Guide To College

Drink Responsibly

2007-12-03T16:35:00.000-05:00

"I'm not an alcoholic, I just enjoy the occasional 15 shots." These are the famous words of one of my good friends.

He is an avid drinker.

Now drinking is a big deal in college. There's a really good chance your going to come across opportunities to drink wherever you go. If not your first year, then definitely at some point. And if you go through college without ever being offered a drink, you really need to get out more.

That's not to say drinking is a good thing. Nor a bad thing either. You see, it really depends who you are. If you like to just chill and have a beer or so once in awhile, that's totally cool If you get a thrill out of getting so smashed that you can't move, then I'm not going to judge you. Actually, that's a lie, I will judge you. But I'll keep it to myself.

So here's the deal. If you are a fan of drinking, and you do plan on drinking when you get to college, hear me out. There are some bits and pieces of information I feel that you should take into account. You probably know most of them already, but a refresher course never hurt anyone.

Probably the most important: Don't drink and drive. I mean, it's just a bad idea. And don't think I'm looking out for you here. I'm worried about the poor sap you run over during your alcohol crusade. For real though, it's not worth the trouble you could get in. It's a much better idea to hike it or look for a sober ride. And don't hop into a car with a guy that's been drinking either, cause if you do so knowingly your dumber than the guy behind the wheel.

Next thing is to know your limits. If your a lightweight, then drink what you can handle. Don't get peer pressured to an extra 6 shots over your usual. That just ends up being extra cleaning for whoever's place your at. And trust me, nobody likes the guy that adds a hour of cleaning to their agenda the next morning. So if your going to drink, drink what you can, get drunk, smashed, all that good shit. Just know when to stop. If you overdo it you could get your hands on some alcohol poisoning, which is bad. If you didn't already know?

Don't get caught. We all know it's illegal until you hit your junior or senior year usually. It's not worth getting busted and in trouble for something like that. You could get booted out, and then one night just cost you between 10 and 20 grand. That's a pretty expensive night for downing a shot of Bacardi and a few Keystones. So don't drink in the dorms, and when your getting back to your dorm, try not to make it obvious that you're hammered... because that could backfire on you as well.

So ...
1) Don't mix alcohol and vehicles. Just a bad idea.
2) Know your limits.
3) Don't get caught.

Stick to those 3, and you should be okay. So go on, knock yourself out. But not cause of the alcohol. That would be violating Rule 2.

The Writer's Strike

2007-12-03T16:16:00.000-05:00

So you may not think that the NBC Writer's Strike is a big deal. Or that it's not college related at all. Well I am here to prove you wrong.

When you get to college, Thursday night becomes real important. Almost as important as Sunday. It's real, real close. You see, Thursday night marks the beginning of the weekend pretty much. When your in high school, Friday is the night. When you get to college, Thursday is the new Friday. People even drink on Thursdays!

Here's the real reason why Thursday is so good. Every Thursday night something excellent happens. For 60 minutes, the world is at peace. Terrorism disappears, racism is absent, and world pollution is vanquished. Everything is good and green in the world.

Why you ask? Because of Dwight and Jim and Ryan, J.D., Turk, and Carla. And I'm not bisexual. It's the Thursday night TV shows. "The Office" and "Scrubs" are cures to the hell that is school. The new episodes play Thursday night. And now their gone!

I sit through 4-7 hours of classes each Thursday. And through insufferable lectures and murderous labs, the only thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that I get to watch those two shows. Now their reruns. The "r" word for TV watchers. Now I have nothing to hold on to. Nothing to keep me going.

The Writer's Strike needs to be stopped. I don't know what I am going to do with myself. Thursday has become a day from hell. Like Monday, but not as terrible. But still pretty terrible.

So the writer's strike must end. For the sake of Thursday's, let it end. I will give anything. So if any of the 2 people who read my writing have any power in the world at all, do something.

Yule Time

2007-12-01T23:25:00.000-05:00

It is finally December. December is that magical time of year when everyone goes temporarily insane and runs amok in shopping-induced frenzies. The night of Thanksgiving, when most of us were still in our tryptophan-induced comas, some crazed shoppers were already out at stores to start their Christmas shopping. I was one of these shoppers (even though I bought nothing). I went to hang out with my friends while they shopped, since I had nothing better to do at 4 am.

I am one of those people that likes to put off everything until the last minute, Christmas shopping no exception. Last year I didn't start shopping for presents until Christmas Eve. In retrospect, this was a mistake. I will not be doing that again. One of my friends is the complete opposite on this. She will just randomly see thing she thinks someone would like and get it to be a present. She went shopping today and bought a lot of stuff. A lot a lot. Presents for almost everyone in her family and cards to boot. She's sitting behind me right now writing Christmas cards. Now if this was me, I wouldn't have any cards to send out. If I was going to write cards, I would do them somewhere around the 21st, not the 1st.

It amazes me that some people can be motivated to shop this early. After going out on Christmas Eve last year though, I am beginning to understand their motivation. Going out that close to the holiday means it is very hard to find gifts for people. Also, it is almost scary to shop then. Everyone out is in a frenzied rush to find gifts before the stores close. While you (like me) may not feel like shopping early for people, remember not to go out too late. Shopping earlier will save you a lot of time, stress, and frustration on Christmas Eve.

Zombies!

2007-12-01T22:30:00.000-05:00

Well, we are right at the end of the semester now. Only this week and finals week to go. Do you know what that makes this week? That's right, dead week. There are two reasons this week is aptly named. The first is that this week is traditionally one with little work given in classes, since the semester is about to end. The activity comes to a 'dead' halt, hence the name. The second reason is that this is the week that practically every single class has a project or something due, making the students stay up all night and act 'dead' all day. I am one of these students. I am dead. Sooo dead.

Compared to some people, I don't have THAT much to do. However, compared to the work I've been doing the rest of the semester, I have a crapload to do. I have three papers and a website due this week, along with most normal work I would have (a bunch of math homework sections, some online chem homework, etc.). Even though I have known about my projects for months, most likely, I haven't started on any of them. You know what I did all day instead of working? I played Kingdom Hearts II. For nine hours. *shakes head sadly* I guess I'm going to be really busy these next few days.

One good thing about dead week is that the libraries are open all day. FINALLY! Having the libraries open all day is the best thing that could possibly happen for all my projects. See, my internal clock runs on Tokyo time. I would probably be waking up at about 3 pm if I didn't have class, but I would be up until 7 am. The libraries being open all hours finally allows me to go and do research in textual sources at 4 am when I have nothing else to do.

Sadly, the dining halls haven't followed the libraries' example. 24 hour dining halls would be so pwnzor! I would eat there at all hours of the night. *sigh* If only, if only.., Well, I'll have to make do without it. I expect my dining expenses to at least double this week. It's hard to work and study on an empty stomach. McDonalds must love this time of year.

Something to remember about dead week is that sleep is the last thing you need. It sounds stupid, but it's true. You can make it through five days with practically no sleep. Besides, you can always sleep in class. It's not like much goes on in class this week. You can also catch up on sleep next week in between finals. Abuse energy drinks and caffeine all you want this week. Sleep is for the weak, not this week. The only thing you need to do this week is get your work done and handed in! Everything else is secondary.

Anyhow, I'm pretty swamped right now. The important thing to remember, if you end up in my situation, is to not panic! Panicking will only cause you to worry and stress, losing valuable working time. Work done while in a panic will be subpar at best. DO NOT PANIC! The best way to do this is to make sure you stay fairly relaxed. Take some time off working or studying if you feel stressed and do someting that will make you feel at ease, like hanging out with friends or playing a video game. Playing music while working will also help stress levels because it will give your subconscious something else to think about besides your overwhelming volume of work. Good music will help your stress and also make you more energized and able to work.

Family appreciates time with you

2007-12-01T20:48:00.001-05:00

Now that you are in college you see your parents less and less. Even when I do go home, I still do not spend that much time with my parents. This is because I go out and do stuff with friends when I am home. You have to realize that your parents want to see you to.

When I went home for thanksgiving I did stuff with my family every day. We would usually do dinner together. I would just meat up with my friends afterwards. Also instead of going to someone else’s house, I got everyone to come to mine. I parents liked this a lot since they got to see me more and they also got to see my friends.

My parents actually thanked me several times for spending more time with them. Try to make an active effort when you go home to spend time with your parents. Whether it be helping them with something in the house, going shopping, or having dinner.

End of Semester

2007-11-28T14:58:00.000-05:00

As I near the end of the semester several things happen. Teachers realize that they are behind on giving quizzes, assignments, and projects. Students also realize all their procrastination has caught up with them. This means there will be lots of work. Also this being the week before dead week means a lot of tests. Instructors are not allowed to give tests or quizzes during dead week.

When the end of the semester nears the work load increases. This has happened to me many times. Frequently not any fault of my own. Usually a professor will have a plan for the semester of topics they lecture on and assignments. They frequently get behind on their lectures and therefore have to push back assignments. Since there are a limited number of weeks in a semester something has to be cut from the schedule when stuff gets behind. My professors seem to only cut out the time that I have to work on a project but none of the assignment.

A group project was assigned in a class on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. It is due next Tuesday, giving us two weeks to do the project. The project should have been two weeks longer I believe. Two weeks is a short time to get a project done in the first place. Then you have to realize that half of the time was lost to thanksgiving break. The week that we have left right now to work on a project is a very busy week too. This being the end of the semester there are exams in many classes and projects in many classes. I personally have three group projects, three exams, and one lab exam this week to do. My business is not me alone either. Everyone in the groups for my group projects is in similar situations. This means it is extremely hard to get things done since we need to meet up to get things done.

Know Your Math

2007-11-27T14:54:00.000-05:00

When I started off learning my times tables back in the fourth grade, I knew them good. From 1 to 15, I was good. Real good.

Then I learned the magic of the TI-84 Plus. And all of that went to hell. That calculator can do anything. It will do your math homework, walk your dog, cook dinner, and tuck the kids in for bed. Not that I have kids. Or will. Ever.

But you get what I’m saying. It’s a damn good calculator. While it’s also a great calculator, it ruins a person’s math skills. Through middle school, you learn how to do solve all these equations and being able to answer all types of questions. In high school they let you pick up that calculator and you don’t need your brain anymore. You got one sitting in the palm of your hands. It’s quicker, it’s easier, and it’s also got games.

And it’s great. It’s all good. You breeze through high school math, spend a little time with the stuff that requires it, and your all set. Then comes college.

It was a cool, crisp fall morning and I was walking to my first class as a Purdue student. It was Calculus. I had my trusty TI-84 Plus in my hands, and I thought I was ready. I sit down in the lecture hall and I’m ready, I know I’m ready.

That’s when the bomb dropped.

“You will not be allowed calculators of any kind for this course. Once in awhile you will need them for homework. But on tests and quizzes they are not allowed.”

I thought he was joking. There was no way this man was serious. Professor Peter Cook was just scaring us first year students. He didn’t mean it.

Little did I know just how serious he was. In college, you are expected to know all the math that you let the calculator do for you. Now of course, they don’t make you do any ridiculous division and multiplications by hand, but all the graphing and equation solving and all the stuff that you usually just punch a few numbers in and your all set, isn’t that easy anymore.

So here’s my advice for anyone in high school. Use the calculator, but make sure you know what the calculator is doing for you. If you don’t, it’ll bite you in the ass. Hard. Know what you’re calculating, know how to get it. Make sure you do a few problems free-hand, because if you don’t it’s going to kill you down the road. Sure you might pull an A on the test or for the semester, but you’ll be hurting come college time.

So just know what you’re doing when it comes to math, whichever math you happen to be taking. It might be a pain in the ass, but it’ll be a lot worse when you’re bombing tests and paying for it.

Teamwork

2007-11-23T11:29:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of jobs in the real world where you need to work as a group or a team. That's why in college you will find a lot of your work is done in teams. Especially in the science and engineering fields, teamwork is extremely important.

Being able to work as a team is both a blessing and a curse. You get to bounce ideas off each other, you usually have less work, and it's a little more enjoyable. It's great because your supposed to be able to get more work done in a less amount of time.

This is not the case for me. You see, in one of my engineering courses we were put in teams at the beginning of the semester. This team was as good as I could have asked for. Everyone was intelligent and helpful and did what they could to make sure we got our work done. We were cruising, and I was happy with the way things were going.

Then disaster struck.

We were put in new teams. These new teams were not as much of a blessing. More of a curse. These are four person teams, and mine is basically a two person team. Me and another kid work hard and we do what we need to do, but the other two are non-existant. We don't even know one of their names. He doesn't show up for class or lab or anything. The other kid always has a excuse as to why he's not there.

So here's the deal, you need to be prepared for the good and the bad. You could get placed in a good team or in a disaster team. If your in a good team, then your lucky. But if your in a bad team, here are some things you could do to make it a good team.

1) You could always pull the fourth grade trick and tell the instructor. Simple, yet probably productive. You could get new teammates or the teacher could scare the others into participating.

2) Try and handle it yourself. Talk to the team members who aren't participating, tell them that you need them to work. Tell them that it's important towards all of our grades that everyone participates.

3) If nothing else, just keep moving on without them. This is what me and the one person who worked with me did. Just do what you got to do, get yours, and don't worry about the others.

While we did the third option, I don't think it's the smartest one. Since we're all in college and supposedly grown up and mature, the second is probably the best option.

So when you do get put in a group, hopefully I helped. And if I did, I will be oh so touched if you e-mail me and let me know.

Finally Home

2007-11-21T22:32:00.000-05:00

One thing you'll find in college is that if you were like me, you took your hometown for granted. I just got back for thanksgiving break today, and it feels great.

You see I come from a pretty small town. There's not much to do here, so all throughout high school I was real bored with it. Besides school and sports, it was just sitting around. Real boring.

Not too sound pompous or anything, but I had a lot of friends... and now that I've been gone for so long, it felt real good to see all of them.

Unlike last time, all of my flights made good time so I got home at a normal pace so that was all good. Another thing I've learned is that for people who go home by flight, it is important to give an extra day in your travels. Especially on the way back. If you want to be back at school for classes on a Monday, plan to fly in on a Saturday. You will lose a day of break, but if you plan to fly in on a Sunday and your flight gets delayed you might miss some classes. This is just a safer method I believe.

So I am good sitting here at home, and I'm going to leave you here cause it feels good to be able to shower in my own bathroom now and I wish to go obtain that feeling.

Goodbye...

2007-11-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

Well, this first semester is finally coming to an end. I have Thanksgiving Break next week, then 2 more weeks of school, and then finals week. I can honestly say that I have survived so far, but I better not speak to soon because, like I mentioned, final exams have not arrived yet.

I do not know what to expect on finals. I was under the impression that only two of my six finals will be cumulative, covering everything from the beginning of the semester until the end, but to say least, I was wrong. I found out last week that four out of the six are cumulative. FANTASTIC. Basically, I just cannot wait to get them finished. That's all I want--to be done so I can go home for three weeks and not have to worry about doing ANY homework at all, at least until January rolls around.

Honestly, I just wish that someone who has already experienced final exams in college would read this post because I have absolutely no idea what to expect of them. For one time, instead of giving advice, I actually need some.

Sadly, if you are reading this blog to gain insight about final exams, I can not help you, and this blog is mostly made up of freshman, and they have not taken finals either. I regret to inform you that I cannot give you any information about exams until December 16th, which probably will not help you because, chances are, you will already be finished with them by then, unless your exams are after Christmas break. If that were the case though, I CAN help you out!

Now I know how sad this following information is going make you. Be mature about it. You can cry, but I only ask that you not whine.

This will be my last post excluding the one that I will write around December 17th or so. I know how much you will all miss me. Good luck with your college careers!

BOILER UP!

Final Destination

2007-11-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

It's almost the end of the semester. Hard to believe so much time has passed, isn't it? I know that to me it doesn't seem like I've been writing this blog very long. Well, no matter what I think, the semester is still almost over. Just a couple more weeks until finals.

Finals. Just the thought of the word leaves a bad taste in my mouth. A lot of people start to stress out about their finals right around now, studying like crazy because they have to relearn everything from the start of the semester. I try not to include myself in that group, preferring the 'relaxed' method of study. I.E., I sit here on the couch until an hour before the final, then I cram like crazy. I know most of you probably prefer that method too. The thing to keep in mind is that while most finals are cumulative, they do not have much more time allotted to them than to a normal test. This means that true, everything is covered, but most of it is barely touched on in the test. There is no need to raise your blood pressure studying when having a cursory knowledge of the information is enough to do well on the final.

Another thing about finals is that the schedule for that week sucks. I don't know about the rest of you, but my finals are just broken up enough that week that I can't go home until they are all over. I have finals on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday (for those of you who don't know, final exam times are listed on SSINFO). It is a 5 hour trip back home for me, so If I went home after my Wednesday final, I wouldn't arrive until late that night, and I'd have to leave on Friday to make it back in time for my Saturday final. If only I didn't have that damn Biology final on Saturday, I could go home three days earlier.

The good thing about finals coming up is that classes tend to become more review-oriented, meaning it is a lot less detrimental for you to miss them. If you can remember most of what you learned over the semester, going to class becomes a lot more pointless around now. For those of you (like me) who like to skip class, this is a good thing. Just remember not to completely ignore your finals. Looking over the things you have learned over the class, even if just for a half hour or so, can make a large difference in your exam score.

Infestation

2007-11-17T15:35:00.000-05:00

Well, it's getting to be that holiday-packed time of the year. You all know what that means. That's right: it's cold out. Especially up here in Indiana. No mild winters for us; it is still fall and it's already colder than a dingleberry on a polar bear. As if the cold alone wasn't bad enough, it makes all of the animals that normally live outside try to find someplace warm to chill out for a few months. One of these animals happens to be the Asian ladybug.

For those of you blessed enough to have never seen one of these things, an Asian ladybug looks pretty much like a normal ladybug. The only big difference is that their shells vary in color more and tend to be lighter than normal ladybugs. When winter comes, they all flock indoors to try to avoid freezing to death. This is where they and I start to run into trouble.

For whatever reason, all these little Asian bugs think that my apartment building (I live in Hilltop) is a perfect spot to live for a few months. They are everywhere. Whenever I walk in the building's front door, I have to put on my hood because I always worry that some of them will drop off the celing onto me. In the stairwell alone today I counted 87 of the damn things just sitting on the celing and clustering in the corners. It looks like someone rubbed superglue all over popcorn kernels and just flung them straight up in the foyer.

My only consolation here is that there are none in my apartment. They were all over the place until my roommate snapped and caught every single one in the same glass bottle. There must be more than 50 in there now. The bad thing is that he won't throw them out, so some of them have been sitting in there more than a week. I try not to look at the bottle. If any of you have a similar problem, there are a few things that you can do. First, you could get them all early, like my roommate did. If you get every one that starts to come in, they learn pretty quick not to enter the apartment. Second, you could keep your apartment really warm in the winter. I know I prefer it this way, even though many people don't, and this may help in warding off the bugs. Third, you could always Raid the suckers. This may make your place really uncomfortable to breathe in, but at least you won't have ladybugs everywhere.

The Holidays

2007-11-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

So basically no matter where I go, I am seeing Christmas/holiday spirit and decorations, and it is not even Thanksgiving yet! To be honest, I am loving this!

Around campus, I am seeing lights strung on people's dorm windows. Here, at Purdue University, we have a building called the Purdue Memorial Union (PMU), which is basically the center of our University. Most students congregate there, and the PMU is where you can find Purdue's Union Club Hotel (very nice, a little pricey, but highly recommeded!), Purdue's banking service, a food court, Purdue's traveling agency (good deals, by the way!), and my personal favorite--Starbucks!

The Union in itself has not begun decorating for the holidays, unfortunately, but Starbucks....well, that's another story. I went to Starbucks yesterday after my math class because the Union is located across the street from where my math class is located. Starbucks is already in the swing of the holiday season! There is no other way to put it. They are already offering their "Holiday Trio" selections--the Gingerbread Latte, the Peppermint Mocha, and the Eggnog Latte. Every year, I get the Peppermint Mocha. It is absolutely delicious. It has just the right amount of peppermint flavoring mixed with mocha (just to clear everything up, a mocha has a chocolate flavor, while a latte is milky). It actually tastes like mint hot chocolate or better yet, an Andes mint. YUM! Also, Starbuck's has decorated their store already with Christmas trees and garlands, and you can now buy advent calendars there that are shaped like Christmas trees, along with coffee cups, teacups, and t0-go mugs with different holiday settings on each. You should go to a Starbucks and check it out even if you do not plan on buying anything. If one is decorated, they probably all are no matter where in the world they are located.

I actually have my car up here now at Purdue, where freshmen cannot have cars. My boyfriend's roommate is a senior, and he does not have a car here anymore, so he gave me his parking pass.

