The Pre-Holiday Plan

Every year, before I head home for breaks, I always do the same things. First off, I handle all of my laundry. By handle my laundry I really mean that I let it pile up for the few weeks prior to break. Why would I do my laundry? I am heading home and I won't have to see this place for at least a few days, right? Secondly, I handle the dishes. By that I also mean, I let them all pile for the same basic reasoning. Then I let things pile up in my room, assignments pile up that are due after break and I become extra lazy in general. This all would be fine, if you are the type of person that does homework on break and enjoys coming home to a shit hole of a room after break. However, I am neither of those people. On break I enjoy eating tons of food, drinking beer with friends, and forgetting to do my readings and assignments. This presents a pressing issue - nothing is accomplished before or during break. Therefore leaving me with piles of work, laundry and dishes to deal with after break is over (something very depressing to return to).

So I propose a fix to this issue - the pre-holiday anti-disaster plan. Sit down a week or two before Thanksgiving break, or Spring break, and make a list. This list should start with all of the things that you need to keep up with or deal with before you go home - laundry, dishes, cleaning, readings, etc. Not to be mistaken with a day planner, this is an extended list of very specific tasks. Then write down everything that will be due in the final weeks of school. This can be exams, papers, or projects. There is nothing more depressing than coming back to school and realizing you have more work than expected. By writing it all down, nothing will be unexpected. Not only that, you could start working on these assignments a week early (since we all know you won't do it during the break). Then when you finally make it back to school after break - life will be stress free. People don't realize how good of a feeling that is - two weeks left stress free. You have no dishes or laundry, no assignments sneaking up on you and you have a plan to finish all of your work - post holiday disaster prevented.

I also want to take a moment to say - PLEASE DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!!!! For sooooo many reasons... Drinking and driving can lead to so many life ending results. I have friends that have received DUIs and they are horrible. You can't drive for a year a more, your insurance becomes impossibly expensive and you may lose your job or job opportunities in the future. All of these are really, really life changing and they are the best case scenario of a drunken driving incident. You could kill someone or kill someone else. I know that everyone has heard this 100 times over and I am not going to drag it out talking about it - I will just toss you a few statistics. In 2008 there were 37,000 driving fatalities with 13,000 of them being alcohol related. That means 1/3 of the driving related fatalities are alcohol related as well - a pretty remarkable statistic. http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html can lead you to a few more stats, none of them good. So when you go out drinking, please bring a DD or just sleep there, or get a hotel. I hate sleeping in a bed other than my own as much as the next guy, but in the end it is worth it to possibly save a life (possibly even your own).

The Day Planner - Helping us Stay Punctual and Organized Since they Haven't Invented Teleporters

I wake up, take a shower, get dressed and head to my 10am Philosophy course - a seemingly normal day. I sit in Philosophy, laptop open, checking my fantasy football roster - I drop a few players, add a few - continually a normal day. I decide to open up Myumd and check to see if I have anything to pay for - I do, it has been due for over a month (that means a late charge). And even worse... I was supposed to register five days ago! SHIT! So I look at the walk in hour for English, perfect, after my last class. Then I look again for extra measure and of course... I have to check in with Arts and Humanities too, again, SHIT! So I look up their walk in hours, they end at 11.. it is 10:35. I stand up in the middle of lecture, grab my things and book it the hell out of there. I make it, perfect. There is no line, superb. I get everything taken care of and head to my next class without being late (it was at 11am). I finish class and make it to English advising. I look up the one class that I really want to take - yes it is still open! I sign in, wait for walk ins to start, finish up advising (Pointless of course). Everything lined up so perfect, why would I ever do things on time again?? I walk into the hall boot up my laptop, it takes about 17 minutes to boot because it sucks. I open up Testudo shoot into the drop/add section, AND!! My class is full, FML.

Then I go to class the next day and I sit down, pop quiz - perfect I did the reading. Except actually, I forgot to write down the changes to the reading - I bombed the quiz. Perfect, glad I did the reading for once.

