Aaaaaannnnddd.... they're off!

"Welcome back Students!" Oh yeah, there's an over used phrase if I ever heard one! But a college town is a college town, which means that: Every. Single. Business. Is going to be perkily welcoming back students and opening their arms to the new ones. Campus and near by Housing will be greeting students with great big "Welcome back Students" banners... specials... parties... and extravaganzas! All this increase in student population on our campus also means we have to expand.... and with expansion comes *less parking*.

Day 1: I hit campus full force that day. As soon as I was within 2 miles of school I could smell *them*... Freshmen. The entire campus reeked with the stench of Freshmen. I caught the green light for the second of the two roads leading to campus and just beat the late morning in-comers. As I turned at the light I could see vehicles crammed into the turn lane farther then I could see, waiting for their light to turn green. I shot down the road and turned onto campus. Bumper to bumper... and that's an understatement. They were all fighting to get down the the campus' middle parking lot. I knew better. I quickly made my way to the parking lot between the road and the library. I soon discovered that during the break between semesters the construction crew, constructing our new performing arts building, had managed to rob us of even MORE parking then they had already taken. Not a single parking spot stood open and desperate students were parked along the curb: tickets waiting to happen. But this was no big deal, I knew the secret to getting a parking spot. Patience. Me and a few other vehicles circled the small lot, they were probably looking for a spot that someone had magically overlooked. Not gonna happen. It was 9:40 now and my class started at 10:00. Another couple of students lost nerve and parked along the curb. Then I saw them: there was maybe a handful of them. Free students. They walked into the parking lot and made for their vehicles like ants desperate for their anthill. I turned down an isle and saw a vehicle's backup lights come on. I rushed over and left him just enough room to back out, I was already blinking. That's when the other one came. It was a little rinky-dink car from the other direction. They probably figured I wouldn't be able to fit my truck into the spot and were waiting for me to surrender so they could claim it. As soon as the parked vehicle was out of my way I pounced. One flawless swing and I was perfectly placed in my new parking spot... my new *shaded* parking spot that is. The car drove away. I laughed. That poor unsuspecting Freshman... she thought she would get an easy spot but I had news for her: I can fit that huge '93 Ford F150 into places she can't even dream of getting her car into! She hasn't been driving long enough and she's new to campus. She has no clue yet.

Day 2: No class this day, just work. I work on campus though. I needed to be in my office by 8:30. I went ahead and scoped out the parking lot near my building but after about 15-20 minutes of circling this much larger lot I knew patience had nothing to win me here, there wouldn't be any free students(and there for parking spots) until 9:00. So I flew back over to my library parking lot and, BEHOLD! The entire east side of the lot was empty! I know now where I'll be parking for work this semester ;) I took a "legal" curb parking spot right next to a huge, *shady*, oak tree. I even had time to back into my new spot :)

Day 3: This would be today. Basically, I just played the same game as day 1. Drove around until free students started popping up. Don't be fooled though! I followed two students who ended up walking out of the parking lot because they lived in housing across the street. My third student I saw was a guy with keys. I watched which isle he walked onto and turned down there. I then drove right up behind him and followed him with my blinker on while he walked. (The blinker shows non-freshmen that the free student's parking spot is now claimed. Freshmen don't understand this lingo yet so you kinda have to fight them a bit.) The guy gets into his vehicle and I see another car come flying down the other end of the isle. I sit there still blinking. My guy backs out... hardly enough space for him to do so between me and my new competitor. He turns to leave, my competitor turns toward the parking spot to avoid getting hit by my guy. I don't take the chance that "competitor" won't take my spot. I whip in and snatch the empty spot. Victory! and it is also partly *shaded* :)

So yeah, we've made it to the week's midway point. Welcome back fellow students.... and welcome to the House of Parking Pain freshmen!!!!
If you're are Freshman at my school I have one *very* important parking lot tip for you. If ya' see a huge  two-toned '93 Ford F150.... get outta da way! ;) Consider this a tip from a campus parking veteran :)
Until next time, park at your own risk ;)
~RebelYell

Office Freezer.

