I went to Chicago Thursday night with my English class.  Our goal for the trip was to find connections between the city and the literature we’ve read so far.  We talked about demographics and architecture and stuff, and it was all very interesting. 

            While in Chicago we visited a not-for-profit organization called GRIP (Gospel, Relationships, Immersion, Prayer and Preparation) Outreach for Youth.  Their aim is to help at-risk youths learn and grow and become good citizens.  They do this through a variety of programs, including a weekly meeting during which high school kids get together to partake in teambuilding activities and basketball games.  All of the kids get mentors who keep in touch with them for their entire time with the organization.  All of the people there were very nice and seemed passionate about what they were doing. 

            Later the same day we went on a boat tour of Chicago.  The topic of the tour was architectural history.  It was awesome.  It was a bit chilly outside, but other than that the weather was beautiful.  Our tour guide was awesome, too, and he spoke at length about differences in architecture among the buildings, and he also gave some pretty good anecdotal history lessons.  It was informative and entertaining, and there was free coffee and cookies. 

            The trip was free as well.  I think I took a dollar with me.  This wasn’t something this class does every year, either; this is something that just came up in conversation one day.  One guy was just like, “Hey, we should go to Chicago.”  Our professor told us to ask the powers that be.  Someone did, and Wabash gave us a bunch of money.  Wabash is cool like that.  Application is an integral part of the learning experience, so being able to do things like this, like immersion trips, is good for me.  Hooray for learning!

            And can you believe I forgot to take my camera with me?

Posted by Michael Richmond at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

            Some pretty neat things have happened this week.  First, the author Suzan-Lori Parks visited and gave a lecture on Monday.  She writes plays.  She won the Pulitzer for drama in 2002 for her play Topdog/Underdog.  During her lecture she told us about her life, how she became a writer, and she gave us some advice about life and writing.  I bought one of her plays.  I’ll read it and tell you about it.

            Tuesday night there was a screening of a documentary called Indoctrinate-U.  It was about diversity issues at universities in America.  The focus of the film dealt with diversity of thought, with discussion centering on the imbalance between conservatism and liberalism in academia.  The argument was that conservative thought is not as well represented or respected as liberal thought in universities.  There was some pretty good discussion after the film. 

            I didn’t go to sleep Tuesday night: I had to stay up to finish a lab report for Biology.  Lucian and I moved down to the dining room to do our work at around three in the morning.  The first thing we did was watch thirty minutes of 80’s cartoon introductions on YouTube.  While Lucian worked on his abstract algebra homework, I searched the internet for video clips of an awesome movie called Rescuers Down Under, as well as information on a series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books Lucian and I read and loved when we were younger.  I started to work on my lab report at about six in the morning.  I finished at around 12:30 in the afternoon.  Then I went to lab.  Then I came back to the house and slept for eight hours.

            I get to go with my English class to Chicago in about seventeen hours.  I’m excited.  I’ll charge the battery in my camera so I can take some pictures.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 12:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

            The Easter Bunny must have forgotten to stop by Kappa Sigma this morning, because I didn’t find a basket full of candy on my desk when I woke up.  I wasn’t too upset.  I went to Dairy Queen to get my sugar fix.  I bought a large vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles.

            I went with Jorge, Nathan, and Keegan to a little Chinese buffet place for Easter dinner.  Chinese food isn’t the standard Easter meal, but it tastes decent and is filling.  My fortune cookie told me I would soon be reunited with an old friend; I’ve had that one before.  Getting a fortune you’ve already had is a lame and disappointing experience.  Wouldn’t it be scary if you ate your fortune cookie and then read this on the little piece of paper: The cookie you just ate had potassium cyanide in it?  I don’t know that I’d eat any more fortune cookies—because I’d either be too scared or too dead.

