How many people can we fit in this Lounge?!?

by John Dell'Osa

guest wnter

Good times, bad times, friendship, treachery, and a $500 purse. This, my friends, was SURVIVOR! For those of you who didn't know, a very interesting program was constructed to take place this past weekend by the name of Lounge Survivor. Christian Belko, the Resident Director of House 2, was the man in charge, or "god" as he called himself. His assistant "gods" were Tony Barrett, Mike Porta, Joe Johnson, and Dave Wiley, all the RAs who gave their time and effort to be a part of the action.

The eight contestants were chosen from over thirty applicants of students, faculty, and staff members. The chosen few went by the names of Kat Pirrone, Krista Mazzeo, Haven McNickle, Jeff Hayes, Jessi Snow, Katie Hemson, Jeff Sy, and yours truely, Johnny D. Much like the show, we competed in a number of events for food, immunity from the voting and ultimately five hundred dollars worth of gift certificates to the King of Prussia mall. We were only allowed to bring the clothes on our backs and one luxury possesion that was not allowed to be mechanical or electronic. Survival of the fittest began.

10pm, Fridaynight, we filed in and took our places on the couches. The rules were explained and we were divid-

Top Ten things Dr. Jerry Zurek, English and communication chair, will be doing during his sabbatical

10. Reading all of Shakespeare's plays for the ten millionth time.

9. Trying to teach his dog how to be AP compatible.

8. Getting a personality (this one was from Meghan Merkel) ed into two tribes of four. An invisble line was drawn down the center of the room and the team were not allowed to cross it without being threatened with the loss of one of their couches. There was a "god" on duty during the entire weekend to keep tabs on people and at one point, Kat did cross the line losing her comfortable sleeping arrangment. It's safe to say she was not happy.

7. Locking himself in a room and trying to make his Palm Pilot levitate by staring at it for hours on end.

6. Getting on the next "Survivor" and being the first one kicked out because of his "Richard-like" dancing.

5. Spinning records in nightclubs under the moniker DJ JZ Jupiter.

4. Changing his home address, e-mail address, and phone number so no one at Cabrini can contact him when things start going wrong.

3. Concocting plans to counteract a Mike '80s Butler military coup of the communications center.

2. Learning how to re-enact Civil War battles with Dr. Joylon Girardwho is also on sabbatical.

1. Praying to the heavens that no one finds the bodies buried under his desk while he's away.

The tribes competed in their first event to get everybody used to how things were going to go, shortly before we were wisked to the lecture hall for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I personally think was the hardest endurance challenge of them all. ''Team Vertigo" (Kat, Haven, Katie and D won the first challenge which was a game of ping pong, the prize was the ping pong paddles and a pack of balls. We also got a miniture football that got a lot of playtime over the weekend between both teams. The other team, the "Lounge Lizards" (Jessi, Krista, Jeff H., and Jeff S.) were a well oiled machine, winning the next three events including challenges ranging from an information scavenger hunt to ultimate frisbee to a game of Trivial Pursuit. Much like the show, every time one of the tribes won a challenge they were given voting immunity, which meant the members of the other tribe had to vote one of •their own out. The elimination went in the order of Kat, Haven, then Katie, leaving me as the sole member of the dying tribe. One challenge however, a community service event where we gathered canned foods for the food drive that Campus Ministry is running was the beginning of a brief comeback. Four-on-one meant ultimately that I would have to go if I could not get as many cans as the others. After many generous donation we gathered close to twohundred items, however I managed to gather a little more then the other team and for the first time a member of the

War Hell Ride

"Lounge Lizards" had to go. It was Krista, who left our presence around 8:00 Saturday night. The remaining four members formed a new team "The Great White Rice" named after the uncooked white rice that the Jeffs were forced to eat when they lost the dancing for dinner competition. There were no challenges the rest of that night so since we had the run of the entire lounge we built a giant fort with the furniture. Our fun together lasted only the rest of the night as Jess was eliminated after the next event in the morning. I was the last to go around 3:30 sunday afternoon before all the eliminated survivors had to reconvene at 6pm and decide who was to get that grand prize. It came down to the two Jeffs, and in the end Jeff Sy was the big winner of the $500 gift certificates.

"We saw the show and we thought, wouldn't it be a good idea to start that here," said Christian about the weekend. He came up with a lot of the challenges and the time frame that it all took place in, but he said he couldn't have done it without his RAs who worked tirelessly to assure the weekends success. "It was good to be on the other side of the event," said god, Tony Barrett, "being one of the only links to the outside world for the survivors." However Tony also said that he would be interested in actually competing the next time around.

A lot of interest was drummed up around campus over us eight, down to people starting a betting pool over who was going to win. In the end it was a great time. Friendships were made even under the most hostile and uncertain environment, being pitted against one another competing for a large prize. Even after all the conspiring, we are all much better friends and we've even made some new ones. Congratulations Jeff, and congratulations gods for arranging a really good time!

visual commentary by Mike '80s Butler