Holdover from Camp

Things are going well. There hasn't been much to write about. Life's going on fairly normally. Dumping money on groceries, starting to get into a routine of classes and work.

The best thing thus far is the Tactics Club. In years past, we've never had a whole lot of luck with getting new members. This year however, before our activities fair, we had four new people. After it, and due to some posters, we have almost fifteen new people. It's amazing, because now, we can actually do things. Stuart (our VP) and I have set up a meeting plan, and several new officer posts to get people to do things, and I've already started a game with the freshmen, as well as started planning a second due to demand.

It's nice to also walk into a room, ask who's a Firefly fan and have everyone raise their hands.

Edit: 10:30 pm - The campus is locked down. Apparently, there was a threat against a student's life earlier today. While I was in a geology tutoring session, security came in and told me that I had to leave and lock up. Not sure what the full story is, but it's really weird.

In other news - Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip is worth a lot of the hype that's been thrown it's way. Good show to keep an eye on.

Love Loss Hope Repeat & New Job

Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat was released yesterday! I've since listened through it about 6 times. Man, it's such a good album. They've really been moving to a new sound since Indian Summer, and they really reached something good for this one.


The album opens with their single, Learn to Fly, about heartbreak, with a great beat and background music. From there, the album hits the the title track, the relaxed Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat, then to Under the Wire to Royal One, which has one of the cooler bass and guitar themes that I've heard from them. Girl and Her Horse picks up the pace slightly, leading to the fantastic Texas Stars, which opens wonderfully. Block of Wood is next, with more of a country/folk sound to it, which is really cool to hear. Comfort opens with a Mandolin, and comes to a solid beat and lyrics. The War Was In Colour is more of a story song, about a grandfather and a grandson, finding a box of pictures from World War II. Very moving song. Bright Lights lightens the mood with a fast beat, and the album ends with International Airport, which feels from the start like you're standing in a busy airport.

Overall, the album is amazing, fantastic and simply good work from my favorite band. I can't wait to see them when they come to a concert here on the 23rd of October.

In other news, today's my first day at my new job at Walden Books. Should be fun. I'm a little nervous because I've never worked retail before, but it's a bookshop, so I guess we'll see.

remembrance

the forgotten stay in the shadows,
while they stand in the streets,
looking up at the sky
through the clouds
and over the world

they sit in the empty seats
the morning sun glinting through
their cloudy eyes as they stare
through the scratched and marred
glass of the ride home

they will never see again

around the world they
gather, alone
silently watching with
emotionless eyes
while life passes them by

the forgotten stand and watch
while the remembered continue
unawares of the eyes that follow
hoping that one day
they will be remembered
for who and what they were.

for the victims of the

pentagon,

the world trade center and

american airlines flight 11 and 77

and united airlines flights 93 and 175,

My love for Comics

I posted up a while ago about a book that I just read called Men of Tomorrow. I've been reflecting over the past week about why I like them so much, and how I came to read them. This was in part to my having to pull them out and seperating them out to dry after leaving them under an open window during a heavy rainstorm the other day. (Very fortunently, very little water actually reached the box, but it gave me a real panic for a couple minutes.) Men of Tomorrow proved to be a very thoughtful book, charting the rises and falls of the comic industry, and in fandom in general. This summer, comics exploded at camp among the staff. I brought my box of comics up with me, so that I could keep things in order and to continue to read them during my down time. Turns out that a bunch of other people were also closet fans, and soon read pretty much everything I had. Since then, they've been in touch with me and have been buying comics like crazy since this summer.

I first got involved with comic books when I was really little. Actually, I got involved with the collectors cards for the X-Men comics, featuring a number of characters. I still have them, and I remember how crazy we all were in the third grade. I remember having a couple of the comic books, but I can't for the life of me remember where they ended up. I took a job with a Star Wars website, http://www.clonewarz.com/, and I began to review the Star Wars Republic run of comics, which featured the clone wars. I read a lot of those, but I'd always been interested, if almost completely unaware of Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Iron Man. I put off buying new issues because I was never sure of where to begin. Where do you begin with a line of comics that's been in publication since the 1960s, or in the case of Superman, the 1930s? I found that I just had to start buying, and figure out where to go from there. Since then (This was last summer) I got oriented with and started picking up the following comics: Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Ironman, Daredevil, Captain America, Astonishing X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, The Eternals, the New Avengers, B.P.R.D., Hellboy, The Escapists, Sin City and several others. It's always a pain when I miss a week or have a week when there's a number of these coming out at the same time. My collection has grown in the past year substancially. I sit down and look at the two boxes that have suddenly appeared and think about it. Why have I become such a junkie for these short books and really count down the days when the next releases hit the stores? Hell, I'm on a first name basis with some of the store employees.
Thinking about it, comics are very basic, but at the same time, incredibly complex. Books with pictures and words have been around for a long time, but it wasn't until the pulp era during the 1930s when they really exploded and began to tell fantastic stories, dipping into noir, science fiction and horror as subject matter. Comic stories are complex, with characters that will hold up, somewhat, to novel characters. Look at Peter Parker, Tony Stark or Matt Murdock. (Their alter egos are Spiderman, Iron Man and Daredevil) I think that to some extent, comic characters are a part of us that allows us to relate to their struggles, and how they solve them in a way that we wish that we could.

