Author Archives: bleys

When Zombies Attack!

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At midnight on Monday morning on October 14th, another game of Humans vs. Zombies commenced at Stockton. Humans vs. Zombies, or HvZ, is played by thousands of colleges throughout the nation and is one of the most fun and interesting games one can play. The goals in HvZ differ between being a zombie and a human. If you are a human, your objective is to survive the week of Hvz, which is how long the game lasts. You must attend nightly missions to obtain food rations and to prevent yourself from turning into a zombie. Humans can use Nerf guns or socks to defend themselves against zombies.

If you are a zombie, however, your goal is to tag as many humans as you can. Once you tag a human, you collect their code and enter it on the HvZ website, and your victim then also becomes a zombie. You must eat at least once every 48 hours, or you will starve. If you get shot by a human, you are out of the game for 10 minutes, the time it takes for a zombie to respawn. Once a zombie is respawned, they can continue hunting for more humans. Zombies do not need to complete their nightly missions, but it is easier to find targets if they do (and it is also a lot more fun!).

When I played HvZ, I was the first one to get tagged by a zombie. I was tagged by the OZ, or “Original Zombie.” The OZ is disguised to look like a human, though they are secretly lurking around and tagging humans to turn them into zombies. Though I wish I had more time as a human, I also loved the thrill that came with being a zombie. I ran after people all day every day of the game trying to tag them, and even got a few! I jumped out of my window to tag people, and I even wore zombie makeup one of the days! My muscles were so sore from all of the running, but it was definitely worth it and some of the most fun I’ve ever had!

Day of Service!

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On Saturday, September 7th, Stockton hosted its annual Day of Service. I have done a lot of community service in the past, and I was excited for a day specifically dedicated to helping others! One of my friends and I arrived at the event room in the campus center, and it was extremely packed with other students. There were so many people that were volunteering to help out!

My friend and I walked up to one of the tables that were not filled and signed up for helping out at the art show at the boardwalk. The event was called “Do Art,” and we were tasked with handing out ballots to the customers so they could choose who their favorite artists were. However, handing out ballots proved more difficult than we thought. Most of the people we talked to did not want to take the ballots, so we only ended up giving out a few.

Though we were not able to do much with our original job, we were able to help out in other ways. At one point there was a wind that knocked down some of the art pieces at one of the artist’s stands, so my friend and I helped set the masterpieces back up. We also brought more ballots up to one of the artist’s stands, who had run out of them.

After helping out at the art show, we held a short reflection session and boarded the buses to head back to Stockton. Volunteering at the boardwalk was not only beneficial to the artists, but it was also a lot of fun! We saw so many different pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures, and even body paint! It felt good to be giving back to the community of artists. It was a great volunteering experience, and I’ll be sure to attend the next Day of Service in October!

The Wonderful World of Harry Potter

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On Sunday November 17th, The Stockton Quidditch Club held its bi-yearly quidditch tournament. Before the tournament, participants in the quidditch club signed up to play on one of four quidditch teams: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. Each of these teams represent the four houses in the famous Harry Potter series, the world in which quidditch is set. However, rather than flying on brooms, Stockton quidditch uses pool noodles, and the other rules also differ slightly.

In Stockton Quidditch, there are four different positions: Chaser, Beater, Keeper, and Seeker. The chaser’s job is to throw one of the balls, the quaffle, through one of three hoops that the opposite team’s keeper guards. A score through one of the hoops counts as 10 points. The beater throws one of three black balls, called the bludger, at the other team’s teammates to try to knock them off their brooms. When this happens, the player runs back to their team’s goalposts before resuming normal play. The seeker tries to catch the snitch, usually a track runner, all dressed in yellow running around the field. This is worth 30 points and ends the game.

Everyone arrived at the intramural fields at 9:30 AM to warm up and set up for the tournament. Each team played a total of 3 practice games, one against each opposing team, to figure out the matchup for the tournament. The team I was on, Hufflepuff, took 2nd place in the practice games, and ended up playing against the 3rd place team, which was Ravenclaw. Hufflepuff beat Ravenclaw, while Slytherin won against Gryffindor. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor played each other for 3rd place, in which Gryffindor won, and then the final game between Hufflepuff and Slytherin was played. The game was close, but in the end Slytherin’s seeker caught the snitch and won them the game. Though Hufflepuff ended up in 2nd place, the tournament was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to play in the next one!