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Category Archives: Dorm Life
Dollar Challenge
Here on campus, there’s been a bit of a thing going around, called the “Dollar Challenge.” Although originally inspired by Christie AHD Max Kalchthaler, Villa has overcome the hatred of all things Christie and embraced the Challenge. The other day at dinner, Michael R. was issued a challenge by Jake H., to pour a glass of water on his head, and received the dollar. The dollar Jake paid with was the exact one that he had received for a previous challenge, and thus the “Dollar Challenge Dollar” was born.
If it isn’t clear yet, the Dollar Challenge is essentially a dare, in which the participant gets a dollar upon completion of the event. Friday night at dinner, we were trying to get someone else to accept a challenge, and somehow or other, we all decided that we would pressure Brett T. to accept the next challenge. A number of challenges were proposed at dinner, none accepted. On the way back to Villa, we stopped by Mehling, for Lindsey to get her glasses. Originally, we were just going to continue to Villa and meet Lindsey there, but we ended up deciding to wait for her to come back down. While we were waiting, Jake was talking to the Hall director of Mehling, and a few RAs that were in the hall office. Somewhere in this interval, Matt P. accepted a challenge to roll an apple into the office as if it were a grenade, shout “fire in the hole”, and tackle Jake to the ground. For this, he became the new owner of the Dollar Challenge Dollar.
Somewhere during this time, a new dollar challenge was thought up by the RAs, that Brett would wear a pair of boxers on the outside of his pants and parade around Mehling. We eventually gave up waiting for Lindsey, and returned to Villa, only to find that as she was not expecting for us to wait for her, she’d gone out the back way, and was already in Villa. Brett got on some boxers, and we decided to watch the first episode of Firefly–a very good series, but I digress. After it was over, we prepared to head over to Mehling.
It was decided that Brett should have an escort, and we all decided to dress in kahaki pants and black shirts. The group assembled, and we escorted him to Mehling. There was a brief scuffle, and we were unable to convince him to remove his coat, so we decided he could leave it on.
We proceeded to escort him through all the floors, one at a time, and then up the stairwell to the next floor. All eight floors. We protected him from any stray threats in the rooms, as we stood in front of any open doorways until he had passed by. There was a small disturbance on the seventh floor, but we were able to protect him from it. Upon reaching the eighth floor, we descended, again, passing through each floor. (Mehling has one central hall, and stairwells on either end of the building.) This time, the insurgents on the seventh floor had obtained weapons, and we just barely saved Brett from being hit by a barrage of foam rings. Upon reaching the 2nd floor, we realized that the stairwell at that end of the building connected only to the outdoors, not to the first floor, so we decided that we would have to go back, and ended up detouring via the seventh floor, where we were able to quell the insurgency and got a few photo ops.
Upon reaching the ground floor, Brett tried to escape to Villa, but we were able to catch up with him, and escorted him back to his room, where he collected the Dollar Challenge Dollar from Matt, his roommate. The guards decided to return to Mehling to offer to guard the RAs on their rounds, as we weren’t quite sure they would be safe on the seventh floor. Jake was chosen as negotiator. They felt that they would be safe in Mehling, but suggested that they might not be safe traveling to Wendy’s for frosties. Driving a hard bargain, Jake was able to get them to arrange a dessert date for us, with some Mehling ladies, at Papa Haydns at some date near Valentines day. (It did help that Jake is behind on planning events again.) With that agreement, we proceeded to pile into 2 cars, (By then, we numbered only eight, plus Jake, who stayed with the RAs.) Only the drive thru was open, and the fellow had to verify that Michael wanted to order 10 frosties. They were obtained, and we returned to campus, delivered the frosties, and returned to Villa, and watched another episode of Firefly. All in all, quite a memorable night–and I must say, the best Dollar Challenge Ever.
More pictures from this event can be found on Page 3 of the Sophomore Gallery.
