Liam’s Blog

http://picasaweb.google.com/ljjewell/

The above link is to my online, public, photo album. Feel free to check it out if you are interested. Pictures from many of the things I discuss on my blog will also be up there. I will try to remember to reference them in the future.

For instance, pictures of my trip to Kilkenney this last weekend are available here.

Cheers!
Liam

Got back on Sunday at the time predicted.  Had a wonderful trip.  Some of the views were simply amazing.  You are standing almost a mile up, with a 200 degree panoramic view.  The clouds are right above your head, you feel as though you can touch them.  In the distance you can see Mt. Washington and Mt. Adams, disappearing into the heavens.    Below you lies a forest of cypress and birch that stretches, un-marred, for at least 2 miles out and 10 miles wide.  You look straight down to experience vertigo and then step out and put your feet over the ledge.  A smooth wind crosses your face, wiping away the sweat from the strenuous hike taken to reach the summit.  You lay down on the top of the world, looking up into forever, reveling the cold stone which soothes your aching muscles from the pack you’ve been carrying the last 6 miles.  You realize,

This IS life

Then you get up, put your pack back on, turn you back on the world, and head off to the next mountain.

Breathtaking, amazing, life-changing,

Forever yours,

Liam

*This article has been updated to reflect that I will be camping on my own this weekend, not with Jeremy Duclose.*

Going to be overnight camping at Kilkenny in NH. this weekend.  I’ve decided that instead of handing out an agenda, etc etc to people every time I go camping, it makes much more sense to just put it up here, then have them refer to it if they need to.   So, every now and then I’ll be posting where I’m hiking and when.

If you are ever interested in joining me just give me a call, I’m always looking for more company!

Location: Pilot Range, White Mt. National Forest

Distance I’m travelling: 16.1 miles round trip

Trip Length: 2 days

I start the trailhead at 10AM this Saturday .  I will have both a mobile phone and GPS navigation (both off unless needed)

The Trip:

I will be starting out behind the Berlin Fish Hatchery onto the Mill Brook Trail.  I will travel North West, following that trail to Rodger’s Ledge, then backtracking .5 miles to continue on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail (heading Southwest).  I will be Camping for the night at the Unknown Pond site which is 7.1 miles from the trailhead.   The next morning I will be leaving at sunrise and continuing along through mt. cabot, past the mt. cabot cabin, then heading East on the Bunnell Notch Trail.  I will follow that, which should lead me back to the trailhead by late afternoon/evening.

Time expected back: 6PM on Sunday.

Time to call the rangers if contact with me cannot be made: Noon on Monday.  (this should allow ample time to make a second camp along the Bunnell notch trail if it get’s too dark before I reach the trailhead on day 2).

Ranger contact info: White Mountain National Forest, Androscoggin Ranger District, 300 Glen Road, Gorham, NH 03581, 603-466-2713.

Wish me luck!

Liam

After doing *most* of the following suggestions and putting my car in neutral on hills, I increased my average gas usage from 35 to 47 MPG.  With the current price of gas, every little bit helps.

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Hypermiling refers to a collection of driving techniques aimed at improving your car’s fuel efficiency by reducing the demands placed on the engine. Since it’s possible to improve fuel economy by 37% just by changing the way you drive[1] hypermiling is gaining interest in light of high fuel costs. While some hypermiling methods are controversial and potentially dangerous, this article will focus on safer techniques that can still save you gas and money.

