I’m finally home, the summer has ended.  Regular post coming soon, I promise.  Until then, check out the  new PostSecret video:

I’m  actually writing this post inside the Panera Bread in Uniontown.  I’ve been here for about two hours so far working on the slide show for the closing banquet.  I would post this from Panera as well, but I don’t have a wireless card for my computer, so it will be posted later, probably tomorrow after brunch.

It’s been a lot of fun here, we’ve been rocking out to oldies, and I feel all connected and 2st1 century (even though I’m not connected to the interwebs), it’s been fun, and the people watching has been enjoyable as well.

I have Liberty’s part of the first song done, I’m staring Freedom and then I’ll move to Indepenendce.  I think that I’ll use the second song for Central pictures, but I’m not sure what I want to do for the last song, I’m think I’ll do a combination of all the camps, along with some statistics about the summer, I think it would be nice to show some unity as a Reservation, but chances are, when I show that idea to people, they won’t like it, so I’m really not sure if I should do it or not.  This slide show has been such a production in and of itself.  Getting the pictures I wanted was like pulling teeth, and it seems like I’m hitting resistance with most things I try, mostly from the software I’m using.  Who knows, maybe I’m just worn out from the summer and fed up, although I have a feeling it’s somewhere between the two options.

Anyway, onto the normal post subjects:

I ate a frog leg the last time I went to the Chinese Buffet (last weekend).  As cliché as it sounds, it really did taste like chicken; just with less meat and a waxy white color.  It wasn’t bad, I’m really glad I tried it, but it wouldn’t be something I would specifically order, I’d rather have chicken wings.

Coming out of the Chinese Buffet, I happened to be passing a young girl (maybe 8 years old) as she was talking to someone in a car driving by.  Out of nowhere, the conversation became heated, with the little girl yelling a string of obscenities that probably would have made a sailor blush.  Maybe I’m getting to the point where I can shake my head in disgust at the younger generation, and maybe part of it was (to be stereotypically for a moment) the fact that I was outside the WalMart in Uniontown, but I was taken aback.

Wikia, the company that brought us Wikipedia and wiki software announced that they will be creating a search engine, allowing human editors to filter and edit, just like at wikipedia.  It was announced almost as a direct challenge to Google, and it will be interesting to see how it progresses.

We had a block party outside of the Potomac Homes on Tuesday night, which was a lot of fun.  We grilled corn, steaks, chicken and hot sausage, and all sat around chatting for hours on end.  We turned the music on and ended up having sack races, three legged races as well as games of bocce and horseshoes.  The evening ended with a projected game of hockey on the back of Andy’s house.  All in all, it was a great time, and I’m glad I planned it, although it did seem a bit odd to hear my boss “strongly recommend” to the people living in the houses (and Central Staff) to attend; I think they would have anyway, but I hope they didn’t just because they were told to.

The next day, Wednesday, was the 100th anniversary of World Scouting.  I was in charge of planning that with a former camp director.  The morning started off with a “sunrise” ceremony (flag raising, scout oath, rededication, but sadly no kudu horn) and at the end of program for an hour, the patrols could go around and do games and activities from Brownsea island and check out a mock encampment that was set up in the parade field.  That night, there was a slideshow of Baden-Powell’s life, as well as videos from around the world showing the world jamboree and how other countries were celebrating the day.  I think it was a very successful day, we tried to make it as useful and engaging as possible without disrupting program too much.

There were a few visitors of note in the past few days, the first of which is Alexander Barton Smith.  I worked with Alex in 2001, and didn’t really enjoy it.  He caused all kinds of unnecessary trouble just for the sake of causing grief, which annoyed me to no end.  He was very good at program (he was the Scoutcraft Director), but I do have to say that I never expected to see him again on property.  He seems to have calmed down a bit, but still out there and a bit crazy, I still didn’t feel like I could trust him to be telling me the truth all the time.

And then Tom and his new girlfriend Jess came up.  They got lost on the way (that’s what happens when you trust MapQuest and not your gut…and type in an address that doesn’t work with any mapping program…), but finally made it up.  We walked around Central for a bit, and then headed to Freedom to go to the bridge.  It wasn’t a clear night, which was a bit disappointing, but we still had a good time.  Afterwards we went to Lonestar for food and pie, which was nice.  I had a great time, and it was wonderful to see Tom and to meet Jess, I’m hoping we can hang out more when I get back from camp.

A researcher announced that he has come up with a solar power paint that he thinks will replace solar cells, and provide cheap solar power for anyone who wants it.  I hope he’s right, but I think it is still a ways off from commercial production.

