Grab Bag: Cool Stuff I Want To Share For December Week 2

Thomas Frank Links

Alright folks, it’s time for another Grab Bag!

Since finals week is probably just about over for most of you, I’ll assume that you’re probably heading into winter break right now and having anywhere between zero and zero thoughts about college right now.

Good – that’s exactly how I feel.

A few updates from my life right now…

Now that this semester is over, I have only one semester left before I’m completely done with college. Holy crap – the past three and a half years feel like they’ve gone by so fast. It seems like it was just last week I was taking the mattresses off of dorm beds with friends and jousting with them in the hallways – but that was three years ago.

I’ll be treating this winter break as a small taste of my planned post-graduation life – working on new features here at College Info Geek, writing more, and possibly working on some web development projects. With regards to actually graduating, I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing immediately afterwards. I may find a job, or I may try to work for myself (quite doable at this point) – all I know is I’ll be here in Iowa for at least a couple more years.

Speaking of new CIG features – I’ve got quite a few in the works that I’m really excited about. For one, I’ll be launching the Personal Branding Toolbox soon, which will be full of extra content and free resources to help students build their personal brand and look more impressive to employers. If that sounds interesting to you, sign up for the CIG newsletter using the form in the sidebar or at the bottom of this post!

In other news, I beat Super Meat Boy the other day. Get on my level. Read More →

The Mutant Guide To Studying For Finals

Thomas Frank Studying

Do you know what happens to a toad when it’s struck by lightening?

Well, unless you’re taking a class on biology or meteorology this semester, you shouldn’t care right now. You’ve got bigger things to worry about at the moment.

That’s right! My fellow students, the real enemy is out there – beyond the confines of your dorm rooms, your apartment walls, your fraternity living rooms. They congregate on hard drives, printer trays, and secret folders far from our eyes… for now. Soon, though, we must all come to face this great enemy: our finals.

To face these abominations and have any chance of victory, you’re going to need preparation – and it’s up to me to use all the out-of-place movie quotes, shaky analogies, and bulleted lists I can muster to give you that very preparation. So sit back, grab a beer (just one), and get ready to evolve your studying habits. This is the mutant guide to hitting your finals harder than the Juggernaut. Read More →

Grab Bag: Cool Shit I Want To Share For November Week 4

Thomas Frank Links

Productivity hacks, text art, sick verses about Willy Wonka… welcome to this week’s Grab Bag!

Since this is the first one ever, you’re probably wondering, “What the heck is this?” - That’s a great question. Let me answer it by first giving you a little peek inside my mind and how it’s working right now.

Basically, the type of blog post I like to write has been changing and evolving since I started College Info Geek. In the beginning, this blog was a way for me to write HackCollege and LifeHacker-style posts since I didn’t get to be a writer for that first one. That meant I typically would write normal-length (~800 word) blog posts with a fairly limited focus. Writing several of these posts a week really wasn’t a problem.

However, as I got more into blogging and stared building relationships online, my tastes started to change. I started reading longer, more in-depth posts on other blogs and found I actually liked these more. A huge post jam-packed with lots of value became more exciting to write than two or three small posts. So I started writing these kinds of posts – posts that took multiple days and many hours of writing to complete. Some of these include:

As time went on, I noticed something: these in-depth posts became my most successful content. This probably isn’t surprising, as they’re the ones that took the most work!

The result was this: all my new ideas for blog posts are now epic and in-depth. While this is great, it means it takes me a lot longer to write them.

So, in an attempt to get more fresh content on College Info Geek while I work on these epic posts, I’ve decided to do a new weekly feature called Grab Bag. Read More →

5 Computer Tweaks You Should Make Now To Save Yourself From Disaster

Thomas Frank Computers

Earlier this morning, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw a posting that is all-too-common for college students: someone’s computer rebooted in the middle of the night and they lost the massive Word document they’d been working on before they went to be.

Of course, the first comment was, “Save your work bro.”

And of course, the original poster’s reply was, “Gee, thanks for telling me now asshole.”

