The Chronicles of Chris

World Pillow Fight Day 2010 - Boston

2010-04-05T17:43:00.003-04:00

This past Saturday was World Pillow Fight Day. Around the world, thousands of participants took an hour out of their day to whack complete strangers with pillows.

I attended my local gathering, at Cambridge Common in the outskirts of Boston, Mass. This is the 3rd annual event, hosted here by Banditos Misteriosos. It was estimated that we had 1,500 pillow fighters! There isn't much more to say than that. Check out some pictures and videos I took while using my own pillow to shield the camera!

Click here to see my Flickr photosteam for more photos

No Pants 2010 in Boston

2010-01-10T20:05:00.002-05:00

Earlier today, the Boston Societies or Spontaneity hosted our local version of Improv Everywhere's infamous No Pants event.

Back in 2002, Improv Everywhere began riding New York City's subway as a little prank; since then, it has exploded into an annual global phenomena with thousands of participants. Today, 44 cities across 16 countries participated in taking their pants off and riding public transit.

I arrived at Alewife Station in Cambridge, just north of Boston, around noon and met up with the other participants. I volunteered to be a group leader, rounded up 20 or so participants, and assigned them stops along our journey down the red and orange lines to North Station and back. The plan went as follows: just before every stop, two or so people per car (about 5 subway cars per subway train) take their pants off, get off, wait until the next train, and get back on. This way, unsuspecting people have pantsless people entering and exiting their cars in small groups so it appears that the entire subway line is lacking in the pants department. While waiting to switch directions at North Station, the next train was taking an awful long time, so the MBTA announcer said over the loud speaker "There are no more trains coming so you're all going to have to walk!".

New Car: 2009 Pontiac G8 GT

2009-10-16T20:45:00.009-04:00

After hearing the news about General Motors' decision to cancel the Pontiac brand due to their bankruptcy, I had to think quickly. For at least a year, I had been waiting for the 2010 Pontiac G8 model to be released so I could purchase one. Unfortunately, I found out that they had ceased production with the 2009 model and the only ones left for sale were the ones on dealer's lots. After some research and finding out that no more "Stryker Blue" G8's with V8 engines existed in the New England area, my cousin located one in Cambridge, Ohio. After one phone call with Whitesides of Cambridge, I bought one. I even got it for about $10,000 less than the local dealers were charging for their black V8 models. Friday, October 2nd, 2009, I flew down to Cleveland and then connected to Columbus, Ohio. The dealer had someone pick me up and bring me back to the dealership.

To make a long story short, I drove six house the first day and ended up at my girlfriend's college in Pennsylvania. I stayed there for a day and then drove seven more back home to New Hampshire.

If you're not familiar with the Pontiac G8, it is currently the #1 muscle car in America (source: U.S. News). It is also a performance sedan, similar to a BMW. As for specs, the GT trim that I got has a 6.0L V8 engine producing over 350 horsepower and 385 ft-lbs of torque. As all performance vehicles should, it is rear wheel drive. The manual transmission is only offered on the more expensive GXP trim, so I got the 6-speed automatic with one of those manumatic +/- shifters. Inside, it's got heated leather seats and a Blaupunkt stereo with 11 speakers, XM radio, and OnStar. Here's a bunch of pictures:

I ended up keeping my 2007 Pontiac G5 as a winter car, and also kept my 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT. You guessed it, I'm a die-hard Pontiac fan!

To keep my G8 in tip-top shape, I even built a garage tent for it! See the video below for a really amazing time lapse of the construction. It only took an hour and 22 minutes to set up!

Taylor Swift at Mohegan Sun Arena (August 28, 2009)

2009-09-30T18:23:00.004-04:00

One month after my last time seeing Taylor Swift, I went to see her again! This time, she was at the Mohegan Sun Arena (in Mohegan Sun Casino) in Uncasville, Connecticut. Unlike last time, I was allowed to bring my better camera in. They did ask some interesting questions to let it through the gate, like "is the lens detachable?" Out of the two, this concert was much better! Probably because me and my girlfriend had a wonderful straight-on view and the room was much smaller than last time in Boston. My camera has a 20x optical zoom and HD video, so enjoy! Photos at the top and YouTube videos at the bottom:

Gloriana opened up with a very short playlist

Kellie Pickler came up second

And of course Taylor Swift and her amazing theatrical performance was saved for last

Taylor Swift at TD Banknorth Garden (July 31, 2009)

2009-09-30T18:05:00.006-04:00

First of all, I am VERY VERY behind in posts so I am going to sum this up real quick.

This summer, I was lucky enough to see Taylor Swift live in concert twice! Once at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts as part of Keith Urban's Escape Together World Tour on July 31, 2009. The second was at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut on her own Fearless Tour on August 28, 2009.

I wasn't allowed into Boston's concert with my new snazzy Canon PowerShot SX1 IS superzoom camera, so I really didn't get any good pictures. But here is one anyway:

An event that happened before the concert is also worth noting, and kind of funny. Boston is a very busy city but lacks something important: parking. It is very difficult to find any sort of parking for under $35, even if you're only going to be there for a couple hours. After wandering around for a short while, I pulled into some building with a "P" sign. It was very small, as in two parking spaces, but them something happened: a magical door opened. Well, it was just an elevator.. but a big elevator! No one was around so I figured I'd just go ahead and drove right in. Yes, with my car. I got to the third floor and all the spaces were filled. It was pretty cramped so I couldn't really turn around. I got out and pressed the door open button. Moments later a man came out, and stopped. He was kind of stunned to see me, and asked how I got up here. "The elevator", of course. Apparently this building was valet parking. Oops! Too late now. We went off to the show and besides some confusion about which blue car on the third floor was mine, I got my car back in one piece.

Yellowstone National Park: Video Clips

2009-07-27T20:09:00.005-04:00

These are just video clips, to see the blog post about my trip to Yellowstone National Park, Click Here.

Boston's second annual Scavenger Hunt

2009-07-11T21:00:00.002-04:00

I'm short on time so I'm going to make thing one really quick:

Boston's urban playground group Banditos Misteriosos hosted their second annual scavenger hunt on July 11th. It was originally supposed to be a month earlier but got delayed due to weather. I couldn't make it last time so I was quite pleased it was delayed until a time I could make it!

As everyone came into Christopher Columbus Park near the Aquarium in Boston, we formed into groups of ten. My team was mostly familiar faces from the other organization I'm a part of in Boston: Boston Societies of Spontaneity.

If you've ever seen "The Amazing Race" on TV, that is pretty much how these scavenger hunt events go. We're given a bunch of clues and based on how we solve these riddles, we must go somewhere in the city and complete a challenge. Each leg of the "race" is independent of each other so we could do them in any order. After three hours we came back to the park with all but two of the objectives complete. There was a gathering to determine the winner, and they received awards for their completion of these tricky tasks.

Until next time, goodbye!

Carlisle 2009

2009-06-27T21:00:00.003-04:00

The Carlisle Fairgrounds in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is known for its massive car shows. This year was no exception.

On June 27th, I went down myself for the "All GM-Nationals", an annual event showcasing the magnificent cars produced by America's own General Motors. As with every one of their shows I've been to, a few of the company's new models were pushed right up front to where the most people would see them. This time the prime real estate was taken up mostly by the new Chevrolet Camaro.

Also near the front was a line of new Pontiac G8's, the next generation of American performance sedans from 260 to over 400 horsepower. Unfortunately, production will be cut short due to General Motors' bankruptcy deal with the U.S. Government.

Just to see these wasn't the real reason why I came to Carlisle this year, though. I was here to see one of my favorite cars, the Pontiac Fiero. I've got two Fieros back home. If you don't know, the Fiero was Pontiac's 1980s sport coupe with the engine in the back and only two seats.

Usually the shows up in this area have just one or two Fieros, but Carlisle 2009 had many more; in fact, I counted 55 Fieros in all, many of which were modified with V8 engines and one was even purely electric. Of my favorites was a mint condition 1988 Fiero GT with t-tops in a brilliant red: the most desired year and trim of the whole five-year lineup. Another Fiero, still looking sharp, had 424,726 miles on it!

Yellowstone National Park

2009-06-24T13:37:00.006-04:00

(I'm writing this in July about a month after it happened so I am being very brief):

Update: New post with video clips: Click Here.

