Are you aware?

Have you been seeing these all over campus, too? The first one I noticed was in Pollock, then near McElwain and then all along Shortlidge and Pollock Road. Despite the fact that it was a Monday morning and I was therefore very tired, my exhausted brain still pondered what their meaning could be. I came up with the fact that it's probably a suicide awareness action, because I have been reading about them on "Stall Stories" and all over campus. Centre County is having a walk for it, called the "Out Of Darkness" walk and there have been a large amount of Facebook events for it.

Maybe it just seems that way to me because a boy from my high school recently committed suicide, but there appears to be a lot of recent focus on suicide and depression.

I tried thinking about what I am aware of. But how do you even ask yourself that? Do you just list problems in the world you are aware of? You could drive yourself crazy with that. Furthermore, if you're not aware of something, then you wouldn't even know you're not aware of it, because you have no idea it exists. Here at Penn State, we are especially aware of pediatric cancer. We raise money for it, but in doing so we also raise awareness. We are aware of major crises like the one in Japan and there are efforts to creating relief funds to be seen everywhere. I'm sure it was a similar situation with Haiti and Hurricane Katrina when it hit. We are aware that people are treated unjustly because of their race and the university does its best to minimize conflict, and successfully so. As a whole therefore, Penn State is a pretty 'aware' university. But what about me personally? I watch the news daily and occasionally pick up a copy of the New York Times, but that does not make me aware of everything that's going on in the world. And is simply knowing about a problem what constitutes awareness? Because if so, raising awareness is easy. But it also wouldn't help anyone. For example, I know about the impact the tsunami had on Japan. But have I donated any money? No, I haven't. So am I aware? I understand that autism exists, but I have not worked with any autistic kids. Does that mean I am aware of autism?

Do you consider yourself aware?

Squirrels :)

This week, I almost completed my goal of touching a squirrel. I was on my way to class and stopped to watch two squirrels chase each other around a tree. When they slowed down and were just chilling next to the tree, I crouched down and pretended to have food in my hand. The one squirrel slowly zigzagged towards me, thinking I was about to feed it. It was only a few inches away from me, when a girl walked past me and the squirrel got scared and ran back up the tree. You cannot imagine my disappointment. I have dreamed of petting / domesticating a squirrel (or a rabbit) the entire time I've been here. I have chased an unbelievable amount of rabbits around Pollock, have teamed up with three of my friends and tried to corner one, but it never works out. This time, I actually got so close to one of my dreams, but of course it failed yet again.

I have recently developed an obsession for collegeacb.com, although it is not as strong of an obsession as the one I have for squirrels. I recently found a post discussing Penn State wildlife. In case you don't spend any time on this website, pretty much every other post is about fraternity and sorority rankings, which are organized into tiers. This one, however, focused on the tiers of Penn State wildlife. I don't remember the specifics of it, but what I do remember is that both squirrels and rabbits made it in the top 2 tiers, which of course made me very happy. Chipmunks (they're back, by the way!!!!!) ranked lower than I would have thought, but I don't care about them as much anyway.

I hope this post doesn't seem ridiculous. My obsession is pretty legitimate and I think I even mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I will most likely end up talking about squirrels at one point. Furthermore, some of the things I have found on campus are just as ridiculous as this post, so hopefully this is not too weird for you readers,

Duck in Pollock!

 Penn State's wildlife is crazy. In the beginning of the year, I was mesmerized by the millions of squirrels running up and down trees and eating out of trashcans. In fact, I witnessed a squirrel digging an acorn out of the ground today! I dearly missed the bunnies and chipmunks these last couple of months and I can't wait for them to come back, so that I can finally accomplish my goal of catching a rabbit and domesticating it.

But never in my life did I expect to see a duck strolling around in front of my building. I was on my way to get tea and thought that I must surely be dreaming and not quite awake yet. I stopped and stared at it for a bit, chuckling to myself that this must the weirdest animal to be in front of my building. After all, the duck pond is fifteen minutes away from where I live and the duck would have had to cross a major road to get here. But it somehow made it here safely.

It was really amusing to see it fly across the quad and seeing everyone's reaction. We all started laughing and looking at each other; confused as to why a duck would be here. That's what I love about odd events like this. You all momentarily bond over the fascinating thing you are witnessing and strangers, who might have nothing else in common, are suddenly talking to each other. Of course you don't bond enough to become friends and in many cases you will ignore the person you spoke to the next time you see them, but moments like this keep me giggling for quite a while. I suppose that's a big part of why I love random things - the reactions they elicit from me and others. For example, when I saw that squirrel digging up that acorn, there was no one around me. I still enjoyed seeing it and it made me chuckle, but I would have laughed a lot more had a random person been there to stop and stare at it with me and to laugh about it.

Ohhhh THAT'S what I'm supposed to with on a toilet?!

Do you find this disturbing? An insult to your intelligence? Unnecessary?
Apparently this is necessary. I don't know what kind of incidences the communications building has had but I guess something must have called for the mounting of this sign. The message is clear... sit on the toilet. I don't want to get too personal here (I don't want to know nor care what you with a toilet) but I would not sit on a public toilet either. It's not very sanitary if everyone sits down on it and leaves their germs there. And what's so wrong with hovering above the seat? At the risk of being gross (it's really hard not to be with this kind of topic.. sorry), I know it's disgusting when you find the seat sprinkled with pee but at least I am not getting whatever diseases other people have left there.
Also, do they really think we squat on top of the toilet bowl? This is honestly one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life - not just around Penn State. (I'm literally laughing right now.)
I love what you find in toilets, whether it's hearts carved in the stall wall or obscenities written in sharpie. I have found some pretty hilarious things in stalls across the world and I wish I had always taken a picture of them. That would have been a fun blog: "Stalls Across the Globe". Since I am already on the topic of various toilets around the world, let me tell you about the world's worst toilet. I was on a road trip in China and we stopped for lunch in a small town.When I asked where the bathroom was, the waitress pointed outside. So I went out the door she had pointed to and landed right in front of a small hut on stilts. With a huge pile of human excrements under it. Needless to say, it was disgusting, but it definitely makes a good story.