Indianapolis Museum of Art

It was an oppressively hot July 4th this year and after 10am I decided any activity I’d be participating in today would be indoors.  Having briefly visited the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) a few weeks earlier for a photography lecture I knew I wanted to return and really check the place out.

Upon arrival (on the first visit), one thing that immediately struck me was the size of the museum.  It’s a lot larger than I imagined and it sits on approximately 150 acres in the middle of Indianapolis.  Together the IMA and nearby Crown Hill Cemetery are bigger than a lot of towns in rural Indiana.

I like a good bargain, especially when it comes to entertainment.  You can’t beat the price of the IMA which is FREE for the general exhibits (95% of the facility).  Currently the IMA is hosting a photography exhibit ($12) that I want to check out before it leaves town.

The IMA is a 4-story structure with meeting, lecture, and administrative space occupying the first floor (along with a gift shop and café).  Immediately upon stepping off the escalator on the 2nd floor you’re greeted with a “check-in” desk where they have tickets for special exhibits available for purchase.  They also ask for demographic data (specifically your zip code).  After accepting a museum map I headed through the huge automatic glass doors into the first exhibit space.

There were a fair amount of people visiting the IMA today and, for the most part, they did what most people do… walk around quietly admiring the artwork.  There were a couple of small groups that obnoxiously talked loudly the whole time (they probably are the same ones who talk in movie theaters too).  I changed the direction of my tour and only ran into them once again during my visit.

Speaking of direction, it’s easy to get turned around in the IMA.  I can’t help but think I might have missed a few rooms with the way things are laid out.  It’s not as intuitive as the Cincinnati Museum of Art which I visited this past spring (the IMA is better).  There are various rooms throughout the facility that house paintings from the classic Picasso, Monet, etc.  One thing that surprised me were the two “fashion” rooms (for lack of a better term) that highlighted clothing from Blass, Halston & a couple of others.  I saw several outfits form the late 80’s that I somewhat recognized from the time period.  I really enjoyed the “Pointillism” (painting with dots) area.

I spent the better part of 3 hours walking around the IMA and just started on the 4th floor when I was told they would be closing in 15 minutes.  I’m starting on the 4th floor next time and working my way down.  There were a lot more staff members stationed around the facility than I expected and the ones I talked to were very friendly and helpful.

With the heat the way it was the only time outside the main building checking out the grounds was during the walk from the parking lot.  You can pay for parking ($5) or if you are up to a short (1/4 mile) walk you can park for free near the NE entrance.  From what I see on the website there’s actually a lot to see outdoors too.  That’s going to have to wait until the sun backs off the earth a few hundred-thousand miles and the temps get mach in the 80’s.

Keep Calm & Blog On

I’ve had several people contact me asking what’s going on with the blog. It’s still here but I’ve just had a case of “life getting in the way”. I have too many draft posts to admit & a lot of them just need some editing and pictures.

By the time my day slows down I’m just not in the mood to “blog”. So much for the 1-post-a-day challenge I was trying to complete. It’s harder than you might think!

I’ve played with some mobile solutions and I’m thinking about starting to post shorter items in an attempt to increase site activity. I see a lot of things throughout my day & I can share most of them online.

Stay tuned, I hope to have some neat things on here soon…

Broad Ripple – Boogie Burger

Between work and an after hours activity I found myself driving on Keystone Avenue looking for some food (I was especially hungry since I worked through lunch).  My plan was to stop at Sakura for some sushi but at 6pm (on a Thursday night) the parking lot was packed so I sought out an alternative…

As I drove down Broad Ripple Avenue I approached Boogie Burger and I turned in, remembering it was on my Urbanspoon Wishlist.  With only a few cars in the parking lot I figured I would not have to wait long to eat.

Upon entry to Boogie Burger I was greeted by the friendly staff and, since it was my first time here, they helped me with the menu.  Being a sucker for a Mushroom & Swiss burger I picked the “‘Shroom” ($6.09) and an order of beer battered onion rings ($3.19).

