The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: life and arts

  • A St. Patricks journey to the center of corned beef

    A St. Patricks journey to the center of corned beef

    By Alana Hackman

    In the death of Saint Patrick came a holiday of green beer, dancing, Irish pride, and this year, an excuse to get day drunk on a Sunday. However, I had one goal on my mind this St. Patrick’s Day: to try every corned beef dish I could get my hands on before my 6 p.m. shift. It started organically as my roommate and I were anticipating the Irish dancers at the Logger bar, but our agenda spontaneously unfolded into trying all the salt-cured meaty goodness our college student budgets didn’t have the room for on Paddy’s Day, but all in good fun. 

    I bring you almost all of the corned beef dishes I tried in Humboldt County to quench your FOMO. Not all are mentioned, but here’s an idea so you can start marking your calendars for next year. I’ll be ranking the dishes on taste, restaurant festivity, and price. 

    The first plate of corned beef I had that fateful Sunday was around noon at Six Rivers Brewery in Mckinleyville. The plate was $20 for two slabs of corned beef, two boiled potatoes, one chunky boiled carrot, cabbage, a hunk of soda bread, and a little dish of stock. This plate was probably the biggest and most authentic corned beef dish I bought that day. $20 seemed pricey at first. I almost opted for their corned beef Reuben, but that would’ve been cheating. 

    The corned beef itself was tough and chewy, but still able to get through with teeth and/or a steak knife. I think it lacked that mouth-puckering saltiness I usually attribute to the meat. Having the stock separate from the veggies and beef in a dipping dish was an interesting choice, but aided in adding that saltiness to the beef. It still just wasn’t salty enough for me and I wish the meat and veggies were sitting in the broth. There was a little chili kick when I indulged in my first bite, but every bite followed was very beef broth-y, which could easily be zested up with a squirt of yellow mustard. No horseradish was a bummer, but I also didn’t ask if they had any.

      The veggies were perfectly tender and as simple as you can get flavor-wise, but the beef broth gave them that extra butter flavor that a plain old boiled veggie wouldn’t have. The ambience in the restaurant was fantastic and very loud. There were rainbow balloon arches, live music, and an anniversary banner with crossed out numbers in sharpie to signify the brewery’s 20th anniversary celebration alongside the St Patrick’s day festivities. 

    There were lots of cute families and strangers to chit chat with, including our table neighbor who questioned, “Where was I gonna put all that?” when I explained my corned beef agenda for the day. I told him he was underestimating me. Overall I give this plate a 6/10. I wish the beef was more tender and served in the stock, but the energy in the brewery and kind service really made the dish special for me. Also, a women-owned brewery, hell yea!

    The next pit stop on my journey to the center of corned beef was South G kitchen, a food truck located in the Redwood Curtain Brewing Company in Arcata. They had been slinging their corned beef special for about a week before the holiday out of their tight-quarters food truck which is super impressive. Their dish was $17 and included corned beef, collard greens instead of cabbage, and crispy potatoes. It was a smaller portion than Six Rivers Brewery, but this dish was smokey and delectably dense. Their corned beef was melt-in-your-mouth tender with a crispy skin. You could have enjoyed it with a spoon if you wanted to.  They also topped it off with some stone-ground mustard which I thoroughly enjoyed. 

    The greens were super tender and umami from the rich bowl of brown broth they were bathing in. There were pieces of thick cut bacon in the greens, which really brought me back to eating my highschool best friend’s grandma’s greens out of tinfoil serving dishes on Thanksgiving. The portions of this dish were definitely for a single serving, but they provided the perfect balance of salty, crunchy decadence that left you satiated. The collard greens absorbed most of the broth, making them saltier than the beef, but complemented the dish well. The outdoor seating at the brewery was a lot less festive and didn’t really encapsulate the holiday, but was still a chill environment. This corned beef plate was definitely not traditional, but the culinary spin on it really wowed me. It was cheaper than Six Rivers but a smaller portion with a creative take. I’d rate this dish a 9/10. My roommate and I were able to house it down after a previous plate of corned beef, so it was pretty damn good. 

    After a quick outfit change and brief state of comatose in the sun, I arrived at the Logger Bar in Blue Lake. They were having an all day St. Patrick’s Day bash, but weren’t serving corned beef until 5 p.m. so it was my second time there that day. The first time involved a lovely conversation with Tina Catalina, a Blue Lake resident who gave me a copy of her song on green paper and informed me that the entire meal was cooked by the Mad River Old Crows, which is the men’s service and drinking organization according to the Mad River Union.

     The line for food was wrapped around the bar when we arrived. It was served buffet style with chafing pans and portable burners. This felt like a family reunion which made the experience that much sweeter. There was a jar at the start of the serving table that had a sliding scale of $5-$10 for donations, but they weren’t necessary to get a plate. I ended up donating $10 for a plate of corned beef, a few pieces of olive raisin soda bread, potatoes, cabbage, and a chocolate cupcake with green frosting. They actually had horseradish, unlike other locations, which I indulged a little too much of with teary eyes. There wasn’t much space to eat inside as the talented Irish Dance Academy students doing Irish dances in their tartan skirts took the floor during serving, but it was enjoyed outside in the sun. 

    The corned beef packed that salty flavor I was looking for and wasn’t sitting in any broth, though it was dripping juices after each bite. The potatoes weren’t too special, but I will always appreciate a boiled carbohydrate. The cabbage really was the prize winner for me. It was extremely moist and flavorful. There was even a whole onion in the scoop we got. You could see all the spices they used within the cabbage as well, which gave it a much more meaty and spicy flavor than just the broth as marinade compared to other places. Overall I rate this dish an 8/10. A home cooked meal makes all the difference, no matter the taste (this one was delish), and the community was so heartwarming and supportive at that little bar. Who wouldn’t love that Old Crow corned beef? 

    The fateful and final stop of this voyage was Murphy’s hot bar in Blue Lake. I was on my way to The Pub in Arcata, but had to stop by after getting wind of their corned beef. It was 5 p.m. at this point and an hour before I had to be at work. The potatoes were combined with the shredded corned beef in one charing pan and the cabbage was dry and crispy in another pan to the left. At this point of the day, I was scraping the bottom of the pans to get something of a portion. After checkout, my plate came out to about $4  – may I add it was majority cabbage. The corned beef was extremely fatty, but also fried to a crisp under the heat lamp,which created an interesting texture. The cabbage was basically raw with a slightly buttery flavor if you got into the inner layer. The bigger pieces of corned beef weren’t too bad if gnawed around the fat. The beef was pretty bland, but had the essence of peppered beef jerky taste at the end so I can’t complain too much. The potatoes carried the dish, but again I don’t believe  a person can mess up vegetables that bad. The employees at all Murphy’s locations are always wonderful and I can’t bash on a late stop to the hot bar too much. It was my fault. I rate this dish a 4/10 all together. 

    This Sunday service of corned beef was something I was grateful to take part in. In less than six hours, I was able to cover four stops of beefy, salty, and starchy goodness. The Pub was unfortunately sold out and my lovely friends who offered to bring it in for me during my work shift tried to get their redemption by calling Gallagher’s Irish Pub in Eureka for any corned beef briefs. They were left with the dial tone. 

    At this point, I was barely moving and had a dry mouth from my salt intake, so I decided to call it a day. I had found peace, love, and happiness while exploring some, but not all, of the corned beef dishes of Humboldt county. Next year, I’ll make sure to start my excursion at 9 a.m. so I can really savor all the salt beef I want. 

  • Who are the faces behind the picket lines?

    Who are the faces behind the picket lines?

    By Dezmond Remington

    The sun is setting and people are hollering. 

    There’s a group of about 20 students parked outside of the Reese Bullen Gallery screaming their best chants at the university administrators and jet-setting donors who are supposedly inside. None of the protestors have seen them in the hours they’ve been there, and the windows are covered in cardboard anyway. 

    At the top of 12 stone stairs facing the buildings opposite stand a few people with a megaphone speaking to those down below — and across the quad, and across the street, too. Their megaphone is crackly, but effective. 

    “All he cares about is getting more students and then fucking them over by making us pay more tuition and more in housing!” Mary Mangubat said, clad in a blue surgical mask and an undone black zip-up hoodie. The protestors nod, as does student Richard Toledo, who is holding the megaphone for her. 

    Mangubat and Toledo are constant presences at protests in and around campus. They’ve supported everything from Palestinians in Gaza to professors striking this semester. Mangubat even got a protest in her honor when the megaphone usage and other violations of the university’s Time, Place, and Manner restrictions on free speech at the Reese Bullen Gallery on Jan. 23 got her and Toledo yanked into a meeting with Dean of Students Mitch Mitchell and handed a “deferred probation”— in other words, a slap on the wrist. The next time one of them breaks the rules, they may face measures such as expulsion. As it was, they had to write a reflection essay on how to be a better organizer. 

    Signs from the student protest on Feb 8 prompted by Toledo and Mangubat’s deffered probation following a violation of the university’s Time, Place, and Manner restrictions. Photo by Griffin Mancuso.

    Though many of the things people see Mangubat and Toledo do are similar, such as leading protests and showing up to meetings, how they approach those actions contrast heavily. 

    Mangubat, 20, started protesting when she was attending high school in San Francisco’s SoMa district, where she said there were issues with things like outdoors accessibility. Mangubat, a Filipina, said she had an early awareness of concepts like intersectionality when she noticed the other students working to raise awareness of those issues were richer and went to private schools. 

    She occupies many roles on campus. She’s the environmental educator at the Women’s Resource Center. She interns for the Student for Quality Education chapter at Cal Poly Humboldt. She works for the Environmental Science and Management department on their Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion committee. All of these titles add up, but at the end of it, Mangubat sees herself as a coordinator, setting people up with resources they need. 

