Wednesday, October 31, 2012

November Here I Come!

Hello Readers Young and Old,

Happy Halloween!




Tomorrow, Thursday, November 1 the CMA Awards will be held at the Bridgestone Arena.  For those who don't want to dish out the $480 for the last few seats remaining, NBC will be showing it live at 7pm.



Friday is Vanderbilt's Annual Relay for Life.
http://main.acsevents.org/images/rfl12/header/rfl12_header_02.jpg
It will be hosted in the Student Recreation Center and will go for 12 hours from 5pm-5am.  Come out for the entire night or any portion to help support cancer research.

You can make donations by following this link here! Here is a link to Vanderbilt's Relay for Life homepage: Click Me! 

Also this Friday is VSG's Movie of the Month with The Dark Knight Rises the last Batman movie in the latest trilogy. 


Support the Commodores this Saturday as they play the Wildcats at Kentucky.  Check for the game on ESPN 3 this Saturday at noon.

That's all for now!  Have a Happy Halloween, good weekend, and look out for updates about our Mayfield's week long event Disabilities Awareness Week November 6-9.




Sunday, October 28, 2012

First Mayfield Event of the Year!

Yes, that's right! This past Saturday we had our first even of the year!
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD moving screening!

(because it's Halloween)
The event was a huge success! We provided an alternative activity to people who aren't interested in all the homecoming things. Or at least a medium-sized success. A lot of people who have nothing to do with our Mayfield came, no technical probs, everthing was great.
Also, this is actually my first zombie movie. 'Zombie Apocalypse' actually means something to me now!


Enemy of the heir, be ware. 
Oops, wrong quote. 


Ya. This is probably not my favorite genre. I like watching horror films and stuff with friends but I typically spend a substantial amount of time staring at a point on the wall and not the screen. Not a huge fan of gore. And I just find them so distressing!!!


OH speaking of gore, spoiler alert. In 'the night of the living dead', there's this scene where a car exploded and killed two people, and then a bunch of zombies showed up and started picking up the remaining flesh and chewing on them. Don't wanna gross you out or anything, but.
Yum

Also, this movie was made in 1968. So, naturally, of course, it has strong male leads and disappointing female characters who don't do anything useful. It's fine. It's 1968. Wasn't expecting world-changing female leads.
I can tell you more details, but my housemates are better zombie experts. We enjoyed the movie.
And we didn't kill each other

Anyways, homecoming weekend has been fun too! A lot of fun stories. So nice seeing all these people coming back and be like, aw that's us in 30 years.
=)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Homecoming (read "Halloween") Weekend

Hi, blogosphere!

Katie here. I hope you're ready for Homecoming Halloween weekend at Vandy. I know there are lot of fun activities going on this weekend.

First off, if you love zombies and popcorn, make sure to come to our screening of Night of the Living Dead on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. in Stevenson 4309. We'll have free popcorn and soda. If you get there early enough, we might share it with you :P



Because we love movies so much, our Mayfield will be watching Resident Evil: Damnation (Bobby's pick) on Friday evening at 8 p.m. You are all invited!

It's CGI
If horror movies aren't your idea of fun, you can head over to the Wellness Bash on Tuesday (I know, not the weekend) from 3-7 p.m. in the Student Rec Center.  There will be free food and massages, so you should check it out. 

I will personally be celebrating Halloween by heading over to the University Catholic Halloween party at the Frassatti House at 10 p.m. on Saturday. Our Halloween parties are full of music, food, costumes and lots of fun, so you should all be there.  
Halloween Party!

Finally, Vanderbilt NPHC will be hosting a Homecoming Step Show in Memorial Gymnasium at noon on Saturday. It's a Greek event without alcohol, so I think it sounds pretty awesome. Tickets are $10 for students and can be bought at the Sarratt Box Office. 

