"Time is making fools of us again"

When making fun of Palin, the question not "Why?" but "Why not?"

It’s already Friday again?!

How does time pass so quickly?  Dumbledore ne’er said a truer thing than the title of my blogpost.  He probably said other equally-true things, but ne’er a truer! Ne’er!  Yea, verily!

Speaking of which, I emailed Ms. Topping this week to have her look at a poem I’m submitting to our literary magazine and titled said email “Yea, verily!”.  Oh wait what I wrote poetry?!

All the single ladies? ALL THE SINGLE LADIES!

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS TITLE HAS SOME RELEVANCE TO MY LIFE?!

Come Here For Sex Jokes. Haha . . . Come.

Once again it's time for me to post exciting stories about my week at Bates College that leave you unsatisfied with your own college experience. However, remembering my past week is very difficult for me. No, not because I black out all weekend long due to excess partying. It's because I have a horrible memory (quite a useful trait for college courses, eh?). Well, I shall try my best to relate my week to you, as I know you adore my posts. As I write this, I envision you greedily reading my words, hungrily scrolling down the page for more information about my life. Ahem. Anyways . . .

A Weekend to Remember

This past weekend has no doubt been one of the best weekends up here at college. And when I say "up here" I am referencing my location to our "permanent address" of conservative Newport (which I have learned must be differentiated between our local address at each of our respective colleges) and not your local addresses which I do recognize to be north of me (even you Rachael! 1 degree!). So most of my post will thus be focused on Saturday and Sunday, and will exclude the rest of my week which you can assume was chock full of studying and homework for my midterms that did/currently/will forever haunt me.

Galileo Figaro Magnifico

It will come as no great shock to any of you that the first thing I think of when pressed to summarize the most recent seven days that I have lived through is work. Classes have really started to pick up and accordingly I have been spending a great deal of time studying. The nice thing about my workload is that it is mostly reading, so even if I have, say, five hours of work, as was the case yesterday, I'm spending four and a half of those hours attending to something written by someone other than me, which is considerably easier, I think, than attending to something written by me and by that I mean writing it myself.

Kan Chu Lai, it's Lion King Time!

Another week has passed already somehow!  The weeks go by so fast that I have to look at my planner to assess what I’ve done.  Turns out it’s mostly homework.  But there were fun moments, too.  I’ll focus on those.

ELLO ELLO ELLO!

Why is my title british and yelling?  I DON'T KNOW!  Anyhow, my week was interesting.  LET'S HEAR ABOUT IT.

A Very Contagious Virus

Good day, my contemporary contemporaries! Have you noticed how busy you have become? Or how you seem to not have adequate time to do all the things you wish? Have you begun to barter away your precious hours of sleep to learn more about the solar system or political climate in Mozambique? What about your sudden need to consume caffeine at high quantities? These issues, my dear compatriots, are side effects of what the scientists call "College". Do not be alarmed! College, when dealt with appropriately, can be cured in about four years (unless it evolves into the Graduate strain). This condition that we have obtained ( I believe the scientific name for the virus we've caught is called Fültyme enrolmint) is very easy to deal with if you take the necessary steps to survive. 

Where is Poppy when you need her?

So this week's post is going to be super short due to two reasons. One, I am extremely sick. I have been sick for about two weeks now, but it has recently gotten much worse (i.e. coughing up phlegm and having my voice sound like nails on a chalkboard). Thus, I feel shitty and am not in the mood to write an extremely elaborate post. Sorry guys. Second, I have my first midterm tomorrow on Chem 4A. This class has proved rather challenging in the past two weeks (eww quantum mechanics) and thus I need as much time as possible to study for it.

The lesson I will take away from this past miserable week is that college life is not conducive to an ill person. You can't simply call out of class like you did in highschool, because if you do you're basically fucked. And thus all of your time is still spent doing college activities; not resting, which is what I should be doing. So yeah that's basically it, I'm going to go to a chem review session right after I post this, and then should be up all night studying. Yeah FML.

Love you all and I'm sorry this post was so short, I'll try harder for next week.

Jason

P.S Here's something you might enjoy found in one of our classrooms.

Ubi Est Italia?

According to my usually reliable memory, nobody reading this (assuming my audience here is what I think it is) has been to Middlebury. This being the case, I'd like to devote a few words to a description of the campus.

