Bray Days: We Thought It Would Be Funny

Aside:  (Yes, we are starting with an "aside." And also, apparently, a parenthetical.  Someday I will learn to focus. This is not that day.)

Above is a photo of the ENORMOUS model of the Capital District Area made by the RPI Model Railroad Club. It took up the entire basement under one of the dorms and I completely forgot it existed until I went looking in my Mom's old photo albums for pictures to go with these stories. That should highlight the fact that there may be many other lapses,  inaccuracies and fabrications in these tales from over three decades past.

Bray Days: Water Wars

The actual “parties” in the dorm were sedate enough to stay under the R.A.’s official radar, and keep Ed and his crew from shutting them down. However, there was something, non-party or alcohol related, about Bray Hall that inspired high damage bills.
 

Bray Days: The Party "Scene"

 

That first year, snow or not, we had more contacts with official Fraternities than we would once we were fully isolated from them, by choice, in the E-Dorms.
 

Bray Days: Snow Daze Part 2

 

I was one of the people studying for Linear Algebra during the snow battle.
 

Bray Days: Snow Daze Part 1

Aside- This image was taken around three decades after the events of the story, as can be seen by the existence of the pointy building in the background occupying space that was the parking lot where I kept the first Crimson Thunder at the time.

The other valuable lesson I learned that first semester regarding attentiveness and study habits is going to be embedded into much longer and more chaotic stories about snow, because linear, easy to follow, narrative structure is not how my brain works..
 

Bray Days: Computer Lesson

Aside- Behold! A photo of the wall in my dorm room, where the nervous breakdown documented in this story happened. It is from move in day. Witness the Next Generation poster as proof of me trying desperately to be a fan, before giving up, following multiple seasons.

Besides learning about the health and general quality of life benefits of exercise, RPI taught me several other off the books lessons. Amazingly, some were specifically about study habits.
 

Bad Geek Confessions: Dune

I finally got around to seeing the new Dune film on blu-ray because I am a casual fan of the franchise.

This is what makes me a bad geek.

Bray Days: Physical Education

Freshman Year was when I started formally exercising regularly. No matter where we ate, that and a youthful metabolism, brought me to levels of healthiness never seen before or since. 

Aging is truly unfair. Now I have to walk/ bike an hour a day just to maintain weight, while watching my diet closely. Thanks to my knees (and most of the rest of me) running is no longer an option. Back then I could semi-regularly grab a bag of kettle cooked barbecue chips on the way back from a stint on the track and still be buff and slim.
 

Bray Days: Food

Aside- I didn't have any pictures of the dining hall, but I do mention this bridge below. Maybe if I waited less than three decades to write about parts of my life I'd have better pictures.

Food had to be figured out quickly at RPI, and DAKA was there to provide. College meal options have all sorts of side possibilities now, with mixes of “meal points” and virtual cash, plus multiple commercial chains located on campus. We had DAKA, the food service that ran all of the dining halls (with their all you could eat, meal plan system) as well as the Union pizza place and cafeteria. (These were separate from the plans.)
 

Bray Days: Sleep Schedules

Aside- This picture is only tangentially connected to the end of this story, but since the makeup came much better than a couple years later when I did the whole costume, I put it here. 

Jesse and I had known one another since first grade. One Legend of how we met is that my allergies had me sneezing on my really cheap, ridiculously thin, yellow math paper every day and ruining it. He suggested I turn my head . . . 

And the next day I sneezed on his math paper. 

Neither of us is sure if this is anywhere near the truth.
 

Bray Days: Orientation Part 2

 

Note- That is version one of "the shirt." It was the black replacement that inspired the sign.

Orientation continued once we moved into the dorms (for real) the week before Labor Day. I was thrilled to be assigned to Bray Hall. While the overall floor plan and individual rooms were identical to the other freshman dorms, there was one difference. Bray had a larger than life sized mural of the Original Series (at that point, not counting one Next Generation season, the ONLY series) Star Trek crew on the bridge of the Enterprise.

Bray Days: Orientation Part 1

The main point of college is the classes, however, an equal if not greater amount of education comes from living on one’s own, and interacting with others from that standpoint for the first time.
 

E-Dorm Life- Prequel: Bray Days Index

This idea started as a paragraph long introduction to the RPI E-Dorm stories with the intention of containing quick highlights to some First Year adventures occurring before we moved into the dorm we lived in the remaining college years. 

Philadelphia 2021 Day 2a

 

Ye Olde College Try
May 27, 2021
 

Mighty Catchy Stuff: Iron Maiden Live After Death

I have been a metal fan since transitioning from "comedy only" listening during high school in the Eighties.  KISS and AC/ DC hold places on both the "Mighty Stuff" and "Catchy Stuff" tapes.  Besides those two, I've driven and run to extensive Lita Ford, Aerosmith and Motley Crue collections. Plus several albums by Twisted Sister, Def Leppard, Jackyl, Quiet Riot and Ozzy. 

E-Dorm Life: Real Endings

The real ending of my E-Dorm life came a year later. I stayed at the E-Dorms after the Big Room years rooming with Jesse finished, but moved to a Voorhees single.  In trying to avoid the odd feeling of being in Brian’s old room, I accidentally picked one Scott had lived in. Since he got rid of his bed and slept in a hammock during his stay, there wasn’t much familiarity of the space anyway.

E-Dorm Life: Initial Endings

When Jesse and I first got to college, we realized that we would be the “Class of '92” like the Doctor said he was in the classic last Key to Time episode, 1979's “The Armageddon Factor.”   I finished all my requirements by December of 1991, but since: I knew I’d need a graduate degree eventually, the job market had dried up considerably while we were studying, and that kind of Galifreyan reference was too good to pass up, I filed all my papers to allow me to officially graduate with the class I'd entered RPI with in June of 1992.

E-Dorm Life- Juggling Club – Brushes With Fame

There were two moments in our college career where the RPI Juggling Club had contact with some of the greatest Jugglers of our time.  Woo!

E-Dorm Life- Juggling Disasters

Another long one folks, hold on for the ride.  Sometimes the memories flooded back as I proofread, after everything was locked in place, yielding new and detailed stories each time.

I did a great deal of juggling at RPI, something else I learned from Jesse, both having fun in the club and in various performances.  It reached a point that if I meet someone who went to the same college as I did at the same time, I ask:

“Did you juggle or do a radio show? Otherwise, I'll have no idea who you are."

E-Dorm Life- This is WRPI Troy Signing Off the Air

Spring of 1992, Jesse and my final semester on air together was much freer flowing.