The Bike Church, a student-run campus institution that originated in the Domes Sustainable Living Area, chose to leave campus last year after failed talks with Student Housing regarding renovation of their location.

Bike Church organizers vowed to continue educating people on bike repair and starting an off-campus location.

Four-and-a-half months later, Bike Forth has opened its doors. Located at Fourth and L Streets, this new iteration of the Bike Church will hopefully serve the community as well as the on-campus version.

While it’s a shame that organizers had to move off campus, this allowed them to continue providing service to the community. We applaud the organizers for keeping the bike education and self-repair group alive.

Moving off campus may even provide benefits for Bike Forth. In its new location, non-UC Davis affiliates will feel more welcome. The fact that it is still student organized retrains some of the independent sentiment that the original location had.

One hopes that the Bike Church will find a way to open up on campus once more. Although welcoming community members is commendable, this student-run service should be easily accessible to on campus residents with a broken bike. Pushing the bike over a mile to Bike Forth’s location is not feasible.

Despite this praise, there is still one item of confusion: the organization’s name. The Bike Church name was fun, and the fact that volunteers were known as ministers added to the humor. However, the new name simply causes confusion as to whether it is related to the Bike Church or not. Additionally, the title of minister no longer makes sense.

This quibble notwithstanding, we applaud Bike Forth and hope to see it return to campus soon!

This winter’s ASUCD election has certainly been one for the books but thankfully the ASUCD Court has finally provided an end to the saga.

During a pre-hearing last week, the court unanimously shot down Case 46, Christopher Ambriz vs. the ASUCD elections committee, which centered on a voting malfunction in which the website went down for three-and-a-half hours during the elections. Ambriz claimed students were “disenfranchised” because of the malfunction.

The court’s decision was justified – the elections committee did the best they could in the situation and the new senators and executives were rightly sworn into office. Now the elections issue has finally been laid to rest, giving closure to both sides involved in the case. ASUCD senators and executives can go about their duties as elected officials without worrying that they may be removed from office and have to start campaigning again.

But now that the issue is over we have to ask: What took so long? The elected ASUCD officials are now almost two months in to their terms; the dispute went on for far longer than necessary. Issues regarding the winter ASUCD elections should not continue into April.

In the future, disputes like this need to be settled quickly and promptly. It is distressing to think that after the ASUCD Executive office has already hired all their staff and started working on their policies, they could have been removed from office two months into the game.

On another note, while the court generally handled the entire situation well, the outcome of the court’s initial pre-hearing on Apr. 15 was amateur. The malfunctioning of a tape recorder left the court unable to make a decision on the case, dragging out the court case for yet another week.

Such a mistake should be avoided in the future, either by having a back-up recorder or by adequately ensuring the machine is properly functioning.

The classroom can be more than just a place to catch up on sleep and do a little Sudoku. It can be a source of both learning and entertainment if you know which classes to take. Luckily for you lovelies, my almost-three years of, uh, “hard work“ at this pop stand have led me to compile this list of awesome classes you should take in order to mix a little business with pleasure, whether your pass time is coming up or you‘re about to graduate and want to wallow in a little regret.

I got a head start in taking classes that deviate somewhat from the expected college curriculum. I hesitate not to say that aside from staying up late chatting with the other kiddies and whining that Davis is Lucifer‘s sauna in the summertime, I accomplished next to nothing at summer advising. I‘m not sure I even knew what was going on.

So I picked some classes that happened to sound cool and this is how it came to be that my first college class of all time was Charles Bamforth‘s Intro to Brewing and Beer. I would have taken Intro to Winemaking, but the words “pop quiz“ repelled me. To say that the man is a fan of his craft would be an understatement. He will almost have you believing that beer is the elixir of life. You get to learn about barley, hops and why it is that Keystone and Blue Moon just aren‘t the same.

Unfortunately I didn‘t have a “Save the Ales“ shirt to wear to class.

And no, you will not be drinking beer in class (unless you bring your own in a Martinelli‘s bottle – that‘s your business). You‘ll enjoy going to class.

