I went to the Black History Program a little bit ago.  It’s a program put on by the Malcolm X Institute every year.  The associates— the people trying to become members of the organization—give little presentations about historical figures and other things related to Black History.  It’s interesting.  It’s cool for me since I’m in a Black Studies course right now.  One of my pledge brothers gave a presentation, too.  That was cool.  His presentation was about Danny Glover, and how he is a good actor, and how he is also an activist.  There were also a couple more Kappa Sigma guys giving presentations tonight.  They did a good job, I’d say.  I have to write an essay on Nietzsche right now, so I’m going to cut this short.  Bye.    

Posted by Michael Richmond at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

            You know what I had to do a few minutes ago?  I had to sprint to Hays Hall to turn my lab notebook in.  I finished filling it out at five ‘til four—it was due at four—and then my friend and I took off out the door to deliver our work.  We got over there just as our professor was taking the crate of notebooks into her office.  That was a close call.  That’s procrastination at its best. 

            Do you devoted readers remember last semester when I wrote about my roommate’s seemingly never-ending stint playing a game called Crysis; and how everyone in the house, including me, watched him play the game for hours and hours and didn’t get anything done?  I think a similar situation just cropped up.  Aaron is currently playing some game called Lost Odyssey, and he and Lucian are very excited about it.  I’m worried.  It’s supposedly a very long game.  I don’t want to watch, but when I’m in here, in my room, I can’t help but divert my attention from whatever work I may be doing straight to the computer screen.  I’m too easily distracted.  There is a solution, I know: the library.  I don’t want to go, though.  It’s cold outside.

            Another awesome weekend is almost here.  After that I only have to go through with one more week of school, and then it’s time for spring break.  I’m going home.  I’m going to sleep a lot and read a lot.  After spring break things should start to get interesting.  We’ve got Honor Scholarship Weekend the first weekend we’re back—I’ll talk more about that at a later date—and then we’ve got Pan-Hel week and another Kappa Sigma party and blah blah blah, on and on, ad infinitum.  The end.   

Posted by Michael Richmond at 04:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

 There’s a new theatrical production playing here this week.  It’s called Glengarry Glen Ross.  I went to see it a couple of hours ago.  It’s pretty funny.  One of my fraternity brothers, Kyle Cassidy, is in it.  He did a very good job.  So did all of the other actors and other guys who helped set the play up, many of whom are Kappa Sigma’s.  I didn’t want to be rude, so I didn’t take any pictures while I was in there; however, I did take a picture of some art that was on display in the Fine Arts Center while I was waiting to see the play. 

            There was a total lunar eclipse this evening.  I didn’t watch it.  I wish I would have.  I don’t think there is going to be another for three years.  I’ll still be here at Wabash.  I’ll probably be a senior.  That’s cool.  I’ll be watching the next one (maybe), and I’ll be thinking to myself hey, I remember when I didn’t see the last one—I was a freshman.  I was a freshman and I saw a play that night.  This is pretty neat.  Or maybe I won’t see it either, maybe even for the same reason I didn’t see the one tonight: it’s too cold to stand outside and watch.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

            Well, Saturday was the day of our party.  I wish I could say it was awesome, but sadly it isn’t deserving of such a positive adjective.  Mediocre, maybe, but not awesome.  There weren’t enough people here for it to be awesome.  I still had a decent time, however, and the decorations were nice.  The dinner was alright, too, I guess, but it was formal, and I really dislike formal dinners.  Actually, I dislike most formal things. 

            I have a research paper due tomorrow. It’s a group research paper, for Biology, and its worth quite a bit.  Two of my fraternity brothers are in my group.  We procrastinated; we began working on it yesterday.  We’re about done.  I think it’s going to turn out alright.

            I was sick most of last week.  Being sick is not fun.  I’m not used to being sick.  I try to stay healthy, getting plenty of exercise, taking lots of vitamins, eating my fruits and veggies, drinking juices, sleeping some, and smiling.  Yes, smiling keeps you from getting sick.  Try it.  Smile a lot.  You won’t get sick. 

            The other picture is of a guy named Nathan.  He is a sophomore in my fraternity.  He used to have curly hair.  Here he has straight hair.  He straightened it.   

Posted by Michael Richmond at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

            There was a Student Senate meeting yesterday.  One of the main issues at this particular meeting dealt with the recognition of a new club, a zombie crisis survival club.  There was an e-mail sent out before the meeting asking everyone to attend and show their support for the new organization.  I didn’t go, but I heard quite a few other people did.  I also heard the meeting was pretty entertaining.  Lucian, a fellow Kappa Sigma, is a member of Student Senate.  He was there.  He said it was entertaining.

            I don’t know the specifics, but apparently the club was very close to gaining recognition.  It didn’t, though, and after the meeting was over the e-mails started pouring in.  People were calling for action: they wanted protection from zombies.  There were maybe twenty e-mails in my in-box pertaining to the undead, and all were facetious, claiming that there really is some sort of zombie security issue, and that should a zombie invasion befall us no one would survive.  There was also talk of a conspiracy, something about faculty members being in cahoots with the abominate monsters.  Some even went so far as to include the trustees and squirrels in their make-believe zombie vagaries.

            It was fun for a while, but the e-mails are still coming, and most lack creativity.  People were getting annoyed yesterday.  People are still getting annoyed, I’m sure.  I’m starting to get annoyed now, too, not because the e-mails are clogging my in-box, but rather because they’re no longer amusing.    

