I aim to misbehave

I’m not going to work at camp ever again,

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 21:31:35 GMT

So I thought back in 2005. But first allow me to recap for a minute. During the summer in question I was the "Area Director" of one section of the Boy Scout camp. Basically I was in charge of overseeing all the staff, teaching merit badge classes, taking care of all paperwork for classes taught, signing off on whatever was completed, running the area, answering questions etc. It was my second summer running this particular area and I'd had a lot of fun doing it. I had an awesome staff that did their jobs well, got along good with the campers and above all else got had fun as a group. For roughly nine long weeks we worked tirelessly side by side with each other and at the end of the summer we looked back on the whole thing and laughed cause it had been real good. They said I was an excellent director cause I didn't micro manage them. I said they were an excellent staff cause they didn't mess around, got the job done and didn't make me get on their cases.

However that wasn't the only thing that was great about that summer. One thing that some people don't seem to grasp about working at camp is this, you go there to work hard, long and sometimes thankless jobs. Sure it's easy to say that but actual practice is a different thing all together. To sum this up we work longer then normal hours for minimal pay. Sometimes that means that if you're on top of things in your area you'll go out and help others who need help. Sometimes you do this without being asked but sometimes you get told to help out. In the end though it doesn't matter, as there's a job that needs to be done. I bring this up because my immediate boss was in a bit of a bind from time to time and I helped him out. It didn't seem like that big of a deal to me but he really appreciated it.

So the end of the summer comes and we have the end of camp party. There we start saying our good byes, words of thanks, reminisce about things that we laughed at during the summer and the good moments. During this end party our boss says a moment of thanks to everyone and then a bit of a surprise to me he names me staff member of the summer. Now I was surprised. I admit it I'm a good worker but the best? That was a bit of a surprise considering there are many who are better then me at camp. Needless to say there were words of agreement from staff members who worked with me.

Now during this summer I'd made the decision that it would be my last summer at camp. What can I say, I was then 24 and was thinking about getting on with my life. You know what I mean, when that little voice in your head says it's time to stop fooling around start with your new "adult" life. As it was I new job had opened up and was offering me a position with them with the understanding that I would not be allowed time off next summer. True the job was part time but it would allow me the freedom I wanted at the moment to continue my college education so I jumped on it. Yes I had done what many others from camp staff history had done, I moved on from camp and got a real job. I had decided to go out on a high note.

Now we move to the summer of 2006. Life had moved on and for the most part I was sticking to my plan. In fact I'd even taken an additional step. I'd become a freelance photographer and started my own partnership/business with a mutual friend. In my mind I had already told myself I would not work at camp for the summer. However there were options, no need to go cold turkey. I could take a week of vacation that I'd saved up, visit friends at camp and spend a week volunteering. That way I'd still get to go up but not be committed for the summer.

Yet something unexpected happened as I received a call from the camp director one night. He informed me that with less then two months from camp starting the program director (the guy who I'd helped out a lot the previous summer) was unable to work for camp this summer. Upon talking with existing staff they agreed I was a good choice for the position. So suddenly I find myself being offered the position of second in command for camp. I was shocked, honored, scared, and unsure. In the end I decided to not take the job. I had a plan, I had commitments, and I was going to stick to them. However it was not the only time I'd be offered the job. I was asked to come into the office and discuss this again. Well to sum it up after a few discussions that was mostly them pumping up my ego and after a few encouraging words from a friend or two and a discussion with my business partner I found myself accepting the job. Now I had a month to quit my current job, attend a weeklong training to be a director and meet my staff that had already been hired. One thing leads to another and I found myself at camp again working for the summer in upper management.

Oh it was a great summer. There were mistakes, I'll be the first to admit that but it the summer went on for the most part without a major hitch. I had come out with a good summer behind me and was actually contemplating coming back for another summer. After all if I could do all right on short notice, imagine what I could do with a whole year of planning etc, especially since I know new better what I needed to do.

