STORM CLOUDS BREWING?: One student I interviewed this week, when asked if she was staying dry, responded jokingly, "Well, I'm not drinking." But many are in Fairfield, say town residents, who are concerned with the noise level and rowdiness of students in the beach area of Fairfield this year (link). This has been a scuffle for years. In 2001 an injunction was passed down days before students had their annual Clam Jam event, banning gatherings of more than 200 students at the point. While some events, such as Keg Races, lingered a few years after that, no major beach parties, whether sanctioned or unsanctioned, have happened in recent memory. Town residents seemed comfortable with the calming of the town-gown conflict in recent years, but recently concern has risen over whether this year's group of beach residents, along with students who head down to the beach to see their friends, has gotten worse, and one resident reported that party nights seem to be expanding into every night of the week. Still, it's already October, and the beach tends to quiet down more once the temperatures start getting colder - more than one beach house was known to be less than comfortable when lows were hitting single digits last year.

USE YOUR HEAD(SET): Are local college-goers obeying the new headset law? Southern News did a little research, and it doesn't seem that way (link). However, many don't seem to think it'll help much. Students may want to consider the fact though that a $30 headset will help avoid a ticket of $100 or more, depending on driving conditions and whether it's a construction zone or not.

SEX!: Southern News also took a look at the continuing problem of STDs (link). College students are most at risk, as far as the rates of spreading are concerned, and much of that is attributed to unsafe behavior spurned on by drinking and drugs.

VIOLENCE!: Another fun pasttime, video games, was looked at by the Sacred Heart Spectrum (link). Dopamine apparently is produced when video games are played, and video game addiction is an issue some are concerned with. Yale's Daily News looked at this topic from another aspect: the addiction of Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Games (greatfully abbreviated these days down to MMRPGs) (link). Maybe that's why I can't get enough Ms. Pac-Man, but Yale's article is pretty tounge-in-cheek - look no further than the headline: "Super-nerds score on Web".

Speaking of the Web, coming up here soon I'll have some notes on the social networking sites of choice for college students, the ins and outs of them, and the pitfalls to be wary of.

What's the buzz on your campus? E-mail Josh at thebuzz@ctpost.com