It's Monday. Our Last Ultimate Camp Starts Today!

I'm glad this isn't part of the school curriculum any longer.
I had to do the duck and cover drills when I was in elementary school.
We lived in fear of the Soviet Union and its large nuclear arsenal.
Back then I believed in the power of school desk construction. I knew that wooden
top and steel frame could and would protect me from a direct strike.
Today's desks are lucky to be sturdy enough to hold a few textbooks and the head of a sleeping child

Hello Troops,
Our last EdVenture / Ultimate Camp starts this evening. Will the Odyssey and Phoenix have air conditioning?

I drove to the school at 7:00 A.M. this morning to be the first to call in a work order on the roof top unit. No one answered so I left a message. I just got a phone call from our custodian that maintenance was there and on the roof.

"The fan seized up," Rodger told me. " If the compressor isn't cooled it overheats and shuts down."

Rodger will tell him to take a fan unit from one of the school's other air conditioners and put it on ours if he doesn't have one available. We've got an awesome school custodian.

If I had to identify the top three sources for my work related stress and worries they are:

• Maintenance. What will break down next and how will it affect ongoing operations.

• Staff Issues. Who is being mean to who. Who has issues with who. Who will work with who. Who isn't pulling his or her weight. Who is slacking off and not giving their work their best effort. Human resources are always a source for hours of a manager's mental and verbal effort on a weekly basis. Its the same in any organization. I'm just happy the Space Center has a staff of caring individuals whose mistakes usually stem from immaturity. Most of them are teens and we all know growing up is a bumpy road.
  

• Injuries are the next thing on my list. Safety is paramount in Space Center Operations. The nagging thought of "What could go wrong" always rattles around in the back of my head. "What could go wrong and what can you do to prevent it from happening," I say to my staff regularly. I want safety to be on the forefront of their thinking in relation to working with our campers and equipment.

I'm about to leave reality and catch the Wonderland Express for the Imaginarium. Here's hoping you'll be joining the rest of us soon at the Space Education Center. Remember, we have stories to tell and lessons to teach so we'll keep the lights on for you.

Mr. W.

What happens when you sleep. Don't go anywhere without your Teddyknight.

A different way to say "I'm sorry"

I find this graph sums it up perfectly. The less information I have on any topic the more confusing it is. On the other hand, I find myself getting confused if more information floods in after I think I've got a handle on the situation or topic. I find this true when faced with understanding why people do and say the things they do or if I'm trying to understand complex political or religious issues.

And now a word from the Space Center's Guru and part time Wise Man.

The story of life. Appreciate the people that are walking with you.

I wonder how many sandals Fred and Barney go through in any one month?

I'm looking into buying stock. How can I go wrong with this economy? I wonder if they have a broom capable of duplicated the smooth ride and comfort my Battlestar gives me?


Now, no more delays. Time to get to work. It won't get done on its own you know.

Mr. W.

A Short Weekend and Our Fallen Lady on the Rooftop.

A Cream Cake and Candy Apple?
Today Phillip is a happy boy.
Isn't it always the simple things in life?

Hello Troops,
A few weeks ago I opened the 4th grade hallway's custodian closet and climbed the ladder to the rooftop to check on the air conditioners - the true workhorses of the Space Education Center. Three were working perfectly. One however, was not. The unit responsible for cooling the Space Center's office, Phoenix and Odyssey simulators sounded tired. The cooling fan's motor was layered in an orange coat of rust. The unit looked like it belonged on the roof of an long abandoned factory.

"Hold on friend," I whispered as I patted her on her dark gray metallic housing. She responded with a gurgle followed by a stoke of wheezing and the sound a vacuum cleaner makes when you accidentally suck up a screw left on the carpet after your last attempt at home decorating.

It is with sadness that I report the old girl gave up the fight with summer's heat yesterday morning at around 9:00 A.M. Dave stopped at my desk asking me if there was something I could do about the air conditioning. The temperatures in the Phoenix were uncomfortable. Right then and there I knew we had a problem. The office, Odyssey and Phoenix are always the coldest places in the Space Center.