However just when I think I'd had something figured out I find another twist. The council that runs camp offered me a full time job with them actually maintaining camp reservations. Now instead of working at camp I would be coordinating reservation to come there and helping prepare groups to come to camp. It was an offer I couldn't refuse however there was under no circumstances a way I could come back as program director. That chapter was closed for me so long as I kept my new full time job.

So now two summers have come and gone. I've gotten a good handle on my job and feel that I'm doing a superb job and judging from the reviews the groups coming to camp agree. However last week I find myself again in the boss's office with a proposition. The camp director (otherwise known as number one in charge at camp) is going to be out of camp for a week and they'd like me to stand in for him. I won't say this was unexpected, I'd known that there was a possibility of this exact situation. Needless to say I did take it and went back to camp to work one more time. So one more time I find myself working side by side with my fellow camp staffers though to be honest most are new and I don't know them. However there are some old faces who are there and their help was as always there. With them the week went off without a hitch and I had a blast.

When the time came the real Director returned and I found myself needing to go back to work in the office. When I entered the office it seemed to be business as usual. I sat at my desk and started getting up on all the work that pilled up while I was gone. Thankfully it wasn't that much so it's now done. However there is one last twist to this tale. The head boss, John came in asked how things were going. When I was done he asked about the staff situation. I told him they were scrambling to get a few more people for the final week when he asked if I'd be willing to go back and help finish out the summer. Not as upper management but as normal staff. Given the choice between Fresno or the Mountains I of course said yes. So in a few more hours I leave again and go to finish out camp.

Funny how after I said I'd not work at camp all those years ago I find myself continually going back. I guess you can take the scout out of the camp but not the camp out of the scout. I know this isn't the best write piece but it was a fun rehash to get thoughts out of my head.

Watch this movie

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:29:00 GMT

It's late I know and as soon as I'm done with this I will be going to bed for the night. However I will say now that you SHOULD go and see Hancock when it comes out. I'm back from a sneak preview and it was GOOD, no AWESOME, no better then that really.

Seriously, I encourage all to see it as soon as you can.

Death Nipples

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:35:08 GMT

"Okay, so get a good grip around this here death nipple and twist till liquid comes out"

Such was the instructions given to me by good friend Matt.

“Twist this nipple and she will open up to you”

And that was a horrible spin on a funny line from ROME from which Matt also loaned me. Decent enough show but this isn’t about that, this is about death nipples. Or rather release points for break fluid on a car. You probably know that your break fluid comes from a reservoir and goes to your breaks via lines. Well at the end of that line is a nut that when turned properly can release some of that very brake fluid. The nut at the end comes to a rounded point that with a little imagination can resemble a tit, vaguely. Anyway, that was a very funny comment that was made and one that should be remembered.

So in case you didn’t figure it out from all this talk of technical parts and things I did some maintenance on my car. Specifically (with Matt’s help) changed all four sets of breaks. It was fun and quite a learning experience. It involved getting my car up on jacks and taking all the wheels off, which I find quite amusing a site to see.

Seeing wheels off of my car or even one of my wheels up off the ground while still on my car isn’t an unseen site for me. It is a Jeep after all and it does spend some time in the mountains. I still find it amusing to see it kind of just “hovering” there. So after several hours crawling under the car, undoing things, taking part to mechanics to turn, etc. the code monkey was a minor grease monkey. End result I now know more about my car then I did and my breaks have never been quieter and smoother.

Crawling Out

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:03:04 GMT

One hand emerges from blackness,
One follows it's mate piercingthe light.

Weariness cakes every pore of my being as my mind wonders of a singular question.
"Why is it I seem to write these when I'm up too late?"