Steps

1. Drive as if you don’t have brakes. If your brakes were in bad shape, you’d increase the amount of space between your car and other vehicles on the road so that you have ample room to slow down naturally, without depending completely on your brakes. Even if your brakes are perfectly fine, driving in this manner improves fuel economy because you maintain slower speed, reduce acceleration, and place fewer demands on the engine by going easy on the brakes.This may be frustrating and difficult, however, if other drivers keep cutting in front of you. You should keep your foot on the brake without pressing on it so that if you do need to stop suddenly (if you get cut off, or something gets in your way) you can react quickly. Also, you should never roll through stop signs; the increased risk of a car accident and/or traffic ticket is not worth a few extra cents saved in fuel costs.
2. Be gentle with the accelerator. When you slam down on the gas pedal, it pushes more fuel into the engine, making it run faster (and lowering the fuel economy). Push the pedal down slowly, and lift it up as soon as you know you’re going to need to stop (when you see a red light, a stop sign, or brake lights from the car ahead of you) so that you can coast the rest of the way. You should never need to push down the pedal by more than an inch (2.5cm).[2] Some cars are even being designed with pedals that “push back” when you’re accelerating too aggressively![3]If you have a choice between various routes, go for the one with the least number of stops; country roads are good because you don’t have to stop (and go) as much and you don’t have to accelerate/brake to get on/off (like with the highway). If you’re driving on sloped roads, it’s useful to think about where you should come to a full stop because that’ll affect how hard you need to accelerate:
   • Avoiding stopping on an incline heading upwards. Starting from a dead stop on a hill is the worst scenario in terms of fuel economy. Stop at the top of the hill, or stop before you climb the hill (if it’s safe).
   • When coming down a hill and faced with a red light at the bottom (where it levels out), try to stop well before the light so that you can use the remaining downhill slope to your advantage when you need to move again.
3. Avoid idling. Turning off the engine when you stop for more than one minute can improve fuel efficiency by 19%.[4] In cold weather, letting your car idle to warm up reduces fuel economy and creates additional pollution; all you need to do is drive gently for 5-10 minutes[5] and if you’re following the previous two steps, you’re going to be driving gently all the way anyway.
   • If you have multiple stops in one trip, plan it so that you go to your furthest destination first and make the rest of your stops on your way back. By taking your longest drive at the beginning, you give the car enough time to warm up for the remainder of the trip; if you took the short trips first, your car would take longer to warm up (because of the brevity of each trip). Since engines do not operate efficiently until they are warm, taking your longest drive first increases fuel efficiency.
   • Install hood insulation so that when the engine gets warm, it stays warm, even when you turn it off. It may not be necessary (and could be unsafe), however, if you’re taking a very long drive.
4. Catch the draft. On the highway, follow one second (no less) behind a large truck at speed. A one second distance means that when the end of the truck passes a landmark (such as a sign) there is at least one full second before your vehicle passes that same landmark. Doing this reduces wind drag.
   • Be cautious using this dangerous technique. Many safety experts recommend at least three seconds of distance instead. [6]
   • If you can’t drive behind the truck, pull in just behind it in the next lane to ride the broader wake and reduce your own aerodynamic drag; this is not as effective but is still better than driving fully exposed to the wind. Keep in mind, however, that you risk putting yourself in the truck’s blind spot. If you can’t see the truck mirrors, the truck driver can’t see you.
5. Minimize the engine load. Generally, it’s better for your fuel economy if you maintain a steady speed, which is why using cruise control and driving at or below the speed limit is an important part of hypermiling. If you’re driving on a hill or any kind of varied terrain, however, you need to consider how much work the engine is doing. Sometimes, a steady speed means unsteady strain on your engine, which lowers fuel economy. Let’s say you’re approaching a hill. When you go up the hill, you should slow down, or else your engine will have to do extra work to maintain your previous speed.
6. Park for easy departure. Instead of searching for the perfect spot close to an entrance (which will involve stop and go driving, especially with pedestrians involved and other drivers pulling in or out of their spots) pull into a spot that’s further away from the entrance. Look for the parking spot with the highest elevation and park face-out so that when you start the car and the engine is cold (at the lowest efficiency) you can use gravity in your favor without having to spin your car around. Some hypermilers recommend coasting out of the spot in neutral, but this is not a good idea because if a shopping cart or a small child happens to get in your way, the inability to use power steering and brakes (and the possibility of the steering wheel locking) can increase the likelihood of a collision.
7. Ride the ridge on empty roads. If you’re not sharing the roadway, ride along the painted white line, which has less friction than the rest of the surface on the road. [7] However, be aware of the dangers involved: Riding the ridge can cause instabilities while driving, due to reduced tire friction, especially if the road is wet.
8. Check tire pressure regularly. Car engines are designed to work at maximum efficiency when the tires are correctly inflated. If the tires are incorrectly inflated, then there will be excess drag, and not enough surface contact with the road. The car therefore suffers a drop in efficiency.
9. Reduce the junk in the trunk. The more weight you’re carrying, the more the engine and drive-train have to work. Removing all of that unused junk in the trunk increases efficiency.

Tips

• These driving techniques won’t work if you don’t properly maintain your car, which is recommended for fuel economy whether you’re hypermiling or not:
  • Use high performance Iridium tipped spark plugs lead to a larger combustion spark which gives you a fuller cleaner burn in the combustion chamber, giving you a smidge more power, better fuel efficiency and lower emissions.
  • Keep the tires inflated to the pressure recommended by the manufacturer. Though expensive, low rolling resistance tires are another proven method of reducing friction between vehicle and road. Some extreme hypermilers overinflate their tires; this is a dangerous practice. (and results in damaged suspension components much faster than under normal tire pressure)
  • Align and balance the wheels.
  • Use the lowest viscosity oil that is recommended by the manufacturer. Using anything lower than what is recommended can be unsafe. If the car is not “taking oil” - burning it or leaking - switch to synthetic oil (and ATF), as those greatly reduce internal powertrain friction, improve mpg and longevity. At the same time, oil changes can be done much less frequently, thus compensating for higher oil cost. Read your car manual - there are virtually no modern vehicles left that will recommend 3000 miles oil changes anyway.
• Keep an MPG journal to track your improvements in fuel economy. One could purchase a “driving habit modifier” - a device that plugs into the onboard diagnostic system and shows actual mileage, on cars not equipped with trip computer and made after 1996. Staying “on top” of ones mpg visually, radically changes those habits.
• Pay attention to the weather. If at all possible, avoid driving on windy days, especially if you’re taking a long drive on the highway.[8] If the weather’s rainy or snowy, you won’t be able to hypermile as efficiently (and you shouldn’t–safety first).
• The debate between using air conditioning and opening the windows is moot–not only is the difference negligible[9] but hardcore hypermilers don’t do either. They bring ice water in the car with them so they can stay cool with the windows cracked and the AC off.

