Opinion

Sometimes, I envy guys. They have a better handle on solving problems dealing with interpersonal relationships among friends of the same sex than girls do.

Take how guys handle cleaning the apartment. When a disagreement about who should vacuum the living room arose between these guys I knew, it escalated to a lot of screaming and finally a physical altercation. All over vacuuming (OK maybe I take it back, boys are lame sometimes)! But six minutes later, everyone apologized to one another, someone ended up vacuuming, Call of Duty was played, and everything went back to normal.

In the closing thoughts of my last column, I predicted that I would receive a deluge of hate mail in response to publicly voicing my opinion of President-elect Barack Obama. As the week went on, and my inbox was slowly filled with commentary referring to me as "a morally despicable, selfish, un-American egotist," it seemed as if things were going exactly as I had expected.

My undyingly dedicated readers (hello mom, dad, big sis in Israel … love you all), might have noticed that last week I spoke about the seventh item on my Cap and Gown List even though last week was week six of my column. Oops.

Imperfection is inevitable. While it might be nice to dream of a world with no accidents, no wrong decisions and excellence as the norm, reality is far less tidy.

Since the entire country has boarded the midnight train to Doom-and-Gloomville, it should come as no surprise that magazines are rocking the Troubled Industry look.

As I've said before in this column and as you are no doubt tired of hearing, print media in general seems to be dying a slow and painful death at the hands of the Internet and a poor economy. Magazines are no exception.

Dude, seriously, I think you've got a problem. I know it's hard to talk about, and I know not many people think this sort of thing is a big deal, but we need to have this conversation for your sake and for the sake of everyone on campus.

As many of you are probably aware by now, this week was national Pitch It to the People Week for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, or SCCC. The organization is a non-partisan group that supports the right of concealed handgun license holders to carry their weapons on college campuses as a means of protection. SCCC hopes to dispel myths and educate the public about the facts of concealed carry and hopes to eventually make it legal for license holders to carry on campuses such as ours.

There is a profound sense of anticipation, fear even, at the new structure of our world order. This order exhibits a strange, unusual behavior because it has no behavior at all. We have entered a new era of postmodernism - a narrative defined by its absence of a grand ideal, devoid of an overarching meta-theme. In this construct, our truths are provisional, our comprehension transitory.

I feel like I've been running into a lot of pissy people lately. I guess I understand to some extent why this is - the weather's a little less sexy than most would like it to be, there've been these "essay" things that have to get done, and there just aren't enough yogurt joints in Davis to go around. Still, and in light of the fact that Thanksgiving is on its way, we've all got much to be glad about.

To anyone who has ever doubted the rationality and humanity of the American political system, I give your suspicions credence: Prop 8. On Nov. 5, California law began enforcing discriminatory marriage practices; a second class of citizens was selected for institutionalized prejudice by a slim margin of the electorate.

It's past three o'clock in the morning. A combination of caffeine, prescription drugs and sheer willpower has kept me up until now. I have this creepy voice on my Mac that announces the time every hour on the hour. It's like Steven Hawking sneaks up on me every 60 minutes and, for lack of a better term, whispers in my ear. I shudder.

The role of an ASUCD senator is to monitor student activities and services, oversee the budget, initiate new projects and - at the very least - attend weekly Senate meetings and hold office hours.

Unless, of course, your name is Chad Roberts.

The Davis Bike Church could not find salvation, as university administrators elected to evict the bicycle co-op from the Domes sustainable living area last month.

The university told the Bike Church this summer that it must get its facilities up to code before facing an Oct. 1 inspection. Despite rousing efforts by Bike Church ministers and members of the community to do just that, the Department of Student Housing decided to forgo their assessment of the facility after learning the church did not meet the campus fire code.

President-elect Barack Obama accomplished a great feat when he won the election two weeks ago, but when he assumes power on January 20, 2009, he will face a herculean task. At the top of his list will be the economy and the Terror Wars; not to mention making his election-winning promise of change a reality. Obama's situation parallels President Franklin D. Roosevelt's, who, like Obama, inspired as much fear in conservatives as he did hope in the rest of the world.

Being an English major of mediocre ability, I have spent many a'nights staying up and writing thousands of last-minute essays - all while cursing the gods of academia for my procrastination and thinking, "What the f*ck have I been doing with my time!?" (Well, I suppose that one night where I had to steam iron all my underwear could have waited…)