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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded inSWIL's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, November 13th, 2014 | |
|---|---|
| _5:38 pm_[tapas] |
I was cleaning out some old emails and came across a reference to SWIL's LJ group, about which I had forgotten. Apparently it's been over five years since anyone last posted here. Huh. (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Sunday, April 5th, 2009 | |
| _10:06 am_[uncleamos] |
This is a test of the emergency SWILcast system. This is only a test. If this were a real emergency, SWIL would probably still exist.This has been a test of the emergency SWILcast system. We now return you to your regularly scheduled livejournal. (9 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 | |
| _11:48 pm_[jere7my] |
SWIL Hogmanay walkthrough There isn't a good mailing list for this, and I can't get onto the wiki to edit it, so:Oyez, oyez, the traditional pre-Hogmanay SWILfolk walkthrough will take place in the basement of Greylock at 3PM on the 31st, skippered by Dr.  adfamiliares and Mrs. jere7my (same person). Spread the word if you know people who might want to know. Current Mood:  cheerful (Comment on this) |
| Monday, July 9th, 2007 | |
| _9:46 pm_[rebeccapaul] |
Roundsings online amisela took some video of the roundsing at the reunion last month and has put them online here. He notes that they need to be cleaned up, and will happily post cleaner versions if someone does so.Enjoy! Current Mood:  impressed (Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 | |
| _3:02 pm_[crystalpyramid] |
not to spark controversy, but it warmed my fuzzy geek-heart "After all, you were a Warder of Imaginative Literature! I think that's the best thing on your whole resume!"~ person interviewing me today (at a placement company, unfortunately, not a school), understanding on a deep level why I appreciated it when my HS physics teacher went off on crazy theoretical tangents (5 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _12:55 pm_[elizaeffect] |
From the latest Ansible, out today http://news.ansible.co.uk/a240.html"Brian Stableford makes room, makes room: `I'm trying to clear some space in the garage in order to displace more books from the house. At the BSFA meeting last night [27 June] I offered 40 years' worth of randomly-accumulated fanzines free to anyone who cared to collect them, butthere wasn't a flicker of interest. If you know of anyone who might want to savethem from the recycling bin, tell them to get in touch.' Contact via Ansible."Anyone want 'em? Psi Phi itself already has storage difficulties, and I doubt it could fit them anywhere, but I thought someone watching this group might be interested. I don't know how many boxes there are, or how much it would cost to ship them across the Atlantic, but I think that if nobody else steps up it would be a shame to see them get trashed. If nothing else I'll probably send an email to get an idea of the size and weight of the collection. (Comment on this) |
| Thursday, June 14th, 2007 | |
| _3:25 pm_[gallusgallus] |
Alumni Weekend Does anyone have photos? (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Saturday, April 28th, 2007 | |
| _3:42 pm_[gallusgallus] |
My only fear Attention, all campus groups! The name 'SWIL' is officially untaken and available! It can be yours now for the low low price of-- FREE! All you have to do is submit a name change form to the Student Activities Office, and your student group can be fitted with the glamourous and clever title 'SWIL' for life! Act now!::Jenny Yim looks up. The ground is shaking and there's a hubbub outside her office door. Cautiously, she gets up and turns the doorknob. A mob of 50 jubilant students eagerly push papers in her face.::::A few days later::This meeting of SWIL will now come to order. Silence please, thank you. First on the agenda, we shall discuss the secret plans of the Sadistic Worldwide Irradiation League. Yes, that's us. HAHAHAHA! Current Mood: A SWIL by any other name... (Comment on this) |
| Friday, April 27th, 2007 | |
| _11:55 pm_[gerbilicious85] |
Final Four Swarthmore Fun and GamesLeague of WhimsicalityPsi PhiSPQRThere can be only one!----I hope there will be opportunity to edit/clarify the winning name, like Swarthmore Fun and Games vs. Swarthmore Fun and Games ___________ (Alliance, Federation, Consortium, Society, other words appended to the Swarthmore Geek _________ option), The League of Whimsicality, giving (or not) a bacronym to SPQR. (10 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _12:52 am_[sinsofthedove] |
Remembrances Are they happening ever? When? (11 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Thursday, April 26th, 2007 | |
| _3:36 pm_[elizaeffect] |
A Name Discussion Thread? Madness! Okay, so we're changing the name. Talking about the options would be constructive. Here's the list as it stands:VOTES ARE DUE BY THURSDAY, APRIL 26 at 11:59pmGeek AllianceGeek Association of Swarthmore StudentsGeeks for Enertainment and Esoteric Knowledge [GEEK]League of Extraordinary GeekeryLeague of Ordinary GentlemenLeague of WhimsicalityPulsePsi PhiSwarthmore Entertainment and Literature [SWEL]Swarthmore FunSwarthmore Fun and GamesSwarthmore Geek AssociationSwarthmore Geek FederationSwarthmore Geek LeagueSwarthmore Geek UnionSwarthmore Kids in Vitro [SKIV]Swarthmore Purveyors of Random Knowledge [SPORK]Swarthmore Secret SocietyThe Gaming UnionThe Geek UnionThe Organization[SPQR]Above names with ConsortiumAbove names with ConglomorateSome people have expressed trepidation at officially allying ourselves with the work Geek. Apparently it is a perjorative in some circles. I think these are the same circles that use "SWILlie" in the same light, but I'll concede that it might somehow magically cause fewer frosh to immediately identify with the club.I'm writing this post, so I'll throw in a few of my favorites. I am a fan of the clear and simple. Something like "Swarthmore Fun and Games Consortium" or "Swarthmore Fun Coalition" states who we are and what we do without a lot of cruft around. SPORK and League of Whimsicality lean toward the silly, but not necessarily in a bad way. SPQR, I have been given to understand, has something to do with the Roman senate.