Middlebury is rather hilly. There are few places to which you can walk and not undergo a noticeable elevation change. This creates an interesting dynamic for many of the buildings on campus. Very often, if you walk into a building on the ground floor and you cross to the other side of the building, you will find that you are no longer on the ground floor. For instance, if I want to exit my dormitory building from the west, I can walk directly out without using the stairs, but if I want to use the eastern exit, I must first ascend a flight of stairs. The larger the building, the bigger the elevation change tends to be from one end to the other.

Once you go Rebecca Black you can never go back

Title because it's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday?

Happy Friday, all. We made it through another week of college. Well, I think we did. I made it anyway, which is what counts.

A brief week summary (keep an eye out for the two links I've provided!):

Last Friday besides all of my technical difficulties in posting up my blog, I went to a cute farmer’s market across the street and got three orchard-fresh apples and four cookies. I don’t know if you have had orchard-fresh apples, but they’re worth the hyphen and extra three syllables. They look good, they taste amazing; they SMELL like heaven. I’m not going to real heaven but orchard-fresh apples are close enough. Promise. (Tell me how heaven is though. Since Nicole and I are outliving the rest of you, being vegetarian and all. Of course we’re all pretty atheist so probably none of us will get there. Jason would have except he’s a boozehound. Google it!)

TIME TRAVEL

"Wow Rich, I could have sworn you were supposed to post on Thursday."
"IT IS THURSDAY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT" /embarrassed

Okay.  I'm sorry I didn't post on time.  Skip ahead to "YESTERDAY" if you want to find out why.  Or, if you care about my life, read the whole thing! =D

A Good Day for Tea

Surprisingly, I do not have a lot to say. I've gotten quite accustomed to life at Bates thus far. It almost seems like I've lived at Bates for a few months already.

Originally in this post I described my usual day and facts about my classes. But it was really boring. Instead I'll talk to you about my extra curricular activities, which also happen to be boring.

So, I went to the activities fair in one of the gyms (lovingly referred to as "The Gray Cage") where all the school clubs assemble to hassle young, impressionable freshmen into joining their club. It's nothing like the CdM club rush. This fair is SCARY. It is noisy and crazy, with upperclassmen screaming at you and waving signs, putting papers into your hands, and blowing whistles. I signed up for a few things, but I'm only going to talk about one of activities I signed up for. First, I signed up for the Debate team. It's awesome. On my first day, the older members debated upon whether JFK, if given the choice, should release 1000 velociraptors upon the USSR. It was hilarious, and well articulated. At the end of the debate, they opened up the argument for the audience, and I stepped up. I talked about the biological side of the issue. Mainly, the fact that the dinosaurs would die quickly due to the fact that our atmosphere is quite different from what they're used to. And they would choke. And die. Aaaaanyways, If I stay dedicated to the club, I have the chance to travel to England and around the world for the international college debate competition. That would be awesome, right? Too bad I have no idea how to debate. These are the moments in my life where I wish I was as good as Rich at making BS sound like words of pure wisdom.

Now for a nerd rant (and at this moment you're thinking "Nicole, you just went on for a paragraph about Debate Team. All you've been doing is nerd ranting." And to that I kindly say "STFU". Ah, Debate Team has taught me so much about articulate elocution, can't you tell?).

The first order of nerd business is Doctor Who. Currently in my possession are two FREAKING AMAZING posters of Doctor Who theme. I have also watched three new episodes of Doctor Who since my arrival at Maine. I am happy to say I enjoyed them, though maybe not as much as I could have.

The second order of nerd business is the fact that I have now met two nerdfighters on my college campus. We have bonded over our love of all things nerdy (read: spectacular). I have also turned one of your own ( non-nerdfighter folk) into a nerd fighter. I am just here to inform you that we will slowly but surely take over the world.

And finally, the last order of business on the nerd agenda for the day:

I GOT INTO POTTERMORE!

*Blasts Hedwig's Theme*

BaNA na na NA na NA NA, na na NA NA na NA!

