David Schmidt/Star Photo

As an undergraduate horticulture major, Jason Sanders discovered the value of composting.

He wanted to develop a post-consumer cafeteria composting project on campus that would also educate students on the importance of making Texas State a greener campus.

Sanders, along with Tina Marie Cade, associate professor in the department of agriculture, wrote and received a grant from the Environmental Service Committee for Bobcat Blend.

Facebook is a form of procrastination and amusement for students, professors and everyone in between. Users can keep in touch with friends and family, but with popularity comes the inevitable sell-out. In this case, Facebook has become one of the largest platforms for online marketing.

Strategically placed ads can be found on the sidebar of your profile. There is an entire ad page devoted to shoes, music and clothing. Another thing Facebook sells is friends. The Web site Usocial.net is selling Facebook friends and fans.

Texas State’s radio station, KTSW, has organized and conducted its own free promotional music festival for the past two years. The festival has been dubbed the name “MR.Fest,” which stands for My Radio Fest.

MR.Fest debuted in April 2008 at Lucy’s, now Bar One-41. Alternative rock group Sputnik Monroe came all the way from Los Angeles to headline the act, but before their set, the audience at Lucy’s eagerly witnessed music by Petals, Funkotron, Spank and Three Leaf. The festival proved to be a success, which persuaded KTSW to try to make this an annual event.

Two and a half hours of Nazi beating, vengeance plotting and Jew hunting madness is a perfect definition of Quentin Tarantino’s new World War II epic Inglourious Basterds.

Misspellings aside, this film is indeed satisfying, interweaving two separate revenge stories during World War II, and letting the audience view how most wish the war would have ended.

Some might think the Second World War motif may be old and tired, but Tarantino has decided to revamp the theme with one of the more violent and historically inaccurate portrayals known in recent cinema.

• Strolls through Purgatory — Prospect Park and Lower Purgatory Creek Park: The two-mile trail joins the parks that sit on a section of the Edwards Aquifer. It’s a greenspace with Juniper groves and fleeting wetlands, with an entrance at 1414 Prospect.

•  Canyon bluffs and beyond — Upper Purgatory Creek Park: The portion has a trail connecting Upper Purgatory to the creek from Lower Purgatory. Hikers will encounter upland meadows and canyon bluffs of 40-plus feet. The park is located on Franklin Street.

Call it what you will — the Mexican Bigfoot, Xolo, coyote or chupacabra — something strange turned up in Hill Country.

Lynn Butler brought the strange corpse of what some call a chupacabra into the Blanco Taxidermy School, after he found it lifeless outside his cousin’s barn. Butler, student of the taxidermy school, laid out poison in the barn, hoping to take care of whatever had been terrorizing his cousin’s chickens. He thought it to be a raccoon or possum, but instead found something out of Texas myth and legend.

Ben Rondeau/Star photo

Evan’s Auditorium hosted the seventh annual United We Sing, presented by the Heart of Texas Chorus and The Friends of Fine Arts and Communication in commemoration of Sept. 11.

Lindsey Goldstein/Star photo

Newton Gang’s Getaway is full of history and home cooking. After completing renovations, Newton’s opened Aug. 17.

Gary Moore, executive chef and co-owner, has been a part of the San Marcos restaurant scene for years.