We did it! Ten seniors, twelve hours, and one debt to society later. We'd like to thank the Academy, our friends, family, guest swipe donors, e-guests, and the Ratty staff for an amazing day in our favorite dining hall.

Thanks to all our friends for skyping in! Sid, Cooper, Brooke, Adam, Lewie, Matt G., Elaine, Brian Brown, John, Ben, Zach, Shannon, Zoe, Abby, and Amy!

Here are some final thoughts from today's Senior Ratty Challenge Champions.

Hayley: "We gained a lot of seniors but we lost a lot of freshmen."

Charlie: "We did the thing"

Isabella: "The new blue walls does not make the Ratty more calming"

Kyle: "Blogging is my life. What will I do tomorrow??"

Gabe: "Why am I still eating"

Caleb: "Ratty challengers of all class years, unite!"

Peter: "Board Games were the MVP"

Daniel: " Heroes are born, legends are made. There are heroes, and there's legends. Heroes get remembered but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, you'l never go wrong."

Lainie: "Times flies when you're having fun. LOL JK."

Sarah: "I miss my Kitchen. Cheers to the Governor"

Brown Band Seniors 2017 out!

We're Coming Down to it Now

[roughly paraphrased from Miracle]

Great moments are born from great opportunity. And that's what you have here tonight, Band seniors. That's what you've earned here tonight. Twelve hours. If we stayed in the Ratty ten times, it might get the best of us nine. But not this time. Not tonight. Tonight, we bear with it. Tonight, we stick with it. And we last the whole 12 hours because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest Brown Band class in the world. You were born to be Ratty Challengers. Every one of you. And you were meant to be here tonight. This is your time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what a great team of Ratty challengers the Soviets—er, the other Band class years had. Screw 'em. This is your time. Now go out there and last 19 more minutes*.

*wonk

Update: Leber's still working on that paper.

SCRIPTWRITING

Hello friends,

As I sit here at my third-to-last scriptwriting, I fear no evil. It's weird. Time is fleeting. Here is a preview of our script, with select quotes...

"The month of February was named after my second cousin 'Feb,' who grew up on a dairy farm just outside Savannah, Georgia."

"According to a recent study, 69% of clocks agree that February has never happened before."

"For example, the Ratty is now bluer than the Blue Room, although still not as blue as our favorite mascot, Untitled (Lamp/Bear)."

"YAY SPORTS TEAM! Go Patrifalcons!"

Come next weekend to find out how these quotes fit into the larger fabric of the script!

More E-Guests

Shortly after lunch we had a second wave of friends join us through the magic of the internet.

Hooper! With the usual fly bowtie.

Shannon! Skyping in from Copenhagen!

Ben, our Microsoft boy. Please come back and make the website even better.

John! Reminiscing with Sarah about the joys (and follies) of being a web master.

A third and final wave of e-guests has begun, check back later for more screenshots!

Text Screens Galore

In the excitement leading up to this historic day, I prepared with some of the best text screens the Spongebob show has ever debuted. Sadly, not all of them have found a porpoise in today's events. Neverthless, our faithfull view deserve to see these works of art, so here they are:

I know. I'm hilarious. What do you want from me.

A Look at Amy Andrews' Hairstyles

The Ratty Challenge is dragging on and taking some of our sanity with it. Nearly 10 hours in and a topic of discussion between Carol, Gaby, and I (amongst others) was how adorable Amy Andrews '16's hair is (and how great she is too!!!!)

Here's a look at Amy's top hairstyles, posted with her permission:

Amy!!!

The pigtails: so cute 😍

Pigtails, side view.

Amy's hair is adorable even when it's straightened. 

The absolute classic Amy Look™

Only a few hours left until we are set free from the Ratty! Thanks to Amy for being great and having cute hair. 

Script writing has started and it seems to be going ... well it seems to be going.

Most recently, I successfully completed the Oregon Trail (with limited assistance from Mark). And it only took Mark dying twice and Elrod dying once. I also stood up once and walked around. Running out of things to write about because I have LITERALLY been sitting in the same place all day.

In other news, Caleb got some tea. Mark is ranting about something. Dana is watching fencing clips and trying not to think about Haffenreffer. It looks like Hayley is looking at pictures of herself ... oh wait sorry she's doing an anthology of Amy's hairstyles.

Ok I just got up to get a sandwich and someone said hi to me but I swear I've never seen them before.

it's hard to be me.

Down the Rabbit Hole

We're 9 hours into our endeavor, and we've certainly hit the lull. Our land has spread to encompass two more tables; Letter C Island and Script Writing Island. Letter C Island is the native home of banana grams, which the locals play 24 hours a day. Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Script Writing Island are preparing for the alumni ice show, coming to a Meehan Auditorium near you next Saturday!

Also, 2 more friends have joined in:

Christie and Charles stopped by! Christie made some AMAZING promotional posters for the band! Join the Band!

