Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!

So, for those caught unaware, July is National Ice Cream Month.

Yes, that means you should go eat some ice cream... as if you really needed an excuse.

Specifically, July 15 is Ice Cream Day.

Happy Brithday to the Epsilon Iota chapter of Psi Upsilon.  The chapter has reached a Quarter Century.

So, here is another interesting story I got from a friend's blog.

Would you have recognized Joshua Bell playing in a DC metro station?

I know I wouldn't.  Sadly, I doubt I would have even stopped.  I probably would have assumed it was like another other street performer that I've seen in NYC, San Francisco, Boston, Baltimore, DC, etc.  I tend to always believe that these people bring in fairly good money doing it, which Joshua Bell pointed out (he made $32 in an hour).  At the same point, I don't think I could tell a really good musician from an ok one.  I know I never really like the people who play the same songs all the time (ones I've heard).  I tend to like the people who playing very interesting beats with drums or something.  This article really made me think about this.  What would make you stop to listen or even give money to a musician on the street in a large city?

It was 80 degrees outside 2 days ago during the day.

It is now 30 degree and "slushing" outside. 

What in the world is up with this weather?

I was hunting through my old posts for something, but didn't manage to find it. However, I was curious... how many people on my friends list have actually gone back and read my older posts? How many people when they wind up being friends with someone new go and read their new friend's old posts?

Just kind of curious, so please respond.

I just watched yesterday's episode and want to tell everyone that Battlestar Galactica is awesome. Yes, I knew this before this last episode, but wow... I felt like I actually cared about the characters. That battle scene was so cool and well done. It was on the level of Babylon 5, but with better special effects.

If you ever want to get into the show, I have season 1 & 2 on DVD and I have the episodes that have aired of Season 3 so far on my DVR.

I want to make one comment about my last post. The administration presented this information to the Greek Community on the first night of Passover. They will present it to the rest of the Greek Community tonight, the second night of Passover. For a majority of Jews, these two evenings are spent sitting around a table with family and friends for a religous meal. It is not something that a majority of Jews skip.

IT IS INSULTING TO HOLD SUCH AN IMPORTANT MEETING ON THE FIRST TWO NIGHTS OF PASSOVER.

Passover is quite possibly (I don't have actual statistics) the most observed Jewish holiday in the United States. I could understand the second night, since not everyone has a seder on both nights, but the first night !?!?? They couldn't wait till next week or did it a previous week? For some American Jews, this is the most important family event next to Thanksgiving. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I also believe this week is Holy week.

I wasn't happy with the administration before, but this really just pisses me off. Sadly, there is not much that can be done about the timing at this point. If only I thought it were possible to get the administration to apologize for something.

I'm tired... and need to think about this more... but I want to post this first.  I just read a few of my fraternity brothers' livejournal posts about something that the RPI administration told them this past evening. Apparently, they will present it in more detail to the greek student body this evening at 6pm.

links to two of the posts are here:
neolae's post
katejaneway's post

The gist of it from what I've read and think is this:  The RPI administration worked very hard with the Greek Community at RPI (29 fratenrities and 3 sororities) to develop a Relationship Statement between RPI and Community as a whole.  This document took many years to be created (I think it was about 5 or 6 years).  It was discussed and reviewed by all undergraduate chapters, chapter advisors, and alumni.  It may not have been perfect, but the community as a whole was satisfied.  From the looks of it, RPI Administration and Trustees were not fine with it.  So much so, that they decided to jump on the few items they did not manage to get included in the Relationship statement.  They decided that there will be 3 chages for all school recognized Greek organizations.  Granted, these might be negotiable in some way, but it seems insulting.  I want to know what kind of example the adults who run the administration are presenting to the current college students within the Greek system of RPI.  They seem to be acting like children.  The administration spent 5-6 years working with the community to develop a relationship statement and then decided that they didn't get everything they wanted.  As a result, the administration basically is saying, "You won't add what we want in the relationship statement?  Then fine, we will dictate it to you."  I can tell you that I had many conversations and e-mails with people about the "New Member Recruitment and Education issue they are dictating.  That was something the administration tried extremely hard to have in the relationship statement.  I argued that back when I was president of the undergrads... 5 years ago.  My house has a very well organized new member program.  It lasts a couple weeks more than 8 weeks on average and does not end a week before finals or during finals when college students should be concentrating on finishing off the semester strong.  As for item three, house director, I will hope that this is not manditory, but if it wasn't, then it shouldn't have been presented as such.  For those on this list who do not understand why item three is bad, imagine a small chapter with a small family home (not much space) that does most things for itself.  Now imagine what typical expenses are like... add a non-rent paying employee living in the house and recalculate expenses.  Compare the effectiveness of live-in person with current chapter operations... perform a cost analysis.  Do you think it's worth it?  The thing I fear is that number one is really only enforcable with number three.  If number one isn't negotiable, then why would number three be?  How long before number three is no longer negotiable?

I've copied the three items here for people to read who might not have read neolae's post:

1) Alcohol (Effective July 1st, 2006)- Expand Rensselaer Residence Facility alcohol policy to include all Greek life Chapters.

2) New Member Recruitment and Education (Effective July 1, 2007) - Shift new member recruitment to begin no earlier than the sixt week of classes in the fall semester. Focus recruitment to showcase Greek life as a community and highlight features of individual chapters. End recruitment period one week prior to the last day of classes. Extend an invitation to join(bid) to prospective members no later than the last day of classes. Pledge/new member education period begins the Spring semester and ends before Spring Break (About the 8th week).

3) Chapter Management / House Director (Effective July 1, 2007)- House Director is to advise, support, and assist with educational programming and management of chapter facility.  Assure continuity as leadership changes from year to year.  Model after Residence Life process (selection and training).  Enable activities to retain autonomy and independence with appropriate intervention as necessary from the House Director. Dual Reporting to the House Corporation and Greek Dean.

So, what lj post topics do you typically respond to?

I've been varying quantity of responses I get to different posts. Aside from "it's my birthday so say hi to me" posts, it seems fairly random.

It could make for an interesting psychological experiment. Or better yet, a data analysis problem. I'm sure we could take all of the posts in livejournal and analyze them for content... then determine what content gets the most responses. Maybe there are key trigger words that convince people to say something. Maybe it's a combination of words. Maybe there is a correlation between content, time of day, time of year, time of month, and people's responses.