Ryan Jacobs

Last week, we drove to Charleston, SC for a wedding. We didn’t get to spend a lot of time touring downtown and tour but had a few hours to explore. We started out around Vendue and Concord and walked to the Battery via Church Street. We then came back via East Bay . I greatly enjoyed viewing the historical houses and landmarks along the way.

Carriage Ride in Charleston

The picture below is of the South Carolina Bank and Trust building. On the side of the building are some historical plaques explaining that it was a Freemason Lodge built in 1736.  For America, that’s pretty old.

Solomon's Lodge #1

I would love to have more time to tour the city and take more photos.

As it happened, we didn’t have a lot of time and had our 3 1/2 month old daughter with us.  We learned that the history was so well preserved that it really isn’t very friendly for strollers. Apart from the bumpiness of the old sidewalks, several areas, like going from The Battery Park to the path across the waterfront didn’t have a ramp at all.  We managed fine, but I did wonder about those in wheelchairs.

Since I spent a lot of time looking out for hazards to navigate the stroller through, I did notice that the sidewalks had metallic inserts in them to show the name of the street. I thought that was neat.

East Bay Street

Inlandia

After my Grandpa Jacobs died in 2008, my family started going through a lot of old family stuff.  There were old brochures for world’s fairs that were funny to look at in retrospect and there was also a pamphlet about some proposal called Inlandia. I don’t have that pamphlet, but as it was described to me, it was to be some sort of man made waterway that would tap into Lake Erie and wind its way through Ohio. I guess the idea was that since the Great Lakes were tied into the St. Lawrence Seaway, this could provide duty free trade routes through Ohio.

I found the picture above in some old photos that came from my Grandpa Curler.  Apparently they must have been promoting this idea in parades throughout Ohio — that or it was a local hair-brained scheme. According to my information, this photo was taken in 1958 and I can’t tell what town, but I would guess Rushsylvania, Ohio.  I would love to know more about this, but I can’t find anything about it online so far. If anyone knows more, please share.

Sewing and Football

I guess the answer to that question depends on how far you look back.  If we allow photos to tell a tale, then this one suggests that perhaps I would be an Ohio State Football player with a penchant for sewing. Obviously this would be to mend my own jersey because I am a bruiser.

TRS-80 fun

This photo above tells a different story. I am awaiting my turn to play a game on our TRS-80. While we did buy games to play, dad also bought us som magazines that often contained source code for games that we would punch in and save on an audio cassette tape also seen in the picture. I recall one of these was a downhill skiing game and another was a casino game in which I learned that real life gambling might be a problem for me. The book in front of the T.V. is Getting Started with Extended Color Basic, a simple reference manual.

While I don’t write games or even really play them much, I still code as an adult.

I’d be interested to see other photos of individuals that hint toward what they might do as an adult. I asked my wife if she had any that indicated that she might be an attorney someday but she isn’t aware of any.

Playing with Oceanic 815

In this photo I am playing with a toy airplane at my grandparents house as a child. I think it looks remarkably like Oceanic 815 from Lost. I seem to recall that I used to imagine that it crashed into a remote island and no one got hurt because the island had magical properties. Unfortunately, that’s all I remember.

Breaking The Rules

This photo of my Grandma Curler, Mom and Dad was taken on the General Harrison, a replica canal boat around the Piqua, Ohio area. I don’t know if they didn’t read the sign or were just being rebels.

Car Travel Has Changed

This is a scanned photo of my brother David (left) and myself (right) in either my parents’ or grandparents’ vehicles.  I don’t have the exact date, but I am going to guess it was around 1977.  Apart from the lack of car seats and what was probably just lap belts with maybe a booster seat for us, it is odd to see us that high above the front bench seat.

These were simpler, albeit more dangerous, times.

Katherine having fun in her rocker

One of the great joys I have experienced as a new father is interacting with my daughter and getting her to smile and laugh.  I am thrilled to have captured this picture of Katherine while she was in her rocker and I was lucky enough to have the right lens on my camera for the moment.

Our cats Jacob and Elvis received an early Christmas gift from their Nagymama and Nagypapa in California. It is a collapsible play cube. In this picture is Elvis, who immediately jumped in.

The following represent my favorite iPhone apps from the past year.  The apps listed aren’t necessarily ones I use daily, but are more representative of those that I think leverage the platform well and in interesting ways.

And I only list 8.  Sure I could have found the obligatory 10, but I only wanted to list 8, and this is my list after all.

1. Snapture – There are many Camera alternatives available for the iPhone, but I have found this to be the most useful.  The following features are what set this apart for me.
   • 3 shot burst mode .  When photographing a moving target such as a cat, this is helpful to get a better shot.
   • Quick view/delete/mail features. This means less back and forth to camera roll since the photos can be managed in application.
   • The level aid is also handy to ensure that photos aren’t crooked.
2. MotionX GPS – There are a lot of navigational apps out there and many of them are replacements for TomTom and Garmin units for use in the car.  This application adds many of the features that I like on my handheld GPS as well.
   • Record your tracks. This is similar to the breadcrumb trail I have used on my hand held Garmin. The log can be exported as well, which is useful for a number of things, and it uses GPX standard. One is to be able to sync your location with photo timestamps. Using freely available software such as GPSPhotoLinker, you can then add the coordinate information to your photo’s EXIF data for geotagging capability.
   • Save custom waypoints.
   • In-application access to iTunes. I guess that is useful if you want to record your running workout while listening to music. I don’t use it, but I am sure others do.
3. aNote – A handy note taking application that does two-way syncing with Google Docs. This makes a very easy way to accomplish things like shared lists with your friends and family.
4. RedLaser – This app is interesting in that you can photograph barcodes, which are then interpreted with OCR technology.  Then, the item you have scanned can be searched online to do comparison shopping for the best price. What impresses me with this application is how well the barcode ’scanning’ actually works. That’s just cool technology.
5. AirMouse – With this app and a free AirMouse server application running on your computer, you can use your iPhone like a mouse on the computer over a Wi-Fi connection.  This makes controlling computer based media centers easy and also allows you to use your iPhone as a handy Powerpoint/Keynote presentation remote. No laser pointer — but it is still pretty cool.
6. DirecTV – This is a very easy way to remotely schedule DVR recordings. You can also schedule season passes and choose which DVR to record to if you have multiple units.
7. Ustream Live Broadcaster - Video on your iPhone is cool. Especially when it is only a 3G. To stream video live is exceptional.  It works really well, though I don’t work well without a net, so you probably won’t catch me streaming live often.
8. Skee-ball – I guess I had to have at least one game on here. I am not a big gamer, but I like simple games that I can quickly play.  This very much fits the bill and I love the cheesiness of redeeming tickets for items like fake mustaches and mullets.

If you have an app suggestion, please leave it in the comments.

My brother and I attended the 2009 Ohio State Buckeye’s football season opener vs. Navy Midshipmen. As far as season openers go, this was the best. In both planned and unplanned ways, it felt more like a bowl game. Given that we were playing a service academy, there was far more ceremony than typically offered at a home opener, including a military flyover.

For the unplanned part, I am not sure most figured the game would be as close as it was. The folks who left in the fourth quarter missed a game.

Here was some video I got from my Flip Mino of the flyover.  The south stands were a great place to be to get the full effect.

Flyover Only:

National Anthem + Flyover :