In just 3 hours we will be released back to the outside world. We can do this.

Bold and Brash

8 Hours in, and we've resorted to entertaining ourselves with the creation of digital art. Although new to the art of painting, we taking pride in our work, and have decided we need to put it on display for all to see.

Art Meep, Dana Leichter 2017

Dana's first masterpiece. For inspiration, she looked to her childhood, thinking back to memories of Sesame Street. The blue and purple paints were made from berries in her hometown, Short Hills, NJ, with a little bit of uranium mixed in. Legend has it the paint glows in the dark. The yellow is made from melted cheese. Dana's a weird child.

I Don't Know, Lainie Rowland, 2017

Created by Lainie during her dark phase, the colors set a tone of a somber yet passive passage of time. The yellow sun with pink rays represents her hope and dreams of one day revisiting the outside world. The rest is just random.

Kyle Smudges, Kyle Myerson, 2017

(guest written by Hayley)

Kyle's inner peace is being meep meep meep

Dana has taken over the blog now. Mwahahahahahaha!  I don't know what to type so here's some random words: meep floop fleep sneelgeflarg blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg

Charlie's giving me a weird look now.  Kellan's standing here now.  He's eating a banana.  Now he's dropping the banana peel on Kyle's head.  He's taking Kyle for a run.  Kyle's doing back handsprings on the table.  Sy is at Elrod Snidley island all alone.  My computer has been stolen.  Caleb is reading blog posts.  Lainie is typing things.  Gaby is looking at pictures.  Charlie's still giving me a weird look.  

7 hours in and I have yet to accomplish anything meaningful besides watching 5 episodes of 30 Rock. Soon I think we will *become* the Ratty. It would explain why I've been feeling so mediocre as of late. 

Just overheard: Kyle asking Zoe "do you have any tips for my sanity?"

or maybe it was Charlie... I can't really tell and I feel like it's too late to ask. 

Look, Kyle!

Kyle wants me to write a blog post, so here it is.

Peter destroys in Power Grid

So Sarah might have won Ticket to Ride but Peter proceeded to destroy Gabe and Sarah in Power Grid. After this 3 hour game, Peter and Sarah are well on their way to playing board games for the entire day.

I'd say I'm already halfway there!-halfway there!

Halfway there! Can you believe it? I can. Feels like an eternity. We've expanded to a 6th table, known to the locals as Elrod Snidley Island. Perhaps soon it will be connected to the mainland. People walk by giving us looks, but they just don't understand. We fight for a noble cause. The e-guest skype calls have continued, although it's too loud in here to hear much of anything. So we just nod our heads and smile. Just kidding, headphones are magical. Here's a 10 minute video describing the current train of thought in my head:

Also, here are the most recent bandies to join in on the fun:

Sy! Welcome to our club, welcome to our club, welcome Squidward welcome Squidward welcome Squidward welcome Squidward.

Ingrid! Its a plate with just an apple? Ok. 🍎

Natalovely Delworth-A-lot. 

Rose, with her friend Heather! Join the Band! Join the Band!

Sofia! She's 19 now! 🎉

Tracy! Taking a break from slaving to the machine in order to enjoy some lunch.

Summer! Literally slept until like 11 am.

Daniel has resorted to telling puns. God save us.

Please help.

Ratty haiku

limited choices
at least we have cereal
also coffee milk

Lunch Crowd

Now that it is lunch time, the Ratty has achieved the level of full that is usual for the "primary cafeteria of Brown University." The Brown Band corner has now grown to include 5 tables with (at this exact moment) 21 Bandies. Also Dusky in a table-slip holder. The card game on one end is still continuing, while the other end is occupied by Sarah, Peter, and Gabe playing a board game called "Power Grid." Productivity Band is somewhere in the middle around me. Although my productivity is fairly low compared to Jared doing his poetry homework and Mark reading a book (Emergency, "which is about all these emergency care providers" - Mark). 

Not the most exciting of blog posts, I just mainly wanted to record the number of tables we have taken.

 

Lunch Time

It's lunch time! The menu is bleak, but at least there's pizza. The tots debate has finally died down. Greer is doing some pretty coloring. Charlie is reading a book. Gabe, Peter, and Sarah are playing some board game (I'm too far away to tell what it is).  A small tribe of children just mobbed the ice cream machine. Where did they come from? Free them.

With the lunch rush, a new flock of bandies have arrived:

Isabela, with the last plate of tater tots. "Mwuahahahaha" - Isabela

Shane! Whats in the cup? The world may never know.

Zach, pondering whether or not tater tots are fries.

Jared! "You guys have a blog?" - Jared

The meme queen herself, Sammy, has arrived.

Francesca and Carol! The other 2/3 of the Illumisquadi

Mark, photo creds @Francesca. 

I haven't had my Matt Finn yet, muff.

After a 15 hour workout, Kellan has arrived.

And finally, a brief summary of lunch: