Of fires and fire drills

Kudos to the Hatchet for their continuous coverage of the fire in Schenley. I only heard about this after the fact, so it was really great to be able to go back and get the full story without relying on the people talking next to me in Starbucks.

Ian's post also reminded me of the fire in Thurston three years ago. In both cases, students reported not taking the alarm seriously at first, because -- well, I think we all know why. Everyone hates fire drills. They're inconvenient, they're annoying, and it always seems like they take way too long. Especially in cold weather. A lot of people I know will stay inside for a drill until they hear sirens (or just if it's cold, or rainy, or early.) I slept through one my sophomore year, which was all kinds of interesting. In general, I find fire drills irritating and needlessly time-consuming. Get everyone out, check the rest of the building, let people back in as soon as possible. I recognize the concern for safety, but -- well, I'm impatient. And I like knowing what's going on -- something that doesn't always happen when alarms go off unplanned. A few months ago, Ivory had a fire drill at around 7:30 at night on a Wednesday. The worst part -- besides being outside without a coat -- was the fact that nobody knew what was going on and UPD (and MPD) couldn't answer anyone's questions. Even a simple "Folks, we'll let you go back inside when we're done, which should be within the next hour" would have worked wonders on my mood.

Of course, part of the reason they take so long is that UPD has to sweep the building to yell at people who don't leave. But as the Hatchet wrote three years ago, all those drills and false alarms can have unintended consequences:

In November [2004], Alan Etter, a fire department spokesman, said safety is at risk when students experience a high number of false alarms and begin to assume that any fire alarm is a false one.

"There is a danger of building in a sense of complacency when they hear these fire alarms going off all the time and there is nothing," Etter said.

[...]

[Then-freshman] Ian Sullivan said that he "certainly wasn't rushing" when the fire alarm went off and said he knows that "a lot of people just sat in their room" until firefighters started banging on doors to let residents know they needed to leave.

Tracy Schario, GW's director of media relations, said she had heard complaints from students that the evacuation was not orderly. She attributed this to "a natural sense of anxiety."

"Just given the sheer numbers, there's a natural collection of large numbers of people trying to move down," Schario said.

"When you have a lot of people in the stairway in that situation, it's hard to overcome that natural anxiety," she continued.

Schario also urged students to always heed fire alarms in any building.

"Whenever you hear an alarm, you should always take it seriously, even if it's just a drill," she said. "That's an individual's personal responsibility."

Obviously, fire drills are necessary. Everyone needs to know how to get out of the building in a worst-case scenario, and, as this weekend proved, fires do happen. Thankfully, no one was hurt on Friday, and it seems like this is one area where GW knows what it's doing. While I wish fire alarms didn't go off so often (especially at six in the morning on a Saturday -- thanks, Ivory!), I'm glad the system seems to be working.

Schenley, Burning

The pictures pretty much tell the story. As mentioned in the Hatchet article about the event, the alarm was a bit hard to hear. I was on the 8th floor at the time, and the alarm sounded as if it was coming in through the window from a different building.

I waited a minute or two to see if the alarm would turn off, thinking it was a malfunction or a drill, then headed for the stairs at the persuasion of a friend. Looking down the stairwell, I saw a faint haze of smoke toward the lower floors, which got a lot thicker as I got closer to the lobby.

UPD was in a frenzy trying to make sure everyone was safely out of the building. Having never observed UPD acting in an emergency situation, it's comforting to know that they can spring into action and take control of situations quickly. Even though it wasn't the largest of fires, running up the smoke filled stairwell of a burning building isn't something I think I'd like in my job description, so I have a new appreciation for what UPD does for us around campus.

Blog verdict is in...

This past week, we had a poll up that asked, "What's the coolest GW blog?" The Colonialist won, so obviously it wasn't rigged by us. (Congrats, guys.)

But look who just happened to be rated cooler than the Hatchet. I'm not sayin' anything, I'm just sayin'...