I recently visited Yellowstone National Park for almost a week with a handful of students from Daniel Webster College as part of a course called "Searching for Yellowstone". After a month or more of pre-travel study, we set off to experience everything we read about first-hand.

After two tiring days of driving from New Hampshire through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, we were supposed to fly to Salt Lake City, Utah. Unfortunately there were an array of issues in the airport and we ended up taking a later flight that connected through Minneapolis, Minnesota; except it was delayed and thus after missing the connected, got to Salt Lake City the next day. We then drove from Utah through Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming to Yellowstone National Park.

After staying overnight in Mammoth Hot Springs, we went on a nature expedition with local wildlife biologist Nathan Varley from Mammoth all the way to Cooke City and back to see bison, elk, wolves, bears, moose, and many other rare and unique animals. After that, we met up at the Roosevelt Corral and rode horses to a remote location for dinner.

The next day we went to Gardiner, Montana, and met with park historian Lee Whittlesey to learn more about the park. From there we drove to Canyon and saw the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and then south around Yellowstone Lake to West Thumb Geyser Basin and finally to Grant Village for the night.

The Grand Tetons south of the park came next. We hiked a trail around Jenny Lake and met some curiously friendly chipmunks and saw some great scenery. After stopping in the famous town of Jackson, we headed back to Grant Village and passed a really cute baby bear on the side of the road with its mother.

For our final day we set out to see the geysers. First stopping at Biscuit Basin, we ended up at the tourist-packed Old Faithful and then walked through another basin and finished our trip at Grand Prismatic Spring.

My video of MP3 Experiment 6

2009-05-31T23:09:00.003-04:00

I spent most of my free time since MP3 Experiment 6 last weekend editing a video recap of the event. The official videos from Improv Everywhere probably won't be out for at least a few more weeks, so enjoy mine!

MP3 Experiment 6 in New York City

2009-05-25T13:16:00.004-04:00

This past Saturday was Improv Everywhere's sixth MP3 Experiment. Just like last time I did this, I drove down from New Hampshire to Boston, Massachusetts and rode the BoltBus into New York City very early in the morning.

Before going to Roosevelt Island, the site of MP3 Experiment 6, a thin island between Manhattan and Queens, I met up with my friend Courtney and we explored some of downtown, went shopping, and took a walk in Central Park.

When we finally reached the east coast of Manhattan, after approximately 5 and a half miles of walking, we decided it was time to figure out how to get across the river to Roosevelt Island.

Deciding on the aerial tram that goes directly from out side of the river to the island, we followed the chords suspended next to the Queensboro bridge and walked another half mile to the lift station. Along with many other suspicious people dressed in red, blue, green, and yellow, we made our way over the river. I took this opportunity to take some great aerial pictures, as you can see below.

Upon arriving on the ground, we set off to find a good place to settle down and wait for 4:00 pm, the time when the MP3 Experiment was to begin. MP3 Experiments happen not just in New York City, or even in the United States, but all over the world. Typically, they go something like this:

Tens, hundreds, or thousands of people that for the most part do not know each other download an MP3 file off a website and load it on to their MP3 player. It is critical that you do not listen to this file until you are instructed to do so.
All these people meet up at a specified location at a specified time. With their clocks synchronized, all participants watch the time closely, and press play.
Listeners are verbally encouraged, via the voices on the MP3, to participate in individual and group activities, with fellow participants or occasionally nearby strangers, that most likely differ from the social norm one would expect.
Usually during such an event, many or all activities are photographed or recorded on digital video and uploaded to the internet for future viewing by anyone.

After going the wrong way off the tram, we eventually found out way to a landscaped courtyard between two buildings right outside the subway terminal. I had thought this was where most of the participants would end up, and I was right. After a few minutes, colorful people started pouring out of the subway in a non-stop line and settling down in the grass amoungst us.

As we waited around, watching the once sparsely populated courtyard fill up, we noticed a few people high up on the rooftops, most likely armed with video cameras.

As 4:00 rolled around, everyone began putting their headphones on, and we all pressed play. After a few minutes of catchy music, Steve (The Omnipotent Voice From Above) began speaking. He started us off with some simple exercises, such as stretching our necks and greeting our neighbors. There was this one guy in a green shirt participating from a wheelchair, which I thought was really awesome.

After playing some little games, dancing with eachother, following strangers around, and taking spontaneous naps on the ground, we set off on a rather long walk to the southernmost tip of the island. Here we were split into teams and given inflatable weapons. After pounding on eachother for a while, a big bad wolf appeared in the distance and we were questioned why we were fighting with eachother. We turned our army of up to 2,000 people on that one wolf, and he got taken down because I even got a whack.

The event lasted about 47 minutes, and was pretty hysterical. You really had to be there to understand how it all happens. Improv Everywhere seems to host one every year, so you should come down next time if you weren't planning on it already!
After it was over, many people took advantage of having weapons, and started beating eachother up once again. After a little while, I walked back to the little field we had started in.

There were so many people walking back that we completely clogged the road, and had cars driving amoungst us. If we had somehow turned into a bunch of zombies, we would have taken over the island. No question about it.Back at the start, there was a table set up selling Improv Everywhere's new book, Causing a Scene, written by Charlie Todd (the Founder of Improv Everywhere) and Alex Scordelis. I picked up a copy for myself and Charlie signed it. He remembered me from last year on Governor's Island when I had met him at a hotdog vendor waiting for MP3 Experiment 5.

Car Show Season Begins Again

2009-05-15T22:45:00.003-04:00

A few updates: school has ended for the semester, I have a new job (software intern) at TYBRIN Corporation, and most importantly for the blog:

Car show season has begun again! I took some great panoramas today standing on the base of a few light poles. There were 231 show cars today in the parking lot of Target, which is on the high end of what we usually get. I also got more people walking around my car than usual too!

(click images for larger sizes)

On another note, I'm going to Yellowstone National Park for a week this summer, and I am getting a new SLR-like camera to bring with me! I'm looking forward to taking a series of wonderful shots, and I will definitely share them with all of you!

Boe-Bot Autonomous Navigation

2009-05-04T23:28:00.005-04:00

Back after another month! I've been very, very busy with schoolwork this semester. It is that time of year when final exams and projects take over my life, but they're just about over!

Here is something neat I've been working on since January that I finally have finished:

It is a Boe-Bot robotics kit from Parallax Inc, a company that makes robot parts and such. I had a course this semester which required me to design and code software for this robot, which I also had to build using a pile of parts. Aside from the wheels on the sides and the chassis, I selected three "QTI" infrared sensors to take readings off the ground at the front of the robot, and a sonar on a rotating servo at the front which gathers distance readings of objects in its proximity. The robot was designed to be self-aware, so it ran the course based on rules and algorithms which I designed. Once I flipped it on, it ran completely by itself to the end of the obstacle course! I spent a few months testing out various hardware, including such things as light sensors and whiskers. The software was written in PBASIC, a custom version of BASIC that Parallax ships with its BASIC Stamp embedded microprocessor.

So now to get away from the technical words, the robot had just one requirement: start at point A and end up at point B. The real problem was what the robot had to do in between to get there. Starting off, it had to go inside a cardboard box (cave), seek the exit and find the road (black tape on a white table), follow it until it found the a curving pylon course (paper cups) that it had to navigate through, and finally solve a maze (cardboard bricks) to the exit!

Here is a video of my robot solving the course from start to finish in just two minutes!

Pillow Fight Day 2009

2009-04-05T11:20:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was World Pillow Fight Day, a global event organized by pillowfightday.com. Each of the approximately 80 cities participating across the world were run by local groups. Boston, Massachusetts' was hosted by Banditos Misteriosos, a prominent organization in Boston that has hosted previous events, such as the Silent Dance Experiment, Scavenger Hunt, and the Revolutionary Water Gun Battle. We did this same event last year in Copley Square, but had a far greater turnout this time around. I heard estimates between 1,000 and 1,500 people for just Boston alone! San Francisco's pillow fight reportedly had 5,000! It is quite amazing to see how many people will come together from all walks of life just to have fun and hit each other with pillows.

Boston's 2009 location was Christopher Columbus Park, a decently sized park right on the edge of downtown and next to the waterfront. Although everyone knew about the event for months, we were not told the exact location until midnight the previous evening. I arrived about 2:55 pm on this very windy April afternoon, with a chance of rain coming in the next few hours. I couldn't believe how many people had shown up. We were supposed to wait inconspicuously around the perimeter of the park and hide our pillows, but most of the participants must have not gotten the memo.

