Watch, Read, Make: Louis CK, iPhone Economics, and DIY Shoes

"Watch, Read, Make" is our weekly dose of Friday fun to prepare you for the weekend. This week we have Louis CK, an analysis of the iPhone and the job market, and DIY shoes. Start Friday off with a bang!

Watch: The (very NSFW) footage of Louis CK commemorating Georgia Carlin comes from the Glorious Leader's blog (he in turn got it from the Laughing Squid). The footage is nice in that it's a sweet commemoration of a man that Louis CK clearly admired, but the lesson that he cites at the beginning--to set clear project goals, be unafraid to try something really new, and to quit doing what isn't working--is easily applicable to college life. It's also valuable for the honesty that Louis CK displays when talking about how scary it can be to really try something new. His act sucked for 15 years, and he still didn't want to toss it out. The dynamic is the same as a biology major who hates his program but is scared to move to English. However, it was only after Louis CK made the switch that he began to experience real professional success. It's something to keep in mind when you're thinking about your own academic future.

Read: This post on why the iPhone isn't creating jobs in America is fascinating and depressing in one fell swoop. Part of the issue that the study authors raise is that shifting production to the US would lower Apple's profit margin on each phone to 50%, rather than 65%--depressing, but not surprising. Taken with this piece, which traces the sourcing of Kindle components, a less-discussed issue is raised: even if either company wanted to source production in the US, the US doesn't have the manufacturing industry to build the electronic components the devices need. The comments on the first post raise the issue of R&D costs not being factored in to the original 65% profit margin statistic, and the arguments for and against the validity of the number which follow are really worth a read.

Make: I am obsessed with this one-piece shoe pattern. Hackers come up with all kinds of interesting soft circuit work, but I so rarely see people making their own shoes. If you've got a hankering for cobbling some up this weekend, snap a picture and send it to us! Until then, I'm going to stick to designing HackCollege shirts (coming soon--get excited).

Got any other things that have you excited this weekend? Let us know in the comments!

Friday Fun: Use a DVD Player Lens to Take Amazing Macro Photos with Your Phone

Mark this down as the best class project ever. For one of my classes, we had to do a DIY project of our choice, and I decided to take apart a DVD player, and use the lens inside as a high quality macro lens for my iPhone. The hack shouldn't be too hard to replicate, especially if you're used to tinkering with with hardware. 

I'll let you read the full rundown of the process over at our course blog, but you can check out the gallery of pictures I took above. As an aside, I was using a macro filter on my Nikon SLR to photograph the process, and the iPhone consistently took better macro shots with a haphazardly-attached DVD player part. If you have an old DVD player sitting around, this is a great way to kill an hour over the weekend.

Establish House Routines Early

Photo courtesy of Flickr user imallergic. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.

Moving into your own place with a few roommates is an exciting situation. This excitement can be explained by one reason: you’re free to do whatever you want. Although your new found liberty is certainly a blessing, it can also become a curse. In all likelihood, your roommates live their home life differently than you. Some might do dishes right after a meal while others may wait until the next day; some grew up in a household where they were expected to clean around the house while others had nannies to clean up there mess. Regardless of your upbringing, when living with roommates you’re forced to adapt to others.

Depending on your character, you may not be the type who speaks up when a roommate is acting in a way that seems inappropriate. Although you could certainly keep your feelings to yourself and avoid confrontation, this can often lead to a passive-agresssion.

Whether you’re best of friends or a hodge-posh of random students united by Craigslist, it’s important to establish house routines early so that everybody is on the same page from the get go. This might involve a house sit-down, one on one discussions, or simply some gentle reminders from time to time. Establishing these routines early is important as change is easiest to implement early before actions become habits and the stresses of school set in.

You can have your freedom and enjoy it too, just by establishing routines for house harmony.

