Campus does not lack for interesting events and activities, many of which we only get a glimpse at while walking between classes. Keep an eye out for these quirky goings-on — rain or shine, students know how to keep themselves busy and entertained.

Humans Vs. Zombies

Fear not if you see students running around with large, brightly colored Nerf guns — these are merely hunters. What are they hunting? Zombies, of course. The University of Oregon’s Humans Versus Zombies game is serious business. Zombies run around with brightly colored bandanas on their heads, attempting to get at the humans, who wear their bandanas on their arms and defend themselves with a variety of Nerf pistols. Don’t be surprised to find Nerf ammo in the weirdest of places on campus.

Slacklining

What’s the point of having so many huge trees on campus if we can’t string up a rope between two of them and test our balance? Slacklingin is something you’ll definitely see whilst meandering campus, and the agility of the individuals participating will make you want to give it a try. With only about a yard to fall and fellow walkers to cheer you on, the benefits far outweigh the risks. Just be sure to get up and try again.

LARPing

Occasionally, a medieval war will break out on one of the UO lawns. Individuals with self-made armor, foam swords, intricately decorated shields and fierce battle cries might be sprinting toward each other in impassioned display, seeming to come right out of one of Tolkien’s fantasy novels. This is the Belegarth Medieval Combat Society, and they exist to recreate Dark Age battle conditions in an adrenaline-fueled, costumed game that’s much safer than its historical counterpart.

Protests

Welcome to your liberal arts university, where someone, somewhere is always protesting something — and that’s a good thing. Student organizations and individuals make sure to take advantage of the freedom to speak out against practices, institutions, organizations and traditions. Students will be sure to see protesters set up with signs, chants and resolute faces to speak their minds. In a constantly evolving world, students do their best to take part in facilitating progress and adding to the public discourse.

Holi, the festival of colors

Spring brings flowers, sun, warm weather and giant puffs of explosive color. That last one is thanks to the Hindu Festival of Colors, or Holi, put on by the Students of the Indian Subcontinent. To celebrate spring, students throw colorful powders and water at each other and into the air, creating a variable tornado of pastels, rendering the participants — most of whom wear white — unrecognizable at the end. The event is fun, chaotic and beautiful and brings to campus a rainbow burst of Indian culture.

DuckLife is the Emerald’s magazine for incoming freshmen, made available during IntroDucktion. This story has been reprinted from the magazine in its original form.

If places had attitudes, the University of Oregon amphitheater would be one emotional roller coaster ride. Here are just a few of the many different personalities you’ll find walking through the social center of campus.

The “Jesus Loves You” Guy

If ever you’re wondering if you’re loved, the Jesus Loves You guy is there every day to remind you. Dependably holding his religious signs, often accompanied by a dog and a similarly decked out “Jesus Loves You” bike, you can expect to find this familiar gentleman standing at his self-appointed post at the top of the amphitheater incline. Stop by and say hello or just keep walking — you can try again tomorrow.

The religious folks

Whereas Jesus Loves You man is quiet and peaceful, periodically there’s an extreme religious foil. Expect to see one or two Bible thumpers on crates in the amphitheater every year. You’ll be able to recognize them before you see them — they’ll be the ones yelling about your damnation. Keep an eye out for guys preaching the end of the world, too. They haven’t been right yet, but you never know.

A capella out the wazoo

If yelling isn’t your cup of tea, stick around: The various a Capella groups on campus use the amphitheater to perform. Check out On The Rocks, the all-male singing group, every Friday at 4 p.m. The all-female group Divisi and the co-ed group Mind the Gap perform Fridays starting at 3:45 p.m.

Strange things happen all the time

Sometimes the amphitheater is the site of some strange activities, and as popular culture evolves, so do the things drawing students to this social hub. The Duck’s “Harlem Shake” video, for instance, managed to test the sheer number of people able to fit in the amphitheater while still participating in a weird but fun Internet meme. Who knows what students will do next in their drive to stay on the cutting edge of bizarre new trends?

The Alliance of Happy Atheists

If you still don’t feel loved whilst walking through the amphitheater, the Alliance of Happy Atheists has your back. AHA is out with its signs periodically, confirming that, yes, atheists also love you. These friendly people are content to hold their signs and answer the questions of curious students about secularism, atheism and the non-religious minority.

