More after the jump, but if you want the less safe for precept ones, click here.

Brutal.

Like you, we were so caught up in the post-Dean’s Date rush we forgot to actually finish the blog. We sincerely hope you had better things to do last night than ponder our disappearance.

At this point, there’s not much left to say except congrats: you’ve conquered the monster once again. In celebration, a look back, courtesy of some Dean’s Date all-stars last spring.

–LZ

4:00PM- Heading over the McCosh courtyard

Free giveaways (yeah right, I’ve never gotten one). Food. Fun. Jeff Nunokawa. Be there. Ciao.

–VC

3:20 – Classroom in Lewis (yup, snagged it)

In the spirit of the two most motivational things on the planet (cute animals and the promise of sleep, obviously), I bring you a message from Shironeko, the world’s most relaxed cat:

YOU CAN DO IT! And in less than two hours, you too can pass out amongst more alert friends.

– ASG

2:41 PM- The Wa

We Princetonians often have terrible eating habits—no real surprise there. I just chatted with Lominy who worked at The Wa from 1-9:30 p.m. yesterday. Check out what he had to say:

Did you notice Princeton students buying a lot of food last night?

They buy a lot of stuff. They eat a lot, too. With the sandwiches, they put a lot of ingredients on…. They ask for like all kinds of peppers or all kinds of condiments. It makes our job harder because everything just falls apart.

Did you get grossed out?

Yes, yes.

Was this just last night?

No, almost every day.

______

You are what you eat?

–DB

2:37PM-My room

My roommate’s stack of books, piled precariously high on top of our mini-fridge for the past week, has still not fallen.

Titles of note: “Hamas and Suicide Terrorism”

“The New Oxford Annotated Bible”

“Inside Al-Qaida and the Taliban”

“The Historical Figure of Jesus”

“Allah, Liberty, and Love: The Courage to Reconcile Faith and Freedom”

–AK

1:25PM – bed

Baby animals, meet Bent Objects.

Warning: more violence and innuendo than you’d expect from inanimate household products.

–VC

1:06 PM – Somewhere in the depths of Firestone

“Having caffeine in you is like being drunk but also smart. Drunk-smart. You know what I mean? It’s like being drunk off your own intelligence.”

Optimism or insanity?

Speaking of which, it is likely that somewhere in the last 24 hours your computer screens have started to look a little less like that Word doc, and a little more like this.

T minus 4 hours !!

- LBC

12:52 p.m.-Forbes Library

Just woke up from a glorious 2 hour nap after sending in my paper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For all of you still typing away, here’s a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood blogger. DON’T DO THIS:

–EL

12:37 pm — Chancellor Green

There’s no shame in procrastination, unless of course your Dean’s Date paper actually is going to save us all from the apocalypse or cure cancer.

But for the rest of you, if judgmental glances from the guy sitting next to you are keeping you from enjoying lemon baby, sleeping kittens & the like, try stealth procrastinating with Vanishd, which lets you browse behind a Word document, PowerPoint, or other innocent cover. Note: try not to laugh out loud at what appears to be a blank Excel spreadsheet, then we’ll just think you’re crazy.

–LZ

12:04 pm — Wallace Library

The key to the last 5 hours of Dean’s Date is tricking yourself into thinking that what you’re doing actually matters. That you’re on a really important mission. A mission far more important than getting a passing grade (or, let’s be real, turning in the paper.)

So go ahead and pretend that your lab report is about the next apocalyptic strain of influenza. Have you just spent the last thirty hours coding? You’re saving the world from Skynet, even if no one knows it yet. If you don’t finish that Gender Studies paper, a sloth somewhere dies. Raise the stakes!

To that end, some epic songs to get you going.

AW

12:00 PM- Still…floor.

I love sloths.

LW

11:50 AM – Whitman Library

At this point, everyone on campus looks like they’re about right here (ripped from a real essay):

While I’m posting, I may as well give the U-Store some love for the delicious iced tea and high-strength cough syrup they sold me last night. A plug for the store that serves all purposes, straight from their post in the aforementioned Prince article’s comments section (i.e. the early action piece). Caption credit goes to Nick Martin: “amidst a sea of diatribes against low admissions rates and reverse racism, the u-store gets in some quality ad time.”

-CRM

11:34AM-My floor

Who needs caffeine when you can have an endless supply of encouraging compliments?

http://www.ilikeyourjacket.com/

fav: They should name an ice cream flavor after you

LW

10:58 AM – My bed…sort of

On the topic of babies (is it bad that lemon baby feels like it just happened?), don’t you wish you could hold up under pressure as well as this one?