It probably won't live up to any of your guy's expectation, but I thoroughly enjoy sitting back, relaxing, listening to the Harry Potter soundtrack, and clicking through the magical world we've all come to love and cherish so much. I got my wand last night. It's quite a rare combination. Vine (very uncommon) and Phoenix Feather (the rarest, good friends!). 10 3/4 inches (I would have liked it a bit longer, but such is life. Also, that's what she said. [ Rachael: It was away, it was in a box!]). Tonight I plan on taking my sorting hat test. I'm willing to be sorted into any house, as I think they all have their strengths. For instance, Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders. (A Very Potter Musical? Anyone? No?).

And lastly, some sad news about my life. This paragraph is for those who enjoy to bask in my misfortune. I got callbacks from the acapella group I tried out for (wait, isn't this good news?) but I didn't get in (ah, there it is!). I don't mind too much. I had fun singing. Another bad thing that has happened is that is seems that I am coming down with some kind of sickness which includes stabbing stomach pains and a sore throat. Do not worry, I have taken up tea-drinking (Mostly because I'm a Hogwarts student now. Which is in Britain. And British people drink tea. I know, I know. I was surprised to find that out too.) And the saddest piece of information yet (Rich, get ready to have your heart broken.) My cat, Shotsy, died. She was old. It was expected. But I grew up with her since I was 4, so it's a bit sad to know I won't be coming home to her.

So that's a good way to end a blogpost, right? Haha. Sorry.

Oh hey, I know something that will end the blog post on a pleasant note!

I can have soft serve ice cream and dessert whenever I want!

Please do not comment on my weight gain when we meet up again.

I'll update you on the Hogwart's House information,

UPDATE: I'm a Ravenclaw! No sassy remarks on how I shouldn't be due to my ineptitude with the English language. I don't re-read my posts. Deal with it.

Nicole

Cuddling a Hobo... The Life of a Fraternity Pledge

So I'd like to start this wonderful Tuesday off by saying that about 5 hours prior to posting this I played badminton with Kevin Bam Bam. Yes I know, my life is better than all of yours. Except contrary to that point I would like to point out that upon reading all of your posts, your lives are just as awesome as mine, perhaps more (don't get used to this flattery). I especially enjoy reading about all of the little things you four relate in your posts. The expression on my face upon reading all of your posts is nothing less of sheer happiness, due to the fact that I can still keep in touch with some of my best friends.

Okay, enough of this rubbish sentimental stuff, down to the nitty gritty. So another preface to this post today is that I will in fact depart from my planned schedule of going into much detail on one specific topic and rather tell you all about my extremely busy week. I originally wanted to do the one topic per week idea because honestly I thought most of my weeks would be just alot (RAWR! I hope more than just Rich gets this) of time spent on class and homework. This turns out not to be the case, or at least not for this week. This week was fun because I had my first activity with my pledge brothers at the fraternity I joined... Yes. Fraternity.

A FRAT!?!?!?!?!? YOU JOINED A FRAT!?!?!?!?

Yes. We drink and fuck women daily.

Except, we don't. Shame too, (sorry Derek, review for you) because a study was done that if you ejaculate 360 times a year you significantly reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Weeee! The more you know...

So yeah, I was unsure if I was going to rush (some of this stuff is from the second week of school till now but I didn't get to include it in the first post so I'm going over it now) at all, and almost positive not first semester until... Cole of all people wanted to go to a rush event. So yeah, apparently Cole was texted by this guy who used to go to our school (Sam Parks, I think only Derek will know him) saying we should come by the frat he's in because they were having a barbecue. So, being a college student, I obviously obliged to getting free food somewhere. This was the first night of rush (though I was unaware at the time) and it was a sort of kickback just to get to know the brothers. I went with Joel (yes be jealous) and Cole (ehh, your choice) to mainly just get some food in my belly.

FLASHBACK!!!!! The first couple days at Berkeley I was out partying on Frat Row and I had been to a party hosted by this frat (Phi Kappa Psi, or Phi Psi for short), which was definitely the best/least sketch of all the parties I went to. Just FYI.