DuckLife is the Emerald’s magazine for incoming freshmen, made available during IntroDucktion. This story has been reprinted from the magazine in its original form.

Television and film are often better time markers than years. “I don’t remember when that was,” you might say. “But it was the same year ‘Terminator 2’ came out.’” Our entertainment-preoccupied culture begs the question: what will define this academic year? What will we pinpoint when recalling Fall 2012 to Summer 2013 in a mass-media sense? You could simply say, “’Argo’ won best picture at the Oscars this year,’” but we mustn’t be afraid to think a little bigger.

Think, for instance, how this year changed the concept of Internet television. Thanks to Netflix, original series like “House of Cards” and “Hemlock Grove” were offered with all episodes available for streaming at once. Such practice separated out the binge watchers from the savoring ones. Viewers had to take a step back and reevaluate how to go about viewing their programs. By giving more control to the consumer, Netflix created a ripple throughout the episodic television world. What might happen to the traditional weekly viewer allowance of new episodes for future series?

Netflix also managed to delight an entire cult fanbase by providing a medium for the return of the cancelled sitcom “Arrested Development.” The rumors of a film, or perhaps a fourth season, had been rampant since the series’ untimely demise in 2006, but fans of cancelled shows know better than to honestly hope for results. The “Arrested Development” cast and crew defied all their skeptics, releasing 15 episodes — the entire fourth season — at midnight on May 26, 2013.

Film has seen its fair share of noteworthy events. Leonardo DiCaprio was once again denied an Oscar, despite a stellar performance as slave-owner Calvin Candie in “Django Unchained” (the year before, it was “J. Edgar”; the year before that, “Inception” and “Shutter Island”). Jennifer Lawrence exploded onto the Hollywood scene with her performances in “The Hunger Games” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” the latter of which won her the Best Actress Academy Award.

Will Smith had a chance to play Django in Quentin Tarentino’s Oscar-nominated film “Django Unchained,” but he turned it down because he felt Django’s character would be upstaged by Dr. King Schultz (played by Christoph Waltz, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal). He did, however, manage to make the M. Night Shyamalan post-apocalyptic film “After Earth,” with his own son as his co-star, but the film ended up flopping. Rolling Stone, in one of a wave of negative reviews for the film, called it “an unholy mess of platitudes and posturing that makes 90 minutes drag on like a life sentence.” Smith will probably bounce back, but 2013 might mark the end of the Shyamalan’s explosively short career. Same for Jaden Smith, whose lackluster performance was the core of many a film critic’s complaint.

This year’s current set of comedy actors has established itself. While years previous hark to such groups as Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller, or Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell, 2013 has a more indie-movie stoner feel to its “frat pack.” James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, Jason Segel and Danny McBride mark this year’s go-to comedy team. With “Spring Breakers,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Watch” all out within months of each other, the probably peak of this particular group of funny men will likely be “This is the End,” the comedy where these actors, playing themselves, attempt to survive in a world ending.

Ideas in the entertainment industry tend to repeat themselves incessantly, but every year manages to develop its own specific flavor. How you want to remember that flavor in the years to come is up to you — but it’s still one we can call our own.

Maybe next year, Mr. DiCaprio.

Summertime is movie time, and 2013 is no exception. Exciting films of every genre are popping up this summer, from the already released “Star Trek Into Darkness” and “The Great Gatsby” to upcoming blockbusters like “World War Z” and “Elysium.”

Unfortunately, for every intriguing film concept offered this season in cinemas, there are a plethora of films that may just be a waste of money. Here are some movies to skip this summer — or at least wait until they come out via Redbox.

Let’s start with the sequel that shouldn’t have been made. “The Smurfs 2” hits theaters July 31, and if it’s anything like the 2011 film, which the L.A. Times called “more 3-D disaster than family comedy,” this is a film to cross off the must-see list. The 2010 magical fantasy film “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” (isn’t that a mouthful?) managed to grab itself a sequel, coming out August 7, despite decapitating on-screen a rather delightful novel. If “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” is as inartistic with the second book of Rick Riordan’s series, no doubt this film is one to skip. Try the paperback version.

