Quick update for everyone below. I’ll have a recap of SVC Homecoming shortly, so look for that as well as the pictures from the day.

Coca-Cola announced that it has come up with a bottle that keeps the drink inside it cool, even after it has been opened and is sitting out, negating the need to add ice. Rumor has it though that they need to be stored at a special temperature so new vending machines would have to be produced. It sounds interesting, and I’d like to try it out, we’ll see what happens.

Filed under the inane, but still so dorky you want to laugh: black bar sunglasses. For the celebrity in all of us, or the part that wishes we were a celebrity, now we don’t have to fear having our picture being taken. With these "stylish" shades, we already have black bars over our eyes, giving us the gift of anonymity. Wonderful.

I downloaded a song from the iTunes store for the first time! I had a gift card for a free song, so I selected "Before it’s Too Late" by the Goo Goo Dolls, from the Transformers soundtrack. I’ll post the video below.

I think that’s it for now, but a huge Happy Birthday to one of my readers today, you know who you are!

Update for everyone, I hope you enjoy:

As I was going through Regent Square the other day, I spotted a car with the license plate "Voldemort."  Of course, it was abbreviated so it would fit so it was more like "Voldmrt," but still cool nonetheless.  I may have seen it in Regent Square before, but I wanted to make mention of it.

Speaking of Harry Potter, an awful, despicable blog that I sometimes read (just to get my daily dose of stupid), posted a list of spoilers over the summer for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Now, the sad part was, he posted them after the entire book was already scanned and available online, so the fact that about 75% of his "spoilers" were wrong was just lazy.  Also, you have to understand, he didn’t post spoilers to infuriate readers or get attention, he wanted to spoil the book so as to make people understand how evil and satanic the Harry Potter books are, thereby brining them into his crazy world.  Needless to say, it didn’t work, it was just pitiful, but my favorite (the one I laughed the most at) was repeated twice: Granger kills Hermionie.  Hermionie’s last name is Granger, they are the same character…oh sigh.

And for those of you who haven’t read the book yet, I can safely say she doesn’t kill herself…or maybe she does….or does she?…maybe she doesn’t?…maybe she does!  You’ll have to read to find out!

The CW (I believe) has a new show coming out about a vampire, a good one, living in L.A.  The great thing is that the promo for it, talks about how only L.A. could be the city that holds a good vampire.  I don’t know if that was done intentionally, because L.A. is where the show "Angel" was set.  Now granted, we first saw Angel for three seasons in Sunnydale, but that’s beside the point.

The other night I had trouble falling asleep, so I turned on a rerun of the presidential debates that was MSNBC.  It worked…because it’s the same things every time and with every question.  I did learn a few things, but overall, found it to be drivel.  It’s so much faster to get the information elsewhere where people are actually confined to their limits: A writer has a certain number of words, instead of the politicians going way over the 30 second response time.  If I was directing/producing one of the debates, there would be a giant red counter, like a basketball shot clock, and once it reached zero, the microphone would be turned off and the next question would be asked.

I think that’s it for now, I’ll leave you with the video to Matchbox 20’s new song "How far we’ve come."  Their new CD comes out Tuesday and I’m very excited, so make sure to check it out.  There are new photo galleries and new book reviews posted to my site, so check them out if you are so inclined!  Have a great one!

I just read the story in Newsweek, and as it turns out voting ends tonight at midnight (EST):

Today’s title comes from Samantha Bee of the Daily Show when she was doing her special Back to School Edition of "This Week in God."

I’ve had a list here of things to write about for a while, I just haven’t gotten around to it, so this may be a longer post than normal, but I hope you enjoy:

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, the original prop of Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber (presumably his first) will go to the International Space Station for a week in October.  There was a ceremony when it was transfered from L.A. to Houston with Chewbacca,  Bobba Fett and a couple stormtroopers on the tarmac.

This month’s roundtable was amazingly hot.  For a while we’ve been hounding our professionals to find our coffee pots so we can have coffee and tea for the leaders.  And we got them (I think they’re new ones though, they’re not the urns we used to have, but restaurant machines with two peculators and two warmers), and of course, the night we met was unseasonably hot, and combined with the coffee machines, turned the hallway into a sauna.  I spent most of the meeting outside where it was cooler (and talking with various people, including Dr. Davis!).

