Of Forest Tunnels and Watery Fields

Just west of Fairland Indiana [maps.google.com] along 400N, one temporarily leaves the corn and soybean fields and travels through a dense canopy for roughly 3/4ths of a mile. It's quite an unexpected pleasure.

Because I didn't take the time to figure out how to capture it photographically during my Saturday road trip (my 2nd of the summer, and much more random than Friday's jaunt), here instead is a partially flooded field along 550W. Also iPhone 4, edited in a different app.

Arlington Elementary School

Took my first summer road trip yesterday; it was also my first road trip with my new iPhone 4, and as importantly, the first road trip with my new iPhone 4's camera.

This is a beautiful school in Arlington, Indiana [maps.google.com], along my favorite road trip highway, 52. The photo was taken on my iPhone and edited with one of its apps.

Per a Word document on their website (really, you couldn't put this in HTML or PDF?):

The mission of the RUSH COUNTY SCHOOLS is to provide an appropriate educational program and learning environment which will effectively:

MEET THE EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF ITS STUDENTS AND CITIZENS;

HELP ITS STUDENTS ACCOMPLISH EDUCATIONAL GOALS WHICH ARE SIGNIFICANT, DURABLE, AND/OR TRANSFERABLE.

It's a little discouraging that some of Indiana's school systems don't know that SHOUTING IN ALL CAPS IS A LITTLE HARD TO READ. I'm also disappointed in the use of "and/or"; it makes an already wishy-washy mission statement even less significant and/or durable.

Wayfarin' Stranger

I'm not sure there's a more beautiful rendition of a more beautiful song than Tim O'Brien's performance of Wayfarin' Stranger, from "Songs from the Mountain."

Wrenching violin (fiddle?) work, heart-felt vocals. Highly recommended.

The Chronically Unreasonable Steve Jobs

The article says it all.

http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/steve-jobs/6/18/2010/id/28810

Sent from my iPad

Why FaceTime Matters

The Europeans are pointing out that they've had video calls for years and never use the feature.

My question is this: can you switch in-call?

My guess is that the killer feature for Apple's new FaceTime feature is the off switch.

I'm talking to a family member and I mention that my dog has wandered into the room. "Here, let me show her." The key is this: I would never make a video call to a family member except as an experiment, but to be able to fire it up and show something interesting? That's way cool.