Anyway, last night, I went to the mall because there is nothing to do at Purdue right now since the whole campus went to IU for the Indiana vs. Purdue football game. I was supposed to go, but I ended up having 2 papers and a major project due Monday so I couldn't. When I went to the mall, Santa Claus was already there giving children the opportunity to take pictures with him. Lights were hanging from the mall's ceiling, and in stores like Macy's, Christmas trees and other holiday decorations are already set up.

Basically, now that I'm in college, I enjoy the holidays even more than I would if I were at home. The decorations and the holiday spirit actually make me feel at home, and they put me in a good mood. I'm excited to for Christmas break and being able to spend a whole 3 weeks at home with my family, but I should probably get through Thanksgiving break first!

Group meetings frustrate me

2007-11-14T15:01:00.000-05:00

I had a group meeting on this last Monday for my database programming class. I am in a group of 4 people and we had decided to meet up in a computer lab at 5:30 to get it done. We have to get this done this week since it is due next week and who wants to work the week of thanksgiving.

On to the story. I sent out a reminder email the day before the meeting to remind people. Come time for the meeting. I was at the location on time and two of the group members showed up 15 minutes late. I decided to call the person that was not there since we had several hours of work to do. I tried to call them only to get a message saying it was an invalid phone number. I also decided to try instant messaging them. He was not online though.

Half an hour in one group member tell me that he has to leave at 7:00 because he has another thing to do. He does not tell me what it is though. My theory is he just did not want to work anymore, though he could have been tell the truth. For the past couple of days I have been trying to figure out how to do this lab. I have been emailing my group saying what I have found out how to do and what we still need to do. No one responds. I sent out an email saying we need to meet again. I still did not even get a response to that email till this morning.

I think people do not respond to emails because they do want to have to do more work. They can just pretend like they never read them. I finally found the kid that did not show up to the lab on Monday today. He said he did not know we even had a meeting and had not gotten my emails. He said he was having email troubles. Then I had to fix his email so we could contact him. The only problem with his email was that he had it sorted by subject rather than date. His inbox still told him when he had new email, so he should have read my email.

In college people are extremely unreliable. We are meeting again tonight and I imagine that part way through the meeting someone will say that they have something else to go work on. Keep in mind everyone said they are free to work on the project tonight. This should have been done on Monday, but a person leaving early and another not showing up screwed me.
Moral is you cannot always count on getting done what you had planned with groups. You might have to adjust your schedule to work on something multiple times since you failed to get it done the first time. A lot of the time you also just get nothing done during the meetings.

Getting Around

2007-11-14T14:32:00.000-05:00

So I'm a slow walker. Like really, really, really slow. There's a good reason for this. In high school, I hurt my knee playing football and had to have surgery. I was stupid and tried to play too soon.

This happened three times.

Which means instead of one surgery, I had four. And the condition of my knee just kept getting worse and worse. I know, I'm an idiot; but what's done is done. So since my knee has gotten progressively worse, my walk speed has followed that same trend.

Anyway that's not really the point of this post, just a little background information. The real point here is transportation at college. Now as much as I hate to compliment Purdue, their public bus system is pretty good. In fact, for slow walker's it's really good. You can get from point A to point B in a pretty short amount of time.

There are of course other ways to get around campus. One of them is walking. But thats for people who's left leg isn't dead. You can own a car, but that involves having money and a place to park. Both of which are pretty hard to come by at a big college. Especially if your a freshman and your not allowed to have a vehicle on campus.

A bike is another popular method of transportation. You just gotta watch out for dickheads to steal your bike (see previous posts.) And you have to be stellar like me and recover your bike if that happens. If you do get a bike, I recommend getting a cheap one, because let's be honest, I'm one of a kind. I think that's enough self appreciation for the day though.

The point is that in college you gotta be smart as far as getting around goes. You gotta time it properly so that you can get to where you have to go on time. It's usually good to have a plan ahead of how you're going to get to each class so you don't have to think of it on the moment. It works for me.

Getting down there..

2007-11-14T13:12:00.000-05:00

I cannot believe that I am finishing up on my last round of exams and the semester is winding down. It seems like the first day where my parents and I were moving in and I had just gotten my room all situated and set up. Older students were shuffling around big totes and bags and helping us find our correct rooms and where all of the amenities are located in the building. I remember feeling so overwhelmed and thinking this was not the right decision to make. You never know unless you try and that was just the idea and mentality that I had coming into college. Throughout this semester I have begun to like college more and more and I am so glad that I made the decision to leave home and come to Purdue. It offers you an endless opportunities and situations that you can take advantage of that smaller colleges may not. Smaller colleges sometimes do not have the resources or accommodations to specific ideas and programs. They do not have available or offer a wide range of majors that you can choose from.

As the semester is winding down make sure you do not slack. You think that your main exams are over and now you can relax and take it easy think otherwise. This is the time where you need to make sure you attend and go to all your classes, keep up with your homework, and do your readings. The hardest thing about the semester still has not yet come which is the dreaded final exams. The worst is where the exam is cumulative and you have to try and remember everything from day one till now. A couple of pointers would be to study a little each day. There is no way that you can cram the night before for a final exam you will be so overwhelmed and stressed. If you spread it out over a couple of days or weeks you will be able to retain more information and not get everything messed up in your head. When you cram you get things all confused and can’t remember where information goes and how things connect. I have also learned in my psychology classes that if I apply specific ideas and theories to things in my life that have happened it helps. It is easy when you make connections to your own life and you can recall the information better by making these comparisons. Hope you do not wait till the last minute to start studying make sure you look ahead and do not get weighed down.

School Spirit!

2007-11-13T21:45:00.000-05:00

Showing school spirit and cheering for your university is always a very positive and good thing to partake in. You want to get involved and support your college. How boring would it be if you never attended any sporting events or extracurricular activities? My advice to all of you is to take a little time out of a day or two and go watch one of the sporting teams or clubs play or perform. You would always have something to gain from it and feel better cheering on the team and if it is not a good game at all or does not interest you in anymore you can always get up and leave. There is something out there for everyone.

Now that we had our last home football game and sadly lost we should look forward to the next big sport that is approaching which is basketball. But this weekend the football team is still playing and it is one of the biggest games of the year against our rival team. So if you have a ride to Indiana University and do not have a lot of work to get done I would strongly recommend you venturing down there and showing some support for your team. Plus you may have other friends that go to that school so you could catch up with them and come back ready for a fresh start.

We should also recognize the sports that do not draw the large extensive loud crowds for example the soccer and volleyball teams. Some of these teams do not get the recognition that they deserve for their hard work and dedication all year round. This week the volleyball team will also be playing Indiana on Wednesday and Michigan on Friday. Every team seems to have many games scheduled at home and away so there has to be a time where you are not busy and can fit it in your schedule. If you do not have a planner that tells you when and where they take place you can find it on Purdue’s website which is very helpful. They also post the latest Purdue sights, sounds, and tours and a list of the intercollegiate athletics on the website.

By going to sporting events you may also interact and meet new people you never knew. You could just start talking to the person standing next to you, develop a friendship, and have a good time. While having fun you feel a sense of pride for the school that you go to. It makes you feel better knowing that maybe your cheering or positive attitude could help a player have more confidence. Also, when you do cheer more people around you will join in and it will get louder and louder. The best feeling as a player is knowing that people believe in you, come out during their free time to see you play, and are there to back you up and support you. Go Boilers!

Teachers making me go to class

2007-11-13T17:49:00.000-05:00

Dam my teachers for making me go to class. I am talking about them making me go to class next week on Monday and Tuesday. Our break does not officially start till Wednesday. In my past three years I have always went home the weekend before thanksgiving, so I could have an entire week off for break. This has usually not been a problem since either all my classes were canceled or all except maybe one. I would just skip that one that was not canceled.

This semester I am not in luck though. I have at least two of my five Monday classes canceled. I would consider skipping them all except the problem is I have a lab on Tuesday. The lab is not canceled. The lab is a multi week lab and I get 50% off if I am not there on the entire lab. The thing that pisses me off is that we work on the labs when we want. It is not like we have to do anything specific during that lab. I wish I could skip it.

Since I am being forced to go to the lab I will probably go to two of my classes on Monday as well since they will most likely give quizzes. My plan is to go home on Thursday since my Friday classes are canceled and come back Monday morning since the teachers are forcing me too. I then plan on getting drunk on Monday night and then going to lab for 10 minutes on Tuesday and then going home.

I asked my teacher a few weeks ago if we were going to have class the week of thanksgiving and he actually made fun of me. He said it was not a liberal arts class. Funny thing is I have had plenty of classes from the same school canceled before.

The reason I wanted that lab canceled is not because school is bad, but I want more time to see family and friends. I think Purdue should have class canceled for that entire week of thanksgiving. I guess the moral of the story is teachers sometimes don’t do what you want.

Small Isn't So Bad

2007-11-11T14:55:00.001-05:00

When I first walked into my dorm room here at Purdue a few months ago. My reaction went something like this, "oh shit this going to suck." It is small, really small. There was a bunk bed, 2 desks, 2 dressers, and then maybe 3 square feet of empty space if even. Not to mention that when I got here it was a solid 90 degrees and of course, there was no air conditioning in my dorm. I was sure I was going to be cramped and boiling hot and that it was going to suck.

I was half right, it remained 90 for about a month, and that did suck. But as far as the room size goes, I dont mind it at all. Now that I've lived here a few months, I've found that your room is basically only good for sleeping, homework once in awhile, and relaxing. There are so many other places to do everything besides sleep, that you don't end up in your room as much as you'd think.

Lots of homework gets done in computer labs or libraries. I've found them personally to just be better environments. You don't have many distractions, so you work a lot more efficiently. Computer labs are nice, because you can find other people working on the same stuff you are, and lots of times it helps to be able to work together or get tips from another person.

As far as relaxing, there are TV rooms and lounges on almost every floor, so lots of times you end up there. These are obviously much bigger, so you can hang out with a lot more people in them.

One perk I've found is that there is much less cleaning to do. You are not responsible for very much space at all. As my roommate can attest to, I am a pretty messy person... so a small room means its that much less stuff that I can mess up. It ends up working out pretty good in the end.

So when you get to college, and if you do get stuck with a small room, remember that it's not as bad as you think, in fact you might find it better. I gotta be honest though, air conditioning is a good thing no matter what the room size is.

The 4-1-1 on Chem 115

2007-11-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

So there's a class here at Purdue. Chemistry 115. It's just the basic first year chemistry. And it's terrible. Everything about it is terrible. Their lectures are pointless. You learn NOTHING. It's one of the few things I have found to be guaranteed in college. I will learn nothing in chem lecture.

I also dislike the labs. The other day I was kicked out of my chemitsry lab because I put my goggles on my forehead. There were no chemicals within 10 feet of me. And I was asked to leave by a jackass TA on a power trip. This guy is such a tool, he actually thinks as head TA he makes a difference in the world. I guarantee no one liked this man in high school. Probably not even his parents.

But anyways, your going to come across classes like this in college. I don't necessarily mean you'll find dickhead TA's, but I mean classes where they don't teach you much. These are the classes where they expect you to be able to learn it by yourself. This means you have to spend time with the material besides just doing the homework, because that's not enough.

These are the classes where you have to take notes, make outlines, or do whatever it is that works for you to learn the material. Before you could just sit and listen in lecture, do the homework, and everything would be fine. That will give you an F in this class.

My roommate is a junior, and from what he tells me lots of classes get this way as you get older. I think it's another main difference from classes you take in high school. As you get older and older, you must become more and more interdependent.

It sucks. I miss high school. But i just spilled lemonade all over pretty much everything. So good bye.

Links explained

2007-11-10T21:01:00.000-05:00

As you may, or may not have noticed, we have links on the right side of the blog. Hello links!

These links lead you to some of our favorite places on the internet. I think it’s time that we passed on our reasoning for these links.

Links
AC Freshman Tips

Back to School

Surviving

All three of the above take you to the same website. I’m not sure why there are three of them, but there are. I didn’t put these here, but the website that it does take you to does have good information about surviving college. Granted, and I’m going to be blatantly biased, I think our information is better.

Related Blogs and Websites

Student Life
The article is missing! Oh no! I don’t know what happened to it, but it wasn’t my fault.

Student411: Surviving Your Freshman Year
This is a blog post with some general suggestions for college.

Suite101: College Freshman Year 101
This is a website/blog that gives general advice on college.

unrelated websites that give you something to do

xkcd
My personal favorite web comic ever. You should read it. It’s nerdy, hilarious, and it has stick figures. Besides, you know you want to know what ‘xkcd’ stands for.

Cube News
This is a video blog done by a cubicle worker. It gives great advice as well as makes you giggle. “Dear Feeling Post, I have 2 words for you…”

Slashdot
It’s nerdy news that matters. Need I say more?

Reuters Oddly Enough
If you want “real news” because you don’t understand nerdy news, then at least have it be entertaining “real news”.

Newgrounds
They have flash videos and games for free. You can spend hours on there just watching random stuff. Might I suggest starting with the top 50 of all time?

addicting games
The title says it all. It’s free games that are addicting.

I hope this clarifies our list on the right. If you have any other websites that you feel are being ignored, let us know and give us a reason. We can make that links list on the right as loooong as we want.

Take a Break: Part 2: Video Games

2007-11-10T20:57:00.000-05:00

There’s nothing more statisfying than making something explode or getting to shoot something.

While I’d love to be a mythbuster have that form of stress relief every day, I can’t. I’d love to, but I’m stuck at college, with hours upon hours of homework, crazy professors, exams that make me want to change my major or just give up all together.

That’s where video games come in. I can shoot things and make things explode without causing too much paper work. The only paper work video games give me is the receipt.

But video games do more than just relieve stress. From Wikipedia: “In Steven Johnson's book, Everything Bad Is Good For You, he argues that video games in fact demand far more from a player than traditional games like Monopoly. To experience the game, the player must first determine the objectives, as well as how to complete them. They must then learn the game controls and how the human-machine interface works, including menus and HUDs. Beyond such skills, which after some time become quite fundamental and are taken for granted by many gamers, video games are based upon the player navigating (and eventually mastering) a highly complex system with many variables. This requires a strong analytical ability, as well as flexibility and adaptability. He argues that the process of learning the boundaries, goals, and controls of a given game is often a highly demanding one that calls on many different areas of cognitive function. Indeed, most games require a great deal of patience and focus from the player, and, contrary to the popular perception that games provide instant gratification, games actually delay gratification far longer than other forms of entertainment such as film or even many books. Some research suggests video games may even increase players' attention capacities.”

And to think that my mom used to yell at me, telling me that video games would rot my brain. You can fight Wikipedia all you want, but it’s not just Wikipedia saying that video games aren’t bad, and may in fact be good for you.

Henry Jenkins, a professor at MIT, wrote an article debunking 8 myths about video games. Helium.com also has articles debunking the same myths and citing other sources.

From my own experience, my brain is jello after assignments and exams. I can’t think about doing my simple calculus homework or writing up a chem lab. But I can beat levels of Zelda, play hours of fpsers or an rpg. I relax. I know that I can die in a video game and it’s not the end of the world. I can still rescue Princess Peach (who really needs to stop being kidnapped), save Hyrule, and get some head shots in before entering “real life” again. I float. And I find that I think better after playing.

My thoughts are more fluid (have you ever tried writing a paper after a college exam? If not, your thoughts are not fluid. They are cottage cheese.). I can balance chemical equations like there’s no tomorrow, I can integrate, finding the volumes of solids of revolution, write tens of lines of code, and manage to do it all properly (ah, there’s the catch) and still manage to sleep.

I’m sure some, if not all, of us have tried to do homework on little to no sleep or after a big test. It doesn’t work.

The moral of the story: play video games when you can’t concentrate. Play video games when you have free time. Hell, just play video games because they’re awesome!

photo courtesy of http://www.quicksavejunkie.com.

I am entertaining

2007-11-10T00:27:00.000-05:00

I AM entertaining. Quite. Well, I have people over (though I am pretty fun to talk to too). My friend has two of her cousins over for a few days, one guy and one girl, so naturally she has the guy stay over at my place. Not that I mind. Her cousins are interesting people and I am always glad to talk to anyone. The only bad thing is that I have to make my place presentable for company.

Now, I am not that messy a person, and I do not hate cleaning that much. I don't mind doing it every once in a while. Lately though, it seems like people are visiting every weekend, be it her cousins, her parents, my roommate's family, etc. It used to take me a long time to clean up. Since I've had to do it so much I have gotten a lot more efficient out of necessity. I don't have the time to lose on spending hour after hour cleaning every week. Now I have gotten to the point where I can clean the entire place from top to bottom in about 40 minutes. I live up on Hilltop, so I have a little bit more to do than most people in dorms. It takes me 15 minutes to do the dishes, 10 minutes to clean the room in general, 5 minutes to clean the bathroom, 5 mintues to clean the kitchen, and 5 minutes to vacuum everything. Quite quick, if I do say so myself.

There's also a certain way I have to start acting when company is over. None of them know just how weird I am, and I prefer to keep it that way. I have to act like a normal person and be polite and make small talk and stuff. It's soooo hard. Anyway, here are some tips on entertaining company. Actually, there is only one tip. Appearance is everything. People will only be visiting for a couple of days, max, so everything they think is based on brief impressions and appearances. Having a tidy place and acting nice is all that matters. Doing that will make them leave with a good impression. It doesn't matter if you just swept all the dust and crumbs and radom pieces of trash under the rug as long as they never see it.

This is one reason I have gotten able to clean so quickly. I have learned exactly what needs to be done to maximize appearance with minimum effort. For instance, with cups, I line them all up in neat rows with the nice, clean cups in front. The ones that are kind of cloudy and have weird rings go in the back where no guest will ever see them. Kitchen trash is swept under the fridge. Everything that could be trash but might not be is not worth thinking about. It all goes into a drawer. Basically you just do everything possible to get things out of sight as fast as you can. Do this and everyone wins. You get free time, while your guests end up thinking you are a very nice and neat individual.

Dorm Room Advice and Safety

2007-11-09T20:25:00.000-05:00

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, there are a couple of things that you should do to close up your dorm room for the much needed break. You want to make sure when you come back everything is normal, nothing is ruined, and your room does not smell horrible.

First of all I would advise you to make sure your window is tightly shut and nothing can get in. You would not want any bugs or insects to get through your window if by chance you had a whole in your screen. Also, if there is any severe weather in the area you would not want this to come in your room. When there are high winds and storms there is a chance your window could break or shatter into a thousand pieces if it is not shut.

Secondly make sure that you have gone through your refrigerator and shelves and disposed of any food that will expire over the break. You should always make sure you go through and rotate your food and drinks around to make sure nothing get stuck in the back. That would be the worst to come back and your room smell like rotten spoiled food. It only takes a few minutes to look through everything and is definitely worth it.

Of course the most obvious and important is to make sure your door is tightly closed and locked. I know that at Harrison Hall alone this week five lab tops have gotten stole and 2 people’s iPods are missing. I feel horrible for the victims of theft but if you take a couple of seconds to lock your door you will not have to worry about any of this. Even if you are still in the building like down in the laundry room or in the computer room for example you should still lock your door just in case. It only takes a few minutes for something to happen and that would be devastating.

Off Campus vs On Campus

2007-11-09T20:22:00.000-05:00

I know it sounds crazy but we all need to think about where we are going to live next year. If you wait till the end of the school year everything is usually sold out or you are left with the old run down places. The first major task that you need to address is how many people do you want to live with and who do you get along with? You want to make sure you can deal with them for a whole year, they share some of your same interests, and you have some rules and guidelines to follow. Make sure you sit down and try and make a list of the preferences you want whether it would be an on the site laundry room, exercise room, or being able to have a pet live in the apartment with you.

Next is the question should you live on campus or off campus and what are some of the advantages and disadvantages to both? Living on campus the most obvious and notable advantage is that you can walk to campus and get around easily. There are more restaurants and places that are accessible to you especially if you are looking for a job to earn some extra cash. You do not have to worry about driving to and from campus which takes up time. When you live off campus you have to plan in advance and when the weather starts getting bad you never know how long it will take you to get to your destination. Also, I know at Purdue you may not even get a good parking pass it just depends you may have to park at Rossade and then you have to walk still. So living on campus just cuts down on the whole driving aspect and just includes a little walk to and from the university.

Living off campus in some of the apartments they seem to be more spacious and have more amenities to offer. You seem to just have more space to work with, more privacy, and freedom. There are a lot more options to choose from and they seem to not go as fast. There is a greater variety in price ranges so you can find the one that is perfect for you. Also with getting an apartment you need to take into the fact and find out if there are additional utilities to pay for such as heat, electric, cable, and water. These can all add up if you have to pay for them in addition to your monthly rent which could end up being very costly. Unlike living in the dorms like most freshmen do you now have to worry about getting groceries and making your own meals that may be very costly if you do not budget your money. You may also need to buy additional furniture, appliances, and decorations to furnish it nicely. Here is a helpful website that will show a list of available apartments around the Purdue University area.

