you see? Typically, waterspouts have a five-part life cycle:

Stage 1

If you could watch from the air, the first thing you’d notice was the formation of a dark spot on the water surface. This dark spot is formed by a vortex of air spinning rapidly at the water’s surface, roughing up the water’s surface and making it look darker.

Stage 2

The next thing you’d see would be an expanding light-and-dark spiral pattern on the water’s surface as the vortex grows in strength and begins to pull more surface air in towards the low pressure at the center of the rotation. Invisible to you, the vortex is now being drawn up the side of the neighboring cumulus by the cloud’s updraft.

Stage 3

As the vortex strengthens, and winds neared 40 mph, you would next see a spray ring called the cascade develop as the waterspout whips the water at ever higher speeds. At this point, you’d no longer have to be in the air to see the developing waterspout, but could notice it from a boat.

Stage 4

In the fourth stage, the next thing you’d see would be the formation of the visible condensation funnel. Contrary to popular belief, the tunnel is not made visible by the waterspout sucking huge quantities of sea or lake water up into the funnel. The winds just aren’t strong enough for that. Rather, the low pressure in the tunnel caused the warm, moist air to cool and condense, forming water droplets than can be seen.

As the waterspout reaches maturity, the visible funnel can grow hundreds feet high or stretch all the way from the water to the cloud base. The tallest waterspout on record reached 3,000 feet in length! Once the waterspout reaches the mature stage, it can last a few minutes or over an hour if the conditions are right.

Stage 5

The fifth and final stage is dissipation. Waterspouts typically begin to fall apart as the inflow of warm air into the vortex weakens. This is often caused by rain from the neighboring cumulus falling into the funnel, cooling it. As this happens, the spray vortex weakens, the funnel thins, shortens, and twists and then just fades away.

Some day, a Dream Come True

I hope you found this post interesting and informative. Someday, I hope my childhood dream of seeing a waterspout comes true, and I can be as close as this woman in Florida:

For now, pictures and videos will have to do.

Speaking of videos, if you’d like to see a spectacular movie of a waterspout that formed in Singapore, take a look at this YouTube video. I’m sure you’ll enjoy as much as I did:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g_Kqowj6rs

The Panamanian-flagged Danny F II capsized 11 miles (20km) off Tripoli after sending a distress signal.

At least 19 survivors from the vessel – sailing from Uruguay to the Syrian port of Tartous – have been picked up, officials said.

Lebanon has been hit by severe thunderstorms and flooding.

One of those saved was from the Philippines and another from Pakistan, a Lebanese rescue official said.

“They were very scared and cold when we pulled them out of the water,” he told AFP news agency.

“If the sea remains calm we hope to find more survivors, but if the storm kicks up again then they have little chance of surviving for more than an hour in the water,” he said.

All the livestock were presumed dead, he added.

A Lebanese military spokesman said the crew had time to don life jackets before the boat capsized.

The ship’s operator, Agencia Schandy, told AFP in Montevideo that the Danny F II had a crew of 76 and six passengers – four Uruguayans, one Brazilian and an Australian.

The ship had left Montevideo on 23 November with 10,224 sheep and 17,932 cattle, the company said.

International search

The ship’s crew are mostly from the Philippines and Pakistan but there is at least one Lebanese and one Syrian on board, a port official in Tripoli said.

Reports from Tripoli said ambulances had been seen rushing out of the port area to nearby hospitals.

Ships from the Lebanese navy and the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon (Unifil) are conducting the search, along with a Lebanese civilian vessel.

“Three maritime task force ships – one Italian and two German – were dispatched about 10 nautical miles off the coast of Tripoli after the Lebanese navy received a distress call from a Panamanian-flagged ship,” Unifil spokesman Andrea Tenenti told AFP news agency.

A British military base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was also taking part in the rescue.

“We have scrambled one helicopter from 84 Squadron but because of the distance from (Akrotiri) base it will be operating out of Larnaca,” British Forces spokesman Stuart Bardsley said.

“The helicopter is not equipped to winch at night but we provide a searchlight facility to lead the boats where there are life rafts.”

