Hey, it’s a new blog! This must be indicative of some calamitous, world-altering event, just like how a full moon brings on the fervor of the wolf men.

But no, this latest entry simple denotes a moment of downtime when I can take a step back and reflect on the madcap world that is The Groton Channel. Strap in.

As of the end of June, I have officially been with the channel for a year. Where’s my cake? Maybe they’re saving it for a later date so it will be more of a surprise. I prefer the white cake with vanilla frosting (hint, hint).

Summer is a considerably slower time at the channel. School is out, so we don’t have any new sports to show (if you haven’t caught the latest lacrosse game, don’t worry, you’ll have 15 more chances), there’s no regularly scheduled School Committee meetings and our regular live shows go into their more sporadic summer schedules.

This year we’re taking advantage of this downtime to work on an informative program that will educate viewers about who we are and what we do. Instead of doing a straight forward kind of news show, we’re wrapping up all the facts in a narrative umbrella and creating a show in the vein of The Office or Arrested Development.

If you’re a burgeoning actor or know someone who is, we need you! Our story has characters of all ages, so we’re looking for older actors as well as high school aged actors. You can drop me or Bob an e-mail if you’re interested in the gig. Shooting won’t commence for a little while, but we need to make sure we have the right actors before finalizing the script.

It seems like I start every blog entry by mentioning the weather. Well, it’s hot. And the air conditioning in the school broke (and flooded the kitchen area). Not the most ideal blogging conditions by any stretch of the imagination. But I have neglected my web log for long enough, so I have decided to brave the triple digit temps and update for the first time in over a month.

It’s the middle of June, which means the 2008 seniors are no longer with us. Having only been with The Groton Channel for a year, this is the first high school senior class I’ve had to say good bye to since I graduated from GD in ’02. Quite frankly, I’m not sure how we’re going to manage without them.

Who’s going to host the sports show? Who’s going to tape the School Committee meetings? Who’s going to help out with Around Town and Movie Talk? These seniors are a huge part of what The Groton Channel has become in recent years. I wish them the best in their future endeavors and I have a feeling they will be successful in any venture they undertake.

Congratulations to the graduating seniors of Two Thousand & Eight.

Spring has sprung, although judging from today’s 80+ temps, I think we may have taken a hop, skip and jump right into summer. If only there was some happy medium between the frigid cold of winter and the unrelenting heat of summer. I know some people enjoy a phenomenon known as tanning, but it’s an alien concept to me. I go from snow flake to lobster in approximately 30 minutes. I made the mistake of hanging my left arm out the window as I drove around today and I currently have a rosy reminder that the sun and I are not on good terms.

Spring has sprung, but it’s still snowing. It’s almost April and I’m still wearing my winter coat. I didn’t sign up for this.

It was warmish and sunny for a couple of days last week and everyone and everything jumped the gun and assumed that we had turned the corner on the cold. Baby turtles were hatching all over my backyard! We had to take them in and put them in a box to protect them from nature.

Last summer I encountered a big ole snapping turtle and I have to assume that she is their mother. Hopefully her children are more even-tempered and friendly. As soon as the weather catches up with the calendar, the babies will be relocated down to the pond behind our woods.

As some of our volunteers and Around Town viewers may know, one of my favorite pastimes includes making movies. You may have seems some snippets of my sock movie Help Wanted appear on Jane’s show.

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to get myself out into the film production community and one way is through entering video contests online. I’ve had moderate success with that, but my latest project is much more ambitious. I want to shoot a full length film.

Every October there is a film festival called HORRORFEST. This year the festival is sponsoring a contest where potential film makers pitch ideas for a new horror movie. Members of the site can then vote for which pitch they like the most. The ten pitches with the most votes advance to the finals where one pitch will be chosen to be produced as an actual film to be shown at the HORRORFEST festival.

If zombies and horror isn’t your thing, then I would recommend you steer clear of the website, but if you’re interested in the horror genre and want to help me out, you can vote for my pitch at http://www.massify.com/pitches/hellwardbound.

You will need to register first, but it’s free and they don’t send you spam. Once you’ve registered, it will ask you to check your e-mail to validate your account. Once you’re logged in, return to http://www.massify.com/pitches/hellwardbound and click the big blue button that says VOTE NOW. It should turn gray and you vote has been counted.

Make sure to vote before the 17^th and tell everyone you know to vote as well. Thanks for your help. I’ll keep you updated on the progress of the contest.

Congrats to me! I won second place in our town’s Biggest Loser competition. I was edged out by percentage points by my boss, Bob, whom I actually lost more weight than.

I won 25% of the pooled money which translated to 79 clams. I would have preferred money, but clams are tasty too.

Hooray for a Groton Channel sweep.

Someone once said “you can’t win them all.” Before Sunday night, there were many who believed the 2007 edition of the New England Patriots would prove that proverb untrue. But alas, it was not to be. Making matters worse, it was our perpetual athletic archrival New York who dethroned the team from Foxborough. Lost in all this hubbub is the true loser from Sunday night: the third Manning brother. Good luck to him on winning a Super Bowl. He doesn’t even play football!

In lighter news, pitchers and catchers report to spring training this month. Go Sox!

What’s this; two blogs in two days? That’s unheard of blogging frequency.

I just wanted to quickly thank all the cub/boy/tiger scouts that have joined us in studio for tours in the past few weeks. Bob and I are both honored to be able to help you earn the most important badge of them all: the Local Cable Superstar badge!

Dear web log, hello, how are you? I want to thank all my loyal fans for making my page the number two most visited page on thegrotonchannel.org in the month of December. I’m currently sitting at a respectable third place thus far for January; trailing both the habitual gold medalist Home Page and the wily veteran Around Town. In an effort to leapfrog my way into second, I promise to update my blog at least 50% more than I currently have been. That could potentially lead to an entire new post each month! We’ll see how long I can keep up that break neck pace. My goal is to someday surpass the Home Page as the number one most visited page on thegrotonchannel.org, but that’s certainly a loft goal. It would require you to somehow bypass the front page and jump directly to my page. Perhaps users should start book marking my page directly. Hey, why stop there? Make my page your default homepage! Keep it real, my friends.

What are your favorite shows on The Groton Channel? Do you have a favorite episode from the past year or a certain program you haven’t seen in several years that you’d like us to run on TV again? What about new programming? What types of shows are you most interested in watching? Drop me an e-mail at pkelly@thegrotonchannel.org. We’re looking to enhance the programming for The Groton Channel in 2008 and need your feedback to guide us.