The Costs of Vacation

This was far too profound NOT to post. Thanks to PhdComics.

Collage of Memories

One more mix of memories from vacation before we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Wildwood Friday Night Fireworks

We're back from our vacation, and wanted to share some of the fun with the Mod-Blog audience. Here are a few moments from the Friday Night Fireworks from Wildwood, NJ.

"Amazon Remembers" has a sense of humor

"Amazon Remembers" is a service of the Amazon iPhone App, where you take a photo of an item that you might want to later buy from Amazon.Com (or which you want to price-compare) and a human being will look at it and find a match (or something VERY close) on their website.

This is what I sent:


This is what the "Amazon Remembers" user recommended.


Clearly, NOT a Phillies fan. :-)

Taking a Break

I'll be taking a short break from blogging between now and Easter. There is just too much going on in my life, and somethings has got to give. Other Mod-Bloggers may be posting, and I may post something here and there. But overall, you'll probably see less action here on Mod-Blog for the next month or so.

If you're desperate for a Nomad fix, be watching for me on the Twitter feed instead.

Wildwood voted "Top NJ Heritage Destination"

CRChair and I have made no secret of our unabashed love for all things Wildwood. So it was with considerable excitement that I saw the non-profit group "Heritage New Jersey" held a contest and the Wildwoods were voted Top NJ Heritage Destination. It certainly has been important to my personal heritage.

"The Wildwoods by-the-Sea are the best heritage tourism destination in New Jersey because visiting takes you back to a time when America was at its optimistic best,'' he said. "When the Garden State Parkway was completed in the 1950's hundreds of motels were built. They are fanciful motels designed to appeal to the passing motorist. They have exotic names like Shalimar, Royal Hawaiian, Pink Champagne, and Caribbean. Each one was designed to appeal to any type of visitor, to forget where he or she came from and transport them to a tropical location within a short drive from home.

"When I'm in Wildwood, I am taken back to my own childhood,'' Hirsch said. "I ride my bike on the three-mile boardwalk – only in the morning – I sit on the largest, safest, free beach in New Jersey, I eat locally made ice cream, and play miniature golf. Who gets to go back to their own childhood for the weekend? I do. When I was child the water tower read, ‘Wildwood Welcomes the World.' It's still true.''

This is great news for the tourism trade of the Jersey Shore. Here is hoping many new people discover the joys of the Wildwoods. If you are interested in learning more yourself, this is a good place to start (warning, music plays when you open the site).

The Nomad's Wanderings

The Nomad has been wandering in southern New Jersey for the last week, but returns to his home tent today. If you'd like to browse some of the photos from his travels, click on the image below.

Whither the Nomad?

Hmmmm... Perhaps clicking the image will give a clue as to his whereabouts... If not today, perhaps on Tuesday...

Wildwood, NJ: #30 of Time's "Authentic American Experiences"

We love Wildwood, NJ. My parents vacationed there before I was born. My first visit was somewhere around my second or third birthday, and one of my favorite memories is my older cousins coming down while we were on vacation and taking me out for a long walk on the boardwalk with "the big kids". I love the long boardwalk, I love the deep beaches, and I love the smell of the salt air. So, it is nice to see the Wildwoods getting some love as #30 on Times 50 "Authentic American Experiences".

This close to Thanksgiving, I expect to have a lot of meetings like this

CRCHAIR's Wildwood Photos

Here are the photos that I took on our Wildwood vacation. Not the same quantity as Nomad, but hopefully as good quality.

Vacation Photos - The Full Set

After 38.09 miles walked on the boards, 15 animals from the claw machines, over 160,000 points earned at skeeball/videopoker/etc., and about 10 upload sessions to Flickr/YouTube, our vacation is over and we have returned to the Batcave. Tomorrow is the return to work and normality (such as it is). If you want to review where we have been and what we saw, click on the images below to see my whole photoset. CRChair's will be coming later.

The Simpsons Movie was good

CRChair and I saw the Simpsons movie yesterday and it was very good. Not great, in my opinion, but very good. It was like a very long episode - in mostly the good ways, since we love those episodes. It was not perfect, and yes, you do see Bart's doodle for approximately 1 second so parents may want to screen this before letting their chidren see it. I was going to write a long review, but I think this one at AICN says it about as well as I could, though he loved it a bit more than I did.

And one reason I’m glad I saw this with the crowd I did is because they were into it. They were with the film all the way through. Everyone reacted to different things. Some of the biggest moments got deservedly outsized reactions, and some lines had maybe one or two people in the whole place laughing, but it was a kick to see what people responded to with this one. It’s fun because we all love something different about THE SIMPSONS at this point. If you’re a fan of it, I’m sure you’ve got specific scenes or jokes or characters or images that define why you are a fan. A lot of what I really respect and enjoy about the show is represented in the approach they’ve taken to putting this together, and realizing that... the creeping sensation of watching someone get something exactly right... is one of this summer’s most pleasant surprises.

The other thing that is nice is the movie keeps up the tradition of respecting Ned Flanders as an honest man trying to do good, despite all peer pressure. The last few seasons the writers have played with that formula and weakened the character considerably. This time, it is front and center (except for one line) and it is a welcome return. Cynicism only really works in the presence of at least one truly sincere person.

Friday Night Fireworks

One of the new traditions in Wildwood is a fireworks show every Friday at 10:30 PM. Here is a little clip of that fireworks show from last night. The only disappointment is that they did not play "Wildwood Days this year.

8.39 Miles Walked Yesterday

Leaving for Vacation

I am leaving on vacation today, first to stop off at Mount Laurel, NJ, and then later in the week onto Wildwood, NJ. Posts may be infrequence or irregular while I am gone, since my internet access may be unpredictable. But I am happy to have a chance to sit back and relax after a tough year at the office.

Please be praying for our safety, and that our vacation does NOT end out this way.