Ok, here it goes. Attempt number three.

Unbeknownst to you (and yes, I did spell unbeknownst correctly on the first attempt), I'd started this post twice already. Just to give you a taste of what you're missing, I'll present to you the first sentence of each attempt. Consider article one: "In some ways it doesn't feel like it's been three weeks since I posted -- three weeks and three days! -- and in others the past two days have felt like three weeks and three days all by themselves." That, in fact, was my entire first paragraph. Consider yourselves lucky to have received it in full. The second began, "New Post!" Ordinarily, I'd point out that that was not a complete sentence, as it has a (poorly formed) subject, but no predicate, and on top of that, incorrectly makes 'post' a proper noun, but considering you got an entire paragraph in the first one, I feel you've gotten what you've paid for. On the other hand, how would you reword that clause so you don't end it with a preposition? I feel that for which you've paid, you've gotten. Seriously, what were the English language creators thinking? So very prissy.

Alright, alright. Though I've not yet posted this, I can already anticipate the overwhelming demand for the first full sentence of that post, and such demand, if not sated, would likely lead to rioting in the streets, the overthrowing of government, world hunger doubled by Tuesday, and in all probability a geomagnetic reversal (known to Bob as "Cross Polarity Itus," a planetary disease). As this would cause my iPhone compass app to no longer work, at least until Apple sent out an update, I would rather avoid this. Here it is, but in the future, can't nobody ever say Jordan never did nothing for the peoples. "I started one while I was at camp last week." Oooh. Ahhh.

Now that we've narrowly avoided certain planet-wide catastrophe, I'm going to go reattach my left car mirror and head over to get my oil changed. I will continue to write there. Don't push me.

So here we are at JiffyLube. I can never tell if I can trust them, but they like to give discounts, and to an extent, everything they replace seems like it probably needs replacing at the intervals they replace it. Meh, it's only money, and I don't know a good mechanic. Despite being taught multiple times by my dad, I'd rather not change my own oil. I probably could if my life depended on it, but it doesn't.

I can't quite remember what happened a month ago, which would have been the last time I posted aside from this past Tuesday. I do remember that Rosa had a going-away party, which was really more of an excuse for a get together. I drove up to Bellingham for that, and that was fun. I got to catch up with several people I'd missed, mostly from the INN, and met a few others.

I know since then, at work, we've done quite a lot, made some major accomplishments, and done some things I'm proud and excited of and about, respectively. I'm pretty sure I'm NDA'd, though, so no specifics for you, damn the consequences, and associated earthquake that would cause the US and Canada to switch places. Ha, you laugh now, but when global warming really starts to take effect, we'll have the prime real estate. By the way California, you owe Microsoft a great deal for NDA'ing me. Just wait and see.

Three Fridays ago, I left work around noon so I could drive back to my apartment, grab my kitties, and head to Port Orchard before the eye doctor's office closed. I finally got my new glasses lenses, which I'd purchased a couple months ago. This past week I read almost all of the entries I've written on walloftext.net, so I can safely state that I never said what happened with my eye doctor. It turns out that Group Health wouldn't go out-of-network for my eye doctor, and I really like my eye doctor, so I decided to pay out of pocket, and switch to Premera in November. Meanwhile, only one of my eyes changed (astigmatism++;), and my lenses have a lifetime, once per year, clean 'em for free, warranty on them, so I convinced them that I only had to pay for one lens. I have awesome frames that don't have bottoms, so they can sort of fudge the lenses a little bit without a lot of worry, and instead of me dropping my frames off and using old glasses until the new lenses came in, she could just take the top measurements, and I could go in at my leisure, which happened to be two or three months later.

Despite the obviously dire need for new lenses, the primary reason I was heading back to grand ol' 19th Century Charm was to drop off my kitties for my mom to watch. I spent the night there. The next day I ran a few errands, and that afternoon we were heading to my grandma's house on Camano Island. Every year for the past four or five, for Mother's Day, we've bought the family tickets to a Mariner's game. This year, I assume due to tighter budgets, we didn't get tickets, but instead all went to her place to watch the game and eat hotdogs and hang out. It was good times, and probably better seats than in the park -- we normally end up on the third floor -- and while it was definitely fun, there's nothing quite like seeing the game at the stadium. It's not that I felt like this was worse, or a sorry excuse or anything like that. I just want to make the distinction, because I see one. And as the primary influence in your life, I think you should make the distinction, too.

However, right before we left, I wanted to make sure that both my cats were indoors, because they're not used to spending a whole lot of time outside, seeing as how I live in an apartment. I do wish I could let them out; it would make cleaning the litter box significantly infrequent. I don't think the apartment management would appreciate that, though, and it'd be far too easy for the cats to be hit by a car. Just another reason I need to start saving for a house. I do have what used to be $6000 in Microsoft stock coming in in a few days. I don't know what it's worth now. It was part of my contract, that I'd get $30,000 in Microsoft stock over 5 years, but that stock was purchased for me sometime last July or August, and since then, stock's gone down by about 30% across the board.

