Sunday 2/21

(Claire McIlvenny) - 17:02

So, I'm back in the tent after the super fun crazy antics of the SKI TRIP. If you didn't go - you missed out. If you did go - you had an AMAZING time. Thanks must obviously go to Nick Bodnar for organizing 'The Bodsquad' and generally making the trip a success despite THREE flat tyres on the way there. A special shout out must go to Esther, Jonathan and Lewis who got down Black Diamonds on their first day of skiing. Oh yes.

There was a little red line under 'tyre' telling me it wasn't spelt correctly so I typed it into my dictionary on my computer which said it is the British spelling of 'tire'. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? I did not know we spelt tyre and tire differently... I should go and consult the US-UK dictionary.

K-Ville has been very sunny today which would have been pleasant but I was here post four hour car ride in warm clothes so was suffocating in the Keep/Bastion/actual tent. It was very very loud earlier and it was actually quite annoying. I think it was mainly families who left the womens game earlier but they would not LEAVE and I heard this woman who had this horrific cackle. She must not realize she cackles when she laughs otherwise she wouldn't do it; it was VERY unladylike.
Let's just say, if we were in 17th century Salem Massachusetts, at the height of the witch trials, I would have accused her of being a witch.

Right now K-Ville is a bit mad because it's before the Virginia Tech game. I won't be able to go to the game, I have to go to the library. This is how stupid tenting can be, it's completely drained my ability to attend Duke basketball games even though I spend a disproportionately large amount of time in K-Ville. The infamous 'Hamburgers For Haiti' sale is going on right now, outside of the Fortress. The people selling them are really funny. Like the main guy, who said: 'Is that the Fortress? That still exists?'

ERRRR.... IS THE POPE CATHOLIC?
OBVIOUSLY THE FORTRESS STILL EXISTS AND WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST UNTIL THE END OF TIME.

Not really, but come on!

He also came out with the one-liner 'Virginia Tech fans, do NOT buy hamburgers for Haiti. Duke fans.... do.'

Main Guy: 'Hamburgers for Haiti. You can also buy a cheeseburger. But no hogies for hogies (?).'
Co-Worker: 'Ignore the creepy guy on the megaphone and buy a burger'.
Main Guy: 'If you don't want the hamburger, thats ok. You can just donate foodpoints too.'

To be honest, I don't know why I find all of this so funny. It just is. You probably had to be there.

Bye fortress, I'll be back in...oh.... some....six hours until I take my night shift tonight. LAST NIGHT OF BLUE TENTING :(

(Tim Lin) - 23:26
Yay!! People are back!! It was very lonely without them.

So our 2 days of grace finally ended at 1 PM today. I think. Today is the last night of blue tenting. White Tenting starts tomorrow. Yeah. White Tenting is kinda a joke. 2 people per night and 1 person during the day. How losery.

We won the game today!! It was a pretty close game. And the refs didn't call fouls (or should I say FOWLS!! and that's funny because we played Virginia Tech whose mascot is a Hokie. And a Hokie is apparently a turkey. So that's funny. Yeah.) Yeah, we pulled away in the end and won by 12 points. 67-55. Yeah.

Kyle Singler just walked by me. He looked at me while I looked up to see who was walking. He was on the phone. He looked really tired.

Yeah.

"You're not alone. There is more to this, I know. You can make it out. You will live to tell..."

Saturday 2/20

(Robert Francis)-17:47

It's gonna be hard to blog since we haven't been in the tent today, but I feel it must be documented. Last night (aka this morning) they had three tent checks at 2:30, 4:00 and 7:00. It sounds like it was a VERY good night to be out of the tent. Hope the skiers are havin' a blast!

(Tim Lin) - 20:56

ASDFJKL; ROBERT DIDN'T GO SKIING?! I THOUGHT HE DID!! YAY ROBERT!! <3

"I don't wanna close my eyes..."

(Tim Lin) - 21:44

I went back through the old posts, reading the comments. I would like to give a shout out to Mrs. Semel and let her know that Brandon did not share the cookies. He ate them all. By himself. In front of everybody. While gloating. Because he had cookies and we didn't. We were all heartbroken. Brandon then proceeded to take all of our stuff and THREW IT ON THE GROUND!! Mrs. Semel, if your son does not come home this summer, then we have no idea what happened to him. Just saying.

Just kidding. The cookies were delicious. Thank you very much!!

And I just realized that we still have not officially named the actual tent. I think it is a toss-up between "The Keep" and "The Bastion." To settle this issue, I hereby declare that...actually, I don't know what I declare. I guess whichever name sticks will be its official name. I believe more time is necessary before we figure this out.

