SCAD First Quarter: Dorms

There are four primary Freshman dorms at SCAD and I am relatively familiar with all of them.  I'll give you my report of each in alphabetical order.

1. D at the Hive (Formerly Dyson House)
• From my research I think this used to be a Howard Johnson hotel, which SCAD originally started leasing in 2004 to accommodate dorm overflow.  The name was only changed this year, so students who lived there previously still refer to it as Dyson.  This is probably the worst dorm of the four, and was formerly know as Dirty Dyson.  That's not just a rumor either, it was/is actually called that by people, as I've met some upperclassmen who call it that.  The rooms vary in size, from probably an average dorm size to tiny: the smallest I've seen was probably only 10-12 feet wide and the same distance long and double occupancy.  It has the smallest rooms in general and in several places is known for cockroaches.  Also when the dorms have Internet or network issues, the back half of Dyson seems to be the slowest to recover.  However, I have several friends who live in Dyson and are absolutely fine with it, and it has a pool.
• In terms of convenience, this dorm is second closest to the dining hall and the package center, and attached to the only locally situated computer lab for Freshman.  It has the farthest walk to the bus stops though.
2. Turner Annex
• I believe this used to be a Best Western hotel, but I've only heard that from word of mouth and am unable to confirm it.  I lived in this dorm over summer break for one night.  The rooms run from average to large, and unlike the other three dorms, the doors access inside the building.  The other three dorms have rooms that access covered walkways exposed to the elements, whereas "Tannex" has an internal hallway like most modern hotels and windows that face out.  Tannex also has a pool.  I don't know much beyond this, as I don't have friends who stay there.
• In terms of convenience, this dorm is only slightly closer to the dining hall, computer lab and package center than Turner, so still a bit of a hike.  However it's a pretty short walk to the bus stops.
3. Turner House
• The property where Turner sits used to hold two rows of dilapidated railroad sheds, which SCAD tore down.  Turner was the first building owned by SCAD built from the ground up and was completed in 2001. Because it was built as a dorm, it comes with some perks.  It has a convenience store, the express office and card services, a weight room in the basement (which I'm pretty sure not many people outside of sports teams use), and the Artisan Deli.  All the rooms are generally the same size, and because of an accident in 2008 and the resulting inquiry, I can say with confidence the railings are safe.  This is usually everyone's' first choice for a dorm, it was mine, but I didn't realize how bad the trek was, so I'm glad I ended up where I did.
• This is probably the most inconvenient dorm to stay at, as you have to make a bit of a trek to get to the dining hall, the computer lab or the package center.  And don't underestimate the trek either, you have to traverse the "smoking bridge,"* the equivalent of two or three flights of stairs, and whatever the weather decides to be.  However, the bus stops are directly adjacent to this dorm, so it has the shortest walk.
4. W at the Hive (Formerly Weston House)
• This is  the one I live in!  Also a former hotel, and I believe the oldest of the Freshman dorms by virtue of being the first of the four owned by SCAD, Weston has the largest dorms in terms of square footage.  We used to have a pool, but it was filled in and replaced with a sand volleyball court.
• This is probably the best dorm in terms of convenience.  The dining hall and Weston share a wall, so we are literally attached to it and therefore the closest.  Weston also contains the package center, which again makes us the closest.  We are right across the parking lot from Dyson, so it's but a short walk to the computer lab.  The bus stops are not convenient and we probably are only slightly closer to them than Dyson.

Shared Qualities
Do note that all the dorm rooms have their own bathrooms, there are not community style bathrooms at SCAD.  All the dorm buildings have paid laundry facilities, although Turner has one on each of its six floors.  All the buildings also have individual mailboxes, but if you get packages you must pick them up from Weston at the package center.  Because three out of the four dorms were hotels and the other was built by SCAD, parking space appears plentiful; I say "appears" because I do not drive here, so I have no firsthand experience with the parking situation.  Also, if you bike (like me) there are plenty of bike racks and you don't have to worry about the bus stop issue unless its raining.

*: The "smoking bridge" is a former railroad bridge that connects Turner to the complex where the dining hall, Weston and Dyson are.  It gets its name because it has smoking poles so all the SCAD students that smoke can do so out there.  I hold my breath when I walk across it.

Technology Part 2: The Computer Curse

This second part of the technology series is more personal, and I have no idea why it's happening.

This past year my interaction with computers has seemed to kill them.  My laptop, which worked fine for years for my father, then was passed to me, started freaking out.  It was unable to sleep.  I put it in sleep mode, closed the lid then later, when I opened the lid, it would have shut down.  At first I thought it was weird but tolerable, I would turn it on and that screen that offered safe mode would start up, which I would ignore.

But then it started moving slower, taking longer to boot up, and still shutting itself down from sleep mode even when it was plugged into the wall.  It got to the point where whenever I turned it on it would default to a "Windows Start-Up Repair" mode and that would run before my computer restarted and would then work fine.  In it's entirety, starting my laptop would now take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour.  I gave up and moved to my desktop.

My desktop is special.  It's got a super great processor and lots of storage space because it was designed with PC gaming in mind.  I wanted it to go with my art tablet and any animation or editing software I might use for SCAD.  My dad got it on sale for me with an awesome printer/scanner on Black Friday, and I spent a year paying him back every cent.  It's the first computer that I've ever owned that was undeniably mine and not a hand-me-down.  For two years it worked fine, but come this year, it started acting up too.

It now has almost the same start up problem my laptop has.  Every time I turn it on it defaults to the "your computer was shut down improperly, would you like to access safe mode?" screen.  Because it was shut down properly most of the time, I click on "start normally."  It starts up really slowly now.  Sometimes I can't wake it from sleep mode.  I'll move the mouse, and it'll start to wake up until I can see the arrow and a black screen, but then get stuck.  I've left it like that for hours to see if it will resolve itself, it never does, it just burns away the electricity bill, at which point I have no choice but to force shut down with the power button.

The other big problem with my desktop is what I like to call "ghost ads."  I'll start up my computer, intending to listen to music from YouTube or my iTunes account while writing or drawing or browsing, but instead my ears will be assaulted with several audio tracks from video ads that you see in the margins or in pop ups sometimes.  The problem is, I won't have any windows open.  Sometimes I even shut down the internet access because I don't need internet to use the drawing, writing or iTunes programs.  The ads continue.  I sadly moved on from my desktop to the kitchen computer.

I don't even remember the issues that computer had.  The computer in the kitchen is touch screen and self-contained.  The monitor contains the computer, you just have to plug it into a power source.  We have a wireless keyboard and mouse to go with it.  And sure enough, when I started using it, it went haywire.  My dad had to completely reset it.  It took several days to fix because he had to reinstall every program.  Now it remains my primary computer because my other two are still broken.

What scares me is that my computer use is hardly scandalous.  I frequent websites that our antivirus software labels as safe, with limited exceptions.  I don't download strange software or sign up for random giveaways.  Any pop-up ads are immediately closed.  Also, even though the two desktop computers' antivirus software was expired at the time of the problems, so was every other computers' in the house, including my parents' desktop and my siblings' laptops.  The only computers with issues were the ones I interacted with.

I'm going to have my dad reset my desktop like he did with the one in the kitchen, which is a shame since I'll lose a lot of stuff.  Hopefully I can get him to do this before I leave so I can take it with me to SCAD, since that was the original plan.