Right, so we were ensuring that both cats were indoors, but we could only find one. We searched everywhere inside, went walking outside, even asked if the neighbors had seen him. I think we spent a half hour looking for him, until I finally, slowly opened the reclining portion of the couch, and the cat crawled out. I think he may have been stuck in there, but why he didn't meow, I'm not sure. He's usually pretty loud when he wants to be somewhere else.

We drove north in two cars so that I could continue right onto Bellingham when the game was over. Also, my mom finished reupholstering my favorite chair for my birthday last year, and so that needed to be driven up to my apartment, and my car isn't big enough to haul it. We hit Costco first to pick up some things for the baseball party, and get some glorious Costco muffins for the counselors at Hime's day camp. Next, we dropped by South Center so I could buy a new MacBook. My old one had just died, and I use my laptop for journaling, which I really wanted to be able to do while at the camp. I'm not sure if it's completely dead or not. It might be a software issue, but it's presenting itself as a hardware issue. It has something to do with permissions on the video card or something? I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, if, after I get all the data moved to my new laptop, I can wipe the drive and get it working again, I'll give it to my mom, because she really needs a new computer. I might even be able to put Windows 7 on it. Also, because my mom is a student getting her masters, we used her student discount to get my laptop, and it came with a free iPod Touch, so I'm giving that to her, too, as her Nano no longer holds a charge. Last, before making it to Grandma's, we swung by my apartment to drop off the chair. I'd also hoped to install Office 2008 on Jack's laptop, because my mom (with Jack) was leaving in a week (right as I was finishing my week at camp) to go to Minnesota for Jack's niece's wedding, and if she hadn't finished all her school work by then, she'd need a word processor. It turned out, when I couldn't find my disks, that TextEdit was enough for her, so that at least worked out. I also tried to pull my music off my iPhone so I could put it on her iPod. After I accidentally wiped my desktop's drive when upgrading to Win7 RC, the only backup I had left was on my laptop (though, I remember now that I also have it on my work computer), and since it was dead, I had no easy way to get the music. I found a program that rips the music, but the trial only gets you 100 songs. We were running out of time, so as one, we said "Bah," and left.

The game was fun. I can't remember whether we won or lost. I think we won. It was good to hang out with the extended family. I was especially pleased to hear, as were we all, that my uncle is no longer with his girlfriend. He got to keep the dog, too. I was wearing my "No, I will not fix your computer." t-shirt, and yet my grandma's computer needed fixing, so I did that to the best of my ability, fighting with all of my effort against the will of the shirt. I don't think it will ever run as fast as it used to without a full wipe, but I didn't have the time or the hard drive to back everything up for her. Still, I got it to run two or three times as fast as it was running. Apparently Navi downloaded a whole bunch of things when she and my aunt were visiting last year. A lot of those things were IE toolbars that came with games and such. There was some program that wouldn't die. It had a counter part that would spawn a new instance every time I killed it. I've seen programs like that, where there are two and you had to kill them both at the same time, or it wouldn't work. That's why taskkill is a great command, and to think I wouldn't have known that command unless I had spent so much time doing deployments to clusters. (The taskkill command can kill a process on another machine if you have access to it, too.)

Ah Minnie. She just changed the topic after a long pause in a conversation: "So...I kind of like this guy..." She's such a great person. In the words of Hime, "I LOVE Minnie!"

The drive up to Bellingham was nice, though my iPhone had GPS issues on Camano and in Stanwood, so I missed a turn, but ultimately, I figured out how to get to the freeway by another route, with minimal back tracking. It was probably a tossup to begin with, but I was freaked out a little, as I was running late as it was. I got behind some guys going 70-80 the whole way, including a cop. I made good time, better time than Google said I would anyway. I would have used Bing maps if I could use it on my iPhone. I swear! In all seriousness, for most things, I like Bing maps better. Occasionally, I want street view, rather than bird's eye, or I want to check how much more or less time a different path to the same destination would take (I love Google's drag and drop feature), but those are really the only two advantages, and Bing's typically works better. You can get the same results as Google's alternate route drag and drop thing on Bing, but it's not as seamless.

I got to the camp right at 3, which is when everyone was meeting, but I didn't know exactly where to park, so I called Bubba, who was just about to start the meeting, and he gave me quick directions. When I got out of the car, Hime walked up to greet me and show me where to go.

