A public service announcement for all you student group leaders applying, considering applying, or dreading applying for Special Fees . . . run like hell!
Haha, just kidding! Special Fees may seem like a complicated, mind-numbing process, but it's really easy and fun, if you use . . . the Hitchhiker's Guide! Just clean off your computer screen, practice your political smile, and remember: always know where your towel is.

Some notes: Budgets are due February 19. Appropriations Committee hearings are February 13, 20, and 21 (21 is for joint Special Fees Groups only.)

There are 6875 undergrads, about 8600 graduate students, and 1450 coterms, who count as both . . . what?! WHY IS A COTERM WORTH TWO OF ME???

Petitions are due March 5 at 4 pm. There will be no extensions and no mercy. I mean, look at those guys on the Appropriations Committee--- they have steel in their eyes and slaughter in their souls. That is, they have the best interests of the student body at heart, and are wonderful people, all of them . . . (I have to face them for an interview next week too.)

If you have questions, Appropriations is holding office hours this week at the UAL office on the second floor of Old Union.

Good luck! If you need me, I will be writing my budget and frantically clutching my towel.

Lab classes have made me realize that the more effort I put in to a class, the less I care about the grade. This obviously has some pros and cons.

For one, it's not that I won't be hugely disappointed putting a lot of time in to a class and not getting the grade I was expecting, but I think at some point we all have to realize that we gave it our best shot, and putting in even more time wouldn't have helped very much.

Also, I've found that when it comes to 'easy' classes at Stanford, what drives me to do well is the fear of embarrassment over a subpar grade. I guess this goes against the concept of Stanford being very laid back about school, but maybe I'm just going about it all wrong.

Most important of all, though, it is clear to me now that this relationship is due to the fact that the harder I try for a class, the more rewarding I find it. In other words, my satisfaction is already guaranteed before I receive my grade. Because of this, I feel I am very rarely motivated by just the grades I will receive at the end of the quarter. I'm lucky enough to have found a subject that I really enjoy learning about, and I think that is really what Stanford is about. Let's just hope I can keep caring about grades enough to keep from failing out.

Ever wondered when performance apparel would hit the library? It has. A new company, "Study Like A Champion," has begun producing sweatshirts, t-shirts and sweatbands designed to amp up your study experience. SLAC aims to be the "Nike of study apparel," worn by the best students in the country (and, of course, all the wanna-be's). Photos are available at studylikeachampion.com.

How much the hoodie will actually boost your grade isn't clear. But it sure as hell will do its best. The sweatshirt features a red "DO NOT DISTURB" planted across the back of the hood. It unzips for heat control and has a little hole in the right pocket so you can run your headphones up through the inside of the sweatshirt.

The kicker: it has glow-in-the-dark strings on the hood. Why the glow-in-the-dark-strings, you ask? It's so that when you're walking back from Meyer at 1AM bikers - the "haters" - don't run you over.

The mythology of the SLAC gear is exactly that - the "haters" against the "champions." It's a bit like the UnderArmo(u?)r obsession with protecting "our house" or Nike's love of "just doing it." For a 5'10 170 pound half-Jewish guy with glasses, it's a little easier to identify with the SLAC mythology. Think back to all of the times you head out to the library on a Saturday night and take the back exit of your dorm. SLAC is here to tell you that you're a champion, not a loser. And that you should walk out, loud and proud, iPod blaring Rat-at-at, backpack loaded with fresh notebooks for a "killer study sesh." Most of all, believing in yourself.

And after all, that's what apparel is all about. Nike shoes won't make you any faster. A new suit won't make you any smarter. And SLAC hoodies won't make you more prepared for a test. But if it makes me laugh at 1AM in Meyer, I'm all for it.

Check out these awe-inspiring photos taken by HDR-photography guru Trey Ratcliff and a group of talented Stanford photographers. I can't believe I've been rushing through the quad each week without stopping to appreciate how gorgeous our campus truly is.

EDIT: Some of the photos were taken by Ralph Nguyen, who has graciously contributed his artistic vision to TUSB with galleries for Snowchella and the WBC protests. Dude, your stuff is amazing.

The Stanford Dance Marathon is now LIVE online. For the first time ever, your parents will gasp in confusion when they realize that grinding is a perfectly acceptable way to save the world.

The first dance marathons originated in the 1920s as endurance competitions. Participants shuffled and jived until they could shuffle and jive no more, with a winner crowned at the end. Since then, they've evolved into charitable traditions, with colleges nationwide hosting dance marathons in order to raise money for noble causes.

Stanford Dance Marathon, organized by a local chapter of FACE AIDS (link), focuses on supporting international health by raising money for Partners in Health and the Bay Area Young Positives by supporting "their HIV/AIDS and community building programs in Rwanda and San Francisco."

A lesser-known, Stanford-unique partner to the traditional Dance Marathon is the annual Hackathon , where techies put their heads together for 24 hours to work on non-profit software projects. The Hackathon, spearheaded by current ASSU president David Gobaud, is certainly one of the most ingenious and successful events that Stanford puts on.