We ended up staying there longer than expected, Man-flirting, as the activity is dubbed. This was where I first got a feeling that a frat isn't just the partying lifestyle it is portrayed as. All of the brothers were extremely chill and they were, for lack of a better word, more "real" than I expected. So yeah, my interest was slightly aroused (good verb choice I know) so I decided to attend as many of the rush events for this particular frat, as much as I could anyway. I ended up going to: Game Night (BP essentially), Ultimate Frisbee (quite fun), Sky High Dodgeball (OH MY GOD READ BELOW), and Wing and Cigars (no smoking for me, but the wings were tasty). Sky High Dodgeball is something we must do when we see each other over Winter Break. It was one of the most fun things I have ever done. Bouncing on trampolines while playing dodgeball is unlike anything else. Sidenote: Kevin also joined a frat (different one than mine) and he concurs that Sky High Dodgeball is fucking amazing.

The way the fraternity system works is you (the rushee) go to rush events throughout rush week, and then the brothers of each fraternity will decide whether they want to give you a bid, an invite to become a pledge at the fraternity. Now, this sounds really simple... and it kind of is. There are no names being taken down for records, no registration fee, no formal tours of the house. There is essentially no structure to rushing (fraternities that is, sororities are much different, extremely structured) and thus you just need to try the hardest to make sure that the brothers at the fraternity you are interested in joining know you, and know your name. Being loud and obnoxious is surprisingly effective (take note Rich).

So now that you know how frats and he rushing process works, I got my bid during the 3rd rush event I attended on the 5th day of rush (I missed 2 days for random shit) and although apprehensive about becoming a stereotypical frat bro, I decided to accept because I figured it would be a good way to meet new people and cultivate my social life. One way that my college experience is completely different than all of yours is that I was already friends with so many people before I came to Cal. This is significant because having so many close friends to begin with makes it much more difficult to branch out and build new friendships. I've managed, but knowing so many people from high school definitely puts you at a disadvantage, not to mention I'm rooming with someone from high school along with being in the most antisocial dorm.

Pledging up until this weekend was so far uneventful. We had a couple of meeting (in chapter meetings one of the things we do is pass around the gavel and make a little speech about how our week is going, and I dropped the gavel on the first chapter meeting, sooooooo awkward... my speech made up for it though and I got an applause at the end), but other than that nothing has happened. Up until this weekend, where we had our first pledge event: Scavenger hunt in San Francisco and Berkeley. SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!

Sell one of the brother's wisdom teeth. Five cents please. Take a picture with Bush Guy (a homeless man who tries to scare the fucking shit, surprisingly successfully, out of people by popping out of foliage he holds up to camouflage himself). No Problem. Cuddle with a homeless guy. How about cuddle with two homeless guys! (Note: Derek no homeless person will ever replace you in my heart, or in my bed. And Jack, if you are reading this the answer is no, your roommate is not gay. Derek and I just have something special.)

Among other things we did were: take a picture on a cable car, get a phone number from an Abercrombie model, have a race on Lombard street (the crookedest street in the world, also inconveniently uphill), act out "The Play" (Cal vs Stanford 1982) on a crowded sidewalk, act out a scene from Jurassic Park in front of the full skeleton of a T-rex in the Valley Life Sciences Building (toilet scene anyone?), call a number written on a bathroom stall (apparently someone lost a Hello Kitty planner), "party boy" a studious Asian girl in the library, and finally perform a synchronized swim routine in the largest fountain on campus (Heeeeeey Macarena!). Overall, a successful day.

This scavenger hunt was probably one of the most fun things I've done since being at Cal (oh and Sky High Dodgeball, can't forget my hard on for that). ANDDDDDDDDDD (brace for it Rachael), total coincidence that the San Francisco Urban Race was the same day as the day we went into San Fran. Here are some pictures (see below) of my time in San Fran.

Pledge class at top of Lombard Street.

Urban Race peeps at the beginning of their long day (blue shirts).

A cool fountain I saw.

Um, what is tastier than fucking alligator bread.

Yeah, so I hope this extremely long post made up for my shorter one last week. I truly did have a lot of fun on my scavenger hunt, and I cannot wait to see what else lies in my Frat future. Another thing to note is the identity of my suite-mates. They are two enormous black football players who I really haven't gotten to know too well since they are gone most of the time for football. They're pretty chill, but there really isn't too much I know about them, so until a later date this is as much as I can tell you about them. Sorry that this is late for three of you, I tried getting it out earlier but I just had so many things I wanted to say that it was hard to compose it quickly, especially with the busy schedule that is college life. See you next Tuesday!