Warnings

• Avoid putting yourself or others in danger.
• Driving in this manner could evoke road rage from other drivers.
• Stay away from extreme hypermiling techniques. They are too risky, not only for yourself but for the safety of other drivers.
  • Don’t roll through stop signs or cut corners at high speeds to avoid braking.
  • Don’t turn off a car’s engine to coast down hills. Turning off your engine will cause you to lose your power steering and brakes.
  • Be extremely careful if shifting an automatic transmission vehicle into neutral to coast. If you go beyond neutral and accidentally shift into reverse, you will ruin your transmission. To coast in a standard, shift into neutral or depress the clutch.
  • Don’t over-inflate tires to decrease rolling resistance because you can lose traction and get into an accident hurting you or others.
  • Don’t tailgate a big rig in hopes of cutting wind resistance. The 1 second rule puts you more than 75 feet from the rear of the trailer. The distance needed to get in the low pressure zone behind is less than a dozen feet.

Sources and Citations

• http://www.headlightsolution.net/ - Original source of some information. Shared with permission.
• autoMedia Auto News Blog: How to Improve Fuel Economy by Hypermiling - Research source.
• CleanMPG.com: Beating the EPA - The Whys and How to Hypermile - Research source.

1. ↑ http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html
2. ↑ http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/01/Autos/driving_for_mpg/index.htm
3. ↑ http://money.cnn.com/2008/08/04/news/international/bc.apfn.as.japan.nissang.ap/index.htm
4. ↑ http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html
5. ↑ http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/autos/0709/gallery.car_care_myths/3.html
6. ↑ http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-06-23-hypermilers-saving-gas_N.htm
7. ↑ http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/120880/article.html
8. ↑ http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/120880/article.html
9. ↑ http://www.edmunds.com/advice/fueleconomy/articles/106842/article.html#test4

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Hypermile. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

I have recently begun to contribute to wikiHow, the online How-To manual that anyone can edit.  I’ve been reading for about a year and have decided that it’s time to give something back.  The first article I posted is this one which is a modified version of my own post on browsing anonymously (available here).  I will also be taking some of the articles from wikiHow and re-posting them on my blog if I find the information valuable.

Keeping you updated as always,

Liam

My latest article has given me a call/email from about 10 different people since it’s posting last week.  Yet, none of them bothered to comment on the blog directly :).  While I obviously don’t mind the one-on-one contact, I think it’s important to comment on a public blog, so that thoughts can be shared, and so other’s browsing the web can think about and respond to your own thoughts.  The whole idea of articles like my recent PSU post is to open up the channels of communication and to invite along the opportunity for quality discussion and debate.  Thus, when you call me directly to tell me your thoughts, you are reaching out to the wrong audience.  I already agree with the article, I believe that you should be posting your approval/disapproval online so that you can receive some accurate feedback to your thoughts from people around the world, and not just hear me say what I’ve already said .  That’s my thoughts on it anyway, and as usual, I thought I’d share them :).

Also, if it’s a problem with privacy, you can always post with a fake email and name, while I moderate all posts, I moderate for spam and trolling, not anonymity.

Cheers!

Liam

I have now graduated from Plymouth State University. I warn you now that this entire article is not objective, but subjective. This is my opinion based solely on my personal experiences and those of my numerous friends on campus. I welcome anyone to challenge any section of this article and look forward to discussing your P.O.V. on any of my opinions in this post. The format of this post will be the following: I will list the subject of my grievance, and then I will list different aspects of my grievance with explanations, then I will move on to my next grievance.

Note:  I started this article the 2nd semester of my freshman year.  Every time something happened at the school that irked me, I would dutifully record it here.  I refused to publish this article until I got my degree in hand (which happened 3 weeks ago), and now I’m publishing the article as promised.  Call me a perfectionist, call me a complainer, call me bored, just don’t call me a liar .  I’m sure the school will be pleased to know that this will also probably be my last article about the school.

