Tag Archive for 'team.building'

Page 3 of 8

closed for the season

Published on November 21, 2007 in Family & Friends, Photo, Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Except for administering the post program surveys and evaluations… and entering all that data in the computers … Adventure Ed. is done for the season. I’m uploading the last of the pictures, now. I’ll probably have to put together a CD of them all organized into folders again for the kids, my coworker Antoinette or both. I should probably do that this weekend, so I can give CDs to the facilitators and teachers this week… just in case eMailing the students doesn’t go as planned.

Got a big dinner in the works for tomorrow… helped prepare some desserts for baking this afternoon/morning. I always feel really full after the Adventure Ed. overnights, so the idea of a big meal isn’t all that appealing right now, but I’m sure I’ll be hungry by tomorrow. A couple years ago, I went a little moblog crazy on Thanksgiving. Life was pretty different back then. I won’t deny that it’s fun for me to go back and read old posts. Especially the ones where I’m not doing as well as I am now. I was whiny and depressed a lot, probably terribly uninteresting reading for all of you… but fun for me, ’cause things are so much better now. Don’t get me wrong, I still feel ridiculously tired and on the verge of non-functioning after work some days, but now it seems like it’s a justified exhaustion instead of just not being able to focus or just having a broken head.

back east again

Published on November 14, 2007 in Family & Friends. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

I’m about to leave for the second of three overnight Adventure Ed trips, but I wanted to let everyone know that I have officially booked flights and I will be in the New England area from Thurday the 20th of December until Christmas. I leave early morning on the 25th and I have dinner with the family on the Eve, but the rest of my time is pretty open. If you want some, lemme know. I’m also not opposed to some big group shindig thing, some music, a movie, whatever, so feel free to try and plan amongst yourselves. I should have Mom’s Nissan van most of the weekend, so I’ll be mobile and based out of Dudley.

and we’re back

Published on November 12, 2007 in Family & Friends, Music, Photo and Web. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

hacked… something about world writable folders, lots of accounts, not just mine. I didn’t even know I had any world writable ones. I had to go through and change them all and then test things to make sure everything still worked. I’m still doing it now, actually. After I post this, I gotta see if it worked and see if all the logs worked and then experiment with posting from the phone again. It took a lot of time and effort because my backup wouldn’t quite restore correctly. Had to kinda build a place for the site from scratch and then import it in piece by piece. Anyway, I think it’s all back now.

Thankfully this happened early Saturday morning, so I was completely distracted by the fact that I was going to see They Might Be Giants. It was a great show and brought back a lot of memories of some good times. Unfortunately, driving to a show in Chicago is worse than driving to a show in Boston. We learned our lesson though (took an hour to find parking). Next time, we’ll take the train in from O’Hare or go out early and make a day-long event out of it. They almost wouldn’t let Sarah in because she had her Diana camera with her. But she convinced them that it wasn’t going to take any high quality videos of the band, that it was basically a toy, and they let her in. The venue was cool, nice balcony seats and a few benches throughout the floor area. We were there a little too late to snag a seat for ourselves… again, lesson learned. It was a real treat to see them with the horn section. I do kinda miss the Eric and Graham/Hal days, but the Dans are good, there’s no denying it. The banter was as witty as ever.

Enjoying my day off, so far. The tentative plan was to catch up on all the TV shows we’re behind on. We’ll see what really happens once Sarah gets up and we get motivated (or don’t :) ). Got another Adventure Ed overnight this week (and next week). There’s pictures from last week’s trip on the gallery (mostly taken by the kids). There’s more staff lined up for this week, so I should be able to take more myself.

prepare for pictures

Published on November 7, 2007 in Family & Friends, Photo and Work. Closed Tags: , , .

Tomorrow night is the first Adventure Ed overnight. The camera is coming and I should be able to take plenty of pics, since there’s only 25 kids coming to this one. Hopefully I’ll remember to do post a moblog entry or two. I also just added the last few weeks worth of photos to flickr… some in-class adventure ed shots, some of an all day day care program I worked and some from a wander Sarah and I took earlier today. You can see most of them here. Enjoy

another little scare

Published on November 6, 2007 in Computers, moBlog, Web and Work. Closed Tags: , , , .

