Winter is coming. Well, not actually winter, but the end of summer break is quickly approaching, with its ominous threat of class looming in the distance. Not to worry — here are some friendly reminders (and some more here!) of why the end of summer and the start of school are far from the worst things that could happen to you.

1. August and September bring the summer heat — finally. Although May, June and July constitute most of our break from school and are therefore deemed “summer,” the beautiful weather that really should accompany summertime typically makes its appearance in Berkeley beginning in mid-August and lasts through October. While there are certainly warm parts to these earlier months, we’ve all noticed by now that the weather isn’t very sunny majority of the time. But come school time, the gorgeous and highly anticipated sun shall return.

2. School isn’t starting just yet. We understand that the start of August seems to bring with it the cloud of school and the air of urgency of the end of summer. Well, school doesn’t actually start until the very end of August, so there’s plenty of time left to fit in all those summer plans that haven’t quite become reality yet. It can be especially fun if you plan on coming back to Berkeley early and have missed all your favorite places.

3. New classes mean new opportunities. Going back to school doesn’t have to be all bad; it can also bring with it an array of new additions to your life. The start of the semester brings all new classes with some new professors and the possibilities of new friends. Class doesn’t have to be looked at as something that is taking away from the fun aspects of life; rather, they can be seen as something that can add fun opportunities as well.

4. Football! While we understand that not everyone loves football (or really even understands what’s going on), the Cal home games are pretty awesome. Whether it’s the collective excitement at the beginning of every game that results in enthusiastic cheers or the stellar halftime shows put on by the marching band, the games create a sense of school spirit and collective enjoyment that can be extremely hard to come by in a school with more than 35,000 students.

5. Midterms don’t start for a few weeks. Even once school has started again, the time to buckle down and cram before midterms doesn’t surface for at least a few weeks. The start of school can still be filled with exploration and social time after class and on the weekends. Take advantage of the slightly lighter schedule while it lasts.

So while school is drawing near and the end of summer can be seen on the horizon, it does not mean that bad things lie ahead. There is still plenty of summer to be filled and excitement of the new school year to anticipate. And, personally, we can’t wait to have a little more sun around these parts again.

Image Source: ~Wei~ under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

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As the days grow closer to a final summer sunset, maybe you’ve spent this vacation exploring, dating someone new or maybe just staying friends. But can a guy and a girl really just be friends and nothing more? It’s a timeless and popular question that Timothy Goodman and Jessica Walsh have set out to answer.

Jessica, a hopeless romantic, and Timothy, scared shitless of commitment, claimed to be amused by each other’s not-so-successful love lives. In an attempt to answer why relationships can suck so much, 40 Days of Dating was born.  In order to get the most out of their project, Goodman and Walsh set up rules for themselves. They were to:

1. See each other every day for 40 days.

2. Go on at least three dates a week.

3. See a couples’ therapist once a week.

4. Go on one weekend trip together.

5. Fill out their daily questionnaire and document, well, everything.

6. Not see, date, hook up or have sex with anyone else.

Okay, so we’ll leave it to you guys to judge whether this could be considered a legitimate experiment, but maybe this didn’t have to be so complicated. It’s a fun project to take on if you have nothing else better to do, but guys and girls can totally be friends! Now of course, this would be a little difficult if you think your friend is hot, is cute or just has the greatest personality. But if you don’t feel attracted to your friend, then there. Friends! However, when asked in a CNN interview whether Goodman thought whether men and women could be friends, he answered, “If you asked me a couple of months ago, I would’ve said yes. In one of his stand-ups, Chris Rock said every platonic friend that he had was someone he was trying to sleep with, but he made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the ‘friend zone.’ I think there’s truth in that. A man always has a motive.”

What do you think? Do men always have their motives, or is it totally possible for all of us to be, quite simply, friends (especially in college)? Let us know in the comments!

Image source: randomix under Creative Commons 

Contact Karen Kwaning at kkwaning@dailycal.org.

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Ah, Facebook — that ever-present part of our lives that serves to ensure us that we have access to the constantly updated information of what everyone we know is doing at all times. It’s hard to picture life without Facebook these days — it has become so ingrained in our generation’s culture. Who wouldn’t tell you that it is absolutely common practice to almost immediately virtually stalk that cute guy you talked to in class via Facebook? Or comb through an ex’s pictures to see what he or she is up to (and hope that it’s lame)? Or just get lost for some inordinate amount of time scrolling through your news feed catching up on the unimportant facets of everyone’s lives? While it’s nice to be able to see what that girl that you were kind of lunch buddies with for half of third grade is doing with her winter break, it just seems a bit unrealistic that everyone connected to you on Facebook is actually your friend. Do we all really care what the people we went to junior high and high school with are doing now that we’ve finally escaped most of them? This is both the upside and the downfall of our friendliest foe, Facebook.

