Visual Voicemail...

I'm not sure about you, (because there are many of you,) but I hate talking on the phone.  Actually, I'm pretty sure you don't and I'm the weird one here.  More than that, I really hate checking my voicemail. 

I tend to just look at my screen on my phone that says who called and call them back.  I know if I call somebody back, they're just going to repeat whatever they said to my recorder back anyway, so it saves me a little bit of time. 

A long time ago, I signed up for Grand Central.  It's a service that got bought by Google that gives you one number to give people, then this number rings multiple phones at once.  (I have no idea how.  It's the magic of technology.)  Then, it takes your messages, and gives you something called visual voicemail.  It's like regular voicemail, but it shows you a list of who called, and you can listen to it in any order.  (I realize the iPhone does this, but this came out before the iPhone.) 

Grand Central also does a thing now that when people leave messages, it transcribes them to text and you can just read the text.  (A superior system.) 

Grand Central is still a closed beta, (fancy way of saying I'm special for having it,) so I can't really recommend it to anyone. 

However, here's something called YouMail that does the same thing.  You can pay for it, but the free plan ought to be enough for anyone until Grand Central goes public.  

Whoops, it was Earth Day...

Well, I missed post on this and I feel sort of bad because I'm a little of what you might call a, "tree hugger."

So, in the spirit of enlightened arrogance, here are some Earth Day tips for cheaper students everywhere:

1.  Switch to those new fancy lightbulbs.  I originally switched to them because I knew they lasted for years instead of six months.  I'm very much against routine maintenance of things (I want an electric car so I don't have to pump gas ever again, last week was my first dentist appointment in five years, I buy 1,000 Q-Tips at a time so I only have to buy them once every year and a half,) and it seemed to fit my lifestyle.  However, they do save you a ton of money on electricity.  Granted, these things don't have much studenty-ness to them, but students need to read, reading needs light, and light should be cheap.

2.  Ride your bike to school.  Yes, this means waking up extra early.  It also means coming to class sweaty and gross.  It also means saving a good amount of extra money and stopping the greenhouse gas thing.  Riding your bike to school has a lot of advantages for you:
   A.  Less gas money
   B.  Free exercise.  What do you pay for your health club?
   C.  The better shape you're in, the better your mind works.
   D.  Cyclists are like Mac users.  They're elitist bastards, but you can't really argue their logic.  It also feels eeirly good being one. 

If you are going to ride your bike, here are some good tips for making the long ride to school:
1.  Bring your inhaler.  (If you're asthmatic.)
2.  Map out your ride in advance.
3.  Have decent biking gear.  That includes a bag for a change of clothes.
Let me give you a chart of how to best travel for school.
...
Okay, blogger doesn't let me do charts.  Here are some lists:
What I do:

My bag is a Timbuk2 Classic Messenger, (Medium).  I don't have the divider insert, but I do have the strap and the iPod holder attachment.  I also have a cheap laptop sleeve.

I carry a collection of Moleskine Notebooks.  I keep a small one as a diary.  A medium one as a notebook, and two other smaller ones for projects I'm working on.  I also carry the remains of a spiral-bound notebook, (I've used the same notebook, like the exact same one; haven't bought a new one, for over ten years,) for if I ever have to write down anything I need to hand in.

I have an iPhone.  It covers my desire to listen to music/watch TV/play games and it's a phone.  For the entry cost, it's completely worth it.

I carry my clothes in a sack/bag I got from Walgreen's for having a physical done there.  It's cheap nylon and the arm straps double as the pulls for closing the bag at the top.  This is also my gym bag.

I use an Apple MacBook as my laptop.  It does more than I need it to and I like that.  I have a hard time believing people still take notes by hand.  With the exception for personal notes to myself that are basically all ideas, everything I write goes on the computer and most of it is stored on Google's servers.  Some stuff I keep on my computer, but that's mostly final drafts of polished projects. 

Bike gloves are great.  I don't wear a helmet, but my hands are always protected.  I've got an awesome pair of Airius gloves.  The thing that makes them awesome is they have little hooks that make them easier to remove.  (I'd link to their site, but I can't find it.)  

Finally, I've got a Lexan water bottle and Clif Bars are four for $5 at Giant Eagle right now.

Stay healthy.  That's as eco-friendly as I'm getting for today.   Randomly, Timbuk2 has a good bag for $22, (that's like $100 off,) and you can get a great notebook for about $250 at Target right now.  Combine that and a Moleskine and you've got a great biking package for school.

I'm really tired...

Good luck on the mid-term everyone.  I'm at work waiting for a meeting to start.  It should begin at about 7:30 a.m.  I may leave early to drive unsafely to the test.  Yay unsafe driving. 

So I've been at school since 7:15 a.m.,...

Yes, that makes me a dork, but apparently, about 50 people beat me to the computer lab.  I feel better because they're all on Facebook and I've actually done some school-related stuff. 

Also, I posted a bad ass tweet. 

God I'm lame. 

First, something scholastically appropriate:  Does anyone have any urge to study after class?  Like today?  I know class starts in an hour, but still.  I'm up for it if anyone else is. 

In other news, I've posted on my other sites that I'm looking for someone who can teach me some remedial Objective-C.  I'm not looking for anything involving high-end APIs, but I need to initialize an integer.  (You know, the stuff they teach you on the first day of a class.  All the free on-line tutorials I've found seem to think I'm smart and remember this stuff from ten years ago.) 

Franklin planners...