Ahhh Thursday. It was my last day of work for this week. I got to the office at 8:00 and proceeded to put my lunch in the mini fridge. I then put my coke can into the mini fridge's "freezer". Surely that wouldn't be cold enough to hurt the can.... I came back for my soda around 2:00. It was feeling pretty solid. I set the can on my desk and popped it open. Put simply, it was like watching Mount St. Helens erupt on my desk. I sit there in slight shock and watch as the mess bubbles out angrily, good luck cleaning that up! I wiped and wiped and rinsed and when I finally got off work that day my desk was still sticky. By the time it was finished erupting there was about 1/3 of the contents left in the can and they were too frozen to drink right then. Moral of this story?: Don't put your soda in the freezer...ever.

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Who did we encounter?

It's a warm weekend day and the ocean is lazily lapping against the sandy shore. Out at the sand bar, small waves leap about and cause a beautiful white foam. Looking closely, one can see small fishes swimming within the waves... these same fish jump entertainingly out of the water when it's calm. A few feet away, a big black shape breaks into view and then dives into a wave, disapearing from sight.

CUE THE JAWS THEME MUSIC!

Remember those cute jumping fish? Well, apparently it's a sign that a shark is in the vacinity and the fish are attemting to escape. This bloggy post is a shoot off of my previous post about our trip to the beach/shark encounter. I found a really interesting post on wikihow about signs of a shark nearby and a few other pointers:

http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-a-Shark-Attack
http://www.beachhunter.net/thingstoknow/sharks/ (this is a GREAT site)


I'm not going to list everything, obviously, which is why I'm sharing the link above... but here are the things we pretty much messed up on during our trip to the beach.

1) "Avoid deep dropoffs and the areas between sandbars". Well, we crossed that area in order to go stand on the sandbar.
2) "Avoid swimming near fishing activity". Well, there were plenty of fish around, and a ways down the beach there were fishers. There were also shrimping boats off in the distance.
3) "Stay out of the water at night and during dawn and dusk". We were swimming at about 8:00AM. Sharks are really active in th early morning and late evening.

Yeah. But here's what we did right:
1) We were aware of our surroundings.
2) We were wearing really calm colors. (Well, I was anyway. My bro was in orange and blue.) I wore black & slightly red swim trunks and a tan shirt. We also weren't wearing any kind of jewlery.
3) Remain calm (at least partially) and don't make a lot of splashing while heading to shore.

Here for instance: http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100819/ARTICLES/8191047/1118?Title=Gainesville-boy-bitten-by-shark-near-Crescent-Beach is a case I was told about, this little boy handled the situation very calmly and rationaly.

Now that we've covered how to properly avoid/handle shark encounters a bit, I'll give you a little insight on what shark types I consider possibilities of our encounter.

This website: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/nsrc/profiles.htm is a really good database about sharks and I was able to browse through tons of sharks and try to narrow down which one we most likely came into contact with.
I first started my resereach shark info tidbits that I already knew, like: bull sharks are one of the three most accounted for sharks known to attack people and they can swim in water as shallow as knee deep.
I built on my search from there: tiger and white sharks are the other two most common sharks to attack people unprovoked. Tiger sharks swim in shallower waters like bull sharks.

Bull Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/bullshark/bullshark.htm
Tiger Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Tigershark/tigershark.htm
White Shark(Great White): http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Whiteshark/whiteshark.html

I went ahead and read up on these three shark types but was already considering the fact that the shark we saw was not acting aggresively and was simply swimming away from us and the other two swimmers. Bull sharks and tiger sharks are quite aggressive and are know for launching unprovoked attacks, this shark did not act like it was about to attack.
So now I'm narrowing my search to shallow water swimming, less aggressive sharks. I also bring into my equation the shark's color. It wasn't a tan color that blended in with the sand or a bluishwhite color that was hard to make out in the water. It was black, or at least a dark enough color to really stand out.
So here's what I pulled together:

Blacktip Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Blacktip/Blacktipshark.html
Spinner Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/spinnershark/spinnershark.html
Bonnethead Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/Bonnethead/Bonnethead.html
Great Hammerhead: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/GreatHammerhead/GHammerhead.html
Nurse Shark: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/nurseshark/nurseshark.htm

I know some of these sharks can get quite large but a shark will go where ever it can fit. Adolescent Great Hammerheads are known to lurk in shallow waters, for instance. Even large Bull Sharks and adolescent White Sharks have been found beached before. It's really common to see Blacktip sharks in shallow waters and Spinner sharks are know to jump out of waves near surfers. Nurser sharks enjoy shallow waters and are usually calm natured... but they *will* bite if provoked or stepped on (they like to lay on the bottom and they blend in really well).
So. After looking closely at all these sharks plus *many* more, I've narrowed down my list.