Required books for classes:

• Most of the time, we don’t use them.
  • I’m sorry but it’s true, most of the time after we buy the book rarely do we end up opening it up more than once or twice. I have taken over 100 credits worth of classes, every class required a book, I can count on one hand how many used the book.
• We really don’t learn from them
  • Okay, so let’s say we do open the book, which is unlikely, I have never learned anything from the book that A. I didn’t already know, B. Was useless and not related to what we needed to know for the course, C. On any of the tests. In only 2 classes in 3 years so far did I need the book to pass the tests with an “A” grade.
• Ploy to get more money from it’s students
  • As if the hidden fees, overpriced housing, and 4-6% yearly increase in tuition wasn’t enough when it came to stealing money from students, they force faculty to get new textbooks every year, so that the campus bookstore (discussed in a minute) can go ahead and charge outrageous prices for the same material with a new cover.
• Inability to see what books you need until your first class
  • There is no system online, in the “Student Portal” to see what books are needed for your class for the upcoming semester, even though all the books are in the online database for the bookstore, so they can order the correct edition for themselves. They purposely keep students from easily accessing which books are needed. Other options do exists however, let’s review them shall we…
    • You can walk into the bookstore and right down the ISBN’s - Well, they wouldn’t let me do this my freshman year and I had to go up to the Head of Finance for the University to cross over the magic line separating where student are and are not allowed. Behind which has the books needed. They claimed a misunderstanding, and then it happened the next 2 semesters I bought books there as well. Did I mention if you need books for the fall semester, that means taking a trip up to Plymouth over your summer vacation…
    • You can see the name of the book through the online campus store, go buy it elsewhere online - With the constantly changing editions, same titles with different Authors, and different publishers, you are lucky to get the correct book by just the title (which is the only thing you can get from the University).
    • Look at they syllabus for your WebCT/Blackboard class, it might be listed there - This isn’t available until the week before school starts, and not all teachers use this, making it near impossible to get all of your books this way.
    • Contact the teacher directly via email - I have tried this multiple times, only one or two of my teachers checked their school emails over the summer, or if they did, they didn’t deign to respond. Not a good alternative either.
• Campus Bookstore ripoff.
  • Good luck getting someone to disagree with me on this one. By the time I do a combination of the above to get the correct ISBN number I can get the required books for 1/2 to 1/4 of the price used online. This is comparing the price to the used books from the campus bookstore, this doesn’t count the new books they make you purchase when their 5 used copies run out.
• Selling back books… Or trying to anyway
  • If there is a new edition you can’t sell it back
  • If there is a tear, you can’t sell it back
  • If there was a CD, and it was opened/missing, you can’t sell it back - even if the teacher didn’t use it
  • If it was bought used from another store, you can’t sell it back
  • If it’s not the last week of school, you can’t sell it back
  • If it is a study guide that was supposed to be written in (whether you did or not), you can’t sell it back
  • If you can sell it back after the above, you get 1/8th of the price if you are lucky

Let me finish this section by saying that even the majority of the faculty admit themselves that the updated versions of the textbooks that come out once a year have little or no additions to them, yet they are pressured by their departments to keep ordering the newest editions and require those editions of the students every year. Why would they do this? Are you telling me that the way math is taught this year is any different than how it was last year? Or that how to add 1+1 has changed since the days of abacuses? No. Then why do I need a different book than was used last year? It’s a ridiculous scam that EVERY college student is sucked into, because they are required to.

Money, Money, Money

• Parking Permits
  • Cannot park next to where you live, even if you are a Junior or Senior. - Ok, positive side, you can bring your car up as a Freshman, which many other Universities do not allow, bad side, you have to walk 15 minutes to get to it, where you park them floods yearly, break-in’s occur constantly, and it costs you minimum of 75 dollars for the privilege.
  • Price - Speaking of $75 for crap parking, how much to get your car where it won’t randomly flood? How about $125 bucks. Ridiculous, this isn’t Boston after all.
  • Availability of Permits
    • They do not tell you when they are available. There are a limited amount available, so you end up checking the site at least once a day due to their lack of communication so you can make sure you can bring up your vehicle.
  • Availability of Spaces
    • If you arrive at night, on a weekday during the school year, you can drive around for 15 minutes, waiting for someone to move so you can park where you are allowed, if you don’t park where you are allowed you face up to a $100 ticket, which the police seem to hand out without second thought.
• Housing
  • Overpriced… Yes.
  • No Choice of Rooms … Yes.
  • University Policy that you are required to be on campus year 1 and 2… Yes.
  • EVERY YEAR, they overbook housing, so some students end up in crappy motels for the entire semester, away from the University… Yes.
  • Rooms meant for 2 are packed to 3… Yes
  • More on university Living below.
• Tuition
  • Increases 4-6% every year (meaning a total average increase of 20% from first year to last year on campus).
  • For a public University, I feel it is overpriced.
• Meal Plan
  • Forced to have this while you are living in dorms (Extravagant cost)
    • I was once told by the person in charge of Food Services that less than half of the meals (45%) that students are forced to buy are actually used. Meaning they are making at least a 55% profit if they only charge what it costs them (yeah right).
• Laundry
  • New machines this year, 50% increase in the cost to wash, 100% increase in the cost to dry. Same models as before.
• Books
  • Discussed earlier, but to recap - Overpriced, limited alternatives, forced on students with no real gain available from purchasing books, even in the classrooms.

