PKT25: Spring 2000
We're starting to get pretty close to the end of my time in college. Spring 2000 was the last semester of my senior year. Because of my co-op, I already knew I'd returning for my second senior year, often called a "super senior year." Weirdly, my classes were getting easier. By this point I'd taken care of most of my required classes and was taking more electives to get the credits I needed. For example, took Political Science classes in both Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 to knock out my social science requirement. They were interesting, but also very, very easy compared to basically any math, science or computer science class I took.
Strangely, the later in college the weaker my memory is of people and events. For some reason, the first two years of college, despite all the stresses and unhappiness, stand out very clearly. Everything after my co-op seems foggy and vague by comparison. One side effect is that these summaries are getting less and less clear, and therefore less interesting. Sorry about that; I truly wish I'd written them 20 years ago, if not as they happened.
Outside the fraternity, I was in my second semester as Program Director at WRUW. I appeared in a second musical with Footlighters, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I hadn't intended to be in the show, but some people involved with it begged me to be the voice of the book, and then I ended up on stage in a small role. I continued working as many hours as I could fit in at CWRUPhone, up to the limit of 20 that I was allowed as a full-time student. I also took a Linear Algebra class. I remember nothing of Linear Algebra, but I met KJF during that class and we've been friends ever since.
In the fraternity, I continued living in the front of the Studio with Alberto in the back, just as I had the previous semester. I believe that this is the semester I served as Historian, which since I didn't do anything at all for it caused me very little stress aside from some minor guilt. Socially, I seem to recall that this was the semester that Sigma Psi sorority started hanging out at the house. Quite a few of their members were dating quite a few of our members at one point or another, and for the rest of my time at the house some of them were usually hanging out, if not quite in the numbers that AZD had my sophomore year.
The biggest item out of the ordinary was that this was the one and only time that I actually went on Spring Break. Our then extant chapter in New Orleans hosted a softball tournament every spring that happened to align with CWRU's spring break AND St. Patrick's Day. We ended up renting a 15-passenger van and driving it down, which is how I went to Louisiana for the first time.
Neal rented the van, because as a married man he was allowed to rent a car at an affordable rate despite not being 25. Dolan and I subbed in as drivers. We were joined by Patrick, Jimi, Gabe, Dutton and eight other brothers whose names I don't recall anymore. We each had a tiny duffel and some softball equipment. We drove down Wednesday night of spring break and returned on Sunday, having spent St. Patrick's Day on Bourbon Street. We also lost a lot of softball games (a specialty of ours), ate a lot of good food, notably at a crawdad boil at a bar owned by an alumnus of the New Orleans chapter, and generally enjoying our trip.
The Spring 2000 pledge class pretty substantial, with 7 members. I think most of them were freshman.
Rick - I believe Rick might have been a sophomore. He was from Ohio. I recall that he was some kind of engineering major. BB: Neal.
Choi - A computer science major, weirdly I can't remember from where. BB: Craig.
Steve - An econ major from the southern Cleveland suburbs. We'd end up rooming together and much, much later, working together for a few years. BB: Shawn.
Bovi - A biology or chemistry major, I forget which. We'd end up rooming together and hosting a radio show together. From New Jersey. BB: Dutton.
Hank - From Pittsburgh. Hank ended up working for National for a few years after graduation. BB: Dolan.
Josh - From the Columbus area, computer science major, another metalhead with a radio show. BB: Kenichi
BK - I vaguely recall that BK was a physics major, but to be honest I don't remember having more than two conversations with him in my entire life. BB: ??
Many of the members of this pledge class were from a group of friends who hung out in Clark Tower and had been pulled in by Bybluk and Coop from the prior pledge class. That connection would get us a few more members in following years, just as Storrs gave us a ton of members in my first three semesters.
We also lost a fair number of people to graduation at the end of the Spring 2000 semester. The following seven brothers took their diploma and headed out of town.
Jimi - Moved back to New Jersey and worked in corporate IT for a bunch of trading firms, including an assignment in London for a few years.
