Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat

Is the title of Carbon Leaf's upcoming album, as they announced on their websites and in a recent news letter. Really excited for it - listening to all of their previous albums, they've been getting better and better. Judging from the title, this one's also going to be something that I'm really going to relate to. All of the songs on Indian Summer had something that I could empathize with, especially Life Less Ordinary, One Prarie Outpost and Changeless. I can't wait for the album cover and track list. Hopefully, that'll be coming soon.
In addition to their new album, they've announced that they're returning to Vermont! August 12th, with a free concert in Burlington. Absolutely cannot wait for that concert. I've missed two concerts (James Hunter and KT Tunstall) and I don't want to miss any more.

Went out with a cabin sailing today, out on the Lake. Lots of fun, we brought lunch and had a blast sailing around. Even the thunderstorms, which were forcasted for this afternoon, haven't come yet. We were hit by a hard and fast one this morning at around five, which cooled everything down nicely. If only it'd do that for the rest of the year.

Session IB

Check-In today went extremely smoothly, which surprised the hell out of me and the rest of the Village Directors. This morning was pure chaos as we made a ton of changes to our lists. I ended up moving a couple of campers between cabins, only to find that we had a conflict, then had a last minute addition, then more switches, arg, it was frustrating. At least the day went better. I've been taking a ton of pictures, although I just haven't had the time to upload them into facebook yet.
Blackwell's returned to camp, and I've finally started doing a bit of GMing for various people - something that I wanted to get around to doing four weeks ago. Blackwell's campaign has started off really well. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Lords of Abnaki

I'm exhausted.

I spent much of last week designing a weekend program based off of Dungeons and Dragons, as well as a bunch of other camp games. Lots of planning, writing, thinking and finally, implimenting on Saturday. The entire thing went on really well yesterday, and found things to fix, worked on tweaking it. Kids liked it, staff loved it, I think that we'll be doing it again. The Program Director, Brian, my boss, Jon and my Supervisor, Rhet, all thanked me for doing it and were happy that it went over well. As am I, but the entire thing left me really drained.

And I saw Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest. Really fun movie, almost as good as the first.

And, Carbon Leaf's new album is out September 12th. Yay!

Indy Day

Hope that everyone had a good 4th of July. Camp traditionally marches in the 4th of July parade in South Hero, and we did again this year. The two British guys working for us were a little worried coming into the day, but we had some fun the night before, raising the British Union flag over the camp for the morning. It got some funny reactions that morning. Our camp director, who's Australian, told us to keep it up. Another counselor was really mad. I think that it served a good purpose though, representing what the 4th really means. Americans are terrible at history, so a reminder's always good.

The parade was hot, and we had to park several miles away (counselors with no kids) and walk to the parade route. Afterwards, we went to Hochelaga, the girls camp, where we usually do some events with them, before weather got bad and we returned home. I then went on day off, where I was able to sleep in this morning.

Got most of LOST season 2 on my computer, and have been catching up. Great show. Can't wait to finish it up.

New Session

First - Happy Birthday to Dad, who's Birthday was yesterday. Not sure when I'll be home to say that in person.

New session arrived yesterday. This coming session is a two week one, instead of a one week, and as a result, we get to do a lot more with the campers, weekend programs, more evening programs and more interactions with other camps. Plus, we get a lot more returning campers, so I've been seeing a lot of kids who've been around in my village or cabins before. Makes me feel old when a camper who was first in my cabin said that he's been here for four years.

Should be an interesting session - kids seem really excited to be here.

End of Session

The 1st session is now over - Went by quickly, and I think that we did a good job. Unfortunently, it's only going to get harder, and we just lost another staff member, who had to leave early. Hopefully, we'll get that sorted out...

Now, for day off.

Superman and Headaches

I drove out to see Superman Returns last night on my night off - Fantastic movie, really well done and a great comic book movie. The opening credits were fantastic - lots of space and planet shots with the main theme, and while watching it, I realized exactly what people were thinking back in 1977 when Star Wars was released for the first time: Wow. Absolutely fantastic. It wasn't a great movie by any means, but it was extremely well done and very fun to watch, so it's coming highly recommended from me. Bryan Singer did a wonderful job with this one, and I think that he's even refined his style a bit, which is good to see. I hadn't seen anything else from Superman, none of the other movies, so I felt like I was missing something at times, but that just means that I'll be going out to find Superman 1 and 2 (I've been told to avoid the 3rd and 4th ones.)
I was waiting to see Hugh Laurie make a cameo towards the end, which would have been hilarious (Singer is the producer and a director for the show House, MD.) Kevin Spacy was great as Lex Luthor, Brandon Roth was really good as Superman/Clark Kent, etc. The film looked good. It drags a little at some points, and seems to be a little too long, but it's definently fun to watch.