Administration

• Changing Classes
  • Let’s explain this one with a personal story. Being on Dean’s list last semester, I was able to register earlier than most other students. I work full time, so I schedule all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursday, this leaves Monday, Wednesday and Friday open to make money/gain experience/pay for college. Being in the school’s Business Honors program, they take the liberty to “hard schedule” me into Honors level classes. Unfortunately, the class they scheduled me into, was on Monday/Wednesday. So I drop it online, along with another class they signed me up for that I didn’t even want or need. I register for the classes I do need, and am happy that I now have all the classes with the teachers I want, at the times I want, on the days I want. So, a few weeks go by, the semester ends and I decide I want to print out my schedule for the upcoming semester. What is this? it shows that the day after I signed up for my classes (and dropped the others), that someone at the school dropped me from the class I added, and then re-added me to the honors, without notice, without asking, without a contact to me in any way. The date to add classes myself has passed, so I think, okay, misunderstanding, let me call registrar and get added back into the class I originally signed up for. I am told that the class is now full and that they see that it wasn’t anything I had done, but that there was nothing they could do. That is except to call the head of the business department. Okay, let’s skip ahead 2 months, 5 emails, and 4 voice mail’s, and no response later. I call a friend in the university system and find out that the head of the business department was the one who re-added me, to “even out the classes” Are you fucking kidding me? So now I have to go beg the head of the department, who’s already bent me over and screwed me from behind, then ignored my wails of protest via email and phone, just to re-add me to a class that he doesn’t want me in because their weren’t enough students in the honors section. Am I taking the class and paying for it, or is he, because I must be a little confused about where my money is going, because I though I could choose my own courses in college! Oh yeah, did I mention, them dropping and re-adding has happened before to. I hope my kid never wants to get the classes he wants…
• Changing Policy
  • You know how they say, “the shit runs down the ladder” well at PSU, you have climb up a ladder of shit, to get to anybody who can do anything. There are only 2 or 3 people on this campus who can really make decisions. 1. The Dean, 2. The President, 3. The VP. You must got up many “rungs” to talk to one of these people. Refer directly below for an literal illustration of this process
• Bending the rule, even if for common senses sake.
  • I have Vascovagal Syncope, in other words when I get really hot, I faint. In the apartment on campus that I stay on in the summer, I have a thermometer, last year I fainted 5 times in my apartment. For almost the entire month of August last year the temperature did NOT dip below 85 degrees. Seriously. Even at night. I had 4 box fans running, was taking cold showers every couple of hours just to keep from getting overheated, the same goes for my fiance. The solution I thought would be easiest would be to install an air conditioner, oh wait, not allowed. Ok… so the manager of the apartment, who lives in the apartments, is allowed to have one. Understandable, a staff member, who works for the school, and lives there, why not right? The real question is why not me, I am a student, who works at PSU and lives there as well! What is the difference? Ok, so a small slap in the face no big deal. But wait! In comes the Music Festival, these wonderful, stuck up ass holes get apartments like the students, in fact, next to me, all around me, if we put aside their practicing of musical instruments which I can easily hear through the paper-thin walls from 6AM - 12PM, we then get to the issue that they are all not only allowed air conditioners, but are given them by the university and INSTALLED by the university. They stay on campus a total of six weeks.
  • So let’s recap this for a second, shall we; they get air conditioners given to them because they are visiting for a short time, but those who live here can’t buy and install one of their own without being kicked out (which happened to another student last year who put one in anyway)? Ridiculous I say. So I go to the front desk, who puts me to the asst. manager, who puts me to the manager, who asks the student apartment director, who has to ask the Director of Residential Life, who says no. With no explanation provided, and no opportunity for a meeting either. Last year I didn’t get one. This year I went to my doctor, got a note, and then gave it directly to the manager of the apartments, he said he’d look into it, a week later nothing. I send him some info on how the Housing Disability Act protects me and how I’d have the option to pursue legal recourse against the school if they don’t let me have one, I get a response a few hours later with approval… Should I have to go to those lengths to keep from fainting, to keep from being uncomfortable in an apartment I pay 26 dollars a DAY for? I don’t think so either.
• Changing Living arrangements
  • A woman and a man are not allowed to live together alone on campus.
  • The only place on campus where you may do so, is in one of the 30 limited availability (1 year waiting list minimum usually) apartments which I am very lucky to be living in now.
  • If you don’t like your roommate, you are forced to wait a minimum of two weeks after school has started, then you must meet with your corridors CA, then if you still have problems, with the Buildings RD, then if they deem there is a problem, they will see if you can go anywhere else, but you have no guarantees because they are overbooked as it is.
• Judicial System
  • Actually not that bad. While it was very easy for me to get falsely accused of something, and while there was only one person who made the decision about whether or not I was expelled for doing my job for the school, and that the one person didn’t know much about computers and was relying on what was later proven false information from the accusers(the school), and you are not allowed legal counsel, I didn’t get expelled, so at least we know that is fair… Sorta anyway. That’s another post for another day however.

