Since I'm working on getting the photos out, here is the link to photos from the Fresno-Kingsburg trip, as well as two photos from a recent beach trip. http://picasaweb.google.com/Iskid2astop/FresnoKingsburgTrip#
Enjoy!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Liberia Pictures
Hey All,
I know I have derlict in posting all the pictures from my trip to Liberia, but I am working on it now.
The link is here. http://picasaweb.google.com/Iskid2astop/LiberiaFromBaker#
And there will be more pictures coming on throughout the day. If you don't like all the captions, particularly the obvious one's, I'm sorry, but it helped me remember, and weed out the bad ones.
Thanks!
Chris
I know I have derlict in posting all the pictures from my trip to Liberia, but I am working on it now.
The link is here. http://picasaweb.google.com/Iskid2astop/LiberiaFromBaker#
And there will be more pictures coming on throughout the day. If you don't like all the captions, particularly the obvious one's, I'm sorry, but it helped me remember, and weed out the bad ones.
Thanks!
Chris
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Summer of Our Enjoyments
Whew! Summer is over. School is begun. I said I wouldn't blog for the summer, but would start up again when school began.
I probably should summarize my summer, just because having some backstory is always nice. This is not a Marvel comic, so unexplained gaps in the story are not acceptable.
Most of my summer was doing some kind of volunteering, in some fashion. I belive I have talked about Village Harvest. We did a few of those harvests, and a lot of another aspect of VH. There is a small, local, fruit farmer in Morgan Hill, named Andy Mariani. Appropriately enough, his orchard is called, "Andy's Orchard" (He is located, for you locals, just across from the LO ball field.) He has something called "seconds". If he can't sell all of a certain fruit before it starts to go bad, or at least too bad for him to sell. Instead of letting the fruit go to waste, he wants it to go to those who need it. That's where we come in (and Village Harvest, by proxy). We take the fruit, give as much to a local food bank as possible, and then pass out the rest at various low-income apartment complexes. While I'm immensely proud to be involved in this work, it can be a bit grueling. The crates (or as some call them "lugs"), when filled with fruit weigh somewhere around 25 pounds per. Enough of those makes some hard work. The record was over 30 crates in one night. That's 600 lbs of fruit.
In Silicon Valley, there comes a time in the summer, when every church is having a VBS. (Vacation Bible School) I call this VBS month. It is like an all-you-can-ship-your-kid-off-for-a-week-buffet. Perhaps this is partially because kids can't just go out and play (at least not without some kind of liability), but regardless, why do kids always have to be doing something? I console myself with the thought that while I participate in this bizzare ritual, I try and make things a little more.....silly. I was at the San Martin Presbyterian Church VBS. We were a small but goofy group. There were about 25 kids, and about 10 adult and teenaged helpers. I was the game czar, and mission proclaimer. For the missions part, I talked with the kids about my trip to Liberia, and encouraged them to give money to support kids, just like them, in Liberia. For games, I just kinda flowed. We quickly exhausted the games I had planned for, and so, we moved to a more casual game set. There were also some boys who had a LOT of energy. I ran them ragged. That was pretty fun. I also made the mistake of making water balloons. (Thank you Josiah!!) I did learn from that mistake, namely, that I make a great target, and everyone loves throwing water balloons. Was that a mistake?
Another standby of my summers has become the Los Alto United Methodist Church (I just remembered that, without looking at anything) rummage sale. This is a huge rummage sale. Last year, they made $45,000. Quite a few things, and a lot of work. I am one of manual laborers, and usually the youngest person, excluding my little siblings. I pick up things, carry things, and do whatever the sweet little old ladies ask me to do. My favorite part is the cool stuff I get there, for prices that are outrageously good. Examples-The Agony and the Etsacy, 25 cents. An college level Environmental Science textbook, free. For Whom The Bell Tolls, 50 cents. Nice shirts, $1 per. I like it. Plus, I got to work with one of the coolest guys I have every worked with. Dolph, perhaps about 65-70, quiet as all get out, a great worker, and he brought snacks. I loved him.
Instead of my usual stint at the Aquarium as a student guide (docent is another way to think of it), I got to do some pretty cool stuff this summer. I was involved in pilot program, helping develop a new teen program for the Aquarium. We were looking at how to unify various student programs, and develop a new direction for teen programs in the future. I got to spend time behind the scenes, and enjoy greater freedom around the Aquarium, as well as spending more time out on the floor. I had a great team, and really enjoyed working with them all. My time there is a whole post worth of stories. One more bonus of being in Monterey was the fact I got to spend two nights down there, by myself, more or less. A couple from my guide shift offered to let me stay in their guest house, on Wenseday and Thursday night, then my parents would pick me up on Friday afternoon. Those two days, were like a Costco sample of living on oneself. Except no one was wearing those goofy beard nets. I got to shop for myself, get myself home, do my one dish, and having down time for the rest of the night. Got to read, exercise, and go to sleep early. Made my own coffee, turned off my own alarm, and ate my own breakfast. On the front of food, one of my favorite things, I got all my food from the grocery store, and kept things pretty simple. Mostly fruits and veggies, with the addition of bread and cheese. Brie was my favorite, but Irish cheddar was pretty nice too. My favorite meal was breakfast. Warm bread, white nectarines, an orange, a banana, and some Brie. Good times.