This all could have easily been prevented by one of two things, a calendar or a daily planner. I never write things down, I never make it to advising before I am scheduled to register, and I am always late for important things. I am terrible at doing assignments on time, I am always pulling allnighters (much like other students are doing as well). I can also say that I am not the only person doing this, my room mate is also pretty similar and so are many of my friends. I hear tons of kids talking about how tired they are from being up all night writing a paper or studying for the exam. If only all of us had a day planner to check at night and in the morning, all of this could be solved. Procrastination is a huge part of College life, but it can be fixed with little effort. If I had a bold "PAPER DUE IN THREE DAYS YOU ASSHOLE" glaring at me when I woke up, I would probably be much more inclined to do it. Instead it goes something more like, I think I have a paper in the next few days. Better check the syllabus, Oh yup, that's the one - it's due tomorrow. Then I head to 7-11 for sixteen Red Bulls, four Five Hour Energies and some Taquitos and Gatorade - lining up a very healthy evening.

So go out to Target, pick up a five dollar planner and write down everything that is due, every appointment you have, etc. Also pick up a big calendar (you can usually find them for free at random campus events and such). Having it written in two places makes sure that you will actually see it. Put the calendar up where you can easily see it and write down the most important stuff since you have less room there. Also as a side tip - write down when you want to go to sleep. You wouldn't believe how helpful it is to see that written down telling you to not be an idiot and go to bed on time. It isn't very difficult and you will thank me later when you almost forgot something and your planner fixes it. So just write down your life - you won't regret it.

Buy an iPhone... It Just Makes Sense

On the road, it's raining, these mapquest directions seem to be taking you farther from anywhere near where you want to be. You whip out your phone, you remember them mentioning a GPS application at Best Buy where you purchased the phone. Download the GPS app. and boot her up - "smart phone with internet connection required" the screen mockingly reads. What?!? You mean my classicly free flip phone can't run this application? How the hell am I ever going to get home?! As much as it seems to be a horrible story, it only gets worse, he hasn't asked the much more pressing question (seeing as it is a Saturday night). How am I going to update my fantasy roster?? Well you are out of luck there Roger, your phone doesn't support the fantasy football application either... Lost and doomed to lose the big game tomorrow - you should have bought that iPhone man.

Yeah this story sounds depressing for some, but there are some who don't really worry with fantasy football. On a more serious note, in this day and age there are people who still carry flip phones. I really feel sorry for them, because I don't think I could function on a daily basis without a smart phone - it is really a crutch for my life. Rather than hear my ramble about how happy my iPhone makes me, I figured I would review the most important applications that simply make my life hundreds of times easier.

Maps - I guess you all can probably realize - I am good at getting lost. I never print out directions and if I do, I always forget to bring them. I had a GPS for a while, but I always forgot to update it and after two years of that it became pretty pointless - It probably actually got me more lost. The Maps application on the iPhone has saved me probably close to one hundred percent of the time in which I was required to journey somewhere I had no previous knowledge of. It is always updating, it is based on google maps (you can always trust google) and it is easy to use and is always working.

Flash Light - How many times are you looking for something in your car or outside on the ground and you don't have a flash light (because you are like me and are never prepared)? What if your phone could turn the camera flash into a flash light and save your life? Well now it can. And this isn't the only simple application like this, there are others like red laser for example that can find the cheapest price for a UPC in your area.

Youtube/Internet - You can just look up any video, any question, anything and have the answer instantly. No phoning a friend, no finding the library - just google it.

A lot of people may say "iPhones are expensive, the data plans are expensive!" Okay, I see the point - they are expensive. I am partial to the iPhone, but there are plenty of other smart phone options that are much more reasonably priced. Sprint offers many phones that can cost 100$ or less and a data plan that is 69.99$ a month. That is basically what people paid for regular basic plans less than two years ago. That may seem expensive... but when it really comes down to it, you are paying for a GPS, a mini netbook, a gameboy, an electric day planner an alarm clock and more - it pays for itself in convenience. So next time you have your flip phone and you need to buy movie tickets online, find your way back home or google how to kill Freddy Kruger - just remember there are plenty of reasonable smart phones available, so before Freddy kills you in your sleep, just get one - it just makes sense.