Friday, August 26, 2005

Busy, Fun Day

Since I moved in a day early, I didn't have to do much yesterday. Instead, I had to do it all today! First I had to go shopping for a few things I either forgot or didn't have time to buy previously. This included blank CD-R's and DVD-R's, and my own copy of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

Then it was time to do... "stuff". There was a big tent set up in the middle of the Quad, with stations for most all the things a new student would need to do. I opened up a free checking account with Citizen's Bank because, unlike PNC, they actually have ATMs on campus. I got the computer problem settled (still not sure what went wrong). I picked up the textbooks I had reserved ahead of time - thank god they're all paperbacks! Unfortunatly, there's one 1700-page collection of plays - and those of us in AP English Lit. last year thought the poetry book was bad! Anyway, I then visited the big poster sale in the bookstore basement and picked up a giant reproduction of the "Matrix" onesheet, as well as a photograph from the set of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Posters from two of the film major's favorite movies?: check! Then I attended the informative but uninteresting first floor meeting. One thing I picked up: apparantly Syracuse is going crazy with "Anti-Hate" stuff. If you, say, scrawl "FAG!" on someone's door whiteboard, you risk penalties up to and including full-on expulsion! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ending racism, sexism, nativism, and uh, "sexualorientationism", but that seems a little bit extreme. Jerry would be gone in a day.

On the subject of ending hatred, this post is already too long without actually including this, so I'll just link to the moving post Emily made on the dangers of homophobia.

In the evening I went to "Orange Blast!" which was a lot more fun than last night's activity. At first it seemed boring, until i discovered most of it as located not on the Quad by the people with the sound system, but in the student center. I entered the Texas hold 'em poker tournament in the beginner's section, and somehow managed to make it to 2nd place! The top two players from each of the three catagories then went on to play in the final game, which was against a professional-level player named Jim Karol, who is also a magician. I didn't win that game, but at least I wasn't the first out. (most of my friends know how common an occurance that is!)

The prize for the poker tournament was just a bunch of raffle tickets, proportional to how well you did. This worked out well for me, as I won both a Syracuse sweatshirt, and a $100 gift certificate to the campus bookstore!

So that was my day. I know I promised pictures, but the ones I took today are out-of-date (no awesome posters!) and I don't feel like taking pictures at 2 AM, so they'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Good luck to all my friends who are either in college already, or about to get there!

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