Who's the guy speaking?

Jammed between all the program elements is a guy who's going to get up on stage and talk. He'll come after the Korean barbecue fills our stomachs. He'll come after the rocking live band takes the stage in the midst of green and blue lights flashing through the auditorium, delivering on live music that's sure to bring the house down. He'll come after the welcome announcements by our esteemed club president, and after the skit which is not only a deft display of thespian talent, but is also a comic parody of all our college experiences, whether you're a "I've been here at Cal six days" student or "I'm a working professional" alumni.

He'll walk up after the Bourne-esque lightsaber video, and he'll stand there at the front of the stage, and look at every one of us. And then he'll talk. He'll talk about life--about your life and mine. He'll talk about his life, and in the telling of it maybe give us a window into our own.

The plush seats will probably beckon some of us to dreamy Neverland (especially after that barbecue), but if you manage to stay awake and listen, I'll bet you'll be glad you did.

Why I'm glad you're coming

Today is the day! It's a little hard to believe, but the day has arrived at last and all the cylinders in the machine are going at full tilt. There's bustling activity everywhere I look, but just want to step back and throw a curve ball, and take a slightly different angle in this post.

In a culture and society that's so media charged and there's so much eye candy in the movies and TV to engage us, it's a breath of fresh air to know excellence, humor, and an intriguing program aren't relegated only to the secular media. Our society (and our campus) isn't one to credit religion--much less Christians--with innovative entertainment, thought-provoking content, or stuff thrown on stage and on the big screen so good it'll make you laugh til you cry (and still avoid the crass edge of what passes for accepted entertainment).

I, for one, am thankful that all of you invited are coming to something I'm proud of putting on stage, prepared and ready for public consumption not only because it communicates a message, but that it does so in an engaging, fun, and attractive way. I'm really looking forward to the Welcome Night, from the moment I pick up the Korean barbecue with my hands, to the closing moments as we all stream out of Wheeler Auditorium.

Someone's got to marinate all that meat, right?

If only all meat tasted like Korean barbecue. But, alas, that's not the case. Someone's got to do the work to prep the meat, transport it, marinate it, chop it up, and put it on the grill. To marinate 1000 lbs of Korean barbecue tonight, it took:

• 23 people
• 25 cutting boards
• 24 knives
• 6 food processors
• 22 tongs
• 17 really big bowls filled with soy sauce and marinating stuff
  

Additionally, it took four guys and a big truck to pick up all the meat and transport it this afternoon. Here's a picture so you see how many boxes we're talking about:

What to expect at the Free Korean Barbecue!

So you've circled, "Free Korean Barbecue and New Student Welcome Night" on your Welcome Week calendar. That's a good thing, for sure. But what to expect? Seems like everyone and their cousin is going to be there.

In previous years people came to the barbecue because they got one of our ubiquitous flyers, met a new friend who was going, or just smelled the thing as they were walking by. Here was the common scenario in years past: New student goes to registration table, says hello, gets name tag, wanders over to really long line which is serpentine in form and Disneyland in length, gets plate of food (which smells really good), isn't sure where to sit, is a little intimidated by the massive amount of people, and (if said student came alone) uncomfortably sits near a cluster of people trying to belong, and enjoys good food. If said student is lucky, will meet a Koinonia or acts2fellowship member and strike up a good conversation.

We always thought that wasn't a very good experience. Yeah, the food's good. But it's not just about the food. It's about the people, meeting someone and connecting with them, finding out a little bit about our group and what makes us tick. So here's the scenario you can expect tomorrow night (it's only one day away!): New student comes to registration table and gets cool name tag with colored sticker, says hello, gets plugged into a group of 10-15 other people, is directed to big cluster of colored balloons corresponding to the color on her name tag, sits down with group and meets other people and has interesting conversation, eats good food, has more groovy conversation (like, "I know someone from that high school!" or "I visited your hometown before... I think it was when I got lost on the way to my SAT." or "Oh my gosh! I collect spoofy youtube movies too!"), and then walks over to Wheeler Auditorium with new group of friends, laughing and holding hands all the way.

With the exception of the holding hands part, that's what you can expect tomorrow night when you get to the barbecue. See you there!

Standing out in the crowd

Setting up a table out on Sproul is pretty risky business. We blend in with rest of the tables out there and disappear into the milling masses. So what do you do to stand out? Some groups try big canopies, writing the word "FREE" in really big lettering (we do that too sometimes!), blasting loud music, and sending out people from their clubs to flyer, engage passing strollers, and start a conversation.

That last bit is kind of hard. Who wants to stand in the middle of Sproul and say hello to people you've never met, hand them a flyer (when they already have 20), and risk getting rejected?

But fact of the matter is, we remember what it's like being a new student on campus. And we don't underestimate what a comfort a warm smile and outstretched hand can be to someone new. At a certain level, it's not about the flyer. It's about saying hi, maybe brightening someone's day, and spreading the word that there's something happening on campus on Thursday night we'd really like to invite you to.

We have 83 people helping out at our tables, logging in a total of 320 man hours. But it's not just about the numbers. It's about standing out there in the midst of the passing crowd and hoping to connect with others, whether a brief exchange of words or even a momentary smile.

Got flyer?

If you haven't gotten one personally, go to Sproul. If you have extra, pass them around!