Last week I headed out to Buffs to meet Tom and Evan, but beforehand I got a call from Matt.  He was there, and needed my help with a trivia question about Buffy.  I was happy to provide the answer: The Bronze (what was the name of the club the Scooby Gang frequented?).  Sadly, by the time we got there, Matt was gone, but we still had a good time.  I also went out to Buffs this week with Evan, another good time, although a fight was close to breaking out at the table behind us, but a police officer quieted them all down.

A few weeks back I saw the movie "War."  It wasn’t bad, a good mindless action movie I thought.  One where you could put it on, and work on something or leave the room, and you’ll still know what’s going on when you get back.  The acting was pretty bad, by everyone, but still a good time.  I met Sarav at the theater, and met one of his co-workers, Eric.  We had a good time (and I had sour patch kids), so all in all, an enjoyable evening.

I lost my copy of "Mad Season" by Matchbox 20.  It’s a great CD, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out where I put my copy…

The VFW sent me return address labels.  Which was nice, although two things bothered me.  First, the ink tends to smear, but again, they were free so I can’t complain too much.  Two: Were they really free?  They asked me for money.  And while I feel like I should give them some money, I didn’t ask for return address labels, they just sent them to me, so I won’t.  I was impressed though that the sicker sheets had information about the VFW on the back and information about when and how to display a flag.  I thought that was good information to be passing out, even if it was with a huge helping of guilt.

A friend of mine that I worked with over the summer had a really awesome handle/top on his Nalgene, and I found a place that sells them, so I’m thinking of picking one up one of these days.

A cool new site I found is wowio.com.  You can download three free e-books a day, and a lot of them are just PDFs of physical books.  I’ve downloaded a bunch so far, and some are hit or miss, but others are actually books I’ve seen at places like Barnes and Noble and even the Scout shop.  They also have study guides and graphic novels, so it’s worth a look if you’re interested.

For my picnic the other day (which was great by the way, thanks to everyone for coming, we’ll do it again next year), I picked up a boccie set from Sears.  While there, I saw that they have a men’s clothing brand by the name of Structure.  The store/brand Structure was absorbed into Express and is now Express for Men, I thought they would have retained that copyright, but I guess not.

Another fun fact about the OA song: it’s also the alma mater of Transylvania University (located in Kentucky), which is also the Russian National anthem from before the Bolshevik revolution.

And of course, now that they have died down, I have to add that the Greece forest fires were just ripe for puns (and I did make a few while they were going on).

I picked up some sushi the other day because I wanted some but didn’t have the time to cook any, and I had a piece of Eel for the first time.  It tasted fine, but had a weird texture: it was a little stringy and tough.  But I did like it, but I’m more prone to order salmon or tuna.

In some sad news, fantasy writer Robert Jordan died a few days ago after a long battle with Amyloidosis.  It is very strange, considering how positive he always was and how sudden it seemed to happen (a week or two before he posted to his blog about how well he felt).  Nothing has been set in stone, but he left his wife (who is his editor) a partial manuscript and tons of notes and audio dictations to finish the last book in The Wheel of Time, "A Memory of Light."  It’s sad that he didn’t get to finish it, the other five books he had planned for the series (two more prequels and three outriggers) or his other fantasy series "Infinity of Heaven."

I was first introduced to The Wheel of Time by a good friend working at summer camp, and sadly, I have no way of getting in touch with him, to talk about this, the series, and the fact that I’m reading it.  I tried to read "The Eye of the World" three times before getting through it on my fourth time, sadly, other reading obligations (read: school books) got in the way and I couldn’t stay with it.  But when I had the chance, I read it, and I just finished book five over the summer.  It’s amazing too to find out the number of people who read the series (mostly at camp too no less), and the great conversations we’ll have about the series.

I think that’s it for now (as if this wasn’t long enough), hope you enjoyed.  Look for another update soon, and check out the new photo galleries and new book reviews in their appropriate sections!  Have a great one!
 

