All Posts Categorized: ‘People and Places’

Jappler Recommends: Patrick LandRover

If anything – I am a loyal customer. Once I find something I like and trust – I generally stay with it for the long haul. I have been nothing but happy with my Volvos and my Volvo service experience with Patrick Volvo in Schaumburg, IL.

When it came time to upgrade our 2002 Land Rover Discovery – we decided to give the Patrick Land Rover dealer in Naperville, IL. Within moments of getting out of the car – we had a friendly salesman come over and not hassle or hurry us at all. He was extremely interested in buying the Discovery we drove there (they are hot items) and we took a few test drives in some of their LR3s. The LR3s are basically an upgraded version of the since discontinued Discoveries which are much more elegant than the Discoveries but still built for the off road adventures that Land Rover is known for.

Once we found the one we wanted to buy (2008 LR3), the manager took a look at the Discovery and offered a very reasonable offer on the car we drove in, and I actually got him to go up $500 – which I would have been fine if he did not. There was no long drawn out back and forth – and we were able to move through the process. We then moved over to the finance manager which was very nice and we moved through all the paperwork very quickly.

Over all process was completely stress and hassle free – and I appreciated that. If you are from the Chicagoland area and looking for a new car – check out the Patrick dealer group before going anywhere else. The level of professionalism was and has been top notch.

Side Note:
While we were going through the process I realized that the LR3 did not have any floor mats (a mistake I made with 2 previous car purchases). Knowing the driver side floor mat retailed for $267 (there was an ad on the car salesman’s desk we were at) – I knew if I wanted to purchase Land Rover floor mats – I would have been out another few hundred dollars easily. I mentioned it to the salesman and he told me to bring it up to the finance guy. I told the finance guy and he told me to go talk to the salesman who promptly told me it was up to the Business Manager.

I walked into the Business Manager’s office and said “I was told you were going to give us some floor mats since they were missing from the vehicle”. He looked at me and told me I was crazy because that was easily and extra few hundred dollars. I did not give up and told him that he was going to make a few thousand on the car we traded in and that this would be nothing compared to that. I think I caught him off guard because he stood there for a moment and then came back with “if I make $1500 on it after commission, etc I will call you”. I said great – I will expect a call in a few days since our car salesman already had someone picked out for the Disco we brought in. I told him I would be checking inventory daily.

I think he was getting tired of me – and so he asked me (to change the subject) if I had ever taken the Land Rover to one of the Land Rover events (they set up off road courses). I told him no and so he went over and got a book to show me the photos from last year’s event. The first page included a few Land Rovers covered in mud and I said “wow – it really looks like a lot of fun…and it looks like I will certainly need some floor mats for that!”. He laughed and kept going through the book. A few pages later he was showing us a LR3 on a “teeter totter” and the winner of this balancing event won prizes. I said – “wow – that is really cool. I hope the prizes included floor mats”.

After that – I finally broke him down and guess what? I got the floor mats ;) Phew.

The Year I Really Started to Feel Older…

All throughout my life I have always felt like a kid at heart. I still love the simple things in life, would love to get together with my neighborhood kids to play a game of “mud gutter”, and I still feel like I am the person I was in college….except I am realizing more and more I am not that kid anymore.

This year was a big wake up call.

  • I began enjoying AM radio (something I always got annoyed by when I was younger)
  • I look forward to going to be early
  • I wake up early
  • I have three kids
  • I see some of my “teenage 80s/90s stars” now as parents of high schoolers on TV
  • I have very limited time available for doing things I actually want to do (golf, fishing, etc) and look forward to the day I can do that…ten years from now ;)
  • I remember my grandparents at my parent’s current age

Of course – there are also a lot of pluses about getting older, but for someone who thought they would never “grow up” – it is interesting seeing my perspective on live change.

Anyone else play mud gutter out there as well? I was the bus stop champ!

Being A Father: A Worthwhile Message

I watch CBS Sunday Morning every Sunday and was really impressed by the message in the video below (@ 1:38).


Watch CBS News Videos Online

My Take on Twitter

So many people still do not get Twitter so here is my take:

I was forced to get a Facebook account in order to work on an API project for a client. After a few months of using it for then personal stuff – I got completely sick of all the garbage. “X person played Y game”, “Z bought you a drink”, etc. For some people that is great – and fun…just not for me. I did walk away thinking – “I really like the way I can keep up with certain people (family, friends, etc) when they update their status. I also did not like the fact that all of your content is “stuck” in Facebook. Let’s say you get tired of Facebook – all your photos, updates, etc are not exportable. You lose everything you put in there.

It was nice finding out what my sister was up to, what cool new restaurant my cousin tried, or what some of my friends were doing last weekend. I found myself staying in better touch both using Facebook, as well as actually calling them to talk about what they were up to.

