Opinion

he California Supreme Court’s landmark decisionthatinvalidates thelawagainst same-sex marriage has elicited achorus of jubilation in the gay and lesbian communityacross the nationand among its ardent supporters.

When it was announced that the University of California education system would be facing $4 billion in budget cuts, UC students were forced to realize that allies in their financial struggle would be few and far between. In the past months, state legislators, UC administratorsand even California’s governor have all but turned their back on the state’s student population, leaving them starved for representation in matters that directly impact their higher education experience.

The boy loves words. He reads books constantly. He labors for hours over a creative writing assignment. He reads for the sake of reading, and he writes for the sake of writing because he enjoys these things for themselves, not for any rewards they bring.

I like good movies, but I love bad movies. Sure, “high-quality” movies are okay every once in a while, but there’s nothing like watching a terrible plot-hole-ridden mess. I’m just glad the 1980s and ’90s gave us so many treasures.

You may recall me writing on apathy the other week; I really don’t care for that subject anymore. I have recently re-attuned my lifestyle to the words of one of my foremost role models in life, Kermit the Frog: “Time’s fun when you’re having flies.” In non-frogian terms, I take this to mean something like “take nothing seriously.”

I can usually get a laughwhen I tell people I wasfirsteducated as part of a failed governmental experiment.Then,when I try to explain further that my unorthodox instruction led directly to me becoming a raging nerd and,indirectly,to a guy getting punched in the face four years later,I’m invariably treated to an incredulous stare.But it’s true,all of it.

UC Davis recently became one of many universities across the nation to participate in Apple‘s iTunes U program.iTunes U allows college campuses to share multimedia podcasts through the popular iTunes software.This new tool can bebeneficial to students,facultyand prospective students alike.

The end of my time on this page is fast approaching,hopefully,that is,until next year.But as I was thinking about this fact,it occurred to me that you,my readership of various levels of faithfulness,will have to go without your weekly dose of damn-the-man journalistic fury.With that in mind,I compiled a list of books,movies,songs and miscellaneous crap to fill the void in my summer absence.

Seventeen-year-oldMagnus Carlsen recentlyreachedthenumber fiverankin thechessworld.Like other prodigies past and present,his risehas been meteoric.But Carlsenis possibly the youngest player ever to accomplish so much in so little time.By any measure,his brilliance issophenomenal that he hasevenbeennicknamedthe “Mozart ofChess.“

“We took possession…in accordance with our customs,and we caught all the people,” the imperialist conqueror proclaimed. “Not one escaped.Some ran away from us,these we killed,and others we killed – but what of that? It was in accordance with our custom.“

On Friday, fellow columnist Zack Crockett ran an interesting piece on selflessness, or a lack thereof. Without much investigation, it would seem that much of what he said was true, simply because the reality is much of the worldis selfish. Selflessness is impossible – or is it?

The bugs are coming out. Little fly things, spiders, mosquitoes – they are creeping through the cracks of our doors and windows, hiding in the threads of our carpet and coming out when we least expect them.