The cargo ship issued a distress call on Thursday afternoon, but had sunk before a Lebanese navy ship reached the area, a Lebanese army officer said.

Ain’t nobody snoring though. Go figure. No one sleeps when it rains here. Everyone’s pretty excited because it doesn’t rain very often. But it sure rained a heck lot yesterday. My University campus was like flooded. The water level was ankle high. There was a water level in my boots as well. Call me stupid but yeah, I had no idea that water permeates through leather. I mean, they never taught this stuff in school.

Chapter 1: Don’t wear leather shoes in rain.

Gumboots (rainboots) and wellingtons are the way to go. I wonder if they sell them in Dubai, though. People will think I’m balmy. No one complains too much about the rain and having to buy shoes to wear in the rain or cold, etc. I’ve been looking for warm stuff to wrap myself in for like a month now. Never found anything. My friend was wearing purple ballerina pumps. When she took off her shoes, her toes were purple because all the color from her shoes came off. Lol. Those wearing slippers had no complaints. They were kind of loving it. Their slippers were easy to clean, as were their feet. My feet looked like prunes. There was water in my boots for maybe 3-4 hours. Instead of the usual tick-tock of my shoes, I could hear the squish-squash. But, my friends, there was a silver lining. Oh yeah. Big time. My toes got tanned during the summer and it looked awful. (I wear a lot of sandals and slippers, so my little toes are almost always exposed to the desert sun.) So having the water in my boots, kind of made my legs fairer. The dark lines on my feet have disappeared and my toes don’t look grayish anymore. I scrubbed my toes hard and for so long, for so many days and weeks and months and they never got lighter. But this totally did the trick! I have to say though, there are some callouses. I don’t put a lot of cream on my legs (which I should do) and so the water also kind of made up for the lack of moisturizing.

Chapter 2: Carry an umbrella.

It does not look as stupid as some might think. At least you won’t feel the raindrops hitting your head. I was wearing a beanie under my jacket hood. So my head was covered but my forehead and face kept getting wet. Not to mention handbag.

Chapter 3: Don’t carry a leather purse.

If possible, carry the cheapest purse you might have. Better yet, don’t even carry a purse. I got lucky because someone recently gifted me a purse that had a plastic covering. So there was no water in my purse. Hurrah! Except for the middle section. But that’s a section that has no zip. It’s held together by a little magnet thing in the center. So that doesn’t count.

Chapter 4: Raincoats, anoraks, windcheaters.

Our best friends. I was thinking it would be a good idea to wear a warm sweater underneath an anorak or something. Water won’t get through and I would be so warm then. If I just wore a sweater, water would totally soak through. I wore a hoodie that was thick, but made of cotton. It got wet but not too much. I was wearing a sweater underneath it as well.

Chapter 5: Wear jeans.

They’re easy to wash and colour doesn’t really come off, unlike other materials. It’s always better though, to wear pants that stop above your ankle (or fold them till there) so that your pants don’t get soaked at the bottom.

Chapter 6: DO NOT wear white.

Never ever wear white. NEVER. If you’re a girl, no one will take their lust-filled eyes off you. And if you’re a guy, no one will want to look at you. Ever.

What a day it was to rain. I had an Accounting exam yesterday morning. There was a lot of traffic. I was going to take the metro to Uni but luckily, my friend called me and said she would be able to drive me there. I also broke my Estee Lauder perfume bottle. How, you ask? I was removing a pouch from my purse in the washroom and my perfume bottle, which is very pen-like, was under the flap of the pouch. And I didn’t see it until I removed the pouch in a very macho-man type of motion and the next thing I knew, I had flung the perfume bottle which hit the wall and fell down, and shattered. The washroom smelled awfully nice then, though. It was a good perfume. RIP. I love you, Perfume.

Lucky for me though I have another bottle of it. I was gifted two! So there was really no need for all the melodrama that I just finished expressing.