It's been paticularly stressful today. I got out of bed slightly late, because my cabin's power died again sometime last night, and when I did get out to flagpole, I found from the director and assistant director that one of my counselors was to be fired today. So I'm down a counselor. Not really torn up over it though, for other reasons.

However, I finally got my medical papers in, my credit card payment and rent, and finally fixed my boots in time for Risk tonight. Yay. Now, to get going on some more paperwork and other random camp things.

Spiderman 3 Teaser

The teaser for Spiderman 3, the last of the trilogy. I just took a quick peak on YouTube, (because this computer doesn't have an updated Quicktime - the trailer's on www.apple.com/trailers).

I have two words:

Holy frack. Black Spiderman / Venom, facing off with Spiderman, Sand Man and ohmygod this movie is going to completely rock. 2007 Can't come fast enough.

And, Superman Returns is out today. Can't wait to see that. Hopefully, I can find tickets.

Rainy Day People

It was nice and sunny on Sunday during checkin. What happened? It rained most of the day yesterday and much of the day today, although we've had some nice breaks within the hour. The kids this session are awesome - we've got a great group of campers and staff this session, and it's starting to really kick in.

This session really feels different than other sessions that we've had in the past - this entire year, really. I feel more on top of things and in general, more comfortable with my job. Hopefully I'll be able to really keep on top of things better and better. And, hopefully we'll get a good break in the weather so that we can all dry out. My shoes are soaked.

And Superman Returns comes out tomorrow. w00t!

Moment of Truth

Campers arrive today in camp. My village is getting 24 new kids, with four cabins and eight counselors. Most of my counselors are new, and two of them have arrived within the past day. Now's the time that we'll be seeing whether our new training program worked or not. In any case, it's the first week of camp, and everyone is excited that it's finally begun.

It's also my birthday. Seven years ago today was my first day on camp as a CIT. It feels really good to be here.

Funeral

I just got back from Grandpa Raymond's funeral. There were quite a few people there, and his service to camp was mentioned several times, which was nice. CJ, who was my CIT director and one of the best men to work at camp in my experience, spoke (he was a relative of him). It was paticularly hard to see him break down while talking.
There were some other staff there from camp, as well as Dan and Nate Raymond, his grandchildren, who also worked at Abanki. Dan and I were fairly good friends while he worked here, and it was good to see him, abit briefly. He's in the Army, and must have gotten an emergency leave to come. Hopefully they'll all stop by and visit. I miss them.

My job at camp, since Sara asked, is thus: I'm a village director- I'm in charge of one of the four villages at camp, primarily with the staff, but also with the campers. It's a different job than being a counselor, but just as interesting.

Sigh.

Admin Staff Training

Admin Staff training is now almost over - today, we'll be getting the regular staff in for the coming week, were we'll be training them better to work with kids. In the past, Staff training has typically been made up of various work projects - this year, we've got a lot of more classroom stuff. More on how the kids work, how to work with them, and things of that nature, which I think will be extremely helpful.

We're also starting the week off with a funeral - Wily 'Grandpa' Raymond, who was a huge influence to camp and a wonderful figure for us here, died earlier in the week after a long battle with cancer. It's a shame, he was a good person. I took my night off to drive home to get some better clothing for the funeral.

Already some of the staff have arrived. We've got two guys from the UK, who are awesome, really like those guys. My friend Sam has arrived, as well as a couple scattered others. We've already divided them into cabins, where we'll be getting them ready for the coming week and the villages that they'll be assigned to.

The summer's poised to start. Now, as soon as I get some batteries for my camera, I'll start taking photographs.

Camp!

I'm at Camp now, and will be for the next nine weeks. When I got here, it felt like I'd never left - despite the nine or so inches of rain that we've gotten in the past week. The rest of the Administrative staff are here, and it's like coming home.
This summer should be outstanding. Can't wait for the rest of it to come. And for the rain to go away.

Winner!

I can't believe it - I won a contest. And to boot, the prize was a $300 backpack from Climb High. The other day, 104.7 The Point, the radio station that I listen to, was doing some promotional thing over at Climb High, which just reopened. So I stopped by before work, looked around, entered their raffle. Two days later, I got a message on my cell phone, and I was told that I won something. So, I stopped by this morning and low and behold, it was a backpack, a nice one. Hadn't heard of the brand before now, but looking it up online, it's supposed to be good. It's bigger than my regular one, but looks to be great for hiking. Can't wait to really use it.