What You Should Be Doing to Prepare for Graduate School Right Now

Ready to immerse yourself into the academia world of grad school? Make sure you're prepared to get in first. Photo courtesy of cheri lucas.. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.At the beginning of the summer, I wrote a short series about what college seniors should be doing to get ready for the real world after college. As I myself enter my senior year, I'm trying to keep all of those things in mind to make myself a more marketable choice for either employers or those in admissions offices. However, as I am leaning towards going to graduate school soon after graduating from my undergraduate program, I am realizing that there are more concrete things that I should be doing to prepare for the grad school process.

As I began to think about graduate school, I started to panic. Some of my friends have already set their date on their GRE, have narrowed down their grad school choices, and are already filling out applications. I mean, wow. I feel so far behind. I hope that those who are going through the same thing that I am can learn from what I'm doing to prepare myself and not feel so overwhelmed by the whole process, because it is extremely terrifying.

Narrow Down Your Interests

Clearly as a senior, you've already been immersed in your major for a few years. You've taken all the classes, met all the professors, and feel comfortable in your own field. However, when you apply for graduate school,  you're usually applying for a very specific niche within that field. For instance, I'm not just going to go to grad school for Communication. I'll be going to study something very specific, like media law or TV production or fan cultures. If you know what your specific niche is within your field, that is awesome. Some people (ahem, me) aren't quite so sure yet.

Before you can go much further, you should start evaluating what your particular interests are in your major. What is it that really inspires you? What academic articles do you really love reading? Once you realize what that is, then you should start doing extracurricular work in that subsection. Start a blog about it, communicate with others who talk about. Start an independent research class with a professor about the subject. This is the route that I am taking. My independent study will be focused on something extremely specific within the field of Communication and will help narrow the kinds of programs I look for in graduate schools. Go all out in this specific area and become an undergraduate expert on it. It will make you really stand out to the programs you apply to.

Prepare for the GRE

If you have not already signed up for the GRE, do so immediately. I'm signed up to take the test in October, on a weekend that I don't have anything major due. Check your calendar to make sure you can take the test on a date that you're not too stressed out with school already.

It also helps to buy a preparation book or two. You can take a course if you wish, but I'm self-teaching myself the methods of how to answer GRE questions and don't seem to be having much of a problem with it. Applications for grad schools are usually due between December and January, so make sure you take the test sooner rather than later so that your scores can be sent to your desired schools in time.

Start Researching Programs

Now that you've narrowed down what you want to focus on in grad school, you can use that to decide which program you'd like to actually study in. This itself is a daunting task because there are so many options. It's like choosing a college all over again. There are two really great ways to start narrowing your focus if you literally have no idea where to start. First, think of the academic figures whom you admire. For me, it's the "father of fandom" Henry Jenkins. Dr. Jenkins has taught at MIT and currently teaches at USC. Thus, my attention of graduate schools was immediately drawn there. Look back on articles you've read in the past and figure out who keeps recurring. Who is the current authority in your field of interest? Where do they teach?

A second way of choosing grad schools is to look at where your favorite professors went to school. Two of my favorite professors went to the University of Washington in Seattle, and so that immediately goes on my list of schools to check out. Clearly, you should also look at the schools that have the best programs that focus on what you're interested in specifically, but if you have no idea where to start, those are good places to start.

Ask for Help

About three weeks ago, I felt completely overwhelmed to the point where I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. How am I even supposed to figure all this stuff out by myself? The answer is that you don't have to. There are reasons we have professors and advisors at school; they're here to help. Set up a meeting with your advisor or a professor you trust the most and who has known your work for quite sometime. Ask them questions-- what do I need to be doing? Where should I apply? What do I need to do between now and the next three months? The next three months?

There's no shame in asking for help, and having someone to help you guide you through the steps is incredibly helpful. It helps take a bit of the stress off so at least you have a general guideline of what you need to do instead of having absolutely nothing to go on. Applying for grad school is an extremely exhausting process, so make sure you're prepared as we enter application season.

What are you doing to prepare for graduate school? Let us know in the comments!