At the strike of 3 o'clock, an air horn siren began blazing and a man in a wrestling mask waving a Massachusetts state flag ran around the crowd in a giant loop. I ran along side him with my camera before crossing into a different part of the park, and then back into the bulk of the crowd. It made for a great video!

After an hour of getting beat in the head by pillows, taking 810 pictures in 60 minutes (a new personal record, by the way!), and recording 5 and a half minutes of video clips, the Banditos began cleaning up the mess of feathers that had been both trampled into the dirt and blown across the entire park.

Here are some highlight photos of the event:

For the complete set of about 100 photos I released onto the Internet, visit my Flickr stream. If you, for personal or media use, would like to use any of my content, email me.

Earth Hour

2009-03-28T22:02:00.008-04:00

Firstly, you may have noticed it has been quite a while since I've posted. I have a very simple explanation for this. Nothing worth noting has happened! I have been busy with school, to the point where my entire weekends are spent with Microsoft Word and a textbook in front of me. At least I should be graduated and have a "real job" by this time next year.

Now for the real news. EARTH HOUR. Nearly every community in the world, at 8:30 pm this evening in their respective time zones, was tasked to turn their lights off and enjoy an hour in the dark to "vote Earth". I went above-and-beyond and actually flipped the power breaker off at my house. I went outside and checked out meter to verify -and indeed-, it was completely frozen still.

And to think, I was actually expecting it to keep ticking! Who would've thought that the power companies were completely honest with their measurements? I guess the real test of that will be when the bill comes.

I took a picture of my house during this time of darkness. Besides the reflection of a nearby street light, it was completely dark. And completely eerie. Not too often is my house not lit up by the buzz of my computer fans and the hum of the refridgerator.

Also, here's proof that I was using 0 kilowatt hours!

In other news, Boston is again hosting International Pillow Fight Day!
If you're from Boston, then check out the post on Banditos Misterious by clicking here. If you're not from Boston, then click here instead.

Secondhand Serenade at The Station

2009-02-08T17:19:00.007-05:00

Last night, I drove all the way from home in Nashua, New Hampshire, to Maine to see Secondhand Serenade! The concert was at "The Station" in Portland, Maine, which was a surprisingly small venue underneath a hardware store. Small as in narrow, short, and you could touch the ceiling. In fact, one of the bands actually used the fire sprinkler pipe on the ceiling to hold himself up while leaning into the crowd!

While waiting in line with my friend Katie, we met some teenagers from around Laconia, New Hampshire, and hung out with them for pretty much the entire time.

There were three openers before Secondhand Serenade came on stage. I don't think I had heard any of their music before, but they were all pretty good!

Rookie of the Year

The White Tie Affair

Meg & Dia

And of course Secondhand Serenade. He started off in complete darkness with Like A Knife and then the lights were turned on and everybody screamed. Here's a bunch of pictures, with videos and more commentary further down:

Ryan from Rookie of the Year came up on stage and made a quick toast with the crowd and our invisible glasses, and then began singing Vulnerable.

The lead singer/guitarist/songwriter of Secondhand Serenade, John Vesely, had his birthday last Thursday. I thought it would be a fantastic idea to sing him happy birthday. Between songs where there was a short silence, I got the guys I had met earlier to start singing Happy Birthday to him. Surprisingly, the entire crowd joined in!

Besides the old-school acoustic music from Secondhand Serenade, he played some pretty rockin' songs off his newer album A Twist In My Story will the full band. John's very talented brother Lukas Vesely was playing the keyboard this time around and there was a new band member on lead guitar who played some fantastic guitar, especially in Goodbye at the very end of the show.

Sometime during Meg & Dia, I heard that John Vesely was over at the bar, so I cut back through the crowd and found him! I got him to sign my new A Twist In My Story Deluxe Edition and take a picture with me!

On my way out of the show, I was walking down the aisle and Meg & Dia approached me with that "sad puppy dog face" and I just couldn't resist when they wanted to sell me their CD!

(please do not use any of these images without my prior concent!)

Gift Swap

2009-01-31T19:07:00.003-05:00

Today, Boston's urban playground group Banditos Misteriosos held "Freeform Gift Swap". It took place around 2:00pm at Copley Square right in front of Trinity Church. About 150 participants showed up with wrapped gifts to trade. We were each given a card with a colored number on it, which divided us up into swapping groups when the announcer, Ethan Feuer, called out "will all the 1's come up", or "all the blues". I traded gifts about 15 times total, and ended up with a bobblehead of Benjamin Franklin. Ironically, the gift was brought by a friend of mine that came down with me. The gift I gave away was a package of plastic army men wrapped in blue bandana wrapping paper-- quite appropriate for a banditos event! Here are a selection of the pictures I took of the event; to see more, click here.

Metallica concert

2009-01-19T18:51:00.003-05:00

Last night I went to Metallica's concert in Boston, Massachusetts at the TD Banknorth Garden. We got great seats through my boss's wife -- a VIP box on the fifth floor with its own private bathroom, coat closet, comfy chairs, and a bar-type seating area, as well as 12 seats on a balcony. The two openers were heavy-rock bands The Sword and Machine Head. When Metallica came on, they had a fantastic light show with lasers and spotlights that just added to the power of their music. I'm not really into heavy rock but it was a great experience. Here's a bunch of pictures and a video of the concert:

(for a few more videos from the concert Click Here)

No Pants 2009

2009-01-10T22:53:00.009-05:00

Today was No Pants 2009.

Click for a larger set of photos on Flickr
(note: if you read this blog a month or later, you will likely have to click through a few pages of newer content)

Click for YouTube video clips

As you can imagine, no one was wearing pants; just underwear and everything else one would normally wear in New England when its 20 degreees outside. Luckily for us we spent most of out pantsless time inside and underground.

We all arrived at Alewife Station by 3:00pm today, Saturday, January 10th, and formed a large crowd on the subway platform. After dividing into groups of approximately 20, the group leaders (I was one of them) gave our team assignments of when to de-pants. The plan was to get on at Alewife on the Red Line and turn around and come back once we got to Park Street. At each stop along the way, about three from each group of 20 took their pants off and got off the subway car. They waited for the next train to come and got on that one in the same spot they got off. This was to slowly increase the presence of pantsless subway riders making it seem less like a planned event, at least for the people not in the "loop". I'd say this went very successful. I took tons of hilarious pictures and a few nice videos.

After the event, a bunch of the 21+ attendees grouped up and went to Johnny D's restaurant/bar, still wearing no pants and were treated to free appetizers and enjoyed a great time of no-pants dancing.

And now what you really wanted: the pictures and video clips!

( Photography © Chris Andrews )

No Pants Video Clip #1

No Pants Video Clip #2

No Pants Video Clip #3

No Pants Video Clip #4

Summary of 2008

2009-01-07T13:45:00.006-05:00

Since it's just into the new year of 2009, I decided to make an album highlighting pretty much everything I did in 2008. I've selected just under 120 photos that really describe this past year:

New Years Eve 2007 - Nashua, NH
Typical snowy New England evening

January 6, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My 20th Birthday cake

January 8, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Playing Crysis at Daniel Webster College on a battery-backup at work

January 10, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Removing a wireless access point from a billboard without the use of a ladder

February 12, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Co-workers at Daniel Webster College hanging out

February 18, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Attack Slug, sophomore Computer Science project at Daniel Webster College

February 23, 2008 - Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA
Banditos Misteriosos hosts Boston's Silent Dance Party

February 29, 2008 - Southwest Airlines, Somewhere above New England
Mid-flight on the way to Pennsylvania

March 1, 2008 - Courtney's House, Sinking Spring, PA
Weekend visit with Courtney in Pennsylvania

March 9, 2008 - Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA
Maci comes to Boston from Pennsylvania to visit Francois and then hang out with me

March 12, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My office/room and all of its computers (minus one laptop that is Roger's)

March 16, 2008 - Long Wharf, Boston, MA
Boston Society of Spontaneity hosts "Riding the T is a Beach" beach-themed party on the subway in 34 near-freezing temperatures

March 20, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Becka visits to bake some brownies

March 21, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Physics lecture at Daniel Webster College

March 22, 2008 - Copley Square, Boston, MA
Banditos Misteriosos hosts International Pillow Fight Day

