Counting the ballots for this year's UVic Students' Society (UVSS) election is currently underway at Vertigo in the Student Union Building (SUB).

It finally happened: we were heard.

For years students have been asking the Victoria Regional Transit Commission (VRTC) to give us late-night service. We need it to get home from work, we argued. It will help keep us safe, we pleaded.

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Twitter is stupid.

Even at its best it’s just another way to waste your life while reading about the lives of others. At its worst, this inane website plays on our most self-indulgent, voyeuristic and vain attributes.

Karen Wolverton, owner of the Robson Street LUSH store in Vancouver, stripped down and laid on a bleeding Canadian flag outside the Government St. store on March 26 to protest the approval of 280,000 seals to be killed during this year’s seal hunt. An online petition is available at Lush.ca.

It all started with a SUB strike.

The Martlet began this school year covering a drawn out, exhausting battle between union employees and the UVic Students Society. Picket lines were crossed, graffitti was sprayed, petitions started. But that was just the beginning.

We’ve all said stupid things.

Maybe we’ve blurted out something awkward at a family dinner, or said something mouthy to a group of friends. No matter how politically correct we think we are, sometimes we say things that are irresponsible, offensive or just plain stupid.

Getting to campus these days can be a bit trying.

Between the overcrowded buses more likely to pass by you than pick you up and the parking lots so full of cars you spend your class period circling the lot, parking rates feel like a poke in the eye while the flailing economy smacks it to students on the chin.

Steak and Blow Job Day — oh, the romance. March 14: yet another day we can feel bad about not being shacked up with a significant other, or just feel the pressure of exaggerated expectations to please the one we do have.

The UVSS elections are coming to a climactic close this week, and there’s only a short time left until we find out who our new elected officials will be this coming year — or so we think.

Every year when elections for the UVic Students’ Society Board of Directors rolls around, students are faced with a big question: what the heck does the UVSS do, and why should I give a crap? Most students have no idea what the UVSS does and, as a result, voter turnout usually hovers somewhere between an abysmal five to 15 per cent.

It’s not everyday you witness people turning down a nod to their sexiness.

Students definitely didn’t get a bailout in the 2009 federal budget.

The new budget, tabled on Jan. 27 by the Harper government, definitely didn’t have us in mind at all. Maybe it’s because the government needs us to pay back our loans if they’re going to have the funds to dole out billions of dollars to banks and construction companies, but maybe that’s no excuse.

YAY!

The university will wait until next fall to hold a referendum asking students for assistance with paying for new athletic facilities.

Whether or not we condone it, fighting has always had a place in sports.

The recent death of 21-year-old Don Sanderson after a AAA Ontario Hockey League altercation has once again sparked interest on fighting’s place in sports — and deservedly so. But this is not the first time a hockey scrap has caused public outcry, nor will the dispute result in fighting’s elimination from sports.

People love to curse.

Whether unleashing a barrage of profanities during a crude story or cursing quietly under our breath while stuck in traffic, it is undeniable that fun little four letter words are a part of our culture — probably more than ever before.

UVic wants students to fork over $24.5 million for new athletics facilities, and the administration plans to get students to vote on whether or not to approve a $55-per-semester athletic fee increase.

Canadian forward and former UVic star Katie Rushton (far right) fires a shot at Malaysian goalkeeper Ernawati Mahmud in Olympic field hockey qualifiers on April 29. Mahmud made the save, but Rushton beat her on another shot two minutes into the second half to give Canada a 1-0 victory.

Home should be a sight for sore eyes, not an eyesore. But UVic’s newly redesigned home page is causing headaches for those of us set in our ways.

May 21, 1998 — Langford RCMP officers arrested five female protesters who chained themselves to logging equipment on Costco’s construction site. The 10-acre plot contained eight acres of Garry Oak trees. Firefighters had to cut the women’s chains. The protesters blocked traffic on Millstream Road.

Thanks for your interest in contributing to the Martlet. The reader feedback survey is your first opportunity to have a say in the direction of the Martlet for the upcoming 2008 / 2009 publishing year.