Sports Recreation

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Trailblazers: Lizard Lake via Alternate Incline Trail

There's an App for That: Handy Basics for College

The Blog That Bumps

"Value Village," by Mick Jenkins

My Dear Friend Oscar: Best Actor in Forrest Gump

The MDFO series has returned! And what better way to do so than to look at one of the best films of the ‘90s, “Forrest Gump,” is a movie that everyone knows at this point. This week we will look at one of the six Oscars that this film took home at the 1995 Academy Awards.

Games Galore: Fallout Shelter (iOS)

Free-to-play (in App Store purchases) With the impending arrival of Fallout 4, the focus on the series has reached series has reached a fever pitch. During the initial announcement of the game, Bethesda, the publisher, also announced Fallout Shelter, an iOS game that places the player as one of the, “Overseers" in charge of a "Vault". A Vault, in the Fallout universe, is an underground living space that houses the survivors and their descendants from the ravaged wasteland outside. Fallout Shelter works a little differently from the mainline Fallout games. Instead of trekking across the remnants of the United States, the player oversees the functions and residents of their own Vault. First, the player must build rooms that will provide power, food, and water, the three resources that are necessary to keep the Vault running. The Vault is expanded by attracting more outsiders to the Vault, or by having two people with high Charisma mate so that one of them becomes pregnant. Charisma is one of several stats each dweller has that determines what job in the Vault they are most suited for. Should the need arise, you can send out some of your dwellers into the wastes to forage for weapons, armor and other supplies. The end goal of the game is to build a flourishing Vault, by building new rooms, and populating it with as many dwellers as possible. The game nicely sidesteps many of the pitfalls of the free-to-play type of game. You don’t need to pay money in order to keep playing after a certain duration. Instead, you can pay money to get a, “lunchbox” with four prizes, such as weapons, armor or extra resources. It’s a nice bonus but it is not necessary to play the game. On the downside, the game really does require a high amount of babysitting, requiring the player to consistently monitor the amount of resources their Vault has. This detracts from convenience and accessibility of the game. Although this doesn’t matter so much later on, it’s still a little bit of a pain. Final Rating: 8/10

Paul Madison retiring after 48 years

Madison has been the sports information director for Western since 1966, when he was a Viking freshman. His title never changed. At this time, he was finishing up his degree in the journalism department and was among one of the first journalism classes to graduate from Western in 1971.

U.S. headed to World Cup semi-final

As the FIFA Women’s World Cup continues just north of the border in Canada, the United States Women’s National Team is still alive and well, making confident strides through the competition.

Bellingham Bells off to a hot start

So far the Bells are off to a great start – with 12 wins and 8 losses, they lead the West Division of the West Coast League.

Women's soccer adds three new recruits

The Western women’s soccer team will be adding three transfer students to the roster who are expected to strengthen the team this season.

Campus Style: Inspired by Grandpa

Trailblazers: Diablo Lake

Do we really know what love is?

Campus Clubs: The Billiards club

Although the Billiards club meeting was cancelled this past Thursday, Nathan Miller was still in the Fairhaven Lounge, shooting pool. Miller is a junior at Western studying radio and broadcast production. He’s been involved with the club since last fall. According to Miller, 5-10 people show up to the meetings with their own equipment each week and the president of the club brings his professional quality billiard balls. “We usually just play pool and work on our pool skills. But sometimes we’ll do a mock tournament where we just play for fun,” Miller said. Last winter, they had an actual tournament at Western. They had others who were formally in the club who also played in the tournament, Miller said. “First place is usually a new cue stick and I played in that last year and I was actually the winner of that one,” Miller said. Even though he was knocked into the losers bracket, he made his way back to win the tournament. Pool sticks are commonly known as cue sticks. Miller started learning to play pool with his friend when he was younger and he’s won in any tournament he’s ever been in since. The competitions are divided by “seeds” which are their performance levels. It’s usually a double-elimination bracket. So if someone loses the winner’s bracket, they get bumped down to the loser’s bracket. Then each game is best two out of three. When you get to the finals, you play three out of five. These tournaments are usually in the course of one day, Miller said. He found out about the club in Red Square from the annual AS Club Fair. The club is open to anyone and everyone is welcome. The Billiards Club meets every Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Voyaging from adventure to adventure

Idle in the parking lot, ski goggles hang on the rear-view window and there is a coffee mug sitting in the cup holder. Powder skis lie on the floor and a pillow rests on the left couch.

Western Frisbee club places 13th at nationals

After a season with injuries, financial obstacles and hours of hard work, Western’s Ultimate Frisbee team, DIRT, was able to attend and compete in nationals.

Former Viking continues soccer career

Most can’t say they had the opportunity to try out for a professional soccer team by the age of 21. Most can’t say they played four years of collegiate soccer either.

There's an App for That: Summer Apps

Women of Western: FIFA 16

FIFA 16 Career Mode: Your star striker has been ruled out for 9 months due to pregnancy..

TV Review: "Cutthroat Kitchen"

Celebrating the end of the quarter