P-Safe, Freshman Class's New Best Friend

Public Safety has begun to implement its new Adopt-a-Dorm initiative this semester, in which one P-Safe officer will be assigned to each freshman dorm in an effort to "foster closer relationships between students and officers":

“It’s a program where we would interact with students on a friendly basis to help with crime prevention and fire safety, and be more involved to stay on a positive note,” said Public Safety Officer Thomas Harrington. “I consider myself approachable. This uniform is just something I wear to work.”

“The intentions of the program are not to catch students in the act of violating policy, but, like any University official, if [Public Safety officers] notice a policy violation, they are obligated to confront it,” wrote Associate Director of Residential Life Maureen Isleib in an e-mail. Hopefully, improved relationships will allow students to feel more willing to approach officers if they encounter a problem.

...The Adopt-A-Dorm program will also offer activities such as poster-making contests to get students involved in safety and crime prevention. Officer Harrington has already memorized the names of many residents and RAs in his designated building, Butterfield A.

“I think it’s a good idea,” said Jessica Bowen ’11. “It takes away the idea of PSafe as an ‘other.’”

Oh, if only I had one P-Safe Friend to make posters with during my freshman year, instead of being repeatedly "othered" by various different officers when busted for egregious noise violations and other bad decisions.

Argus: Public safety program seeks to improve relations

If you lived here, you'd be home by now!

Last year, ResLife decided to implement a guest card access policy--anyone living in a building with card access could request access to that building for up to three people, but it was only good from 10:00 AM-midnight Sunday through Wednesday and 10:00 AM-8:00 PM Thursday through Saturday. Not anymore. Guests now have 24/7 access, according to the request form. Woo hoo!

(The following buildings currently have card access: Fauver, Clark, WestCo, Nicolson, Hewitt, the Butts, Hi-Rise, 202 Washington, and 230 Washington. 200 Church is also slated to receive card access next month, probably by fall break. Note that the prototype woodframes--14 Warren, 20 Fountain, 25 Fountain, and 231 Pine--also have card access, but residents apparently cannot grant guest access.)

What's new here?

It seems as if there are new smoke alarms... in the butts at least. Anonymous sources tell me they are, "more sensitive."


More to follow...
(It looks like they need to repaint, too.)

Inside Lauren's Room

Lauren Valentino '10 sends in these great pics of her butterfields dorm:



"Black and white pictures of friends, crayons, the beach, other objects that make me smile; curtains and bedskirt that my mom and I made; coincidental Wesleyan color scheme (plus goldenrod yellow); silk poppies in a vase"


"Homemade canvas art-ish thingies, homemade bird mobile."

Thanks Lauren!

Do you have a great room? Show us: Wesleying@gmail.com

Become a Morning Person

LifeRemix brings you 24 tips on becoming a morning person (good for you suckers who got stuck with 9am--or god forbid 8am--classes):

1. Create a conducive environment to wake up to. It may sound strange, but how messy my room is greatly affects how easy it is to wake up in the morning. I've found that if I have an orderly room to wake up in, I'm more inclined to bypass the snooze and start my day.

2. Get enough sleep. This one isn't a mind-bending concept, yet it's still the number one reason most people struggle with early rising. Aside from all the health benefits to getting enough sleep, it makes it a jillion times easier to wake up early. (A jillion folks. I had to use a fake number to show the importance.)

This probably means that you'll have to make some sacrifices in order to go to bed at a proper time. Don't worry, you won't even miss the late hours once you start seeing the benefits of waking up early.

3. Plan your day the night before. Writing down all the big, important things you'll be doing the next day give you the extra spring in your step to wake up early and quickly. If you've got a purpose, you've got a big reason to wake up.

4. Don't read in bed. Spending as little time as possible in bed will actually help your body realize that the bed is for sleeping, and not lying awake for hours. The goal is to fall asleep within 10 minutes of getting into bed.

5. Don't eat directly before bed. If you eat more than two hours before you go to bed, your body will have to digest the food, keeping you awake.