Greetings all,

I find myself again up to late. I say again like it's a common thing. Time was it used to be, time recent I'm actually proud to say I've been doing very good about not staying up to late, getting rest, and taking generally good care of myself. Of course I say this only after for the first time in 15-20 years I actually took sick days from work. Yes I was quite proud of my streak of health till it came to a sudden and head pounding halt. Twas nothing much, just a bit of flu action or something like that. Two days staying at home drinking water, popping pills, sleeping day and night and I was good enough to go back to work. another two days of work (with continuing headaches but no more body aches) and I made it too the weekend and continued to rest. It goes without saying that I say now once and for all I HATE being sick. I know nothing new there.

So what am I doing this late you might ask? Well it has to do with my code monkyness. A question might be pondering you right now about that. Guess you'll just have to wait a bit about that. I'm currently looking down at the taskbar and it shows that the ftp client is still uploading website info. Yep, that's what this is all about I've got a deadline for a website and I'm taking care of it now.

Ah, it's seems to be done now, brb.

Okay so the upload seems to have gone well, that's obviously a good thing. Just a few more settings I have to tweak in order for the site to be fully functional but that's actualy something I think I'll do at a later time like say tommorow. You know in between work and finalizing my exalted character and hanging with my rp friends.

Aside from that my cousin came over to see me tonight. I say see me like it was about me, but it really wasn't. It was about her or rather her wedding. Yep t-minus less then two weeks and my cousin will be married. Fun stuff except for the usual things, planning, guest lists, table arrangements, photographers... No wait that's done I'm hired and set.

Well I blathered a good deal now and I've got one or two more tests to run before I finally fall down on my heavenly soft bed.

Take care all.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:55:55 GMT

So seriously, it sounded like such a simple equation to me:

I miss writing creatively + The place I used to write at no longer exists + I have this place where I could write at = Me writing again

The Reality is

The Desire to write < The need to work + (Socializing with friends + Trying new things + Spending time with Girlfriend) + sleep time

So as you can guess I've been a little bit busy. Now I'll now attempt to do a recap of what's been going on:

Work
Well work's been just that, work. It's long, it's boring, and it’s a paycheck. For those of you just catching up I work for the Boy Scouts of America. An organization I wholeheartedly believe in. I grew up in scouting and I believe now more then ever Scouting is something that's needed in this world today. However this is not the time to go into that rant. I'll save that one for a later time. All that you need to know about work is that I'd been hired to one job, Events. However I currently find myself doing something other then events, namely registration. That's right two separate jobs. Don't get me wrong Events is in it's "Down Time" for lack of a better word right now. Normally my position is helping the Registrar do their job now, as this is the "Busy" time for that position. However with the help of a few others I'm currently doing that job at its peak. Fun, not really but interesting to say the least. I find it most ironic that again in this office there is another female out on maternity leave and I'm the one pulling double duty to cover. Nope that's not a complaint, just a statement of fact. As for the mom's they're doing fine so that's good.

Social
Well as always the house is bustling. People are always coming over and it seems like there's not enough personal time to do those things that need to be done. Again not complaining at all. I love it when family and friends come over and hang out. On Wednesday night we have people come over and play munchkin. Nope that's not slang for us hiring midgets to fight in the living room gladiator style it's an actual game. Tuesday nights now seems like it's going to be rp night. More on that later as we get deeper into that, just wish me luck. Weekends are always hit and miss. Sometimes we're brewing beer (more so now that one of the room mates is starting to go and upgrade to all grain brewing) and those times that we're not brewing we seem to be cooking. More on food later. And if these weekly recurrences weren't enough there plenty of special opportunities to shake a hat at. Besides the parties that get thrown around here there's other gatherings that happen. Recently we said goodbye to a friend and for the first time in my life I went ice-skating. Well to be honest I wouldn't call it skating yet, more like ice scuffling. To my credit I didn't fall once, but then again I didn't really get going that fast or daring.

