Yesterday was Charter Day here in our lovely little town. Charter Day is exactly what the day is, the day the town was chartered. In reality, it’s a big advertisement festival in the streets. Everyone goes to the center of town, sets up shop, the police close off the roads, and people run around with money and keychains for the latest company booth they passed by. Verizon also decided to set up this charter day, with two large Ford SUV’s, several booths with flatscreen TV’s, a stage with one of their ad banners hanging in the back, and employees with TV’s over their heads. Check out the Verizon takeover:

There was much more going on at charter day, so read more for info.

Obviously, the day was more a time for me to have a field day with the new D80 camera, and so naturally some people thought I was some sort of professional photographer. One man gave me his business card and asked me to send him photos of the day. I probably will! I don’t mind sharing some of the good ones.

I must say, however, that this was the most uneventful charter day yet. It was more fun when I was a little kid - we’d buy firecrackers, play around on the blow-up rides they had set up by the elementary school, and in general create nonsense and run around. There was, back then, a more plentiful supply of useless junk to buy, such as water balloon yo-yos and those water-filled stretchy spikeball yo-yos. A lot of it was centered around yo-yos, actually. And bags of free stuff. The booths used to give out a lot more free stuff. I remember taking home a copy of the Bible for free. The title was “Extreme Faith”! Boy, was it extreme. I extremely left it on the shelf, and haven’t touched it since, but coming home with bags of frisbees, pins, super balls, slinkies, and spinning tops was, admittedly, one of the best days of the year.

Today, walking around, there isn’t much to do or see. Unless, of course, you want roasted corn whose logo is a lemon. Seriously, what’s up with that? I didn’t get that booth at all. What’s roasted corn? And why did they hang lemons from the booth?

The only true sources of true amusement are the skateboarders doing tricks, the bands playing cruddy music, and the Verizon booths, which have DDR (or some strange, crappy version of DDR… Verizon-R?). To tell the truth, I more loved that because I wanted to keep shooting action shots. Next to macro shots, action shots are the most fun:

And, of course, after this came the mock-fencing tournament, where my best friend Aaron and his fellow fencers fought to the death. Really, I was waiting for this to be over so that I could hang out with Aaron, but it was no consequence to me - I don’t mind waiting and getting more action shots in the process! They say they weren’t fencing well, and I agree, but those lunges just look cool.

Featured above, in the top photo, is Derek Reedy to the left, Kyle Schuman to the right. On the bottom photo is Aaron Rosenberg to the left, and Jane Idontknowthelastname to the right. Go fencers!

That pretty much encompasses most of the day. It had been drizzling for a while beforehand, so the camera was already quite wet, so by 5pm we were all ready to go, having eaten lunch and walked around talking, but not before a few more photos. When I had arrived at charter day, this group of girls saw me with the camera, and asked me to take their photo. As soon as I obliged and pointed the camera at them, they all attempted to scurry away. I laughed and went on my way. But, before leaving, I encountered them again. It seems they were mentally prepared this time, and wouldn’t let me leave until I had taken their photo.

And, of course, no charter day is complete without a clown:

Happy charter day, weak-minded Verizon-buying fools.