Become the Next Board Game Master of Provo

We recently found a nice little secret just off campus. There is a game shop near BYU campus that offers some nice rewards for coming and competing in some of their competitions. Sanctuary Games, which is located between Sam's Club and K-Mart, holds multiple competitions a month and offers prizes up to $20 gift certificates.

They have table-top game competitions, model painting competitions, and card game competitions. They also have a on-going competition where Dave and Josh (the owners) will compete against you and one of your friends playing Dawn of War on the networked computers that they have there. If you beat them, you will win 100 hours of free computer time.

They also boast that they have the largest playing area of any other game store in the valley.

Nuclear waste on campus

The BYU physics department had a nuclear reactor used for research.  It supposedly wasn't large, just enough to power a light bulb.  They took the waste from the reactor and stored it in a shed on the south side of campus.

Is this dangerous?

There isn't much waste.  It is all stored in a single 50 gallon barrel.  It has been rumored that there is so little waste that if someone were to go down by the shed with a Geiger counter, no trace of the radiation would be detected.  So no worries, it won't hurt you.  Just another BYU secret.

Best Map of BYU Campus

There are a lot of Campus Maps out there, and some are better than others. We found that the BYU web team has put a lot of work into map.byu.edu and we wanted to congratulate a job well done.  It's an interactive google map with pictures and everything.  Go check it out!

Tunnels under BYU Campus

We've all heard the rumors about mysterious caverns hidden around campus.  Are they there for protection in case of a nuclear holocaust?  Perhaps they are designed to allow campus personnel to travel great distances with little hassle?  Or maybe they have some other, more sinister purpose.  This seemed exactly the type of thing Y Secrets should be reporting on.

We found some good news and some bad news.  The good news is there really are tunnels.  The bad news is they are used mainly for pipes, wires, and other basic utilities- and students are not allowed down.

Si Min investigated the matter further, and this is what he found:

"First, BYU relies on steam and hot water for its entire heating system. Well over 100 buildings are heated from one central building (the Phys Plant) whose smoke stack is noticeable from quite a distance. These pipes run through tunnels which run under the sidewalks on campus. This explains why BYU is the only place in Utah County which has very few cracks in the sidewalks. The heat from the pipes keeps the sidewalks from freezing in the winter. This in turn attracts the skateboarders and rollerbladers who are forbidden from campus.

The real problem with getting down and exploring these tunnels is that they are still in use today and the campus police are serious about keeping people out. Rumours still persists of people who have figured out how to get down there, but no one knows anybody personally."

So it would seem that our mystery is solved, but is this information too convenient to be the truth?  We will leave that for our readers to decide.

Find a good place to Eat Out

If you are like me, then you have a few places where you always go out to eat.  Do you want to break out of the routine?  Yelp.com can help.   Yelp is a location-based social review site.  Thousands of people with profiles have written reviews for tons of locations.  Results can be filtered by price, rating, category, or distance.  For example, a search for restaurants near Provo, UT returned 292 possibilities.

If you consider yourself a connoisseur of the local scene,  just make a profile and you will have an instant fan-base.  Yelp makes your reviews instant and accessible.

The other great thing about Yelp is its mobility.  The site is simple enough that it will work on most mobile browsers, and they have a great app for the iPhone.

So give yourself a break, and yelp for something new.

Cheap Eats on BYU Campus - Look to the Vending Machines

Reader Gianna gave us a tip in regards to going on the cheap when it comes to eating on BYU campus.

"For a quick and cheap lunch, the McKay building vending machines sell Cup of Soup/Instant Lunch for 80 cents. They charge $2.00 for the same thing in the JFSB!"

Grab a cup and enjoy a cheap lunch. The prices of nearly all foods on BYU campus have increased the past year. It's nice to see that the vending machines are remaining fairly consistent.

Music to Your Ears - Test Taking Tips

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It's midterm time at BYU. Most classes will send you to the dreaded dungeon known as the testing center to take your tests. Give yourself a break and try out the music room in the testing center. It's generally not as crowded and is above the regular testing area. Solve complex math problems, figure out the English language, and be a bubble filling master while listening to Mozart.  Studies have shown that listening to classical music aids focus and concentration. It also muffles the sound generated from those really annoying people that sniffle, scratch, or do other crazy things in the testing center.

How do you get there?  Just walk out the door after you get your test, turn left, go to the end of the room, and go up the stairs. Anyone working there can help you find this little gem.

Get Free stuff for Voting!

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In case you haven't been paying attention, tomorrow is election day. And you all know what that means:  Free stuff from businesses jumping on the patriotic bandwagon.  What sort of free stuff you ask?  Here's some of what we've found:

• Krispy Kremes will give a free star shaped donut with sprinkles (as shown to the left) to any one displaying a "I Voted" Sticker.
• Ben and Jerry's will give a free scoop to anyone, regardless of whether you voted or not. (But the nearest location is in SLC)

I'm sure there are a bunch more, but these are the most advertised.  If you know of some more good ones, let us all know in the comments section.