– ASG

10:46AM-Edwards

Andrew Bird is the best soundtrack. He’s a sort of funky-indie instrumentalist with some vocals, a little blue-grassy, and most of all, chill
Andrew Bird channel

–AK

10:35 AM – AMAZED AT RUBE GOLDBERG

STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING. Watch this. I kid you not, it’s the best 2 minutes you’ll ever waste:

For anyone trying to read a textbook at breakfast and eat at the same time, this is ABSOLUTELY necessary, unless you need to turn more than one page. (Just get me a hamster, don’t ask questions.)

–VC

10:27 a.m. – OIT

Last night’s slushy downpour seemed a depressingly appropriate soundtrack for our collective mindset. And though the forecast today is still looking pretty bleak (literally, below, and figuratively), all our favorite caffeine refueling stations are open and there are still six and a half hours to hit those page limits. We just might pull this  off.

Unless, of course, you’re one of the three people who came into the tech clinic with computers that won’t even turn on.

See? It could be much, much worse.

–LZ

10:18 a.m. – edge of delirium

Good morning!  (although I’m guessing it’s not)  Oh what a lovely day for… finishing your papers in a dark cave.

-NP

9:53 AM – still stuck between Adrienne Rich and Gayle Rubin

Like the seventh Harry Potter movie, we’ve decided this blog is so massive that it requires a second installment. AND NOW FOR THE THRILLING CONCLUSION.

Is it just me, or is every conversation I have from now until Intersession some version of this?

–VC

It has come to my attention that it has been 14 hours and this has not occured.

Wrongs have been rectified. Also, Owls are the new cats of the internet.

–VC

5:57 am — 2D Kitchen

First things first, Justin Bieber is now a brunette, guys.

Also, the sun is coming up at 7:19 am, which is about an hour and 20 minutes away. So those are two things you should be keeping in mind at this hour.

AW

5:36 AM: In room… so… close… to… bed…

It’s the worst of times that brings people together. (Ignore the cheesiness of that line, it’s late… I mean, early?)

The point is, I let a girl at the Writing Center have some of the food my friend had brought down from the Whitman breakfast. In return, she spent nearly an hour reading my essay and helping me restructure it.

So thank you, Sarah Pak ’15! There aren’t enough blue-sprinkled whale cookies to express my gratitude.

Also, she reminded me that there are far more scarier things than 5 p.m… like Mitt the Ripper.

–EL

3:47AM-2D Dining Room

Oh hey. Here’s that online game you didn’t know you wanted to play.

Have fun! I’m glad you finished all your work and have time to play games, and that’s why you’re awake and reading this blog at 4 am.

AW

3:47AM-Edwards, but of course

So the kid across from you has fallen – and not, gracefully, at that. He’s slumped forward on the wooden desk, face planted into keyboard (those facial dents…yikes) and lips squashed so un-becomingly in polar directions. You spot an ever-growing drool pool…

It’s that time now when the ranks start to thin. Weaker souls, perhaps, but you’re not an entirely unsympathetic peer – oh, no, not at all. In fact, you think to yourself that this poor soul could use a little something that would make him more comfortable or at least save a bit of dignity. “How,” you muse, “can I be of service to this young man?”

Enter: The Ostrich Pocket Nap Pillow. Designed in 2011 by the European company Kawamura Ganjavian, this pillow provides a bit of privacy and a whoooole lot of comfort. Sure, it looks silly, but at least the user can hide his face from curious onlookers.

From the website: “OSTRICH offers a micro environment in which to take a warm and comfortable power nap at ease. It is neither a pillow nor a cushion, nor a bed, nor a garment, but a bit of each at the same time. Its soothing cave-like interior shelters and isolates our head and hands (mind, senses and body) for a few minutes, without needing to leave our desk.”

There’s some pretty wacky things out in the market, but this looks pretty tempting at the moment…doesn’t it?

3:09AM-My Room

Firestone, why did you close at 1:45 when we all thought we had until 2am? Not that it would have made much difference…

Newest preferred method of exercise: Racing, zig-zag style, through the stacks on the third floor of Firestone. Just make sure security doesn’t see you or they’ll stare you down.

2:39 AM – Still in Edwards basement, keeping warm by the laundry machines…

Oh HEY Triangle Drag Dean’s Date Fairies! Yeah, we saw you making rounds by Wu several hours ago…are you guys still around? Candy, back rubs, hugs, and extra thick socks would be welcome. You know where to find me.

2:30 AM – Little Hall

Dean’s Date’s as good a time as any to fall into a musical fugue state. Last year this time, it was a Clams Casino mixtape, but this time around, I’ve fixated on a single song. “I’m gon [write] homey until my heart stop.” Yes, that old gem has been on repeat for several hours. Although the boundaries of the hours are starting to dissolve — time is taking on a new form, and the more meaningful metric is now the number of iTunes plays (quickly approaching a hundred). Prufrock may have measured his life in coffee spoons; I’ll measure mine in 50 Cent verses.

