Category: Adventure

Categories
Adventure Sports

Capture the Flag

Just finished up a fine afternoon of playing Capture the Flag at Birch Grove Park. Never played the game before, but it was an excellent suggestion from Caitlin and we got a solid turnout of 11 people to play. Not too shabby.

There was a lot of back and forth and debate about where would be the best place to play. A lot of it really came down to how many people were playing. Too big of an area and not enough people, way too long of a game and the inverse would be true as well.

So I did a lot of scouting at Birch Grove Park to find sections of the park that I thought might work well. This morning I got there real early just to confirm and draw some boundaries on the ground (but it turned out that wasn’t too necessary).

I think we played a total of 4 games, but it could have been 5. We used water guns or 2 hand touch to get someone out. The water guns turned out to be a lot of fun on a hot day. After the first game we did make some rule adjustments which turned out to help out the game.

I think the other team did a better job of playing as a team, they seemed to operate in clusters more and were backing one another up. Our guys were a bit more of individuals doing their own thing. Apparently teamwork won out this day (as it most always does) with the other team taking the majority of the matches.

Another exciting fact that I learned today is that Kevin apparently cannot feel when he is struck by water! I shot him numerous times and I saw Maggie get him a couple times too and he just kept on going. Ha, it’s ok it was still a lot of fun.

Oh and also that if you get a splinter right under your fingernail it will hurt quite a bit for such a little thing. How do I always manage to randomly harm myself? It’s a true talent.

This was another fun and unique Honey Badger Fun Day. Glad I met so many fine people who are willing to play such a silly, yet fun game!

Categories
Adventure

First Week Working at Stockton

After nearly 13 years of working at Atlantic Cape Community College, I started a new job at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey this past week. The commute is only a different by a mile, so no major changes there. Though I do have to admit that I found myself driving to the old job on 2 of my first for mornings. Luckily it didn’t cause me to be late.

First week went pretty well. I wasn’t nervous at all, didn’t have any issues sleeping, etc. Didn’t feel like that big of a deal so far. I think not taking time off between jobs kinda kept me from noticing much of a change. That and I am pretty confident in what I do at this point, so there’s really no doubt that I can’t do a great job.

Thus far things have been a bit boring as I’m mostly meeting people and had to sit through a very long HR orientation. The HR folks were extremely polite and helpful, but HR orientation just isn’t very exciting for me no matter how great a show is given. I’m just a bit anxious to tackle some serious web problems!

The guys I’m working with seem pretty cool. Definitely a bit unique as I would expect from someone with a web skill set, but very capable of getting some serious work done. I do look forward to doing some good and really improving the web presence in numerous ways.

I’ve eaten lunch at the Student Center everyday. Many of the vendors there seem to be closed for the summer, but with the flex schedule’s half hour break I really don’t have much time to adventure too far. So far lunch options have been good and I’ve been sure to bring an apple or something like that to hold me over throughout the day.

Access to my accounts, email, a computer, etc. all took several days, which was frustrating. It’s really hard to work a modern job without access to such. However, it turned out that this is the norm with new hires. So I just waited it out, and Dave did do a great job of helping to speed up the process. That was very much appreciated!

So far, so good. I’m really looking forward to settling in and getting some serious work done!

Categories
Adventure Development

Resigned from Atlantic Cape Community College

While I was happily employed at Atlantic Cape Community College for nearly 13 years, I had officially resigned and worked my last day on May 16, 2014. Not aggressively seeking employment elsewhere a pretty exciting opportunity opened at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and after interviewing they offered and I accepted.

Working at Atlantic Cape was a great experience, I’ve grown and learned so much during my time there. More importantly I’ve met and worked with some amazing people. Easily the thing I will miss most will be no longer seeing some of those great friends on a daily basis any longer.

My co-workers gave me a fantastic send off. A pizza party, treats and some very generous gifts! Tonya baked an amazingly creative Lego cake (they know me so well), and NGM made a severed head in a jar (umm, maybe doesn’t know me quite that well). The head in a jar was very morbid and disturbing, but I do have it admit it was creative and flawlessly executed.

