My Favorite iPhone/iPod Touch App for October

Never the first to try new technology, I usually wait for the bugs to be worked out and the price to come down.

Last spring I splurged and purchased my first iPod, not just an iPod but an iPod Touch with the most memory available to me on that particular day.

I love this particular bit of technology. There is a never ending variety of ways to make use of this marvelous pocket computer.

One of my now favorite applications (Apps) Hangman (the free version). Word settings include animals, cars, celebrities, sports, easy, standard, movies, ESL words, countries, Spanish, Halloween, Thanksgiving, elements, Christmas, astronomy, summer, and monsters. There is something for everyone.

With my settings on either SAT Words or Hard Words, I play away. More often than I ordinarily would care to admit, I find myself referring to another favorite app ... Dictionary.com.

My reading vocabulary has always been greater than my spoken vocabulary. Dictionary.com pronounces words for me, greatly increasing my spoken vocabulary.

Some of the more interesting words I have learned or relearned recently follow below (check out dictionary.com if these words are unfamiliar to you):

stentorian

polyglot

fanfaronade

punctilious

osculation

velleity

confabulation

sinecure

galumph

dolorous

asperity

emolument

diaspora

clathrate

embroglio

littoral

abecedarian

gyre

apostate

imbroglio

Recession Notes: 1958 vs 2009

Spring 1958 and my younger brother had the mumps. Our parents were concerned because mumps led to sterility in some cases. Their solution was to purchase our very first black and white television set. The idea was to keep my brother as still as possible with the hope that he would recover without complication.

Along with the westerns, Saturday cartoons, and game shows, I remember a public service announcement that I found to be particularly intriguing. The spot was an animated story about a hot dog stand. The message, as I remember it, suggested that negative gossip could have an adverse effect on business. I saw the hot dog stand grow smaller and smaller. This public service ad played over and over and over again.

Billboards along our highways have often been considered a blight, obstructing the view of our beautiful America. Over the past two years more and more billboards have stood begging for business, advertising only themselves. I will believe the economy is on the way to a solid recovery only when billboards in America are no longer so under utilized.

Update (11/7/2009) I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I read this post again. I laughed because of all the mini billboards that I have placed on this blog. Physical billboards have been around for a long time but, any more, advertisers reach us by internet (less and less by radio, televison, newspapers or billboards).