A couple years ago I joined my friends Jen and Josh in watching some episodes of the 1990 show Get A Life starring comedian/writer/actor Chris Elliott.  The show was about Chris as a 30-year-old paperboy and his bizarre experiences living with his parents. Get A Life followed a classic sitcom style (single camera, diorama set) but with totally crazy and random story lines. It lasted only 25 episodes and has since been completely forgotten save for those who deem it a cult classic.

I would never call it a cult classic and it has no value to me or anyone else i know, but volume one of the DVD release sells on Amazon used for around 40-50 dollars and new from $110-$340! I don't know what that says about this show (It was amazing? It's very rare in never-been-opened DVD form?), but I am shocked that someone would buy Get A Life for the same price you could buy the entire West Wing box set. I digress.

The reason I am reminded about Get A Life is because after watching it I created a three person facebook group called, "Get a Life with Chris Elliott both suck and is awesome". I was deleting old groups today and looked at this one to see if Jen and Josh had ditched it yet when i found that 19 other people joined the group. Apparently these Get A Life fans searched out this group and have been posting really specific memories about the show on the group page.

Hilarious memories include:

"The show ran on Danish tv around 1997 - i miss it so much"

"When they remodeled the kitchen to add 6 inches of space"

More than one group member comments that Get A Life is ahead of it's time. It may have been ahead of it's time, but I think it was just generally too ridiculous for any mainstream success. The jokes were totally inconsistent. Some were dry as dirt and some jokes were insanely over the top, but it is often hilarious (in an ironic "look-at-those-juggalos" kind of way).

It's entirely possible that Get A Life may have found an audience if it had aired on Adult Swim, but I can't think of another avenue for it to find a following except online.  It's hard to enjoy this show unironically. Regardless, I love the niche fan base that searched out Get A Life on Facebook.  They're like a passionate little cult like those of Rocky Horror (40,000 fans on FB) or Firefly (250,000), but there's only 19 of them.

I say stand strong Get A Life fans. When Family Guy decides to make a Chris Elliott reference the payoff for you will be absolutely huge.

Mobile technology has quickly become an essential part of running a summer camp. Camp Directors walk around camp with their iPhones in their pockets filled with useful applications that make life during camp easier. It can make payments easier, connect you closer with your camp families, and literally help save a life. The right set of apps in your pocket can change the way you go about business and make your camp run more efficiently.

Here are five apps that will keep you more productive, safe, and efficient:

SQUARE UP - squareup.com

Square Up is an app/physical attachment for your iPhone that allows you to accept credit card payment mobily.  You can instantly charge a customer for a canteen item, medical fee, or extra days of day camp from your iPhone. The app will run their card, send them a receipt and you a confirmation. 

It's fast, convenient, and uses the iPhone touch screen for signatures.

COST: Varies

12MAIL - 12seconds.tv

The brilliance of 12mail is in it's simplicity. Take a 12 second video with your iPhone, choose some recipients (specific parents, lay person, or all of facebook or twitter) and send. 12mail is iPhone's first and best video messaging app and works faster than twitvid, but you're able to send the video to anyone you want all at once.

12mail makes it very easy to keep your parents, staff, and alumni involved through video.

COST: FREE

ECHOFON - echofon.com

There are many twitter applications available in the app store. TweetDeck can handle massive amounts of personal and business tweeting, Twitterific and Tweetie have slick dark user interfaces, and Tweetie which looks like iChat. However, for simplicity and full functionality Echofon (formerly Twitterfon) is the bread and butter of Twitter apps.

Echofon can handle multiple accounts (personal and camp), you can search by proximity, trending topic, tweet photos and video, it has push notifications, and it's load times are lighting fast. Also, it's free.

COST: FREE

POCKET FIRST AID & CPR from the American Red Cross - In the App Store

The level of preparedness for any camp staff can be improved by having this app on their iPhone. Pocket First Aid & CPR is an essential and comprehensive tool. It includes first aid checklists for trips, video and illustrated instructions for everything from bruises to diabetic emergencies, and the ability to save critical hospital, doctor, and emergency medical information on yourself, campers, and staff.

The American Red Cross is constantly updating this application with the latest CPR rules and features (such as the ability to email a stored health record and adding critical medical information to your iphone wallpaper).

COST: $3.99

THIS AMERICAN LIFE - thisamericanlife.org

Because sometimes you need get your CITs and listen to episode #109: Notes on Camp.

COST: All 400 This American Life episodes plus many extras and all the new episodes are $3.99

At four dollars a can (400 ml) Montana’s Basic spray paint has real value. The flamingo/lavender color sprays light, but evenly covers any surface (including regular printing paper that soaks up the paint like dry wall). The color is exactly as advertised and has bleeds only the tiniest bit. Use it legally or for pranks only.

Minimalistic writing is used to its most effective. The nameless characters in The Road are constantly frightened and awkwardly tense. Their inability to give up are inspiring. McCarthy’s chapterless story is a father-son slow burn that explores sacrifice and trust without using any floridian tropes. Over-the-top storytelling is fad, but The Road is controlled chaos.

 

The sob story to sport ratio is not totally annoying, but the choices that NBC makes in programming are completely ridiculous. Showing European hockey instead of USA vs. Canada makes no sense. Neither does ice dancing. Two hours of ski jumping and all qualifying rounds of anything is coma inducing. C-SPAN may be more exciting.