Imagine walking into class, realizing that there‘s a quiz, and not having to worry about it. Welcome to MUS 106, otherwise known as the History of Rock Music. The quiz would be something like listening to a Jackson 5 song and having to name it, which should be easy because everyone should listen to the Jackson 5. Even though I wish the class could have lasted a year instead of a quarter, it crams in as much as it can, tracing the evolution of music pre-Elvis through whatever is flowing through your iPod earbuds now. Did you know that Mick Jagger was an accounting major, “Smoke on the Water“ is about a casino fire or that Blondie recorded one of the first rap songs? The cherry on top was having Peter Frampton for a guest speaker. You‘ll enjoy going to class.

Fairytales, Fables, and Parables is another enjoyable class that allows its students to soak in some very random bits of information. You get to find out that in alternative variations of certain tales, Sleeping Beauty gets woken up in a more X-rated fashion and the Little Mermaid offs herself.

“It makes you realize how rampantly sexual thoughts of the human mind are,“ says Coconut Paul, who took the class freshman year. It turns out that even fairytales aren‘t that innocent, so really, people should stop blaming Disney for everything. Reading Perrault beats reading the average textbook, and having story time in class two afternoons a week should be a throwback to the good old days. You‘ll enjoy going to class.

I haven‘t taken NUT 10, but everyone and their mother swears that “it will change the way you think about food.“

“It‘s a good class to change your perspective on how food fuels the body. The next time you‘re hungry, you‘ll think about more than just what tastes good,“ says Cassie Hanover.

Muffin Tyrella adds: “It‘s pretty easy, but it‘s also fun, entertaining and engaging. The diet project was actually kind of fun.“ It sounds like you‘ll enjoy going to class.

While we‘re on the topic of food, my friend Lipstick Athens also recommends Food, Folklore and Health. Says Lipstick, “Not only is lecture enjoyable, but I actually picked up a few facts and got a good grade. Did you know that microwaving a sponge will kill bacteria?” She enjoyed going to class.

Lasty but not leasty is the class I bank on taking before I graduate, the one that truly screams from the rooftops that I survived four years in Davis … ABT 49. Street name: Tractor Driving. You truly never know what crazy-ass future situations you may end up in that could benefit from use of these mad skills! I hope I enjoy going to class.

MICHELLE RICK wishes she could make her own major out of these classes. Send career path ideas to marick@ucdavis.edu.

The 100-day mark is an exercise in futility. It neither provides any defining, authoritative conclusions, nor does it lay sufficient evidence for future successes. But the mark, however flawed a construct it is, is not just an indicator and predictor of performance. Rather, it conveys a perspective of context.

And the perspective of context matters, as it then emerges as a template from where we can evaluate the short-term projects that have been implemented. And sometimes, early successes or failures can define a presidency.

The past few years witnessed a successive failure of American leadership. This incident was at once a function of boomer quarrels, cultural misalignment, racial fragments and technological distraction. Mired in internal conflict, America consequently and consistently ignored the most pressing problems she faced. It threatened the very values and essence of America.

It is this framework of failure that President Obama is cast into. The presidency is not a tale about Obama, but by virtue of his role, his identity and actions are central to it. Subsequently, he has come to illustrate that, while his success in setting and driving the agenda for legislation has yet to truly manifest its projected long-term impact, he has changed something fundamental in us. That something is perception, at domestic, foreign and local levels.

The domestic perceptions are our conceptions of the role of government in the public sphere. If Reagan thought the solution to societal ills was to remove government from the equation, Obama proposes to re-center government to the very heart of problems. He has almost nationalized banks, dramatically increased the influence of the government for the next decade, proposed activism. It is almost a story of continuous government stewardship in a more fragile, interdependent world.

Then there is America’s tarnished international reputation. After years of dwindling American moral stature – culminating in the shoe-throwing incident of President Bush – Obama has reoriented our image through choice and circumstance.

Choice by his decision to embrace hostile regimes, including negotiating with socialist dictators and releasing torture memos, while circumstance by his apologetic remarks during the European summit. At once, Obama has reshaped the contours of America to a more tolerant, open nation, a claim of the moral high ground.

Finally, the most palpable change Obama has delivered is elevating a sense of national purpose. After years of fractious contentions created a legacy of disorientation with the government, the number of applications for public service is on the rise, while as the New York Times reported, “two-thirds of Americans now say race relations are generally good.“

Meanwhile, incendiary Republican rhetoric increasingly appears to be extremist and vacuous. The optimism that America, at its core, is capable for dedicating service is finally returning.