I think that’s it for now, I’m going to work some more on the slideshow, hopefully get Freedom done and then get some dinner and put together Indy and Central, and then figure out what to do for the last one.

Catch everyone later, have a great one!

Back with another regular update, hope you enjoy!

GearLive had two stories last week based on USB technology, both of which were really interesting I thought.  The first was a USB wall socket.  Essentially you could run USB wire through your house, providing an outlet for a printer, a camera, a hub, or any other of the crazy amount of USB gadgets that are out there.  The second was the announcement that an upcoming music album will be released in only two formats: digital download and USB flashdrive.  While I don’t think it will do very well (I don’t think there is quite the market penetration for such a release to be a big hit), I do think we will see more of the like in the future, maybe even an iPod that can take direct downloads (through synchronization) from stores or USB devices.

A group of us took a Central RT and saw Order of the Phoenix in U-Town, and it was good, but I had a few gripes, the first of which has to do with a commercial that ran before the movie, actually.  It was a commercial for the National Guard.  And in the course of it, there was some B-roll footage of an American flag waving.  However, it was not the current flag which we have today, it was a 48 star flag.  A bit unnerving to say the least.

Like I said, I enjoyed the movie, it moved fast, there was a montage-like period (without an 80’s song however), and overall it was dark and very engaging, but again, a few things stuck out in my mind that I didn’t really like: the second half of the school year seemed to not exist, magically (excuse the pun), they all appeared at the end of the semester.  I was also a bit disappointed with the Veil scene, it wasn’t at all how I imagined it, which is fine, but it didn’t even look like Sirius went through it, and it felt off.  The arch was a lot bigger than I imagined, but I think that helped.  The ending was horrible I thought though, because there really wasn’t one.  Harry had an awful cliché of a line, and then that was it, the camera panned to a scenery shot and the screen faded to the credits.

There was a preview for a new Disney movie that looks really funny though.  A bunch of cartoon characters are cursed to NYC and they have to survive and get back before being trapped forever in Manhattan.  It looks campy, but funny, I hope I get to go see it.

Yoshi was officially announced as a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is good news for me.  I’m glad he’ll be back for sure, I can’t wait!

I haven’t read the news article yet, but I heard that Drew Carey will be taking Bob Barker’s place on The Price is Right.  It will be very strange to not have Barker there anymore, but I hope Carey does a good job, I always found in very funny, so I’ll be sure to tune in when I can.

Westinghouse announced they won a contract to build four AP1000 reactors, which is wonderful news.  I actually got into an argument the other night at the bar about the power industry.  Which was aggravating on multiple levels: mostly because the other party refused to accept the fact that nuclear power is safe and effective, and continued to try to convince me that we needed to rely solely on the green power productions.  While I think they (solar, wind and the up and coming, and very exciting, tidal and geothermal) need to be included and have their place, I don’t think we should be relying on just one type of power, and we especially can’t do it with the above mentioned forms, seeing as they are not efficient enough to fulfill our power needs.  So that was difficult, and annoying.

Then, we tried to come back to camp from the bar.  But that didn’t work: there was a fire on Dinner Bell Road, blocking our access to camp.  We ended up going back to The Pike for another round and then headed back.  No one was hurt, and the fire was contained to just one room, but there were still about eight trucks at the house, which was amazing.

We celebrated Christmas (holiday, Chriswanzaka or Chrismahanaquanzawanaka, depending on which you prefer) in July last week, which was fun.  We had pierogies, two types of wings and lasagna.  Not your normal holiday food, but good nonetheless, and a nice change.  This Tuesday is our block party, we’ll be grilling and playing bocce near the Potomac Homes, along with music, Frisbee and sack races!  Also last week was the Camp Liberty Mexico in July celebration.  I joined in (even though I was CQ) by eating a quesadilla (it was delivered after we finished our game of bocce).

We had two visitors this week, which were great to see: Denny Clemens and Jim McMichaels.  Clemens used to be the foodservice director up here and McMichaels is on the board, was very involved in EVAC and was my vigil class honoree as well as my sponsor that night.  We chatted for a while, and it was wonderful to catch up with both of them.

We also took our staff photo, which I thought was in a boring spot (the same one they use most years, the statue of the Lone Scout), but still nice.  Hopefully it turned out well, I guess I’ll find out soon enough, although I am a bit concerned about my transition lenses, although they hadn’t darkened a lot when we took it.  The photographer was actually the same guy that did the pictures at my parent’s wedding, and I used to work with him when we did the troop photos at Freedom in 2003.  He’s always a lot of fun and makes us laugh a lot, so it was enjoyable.

