Merger

Went to look at my blogs that I have neglected and decided that I should merge college life for me and college life for me:Part food.

The Most Sought After Break

It is finally here! Spring Break and as many who go to college know it isn't as MTV portrays it. Though I want to go on a cruise to Antigua, Curaçau, Aruba or the infamous Bermuda triangle this year there will be 3 or 4 days of being in North Conway NH for some skiing and hot tubbing this year. Which the latter is all I am really craving right now as my back has been bothering me for a little over 3 weeks. It will be a great family vacation and next year we will probably go somewhere less under 21 friendly. It was difficult to find somewhere inside the US for something that we dont do a lot of that we all really enjoy. Yes for those wondering I am still under 21 and am waiting for the time where I can go out and have a beer and a burger with my friends. It sucks having a late birthday but it has its advantages. 
This spring break like all longer breaks I have I intend to have a productive day or two to get some traction and steam built up for the second half of the last semester this year. And to prepare for the oncuming summer camp season. There is still a lot for me to prepare for. I hope to update this and any other of my blogs soon but who knows.

Have a great night sleep. Its going to be a great week.

Go time

While classes did start last week I do not count the first day as the first class day as the only thing that one has to do is just show up. Not even as it is still the add / drop period and technically attendence doesnt even start counting. Tomorrow is the first lecture day wich means that yes notes will be taken. A class that requires no notes on the material taught is not a class worth taking. Some times it is not my notes on the material that I find the most valuable but the side coments about how the material is applied else where. I am excited to have notes and work to do as I almost went crazy this weekend from too much free time. I can only look at a screen for so long and it was to cold to just go out for an enjoyable walk.

That is all I have time for this night as the first class starts in less than 10 hours and I could use the sleep.
Crowemaster

Last minute packing

I am excited to be heding back to school for orientation traininf tomorrow, but there is also a piece of me that doesnt want the bliss of a care free vacation at home to end. I neglected to write a post about what the school suggests / requires students to do before they leave but that will come later. Currently i have procrastinated packing and i leave in T-11 hours. Ahhhhhhhhhhah.

Microwaves the Problem

There is a issue with community microwaves and that is that there are People who are careless. I personally hate these people because last night the Fire alarm went off at 1:30am, the reason was that someone Violated the first Commandment of Microwaves. Thou Shalt Monitor the food constantly. Seriously the thing got so damaged they had to remove it and next thing that I would probably expect is that there will be no community microwave in the dormitory. All ready the fire marshal as dammed that due to the age of the buildings that microwaves are not allowed in the rooms ( What a load of BS). Grrrr. Now if I want popcorn I will have to go to the cafe. The ironic part is that every time the microwave has caught fire careless popcorn cookers while I haven't had any issues using the microwave and none of my room mates or friends have either.

Textbooks the Most Expensive Book You Are Ever Going to Buy

     There is nothing that can be so expensive in college other than the textbook. Every class requires them and typically they are over $80.00 a piece. I know that many college students who are reading this are thinking "Damn I wish that mine costed that much"
 
    There are many ways to get textbooks and a few ways to knock down the price, I got mine down to about $50:

One: Go up to your Financial Aid/ Bursars Office and see if any of the loans or aid given is to cover your books. If this is the case they might hand you a certificate to go to the schools bookstore. The advantage is that you aren't paying that much out of pocket but you will have to pay off that debt when you graduate.

Two: Go on to a site like Amazon and buy it offline they usually have a good price on them.

Three: Go to a Site like Amazon and Rent the book, the drawback is that like borrowing from the library there can't be any damage or marks in the book when you have to return it.




Four: Go ebook this is the newest medium where for a fee you can have the book on your laptop, smartphone or tablet via an app. The nice thing is that you can either buy the book or rent it. Unlike renting a physical book you can highlight and make printable notes right in the book. I use CourseSmart for this as it has a really nice app for Android, my sister uses my account for one book and she uses the iPad app for it.

There is a difference in cost if you are on the fence of renting or buying the ebook. The price difference for my books was $266.83 for online prices only, if I went with the hard copy there would be a $475ish difference. Now after my subscription is up I will not have access to the book but I will still have my notes that I have taken which is all I really need because I take a ton of notes.




Fifth: Go to your school's library the professors usually have the book on reserve so as long as you are in the library you can use the book or at my school you may borrow the book for one hour only. This is FREE!

Sixth: Schools also tend to have forums or a bulletin board where students can directly sell the book to other students so typically this will be half priced books

Seventh: friends will typically let you share the book if you are in the same class or if they don't have the class anymore they might just give it to you. Just be sure that for option six and seven that the book is the edition that you need.

It Doesn't really matter how you get the book as long as you get it so you don't fail your class or kill your GPA.

Images are taken from stock photo and google image searches, I do not claim ownership of these. If the owners wish to see them removed please message me.

When you think that you trusted your project partner

I dedicate this post to my partner that I was assigned for the Final Project of Front Office Operations


     It is a pain when one must do group projects. It is a known fact that this type of project is the least favorite of students and also the most risky to assign. I have been screwed over before by being the one who does too much of it, Letting some one take charge then not let me work on it/ say I didn't do work on it and take credit for what I have done. This latest atrocity that I have had is the last time I do a group project ever and will fight tooth and nail if this type is assigned again.
     The last project was to do the fallowing: Go to a hotel in Boston, Interview someone who is a Front Deck Manager or someone who works in Human Resources, write a paper on your findings. Easy and takes only twenty minutes for the interviewing and then three or four hours to compile and write. Not a difficult thing to accomplish. My partner and I went and did our hotel visit and conducted our interview with the Front Office Manager. Later we did our paper and the computer died with the paper still on it. Next thing was that Our Professor said on the due date that we needed to give him something before he left to go home and finish his grading. So we went to the Library and I started a Google doc to ensure that if the machine died again that we could go and retrieve it out of the cloud. Turns out that while we were writing my partner had his book out and was plagiarizing from it. It did not occur to me what he was doing because we just came back from class so of course he had his book and I thought that he was relating some of the interview to class discussions, Like a good student would to gain favor points for handing in a late Final Project. That night I received an email explaining why we both got a zero for our work.
     I almost cried. This was more stress than I needed on finals week and I immediately went through and highlighted what it was that I wrote exactly in the paper and sent it off, also requesting a meeting. The reply was swift and was much better than I thought it would be. It said that I should not worry too much as there was a frantic voice in my reply and to meet him in his office so he could give me his solution. My worst fear was that I was to be expelled because my name was on the paper and there fore guilty by association. This was not the case instead I had two weeks to redo the paper using a hotel in my area as I was going home that day. Thank god I am on such good terms with my professor and the dean of academic affairs. I would never steal somebody's work.
     Any how I HATE my partner for this insult and I never want to work with him again. He shouldn't have been that desperate and stupid to plagiarize from a book that the professor would know cover to cover as this is the book that he has used for years, keeping up with the updated version of course but they never change much.