Laura N. '09 | January 10, 2008
"Ducks vs. Army Men!"
At the beginning of the year, Rick '09 and I had a marathon carpentry session. We built a loft for James '11, and a table for each of us. Okay, so the barstools never got made. In fact, the lumber is still stacked in the side hallway of the 23 suite. I'm looking at it right now. Maybe we should get on that.
Anyway, the point of this entry is the tables. I just wanted a small table to put in my room, but Rick decided to go all out, and convinced me to add a compartment to my table, so that you could open the top and store stuff underneath.
Well, Rick's table turned out exactly as he wanted it, but mine turned out huge. By that I mean, we built it to the dimensions that I wanted, but it turned out to be far larger than I really expected it to be, especially when I put it in my room. I tried it out for a few days and decided that I hated it. So I donated it to the floor lounge, where it was quickly claimed by Yuki '11.
My room is beach themed- the walls are blue and yellow (ocean and sand), and the table was painted the same colors. Yuki wanted to know why I was getting rid of the table. He claimed that I should seal the compartment and fill it with sand- or better yet, make it into an aquarium to really complete the theme of the room.
I sort of suspected that this might make a mess. My response was, "If you want to do that in your room, you go right ahead."
Okay, so that's awesome.
But, believe it or not, as Wes '10, James '11, and Dan '11 discovered, making sandfalls, observing different patterns of sand dunes and burying your hands in the sand gets boring after like 20 minutes. We decided we needed more toys.
So we called on Snively, of course.
Snively's reinforcements arrive. Yuki's immediate reaction: "Okay, you guys know this totally means Ducks vs. Army Men, right?"
Preparing the troops for battle.
The army men hunker down in a trench (...created by a glowstick).
The battle rages on.
The ducks receive surprise reinforcement from a ferocious piranha.
The funeral for the fallen soliders of battle, complete with a "Chaplain" duck (handed out to new students by the chaplain's office in September) and 21 gun salute.
We put the toys away. No one would ever know what lies inside the table. (Except maybe thanks to that leak...)
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The author has filed this entry in the "Work/Play Balance At MIT" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
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nuff said
Posted by: first on January 10, 2008 11:59 AM
Second! Yes!!!
Posted by: Manders on January 10, 2008 12:00 PM
Sorry about that. I've just never been so close to first lol. Ducks are fun.
Posted by: Manders on January 10, 2008 12:03 PM
It's a very funny blog. I like the pics a lot. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Akshay on January 10, 2008 12:06 PM
That was EPIC! It's too bad the glowstick isn't really glowing in the pictures, it definitely added something to the battle.
Posted by: Snively on January 10, 2008 12:28 PM
Happy birthday Laura!
Posted by: EV on January 10, 2008 12:34 PM
Ah, IAP, such a fun month apparently.
Posted by: Isshak on January 10, 2008 12:54 PM
You're all seriously ridiculous
Posted by: Harrison on January 10, 2008 01:34 PM
woo... it really funny ! i like it ...
thanks for sharing
Posted by: qiqi on January 10, 2008 02:33 PM
i =D
Posted by: BB on January 10, 2008 03:06 PM
er-- that was supposed to say i *heart* mit
=D
but somehow some disappeared. whoops.
Posted by: BB on January 10, 2008 03:07 PM
that so sounds like something my friends and I would do
Posted by: Anonymous on January 10, 2008 05:27 PM
wowz. redunculousness.
Posted by: MiniPocketsized on January 10, 2008 06:07 PM
I wonder if bugs will find that and lay eggs....Otherwise, quite cool.
Posted by: Anonymous on January 10, 2008 06:14 PM
Most awesome table ever!
Who won the battle?
Posted by: anon on January 10, 2008 06:43 PM
Anyone else reminded of Mr. Rogers? I seem to remember him having a similar sand table.
Although, I don't recall his table being used quite so awesomely.
Posted by: Matt, PSU '11 on January 10, 2008 06:57 PM
Too awesome for words.
Posted by: Marissa on January 10, 2008 08:02 PM
Sounds like something I'd join in. But I'd make a much bigger mess, lol
Posted by: phreaker on January 10, 2008 08:32 PM
This reminds me of when we had chicken nuggets in the shape of dinosaurs in elementary school. Yes, we would have Chicken Nugget Dino Wars. Was that just me?
Posted by: archimedes on January 10, 2008 08:36 PM
@archimedes
Totally did it too.
Posted by: Hank R. on January 10, 2008 09:16 PM
Haha, that was amazing! I love sand. Really, I do - playing in it, running on it, making sand castles. Ahh, California.
Posted by: Piper on January 10, 2008 11:32 PM
how do i confirm if the extra materials send in were received? the app tracking doesn't list any extra stuff.
btw amusing post! belligerent ducks, anseriform parsons, what will you come up with next?!!
LOL
Posted by: lavya on January 11, 2008 04:27 AM
Lavya - MyMIT doesn't and can't track additional materials, sorry! If you are really worried, you can call or email Admissions directly, but they probably have it.
Posted by: Paul on January 11, 2008 11:07 AM
Ah, but does the infamous blue sandbox table make a sneak, cameo appearance in Snively's blog about BlueBlanketJon? (In Exhibit B with BlueBlanketJon and Goldilocks?)
Posted by: jonah_in_the_whale on January 11, 2008 11:19 PM
@jonah_in_the_whale
Wow -- Yes, the blue table did indeed cameo in my second picture. It lived in our floor lounge for quite some time, working its way into many pictures. Sneaky thing!
Posted by: Snively on January 12, 2008 03:00 AM
Eulogy to Army Men
by Donald Guy
Gather forth and do here told
The story of these men most bold:
Though feet conjoined and plastic green
They fought most bravely here between
Wood and sand, blue and tan, floor be-low and sky.
To win, and to lose, to run in or fly
They lived, or seemed to, prepared to die.
It all began, peacefully, a quiet afternoon.
It began so far away from the battle dune,
But the men so lively,
The men of Snively,
Could hardly find their rest,
for e'er here, they had to fear
Their camps would be beset
By a foe so foul, a fiend so fine,
I daren't speak the name,
but to say, that from this day
I'll never see Daffy the same.
The battle raged, the day was lost
Things unspeakable transpired
A flying piranha was the worst
That with the enemy conspired.
Still no matter dwelling here,
We care what we lost, not how
The battle can be studied more
But not these men, not now
Because they're gone,
they'll NEVER RETURN
We've lost them to the sand
All because students of fate
Turned onto us their greedy hands!
LAURA, YUKI, WES, JAMES, DAN,
You thought their lives a game
but did you not stop to consider
their little plastic pain?!
These men were great,
They were MADE for the army
but now they are no more.
But let us not cry, for in their deaths,
they managed to end the war.
----
Good times. Consistent form? who needs it?
~Donald Guy
Posted by: donaldGuy '12 on January 13, 2008 01:04 AM
Donald Guy-- You're awesome! That was like "Flanders Feilds" intense! A custom-made epic about battle that makes "Ducks vs. Army Men" an... epic battle. Indeed.
Keep up the randomness! And nice carpentry job, btw.
Posted by: E. Rosser on January 16, 2008 08:25 AM
