Just a Post and an Interesting Video!

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: May 27,2008

It’s been a while since I have posted. I recently got a job and my schedule got out of whack. In a few days I will write a post explaining why I failed at maintaining a schedule and tips for staying on track, even when there is a major change in your life.

For now I will share a fun YouTube video. The instrument in this video is a hang (pronounced hung) drum. It is a very new instrument made by two guys in Switzerland. If you want one of these, be prepared to pay a pretty penny. To get one to America will cost about $3,000 — $1,200 for the drum plus the amount for a trip to Europe or the shipping. At least that was the cost last time I checked a few months ago.

I have jet to actually see one of these in the United States. They are probably fairly common in Europe, because obviously it is easier to get to Switzerland from Europe than from the Americas. Has anyone from the Americas seen a hang drum in America?

Enjoy the Beautiful Music!

Why I Blog

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: College Advice
• Date: May 7,2008

Over at HackCollege the guys are doing a Student Blogging series in attempt to convince more students to start blogging, not only because it is fun but because it can improve your resume. I’d figured I join in on the conversation with my own post explaining the benefits of blogging that I have discovered.

Why Did I Start Blogging? My Blogging Story

I had been working for a company, which was owned by my best friend’s parents, for about three years. It was a fun job, but this past December I decided it was time for me to quit and try something new. But what was I going to try? I had done some internet browsing and came across a few sites such as Associated Content where they paid you to write for their website. Since I had plenty of money in the bank I decided I can take the risk for a couple of months.

I tried writing a few articles for Associated Content, made a few bucks, but I just wasn’t into it. Then I began looking at how to build my own website, which I did. I taught myself web designing and published a site by the end of December. It failed!

This whole time I had no clue what a blog was. I knew they existed, but I really didn’t know how they worked. Then I discovered Google’s Blogger, and I started this blog. I was having fun, I wrote a few posts, but something wasn’t right. Then I figured it out. The Blogger platform is awful. So I switched to wordpress.com, which was a painstaking experience, but well worth it as wordpress is amazing! I suggest you start out with wordpress.

In the end, my blog has only been up for about month (I’m not counting the time that I was using Google’s Blogger), and I still am not making money with the blog. The good thing is that I have discovered many more benefits of blogging than just making money.

Blog=Resume

Kelly Sutton at HackCollege was just featured in an article in the The Chronicle of Higher Education. Kelly said, “We personally believe that blogs are kind of replacing résumés as far as indicators of talent and past experiences.” All I am going to say is I agree, and leave it at that.

Become Someone

Kelly is living proof. He was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education because of his blog. Your blog has the power to make you important. In the real world it doesn’t matter how smart you are, or how good you are at your job, what matters is marketing. A student who is mediocre and has marketed himself well will get a better job than a genius who has done absolutely no self marketing. In the age of the internet there is no better way to market yourself than becoming Googleble, and a blog is the best way to become Googleble.

Opportunity

The internet is where things are happening. It’s where millionaires are made, where people sell their books, share their ideas, revolutionize society, and where you need to be. Blogging is an excellent way to get in on the newest things. Countless people have joined forces over the internet to write books or start companies.

Motivation

The most beneficial thing I have discovered is that blogging gives me motivation. Because my blog is about college and studying, I always find myself thinking about ways to improve my performance. The better I perform, the more I can write about on my blog. In the next month I intend to start another blog that is focused on my majors. My hope is that by studying more, acquiring more knowledge of my major, I can write a better blog.

Discover Your Passions

“You are what you eat.” In the blogging world this changes. “You are what you write.” Since blogs are relatively cheap to start, if you do not like the first topic you are writing about, quit, and start a different blog. Or you can start a general blog for a couple months, find out what you enjoy writing about the most, then start a new blog on that topic. You may discover you enjoy writing about topics not relevant to your major.

There are a lot of benefits to blogging. Some people will discover benefits that others will not. But no matter what, blogging is fun!

If you are interested in blogging, you should head over to HackCollege and join in on their student blogging series.