I really can't describe how everything went at the camp. There was just so much, and it's totally unlike anything I've ever done, even compared to the other camp I worked at the summer after I graduated. (That wasn't so much being a counselor as being a chaperone for First Christian's youth group.) Since it wasn't the first week of the camp, I didn't have a lot of ramp-up time and kind of was just thrown into the mix, which was fine. We prayed and had a little orientation meeting, then spent a while looking over the verses we'd be teaching in Bible Study. That week's section was Psalm 23, possibly the single most known passage in scripture, save maybe John 3:16 and the Lord's Prayer.

I'm awful at learning names, so it took a while -- the whole week, in fact -- to learn all of the counselors' camp names. One of the things we did that Sunday night was name the newbies for that week. I was up first, and Hime (known to the camp as Dura), gave this story about how I work at Microsoft and how one of my favorite programming languages (though, I don't think she quite knew what she was saying) was C++, so that was going to be my name. It got a mediocre response, and ordinarily, someone else would take the stage and make up a story that ends with the desired name, but Yippity delegated his time to Hime to try again. She began this one saying that I'm amazing at Smash Brothers (exaggeration), and that my favorite character to play is Metaknight, even mentioning that I'd dressed up as him for her birthday this year, but that Metaknight is too cool for me, so a better name from the Kirby series is Waddle Dee. It stuck. I was Waddle Dee (Waddles for short) for a week -- the most useless character in Kirby, the equivalent of a goomba, who is only somewhat powerful when he has another enemy (the umbrella) with him. Another new counselor was there just for the week because they needed guy counselors that week in particular (I think because a couple weren't there, like Wunderkin), but he was going to come back the next year as a CIT (counselor in training, I think), so he could have his name changed next time, which is ordinarily against the code. He ended up with Sugaboots. I think it was meant to be a practical joke of sorts, but I kind of like it, and so did he. The third guy was renamed Shiver Me Timbers after like four attempts at a story and name worth having. We called him Shivers. It's great, because I don't have to alias them in my blog. Good luck finding someone named Sharpeedo, ya know?

This just in: The state of California is purchasing masses of Microsoft stock. Can a state even legally do that?

This particular week was special in that there were teams. I was on the yellow team; Hime led the red team; there were also the orange and blue teams, but you don't know anyone on them yet. The AZLs led the teams. AZLs are activity zone leaders. Hime isn't actually a counselor; she runs the wood zone. The other zones were wet, art, and sports. This week the AZLs chose which counselors would help them, too. The camp is split up into first through third grades (Fir Creek) and fourth through sixth (Summer Blast), and Fir Creek has activity time in the morning and free time in the afternoon, while Summer Blast has it switched. So, since each counselor is either Fir Creek or Summer Blast, there have to be two sets of counselors for each activity zone. Hime chose Sharpeedo, Quetzacoatl, and me for her group, so I got to spend quite a bit of time with those two. They're both really great people, and if I can swing it, I'd love to stay friends with them over more than facebook.

So Sunday evening (I can't remember whether it was before or after the naming ceremonies), we did something called Façade, where we cover the entire face of the camp building with butcher paper. Since we had the yellow, red, orange, and blue knights theme going on, each team had to make their emblem. Then, a member from three of the teams were chosen to make the black knight's fort at the end of the building. I was among those three, the other two being Sharpeedo and Flomar. Flomar is another great person. She lives like 20 or 30 minutes from where I live, when she's not at camp, so hopefully, we can hang out too. Ours was by far the worst. None of the three of us have that artistic ability, though Flomar and I each play music (she's much better than I am). Also, it wasn't very coordinated across teams, and we ended up with a sun right next to a huge moon, right next to our small moon behind a cloud. Continuity is for wimps.

The first day of actual camp, we all met our kids. I took my group a little ways from the stage/benches and sat them down on the four square area. I had them each give their name, what grade they're in, and what their favorite kind of ice cream was, as Hime had suggested I did. That favorite kind of ice cream turned into their favorite thing. At one point, one of the guys asked "Can it be something healthy that you like?" It's funny that the kids think there are actual rules to this, and that it's important to follow them. Since I didn't have any real rules, I almost said "sure, why not" or something to that effect, but then I thought about it and said, "No, it has to be something that's bad for you." And that, my friends, is how you build rapport with 7- and 8-year-olds.

On one of the nights, we split into guys and gals to do bible study, and afterward the guys group went out for doughnuts. There we did the three Ws: work, walk, and women. When we got to me, I went into the five aspects of the third W. First, I had a kid that all week tried to set me up with every female counselor, so I had that going for me, but alas, he was ultimately unsuccessful.

Second, on Wednesday, Hime was in Seattle for a job interview, so Quetzacoatl took her place and pretended like she actually was Dura, and that it was in fact Quetza who was gone for an interview. So, between activity zone hours, I said "Hey, doesn't Dura look cute today?" indicating Quetzacoatl. The rest of the day, there was much talking about how I was in love with Dura. I text messaged Dura during some off time during lunch filling her in, and telling her to play along when she got back, as if she had been there the whole day. The first thing she heard when she walked up was, "Dura! Waddle Dee is in love with you!" Oddly, after that day I didn't hear another word about it.

