Opinion

Throughout my college career, I have been bombarded by activist groups begging for my support. Most of the time, it's a perky girl holding a clipboard who runs up to me and explains how the horrors of the world need my minimal contribution.

A quiet endemic has been spreading around for a while now. It is stealthy yet lasting. It affects every facet of our lives, impacting the way we behave, act, expect and communicate.

There's nothing like a visit to the dorms to bring back all those memories of yesteryear. I still remember - it was 2006, and we freshmen thought we were cooler than waterbeds. We were free, dammit, free! So it's no surprise what kind of shit went down.

AB 390, introduced to the state legislature on Feb. 23 by Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would make it legal to use, buy, grow and sell marijuana for recreational use for those over the age of 21.

There is a unique protest that has emerged from Michael Phelps' infamous bong-rip photo. Due to a photograph in British tabloids of Phelps smoking weed, the 23-year-old, 14-time Olympic gold medalist has received a lot of bad press and even lost an endorsement from Kellogg's.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Before I came to Davis I had never lived anywhere else, so moving to this small town was a bit of a shock.

The complaint filed last week against the recent ASUCD election's results has left much of the student body confused and demoralized. The complaint came in lieu of hard line L.E.A.D supporters' and non-L.E.A.D rabble rousers' claims that technical failures compromised the election's outcome. They say Joe Chatham and Chris Dietrich are not their president and vice president because the said failures violated the ASUCD Constitution's Bill of Rights #6 by disenfranchising the student body.

Sometimes I'm amazed at the number of lies we tell throughout our daily lives. I'm talking about big lies ("I really need this class to be a P/NP class because I have Chlamydia and that really impedes my ability to study about nutrition"), white lies ("I'm sure the only reason why he's not calling is because he's so busy thinking about calling!") and even small lies you tell yourself while crying at night ("I will find someone who loves me, I will. I'm not going to die alone, not like last time").

For a little more than 10 months out of the year, the UC Davis student body views ASUCD as practically invisible.

Granted, when a student needs a way to get to campus they'll hitch a ride with Unitrans, or if they're desperate for a bite to eat they may stop in at the Coho. However, even the most loyal patrons to these units will tell you that when it comes down to the daily grind of student government, they simply don't give a damn.

On Wednesday, sophomore biomedical engineering student Reynaldo Rodriguez filed a formal complaint against the ASUCD Elections Committee.

This complaint was filed in response to the Winter 2009 ASUCD elections. A malfunction on the campus Central Authentication System prevented students from voting between the hours of 6:30 to 10 p.m. on Feb. 19.

On Thursday, the ASUCD Senate showed that it doesn't know how to say "thank you." After closing the session on the elections brouhaha, the senate opened discussion on an urgent Senate resolution. This mildly worded resolution thanked Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, in light of his upcoming retirement from UC Davis chancellorship, without using overly positive language.

Last weekend, my cousin Ali came to stay with me. While I'd like to think her visit was prompted exclusively by a desire to hang out with the coolest cousin ever, I think the impetus might also have included checking out Davis as an option when she applies to college.

After attending the maelstrom of logically fallacious arguments that was last Thursday's ASUCD Senate meeting, I'm going to treat everyone to a segment I like to call "Really?!? With Richard." Really, people? An aspect of technology behind the voting website stops working for three-and-a-half hours and this makes for an "unfair" election? If nobody could vote for any candidate for the same period of time, all the candidates were subject to the same conditions. Voters who were unable to vote during that time frame had an additional three-and-a-half hours the next morning.

Super Senior,

A guy I met recently asked me out on a date a few weeks ago. I had a great time, but he refuses to get physically close. He hasn't kissed me and even seems nervous if our arms accidentally touch. I can make the first move, but I don't know how and I don't want to; call me old fashioned. He asked me out again this week, what should I do?

ASUCD elections, though a marginal interest for over 70 percent of nonvoting students, produced relatively radical results this year.Progressive independent candidates were elected to executive office while TGIF, which by all logic should have been favored without reservation, was voted overwhelmingly against.