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