Murder Mystery Oops

If you're looking for photos of this year's murder mystery program, you'll be waiting a very long time. For the first time in quite a while, I was cleaning up after a program and realized that I had taken absolutely no pictures. I actually had the camera down in the Community Room, but had a brain lapse in there. That's too bad, because it was a cool program. Our thanks go out once again to Mr. Kozman and his students at Trinity High School who made a DVD for us to use as part of the program again this year. The DVD was even better than last year's. They had way too much fun making this year's!
Anyway, if you missed it, no pics, but look for another one next year. We had such a large turnout this year, that we'll probably offer 2 sessions next summer. Good problem to have!

DDR Guitar Hero

Hard to believe that today's was the next to the last program of the summer! An open play Guitar Hero and DDR day was a nice way to wind down. In addition to those games, the Nerf ping pong set was in full use, as usual, and there were several board games out as well. Pics below.

Just a reminder that tomorrow's movie is the last program, and the last prize drawing of the season will be held right after the movie. If you've been hanging onto tickets, get 'em in before about 2:45 tomorrow!

One More Book Discussion

OK, I was about to drop the teen book discussions due to the low turnout. However, Tuesday's group, which discussed Stephenie Meyer's Twilight was a nice size and they convinced me that there would be enough interest in doing the next book in the series. In a moment of weakness, I agreed and was able to schedule a meeting room for Thursday, September 11 at 7:00 to discuss Stephenie Meyer's New Moon. If turnout is good for that one as well, we will probably continue through the series. If anyone is interested in moderating that discussion, please let me know asap.

Weekly Challenge July 28 - 31, 2008

Believe it or not, it's almost the end of July, and that means the end of Teen Summer Reading for 2008. We'll wind down with a maze. Hope you all had a great time as part of the Teen Summer Reading Program. Watch this space for program info during the school year.
http://www.pacounties.org/cumberland/lib/cumberland/ls/fre/teens/maze_404058_checkerboard.png

Activism

We just wrapped up a really good program on how to become politically and socially active. Our originally scheduled presenter, Sarah Speed, the state head of the Humane Society, was unable to attend at the last minute. However, she arranged a wonderful substitute, Roy Afflerbach, who has served as both a state representative and senator, as well as mayor of Allentown. The program included some great tips on how to organize and implement a public policy campaign. If you missed it, a few pics are below.

Weekly Challenge July 21 - 26

Can you change "less" into "more"? You can only change one letter at a time. Don't change the order of the letters. Use 8 steps or less.



For example, to change "cat" to "dog":

CAT

can

con

don

DOG

Indie Rock Concert Pics - Finally!

Finally got my hands on some pics from what's now being called the 1st Annual Indie Rock Concert on the Lawn at the Fredricksen Library. Thank you Nelson, for pinch-hitting as photographer, and Jess for the use of your camera. A really, really big thank you to the folks at ChampionShip in Lemoyne, especially Tony, as well as the great groups that played that night - Handguns, Farewell Flight, and Safari So Good. We had absolutely delightful weather, a nice turnout, and no complaints from the neighbors. We're looking forward to doin' it again next summer! Good luck to the guys from Safari So Good as they head across country on tour. Glad they were able to fit us in.!

Turn Your Ideas Into Comics

Our second comic-related program of the summer was presented by Ben Richmond. It was basically, how to get those really cool ideas that are floating around in your head, on paper, in comic form. Ben covered a little bit of everything, including layout, blank spaces, perspective, character development, you name it. Part of the time was spent having everyone draw something, then share it with the group. Ben then pointed out the already cool parts of each person's drawings, as well as some pointers for making them even better. What I thought was really interesting, was the tremendous diversity of characters and story ideas that kids came up with. Ben did such a great job that he and I are already talking about what aspect of this to do another program on next summer. If you missed it, don't just check out the photos below, but watch for next year's program as well. Also, a big thank you to the Center for Advanced Management Planning as well as our good friends at Comix Connection for sponsoring the giveaways that Ben had for participants. See you next year!

Core Strength Training

Jim Launer from Most High Sports Complex, was back this week - this time for a core strength training session. Unfortunately, Coy Wire couldn't make it to this one because he was giving a speech in Arizona to the National Education Association, if I remember correctly. I was kind of bummed that none of the other NFL players came with Jim. I had been looking forward to the experience of standing next to someone named Tank. Oh well.

Wow! I though Jim worked the kids hard last week for the agility training. My abs hurt just watching what they had to do today! Thank goodness I had to take photos instead of participating! If you missed it, here are some of the photos.

Tie Dye

Ok folks, I'm finally making an attempt to get kinda, sorta caught up. Let's start with pictures from the tie dye programs. This is a perennial favorite. It's one one of the very few programs that I run twice every year, afternoon and evening. I don't see that changing anytime soon because, heck, you can never have too many tie dyed t-shirts. If you missed it this year, pics below.

T-shirt Alert

We have a couple of abandoned items from yesterday afternoon's tie-dyeing program. There's an undyed white t-shirt, as well as a dyed one that were left. If either of them are yours, you can claim them at the Information Desk. Thanks!