[via USAToday College]

TweetMemeFace+: It's All About Skills

Does your ideal future career path include social mediating for money? Fabulous! (No? Go away and work on your other marketable skills!) As someone whose current career path includes social mediating for money, I can't fault you. I can, however, give you some words of advice.

First, realize that social media skills are to 2011 what Microsoft Office Suite skills were 10 years ago. Sure, some dinosaurs will survive for ten years without figuring out that "twitter" isn't a verb, but for the most part, the entire rest of the job pool against which you are going to be competing either understands the basics of social media or will learn to.

Because here's the dirty secret of social media: it's not that hard. Your ability to work HootSuite, though commendable, is not some magical skill. What is much more difficult (and what people tend to overestimate their skill level in) is doing social media well.

So, what's a college student without other marketable skills to do if they're interested in social media? Here's what I've found to be the most successful:

Learn your turf: I currently have two gigs where I'm allowed on the company Twitter account--HackCollege, and a volunteer job at a women's health clinic. College technology and reproductive rights are two very specific areas of the internet which I happen to be reasonably active in anyway. I can't provide well-done social media services to an art dealer, because I know nothing about art dealing. But when I'm trying to find Twitter accounts for gynecological care providers in the southeast, I'm able to provide much better answers and I'm competing against a much smaller pool of people. Find an area and know it well.

Have decent social skills: It's not hard to write a press release or to send a tweet. What is hard is engaging with people, coming off as friendly and humble, and being seen as valuable. None of those skills are related to social media, and yet you will have to have them in at least some amount in order to succeed at organizing a social media presence. Go interact with other human beings in meat space.

Listen more than you talk: Learn the norms of your little tiny corner of the internet. The way that I behave when I'm on the @HackCollege account is different than when I'm in the social justice sphere, because what flies in one space makes me look like a tool in the other. The only way you will be able to do this is by following a limited number of representative members of that community, rather than 300 people who may be talking about different things.

Seriously, have marketable skills: I'm kind of kidding here, but seriously--the reason I was able to manage any of the HackCollege social media stuff is because I was on staff. I was on staff to begin with because of a very specific set of skills that I developed long before I started huffing my 140-character paint thinner of choice. My success in getting asked to help manage the reproductive justice organization's social media presence had to do with my other, proven contributions in that specific field. Social media is fun and all, but no one wants to read tweets from someone who can't write well, and you can't do PR for Microsoft if you can't work a spreadsheet. If you're going to be doing social media as a marketing tool, you need to really learn the ins and outs of analytics as they apply to any kind of marketing.

Do you have your own social media advice? Let us know in the comments!

How To Deal with Stress as a Student

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodstressyousuck. Photo courtesy of Sara. Nel. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.The semester has barely started and I am already starting to really feel the pressure of this school year weighing down on me. I'm a senior, which means in about nine months, I am going to be kicked lovingly out of the doors of my college into the beautiful harshness of reality. Needless to say, I'm scared shitless. I'm thinking about graduate school, the GRE, applications, job opportunities, what I'm going to do with, you know, the rest of my entire life. I've got classes and readings and papers and literature reviews and scripts to annotate. I've got my future basically resting on my shoulders.

Who wouldn't be stressed out?

I've already been seeing how stress is affecting me, and it's barely even September. The entirety of last week I hardly slept. I'm hungry all the time. I'm  extraordinarily cranky. I pick fights. I am not a pleasant person to be around. And even though I understand that it's all just the stress talking, I have no idea what to do about it. I lie awake at night for several hours, thinking about all of the things I have yet to do, before falling into an uneasy night's sleep.

Luckily, last Friday, I stumbled onto this Lifehacker article-- "What Stress Actually Does to You and What You Can Do About It." I mean, hello. Thank you God for timing. The article is actually a really great read, and helps you understand what exactly stress is and how it can affect your daily life. I'd encourage anyone who is stressed (aka everyone) to give it a quick read.

Here are some tips that I have found useful in my journey to a less stressed life.

