So I’m finally back from camp, and it really was a good summer, wet, but good.  From what I heard and read, all the Scouts had a great time.  Of course there were a couple things here and there to work on, but overall a great program.

One of the most exciting things to happen was a big storm that hit us the end of Week 7.  Most of the cells that came our way over the summer tended to break up as they hit the mountain, but this one just sat overtop of us, hammering us for hours on end.  I talked with other people the next morning, and we all had the same reaction, we were near our radios, waiting for a call to go work some emergency.  Thankfully, nothing happened, and everyone awoke the next morning safe, if not a little damp.

A tree outside of Keystone (the building where I work) got hit, and I’ll have pictures of it up hopefully soon, there was debris everywhere, some as far as the far side of Keystone.

After camp, I ended up working two days at Flag, the first when Rangers Jim and Todd brought our office files back to Flag for us, and the next day was hot dog day!  Hot dog day is an event that hasn’t been done in a while, but basically we spend the day cleaning the inside of the building.  We started with common areas, mostly resource rooms and shared storage areas, and then moved to personal spaces, offices, desks and the like.

We used a dumpster and a half (those big long ones) over the course of two days (they ended up working again on Monday, but I took two days off to recoup from camp) and filled a 15 passenger van (seats removed) with paper to be recycled.  So I just realized I never explained why it’s called ‘hot dog day,’ that’s because for lunch council provided hot dogs and we had a picnic lunch (some of us ate outside since the lunch room was full).

Since hot dog day, the outside of our building has started to be cleaned as well.  We’re getting the stone pressure washed and restored in preparations for the 40 anniversary of Flag Plaza (the principal gift to America for its Bicentennial).  Combine that with the 90 anniversary of Camp Guyasuta, 80 Anniversary of Camp Twin Echo and the upcoming 30 anniversary of Heritage, and it’s a banner year for us!

Also in preparations for the Flag Plaza celebration, we had an “amateur landscaping event.”  Basically, we all attacked the overgrown hillsides surrounding our building with weed eaters, lawn mowers, clippers, and really anything else we could to make the hillsides look better.  It’s a huge improvement, and that, combined with the cleaning, which so far has just used water, not even chemicals and it looks amazing, and our building is going to shine for our anniversary celebration!

I had my picnic last weekend, and it was a good time.  Some of my Christmas lights weren’t working, so that was a bit strange, but otherwise, everything went well.  As always, I’m looking forward to doing it again next year, but in the meantime, I have tailgating to look forward to.

And of course, what would a blog post be without links and some media:

Check out mygazines, a great way to read magazines online.  I really doubt that it will be around for long, as I can’t believe it follows copyright laws, but then again, some of the magazines represented may appreciate their periodicals reaching a larger audience, some of it may just depend on how they present it to their advertisers.

Rights to “The Eye of the World” have been purchased by Universal.  As awesome it would be to see a movie version of The Wheel of Time, I have a hard time believing a studio would commit to doing all 12, let alone doing them well and keeping the integrity of Jordan’s story.  We’ll have to see, the rights were held before, but nothing came of it, so time will have to tell on this one.

Blog action day is coming up again, and again I’m planning on participating.  Last year’s theme was the environment, check out my post here.

And of course, a video, this one from Hedwig and the Angry Inch:

More coming soon, including comments about what I read over the summer.  Catch everyone later!

A bigger update is in the works, but for now, a few movies for you. Both are from songs I found over the summer which I love.

The first comes from Beirut-born Mika (now recording from England I believe). From his debut CD (he had a bunch of singles and I think an EP or two before) "Life in Cartoon Motion" the song is called Grace Kelly.  He reminds me a lot of Dr. FranknFurter from Rocky Horror (not Tim Curry mind you), take a look and you’ll see what I mean:

I headed down the mountain into Uniontown yesterday, got some Chinese at a new buffet and made a quick pass through Wal-Mart.  The Chinese buffet that I went to was a new one, as my favorite, China Wok, has closed since Wal-Mart moved.  The new buffet was bigger, but most of the food seemed to be American food. There were garden salads, ribs, and the strangest of all (at a Chinese buffet), mashed potatoes.

All in all though, it was decent, but besides everyone else’s protests, I still like the China Wok better.  Afterwards, we headed to the new Wal-Mart, which is really nice, it reminds me of the one in Latrobe, but even nicer inside, if not a bit smaller.  We raided the $5 DVD bin, and found a bunch of really good movies, and I picked up the soundtrack to Across the Universe.

