Jake’s Life

I don’t think I can explain exactly how furious I am right now. I know that I have not felt like this for quite a long time though.

I called school today to tie up loose ends for graduation, turn in my application, etc. In speaking with an academic advisor they told me that I would not be graduating because two years ago I took a two-credit Communications course when the minimum requirement is five credits.

Wow.

So let’s review:

In November 2005 I took Non-Verbal Communications as suggested to fulfill my Communications requirement. My student home page reported that requirement taken care of. August 2007 I apply to graduate and am told that I need to take a five-credit course because there is no three-credit course to fulfill the basic requirements. The only course that is available has a seminar on a night when I am working, which means that I have to complete an additional assignment (usually a three to five page essay) to make up for it.

It gets better.

This means I have to apply for a separate student loan for over $1600. And while to some it may mean nothing to add such a small amount, due to the fact that I will only be taking five credits I don’t qualify for an in-school deferment (meaning full time or more-than-part-time): The six month repayment grace period has still officially started as of yesterday and will only end up being a few months from the time I actually graduate. I will also be paying almost $1000 for credits I ideally shouldn’t have needed.

My academic advisor told me that she understands my frustration. I told her that I doubt that she did. I felt like telling her to just forget the whole thing and I would apply for a job working at the university, because you obviously don’t have to be a genius to do that, but my self control is what separates me from the rest of the animal (and even human) kingdom.

Yeah, I’m pissed. This pushes back my application dates by at least a few months. Those short term goals I had are pushed back with them, including how soon I would be able to find a place with Sandro and how much I could afford to budget for it in the long run.

While I am sure that a few of you who are reading this–and don’t think I don’t know who you are piss ant–are undoubtedly happy at this situation. I don’t mind, mainly because I know that I have come farther than you ever will even go in your life (which you wanted to end but even failed at that! Loser!).

Now, I’m not sure if this is the case or not. It could be a myriad of different things. If it’s one thing that work and my college coursework has taught me, anything could be true.

For the last few years I have kept a small amount of friends. I’ve always been that way really…I have a few friends that I tend to devote time to and build strong relationships with them. Some of them keep a much larger circle of friends, and it shows in a few different ways that I see right off the bat. First, it’s easy for them to get socially disorganized and forget you exist, which means no phone calls, no plans, etc. Secondly, I tend to remember a lot about them, but they remember only just enough, or what they remember gets lost in the shuffle with what they remember about other friends. It gets annoying, but makes you feel pretty great when they all of a sudden out of nowhere say something that you told them years ago. Wow.

I’m saying this because I have a few friends who I rarely see. We’re both busy with work, I had school on top of that, and anytime plans were offered is either sushi (which is a big yes) or going out (which is a big no for me). I’m wondering if this is all part of the part-time friend syndrome or just because I’m so busy and hate clubs.

My shirt tucking in skills are superb.

Well, I’m done. I don’t have my piece of paper yet, but I’m still done. Two and a half years, $26,000~ in loans, one do-over, one almost do-over, and countless hours of sleep lost later, and I’m done.

Well, here are some ups and downs I had regarding this failing hard drive issue:

Gateway said Vista would already be on the hard drive…it wasn’t. My old hard drive was 100 GB…the replacement is 150GB. They said it was 2-day UPS shipping…it took eight. They said that they put a hold on $75 for it from my bank account…they didn’t.

I’m not sure if these inconsistencies are good or not.  

In the last week I have tried out a few more apps/tweaks for my T-Mobile Wing. My ultimate goal in trying different things is to obviously see what works best for me: I want a device that I can quickly get to what I need without using the stylus (i.e.: new e-mail or the dialpad while I’m driving). I also want a fairly quick and lightweight-feeling system, with any themes working all across the board. I don’t know about you, but I hate when all of my programs–except one–have common themes. Think iTunes, here. I also like a clean looking interface that isn’t cluttered.

I overclocked the 201MHz processor to 260 MHz using BatteryStatus. It puts a nice plugin on the home screen which allows you to quickly change between the two speeds, or you can forgo the plugin and change it manually when you need to. Previously it took a solid second or two to change between landscape and portrait, and now it is fairly instantaneous. Launching programs is also quicker, and the device is more responsive all around.

I needed a good on screen keyboard that I could forgo the stylus with (again, texting while multi-tasking). The slide out keyboard is awesome, but it usually takes two hands to really use it. While I may have gorilla hands, they’re not big enough to comfortably type using only one of them, and that’s another reason I miss my T-Mobile Dash. I found Spb Full Screen Keyboard and a few others, but all of them are landscape which defies the purpose of not using the actual keyboard. I found Happy Tapping Keyboard (and currently using the iPhone skin) and it works surprisingly well for one handed operation.

