Opinion

Reforming the current law banning texting and talking without a hands-free device while driving is a necessary measure in reducing the number of accidents on the road. The bill will increase fines and extend the law to include the same offense while riding bicycles.

It's 90 degrees outside (a cool evening, according to locals), pitch black and I'm sweating like an excited, yet confused dog. I'm ambling along with my family in tow in Ahvaz, Iran, which is in the Khuzestan province. I'm 15 years old, just young enough to dodge the mandatory draft. There was hot desert dirt as far as the eye could see and it was eerily silent. We planned on taking a short stroll to visit our cousin who lived down the road.

Holy shit.

The wave of March 4 student protests have come and gone, and what a spectacle they were. I joined a group of protestors at one point to see what the commotion was all about; I really just wanted to hear what they had to say.

"I think my boyfriend might be cheating on me," said the voice.

There are two types of earwax in this world: dry and flaky, and wet and sticky.

It's a typical late night. I'm sitting with my laptop and chatting with a friend on AIM. The conversation is going smoothly, as indicated by the coherent sentences and replies every couple of seconds or so. Although I'm working on a paper, I make the time to glance at the online chat between each sentence I type. That's when I see "the word." Actually, it isn't even a real word - it's an acronym. Three letters: LOL. Dangit. Why that acronym? When I first started chatting online (just last year - I was a late bloomer), I barely even knew "LOL" stood for "laughing out loud." In my mind, the letters "LOL" still don't really translate to "laughing out loud." To me, they really mean "I have nothing to contribute to this conversation anymore." It's the perfect way to end a conversation, especially when you have no idea how to respond.

Everybody has that one little quirk (or six). One of my friends is convinced that high roofs will crash down and fall on her - and, therefore, is weirdly claustrophobic in food courts at malls. Another is completely freaked out by feet.

The arboretum. As you may know, it won two Best of Davis awards this year - most picturesque and best place to take a date, if memory serves me correctly. Right on.

If you ask UC Davis student Sarah Raridon how she feels about the recent vandalism of the UC Davis LGBT Resource Center, she doesn't mince words.

Recent hate crimes on UC campuses have evoked the need for a collective effort from our community.

For the first time in California's history, our state government spent more money on prisons than higher education.

The article "'Meatless Mondays' educate students on vegetarianism" in the Feb. 24 edition of The California Aggie provides misleading information to students. It suggests appreciable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by not eating meat one day per week.

Being a college student is hard work. You have to manage your time between classes, work, partying and - for some - a relationship. For those of you in a relationship, you know it can be challenging to maintain the lust and passion that got you there in the first place.

You never know when opportunity is going to come a-knocking. Usually it arrives after sending out some over-exaggerated resume claiming everything from knowing a second language (you can say "I want Taco Bell" in Spanish) to your pet-sitting experience.