focus

Video: Tips for Getting a Girlfriend

This is a friend from school. Knowing him, it’s hilarious, and he was the one who showed it to us. No shame!

Podcast: College Info Geek
One of my all-time favorite podcasts is The College Info Geek Podcast. They’re two socially-capable nerds that bring a geeky flavor of humor to real-life issues that students (and everyone in general, really) will benefit from. Two episodes that I recently listened to that really caught my attention were “How to Automate Your Life (Ep. 194)” (Apple Podcasts) and How to Not Get Hacked: 9 Tips for Securing Your Digital Life (Ep. 187)” (Apple Podcasts).

Automization—I’ve become obsessed with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets lately, opting to have a computer complete repetitive tasks for me. One such example is the Reading Calculator I built so I can keep track of how many pages per day I need to read in order to finish an assigned book before a presentation at the end of the semester. In fact, if I were to go back to school and weren’t allowed to study mechanical engineering, I’d get a computer science degree.

Security—The second episode was particularly interesting because I have done an internship in a secure facility where security (especially cybersecurity) was a priority. I remember having a conversation with my roommate about security and privacy once, and he said that our generation just doesn’t care, admitting that we were both in the same boat. Who cares if you see our Facebook profile or LinkedIn? Well, this episode addresses a good point, which is you’re not normally targeted individually but rather, your weak security puts you at risk as hackers comb through massive collections of profiles, etc.

You can find The College Info Geek Podcast here: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | YouTube | Stitcher

Music: Electronic Study

I follow a Spotify playlist titled “Electronic: Study no words“, and I really liked a song that came on. Check out “Heart on Wave” by Slime Girls (Spotify | YouTube). It’s got a retro, side-scrolling video game sound to it.

App: Acorns

I came across the Acorns app back in 2015 but haven’t really done anything with it until now. Whenever you swipe your card to make a purchase, it rounds up to the nearest dollar and throws the change that it rounded up with into an Exchange-Traded Fund (definition). It’s an easy way to invest, and you just select the risk-portfolio you want. Sign up using my link, and we’ll both get $5! Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions. I’m not sharing it for the sole purpose of earning money. I actually think it’s a sweet app!

Tool: Google Sheets

I’ve been going crazy for Google Sheets and their templates! I found this great site, SmartSheet, with some free coded templates. You just go to File > Make a copy…, and bam! You’ve got the sheet! Don’t click Add to My Drive, or else you’ll have the restricted template that’s accessible to everyone but still owned by SmartSheet.

Additionally, I’ve come to love Slides Carnival for their free, crisp, and clean Google Slides templates. You just follow the same “Make a copy” step above, then edit the file for your presentation! A few of my favorites are Viola, Banquo, Cordelia, and Imogen.

Pondering: Tax Reform

I’ve been trying to think of a one-page tax system like Rand Paul proposed in the 2016 election. What if we had a 15% flat corporate tax with maximum deductions of up to, say,  2% only attainable through registered charities and international financial relief and aid? Then, the government can focus their efforts on reinvesting in America. I often think of the sticky situation we’re in. Do we have enough funds to help the suffering citizens of Syria and to overhaul all of our highways and interstates? No. But what if the government only had to focus on internal issues while capitalism and its incentives handled the international financial contributions? Just a thought. What do you think?

Quote: Alexander Graham Bell

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

Ivana Cajina