ketchup:

Err, so I’m going to scratch mentioning the Lion Ambassadors Conference weekend and the rally–hopefully you all heard about that, anyway. It was a great weekend, but this late in the game it’s not really worth fleshing out. Still, if anyone is interested, I’d be more than willing to share with anyone who asks about either of those events.

Rock for Change just happened, and had to be moved inside from it’s original location in the Vartan Plaza (the odd-shaped, open area between Zeigler Commons, Olmsted, the Library, the TL Buildling and the bookstore). A bunch of local bands were invited by Sahar, the current SGA president:

the PSH Gospel Choir, Texas in July, Brunaya, Letters for Lovers, Collin CMurph Murray, Circus Circus, An Early Ending, Captain of Compliments, and Rufus J. Fisk.

The event had to be moved inside on the Stacks stage due to the forecast of rain, but it ended up working out because not a lot of people came to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, it seemed like we raised a decent amount of money–intended to benefit The Invisible Children, but I feel like I may have already mentioned that–but our campus often takes a lot of motivation to participate. I think the problem is that people don’t leave their dorms/only hang out with their roommates until too late in the first semester to feel comfortable doing anything BUT that.. I’m going to work on that for next year, though, CA or not. Don’t you worry, I’ve got good things planned!
Back to the concert: Circus Circus pulled a rave out of nowhere, replete with glow sticks and all. It was awesome! Everyone was digging the lights, at least, even if the band was too hard for some of the kids in the crowd. I had to leave early, admittedly, but let me just say that Letters for Lovers is much better in person, if you like the jist of their music. The bassist was hilarious, and it was good because he was just so hype, and did all these twirls and acted out the lyrics, etc. I loved it overall, and it was a lot catchier and upbeat than some of the music there. An Early Ending was my preference for the night–even though the singer seemed like kind of a[n amusing] dick, he had an good range for singing and what I call “raging”, and ALL of the other band members were impressive on their own. There was a high concentration of that type of music, though, and I know they’re going to work on making it more eclectic and easier to digest to improve the turnout next year; I like it, but that type of music just has a very specific scene.

I just went up to UPark last weekend with some friends to blow off steam and take advantage of our last chance of the year to go together, and we hit up the usual touristy places like the Lion Shrine, the Diner (you might just need to skip to the stickies, but I always like my mushroom swiss burgers there), the shops downtown and the Creamery. It also gave me a chance to visit a kid from MS/Alt. Spring Break, cop some movies from him (he’s a film major), and force my fellow ‘Burgers into the Pattee and Paterno Libraries for a test-run in finding books. After all, I’ll be needing those libraries eventually, right? Aside from the stairwells being just big enough for a single person, and Pattee’s Stacks 3 not being accessible via any elevator we could find, the books were actually SO easy to locate. And there’re a million lockable study carrels, in case I ever decide to study hardcore in my later years.

Anyway, I’ll be going up again for Blue-White Weekend this Saturday. For the uninitiated, it’s a scrimmage game open to the public–which, of course, still calls for tailgating–to basically showcase the team for the coming year. I wish I could go up Friday night, because I might be coming back early Sunday for my Marketing Club’s Harrisburg Senators game outing, but that didn’t seem to work out. At least I get to tailgate and sleep over Saturday.. We’ll see.

back again

Hey. Sorry to anyone who was just starting to read this blog for dipping out for so long. I guess I saw that the other two were posting about the exact same things I had to share, since we’re all in Lion Ambassadors together, and didn’t make time to write about something else. But after this depressing lapse was brought to my attention, I decided to use this time (1:20 AM) to enjoy some leftover pizza and the Daily Show in the background to spark my “creative juices”.

Actually, here’s a recap of what I’ve missed:

Boobies Ball (the big on-campus charitable event of the year for LAmbs), was a relatively huge success. The room we got for the occassion was filled the whole time, and people really seemed to enjoy themselves. I even danced in between selling tickets, which is really saying something. More importantly, we doubled last year’s funds raised with over $2500. That’s all profit, folks–straight to the Feel Your Boobies foundation bank account. Congrats to us, and thanks to everyone that participated!

Hmm.. our main lobby entrance for Olmsted finally opened officially sometime last week. It’s really nice-looking, I can’t lie; if you want to see pictures of the ceremony/part of the completed project, I think Jen loaded some. My little bone about it, though, is that it not only took so long to complete and inconveniently diverted so many students since the beginning of school–that’s unavoidable with campus construction, it seems–but today it was roped off again because they were continuing to work on the older molding or whatever it is. Isn’t the point of a grand opening to signify the opening of something?
Don’t toy with my emotions (and paths to class) like this.