Tony - Moved to the Baltimore area and took a job as an engineer for a defense contractor, where he is to this day.
Ben - Moved to Boston to work initially for Wolfram, then an assortment of other programming jobs.
Jon - Got a Fulbright scholarship to Sweden, then a doctorate at Stanford in biomechanical engineering. Has stayed in California working in tech ever since.
Adam - Stayed in Cleveland for a few years, including a stint as my roommate, then moved to California for a while. Went to grad school, and then I lost track of him.
Bob - Also went to Stanford for a doctorate, but opted not to finish. Last I heard, in the DC area.
Brandon - Had a series of jobs in tech, with a focus on security, starting with a gig in New Jersey.
Beyond that, Amitai and Patrick both decided CWRU wasn't for them and left. Patrick had been working full-time or more for Netcom doing all manner of networking tasks, and he moved out of the house to an apartment in Little Italy in summer 1999. When Netcom stopped working with CWRU, they offered Patrick a gig in Phoenix and he took it. He's been there ever since. Amitai also decided work was more appealing than school, and moved into programming.
So we take 33 actives and add 7 pledges to get to 40, but then lost 7 to graduation and 2 more departures, putting us at 31 actives going into the summer.
Pat's Little Italy apartment was filled with brothers and alumni from 1999 to 2003. It hosted several editions of "Beautiful People Ugly Clothes," the first of which was in August 1999. Said party had us wearing the most hideous clothes imaginable while drinking heavily, including beer through a three story beer bong. The final edition of that party was in 2003 right before Frank, Adam and I moved out. I'd lived there from 2002-2003, the last brother to move in, but we've got a few years before we get to that.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999, Spring 2000
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings
Strangely, the later in college the weaker my memory is of people and events. For some reason, the first two years of college, despite all the stresses and unhappiness, stand out very clearly. Everything after my co-op seems foggy and vague by comparison. One side effect is that these summaries are getting less and less clear, and therefore less interesting. Sorry about that; I truly wish I'd written them 20 years ago, if not as they happened.
Outside the fraternity, I was in my second semester as Program Director at WRUW. I appeared in a second musical with Footlighters, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I hadn't intended to be in the show, but some people involved with it begged me to be the voice of the book, and then I ended up on stage in a small role. I continued working as many hours as I could fit in at CWRUPhone, up to the limit of 20 that I was allowed as a full-time student. I also took a Linear Algebra class. I remember nothing of Linear Algebra, but I met KJF during that class and we've been friends ever since.
In the fraternity, I continued living in the front of the Studio with Alberto in the back, just as I had the previous semester. I believe that this is the semester I served as Historian, which since I didn't do anything at all for it caused me very little stress aside from some minor guilt. Socially, I seem to recall that this was the semester that Sigma Psi sorority started hanging out at the house. Quite a few of their members were dating quite a few of our members at one point or another, and for the rest of my time at the house some of them were usually hanging out, if not quite in the numbers that AZD had my sophomore year.
The biggest item out of the ordinary was that this was the one and only time that I actually went on Spring Break. Our then extant chapter in New Orleans hosted a softball tournament every spring that happened to align with CWRU's spring break AND St. Patrick's Day. We ended up renting a 15-passenger van and driving it down, which is how I went to Louisiana for the first time.
Neal rented the van, because as a married man he was allowed to rent a car at an affordable rate despite not being 25. Dolan and I subbed in as drivers. We were joined by Patrick, Jimi, Gabe, Dutton and eight other brothers whose names I don't recall anymore. We each had a tiny duffel and some softball equipment. We drove down Wednesday night of spring break and returned on Sunday, having spent St. Patrick's Day on Bourbon Street. We also lost a lot of softball games (a specialty of ours), ate a lot of good food, notably at a crawdad boil at a bar owned by an alumnus of the New Orleans chapter, and generally enjoying our trip.
The Spring 2000 pledge class pretty substantial, with 7 members. I think most of them were freshman.
Rick - I believe Rick might have been a sophomore. He was from Ohio. I recall that he was some kind of engineering major. BB: Neal.
