"New" phone

My work phone just started cracking along the hinge. Thankfully I was able to get a replacement. Interestingly it belonged to a coworker I know well who was recently upgraded to an iPhone. The "new" phone is the one I'm holding in the picture. The other one is my old, dying phone.


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2011 iWolff Ltd.

New phone

Last night I switched phones. For two years I've had an AT&T iPhone 3GS. I upgraded to a 4S with Verizon. I didn't dislike AT&T, they just didn't get reception at work. Of course Verizon has repeaters throughout the Creation Museum, hence it's great service there. It has been a good switch, with only a couple issues. My text messages transferred over, but the name on each one shows the phone number instead of the person's name. I searched on-line and apparently others have had the issue. I tried several fixes and none have worked completely.

~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2011 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Highland Ave,Fort Mitchell,United States

Mobile Version

I know I haven't blogged much lately, but I just added an interesting feature. Blogger rolled out a mobile version for smartphones and I decided to turn it on. It isn't bad, even for my antiquated and modified template. This might inspire me to edit the format of this blog... ;-)


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2011 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Highland Ave,Fort Mitchell,United States

No Signal?

I saw this interesting signal information on my iPhone this morning shortly after I left the break room (at the Museum Center) and entered an area that had a cell signal. I'm not sure how I can be on 3G and have no signal, ;-).


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:U.S. 27,Cincinnati,United States

I like Folders

One if the nicest features of upgrading to iOS 4 on my phone has been organizing apps into folders. I consolidated several screens into my home screen.


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Pond

I didn't realize the word pond could be a verb. I opened my Weather Channel app this morning and clicked on the severe weather alert. At the bottom I spotted these lines.



Interesting.

~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Home from Virginia

On Sunday I traveled back from Virginia--it was a long day, but a good time nonetheless.


While in Richmond there was no chance to visit a historical site. Therefore on the way home we stopped of at Monticello. I haven't been there since I was a kid. I did forget to pay cash for something--I remember getting two dollar bills as change. No pictures were allowed inside, but I did grab many outside shots including these two on my iPhone.


We stopped at Wendy's for lunch--but it turned out to be 2.7 miles off the interstate.  Needless to say it wasn't quite as quick as we'd hoped.


Somewhere in West Virginia the rain started pouring down.  Of course it was a downpour just as we drove into a rest area because some people needed to use the restrooms.

We did make it to the restrooms, and I ducked into the welcome center area to get a state map.  The rain did stop for a while.



I always like taking pictures after a rain shower--the water seems to make greens really pop.



Ever since I visited the Smokies I've really appreciated "smoky hills"



Once we were back on the road the rain started back up.



When we stopped at a truck stop our pickup and trailer seemed so small.



I thought this was a cool penny machine with eight different designs, until I tried to make a second design.  The descriptions were labeled incorrectly!  I got two "Lucky West Virginia" pennies, and I didn't even want one of them.  *sigh*



I did think these spoons were pretty cool.  I've bought ones like this before at the Appalachian Culture Fest at the Museum Center.



One of the people driving with us wondered why I took this picture, but I have to take pictures of strange signs.  :-)



We drove over several bridges of this type.



We were about thirty minutes from Winchester, KY, but Dan and I still tried to find Ale-8.  It was too expensive.



This vending machine was inside the Wal-Mart located at the exit where the Ale-8 bottling plant is located.



Awesome selection!



And we all thought this bus was strange with no signs or distinguishing markings.



~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Gmail Mobile

I was talking with somebody yesterday and explaining what it meant to "like" something on Facebook.  I remarked that sometimes bad news is "liked" when someone else commented that some people are agitating for a "dislike" option on Facebook.  If I had one for Google services I'd use it right now.  I don't remember how long ago, but fairly recently Google changed the interface for Gmail mobile.

Previously there was a handy little toolbar that floated at the top of the screen.  You could use the buttons here to archive messages and assign a label.  I have Gmail routed through the mail app on my iPhone and I enjoy using that--but that interface doesn't allow me to label and archive, critical features I use to keep my inbox largely clear.  My inbox serves as a "to do" list and as soon as something is done I want to archive it.

Well the new version of Gmail that I can access via my iPhone's Safari browser still has the ability to archive--but I cannot label any messages!  :(  Normally I enjoy Google's new features, but I simply cannot understand this change, it really seemed to decrease functionality.  But the most frustrating thing is that I cannot find mention of this change anywhere on the Google blogs I read (none of the writers owns an iPhone though, and I think Android has a native Gmail app), nor on the official Google blogs.  I would just like to know why these changes were made and if anyone else is as annoyed as I am.

