Dear Readers,
How's everything going? I hope well. If you follow Carleton closely (or have been here the whole time), you probably know that our little town of Northfield (along with other areas) was struck with record high rain and flood levels.
Later, the waterfall would become about one inch high
It was really wild;two days ago, the Cross Country team attempted to run in the Arboretum. Some of us turned around when the water reached knee-level. Others continued on until it was far past waist-level. Yesterday was even crazier, and many students when into downtown Northfield to help with sandbagging.
Our football field and outdoor track. You can't see it here, but in some places, the track was actually bubbling up from the water underneath it. I guess we'll wait and see what happens to it.
It's sad that some businesses and homes took a pretty hard hit, but at the same time, there's something really incredible about all of this water. Maybe it's good to remember that some things are just plain bigger than us (even with a liberal arts college degree!).
Living in Fish House a little ways off campus, I happen to be in prime albino squirrel territory (yea, I'm shifting gears here...). Whereas before, I saw an albino squirrel maybe once a term, now I see them practically every day! It made me curious as to where they came from, so I decided to check them out more closely. I found one that had a strange marking on it:
I researched and discovered that this marking is a symbol of an apple with a bite taken out of it, and that it represents the computer company "Apple". It turns out that back in the nineties, before the Apple product called the "iPod" (a portable digital music player) was released, they tried to market a similar product with a twist. The iSquirrel was released to fill the need for a portable digital nut-burying device that was both white and shiny. In a press conference, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs said:
"The iSquirrel is a breakthrough technology in that it manages to be a squirrel and to be white and shiny at the same time. Furthermore, it's fully portable--you can put it in your pocket (although they don't usually like to stay there). It's hypo-allergenic fur will actually make your house prettier when it sheds! What's more--and this is a feature we're really excited about--the iSquirrel is able to create glossy reflections of itself on any surface, no matter what the texture!"
I was able to find an iSquirrel with it's glossy reflection feature activated. It even works on grass!
Unfortunately, the timing wasn't right--people were content to bury their nuts for themselves. Many described the nut-burying process as an integral part of their daily routine; to relegate the task to a machine would rob them of the pleasure. The white squirrel became the black sheep of the Apple line of products and slowly was forgotten. The unsold iSquirrels were eventually let loose among colleges and to frolic among discarded E.T. game cartridges. They remain here to this day!
Well, see you all later. Today marks the inauguration of Steve Poskanzer, tonight is the inaugurational ball! Yes, an actual ball. Cheers!
Peace,
Jon