IT

Let me first say I worked for PSU IT Department for 3 years, a lot. This, like everything else so far in this post, is from first hand experiences.

• Professional Staff
  • The Desktop Support, who helps the faculty and the general maintenance people for DB’s, Networking, Website, etc are wonderful, caring, hard workers. They don’t get enough credit for the good job that they do.
• Students working at the helpdesk
  • A very smart, talented, bunch of individuals who get to groom their Customer Service, Computer, and Social Skills in a safe environment with moderate recognition given to them at a fair pay.
• Administration
  • Yuck. Can you say Roadblock for anything. To even attempt to change any policies, is insane and impossible. A definite waste of time.
• Internet Speed
  • Has seen a definite increase since I first came here. Of course they are still packet shaping/limiting your speeds depending on how you use your internet. I mean I could be legally downloading any file, even one that I’ve paid for, and they cap the speed of download to 1k or 2k a second. Please refer to my other posts on this matter however.
• RIAA and MPAA Notices
  • I could go on for hours, oh wait I already have, please refer to here, here, here, and here.
• Helpdesk
  • On a scale of1-10, I’d rate them an 8.5. They try hard, and they will work with you until the problem is solved, usually. However with the constant change of work hours and who works when and what not, sometimes your query gets lost and you get forgotten until you bring it up again.
• Email
  • Down more often than its up? Certainly seems so. Takes them a year to implement an open source, web version, that looks like outlook, takes them 2 minutes for Administration to claim credit for all of its features as their own doing.
• Computer store
  • Wow, it’s always nice when the school can find another way to rip off it’s students. Repairs are overpriced seeing as how they unilaterally reinstall the OS if it’s any software issue which involves them hitting Ctrl+F11 at the boot screen and walking away… They they charge you up the ass for the privilege. Hardware related? Enjoy the overpriced repair then as well. Then again, they are very good about lying about the good deal you get buying a laptop through them. After all, the school isn’t in this to make money, it’s here to help out the students without cutting any corners. >> Right.
• Weekly Downtime
  • Yes, they give you warning, every Sunday for 5 hours, we are cutting off your internet to perform upgrades and maintenance. But why do they need to do that. They are their own ISP are they not? I don’t see Verizon or Time Warner shutting off all of their internet once a week consistently for “upgrades”. This is laziness. Even if they really needed to turn off the internet once a week, which they don’t, why don’t they pipe it through another alternative line, so that while the connection may be slower, students still have access? Again I say, ridiculous.
• Communication with students
  • Well, they do communicate almost everything they are doing, it’s just that about half the time the communication is lies. For instance, two weeks ago, email was unavailable for many days, they said it was and fixed. It was not. They communicated, but falsely. So good effort there anyway.

Coursework

• Sometimes I’m challenged, sometimes not so much
  • There is very little middle ground, either the class is a joke with little work involved, or the class is so insanely hard, it seems impossible to pass even if you didn’t have 4 others to attend. No stability in what to expect. Very hard to balance a workload because of this.
• What is with all the group work and presentations?
  • This is more of a personal gripe than an overall problem. But I hate having to find a couple of hours every week to get together in a group and accomplish something, especially when half of the members forget to show up, or show up and do nothing. As far as presentations, was ever there invented a bigger waste of time.? They give us all semester to come up with a 20 minute verbal presentation. I could walk up to the front of a classroom and give a half hour presentation on almost anything instantly without worry, and with a weeks worth of work, have enough quality information on any subject that people would learn a great deal. What is with them making such a big deal out of it. Sure it secures me an easy “A” but it isn’t really necessary.

Faculty

• Teaching ability
  • Very good. Overall of mid-high quality. I have a high GPA, and have been challenged quite often in the classroom, on a variety of subjects. Some of the teaching styles are very old school, lectures don’t sink in for me and group projects seem meaningless. Presentations are also boring and simple. Also, even though tests don’t help to sink in the material, and don’t display a good representation of what a student knows, it is still used as the tool of choice when evaluating what the students are supposed to have learned. The teaching techniques themselves make it very hard to learn the material, however if you apply yourself to learn the material anyway, it is of high-quality and relevant.
• Knowledge of their subject
  • Unilaterally Excellent. I have never met any professor here who didn’t know anything and everything in their subject.
• Real World Experience
  • Most have many years of quality experience in their fields.
• Relationship with the students
  • A mix. Some very good, some don’t want to have questions asked in class, or see any students outside of class.

Staff

For the most part good and simply restricted by rules of administration. Some are mean though and enjoy watching students suffer, but for the most part (95%) they are caring and sympathetic to the needs of the students.

Living Facilities

Let me first say I have lived in all 3 of the below, so this is from first hand experience. Also let me say that it is not uncommon in the apartments to have your water shut off with little or no notice in the middle of the summer and to have your heat shut off in the middle of the winter… Many times over. Just as recently as this last winter, my friend in the apartments was without hot water for a month, they did however give him an $89.00 refund for his trouble.