Another thing to decide is whether you would want to live in an apartment or a house. With a house you will have more room and space to do stuff. You can have more people over and have more room to do activities and games. Although, with having more space you may just want to have some alone time and people may always be popping in and out which could be very irritating and distracting. Finally, I would highly recommend that you should start considering where you want to live at, who you want to live with, and either an apartment or a house.

Test Prep.

2007-11-09T20:18:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I had another Calc exam. Ugh. I hate these. I had this class in high school and passed, but somehow I'm still managing to do terrible. In my math class we have two midterms and a final. The midterms are 20 percent of our grade apiece, while the final is 40 percent (and it's multiple choice :/ ). Anyway, this was the second of the midterms. I got a 58 percent on the first one. That's pretty bad. Somehow it was a B though, so maybe it wasn't just me.

After my dismal grade on the first test, I vowed to better prepare myself for the second one. My preparation for the first test consisted of me waiting until 2 hours before the test and then attempting to learn all of the material at once. Somehow this failed to work. For this test I decided to slowly study the material over several weeks before the exam.

Well, it got to be about 4 o'clock yesterday and I realized that the exam I vowed to prepare for was in three hours. Not counting an hour to eat dinner, an hour to walk everywhere, and probably 30 minutes of screwing around and not studying, I had half an hour to learn all the material for the test. The material we were covering wasn't that bad. I looked at the practice test and I could actually do most of it. The problem was that the test questions tended to be application problems and critical thinking or some weird thing like that. "Test my mastery." Blech. Also, the tests in this class have 7 questions, so missing even one is disasterous to my grade.

So I crammed, ate, and went to the test. I walked away feeling ok about it (better than the last one), but not great. I probably scored somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 percent. The sad thing is that I know I could have scored at least a 90 if I had spent more time studying. The problems were pretty easy but I couldn't remember some formulas. If I had memorized them, I would have aced it.

The lesson here is to spend time studying for tests. If you know you have an exam coming up, take a few hours out of your day to review material for it beforehand. Don't wait until an hour before the test to start studying. It is a lot harder to learn material when you are under a lot of stress. I just hope the rest of the class did as poorly as I did so the curve can help me out a li'l.

Visiting Parents

2007-11-09T15:43:00.001-05:00

My parents are visiting me this weekend. Some people dread this; I personally think I am going to have a good time. I am of drink age, so I figured I would have some fun with my parents. In addition to going out to meals with them, I will be taking them to breakfast club tomorrow. That means my parents brought costumes for breakfast club and they will be drinking with me at 7:00AM. This is not they type of thing you usually do with your parents. I am then going to take them to Triple XXX. If you are a freshman, you might not know what Tripe XXX is or breakfast club. That’s for a future post though.

By doing this, I get to have fun with my parents. It also allows them to experience some of the things I do in college. It also just gives me some good time to bond with them. I think it is cool that my parents are willing to do this.

Pets in College

2007-11-09T14:49:00.000-05:00

I personally have never had a landlord that allows pets. Most landlords do not allow them. There are a few that do but most do not. If they find out that you do have a pet even though they told you that you can’t they won’t be very happy. The landlords that do allow pets usually charge extra for a pet.

I know there are a lot of people out there than want to get a dog. I currently am taking care of my parent’s dog for a week, even though I am not allowed to have a dog. There are many things that are a pain that you might not normally think about. The first problem is I do not have a yard to just let the dog go out in and do its business. I have to take the dog out on a leash every time. Also around campus there are no parks or fields to take the dog to. This is a major problem because labs, the type of dog I have, like to go run around. In order to do this I need a large field and have it not be next to a major street, so the dog does not run into it accidentally. It seems really strange to me that there are no parks around; there are not even playgrounds for kids to play at. I know by the dorms there are big fields, but I am on the other side of campus. I have been putting the dog in my car and taking her to one of the elementary schools to play.

I am just saying having a dog in a environment to more work since you have to go much further to find a place to play with it. You also have to go with the dog to do its business every few hours. I live in a house, if you live in an apartment, this would be even more of a pain since you would have to go downstairs.

EW! SICK! NASTY!!!!!!!!

2007-11-08T19:48:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you're familiar with those fast-food restaurant stories, whether they're true or not. For example, the time that Wendy's served chili to a customer and the chili had a human finger in it, or like the time when McDonald's sold chicken nuggets to someone, and the customer found a real cooked chicken head in the chicken nuggets box. I won't lie. I have no idea if any of the stories like that or true or not, I just vaguely remember hearing about them. Basically, the point I am getting at is that sooner or later, you're going to come across something disgusting in your food.

Let me just say that I just got back from dinner here at one of Purdue's dining courts called Earhart. They have all sort of things at Earhart. I was having a tough time deciding what I wanted for dinner. I considered making my own stirfry at the "make-your-own-stirfry" section, making my own pasta, making a sandwich, soup, or making a waffle.

I chose to make a waffle. I'm almost positive that I made a really bad choice tonight.

After I made my waffle, I went and sat down to dinner with a couple of my best friends. To say the least, there was a dead, cooked fly in my waffle!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah. I'm still throwing up in my mouth over the whole deal.

College can be extremely random. I guess it was just one of those "you were at the wrong place at the wrong time" kind of thing.

College & Relationships

2007-11-07T19:05:00.000-05:00

No matter how many days I spend here at Purdue University, the same thing never ceases to amaze me: the amount of couples here.

I was here for only a week, and most girls living in my residence hall had boyfriends. I can’t say much, but that’s because I’ve been dating the same guy for over five years whom I met in eighth grade, but that’s beside the point.

As we were walking to class, I was talking to my friend, about how many couples I see here. We began wondering if most people begin dating if they meet at college, or if they come to college together already dating from high school. Then, my friend began discussing her long distance relationship with me.

She and her boyfriend have been together for over four years. They both lived in the same town, which was so small that everyone in their high school knew each other because they all lived on the same two streets. They saw each other everyday, and graduating high school was a real big step for them. No longer would they be together 24/7; he accepted a scholarship from Toledo University, in Ohio, to play baseball, and she chose to go here. They are having a hard time with the long-distance thing. In fact, my friend says it’s one of the hardest things she’s ever had to go through.

My friend has the most trouble when she sees other couples at Purdue who are spending all their time together. I can understand where she’s coming from, like I said, I’ve been dating Jason for over five years. Unlike my friend’s boyfriend, Jason goes to Purdue, but he’s on the flight team, and just got home from Tennessee after being there for over a week. It was so hard for me to be here without him, especially since I ended up in the hospital the day he left. Seeing couples all over campus just made me miss him so much more. I mean, I see him everyday, and going a week without him almost felt impossible to do. I have no idea how my friend does it; she’s basically amazing (haha).

Lately, her boyfriend has been a real pain the ass. He hasn’t been calling her, he won’t come visit, he barely has anything to talk about when they actually do talk, and he just doesn’t try anymore, but then when she talks to him about a potential break-up, he tries to avoid the discussion. Sooo, why won’t he try if he doesn’t want to break up? He won’t end up being with her for the rest of his life like he wants and hopes to be if he doesn’t put forth the effort. It takes two people to make a relationship work, not two, and right now, my friend is the only one contributing to the relationship at all.

In all honesty, I think they’ll make it because they want it so bad. After Jason left for a week, I began thinking about how it would be if he were never around, and it’s just been something I’ve been thinking about lately, especially after hearing the stories about my friend and her boyfriend. Jason and I were about to go to different colleges. I was going to come here, and he was strongly considering going to Florida and attending Embry-Riddle, one of the top flight schools in the country. The only think that kept him here was being close to his family. He has a problem with homesickness (which is weird because I go home like every other weekend, and he’s gone home once). In all, I’ve just realized how thankful I am that Jason is around, and since I’ve been pondering it so much, I figured I might as well blog about it and get it down in writing rather than tossing it around in my brain every five seconds.

If you’re going through a long distance relationship like my friend is going through, my advice is to just decide how much the relationship is worth and weigh your options—do what’s right for you, and make that decision on your own. Don't base your choices on what other's think is right for you. Only you know.

It’s getting cold, reduce heating costs

2007-11-07T14:54:00.001-05:00

It is getting cold out now. I finally turned my heat on my house yesterday. I was trying to wait as long as possible to turn the heat on since natural gas can be very expensive. I let my house get down to 60 degrees before I finally caved and turned it on. Since the cooler I keep my house the more money I save, I set my heat to 67 degrees.
One way to save more money is to turn down the heat when you sleep. I set my heat to 60 when I go to bed till I get back from class the next day. Also you should make sure your furnace filter is clean since if it is dirty, it will have to run longer to heat the house.

Since I live in an older house a lot of my windows are single pane. Single pane windows do not insulate as well. Also since they are older windows they do not seal very well. I can feel gusts of wind through the windows. A really important thing I do is I buy plastic window covers from the hardware store. This adds a space of dead air between the room in your house and the window. Essentially this gives you a second pane on your window. It also catches drafts from leaky windows.

I am now living in a house for my third year. I lived in the dorms only my freshman year. Taking these steps makes a real difference. Doing these steps can make a $400 heating bill be $150. I have had those expensive bills and I do everything I can to avoid them.
If you live in an apartment you might not even have to turn your heat on. I have friends that did not have to turn on their heat at all since they had apartments on top, bottom, left, and right of their apartment. Their apartment was heated by the surrounding apartments.

Rejected

2007-11-03T19:41:00.001-04:00

I have done many interviews lately with companies since I am a senior now and want a full time job when I graduate. I know companies use to send people letters through the mail when you they did not want to pursue further talks with you. It seems most companies these days are a little less classy. I have gotten emails from several companies saying they did not want me.

I think it would be a little classier to send a letter or make a phone call rather than send an email. I guess it is nicer that you find out sooner by emails, but it would be nice if the companies had a little class.

Group conflict

2007-11-03T19:27:00.001-04:00

I am a senior so I have worked on a lot of group projects. Sometimes there are problems such as people not being able to meet at the same time. A few times I have run into problems were one person is just lazy and does not do any of the work. I am usually the person that takes the lead.

I have finally found myself on the other end though. I am in a 5 person group in a computer class. We started of being assigned into groups and I told the group members to please email out when they are going to work on the project, so we can all help. This did not happen. Two of the members decided that they would mostly work on it at times without telling us. When we did meet during designated class time they would work on it and would not let us do anything.

Now fast forward to the last week of the lab. They started sending pissed of emails that we have not done anything. They took the lead on the project and would not tell us what to do. Even when I was sitting with them while they are working on it. The day before it was due they were saying we had to contribute our part to the project now. Since it is a technology class where we are configuring computers we tried our best. We did not know what they had done though since they did most of it without us. Since we did not know what they did we could not do our part.

I the end we did not completely get it done since there was not good communication. Not getting full credit on it is not even the worst part. The problem with group members refusing to work with us hurts my test grades. Our labs help us understand what we are taught in class and then get tested on. Without the lab for the first test I would have failed. I learn everything in lab, so now thing are not looking good for the next test.

The moral of the story of my rant is you must work together. No matter your position in the group you must communicate and make sure you get everyone involved. Also don’t jump to conclusions. My group members did not realize the reason that we were not help them was the reason that they would not give us work or tell us when they were working on it.

Alley Cat

2007-11-03T19:23:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I did something I never did before. I went on an Alley Cat. An Alley Cat is a bike race. There are checkpoints that you have to go to before you return to the start. On this race we were able to choose which checkpoint we went to first. After choosing the first checkpoint you had to do all the checkpoints in order after that. I had never heard of this before, but someone told me about it, so I took my bike out and tried it out. I went into this knowing full well that I had no chance of winning. I was doing it more for fun. I am not in enough shape to be able to win a bike race. Also the top finishers got prizes since it cost $10 to do the race.

The race was setup where we just had to go to five different places on Purdue campus. That might seem like an extremely short distance, but it was not since we had to do the checkpoints in a certain order. I went from the Memorial Mall to Hilltop to Lynn Hall to Westwood(where Cordova lives) to the Northwestern Parking garage to the Purdue Village to the Memorial Mall. If you were to connect the points it would make a star. The path was purposely designed not to be efficient. This way you have to go across campus many times. I think it was about 9 miles in total.

Map of ride

This event was announced through the Facebook group Purdue Critical Mass. Which is a group that organizes bike rides around Purdue about once a month. The point of the group is to do large bike rides as in lots of people. These types of events are very popular in Chicago. I personally have not had a chance to do one yet. I hope to go on the next ride.

All you need to do these bike events is to have a bike.

Late Night On Campus

2007-11-03T17:22:00.000-04:00

For some reason I went out a lot late at night this week. Well, I know the reason, but that's a subject for another day. Let's just say I didn't feel like being around my roommate right then. I count going out late as anything past 11 pm. I think we can agree that that is fairly late for a night when I have classes the next day. Anyway, the first couple nights I went out I was clueless about what to do. I don't drink, so I wasn't very inclined to head over to a party or go hang around the bars. Instead, I decided to just walk around campus and see what there was to be found that late. Not suprisingly, most of the buildings were dark and locked up. I tried a few of them only to be rejected every time.

I did find some places to go though. It turns out that a bunch of the engineering buildings are open all night. MSEE is a notable one. It is the one right by the engineering fountain that has lots of big glass panes on the front. At night all the lights are on inside it and it is very easy to see. When I went over there, I found that some other people had the same idea as me and were studying in the main lobby. The elevated walkways connecting it to EE and physics were closed though.

I also found that Armstrong stays open all night. Well, kind of. Some of the doors get locked. The main ones and one of the ones on Stadium stay open, so you can get in if you really want to. Since I live in Hilltop, this was pretty cool for me, and I ended up wandering around in it for around an hour.

When I got hungry that late, I had quite a few choices. Cary Knightspot was a good one, since it is pretty close to where I live and it is open til one. McDonalds on Stadium and Northwestern was another good one. A few days after the first time I went out that late, I found myself over by Chauncy Hill. Taco Bell stays open that late. Hookah is also open. I probably would have gone there if I was a smoker. Most other food places are too far off campus for me to feasibly get to on foot at night.

After going to Taco Bell the second time I was out, I wandered around State street. Hicks undergrad library closes at 2 am or something, but I got to it after closing time. Stewart Center and the Union are open all night, but the food places in the Union are closed. It does have that large room on its first floor with lots of couches and armchairs and a big flatscreen tv though, so I stopped by it for a bit. Don't bother trying to go to other dorms that late, since they lock their outside doors at 11 pm.

Anyway, this is just me trying to give you all some tips on where you can go if you find yourself wanting to go out this late but you don't want to go get wasted. Even though I was walking around by myself at midnight, I didn't really feel unsafe or anything. We have a pretty safe campus and I was around lighted buildings for the most part. It would probably be better to go out with a friend, but if you can't find anyone willing to accompany you this late, fear for your safety shouldn't stop you from going.

Big Spender

2007-11-03T17:07:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have noticed a disturbing trend in my daily routine. What happens is I wake up, go to class and stuff, eat dinner, relax, then get hungry again at around 12:30 am. Being me, I cannot stand being hungry. I just get so I really can't think about anything except food. So I end up ordering some delivery or making the ten minute walk to McDonalds and getting something there. Ta da! No more hunger. Once in a while, this is fine. It makes me feel good, I get a little exercise walking over there, everything is fine.

However, lately I have been doing this a lot. I probably spent around 30 dollars doing this this past week. If I keep this up, I'll have spent around 200 dollars by the end of the semester. In my opinion, this is a lot of money to spend on extra food every week. It's not like I don't have time to eat. Dining halls are open from like 7 am to 8 pm (or something similar), serving delicious buffets of food. I just end up getting hungry after they close.

Now I am a college student (obviously) and I have 0 income. For me, spending hundreds of dollars on snacks = BAD. What can I do about this? I have come up with two solutions. First, I have a 15 meal plan but end up eating only around 12 times a week. I could take those extra meals and get On The Go to tide me over when I am hungry. This works, except that most of the non-perishable food that they have at On The Go isn't very filling and would not help me much if I was really hungry. The other thing I could do is go to sleep earlier. This would solve my sleep deprivation problems and my late night snack problem in one fell swoop. The problem with this is that I just don't get tired earlier. I'm really a night person. I'm working on it though. I havent gone to bed later than 2 am this whole week : ) So to bring my rambling to a close, try and go to sleep earlier. It will not only help you in school, it will save you a lot of money in late night deliveries.

Cons of Cars on Campus

2007-11-03T11:46:00.000-04:00

There are several cons that may have an influence on you if you are debating whether or not it is worth having your car on campus with you. The first would be the availability of parking. If you have to park your car several blocks away from you and walk there each time is it honestly worth it especially if you are allowed to just catch a bus on your street. On bigger campuses, they always seem to have parking everywhere but much of it is always filled up. You tend to have to park further away then you want to and then it seems like you have miles to walk to your car. Also, since you’re a freshman you don’t have the ability to park in the better spots that upperclassmen can receive. You have basically the parking spots that no one really wants to take unless you get lucky or want to walk for awhile.

Secondly, the cost of gas continues to rise who knows what it will be by the end of the year. It seems to fluctuate frequently and can be very costly for a college student. It’s nice to catch the bus and not have to pay for any of it and it doesn’t hit you hard in the wallet. You could always just shuttle or transport people around if they need rides and charge them then you would have some extra money to fill your tank up. But on the other side of that you may have people bugging you nonstop and ask to borrow it whenever they please.

When students have a car readily available to them some of them may go home every weekend just because that’s what they have always been used to. They may never experience the true campus life and activities. They may lose out on important activities, games, and clubs. It would be a bummer to never fully experience campus and lose out on key experiences.

The basic upkeep and routine things that you have to perform on your car to check up on can definitely add up. You have to do oil changes and maintenance to it that you would not have to deal with it if you used public transportation. You would also have to do a search to see where you should take it, who you would trust, and not just get ripped off. Also, when you have a car you need to have good insurance and insurance for college students usually tends to be higher. We are classified as higher risk drivers because most people are age usually get into accidents. This could be a huge monthly expense that you would have to undertake.

Many students go through college without a car on campus. They live in the dorms their freshmen year and then just get an on campus apartment or continue to live in the dorms. It is feasible you just have to weigh your options out and figure out which is best for you. By not having a car it can make you learn to problem solve, be creative in your own ways, and figure out public transportation.

Pros of Cars on Campus

2007-11-03T11:44:00.000-04:00

What are the advantages you will have if you bring your car down to college with you? Is it worthwhile? Do most freshmen bring their car with them? In the next two posts I will give you both sides the pros and the cons. There are many good and bad things that pertain to each aspect.

First of all I think the major advantage is that you always will have a way to get around and you are not stuck in one area relying on other people or the bus to get places. You can go in town to shop, buy groceries, or school supplies and it less of a hassle. You have the freedom to go wherever you wish. You have the ability to go home more frequently and it is a lot easier rather than you having your parents always come down and pick you up and then bring you back down. Allow some people have the advantage of car pooling with people from their same town or city but not all of us are that fortunate. You will just have the ability to get away from campus, take a break, and maybe go to the coffee house or somewhere to study.

Secondly, it increases your chances of finding and getting a better higher paying job if you are looking for one. You will be able to have a better selection and choice to find one and it may even be an internship that will pertain to your major. The more experience you have in your area of studying the greater the chance that you will have to get a better job when you graduate. You will be a step up from other people that may be competing with for the same job. Also, we all know when you go to college you become in debt very quickly if you are lucky and find a good job that fits into your schedule you need to make sure you can get there in the most efficient way possible.

Finally having a car opens up more opportunities for you to get involved in your community or city. It allows you to branch out, join different organizations and clubs, and help the community in a positive manner. Some classes even require you to do a set number of hours to go around and lend a hand to those that are less fortunate and needy. It’s always the best feeling when you know that you have helped someone out and what it means to them. Here are just some of the pros of cars if you have them on campus that I have noticed.

Save Save Save!!!

2007-11-02T22:03:00.000-04:00

Didn't those "post-it-up-on-the-refrigerator" A+ papers that you did in high school just give you such a good feeling? Being in high school, or even if your in college right now, it will do you well to keep your work--papers, notes, homework-- for college. Since I've been in college, I've found that keeping all my work from high school has helped me more than I ever thought it would.

I find myself calling home all the time to have my mom find an assignment that I did in high school that will help me with one that I have just been assigned in one of my classes here at Purdue. Believe it or not, you'll find yourself doing just the things you did in high school all over again.