Comics seem to be much more mainstream these days. We've got large, big budget movies coming out every couple of months/years, and a book about comics, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, won a Pulitzer Prize for author Michael Chabon. It's a fantastic book, a bit comicish in and of itself.
But even simpler, and probably because of the extensive history behind the comic industry, there's just a feeling that you get holding a paper release, rather than the trade paperbacks that are so much more profitable nowadays. I guess it's one of those very geek things. Right up there with antique game consoles.

I'll continue to buy comics, for a long time, and for the forseeable future. It's just one of those things that I see worth in the world today that calls for me to set some money aside. I'll have the moments reading them to myself, in my own little world.

What To Watch

In recent years, I've become a big fan of a lot of the TV shows that have come out on television, mainly because of the recent rise in quality in a lot of the storytelling that's been coming through. LOST has been one of the biggest movers and shakers thus far, causing a bit of a change among a number of stations and a number of new shows coming out with a much different focus than before.

So, as a friend described, I did something incredibly geeky over the summer, and set up a table comparing the shows, times, days and what they go up against. Thus, I've come up with a list of shows that I suspect will do well, and which ones I'm recommending for the upcoming season.

Returning Shows:

Prison Break (FOX) - This was one of the best scripted and arched series that came out last year. Now, the inmates of Fox River Penitentrary are all on the run, and now that the show's in it's third episode, it looks like they're keeping up the intelligent storytelling and scripting. Can't wait to see what happens next.

House, M.D. (FOX) - Doctor House and the doctors are back, and they're picking up where they left off, after House was shot last season. This show has some of the more interesting characters in TV, although they don't have the tight storylines that Prison Break has. However, the sarcasm makes up for it nicely.

Veronica Mars (CW) - Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Now imagine it without the vampires, supernatural elements and keep the cute blond girl, who's father is a Private Investigator and the various problems that she solves over the year, and you've got Veronica Mars. It's highly and tightly scripted and has some of the best dialogue and characters to date.

LOST (ABC) - I don't think that I really need to talk too much about LOST, do I? 48 or so survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 land on an island with a mysterious creature that eats people and a couple of hatches with computers and other things like that. Oh yeah, and everyone's connected somehow. And, after last Season's cliffhanger, the next six episodes are supposed to be a sort of miniseries to clear everything up. Can't wait to see what happens next. Season 2 comes out today on DVD.

Supernatural (CW)- Last season, the two brothers lost their parents, their mother (and one of their girlfriends to a monster) and the father who vanished. They hit the road and work on taking out monster after monster. It's a little formulaic, but it's got great camera work and some very fun stories. Season 1 comes out today on DVD. Great watching for Halloween.

Battlestar Galactica (SciFi)- Coming up in October, this is the show that I'm waiting the most for. Season 2 left us with a year long jump ahead in the story that left the remains of the human race under the control of the Cylons and the Galactica and Pegasus jumping away to who knows where. The SciFi channel is leading up to the show with a small series of webisodes that'll lead people into the 3rd season, as that there's another gap in time. This season is going to be darker, deeper and better than the last two. The DVD for Season 2.5 will be released on September 19th.

And now that the shows from last year have been looked at, there's several new shows coming that also look very promising:

Heroes (NBC) - Around the globe, a number of people start finding that they have powers. A girl can heal quickly. A cop can read minds. A painter can paint the future and another man can fly. And, it's not based on a comic book, but it's rooted in the tradition. Reports are that this show's got potential and interest, although a little formulaic to start, but it's going to be launching into a full blown story arc. I'm excited for this. Also airing on the SciFi channel.

Jericho (CBS) - In a small, midwestern town called Jericho, one character comes in mysteriously. As people start asking him questions, a nuclear bomb blast is seen on the horizon and communications are cut off from the town. As the season goes on, we learn why. I'm not sure that this is going to do terribly well, but it should be interesting if it does.