There was news that a thunderstorm might be heading our way. It was supposed to happen yesterday. I kind of waited for it. I couldn’t sleep because of it. I kept looking out the window. Then eventually, sleep kissed my eyes. And when I woke up, it was bright and sunny. All the muddy puddles are gone. The roads are dry. My shoes are dry. Yes. It feels an awful lot like a summer day today though. The only difference is that there is still cold wind blowing.

The temperature hasn’t gone below 18 degrees Celsius. But I, I freeze. I feel like I’m living in a refrigerator.

Yeah, totally ‘cool’.

Following are 3 images taken yesterday at Ricketts Point, Beaumaris, as a storm rolled across the bay.
The apparent power and turbulence of the clouds in the sky is mirrored by the motion and ferocity of the water. It was an invigorating place to be.

If you plan to visit Thailand for your vacation and you find that Thailand has Thunderstorm everyday, you MUST NOT CHANGE YOUR PLAN!!

Thunderstorm in Thailand is not like what you have seen in New York, Washington or England. In Thailand, everyday is mostly sunny. Thunderstorm will happen at night, beginning at 5-6PM; and it is not longer than 3 hours. Almost raining is about 2 hours. So you can have a lot of time at noon to travel around Thailand.

If you are in Thailand, you can know the thunderstorm before it happens for 1 hour. You have to have a compass with you, and you look at the South West of the sky. Regular round cloud does not cause the rain. The only cloud that that cause the thunderstorm is 100-story-skyscraper cloud. You will see it about 5PM, and it will rain at 6PM. If you understand all this, you do not have to carry an umbrella for whole day. Sw Eden is Thai, and Sw Eden do not carry any umbrella, too.

Hey hey Ken Zi:Kill is not Thai, so he have to carry the umbrella.

The best time to take a tour in Thailand is in the Winter. Most of foreigners who visit Thailand are from colder countries. Thai winter is not that hot as summer. Some people said that Thailand has 4 seasons, are Hot, Hotter, Hottest and Hot Water (rain). In fact, we are the super cool country!! Sw Eden means Thailand is so interesting. Most of the winter day, you will not see any thunderstorm. You can also have a good time with photography in this season, because the shade and shadow are so shape. Winter does not have much cloud. You will see clear-light-blue sky back of your view. Sw Eden loves winter in Thailand a lot. The only thing Sw Eden hates is that Sw Eden does not have a water heater at home, so it is so cold when Sw Eden takes a bath! But you can have a good time with hot bath in every hotel and apartment (All have water heaters).

**If you feel that some swindlers try to bring you into their tour, you can ask me about the trip and its price.

Moon in NYC, Photo by Sw Eden on Flickr

So, I’m sitting in my dorm room and the doors that lead into the tower keep opening and I can’t figure out why cos I don’t hear anyone walking in.  I open my door and look outside just as the doors are being thrown open by THE WIND! It’s blowing so hard over here that the doors leading inside are opening and rain’s coming in.  It’s CRAZY! I looked outside and parts of the street down below are flooding and the rain’s coming down in sheets.

Now, usually I love the rain–but this? This? WTH!? It’s freaky… I tried taking some pictures but they’re not turning out too well; and there’s no way I’m opening my window right now.

It looks like winter is finally here for Arizona.

It was a rather warm Summer night on Saturday here in Perth and we had clear skies, so I decided to head out and spend a few hours shooting some star trails. I decided to head down to Lake Clifton http://www.lakeclifton.com.au South of Mandurah, and about 100km South of Perth. On this visit, there was no moon not like on my last visit http://eos20.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/august-7/ so conditions were ideal for shooting star trails, but having some moon light would have been ideal so I could have used the ambient light from the moon to illuminate the Thrombolites http://www.lakeclifton.com.au/yalgorup.html so had to use my spotlight to bring out the detail of the Thrombolites. I brought along two cameras on this visit, I bought my EOS 7D and used my new EF-S 15-85 IS lens, and I also brought along my old EOS 300D and 18-55 lens, and I also brought along my 50mm f/2.5 macro to use as a large aperture lens. I set up both cameras on tripods with shutter release cables, and I shot a series of 30 second exposures and combined them using the Star Trails stacking software http://www.startrails.de/ which I find does a better job then shooting a single long exposure which tends to result in a image full of long exposure noise which can easily ruin a nights work, and by using software I can delete frames if necessary (Planes flying though the exposure, camera shake, etc) and I get a cleaner final result and can shoot star trails pretty much anywhere without worrying about getting a over exposed shot when shooting near bright light sources such as in the city.

