Saturday, August 1, 2009

How to Actually Cook Things in College

'Lo GP,

I little while ago I told you all how to season meat. Then I thought. What about the next step. It seems obvious to me that you would simply put the meat in the pan and fry it. But then again, somethings you need to bake in the oven; which is an entirely different process. This video will help you.



Hopefully that's helpful to you all!

Helpful College Tip: If you have to choose between getting a meal plan and cooking for yourself I'd go with the meal plan. With all your studying and partying you likely won't want to bother making yourself each meal. With a meal plan you can pick up something to eat without taking much time. Not to mention it's sometimes expensive to make a good healthy meal. But if you're desperate for cash, cup noodles will always be cheaper, though you may end up gaining the freshman 15.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

College Email

'Lo GP,

I received a discounted residence room at my university which cut down my residence fees by 50%, and almost lost it. This was because, despite their original correspondence with me through my hotmail account, they decided to tell me I'd received the room through my university email. An account which I rarely check. In order to secure this room I had to reply by a deadline that I had already missed by at least three hours. Thankfully, the residence section of my university understood my misunderstanding, but not before the woman stated at least five times that it said at the end of every email sent to my hotmail account that I should check my university one.

So let me tell you this. As soon as you recieve your university email it is active. You should be checking it at often as you check your regular email account. While some people may simply have their university email forwarded to their hotmail account, I have been told time and time again by upperclassmen that things get lost in cyberspace. And to be honest, is it really that hard to check it?

That's all for now,
bye bye
- Evinus

Helpful College/University Tip #3: Always check your university email. As soon as you get it, treat it as you would your regular email account.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Mnemonic Devices (How to remember names)

'Sup GP,

In college, and in life, it is very important that you remember names. Many people take personal offense if you fail to remember their name, believing that they were not important or exciting enough to remember. And let's face it, they probably weren't, otherwise you would have remembered their name. But if you want to make friends and try, and try not to offend people, you should get good at remembering their names. And if you can't remember, make sure you have a system so they don't realize you've forgotten their name. This video will show you some techniques.



All joking aside, I actually do sometimes never say someone's name. If they realize it, it never shows. Obviously this is not a perfect system, but it has its uses. And if your conversation is fun and engaging they are even less likely to notice you haven't once said their name.

Helpful College Tip #2: Look up some mnemonic devices and try them out before you go for your first day, especially if you don't attend frosh week. In frosh week you will likely be forced to do endless icebreakers and likely know at least 15 people's names. But wouldn't it kick a$$ if you could blow minds during icebreakers by remembering everyone's name on the first try? Not only does it make you memorable, but you come off as a person who listens and pays attention to others.

Bye bye GP
- Evinus

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Timetabling

Hey there GP,

While I, weeks ago, finished doing my timetables for my first year, my friends are still agonizing over theirs. This being because in college you must make your own timetables while before in high school you just picked the courses you had to take and the administration did the rest. However the administration also likely tended to mess up which left to missing classes you wanted or standing in line for hours waiting to tell them what was wrong. In college there is none of this nonsense. You are given a crash course in timetabling and then sent off you use the tools given to you to organize your shite yourself.

The difference is in the schools. My university has a very simple, albeit inflexible system to timetabling. You type in your course on the website and make sure you have to conflicts in your classes (ie. two classes occurring at the same time). If you do happen to have a conflict you simply cannot take one of the classes. Whereas in my friend's school (a very large university) they have endless choices, so many in fact that it becomes difficult to choose. Especially since their particular campus is very spread out. Furthermore their timetable process was mostly on paper causing them to have large charts laid out in front of them while they spent hours pouring over it.

So for all of you I'm going to give you some timetabling advice for when you have to do this job yourself.

1. Make a chart of the days of the week and times. Likely your school will provide this for you.
2. Make a list of all the courses you want to take and their respective course codes
3. On the chart will out all the classes that only have one time slot.
4. Fill out all the classes you MUST or REALLY WANT to take without worrying about the times.
5. fill out the rest of your classes in the chart without worrying about the times BUT make sure you avoid night classes at all costs
6. Once you've filled out all the courses in the timetable look back and see if you have flexibility. And switch times around. You may ask, why not just do this in the first place? Sometimes you may find it very difficult to place classes in a way so you don't have to walk up early or otherwise. By example, the friends originally tried to do their timetabling that way and 4 hours later they no longer cared where the classes went and STILL hadn't even added their electives.
7. Look at the location of each class and make sure that if you have BIO 100 at 9-10am and CHEM 100 at 10-11am that you can get from one class to the other in 10 minutes. Otherwise you may want to switch the order. Though if you are on a close knit campus it usually only takes about that time to get from point A to point B

I can't guarantee these techniques will work for you, but steps 1-5 worked very well for me. And the other steps are recommendations I am making after watching my friends struggle. But like I said, every school is different and some have more flexibility than others. My personal schedule had conflicts and the course I need for my major only had one spot that conflicted with JAPN 100, so suffice to say I won't be taking Japanese this year. Furthermore, my film course ONLY offers labs at night so I had no choice but to take a night course. So take that as you will.

The most important thing is that you get the class you want. Even if you have to wake up at 8:00am (heaven forbid...) to take it. Better than being in class at 10:00pm and coming home tired just when your friends head out to party. Let me tell you, in my opinion, early morning is ALWAYS better than late at night.