I was going to pick up a plant, but didn’t see anything I really liked, I might head back to take a longer look through and see if I can find anything good.

A new metblogs site opened up, this one for Spoon River.  Spoon River, aside from being a great piece of music I played in band once, is the name of a play done by the Saint Vincent summer theater a few years back (specifically it is called Spoon River Anthology).  It is a collection of poems which are the epitaphs of a town called Spoon River.  The characters recite the words on their gravestones and as the play progresses, you see revealed a complete picture of the town.

The new site works to do that, but using the web as the medium, as opposed to theater or newspaper (I think I read Spoon River Anthology was originally published as a column in a newspaper, but I could be way off on that one).  I think it will be really cool to watch this progress.

It’s been raining here non-stop all day, and pretty much all week.  We’re also supposed to be in store for a couple more days of rain, how exciting.  I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Independence Day, we’re working of course (and working in the guilt), have a great one!

Things chug along here at camp as they always do.  It’s been cooler lately (I’ve wished for gloves a couple times in the mornings), but is warming up.  We’ve been getting a fair amount of rain, although most of it has been at night, which has been a good system actually.

I finished my contract from NLS (National Leadership Summit), a program put on by the OA.  I think I talked about it before, while not great, there were really good sessions (although they seem placed at the wrong time during the weekend, and there was definitely some very bad sessions and staff members).  Anyway, since I finished my contract (a lot of NLS lines up with Wood Badge, so instead of a ticket, we have a 90-day, three-item contract) and got my patch, which I can now proudly wear.

Not too much else is going on, I’m having a good time, reading a lot (I’ve been searching out new rocks, as my old one is partially underwater now), and even watching a few movies.  I think I’ll be heading into town this weekend, just to get away for a bit.  Troop 215 is coming in and they invited me to dinner on Saturday, so I’ll join them at Lonestar as well.

We’ve even played one game of bocce and one of Trivial Pursuit, but I’m hoping for more soon.  Ok, that’s about it for now, Cat is off to Casablanca (yes, you did read that correctly) and I’m going to visit my roomate from college tonight!  Have a great one everyone!

I’m up at camp, so sorry for the delay.  The internet is sometimes hit or miss, and during this last week and a half of set-up, we’ve been super busy.  Things will stay busy through inspection, and then Karen and Scott’s wedding, but after that, we’ll settle into a steady groove.

It’s been real foggy up here on the mountain, each time I’ve gone out (a whole two times) and when I came up two Wednesdays ago, it’s been a lot foggier than I expected, just strange I suppose.

I headed out with some people from camp to the local bar, The National Pike, to watch the last Pen’s game.  It was exciting, and they had a great run, so I really can’t fault them for that.  Maybe next year will be just as exciting (and I won’t be watching the game with drunks, no one I knew by the way, constantly yelling “shoot it!”)

Otherwise though, camp has been good, over the weekend the Central staff went out to Lonestar, the local diner, and generally, our staff seems to be working and interacting better with each other than last year.  I know I’m trying to make more of an effort to keep both groups (those under and over 21) doing things together.  Hopefully the lawn will dry up a bit and we can get a couple games of bocce in.

I already finished one book, and I’m getting close to finishing another.  I was also lent a really fun book, “Swine not” by Jimmy Buffet, and I’m flying through that one as well.  I went down to the lake to the rock I read on last year to find it partially submerged, apparently the lake has risen since last year.  There is another rock nearby, but I still liked the other one better.

Ok, that’s it for now, hope everyone is doing well and I’ll catch everyone soon, maybe even at the wedding!

Alright, here’s what’s been going on:

Camp starts this week, at least for staff, and has been taking up just about every waking moment of my life. Between that and getting a few projects finished up (some to finish my contract for NLS), I haven’t had much time, and I feel bad, I miss updating my blog. The kids for National Camp School are there, hopefully having a blast and learning all kinds of things, we have Beaver Day and national inspection, and then it should be fairly smooth sailing for the rest of the summer.

I leave Wednesday morning for camp, and I’ll be crazy busy until Scott and Karen’s wedding, but it’s still exciting. Hopefully I can keep some sanity by the time that point comes around. I’ll have limited internet access, the same as last year, so I’ll be updating when I can.

