So What If He Was?

By now many of you may have heard the "allegations" that presidential candidate Barack Obama is or was a Muslim. This is of course false, and was never even a merited or remotely truthful statement. The claim was on the basis that the senator lived in Indonesia as a child and attended a "madrassa," or radical Muslim school. This was disproved when CNN went to the school only to learn that it was a typical public school that taught reading and math and had a diverse population, including some Muslim students.

I'm not here to argue whether these claims were brought about from Hillary Clinton's campaign or from the Republicans, or anywhere else. Instead, I thought I would explain the insanity of this whole media frenzy. The news discusses this story as if they would discuss a political affair, or a dirty business deal, but in reality the allegations are not even remotely bad. So I could not help but wonder, what if he was?

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The Four Types of Facebookers

Lets be honest, Facebook is THE college website. Yeah there is Digg, Myspace, College Humor, and of course Ask a College Kid, but none draw out peoples obsession on such a level as Facebook. The large majority of college students make Facebook their first online destination of the day (and usually their last). There are different types of people who use Facebook. Some are more social and others are more annoying. In my observations I have realized that there are four types of Facebookers.

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Thought of the Day: Our Generation

Hello, my name is Chris. I am a 20 year-old college student and I would rather watch VH1 reruns of Flavor of Love than pay any attention to what is going on in the world right now. I know there are problems in this country and beyond, but I just don't care that much.

Okay, that's not really true, but I promise you that's what many others think of our generation. So why is it that they peg us as being lazy, impatient, and unconcerned?

Well, because we kind of are. Now I know that I am generalizing when I say this. In fact, I know many people our age that are very intelligent and active in politics, but I also know a lot of people who are not, and who could care less.

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Theme Parties: The Best of the Best

Throughout your college career you will attend hundreds of parties, some lame, and some ridiculously fun. You probably have been seen at least half of these parties, and if not, why not throw one yourself?

The first one that is popular among the guys is called a Red Light Green Light Party (also known as a traffic light party and Stop and Go party). These parties are known for its red, green, and yellow shirts that people who attend the party wear. Each color shirt symbolizes a different thing. First, is the red shirt, this means NO GO! When people have red on, they do not want to hook up with anyone and are strictly there to have some fun. Yellow, means that they need to meet the right person in order "fool around". Finally, the green t-shirt means that everything is a GO!


Now a days you can't walk into a dorm and not expect to see a blacklight dangling from the ceiling by the duct tape that their mom bought them. Blacklight Parties are known for their white shirts and florescent markers. Beware of these parties if you don't want to wake up with a million doodles on your face in highlighter. Although these parties are very fun, if raving isn't your thing, you might want to reconsider the Beer Pong contest down the street.





Golf Pros and Tennis Hoes is one of many parties that pretty much have the same theme; have all the guys were there best button-up and all the girls dress slutty. This is the party you want to attend if you just can't wait for National Dress Like a Slut Day (aka Halloween).





The Graffiti Party (aka Marker Party) is a party that you go to with a white shirt and marker in hand. When you leave you will have profanity written all over you and a t-shirt that will be a nice addition to your dorm room wall. Don't expect to go to class on Monday unless you feel like bathing in bleach for the next few days.




Finally, the infamous Toga Party. You have not fully experienced college until you have gone to one of these crazy, nothing but a sheet on parties. This shindig was made famous (and a college tradition) by the movie Animal House. From then on, people have been wearing their bed sheets to parties every weekend all around the nation.

10 Ways To Sharpen Your Brain

1. Read a Book
Pick a book on an entirely new subject. Read a novel set in Egypt. Not only will your brain get a workout by imagining different time periods, cultures and peoples, you will also have interesting stories to tell about your reading, what it makes you think of and the connections you draw between modem life and the words.

2. Play Games
Games are a wonderful way to tease and challenge your brain. Suduko, crosswords and electronic games can all improve your brain’s speed and memory. These games rely on logic, word skills, math and more. These games are also fun. You’ll get benefit more by doing these games a little bit every day-spend 15 minutes or so, not hours.

