WE ARE... RANKED

In case you aren't already sick of hearing about it, PENN STATE BEAT OHIO STATE 24-21 SATURDAY NIGHT.

WOOOOOOOOOO!

For those of you who left the game, didn't go, or just want to relive the experience one more time, this post is for you!

My gameday experience was pretty unique this week, considering I was coming to the game immediately after participating in a wedding, (no, I did not get married) so I can not attest to the tailgating insanity that led up to kick off, but I can tell you that from 6:15 pm to 6:45 pm, when yours truly was outside of Beaver Stadium trying to get to the Blue Band building, large mobs clad in white were making it more impossible than usual for traffic to get through.

I guess it being a home Whiteout game against one of our biggest rivals didn't do the traffic guards any favors.

Anyway, coming in to this match up I don't think any of us were realistically optimistic about our chances against the Buckeyes, but there still was a lot of hype for the rivalry, including the T-Rex challenge from Ohio State, to which our student section responded enthusiastically.

It's like that squad of velociraptors from Jurassic World

The Blue Band performed and welcomed the team on to the field with "a stupid amount of fireworks" -Josh Hackenberg, which I can assure you was just as awesome as it sounds.

I'm completely serious about the fireworks

The first half of the game was a little rough. The general consensus I heard was that everybody who left the game left during the third quarter. At that point we were into 30 degree temperatures, it was raining, and we were still trailing Ohio State.

A moment of silence for those poor souls who left...

Okay! The fourth quarter is when things really started cooking. We started gaining points and having drives, and all of this effort led to the fateful moment halfway through the last 4 minutes of the game where Marcus Allen blocked a field goal attempt which was then recovered by Grant Haley for THE MOTHER OF ALL LAST MINUTE TOUCHDOWNS AND SOLIDIFIED THIS GAME'S PLACE IN HISTORY AS A VICTORY AGAINST THE #2 RANKED TEAM.

Almost immediately after the last whistle blew, fans stormed the field and remained there for what felt like at least half an hour. Maybe even 45 minutes.

AND I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT

This was by far the most exciting and the loudest game I've ever been to, and I'm sure it's going to be one of those things that I'll still be talking about when I'm 80.

On the excitement scale of 1 to tearing down a lamppost, I'd give this game a 10/10.


Photo credits in order of appearance:
Pennsylvania State University
Penn State Football
Penn State Football
Personal photo

SPOOKY STATE

We all know that we go to one of the top academically ranked universities in the nation, but are you aware that Dear Old State is also INCREDIBLY HAUNTED?!

Begin watching at 1:25 for optimal spookiness

That's right! Every day you walk past not one, not two, but SIX haunted locations on the Penn State campus. So, in the spirit of Halloween, this week I'm going to give you the low-down on all the ghostly happenings here in Happy Valley.

The first location is Schwab Auditorium, which some of you may have just been in to see Rock of Ages last weekend. Surprise!

It just screams scary

Schwab is a theater and the main venue for Thespians, and if you know anything about theatre, it's no surprise that it's a theater that is haunted. What is surprising is that there are multiple ghosts said to frequent its 900 seats. They include Charles Schwab, who funded the building's construction and was said to have loved the productions put on in the building so much that his spirit remains to watch them. There are also reports of a janitor and a female presence, along with stories of seats flipping and staying down like someone is sitting in them when no one is there. On the spooky scale, I'd give it 3 skeletons out of 10 just because it's a theater, it'd be weird if it wasn't haunted.

Fun fact: the ghost(s)/paranormal presence in the theater is affectionately referred to as the "Schwaboo."

The next location is right nearby, and that is Old Botany.

Aww look it has a face on the roof!

Old Botany is right across the road from Schwab, and interestingly enough, these buildings are connected. On the Pollock Road side of Schwab, believe it or not, a former president of the university is buried.

I'll give you one guess for what his name was

The story goes that after George Atherton died, his family and the university wanted to give him a personal burial and pay respect to the fact that he basically brought proto-PSU back from ruin, so he was buried on campus, not in a cemetery, but right outside a frequently used building because why not. Now, his wife Frances keeps an eye on him and his grave from the windows of Old Botany. So, if you happen to be passing through on Pollock Road in the wee hours of the morning, go say hi to President Atherton, and maybe give little ol' Frances a wave while you're at it.