Stanford Dance Marathon is a 24-hour event, meaning it will end tomorrow afternoon at 1. Definitely come and check it out.

If not, you can always watch the webcast and cheer on the DMers until you decide to stop being creepy and actually go dance.

For the past few weeks, we've been working hard to upgrade our site to make it more useful, more functional, and more aesthetically pleasing. We hope the new site has achieved these three goals, and more, and we encourage you to give us feedback at blogforstanford@gmail.com.

Enjoy these new features:

New masthead: That vectorized palm tree just had to go.

New tabs on the left-hand side: These tabs allow you to navigate easily around the site. Check out the 'events' tab (coming soonworking great!) for an up-to-date, inclusive events calendar so you never miss a cool event or performance; go to the 'features' tab for recurring signature TUSB posts (such as our pre-quarterly Course Guide or Charlie's weekly TUSGraph); and join us or find out more with the 'about us' and 'sign up to blog' tabs.

Recent comments: Find out what people are saying right on the front page.

Social Media links: Follow us off-the-blog at Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and Flickr, or get our RSS feed.

A Cleaner Interface: Enjoy looking at the blog while you read it. In particular, note the new drop-down menus for 'archives' and 'categories'.

Student blogs: We want to highlight individual Stanford student blogs on our blogroll. If you have a blog you want to nominate for our 'student blogs' section, let us know!

Special thanks to KevinL and MikeL for working so hard on getting this whole redesign and running.

And finally, if you spot any bugs, email us as soon as possible, and we will fix that as soon as possible. Enjoy!

The midterm doldrum has set in.
9AM lecture attendance has stripped down to the stalwart few. I've had to forcibly suppress the urge to photograph the sparsely-populated aisles in sepia-tone and use it as some kind of pretentious symbol for the quandary of educational dystopia... Or whatever.
I'm sure I'm not the only one on campus excited, curious, or even vaguely bemused by the events taking place next week.

Voila. The 2010 Wellness Week Itinerary!
Monday
Puppy/Kitten Study Break (11:00AM-2:00PM @ White Plaza)
Fred Luskin: Less Stress and More Happiness (7:30PM-8:30PM @ Braun Lecture Hall)
Yoga with Pavel Dmitriev (8:30PM-9:30PM @ Sanctuary Room in Old Union)
Tuesday
Stress-Buster Meditation Workshop (8:00PM @ Wellness Room in Old Union)
Wednesday
Movie [The Soloist] and Discussion [popcorn provided!] (8:00PM @ The Bridge)
Thursday
Project Love Cookes [free home-made cookies!] (11:00AM-1:00PM)
Out of Sight, Out of Mind [STAMP dramatic monologues] (7:30PM @ Gavilan Lounge)
Wellness Party: Take a Mental Break (8:00PM @ Wellness Room in Old Union)
Friday
Lift the Duck [duck-watching and sidewalk-chalking] (11:00AM-2:00PM @ The Claw)
SPOM Panel with Free Pizza (6:00PM @ Old Union 200)

(If you're wondering about the strange image with the gaping seals, don't ask. I'm sure they're supposed to somehow remind us of sanguine states of being. They look pretty pleased with themselves about something, at any rate.)

"Oh f**k."

Now, not to be crass, but I'll admit that this pretty much sums up my initial reaction when I heard the news that the Stanford Program in Earth Systems and the Departments of Anthropology and Biology were teaming up to institute a new off-campus academic opportunity for fall of 2010 in none other than the sunny, tropical Hawaiian islands. To clarify, my vulgarity was not motivated by dislike of the idea, but instead by deep disbelief that the world could be so cruel. For you see, I've already done my study abroad; I've already made that immoveable four year plan, now set in stone if I hope to graduate anytime soon; and while I had a great time at Oxford Program, when you compare trudging to the library in the freezing rain to climbing volcanoes and wading through the blue ocean in the warm sunshine, I can't help feeling a little unfulfilled. The program in Hawaii sounds like a dream for anyone even remotely interested in ecology or conservation.

Twenty lucky undergraduate students will spend ten weeks on the islands: 8 weeks on the Big Island studying volcanoes, rain forests, and coral reefs, and 2 weeks on Kauai at a field research station, all the while receiving academic credit. The trip comes at the initiative of Peter Vitousek, a Stanford professor and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, who has in previous years organized research trips to Hawaii with small seminars of undergraduate students.

Students who are interested can attend an information session this Monday, Feb. 8 at 12:30 pm in Y2E2 and should email Max Borella (mborella@stanford.edu) to RSVP. And as for me, I'm sure I'll somehow recover from this blow, and if not...well, graduating in four years is overrated anyway (I mean, it's Hawaii!)...

On the email circuits right now: a petition against ABM (Janitorial Services Company) for allegedly firing Terman Engineering center janitor Karina Reyes for charging her cell phone on a University computer.