After this fun news, I went and finished moving into my apartment in Northfield. Almost completely moved in. Should be by the end of the week.

Oh, and I got my license plates for my car.

Greenery

Today felt like the first day of summer. After the past couple weeks of constant rain and cloudy days, it was a huge relief. I didn't work today, which gave me a bit of rest, which was nice. I caught up on some reading and did a bit more packing for my move into my apartment, which is still being cleaned.
I did a bit of driving between my house, the apartment and my car dealership, and noticed one thing that I really missed while in London - the trees. It was winter in London, no leaves anywhere anyway, but the only trees there were in the parks and along various streets. I live in the middle of a forest. Makes me pine even more for camp (no pun intended). I spend too much time inside - either guarding at the pool or just being inside the house reading or watching something on my computer or television. I need to get out and do some hiking.
I'm making the final move into my apartment tomorrow. Tonight, I'll be finishing up boxing up the books and other things that I won't be bringing with me, and when I get back from work, my bookshelves, desk, bed, couch, table and chairs will all be moved. It'll be weird finally living on my own, but I'm excited for it. My apartment is nice - save for the fact that the previous roommates left the place absolutely trashed - carpets need to be replaced, dishes were still in the sink, and who knows what else. Not really livable yet, but hopefully within the week.
Picked up the latest Star Wars book, Legacy of the Force: Betrayal, the first in a nine book series. Finally, Random House has gotten a larger series format done right: 9 books, three authors, all rotating. Aaron Allston's penned this one, and thus far, it's good, I'm really enjoying it, although I haven't had much time to read it. Karen Traviss and Troy Denning are doing the other six books. For the past couple weeks, I've been feeling that I need to re-read all the old Bantam Star Wars books. The ones that I really enjoy reading, that I started with in the first place, before the New Jedi Order came out and soured (in part) my feelings on the Literature side of Star Wars. Along with that, I've also been meaning to re-read Archer Mayor's books, the classic Joe Gunther novels, which much better than his more recent releases. I look forwards to all of his books, but Tucker Peak was really the last one that really fell with his older ones.
Now back to lifting heavy boxes.

Veronica Mars : Season 1

I just finished the first series of Veronica Mars, which I picked up because of several positive reviews from friends and a number of really positive internet reviews. I did a bit of research with it, looked up the soundtrack (http://veronicamusic.blogspot.com) was an enormous resource with the music of the show (which is outstanding set of music) and several transcripts of episodes. I wasn't 100% sold, but I knew that it would be enjoyable.

I was completely right - Veronica Mars is one of the best shows that I've seen on television to date. For me, it's right up there with Firefly, Battlestar, LOST and Prison Break, although at the moment, better than the last two, at least for now.

Several things really stood out from the pilot episode, and hooked me from the start. The writing, the plots, the cast, the camera work and overall feel to the show. Everything just seemed to click for me.

I've always liked mysteries, they were some of the first things that I read as a kid, and the interest has continued. The show is about mystery. The main story is centered around the title character, Veronica Mars. A year before the show starts, her best friend, Lilly, was murdered. Her father was the town sheriff and accused her father of killing her - something he was kicked out of office for. As a result, Veronica is shunned by her previous friends and comes to at a party with the impression that she might have been raped. Over the course of the season, she works with her father and various friends and classmates as new mysteries and problems as they arrive.

One of the big comparisons made with the show is that it's similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even more so, Joss Whedon, who created Buffy, has deemed the show the best show ever created and even guest starred in a season 2 episode.

There are quite a few parallels. Youngish, blond heroine, shunned by her classmates, works to solve some major problem, with a couple friends here and there. Minus the magic, mysticism and vampires, and we have the framework of the show.

However, there's more to it than a Buffy clone. The stories are much more structured - overall, there's the main story with Lilly's Death, and everything assosiated with that, and generally another couple mysteries that she works on as well.

In addition to stories, there's also a much higher attention to film work and camea movements. Flashbacks are indespersed throughout the stories everywhere, and they're usually accompanied by different shadings, as well as some extremely innovative slow motions, circling camera shots and angles. In addition, there's a huge noir influence to the stories and filmwork, which really helps with the mystery aspect to it.