March 23, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Me and my car on Easter

March 29, 2008 - South Station, Boston, MA
Mission briefing for Boston Society of Spontaneity's Human Dominoe

April 1, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
April Fools prank on our boss Josh, replacing his monitors and keyboard with vintage 1990's equipment

April 1, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Physics lab class at Daniel Webster College

April 10, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Photoshoot with my wonderful Pontiac G5

April 11, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Courtney comes to visit and seen here eating the lasagna I made all by myself

April 13, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Teaching Courtney how to drive

April 16, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
An R-rated comedian performs at Daniel Webster College

April 17, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Working at HoloDek Gaming at Daniel Webster College

April 19, 2008 - The Common, Boston, MA
Boston Society of Spontaneity hosts a paper hat parade

April 21, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Still working on Attack Slug, the game designed by the sophomore Computer Science class

April 29, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
The current DWC Computer Science software engineering class of 2010

April 30, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Students rush to finish their programming projects just days before the end of the semester

May 2, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Air Force ROTC hosts a stress relief activity for students: "Beat The Heap" with a sledge hammer

May 3, 2008 - Gulf Gas Station, Nashua, NH
My Pontiac G5 meets its evil twin: the Chevy Cobalt

May 6, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT comes out from hibernation

May 10, 2008 - Nashua Country Club, Nashua, NH
A family friend, William, graduates from the Citadel college and prepares to enter the military

May 12, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Grand Theft Auto IV released recently, and I buy an XBOX360 just to play it

May 16, 2008 - Gas station, Somewhere along a highway, CT
Gas reaches peak prices

May 17, 2008 - The Fairgrounds, Carlisle, PA
Fieros at Carisle car show, where 54 Fieros and thousands of other cars attend

May 24, 2008 - The Common, Boston, MA
Zombies attack Boston, no reported casualties

May 24, 2008 - The Hatch Shell, Bosston, MA
The zombies seen earlier attend Earthfest

May 24, 2008 - Pier 3, Boston, MA
The view of downtown Boston from a pier nearby while visiting my friend Mike

May 27, 2008 - Government Center, Boston, MA
Boston Society of Spontaneity teams up with ZeeVee.com to bring a living room outside

May 28, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Myself and a few other students at Daniel Webster College find a giant turtle crossing the road

May 31, 2008 - Groton Country Club, Groton, MA
My friend Ally graduates highschool

June 1, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My house on a quiet summer day

June 2, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My aunt Anne and uncle Bill temporarily move in with us while they find a new house

June 3, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
I bring to life an old friendship with Crystal and we hang out for much of the summer

June 9, 2008 - Manchester, NH
I recieve a citation from Governor Lynch for a scholarship awarded by the New Hampshire High Technology Council

June 10, 2008 - Hotel, Williamsburg, VA
I play Grand Theft Auto IV on my laptop using a TV tuner while at a hotel in Virginia

June 11, 2008 - Remains of old fort, Jamestown, VA
A dig site where the Jamestown fort was presumed to be

June 11, 2008 - Colonial Williamsburg, VA
A wooden baracade shown to simulate the defenses of early American forts

June 12, 2008 - Mini golf course, Williamsburg, VA
My cousins Jesse and Joan play mini golf with my mother and I after visiting some historic sites

June 14, 2008 - Jesse's house, Woodstock, VA
The view from my cousin Jesse's kitchen window at his home in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

June 19, 2008 - Kimball Farms, Westford, MA
Car show season begins

June 22, 2008 - Leanne's house, Springfield, MA
My friend Leanne graduates highschool

June 27, 2008 - My father's house, Nashua, NH
I try to sell my 1984 Pontiac Fiero

June 28, 2008 - The Common, Boston, MA
Banditos Misteriosos hosts a team scavenger hunt covering much of downtown Boston

July 2, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My new Dell XPS M1530 arrives

July 5, 2008 - The Marginal Way, Ogunquit, ME
Mom and some of my aunts/uncles walk an ocean-side trail in Ogunquit, Maine, on the way to dinner

July 6, 2008 - Perkins Cove, Ogunquit, ME
Small boats docked in the harbor

July 11, 2008 - The Beach, Ogunquit, ME
Ogunquit Beach as seen from the Marginal Way across the Ogunquit River during semi-high tide

July 16, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
I have my 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT towed to Rick's Auto Care to have a large amount of mechanical work done

July 18, 2008 - The Library, Boston, MA
Boston Society of Spontaneity briefs its agents for their next mission: going into the Apple Store just after the release of the Apple iPhone 3G and talking on our superior Banana Phones

July 19, 2008 - Nearby home, Nashua, NH
A summer storm knocks a tree down taking out power to the neighborhood

July 19, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
While the power is out, my friend Roger and I modify firework tanks for a custom explosive experience

July 22, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Continuing firework engineering with Roger, we make a smoke-emitting can dubbed "Project Khaos"

July 26, 2008 - Dad's house, Nashua, NH
My 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT recently out of the repair shop goes to visit its long lost cousin, my 1984 Pontiac Fiero

July 28, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Jason and I construct a couch out of old "Ninja" PCs while at work

August 1, 2008 - Target, Nashua, NH
Car shows spreads north and I begin attending a weekly car show at Target

August 3, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Students play Rock Band at HoloDek Gaming

August 5, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
I build my mom a custom PC to replace her 2002 Dell

August 16, 2008 - The Esplanade, Boston, MA
Banditos Misteriosos hosts Revolutionary Water Gun Battle; the Colonists vs the Redcoats

August 17, 2008 - Government Center, Boston, MA
Boston Society of Spontaneity plays tag with strangers

August 18, 2008 - Pond by the Captain's Corner, Nashua, NH
I take a photograph of my Fiero GT which would later become "March" in the 2009 Fiero Store Calendar
http://www.fierostore.com/Product/Browse.aspx?d=288&p=1

August 22, 2008 - Target, Nashua, NH
I continue attending car shows at Target

August 30, 2008 - Main Dunstable School, Nashua, NH
I drive both of my cars to a nearby empty parking lot to take a set of photographs

September 2, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Daniel Webster College's ITS department prepares for student computer registration

September 5, 2008 - Target, Nashua, NH
I meet "Bumblebee" from the Transformers movie while at a car show at Target

September 5, 2008 - Target, Nashua, NH
My 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT next its friend, a Pontiac Trans Am, at the Target car show

September 10, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
View outside of the Eaton-Richmond Center at Daniel Webster College during a typical day

September 13, 2008 - Evergreen Country Club, Haymarket, Virginia
My cousin Barbara and Eric's wedding in Virginia

September 14, 2008 - The Capital, Washington, DC
The United States Capital from the National Mall

September 20, 2008 - Christopher Columbus Park, Boston, MA
The Boston Society of Spontaneity hosts MP3EXP, the MP3 Experience, in Christopher Columbus Park

September 24, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Gil tries on the Wii head-tracking goggles for our proposed software engineering project

September 25, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
DWC's ITS department discovers the true power of Apple's Macbook Air and its ability to slice and dice anything it touches, including cake

September 27, 2008 - Somewhere in CT
I ride BoltBus with James and Cara from Boston SOS to visit New York City

September 27, 2008 - Governor's Island, NYC
I met the infamous Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere

September 27, 2008 - Governor's Island, NYC
Improv Everywhere hosts MP3 Experiment 5: The Battle for Governor's Island

September 27, 2008 - Times Square, New York City
I visit New York City for the first time, and take pictures like a tourist

October 3, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
The Daniel Webster College ITS department cleans up the secret storage room

October 9, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Carolyn comes up from Long Island to visit DWC

October 20, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Fall foliage is seen from everywhere on campus

October 25, 2008 - Christopher Columbus Park, Boston, MA
Banditos Misteriosos hosts Monster Mash

October 25, 2008 - Government Center, Boston, MA
I prance around in a ghost costume outside the Government Center subway

October 30, 2008 - Boire Airport, Nashua, NH
An FA-18 Superhornet makes a historic landing at Daniel Webster College's tiny airport

November 1, 2008 - The Roxy Nightclub, Boston, MA
John Vesely of Secondhand Serenade performs live at the Roxy Nightclub in Boston with Automatic Loveletter, A Rocket To The Moon, and Cute Is What We Aim For