    Toledo, 32, defines his role on campus similarly. However, the route he took to get to Humboldt was vastly different than Mangubat’s.

    He developed an early sense of the unfairness in the world after watching his mom struggle to afford to house them while he was growing up. When Toledo was 18, he tore his ACL skateboarding a few days after his insurance provider dropped him and got thousands of dollars worth of debt when he couldn’t afford to pay it all. He hopes others can avoid that fate.

    “I find purpose in anything that I can tell is making a difference of some kind,” Toledo said. “That’s why I want to work in restoration science as well. I think that being on the ground and watching those seeds literally grow – not even just metaphorically, but watching the seeds that I’ve planted grow, the things that I’ve done, develop. That makes me happy. Seeing an actual difference from my actions is something I really enjoy.”

    Now in his third semester at Humboldt, Toledo is in his second go-round through a university. He got a multimedia production degree from CSU Northridge in 2020, but after a few years of working as a web developer, he decided to quit and get a degree in environmental studies. 

    “It turned out that I was pretty good at coding and there was a lot of money in it,” Toledo said. “So, I just kind of fell into it, and I ended up despising it. Something about just how tedious the work was, and seeing the news everyday, and watching what was happening outside of my bubble at work, and wanting to do something about it as well and not just be sitting behind the computer. After a certain point, you see enough climate headlines that the pay doesn’t really matter anymore, and you just want to do something good.”

    Toledo, a self-described “de-colonial Marxist,” is deeply into studying leftist theory, and idolizes people such as Marxist revolutionary Thomas Sankara and Black Panther Fred Hampton. He’s currently working on organizing a chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society. His earliest memory at a protest was during the Occupy protests back in 2012, when he was 20 years old. Toledo met everyone from garden-variety Democratic Socialists, to anarchists, to socialists to full-blooded commies. The experience left a large impact on him. Now, he has too many books to store them all on the dorm bookshelves and leaves them in piles on his floor. 

    Mangubat’s style tends to be more accessible, not founded on turgid leftist musings or obscure revolutionaries. Though these self-appointed guardians of campus operate on distinct levels, what does make them come to the forefront of every anti-something shindig on campus is a love of disruption. 

    It’s what Toledo and Mangubat use to explain college students protesting events happening both half the globe away and close to home. Student activists get a lot of flak from the general student body because of the perceived irrelevance and disconnect from Arcata to places like Gaza or Washington D.C. They argue that that’s part of the point. 

    “The only avenue that people have is disruption,” Toledo said. “And if you disrupt as many things as possible, even if they may not be wholly related, it’s going to cause more problems for the people at the top. They’re going to take notice of that. If you have whole businesses shut down, if you have schools that are shut down on certain days, if you have more and more people that are sympathetic to the cause and getting out there in the streets, making noise and demanding things on the local level, that reaches up to the top. They realize that and they start to change their narrative, and they might even start to change things.”

    Both Mangubat and Toledo feel the Time, Place, and Manner (TPM) restrictions they violated are excessive and defeat the point of protesting and organizing. One of the TPM restrictions requires organizers to make it clear to administration when and where they plan to protest, a rule Mangubat hates. 

    “The rule of protesting is that you’re disrupting systems,” Mangubat said. “You’re disrupting the place and the people who are oppressing you, so it’s not productive or efficient to just be like ‘Hey, here’s everything I’m doing,’ and then, admin will be like, ‘OK, now we know what they’re saying…’ They have every step to prepare to cover their own asses if they had to.”

    Both Toledo and Mangubat do not have mixed feelings when it comes to Cal Poly Humboldt’s administration, which they characterize as aloof from campus and not held accountable often enough for things like last semester’s eviction of the van lifers.  At the Jan. 23 protest, Dean of Students Mitch Mitchell called the university police department on them — something campus employees are supposed to do when there’s a protest on campus. It wasn’t a move that went over well with the students that were there, especially after he talked to some of the protestors there in a way many of them thought was overly confrontational. Mitchell left when protestors booed him and chanted the word “Shame” at him over and over again. Mangubat feels that outburst was reasonable because of his position as an administrator. 

    “From my perspective, I think it’s justified because every step that they had taken since my disciplinary notice to the students trying to put on this protest, they had been escalating everything …” Mangubat said. “So, I think in some way, it was needed for admin to see what students are capable of doing. Not in a harmful way, but in a human way, like a human response type of way … it’s a complicated situation because, you know, at the end of the day, people are human, they have feelings, but your hierarchy stands out so much more. And you’re acting in that position.”

    “I’m proud of what we set out to try to do to try to get the attention of Tom Jackson,” Toledo said. “I’m not proud of exactly how it turned out.”

  • Femme Fronted: local bands to check out

    Femme Fronted: local bands to check out

    By Mia Costales

    Jude Daughdrill playing the drums and Jack Hallinan playing guitar with Porcelain Dog at Richards’ Goat Tavern. Photos by Paige Main

    Picture this: you’re mindlessly scrolling through your Instagram feed when you stumble across a repost of a hand-drawn show poster and the words, “DM for address.” After a quick pep-talk to the reflection in your mirror, you muster up the courage to DM the account and get the address for quite possibly the greatest night of your short 16-year-old life. As you walk up to the door you are instantly hit with the smell of American Spirits, PBR and a gaggle of grown men who are way too old to be hanging out with teenagers. 

    The music is great and you’re right—this is probably the best night of your life. But you can’t help but feel a little out of place in the sea of mustached, rolled beanie, American traditional tattooed guys that will inevitably ask you if you’ve ever listened to Sonic Youth. The unfortunate truth is that this may sound all too familiar to femmes. Luckily, Arcata has a small but mighty music scene. While there is always room for improvement, there are a handful of queer and femme musicians that are putting in the work to make the scene safer and more inclusive for everyone. Here are two Arcata bands who are diversifying the scene and putting on damn good shows while they do it. 

    Porcelain Dog

    Porcelain Dog is the indie three-piece composed of guitarist Jack Hallinan, drummer Jude Daughdrill, and bassist and singer Vivian Spear. The self-proclaimed loser-rock band has made strides in the Arcata music scene, playing house shows, local venues, and even playing a live set on Cal Poly Humboldt’s very own student-ran radio station, KRFH. Spear has been open about her queer identity and has actively encouraged other queer femmes to join the scene on platforms such as Instagram and KRFH.

    “I think Arcata is probably better than most places,” Spear said. “It’s such a small scene. I feel like we all look out for and support each other. I just wish there were more queer girl bands here. I know there’s a lot of creative queer femmes here, I think we’re just more inclined to feel self-conscious about putting ourselves out there.”

    Spear attributed iconic femme musicians such as Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, and Kim Deal of Pixies and The Breeders to inspiring her openness to vulnerability in her songwriting. 

    “I held myself back for so long because I felt not good enough,” Spear said. “Now that I’ve been in this band for six plus months, I know that I’ve been ready for a while. If you feel you have something to say or just want to play then go for it—you’ll pick it up along the way.”

    Heart Eyes

    Heart Eyes, the feminist queercore punk trio, is bringing back the gritty enthusiasm of 90s riot grrrl, but with a modern twist on the genre. Members Kianna Znika, Lexi Takaki, and Milo Lorence-Ganong aim to make music with punk and emo influences that portray an authentic depiction of the highs and lows of the queer experience. Local scenes can be a breeding ground for casual misogyny and bigotry. However, Heart Eyes have used these experiences as inspiration for their songwriting and hope to expand Arcata’s scene to be as inclusive as possible. 

    “It’s been hard to overcome being labeled as a ‘girl band,’” Takaki said. “We are a punk band regardless of our gender and identities. We want to be seen as musicians in the local scene, not a token band because of our perceived gender.”

    The band also encourages fellow queer and femme musicians to reach out to them and get involved in the local scene by making connections with like-minded people. 

    “Go to open mic nights and local shows, talk to musicians you like and make connections,” Lorence-Ganong said. “Your unique perspective as a femme or queer person will be appreciated, don’t feel the pressure to cater your artistic message to a wider audience. Maybe most importantly, just do it! Even if you are new to music, even if everyone else in the room knows more than you, even if you can’t afford nice equipment, don’t be intimidated. Your creative spirit is valuable, and don’t let anyone have you believe otherwise.”

  • It’s a small world, after all

    It’s a small world, after all

    By Carlina Grillo

    ‌These days, there are multiple forms of sightseeing. There’s the typical guided tours, pub hopping, gift shops, and getting lost. Then, there’s Tinder.

    ‌Using Tinder abroad took sightseeing to a whole new perspective—that perspective being from the depths of the dating pool.

    I am writing to you from across the pond, all the way from Ireland, where I am currently sitting on a bus on my way to Cork.

    ‌Besides writing for The Lumberjack and watching raindrops roll down the bus windows, there are limited activities for these long travel days.

    ‌Social media is pretty boring when most of my mutuals are still sleeping. The seven hour time difference means when I’m sipping on my morning cappuccino, or on my mid-day bus ride, the only people up are the night owls and insomniacs.

    ‌That’s when I switched to Tinder, social media for the single and bored. I’ve noticed two things about Irish Tinder: half of the men are named Seán (or some other variation of Shawn) and 99% of Tinder cover photos are group photos. When you figure out who in the group the profile belongs to, it’s never the one you had hoped for. It’s especially difficult when the European men are friends with people who look exactly like them. I can go through an entire profile never knowing who’s who.

