GSD Hurricane Tracking Links – 2012

CC attribution: by "An Honorable German" (Charles McCain) on flickr.

Looks like I skipped doing a GSD Hurricane Tracking Links page update in 2011. I guess that’s because the tropics were very quiet for us last year. That’s a Good Thing ™.

Today the Valca clan spread from Houston into the remote reaches of Louisiana now watch with interest the multiple Atlantic Basin churnings.  So it seems fitting to fire up the engines, check and re-check the 2010 GSD hurricane linkages, and get this post into the skies.

Refresh your bookmarks!  (Or at least your link to your GSD Hurricane tracking post!)

Gulf Coast Watch List

Here is the updated list of hurricane links I am watching at home and work. There have been some changes--and additions--due to business model changes at some locations. And I’ve come across a few new and worthy sites to track the impending winds.

Listed in order of my current personal preference…

IBISEYE.com -- Your Atlantic Hurricane Season Tracking Map Source – An awesome site that mashes up tracking data on hurricanes and points of interest, along with Google Maps. Heavy on the JavaScript but makes up for it in pure visual delight. Not only are hurricanes and projected paths displayed, but also counties are added as they fall under various storm watches and warnings. Zoom in/out for more detail.

Google Earth – Google Earth remains in 2nd place in the list this season only because IBISEYE provides (IMHO) the best “at-a-glance” charting of big-picture storm data. Couple that with the wicked-awesome Google Earth Network Link For Entire Basin (direct download link) KMZ files provided by the Tropical Atlantic website and you are ready for some major storm-path modeling. When a storm comes, you can also go to the specific storm page and download/use the KMZ files for just that storm as well. Once you download the file, be sure to save it “permanently” in your Google Earth preferences so it will be available and “updatable” with the latest data when needed. Lay in some of the FEMA flood hazard layers for more usefulness. Finally, supplement it some more with tools from these Google Earth Blog links: Storm Tracking With Google Earth & More tools to help track Hurricane Irene

SciGuy Blog – Chon.com’s Eric Berger - It’s probably not a good idea to attempt to interpret all these charts and data on your own to make life-impacting decisions as a hurricane bears down on you. Fortunately, Eric continues to faithfully provide Houstonians and neighbors beyond his outstanding details, commentary, live chat-sessions, and analysis of all science and prognostication tropical. Highly recommended as a filter of reason and temperance in a media-market filled with over-hype, smashing graphics, and fear-factor extremes. Besides that, you can count on Eric to provide great meteorological linkage to excellent source material like this GFS global model or this the European model. It’s a must-follow/must-RSS feed blog for all Texas Gulf Coast residents. Period. (see also Jeff Masters’ Wunder Blog : Weather Underground).

Skeetobite Weather - New (to me) charts and data site found by keeping a keen eye on Eric Berger’s hurricane posting data linkage. Good stuff here with nice clean graphs, graphs, and data linkage.

Tropical Atlantic: NHC Model Data for Tropical Storms – TropicalAtlantic – For folks who need to have more than one storm-track model.  Look at the top of the page to select any current storms.  Then you can select either the “in-browser” Google Maps mash-up or the Google Earth TMZ builds.  Additional NOAA summary of storm-track models. Also, Tropical Atlantic: Information About Atlantic Hurricanes – main-page. 

Hurricane and Storm Tracking - Terrapin's site remains a dear favorite. It is lean and simple and allows for quick location of information without lots of graphic overkill. The storm-track plots come in two flavors, a simple historical and future projection track that is static as well as a java-based animated one. Loads fast and updated as new forecasts are posted.

National Hurricane Center - Website maintained by the National Weather Service. Lots more linkage on the sidebar for hurricane related topics and preparations. The main page has links to a number of graphics and advisories.

(NHC's) Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook - A sub-page of the site listed above. This is pretty cool. Any current tropical systems are overlayed on a satellite image with an icon. Hovering over the icon pulls up a quick update view. Clicking on the update popup then takes you to the system's detailed page.

Moreweather.com -- Tropical Atlantic Weather Page - T-Storm Terry Faber has created a great hurricane system page here. Not only does it have lots of links to any active systems, but it also contains links to radar and satellite images, many in great details and high resolution. The hurricane tracking maps and projections are there, of course. T-Storm Terry also provides links to other sources of information as well as historical data on previous storm systems.

Tropical Weather : Weather Underground - This is a fantastic site that has the widest range of linkages, maps, images, models, and everything. Just about the only thing it doesn't provide is winds blown into your face through the monitor. Which is why I put this at the bottom and not the top: there is just so much information it overwhelms.

Oklahoma Weather Lab | Hoot - Models: GFS Model Upper-Level Wind 850mb provided us great forecast models of the high/low pressure zones and ridges leading up to Ike’s eventual landfall and really helped us understand the forces driving its path.