The next two spooky sites are residence halls in North and East. They're both more of an urban legend, but apparently there is a Spanish ghost in the North dorms that really likes to watch Telemundo and will flip any TV channel to it, and in one of the towers in East there is the ghost of an axe-murderer and a general feeling of dread on the upper floors.

Although, who doesn't get a feeling of dread just being in East?

Our next ghost is not bound to one physical location, he prefers to gallop around campus. For those of you that remember Old Coaly from my previous post on Old Main, awesome! Feel free to skip down a few lines! For those of you who have no idea who this beloved mule is, I'll give you the abridged version: Old Coaly was one of the workhorses that helped construct Old Main by dragging limestone from a quarry to be hewn into blocks to construct the building, and he quickly became a sensation on campus, and was very nearly the school's mascot. He was known for his hard work and dashing good looks (just kidding), and his bones were preserved after his death. They can actually still be seen in the HUB today, so if you were ever wondering why a horse skeleton was in the HUB, now you know!

Can you imagine that? The Penn State Old Coalys? Ha!

Anyway, anywhere that his bones go, Old Coaly seems to follow. People report hearing the sound of his shuffling hooves and the occasional bray or whinny. 

The final and perhaps most infamously haunted location on campus are the Pattee stacks.

I'm already creeped out

Stacks 50 and 51 in the library witnessed the still-unsolved murder of grad student Betsy Aardsma way back in 1969. She was in the library early at around 4 in the morning, being a good student, when she was stabbed in the heart by an unknown assailant, and died from blood entering her lungs. The perpetrator was never caught

Now the stacks area of the library is already pretty shady, it's very cramped and dimly lit with low ceilings. Add being a homicide scene on top of that, and you get one pretty creepy atmosphere. I visited the stacks today and can attest that a bad feeling is had by all who go to the basement floor. So, the next time you decide to spend a late night in the library, try not to think about this post. (Sorry).

Penn State is a pretty spooky place, although most of the ghosts seem to be of a more benevolent nature. In the end, on the creepiness scale, I'd give our campus 9 ghastly ghouls out of 10.

Photo of the Pattee Stacks courtesy of Wikipedia

All others courtesy of Penn State

Welcome to the Dorm

Like most students on campus, I too am in the midst of the midterm blues. Unfortunately because of this I did not have the time this week to go on one of our regularly scheduled adventures, so instead  I'd like to deviate a little from our routine and take a second talk about a daily adventure that most of us have already experienced, that is: dorm life.

Living on a floor with 40 or so other people is just a sitcom waiting to happen, and like a sitcom, there seems to be a certain set of characters found across the board no matter what building you live in, the first of the cast of personas being the Hermit.

Bless your soul and good luck finding alone time in your room if your roommate is the floor Hermit. This person never seems to be away from the building, Their constant presence makes you wonder if they ever even go to class, and will drive you bonkers as a roommate especially if you are the type of person who wants to come home to an empty room every once in a while. The Hermit never leaves, is almost always the roommate that will yell at you for not wearing headphones or for being too loud, and is the most likely culprit for when your snacks go missing.

The second persona is the Laundry Jerk. This person is out to ruin your day and will throw your clothes on the ground (or the table) the second your machine is done, leaving no margin of error for you to come rotate your clothes on anything less than a military-strict schedule. The Laundry Jerk is not to be confused with the Laundry Sloth who seems to have no concept of the fact that the machines run on a timer, and that other people need to use them as well. The Laundry Sloth is that guy who forgets that they were doing laundry, and leaves their clothes in the dryer for 20 minutes after the cycle has stopped and basically slows down and ruins laundry day for everybody else. The Laundry Jerk and the Laundry Sloth are of course arch-enemies.