I had just gotten settled into my chair, and was enjoying the 80’s music, when my order was called.  That was fast…  A little too fast…  The ‘Shroom burger looked good and was dressed as I requested (lettuce, onion, mayo) and it was overflowing with mushrooms.  The onion rings looked good as well.  Nice sized order and not greasy looking.

This is where my normal review is going to differ.  I like to pass on good experiences and normally skip negative reviews.  This time I’m going to tell it like it is and by now you’ve probably guessed it’s not going to be positive…

There is no way this burger was cooked to order unless they threw a patty on the flat top when my car pulled into the parking lot. With as much as this burger had going on it was bland.  I mean no seasoning bland.  The mushrooms were nice and earthy and had a hint of seasoning but not nearly enough.  The patty was cooked through with a very minor hint of pink in the middle.  The produce was fresh and the cheese melted, so no complaints there.

I guess I was expecting more…  More flavor for sure…  I ate the entire thing so it was not awful.

On to the onion rings.  These were thick cut and beer battered.  I was careful on the first bite not to pull the onion out of the batter as that seems to happen more times than not.  The sweet onion inside was cooked through and soft enough to bite through.  The flavor of the batter and onion was great but after my third ring we hit a snag…  As you can see in the picture the remaining rings had fused together during the cooking process and, this is the bad part, the batter was still raw in the middle.  The three rings I had were good and I would order these again without hesitation (if they were separated and cooked through).  But a dollar a ring is a little much.  Yes that’s mustard on the side, please don’t judge me… (ha).

Boogie Burger is nicely decorated on the inside with bright decor and quite a few seating options, including outdoor seating.  It’s kid friendly, clean, has free refills (who doesn’t offer that anymore?), and it’s in a good location.  The service was friendly, no complaints about that.

I want to like Boogie Burger and I love supporting local business. For a place that touts itself as a premium  burger place they need to watch the quality control.  Maybe my burger was supposed to taste the way it did but I can’t help but think the salt/pepper was just forgotten during the cooking process.  The onion rings should not have gone out the way they did, especially when it’s obvious that huge mass was going to be under cooked.

Did I make a big deal about this meal when I was there?  No.  Would they have taken care of it?  I think they would have.  Am I going to give Boogie Burger another try?  Yes, and I’ll and will write a follow-up post about the experience.

Boogie Burger on Urbanspoon

 

Apple Customer Support

Had to call Apple customer support this week for a client who had some equipment stolen. I was VERY impressed with how they handled the call. VERY helpful and efficient. Good example for some of the others to follow (I’m talking to you HP, Cisco & Microsoft!!)…

Not often I have ANYTHING to positive to say about support so I thought I would at least pass it along.

Keeping the Web in Your Pocket

As much as I read online you would think I’d already be using an online clipboard but the usefulness was lost on me until about three weeks ago.  Pocket (formerly Read-it-Later) is changing the way I collect and process online content.

Adding a simple bookmark to your browser allows you to take the article you’re reading on the screen and transform it into a very readable (i.e. NO ADS!) format you can take with you anywhere.  Just launch the app on your phone and once downloaded you can get access to the information without any kind of network connection.

Tired of reading on the small screen?  Visit the Pocket website and read on your computer.  Pocket is cross-platform and integrated into a lot of applications (like Twitter for iPhone) where it will grab a link and process it for later reading.  Finally you can email any link to [email protected] and have it processed that way.

Definitely a great way to grab content for later consumption.  The only drawback I’ve found so far is I have a LOT more to read and it’s getting hard to keep caught up!

The Story of “Send”

Google put together an entertaining animation showing what happens when you click the “Send” button in your email application. The Story of Send explains the various steps an electronic message goes through to get to its intended recipient.  It’s actually pretty amazing that we can send a message anywhere in the world in a mater of seconds.