;)

Art in Foggy Bottom

Last week, I was on a good relaxing run through Foggy Bottom when a blast of neon light blinded me. On the corner of I and 25th, there was a huge contemporary glowing sculpture on somebody's lawn.

My first thought was, "Wow, somebody must really hate their neighbors." A girl across the street, apparently as confused as I was, asked her friend, "What the hell is that?!?"

However, over the next few days,other random sculptures (thankfully none of them NEON) started popping up in front of Foggy Bottom houses. I realized that that this wasn't one vengeful neighbor; the whole neightborhood seemed to be in on something. I was curious to find out what it was.

The Foggy Bottom Association announces that:

Foggy Bottom brings sculpture to the public with its inaugural Foggy Bottom Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit opening on Saturday, May 3, 2008. This six-month exhibit will showcase 12 area sculptors whose work will be displayed in the front yards of private residences in the Foggy Bottom Historic District.

Hmm. I personally like the historic feel of Foggy Bottom, and so the contemporary art is a bit out of place, but perhaps if the community is preoccupied with the sculpture show, they'll spend a bit less time complaining about GW students (not that we dont deserve it.)

For those who appreciate contemporary sculpture a bit more than I do, there will be free guided neighborhood tours to see the sculptures through October. If youre interested, walk over to 25th and I to pick up one of the new brochures.

Does this seem like a good idea to you?

I admit it -- I've been a little busy with school lately, and so haven't quite kept up with all the bureaucratic things I need to do for graduation. For instance, I just took the required graduation survey today. It was fun and exciting, as online surveys tend to be. However, it's what happened next that has me worried.

One of the reasons I'd put off doing this survey was that my printer's dead. That's fine (except for the papers I need to print on it...), but it does mean I tend to put off tasks that require me to print things. Since this survey said I'd need to print off proof that I'd finished it, I did it today at the library. The "proof" they were so intent on me having? An e-mail saying "yes, you've taken our survey." It wasn't more than five lines long -- not exactly a vital source of information.

And why did I need proof of this e-mail, anyway? To pick up tickets for my actual graduation ceremony, which is a separate ceremony from commencement. I checked out the website that lists pickup times and noticed something strange. Almost all of the schools are now allowing students to pick up graduation tickets. That makes sense -- what better way to encourage yourself to do well on finals than to have graduation materials staring you in the face? But for CCAS kids (so, me), pickup doesn't start until Friday the 16th. Given how many kids there are in CCAS, I'm kind of worried about this. My guess is the lines are going to be worse than Disney World. Columbian's website seems blase about the process:

Please allow time to pick up your tickets, as there may be a line.

There may be a line? Have they been dealing with students long? My guess is that this is going to be one long, frustrating afternoon.

Is this the way it usually is? Why is CCAS so late compared to all the other schools? Given that my family is getting in that Friday, and given that I've got other stuff going on that day already, I'm now worried that instead of being able to enjoy spending time with my family and friends one last time before I leave, I'll be in the midst of a bureaucratic nightmare.

The fact that I can't pick up tickets to my own graduation until the day before it happens is pretty unsettling. For the first time, I wish I had picked a different major.

Eating in Gelman is a crime? Starbucks is pseudo 24 hours!

So I skip out on my friend’s 20^th b-day party. I skip out on a movie date with friends. I skip out on fun to spend a Saturday night in Gelman. Starving, I walk downstairs and the 24 hour Starbucks is closed! Then a guy next to me says “Oh crap, it’s only 24-hours Sunday through Thursday!” Why have the library open 24 hours a day and not have the Starbucks open on the Friday and Saturday before finals?

So, when I ordered food, the security guard wouldn’t let me take it into the library. Yea, there are rules to follow but here’s my argument for why that’s ridiculous

1) I pay $50,000 dollars to go here

2) My goal is not to destroy Gelman Library

3) I’m a big girl, I’m not going to spill

4) There are people doing way worse things than eating in the library

5) Everyone eats in the library

6) People are eating in the library as I write this

7) I PAY 50,000 dollars to go here, I should be able to eat a snack wherever I spend 12 hours studying!