I climbed the ladder and found the unit's blower was working but her compressor wasn't. The large fan was motionless. I knew we had a real problem, especially with the temperatures that day expected to get dangerously close to 100. I drove home and got two fans for the ships. During lunch one fan was put in the Odyssey and the other in the Phoenix. I found the school's large carpet drying fan. It too was drafted into service, blowing air into the front hatchway of the Phoenix.

The campers survived our unintentional Amazon rain forest simulation and came out at the end of the camp none the worse for it. I can't say the same for the folks that came for the 3:30 P.M. private missions. The emerged noticeably drained. Their skin was red and blemished. It looked like they were saved from becoming the main course of our new rain forest mosquito's supper.

I'll go to work extra early on Monday and call the school district's maintenance department. Hopefully a knight in shining armor will arrive, kiss our fallen rooftop princess and restore her to her former glory. We have a full plate of private missions tomorrow and a four day camp starting Monday evening. We need a happy ending to this fairy tale.

We are down to our last two weeks of July. Our main summer season is racing down the tracks toward the end of the line where all will disembark to enjoy a nice two week rest before we reopen again for normal operations on August 16th.

I'd like to thank all of our Troubadour readers who spent some time with us on the Space Center Railroad's Summer Express! We've had a fantastic journey so far with only a few minor setbacks. Hopefully the tracks ahead are clear and the ride smooth.

I'd like to show you a few things from Wonderland's There and Back Again Lane. We took a stroll down the lane last week but didn't get very far due to constant distractions. Today I thought we'd give it another go. Remember, you never know what you'll see on and around the streets and lanes that lead to and from the Imaginarium.


The Hollands are gone for the weekend and contracted their home's security to one of Wonderland's creative home security companies. The Janus group prides themselves in their effective, inexpensive, carbon neutral home safety system.

It moves when anyone approaches, then speaks with the vocal patterns one would expect from a deranged clown.

"Are you sure you want to come any closer?" it asks.

Imaginative solutions are the norm here in Wonderland. Thinking outside the box is the standard.


What is imagined can become real in Wonderland. The good folks that work in the Imaginarium see to it with precision and attention to detail. I imagined how cool it would be to have a new lobby for the Space Center. What do you think?


The newspaper for those that would like their daily dose of depression summarized. Pretty much always the same, isn't it?


Thomas Tinker fell asleep on the sofa while his parent's watched a National Geography Special on the nation's National Parks. The Imaginarium took it from there.

Little Helga, captured forever in wood.

The Tour de Middle Earth races through Sauron's Realm.

The Treecloud in the field where the lane turns north.

The Spatsky sisters enjoy a moment to themselves after hanging their wash on the lines to dry. They live with their husbands in side by side cottages. The odd traveller would be mistaken to walk by without accepting their sure to be offered invitation to tea and biscuits. Be ready for the best gossip Wonderland has to offer highlighted with several good chuckles and a warmth that comes from lives richly lived.


Morris is waiting for us at the Lanes' Cherry Apple Inn. Checkers is his game and hardly an afternoon passes without him talking someone into playing who happens by the Inn looking for a cold drink and heaping helping of the proprietor's greatly admired Shepard's Pie with mushy peas. I'm hoping you have an appetite and are ready for the challenge. Mind you, Morris has a tendency to drift off from time to time. This can be used to your advantage. Let him sleep for a minute or so after you make your move then loudly wake him up...

"Morris, Make your move!"

He wakens slightly disorientated and confused. That's when he rushes and makes mistakes.

Finally, a thought for all of us who have lived long enough to understand its true meaning. Remember, life is a journey we stumble through together. Let's help each other and don't forget to remind those we walk beside that embarrassment is a cloak we each take a turn wearing.


