On Monday, October 14^th, Stockton’s Neighborhood Watch club held a BBQ in the freshman quad.  The sun was out, but the air was crisp easily reminding students that this might be the last BBQ of the fall semester.  Lots of people lined up to take a grab at the food that was creating the wonderful smell of fresh food and charcoal.  However, when waiting for the food to be made, students got to watch a more exciting event.

Sunday marked the start of the Humans vs. Zombies game that lasts a full week, which people waiting on line for food got to watch.  Students are given green bands to either wear on their head or arm, deeming them either zombies or humans, respectively.  The goal of the game is to not be turned into a zombie, which happens if students get tagged.  Human students get to carry around Nerf weapons; including guns and bows, which shoot foam bullets to protect themselves from the “dead”.  As students waited, they got to see groups of humans avoid the zombies, and some zombies trying to get the humans.   The zombies wait at the bottom of the stairs of the dorms for students to come out, which is a little unfair, but it was still great to watch all of the action.  Tonight is their first mission, so I’m hoping that I’ll get to see some more interesting “battles” between the two groups.

When I finally was able to grab my burger, I was pretty excited to have something fresh to eat.  The burger was good; and it was nice to have grilled food.  While N-Wing is good a majority of the time, nothing can beat having charcoal cooked food.  However, I’m not sure how successful the BBQ was.  If the goal of the BBQ was to get people to join Neighborhood Watch, it wasn’t very convincing.  There was a small table with some information on the program, but no one was jumping to talk to students about what the club is about.  I know a lot of people didn’t stick around; they mostly just grabbed food and wandered to their dorms.  I think that there should have been something trying to convince us to get involved or some games to play.

Overall, it was really nice to take a break from doing work to hang out with some friends.  I definitely liked being able to watch the Human vs. Zombie game, which was a major plus for going to the BBQ.  In the end I had a lot of fun, which is the most important part!

As a continuation of Stockton’s seven year tradition, Stockton had Mary Roach, the author of Spook : Science Tackles the Afterlife, come speak.  After thoroughly reading Spook, I was a little apprehensive to listen to the author speak; I wasn’t a fan or necessarily interested in hearing what she had to say.  Spook went very in depth to a level that forced the idea of a dry presentation into my head.  However, when Mary Roach walked out onto the stage and admitted that she had never spoken in a place with the conventional seating of the PAC, the idea that Roach might not be boring slowly started to creep into my head.

Roach isn’t a woman with wild hair and thick glass that make her seem as crazy as her book may portray her as.  The light-hearted author was very down to earth, snarky, and not cocky about her fame.  After seeing authors speak, I figured that Roach would follow the same pattern, but I was wrong.  As a scientific author, she blatantly admitted “I don’t like science, I find it boring.”  Even though I like science, admitting something like that as a science writer made me really like Mary Roach.  Roach wanted things to be interesting in her book, and she seemed to push finding things interesting.

After the typical speech that college students get (to explore and discover), Roach explained that the only way her books got written were by her state of mind.  Mary Roach explained that, “I ask whatever questions come to mind.”  Roach followed up with an explanation of her investigation on what happens to oysters after people ate them, and explained, “Curiosity opens doors.”  When I heard this, I realized that even though Stockton has a lot to offer, there might be more hidden things around here that I have to find on my own.  My own curiosity is the only thing I have that will push me to be as successful as I hope here.

After Mrs. Roach gave her small speech, she opened up a question and answer session where she literally answered any question that a student would pose.  Listening to her talk completely changed my perspective on her.  She willingly acknowledged that the ending of the book wasn’t the best way to end it.  She had tried “to make a point about knowing and believing.”  Instead of a definite ending, Roach wanted the readers to be able to think about what really happens; she didn’t take the information and form an opinion for the reader.  I plan on reading her other books in the future because I think that I have a better understanding of her writing after hearing her speak.

If Stockton has more authors like Mary Roach come to speak, I’ll definitely frequent the events.  I think that sitting with almost the entire freshman class was a great way to help exchange some ideas about the book, and throw in some ideas from other freshman seminars.  After seeing this event, I’m really excited to start exploring RSC’s other events and can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester will hold.  Hopefully they’re as interesting as this one was!

Since I am from North Jersey, Philadelphia is not a common place to go.  When I received the form to go to Eastern State, I was really excited because not only would it be an interesting place, but I was finally going to see Philadelphia since everyone here seems to talk about it.

Eastern State had looming walls that seemed to stand thousands of feet above my head with large gargoyles looking down at every patron that were out specifically for Halloween.  Walking through the gate we were ushered into a larger area that had a negative, gloomy feel.  The tour guide quickly pointed out that a few of the storage sheds weren’t meant for our tour, but for the Halloween tour, and I had instantly wished that I went to see it earlier that week.  Even though I wish I went, I’m not sure that I would’ve been able to make it through the creepy wings of the penitentiary without sheading a few tears.

I think that the most interesting thing about Eastern State was the fact that it was supposed to be a place of reform, yet the overall feel of the place was one of despair.  If I had to spend time in a place as miserable, I’d probably end up going crazy.  The inmates were originally expected to spend their punishment in complete solitude in concrete cells.  In the early formation days, prisoners never fully went outside, they just went to a small cell without a ceiling.  It also bothered me how small the cells were; I think that everyone would be destined for failure and become mentally unstable because they really are tiny.  What I don’t understand, however, is how they didn’t record people’s success.  If this is a place for reform, how can a reputation be built without tracking the success of the criminals?  Convicts would be released after their sentence and could leave the area and commit the same crime, yet people would think they were first time convicts.  I think that hearing about how the place changed, such as letting prisoners go outside and teaching them trades, was really interesting though.  I really enjoyed the fact that people were able to escape by making a ladder in a class trying to teach them trades so they would be successful after their sentence.   I also thought that Al Capone’s cell was really cool to see.  I’ve always been interested in the twenties, so seeing the notorious mobster’s cell was something that made my interests more than a story from a history book; it became real.

After the tour, we were allowed to explore the neighboring blocks, which was awesome.  There was a used bookstore, called Book Haven, which was absolutely unbelievable.  There were books piled all over the store, and there were multiple floors.  This was a store for anyone who wanted to find a new favorite book, or even books that have fallen into the black hole that is the literary world.  It was a cozy store that one could easily spend a decent amount of money or time in.  I definitely think that it’s a store that I should go back to once the stress from the semester is done limiting my free time.

Overall, I think that this was a great trip, and really enjoyed my first time really going to Philly.  I hope that there’s more interesting places to visit during my time at Stockton, because I’d love to see other things too!