On the never ending quest to find a home screen that I love to look at even when I really have nothing to do on my Pocket PC, I came across the new HTC Default Theme and Home Screen plugin which is used on the HTC Touch (see left). It apparently works for the Wing as well, along with the new dialpad, comm manager, and music manager apps.

I know I have mentioned Spb Mobile Shell before, but it deserves another mention. I’m not sure if any of my readers use Windows Mobile devices, but if you do it is a must have. It gives that no-more-than-two-touches between you and your goal that I love. My current theme is below (from left to right, Home Menu where all of my preset apps are linked from, photo speed dial, messaging, and Spb Finance tab).

Here’s a good way to get into my mind when it comes to criminal justice topics. It’s also a great example of the widgets box.net allows you to create and post on web sites.

Now that I am finishing college, I see so many things that I wish I either had or knew about when I began my studies. When I started

Complete Student Planners

Notely: “Notely is a collection of online tools designed to help all you drunken students out there to organize your busy lives. whether you’re in University, College or High School Notely has the tools to help you get organized.”

Notely keeps a calendar, courses, notes, to-do lists, tasks, notebooks, links, contacts, assignments, and friends all in one place for students to access anytime. It also lets you upload files and keep them handy.The Dashboard page keeps you updated on any assignments coming up, overdue tasks, etc.

mynoteIT: mynoteIT is similar to Notely, although I think Notely is more pleasing on the eyes and loads faster. It’s tag based. According to the web site you can:

• • Ask the community your dire question at the message boards.
  • Access your notes on your mobile phone via mynoteIT Mobile.
  • Upload Word and OpenOffice documents, images of scanned notes and audio notes.
  • Keep track of all your upcoming assignments and get them done with your to-do list.
  • Use our sophisticated WYSIWYG editor to easily take, edit and store your notes online.
  • Instantly search your notes or the mynoteIT community notes, and learn something new.
  • Create a bookmark list of the most helpful and useful notes you find on mynoteIT.
  • Join or create class groups or school groups so you’re never out of the loop.
  • View all your upcoming assignments on your calendar.
  • Add friends to your friends list to easily keep in touch with each other.
  • Easily keep track of all your grades in all your classes.
  • Store your teachers contact information to easily contact them anytime.
  • Go through the revision process with your friends with our note tree.

University Notes: “University Notes is an online network dedicated to making the college life easier and more enjoyable. By allowing students to communicate and share info with each other, you can kiss tracking down phone numbers and those late night trips to the copy machine goodbye!”

Definitely a slick interface. It also has school information regarding courses to help in planning. Similar to both sites above.

Note-taking, Mind-mapping

Notemesh: Specifically for note sharing among college students, their web site claims,”There are plenty of notes services out there; NoteMesh is a different way of thinking about your notes. Collaborate with your classmates to create a unified set of notes for your class. It’s like Wikipedia for your notes.”

Notecentric: Still in beta, “Notecentric is a web based note taking application. Notecentric keeps your notes organized and readily available online. Your notes are always in one place, so you don’t have to worry about synchronizing them.”

Thinkature: A different kind of online notes site, it allows real-time collaboration with others, including voice chat and whiteboards.

OneNote: My favorite note app of all, simply because it also comes with a mobile version. I’m not sure if the above sites are accessible easily from a mobile browser, but OneNote Mobile is free with OneNote. Yeah, you have to pay for this app though.

EverNote: A freeware app similar to OneNote. It’s fairly lightweight, although the interface seems clunky and cluttered. Gets the job done though.

deusto: This is an ideal solution for people who don’t need an ongoing solution, but just one-time. deusto lets you immediately publish a “web site” in a minibook fashion with its own URL. Very simple, straight forward, no account creation.

Word Processors and Office Suites

ajax13: I wanted to mention this office suite first, simply because it is the fastest I have tried. It uses ajax (obviously) instead of Java. Definitely worth a try.

ThinkFree: This office suite is right up there with the rest of them. It can load most document formats you throw at it and keeps your files online.

Google Docs: ‘Nuff said.

EditGrid: If you need a better spreadsheet online solution, it’s EditGrid.

Your Draft: A solution for smaller projects, Your Draft allows you to share and give edit permissions to others and requires no registration.
Research, Formatting, and Writing Tools

Spark Notes: Free online study guides for a lot of books, tests, etc. They even have versions that are readable on your iPod.

OttoBib: Automatically prepare bibliographies using the ISBN of your research books. Simply put the codes in and it prepares it for you in multiple formats.

Knight Cite: Tool that prepares APA,MLA, and Chicago references (in-paper and reference page) for your papers. Print and web citations.

I can’t forget…

Windows Mobile: I wish I had a WM device to help me keep track of and work on things more often instead of only limiting myself to working on notes, projects, etc. at home.

There are plenty more blogs on Web 2.0 apps geared toward student.