MontyKaplan.com is now fully functional.

blog . monty kaplan is also up and will replace this blog

Cheers,

I have MontyKaplan.com and will be temporarily forwarding from there to montyakaplan.wordpress.com.

I also chose a hosting service to use and will be transitioning from WordPress servers shortly.

This post published via Windows Live Writer. It has the familiar Word interface and lets bloggers do more than web based Rich Text Editors.

Millennium Music is offering some sweet deals for your used CDs. Give them your CDs and they will give you an iPod. It takes 35 to purchase an iPod Shuffle, and that puts the value of that CD at about $2. However, that is leagues better than $0 sitting in your closet.

Hot shower! Have an 8am, 9am, or 10am class? Have trouble getting out of bed? It’s hard, it takes discipline, and it doesn’t pay off as well as you want it to, but it just has to be done. For waking up, try taking a hot shower — immediately. As soon as the alarm clock goes off (and if you’re not using an alarm clark, you’re either extremely lucky or repeatedly late)
Get out of bed, get your shower stuff, go.
If you do this every day for a couple weeks, you’ll have a habit made, and you won’t even think about what you are doing or why you are doing it. This is a great routine because it will keep you on time, give you extra time for whatever you need to get done, and make you feel uber refreshed first thing in the morning. Steamy!

http://www.flausa.com: Florida is a great place to spend some sweet vacation time. My best experience with Florida was a trip I made for a National Competion in robotics put on by FIRST. This not for profit organization gets groups of highschool and college students together, allows educators to get involved, and promotes and fosters learning at a very cool level. The trip to Florida for the national competion was great for two reasons. Amazing weather + amazing people. Both of these factors were heavily influenced by the location of the proceedings. I stayed in a hotel about fifteen minutes away from Disney World and Epcot Center. There happened to be a water park right next door to the hotel along with an arcade and a bumper kart station. It was incredible. My only complaint: the water park closed one day due to “inclement weather” — for Florida — on Massachusetts terms that would = an amazing day, so we went to a beautiful beach instead! Highly recommend it to anyone with a few bucks and some spare time.

Safe travels!

A quick look at the options available to you on Clark’s campus.

iTunes
Most people get music from iTunes – either legally or illegally. I don’t know the breakdown, but I know everyone has the software installed on their computers.
Legally: People download music from the iTunes store for 99 cents a song. Good deal.
Illegally: People download music from other people on the network through iTunes and another program such as myTunes or ourTunes for zero cents a song. Good deal.

g2p.org
Good for quick song searches- an mp3 search through google

BitTorrent
Torrent files are a form of peer to peer sharing that is good for large volumes, such as albums or movies or software. It is possible to download music in this manner.

Concerts
Last year they were sparse, but I think this year will be a big comeback and you can help! Join the Public Entertainment Committee (PEC) to put bands on stage or the Student Activities Board (SAB) to help plan some of the largest musical performances. Spree Day committee is another option.

Informal Jam Sessions
Always going on somewhere on campus. Usually just a few kids inside a room jammin’. Guitar is most popular, and then drums I believe. Sometimes you can find people out in the hallway or in a common room.

Open Mic
A truly awesome experience, Open Mic, one night a week talented (usually) performers get up on stage and share whatever they’ve got for you — poetry, song, comedy, dance? It’s all there, and it’s always a good time.

Dance Parties & DJs
Every so often a student group gets a few bucks together to throw a dance party some with food and drink, some without, always with good music usually mixed by fellow Clarkies. Usually taking place below the UC in the Grind. Black Student Union (BSU) puts the most on, and they usually have the biggest attendance. There are at least two major dances that are organized and somewhat formal (put on by SPOC or RHA) and a strictly formal dance in the spring (Spring Formal put on by SAB).

Radio
Not too many stations come in while on campus. Something to look forward to is the rebirth of the ClarkU radio station. Look for this beginning some time in the fall. Check out Pandora for a good web radio option.

Clubbing
There are a good number of dance clubs in the Worcester area, with plenty of variety. Clark can provide transportation to some of them. Just call escort!

DDR (dance dance revolution)
There are no machines on campus, but SPOC (and the Info Desk??) has the game and dance pads. Also the Clark Activities Board (CAB) had a special DDR dance party one night — but it didn’t get a huge turnout. I love DDR though, so give me a call if you want to play.

Google Mail, commonly referred to as gMail, is a great web service provided by Google that serves as an e-mail client, a instant messenger, a voice client, and a huge online storage space. gMail is free, but you might need to be invited to sign up. I have 50 invites so if you are interested, get at me. I don’t use the e-mail account because I like cMail’s speediness from Clark’s servers, but it is good for sending large files. Check it out at gMail.com

Now this is truly a great find. Pandora internet radio service almost made me sell my iPod – it’s that good. You can customize a radio station online that learns from what you like or don’t like to provide you with music you love. You can skip songs you don’t want to hear and also creat multiple stations for whatever you feel like listening to at any given time. The best part of all? It’s free! Check it out…!

Hey every college student with a facebook.com account. You need to be careful about what you post on there. Many people you might not expect could be scanning your profile and making judgments about you. For example: those pictures of you getting drunk and taking off your pants in public could be the one reason why you get rejected from that big internship you wanted. Also, if you are violating school rules, like underage drinking, the evidence you provide on facebook could give away your misconduct and get you in big trouble. So watch yourself. Also, facebook can sell any image you put online – and it does sell the ones where any logo is present — like Budweiser or Heineken. Crazy!

Update: I sent an e-mail to Jason Zelesky about setting up some kind of formal education on facebook during orientation. He passed the message along so maybe we’ll see something during Week One 2006!