Giving thanks for friends, puppies, floating, and pie

Wow. It’s been a really long week, but the weekend is just about here.

I saw the notice on the WordPress blog about the “Giving Thanks” contest earlier this week and knew that it was just the right kick-in-the-pants to get me to try out the MiniDV camera that I recently purchased on eBay. So I grabbed a few of my friends, asked them what they’re thankful for, and cut it all together into a short video. Thirty seconds isn’t that much time, especially when your friends are so voluble!

I wasn’t really sure how this film would turn out. I shot a lot of footage, but as I only had 30 seconds for the final cut I had to really pare things down to make sure that I could include a clip of each person.

Filming each person was fun. Pure and simple. Each person had their own unique quirks and mannerisms that really came out when they were put in front of a camera lens. Percy with the sheep, Alex with a ping pong ball, and a highly-caffeinated Nida all presented unique challenges when filming (such as keeping the subject in frame!) and offered not only different answers to “For what are you thankful?”, but even took different approaches to answering the questions.

Okay, enough chatter from me. Here’s the meat of this post, the video:

Sustainability at DHMC: Reuse those foam plates!

I was in line at the cafeteria last week when someone from one of the other offices in my building said “Oh, when did they start using china in this cafeteria?” I had to politely tell the woman that DHMC was not deploying reusable dishes at all of its cafeterias and that I bring my own plate and just wash it afterwards. “Oh, what a good idea!” she said, “I should bring my own plate sometimes. Washing it off afterwards isn’t too hard.”

Handwashing isn’t that difficult, but washing off all of the dishes in a central location, using an auto dishwasher, would probably save money and water, and would certainly save a time for all of the people working in the building. There would be an initial outlay and ongoing expense to stock the china and deal with breakages and so forth, but it would be a great step for sustainability.

Outdoor Movies: Kicking it off with “Duel of the Tough”

When was the last time you went to a drive-in?

For me it must have been at least 3 years ago. There’s a drive-in over in Fairlee, VT, and during the summer season they show double features for $8 per person. It’s a lot of fun to pile in a car and head over there, hoping for clear skies.

The Fairlee Drive-in also has a motel, and the rooms are situated such that you can open the curtains on one of the walls and watch the movie. It’s kind of a fun gimmick.

Last night I kicked off my career as a projectionist with the spectacular film Duel of the Tough, originally titled Shen tui mi zong shou. We’d had a BBQ over at my place and Cyrus stayed around to poke at the fire when I had the epiphany that I had finally acquired all of the pieces necessary to project movies outside.

Oktoberfestivities 2009

Last night was Oktoberfest 2009. We had a lot of tasty food including hendl (chicken, in Bavarian), almonds mit hoenig (I can’t remember the german term for almonds), sausage, mashed potatoes, beer, and just a drop of Jaeger.

Oktoberfest, as I’m sure you all know, is that other fall holiday when guys and girls get to dress up in sexy costumes. Unlike Halloween, Oktoberfest encourages the guys to wear leather shorts, and encourages everyone to dance, drink, and sprechen deutsch. All in all it’s quite a good holiday.

This morning I wrote hijacked a song. Would you like to hear it? Oh, I bet meine lederhosen schwartz you would:

Jaeger-weiss, Jaeger-weiss,
Every morning you talk to me,
Dark and sweet, tastes of deer meat,
Jaegermeister I love thee.

To quote the Black Eyed Peas, “Tonight’s going to be a good, good night.”

Live Blogging: Sykes Free Concert Series

Okay, so I’m going to try out this live blogging thing. No promises.

We’re currently at the Sykes Free Concert at Collis Commonground. This concert is (or perhaps all such concerts are?) funded by Jack Wehner ‘74. The concerts are dedicated to Music professor Jim Sykes and his wife Clay.

Tonight we’re hearing music by Boismortier (Concerto), Abreu (Tico tico no fuba), Telemann (Duo), Rossini (Quartet) and Brahms (Sonata for violin and piano). Nothing by our perennial favorite, P.D.Q. Bach. Tsk, tsk.

We’re currently noshing on local cider, apples, bread, cheeses and ice cream.

M&C Summer 2009: A compostable successable

Milque & Cookies was this past Friday at 9pm and was a resounding success.

Phi Tau took a departure from the normal schedule of Saturday at 8pm due to Sophomore Family Weekend and thus had to forge ahead and bake like crazy on Thursday night. Everything came together marvelously well and a good time was had by all. I mean, who doesn’t want to stuff themselves with milk and tasty, sugary, yummy cookies?

Because I’d acquired compostable cups, we were able to put out compost bins instead of trash cans:

Watch for Cyclests [sic]

Yeah, I don’t know what they are, either, but some of my bike-commuting friends suggested that they might be a mythical type of biker, an uber-cyclist, if you will.

I took a couple of quick photos on my way home at night. The atmosphere was foggy, so I couldn’t use a flash, and when I came back the next day the road crew had unhelpfully corrected the sign. Bother!

Recycling and Composting at Phi Tau

Phi Tau does an amazing job recycling and composting as much as possible. There has been a long line of dedicated recycling chairs/sustainability coordinators over the years, and the current officer, Ashley Morishige, has continued to expand and improve the system.

Recycling and composting in any situation can take time and energy, but recycling and composting at a fraternity can be an especially big challenge! Thankfully, Phi Tau has amazing support from the FO&M people that pick up all of the trash, recycling, compost, and bulk trash.

I’ve assembled a gallery of photos on my Zooomr account which you can view in blog format here.

Here’s a view of the outside bins:

Industrial Kitchen Toys

I have just come into the ownership of two awesome kitchen toys. Both of them came from the kitchen of a summer camp who, I can only imagine, needed to clear out some old equipment.

The first item is The Eagle, a powerful, hand-cranked kitchen slicer:

This bad boy was made by The Eagle Tool & Machine Company, Inc. based in Springfield, Ohio. The company is still around under that name and now has a website.

BlitzMail flashback…

I was looking up some articles on The Dartmouth when I ran across an article from 1995 about BlitzMail.

The article was humorous in nature, but some piece of it really showed how active development was at that time:

But, with the passage of time, many integral aspects of Dartmouth have changed, the most basic of which involve Kiewit’s bi-annual updates of our beloved BlitzMail. We now have campus-wide bulletins, unlimited nickname space, blind carbon copies, address books and instantaneous delivery. As fond as I am of the original grind-it-out BlitzMail system, I have gradually become accustomed to the technological wizardry that has accompanied my four-year stint at Dartmouth.

Oh BlitzMail, you have your quirks, but you were amazingly good at what you did, especially during the time you were under active development. You will be missed.

–Q