The third aspect was that on the Friday before I left for camp, I met up with Fey. That was a really hard meeting. At first it was fine, though she said it was awkward, but we got to talking, and, well, I'll just say it was hard. And that I'm no longer at all even close to entertaining the notion of getting back together with her.

The fourth aspect was simply that I don't have a girlfriend, and that I'm actually content with that.

Last, I said that I have a minor crush, and I barely know her, but I think she's cute. It'd be a bad idea, though, because it would be the 7th long distance relationship I'd have been in, in a row. One of the guys pushed me to say who it was, and I hesitated, and then said it had something to do with the word "Mango." The next day, I found out that one of the guys there may have something going on with Mangofiki, so I hope that wasn't too awkward. I expected Hime to figure it out by the end of the week, because she usually does, but it seems she was distracted too much by her boyfriend (Ragnaros). Still, she heard through the grapevine by Saturday. I'm not sure how. At first I thought it was through Ragnaros, but then I remembered he didn't go to the doughnut place because he wasn't feeling well. Conspiracy at hand? I think so!

So, it's time to digress a bit. I've know this for a while, but I have this issue where if I'm presented with two options, I almost always decide on the one I like less. I somehow trick myself into thinking it'll be better for me in the long run or something. I don't know that I've ever picked the right flavor of ice cream. When there's a song on and I don't really feel like listening to it, but it fits the criteria for my mood, I'll usually listen to it anyway, or similarly, if I finally did decide to skip it, but it's been like 20 seconds, I won't skip it because I hate when people skip a song halfway through. But I'm the only one in the car.

Today I bought a new bed. I was really worried I would fall into this habit again, and buy the second most comfortable mattress or get the second best head board and frame. Somehow, I managed to get the ones I actually wanted. Since I'm already talking about it, I might as well finish the story. I went into Sears today because I'd looked at Sleep Country's website and it didn't look like they sold the frames, but a quick search on the web pulls up some department stores. It turns out that Sears sells the mattresses, and Sleep Country sells the whole bed. Anyway, I went into Sears and the salesperson was kind of hard to understand and quiet. He showed me a few mattresses, and I kind of got a feel for what I wanted. It didn't really seem like he knew too much of what was in the mattresses or what made them good for whom. Overall, I was unimpressed, but of the one I liked best, I took a picture with its label. Then I headed to Sleep Country, where the salesguy and I struck up a conversation right off the bat. He even delayed his lunch to show me around, talking about the different intricacies of each mattress, and how some were built for durability and some were built for cheapness. Some were eco-friendly and made of bamboo fiber and latex. He completely understood what I meant when I said things like "This one is really comfortable, but I don't know if I'd sleep as well on it, as that one over there." They have a deal that if you keep it for 30 days, within 100 days of the purchase, you can bring it back and get a different one of the same or greater value for the difference in price. Anyway, I'd planned on shopping around for at least another hour or two. There was another mattress place across the street, but it looked shady to me, and the guy was so helpful, that I decided to buy it. He also dropped $150 off the price. I still have something like 30 days to find a better price on a comparable mattress, and Sleep Country will beat it by 5%, but I think I would rather get the purchase behind me. I don't like big purchases, and the sooner I get used to having the item, the sooner it disappears as a distraction.

End digression. So the day usually went something like this: get up at 6:30; shower; pray; get breakfast and prepare sack lunches; play squareball with the kids until 9:15; Rhonex would get the kids pumped up for the day; singing with Kuyatsa; brief message by Camillionaire; activity zones (for Fir Creek, as were my campers); lunch, glorious lunch; Bible Study; free time; all camp game; more square ball until all the kids had gone (or 5:00); clean the bathrooms; at 5:30, alone-with-God time (suggested, not enforced); dinner; all staff meeting at 7:30; day-of-the-week-based event; to bed by 10:30. Just imagine, if that had been my first sentence of the first post I'd written. That was like twenty sentences in one! Then, surely, you could not have complained about the semi-sentence I gave you from the second post attempt.

Squareball was really fun, and a good excuse to play with the kids without them climbing all over you. It's basically four square, but the counselors pretty much regulated the rules. If there was a counselor in line, it was Old School. Better yet, occasionally a counselor would ref the game. Yippity (who was the Wet Zone AZL) was quite good at this, and apparently Wunderkin was even better, though he was gone that week. There's a different hand motion for each of the calls: carrying, holding, air mail (hitting the ball before it bounced in your square), stolen thunder (hitting the ball after it bounced in someone else's square, but before they touched it), on the line - redo, single bounce, double bounce, out of bounds, and chicken feet (when the ball hits an illegal part of your body). Chicken feet was one of my favorite hand motions. "Illegal move" - outline a box with your hands - "chicken" - hands in pits, flap your wings - "feet" - make a sweeping motion toward your feet. However, chicken feet didn't make a whole lot of sense when it hit your chest or shoulder, so we made a new call: chicken breast. The motion was pounding your chest. I don't know, maybe you just had to be there. Yippity's awesome though. Still, my favorite call, both because of the call and because of the gesture, is "awkward play," and the ref would put a finger on the side of his collar and pull it out to the side and grimace. So great.