• Bull Shark
• Blacktip Shark
• Spinner Shark
• Bonnethead Shark
• Great Hammerhead

Yup, these are the sharks on my list of "most likely" encountered. I wish I could narrow it down right to the exact shark but that will be impossible because I lacked a closer look at it. This list of five sharks is a bit bigger then I would have liked.... but it's actually pretty good considereing that there are like, over 300 identified species of sharks in the world. So this is my list and these are my reasons for having each shark on this list:

• The BULL SHARK I'm keeping on my list because they are so commonly seen in this area and in the shallows, and because of their dark coloration. I know we talked earlier about how aggressive they can be but that doesn't mean they are out to get us. It's possible that it could have been a Bull shark and that it left without so much as a nibble of human flesh.
• The BLACKTIP and SPINNER SHARKS are on my list because they are extreamly common for the area we were swimming in and are often found in the shallows and near surfers.
• The GREAT HAMMERHEAD because it's not extreamly uncommon to find them in shallow waters, especially this time of year when the females are moving into shallower waters to give birth. Plus, adolescent Great Hammerheads are known to swim in shallower waters as well. Hammerheads are also quite shy which could lead to them leaving calmly and quietly. Hammerheads can also be dark in color.
• The BONNETHEAD SHARK because they tend to like shallower waters. I'm mainly keeping the Bonnethead on my list because I some what feel like there is a great chance that it would have been a Bonnethead as compared to another Hammerhead because the front end of shark I saw didn't seem to have that "hammer" shape... I'm not going to cut them from the list though. So if it were a type of Hammerhead it was most likely the Bonnethead because their heads are a bit smaller than the others and would therefore be harder for me to have distinguished from where I was standing.

So after hours of extensive research and calling upon my memory of the encounter, this is what I've come up with. I hope someone out there enjoys this and gets something from it. If anyone does read this, feel free to comment, I'd love to hear from you! You can even leave your own shark encounters/information if you'd like! Here's one more website I found to be awesome concerning sharks :) http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/shark-week/
Hope you've enjoyed this post.
Till next time.... swim at your own risk ;)
~RebelYell

Close Encounter

Yeah so, me and my family are on a mini vacation this weekend at the beach (compliments of my awesome and oh so sweet Military Uncle). Last night me, my brother, and my Dad all went swimming in the ocean and my Mother stood on the beach taking pictures. I've always been a beach hater but last night was actually ok... I actually got to go swimming this time. So this morning, me and my bro head back to the water and my Mother, again, goes to take pictures. My brother and I wade out into the water, through the culvert, and up onto the sandbar. We stood letting the stomach high waves hit against us. A few feet away there were three fish that kept jumping up out of the water; this really amused the two of us, especially when we could see them riding in the top of a wave. So we're standing there in thigh high water watching the fish when suddenly something to our left catches our eye. We both look over and I see it's a surfer heading out to the bigger waves. It was diving under a smaller wave and I was about to tell my brother to watch it when I hear him yell "Shark!" at me.
....... that's when I realized the "surfer" never came back up out of the water. I look again but the black figure is gone. Now don't think for a second that my brother would have grabbed me up and drug me to shore so I wouldn't get eaten... no, no, no, no. I turn around and he is already half away across the culvert that separates the sand bar from the beach.... leaving me all alone on the sand bar. Thanks bro, love you too ;) So I split and when we both finally make it to the beach we stand and stare out at the water. No sign of a surfer *anywhere*. We look and look but the surfer shark is gone. We've concluded that it had to be a shark because the only other explanation would be that if it were a surfer... then the reason why he never came back up is because he got carried away in a rip tide. So yeah, me and my brother were swimming just a few feet away from a shark this morning... one more thing to scratch off my bucket list ;)
I've always been real interested in sharks and love to learn about them... I figured it was a bull shark because I know they can easily swim in knee deep waters.... but as aggressive as they are I doubt he would have just left... there were me and my brother swimming on his right and a father and his young son swimming to his left. Surely he would have rather had a bite out of us rather then those tiny fish. So it probably wasn't a bull shark... I'll have to research a bit on this later today :) Maybe I can make a post about it later.
~RebelYell  

Seeking a degree? Well... you'd better seek scholarships first!

Seeking a Degree: this phrase means that you either have a high school diploma or GED and are now carrying on your education at an institute of higher learning in an attempt to get an AA, AS, AAS, and maybe any higher degree that comes after an AA.