3. Use Your Opposite Hand
Spend the day doing things with your non-dominant hand. If you are left-handed, open doors with your right hand. If you are right-handed, try using your keys with your left. This simple task will cause your brain to lay down some new pathways and rethink daily tasks.

Learn Phone Numbers
Our modem phones remember every number that calls them. No one memorizes phone numbers anymore, but it is a great memory Skill. Learn a new phone number everyday.

5. Eat for Your Brain
Your brain needs you to eat healthy fats. Focus on fish oils from wild salmon, nuts such as walnuts, seeds such as flax seed and olive oil. Eat more of these foods and less saturated fats. Eliminate transfats completely from your diet.

6. Break the Routine
We love our routines. We have hobbies and pastimes that we could do for hours on end. But the more something is second nature, the less our brains have to work to do it. To really help your brain stay young, challenge it. Change routes to the grocery store, use your opposite hand to open doors and eat dessert first. All this will force your brain to wake up from habits and pay attention again.

7. Go a Different way
Drive or walk a different way to wherever you go. This little change in routine helps the brain practice special memory and directions. Try different side streets go through stores in a different order anything to change your route.

8. Learn a New Skill
Learning a new skill works multiple areas of the brain. Your memory comes into play, you learn new movements and you associate things differently. Reading Shakespeare, learning to cook and building an airplane out of tooth picks all will challenge your brain and give you something to think about.

9. Make Lists
Lists are wonderful. Making lists helps us to associate items with one another. Make a list of all the places you have traveled. Make a list of the tastiest foods you have eaten. Make a list of the best presents you have been given. Make one list every day to jog your memory and make new connections. But don’t become too reliant on them. Make your grocery list, but then try to shop without it.

10. Choose a new skill
Find something that captivates you that you can do easily in your home and doesn’t cost too much. Photography with a digital camera, learning to draw, learning a musical instrument learning new cooking styles, or writing are all great choices.

Via[SelfImprovment]

Thought of The Day: Crosswalks

So the other night, as my friends and I journeyed back to my Boston apartment, I came to a crosswalk (a few actually). As I walked up to it my first response was to stop and look both ways, which I did. My second response was to check to make sure the crosswalk signal said go -- or more recognizably, "Little White Walking Man." After a few moments I thought about this and it very much shocked me.

I realized the idea of a machine letting you know when it is safe to cross the street is incredibly ridiculous.

Do we not have eyes? Are we humans so stupid that we can not gage the danger of an oncoming car? Have we become so lazy that we depend on a machine to give us information we could easily process on our own?

These were all interesting questions, but what interested me even more was the fact that even though the crosswalk said do not go, we still went. As most of you know this is not an uncommon activity for crosswalk users. The unofficial rule in most places is that when there are no cars, you cross. Of course, town officials will probably tell you that crosswalk signals are there for pubic safety, but if people do not adhere to them in the first place then how are they protecting us?

They are not, and they are wasting a lot of tax dollars.

Think about it.

Cheers!

The College Kids

How to Quit Facebook

Maybe your affinity for Facebook began with a simple desire to keep in touch with your friends, or make new ones online. Or perhaps you were just bored. But now Facebook is the thorn in your side, and possibly a bona fide addiction. If you're finding it difficult to spend an hour of your waking life without checking or thinking about Facebook, you may be looking for a way out. This is it.