~Matt

Post Office Failure

I checked the mail two days ago and found a letter that should have been delivered to another address.  That isn't incredibly unusual--sometimes you find something for a previous tenant or for someone down the street.  This wasn't the case this time.  I live on Highland Avenue...the address was for Highland Street (same building number) in a city in Connecticut!

I mapped the distance from the correct address (after checking to make sure that the address did indeed exist).!

But do you want to know the best part?  The letter wasn't mailed from nearby Kentucky, from Ohio, or even someplace out west like California.  It was mailed from Connecticut!  So the Post Office sent this letter (with the correct zip code and a valid address) 750 miles out of its way.

~Matt

Towne Centre

Why the "e" on Town?


I'm here to visit the LEGO and Apple stores.


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:E Galbraith Rd,Cincinnati,United States

Awake

I didn't plan to wake up this early, but now that I'm awake I might as well use the time. I woke up around five and have read a few things on my iPhone. I'll get up in a few minutes and start breaking down my tent. We need to be all packed up and ready to go by seven. Of course it is still dark as sunrise isn't until after seven.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this trip. I know it will be hard work paddling, but fun also. I look forward to doing some more canoe and/or tent camping with my brother and nephews at some point. I never got a chance to go backpacking with my parents as they were done with it by the time I was old enough.

Some people in the group have already taken short trips into the swamp and seen gators and other wildlife. I forgot to borrow a pair of binoculars, but hopefully my camera will be good enough for closer views with it's 12x zoom.

I hear packing starting around me so I think I'll start to get up now. I don't expect to have signal in the swamp, but in case I do I'll switch my phone off most of the time to save it's charge.

Good morning and hello gaters! :-)


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Unnamed Rd,Folkston,United States

Alice

I tried to post this twice before, but it was lost… Time for reconstruction. *After the first loss I learned my lesson and copied all of the text.*

I'm in the middle of watching Alice--not Tim Burton's film (though I plan to see that eventually), but the Syfy (I still dislike that new name) miniseries from last year.

Sone stuff from Syfy is quite goofy and or campy; but this show is quite enjoyable. It is similar to Tin Man in that it is a present day set reimagining of a classic story. I think I'm about a third of the way through and plan to watch a bit more tonight.


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Still Spring

The weather is staying springish. It started raining rather heavily a bit before I left work. Of course the wettest I got was when entering my car and trying to fold up the umbrella. I do so enjoy having my garage to drive into at home.



As you can see the rain has kept on through the evening. I did notice that further north snow is falling, but it hasn't gotten quite that cold here.





~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Highland Ave,Fort Mitchell,United States

Power Outage

On my way home from Bible Study I reentered the realm of cell service. It was after midnight, but I got several text messages from hours before. Apparently our neighborhood lost power and my sister wanted to let me know. I plugged my iPhone in on the way home to make sure it would have the fullest charge and could serve as an alarm clock in the morning. Alas when I turned onto my street lights were again shining. I took the following video of my alarm clock around thirty minutes after midnight. I figure power was restored near 21:30…

I assume the outage was weather related as we had a good thunderstorm in the area earlier, but I haven't heard anything to know for certain.

~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

The Day After Wednesday

Thursdays are a bit strange these days, or at least I'm having to get accustomed to their pattern.  I'm off every Wednesday (until mid-May) because of my work on the Gold exhibit.  But because I'm working at the Museum Center I can't visit the Creation Museum on my day off (as I often do).  I don't always visit, but sometimes I do--or at least I know I can.  Now I know that I cannot on Wednesday.  This makes Thursday an interesting day.

While it may be boring for Gold to be slow I am glad that I have enough time to keep up with e-mail and other minor matters.  If I didn't have my iPhone I'd be hurting due to the loss of contact, ;-).  Please realize that I'm not complaining--I got myself into this situation.  All I am saying is that it is interesting...  Thursday I just have to adjust to being back at my desk after a day of work that was completely different.

~Matt

A Bit More

I just walked home from my sister's place. It had snowed a bit before I went over, but I just discovered that it had snowed more in the several hours I was there watching the Olympics. It wasn't foggy like the Vancouver ski slopes, but flakes were definitely falling.

I'm sure the accumulation won't be that much, and much of the previous snow has melted... Still it is noticable and will temporarily cover up the dirty snow.



Let it snow, let it snow...