Apologies

I've been running a bit behind in getting photos up for the last couple of programs. My apologies to those of you who check regularly. Life has been a little more hectic even than usual in July for me, and will be until about the end of this week. Hopefully, I'll be getting caught up later this week and the beginning of next week. Look for pics then. I haven't seen the pics from the rock concert yet, because I didn't take them and it wasn't my camera. But I'm hoping to have those to post soon, as well as from the tie-dyeing program. Bear with me. Thanks!

Turn Your Ideas into Comics

Hey, if you haven't signed up for this program yet, there's still time and space. Thanks to the generosity of CAMP (The Center for Advanced Management Planning) and our friends at Comix Connection, there will also be some great comics-related giveaways at this one. And it should be a really cool program. See you Thursday at 1:00!

Agility Training with Coy Wire

25 kids got a good workout, and the Community Room now smells like sweaty teenagers, after an agility training session led by former Buffalo Bills linebacker, Coy Wire, and Jim Launer, trainer from Most High Sports Complex. What an opportunity to pick up some pointers from the pros! And Coy and Jim are two of the nicest guys I've ever met! Attendees included participants in almost any sport you can think of, including water polo. Coy also stuck around and signed a few autographs after the program. If you want any additional info on Most High or want to contact Jim or Coy, check out their website http://www.mosthighsportscomplex.com/

And a quick inside tip - one of next week's prizes will be a free one-month membership at Most High. If you missed the program, some photos are below. You also have another opportunity next Tuesday, when Jim will be back with some other NFL players for a core strength training session. See you then!

Bonus Challenge

Here's a Bonus Weekly Challenge. From now until the end of Teen Summer Reading (July 30) just show your library card to a member of the Reference Staff and you'll get a chance in the weekly prize drawing. It has to be your card, not Mom's, Dad's, sibling's, etc. If you don't have one, now would be a great time to get one! Just pick up an application at the Information Desk.

Sudoku Tournament Results

We just wrapped up the annual Sudoku tournament. Jasmine W was our big winner of the day (wow, she was good!) with Alex H pulling in a second place. We had 16 kids participate this year, and it was a pretty competitive field. It's not a real good event for either photos or spectators, but a photo is below anyway, and kids actually did stick around to watch. They were talking about either heckling, trash talking, or just shouting out random numbers like they do on The Price is Right, but when it came down to it, everyone was respectful of those still competing and we all had a good time. Start practicing for next year! Jasmine and I both do the page-day-calendar Sudokus. I do mine over breakfast. Usually it's a good way to kick start your brain in the morning, but sometimes it's just a bad omen for the rest of the day.

Weekly Challenge July 7 - 12, 2008

Give 1 of the possible correct ways to fill in the blank in the following sentence:



This sentence has ________ letters.



Get an additional chance in the prize drawing if you can come up with all 3 correct answers.

Sleight of Hand Magic with Mike Rose

We just wrapped up another very cool program. Magician Mike Rose did a wonderful workshop on sleight of hand magic. We all learned some basic tricks that could be done on the fly with ordinary objects, and terms like the French Drop, Ramsey's Subtlety, Finger Palming, and the Two Hand Switch. Boy, I wish we would have had this one earlier in the summer! When another presenter was caught in horrendous traffic and I needed to entertain the crowd for about 10 minutes, I joked that I really should learn to tap dance or juggle for just such an occasion. This would have been even better. I'll need to go home and practice, but I now have some tricks, literally, up my sleeve in case of an emergency. If you missed it, here are some pics.

Survival 101 - A New High or a New Low?

We had our survival program last night and I gotta say I'm still laughing. For those of you who are new to Teen Summer Reading at the Fredricksen, we have a reputation for doing one good gross and disgusting program every summer. Survival was this year's gross and disgusting, and I must say, we reached either a new high or a new low, depending on your perspective. Personally, I thought it was great! Josh McKinney, a lifelong outdoorsman, presented a really great, informative program on, basically, edible stuff in your own backyard. He included information about verifying what you're eating before you eat it, making sure it's legal to take it, considering the source (Has it been exposed to pesticides, herbicides, etc?), and the benefits of eating local stuff and things that are lower on the food chain. He then got out some samples of things that he harvested, primarily from his backyard, but all from the local area. We started with some crayfish, cooked, seasoned, and offered with a side of cocktail sauce. We followed with a salad based on dandelion greens, then some pine needle tea with mint and honey. These all disappeared pretty quickly, as did the venison loin. Then we moved on to the really good stuff. I didn't try them myself, but the kids said that the fried crickets had a nice nutty flavor and were particularly good with a little honey. The fried mealworms weren't too bad, I'm told, either. Up to this point I was offering an additional ticket for the weekly prize drawing for each different thing the kids were willing to try. When we got to the live mealworms (yes, I'm talking still wiggling around in the container!) we upped the incentive to 3 tickets and got a surprising number of takers. In fact, there were no leftovers (If you don't count the 3 that were "rescued" by a few kids. Get serious, they're mealworms! Something is eventually gonna eat 'em!) A few of the kids who were willing to try those actually went back for seconds and thirds! I'm still laughing at the kid who was having trouble spearing one of them on a toothpick, so I told him to just reach in there and pick it up with his fingers. He said, "Eww, no, I can't touch it!" but he ate 3 of them! If you missed it, some pics are below.