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Table of contents 1.
Friendship, favors drown wn n out neighbors’ noise Page 4
2.
Home away from campus provides unexpected benefits - Page 5
3.
Low-cost crafts turn house into home Page 6-7
4.
Spring cleaning eliminates stress, mess Page 9
Housing Guide 4
Friendship, favors drown out neighbors’ noise Ally Dukkers EDITOR-IN- CHIEF
During my five years in Chico I’ve lived in the dorms, an apartment complex, an apartment duplex and a house, all in different parts of the town with different neighbors. Getting to know your neighbors can be a great way to meet friends and have people to hang out with, especially during the rainy season when the trek to the bars or parties seems like an impossible mission. Having a good relationship with your neighbors is also very useful if you ever run into the problem of needing a cup of sugar
or more likely, a hammer or plunger. I currently live in an apartment duplex where my two roommates and I live underneath an apartment of three women. It is a very strange thing to have someone living above you, because you get to know a lot about those people by simply listening. The woman whose room is directly above mine likes to sing every morning at about 10 a.m. This is something I probably never would have known had she not lived above my room. Living in a college town can be very noisy and almost always at the most inconvenient times; luckily we have Meriam Library
Are your roommates giving you a headache? Check out The Orion Housing Guides for some new places to call home. Feb. 1 March 7 To Advertise call: 530.898.4237
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so we can study in peace. My nextdoor neighbors are in a rock band, and they practice every Wednesday in the room adjacent to mine. While it gets repetitive to hear them rehearsing the same song time and time again, we are lucky to have a band nearby that will play at our parties. I also live in very close proximity to several fraternity houses, whose members like to blast music at all hours of the day and night. After living in the downtown area of Chico for a while, sirens, trains, music, drunken people and car horns become parts of the white noise – the background noise. It all seems worth it, however, because of all the fun and
interesting people I met. Despite the crazy living situations many people experience in college, it is a great time to meet a lot of people. I’ve met many of my best friends because they were my neighbors at one point or another during my college career. If you just moved to a new place this semester or if new people just moved in next door or even if you never got to know your neighbors, I suggest you do. Living in the same area may not be the only thing you have in common, and you might create great relationships with those people. Ally Dukkers can be reached at editorinchief@theorion.com
Home away from campus provides unexpected benefits Ben Mullin FE ATURES EDITOR
Last week I got up at 5 a.m. to go to work. I pulled on jeans and a T-shirt that seemed clean and slogged two miles through the rain to campus. The long walk was awful, but the fact that I could wake up at 5 a.m. at all was a testament to the benefits of living far from campus. There were no loud parties to keep me up into the wee hours, no broken glass when I took my trash out barefoot the next day and, best of all, no intoxicated people knocking on my door to ask for directions. Having lived both on West Fourth Avenue and West 21st Street, I have had to study and sleep through earth-moving levels of bass and the sound of would-be ballerinas pirouetting to the ground outside my window after consuming a truly awe-inspiring volume of alcohol. At long last, I’ve come to the conclusion that living far away from campus is better, for the following reasons:
Neighbors are kinder The first time I explored my neighborhood, I did it for a story. There was a pushy magazine salesperson scamming people out of cash, so it was my job to go door-to-door asking if anyone had seen a door-to-door swindler. Not the most enviable job. After knocking on several doors, not only was I given information as to the whereabouts of the scammer, but also a basket of homegrown tomatoes, two literature anthologies and, inexplicably, a two-page manifesto about how California’s prison systems should be reformed. My immediate neighbors are much nicer than the ones I had when I lived a few minutes from campus. They respect my privacy, share their food and don’t try to get busy against my window. Heart-healthy walks It’s easy to become sedentary in Chico, especially if your primary objective is to sit down and learn as much about the world as you can. Unless you’re a student-athlete, higher education does not prioritize physical
fitness, which is why on the days that it’s not drizzling outside or appendage-freezingly cold, I enjoy making the trek back and forth to my apartment. Putting one foot in front of the other for a half-hour is a nice change of pace, and it’s something I wouldn’t make time for if the distance didn’t force me to. Safety first Of the 37 robberies that occurred during the first quarter of 2011, 18 of them occurred in the south-campus area, within a mile of campus, according to crime statistics released by the Chico Police Department. Out of 115 burglaries, 56 of them occurred within a one-mile radius of campus. It might be a farther walk, but I feel safer at night knowing that when I finally do get home, both my belongings and I are relatively safe. Proximity to campus shouldn’t be the only deciding factor when choosing an apartment. Far more important are the people you live by, the things you live around and the safety you live with. Ben Mullin can be reached at featureseditor@theorion.com
Housing Guide 6
Low-cost crafts turn house into home Mixed tape Mark Rojas FE ATURES DESIGNER
Bare walls are not the nicest things to look forward to after a long day of studying. Bring your walls to life with these simple and cheap art projects. They can be created with a new canvas, leftover project boards or scraps found at yard sales.