In Eckles Library (check out their blog) on the Mount Vernon Campus, there is a student lounge where people can eat and drink in peace. Gelman, you’re twice the size! Café Gelman on the first floor is a lame place to eat. If students were allowed to eat in the 4^th floor group study room, then people might eat there instead of sneaking food to various spots throughout the building.

The rule is if they see it, they have to confiscate it. I’d have that rule if I were a university, but UPD and company need at least one person with a brain who can implement it correctly. What if the food is in your bag? They’re gonna force people to hide the food until they see no more food. Yay they win? Nope because next time I order delivery, I’m whippin’ out the big tote bag and smuggling it in. So unless GW wants to search me, they’ll never see me with food again.

Point is, there should be more food options open late near Gelman. Why don’t we ask Starbucks why they were closed in my time of need! Call 202-994-0202 (no email available). Oh and my personal goal is to eat food in a different place in Gelman every time I’m there until they allow 4^th floor eating or until I graduate.

I was the victim of a Facebook attack (and it could happen to you) - UPDATED

The night of Wednesday, April 30 was turning out to be a good night. I had just finished ended my Politics and the Internet class on a high note, with pizza, good discussion and free Google swag, and, after dropping some stuff off in my room, I was going out to celebrate a friend's birthday.

But when I got to my room, I found two of my roommates confused and wondering why I had posted particularly not work safe links on their Facebook walls. I logged on to my Facebook and found this on the walls of literally hundreds of my friends:

y0 dude, howdy ?? you wana see babes live on web cams ? i bet you want.. eheh ..
these chicks do whatever you say omg!!have a luk at [link to website removed]

I logged into my GMail account and saw that, within the previous hour and a half, I had received upwards of 30 wall posts from friends, wondering what was going on.

I had been the victim of a Facebook spamming.

Apparently, this isn't new - people have been reporting on Facebook spamming since at least last year, with other reports coming this year (there's also another scam using fake links to Facebook pages).

Based on my experience with this spam, here are some tips I have for anyone who finds themselves a victim:

1. Change your password IMMEDIATELY - according to Facebook, if this happens to you, you should "reset your password immediately. Ensure that you create a new password at least six characters long that contains numbers as well as a variety of characters and capitalization. Please also create a new password that is different than other passwords that you use on the internet." For that matter, you should change your password every couple of weeks or so for security's sake.

2. Don't click on the link and delete the wall post - duh and duh.

3. Contact Facebook - if you are a victim of spamming, or if one of your friends has "sent" you spam, send an e-mail to abuse@facebook.com explaining the situation. Supposedly they'll get back to you within 24 hours - I e-mailed them last night and am hoping to hear from them today.

4. Change your profile picture and/or status - I changed my profile picture to text that basically said I had been the victim of a Facebook virus/spam and that I was sorry for all the wall posts people got. I also did the same for my Facebook status. This isn't really required, but it was a lot easier than trying to respond to 40+ wall posts and messages.

5. Take it with a grain of salt/look at the bright side -so my friends got some spam wall posts from me. None of my friends think I'm a perverted porn pusher (for the most part). In fact, a lot of the wall posts I got were: a) really nice "I'm sorry you got spammed, lets hang out soon!" messages; or b) were from people I haven't talked to in years that I am now communicating with. As bad as it may be, maybe spam messages are the new way of bringing people together on the Internet (I certainly hope not). But in any case, I suggest those that receive these messages from unwilling/unknowing friends treat them with the same kindness.

Hopefully these tips and the information above are helpful. If Facebook sends along any important information (i.e why this happened to me, or anyone for that matter), I will update when I get it, but in the meantime, beware and be safe.

UPDATE: I spoke with a friend of mine who works at ResNet, and she said that the GW e-mail network (and possibly the GW Facebook network) is incredibly infested with spam and viruses, and that affected computers are coming into ResNet by the dozens. So be careful everyone!