I’ve also been writing for Pittsburgh Metblogs, which is a group of bloggers from Pittsburgh, writing about the Burgh. Pop in, leave us some comments and join the discussion, it’s a blast, and there is an entire network of Metblog cities (if URU was still around, I would try to start one up for us, as Azeroth is the only "Other Land" at the moment).

Last weekend was the first I had to myself after four weekends of camping in a row, which was nice. I went to a graduation party and had a great time. I only knew the grad and five other people (including his parents), but we had a blast. We played boccie and a bird decided to crap on my arm, but after I washed myself off I jumped back in and the team of me and the grad won.

The weekend before was Spring Ceremonial. We had a very successful Vigil, and after cleaning up, I ended up helping in the kitchen. At one point I was standing in front of a food service grill will upwards of 30 pounds of onions, cooking them with a spatula. Someone walked in and honest to goodness asked me, "So what, are you cooking onions?"

I turned to them and just said, "No," and then went back to flipping them with the spatula.

In other news, Joss Whedon will be back with the previously previewed "Dollhouse" next season. He will also be bringing to the internet, another series, "Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog" IGN has a preview here. Needless to say, I’m excited.

I think that’s it for now, hopefully I’ll have another post or two before I leave for camp, until then, have a great one!

Again, I apologize for lack of updates lately, the last four weekends saw me camping, and we’re crazy busy at work right now (less than two weeks till I’m at camp!) so I know I’ve been lacking.

Anyway, I wanted to share a video of a new TV series I’m excited for, Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse:

Sorry for the lack of entries lately, things have been absolutely bonkers, but I think things will settle down a bit now.  I got back from my fourth weekend in a row camping, and I’m totally spent, but I wanted to upload some videos that have been making me smile, enjoy, and I’ll catch everyone later!

Script Frenzy is going on this month, a change from last year.  They also changed it from 20,000 words to 100 pages, and allowed any kind of script, including television, graphic novel, mini-series, really anything.  I didn’t do it this year, I’ll stick with NaNoWriMo for sure, but maybe I’ll pick this up again next year, the month changed caught me off guard, and April just doesn’t really allow me to write all that much.

Last week was the Robotic Hall of Fame induction.  There’s a Robotic Hall of Fame you ask?  Yes, yes there is, it’s actually at the Carnegie Science Center.  No one bothered to tell me this (or apparently anyone else), I would have been there in a heartbeat to see C3P0 inducted by Mark Hamill!  Oh well, maybe I’ll make it down sometime in the future to an induction.

WTAE ran a story about how a man was arrested for the fire at the Hollow Tavern, police believe it to be arson.  That was what I came up with when it happened: considering everything of value had been taken out of it beforehand.  Glad to help Unity Township!

Also, I know it’s been talked about before, but there really is something about Microsoft Word that knows when you really need a document, and then makes sure that it won’t open correctly and forces you to spend half an hour trying to get it to work right.  Stupid Microsoft.

Quick update for everyone, I’m actually writing this as I listen to the Pen’s game (we’re up 1-0 right now).

I accidentally knocked the plant off my desk today, he was fine, and I got him all situated and the carpet all swept up, but I imagine it was a bit traumatic for him.

I got to go to a food show yesterday at the Expo Mart. It was filled with sleazy salesmen (all in awful, matching shirts: lime green with dark green criss-crossing pin stripes, with blue blazers), but had some really good food. I had some good Chinese samples, and an excellent piece of chicken sausage, which tasted like beef, believe it or not.

Posted at the MOUL site

So URU is gone, so now we turn our attention to the possibility of a Myst Movie. We shall see. I’m excited that they’ll be examining the Book of Ti’Anna and the events of The Fall, although I’m still a bit skeptical, but ready to do what I can. And of course, the possibility that URU will come back (if it does, I hope they take some of the fan-suggested changes to heart), but I’m hoping that Cyan does something new, I keep thinking they’ll do something futuristic, although I want to learn more of the D’ni (and Ronay). Sigh, someday, I hope. And until then, we still have UO, we’ll always have UO!

A teaser image

Concept art of D’ni

Update: now it’s 1-1

I have more to talk about, but my list is elsewhere, so I’ll leave you with two videos. The first has apparantly been used for this type of purpose at other schools, but it’s making it’s rounds now with a SVC twist.

I’m posting the second since we’re in the playoffs, and it’s really, really funny (and about a serious subject), but it’s not exactly clean, or for viewing at work. You’ve been warned. Click past the break for the embedded version (more…)