The Binghamton University Japanese Association or BUJA, puts together a haunted house every year for students and the public to enjoy and a portion of the profits going to charity. Students can even volunteer to be actors in the haunted house so if being scared isn’t your thing how about being a part of the haunted house? You’ve probably been in at least one haunted house before but probably not one like this. Watch the video to see how it came out.

Halloween is a big thing.
I wish it happened more than once a year, since it is not often you get to wear ridiculous costumes to class, to parties, and to suburban Binghamton.

Which is why, this past weekend, I have been dancing singing and generally being silly inside a yellow spray painted Sodexo cardboard box with one eyehole (there was an eyepatch on the other to cover a bad cutting job) a little too low for comfort. Yes, it is incredibly impractical to go dancing in a large cardboard box with absolutely no vision or sense of what’s around you, but hey, again, this chance comes about once a year.

Around me were lots of pirates, vampires, and hippies, apparently this year’s flavors, cats, demons, cowboys and cowgirls, quite a few Where the Wild Things Are Maxs, a good number of Heath Ledger’s Jokers, and approximately one Sandy Cheeks.

The unique thing about Halloween this year is that it happened on a Saturday. Several people dressed up on Friday, even to class, and many had different costumes for Saturday. After recovering my battered box after Friday night, I did what was best for Spongebob. I sprayed his sides white, Sharpied blood all over him, and stuck his jellyfish net through his head.

Post-Halloween, Zombie Pirate Spongebob now functions as a side table in my room.

F is For Friends Who Do Stuff Together
U is For U and Me
N is For Nywhere and Nytime Down in the Deep Blue Sea!
-Spongebob

Catch Joey K, Apprentice Word Puncher, on Mondays and every other Thursday when he’s not trying to find a new way to procrastinate

If you’re a senior graduating this fall or in the spring, make sure to stop by the advising office of your particular school to make sure everything is in order.  Before going to the Harpur Academic Advising, in Academic B, you should stop by your major department to make sure everything shows up correctly on your DARs; if not, they can request exceptions. 
If you studied abroad, make sure you’ve turned in all appropriate forms to the Office of International Programs and to Harpur Academic Advising.  In HAA, processing can take up to two weeks, which could be enough to keep you from registering on time or even from graduating on time. 
I was there last week and right now is definitely the busiest time to visit HAA, but you should do it anyway. It’s a fail safe for your graduation date.  They have walk-in hours Monday through Thursday 10-12 and 1:30-3:30. Take advantage of the resources before you so you’re not haunted by unfulfilled requirements.
Even if you’re not graduating right now, it’s still a great idea to visit HAA and make sure everything is in order.

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while. I’ve had a very busy semester so far - on top of classes, I am working, singing in Harpur Chorale, and doing two internships! Eek! However, I am having a blast! I am interning with the University Photographer, learning so much about everything a professional photographer does. I’ve been attending so many different events and taking photographs. I’ve been learning how to better utilize photoediting software and how to look at photography from a journalistic standpoint. It’s been exciting for me to see my photographs in Inside BU, the University’s publication, for the past few weeks.

The other internship is with Southern Tier Celebrates!, a non-profit community arts programming organization. STC organizes the First Friday Art Walk, which is happening THIS FRIDAY! First Friday is a lot of fun, art galleries and businesses are open late on the first Friday of every month. Bringing the community together!

I am doing all kinds of things in this internship! We are getting ready for a program next week with Flamenco Vivo with Carlata Santana. There will be music and dancing! This performance will be held in the BC Forum, next Tuesday at 7:30. I will be helping with hospitality with the artists the day of, which should be pretty exciting! I like being downtown for this internship; it’s great being out in the community and feeling a part of it all.

Also this weekend, the Tri-Cities Opera company is having two performances of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. This is at the BC Forum Friday at 8pm (convieniently on First Friday) and Sunday at 3pm. Many graduate students studying opera at Binghamton University are in these performances.

If that wasn’t enough, KNOW Theater downtown will have their opening night of BASH by Neil LaBute this Friday at 8pm. There will be three performances each weekend (Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 3pm) for the next three weekends.

If you’d prefer to stick around on campus, the College Humour tour stops by on Sunday at 8pm in the Anderson Center.

Should be a pretty busy but interesting weekend!!!