On this night it was pitch black, with no ambient lighting out here, since it’s located a fair way away from the nearest towns, which meant the stars were easily visible with very little light pollution other then headlights of passing cars off in the distance. There was a bit of lightning off towards the horizon East of my location when I arrived, but that only lasted about 30 mins and didn’t affect my shooting since I had the cameras pointed South to try and get the best star trail patterns, unfortunately I didn’t end up aiming the cameras directly at the Southern Star, so I was a bit off, and didn’t get the full circle I was after, but the results still came out well enough.

It was windy on this visit, unlike on my first visit where it was relativity calm which resulted in some nice reflections on the water, and the tide was coming in which meant the Thrombolites were submerged again on this visit, and I ended up getting wet to set my camera up low enough to get the composition I was after on my final star trail series, but I think it was worth it for the shot I ended up getting. Here are a few of the photos from the night:

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4261586-2-star-trails-over-lake-clifton

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4261582-2-star-trails-over-lake-clifton-thrombolites

http://www.redbubble.com/people/eos20/art/4262314-3-star-trails-over-thrombolites

November 26 2009 : I knew that there was a good chance of some severe storms in the region this particular day, it was just a matter of trying to get my work done earlier enough to allow me time to get into position for anything developing. Storm o’clock came and this HP beast (High Precipitation) was up and running causing some mayhem through Melbourne and the SE suburbs… I managed to get to this spot on Westernport bay as it was still going pretty strong. Here it is engulfing Koo Wee Rup and Lang Lang… A guage at Lang Lang recorded 31mm – most of which would have fallen within a 15minute timeframe as this bad boy cut loose above. There were also uncomfirmed reports of golfball hail somewhere along this storms journey. The teal colour in this image is true and is generally representative of either large hail or a large quantity of hail within the storm.

‘HP severe storm – Westernport bay, Vic. ’

Artist: Slash Terror
Title: Thunderstorm
Label: Slicer Records
Genre: Hardstyle
Store Date: 16.11.2009
Source: Vinyl
# Tracks: 3
# Vinyls: 1
Lenght: 16:39
Quality: 320 kbps
Channels: Joint Stereo / 44 khz
Nonstop mix: no
*.cue: no
Archive size: 38,4 MB
Recovery record: no

Tracklist:
A1. Thunderstorm [6:32]
B1. Dina [5:01]
B2. The Inner Child [5:06]

…a longterm photographic series i’m working on.

{all photos © julia schiller}

Funny how when the lights come on outside (lighting) and the lights go off inside it feels a lot more foreboding than having lights on inside and off outside.

You can hear two newSing It Loud  songs, “Thunderstorm” and “Sugar Sweet”, being played live right here.

Intro: Bm G D A

Verse1:

Bm              G              D
Even though you're gone and far away,
    A
I feel you all around.

Bm              G              D
I think about it every single day,
    A
You got away somehow

Pre-Chorus:

    G
I can't sleep,
    A
It's hard to breath,
Bm            D
And i still feel you next to me,
G           A
Now, i can see.

Chorus:

Bm                G
The first one is the worst one,
            D               A
When it comes to a broken heart,
Bm                     G
Your first love, yeah, you're so young,
           D               A
And you feel like a fallin' star,
           Bm
There's a fire in the city,
            G
That's burnin' out tonight,
           D                        A
You're breathing but you're barely alive,
Bm                G
The first one is the worst one,
         D                  A
When it comes, when it comes to a broken heart.

Verse 2:
Spinnin' like a movie in my head,
I've seen a thousand times,
I've learned to take it hard,
And fall instead
of sittin' safe on the side lines.