Each week, the counselors make awards for their cabin members. These are usually small trinkets that don't take a whole lot of work to produce, but because there are 8-12 of them, still take a long time. I was having difficulty figuring out what to make my guys, but eventually decided to make Waddle Dee badges, with Psalm 23:3 on the back, and <name> the <something good> on the front. So, Alex the Resilient was one. We all stayed up really late that night in the craft shack. I really enjoyed it, because I got to know some of the counselors (namely Mango, though also Magnadoodle, Monkey, Taramgii, and Changity [Yippity's twin sister and Art Zone AZL]) a bit better.

On Wednesday, we had our group worship time. Also, that night, we had a new member come. He was named Snorlax. The first attempt was Moogle, but it didn't pass. The story behind Snorlax was that he's a pretty chill guy, but if you get him angry, he'll take you down fast, and after all, Snorlax is pretty laid back until you wake him up with the Pokéflute and then he's like BAM! I'm level 30 and have hyperbeam! He was one of my favorites, I think (the counselor, not the Pokémon); I got along with him pretty well, and he was funny.

That was perhaps something I should have been more conscious about. When I'm around kids, and I've said this before, I tend to make jokes that go over their heads for the older people. I made some pretty inappropriate jokes. But, at least I had some of the other counselors laughing. I don't think any of the kids heard the really bad ones, and the ones they did hear, weren't too bad, but even so, likely went over their heads, as designed. I think maybe, though, if a parent saw me making that kind of joke, they might disapprove. Luckily, except for one, the parents weren't there.

One of my kids was only with us for a day. He was pretty cool, it seemed, but his mom followed him around all day, not like actively interacting with the kids, but sort of watching from the sidelines. On Wednesday, after he was gone on Tuesday, Wiki told me that he wouldn't be coming back, but that his mom really liked me, and could see that I really loved the kids, but that she had issues with the way things were being run or something. I didn't really understand. One of the other counselors made the point that if you're so protective of your kid as to follow him around day camp, there's probably no camp good enough for him, or really, for you.

Another aside. There's a button on the blogger post page, that says "save now" and every time I see it, I always think of Theoden punctuating his speech at Gondor with "Ride now!" Also, I really like how Faramir became king of Rohan. That was a masterstroke by Tolkien.

For free time, four of the days we brought our kids down to the lake. I say 'we,' because I always went with Taramgii's cabin and usually with Magnadoodle's, Quetzacoatl's, or Sharpeedo's as well. The first couple days, I helped facilitate the swim tests because I had a watch, and could time their 30 seconds of treading water. I just sort of fell into the role. I wish I could have been in multiple places at once (not just the times I was doing the tests). There were a few guys, at other times, that wanted to either go out on a boat with me, or swim, or do whatever, and of course they all pick the same day to want to do it. On Thursday, it was significantly cooler, and a little downcast, so we stayed in the woods. We played a riveting game of Botchy Ball, while some of the other guys did archery, or generally played with sticks.

Sugaboots was telling me one day that during his free time, his kids just wanted to play World War II, or something. He asked how they played it, and they told him that they just used sticks as guns and such. He decided that if they were going to play that game, there had to be some clearly defined rules, and gave them a couple, like no sticks hitting anyone, and if you're fired at, you have to go down. After that, he just sat back and watched as they tired themselves out for two hours. Brilliant!

On Thursday night, after all the campers had left, and after dinner, we had what is affectionally called "fo shiz," which is sort of the counselors' night out. Each week the senior staff brings them someplace different. The week I was there, we went to someone's private property high on one of the foothills of the Cascades. It must have been somewhere between one and two thousand feet up. It had the most breathtaking view I've seen though, and I've been on a helicopter in Hawaii looking at thousand-foot waterfalls. This beat that. It overlooked the Sound, at sunset, and in the distance, you could see Canada. We spent the time doing whatever, just hanging out, and then a guy with a guitar and a wavy voice (a bit like David Crowder's) started singing, and Rhonex played a jam drum (I think that's what it's called -- he sat on the base of it, and beat it with his hands coming back at him). It was the most worshipful experience I've had since the last night of CCF right before I graduated. And a lot of people worshiped in their own way. Magnadoodle, Kuyatsa, and I sung with the two guys leading. Etamatlu and Mangofiki danced. I just love watching people free to dance like that. It always bothered me when a church would sing Undignified by Chris Tomlin (I will dance, I will sing / to be mad for my King / nothing Lord is hindering this passion in my soul) and then be still as rocks. I think that's probably the thing I like most about Mango (really, I barely know her -- again, minor crush), it's the passion and innocence written so plainly on her, on her face, in her movements, in her actions.