Tropical Cyclone Guidance Project | Real-Time Guidance - NCAR Research Applications Laboratory - “The real-time guidance system generates an individual page for each active storm in the North Atlantic, Northeast Pacific, and North Central Pacific basins. Each individual storm page features the latest plots of model guidance and intensity forecast aids for that storm, as well as other diagnostic and observational information.” - added 08/10/2012 via a tip from SciGuy blog Eric Berger. Drill down into great plot track guidance models.

WeatherBELL Models - Amazing collection of high-quality weather models and data. Until you get focused, you can easily get lost for hours in the charts, visual model animated “loops”. My head is spinning and I’m afraid I will start to be dreaming in whirls of colors! - added 08/10/2012 via a tip from SciGuy blog Eric Berger.

Experimental forecast Tropical Cyclone Genesis Potential Fields - Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University - Great supplemental animated and static image data on a lot of key tropical weather-related information points. - added 08/10/2012 via a tip from SciGuy blog Eric Berger.

Atlantic and Caribbean Tropical Satellite Imagery - Satellite Services Division / Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution and Gulf of Mexico Imagery - Satellite Services Division / Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution from the NOAA.  Special thanks to GSD frequent commentator “Bozo” for sharing this great source of satellite images from NOAA with me last year.

National Weather Service - another top-level landing point to drill down deeper into forecast maps, radar imagery, etc. - added 08/25/2012

National Weather Service Doppler Radar Images - link to various NWS/DoD Radar sites. Select your focus then add additional details and information via the bottom control bar as well as run loops from the left control bar. - added 08/25/2012

Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential Page: Global Fields - Select your basin map field on the left (such as the Gulf of Mexico). Put very simply, understanding what the water temperatures are and combining them with storm-track information might help one forecast potential intensification/intensity of a tropical storm. Of course lots of other factors play into the mix as well… - added 08/25/2012

Gulf of Mexico AVN Color Imagery - Satellite Services Division - nice radar loop imagery with options to add additional data markers to the base image. Provided by the NOAA Satellite and Information Service/NESDIS) (AVN=Aviation) - added 08/25/2012

Gulf of Mexico Visible Imagery - Satellite Services Division - nice visible satellite loop imagery with options to add additional data markers to the base image. Provided by the NOAA Satellite and Information Service/NESDIS) - added 08/25/2012

Latest Satellite Imagery - NOAA site that has links to a large number of additional satellite imagery. Neat stuff. - added 08/25/2012

NEXSAT, NRL/JPSS Next Generation Weather Satellite Demonstration Project - Super-duper cool satellite images and loops. Again drill in to get to the NEXSAT area of interest (such as the Gulf of Mexico), then use the controls above and to the left as needed to tweak your views. - added 08/25/2012

NCEP Central Operations - National Weather Service link - Pick the option you want above the map, then select the type and area. Finally make one or more final option picks and you get some very helpful graphs. - added 08/25/2012

Weather & Climate Data - COLA - Additional links for current conditional analysis, forecasts, climate outlooks and hurricane intensity models. - added 08/25/2012

Galveston Bay Operational Forecast System (GBOFS) - NOAA Tides and Currents for the Galveston Bay area - super neat tidal and water level information useful for those who dwell on the rim of Galveston Bay. Also reports wind and current data with animated loop views available. - added 08/25/2012

Northern Gulf of Mexico Operational Forecast System (NGOFS) - NOAA Tides and Currents for the wider upper Gulf of Mexico costal areas. - added 08/25/2012

Texas Storm Surge Models - Wunderground - For additional storm surge inundation maps for US coastlines, see this page Storm surge imagery for the U.S. coast | Weather Underground - added 09/01/2012

U.S. NEXRAD and TDWR Radar Stations - Wunderground - I’m linking to the main map from which specific radar stations can be chosen depending on your area of attention; though the Houston Hobby and Houston-Galveston interest me the most. The radar images have lots of cool tweaks you can perform on them so spend some time getting to know them! - added 09/01/2012

Computer models - USATODAY - old but a good starting point introducing foundations to weather forecast models. - added 08/25/2012

Stormpulse / Hurricane tracking, mapping - Sadly, Stormpulse has now been diminished to the bottom of the pile. The site developers have modified their business model (you go dudes!) to now be solely subscription-based access. There are some time-limited free-trials you can access. Currently they are not offering any “consumer-level” subscription services and the basic package is probably still too pricy for all but the most crazy consumer weather-heads. All that said, they do still have a “live” mini-display view on their home page that contains a fair amount of the imagery and tracking projections that we all used to love. If you are desperate and pine for the days of Stormpulse of old, then hop over there and just zoom up your browser window display size to your heart’s content.

Local Winds

For local Houston area facts and updates, most of the local news stations have their web-sites powered up.

