Not a bad take

I have to thank my old residents in Building 30 up at RIT. They taught me everything I know about Texas Hold-Em' poker. Tonight I put my education to good use and pulled down $21 on a $5 buy in game over at Twitty's. I don't get to play very often with them, but I also don't think I've been disappointed when the game ends yet! At first I thought I ended up with $36 and I was super-happy but alas - I miscounted. Still a good night as a whole. Kevin and Shaena held a great barbecue and I got to catch up with some high school buds I haven't seen in a while.

Camp Ranachqua (ran-ah-kwa)

Last week my Boy Scout troop spent a week at summer camp. I took a day off from work and got a chance to partake in the fun on Thursday night and Friday. Thursday night Steve and I went out for a few drinks on his night out. We talked Scout stuff and camp stuff and we got hit on by the waitress (him more than me). There was a singer there who was quite mediocre and I was even more upset when I realized it wasn't kareoke night - she was the hired entertainment. Whew!

Anyway Friday was a lot of fun! I got to spend some time with the Scouts I haven't seen in a while. I helped clean up our campsite, earning us a perfect score for the day's inspection. That afternoon I went on the fly fishing expedition with two of the Scouts; however there was not enough poles so I was forced to sit and watch quietly, just relaxing. It's tough being an adult leader sometimes.

A lot around the camp has changed. Places have moved around and policies added and edited. Camp food hasn't changed much. It's just as bad as I remember it. :-X

Before the evening flag ceremony, Steve, who is the rifle range master of all things, and I got to shoot for a while at the range. I was pretty bad at first, but with a few small adjustments and pointers from him I was able to get a pretty nice cluster. We took a few minutes with the shotgun as well and I got to shoot my first clay pigeons! That was a lot of fun. I was surprised to be able to pick it up so quickly. I don't shoot very often - almost never. But getting a chance to shoot up at camp was nice. It's a chance to just focus on one small thing and forget all the other things going on. You've got ear protection on so all you can really hear is your breath. It's a very "inner" thing - something I haven't experienced in a while.

The closing campfire was really nice. Our troop won Honor Unit; which is basically the "troop of the week" award. That was pretty cool. And at the closing campfire I got to participate in my first American flag retirement ceremony. That's when flags that are too old and worn to be used are burned in a respectful and simple ceremony. It's the only respectful way to retire an American flag.

I don't think there were many pictures taken, but if I come across any I'll have to post them up.

"Now you're thinking in portals"

The upcoming Half-Life 2 episode is probably going to be pretty amazing. I haven't finished HL yet and I haven't even played HL2, but the upcoming episode is supposed to have a really cool new single-player fps which will turn the gaming industry on its ear. It's called Portal and just looks awesome. It's built on the HL2 engine called Source (warning: loads of big words on that link) - all of which has been written by Valve. Check out the demo video which is mocked up to appear like a training video for a new employee. It's impressive to say the least.

fly guy

Nothing beats a random site to brighten your day. So ... let the brightening commence. This one is called Fly Guy and just put a little smile on my face. :-) That's a replica of the little smile on my face.

tom's new blog

I'm heading out to work shortly, but I was delighted this morning when I received an email from good buddy Tom who just moved out to Washington. He's joined the club of the self-absorbed and started his own blog right here at Blogger. So now that I've plugged his blog our total reader count is ... 6 -- unless you count he and I twice. I also added his blog to the Friends' Blogs list just in case you didn't subscribe to the rss feed and couldn't remember tomgu.blogspot.com and failed to bookmark it and somehow couldn't find this post again to link to it. In any event if you can't find it again maybe you should stop using the internet.

While I'm talking about Tom, he sent me a link to a very amusing Jon Stewart clip that I must have missed. I know I'd remember his discussion on Net Neutrality if I saw it.