Pre-Chorus 2:
Lost days,
Pictures fade,
Somehow, you're still miles away,
It's safe to say,

Chorus 2:
The first one is the worst one,
When it comes to a broken heart,
Your first love, yeah, you're so young,
And you feel like a fallin' star,

There's a fire in the city,
That's burnin' out tonight,
You're breathing but you're barely alive,

The first one is the worst one,
When it comes, when it comes to a broken heart.

Bridge:

G
'Cause I would run through a thunderstorm
     Bm
just to kiss you,
         A
I'm out here on my own,
G                                   Bm
Better now than i was before, but i miss you
       A
and i want you to know.

      G
I can't sleep,
      A
It's hard to breath,
           Bm                D
And i still feel you next to me,
G          D     D
and I can see, yeah

Chorus 3:
The first one is the worst one,
When it comes to a broken heart,
Your first love, yeah, you're so young,
And you feel like a fallin' star,

There's a fire in the city,
That's burnin' out tonight,
You're breathing but you're barely alive,

The first one is the worst one,
When it comes, when it comes to a broken heart.

The first one is the worst one,
When it comes to a broken heart,
Your first love, yeah, you're so young,
And you feel like a fallin' star,

There's a fire in the city,
That's burnin' out tonight,
You're breathing but you're barely alive,

The first one is the worst one,
When it comes, when it comes to a broken heart.

The first one is the worst one,
When it comes, when it comes to a broken heart.

Hope this helps!! =]

This was a shot from the following night (of my previous post) this time taken from Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula. The storms fired after dark once again though this time they were 97% in-cloud lightning – not quite as spectacular but still pretty nice to watch and photograph. I managed to catch a little crawler popping out of the base over Rye, the cloud structure illuminated and a beautiful night sky above.

‘ flash in the night  –  Port Phillip Bay, Vic. ’

Due to unplanned circumstances, the Smithfield birders could not make what sounds to have been a wonderful weekend. Thank you to Louise Coetzee for her report and an amazing photo.

BirdLife Free State undertook a club outing to Tussen-die-Riviere on the weekend of 30 October to 1 November 2009.  The reserve looked extraordinarily beautiful and green due to the recent rain.  We arrived on Friday afternoon, entering through the eastern gate, as the bridge over the Caledon River was flooded, blocking off the main entrance.  On the way to the rest camp, we encountered Grey-winged Francolin and Eastern Long-billed Lark – already testing our “Little Brown Job” skills.

On Saturday morning we explored the interior of the reserve by visiting the Versterspos picnic site for breakfast and then went on to the “Klipstapels”.  Here we observed a pair of Pririt Batis at their nest and Layard’s Titbabbler.  During the morning the LBJs put up a good show, as we saw the Karoo Long-billed-, Largebilled-, Spikeheeled- and the ubiquitous Eastern Clapper Lark, as well as five species of pipits – African-, Long-billed, (what we thought was) Kimberley-, Buffy and African Rock Pipit.

After lunch at the easternmost picnic site, we returned to the rest camp via the Orange River route.  However, we had to turn back half way as the road was flooded.  The clouds built up heavily and later that afternoon we experienced a proper Free State thunderstorm.  Just before sunset the sun broke through the heavy clouds, treating us to a beautiful sighting of a double rainbow.

The thunderstorm put an end to the electricity, but luckily to braai electricity is not essential.  The power was restored some time during the night.

On Sunday morning we followed the Middelpunt route, but again could not complete the route due to muddy roads.  On the way out we had lovely sightings of Fairy Flycatcher, Red-throated Wryneck and African Rock Pipits – all close to the road.  We left the reserve about lunchtime, leaving us enough time to return to Bloemfontein before dark.

Tussen-die-Riviere remains a favourite birding destination, not only because of the challenges to identify the LBJs, but also the scenery and pleasant accommodation.

Louise Coetzee
BirdLife Free State

Então é assim que funciona. Segunda-feira é um dia maldito. Ou tudo dá errado ou acontece alguma coisa que dá errado e acaba com o dia.

E, hoje, não poderia ser diferente.

Eu fui buscar o presente do irmão no shopping, só que, pra variar, não tinha o presente na loja física, apenas no site da maldita loja que diz entregar em 24 horas as encomendas (só que são 24 horas aliens, porque eu nunca vi 24 horas demorarem tantos dias para serem completadas).