Vanderbilt NPHC Step Show 
I think that's pretty much everything. Keep your eyes peeled for posters announcing our next event, Disabilities Awareness Week. 
Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Metroids and Rock Climbing: A Weekend at Vanderbilt

Hello all! Xaralambos here. Nothing particularly exciting or world changing happened this weekend. That's just as well though. I assume the world is saving all of that for Halloween, so let's cross our fingers and hope Next Wednesday is host to something spectacular.
Hint Hint Universe
Anyhow, this weekend wasn't entirely uneventful. On Friday, we sat down as a group and watched, at Luke's suggestion, The 'Burbs, a film that contrasts a played out and overdone horror concept with comedic nuances to deliver an excellent comedic ride. That description sounds horrible and contrived, but trust me, the movie is amazing. I'm surprised I'd never heard of it before Friday.
Seriously. Watch it.
A good chunk of Saturday was spent waking up late and studying, but the rest? Well, I decided to prepare for Halloween  the only way I knew how: By playing video games. So, after turning out the lights, and preparing my mind, I booted up Slender. About 20 minutes later, I was a jittery, nervous wreck, and decided the Halloween spirit could wait another week, so I played Metroid: Zero mission. For those of you whom haven't already heard, Slender is a Freeware game, where the entire point is to collect 8 notebook pages scattered about a given area. The Titular Character, the Slenderman, is an Internet created urban legend. I won't give an entire review of the game here, but for what it is -- A free horror game about an Internet phenomenon -- it's excellent. Definitely check it out if you're interested in a game with a horrifying atmosphere, or if you're looking for Creepy Watson: The Game.
The average reaction to the game
After abandoning the Halloween spirit, I decided to run through a game that had been on my "To finish" list for a while: Metroid:Zero Mission. The game is a retelling of the original Metroid for the Game Boy Advance, with updated graphics, improved mechanics, and the long awaited ability to shoot diagonally. I beat it in about 5 hours, but despite it's relatively short length, it more than delivers in gameplay. Though the game came out in 2004, it's still an immensely enjoyable ride. Plus, the game comes with a built in version of the Original 1986 version of Metroid.
Also, it's a better game than Other M
The Dawn of the Third Day arrived...and found me still in bed. At 2:00 p.m., however, I joined a couple of fellow Highland dwellers (Referred to from hereon out as Highlanders) as we went rock climbing.
Alright, so it was indoors, and it was at Climb Nashville, but it was still a bit more difficult than pressing a button. the Highlanders all had an awesome time, whether we slipped  off the wall and thrashed about in midair, skinned our thumbs on the carabiners, and got blood all over our bright white shirts, or whether we engaged in glorious combat and payed witness to a Quickening. 
(One of these things may not be entirely true.)
So, that was pretty much my weekend. Halloween is in 10 days, more or less, so If you're looking for a game to get in the mood, I'd recommend Slender, and another freeware game, SCP Containment Breach. I know a couple of you watch Doctor Who, So just think Slender with Weeping Angels. You've also got Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and Bioshock, and even the earlier Silent Hill games hold up pretty dang well. Just avoid Resident Evil 6. It's not a horrible game, sure, but it's just not a "Horror" Game. If you must play a Resident Evil game, Go for Resident Evil 4. Or even Dino Crisis. It's Resident Evil...With Dinosaurs! What's not to like about that?

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Stuff to do at Vandy from Oct. 18-21

Brought to you by Luke.

Thursday, October 18th

R.E.E.C.A. Club Fall Bar-B-Que
12-2pm @ Highland Quad

-- R.E.E.C.A. stands for "Russian, East European, and Central Asian." An exciting lunch op from a new club on campus.

Live VU Student Songwriter Showcase
7-10pm @ Rand Hall New Dining Area

-- Headlined by Vandy's own Archive Nights.

Israeli Folk Dancing
7:30-10pm @ Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life

-- In the interest of space, click here for further information. This looks like a blast!

Signature Series: John Johns, guitar
8-10pm @ Blair School of Music - Ingram Hall

-- Featuring French, Spanish, Argentine, and Cuban guitar music spanning four centuries.