6. Eliminate stress. Stress is one of the main causes of poor sleep. Relax yourself before getting into bed. Try controlled breathing exercises, yoga, or any other tactic to lower your stress level. This is good for you anyway.

7. Reward yourself. Don't think for a second that the reasons for getting up have to be totally work-related. Remember waking up really early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons? That's right: motivation. Occasionally give yourself rewards to anticipate the next day. A favorite show, ice cream, your favorite breakfast... anything for you to look forward to.

8. Exercise. Early morning exercise is great for waking a body up. It gets the blood flowing, raises levels of serotonin (happy chemicals), and will start your day off on the right foot. Exercise ultimately makes you feel better about yourself, and if you do it in the morning, will also help you wake up.

9. Don't lie in bed awake. The goal is to almost literally jump out of bed. The longer you stay in your bed, the more tempting it is to hit the snooze. And getting 10-20 minutes extra sleep after you've already woken doesn't really help you. It sends you back into a restless sleep that drains your energy before repeating the torturous process of waking up... again.

10. Sleep with windows open. The fresh air is better for you, and allows you to sleep more deeply.

11. Try to get up with the sun. Sunlight has many benefits to waking up. It raises that blessed serotonin level, regulates your circadian cycle, and keeps you up. But any sort of light will do for waking up before dawn (you overachiever, you).

12. Be Consistent. Make sure that you go to bed and wake up every day at the same time. Consistency develops habits, and waking up early is only a habit.

13. Listen to your body. Your body does a pretty good job of telling you what it needs. If you're still feeling tired, go to bed earlier. Your body will find a suitable sleeping pattern soon enough.

14. Go outside I've found that going outside and reading or exercising first thing in the morning is great for waking up. Feeling the breeze and sunlight on your skin, hearing the sounds of morning, all these things together stimulate just about every sense in your body.

15. Change alarm sounds often. Don't let your body get used to hearing the same alarm every day. Drudgery never motivates, my friends. Use alarms that are pleasant, and change them often so they stay pleasant. There's nothing worse than waking up to something that sounds like a horn on a Chevy.

(continued)

Don't make your friends wait in the cold

Cold winter nights waiting outside your friend's dorm while he/she made a run for the locked door were never fun. Now, thanks to ResLife and the Undergraduate Residential Life Committee, those cold winter nights of waiting are no more:

During the Spring of 2007, the Undergraduate Residential Life Committee (URLC) agreed to allow Wesleyan students who live in residences with card access, to request access for their building be given to students who live in a different residence. Each resident can request access for a maximum of three students...

I guess now you'll get to see who your three real friends are! The ResLife flier continues:

The resident accepts joint responsibility for the student who has been granted access. Additionally, the resident can revoke approval for access at any time by contacting Residential Life.

I guess now you'll also get to see who your enemies are!

Doors and T-Shirts

The New York Times did a neat slideshow about dorm doors decorations. Check out this hobbit door from R.I.T!
They also did another slideshow on college t-shirts.

Yeah! My Mom Googled You over the Summer...

I. Love. Helicopter. Parents. I DO! I love them so much I'm devoting part of my thesis to them. Ever since I started looking at colleges, I've been obsessed with those parents who do that one-finger, ask a stupid question answered in the guidebook already thing at every college I ever looked at. And they do ask the most inane things.

When I was a tour guide here, I used to get asked questions like if students got report cards mailed home or whether it was possible to bribe Reslife to ensure that our daughter Katie ends up in Westco and not the Butts. I've been told extensively about a prospective student's serious mental problems and asked how they would be accommodated at Wesleyan (Um. Yeah, I'm just a tour guide. I'd have no idea. So, this is Fisk. This is where the languages are taught. Yeah. Ok. Over there--). I've been asked so many ridiculous questions like "Are there many Jewish boys at Wesleyan? I wouldn't want my daughter to go to a school without any straight boys," (yeah, what?) or "Is it true that they still cook meth in the tunnels? An alum friend of mine told me that once."

Yeah, so helicopter parents. MY FAVORITE.

