Author Archives: Staff Writer, YourSash.com

About Staff Writer, YourSash.com

Hellllllllllllo! One of the staff members is writing on the blog, we switch off every now and then.
April 13, 2012

Video Game Breaks

I remember when growing up, video games was the best way to destress. Back then, at most there were GameBoys that you could bring around, or you’d be locked down to your home TV and the SNES, N64, or Sega.

Now, it seems as if games are everywhere. But if anything, many games are less engaging. It’s about completing a quick Angry Birds level, or a Draw Something phrase… if you have a smartphone, you have a mobile game.

But when was the last time you sat back and just unwinded and played some video games?

LifeHacker has an interesting article about blowing off the dust on your game console or upgrading your computer so that you can play the most recent games.

So if it’s raining (like it is in LA today), maybe sitting back to some video games isn’t such a bad idea?

Full post here: http://lifehacker.com/5901898/take-a-break-and-play-some-video-games-this-weekend

*Disclaimer: Make sure you don’t play too many video games or get addicted where your grades start suffering in your last year in high school or college! Shameless plug: And order your graduation sashes if you haven’t already ;)

April 12, 2012

Graduation & College Tips for First Generation College Students

Earlier this week TIME published an interesting article that goes into discussing the challenges that first-generation college students face. The article discusses in concern some less than stellar statistics inculding

“More than a quarter of low-income first-generation college students leave after their first year, and 89 percent fail to graduate within six years.”

Luckily, the article does go into providing some tips. One of the tips that struck a cord with me was the second one.
Second: Figure out the unwritten rules. First-generation college students don’t simply lack the learning of their more privileged peers.

I couldn’t agree with this more. Part of learning the unwritten rules for me during undergrad was to join like minded student organizations. There upperclassmen merged with freshmen and helped them. Some organizations also have mentorship programs where seniors take freshmen under their wings and try to help them out.

For the full article, visit Time.com or click this link here.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tabor-roeder/6108541885/

April 10, 2012

How Distracting is Facebook?

It’s no question that Facebook can be distracting and detrimental to your studies. While back in the day, video games were the main way students procrastinated with studies, now the Internet provides additional mediums of entertainment.  Everything from YouTube, to Netflix, Hulu, mobile Apps, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, and much more.

According to a new study that involved 300 middle school, high school and college students, most of their distractions came from technology, often in the form of notifications.

What exactly does that mean?

To cite the study, “First, these students were only able to focus and stay on task for an average of three minutes at a time and nearly all of their distractions came from technology.”  three whole minutes!

“Not surprisingly those who stayed on task longer and had study strategies were better students. The worst students were those who consumed more media each day and had a preference for working on several tasks at the same time and switching back and forth between them.”

You can read about the full study here:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rewired-the-psychology-technology/201204/attention-alert-study-distraction-reveals-some-surpris

So what’s that mean?  Maybe around finals time it wouldn’t hurt to disable facebook or install internet blocking applications that disable access to entertainment oriented web sites..

Good luck on finals and we hope to see you at graduation! Also if you’re graduating in May and have not already ordered your graduation sashes, order soon to save on shipping!

April 9, 2012

Bike Theft at college Campuses

Bike theft is a big problem on college campuses. I remember for myself during undergrad, I was lucky enough to not get my bike stolen. My friends were not as lucky though. Even though we had identical u-locks and stored them in similar places, often times theives would get to these bikes, and before you know it you’re 2 or 3 bikes deep before graduation comes around because theives have stole your bikes.

So what’s the work around for all of this?
Wonder How To has a really interesting tutorial that shows you how to create a tilt sensor. How does it work? Well when your bike is moved at all, the sensor ends up going off.

Enough of a deterant to stop theives? You tell us!

April 6, 2012

$5,000 Grant for Female Programmers

Attention Female Engineering Students & Graduating Seniors, if you are interested in programming, the popular website Etsy is offering ten $5,000 grants to women who would like to attend this year’s session.

The application deadline this year is May 7th, and the program will run from June 4th to August 25th.

If you’re interested in applying for or possibly know someone in your sorority who might be interested, have them check out the full link.

Best of luck to those applying!

Photo Credit:

Programming a Radio

April 5, 2012

Fighting An Unfair Ticket – Student Tips

Have you ever gotten a ticket that you didn’t feel was fair? The tough part is that now for graduating seniors, if you are issued a ticket in your college town, you may have to make he trip back to your college town to go to court long after you’ve graduated. What does that mean? Well the ticket is now not just the cost of the ticket, but also airfare or gas to get back in town.

So what can you do? Today’s post features a new article on LifeHacker.com. One of the tips mentioned was:
“In the event you wind up with a ticket, it’s one you should be able to easily contest under the right circumstances. If you were sending a text message in the car you’re not going to get out of that one easily, as you shouldn’t be texting while driving, but changing a song while stopped is another story. Simply showing up in court to contest the ticket might be enough, as the officer who wrote that ticket may not want to bother coming to court. ”

For more tips similar to these, check out the full post here.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4426610518/

April 4, 2012

Saving Money On Printing – Student Tips!

Printing group papers, thesis rough drafts, and powerpoint presentations can get costly. Unless you’re lucky enough to get free printing or printing credits at school, it’s likely that you often have to restock on ink.

So where can you get the best deals on ink and save money for graduation? PC World recently ran an article on these deals and some o fthe numbers may surprise you.

Check out the full article on deals for printer ink. http://www.pcworld.com/article/252967/the_best_deals_on_printer_ink.html

On another note, have you seen the Instgram Printer? This looks amazing!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/listener42/3662484077/

April 3, 2012

Organizing Your Google Docs for Studying & Group Projects

We just had to share a quick tip with you today. If you’re like most college students, you probably use Google Documents to facilitate your group projects.

Today Google announced that they’re now making it even easier to organize your files in Google Docs. That means if you’re organizing research for your paper, or collecting order information for your graduation sashes or other design options, keeping them nice and tidy just got much easier.

Check out the full post here for more information about this update: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2012/04/its-easier-to-organize-files-in-google.html

April 3, 2012

How Do You Take A Study Break?

This is an exciting day, not because it’s April 2nd but because we’ve just found a new web site lifehack.org!  One of the more interesting posts we came across on the web site was “A Busy Person’s Guide to Keeping Sane!”  I personally like this article because it’s a blend of what you’d find on LifeHacker.com and ZenHabits (two amazing sites).

In the post, it talks about how to keep your head together in just one week through these 10 minute drills.  Great ways to organize your thoughts in a quick 10 minute rest.  Two of our more favorite tips were:
3rd Minute: Have on hand a menu of inspirational quotes or passages that you can choose from every day.
6th Minute: Surrender any grudges and bitterness.

Give it a try when you’re stressed out.  Instead of the typical 15 minute breaks of Facebook, TV, smoking, or hanging out with friends, what do you have to lose by trying this?  See you at graduation!

Looking for more inspiration?  Professor Pausch’s video is below :)

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hape_gera/2123257808/