Now, let's rest up because we've got a full week ahead of us. Fingers crossed about our rooftop friend. May she find her second wind and continue to help us brighten the days of all those that visit us at the Space Education Center (despite her rattling, groaning and wheezing). We really miss her.

Mr. W.

Our Week is Winding Down and the Camp Goes On.

Hello Troops,
I have a moment to enjoy my office chair, kick my shoes off, put on my headphones and update The Troubadour's readers with news, chills and thrills (without putting too fine a point on it).

This week started with an Overnight Camp and is ending with an EdVenture Camp. Sandwiched between are layers upon layers of private missions. The Overnight Camp went as expected - uneventful. Uneventful is a camp director's dream. Not so for the working staff and volunteers. They like things smelling out of the ordinary. The difference is responsibility. I'm responsible for everything that happens and they're not. They can afford to let their hair down. On the other hand, I do everything I can to keep mine from falling out!

So, what's happening right now as I type?

• Our 45 campers are in their class session with Mrs. Remy, Mrs. Houston and Julie Ann doing something with forensic science and astronomy and other things pulled from our curriculum's Cupboard of Wonders.
  
• Several of our staff are in the cafeteria, in costume and memorizing their parts as they film scenes for the upcoming Leadership Camp. There are backdrops and special lighting and props. It is quite the production. The camp is expected to be amazing. Five of them just rushed frantically by my desk looking for costumes for another scene. I'm tucked safely away in my corner of the office and far from the maddening crowd.
  
• Aleta just left with the Space Education Center's credit card to pick up our standing order of chow mien and rice from American Fork's Whistle Wok where she is affectionately known as 'the space lady'.

Dinner will be served at 7:00 P.M. At 7:40 P.M. I blow my Shrieker 2000 whistle to call the campers in from the playground. They will change and get ready for swimming. I'll walk them to the pool for one hour of water entertainments. We walk back to the school at 9:30 P.M. They change, then a video then bed. Most of them will be too tired to talk - something we count on so we can get a bit more sleep. Now be honest, don't you wish you were here? I can smell the jealousy from here.

Have you missed your regular updates from the Imaginarium? Let's take a moment and step outside to see what there is to see.


Our first stop, the subway. And who should we meet but Walter Wimple Jones, director of the Imaginarium's Office of Pseudoscience. Apparently he lost a bet with his undersecretary concerning the correct method to plant an inspiration into the mind of a physicist concerning the bridge between time and space in relation to strings on the quantum level. I'm amazed I got the words typed, let alone understand them.

Walter's consequence for losing the bet is to ride the subway from the Wonderland Station to its terminus then back again. Sitting in a far corner out of everyone's way was Walter's misunderstaning of the penalty. The truth of the matter is evident in the photograph above. Walter stands in the doorway greeting everyone as they enter and bidding farewell to those exiting. Poor Walter.



This sign is all well and good on your door but much more frightening if hung around your mind.


Peter Piper Patch has spent the best part of an hour staring at the reflection in the large mirror in the west corner of his school's music room. He is convinced the boy staring back isn't him. He knows there is another Peter Piper Patch beyond the looking glass and he is determined to prove it.

Peter Piper Patch is one of the Imaginarium's active files. The reflection we provide is perfect in every way - programmed to reflect his every move, gesture and twitch except every third viewing at exactly 24 minutes 6 seconds into the stare. At that exact moment the reflection's eyes will hesitate for 1/2 a second in a matching gesture.

"I knew it! I knew It!" Peter always shouts. "I know you're not me. Who are you and where do you live?"

Peter's questions are never answered directly - instead his imagination ponders all the possibilities. It is the magic of life, courtesy of the Imaginarium.


And finally a new piece of art recently painted by the proud parent of two teenagers. This piece sits in the Imaginarium's north lobby. It is titled, "The Mind of Your Teenager. Resistance is Futile. Understanding is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated".

I use this painting as my guide to understanding the teenagers that work and volunteer for me at the Space Education Center. It speaks volumes.