Stay Classy,

Jason

A Sea of Stars

I didn't proofread this, so there might be errors. I'm tired. Sorry. Not really. I'm never sorry.

A week ago I left you, following my first weekend in my dormitory, on the eve of general move-in day. So let us visit my last Tuesday, the twenty-four hour period responsible for the doubling of the population of my little cubiculum.

My roommate's name is Jack Hunsicker. He hails from Minneapolis, Minnesota, though he attended a private boarding school in Massachusetts (just like everybody else here) prior to his arrival at Middlebury. I, regretfully for the sake of this column's entertainment value but thankfully for the sake of my sanity and my comfort, which to me but not necessarily to you trumps the former, have no qualms about Mr. Hunsicker. Also, he is very tall.

I worked so hard to get this put online, so love me.

Evening, fellow bloggers.

I’ve been thinking about what to talk about for a while, and naturally all of it escapes me now. But the nugget of wisdom I’ve mined from college thus far is this:

-It’s all about having your hands full.

Physically: how do you close an umbrella while holding a purse, laptop, key card, textbook, newspaper, and hot chocolate all while opening a door to avoid getting drenched? Mentally: college, at its worse, is hell, and at its best is heaven. Not HELL, hell; I’m happy here. But there are moments of how-the-FUCK-am-I-supposed-to-read-two-newspapers-daily-AND-everything-else-you’ve-assigned-me? and wow I miss people.

Width (not mine)

Hey all.  I adjusted the width of our blog because I noticed as I was writing my post that extra-large pictures did this really annoying thing where they stuck off the sides of the border.  If this fucks up your viewing experience, let me know in the comments and I'll fix it.  Thanks!
-Rich

Profanity. Did you miss me?

Hello everyone!  This is Rich.  I'm the thursday guy.  Also, I'm the one going to Reed.  So I guess I'll start talking now.

I live in a divided triple with Kevin Mitchell and Ted Sand.  They're cool kids.  We're in the sci-fi fantasy dorm, which at first I was a bit nervous about cause I didn't want to be way out-nerded, but I'm doing alright.  Copious Firefly/Doctor Who knowledge is saving my life.  Okay but anyway.  I'm just going to do this a week at a time, brief summary of HOW AWESOME MY LIFE IS.  And even though it's been more than a week since I wrote...fuck all y'all, I'll do what I want.  (This post will have short days because I kind of just realized I would be writing it like this, so I can't quite remember every thing that happened all these days.)

Rain, Pictures, and Word Vomit

Good day, young explorers of the mind. Today, you will embark on a journey. A mental journey, my friends (for why would I be the one to make you suffer through physical exercise?). It is time to travel back to the day I arrived in Maine. It was a rainy day, one quite like today (she said as she solemnly looked out at the drizzly Lewiston weather). I ate at a pub endearingly named "Gritty Mcduffs" and begrudgingly allowed a half-hysteric mother to snap photographs any time something was deemed important. Like a sign. Or another sign. Or a building . . . with a sign. I believe I heard the phrase "just one more picture" about twenty thousand times. Hyperboles aside, it was a fairly pleasant day.

The next day my parents and I drove to Bed Bath and Beyond. This was when it started to really storm. I was quite excited by the weather, but judging by my parents' pale complexions, I might have been the only one. We headed into Office Max to buy some school supplies and I took my sweet time deciding what pencils to buy ("There are so many types! Should I get the ones with the big erasers or just a whole bunch of cheap pencils?! Look at this pencil's nice grippy thing! This one is smudge proof!" "Nicole, they're pencils. Choose."). Needless to say, MissIndecisive was resurrected and it was an hour before my parents and I strode up to the counter with folders and organizers in tow (If anyone was curious about the pencil thing, I got both fancy pencils and cheap ones). At that moment, the power went out. Alas, the materials we had brought up to the check out station could not be bought. Instead, my family and I ate lunch and came back to buy the stuff later on. There was also a lot of picture taking. But this time my friend Adina was pulled into the shots. I must apologize to her again soon. And pay for her therapy.

