The only way to test your knowledge of what you have learned is to put that knowledge into action. The classroom can only do so much, and that is what the last CSUN theater production of the semester demonstrated. Professionals and professors have directed past plays but now it was up to the students of the CSUN theater department.

A useful trick to not go crazy when dealing with all that college brings is to take a step back from all the madness of being a college student and immerse yourself in how it felt to be a kid. That is what the play "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" allowed me to do for an hour on Sunday afternoon.

The doors to the Northridge Center were opened at 7 p.m. on Thursday. A crowd of students stood in line with their tickets for a night of entertainment and good laughs. The stage was cleared and four microphones stood at ground level directly in front of the stage, which was decorated with 93.

The Merry Wives of Windsor," playing for the first time at Cal State Northridge last weekend, was captivating, especially when one has an appreciation of what goes on backstage. "The Merry Wives of Windsor" is an original Shakespeare play. The version performed at CSUN is an altered work by Carl Otto Nicolai, which consists of a comic opera in two acts.

CSUN student Richard "Magic Rich" Serrano died Feb. 20 at his home in Panorama City. Serrano, 22, was found dead as a result of suicide. "I can honestly say that he lived his life to the fullest, not like many of us that lets the days pass, taking them for granted," Serrano's younger sister Lilyana Serrano said.

Never judge a book by its cover. Such a popular saying but how many of us really believe it? I can't tell you how many times people pass judgments about other people, before they can even say a word, just by the way they are dressed. By letting a person's clothes speak for them without even getting to know a person could mean that you are misjudging them.

The latest hot topic surrounding race relations in America involves comedian Michael Richards and the racial statements he directed to two black men in the audience at the Laugh Factory during a stand up performance. On Sunday, Nov. 19, while he was performing a stand up routine, two black men heckled Richards during his performance and Richards retaliated by directing racial slurs toward them, which included repeated use of the N-word.

When I was preparing to go to college people told me that it was not a popularity contest like it was in high school. College is supposed to be free from the popularity rulebook. I have been here for four years and the more I am here, the more I see cliques forming in college.

Scientists who have a thirst for knowledge and a better understanding of biodiversity are doing studies all over the world. Biodiversity is the variability of living organisms on earth, including the variability within and between species and the ecosystem.

In Los Angeles, education is an important issue. In the next election, the residents of Los Angeles will be voting for new board members for the Los Angeles School District Board of Education. One of those people campaigning for a position on the board is Louis Pugliese.

Sleep is a necessity that people tend to take for granted and don't get enough of, especially college students. With schedules filled with work, school, volunteering, internships, relationships and social lives, who has time for sleep? Well that is the question that many students are contemplating with and the simplest solution to that question is to reduce the amount of sleep to get everything accomplished.

The popularity of coffee has grown among college students and is still multiplying. The National Coffee Association reported in their 2006 survey that 70 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds consume coffee in the morning. College students continue to drink more and more coffee every year.