Materials: • Masking tape (1-inch wide) • Large paintbrush • Canvas • Paint
Masking tape is a helpful tool to prevent paint from getting on windowpanes, but it can also provide interesting patterns for painting. Start by putting strips of tape in various criss-crossing patterns on the canvas. Then, go to town with the paint and the paintbrush,
painting one color in between each of the sectioned-off areas, taking care not to paint under the tape. Once the paint is dry, pull off the strips of tape to see your fi nal product. For contrast, pick a complementary paint color to fi ll in some of the triangles you made prior to removing the tape.
Step 1: Layout the tape
Mark Rojas can be reached at
Step 2: Apply the paint. Use two tones for contrast
editorinchief@theorion.com
Game hang Materials: • Old board game • Glue • Hammer • Nails At some point you are bound to lose those dice from Monopoly or all the vowels from the Scrabble set. Don’t be hasty to throw it all away. Glue some of the remaining pieces to the game board, grab a hammer and some nails and put it up above your desk as a reminder of good times.
Final Product
ILLUSTRATIONS BY • MARK ROJAS
Housing Guide 7
Crayola meltdown Materials: • Box of crayons • Glue • Newspaper • Hairdryer
Crayons are a lost art form among the college crowd, but none can argue the magic colorful wax can bring to a blank canvas. Start by laying out the newspaper at your workstation to prevent unwanted splatter from the melting about to commence.
Next, glue the crayons tip-down on the top of the canvas, evenly spaced and in any order you prefer. Darker colors like purple and black will overpower lighter colors like yellow and green, so space them out. Stand the canvas against a box,
table, wall or something else that will not move. Use the hairdryer to melt the crayons down the canvas until you reach the desired effect. Once all the crayons have been melted, sit back and let it dry for about 20 minutes, then hang.
Alternative option: once dry, hang upside down for a different effect
Use strong glue to make sure crayons do not fall when melting
ILLUSTRATIONS BY • MARK ROJAS
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Housing Guide 9
ILLUSTRATION BY • LINDSAY SMITH
Spring cleaning eliminates stress, mess Kacey Gardner MANAGING EDITOR
I don’t know what made me snap out of it. It had to have been partly due to the guilt I felt about subjecting my roommate, a selfproclaimed neat freak, to the sight of my gag-inducing black hole of a room. I kept the door closed whenever possible, but she knew what was beyond it. My room truly was a disaster: heaps of clothes covering the entire floor; empty glasses each with their own signature crusty film at the bottom abandoned on end tables; dust coating every surface. I avoided the area at all costs, even opting to sleep on the couch. The mess had accumulated over a period of about four weeks, and in that same amount of time, I had let my mind go, too. Where it went, I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t doing anything productive.