Things, especially embarrassing things, tend to bother me forever. I can't let go of them. They cause ticks if they're bad enough, and a painful memory at the least. Sometimes, even good things, if remembered in a different light, will have the same effect. In Jamaica, we were praying for Brett, and when something that needed to be prayed about wasn't covered by the people who did pray for him, right as people were starting to talk again, I started praying for him for that thing. It should be a good memory, a time when I obeyed God, but I remember it as embarrassing. Sometimes, that can be defused, but only in the right circumstances and done by the right person with the right words, it seems. One time, I was unloading the dishwasher, and I dropped a new dessert bowl, and it shattered. I felt really bad about it, and apologized profusely to my mom. When she could tell I still felt bad about it, she said, "I got them at Big Lots." Suddenly, all embarrassment, dread, and shame - gone. On one of the days, probably Wednesday or Friday, I was preparing with Taramgii to bring all the kids down to the lake for free time, and my boys were being boys, so I was trying to make sure they wouldn't hurt each other and such. It was loud, so I was somewhere between talking and yelling. Suddenly, dear sweet Cameron, jabs me in the leg with like a shoelace ending (the hard plastic part) from the band holding up his swim suit. It must have hit a nerve or something, because I bent down fast, and it hurt so I was using more air, but I wasn't quick enough to not finish my thought at what I was saying to the boys at large, and ended up shouting loudly at this kid, about five inches from his face. Worse, Rhonex and Bubba (two of the head guys) were standing right there, and Rhonex gave me this horrified look. It seemed Cameron didn't notice I was yelling at all. I apologized to him, and told him that I didn't mean to yell at him at all. Like I said, he didn't seem to notice it happened. Still, I felt awful about it for the next several hours, even after telling Taramgii what happened. That evening, I pulled Rhonex aside inside the barn, and said, "Hey, I really feel like I need to tell you what happened when I yelled at Cameron," and told him the story. He said something like, "Oh, it's fine. I was just surprised and wanted to see what was going on. And even if you had lost your temper, that's alright. It happens. Kids are trying." And suddenly, I was all better.

As I said earlier, Hime had Sharpeedo, Quetzacoatl, and me (and for Thursday and Friday, Snorlax, as he's a CIT under Sharpeedo) for her Fir Creek wood zone activity class. The younger kids get two activity zones unless they did the wet zone, because it's harder to keep their attention for more than an hour. One of the days, probably Tuesday, we all climbed up to the tree fort, and I was up about halfway through so I could keep an eye on the kids already up there. To keep them entertained, I started a game of Simon says. I'm not really sure any of them got the notion of being out, but who really cares, right? It kept them out of trouble, and they had a little fun. I know that were I one of the kids, I would have been mad at the injustice of it all. Anyway, my last command to them was "Simon says, point and laugh at Sharpeedo!" The counselors like to play little pranks on each other like that, or at least I did. For some reason, I don't think I was pranked too much, at least not compared to how much other people were. Maybe it was because I was new and older, or something. The next hour, Quetzacoatl ran the Simon says. I was up the ladder last, but right as she was about to quit playing, I yelled, "Simon says, chant yellow team! Yellow team! Yellow team!" Hime glared at me and said, "Grr, there are no red team kids in this group." The kids were particularly distracted that day, so toward the end, Hime had to set down some order. "We're going to be quiet and sit still for 2 minutes, and if anyone makes a move or a sound, we'll sit here for another 2 minutes. We might even go through lunch!" I think the tally went up to 12 minutes, but we only sat for like 3. It seemed to get the kids in line. It's nice that kids that young take adults' words as law. It's a little scary sometimes, but in this instance, it was nice that they didn't wonder why we had to sit for 12 minutes, what authority we the counselors had over them, or why they couldn't talk about healthy things, and it had to be something bad for them that they liked.

When Hime's plans for Wood Zone would finish early, she'd often have them play Fox in the Forest, where everyone is a bunny except for a couple foxes, who would chase them down. Then, when the bunny was caught, they became a fox. Eventually everyone was a fox, and if there was still time left over, we'd choose a kid to be a hunter, and the game would repeat. What comes after hunter, you ask? Why, Jabberwock, of course. And then, my personal favorite, the saber-toothed jackalope. I can't help but wonder if a kid or two told their parents about that game, and if their parents then laughed.