Six Degrees (ABC) - The Six Degrees of Seperation states that anyone knows anyone six people down the line. One person knows another, who knows another, etc. Small world, right? This show's about six random people in New York City, who's lives are impacting each other's in some way. The really interesting part of this? J.J. Abrams has some hand in this. He also did LOST and Alias.

The Nine (ABC) - Nine people are caught in a bank robbery. As it goes bad, they're held for 52 hours. These nine people are linked together somehow, and that's all that I know. It's an interesting concept, but I can't see it lasting for very long.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC) - This one looks amusing. It's about back stage life behind a sketch comedy show, and it's been getting some of the biggest buzz than almost all of the other new shows. It's created by the guys who did The West Wing, and from the previews that I've seen online, it looks interesting.

Vanished (Fox) - Comes on just after Prison Break, so it's got some of the audience from there. The wife of a senator goes missing, and there's a wider conspiracy that will be uncovered. I haven't seen any of it yet, but it's getting decent ratings. I've heard that it's a little predictable.

Those are the ones that I suspect will do well, although there's several others, such as Shark, Justice, Kidnapped, The Unit, Smith, and maybe a couple others that might do okay during the season. It should be interesting to see where this will be taking TV and the storytelling that it tells.

Now, just to end, a couple of the shows that I'm going to be missing in the upcoming Season:

Alias (ABC) - Going from being a double agent to missing a year of her life to various other drama in the spy world, but also great action and a very tight storyline, Alias was a very fun show. The first two or three seasons were really good, especially 1 and 2. While it dragged a little 3 to 4, the show did leave on a good ending. Despite that, I do wish that it was still going. Season 5 will be released shortly.

Surface (NBC) - This was very short-lived, but it was very interesting. A new life form appeared in the oceans. Big new life forms. They trashed a nuclear submarine, one small one was raised by a small kid and the government got really paranoid. Had a lot of potential, but I guess it didn't really appeal to the audiences. Complete series was just released on DVD.

Arrested Development (Fox) - Quirky, deadpan and hysterical. This is probably the one show that I'll miss the most, especially after watching all of last season, which only lasted 13 episodes. The writing and characters were the best and funniest. If only Fox listened to the fans again. Season 3 was just released on DVD.

Theshold (CBS) - An alien spacecraft lands in the ocean and the government enacts a plan to contain the situation. Too scifi for CBS apparently, as this was killed off in just 13 or so episodes. I only caught a couple episodes of this, but it seemed interesting. Now out on DVD.

The West Wing (NBC) - I heard that this was really well done, well acted and well written, and the awards that it won certainly means that it has some of those. I personally haven't seen it, but given what some people have said about it, I might give it a short somewhere down the road.

And that's it. I doubt that I'll be able to see most of the ones that I'd like to see, but given the fact that a lot of the shows are making their way onto the internet on the show's network's official sites, I'll probably be able to get an episode in here and there.

Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book

That's the subtitle of a book that I just finished, formally titled Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones. Fantastic book. As the title suggests, it's about the birth of the comic book industry.
It starts out during the early 1900s, and the one comic that everyone knows about isn't mentioned until about a hundred pages in. This is where the real history comes in.
Men of Tomorrow isn't just about comics. It's about the social and political culture in which they formed, explaining not only the environment just prior to the first publication of Action Comics #1 in 1938. The book takes us from there on a rollercoaster ride that the two creators, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were taken on though the rest of their lives. From Superman, we find the orgins of Batman, then Captain America, followed the troubles and censorship that the comic industry faced, the ups and downs of the market, the creation of DC and later, Marvel Comics, through to the first Superman movie, the rise of geek culture through to today.
It's amazing what that first issue did, and the impact that it's had.

The book is a nice representation of a history that not many people will ever really see. Everyone knows about World War II, World War I, Watergate, Vietnam, the Waco Seige and any other number of political and military events that's shaped our culture. This is the history that I've grown to like, because when I first came to Norwich, I discovered that everyone else is obsessed with military history. Cultural history is one of those things that's really overlooked.
The story of comics is facinating, dark and full of enough squabbles and backstabbing to take on an entity of their own. The two creators of Superman, Joe and Jerry, were ruined by the lawsuits that they brought against DC to get full credit for their work as creators and the compensation that they felt that they needed. It wasn't until the 1980s, almost 50 years, when they were able to do so.
Comics faced huge hurtles from the government and internal functions over content and what should be in comics in the first place. There were times when the government put huge restrictions on the content and when civil groups encouraged stores to return comics because of their content. Then there were market fluctuations. Comics boomed in the 30s and 40s, died off a little during the 50s, came back with Marvel Comics during the 60s through to the 80s, then a bust in the 90s and are currently resurging a bit now. During this time, writers and artists are hired and rehired.
All in all, it's a wonderfully facinating narrative about American culture, and about one of the more facinating parts of the literature world.

