Half-Year in Review: January-June, 2008

2008 hasn't even ended yet, but it'll go down as a year full of news. Perhaps, years from now, people will look to our website as a time capsule of the year of the Patriots and The Love Guru. Or not.

The lack of incumbents made this year's presidential race the most unusual in recent history. John McCain won his party's nomination easily compared to the Clinton-Obama duel. Can you believe that, only months ago, the competition included people like John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson? The guy from Law and Order? My friend Glen has never been shy about his opinions, and I decided to take a stab at punditry as well with Picking the President. As both of us learned, sometimes, your favorite candidates don't make it to the final round. Gravel and Paul, we hardly knew ye. The much-hyped launch of U.N.A.M.I.D. proved disappointing for those hoping for progress in Darfur. Catherine Wagner summed it up nicely: "The guys changed their helmets from green to blue." Not much of an increase in manpower, money, supplies, or aid, and the violence continues.

April Fool's Day was quite a day for us. For 24 hours, we changed all our colors to pink, and covered the latest in celebrity gossip. We had lots of fun pissing on everything this blog stands for for a day. A little later, the death of one of the finest comedians there ever was, George Carlin, sparked many tributes from this site and beyond. Meanwhile, our own Chris DeCarlo filled the site with tributes to the object of his obsession, another great comic named Bill Hicks. These two greats continue to remind us Étudiants that, no matter how hard we try, we will never truly write anything humorous, so we should just stop trying. J.K. L.O.L.

Isn't it sad that this website has more music-related content than MTV? Who needs TV or the radio when you can stop by the Étudiant for a CD or concert review, recommended bands and songs, or even a Top Tan List? Whether it's the Smiths, Billy Joel, or Glen butchering "Bittersweet Symphony", we've got it all.
Our site's going stronger than ever, and we're looking to make the next-half year even better than the last! Keep checking us out for more politics, Darfur, Beatles worship, and dead comedians! Mahalo.