• Hurricane Central | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle - I generally turn to the Houston Chronicle's website for the majority of my information locally.
• Harris County Homeland Security & Emergency Management - Main page links to the new Evacuation maps, Contraflow routes, etc.
• Evacuation Zones and Routes (PDF File) - Harris County Homeland Security & Emg. Mngmt.
• Harris County Evacuation Zones (by ZIP) - Harris County Homeland Security & Emg. Mngmt.
• Fox News 26 - Hurricane Toolbox - Lots of links and helpful tips
• abc13.com: Gulf Coast Hurricane Guide - Again lots of links and preparedness tips.
• JustWeather (KPRC Local 2 Click2Houston) - News channel 2's public information page.
• HURRICANE CENTRAL from 11 News KHOU.com - One more local news site's tropics page.

Even More Weather

I have found these additional links pretty cool:

• e-WALL : PSU ELECTRONIC MAP WALL – Too Much Information!  But still cool.
• TROPICAL ATLANTIC e-WALL – I’m no meteorologist, but I can play one at work and home!
• Real Time Tropical Cyclone Research Page– University of Central Florida. Lots of additional links.

Road Kill

• Houston TranStar Real-Time Traffic Map,
• Houston TranStar Cameras, and
• Houston TranStar Incidents and Road Closures.

Again as it bears repeating, you just don’t want to be caught off guard when one of these comes knocking

--Claus V.

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Been too long…

Yep still here.

As Alvis has commented more than once recently in a wicked tone, “Dad’s been busy getting to know his new mail-order-bride.”

While not nearly as salacious as it sounds coming from her, I’ll save that info for a follow up post. However she is partially correct.

Last Monday, I had planned a relaxing Labor Day holiday chilling out at home catching up on blogging and clearing some pieces of work.  Mom had called however and decided she needed some out-and-about activity with son #1 since son #2 was living large in Colorado on a respite before leaving fair Texas for an long term work-assignment in a foreign country; Baton Rouge, LA.

So mid-morning I drove over to Mom’s, loaded up the car and pointed it to the shadow of downtown Houston.

She had caught a local news piece on the local Houston connection to the movie Mao’s Last Dancer and was determined to see it before it left the single screen that was showing it.  It’s got flashbacks to communist China and the humblest of villages, ballet, opera, love, ballet dancers, Houstonians, Houston sights and scenes, ballet dancers, a famous local lawyer and an international showdown.  And the F.B.I. makes an appearance at least once.  What’s not to love! Right?

Anyway I’d seen neither the trailer nor the news piece so was suspicious but a good sport.

We drove over the the 1930’s-era River Oaks Theatre, found one of the few parking spots that didn’t have a “30-min shopping only” sign painted boldly on the hot black pavement and stood in line for the tickets.  (Only later would I spy the nice super-new parking garage hidden across the street from the theatre. Oh well…next time…)

While I have known and heard of the River Oaks Theatre, I’d never been inside.  It reminded me instantly of a similar home-town one long since crumbled that I used to go to as a kid.  This one has been lovingly cared for by a devoted staff and brings back an instant ambiance of the golden-screen days.  The seating was very comfortable and I felt we were falling back in time. Well, had it not been for the fancy Hagan-Daas ice-cream bar mom was munching on.  The theatre specializes in international, art, and foreign films that would almost never see the light of projectors in the local mega-movie-plex.

It was a very full house.  And the movie was really good.  Sure, some of the Houstonian stuff seemed a bit over the top, but I guess that’s how most of the world thinks we talk. (We don’t.) And there were some local scenes in the background shots that were not period to the ‘80s.  But small quibbles aside, it was a very impactful movie.  Like most in the audience, I was leaking man-eye-sweat at the end of the film.  Definitely recommended and worth seeing.

Afterwards, Mom wanted to go across the street to the B&N to replace a Julia Childs book she has lost.  I got a bit sentimental (maybe it was from the movie) but it was strange.  Right inside the entry was a kiosk where a clerk was demonstrating the benefits of an e-book reader to folks, selling units, and books.  Time is turning my friends.

I worked in the local library growing up in my teen years and used to love the proximity and time spent among the shelves.  It was a perfect job. Now I seem to dash into the bookstore for a technical book, and dash right out.  Not with mom.

We lingered.

She looked at the tables, opened up random books, chatted away, and just was present there.

That forced me to be so as well.

And I noticed lots of books again; history books, cartography books, novels.  Their covers carefully planned to invite and entice.  Best sellers and bargain buys.  One shelf was filled with strange and unique books, selected by the local employees, with little cards on the shelf edge. The cards had the staff-member’s name and a single sentence why they loved it so much and recommended it.  The comments were more wonderful and mysterious than any ad-campaign or glitzy display. It was humble and seemed genuine.