Fast forward to my AESOP trip. You will be pleased (or resentful. You guys could go either way.) to know that on my surfing trip I did, in fact, surf. I caught waves, stood up, and rode them to shore. I also got hit in the head by my surf board twice and got beat up by a few waves, but, you know, you take the lows with the highs. I met a bunch of wonderful freshmen on my AESOP trip, and the junior leaders were amazing as well (and, quite attractive, if I do say so myself. Which I do). Sam (one of my leaders) and I bonded over a mutual love of Firefly, Arrested Development, Doctor Who (Which I haven't watched the newest episode of yet! Rich! I am so full of fury!) and surfing. He was a little jealous of the fact that I lived in Newport Beach (Thus, I was nicknamed "California" while we surfed. Although, it might have been less of a term of endearment and more of a "I forgot your name, but I remember you live in Cali" kind of thing). Anyways, my AESOP group had a lot of fun chilling at the beach and hanging out by the campfire. While we roasted s'mores we met a new friend. He was found trying to steal our graham crackers. We named him DeadMau5. It was a mouse, by the way, for those of you (Derek) who don't get the pop culture reference (Derek) or just couldn't piece together the facts (Derek).

When my AESOP group got back to campus, Orientation began. Let the awkward socializing begin. Or so I thought. Apparently, I am quite good at being social. People actually talked to me. I made some friends at the Pizza Social, and the Ice Cream Social, as well as at The Commons, which is the cafeteria for the entire school. They have 64 types of cereals to choose from (My friend Jack has decided to consume every cereal choice, one flavor at a time), a vegan bar, a vast range of desserts always at the ready (ice cream station!) and awesome pizza. The meal plan is this: if you have your i.d. card, you can eat. Whenever.

During Orientation there was a President's Welcome, in which the president and the main(e) (Haha, get it? Maine? Aaaahhh . . . ) admissions director talked to the entering freshmen and their parents. The admissions director talked about how amazing the entering class was. She talked about "a gentleman in the crowd" (yeah, yeah, whatever) who had devoted all of his time to building a stronger community (or whatever, I wasn't paying attention) and a girl who interviewed people from Bill Clinton (*yawn*) to Jane Goodall (or something like that, I wasn't listening). She also boasted about having a "young woman in the audience" (eh?) who traveled to Central America (I'm listening . . .) to study primates (Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!) and research their behavior and environment (Me? Is she talking about me?!) as well as work with well known organizations to help spread awareness about the issues of primate well being (Oh, yeah! Me!). Out of all of the 513 students to choose from, I was spoken about as an example of some of the "exceptional" students of the entering class. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. They must have had a bad year in admissions.

Anyways, I have been spending most of my time with my new friend Jack, who I met at the Pizza Social. He's almost as funny as I am. Almost. He really likes ice hockey (Derek) and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah (Derek). He also is half Jewish and reminds me a bit of Daniel Flaxman. In a good way, of course. We've been going to orientation things together (there was an awesome one that was led by two speakers. They were a gay couple. They were wonderful. Rachael would have liked them.), movies at Bates (Thor), and lunches (BBQs) etc. Of course I have other good friends as well. Oh, what's that? No I don't? Oops. I should get on that.

Today was my first day of classes. All of my professors and hilarious. My Chem professor started out by saying that he was teaching us with the assumption that we know nothing about chemistry (an accurate assumption, to be sure) and that he wasn't going to bother teaching us mathematical concepts and formulas because we would promptly forget them after the class was over. As you can tell, he is my kind of professor. My FYS professor is the same as my Environment and Society professor, and she's quirky and clever. She already has us writing a paper that is due on the 14th (which is why I originally logged on to my computer. I got distracted, as you can see). My Chinese teacher is funny, as well. She makes jokes, and just says things that makes the class burst out in smiles and laughter. Although, sometimes the funny things she says are not intended to be funny. But alas, they make me giggle none the less.

My room mate, Lydia, is very kind. We have gotten on well together. No fights, no tense moments. Just helpful behavior and a mutual respect for each other's privacy and belongings.

Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed reading my word vomit. I literally just typed down whatever came to my mind, so I'm sorry for the messy structure. I'll get better with time. I'll plan next time. I just wanted you guys to know what I was up to. I miss you guys quite a bit. No one here plays Taboo or Catan, so that's a bit upsetting. Although they do play bananagrams and have a scrabble club, which is good. Bates also has a competitive eating club, which could be an adventure. Sorry, I'm rambling again.

