The Goods

Bravo, brainiacs!
Chico State computer science students fared pretty well against their peers from 34 other universities during a recent regional college programming contest. One Wildcat team came in 23rd out of 76—the school’s second-highest finish since first entering the contest in 2000. In April, the top winners of the competition, the University of British Columbia and Stanford University, will join the world’s top 90 teams in Banff, Canada, during an IBM-sponsored international contest known as the Battle of the Brains.

Bag some threads
Want some new duds but can’t afford to hit the stores? No problem. Pull those sweaters, slacks and other clothing sitting idle in your closet and trade them for items other folks don’t wear anymore. But get a move on. The Campus Clothing Swap, sponsored by EARC, runs today (Nov. 29) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chico State’s Free Speech Area.

Get smashed
No, not at the bars. Friday (Nov. 30) is the submission deadline for the twice-annual SMASH Awards. What in the heck is SMASH, you ask? Well, it’s a video festival that allows media-arts students to showcase their work. Oh yeah, SMASH stands for Students in Media Arts Showcase. How clever. Get your submissions into Tehama 205 by 4:30 p.m. sharp.

Fallin’
Shame on you if you haven’t been to Feather Falls. The nation’s sixth-highest waterfall is right in our back yard and quite a sight to behold. So what if getting there means an eight-mile round-trip hike? You can do it! If you’ve been hesitating because of the drive up into the foothills or you don’t want to go it alone, you’re in luck: A.S. Adventure Outings (www.aschico.com) is leading a day trip (8 a.m.-5 p.m.) on Saturday (Dec. 1). Students get a special price of $28; it’s $35 for the general public. Views from the scenic overlook are priceless. If you can’t make it this time, make sure you go before you graduate.

Lunch date
Bring a sack lunch to campus on Wednesday (Dec. 5) and join political science professor Sherrow Pinder for an intriguing discussion. During the upcoming Conversations on Diversity, she’ll be tackling the claim of folks who say they don’t notice the race or gender of other people, and posing whether that’s actually possible or a good thing. Head to BMU 210 at noon for what sounds like a controversial topic.