October 18th and Friday, October 19th

Vanderbilt University's Chinese Associations' Bubble Tea Fundraiser
9am-5pm @ Sarratt Promenade ("The Wall")

-- Sixteen hours across two days: you have no excuse!

October 19th

Vanderbilt Women's Soccer vs. Auburn
7pm @ Vanderbilt Soccer/Lacrosse Complex

-- Fingers crossed that it'll turn out something like this:


Tongue 'n' Cheek
8-9:30pm @ Rand

-- Vandy's very own improv comedy troupe.

The 'Burbs
9:30pm @ Mayfield 2

-- Feel free to drop by and join us for a movie. IMO, this is one of the funniest movies ever.

Saturday, October 20th

Brain Freeze Bike Challenge
7:30am @ Chaney's Dairy Barn, 9191 Nashville Road, Bowling Green, KY 42101

-- "A bike race that will also have an eating challenge component...Participants can choose to eat scoops of ice cream at designated stops..." Sound like my kind of athletic event. Proceeds support the Hoover Hope Angel Fund for Families.

The Sound of Turkey
7-9pm @ Sarratt Cinema

-- With soprano Seren Akyoldas and pianist Gulru Ensari.

Signature Series: Blair String Quartet
8-10pm @ Blair School of Music - Ingram Hall

-- With music by Haydn, Husa, and Beethoven. Among Blair students, this is one of the most highly anticipated concerts of the year.

Sunday, October 21st

Vanderbilt Women's Soccer vs. Florida
1pm @ Vanderbilt Soccer/Lacrosse Complex

-- Here's my excuse to share another clip from Shaolin Soccer:


-- The Central Library has a copy of the DVD, by the way.

Vanderbilt University Concert Choir
2-4pm @ Blair School of Music - Ingram Hall

-- With David Binns Williams, director.

And last but not least...

...it's not too early to mark your calendars for our Mayfield's first event: a 6:30pm screening of Night of the Living Dead at Stevenson 4309 on October 27th. Popcorn and beverages will be served!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Band Practice!

Hey everyone.  John here with a kind of unexciting weekend to tell you about.

This weekend I went back to Clarksville, TN to be with family for my dad's 60th birthday.  We had a fairly low-key celebration, which featured a nice dinner, opening of cards and presents, and birthday cake.  Since I'm allergic to eggs, I usually don't get to eat cake when other people have birthdays, so my dad's birthday marks one of the three times a year that I have access to egg-free cake, which is awesome.


I also got to see my girlfriend, Paige, who was in town for fall break.  Unfortunately, she had a ton of family members that hadn't seen her for a long time, so we didn't really get to hang out very much.  With the exception of driving her to and from Nashville, we only got to hang out about five hours and didn't really do anything exciting.

Mission Accomplished
By far my favorite part of the weekend was getting to have band practice for my zombie rock group the Resistance House Band.  For some reason, I find it really hard to meet other musicians at Vanderbilt, with the exception of every guy with an acoustic guitar that plays the Fray, Lifehouse, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls, and a heartfelt, tear-jerking rendition of "Hey There Delilah."

I blame this video.
Since I haven't really found any musicians that I mesh with on campus, it's nice to be able to go back home and get to play with an actual band after weeks of playing by myself in my room.  Plus, our bassist had a new fuzz pedal for me to try out that day, and it sounds awesome.  It gives us more of a garage rock sound than we usually have.  We've got shows booked every weekend from now through mid-November, including one gig with a fill-in drummer, so we've got a lot of work to do in the next few weeks.

Old photo, but it gives you a sense of what our practice space is like.

Anyway, that about covers my weekend.  Hope you enjoyed it, and check back on Wednesday to get info on the coming weekend.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Family Weekend's Here!

