yikes...my childhood fear! 

Gathering

A large crowd should be gathering here shortly. It feels good to be home.

Junk Cats

End Fat Cat oppression of the urban and migrant Working Cats!

Nearing 100

One of our posts has nearly reached 100 comments. Check the January archives if you want to help make history.

Name-A-Jones II

It's all fun and games until they share your DNA.

Nate Callender...

Anybody else notice that Natey-boy tied the knot? I saw it in the last issue of the Wheaton Alum mag. Nobody else read the fine print, did they?! Apparently, some of those Terrace romances worked out.

Musings and other such rumors

Well, last week I promised you guys an update about my new job, so here it is. LOVE IT! I'm not a huge fan of all the paperwork that I have to do, but working with the girls is fantastic. It is also quite challenging from time to time (I AM working with with mostly adolescent girls from less than wonderful home environments), but the hardest parts are also the most rewarding. I got my first paycheck yesterday and laughed that they paid me for doing work I would have gladly done for free: it's a job and the Gospel all rolled into one! My only complaint is that I don't get to go to work more often.

Ok, blood may be a strange topic of conversation, but I'm going to bring it up momentarily. We all know that blood banks always have a shortage of blood in this country, and given the fact that we're fighting wars in two countries and the world is dealing with one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history, it seems like a very good time to donate blood. Thinking this, I went to the local blood bank last month to give a pint or however much they take out. I haven't had any problems recently with my nervous system/heart condition that makes me pass out, so I was relatively certain I could donate without any problems. And I figured that even if I did pass out, they'd have me lying on a table so it wouldn't really matter. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. Long story short, I got lightheaded/blurry vision while they were testing my iron content, and they wouldn't let me donate. The annoying thing is that the next day I got hit in the face with a racquetball racquet and bled all over the court without getting so much as dizzy (I even had to pick flecks of racquet paint out of my face with a pair of tweezers); I think it's just something about my fingers that freaks me out when they stick them. Anyways, I just want to encourage eveyone that doesn't have a medical condition preventing them from doing so to go give some blood. It's just a good idea.

Here's a topic of mutual interest that might be worth discussing. I'd like to know what you guys think about it, anyways. I have a slightly longer version of this piece, so if you'd like a little more meat on the argument just send me an email and I'll send you the 1000 word version.

Friends of Traber 6

There is a lot of controversy over Traber 6 guys today. The main thing we hear about them is how we are supposed to communicate with them. There are many reasons why we must help save the Traber 6 community but the one that is often looked over is how the 1999-2001 Traber 6ers have been affected since they were driven out by college housing policies. There are many members of the T6 extended family who need help in reconnecting their communities. Before anyone can help T6 they need to learn about its former inhabitants and their ways of life beyond Wheaton. Once people know what is going on they have to find ways to contribute and that is your job.

The Task
It is your job to help the former inhabitants of Traber 6 save their community. You need to find out what your T6 friends do, what they live in, what they eat, and how they cure sickness, etc. You need to find out as many facts about the culture of the people as you can and then write a post as the friend of T6 that you are. As soon as you finish the post you will begin researching ways to help further the community. So get to it. Save the rainforest, whoops, I meant T6.

Donations
If you would like to make a written contribution, submit a post to (future open floor blog site or Dusty's site). All posts are tax deductible.

This could be the home page to an "open floor" blog or forum.

Chat Time

What if we tore a page out of the play book for online newspapers? We could set a time for an online chat. We could use instant messenger. Once the time is announced, interested parties could post their screennames here. Then, one of us at the given time sounds out invitations to everyone on that list to join the chat. What do people think? Or I should say, what do men think?

All is not lost, Greenspan's still here!

One thing I realized during my year as an RA as I walked through all the old abandoned rooms at the end of the year: you never know what treasures you'll find!

Long live the hidden treasures!

611 Online is dead. Long live 611 Online.

So is everyone moving to Dusty's site?

Traber 611 online ....again

This afternoon I was playing around with my server and I set up a Traber 611 website. The domain is www.WheatonThunder.com . There is a private closed floor forum that only T6 members can access. Everyone else who we allow registration to will be able to access the rest of the site, and forums which are "open floors", meaning they can interact with us. You also find photo galleries to upload your favorite digital photos to, a chat room, messaging system, shout outs, and other things. The entire site is protected from search engines, so you don’t have to worry about the rest of the world finding what goes on inside Traber 611 Online. I hope this can help fix some things and cultivate a better community. -- Dusty

Hey Dusty

Is your email down? I tried writing to you but my message came right back to me... anyway, someone I know at Wheaton wants to know if your brother still has the old forum kicking around on his hard drive or something; he wants to have it so he can bring it back to life.

Are guys getting short changed?

Here is an article that suggests that the books for children, especially in US school systems are disproportionately discouraging boys to quit reading more than girls.

http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/articles/A33956-2005Jan24.html

Bring It.

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

Open floor or not?

Okay, I will ask the question. And I suppose I am the fitting one to ask it, considering my long-held feelings on the open floor policy.

Why don't we open this conversation to a select group of faithful visitors (or otherwise beloved friends/romances of ours) to room 611? And I am thinking in particular of females! If we assume that none of our conversation would drift into "inappropriate" waters (to which I think we can all agree we have been keeping each other accountable) then why not enjoy the immeasurable benefit of the female voice? Especially those voices from which we have derived such great lessons and companionship in the past.

I absolutely see the great benefit of keeping it to the boys, but seeing as it's a public forum, regardless, maybe we might as well include the other half of our T6 friendships. Wasn't T6 famous for our good relations with the sisters?

I'm happy with our beautiful site the way it is. But I'd also love to have open these conversations to the spouses, soccer players, Alias watchers, etc. who are important to us and would like to be a part of it. Thoughts?

The Entity Formerly Known As Mr. Satan (TEFKAMS)

I didn't think it was fair that our friend would be so rudely censored and shunned without publicly displaying his obvious distress, and so I boldy post his visage for all to behold and d...e...s...p...a...i...r.

Submit to Alan

By popular demand...or at least Coye's demand... and in honor of Mr. Strauss's career move.

Taking the position

I'm going to officially accept the Federal Reserve job tomorrow, barring something unusual.

Wheaties

It’s always funny how you find Wheaties in random places. As some of you know, I attend a church that was started in 1999 by Michael W. Smith. He leads the worship and other various aspects of the church. Anyhow, after church today we were talking about some of the theology at the church and the background of its members. Debbie, his wife, asked where I graduated from, and it turns out that she is an ’80 grad from Wheaton. This church has been the answer to many of my prayers. I wanted to find one up here that was dedicated to serving the community, and one which provided for great fellowship and discipleship within the church. I think there are about 300 members in New River Fellowship. If any of you come to the Nashville area, I will be happy to bring you along. The worship is fantastic and it’s always a plus to be singing new songs that have not hit the mainstream market yet. You might also run into other favorites such as Third Day or Chris Rice!