Last night, after a little issue with the scanner and a reinstallation of some drivers, a couple of my programs were acting weird, so I rebooted, and right after logging in, my screen went black. It seemed like the system was running. I managed to blind reboot it once. I couldn’t log in via VNC, though, so I knew the video drivers weren’t running correctly. I tried reloading the original Dell drivers, but it made no difference… still went black. Removed the video drivers and I could log in just fine… though I can only deal with giant chunky 800×600 for so long. At some point I found out that the user account I set up for Sarah could log in just fine with the Dell video drivers loaded… so that led me to believe there was some sort of software/driver thing going on. I couldn’t figure out what was causing it, though. I tried disabling everything I could think of, and it still went black on my username. So I refocused on the video drivers, tried a couple different ones and a couple methods of completely removing the old drivers… but still no luck. Finally, I tried these Omega drivers and they seemed to do the trick. I dunno how well hooking the laptop up to the TV is going to go, the next time we want to watch something I downloaded on the big screen, but at least I’m not computerless anymore. There’s a bit more fear, as time goes on, that this laptop will just plain die, one day soon… regardless of the transplant/replacement of most of its innards.

There was also a threat of canceling the Adventure Ed overnight for one of the schools because of some new electronic filing system that all trips have to go through and some CPS paperwork and legal department bull… but I guess they finally worked it all out today. We got the go ahead this afternoon. We were on the verge of coming up with some sort of concelation day for all the kids who had signed up. They were still signed out of their classes and stuff, so they were technically ours for the day, but we probably would’ve been restricted to school property. I’m glad that didn’t end up happening. The high ropes experience is really a key element in my mind.

Psyched that I got the mophoblogging going again. I was doing that stuff back in early 2005 (via Livejournal). I’m pretty sure moblogs and that term existed then, but I wonder if I could’ve coined mophoblogging, or snagged a related domain name or something.

upgraded

Published on November 1, 2007 in Photo, Web and Work. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Since the Flickr integration went so well, I decided to try the WordPress upgrade, too. I’m not terribly attached to tags, but the tag integration isn’t as cool as the tag plugin I was using… I really miss the click the tag to add it thing on the post writing page. I have yet to go through all the old posts that linked to images on the Gallery2 pages. I’ll get to that soon enough. Maybe I’ll even add some more photos… I’ve got some from Adventure Ed class days. I totally didn’t break out my camera during the day trip… I don’t think it even made it out of my car. I’ll be sure to get pictures at the overnight trips. Those are coming right up, too. The first one is next week! This season flew by. I feel like we missed out on a lot of great activities, but it hasn’t been a bad season.

Feeling a little hungry, I think… waiting for Sarah to come home. Maybe I’ll watch TV.

Fall is falling

Published on October 25, 2007 in Family & Friends, Photo and Work. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Been busy and stuff, but here are some highlights from the last month:

I cooked Puerco Pibil according to Robert Rodriguez’s recipe on the Once Upon a Time in Mexico special features (10 minute cooking school). It was fun. I had to go to a few specialty stores in order to get all the right spices and the banana leaves. It turned out pretty damn good, though. I may try his breakfast tacos from Sin City, next; We’ll see.

We went to an apple orchard store/bakery and picked up a whole bunch of apples… along with a whole lotta apple cider donuts and a bunch of other apple-themed foodstuffs. We made a couple pie-sized apple crisps and they were excellent. I was eating about an apple or two a day, and then I got sick … so much for that old adage… and couldn’t eat much of anything for a week or so. The honey crisp apples were really, really yummy. We went back again and bought some more a week or so later… and made another big apple crisp to bring to a party. I think I want to blame Chipotle for making me sick, but I’m being careful about what exciting things I introduce to my diet. Having all this cider and stuff in the house makes it hard, though.