Anyway, my friend sent me this link from College Confidential, which is replete with the craziest of helicopter parents. This question is great:

"When DD got her room assignment, she also got her roommates information, and I googled them - only found good information on them, nothing negative. My husband thinks I overstepped my bounds by doing this - what do you think? Did anyone else google their child's roommates or am I just the nosiest parker that ever lived?"

Best responses to this inquiry?

• "Your child is doing the very same thing on Facebook. Why shouldn't you do it on Google?"

• I must confess I have done this too, especially before this summer's internship when D was going to room with three girls from different schools. She knew I was doing this and laughed it off saying "Mom, you are such a stalker!"

• Sure, why not Google the roommates. I've Googled S's professors, teaching assistants, etc. The info is public, why not use it?

• Just talked to a friend who googled her son's roommate. She has been losing sleep over the pairing; S, who went to a diverse public HS, listed himself as "atheist," and roommate is a home-schooled fundamentalist Christian. Her older son had almost as extreme a pairing a few years ago, with disastrous results. I think it's better to know this ahead of time...

• Why wouldn't a responsible parent do the same for the person their kid would live with, or in the case of a boyfriend/girlfriend, share their intimate life with? And what it your own daughter has photos of herself on facebook in her underwear? Wouldn't you sit her down and have a talk? This stuff is posted by the kids themselves for all the world to see.

Ok, granted, I got a single my freshman year (nanner nanner) but good God and gravy would this not freak me the fuck out.

Wizard Dorm

If you're *really* into Harry Potter, you can order these wizardy wall decals for your dorm room next year from the UK. Officially nerdy and slightly creepy. You laugh but I knew someone in high school who probably painted his room to look like this...he had a full wizard costume that he often worked into school presentations and referred to himself as the Word Wizard.

Conserving Clothing

The most recent Yes! Magazine gives some good tips on how to extend the life of your clothes:

• Wash spills or stains by hand when you can, rather than running the item through the washer. The less you wash your clothes, the longer they'll last.

• Don't overload the washer. Overloading can cause irreparable contortions in the fabric.

• Fasten all buttons before washing. This helps protect the buttons and also prevents other items from catching--and potentially pulling or ripping--on the buttons.

• Have a stuck zipper? Save your favorite jeans or jacket with a little olive oil or soap. Greasing the zipper with either will get it moving smoothly again.

• Turn clothes inside-out before washing. The side that rubs against other clothes and the sides of the washer will fade more quickly.

• Minimize time in the dryer. The high heat of the dryer puts a great deal of stress on clothes.

• Store clothes made from delicate material, especially nylon, in plastic bags so that they don't catch on the inside of your dresser.
  

• Fix small holes and frays before they grow. If you're not handy with a needle and thread and have a problem with a particularly expensive item of clothing, get an estimate on repairs from a professional tailor. Many small problems can be repaired for under $20.

• Get creative! Iron-on patches on the inside of holes can prevent a raggedy appearance, and interesting patches on the outside can create a whole new look.
  

April Fools!

Liana Hernandez '09 opened her door today to find this:



Pranksters Tim Horgan-Kobelski '09 and Collin McMichael '09 write "Every shoe, bottle, drawer, and other receptacle was also filled with caution tape. The pictures don't exactly capture the extent of the taping but do show a decent enough amount of carnage.

and Vlad Gurewich '10 found all his stuff out on Foss Hill:

Dumbest Idea Wesleyan has Ever Had

I'm writing about this on the blog in the hopes that some mainstream media source will pick it up and thus reiterate over and over again to the administration how unbelievably stupid this sounds.

Ezra Silk '10 wrote this pretty awesome piece in today's Argus about the amplification of fire inspections that have been going on over winter break. By inspecting every room, Campus Fire Safety collected a staggering $40,700 by fining around $100 for every banned item they find in a dorm room.

The dumbest part of this is where that money is going toward:

While Fire Safety has already planned a $5,000 fire extinguisher module that will allow students to practice putting out fires, the bulk of the programs are still in the planning stage.

One idea is a "dorm burn" in the middle of campus.

"We want to set fire to a model dorm to show how the fine-able items such as candles, cigarettes, and tapestries make a fire react or how they start fires," Cruz said.

