Lafayette Bridge

Opened in 1968, carries four lanes of traffic, it is 3375 feet long and spans the Mississippi River in St Paul. The bridge is part of US Route 52, however I grew up calling it Highway 3. At some point during the past 20 years, they connected one part of the freeway to another unfinished portion, renamed the Highway 3 to US 52. There are still signs that read 'Old Highway 3' at a couple of spots along the way.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Two Harbors, Minnesota | Terrell, Texas | Le Guilvinec, France

ShortArmGuy To Appear On Miami Ink

My good friend, Short Arm Guy, AKA: Todd Swank from Prior Lake, received a call from the Miami Ink Studio that his footage will appear on the popular TLC reality show "Miami Ink". This Thursday, May 8 @ 9:00 PM [Central] is when he will make his national television debut.

My first entry on ShortArmGuy in October 2007 and his journey to the Miami Ink tattoo Parlor.

Here is the email I received from him once he found out the news:

"It's Official!! I received a call from Adam with Miami Ink on Friday. He said my episode will be on in 2 weeks on Thursday, May 8th. So set your DVR's now to watch it! Miami Ink is on Thursday nights on TLC at 9PM Central Standard Time. If you haven't read about my Miami Ink Experience yet, check out the link here. It's been 6 months since I taped the episode, so I don't really remember much about what I said. All I know is that I had cameras on me for about 5 hours and I was being pretty chatty. Please keep in mind that If I come off as a schmuck, it's all in the editing. If I come off as cool, then that's exactly the way I am in real life!"

  

Along The Peer

I was trying to capture the railing as it trailed off along the bank of the Mississippi River, but it sort of gets lost with all of the water and the bridges in the shot. Perhaps I should have zoomed in more on the railing?

I'm Gonna Break My Rusty Cage And Run

Found this very rusty tow truck located in Eagan, just off the beaten path of Highway 13. Makes me wonder if Mark's Towing is still in business.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Portland, Maine | Evry, France | Sunshine Coast, Australia | St Paul, Minnesota - on Hiatus!

Lined Up At The Starting Line

Another from yesterday's photo theme. Today, the Legends are waiting for the green light to shine at the starting line at Elko Speedway.

Legends Mini Cars

Car racing season in the Twin Cities is just about to kick off for the season at Elko Speedway. A good friend of mine, also a co-worker, is one of the mechanics for the number 87 car you see in the photo. This smaller, Model T type car races in the "Legends" division of racing. I don't know if this car is modeled after the Model T, but it is similar to that type of car. Let me tell you, these cars barely fit one driver, but they pack quite the punch. I was amazed at the speed the Legends can have. To me, just your average fan, it's sort of like a really fast go-cart you would drive at an amusement park. The great big "X" on the front fender is a notice for the other drivers that this car is one of the leaders in points. The points leaders sort of have the right of way on the track. That doesn't always happen, but that's the plan.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Melbourne, Australia | Torino, Italy | Chicago, Illinois | Buenos Aries, Argentina

Interesting Links Of the Day: Type Racer - race against other and show off your typing skills

No Sticks Allowed

Happy Birthday Dad!

I've been having this tug-of-war in my mind with this sign in my neighborhood. As the sign reads, it's very self explanatory. Hockey sticks are not allowed on the general hockey rink. It appears to be an easy rule to follow. You can see the hockey rink in the background clearly marked with a 'red line' and two 'blue lines' on the boards around the rink. Now the problem I have with this sign and it's rule....if you walk around the park, looking in every direction, you could even get on satellite map site and view the park from the air. The rink that you see in the background is the ONLY rink in this park. You see, there is no general rink that one could ice skate on. The rink is clearly set up as a hockey rink, yet this sign says you're not allowed to bring hockey sticks onto it, if it was indeed the general rink. Perhaps I need to alert my city council about this confusing matter.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Rabaul, Papua New Guinea | New Orleans, Louisiana | Montreal, Canada

Theme Day: Numbers

First of the month is Theme Day in the City Daily Photo community. This theme is a bit different, the challenge is to take photo of 'numbers' in your city. Well, I can only think of one number in the city I grew up in. This grand daddy of the numeral 1 is high a top the First National Bank Building, downtown, St Paul.