Work’s going well. We’re past the day trip part and we’re quickly moving towards the overnighters. The day trip was better this year, mostly due to the fact that the course was in the city and we got a lot more time there. Looking forward to the overnights… three this year, in consecutive weeks. There’s also a lot of talk about expanding the program into some after-school type stuff. Maybe more work and more responsibility… not sure yet.

I’ve got to find a way to finish a roll of film faster. The light meter battery shouldn’t need to be replaced more often than the film. I’m sort of afraid to see how this roll turned out, since I have no idea when the battery started failing. I love the old Pentax, but it has issues.

Foliage is pretty out here, but I do miss what the wooded hills of New England adds to it. Those hills make the driving more fun, too, but otherwise, I’m loving life out here.

tween seasons

Published on May 29, 2007 in Family & Friends, Photo, Web and Work. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The Adventure Education season ended. The overnights went well, I put some pics up. Now I’m in my break between that and summer camp season. I decided to work for the camp run by my boss from adventure ed… not because there seems to be any team-building or teens or anything else I’m into, but simply to keep that connection alive. My other option was driving skate camp for the Y I’m working for, the ages would’ve been better, and that’s my only regret in turning it down.

So what have I been doing on my break?

  • Saw Mom over mother’s day weekend. She came out here and we toured her around Chicago for an afternoon, then relaxed for the most of the rest of the weekend. We got her to play some Wii bowling and we went to the glow in the dark mini-golf place. She was recovering from some sorta procedure, so the R&R was good for her.
  • Watching a lot of netflix movies and movies in the theaters. I watched From Dusk Till Dawn for the first time, and I think a couple other Robert Rodriguez flicks are in my queue. Saw Pirates 3 as well: not bad, but was lacking the cleverness of the first and the crazy chase scenes of the second.
  • Helping with Sarah’s little brother’s high school graduation and graduation party. Graduation ceremony was huge, almost 800 graduates. Went to Bennigan’s afterwards. It was my first time there. I got a sandwich called a Turkey O’Toole. It was on a pretzel bun. It was amazing. Lots of family came over the house on the next day. We got a lot of yummy food from a caterer. We still have lots of leftovers.
  • Playing a lot of Super Paper Mario. I keep dying in the flopside pit of 100 trials… got all the way to the end last time and freaked out at the boss battle and messed up.

    • On the family front, my Aunt Rosemarie died. She was my Dad’s older sister. I wasn’t terribly close to her. She always seemed pretty kooky to me. I’m pretty sure she’s the only aunt who ever fit into that crazy old relative who gives you weird sloppy kisses category. The family’s talking about spreading her ashes, along with her husband’s, on the East coast… maybe sometime this summer.

    Not much else is going on. Lots of relaxing, which is good. Threadless is having another one of those week-long sales where they release new shirts every day. If you’ve been waiting for the sale to pick up that clever shirt, now is the time.

    Sarah’s got an interview at Calumet, this week. Think good thoughts, send her the good vibes, wish her luck… whatever your style is … much appreciated.

    ho hum

    Published on April 12, 2007 in Family & Friends, Photo and Work. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

    The rest of the road trip, the second day in St Louis and our trip home, including detour to Lamberts, was great. The City Museum was amazing. It was almost indescribable, but the best way I could sum it up is this: Three or Four stories of the coolest jungle-gym, playground, art exhibit, cafe and aquarium ever built. I don’t know how they get away with it, so many things to climb up and in and so much metal and wood and rock… I wouldn’t want to pay their insurance bill. Hopefully the pictures give you a sense of how awesome it is. And, yes, they really throw rolls at you at Lamberts. It was yummy and well worth the detour. The super 8 motel was ok, but I think the best western was better… even though the super 8 room was ginormous and they had donuts in their continental breakfast choices. Got up early and drove home, and had to go into work early, almost immediately after getting home… so it’s a good thing we left as early as we did.

