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EDITORIAL: Pay attention. This is the editorial.

So, chances are you’ve begun settling in to your semester routine by now – hopefully one filled with good, productive habits. If that’s not the case by now, perhaps you need to evaluate a few things. We’re here for you.

Because we care about the well being our readers, we have compiled a brief list of current distractions to avoid at the moment, as they will surely only distract from your duties as an industrious member of the UNLV community. In the interest of fairness, however, we intend on present a list of acceptable distractions in our next issue.

Social networking “apps” – Those of you that take part in sites like Facebook may have noticed a recurring trend on your feeds lately, informing you of what your colleagues have accomplished in timewasters such as “Mafia Wars,” “Bouncing Balls” and the most unholy offender of Internet intrusion – “FarmVille.” No longer relegated to your invitation inbox, these things pop up every time a friend has shipped some “goods,” beaten a previous high score or milked a cow.

“The Beatles: Rock Band” – This latest entry in the “Rock Band” franchise is particularly different from the slew of rhythm-based video games that have been coming out for the past several years because it might appeal to an older generation. That means you might be pressured by even more friends, family and other “loved ones” to participate in this.

We’ll admit, some of us have been bitten by the bug, losing a few hours of sleep a week over some good tunes and gorgeous visuals – we won’t spoil the ending for you, but it turns out what happens to The Beatles is a doozy.

Your fancy cell phone – Three e-mail accounts. Four instant messengers. Microsoft Office. Two social networking services. A calendar. A Web browser. A to-do list. Two Internet radio services and an mp3 player. And that’s just one of the plethora of phone models you frequently see out there. These things blink and vibrate in class and keep our minds elsewhere as we bump into others throughout campus (because we weren’t looking ahead.)

Today’s feature-laden cell phones do nothing but kill our attention span and [sentence to be completed at a later date.]

Fantasy football – This has even reared its ugly head in the very newsroom in which this newspaper is produced.

Perhaps Jorge is bitter that his team, “Damage, Inc.,” got about 27 points in fantasy football last season. In total.

So stop wondering if Darren Sproles will be a better pickup than LT and focus on the fantasy job market.

This season of America’s Next Top Model/Gossip Girl/The Office/ SYTYCD/True Blood/TV in general – Tyra Banks will be loud and possibly crazy. Blair will continue to be emotionally insecure. Jim and Pam will have their relationship highs and lows. Bill will still be overly possessive of Sookie.

You won’t miss anything.

We’re trying our best to avoid these and similar habits and we hope you will too. Stay tuned for the list of things we have to admit are just too awesome to miss in favor of things like studying, coming Monday.