- Monday: Your '12 friends found out if they were coming to these hallowed halls, and subsequently found "Did you get in? Did you??" pasted all over their walls.
- Tuesday: Admissions officers pretended to rescind all admissions. April Fools! Ha ha.
- Wednesday: So who wound up being the real Iron Tiger? I didn't go, but I hope there were gongs.
- Thursday: Princetonian Muckraking exposes the true working conditions of PUDS.
- Thursday: Forbes Alumni dinner. "Remember when we used to live in Forbes?" "Yes dear, I remember: the little temple in the woods, all that sushi, the way the night-herons cried in the bamboo forests... Wait, that was Japan."
- Friday: Count me naive, but I never realized that people took illicit drugs to do better in school. I'm not sure if the sanctity of the honor code is the biggest problem here though.
- Friday: This guy is clearly collecting pennies against the day that pennies are banned in Canada. But seriously, you're going to round prices to the nearest five cents for cash, but not for credit? The engineer in me shudders (meticulously).
Friday, April 4, 2008
Weekly WTFs: the seriousest, silliest, strangest, or just plain stupidest news items of the week
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Campus Publications and the Mass Distribution Thereof
A popular way to distribute magazines on campus is simply to dump them in the hallway. No, really. It's since ceased to surprise me to to find the latest issue of INSERT TITLE OF CAMPUS PUBLICATION HERE sitting outside my dorm room door. I don't think this is very effective. For one thing, there are two people sharing this door. What if both of us desperately wants it (less likely) or neither of us wants it (unfortunately more likely)? This numbers game could be better played.
As I was leaving for dinner tonight, I found that the people across the hall hadn't picked up their copy of INSERT TITLE OF CAMPUS PUBLICATION HERE (surprise). Instead, someone had very thoughtfully ripped it into shreds and left its desecrated corpse outside their door: attention-catching, but not so easy to read the articles inside.
My imagination ran wild with this act of senseless brutality, coming up with explanations each less probable than the last. In the end I had to conclude that this was an unconventional form of a death threat. Better than REDRUM on the dry-erase board, I suppose...
7.1; 8.3; 9.25
I bet many of you have figured out what the above numbers represent. Like many Princetonians, I eagerly awaited the admissions stats of 2008, and was astounded by the numbers when they finally came out. Days later, the admissions article is still the number 3 most viewed on The Prince. The numbers were even important enough for The New York Times to report.
To some, the phenomenon of inadvertant admissions rate memorization is a case of mass schadenfreude. As acceptance rates decline, so do high schoolers' self esteem. Then there's also the opposite of affect. As acceptance rates decline, the egos of the people who do get in starts to rise. Case in point: PU Undergrad posts "I'd like to consider myself a better fit for Princeton than both of those people that they denied. They were certainly smart, but immensely over committed to academics...And the admissions officers saw that, which I was shocked and overjoyed about. "
Fareed's Top 5 Summer Movie Trailers
Movie lovers like me are stuck in the worst time of year. We are between the Oscar movie season and that delicious time full of popcorn and soda known as the summer movie season. To spread some cinematic cheer, I decided to share my top five summer movie trailers. Let the procrastination begin!
#5 Wall-E
I'm not usually the biggest Pixar fan since underneath their pristine animation usually lies some fairly hackneyed messages (case in point-" Ratatouille"). Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this delightful trailer that combines Pixar's state-of-the-art animation with the charm of a silent film. Here's one CGI extravaganza that I just might catch a movie theater.
#4 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I've always had a soft spot for the "Last Crusade's" humor sparked prominently from Indiana's repartee with Sean Connery. It looks like Spielberg has made sure that this film cracks with that same wit. Plus, we get a shot of a leather jacket-sporting Shia LaBeouf (best part of Transformers?), and a glimpse of the weighty action sequences that perfectly fit Harrison Ford's advancing age.
#3 Iron Man
The often drug addled Robert Downey Jr. has never really had a chance to shine in a leading role. How ironic then that the troubled actor plays Iron Man, the one superhero that actually has an alcohol problem. Downey Jr. uses his smarmy charm to infuse me the self-professed "merchant of death" with an undeniable charisma. Whether the big-budget movie is half as good as this enticing trailer, remains to be seen.