Carbon Leaf again!

Just checked out Carbon Leaf's myspace page, which they update with their concert listings.

October 23rd, 9 pm, Higher Ground.

I'm so there.

Serenity wins a Hugo!

Serenity won the Dramatic Presentation: Long Form in the Hugo Awards, which were presented this weekend at WorldCon. Congradulations! It certainly deserved it, and it's finally gotten something that it deserves.

Argh

One would have thought that hearing the song Bad Day on the radio would be an innocent thing, I am here to assure you that it's far more malicious. Not that my day's been bad, it's just been far from good at the moment.
Last night, I had to change the oil in my car. No big deal, I know how to do it, and took about an hour to drain it, replace the filter and replace the oil. Wee, I'm done. Start the car and all the oil comes out the bottom of the engine. Turns out I didn't tighten the oil filter as much as it could have been. Went back home to sleep, woke up late, had my dad help me with the cleanup, and arrived at class late. Fortunently, the teacher was understanding when I explained why I came in ten minutes late for a fifteen minute class.
Now, I need to go to my second class, bring my car in for a checkup (not related to last night's fun) and finish cleaning all the oil off the floor. And I missed Prison Break last night.

Restless

There's a kind of a restless feeling and it pulls me from within

It sets my senses reeling and my wheels begin to spin

In the quietude of winter you can hear the wild geese cry

And I will always love that sound until the day I die

Still I get that restless feelin' when I hear a whistle blast

See an image from the past

Of an old schooner flyin' down a sky that's overcast

Dammit, I need to go travelling somewhere. A random trip out to some random location. Yeah.

The Internet is Shit

Karen Traviss posted a link to this website with an interesting view on the internet:

http://www.internetisshit.org/print.html

It's very true to life - something that I've heard a number of librarians say over and over - don't depend on the internet. Unfortunently, in this day and age, too many people depend completely. For communications, for news, and even for their weather, instead of looking out the window.

Take a read through this - it's interesting. There is some language in there though, if you haven't figured that out through the title.

Status Update

So, life's been going on decently. Apartment, check. Various problems with apartment fixed, check. Internet, check. Cable TV and TV, check. All the basic necessities of a college student fullfilled. I even caught the first episode of Prison Break Season 2.
My grandfather died on Tuesday, which was not unexpected. He's been in very tough shape for the past two or so years, due to various medical problems. I feel a bit of relief and sadness- relief that he's no longer in pain, and sad, well, for reasons I'm sure that everyone can guess. At least I got to see him and say goodbye before he went.
It's my sister's birthday yesterday. Our family went out to a nice place in Stowe. Stowe, for those of you who don't know of it, is one of the nicer places of Vermont, one that seems to have retained a nice false charm and Vermontness for all of the wealthy patrons. It's a resort town, and there's a lot of commercial property there, very expensive stuff. There's the ski area there, as well as several resorts, etc. Food was very good. I felt really out of place there. Rich resorts are not really a place that I'd like to be around. They feel very fake to me. Fits with the rest of the town...

Home

I'm at home now. My new home- Northfield. My roommate, Kyle, moved in the day before I got back, and the place is still a mess while we put our things away. It's weird adjusting to a completely new routine - right now, it's getting everything sorted away, getting bills sorted, food, various things for the apartment, etc. We've spent a lot of time catching up on our summers.
School's next week. A lot of people are heading home, so I haven't gotten a chance to see anyone yet. Most of my friends are coming in this weekend, can't wait to see them. A couple other friends are going out to the same program that I was in for London, kudos to them.
And, I have Prison Break on DVD. Great show.

I miss camp.

EDIT: NOOOO! The SciFi Channel just announced that they're not renewing SG-1 for an 11th season. Curses.

Departures

It's the last week of camp this week. It's been scary at how fast things are moving, and it's saddening when people will be parting ways. There's some people that I'll never see again in my life, and people whom I won't remember in a couple years, which scares me as well. When I was at Carbon Leaf, I ran into a guy who'd been at camp three or four years ago, and I couldn't for the life of me remember him at all. Oh well.

We had to let another staff member go a couple days ago, after a couple of things that happened. Can't and won't talk about it, but it wasn't a terrible surprise when it did happen. Probably booting a camper or two as well in the next week. We've got our second group here, Operation Purple Camp (More on that in a minute) and we've got some new staff to give us a hand. Chuck, a member of the Vermont National Guard, is in my village. Really cool guy, works well with the kids and really knows what he's doing, as well as gave me some help with a class.