"Just call my name and I'll be there"

Friday 2/19

(Tim Lin) - 02:23

I hate how every time I log into the blog, my gmail automatically logs out and into the nolansnest2010@gmail.com account. Stupid.

So...thanks to some great people in Team Fortress, we have grace tonight. Tonight, 6 people at Shooter's brings us grace. I don't know why. But that's how it was. Since Cameron, Brandon, Lewis, and I decided that we cannot exist in the proximity of Shooter's, I was very surprised that we accomplished this. I was actually about to go to the tent at 11 PM to take Brandon's night shift when Cameron calls me and tells me about Team Fortress's accomplishment.

Thanks to...whoever went to Shooter's. I don't know who you are.

In other news unrelated to tenting, I am very disappointed with the Top 24 of American Idol this year.

"I dare you to move like today never happened."

(Nick Bodnar) - 12:25

I want to thank all the mothers, Big's, friends, etc. who have sent goodies to our tent! Mrs. Ezell, those zebra cakes were amazing! I love zebra cakes! these are always welcome surprises.

as blue tenting comes to a close - this is almost the Fortress' last day, on account of the SKI TRIP - we have time to reflect on all the joy, grace, and pain it brought us. and there was a lot of each. it's unlikely that anyone but Lemur-man made it to bed before 2am, and he only did that once, on accident. We had grace for wind, and then we didn't have it for miserable 25 (feels like -40) degree weather. Tim died once. there were grappling hooks, birthdays, news reporters, and let's not forget walk-up lines, which really lay down the hammer of exhaustion.

oh man, it's been a blast. i am just today in a mental state fit for blogging, as i was able to sleep in my bed for the first time in who knows how long.

I love this tent! (and the physical structure we have is cool too)

(Laura Ezell) - 14:35

It is an absolutely GORGEOUS day in Kville today! After a lovely Maggie/Laura chat where we did some awesome planning for future activities, the Fortress had some very exciting special guests: Will, Liam, and Elliott Spokes! The boys explored the Fortress and the tent, and were both amazed and somewhat critical. Elliott: "This is amazing. It's beautiful." High praise I tell you. Liam thought it was pretty cool, but then he described how he would make a tent if he were here. So for the future, if we're to keep up with Liam, we need an underground tent that we've tunneled out, complete with cooking equipment, a place on top where we live and a sentry to constantly stand guard. Apparently, we have some work to do. Overall, however, the boys were pretty impressed, so I think that means the Fortress is a success!!

(Tim Lin) - 17:09

I finally got around to uploading some pictures.

Yeah. I didn't take these on Saturday. So I cheated. But whatever.

Yeah, so as of now, we have grace. Because our entire tent is going skiing on some RUF ski trip. I'm not going. So I just have a break from tenting. I think Michael Gay is in the same boat as me. Yeah. We'll be back in the tent at 1 PM Sunday, I think. At least that's what Michael Gay tells me.

"It's like I've been living my whole life for this one night..."

Thursday 2/18

(Robert Francis)- 00:17

We just had a tent check and we totally kicked its butt! I mean that tent check doesn't know which way is up. Just as Tim, Hannah and I settled in to watch Idol, the sirens blared and we hopped out to do the check. Hannah had to return to find her Duke Card and Lewis had to come back from the bathroom, but by the time the line monitor got to us we were prepared. When he said tent 6, six arms extended simultaneously to reveal our Duke Cards (in alphabetical order!). But yeah, that tent check won't be walkin' straight for days and it'll definitely feel THAT in the morning.

OK, I have a math midterm so farewell!

(Lewis Purcell) -09:20

Last night was epic sleep - when I laid down after going to meals with jenny when we got grace I didn't wake up till 7 - it was ultimate. Just to let everyone know - Zoubek had a very good game last night - 10 points and was declared the MVP of the game. Haters of the world = DIE!

(Robert Francis)-10:38

It is a beautiful day in K-Ville today! So sunny and -dare I say it- warm! I had to remove a couple layers. Last night was nice. Only one tent check at 12 and Hannah and I slept next to each other on the same air mattress as black tenting! How nostalgic! I woke up at approximately 8:38 and was like Where is everybody? I slept quite well. After making a Valentine's cookie in the tent, (picture to come) I finished out my shift with Maggie visiting the Fortress. Brandon came at 10 and we saw mason heading into Cameron. Then Maggie and I went to get breakfast at the Great Hall where we saw Mason again! When we got our food and threw it away. AND THEN Maggie sat next to him on the bus going to East! It's safe to say that we're being followed. We've been expecting something like this ever since...yeah. Nevermind. Anyhow, I returned and relieved Brandon half an hour early. Now I am enjoying the lovely weather. Last night and today are also my last few hours of blue tenting. I have enjoyed it immensely even though I have only slept in the tent 3 nights during blue. That makes in 4 black, 3 blue, and 2(scheduled) white tenting nights. 9 overall. Gotta love it.

