Hi,

How was your break? Mine sucked, thanks. Wait, you asked just now, no? Yeah, it sucked, man. I did have a little bit of fun every now and then, though. I wore a lot of sweaters and took runs through the Heights past midnight listening to Ween on my fake iPod while clutching a pocketknife, cautious of every turn I took through the back alleys of Buffalo. One night I fell asleep at the Colonie Lounge and woke up smelling like brass polish and melon liqueur—I should probably grow up at some point, don’t you think?

So, yeah, I guess it wasn’t that bad. I really shouldn’t complain—nobody wants to hear that. Since around the second week of December I’ve been figuratively counting down the days to the new semester, anxiously awaiting some sort of adventure to encompass my otherwise dreary day-by-day ritual of sleeping in until noon and drinking week-old wine out of the bottle from my air mattress on Custer Street. Give me two weeks, and I’ll be craving it again. I bet you.

And now, well, here we are. Welcome back, and I hope you are ready for a whole lot of fun in 2009. That Obama guy won so that should be pretty cool, huh? Winter is halfway done and the summer is just around the corner. What are you guys up to?

We have a whole lot of new stuff going on around here at Generation. We lost a few kids (some graduated, some quit, and some are still held in Beijing as a result of a failed opium transaction), switched around a few new positions (look at Michelle climb that masthead! Rawr!) and even tinkered with Pulse a little bit. Go ahead, see what we did. This year actually marks the 25th anniversary of this delightful little publication. We have a whole bunch of people to thank, but, most of all, we have to thank you, the UB community, who continues to read our filth, question our sources, and send us unwanted, unreadable, intangible personals on a daily basis. A quarter-century—can you believe it? It was seven years ago that I was a chubby 15 year old reading shitty album reviews in Pulse at Amy’s Place with mommy, and now here I am, completely jaded at only 22-years-young, still out of shape, and this time I’m writing and editing them. What a beautiful cycle this has been.

In actuality, I’m a bit sad that my stint as editor in chief is already half way over, but the optimistic little boy in me is eager to kick this semester off with a fresh start and preach to the masses for a couple of months. It’s going to take a few more of us, though. That’s where you come in.

Generation will be holding informational meetings for those interested in joining our staff on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday this week at around six p.m. in room 315 of the Student Union—it’s the room with all of the good looking people in it that smells strangely of leftover Chinese. If you are looking to write some words, shoot some photos, draw some pictures, or sell some ads for the best damn publication at UB, by all means, stop by. We were all the new kid at some point, so don’t be scared. You want to have a good time with us, don’t you?

For the handful of you just starting at UB, please take a gander at this here rag and direct all criticisms and correspondence to the e-mail address listed to the right somewhere. Let us know what we screwed up and how to make it better. Also, bring cake. New guys gotta bring us cake. It’s a hazing sort of thing.

Well, um, there you go. When this hits the stands Monday afternoon I will be somewhere in Washington D.C., probably accidently inciting a riot or mistakingly urinating on a national monument while doing a real crack up job at reporting from the inauguration. When I return, I hope I see a ton of your smiling faces ready to work hard at making a better Generation and a better UB with me. Have a nice year, and I’ll talk to you all real soon. Nader in 2012.