Relax Before you Sleep

Sleeping is the main thing that stress affects for me, and it just all snowballs downhill from there. If I'm tired, I'm cranky and I don't feel like doing anything productive, which just gets me more and more stressed. I realized that I needed to figure out a way to really relax before I got in bed so that I could get to sleep more easily and not be wound up about everything. Several things that I have tried include taking a bath or shower right before bed (being clean and warm makes me sleepy), watching a mindless, happy TV show, and reading a book. For just those few minutes, you're taken away from the stressful situation your school work puts you in. Your mind relaxes, and so does your body, and you're ready for bed.

Eat Healthily and Exercise

You'll actually feel a lot better about yourself if you eat healthy meals. Your body will feel more energized and therefore be able to deal with stress better. And secondly, it will be one less thing you have to stress about. Instead of worrying about how you probably shouldn't have eaten three pieces of pizza, you can focus your energy on what really matters

Exercising is a fantastic way to deal with your stress. You can channel your feelings of anxiety into your work out and get them out of your body. And just like eating healthy, you'll be less worried about your body and health and more focused on your school work.

Create Goals

Part of stress is the unexpected. I don't know what I'm going to be doing after graduation; I don't know how I'm going to tackle my thesis; I don't know when I'm going to have time to write that paper due in two weeks. Therefore, part of dealing with stress is to combat the unexpected.  You can't always know, but you can be prepared. Create goals list for yourself to help you deal with what you can. If you know you want to go to grad school, figure out when to take the GRE and just focus on that for right now. If you know you need to write that paper, look at your calendar and figure out a good chunk of time when you can sit down and write it.

Making goals and to do lists is a way to organize your life into manageable blocks that you can deal with one day at a time. It's too much to think about those huge projects all in one day. Take them in small bites, and you'll accomplish them step by step. Your progressive accomplishments in those projects will be able to be seen, and as you continue to check things off your to do list, you'll feel less and less stressed.

How do you deal with stress? Let us know in the comments!

[via Lifehacker]

Offline versions of Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs now available

Offline Gmail's two-paned interface. With web apps, your information is easily accessible no matter where you are… as long as you have an internet connection. If you were on a plane or a bus and wanted to catch up on your email, you’d be out of luck. Google rolled out a solution for this issue last week with its new versions of Offline Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs.

Only available to users of Google Chrome, the new HTML5-powered apps are still in early experimental stages. So while a lot of basic features are missing right now, keep in mind that Google promises that many of these, including support for other browsers, are coming in the near future.

To read, respond to, search and archive your messages, simply download the Gmail Offline beta from the Chrome Web Store. Whenever you are running Chrome with a network connection, Gmail Offline will download all of your messages. The app uses Gmail’s clean, two-column tablet interface and supports switching between multiple Gmail accounts.

To enable offline mode in Calendar or Docs, click “Offline” from the settings cog in the upper right corner. It’ll direct you to the Chrome Web Store to download the Google Calendar or Docs app. Right now, Google Calendar Offline only lets you view calendar events and RSVP to invitations, but the ability to add and edit events is on it’s way. Offline document editing is also in the works.

It looks like Google is set on developing a solution that will let you access your information anytime and anywhere, online or offline. Offline Gmail, Calendar and Docs is a big step in that direction.

Evernote Lifts Restrictions on File Type Uploads for Free Users

The elephant just got a bit kinder.Evernote, my personal favorite note-taking service, has made a major announcement today. Free users, who can make up to 60MB of notes monthly and up to 25MB in one note, and who were previously allowed to only upload images, text, and PDF files are now allowed to upload any file - .doc, .ppt, and .xls are fair game.

Why should we care? This is the end of the need to save syllabi, lecture powerpoints, or any other class material in anywhere but Evernote. 

Of course, like all cloud services, Evernote should be backed up somewhere, but it allows you to make your Evernote notebook one inbox for all your files - be it all your class files, all your involvement files, or all your fantasy football files.

Evernote is making a great decision that benefits nearly all college students, who are notoriously cheap when it comes to monthly services (sans Netflix), by allowing them the same preference their Premium users use.

[Evernote]