The Have Fun Misconception

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Personal Development
• Date: May 6,2008

When do you go out with friends? When do you have fun? For most college students, fun is when the sun goes down. But fun does not have to happen only at night. Spending time with friends during the day is possible and may increase your productivity.

“But we are busy during the day!”

It may seem that you do not have the time during the day to hang out with friends, but you actually do. First of all you need to ask yourself where your time during the day has gone. Maybe most of your day went to sleeping, because you stayed up half of the night. One concept that just does not make sense is taking a two hour nap so you can wake up and have some fun.

How much time did you spend checking your facebook account? If you didn’t check your facebook for a whole week, you probably could accumulate several hours you could spend with your friends.

Once it gets to be about 7 pm you may discover that your productivity really diminishes, and you sit around until it’s time for the evening’s gathering. Why not begin social functions at 7? It makes since doesn’t it?

Night vs Day

In my honest opinion fun does not have to be during the night. Think about it. Is there a stronger correlation between amount of fun and the time of day, or the amount of fun and who you are with? The answer is obvious. Friends do exist during the day!

Relaxation, Fun, Friends, and Excitement can be a part of your life. Integrate your friends within your day, don’t add extra time.

Increased Productivity

I do not have proof, but I hypothesize that by spending time with friends during evening hours will increase your productivity. Why? Because you have less time to work. One of the biggest productivity mistakes is allowing too much time to do a task. When you have more time to do a task, you are more likely to allow yourself breaks, check your facebook, grab a snack, or sit down and watch a TV show.

The Challenge

I am guilty of this misconception that night=fun. The challenge of overcoming this is that everyone has to participate. If 20 of your friends are going to hang out late at night, you are not going to tell them, “Hey guys, it’s too late for me.” You will miss out on a lot of fun if you do. Not because you won’t stay out late, but because you won’t be with your friends. Therefore, if you want to stop staying out till 2 am it will have to be a group effort among your friends to change the time that you spend together.

Things to do During Summer

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Personal Development
• Date: May 5,2008

Some students will spend their summers working, partying, and sitting in front of the TV or computer, but summers are an excellent time to explore new opportunities and grow as a person.

Internships

It is a late to apply for internships for this summer. If you are doing an internship, then great! I hope you enjoy yourself. But if you aren’t you can do two things to help you get an intern next summer. The first thing you should and can do is work on your resume. By working on your resume once a week for thirty minutes you will have a clean and organized resume that you can use to apply for internships.
The other thing you should do is begin searching for an internship and decide what type of intern you would like to do. It will take a lot of research. Deciding on an intern should not be a task you take lightly. After you come across a few internships you are interested in, spend your summer researching the internships and the information you will need for the intern. The more knowledge you have of the position the better cover letter you can write, and the more prepared you are for an interview.

Improve a Hobby

Do you have a hobby that you haven’t been able to do since last summer? School can take a lot of time away from us, but you should keep up with your hobbies. Attempt to take your hobby to the next level, or to a different area. For example, if you are a pianist (like me) who has spent your entire time at the piano playing classical music, begin to learn a new genre of music. Learn how to play jazz or compose your own piece.

Get a New Hobby

photo by KhayaL

If you aren’t a musician, maybe now is the time to get an instrument and teach yourself how to play. There are plenty of free lessons on the internet to help teach you. You are probably smart enough to teach yourself a few things. One thing I would love to do is build model ships (the real thing, not the cheap plastic stuff from the dollar store).

Improve a Skill

Are you a science major? Unfortunately, science majors rarely get the opportunity to work on their writing skills. Perhaps summer is the time that you can improve your writing skills. Or maybe you are a writer and you could study sciences.

Tangent: If you do want to be a writer you should consider studying things outside of writing. Though it is great to imagine becoming a New York Times bestselling author, that can take time, and you will need a job to support you. As a writer having a large database of knowledge will greatly increase your chances of getting employed.