Recently in my math class, all we have learned are things that I learned last year when I was a senior taking a course called Discrete Math. Saving everything and keeping all my papers, tests, and quizzes from that math class was the best choice I could have made. I really think saving work is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Before I started classes this semester, I had no idea that Math 137 here at Purdue University was anything at all like Discrete Math and Bishop Dwenger High School. I've had my math binder shipped to Purdue, and I've studied my high school notes/quizzes/tests along with notes I've gotten here. Let's just say I've gotten an A on every quiz and test here, and I think it's all because I've saved my work.

Also, once you get through high school, hearing the two words "research paper" pretty much makes you want to scream. Trust me, I know, I hated writing those things! However, I highly advise you to not only save your papers, but also save the papers your teachers give you that have the correct way of citing materials in a works cited and inside the paper (parenthetical citations). Although Purdue has a notorious website called OWL, which teaches people how to avoid plagiarism and how to cite materials, I prefer using my old papers that were given to me in high school that teach me how to correctly cite material instead of using websites online because I get annoyed switching back and forth on my computer from my paper and the websites. You may not care, but for those of you who do, I suggest keeping those resources. They are really helpful.

Now after bragging about keeping my notes and resources, I guess I just realized it was never my idea to do that in the first place, even though I basically said it was. After thinking about it, it was actually my mom's idea. So, basically, I have her to thank for this. I guess parent's know what they're talking about after all!

How to Deal with Illness in College

2007-11-01T15:52:00.000-04:00

We all wake up in the morning sometimes and just feel absolutely terrible. We get sick, we skip school, we have work to make up. You all know the feeling.

For most of us, it was easier to miss days in high school. Most schools had strict policies, for example, that if you miss a total of 14 days, you needed a note from a doctor if you missed any more than that. The staff was smaller and your teachers were willing to work with you if you were extremely ill.

Now, we come to college and find out that absenses are a big deal. At Purdue University, I can only miss a certain number of classes, like three, before my grade is affected. After three or four classes missed, I can begin to lose many points if I do not show up. So, what happens in college when one of us students becomes very sick and attending class just isn't an option for the day?

I'll give you an example: Last Sunday night, I began to feel bruised and sore on my whole entire body. My body just ached all over the place, and I knew something was wrong. To make the story short, I went to bed, woke up with no sensation in my body, could not walk, and ended up in one of West Lafayette's hospitals around 9 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon. My blood was sent to Indianapolis,and I have yet to get the results back. All I know right now is that my potassium level is very low, my anemia has kicked in (too bad I can't get my medicine until this weekend), my stress level is so elevated that my heart rate is extremely high, and I have some viral infection throughout my body. I hope that's all it is, and when I can all the results back from my blood, the tests are all negative.

To say the least, I've missed all but two classes since Monday and it's already Thursday. I've missed two quizzes and 2 exams, which I'll have to make up, along with all the homework. Talk about my stress level skyrocketing.

What I'm getting at is that even though absenses have a bigger role in college than most of us thought, our health is much more important. Teachers know this. Inform them of what's going on, and they will be willing to work with you. With health issues, they know you aren't just skipping class. They're smarter than that--you have a legitimate reason. My teachers aren't expecting me to make up the work, quizzes, and exams all in one day either. They know that it is physically impossible. Whether you want to believe it or not, teachers want what is best for their students. That's why they are teachers--to help us.

Your goal: Get yourself better--however it takes. Drink many fluids, get lots of rest, eat a good diet, and just wait it out.

Save your money--it's yours!

2007-11-01T10:52:00.000-04:00

As college students, we are poor. We go for things that are free. We don’t have money to waste or to spend as we please.

You’d think that universities would be the last people to rip us off, but anyone can see that isn’t true based solely on the cost of tuition. But they rip our money out of our hands in another way: laundry.

Now, laundry is something that we all have to do, and it costs us money. At Purdue, it costs $1.25 per load to wash (unless you have Boiler Express, and then it’s $1.00, but those aren’t available in every dorm) and $0.50 per load to dry.
For starters, that $0.25 per load adds up. I tend to do 3 loads per week: one lights, one darks, one sheets and towels. That’s $0.75 per week that I have to pay extra because my dorm doesn’t take Boiler Express. Let’s just assume that I’m doing laundry once a week except for the summer (12 weeks). That’s 40 weeks per year.
That’s an extra $30 per year that I’m paying because I wasn’t fortunate enough to get into a dorm that has Boiler Express for laundry.

But it gets worse.

Not all your clothes need to be dried in the dryer. This is somehow not communicated to people. The only things that should go in the dryer are your sheets and towels. That’s one load of laundry to dry per week for me. If I were to dry all my clothes every week, that’d be $1.50 just in drying, which adds up to $60 per year in drying clothes. Instead, I only pay $0.50 per week, making my yearly total $20.

Instead of using the dryer, hand up wet clothes on plastic hangers in the warmest part of your dorm or get a drying rack. Clothes only take about a day to dry.

So, if you’re fortunate enough to have that $0.25 discount each load and you’re smart about drying your clothes, you can save around $70 a year. That’s $70 you can spend on pizza, video games, movies, and whatever else you want.

Sunday: Day of Recovery

2007-10-29T16:41:00.000-04:00

I've come to realize that Sunday is the most important day of the week for a college student. It's absolutely necessary for recovery and preparation.

As far as recovery goes, it's needed for recuperation from the "festivities" of Friday and Saturday. Usually these festivities involve very little sleep and very large amounts of consumption of C2H5OH. Anyways, that usually means the Sunday is pretty rough.

Let me speak from personal experience. The last few Sundays have consisted of sleep. I returned to my room this Sunday morning at around 10 AM. Then I slept until 7 PM, ordered some food and then of course went back to sleep. Today I am perfectly fine.

Now let's explore what would have happened if I had not taken Sunday off and quit life for 24 hours. Today, I would be extremely crabby and swear a lot. Also, I would have probably proceeded to skip all my classes. Which in turn would have resulted in me failing and then being kicked out of school and becomiing a bum on the streets. It would be disaster. So in order to salvage my future, you can see how important Sunday is.

Basically, Monday through Friday end up sucking due to too much work. Friday through Saturday are good, but always a little rough towards the end. Sunday is the one of the gift the Gods have given us, a little break from the rigor of life. You basically get to die for a short period of time.

You want proof that Sunday is a day of temporary death? There's football all day. If that's not heaven I dont know what is.

My Printing Adventure

2007-10-29T15:40:00.000-04:00

Alright so we had this paper due in my english class today. The paper had to be four pages long. I finished up two pages worth and figured I'd leave the remaining two for the day it was due. Which was today.

Everything was going as I planned. I skipped my math lecture, slept in until 11:00. Then I attended another useless chemistry lecture. After which I went to eat at the dining hall, which was pretty disgusting. Then I was ready for my paper.

Me being a proficient writer, I began rolling on my paper. I was unstoppable. I finished up the remaining two pages and was ready to go. It was 2:00 PM and my english class was at 2:30 PM. I had just enough time to print it off and then catch the bus to get to class. I'd walk but then of course I wouldn't get to class until 4:00 PM next Tuesday (thats a different story).

Then of course everything went wrong. My printer was broken, my roommates computer was locked so I couldn't get on his. It was 2:05. So I wasted another five minutes swearing and complaining about how bad my luck was. Then I ran to the computer lab in Cary East and tried to print there. Of course there was no paper in that printer there, so I wasted another five minutes swearing about how bad my luck was.

The building where my class was had a lab in it, so I figured I could get there and print it and be only a little bit late. It was 2:25. So I ran to the bus stop and of course, god was against me today so it took a good 10 minutes for the bus to get there. It was 2:35. By the time the bus got to the building where my lab was, it was 2:45. I was fifteen minutes late and counting.

So I ran (in the loosest sense of the word) to the second floor and got to the lab and printed my paper out. It was finally time. I burst through the doors of the classroom triumphantly and took my seat. Then of course I was made fun of by a few classmates and of course the teacher. It was light ribbing (just a few laughs and a cynical comment) but it still hurt.

With all of that said, I learned a few things. Finish up your paper a little earlier to give yourself time, and never count on God being on your side. He likes to mess with us.

Marijuana Madness

2007-10-27T23:04:00.000-04:00

One of my friends at UK is considering dropping out of college. He is in a pretty bad place right now. He's practically moved out of his dorm and is back at home because he blames his roommate for a lot of his problems, even though his roommate is really quiet and agreeable. He has dropped his calculus class and his chemistry class, dropping him back to 8 hours this semester. Since this isn't enough for a full time student, UK revoked his scholarship.

Why is he in such a bad place? One reason (the main reason) is that he smokes pot. A lot of pot. As another friend likes to put it, "he blazed his brains out." Now, a lot of people claim that marijuana isn't bad for you. This isn't true. Mentally, it doesn't seem to be that bad for you, other than the fact that some people get almost addicted to it, even though it isn't addictive. However, it has been shown to increase the chances of mental illness when used chronically. It is also bad physically, because smoking a joint deposits more tar in the lungs than smoking a cigarette does. The worst effect by far is the lack of judgement shown while actually high.

My friend has gotten really bad about smoking weed. He does stupid things while high, like leaving all his pot paraphernalia around his house where his parents can find it. Good thing they didn't kick him out for it. All he cares about now is getting to the next high. He plans on dropping out of college next semester to do God knows what with his life. Even though it isn't addictive, he has become addicted to it. Remember that even though it seems fairly harmless, marijuana is a drug like any other and can seriously mess up your life.

Credit vs Debit

2007-10-27T21:32:00.001-04:00

In response to my last credit post some people wanted to know what the difference was between credit and debit. The answer is a little confusing.

A credit card is a card that is not linked to a bank account. You can charge money to the card and the credit card company sends you a bill at the end of the month. On these cards you have to be careful of your limit. It is confusing but they do not actually limit you at your limit. You can go over the limit and they will then charge you over limit fees. I have had this happen to me. For this reason I will only get a credit card that has a high limit because I do not want to be worried about hitting it. My spending varies so a low limit might be fine most of the time, but some times I will spend ten times what I normally do. Some credit cards have a yearly fee for having them. This is most common with mileage cards, so you need to think if the fee justifies you getting the card.

On a credit card you have to pay the minimum balance on your bill or you will be charged a late free. In addition to the late fee you will be charged interest if you only pay the minimum. For this reason it is wise to pay the bill off in full. That way you don’t have to worry about interest or fees.

A debit card is linked to a bank account. When you purchase something the money is taken out of your bank account. You would think this would mean you could only spend what you have but it doesn’t. You bank will allow you to make your account go negative and they will charge you fees for doing this as well, so watch your balance.

Most debit cards can also be swiped as a credit card. By this I mean you can press the credit button when you checkout and it will still go though. It still works almost the same though, taking the money out of your account. By swiping it as a credit card you have to sign for purchases instead of entering a pin when it done as debit.

Swiping your debit card as credit has some advantages. Some debit cards offer you rewards like credit cards do. The only way to get the rewards is when you swipe it as credit since then the stores get charged a fee. There is virtually no fee when swiped as debit.

Also all cards swiped as credit have more security. Charges done as credit can be disputed with the bank if they are wrong, while debit purchases can not be disputed. A debit card allows you to get cash back most of the time, so you don’t have to go to an ATM to get cash. This is extremely useful if your banks ATM is not near by and you would be forced to pay a fee at another banks ATM. There is no fee for getting cash while using a debit card.

It costs retail stores money to accept anything swiped as a credit card. The stores usually have to pay 2-3% of the price of your purchase as a fee. This is why some places do not accept credit cards or only accept debit cards. Through this fee the credit card company makes money and it also allows them to give you rewards for purchasing stuff.

Becoming Greek

2007-10-27T20:29:00.000-04:00

While living a Greek life may be attractive to many, becoming part of said life is never easy. In fact, it is often time-consuming and annoying, a constant thing that lasts months until initiation. One of my friends chose to join a sorority and she is going through this process as I write this. She won't be initiated until mid-November. Until then, she has to do all kinds of little tasks, which take up a lot of her time.

Right now, for one, she has to take this online course on alcohol awareness. I understand why this is important to her sorority. A lot of people in Greek organizations have had bad things happen to them as a direct result of their booze consumption. However, this course doesn't say anything that she hasn't learned a thousand times already. How much a drink is, how men can drink more than women, how being drunk can affect your judgement. None of it really matters since she doesn't drink anyway. It seems like a waste of time for her to have to take the course just like everyone who does drink.

This isn't the only thing she has to do. Not by a long shot. She has all of these random little tasks her sorority assigns her. Last weekend she had a lockin to go to, where she and everyone in her class have to stay in the sorority house for 24 hours together. It is supposed to encourage bonding or something. Next weekend she has a lockout, where she will go with a handful of other girls and stay at the house of one of the sorority members who lives a few hours away from Purdue. She has also had to do some other things, like go to a pumpkin carving and pledge night. Most of these activities serve no real purpose. They are supposed to help the group become closer, but it doesn't help much when none of them want to be there in the first place. My friend is also supposed to go to a lot of parties held at fraternaties, but she chooses not to because of all the alcohol consumption at them.

Now her sorority cannot actually force her to do all these things. They are not allowed to force her to do things like go to fraternity parties. However, they can reward her for doing so. She can get points for going to events and meeting sisters from older classes and stuff, points that will help her get a better room and other benefits when she actually moves into the house next semester. In this way the sorority perpetuates the Greek traditions of togetherness and drinking.

Why does she have to jump through all these hoops to join the sorority? She doesn't drink and doesn't want to drink, yet she has to complete the alcohol awareness course and gets invited to parties (which seem kind of contradictory...). She wants to be a part of her sorority, but she doesn't want it to take up all her time and become her whole life. It seems like her sorority makes joining overly difficult on people like her who want to join and won't do anything stupid, but have things to do outside of Greek life.

Roommate Rumba

2007-10-27T18:23:00.001-04:00

It’s been a few months and I think I have a handle on this college bit. I know people, I make it to my classes, and I have friends.

This means that I can further test the waters of my roommates. Don’t get me wrong. They’re great roommates. I’ve heard horror stories of bad roommates (like getting peed on). You can simply look through this blog and find rants about roommates.

So, here’s the background: I live in the dorms with 2 other girls. We have an apartment, basically, because they turned some married student housing into undergrad. We have our own bathroom, a living room, a fridge, a stove, and all the other cool stuff that an apartment should have. I’ve been doing almost all the grocery shopping (and both of my roommates are loaded with money…) and the cleaning. I’m the one who calls them when they don’t come home to make sure that they’re not on the side of the road somewhere.

So, I decided to leave for the weekend, get some fresh air, and see how long it would take them to realize that I’m not there, and I won’t be for a few days.

I left on Friday after class. I packed my backpack with everything I needed so it wouldn’t look suspicious and so I could just leave without going back to the dorm. I had a friend who lives near Chicago come pick me up. (We haven’t seen each other in a while, so said person didn’t mind making the drive. There were other reasons for me leaving, as I said above.)

I left campus around 4:30pm. We made it to said friend’s house around 6:30 (we had some car trouble). We then proceded to Chicago for said friend’s father’s name day (it’s a Greek thing). So, we wandered around Chicago for a while, and I tried to think positive, as if my roommates would realize that I wasn’t there and never said anything about leaving.

I didn’t receive a text message until 3 AM (their time). So much for concern about my well being. I literally could’ve been on the side of some road somewhere and all I would’ve gotten was a text message at 3AM. Thanks, guys. I feel the love.

On the other hand, they have to fend for themselves until Sunday. That means that they’ll have to go buy their own soda (if they don’t steal mine that I have specifically for me), clean the place themselves, do the dishes, and they’ll actually have to get dirty for once.

In a weird way, I’m looking forward to getting back, just for the looks on their faces.

To Break or Not to Break... That is the Question.

2007-10-27T16:34:00.000-04:00

I know that I blogged earlier this afternoon, but for some reason I feel like doing it again today.

I am homesick. I'm not lying.

I had this dream last night about waking up on a Wednesday morning at Purdue. It was the typical Wednesday--an 11:30 math class, a 1:30 educational lab, a 3:30 Spanish class, and a 4:30 English class. I usually sleep in every Wednesday, but for some reason during my dream, I woke up 7:45 in the morning. I guess I was hungry, so I went to breakfast, and while I was walking back to my dorm hall, I saw my parent's car drive past me. I just knew it was them. The white and gold Buick Rendezvous with a big block Purdue "P" sticker above the license plate. The "Purdue Mom" sticker was stuck to the back window, and the mirror on the passenger side of the car was still banged up from the last time I backed it out of the garage while I still lived at home.

I thought I was crazy, so I just walked up to my dorm room anyway. Then later on, I went down to the lobby to turn in letter that I wanted to mail. Sure enough, my family was sitting in the lobby area on the couches and chairs. They ran up to me and gave me the BIGGEST hug in the world! I ended up skipping my four classes that day showing them around campus. We were getting ready to go to Lafayette so my mom could take me to the mall.

Then, I woke up... sadly.

I've felt so stressed out lately and all I want to do is go home for a visit. Going home is all I've been wanting to do lately for the past month, but of course, I haven't had one free weekend to take time and go. When I woke up from my dream, I realized that I just need a break every once in a while. I never do anything for myself. I constantly sit in my room and do homework. I'm an Elementary Education major, and I do more than my roommate who is a Pharmacy major! It's nuts!

So, after I woke up from my dream this morning, I called my mom,crying (I know, I'm a baby), and asked if I could go home this weekend. How could she say no?

I just don't know if I can wait another six days now that I know I'm going! I just want to take time and get away. I think everyone needs to take a break from their studies every once in a while. If you can't go home, it's nice to just lay down, relax, watch some TV. Do whatever it takes, if only for an hour, to take time for yourself. If you miss your family as much as I do (click here for tips if you're homesick), go home... if you live close enough. You deserve it as much as the next person.

Finally Fall

2007-10-27T12:57:00.000-04:00

What is up with this crazy Indiana weather one minute it is 75 degrees and a minute later it is 45 degrees. It changes so drastically down here every day I wish it would just stick to an average temperature and not be so extreme some days. I have learnt that you need to be prepared for whatever you face and you never know. Some days when I get up I check the weather online and it predicts partly sunny and sixty degrees and ends up pouring down rain which is the worst.

Here are some tips that I will give to you to help you face the bizarre unpredictable weather. The first thing I did was buy a compactable small travel umbrella that you can just put in an outside pocket of your book bag so it is very convenient when it starts to rain. The bigger umbrellas are of course nicer but for the practical and easy way I just carry with me a small umbrella and when major storms are predicted I take the bigger one.

A second thing is to always wear a sweatshirt or a little sweater in the fall because when the sun goes behind the clouds it gets so cold. You can always just take it off and put it in your book bag if you get really happened but that very rarely happens to me. It is nice to know you will always be warm and is especially nice when you are walking to those seven thirty classes where all you think about is still laying in your bed and its pitch black outside. I would recommend a zip up fleece they are so comfy and if you do take it off you can easily stuff it in your bag and it will fit perfectly.

Fall is a very pretty time of the year especially when all the leaves change and you have big bonfires and of course Halloween. I just do not like the unpredictable weather and I am not looking forward to the winter walking through inches of snow just to get to class.

HaLLoWeeN!

2007-10-27T12:54:00.000-04:00

Halloween is celebrated every year on the thirty first day in October which is a spooky time of the year that is filled with creepy creatures, scary ghost stories, and haunted places. Halloween started centuries ago as part of the Roman religious practices and with the Druids. Since then it has a totally different meaning obviously it is not thought of as a holy day by most and has changed drastically. When we were little we would dress up in cute costumes. We would go door to door trying to get as much candy as possible and would be on the biggest sugar highs ever and our parents would want to kill us. Oh what a great time that always was how could a kid not like that?

The question is now what do freshmen in college usually do around Halloween or any holiday in particular? I have noticed that many people are in the festive mood around campus and have lots of innovative and cleaver ideas. In Harrison Hall for example they are giving away festive decorations that you can have for free on Tuesday at 7 pm in the North Activity Room. I think this is an awesome idea because trying to get to a Wal-Mart or any store in general is so tricky because most of us do not have cars and have to rely on the bus to take us. This is an inconvenience because unlike getting picked up and dropped off around campus the bus only makes a few rounds and not as often to stores such as Wal-Mart.

Just the other day in the middle of campus, there was Purdue students selling pumpkins between three and five dollars. I think this would be a cute decoration to add to your dorm room either on your desk or dresser. You could also carve the pumpkin or paint a face on it which may be easier and less messy. Simple things like this put you in a good mood and the spirit of Halloween.

I recently was introduced to the Haunted Fairgrounds that is in Lafayette. They promote it by a funeral car going around campus with creepy loud music coming from it and advertising it. If you’re into haunted and spooky places like that I would highly recommend it. My friend went last week and she said it’s one of the creepiest places she has been to.

