[NOTE: My YouTube videos are now embedded in this post, check them out!]
I hope all of you had a fantastic Independence Day weekend! Mine was a good one for sure. Carl came down on Friday night and after team trivia (1st place!), he, Jeff [Frame] (who also came down for the weekend), my new roommate Anders & I went down to the 797 Lounge to catch the Twins-Tigers game. We mainly went there so that Jeff could see first-hand what had become of the former Sports Cafe. We were all annoyed with the exceedingly loud hip-hop (and a deejay with his stupid scratching machine, even though very few people were there and nobody was dancing). They can’t seem to decide if they want to be a dance club or a sports bar. Those two don’t mix all that well though.
But anyway, onto the 4th. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, partly cloudy, temps in the low 70s and a pleasant breeze. Mid-afternoon Carl & I went up to the 4th Fest to check out what was happening up there, like the graphical waterfall and Jacob’s band Cootie Brown playing on the White Stage. [NOTE: I’ll embed a couple YouTube videos of those here tomorrow, once YouTube is done with their maintenance.] After that we went to Scott & Yvette’s for the meteorology 4th of July cookout.
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Then Carl & I went up to the VIP viewing area with Jon & Steph (who was also back in town for a visit!). Before the fireworks we were treated to an absolutely magnificent sunset:
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And then came the main attraction: the 3rd-best fireworks show in the nation! This year I only took a handful of photos, and concentrated more on taking more video. I forgot until about 10-15 minutes into the show that my camera had a preset “fireworks” setting, after which point my photos and movies became much crisper.
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But enough of photos of fireworks, here are some videos I took with my camera of the fireworks at this year’s Central PA 4th Fest! These videos are also posted on my facebook profile, and are better quality there.
(from “Pirates of the Carribean”)
Once again, it was quite a show! I think last year’s was slightly better overall, but that’s not saying anything bad about this year’s show. And I think I’m definitely hooked on sitting in the VIP viewing section, having been there the last two years. Without a doubt I’ll be back there again next year, whether I buy a ticket for get comped a ticket somehow. I know I’m getting totally spoiled with the State College fireworks, but I may as well enjoy them while I can!
Oh, and my blog posting will probably start to get much less frequent for the next month or so. This week I’m putting together a powerpoint for a presentation that I have next week at the 13th Annual George Mason University Conference on Atmospheric Transport & Dispersion (it just wouldn’t be a July without yet another GMU conference), and I need to make a ton of progress on writing my prospectus (my research proposal), which I need to give to my committee shortly after getting back from the GMU conference. Then it’s study-study-study to get ready for my written comprehensive exam on Fri 31 July, followed by my oral comps at 1:30pm on Fri 7 August. Aaaaaagggghhhh!!!! I’m stressed out about it, understandably. So until then I’ll probably largely be AWOL from bloggish activity, save for a random post or two. I absolutely cannot wait until my comps are finally done…