Some students expressed distaste when they heard about the idea.

"I think that's really stupid and ridiculous," said Hunter Craighill '09. "Obviously people understand that tapestries can burn."

Ok. You know you have abused your power when you literally burn $40,700 in showing a bunch of college kids how fire works.

Fuck, give me $10 and a bic lighter and I'll show you how fire works...and hell, I'll even throw in the fire extinguisher lesson. I'll even put it on youtube for free.

Savings to the university: $40,690.

Knowing that student money isn't being squandered by idiots: priceless.

Dear Wesleying

Dara Jaffe '09 writes in asking us to clarify the housing situation as it stands for upcoming juniors. I shall do my best to navigate the GRS system as I understand it.

Essentially, what happened last year for the class of 2008 is as follows: Most GRS groups are groups of four and I feel like most people shoot for lo-rises first. Groups of two or groups of four locked out of lo-rise seek then the large hi-rises. After those, then go the small hi-rises (I live in a small hi-rise).

There are also apartments on Pearl Street for groups of three, who obviously don't fit into either a hi- or lo-rise situation.

There is also the lesser explored terrain of dorm living. Because there were more juniors on campus than usual (which caused a lot of problems such as 3-to-a-room situations in the butts), many juniors were forced to take rooms in the dorms. Usually, they take either Nic 7 (because it has the most singles) or the "Copenhagens" in the Butts which are weird little enclaves on the sides of the buildings that have their own bathrooms (I seriously have no idea why they are called that, by the way).

Generally, this is how it plays out. There are obvious exceptions, like having a senior or a sophomore in your group which will mess it all up, but whatever, I can't possibly explain all the variable situations. Hope this helps.

Love,

Holly

The Dorm of the Future!

Ever wonder what dorm rooms will look like 20 years from now? Wonder no more:

"Stackable rooms, fold-out beds, and a one-piece sink and toilet are just some of the features that will be included in the residence hall of the future according to design concepts submitted by Jonathan Levi Architects (JLA) of Boston, Massachusetts. These innovative ideas, along with technological advances such as a smart-media wall and glass walls with adjustable transparencies, earned the company the jury’s grand prize for best design as well as $25,000 at the 21st Century Project Design Showcase presented by the Association of College & University Housing Officers – International."

I don't know how keen I am on the idea of one-piece toilet-sinks...

Foods to Help You Sleep

Struggling to get your ass to sleep at a reasonable hour for your 9am class? Here's a list of ten foods that will help you get to sleep:

Bananas. They're practically a sleeping pill in a peel. In addition to a bit of soothing melatonin and serotonin, bananas contain magnesium, a muscle relaxant.

Chamomile tea. The reason chamomile is such a staple of bedtime tea blends is its mild sedating effect - it's the perfect natural antidote for restless minds/bodies.

Warm milk. It's not a myth. Milk has some tryptophan - an amino acid that has a sedative - like effect - and calcium, which helps the brain use tryptophan. Plus there's the psychological throw-back to infancy, when a warm bottle meant "relax, everything's fine."

Honey. Drizzle a little in your warm milk or herb tea. Lots of sugar is stimulating, but a little glucose tells your brain to turn off orexin, a recently discovered neurotransmitter that's linked to alertness.

Potatoes. A small baked spud won't overwhelm your GI tract, and it clears away acids that can interfere with yawn-inducing tryptophan. To up the soothing effects, mash it with warm milk.

Oatmeal. Oats are a rich source of sleep - inviting melatonin, and a small bowl of warm cereal with a splash of maple syrup is cozy - plus if you've got the munchies, it's filling too.

Almonds. A handful of these heart-healthy nuts can be snooze-inducing, as they contain both tryptophan and a nice dose of muscle-relaxing magnesium.

Flaxseeds. When life goes awry and feeling down is keeping you up, try sprinkling 2 tablespoons of these healthy little seeds on your bedtime oatmeal. They're rich in omega-3 fatty acids, a natural mood lifter.

Whole-wheat bread. A slice of toast with your tea and honey will release insulin, which helps tryptophan get to your brain, where it's converted to serotonin and quietly murmurs "time to sleep."