Tudo bem. O dia já tinha ficado ruim porque eu perdi um tempão caminhando da minha casa até aquele estabelecimento pra nada enquanto eu poderia ficar de pijamas, sentada no meu sofá fazendo os 8 trilhões de coisas que eu tinha que fazer e ainda me lamentando da vida.

Aí, como fome é algo fisiológico que não dá pra negar e eu já estava no inferno mesmo, resolvi comer pelo shopping. Só que eu estou numa fase sem paciência, o que significa que eu escolhi o restaurante pelo tamanho da fila.

Maldita hora que eu resolvi usar esse critério de escolha.

Tudo bem, entrei na fila. O ser humano que estava á duas pessoas de mim foi a razão do meu ódio. Ela, achando que o mundo é dela e que os outros que se danem, fez o seu pedido e aguardou ao lado enquanto ele era montado. Nisso, outra pessoa tomou o seu lugar para realizar o pagamento. Mas a anta, assim que viu sua bandeja linda e pronta, resolveu que, para passar entre as duas filas com uma bandeja na mão era necessário levantar a mesma acima da linha dos olhos.

Agora, para e pensa, que ser em sã consciente, dotado de um mínimo de inteligência, levanta uma bandeja cheia de comida e com 2 milk-shakes acima da cabeça? É preciso ser muito burro mesmo pra pensar que isso ia dar certo.

Enfim, eu me afastei quando vi o ser fazendo essa burrada, mas uma parede me impediu de me afastar o suficiente para não ser atingida pela burrice alheia.

E, adivinha o que aconteceu?

A lontra morfética conseguiu fazer com que os 2 milk-shakes caíssem sobre mim. Os 2!!!

E enquanto eu estava lá, lavada desde o ombro até dentro da calcinha de milk-shake de chocolate a cidadã teve a cara de pau de me olhar, de cima abaixo, e de virar pra mocinha do balcão e dizer: “Ai, será que você pode me dar outro milk-shake, eu derrubei os meus”.

E é aí que o ódio cresce ao ponto de cegar as pessoas e fazer com a gente tenha alucinações e passe a ver a nossa pessoa, lavada de milk-shake, batendo com aquela cabeça loira no balcão diversas vezes até ver sangue escorrer pelos olhos.

Puta merda, o que custa as pessoas se desculparem? Machuca? Arranca pedaço? Perde o orgulho?

No final das contas eu tive que vir embora a pé, depois de ter perdido a educação que mamãe me deu com o motorista de um taxi que não me deixou entrar no veículo porque ia “sujar o banco”, completamente suja e morrendo de raiva, não só de ter sido lavada de milk-shake num lugar público, mas também de ter sido tratada como uma árvore!

Ah, e claro, sem contar que ela conseguiu derrubar aquela maravilha também no meu cabelo e dentro da minha orelha!

E depois dizem que não se pode julgar uma loira apenas pela cor oxigenada de seus cabelos.

is not exactly what’s in store for us.

“We must let go of the life we planned in order to accept the life that is waiting for us.” ~Author Unknown

The phrase, “You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans” is attributed to many people. I believe it came from the late John Chancellor, a news anchor I watched every evening while growing up in Wisconsin in the seventies.

I watched the news to hear the weather report to make sure no destructive tornadoes came to flatten our house or send it spinning in the air like in The Wizard of Oz.

That’s when I first learned what anxiety meant. The first day of third grade I told the teacher I was sick. Mom came for me just because it rained and I didn’t know if the school had an emergency plan in case a tornado struck.

Yet home didn’t help because we were the only family in Wisconsin without a basement. Believe you me, the sight of the first rain drop had me running for the nearest house with a basement. My escape plan was to bolt when the Severe Thunderstorm Watch beeped loudly on our television.

A watch is not the same as a warning. A watch means conditions are favorable for a tornado but one hasn’t been spotted. That beeping sound scared the crap out of me. Imagine playing with dolls and Legos on a sunny day and a BEEP BEEP BEEP wakes you out of your smiling Ken and Barbie enjoying their drive along the beach in the convertible.