            Over at the library there’s this little display called the Human Race Machine.  It takes a picture of your face and morphs it so you can see how you would look if you were a member of another race.  It can also age your face so you can see how you will look at 45 or whenever.  I wasn’t impressed with the race change, but the aging thing was cool.  There was also a program that lets you pick a disorder so you can see what you’d look like with the disorder.  Disorder D gave me a huge chin; disorder A gave me squinty, crossed eyes; disorder C gave me a bloated appearance.  Interesting.  I guess.      

Posted by Michael Richmond at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

            Remember back when I wrote a little something about the Zombie Survival Club that was trying to attain recognition as a legitimate club on campus?  They did it, and they held their first meeting about six hours ago.  I wasn’t really interested in the club at all, but when I heard they would be showing a movie, Night of the Living Dead, I couldn’t help but get excited: that movie rocks.  So I went with Josh over to Baxter, and we listened to people talk about zombies for half an hour.  They talked about how zombies have a heightened sense of smell because they don’t use their other senses as much; they talked about quislings, or people who are so messed up they pretend to be zombies, and even eat other people to try and prove to the zombies that they’re the living dead; they talked about how quickly quislings die because the zombies can smell the life in them.  I thought it was silly, but there was free pizza, so I can’t complain.  

            After the meeting and the awesome movie I went on a run.  It was dark, and I couldn’t help but imagine there were zombies out wandering Crawfordsville.  I mistook a trashcan in the road for a zombie.  I heard a dog bark and thought it was a zombie.  It’s a good thing I know how to avoid and, if the situation calls for it, kill them.  Hopefully by the end of the semester my newfound fear of the undead will be dead itself.  

            Don’t forget to introduce yourself.  I’d really like to see how many comments I can get.  Seth wants more, too.  Do it for Seth.  But I don’t mean to be pushy.  But seriously, leave a comment.  

Posted by Michael Richmond at 02:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

            Honor Scholarship Weekend is over now.  I think it went pretty well.  I hope all of those who visited feel the same way.  Kappa Sigma did pretty well with the whole rushing thing.  I think most of the prospects managed to have a good time here, and some may even end up living here.  Wouldn’t that be cool?

            It was really cool to be on the inside during the weekend.  Watching all of the kids run around from house to house was funny, because I remember doing that, and I remember how weird it was.  I’d go to one house and meet some guys, start to feel at home, and then I would leave and start it all over again.  Rushing is an interesting experience.  I hope you guys enjoyed yourselves. 

            I played a game of IM soccer earlier.  We only had five guys who played.  It was me, Josh, Joe, Cory, and Keith.  We did pretty well the first half, scoring one point and only letting the faculty score three, but the second half wasn’t as good.  They scored four the second half.  I was the goalie two of the times they scored.  The ball went right between my legs.  My soccer skills are sorry: I had a perfect chance to score, the ball being right at my feet, right in front of the goal, but for some reason I missed it with two kicks.  The ball just kind of rolled away from me.  It was kind of fun, though, and playing was a decent substitute for running, I guess, even though I didn’t get very tired.  I might play next time—if the guys let me.   

            Also, Seth thinks it would be pretty cool if everyone who reads this would leave a comment.  Introduce yourself or something.  Don’t be shy.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 01:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

   Spring break is over now.  I’m back at Wabash, going to class again, and I’m already tired.  I don’t think I slept enough over break.  My break was unsatisfactory: I didn’t do anything memorable or cool.  Everyone else has stories about faraway places and plane rides, and I have nothing.  People went to Mexico and Israel and San Francisco and New Orleans; I went to Franklin and Greenwood and Indianapolis and Greencastle.  All of the places I went are in Indiana. 

            Saturday was pretty cool, though.  I went to DePauw (oh no!) to stay with a friend.  The fraternity he’s pledging had a party.  The party was fun.  Those DePauw people aren’t as bad as everyone says.  I don’t know why we all can’t just get along.  I guess fraternization with DePauw would make Monon Bell a little less exciting.  Fine, fine, fine: to hell with ‘em.

