So,

I just finished my week at GIV IT and I will get into that in a little bit.

But first I wanted to talk about something that is going on at my work.

Anyone that reads this or has looked at it knows that I wend to south Africa last summer with a group of students and teachers last summer with the ultimate goal of making a game to end gender violence globally.

This is an amazing project staffed almost entirely by college students and professors at Champlain College. The project which started last year is now running short on funds and they are looking to get the word out. I thought I would put in and do my part and spread the word that we are looking for any kind of support that we can get, and not just money, because money alone can not change anything. We want your ideas and you input. Just sharing this link with a friend could be the change that helps us!

So

http://www.emergentmediacenter.com/unvaw/index.html

Check out this site. It explains the goals of the project and the problems that we face going into production!

That being said.

GIV IT was as I expected one of the most rewarding experiences of college (which I seem to have a lot of, go Champlain!)

See GIV for those of you not from Vermont. Is a non Profit organization that runs a series of summer camps at Vermont Colleges throughout the summer in various disciplines to get high school students fired up about the topics presented.

That being said GIV IT is the Information technology camp. Being a game programmer naturally I belong there.

This year the kids were splendid. They were thoughtful and motivated, and fun to be with. It was a great year and all of these kids and their parents should be extremely proud. The parents of their kids, and the kids for being so exceptional.

That being said I can not wait to assist with next years camp again and I already have a great idea for a 5am wake up via brass instruments, with a sunrise as reward!

Other than that it is business as usual. Back to work and climbing starting tomorrow.

Posted by Bryan Hare at 12:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You would be surprised how freakishly cool it is living in Burlington during the summer. While it is lonely sometimes, other times it is some of the most fun I have during college.

So far this summer a group of us Champlain Summer students are going rock climbing at Petra Cliffs 3 days a week. Rock Climbing is a huge work out and a great way to stay active and have fun ^_^. That said go rock climbing!

But other than that staying in Burlington also affords me the chance to discover Burlington in ways it is hard to during the school year(You know because of things like Classes and Homework), like visiting the Jazz festival! Last Friday after climbing we went to curch street to get some Ben and Jerrys and the Burlington Jazz festival was happening. We had an amazing time listing to all of the local and not so local bands play a mix of blues jazz soul and even some hip hop. As far as exciting days go, climbing, dancing and ice cream tops it!

While it can be hard living here for the summer in my opinion it is worth it. After all this is my second time here and I wouldn't trade it.

Also check this band out: myspace.com/barefoottruth They are an awesome folk/rock/Acoustic band. I have heard them described as Dispatch mixed with Dave Mattews Band. Definitly worth checking out.

Peace,

Bryan

Posted by Bryan Hare at 2:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have a new job!

I am currently working as an IPhone Developer at the Emergent Media Center ^_^

Needless to say that this job is a huge chance for me to get in at the start of an huge change in the area of mobile application programming.

The goal of this job is to eventually be able to go to learning 2009 and create a rapid prototype application much like the applications developed in previous years.

I am very excited.

In light of this excitement I invite any interested parties to follow along with the course work that I am doing on ITunes U. Stanford is offering videos of every lecture from their IPhone application programming class on the web. This is a great chance for anyone interested in IPhone development with a mac and some free time to give it a shot. This is especially good for anyone who has taken AP Computer Science A or AB, or a college intro level course to C++ or Java.

In other news I just bought my pass to Petra cliffs so now I will be rock Climbing 3 nights a week and the other 2 nights a week I will be following MIT's Single Variable Calculus class along with my roomate Steve.

This summer is looking to be a pretty exciting summer.

-Bryan

Posted by Bryan Hare at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Im a junior.

This is weird for me.

I don't quite know how to really deal with the fact that I have been here for 2 years now.

In two years I have to go out and become a real working adult. Scary.

I would be so much more scared if I had not gone to college. And I am really quite happy with the education I am getting from Champlain.

Actually its funny, I was sitting down with a professor the other day and I realized something about the core classes I was taking. They are not necessarily designed to make us experts on whatever they happen to be about, but they are designed to help us think about our major in the greater world, and how we fit in, and how to adapt and change and grow. Learning how to grow as a person? What other college offers that.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Reasons why I am happy with my purchase and do not experience buyers remorse.

Also to everyone I met on accepted students days you guys seemed really awesome, I am pretty excited to get to know some of you. If any gamers or Software Engineering Majors (SWE), have questions about what to expect from next year feel free to send me an E-Mail or make a comment on here or add me on Facebook (Please do). And ask questions about the curriculum or the majors.

Email-Bryan.Hare@mymail.champlain.edu
Aim-Flessen0

Seriously send me questions :)

Well good luck to you finishing up your Senior or Junior years.