For one of the all camp games, the counselors had to run around, from base to base, with plastic horseshoes the kids could trade in for tattoos. Originally, there were only two bases, but some of the more experienced counselors knew better, and pulled some of the cones from each side to make a third base, bless them. Basically, the game was, wear the counselors out, but the kids didn't know that. A practical joke of sorts, if you ask me. Anyway, the counselors soon tired, and rather than running and being tagged to drop horseshoes, we started handing them out when they answered trivia questions. Some of the questions were about history, some about the Bible, a couple about computer science, because I'm deranged that way. One question was, "Who in the Bible lost everything he had, but never cursed God?" The expected answer was obviously Job, but the first kid said, "Jesus!" Monkey was just about to say no, and then said, "Yes, actually. You get two." There was another question, and Monkey, Musifi, and I were in the base together when we gave the question. One of the kids answered, "Mango!" and it was amazing. Monkey said, "That's one for the quote board!" (The quote board is an entire three walls devoted to funny things said that summer.) Unfortunately, none of us can now remember the question, and for like three days, we'd ask each other, "What was the question?" A fine bit of poetry was lost that day.

People kept asking me if it was harder than I expected. It really wasn't. It was different, but not harder. In fact, if you could quantify all the aspects of what I expected and all the aspects of what it was, they'd be nearly identical. It's the qualified parts that were different.

Working at Microsoft is a huge blessing. I was able to get work off with two or three weeks' notice. I was able to waive my $100 compensation at the camp, thus volunteering, and so Microsoft will match $17/hour for whatever I work at the organization, for the organization. I worked 60, so the camp got $1020. Mango had joked (in a faux-stern voice) that I should quit my job and do the nobel work of being a camp counselor. Then I told her about the Microsoft Give deal. Her eyes widened and she quickly said, "Don't quit your job." God got me the job at Microsoft; God got me to go to the camp; God got me through the week, way out of my comfort zone; God got the camp an extra $1020; God is great.

On Friday night, we had the sleepover. We had hot dogs, then built "forts" with sticks, then had s'mores. The forts were really just, grab all the big branches you find lying around, and we'll put them in a square around our designated area. The girls did it a little differently, making it look a little more like a fort, but ours would stop an army of new born kittens for at least an hour, whereas theirs was just taller (and would stop no army of any kind due to gaps in the walls which were really more like posts in the ground with nothing between them). Roasting marshmallows is another lost art to the newest generation. If there's one reason you, my readers, should protect me at all costs, possibly sacrificing your lives, it's to preserve the ability to roast a marshmallow to perfection. Sure, some other people might know it, but I ask you, is my potential death worth the risk? If I'm gone, do you know for sure that someone else can pick up the torch and finish the race?

The kids in the tent that night were given strict instruction to not talk or make any noise whatsoever until Yippity's cell phone alarm went off at 7:00. If they needed to go to the bathroom, go a good forty feet away from the tent and find a urinal-shaped bush. Then he read them, in an as monotonous voice as he could invoke, Daniel chapters 1 and 2 straight out of the NIV. This, I finally deduced, was an attempt to put them to sleep, not an attempt to tell them a bed time story, like a summarized version of Daniel and the Lions' Den. It seemed to work for the half closest to him, but getting our other half took some time. Taramgii had boys that week, so she stayed at the foot of the tent with Snorlax and me until they were all finally asleep. In the morning, around 5am, the guys started to wake up. I slept through it until around 6:00, I think. Snorlax had done a pretty good job of keeping them quiet until then. Around 6:30, things were starting to get out of hand. I wanted to use Hime's technique, but I couldn't think of anything they'd want, like the lunch that Hime could hold against them. I couldn't hold them past the time their parents would get there at 8. Eventually I figured it out. I told them that it needed to be quiet until 7, and any time I heard a noise, I would add another two minutes that they'd need to be quiet. Further, the time after 7, no one could use the bathroom or get a drink of water. That got them to at least stay quiet pretty quickly after I got up to like 20 minutes. At that point, I started adding three minutes, instead of two. They kept each other quiet. I had to point out, around a half hour, that I didn't think they could all hold their bladders that long. I think the final tally was 43 minutes past 7:00, but of course we could only keep them until 7:15 before we needed them up and cleaning up their sleeping bags and such. It seemed to work though, and Snorlax said he'd remember that trick. Thank you, Hime.

It's getting quite late, so I'll try to keep this brief.