Facebook has become the go-to form of social communication. Almost all party invites are sent out through it as well as invitations to important events. The element of human contact has been all but lost in the creation of events. Rather than waiting for RSVP notes or calls, you can just check how many of your friends have clicked “attending.” While this saves a ton of time and money, we can’t help but be a bit nostalgic for the rush of excitement that would accompany receiving mail that was sure to hold a beautiful invitation inside. The fanfare isn’t quite the same when you see a notification pop up.

However, these days it seems that there may be a growing realization that virtual life is not all it’s cracked up to be. More and more people are deactivating themselves and reinserting themselves into reality. Maybe people are finally fed up with the constant flow of seemingly useless information that absorbs so much of their time. Or maybe it’s an attempt by some to further their hipster cred by removing themselves from Facebook — before it’s cool. Either way, it’s too soon to tell if maybe the novelty of Facebook and all of the information that it brings are just not as interesting anymore, and we’re making our way back to the old-fashioned ways — you know, texting and tweeting and the like.

Image Source: Dave Rutt under Creative Commons

Contact Mackenzie Bedford at mbedford@dailycal.org.

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“BART’s going on strike.” I got the news first from Twitter.

“Well, we’re screwed,” my roommate said.

His boyfriend piped up reassuringly. “We can make it work. We need to make a plan.”

My tribe of roommates sat down last week to figure out a strategy. Our apartment is in Fremont. Jeff works in Newark only a few miles away, but getting there by bus involves an ill-timed transfer. Devin goes to San Francisco State University in Daly City. John works in Corte Madera, and his normal commute involves three transit agencies, including BART. I have class in Berkeley four days a week, but I can take AC Transit the whole way if I have three hours to spare. Collectively, the household has one car. Solve for X, where X represents everyone getting to work and school on time and before we can’t stand one another anymore.

Solving this dilemma required a complicated system of picking up and dropping off, minimizing tolls and taking advantage of free BART parking during the strike. My roommate selflessly shared his fuel-efficient Honda, and together we put almost 100 miles a day on the odometer. The days began at 4:45 a.m. and ended at 10 p.m., but the job got done. Overall, the measurable cost of commuting this way came to just about the same as our combined cost of commute if BART were running. However, not everything can be measured in dollars and cents.

There are resources available to everyone that are simple to cultivate and can be incredibly valuable. These nonmonetary economic resources are the very thing that saved my friends, my roommates and me during the recent strike. The greatest of these resources is goodwill. My roommate didn’t hesitate to offer us the use of his car. One of my good friends is teaching in the Summer Bridge program and was immediately offered a closer place to stay in Berkeley. Another friend from Cal joined forces with a classmate so that they could carpool from Pleasanton together. The people who extend these offers are kind and generous, but the remainder of these transactions is made up by banked goodwill. The recipients of the kindness and help of friends put in months and sometimes years of the reciprocating behavior of friendship to indicate that we are worthy of this kind of nonmonetary investment.

A person without good friends — without this long term banking of goodwill — might have had to arrange for a rental car or a local hotel room in order to keep a job or make it to class during the last week. Comparing scenarios between people with banked goodwill and people without it doesn’t seem like an argument about economy, but the bottom line can be expressed in debit and credit.

This principle is nearly identical to the idea of networking. Networking is this nebulous idea of making lasting and worthwhile connections, and we’re all supposed to be doing it in college and online and at parties and any time the panic about post-graduation employment sets in. Networking is supposed to bank professional goodwill and remind potential contacts that we are fun at parties and that we know the same people; it’s supposed to keep our names and faces fresh in the minds of those who matter. The ones who matter aren’t always in charge, however. Often, even an entry-level good word is an advantage to an applicant.

Here’s the point: Whether networking for a job or banking goodwill for reciprocity in friendships, your contribution is the same. If you are friendly, if you are kind, if you are forthcoming and generous with your time and your thoughts, the payoff has value, even when forming priceless relationships. Goodwill has a distinct economic worth. It’s an odd way to think of it, but it means having a car to borrow or a couch to crash on in another city during a transit strike. Relationships make up our lives, but they also have measurable utility. The more you put into them, the more you can someday derive from them.

The BART strike lasted less than a week. My friend staying in Berkeley left his borrowed lodging clean and with a vase of flowers on the table in thanks. My friends from Pleasanton worked out the worth of their carpool without gas money, because one is far better off than the other. Instead, the driver asked her passenger to read her the news, tell her jokes and keep the ride interesting. I brought back my roommate’s car with a bunch of new miles on it, but I also ran all his errands for him while I had it and surprised him with takeout.

Being rich or being broke is not merely a condition dictated by the contents of one’s bank account. It is, literally and metaphorically, expressed in the relationships we have with one another and what comes of them. Measure in utils, measure in love.

Meg Elison writes the Monday column on financial issues affecting UC Berkeley students.

Meg Elison writes the Monday column on financial issues affecting UC Berkeley students.Contact Meg Elison at melison@dailycal.org.

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