Real live palm trees!

I am a junior in college and Spring Break 2012 marks the first time that I have ever traveled west of New York State. Before you judge me, though, know that I go all or nothing. As in, for my first trip west, I went all the way to California (and I am SO sorry to anyone who makes that plane trip regularly. Six hours is a long time to sit). To Santa Monica, actually, which is apparently one of the most beautiful cities in America. Not that I’ve seen a whole lot of other cities, but this is what people tell me. Anyway, spring break in Cali…Woooo! Wouldn’t you know that it was warmer in Cambridge than in Santa Monica for EVERY SINGLE DAY that I was out there for break. Hrmpf.

zomg it's the circus.

But whatever, the point is that I was in the illustrious California for the first time ever and that was awesome sauce just on its own. I have to assume that I stuck out as an east-coaster, though, based on my total lack of understanding of, well, basically anything out there. The west coast is not part of the United States (as I know it). It’s another planet. Here are a few gems that stuck out about the Santa Monica/LA/Beverly Hills area:

1. Everybody jogs. Like seriously, everyone. And at all hours of the day. I was also out there on the day of the LA Marathon and I’ve never felt like such a slug as when I was surrounded by a horde of super-fit people wearing “I finished the marathon!” capes and grinning like over-exercised labradors.
2. Everyone has a tiny dog. Sometimes, people carry them in purses. I thought that only movie stars and Paris Hilton (yes, that’s two different categories) did that.
3. All of the women are blonde, tall, and skinny. All of the men are burly, tan, and dashing. Not a single person “could use some sun.”
4. Ladies will wear Uggs in sixty-degree weather. Apparently, that’s “cold.”
5. Parking doesn’t make any sense. 50% of parking is in expensive garages/lots, 40% is valet, and the other 10% consists of meters that are never empty anyway.
6. California really likes frozen yogurt. I thought Harvard Square was cool because we have 2 vendors, but Santa Monica sort of beat us out on that one. Smoothies, too.
7. Everyone is really cheery. Apparently growing up where the sun shines constantly will do that for you.
8.  –>
   

   California goes hardcore on the seaweed.

West-coasters, what was your first impression of Cambridge/the east coast? Did you feel as out of place as I felt going the other way?

Did you love the Harvard Douchebag meme, but thought that it kind of misrepresented our student body? I mean, we’re not all douchebags, here, right? There are still some good guys at Harvard, right?

Now that we’ve sounded just a little needy and insecure, here’s the Harvard Good Guy meme to make us all feel a little less pretentious. A little sweet to go with the sour, if you will.

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Today, one of my House tutors held his office hours not from behind his desk, but from behind the information table at Occupy Harvard.  You know what I have to say to that?

Rock on.

The Yard’s tent city has become the subject of such hot debate over the last few weeks, but for all the wrong reasons.  I’ve heard a lot of students complain about the “inconvenience” of having to show their IDs to get into the Yard, or of having to choose an open gate because their regular route of travel has been cut off. It seems that students have pushed more of their energies into finding alternate walking routes through the Yard than into thinking about why Occupy Harvard has been constructed in the first place.

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It’s almost the end of the year, which means you should get yourself one of these coveted calendars, based on The Voice’s most popular article of the last academic year - “10 Guys You’ll Meet at Harvard.”

They have elicited various “Wows” and “Do these guys actually go to Harvard?” comments from onlookers at the Activities Fair earlier this year. Don’t miss out!

Specs: 11.0″ x 8.50″ on glossy calendar paper, printed by Vistaprint.

Price: $12. (Similar calendars sell for $16 on Vistaprint.)

Free shipping by campus mail for Harvard students. Non-Harvard buyers will be charged a flat shipping rate of $3.

Click below to order. Follow the jump for a sneak preview and acknowledgements. You know you want to Facebook-stalk our models ;)

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Rockstar Status.

Source

According to this here Huffington Post article, Lady Gaga recently announced that she will be teaming up with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the California Endowment, and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to create the Born This Way non-profit foundation.

Gaga and her mother will head the foundation, which she states will strive to “establish a standard of Bravery and Kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment.” Kudos to Mother Monster for the inspiring message, and to the Huff Post author for turning Bravery and Kindness into proper nouns by capitalizing them!

Let’s give a round of applause to Lady Gaga for attacking bullying head-on, and for using her fame (monster) to spread the message of equality and compassion.

Mark Zuckerberg, Harvard drop-out and founder of Facebook, is returning to campus on Monday to recruit for his multi-billion dollar social networking behemoth (source: The Boston Globe). That noise you hear is all the Computer Science geeks on campus erupting in tears of joy.

In eager anticipation of what will surely turn out to be a scene of Zucks getting mobbed, Noice has compiled a list of things you can do in order to impress him within your allocated time of a minute-and-a-half. Be sure to thank us when you’re employed!

1. Come decked out in blue. Blue shirts, blue boxers, blue shorts, blue beanies (it will be cold, like it is for ten months in a year), blue nails, what have you. Paint your face blue and scribble “Facebook” in white across your forehead. It’s only fitting that the t-shirt for Kirkland House, Zucks’ former residence, is blue. Steal one of those. Nothing says commitment like being a walking banner of Facebook.

2. Bring an Asian girl along as your (real or fake) girlfriend. Zucks’ engaged to one, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

3. Every time Zucks utters a complete sentence, scream “LIKE.” After five times, ask out loud: “IS THERE A LOVE BUTTON FOR THIS?”

4. Come with a 50,000-word thesis binder on “How to Improve Facebook,” introducing functions like keeping out the fatties and uglies. You don’t want Facebook to follow Myspace’s downward spiral into ghetto obscurity.

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Inspired by Matthew Kaiser’s “Literature and Sexuality” lecture on the same topic. 

As someone with a fairly accurate gaydar (since I have a gay roommate, various Gay Best Friends sprinkled across the globe, and have frequently been described as “a gay man in a female body”, I don’t think this is a compliment), I feel obliged to help prevent fellow heterosexual girls from the tragic mistake of falling for, dating, marrying, or reproducing with a gay guy. I would, however, turn a blind eye to drunken exchanges of saliva with attractive members of the opposite but homosexually-oriented sex (did I just invent that term? Anyway…). Every girl has those moments.

THE QUIZ: Add one point if your boyfriend/crush has one of these characteristics. (BE HONEST!)

- He has more than two pairs of skinny jeans.

- He fits into your skinny jeans. (And you know this because he’s tried them on.)

- He notices when you wear the same outfit for two days in a row.

- He never wears the same outfit for two days in a row.

- He notices when you haven’t straightened your hair.

- He straightens his hair.

- He notices when one of his arm hairs is longer than the rest.

- He is genuinely and visibly distressed by said hair.

- You frequently catch him checking himself out and fixing his hair in the mirror, on the side windows of CVS, on the front screen of his Blackberry, or on the back of his iPhone.

- He uses Wet Wipes for the toilet seat in his bathroom.

- He uses terms like “totes whatever floats your boat,” “whatevs,” “ewwww,” “ughh.” Note the prolonged pronunciation of syllables. In fact, if he whines those words long enough that you start to notice time elapsing, add one more point.

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