Damon Hartley speaks and acts with conviction, certainty and a rightfully earned dose of pride. He understands what hard work means and knows that preparation is the greatest foundation for success. Hartley knows all this because until this May, he was an inmate at the Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC) in Pacific, Mo.

The Arcs’ debut album, “Yours, Dreamily” was originally intended to be a Dan Auerbach solo record. It would have been his first since 2009’s “Keep it Hid,” the album that caused many hurt feelings between Auerbach and his Black Keys bandmate Patrick Carney. But after surrounding himself with a rich group of musical friends including Menahan Street Band’s Leon Michels, The Black Keys’ touring player Richard Swift and the all-female mariachi band Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Auerbach’s project naturally became a more collaborative effort.

After years of uncertainty, Rubelmann Hall is gone. While decades of students mourn the loss of the archetypal “traditional,” the shiny new Ruby promises more space to keep underclassmen on the South 40 and boasts a to-be-decided storefront.

“Louie” is hitting middle age. Season five of comedian Louis C.K.’s television opus premiered last week, and the second episode will air tonight. It’s striking just how much the show has gone through in its five years since turning the autobiographical sitcom on its head.

But the moment at hand, the real reason for all the hype, is Barnett’s first full-length LP, “Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit.” The girl can write a self-deprecating rock ’n’ roll song like no one else, as she proves with the album’s lead single “Pedestrian at Best.”

“I already know what I want,” Wrighton says as we open our menus at a nearby Steak ’n Shake. This is not just any Steak ’n Shake, however. It’s the one located on Manchester Avenue, where the waitress knows his name and asks as soon as he sits down whether he’ll be having regular or Diet Coke today.

Sometimes, you have to take the road less traveled. Sometimes, you have to look yourself in the mirror and know you took a risk. These are lessons I’ve learned from Dodge truck and Wells Fargo commercials, respectively. I try to apply them in my everyday life whenever possible.

Now, we may not be getting “30 Rock” back (we can only dream), but Fey and fellow co-creator Robert Carlock have gifted us with what looks like a promising new series, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” which premieres March 6 on Netflix. Hope you didn’t have any big spring break plans.

We as a human race may never truly know what it is like to be inside a football being hurled down the field by Bart Starr or the putter of Jack Nicklaus as he taps the ball down the green. Most of us will never even know the feeling of being inside a bag of popcorn as the kernels explode. Luckily, Mr. Wash. U. and Relay for Life made the feeling of being inside a bowling ball accessible to all.

There’s still hope out there for all the comedically inclined psychology majors at Washington University. Sara Taksler, a 2001 graduate and psychology major, is a senior producer at “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and the director of the upcoming documentary “Tickling Giants.”