Now Panic and Freak Out

So following all the terrible attacks on college campuses, Ithaca College decided to institute this loud-ass siren and alert system to let us know if there's a crazed axe murderer or bandit on campus. And I gotta tell you, I really appreciate this. It's nice to know where to run and hide in case there's a crazy on the loose.

I've thankfully never heard this used in a real emergency, but the testing is pretty freaking scary, I gotta tell you. I was sitting innocently enough upstairs in Emerson on my laptop when out of nowhere this loud siren goes off:

"THIS IS A TEST OF THE EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM. THIS IS ONLY A TEST. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."

And then after that, everyone's phones started going off at the same time, like The Ring. Everyone who signed up for it (which is like everyone) gets texts and phone calls and e-mails about the test of the system, or of the system going off itself.

But holy shit, was that scary.

And By "Trim," I Mean Half My Hair

In the past two weekends, I've been to Ireland, Stratford, and Oxford. But what have I focused on?

My hair. Because I'm vain that way.

Before this past Thursday, I had hair that I could in theory Lady Godiva over my bosom should I so chose to do so, but I hadn't had it cut since Christmas break. Which normally isn't a big deal, but it had gotten to the point where I was sitting in class and peeling apart the split ends. I decided to make a venture to one of London's cheaper salons (which are still more expensive than the Schilling-Douglas I'm used to frequenting back home). I went to Supercuts first because I figured they were cheap and, well, super. Turns out their water was screwed up and they were waiting for a plumber. Being the impatient girl that I am, I decided to hit up Abella's Hair & Beauty on Cromwell, because that was the only other cheap(ish) looking salon I had seen around. I wandered in, sat down, and asked for a trim from the tiny Arabic man inside. I can only assume he was Abella. He showed me what he was trimming off.

He then proceeded to chop of 6 more inches of my hair.

Odd enough, he shampooed me after he hacked off my locks. And then blow dried it and over charged me. Weird. But I honestly can't complain too much, I sort of love it. I didn't want short hair, but considering the last time I had hair this short was senior year of high school, it's sort of fun.

Swine Flu: We Had The Warning Signs!

So everyone and their brother (or my uncle, who actually has it) has been freaking out about the Swine Flu. To the point where kids here are about to make shirts that say "I Survived Swine '09." But people, we saw the signs and ignored them.

I mean, come on. We're on Season 6 of House now, and Amber died from flu-like symptoms way back in season 4.

Remember when she was on the bus sneezing and shit before she got thrown and all liver-damaged? Yeah. She had the flu. In New Jersey, at a college hospital where it can spread quick. You know what this means.

Cutthroat Bitch started Swine '09 way back in '08. Thanks, Amber. Sorry, Wilson.

Blog Numba FO

That's right. Four of them.

There's this one, which is just for fun. And all of my stupid ramblings and such about...well, nothing. News II Electric Boogaloo is for, well, News II. Pretty obvious, judging by the title. It has my Ithacan articles and my Dipity on it, and nothing else really of importance. Same with the Wordpress blog, because that was another News II experiment. The fourth?

Ithaca's Imprint Magazine. I'm psyched.

Test? Or Heart Attack Inducer?

So we usually have a test of the Emergency Alert System once or twice a year, and it never really got me before because all I saw was a text message and an e-mail. That was until I was within earshot of the speaker.

I know it said that "THIS IS A TEST," but it went off during our Personal Essay class today. Now normally, that class is in Smiddy, so we wouldn't hear it. But today we decided to take the class on a field trip to Muller Chapel's pond. Which is near where the horn is located. And when it went off, I nearly had a heart attack. I know it's a test, and I know it's supposed to alert you if a crazed gunman is on campus or whatever.

And DAMN does it work well.