#2 Speed Racer
The filmmakers behind the "Matrix" Wachowski Brothers are back. Their new movie looks to be one of the trippiest blockbusters in recent memory. With its dazzling neon-colored aesthetic, this ambitious flick looks like the fantasies of an ADHD kid come to life. Alienating? Sure. Do the Wachowskis have my 10 bucks? Absolutely.
#1 The Dark Knight
Sometimes a trailer comes along that reveals little but shows how perfectly everything has come together. "The Dark Knight" exemplifies such a teaser. From the way he moves to how he licks his lips, the late Heath Ledger as the Joker has clearly created a terrifying vision of the Batman's arch-nemesis. A superb trailer that puts a smile on my face every time I see it.
Do you all out there agree or disagree with my picks? Is there a trailer that you want people to see? Also, I will soon be interviewing Jeff "The Dude" Dowd for the Street. Dowd inspired the Coen Brothers to create the Dude for their movie "The Big Lebowski." If you all have any questions that you want me to ask, let me know.
Keep watching those previews,
-Fareed
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
The Politics of Iron Tiger
While grabbing Late Meal, I realize that there were lights and cameras in the A-level of Frist-- is it called a cafeteria, or is that word too "high school"? Anyway, for some reason, I thought a reality television show was going to be filmed here. (I mean, really, if you want to see stressed out people reacting to each other, there's no better place to film..?) I heard a guy from Beauty and the Geek is a grad student here, so I was really excited to witness the rise of another reality TV star, because we don't have enough of those.
Anyway, after asking around, I realized that this set-up was for the Iron Tiger. I googled the event and found a description on the Princeton Dining Services website (which also provides menus to help rationalize skipping meals):
Dining Services and our colleagues at the Frist Campus Center are proud to announce our own Iron Tiger culinary competition to be held in the Food Gallery at the Frist Campus Center on Tuesday, April 1, beginning at noon. The residential colleges and retail operations will each field an Iron Tiger team featuring one chef and three members of the dining staff. Each of the six teams will, in true Iron Chef fashion, be preparing dishes featuring a secret ingredient. The dishes will be evaluated by a panel of three judges with the top two teams squaring off in a final Iron Tiger Showdown during Frist Fest weekend to determine the ultimate Iron Tiger.
Even though I haven't seen the competition yet, I'm pretty sure a chef at a four-year residential college will win the title.
It's almost like a University-sponsored commercial for residential colleges.
Blog Love: Intersections
Check out the 'Prince's brand new other blog, Intersections, run by the 'Street' section. It's all about style, arts, and entertainment at Princeton.
Check out stuff from Dorie Golkin'08's senior photo thesis and pics from around campus of stylish Princetonians. And, oh yeah, there's a blogger who writes a weekly post about sex on campus.
Springtime Procrastination
Okay. It's April 2. That makes it officially Spring weather in my book. I'm breaking out the Rainbows, the skirts, the shorts. Can I wear white yet? April means I can start running outside again. Maybe some of you hardcore runners have been doing this all winter, but unless we have an Indian Summer in January, I don't start running until I see daffodils.I'm also a native of Princeton. As such, I've posted a photo (thanks Google maps), of my adopted running route (thanks Sarah Denny), as well as things in the area that you can do to further procrastinate that thesis, JP, orgo exam... what have you. If you want to get to really know the Princeton area- and maybe step a tiny bit outside your bubble for an afternoon- check these places out. (Click on the photo to open it in a new window).Nearby Sites: Morven, Princeton Theological Seminary, Marquand Park, The Graduate College, Institute Woods, Battlefield State Park, Institute for Advanced Study.
Sex and the Street: An Introduction
Who am I? I’m just an ordinary girl with an extraordinary preoccupation with sex. I’m not Sexpert, and I’m no Carrie Bradshaw – or even a Lena Chen. I’m a
I wanted to write this blog because I feel that sex is an important part of our lives. Whether you’re having sex, hoping for sex, or even trying not to have sex, it’s something we all think about, and yet many of us feel terribly uncomfortable discussing sex and sexual politics in any real, honest way. If there’s anything a person should be comfortable with, it’s talking about sex and sexuality, because it’s so fundamental to social life, especially in college. Americans are so uptight when it comes to sex, and yet we have the highest rate of unwanted teen pregnancy in the developed world. Clearly something is not working. It’s time to stop focusing on how to stop people from having sex and start facing reality: sex happens. It happens in relationships, out of relationships, in triangles, in squares…everywhere. As a young woman (or really, young person), I find it so hard to find any non-clichéd and realistic information about sex and relationships as they actually occur. This blog is my attempt to fill that void on campus.