The petition description reads:

Karina worked at Stanford through ABM, a janitorial subcontractor. While cleaning offices, Karina connected her cell phone to a Stanford computer to charge. ABM suspended and then fired her for touching the computer, claiming that Stanford had requested this. However, Stanford says that it never asked for her dismissal. Moreover, the owner of the computer asked that Karina not be fired. Karina is taking her case to a federal mediator on February 10, but this is no guarantee that she will get her job back. Please sign our petition and tell ABM and Stanford that ABM's actions were disproportionate and that Karina should keep her job.

Can these accusations be true? If so, the firing of Reyes (who claims to have an unblemished record) for simply charging her cell phone is horrifying. Unfortunately, SLAC's previous fights for any sort of fair labor have been met with heavy resistance, and so we can only speculate as to what will happen here.

As one of the contributors to a previous year's Guide to Sustainable Deliciousness, I had looked somewhat forward to checking out the Munger Housing complex's new cafe, the Russo Cafe, since I have had good experiences with the Munger Market, which I highly recommend you check out ASAP.

On the other hand, I do *not* recommend you eat at the Russo Cafe until they fix things up. As per last year's guide on where not to eat on campus, I graded the Russo Cafe on a combination of sustainability (yep, I've taken Earth Systems 10, just for fun and self-ed) and deliciousness (as a self-identified super-taster and artisan bread baker).

How did Russo Cafe score?

The Russo Cafe gets a C+ in "sustainable deliciousness", which puts it wayy below Cool Cafe at Cantor, and even below older institutions such as the Treehouse or Bytes Cafe near Gates. Why so low?

A number of complaints:

1) Taste / Preparation
2) Ingredient quality / provenance
3) Over-use of cornware cups

Simply put, the Russo Cafe looks great on the outside and the food looks appetizing... until you start eating it.

Sorry Russo Cafe, this gets a sustainable deliciousness Fail by Stanford standards!

Continue reading "the Russo Cafe: sustainable deliciousness Fail" »

The Daily has long suffered from web sites that were confusing or refused to load. But with the start of a new volume, the paper has unveiled its new web site, which hopes to be a big improvement from previous incarnations of the site.

At first glance, the new site looks much, much better--and it looks like the Daily is finally embracing the interactive nature of the web. They are putting more emphasis on Web 2.0 interaction and multimedia as well as just making it readable.

Of course, there is always a touch of irony--according to sources, too many people tried to look at the new Daily site after it launched, causing it to again fail to load.

What do you think of the new site? Comment below.

I was ecstatic to find that my new next door neighbor has fantastic taste in music, but it got me thinking about music on campus. Why is it that bands like The xx are only getting played on headphones by audiophiles, while the sonic refuse played at weekend parties seems to only come with the volume set to 11? Just because the beer is ordered in bulk, I don't see why the music has to be of similar quality.

My strategy is to continue ignoring the fact that music taste is a matter of opinion, continue considering my loud music as a form of public service, and continue raising the volume until I get some serious complaints from the neighbors. It's worked out well so far, except for the fact that everyone else has the same strategy.

On a related note, kudos to Stern Dining who have recently switched up their music for a huge improvement. It was the worst freshman year, when it was impossible to fully cook a waffle without hearing "Soulja Boy."

Hey all. I took shots from Snowchella. It was probably the most fun I have had this quarter! Check out the whole set here.

Once again, the full set of 100+ pictures is here.

And if you see yourself in there, you can tag yourself in my Facebook album.

Enjoy!

Timothy Tam '12 has found a particularly Stanford--and very effective--way of raising money for the Haitian earthquake victims: fixing people's bikes for cheap and giving all of the proceeds to UNICEF. A member of the cycling team, Tam is offering $5 basic repairs (way cheaper than the campus bike store) plus discounted parts and giving the profits to Haiti.

Tam, who does not appear to have any relation to the cookie, writes:
I'll be charging $5 for basic repairs ie. lubing chains, tightening brakes and $10 for more time consuming jobs like fixing flats and adjusting gear shifters. If you need any specific part for your bike ie. bike lights, helmets etc., I can help you out with that too as the Menlo Velo bike store on El Camino has agreed to supply parts at a lower price for this cause. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail at timtam79@stanford.edu if you'd like me to have a look at your bike or have any other questions.

Think of it as the anti-bake sale: donate a little money to do your exercise, not to have to work it off.

And yes, that is a picture of the Monty Python character 'Bicycle Repair Man,' flanked by nerdy-looking superheroes.

I've compiled a video with footage and photos of yesterday's protest. Hundreds of people stood in the early morning cold to express solidarity with homosexuals and Jews, the two groups targeted by demonstrators from the Westboro Baptist Church. The church demonstrators, famous for provoking crowds and suing aggressive counter-demonstrators, drove from Kansas to protest before the Hillel at Stanford House. Viewer discretion is advised.