November 4, 2008 - Nashua, NH
I vote Republican in Election 2008

November 13, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
King I.T. aka Steven working beside me

November 14, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Josh tests out the state's new Kiosk for a project I will be working on shortly

November 16, 2008 - Dad's house, Nashua, NH
I sold my wheels on Craigslist

November 16, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Both my cars hang out in the driveway

November 17, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Pete busy in class

November 25, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Gil and Paul obviously hard at work

November 29, 2008 - Main Street, Nashua, NH
The City of Nashua closes off Main Street to vehicles and hosts the Holiday Stroll

December 6, 2008 - Emily's house, Quincy, MA
Boston Societies of Spontaneity official meeting

December 7, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
First accumulating snowfall of the season

December 12, 2008 - Nearby home, Nashua, NH
A massive ice storm criples much of New Hampshire, leaving nearly 350,000 households without power for several days

December 13, 2008 - DWC, Nashua, NH
Daniel Webster College Gaming Guild has pizza, and since I was busy programming in a lab nearby, I joined them

December 14, 2008 - Brookline Hills, Brookline, MA
Boston Societies of Spontaneity sing obscene Christmas carols to residents of the Brookline Hills area and commuters on the subway

December 14, 2008 - Gas station, Brookline, MA
Upon exiting the Boston area, Morgan and I stumbled across a very obvious "That's What She Said" joke waiting to happen

December 15, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Mom sets up out little Christmas tree at home

December 20, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Heavy snowfall the night before makes for a beautiful yet inconvenient blanket of whiteness

December 20, 2008 - Uncle Bob's house, Nashua, NH
My uncle Bob and aunt Diane host a family Christmas party

December 21, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Continued and persistent heavy snowfall makes recognizing the difference in the street and the sidewalk impossible

December 25, 2008 - Marcia's house, Cape Neddick, ME
Me and mom go to visit aunt Marcia and Kathy at their house/farm in Cape Neddick, Maine on Christmas day. Here is Marcia and Lea the horse

December 25, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
My pile of loot from Christmas gifts

December 26, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
Morgan and her brother Cole came to visit the day after Christmas

December 26, 2008 - Roger's house, Nashua, NH
Roger cooks two giant omelettes for dinner to fuel us for a night of Halo 3

December 29, 2008 - Town Fair Tire, Nashua, NH
I bring my Pontiac G5 to Town Fair Tire to get my new rims installed

December 31, 2008 - Home, Nashua, NH
I watch the ball drop in Times Square on television as 2008 officially comes to a close

Obscene Christmas Caroling

2008-12-14T23:20:00.004-05:00

First off, sorry for the lack of updates! I haven't been doing anything out of the ordinary in quite a while, except for finishing up this semester of college.

Back the the regularly scheduled program:

Today I went down to Boston yet again, this time to the west side at the Brookline Hills subway station. We met up with fellow improveratti in a small heated area and received red folders with lyrics to Christmas/holiday songs. Not just any lyrics, really obscene lyrics. We practiced a few times, then stepped out and performed for the travelers getting off the above-ground subway next to us. After a few laughs there, we moved to a more residential area and knocked on a few doors to sing our masterpieces. I'm not sure if it was sheer shock, but the recipients of our holiday cheer had some very funny reactions. Moving on from there, we toured onto the subway heading towards downtown Boston. A great day had by all I'd say!

Secondhand Serenade concert

2008-11-02T12:32:00.009-05:00

Last night I went to a concert at The Roxy Nightclub in Boston with some friends from school. The bands playing were A Rocket To The Moon, Automatic Loveletter, Cute Is What We Aim For, and Secondhand Serenade. One of my favorite bands, or singers if you will, is Secondhand Serenade, so I had to go! Seeing him live was so much better than the live versions of most of the bands I've seen before. It was an amazing experience, and I hope to see him next time he's around here too!

Like A Knife

Stranger (clip)

Fall For You

FA-18 Hornet visits Daniel Webster College

2008-10-30T21:46:00.013-04:00

Today was mostly an average day, except for a visit from a very unusual plane. If any of you know Daniel Webster College, you know that its a very, very small airport tucked in the corner of Nashua, NH. We were all told that there was going to be an FA-18 Hornet, a military strike fighter jet, landing on our tiny airstrip. At least a hundred Daniel Webster students lined the fence next to the runway and waited for the jet to arrive. After waiting 40 minutes past its scheduled landing time, it soared by, shaking the ground. After the pilot landed, surprisingly only using half of the runway, he gave a presentation to anyone interested in the auditorium. At night, the students gathered again and waited for takeoff. The engines roared on and the jet taxxied to the end of the runway, with everyone anticipating a wonderful afterburner blast. As everyone had hoped for, the afterburners went on full blast and the FA-18 Hornet lifted off right in front of us, heading up at an extreme angle. In under a minute's time, it had turned to face the other direction, and was reportedly at 7,500 feet. Here are a few pictures and videos I captured while I was there:

FA-18 Hornet flying overhead before landing

FA-18 Hornet taking off at night

Monster Mashup

2008-10-25T19:08:00.008-04:00

Today, Banditos Misteriosos hosted MONSTER MASHUP. This was a Halloween-themed event that had everyone boogeying (boo-geying, scary, huh?).

( Panorama shot by Eddric Lee )

At the sound of an air horn, everyone quickly suited up in their ghost costume, a colorful sheet with eye holes, and put on their MP3 played. At the second air horn sound, we all hit play and were listening to some of the most cliché Halloween music you can think of. Several ghosts stood at the top of a staircase in front of us and help up signs, with things such as bats and pumpkins on them, cueing us to perform a certain dance more. The event only lasted about 5 minutes, but many of us hung around much longer afterward chatting about this and previous events.

I'll see you next time! Until then, its time to get back to the grind of homework.

Improv Everywhere releases MP3 Experiment videos

2008-10-22T08:03:00.008-04:00

On Monday, Improv Everywhere released five videos about the MP3 Experiment tour. Besides the one I attended in New York City, it also happened in Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto.

The posting on their website, viewable HERE, contains links to each of the four cities. I highly suggest checking it out! Here are the videos, as seen on YouTube. Note that each event was approximately 50 minutes, but the videos are only 5 minutes. The last half of each video is pretty much the same, but the first half of each city shows a slightly different set of events. All of these events that the videos show happened at each location, so watch all four cities to get a good impression of what we all did!

The MP3 Experiment Tour

MP3 Experiment 5 (New York)

MP3 Experiment Toronto

MP3 Experiment San Francisco

MP3 Experiment Chicago

I'm still alive!

2008-10-20T08:58:00.003-04:00

I know it has been a month since my last post! I've been extremely busy since then with college, and haven't had anything interesting (at least that any of you would care to know about).

I've been regularly attending Friday-night car shows at Target and working both my jobs, aside from school, so I've had plenty to do. I have only left town twice since I went to New York. Once was to have a meeting with the higher-ups of Boston SOS. The other was to fix, or in this case eliminate, an old computer network in Lowell, MA.

As for my spare time, its practically non-existent, and it chewed up by several projects, such as designing and developing an assembler-based operating system and a 3D shooter for the PC using technology from Nintendo Wiimotes.

This weekend I am planning on attending "Monster Mashup" by Banditos Misteriosos, so expect another post soon!

MP3 Experiment 5 in New York City

2008-09-29T18:50:00.038-04:00

Originally my plans for this weekend included mostly alone time with school textbooks, but ended up being exponentially more exciting! Friday morning immediately after taking a shower, as I usually do, I checked my email. In my inbox was a rather interesting email from James Cobalt, the director of Boston SOS. He was asking if any of our members were interested in participating in Improv Everywhere's fifth annual "MP3 Experiment".

If you're not already familiar with the concept of an "MP3 Experiment", it goes like this:

Tens, hundreds, or thousands of people that for the most part do not know each other download an MP3 file off a website and load it on to their MP3 player. It is critical that you do not listen to this file until you are instructed to do so.
All these people meet up at a specified location at a specified time. With their clocks synchronized, all participants watch the time closely, and press play.
Listeners are verbally encouraged, via the voices on the MP3, to participate in individual and group activities, with fellow participants or occasionally nearby strangers, that most likely differ from the social norm one would expect.
Usually during such an event, many or all activities are photographed or recorded on digital video and uploaded to the internet for future viewing by anyone.