A crawl reads SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR THE NEXT 6 HOURS. To a kid it might as well read TAKE SHELTER NOW OR ELSE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY ARE GONNA DIE! BUT YOU GOT NOWHERE TO HIDE BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO BASEMENT! THERE’S NO HOPE FOR YOU! KISS YOUR BUTTS GOODBYE!

I stored Ken and Barbie safely under a bed in my Barbie Townhouse hoping they wouldn’t end up pile-driven into a maple tree after the storm. I walked over to our neighbor Mrs. Garcia’s house. She let me in, no questions asked, and let me sit in the kitchen while she baked pies. I didn’t tell Mom because I knew she’d say no, then she couldn’t find me. My worry turned into her worry.

This proves worry is genetic. My oldest daughter had ear tubes implanted when she lost her hearing from fluid build-up. One time she got some water in her ear which caused a lot of pain but more importantly, fear. Now she’s afraid to wash her hair, so I try to help calm her fears by helping her in the shower. I say “try to” because I’m not always successful.

I now understand my mom’s frustration with me as my worries and fears popped up every time it rained. I can’t plan my days hoping what causes fear and worry to never happen. I can only learn techniques to deal with that worry to lessen fear.

God told us not to be anxious for tomorrow because tomorrow has enough troubles of its own. God won’t give us what we can’t handle. No matter how many storms come our way.

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I am writing this on a lazy Thursday afternoon in the hotel while I sip on apple cider and listen to music.  The day before yesterday I had my clothes washed and they did an excellent job almost making my pilot shirts brand new!  Arik Air kindly pays for the hotel cleaning service – who ever does the washing and folding does it to perfection.

Wednesday

I slept in, ordered the usual (Spanish Omelet, scrambled eggs, toast and fruit salad), and got a ride out to the Arik Air offices for the opportunity to hopefully do some more observation flights.  I arrived just in time to get on board for a 11:45 departure from Lagos to Port Harcourt on a Q300 operated by Denim Air pilots on an Arik Air Q300.  Some of you may remember my last chance observing a Q300 flight with Arik last April.  The plan was to fly from Lagos to Port Harcourt Military Airport, then to Abuja.  At Abuja I would switch aircraft and fly the same route in reverse ending up in Lagos hopefully before 8 PM.  Everything worked out as planned and I was fortunate enough to have two excellent crews to fly with who were full of helpful information and also, questions about the Q400 that I’d soon be flying.

Arik Air has a beautiful terminal at the Port Harcourt Military airport, also referred to as “NAF (Nigerian Air Force) Base” by ATC and pilots. Thanks to “Flugmax” for correcting me in thinking the airport was referred to as Nav Base, when it is actually called NAF base!

The airport is fairly close to the civil Port Harcourt airport which requires a special procedure to get into the military airport.  We communicate with Civil Tower until we are over the POT VOR (on or very near the civil airport) then we fly a special route which puts you on a 5 mile final for runway 22 at the NAF Base.  I look forward to flying here in the Q400, its a rather narrow runway yet is plenty long at roughly 7,000 feet.  Here are a few pictures I took on approach to the field:

The airport lies in the 2 o’ clock position when on the special procedure just east of the civil airport.  A trick to find the airport is to find the stretch of forest which seems to lead directly to it.

The first officer had a great landing, the earlier dashes are much easier to land softly than the Q400 from what I have heard.  We then taxied in to the Garden City Terminal and prepared to fly to Abuja:

This flight attendant pictured above was very friendly and an excellent flight attendant.  I continue to be impressed by Arik Air’s flight attendants, they seem exceptionally well trained.

Soon the doors were closed and we were departing runway 22 into a cloudy sky (2,000 ft. broken) with a few thunderstorms in the area (as usual).