Sarah

Hey guys!
So this week I plan on declaring my major (PPPLPL)…
I think this is something that a lot of people find to be intimidating-but it’s really not! Just because you declare you’re major, doesn’t mean you are forced to stick with it if you find yourself disliking it. You are allowed to change your majors multiple times, and in college, this is even expected of students! There’s no shame in changing a major because you’re supposed to get a better sense of what you like the more you learn.
I’m in my first semester of sophomore year now, and the reason why I’m going to declare is to become eligible to take certain classes. At BU, like at most colleges, keep certain classes exclusive to certain majors….
Actually declaring your major is a breeze. Most of the time it just involves finding the department and signing a piece of paper.
But when thinking about what to major in, in the end you should do what you like. Don’t pick something that you find boring or hate because you think it’ll get you a better job or will be easier to do well in. If you pick something your passionate in, you’ll love what you learn!
Cheers!
Amanda Grannis

First off, I am not a vegetarian.  I love the idea of it and every so often I attempt to be one, but after five or six month I lose my will power and have a ham sandwich.  However, when given the option of eating meat or not eating meat, I will choose not to 90% of the time.  So when I came to college options at the dining hall were pretty important for me.  Most places, if you don’t want to eat meat you’re stuck with cereal—not the case at Binghamton!

Here are just a few of the vegetarian options offered everyday at my local dining hall, Hinman:

“From the Garden”- This is the vegan section exclusive to Hinman (making it the best dining hall in my opinion).  Recent dinners include Vegan Lo Mein, Greek Crepes with Cucumber Salsa, Jasmine Rice Cakes with Asian Vegetables and Fried Tofu and Hot Chili Sauce over Rice.  The also occasionally offer Moosewood products, such as soup.
Salad Bar- the obvious go-to for an herbivore.  The salad bar at Hinman (and most others) includes the normal stuff like ice berg lettuce, dark leaves, olives, mushrooms, broccoli, onions and croutons but also has chick peas, eggs, tofu, goldfish, raisins and cheese among other things to keep it interesting!
Sandwich Counter- once again, pretty obvious choice.  Vegetarian options include eggplant, egg salad, tuna fish, mozzarella and peanut butter and fluff.
The Grill- the grill offers hot food made to order- garden and veggie burgers are available, but my favorite thing to get there is an omelet.  You can ask for almost anything in it such as peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes or cheese!
Waffles- if you feel like having “breakfast for dinner”, every dining hall has a few waffle makers and homemade waffle batter in cups with flavors like banana, blueberry and brownie.  Each waffle takes only three minutes to cook.
Sushi- California Rolls, Veggie Rolls, Tsunami Rolls and countless others are always available.  Many have fish or crab in them for the less strict vegetarian, but there are several kinds that have vegetables only.
Pasta- plain pasta with cheese and sauce is always available, but often times there is also ravioli, shells or vegetarian lasagna as well.

If you’re interested in seeing the daily menu at Binghamton, here’s the website to do so!

Happy Halloween! At Binghamton University, a campus-wide game of Humans vs. Zombies (HvZ) is taking place, sponsored by Late Nite Binghamton. Let me quickly describe the rules to you:

1. Everyone signs up to play at the online site, and they receive an ID number unique to them. You carry that number around with you on an index card.
2. Out of the pool of people who have signed up, one is randomly selected to be the “Original Zombie.” They do not wear anything that makes them noticeable.
3. The “Original Zombie” runs around “infecting” Humans, who then turn into Zombies. You are infected if a Zombie tags you. A Zombie must replace their white Human armband with a red Zombie armband. You give your index card to the Zombie who infected you.
4. A Zombie starves to death should they fail to “feed” every 48 hours. A Zombie reports a kill online, using the ID of his victims. Once a Zombie starves, they are “dead dead” and are no longer part of the game.
5. ANY building on campus is a “safe zone” where humans/zombies cannot attack each other.

Human weapons: marshmallows and socks (stun a zombie for 15 minutes); NERF darts (kills a zombie, forcing them to flea to their “respawn” point)
Zombie weapons: your two hands

The game is over when ANY of these conditions are met:
1. Zombies have infected the entire Human race, OR;
2. All the Zombies have starved to death, OR;
3. Friday, November 6, 2009 has finally arrived.

Over 100 students are participating in this huge game of tag, and it has proved to be very fun thus far! We have had several “missions” so far (it helps bring humans and zombies into closer contact, therefore accelerating the game), most of which started at 8PM and lasted through 10PM. The current tally is: 29 zombies, 68 humans and 5 “deceased.” Unfortunately, I was turned into a Zombie (by someone from my own building—Hunter!) within 24 hours of the game starting, and I’ve so far only managed to infect one other person. My roommate is playing, and he’s a human ... he said we’re no longer friends for the remainder of this week.

I’ve never experienced such an intense game of tag before, and it’s always fun bumping into fellow players to/from class. This game definitely makes you really paranoid for one full week—the game lasts 24/7 until November 6, which means you can be infected on your way to or from class.

Brains!