The part that I am most excited for and can’t wait to see is going out and just looking at all the costumes. There are a lot of Halloween costume parties this weekend and I am excited to see what everyone is wearing and their creative ideas. I am always amazed to see what some people come up with that I would have never dreamed of. You will always have your traditional nurse, policemen, princess, and things like that but there is always some exotic and interesting ones thrown in there. I can’t wait to see everyone’s costumes and eat some candy.

Her Stuff is Hers, Your Stuff is Not.

2007-10-27T12:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, let me just start off by saying that my roommate is CRAZY! Since day one, she has been on my case about every little thing I do that annoys her, such as opening a window or getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, which accidentally woke her up once. She got mad at me for putting a rug on the floor once, and the next thing I know it was folded up and put in my closet.

I knew the decision to room with a close friend I had in high school was a mistake when she arrived on move-in day and basically took over the entire room. My mom and dad were helping me make my bed and put the carpet down when she showed up with her mom, dad, aunt, cousin, and grandma. There was NO room for my family in the room and we were, honestly, standing in a corner the whole time because there was nowhere else for us to go. They got all her stuff where they wanted it without even asking me. I do not lie when I say that her stuff is taking up 85% of OUR room. My parents were mad, and they wanted to say something to her and her family, but I wouldn't let them because I didn't want to cause a problem. Little did I know that would give her the idea that she could walk all over me from there on out.

Occasionally, after I go home for a weekend, I'll bring something back with me, such as a storage bin. I'll put it somewhere where it is located out of her way because I am such a considerate person you know, and then I'll leave the room and come back to find that she isn't here, but my bin is moved somewhere else. That is ridiculous.

Because of the fact that she left me no room on the first day being here, I had to get all my stuff to fit in and on my desk and in my closet. Since I don't have room for my books on my desk, I have not found a real good spot to keep them yet, so I have a cardboard box located under her futon where I keep them. The box is not visible and sometimes it's hard to reach so every once in a while, I'll put the books on the floor in the corner. Of course, if she doesn't like them there, she'll put them in the box for me.

Lately things have gotten way out of control. She has begun to hang my clothes up in my closet for me if I put them on the back of my desk chair or hang them on my drying rack after I do my laundry. This is my property. Agreed? I have told her this over and over, but she just does not understand. She HATES when things aren't the way she wants them, and she thinks she has the right to fix these issues herself. WRONG.

All I know is that if you have a roommate taking control and walking all over you, do something about it sooner. I should have said something at the very beginning because it has gotten way out of hand now. Also, if you are having these problems, your residence hall usually has a time during the year (at the end of a semester) to request a residence hall change or a roommate/room change. If it's that bad, it might be a good idea to consider this option. I am.

Just remember that her stuff is hers, and your stuff isn't hers.

Trying to stay up?

2007-10-26T22:13:00.000-04:00

Not all drinks are created equal. I am talking about the amount of caffeine in a drink. I know many people that use soda or energy drinks to help them stay awake. These people I am talking about have to stay up because they have left their homework to the last minute and now have to stay up all night to get it done.

If you find yourself having to stay up, you might want to think about what you drink. Some drinks have way more caffeine in them to help you stay up.

According to abcnews.com and wilstar.com some drinks have the following:
RedBull – 80.0mg (8.2 oz can)
Jolt – 71.2mg (12-ounce can)
Coca Cola Classic -- 34.5mg (12-ounce can)
Diet Pepsi -- 36mg (12-ounce can)
Pepsi -- 37.5mg (12-ounce can)
Diet Coke -- 46.5mg (12-ounce can)
Mountain Dew -- 54mg (12-ounce can)
Diet Pepsi Max -- 69mg (12-ounce can)
Instant Coffee -- 40-105mg (150ml cup)
Filtered Coffee -- 110-150mg (150ml cup)
Tea -- 20-100mg (150ml cup)
Starbucks Coffee, Grande -- 500mg (16-ounce cup)
Chocolate Cake -- 20-30mg (one slice)
Caffeine Pill -- 50-200mg (read label to determine exact dose)
Looking at those numbers I would personally go with Diet Coke or Mountain Dew to keep around for everyday use. I would keep soda around over energy drinks because soda is relatively cheap where an energy drink is about $2.00. I can walk over to the gas station by my house and get a 42oz soda for $0.69. If you want something powerful, I would suggest the original source of caffeine, coffee. I just don’t like coffee, so that is not an option for me.

In the end I recommend that you just get your stuff done in advance, so you do not have to rely on substances to help you do them. Also this way you will have way less stress.

Cooking tips

2007-10-26T14:58:00.000-04:00

So, my roommate is attempting to learn how to cook. Some things just aren’t quite clicking. I’ve been making food for myself for the past 10 or so years of my life. Here are some of my suggestions for cooking:

-clean as you go. If you’re finished with a untensil, put it in the sink. Don’t leave it out.

-check to see if you have all the ingredients before you start in. It’s a pain in the butt when you realize that you don’t have any sugar when you’re making cookies.

-measure everything out before you start in. Just because you have all the ingredients doesn’t always mean that you have enough.

-high heat makes things tough while low heat slowly cooks. Don’t be tempted to crank up the heat to cut the cooking time. It will only make things crunchy and chewy.

-let things cool before continuing (if the recipe calls for it). If you’re frosting a cake, let the cake cool before putting on the frosting.

-follow directions as best as you can, especially if it’s your first time making the dish. Try to do everything as the directions state for optimal results.

-play with the recipe if you feel comfortable. I make these amazing brownies at home…they have chunks of Hershey bar and chocolate chips sprinkled throughout and I add some chocolate syrup to the mix. Oh, they’re heavenly, but definitely not the directions from the cookbook.

-watch the food. Don’t let things boil over, catch on fire, etc.

Photo courtesy of http://www.thimble.ca/?p=742

The Calm Before the Storm

2007-10-25T11:36:00.000-04:00

For all of those people like me who have those weeks where you have three exams in a row, i have some advice. Be prepared for your exams ahead of time, because studying during that week is next to useless.

I find it appalling that teachers will still assign homework for the next unit during the week of the test, they definitely shouldn't be allowed to do that. So you gotta study before those hell weeks.

Those weeks can be used for review and practice, but if you haven't hit the books during them your screwed. This is another area where I find college to be so much more different than high school. In high school, I would study the night before a test and usually be fine. In college, that'll get you a one-way ticket outta here.

Playing the game

2007-10-20T23:20:00.000-04:00

If a female ever says anything along the lines of “But what can mere women do that’s intelligent or noble” (Lysistrata, translated by Jeffery Henderson), there are two possibilities for this. One possibility is that the female truly does feel this way.

In this case, she needs counseling.

The other possibility is that the female wants something.
She may be fishing for compliments. If that’s the case, men, compliment her before she starts talking about how “horrible” she thinks she is. From my experience, this is the case most of the time. When I, as a female, say that I look horrible, I’m really saying “compliment me, you moron. This is easy. I’ve set it up for you. All you have to do is say ‘I think you’re beautiful.’ Is it really that hard?” I’m sure most females will agree: a girl dissing herself is really just a way of setting up an easy compliment.

She may want someone to do something for her, or possibly she may want something shiny or something covered in chocolate. A female will generally be going for this when she saying something like “I can’t do anything right.” It might be a bad day, and she just can’t concentrate to actually accomplish anything. Other times, she may just want help. In rare cases, the female will be cunning, manipulating people around her to do everything while she kicks back and enjoys herself. Hey, men do it all the time. Women actually have to work to be in that position.

Men, whatever you do, don’t point out that you’ve caught on to the game. It makes the female enraged (Hell hath no fury like a woman’s scorn…ring any bells?) and just makes you, the male, look like an ass, for lack of a better word.

See, when you point out the fact that the female simply wants something, you insinuate a few things. To the female, this means that she has failed and will not get what she wants. The female also feels as though you’re cheating like the kid back in elementary school who would move your battle ships after the game started. There are no written rules, but making it known that you’ve figured out women makes it look like a complete fool. A guy thinks he’s figured out girls? It’s more likely that we’ll become best friends with Hamas and that there will never be any wars on the planet starting…now.

Men, play along. You’ll make her happy. If she’s being a total jerk, figure out why before dumping her.

Again, sorry for the lack of mildly related pictures. stupid blogger...

When you just can’t make it to class

2007-10-20T23:15:00.000-04:00

Whether you have an appointment or you’re genuinely ill, sometimes it is impossible for you to make it to class. As students, we’re forced to balance attendance with our physical health and future jobs. We need to go to class to learn the material so we can get a job. At times, we need to stay home because we are ill, are unable to move, and would be a bigger distraction to the class if we were actually there.

I’d like to ask a favor of my fellow college students: stop screwing around. Stop making professors assume that “sick” is the same thing as “hangover”.

I’m not asking you to stop partying or screwing yourself over. I gladly applaud you making it easier for me to get a job in the future. I gladly applaud you doing what you want to do with your life, whether that is killing brain cells, organs, or both at the same time.

What frustrates me is when I am home because of a genuine medical issue, and teachers assume that I didn’t show up because I’m too drunk or too high to make my way to class. I’d appreciate it if you stopped perpetuating the stereotype.

For those few, 2% or so of the population who doesn’t get high or drink alcohol, there are some things to do when you do have to miss class for a legitimate reason.

-Get a doctor’s note. Most universities have student health centers where you can go get an excuse for class. It’s meaningless most of the time, but it’s better than nothing.

-If you are missing class for something planned, like a job interview, inform your professor or TA that you will be gone and ask what will be covered and if there is anything that you need to make up.

-If there’s a family emergency, forget your classes. I’m of the opinion that family and friends are more important than a grade. If a professor disagrees and penalizes you for it, screw them. Write them nasty reviews on myspace, facebook, and all other “rate my professor” type websites.

-If you can, really try to go to class. Even if you sleep in the back and don’t do anything, at least you get the attendance. Go up afterward and explain that you don’t mean any disrespect. Get a doctor’s note explaining your situation for proof.

blogger image uploader is down. sorry for the lack of entertaining pictures for this post.

Am I Right?

2007-10-20T15:41:00.000-04:00

So now that Purdue's football team has played some games against some real teams, I think I was more right than wrong in my prediction of them being given too much credit. These guys show up to play against the lowly teams, but their nowhere to be found against teams like Ohio State and Michigan.

Of course, Ohio State and Michigan are high-caliber teams, but if Purdue wants to be considered in that class of the Big 10, they could've at least competed. They were murdered in both games.

The only decent team left on the schedule is Michigan State, so let's hope they can show up for that. That'd be great.

I'm gonna go ahead and predict that Michigan won't lose a game again. They look real good since their rough start, and their starting to click. Mike Hart is tearing it up, and let's hope that this injury isn't too serious and he can run hard again soon. Ohio State moved up to number 1 in the Big 10, after big upsets of LSU and Florida in the last few weeks. It's a messy year of college football, with tons of upsets and big games, but this is the way it should be.

Football... Look, an eagle!

2007-10-20T15:26:00.000-04:00

Another Saturday, another home football game. Everyone comes out for game day. People start pregaming long before the game starts at noon, some people partying in their dorms, while others go to the bars for Breakfast Club. Even though everyone acts hyped for the game, when they all finally get into the stadium, they seem to lose interest in the game. People in the stands, especially student section, tend to pay attention to just about anything except the football players in front of them.

Take today's game for instance. Purdue versus Iowa. I got to the game about half an hour early and watched the student section swell up to maximum capacity. The game started out well with Purdue quickly scoring. Everyone was really into it, high fiving and cheering with every yard the Boilers gained. However, this enthusiasm soon died off. By the end of the second quarter, people were losing interest in the game, half-heartedly chanting and waving with everyone else. While their interest in the game waned, their interest in other things waxed.

The students started paying more attention to the people who came from breakfast club dressed in outlandish costumes. Two guys dressed in rabbit costumes caught the eyes of many and their dumb little antics caused more cheers than the game did. Another guy was dressed in a red hawk suit. It soon became obvious that he wasn't an Iowa supporter though, and he started leading the crowd in the wave. Whenever the wave starts, no one in the student section pays attention to the football any longer. They have something much more interesting to watch. After the wave went around a few times, it died out, causing the hawk to have to start another one. Then came the slow wave. Once people were tired of the wave, they turned their attention to other things. Someone brought maybe 10 beach balls to the game and threw them out into the crowd, entertaining the students to no end. Finally, when there were more distractions to be had, many people just left the game to do other things, not even waiting to see how it ended.

Why do so many in the student section lose interest in football while they are at the game? I think it is because it gets so repetative. The game is interesting when it is close, but usually one side shuts out the other. Then it is just cheer after cheer for the students. There is no appeal in cheering for the team when they are obviously shutting out their opponents anyway. Also, football games are so long, almost 4 hours on average. That is a long time to sit doing anything straight. Maybe if games were shorter or closer, they would better hold the interest of those in the student section.

Forecast: Bizarre

2007-10-19T21:42:00.000-04:00

I think West Lafayette has the craziest weather I've ever seen. I'm serious. The weather changes like five times a day here. Take yesterday, for example. Yesterday morning was miserable. It was cool, overcast, and rainy. By about 10 the rain had started to clear up. Around lunchtime the sun was out, the ground was dry, and it got up to 80 degrees, causing everyone who had put on long sleeves in the morning to go home and change. Then the wind started to pick up. At 5, when I went to dinner, the wind was whipping around and everyone was worried there might be a tornado coming. When I left dinner at 6, it was perfectly calm out. There was no wind, but no sun either. That night, at around 9-10, it got really bad. Rain came down in sheets and wind was getting up to 40mph. Everyone had to go down and shelter in the basements because of fear of a tornado. Then, after maybe 20 minutes, the storm passed and everything was calm again. An hour later, when I walked home, rain was pouring down and soaked me to the bone.

What is there to do about such bizarre weather? Not much. There is often no way to anticipate such drastic climactic changes. All one can do is try to prepare for as many different circumstances as possible. Carrying a small umbrella and a light hoodie or jacket in your backpack will often serve you well. Watch out with umbrellas though. The wind here can have adverse effects on them. A few days ago I was walking to McDonalds in the rain when the wind picked up and turned my golf umbrella inside out. Needless to say, I got pretty wet. I managed to get it back to normal, but I kept a close eye on it from that point on. If you use an umbrella, make sure that the outside points towards the wind, not any of the inside.

Go to your interviews

2007-10-19T19:54:00.000-04:00

I decided to blow off an interview with a company earlier this week. I made this decision after reading over the description of the job and realizing it was not really something I want. Since I did not want the job I did not want to go through the effort and get all dressed up in a suit. Another reason I decided to blow it off was I wanted more sleep.

This was not a wise decision. Purdue’s CCO does not like it when you blow off an interview. CCO sent me an email the day following when I was supposed to be at an interview. The email said they had disabled my account. This means I can no longer signup for interview even if companies want to talk to me.

I went over to CCO’s office in Stewart Center. They said I had to write a letter of apology to the company. The letter had to explain my self and ask that they do not let this reflect on Purdue, CCO or Purdue’s students. I then went home and wrote my letter and went back the following day and had to wait for 15 minutes to talk to someone. Then afterward they unlocked my account.

The moral of the story is I could have gotten dressed up and went to the 30 minute interview and gotten more experience with interviews. Instead I spend about 2 hours fixing the problem. Also if I do miss another interview, the punishment is worse. They said I would have to meet with someone higher up to resolve my problems next time.

DeCkEd OuT dOrMs!

2007-10-19T17:18:00.000-04:00

As you've probably noticed, the number of days between now and Halloween are becoming less and less. I have particularly noticed this because the dorm halls keep getting more and more decorative each passing day.

I walk into my dorm hall, Shreve, here at Purdue University and I do not see anything decorative at all until I opened the doors to the east wing, which is the girls side of the residence hall. As soon as I walk through the doors, I enter a dark area and the girls living on that floor have taped orange and black construction paper to cover the lights so that the hall looks black and orange. There are Halloween decorations covering the walls and the girls' doors are decorated like none other. It puts me in such a fun mood!

Of course, when I take the elevator up to my floor, there is nothing there. The girls' doors are decorated, but they are not decorated for Halloween. Sure, they have bright and cheery decorations up, but none that are linked to the holiday in any way. My door is the same way, I won't lie. However, my door opens up to a new magical world of funness!

I have never seen so many pumpkins in all my life! There are pumpkin lights strung around the bed frames and pumpkin decals stuck to the windows and mirrors. There are baskets in the shape of pumpkins that are filled with candy. There are light up pumpkins hanging on the window and there are pumpkin pillows covering the futon. My roommate's desktop on her laptop and mine are jack-o-lanterns and there is a rug on the floor shaped like a pumpkin. We've gone all out for this!

Our door beds also have spider webs (fake, of course!) hanging from them with black plastic spiders placed in every so often. I have orange bed sheets and Ashley has black. We have a little basket that looks like a spider web which has purple sparkly spiders on the sides. We even have a poster of a witch and a ghost on the back of our door (I wonder why we didn't put it on the front of the door). We're holiday fanatics if I do say so myself and you should probably consider this festiveness for you!

My advice to all of you new-dormers out there is to be creative with your living space to make you feel more at home. This is especially fun when holidays roll around. If you adapt your room to different themes, it keeps you in a better mood, for me at least. This does not just go for Halloween. You can decorate your room for Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, New Years, Spring Break, and any other thing you can think of. My roommate and I are for sure! Basically, I have just found it more fun and entertaining to change it up a bit. If you don't know how, you can just use the upcoming holidays for ideas! Or you can use me and my roommate's decorating abilities! Actually, I'll feel pretty good if you do! If you want to get REALLY creative with Halloween dormage, check this out! Also, if you think it's too late to get started, you're kidding yourself!

Happy Halloween and happy future decorating!

Part II

2007-10-18T19:07:00.000-04:00

In continuation with my Part I of Ohhh What a Variety I am going to further describe and illustrate to you the other three main food courts that Purdue has to offer. Windsor is the third dining court and is located in the all girls dorm. It is known to be directed towards people that are vegan. It has more to offer in that sense and is more of a central food court rather than Hillenbrand and Earhart that are further away from campus. I have just eaten breakfast there and it was good. I made waffles that had the little boilermaker imprinted in them topped with strawberries and some eggs. I thought it was a clever idea with the waffle maker and how it makes them turn out, I was not expecting that.

Ford is the biggest and has the greatest selection every day. When you first walk in they have the salad bar on the right and pizza on the left followed by the desserts, international market, the sandwich line, legal grease, and potato potato they call it which basically has hardy wholesome food like ribs, potatoes, a vegetable, soup, and meatloaf. I have found that this food court is very nice and convenient on game days when you are walking back and you’re hungry and want to have something to eat. It is right on the way and is never disappointing and with it being two stories tall you can always find a seat.

The last and final food court is Tarkington which I am sad to say I have never been in or heard anything about it. Hopefully I will be there soon and can write about my experience later. You can always check ahead of time on the Purdue University website and it will list the menus for the whole week. I hope you have found this helpful if you have not visited or ate at any of these places. They all individual have pros and cons about them and allow you to try and experience new foods so you may not get sick of the same thing.

Ohhhh What a Variety! Part I

2007-10-18T18:42:00.000-04:00

Have you ever gotten sick of eating the exact same food, day in and day out, but you just want a change? Well here at Purdue, the major five food courts each have their certain perks and expertise in a particular area that other ones may not offer. I am not saying that after a whole year you will never get sick of cafeteria food because of course at some point in time you will eventually and it is not the traditional home cooked meals that your mom makes but they do offer a good selection.

The food court that I go to the most is Earhart just because it is the most convenient and easiest to walk too. The bad thing about it is that you either have to go right at 5 of later around 7 unless you want to wait in a line that goes out the door and wraps around the sidewalk to the corner. Trust me you do not want to just stand there with your stomach growling waiting to just get inside, it is the worst feeling ever. The best part about Earhart in my opinion would be the ability to make your own pizza, pasta, and stir-fry. When you make a pizza, it only takes 5 to 6 minutes for them to cook it and they have a vast amount of toppings and sauce that you can put on it ranging from pepperoni, sausage, bacon, barbeque chicken, and lots of veggies. The pasta consists of a variety of noodles and pasta and two types of sauce. The place that gets me in the most trouble is the desserts and pastries area. They always have tons of trays of different kinds of cookies, cake, cheesecake, and basically everything you can think of! I am a big fan of the lemon bars they definitely hit the spot especially on a long day. If you haven’t been to Earhart yet it is worth the walk and wait to go and try it out. I would highly recommend it.

Hillenbrand is a smaller close knit food court that usually has a steak night every week. If you want it you just have to swipe your card twice and I have noticed that it draws a good number of guys usually. I have never personally tried it before but I have heard it is pretty tasty. The best section would be the quesadilla line where there are vegetables, some sauces, sour cream, and chicken and you fill up a little bowl and they cook it for you. Along with the salad bar, on certain days of the week, they offer a whole range of different fruits; I was quite amazed when I saw it. They had cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries, raspberries, pineapple, grapes, and of course my favorite strawberries. It is always good to throw in a couple of vegetables and fruits here and there even though we tend to go for the greasy food and desserts because they taste so much better. Hillenbrand is tinier than the rest but never usually has any lines and you can get your food fast and is very practical. Here is just two out of the five that I have taken a look at so far. In a later blog, I will discuss the other three and what they are known for.

