[2003.10.01 0000h]

   [vgame] final fantasy tactics advance [nintendo game boy advance]

on the night before the first day of classes at stanford, some of the
residential staff members of most of the dorms that house freshmen, the
first year undergraduate students, write huge chalk messages on the ground
all over various parts of central campus.  these messages are mostly dorm
spirit messages, as well as messages to get the freshmen psyched up for
the first day of classes.

a few of the messages make fun of other dorms, and are usually altered
versions of what were originally dorm spirit messages.  these are usually
the most interesting ones to read, as since it's not exactly mentally
taxing to write a dorm spirit message, but it takes a bit of ingenuity to
pull off some of the alterations i've seen over the years.

i believe this whole chalk vandalism affair is a fairly recent tradition
at stanford, as since i was part of the residential staff at a dorm that
housed freshmen four years ago, and i don't recall doing this on the night
before the first day of classes.  it probably would have been pretty fun
though, wasting chalk like crazy vandalizing high traffic areas of campus.

in fact, i think it would be neat if graduate students did something
similar.  i doubt it would ever happen since graduate students at stanford
are known for their antisocial habits, and probably do not have as much
spirit towards their own residences as undergraduates do.  even so, i find
humor in visualizing large chalk messages such as "go grad students!" and
"escondido village rulez" scribbled all over central campus.