PS: I got hired on again at the EMC :)
PPS: I am living with a new set of Roomies in a couple of days, and their room is clean.
PPPS: I am going to be in the group of the first Game Programmers to study abroad in Montreal ! So excited.

Posted by Bryan Hare at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not Basketball....

But Madness none the less ^_^.

Sooooooooo its almost feels like spring, which is when everything in college starts looking like it would in a college movie.
(You know where the camera pans through the crowds and you see kids hanging out on the green or throwing a Frisbee and chilling around wherever)
I'm getting excited because this means I can begin going on walks again :). And I do love walks, perhaps another death hike is in order. :)

Also I just started being able to go to the meetings for Rock climbing club, so I have been climbing for the past few Fridays. Its fun and cheap, 4 dollars for a club member to go with the club when we go is nice.

Other than that normal college Hijinks for me!

Steve and Alex eating the Pie we all made on 3/14 (Pi day lol), They are defensive of their pie.

Cant forget about Kim, Pie maker extraordinaire (among other things)!

My friend Patrick eating Burger King at a local Mc Donalds

My friend Nicole from when we went suit shopping at Thrift stores

Me performing at the Spinner Place improve show!

Till next time!
-Bryan

Posted by Bryan Hare at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are several nice things about living in Vermont and going to school in Vermont.

Free Laundry
Groceries
Close to friends
And its Vermont its just awesome

This last weekend I got to take big advantage of it as I was in my friends wedding!

Tiffany and Ryan. Aren't they cute together.

It was a great time and the first time I was in a wedding ^^.

Hunter and Gwen (I worked with both of them and Tiffany, and Megan, another girl in the wedding during High School)

So other than weddings I have been making some interesting food in our kitchen.

Living at spinner = good food.

Learning how to cook VERY EASY.

This week I made I chicken with a salsa cheese sauce. It was amazing.

Last week I through together some makeshift chicken parmigiana with mushrooms and onions.

Week before that I made Lemon Chicken with Garlic and pasta.

Also breaks coming up in a couple of days, and I have a physics test today! Wish me luck ^^

Posted by Bryan Hare at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My favorite part of the year is theater season.

From right after Winter break till now, I am in rehearsal, and its fun rehearsing and performing here.

Ive been acting since 6th grade, and from High School I was actually really excited to be able to continue acting here at Champlain college!

This year we did pieces for the voices of diversity project in the form of short works, some written by students, all performed by students and one core teacher (http://www.champlain.edu/Core-Division/Meet-our-Faculty.html#zale) .

I even did high school theater with one of my classmates from high school which was awesome. HI NICHOLE!

A Pic of Nichole Pam and Myself in Marred Bliss ( I cut my hair for the play) Nichole is on the left , Pam is in the middle.

I was in two pieces, one was a play called Marred Bliss about what would happen if you took the concept of a Freudian slip and took it to the nth degree, and what that would look like.

The other was if Romeo and Juliet were performed by 14 and 16 year old, and without regards to gender boundaries. It was a pretty interesting piece and I really enjoyed it.

Now that the short works are over, its time to wait on the next Los Dormant Volcanoes Performance! :D

Also as a note I have had few friends who had friends looking at the game majors up here, and they wanted to know more from a student perspective, if anyone wants to know more, feel free to send me an instant message (flessen0), or friend me on Facebook :D.

Posted by Bryan Hare at 5:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the New Year coming in I feel excited. I imagine we all must. It is a chance for a New beginning; and a time to come to terms with ourselves and the things we have learned, and use them and build on our knowledge (or at least I believe I should).

This year has been incredible for me, in so many ways it is truly indescribable. The things I've done at Champlain, through Champlain, or with Champlain, have given me what I believe is a remarkable insight to the inner workings of myself and communities at large. I owe this in part to a Core class I had the year before this with a teacher who can generally be quoted as saying in response to any paper you've given him "Make more Connections". Making connections and drawing lines between topics has lead me to see and look at the world in a way that I had not previously imagined. This new thinking has almost changed who I am.

So when I say this I am not speaking lightly, and this new way of thinking that I have adopted has lead me to places I would have never dreamed. Africa for instance. Its impressive to think that in my summer of school that I could be involved in such a large scale campaign, to bring such unimaginable change to bear, on people who I have never met, but whose plights I feel I can now understand. If you don't know what I am talking about http://emc-gamestakeonvaw.blogspot.com/ and read up.

I've learned that I can take and apply things from my class's in my major and use them in core class's or in life. And I have learned that no matter what I have more to learn, which is why I find my self so excited for next year.

