The Cheap Student

Watching Pieces of Silence...

2009-07-14T10:22:00.000-04:00

We're watching a movie about mustaches or something. They keep mentioning drinking, but I think it's really about mustaches.

They just mentioned kids and drinking parents. There was a good explanation.

I had really good intentions towards taking notes on this movie, but it's too corny.

Mustache guy is a wuss. He's all like, "wah wah, daddy didn't love me enough, wah wah."

I'm your class officer...

2009-07-09T18:02:00.001-04:00

Me and the other officers are planning the pinning ceremony and we
realize we need more pictures of us for the ceremony.

So, hang out with others and take pictures. More instructions to follow.

Also, 18 classes left.

Michael A. Tighe

Sent from my iPhone

New sponsor...

2009-06-14T16:07:00.001-04:00

Look to the right. Do it quickly.

See the Amazon banner? Have any desire to hook a brother up? I'm poor. (Note the site's title.)

Amazon is now my sponsor. I'm not terrifficly famous or anything, but I'm now an Amazon associate. I'll try to keep the list on the right updated with whatever our textbooks are for the quarter, plus some other handy/fun stuff for enterprising students.

Here's the deal: If you click on the banner and buy anything from Amazon, (either stuff I advertise, or stuff you just want,) I get a commission, at no cost to you.

Chances are you'll be using my notes, and while you're here, feel free to peruse my list of useful school supplies. I put a Livescribe pen in there. If you'd like to be more high tech than me, get that. (For those of you who both record lectures, and write down notes, nothing can beat that. It's crazy how well it works.)

Also, enjoy the rest of your break. I did awesome in class this quarter, which is unusual, (I almost called the site The Poor Student,) and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in a few weeks.

Some stuff...

2009-06-03T20:40:00.000-04:00

I'm in Barnes & Noble and doing okay. I just bought some more Moleskine journals. I like them in a weird way.

Good news: I got a B in my class!

Other news: If you're in critical care, bring your book to class tomorrow. Just trust me. Do it.

Have lots of safe fun during the break,
Michael

Good luck on finals...

2009-05-31T23:16:00.000-04:00

Finals week is technically next week, but my finals are both this week so I'm shouting out now.

Consider yourselves shouted upon.

Looking at how short this message is, I feel like I should talk about something personal or something. Uhm, here's some stuff that may appeal to you.

I saw two concerts last week. I did the cheap thing and paid $10 to see Among the Oak & Ash and it was off the chain. I should mention that Josh Joplin, (1/2 the band,) is my favorite musical artist alive so my view might be slightly skewed.

The next night I saw Jane's Addiction. It cost $48. Andy Rourke, (bassist of The Smiths,) opened by playing iTunes for 1-1/2 hours on a red laptop. I honestly thought it was some kind of sound check or something until we looked him up on my iPhone and realized the guy on stage looked like the guy in the Wikipedia article.

Jane's Addiction was okay. Perry Ferrell talked between every other song and he reminded me of that friend you have who either gets high all the time, or you think his/her parents did a lot of drugs while he/she was en utero. I wish I remembered the exact quote, but apparently Perry has lots of friends in Ohio who are Jewish and pray to the moon.

Maybe it makes sense if you're high.

In the news, (students should follow the news, I don't have any evidence to back this up though unless you're a poli-sci major,) Republicans are being douche bags, Democrats are wasting your money, and nobody is really getting that I'd rather just be left alone.

Education-wise, you can get a free iPod Touch with a new Apple computer. The white MacBook is under $1,000. Here's the link to the education discount page.

Finally, Rose died.

So, go out there and be good students. Good luck on finals. I hope I was at least interesting,
Michael

Wikipedia...

2009-05-25T00:01:00.001-04:00

I always get looks when I tell people I look at Wikipedia for information. It's actually okay to find out information from Wikipedia. You shouldn't use it as a source because of one obvious rule of research:

You don't use encyclopedias for research if you're a grown up. It's perfectly accetpable in middle school, but as a grown up, you don't do reseach in any encyclopedia.

A lot of people have issues with accuracy on Wikipedia. These people are crazy. It's about as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica. (If you read the link, you'll see it's more accurate.) You still should be aware that character attacks show up on wikipedia all the time, but they're pretty obvious.

Many people take issues that Wikipedia is done by amateurs. Would you believe that amateurs have done research on protein folding and contributed to astronomy? Amateurs, (according to the definition,) do what they do out of love not for money. (WARNING: MAJOR SUPPOSITION APPROACHING) No money=no bias.

Anyway, that's a person peeve that's been bugging me for about two years I thought I'd get off my chest. Go back to studying and being good students. Do the poll on the right or leave an inflammatory comment below.

Looking for ideas...

2009-05-19T22:06:00.001-04:00

Although I have a great idea of how much traffic I get to this site, (more than 10,000 hits in two years. Not terrible for a small blog with a very limited audience;) I'm not sure how many of you actually read the articles I post, or if you're just here for my notes.

So, I'm putting a poll up and I'm asking for a favor. If you read the articles, post a comment below if you'd like me to talk about anything specific. If you'd like me to shut up and concentrate on taking better notes, you can leave that as a comment too.

If you're looking for ideas to give me, I'm wicked organized, (or try to be,) and full of myself so if you're looking for a way to organize some aspect of your life, send me a thing and I'll give you a full of myself version of how I'd do it. I can probably send you some free technology that'll fix whatever problem you're having too.

I'm off to bed because I've got a wicked headache and I need to wake up early tomorrow.

Stay bamboocha,
Michael

Discount bags...