Hello there, lovely people of Vanderbilt and the world! You get another lovely upcoming weekend update from Nell, here! :)

I'm going to start the weekend a bit early, because I have something super important going on this Thursday evening. I am on the Holocaust Lecture Series Committee, and we have one of our events tomorrow night! Dr. Sheri Rosenberg will have a lecture at Flynn Auditorium at Vanderbilt Law School regarding the Responsibility to Protect project (R2P). She will discuss human rights and international laws around the world and this project's goals. She will be speaking from 7:00 to 9:30 pm, and we will have refreshments afterwards, such as cookies, brownies, seriously good stuff, yum!! I would love to see a lot of support from you lovely people tomorrow night.

Friday night, we will be showing a movie in our Mayfield, as always! I believe we determined that we'll be starting at 10 pm, and Linda has picked out Billy Elliot for this week! So if you have the chance, please stop by and join us!

Not only that, but please remember that Friday will be World Arthritis Day. Please remember that many people suffer from arthritis, and they deserve all the funding possible to live pain-free lives. One of my friends suffers with this, and she fights through pain every day, so please wear blue in honor of her and anyone else you may or may not know!

More importantly, however, this weekend will be full of family's visiting their students for Family Weekend! Vanderbilt will be sponsoring lots of fun events, such as Athenian Sing, a campus-wide talent show that will be at Langford Auditorium! It begins at 7:30 pm and ends at 8:45, and the tickets cost $8, but many campus organizations will be taking part. And of course, no Family Weekend is complete without a football game. This Saturday, Vanderbilt will be facing the Florida Gators at 5 pm! You'll definitely want to be there for the excitement in the atmosphere! I'll be there with the Spirit of Gold Marching Band, obviously. So get pumped! We'll be performing our annual patriotic show!

Finally, I will be singing Sunday morning at the 9:30 am Episcopal Service at Benton Chapel with the Vanderbilt University Concert Choir as well. So if you're up for some worship and beautiful songs in the morning, I hope to see you there too!

Honestly, there will be a ton going on this weekend, and you shouldn't miss out on it! Enjoy the rest of your week and weekend! :)

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

And I'm a Vandy Student!

Hey everyone! Nell here. :) 

I just completed my project video, and I hope all of you lovely people get a chance to watch it! It may be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEhTVgBxDoI

Or, just watch it below!

Dowidzenia!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

What an Exciting Fall Break!

Hello Vanderbilt community! This is Lindsey Franklyn.

For all of you who are already back on campus, welcome back! For those of you still at home, I hope your fall break is going well and that you're having a good time with a well-deserved break. (And for all of you who stayed on campus, I hope you were able to break the bubble and check out some of the Taste of Nashville restaurants on your card this weekend).


Wow, what a weekend! In case y'all haven't been keeping up with our blog posts, some of our Mayfield (Sam CubbageLinda Sun, and myself) went up to Nell Koneczny's house in Maryville, TN for the weekend. If you look to the left, you can see the four of us having fun at Smoky Mountains. (Unfortunately, no bears were sited at Smokey Mountains, although we did see a lot of deer. Also, thanks to the passer-bys who took a picture of us!)





Here are some of the memorable moments of the weekend.

Sam, our resident creek-lover, having a wonderful time at Smoky Mountains.
Hello Smoky Mountains! On Friday, the four of us went eastwards to the Smoky Mountains.  On the way up, we decided to stop by a creek (actually, Sam yelled "STOPPPP!" and Nell suddenly swung the car into the rest-area) for a quick photo shoot. We jumped from rock to rock, got our feet (and even our socks) wet, and had a great time exploring upstream until the rocks wouldn't let us go any farther up.

Another picture of us having fun. (And another great view, of us and the creek).

Our picnic! Also, another great view of the Smoky Mountains.


PICNIC TIME! I didn't mention this before, but aside from creek-viewing, our initial reason for going up to the mountains was to have a picnic! And thank God we went up on Friday, the weather was absolutely amazing. We went to the store beforehand to get all the appropriate foods for the picnic. We had sandwiches, apples, grapes, and chips. Your typical picnic food, except we were fortunate enough to have some wonderful homemade bread, courtesy of the Koneczny family.