    Upcoming events and changes: Weekend work at the Y is switching to mornings. More hours, about three times the hours, but mornings are supposed to be busier… we’ll see how it goes. We’re going to Sarah’s friends’ wedding next weekend, I dunno what I’m gonna wear, we’ll have to go shopping tomorrow, I guess. Starting to prepare for the big overnight trip for adventure ed. It’s creating some pressure; it’s only a few weeks away and these groups stil have some work to do before any of them are really ready for it. Mom is coming out here for Mother’s Day weekend.

    Ooh, and I joined Sarah’s Netflix account, lemme know if you have one and we can be “Friends.”

    Also, yesterday, Kurt Vonnegut died. So it goes. He’s the only author I’ve ever really enjoyed thoroughly and completely. I think I was more sad to find out I’d read his last novel than to find out he was dead. I’ve re-read several of his books, and I added a couple of the movies that were based on his books to my Netflix queue.

    new vision, again

    Published on March 31, 2007 in Family & Friends, Random Thoughts and Work. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

    My Lenscrafters visit didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped. They would not put lenses into either of my old frames. The black plastic ones were “too dry” and might snap, or something like that… and the older ones were “too hard to trace.” I find this one harder to believe, since I had the lenses in those replaced a couple weeks after buying them, due to a giant scratch from a car door to the face. I’m gonna do a little research and see if this is some sort of scam by Lenscrafters. After shelling out the big bucks, I have some new frames. I’ll try to get some pictures up, soon. They’re all metal, so I shouldn’t get that “too dry” line again, and there’s no wire/nylon, the frame goes all the way around, so the “tracing” shouldn’t cause a problem, either. Of course I’m concerned about breaking them, since I broke just about every other pair of all metal frames I’ve ever owned, even that pair that felt heavy and unbreakable. I also keep getting the nose pads stuck in my hair when I pop the glasses up onto my head for a sec. I got too used to the plastic frames, I guess.

    Digging into the moneys for glasses didn’t hurt too bad, since the money right now is constant. It’s only like this for about another month and a half, though. It’s March, almost April, and I don’t have a summer plan yet. The last time I waited this long was when I left the Woonsocket Y for Hockomock. That was a great switch, but was only possible because Bill Lawrence was a kind and generous camp director who saw a guy with 6 years of camp counselor experience and decided to give him a chance. I did find a Y to work for out here, so I don’t lose the retirement fund money… but I don’t know if their camp offerings really have a good fit for me, and they haven’t begged me fill one of their slots, yet. I’m pretty much a legal Illinois driver, now, though, so I could offer myself to the climbing or skate camps. My boss at Adventure Ed runs some sort of camp in the summer, too. It probably pays better than the Y, and almost definitely pays better than the resident camp up north with the Outdoor Ed Director position, simply because it’s a residence situation. I also haven’t heard anything back from them. Another co-worker mentioned working for him with Kayaks and Canoes… it’s different, but he’s a cool guy and I wouldn’t mind that kind of work, even if it’s just to broaden my horizons a bit.

    Life otherwise is good! I saw Body Worlds 2 yesterday, at the Museum of Science and Industry. It was a little creepy, but pretty interesting. I was intrigued by the weird back muscles that seemed to overlap each other. We found it funny that there was a lot of intact genitalia, especially on some of the people put into very strange [and very revealing] poses. There was a lot of stuff written on the walls on the way in about confronting death and accepting it and not making it taboo… perhaps there should’ve been a panel dedicated to being ready to see a lot of genitalia, as well. The rest of the museum was pretty cool, and fairly genitalia-free. Our tickets included an OMNIMAX film. While we were waiting to get in, we talked about how much better than IMAX those three little letters could possibly make the experience. We were fairly awestruck by the theater itself, which was like a cross between an IMAX and a planetarium, the screen was rounded and went up over our heads and out about as far anybody’s range of straight-ahead vision. When the first full-screen image came up, there were a lot of whoahs and ooohs.

    Flea Market tomorrow… and maybe a picnic if the weather is good? Looking forward to it.

    woot