I've been to a couple Penn State riots.  Usually they involve a lot of drunk people being destructive until cops on horseback come and force people to leave, sometimes macing everybody until they disperse.

We decided to go check this out though.  I drove down to College Ave which was relatively peaceful and found a parking spot.  But once we started walking towards Beaver Ave you could hear the roar and buzz of a huge crowd.

Thousands and thousands of Penn State students and State College residents were crowding the street.  The police had given up on trying to stop it and had road blocks to reroute traffic around the street.  In general the people were in a happy, celebratory mood.  There was no fighting or anything, although there were people climbing on things.  The street lights and the occasional tree were filled with kids.  And people were being crowd surfed down the length of the enormous crowd.  This included a guy dressed as Captain America and a guy wearing an all blue vinyl suit (ala Green Man).

The best parts were when the entire crowd would spontaneously start singing the Star Spangled Banner. This happened more than once, including one time when a guy on one of the balconies pulled out an alto sax and began blasting out the song while everybody joined in and sang. Pretty cool.

Overall, the mood was happy. I didn't see anybody that was obviously drunk (finals DO start this week after all) and people weren't being rowdy or destructive. I mean apart from the rolls of toilet paper that were constantly being flung around the crowd.

There were some fireworks being shot off, and I saw a kid walking around with a lit Lady Liberty torch. And a cheerleader did a backflip over a fire in the street...

I'm glad I checked it out for myself.

My parents randomly sent me this in the mail today! Sweet!

We carved jack-o-lanterns two nights ago. I made a scary face, my girlfriend made a castle.

Basically I love this time of year. And pumpkins.

From: Waiting for the Click

I had just gone to bed. It was maybe 1am but I was still up. I was
watching something on the laptop near my bed, like I usually do to
fall asleep. I couldn't quite fall completely asleep though. As I
tossed and turned the fire alarm in the hallway went off. I groaned
and covered my head with a pillow.

From so many years of living in dorms with constant false alarms, I
acquired the bad habit of often ignoring them. I guess they've cried
wolf a few times too many.

Then knocking on my door. "gahh I'm tired let me sleep!"

I crawl out of bed and go to the door and peer out. A few people
walking around, but the alarm suddenly shuts off. "thank god" and I
close the door and climb back in bed.

More knocking. "fuuuck" I walk over and this time a cop is there.
"there's a fire upstairs. Everyone needs to get out.".

Wow its not a drill. I put shoes on, grab a coat and hat, my wallet
and keys, and my camera off the table. I figure ill take some
pictures of the fire and then wait this out in the heat in my car.

For some reason I thought to go back and grab my fire safe. I don't
know why. At this point I believed this would be some small kitchen
fire that would be out in 10 minutes. But I grabbed it. The one
fireproof thing in my apt and I took it with me.

But I knew it had important papers in it. A couple backup dvds. Some
notes and photos from girls I've loved. So I grabbed it. Nothing
else.

My most important things in my possesion were in a fireproof safe that
I moved into my car as I started snapping photos of a blown out window
which was spewing a bright stream of fire into the cold winter night.

I'm really tired so ill continue this later.

sorry if you can't read my writing today. interpret it however you'd like