I think that’s it for now, catch everyone later!

First “real” blog post in a while, sorry about that.  I have a bunch of notes (and a second card filled), so another post should be following this one soon, assuming I can get some free time to write it out (and remember what all my notes meant).

I saw Transformers (which I might have mentioned here before), and it was amazing in every sense a movie could be!  The only downside was it was long enough that I was uncomfortable by the end of the movie (Uniontown movie theater seats are not comfortable).

However, on the way back, driving down 119, I did hit a possum, which was very sad.  It’s actually the first bit of roadkill that I’ve produced.  But it was either that or go careening over the hillside, so I figured it was better for everyone involved (except the possum).

Also speaking of animals, there was a hummingbird in Keystone today.  Tim caught him and we let him free, naming him Petie (in honor of the bird from freshmen year).  There was also a hummingbird in the Stockade today, I like to think it was the same one.  I went for a hike around the lake (and took a ton of pictures) and saw 2 squirrels, bringing my reservation total to 3 in all the years I’ve been here, a ton of deer and two black snakes.

I saw a bunch of leaders at the end of week four when I went to visit at Freedom’s blue card party.  I saw Vern, Karen Liebman, Mary Hines (the scouter, not the ARHD, congratulations Mary!) and Jeff Jones.  I ended up sitting in my old chair, and Jeff sat down in his, it was wonderful!

I learned how to play Texas Hold ‘em one night while I was CQ, which was very exciting, and I came in second place (we didn’t play for money, as it was a spur of the moment thing and none of us had money with us).  My last CQ is tonight, which is exciting, I’m going to do some work here in the office, organizing and such to save myself some time in the future, then I’m heading to bed after reading a bit.

A week or two ago, a bunch of us went out to the Pike and one of the local houses had fireworks!  It was a lot of fun to watch them go off as we listened to the (decent) band, Impaqt.

On a sad note, Victor’s kitten, who he named after me, died on the fourth of July.  Very sad news indeed, Victor called me from Alaska to let me know.

Oh well, that’s it for now, catch everyone later!

Below are some of my initial reactions to finishing Dealthy Hallows, read with caution and enjoy!  I will be back with regular content and updates soon (hopefully tonight), I have two lists allready filled, and I’m working on a third, so expect more blog posts soon!

I just came up from finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by the edge of Lake Courage and I wanted to get down some thoughts. The book was dark, there is no doubt about that. And I like that fact. The first death in the book came as a shock, but it served its purpose: just as Whedon had to kill Wash in “Serenity” for it to really take hold and make it more meaningful, so too did Rowling have to do what she did: and from that point I think we all knew the gloves were off and that this was it.

I’ll probably have to jump into some spoiler’s below, so read with caution after the break (click “Read More…” to continue the article).

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Following are some observations and predictions about the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Chances are, all of my predictions will be wrong, but I figured, what they hey, I might as well post some thoughts on the subjects, throwing my hat into the ring if you will. There are spoilers of the first six books (mostly Half Blood Prince) so read with caution if you are waiting to read them or for the movies. More after the break (click "Read More…" to continue reading). (more…)

Let’s see, all kinds of things to talk about, a few fun stories and some updates.

I ended up sitting outside with some friends one night last week, talking late into the evening, and we had dried hibiscus flowers.  It was a very odd texture, they were a bit chewy and stringy, and I thought they looked like small crowns, or maybe flames from a fire.  Not something I would eat again, but I’m glad I tried them.

We had the A/C on the other day, and it was freezing!  Granted, it was freakishly hot and humid outside, but I ended up having to turn it down, and then eventually off.  I did however get a package, which is the first one of the summer that I’ve gotten.  Since I’m the one who sorts all the mail, it’s always kind of depressing seeing all the packages coming in for other people (and massive amounts of things to sell), but it comes with the territory I suppose.  Anyway, one of my old camp directors used to always get me little dollar store toys to keep me entertained in the office, and he packed up a huge box and sent it to me.  It was filled with silly putty, a Frisbee, foam disk guns, silly string and a ton more, it was very exciting.  Sadly, I’ve been too busy to open them up and play with them, but I’m hoping that soon I’ll be able to.

Also last week, we were able to figure out how to get a conference call between three or more people going.  Granted, we were testing it on the three phones in the main office, but it was still cool nonetheless to get it working.  Now I’m kind of hoping we need to use it in the future!