Fans of the two “Night at the Museum” comedies will want to check out director Shawn Levy’s most recent film, “The Internship.” However, those who appreciate less lazy comedy might be more inclined to skip the June 7 release of this film, starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as interns at Google competing with younger, more tech-savvy interns. Cue age-based jokes. Not exactly groundbreaking.

While on the topic of film scenarios that have been done to death, “2 Guns” forces two unlikely characters, a DEA agent and a Naval intelligence officer, to team up, but neither knows the other is an undercover agent. Think “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” without the romance aspect. Skip this August 2 movie if you’re tired of this overdone concept or just sick of seeing Mark Wahlberg play the same temperamental character in every movie.

For every overdone cliché offered by Hollywood this June, July and August, there’s an equal or greater number of movies that may strike your fancy. Keep an eye out, watch the previews and don’t limit yourself to what everyone else is seeing.

This year, Eugene will host the largest animation festival in the United States. The third annual Northwest Animation Festival is showing at the Bijou Art Cinemas this weekend in its first foray out of Portland.

Festival Director Sven Bonnichsen, who founded the festival in 2010, says that this year has been the festival’s most successful, garnering more submissions than in the past two years combined.

“It’s important to me to have this kind of scale because, if you look at festivals internationally, the best films get shown at all the festivals,” Bonnichsen said. “But there’s so many excellent films that need to get seen. You really have to have scale in order to make sure that up-and-comers get seen as well as the masters.”

The festival, which showed its 154 animated films in Portland earlier this month, will take place at the Bijou Arts Cinema this Friday through Sunday. Submissions were whittled down to the best from 628 submissions from around the world, featuring American films as well as animation from Germany, the UK, Japan and France. The festival includes an animated short from “Portlandia,” as well as a new film from “Adventure Time” creator Pendleton Ward. Oscar-nominated and winning shorts, such as Disney’s “Paperman” and PES’s “Fresh Guacamole,” will also be shown.

Bonnichsen, a Portland animator who specializes in constructing armatures for stop motion puppets, wanted to create a “world-class” festival, and the range of creativity in this year’s screenings beautifully showcase the expansive possibilities animation offers filmmakers. Some are even helping to redefine the concept of animation.

One such example is “Modern No.2,” a four-minute mesmerizing journey into music, color and rapidly-changing geometry. According to Bonnichsen this short, created by Mirai Mizue, is an example of the “new wave of Japanese abstract animation.”

Another, Mikey Please’s “The Eagleman Stag,” caught Bonnichsen’s eye with its paper craft animation and the main character’s obsession with the passage of his life.

“It is a film that, in eight minutes, packs in more ideas and more story than a lot of feature-length films,” Bonnichsen said. “It makes a really intriguing point about perception of time. It’s enormously clever and well-written.”

The festival begins Friday, May 31 at 7 p.m., continuing Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Afternoon tickets are $10, evenings are $15. A three-day pass is $50.

In what is arguably the most significant event in Internet television history, the cult-sitcom “Arrested Development” aired a new, 15-episode season on Sunday, more than seven years after its cancellation. The Bluth and Fünke families returned, an episode or two each dedicated to what the individual characters were up to in the aftermath of the show’s final television episode in 2006.

Those dedicated to the first three seasons remember the final episode as Michael Bluth vowing to leave his family and head to Cabo, Lucille attempting a sea escape to avoid felony charges after selling the Bluth company to Stan Sitwell, Lindsay discovering she was adopted, G.O.B. dating Ann, Annyong actually being the nefarious Hal-loht and Maeby trying to get signatures to sell her family’s movie rights to Ron Howard.

The new season begins five years after, finding Michael living in his son’s UC Irvine dorm room.

Because each episode focuses on the last five years of each character’s life (first episode is Michael, then George Sr., then Lindsay, then Michael again, Tobias, etc.), the actual storyline can get confusing. Plot is slow to emerge, as viewers only realize why G.O.B. showed up with a limo full of bees several episodes after we see said limo or why George Sr. walks into Michael’s office with a bag of nude magazines. Ron Howard (who is also a character on-screen for this season) isn’t as willing to explain to the audience what’s going on as he was last season, and his narration seems lacking in spots.