    ‌So, here I am, scrolling on Tinder as I’m leaving Galway, and I see another familiar face. This person however didn’t have a group photo, didn’t have a stereotypical European profile and what caught my attention the most was a photo from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. This man is either a tourist in Galway or has been a tourist around my stomping grounds. Either way, there’s some commonality.

    ‌I swiped right and it was a match. Immediately, I asked if he was from Ireland.

    “Yes! I lived in America for a good while… didn’t we go to school together?” He asked.

    ‌Then it all clicked. His face was familiar because we attended the same small town high school in the Santa Cruz mountains. Turns out, he moved from Ireland to California, and then back to Galway. What are the odds?

    ‌And maybe this coincidence wouldn’t have blown my mind so much if it was my first encounter within this teeny tiny world.

    ‌What I failed to mention was my plane ride to Ireland from SFO. I sat in the terminal with my friend waiting to board our Aer Lingus direct flight to Dublin. From the corner of my eye, I see another familiar face. Sure enough, I wasn’t the only Cal Poly Humboldt student who had traveled from Arcata to SF to Dublin for Spring break.

    I felt a sense of déjà vu as a classmate from my women’s studies lecture sat right down the row, just like we had done in the classroom 48 hours prior. I wasn’t completely sure it was them until 11 hours later when we caught the same bus into town. It was clear we caught each other by surprise, experiencing our first moments in Ireland together. Again, what are the odds?

    ‌Needless to say, my first time abroad, from one rainy city to another, I’ve been feeling right at home and  as the Irish say, céad míle fáilte – or one hundred thousand welcomes.

  • Mar’s Gaming Garage : The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

    Mar’s Gaming Garage : The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

    By Mario Orozco

    Welcome back to Mar’s Gaming Garage. This week’s game is “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” and was requested by a rangeland resource science major. “Tears of the Kingdom” (TOTK) is the newest entry in a long line of Zelda games and picks up sometime after the events of “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.” 

    Going into the game, my expectations were through the roof. Its predecessor was awarded game of the year in 2017, so I expected TOTK to live up to this legacy. Thankfully for me and my wallet, this game exceeded my high expectations.

    TOTK’s story is amazing, from the main quests to the side quests. The game does a great job expanding on the stories of previous characters and creating compelling stories for the new faces. The game stands out as a sequel when compared to others because of the brand new mechanics. Most sequels I have played take similar gameplay and insert them into a new world. TOTK does the opposite, taking a different style of gameplay and putting it into an expanded version of the “Breath of the Wild” world. These mechanics assist in making the game feel completely different than the original, despite sharing many similarities. The expansion to the world is massive; it allows for players to enter the depths of the original map and go underground in what is essentially a second full world. The sequel also introduced islands in the sky that can be explored. 

    While “Tears of the Kingdom” improves on the overall gameplay and provides more for the player to do, there are a couple things that fall short when compared to the precursor. The first of these shortcomings is the storytelling. While I enjoyed the story of TOTK more than “Breath of the Wild,” it was told in such strange ways at times. Multiple different questlines can be completed out of order, which can cause a lot of confusion. For instance, if you find the Master Sword before completing its dedicated questline, it completely ruins what I believe to be the most impactful cutscene in the entire franchise by showing it with none of the required buildup. The other issue is the graphics. The quality is a slight downgrade from “Breath of the Wild” despite being released six years later. This isn’t really a problem for me, as the reasons for the downgrade are the expanded world combined with the limits of the Nintendo Switch. While slightly disappointing, graphics were sacrificed for extra content and extra content is never a bad thing.

    “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” took a total of 63 hours and 42 minutes to complete and is arguably just as good as, if not better than, “Breath of the Wild.” I rate this game a 4.8/5. If you can afford to invest a considerable amount of time into a game, then I wholeheartedly recommend this one to you. “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is worth the purchase.

    If you have any games you would like me to review, you can email marsgaminggarage@gmail.com.

  • Being a part of the fourth estate: The Lumberjack attends the ACP conference in La Jolla

    Being a part of the fourth estate: The Lumberjack attends the ACP conference in La Jolla

    By Griffin Mancuso

    One of the distinctive qualities of a journalist is that they never truly stop working. They may finish working on a story or taking photos, but they are always thinking of their next story, their next assignment, their next grand idea to pitch to their editor. A great journalist can make a story out of almost anything.

    One of my greatest qualities (and downfalls) is my ability to turn what was supposed to be my vacation into another article.

    Every March, just before spring break, a handful of journalism students at Cal Poly Humboldt get the chance to attend the Associated Collegiate Press Conference (ACP), where we get to attend panels on journalistic practices, connect with companies and other students, and submit our work for the chance to win awards. It takes place in a different city in California every year, which gives us the opportunity to travel to new places and see all the local sights.

    This year, the ACP conference was held in La Jolla, a sunny beachside town populated by rich people and entitled seagulls. Journalists travel from all over the country to attend this conference and, hopefully, win some awards for their student media. Apparently, this year had the most attending journalism students out of any ACP conference, according to a fellow journalist who interviewed me for an article. Even with the large number of attendees, there was an unspoken sense of comradery and understanding among us, even if we had never met each other.

    One of the appeals of the conference, besides the opportunity to network and learn new skills at the dozens of panels, is getting to explore the city as a group. I didn’t have the opportunity to stick around and enjoy the city at last year’s conference, so I’m happy I had the chance to spend time with the rest of the Lumberjack team. We had a group breakfast of homemade eggs and potatoes made by our editors. We visited the Birch Aquarium where I stared at the leopard shark tank for a good ten minutes. We browsed downtown La Jolla and I made everyone visit my mother’s yoga teacher’s deli shop. I got to swim at the beach for the first time since high school.

    I make an effort to attend panels with differing topics to broaden my knowledge and gain an appreciation for the other jobs in the newsroom. I learned about the particular but important art of typography, I got a refresher on inclusive design for newspapers and websites, I learned about covering LGBTQ+ communities in San Diego County, and I attended the panel on satire news hosted by our amazing adviser and one of our editors-in-chief. Everyone was laughing for a good half of the presentation, so I consider that a success. I smiled as journalists from other schools ecstatically told me how they planned to pitch a satire issue to their publications. Holding figures of authority accountable is much more fun when you get to be funny about it.

    The biggest part of the conference for our newspaper is the awards. The ACP hosts its own award show, and a separate group called the California College Media Association (CCMA) has its own awards on the last night of the conference. ACP is a national organization, and out of all the schools with less than 15,000 students, we still won 5th place in Best in Show for one of our papers. Not too shabby for a staff of less than 30.

    The CCMAs focuses more on awards for individual journalists and is where we get most of our recognition. We all watch with anticipation as the announcer reads off each category, waiting for our school’s name to appear on the projector.

    Being unable to take a break ever, I took it upon myself to film all of our announced awards for social media. As the announcer read off the top three winners for Best Headline Portfolio, I narrowed my eyes as three familiar headlines rolled across the screen. I soon realized they were my headlines and I had won second place out of all California schools with under 15,000 students. I can now proudly put on my resume that I have the second best headlines in the state, and I have the piece of paper to prove it.

    We embraced one another and cheered as we collected a total of 14 awards for the Lumberjack. We placed in categories like Best Social Justice Coverage, Best Feature Photo, Best Arts and Entertainment Story, and Best in Show. We were struggling to get a photo with all of our awards together on the table, even when I stood on a chair and raised my camera in the air. Our advisor soon approached each of us to get a snippet of our reactions for social media. At the time, I was so overwhelmed with excitement and pride in my team that I couldn’t give the groundbreaking, heartfelt speech I wanted. I can at least give that speech in writing.

    I didn’t originally come to Cal Poly Humboldt as a journalist. I was an English major and I wanted to write novels. I joined the student magazine, Osprey, during my first semester and fell in love with it. I loved learning from people and giving that knowledge to the public. I knew I wanted to write. When I took the Lumberjack workshop, I didn’t expect to be writing for an award-winning paper. I’m grateful to be a part of the process and I am honored that our hard work gets to be recognized on a state and national level. The pressure of working on The Lumberjack is intense, but you take on that pressure as a team. No matter what else is going on in our lives, we get together every Tuesday, hunker down in the newsroom, and make a newspaper for our campus.

  • How to interact with a service dog – don’t.

    How to interact with a service dog – don’t.

    By Griffin Mancuso

    On my second day of public access with my service dog in training, I braved the crowded hallways of The Depot in search of brunch. After paying for my food, I found a booth and used the opportunity to practice deep pressure therapy with my service dog, which is his favorite task because it involves him laying on my legs and getting a bunch of treats. The pressure helps decrease my heartrate, and thus, lowers the constant buzz of anxiety any time I go into a public place. 

    A group of men in the booth next to me took notice of my service dog. I didn’t pay them much attention until I heard one of them say, “Hey, there’s a way you can point out a fake service dog, watch this.”

    My blood ran cold as one of the men tried to call my dog over in an excited, high-pitched voice. Even though it was his second day on the job and he was seven months old at the time, my angel of a dog stayed put and watched them with the same amount of bewilderment I had. Apparently, that glance was enough for the men to start gasping and pointing. Feeling embarrassed and defeated, I rushed out of The Depot and hid in my apartment for several hours.
    Thankfully, that was the worst situation I have faced with my service dog. Since then, I gained more confidence in me and my service dog’s abilities and know how to advocate for his space. I also did a little bit of reading on the law.

    According to California Penal Code 365.6, section A, anyone who intentionally interferes with a service dog’s ability to perform their tasks could be charged with misdemeanor. They can face time in jail for up to six months, a fine between $1500 and $2500, or both.