Semester Recap
Now that the semester is over, I can’t claim schoolwork as an excuse for not posting–although I can say that at times, I just don’t feel like posting. Sometimes sitting in front of my computer is just not where I want to be. I certainly manage to do enough of it without posting, anyway.
I see that the last post was back over Thanksgiving break, after the soccer victory over Notre Dame. As most people must know by now, the team went on to win over Penn State in a (nerve-racking) shootout, and then to beat UCLA 4-0 in the championship match. It was hardly a game, with the first goal scored at 1:32 into the game, and the score 3-0 by the half. Still, there was celebration. The Drum Squad had showed up in force at the live “watch party” in the Chiles Center, and after the game, we went outside to ring (and actually, break) the victory bell that we traditionally ring after a win, and then we paraded all around campus. We went by the 6 dorms, and even decided to go into the commons and walk around the perimeter. Let me tell you, all those drums in there sounded impressive, that’s for sure. About 20 m inutes later, we arrived in Villa. Certainly a day to remember.
So many things have happened this semester, I can’t make up my mind which of them to try and type, and which to leave for later (which will likely be never). A few recent notes-Finals week was quite busy, and I ended up with three finals on Wednesday, never fun. All in all, I think I did pretty well, but I will find out later in the week, when final grades are posted online.
I’m currently listening to the latest CD from a a capella group called On the Rocks, a student group from UO. They’ve become quite popular around the dorm, even though we’ve never heard them in person. It’s a few hour trip, but would be worth it. I bought their most recent CD, and have been listening to it more or less non-stop ever since it arrived on Thursday. So far, everyone that’s heard it has liked it quite a bit, too.
The semester has been pretty fun, overall. I’ve been spending a lot of time with a group of friends, so it’ s been good. I’m also getting along with Cean pretty well–I’m not exaggerating much when I say that I have the best roommate I could ask for.
When I get to thinking about my college experience, at least in social terms, I see that I have had three more or less distinct semesters. The first was perhaps a “getting to know” (the school and myself) sort of semester. People I was likely to hang out with were Nik’s friends, generally. Somewhere near the end of the semester, things must have changed, although it was a pretty gradual change.
Second semester last year was a beginning to “fit in” sort of semester, where I found a group of friends I was more comfortible with, and attempted to integrate myself into that group. As Jake had asked me several times, I decided to go to Stible Buddy (the dorm Bible Study) for the first time, and rather liked it. I began to make a few friends through there, and would often come away with several things to think about. By the end of the semester, I was no longer an outsider, although I was neither a core member of the group.
Third semester (this last one), I began more or less where I left off, and advanced from there. For a while I was feeling as if I was back into the old routine, as Cean was better friends with about everyone that I was friends with, or so it seemed. But as time went on, I developed a few of my own friendships, and activities, and so on, and also got to be better friends with many of the people I was with last year.
This next semester may well be different again. I should begin where I left off, but there’s one more person. Michael R. has spent last semester studying in Granada, Spain, and will be back next semester. He’s good friends with several people in the dorm, and has kept in touch with them, but I have not been in touch with him. I don’t think his coming will be bad, but I think if will change the dynamic enough to make this next semester distinct from the previous one. There’s other issues with him coming, too, but I think they’re mostly in my head. In fact, I think a lot of what I notice occurring is actually just me forcing my hypotheses on the situation, and thinking that it fits. But I digress.
All of a sudden, it’s gotten a lot later than I had planned to stay up, so I think I’ll call it a night. Until next time, which could well be in 2006,
–Nathan
$20,400
Villa Man Auction: Nov. 3, 2005
1 dorm
1 charity
10 groups of guys
10 dates for sale
1 water tower in Tanznia
$10,000 goal
Chiles Center Mezanine
504 screaming girls
hundreds of hours work
and lots more by people who weren’t Ryan Hendricks
$10,200 raised
1 anonymous matching donor
————–
$20,400 raised
1 awesome night
Arrr, Me Mateys
Okay, so the title is lame. But this post is to mark my participation in International Talk Like A Pirate Day (TLAPD), for the first time ever.