Let us know about your Dean’s Date tunes. Just in case I decide to change the song.

2:05 AM – 1915 Dorm Room

If you’re cursing your parents for not teaching you Proust when they had the chance, at least they never force-fed you lemons and posted your (adorbs) squirming face on youtube.

That said, it’s lemon baby time!!!

-LW

2:05 AM – Edwards basement

Public Service Announcement, ya’ll: BACK UP YOUR WORK! Save your papers to your USBs, send your problem sets to your emails. Just do it now okay?

And as a reward, here’s a PSA, Jay-Z style, that should pump up the rest of the night (erm…morning) for you!

-SG

1:18 AM – 2D Dining Room

We were looking for Roger Wang ’11’s inspirational 2011 video of Ladytown, “the Frist classroom/discotheque that worked hard and partied harder,” but it looks like it’s been taken down by Youtube.

So instead, we present to you this somewhat less-inspiring Spongebob Squarepants rendition of Eye of the Tiger. Because it’s about that time of night, and you need to know you can go on.

Go on.

AW

12:25 AM – Cellular device, aka primary channel of social interaction now

But really…it’s 20 minutes past…and the dread/inspiration/motivation is just. not. there. When, folks, when?

-SG

12:15 AM- Forbes library

In case anyone missed this in Yaro’s email, this kid is truly inspirational.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BdCHgzU9beA#t=24s

–DB

12:09 AM — 2D Dining Room

Overheard at 2D: “Maybe we should go work outside on the porch, so we don’t fall asleep?”

AW

12:03 AM – Lewis Library

It has recently come to my attention that this photo was posted on Facebook with the caption, “Real thugs don’t sleep.”

This is awkward, because this is actually exactly where I am at the moment, and I have personally consumed the contents of two of the Small World coffee cups.

We have turned around and met our paparazzi. I have to say that I’m flattered. This is the first time I have ever been called a thug.

- LBC

11:15PM – Patton Hall Basement

Awash in dreams of a post-Dean’s Date universe with rainbows and kittens and puppy dogs and sunshine? (And maaaaybe a little sleep, after which sentences like that would surely never occur?)

After 5pm tomorrow, I plan to be reincarnated as this British girl, who suffers from a rare, undiagnosed ailment that makes her sleep for weeks at a time.  NEW. LIFE. GOAL.

(Props to Ann-Marie Elvin for the link)

-JMB

10:47PM – Firestone Lobby

If you’re holed up outside the library, you missed an excellent, 10+ minute performance by the Princeton University Band. I wish I knew their route so I could tell you where they’re headed next, but I’m sure that the blasting tubas and banging drums will alert you of their presence. In case you have you have your own music turned up so loud that you missed them—but are sad about that—I’ve got a short clip for you here:

Princeton University Band in Firestone on Dean’s Date Eve

And, of course, a picture: –AK

10:19 PM – Butler basement

Cramming fifty pages worth of essay into twenty-four hours may sour the Princeton experience a little bit, but let’s not forget how lucky we are to be here. On that note, it’s worth checking out the Prince’s early action article—not for the article itself, but rather for its 160+ comments. Some are thought provoking, some are comical, some are genuinely absurd, but all (okay, most) are entertaining in one way or another.

A short preview:

“I [sic] just sucks that you work so hard compared to other people who play xbox while you study calculus.” –Deferred student

“what did I do wrong? screw this racist university” –Fellow deferred student

“No[, Princeton is not racist]. I have an asian friend here with a 2000.” –Current student

etc.

-CRM

9:45 PM- Patton Hall

Fact: the discovery of FREE PASTRIES AND SMALL WORLD COFFEE (and spiffy free orange and black mugs, though they’re probably out of those by now) at Wu/Wilcox made me dance like this guy. Quite a sight to be seen, let me tell you!

Wu’s open til 11p, so stop by for some quality caffeination…because Dean’s Date Eve is no excuse to stop being a coffee snob, after all!

-JMB

9:38 PM-Firestone

The collected purchases from a late meal/C-store run. Fuel for the night, though I’m sure this supply will run out soon.

If you’re looking to get sushi at late meal, don’t: they were out a while ago

–AK

9:20 p.m. – U-Store

Bottoms up Princeton!

-NP

9:01- Forbes library

Text from a lonely and desperate friend in one of Forbes’ study rooms. She needs to work on her come-hither messages.

I’m so alone…..

But that’s probs a good thing

I keep smelling vinegar…..