That being said, it seems only logical to start from the beginning….
I love premarital sex. It sounds so naughty with that extra “premarital” in there, doesn’t it? Sex is not something that you just DO and it’s amazing. I remember, if only vaguely, losing my virginity sophomore year. Well, I could actually tell you the exact date and time (September 30th, 3:05 pm), as my ex Adam* vowed to keep this information fresh in his mind at all times, even once writing it on the outside of a Valentine’s Day gift as wrapping paper decoration. I expected it to hurt, and it did. I didn’t expect to be so sad afterward. It wasn’t because I had been expecting to enjoy it, or because it hurt, or even that I’d done it with the wrong person. I was sad because a large portion of my life previously had been defined by my virginity. I used my virginity as a way to assure people that I wasn’t a slut. I used it as a moral stepping stone over whoever I was talking to. “Oh, you’re a virgin too? Well, I’ve never hooked up with a guy I’d just met out at the Street.” I, like the rest of society, placed this magical value on virginity, of being unpenetrated, of being unsullied. I rolled away from Adam and remained silent. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “I don’t know….” I replied.
I’d spent so much time being a virgin, so much time talking about sex incessantly and claiming to be so sexually open and yet, still maintaining some higher, holier-than-thou sense of purity that really only functioned to attract men more. I felt as if my title, my social status, one of the key lenses through which I saw myself had been taken away from me in a matter of minutes, and there was no going back. I could no longer say, “yes, but, I’ve never had sex” again, and for some reason that bothered me. Sound like a depressing account of a girl who’s had sex too soon? Absolutely not. Any change that occurs in life, good or bad, can send you into a tailspin. Questions of identity are bound to arise, and that’s hard to deal with, if even for a moment. I did lose something that afternoon, but it’s not something I want back. For so long, I thought that sex, or rather, not having sex was so important, and coming out on the other side, I realized, it wasn’t nearly as dear to me as I once believed. I made the mistake of defining myself as A Virgin instead of just adding it to the list of the many temporary parts of my identity.
Feeding into society’s hypocritical hype about casual sex and meaningful sex, the emotional damage it can do and the pleasure it can bring, I expected WAY too much from the experience. My thought afterward was, “That’s it? This is what people have been agonizing over and arguing about for centuries?” I could only imagine my disappointment on my honeymoon night, dressed in Victoria’s Secret’s brightest and whitest, full of rehearsed clichés (“I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long…”), so excited to “give myself” to my new husband, only to find out that he’s awful in bed, and it’s not the magical union I was told it would be. Of course I want the sex on my wedding night to be special. I’ve been told that it should be for all my life. I also want it to be good, and let’s be honest, first time sex is often uncomfortable at best. You wouldn’t buy a car without test driving it, and cars rarely make it through a decade, why the hell wouldn’t you test-fuck your possible life partner?
It should be clear by now that I think of this blog as a way to (hopefully) serve the open-minded and curious (regardless of personal experiece) of Princeton, and of course in ways, battle with those who spread the lie that by choosing to do what I want with my body, I am immoral, disrespecting myself, disrespecting my future husband, or ruining my ability to truly love someone. In (brief) response, I have this to say:
*Name has been changed
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Hearing from all the new prefrosh makes me feel old...
—Hey so decisions are out, right? What's the good news?
—Princeton said yes.
—I knew it! And the others?
—Harvard, Yale, Columbia, MIT...
—Dang! But you're coming to Princeton, right?
—Well... I got the financial aid letters too. Princeton and MIT would each cost me twice as much as Yale. I guess my choice is kind of made for me.
—Twice as--?? Holy...
—I'll come visit you though.
Remember when Princeton supposedly had a really good financial aid package? What happened to that? Here's what other prefrosh have to say.
Comics and life inside the bubble.
After seeing this well-written, well-drawn comic in the Prince, I had a couple questions:
1. Was there a cheese event that I missed?
2. If not, are these students inside Frist?
3. If not, what does this have to do with the Opinions section?
4. If the answer is nothing, what does this have to do with Princeton?
If the answer is nothing, I guess I understand. There isn't much to blog about either, Isha Di Bartolo. I guess I feel your pain.
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