One of the call outs on takeoff, is saying “set power” after applying takeoff power, the pilot monitoring (not flying) will then make sure you have proper takeoff thrust and say “power set.”  In the Q400 this is as simple as glancing quickly at the Engine Display then at the power quadrant and making sure the power levers are in the “rating detent.”  When the power levers are in this detent, the aircraft systems automatically set the proper power setting for the current conditions.  This is not so easy in previous Dashs like the Q300 I was flying in, here they must manually set the proper takeoff torque (power) by observing the torque gauges before announcing “power set.” 

A lot of the pilots who will be flying the Q400 have no actual Q400 experience but flew the Q100, Q200, or Q300 previously.  All of the Q’s, 100-400 are the same type rating which means I could go fly any of the other 3 with much less training than if they were separate types.  Although they are all the same type rating, I have heard and can believe that the Q400 is a much different bird than the previous 3 although they look so much alike. 

On climb out we avoided the thunderstorm cells embedded in the clouds by using the aircraft weather radar which doesn’t detect a thunderstorm necessarily, but detects precipitation which is more intense the closer you get to a thunderstorm and is indicated in various colors on the screen in the cockpit. 

We broke out of the clouds around 10,000 ft. and were welcomed by a hazy yet sunny sky.  At this point I was feeling much more comfortable with the airspace and radio procedures and began mentally thinking who I would be calling next and what I would say.  The crew graciously answered my questions when I didn’t know what was happening on the radios.  Here are some pictures on approach to Abuja, I guess they are now using radar which allowed us to get vectored to a straight in VOR approach unlike last April when we had to do a procedure turn and so forth before being aligned with the runway.

The Captain’s right hand is on a manual trim wheel, something that the Q400 does not have.  You’ll only find electric trim in the Q400 which is controlled by your thumb on the control wheel. 

After landing, I thanked the crew and proceeded over to the other Q300 on the ramp where another crew was preparing to fly the reverse route, Port Harcourt then Lagos.  They let me sit in the jump-seat like the previous crew, and the flight attendant who was with us on the previous flight joined our crew to head back to Lagos.  She ordered me a spicy meal from Catering in Abuja and I quickly gobbled it down since it had been roughly eight hours since breakfast.

I had been taking notes on the radio/airport procedures on the flights up here but put the notebook away since I now felt comfortable with what was going on – even to the point where I would have asked if I could take over the radios if I wasn’t getting so tired.  It had been a long day of sitting in a uncomfortable jump-seat as we touched down in Lagos having to land on 18R since 18L doesn’t have runway lights (I think this was mentioned last April).  After thanking this crew for allowing me to tag along with them, I was soon on a bus heading back to the hotel where I promptly fell asleep (I slept 10 hours!).

What now?

Since it is Thursday as I am typing this, the 2nd Q400 should be arriving in Lagos if everything went as planned.  I am not sure what the training plan is, but I do know that none of us can fly until our new Nigerian Validation to fly comes in the mail, which should be real soon hopefully.  Until then I will be studying the Arik Air Standard Operating Procedures (Just chapter 3 was provided for training purposes) and possibly do one more observation flight to see another airport we will be flying to in the Q400.

The American Dream

A few years back, during the midst of the summer monsoon on the Mojave Desert, I used the often useful WWW (indeed, there is more to it than just Facebook and Twitter) to watch radar and satellites to determine the locations of the fattest thunderheads. And then I went chasing.

Some have assumed that this photograph is a composite. No way! This was the scene as I found it; I have not digitally added or changed the clouds. The unusual lighting adds in some part to the suspicion, I suspect, as the entire foreground is in open shade, while the cloud structure receives full sun. This beautiful Cumulonimbus cloud structure was fortuitously “parked” behind the abandoned structure and building in volume, and the addition of the Joshua trees on the left side made me excited (the desert equivalent of an old oak tree in the yard!). I used my 4×5″ large format view camera, black and white film, and an orange filter. The final look of this photograph came at the printing stage, where I turned the sky black for maximum impact and imparted the overall look and feel I was after.

Just in time for the holidays: purchase a beautiful 8″ Mini-Print (made with pure carbon pigment inks on archival cotton rag, mounted/matted to 11×14″) for only $50. Larger prints are also available.

You are visiting the blog of fine art photographer Michael E. Gordon. For additional photos and information, please visit his official website