Sometimes, collegiate level labs do not work. In some ways, this can be funny, and in others, not quite funny. Simply put, you do not get the results you needed, wanted, or hoped for, and therefore you lose some credit for doing the lab. In fact, at the Universtiy of Minnesota (and probably most places), the TA’s are given a range of acceptable lab result values that will result in full credit. If the numbers are outside of this range, you do not get full credit. Some way to review the “scientific method.” They encourage us to use scientific reasoning and ignore “right and wrong” while we grapple with finding a solution, and then turn around and grade result accuracy. I have yet to see if this applies to my Animal Behavior lab, in which we visited the zoo and observed Japanese snow monkeys. We accessed primary source literature (a lot of Japanese people study the Japanese snow monkeys, believe it or not), formulated a partial ethogram, and then promptly watched our experiment crash and burn.
Yes, Food at the Binz has taken a very very long hiatus from regularly scheduled viewing, I hope to bring it back with this special edition. In fact, this edition is so special that we feature food not from the Binz Refectory, but from the North Campus Cafeteria. Anyhow, I learned it was theme night for eating there, and that the theme was “Cabin Fever Reliever.” Markoe speculated that we would eat bamboo shoots, which we all concluded would be high in fiber and good overall.
My owl by the name of Genevieve was once very white, but the fire sprinklers turned her a rather black/gray color. We have been cleaning her for the past couple of days but ran into problems. You see, we cleaned her tail on the surface, and then hung her upside down to dry. Unfortunately, spots appeared on her head which were a rather odd color of rust. She’s a snowy white owl, and since we figured she would like to stay that way, we cleaned a bit more, soaking her this time. She is now a vibrant shade of white, but looks as if she has just been born. I am sure once she is dry she will be as downy and soft as ever. You’re a trooper, Genevieve.
Ummm, well on Christmas Day evening, my dorm room was flooded with a couple of inches of water. I really do not believe that it was a couple of inches, but that is how the report reads. A sprinkler head messed up, broke, and sprayed water all over. It is possible that the sprinkler froze, and when it thawed, burst, and started the flow of water. I do not recall if I left one or no radiators on, but I do know one of my windows leaks air pretty badly - the strong winds a bit over a week ago may have been enough to get the room below freezing in temperature, but I really do not know if that is what happened. That raises the question: why did the other sprinkler in the room not freeze? I heard about this when I was up in St. Cloud on Sunday, and drove back half-dazed, wondering how bad the damage would be.
Permission to recount yesterday in its entirety? Permission denied? Hmm. Sorry, I guess I will have to risk court marshal on this one.
My sister’s commencement exercises, my birthday, and the Dashboard Confessional concert all happened to fall on the same day. In the morning, I dragged my sorry carcass out of bed and ran off to the gym to squeeze in a quick workout. Running down the stairs back to the car, I noticed I had shaved five (5!) minutes off of my usual hour and forty-five regimen. I sarcastically congratulated myself with an “Oh yay me” as I put some rubber down on the road.
It was a landmark day today. The Binz Refectory offered two distinct and separate dishes that were both worth eating. Upon seeing the two gloriously appetizing choices, I dropped to my knees and mouthed words of thanks to some god smiling upon me. I cursed my stomach for failing to be hungrier, but still enjoyed a fantastic dinner. I feel it is my obligation, in my continuing quest to accurately portray the Binz, to show you a less sinister side of college food. Indeed, you do not always have to eat food that just takes up space in your stomach and gives it something to do. Nay, good friends, sometimes you can find yourself enjoying eating. Furthermore, last night brought with it warm cookies. Yes, no hardened frosting on old cake but warm, oven-fresh, gooey, delectable cookies; delivered with a smile by Erin and Mara.
There they were, just chilling on my potatoes, like everything was normal. Sure, they looked and smelled like pine needles. I knew they couldn’t be though - that would be too exotic and expensive. Investigation proved that they were Rosemary. On potatoes. “It’s supposed to go on meat,” I wanted to scream, but restrained myself, sullenly scraping the offending weirdness from my otherwise normal dish. “I suppose this isn’t bad enough to count for part 2,” I muttered under my breath as I looked around for something with which to cleanse my mouth. That’s great: offending food that’s just bad enough to make a boring story. I shoved the spuds aside and made myself a white bread and American cheese sandwhich. Yum, processed goodness.
I am not a picky eater. I never have been. Eating at a college cafeteria, however, has brought about the realization that critically analyzing one’s food prior to consumption can be a good thing. In fact, I have come to realize this analysis can save a person from eating what they would not.
Second floor Cretin is my former floor. They are still the floor I belong to in spirit, it’s just that my physical body ended up on fifth floor. Anyways, Cretin 2 does happen to be, this year at least, the best/highest caliber male floor on campus. Fifth floor can’t really hold a candle to the coolness that is second floor … maybe it’s the dude who smokes in his room up here, maybe it’s the loud music at all hours from right next door, maybe it’s the child right below me who is rapidly losing his hearing to an incredible set of speakers playing less-than-incredible music at higher-than-safe levels. But that’s neither here nor there.