Research

Summer is also a great time to work on an individual research project. If you are doing any type of historical research it is a great time to travel the country, visit libraries, find hidden text, discover ancient Native American cities inside Mount Rushmore. Alright it may not be that intense, but you would be surprised at how much is hidden inside libraries right under our noses. Just because someone has looked at a piece of writing or photo, does not mean they understand the significance; therefore the item is still hidden.

An Out Doors Trip – Road Trip

photo by Bitterroot

By the end of spring semester I am sick and tired of being inside. I don’t think there is anything healthier for the soul than staying out side for a week. Plan a camping, hiking, or canoeing trip. Take a few friends with you and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Set a Goal

Give yourself a goal. Read X amount of books, or write X amount of pages. The great thing about summer is that you can have goals that push you to the limit, without all the stress of deadlines and expectations of your professors and parents.

Structure

If you really want to maximize your summer, you need to have a structured schedule. That means you wake up at the same time every day, go to bed at the same time every night. But remember it is summer. If you end up staying out all night a few nights that’s great, but don’t make a habit out of it. Try to get back on schedule. Finding the balance between social fun, and some form of academic fun is the key to having a productive and enjoyable summer.

Computers for College Students

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: May 2,2008

Photo by Andrew*

This post is for all of those high school seniors who are about to run off and buy a computer with their graduation money. When I graduated I saw a lot of my friends who went out and bought computers that were not worth the amount they paid for them. Shopping for a computer should be like shopping for a car. The more you know; the better deal you will get.

Desktop vs Laptop

The majority of students are going to want a laptop, the desktop computer seems to becoming less and less popular. I bought a desktop, and absolutely love it! Chances are I wont convince you to buy a desktop over a laptop, but I will list the positives of both.

Laptop:

• Portable

Desktop:

• Cheaper: You can get a lot more for your money.
• Larger Monitor: I love my 24 inch monitor. I can put two word documents side by side, or an internet browser and a word document. I am much more efficient with a large monitor than a small monitor. If you are working with programs such as Photoshop you will want a large monitor.
• It can be a TV too! For about $30 you can put a TV tuner in your desktop computer. You no longer need a TV in your dorm. You get to save some space!
• Easily upgradeable! It is very easy to buy a new part for your desktop and update your computer. With a notebook you will just have to buy a new one.
• When it comes to ergonomics, a desktop is much better for you. When you are at a keyboard your arms should be about parallel to the floor and the top of the monitor should be eye level. Which is impossible with a laptop.
• If you are a hardcore gamer(Like I used to be!) a notebook will not cut it. Especially if you want to play new games like Crysis!

Mac vs PC

We all have seen the commercials, and even I, a PC fan, think they are absolutely hilarious! I do not want to get into a discussion about which one is actually better, but I would like everyone to know that if you do like the look and feel of a mac, you can install a Windows operation system onto a Mac. In the next section I will explain why you may want to buy a Mac with Windows installed.

Love Your Computer

I believe the most important quality for a computer is comfort. When you sit down at your computer you need to enjoy the feel of the mouse, keyboard, and gloss of the screen. Even if you buy your computer on the internet you should first go to stores and test out a few of the possible choices.

When determining a comfortable computer do not look at the price. For example, the mouse I am currently using was $60. I love my mouse! I was at BustBuy one day and I was browsing, I put my hand on the mouse and said “THAT’S IT!” It fit my hand perfectally. My keyboard on the other hand was only $10.

Having an actual mouse is very important. Trying to use the pad on a notebook is very time consuming and inefficients. If you buy a notebook, get a mouse to go along with it. You may also consider buying a keyboard for your laptop. That way when you are at a desk you can be ergonomically correct, but you can always take your notebook somewhere else.

The Tech Stuff(specifically for notebooks/laptops)

CPU: Chances are you will want to get an Intel Core 2 Duo. Most will say it is the best CPU out there. Now when you are looking at the specs it will say something like 2.0GHz. That is the speed of the processor. What speed do you need? If you are only going to use word processing and the internet you could probably go as low as 1.33 GHz. If you want to watch movies, use advanced programs, possibly play a few games, you will want 2.0GHz or more.