Steps

1. Admit you have a problem and keep track of what you actually do on Facebook. After every Facebook session, ask yourself: "What did I just accomplish by checking Facebook?" Odds are, you are probably just logging in to see if you've been poked, or for updates of when your friends change their profile image, write a new note, add a new song to their favorite music, and do other little things that you can really live without knowing. But those might be the little things that keep you on a very short leash. At first you're confirming a new friend, and next thing you know, you have spent an hour looking at all the new people you're connected to. Recording your Facebook activities can help you realize how much time you actually spend getting nothing constructive done.
2. Define your goals on Facebook. Make a list of what you really want from it. Why did you originally sign up? So you could remember friends' birthdays? Find and keep old friends? Meet people with similar interests? Whatever your goals may be on Facebook, you need to make sure that you devote your time there to accomplishing those goals, instead of going off track with activities that get you nowhere. If you have no goals (i.e. if you signed up just because you had nothing better to do), skip the next step.
3. Make and follow a Facebook schedule. After each Facebook goal, write down how much time and at what frequency you'll need to be on Facebook to achieve that goal. Then write down the total number of hours, per week, that you should be spending on Facebook. If it seems like too much time, adjust your activity times accordingly. Following this schedule might bring your Facebook addiction under control without requiring you to quit altogether

For more steps check out the rest of the article here.

Thought of The Day: How Much Do We Waste?

Here are some crazy statistics:

• In the U.S., 4.39 pounds of trash per day and up to 56 tons of trash per year are created by the average person.
• Every year we fill enough garbage trucks to form a line that would stretch from the earth, halfway to the moon.
• We throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
• We throw away enough aluminum cans to rebuild our commercial air fleet every three months, and enough iron and steel to supply all our nation's automakers every day.
• Throwing away one aluminum can wastes as much energy as if that can were 1/2 full of gasoline.
• Every year, nearly 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.
• Recycling an aluminum soda can saves 96% of the energy used to make a can from ore, and produces 95% less air pollution and 97% less water pollution.
• Sixty percent of the world's lead supply comes from recycled batteries.
• It takes 90% less energy to recycle an aluminum can than to make one from scratch.

For some good ways to stop your waste go here.

Via [Clean Air Council]

Thought of The Day: Long Live the Interrobang

I am a writer. I write for this blog, I write for my classes, I write for leisure, I write when I am bored, and I even write when my mom calls me telling me I need to pay my $120 cell phone bill (I hate you Verizon).

Anyways...

Very commonly when I am writing I have the desire to express a question in an excited or surprised manor. Of course with the current shortcomings of the English language that is impossible. So when I write "why is Verizon ripping me off", you do not know if I am yelling or just politely asking.

I am not the only one who has noticed this. In 1962 Martin K. Speckter invented the interrobang, and it looks like this: ‽ Some people may know it as !?. The interrobang allows you to state a question in an excited manor, express excitement in the form of a question, or make a rhetorical question. Unfortunately, the interrobang is still not considered an official punctuation mark.

So what can we do? We can all fight for our right to use the interrobang. Talk to you English professor and let them know that when you wrote, "romeo oh romeo where for art thou romeo", you meant it!

[Wikipedia]

Cheers!

The College Kids

Thought of the Day - Orientation

At this point most of the freshman and transfer students reading this have or are in the process of doing orientation. Yesterday I had my orientation at Suffolk University, not as a freshman, but as a transfer student, and what a day it was. The day was completely normal until we started picking out classes.

Then it turned into a steel cage match. We were all stuffed into a lecture hall fighting to get an assistant to help us. It is August, and as you can imagine there are not many classes left, so that made things worse.

F-That.

I decided to go straight to the source: the advisers. After much struggle I was able to hunt one down. Her name was Jane. As Jane was helping me another adviser came to her and and tried to pull her away from me. She then flipped out on him, and told him she was busy. Jane helped me a lot, but I still had to meet with 2 other advisers. 4 hours and 6 headaches later, I was done.

I then went home and took a nap around 6 pm. That nap turned into a full nights sleep. When I woke up at 3:45 this morning, I had more energy than a 10-year-old.

Day 1 at Suffolk University: Success

Watching Your Adviser Flip Out On Someone: Priceless

Thank you Jane.

Thought of the Day - My Window is Next to the Dumpster

Since 6AM this morning the damn garbage trucks have been in and out of the parking lot picking up the excessive trash that was left by the returning students. My window being right near the dumpster allows it to wake me up every five minutes with a big gong like noise.

