Another Field Hockey Victory to Boast Of
The IM field hockey season started off yesterday with - quelle surprise - a victory! We thoroughly trashed Siliman/Timothy Dwight, because our team kicks ass. And I scored a hat-trick. It was sick.

More important, though, was the state of mental/psychological nirvana I reached after playing. I forgot how amazing field hockey is for my psyche. For one hour, there is nothing but the game. No homework, no exams, no housing fiascos, nothing. Just the game: where do I need to be on this field, if the ball came to me right now what would I do with it, how far away is my nearest teammate and is she marked. It's so zen. Of course, being the lazy, out-of-shape geek that I am, I paid for it all day today (and will continue to pay all weekend). I almost couldn't get out of bed this morning - my muscles have completely contracted. I can't even walk. Laughing even hurts. There is not a spot on my body that does not ache. But it was so worth it. Especially because I exchanged the physical pain for absolute, perfect mental clarity. So zen.


...My parents briefly stopped gambling away my tuition to congratulate me on the victory. (JK - I'm just jealous because I'M not in Las Vegas...)
- posted by Nicole @ 1:45 AM

 
Wet Monday
Among other crazy JE traditions is the infamous Wet Monday. Historically taking place on the first Monday after Easter (technically, after 11:59 on Easter night), it is the duty of the JE freshman to launch an incursion from Old Campus into JE proper with various weapons of mass saturation (water balloons, super-soakers, etc). It is the duty of the JE upperclassmen to defend the college, turning JE into an impregnable fortress. Raincoats are worn only by the weak.

Preparations for the impending incursion began just after 11pm on Sunday night, and included the posting of scouts, the coordination of special-ops forces on the ground in the courtyard into divisions and battalions, organization of roof patrol, the strategic positioning of water-weapons caches and high-altitude drop points (operation:waterfall), and the construction of barricades out of courtyard furniture (hammocks, tables, benches, etc). I took upon a position on the first line of defense on the third floor, in the suite located above JE's secondary entry gate.

Our scouts first reported movement from Old Campus shortly after midnight, and the assault began at about quarter after. We valiently defended the Western gate, pouring ten gallon buckets of water out the window onto the freshman below as they stormed the gate; we then supported ground forces with air cover in the form of water balloon bombs. The fighting endured for an hour, and many casualties were suffered by both sides (due mostly to hypothermia or mental scarring from the sight of one soldier who wore nothing but blue string bakini bottoms; this soldier was male, and by all reliable accounts heterosexual...) But we succeeded in attaining victory, eventually repelling the freshmen forces and sending them back to Old Campus where they belong.

...It's really scary to watch Yalies play war games, because they're REALLY good at it. This is no wild, all-out free-for-all. This is about strategy and tactics, and everyone gets so into it. It is taken VERY seriously by all parties involved. It's also a hell of a lot of fun.
- posted by Nicole @ 1:02 AM

 
Good News
The UN has decided to send 10,000 peacekeepers to Sudan. The peacekeepers will be monitoring the peace agreement recently signed between the government and the rebels in the South, but will also assist the African Union troops in Darfur and attempt to stop the violence in that region. Here's the NYT article.
- posted by Nicole @ 12:12 AM

 
Mediocre Movies
Wow - I love Spring Break. Even though I'm not off sunning myself on some tropical beach or climbing volcanoes, my couch, my Blockbuster Unlimited Rentals pass, and my mother have been treating me just fine. Who needs all that hassle that comes with traveling?

I've taken this opportunity to cross a bunch of movies off my "Must See" list (though I haven't even really dented the list. Every new issue of Premiere forces me to add like five more). I've seen about five movies since I've been home on break; unfortunatly, most of them fall into the "mediocre at best" category.

In order of viewing...
The Bourne Supremacy: B-
Amores Perros: C+
Wimbledon: B-
Swordfish: B+
Vanity Fair: B-

Swordfish was definitely the best so far, not because of any inherent cinematic greatness, but because of some really interesting (and unwittingly eerie) subject matter. It's a film essentially about terrorism. No big deal, right? I mean, there are tons of movies about terrorism. But this film about terrorism came out 3 months BEFORE 9/11/01. I don't know about everyone else, but terrorism wasn't exactly at the fore of my consciousness prior to 9/11. Yes, there were the two embassy bombings in Africa and the USS Cole, but I'd say for most Americans, the concept of terrorism was nowhere on the radar. I initially decided to watch it for a completely different reason - it's kind of your average run-of-the-mill action film with a computer-hacking twist, but it actually more closely resembles an episode of "Before they were (really) famous". When the film came out in 2001, John Travolta was the only really big name in it; then there's the rest of the cast: Australian hottie High Jackman before he was Wolverine and a Broadway star, Hallie Berry pre-Oscar and Bond Girl, and Don Cheadle before Ocean's 11 and his Oscar nom for Hotel Rwanda.

But it struck me as odd to see this film so preoccupied with terrorism, released before 9/11. The film is somewhat similar to the movie Boondock Saints (a British film which, I think, was actually banned in the US for a while) - it deals with the issue of taking justice into your own hands where the legal/judiciary system (or, in Swordfish, the international community and international law) fail to punish bad people. Are those who set out on a quest of extrajudiciary justice doing society a favor, or are they no different than the criminals themselves? It's an interesting concept, though I'm not articulating it very well here (brain is in spring break mode...). But back to terrorism: John Travolta's character almost EXACTLY uses the phrase "war on terror", months before Bush's best speech writers came up with the term. [Travolta is asked why he needs the money he's robbing; he replies, "Because wars are expensive." War against who? "Terrorists."] During the climax of the film, a bus - airlifted by a helicopter - crashes into a skyscraper. Eerie. At the end of the film, Travolta begins to carry out his mission against the terrorists, and though he is clearly depicted as the anatagonist of the film, the end forces you to reevaluate his status: is he a good guy or a bad guy? The dvd includes an alternate ending, whereby Travolta's plans are foiled by Hugh Jackman, who makes sure he doesn't end up with the money, but it would make for a much less interesting/thought-provoking/daring film; the filmmakers did not choose the first ending just by chance. It's a fascinating film, and definitly worth a watch.
- posted by Nicole @ 2:10 PM