Stress heightens your senses?

–DB

8:59 p.m.—Writing Center

At 10, Forbes is going to have its Forbes Freakout. You’ve probably never heard of it. That’s because it’s more exclusive than the Whitman midnight breakfast. We’re going to burn drafts of our Dean’s Date papers on the terrace and then trash the golf course.

Hey Whitman Whales,

--EL

8:26- Wu Dining Hall

While I can't speak for Forbesians, those at Wu tonight have the option of making smart Dean's Date choices.

In order to optimize studying efficiency, this is what your plate should look like at dinner (according to Livestrong.com):

But I'm not going to lie, mine was something more along the lines of this:

We'll have to see what kind of stamina this provides. Though on a night like tonight I think we all are in need of a few lucky charms...

-- LBC

8:08 PM - cyberspace

Facts of procrastination in flowchart form:

Click for larger image.

Other Flowcharts that I find amusing (this is a sick obsession and I need to stop before I lose another hour of my life):

Can we date?

Self-referential flowcharts.

Songs like Hey Jude and Total Eclipse of the Heart in flowchart form.

But my favorite pump up Dean's Date music rendered in flow chart has to be:

why not?

--VC

7:49 PM - Forbes Dining Hall

I know Dean’s Date is making me lose my mind, but was it just me, or did Forbes serve purple potatoes for dinner tonight?

--DB

7:47 PM – Wilcox

Spotted upstairs in Wilcox. The room is, of course, occupied by a few fratters.

-CRM

7:24 PM- Frist Gallery

This just might be a record. Two hours in, and PrincetonFML is down. Guess you're all just going to have to hang out here...

--LZ

7:17 PM- Writing Center, Whitman

12 spots on the Writing Center sign up sheet which went up exactly at 7pm. The crowd waits ready to pounce like the line outside of Best Buy on Black Friday.

Thanks to KD '12 for the pics and tip!

--VC

6:40 PM-Firestone, 3rd Floor

Mass-exodus to dinner. Computers, textbooks and notebooks stay out, laying claim to all available flat surfaces like chairs do in rare parking spots on snowy days.

--AK

5:45 PM- Forbes basement

When you can’t find an empty study room, you make your own. Props to whoever took the initiative to carry the extra desk and chairs from the study room into the Forbes dance studio. Extra points for decorating their space with empty ramen cups, goods from Wawa, and a comfy recliner.

--EL

5:14 PM --  my room (intentionally lowercased like bell hooks. #GSS reference)

Nothing like a little Cyndi Lauper meets Grade Deflation to start your Dean's Date off well.

--VC

5:00 PM -- Ivy Crypt (aptly named, feeling pretty zombielike already)

Another Dean's Date, another of year of broken promises of time management; reading period always feels so long, until it isn't. Now there are exactly 24 hours until the hour of reckoning. As per biannual tradition, The Ink will be up all night, feeding you distracting and nourishing nuggets of reporting and commentary at irregular intervals, all the way to the finish line. Check back often. Check back whenever you feel like your sleepless brain has turned to slurry. Check back whenever your caffeine-induced clarity finally fades away. Check back whenever you feel like you can't write anymore. Check back whenever you feel you could probably write a little more, but would rather hear about how I can't write anymore before going back and writing a little more.

Raw and honest dispatches from a campus collectively descending into delirium. Frontline reporting at its finest -- we've got papers and problem sets too, and we're putting them on the line for your sake. Press Club in the [procrasti]nation's service, and in the service of all [procrasti]nations.

Godspeed.

-- GN

Coming to an eating club near you

Good news for all of you who are 1) somewhat hiphop-inclined, and 2) looking for some hope to keep you afloat in these trying pre-Dean’s Date times. Madlib, one of the finest producers alive, will be performing at Terrace on Tuesday night.  A Madlib beat is an odd specimen, radiating the hazy warmth of vinyl, constantly teetering on the verge of a groove before twitching and fracturing and meandering away to explore some other musical thought. He often eschews the typical hook-verse-hook template in favor of weirder, looser song structures, all the while sampling voraciously and multiculturally. Sometimes he raps, too. Maybe we’ll hear some of that at Terrace, but his beats alone will be more than enough to satisfy. Maddeningly prolific, he’s dropped tape after tape of instrumentals (see especially his jazz-inflected stuff), but he might be best known for his collaborations with rappers. Most recently with Freddie Gibbs, most mainstreamly with Mos Def, and probably best of all with MF Doom — their brainchild, Madvillainy, ranks among the top rap records of the last decade, and every time my stomach sinks with the dread of Tuesday 5 PM I just think about prospect of hearing some of those beats live. Hear the flute loop on this song and know that everything will be okay:

Opening acts Shigeto and Dabyre are sure to impress as well. Terrace sets are hard to predict, but I can’t imagine Madlib himself will go on anytime before 12:40 or so. Go listen.