The show also really benefits from it's fantastic cast. Most of all from Kristen Bell, as Veronica, who really carries the show. She's very cute, smart, sarcastic and funny. She's joined by Wallace, (Percy Daggs III) who's her best friend and helps her father, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni). Duncan Kane (Teddy Dunn), Lilly's brother, is Veronica's ex, best friend of Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), the smartass son of an actor. Weevil, the last of the title characters, is the leader of a motorcycle gang who's constantly in and out of trouble. The acting on the part of these guys is fantastic.

Bring all of these elements together and we have a great show, one that's lasted two seasons thus far, despite fairly low ratings, and has been upped for season 3, which will air this fall on the new channel, CW.

Happenings

Hopefully everyone is have a restful and productive Memorial Day. Not much has been happening around here for the last couple days.
Big thing: I have a mobile phone now. For people that I know directly, drop me an e-mail or check my facebook account for the number. I'll be handy now that I have a car, in case I have a problem with it.
Almost done with Veronica Mars, and slowly making my way through Battlestar Galactica Season 2. Outstanding, the both of them. I'll post a review of VM later on tomorrow or sometime this week, whenever I get a chance to sit down and review it.

In the Presence of Comic Geeks

I had a good day today. Awoke in a good mood, did some things at home then went to work, only to find that I wasn't on the schedule today. Went out and bought Veronica Mars, went to my friend Blackwell's house and watched part of it with him. Great show, highly recommended if you haven't seen it yet. After a couple hours of that, we went out and watched X-Men 3, with a bunch of the Abnaki group.
I liked the movie. It wasn't great on any critical level, but it was definently a fun one to watch. It has a number of serious flaws with aspects of it. The entire thing felt very rushed, and there were about two too many storylines that didn't need to compete with each other, the Dark Phoenix saga, and the Cure saga, which came mostly out of Joss Whedon's recent comic line. The Cure storyline worked very well, stuck pretty closely to Whedon's comics, some aspects of it, but the Phoenix saga really sunk, no where near the comics, which is a huge shame. What should have happened is they should have saved it for a future film, and focused on the cure. The strength of the movie was the minor characters. Kitty, Colossus, Iceman, I was very happy to see those guys in there with some fun roles. I think that my favorite X-Men character is now Kitty, especially with her role in Whedon's comics. Some scenes were absolutely fantastic. The opening danger room scene was really good, especially with the Sentinal's head, as well as most of the other action scenes, most especially the finale battle between both sides. Other things seemed very glossed over, like Mystique's exit from the mutant world, as well as some of the newer characters, mainly Angel, who played no real part in the movie from his few scenes. At least Beast had some storyline that was somewhat explained for his absence in the last couple movies. Overall, fun movie, although not as good as # 1 or # 2. This story should have had Bryan Singer at the helm, but hopefully Superman Returns will benefit from his direction.
It's fun to go to these movies with comic geeks. I've never really been sure if I'd truely qualify as one, but I'm getting there, as my collection slowly grows each month. My friends are huge fans of the comics, and a bit more knowledgable with some of the older storylines that I'm working on learning more about. The converstation between Beep, Billy, Wells and I was fun - It's fun to debate about these things.

Okay, I'm off to bed soon. Have a good night everyone.

Geeking Out

I've spent the couple days up in Burlington to save money on gas. Many geek things have been going on. First, I saw the season finale for LOST, which was intriguing, fantastic, and still didn't answer enough questions, but still really good.
Second, I met up with my friend Blackwell, one of the members of camp's Geek Squad. He gave me the entire series of Dr. Who, the new incarnation, high quality and commercial free - AMAZING show. British humour mixed with science fiction - absolutely thrilling and original. As the good doctor says - Fantastic! I also got the entire Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica, which I'm really looking forwards to seeing.
While I was with Beep, (Blackwell's nickname), we went to Borders - ran into Sam, our other member of the Geek Squad, whom we thought wasn't in the state. While we were talking with him, Billy, another member of Camp came in, and we wandered around. We ended up running into three more members of Camp - a regular reunion on Church Street. Fun times.
Lastly, I found that I'll probably be able to attend Celebration 4, next year, because they bumped the date back to late May. Previously, I'd thought that it'd be right before or during exams of my senior year, something that I couldn't miss. wOOt!

New Car!

I just bought a car. It's a 1998 Chevy Prizm, essentially the same thing as a Toyota Carollia. I've driven a Toyota for years now, and loved it. This car's got the bare minimum of things. It's got a radio, no tape deck or CD player, manuel everything except the transmission, but it gets very good mileage with gas, so that was a huge plus. Just need to look up insurance and things like that.
Very excited about this. I'll take a picture or two when I find batteries for my camera.