Go outside, but I can't

2007-10-18T15:45:00.000-04:00

It is really nice out today. It about 75 degrees out. It is the type of weather that makes me want to go and do something outside. I want go for a walk, bike ride, or a run. This is college though and despite it being nice, I may not do any of those things I want to. I am too tied up with school work to enjoy the weather.

I should have taken the chance to enjoy it a few weeks ago when I did have free time, rather than just sit around watching television. My college work controls me, this week I have had to spend all my free time working on projects, lab reports, and home work assignments for various classes.

The free time one has should be taken as something extremely valuable because you do not know when you are going to have some more free time. Go enjoy the beautiful weather and do something outside. The weather is soon going to change to colder temperatures. This means you won’t want to go out and play, so please do it now while you have no school work to do and the weather is still nice. I plan on getting everything done for this weekend by about 5pm, so I have the rest of the weekend free. One of the major reasons I get to enjoy this weekend is also because one of my teachers pushed back the due date of a paper.

I think I am going to go for a run Friday and then on Saturday go for a long bike ride. On Sunday I might go out and do an activity called Geocaching. Geocaching is an activity where you get coordinates of something on the internet and you put those coordinates in a GPS device. Then you get to go on a hike to the location to find a log to sign your name in at saying you found it.

Hope everyone enjoys one of there last warm weekends of the year.

Guess Who's Back!

2007-10-16T17:44:00.000-04:00

I'm in the engineering school, but recent events have led me to believe I have another calling. I'm going to go to "be a detective" school. That's probably not a real school, but you get the idea.

The point is, I got my bike back! Let me tell you the story. I was strolling by Cary West and I see a bike on the rack that looks vaguely familiar. Suddenly the gears in my brain start turning, and I start getting pretty excited... could it be? I get closer to the bike and my hopes begin to diwndle. The stem is a different color, and there are stickers on it that weren't on mine.

So I approach the Haro 8.1 with my excitement level down a little bit. But then my intuitive mind begins to think: "There aren't really that many Haro 8.1's around, so it's possible whatever jackass took it made some crude alterations."

My first instinct was to just steal the damn thing back and end it right there. But then my intelligence took over and I figured I'd do it the right way. I called the police and told them that I thought I had found my bike but I wasn't too sure. So a cop came over there and basically told me that unless I had proof it was my bike (i.e. a serial number match) then there was nothing they could do or I could do. The bike would remain there. For now.

So I did some thinking, and I thought "How do I prove this bike is mine?" I called the shop where I bought it from and asked them to fax me my "proof of purchase card" which contained the serial number and other information. They sent the fax to me and I took the long walk back to the bike rack to find out for sure.

I had a buddy of mine get down on the ground and read off the number, and yes, it matched. I was ecstatic. I actually roared with a mix of joy and feeling of triumph. It was amazing. Now all I had to do was call the cop back so they could verify and cut the lock for me. I was victorious. I had won, whoever took my bike lost, because I beat them. And I beat them good.

But anyways, I got lucky. Really, really lucky. The chances of finding my bike were so low, and somehow whoever is pulling the strings up there decided to give me a break. And for that I think them.

FacEbOoK fRENzY!

2007-10-15T18:27:00.000-04:00

Let me start off this blogpost by giving you my daily schedule.

1)Wake up
2)Check Facebook
3)Get ready
4)Go to classes
5)Go to lunch
6)Check Facebook
7)More classes
8)Check Facebok
9)Go to Dinner
10)Co-Rec
11)Check Facebook
12)Shower
13)Homework
14)Check Facebook

At this point in our busy lives, most of us know that Facebook is a big deal. For those of you who do not know about Facebook, Facebook is a social network, if you will. You can create your own page, in a way, and you are able to connect with others on Facebook by becoming "friends", you can message people (which kind of resembles e-mail), and you can post blogs. In addition, you can comment on your friend's pages, make photo albums, post pictures, join groups, and even add fun applications, like free gifts, where you can send your friends "presents". It is just like having your own mini-website.

Personally, I think Facebook is one of the greatest things ever created. Whoever came up with the idea and it's creation is a genius. I've been able to keep in contact with my friends who have gone to college outside of Purdue University AND those who are at Purdue with me whom I do not see often just because of Facebook. I'll admit that there are other ways to keep in touch, such as writing e-mail and sending mail un-electronically, but at the same time who really e-mails now that Facebook, and other sites like MySpace exist? I have been able to contact those that I am doing group projects with through facebook. I can also show off all my pictures to those I do not see much, like my friends who are going to college in California. As you can see, Facebook has many advantages, but nevertheless, it has it's disadvantages as well.

To be honest, I am probably up until at least 2 o'clock every night doing homework, and the sad thing is it isn't because of the amount that I have to do. In fact, when it all comes down to it, I don't have all that much homework, I just "facebook" way too much. It is a major distraction. Before I came to college, I rarely ever used Facebook, let alone the computer unless I had an assignment that involved using one. Now that I am here at Purdue with my own Apple Macbook, I find myself on the online and using facebook at least 5 times a day. You could say I'm an addict, in a sense, and I definitely need to stop, but for some reason I can't and it's not my fault!

Most of the time, I say that if something has at least 2 advantages, then it's worth it. Facebook meets my standards haha. I think that if you do not have a Facebook, you should click here and get one.

I'll be back with another post later this week, but for now, I have to check facebook...I hope somebody wrote on my wall or tagged me in a photo!

Take a break part 1

2007-10-13T22:53:00.000-04:00

Naps are wonderful, wonderful things. I don’t think I’d survive college if I couldn’t take a nap. What I find interesting is that some people refuse to take naps because they think they could be doing something else and not wasting time. WebMD would like to disagree.

According to their article, there are some important things to do before taking a nap:

-know when to nap. Create your own checklist. Things like a lack in judgment, slower reaction time, and reduced communication skills are some signs that you might want to shut your eyes for a few.

-control your environment. Make it the right temperature, the right amount of silence, the right amount of light.

-get out your blankie. Pull out that blanket or that pillow that makes your comfortable. If there’s a certain CD that lulls you to sleep, pop it in. know if you need to eat or not before you nap.

-know your sleep inertia. Sleep inertia, as defined in the article, “is that groggy and disoriented feeling some people get when you wake up from a nap.” Some people only need a 10 minute nap before falling into that groggy feeling. For others, it’s 20 minutes. Have a little wake up pick me up, such as a brisk walk or splashing water on your face.

-don’t overdo it. If your nap starts going into the 25+ minute range, you may affect your ability to sleep at night, which is when it really counts.

-don’t be interrupted from your nap. It makes everything worse, ruins the benefits that you get from napping, and is over all just a pain in the butt. Remember parents waking you up too early in the morning? It’s like that, but worse.

-set an alarm. You don’t want to go over that 25 minute mark, as mentioned before. And you don’t want to miss those classes or meetings. Set an alarm clock, a watch, or have someone wake you when it’s time.

-enjoy your nap. Nap time is your time.

For those of you who don’t believe that naps are beneficial, then I ask you this: why does NASA have nap time? According to the article, they “gave the pilots a planned nap in the cockpit…While two pilots flew the plane, the third would have 40 minutes to nap. We found they would sleep for 26 minutes, which boosted their performance by 34% and their alertness by 54%.”

So, enjoy your nap, but remember to nap responsibly. And please don’t torture your napping roommate.

(photo courtesy of me! yes, that's my baby puppy)

Free money?

2007-10-13T22:12:00.000-04:00

You are now old enough to get a credit card. Plenty of companies are willing to give you one. You can even get them with rewards. Best of all you don’t have the money to spend your money. There are many arguments for and against credit cards.

The first thing you need to decide is should you get a credit card. There are several pros and cons for getting a card.

Pro:
Don’t have to have money now
Get rewards
Build credit
More convenient than cash

Con:
Put yourself in dept
Hurt credit rating

You may have noticed that a pro is build credit, while a con is hurt credit. A credit card is what you make it. If you pay you balance if it will help build your credit rating. If you don’t pay your balance it will hurt your credit rating. It is really way more complicated that, but that is basically how it works. Your credit rating is extremely important. You might not care right now, but you will in the future. It becomes important when you want to go buy a house or a car.

I personally love credit cards. I only have two though. Having two many can hurt your credit as well. I use it for the convince factor. That way I don’t need cash. Also I get rewards from my card. I use to knowing full well that I have the money to pay for the bill, but I rather get rewards. At the end of every month, I pay the bill off in full.

I don’t think someone should use a credit card if you don’t have the money to pay off the bill. I suggest that instead you either just use cash or use a debit card to access the money you do have. If you don’t pay your bill off they charge you interest on the balance which means the next month you will owe even more money even if you did not charge anything else.

If you decide to get a card, get a card from a major bank such as Chase or Citi. Don’t bother to get one from a local bank because they will not offer you things that the big ones will. The local banks will most likely not offer you rewards. Also they will not offer you as high or a limit or one that automatically goes up the longer you have been with them.

Get out of the dorm!

2007-10-13T21:01:00.000-04:00

I don’t care how cozy your dorm room is, everyone needs to get out of the dorm, off campus, and just spend a day or two doing nothing school related. Everyone needs to explore.

I’ve never really been the adventurous, spontaneous type. October Break was the perfect time for me to get away from school and find all the nooks and crannies that make up Lafayette and West Lafayette.

I started off at Kokoro, a Japanese restaurant. The food is amazing. It’s pricy, but I believe it’s totally worth it. My comrade (who shall remain nameless for now, but knows who he is) is the one who originally introduced me to the place.

After food, just start walking around down town. Look around. There are plenty of spiffy little shops to find. When you explore, you tend to learn things that you never would’ve expected. For example, how many people know that Lafayette is a well known place for homeless people across America?

This may make me sound like more of a tourist, but go do all the touristy things. Walk across the bridge. Explore the train station. And take a friend and a camera with you. There are some spots in Lafayette at night that are picture worthy.

By all means, don’t limit yourself to one day! I’ll put up pictures when I get them.

Carefully choose your bike

2007-10-13T12:31:00.000-04:00

I highly recommend that people bring a bike with them to college since some of the dorms are far from campus. With having a bike you don’t have to spend as much time going to class which means more time to sleep in the morning. You need to think carefully about what type of bike you bring though.

There are several reasons you may not want to bring your favorite and probably expensive bike to college. No matter how good the bike, it will most likely be a pile of junk soon. At home most people do not leave there bikes outside, but in college most people leave there bikes locked to the bike rack year round, outside. The weather is not very kind to bike, it will cause rust all over.

Other bad things that happen are caused by other people. Some people find it fun to go around and jump on peoples tires and bend them, making the bike unrideable. Another thing that happens is people steal them if they are worth anything or just for fun. If you look at the bike racks around campus you will see just parts of bikes locked to the racks. Sometimes you will see just a front tire on the bike rack or sometimes just the frame. This is because the lock on the bike was a good lock that could not be cut easily, or it was not locked up properly. If just the frame was left, it was locked up pretty good, but you must have had an expensive bike and the parts were worth a lot. If only the front tire is there, it means the person did not run the lock through the frame.

When you lock up your bike, make sure it goes through your frame and front wheel. This way they can’t just disconnect your front wheel and take the rest of the bike. On my bike I actually have to lock both wheels and the frame because both wheels have quick releases meaning they can be taken off in a few seconds.

I suggest the if you do not have a bike that you do not mind throwing out at the end of the school year due to rust and damage, go to Wal-Mart. You can get a bike there cheap; I believe they are $50-$60. This way you do not have to worry about it getting destroyed, if it does, you just get another. Also look at your bike and see if the wheels are quick releases, if they are, you must get a lock go through the frame and the wheels that are quick release. The lock should always go through the frame.

Now you got to choose a type of lock: u-lock or cable lock and combination or key. A cable lock is all you need if your bike is a cheap bike. If it is more expensive you might want to get a u-lock. A cable lock can be cut in about a seconds with a bolt cutters. With a u-lock, people have to use a saw to cut it, a lot more time consuming. A key lock is more secure than a combination because a person can not just try the combination till they get it. It takes an hour or two to get into a combination lock without cutting it since there are 10,000 possible combinations.

Clubs

2007-10-13T11:23:00.000-04:00

So a baby seal walks into a club...

Oh, don't look so mortified, you know it was funny.

Anyway, this is about a completely different kind of club. I know that most of you are probably members of some organization or other, much as I am. I happen to be a member of the Fencing Club here. What I am writing about today is blowing off club meetings. I know that sometimes you actually have something more important to do, be it a test, a report, whatever. But I also know that sometimes you blow off meetings for no reason whatsoever. I know, I did it last week. Missed both of the meetings because they happen at the same time as House and Grey's Anatomy. This week I showed up again and realized how much better it was going to the meeting than sitting back and watching TV.

Oftentimes, going to a meeting for a club is the lowest thing on your priority list. It seems much more fun to just hang out with friends. And it is. But going to a club can help you connect to a group of peers that you may never meet otherwise. I know my friends aren't that into swords and stuff, and it is nice to be able to go to a place where there are people who share that interest with me. Going to fencing meetings helps me relax and stop thinking about the problems of normal life for a while. So if you are in a club, go to the meetings; you will appreciate it when you're there. If you don't, think about why you are in the club in the first place.

Drunken Haze

2007-10-13T11:04:00.000-04:00

As the year drags on, more people have gotten used to the rhythm of life here in college and started partying a lot on weekends. Personally I don't drink, but I have nothing against people who do. The reason I don't is that the effects of drinking often seem much worse than the pleasure of drinking is worth.

One of my closest friends goes to school over at UVA. Last night at 9 pm he got online and started IMing me. He was pretty out of it, or, as he so eloquently put it, "im drunk, as fuick!" Anyway, six hours later (don't ask why I was up, I'm not even sure) he started messaging me again. "oh sahit. i think i dintd something badn" It turns out that what happened is he went to a party, got pretty drunk, and ended up sleeping with this girl that he knows. She is actually the roommate of the girl that he really likes. Now he is in a mess of trouble, hungover, and confused about how exactly he should treat this girl. All he can do is try to act normally and hope that the girl doesn't talk to her roommate about it.

Another of my friends goes to UK. One time we got to talking and he told me about how one time, he went out with a bunch of his friends to a bar. He said he drank a lot and completely blacked out. He woke up in a dark stairwell with his pants down and no clue as to what went on the night before. He was afraid that he had some terrible STD or something after that, but was too afraid to go to the doctor's about it.

I realize that these things don't happen to everyone who drinks. In fact, they probably won't happen to most people who do. So for those of you who enjoy doing it, I'm not trying to stop you. I'm just saying that you have to consider possibilities like these. If you are going to drink, try to go along with some people who you know don't drink or who will not drink much. Having friends like that around could save you a world of trouble.

Much Needed Relaxation!

2007-10-12T20:27:00.001-04:00

With being in college, it seems that you constantly have things to get done, classes to go to, and people to see and hang out with. Last weekend which was October Break was much needed! It was time just to slow down, hang out with old friends that you haven’t seen in awhile, and yes, hang out with the family for a bit.

I never would have imagined that I would have missed home that much. It just felt weird going back at first. For example, getting into my car and driving places and not having to walk everywhere. It was definitely a good change. You did not have to worry about getting all buddled up or being way to hot. I can’t wait till next year where I can bring my car down here and not have to rely on upperclassmen or the bus to take me to Wal-Mart for instance. If you ever need the bus to go to the mall or Wal-Mart of just around campus you can find the schedule on Citylink. When you do have a car you can go whenever it is most convenient to you and not when they are going.

It was relaxing just catching up with old friends and just sitting around telling stories about being in college and the things that we have encountered. When I was talking to them it did not even feel like I had been gone for 2 months already it was just like old times getting together and talking about everything. We basically just picked off right where we left off and continued with everything!

Another huge benefit with going back home was those home cooked meals. I could never get enough of those. They always just seem to hit the spot and when I was back my mom made my favorites. It just makes you appreciate home so much more with the yummy food. When you are down at Purdue, you can only eat so many sandwiches or pizza before you get sick of it. I am sure by the end of the year I will be ready to get out and try new foods.

I am so glad that I made the decision to go home for a couple of days. I felt much more relaxed and refreshed when I came back. I felt like I could get more things accomplished and had a clear idea and picture in my head as to what needed to get done. I can’t wait till Thanksgiving break now where I can indulge in all the food that I could possibly want.

Then and Now

2007-10-12T01:24:00.000-04:00

From being born to growing up and learning how to tie our shoes, to going to preschool and kindergarten, to learning how to ride our bikes and losing our baby teeth, to going to elementary school, to taking state testing, such as ISTEP, to going to high school and getting our first “jobs” to taking SATS, to graduating. What could be the next HUGE step? Well, I have the answer for you: College.

By now, we all understand that college is one of the biggest steps in our lives that we have taken so far. We were scared, excited, nervous, afraid, anxious, and about every other adjective you could possibly imagine. The first days and weeks were filled with so much emotion, and then, as we got into the swing of things, most of these terrible feelings seemed to dwindle away. Now we are more excited than ever to be here, and why is this true?

No Parents. No longer do we have to listen to our parent’s every command. We are on our own now and we have to make our best judgments because they are no long around 24/7 to make them for us. We feel more mature about ourselves.

Class Schedules. Each person has a different schedule. Some people I know have 7:30 AM classes. I do not ever go to class until at least 9:30 AM. I have classes during lunch hours, and many of my friends do not. Our schedules are so different that some of us do not even have class every day of the week. I do, but a few of my friends do not have classes on Tuesdays or Fridays. Some people get all the luck. It is just nice and fun to have breaks during the day. It is not like high school anymore. Not every one of us starts and finishes the school day at the same time. We can form our daily lives around these schedules, making us feel more responsible.

Meet People. Once we begin to make new friends, we feel accepted. There are so many people that there are always opportunities to make friends. You could make a new friend every day if you wanted! Spending time with these new friends helps us to form our new comfort zones since we have left our former zones back home.

Weekends. In high school, our weekends were pretty much only Friday and Saturday. Now, you find that most of us go out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. This is because most of us do not have early classes on Friday, and if we do, chances are we just skip them. In college, Thursday is referred to as “Thirsty Thursday”. I am not sure how this got started, but it exists.

Everything seems to fall into place after being in college for a couple weeks and especially after a month or two. I was visiting Surviving College Life, and Jamie refers to college as being “your chance” and I agree completely. Here, we make our own choices. We adjust to our new lives. We feel more responsible. We are without parents. We are with new crowds of people. Most of all, we have fun. Admit it, you know this will be one of the best four years of your life!

Walking Vs. Bus

2007-10-11T21:28:00.000-04:00

What should you do? Wait 15 minutes to a half hour on the bus or just walk to class? I have figured out that both have their disadvantages and advantages. As the year goes on I am leaning more and more towards bus riding because it is so much easier. Here are some of the reasons that I would prefer to walk or ride the bus.

First of all, I wanted to agree with the earlier blog posted by kollbjorn “Walking Woes,” I completely agree that having a comfy pair of walking shoes makes things so much nicer. I have no idea how some of those girls wear heels and dressy shoes to class. I would completely fall or have huge blisters on my feet from those. If you go and spend 40 dollars on a new pair of walking shoes it would be a total benefit and definitely not a waste of money. Walking also allows you to get in a little exercise which we all need especially being a freshmen and the dreaded freshman 15 which is constantly on people’s minds. If you just walk 2 miles each day it burns a total of 160-240 calories just depending on how much you weight. You can calculate the total by visiting the calorie counter. It is also low impact on your knees and joints and also works some of your muscles. Also, you are not limited to where you can go and what time you can leave. You can walk anywhere and explore new areas.

The bus is simply a quick ride to campus and very convenient, just make sure you get on the correct one. It allows you to just sit down and relax. Also, when the weather gets really cold and there is a ton of snow on the ground no one is going to want to maneuver through all the snow to get to campus or when it is pouring down rain you do not want to get all wet. It can also just be time to think about things and what you are going to do when you get back.

Although the bus seems like the optimal answer there are some disadvantages that go along with it. It seems like you never make the right bus and you have to wait for the next one. Sometimes the bus is just packed and you cannot even fit. It seems like whenever you really want to ride the bus especially when it’s raining or freezing out it never works out. When you do get on the bus, usually you have to stand and hold on to this little pole or bar when the bus continually stops and goes which makes it hard to stand still. When there is a seat available sometimes it’s not a plus especially when you swear the person sitting next to you hasn’t showered for a week. It is the worst when it gets really hot out and you board the bus getting stuck sitting next to the smelliest person! Well, here are some pluses and minuses to riding the bus or walking. It is totally a personal preference but both can benefit you in their own unique ways.

