A serious concern for college stuents in 2009 - Health Insurance
The guys over at RxHealthQuotes.com asked what my thought were on promoting the idea of students getting health insurance. Obviously, I think it’s an excellent idea or I wouldn’t be posting this blog right now. They’ve taken the time to give a bit of background information on why students should get interested in getting health insurance at a young age, and even provide a link at the bottom where you can get some more information.
Perhaps in the future I will have them back to share more about concerns with students and Health Insurance Plans.
Although most college students think that health insurance is an unnecessary expense, it’s actually an extremely important part of a student’s life. In fact, a recent study actually showed that college students with health insurance had a significantly higher grade point average (3.25) when compared to students without insurance (3.17 GPA). We know, it sounds crazy - but it’s true!
Students without health insurance often avoid seeking medical help, even when they may really need it. But when you’re a college student, your health has a huge impact on your academic success. That’s why a good health insurance plan is absolutely necessary - nobody wants to be paying for all that medical care out of their own pocket (how would you pay for pizza and beer?!).
Although many college students are still eligible for health insurance coverage under their parent’s policy, you may still need to look into an individual student health insurance plan. These plans are created with the student’s lifestyle in mind - they provide the coverage you need at affordable costs, and you can customize them to your college’s location.
If you’re considering a student health insurance policy, you must shop around and compare plans - just like with any other big purchase. Request quotes from a variety of different carriers, and compare their costs, coverage, deductibles, and benefits. Although it’s boring, this is very important! You want to make sure you get the plan that best meets your needs.
At RxHealthQuotes.com, we can help you find the plan that fits you best. We’ll provide you with multiple quotes from different health insurance companies - all online, and all free! Honestly, it doesn’t get much easier than that.
If you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to leave a comment below or head over to their site and let them hear from you directly. 
PS - I actually built their site, so I’ve known about them for a long while. But I thought it would be a good idea to share something that may help you guys out in the long run.
Learning Guitar - The Very Beginning of the basics
One of the more exciting gifts that I got for Christmas this year was the Esteban guitar from my parents. It’s a cheaper type of guitar, but it’s great for a beginner to learn with (or so I’m told). I’ve been playing now for about a week, and I only know a few chords and how to pick some different scales.I’ve not gotten any real training, but I am getting some tipcs from other musicians that I know.
Here’s a sound clip of what I’ve been practicing this past week. Each week I hope to add another recording so that you can watch my progress with it. This will be a fun excercise and will force me to practice my guitar a lot (at least for a little while). Plus, if you guys leave comments I’ll be encouraged to keep on bettering myself!
Here’s the first clip. The first half is a little bit of picking that I made up the other day. The second half just shows me changing some easy chords. I don’t have transitions down smooth yet, but I’m getting there. Keep in mind that I’ve only had this for a week and only practicing for a few minutes a day during lunch break.
Have no comments? No worries… it gets better
I have been a very lucky blogger. This past year has found me with several different versions of the same site, and still building connections and networking with other bloggers around the world. I get an average of a couple of comments per blog, and I have grown tio have a PR of 5 even after crashing and changing my site so often. That’s definitely not to say that every blogger has had this kind of luck though, in fact its exactly the opposite.
Chris Brogan is the author of a blog about blogging, but it’s a bit different than other blogging or social networking sites. It’s a bit hard to explain, so I’ll just tell you to go check it out for yourself. He wrote a post earlier today though about new writers that have been blogging for some time and yet they still have very few comments on any articles they puiblish. It’s not only discouraging, but it sometimes creates a road-block and keeps great writers from putting forth their best work every time.
Chris also put a little challenge on his twitter feed saying, “go to the comments, click on a name, and go comment on THAT blog. Do it on 3 people’s blogs who commented - http://is.gd/eniM “. That is some encouraging stuff for sure, because I KNOW that it can work. For you and for everyone else. Not only will you start showing your appreciation for other bloggers, but most will return the favor by checking out your blog and leaving a comment or two.
I’m going to be doing the same thing now because I’m very excited about networking. Great job, Chris and thanks for the tips!
The strangest new years eve ever….
Happy New Year everyone! Here’s a toast to the next chapter of life.
