Let’s recap my past 24 hours. Thursday, yesterday now, was a packed day as far as classes go for the students. Three classes plus a free session, resulting in basically 6.5 hours of learning. Following that we all loaded the buses yet again (we’ve been going a LOT of places this week!) and headed up to North Beach. It turned out to be a gorgeous night despite predictions of rain. Immediately upon arrival I played about 45 minutes of soccer, followed by food. After food was about an hour straight of frisbee, which was great. Andddd after that was swimming and playing chicken for another hour and a half or so.
GIV, Three Days In
June 22nd, 2009 § 0
Perhaps I had forgotten how draining GIV can be. Monday night now, end of day three with 5 more to go. Really exhausted already, but honestly could live doing this all summer.
Possibly the best thing about this year so far is how well everybody is meshing. Last year there were definitely some cliques, but this year everybody is really cool just hanging out with anybody. Makes more fun for everybody and our jobs as RA’s muccchhh easier.
Well, wish I could type more but it’s already later than it should be and I’m not asleep. Let me tell you, 7 hours of sleep a night on top of 13 hours of continuous interaction during the day takes its toll. More pictures and recap later in the week.
Toooooo Fast
June 19th, 2009 § 0
Looking through my meticulously organized Google Calendar I’m noticing that almost every single weekend of my entire summer through August is almost already planned out.
DO. NOT. LIKE.
Granted, every one of those weekends is going to be amazing, but it seems like this time of semi-solitude in my love Burlington is already disappearing. I think I just fully realized today how difficult it is going to be for me to leave this place come next June. Assuming I get a job in Montreal, which at this point seems very ideal, I still don’t feel like I’ll be as satisfied there as I am here. Everything about Vermont and Burlington in particular illustrates my demeanor and my wishes for fulfilling my sense of community and do-gooding. Progressive government, health-conscious citizens, environmentally aware and friendly. City Market. Need I say more?
Actually, I will say more, because here’s another “Ten Seconds to End My Day”. For those interested, there is now a Vimeo group you can join and participate in.
Explore MOAR!!
June 16th, 2009 § 0
The past couple of days have fully opened my eyes to how we can be so close to something beautiful beyond words and not even know it or not recognize it to its full breadth. I’ll admit, my first lakeside bike ride that I wrote about last night got me hooked. I’m now a user of the Burlington Bike Path with no plans for recovery. Naturally I headed out again to catch yet another excellent sunset on the mountains across the lake. Tonight I made sure I had my camera and memory card with me (hah…) so I could try to even capture a tiny bit of the magesty.
I did get a few decent shots, but more importantly I got some video. You can watch it below, but don’t expect it to be anything incredible. I’m starting a series for the summer called 10 Seconds to End My Day. Truthfully the point of doing it isn’t necessarily to show anything incredible. Everybody finds pleasure in different things and the 10 seconds I choose to put out there when the day comes to an end might be completelyyy different than somebody else. For all 2 or 3 of you that read this blog, I’d invite you to start this as well. Put your videos up on YouTube or Vimeo and tag the video with “10stemd”.
June 16, 2009 – 10 Seconds to End My Day
My New Favorite Evening…
June 15th, 2009 § 0
As I tend to do, tonight I randomly got up from reading on my bed at 7 and decided to just bike somewhere with no plan. I made my way out of Winooski, crossing the bridge with the last bits of work traffic and opted to bike up the big hill rather than settle for the easy way on Riverside Ave. I typically dread biking up that hill for tonight it wasn’t a problem at all. I was feeling great and was barely out of breath when I got to the top and flipped my stem back into a higher gear to cruise down Colchester Ave. Got to the Pearl Street intersection and took it all the way down, managing to only hit one light. Riding as fast as traffic with the wind in my face always feels amazing, especially on a night like tonight was: sunny but cool, the sky a mess of orange and pink as the sun is starting to disappear behind New York across the lake.
Pearl Street took me to Battery Street and from there I took the back way down to the waterfront on Depot Street. From there it was smooth riding as I started heading south on the Burlington Bike Path. I rode about 5 miles south of the city until I felt thoroughly like I didn’t know where I was any more and turned back only because it was getting dark. I was pretty excited to take some pictures, but unfortunately when I sat down to do so I realized that 1) my batteries were (still) dead because I’m too cheap to buy more AA’s, and 2) my memory card was still in my computer back in Winooski. Double fail.
I wasn’t too disappointed because even then, not even half way through my ride, I knew that I’d be back there a lot this summer. Tonight I found some of new favorite places in all of Burlington, and that makes me smile.
And I’m Back.
May 19th, 2009 § 0
Three weeks since last post, time flies. Honestly though, the past three weeks have been some of the best respite from school I’ve had in about a year. I’m all moved into my new apartment in Winooski. Finally got a double that I’m sharing with Alex, and it’s the most space I’ve had ever in this apartment complex.
Burlington in the summer is gorgeous, there is no two “but”s about it. What a dumb saying. But seriously, it’s much quieter here, more locals are out and about, and it smells like progressive politics and healthy living 
Montreal tomorrow for an IGDA meeting: Iterative Level Design in Bioshock 2! Should be an interesting talk, going up with 4 other Champlainers. Should also get a chance to check out Jaime and Alex’s places they’re staying at for the summer. Hoorah!
Leaving Thursday afternoon to head home for the long weekend, which I am REALLLLY excited for. Why? Well, this weekend is most importantly the first FULL crew hangout session in a LONG time. And by that I mean, the old QP crew hanging out, shooting film for Sean’s BFA, playing at the park, stokin some fire at Chris’s and celebrating Cadah’s birthday. It’s going to be one of the better weekends in the forseeable future. It’s pretty rare these days that Sean, Spencer and I are in the same place hanging out, not to mention with everybody else, so a great long weekend it shall be.
