Sunday, October 26, 2008

Drunken Ghosts

In each of the halls of the building that I live in there is a bulletin board. The R.A. that lives on each hall is responsible for the decoration of their hall's board. At the beginning of the year, each board has welcome notices, helpful tips for campus living, directions to different restaurants, and lots of that sort of thing. A month or so into the semester, the boards start changing. On D.J.'s hall the board has different optical illusions. On another boys' hall there are "You know you're in college when..." jokes. (I read a few. They're all dumb.) On another of the girls' halls the board is pink and has a big breast cancer ribbon, a sharpie marker, and an invitation to share the breast cancer stories of loved ones that have been affected. The board on my hall kept it's welcome message until about 2 weeks ago. When the welcome message was taken off, a black background and Halloween border was put up around the edges. Other than the border, the board was completely blank for a little over a week. One day late last week, I came in to find it completed, and quite frankly I liked it better blank. Now I suppose the idea behind it was good. It's nice to remind those who are underage of the dangers of alcohol, I suppose. However, the whole thing is just a little goofy. There are smiling ghosts all over it. What do smiling ghosts have to do with alcohol? I guess they go with the whole Halloween theme, but the pumpkins contain supposedly scary facts, so if it was up to me, the ghosts would be a little less happy. Or maybe they're excited about all the people that are apparently going to die from alcohol consumption and add to their numbers. If I don't understand the happy ghosts, I definitely don't understand the drunk ghost. First of all, everyone knows that ghosts can't eat or drink therefore they can't get drunk. Secondly, supposing they could drink, I don't think they would suddenly become filled with cotton balls. Maybe they'd fly a little crooked, but they wouldn't get fluffy. The caption also cracks me up. The message "Looks a little funny, huh?" referring to a tipsy, cotton filled ghost is supposed to convince me not to consume alcoholic beverages? Mission accomplished! If I'm going to turn into a giant cotton ball the second I get drunk, I will most definitely refrain. The eyes in the middle of the board are also a little weird. Who do they belong to? What are they looking at? What is their purpose in the grand scheme of things? Are they just there to fill in a blank spot? If that's the case, and I suspect it is, why not just use another happy little ghost?

I hope my R.A. never reads this...

3 comments:

Mrs.H said...

Ooooo....
What could she do to you? Cover you in cotton balls?

I know: Put you in charge of the bulletin board the rest of the year!!!

tank said...

I agree. It is rather juvenile. Good intention, bad execution.

Jen said...

It still got your attention and if you do drink, just saying, if you did, bet you money you think about that silly little cotton ball ghost! heh! Or maybe not..

The board is rididculous in its efforts. I agree with all that you said. IT could have been less happy & scarier.

Have fuN! Better eat all the Oby's you want up there because they closed down the one in Flowood~my heart broke!:( I want a kickin chicken worse than ever now.