(Tim Lin) - 10:57

Speaking of being followed by a Plumlee, Miles Plumlee is most definitely following me. I went into the Great Hall to eat breakfast after my Math recitation (which is one of the stupidest ideas ever. the recitation. not the breakfast.). I walked through Alpine, and I see none other than Miles Plumlee. He was sitting with 2 unmemorable, nondescript girls. Because I don't remember what they look like except that one of them was blond. Miles had his white Apple Macbook out. There was a Word Document open with what looked like 5 short lines typed. He seemed stuck and trying to figure out what to write.

I found Jonathan and ate with him in the Great Hall. I still can't believe his hair.

Then, as I was about to go onto a bus back to East, I turned my head to the left. And I see a tall person. Miles Plumlee. Again. I decide to go into the middle door of the bus instead of the front. Because that's where he was. I need to give him a taste of his own medicine. Seriously. Stalking people isn't good. So I "stalked" him onto the bus. I sat across from him and watched him eat his bagel. It looked like there were 2 sausage patties, some egg, and some cheese in his bagel. The bagel was one of those speckled bagels. I don't know what that's called. He was eating that bagel with authority. That bagel didn't know what hit it. Just like that tent check. About 6 bites later, his bagel vanished. I didn't actually count. But judging by the size of the bagel and the size of his mouth, I'd estimate about 6 bites.

Then, after we got onto East, he quickly went into Carr. I assume that's when he figured out that I figured out that he was stalking me. So he stopped. Yeah.

Wednesday 2/17

(Esther Showalter) - 19:05

So about 20 minutes after I was scoffing at how not cold it was last night, cold happened. It felt like within two minutes, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. Even the weather reads our blog - and is out to get us.

Also, line monitors are apparently lurking outside the IM gym and calling tent checks in order to catch cheaters in K-Ville. Good thing the Fortress is full of such upstanding people that they never get caught cheating. Because they never do. Yeah.

Also, I think I accidentally cheated on the Maryland game. I got in and realized everyone had pink wristbands, but I'd never gotten one because I'd come from my dorm to the line just a few minutes before they let people in. I didn't realize you were supposed to be there for a while before the game started. Let that be a lesson: if you cut corners with Tenting and Walk-up Lining, then you lose out on the cool wristbands.

It was cold today! Good luck to everyone in the tent tonight!

(Tim Lin AND Robert Francis) - 23:23

LIKE OH SNAP ITS HAPPENING AGAIN!!1!11ONE!!!!1 - That's right folks, ANOTHER double blog! Can you believe it I sure can't!- The people in the tent right next to us are talking about gaining 400 pounds. What a fatty. He apparently "packed away so much food at the Marketplace tonight" (Person from next Tent). I even cited her with MLA format!! - I'm going to flip into the third person so that we may keep our identities secret. As soon as Robert arrived (Esther had covered Robert's shift for Robert as Robert was late), Robert saw Tim, the only remaining member of the Fortress playing Knock-Out. It became obvious quite quickly that Tim was going to win - Duh! - so Robert convinced Tim to intentionally miss a shot in order to deceive the opponent - Tim missed a shot intentionally in order to deceive the opponent. - Now, they can't accuse Tim of cheating or being more than human. - Robert and Tim then decided to get water. While Robert and Tim were getting water, someone asked Robert and Tim if Robert and Tim wanted hot chocolate. Hannah thinks that Robert and Tim are stealing her thunder. - (See above post). Anyways, Robert and Tim got to the water fountain, but it turned out to be WARM! - That is such an ABOMINABLE ABOMINATION OF ABOMINABLE ABOMINABILITY!! - And then the water got hot. Robert was holding Robert's hand under it, and it was too hot to leave Robert's hand there. - Hannah is being impatiently impatient and without patience impatiently and wanting to watch American Idol. So Robert and Tim are going to watch that now. - Bye. I love you!!