Finishing the "program"

Program is one of those unfortunate homonyms that can mean quite different things. On the one hand, there's a line-up we got planned for the entire night: live music, skit, video (two of them!), message, and announcements. As in, "The New Student Welcome Night program is full of some pretty good stuff."

On the other hand, program could also refers to the paper or booklet every person gets when she walks through the doors of Wheeler Hall. So I could say, "The program handed to me tonight is designed well. It looks cool." And, I would suggest, unlike other pieces of paper you found in your welcome folder or were handed to you in an obscure way to answer some questions you never knew you had, the program we're going to give out at New Student Welcome Night will be informative and beneficial.

Hannah and Steve are finalizing the program, and it goes to production tomorrow.

New to this year's program is a whole listing of coupons. They're deals cut to us by our local sponsors. Here's a sampling of the places supporting us:

• Ben & Jerry's
• Chang Luong Restaurant
• Fins Restaurant
• Papamingo
• Tako Sushi
• Tapioca Express

Wonder how we got all these sponsors? Let's thank Kevin for his tireless PR work. (applause applause)

Calendar-Shmalendar

Who would have thought being on the Welcome Week Calendar would be such a hip move? But hip it is. Or you could say cool, groovy, sick, wicked, any number of words.

Why do I say that? Well, Ultimate Pizza was one of those events that made it into the official calendar, and it was supposed to be a cool hangout time playing ultimate frisbee and having some good ol' Costco pizza. Turns out 400 people crowded VSLB Lawn, laughing, sprawling around the grass, and talking with one another. That, my friends, is pretty cool.

Of course, there's more Welcome Week events coming up. Just check the right nav bar, or you can always go straight to the acts2fellowship and Koinonia websites.

If it feels like there's too much time and too little to do during Welcome Week, you're probably right. Check us out. It couldn't hurt... and you might end up meeting 399 other people who're thinking the same thing.

Running Kinko's out of the back room

Even though we're all web savvy and can find just about anything we need between Google and Wikipedia, there's still a need for paper, flyers you can hold in your hand, and posters you can see plastered on bulletin boards and telephone poles.

New Student Welcome Night publicity isn't just word of mouth. Sure, we got a really big banner hanging on the student union out on Sproul Plaza. But we still need our publications, Photoshop, and Illustrator peeps to produce some cool stuff we can hand out to our friends and all the new students on campus.

Let's hear the numbers:

• 10,000 New Student Welcome Night flyers
• 5,000 Koinonia Welcome Night flyers
• 5,000 acts2fellowship Welcome Night flyers
• 1,000 New Student Welcome Night programs
• 1,000 Koinonia brochures
• 1,000 acts2fellowship brochures

Here's the people we can thank for all the pretty, in-full-technicolor prints: Tim, Jesse, Hartie, Kenton, and the whole team of innumerable people folding each of those brochures by hand. And it's not like they pick up all this stuff at Kinko's. They sit in front of the printers as each sheet comes out, hitting "print" for the hundredth time.

And then you have artists: Sieun, Myra, Kaitlyn, Hannah, Irene, and Margaret. One could speculate, perhaps, the reason for the dearth of artists hailing from the alternative gender: maybe they're still figuring out how to color within the lines?

For musicians and aficionados

Music's a big part of our generation. It sounds good, feels good, and it's a part of just about everything we do: driving, walking to class, iTunes, iPod, computer, as you do your homework, when you're not doing your homework, and the list goes on.

It's no wonder then we got music at our Welcome Night. A drummer, bassist, two electrics, an acoustic, piano, and a couple singers. More mics, XLRs, 1/4"s, and speakers than I care to list. But that's not all, Wheeler Auditorium is letting us use their lights. But since we're a high-powered operation, we're bringing moving lights of our own just to make things a bit more fun.

If you like live music, whether to sing along or just to listen, the band's been practicing the past week out of a garage, prepping a set we hope everyone will enjoy, no matter what walk of life you're from or what you listen to.

If you're a musician, sit up front. Watch the bassist and the drummer.

Pixar makes animations and so do we

3 17" Macbook Pros, 2 more 15"s (one Macbook Pro, and the other an older Powerbook), and even a 12" Powerbook: it's not a Mac commercial. It's a group of guys working on a video which will be the last item of the NSWN program. Not going to tell you what it is, but you'll see. Here's the cast of characters doing late nights:

• Richard's getting an MFA in graphic design. He's number one illustrator
• Conrad got an MFA in visual effects and he's doing the animation and keyframing. Abe's co-piloting.
• Paul and Jammy are doing music, sound FX, and making some of their own
  
• and Nelson... well, we need someone for comic relief and food, right?

And then there's the voiceovers: Joanna, Jessica, Lisa, and the list goes on.

For you computer i-post-on-youtube gurus out there: Motion, Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Illustrator, Soundtrack Pro, and a healthy does of Coke Zero.

Just to fill you in, every year as part of our Welcome Night program we have a video we put up on the Wheeler Auditorium big screen. It's Jason Bourne and Darth Vader rolled into one. This year, in addition, we're having a video-mercial at the end of the program. And that's the project we're working on. It's not quite Pixar and you won't see any hopping desk lamps. But you'll see a jumping house and maybe a dropping anvil. And that's all I'm going to say.