    Two years later, I have realized that many people do not know how to interact with a service dog in public. Generally speaking, the key is to not interact with them at all. In fact, pretend like they aren’t even there.

    The Americans with Disabilities Act defines a service dog as a dog that is trained to perform a task that alleviates the symptoms of a person’s disability. A service dog can be any breed and are not required to be certified or go through a professional training program. They are also not required to wear a vest or identification showing that they are a service dog, but most handlers will identify their dogs in some way to prevent access issues.

    The types of tasks service dogs can perform include retrieving items, deep pressure therapy, acting as a brace if their handler falls down, alerting to rises in cortisol or blood pressure, reminding their handler to take medication, protecting their handler’s head during a seizure, and many more. In a legal sense, service dogs are medical equipment and can be life-saving. They empower their handlers to live independently and improve their quality of life.

    Therefore, it can be detrimental, or deadly, if someone distracts a service dog, no matter what their intentions are. The Depot incident was the only time a person’s intentions were clearly malicious, but most of the time people just really, really want to say hello to my dog. 

    I’ve noticed that many passersby develop what I call doggy tunnel vision. They see the dog and feel intensely compelled to talk to them or approach them, without much thinking in between. I get it, I really do. I love dogs with my whole being. If you are an adult, I promise that you have enough self-control to leave service dogs alone. If you must say something, talk to the handler directly.

    When talking to a handler, some may be more comfortable answering questions about their dog than others. I will put up with a lot of questions and comments. You’d be surprised how many stories I get about people’s dead dogs. Not everyone is as tolerant as I am, so please be respectful of the handler’s comfort level and save your stories for later. Most importantly, do not ask about their disability.

    Some handlers are okay with their dog being pet, and some aren’t. Petting them may interfere with their ability to task or the dog is simply not interested in greeting strangers. Some handlers will have a badge saying something like, “Ask to pet,” but you should always ask before you reach your hand out.

    Most of the time, if a dog is tasking, it is best to let them do their job. You wouldn’t go up to a cashier at a store and ask them if they need help. 

    If you pass by someone having a medical episode and their service dog is tasking, assess the situation before immediately dialing 911. Ambulance rides are expensive and not always necessary.

    I am personally more patient with children when it comes to my service dog. They often don’t know any better and are following their parent’s example. Half of the time, parents will redirect their children away from my dog or take a few minutes to explain that my dog is working. Those are my favorite parents. My least favorite parents are the ones who are either blissfully unaware of their child approaching my dog or actively encourage them talking to or petting my dog.

    Living in Humboldt County, I understand that I live in a pretty dog-centric area. Some people bring their pet dogs everywhere they go, including non-pet friendly stores. Most of the time, these dogs are behaved enough and not bothering anyone, but I have no way to tell if those dogs are a danger to my service dog. Service dogs come with the expectation that they will not lunge, bark, or attack other dogs while working. Pet dogs do not.

    Some dog owners try to bypass this restriction by putting a vest on their pet dog and bringing them anyway. Legally, store employees are only allowed to ask service dog handlers if their dog is, in fact, a service dog, and what tasks they perform. This is meant to prevent employees from asking handlers invasive questions about their disability, but some pet dog owners abuse this system. 

    There is no definitive way to tell a fake service dog from a real one, so you’re doing a disservice to service dog handlers by trying to pass your dog as an essential piece of medical equipment. The best case scenario is that they are an inconvenience we have to avoid while shopping. The worst-case scenario is that your dog injures our service dog and puts them out of work permanently, or kills them.

    Having a disability can be hard. We navigate a world that was not built with us in mind, and if the dog allows me to go to the grocery store and find the minced garlic without panicking, so be it. Please don’t make our outings harder than they need to be. We appreciate those who respect us and our service dog’s space, and we’d love more people to join that crowd.

    Griffin Mancuso is the photo editor and a prolific graphic designer for The Lumberjack. He is also a service dog handler and overall dog enthusiast/nerd. You can contact him at gm249@humboldt.edu.

  • Recasting the narrative at the Latino Film Fest

    Recasting the narrative at the Latino Film Fest

    By Savana Robinson

    Chatter ceased as the house lights dimmed. Hands rustled in bags of popcorn and miniscule pieces dropped to the floor on their way to a mouth as an impressive scene of the Amazon appeared on the massive screen.

    The 25th annual Latino Film Festival at Mill Creek Cinema was held Feb. 27 through Feb. 29. This year’s theme for the festival was environmental issues. The films shown were “Nostalgia de la Luz” (Nostalgia for the Light), “El Abrazo de la Serpiente” (The Embrace of the Serpent), and “A Million Miles Away.”

    “Nostalgia de la Luz” is a documentary that takes place in the Chilean Atacama Desert, where a woman is searching for remains of loved ones whose lives were taken under the regime of Augusto Pinochet. At the same time, astronomers are looking for answers about the past of the cosmos.

    “El Abrazo de la Serpiente” shows a shaman in the Amazon who leads a sick man and his colleague to a flower that may cure him. Years later, a botanist leads him back to the sacred flower, which the shaman had forgotten. The film is set with overtones of the importance of protecting indigenous cultures and sharing knowledge.

    “A Million Miles Away” is a biopic about the life of José Hernández, a migrant farmworker who becomes an astronaut. The film is about hardship, perseverance, and the power of a dream.

    Gabrielle Gopinath, professor of history of cinema and art at college of the Redwoods, was part of the panel discussion after the screening of “Abrazo de la Serpiente.” Gopinath noted the distinct difference between the film and others of its kind.

     “Films about the jungle typically cast the global south as a crucible existing outside time and history,” Gopinath said. “Indigenous characters only come into focus insofar as they play subsidiary roles in a white protagonist’s journey. However, in “Abrazo de la Serpiente,” the white characters and their quest are accessory to Karamakate’s central character arc.”

    José Marin Jarrín, a professor of fisheries biology at Cal Poly Humboldt, gave a speech during the panel after the screening of “A Million Miles Away.” Jarrín said that the movie reminded him of the history and stories of all immigrants.

    “When we arrive, we change who we are to try to assimilate with the majority,” Jarrín said. “We also eventually realize there’s nothing wrong with who we are, and that we should be very proud of where we come from.”

  • Mar’s Gaming Garage; “Dead Space”: a classic worth a playthrough.

    Mar’s Gaming Garage; “Dead Space”: a classic worth a playthrough.

    By Mario Orozco

    Welcome to the debut of Mar’s Gaming Garage. I will be playing video games that our fellow students recommend, good or bad, and give my honest opinions to tell you whether or not it’s worth buying. 

    For the first week of Mar’s Gaming Garage, I was asked by an anthropology major here at Cal Poly Humboldt to review the game “Dead Space,” the original from 2008, not the remastered one from 2023. This is a game that I have always wanted to play, but the survival horror vibe always sort of scared me off. With this request, I finally had a reason to set my fears aside and dive into this game. I am happy to say it was well worth it.

    “Dead Space” thankfully wasn’t as scary as I had feared. Don’t get me wrong, I was still scared, but it was a fun fear. The storyline followed our main character Isaac Clarke fighting his way through a ship that was taken over by these creatures called Necromorphs. The Necromorphs appeared after the former passengers found an artifact called The Marker. The story of this game was fantastic and was honestly one of the best single-player survival games that I have ever experienced. The terrifying creatures were both gross and really cool to look at. It had very fun gameplay, heartbreaking losses, and multiple shocking twists that I genuinely never saw coming. The twist that concluded the game has been a constant in my mind ever since I saw it.

    However, there are a couple issues I had that I’d like to share. First, the camera is at a weird angle, making the creatures rushing at you really difficult to see, especially in such a dim game. As a result of the camera angle, the controls are sort of awkward; when you rotate the camera, your character doesn’t turn in that direction like in other survival games, meaning you have to rotate the character and camera independently of each other. This makes it more difficult to get shots on anything rushing that’s not directly in front of you, this mixed with the weird angle can be slightly frustrating at times. These negatives are really just me nitpicking, this game was an absolute joy and if I could go back in time and play it for the first time again, I would.

    “Dead Space” took me a grand total of  8 hours and 48 minutes to finish and was worth every one of those minutes. I rate this game a 4.6 out of 5. Whether you’re into survival horror or not, I recommend this game to you all. So yes, “Dead Space” is well worth the purchase.

    If you have any games you would like me to review you can email marsgaminggarage@gmail.com.

  • Dual enrollment; seeing double on campus

    Dual enrollment; seeing double on campus

    By Carlina Grillo

    Ever seen a classmate who seems to be in two places at once? 

    They could be a track star, master of teleportation, hologram – or more simply, a twin. 

    The chances of being an identical twin are three or four in 1000, but what are the odds of both twins going to the same college, or more specifically, a small university tucked away in the redwood forest of Northern California?

    Without a school-wide survey asking about twins, it’s hard to say, but there are at least a few pairs of identical twins right here on campus. 

    Marley and Wiley Thrift are a pair of sophomore computer science majors who grew up in Humboldt, and didn’t think much about going to the same college. 

    “Both of our parents work here, it was an easy choice to go to Humboldt,” Wiley Thrift said. “Our dad works in computer science, so that’s kind of where we got the inspiration from.”

    According to Wiley, the difference between being twins in highschool and college is mostly the size of campus and the larger population. It doesn’t always come up in conversation at first, so there will always be confusion.

    “If I see somebody that Marley knows on campus and they wave to me, I usually just wave back but I don’t know the person,” Wiley Thrift said. “If they try to talk to me, I’ll say ‘I’m not Marley,’ and it’s a little awkward, but it’s kind of funny too because I know it’s happened before, and I know what’s happening.”

