Sunday, April 29, 2012

Spiders are too sneaky.

I was being a responsible student and peacefully studying for my upcoming test in the living room the other night. I was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch and using the coffee table to study on, like I normally do. My roommate was in the kitchen trying to make a snack. It was a very peaceful and normal night. Then, I see something out of the corner of my eye and turn my head to look at my arm and there is this huge spider on me.

There are few things in this world that are scarier than spiders. Like giant squids, or getting trapped in the middle of the ocean. Each of which would probably cause death and you'd have to be in the middle of the ocean to encounter them, but spiders can also cause death and they can be anywhere at anytime.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

You can have a free meal (nearly) every day in college.

I was enjoying a free lunch one afternoon with my friend when she said to me, "You know, I bet you could get a free meal every day if you really paid attention to all the events on campus." And I was like, "You're probably right." So here it goes:


Monday April 16:
Business Week Picnic - Free lunch on Carnahan Quad from 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Tuesday April 17:
- No free food?!

Wednesday April 18:
- Mizzou Student Veteran Association and Department of Student Life's Operation Free Lunch - Hot dogs, burgers, chips and beverages on Lowry Mall from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Mizzou Triple A had free Asian food in The Shack at 7 p.m, followed by a free concert by Tim Be Told.

Thursday April 19:
- Today, we starve.

Friday April 20:
- I couldn't find an event, but it's Friday night... find someone to buy you dinner!

Monday April 23:
China Open 2012 Info Session - from 5 p.m. - 5:50 p.m. in Gannet 85. There's free pizza!
2012 Black Arts Festival - Artist Reception with Essex Gardner at 5:30 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Tuesday April 24:
- Sustain Mizzou is hosting Energy Speed Dating on Lowry Mall as part of Sustainability Week. It's from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. and you get a free scoop of ice cream!
- MSA's annual Safety Walk - Starts at 7 p.m. and there is free food afterwards.
2012 Black Arts Festival - Black Cinema Movie Night at 7 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Wednesday April 25:
Total Cereal is sponsoring a free breakfast at Flat Branch Park from 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. because Columbia was chosen as America's hardest working town!
- True Tiger membership renewal lunch - Free pizza! From 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in Speaker's Circle and the Student Center.
- Journalism Week Franks with the Faculty - Free hot dog lunch on the J-School lawn from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
2012 Black Arts Festival - The Transformative Possibilities of Black Poetry at 7 p.m. in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Thursday April 26:
Grand Songkarn Festival - Thai food and other Thai stuff on Carnahan Quad from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Mizzou Mile - You have to pay $10 to run, but I don't know if you have to register to enjoy the free food and music in Tiger Plaza!
2012 Black Arts Festival - Evolution of Hip Hop at 7:00 in the BCC. Free refreshments!

Friday April 27:
2012 Black Arts Festival - Life Music Series at 7 p.m. in The Shack with free food!
Mizzou After Dark's Retro Prom night - Always free for students, always includes food! Starts at 8 pm. in Memorial Union.

Monday April 30:
- It's almost the end of the semester, so find someone with a meal plan who needs to use up their swipes!

Tuesday May 1:
- Today, we starve.

Wednesday May 2:
- End-of-Year Student Life Appreciation Lunch from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. in the Student Center. Unfortunately for most people, this event is invite only.

Thursday May 3:
Senior Send Off - Free food and beverages (with a driver's license). From 4 p.m. - 6 p.m. on Carnahan Quad. You have have to actually be a senior to get the free stuff, though.
Spring Farewell - End of the semester celebration on Rollins Street from 7 p.m. - 11 p.m. So much free stuff!


9/14... not bad.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

I have legal rights to my roommates things in my apartment.

Way back in November 2010 I signed a lease with my friend for the apartment I'm living in now. We signed for a three bedroom and we were just going to go random for a third. It started out okay when we all moved in, but now our third roommate hates us and I think she might be dead.

Really, though, I believe she is now living with her boyfriend. I haven't actually seen her in weeks and usually the only reason I know she's been home is she'll take her mail from her door.