(Andrew: But then SWIL will become inextricably associated with the Classics department, and I don't think SWIL can stand that kind of humiliation.Jamison: You got your Classics in my SWIL! You got your SWIL in my Classics!)I'll pass on stuff like "The Gaming Union". SWIL has never been and will never be entirely about games, no matter how much D&D and Final Fantasy may consume lunchtime conversation. :P SKIV - well, aren't we going for positive connotations here? Same for Psi Phi and SSS.Please discuss! Voting is limited to current dismembered students, but this is a free internet, and others are of course welcome to weigh in.Love, |
| _1:10 pm_[jere7my] |
Everything Old Is New Again There's a mailing list that serves the SWIL class of '90 and their overlappers, created in 1997 (?) for those old fogeys who wanted to withdraw from the silly discussions of the young 'uns. There's been a sort of parallel discussion there, with the subject line "More nostalgia than controversy." Many of the people there haven't been following the name change discussion very closely, and have been using it as a chance to reminisce about former angst; I was fascinated to see how little things have changed. I wanted to wait to post until the vote was finished, so as not to influence it. With their permission:"One of my strongest memories from Swat was a sentence Bee Bell ('91, I think?) said to me when we were waiting at an empty SEPTA platform for a train back to Swat. She said SWIL was the most-disliked group on campus.""There was a [Vertigo-go] performance late in my tenure [~1993?] where some wag in the audience responded to (my memory is hazy, unfortunately) 'Give me an example of a .' with 'A SWILie!'. I never heard anything else like it, but I realized that it was probably the tip of the iceberg.""...our reputation (which was already going downhill in the early '90s, though I think I mostly encountered that through hearsay, with one or two side orders of 'you're in SWIL? Why?')."I'm including this one as perspective on other historical name changes, since there seems to be some confusion about whether it's unusual for alumni to get worked up about them; it's not intended as an expression of alumni feelings about this one:"As for name changes in general -- I know the Queer group on campus went through many names, which made each change feel rather harmless. But the first change, away from GLU/BQC -- that one was a pronounced slap in the face to those of us who had been working in the club just beforehand."This despite GLU/BQC being the second-worst organization name in the history of Swarthmore. (The winner came two iterations later, Action Les-B-Gay.) Current Mood: cheerful (7 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _12:46 pm_[irilyth] |
Now what I think the extended SWIL alumni community will continue to use the SWIL name, SWIL resources, etc. There will be a SWIL gathering at Alumni Weekend, a SWIL reunion (SWIL 32) in three years, a SWIL vacation next summer if not sooner, swil.org and SWAPA and SWARPAnet and #swil and swil.livejournal.com and so on.I think that the campus SF club, whatever it decides to call itself, will be invited to participate in all of those things, and that those who do will be more than welcome. Some will, some won't, just like always. It'll take a little more effort to connect ??? to SWIL, but there will always be ties, until there aren't any more; changing the name doesn't break those ties.What do YOU think will happen? (49 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Wednesday, April 25th, 2007 | |
| _11:58 pm_[eisenbud] |
queries So what happened? What is it called now (if anything?) What is "it", and is that different than what it was? Will an undercurrent of SWIL always run through its veins, ready to rise up at a moments notice in times of need, regardless of what anyone might or might not want? Did SWIL ever exist? Was it just a myth used to scare frosh? Was it just a myth used to inspire frosh? Did SWIL ever not exist?Discuss. (58 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 | |
| _10:31 am_[wayman] |
Rep among profs Since there's been some discussion here about SWIL having a potentially bad reputation amongst faculty--something I've not personally encountered--I thought I'd mention the one reference to SWIL I have heard this semester from a Linguistics professor.While carrying a lot of stuff to the academic fair for the admitted 2011 students, which was in Upper Tarble, the two professors I was walking with chose the big wooden doors facing McCabe--the ones without exterior door handles because they're the push-button handicapped-accessible doors. Each prof walked up to the doors, noticed there wasn't a handle (just a pull ring which didn't open the door) and started to walk away to another door. I casually pressed the push-button, which isn't right next to the doors, and the doors started opening automatically. The profs turned, somewhat amazed, and one said to the other: "That's the great thing about SWIL: they know where all the hidden doors and secret passageways are."I'd say, given that, that SWIL has made a positive impression on some professors. (8 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Monday, April 23rd, 2007 | |
| _8:50 pm_[irilyth] |
