Huh look who started following me on the Twitter

huh not sure how I am feelin' about this

Hallowgreens: When should it be ???

Recently some people have been tryna decide when Hallowgreens should be.  This is a difficult event/party to plan.  Even though ResLife/SMCM dictates when Hallowgreens is, every year people try to establish the date of the event via facebook events. 

People just don't understand that it literally gets decided during the summer by ResLife.  Any RA can confirm this.  When you get your RA duty schedule, it shows when Hallowgreens is.  ResLife, Public Safety, etc. all select this date so that they can plan accordingly to have enough staff on hand to handle the shitshow.

But people still don't understand this.

"DJ" Darren Leu in his prime

ANYWAYS this year, according to what I saw on facebook, someone made the event for October 27th.  This is the date the school chose for the event, and the date that makes the most sense.  Since it's in October.  Some people, like "DJ" Darren Leu believed that that it should be on November 3rd.

From my understanding, the logic was this.  Some 100~ students who compete in Fall Division III (the last division) sports have to play sports on Sunday October 28th.  So, they cannot get blackout drunk at Hallowgreens because it would impede their performance the next day.

1.  Hallowgreens is still legitimately fun and much more memorable completely sober
2.  Having played on a 'club sports' team (SMUT) we played every game hungover.  And we even won a trophy.

The point is, trying to change the date because a small minority cannot 'participate' is dumb.  It is as dumb as Paul Prazinski (I do not know how to spell that Pollack name) in 2010 (maybe 2009???) trying to push back the date of Hallowgreens because he and his 'bio' class would miss it due to a field trip.  Everyone told him that he was being stupid, and the date remained the same.

All in all, this resulted in a bunch of dumbasses (read: kids that are kinda clever and make me laugh a lot) making a new Hallowgreens event.  On December 29th.   https://www.facebook.com/events/157002124439597/

This sort of controversy will occur again in another two years.  One of the biggest issues at SMCM is the lack of 'institutional memory'.  It is the issue of 'remembering' what happened in past years.  Past efforts, past initiatives, past downfalls.  It happens at any college, and is incredibly hard to combat.  But it is something that both students and faculty/staff/administrators need to be mindful of.  The issue of the 'real date' of Hallowgreens are just minor example of the larger issue of a lack of institutional memory at St. Mary's.

FREE PIZZA ALERT 2/15

Do yall love pizza?  Come to DPC TODAY from 3 until 9 for pizza and to learn about closing procedures and take a boring survey.  It's hosted by ResLife!

Also, last night I came home from the Door and went into the library with my box of pizza (via I had to watch a movie for class) and I felt lots of eyes staring at me.  I'm not sure if they were staring at me with judgement (via Door pizza box) or because they wanted my pizza, but the whole process was a good decision.  Atomic Cafe was a pretty interesting movie, I would recommend watching it!

Resident Assistant Applications

Applications to become an RA are due February 4th!  Many people don't realize, but I was once an RA, long ago (via sophomore year).  It was an interesting experience, and although I was not rehired (note that this is different from being fired) I think it was overall cool.  And Kelly and Derek are both pretty great and supportive.

But if you really like to go out every weekend it might not be the best career choice.

Marc Hume

Saw Marc Hume on campus earlier today.  wtf

Solo Cups

Seems like, according to what RAs said during Townhouse meeting, that Solo Cups are a free pass for outdoor drinking.  What they told us was that they can't 'check solo cups or really know what's in them' which kinda reminds me of like, brown bagged 40s in Baltimore.  I think it's probably more than just a Baltimore thing, but I feel like it is a large part of like, Baltimore culture/heritage?  It's definitely something I'm proud of.

Anyways, maybe this is something they are telling us to be chill and allow us to drink on our patios on the townhouses, and they hope that we don't exploit it and just drink anywhere?  Is this official policy?  Just real confusing because...seems weird I guess?  Can we brown bag our alcohol?

I guess what I'm saying is that the way they told us of this policy that 'Well we don't know what is in it, so we can't do anything' is really vague, and I would prefer that they just say something like...use an unmarked container and we can't say anything.  Are clear glasses okay, or do the containers need to be opaque?

Am I just looking too deeply into this?  Probably.  Regardless, roommate bought a 250 pack of solo cups.  <3 u roommates.

Observation

So this year ResLife has RAs working until 2AM on the weekends instead of 1AM. And I've noticed more facebook party events going until 2AM instead of 1AM. I mean I could be wrong, and maybe people have been setting parties to go until 2AM for awhile, but I'm not sure.

Anyone else notice this or can confirm/deny?

Winter Break Closing

Winter break closing information always has the same line that always confuses me

• All decorations must be removed prior to your departure for Winter Break.

What is the point of this? I don't think any RAs are going to attempt to enforce this rule when doing room inspections. I just don't really get it. Having decorations doesn't violate any college policies.

Don't Sneeze so Close to me

Do you see what I did there? I took that Police song "Don't Stand so Close to me" but changed one of the words. Barely clever puns are essential for any news source.

Regardless, H1N1 is going to be a major threat, and I hope to be the biggest fear monger on campus. I currently have 4 bottles of the germ-x that ResLife kindly handed out to us during move-in, and I may even refrain from hi-fiving people (not really, cause that would be super lame).

For reals though, check out the emails and papers you've gotten about the influenza strain that will be most prevalent this year, as it will affect us (those under 25) the most. Also apparently it is also called the "Novel" virus now, but I don't like that name very much. H1N1 is much more threatening sounding I feel.

October 1st is your chance to get a flu shot for only 27$ over in DPC.

If you are sick please don't come to class and kill everyone with your disgusting germs.

Saturday Duty

I am on duty tonight in the RA office.  Someone just asked me if I "know how to open a Nesquik bottle"

I will miss being an RA.

A Tom Seahawk Christmas

Last Semester I helped my residents decorate the hallway for the holidays. It was a lot of fun, and we made a Christmas tree and a Festivus Pole. Here you can see a whole album of festivities! I meant to put this up awhile ago but I was busy sleeping over Winter Break. It was a pretty exciting event.

Programming

As an RA I do programming every semester, so I was wondering if you, the reader, had any input as far as programming ideas. Some ideas I was tossing around:

-Bike Race around the island between PG, Caroline and Dorch
-Mocktails, but I worry that people will bring their own non-mock ingredients
-Superbowl Party
-Valentine's Day card making
-Spend all of my funds on Lego and then build them
-Partini (is this game any fun? Caroline just got a copy of it)

Also, my door decorations for this semester are pictures of myself + and army man glued to your door.

RHC Interview

I have my RHC interview in a little less than an hour.

Anyone that comments on this will receive 1$ in the unlikely event that I am selected to be an RHC

MACUHO Conference

MACUHO is an acronym for something that has to do with Residence Life programs in the area. I went to Penn State with Krystal Dains, Julia Shatto, Terri Matthews, and Katie Schultz. It was fairly exciting because we all got 44$ to spend on food. Highlights include:

Seeing a Wendy's Sign "Wow this chicken sandwich are full of taste"

And discovering how horrible Pennsylvannia is. But Penn State is pretty wonderful.

So it was a conference full of RAs from nearby colleges. I missed SMCM :[

Zombies

Last night I gave a presentation on Zombie Preparedness. It was my RA Programming for the month of October. It was pretty awesome and thirty people showed up. I was really surprised because I forgot to put the time on the fliers that I put up. I think the key to having a good Program is giving out food, or having a topic that is funny/interesting that the students will genuinely enjoy.

Um and I might put up the pictures later either in this post or another.