A great 60s-tastic shot of Nassau Hall. (photo from www.princeton.edu)

As of this afternoon, Princeton has offered 726 students spots in the Class of 2016 from a 3,443-person applicant pool, the University announced at 3pm today.  It’s the first time Princeton has offered students the option of applying Early Action–meaning that admitted students are not contractually obligated to attend, and may apply to other schools for Regular Decision if they so choose–since 2006, when Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Virginia all simultaneously eliminated their Early Decision programs.  Harvard took 772 students for the Class of 2016 out of 4,245 applicants, with an acceptance rate of 18.2%, while Yale had an 18% dip in Early Action applications this year, due in part to Princeton and Harvard’s reinstated programs.

Jury’s still out on how many admitted students will matriculate, though Dean Janet Rapeleye has said that the accepted Early Action students should represent about a third of the year’s total admits.

To read more about Princeton’s Early Action pool for 2016, including a demographic breakdown for admitted students, click here.

35.3% of students surveyed report having mental health challenges that they did not experience before coming to Princeton, and certain groups are more at risk than others. Women were significantly more likely to feel depressed, overwhelmed, out of place, or experience new mental health challenges, as were LGBT students, who are also more likely to take a year off from school than the average student. Black students were only 70% as likely as white students to rate their emotional health as “higher than average.”

Life does seem to be better if you’re an athlete. They’re less likely to report stress due to difficulties with friends or relationships and report feeling social anxiety much less frequently, and they rate their emotional health, social self-confidence, and leadership ability above the average Princeton student more often than non-athletes.

Athletes and Mental Health

Still, that’s only better by comparison. Over ¼ of us – athlete or not – are often overwhelmed and sometimes depressed.

Yes, we’re Princeton students. We’re competitive overachievers who thrive on stress and little sleep. Or so we tell ourselves. While COMBO doesn’t compare us to students at similar universities and it’s not exactly clear how students interpreted “new mental health challenges,” the fact that more than 1/3 of us checked “yes” can’t be good.

There is a wealth of other information (often surprising) on how students’ backgrounds affect how they experience Princeton in the USG report. Where COMBO I & II focused almost exclusively on race, family income, and dining and residential options, COMBO III aimed to look at even more ways students’ backgrounds affect how they experience Princeton.

As before, most of the stereotypes are true. COMBO committee members said income and ethnicity still strongly impact students’ dining and social choices, with wealthier and white students significantly more likely to join eating clubs. But committee members left these numbers out of their report, focusing on new findings from this year’s expanded survey.

Background also affects how comfortable students are using taking advantage of university resources. Some highlights:

• Athletes are more comfortable using networks to pursue job opportunities, and they’re more comfortable seeking advice from Career Services, the Writing Center, McGraw Center and Peer Tutoring.
• Men and religious students were less comfortable using academic and career resources. More religious students said they “tried to avoid” office hours, academic advisors, the Writing Center, and others.
• Students whose parents did not go to college are 91% more likely to feel they were less academically prepared for Princeton than the average student. For students from rural backgrounds, it’s 51%.
• Athletes are significantly more likely want to pursue a business degree than non-athletes – 23.29% vs. 13.94% – but they’re significantly less likely to want to pursue a Master’s (29.5% vs. 42.96%) or a Ph.D. (20.19% vs. 36.21%).

We’ll add a link to the full results as soon as the USG posts them online.

Name: Christina Chang/Alice Easton/Kyle Edwards/Sam Dorison/Emily Rutherford

Age: 21/24/21/23/21

Major: Chemistry/EEB/Woodrow Wilson/Woodrow Wilson/History

Hometown: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Pasadena, CA/Longmeadow, MA/San Diego, CA

Upperclass Eating Club/Res College/Affiliation: Butler/Independent/Terrace/Tower/2D-Coop and Rocky RCA

Who’s your favorite Princetonian, living or dead, real or fictional?

SD: Sam Seaborn.

KE: Tough call between Bruce Wayne and Chad Edwards ‘79.

ER: My mom, primarily because she is awesome, but secondarily because together she and I manage to defy every ‘legacy’ stereotype.

What’s the best meal you’ve had at Princeton?

CC: Penne integrale at Teresa Caffe followed by mascarpone-flavored ice cream at Bent Spoon.

AE: I often had cravings for Frist sushi when I was in Delhi. Sushi in a box is such a good idea.

KE: Post-finals chicken souvlaki at Hoagie Haven, which is awkwardly about a fifth the size of anything else they serve.