This year is so very different from any other new year celebration that I’ve taken part of - and the big reason being that I am sitting here in my house alone at 10:21, writing a blog on a website that has a dozen or so regular readers, and listening to a new CD I just bought today on iTunes. It seems quite ‘un-festive’ I’m sure, but I think I’m just trying to get a different perspective of what this event is supposed to be about.
2008 has gone by far too fast. Yesterday I was telling a friend that just a few weeks ago I had gone on a trip to Kentucky… after I realized that it was actually a few months ago that I went on that trip. In fact, it seems like just yesterday I was spending time with my friends at Sinclair planning for summer break, and getting hired on to work as an intern at The Next Wave. This digital age has me wondering where the time goes… kind of makes me think that the more we try and keep track of time with clocks on our radios, computers, phones and mp3 players, the less of it we actually control.
This next year is going to be a huge one for me, with changes happening every month. I’ll be starting off this year by really moving forward in my major at Sinclair as a Business Administration student. Within a few months I will have moved out of my house and into an apartment somewhere. Over the summer I’m going to be taking a trip out to California and back, and when fall comes you may very well see me at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
As far as blogging and the internet goes, I can’t really say what will happen. Too much changes at such a fast pace that there is no way I can even begin to make very good predictions as to what will be happening. In the past I could have said with certainty what company would boom onto the center stage with some new service or technology… but now I can’t choose between the hundreds and thousands of startups that are going on every single day.
Any one of them could topple of the giant corporations almost overnight.
With the recession fully underway I can say this… people will be trying to make even more out of the short amount of time they have. People will turn to websites like Lifehacker or LinkedIn to get the latest productivity tips, or find people that they can delegate work too. The more productive we are, the more stable our funds may become (or the quicker we will bounce out of this mess we are in). However, the more productive we are the more time we will lose to our mindless ramblings that will suddenly fill our days.
Right now my Credit card is almost fully charged, but there is nothing left for me to buy and all I can do now is keep shovelling the money back into the account. Within a few months I expect to have my cards completely paid off, plenty of money sitting in a savings account with ING, and a large enough cashflow that I can basically keep putting $500 every month into savings while still living very comfortably. I have nothing left to buy at this time except some new clothes and a paint job for my car - everything else that I could need or want has been taken are of.
Can’t say that I regret anything that I’ve done or been a part of this past year. Everything has made me who I am today and has taught me volumes on what it is like to live in the real world. I bet next year I’ll feel the same.
Back to work for AnotherGuy
I started off writing this post about how lazy I have been with getting some work done on the web (outside of work). Then I realized that there really wasn’t too much to write about on that topic and you probably don’t really care about my recent case of laziness. Unfortunately for me, I had already bought the above photo and I don’t like to waste the photos that I buy. Don’t worry, though.. I’ve found something else to write about – an update on my life. Hey, it’s just in time for Christmas for you!
There is a whole list of work that I need to get done in the next day or two – it’s been sitting in my Moleskine notebook for a few weeks. Eventually I hope to get it all done, and I was actually hoping to knock a few items off of that list tonight… but I guess that there are more important things to do right now.
Money’s Getting Tight
Since my little accident that happened last month in Kentucky and the two-day trip to Indiana and Michigan a couple of weeks after that, my little ‘89 Olds has had nothing but problems. First I had to fix my tires, then get my oil changed and spark-plugs checked. Last week my car began stalling on the highway, and yesterday my car wouldn’t start when I got up to get ready for work. Found out today that I would need to put a quart of power steering fluid in my car every day just to keep it moving, and now my alternator may be ruined.
I bought a new laptop last week for about $1300 (Dell XPS M1530) and so now I’ve gotta watch my credit a bit closer than usual. I’m coming pretty close to paying off my student credit card already, but now my Chase card is building up the debt. I think I have it under control though – my plan has been to pay $100 every week onto the cards until they are completely gone. With 0% APR for the next few months, that gives me a steady way to pay them off while still keeping the cash flowing so that I can eat and pay for gas.
I must say, this new laptop is pretty slick and hopefully soon I’ll be able to sell my old Desktop (and pay more on my credit card).
