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Show 04.19.2010 Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival 2010 exciting highlight will be The Old Culture writer Dutch Store of Thanksgiving Point Salt Lake City, Gardens welcomes spring where guests can 2010 with its annual shop for Dutch Tulip Festival, which will trinkets and disbe featuring more than cover more about 250,000 tulips in 100 Dutch cultural unique varieties spread heritage." over 55 acres. Tulips and Artwork from daffodils will be the main local artist Sarah beauties'on display, with Samuelson will other early spring flowers be on display and in 15 differently-themed will feature tulips areas redesigned just this from the Thanksyear. giving Point These beautiful floral Gardens. Samudisplays can be seen from elson, a Fine Arts 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 16 graduate of BYU through May 1, except on , and a former Sundays. UVU art teacher, The festival will has been painting feature Dutch Day at the and drawing since " Gardens on April 24. she was a child Festivities will include and enjoys sharing booths, music, food, a tra- the beauties of ditional costume contest nature through her and children's activities. artwork. Musical performances In addition will include an accordion to the colorful trio and Idtewild Quartet. blooms, Thanks"The highlight of the giving Point's festival will be April 24, Tulip Festival > Dutch Day, a cultural includes events such as '•' celebration which will guided tours and live muhelp guests discover more sic, and features an array about the Dutch culture of vendors ranging from by participating in the Nature's Stone Jewelry painting of Dutch shoes, and Scentsy Wickless making hats and learning Candles to Best Fry Bread why tulips are a reason for and Navajo Tacos. For a celebration," said Erica full listing of events and Brown, director of comvendors as well as further munications at Thanksinformation, visit www. giving Point. "Another ThanksgivingPoint.com culture One night of mayhem Culture writer •HEATHER A. TURLEY Community members have the opportunity to experience lanvish gardens right her in Utah, at Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival The Anime Club's Video Game Night offered its attendees, for the reasonable cover charge of 2 dollars, a coupon for a free six-inch sub from Red Deli, a carbineer/LED flashlight/ compass key chain from RCWilleyandbestofall, four hours of gaming joy. The incredible thing about the video game night was that the club's sponsorfor the event, who was going to provide the games and the consoles, pulled stockxchang.com out two hours prior to the UVU students enjoyed a night filled with video games, event's start. Which left from classics like "Duck Hunt" to newer, popular games the Anime Club in quite like "Halo 3." a predicament, having to put this score in context, the ment began. The game play quickly find consoles, TVs, fourth-highest score ever was fierce and at the end of and games for their event. is 267,100 according to the the night Bryan Bothwell These items ended up being Twin Galaxies Web site. was crowned the victor. He primarily provided by the The next tournament received a $50 gift card to club members and club was "Super Smash BrothPlay and Trade, as well as advisor. ers Brawl" for the Nina copy of "Gears of War." This aside, no one would tendo Wii. There were Bryan dedicated his vichave ever been able to tell more people playing in this tory to Marcie Neilson his that the event was pulled tournament than in any inspiring nance~e. together in two short hours. other tournament during the Due to the success of The event's tournaments event. After a few intense this event the Anime Club ran smoothly and the difrounds and a well-viewed is talking about changing ferent consoles were rarely final, the winner was Kip the frequency of the Video left unattended. The players Riche. His victory marked Game Night from once a were always willing to the only time the whole year to once a semester. So trade off playing time and night that there was apthe next time you have the even welcomed inexperiplause for the winner of one urge to play games for four enced players. of the tournaments. hours and want to hear the The first of the three The last tournament of sounds of explosions and tournaments was the origithe night was in "Halo 3." various bleeps and bloops, nal Nintendo game, "Duck Surprisingly, there were keep the Anime Club's Hunt." The competition was fewer competitors than Video Game Night in mind. thrilling and in the end Joe expected with some dropPetersen was the winner, ping out before the tournawith a score of 212,800. To ^Starcraft II" is up and coming gay at BYU -How best to get your game on this summer Come one, come all: UVU offers institutional refuge for any sexual stockxcnBng.com One future UVU student found it difficult to feel comfortable in his own skin at BYU and is looking forward to having his gender identity acknowledged. .