God, I love my parents for always trying to keep me safe. There’s really nothing that says “I love you, baby girl” like sending your daughter pepper spray in the mail (which I never curiously decided to play with and misfired) or forcing her to watch a “Too Smart for Strangers” video 238,947 times by the age of seven. I grew up next door to the elementary school I attended and was never allowed to walk home alone, even after I swore to take my little keychain harmonica to use as a whistle. But hey, I recognize that it was all for my own good.

It’s easy to put off the local music scene as a subculture of bands that nobody’s ever heard of. Call them indie – the all-inclusive local category that’s about as descriptive of its music as “domestic” is to cars.

The University of California is the best in the world but it is on a slow financial starvation diet. It’s a diet that forces those who are students to pay more and more and the general public to pay less and less for the university.

The Davis College Republicans have been posting a deceptive flyer aroundcampus,urging students to “Save UC Standards” by rallying against theelimination of the SAT II Subject tests as an acceptance requirement.

Bust out your old Freddie Krueger mask for the second annual Sacramento Horror Film Festival,held at the Colonial Theatre at3522Stockton Blvd.in Sacramento.The festivalwill be held tomorrow until Sunday,and will include over50film screenings,workshops and various horror-related festivities.

After two years of work to establish a new campus e-mail system, UC Davis is officially the first UC campus to switch to Gmail, Google’s email program. Students will keep their existing ucdavis.edu e-mail addresses, but will be able to utilize Gmail features and more than 7GB of storage.

TODAY Football ticket distribution 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Aggie Stadium Ticket Office Come get your tickets to Saturday’s game against Iona. Tomorrow is your last chance to get tickets!

At Tuesday’s City Council meeting,councilmembersand the public were treated to a detailed presentation on employee compensation in the city of Davis. With thecurrent national,state and local budget issues,people want to know where their money goes.Lately,this has led to heightened scrutiny across the nation of the compensation of public employees,fromcustodial staff to fire fighters to the city manager.

Oct. 15, 2008 will forever be marked on UC Davis’ campus as the dedication day for the new Centennial Walkway, the path that runs straight through the Quad.

The Mumlers Thickets & Stitches Galaxia Record Rating:2

Pillars and Tongues Protection Contraphoni Rating:3

Nick Jaina A Narrow Way HUSH Records Rating:5