    Hunter and Tanner Circe are seniors majoring in environmental studies who also grew up in Humboldt and went to highschool in Mckinleyville.

    “It’s easy to have a built-in roommate… because neither of us really had the desire to live with other people,” Tanner Circe said. “It just kind of made sense.”

    “We also rent from our parents in Arcata, so It’s a convenient reason to go to Cal Poly [Humboldt],” Hunter Circe said. 

    The Circes have a similar experience to the Thrifts, describing the same situation of people approaching the wrong twin. 

    “It’s like talking to a lot more strangers because he knows them,” Hunter Circe said. “This is our experience, it’s not unique [to us].”

    “You’re walking by and people will just look, and you know you’re getting the look like, ‘Oh, they’re twins,’” Tanner Circe said. 

    In many ways, the media has portrayed twins to be a certain way and check certain boxes. This causes a constant flow of stereotypical questions from peers.

    “I’m tired of, ‘Is one of you evil? Do you feel each other’s pain?’ It’s just so silly to me,” Hunter Circe said. “People like to put us in like ‘box A’ and ‘box B’. Like, ‘he’s the artsy one,’ or ‘he’s the sporty one…’ Why does there have to be ‘the one?’”

    “We’re siblings who look the same,” Tanner Circe said. “Its’ unique but… a little bit mystified on TV and stuff.”

    At the end of the day, twins are just like any other siblings, but the same age.

    “I think it’s a lot more similar to normal siblings than people realize,” Tanner Circe said. “[People think] it’s this mystical thing, but really, I think it’s just from growing up together.”

    For all these siblings, the future is still unwritten. 18 days is the longest time the Thrifts have spent apart, but they plan on extending that time next semester, with many miles in between.

    Both Marley Thrift and Tanner Circe have plans to travel abroad while their twins stay in California. 

    “Being a twin’s great, you should try it,” Marley Thrift said. 

  • Bitch n’ Stitch in the Makerspace

    By Jasmin Shirazian

    Whether it’s due to the rise of fast-fashion or the misogyny surrounding what is traditionally considered “women’s work,” sewing is often overlooked as a valuable life skill. Nonetheless, the opportunities that come with understanding the basics of sewing are endless. 

    Studio art major Sawyer Armitage is the host of the Sew Easy event held every Monday at the Makerspace in the library. They walked me through my very first fully finished sewing project: an itty-bitty, stuffed piece of pie. 

    Armitage has been working as a student assistant at the Makerspace since Dec. 2022. They only recently began hosting the sewing circle this semester, having learned the basics over winter break. 

    “I love to make tiny [things],” Armitage said. “I was lucky to have someone throughout my whole life who knew how to sew and was willing to teach me, and I wish I [had] taken them up on it. It’s been super empowering to learn, not only small alterations, but also to teach people how to hand-sew, to use the Singer sewing machine for the first time, hem their clothes, create new designs… it’s genuinely a good, functioning life tool.” 

    Armitage started me off by handing me a piece of felt, a pen and a set of shapes to trace onto the fabric. Afterwards, they handed me a needle and some embroidery thread. The endless struggle of getting the thinnest piece of string through the narrowest eye of the needle followed me throughout the entire sewing process.

    Emerald Dowd, a wildlife major, joined us halfway through the first hour and almost immediately began crocheting a flower with the prettiest yellow yarn. By the time it took me to finish cutting out my pieces out of the felt, she was halfway through the first layer of her flower. I spent some time trying to figure out if she was fast or if I was just slow. 

    As we sat and worked on our projects, we talked about all different aspects of our lives and personalities. Different people joined and left us throughout our two hours together, some coming to work on unrelated projects, others just stopping by to chat or borrow supplies. As Armitage, with the occasional help from Dowd, showed me how to do a blanket stitch, we all shared our favorite musicals, what got us into sewing, Armitage’s new band that they’re songwriting for and everything in between. Sitting and engaging with each other, in what Armitage called parallel play, filled a sense of community that I didn’t know I was missing. 

    Nova Presley is an environmental management major who utilizes the Makerspace not only for resources, but for getting independent work done.

    “I have really bad issues with getting myself to do tasks that I want to do unless somebody else is also doing [something] next to me,” Presley said. “The Makerspace is really helpful because, like, I’m not even here for sewing right now, I’m here for a different thing that’s graphic design. As long as everyone else in the area is working on something creative, it’s a lot easier for me to hangout and do something creative.”

    Presley has found the Makerspace to be a good source of forming friendships on campus.

    “It’s a very like-minded space, it’s fun to meet people outside of the typical avenues,” Presley said. “It’s hard to find people in Humboldt to hang out with.”

    Learning to make and mend clothing is also environmentally and financially sustainable. Instead of having to buy an entirely new garment when something tears or a zipper breaks, you can fix it yourself – or better yet, create something out of quality materials. 

    “When you don’t have a lot of money, whether you’re a person crafting or a higher institution that doesn’t have a huge budget, you have to figure out how to make things work with what you have,” Armitage said. “Being able to change what you have, or make it fit something new, that’s what sewing is a lot of the time.”

    Dowd sews for many reasons, starting with the love of creating and altering clothes. 

    “It’s a creative outlet, that you can then wear around and be like, ‘This is who I am, and this is what I like,’” Dowd said. “It’s this way of expressing yourself.” 

    Dowd comes to the Makerspace at least once a week for the Monday sewing circle. Otherwise, they often make use of the many resources that are offered, such as the communal sewing machine or the 3D printer. 

    “It’s a stitch-n-bitch,” Dowd said. “It’s a place for community; a place for people with similar interests to join together and to help each other out. If you’re just learning, and you’re like, ‘Hey, I don’t know how to do this yet,’ the people who are into sewing and into crafting are like, ‘I will indoctrinate you.’”

  • Humboldt gamer enters the competitive scene

    Humboldt gamer enters the competitive scene

    By Mario Orozco

    Competitive gaming and esports have risen to the mainstream with audiences captivated by the elite gameplay and competitive events. This rise in popularity has birthed thousands of professional gamers all competing for the top spot in their respective games. One of these competitive gamers is here at Cal Poly Humboldt, taking his talents for Super Smash Bros. to the competitive scene. 

    Deven Teixeira, a communication major at Cal Poly Humboldt, recently competed in GENESIS, an annual tournament held in Oakland and San Jose. GENESIS is considered to be one of the premiere tournaments with thousands of players competing for the top spot in the event. Teixeira was driven to compete in the tournament to test his skills after winning some smaller competitions.

    “What inspired me is that I won a decent amount of online [tournaments] and some locals in Central California,” Teixeira said.

    A tournament of this size and importance calls for different types of preparation. Apart from just gameplay, Teixeira typically prepares both his body and mind to ensure he’s at his best.

    “I usually get good sleep and eat very healthy meals, not greasy or saturated in fat meals,” Teixeira said. “Meditation through breathing exercises is a staple to my prep as well.”

    This journey into esports started with a healthy rivalry between Teixeira and his high school best friend. The two began by competing against one another in a modded version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl called “Project M” while in their freshman year of high school. This mod made the game more like the former Super Smash Bros. Melee and after some time they decided to test their skills and compete in some local Project M tournaments. They eventually found they were no longer satisfied with the modded game and wanted the real thing, putting together some money to buy two copies of Melee. This led to them attending their first major tournament, with Teixeira crediting his best friend for being one of the main reasons he competes to this day.

    While not placing first in tournament, being eliminated from the bracket going 3-2 and ranking 513th out of around 2000 participants, Teixeira isn’t upset about his placing in the tournament. He views the experience as beneficial and inspiring.

    “I’m not upset with my placing,” Teixeira said. “I’m more inspired to do more majors and try to do even better each time.”

    Competitive gaming is a difficult task that requires a lot of time and practice. Teixera offers advice to any students who are looking to step foot into the competitive gaming scene.

    “My advice is to challenge yourself,” Teixeira said. “If things bring you discomfort in gaming, use that discomfort as a threshold for learning. Reach out to me. I’m easily accessible and I can help people get to top level quick if they want to do that grind.”

    Teixera hopes that Melee becomes more prominent locally. He wants to revive the game on campus and see the competitive scene flourish once again. 

    “Revive Melee in Humboldt,” Teixeira said.

  • Breakfast burritos in the backwoods of Humboldt

    Breakfast burritos in the backwoods of Humboldt

    By Zack Mink

    Arcata is filled with small businesses and food trucks with a wide variety of styles, cuisines, and loyal customers. From Mexican food to hibachi, cravings can be satisfied simply by making a quick stop. One thing that has been missing from the local food scene is a good old fashion breakfast burrito. Something that will motivate you to get out of bed or cure your hangover on a Sunday morning. A burrito that is both classic and unique, giving you something to look forward to all week. This craving has been satiated with Backwoods Burritos, a local food cart serving up those reliable, tasty, and satisfying breakfast burritos people have been looking for. 

    Britton Latham, founder of Backwoods Burritos, serves up his Southwest inspired breakfast burritos every Thursday through Monday in front of Arcata Theater Lounge and at the North Coast Farmers Market in Arcata. With four different options, three meat and one vegetarian, everyone can get their fix of breakfast burritos. Prices range from $10-$12, featuring Latham’s original redwood chili in each one. 

    “It’s super unique because of the redwood chili,” Latham said. “It’s basically like a green chili, except with the seasonings and peppers I put in it, it turns red… It’s a very signature flavor.”

    Britton Latham serving up Backwoods Burritos at the North Coast Farmers Market in Arcata. photo by: Zack Mink 2/10/24

    Along with this original recipe, Backwoods Burritos is special because consistency is prioritized for customers to have the best experience possible.