> LANDREW LORD; Culture writer image ROB STEFFEN/UVUReview WSTEFFEN .1 Video Producer "Hell, it's about time!" This is the vocal response you get when ordering a marine to move or attack in Blizzard's newest game, "Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty." And he's right; it is about time. The original Starcraft was released in 1998, \^th an expansion, "Brood War," arriving later that year. These games made record sales in their time and since, totaling nearly 10 million copies sold by 2007. But despite its massive popularity, a fullfledged sequel has never materialized. Until now. Like the previous entries in the series, "Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty" is a Real-Time Strategy game. In "Starcraft II," you take control of an army from one of three factions: the human Terrans, the techno-alien Protoss or the insectlike Zerg. Each faction has unique buildings and units, which ' -alloy the player the use ;w 1 of different strategies for building an army. You then use this army to attack, and hopefully crush, your opponent. The early version of the game available now is a beta test of the multiplayer component over Blizzard's matchmaking service www.battle.net. In the beta, you can battle against other human players, or practice playing the game against a computer opponent. However, the only difficulty option for the computer opponent at this time is Very Easy (which poses a challenge on par with melting butter in a toaster oven), so Blizzard is clearly encouraging beta participants to spend their time online in matches against other human players. Let me be very clear here: Though the graphics are running in a new, pretty 3D engine, this game is very much like the previous "Starcraft." The basics of building your base .economy up by harvest- ing resources, that's the same. The maximum unit count is the same. Many of the units are the same, or similar to previous incarnations. Players of the first game will feel right at home in terms of the structure of a match. Where the game differs is in the particulars. For example, resources are harvested in multiples of 5, not 8. This may not sound like a big deal, but I for one had a much easier time keeping track of, and predicting, my mineral flow from just this one change. Also, familiar units have some new — and welcome — upgrades. Terran Marines now get to research a shield upgrade that increases their HP. "Starcraft II" seems like the sum of a million such minor tweaks, and the results in this beta make for intense action.* Due out this summer, "Starcraft II" is poised for a triumphant return. Having chosen to attend one of the only schools that would never accept him or his lifestyle^ BYU freshman Neil Murray used to walk the hallways in constant fear that his peers would see him for what he really is. "You're just so fearful; you hate yourself to begin with, because you're still not OK with yourself ... it's so stressful," he said. The part of him that would never be accepted by his fellow students wasn't anger issues or a drug addiction. Murray's alleged wrongdoing was his homosexuality. Murray admits that his biggest fear was not his actions, but rather being discovered and getting kicked out of school, considering the stance of the church-owned university on homosexuality. However, that did not make it easy for Murray, who had a strong religious background which centered around traditional family values. "It was hard for me to date guys and be OK with it. It definitely was [an inner struggle] because my parents were so against it," Murray said- '. The Murray family is not one to practice the teachings of their church exclusively on Sundays — they are devout, which made the announcement all the more shocking. "I don't know how many people have seen their mother in the fetal position, rocking back-and forth in tears, praying out loud to God," Murray said of his coming-out moment. "It is horrifying and awful ... you don't know what to say." Despite Murray's homosexuality, his parents still pushed him to give BYU a chance, hoping it would help him in more ways than providing him an education. However, contrary to his preconceived notions about the LDS school, Murray quickly discovered he wasn't the only one in his situation. "I went to BYU and met lots and lots and lots of gay boys. I met hundreds of gay boys, and that can't be all of them," Murray said. He began attending 'gay game night' held every last Wednesday of the month at a hushed location called "the tight end." These regular activities led to more than just game nights on campus and he was soon fully participating in relations he had never considered possible at an LDS school. / "The stuff I got away with at BYU was ridiculous," Murray said. "I was on the bottom floor of my complex, so people came in and out through my window without anyone knowing they were in there. It was easy to get away with." ' As time went on, he came to realize that it wasn't just a bunch of people trying to be rid of their lifestyles, but they were a thriving underground community. "It's definitely one of the more closely-knit gay communities that I know, just because it's bound by this fear and by this [fact]: We have something?}*': common that we cannot share with the world,'* ' ; Murray said. "This is!:: where we're safe.? J I-"' * Despite these feel*'*.;.; ings of acceptance by the underground gay community and the fact that his parents had groomed him to attend BYU throughout his whole life, Murray no longer wanted to live a double life filled with fear and anxiety. "I made the decision? to transfer to UVU and $> .cannot tell you how muc}i ^ happier I am with the decision," Murray said. |