School’s in for Winter
I’ve been on break from classes for about a month and I’m about ready to go back. It’s true, I haven’t even gotten done with Christmas, but I’ve gotta look ahead a bit because Sinclair dropped one of the classes that I was registered for yesterday. Upon looking over my other options to fill in the spot I decided to check out RateMyProfessors.com . I’ve not done it in a very long time, and it’s the first that I was serious about seeing who my professors were.
I already knew that my good profs probably wouldn’t have very many good ratings. It’s so much easier to forget the most comfortable times in our lives than to ignore the disappointments. I still became a bit worried about the credibility of the site though when I did a search for several of my older professors that I did not enjoy being in class with and saw a majority of good reviews. My last prof was a completely different story though with 57 ratings in the negative. Dropped her like she was hot. 
I guess I’ll be going back for some more reviewing in the future. Maybe I’ll get the courage to add my opinions too. Any thoughts on the service?
All I Want For Christmas - Syncroblogging
Obviously with so many holidays going on at this time of the year, it would make sense to have a Syncroblogging topic about the season. I’m fairly interested in seeing what different people come up with for their favorite holiday moments or how they feel about the season because it tells of their personality. At the end of the week when this Syncroblogging session is over I’ll post another blog with a list of people who had written about the topic.
Now On To What I Think –
Face it – Christmas is not a Christian holiday anymore no matter how often they emphasis the word Christ at the beginning. What matters now is not so much even gift-giving, but gift-receiving. We buy our gifts for people based on either our perception of what they will spend on us or how they have been treating us lately. Cards are sent in the mail to show appreciation, even though they will all go in the garbage without so much as a reply the day after Christmas is over.
What we have lost here is the original meaning of the Holiday. Now certainly there can and will be debates over the religious meaning behind all of this, but this is how I see it; Christmas began as a celebration of the birth of Christ who was given as the greatest gift to all of humanity. Whether or not you believe that I am sure that you understand what it is really about: giving a gift is meaningless if there is no thought put behind it.
This year more than ever I want to go on a journey and make sacrifices for my loved ones. Like the young African boy who walked a full day to get a handful of sand from a beach from his teacher – there was no money involved at all, but there was a great deal of thought and action involved. I want to give gifts that I have no business giving, and drive to places that I have no reason to drive, just to be with certain people. No, I’m not going to send a single Christmas card (unless there’s a gift attached of some sort) but I will reply to everyone who sends me one.
I want Christmas to get out of this lame phase that it has been in, because it is only detrimental to our relationships, or to put it more specifically; it won’t make our lives any happier in the long run. My fondest memory of Christmas is going to be this year, because it’s the first year I am going to actually appreciate the people that I have the chance to give a gift to. You never know when the day will come when you can’t give a gift to them anymore….
technical tweaks are done - ready to get a real design
I’ve spent the last month writing on this site and not worrying so much about what it does or looks like but where I will end up going with it in the future. My thoughts have been changed a bit from thinking about the now to really taking into consideration how my actions today will effect the future. From seeking out guest-blogging gigs to doing interviews to figuring out my writing business plan, the only thing that seems to be on my mind right now is my future (that’s a good thing to have when so young, am I wrong?)
Today, however, I’ve reached a milestone. For one thing, Wordpress 2.7 has just been released and I’ve already upgraded to the latest (and truly the greatest) version. I’ve finally found a solid set of plugins that have been installed and configured to work as efficiently as possible, and just a few minutes ago I finished fixing the remaining permissions errors and file problems that were plaguing me. It’s on to the next phase of launching this blog, which just so happens to be the same phase that my buddy Seth is on as well.
At this point, I have no idea what I want the weblog to look like, how the navigation will act or even what colors I would like it to be. Hopefully I will be able to find some short bits of time with my colleagues to figure that bit out, but perhaps you might like to help as well?
I’ve decided that taking things slowly is the best choice at this time, so I will not be making a huge design change right away, but what I will be doing is on a much more personal level with all of you. I want to know what your thoughts are with every step that I take, and so whenever a change is made (no matter how miniscule it seems) I will write a short post describing the change and asking for feedback.
