Most likely to be a social media nerd

Although I didn't think of myself as exactly being at the top of the social ladder in high school, apparently many of my former classmates now consider me the king of social media.

Last night Niskayuna High School's Class of 1990 had their 20-year reunion.  It was so great to see so many old faces -- many of which I haven't seen since graduation. At least, not in person.

That brings us to modern marvel that is Facebook.  I seriously lost track of how many people said to me, "Hey, Chris, I see you on Facebook all the time!" or "Yeah, you're all over Facebook."

Another person looked at the drink in my hand and asked why I wasn't drinking a cup of coffee. Apparently I've written many status updates about enjoying a cup of coffee.

Then there was the guy who told me I'm on Facebook so much that I have the most recognizable face in the room.  I know that was meant as a compliment, but I admit I was a little embarrassed. Am I putting too much out there?

For the record, I think I only did a few updates on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare during the course of the party.

I also only sang karaoke twice. I haven't done that since college.  But the ham in me couldn't resist the urge to grab the microphone and make an ass of myself.

I was one of the first singers of the night and did a very lame rendition of "Great Balls of Fire."  Much later in the evening I had the urge to take another crack at it.  It took a while to decide what song to do, but I finally settled on Van Halen's "Jump." However,when the DJ told me I'd be the last song of the night, I immediately changed my mind. "New York, New York" would be the perfect song to end the night!

I managed to get a good number of the attendees on the dance floor to sing along and start a kick line.

And of course I couldn't wait to update my Facebook status about it.

Timber!

We had a little bit of excitement on our street.

Kris had noticed that one of the large maple trees in front of our neighbors’ house across the street looked like it was starting to come up out of the ground.

For those keeping score, these are the same neighbors who had a limb from a different tree crush the roof of their car during the ice storm.

Anyway, Kris has been taking note of this tree for the last week or so. I never bothered to go over and take a closer look at it.

Finally, one of our neighbors came over to the house last night to tell us she was now aware of it and wanted to bring it our attention since the tree was angling across the street and toward our house (although I don’t think it would reach that far). She told us she had been calling the police and highway departments all day and was still awaiting a response.

Eventually she got one. Nolan and I went out to a Cub Scout meeting and came home to find police had blocked the road off. They allowed us through to our house. I talked to one of the officers, who told me that in fact the tree did look pretty dangerous and that the road would remain closed until this morning.

Sure enough, bright and early this morning a crew arrived and began taking down uprooting tree as well as the one that dropped the limb on their car in December. Subsequently, it is now a little brighter in our front yard.

Where the wild things are

It seems like boom in the rabbit population in our neighborhood. We, and several of our neighbors, have commented that it seems like there are even more of the little critters than usual this summer.

A few weeks ago Kris and the kids spotted a fox in our neighbor’s yard. A friend of ours who lives a few blocks away spotted a fox near his house earlier that morning – probably the same one that eventually made its way down to our street.

A few days ago our neighbor across the street says she caught sight of some sort of “wild animal.” She didn’t think it was a fox, but I was sure that must have been what it was. Especially after what I saw today.

I dropped the kids off at camp this morning, which is near my mom’s house. After leaving them I spotted a fox with my own two eyes trotting down her street. In all my life I had never seen an animal like that in the neighborhood before.

I guess with the increase in rabbits, it would make sense that there is an increase in things that like to eat rabbits. Still, it’s an unusual sight.

Don't rain on my parade

Niska Day was pretty much a washout this year. But at least we were still able to march in the parade and stay relatively dry. It just sprinkled on and off.

This was the first time for Nolan (and Kris, Thomas and Chester) to march in the parade. We walked with the Cub Scouts and everyone had a great time.

I was very proud. I told Nolan and a few other people how I had marched in the first two Niska Day parades in 1981 and 82 with the Cub Scouts. Now here we were coming full circle.

We wandered around at the high school later in the day, equipped in our camping rain gear. The kids played some games, but it was really too wet for the rides or anything else.

I had hoped this would be the year I'd finally convince Nolan to go see the fireworks, but it was pouring last night. I could still hear the fireworks over our house, but I can't imagine there was much of a crowd there to see them.

Oh well. There is always next year.

Land of Tall Corn

While reading the Upstream blog I stumbled across a link to a blog called York Staters, which has an interesting post on the meaning of the name Niskayuna.

Growing up, I remember being told it meant “Land of Tall Corn.” I’ve also heard that it’s an old Indian word for “High Taxes.”

Niska-Day 2006

Today was Niska-Day 2006—the 25th annual Niskayuna Community Day.

The good news is it didn’t rain on the parade. The bad news is it was raining on and off when we tried to take in the festivities at the high school.

The day will be capped off, as usual, with a fireworks show tonight. Nolan has always been scared of fireworks. We thought we might be able to talk him into it this year, which would be great since they’re being hyped as the biggest the town has ever seen. Unfortunately, he’s got a cold and went straight to bed. So I wound up walking up to see them by myself. And they were pretty cool.

Anyway, here are some highlights from the parade and the high school. Click on a thumbnail for a larger picture...

Flashback Friday

Friday night I assisted my boss with videotaping the Niskayuna High School production of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”

He’s been doing this for several years now. He uses multiple cameras (there were four this year) and a combination of his own mics set up on and around the stage plus the mix from the house audio board. He also shoots some rehearsals and other “bonus features” and puts it all together on DVD.

This was my second year working with him. Last year I was recruited to join his crew taping the school’s production of “Les Miserables.”

It’s always a bit of a trip going back to my old alma mater to see a school musical—quite the walk down memory lane. I of course had the honor of playing Mr. Sowerberry the undertaker in the 1990 production of “Oliver.” I was involved with the Drama Club in other ways through my high school years, but that was my biggest moment on stage.

Here was the real freaky part…at the end of the night we had packed up all of the gear and were ready to load it into his car when he realized he had forgotten one of his mic stands that was set up on the side of the stage. I volunteered to go back and get it. I started walking across the stage to get to the stand that was on the other side when I sort of froze about half way across and looked out into the auditorium. It sunk in that this was a view I hadn’t seen in nearly 16 years.

My boss’ wife was also part of our crew. She commented that it won’t be long before I’ll be going there to watch my kids in one of these musicals. Whatever Nolan and Thomas get into (sports, drama, music, art, etc.) it sure will be great to go see them do there thing in the same halls I once walked.