Put the Stress to the Test!

2007-10-11T00:13:00.001-04:00

You and I both know that college is extremely stressful. Sometimes we just need easy ways to relieve our stress whether they be simple, fun, short, or even long activities. The only thing that matters is if you feel better after the stress reliever. Since I have gotten to Purdue University, I have found a number of ways to do this and I would like to share them with you.

Take a long hot shower. I know that most of you are probably staying in dorm rooms and the showers are not too appealing, but taking a long shower every once in a while does help! I like it because I am alone and no one is around to bother me. Besides, warmth usually puts everyone in a better mood!

Dance. I was reading through another blog called A Fresh Look, which is authored by a girl named Morgan. She is in college too, and I came across a post of hers that said she dances to relieve stress. I had never really danced before to relieve my stress, but it sounded like a good idea since I am more stressed now than I have been since I have gotten here! Dancing really does put you in a better mood and just going crazy makes you feel better about yourself.
Go to the gym. I will admit that when I worked out in high school, it never relieved me of stress. However, I was never too stressed out in high school compared to when I think of how stressed out I am here! When I work out here at college, I feel more relaxed. I have heard from countless people that when you stress out, your muscles tend to tighten up. Working out tends to relieve that tension and you leave the gym feeling refreshed... the only downside is that you have to shower now.
Read a Book. Sometimes it is enjoyable to read a book, or even a magazine, for your own pleasure rather than being forced to read if it is for school. I highly suggest curling up on the couch with a blanket and a good reading. Sometimes you may even fall asleep and wake up even more rejuvenated!
Go Outdoors. The fresh air always helps to some extent. I feel less stressed when I go outside and take a few deep breathes in and let them out.
Clean! I know that sounds really strange, but sometimes if you clean up a bit, you feel a lot more organized. In the process of cleaning, you are too wrapped up in the thoughts of what things should be put where and thus, you forget about all the work for a short time.

I know that is not many, but I really think you should try them, if not all, then at least one! Don't worry! If they do not work for you, you do not ever have to do them again! Also, if you have any ways to get rid of stress, please let me know! You can never have too many stress-relieving strategies!

Vick: Not So Bad After All

2007-10-10T14:47:00.000-04:00

Alright, this is not really related to college life in anyway. But 1) i need something to write about, and 2) this has been bothering me for awhile. People spend so much time berating Michael Vick about his animal cruelty and how bad of a man he is, but I don't think so.

For those of you who don't know, Michael Vick was a star quarterback for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons. He revolutionized the quarterback position by and has been a fan favorite for many years. Recently, Vick was involved in a dog fighting scandal that has threatened the future of his career. Now everybody hates him. He's been labeled the "thug" of pro sports.

So I'm going to go ahead and make a statement: Michael Vick did almost nothing wrong. Sure he broke a law, but he broke a stupid law at that. Before you jump down my throat, hear me out. I think dog fighting is just as cruel as a certain favorite past-time in America: hunting. When someone hunts, their not automatically labeled a "thug." Their not cut down for being cruel to animals. In hunting after you kill an animal, you rip the meat off its carcass. Then you EAT it. Now that's cruel. And downright disgusting. Last I checked, hunting is legal.

Have you seen what they do to chickens and pigs before their turned into the meat we eat? It's even worse. But of course, hunting and slaughter is okay... but dog fighting is not?

Now here's the deal: I think their both equally disgusting and equally wrong. But if one is okay, then why isn't the other? If Michael Vick can walk outside and shoot and kill a deer, why can't he fight a dog? If hunting is legal, dog fighting should be too.

The ONLY thing Vick did wrong was knowingly break a law. For that, he is responsible. But to think about kicking him out of the league? He should recieve a four game suspension and nothing more.

Homeward Bound

2007-10-10T09:56:00.000-04:00

So I got this really good excuse why I didn't have many posts last week. I usually push off my posting until friday and saturday of the week, and this time that proved to be a huge mistake.

Purdue had a little Fall Break last weekend, so I decided to go home. My original plan was to be able to spend 3 days back home with my friends, and spend a total of one day traveling (both there and back). It was a nice plan, well orchestrated. I had left myself ample time to complete all of my homework once i returned home on saturday.

Little did I know that God would not cooperate with me this weekend. Long story short, I ended up spending 49 hours stuck in the Minneapolis airport, and a mere 26 hours actually at home. Let me tell you, I was pisssed. Almost as pissed when my bike got stolen. Which I am still looking for by the way.

I watched a lot of CNN, and blew a lot of money on food and stuff. It was not fun. Northwest Airlines is my least favorite airline right now. See, my flights were canceled due to the weather back home. It was too foggy to land in my hometown, so they kept a bunch of people stuck in Minneapolis for a couple days. Absolute waste of a weekend.

So there's my story, I'd write more but I'm in another class right now and I'm running out of time!

Football weekend!

2007-10-06T16:30:00.000-04:00

Sadly, I can’t afford to go to every football or every sports game. I enjoy food and video games and music too much. Fortunately, there are things to do! Sadly, the game is much more fun.

So, here’s what I do on games days when I don’t go. I’ll break it down into allotted time, so you too can figure out how to play a game day when you don’t have a ticket.

Start: 24 hours remaining

-Sleep in. Wake up at 10.
14 hours remaining

-laundry
12 hours remaining

-grocery shopping
10 hours remaining

-watch a movie…or 2
7 hours remaining

-play video games
3 hours remaining

-do homework
1 hour remaining

-eat, shower, etc.
0 hours remaining

See? It’s really not that hard to occupy your time. Yes, tailgating and watching the game is admittedly much more fun than laundry or shopping, but it’s done and out of the way, and you’ve filled 24 hours with things to do.

(photo courtesy of purduejax.com)

more college survival tips

2007-10-06T16:07:00.000-04:00

Lately, my roommates and I have been attempting to catch up on TV shows. Yes, we realize that House and Grey’s Anatomy have started back up.

But, with all of our crazy schedules, we’ve been starting a DVD of Grey’s or House at 9 at night. This means that we don’t get done with the DVD until around 1 AM. This wouldn’t be a problem if there was no such thing as classes before noon. Sadly, I have 4 8:30 AM classes, and my roommates have 7:30 AM classes. Oh, do we look dead in those classes, if we don’t sleep through them (which I’ve observed other people doing. They show up, and then sleep through the class, wake up, and then leave.)

I advise starting a show before 9. Or, you can start it at 9, and then just watch one episode.

Sometimes roommates are just a pain in your…well, you know. Take a friend of mine.

Every so often his roommate kicks him out of his dorm room because he wants to do the mcnasty. I understand that it’s this other guy’s room too, but you can’t just kick your roommate out at 3 AM because you can’t control your hormones. So, to all of the people out there who kick out their roommates at absurd hours, stop it. It makes people plot against you. For your own safety, do the mcnasty while your roommate is in class. At least then you feel like less of a jerk, and they actually have somewhere to be.

(photo courtesy of classicinsight.com)

Everyone’s favorite subject part 3

2007-10-06T16:02:00.000-04:00

If you haven’t guessed, I’ve recently become single, and I’m actually having fun with it. I’ve been torturing poor college boys, enjoying myself, and convincing people to do things for me.

Now, the poor college boys I mentioned earlier aren’t exactly being tortured. All I do is spend an extra 10 minutes getting ready in the morning: make up, real clothes that fit, and I’m actually awake when I get to class. I don’t get all prettied up for boys, I honestly do it for myself. I, however, cannot deny that getting whistled at on my way to class is an ego booster.

I’ve found that not being tied down has allowed me to get to know more people. I’ve talked to more people in my classes in the past 2 weeks. I make brownie cake (and for those of you on the food blog, do I have a recipe for you!). I’ve been singing along with all my man hater music, and not caring if I’m off key.

But I’ve also found that even that it’s a painful experience, people around you still care. One of my friends put back on my key on my keyboard (hooray!), and he’s been cooking for me and my roommates (although, I honestly cannot say why because I don’t have a clue. I can only speculate, and I’m going to assume it’s because he takes pity on me and sympathizes with my roommates.)

Being single has its perks. My parents send me 7 boxes of brownie mix, put money in my bank account, and keep shipping my boxes of stuff that I want and need.
So, don’t worry about being single. Enjoy all the perks! I certainly am!

(photo courtesy of myminis.com)

Walking Woes

2007-10-06T15:23:00.001-04:00

One major difference between going to school here and being at home is that here you have to walk everywhere. For me, this was not much of an issue. I walk all the time at home anyway, not having a car. My friends, however, were horrified at the idea of not being able to drive places. Even though I walked a lot anyway, I still found the amount that I walk here to be annoying. See, I live on Hilltop, right at the top of the hill. While living here affords me considerably more space than a normal dorm room would, it means that I have to walk all the way to the north end of campus and up a huge freaking hill every day. It is still quite a walk, even though I have been making it multiple times a day for two months now. My roommate and I have named this tower past the top of the hill 'The Beacon of Despair' since we can only see it when we are actually walking up the hill... But I digress.

Good walking shoes are a must here on campus. I only have one pair of shoes here (the horror, the horror!) but they are a pair of comfortable sneakers. However, they are starting to wear strangely. I am in the fencing club, so I have to make a lot of sideways movements with my rear (left) foot. This is causing the bottom of my left shoe to start to come off on the inside. The toe of my right foot is also wearing for a similar reason, so I'll probably have to go out and get new shoes soon.My roommate got a new pair of shoes when he came here, but soon found that they were cutting up his feet and giving him blisters because of the sheer amount of walking we have to do every day. He soon reverted to his old, worn in sneakers, which are much more comfortable to walk in. One of my other friends often does not wear sensible footwear when she comes to visit. I've seen her make the walk up here in heels and wedges and then complain about how hard it was. *rolls eyes* If you are going to be walking halfway across campus and up a giant hill, at least wear some comfy shoes.

OSU-Purdue Snafu

2007-10-06T11:50:00.000-04:00

Well, it's nearly time for another football game. Our opponent this week: Ohio State. This game day is different from the others for a few reasons. First, this is October break, meaning that a lot of our students have gone home already. This is also our first night game, allowing the students that remain the entire day to pregame at the bars. I think these factors will combine to give us a smaller turnout than usual in the student section.

There is another thing that makes this game different. We have not yet played a school with such a huge fan base. The entire OSU part of the stadium was sold out when my roommate tried to get his father some tickets before the season even began. This fan base extends into our school as well. I am sure many students who go here are OSU fans at heart. My roommate, for example. He has been an OSU fan for as long as I can remember. Watching him today was funny and depressing at the same time. He just couldn't decide who to root for. I've never seen him so upset. He finally put on a Purdue Blackout shirt over a red OSU shirt, so he could support both teams at once, but he's still torn up. I told him he should root for Purdue since he's in the student section, but he said that he just couldn't not root for OSU.

I will never understand sports fans like that. I mean, it's one thing if you actually go to the school. I can understand rooting for the team then. But rooting for a school that you don't even go to? That you don't live by? I can't understand what makes people do that. If you want to root for a different team, I have nothing against you. Just don't let it take over you too much. Right now my roommate is just sitting on the couch clutching a pillow. He hasn't really spoken in hours. Don't end up like him. Root responsibly.

Ways to help with Stress!

2007-10-03T22:13:00.000-04:00

Stress is something we all have to deal with throughout our lives. It can be some tension, mental or emotional strain, feeling anxious, a sense of not getting anything accomplished, wanting to give up, and a sense of failure approaching. You feel overwhelmed and just want to give up sometimes. If you do not do something about it, it could be detrimental to your health emotionally and physically. It can cause other serious problems that will lead you down a difficult path. Here are some tips on trying to live a stress free life. If you take it a step at a time it may help you tremendously and alleviate the extreme anxiety that you may feel.

First of all and most important be active! Take time out of your day just for yourself and it can be as simple and taking a walk with some friends and discussing how your day has been going. Avoid partying during the week and focus on your studies so you do not feel overwhelmed. When you get everything completed, then you can go out and have a blast during the weekends. If you party during the week, you tend to stay out to late and run a higher risk of sleeping in and missing vital classes that will add stress that is not necessary. Try and eat healthy foods that will provide the right amount of nutrients and energy for your body. Avoid the greasy and processed foods that are loaded with fats and oils that are unhealthy.

Second, get an adequate amount of sleep each night to prepare you for the next day’s events. Sleep deprivation can cause several side effects such as irritability, lethargy, and a loss of an appetite. It may not be as visible the next day but when you have consecutive days of little or no sleep it takes a serious toll on your body and makes you feel overwhelmed. It can also lead to a lower immune system and you may become sick. The suggested amount of time for young adults is 7 to 8 hours per night.

You could also join groups that perform activities such as yoga or Pilates which focuses relaxing the body and slowing down the fast pace of life. It allows you to have time to reflect, clear your mind, and overall feel better about yourself. When you finish it puts you in a better state of mind and you will feel less overworked and crammed.

When you manage your stress you can perform better academically and also feel better about yourself and have a positive outlook on life. When you are stressed it takes a toll on the body so before you get to that point take simple steps each day to try and avoid it. You do not want to fall behind on your work and have a sense of failure. So my last words of advice would be to set aside time for yourself, be active, eat nutritious foods, and stay on top of things.

Managing the Clock

2007-10-03T22:11:00.000-04:00

Have you noticed how time just flies by and you are still sitting there thinking what you should do next? I noticed that if you do not keep track of the time everything just seems to run together. I decided to blog about this issue because I think in college it is a huge deal and we should use our time wisely. There are some useful tidbits that I have caught onto just being at college in the last month.

When you are sitting there waiting for a class to start or when you have an hour in between two classes and not enough time to go back to your dorm room you should bring along some homework. You do not realize how much you can get finished in an hour if you sit down and focus on it. I have also found that the Union has comfy chairs to sit in and get tasks accomplished. It gets you out of the heat and is a quiet atmosphere for you to go and concentrate. If you haven’t checked it out yet I would highly recommend it. You can even grab a snack or drink to fuel you for the rest of the day.

Secondly, when you are sitting on your couch watching television have your notes handy that you took in class and on commercials or breaks you can reread them and remember things that you have already forgotten. Also, when you are studying for a test make sure you do not cram for a test! That is the worst idea ever; you will never fully retain the information and will forget everything afterwards. If you look over your notes a few minutes each day and familiarize yourself with them it will be much easier in the long run when it comes to taking exams. At the end of the semester when you have those dreaded cumulative exams, you will receive a higher grade than those that try and study all night before the big exam.

So just some words of advice do not waste precious time, make sure you have a plan set,
stick to it, and get things done in the most efficient way possible. Try and make use of your time in the best way possible. When you buckle down and get things done during the week in your breaks and free time, you will have more time to relax and kick back during the weekends.

I Want My Baby Back

2007-10-03T20:42:00.000-04:00

Awkward title, I know. But hear me out. Look above... that's my bike (baby). And today it was stolen. Abducted. Seized. You get the picture. Anyway my beautiful Haro Escape 8.1 mountain bike was stolen, and now I'm pissed. I don't know if that word is appropriate or not, but I'm still pissed. The best part is, they didn't even break my bike lock to get at it. They left the lock there tied to the bike lock. Maybe they thought I wouldn't notice the bike was gone. I do not know.

But the point is that it's gone. And this has led to me to the following conclusion about the entire human race: their all scum. Every single one of you. I might be pushing it a little bit, but again, I'm pissed.

So a couple things I think you could do to avoid this tragedy happening to you. Make sure your bike is registered with the police. This makes the recovery process much easier on the police. I think. You should also have a lock with a key. Who would've known it would be easy to break those combination locks that you just have to roll 4 numbers to lock up. Unfortunately it makes it easy to break the lock as well. Exhibit A: MY BIKE! You should also consider just bringing your bike to your dorm. If I ever get mine back, I will resort to doing that.

I'll just end this with a message: If by any chance your reading this, and you stole a Haro mountain bike from Cary. Know this: one day I will find you, and when I do I will kill you. That is all.

StaY in ToucH with ThE FAM

2007-10-03T18:16:00.000-04:00

It's two in the morning and your cell phone rings. "Hello? Mom? Why are you calling me at this hour?!" "Honey! I know it's late, but I've been waiting to hear from you, and I just CANNOT wait any longer! Are you okay?!"...

...the typical worried mom. Enough said.

It's really hard going off to college for the first time. You're a freshman, you don't know very much about the campus, your classes are fifty times harder than they were in high school, and you stress out way more often. You're too busy doing homework and studying for exams, and you forget one of the most important things in your life--family.

Now when I say you "forget" about your family, doesn't really mean you actually do. I guess what I mean to say is that your so busy that you don't have much time to just call and chit-chat whenever you want. Your family and closest friends know that you're busier now than you have ever been in your entire life, but they get worried and upset if you go a week or so without calling them, even if it's just to say hi.

Just because you're doing fine doesn't mean they know you are. After all, your parents have been taking care of you for the past 18 or so years of your life--since you were born. Of course they are going to freak out when you don't call everyday! If you've got your parent's calling you every other day because you haven't called them, just start calling them and give them the scoop of what's going on. A short phone call goes a LONG way. If you call them every couple of days, they probably won't send a search party after you! So it's a win-win situation. You call your parents, they're happy, and at the same time, you don't get embarrassed.

On the other hand, even if your parents don't check up on you all the time, you might feel better if you keep close contact with them and call them anyway. Things get really stressful in college and it's nice to always have someone to talk to you, or even just listen to you complain and whine for a little bit. They'll appreciate it, anyway. They won't mind at all.

I've kept in close touch with my parents since I've moved here, and our relationship has gotten so much better. When I was living at home, I got frustrated and mad at my parents all of the time. Face it, they were annoying, and they were the last people you wanted to deal with (and yes, I know I'm not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition, but I can't think of another way to say it right now). So, in some cases, maybe when you move away from home, you get closer to home.

Go away for the weekend

2007-10-02T13:50:00.000-04:00

Leaving Purdue for the weekend could be just what you need to get away from all the school work. I am excited to say that one of my teachers pushed back a lab write-up due date, that was going to force me to do it over October break. I was going to have to do it over break because the lab did not take place till Thursday and was due the day we get back. This might not sound like a big deal, but this is no ordinary lab, it is a lab that I have been working on all semester, so there is a lot to write up. Let’s get back on the topic of going away now.

This up coming weekend, I hope to go backpacking. I am looking to go to a place I went this summer again called Porcupine Mountains. I have had to stress and worry a lot about classes lately and this will be just the break I need. It will distract me completely from my work and allow relaxing. I like this park in particular for several reasons. The most important is that it beautiful and awesome. This park is relatively flat, so I do not have to get all worked up while hiking except for a few climbs. I am looking to enjoy myself and relax, not get a workout. I will hike about 10 miles a day, which can be done in about 4-5 hours with a lunch break, so there is plenty of time to relax in the afternoon. This park is located on Lake Superior and has several interior lakes as well. This means that every day when you are done hiking you get to go swimming.

Let me give you a brief out line of what happens when I go backpacking:
8:00AM – Wake up
8:10AM – Eat Breakfast
8:20AM – Pack up tent and other gear
8:30 AM – Head out on the hike
11:30AM – Stop for lunch
2:00PM – Arrive at camp site for night and setup tents
2:30PM – go swimming
3:30PM – Relax, dry off
4:30PM – Gather wood for fire
5:00PM – Relax
6:30PM – Make dinner
7:00PM - Relax
7:30PM – Have campfire, Relax
9:30PM – Go to bed

Backpacking is a lot simpler than everyday living. You just need to get firewood, eat, setup camp, and hike. There is not too much to worry about other than rain and cold temperatures. If either of those are going to happen, I most likely won’t even go because rain and cold does not equal fun when you are outside. My schedule above gives you lots of time to relax and just talk with my friends. Looking at the weather now for this upcoming weekend does not look very good. The chance of rain is 40% and low temperature is 42 degrees, but it is still a log ways off, so the forecasts are not very accurate.

College Safety for Dummies

2007-10-02T12:28:00.000-04:00

So you're walking from your dorm (or wherever you live) and heading to class and you approach a stop light. You don't have a walk signal, but, being the "smart" person you are, you proceed anyway. Two seconds later, you almost get hit by a car.

I've seen or heard about plenty of dangerous things happen since I've been in college, and I've only been here for about two months. You need to pay attention to what is going on around you at all times. Being oblivious is not an option here. I repeat--NOT AN OPTION!

About a month ago, I received an e-mail from Purdue University stating that a girl got trapped, in her own residence hall, by three men who cornered her in the elevator. She reported being touched, and although she wasn't actually hurt, she could have been. Here's a hint: NEVER GO ANYWHERE ALONE! Take a friend with you wherever you go, but the more people, the better. If such a service is provided for you, seek out your university's escort service if you know that you will need to walk somewhere alone. This services aren't just provided for your entertainment and humor.