Slowly, things have been disappearing. It started with the kitchen trashcan. She just took it one day (it was hers) and now we only have these little tiny trashcans that hold nothing. Then she took all of her dishes from the kitchen. With each thing that disappeared the frequency in which I would see her just kept going down. The last thing she took was the filter on our kitchen sink several weeks ago, and after that I've only seen her about twice.

My other roommate and I were discussing this in the MUTV office the other day, and the MUTV adviser chimed in about squatter's rights. He explained to us that if we used whatever thing a lot, and the roommate never did, we could actually claim rights to it. Now there are two very important questions: does our roommate know about this or does she just not want us to be able to use her things? And she has ice cream in the freezer, so if I ate it and she sued me, would this argument hold up in court?

Friday, April 6, 2012

The rafflesia is the largest single flower in the world.

My dad is a huge nerd. It was really helpful in middle school and high school because he would help me with my math and science homework (AP calculus, yay!), so it was like having my own tutor but way cheaper and he could help me at all hours of the day. But to give perspective on what kind of a nerd he really is, I will share this anecdote:

I'm in 7th grade, it's the beginning of the year and it's almost open house. My parents ask me what my locker number is so they can go look at it (I have no idea why they even cared, all the lockers look the exact same). I tell them it's number 2048. The very first thing my dad says is, "Oh, that's 2 to the 11th power!" What kind of person has that memorized? My dad. And now me.

Anyway, he always sends me these weird but super interesting links to the most random things. Like this article about The Tau Manifesto and how pi is actually wrong. The most recent link is much more exciting and interactive; The Scale of the Universe. It lists a whole bunch of things in the universe and shows the size of all of them relative to each other, from quantum foam (smaller than an atom), to humans, to states, to planets, all the way to the entire observable universe. I spent a significant amount of time looking at the entire thing.

One of the things it lists is some flower called the rafflesia. It's huge (but actually super tiny compared to the whole universe).
Photo credit: Troy Davis
It's found in southeastern asia and can weigh up to 22 pounds. Next Valentine's Day I would like someone to give me one of these.

It also had some thing called the Japanese spider crab. Ew.
Photo credit: The Conservation Report
There's also a bunch of nebulas which are huge, like 1,000,000,000,000,000-times-bigger-than-that-spider-crab huge. Nebulas are pretty cool things to look at.
Photo credit: Hubble Space Telescope

Monday, April 2, 2012

Sorority houses are illegal in Tennessee because they would be considered a brothel.

I took a vacation to Memphis, Tennessee with my best friend for spring break. We originally wanted to go to the beach, but for some reason we decided to go to school in Missouri and the nearest beach is over 12 hours away, and that was too far and expensive for everyone. We went through our options for other vacation destinations, and there are a surprisingly limited amount of places to go here in the midwest. My best friend is a huge Elvis fan, so we decided Memphis!

On the car ride there, my friend was reading her Twitter and saw that the PostSecret Live Tour was going to be at the University of Memphis that evening, so we decided we'd go. We got to the University of Memphis (which is a really pretty campus), and had no idea where the presentation was, so we walked into some building and asked the students sitting at the information desk.

At first they had no idea what we were talking about, but then it clicked and they gave us directions to the Rose Theater. We also asked where their Greek town was, and they didn't know what we were talking about then, either. The University of Memphis should really reevaluate who they are hiring to sit at their information desks. But it registered for one guy, and he was like, "Oh you mean fraternities? They're all on that street over there," and he said something about the sororities being in some residential hall on campus somewhere. Then the girl at the desk asks him if he knew why they didn't have sorority houses. He didn't know, so she tells us that they're illegal in the state because it's considered a brothel if more than 9 women live together.

But further investigation into the issue reveals it might be just a rumor. In the words of wikipedia, under the 'Dumb Laws' page:
The law that claims that "sorority houses are illegal since more than a certain number of single females living together constitutes a brothel" has been debunked as fake.
The girl at the desk seemed pretty sure of herself when she said it. We also asked her if there was anything to do around here, since we had no plans after the Post Secret presentation was over, and she tells us, "Frat boys."

The PostSecret Live Tour was pretty awesome, and afterwards Frank Warren, the founder of Post Secret signed books. For the rest of the vacation, my friend and I toured Graceland, laid out by the pool and slept a lot.