It was sad saying good-bye and thanks to everyone. Some folks got a bit emotional at times, and while I felt a bit guilty for leaving them they completely agreed that it was a wise move for me. They were so understanding and happy for me, even though they expect to miss me a great deal.

I’m very excited to get started at Stockton this week! Everyone I met and the tour of where I’ll be was very exciting. I can’t wait to get in there and help make them an even better place!

Categories
Adventure

Scrabble Fun

scrabbleRecently I’ve found myself playing a great deal of Scrabble. Whether it’s head-to-head against the Shepherd (a very good player) or on my phone. Coming up with great words and getting high scores has really consumed me as of late

With our numerous battle the Shepherd and I have really noticed a marked improvement in both of our games. We both easily score over 250 a game now, and I hit 350 over the weekend!

Also of rather large note, we have scored Bingos (the use of all your tiles in a round) in 3 of our past 4 games! My 2 were with the words hipster and dentures. I was very proud of both feats.

We are now both looking into entering Scrabble tournaments to judge our skills against other advanced players. Apparently there are some big tournaments in Philly and Princeton that we are looking to check it.

Awesome game, and hoping to improve even more.

Categories
Adventure Sports

Kevin’s 40th Birthday Bonanza

11+ season veteran Honey Badger Kevin always is kind enough to invite me to various activities. From Night in Venice parties, to Eagles games, etc. However unfortunately I’ve always seemed to decline such generous invitations.

Well it turns out the guy just turned 40 and was throwing quite the large party on it’s occasion. He had organized a large birthday bash in Philly including a Flyers game and other festivities afterwards as well.

He also invited Dustin and Jared from the team, but sadly they could not attend. So that meant I would be going solo into a party where I knew no one. A true adventure indeed!

So I drove up to the Holiday Inn in Philly to meet up with the crew. Amazingly I didn’t get lost nor take even the slightest of wrong turns. This is quite a feat for me.

I was interested to meet this crew. Kevin is a pretty interesting guy, and surely his close friends must be characters as well.

These folks were characters indeed. All very friendly and turns out I had many common friends with one of them. So that was interesting and gave the two of us much to talk about for a little bit.

Then we headed over to the Flyers game when Kevin had gotten a luxury box stocked with food and drink. It was a very nice setup, and a very fancy way to take in a game. Despite knowing no one, I was able to make conversation and it wasn’t too bad.

I did depart shortly after the game while the others seemed to be awaiting much more adventures. All in all it was a unique experience and fun to hang out with some complete randoms for an afternoon.

Categories
Adventure Sports

Honey Badger Rock Climbing Fun Day

Our Honey Badger Fun Day was originally planned to be at an indoor trampoline park. I was pretty excited, it sounded very cool to try out. Sadly as the last minute we had to change plans as it looked like we wouldn’t be able to jump that much that day. The place was all booked up.

So change of plans, we went with some indoor rock climbing at Elite Climbing. I had been there before and it was super awesome, and being Dustin’s birthday too I knew it was something that he would surely enjoy as well. He was always part monkey.

So we all met up early in the day, some of us at Joe time others on Honey Badger time (aka as late). Then rode up in 2 cars. It was pretty exciting. On the way up we stopped to get some lunch before out epic climbing at Panera. It is a fine eating establishment and all seemed please with the choice. I got a Turkey Bravo with an apple instead of chips. I would save my scrumptious apple for after/during my climbing.

We got there without getting lost like my first voyage there. What was super bizarre is that I ran into a friend from high school there who doesn’t live in that area either. What are the chances that we’d both drive all the way over there to do some indoor climbing? Surely it must be immensely miniscule.

Climbing went really well. Our trainer wasn’t nearly as helpful as Gio from the first excursion, but it still went fairly smoothly. It was really great to see everyone get up there and have a good time. I was really impressed with how well everyone had done!

Dustin was climbing all over the place, and Caitlin has an amazing climb on wall number 9. It was pretty amazing to behold, she made several key recoveries and made it over an pretty impressive incline to get all the way to the top. Amazing climb!

All in all it was a very fun day and I was able to climb for a couple of hours with some great Badgers and still make it back in time for my Mom’s birthday. I just with it was a bit closer to where I live.