Blog has moved

The JayWalkingNY blog has moved to: jaywalkingny.wordpress.com for the time being.  We'll see what kind of integration Google has in mind with Google+ so we just might return!

Are you bored for Words with Friends yet?

A couple of weeks ago I was turned on to Words with Friends and I was immediately hooked. I remember hooking up my Facebook account and trying to start a game with every single one of my friends. I quickly maxed out the number of games that I could start and even had multiple games with certain friends.

Being a guy I didn't try to read any instructions on how to play, I figured that it was just like Scrabble. So I remember going first one time and dropping all 7 of my letters, thinking that the first spot in the middle would be a double word score, a la Scrabble, but I was wrong. I score about 55 points right off the bat and I figured that wasn't so bad and continued to play trying to make the largest words that I could each time it was my turn. After playing the game with a bunch of people a couple of things came to light that made the game incredibly boring.

Here they are:

1) It doesn't make sense to make longer words if the letters you use don't fall on tiles that give bonuses. It's not worth opening up other opportunities for your opponent for an extra 2, 3, 4 or 5 points. So this really limits you to mostly 3 and 4 letter words.

2) With these 3 or 4 letter words, what you want to do is try to add on to other words so that you can make 2 words and potentiall double your score.

3) Always keep an "S" handy because you can pluralize the words that your opponent makes and make your own as well to get 2 words for 1 score.

4) You can guess as many times as you want with no penalty.

5) Believe it or not the following words work: aa, ae, oi, za, zas, qat, qats, suq, xi, jo, haji, hajis

Here's what I think they should do to make the game more interesting:

1) Give more points for larger words.

2) If you don't put down a real word, you lose a turn. Or give users a limited amount of guesses, like maybe 3.

3) Don't allow words to be used twice.

I think making these changes will make the game more challenging and interesting. Otherwise to me, the game has become just playing the same 3 or 4 letter words that I don't know the meaning to. I used to respond to my opponents moves within seconds, and sit in anticipation of the next move. Now I'll go days without playing, and I don't really care.

Cape May 2011

Last week I went on vacation with my family to Cape May, NJ.  I would have posted some stuff during the week but the internet connection wasn't all that great.  Anyway, It was a series of firsts, starting with going there because we had never been there before.  The drive was rather long but smooth and directionally easy, I mean what’s easier than this:  Go down the Garden State Parkway until you reach Exit 0. 

We had great weather, even when it rained it only rained at night after we were done with the beach.  The temperature was between 80 and 90 degrees most of the time, a little muggy, but that’s ok for the beach. 

So here’s the list of “firsts” that we had on our trip:

 • Derek’s first vacation.

 • Derek’s first time at the beach.

 • Derek’s first trip to a zoo.

 • Derek’s first time eating Chex.

 • First time I’ve ever been in an Acme.

 • The first time we’ve ever walked out of a grocery store leaving a shopping cart full of stuff.

I've posted some photos from the trip on my jaywalking.tumblr.com site.  Feel free to take a look.

Family trips are great, I hope we get to do it again next year, and I wouldn't mind going back to Cape May either.

Held hostage by roseola

Derek turned 1 this past Monday, and on Wednesday we took him to get his 1 year shots.  It was a nice cocktail of 3 plus he had to get his blood work done, so he got poked a total of 4 times.  That night he had a fever of 103, and we thought that it was just a reaction to his shots.  We took him back to the doctor on Friday and she checked him out and told us everything was clean, even his blood work, but having a fever for 4 days after taking shots is kind of long.  Well yesterday his fever finally broke and the next thing you know we see a rash all over his body and it's confirmed, he had roseola.  If you don't know what roseola is, you can find out more here: http://bit.ly/jxTF3G

So over the last 4 days we really haven't been able to do much, we've had to cancel a BBQ that we had planned, and pretty much have been under house arrest.  But as much as it was a definite inconvenience for us, it must have been worse for Derek.  Imagine being in and out of fever for 4 days, only have a rash show up all over your body, which ironically is a good sign.  I just feel for the guy every time I look at him.  And to top things off we started to cut his hair but didn't finish it (will finish that today), so he looks even more disheveled.

But we're thankful to God that he's on the path to recovery, and it's off to Cape May!

Oh and staying home with your child all day is tough, kudos to all the stay-at-home moms out there!