Not our tent, but a cool tent nonetheless.
CAMPING!  After our adventure in the Smoky Mountains on Friday, we went camping in Nell's backyard. We spent hours roasting (and burning) marshmallows, collecting wood for the fire, burning wishes, and setting up the tent.  (Bonus: I personally had a lot of fun burning wishes. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's when you write down a list of wishes on a piece of paper and throw them into a fire. Or, if that's too mainstream for you, you can also tear the paper into strips and burn them one by one).

Also, never underestimate Tennessee's ability to rain at the most inopportune moment. In the middle of the night, our friend, Stephen, woke up and suggested that we should put up a tarp. No one wanted to get up, though, so we spent a bit of time arguing about whether or not we needed it ("Did the forecast say it would rain?", "Maybe", "Are you sure it was for today?", "Do we need a tarp?") before Stephen finally put it up.

Long story short - it ended up raining. Always make sure to use a tarp in Tennessee.

Nell's father (pictured left) is playing the accordion.


Oktoberfest! We also celebrated Oktoberfest in a very special Mayfield 2 way. At noon, we drove up to Ober Gatlinburg to see Nell's father play with a local band. This was actually my first time celebrating Oktoberfest, so you can only imagine how excited I was. Nell's father played accordion with the band, and Stephen was sweet enough to offer each of us a dance on the dance floor.





That awkward moment when you leave your blanket behind....

For those of you who are curious about going up to Ober Gatlinburg, there's also a lot of things to do other than celebrate Oktober fest. There's an ice rink, an amusement park nearby, a sky lift and tram to ride up, a carousel (some of our Mayfield members enjoyed this quite a bit), and a ton of shops.








Car Troubles. Do you guys know Murphy's law? Well, the trip back from Ober Gatlinburg on Saturday night was a perfect example of "anything that can go wrong will go wrong." First, the brakes on our car wore out, causing our car to smell like smoke. Needless to say, as we argued about whether or not the burning smell was coming from our car, the front right wheel started smoking and we were forced to pull over at a nearby car wash.

Soft Touch, the car wash that we stopped at. (Note: if you see a
group of college students hanging out at a car wash with their
hood popped open, they're definitely not there for the car wash)

We thought things were fine. We thought Nell's mother would be able to pick us up and drive us home. We thought wrong. 



Some of us were still having fun while the sun was still up.
Murphy's law in action. We had spent two hours in the car when Nell's mother arrived. Unfortunately, while we drove looking around for quick dinner options, her front left tire ran over a nail. We pulled into a nearby hotel, but the damage had already been done -- the tire was flat. Another hour was spent with Nell's mother waiting for her father to come pick us up.

Eventually, with the help of a nearby couple (who I affectionately dubbed "Mr. and Mrs. Happyville"), we were able replace the tire with a spare for Nell's mother's car. Nell's father drove back the smoking car, which decided to suddenly stop smoking, and some of us piled into a rented car.


Needless to say, Saturday night had been a very long, very exciting night.


And now we come to the end of the blog! To all those who stayed with me on the journey all the way until the end, kudos for reading and looking at the pictures. Right now, some of our Mayfield members are watching Once Upon a Time. The other ones, myself included, are doing homework.


I hope everyone else had a wonderful fall break. Thanks for reading!

Lindsey







Friday, October 5, 2012

Weekend Update: FALL BREAK!!!

Hey there everybody!
Jacob here, with a tardy mid-week blog post!  There's not much to say about this upcoming weekend, because, well, it's Fall Break for us, and we've been scattered all over the place!  A great many of us went over to Nell's hometown for a retreat, but as for me, I've been summoned home for the brief break.
Since it's the break, there's not much to say as far as what's going on around campus this weekend, because most folks aren't there for some reason or another, but be sure to look out for an exciting preview of what's going on next weekend after midterms have finally been wrapped up!
.See you around, everybody, and enjoy your break safely and responsibly!
-Jacob