I found myself in a situation that I hadn’t been in in years.  

Over the last five or so years of my life, I’ve nearly exclusively used pens when taking notes/doodling/etc.  Before the switch to pens, I was a mechanical pencil guy.

So when I found myself sitting in my sound booth with a regular old number 2 pencil and no pencil sharpener, I turned to my elementary school method of getting a fine edge…

frantically rubbing the pencil against some paper!

From what I remember, this would give a super sharp edge that was perfect for all doodling needs.

Apparently I remembered incorrectly, because what I got was an incredibly thin and brittle stick of graphite that broke the instant I tried it out.

After some less intense scribble sharpening, however, the pencil was useable again.

Quick camp story, by the way:  yesterday’s evening activity was campfire, where we’d roast marshmallows, perform skits, and sing songs.  During lunch, lyrics of a few traditional camp songs were passed out so that new campers could learn them.

One song in particular, which I have zero idea why we sing it, is about the Titanic.  One of the verses features the words:

“To the bottom of the… husbands and wives… little children lost their lives!”

Now, that’s some morbid stuff right there, but everyone really hams it up and screams out the last bit.  There’s something sort of magical about a room full of two hundred kids screaming, “LITTLE CHILDREN LOST THEIR LIVES!”