Gearfire - Tips for Students

The Frugal Student: Get Microsoft Office 2010 for $80 The Frugal Student is a weekly column on personal finance for students, brought to you by Chuck over at The Thrifty Lifestyle. Check out TheThriftyLifestyle.com for more frugal tips! Money is often tight in college, and so students have developed many creative ways to save money. Unfortunately between productivity software like Microsoft Office and media software like Photoshop, computer software is often a big expense for students. Luckily software...

Tips for Waking Up More Easily

How To Wake Up Waking up is one of the hardest things to do in life. Nobody likes to wake up early, everybody likes to snooze. Waking up easy is an illusion, you think. I have reviewed a couple of ways to wake up and made a small selection of ways that might work! Put your alarm outside of arm’s reach And old trick. Already used in the dark ages. They put the rooster outside, so when it started to crow, they needed to...

This is the Music You Should Really Be Listening T...

Don’t get me wrong- I also enjoy having Lil’ Wayne and Kesha in the background while I study. But let’s all be honest with each other- anything on a top 40 countdown is not conducive to major academic accomplishments. It’s been scientifically proven that the best music to listen to while studying is classical baroque music. I know it’s scientifically proven, because I read it on Wikipedia. True...

Scanning the Skyline: How Far In The Future Should...

Summary: In this post, I discuss my struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder, and explore the arguments pro and con a well planned out life. ********************************** I was recently diagnosed with OCD (that is, obsessive compulsive disorder). I’m hardly ashamed, or particularly shocked in fact. A little confused perhaps, but otherwise, the diagnosis has been a serious wake up call. The only way I can...

Your Non-Academic Pre-University To-Do List (Hyphe...

I’ve just finished packing for university and for the first time in 6 years, my things are all in boxes. I moved around a lot as a kid, but for the first time ever, I’ll be moving alone. I’m off to the University of Waterloo to major in Honours Environment and Business. (Told ya’ I’d make it in!) I’d be lying to you if I said I was particularly sad about that- I was hardly happy with my...

Balancing School and Sports

As we race steadily on to the start of this next school year, it can never hurt to think a little about what our schedule will be like for the next few months. We have to keep track of classes, study sessions, working, social lives, and all sorts of extracurricular activities. One major time commitment is if one plays a sport (or two, or three…). No matter at what level – intramural, club, or varsity –...

Summer – Surefire Ways to Prepare for the Sc...

In the spirit of the conversation here for the last few weeks (and given the fact that the summer is almost over) I thought it would be timely to post a few more ideas about how to spend your time in between semesters. Granted, my perspective is probably a little bit different – but this is a good thing. Like all of you, school isn’t the only thing I do; I also work full time, and I’m a husband and father. That being...

Trick Your Mind Into Using Less of Something

Recently, I returned from a trip overseas to Russia, where I took only a carry-on bag. As such, I bought four of those little 3-oz. travel size bottles for my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion. When I returned home, I decided to just use up what was in those bottles before going back to using the products from the original bottles. Lo and behold, I discovered that I use significantly less of each product when I use...

More Things to Do During Summer

Just a quick post from me today. After yesterday’s post about ideas for things to do during summer, I stumbled upon another two posts which I felt I had to recommend from Zen College Life, a great blog about the student experience in college. The two posts are called How to Use Your Summer Vacation and More Great Things to do This Summer, both posts containing more ideas for things to do during summer. Sorry to make...