Prospie Week Games

As part of our program here, every year we have to convince a new gaggle of prospective first years (‘Prospies’) to come to our program.  The program sets them up in a nice hotel, treats them to good food, shows them the campus, and even lets them go to a few classes.  They trust the current graduate students to pick them up at the airport, drive them around, and take them out in the evening.  We even have a party.

Naturally, this opens up the ground for fun games at the prospies’ expense.

I’m making a list of things all of the current graduate students could do while the prospies are here.  The winner will be whoever does most.

1. Who can make the most Facebook friends with prospies.
2. Who can get the most prospies to hug them.
3. Who can get into a drinking contest with a prospie (and win).
4. Who can get into a philosophical argument with a prospie and make him concede the point.
5. Who can get a prospie to tell them a secret (extra points if it is a member of the opposite sex).
6. Get honesty from a Super Prospie (a prospie with multiple acceptances to top-ranked programs.  Honesty would be something along the lines of “I just came here for the free trip.”).

There is also another, top secret game between me and another graduate student here.  One of us is trying to get at least five people to decide not to come here and the other is trying to thwart that goal.

Update: I was just reminded that we were also supposed to get a sex story from the prospies or get a kiss from them.  Although I imagine that if anyone is actually going to get either of those, then they’ll win the contest by default.

Anyone have any ideas for other games?

Last Year: Pixelopolis
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Laughing while doing the ‘daily grind’

Here’s a fun game I call the ‘euphemizer.’  Basically, come up with a nickname for your naughty parts that is also jargon you hear in your work/field/profession.

I call mine the “Nomological Dangler.”  What’s yours?

Last Year: I have decided to boycott NaBloPoMo
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Have you ever seen American Pie?

At the basketball game:

Me: Who’s Apple Pie?

John: She’s the last cheerleader on the right.  The blond one.

Me: Dude.  She looks like she’s Thirteen.

John: You don’t think I should call her Apple Pie?

Me: To be honest, no.

John: What do you think, then?  Peach Pie?  Blueberry Pie?

Me: Blueberry would be better: it is the Duke BLUE Devils.

John: Pumpkin Pie?  Pecan Pie?

Me: I don’t know, but definitely not Cherry Pie.

Last Year: All filler, no killer
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Logical Fallacy Sheet

So, you might be wondering what I’ve been doing since this post.  If you guessed reading and studying for some major things I have to do…. you’re WRONG.

I’ve been making a Spot the Logical Fallacy Cheat Sheet for my party in two weeks.  Actually, the idea has been pinging around the Internets for a little bit now and people seem to really be responding to it.  I’d link to the sites, but I don’t want to connect my professional life with my blog in any serious way.

Anyway, I should probably go do something productive…

This should be fuuuunnnn

Last Year: ... and her Lovely Husband, A quick, personal update
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Spot the Logical Fallacy

While I was watching the political convention last week (and the week before as well, actually), it astounded me at how often the speakers would resort to obvious logical fallacies.  I counted five false dichotomies and four straw men within the Sarah Palin speech alone.  Now, just to not be political: I’m sure Joe Biden also committed a whole bunch of logical fallacies, I just didn’t think about it until I heard Sarah Palin ‘poison the well‘ against Barack Obama.

As a result, I’ve decided to throw a ‘Spot the Logical Fallacy’ party during the first debate September 26.  You can participate too, but I probably won’t be paying as much attention to you as I will to my guests.  I’ll come up with a list of logical fallacies, along with their definition, and print them out in a handy two-sided sheet.

Here are the rules:

1. The first person to spot a logical fallacy must exclaim it, but only AFTER the speaker commits the fallacy.
2. The winner is the person who catches the most logical fallacies.
3. After the debate, a discussion on psychological, rhetorical, and propagandistic techniques will commence, but nobody is allowed to have a debate over the issues, unless there is a direct appeal to their logical consequences.
4. No headbutting is allowed.

Update: Wow, speak of the devil.  Someone seems to have come up with the same idea at around the same time as me.  Weird..

Last Year: Twittering
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