Sometimes, there are aspects in life and in society that cannot be merely reduced to statistics and numbers. Instead, by its arbitrary, transient nature, these are categories that defy measurements and quantification.

Similarly, we cannot judge Obama’s 100 days by merely ranking the state of the economy or the legislation he passed. But we can try to understand the quiet and implicit transformations he brings: the sense that something grand is occurring, the anticipation that at a critical moment in our history, we are finally moving past our old battles and confronting our new ones.

For that reason, the 100-day mark is instructive as it is pointless.

Astounding feats of leadership are often demonstrated during moments of gravest dangers. Obama has shown us glimpses of what he can achieve – demonstrating, through a sincerity to resolve, a willingness to listen and political poise, that America can assert its authority as the force of democratic good that it has often been.

ZACH HAN demands a 100-day evaluation for everything in life. Propose a different solution at zklhan@ucdavis.edu.

Although most of you haven’t heard of this word, “akrasia,” you’re all familiar with what it refers to. Akrasia is the state of acting against one’s better judgment. Even though you figure out what the rational plan-of-action is, your emotions or lack of emotions hold you back from executing the plan.

Our emotions are evolutionarily primed to guide us toward rational decisions and to stray away from irrational ones. Unfortunately, our ancestral environment was much different than today’s modern society. Our emotions aren’t programmed to keep us studying for long hours, to write 20-page research papers, to go to the gym three times a week or any other relatively “new” problem.

A lot of us depend on our willpower in order to fight akrasia. Problem is, people vastly overestimate their willpower and then complain about how they never get anything done. In reality, willpower is incredibly weak and possibly non-existent. Rarely do we act out of willpower alone, and when we do, hardly anything productive happens.

Think about the last time you used willpower.

I remember mine: I had to start a moderately difficult homework and I just couldn’t start doing it. I forced myself to open my backpack and take the homework out-a 30-second process that felt like 30 minutes. I didn’t even start my homework; the excruciating task of taking it out depleted my supply of willpower for the day.

When we actually do work we don’t want to do, willpower is almost never a factor. For example, a lot of people are most productive right before the deadline. But they aren’t acting out of willpower; they are productive because they have to be. Similarly, we stay in boring/unnecessary lectures not because of our willpower, but because it may be embarrassing or disrespectful to just leave.

In my opinion, the best way to combat akrasia is to put yourself in situations where the willpower necessary is minimized. Below, I’ve made a list of tricks you can use that allow you to minimize the willpower necessary to start doing schoolwork you’re not motivated to do.

Give yourself artificial time pressure. Make plans to do something fun with friends about an hour from the time you want to start working. This way, your deadline is brought closer in time and you’ll need less willpower to get started. Worst case, if you don’t finish your work before your artificial deadline, you can cancel your plans with your friends: a better alternative than missing the real deadline.

Have your ego work for you. If you have a big ego, this tip is a good one for you. Tell your roommates or family that you’re going to start studying by a certain time. You’ll be pressured to act consistently with your word because now you will face looking like a liar or just lazy.

Drive somewhere far away to do work. Muster the willpower to drive somewhere far away to do work. Once you get there, you’ll feel obligated to start working.

Eat almonds. Almonds give you energy, reduce your appetite and are healthy. Getting started with your work will be easier when your willpower isn’t fighting hunger or sleepiness.

Study with hard-working friends. Many people get this one wrong. They study with people who are easily distracted and always want to play. If your willpower can barely get you working, it won’t help if it’s preoccupied suppressing desires to play. Instead, find friends that work hard in groups. They’ll peer pressure you into focusing on your work.

Make a 5-minute commitment. Force yourself to commit to doing just 5 minutes of work and that’s it. You may not have the willpower to complete the assignment, but maybe enough for 5 minutes. Even though you only commit to 5 minutes, it is better than nothing and plus there is a chance you’ll surpass the 5-minute mark on your own.

Pay the price of procrastination. This one is for those who are chronic procrastinators. Give your trusted friend some amount of money and have him incrementally pay it back to you as you accomplish your goals. For instance, once you finish a page of your essay by a certain time, he’ll give you a quarter of your money back. Being productive will never seem easier.

LIOR GOTESMAN wants to hear what tips have worked for you in the past. Tell him at liorgott@gmail.com.