    “The first bite tastes like the last bite, and that’s super important,” Latham said. “That makes it really unique, and it’s sold out of a little cart with a UFO on it.”

    After taking some breakfast burritos on a camping trip in the backwoods with friends, Latham realized they could be his new culinary venture and become a successful business. During this time of recipe development, UFO testimonies played in the background as he cooked, inspiring him to pursue an alien theme, strongly branding himself. Latham began selling his Humboldt backwoods/alien themed breakfast burritos in October of 2021, but has outgrown his home kitchen and now utilizes The Kitchen Arcata for commissary.

    Recently, Backwoods Burritos became an approved vendor for Cal Poly Humboldt events, bringing the burritos from downtown Arcata to campus for students to indulge in.

    “Yes, and that’s the dream,” Latham said. “I didn’t even go to college, so to be slinging burritos at a college… this is the closest I ever came.”

    Aside from sharing his creation with students, Latham has goals of selling burritos every day of the week, creating a brick and mortar store, vending at local music festivals, and spreading his impact across Humboldt County.

    “I definitely have the goal of more carts, getting more carts through Humboldt,” Latham said.

    With Backwoods Burritos beginning with friends and locals, Latham gives back and encourages community members to not only support himself, but other local businesses with his golden burrito program. The golden burrito, based off of Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, is a random burrito secretly wrapped in gold foil. The winner receives gift certificates to local businesses that he loves and wants to support. 

    Latham is also starting what he calls the Backwood Running Club, which brings people together to not only run, but to spend time outside in the backwoods of Humboldt County.

    Backwoods Burritos isn’t just about making money for Latham. It’s about building a strong community and making memories with new and old friends.

    “We’re all friends,” Latham said. “Started with friends and now it’s just like expanding with more and more friends… that’s what I love about it.”

    Graphic by Griffin Mancuso
  • A night of Gov’t Mule at the Van Duzer

    A night of Gov’t Mule at the Van Duzer

    Photos by Alex Anderson

    Lead singer Warren Haynes vibing out under the green light in Van Duzer.
    Lights shine down on Warren Haynes to kick off the show in Van Duzer on Feb. 13.
    Lead singer for Gov’t Mule under the lights for the Feb. 13 show in Van Duzer.
    Lead singer for Gov’t Mule Warren Haynes laying it down in Van Duzer.
    Gov’t Mule guitarist Danny Louis also putting in time on the keyboard during the performance in Van Duzer on Feb.13.
  • Get your taxes done for free at the student clinic

    Get your taxes done for free at the student clinic

    By Dezmond Remington

    For many students with dozens of responsibilities, doing their own taxes is byzantine, boring, and back-breaking. Though doing taxes is famously painful, there are resources to help.

    The student tax clinic is open to almost all students and community members who make less than $70,000 a year. It’s free and staffed by accounting students. Book an appointment through their website, found through Humboldt’s School of Business website, which operates on Wednesday evenings in Siemens Hall.

    International students filing international tax forms are not eligible for the clinic’s help, though Instructor of Record for the clinic Joshua Zender, said the clinic will help international students if they are filing domestic returns. 

    The clinic’s scope is limited to processing tax documents students provide, using the IRS-supplied TaxSlayer software, and then sending those returns to the IRS. Anyone seeking tax advice or anything more complicated should use a qualified accountant. But just because what the clinic can do is limited doesn’t mean people can’t benefit immensely. 

    “Oftentimes, we find that people we’re serving are simply not aware that they’re eligible for, maybe, a renter’s tax credit, or they’re eligible for a special tax credit because they happen to be going to college right now,” Zender said. “That’s always a really rewarding experience, to see somebody’s face light up and think, ‘Oh, well, I’m actually gonna get money back from the government that I didn’t know I was eligible for.’”

    Another tax credit that’s worth looking into is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which Zender said some students qualify for. It’s open to low and moderate-income workers. 

    If someone earned less than $13,850 for the 2023 tax year, they can file and get all of their federal income taxes returned. 

    The students working at the clinic also benefit from helping people with their taxes. They get a $1,500 stipend provided by the Smullin foundation, an Oregon-based grant-giving organization, as well as a lot of experience. 

    “The main [benefits] are becoming proficient and more confident in using tax software to prepare a tax return,” Zeller said. “For accounting students, they’re looking for real world experience doing their field. But a second [reason] is establishing an ethos, or a commitment to serve a community, and in particular an underserved community, and so developing the skills to communicate and help and empower people who need assistance with their tax return is a really important skill to be developed from this experience as well.”

    Student David Mata is an accounting student who has worked for the clinic for two years. He started doing tax returns six years ago at H&R Block and enjoys the people he gets to meet.

    “You get to see people you don’t get to see,” Mata said. “I haven’t done much community stuff. This gives me a perspective on being a part of this community.”

    Daniel Taylor, another accounting student in his second year on staff, agreed with Mata. He said the experience he got from working there was invaluable–and the stipend is good too. 

    “It’s nice to help people,” Taylor said. “Everyone loves free taxes.”

  • Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected

    Lora Webb Nichols: Photographs Made, Photographs Collected

    By Christina Mehr

    Immediately when you walk into the art exhibit, you are taken into the life and work of Lora Webb Nichols. Located in the Reese Bullen Gallery at Cal Poly Humboldt, Nichols’ black and white photography is displayed for all to see. Her work covers candid portrait shots of those around her.
    The massive archive of prints has been preserved through the volunteer efforts of Nancy Anderson, Victor Anderson, and Nicole Jean Hill.

    Hill is a Professor of Art at Cal Poly Humboldt and the chair of the department of art and film. Her area of expertise is in photography and she teaches photography classes and professional practices in art. Hill is also the co-curator of the Lora Webb Nichols collections. 

    “When I first dove into the archive, I didn’t know what was [there] because it wasn’t actually viewable yet,” Hill said. “Only a very small portion of it was accessible to the public. It was kind of a leap of faith, but I was intrigued by the fact that it was an archive made by a female photographer who got a camera at the age of 16 in 1899 and saved 24,000 negatives.”

    Over the course of some time, Hill has worked on digitizing the photographs, organizing the corresponding text, recovering the photographer’s diaries and letters, and collaborating with the Grand Encampment Museum and the American Heritage Center to secure a permanent home for the negatives.

    Lora Webb Nichols was a photographer, businesswoman and homemaker living on the Wyoming frontier in the 20th century. She got her first camera at the young age of 16 and over the course of her lifetime, she produced a grand number of 24,000 negatives. The images she captured are about the domestic, social, and economic aspects of the frontier of south-central Wyoming. 

    “When you’re 16 years old and you get a camera, you’re unfiltered, and I was excited to see what that would be like,” Hill said. “Then, once I was actually physically able to see what was in the archive, it was even more exciting than I could have imagined in terms of the variety of subject matter and Lora’s skill as the photographer.”

    The most eye-catching work of the exhibit were the two cork boards with many printed images pinned across them both. On a pedestal below sat a book filled with many more photographs.

    More of Nichols’ photographs and writing can be found online through the American Heritage Center or in person at the Grand Encampment Museum. 

    “I love that this art exhibit has brought people to campus that otherwise would not come to see an art exhibit,” Hill said. “It has a multigenerational attraction to it.”

  • Unpacking Black Joy with Kirby Moss

    Unpacking Black Joy with Kirby Moss

    By Carlina Grillo

    If money is the root of all evil, when do people feel joyful about it? Kirby Moss, a professor and head of the journalism department at Cal Poly Humboldt, asked nearly 20 students and community members last Tuesday, Feb. 13. It left people stumped. 

    Topics discussed were Black representation in the media, feelings around finances and money, how to navigate being a first generation student while saving money for college, and hypotheticals about splurging on a life experience or saving and investing said money. 

    Rather than lecturing, Moss guided a conversation by asking plenty of thought-provoking questions. 

    “We’re in college, this is an academic setting, this is a setting of intellectual exploration. Do you think we should be learning more about money or not?” Moss said. “This conversation today is about money, but it’s not about material stuff. It’s about autonomy, it’s about options.”

    Aundrea All’love is a community member and business owner who was invited to share their experiences. One experience they have as a Black business owner is balancing mental health and community value, while still recognizing their worth and being paid a sustainable amount. 

    “From going from homeless, to some stability, to slowly growing my business now, the biggest shift I did was to focus on what brings me joy. Having faith in my ability and understanding my value,” All’love said. “I have been choosing more opportunities to make money and less scrumping down on my savings.”

    Jeremiah Keys is a sophomore at Cal Poly Humboldt who shared experiences about college being the foundation for the rest of his life. 

    “It’s not just going to be college then careers. It’s like college, then another college, then career and then struggles in between those things, but I’m still going to get through it,” Keys said. “Providing for my family and friends suits me, because I love doing it. That’s the expression that we love. Do something that suits you, but don’t push yourself to where you end up judging yourself more and more and more, and not looking at all the good that you’ve already done and all the good you can possibly do in the future.”

    This event was a part of a month-long series of events for Black Liberation Month, held by The Umoja Center for Pan African Student Excellence. For more information on upcoming events the Umoja Center can be found on Instagram at @umojahumboldt.

    “Money is not power. It’s all about us,” Moss said.

  • Long distance relationships come with an expiration date

    Long distance relationships come with an expiration date

    by Alana Hackman

    Imagine this: you’re in your dorm room getting ready for a night out with friends with the cheap vodka your one friend with a fake ID supplied, and nothing but pure 18-year-old confidence. Adrenaline is pumping as you sashay around your roommates makeup bag strewn about your shared bedroom floor, careful to avoid speaking to them as they apply their liquid eyeliner. All of a sudden, your phone that was blasting some 2014 alternative indie throwback is buzzing. The music stops and everyone turns to you, wondering if your DJ rights should be revoked. You scramble to your smartphone, and as you flip it, over there lies an incoming Facetime call from your long-distance boyfriend. Pink heart emojis act as bookends to his contact name as you look at yourself on the screen and contemplate answering this call. 