Google’s also trying to show you what a “Green” company they’ve become.  In actuality being “Green” can save a company a lot of money in operating costs so it’s kind of win-win for business and the environment.  Just about every large company on the planet is looking for ways to decrease operating costs and if it happens to have a positive environmental impact that’s just free PR they can spread about.

I’m still waiting for someone to figure out how to efficiently extract Hydrogen from water and capture the remaining Oxygen (which could also be used as fuel).  Seems like a pretty good (clean) way to produce energy to me!

iPhone – Did I Make the Switch?

It’s been just shy of 3 weeks since I turned off the Blackberry and started testing the iPhone as a potential replacement.  In that time I’ve had the opportunity to install/uninstall software, test accessories, and perform an operating system update (all without issue or lost data).

Yesterday I wiped the Blackberry and turned it in (along with some ribbing from the guys at work).  I really didn’t think it would come to this but I’m going to admit it, I like the iPhone.

The iPhone is not perfect my any means (what piece of technology is?) but it’s preformed quite well during my testing phase.

While testing I made some mental notes along the way:

Pros:

  • Application Availability – If you can think of it there’s probably “an app for that”.
  • Build Quality – Solid with tight tolerances and attention to detail.
  • Screen Resolution – I can actually read PDF files now!
  • Overall Responsiveness – Very little delay between user input and system output.
  • Camera – Forget the Mega Pixel count, the optics are very impressive for a phone.
  • Audio Output – Loud and clear.
  • Messaging – iMessage, FaceTime & just about every Social App available.
  • Productivity – Full Exchange Compatibility (with the addition of a 3rd party application*)
  • Location Based Reminders – Arrive/leave a location and get reminded of something you need to do at that time (Example – Set the trash out every Wed when you get home from work).

Cons:

  • Battery Life – If you use the phone at all you’re going to have a hard time getting through the day on a single charge (I found a solution I’ll discuss below**).
  • On-screen Keyboard – I’m slowly getting used to it and the auto correct has not burned me (yet).
  • Data Network – I seem to lose 3G coverage more than I did with the Blackberry.
  • Software Limitations – Some Apps I could use (like a Wi-Fi scanner) are not approved for use by Apple Corp.  This is resolved by Jail Breaking, so I hear…
  • Siri – This has SO MUCH potential if it would just do more than basic functions.

* TaskTask a $4.99 app fixed the issue with Outlook Tasks not syncing with the iPhone.  This would have been a deal breaker for me if the app did not exist.  I live and die by my task list (Insert GTD fanboy laugh here).

** As discussed in a previous post the PhoneSuite Elite solved by battery issues.  I can use the iPhone all day without any worry of falling offline due to a low battery.

Some applications worth mentioning:

  • Remote Controls – I can now control Roku, iTunes, Media PC and the U-Verse DVR from the iPhone.
  • Games – Words with Friends is pretty addictive as are any of the EA Games titles.
  • Dragon Dictation – This app is built in and does an incredible job of turning spoken words into text.

So there you have it, yet another move to a new platform.  Let’s see, in the last 20+ years it’s been:

  • Pen & Paper
  • Casio Address Book
  • HP Palmtop
  • Motorola Pager
  • Motorola 2-Way Pager
  • Motorola Star-Tac
  • Palm (several models)
  • Windows Mobile (several models)
  • Blackberry (several models)
  • iPhone 4s

Who knows what the future will hold but it the past is any indication it’s going to keep getting better and better.

 

Verizon Takes the Lead on Text to 911 Services

Interesting press release from Verizon detailing how they are working with US 911 centers to allow SMS messaging vs. calling 911.  Turns out this may not be a bad idea as there are situations where speaking to the 911 operator could be dangerous.

There are already services in use at stadiums where patrons can send an SMS message to security to alert them of rowdy/disruptive fans (good idea if you ask me).

From Engadget:

The FCC first outlined its intention to allow texting to emergency services back in 2010, and since then despite more talk of accepting photo and video messages, nothing official came to be. This week, however, Verzion has taken the initiative, and announced its own plans to enable text to 911 for its customers…[MORE]

From MSNBC: