So it is that time of the semester again. Yes THAT time of the semester again but no not THAT time of the semester. We still have the month of April for classes and May for finals. What I am talking about is advising.
Author Archives: michael_pueschel@uml.edu
CREEPYPASTA
So friends, as finals approach and you’re doing all that late night studying, you are bound to get distracted and wander into the weird places of the internet.
The dark depths of various forums and message boards are where scary stories known as “creepypastas” are born. The name is derived from another internet phenomenon known as “copypasta,” which are basically ridiculous posts that get copied and pasted over and over and over. But these are better. These are CREEPY.
My first encounter with creepypasta was on a dark and stormy night in Eames Hall my freshman year. I was studying late into the evening, and after hours and hours of diligent work I decided to reward myself with a short internet break. Somehow I wandered into the badlands of the internet, but feeling brave, I continued on.
Much like Simba’s wanderings into the elephant graveyard, this was a bad idea. The first creepypasta story I came across is a classic one titled, “Gateway of the Mind.” The gist of the supposedly true tale recounts a team of scientists in 1983 conducting a radical experiment where they surgically sever all connections to the subject’s five senses and observe him over time. If you’re interested in reading the whole thing, it can be found here. It’s a little unsettling, but not as bad as some other pastas I’ve read since.
Perhaps the most well known is our tall, dapper friend Slender Man.
Slender Man
One of the original Slender Man photos. |
Development: Slender Man quickly grew into a viral sensation; fans making more photos, drawings, stories [creepypastas], as well as videos and even games. The first video series involving our dapper faceless man is known as Marble Hornets. It also originated on the Something Awful forums, by user ce gars. The story tells of his friend Alex Kralie, a film school student working on a project called Marble Hornets. After stumbling across something unsettling, Alex abandons the project, dumps all his footage with Jay, and disappears. Jay then begins sifting through the footage and embarks on a creepy journey, all the while documenting his findings on his YouTube channel and Twitter. Apparently Marble Hornets is being turned into a feature length film, produced by Mosaic.
So friends, if you would like to scare yourself into not sleeping so you can stay up and study, I’d recommend watching the Marble Hornets series, browsing the Creepypasta wiki, or perhaps seeing the Evil Dead, the trailer of which Brady just showed me. I will not be sleeping tonight, or ever, and I may be crying right now.
Happy spring everyone!!
-Trudy
Don’t Forget!!
April 11 and 12, 2013University and Riverview suite selection process.April 14 and 15, 2013 Room Retention for those with rooms that are eligible for retention.
Cool Animals I Wish Weren’t Extinct
Hello everybody,
So this week I had to do a philosophy project about endangered species and whether or not humans should be obligated to protect them blah blah blah but the COOLEST part of it all were the cool animals I learned about that are no longer with us today.
Seriously these animals were bosses in their own right before they met their inevitable end. All of these animals existed in the last 1,000 years ago(sorry no dinosaurs in this post). Let’s get started.
This animal is like Tito from Rocket Power meets an aquatic environment. It could get as big as 26-30 feet! It’s like what would happen if a whale meets a manatee and they had babies. This thing is basically the bro of the ocean. Explorers used to write that these guys were extremely docile, however, fishermen and pirates basically genocided them to extinction during the 1700’s. Smh. If you want to learn more go here.
The only cool animals left in North America are mooses, wolves, and maybe cougars. North America is by and large devoid of any cool reptiles or cool mammals like other continents have. Imagine you were minding your own business when all of a sudden a lion bigger than any modern African Lion came out of nowhere. That’s how cool the world would be if these lions were still around. You can find more info here.
These animals were champions of the world. Let’s have a moment of silence. *pours one out for the dead homies of the animal kingdom*
-Tim Brown
Salsa, the moves or the dip?
ITS THE MOVES!!! Oh Yeaaahhh!
Salsa is NOT as hard as you may think. Give it try! i promise you’ll love it as much as I do =)
What you could look like!!!
HISTORY OF SALSA
While it is definitely more than just Cuban, a large part of the dance originated on the island. The French who fled from Haiti brought the Danzón or the country-dance of England/France to Cuba. This dance began to mix with the African rhumbas such as Guaguanco, Colombia and Yambú. Added to this is the Són of the Cuban people, which was a mixture of the Spanish troubadour (sonero) and the African drumbeats. This occurred in other places like the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Puerto Rico, albeit not at the same grand level and manner as in Cuba.
Before and around the time of World War II, the music traveled to Mexico City and New York. It was in New York where the term “Salsa” was created. In fact, the use of the word salsa for dance-able Latin Music was coined in 1933 when Cuban song composer Ignacio Piñerio wrote the song Échale Salsita. The word served as a type of protest against bland food. It then flourished as a popular nickname for a variety of Hispanic influenced music
LITTLE TIPS
Salsa is a dance of passion, where you feel and dance to the music. Sure.. rhythm and timing are important, but the real part of the dance comes from within.
Here’s an easy way to tell if you know the basic dance steps: While you are dancing with your partner, can you hold a conversation and complete all of the basics steps? If so, you are ready to learn the intermediate steps.
Beginners Lesson
Edwin Pabon (Boston)
617-524-0457
Spice up your Ramen life
A Tribute to my Inner Thirteen-Year-Old
So as many of you probably have heard, My Chemical Romance broke up this past Friday. They were one of my favourite bands for a long time back in that awkward angsty gothy phase most teenagers go through. I was always playing Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge on Winamp (anyone remember that?! I had a sweet customized AFI skin for it.) and later my iPod mini. I had an elaborate plan to construct the costume the woman wears in the Helena music video (embedded below) for Halloween one year; I saw them perform at the then-called Tsongas Arena back in 2005; when The Black Parade came out, I was one of “those people” who stuck to their old stuff in defiance of their new look.
The MCR I knew and loved. |
The Black Parade era. wat r u doing, stahp. |
I don’t even know these people anymore. Gerard always looks fierce, though. |
This may or may not be 14-year-old Trudy. |
App of the Month: Songza
Sup everybody, not really sure what to write my blog about this week, so I thought I would share something cool I learned about back in January. It’s an app for android and apple products and on your computer. It’s called Songza. It looks like this:
And obviously because I’m about that life, I am going to click Hip Hop/Rap. Now from here it will look like this:
Naps on Naps on Naps!
- Plan your academic responsibilities accordingly!
- Don’t party all weekend – perhaps if you have a lot to do you should hit the library at least once!
- Get a good nights rest!!! This is tremendously important!!!
- Plan your day accordingly and don’t get distracted!
Oh Midterms
Also remember this is one of the times the library gets SUPER PACKED, so make sure to bring your laptop just in case you can’t get a computer right away! Grab your laptop, find a nice quiet and comfy spot and get to work! AVOID STUDYING AT HOME the bed is too much of a temptation…
- · Start early
- · Stay positive
- · Pace yourself
- · Take a deep breath
- · Take breaks!
< 3 Giselle