One of the weekends this summer, the entire family took a trip to Fresno, to see our good friends, the Vehrs. It was pretty fun. As much as I enjoyed hanging out with my friends (which was a lot), I enjoyed something else even more. We took a trip to Kingsburg, where my grandma and "gramma auntie" grew up. I didn't know that Kingsburg was a heavily Swedish town. Certainly led to some interesting pictures. This question is just for Auntie. In the picture with the Viking, do I look like Rick? Mom thinks I do. I had a lot of fun seeing a small town thriving, without exploiting its small-townness.
One final thing I did over the summer was some work at On The Road Again, a British auto restoration shop. If you are not sure why I'm doing this, check out my other blog. Most of my work is janitorial, sweeping, mopping, etc, but, from time to time, I get to do some new, fun stuff. Setting up a extra level of industrial shelving, installing a paper towel holder, strapping a car to a trailer, sandblasting a brake drum, and other such interesting tasks. I'm really enjoying my time there, and over the school year, I hope to be doing enough mechanic-related tasks, on my car and others, that I can count this as a school class. I have to say, I got some pretty cool teachers. One has been working on cars since he was 16, and raced for 20 years. I'm looking forward to it.
I'll include a link to pictures in a later post.
That is more or less my summer, with lots of details excluded, because I forgot, or because they aren't worth the effort to include. Now, on to everything after!
Thanks.
Chris
I probably should summarize my summer, just because having some backstory is always nice. This is not a Marvel comic, so unexplained gaps in the story are not acceptable.
Most of my summer was doing some kind of volunteering, in some fashion. I belive I have talked about Village Harvest. We did a few of those harvests, and a lot of another aspect of VH. There is a small, local, fruit farmer in Morgan Hill, named Andy Mariani. Appropriately enough, his orchard is called, "Andy's Orchard" (He is located, for you locals, just across from the LO ball field.) He has something called "seconds". If he can't sell all of a certain fruit before it starts to go bad, or at least too bad for him to sell. Instead of letting the fruit go to waste, he wants it to go to those who need it. That's where we come in (and Village Harvest, by proxy). We take the fruit, give as much to a local food bank as possible, and then pass out the rest at various low-income apartment complexes. While I'm immensely proud to be involved in this work, it can be a bit grueling. The crates (or as some call them "lugs"), when filled with fruit weigh somewhere around 25 pounds per. Enough of those makes some hard work. The record was over 30 crates in one night. That's 600 lbs of fruit.
In Silicon Valley, there comes a time in the summer, when every church is having a VBS. (Vacation Bible School) I call this VBS month. It is like an all-you-can-ship-your-kid-off-for-a-week-buffet. Perhaps this is partially because kids can't just go out and play (at least not without some kind of liability), but regardless, why do kids always have to be doing something? I console myself with the thought that while I participate in this bizzare ritual, I try and make things a little more.....silly. I was at the San Martin Presbyterian Church VBS. We were a small but goofy group. There were about 25 kids, and about 10 adult and teenaged helpers. I was the game czar, and mission proclaimer. For the missions part, I talked with the kids about my trip to Liberia, and encouraged them to give money to support kids, just like them, in Liberia. For games, I just kinda flowed. We quickly exhausted the games I had planned for, and so, we moved to a more casual game set. There were also some boys who had a LOT of energy. I ran them ragged. That was pretty fun. I also made the mistake of making water balloons. (Thank you Josiah!!) I did learn from that mistake, namely, that I make a great target, and everyone loves throwing water balloons. Was that a mistake?
Another standby of my summers has become the Los Alto United Methodist Church (I just remembered that, without looking at anything) rummage sale. This is a huge rummage sale. Last year, they made $45,000. Quite a few things, and a lot of work. I am one of manual laborers, and usually the youngest person, excluding my little siblings. I pick up things, carry things, and do whatever the sweet little old ladies ask me to do. My favorite part is the cool stuff I get there, for prices that are outrageously good. Examples-The Agony and the Etsacy, 25 cents. An college level Environmental Science textbook, free. For Whom The Bell Tolls, 50 cents. Nice shirts, $1 per. I like it. Plus, I got to work with one of the coolest guys I have every worked with. Dolph, perhaps about 65-70, quiet as all get out, a great worker, and he brought snacks. I loved him.