A few random news stories: Trampoline boots are a reality, GearLive had an article about these large boots with “personal trampolines” attached to them, allowing the user to bounce anywhere.  Sounds cool, but also dangerous!

Sony announced a $100 price drop in the PS3 and Microsoft announced a new 80 gig and a Halo-themed Xbox 360, all to very little excitement and fanfare.  E3 was very toned down and spaced out this year, but sounded like fun nonetheless, Nintendo announced its Wii Balance Board and Zapper.  I’m still waiting for Wii Music and the diving game, and of course, the release of Smash Bros. Brawl, announced for sometime in early December (I forget the exact date at the moment).

Speaking of Nintendo, they have a cool new service available at the Seattle Mariners stadium (the team is apparently owned by Nintendo): if you have your DS and pay a fee, you have access to their fan network, showing you replays only shown on TV, statistics, trivia games and allowing you to order food and drinks from your seat and have it delivered.  I don’t really enjoy baseball that much, but I know a few people who do and I know they would love this (mostly for the replays and the quick access to statistics), hopefully it is something that could be expanded to other stadiums and sports.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that Ragnarok was coming to the DS as an MMORPG, well apparently, new details have surfaced, and that isn’t really the case.  It will be a single person game with some online features.  Oh well, not that I was interested, it just got my attention because a friend used to play the game on the PC.

The new seven wonders of the world were announced (on 7/7/07), and sadly, Neuschwanstein (probably spelled that wrong…) Castle was not one of them.  It was my favorite and I was sad to see that it didn’t win, but I understand.  If I remember correctly the pyramids were the only repeat from the seven wonders of the ancient world, and nothing from the U.S. made it, which is fine by me, but I guess some people were very upset over this fact.

The pope is making headlines again, he re-released a document which he wrote in 2000, although I’m not really sure why it was released again, possibly to add more validity to it with the title of pope attached, or maybe just as a reiteration.  But either way, it comes across as extremely offensive to the rest of Christianity.  The document basically stresses Rahner’s “Anonymous Christian” theme, but as “Anonymous Catholics.”  What also baffles my mind is how someone can bluntly say that a specific denomination (or all but a few in this case) does not offer a “salvivic path,” but gets people close enough to Catholicism to provide that salvation, but still encourage open dialogue.  Seems a bit two faced to me, and downright offensive when you read the text, but I know that it can be read in other ways, so I try to stay open to those interpretations (of the interpretation of the council).

This goes back to camp a bit, but it is so strange sometimes to take a step back and realize how dependant we all are on the Internet and e-mail.  I get so many questions about cell phone coverage, access to e-mail and wireless internet, that sometimes I think we should just open up a computer lab.  And it’s kind of sad to realize that so many people can’t even spend a week with their son without feeling like they are getting hopelessly behind at work or missing something important in their e-mail.

Well, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out very soon, and I’m planning on putting up a special post with some of the theories and some of my predictions.  I don’t really expect any of them to be correct, but I’d like to at least discuss it a bit.  Ok, I think that’s it for now.  I’m planning on hiking the Courage Trail this weekend and taking some pictures so I’ll have a bunch to put up when I get home from the summer, so look for that as well!  Have a great one!

Hi again everybody, back again.  A couple news items, a few observations, some fun things from camp; usual stuff.

It was reported that a falcon from the Cleveland area attacked the falcon nest on the Cathedral of Learning.  The falcon from Pittsburgh ended up killing the one from Cleveland, which was poetic in a mother-nature/NFL sort of way.

I also read that the Palace Inn is planning renovations, and is applying for a resort slots license.  I can only imagine what it will be like if that is approved, but it would be good for the area, just crazy in its implications.

I also read that Ragnarok will be coming to the Nintendo DS.  A friend played it before, which is why it caught my attention, although it’s interesting that a MMORPG is coming to a handheld gaming system, so we’ll have to see how that works out.

I may be going geocaching this weekend with a friend, as well as wandering around the flea market on route 40.  We’ll see how things go, I’m excited to go caching, as well as to the flea market, although there is also a Central Staff day at the Waterfront, which I’d like to go for dinner.  And I’ve also been invited to a friend’s place for the weekend, so I really don’t know what is going on, I think I’ll be playing it by ear.  The original point of this paragraph though was that I found out my boss and his wife also like to geocache, although they have the same feelings about it, “I love it, but don’t get to do it enough.”

During opening staff week and week 1, there was a lot of inclement weather that was hitting Pittsburgh, so a lot of friends and family would call to warn me.  After visiting his units this week, Irv did the same as he was driving back to Pittsburgh, which was very nice, and for once, the weather actually came our way (when people called before, it would always end up missing us).