Have a Great Weekend Troops!

Mr. W.

What's an Overnight Camp?

They're outside, moving slowly across the playground,
looking for anyone wearing wool or smelling of lamb chops

Hello Troops,
"What's an Overnight Camp?"
That's a good question, considering we haven't had a regular one night overnight camp in several weeks. Our last two Overnight Camps were part of the Ultimate Camp. Tonight's camp is 100% traditional so during the staff meeting I reminded everyone how an Overnight Camp differs from an EdVenture Camp.

• The campers are not issued name badges.
• There are no death dots or bonus signatures.
• There is no before bed video.
• The camp stops for the night at 11:00 P.M.
• The staff get refreshments in the Discovery Room.
• I get up at 5:45 A.M. and make the WalMart doughnut run.
• The campers are up at 7:10 A.M.
• The campers go straight to the cafeteria for breakfast, bypassing the gym.
• The campers leave at 10:00 A.M.
• We have a staff meeting afterwords to review the surveys and award points.

There you have it, a traditional Overnight Camp. I heard several staff say , "I remember that," as I made each point. The longer camps are in their final few weeks at the Center and then the summer season will end. It's been a good run.

It's 9:58 P.M. and the simulators are running on full steam. Casey is running the Voyager. Dave is in the Phoenix. Christine is at the Odyssey's helm. Brittney is directing the Magellan and Ben is in charge of the Galileo. I'm at my desk with headphones on. My music helps me stay focused on the task at hand and, if turned up loud enough and the noise cancellation system activited, drowns out the thundering sounds of the simulators which surround me.

We run our joint camp with the Astrocamp campers from Thursday to Saturday. There are 13 of them coming from Ogden. They are usually great kids.

With all that said, I believe its time to visit Wonderland and look at what our Imagineers have been up to.

Our news from the Imaginarium begins with Carol Melps, a four year veteran tour guide with BiLo Tours out of London. She came to the Imaginarium's Center for Creativity Studies looking for treatment to restore and rejuvenate her imagination . After several tests our best therapist concluded that Carol Melps of 15 Wimpledell Circle, Little Bottom, Surrey had a chronic irreversible condition. Her imagination and creativity were in a severe state of atrophy. Despite our best efforts it was decided that she'd waited too long for treatment. She was discharged and sent back to the real world. Carol is once again directing tours for BiLo Tours in Spain. We wish her the best of luck and hope her condition doesn't infect her customers.

Carol, at work. Uninspiring and Wearisome to her Clients.
Click to enlarge

We leave Carol and move along to those who still harbor that spark of imagination and wonder.






It's nearly 10:30 P.M. In 30 minutes it will be ice cream, a cookie and bed. 44 campers will drift away on clouds of Space Center dreams (nightmares for some) and the staff will wander aimlessly through the hallways, too exhausted to think rationally, until I order them to bed.

Good Night,

Mr. W.

This Week in Words......

Hello Troops,
The highlights of the week:

• Day Camp 2 Monday through Wednesday. Great kids and great staff. The perfect combination for a great time all around.

• Bracken's injury (see previous post).

• Jon and his cane. Jon is another of our younger 20 somethings that many of you know as our boy's chief chaperon. He works as a flight director and supervisor in the Voyager. He hobbled around on a cane for a day or two. He claimed it was something genetic, I can't be sure because I wasn't listening as I should have. As soon as I heard it wasn't an injury sustained at the Space Center my interest wained. Some of the staff were overheard talking near the drinking fountain (the best place in any organization to hear the latest gossip). One maliciously suggested Jon was "faking it", claiming how strange it was that Jon's injury came on the heels of Bracken's. First of all, shame to the any of the staff for openly saying what we were all thinking - and let everyone be warned that the full wrath of Mr. Williamson will be unleashed on anyone that vocalizes what I'm thinking again :)