It's Complicated

Saw "It's Complicated" yesterday night.  There were definitely some funny moments.  Alec Baldwin is great and I love John Krasinski.  It's kind of interesting to see Meryl Streep as a loving character when the last time I've seen her in a movie was "The Devil Wears Prada".  There is one moment in the movie that plays on the use of marijuana, and as with all movies that reference drugs, you kind of have to know what it feels like to actually use the narcotic to completely see how true that acting is.  It was a fun movie and I would recommend watching it.

Robin Hood and the Coupon Sherpa, Target, and Amazon PriceCheck iPhone apps

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It's been an interesting start to the fourth of July weekend.  First I got to watch a movie at home on Blu-ray, which hasn't happened in a long time, and it's rare that I actually have an extended time off and we're stuck at home.  But onto Robin Hood.

Note: If you haven't seen the movie and plan to, skip the next 2 paragraphs.

I was told that Robin Hood wasn't that great of a movie, but sometimes you just have to see for yourself, and as a guy, I'm always interested in watching mindless violence at times just so that I can decompress.  The movie was kind of long, we watched the unrated version which was 2 hours and 35 minutes, some 15 minutes more than the theatrical version.  I didn't mind the storyline too much and there was enough action to keep me occupied.  They didn't throw in any pointless love scenes, so that was cool.  The issue I have with the movie is that I didn't know that this really was supposed to be a prequel to the Robin Hood story, and they didn't say anything until the end.  I was waiting for Russell Crowe to become the famous Robin Hood with his merry men, and it didn't happen until the last 5 minutes of the movie.  Sorry to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.  Plus the trailer where King John calls Robin Hood an outlaw was completely misleading because he doesn't say this until the end.

All in all I'm not unhappy that I watched it, and I can say that I've seen my fair share of horrible movies.  I'm actually hoping there will be a sequel so we can actually see Robin Hood as we know him, and I can replace the Kevin Costner / Bryan Adams version with something more action packed.

We also had a chance to go to the mall on Friday, and I got to use two iPhone apps that I downloaded.  I'm pretty skeptical about some of these apps because I don't know if they'll work or not, but kudos to Scott B. over at Z100 and his coupon blog which you can find here: http://bit.ly/khEL4Q.  Scott B. as on Extreme Couponing on TLC recently, and proved that you can be an extreme couponer in the Tri-State area, and yes, even in New York City.  Anyway, one of the apps that I tried was Coupon Sherpa (http://www.couponsherpa.com/), and I have to report that the app worked great!  I was on the line in Macy's and we checked the app to see if there were any coupons we could use and we were able to get 15% off each item we purchased.  I just handed the phone to the cashier and she typed in the code!  Needless to say, I will continue to use Coupon Sherpa whenever I go to the store.

Next we went to Target, and I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed with their iPhone app.  I tried their iPad app and it's great because you can see the weekly ads laid out as if you actually had it in your hand.  Unfortunately the iPhone app isn't like that.  When you click on the weekly ad it then makes you select a category and then it lists what's in the ad for that week.  So you kind of have to know what your looking for before you use the app.  I like the iPad app better.

While in Target I was able to use the Amazon PriceCheck app to price check a cordless phone we were thinking of purchasing.  The scanner worked great and showed me how much the cordless phone was listed for on Amazon (which was cheaper).  The only thing is that you have to scan the barcode on the actual product, and not the product plate that's displayed on the store shelf.  I highly recommend this app because if you're not in a hurry to buy, it can definitely save you some money.

So I give Robin Hood a neutral rating, Coupon Sherpa and Amazon PriceCheck a "thumbs up", and the Target app for iPhone a "thumbs down".

Do you agree?  If you do or if you don't, I'd love to hear your feedback.

The timing of things...

So we had to cancel a BBQ that we had planned for tomorrow because Derek had spiked a fever after he got some shots this week.  I have to admit, I'm really bummed about it.  But my first concern is for my son.  I'm sure I made my parents miss a lot of things too when I was growing up.  All part of being a parent!!

So tonight I'll be up watching TV and possible a Blu-ray, just got Robin Hood and haven't seen it yet.

Life as a first time parent, the first lesson

When my wife told me that I was going to be a father, I was scared, really scared.  I was scared that I wouldn't be up to the challenge, and more importantly I was scared that I might fail at it.  The jury is out on whether or not I'd fail at this, the journey is just beginning, but I will say this though, when your child looks at you and cries, all you want to do is make the pain stop no matter what it takes.  And so the first lesson I learned as a father is that I have to put my child first.  That might sound extremely obvious, but until you're in this position, it's all talk.  It's not as easy as it sounds, but I don't mind putting Derek first.