Scavenger Hunt

Today was the Freshman scavenger hunt for my dorm, FroSoCo. We woke up at an absurd hour (6am for those who are counting), and biked down to the edge of campus. After a brief breakfast of bagels and cream cheese, we walked over to the train station to catch a train to San Francisco. I got put in a group for the scavenger hunt with 5 people that I actually already knew reasonably well, but by the end, I can assure you, we had bonded.

We started out at the train station on 4th street, then walked up to union square and ate lunch, then spent the afternoon in Haight Ashbury before catching the 4:15 train back.

In the end, we have photographic evidence of doing all but one of the following (point values in parenthesis):

1. Perform a dorm cheer from inside a cable car (1).
2. Kiss the driver of a trolley car (2).
3. Convince a trolley car driver to let you drive the trolley (3).
4. Find and use a backscratcher at one of the shops in Chinatown (2).
5. Take a picture with a huge toy from Chinatown (points based on hugeness).
6. Get your dorm name marked on your body (2).
7. Have somebody in your group get a tattoo or piercing (5, someone got a tongue piercing!).
8. Get another group to spell FroSoCo with their bodies. You can use strangers if you need (2).
9. Coordinate a dorm cheer with a random group of strangers (3).
10. Take a photo of another team. Bonus points if they are doing something stupid (5).
11. Guys try on lingerie at Victoria Secret (3).*
12. Get your whole team in the fitting room of a department store (3).
13. Make a mess of yourself with Ghirardelli chocolate (2).
14. Do the cha-cha in front of the cha-cha-cha restaurant on Haight Street (3).
15. Take a picture with aging hippies in Haight-Ashbury (3).
16. Sample the edible underwear at Big Al’s. Bonus points if you sample it off of somebody (2).
17. Take a picture with a palm tree and show how much you miss your home on campus (1).
18. Get someone in the Macy’s cosmetics department to put make-up on at least one boy in your group (3).
19. Wrap someone completely in toilet paper and have them walk on the street (3).
20. Get your entire group (6 people) into one phone booth (2).
21. Give your autograph to a little kid (1).
22. See how many random people you can get to look up (points based on number of people).
23. Get a picture of a policeman handcuffing a group member (3).
24. Bring back, as a gift to your staff, the coolest thing you can find that costs less than a dollar (2).
25. Pretend to be a dog peeing on a fire hydrant (3).
26. Propose, on one knee, to a random person (2).
27. Swing dance in the GAP (2).
28. Have your group dance like Michael Jackson in front of the Virgin Megastore (3).
29. Get a person wearing Cal clothing to kiss your feet or hands, or do something else degrading (3).
30. Try on a wedding dress. Bonus points for a guy trying it on (3).
31. Get your group into a bed at the nicest hotel you can find (5).
32. Get multiple group members to perform the “Triple O”** cheer in the stall of a public restroom (3).

Do not be under the impression that I did all of these. I only did a small fraction, though I was a part of every group activity. I can’t give you a point total, unfortunately, as each picture’s value gets multiplied by a value from one to three based on the quality of the picture.

Not half bad for a day in San Fransisco.

* We were never able to get photographic evidence of this as a result of a series of unfortunate events: first, I couldn’t go into the changing room with one of the girls to get the picture without being clear it was me trying it on, and second, when I tried the next best solution, getting in the elevator and trying it on there, I was kicked out of the store.

** This is one of FroSoCo’s cheers, and is particularly appropriate in this instance, as it goes “OOOOHHHHHHH, OOOOHHHHHHH, OOOOHHHHHHH, Triple O, FroSoCo!”

Stanford

I am at college! It has begun. I drove up monday, and moved in on tuesday. Yesterday was filled with panels about picking classes, during which i realized I wanted to take all of them. My first class list had 25 units. Needless to say, I am fixing it. But its so HARD to fix. I want to take Chem, Physics, Math, IHUM, and an introductory seminar. Computer Science too, but i have given up on that. Even so, those 5 classes make up 20 units. How do I fix this? We shall see. I might not have to take the first quarter chemistry, but i would have to take it at some point if I go premed it looks like.  Math can wait, but then all of the advantage that i got from advanced seminar junior year would slip even further away. Physics might be what i put off, but i don’t really know what natural science I want to do, only that I want to do natural science, so i am a little worried about that too. I am meeting my premajor advisor, John Bravman, who is also the dean of my residence hall, Frosoco, as well as the Vice-Provost for the school, today at 1. Hopefully he will have advice. I apologize for the wall of text, and I promise to post more soon.

Ben

My Shazam Tags Up Till Now

August 24, 2009:

• Counterpoint, by Delphic, on the album Kitsune Maison Compilation 7. Genre: Dance.

August 29th:

• Bassekou, by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba, on the album Beginners Guide To Africa.

August 31st:

• Comu Um Sol, by Mr Hermano, on the album Free As The Morning Sun. Genre: Rock/Pop.
• Silent Surveyor (Premx), by Hattler, on the album Silent Surveyor.
• Bird and Flag, by The Sea And Cake, on the album The Fawn. Genre: Rock/Pop.

Shazam

I recently got an iPhone, and one of the many ways it has improved my life is with a little app called Shazam. It will listen to any music i hear on the go and tell me the title and artist. Rather useful since i am often not listening to a station long enough to hear what the song was. I have been using it a lot, and I am going to start posting the tags that it gives me as both a remembering tool for me and as a recommendation to all of you. Enjoy.