Paging Mr. Shakespeare Abridged...

Hey all, it's been a busy weekend, so I think I'll take a page from Shakespeare Abridged and do it... backwards! It's gotta be faster that way, right? Right?

... Anyway, Liesel, Siegi, my Dad and I all just got back from the Sterling Renaissance Festival up in Sterling, NY. It's a pretty typical faire: you got your jousting, your delicious, delicious turkey legs, ridiculously expensive (but cool looking) garments and knicknacks for sale, and plenty of live entertainment. Among these that I saw were:
-A 30 minute rendition of A Midsummer Night's Dream which surprisingly included all of the necessary plot points and brought the play to a close, all without making up dialogue except for the intro. (btw: Puck rocks)
-A sword swallower who not only swallowed swords (say THAT 5 times fast), but also 3 foot long balloons (which were then popped by the aforementioned swallowed swords) and cigarettes. This latter was particularly impressive (and a bit disturbing), as he managed to blow smoke rings after he had swallowed it and later got it back still smoking.
-A very enthusiastic German bagpipe and drums band that in addition to its repertoire of classic Deutsche Volksmusic played "We Will Rock You"; reeeaaally interesting to hear on bagpipes, let me tell you.
Still, I feel like the Ren Faires are beginning to lose their appeal. Sure it's fun, especially if you get to dress up in period clothing, but a lot of the time it felt like we were simply walking around looking for places to spend more money. Probably me just grumbling because I have no money, bu whatevs.

Oh, and it was Pirate weekend. Have I mentioned I don't like pirates? *hides behind sturdy door as tomatoes, knives, and cannonballs are launched*

Saturday was Liesel's graduation party. Fortunately most of our work had been done the previous day by Siegi and me so setup went very quickly. Seeing as it was a nice day we decided to jump into the pond and swim about with noodles and toss around a waterproof football before the party started up. It was a perfect day for it, though as usual the pond had a great variation in temperatures, often dropping what seemed like 10 degrees by moving 1 foot in 1 direction.

The party was slow getting started; most of Liesel's friends had work and couldn't come till later, but fortunately my good friend Greg showed up for a bit before returning to his sister's 21st b-day party. The Canuck (Greg) had recently been in Australia for Catholic World Youth Day, which stretches out a day into 3 weeks of residing down under. He had tons of pictures to show us, including many close up shots of common wildlife like ibises, kookaburras, wallabys, and red kangaroos.

At about 5 the heavens decided to open up and release rain and thunder on our party. Fortunately we decided to set most of our tables inside our barn, so the party could continue fairly unmolested by the storm. One of her friends' parents came, and our conversation with her gradually shifted to the topic of Elmira's economic status. For years the town's economy has been slowing down, although there have been a few measures to try and change that. Still, few new businesses besides the big shopping centers are coming to town, and our guest had a guess as to why. She had been talking to a lot of corrections officers around Elmira, and apparently there were two big deciding factors. First, the LaFrance Corporation packed up and left, and then Southport Maximum Security Correctional Facility came in...

Hey, I just got contacted by a data miner hooker on Skype! Yay ADD!

... Granted, the prison brought in a lot of new jobs, but it also brought the prisoners and their families. The consensus at the table seemed to be that this influx started to bring the economy down, but I'm personally reserving judgment till I get some more information. But in the meantime, what do you think? Should prisoners be released into the town the prison is in, or should they be shipped back to wherever they came from originially? (Elmira seems to offer the prisoners a choice, and a large number choose to remain here) I'm not really sure where my opinion lies, but I thought it might be a good question for discussion.

edit: Siegie and I decided to watch movies tonight and put in Beowulf as neither of us had seen it. 5 minutes in we looked at each other, said WTF, and looked for a different movie.

That's about it for now (besides my major pwnage of Greg and Pat at Magic yesterday...), so until next time...

When I speak I cross my fingers/
Will you know you've been deceived?/
I find I need to be the demon/
A demon cannot be hurt.../
-Demons, by Guster