True, it’s funny television (or … Internet-vision, anyway), but it feels like the writing has lost its level of quick-paced, sharp-witted spark. The jokes aren’t as high quality — though, when one lands that’s on par with “Take a look at banner, Michael!” it almost feels like we’ve reached the pinnacle of comedy past again.

Along with a plethora of new characters, longtime fans will relish the return of Barry Zuckerkorn, Bob Loblaw (and his Law Bomb), Uncle Oscar, Kitty Sanchez, Lucille Two, Warden Stefan Gentles, Carl Weathers and news anchor John Beard, among many others.

I missed these characters, and season four of “Arrested Development” gives me the closure I never had. I enjoyed it immensely, and it was easy to tell the actors did as well. I didn’t expect this season to be like the previous three (one can’t strike gold twice), and while this set of episodes stands in the shadow of the previous 53, it holds its own.

Only one category of television allows for the natural progression from a black and white scene of containers spilling from a kitchen cabinet to a wide-smiling white lady nodding gleefully at a neatly packed stack of Tupperware. That category is the infomercial. And I love the infomercial.

If you’ve ever sat down with a bowl of popcorn that suddenly defies gravity and spilled on the floor or smelled a box of food that had wavy green lines floating from it or scrubbed fruitlessly at the walls of a bathtub only to throw your dilapidated sponge down in a fit of disgusted overreaction, you may be in an infomercial.

No one is innocent of the crime of sitting through an entire three-minute-long, late-night dash of infomercialism, and we’ve all stared at humans doing things that humans would never do just to think, “Damn, maybe I do need that aerodynamic space age technology clip for my open chip bags.” And we’re 18 or older now, so we can even call within the next 58 seconds and they’ll include a whole truckload of magic mops for FREE. Just pay additional shipping and handling.

The infomercial employs a more advanced manipulation technique than its more traditional daytime commercial counterparts. Because they’re longer, they can better illustrate the problem they’re creating (spoiler: the problem doesn’t exist) in order to sell you the product you don’t need. How many times have you been lying on the couch under a blanket and thought, “Man, if only this thing had sleeves for my arms so I could eat my cheesy fries!”? Zero times, but after five minutes of having Snuggies crammed down your throat, you’ll suddenly have phantom memories of taking a pair of scissors to your favorite fleece so you can be warm and eat pasta at the same time.

There’s a special kind of brilliance behind the infomercial, and if you can pinpoint the nonexistent problem it’s trying to convince you of, you can really sit back and enjoy the comedy.

“Star Trek Into Darkness” requires digesting. One cannot simply watch the film and — after appreciating its layers — go on living like a normal Trekkie immediately. I loved this film for several reasons — one, the nods to the Original Series were tasteful and not overbearing. Two, the film provided action, action and more action, not for a second resting long enough for viewers to remove their butts from the edge of their seats and un-grind their teeth — the suspense was constant and believable. And three, of course, the villain (or anti-hero, really) brought the film to a whole other level of awesome.

True, the film had its faults: Lovers of Dr. McCoy’s character will be disappointed as he was barely utilized. There’s a half-naked woman for no particular reason, the scene so gratuitous that it’ll knock down the fourth wall with how much it simply screams “pandering to investors!”

But, for its few let downs, allow Benedict Cumberbatch, of BBC’s “Sherlock” fame, to drag you back into the movie with his chilling, otherworldly portrayal of John Harrison, the film’s primary antagonist. Unlike the lazy black-and-white, good vs. evil plot lines provided by many action films today, Cumberbatch portrays a complex character, as sympathetic as he is terrifying. He’s no more “the bad guy” than he is “the good guy,” and not many actors can properly handle that level of characterization in an action sci-fi blockbuster, but Cumberbatch manages it with a darkly seductive voice and a graceful, hidden dangerousness. His performance reads much like a bomb about to go off.

Much less focused on romance than its prequel, “Into Darkness” also provides Zoe Saldana’s Uhura a more bad-ass role on the Starship Enterprise (though the “damsel in distress” baton is picked up by newcomer Alice Eve, who plays Dr. Carol Marcus.)

