Not My Lucky Week for Rain
You’ve probably experienced this at least once: the weather is fine, if cloudy, all day long, but the moment you walk out the door, rain begins to fall. You know, the experience where you wonder if your front door is positioned over some ancient Indian rainmaking temple or something.
Well, twice this week I’ve had that experience. Almost three times, but the third time it started raining about two minutes after I walked out the door, so that doesn’t count. The other two times, rain started right on cue; I watched as the dry ground started getting peppered with raindrops. Twice in one week is enough to start you to think about laws of probability and so forth.
And then today, I got unlucky again in one way, and lucky in another. I decided to go out to Costco. All day long it’s been sunny. Only as I walk out the door do clouds begin to dim the direct sunshine, but still, most of the sky is clear, and it’s quite bright out. I get on my scooter and head off. Two minutes out, I notice the wall of dark clouds off in the distance, in addition to the overcast above. I figure that I have enough time to get to Costco (a 15-minute drive) before it starts to rain; on the way back, I can wear my rain suit, which I proudly remembered I had decided to bring along, just in case.
Three minutes out, and it begins to rain. A light sprinkle. Damn, I think. Okay, the Costco trip can wait for tomorrow. I turn around and head back. Turns out that was a very wise move. The rain gets heavier, then heavier still. Not quite so bad at first that I feel I have to pull over and suit up–I am just a few minutes out, and besides, there’s no shelter to change under, anyway.
But in the few minutes it took to get home, I got soaked. So badly that it even got through my leather jacket in spots. Just before I turned around, half the sky was clear. As I pulled into my apartment complex three minutes later, the whole sky was grey and it was pouring.
Good thing I decided to turn around. But, boy, does my timing suck this week.
sorry to hear that. The last few days have been rather strange in Yamaguchi, too. Yesterday I walked out of my house and it was quite cold. I really needed a light jacket. But suddenly at about 1:00pm the temp jumped so high everyone was sweating out their clothes. Now today the temp dropped again. But at least it is sunny.
Quick question–is ther anyway to connect a mac to a tv and have the tv act as a full fledged monitor. I have a toshiba liquid crystal flat screen and wonder if a mac-mini might connect to it and that could be my very large and cool monitor.
Thanks for all you mac info and advice.
best to you
matthew
It depends on the TV/monitor and the Mac. If the TV is an LCD, it should be able to do what you want, but only if it has the right connectors. An S-Video or RCA hookup will probably just get you an interlaced NTSC picture, like a normal TV–fuzzy. If there’s a VGA or DVI connector, then it’ll probably be like a computer display. Connectors can differ, but see if the plugs in the back or on the side of the monitor are labeled. If it’s in Japanese, look for “PC Nyuu-ryoku” (PC??). A VGA port is typically shaped like an isosceles trapezoid (rectangle with one of the long sides shorther than the other, short sides angled in), and has three rows of five pins each. It’s the most common monitor connector.
Also, check your monitor’s specs to see if it has a PC input ability; if it does, then it should note the resolution (e.g., 1280 x 1024). If you no longer have the manual, then note the model number and do a search on the maker’s site. They usually have specs or at least a PDF manual available online.
It also depends on which Mac you have. Laptop or desktop? Laptops more often have a VGA- or DVI-out port. S-Video or RCA probably won’t do if you want it to be like a monitor, clear and sharp. An iMac might have a mini-DVI-out which could work. A desktop Mac would go VGA or DVI out to a monitor; you could reconnect to the TV or use a splitter to go to both monitor and TV (again, depending on what the TV has). Apple has each Mac’s specs online; go to apple.com, click on Support, then Specifications, then choose your model.
Hope this helps. Next time I buy a TV, I’ll probably buy a nice, 32-inch Hi-def set with PC input and display capability. Sweeeet.
I guess you don’t look at the weather report
Actually, I do, but it’s not quite that accurate. The report yesterday showed rain coming, but that I had maybe 90 minutes before it got to me–it hit much faster. Sometimes I see it showing rainfall solidly around Tokyo Prefecture, but it’s not raining outside my window. And the three times it started raining as I left, I was on my way to work–couldn’t change the timing on that, I’m afraid…
I think your rain experience is keeping nature in balance. I have exactly the opposite experience – it usually doesn’t start raining with any intensity until I get where I’m going. Either that or it’s the hours you keep. 😉