    “Oh, it’s (some boring hometown man’s name),” you say to your friends.

    They know the weight that generic name holds in that dorm household. It’s 9 p.m. and they already called a cab, which should be there in about two minutes. You look at your phone as it vibrates in your hand, you look at the flock of young girls on your bed giving you the look – you know the one. The bordering Kubrick stare and eyes of disappointment, non-verbally asking, “Are you really gonna answer it right now?”  You gaze back at your phone and quickly say “I have to take this,” as you disconnect from the bluetooth speaker and rush out into the dank hallway of your shared living space, hoping to god your name isn’t part of the conversation that’s happening behind the door you just slammed. 

    I, too, was a victim of the unplanned long-distance boyfriend call. From my freshman year of college to my junior year, I was enraptured in my long-distance relationship. I wouldn’t say it was all bad but I will say it just took way too much energy in the long run. I was fresh out of highschool and still carrying the weight of my highschool boyfriend around. I spent nights having sleepovers over Facetime, or watching some movie that we had to perfectly time to sync over the phone. Long-distance relationships can truly show you love someone, but when does it reach the point of total time consumption? 

    It was fun in the beginning, when you were excited for each other and the different paths you took, but long-distance success is based on clear communication, and sometimes that isn’t even enough to hold the relationship together. When college and life in your new town away from your partner picks up, lots of factors come into play; jealousy, accessibility, and just the plain old feelings of missing each other. 

    When your time gets so constrained to the point of only being able to call your partner in your LDR (long-distance relationship) once a week, it can really throw an axe into your dynamic. Even if it’s clearly communicated and you’re transparent with your busy schedules, it can feel hard for your LDR partner to not feel neglected or forgotten about. They aren’t with you – they aren’t seeing your day to day schedule, and when you have to pencil in time to call them and try to keep their attention as you talk to them about your mind numbing statistics lecture, the spark can easily fizzle out. 

    You can try and keep it alive by doing movie nights for each other or sending care packages, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to feel truly loved and cherished when you’re six hours away from each other and not sure when you’ll see eachother again. 

    Honestly, I don’t think any 18-20-year-old has the emotional or physical capacity to do that either. These are such developmental ages, and trying to entertain an LDR partner in between it all can feel like a maze of confusion and a tow truck of effort. I’m not saying dump your LDR because it’s gonna ruin your social life. I don’t think I missed out much when I was in my LDR as a baby-faced college freshman, but I will say it caused some baggage in the long run. 

    Long-distance relationships seem to only be a blanket to hold on to the inevitable factor that you will break up; holding on to the very end until you have to throw in the towel. It usually isn’t pretty, and is the reason why most LDRs end over the phone or text with little-to-no closure at all. That’s gonna cause more pain in the end than just parting ways after highschool for the purpose of doing it for each other’s own benefit. Breakups are never easy, but it can give you a lot more peace of mind. You did it for your partner’s and your own self-preservation. 

    I can’t speak much on the mid-20s LDRs, but I’d have to say it’s the same. Open communication just isn’t possible without at least some weekly face-to-face conversations. Interaction in the digital world can feel awkward, less genuine and allows more time for feelings of neglect and loneliness to build up. Long distance has its expiration date; I can only see it as a temporary thing of a year max. Anything past that is just a waste of time. 

  • Jasmin’s Corner; you need therapy

    Jasmin’s Corner; you need therapy

    by Jasmin Shirazian

    Hey Jasmin, 

    I think I need therapy, but I’m afraid. I’m not the type of person who likes to share my sad feelings with anybody, so I shove them down and pretend like they aren’t there. Recently, I’ve been noticing that my sad emotions are starting to catch up to me and are taking over my thoughts. I can’t really sleep because of them and it’s making all of my days seem mushed together. So back to the therapy thing, I’m afraid to tell someone about how I feel because I don’t want to get judged. In my mind, I feel like it’s silly for someone like me to be sad because I don’t really have anything happen to me recently to have sad emotions. 

    If you think you need therapy, you need therapy. If you don’t think you need therapy, you’re wrong and you need it more than anyone else. To me, therapy is just as important as a regular doctor or dentist appointment. Your mental health is just as relevant as the physical stuff. 

    Shame, pride and embarrassment are what stop many people from seeking help, but you can’t let your fear prevent your growth. Therapists are awesome because they get paid to care, so you don’t have to feel like you’re burdening anyone in your life with your problems. Their job isn’t to judge you, but to help you, though it may take a few tries to find a therapist that you feel comfortable with. Life is about trial and error. 

    Journaling your feelings throughout the day can be a good starting point in expressing your feelings. Getting them down on paper can help organize your thoughts and maybe recognize some patterns, like certain triggers. At the end of the day though, a proper diagnosis can seriously help you navigate your emotions and make sense of your brain. 

    You have to take chances and put yourself in uncomfortable positions to create change in your life. Being vulnerable is one of the strongest things you can be, which is why it can be so hard to get to a point of comfortability within it. 

    There’s no reason to feel silly for having emotions just because you’re not actively going through a tragedy or a trauma. If you can’t find the means to validate yourself, let me put it clearly: you are allowed to have feelings. More than anything, you are allowed to feel your feelings. 

    Shoving your feelings down into an endless pit will only fill it with emotional-vipers that’ll come back to bite you in the ass later in life. Make your life easier and deal with them now. 

    xoxo,

    Jasmin

  • Distance makes the heart grow fonder

    Distance makes the heart grow fonder

    by Savana Robinson

    “I love you,” I said to my boyfriend this afternoon. “I’ll see you in a month.”

    With a heavy heart, I walked away from him. Our eyes met with one last glance and we went our separate ways.

    We’ve been a long-distance couple for a year. It was hard at first because we went from working and living together to seeing each other every few weeks. This school year, we’re going longer without seeing each other. I’m working weekends and can’t come home on a whim. Also, I have a bunkmate this semester. We have to plan his visits and get a hotel when he does come. But, I’m only two and a half hours from him, so it’s not a problem for him to come up just for a night at a time.

    So, here’s my hot take: I like long distance. Don’t get me wrong, I love my boyfriend and I miss him every day that I’m not with him, but I’m a very independent person. To be honest, I’m very needy when I am with him, because he does all kinds of things for me – acts of service are my love language. But because I’m an independent girly, I do okay as long as I’m staying busy.

    I think that everyone should do long distance at least once in their relationship. I think having some space from each other is healthy. You can find out who you are without them while being with them at the same time. Even if it’s a two-week family vacation without your partner or a temporary school or work relocation, it can fortify your relationship.

    The most important thing to remember when you’re in a long-distance relationship is that communication is key. In this modern age, we have technology that keeps us connected better than ever. My boyfriend and I video call each other on Snapchat at least once a day; several times if possible.

    Another thing that’s important is to remind them that you love them just as much when you’re apart as when you’re together. A great way to do that is sending letters. I know there are more efficient ways to communicate, but letters make great keepsakes that will foster fond memories you can look back on in the years to come.

    If I could choose, I’d still do long distance. Maybe not for a year – it’ll be two when I’m done with school – but at least for a few months. Because of this trial of our love, we are stronger than ever.

  • Humboldt drag artists slay outside the box

    Humboldt drag artists slay outside the box

    by Griffin Mancuso

    Shannon Rhodes already had a passion for fashion and makeup before delving into Humboldt’s drag scene. After attending several drag shows dressed to impress, Rhodes ran into drag artists Val de Flores and Sharon Taterz who offered them the opportunity to start booking their own performances. In May of 2023, Rhodes debuted as Killpop at the Septentrio Winery.

    “I kind of blackout when I’m performing, because it’s very short,” Rhodes said. “It’s just like, three to four minutes. The energy—it’s addicting. The crowds are amazing. It’s awesome getting to perform in front of a fully queer space, where everybody’s there just to see you and support you and be positive. All the other girls, they’re super fun to hang out with.”

    Killpop’s friend Seraphim Nagel joins their performance at the Septentrio Winery. Photo courtesy of Makayla Kuhnke.

    Despite being a small county, Humboldt has a thriving drag community. Every member’s introduction to drag and their personal relationship to the art form is unique. Additionally, every drag artist’s reason for performing is different and reflective of their life experiences.

    Paul Michael Leonardo Atienza, an assistant professor of Critical Race and Gender Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, has been doing drag performances for 20 years. They began to explore their gender expression after attending an LGBT campus retreat during their senior year at UC Riverside.

    “We were processing trauma in our lives, and what came out for me was how I was shamed as a child of my gender expression, and particularly feminine gender expression,” Atienza said. “Many of us were figuring out, ‘Well, how do we work to strengthen and remove less of the stigma that we learn?’”

    Atienza took on the identity of Maria Arte Susya Purisima Tolentino during their drag performances. Ma Arte drifts between being an extension of Atienza and a separate persona, but Atienza considers her to be a creative collaborator. Together, Atienza and Ma Arte have collaborated with drag artists and members of the queer community across the world.

    Lawrence Fobes King, a queer middle schooler from Ventura, California, was murdered in 2008 by a classmate. This tragedy moved Atienza to use drag as a form of protest by bringing awareness of injustices against the queer community.