            I said in a previous blog I was going to think of some cool stories from Honor Scholarship Weekend last year.  I couldn’t think of any.  Not because cool stuff didn’t happen, though.  Cool stuff did happen; I just have a horrible memory.  I’ll count on Seth, my dedicated reader and fellow Kappa Sigma freshman, to recount his Honor Scholarship experiences in a comment on this blog. 

Posted by Michael Richmond at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I woke up this morning at five after having slept for only an hour to go to the high school to do a circuit workout with the track team.  Circuits are fun, but they are very tiring, especially when it’s been six months since last doing them.  If you don’t know what circuits are don’t worry about it.

When I got home I didn’t feel like going to sleep, so I watched a movie.  I watched Gone, Baby, Gone.  I recommend it.  When that was over I took a nap.  After my nap I did some homework.  After the homework I went back to the high school to watch some friends play IM basketball.  I think it’s funny how the faculty team is the best team out there.  There are all these athletic, spry teenagers who are supposedly in the best shape of their lives out there getting stomped on by some middle-aged teachers and coaches.  That makes me happy.  The faculty won their game 50-19.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

            I’m not doing anything fancy during my break.  I’m not going on an immersion trip or anything, nor am I soaking up the sun on some exotic beach somewhere.  I’m just sitting here at home, reading, catching up on some homework, working a little bit, and relaxing.  I’m sorry I can’t be any more interesting.

            I watched American Gangster the other day, and Michael Clayton today.  I recommend both: they are very good films.  I was going to start reading a new novel today, but I couldn’t decide which I wanted to read.  It was either going to be Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig or The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.  While I was contemplating which book to read I started a Su Doku puzzle from the book of Su Doku puzzles my mom bought for me a few weeks ago.  The puzzles are platinum—platinum is the greatest difficulty level, ranking above gold, silver, and bronze, respectively—and the one I was doing ended up taking me longer than thirty minutes to finish.  By the time I was done I had a headache and didn’t feel like reading either of the aforementioned novels.

            I just got back from working with my dad.  He’s a contractor, so I got to do contractor-like stuff.  It was a good time.  On the way home I stopped at Walgreens to pick up some lip balm.  I walked through the candy aisle while I was there and couldn’t help but let the shiny packages and my sweet tooth inveigle me into picking up something on my way through.  I bought Whoppers.  Then I stopped at Wendy’s after that and bought a half chocolate, half vanilla Frosty.  I mixed the candy in with my Frosty, but I didn’t like it, and I stopped at a gas station on my way home to throw the whole thing away.  The chocolate ice cream tasted like cigarettes smell.

Posted by Michael Richmond at 01:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

            I had some interesting things to write about last week—my awesome biology lab, my biology exam, other awesome things—but I didn’t write about them.  So I’m going to write about them now.  Well, actually I’m only going to write about my biology lab: the other stuff isn’t really that cool.

            My lab is on Wednesday, and Wednesday’s are usually my busiest days.  Because they are the busiest, I don’t like them, so I don’t really enjoy going to lab.  But lab was fun on Wednesday.  We dissected pig hearts and earthworms.  The pig heart was cool because pig hearts are almost identical to human hearts.  I tried to picture the lubricious mass of muscle inside my chest but had difficulty doing so.  We were done with our lab in record time: less than two hours!

            Hey, all you prospective students, guess what March seventh is.  It’s your final chance to sign up for Honor Scholarship Weekend.  You should probably sign up now.  There’s a lot of money to be awarded, and much fun to be had.  Yes, fun.  I had fun.  Visiting fraternities and speaking with students and faculty is actually a pretty good time.  Especially the fraternity rushing part.  There’s a lot of free food, and all the guys will be really nice to you.  They may even throw a Frisbee with you.  Or let you watch movies in their house.  Wouldn’t that be cool?  So I better see you at Wabash that weekend.  I’m going to try to remember some of the cool things we did that weekend so I can tell you about them later this week.  I’m sure there were some really cool things—cooler than Frisbee-throwing anyway.

            WAHOO!  SPRING BREAK!   

Posted by Michael Richmond at 03:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)