Lophanica.com

This past weekend Car & I took the boys up to Grandma & Grandpa’s house in the Poconos with the intent on having them both receive their first snowboard lesson from their professional snowboard instructor Uncle Mike. On Sunday, we headed up to Blue Mountain, rented the appropriate equipment and set Brandon & Mike loose on the bunny hill (Zachary was too tired for the lessons and napped in the car instead). Here’s a brief video of their work:

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And here’s a quick video apres ski of  Brandon & Zachary in the car discussing their experiences (with the usual amount of shyness).

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Here’s a quick shot of Brandon after his first game today. I have some video (which will take time to edit) but I can report that he played very well in his first outing on both offense (3 goals!!!) and defense (who taught this kid how to slide-tackle?!).

We’re all very proud of him!

And as promised, here’s a preliminary mash-up of some of the action (it’s >10 minutes long, so bear with me):

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Here’s another shot of Brandon at work (courtesy of Carolyn):

Just a quick couple of photos of the boys at the beach. No zoom (used the iPhone, of course) but you get the idea.

At long last, picture uploads directly from the iPhone finally work. Don’t ask me why this is such a big deal, but the test worked and I am happy. That is all.

Real quick post here: a couple of pictures Carolyn took of Brandon while being dropped off and picked up from his first day at school. I need to edit the two movies she took of him getting off the bus so it’ll follow later. Enjoy!

Yeah, I’m the huge nerd you always assumed. I scored a black 16GB 3G iPhone on Tuesday and despite some snags, it’s working out pretty well. More on the Phillies game event to come.

Here’s a quick video of Brandon & Zachary doing “butt-flops” in the little inflatable pool at my parents’ place in the Poconos. Their usual venue for the butt-flop phenomenon is on their Uncle Michael’s trampoline, but it translates pretty well to the water… what do you think?

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Due to the positive responses from the invitees, I think it’s time to make this thing official and get into the all-important planning stages for what (hope against hope) may become an annual event for us (or, maybe we’ll get black-balled from the city limits and be forced to go to another major American city).

On August 7th, 2008, the old guard of the NuNu Chapter will meet in the City of Brotherly Love (don’t get any ideas, Jeremiah) to attend an afternoon Phillies game at the new Citizen’s Bank Park (ticketing details to come). Depending on the responses, we can go in a couple different directions post-game. Here’s some of the obvious suggestions:

• Dinner: since we all have jobs now and a little bit more money than back in the early/mid 90s, perhaps going out to a nice restaurant and eating an agreeable meal is in order. A place I went to last year would probably suit our group nicely: Fogo De Chao: lots of charred & tasty flesh on skewers with an ample bar. IIRC, it’s $44 prix fixe menu and it’s all you can eat, so I’m confident we’ll get our moneys worth. If anyone else has any suggestions, LMK.
• Bars: there are bars aplenty all over Philly and some are even cool. If you’re into Belgian beers, there’s two famous joints we can hit (Monk’s downtown & Eulogy in Old City) or for light girl-watching we can head over to McFadden’s or any of the bars on Delaware Avenue. For “heavy” girl-watching, there are many places we can go, but I won’t list them here (for safety’s sake).
• Places of Interest: If you’re from out-of-town and want to see some the historical landmarks and the sights of Philly, I’m more than willing to call-out Friday from work as well and go on a city tour & visit things like the Liberty Bell, the Constitution Center (quite cool, actually), Independence Hall, the Art Museum (so you too can run up the steps like Rocky & look like a total idiot) and a bunch of other spots. We could easily make a full day out of this… or duck into a bar after the first place and drink ourselves silly: I’m nothing if not flexible.

Once people chime in a bit, we’ll start working on the itinerary. Other issues to be consisdered:

• Travel Arrangements: Since some people are coming in from out-of-town and gas prices are unlikely to go down significantly this summer, taking Amtrak might be a good alternative. I can pick people up at any of the local train stops (even 30th Street/Philly, if necessary) so LMK what mode of travel you plan on doing.
• Sleeping Arrangements: I have some space available, but we might want to pool some $ together and pile into a hotel (we have many options, so lets discuss)
• Game Tickets: of course it’s not mandatory to goto the game, but I think it would be a lot of fun. We should probably buy tickets in advance so sound-off if you want me to get you tickets (we can settle up later)
• Brother Apathy: Unfortunately, he can’t make it (surprise!)… but I have a feeling he may be there in spirit

I’ve created a Forum Post for everyone to chime in (the forum got spam/pr0n bombed, so I wiped it & re-built from scratch).

If you think I’m full of it, LMK and we’ll change up the itinerary. Regardless, I’m looking forward to seeing all of you guys =D

Yes, I know: I’m a lazy jerk. Are you surprised?

Seriously though, things have been a little busy:

• Spring finals are looming and I need to get up to speed in one of my MBA classes
• Can’t stop playing Call of Duty 4 with Jeremiah “MightyLophan” Stoldt
• Finally got the Dual G5 Jeremiah so graciously bequeathed up and running at full-speed

Of course, there’s other little annoyances which still linger:

• the Actiontec router Verizon FiOS foisted (pun intended) upon me is aggravating me to no end
• having some minor difficulty with my 2nd modded Xbox (need longer cables but don’t want to break the bank)
• minor computer projects: trying to install Linux on the old G4 but the damn thing refuses to cooperate!
• Colgate vid still no closer to completion

Anyway, I have not (completely) forgotten about this site. I’ll endeavor to become more vigilant.

Back in 2004, I got the bright idea that I would pull all of my senior year’s college football games off old videotapes, put them on my hard drive, edit them, dub some sound, throw in some cool transitions…

Four years later, the first game’s cut-up still sits on my hard drive. The edit is pretty much complete (has been for a couple of years) but the critical part (and I emphasize critical) is the audio voice-over. I’m still hopeful that I can get Jeremiah, myself, and about 4 bottles of Affligem Tripel together in my basement for a recording session, but as of yet, it has not come to fruition. So, in place of the completed game, I thought I’d share with you the (admittedly lame) intro to the 1993 meeting between the Columbia Lions and the Colgate Raiders (complete with typical rock-muzak from Blur!)

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Of course, we ended up losing that game in spectacular fashion despite two blocked punts and two fumble recoveries… Hell, I could devote an entire site to the discussion & repercussions of that game. Anyway, maybe this’ll light a fire and I’ll finally get this thing shipped and off my HD.