Dear Mr. Dumpster Noise Maker,

I would like to sleep in to at least ten. Could you do this dumpster last on your route?

Sincerely,

The kid in on the second floor of Pontigny Hall

High School Friends

College Kids,

I have a group of really close friends from High School and am afraid that I am going to lose touch with them in college. We are all going to different schools in different areas. How likely is it that we will keep our friendship alive?

Stacy
18 Years Old
Eldredge, CO

Stacy,

I have some good news and some bad news for you. I will start with the bad: The majority of high school groups lose touch in college. The good: Many high school friends are as close (if not closer) in college.

Whether or not you stay close depends on the relationships themselves. I have found that many high school friends are not as "close" as they appear. Many people change entering college and lose similarities they once had with their friends. On the other hand some friendships are close and are for real. In this case it is very likely that they will survive.

In the end you just need to remember that eventually the true friends stay and the fake ones leave.

Cheers!

The College Kids

How College Will Change You (The Good, Bad, And In Between)

College Kids,

I've heard that a lot of people change after they go to college. Is this true?

Sam
18 Years Old
Sandusky, OH

Sam,

Absolutely. Moving out on your own is one of the biggest changes that will ever occur in your life. I have seen college change people in many ways, so the college kids and I came up with a few ways that many of us and our peers have changed. Some are good, some are bad, and some are in between. Just make sure you avoid the bad.

The Good

You Will Become More Mature

- This happens to almost everyone and is definitely a good thing. With in a few weeks you will have adjusted to life on your own and be totally comfortable being independent. That means doing what you want whenever you want to.

You Will Become More Open Minded

- One of my favorite things about being in college is all the different people and ideas you are exposed to. I grew up in a small town and it was refreshing to go to a school where there is at least one person from basically every country in the world. When you live in the dorms you will experience different ideas, cultures, and music.

You Will Appreciate The Small Things

-I do not quite know how or why, but college seems to make people more appreciative of the small things. Perhaps its the small dorms or crappy cafeteria food. Who knows. All I know is that I have never enjoyed playing Frisbee with my friends more than I have in college.

You Will Make TONS Of Friends

-Not to say that you do not have enough to begin with, but you will make all kinds of new friends once you move in. Of course, you might want to still hang on to your old friends, they could be your best.

The In Between

You Will Drink More Alcohol

- This is good or bad depending on your definition of "more". If "more" means only on the weekends, then "more" is good. If "more" means Monday through Sunday including all holidays then "more" is bad. You get the the point.

You Will Have More Hookups

- Most of the time this is a good thing. The only time this can be bad is if people start to know you as the girl/guy who hooks up with random people all the time. Then you might want to cool it a bit.

The Bad
Watch Your Weight

- I have seen this happen a thousand times. I even got out of shape my first year in college. All the bad food and lack of motivation to exercise can be a bad mix. My advice: go outside and get some fresh air. It will do the body (and mind) a lot of good.

You Will Have More Stress

- The college workload can put a lot of stress in your life. Added on to everything else this can be a real difficult challenge for college students. Everyone deals with stress differently. You should find ways that work for you. Whether it is exercise, reading a book, going out on the weekends, or meditation, you have to always take time for yourself.

You Will Get Bad Sleeping Habits

When you have to cram for a test sometimes you have to stay up late, very late. In fact, sometimes you have to stay up so late you never go to bed. Freshman, allow me to introduce you to the all-nighter. She is not fun and you want to avoid her at all cost. The best way to do this is by not procrastinating and scheduling your time.

The bottom line is that college will absolutely change you in some way. That is what makes it so great! The idea though, is to let it change you in a good way and not a bad way. It is also to let it change you in a way you want to be changed, and not in a way you do not want.


Cheers!

The College Kids

Thought of the Day - Horns

Driving in and out of the city everyday you start to get an endless echo of horns in your head. You hear it so much that eventually it doesn't even phase you anymore.

I think people need to calm down in this country with the horns, people use them way to much for things they don't even need to.