Saturday afternoon, Monkey, Hime, Raganaros, and I went to get coffee (passing two gorgeous Saint Bernards), and then met at Ragnaros's house, where he and his parents were hosting a party for us. Ragnaros is really great around kids, and he has a really close bond with his younger siblings. It's inspiring. The four of us talked a bit under the trampoline, and played some Smash Brothers. I know I was the best person there, but I played as Jigglypuff once and still won. Kids don't know that they need to attack the guy with the most lives. I mostly hit-and-run during the match until it was just me and another guy, but I still had three lives. The other counselors started showing up around 4 or 5. We hung out a bit, and I got everyone's phone numbers. Some of the counselors couldn't make it, so over the next week, I bugged people until they gave them to me. I think I'm still missing two. Soon after people started arriving, a thunderstorm started. It was bizarre. I've never seen weather like that in western Washington. It really did feel like Illinois. A lot of the guys went out and played on the trampoline and in the pool. That sort of went against common sense to me, especially since some of the thunder was pretty dang close, and it was getting closer. When it started to head away from us, I went out and played some square ball on a square three or four times the size of the one at camp. It was ridiculous. The burgers were great. There were hotdogs too, but we'd all just had hotdogs the night before, and the Summer Blast counselors had an eating contest in order to keep food from going to waste. I heard one guy downed seven. I could barely finish two. The salad and fruit was all amazing, too. I got to know a few more of the counselors I really hadn't during the week. And, I think by the end of that party, I knew every counselor's camp name.

From there, I drove Mango home, and Kuyatsa back to the camp. It was so humid that unless I had heat going to the windshield, the coolness of the windshield would condense the air it touched and would fog up on the outside. It was like 80 degrees, so having the heater on was awful. Seriously, it was some weird weather. By the time I was a few minutes down I-5, though, it was back to nearly normal Washington summer night weather.

It was definitely a good week, definitely a blessing to me to have gone. I'd do it again, but only if I felt like God wanted me to (or if I felt God didn't feel one way or the other, and Mango wanted me to *dog with shifty eyes*). I really do hope to spend time with the counselors there. In one short week, I felt connected to almost all of them, and the ones I didn't, it was just because schedules didn't really allow us to spend a lot of time in the same place. Etamatlu and I, for example, spent almost no time talking during the week, but tonight we had a pretty lengthy conversation via facebook chat, and it was great! I'm not really sure how get togethers will happen, but I sincerely intend to make them happen anyway. I still wish more of that had happened after Jamaica. I'm still in touch with some of them, but not nearly as many as I'd like.

This past week of work was hard, in the sense that I couldn't focus. I don't know whether I was sick with something that made my head cloudy, or just exhausted from "vacation." It wasn't scheduled to be a hard week, though, so I managed to finish my two days' worth of work on Thursday, and sit and recover for the rest of it. I helped some people with their issues, but for the most part I sat. On Monday and Wednesday, I left early because I wasn't being productive, and Tuesday I called in sick, until 3 when I had some important meetings to attend. I think I'll do better next week. If I don't, I'll be a bit behind schedule. Also, next week, my acting manager will be my boss's boss. My manager is on vacation for one more week, and the guy he left in charge is on vacation starting yesterday, and lasting a month. He was talking to me about how he's only going to China for three weeks, but then he needs a week to recoup afterwards, pointing out that I should have done the same thing. I think he was right, but what's done is done.

Last night I was at Swood's place for Eureka and food and whatever else. We ended up watching this epic anime that's only four episodes in called Needless. It looks like there's five main hero characters so far, though one really hasn't done anything except survive a powerful fire blast for no reason. The main main character, though, is wishy washy and clearly has not seen Gurren Lagann. However, if the second mainest main character dies, like Kamina (sorry to those of you who've not seen the epic), I'm just going to declare rip-off and rewatch the original again.

This morning, I saw a note on facebook, written by Arth. It was a very well written essay, essentially, on how personal bias doesn't necessarily invalidate the arguments of a debate. It was interesting, so I went to his blog and read a few more. He's very smart, and apparently loves debating religion with both atheists and Christians. I can't write like that. I used to think I could, used to think I could debate like that, but I really can't. Whenever I try, I either put my foot in my mouth, or push someone away, or both. I enjoy reading or listening to both sides of the argument. I enjoy thinking about what I believe, and discussing it over coffee, calm and collected, or explaining it, but I just can't do the debate. I'm glad some people can.

Today was oddly productive. As written earlier, I bought a new bed, which is to be delivered sometime this Friday. It would have been Monday, but they were out of the particular frame I wanted. I got my oil changed, and I fixed my left mirror again, after it fell off in a drive-through car wash after Rosa's party. I'd considered, the day it happened, calling the Arco up and demanding they pay the amount it would have cost me to get it professionally fixed, $168. The more I thought about it, the more petty it seemed, when the fix would cost me $5 and a half hour's worth of elbow grease. (Interesting, the possessive of one hour is hour's; the possessive of multiple hours is hours'. What's the possessive of half an hour?) I eventually decided to show mercy, even if they didn't know it. And from now on, I'll wash my car by hand.

Well, I'm not positive, but I think I broke my 6,600 word blog post record. I'll post and then find out. I haven't proofread any of this yet, but the great thing is, by the time you finish reading it, I'll have another post out, about a month from now. And, while you're reading that one, I can go back and fix the errors on this one before you can comment about them.

Now it is just past three and I can barely lift my arms. I'm going to bed.