My spiral down into the doldrums started with that one class I decided to skip for one day. Then, one day turned into three days a week, and that one class turned into two. The more class I missed, the harder it seemed to go back. There was so much I had to do, but I couldn’t do it. I had let things build up for too long. There was no foreseeable escape. Time was ticking, and I wasn’t doing anything. I needed to get things in order, but I was tangled in the disarray. It wasn’t until one afternoon, when I had the apartment to myself, that I decided enough was enough. Finals were less than a week away and I couldn’t bear to have my roommate come home once more and pretend to ignore my stagnation. So, I got off the couch. The first task was laundry — way too much laundry. Along with this, I dusted and Windexed and vacuumed. I threw away trash, sterilized the crusty cups, made my bed with new sheets, Febreezed, folded and put away all my clothes,
and finally, about five hours later, my bedroom was restored. As I looked around my room and took in what I had accomplished in this one afternoon that I hadn’t been able to do for a month, I felt the weight of despair lift from my body. I suddenly felt hopeful again, and ambitious. I no longer felt guilty or depressed or stuck. All of the things my mind had been avoiding were suddenly back and in ranked order, ready to be checked off. It’s amazing what effect your environment can have on your mental state. This semester, I have a heavy workload. And while I’m hoping to keep things moving and to never again have to tackle such a daunting mental and physical clean-up, I now know that no matter how irretrievably stuck I may feel, all it takes to get back on track is getting off the couch and a little spring cleaning. Kacey Gardner can be reached at managingeditor@theorion.com
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Bedroom Location 1 1175 E. 8th St. #5,6 1 1161 Citrus A,B,D 1 1245 Esplanade #1,2,11,12 2 801 W. 1st Ave. #3,4 2 619 W. 3rd St. 2 668 E. 4th #1,2,3,4 2 742 W. 6th St. #A,B 2 742 W. 6th St. #C 2 371 E. 7th St. #1,2 2 1161 Citrus #C,G,K 2 925 Chestnut #4 2 1245 Esplanade #4,5,6 2 238 Hagel #1,3 2 618 Rancheria #B,C,D 2 339 1/2 W. 1st Ave. 3 620 W. 3rd St. 3 238 Hazel #4 3 1144 Hobart 2 606 Chery St. #2,3 2 638 Chestnut A 2 709&711 Flume 2 308 Hazel 3 527 Cherry St. 3 528&536 W. 7th St. 4 14&15 Klondike 4 803 W.2nd Ave #1,3,4
Location Bedroom 607 W. 3rd St. 1 668 E. 4th St. #5 1 706 W. 6th St. #B 1 706 W. 6th St. #C 1 742 W. 6th St. #D 1 540 W. 4th #A,B 1 353&359 E. 7th St. 1 371 E. 7th St. #3,4 1 925 Chestnut #5 S 1050 Warner S 1048 Warner S Rent 500 500 575 675 900 700 800 825 750 585 685 625 800 625 625 1200 1000 950 675 675 625/650 900 1250 1350/1050 950 850
Deposit 600 600 675 775 1000 800 900 925 850 685 785 750 900 725 725 1300 1100 1050 775 775 725/750 1000 1350 1450/1150 1050 950
Houses
Rent Deposit 575 675 600 700 500 600 550 650 550 650 600 700 650 750 650 750 625 725 500 600 500 650
Location Bedrooms 619 Cherry 1 612 Cherry 2 504 W. 7th St. 2 368 W. 8th St. 2 581 E. 8th St. 2 585 E. 8th St. 2 80 Cherry St. 2 715 Flume St. 2 1427 1/2 Hobart 2 1826 Magnolia Ave. 2 1745 Palm Ave. 2 820 Walnut Ave. 2 1048 Warner St. 2 620 W. 3rd St. 3 139 W. 3rd St. 3 540 W. 4th Ave. 3 698 E. 8th St. 3 633 Hazel St. 3 604 Ivy St. 3 1224 Ivy St. 3 682 W. 3rd St. 4 718 W. 6th St. 4 1427 Hobart St. 4 606 Cherry St. #1 5 719 W. 6th St. 5 1205 Warner St. 5 1600 Arcadian 6
Rent 900 775 750 850 675 875 1000 925 650 800 850 975 875 1200 1250 1200 1150 1400 1300 900 1900 1800 1050 1900 1800 1650 1350
Deposit 1000 875 850 950 775 975 1100 1025 750 900 950 1075 975 1300 1350 1300 1250 1500 1400 1000 2000 1900 1150 2000 1900 1750 1450