John’s First Flyers’ Game!

I know it sounds corny, but this was one of those “parenting-firsts” that I was eagerly awaiting!  After determining 4 years ago that John really needed to be close to 5 before I would take him down to see the Flyers in person, I jumped at the opportunity to bring him to the first pre-season game of the 2007-2008 season.  Of course, I had been pumping him up for this for a few week now, and he was SO EXCITED.  I picked him up early from school on Monday and we went down to the sports complex to watch the Flyers and my hated New Jersey Devils battle it out.  It didn’t take John to pick up some of the key elements of being a life-long Flyers’ fan:

1. He learned (much to my initial dismay) to shout “SHOOT” during the continuously poor Flyers’ power play opportunities
2. He learned how to join in on the traditional “LETS GO FLYERS!” chants
3. He even witnessed his first hockey fight – after which he promptly declared – “And Now Off to the Penalty Box!”

Oh and did I mention the gargantuan amount of food he had @ the game?

• Chickie and Pete Chicken Cutlets (a whole order)
• Chickie and Pete Crab Fries (he thought they got a little spicy towards the end)
• 3/4 of a large soft pretzel
• 1 chocolate (shell) covered ice cream cone

BTW – he was also so enthralled by the “Gigantic Escalator” that took us up to our seats in the 2nd level ….

And the best part of the night? Well, he expressed (no less than 5x) how this was one of the best times that he & Daddy had spent together!

(insert proud parent emotions here) …

Episode 7: John-John Talk (September 20th, 2007);

Topics Include: John vs. the Transparent Glass, Learning about Astronomy and Google Earth

 Schmitt Random Cast # 7: John-John Talk: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: John-John Talk

• just got finished watching the Flyers in a pre-season game against the ottawa senators …. on the INTERNET ……
• I am suffering from Philly sports weakness: watching a 14 inning marathon between the Phillies & the Cardinals!
• OMG! Rod Barajas? You gotta be kidding me! Phillies just took a lead @ 1:07 in the morning.

Well after a long hiatus, the Flyers are about to take to the ice again for their 40th season of NHL play.  After the absolutely brutal display that was the 2006-2007 regular season, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about this year’s team.  However, for as many positives as there appears to be, there are just as many BIG questions that must yield answers before we will all find out how the 2007-2008 season will turn out.  Last year’s debacle can be briefly recapped in a couple of bullet points:

• Lethargic training camp, the Keith Primeau questions, Hitchcock openly wondering where leadership would come from
• A god-awful start, Bob Clarke and Ken Hitchcock falling on the proverbial sword after 8 games
• Continual beatings at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres and the upstart Pittsburgh Penguins
• The Peter Forsberg “skate-gate” melodrama
• A horrendous losing streak @ home
• A completely lackluster power play
• A couple of intriguing trades (including Peter Forsberg) in the final 1/3 of the season – by “Mr Excitement” (Paul Holmgren)

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Flyers Hockey

• 88: No, not a huge hockey dissapointment, but rather the number of pieces that John-John & I added to the growing AT-ST Lego Walker build
• there’s something fun about scouring the internet @ 1:54 AM in the morning on a non-school night! wait … I’m not in school anymore! /8-)

Well, after over one month of working on this in small chunks, John and I just finished the first half of the Star Wars At-ST Walker Lego Set (#10174).  This set consists of over 1000 pieces and John has really improved with his abillity to handle even the smallest of Lego pieces.  At about 45-60 pieces per session, we have 2-3 construction sessions per week.  Next up (according to John) will be the “contruction of the cockpit”.  John built approximately 85% of the bottom half of this model all by himself.  I am so proud of him.

591 pieces down, 477 to go

When it debuted at the end of June for $599, I highly criticized any and all who blindly plunked down their hard-money for the “product of the decade.”  $599 was entirely too high (IMHO) for a device which featured functionality which many of us already have in multiple portable devices.  In my case, having been a recent purchaser of a 2nd generation Nano & recent convert over to a Blackberry 8800, the iPhone was a sexy yet dramatically overpriced toy that I just could not justify. However, that all changed on September 5th with the most recent Steve Jobs media-event.  Like many others, I had expected the news event to announce one or more changes to the iPod product line.  We all suspected an “phone less” iPhone, it was indeed introduced as the iPod Touch.  With capacities @ 8GB & 16GB, this device would deliver a product offering that replicates the beautiful touch interface that the iPhone introduced.  However, as I fell in love with concept of a sexier iPod I also came to learn that the iPod Touch would only offer some of the functions of the iPhone.  I came to fear that if I bought one, I would quickly come to regret that I did not have the full feature set offered by the iPhone.  What I wasn’t expecting was for Jobs to end his presentation with the declaration that the 8GB iPhone would be slashed by $200.  Immediately, my mind began to scheme.