From there – I looked into Twitter and started using that for increased interaction with the people I really cared about hearing about/viewing their quick pictures, etc. Basically – you get status updates from people you care about. It is not what most people think either “I am getting coffee”, “I am walking to work”. Some people do write those updates, but if you start following someone or actually use Twitter – you will see most people actually write something interesting. Using Twitter – I keep in contact with friends/family, and interact with people I normally would never interact with and enjoy getting to see first hand photos from some of my favorite TV personalities, have conversations with family, and learn about new stuff from people I choose to follow. Basically – I get the best of Facebook (the status updates) minus the garbage I hated…and on top of that, everything is exportable – and can flow right into my personal blog. This way – if I decide in a few months/years Twitter is not for me, I can dump it and keep my content.

Not sold? Hey – it is not for everyone. But it is pretty cool to get a timeline of what you thought was interesting/important at the time and then look back on it at a later date. You can make what you want out of it and for me…it has been interesting, I have learned a lot, and I enjoy making new connections!

http://www.twitter.com/thejappler

Random Fridays: Chicago 2016 No More

Well – after three years of waiting/planning for this day and 70 million dollars spent…Chicago got out in the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympic location. I am completely stunned we got knocked out and during the first round at that. I had it all planned too…all my construction friends would have plenty of work, my family and friends would fly in for the big event, my son Evan would be 10 and actually be able to appreciate them, and so on.

Chicago is a fantastic town with all kinds of gems that people who have never been here don’t have any clue about and it is a bit sad to me that the world will not see our city for what it really is (our lakefront, great neighborhoods, amazing food, nice people, clean streets, world class architecture, etc).

Perhaps it was not meant to be, but man…I was really looking forward to it!

Random Fridays: Olympics in Chicago?

I have been anxiously awaiting the news of whether or not Chicago will get the 2016 games and it looks like some others are getting antsy as well. The Chicago Tribune put out an article “Chicago awards contract to clear Olympics site” today that makes me even more hopeful. Of course there are plenty of rumors going around, but this makes it sound a bit more promising!

So many people have little or no expectations for our great city and I would love for the world to see what all we have to offer. We have an amazing (perhaps great) lake, an unforgettable skyline, some of the nicest people, and some pretty interesting history.

Sure the traffic will be out of control and it will be a bit overwhelming, but the excitement, jobs, and the opportunity to see some events in your own city would be amazing.

Let’s just hope we get some good news in October!

Thursday Linkfest: June 18, 2009

This week flew by – but I actually found a number of links very interesting over the last seven days.

Random Fridays: Train Surfing

Event hough I do not live near the ocean, I still enjoy surfing as much as anyone else (and have ever since watching the movie North Shore).

There is something very satisfying and exciting about catching the perfect wave – everything clicks, and you just seem to almost fly – or at least that is how it feels for me. Where am I surfing? I am surfing on Northwest Highway and I call it “train surfing”. For those that do not know this – Chicagoland has a number of commuter train lines and I happen to drive on a road parallel to the train tracks for about 10 miles every morning. If you can catch it (“the wave”) just right – you can literally go through almost the entire 10 miles without hitting a red light (there are several).

Every once in a great while – if you get in a position to follow an express train – it will cause all the lights to change with you so that you can go straight through. This is something I have only done a few times – but like any great wave – it is all about the chase.

Glam Scum

I have recently become a fan of a DJ by the name of The Scumfrog and have really enjoyed his podcast called “Glam Scum International”. If you like electronica/club/vocal trance – give him a shot. Make sure to check out episode 8 first (my favorite so far).

Socializing on the Web

We have all seen or heard of a lot of the web’s big social web sites (Facebook, MySpace, online dating, etc) but the other day when I was in the car listening to the radio – I was a combination of disturbed, somewhat impressed (with the idea that this market was targeted not the actual web site idea), and shocked that someone created a new site for socializing/dating with a whole new hook. A site for setting up “Married Dating & Affairs” (The Ashley Madison Agency) which even guarantees 100% satisfaction. Please note I am personally very against cheating or having an affair. I personally believe if you are unhappy with a relationship – it is best to get out before it gets worse. We have all seen the movies and heard the stories – affairs are nothing but trouble. I know people are always trying to make a buck – but where do you draw the line?

I was disturbed that there is now a place to easily go and seek out someone who is married and wanting an affair – and at the same time, I was also somewhat impressed that someone saw the need/market and built this site around it. Perhaps the people using it will finally be open about it on the “first date” rather than after they lie about their marital status until a few dates in and then open up the can of worms to the person that thinks they are single too.

My initial thought: “Go sanctity of marriage!” Even though I would never use the service and would hope none of the people that I know would – my only hope is that people will at least come clean and promote honesty (even though it is with strangers instead of your “partner”).

Even if you do target an audience successfully for something that is not socially acceptable and illegal, I only would hope you are responsible enough not to throw it in people’s faces with billboard ads for all to see (kids especially) with messages like “Life is short, have an affair”. I was not terribly upset with the company until I saw that advertisement which tends to promote having an affair instead of promoting their web site which is more geared towards people that have already made the choice to have the affair.

What are your thoughts?