Choi - A computer science major, weirdly I can't remember from where. BB: Craig.
Steve - An econ major from the southern Cleveland suburbs. We'd end up rooming together and much, much later, working together for a few years. BB: Shawn.
Bovi - A biology or chemistry major, I forget which. We'd end up rooming together and hosting a radio show together. From New Jersey. BB: Dutton.
Hank - From Pittsburgh. Hank ended up working for National for a few years after graduation. BB: Dolan.
Josh - From the Columbus area, computer science major, another metalhead with a radio show. BB: Kenichi
BK - I vaguely recall that BK was a physics major, but to be honest I don't remember having more than two conversations with him in my entire life. BB: ??
Many of the members of this pledge class were from a group of friends who hung out in Clark Tower and had been pulled in by Bybluk and Coop from the prior pledge class. That connection would get us a few more members in following years, just as Storrs gave us a ton of members in my first three semesters.
We also lost a fair number of people to graduation at the end of the Spring 2000 semester. The following seven brothers took their diploma and headed out of town.
Jimi - Moved back to New Jersey and worked in corporate IT for a bunch of trading firms, including an assignment in London for a few years.
Tony - Moved to the Baltimore area and took a job as an engineer for a defense contractor, where he is to this day.
Ben - Moved to Boston to work initially for Wolfram, then an assortment of other programming jobs.
Jon - Got a Fulbright scholarship to Sweden, then a doctorate at Stanford in biomechanical engineering. Has stayed in California working in tech ever since.
Adam - Stayed in Cleveland for a few years, including a stint as my roommate, then moved to California for a while. Went to grad school, and then I lost track of him.
Bob - Also went to Stanford for a doctorate, but opted not to finish. Last I heard, in the DC area.
Brandon - Had a series of jobs in tech, with a focus on security, starting with a gig in New Jersey.
Beyond that, Amitai and Patrick both decided CWRU wasn't for them and left. Patrick had been working full-time or more for Netcom doing all manner of networking tasks, and he moved out of the house to an apartment in Little Italy in summer 1999. When Netcom stopped working with CWRU, they offered Patrick a gig in Phoenix and he took it. He's been there ever since. Amitai also decided work was more appealing than school, and moved into programming.
So we take 33 actives and add 7 pledges to get to 40, but then lost 7 to graduation and 2 more departures, putting us at 31 actives going into the summer.
Pat's Little Italy apartment was filled with brothers and alumni from 1999 to 2003. It hosted several editions of "Beautiful People Ugly Clothes," the first of which was in August 1999. Said party had us wearing the most hideous clothes imaginable while drinking heavily, including beer through a three story beer bong. The final edition of that party was in 2003 right before Frank, Adam and I moved out. I'd lived there from 2002-2003, the last brother to move in, but we've got a few years before we get to that.
The Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta
The House Tour
Outside,
Main Floor Bedrooms,
Main Floor Public Rooms,
Basement Public Areas,
Basement Private Areas,
2nd Floor Big Bedrooms,
2nd Floor Small Bedrooms,
3rd Floor First Hallway,
3rd Floor Second Hallway,
Attic & Errata,
House Tour Commentary: Joe & Laura & Astrid,
House Tour Commentary: Jackal,
House Tour Commentary: Susan,
House Tour Commentary: Assorted
The Pledge Program
Bid Night, Schedule, Curriculum & Black Books, Big Brothers & Pledge Pins, Paddling, Initiation
Semesters
Fall 1996, Spring 1997, Fall 1997, Spring 1998, Fall 1998, Spring 1999, Summer 1999, Fall 1999, Spring 2000
Events
Detour, Blackout, Boo at the Zoo, Chapter Meetings, Serenading, Greek Week, Rush Events
Other
Full Series, My Rush Experience, Chapter History, Family Trees, National, Greek Life at CWRU, Fraternity Offices, Part 1, Fraternity Offices, Part 2, Fraternity Offices, Part 3, Demographics, Seniority, Bars, Ponding, Video Games
Additional Commentary
Black Books, Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, More Boo at the Zoo & Blackout, Chapter Meetings