Birthday Party Time!

Jun4

Having A Birthday Dinner Picnic By The Trains

Our son wanted to spend his birthday dinner at our favorite picnic place, by the Ashland Visitors Center watching the trains. We got lucky today, no garbage train! This time we were graced by Amtrak and one of my favorite trains, the AutoTrain!

And what’s a birthday train watch without a souvenir? We had two train smashed pennies in the car and decided to have them flattened again. The problem was, we couldn’t find one of them after Engine 73 went by. Wonder how much money gets lost on train tracks across the U.S.?

Amtrack

Amtrak 73 Southbound

We laid our final penny on the track again and waited for the next train. This time it was another Amtrak. And once again we lost our penny. We stared at it, watched it bounce and fly onto the track. But between the three of us, we could not find it! You’d think a shiny flat penny would be easy to see! Nope. One of the other visitors to the track this afternoon also helped us look for our lost penny. He couldn’t find it either. The AutoTrain really did a number on it. Flattened it so well it must have evaporated! Continue reading →

Happy Memorial Day

May26

We Remember With Honor

To All those Veterans Past, Present and Future.

Memorial Day

Produced by The U.S. Air Force News Agency

© This material is the intellectual property of Author Springwolf

© 2013 Evilwordsmith.com. All Rights Reserved Springwolf D.D., Ph.D.

Deepest Sympathies For Dick Trickle

May18
In Sympathy

Thoughts, Prayers & Sympathies
To Those In Grief

A NASCAR Legend Dies

If you’ve been around my blog or Facebook page you know my family and I are big fans of racing. Especially Nascar racing.

Nascar fans are a unique group of people. We’re not at all like the stereotypes the media in all it’s forms tries to paint us as. Our range of fans spans way beyond the boundaries of North America as a whole. It touches every part of the world and if some of these critics would go to a race and meet the people, they would learn that.

We’re not all uneducated southern rednecks either. You’ll find people from all walks of life at a race rooting for their favorite driver. Doctors, professors, lawyers, computer professionals, construction engineers and everything in between.

We’re a family; sometimes a dysfunctional family, but still a family. We may not like the same drivers, we may diss on your favorite driver. But at the end of a race, you won’t find any of us beating up or shooting another fan because they happen to like the driver who crashed our guy out of the race. We come together like no other sport does when tragedy strikes in our midst. It’s a phenomenon that has been discussed and written about by sports reporters for decades. Continue reading →

The 2013 Grizzly Games

May10

grizzlygamesGames and Aspirin!

If you’re Scottish, don’t get too excited at the title. It’s an elementary school thing. Their mascot is a grizzly bear. There is no bloodshed in the Grizzly Games. Well almost none, turns out the top of a two liter soda bottle is pretty hard if it hits you in the eye after being nailed by a 2nd grader with a Frisbee.

I volunteered for this today. Which, in this case, meant that I was working the Frisbee toss. Kids lined up to chuck foam Frisbees at a two liter soda bottle standing on top of a long PVC pole. And thanks to the weather for the last few days, instead of only one grade, all of them came out. All nine hundred kids, all day long.

Speaking of weather, it definitely cooperated. It’s been cold here since the end of February. But not today. No, today it’s pushing 90. My bald spot took so much radiation today, that I may have superpowers now. I know that, like the rest of my old body, it super hurts.

And speaking of pain. My brain had an interesting internal conversation with some muscle groups in my shoulders. It went like this: Continue reading →

The Traveling Sound of Rumbling Trains

May1

Randolf-Macon College And Trains

Today while watching the trains the little Prince started chatting up two college girls on their way back to campus. He asked them if they thought the trains were loud when they were studying? Great opening line. Both of them equally lovely, the brunette spoke first and noted on sunny days they don’t bother her at all. But on a snowy day this past winter, she wished she could push the mute button because they seemed to echo through the snow.

CSX - Southbound

CSX 5389 – Southbound

Continue reading →

Rainy Train Day

Apr24

Rain or Shine The Train’s On The Line

Even on rainy days we can’t run errands without swinging by the Train Depot. There’s something about hearing that train horn sound off in the distance on a cloudy day. It seems to echo against the clouds and herald the arrival of adventure.

Amtrak - Southbound

Amtrak 176 – Southbound

© This material is the intellectual property of Author Springwolf
© 2006-2013 Evilwordsmith.com. All Rights Reserved, Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D.

New App Review & An App Update

Apr24

Compass Apps

Recently we had an opportunity to watch the Antares Rocket launch from Wallops Island in Virginia. We needed to know the exact direction from our viewing position and Evil forgot his nautical compass. Well there’s an app for that! There are a lot of apps for that. Be careful though, some only display information in their home creators language. I found many for Chinese and Japanese that don’t have options to translate to English. Not all compass apps are accurate, so read the reviews others have left. I downloaded three apps and checked them out. Here’s what I found.   

Compass by

Compass by Catch.com – ☆☆☆☆☆
Works great on my Galaxy Nexus. We put this app up against my husbands nautical compass when we got home and it’s matched up in accuracy perfectly. It’s great whether you’re standing still in your backyard for star gazing, or on the move in the car driving down the road. I really like it. The free version has several themes that can be used, and there are more you can purchase. Frankly I’m a big fan of the wood/antique look one which is part of the free version. – The only thing I’d like to see added is for the latitude and longitude to be displayed under the address that’s displayed at the top of the screen. That’s very helpful when you’re star gazing.

Smart Compass by Smart Tools Co. – ☆☆☆
If you have Samsung Nexus anything, don’t bother. In its current state as of 04/2013 its erratic and not as accurate as Compass. It has some nice features, but it also has some that are rather annoying. Although you may turn the phone into portrait or landscape mode, the heading is fixed. I don’t want to read sideways. For me, it was kind of useless.

Tiny Compass by Nikolay Ananiev – ☆☆☆☆
No frills! Accurate within 10 feet. It lacks information that is provided by Compass by Catch. But if you’re looking for nothing but a compass where you can derive other information on your own, this would be the app for you. I like a little frill, so I wasn’t impressed with this one. But for what it is, it’s good.

Update: Screen Saver Apps

Photo Slides (Photo Frame) by Softick Ltd. – ☆☆☆☆☆☆  – Yes, that’s 6 stars..I like it that much!
In a recent update Softick has provided an option to display the status bar of your phone while the screen saver is running. I really like this, because some of my alerts for news or weather don’t take over the phone, they display as an icon in the status bar. So I really like this update…especially since it’s one I suggested!

You can see all my Long, Continually Running Android App Reviews on my Android App Review page.

© Springwolfs Hanko
© 2012-2013 Evilwordsmith.com. All Rights Reserved Springwolf D.D., Ph.D.