Note: Sometimes you will see a computer with a 2.0GHz CPU and then a 2.1GHz for $100 more. Unless you are a hardcore gamer, and you pay attention to your computers benchmarks you will not notice a difference between 2.0 and 2.1. Save yourself some money and get the cheaper one.

Graphics: You have three options when deciding on a graphics card in a laptop. There will be an on-board card, Radeon, or Nvidia. On-board graphics cards are very disappointing, I would avoid them altogether. I would get either a Radeon or Nvidia. If you are buying a desktop and you want a good graphics card for gaming I would get the Nvidia 8800GTS (G92) as of today it is the best bang for the buck.

Memory Size: You need 2Gigs of RAM. More is better, but you wont see a difference unless you use intensive applications or games.

Screen Size: Screen size changes the value of your laptop in an unpredictable way. With a monitor for a desktop computer, the bigger it is the more expensive. But with a laptop this isn’t necessarily true. The smaller the screen is the more difficult it is to fit all the parts in, which causes it to be more expensive. When determining your screen size its all about your own personal preference.

Hard Drive: Chances are you will find a notebook with 100GB or more, and 100 GB should satisfy the average user. If you are obsessed with music and have tones of songs on your computer you may need more. Or if you are a photographer you will need a lot of hard drive space for the high quality photos. But you may consider getting a notebook, with a small amount of hard drive space, and purchasing an external hard drive to put your photos or music on.

Those are the 5 major specs you will looking at when buying a computer. Just do yourself a favor, do not assume that because it is more expensive it is better. You can do yourself a bigger favor by asking a friend who knows computers to help you out.

How much should I spend?

For a good notebook, I would not spend more than $1200. I believe if you spend more, you are wasting money. The cheapest I would go is $600, any lower and you will feel as if you were in the stone age.

Here is a perfect example of a good notebook that I would buy. ASUS M51 Sn-X2

It has a 15.4″ screen, 250 Gig Hard Drive, a NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS graphics card, 2.50 GHz CPU, 4GB of memory, an integrated webcam, and even a mouse and a cheap carrying case. I honestly do not know what else you would want in a computer, and it is only $1200. There are notebooks that cost more, but they can’t possibly have much better specs than this one.

Do realize that most of this is my opinion, and there may be other people that may tell you something different. If you are about to purchase a computer, and would like an opinion, just contact me and I will be more than happy to help a fellow student. Or you can visit Newegg.com and read the customer reviews. Newegg.com is where the hardcore computer nerds, like me, shop. You may be using your computer for several years and you should not take shopping for one lightly.

Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations: Book of the Month

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Book of the Month
• Date: May 1,2008

Photo by David Paul Ohmer

The book of the month for May 2008 will be Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. A book of a Roman Emperor’s philosophies. Aurelius never intended his writing to become a book, but rather more or less a journal. Aurelius may be surprised to see book read in many introductory philosophy courses.

I would love to spend a month discussing Marcus Aurelius and his Meditations. It will be the beginning of a continuous series of academic discussions.

Academic Discussions

I intend to make this a continuous series on University Scholar. My plan is to each month choose an interesting topic, do some research, and post what I have found. I would love for this to be a community discussion among a large portion of students and student bloggers. If you have an idea for a possible topic to discuss please send the idea my way. We could discuss topics from music, art, psychology, literature, mathematics, chemistry, or even history of cinema.

I am not sure how exactly the discussions will start or how they will evolve, but I look forward to them. My hope is the discussions will allow us to become multi-disciplinary students. I have not actually taken a philosophy course, so by no means am I claiming to be an expert. If a state something incorrectly please correct me.

If you want to write a guest post for the topic or would like me to link to your own post on the topic, just contact me. Also if you come across an interesting article I would love it if you would send me the link. The more who participate the better the discussion will be.

Below is a link to purchase Meditations at Amazon.com, but because Meditations is part of the public domain by the end of the weekend I will post a free copy of Meditations on University Scholar.