Links explained

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

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.

Save your money--it's yours!

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.

Roommate Rumba

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.

Cooking tips

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

Playing the game

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

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.

Take a break part 1

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)

Get out of the dorm!

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.

Football weekend!

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

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

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)

To all the parents of college freshmen

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.

Everyone’s favorite subject (part 2)

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.

Everyone’s favorite subject

Hello, again. Today, I’m writing about everyone’s favorite subject: relationships. There’s all that gooey PDA going on out there. : )

But that’s not the subtopic that I’ll be addressing today. Today, I’ll be talking about everyone’s least favorite subject: break ups.

There are a few simple rules to ending a relationship:

-when you break up over the phone, it means you’re a pansie or unable to talk to the person (as in, they’re on the other side of the planet, etc.)

-when you break up with a person, you don’t get to make them feel better. You just forfieted that right. If someone stabs your hand, are you going to let them gause it up for you? NO! You are going to run like hell from said person and you’re not going to want to see that person for a long time, and even then, you don’t want to see them if they have any cutlery.

-when you break up, give the other person at least a month to stop hating you before you try and contact them. Every time you text, e-mail, etc. the person, you’re pouring vingegar onto an open wound. If you don’t think it’s hurts, I’d be glad to demonstrate on you to prove my point. If they ever want to talk to you, they will contact you.

-at least have a good reason for dumping the person. “I found someone hotter than you” does not count.

-talk to the person before ending it. Tell them what bugs you. Hold a conversation. I know it’s hard to speak words. Get over it.

And most importantly, don’t be a jerk about it, especially if your new ex is female. There’s this saying: Girls don’t get even. They don’t get revenge. You will never see the truck that hit you.

Girls get all their friends to hate you, form lych mobs, plot your demise, and ultimately have a 12 or less step plan to ruin your life and chances of ever getting another girl ever again. You are placing your future in the hands of a distraught female. If you’re a jerk, you’re more likely to suffer the fate of that plan.

life lessons in college

College admissions like to let you think that they are telling you everything. If they actually told you everything, most people wouldn’t go to college.

That’s why this guide is here. Here are a few things that I’ve discovered over the past month:

-Quarters are the most desired form of currency. You need them for vending machines and to do your laundry.

-Text books are heavy and cost as much as they weigh. If you can, trade textbooks with roommates and friends. You save around $100, and you also get tips from the people who have taken the class.

-Mail and packages make you feel special. Even if it’s just your mom sending you detergent, it boosts your ego.

-Having clean laundry is as much of an ego booster as passing a class. It comes more often.

-A ‘C’ in college is like an ‘A’ in high school. They are just as frequent and mean the same thing. Don’t fret if you’re a straight A student. Getting a C is not the end of the world.

-Coffee, tea, Mt. Dew, and Coke are your new favorite drinks. Don’t get anything that doesn’t have caffeine.

-Naps are a wonderful thing, especially after a 7:30 AM class.

-Exams are rarely during class. They will generally be in the evening.

-If you’re a female, get some mace or some pepper spray. It’s a must have on a college campus. As the cliché goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

I’ll add more when I learn more, which I’m sure I’ll have plenty to add in the coming months!

3 days of insanity, 2 exams, and all in one week

College life is stressful. There is no doubt about that. As freshmen, we're trying to figure out the balance between fun, sleep, class, laundry, and remembering to eat.
One of the most stressful things about class is going to be the exams. Here are some things to do to make exams less scary:

-prepare in advance. Don't cram 2 hours before the test. It may have worked in high school, but it doesn't work so well for college.

-ask for help. If you don't understand, talk to your TA. Talk to your peers. Form a study group. It's better to ask before the day of the exam.

-go to the office hours. Ask your prof if you don't understand. Chances are that if you don't understand, there are other people who also don't understand.

-find the resource room. For my chem exam, I went to the chem resource room. they sell old chem tests, reviews, TA's notes, and everything that you could possibly need to study.

-relax and get some sleep. it's pointless to study at 3am. your brain tends to process things in your sleep. even if you don't understand what you're reading before you go to bed, just get some sleep. You'll function better and be able to show what you do know.

College is also full of interesting experiences. If you are taking a class with a lab, be prepared for something to happen at some time. If it's chemistry, know that chemicals will spill and that people play with the bunsen burners and that there is a chance of a fire. When these things happen, try to remember a few things:

-remain calm. keep your head together. take a deep breath and think before acting. the last thing you want to do when there's some lab emergency is freak out and make things worse.

-grab your things as you leave. chances are that you're not going to get back in the building for a while. Don't be niave. People steal things. if there is a fire, your stuff might not be there when you get back. If there's a chemical spill, you might not want your stuff back.

(if you couldn't tell, this was my week!)

Better Business Bureau, here I come

Now, most people say they hate Wal-mart and all other such companies. I don’t just hate them. I despise them. I loathe them. I wouldn’t be sad if all the stores magically vaporized (but not the people…most of the people). Some people hate companies like Wal-Mart on principle. I hope they vanish based on practice and principle.



Story number one: My boyfriend’s dad bought him a watch in China, but the watch was a little big. So, we decided to go get it sized at the little jewelry counter at Wal-mart, simply because it was close. Now, this isn’t some little crap watch. This is a freaking amazing knock-off that could pass off as a real breitling.