(Hannah Smith)- 23:58

This is my first post ever!! Tonight Cameron was sick so Tim decided to take his place. Stupid food poisoning. Matt Gay and Maggie Howell came to visit us and we took lots of pictures. You should ask Maggie about one of the... it's fantastic. We played knock out, but we decided to concede because the Fortress is obviously the best and we don't want everyone to hate us and to trash our tent. Robert and Tim were offered hot chocolate, but they were stupid and refused. The tent is cold, did they forget that fact? Anyway, that's all from me!

~*QUOTES OF THE DAY*~

(a series of out-of-context quotes that should by no means be taken at face value)

"My clothes make me look like a hobo." ~Maggie

"Please, look at my color scheme. I look like a toasted marshmallow!" ~Hannah

Tuesday 2/16

(Robert Francis)-12:33

Yay!!! Happy Mardi Gras!!!

I don't know what's happening in the tent because no one will update and I am not in the tent! Come on people! Remember when we used to blog about every time we sneezed? Those were the golden days.

Anyway. I missed 40 minutes of my tent shift today because my not-to-be trusted memory failed to remind me of my shift. Luckily Brandon stayed there for like an extra 40 minutes before sending a reminding text. So, no harm done, but a FAIL, none-the-less. Umm... I need to fill space in the blog (since no one else will). So everyone how was last night? Descibe your experience in detail. You can even exaggerate or flat out lie! I don't care, but I need to hear about it. We must remain vigilant. The Fortress cannot be boring!!! I've noticed our 'The Fortress' label on the side of the tent could use some touch ups. So...we could do that... I recently found out that Thursday people can get grace by going to Shooters! Yay? This whole grace non-sense it getting crazy. Yeah...so go you people on Thursday! SHOOTERS!!!!! Whoo! Um I bought some Duke sweatpants today! They're grey and say 'DUKE'. I am also pondering on whether it would be worthwhile to invest in a basketball jersey. They aren't that much and I could use it at all the games...We'll see.

And about our ski trip this weekend, what are we doing to make up for the hours/nights we miss? Have we re-checked all of this with Zach since blue tenting has started to make sure he remembers? If not, we should. Well...that's all I got. Happy Fat Tuesday! Eat lots o' unhealthy food!

(Jonathan) - 13:05
Some crazy fool cut off all my hair! You just never can tell who you can trust these days. Also, my hat is missing! Where did it go? Who knows. Actually, let me rephrase that: who knows? It's small and looks a lot like a black North Face hat with grey stripes, mainly because it really is a small, black North Face hat with grey stripes. And, yes, I do spell "grey" correctly, glad you appreciate good English. We'll have none of this ugly "gray" rubbish around here (and by " around here," I mean around the Fortress Blog, which, yes, does rule out anyone who's reading the blog from being near some instance of the linguistic catastrophe that is "gray"). Now, hopefully that sentence made a small bit of sense, since I am really about to use my two cents to use a couple of homophonic, and in the upcoming instance, homographic, terms in every sense I could possibly imagine, rendering this present sentence into what I am very afraid must seem a lot of nonsense. And why did I waste all of spring semester writing that sentence? Who knows.Anyway, find my hat, and what the heck tent 52? Are you seriously getting a shout out from Zach White when the Fortress is not? What? Guys, this is a problem that needs fixing.

(Laura Ezell) - 13:19

Other tents may get shout outs, but it's our blog that the head line monitor's mother reads to stay updated on what's going on in Kville. And let's face it, that's way cooler than one shout-out.

(Lewis Purcell) -14:32

We should blog more. And Claire's mom agrees. Anyways, last night was epic.

I came to K-ville cuz I heard fox would be there, but they weren't. Cam, Nick and I were grappling for fun on the side of some stairs cuz we were waiting for the tent check that would never come. And then fox came around the corner; I was like "Hey, did you guys see the sign up there for Coach K's birthday" and thus our story begins. Essentially they interviewed us and filmed us grappling and they even went into the fortress to interview us. It was epic.

(Tim Lin) - 18:55

Ok...I haven't been here in a while. I will start with Sunday night.

Zach White called a talent show. Winner was supposed to get grace. Among all the displays of talent, I feel as if Robert/Laura and me had the best talents. Duh. They're double cartwheel that they learned in 30 seconds was pretty epic. And my foot-jumping ability is unmatched. Actually not really. Apparently, it's a legit dance move. Watch that whole thing. It's crazy. Quest Crew is so cool.

Unfortunately, the talent show gave everybody grace because Zach White couldn't decide just one tent to give grace to. I didn't even have to tap into my hidden talents (In case you're wondering, I can do the wave with my thumbs and say the alphabet backwards. Yeah, I know you're jealous.). If I were to give second place to someone, I would give it to the guy who could name the start and end city of every interstate highway in the United States. That must have taken some dedication to memorize...