After work today I went over to the Student Center in the CUB to help seat for a speaking event on diversity. The man that spoke was Morris Dees, a lawyer and activist of sorts from Alabama who pointedly represents underprivileged and minority clientele. He wrote a book, too, if you’ve ever heard of him–it’s at the bookstore, and it’s the only reason I recognized him, really. Dees was a great speaker, and I felt horrible that I couldn’t pay attention longer because I kept nodding off. I’m really screwing up my sleep cycle lately.. I guess that’s just one of the perks of being a college student.
Part of the reason I was so tired was post-first-IM-softball-game/major-win celebration from last night into the early ‘morn.. really I was just talking to friends until 2AM, but we really really did beast through that softball game. Wooo! Kegs on 2nd has gotten infinitely and miraculously better for no apparent reason, and I like it.
[By the way, DO check out Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center which he heads up--He has his own wikipedia entry, for cryin' out loud. You know that's legit.]

To wrap up: I’m planning my Fall classes right now–I schedule next Monday–but that’s another post; I just finished my last interview for the CA position today, and I’m crossing my fingers; Rock for Change is going down on Friday after classes, and I’m staffing that as well after work (free concert of local bands to collect donations to benefit the Invisible Children); clubs are wrapping up and classes are coming down hard, so everyone’s in a mad rush to study and do well for these last few weeks before finals.. Oh, and the annual Bathtub Races are coming up.

Spring Break, etc.

If I don’t do this now, I never will–I already don’t feel like recounting the week, so I’ll summarize:

We went to Gulfport, Mississippi to work on reconstructing local houses in disrepair from Hurricane Katrina (or occasionally because they were too old to do it)…
Stayed in corrugated cardboard tents called “pods” which we actually got used to really fast.. At least showers were separated (within one huge pod)…
Teams were chosen for different projects you were skilled or interested in, and broke off kind of on their own schedules to work each day. But breakfast for everyone was at 7 AM, and dinner was usually around 6 PM or so…
Various groups volunteered to prepare each of our meals for every day we were there besides the first night and our “dine out” night–supposed to support local economy, but just plain good…
Camp fires every night for those willing to stay up late & plenty of board games to go around for the evenings…
Simultaneous best & worst story my team heard: An old lady whose aging shed we painted told us that not only did her son die before the hurricane, but his body was inexplicably transported from their local funeral home to one on the beach just before Katrina hit. Of course, his body was washed away with everything else, so she doesn’t know where he is now and never had a chance to bury him. Not to mention her four daughters, each living somewhere within the state, rarely ever visit or call her. How ungrateful can you be?? So we’ve decided to “adopt” her: send her the picture we all took together (when she nearly cried because we were leaving), a few letters, and have someone check up on her in the area.
My team mostly did demolition and painting, by the way.

I think everyone that went really liked it, if not for the work then because of the people we met and the stories we heard. No matter what campus they were from, I didn’t hear one person say they didn’t plan to come back again next year–not even the ones going up to Main next year. (Not to mention, the weather in Mississippi is about a hundred times better than most of PA right about now. It definitely involved a lot of nice t-shirt/shorts weather.)
I’ll link to pictures if I ever get around to developing mine/tracking down the others’.

Hey, cyberspace.

I’m generally not much of a blogger or “journal-er”, but there’s so much going on around here that I’m sure I’ll find stuff to talk about.. For instance, THON just passed a week or so ago (Sarah pretty much beat me to the post on that one, though), mid-terms & stuff are coming to a point this week, and spring break is in a few days!

Just for those who don’t know, THON is the affectionate nickname Penn State uses for our biggest, longest-running charity event of the year. Originally started as a literal dance marathon, it’s now a marathon of staying awake and on your feet–all the while collecting pledge money and donations for the Four Diamonds Foundation. Basically, it goes toward fighting childhood cancer by helping fund affected families in their time of need; it’s run out of Hershey Medical Center, and no family has ever been turned away for an inability to pay for treatments.. thanks to our help. In ‘73 when it was first started, the event took place in White Hall. Last year, it moved to the BJC for the first time and broke the $5 million dollar mark. THIS year, my first year participating, we beat that by a long shot with over $6.5 million dollars! “FOR THE KIDS!” Seriously, it’s just a really great thing to participate in.

So… for next week (since I live in VA, don’t have a car and didn’t feel like spending the money to go home–bad, I know) I’m going a little off the beaten path and building houses in Gulfport, Mississippi with Alternative Spring Break. I may sound like a big charity-addict, but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and never had the chance to. This year at least it’s free, so the timing and everything seemed perfect. I’ll try and take pictures while I’m there.

(Oh yeah, can you say free daytrip to the Big Apple with photo club on Saturday? I’d never been before, and now I’ve been several times.. Always amazing!)
Annnd that’s it for my first post, guys.

If you have any questions about anything, you can leave a comment, email me: vlk5011@psu.edu, or try me on facebook.

Later.