The third and final member of our merry cast of dorm stereotypes is Patient Zero. Patient Zero is always sick; they were the one that introduced the Penn State Plague to your floor back in the fourth week of classes, and they're the one that you can now recognize anywhere on campus from the distinct sound of their hacking cough. Patient Zero has made you consider the benefits of a hospital face mask and the value of hand sanitizer, and has also been threatened to be placed under quarantine by your floor should they not stop coughing on everything in the bathroom.

All these personalities and more make for a colorful living in any dorm, and certainly no day is ever quite the same. I think most would agree with me in saying that living in a dorm is an interesting experience, one that I'd rate 5 floor bonding events out of 10.

We'll get back to our regular adventures next week my friends; good luck with any midterms you have left, and enjoy the bye weekend!

A Comprehensive Review of Dining Commons

We're halfway through the semester and I have finally had the chance to eat in every dining hall on campus! I'm trying my best to sound excited about this but at this point all I really want is a home-cooked meal! We'll make the best of this never-ending cafeteria style food, and by the end of this post, you'll know where the best dining cookies on campus can be found (spoiler alert: it's West).

Let's start with the dining hall of yours truly, Findlay Commons in East.

Findlay has recently been renovated and they went with the pleasing color scheme of puke green and purple! I have to tell you, I pass through this building every morning on my way to class and it never gets any easier on the eyes.

Aesthetics aside, Findlay has a pretty good selection of food including a deli, salad, pasta, and pizza bar upstairs, a little faux-Starbucks coffee bar downstairs called Edge, and my lord and savior, the Flipps MTO kiosk.

Flipps has two settings, breakfast and not-breakfast. The not-breakfast includes a wide selection of burgers that are pretty good, along with fries and chicken strips. But what I'm concerned with is the breakfast menu. You can get breakfast sandwiches with a combination of eggs, bacon, or sausage on a croissant or English muffin, French toast sticks, so many different omelets, and, most importantly, A TRAY OF TATER TOTS. Freshman fifteen, here I come.

Moving on, I have a lot to say about Pollock Commons.

First of all, don't let this picture fool you, Pollock is busier than Times Square on New Year's Eve during lunch hour. Unless you're willing to sit with a total stranger, good luck finding a seat.

Because of that, the food that everybody wants, aka cookies, pizza, and French fries, is always being restocked, so if you're in a rush, maybe skip over going to Pollock.

That being said, I do like eating there. Although the food is repetitive, it is usually well made and there are lots of options. Also, there is a superhero room that is literally covered wall to wall with superhero paraphernalia that I love to eat in. If you're ever at Pollock at 6:30 or so on a Monday, you will probably find me there.

Next up is Warnock Commons in North.

This is by far the smallest the smallest dining commons. In the three times that I've eaten there, I've only seen two line options and a small salad/fruit bar. What Warnock does have going for it though, (besides being one letter away from being a Warlock) is that food is generally healthier than the burgers and fries served at Pollock every day, and that the cookies are held underneath a heat lamp, therefore making it better than Pollock. There's also never been a wait every time I've been there.

Let's move on to South. I actually wasn't sure what the name of their dining commons was, but after a quick Google search I can report that it is indeed Redifer Commons.

It's never very busy, presumably because South is near College Ave, and given the option who wouldn't choose to eat off campus? I also have not eaten here very often because it's a bit of a hike coming from East, but in the few times I've been, there has always been some type of Mexican style food like fajitas or beans and rice which I appreciate. Like North, their cookies are also held underneath a heat lamp which I doubly appreciate. All in all, South has a solid dining commons, and I would say for my taste, it has the best food only because I love me some spicy dishes. But, we do have one more dining hall to review...

Finally, if you've stuck with me for this long, we have West food district.

The most important thing you need to know is that WEST KEEPS THEIR COOKIES IN A COOKIE INCUBATOR. This ensures maximum freshness, an out of the oven taste, and makes West the best commons on campus.

As for their other food, it is also phenomenal, and if it weren't for my infatuation with spicy food, I would say West has the best selection on campus and the best food to boot.

In the end, on campus dining is pretty great if your only option for food is on campus. And remember, West is Best.

Lumping all of our dining commons together into one big superscore, I'd give the general quality of food 7 incubated cookies out of 10.

Pictures courtesy of

Penn State Flickr

Penn State Food Services