Is changing the name intrinsically divisive? Here's why I think it is: If people say "your group is creepy", you could say "no we're not, and we'll come up with lots of nifty ways to show you why not". Or you could say "ah, well, our group was creepy, but we're different now, and we'll come up with lots of nifty ways to show you why not".Changing the name seems like a way to distance yourself from your past reputation -- which implicitly validates that reputation, saying "yeah, those other people were like that, but we're different".You can say "those other people were never creepy, but we changed our name because other people thought they were", but it's hard to sound sincere about that, especially when some of you have been known to say "alums are creepy" fairly consistently in the past.Not changing the name makes a strong statement of solidarity with the past, and says "our reputation may be bad, but we know we can change it, and we don't have even pretend to distance ourselves from the past in order to do it".You should do what you think is best, but if you really believe that alums aren't creepy, I encourage you to stand by that belief.And certainly, if you do think alums are creepy, you should stand by that belief, and try to distance yourselves from them. But I hope that's only a fringe view at worst. (24 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _2:16 pm_[uncleamos] |
Describing SWIL to others What have you done? Would a more descriptive name help? I've always just said "it's the school's science fiction and fantasy club, and it also has a lot of gamers and computer nerds in it. And some members spend a lot of time just hanging out" and found that just fine. It summarizes major areas of SWILness, and paints a picture that makes sense to anyone familiar with geeky pursuits. But I'm curious as to what others say. (16 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Saturday, April 21st, 2007 | |
| _2:35 pm_[q10] |
warning frosh about SWIL i'm not opposed to a name change, but most of the reasons i've heard seem to be more about paranoia and a desire to be universally accepted than about anything that really makes sense. i'm just going to pick one example: the claim that frosh are being warned about SWIL.i was class of '03, and i was warned about SWIL as a spec. this phenomenon is nothing new. i also heard good things about specific SWIL people and activities from other current students. and i used my powers of critical thinking and social laziness to reach my own conclusions.let's do some math. i'm going to guess that the average swattie, during their time as a spec and frosh-being-oriented, gets advice about life on campus from about seven older students (two hosts as a spec, two CAs, one RA, two miscellaneous). let's further assume that 80% of all specs/frosh get some kind of warning about SWIL (that is, explicit moderately negative or cautionary mention of SWIL) sometime during the relevant time frame. now, we assume that warning events by distinct older and wiser people are independent, and we do a little math, and it turns out that, in order for this to be the way things are, the probability of any given older and wiser student giving such a warning should be ... about 0.2.that's right - a substantial majority of all frosh will get warnings about SWIL so long as one if five current students sees fit to issue such warnings.i suspect the actual rate of warnings is a bit lower, and the actual number of potential warners is a bit higher, which would make the required portion even smaller.every organization at swat is regarded with moderate-to-severe distaste by at least 20% of campus. SWIL gets mentioned more because it's higher profile than some of the others, but that's it. if people want frosh to stop being warned about SWIL, they're either asking for SWIL as a social phenomenon to become much, much less conspicuous, or asking that SWIL be more universally beloved than any other student entity. (37 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _12:01 am_[gerbilicious85] |
A Forum For Civil Discussion I hereby designate the comment threads for this post as a space for constructive conversation strictly related to the proposed SWIL name change. Consider this a blank slate, for all intents and purposes separate from other posts. Please refrain from meta-discussion, angst, flamewars and general wank in this space.EDIT: Aw heck, flame on! Current Mood:  predatory (94 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Friday, April 20th, 2007 | |
| _10:11 pm_[indecisionwins] |
comments OK, I agree with irilyth's point about the SWIL name change, and I agree that it's important for people to realize that. But I disagree with the idea of not allowing a discussion to happen openly on LJ, because even though I realize that a discussion could get nasty, I also think it would be interesting to actually have. At least, that would be better than just suppressing any discussion and just having this name change happen because people assume that there's not much opposition. Now, if the current students really do want to break with the history of the organization, then that is their right... And I probably have less of a stake in this (and less reason to get upset about it) than some people, except for my natural aversion to change.But, even though I may regret this...I'm setting this out as the "comments" section to irilyth's post. (If someone can convince me that allowing comments on this topic really is a horrible idea, I may be able to be convinced...but hey, there hasn't been a good flame war about SWIL in a few months, right?)Edit: gerbilicious85 made a good point about how I set this out: It's not really fair to irilyth to actually call this a reply to his post, if he didn't want that... But what I actually intended was to provide a forum for a general discussion on the issues, and his post provided a good jumping off point for that. So, uh, yeah, if you want to think of this as a general discussion, rather than a comments section for irilyth's post, then go ahead. (Also, by the way...I hope this discussion doesn't upset anybody TOO much, but even if it is somewhat upsetting to some people, I still think it's worth having...) (35 Comments |Comment on this) |
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