This blog certainly feels like it’s all about me, but eventually I’d like the opposite to be true. To get onto the right path and move towards meeting that vision, I want to open up the comments for you to give me your ideas. I’ll take all of them into consideration before making a decision, and I will definitely appreciated anything that you have to say about this site! I plan on having the design done by the end of the month, so the sooner you reply with ideas the better.
I should also mention that I would love to work with a student web designer who wants to build their portfolio up. I have no problem with writing a blog and linking to their own site (or email) at the bottom to give them credit for their work. It’s all about networking, after all!
AnotherGuy on Charade Blog’s Student Portraits
Just wanted to let you all know that I have recently had an interview with Megan from Student Charade that has been published today. Go ahead and check it out if you’re interested. I’m excited to have been able to have done this, cause it means more connections between fellow student bloggers!
AnotherGuy’s Student Profile on Charade.
new laptop equals better quality work… i hope
I just finished buying a new laptop (Dell Studio 15), and so far I’m really enjoying it. However, it is now 11:00 PM, and there is no way that I will be going to bed soon. This is far too easy for me to get sucked into and lose track of time. Within an hour of having it all setup as my main computer, I had all of my files transferred over from my desktop and my favorite programs running. If you’re planning on making the switch from a desktop to a laptop you can do what I did and save yourself a bit of time and hassle.
Backup all files online or portable device
There are only four different types of files that I use at any given moment: Audio, Photos, Documents and Web files (for work). Using free services like Picasa Web Albums, Google Documents and Box.net I can store all of my files somewhere safely, and have a very quick way to download them back onto my computer after I got the internet running. You should probably backup your files anyway (first rule of using a computer) so why not do it in a way that makes sense, it’s easy and will allow you to access those files at any time?
For all of my music, I had also made sure that I synced my library onto my Zune. Since the Zune software takes about 5 minutes to install and another 5 to copy those files back over from the Zune, I had my entire music collection stored on laptop in no time at all.
Download Firefox
Before I did anything else I installed Firefox and set it to have all web defaults. I would love nothing more than to just get rid of Internet Explorer altogether, but unfortunately my work (and my operating system) depend on it. If you don’t know what Firefox is, then you need to stop what you’re doing right now and go check it out at the link I gave above. It is a faster, more secure, more feature-filled alternative to what you are probably currently using (Internet Explorer 6 or 7).
If you are sick of spam, pop-ups, security threats and websites breaking randomly, then you definitely will want to check it out. If you don’t like the look of Firefox, try out Opera or Google Chrome which give even more alternative features and web browsing experiences.
Install Digsby
I only just found out about Digsby a few days ago from a friend, but it has changed the way that I look at social media and the web. At first glance it may look like a simple instant messenger client, but it is so much more than that. Sync your facebook, twitter and linkedin accounts to get updates from your friends in real-time, or login to half a dozen different instant messengers (yahoo IM, AIM, MSN, GTalk, Facebook Chat, Jabber, etc…) and get rid of all of the extra programs it would usually take to talk to all of your friends.
Digsby is unfortunately only for Windows at this time, but that’s enough reason for me to not install Ubuntu (Linux) on this laptop right away (which was the normal action that would have been taken).
Final Steps ‘Till Relaxation
Now that I have an IM client, a decent web browser and all of my files where they belong, I only have one step left. The one thing that so many people forget to install is a good virus, spyware and malware scanner. You ABSOLUTELY need a security program if you plan connecting your computer to the net. If you use a Mac or Linux computer, don’t think that you’re without worries. Try out Windows Live OneCare, Norton Antivirus or maybe even go with my scanner of choice; Trend Micro. Any of them will work, but you need at least one. If you don’t have the money to buy a commercial anti-virus software, there are some OK open-source projects out there for people to download for free.
I’m done talking about what I’ve done, what would you do after turning on a new computer for the first time?
Google Reader gets a new look while I’m on a break
I was at work and waiting for the net to come back on. We’ve been having some issues with our internal network and so I went into the back room to get a drink and read a chapter of a book.Came back to check my feeds and Google reader has a fresh new look. I kinda like it, and hope that there won’t be too many complaints about the new (faster) look of the service. I hate it when people whine about this sort of stuff….