• Thursday through Saturday was our 5th EdVenture Camp. We had outstanding campers and staff. I enjoyed the camp even though I spent most of the time in a mental haze caused by lack of sleep. Living and working in a mental haze has its advantages, as long as I'm not driving long distances. I find myself dozing off at my desk from time to time thus giving the staff something else to talk about at the water fountain. I'm trying not to doze off as much, afraid I'll be caught by Alex Anderson and his newly installed web cam perched near the pencil sharpener on the bookshelf behind my desk. I heard it moving the other day while I had my feet up on the desk and my eyes and brain parked in neutral. I heard a noise, looked over and saw the camera moving in my direction. I spun around, grabbed a pen and pretended to be signing imaginary papers. Curse you and that camera Alex. I think we're finished with the trial run. Its time to put it in the Magellan so I can get back to work and not worry if someone is going to see me picking my nose or shepherding sheep over that white picket fence :)

• Our "Going the Extra Mile Award" this week goes to Aleta Clegg. Aleta is our Curriculum Director, Planetarium Manager and Summer Cook and Bottle Washer. She came to work Thursday looking like someone in need of a stiff drink. She'd been up all night with a very sick child. She ignored her body's screams for sleep and soldiered on, cooking outstanding food for campers, staff and volunteers. Thanks Aleta!

• Our second place "Going the Extra Mile Award" goes to Bracken and Megan. They saw a problem and took steps to correct it. Our twenty year old shower curtain in the Voyager's bathroom was developing some kind of organism capable of communicating by telepathy. This explains that strange feeling of something else in the shower with you that many of you have been reporting to me over the last few weeks. Bracken and Megan said they couldn't tolerate it one minute more. They drove to WalMart and bought another shower curtain with their own money. Great Job Bracken and Megan! I must now ask you a question I heard expressed by one of our newly hired supervisors near the fourth grade drinking fountain. How can you two afford to purchase and donate a new shower curtain on Space Center wages? Such extravagance is causing people to talk. Mind you, I'm not one of them but I am curious. Don't shower curtains cost like five to ten dollars? Come on, tell the truth. Where are you two getting extra money to throw away on luxuries like shower curtains? Is it something I can get into? Come on, share the joy.

• Tregan wins third place in the "Going the Extra Mile" award this week. Let me explain. There are rare occasions I'm allowed to leave the school. They usually involved spending money to repair this or that or an emergency toner cartridge purchase because the current one in the Voyager is kaput and won't print another legible paper no matter how many times it is shaken. Every time I've returned to the Center I've found Tregan standing at the intersection of the kindergarten and main hallway entrance to the school in full camo with one phaser in hand and two more strapped to each leg with another safely tucked in his waistband for good measure. "I'm here for the Phoenix," he said every time I passed. What a dedicated volunteer, always ready for his acting role! Of course, I didn't have the heart to tell him the Phoenix crew had already gone home and the mission was over or the Phoenix crew, along with all the other campers, were in the cafeteria having lunch.

It's a beautiful day so how about a stroll through the Imaginarium before Sunday dinner?

This first is a series of Greeting Cards from the Romance Section of the Imaginarium's Gift Shop. You would expect any greeting card purchased at the Imginarium to approach the subject differently, wouldn't you?







Hurry, Wonderland's Grand Theater still has ticket's for the world premier of Samurai Wars!


A brilliant idea to stop the conversation before it gets started. A God send to the injured tired of recounting the horrific accident over and over again. An Imaginarium gem for sure.

Pass? You Shall Not!

You want paradise? What universe do you come from?

What is it with us men and manuals?

We've got a great week ahead of us with an Overnight Camp and another EdVenture Camp (not to mention several private missions and birthday parties). I hope to see you all soon at the Center.

Mr. Williamson

The End of One and the Beginning of Another

Hello Troops,
Our Day Camp ended at 3:00 P.M. Thursday. EdVenture Camp 5 started at 7:00 P.M. The EdVenture Camp ends Saturday at 3:00 P.M. Let it never be said the Space Education Center let a day go by without finding some way to make it beneficial to ourselves and our students.