And as I stood there surrounded by all the books two things struck me; that these books represented so many new authors trying to get started and old ones firmly established, all telling their own, special story, and that I probably was like many now, in too much of a rush to linger and let the books and stories seduce me as they used to so passionately, instead being addicted to the mad-hose-pipe flow of RSS feeds, Internet media, and that damned moving picture screen in our living-room.  What will such book stores look like 10 years from now? The same? or will they have been replaced by the Kindles and Nooks and the warmth of the pages on a cold winter’s night be replaced by the cool plastic.

I mean I get it. Really.  While I don’t (yet) have an e-book reader in our house, I see and understand the convenience and flexibility of having so many stories and such available on download demand, but real books are still touchstones, for now.  And it has been too long since I slowed down enough to just hang out with them and let them try to lure me away from the straight and narrow, to Timbuktu’s and fields and fen.

Anyway, by now mom was hungry so I suggested a local Mexican eatery in the East End or maybe a local BBQ place.

No.  Mom would have nothing of that.

We re-crossed the street (sorry Houston, you still have a long way to go to being a pedestrian-friendly town) and mom led the way over to the nearby La Madeleine café.

While familiar, I’d never eaten there yet.  Mom had and soon she had picked her quiche and tiramisu while I had scored a French-dip sammy and a cup of French roast coffee.  We sat at a small table, chatted, and took our time eating.  Both the time and the food was delicious.  And the people watching was quite entertaining.

Eventually we ended the early afternoon and we braved the now impending downpours of what was left of Tropical Storm Hermine as she started her two-day deluge of our bayou-based city.  We made it home, but there was some major ponding on the freeway lanes.  Only good timing and fortune allowed us to have our walkabout without a single drop falling until we were headed home.

Been a long time since I spent that kind of long, lingering day.  And I guess Mom knew I needed it even more that I realized.

Moms are so wonderful…

--Claus V.

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GSD Hurricane Tracking Links – 2010

CC attribution: Public Domain. NASA via pingnews on flickr.

OK.  We in Houston appear to have survived being drenched by the fallout from early-season opener Alex here in 2010.  Despite making landfall in costal Mexico a bit south of Brownsville, Texas, the far-reaching bands have been bringing feeder-bands of rain for the past 3-4 days.  This Saturday is the first glint of sunshine.  Although there is currently a non-tropical area of low pressure sitting off the mouth of the “Mighty Miss” looking to slide into our area over the next few days.  Oh bother.

With predictions already coming true of a particularly active and strong 2010 hurricane season, it’s time to refresh the GSD hurricane tracking links for 2010.

Bookmark ‘em all!  (Or al least this post!)

Gulf Coast Watch List

So here are the hurricane links I am watching at home and work, to track the impending winds. Listed in order of my personal preference…

