The cannon pictured below is in the Park. The article about Forest Park in the most recent issue of Saint Louis Magazine has a blurb about it. According to the magazine article, the cannon was forged in Mexico City in 1783. It arrived in Saint Louis in order to celebrate Admiral George Dewey Day, in 1900. It then sat in a city warehouse until some wag at the Post-Dispatch wrote a tongue-in-cheek article pleading for its release. The article was written in the first person, as the cannon. The cannon has been on display ever since. People just forgot why until an enterprising Park ranger dug in to its history.
Today’s header was taken a couple of weeks ago, while bicycling in the Park. I was on my way out of the Park, when I spied a guy parked the wrong way, holding a camera out of his car’s window. Sensing a photo opportunity, I stopped too and took the picture. The other guy and I talked for a few minutes and then I rode on home. I met him again at Edward Crim’s art opening. His name is John and like me, he is an amateur naturalist and photographer. Saint Louis really is a small town.
Dan and I took Anne to Pomme Café for Mothers Day, on Sunday morning. This is the same café that I took her to for the previous Mothers Day. We liked it last year and liked it even better this year. While we were there, Dan showed me his iPhone Apps, some of which I have already downloaded:
- Bump communicates with another iPhone by bumping them together.
- iHandy Level lets your iPhone act as a level, a bit geeky, but still a lot of fun.
- NASA lets you know things, like where is the International Space Station.
- Pandora is an App that gives the iPhone internet radio.
- Stanza is an eReader application.
This blog went a bit viral the last couple of day. It was nothing like the Freshly Pressed episode of a few weeks ago though. It all had to do with the post that I published for Mothers Day a year ago. In that post I recited the lyrics to that song about mothers everywhere, M Is for the Many things she gave me …
Dave was a member of a team of four students that collaborated on their senior design project. Their topic was entitled, Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy Diagnostics. The teamed worked to develop a device to measure pressures on the foot to determine regions with an increased risk of ulceration for patients in developing countries. Their team won second place among the fifteen competing teams at Rochester. Dave will get some part of the $3,000 in prize money that the school offers. His team plans on submitting their project at the national level and hope to win part of the $10,000 in prizes offered there.
Dave will be returning with us from Rochester, for a little victory lap. There is a gap between when he has to vacate his current housing and before his summer housing is available. It will be good to see him for more than a weekend.
I have Pandora and Stanza (but have never used them) and Level.
I use GroceryIQ when I don’t just wander down the grocery store aisles grabbing things randomly off the shelves. And Hipstamatic for “fun” photos. Snaptell when I see a book I want to remember for possible future purpose. Weather apps (Weatherbug or others) are essential for walkers (and bikers).
And how could I forget iBird. Do you have that yet?
I would like to see your iBird App, maybe next week?
I have had “Bump” for ages… just no one to “Bump” with it, so I have no clue how well it works!
Yup, “iHandy Level” – took me a while to figure out I had to “initialize” it FIRST before using, otherwise it gave some pretty screwy levels (*sigh* – would help to read the notes).
“SpeedTest” – lets you know the upload/download/ping speed of your internet connection
As a geek, you need “Lightsaber”, and to satisfy your pyro tendencies… “Zippo Lighter”. For emergencies, check out “Flashlight”. Hearing some music in the Cafe and cannot come up with the name or artist? “Shazam” it. There’s a bunch of others of varying interest and usefulness. Have fun!
I have Lightsaber and Flashlight. I’ll have to checkout Zippo.