Turkey. It's the most famous source of tryptophan, credited with all those Thanksgiving naps. But that's actually modern folklore. Tryptophan works when your stomach's basically empty, not overstuffed, and when there are some carbs around, not tons of protein. But put a lean slice or two on some whole-wheat bread mid-evening, and you've got one of the best sleep inducers in your kitchen.

Ruckus: The Quick and Dirty

So by now, everyone on campus probably understands what is meant by "the network." On a campus where each computer is connected to a lightning fast central server, the exchange of documents and files is pretty quick business. Well, the administration started testing out legal filesharing programs in the hopes of curbing illegal sharing. They tried out two programs: eMusic and Ruckus.

What was the difference? Well, digital rights management software or DRM. Ruckus files are crippled by DRM so you cannot use* them on your iPod** or even on other audio software (without paying a fee); You can only use them on the Ruckus player. With eMusic, there was no DRM, but you could only download 15 songs each month. The selection of each was different, with Ruckus catering to more mainstream tastes and eMusic to the indie crowd.

This year, the school only renewed Ruckus. You can download unlimited songs off of Ruckus, provided you don't mind dealing with the player and the limitations on how you use the music. The music you download, you do not "own," instead, it is more along the lines of "borrowing." You cannot access your music library when you are not online (though off-campus is fine). There are ads embedded in the player. Should you for whatever reason decide to quit your Ruckus account, your files would be useless. Lastly, it doesn't work on Macs, only in Windows.

David Abravanel '08, who I asked most of my questions to in regards to this post, discusses the controversy involving services like Ruckus and DRM:

Right now, companies that use DRM are treating us all like potential criminals. The end user license agreement has turned bonkers. When you buy a CD, you expect it to play in any CD player you put it in. There are services with independent clients who have done just fine without DRM. My personal favorite is www.bleep.com. I cannot recommend Bleep more-- high quality, DRM-free mp3s, great site, excellent selection, specifically if you're into obscure electronic music like I am (it's run by Warp records, though it includes many more labels). eMusic is another example.

Of course, it's going to be harder to convince major labels to do this. They have higher costs, it's really a different industry for them. With videos, promotion, and other absurd shit, they can be in the hole millions of dollars with an artist before his/her album even drops. Though labels have started to adapt; recently, Korn signed a contract with their label to share a portion of their live profit. Live music will never be replaced by downloads.

More about Ruckus:

• Upenn's Daily Pennsylvanian
• Wikipedia
• Wesleyan's ITS page
  
• Stupid Ruckus marketing gimmick on Facebook (threesome with girlfriend group)
  

More about DRM:

• Interview with Viodentia.
• BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow
  

*...technically.
**iTunes also uses DRM, so whatcha gonna do?

War of the Contagions!

Typhoid is the new Gastro! Gastro is the new Rabies! Rabies is the new handshake!

(God, I love making diseases in mspaint.)

DIRELAND's Pixelart

Everyone's network friend //DIRELAND sends along his super cool wall-art he made last year over spring break:

Make your own!

Hard Farm

This is probably the most amazing dorm room I've ever seen. Welcome to Hard Farm, the brainchild of Andrew Carr '08.


Apparently you enter through a closet. And the only furniture inside are a lamp, a chair, and an electric fan.

Photos thanks to Rachel Schulman '08.

Fox Gives Dating Advice!

This video was recently played on Fox News and is getting the shit kicked out of it by MSNBC. What's wrong with it? Well, god, what's right with it? "Dating" expert Marie Forlio lays down college dating...like:

• "Don't hook up with a guy if you're sloppy drunk or he's sloppy drunk. You're just going to find yourself doing the walk of shame the next morning and that's not going to be cute."

It's worth watching how she basically slams any lifestyle that wouldn't be condoned between the pages of Cosmopolitan.

Overall, it's lame. I'd get into the stereotypes and imagery presented more, but it's just Fox News and disgustingly biased as is. I'm going to go be lame in my "mini" marriage and stunt my social growth a little bit more, kthanksbye.