Carrie Haslbeck isn’t ashamed to talk about what goes on in the bathrooms at McDaniel College. In her newly-instated blog she talks about all the bathrooms on campus and how they stand up to the students’ standards. The size of McDaniel makes it easy for students to relate to her Tumblr — there are only so many bathrooms on our intimate little campus.
Carrie is a student in Dr. Paul Muhlhauser’s New Media Writing class. When they were given an assignment to become experts on a topic in the city of Westminster or the campus of McDaniel, she “thought writing about [bathrooms] would be funny, and fun.”
Carrie claims that she has “no qualms talking about bathrooms or what goes on in them.” To anyone who has ever read her Tumblr, this is obvious. According to an entry about the bathrooms in Hoover Library:
“Both the girl’s and guy’s bathrooms on all floors start to smell a little funky as the day goes on because apparently there’s something about the library that makes college kids have to poop on the frequent. And that something is probably Glar.”
The lighthearted humor surrounding the brutal honesty that Carrie employs in her blog makes students laugh and cringe at the unfortunate truths of McDaniel.
No need to worry about this blog being abandoned at the end of the semester when classes are over and assignments are forgotten for six weeks. Carrie has “already done way more entries” than she has been assigned for class because her blog has “turned in to something [she loves doing.”
Carrie really enjoys her class with Dr. Muhlhauser, saying that “it’s really interesting to step back from viewing social media as a mind numbing distraction and examine it from a different angle.” She has discovered that it “is a form of creative expression, curation, and a way to gather new information.”
The intimacy of McDaniel’s student body is great for when something cool is going on — news spreads to everyone quickly.
“It’s cool to have people come up to me and tell me different bathrooms I should write about or have them say that they loved reading my blog.”
For anyone looking to write a blog of their own, Carrie suggests to “pick something that you’re passionate about.” McDaniel bathrooms are not necessarily her passion, but she sure enjoys writing about them. It is more than just an outlet for bathroom commentary, but an attempt to bring some humor to campus through her own eyes.
“Put yourself fully into your blog or else no one is going to want to read it.”
It is clear that Carrie has taken her personality and incorporated it into every aspect of her blog.
“I’m just aiming to please and entertain the McDaniel community by talking about something that everyone uses every day — bathrooms.”
Carrie is open to suggestions for bathrooms that students want to read about. She can be found on Twitter @McDBathrooms and on Tumblr at McDBathrooms.tumblr.com.