If you're one of the billions of people "seeking a degree" then you realize that tuition alone can cost well over $3,000 a year (and that's just an in-state rate for a college, not a university... much less an out of state university!) Then on top of tuition fees you have book fees, living fees, food fees, transportation fees, phone bills, credit card bills, and even the occasional money burning emergency. So let's face it, unless you're a kid attending an Ivy League law school on Mommy and Daddy's penny... you need to find a way to pay for college! One of the most pushed options is to take out student loans because they have a bit lower interest... but by the time you graduate, you'll still be in debt up to your eyeballs. Over the years, all those small interest rate student loans start to pile up and after graduation day, you're left with a big bill. So here are some other options:
If you're reading this and aren't actually in college yet, (aka you're a high school student) check with your school and local college to see if they have a dual enrollment program. This will enable you to start working on your AA degree while finishing high school and the state will pay for your tuition and book fees (unless you are private/home schooled, then you have to buy your own books). So by the time you graduate high school you should also be ready (or near ready) to graduate with your AA degree as well... and you didn't have to pay for hardly anything!
After high school (whether you dual enrolled or not) you have to start paying your own fees. Now, I suggest to try your best not to touch student loans! I just completed my first year in college (not including two years of dual enrollment) and haven't gone anywhere near a loan. How do I pay for college?
Well, firstly, I have a job. Not a good paying job (minimum wage... VERY minimum wage) but still a job. So I put the money I earn aside and use it for tuition, books, fuel, and food. Obviously though it doesn't stretch very far. So on top of my job, I applied for a 4 year state sponsored scholarship (I won it out of high school) and that pays 75% of tuition which helps a pretty good bit. I also applied for a well known agricultural scholarship available to high school seniors. So with two scholarships, I was pretty well covered for my first (non-dual enrolled) semester. But after all that, where else can you find scholarships? My choice: scholarship search engines. Now I'm not talking search engines like Goggle and Bing, I'm talking search engines specially made to find scholarships. Here are the editor's choice:

www.fastweb.com
www.moolahspot.com
www.cappex.com
www.scholarships.com

My two favorites are Fastweb and Moolahspot. Every month or so each of these engines will even host their own scholarship you can apply for. I've been with Fastweb for over a year and just recently joined Moolahspot, I've been with Cappex almost as long as Fastweb but have found that a lot of times they bring up the same schoarships. These search engines find scholarships specific to your major, college/university, talents, interests, and many other things. In short, I guess you could say they look for "custom scholarships". For instance: I'm an Agriculture major (Animal Science), I love to read & write, I was in 4-H, and am a first generation college student. So these search engines are going to look specifically for scholarships that have something to do with agriculture, reading, essays, 4-H, or first generation students. Another good scholarship website is www.scholarshippoints.com :)

Aside from scholarships, you can also apply for Financial Aid. all you have to do is fill out a Free FAFSA Application and enter it. If you are eligible then you will receive money from the government every semester to help you pay for tuition, books, housing, transportation, and everything else you can think of! To find the application, just go to www.fafsa.gov

So yeah, in summary, the best ways to pay for college are:

1) A job
2) Scholarships
3) Financial Aid

Now that I've hopefully simplified the process of finding scholarships for you, go out there and start applying! I wish you the best of luck!
~RebelYell

Chegg it out!!