• Stormpulse / Hurricane tracking, mapping - If you like dark-themed, special-op center techno-sites, this is the one for you. The site has a lot of information and can be customized in extra data inclusions on the chart. What really makes this one cool is that it has a “Full-Screen” mode that displays as much detail as you want for the storm-track on your monitor.  It provides a standard storm-track model, but you can select to include a bevy of additional forecast models if you want to really psych yourself out. Loaded up in Google Chrome or Chromium coupled with a nice dark Google Chrome Theme it really stands out projected on the wall of the incident command center.
• Google Earth – What? Yep. Google Earth is now coming in to 2nd place in the list this season.  Couple that with the wicked-awesome Google Earth Network Link For Entire Basin (direct download link) KMZ files provided by the Tropical Atlantic website and you are ready for some major storm-path modeling.  When a storm comes, you can also go to the specific storm page and download/use the KMZ files for just that storm as well.  Once you download the file, be sure to save it “permanently” in your Google Earth preferences so it will be available and “updatable” with the latest data when needed.
• Tropical Atlantic: NHC Model Data for Tropical Storms – TropicalAtlantic beta – For folks who need to have more than one storm-track model.  Look at the top of the page to select any current storms.  Then you can select either the “in-browser” Google Maps mash-up or the Google Earth TMZ builds.  Additional NOAA summary of storm-track models. Also, Tropical Atlantic: Information About Atlantic Hurricanes – main-page. 
• SciGuy Blog – Chon.com’s Eric Berger - Eric continues to faithfully provide Houstonians and neighbors beyond his outstanding details, commentary, live chat-sessions, and analysis of all science and  prognostication tropical.  Highly recommended as a filter of reason and temperance in a media-market filled with over-hype, smashing graphics, and fear-factor extremes. Besides that, you can count on Eric to provide great meteorological linkage to excellent source material like this GFS global model or this the European model.  It’s a must-follow/must-RSS feed blog for all Texas Gulf Coast residents. Period.  (see also Jeff Masters’ Wunder Blog : Weather Underground).
• IBISEYE.com -- Your Atlantic Hurricane Season Tracking Map Source – An awesome site that mashes up tracking data on hurricanes and points of interest, along with Google Maps.  Heavy on the JavaScript but makes up for it in pure visual delight.  Easy enough even the “old-folks” can understand.  Not only are hurricanes and projected paths displayed, but also counties are added as they fall under various storm watches and warnings.  Zoom in/out for more detail.
• Hurricane and Storm Tracking - Terrapin's site remains a dear favorite. It is lean and simple and allows for quick location of information without lots of graphic overkill. The storm-track plots come in two flavors, a simple historical and future projection track that is static as well as a java-based animated one. Loads fast and updated as new forecasts are posted.
• National Hurricane Center - This website maintained by the National Weather Service is my number two choice. Lots more linkage on the sidebar for hurricane related topics and preparations. The main page has links to a number of graphics and advisories.
• (NHC's) Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook - A "beta" sub-page of the site listed above. This is pretty cool. Any current tropical systems are overlayed on a satellite image with an icon. Hovering over the icon pulls up a quick update view. Clicking on the update popup then takes you to the system's detailed page.
• Moreweather.com -- Tropical Atlantic Weather Page - T-Storm Terry Faber has created a great hurricane system page here. Not only does it have lots of links to any active systems, but it also contains links to radar and satellite images, many in great details and high resolution. The hurricane tracking maps and projections are there, of course. T-Storm Terry also provides links to other sources of information as well as historical data on previous storm systems.
• Tropical Weather : Weather Underground - This is a fantastic site that has the widest range of linkages, maps, images, models, and everything. Just about the only thing it doesn't provide is winds blown into your face through the monitor. Which is why I put this at the bottom and not the top: there is just so much information it overwhelms.
• Oklahoma Weather Lab | Hoot - Models: GFS Model Upper-Level Wind 850mb provided us great forecast models of the high/low pressure zones and ridges leading up to Ike’s eventual landfall and really helped us understand the forces driving its path.
• Atlantic and Caribbean Tropical Satellite Imagery - Satellite Services Division / Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution and Gulf of Mexico Imagery - Satellite Services Division / Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution from the NOAA.  Special thanks to GSD frequent commentator “Bozo” for sharing this great source of satellite images from NOAA with me last year.

Local Winds

For local Houston area facts and updates, most of the local news stations have their web-sites powered up.

• Hurricane Central | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle - I generally turn to the Houston Chronicle's website for the majority of my information locally.
• Harris County Homeland Security & Emergency Management - Main page links to the new Evacuation maps, Contraflow routes, etc.
• Fox News 26 - Hurricane Toolbox - Lots of links and helpful tips
• abc13.com: Gulf Coast Hurricane Guide - Again lots of links and preparedness tips.
• StormWatch, KPRC Local 2 Click2Houston - News channel 2's public information page.
• HURRICANE CENTRAL from 11 News KHOU.com - One more local news site's tropics page.

Even More Weather

I have found these additional links pretty cool:

• e-WALL : PSU ELECTRONIC MAP WALL – Too Much Information!  But still cool.
• TROPICAL ATLANTIC e-WALL – I’m no meteorologist, but I can play one at work and home!
• Real Time Tropical Cyclone Research Page– University of Central Florida. Lots of additional links.

Road Kill

• Houston TranStar Real-Time Traffic Map,
• Houston TranStar Cameras, and
• Houston TranStar Incidents and Road Closures.

Again as it bears repeating, you just don’t want to be caught off guard when one of these comes knocking at your door.

Ike radar image captured by Jim Thompson of jimthompson.org

--Claus V.

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Thoughts on A Close Cut (or getting “decked” on purpose)

vectorized version of Stewf’s cc Flickr photo: Official Hair Styles for Men and Boys

Let’s take a diversion from the normal tech/info-sec related posting routing for a moment.

I never paid much attention to my hair-cut growing up.  It didn’t matter (and I had no choice) up until jr. high; up to then the little-boy’s ruled.  Then began the constant battles between me and the parental units.  I preferred a length that completely covered by ears and fell in the back to cover my collar.  I wasn’t a “hippie” or anything, I just had some identity issues with my ears (they seemed to stick out too much) like many young men.

In high-school I graduated to the “wing-cut” style for the first two years where you would carry that funky large-n-curvy “Goody-brand” styling comb and “flip” the sides over and back to give a “wing” effect. The crown was loosely parted down the middle. When not in use, the oversize comb was stuck in the jeans behind the wallet appearing about 1-2 “ above the pocket top.  Sound familiar any of you 80’s youth?