The film is complex and capable of being confusing if one doesn’t pay close attention (and having knowledge of the Original Series will clue you into twists quicker.)

In all, “Star Trek Into Darkness” was a more enjoyable watch than the 2009 “Star Trek.”

My grade: A

When Steven Kirby tries to impress the ladies, he opens with the following: “I’m the third funniest guy in the state of Oregon.” The response he typically gets? “Are the first two single?”

But don’t feel bad for the political science and planning, public policy and management major. The 20-year-old took third place at Oregon’s Last Comedian Standing competition last month, winning $500 and $1,500 in prizes. He was one of three students that made it into the competition’s semifinals in its first year in Eugene.

Kirby, who likens his style to that of comedian and comedy writer John Mulaney, got his first taste for stand-up comedy last summer in a Washington, D.C., bar.

“It’s always something I’ve been fascinated by and something that I’ve always wanted to do,” Kirby said. “Whenever I was home sick in elementary and middle school, I’d always watch the daytime Comedy Central Presents. I’ve always loved public speaking and making people laugh.”

Kirby’s comedic style is observational. He finds himself typing half-formed ideas into his phone throughout the day, heading home later to write it out into a coherent bit he can use onstage.

“Once I get up there, it’s game time,” Kirby said. “If you’re not nervous before every set, you’re doing it wrong. Once I get up on stage, I’m really calm.”

Despite his talent, Kirby isn’t looking to make comedy his primary career. That’s not the same for all of University of Oregon’s student comedians.

Sophomore Joe Glasgow, one of the semifinalists at Last Comic Standing, is seeking a profession in comedy. Glasgow won second place at this year’s 18th Annual Eugene Laff Off competition and has been doing stand-up for a year and a half. His first stage performance came after taking a stand-up comedy class at Lane Community College with UO professor Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant when he told jokes to the winter term graduating class. Since then, Glasgow estimates he’s been on stage about 30 times.

“I prioritize comedy over schoolwork,” Glasgow admitted. “It’s what I love to do.”

Last year, Glasgow and fellow funny-guys Brandt Hamilton and Ben Schorr started The Stand-Up Society, a group of aspiring student comedians who meet weekly at Glasgow’s house to throw out jokes and critique each other’s form.

“It forces me to write,” said Glasgow. “We try to do a certain amount of minutes of material every week. It’s hard for a lot of people, with school, to do that, but I like having the pressure of always having to have jokes ready.”

Many Stand-Up Society members perform weekly at The Green Room’s open mic, one of the few options in Eugene available to aspiring comedians under 21 years of age.

“I get so nervous up until I get on stage,” Glasgow said. “Then there’s this sudden stop of the butterflies. It feels great. Once you get the first laugh, you’re in the clear, as far as I’m concerned.”

In addition, Glasgow, who started writing comedy movie scripts in high school, recently started a YouTube channel for original comedy sketches called “Giggle-Spot Productions.”

He will be postponing his work toward an advertising and cinema studies major by taking the upcoming fall term off to move to the California Bay Area and try to make it big, honing his talent at open-mic events and in comedy clubs.

“If I’m completely away from school and fully immerse myself in stand-up, I can do however much (comedy work) I do in a week in a day,” Glasgow said. “Doing one open mic a week is not a good way to practice. Doing a couple every night is ideal.”

Glasgow doesn’t expect to make any money while he’s there (he’ll be staying with friends), but building his comedy skill-set and reputation is more important at this point for him. Glasgow says his family fully supports his goals.

“If it goes well enough, I might not come back for a whole year,” he said. As it stands now, Glasgow spends about two hours a week writing comedy, not including the work he puts into his YouTube channel. His jokes reside in texts he sends to himself, unorganized scraps of paper and bullet points on a Word document.

“I like to keep it upbeat,” Glasgow said of his material. He likens his style to that of comedian and actor Nick Swardson. “It seems like all stand-up comedians, especially amateur ones, are always mad about something,” Glasgow said. “It’s funny, but that’s not always what people want to hear about.”

Unlike Glasgow, fellow Stand-Up Society member Halden Hoodenpyl has a more frustrated style of comedy.

