Leaving For College

DX · Post by DX » Mon Aug 20, 2007 1:23 am

Well, I am leaving for Connecticut College tomorrow [Monday]. Pre-orientation is a 4 day hike on the Appalachian Trail, followed by a week of regular orientation on campus. Then classes...lots of lovely classes...I promise that it won't be like an M4 thing [visiting here twice every 100th summer or so]

. However, I probably won't be able to maintain the usual level of activity and probably will do more lurking than actual posting. I, like Ben, plan to continue with community development though. Somehow, I may manage to find time to put my new articles up on SoakerMedia and SSCentral [the newest Tactical Theory articles and my new site remain surprises]. If you click the ads on SoakerMedia, it may motivate me to post new stuff earlier

[single clicks with the ad up for a while make the most $$$$

].

I've had a great time in the soaking community these past four years so far. I've gone from a silly little freshman to a silly...larger freshman while watching things change - SSC had a couple thousand posts when I joined it, WWN had about 10K, and here wasn't in the picture yet. Then there was iScF, SM, the AII controversy, Water-Talk, and eventually WWc.

Who knows what the future holds? A televised league with multi-million dollar tournaments? Why watch a Boston vs New York baseball game when you can watch a tri-warrior duel between me, Ben, and iSoaker? ESPN will figure out where the TRUE entertainment is. Move over, NBA Finals, the Ridgewood Militia and the Red Scorpion Commandos have some serious business to attend to!

We really can revolutionize the TV experience. Why bother with Ebay when you can get a CPS 2000 off the Shopping Network? Maybe you'll actually watch those pesky Invention Channel ads since Ben's newest homemade is only $29.99 and comes with a free backpack and strap [a $20 value] if you call within the next ten minutes? And there will be new stuff for sprucing up your guns - need to get rid of ugly color fading? - try Soak-On, applied DIRECTLY to the soaker!

Warfare will never be the same, either. The Iraqi insurgents stand no chance with their G1 Douchenators [soooo old school], while Boeing will be furious when they find out that their contract was lost to Lowes.

We'll be very popular in the gambling world too - why bother betting on horses? Bet on Ridgewood Militia vs Waterbridge wars, easy money there!

Politics might be a bit nasty though, with Hasbro and BBT going at each other's throats. Good thing the Electoral College will be entirely composed of teenagers - Hasbro hasn't got a shot at the Blue House if they're still making that 70ft shooting crap, goodness no.

Where will I be in 20 years? I'll probably find myself aspiring to be a grand master in Water Warriors' Chess [undefeated for exactly two years!]. Either that or a senior general of the US Army, always complaining about my officers [You don't know the difference between a fast progressive left oblique distraction pincer and an echelon left oblique stalling swinging pendulum defense and you call yourself an officer! Good Grief man! Drop and give me 50! Not push-ups you idiot, 50 tap shots of course! That one doesn't count, you saw all the mist!]

So I bid thee farewell at least for the 4 days where I'll be deep in the woods where bears tend to scare away the internet. You know that I'll be posting on WWc when I'm supposed to be writing a 10 page essay on the meaning of life. I'll be shotgunning XP 310's when I should be shotgunning beers, and I'll definitely get slapped by my roommate's girlfriend when she hears me talking about Douchenators.

Peace Out and Soak On! [and join the revolution while you're at it]

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 12:20 am

Nice writing. Enjoy the hike (I know you won't be able to read this until you get back though). I never really took to them myself but I've gone on a lot of them. The AT's pretty good given that you're on a well maintained area. Someone I know maintains one of them. My brother also redid a trail head for his Boy Scout Eagle project.

I'm leaving the 25th and I won't have any orientation then. My orientation was last month. Seems that is an uncommon practice after I discussed it with my friends. I suppose College Park couldn't handle all the students at one time.

My only hope is that college life doesn't take up too much of my time so I disappear like many have before.

DX · Post by DX » Tue Aug 21, 2007 1:26 am

I got lucky - this hotel has a great connection. We decided to stay in a hotel near Conn instead of drive up at the crack of dawn from Ridgewood. I would have rather stayed in my dorm tonight, but they don't open yet.

I've done some research on the AT [never been except on brief stretches in Harriman] and it should be really sweet. I'll be on a stretch from western CT to southern MA. The weather might be a bit dodgy, though. The forecast around Litchfield County calls for 3 days of sun and one of rain, while some other areas call for intense flooding. It also should be around 55 degrees, which will be delightful given that it was in the 80s and 90s last week. Duxburians thrive in the cold.

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:13 pm

I'm at Maryland right now. My wired connection isn't working so I'm posting from a slower wireless connection.

Sadly it's hot as hell and my room has no air conditioning. I'm planning on upgrading the fan I brought with a coil to circulate cold water and blow cold air on me. In retrospect, I should have built that before I came.

DX · Post by DX » Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:23 am

I finally got my wireless working - it is lightning fast. My home cable connection doesn't even come close.

My room has no AC, but we've got huge fans and it's in a half basement [the dorm is built into a hill]. OK, so during the past few days while y'all were posting away, I've been summiting mountains along the AT. We did Everet, Race, Bear, and Lion's Head. Everet is the 2nd highest peak in Massachusetts at 2500 something ft while Bear is the highest peak in Connecticut at exactly 2384ft. We literally crawled up the rock faces of Bear Mountain at 4 in the morning in order to see the sunrise. Instead, we found the windy and wet inside of a cloud! We had to put iodine in our water because the organisms in the stream water can give you giardia [aka explosive diarrhea]. We also camped the old-fasioned way - tarps and lean-tos. There was a sweet lean-to at Glenbrook with a loft.