My boyfriend, who is really patient, is standing at the counter watching them while I’m wandering around. First thing to rant about: my seven-year-old brother has better organizational skills than Wal-mart. Vacuum accessories aren’t with the vacuums. Cosmetics are right next to school supplies. You need a map and a translator to tell you were anything is because it makes no sense. Well, unless you’re on something, but that’s another rant for another post.

So, I finished wandering around, and I come back about a half hour later, and they still hadn’t figured out how to take out some of the links. The last thing I heard from the female was “F&*(( THIS GODD$(&^%# WATCH!” Needless to say, he asked for his watch back and we left.

We went to a Fred Meyer (which is apparently a western America thing…if you know Freddies, give a shout out!) and got the watch sized in 10 minutes max.

Story number two: My bike tubes were slashed a couple of weeks ago. Not the tires, just the tubes. See, people are amazingly cruel. They let all the air out of the bike tubes, and then they slash them.

The closest place that I can take my bike to is sadly Wal-mart. I took my bike in two weeks ago. Yes, two weeks ago. I called earlier this week. It still wasn’t fixed. I went in today, over two weeks later. It still wasn’t fixed. They wouldn’t let me have my bike back, either so that one of my new friends could fix my bike. My mom called during all this, and I reassured her that I would be calling the Better Business Bureau and the Indiana State Attorney General’s Office to file complaints against Wal-mart. The employees overheard this, ran off, and came back with my bike all fixed 10 minutes later. Honestly, 2 weeks when it only took you 10 minutes?

The moral of the story: drop the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney General’s Office when the employees of a store are being particularly intellectually depraved. (Yes, depraved. I know there’s a difference. )

I know I’m not the only one with stories like these. I want to hear them! Send them in! Who knows, if your story insights a revolution, I might give you a brownie!

Edit: I rode my bike this morning. It made a horrible noise. Then the chain popped off, and I lost control of my bike. I was somehow able to hope off my bike before I flew with it into oncoming traffic. I can still ride my bike (because I put the chain back on properly.)

Love everyone. Trust no one.

As I stated in an earlier post, I believe that there is good in everyone and that it is simply a matter of looking for that good. But believing that the human race is good as a whole doesn’t justify being naïve.

Lock your doors. I don’t care if you’re just going to check your mail (snail mail). Lock your door. Always.

If you have a bike on campus, be warned that people will do stupid things. They will let all the air out of your tubes. They will bend your wheels. They will slash the tires and the tubes. They will steal your seat. They will steal your bike (even if it is chained up). Bring your bike up into your room at night (if possible) or see if you really need a bike. People haven’t been known to steal feet! : )

When in the cafeteria, don’t leave your phone or bag or anything that means something to you at your seat while you go get food. I have found that if you get a tray and a drink, and leave it at a seat, people leave it alone. I’ve only had one incidence where this hasn’t completely worked. Someone mistook my tray lacking food for an abandoned seat. The tray with my water was still there. No harm. I did find another seat.

Don’t leave your blinds open at night. As silly as it sounds, people do have binoculars and they do look into people’s rooms from their windows.

Always have pepper spray or something along those lines if you do a lot of walking by yourself, especially when it’s not light outside. Take it with you for your morning run (ha! I sleep), or to that frat party (which I am supposed to tell you to not go).

These things may seem extreme (or some people’s actions insane), but simple preventative measures help make life much easier. You are put at ease knowing that your personal effects are secure, as are you.

Oh, humanity. Why have you forsaken me?

I do honestly believe that there is still some good in humanity. I believe every person has at least one good quality about them. Sometimes you just have to search extra hard to find it. These positive attributes can be something as simple as “they have nice handwriting” or “they have nice hair.” Having pretty attributes isn’t a crime. It’s also not an excuse for stupidity.

I have been noticing lately how some people do not understand what is and is not appropriate to talk about in public. By public, I mean a place where others are forced to listen to your conversation.

I do not want to hear about how many times you have sex in a given week. I especially do not want to hear about every detail of the event. I really don’t want to hear about this at all. I could care less. I am more focused on eating my ice cream or getting back to my dorm.

I do not want to hear about how much you want to have sex with someone. I do not want to hear every detail about what you want to do to this person.

I do not want to hear about your financial problems. I do not want to hear about how Jimmy owes you money or visa versa.

I do not want to hear about your relationship issues. I do not care that your significant other of 3 days slept with your best friend. I do not want to hear about how many people you are dating at this time.

I do not want to hear about your medical problems. I do not care if you have 11 toes and that’s your claim to fame.

I do not want to hear about how macho you think you are. I do not want to hear about how you beat someone up, evaded the cops, or participated in some other activity that would give you street cred. If I do over hear this topic again, I will act flirtatious, get your name and phone number, and turn you into the police.

Now, there are times and places to talk about such things, although I cannot honestly think of one. All I ask is that you stop ruining my meal time or my walk home.

A tip for the guys: bragging about how many girls you’ve done or any topic mentioned above is a major turn off. I don’t care how hot you think you are. I don’t care how hot you wish you were. Stop talking crap. If you think a girl is cute, go up and (*gasp*) talk to her. Hold a conversation. Stop being a pansy and hiding behind your delusions of manliness. Stop making me want to punch you for ruining my perfectly good meal. Start talking about something of relevance that doesn’t make me want to hurl. Who knows, you might get on my good list. I buy those people chocolates and other candy.