• Dorms
  • Small and overcrowded, one person gets sick, everyone gets sick, no activities, good place to make friends, always too hot or too cold, rapes happen but are hushed up by administration, stealing is abundant.
• Apartments.
  • Loud, a lot of drinking, this appeals to many students, but not to me. Don’t try to fall asleep (even on a weekday) before 3AM because it is unlikely to happen. This is where a majority of the STD problems emanates from on campus. (8 out 10 have one, happy drunk sex everyone!)
• Non-traditional Student Apartments.
  • Originally supposed to be 24 quiet hours, designed for those with families, special needs, and graduate students. Nobody except seniors are supposed to even be considered (unless you have a family of course).
  • With the housing crunch, any open apartment is given to those who need it, drunk loud freshman or not. Of course I can talk to my neighbors dozens of times, report them to police and university many times, but they will keep partying, keeping kids awake, etc, with little or no reprimand whatsoever.

Help getting a job upon graduating

Just because you host a job fair once a year, doesn’t mean you are doing 1/10 of what many universities do to help their students secure jobs upon graduating. While internships are provided, many of us don’t have the option of working without getting paid, which is the only thing the school can help you with.

Boredom

Wow, can you say nothing to do on campus. Sure, you can bike, kayak, climb a mountain, but what about at night, you know, when you are home after your classes and it’s too late to climb a mountain, well for most of us anyway :-). Which leads to the next subject, that of drinking.

Drinking

Disgustingly abundant on campus in extreme excess, people die every year due due to alcohol poisoning and alcohol related incidents, and it’s covered up by the administration. In addition, people seem to gloss over all of the unprotected sex and rape that goes hand in hand with passed out women and horny drunk men. I can almost guarantee this happens to a few people every weekend, although I don’t have any University sponsored studies on the subject, I wonder why?

STD’s

85% of the students on campus have them, 16% had them when they arrived on campus. mmmm, tasty.

Overall I hope this information proves informative and useful to all who come across it. I have not lied, I have not inflated the facts, nor have I “cherry picked” them. I have other posts which reflects positive aspects of the school as well, so please don’t assume that I am just looking for a fight, because it is just not true. Finally let me leaving you with 3 thoughts. 1) While some of the above could possibly be attributed to bad luck, everything above being attributed to my bad luck would be a gross and stupid assumption to make. 2) I have no reason to lie. 3) If you haven’t already joined PSU but are thinking about it, would you really want to take the chance of any of the above happening to you when there are 1000’s of other possibilities that you could pursue?

And finally another story that I wrote up separately, but should have been included in this post instead:

How to pay your bill at Plymouth State University(PSU). A.K.A. How to burn your eyes out with a hot branding iron.

Failure

He who hopes to avoid all failure and misfortune is trying to live in a fairyland; the wise man realistically accepts failures as a part of life and builds a philosophy to meet them and make the most of them.

He lives on the principle of “nothing attempted, nothing gained” and is resolved that if he fails he is going to fail while trying to succeed.

He does not set for himself the impossible ideal of always being successful in everything.

He does the best he can and then with a serene spirit accepts what comes.

He finds courage in the pages of biography, which indicate that our greatest men failed many times. For instance, Louis Pasteur was described as, “a scientific Phoenix who arose triumphant from the ashes of his own mistakes.”

He recognizes that although he cannot always control what happens to him, he can always control how he responds to his failures.

He knows that life has its rhythms, as the ebb and flow of the tide, so he learns, “to labor and to wait,” giving time a chance to work its miracles.

He learns to fall forward like a good ball carrier in football…to make the most of every failure.

He keeps on keeping on.

He adopts as his talisman the magic words of the ancient seer: “This, too, shall pass away.”

Following my post on The four beliefs that lead to happiness, I felt it only appropriate to follow up with how great I view my own life.  Not to rub it into other people, but rather to show people that you can be very happy with very little in life. I’ve learned one thing: minimalism.

Minimal boundaries. Currently in my life I have very little in the way of boundaries.  Since Mandy and I split 3 months ago, I have experienced an unprecedented level of freedom.  Until this point I had never fully understood the phrases “Hindsight is 20/20″ and “You don’t realize what you have until you lose it.”  I had lost my freedom and individuality, and now that I realize what I’d lost, my entire life since then has been devoted to both gaining them back and then firmly establishing them in such a way that I can never lose them again.  I can successfully say that I have done both splendidly.  Now I enjoy a life, my life, that is filled with joy and happiness.  I enjoy my job, and as such enjoy working the 60-80 hours a week it requires.

The only way I can do that many hours is because of the flexibility I have with my hours.  If I want to go into work at 3AM, nobody complains, if I want to work until midnight, nobody says anything.  If I want to take a nap from 10am-1pm, I don’t have to worry about justifying it.  As such I am getting more work done in a week than most employees get done in a month.  I eat when I get a chance, I work out when I want,  I visit friends whenever it’s convenient for them which means more often then when working a strict 8-5.   I have no set schedule, other than appointments and meetings, that thankfully, usually revolve around my schedule anyway.