Before I could bring myself to enter an Apple store for the first time, I had to resolve some issues in my mind:

1. Did I want to carry yet another device?  I was already carrying around a BB8800, an iPod Nano and a Sony PSP. Well, my daily train commute justifies these indulgences for me, but I have to admit that having to turn off my iPod, rip the earbuds out of of my ears all to answere the inevitable “when are you coming home” phone calls was becoming annoying!
2. I had (initially at least) fully subsidized my BB8800 purchase and was completely satisfied with the service and utility of the Blackberry service.  Being able to answer compose emails while perusing my Audible.COM collection offered me a lot of enjoyment on the way home from work.
3. If I were to indeed buy an iPhone, what would I do with the iPod Nano and that I had purchased not more than 3 1/2 months ago?
4. Was my flirtation with the iPhone merely a product of the Apple marketing machine?  Would I still be happy with my iPhone 1 year later when undoubtedly larger capacity formats would undoubtedly be available?

Well, before I tell you how I ended up rationalizing the purchase – let me share with you a few of my personal thoughts after just one week of usage:

• As much I love the Nano, the increase in form-factor on the iPhone is really not that big of a deal to me.  This phone is still pretty small and surprisingly does not draw much attention to itself when in my pocket.  In fact it is smaller in almost all regards when compared to the BB8800.
• Adequate Storage?: it has 8GB of flash-based storage (not a problem for me).  Really now, how many songs, podcasts & pictures can you fit on an 8GB device?  Well the answer is a lot and certainly enough to hold you over until you redock with iTunes and modify your favorite playlists.
• The touch interface is beautiful, and I really enjoy using it.  I think I spent 3 hours the first night just playing my way thorugh all of the menus and configurations options.  Once you pick up one of these, you’ll never want to go fuddle around with a Motorola Razr again!
• Built-in WiFi: granted I was not doing that much downloading of data with the BB8800, but navigating pages over the AT&T Edge network is painfully frustrating.  The fact that I now may be able to jump on a free WiFi network wherever I go is definitely a luxury that I wouldn’t want to give up.
• The Safari Browser:  I was really surprised with how intuitive and how rich an experience that this browser offers.  Being able to zoom in and out of web content and be able to have multiple sites loaded at once is a big plus!  The iPhone is the first mobile device that truly makes browsing on a hand-held enjoyable from the get-go.
• I down right resent the fact that I had to spend $9.95 for an earbud adapter that allows my Shure SE310′s to be plugged into the device.  Why Apple, did you temporarily disenfranchise the thousands of customers who replaced the default white-earbuds with more expensive aftermarket product offerings?
• Why Apple, did you not provide even the most rudimentary slip cover for the phone?  I’ve since purchased a leather case from http://www.case-mate.com/phones/apple that is quite elegant and yet still manages to retain some of the minimalism that make Apple products the works of art that they are.
• Battery Life Concerns: After 4 full charges, I’m getting better battery life than some of the early FUD mongers were claiming.  However, as much as I like “Airplane Mode” (a usable way to preserve battery powere when not needing the phone/internet functionality), why couldn’t they provide the “Auto On/Off” scheduling that the BB8800 offers? I’m getting about 2.5 – 3 days between full charges.  If I could go 4-5 days between charges I’d be thrilled!

Ok, so how did I end up rationalizing the purchasing? Well a couple of dynamics came into play:

1. My employer is already reimbursing my monthly BB8800 voice and data plans
2. I accepted an offer from a friend to buy my 8GB iPod Nano
3. I decided to keep my BB8800 and add the iPhone as a 3rd  line on my already existing AT&T Family Plan.  The 3rd line and the unlimited data plan for it is only costing me $29.90 a month as compared to the $59 that it would have cost me had I added the IPhone under its own plan.
4. I aggressively researched and found some ways to reduce my monthly cell phone bill (pre-iPhone coverage) to a degree that came close to offsetting the aformentioned $29.90 additional monthly charge.
5. The final rationalization: Had I not already had the BB8800 and the iPod Nano would I have been willing to put out the original asking price of $599 for the iPhone? Well this is a difficult one; but then I remind myself that I put almost this same amount ($550) for my BB8800 and the iPod Nano before I knew I was going to re-sell or receive a subsidy for them.  After I take the subsidy and re-sale of the Nano into account, my net cost for the iPhone is $500.

All in all, I really like this device. It’s not perfect, nor is it meant for strict business use.  However, it is clearly the best blend of phone & portable multimedia that we’ve seen so far.  Now of course all of this economic hocus-pocus goes up in smoke if Jobs rolls out another price drop within the next 12 months.

The $399 Question:

Does this phone have the power to turn me into an Apple Fan-Boy? Only time will tell ….

/8-)

Tags: iPhone

• 41 more Lego pieces assembled by John-John tonight: 441 down, ~ 600 to go!