    “At that time, [drag] was still quite small, but people were really into watching drag, and a lot of the drag at that time also was lip synching to popular music,” Atienza said. “And I was like, ‘Well, if you have this audience, what can you do to also add more social issues to it?’ And with the murder of Larry King, I tried to pair a song and created a performance in honor of his struggle and his memory.”

    Drag also offers a secure support system to queer people and an opportunity to share queer joy. Joel Costello, who performs as Feral Fawcett, found his inspiration in popular drag queens like Trixie Mattell and Bob the Drag Queen. Performing since March of 2023, Costello found that Feral Fawcett had a positive impact on a wide range of community members.

    “This mom asked if she could take a picture of us because her daughter was in grade school and was getting bullied for being gay,” Costello said. “There was a lot of drama against drag queens happening at the time, so that felt really good… it reminds me that there’s more to it than just being silly and collecting the bills.”

    Feral Fawcett also provided Costello a space to explore feminine gender expression.

    “I feel like she is a representation over the feminine side of myself, which is something that before I used to try to squash down,” Costello said. “I came from a hometown that was not very pro-LGBT, so I always tried to be like the manly gay guy. It was nice to have a release… I like blending my masculine and feminine side into one thing.”

    Through drag, Rhodes has been able to gain confidence in their artistic skills and their body.

    Thrash and Recycling (left), Gliterous Cliterous (middle), and Killpop (right) pose together at the Septentrio Winery. Photo courtesy of Makayla Kuhnke.

    “I feel like my confidence was taking a hit for a while – you know, my body was changing,” Rhodes said. “That also means my favorite clothes that I like to wear don’t fit, I got to figure out new styles, new clothes. Having people just be like, ‘Damn, bro,’ and seeing photos of myself looking good performing in the body that I have is just like, ‘Alright, I guess your ass is kind of fat.’ The crowd really just shows you like, ‘I am cool. I’m doing this because I got so many awesome qualities to me.’”

    Drag expects a lot out of its performers, both mentally and physically.

    “What people don’t realize — until they maybe watch [RuPaul’s] Drag Race or something — drag queens have to be a comedian, a dancer, a seamstress, a hairdresser, a makeup artist, like your own manager,” Rhodes said. “You do everything for that performance. Even some are singers. You have to be so many things as a drag queen, and I think it’s a really pure form of art because you’re doing it all.”

    Drag artists have a lot to carry on their shoulders, including the stigma and lack of education around drag. 

    In 2023, Tennessee legislators passed the Adult Entertainment Act, meant to prohibit adult cabaret entertainment on public property, including, “male or female impersonators.” The act’s broad language allowed law enforcement to potentially prosecute drag artists and trans people. After Tennessee, anti-drag bills have been introduced in at least 14 other states. Many conservative legislators have used concern for the safety of minors to pass anti-drag laws and censor openly queer expressions.

    “A lot of people think it’s a super sexual thing and that it’s like a fetish,” Costillo said. “Most drag performers I know have a very distinct separation between the two.”

    People of many different gender identities do drag, but their gender identities are separate from their identity when in drag.

    “In general, people conflate gender expression, gender performance, [and] gender identity with sexual orientation, sexual behavior and practice. And all of those are separate,” Atienza said. “People who are drag performers are of all gender expressions and sexual orientations. I think that’s one thing that we need to challenge not just in drag, but in understanding gendered and sexual lives. We’re bodies that have different ways of feeling [and] expressing themselves and society has put us in specific boxes.”

    Despite the adversities the drag community faces in the U.S. and the rest of the world, drag artists have been thriving in Humboldt County. The definition of drag is constantly changing and growing. Members of Humboldt’s queer community from all backgrounds have been able to find a safe haven in drag, allowing them to heal from trauma and play with gender performance.

    “I do believe RuPaul in saying that we’re born naked, and the rest is drag, right?” Atienza said. “Drag is really a way to demonstrate the constructiveness of gender and how there’s so many possibilities out there. Drag to me is not just on stage, with queens and kings and in-betweens. Drag is every day.”

    Find the artists here:

    Ma Arte

    Instagram: @dragmaarte

    Facebook: Ma Arte SP Tolentino 

    Killpop:

    Instagram: @kill._.pop

    Feral Fawcett:

    Instagram: @myferal_lady

  • Learning to live with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

    by Mia Costales

    For the better half of my teenage and young adult life, I’ve dealt with intense bouts of sadness in the days leading up to my menstrual cycle. These episodes usually only lasted around a week and were characterized by heightened irritability, anxiety, fatigue, decreased interest in activities and in the most extreme cases, suicidal ideation. Due to these symptoms, I chalked it up to being some form of major depressive disorder that was exacerbated by the hormonal shift during that week. However, thanks to a couple Google searches and several trips to my doctor, I was diagnosed with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) and was able to start taking the steps to learning to live with PMDD. 

    According to Dr. Alison Palacios, a physician at the Cal Poly Humboldt Student Health Clinic, PMDD is considered the most severe form of Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) as maintained by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. 

    “Patients’ symptoms must include behavioral symptoms and often include physical symptoms. The most common behavioral symptoms are mood swings and frequently include irritability, anxiety/tension, sad or depressed mood, increased appetite/food cravings, sensitivity to rejection and diminished interest in activities,” Palacios said. “The most common physical manifestations of PMS are abdominal bloating and an extreme sense of fatigue.”

    While PMS symptoms and PMDD symptoms can look extremely similar, PMDD differs in that feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and anxiety are almost consistently present. Both may include symptoms such as bloating and intense mood swings, but PMS is not considered a mental disorder and is typically pretty manageable. PMDD on the other hand, is considered a mental disorder by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and can be debilitating in some extreme cases. 

    In order to be diagnosed with PMDD, at least five of the symptoms presented in the DSM must be present in the week leading to menstruation, start to improve with the start of menses, and be minimal to gone by the end of the menstrual cycle. These symptoms include marked depression, anxiety, affective mood, irritability, decreased interest in activity, difficulty concentrating, lethargy, change in appetite, hypersomnia or insomnia, and physical symptoms such as joint or muscle pain. This criteria presented in the DSM must have also been met for most menstrual cycles that occurred within the last year. Yet despite PMDD being a recognised mental disorder, it is an underrepresented condition. 

    “It is not well reported, but worldwide prevalence is 2%, and in the U.S., it was 2.9% among Black females versus 4.4% White females,” Palacios said. “It is probably quite underdiagnosed and especially so in Black females and other people of color. Some with the diagnosis assume their symptoms are ‘normal’ for menstruating people or seek healthcare for years to decades before receiving the correct diagnosis.” 

    As per Palacios’ advice, moderate to severe symptoms can be treated with antidepressants, hormonal birth control and cognitive behavioral therapy. Milder symptoms may be treated with exercise, herbal remedies and supplements. Bilateral oophorectomy, the surgical removal of the ovaries, is reserved for the most extreme cases of PMDD. 

    There are resources on campus for those who may think they are experiencing PMDD. The Student Health Clinic can help address symptoms and provide diagnostics and treatment for the condition. They can also refer to specialists if needed. TalkNow sessions with TimelyCare and the Counseling and Psychological Services line are also helpful resources for managing PMDD symptoms. If you are experiencing any thoughts of harming yourself, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (phone number 988) is available 24 hours. 

    PMDD can be extremely hard to live with, but like most conditions, finding coping mechanisms and support can help dramatically. For LJ Ferris, coping looks like realizing that PMDD shouldn’t affect their self-worth. 

    “In the midst of it, it seems like it’s never going to end. Then, your period comes and you realize you indeed are still a human deserving of love,” Ferris said. “It is not supposed to be normal to want to die leading up to your period. It is not supposed to be normal to have such severe physical and emotional pain around periods.” 

  • Navigating nightlife; staying safe while out

    Navigating nightlife; staying safe while out

    by Christina Mehr

    Despite the fact I had only had two drinks throughout the entire night, I very quickly felt unwell and more drunk than I have ever been in my entire life. The fact is, if you are roofied, you often have very little time between drinking and realizing that you are not well. It comes on quickly and you may find someone promising to “help you.” I realized then I had been roofied. The scariest part about that night is I don’t remember half of it. 

    What exactly is a roofie though? Roofies, or being roofied, is the slang term for the date rape drug called Rohypnol, officially known as flunitrazepam. Easily popped into and dissolved in drinks, the sedative causes memory loss, drowsiness, and sometimes even the loss of consciousness. Only one tablet can impair you for up to 8-12 hours. Combined with alcohol, it makes for an intensified effect.

    As cliche as it sounds, don’t ever leave your drink unattended. Sometimes, you need to be even more careful of those around you that are your so-called friends. It’s not that I didn’t not trust who I was with – I had my friends and dormmates with me, but we had been party hopping on Halloween night, drinking and accepting drinks from wherever they came from. Truth is, I still have no idea how I got roofied. This wasn’t a blackout just from too much alcohol, this was a new experience clearly resembling the effects of being roofied.

    Staying safe while out on the town starts with prevention. Consider bringing cup covers next time you go out partying. Cup covers prevent someone from getting the opportunity to slip pills, powders, or other substances into your drink without you knowing. I understand you may feel silly pulling out something that resembles a condom for your cup but remember, self defense begins with prevention. The Check Your Drink CYD test strips are another way to prevent being roofied. This is an easy-to-use rapid drink spiking test that detects ketamine, rohypnol, and GHB from only a few drops of your drink.

    It’s not like this experience has deterred me away from drinking or the occasional partying, especially now that the drinking I’m doing is legal. However, it has made me think to just be a little more careful and aware of my surroundings because of what can happen.

    If I can bring awareness and prevention methods to just one person, I’d be happy with that. Nobody deserves to have their drink tampered with and potentially taken advantage of.