Side
So on the side I run a photography business. That's right I'm a digital pixel mercenary for hire. This marks my second year in business for myself with friends. However one of these friends is leaving which is a bit sad. True it hasn't been the smoothest of sailing between us but I never wanted him to leave. However it is his choice so I can't and won't blame him for that. Now maybe just maybe we can go back to the friends we used to be. However as is the case for most business well business is slow. Thankfully that's not my bread and butter so I can deal with this. However as I say it's been slow this quarter the last week is for some reason an exception. The last week I've done two separate jobs and finished one from earlier. The three jobs were this. One was the city of Clovis asked us to come out and take pictures of their brand new firehouse so they could get merchandise ready for the grand opening. That was a pleasure to deal with. The second one was one of the bosses in the office asked us to come out and take an x-mas photo of his family. Not that hard right? Did I mention he has FIVE kids, all young? It was difficult but still do-able and fun cause it was a learning experience. The final project that I wrapped up today was portraits of my grandparents. I took up all the studio lights from my business up and took a picture of each of my grandparents all nice and looking presentable. Of all three of these jobs they've all responded back with ecstatic comments so we're obviously doing something right which in the end means I'm filling good.

X-mas
Ah yes that special time when the world hits the malls and spends money on each other to the point that the industry starts to advertise and remind us to buy their things starting in August. Now please don't read too much into this, I'm actually a fan of the season. I believe in the concepts of Christmas wholeheartedly. Those would be the concept of giving to each other, spending quality time with friends and family, and catching a break from those common woes that seem to happen. Especially around these current times when I find that my family is spread out farther and farther. I spent this night taking care of the gifts for my parents and ended up finishing my aunt and uncle too so glad about that. Now I've just got a handful of people left. Yep, t-minus just a few days and I'm still shopping. Am I worried, heck no I'm always like this. After all I'm a boy scout. I don't plan, I improvise.

I've got so many other things to talk about but this is getting long as is and I want to devote serious time to my other thoughts so for now I wish you adieu.

Thanks for reading.

What am I doing with this.

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 06:57:45 GMT

So I find myself looking at what I've got, what I use, what I don't use and thinking to myself why do I have these things if I'm not going to use them?

Take this account for instance. I signed up for this thing over a year ago and what have I typed? What have I shared? NOTHING!

Maybe on one hand it's cause I find the whole concept of just typing random blatherings and posting them for all to see a bit ludicrous. Yeah I said it, so what of it? However perhaps there's something else. Maybe if I take this and turn it around a little bit I find I'm looking at this the wrong way. Perhaps maybe I should be looking at this as an opportunity. I haven't really written that much recently. Heck, okay you got me to confess I haven't really written anything at all. There was a time when I was considered a good writer. For about two-three years I was part of an "elite RP group" known as Equinox. It was something I tried out for a year or so and found my way into it. One thing lead to another and life went on. I had to focus more on my real life then on my play and I wandered away from that group. I wasn't the only one though. I was one of the last members to ever be added. Those that came before me had similar things happen to them it seems. It's a shame really. I tried to go back to the site that we used to run out of (www.ffhybrid.net) (Okay that was one of the names it went by. zeZi the admin of that site changed it a couple of times to try and keep it afloat) but I find it's no longer around. All of the old links that I know of that pointed to it seem to lead to that black void that threatens to swallow up old websites that have passed their prime.

The point of all that story you might ask? Well I no longer have a medium to practice my writing skills. I no longer have friends to "compete" with or to "hone my skills" so for now until I find a suitable substitute I'm going to write here. About what I don't know. Story ideas, how my day went, a new recipe I make, something on the internet that I find amusing. The net's the limit as it goes, so we'll just have to see where this here thing takes me.

To whoever might be reading this be you someone who knows me or someone who has never heard of me say hi for what it's worth. I'm going to try and write something here every week. You're more then welcome to stop by and have a beer or something like that.

Dedicated to all those who I've lost contact with. Holy Knight, Xu, Astura, Amiel, zeZi, Tsar, Yuffie-Strife, Candadian Boy who's handle I've forgotten / never knew how to spell so I just copied and pasted from his posts, anyone else I'm forgetting that I'll probably hit my head against something hard when I realize I forgot them, and especially Videl, who first awakened my desire to write after all too long and who kindled my passion.