Like the other day I was exiting the interstate and coming to the end of the off-ramp. I had one car behind me and I came to a complete stop while a car on the street I was turning onto went by. Not a second later did the mofo behind me beep. What did he want me to do? Side-swipe the guy?

In other countries people use their horns to say thank you or go-ahead, NOT to show anger.

Thought of the Day - Escalators

There are two different types of escalators in this world. The first kind are located in malls mostly. These escalators are mainly used by EXTREME lazy people that don't understand the concept that you are supposed to walk up them, thus getting you to the next floor quicker.

The other type of escalators are located in airports, subways, and many city areas. These escalators have two lanes. A fast lane (passing) and a slow (stand and scratch your ass) lane.

I won't even get started on moving sidewalks, they're a different breed.

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

College Kids,

Where have all the cowboys gone?
John
Arcata, CA

John,

Before I can answer your question we must first understand what a cowboy is (or was). You see a cowboy was not just some guy on a horse riding into the sunset. Nor were most of them gun blasting villains. Despite what TV may make you think, most cowboys were American men living out their lives. They lived off the land and their main goal was to survive. Although the life of a cowboy may not have been always exciting, what they did was very important.

Cowboys have represented some of the finest American beliefs since its creation. These include: freedom, patriotism, individualism, respect, and appreciation of this earth. They lived off the land, respected it, and took only what they needed. The cowboys were amongst the first group of people to discover the American West and pioneered a new way of life. Also, in a time of segregation there were huge amounts of Mexican and African-American cowboys all across the South and Midwest. To them race was not nearly as important.

As I write this I try to imagine life on the prairie. It must have been very difficult to have lived and survive in such conditions. When I picture a cowboy alone on the range, I wonder what they thought of themselves. Did they think of themselves as heroes, or idols? Probably not. They were just regular people living out their lives, and for all we know they were not heroes. Of course that depends on how you define one.

If someone who lives their life being free, helping others, and building our county is not a hero then I do not know what is.

Now back to your question. Where have all the cowboys gone? In a very literal sense, well, most of them have died. Of course in a more idealistic sense they have not gone anywhere. The problem is there is not enough of them these days.

So ask yourself. Are you a cowboy?

Will you fight for what you believe in?

Will you choose to live free?

Will you help others?

Will you protect our earth?

Then cowboy up!

Cheers,

The College Kids

College Kid Live

WickedCoolSteve coming at you, live from Panera Breads. I'm here this afternoon to introduce you all to one of our newest features, College Kids Live. We always have stuff on our minds that we'd love to share with you, and here's the first segment. We've been having massive growth in traffice recently, so we'll be adding new columns and features as time goes on. Enjoy!

The room is warm and bright with trendy jazz floating through the air. Sisson and I are sitting in a booth near the back, just watching everything float by here are a few groups around, and most people have some kind of Red Sox cap on. This is the heart of Sox territory and I don't even want to think of what the reaction to a Yankees cap would be... surely instant death.

A dude in a white button-down shirt, khakis, and tie sits down with four cups of water, all with a wedge of lemon. He has no idea that his comb-over is sticking straight up. He looks goofy to say the least.

The mood is relaxed, with a low murmor of conversation. A cold breeze from the AC is almost too much.

The comb-over's wife has just arrived at the table, and told him about the hair malfunction. It is fixed, and now is well at the table.

As we sit here, enjoying our $1.50 bottomless coffee, and observe the cast of interesting characters (comb-over man included) we can't help but think that we too are being silently judged by the people around us. Just as we see them as almost one-dimensional characters in some kind of movie, I am sure that they feel the same way about us. Despite the fact that there is so much attached to my life, they will likely never see or understand any of it. It's important to realize this and act accordingly. Don't ignore those whom you encounter. Smile, say hello, and think well towards those random people. After all, they're people too.

We've been here drinking coffee for about two hours now. So, with a BCL (blood caffeine level) of around .5, I put on my wicked badass aviators, and roll out here whistling Schools Out . Peace.