“I’ve always been an attention-grabber,” Hoodenpyl said. “I remember in high school, during lunch, I’d always be on top of the bleachers, ranting about my day to my friends.”

The Stand-Up Society, along with Hoodenpyl’s natural inclination to amuse a crowd, finally got the senior cinema studies major up on stage for the first time three months ago. While working on a short documentary about Glasgow, Hoodenpyl went with him to The Green Room one Thursday and decided at the last minute to sign up for an open-mic spot.

“I didn’t have anything prepared,” Hoodenpyl said. “While I was sitting there waiting, I tried to write a couple of jokes really fast.” The several minutes he spent on stage that night are a vague memory to Hoodenpyl.

“I remember walking away thinking, ‘This is something I can do,’” he recalled. “The couple laughs I got felt so good. It was like, ‘When can I do this again?’” The next week saw Hoodenpyl performing at The Green Room again.

Hoodenpyl draws comedic inspiration from conversations with friends and his personal life struggles. He shares a similar style to that of comedian Louis C.K., telling true stories with exaggerated features.

“When you’re just being yourself up there and people laugh, that feels so good,” Hoodenpyl said. “People are laughing at something that’s genuinely you. You can arrange words in a way that is funny, but if it’s more you, that’s going to be more satisfying. It’s a bigger risk, and it’s more of a reward.”

And at times, Hoodenpyl takes an even bigger risk — he’ll sometimes go up on stage with no material written at all beforehand.

While this method works for Hoodenpyl, many aspiring comedians will find that writing is most of the battle.

Jasheway-Bryant, a 20-year veteran of professional stand-up comedy, encourages comedians just starting out to garner at least 30 minutes of solid material. But simply having a half hour of jokes isn’t enough to succeed on the cut-throat comedy circuit.

“You have to think of something that allows you to be unique,” she said. “The most important thing is to be yourself, but be an exaggeration of yourself. That’s what makes people remember you.”

Student comedians are in the process of forming their unique styles, and their performances are still rough around the edges, but that doesn’t have to be a negative. Jasheway-Bryant encourages young comedians to “play to your quirks. Don’t ignore them.”

These three student comedians, along with many others in The Stand-Up Society, will be performing with all their quirks on Tuesday, May 21 at 8 p.m. in the EMU’s Ben Linder Room for fellow UO students.

“It’s going to be really fun,” said Glasgow. Though he warns, “If you’re easily offended, you should rethink going.”

Computer science major Alexander Stein’s favorite movie is “WALL-E.” Senior science major JoAnna Wendel’s favorite movie is “Aladdin.” Junior Julia Rogers prefers “Megamind.” The trend? Sometimes, college students enjoy movies a bit outside their demographic.

The college student demographic is one used often in films to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. Films from “Animal House” to “21 & Over” take advantage of the college student stereotype to appeal to both the demographic it portrays as well as those that have left college behind. But, like many of the stereotypes Hollywood depends on, it’s not completely accurate.

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, 18-24 year olds go to the movies more frequently per capita than any other age group, making films that appeal to them more profitable. While movies that promote the college-goer as a drinking, sex-addicted, vapid prankster (Bartleby from “Accepted” or anyone from “American Pie”) are fun to watch and appeal to the “trashy television” lover in all of us, the college student’s film palate is much more complex.

The journalism and cinema studies programs offered a course this term called “Understanding Disney,” and the course is not nearly as random as it might seem in a university curriculum.

“We are looking at Disney as a whole company, not just looking at the films,” said cinema studies student Lindsay Montague. “We are analyzing the subsidiaries like ESPN and ABC, also looking at the merchandise, parks and resorts.

“Right now we are looking at the films in terms of race and gender.”

The class recently live tweeted while watching “The Little Mermaid,” discussing its storyline and more subtle messages.

Despite being legal adults, many college students appreciate the characters, morals and hidden jokes of films aimed at children. At the same time, re-watching films they grew up with allow them to catch the less-obvious layers of complex storylines, as well as bringing them back to fond memories.

“I’ve been studying Disney for a while,” Montague said. “I try to incorporate it in any of my cinema classes. So I’m very much aware of all the flaws throughout the history of Disney, but I still love it.”