The surgery process started yesterday at about 12:45. Maggie hadn’t eaten anything all day. She went in to surgery at about 3 and was done in an hour and a half.

We first saw her in the PICU, and she was sleeping. There was a small incision on her abdomen and another on her head. The surgeon did such a good job that he hardly shaved any hair and there will be minimal scarring. Which gets me to the point of this post.
Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia is the best hospital I have ever been to. Ever. Period. From the moment we walked in the door, we always knew what was going on, were always met by smiling faces, and were set at ease immediately. Everything about this place is amazing. We were never alone in the icu, and had really great nurses.
It goes to show you that quality care does exist. It is alive and well and confined within the walls of a teaching hospital in downtown Philadelphia, PA.

And in the off chance that maggie’s nurse, Mary Jo, ever reads this, you are truly appreciated by Maggie, Carrie and I. You picked the right carreer. Thank you.

Wait for it..

I didn’t even see him, I saw his PA. So I paid more to see a specialist’s assistant in a field that isn’t his specialty. I think our health care system is on the right track, don’t you??

Anyway, I’m looking at two great looking products. The first is OmniFocus. This is a really nice looking product. Very complete, with tons of features and a lot of flexibility in how you GTD. Based on OmniOutliner, which is also a very well designed tool.

The second is called Things. The nice thing about this product is that it is really well designed. The folks at Cultured Code definitely put a lot of thought into this great app. It looks great, it has nice features and even though it’s slightly more limited than OmniFocus, it’s still extremely usable.

The one thing that’s not included (yet) in Things is syncing. I’m hoping that this is done soon, but in the mean time, I heard about a great technology that makes syncing Things between Macs a snap. It’s called Dropbox.

This is very similar to .mac, however it syncs on the fly, instantly. So you have a folder called your Dropbox, and every time you copy a file to it, it automatically syncs it to the Dropbox servers. Then you can access your files from any machine (Mac or PC) or even via a web interface. Public files can even be accessed through a web link by anyone.

This is really great technology, but unfortunately it’s not quite ready for prime time yet. It’s still in beta and if you want to get a look at it, you need an invitation. I was lucky enough to get an invite from Eric Belanger, and now I have 10 invitations that I can pass on. So if you want to take a look at Dropbox, post a comment here. I’ll send invites to the first 10 to ask.

I’ll give my take on GTD apps next time.

What we rented and the fact that we rented is not the point. What was cool was where we rented. We went to the Redbox.

For those not in the know, Redbox is this new thing that keeps popping up in grocery stores and places like McDonalds. We have 3 of them here in State College, so as far as I’m concerned, they’re everywhere. But all you do is go there, swipe a credit card and get a movie. Easy. What makes it better is that you can go online and see what’s in the box and check it out. Then you just go there, swipe the card and it spits it out at you.

And it’s cheap too, a buck a day. Return it by nine pm or you pay another buck. Blockbuster no longer has a return by date… so they can charge you more. I don’t need it for two months, or two weeks even. Sometimes I want to rent a movie and watch it. Boom. One dollar. Nice.

So check it out, it a good thing. Check out what’s in the box.

So when I saw the new plan details, the first thing that I noticed was that the prices were going up.

Ok, I’m good with this. I understand that Blockbuster wants to make money. I’d rather not pay more, but I realize that prices go up. But what I found interesting was that no where in the email, the web site or the fine print was any mention of the e-coupon. Certainly they wouldn’t raise the price and decrease the number of rentals… I thought I’d better email customer support:

I recently (8/17/07) received an email stating that the membership plans for Blockbuster.com are changing. My current plan is such that I am eligible to receive up to 2 DVD’s in the mail per month, plus free in store exchanges for a total of 4 DVD’s per month. In addition, I have available to me a single e-coupon per month bringing the total number of rentals to 5 per month. It appears from your email and literature on the web site that my plan will increase in cost from $5.99 to $7.99, however I don’t see any indication that the e-coupon will continue to be made available. Is this correct? From what I’m reading, not only will I be paying more, but I will also not receive the same value from the plan. Since I do have options with you competitors, I’d appreciate if you could clarify the configuration of your $7.99 plan.

Respectfully,
Adam Hegedus

To which I received the following stock response:

Hello Adam,

Thank you for contacting Blockbuster Online Customer Care.

I apologize most sincerely for any inconvenience this has caused you and I appreciate you taking the time to notify us of your concern, Adam. Total Access-1 at a time limited, 2 rent(s) a month
2 in-store exchanges/month allows you to receive 2 DVDs per month with 2 in-store exchanges for $7.99 plus applicable taxes. Unfortunately, eCoupons are no longer available. We recently enhanced our membership plans to provide our subscribers with a wide selection of options. With Total Access Premium, for example, you get more free in-store rentals than ever before. Instead of having to print e-Coupons, we’ll scan the barcode on your return mailers at your local store in exchange for a free in-store movie rental. If you love games, we’ll even give you a discount if you bring us your online envelope.

Please let me know if I may be of further assistance.

Respectfully,

Babylyn
Customer Care Associate
Blockbuster Online

So there you have it. Not only is Blockbuster raising the prices of this plan, but they are in a single motion, lowering the value. Pay more, Get less. I’m ok with raising prices, but at least give me the same deal. For an extra buck I can now sign up at Netflix and get unlimited rentals. That sounds like a good option to me.

Thank you!

I didn’t really know what to expect for a few reason… first, I had no idea what the movie was about. Second, I’m not a huge fan of historical movies. I like movies in general, but my favorites are usually more action filled, or gut busting comedies. Ok, fine, so I like to be entertained when I pay the 8 bucks to see a movie… sue me. Anyway, I went in not expecting much… and left truly inspired.

The film tells the story of William Wilberforce, who began the movement which eventually ended the slave trade in England in the late 1700′s. What is truly amazing about this story is the persistence and determination that Wilberforce maintained throughout his life. The battle that he faced was one that didn’t last a few months or even a few years. This fight, the fight that Wilberforce knew to be right, began in 1790, and ended with the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act shortly after his death in 1833. Even after being laughed at so many times, he never gave up. That, my friends, is heroic.

There were so many great lines in the movie too, but my favorite was spoken by Wilberforce to who would become the Prime Minister. He said, “We are still young enough to believe in the impossible”. I hope I never get that old.

switchers

I’ve decided that I’m going to dawn a new moniker…. the switcher. That’s right, I’m buying a Mac! I’ve been a windows user since 3.1, been working with PC’s since high school, was an IT person for 3 companies working with windows… and now I’m going to what was once the dark side. I clearly remember telling my wife (girlfriend at the time) that her mac was like a boat anchor. Unfortunately she remembers it too, and likes to remind me of that comment. I’ve eaten my words. I can’t wait to get a new macbook pro! I’ll be sure to post how my experience is.

switchbacks

The 24 Hours of Big Bear was a great success! Team Mudbuckets had a pretty good showing, finishing 16 laps (about 192 Miles and 19,200ft of climbing). We managed to finish 53rd out of 161 teams overall, and 17th out of 49 teams in our division. I’m really pleased with how we did, and super happy with how I did personally. As I mentioned in a previous post, when I tried out the course a month before the race I completed it in 1 hour 52 minutes. In my first lap during the race I managed a blistering (ok, blistering for me…) 1 hour and 37 minutes. My biggest fear during the race was getting in the way of faster riders, and there were plenty of them there! I didn’t have a single bad experience, people were really polite and friendly and everyone was there looking for a good time. And I would say we were successful!