Operation Purple Camp is a specialty camp, along with Champ Camp, and are the only groups in which we have girls on camp. This one's for children who's parents have been deployed in the current war on terror. Regardless of political ideology, the needs for kids who have parents in the military are great and it's a real challenge for them at times, with someone away from home for huge periods of time when they really need a parent. The camp's got some goals to teach kids how to cope and deal with the stress. Hopefully it'll work.

Carbon Leaf - Live at Battery Park

Great concert - I really had a good time watching these guys for the third time in Burlington. Great set list, great weather for it, and all around fun. I met up with Jakob, a counselor who left a couple weeks early to get ready for school, and Laura, another friend of mine, who's also a big fan of the band.
They played a good mix of things - a bunch of new songs from Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat : Learn to Fly, Love Loss Hope Repeat, Native America, Under the Wire, Texas Stars, Comfort, a lot of songs from Indian Summer, Paloma, Life Less Ordinary, Changeless, One Pairie Outpost, What About Everything and even a couple songs from Echo Echo: Desperation Song and The Boxer. All really good renditions, and the band has been sounding really good altogether. I really like the sound and feel of the new songs. It's gonna be a great album.
It was also fun to be there with people. The last time I went, I didn't have anyone that I was with. It was great to get a couple of drinks with some friends and to just relax.

And now, I'm going to bed...

Carbon Leaf!

Concert's today, in about four hours. Can't wait to get up and out there. I'm just waiting for lunch here at camp, then I'm out of here to watch. Full report when I get back.

And, apparently, the Dave Matthew's Band is going to be releasing a greatest hits album. The problem is, they can't figure out which ones to do, so they're asking fans in a survey: http://web.davematthewsband.com/songsurvey/SongSurvey.asp

w00t.

Engagement

Not I, but my best friend Eric, whom I know from High School, just got engaged. Congrats!

Camp Update

I haven't really had any time to update this lately, so here's what I've been up to. Camp's been going fairly well lately. Things are getting slightly stressed, but that's normal for the end of the year. We've got a bit of an odd group and session at the moment. Champ Camp, an asthma camp, is here, with 12 girls, and next week, we've got Purple Camp, which is a camp for children who's parents are serving overseas. It's running well at the moment. This means that we have a two one week sessions and a two week session running at the same time. Actually, it works out well because I can get the day off that I really want.
Which is 11 to 11 Sat to Sun, because Carbon Leaf's playing over at Battery Park in Burlington, along with a couple other bands. Can't wait to see them again, especially with their upcoming album. I've listened to a couple more songs on their website, and it's sounding fantastic.
Saw my sister last night at a camp dance with Hochelega, which was pretty funny. She attacked me with a hug, and I got my revenge later that night with a slow dance thing that we do here. Everything went over pretty well, which is a plus.
Rest of the week for me is paperwork. Final Reports are coming up, as are Staff Reviews and Staff Reflections. Hopefully I'll have time to do all this...

Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat

Amazon.com has posted up the cover for the next Carbon Leaf Album, LLHR, along with a track listing:

Track listing is as follows:

1. Learn to Fly
2. Love Loss Hope Repeat
3. Under the Wire
4. Royal One
5. Girl and Her Horse
6. Texas Stars
7. Block of Wood
8. Comfort
9. War Was in Color
10. Bright Lights
11. International Airport

I must say, I LOVE the cover, and I've heard a couple of the songs, Texas Stars and War Was In Colour. Can't wait to hear the rest of them though. Man, this album can't come soon enough.

Cabin Otshata, My Own Office and Homesick Campers

I have a cabin of my own now. For the first half of the year, I've been rooming with another member of staff, Adam, who's on the maintainence staff, because the other cabin usually used for the Tamakwa Village Director was taken. But now, with reduced camper numbers and my supervisor urging me to spend more time in my village (Tough because I was living outside of the village) so I took one of the empty cabins as my own.
It's nice, fairly large, and I've organized it to suit storage and things like that. The best part is a small room on the back, which used to be a bathroom, but is now essentially a closet. It's now my office, which is nice, because I can keep work things in there, like my computer, and it's private enough so that I won't be as distracted. Plus, it's nice to have a place of my own.
On top of that, I've got one extremely homesick camper, who's got his ups and downs, currently on an up period, which I hope will last the entire session. Homesickness is very hard to deal with, and it's always a problem in a cabin. I think I deal with it okay, hopefully this camper will pull out of it fine and enjoy himself.
On the plus side, I'm running a D20 Modern game that's off to a good start, and I'm running a session of Fantasy Gaming with a group of campers. Should be a lot of fun.