The latest of the designs of the “Pi On The Porter” group, this year’s arrangement was the “3.14159265358”. Arranging the curtains of the Dana Porter Library to spell things has been past time of students for several years and this group of Grebelites has been providing Pi Day designs since 2009. You can see all of their previous designs here.
Happy Birthday
April 1st, 2013 marked The Spirit of WTF’s 2 year anniversary.
We slowed down a lot during the past year, only posting an average of once per week. However, we still managed to post on some fun pranks, such as POETS getting turned into a beach, POETS getting covered in tin foil, and the Kraft Dinner Prank.
There was also BFC’s Sword in the Stone, and the resulting Concrete fountain at UofT. As a birthday special, we are happy to be able to post more information about both of these.
Sad Goodbye
Unfortunately, that also means that my time running The Spirit of WTF is coming to a close. Over the past two years, I have spent many hours pouring over the archives in the Dana Porter Library, digging up UW pranks and other historical nuggets. It has been fun, and I’ve discovered that while school spirit has been sequestered for a long time, there have been many outbursts of elaborate and fantastic pranks.
Starting in May, I will no longer be in the Waterloo area and won’t have access to the archives. I will also no longer be a student, so hearing about any new pranks would also be difficult. Therefore, it is with sadness that The Spirit of WTF will become dormant starting at the end of April.
I plan on doing a site overhaul in June, where I will restructure the site for easier browsing, a la The IHTFP Gallery. After that, the site will remain up, and available, but there will no longer be any new updates.
It’s been an interesting 2 years and I’ve certainly learned a lot about UW’s history. If you are interested in this topic, I recommend that you check out The Warrior Wiki, which is a new wiki project run by students in order to make UW’s history more accessible.
Just in case anyone decides that they are interested in carrying on The Spirit of WTF going into the future, feel free to let me know at spiritofwtf@gmail.com and we’ll see about a hand-off of the site. There are still many other pranks out that I have not been able to fully research.
With all that said, it’s been a fun two years. Remember to study hard, and play hard.
So long, and thanks for all the pranks!
-Michael Overmeyer
We have also recently come into possession of the Design Report of the concrete fountain erected in Suds (POETS equivalent at U of T).
It’s a humorous read, modelled in the fashion of any true Engineering report. It includes safety concerns, implementation details, and technical specification of the concrete mix used. Throughout the document are lighthearted jokes and statements of admiration for our prank rival.
You can read the full document here.
We have recently had the invoice given to EngSoc for the Brute Force Committee’s Sword in the Stone come into our possession. Here it is:
$700 to produce the sculpture. That’s certainly cheaper than the cost of many of the other art pieces around campus (even if it didn’t last as long).
We’ve also determined from the design document for the UW Fountain in SUDS, that the inner sanctum of the statue contained a bottle of beer, a package of Twinkies, and a calculus textbook.
Still no word on where the sword ended up…
As well as being covered in sod, and covered in sand, POETS has also had every surface covered in aluminum foil.
Just in time for Halloween, this prank occurred in the early morning of October 31, 2004.
The Spirit of WTF has not been able to determine those responsible, but one could easily hazard a guess that it was the handiwork of the infamous Non-Existent Action Committee.
Here is the video of Plant Ops using a gasoline chainsaw in order to cut down the giant Christmas tree left by NEAC. November 28, 2011.
On the morning of November 28th 2011, all the good little boys and good little girls walking through the front foyer of CPH were greeted by a massive Christmas Tree. Held up by a wood base and supported by bungee cords, the tree was so tall, that it even went through the ceiling tiles.
The tree was the handiwork of UW’s engineering prank group, The Non-Existent Action Committee.
At the base of the tree sat a sign that read “Have you been a good boy or girl? Take a gift!”
One eyewitness said: “Upon opening one of the smaller boxes, I discovered that it was some sort of sleeve for a penis, that had tentacles etc on it. (I am 100% Serious, I think the box was in Chinese)”
Unfortunately, members of Plant Ops were not filled with the holiday spirit and decided that the tree must come down. Using a gas-powered chainsaw indoors, they hacked away at the tree and eventually felled it.
[Sorry about the late posting -Editor]
On the morning of November 22, the Non-Existent Action Committee, uWaterloo’s most mysterious prank group, sneaked into POETS and turned the engineering bar into a beach.
Complete with sand toys, beach balls, inflatable rafts,and even a palm tree, the stunt lifted the spirits of the students who happened across it.
This is not the first time that NEAC has chosen POETS as a target. Previously they have covered every surface with turf (twice!), and wrapped the entire bar in tinfoil. With so many successful attempts, we have to wonder how they continue to get in. :P
[All photos by Michael Seliske]
Where was Software Engineering? Or Chemical? Or Nano?
Software: We are told that Software Engineering had planned a class-to-class campaign to announce that “Coding is Art” and therefore Software Engineering really ought to be a part of the Faculty of Arts. Unfortunately, the snow day put an end to that. Instead we were given this silly video.
The others?: We never saw or heard anything of Nano Engineering or Chemical Engineering in the pranks department. Let us know if you know better.
Computer Engineering decided that Sticky Notes were their medium of choice and took to covering the office waiting area in between EIT and E3 with them.
They didn’t quite get away from the apparent theme this year, and made their own modest pile of balloons as well.
They also took a page from Mechatronic Engineering’s newspaper and covered the windows of the EIT-E3 and DC overpasses to spell their program name.
