Nick’s Vibe Check

More like Apple Only-use-if-you-have-iCloud-vites. I’m throwing a housewarming and I also subscribe to iCloud+, and at the center of that Venn diagram is Apple Invites – or so I thought. On the surface, Invites is a very straightforward application. Pick an event name, date, and location, and you’re set. You can add additional things, like a brief description, a shared photo album (which I could see being useful), website links, and shared music playlists. In practice, I doubt people would use those if I set it up, so you always need to plan for the lowest common denominator, or as some would say, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). I did just that. I created my event, picked a date/time, gave my address, and added a little photo of my dining room for some flair. A great invite, I thought. And, Apple claims it’s a cross-platform application. Doesn’t matter if you have an iPhone or Android, just text over the invite using the handy-dandy “Invite Guests” feature (with per-person custom links ...

Sometimes, if you want to guarantee that something is done right, you need to do it yourself. This was my thought process with a lot of things, especially those involving my time and my money. This often coalesced in the form of spring break trips (and similar excursions). I knew I wanted to bring a fun experience to the table and showcase my logistical skills. One thing I did know about my fraternity that created the challenge for me was their apprehension to spending money and their lack of time management. Fun! This post is about travel planning and I’ll mostly focus on my spring break trips, of which there have been three (avg. attendance of 12). However, I’ve applied some or all of the same methods to houseboats, camping, road trips, etc. Phase 1: Initial survey and location research You want to take a trip with the fellas, that’s great! The most difficult part of all this is finding dates that work for everyone. With spring break, it’s no issue since almost everyone is in scho...