The furries are back in town again with their annual convention.  I never realized just how big of an event it is, it brings over two million dollars to the local economy, which is great, if not a bit awkward.

We had some locally-grown corn the other day at one of the meals and I got three of the wooden crates in my room now.  I really like how they look, although they are a bit flimsy, and they hold some of the random items that were just cluttering up the place.

Currently I’m listening to the soundtrack to the Buffy musical, which I haven’t listened to (aside from a few tracts) in a while, and it’s nice to hear it again.  It (to many) surprisingly has a very wide range of musical genres, as well as some great singing and instrumentation.

I’ve also had a very successful couple of days reading.  I finished up “How to Survive a Horror Movie,” which coupled with being at a camp and having the power go out, was a bit interesting and creepy.  I also finished “The Headmaster Ritual,” which was excellent.  I’ll have lots of book reviews to add when I get back home, I promise.  I’m still reading “The Silmarillion” as well as “Infinite Jest,” and I hope to start either “Bloodlines” or “Battle Royale” soon.  But of course, I’ll probably put those one hold when “Deathly Hallows” comes out, so we’ll see how things are going then.

All right, off I go for now, catch everyone later!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. I ended up going out to Nemacolin’s fireworks show, which was pretty good. It was a bit short, but fun nonetheless. We were up on top of a hill, the wind was blowing and there were lots of people. I also got to see the Nemacolin Castle for the first time from a fairly short distance. It is beautiful and gigantic, I want to go back and take pictures of the property sometime, but I don’t think they would be happy if I did that.

A fun new product coming out on the market is the ability to add falvored water to a faucet or pitcher. I believe Brita is doing it, and it should hit retail pretty soon. Pretty cool, although I like the idea, I tend to want a variety of flavors, not just one at a time, but it seems really cool nonetheless.

Apparantly Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix opened early in Pittsburgh for a special sneak peek, which was available via myspace. Pretty cool, I’ll watch it when I’m home next at the end of the month.

Speaking of myspace, there is a band, “The Karl Hendricks Rock Band” which was recently featured in the Post Gazette. One of the band members was wearing a Heritage Iron Man shirt, and I was trying to get in touch with him. It took a lot of tracking down, but I found them on myspace, and finally made contact (thankfully, I had a myspace profile from a while ago, I still have yet to really do anything with it, I’d rather just stick to facebook). It turns out he got the shirt at a thrift store, and had no idea what Heritage was. He was interested though and was very pleasant, which was nice.

Although I did get a small reprise on Tuesday: the power went out on the whole mountain. Our phones worked for a while, but soon enough their battery backup went down and I could do just about nothing. So I sorted the mail, pulled some things out, cleaned a bit and then just relaxed on the porch until we had power again.

In other gadget news, a company in China is releasing a device that detects seismic activity and alerts those around it. You only get about 30 seconds warning, but it’s still better than nothing. We have what we call the ThunderChicken (it’s really called a ThunderBolt, but it squawks) which alerts us to nearby storms, so it’s kind of like that, and could be very useful in places like California.

When I was home last weekend, I saw a great sign at the Taco Bell in on 22: “Best Chicken in Miracle Mile.” The Chick-Fil-A is set to open right next to it, and I think Taco Bell is feeling the pressure.

I also got to try out Big Brain Academy at E.B. Games, which was really fun and a bit addicting. My brain got a C++ rating (I kid you not, although I don’t know the language), but to be fair, a couple walked right in front of me while I was playing, blocking my wiimote from interacting and it wasn’t very good at giving instructions, I’m sure if I went through again I could do better.

I also headed over to Ken’s (from Liberty, not the Ranger) house the other night, which was a nice time. He needed to pick up some stuff and wanted some company. The ride was a lot of fun, Emmeline went as well and we just went there and back, but it was nice to be off property for a bit.

I think that’s it for now (I have one other note written down, but for the life of me, I can’t remember what it means, so it will have to wait for now), I have a second list all filled up in the office, so hopefully there will be another entry soon! Have a great one!

A quick post to wish everyone a happy Independence Day!  I have a list of things to write about (and a started second list), but it’s at my house, so it will have to wait for a bit (hopefully tomorrow though).

I’ve been trying to have a quiet night reading and turning in early for about a week, but with no luck, but maybe tonight it will happen.  But then again, I want to see the fireworks at Nemacolin tonight, so I’m not sure what to do.

Oh well, I’ll keep you posted.  Catch everyone later, have a great one!