Instead of my usual stint at the Aquarium as a student guide (docent is another way to think of it), I got to do some pretty cool stuff this summer. I was involved in pilot program, helping develop a new teen program for the Aquarium. We were looking at how to unify various student programs, and develop a new direction for teen programs in the future. I got to spend time behind the scenes, and enjoy greater freedom around the Aquarium, as well as spending more time out on the floor. I had a great team, and really enjoyed working with them all. My time there is a whole post worth of stories. One more bonus of being in Monterey was the fact I got to spend two nights down there, by myself, more or less. A couple from my guide shift offered to let me stay in their guest house, on Wenseday and Thursday night, then my parents would pick me up on Friday afternoon. Those two days, were like a Costco sample of living on oneself. Except no one was wearing those goofy beard nets. I got to shop for myself, get myself home, do my one dish, and having down time for the rest of the night. Got to read, exercise, and go to sleep early. Made my own coffee, turned off my own alarm, and ate my own breakfast. On the front of food, one of my favorite things, I got all my food from the grocery store, and kept things pretty simple. Mostly fruits and veggies, with the addition of bread and cheese. Brie was my favorite, but Irish cheddar was pretty nice too. My favorite meal was breakfast. Warm bread, white nectarines, an orange, a banana, and some Brie. Good times.
One of the weekends this summer, the entire family took a trip to Fresno, to see our good friends, the Vehrs. It was pretty fun. As much as I enjoyed hanging out with my friends (which was a lot), I enjoyed something else even more. We took a trip to Kingsburg, where my grandma and "gramma auntie" grew up. I didn't know that Kingsburg was a heavily Swedish town. Certainly led to some interesting pictures. This question is just for Auntie. In the picture with the Viking, do I look like Rick? Mom thinks I do. I had a lot of fun seeing a small town thriving, without exploiting its small-townness.
One final thing I did over the summer was some work at On The Road Again, a British auto restoration shop. If you are not sure why I'm doing this, check out my other blog. Most of my work is janitorial, sweeping, mopping, etc, but, from time to time, I get to do some new, fun stuff. Setting up a extra level of industrial shelving, installing a paper towel holder, strapping a car to a trailer, sandblasting a brake drum, and other such interesting tasks. I'm really enjoying my time there, and over the school year, I hope to be doing enough mechanic-related tasks, on my car and others, that I can count this as a school class. I have to say, I got some pretty cool teachers. One has been working on cars since he was 16, and raced for 20 years. I'm looking forward to it.
I'll include a link to pictures in a later post.
That is more or less my summer, with lots of details excluded, because I forgot, or because they aren't worth the effort to include. Now, on to everything after!
Thanks.
Chris
The Story
I know I said I would start blogging after summer was over, but I had so much happen, getting it all into one post would be a challenge, as would be writing that post. I was kind of wait for a story, something short, sweet, and interesting, as a way to get back into the groove of blogging. This is that story.
My church has a tradition of a summer/post summer softball league. Ever since I played baseball/football/basketball in Iowa (another story entirely), any chance I get to play organized sports, I do. The games started this week, but my team had a bye. (We didn't play) Instead, we got some of the team together, and had a little practice. This went swimmingly, I think I did fine. I was more concerned about my batting than my fielding, and I hit consistently well. Out of 25 or so pitches, I fouled two, and hit the rest. My fielding was ok, if a little rusty. How do I know it was rusty?
We were taking turns getting some batting practice, and the rest of the team was shagging the flies. One got hit right to me, and it was coming down, and then I had one of those scary lucid moments. I saw the ball, coming down towards me, and then, I realized it was going to hit me right in the eye. Sure enough, it did. Odd how that worked out. I'm a good enough ball player that I don't miss an easy fly without some reason. My guess is that the wind blew it just enough that I missed. Or, I'm just rusty. Either way, it hurt. I didn't see any stars, just people, so my eyes worked. I stayed awake until I went to bed at 12, so I think my brain is mostly fine. Aside from the nasty bruise I have (black eye baby!!), the only other possible effect is my nose, which has some cuts, and hurts. Did I mention I have a cold too? Sneezing with a bruised nose is a real joy. Included is a picture of my poor eye. I'm not sure how well it will show up, it feels worse than it looks. My eyebrow hurts.
Looking forward to another year of blogging with you all!'
Chris
My church has a tradition of a summer/post summer softball league. Ever since I played baseball/football/basketball in Iowa (another story entirely), any chance I get to play organized sports, I do. The games started this week, but my team had a bye. (We didn't play) Instead, we got some of the team together, and had a little practice. This went swimmingly, I think I did fine. I was more concerned about my batting than my fielding, and I hit consistently well. Out of 25 or so pitches, I fouled two, and hit the rest. My fielding was ok, if a little rusty. How do I know it was rusty?
We were taking turns getting some batting practice, and the rest of the team was shagging the flies. One got hit right to me, and it was coming down, and then I had one of those scary lucid moments. I saw the ball, coming down towards me, and then, I realized it was going to hit me right in the eye. Sure enough, it did. Odd how that worked out. I'm a good enough ball player that I don't miss an easy fly without some reason. My guess is that the wind blew it just enough that I missed. Or, I'm just rusty. Either way, it hurt. I didn't see any stars, just people, so my eyes worked. I stayed awake until I went to bed at 12, so I think my brain is mostly fine. Aside from the nasty bruise I have (black eye baby!!), the only other possible effect is my nose, which has some cuts, and hurts. Did I mention I have a cold too? Sneezing with a bruised nose is a real joy. Included is a picture of my poor eye. I'm not sure how well it will show up, it feels worse than it looks. My eyebrow hurts.
Looking forward to another year of blogging with you all!'
Chris
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