Quick recap of this last weekend.  I was at Heritage for Fall Ceremonial.  I left home and got there and saw a few friends and caught up, then headed to put my stuff in my tent.  I had my dinner, and then decided to take a few pictures I didn’t get a chance to over the summer (I’ll have that gallery up soon).  On my way down to Pathfinder, I saw Father Mark Gruber (FMG), which was awesome.  We chatted for a bit, and then he went to do retreat-type things and I headed to take some pictures.

Afterwards I went to my tent to read for a while, then met up with Nick at the Infirmary and we watched Full Metal Jacket before heading over to crackerbarrel.

As it turned out, Tecumsa had the largest group at the weekend, which is amazing, and we had a good time, both youth and adults.  Friday night was a whole selection of pizza and cobblers, which was amazing.  Afterwards, I read for a bit and then turned in.  It wasn’t really cold, and sadly (for the Ordeal candidates) it rained most of the night, at times pouring down pretty hard.  Although, good for me, the rain helped me to sleep.

Saturday was a typical work day, I started off cleaning the Pontoon boat (quickly becoming my permanent job, Ranger Jim made sure of that, which I don’t really mind, I’m pretty good at it) and then I ended up running errands for Dave Koltash and Trae Walsh.  I went into Keystone to get some papers for Dave and then picked up lunches and cups for Trae and his crew.

After that I headed to C.O.P.E. and helped to shingle their supply shed.  We all entered the course without asking permission, because it’s the off season, but I still thought about that fact – and then Emmeline called me today – I mentioned that fact, and we had a good laugh about it.

After the work was done I finally stopped to have lunch, and by that point we were all calling it a day, so I headed back, got a much needed (and very warm) shower and took a short nap.  I tend not to go to the ceremonies unless I know someone being inducted, or if the ceremonies team asks me to critique.  This time, they didn’t, so I took advantage and took a nap.

Dinner was nice, although late (not that I was surprised, they only slated half an hour for an Ordeal ceremony with 50 candidates and no time for transportation), and we had pumpkin pie for dessert!

I headed back to the Infirmary to hang out with Nick and we watched Team America: World Police.  And then headed back to the Dining Hall for some fellowship time and the second crackerbarrel.  Afterwards I went back to my tent for a very cold night, after which I woke up to see the Indy parade field covered in frost.

Sunday was a quick breakfast, nothing special, although I did have a really good muffin.  I helped to clean up the campsite (Revere, one of the few which I know where it is located, although I’m getting better), moving metals and mats.  I was also working to close tent flaps so the canvas could try properly, but some random leader was going around and putting them up, and rather than go nine rounds with him, I decided to wait until later.

I was invited to go to Mass with the retreat group (Catholic Home Schools) so I headed down to Pathfinder and sat with Betsy, and saw a bunch of people I met last year (they remembered me too, it was nice!).  I saw Father Fred, who gave the homily, the highlight being as he started: "Oh wait, I left my homily over there!"  The mass was performed by Father Boniface, who I got to see briefly beforehand, and I’m pretty sure I saw Ryan Maher as well, although I don’t think he remembered me (granted, the only time he met me was at a retreat team meeting and I don’t think he was incredibly thrilled that a non-Catholic was on the team).  Afterwards I helped them with their group picture, juggling cameras in my hands and around my neck.

I then headed back to my (now-empty) tent, changed and headed down the mountain.  I stopped to get some wine at the Wine Cellar and pulled over while going down the Summit to nab a geocache that I’ve wanted to get for a while now.  The cache is where an old restaurant used to be, an the spring is still there, so I filled up my Nalgene.  I also picked up the coolest piece of swag ever – an Aflac duck!  When you squeeze it, it shouts "Aflac!"

I was meeting a friend from camp (from the summer, not Ceremonial) at Red Robin, but she was running late from coming back from State College, so I wandered around Westmoreland Mall and Barnes and Noble for a bit, which was enjoyable.  Lunch was wonderful (and very fast, I was very impressed) and her boyfriend (who I also worked with) met up with us, which was nice.  We all had a good time, and she even delivered a gift from Lindsay (who is back in State College): a jumbo paper clip!

