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By Allison Bloch, Staff Writer

Now that another semester has started at SF State, a familiar question looms over students- what to do between classes? Many students, both new and old, don’t know exactly.

Welcome to the student center.

At first glance, the Cesar Chavez Student Center is an exciting place. You can grab a smoothie, a burrito, and some ice cream- but if it you expect it all to be fast, don’t hold your breath, especially if you go at lunch time. For someone who has been at SF State for three years, I know that if I want a burrito at 12p.m. the lines will be so long that I might as well grab a microwaveable one from the store and it will be faster.

And if food doesn’t appeal to you, there’s a room dedicated just to pool tables and video games. So you can play Dance Dance Revolution on your hour break. I’m not one to judge, but just be careful if you spend all your time down underground at the video games because it’s not the best way to pick up on people.

And then you have the Depot- with live music, DJs, comedy acts and sporting events playing on the screen year round.

But here’s the best part: Beer.

Next to the Depot is the pub- where if class is really bringing you down you can grab a quick drink and then head back to hit the books…or not hit the books…

The pub is tiny and dark, but creates the illusion of being off-campus, if only for that few minutes while you chug down a beer before going back to class.

Lastly, once you go back above ground and into the sunlight (or fog, depending on the crappy weather here), you can relax outside on the quad. Now you need to be aware that for the first few weeks of every semester there are groups and groups of people with tables trying to lure you into joining their organization. From Bible Study to Fraternities/Sororities to Community
Service groups, they are all up there handing out brightly colored flyers.

Countless trees have been sacrificed so that you can have a flyer with desperately needed information about the Animation Society or the Glass Guild. Everyone just throws it away, anyway, so what’s the point?

On the other hand, walking through the quad and all the tables is similar to a popularity contest. Although majority of people don’t want to be bothered, I know that if my friends and I walk through and no one tries to recruit us, we are thinking, “What? Are we not good enough?”

It’s like high school all over again.

The great part about the quad is the music that is blasted for hours during the afternoon, and many times you’ll find people dancing in the middle.

So as the semester progresses and you find yourself spending more and more time in the student center, keep this in mind: The Chinese food on the bottom floor is not that good, Dance Dance Revolution is not that cool, and the pub will become your best friend during a long, stressful day at SF State.

Enjoy yourself, and please drink responsibly.

Thanks.

By Angela Generoso, Online Managing Editor

September 1 marks a momentous disappointment for broke college students surviving on minimum wage in this overpriced, metropolitan city.

The San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) is raising its fare from $1.25 to $1.50.

As a poor college student myself, I find the fare increase egregiously painful, and I don't know how I'm going to cough up yet another quarter to sit on those lovely brown and tan plastic bus seats...

However, I am baffled by the proposed Muni strike.

According to www.socialstrike.net, Muni drivers and riders must work together to achieve their goal: To get Muni to repeal the fare hike, and reverse all service cuts and layoffs.

How it works: Riders won't pay to ride Muni and drivers won't ask for a fare.

Wait, is that right? Does that mean I CAN RIDE MUNI FOR FREE UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR FARE BACK TO $1.25?

I don't buy it.

As one of many unfortunate people, I too have received a Muni ticket. $110 for not paying to ride the smelly, overcrowded N-Line that I SWEAR comes less often than the other lines...

With over 700,000 Muni riders in San Francisco I could see maybe a quarter of them participating in the strike. But that is definitely not enough to make the slightest difference.

And doesn't that just mean that more Muni cops will be on the lookout and more tickets will be distributed?

I guess over the next few weeks we'll see if it really works...and if it does, I will happily stop purchasing my Muni fare...

Anything for a good cause, right?


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By Amelia Gravagno, Staff Writer

Leaving the foggy gloom of SF State for my hometown in Orange County this summer made me miss this city so much.

I knew the suburbs were boring, that’s why I wanted to move to the city in the first place, but I never realized just how boring.

Huntington Beach is Pleasantville.

There is no absolutely no crime. The cops there are so bored they actually drive around looking for expired registration stickers (I should know, my first week back I got slammed with a fix-it ticket).

Their favorite thing to do on a Saturday night is chase all the home-for-summer college kids out of all parks, beaches, parking lots and any other public place we might gather to have a good time. We weren't even doing anything illegal (for the most part.) We just needed a place to hang out where we wouldn't be constantly watched over by hovering parents who no longer trusted us even though we never before gave them a reason to worry.

“It’s that damn city! It changed you, I know it did!” they say.

I also needed to get away because I was disturbing my parents during their newfound and obnoxiously early bedtime. When did they turn eighty? When did they decide that
4p.m. was a good time for dinner and 9p.m. was bedtime?

Then they got mad at me for not eating dinner, but I’m sorry, when you wake up at noon or 1p.m. and eat a big lunch, you’re not really hungry by 4p.m.

And then they’re suddenly suspicious of all my friends who they’ve known for years.

Why does coming home suck so much?

Where are all the friends I used to hang out with in high school?

It’s like my clique diminished into just those 3 or 4 people I regularly talk to and I never see anyone else. I was so excited to come back and hang out with everyone from high school and catch up with the friends I still care about, but maybe not enough to call and email them during the school year.

Instead, the majority of people my age have completely disappeared from my hometown, never to be seen again. And the ones I do run into are people I couldn't care less about. I didn’t hang out with those people when we lived in the same area, why should we now make the effort to be friends long distance?

I love my best friends from high school, I really do. But night after night of the same four people doing the same things and having the same conversations is making me go crazy!

Here at SF State I got accustomed to going out at night with groups of twenty people. At home I was lucky if I could gather seven people together to just chill.

And nobody has any motivation to do anything in Huntington Beach. What the hell did we do in high school? I remember so many crazy and exciting stories from our “wacky youth."

Why aren’t we like that anymore?

Here at school, someone is always wandering over, usually inebriated, and starting up a conversation with something like: “Dude, wouldn’t it be cool if we connected a bunch of ‘slip-n-slides’ together in the quad at midnight when the sprinklers go off?” Now that is some quality college-age entertainment.

But back in the OC if I had to endure another night of simply sitting at Denny’s complaining about having nothing to do, I was going to kill myself.