2009-05-18T07:28:00.000-04:00

People often say to me, "Michael, that's a very nice bag you've got there. I bet you could be thrown from a moving car with that bag on your bag and it would sustain very little damage."

To that I reply, "Yes! Most of the impact would be absorbed by my tender face."

The other person almost immediately asks, "Where may I find such a bag."

Well, it's a Timbuk2 bag and it's not cheap. However, until June 3, they're having a huge sale. Here's the link to their page. Check back every day because the deal changes daily.

On-line research...

2009-05-16T22:45:00.000-04:00

It's been in the news recently a lot, but only in geek-related news so you may not have come across it, but there's a new search engine. It's called Wolfram Alpha. It doesn't have a catchy name, but it's named after Stephen Wolfram. I'm not sure who he was before. Let's do a quick test. Here's what you get when you search him in his own search engine.

It's not for everything, but it works good as a subsitute for Wikipedia. I've been playing with it all day and it seems good. It does have a lot of gaps, (my name doesn't have an answer,) but it does do some cool things.

Swearing and organization...

2009-05-11T21:46:00.000-04:00

This started with a very long post about how I don't swear in professional or minor-related situations. (i.e., if there's a kid around.) Here's the jist of what I wrote: (see how I make things easy by summarizing.)

1. I don't swear at work, it's unprofessional.
2. I don't run at work, it's undignified. (Future ICU nurses, take heed.)
3. I don't really run ever. I'm asthmatic.
4. I'm losing your attention.
5. I don't swear in places where children are in earshot.
6. I swear a fuck ton eveywhere else.
7. Depending on the context you know me from, you've either thought I was raised by nuns or pirates.
8. I haven't sworn here much.
9. I work very hard to try to be organized.
10. Here's my desk.

11. Yeah. Fucking brilliant job there.

12. There's a system called Get Things Done.

13. It works really well for its adherents.

14. Its adherents are pricks.

15. I'm jealous of the pricks. (I've never been able to pull off GTD.)

16. The reason for my suddenly swearing here:

17: Write Shit Down

NEWS!!!

2009-05-10T16:26:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure if you trade files on-line, but stop now. Remember how they used to sue people who looked for MP3s? Then do you remember that they stopped?

They're suing again.

Also, while you're at it, I think I figured out the source of the RIAA's new audacity. (That link is for those of you who think you have me figured out politically. Libertarian /= Liberal.)

Now back to study guides for you. -)

While I'm suffering from swine flu...

2009-05-08T17:23:00.000-04:00

First of all, for some reason, every time I type flu, I end up typing f-l-u-e. I'm not sure why.

Second, don't worry if you had class with me. I don't have swine flu. I do have regular flu. I was originally hoping for swine flu because I read it wasn't that bad and there is a measure of prestige in being one of the few who has it.

That said, I have whiny normal flu.

So, I thought while I'm at home making coughing noises, you can all benefit. I'm going to work on reading the chapters for 211 and bringing you the important points from each chapter. It'll be in the class notes section.

Good luck with the mid-term everyone. Look for the stuff sometime Sunday. I'll actually start working on it in a few, but it won't be done for many hours.

I found going through the chapters for this stuff helped a lot with the last mid-term and I hope you can all get some benefit from it.

If you've got any good ideas to study, or any good flu remedies, put them in the comments below. Also, click an ad.

Thanks a lot,
Michael

While you're suffering from swine flu...

2009-05-04T00:01:00.022-04:00

While you're trapped inside breathing recycled air and glaring angrily at the world through your windows, I found a few things that would be great for students to do while they suffer through the swine flu.

First of all, if you're running a Windows PC, you probably notice you tend to accumulate a lot crap that slows down your running speed. If you're on a Windows PC, you should probably get SpyBot. It's a program that takes a lot of the bloat off your computer. It's not anti-virus, but it is anti-malware.

Here's an article on how to lower your credit card rate from home.

If you've got any ideas on how you can be a better student, or a cheaper person, leave them in the comments.

Critical care...

2009-05-02T17:41:00.000-04:00

If you're in NURS 194 this quarter, and feel like studying sometime this week, I'm very open to that. Wednesday after class I'm open. I'm also available Monday evening after eight or so. We'd need to meet to study someplace that had food though. (It sounds bad, but studying in bars is great. Bar food tends to be ideal for snacking while studying and beer is an excellent study aid.)

Also, I'm going through and answering the questions from the end of every chapter in the notes section. (See the notes on the right and you'll see what I'm dong.)

Good luck on the mid-term everyone,
Michael

Visual Voicemail...

2009-04-27T00:01:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-04-22T23:46:00.003-04:00

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...

2009-04-22T06:54:00.000-04:00

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.,...

2009-04-15T08:05:00.000-04:00

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...

2009-04-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

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...

2009-04-07T22:45:00.000-04:00

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?

2009-04-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-04-02T00:01:00.001-04:00

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

2009-04-01T00:01:00.005-04:00

¡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

Search for documents...

2009-03-30T00:01:00.003-04:00

I found this site on-line that lets you look through on-line documents, (from the whole internet.) It basically functions like Google, but just for documents.

Here's the link: http://docjax.com/home/index.shtml

There's no sign up/log in/cost.

On-line thing that's useful...

2009-03-27T00:01:00.007-04:00

If you've ever had a PDF you wanted to use as a Word document, (like for easier cutting and pasting, or for some reason, a jack-hole you were doing a project with only sends you PDFs,) go to this website, (http://www.pdftoword.com/) and it'll make a Word document out of whatever file you put in.

It's free and doesn't require a log in.

Click an ad.