In one sentence, what is it you actually do all day?

SD: Eat breakfast, go to work, eat second breakfast, do some work, eat lunch, work, eat second lunch, work, go to the gym, eat dinner, watch TV with my roommate, eat second dinner, all while being addicted to gmail. It’s amazing how much you can fit in one sentence when it’s a run-on.

AE: Listen to a book on tape on the Green Line, help healthcare companies think about how to improve their performance, eat dinner with my parents and Skype people in other cities.

KE: I’m either a) in class, b) studying, c) procrastinating on a and b at Terrace meals, or d) singing with the Tigressions.

What is your greatest guilty pleasure?

CC: I’m addicted to eating muffins. If I ever see a muffin type I’ve not yet tasted, it’s my rule that I have to try it.

SD: Obscure competitive TV shows (Top Shot on the History Channel)

ER: Buying samosas from the U-Store at midnight.

What kind of research are you pursuing with the Marshall?

SD: The intersection of international security and human rights: How can countries work together to uphold human rights while protecting their citizens in the 21s century?

AE: The optimal design of intestinal worm treatment and control programs in India.

ER: I’m doing an MPhil in Modern British and European History at Oxford. I’ll be extending my current research on the intellectual history of male homosexual identity in late 19th and early 20th century Britain and America.

What is your biggest fear?

CC: Falling out love when it really matters.

SD: Being boring.

ER: Not finishing my thesis.

What’s your drink?

CC: To me, there’s nothing like freshly-squeezed orange juice with lots of pulp.

AE: Something fruity and preferably endemic to my current location. In Delhi that meant a fresh lime soda, and I’m hoping in London it’ll be a Pimm’s Cup.

KE: Coffee, especially Small World’s Organic Love. At least 4 cups a day.

What makes you laugh?

CC: The Quipfire! improv troupe, the TV show Friends, and my boyfriend’s sense of humor.

KE: Peter Zakin + Aarian Marshall.

ER: My friends’ non sequiturs and dorky jokes.

What makes you cry?

SD: The Red Sox in September.

AE: When friendly animals die in movies.

KE: Ginger haters.

When’s bedtime?

CC: 10 pm. I know that sounds early for a college student…but so does my 6 am rise time!

KE: Somewhere between 2 and 3 am generally.

ER: Around 1 am.

What’s been playing on repeat recently?

CC: Final Fantasy soundtracks, and Spanish-langugage songs, especially Julieta Venegas.

KE: Stevie Nicks’ backstage recording of Wild Heart. (Thanks, Patrick Carroll!)

ER: Handel’s Messiah. For a half-Jewish atheist, I really, really like Christmas.

Where do you do you best thinking?

SD: In my bed.

AE: On trains and buses.

KE: It used to the be basement of Fine until The Flood. This year my carrel has been a productive place, but anywhere within three minutes of coffee is acceptable.

What hangs over your bed?

SD: A South African flag from my summer in Cape Town.

AE: Every time I start thinking about decorating, it’s time to move.

KE: A couple of Klimts and a dreamcatcher. There is also a mouse/other small animal that lives in the wall next to my head and regularly wakes me up when my alarm fails.

How did you celebrate your last birthday?

CC: To celebrate my 21st, I invited 21 friends to a dinner party. We grilled outdoors, made strawberry shortcake for dessert, and watched Catch Me If You Can.

SD: Turkey and cake with my extended family. My birthday was on Thanksgiving.

KE: I turned 21 on the first day of midterms this year, so we waited to celebrate until Princetoween at Thai Village – quintessentially Princeton.

Quick! Top three things on your Princeton bucket list – go!

CC: Camp out with friends overnight on Poe Field, eat a meal at each Eating Club, and build a snowman – no, a snow squirrel!

SD: Since I’m an alum: 2012 reunions, 2013 reunions, 2014 reunions.

KE: Prospect 10 (or 11 now?), convince my friends to actually show up to an arch sing, find the way to the top of Holder.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

CC: “That is the case.”

KE: “Are you serious?” “That is wild!” “Word”

ER: My friends have been mocking me recently for responding to the inquiry of “How are you?” with Carrying on.”

Who is your mortal enemy?

CC: Lord Voldemort

AE: Whoever most recently disturbed my sleep.

KE: The Glass Ceiling.

What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve done in the past year?

AE: Taken a bus from Delhi to Leh. The scenery was beautiful, but we could see trucks that had fallen off the roads that snaked up and down the mountains, and the bus was full of crazy people.

KE: Jaywalking to Terrace.

ER: Deliberately overstaying my UK visa and then gambling on UK Border Control’s generosity to let me back into the country from France. It worked!