Nothing incredible to talk about really. My new job starts next Tuesday, so that should be exciting, especially because it’s a new project we’re going to be working on with the State of Vermont, doing a virtual archeology museum. Exciting, right?! I’m excited. So I’ll have more to say on that after next week.
Anyways, just wanted to check in. Not dead, just busy and getting settled into my new digs. And listening to a LOT of classic rock. Ain’t nothin better.
“But don’t stop
Honey don’t stop
Don’t stop
Baby don’t stop”
‘Chanson du Bon Chose’
April 28th, 2009 § 0
The great thing about The Mountain Goats is that you can have been listening to John Darnielle’s music for well over a year and still come across tracks that you’ve never heard. Actually, it’s pretty common. I’ve got 338 tracks of his on my computer, and that doesn’t include any live bootlegs, which means no duplicates, and I still know my collection isn’t complete.
"Chanson du Bon Chose" - The Mountain Goats
I heard “Chanson du Bon Chose” for the first time this afternoon, and I think it’s one of the most amazing songs about falling in love I’ve ever heard. Honestly. I was kind of half listening while I was doing work, but even so it gave me chills listening to it the first time.
i saw the sycamore underneath the moon
i was waiting for something and you were sleeping out there in the living room
and it was five-sixteen a.m. – the air was sharp and cool
and i wondered where you buried our dark little jewel
and the heat rising, in the room
i am digging graves. i am digging graves
and the water boiling, on the stove
i am digging graves. i am digging gravesso i held you close to me
i saw the shadows start to gather outside beneath the sycamore tree
and something was changing
this was something here entirely new
bursting into blossom inside of us both with the sun coming up and
me holding onto youand your body breathing on mine
i am digging graves. i am digging graves
and your hands running through my hair
i am digging graves. i am digging graves
‘Imagine Peace’, Parkway Drive, Where’s Rolla?
April 26th, 2009 § 0
Well, my final weekend in Montreal has rolled around. I’m having a hard time comprehending how fast this semester has gone by. Not to say that I’m not excited to make my way back down to Burlington, but on one hand I wish that I had another week to spend here without school and work to worry about. Everything is finally starting to bloom and its been quite warm the past couple days, as anybody in the Northeast/East Coast could probably tell you.
On Saturday I finally got to check out the “Imagine Peace” exhibit that’s going on right now at MMFA. Carolyn and I had been eyeing it since we saw it advertised back at the beginning of the semester. The exhibit takes a close look at the relationship of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, especially as it relates to their “Bed-Ins”, one of which took place in Montreal. Through pictures, art installations, movies, music and interactive pieces, the exhibit did an incredible job at covering John and Yoko’s relationship together and what they accomplished in such a short time.
That first image in the group is one of Yoko Ono’s Peace Trees. Basically everywhere she does an exhibit, she has trees, and small tags that people can write notes on and tie to the tree. She is collecting all of them, and the result will eventually be a sculpture made out of all the peace notes. Pretty cool.
Saturday night, I was lucky enough to get to go see Stick to Your Gun with Parkway Drive at Underworld. Alex had a ticket, but other plans came up and he didn’t want his ticket to go to waste. Stick to Your Guns was decent, though I can’t say I’ve listened to them a ton. Parkway Drive put on an extremely energetic set, despite the vocalist being sick and coughing his way through a lot of their breaks in between songs. Here, look at this crappy picture I took:
A good end to the night was going out and trying to meet up with Carolyn’s … cousins…friends…friend, who is here on vacation from Cali (or maybe he isn’t, if he doesn’t exist…). Short story made shorter… we didn’t know what he looked like, we don’t have cellphones, we couldn’t find him, but still had an awesome time wandering around to the bars he was supposedly going to and seeing if maybe there were any people wearing tshirts that said HI IM FROM SAN JOSE, IS YOUR NAME CAROLYN?
Then, to close the night, we watched Across the Universe to complete our day of Beatles/John Lennon-mania. A solid day if ever I have known one.
Extended Preview for ‘9′ Makes Me Excited!
April 20th, 2009 § 2
Wes alerted me this morning of a new excerpt from Shane Acker’s upcoming movie ‘9′, which is due out for release September 9th (see what they did there? tricky…). If you haven’t seen the trailer for the movie, you may want to watch that first here.
The Eve Hits Beta! And Bella Lagosse Design Work…
April 18th, 2009 § 1
Hooray! It’s been awesome week, one of the best in recent times, and definitely one of the first times in months that I’ve been able to breathe for a while. If you haven’t seen my continual Tweets and away messages about it, The Eve finally hit beta last night. It’s been distributed on some forums for testing and we’re already getting a lot of great feedback. Chris Crowell, creative director over at A2M, was awesome enough to come in last night and hang out with us for nearly three hours playing and giving some great feedback and opinions.
If you’re interested in doing some testing and you don’t have access to the Champlain EGD forums than shoot me a message or leave me a comment and I can arrange for it. That is, assuming you will provide feedback for us. Otherwise you can wait til the game ships =]
So, given that I’ve had some free time this week (a foreign concept in my life this year…) I was able to work on a design for my good friends in Bella Lagosse. The new layout went live tonight, so check that out.
This is what I truly love about coding Myspace layouts. HTML validation check:
C’est la vie. Now that it’s nearly 3 a.m. I’m thinking I should eat some dinner and probably get to sleep. Gotta love life =]
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