Buddy of DoQ will be stepping out of the office for the next week. Between now and the next update, he will have traveled the distance of mother earth.

Peace!

There will be pictures!

Yo!

Been a while since ST, had a bit to rest and catch up on 6 weeks of missed sleep. Well, okay, I'm still wiped out and totally exhausted. I've been like this pretty much since week 5, tired and wore down, not out, just down. At ST it was completely understandable, long hours, little sleep, lots of sports. Here, not so much. Sure work has been 100X more effort than it was last year, but I love it. It's this constant 100 degree heat. BUT! Today it rained! Not just rain, but a freaking storm dumping buckets of water thick as led. Lasted about an hour or so, and the whole town just freaked out. I passed like 4 wrecks on the way home from across town. Last year we had the same thing, and I managed to film it, sadly this year the camera was not handy. You know what they say about a good rainy day eh? Time to spend your money! So I spent a pretty dime on mother for her birthday tomorrow, and a dime nearly as pretty on a new TV for our living room. A bit smaller than our old hand-me-down, but this is one of those nifty Toshiba true-flat-SDTV's, perfect for Anime off the laptop (s-video FTW!) and console games. The only tube had nasty magnetic distortion blobs, and a horrid glare. And finally after collecting episodes for years, and over 6 months of regularly scheduled viewings, we finished the adventures of The Good Dr. Tenma! Now that it's over, it truly feels as though I just wished a good friend off for the last time. Now why can't American TV have something like that?! I hear that they're making a live-action version in Hollywood. I double dare them to fuck it up. It's impossible I say!

PASSENGER BRIAN MAYBERRY



LV: DALLAS FT WORTH 10:15 AM

AR: TOKYO NARITA 1:20 PM

In the face of adversity, sheer "I'm going... dammit!" is the only way.

Hot.
Really.
Freaking.
Hot.

But it's nice to be home, relaxing on your own personal staff couch (one of three in this tiny apartment of mine)and blasting your new Level Two cd at humbling volumes. So, as some of you know, I didn't catch a break this summer, went back to work as soon as I got home. We have our beautiful new building up, and renovations to the old one are nearly 100%, not so bad to be back you might be thinking, right? Distribution is hell. Over 100 computers from one building to the other, with the Texas sun beating down on you, toasting you like moldy white bread from the inside out. It's not all fun and games! But dammit if it ain't home! And I'd be lying if I said I ain't glad to be back. (It's all about the strong southern brewed Iced Tea, you know, without all that Yankee lemonade to water it down.)

On the plane home, the exposure to AC was akin to living in a freezer for 4 hours. I had become acclimated to the NY summer without any AC at all, and the sudden and prolonged exposure drove me to busting out the nice fall Manhattanville shirt I purchased at the bookstore on campus. 4 days in Texas later and the AC just doesn't get cold enough fast enough.

The Lexus is fine, unlike the last car I abandoned for 6 weeks, she held up quite nicely. The leather burns my back, and after sitting in the sun all day, she's like driving in a pizza oven. Thankfully the AC works very well, I just wish I could say the same for the radio.

Tokyo is coming up fast, and I'm giddy as a school girl. I don't think I'll be able to sleep much due to anticipation of the journey this month.


Ahh yes, before I forget: I lost about 15 pounds this summer! I'm right at 150, I was over 165 when I left.

Wooooo Weeee! What a ride! As you may not recall from my neglect to mention, but Week E was our largest week of all time, around 70 kids. This week that number was down to about 40, and as a result the lab was much cooler and easier to navigate. Record high temperatures made sports time a living hell this week. We played Soccer and Dodgeball outside with a water hose at the ready. In Machinima we basically spent the entire week going all out, voice acting, filming, and editing like mad to have everything ready for the festival on Saturday. To say our two kids did an amazing job this week would be an injustice to the awesome truth. These guys made some of the most excellent Machinima films I have ever seen, I'll provide links to them when they are hosted on the SummerTech website. Big props and high-fives to our Junior Teacher, Barry, for his hard work on voice data collection and editing. Without Barry, these movies could not have happened within our allotted time this summer. Big ups to Mike for pretty much taking over and driving these kids up to the next level. I can leave for my new promotion in Texas comfortably knowing that next years course is in good hands.

Playland.

On Friday after the closing ceremony, Steve took us out for a night at Playland. You might remember Playland from the Tom Hanks film Big, where it was showcased at the end of the film, the resting place of Zoltar the fortune teller. It was a smaller park with various smaller rides and roller coasters, and they even had a Ms. Zoltar copy-cat machine. As Big was one of my favorite films as a kid, I naturally had to give it a go. Rather than granting wishes, the machine simply gives you a color, and a fortune. My color was white, and my fortune reads as follows:

A trip around the world is in store for you.
With it a great deal of happiness too.
You will have unlimited money
And life for you will be very sunny.

So lets see here... In a few weeks I go to Tokyo (around the world indeed) to see some good friends and play (happiness) I just got a raise at work (money) and perhaps the weather will be good? Needless to say I had a good laugh when I read it for the first time.

Festival.

I won't get into it much here, but lets just say there was a scare as to whether or not the Machinima films could be shown in their entirety. With a bit of compromise, and a lot of guts, we made the call to go last after a fair advisory to the audience. We opened the festival with a short-film documentary about the Summer, created by our fellow staffers Nate and Susan. It really captured the spirit of camp, and nearly moved me to tears. Film and Flash followed, with movies that went beyond my expectations. We showed our Machinima films, and it closed with hoots hollers and thunderous applause. Then we ate. Then when The Mathematicians came on stage, we rocked! We got contact info from them, they sounded very interested in scoring our Space Man Biff project...

Well campers, that about raps it up for this year. There were ups and downs, and a lot more people all around, but glorious and adventurous it was, as always. Thanks again to my fellow staffers for just being who you are; my friends. Thanks to Steve for his courage, guidance, and wisdom. Thanks to Tommy for the haircut and beer. Thanks to Ali for watching girly anime with me. Thanks to Jermey for all the laughs. Thanks to Lee for, well, being Lee! Thanks to everyone for everything, good luck and god speed!