This leads me however to something interesting I've been thinking about for a while. At some point over the course of this year, I was asked what I think makes somebody adult. This is an important question for me being a 20 year old and no longer being a teenager, but still not treated differently from one by the rest of the world. While at the time I didn't know how to answer I feel like I can reflect on it now and come up with an answer that I think a question like that deserves.

I feel like being an adult is constituted by several real qualities in people.

1. Responsibility:
Doing what you need to always before what you want to.

2. Honesty:
With yourself and others.

3. Reflection:
On what you and others have done.

4. Determination:
Not to give up when life gets you down, with the economy the way it is now this is more important than ever.

5. Courage:
To do what you know is right.

6. Restraint:
Against those who you believe have wronged you.

7.Humility:
To admit there are things you may not know.

Above all else this defines an adult:
8. Knowing that while you may never possess these qualities; but to strive to achieve them is what you must do in order to better yourself as an adult. This I believe is the fullest measure of an adult.

I believe these things make an adult and by this measure I believe that I am an adult. I know that being adult doesn't come with age. That being 18 suddenly doesn't make you any more worthy of making huge discussions about your life than being 17, but saying this I know what I want to do next year.

I have never been big on New Years Resolutions because I always felt that they were a little silly, but this year I have one, and for every year following too.

My resolution this year is number 8, I know I have a long way to go and I understand that, but I will try to work on the things that I need to work on and grow as a person and as an adult.

Until next year!
-Bryan

Posted by Bryan Hare at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey,

TURKEY!
TURKEY!
TURKEY!

bye.

But seriously Thanksgiving is coming right up, (2 days) and I for one am very excited. Its always a good time of year, and this year we are going back to Bath NY to stay with relatives. Most of my dads side of the family lives out there, so it will be good to see all my relatives.

In other news, work is going well. Linux administration for the CIMIT project is not my forte, or so I have found, but on the flip side it feels like things are getting on track for me ^^. Im trying to set up a schedule for myself so I can get more organized, and incidentally create more hours in the day :D. More on that latter if it works out.

Lets see what else have I been up tooo...

Went to Ludlow for Maureen and Sams Birthday. (Happy Birthday)
Work, also I started playing World of Warcraft (A little bit ONLY A LITTLE BIT) on my free time. :D its been fun, Ive been playing with my 3 roommates, who are all on the same server so that's cool. I also have some games I need to get and play to death.

Mirrors Edge
Brawl (Still, I need the Wii for it too)
Disgea (Got it need to play it)
Metal Gear Solid collection (I need to beat them)
Some other stuff~ ~!

Somthing funny also happened the other day o_o

Steve: Hey Bryan how did you learn Flash?
Me: Uh I messed around a bunch.
Steve How hard is it?
Me: Uhmmm its not that hard really, I mean nothing really is. The way I look at it, it is just a set of information you can learn, and that's pretty easy. The information exists and you get it.
Steve: *blank stare* You are such a Programmer.

I also found out that I am going to be in Sort Works Again this year, as Eric approached me and asked if I would be willing. So that's gonna be fun! :D

Also Improv show is coming right up ^^ Keep tuned for dates

Love life

Peace
Bryan

Posted by Bryan Hare at 4:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sorry I jacked the name of your song Coheed & Cambriah but it seemed appropriate :D

Anyways....

Welcome to another exciting edition of my blog :D

This week is Migs (Montreal international Game summit) week, unfortunately I am not going due to time, homework ,and money constraints. However Its a great week for catch up and low stress for me because of it.

This past weekend was a madhouse of awesome though (come on that description is awesome) anyways. It started with UVM Gameday on Saturday morning. For those that don't know every Semester at UVM there is a day where some of the theme dorms hold tournaments open to the public for video games. All sorts there and you can even start your own if you have requests. My performance in Super Smash bros Brawl was Admirable but not dominant (I got 4th I think), and melee I didn't do terribly well in. However a friend of mine Eric and I won Halo 2v2 (which I always seem to accidentally do at this thing) so thats pretty sweet.

After game day (and I mean right after) I took my friend Amanda to the Senses fail concert at higher ground. Was a crazy show. The opening band a group called foxy Shazam, was nuts. The guy the had playing the key board would literally stand on his head and play,and stand on the keyboard and play with his feet. And the lead singer was probably drunk or triping wich made it hillarious, at one point he got somone th row him a pack of cigs and a lighter, he lit 4 cigarettes and ate them o_o...

Other than that the show was good, one small war wound to show for my efforts, I got into the pit during one of the bands, and a 12 year old (WHY IS A 12 YEAR OLD IN THE PIT) managed to head butt me and knock himself over, which is unfortunate but honestly. I cut my lip a little. Regardless I helped him up.

After that there was much chillage to be had, and yeah thats my story.

-Bryan

Posted by Bryan Hare at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)