In 25 years, you will be…

CC: Hopefully, I’ll be conducting solar energy research at a university or National Laboratory and doing public engagement activities in order to inspire the next generation of scientists! Outside of lab, I’ll still play piano, run, travel around the globe, and maybe have a family.

AE: In a better position to answer this question.

KE: Probably still in debt.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned at Princeton?

CC: It’s a tie. 1) In Algorithms class, we learned probabilistic reasoning behind the Birthday Paradox. In a room of only 23 people, there’s a 50% chance that two or more of them have the same birthday. (2) In Organic Chemistry, we learned the reason why bleaches remove stains. They don’t necessarily remove the colored molecules from your clothes! Instead, they just chemically alter the colored molecules, so that instead of absorbing visible light, they absorb ultraviolet light – which our eyes can’t see!

SD: That a class called ‘Theory of Games’ will be much harder than you’d expect from the title.

KE: Professor Lee Silver told our class that after mentioning the genetic similarities between monkeys and humans, a student came to office hours and asked him to serve as her thesis advisor, for which she wanted to carry/give birth to a monkey-human hybrid.

What makes someone a Princetonian?

AE: Many of us have an almost fanatic sense of loyalty to each other.

SD: An excessive supply of orange and black clothing.

KE: Unabashed enthusiasm for something/anything – from electrical engineering to education policy to start ups to mountain topping and beyond.

We know, we know. Princeton is apathetic. Politically, we are unengaged. Well, Occupy Princeton doesn’t seem to have received the message. Having held General Assemblies on Frist North Lawn since November 17, they occupied JP Morgan/Chase and Goldman Sachs info sessions Wednesday and Thursday nights. Their message? That sending roughly 10% of our graduates into finance goes against our motto “in the nation’s service and service of all nations.”

Dressing in business attire, about 20 students infiltrated the two info sessions, looking like they were interested students. At the end of Wednesday’s session, senior Derek Gideon yelled “Mic check!” and followed with Occupy Princeton’s speech call-and-response style. Senior Sandra Mukasa led Thursday’s mic check.

In an email sent to Occupy Princeton after the Wednesday info session, Derek told the occupiers who had been unable to attend:

The mic check at the end was awesome- the look of shock on their faces was priceless, especially as we all walked out and they realized more than half of us were protestors- and then I heard the woman leading the session declare, “Well, it’s getting close to 7…”

Though they realize they are unlikely to change the minds of anyone at the info sessions, Occupy Princeton hopes to start a discussion on campus by disrupting and bringing publicity to the info sessions. Occupiers told the Prince:

“Our goal is to open up a discussion at the University level,” said Luciana Chamorro ’12 …. “The idea is that it will spread.”

“My personal goal is to raise awareness,” occupier Robert Joyce ’13 said. “We’re young. These are some formative years. We’re around very smart people and this is our chance to challenge our views.”

The question is, on a campus known for its political apathy, will they get a positive response? Though, with about 50 people in the group, I guess they’ve proved that we’re not all Whitney Blodgetts.

The next General Assembly is Tuesday. Find the words from the mic checks after the jump.

JP Morgan/Chase

Princeton’s motto is:
In the nation’s service and service of all nations
JP Morgan, your actions violate our motto
Your predatory lending practices helped crash our economy
We’ve bailed out your executives’ bonuses
You’ve evicted struggling homeowners while taking their tax money
You support mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia
which destroys our ecological future
In light of these actions,
we protest the campus culture
that whitewashes the crooked dealings of Wall Street
as a prestigious career path.
We are here today
as a voice for the 99%
shut out by a system that punishes them
just for being born without privilege.
What we need is not a university for the 1%,
but a university “In the Nation’s Service,
and in the Service of All Nations.

Goldman Sachs

Princeton’s motto is:
In the nation’s service and service of all nations
Goldman, your actions violate our motto.
In 2001, you helped mask Greek Debt.
From 2007-2008, your imposed commodity market
contributed to the global food crisis
with a quarter-million people starving.
In 2008, you paid a mere $14 million Dollars in global tax,
while making a $2 billion profit.
Your lending practices helped crash our economy
Our bailout dollars went to your executives’ bonuses
In light of these actions,
we protest the campus culture
that whitewashes the crooked dealings of Wall Street
as a prestigious career path.
We are here today
as a voice for the 99%
shut out by a system that punishes them
just for being born without privilege.
Dear Fellow Princeton Students,
We are here to ask you for a moment of reflection.
Deciding on a future career path is difficult
It deserves serious introspection.
When you came to Princeton as a wide eyed freshman,
you probably didn’t dream of working at Goldman Sachs.
What happened?
We are all privileged to have made it to Princeton.
However, our talents will be wasted
if we send all our best and brightest to Wall Street.
Some of you joke that you’re going over to the dark side.
To the Gold Man Sacks.
Those nicknames exist for a reason
You’ve heard that investment banking is an exciting, fast-paced career.
That is what smart people like you do.
You’ve been told that this is what success looks like.
We are here to challenge those beliefs
What you’ve been listening to is a carefully crafted recruitment pitch.
You can do better for yourselves
and you can do better for our society.
Princeton is a university “In the Nation’s Service,
and in the Service of All Nations.”
We invite you to join us at our next General Assembly.