            The picture is from George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.  It kind of reminds me of Wabash around final exam time.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 05:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

            I went to the concert, but I didn’t take any pictures.  I forgot to take my camera with me.  There are some pretty good ones on the Wabash website, though.  If you really want to see pictures of Third Eye Blind performing here, just look for them there.

            The concert was a good break from the incessant sameness of the weekends here, I guess, but it really wasn’t as awesome as I hoped it would be.  The first band, Absent Star, was surprisingly good, but Third Eye Blind just didn’t do it for me.  A good lot of people must have felt the same way, for I sat and watched as a significant number left Chadwick court halfway through.  Some eventually came back.  Maybe a lot of them just had to use the restroom.

            After the concert I wandered around campus with a few of my friends.  We dropped in on a few of the parties, spending most of our time looking for another one of my friends, but we eventually gave up and came back to good ol’ Kappa Sigma for a good night’s rest.  Much fun was had, I’d say, and all that fun-having made us tired. 

            Hopefully next weekend, which is the weekend of our pledge formal, will be just as cool; or maybe even cooler.  We’ve been decorating our basement a bit, and so far it looks like it’s going to turn out alright. 

            And I was just kidding when I said the weekends here are all the same—they’re not.  Sometimes we do things, like play Scrabble, and that can get pretty wild.  I played Scrabble on Friday and I’d just like to say that it’s now one of the highlights of my tarry here at Wabash.  And I have Cranium, too.  Maybe I’ll pull that out during our party, see if I can provoke some uproarious merrymaking.  Huzzah!     

Posted by Michael Richmond at 11:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

            Some of the guys went back to the animal shelter to play with dogs again today.  I didn’t.  I slept in.  I was up late last night watching movies and talking to people.  We watched John Carpenter’s The Thing.  Plot: A spaceship lands on the earth; 100,000 years later some Norwegian guys find it, dig it up, and let the alien out; the Norwegian’s chase the alien to an American research base; the alien wreaks havoc at said base.  It’s a great movie with a lot of action and alien gore and fire, all very cool things.

            Since I was up late, I woke up late.  There was a track meet here today that I really wanted to watch, but I slept through most of it.  So I went on a run of my own and did some laundry.  Now I don’t know what to do.  I’m just trying to kill time until the Third Eye Blind concert tonight.  I may do some homework, I might make a trip to Walmart to get some vitamins and a memory card for my camera, or I might take a nap.  Maybe I’ll do all three.

            I’m definitely going to take some sweet pictures at the concert tonight, and then I’ll post them tomorrow with whatever I write.    

Posted by Michael Richmond at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

            I was up pretty late last night.  Not because I was doing homework, but because I was out doing research with some friends for our pledge-formal-party-thing we’re going to be having a week from Saturday.

            We left after dinner yesterday for Greenwood where we wasted some time perusing the aisles of some boring wholesale store, looking for decorations.  The store closed, so we left and tried to find some other places.  Those other places were closed.  We left Greenwood. Since we were so close to Franklin I decided to take everyone down to show them around.  We went to my house, where I showed them my family.  I said hi to mom, took some cranberry juice and vitamins, and then we hit the road for Broadripple in Indianapolis where we visited a hookah bar.  A hookah is an instrument from which flavored tobacco can be smoked.  We were there for research purposes.  The place was called the Egyptian Café, and themed something like we want our little shindig to be themed.  They also had Arabic music, I think.  And they had good smoothies. 

            The rain was really coming down while we were out.  I don’t enjoy driving on the interstate when it’s raining like that.  I can’t see very well.  My check engine light came on while we were on the way home.  I’m going to ignore it.  I think our party is going to turn out alright.  This was written in haste.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

            Today, rather than spend more money at Buffalo Wild Wings or some pizza place, a few of us freshmen sat down and had a home-cooked meal comprised of cornbread, fried chicken, kidney beans, and rice.  Josh prepared this meal for us.  We ate well.  I think we’re going to do something like that every weekend now.  We talked while we ate about having a different theme every week, like Mexican, or something else—I don’t know, we didn’t talk about it for long. 

            Last night’s dinner was Buffalo Wild Wings for me.  Keith was there, too—he’s a wrestling freshman—and he did the Blazin’ Challenge.  To succeed at the challenge one must eat twelve traditional style wings flavored with their Blazin’ sauce in less than six minutes.  Keith did it in two minutes and twenty-five seconds.  That’s a record.  He won a shirt, a place on the wall for his picture, but, surprisingly, not a free meal.  I think they should throw in a free meal for those who manage to finish the wings, because there’s no way anyone can enjoy the wings when they’re so spicy, or when they have to be consumed so quickly; because there needs to be more incentive than a simple picture on a wall and a free shirt.  I won’t do it for that.  Josh, the guy who cooked the meal tonight, he did the challenge for less.  They wouldn’t acknowledge his accomplishment because he didn’t have proof of his age—you have to be eighteen to take part in the event.  He didn’t get anything.  Actually, they gave him a free meal.  Hmmm…

            I don’t really like it when friends do the Blazin’ Challenge.  The waiter/waitress has to stand and watch the person do it, and it kind of makes me feel uncomfortable.  I wait until they leave to eat.

            I’m going to write shorter entries from now on.  More entries, but they’ll be shorter.  Seth told me the long ones are intimidating, and he thinks you guys won’t read them all the way through.  Sorry about that, if that’s the case, but if it is, and you’re reading this part, you must not be one of those people who are intimidated by expatiation.  Okay I’m done.     

Posted by Michael Richmond at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)