Archive for the ‘Iphone’ Category

Monday’s Memories

Posted: May 8, 2012 in blog, camera, cornett, Hawaii, Iphone, memories, Monday, ocean, photos, salty air, sand, tourist
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Today was a beautiful day here in the islands of Hawaii. The photos below were taken with just an Iphone camera! Not bad for a cell phone camera. I would swear I was a beach bum or a mermaid in another life; as much as I love the ocean, I can never get enough of it! The water was just cold enough to be shocking to my sun kissed skin. 

The beach was full of both tourists and local people, you would think it was the weekend or summer break. I thoroughly enjoyed the cerulean blue water, the silky fine sand in between my toes, the balmy ocean breeze, and the smell of the salty air. When I go to places like this, I love to just watch people just to see what they do. Even though I live here, it’s fun to watch the keiki’s (young children) play in the water, carry their boogie boards- which looks much larger than the children. But they are having the time of their lives, trying to catch the colorful fish in their little sand buckets, building sand castles and just having fun like little kids do. They are so carefree and enjoyable to watch. This one little boy came up to me and my friend today with the biggest smile on his face, carrying a boogie board. How can you not smile back and say hello? 

Many people become so preoccupied with their own personal lives and the stress they may carry on their shoulders that they seem to forget to stop and take a look around them and consider the blessings that God has already given them. So when I feel all out of sorts and stressed, where do you think I go? I go to the beach of course! I go to my “happy place” and just sit down and watch the waves come in and go back out into the vast ocean. For me, it’s very calming and it’s almost like the waves pull all my stress and problems of the day and take it to the ocean. I hope that makes sense to whoever is reading this blog. But seriously, for me, the ocean has this peaceful way of making me feel like a brand new person. I end up being stress free and makes me feel like I can take on the world! 

These are my Monday Memories… 

Billion Graves- Helping or Hindering the Research Process?

Posted: June 18, 2011 in Billion Graves, cemetery, contributors, GPS tracking, headstones, Iphone, Memorial Day, photos
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English: A scenic cemetery in rural Spain show...

English: A scenic cemetery in rural Spain showing marble headstones. Copyright (c) 1996 Steven J. Dunlop, Nerstrand, MN (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, I’ll admit I love my iPhone! I was just browsing through the apps that were related to my current research on genealogy and came across one called “Billion Graves”.  There is a website that is similar to Billion Graves called Findagrave.com; what will they think of next?

Billion Graves puts together cemetery content submitted by users for people to share. How you may ask? The contributors upload the photos of headstones to their database, and what’s really cool is that the app is constantly updating your location based on your movement from from one grave to the next! So each image that is uploaded, has its’ own specific location and shows where each grave is located. If one person has this app and decides to go to their local cemetery, can you imagine what this app would offer another person across the globe? Time that by the billions of people that actually own the iPhone and use the app to their advantage. You would then have access to hundreds of thousands of grave images and know exactly where they have been mapped, thanks to each user.

What I like best about this particular app, is that once the photos have been published online, family historians and genealogists alike can help to transcribe the headstones. How is that for an easier search! But there is a downside to Billion Graves; anyone (and I do mean anyone) can edit the headstone data which could lead to a potential problem with the authenticity. Can you say human error? Misspellings? Not much more data can be included with your photo upload, apparently it’s only for photos- no text files are involved. So how do they plan on the deletion of duplicate entries? If five people decide they want to go to their local cemetery and it happens to be the exact same one, they upload images to their database. How in the world would this NOT create a problem?


When I went to the site, I was disappointed to see that Scotland wasn’t on the list of countries in which to choose from, but other third world countries that I had never heard of, are listed. Maybe it’s only because no one in Scotland has uploaded or mapped any of the cemeteries there? 
The app is $1.99 and we do all the footwork? I’ll have to think about this before I utilize this particular app. But just in case you are interested, you can download the app via the App Store.