Alrighty, time for my first serious bloggy post! As I mentioned in my Grand Opening Blog Post earlier today, one of my blog topics will be concerning "college stuff". This can range from tuition to transportation. In this bloggy, I'll be covering textbooks! Everybody loves the end/start semester time lapse where they are trying to:
1) Figure out next semester's books
2) Locate/Price said books
3) Compare book pricing and shipping rates
4) Sell back old textbooks
Psh, yeah... love it :(
Now, I'm sure all colleges are different in how they release textbook information but at my school you are given your course name/section and then from there the local book stores can identify which textbooks you need. So, location wise, the most convenient book purchasing comes from the on campus book store(play horror music!!!) Yeah, on campus.... if you want to use an arm and a leg as a down payment.. let's face it, only unsuspecting Freshmen and last minute buyers use the on campus book stores. Students who know how to get more book for their buck go to off campus used book stores. Don't just use the first used book store you run across though. Browse a variety of stores, look for ones offering discounts, and also keep an eye out for stores that claim they'll "beat all other prices!". If you want to, you can also check www.amazon.com for textbooks at low prices from fellow students but you're not always guaranteed to get them on time or in a good condition. So yeah, used book stores are great... but as a penny-pinching student, you want something wonderful! So settle for purchasing from used book stores when you have to but lob for renting online whenever you can. I know textbook rentals is a fairly new concept and some people are kind of leery about it, I was too at first, but it's actually a WONDERFUL thing! Still nervous? That's ok, here's where things get good. I go the used textbook store route when I have to but I mostly use www.chegg.com  This is my ultimate money saver! Just this semester, I saved $113 on one of my textbooks. Yup, it only cost me 40 some odd $$ to rent it plus $5 for shipping. I'll have it for my whole semester and then ship it back to Chegg for free. I also have a code I use that saves me an additional 5% on my rental: CC111923. I just enter that during checkout and it saves me even more money :) I've used Chegg for 2 or 3 semesters now and love it! They even plant a tree for every book I rent.. it's part of their "go green" attitude. Friend them on Facebook and you can win a bunch of stuff too.
Now for buybacks.
At the end of every semester you are always left with a pile of textbooks you paid hundreds of dollars for and when you go back to the book store.... they offer to pay you back less then half of what you originally paid... just so they can turn around and sell it to another student for the same amount you bought it for. No joke, one time I had a book store offer like $7 for one of my books... now grant it that book had gone "out of date" for my campus but seriously? Why insult me with a $7 offer? Just tell me it can't be bought back >:( Now sometimes you get lucky and come across a really good, small scale, used book store (like I have in my town, I've been going to them since they opened) who will try to give you at least 50% money back on you textbook. Good for them. But then there's my other favorite buyback route: if you didn't rent and do have textbooks to sell, use Chegg. Yeah, not only do they rent out but they also purchase books. I rummaged through a stack of old textbooks I never sold back and managed to find one they could use. Got a little over $50 for it and they paid for shipping. Once they buy your book you have two options: either have the money put towards your next textbook rental or have them send you a check. In summary:
1) Buy books for the equivalent of a student loan at your on campus book store
2) Buy books cheaper at an off campus used book store
3) Find textbooks on Amazon.... if you dare.
4) Rent your textbooks (Editor's choice)

1) Sell books back for very little money at on campus book store
2) Sell books back for near half price at off campus used book store
3) Sell books to rental company for a bit more + free shipping (Editor's choice)
4) Keep books for all eternity and never use them again.... :(

Now if you really want to pinch your pennies till Abe Lincoln screams, you can go the extremest route by not buying any textbooks at all and just using textbooks that are on reserve at your campus library (I did that one semester... it was ok). But... it mean's you're spending a LOT of extra time on campus doing homework and that the textbook you need might end up being checked out by another student right when you are doing a massive assignment at the last minute. I don't argue against the library idea, I've done it once before and might actually do it in the future... I'd just recommend not doing it in the summer semester when you're classes are shorter and more intensive, that's when you want to be able to study from the comfort of your home.

I hope someone out there will find this blog helpful.... If I can figure out how, I will make a special gadget box on my blog's side bar for Chegg.com incase anyone is interested.
Again, the 5% off code is CC111923
Good luck with getting your textbooks! I wish you the largest amount of saved money possible!!!
~RebelYell

Curiouser and curiouser...

Honestly, I wasn't to sure how to start a blog... obviously my main question was "what do I post?". I've come to understand that blogging is about either things concerning you or things that you like. I thought about a few college level things that I would like to get around to "blogging" about but I knew non of them would be very good "intro blogs", I guess you could call it. So, I have a pretty good idea about what I'll blog about in the future but for now, this is my intro blog. This is my "Grand Opening" blog post! My "First Impression" blog post. Some people are defined by first impressions.... I hope that's not true about bloggers because this is basically all I have to impress you with right off the bat. Don't judge me by my first blog, just like you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover... (or it's movie). Give me time to bring you more. I'll talk college stuff, agriculture, pets, log funny experiences, random memories, compose short stories(maybe), perhaps even post piano clips, and maybe get a bit into politics(depending on my mood that day). I think you might find that I'm rather diverse in topics and I hope that I end up writing something of interest to someone. If you have something you'd like to see me write about: let me know! I could even do limited electronics reviews or research topics for followers. I have a feeling this bloggy world of blogging is going to become a special part of my day/week/month.... hopefully. So here's to the bloggy future: Cheers Chaps!