Although my intention is not to completely endorse a product by writing this, I cannot help but share with the world the coolest pen I have ever found. Its hidden on the bottom pen shelf in the bookstore… the Pilot Frixion pen.

Why is it so cool?

Have you ever used an erasable pen. If so, I am sure you agree that the idea is great but they suck a lot. It writes poorly and erases just the same. Pilot’s pen is a new and better take on this idea, like the better mousetrap per se. First of all, it is a gel ink pen, so it writes really smoothly. It isn’t erasable in the sense that you would expect though… read this blurb I found online about how it works (I thought is was really cool):

“How does it work? Metamocolor technology! ‘Metamocolor’ is a word entirely made up by Pilot marketing people, but basically it’s a type of thermo-reactive ink. The heat generated by the friction causes the ink to become translucent (at 65°C fact-hounds!). Stick it in the freezer (-20°C) and your scribblings will re-appear - albeit slightly faded. Ideal for secret messages and a lot easier than that old lemon juice and candle flames malarkey.”

I had no idea that you can make the ink reappear (pretty neat), but I don’t think this is anything to worry about for note taking because how often do your notes make it into the freezer? Anyway, I’m not saying buy the pen, but heh at least find it in the bookstore and try it because it quickly became my favorite.

-Bojangles

It may be coincidence that my focus on lecture every day is interrupted by increasingly more coughs and sniffles, but I suspect that there is some type of bug going around. While I doubt it is anything quite the caliber of College Park’s current flu problem, I know a lot of people who are sick or in the process of getting better or worse. I became sick about a week ago and it hit me pretty hard. I woke up Saturday morning with a pretty nasty fever, but thanks to my sickly little body at the time I was also shivering and my whole body ached. I was pretty sure I had the flu, so I was ready to buckle down for a long week, but luckily it developed into a bad cold the next day.

As a little disclaimer, I do not have the best immune system out there. I got sick in early January, and didn’t get better for over three weeks. Also, I hate being sick, so I am an avid fighter whenever some bug comes my way. I drink tea and water like I’ve never had them before, and I fill my body with more vitamin C than it will ever need. Also, I stock up on all the symptom fighting medications so that I don’t have to feel like crap all the time. Unfortunately, even doing all of that, my sickness in January fought stronger than I could.

For the current malady I took a new approach. I may have a wimpy cough right now, but no lie I feel 98% not sicker. My dad recommended to me that I try Zicam (and was generous enough to buy it for me!), which is a homeopathic medicine. Taking a little stroll down internet lane, I learned some interesting things about what a homeopathic medicine is. Apparently, homeopathics function like a vaccine, in that you are taking a very small dosage of something that gives you similar symptoms. This is also similar to conventional allergy treatment, where a small dose of the allergic substance is given. Also, no matter how many symptoms are experienced, the homeopathic remedy you take will be aimed at all of the symptoms. A couple other benefits of the homeopathic approach include:

-It is extremely effective

-It is completely safe

-It is natural and works in harmony with your immune system

-It is not addictive

In huge letters on the Zicam box, it states that it is a “Cold Remedy.” In the drug facts on the back, its uses are listed as: 1. to reduce the duration of the common cold, and 2. to reduce the severity of sore throat, stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing, and congestion. You are supposed to take it at the onset of symptoms and then continue every three hours until 48 hours after the symptoms subside. Now no exaggeration here, I started taking the Zicam (which is in the form of strawberry chewables not unlike a Starburst at first) when I really felt at the peak of poopiness, and two days later I was almost all better. The first morning I woke up, I felt like I had noticeably more energy. I continued taking them all day and after one more night of good rest I decided that Zicam is my new best friend in the world of medicine. If you happen to be sick right now, I encourage than you definitely give this medicine a try.

On a side note, I also want to recommend this medicine Simply Saline, which is probably the most fun stuffy nose medicine ever. Its basically this pressurized can of saline solution that you put up your nostril and shoot into your nasal passage to moisturize it. If done leaning over the sink, it creates the nastiest river of mucous out of both nostrils which can make your roommates laugh or cry. When done though, you can breath perfectly and will feel wonderful. It is surely one of the quickest and most effective ways to deal with a stuffy nose I’ve ever tried.

On a side note, I promise I did not get paid by the medicine companies to write this article.

This article is for those out there who love music but just can’t find the cash to buy all those awesome new CD’s that come out every month. I find myself in that situation all too often and always go to one place for my fix: the internet. Over the years my approaches to free music have changed as new downloading sources are opened and shut down. First was Napster, Kazaa, Morpheus… these all turned to shit in about a year though as more and more viruses and fake songs were put up. Then I found out about torrent sites. These are awesome. I’m pretty anal about always having whole CD’s instead of singles, and I could always find everything I wanted to listen to. Not only that, there are never viruses and there are a ton of sites to search for music on. The only downside was that stuff downloaded way slow. When I got to UMBC as a freshman, I was introduced to DC++. CD’s in 30 seconds, movies in like 5 minutes; I was in heaven. It didn’t have everything, but I still had torrents as a backup.

Finally, this year, I found the greatest downloading source of all: Oink. It was a private torrent site that literally had everything. Not only that, it was faster than DC++, and since it was private there was really nothing to worry about. All of this changed very fast though. Two of my friends got caught on torrent sites by recording industries, and had to pay fines to the school as a punishment. DC++ got shut down. As icing on the cake, Oink got shut down by 3 or 4 organizations that attack file sharers and some major lawsuits are on way (google oink and you’ll get a bunch of stuff). So, as of about a month ago I was dry out of luck for music downloading. Enough reminiscing though, let me get to the real dirt.

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