I have an injury to report. Tuesday, early afternoon, Flight Director Bracken is standing at the bottom of the Voyager's Spiral Stairs. A Voyager Security Guard slowly descends the spiral stairs - step by step, phaser drawn. He is more concerned with a possible intruder than minding where his feet are falling on the stairs.

Three steps from the bottom, with his back to Bracken, the security officer missteps. Gravity intercedes and pulls the boy toward an abrupt and possibly painful disagreement with the carpeted Crew Quarters floor. But wait, there is a rather large mass in the boy's way. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its Bracken! Instead of colliding with the unforgiving floor, the boy falls into 6 foot 9 ish Bracken. The boy is spared and there was great rejoicing.

Bracken, on the other hand, wasn't prepared for this close encounter of the forth kind. The boy's mass impacted Bracken's, sending Bracken off balance. Bracken's left leg lost its structural integrity and gave way, sending Bracken's left rib cage into the metal bar of the small bunk bed next to the spiral stairs.

Bracken collapsed onto the floor, clutching his side. According to reliable witnesses he repeatedly called for his mother. Another remembered seeing Bracken lose consciousness. When he woke moments later he mentioned an unsettling memory of a bright light at the end of a long tunnel and a voice of rolling thunder say, "We don't want your kind here!"

It took the combined effort of four eleven and twelve year old boys to hoist Bracken off the floor and drag him to the comfort of a bunk.

"No, No," he said with hand upon his heart. "I will not rest while others work. Leave me here. I shall preserver." The boys left Bracken in the crew quarters clutching his side while struggling for breath.

I learned about the accident when I saw Bracken crawling on his hands and knees out of the Voyager and into the Space Center's office. I jumped up to offer assistance. It was refused.

"No No," he said with hand upon his heart. "I will not take your help, or help from any man while people starve in sub Sahara Africa! Help them I say. Leave me to the Fates!" With that, he collapsed onto the carpet, blocking the entrance to the Voyager.

We pulled him back to the world of mortals with smelling salts and a few of the camper's dirty socks found abandoned on the gym floor. Bracken, no longer able to crawl because of the pain, inched his way in a unflattering worm crawl into the office. He maneuvered around the metal filing cabinet to the area between the long wooden desk and the outside wall. He layed beside the Black Hole (The Space Center's Lost and Found). The twenty minute journey of eight feet left him exhausted and barely able to speak.

"Water, water," Bracken whispered through swollen cracked and bleeding lips. A young volunteer, holding back sincere tears of compassion, found a cup and filled it from the drinking fountain. He knelt beside Bracken, lifted his head and held the cup to his lips.

"Here Bracken," his voice wavered between sobs. "Water."

"No, No," Bracken said pushing the cup away from his parched lips and throat. "I will not drink until everyone here has had a drink. The Good Book says that the first shall be last and the last first." With that, he fainted.

Bracken, a Hero to Young Children.
A Martyr to Pain and Punishment

Bracken is an example of the kind of staff we have at the Space Education Center. They are people who put everyone else first. Our staff and volunteers are the salt of the Earth burdened with extreme humility as their only weakness. The thought warms a Director's heart.

Epilogue: Bracken badly bruised his ribs but thankfully there were no breaks. He is a trooper and was back to work the next day. He makes an interesting sight - a nearly seven foot young 20 year old hobbling around the Center looking more like someone 93 years of age who was unable to reach the toilet in time.

And now, on a brighter note, shall we take a few minutes to enjoy the Imaginarium?

Who are your top ten favorites?

The home of the richest of the Hobbits in the Shire.

Just one of the Imaginarium's favorite Watering Holes for our young gun slingers looking to spend a few hours washing away their troubles in lemonade, and Sarsaparilla while listening to Kitty at the piano. Later, a few hands of Uno before home, bath and bed.

See You Soon Troops!

Mr. W.