Then for my final two years in high-school I had more of what I would call a “spike” top of at least 1-1/2 inches, but the rest was fairly long.  I guess that was the style in the mid ‘80’s.  I don’t remember much about my college & early wedded bliss cut style though I guess Lavie might consider it to be (smirkingly) a short mullet style.  For one brief summer in college the back did get long enough to put up in a mini-pony which Lavie continues to chastise me for even to this day.  That “grew” out of a extended college group camping expedition to Big Bend Park in Texas.

It has only been in the past 5 or so year that I have transitioned to a flat-top, much to most everyone’s approval.

I say “most” everyone because Lavie is still of the opinion that I look much more handsome with a longer length haircut as well as “…missing running my fingers though your hair” stuff.  I just say “rub my Buddha-man’s head for good luck".

I made the change for a couple of reasons; first and foremost was the fact that it was much cooler in the summer.  I have an oily skin type and since I shampoo daily, it helps with the oil-control  Being an IT geek I sometimes am required to go into ceiling space or under/in IT equipment.  In all those cases having the insulation, ceiling-panel bits, dust, etc. in my longer hair was maddening.  With a flat-top it is just wipe and go.  Rain is fun and not a distraction.

Most of all however, I think it helps me feel more mentally focused, ready-for action, and outwardly coveys the inner-discipline I am constantly trying to project and improve on.  Call me crazy (maybe the ladies can understand) but I can tell a real change in my mental-state when my hair grows out “too long”.  I just don’t have the same energy level and attention to detail.  Kinda like Sampson in reverse.

I’ve never really considered if my flat-top style has any particular “official” name.  My regular barber knows to “skin me on the back and sides” and make it super-short & flat on top.

I went through a few cuts where he actually shaved down the sides but generally it was a slow evolutionary process to get comfortable going from the #1 or #2 blade on the sides down to my now-preferred #0 (or is it #000 or #00000) blade.  I’m not certain if anything past a #000 makes that much of a difference though technically you can find blades that close.  A good scalp-scrubbing with the “tightest” blade at hand usually does the trick.

I was looking for an version of a classic “crew-cut” barber-shop poster I once saw while in a former (I believe) Navy-man’s one-man barber shop out in El Cajon, California when I came across this one Official Hair Styles for Men and Boys on Flickr.  It’s not the same (though I have seen variations on this one as well). His had a number of different military cuts displayed, all crew/flat in nature.  Finding that poster is one of the things that got me started on this post.

Turns out (after donating at least a few hours of my time to Google search) that my “official” flat-top haircut style is known as the Horseshoe Flattop Barber Haircut Style.  It gets its name from the fact the sides are “high & tight” and the top is cut so short and flat that if someone looks down on it it looks like a horseshoe of hair.  Now I know.  The illustrative picture on that page is very close to how mine looks when fresh.

The Shave of Beverly Hills also notes details on other flat-top styles including the more traditional Flattop Barber Haircut Style as well as the Buzz Cut Hairstyle.

Wikipedia also has information on assorted close-cut haircuts; the High and Tight, the Crew cut, and then the Buzz cut.

Ed Friedlander MD maintains the extensive (and illustrative) Flat-Top Crewcuts page.  I noted with amusement the following observation he makes:

I have noticed that flattops are especially popular with computer geeks, weight lifters, police officers, and professional military men. All are non-nonsense, self-sufficient, hard-working types.

Curiously, in both our own IT shop as well as that of a sister-agency we regularly interface with, I think only one other guy besides me wears his hair this short, and it is a buzz-cut.  That’s not including the guy who is almost a doppelganger to my brother who just shaves his entire head.  Not that I’ve got anything against that particular style, but it doesn’t seem to qualify.

I found the wonderfully detailed Buzztown Barber Shop website as well that has a great collection of barber-shop lore and stories including a number of them focusing on buzz/flat-top cuts and tips.

If you are ever passing through far East Harris County and are looking for a great “old-school” barber-shop I recommend the Trophy Barber Shop.  The decor might not be for everyone’s taste but it certainly is a local area landmark.  All the barbers are great and their diversity makes for greatly entertaining banter.  It’s my personal barber shop of choice. No TV’s are present though when there is a lull (rarely) in the clippers you might catch some music.  And they still use sharp straight-razors and old-fashioned heated shaving foam to clean-trim the edges of the cuts.  The stately former shine-man and consummate gentleman Mr. John Cooper has long since retired from his shine station, but for the longest time his tiny black & white TV could be seen hidden under a chair displaying a mid-day Astros baseball game.  Now that he is sadly gone, it is gone as well.  And if your appetite is needy after a mid-day Saturday buzz, nothing better to follow it off with a trip across the street to Roosters for some great local burger fare.

In the past (being borderline OCD) I would sometimes come home and “fine-tune” my flat-top with my own clipper set.  Invariably there always seems to be a few stray long hairs that failed to muster for their cut-down. Nobody would notice but it drives me nutty.  Long ago I had picked up a particularly nice set of hair-clippers and it does the job awesomely.  While the shortest setting is probably comparable to a #0 blade, a good scalp-scrubbing with it does the “high and tight” treatment quite nicely.

