A free app that could save a life!

I don't remember how I originally discovered it, but CodeRED Mobile Alert by ECN is an app that everyone--and I mean everyone--should have on their smart phone.

The app ties into a national emergency notification system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency in your area. If an alert is issued for your location, a klaxon-type horn sounds and the app automatically pops up with a brief notice of the type of alert. When you select it, a recorded message from the issuing agency is played over your speakerphone, announcing the details and any instructions.

When you first download the app, you are given a trial of the severe weather alerts portion in addition to the free community alerts. After expiration of the trial, continued weather alerts are a premium service at $4.99 per year. But seriously, what is $5 yearly when it could let you know you are in the direct path of an oncoming tornado?

This morning the klaxon sounded to let me know police had in custody a two-to-three-year-old light-skinned black boy who had been found walking in the street in only his diaper. Just imagine, if the boy was yours and you had this iPhone app installed, you could say to yourself at 5:30 in the morning, "A light-skinned African American toddler boy in only a diaper? Wait a minute... I have one of those! Maybe I should go check to see if he's still in his crib where he belongs..."

If you DON'T have this app, you're likely to wake up later than 5:30am and say to yourself in a panic, "Oh my god! Where is my light-skinned African American child? Did he go outside? But he is only two-to-three years old, and he was only wearing a diaper!

Anyway, download the app. I've gotten severe weather alerts, missing elderly people alerts, amber alerts, attempted kidnapping alerts and similar notifications.

In all seriousness, this app could honestly help you save someone's life. Please download it. It's free in your app store.

A coaster compendium

In memory of Disaster Transport at Cedar Point in Ohio...

OK, so here it is... My list of the 65 coasters I have ridden so far. My definition of a roller coaster is pretty straightforward:

Roller Coaster: an amusement ride consisting of a car or train of cars that takes riders on a thrilling series of dips, loops, turns or other aerial maneuvers while progressing laterally on a track of some sort, usually fashioned from steel.

My list does include a couple of exceptions to this definition, and I will explain those on an individual basis when I get to their descriptions. I do not count motion simulator, dark-boat style, or Disney's "omnimover" rides.

For now, though, I present... The List.

• American Eagle (Six Flags Great America) [details]

• American Thunder / Evel Knievel (Six Flags St. Louis) [details]

• Avatar Airbender (Mall of America) [details]

• Batman: The Ride (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Batman: The Ride (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Batman: The Ride (Six Flags Great America)

• Bizarro / Medusa (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Blue Streak (Cedar Point)

• The Boss (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Cedar Creek Mine Train (Cedar Point)

• Corkscrew (Cedar Point)

• Dahlonega Mine Train (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Dark Knight Coaster (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Dark Knight Coaster (Six Flags Great America)

• Demon (Six Flags Great America)

• Disaster Transport (Cedar Point)

• El Toro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Fairly OddParents Fairly OddCoaster (Mall of America)

• Gemini (Cedar Point)

• Georgia Cyclone (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Georgia Scorcher  (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Great American Scream Machine (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Green Lantern (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Iron Dragon (Cedar Point)

• Iron Wolf (Six Flags Great America)

• Kingda Ka (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Little Dipper (Six Flags Great America)

• Magnum XL-200 (Cedar Point)

• Mantis (Cedar Point)

• Maverick (Cedar Point)

• Mean Streak (Cedar Point)

• Millenium Force (Cedar Point)

• Mind Bender (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Mr. Freeze (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Mr. Freeze Reverse Blast (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Ninja (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Ninja (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Nitro (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Opa! (Mt. Olympus Indoor Theme Park)

• Pandemonium / Tony Hawk's Big Spin (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Pepsi Orange Streak (Mall of America)

• Ragin' Cajun (Six Flags Great America)

• Raging Bull (Six Flags Great America)

• Raptor (Cedar Point)

• River King Mine Train (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Rolling Thunder (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Rolling Thunder (Six Flags Great America)

• Runaway Mine Train (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• Screamin' Eagle (Six Flags St. Louis)

• Shockwave (Six Flags Great America)

• Skull Mountain (Six Flags Great Adventure)
• Space Mountain (Walt Disney World)

• Spongebob Squarepants Rock Bottom Plunge (Mall of America)

• Superman: Ultimate Flight (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• Superman: Ultimate Flight (Six Flags Great America)

• Top Thrill Dragster (Cedar Point)

• Tornado (Adventureland)

• Twister (Six Flags Great Adventure)

• V2: Vertical Velocity (Six Flags Great America)

• Viper (Six Flags Great America)

• Whizzer (Six Flags Great America)

• Wicked Twister (Cedar Point)

• Wile E. Coyote Canyon Blaster (Six Flags Over Georgia)

• X-Flight (Six Flags Great America)

Adding to the list of H. P. Lovecraft stories I've now read...
The darker color is the previous list. The lighter colored entries are new additions.

• The Alchemist
• Azathoth
• The Battle That Ended the Century
• The Beast in the Cave
• Beyond the Wall of Sleep
• The Book
• The Call of Cthulhu*
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward* 
• The Cats of Ulthar*
• Celephais
• The Challenge from Beyond 
• Cool Air
• The Colour out of Space*
• The Curse of Yig*
• Dagon
• The Disinterment
• The Doom That Came to Sarnath
• The Dreams in the Witch-House
• The Dunwich Horror* 
• The Electric Executioner
• The Evil Clergyman
• Ex Oblivione
• Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family
• The Festival
• From Beyond*
• The Haunter of the Dark*
• He 
• Herbert West: Re-Animator*
• History of the Necronomicon
• The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast*
• The Horror at Martin's Beach
• The Horror at Red Hook
• The Horror in the Museum
• The Hound
• Hypnos*
• Ibid
• In the Walls of Eryx
• The Loved Dead
• Memory
• The Moon-Bog
• The Music of Erich Zann*
• The Nameless City
• The Night Ocean
• Nyarlathotep
• Old Bugs
• The Other Gods
• The Outsiders 
• Pickman's Model*
• The Picture in the House*
• Poetry and the Gods
• Polaris
• The Quest of Iranon*
• The Rats in the Walls*
• A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson
• The Shadow Over Innsmouth*
• The Silver Key
• The Slaying of the Monster
• The Statement of Randolph Carter*
• The Strange High House in the Mist
• The Street
• Sweet Ermengarde*
• The Temple*
• The Terrible Old Man*
• The Thing on the Doorstep*
• "Till A' the Seas"*
• The Transition of Juan Romero
• The Tree
• The Tree on the Hill
• Two Black Bottles
• Under the Pyramids/Imprisoned with the Pharaohs
• The Unnamable
• The Whisperer in Darkness*
• The White Ship
• Winged Death

Man, I gotta get some reviews churned out...

I am coaster crazy

Meet El Toro, the most bad-ass wooden coaster I've encountered yet!

Here's a departure from the norm on this page.

I just realized that I have ridden 65 roller coasters in my lifetime so far. You know what? My bucket list just got an item added: To ride 100 coasters before taking on that big thrill ride in the sky.

Soon I will post a list with the 65 I've ridden, complete with locations, descriptions and very brief reviews. And this summer I will add at least number 66, in Six Flags St. Louis' latest addition, the currently-under-construction Boomerang!

More online activity than you can shake a virtual stick at

Can't get enough of me? Yeah, that's what my wife said too. Head on over and check out my Instagram feed at http://instagram.com/shanemcgraw1. I have 393 photos uploaded so far, but only 31 followers. Please take a quick visit. If you like what you see, click the FOLLOW button. It will make me happy. :D