I saw a guy get hit by a car a couple weeks ago. He wasn't watching, and just like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, he saw a car coming at the last minute, but the car DID NOT stop. He got run over. Authorities made us leave the scene, so I'm not sure what the outcome was. All I know is that when I left, he was laying on the ground not moving at all.

Oh yeah, I saw two bikes collide the other day. Yes, there were people on both. No, they did not die. Yes, they got hurt. No, they did not go to the hospital. Yes, they went to Purdue University's Health Center. They're okay now, but you can't tell me that it couldn't have been avoided. It could have.

The last thing I'm going to mention is an issue I read about in another e-mail I recently received. A girl had been standing in her yard, during the DAY, with her back turned to the road, and a man came up behind her, harassed her, and tried to get her to go with him. She did not go, but she reported it to the police, and I have yet to hear if he was found or not.

So this goes to tell you that you should NEVER be anywhere alone even when it's light outside. Just because there is light doesn't mean things like this can't occur during the day. They most certainly can. In fact, did you know that more house thefts occur in the daytime rather than in the middle of the night? I watched a program on the discovery channel about it a year ago or so. I thought it was weird too. And please, pay attention when you're walking or riding you're bike somewhere. You don't want to be notorious for crashing your bike into another bike, do you?

Purdue Football Keeps Rolling... Are They Indeed For Real?

2007-09-29T20:06:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of the year, I was pretty skeptical about the Purdue football team. They had beaten 2 weak opponents, and I thought people were giving them way too much credit way too early. But lately I've been impressed with their play.

The are now 5-0 this season, their recent win coming against Notre Dame. The struggling Fighting Irish have been (in my opinion) the toughest test for the Boilermakers yet this season. Notre Dame put themselves in a position to tie it in the fourth quarter, but some key plays by the Boilermaker offense kept Purdue on top at the sound of the final whistle.

The game, which started off as a blowout gradually became interesting as the second half wore on. At the half, Purdue was up 23-0 and everyone assumed this just to be the fifth straight Notre Dame breakdown. The story of the second half ended up being Fighting Irish backup quarterback Evan Sharpley. With Clausen down with a hip injury, Sharpley threw 16 of 26 for 208 yards for 2 touchdowns.

The Purdue offense was itself with Curtis Painter throwing for 2 touchdowns and Corey Sheets running for 141 yards and a touchdown of his own. I've been really impressed with this Purdue offense in the last 2 games. Their last 2 opponents (Minnesota and Notre Dame) have at least been, in my opinion legit opponents, and the Purdue offense has still looked pretty good. Painter handles himself pretty well in the pocket.

Another interesting thing I took out of this game has to do with Notre Dame. Will Sharpley be the starting quarterback come next week? In my opinion he definitely should be given the job for now. Jimmy Klausen (the freshmen recruit) has struggled early, and Sharpley was very impressive in the second half today. Hopefully head coach Charlie Weis gives him the shot he deserves.

Next week will be the real test for the Boilermakers when Ohio State comes to town. If Purdue can prove themselves against this football powerhouse, I'll be convinced about their legitimacy for sure.

RIAA Cracks Down at Purdue

2007-09-29T19:45:00.000-04:00

Purdue recently became one of the university's to agree to work with the RIAA in cracking down on students illegal downloading of copyrighted audio and video files from illegal programs such as Limewire.

The RIAA recently sent 47 letters to students informing them that they might owe large sums of money for their downloading habits. To check out the article, click here. As you might read, one girl owes $3000!.

If you would like to check out a copy of the letters students have been receiving, click here:
http://www.purdueexponent.org/extra/RIAAletter.pdf

Should this be happening?? Should Purdue be working with the RIAA against it's own students? As of now, Purdue says it hasn't provided the RIAA with student information unless it has received a court order to do so.

I'm pretty torn on this subject. While I agree it's morally wrong to own songs without the artist receiving some money for his work, I'm not going to sit here and act like I don't do it myself. I think there are much worse problems on college campuses than illegal file sharing though, and I feel that there is too much focus on this and too little on other things. I guess now that I've thought about it, I'm leaning towards saying it's okay to download and share. I just don't think it's that big of a deal. Musicians make millions anyway and who does it hurt if you simply download a song? No major ramifications I can think of.

The RIAA is cracking down everywhere, and college students who excessively download should be careful or they might get in trouble. A little thing I read the other day I found interesting. Now I'm not sure if this is true, but the RIAA is cracking on those who illegally share fires. I read that this means you can download the files illegally, but you must not share these files once you have them. So apparently it's safe to download, just unsafe to share. Again, take this with caution because I do not know the reliability of my source.

Dress Code???

2007-09-29T19:31:00.000-04:00

Purdue recently turned away the idea of donning a dress code for students. Other colleges however, are implementing this idea. One such place is Illinois State University. At ISU, students are required to wear "business casual" clothing or else risk getting a zero on any assignments turned in that day. Check out the article: http://www.purdueexponent.org/?module=article&story_id=7359

This is ridiculous in my opinion. It's a really good thing administrators were reasonable and did not allow this to pass through here at Purdue. There's no way a dress code at a university with 40,000+ students is a good idea.

College is supposed to be about preparing yourself for life after it. In other world, it's about getting ready for the real world. Last time I checked, there were no dress codes in the real world. You are supposed to learn how to interact with people no matter how they are dressed. And you are supposed to be able to function at your highest level no matter how you yourself are dressed.

The only rule as far as clothing goes should just be that the student has all the places covered that need to be. That's all that needs to be said on that. There are going to be some problems with a dress code at the places that have donned it. What exactly is "business casual?" Polo? Shirt and tie? Khakis? Dress pants? There would be so many ways to interpret whatever dress code would be placed on students at college. Instituting something like this would just give college students another thing to protest about. I can flat out guarantee that this is a bad idea. Personally, I don't see a single positive out of this idea.

Again, this is just my opinion. I think doing this is not only ridiculous but will take away one way in which college can be considered as "preparation for the real world."

To all the parents of college freshmen

2007-09-29T17:29:00.000-04:00

I know that we’re your babies. You fed us, changed our diapers, clean up our puke, stayed at our bedside, and fought off the monsters under the bed. We appreciate this. There are some things, however, that need to be addressed.

Don’t panic when we don’t call. We will call if we need something. When we don’t call, it means that we’re busy, we’re fine, and that we’re having a grand time doing our own laundry.

If we don’t call every night, every other night, or even every week, we are not dead. This does not give the right to call our RA, our advisors, or the cops to see if we are still alive. All this does is make us never want to talk to you again for humiliating us in front of our roommates and peers. (You think I’m joking. My roommate is read to kill her parents for calling the cops.)

If you’re that worried that we’re dead, send us a box of useful things: candy, soda, coffee, chocolate, clean clothes, rolls of quarters, laundry stuff.

I know that you remember the good old days of back when you were in college. At least, you think you do. College is both different and the same. There are many new obstacles, new tasks, and new hardships that didn’t exist 20+ years ago. For example, one of the many harmless pranks that you got away with will now get us expelled and sent to jail. Don’t give us ideas.

We value your advice, but rarely hear it. No offense, but we’ve been ignoring it for the past 18 or so years. When we ask for your advice, we really want it. And, yes, we know that you told us how to do this every day over the past summer, but we really need it now.

Factor in time zone changes when you call. There’s nothing more annoying to the rest of us than someone’s cell phone going off in the middle of class ever 2 minutes, followed by the ‘missed call’ sound, and finally followed by the ‘new voice mail’ sound. While your child’s ringtone is catchy and fun to dance to, the other sounds are annoying and grating.

Really, when we don’t call, it’s not that we don’t love you. It’s that we’re fine, busy, and having fun. Honestly. I promise. We’ll call in a week or two when we need something, and we’ll remind you how much we love you then.

I'm up, I'm up!: A guide to energy drinks

2007-09-29T16:54:00.000-04:00

While in college, it is likely that you will occasionally have to stay up for unnatural amounts of time for assignments, term papers, test studying, or whatnot. If you have ever done this, you will know that it proves quite difficult to think after being awake for 20 odd hours. If only there was some way to stay awake and alert longer... Well, thanks to the miracle of the energy drink, there is! But there are so many kinds to choose from. How can you choose the right one? Don't worry, I'm here to help. I have sampled quite a variety of these kinds of drinks and have found some to be much more effective than others.

When considering energy drinks, you must remember that no energy drink will taste great. There are too many concentrated ingredients in them to be able to easily mask them. There are also two ways energy drinks give you energy: sugar/caffeine rush and vitamin B. Rush drinks just have lots of sugar and caffeine, proving effective in the short term of an hour, maybe two. As soon as these wear off you will find yourself even tireder than before. B drinks aim at giving you excess vitamin B. Vitamin B increases cell metabolism, causing your body to burn food and fat faster and thus produce more energy. These drinks are the ones that prove the most effective in keeping you awake a long time. When getting an energy drink, go for ones that have a lot of vitamin B.

I tend to use Rockstar the most, simply because it works and is widely available. Red Bull seems to work a little better, but you only get a single size for the same price as a double size Rockstar. Monster is basically the same as Rockstar, but I never feel as awake after it for whatever reason. Amp is a rush drink, not a B drink, and is not a good choice for all nighters. Nos is effective and doesn't taste too bad, but it is slightly harder to find. 5 Hour Energy is insanely good at keeping you awake. It has 8300% of your daily reccomended value of vitamin B in it! There is a big crash afterwards though, so be warned. However, I would use it if I had it. Other energy drinks may or may not work, but I haven't had much experience with them. My advice on picking an energy drink is to look at the supplement facts on the can. If it has 100% or more of various vitamin Bs, riboflavin, or niacin (which are both kinds of vitamin B), it will probably work well.

Sleep Deprivation

2007-09-29T16:02:00.000-04:00

A few days ago my roommate and I decided to pull an all nighter. Well, he decided to do that and I decided to help him do that. He, being a freshman engineer AND a procrastinator, had amassed a huge amount of work to do for the next day. I'm talking 30+ pages of calculations and programming. He started working at maybe 4 pm but decided to take a break for dinner and stuff. 8 hours later he remembered his huge assignment. I told him that if he was going to work all night, he might need something to help him out, and he agreed. So we went out at about 12:30 am to aquire some energy drinks. We came home with a 4 pack of Amp and a 4 pack of Monster. I am not a huge fan of either, but my roommate likes them, so whatever. I had one of each. Twenty four hours later, I finally went to sleep.

Staying awake a long time often seems like a good idea because it gives you so much more time to get things done. However, staying awake more than 16 hours or so starts to take a toll on you, both physically and mentally. After about 18 hours of staying awake, I began to experience the first of these problems: short term memory loss. I had just taken a test that day, maybe 6 hours ago at that point, but I couldn't remember taking it. Hell, I couldn't even remember going to it. An hour later I began experiencing loss of inhibition. I began just doing whatever random thing I thought of. My roommate took a ideo of me to prove it. I staggered around acting like a monkey for a while. After that, I felt extremely cold and lost the will to move. I sat in a ball on the couch underneath a pair of blankets for maybe two hours. During that time I never once looked around. I stared straight ahead, zoning out. My speech became slower and unintelligable. I also began to find things hilarious that I normally wouldn't even smile at. I could tell my roommate was experiencing the same things.

If you are planning on staying up all night for something, remember that you will not be quite functional without sleep. The next day you will be a zombie. Only do it when you know you will not have to do anything difficult the next day. DO NOT STAY UP ALL NIGHT BEFORE A TEST! The extra study time is not worth the consequences. It is much better to be able to think through problems on a test than to have memorized all the answers but find yourself unable to remember them.

What a Drastic Change!

2007-09-29T09:51:00.000-04:00

Back in high school, everything was so easy compared to college, right? Your mom did your laundry for you (ok well... mine did), you could get your homework done during your classes and never have any homework to do at HOME (which kind of defeats the purpose of it, huh?), you didn't have to study as hard because the teachers spoon-fed you the material like crazy, and you were able to drive yourself to and from school whenever you were old enough to get your licenses, and now you might be going to campus that doesn't allow freshman to have cars, and guess what, you fall into that category!

Those are just SOME of the few things I've noticed.

Before you go to college, most people tell you that the professors don't care if you show up to class or not. That's a lie. All of my teachers take attendance and keep track. It doesn't matter if they tell you about it or not because rules for attendance are listed in the syllabus and if you fail a class because you've missed so much, you can't complain that the teachers didn't actually tell you about it. They give you a syllabus for a reason and that reason is to read it for that kind of information. In high school, the school worked around how many days you were absent and you could pretty much not go, and they would still allow you to make up the work. In college, it's just a lot more complicated. Just be aware of the rules and consequences for absenses and consequences that come with them.

I don't know about you, but I studied an hour, AT THE MOST, when I had a test in high school. I've come here, and I've studied, AT THE LEAST, for three hours for an upcoming exam. This is getting to be a real problem. High school teachers did NOT prepare me for this at all. Assignments and tests were so easy in high school compared to the ones I'm taking now in college. You'd think the teachers would make things a bit more challenging, seeing as how they went through college themselves. Isn't high school supposed to prepare us for this huge step in life? I think so...?

I'm a freshman at Purdue. I can't go anywhere unless I take a bus, and that takes at least a couple hours to arrive where I need to be if I have to travel off-campus. At home, I could just hop in my car and go to the mall, the movies, a friend's house, etc., and now, I'm struggling with not having one. All I know is that I'm taking advantage of my car when I go home next weekend for fall break. Heck yes.

Little necessities during high school were so much easier to take care of than they are now too. Laundry, showering, shopping, eating, just to name a few. I'm finding myself become frustrated here with all of these little every-day things, and at home, I wasn't.

This is such a change, but you know what? College rocks my world!!! It's SO much more fun than high school!!!!!!

Everyone’s favorite subject (part 2)

2007-09-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Last time I gave some advice on dumping someone, but that’s only half of the story. Being dumped is crap, and it’s one of the worst things to happen to a person.

While it is traumatic, there are ways to deal with the pain without the use of substances (other than chocolate).

Go for a walk, job, or bike ride every day. Don’t go in the day, but when the sun is bright and shining. Your body needs sunlight to produce vitamin D, and it’s thought that sunlight helps prevent depression. Vitamin D may also be a great preventative of depression.

Play video games. There’s something satisfying about beating something up. And no, videogames do not cause violence.

Eat chocolate. It makes everything better. (picture from http://www.phillipschocolate.com/gourmet-chocolate.asp)

Beat up a pillow, a stuffed animal, or some other inanimate object. If you take the pillow route, it will be soft and fluffy when you go to bed.

Take some of KJ’s advice on stress. Take a break from things. Breathe.

Get angry. Start a war with the opposite gender. It may sound difficult, but it’s actually easy and rather fun. I started a lynch mob (jokingly), where we’d just talk about taking out our anger. Date multiple people at the same time, and let them know. Schedule all of them to take you out on a date on the same night, but not at the same time. This means that you have legitimate excuses to get out of a date. Hey, you never said you were exclusive with these people. Get them to make you feel like a princess and battle over you.

Talk to people, and get help if you need it. It is much better to be single and miserable than in a relationship and a failure. (The quote from Grey’s went something like that.) Keep your friends and family close. They are wonderful in these situations. My mom sent me 7 boxes of brownie mix (which is completely awesome!)

Remember, people don’t make you who you are. You don’t need some guy or some girl to make you good, smart, or anything else. If they aren’t your best friend and if they don’t make you feel like a better person, then you’re better off without them.

Simple Activities that Change

2007-09-26T20:07:00.000-04:00

If you are just beginning freshmen year, you will encounter simple daily activities that are vastly different than back home. It exposes students to a variety of different elements such as living in a small dorm room, community bathrooms and showers, and doing your own laundry. When you come down here you have to adapt to your new surroundings. These activities will obviously still have the same outcome just different ways of getting them accomplished.

My first example that changes greatly would be living in a small dorm room. At first, I did not think everything I brought would fit in these tiny rooms. You have to just bring down the necessities that you truly need and leave the rest back at home. You have to be organized and make sure you put everything back where you got it. Make sure you pick up all your trash and messes because your room will just fill up with clutter if not. Then you will never be able to locate anything in times of need and will be out of luck.

Another huge adjustment for me was the community bathrooms and showers. I never would have thought that I would be sharing the same bathroom with 54 other girls that are on my floor. One minute I have my own bathroom and the next anyone can use it. My advice to you would be to wear flip flops or shoes. You never know what is creeping around there that you might come in contact with, especially in the shower. I happened to be lucky and be on one of the floors where the bathrooms are usually neat and tidy. If everyone cleans up after themselves if they make a mess, it makes a worlds difference. You have to be considerate of the others that are around you and make sure you treat it as you would want them to treat it.

A third issue would be the simple task of doing your own laundry. In my first and second week of school, I have never seen so many people confused on how to start their own laundry. You just have to make sure you separate your clothes into darks and whites, put detergent into the machine, put it on the right settings, and hit start. I didn’t think it took a brain surgeon to figure it out but they were so many people down in the laundry room making it seem like some complex ordeal. A helpful tip is to make sure you save up your quarters! Do your laundry during the weekdays because on the weekends it is packed. I learned from personal experience when I did it on Sunday night I had my clothes washed and then no dryers were available so I had to wait 10 minutes. You do not want to wait down in that hot, steamy room for a dryer. I think it is good way to build some responsibilities up and not just depend on your mother to do your own laundry.

Keeping Your Priorities Straight!!

2007-09-26T20:05:00.000-04:00

Who ever wanted to sit around all day studying and doing homework rather than going to a movie or hanging out with friends? We never want to do anything that involves hard work, tedious time, and our complete focus. We all would much rather be out having a blast and doing the things we love. We need to make sure we get things done in an orderly fashion that deals with getting the most important tasks out of the way first and leaving lots of time to relax and refresh.

I decided to write my blog about this because I think especially new freshmen try and socialize and make new friendships instead of what they should really be doing. There is always a place and time to get that accomplished but in college you need to get your priorities straight. You need to buckle down and not get distracted by the little things that arise and get in your path. When you stick to what needs to be completed, you will feel better about yourself in the long run. You will feel a sense of accomplishment and take pride in your work. If you come home late and try to write a paper that’s due by midnight and squeeze it in, the paper will not be up to your standards. Through your grades, you will be able to tell the difference and it will definitely catch up to you. If I was you, paying lots of money to get a good education I would want to take advantage of the opportunities that I have and stay focused on what will be very rewarding in the end. You do not want college to just be a waste of time, partying all the time, you want to get something out of it and have it with you the rest of your life.

You need to make sure that you do not get sidetracked and fall off the path that you are taking. If you keep all your priorities straight, that will be a huge contribution to your success in college. Getting things done and finished on time, with precise thought, and determination will be a huge attribute to your career. When you get everything prioritized and set a schedule up for yourself it makes life so much easier. It will be less stressful getting tasks completed on time and you will have an adequate amount of time to get it finished. It creates a sense of balance and structure too. As hard as it is to keep on track, not get distracted by wanting to out, keeping your priorities straight will help you be successful not only your college days but the rest of your life.

Get up off your butt

2007-09-26T18:28:00.000-04:00

While at college you should do more than just go to class, do homework, and drink. Try to enjoy yourself some. Find a club to join. There are a ton of options to choose from. You go on SSINFO to see what clubs there are. On SSINFO click on Student Life, Student Organizations. On there you will find hundreds of clubs that do lots of different things. I personally have joined two different groups during my time at Purdue. I joined a fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and an organization of students in my major, Association of Information Technology Professionals.

There are many good reasons to join clubs. The first is that it allows you to have fun. In a fraternity they have events through out the semester such a dinner somewhere, formals, camping trips, ect. Joining a fraternity or sorority also just gives you another group of friends to do stuff with. Almost every major at Purdue has a club that goes along with it. In my major, the club does not do that much. We put on a job fair in the fall where we get all of our money for the rest of the school year. There are also a few student/faculty mixers where you get to eat food, drink(if you are 21), and talk to your professors outside of the classroom. The last thing we do is send 20-40 people to a national conference to compete in competitions related to my major. There is also a club that just does outdoors activities called Purdue Outing Club. They really let you get away from college. They go backpacking, climbing, kayaking, biking, ect. That is a brief description of a few clubs.

Recruiters also really look to see that you have done activates while at college. They want to see you have joined organizations, but they also want to see that you actually did something with the organization. Recruiters will ask you what you did with the organization. They particularly like to see that you had a position in the organization. I actually have a recruiter ask me “Did you just go on the trip?” as in did I just let someone else do all the work in the organization. To that recruiter I was about to tell them no. I actually am both the treasure and help plan events.