Wild Weather and iPhone Tracking

Wild Weather
Well it has been wild weather here the past two days. It started Monday afternoon when severe storms fired up in SW Arkansas and began to hit Conway around 5:00pm. I was just getting home when the first sirens when off in Conway. Between 5 - 8, we had the sirens sound 4 times. There was never a tornado touchdown, but the storms were rotating. Two of the storms passed directly over my house. You would see the weatherman on TV identifying streets and I was within a mile of those streets.

On Tuesday, they were predicting more severe weather. Even the Angel of Doom (Jim Cantore) was making an appearance in Arkansas. Jim Cantore is from the Weather Channel and ususally heads to places that have the most extreme storms. Tuesday was not as bad. The sirens went off only once.

During this time, I was glued to the TV watching the weather. You have four choices to watch like Channel 4, 7, 11, or 16. I would flip back and forth between them. I would have to say the best coverage is probably channel 4, then 16, 11, and finally channel 7. I actually thought 7 was by far the worst. They also don't have HD. All of the others had a clearer crisper picture and if you are going to be watching the boring weather it better be in HD.

iPhone Tracking
Recently on the news, there were reports that Apple was tracking your iPhone. Basically, whenever, you backup your phone the backup file is stored on your computer. Inside this file is information that details areas where your iPhone has been. Now these are not exact locations, but they do show a general area on where you've been. Apple says they are not using the data, but still the data is there. The website iPhone Tracker has a program that will displays this data on a map. Below you will see the places that I've been since Nov of 2010. You must have the iOS4 to have this data. Also, this program on only works on Macs right now.

The picture above is from Oct/Nov 2010 - thru today. You can see the places I've been to or traveled thru. It shows my trip from Conway to Jacksonville, FL clearly. However, it does do not show real clearly is when I went from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh or St. Louis to Conway. It does show some points on the St. Louis trip, but not all. If I had a zoomed in picture of Atlanta, you would see that all the points are from the airport.

Here is a closer point on the NE.

Above is the NYC area. The Long Island dots show when I was surveying in the area, but does not have a detailed route.

One Day in Syracuse

My work requires me to travel and sometimes I visit for a brief period of time. Syracuse was one of those cities. I arrived in at 12:30pm on Monday and left at 5:30 am on Tuesday. Monday afternoon, I went through my routine of surveying stores for a customer and then had time at the hotel. The one thing about Syracuse is there is snow everywhere. It's been awhile since I've been in a city with snow that is piled up everywhere. I could barely see over some of the snow when I was trying to turn out of businesses. I'm thinking I shouldn't go with a car next time I am in town. A cool thing that I saw where ice sickles that could kill. I was surprised that people would let them get so big off their homes. I think some of them would hurt you.

Usually when I go travel, I always try to eat somewhere that I can't find everywhere. Syracuse had a couple of options. I was thinking about the show Man vs Food and looked to see if they had filmed a show in Syracuse. They did and one of the restaurants that he went to was Heid's Hotdogs. I decided that this where I would go. It's not to often that you can just go to a straight hot dog place. Another choice was a bar-bq joint, but I wasn't feeling up for BBQ. The place had a classic dinner feel and I decided that I would get two hot dogs. I went went with a plain frank and chili dog. I would say that the hot dogs were pretty good but not great. It was still nice to get something different. Below I present my meal..



Other notes - My rental car was VW Jetta. A good car. I thought it would hesitate a little when I pressed the gas. Also, I stayed at the Hampton Inn in North Syracuse. A nice hotel, but not much around the hotel. The gym also had only one treadmill but I was able to get on it early.

My Bags Are Packed!

I saw this article on cnn.com that talks about why Americans don't travel abroad - Why Americans don't travel abroad?

After reading this, I want to go travel somewhere.

A couple of the first points that they brought up did not surprise me.

1. Only 30% of Americans have passports. I have known plenty of people who didn't have passports and the reason most of them got them recently is so they can go on a cruise to Mexico.

2. Most Americans are comfortable. That statement is true. It's amazing that I've met people
here in Arkansas that have barely traveled outside this state. I think some people are just happy with what they have around them and don't look elsewhere to explore.

3. America is diverse. Yes it is. There are areas of the country that I want to see, but I have been overseas more often. The places that I want to see are more the wilderness. I want to see Yellowstone, the Pacific Northwest, Yosemite, etc. I don't have the desire to go to LA, what kind of history is there. I just consider it a large city. I would like to see SF. I think it has a different culture and vibe to it, plus many things to see. When I think of Europe, I think of the history that goes back 1000's of years. When I think of Asia, I see the cultures and also the history.

4. The point of skepticism and ignorance is good. Most people don't know about the country, so they make general opinions such has the French don't like the Americans. That place is dangerous, etc. These are normally untrue. I think it's just an excuse that people use. I find that people can't believe that I would travel to a foreign country by myself, but it always ends up being a great time.

5. Work Culture - Sure the US doesn't encourage a gap year, but it's also hard to get away for longer than a week. I have a couple of trips that I would need about 3 weeks off for to really get a feel for the areas that I want to visit. Most of the tours that I've looked at are at least 2 weeks.

6. The article is right about cost and logistics. It can be hard to plan and it isn't as expensive as most people think. The plane ticket does end up being the most expensive aspect of the trip. Your best bet is to try and go during an offseason.

Never be afraid to travel and always try to step outside your comfort zone. You'll never know what you find once you leave. If you can't get out of the US at least try to go somewhere here that you've wanted to go or think you would have never enjoyed. EXPLORE, EXPLORE!!!

Up In the Air

Ok, well I continue to busy traveling with work since Labor Day. I was counting up the days that I have been gone and it 48 days so far. I haven't swam since Sept. 11th during the Toad Suck 66 triathlon. I've ridden my bike maybe 5 times, but at least there is always running while on the road. I'm always making sure that I pack some shoes and running clothes. Sometimes, I get good chance to run around the cities other times my hotel isn't in a good spot or it's late and I just hit the hotel treadmill. I have the Memphis marathon coming up in 2 weeks and feel I'm prepared for it except for my right knee that has decided to act up. So for now, I'm going to take it easy and attempt the challenge of the marathon for the 3rd time on December 4th.