I’ve also been known (in a pinch) to take the clippers to my head and do my own full flat-top treatment.  This generally occurs when my work-schedule causes me to miss the barber-shop hours of operation.  Something happening much more commonly now, despite Trophy now keeping the shop open during the week-day until 7pm to attract straggling customers like me.  I’m sure the economy has something to do with that decision as well.

While doing my own flat-tops I find it much easier to do when it is already fairly short since the last cut.  I generally go two-weeks between cuts.  Then it is merely a matter of following the existing but just making it shorter again.  This weekend I was really out of whack with circumstances causing me to go over four-weeks since the last cut.  It was still short but more of a standard “man’s cut” traditional length (to Lavie’s delight).  Being that long it was too challenging to try to get the flat-top cleanly polished off myself so I just buzzed the sides and back down “high-n-tight”, then ran a tight #1’ish buzz on the top, forgoing the flat.  Next weekend (if time allows) I will get it “professionally” horseshoed at the barber shop, or if time is not my friend, I will have a much easier time decking it myself.

I can get the transition/taper on the sides handled nicely myself, but to be honest, getting the fade-line in the back perfect is still challenging.  Fortunately Lavie is accommodating and is adept at polishing it off for me.

While not directly related to hair-cuts, I did find this site The Fedora Lounge to be pretty fun as well in covering a number of gentlemanly topics.

Now back to regular programming.

--Claus V.

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GSD Hurricane Tracking Links – 2009

CC attribution: Public Domain. NASA via pingnews on flickr.

After all that “Ike Badness” last year I’m not sure I am emotionally ready for this again.  However we have really improved our processes at home and work due to “Lessons Learned” exercises and our business impact and business continuity plans are sharpened and more refined than ever before.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to go back and update my GSD Hurricane Tracking Links – 2008 post

Bookmark ‘em all!  (Or al least this post!)

Gulf Coast Watch List

So here are the hurricane links I am watching at home and work, to track the impending winds. Listed in order of my personal preference…

• Stormpulse / Hurricane tracking, mapping - If you like dark-themed, special-op center techno-sites, this is the one for you. The site has a lot of information and can be customized in extra data inclusions on the chart. What really makes this one cool is that it has a “Full-Screen” mode that displays as much detail as you want for the storm-track on your monitor.  It provides a standard storm-track model, but you can select to include a bevy of additional forecast models if you want to really psych yourself out. Loaded up in Google Chrome or Chromium coupled with a nice dark Google Chrome Theme it really stands out projected on the wall of the incident command center.

• SciGuy Blog – Chon.com’s Eric Berger - Eric has been providing outstanding details, commentary, live chat-sessions, and analysis of all science and  prognostication tropical.  Highly recommended as a filter of reason and temperance in a media-market filled with over-hype, smashing graphics, and fear-factor extremes. Besides that, you can count on Eric to provide great meteorological linkage to excellent source material like this GFS global model or this the European model.  It’s a must-follow/must-RSS feed blog for all Texas Gulf Coast residents. Period.  (see also Jeff Masters’ Wunder Blog : Weather Underground).

• IBISEYE.com -- Your Atlantic Hurricane Season Tracking Map Source – An awesome site that mashes up tracking data on hurricanes and points of interest, along with Google Maps.  Heavy on the JavaScript but makes up for it in pure visual delight.  Easy enough even the “old-folks” can understand.  Not only are hurricanes and projected paths displayed, but also counties are added as they fall under various storm watches and warnings.  Zoom in/out for more detail.

• Tropical Atlantic: NHC Model Data for Tropical Storms – TropicalAtlantic beta – For folks who need to have more than one storm-track model presented, this is like going from riding a pony to driving cattle from North Dakota to the Fort Worth Stockyards.  Look at the top of the page to select any current storms.  Then when the Google Map mash-up launches, you can pick from 32 “Early” models and 38 “Late” model storm track models.  Plot one or plot them all! Awesome! Additional NOAA summary of storm-track models. Also, Tropical Atlantic: Information About Atlantic Hurricanes – main-page.

• Hurricane and Storm Tracking - Terrapin's site remains a dear favorite. It is lean and simple and allows for quick location of information without lots of graphic overkill. The storm-track plots come in two flavors, a simple historical and future projection track that is static as well as a java-based animated one. Loads fast and updated as new forecasts are posted.

• National Hurricane Center - This website maintained by the National Weather Service is my number two choice. Lots more linkage on the sidebar for hurricane related topics and preparations. The main page has links to a number of graphics and advisories.