Last night was interesting. I was planning to sleep early. Which I did. I was woken up at 12:15ish. Because Hannah told me there was a tent check. It turns out the Fortress was being filmed by a guy from Fox. That was cool. He got into the Fortress and asked us questions there. I'm pretty sure my response to one of his questions made no sense at all. I feel like Sarah Palin.

AND I participated in my first daytime tent check today. It wasn't as invigorating as I thought it would be.

"Run Baby Run. Don't ever look back..."

(Esther Showalter) - 23:26

So Claire came down with the flu (and Cameron, too, I hear) so I'm in the tent tonight. And, yet again, Linear Algebra is haunting my tenting nights. I'm not sure if Linear Algebra is making Tenting more exciting and interesting or if Tenting is making Linear Algebra more fun to work through. They're becoming very closely associated, though.

It's actually kind of warmer tonight, which means my fingers haven't frozen yet from typing this post. I'm also becoming very attached to the nook next to the power outlet outside of Wilson. The muffled voices of gruntled and disgruntled tenters drift out to you over the sidewalk and occasional non-initiates walk by and scoff at/ooh and aah at everyone in the tents and air mattress inflators come up from time to time to plug in their pumps. It's so mellow, in fact, that I can't think of even one snarky thing to say. Sorry for the disappointment, dear readers!

Monday 2/15

(Robert Francis)- 0:45

It's Ok everyone! The world has been set right again. We did in fact, get grace this evening. I met Laura at the tent at approximately 10 and we watched 'The Bachelor' while enjoying a heart-shaped brownie made by Laura's Mom!!!!! Tim joined and we finished the episode (the ending was filled with much romantic drama and strife!) It was a fitting end to Valentine's Day. A bit later Zach announced over the megaphone that there would be a talent competition and winner would get grace(Perché?). Laura and I rushed beside Cameron to practice. I gave her a 30 second run down of what a double cartwheel was and we attempted it. It was a success and we went and performed amongst jugglers, dancers, martial artists and more! Tim can hold one foot while jumping over the other! (How he discovered this, I am still unsure of.) It was a regular circus! Anyhow, we all received grace (mostly thanks to the Fortress' double cartwheels and foot-hopping). And all was right in the world. Except I seem to have broken my camera. This is sad new. Let us hope it can be repaired.

(Claire McIlvenny) - 14:35

Yesterday I didn't update the blog during my tent shift which was sad. It is even more sad because I was in the tent for 2 and a half hours without my computer. And without my books. And without my IPOD (well, it broke last semester but still). On one of the loneliest Valentine's Days, my only solace was to watch Youtube videos on my I-phone until the battery ran out. I didn't even get to watch 'Pants on the Ground'. What a sad day indeed.

In other news, I saw Ryan Kelly on the bus stop on West yesterday when I came back from my shift. It was the SWEETEST thing ever because he was carrying a backpack and on it was a balloon that said something like 'My Sweet Valentine'. It was floating on a little pink ribbon. His girlfriend probably did it, not realizing that most guys would find the balloon embarrassing. But no, not Ryan Kelly. Ahhhh, so cute.

Finally, I have a Michael Gay update. It's fairly well known around here that the Fortress' main activities include eating Michael Gay. Let's face it, there is not much else to do. Anyway, my friend Annabelle from home enjoys reading our blog, so it was to much amusement that I received this post on my facebook wall:

"...just caught up on your blog...i feel sorry for that Michael guy....you guys always want to sacrifice/eat him..."

I think Annabelle has summarized quite succinctly what the Fortress is all about.

(Lewis Purcell) - 18:29

=Haters of the world=

READ! From ESPN!

Brian Zoubek, Sr., C, Duke: Hard to ignore the Z-man after his performance Saturday against Maryland. Zoubek had been one of the better defenders all season for the Blue Devils. But he awoke his offensive game against the Terps with 16 points and 17 boards to go with two blocks in the rout of Maryland. He wasn't a major factor against North Carolina, but didn't need to be in that game.

~*QUOTES OF THE DAY*~

(a series of out-of-context quotes that should by no means be taken at face value)

"For example, I once dreamed I lectured without trousers."~ Professor Jakob Norberg

"So how was your Valentine's Day?" ~Will Spokes

"I watched 'The Bachelor' with Robert Francis and Tim Lin" ~Laura

"That is HOT!" ~Will Spokes