Basketball update 7/16/09

Jake’s team won last night. We are now 3-1. The kids are having fun. I like the fact that no one kid is dominating and that all are involved. Hopefully, the wins will continue. While winning is not the only thing, its generally more fun to win.

On the other extreme, Josh’s team lost. They have some excellent players but there’s little teamwork and almost no defense. It just shows how playing as a team makes a difference. Great talent, mediocre team.

I think I hate Compusa

I went to Compusa last week to fix the kids computer. I’ve been working on it intermittently for a few months, trying to figure out why its overheating. I swapped out most of the parts, added some internal fans, to no avail. It still overheats. But the experience at Compusa has a left a really bad taste in my mouth. They charge $49 to diagnose the computer or $129 to fix the computer. I asked if I could have it diagnosed first and then have that applied to fixing the computer – no, if you diagnose it, its another $129 to fix. I never heard of a diagnosis not being applied against fixing an appliance. Then, they wanted the money up front. I’m paying for a service before its performed. That means if they don’t fix the computer, it will be hard to get my money back.

Two days later called and told me they fixed the computer but that they couldn’t reproduce the problem. Why they would then be able to tell me that they’ve fixed the computer? What did they fix?

This is also a significant difference that I’ve found between hardware and software people. Software developers won’t try to fix a problem until they can reproduce it. Hardware people will often find something to fix and assume they’ve fixed the problem.

In any case, the real issue is Compusa’s policies. To me, its bad business. Its clear that its not about taking care of the customer. Its about the money. Its a store I will avoid in the future.

BTW, the kids found over the weekend that its still overheating. That means I’ve go to go back. This is going to get old very quickly.

Family Update – July ‘09

Thursday Samantha went to college orientation. She’s going to go to Palm Beach Community College in the fall. She wants to get a degree in Education. She worked in the spring as a counselor in an after care program and really enjoyed working with kids. We are thrilled that she’s decided to further her education.

Wednesday we won our first game in Jake’s summer basketball season. I’m coaching his team again. After ten straight losses in the spring it was nice to win one. Jake had a solid game – the kids all played well.

Josh has been playing basketball as well. He is on a good team although the teams at his age seem to be less team oriented and more "street". Josh’s focus has changed though, from basketball to music. Josh has been playing guitar for almost two years and his hard work is really starting to pay off. He’s getting quite good. Here’s a link to one of his performances with the School of Rock (Jake is on keyboards). He was asked to be in the main band for the local School of Rock.

Jake also has been getting involved with music playing keyboard but also dabbling in bass and trumpet.

Alec is taking it a little bit easier this summer but he’s no slouch. He went to music camp and performed as both a drummer and debuted as a singer. He seems to be a natural performer.

My band played our third gig. Here’s a representative piece filmed by a very fidgety 12 year old (Jake). If you listen closely you can hear him singing along. Here’s Come Together.

Bridget is busy with Bar Mitzvah planning and Jake is working hard learning his material. It should all “come together” very well. Hope to see our family and friends soon.