The Banner

Originally Posted:

Monday, October 23, 2006

10:11:00 PM CDT

Hearing The voices in my head telling me to turn up the heat becasue it's freezing in my apartment

Update 11/1/06 We won the banner competition!!!

10/16/06

It's homecoming week at WKU. Rah, rah, rah! Shish boom bah! Kick'em high, kick'em low, come on Hilltoppers, go go go! (If only you could see my choreography for this ditty!)

For the festivities of the week our student group (American Society of Interior Designers Student Chapter) planned on entering the banner contest. Somehow I ended up doing the banner by myself on Friday before I headed home for the weekend so the students could hang it bright and early this morning. If I do say so myself, the banner looks pretty good. This year's homecoming theme is a "Century of Spirit." Sheila and I brainstormed the idea for the banner a few weeks ago and decided to do a parody of the Budwiser "Real Men of Genius" commercials. Just trying to get the photo of the majority of our students all together was an ordeal. The finished version is actually three photos taken at different times and places merged into one. By midnight of Thursday last week, the only thing we had was the photo--- no words, no ideas, no nothing. The following came out of my fast typing little fingers. We went with it and the banner came together. Shoo wee.

Today we salute you, Real School of Spirit
(Real school of spirit)

While other universities are built on a flat plane, your students accept the challenge of getting to class by hiking up a hill with a loaded backpack strapped on.
(Check out those buns of steel!)

Other schools may have a menacing animal or character for a mascot, but not you. You chose to think abstractly and create an original icon that defies definition and prove that a furry representation of spirit with a lopsided grin can be a real
mascot.
(Go Big Red!)

What once was a Normal School is now a Super School. How else could you get squirrels to coordinate with the school colors unless you have super powers?
(Was that a white squirrel I just saw?)

Why stop the out of the box thinking when you are on a roll? Who said bath linens wouldn’t make a great cheering accessory? Not you, of course.

(Coach Diddle would be proud!)

So wave that red towel high in the air, Real School of Spirit, because your moxie runs deep and one hundred years is just the beginning.
(Happy Centennial, Hilltoppers!)

I know I'm overly critical, but man, oh man, banner making is not anyone's strongest talent around here. There are some sad looking banners hanging in the student center. There are a few that are well done, but wow!, when Big Red's shape is distored, our poor mascot really takes on a bad look. I think it's quite fitting that the theme is about spirit, because, trust me, it took a lot of spirit to make those banners and hang them for all to see. So, like our banner says, "WKU, you have moxie!"

My college roommate, Shannon, and I had a late afternoon lunch together today. It's been about a year since I've seen her. The great thing about good friends is that even though you may see each other once a year or less, when you get together the time lapse evaporates and you pick up just like it was a weekly girls day out.