Originally I didn't plan on accepting this invitation, as I had a stockpile of work to get done. After some smooth convincing on James' part, I bought Saturday 7:30am ticket out of South Station in Boston to 34th&8th in NYC for a mere $37.00. The ride, by Bolt Bus, was a much needed upgrade from those Asian buses. The bus had comfortable seats, electric plugs, mobile wireless internet, an on-board bathroom, and most importantly, a fantastic American (and thus English speaking) driver! It turned out that with such short notice, only three of us Bostonians could make it down the following morning.

Arriving in New York City for the first time, I was not amazed at the buildings, but rather at the volume of pedestrians moving about on the sidewalk. Compared to NYC, Boston is rather deserted. We immediately went into Penn Station, and boarded the subway to lower Manhattan. Again, I was shocked at the number of people on the subway platform. We boarded the ferry to Governor's Island, as the instructions on Improv Everywhere's site said. To view the instructions as we saw them, click here. Upon arriving, it was obvious that something was up. There were photographers, free umbrellas, and a sign that read:

IMPORTANT NOTICE.
GENERATE/L.C. INC. will be filming in this area for various future uses in connection with the program tentatively entitled "MP3 EXPERIMENT", including, without limitation, exploitation on all forms of television, home entertainment devices, theatrical distribution and/or any other form of reproduction or exhibition now known or hereafter devised. By entering this area where filming is taking place you hereby consent to the possibly reproduction of your name, voice and/or likeness in connection with any of the foregoing forms of subsequent exploitation of today's/tonight's filming, including all advertising and/or promotion therefore, and you now and forever expressly waive any claims you may have in connection therewith. If you object in any way to the foregoing, please STAY OUT OF THE AREA WHERE FILMING IS TAKING PLACE. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Thank you. GENERAL/L.C. INC.

We had until 3:15 before we had to press play on our MP3 players, so we wandered around the island looking at some of the bizarre artwork that was scattered about, and eventually ran into Charlie Todd, the founder of Improv Everywhere. As time drew closer, more and more people began showing up and crowding around the hot dog stand.

As our watches read 3:15, approximately 1000 of us all simultaneously began pressing play. Most of the MP3 was of "Steve, the omnipotent voice from above", voiced by Charlie Todd. Starting off with some stretches and simple exercises, everyone began to loosen up. I will make sure to post the official video that Improv Everywhere releases, but that could take a while. I won't spoil all the details now, but you'll get a general impression of how it went. Early on, we had a thumb war, where participants had to challenge another with a different colored shirt. It so happened that everyone in my area was already color-matched, except two guys both wearing blue shirts who were sharing an MP3 player, each with an earbud in one ear. I found this particularly challenging, as I was in two thumb wars at a time, one with each hand.

After many easy, mostly individual events, we were told to group to the center of Governor's Island, walking while spinning our umbrellas in the air.

Many of the activities we proceeded to do were just amazing to experience, such as packing tightly together and opening our umbrellas over our heads, creating a canopy that blocked out much of the sun, making it significantly darker. Using the four colors of shirts participants were expected to wear, we grouped together and made Tetris pieces, and then combined into to form larger shapes.

The final activity we did, the EPIC BATTLE, certainly lived up to its name, in one way or another. Dividing into two groups, the Blue/Green shirted and the Red/Yellow shirted, we gathered at opposite sides of the field and inflated balloons to use as weapons. As instructed, we marched forward whistling a battle march on imaginary flutes and drums. As we stood face to face, we rushed into each other. I recorded much of this chaos and posted the video to YouTube; you can watch it at the bottom of this post.

After all was over with, and we recovered from the treacherous battle, we swarmed to the dock to load into ferries. Surprisingly, we were only divided into two groups, but took up most of the floor space on both ferries. As you can see in the picture below, the dark center of the ferry designated for parked cars was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with MP3 participants returning to Manhattan. Cheering and singing, we all made it safely back to shore. Before returning to Boston, we made a quick visit to Times Square in downtown Manhattan so I could be the typical tourist and take loads of photographs of the immaculately lit skyscrapers and the streets flooded with people and yellow taxi cabs. I hope you enjoyed this very long post, check back periodically for updates on my spontaneous lifestyle!

The "EPIC BATTLE" at the end of MP3 Experiment 5:
(note: all audio is from the MP3 audio track provided and is property of Improv Everywhere and its affiliates)

The MP3 Experiment Tour

MP3 Experiment 5 (New York)

MP3EXP Recap

2008-09-21T12:32:00.016-04:00

Yesterday was amazing! I drove to Boston to make it by 2:30 just to make sure I got there on time. I showed up, and there were small groups of people in colored shirts, waiting for the MP3 Experience. I met up with some regulars from Boston SOS and we synchronized our watches. Right before the clock struck three o'clock, several people began a countdown-- "ten, nine, eight...". Everyone got silent and began listening to the MP3 we had all downloaded just days before. No one knew what to expect in the next hour and nine minutes. (If you want to hear it for yourself, click HERE)

It began with the left and right sides of your brain chatting to each other, with the stereo sound switching channels back and forth. We began doing some simple activities to get everyone loosened up.

"Hey, why don't we try smiling for a moment? Smile as big as you can! Can you smile with your eyes closed? I can smile with your eyes closed. Now lets wink at all our new friends. We're winking because we're in on it. We know something the others don't. Wink, wink! Can you wink while keeping both your eyes closed? Not easy, is it?"

Then Steve, The Omnipotent Voice From Above from Improv Everywhere was introduced, watching down on us. He made us separate up and begin spinning very quickly. After we stopped spinning, we had to go shake the hands of all our new friends. This was rather difficult, and even when I tried to stopped moving, I felt myself trying to fall down to the left.

The narrator came back on and made us freeze as statues for five minutes. You really don't know how long five minutes is until you have to stand there without moving. Some people made obvious bad decisions on their poses, and were struggling to keep still. Right after we unfroze, we had to hide. I hid under a park bench, and many people nearby hid behind small pillars. We tip-toed around to other hiding spots.

The next segment was a wildlife hunt, where we had to find bugs, wingéd birds, fishes, and the ferocious half-mouse/half-spiders/half-man-eating-tiger (the squirrel). The audio effects were done with such precision that it gave the illusion that there were seagulls flying overhead, when there wasn't at all.

There were some other ridiculous events, like smelling flowers, hugging inanimate objects (and then the entire park as a group effort), dancing, surfing, and posing as groups in our colored shirts, a runway fashion show, and a corral-the-cows (people in green shirts were the cows), walking and riding horses like a cowboy, and singing (quite unsynchronized).

We ended up at the Aquarium's plaza, quickly taking over the entire area. We walked around giving very suspicious glares at each other and strangers. All at once, we pulled out our finger-pistols and held them up pointing at everyone. As we shouted "bang, bang", we fell to the ground, leaving no survivors.

Overall, it was a fantastic day -- more than I could have ever hoped for with this type of event. I don't know when the next MP3 Experience will take place, but I will most definitely be there, and you should too!

Here's some pictures I took during the event. I participated in everything, thus did not take a video. I'll link some in a few days when they start making an appearance on YouTube. Stay tuned!

The "finger bang" gunfight in the Aquarium plaza:

MP3EXP Tomorrow

2008-09-19T21:51:00.006-04:00

The MP3EXP (hosted by Boston SOS) is here in Boston tomorrow at 3:00 pm! http://www.mp3exp.com/

What is it? I quote this from their webpage:

1. What is the MP3 Experience? The MP3 Experience is a free, family-friendly, off-beat social gathering that brings strangers together to participate in a shared experience centered on music and being wacky. It is a spin-off of NYC-based Improv Everywhere's (with their blessing) annual "MP3 Experiment" event. Every year Improv Everywhere creates an audio track of instructions for the listener. People download this audio track and save it to their MP3 players. Then they meet up at a predetermined location and at the same time everyone presses Play. In this way everyone hears the same instructions at the same time. Instructions can range from exercise to dancing to group games to miming and more. The MP3 Experience takes the idea one step closer to home by providing an aural experience that can be played in other cities across the nation.
2. What is an MP3? An MP3 is a type of audio file. It is popular because it has very good quality but doesn't take up a lot of disk space- thiis why it is the preferred file type for getting audio tracks via the internet.
3. What do I need to participate? All you need is yourself, a timepiece with a seconds display, a solid color shirt (Yellow, Blue, Red, Green), an MP3 Player, a camera, and a sense of adventure. All iPods are MP3 players. In fact, nearly any portable audio device (including most modern cell phones) can play MP3s. Refer to your device's instruction manual on how to use it to play MP3s. If you use an iPod you can just drag the file into iTunes. If you use Windows Media Player to sync your audio device just add the file to that library. We do not recommend burning it to a CD- portable CD players tend to skip when moving about; a $20 MP3 player will be more than sufficient to hold this file and will offer a far superior experience than a skipping CD.

So where is it? It's at the Christopher Columbus Park in Boston, Mass, right near the Aquarium and Faneuil Hall. Where do you get the MP3? You can go to the website mentioned earlier in the article, or click here: http://rapidshare.com/files/146478768/MP3-EXP.mp3.html

I'll be blogging about it later this weekend, so either check back on Sunday or go and participate yourself!

Weekend in Virginia

2008-09-12T14:23:00.004-04:00

This morning I woke up bright and early, as in 5:00 am. It was the earliest I've purposely woken up, at least this year. My mom and I drove up to the Manchester Airport, and did all the necessary things to get to the gate. I was on the phone waiting for my plane to come in, when a rather familiar looking man walked by. It was Mitt Romney! He disappeared for a while, but then boarded after me onto our Southwest jet destined for Baltimore. I was very surprised that a man of his status would be flying alone on the last boarding group of the most budget airline you can take from around here. Proof that he would've done great for the economy!

Now I'm down in Gainesville, Virginia until late Sunday night to attend a wedding for a family member. In other news, the MP3 Experiment in Boston is next weekend, and it's going to be fantastic! If you're within range, I suggest coming down for it!

Recap of this week

2008-09-04T22:30:00.002-04:00

This week has been ridiculous, quite literally. I had planned on not doing anything Monday, in preparation for what happened later in the week. However, the Director of Boston SOS called me up and wanted me to go with him to Boston to do some testing for the upcoming MP3 Experiment. I went down and ended up not only testing the track, but going out to eat with some other members to three different restaurants spending a few hours at each. It was very fun and full of dirty jokes, and we even played charades with members and random other people on the other side of the subway tracks. Finally we ended up catching the last subway before the MBTA closed down for the night, and I got home at 1:30 am.
(Due to the secrecy of this event's planning process, no photos of this testing day will be posted)

Tuesday and Wednesday I had to get up to go to work at 8:30 am and work until 12:00 am. Yes, that's right, I worked over 15 hours each day, for two days straight. Most of the two days was doing pretty much the same thing but we were at capacity most of the time. I work for the Information Technology Systems department at Daniel Webster College, and our entire department was present registering the freshmen and returning student's computers.

Running on no sleep for the entire week thus far, I began school today. After a rather unsettling scheduling mishap that occurred just days before, everything finally slipped back into order and I'm full up on classes. The day went as expected for the most part, including working for both of my jobs; DWC ITS and HoloDek Gaming.

This upcoming week will most likely be full of classes, leaving nothing interesting to talk about. I'm sure something might come up, so always check back for updates!
Also, if you have a suggestion of something I should talk about more, just let me know!

Long Time No Update

2008-08-28T21:25:00.005-04:00

I haven't made a post in about a week and a half, and that is because nothing exciting has been going on. Back to school next week as a junior in college. I'm taking enough technology classes to drive anyone insane, and I'll have one or maybe even two jobs, so I'll be busy. Busy is better than bored, that's for sure.

As for upcoming events, Boston SOS is hosting MP3 EXP on September 20, 2008. The exact details are still being determined, but everyone is welcome to come! Check out the website for more information and specific updates. As usual, I'll be covering the event, so expect something more about this as we get closer! www.mp3exp.com

In other news, I've been playing with Adobe Photoshop lately. My most recent project was changing the body color of my 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT to various colors. Although not a complicated process, its rather tedious, but in the end the results are completely worth it. Many of these colors actually look like they were original. Here's a little collage of some of them.

Over and out!

Boston SOS - Slow Motion & Tag

2008-08-17T19:59:00.003-04:00

Today I was back in Boston. This time for the improv event organization Boston Society of Spontaneity (http://www.bostonsos.org/). Instead of finding out a month beforehand what an event will be, we are just told that there will be an event, and given the time. The "what" of the event is usually emailed to the RSVPed participants the night before, but this time we didn't even get that luxury. A few more than 40 unknowing people showed up at 2:00 sharp this afternoon at Government Center. I was appointed cameraman, and took a high-def video camera into my possession. Right before we left our meeting location, we were instructed that at 2:15 we were going into slow motion behind Quincy Market. It was a time crunch and we showed up just as our cell phone alarms went off. A few people shopped, and I walked around the back to get some video. I put the camera sticking out of my pocket and walked in slow motion towards the center of our group to get some good footage of a slow-motion fight. I turned to my left and saw someone taking their time lighting a cigarette, so I faced his direction to get a good angle and slowly put on my sunglasses. After our 5 minutes was up, we returned to our meeting location.

Our next stunt was to play tag with random strangers. We tried to sit around and not look suspicious (but really, 50 people standing around a normally non-populated area is a difficult task). The non-involved people were pinched through a narrow area, where one of our participants would tag them, and then the lot of us would run and hide. Most of the strangers just kept walking, but some joined in after some hesitation.

Once we were exhausted, we decided as a group to go to Wendy's for lunch. Most of the group dispersed, but about 20 of us headed out. Our director, James Cobalt, got to the front of the line and bought 13 Frostys. It was very funny to watch the expressions of the workers when they heard that thirteen were ordered all at once. After we finished, seven of us stayed much longer and had very random discussions about future events, possibly involving cows. We'll see if that makes the cut, but I'm sure hoping it does.

The next Boston SOS event is scheduled for September 13th, 2008, and will be a global event, and not just in Boston. To find out more, go to http://www.mp3event.com/!

Revolutionary Water Gun Battle - Recap

2008-08-16T23:46:00.013-04:00

(YouTube video and photos below, don't get impatient!)

After days of shopping for water guns, my search was coming up rather barren. It was finally at CVS where I found the first gun I could buy! (last place you'd look for a water gun, right?Conveniently, at least I thought, my neighbor and my step-brother also had some I could borrow. So I took them all. I ended up with 6. I thought that was awesome, but apparently that is too many to use efficiently, who would've thought? I couldn't sleep last night, and I was too excited this morning, so I ended up leaving early. Sporting all blue to represent the American Colonists, I drove all the way from Nashua, NH down to Boston at 11:00 in the morning. I parked under Boston Common and hauled over to my assigned meeting location: behind the Hatch Shell, the stage where the Boston Pops Orchestra plays every Forth of July. I was a bit early, but surprisingly not the first one there.

A while later, everyone finally started to show up. It was a great day, and to think, I actually expected it to rain! Right after 1:30, the scheduled meet-up time, Banditos organizer Ethan Feuer, outfitted as General Washington, stood up in front of the colonial troops and gave his motivational speech. We loaded up and marched west along the south bank of the Charles River to the beat of a drum (or at least tried to march). Over yonder, we could see the British Redcoats marching towards us. As they filled out, we realized we were heavily outnumbered. As everyone chanted "Huzzah!", I let out a much needed "THIS IS SPARTA!". I was just about to help a fellow troop load his musket (and by musket, I mean neon colored plastic water rifle). I lunged forward into the wall coming towards me, completely blinded by the surge of water in my face. After the initial few rushes, both teams fell back to reload. Luckily I brought over four liters of water, so I quickly got back to my feet. Dodging sprays of water, I ran through enemy lines with my camera, as you will see in the following video. At some point, I turned to the center of the action, to be greeted by robots blowing bubbles, and got a very nice close-up shot. That was short-lived, and people started forming small assault groups. Some even betrayed their countrymen and struck up conversations with the British.

As the fight was turning to a close, Banditos organizers took action and cleaned up battlefield. No bodies had to be dumped into the Charles; however, several trash bags were filled with empty water bottles and broken weapons. Good job again, Banditos Misteriosos! I hope your next event lives up to the level I've come to expect! Now, you can enjoy a selection of my photos and a video I put together from the event:

(You can hover over a picture to see its caption, or click it to see it larger)

(Click once to play, or twice to open its YouTube webpage)

( Photography and Video © Chris Andrews , Video Music © Creedence Clearwater Revival)

Upcoming Water Gun Battle

2008-08-13T17:36:00.008-04:00

I haven't updated in the past week, but that's because nothing has happened!

So lets take a look into the near future. Boston, Massachusetts's "Banditos Misteriosos" is hosting a "Revolutionary Water Gun Battle" this Saturday, August 16th, 2008 at 1:30pm.

I'm definitely going. If you, whoever you may be, want to attend, you must sign up on their website, misteriosos.org, by this Friday! More details (such as which team you will be on and where your meeting location will be) will most likely be released Friday evening!

Check back for a recap blog sometime this weekend!

Build-a-Computer

2008-08-05T22:42:00.016-04:00

Today's project was building a computer for my mom from various parts I ordered on NewEgg for $250. As soon as I woke up, I checked my UPS tracking number. It said "Out for Delivery", timestamped 8:38 am. I was so excited to build a computer from scratch, that every time I heard a diesel engine, I'd run downstairs and look out the window. I never knew how much went on outside during the day! Trash truck, recycling truck, mail van, various big pickups... but no UPS truck! Watching my day slowly waste away, and becoming sick of running downstairs (in fear I'd miss them, because my doorbell is broken), I threw an extension cord out the window and hooked a security camera up in our apple tree out front. Yes, I actually did that! I didn't get a picture though, surprisingly. Finally, with most of the day blown by, there it was. A large brown truck right in the middle of the camera's view. I ran downstairs past my uncle who was on the phone, and right up to the truck. I pointed out the camera to the delivery man and he laughed. Maybe I was just too excited? I took my box upstairs, and sifted through the packing peanuts to get every last part out. At the time I ordered my parts, there was a sale on 80mm fans; one with shipping was about $9, but if you got ten, there was a bulk discount and free shipping! I ended up getting 10 fans for $12, just 3 dollars more than if I had gotten one! I took my gutted "Ninja" case downstairs and layed out all the parts. I've worked on computers and disassembled many, but I've never completely built one from scratch. It was pretty fun, and quite easy. Everything fitted perfectly! I even used twist-ties inside to neaten it up a bit. I even made a custom "StaleNet Computers" logo sticker for the case, which fits perfectly! Next on the list is installing Vista, and getting it set up for wireless access.

I hope you all appreciate my enthusiasm! Keep checking back for more posts, I'll try to update at least every few days, as I have so far. In upcoming posts, expect to see some free-running, homemade fireworks, guitar, and my spontaneous outings in Boston!

$250 Computers's Specs:

Processor: Intel Pentium E2180 2.0 GHz dual-core
Motherboard: Zotac N73V-Value ATX
Video card: MSI nVidia GeForce 8400 GS 256MB PCI Express x16
Power supply: CoolMax 400W ATX
Optical drive: Lite-On 20x DVD±R burner
Cooling: Dynatron 92mm CPU cooler, 2x Masscool 80mm case fans
Memory: Corsair XMS2 1 GB w/heat spreader (already had)
Hard drive: Hitachi 320 GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0gb/s
Case: "Ninja" (compliments of Daniel Webster College ITS Department)

Busy Work Day

2008-08-02T19:35:00.007-04:00

I seriously can't believe how busy today has been at work.

I work at a place called HoloDek Gaming (http://www.holo-dek.com/). It's a pay-to-play gaming center, where you, the customer, comes and pays for time to play our games on our systems. It's $6/hr or $20 for all day. We have 34 high-end gaming computers, 2 XBOX360's, a PS3, and a Nintendo Wii. It's located at Daniel Webster College in Nashua, NH so if you're in the area and have a craving to play video games, come on by!

Anyway, so the original plan was for me to work the whole day by myself from 3:00pm to 8:00pm because its a mess right now with people wanting vacations and getting sick. Someone didn't get the memo, though, so when I showed up right before 3:00, we were already open with 3 customers set to "play all day". I asked him what's up, and he said he wasn't sick anymore so he came in for his shift. I came back at 6:00 to pick up when he left, and I couldn't believe how busy we were. Lets be honest, its a tough market during the summer, and usually we have around 2 people playing at various times during the day. However, I looked in the room and was surprised to see it almost full. Both of our projection screens were taken with XBOX360, and tons of people on PC. Originally we were supposed to close at 8:00, but it looks like I'm going to be staying until midnight. Oh well, the needy people left so I have some free time. Maybe I'll watch a movie, or maybe I'll watch in amazement at the number of people still playing tonight. Just wait until the students come back this fall. I might as well just not have a chair at my desk because it'll get in the way when I'm moving in and out so often. I guess I should go back and keep an eye on these kids, because its like an un-supervised daycare center in there!

Car Show

2008-08-01T21:31:00.010-04:00

Today I went straight from work to a car show at Target!

I got there about a half hour early when it was fairly empty and found a good spot to park my 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT. When I first got there I stood around my car and checked for wireless signal; the only two available were encrypted, what luck! I waited around for more people to show up, and then a nice man named Don parked next to me in his 1987 Pontiac Trans Am. Our cars were from the same company and same year, so from a distant glance, they could've been twins. I talked to him for most of the show, he knew alot about my car, as his was so similar, and gave me many suggestions for working on mine. Within an hour the parking lot had filled up! My mom eventually came by and hung around for a little while. I was surprised at the variety. Someone told me more Fieros were on their way, but they never showed up. At least it was still an awesome experience. There were more Corvettes, Mustangs, and GTOs then I could keep track of. Many of which appeared to be in perfect condition!

Nearing the mid-point of the show, a brand new 2008 Dodge Challenger drove by, with its huge 20" wheels and 6.1 litre engine. What a fantastic re-creation of the classic this is; not like the new Mustang with its pseudo-retro look. I plan to make this a weekly visit, and if you're in the area, you should drop by; every Friday 5-9 at the Target in Nashua on Amherst St. Right before I left, they had a raffle for the drivers in the show. They called off about 10 people with the tickets like I had, and almost got me. Mine was 5467 and they called 5465 and 5468. Seriously, is that just bad karma? It was just as cool leaving the show, too. There's nothing like driving down the road with at least half of the cars in your proximity being shiney classics. I was at a red light and the two lanes to my right were full of 70's muscle cars that all took off when the light went green. Simply fantastic. The official count at the show was 225 cars. That's quite alot for a little show in the parking lot of Target!

First Post

2008-07-30T14:00:00.018-04:00

Welcome to 2002! Okay, maybe its 2008, but it's about time I started a blog. I ignored that whole xanga/livejournal rush in middleschool and I figure why not just start one now?
I won't spill out my life all at once. I'm not writing a book here, but I will write about various things that happen during my day. Although I have a very steady and scheduled life right now, unique things always happen every day that are worth noting.

Who I am, you may ask?
My name is Chris. I was born in 1988, which makes me 20 years old. I'm tall, as in 6'2", but definately thinner than average. You'll rarely see me without my hat on; I'm so glad they let you wear your hat inside at my college! I'm soon to be a junior and I'm studying computer science, specifially software engineering, but you'll hear much more about that soon enough, as the countdown to school has began. I haven't actually been interested in computers for all that long, in fact, it was sophomore year of high school when I took an introductory course in Web Page Design that I realized I had interest in computers. Since then I've taken many classes learning various programming languages, but I won't bore you with the details. As of now, I'm working at a pay-to-play gaming center in Nashua, which is incredibly fun because I get to try all the games for myself! Although I definately do play games at work, I typically don't when I'm at home.

Aside from computers, I really like cars, particularly Pontiacs. You'll find more about that in upcoming posts, trust me. I also play guitar every once in a while; I used to take lessons in Massachusetts but had to stop those once college consumed my life. I've been playing for about 11 years.

I live in Nashua, NH and I've lived here my entire life. I don't know what everyone else is complaining about, but I really like it here. It won "Best Place to Live in America" in 1987 and 1997 from Money Magazne, and that says a little something, right? Although not a dense urban area, its still considered a city. In fact, its the second largest city in the state, right behind Manchester. With the infestation of immigrants from India in the last few years, I'm sure we'll be the largest soon enough. I spent most of my time here; because I live here, work here, and go to school here.

Expect in upcoming posts to see tons of pictures. I literally have my camera attached at the hip, so it's never more than 5 seconds from ready. Also, if you readers have any suggestions for me to write about or any questions, feel free to leave a comment or message me! After all, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't expect input from you guys.