And to top it all off, the Steelers won (and the Bearcats lost 66-7, bringing their record to 0-3), a great weekend.  Regular update coming soon, with a great link to a screensaver I’ve been looking for for a while.  And don’t forget, my picnic is this Saturday, let me know if you need details, we’ll be grilling as we send off summer!

Ok, as promised, a recap of the first ever SVC football game in over 40 years: we lost.

And now the details:

I picked up Cat and headed down the wonderful Route 22 and then picked up 981. 981 is not at all what I remember. Maybe I’m really thinking 982 in my head, but the road I drove was not at all what I remember driving to pick up Lindsay and Brad when they got in their car accident.

So we got there and drove around awhile looking for Pat. We ended up in a slashed soy-field near Benny, where the Steelers parked this summer. All the tailgaters got there early, so we made a big arc around the perimeter of the lot. Then security came and started parking people in rows. We were actually on the corner of the arc, which was awesome actually, and as it turns out, there was another Aztek next to us!

We started grilling and turned on some music and generally had a great time. We had Popsicles, but I only ended up giving out two (they were melting and we wanted to share, but ended up throwing most of them out anyway). We ended up painting our faces and then heading over to the game, me with the Basilica on my cheek.

We found spots on the hillside (anything besides the stadium is free) and put our blankets down and saw the opening festivities, including a prayer by the Archabbot. The hillside is very steep, and very rocky, so finding a comfortable spot was tough, as was making sure you didn’t roll down into the person in front of you.

The announcer was awful. I think we heard two things from him the entire first quarter. While I’ve actually picked up a lot about football, it would have been nice to learn some names or have some commentary.

The stadium itself is very nice, the students are calling it Chuck Norris Field, in lieu of Chuck Noll Field, and I can understand. Chuck Norris is amazing. At the end of each episode of Walker, it wasn’t the credits that went by, it was a list of everyone he roundhouse kicked that day.

I wandered around a bit and visited, and went over to see Carol Ann at the security booth, which was great. We had some good plays while I was over there (including the first touchdown for us) and hearing all the cheers were great (I’ll take my cowbell next time, it’s around here somewhere).

We ended up losing (to a team for the deaf and hearing-impaired) 39-13, but had a great time. Afterwards we went to Jenn’s room for Aloe and then headed to Buffs for dinner. After a really long wait for food, we headed back to campus for a free concert.

Jan let me into Aurelius to use the bathroom and afterwards I caught the end of Basement, all of Alternate Routes (which I wasn’t impressed by, sorry), and The Clarks. The Clarks had a great show, although Scott messed up a few times (and knew it when he did, hehehe), but it was great. From where I was, things weren’t too bad, but apparently near Cat a few fights broke out, which Security did nothing about. When there was unsafe crowd surfing near me, the only thing the head of Public Safety was worried about was the fact that someone was smoking. As in, he literally saw someone smoking and someone obviously not wanting to be crowd surfing and flailing about and chose to address the smoking.

Afterwards I actually headed up to Benny to return some cups to Brit (via Sean) and gave Jan a ride back to Gerry.

All in all a great day, and I can’t wait to do it again on Homecoming, although this time, I’ll be wearing a hat (sorry Cat, bring you own, hehehe!)

Check out the football pictures and the concert pictures!
 

Quick update for everyone, and then two recap posts coming (SVC football and the Heritage Fishing Derby). And of course, happy Free Hug Day! I didn’t have time to make a shirt or sign or anything, but celebrate nonetheless!

Top Men over at wohba, posted a really cool video about smart image resizing. Worth a watch, hopefully it becomes more common and integrated into applications for future use.

In the spirit of all things USB, a USB mini-greenhouse is on its way, allowing cubicle dwellers everywhere to grow their own flowers inside. It’s bigger than I first thought (when looking at a picture of it with a CD behind it), but actually pretty cool, although more often than not, there isn’t a free USB port to use…

GearLive is also reporting that a new wheelchair will soon hit the market, responding to a person’s thoughts for directions. It sounds so amazing that I remain a little skeptical about how well it will work, but even so, I’m really excited, I think it’s an amazing advance and can’t wait to see it in action.

