Browsing Category

Experiences

A Speck, On A Speck, Hanging Out With Specks

Last Friday evening, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture from none other than Bill Nye the Science Guy. This was quite the special occasion, as our university had been trying to get him to come for 10 years.

To say the event was packed would be an understatement. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen tailgating at a science lecture before, but I now have. When the doors opened, people flooded into our auditorium faster than I’ve ever seen – in fact, I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen people skip the aisles and just run over the seat backs en masse before…

Craziness aside, hearing Bill Nye speak was awesome. As a long-time educator and entertainer, Bill is a master at giving an effective and engaging presentation. He also taught me some really important lessons during his talk – lessons that applied to me even though I’m not a scientist or engineer.

These are what I want to share with you today – my takeaways from Bill Nye’s presentation, which can be applied to your life no matter what your major is. Read More →

5 Life Lessons I Learned from Bungee Jumping in Macau

Pamela Nguyen Experiences, Guest Post

This is a guest post from my good friend Pam Nguyen, who runs Surviving College (another awesome college blog). So no, I didn’t personally go bungee jumping in Macau – but now I want to

I am going to tell you a story about one of the most spontaneous moments of my life, which happened when I was on an exchange program at a business school in Hong Kong. (Hong Kong, by the way, is one of the best study abroad locations if you want an opportunity to travel throughout Southeast Asia.)

I think the entire exchange program decided to travel to the Philippines or Thailand that weekend. I had just turned 20 years old, and was one of the people in the group who didn’t go. The remaining 6 of us who didn’t commit to traveling the world that weekend decided to make a day trip to Macau, a Chinese province that is notorious for its casinos, egg tart desserts, and amazing Portuguese-Chinese fusion cuisine.

My good friend Jenny had been feeling a bit rebellious at the time. She was intending to go bungee jumping while we were in Macau without the permission of her parents, who had been funding her study abroad budget. (Insert gasp here.)

Macau is home to the Macau Tower, which is the second highest commercial sky jump in the world. At 731.6 feet, it’s not exactly a beginner’s bungee jump! Jenny didn’t want to do it alone, so she asked the 5 of us if we were up for joining her.

I’m pretty sure everyone else instantly said no, but I hardly gave it a second thought before jumping on board. Read More →

What I Learned From Almost Dying On The Side Of The Road

Thomas Frank Experiences

So, there’s a bit of a story behind this one. But before I get into that, I’ll just say that I spent much of Tuesday nauseous, almost puking, and definitely dehydrated.

Ok, let’s get into it. You know those people who spend hours trying to get every achievement in every Xbox game they play? Yeah – the Achievement Whores.

I do not have the patience to be an achievement whore with video games. However, there is one thing that gets me standing on a street corner in leopard print leggings (metaphorically of course), and that’s Fitocracy.

If you haven’t heard of this website, it’s basically a social network that turns fitness into a game. You log the exercises you do, and you get points for them. Get enough and you level up. There are also achievements to get and quests to complete.

I’m fucking addicted to this thing, man.

Really, I am. And honestly, that’s not a bad thing. I wish everyone was – it gives me incredible motivation to work out. In fact, I plan on writing a full post on how awesome Fitocracy is in the near future. Until then, all I can say is that you should join it. Also, follow me and join the College Info Geeks group so we can get some epic challenges going.

So. On to how this relates to me almost dying.

It’s Always About A Girl

My friend Arthur linked me to a certain girl’s Fitocracy profile a couple weeks ago. Anything special about it? Oh, no, not really… except she’s a level 41 and has almost 650,000 points, which means she’s on the front page of the leaderboard. Every day she logs an insane workout totaling anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000 points. Most people’s workouts rarely exceed 1,500, and they’re definitely not doing them every day.

Oh, and one more thing… she goes to my school. Read More →

Lessons At The Midpoint

Hema Karunakaram Experiences, Tips

I can’t believe the first half of the “best four years of my life” are already over.

College goes by so quickly, and we often get so caught up in everything that we’re doing that we don’t even realize it. If you’re like me, and are just now having this crazy revelation that life is really short, I think it’s a great time to reflect on what you’ve learned so far.

The past two years haven’t been perfect, but I’ve certainly learned a lot that can be applied to the next two years (and beyond). so, to complement Thomas’ lessons he learned from turning 21, here are a few of the things I’ve been reflecting on lately–some are about school, some are about life at large, and some are just random yet powerful lessons. Read More →

Epic Adventure Level 1 Review – Adobe Days In San Francisco

Thomas Frank Experiences

Wow! So, I think this is the longest I’ve gone without posting for over a year. Let me assure you that it certainly isn’t out of sheer laziness – no no no no no.

Laziness is only half of it.

Seriously, the past 11 days have been some of the best days of my life. The amount that I’ve discovered and experienced in this period of time is unrivaled. It’s simply amazing, and if you (for whatever reason) decide to click away from this post after reading this paragraph, let me offer you one piece of invaluable advice: travel. Don’t consider it – do it.

Unfocused raving aside, let’s get to the business at hand. I’ve been very busy in Japan for the last week, and I can’t wait to show you all that I’ve been doing. However, first I want to give you a peak at the first part of my epic journey – the Adobe Days event in San Francisco. The first thing I have to say about this trip is… Read More →

Better Health, More Focus, Mind Powers… My Vegan Diet Experiment

Martin Boehme Experiences, Health

Near the end of January, some friends and I watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, a documentary about a man’s ambition to juice fast for sixty days. Now, I have no desire to lose weight, so I was not inspired to juice fast. I need my food.

However, I did take note that Joe was eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than me. In fact, I’m pretty sure my main source of plant intake was applesauce, which, while delicious, is definitely not going to give me all of the plant-based nutrients I need to be at optimum health.

But where would I start? Being a meat, bread, and potato eater for twenty-one years, how would I best find the fruits and vegetables I liked, and truly bring change to my diet?

Simple: by forcing myself to eat the complete opposite of everything I had eaten before. To do this, I decided that I would try and follow a vegan diet for an entire month.

SXSW 2012 Recap and Tips!

Thomas Frank Experiences

So, my Spring Break was last week, and I didn’t spend it chilling on a beach in Cancun. Nope. I finally fulfilled one of my life-long dreams and attended South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin. I’d wanted to go ever since I found out about the event from my friends at HackCollege, but I had never been able to attend until now.

The best part was that I didn’t have to worry about travel or lodging – I was able to ride down with some friends and stay with a couple of amazing people!

Since we got into town on Monday, I actually missed the Interactive part of SXSW, which is the part I’d always heard the most about. As it turned out, though, that was for the best since I hadn’t bought one of the super-expensive badges. Read More →

Could You Ever Walk Across America?

Thomas Frank Experiences

2600 miles.

That’s a rough measure of the distance straight across the entire continental U.S. Every day, thousands of people fly across it. Each year, tons of people drive across it. Some people even cycle it.

But could you ever walk it?

Recently I learned of two extraordinary individuals who did just that (actually, they each did more than 2600 miles). The two amazing people are Arthur Hitchcock and Nate Damm, both of whom completed their journeys in 2011. Their stories have inspired me so much (doing this is now on my impossible list), and I wanted to share them for you. Read More →