Anyway, now we are in normal orientation. It is kind of awkward because I know like 30 people out of the 500-something freshman class. I love my dorm, it has a reputation for wicked parties. We won a free pizza party in today's sing-off against 16 other dorms because we're all insane!

Specter · Post by **Specter** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:31 am

my brother is leaving for seton hall (new jersey) I think sept 2. He's going to be a freshman. He has true T3 wireless all around campus. He said he got a 10 mb download (i don't know of what, probably software that was needed.), and he said it took only less than a minute.

@Ben
I know a website where people have built a homemade (CHEAP) air conditioner out of a small cooler and other parts, like PC box fans. I forget the exact link, but the site is http://www.instructables.com (people have also posted many air powered launchers on it)

also @everyone...
Good luck in college. (i still have 2 years to go, ill be starting my junior year of HS)

DX · Post by DX » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:45 am

It doesn't take anything special to download a 10mb file in under a minute - on a good connection, a 10mb download should take no more than 10 seconds, if it isn't nearly instant. I know a few people going to Seton Hall. Then again, in a class of more than 450, you tend to know people going to just about any college mentioned.

Have fun in your junior year. Don't screw it up like I did. My 4th quarter was kinda...bad. Let's leave it that. Slacking off now is regretted later.

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:52 pm

@Ben
I know a website where people have built a homemade (CHEAP) air conditioner out of a small cooler and other parts, like PC box fans. I forget the exact link, but the site is http://www.instructables.com (people have also posted many air powered launchers on it)

I've seen that one before (just do a search for air conditioner), but it's not as efficient as my desired design. That's pretty much the same idea I have though: a heat exchanger. My father said people used to call these "chillers" because they're close to AC in power but don't have a compressor. I can't wait to add a heat exchanger to my fan because it was hot last night. I went to bed at 12:30 and didn't fall asleep until about 2:30, and I kept waking up after that.

I finally got my wireless working - it is lightning fast. My home cable connection doesn't even come close.

The wireless in this dorm is pretty flaky, but usable and relatively fast (faster than home when it isn't flaky). I have to talk to some IT guy to get my wired connection activated sadly. The wired connection should be extremely fast.

We had to put iodine in our water because the organisms in the stream water can give you giardia [aka explosive diarrhea].

We had to do this very often in Boy Scouts. This works well but it tastes nasty. One thing they don't tell you is that if you crush up a vitamin C tablet and mix it in as well, all of the iodine and dead things turn more solid and sink to the bottom. From what I know some of the more expensive water purifiers are just a combination of vitamin C and iodine. Drink mixes with vitamin C also work well.

Specter · Post by **Specter** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:28 pm

DX wrote:It doesn't take anything special to download a 10mb file in under a minute - on a good connection, a 10mb download should take no more than 10 seconds, if it isn't nearly instant. .

i dont see how that can happen... considering when i download 3-6 mb music files, they take about 15-30 seconds, maybe a bit more, and i have verizon dsl's higher speed service.

DX · Post by DX » Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:09 pm

i don't see how that can happen... considering when i download 3-6 mb music files, they take about 15-30 seconds, maybe a bit more, and i have verizon dsl's higher speed service.

I also download music files slower...I mean stuff like programs, those go wicked fast. With music, it also depends on the host connection, off a site is usually different than off a person [and of course we are talking about legally obtained files]

Verizon is slow, I once compared my better cable connection against my friend's DSL and the difference was incredible.

We had to do this very often in Boy Scouts. This works well but it tastes nasty. One thing they don't tell you is that if you crush up a vitamin C tablet and mix it in as well, all of the iodine and dead things turn more solid and sink to the bottom.

Interesting about the vitamin C. I didn't think the iodine was that bad, just different. Instead of tasting like kitchen-style chemicals it tasted like...I don't know.

I'd love to see the stuff sink to the bottom though.

Silence · Post by **Silence** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 9:18 pm

Hope things go well for you guys in college. It's a pity about the heat currently, but fortunately you won't need to be in the dorms in summer, and many colleges only make you stay in university housing for one year (if you have other places to stay, like home).

I know they sell stuff to make iodized water taste better...perhaps it was Vitamin C inside. We didn't bother using the taste improvement chemicals though, as we didn't know what they were (I don't think it was on the container, although it should have been) and it's generally better to keep the number of chemicals down.

DX · Post by DX » Sun Aug 26, 2007 10:00 pm

I'd actually much rather stay in on-campus housing, like 98-99% of other students at Conn. Most of our residence halls have their own character [they are not the ugly hotel-style or '50s conformity style]. Windham [my dorm] is made of stone with its original columns and classic liquid glass windows. It rivals Harkness and Fanning Hall as the best-looking building on campus. While some people prefer AC and the more modern looking buildings on North campus, the rooms in there are like 1/3 to 2/5 smaller.

Then again, Conn College has around 1,900 students. I don't know what Maryland has, but I bet it is huge. The dynamics are way different in terms of housing.

Chemicals in water can go either way. Not enough chemicals makes water taste nasty as does too many. The reason Ridgewood town water tastes so good is because of all the things they add into it, same goes with "purified water" and "filtered water". You wouldn't be able to drink pure [distilled] water - it is the most disgusting stuff I've tasted in quite a while. Ranks up there with road salt, onion grass, and pen ink.

SSCBen · Post by **SSCBen** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:21 pm

I'm going to take a few weeks essentially off from the forums to get acclimated to the campus. Fire off an email if you want to say anything to me. I still check my email on a daily basis.

One thing I've learned to love (and hate) is the amount of free stuff I'm getting. This is ridiculous. On one hand I definitely appreciate having more T shirts, pens, and a lot of coupons. On the other hand I really hated that one required book for most students was being given away for free today! I bought mine before thinking I was being smart. That irks me.