I’ll leave everyone with Fall Out Boy’s new video for "Thnks fr th Mmrs" It reminds me a lot of their video for "This ain’t a scene it’s an arms race." I really like it (aside from the very beginning scene when they have to restart), and I love the song, so enjoy:

Catch everybody soon with new updates and recaps!

So I finally found that list of things to blog about I wrote down at camp but lost in the move home. So a few things I might have mentioned briefly before, I apologize for any repeats:

When I was working on the closing slideshow, I headed to Panera bread in Uniontown (and ended up spending nine hours there), and while I was having dinner, a group from Jumonville’s staff came in, apparently on some of their time off as well. It was strange watching another camp staff interact with each other. Also, coming from a Christian camp/retreat center, it changed the dynamic a bit, but you could still definitely see it was a summer camp staff.

We played trivial pursuit a couple times over the summer, each time playing on teams to speed things up, which, although it helped, never brought a game to under three hours. Even playing 90’s trivial pursuit (which is what we had), while fun, was still hard: but that’s one of the great things about the game, you really do learn a lot while playing. A fun pastime of mine was matching up answers on the back to the question I just read to see what would be the funniest combination. We ended up playing one night in Keystone, under the chandeliers, and on the very last question of the night, without talking amongst ourselves, the chaplain and I both came up with the same (correct) answer at the exact same time, exclaiming it out loud: enema. For the record, it was from Seinfield, and at that, a Kramer quote, but I can’t remember the exact question at the moment, just the hilarious outcome.

A company came up with an 87-piece Swiss Army Knife. I don’t have the link in front of me, but I saw it, and it was a massive piece of equipment, that would probably give you a significant limp if you put it in your pocket. I really don’t know what kind of expedition would require it, personally I’ll keep my generic multitool, that even with ten or 12 pieces, still has more than I regularly use.

A sequel of the game Cooking Mama was announced: and it comes with oven mitts! Pretty cool I thought, even though Mama is really mean if you mess up. The upcoming game Jam Sessions is coming with a small amp, another pretty cool pack-in, if you ask me (except for the fact that it significantly rose the price of the game).

One of my jobs over the summer was to keep the Keystone building clean, which I didn’t mind (except when people would clog the toilets and not tell me, that was a pain, but thankfully only happened twice). Although one incident left me puzzled: I was in the bathroom restocking it one day and I noticed that it smelled like pineapples. The next day, it smelled like ham. My conclusion: someone was eating a Hawaiian pizza in the bathroom and not sharing.

Apparantly the new 100 dollar bills will feature a moving hologram of Benjamin Franklin as an added security measure. Not that I ever will, but it would be interesting to see one of those.

Again, I don’t have the link with me (I read the story at camp), but a company is selling cheap, clear canoes. As much as I prefer aluminum canoes (to fiberglass), a clear one would be really cool, especially if you were boating in a shallow, tropical climate. Being able to watch the underwater world from the surface while gliding over top of it would be pretty sweet.

So, at the end of every year, Church of God comes into camp and overtakes it. I’m fairly certain I’ve mentioned it before, so I won’t go into too much detail, except for the one comment I have written down: the impact they have on parking. The staff takes three houses, but in those houses, they seemed like they were packed in like sardines, taking all our parking spaces on the road in front of the eight houses.

Two quick notes about football: 1.) We watched the first Steeler’s game at Kevin’s house, and the referee sounded like The Ladies Man. We were hoping for penalties just to hear him talk! Also, he got a couple numbers wrong, so we think he was really sending out his phone number for all the ladies to call him up. Also, watching it with Medic Dan was awesome, he called them all jerks when appropriate, which was quite entertaining. 2.) I’ll have a full write-up about the SVC home opener soon, until then, make sure to check out my two newest photo galleries here.

That’s it for now, I’ll have more pictures and book reviews up soon, but as always, check out the pictures from this weekend if you haven’t seen them yet. Have a great one everybody!