Good things: The year after I leave, board games finally become big in Tufts House. Started a game of Power Grid last night (which had to be suspended, not yet resumed, due to Baumer being asleep much of the day) and played two games of Dominion today. Youlian has Dominion (with Intrigue, and Seaside, and Black Market, and Envoy...) in addition to Diplomacy and RoboRally, and Jasper has a whole freakin' collection. Hoping can get Traders of Genoa out maybe? (And of course, tomorrow I have to meet up with Colin for a game of Twilight Struggle or two.)
Bad things: Smash is evidently dead. The upper lounge is deserted most of the time; the GameCube, the Wii, the N64 all sit unused. Downstairs, there's a 360 and a PS3, but what do we have for them? Hardly anything worthwhile. Street Fighter 2 HD Remix? No. Any fighting games? No. Geometry Wars? No. Katamari? No. What gets played is Halo 3 - OK, actually some of the people here have actually gotten pretty good at sniper matches - some other FPS I can't be bothered to care about, and some goddamned basketball game which seems to attempt to imitate a real basketball game as closely as possible and which I consider an affront to the senses. It even includes advertising; I wish I was making that up. I'm sitting in the study lounge right now as I type this, I just couldn't take the thing anymore.
Unexpected things: I ran into Kinnucan in Hutch. I didn't know he was living here. Well, he had moved to Boston - and then he moved back here, and now he has a job tutoring. Tutoring what? All kinds of things, especially for tests. Huh. I wonder who else from my year is still around here... not many, I imagine. Kate is, and wants to play Bohnanza. Is Alex? I seem to have heard conflicting reports on this. I imagine Nadja must also still be around somewhere...
Many other things, that make the above lists very incomplete:
Mike Kenstowicz is house president. I found this pretty surprising, but Youlian says it was obvious this was going to occur. Perhaps if I had been there I would see why. Also, Charlie does not in fact have my old room right now, because I don't think he actually lives in the house anymore. I think there must have been a number of people this year who have left the house, much like when I was a first-year. No, I am not going to keep room records for people I don't know! (So far I've only really met a few of the first-years.)
Isaac is now as old as Sasha was when Jack and Sarah first became RHs, and he looks a hell of a lot like her. He likes to run his walker-thingy into the walls. Except that's misdescribing it, because I don't think he's deliberately running into walls; I think he just doesn't particularly care that there's a wall in front of him, and it doesn't occur to him that something might be wrong until he actually runs into it.
Youlian's been a very nice host; in addition to Andrew's cot I also have a sleeping bag and two pillows. Mike Baumer gave me something Bart-Mart-ish for dinner last night, and a first-year by the name of Nikita lent me a spoon - which I then lost, but apparently this is not a big deal.
I have to say, I had forgotten how hot it gets in Pierce...
Things that reduce confusion: Apparently, "Chechnya" is the name of Winston's/Jeremy's/Briana's/Michelle's apartment. (Hence someone's remark that "It smells like Chechnya in here.") Winston is around here all the time though.
I no longer have any idea where those not in Tufts live anymore, since people have moved around. Colin is apparently now living on 54th and Woodlawn (who isn't?); with who else, I wonder? Kate meanwhile isn't even in Hyde Park, IIRC.
House theme this year: Hairstyles. Jasper's idea, apparently, executed by Brad. It's... a bit off-putting...
The walls of the study lounge have all been washed off, but someone made sure to rewrite "The real world is sucks! -Harry Altman" above the door. There's a light-colored couch in here; did we steal that from somewhere?
TANSTAAFL is apparently closed semi-permanently due to a rat infestation. Meanwhile, various rooms in Tufts have picked up bedbugs; today exterminators were coming around to take care of that.
Tangential thought: I should start paying attention to Starcraft 2 again, now that so much of it is finalized.
-Harry
Bad things: Smash is evidently dead. The upper lounge is deserted most of the time; the GameCube, the Wii, the N64 all sit unused. Downstairs, there's a 360 and a PS3, but what do we have for them? Hardly anything worthwhile. Street Fighter 2 HD Remix? No. Any fighting games? No. Geometry Wars? No. Katamari? No. What gets played is Halo 3 - OK, actually some of the people here have actually gotten pretty good at sniper matches - some other FPS I can't be bothered to care about, and some goddamned basketball game which seems to attempt to imitate a real basketball game as closely as possible and which I consider an affront to the senses. It even includes advertising; I wish I was making that up. I'm sitting in the study lounge right now as I type this, I just couldn't take the thing anymore.
Unexpected things: I ran into Kinnucan in Hutch. I didn't know he was living here. Well, he had moved to Boston - and then he moved back here, and now he has a job tutoring. Tutoring what? All kinds of things, especially for tests. Huh. I wonder who else from my year is still around here... not many, I imagine. Kate is, and wants to play Bohnanza. Is Alex? I seem to have heard conflicting reports on this. I imagine Nadja must also still be around somewhere...
Many other things, that make the above lists very incomplete:
Mike Kenstowicz is house president. I found this pretty surprising, but Youlian says it was obvious this was going to occur. Perhaps if I had been there I would see why. Also, Charlie does not in fact have my old room right now, because I don't think he actually lives in the house anymore. I think there must have been a number of people this year who have left the house, much like when I was a first-year. No, I am not going to keep room records for people I don't know! (So far I've only really met a few of the first-years.)
Isaac is now as old as Sasha was when Jack and Sarah first became RHs, and he looks a hell of a lot like her. He likes to run his walker-thingy into the walls. Except that's misdescribing it, because I don't think he's deliberately running into walls; I think he just doesn't particularly care that there's a wall in front of him, and it doesn't occur to him that something might be wrong until he actually runs into it.
Youlian's been a very nice host; in addition to Andrew's cot I also have a sleeping bag and two pillows. Mike Baumer gave me something Bart-Mart-ish for dinner last night, and a first-year by the name of Nikita lent me a spoon - which I then lost, but apparently this is not a big deal.
I have to say, I had forgotten how hot it gets in Pierce...
Things that reduce confusion: Apparently, "Chechnya" is the name of Winston's/Jeremy's/Briana's/Michelle's apartment. (Hence someone's remark that "It smells like Chechnya in here.") Winston is around here all the time though.
I no longer have any idea where those not in Tufts live anymore, since people have moved around. Colin is apparently now living on 54th and Woodlawn (who isn't?); with who else, I wonder? Kate meanwhile isn't even in Hyde Park, IIRC.
House theme this year: Hairstyles. Jasper's idea, apparently, executed by Brad. It's... a bit off-putting...
The walls of the study lounge have all been washed off, but someone made sure to rewrite "The real world is sucks! -Harry Altman" above the door. There's a light-colored couch in here; did we steal that from somewhere?
TANSTAAFL is apparently closed semi-permanently due to a rat infestation. Meanwhile, various rooms in Tufts have picked up bedbugs; today exterminators were coming around to take care of that.
Tangential thought: I should start paying attention to Starcraft 2 again, now that so much of it is finalized.
-Harry