I became aware of it in 2002, the first year it was publicised.I missed it in 2003, visiting a college with my dad, and managed to miss it again in 04, as I was out of town for my cousin’s wedding. Being in Villa, there’s no chance of missing out on the day.
This post will have to stand in for a much longer post that I had half written. I left it open, and FireFox crashed, taking the post with it.
In the meantime, I will mention that I (as expected) did not get the position of Peer Leader, but did browse the campus job listings (turning up “Hydro Ceramic Technician“, among others). I applied for Web Engineer at KDUP, our campus radio station, and have an interview tomorrow.
When I start thinking about the interview, I get nervous, perhaps because I’ve never done a formal interview. When I interviewed at the grocery store, not only was it not for a terribly important position to them, but I had the store owner (who I knew before I applied) pulling for me already. In fact, I was called in, even though they’d lost my application, and they spent the first few minutes trying to re-create the app, while looking for the original (which eventually turned up accidentally tucked inside someone else’s app).
I have no idea how I stand tomorrow. The person who held the post was a Sophomore last year, which means that I’m not too young, in their eyes, but also that he’s still around on campus. I have no idea if he applied, but if he did, he’s got an advantage over me. Still, the e-mail to schedule an appointment opened with the line “We were impressed with your application for the web tech position at KDUP.” (But that could well be a standard line used when calling people in to interview.) At any rate, I’ll find out soon enough.
Stible Buddy, right now, so I’m off.
Year in Pictures
The first year of college is now uploaded.
Birthday Poster
As mentioned, this is the less than flattering picture posed in at least two places around campus on my birthday. This particular picture was at the front desk of Villa.
I’ve been posting more pictures recently. I like doing it, and I think I will continue to do so. I think I’ll try to keep pictures and content in seperate posts, just to keep things a bit clearer. The weeds post was an anomaly, because I was trying to save my 100th post for my birthday.
One More Inch
Okay, this one needs an explanation. Cean W. (my roommate next year), and Matt K. are trying to put the velcro covered bean bag they’re holding on the central velcro thing, and whoever puts it further wins. The bungee is quite strong. It looks like Cean (left) is winning by a mile, but he actually only won by a fraction of an inch, as Matt kept on chugging. A photo finish.
[Edited to put the missing words into the sentence, and to fix the link to the large picture.]
My Birthday Details
So after I posted the last post, I had Physics, and then went to dinner with a whole bunch of people. I’m starting to become friends with this crowd, and hanging out with them is fun. After dinner, I was in my room playing a video game when Andy, Jake, and I think Michael came in and started shooting me with a little cap gun. (Jake bought a few at the dollar store the other day, and there have been several minor skirmishes in the last few days.) I think I mentioned Jake having shot at me early in the morning. Someone tosssed me a gun, shouting “defend yourself” I started shooting at them, and they ran down the hall. I chased them, and soon we were out into the lobby. Then Jake looked inside, because the doors were closed, and said something like “the obsticle course isn’t quite ready” I didn’t know anything about an obsticle course, but it sounded decent, and then Jake said that Andy and I should go in one door, and he and the other preson would go in the other. We went in, and I saw that the couches had been moved a bit. Then everyone stood up from behind the couches and said “Happy Birthday”.
It was a surprise party. All told, there were about 20 or so there, and they had a cake and a card. We ate some cake, and everyone was still shooting at one another. There was also a pillow fight. About the time the cake was served, my parents called me from San Diego on their vacation. I talked a few minutes, and returned to the party. I called them back later for a longer chat.
All in all, it was a really good birthday. Having that many people show up for my birthday really is a boost to the self esteem. I really like it here.
Best Birthday Ever
It was. Details to come, probably over the weekend.