Funny sights on campus

I like working night shifts. Not the graveyard, wee early hours, particularly between the hours of 12am and 4am. But early in the morning and late at night, yes I do, because they are quiet. (The intervening hours I'd just rather be sleeping or doing anything but working. Messes up natural "rhythms" and all to be up those hours.)

But especially when I work closing shift on Centennial Campus, I love the night. The night is one thing, a quiet shelter, very comforting. When the day is hot, the night is cool, usually breezy. When the day is cold... the night is... frigid, or it can be, easily, and has been. But that's enchanting in its own way, necessitating wrapping up in a coat and blankets... and gives precious new meaning to warmth.

Centennial Campus is unlike Daniels in that when I do "rounds" to check on the labs I have to walk between two different buildings (EB1 and EB2, for the clever ones who can figure out what that means.) When I work the last shift in EB2, the one which lasts until around midnight, I end up having to close the labs. So I walk back to lock up, turn the lights off, etc. The environment there is very calm. Daniels isn't far from the college street (Hillsborough St. in Raleigh) which like any college street has the late night bars and pizza joints, etc. But on Centennial, the campus is nestled on the edge of the woods and since the campus hasn't even been fully developed yet, walking between these buildings leaves, on the side where there are no buildings, a small portion of cleared land, behind which are trees. It's dark, and it's quiet... it's very nice, romantic even.

Monday night I was working and in a rather amused sort of mood, so I took a few pictures of some mildly amusing sights I saw. Thought I'd share.
This one is a smiley face on a bulletin board, made with push pins. I'm not sure what sort of foam they used to make this bulletin board. It's neat, you don't see where the hole was unless you poke and poke at the same spot (yes I tried) to tear up the foam. What's beneath it I'm not sure. Regular cork? Perhaps. Whatever it is doesn't give as much as the foam cover, the hole is still there the the black foam covers it.


The next one is for Roy. This was in a grad student's office, against the window which faced outside. It was in the Chemical Engineering building. Godzilla.






This next one is the little cafe kind of store in the ChemE building also. Sorry about the bars, of course it was closed when I took this picture. You'll notice by looking at the picture on the wall that it resembles a periodic table. And then perhaps you notice that it reads "Periodic Table." It's the name of the shop... lol... I think it's absurdly dorky, I laugh everytime I see that sign.



The last picture... remember it was night when I took it. But it turned out well enough--this heap as you can see is on a sidewalk--the only sidewalk between the parking lot and that building there. (Which seems to have all its lights on, despite it being the middle of the night and still under construction.) What sort of genius, though, would dump anything on the only sidewalk to the building? I just found it rather strange. What is it? It's mulch, for landscaping in front of the building. Mulch, in case you don't know, has a peculiar and horrific odor. What a poor place for it.

Anyway. Cute, and/or strange things at NCSU. College is good for something.