Minimal money. Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I’m by no means a rich man.  Yet we live in a society that often defines happiness on how much stuff and money they have acquired.  While I am very thankful and happy for the possessions that I have acquired over time, I would also not be devastated if they all disappeared tomorrow and I was ekeing out my existence in a tent for the rest of my life.  Now please, don’t view me as a hippy just yet.    I’m not saying I’d prefer living in a tent, just that I would feel the same as I do in my beautiful apartment right now.    Getting back on track, people often define themselves by their money and as such experience disappointment when they don’t attain their lofty goals of attaining lots of money.  I’m not ignorant of society’s needs, my goal for money however is to have enough that I don’t have to worry about the bills coming in.  Everything after that is just fluff.

Living the minimum. I am happy with who I am, and more importantly who I am not.  I take the time to do activities that bring me contented feelings.  Practicing martial arts, meditating, talking, working, cooking, playing with the cat, watching anime, spending time with friends and family, and being physical.  I avoid those things that do not bring me happiness.  This list is ever changing, but currently consists of things like: dating, locking myself into a career, meeting with people that I don’t want to, worrying about money, or worrying about job security.   Revolving my life around those things that bring me contentment is paramount to my ability to remain happy.

So what does a normal day look like for me?  I wake up when convenient (albeit normally at the same time every day) then head off to work.  Not because I have to, but because I enjoy doing so.  If I don’t feel like driving and being around other people at work, and have no obligations at the office, I work from home.  Get some coffee, then start into work.  Whenever I get done a fair amount of work (depends on what there is to do, I have no set time constraint other than get it done ASAP with the highest quality), I go home and cook dinner.  This routine is consistent 7 days a week.  Then I have options which normally differ day-to-day.  Often I will have something unaccomplished or still on my never-ending work “to do” list, which I will begin to work on.   If not, then I can: interact with others (whether they be friends, family, or my cat), have some alone time (go for a run along the lake, read a book, watch a movie), Better myself (practice some martial arts, meditate, or pray).  The options themselves are ever-changing and endless.  Sleep comes when I’m tired, not before or after.

This consistent freedom of choice is what I think really makes my life so good for the time being.  When you combine that with my previous post discussing my personal beliefs that I live by, I hope you can take a few things that I do, apply them to your own lives, and then experience true happiness on a day-to-day basis in your own life.

So, as promised, I’m trying to keep this personal section of my blog up to date.  Today I thought I’d discuss a little about me, what I believe, and how that effects my everyday life.  The following four beliefs, I live and breathe by.  They are listed in order of importance.  I have come to these on my own over the years and now can’t imagine going a day without them.

1. To each their own. - This is the most important of all my beliefs.  One must accept that your own opinion is completely moot when dealing with others.  Your opinion is just that *yours*.  You should hold, treasure, and nurture your own beliefs.  However, you need to respect the opinions and beliefs of others even if they contradict your own.  Doing so gives you many advantages.  For starters, you will hardly ever get annoyed at anything, ever again.  Imagine never being mad.  Sounds crazy?  Well I wouldn’t have believed it either if i didn’t live it.  Ask anyone who knows me.  I’m hardly ever agitated, much less angry or mad.  This is because any problem that comes up dealing with other people is looked at objectively, not including my own personal emotions.  Advice is only given when sought and otherwise it’s “live and let live” as far as I’m concerned.  When you can learn to accept that everyone else in the world is just as unimportant as you are, then you can understand that arguing over personal beliefs is a waste of time and just a stain on yourself.
2. To care for anyone else in this life, you must first take care of yourself. - This is also very important to me.  To clarify, this does not mean that I should place myself before others, quite the opposite.  What this means is that emotionally, I need to remain at a place of peace and reason, before I can help anyone else with any problem.  I must take time to relax from work, in order to do my job at it’s full capacity.  I must be content with who I am as a person and accept my own faults, before I can cheer up someone else.
3. “My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.” - Gandhi said that and I agree completely.   If you never take an action you are ashamed of, then you will never be afraid to take responsibility for your actions.  Knowing the possible consequences of our actions is vital in being able to account for them.  If you begin to doubt and deny your own actions, then you begin to lessen your own self -worth, because after all, you can only truly be judged on what you do.
4. Helping others is the best way to help yourself. - This works parallel in many ways to #2 and #3.  We are defined by our actions, and interactions with others.  By helping those around us, I believe we personally better ourselves.  I have never helped someone and felt bad about it after all.  Nothing I do is so important in this life that I shouldn’t be able to help out someone in greater need.   I would willingly throw myself in front of a bus to save someone else, even a complete stranger.  My life is defined by my actions and if I can make the ultimate sacrifice of giving up what is most precious to me, in order to help another, then I have led a good life.

That is the secret to happiness.