Worst NCAA Mascots

I found this gem while perusing the Internet today. Personally, I would say the Pepperdine Wave is probably the worst mascot ever, but I'm a little jaded.

Ready read: The Worst NCAA D-I College Mascots

St. Patrick's Day Prep

There are few days in the year were it is socially acceptable nay... expected to begin drinking before 5 pm. If you are of age, of course. St. Patrick's Day is definitely one of those holidays that has flown under the radar until college.

First, a little history from the trusted Wikipedia:

Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by many of non-Irish descent (Usually in the US and Ireland) Celebrations are generally themed around all things green and Irish; both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food, imbibing Irish drink, and attending parades.

Cool.

St. Patrick's Day is remarkably popular on many campuses (especially those associated with the Catholic Church). Check out if your student body has anything planned. LMU is busing people to bars starting at 5 am, hosting St. Patrick's Day events all day, then culminating everything with a concert feat. Common and OK Go (aka those four guys on treadmills). It's going to be a blast, for those that remember it.

For those who don't happen to have their annual concert coincide with this worldwide holiday, there are still a few rules to follow:

• Wear green. Duh.


• An Irish Car Bomb is a shot of Irish whiskey and a shot of Irish cream dropped into Guinness. You may hear people on Saturday referring to these as either "breakfast," "lunch," or "dinner."


• Although it make seem like a good idea, taking "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" shirts literally may get you slapped in the face. Or not. Who knows?


• Pace yourself. Those potato-eating contests are more difficult than they look.

Did we forget anything?

What We're Reading: March 12, 2007

St. Patrick's Day is but five days away. It's that elusive holiday that never mattered until you got to college. Now it might as well be Christmas.

Anyway, here's what we've been reading today/this week:

• Clean up your digital indiscretions (Lifehacker)


• My Mid-College Crisis (YouAreSketch.com)


• Pictures of the Craziest Pissers


• Kristoffer Ragnstam Review (Both Sides of the Mouth)


• Rethinking Homework


• The Group Dilemma (Facebook Blog)

Opening a Bottle of Beer

Not to blatantly rip off Lifehacker or anything, but this one is too good to pass up. They just made a post containing a video of how to open a bottle of beer using only a piece of paper. Cool

They also link to another article over at instructables, but check out Lifehacker's article first. Maybe click on a few ads while you're there.

Is it St. Patrick's Day yet? Video Demonstration: Open a beer bottle with a piece of paper

Newsflash! "Facebook Can Be Addictive"

I nearly laughed out loud when reading this headline on digg. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it's because it's so true and everyone who uses Facebook knows it.

The actual article tells the story of a man who spent on average 4 hours each day surfing Facebook. I'm not that bad... I hope.

Link to article: Career Advice: Don't Choose Facebook Over Your Job
Link to digg page: Facebook Can Be Addictive

The 3 Best Ways to Use Google Calendar as a College Student

Over the past week, I've been experimenting with Google Calendar as a personal planning device. Although it's still in beta (like every other Google product), it boasts an amazing set of features.

You will find many articles scattered about the Interweb about syncing Google Calendar (GCal) with iCal. This article is not about that; this article is about using GCal as a real calendar is used, no matter the situation.

To get started on GCal, just sign up for a GMail account. Then visit http://www.google.com/calendar.

The college student needs to familiarize himself/herself with the following three methods of using GCal:

• Use GCal's quick add function while planning at your computer. The quick add feature allows you to simply type the sentence that you would use to describe the event, such as "Meeting with Tom tomorrow at 5pm in the coffee shop" and Google does the rest of the work. Sweet like Jesus.
• When you're away from your computer, add events to your GCal using SMS on your phone. The cool-factor of this feature is unparalleled in this post-9/11 world. Whenever someone asks me, "Who are you texting?" I now answer "My secretary. Did I introduce you to my secretary? Her name's Google Calendar." To add events to your GCal using SMS, you use the same "quick add" syntax discussing two bullets earlier. It requires some set-up, though: you'll have to register your phone with Google, which is much less scary/1984-esque than it sounds. Once you've registered, just text your event to add to GVENT (48368) on your phone. GCal is even slimmer than PocketMod
• Load your Facebook events into GCal about once a week. While I know some people hate getting Facebook invites, I still find them useful even if they have become borderline to spam. To load them into GCal:
  
  • Navigate to your "My Events" page and press the button in the upper right corner.
  • Save this file somewhere accessible.
  • Then bring up GCal and go to "Settings."
  • Click on the "Import Calendar" tab.
  • Point it to the file you just downloaded and click OK
  Voila!
  

  So go fill up your new calendar, you young entrepreneur you. If I missed any sweet function, let us know in a comment.

  Related Posts:

  If you liked that, you might also enjoy:
  

  
  
  • Syncing Your Cell Phone's Calendar with Google Calendar
  
  
  • PocketMod - Get Organized Easily Without Buying a Dayplanner
  
  

About HackCollege Page Updated

The About page has been updated in an attempt to remove some of the blinding pretension. It's gone from very pretentious to pretty pretentious.

Building Credit Right Away with Credit Cards

You can never grow up fast enough.

Because I'm a loyal American, I spend money and lots of it. My current weapon of capitalist choice is my Bank of America Visa Check Card. The check card just withdraws the amount of the purchase directly from my checking account. Cool enough.

But a friend started using his fancy Visa Starbucks Duetto card in front of me. I've been generally jaded towards credit cards, until now. I forget the exact benefits, but he makes back a good portion of his Starbucks purchases and is constantly accumulating credit to be cashed in at a Starbucks. All of this is highly appealing to a caffeine addict.

Benefits aside, the main reason to get a credit card (if you don't already have one) is to start building good credit. Admittedly, the Starbucks incentive will push me into the realm of credit card holders, but be warned: credit cards make it easy to spend money you don't have. Sure I could put a new MacBook Pro on my future credit card, but I definitely don't have the cash for that. The basic lesson of using a credit card is to pay off purchases as soon as possible, thus accumulating good credit.

Since this whole topic has disturbed my sleeping patterns, I've been doing some research to different types of cards and such. Here's a list of sites I've looked at so far:

• "Credit Card" on Wikipedia


• Top 10 Card OFfers for Nerds, Bloggers, and Digg Users


• Starbucks Card Duetto Visa


• CreditCard321: Top 50 Credit Cards


• PayPal Plus Credit Card


• Credit Card Rewards at Lifehacker


• Read the Fine Print When Choosing a Rewards Credit Card

So go be a patriot and spend some money.