Name: Henry Rome
Age: 20
Major: Politics (Near Eastern Studies certificate)
Hometown: Strafford, PA
Eating Club/Residential College: Charter/Forbes College (both are worth the walk)

What was your initial reaction when you found out about the position?
Very excited and deeply honored. We have a great publication, and I look forward to leading our team forward over the next year.

Who’s your favorite Princetonian, living or dead, real or fictional?
Sam Seaborn from West Wing.

What’s the best meal you’ve eaten in Princeton?
Forbes always pulled off impressive holiday-themed dinners, and Charter pub nights. Grad College has pumpkin pie to die for.

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day?
Lots and lots of email, reading a lot of newspapers (yes, in print!), following the latest trends in terrorism/insurgency and domestic Iranian politics and watching crime shows (NCIS, Criminal Minds, CSI, Homeland). Also going to class and hanging with friends.

What is your greatest guilty pleasure?
Listening to my police scanner at odd hours of the night.

What are your plans for the Prince?
Many of my plans are behind-the-scenes changes to streamline paper operations and leverage the resources of our extremely-talented sections to put out the best paper and website possible. More broadly, I believe we have tremendous potential to fulfill our role on campus as a leader. To do that, we must focus on covering — and uncovering — the most current, compelling and controversial stories in the Princeton community and presenting those stories in new and creative ways, including special print and online packages, videos and graphics.

Do you know all the words to Old Nassau?
Highly unlikely.

What is your biggest fear?
Being scooped by another news organization about anything related to Princeton.

What do you hate most about Princeton?
The printers in some libraries aren’t on “All Clusters.” Drives me crazy every time.

What’s your drink?
Root beer. Has to be Barq’s.

What makes you laugh?
Quipfire, Triangle Show and Big Bang Theory.

What makes you cry?
One day earlier this semester all four of my teams — Red Sox, Patriots, Eagles and Phillies — tanked. At once. My friends didn’t let me forget it.

Where do you do your best thinking?
While walking, then I write a classic “to me-from me” email on my phone.

When’s bedtime?
Hopefully before my 9 a.m. (!) class next semester.

What’s the best place on campus?
I’ve recently discovered the Charter Great Room couches.

What’s the worst place on campus?
Any place without nearby power outlets for my power-hungry computer. Seriously, Woody Woo basement, c’mon!

Who is your mortal enemy?
The elves living in the slums’ heating system.

What’s the most dangerous thing you’ve done in the past year?
Probably spending a sunny spring afternoon reporting from within the blast zone at the Palmer Square bomb scare.

In 25 years, you will be …
still reading The Prince.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned at Princeton?
After taking five semesters of Persian, never call the body of water in Southwest Asia the “Arabian Gulf.” It’s the “Persian Gulf.” Always.

What makes someone a Princetonian?
A passion for tearing down “conventional wisdom.”

They took first place at the Facebook Camp Hackathon last weekend, beating teams that qualified at earlier competitions throughout the country. Their creation? Color Me Bold, a program that analyzes a photo and offers jewelry and accessory suggestions. Whether you want to give your outfit an extra splash of color or just want to see what it takes to win a hackathon, you can test it here.

Some tips from Zha:

• After uploading a photo from Facebook, click and drag your mouse over areas of the photo where the outfit you want to match is. If coloring inside the lines isn’t your strong suit, you can right click to erase.
• Next choose whether you want jewelry or accessory recommendations – jewelry works best at the moment.
• Princeton’s network isn’t the speediest, so give it some time.

If you’re skeptical about taking fashion advice from a computer algorithm, well, Facebook’s seal of approval is pretty convincing. It’s even more impressive considering they had just 24 hours to put it together.

Princeton’s team was also the only one with more women than men, which might account for the fashion-forward hack. Zha said she got the idea when thinking about day-to-day problems she’d like to solve – “accessorizing can definitely take up as much time as I have available. The girls were totally onboard–and outvoted our one male team member.”

Check out an interview with the Princeton team and video from the hackathon here – considerably tamer than the Hollywood version, but the Ripsticks do look pretty cool.