Benjamin Franklin was pretty industrious in his youth.  So much so he was credited with being America's first millionaire.  He had a pretty good way to make sure he was always working.

He would plan his whole day out in advance down to the hour.  This way, every hour he could be accountable for what he had done in that time, and it also helped to cut down on distractions.

Nowadays, we have Franklin Planners, (note the caps,) distributed by Franklin Covey.  I had one of these in undergrad and I figured out they work as long as you always have them with you.  As a student at OU, (go Bobcats!,) I learned to not bring the planner everywhere because, 1:  It was huge, 2: You look like a big dork carrying a large leather-bound volume around.

So, how do I keep organized now?  I still use a Franklin Planner, but I do it on my phone.  I also do it on my computer.  Further, if I'm without my phone, (not likely,) and not near my computer, I can look it up on the internet.

I do this all through a service called Mobile Me.  It's amazing for all the things it does and for its simplicity.  That said, it's $100 a year.  That's steep.

If you don't feel like wasting your money, try out Google Calendar.  You can send it text messages to schedule your appointments, it'll text you alarms of upcoming appointments, and like a cell phone, you'll always have it with you.  Also, it's free with a Google account, (which is also free.) 

Also, Google calendar also syncs with most desktop calendar programs now so if you change it from your phone, it'll change the main one on the internet. 

Finally, if you only plan to do an activity for an hour, you slow down the burnout process.  (e.g., 1900-2000: Study NURS 211.  2000-2100: Study NURS 194.)  If you finish a project early, the rest of the hour is yours. 

I hope the notes are working,
click an ad,
Michael

P.S.  The programming thing is coming along well.  Buy an iPod Touch or an iPhone.  I need you to buy my app in about six months.

Big milestone...

This is my 250th post!  In honor of this momentous occasion, I'm going to talk about something completely non-academic.  (Surprise, surprise.) 

I've recently begun working on learning Objective-C with the intention of learning to program games for the iPhone.  I started a site for my company and here it is. 

Not much else.  I hope everyone's quarter is going well.  Click an ad,
Michael

Do you Twitter?

I do.  What is Twitter and how does it help my schooling?  I'm not sure.

Twitter is a kind of social network called a microblog.  It's like a blog, (like this scholastic resource you see here,) but it's much smaller.  You can only type 140 characters at a time.  This breeds conciseness like none other.

It also breeds megalomania.  Your Twitter friends are called followers.  This excited me until I found out I couldn't order them to take over the world.  I can't even really order them to make me a sandwich. 

Why would a student care?  Simple, Twitter is like a big public IM.  If you're working on a project, it's good to Twitter with people about progress or meeting times.  You can set Twitter to ping your cell phone and that seems to work prett well too.

It's not the most useful academic tool, but in the right situation, it can work beautifully.

Take care and thank you for all the clicking on the ads.  Keep it up please. 

P.S.  Did you think the April Fool's thing was cool?  (Go down two posts to see it.)

Welcome back!

I hope everyone had a good Spring break.  I did not, unfortunately go on an RV trip, but I did go to the Hocking Hills and shoot guns. 

Also, for all of you out there that mock videogames, let me tell you, Halo skills translate into real life shooting.  (i.e., when the aliens invade, don't come crying to me for help.  You had your chance.) 

Anyway, look in the class notes for my notes from class, and I'm trying to make NCLEX questions so feel free to read those too.  (Follow the link to class notes and you'll see them.) 

Anyway, good luck this quarter!

¡ʞɔɐq ǝɯoɔ1ǝʍ

¡ɹǝʇɹɐnb sıɥʇ ʞɔn1 poob 'ʎɐʍʎuɐ

  (.ɯǝɥʇ ǝǝs 11,noʎ puɐ sǝʇou ssɐ1ɔ oʇ ʞuı1 ǝɥʇ ʍo11oɟ)  .ooʇ ǝsoɥʇ pɐǝɹ oʇ ǝǝɹɟ 1ǝǝɟ os suoıʇsǝnb xǝ1ɔu ǝʞɐɯ oʇ buıʎɹʇ ɯ,ı puɐ 'ssɐ1ɔ ɯoɹɟ sǝʇou ʎɯ ɹoɟ sǝʇou ssɐ1ɔ ǝɥʇ uı ʞoo1 'ʎɐʍʎuɐ

  (.ǝɔuɐɥɔ ɹnoʎ pɐɥ noʎ  .d1ǝɥ ɹoɟ ǝɯ oʇ buıʎɹɔ ǝɯoɔ ʇ,uop 'ǝpɐʌuı suǝı1ɐ ǝɥʇ uǝɥʍ '.ǝ.ı)  .buıʇooɥs ǝɟı1 1ɐǝɹ oʇuı ǝʇɐ1suɐɹʇ s11ıʞs o1ɐɥ 'noʎ 11ǝʇ ǝɯ ʇǝ1 'sǝɯɐboǝpıʌ ʞɔoɯ ʇɐɥʇ ǝɹǝɥʇ ʇno noʎ ɟo 11ɐ ɹoɟ 'os1ɐ

  .sunb ʇooɥs puɐ s11ıɥ buıʞɔoɥ ǝɥʇ oʇ ob pıp ı ʇnq 'dıɹʇ ʌɹ uɐ uo ob ʎ1ǝʇɐunʇɹoɟun 'ʇou pıp ı  .ʞɐǝɹq buıɹds poob ɐ pɐɥ ǝuoʎɹǝʌǝ ǝdoɥ ı