This, my friends, is why I’m writing this flimsily-disguised rant. I’m tired of seeing people use their computers like morons. I’m tired of people not doing obvious things to protect themselves from easily-avoided disasters.

And most of all, I’m tired of seeing said people complain about their misfortune on Facebook and then get all defensive when someone very rightly tells them why they’re a bonehead and what they could have done.

So here’s my blanket statement, which isn’t pointed directly an any one person but at everyone:

If you lose a large amount work to a computer problem, you were most likely being an idiot. It’s not Microsoft’s fault. It’s not Dell’s fault. It’s not the fault of those three old hags in Hercules that share one eye and cut threads all day. It’s your fault.

Thoroughly offended yet? Read More →

I’m Voting For Us.

Thomas Frank Living

Six different TVs are currently surrounding me, with most displaying a swirling mix of reds, blues, and percents. It’s just after 9:00 p.m. here in Iowa, and I’m sitting here with Anna at a campus dining center where we await the results (and, thank God, the closure) of this election.

Though I’ve remained quite silent about politics throughout this election cycle, I now feel compelled to write about my feelings at this point. This desire probably stems from me wanting to avoid working on actual projects – that, and my face hurts too much already to keep reading Axe Cop.

So, I’m going to talk about the election. Or not.

You see, while the election is important, I believe it’s not the only important thing. There’s something much more important that I’d like to talk about.

However, before I get to that, I’d like to preface it by talking a bit about myself.

Being a generally well-educated and outspoken person, it may surprise you to discover that I hold far fewer concrete political beliefs than the average person. I’m very, very neutral about most things.

Now, this isn’t necessarily because I’m lazy. Not at all. It’s actually because I’m conflicted.

You see, to me, most political issues create a power balance battle - should more power be given to the government, or should it be given to the people? (or the corporations?) Read More →

Trapped by Freedom

Thomas Frank Living

Here’s something to think about: I believe that the unbelievable level of freedom we have in this country actually traps us.

This is something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while, and I want to dump my thoughts about it onto a digital canvas. So just bear with me here before you start commenting about how we’re not actually free because we can’t go to Cuba or say certain words in a movie theater.

Regardless of what you think – most of us have a metric fuck-ton of freedom. And that’s precisely the problem.

Our freedoms can easily trap us in a net of mediocrity and complacency. These freedoms actually make it harder for us to be truly exceptional. Let’s take a look at what some of our freedoms actually give us… Read More →

Analysis Paralysis And How To Conquer The Fear Of Failure

Isaac Moche Living

This is guest post from Isaac Moche of The Campus Companion.

My roommate, Dan, is an inventor. At least he thinks he’s one. Funny thing is, I’ve never seen him actually invent anything. Every time I talk to him, I hear about the next big idea that’s “definitely going to change the world”. Some of his ideas are great. Others…not so much. But they all have the same thing in common: You’ll never get to use them, because these inventions will never see the light of day.

Dan has analysis paralysis, which means he overthinks ideas to the point of never taking action on anything at all. His analysis paralysis manifests itself as “market research.”

What does yours go by?

It might sound crazy, but you’re probably guilty of this too. You might not be contemplating ways to change the world, but chances are there’s some great idea hiding out in your brain, just waiting to break free. Read More →

Focus On Your Weaknesses

Thomas Frank Living

When I was in middle school, I remember receiving this piece of advice from some teacher:

“Focus on making your strengths even stronger rather than dwelling on your weaknesses.”

While I don’t think this is a bad piece of advice in a lot of cases, I’d like to argue against it today.

Telling people to only focus on their strength can have an unintended consequence – they might not discover a new passion or strength. They’ll just keep focused on what they currently know.

You see, what you think is a weakness might not actually be a weakness. It might just be something you have zero experience in. In fact, that’s the more probable situation.

The other day, my friend Leo posted a picture on Facebook. The picture was one of John Gurdon’s grade-school report cards, and it looked like this: Read More →