The World of Stuff .com

Get soaked

I remember what it was like starting at college last year. It was tough. I hardly knew anybody, and I was shy about talking to the people who lived on my floor. Now, living in a dorm with mostly freshmen, I see that they’re having the same anxieties as I was having, and I’m now in a position to help them out.

It’s still hard for me to talk to a bunch of people I know. How do I know we’ll have anything in common? I think about things like that. But sometimes it helps to stop thinking about things and start doing things. People can introduce themselves to me, like this one girl Vicky who I ran into three times as I was moving in, but it’s better if I take the initiative. As I was passing by the common room, I did introduce myself to someone named Jon. Last night, as I was at the dining hall by myself, I saw Jon there by himself, so I went over to talk to him. We went back to his room, where I met his roommate, Cory.

Later, Jon and I went back to the common room, where I got to meet a bunch of people, viz. Michael, Patrick, Holly, someone else who I think was named Michael, and more. (I should mention now that I’m normally pretty bad at names. I seem to be doing well, but I’m using this blog post to practice.) The one whose name I know was Michael had a lot of questions for me about his upcoming chemistry class, the one I took last year. The others also had questions about what things would be like. Last year, I was wondering the same things, and I had to find the answers from experience. I’m glad I can use that knowhow to make people breathe a little easier.

Today, the Student Honors Organization put on its annual year-beginning barbecue. It wasn’t actually a barbecue as much as it was a huge line of people waiting to get some food that was catered by Sonny’s. I went with some of the gang from my floor, and I saw Jason, who lived across the hall from me last year but has moved off campus. Later, I distributed flyers for Get Carded, the organ donor awareness group I joined last year. In spite of a sudden downpour, I covered a lot of the dorms along with Roy and David, who were new members. I talked to David about Ubuntu and such things. He’s a fan.

I’ve been wondering when my roommate and I would get to meet our suitemates. As I was writing this post, they knocked on the door to properly introduce themselves. Their names are Michael and Cory, which seem to be common names around here. They’re freshmen. I wasn’t sure if they’d pair freshmen and non-freshmen in the same suite (they try not to do it in a room), but apparently they do.

Classes start tomorrow. I only have two. They’re in the middle of the day, back to back. Not bad.

Stuff White People Like is a blog that lists stuff white people like. I think it should be called Stuff White Liberals Like.

In England, the Avon and Somerset police have taken to an unusual step to curb the number of dumb calls they get on their emergency line: they’re posting them on YouTube in an attempt to shame the callers. Will it work, or will it just inspire others to imitate them?

A poorly titled but useful Wikipedia article: metric yardstick. It gives approximate practical equivalents of metric units.