Please make a stop at other cities participating in the numbers theme that are listed below today's photo. Keep in mind the time zone differences for everyone to post their photos.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Albuquerque (NM) American Fork (UT) Arradon, France Aspen (CO) Athens, Greece Auckland, New Zealand Austin (TX) Avignon, France Barrow-in-Furness, UK Barton (VT) Belgrade, SerbiaBellefonte (PA) Bicheno, Australia Bogor, Indonesia Boston (MA) Boston (MA) Bucharest, Romania Budapest, Hungary Buenos Aires, Argentina Busan, Korea South Canterbury, UKChandler (AZ) Chateaubriant, France Cheltenham, UK Chesapeake (VA) Chicago (IL)Christchurch, New Zealand Clearwater (FL) Clearwater Beach (FL) Cleveland (OH) Cologne, Germany Concordia Sagittaria, Italy Coral Gables (FL) Corsicana (TX) Dallas (TX) Darmstadt, Germany Dunedin (FL) Durban, South Africa East Gwillimbury, Canada Evry, France Forks (WA) Geneva (IL) Glasgow, Scotland Greenville (SC) Gun Barrel City (TX) Hamilton, New Zealand Hampton (VA) Helsinki, Finland Hobart, Australia Hong Kong, Hong Kong Hyde, UKInverness (IL) Ioannina, Greece Jackson (MS) Jefferson City (MO) Jogjakarta, Indonesia Joplin (MO) Katonah (NY) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Kyoto, Japan Larchmont (NY) Las Vegas (NV) Le Guilvinec, France Lisbon, Portugal Lisbon, Portugal Lodz, Poland London, UK London, UK Mainz, Germany Malaga, Spain Manila, Philippines Maple Ridge, Canada Marseille, France Medan, Indonesia Melbourne, Australia Melbourne, Australia Memphis (TN) Menton, France Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City, Mexico Minneapolis (MN) Minneapolis (MN) Minsk, Belarus Misawa, Japan Monrovia (CA) Monte Carlo, Monaco Monterrey, Mexico Montpellier, France Moscow, Russia Mumbai, India Mumbai, India Nancy, France Nashville (TN) Nelson, New Zealand New Orleans (LA) New York City (NY) New York City (NY) Newport News (VA) Norfolk (VA) North Hampton (NH) Norwich, UK Nottingham, UK Ocean Township (NJ) Omsk, Russia Orlando (FL)Oslo, Norway Owasso (OK) Paderborn, Germany Paris, France Pasadena (CA) Pasadena (CA)Penang, Malaysia Perth, Australia Phoenix (AZ) Pilisvörösvár, Hungary Port Angeles (WA) Port Elizabeth, South Africa Port Townsend (WA) Port Vila, Vanuatu Portsmouth (VA) Prague, Czech Republic Quincy (MA) Rabaul, Papua New Guinea Ramsey, Isle of Man Riga, Latvia Rollag, Norway Rotterdam, Netherlands Saarbrücken, Germany Saigon, Vietnam Saint Paul (MN)Salem (OR) Salt Lake City (UT) Salt Lake City (UT) San Diego (CA) San Diego (CA) San Francisco (CA) San Francisco (CA) Seattle (WA) Seattle (WA) Selma (AL) Seoul, South KoreaSesimbra, Portugal Setúbal, Portugal Sharon (CT) Singapore, Singapore Sofia, Bulgaria St Francis, South Africa Stanwood (WA) Stavanger, Norway Stayton (OR) Stockholm, SwedenStouffville, Canada Subang Jaya, Malaysia Suffolk (VA) Sunshine Coast, Australia Sydney, Australia Székesfehérvár, Hungary Tacloban City, Philippines Tel-Aviv, Israel Terrell (TX)Terrell (TX) Tokyo, Japan Torun, Poland Torun, Poland Toulouse, France Turin, Italy Tuzla, Bosnia Twin Cities (MN) Vichy, France Victoria, Canada Vienna, Austria Virginia Beach (VA)Wailea (HI) Washington (DC) Wassenaar, Netherlands West Paris (ME) West Sacramento (CA)Weston (FL) Williamsburg (VA) Willits (CA) Yardley (PA)

Painted Bricks Or Natural Color

I made a visit through St Paul's East Side Neighborhood and drove past this building that caught my eye. The building has been refurbished in someway, but I'm curious if the red brick is painted or is that the natural color of it? Despite the sign that reads 'The Strip Club' I can assure you, this is a restaurant that a friend of mine has suggested to eat at. I will stop in there soon, but today's stop was only for a quick photo and to find the exact location.

Wingspan Of Local Birds

When I measured, my wingspan was almost as wide as the Osprey.

St Croix River Flooding

Almost without fail, as the snow melts away and flows downstream, the St Croix River spills over it's banks. It's only a couple of feet above flood stage as you can see by the large growing trees in standing water.

My Daily Photo Favorites: Naples, Florida -Final Post! | Chicago, Illinois | Duluth, Minnesota | Two Harbors, Minnesota |

Interesting Links Of the Day:

Spring Is Trying To Grow

This has been a very tough spring to take in this year in 2008. I awoke to a little bit of snow here in the Twin Cities on the last weekend in April. Northern Minnesota had nearly a foot of snow in some parts. I can foresee a very late blooming spring, but some of nature is growing green. I found a patch of moss growing on tree roots on the northern side. Moss, as you should know, typically grows on the north side of trees because....why? Anyone? If you said, sunlight doesn't shine on the north side of objects, you would be correct. That is one way to help find your direction if you are ever lost in a forest.

Two Years Of Twin Cities Daily Photo

I'm a day late, but the Twin Cities Daily Photo has been active for two full years now. What started as a way to learn about my new digital camera has completed it's second year. Honestly my starting date had slipped my mind and I don't really have any special montage of my photos, but the photo I've chosen for this occasion is still one of my favorite photos I've taken so far. I am standing in Mounds Park in East St Paul overlooking downtown St Paul. There was a storm rolling in to the right of the frame at the time of the photo. This was also my first attempt at nighttime photography.

Portable Clusters And Pride In My Work

We rolled out a new product at my work on Tuesday, Earth Day 2008, it was purely coincidence. What you you're looking at is a portable cluster that is made in the Twin Cities. What is a cluster? Essentially it is a super computer that is used for doing massive calculations in a short time frame. For example, we sent a cluster to another customer of ours last week. The program that they run, on their old system took a day and a half to run through all the calculations. We received feedback on their new cluster that we built for them shorted that time frame down to 30 minutes!

Myself and a fellow co-worker did a good portion of the assembly and software setup. The engineering team did the research and development, while my server builders built the nodes. This was a time consuming project with huge results and it's something I wanted to share with you all today.

What's unique about this portable cluster, aside from it being portable, is it runs on only one 120 Volt, 20 AMP circuit. This is the same power plug that your home computer is plugged into the wall outlet. This is a huge deal when you need a product like this , you bring it to a new work site and all you have is standard power. Typically a cluster needs a lot of power to run. I've seen 30 AMP plugs, 230 Volt plus, or separate power for each node. The power savings we have engineered into this product to keep it running on one standard outlet is how this post all ties into Earth Day 2008 in the Twin Cities