This text is probs about Santa Cruz

(760): I can handle NPR. I speak hippie. I took it in college.

source: http://www.textsfromlastnight.com

43 Things You Might Not Know About UC Santa Cruz

I forget how I came upon this gem of a website, but someone at UC Santa Cruz brilliantly came up with the idea to create a list of, you guessed it, 43 things you might not know about UC Santa Cruz. Now, it's entirely unclear who this website is designed for, because if you're like my grandmother, for example, you probably don't know ANYTHING about UC Santa Cruz, so this allows them to get away with bullshit factoids like interesting fact number 27: Humans first arrived on what is now the campus 12,000-16,000 years ago; and interesting fact number 34: More than 77,340 degrees have been awarded at UC Santa Cruz since its first graduating class in 1967. However, if you're a UC Santa Cruz student, you probably know all that already. They mix it up a bit, since the list is kind of long (43 facts, you guys), I've decided to condense it down to the facts I find to be most pertinent to all of us today. There are a bunch of really boring ones like "UCSC might in some capacity save the world one day," but I skipped over those to bring you the truly important ones. Enjoy the reading, guys. 

8. Military strategists at U.S. Central Command invited environmental studies professor Alan Richards to brief top Pentagon officials about the war in Iraq. (For Sophie)

22. UCSC’s famous banana slug mascot almost didn’t survive the ’80s. Back when the university joined the NCAA, the chancellor and a group of student athletes changed the campus mascot to the sea lion, figuring a slimy yellow slug didn’t have the cachet they wanted. But students revolted and, in a 1986 referendum, voted by a 15-to-1 margin to keep the banana slug, thereby guaranteeing UCSC would always join the Whittier Poets and the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops on the list of most unusual mascots in the country.

23. When the UC Regents were considering a site for a new Central Coast campus, the story goes, they considered possible locations in the Almaden Valley in Santa Clara County as well as Santa Cruz. But coming over the Santa Cruz Mountains on a blistering summer day, they felt the cool ocean breezes and picked the Cowell Ranch property in Santa Cruz.

24. The reason dogs aren’t allowed on campus is due, in part, to a goat named Samantha. Samantha, who had become besotted with a police horse named Sam and was its constant companion, was killed by a big Shepherd/Lab mix whose owner had brought it to campus for a run. The campus was already considering a no-dog policy, but Samantha’s 1978 death was the last straw. You can still see Samantha’s gravestone on a hill on the left side of Coolidge Drive and signs that warn against bringing dogs to the campus.

26. Over the years, reports of ghostly apparitions on a fire road below Cowell College have prompted the area to be named Haunted Meadow. It was in that area on May 14, 1903, that Sarah Agnes Cowell was killed when she was thrown from a buggy after the horse bolted.

36. The UCSC campus is home to more than 500 plant species, an extraordinary level of diversity on its 2,000 acres.

38. UCSC athletic teams have taunted opposing teams by wearing T-shirts with the slogan, “Banana Slugs—No Known Predators.” But that’s not exactly true. On campus, known predators include California giant salamanders, garter snakes, shrews, and raccoons. Even humans have been known to eat banana slugs, in emergencies.

I just love the way these all are written, seriously fucking brilliant. Like, the writer took all of these boring facts and in an effort to make them interesting, actually just made them retarded-sounding and cheesy. Like EVEN HUMANS have been known to eat banana slugs, or how it was truly the COOL OCEAN BREEZES that inspired the founders to place UCSC in the exact spot it lies today. Got to love to the alma mater. 

The end of the world

I am upset.

There already exists in my dome this ongoing conversation/argument over technology; for instance, when I'm about to post something here or elsewhere I consider how it might be more fulfilling, etc. to write it in my notebook, or sketch it, or whittle it or bake it or knit it or or or...you get what I'm saying. I can barely remember a time before the internet and for some reason this makes me feel weird. Which came first: Guy Cox or the internet? Sometimes I barely remember.

I love how the World Wide Web, the internet if you will, can accomplish some pretty beneficial things, like keeping us in touch, getting me sick pictures and music, etc. At the same time I hate probably 1 trillion things about it. Specifically, I hate how sometimes (read: often) it will hijack some totally honest attempt at homework by five hours of looking at dogs riding bikes, cupcake porn, or some skinny boy's fashion choices in Sweden. Life is hard. Whatever though, as with anything else, it's all about striking a balance and all of that trite commentary. Moving past what I can sum up as "The Biggest and Most Pointless First World Problem Probably Ever", I am not going to spend even one minute of my life thinking there's anything positive to say about Kindle. NAH.

Need I remind anyone here that the word "kindle" means "to set alight" and, if we've learned nothing from Mr. Ray Bradbury, setting fire to books is aaaall bad. I mean, Moira, if you had this bullshit Kindle thing, the magic that was involved in losing Anna Karenina would be totally lost. I like feeling my books/newspapers/magazines up (that was weird to type). I like making notes in my handwriting in the margins, underlining, and all in all just straight up handling. I think the thing that probably worries/upsets me the most is thinking that technology like this will decrease people's likelihood to visit my favorite places in the world, aka bookstores and libraries. And then they would close. And then the world would end. Or at least my world.

Other new fangled technological advances that I will not be repping anytime soon: Twitter. I swear, if I get one, I give you permission to twitter about how I'm a big asshole. Then we can send each other books through our iphones and twitter about how much better our lives are without needing to ever touch anything except our laptops, iphones, and...kindles. What? I don't know.

Also, after having the previously mentioned "inner-dialogue" about blogging, etc. I have decided that I am going to blog whatever the ffff I want to 24/7 since Moira and I seem to be the only ones hitting this up anyways. Where you May Babies at? Be prepared for dancing/prancing/romancing music, probably a lot of lists, and more updates on the fall of civilization.

I'm just going to go ahead and turn my attention to this homework assignment that is due in approximately 8 hours.

Twitter you later, obvi.

Playing pianos filled with flames

Listening to Neutral Milk Hotel, missing the May House.

There is a GOLD MINE of these out there, by the way. Not as good, but slightly amusing is this one where the dude makes the artistic decision to include footage of himself taking a swig of Jameson (then adjust the bottle so that the label is sure to face the camera) before he starts playing. Oh, college.

There's method in my madness

Good day old chaps,

Today, it has been speculated, is Shakespeare's birthday. Around that claim is uncertainty, but if anything it is most definitely his death day. Shakespeare was tight and his tightness remains in our day to day language, which I never really thought about but learned about today in my linguistics class. What resulted from that was a .2 second Google search, which led me to a list of well-known "phrases from Shakespeare". On the interesting scale, it's pretty interesting. Either way, it got me to thinking about how I have not read any of the old bean's work since high school...let me go ahead and add that to the 1000830128312 other things that I want to read and/or do.

In other news, this week is Wisconsin Severe Weather Awareness Week. Right now I can hear the sweet tornado siren, which means perhaps I am going to have to do some evacuation or something weird like that so I'll go ahead and bail sess on this whole thing.

As merry as the day is long,
C.

Is this thing on?

Someone please post something else so that I don't have to keep looking at the photo of myself every time I check the site.

Richard? Trip to New York? Jake? Foreign correspondence? ANYONE. 

Re: Growing out my bangs

I hate it and it makes me want to fucking die.