Some Beaver Island Pictures

The fuzzy shot is a picture of loons. I saw them dipping under and watched them land right in front of our camp site on the last day of our trip.

Bye,

Dan

Nueva Orleans

Dear Family,
There is so much I want to share about New Orleans and the new job position! This year is very different from last because of all the last year Americorps that have left and because several more have joined up. Also, RT has grown quite substantially in a short period of time. My place in it all has changed too, and now I find myself ‘supervising’ my new Americorps peers as well as teaching them all that I know about the world of construction and the way our non-profit works.
One of my new job’s perks is a new laptop computer (which I’m using right now at Borders). It’s tiny but really mobile. I am afraid to break by bringing it to a construction site, so on days that I’m rebuilding I just lock it up as soon as I get to work.
My love for this city has grown and grown and I plan on uploading some pictures as soon as I can. My camera’s been broken for a while, but I plan on getting it fixed up at a best buy. (any tips?)
I am also reading this great non-fiction book (Jim gave to me) about a guy in New Orleans called Zeitoun. So much of what goes on down here is still fascinating to me, even though this is my second year here. That being said, I hope you all continue to embrace the world around you with a sense of wonder. Go forth and be awesome.

Tony

Team Awesome and other sundries.

Hey everyone. It's been awhile since I've posted here, so I thought I'd check in. Team Awesome is the official name of the office that I work with at GSLIS (graduate school lib & info science). Anyway, ever since the beginning of the semester Team Awesome meets on Friday to play Mario Kart for the Wii. It's been lots of fun and I told them about a little family jargon of ours from back when we played Mario Kart 64. One of our Team Awesome members threw this picture together and I just had to share it. It's not going to make sense to some of you, but basically it's hilarious, trust me.

I also wanted to comment briefly about the trip to Beaver Island and Tina's camera. We did take pictures when we went and visited Uncle Dan, and Tony did bring me the connector cable for the camera, but the batteries were dead before I could transfer the pictures over to my computer. Basically, pictures from our island trip will be posted once I can get them off Tina's camera, so they're on their way.

Peace and prosperity!
Dan

Fun & Work in Urbana, IL

Urbana, IL -- The students have returned to the corn fields of Central Illinois. It is very nice to have them back. Today (Labor Day) the library is not open, so I am spending time reading and writing. The above video was shot in and around the engineering campus. This video is partly about my research but also a curious science experiment (the gallon challenge) I stumbled upon. The students are really funny sometimes.

In other news, I will travel to London in October. I'll be there over a weekend of seeing the sights and going to museums. I'm really glad I get to travel to the UK this year!

Hope you all are well.

-Jim