I should go do some college work. Wouldn't it be funny if after all that time I spent working hard to get into college, I just started slacking off?

The answer is no. No, it would not be funny.

Don't Blink,

Nicole Danser

Oh Herro!

Tuesday: The second day of the week. The... now here is where I thought I would put all my memorable Tuesday experiences, finishing with a, "And now the day of my blog post." Sadly, I don't have any memorable experiences that have happened on a Tuesday. Tuesday isn't the day where I had my first kiss. It isn't the day when I decided I would be going to Cal. It isn't the day when I first got drunk, although Rachael might want it pointed out that Tuesday does rhyme with Booze-day. It isn't any memorable day to me because, well nothing happens on Tuesdays. But I guess now it is the day I am to post in this blog of sorts. So starting now, I guess Tuesdays do have meaning.

To begin, I will preface this post with a disclaimer that it is probably not going to be as good as Derek's post which I have yet to read but assume to be quite entertaining. I thought reading his post might make me think of myself unworthy to post on this digital forum for all (mainly the 5 of us because as Nicole pointed out no one else will be interested in our lives) to read. The good news is, as I said above, that I have not read Derek's post, and am thus quite excited to be writing this now. I am excited to be reconnecting with my high school friends who I do feel the absence of though it has only been a couple weeks. People generally say that college is where you make the majority of your friends that persist into your adult life, but I have a hope that those college friends can also be joined by some from my high school days.

Ok, now down to the nitty gritty. I don't really want to go into anything too specific in my first post, I feel more like it should be an introduction of what is to come. A small glimpse at all the, hopefully, fun and interesting stories I get to share with you. Therefore, I won't go into the 2 male friends from Texas I have made who are conservative Christians yet slap each other on the butt and stroke each others thighs. I won't go into Cole's OCD that I see evidence of almost daily or the fact that he has a flatulence problem. I won't go into the girl that I have found most...interesting, and how her name is quite ironic. All of these can be left for another date, specifically another Tuesday.

What will I tell you in this post then? Basically, that I am wholeheartedly enjoying my new life at college. I love the freedom to do whatever I want and to go wherever I please. I love my Chemistry class taught by an Australian professor who writes in 5 different colors of chalk in the neatest writing I have ever seen. I love having the ability to eat at any time, and frequently at that. There are so many things that I am loving about it, and I can't wait to see what other new experiences I am able to participate in.

So yeah... Hey! I'm still alive! I can't wait for all the interesting stories I am sure all of you will post throughout the year and I apologize if you would've liked a longer post by me but I will surely make up for it throughout the year. I'm going to focus on each post being about something specific and having all the details about that one thing, rather than taking you through a tour of my experience week by week. You would probably get tired of me complaining about math homework otherwise. Which, coincidentally (except not really at all) I am now about to do. Can't wait to read everyone else's post!

- Jason

Protip

Hey folks.  If you haven't read Derek's post yet you should.  It's gold.  However, one nitpicky thing--if you're going to write a nice long post with juicy pictures (which you had all dammed better be), try to include a jump.

BUT RICHARD, WHAT ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH IS A JUMP?

A jump is that little thing that says "Read more..." and when you click it it takes you to the full post.

Like this. (More after the jump)

I Solemnly Swear I Am Up To No Good

Let's start this story up on the twenty-sixth day of August, which, for those of you who didn't just check your calendars, i.e. all of you, was a Friday. Two Fridays ago, to be precise. I'm at home in Newport Beach on this particular Friday. In my room, again, to be precise. My dad walks up the stairs, hangs a quick pair of rights, and starts talking to me.

"So you know how we're supposed to fly out on Sunday?" he says. I am, of course, paraphrasing.
"Yup."
"And you know how the plan was to go from Long Beach to JFK (That's in NYC, Jason.) to Burlington?"
"Yup."
"And you know how there's a hurricane going on back east?"
"Yup."
"Well, we've had to rearrange our flights."
"And . . ."
"We're still flying out on Sunday from Long Beach, but we go to Orlando via Austin, spend a night in Florida, and fly up the coast to Burlington Monday afternoon."
"So what you're saying is we've got an entire morning in Orlando."
"Derek, why are you smiling?"