Happy timetabling (though that time is past for this year, but good for next year)
Bye bye GP!
- Evinus

How to Feed Yourself at College

'Lo there GP (that's General Public), I have decided you help you all out there who will be away from home but have no idea how to make a home cooked meal. This video will show you how to season all kinds of meat (but not beef).



Here is the recipe

A meat (chicken, pork, lamb, etc. NOT beef)
3-4 tbsps ketchup
2-3 tbsps BBQ sauce (NOT HP sauce)
3 squirts Red Hot (5 if you want it hot)
1-2 tbsps honey
3 dashes pepper
3 dashes Paprika (optional)
3 dashes Thyme
1 1/2 tsp rub marinade
1 1/2 tsp chopped garlic

Put these all in a bowl, mix them up, and refrigerate them overnight for the best results. As you get used to seasoning the meat you can tweak the recipe to your desires. If you go watch the video, please, please, comment.

Look out for my next 'How-to' video which will show you techniques to cook the different types of meat you can use and some side dishes to add to the meat.

Bye bye GP!

Monday, July 20, 2009

PS about the 'easy' roommate

If all else fails go here and purchase that poster for yourself. Or make your own if you want. But listen here, do you really think your stranger roommate is going to constantly abide by these rules? It's all fine and dandy to say "hey roommate, overnight guests only once a week", but people who have just gotten away from their parents rules will not likely be keen to follow yours.

You can give the 'overnight rules' your best shot. But if your roommate feels like breaking the rules once in a while, then they will. You can report them, but that will obviously cause tension. If anything you should make some 'get out of jail free' cards (like 5) for when your roommate or you break the rules. If all 5 cards get used you agree to not have any overnight guests for a month. Then when the month is over, you decrease the 'get out of jail free' cards to 4. and so on and so forth.

And just a note, if you've ever heard your parents 'making love' in the room beside you. You'll know that sometimes people think they're quiet when they're not. And you should be ready for this with any overnight guest. Hence the earplugs being a good investment.

Again, I'll let you know when I get there. But from my prior knowledge and acquired life skills, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Pre-Frosh Week Impressions

To go or not to go to frosh week seems to be a question that is easy for some and plagues many others. While the social keeners who all went in a group to the same university to go or not go to frosh week is like asking whether one should or shouldn't pay their tuition deposit; it seems to be a no brainer. However, for the rest of us who are antisocial, went to a new university by ourselves or are in a completely different faculty than our friends it's a difficult decision.

While the pro to frosh week is consistently that it's a great opportunity to meet new people and get used to the atmosphere one must wonder if you want you first impression of your peers to be that on command they will drop to the group and roll around in moss and shaving cream or that they have absolutely no problem with shouting the same song at the top of their lungs over and over. However, I would argue that in situations in which everyone is forced to publicly humiliate themselves people tend to become more comfortable faster. Sitting in a classroom it may have taken you 15 minutes or more to say something to the person sitting next to you. In comparison, when someone puts a balloon on your chest and tells you and you classmate to hug until it pops the ice has pretty much been broken.

Another fear that people have when choosing to attend frosh week is the looming traditions that surround each school. I have come across no school that had some sort of weird tradition that caused great excitement among some and fear among others. For example, my own school has a tradition where engineering students climb a large pole affectionately named 'the grease pole'. Though I am unaware as to whether it is actually covered in grease. Nevertheless, scaling a giant pole in order to bond with your peers seems a little bit of a daunting task. Though let's face it, only engineering students are ever asked to do things like this.

The good thing about frosh week, at least with the knowledge I currently hold, is that you are able to leave at any point should you feel uncomfortable. That means if someone blindfolds you and tells you to undress you can always take off the blindfold and walk away. While hazing (extremely humiliating and/or aggressive frosh rites, if you will) is illegal it still exists. Though dozens of people (according to seventeen mag) have reported that they always had the option to leave but never took it. If you don't want to do something, you don't have to. Especially pertaining to frosh week because they cannot kick you out of the dorm if you don't go.

I will have better insight into frosh week when I actually attend myself and will be more than happy to give you guys my consensus. For now, these are my first impressions based on things I've heard. as of now, I'm as in the dark as you guys are, but don't we learn best through experience?

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The List : "The freshman 5"

May I introduce to you all... the list.

This link shall mark both the flow and focus of the blog and my video entries on the You Tube channel. These 'tasks', if you will, shall help you, the reader, decide if these are options that will help or hinder your college experience. As I gain readers I love for you guys to suggest things for me to do.

I'll start off with 5.

1. Start a video and written blog
2. Connect with my roommate
3. Introduce myself to my dorm neighbours
4. Participate in frosh week
5. Go to a dorm floor event

Look forward to this people and listen to tales of me likely failing in all social situations.

Welcome to the Beginning

Today while sitting at home in monotony watching a show on Cosmo TV that attempted to be both entertaining and education I was struck with the idea to make a you tube video. And this is my lovely product.



Follow me as I catalog my entire trip through freshman year at my university while I give you helpful tips and tricks along the way to survive and spice up your freshman year at college or university. Will it be entertaining? Yes. Why? Because my entire life up until now hasn't been all the momentousness so anything else that happens will be great.

Helpful College/University Tip #1: If you do happen to get a fat or unfat roommate who happens to give it up easy, a smart investment is earplugs. You may also want to sleep facing the wall. And try to ignore the shadows you may seen against it.