• (NHC's) Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook - A "beta" sub-page of the site listed above. This is pretty cool. Any current tropical systems are overlayed on a satellite image with an icon. Hovering over the icon pulls up a quick update view. Clicking on the update popup then takes you to the system's detailed page.

• Moreweather.com -- Tropical Atlantic Weather Page - T-Storm Terry Faber has created a great hurricane system page here. Not only does it have lots of links to any active systems, but it also contains links to radar and satellite images, many in great details and high resolution. The hurricane tracking maps and projections are there, of course. T-Storm Terry also provides links to other sources of information as well as historical data on previous storm systems.

• Tropical Weather : Weather Underground - This is a fantastic site that has the widest range of linkages, maps, images, models, and everything. Just about the only thing it doesn't provide is winds blown into your face through the monitor. Which is why I put this at the bottom and not the top: there is just so much information it overwhelms.

• Oklahoma Weather Lab | Hoot - Models: GFS Model Upper-Level Wind 850mb provided us great forecast models of the high/low pressure zones and ridges leading up to Ike’s eventual landfall and really helped us understand the forces driving its path.

Local Winds

For local Houston area facts and updates, most of the local news stations have their web-sites powered up.

• Hurricane Central | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle - I generally turn to the Houston Chronicle's website for the majority of my information locally.

• Harris County Homeland Security & Emergency Management - Main page links to the new Evacuation maps, Contraflow routes, etc.

• Fox News 26 - Hurricane Toolbox - Lots of links and helpful tips

• abc13.com: Gulf Coast Hurricane Guide - Again lots of links and preparedness tips.

• StormWatch, KPRC Local 2 Click2Houston - News channel 2's public information page.

• HURRICANE CENTRAL from 11 News KHOU.com - One more local news site's tropics page.

Even More Weather

I have found these additional links pretty cool:

• e-WALL : PSU ELECTRONIC MAP WALL – Too Much Information!  But still cool.

• TROPICAL ATLANTIC e-WALL – I’m no meteorologist, but I can play one at work and home!

• Real Time Tropical Cyclone Research Page– University of Central Florida. Lots of additional links.

Road Kill

• Houston TranStar Real-Time Traffic Map,

• Houston TranStar Cameras, and

• Houston TranStar Incidents and Road Closures.

You just don’t want to be caught off guard when one of these comes knocking at your door.

Ike radar image captured by Jim Thompson of jimthompson.org

--Claus

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Give IT a Break!

I read this news report the other day.

• Texas Politics: Hasta la vista, Vista? (ANOTHER UPDATE) – Chron.com

Then I made the mistake of reading the comments. Gratefully there were just a few.

I ended up with a super-long blog-post full of insightful commentary and inside perspective.

I scrubbed it.  Figured these things really won’t matter much in the big scheme of things.

Rest assured citizens of the State of Texas, I can’t speak for everything and everyone, but it is my personal opinion that your state IT shops and their dedicated staff are on top of things, making sure you get the most bang-for-your-tax-bucks.

We got you (the public) and the state employees who use IT hardware and software technology to serve you covered.  Whatever the operating system is, or must, or could yet be.

We get IT. And we make IT work for you.

It’s our job.

We do it very well and very professionally.

--Claus

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Warm things for cool and blustery days

Minipost.

For the Belly

I still love RSS feeding the Houstonist for the latest behind the scenes goings on around our fine city of Houston, Texas.

I miss that they seem to have dropped their previous Tech Buzz regular posts.  Not so much  as they often pulled material from my blog, but I liked that local tech-news connection.

Anyway, a surviving post category has been local dining locations, and a top-post this week was Houstonist: One Pho the Money, Two Pho the Show covering two new Pho shop locations about Houston.

I’ve found a few choice Pho picks off Harwin, Fuqua, and recently on Bay Area Boulevard worthy of eating.  I sometimes stop in with a few near the light-rail line on the south-side of downtown with my Dad after work as well.  So I was happy to see this featured and be able to note some new joints to try.

A nice super-big bowl of beef Pho with some torn basil and hoisin sauce does wonders beyond miracles to my soul.

Of Belly “Bear”ers of the round and tumbly kind

I’m a kid at heart.

Give me a cold winter night and a DVD or VHS tape of the classic Winnie the Pooh stories and I am in childlike comfort.

Original Winnie the Pooh drawings » Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

This brought me back to all things wonderful.

Hop over to BibliOdyssey: Original Winnie The Pooh Drawings for the full and amazing post up of E.H. Shepard’s brilliantly simple but evocative drawings of our beloved bear and friends.  Peacay also provides some nice commentary on them near the end of the post.

As stated, there is no telling if or how long the image links may survive depending on any copyright challenge requests for posting them, so finish up those stoutness exercises and head on over before they disappear like honey before a bear of very small brain.

….hmmmm.

Wonder how Pho with honey would taste?

--Claus V.

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