~Matt
PS That last line was for you Josh. :-P

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Highland Ave,Fort Mitchell,United States

Appalachian Culture Fest

Today I went to the Appalachian Culture Fest at the Cincinnati Museum Center.  I would post a link, but I can't find anything on the CMC website about this year's Culture Fest series, :(.  The snow is starting to melt which meant that it was a nice warm day (my car thermostat read 51 so I rolled my window down part of the day) but the nice white blanket is starting to disappear.  I spent most of the day inside so it didn't affect my photography greatly.

I met up with Jen and Adam (I work with them at the Creation Museum) and Anna Jones who is a formerly frequent volunteer at the Creation Museum who is staring to volunteer again.

Here you can see the three of them listing to one of the artisans.  This guy is a wood carver who specializes in making bowls.  Some of his pieces are simply amazing.  The bowl in the bottom right of this picture took him about forty hours of work to complete--but he said that was spread out over about a year and a half.  It was an interesting idea and I know that is how things used to work.  Craftsmen were paid by the job instead of working on an assembly line being paid by the hour.  The big bowl was for sale for $1400 which works out to about $35 an hour.

Below you can see just a bit of what he talked about--I didn't want to record for too long as I wasn't sure how large a video I could upload.

There were several other artisans/vendors in the area called the "Appalachian Trail."  One that I remember talking to last year stepped away before we could go to her area.

There was also an area with brooms and walking sticks.  Anna had to try out one of the strangely shaped brooms.  I tried it also--it looks pretty strange, but is actually not that hard to use.

Walking around the rotunda in search of stamps (if you collect four stamps on a "passport" you get a coupon good for one free Museum admission) we stopped to listen to music for a bit.

I enjoyed the music and heard from a distance some better music later--but we were listening to a storyteller.  I wish that I could have done several things at once a couple times, ;-).  This video, like the one above was taken on my iPhone.  I was quite surprised that the audio came out as clearly as it did.  As I've said the iPhone definitely won't replace my camera but there are many features that are quite enjoyable and useful when I don't want to carry my largeish (not compared to a DSLR, but still larger than a typical point and shoot) camera around.

I'm not sure what this display had to do with Appalachia...it seems more "hippie" than hillbilly...

When I got to the building I sent a text to Adam, thinking that they might still be on their way.  He replied that they were in the Newsreel Theater.  Noah and I walked in and discovered that they were listening to a storyteller.  There were a couple spots in the guy's stories that were rough (he didn't foretell some plot twists), but overall I enjoyed his stories.

We went back later for his second session.  He did mention that there would be a local festival in May with many more storytellers (amongst other Appalachian cultural events).  I might have to look up more information on that event and see if it is worth attending.

I also ran into some people that I haven't seen in quite a while.  Al and Regeana are awesome volunteers that I've worked with on several exhibits.  Emily is another person that I worked with on several exhibits who has since moved from part-time work to a full-time job at the Museum Center.

I know it isn't the greatest shot of Al, but I didn't think to get a shot when Regeana was around.  And Emily?  Well she knows how to give a good glare.

If you know Adam and Jen then you'll be excited to see this next picture.  They found the perfect house while looking through a photography booth.  This is an amazing place with three porches, an attached garage, and a detached garage.  It even has two stories!

I did manage to capture Jen's reaction on camera so that you could experience the happy moment with her:

This last video gives you a taste of what the entire Rotunda looks like decorated for the Culture Fest.  I didn't move around too much, but you can see at least half of the stuff that was set up.

~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone (I posted the videos from my iPhone and then added text and pictures on my computer)
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Union Terminal,Cincinnati,OH,United States

Still Falling

I'm just leaving the Creation Museum after staying for the State of the Nation 2 broadcast and it is snowing again. I guess it isn't leaving us yet...



~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Petersburg,United States

Weather Update

Well the snow looks to have mostly passed us by. Cincinnati itself looks like it might get more, but I'm not sure if we'll see any here in northern Kentucky.

I need to get up very soon and get ready for the day. I came home yesterday to find that my landlord hadn't plowed any of the driveway. I know that it kept snowing all day, but even some plowing would have made a difference. I had to shovel just so I could get my car into the garage last night. I expect that I'll have to shovel some more this morning.

School has been cancelled, but I'm not sure if my nephews will be up and able to help with shoveling. I don't mind doing it, but it goes faster with more people working.


~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.

Location:Highland Ave,Fort Mitchell,United States

Leaving for Home Soon

I turned my car on a while ago with my remote starter.



The snow has piled up though...



I like the view, ;-).



~Matt

-- Posted from my iPhone
(c) 2010 iWolff Ltd.