Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.
-William Wirt

Ever since I first ran across this jewel of advice, I have always made an effort to apply it to my life. Whenever my interest in a certain subject flares, I make a point to explore it before my focus has a chance to shift elsewhere.

As of late, my excitement and curiosity have revolved around photography. I bought a Nikon D40 in June and have since only put it to good use on occasion. Since I purchased it, I’ve had a nagging sense that my photos weren’t turning out as interesting or “professional looking” as those taken by my friends who are amateur photographers. Part of this has to do with the fact that I’m not always as creative as I’d like. I also knew the source of my displeasure wasn’t the fact that I have an entry-level Nikon, because I’ve been told time and time again that the camera doesn’t matter.

Photo by Will Foster

It wasn’t until recently (while browsing Will Foster’s Flickr gallery) that I realized what my photos were missing: light. In retrospect, it seems so obvious. After all, in it’s simplest form, a photograph is just the capturing of light. All I’ve ever used is my D40′s pop-up flash (which leads to harsh lighting and harsh shadows in photographs). It had never occurred to me that a hot-shoe flash (or an off camera flash) could dramatically improve the quality of my photos.

After doing some research, I went out and bought a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight. The difference in my photos was noticeable right away. Below is a comparison of the D40′s pop-up flash and the SB-600. My roommate, Ryan, was happy to stand in for this experiment. The photo on the left was taken using the built-in pop-up flash on the D40. To the right we have a the remarkable results using the SB-600. The key to the second photo was that I angeled the flash head to bounce off the ceiling and then to Ryan. If you look at the larger version, you can really see the natural shading and definition on his face. An off camera flash (or two) could’ve produced even better results!

The day after I bought the speedlight, Will wrote a retrospective new years blog, in which, he mentioned a site called Strobist. I decided to check out the site, and after an hour or two, I finally came out of my trance of amazement. The site was packed to the brim with useful information for a photographer on a budget. The mantra as Strobist can be found at the top of every page on the site: Less Gear. More Brain. Better Light.

The Strobist community certainly takes these words to heart. They have entire series of courses designed to help you get your an inexpensive, off camera lighting system so you can get creative with your photos. I’m working my way through their Lighting 101 series right now. I ordered an “eBay trigger” so I can start wirelessly triggering my flashes. I’m already started preparing all my friends for the amount of modeling that I’ll be forcing them to partake in once those triggers arrive.

After my interest in photography was reignited, I started pillaging through my dad’s old gear which had been sitting in his closet for an eternity. I ended swiping an SB-15, an umbrella and a stand for the umbrella. I also ordered an extra flash trigger from eBay so I could fire the SB-15 remotely also.

I’m now on my way to doing some cool things with my photography. I plan on reading Strobist and other photography blogs on a regular basis. I also hope to be at the next Portland Strobist Photo Shoot. I’m also looking into building a DIY flash ring.

What have been some turning points in your photographic journey? Or more generally, what have you been excited about recently that you made a point to pursue?

These days, It seems like I meet a new college freshman every couple of weeks. I always wish I could pass along all the lessons I accumulated during my first year of college. And thanks to the wonders of the interwebs, I can! My experiences were at the University of Oregon, but I think they are applicable anywhere. I suspect that some of these lessons need to be experienced first hand to have any effect on you, but I still think they are worth sharing. Here’s my advice (in order of importance):

#1 The first week defines the rest of the year

I feel like this is the most important piece of advice I could offer, but I also know it’s the hardest thing to control. During the first week, be more outgoing that you normally would. Over the first couple days, meet and talk to every person in the dorm for at least a couple minutes. The best way to develop a community is to do everything as a group for the first week.

Let me give you a breakdown of how things went in my dorm for the first week and how I heard things went in every other dorms:

My dorm:

• Every time we had to go to some mandatory orientation thing, we went as a group and invited every single person on every floor to join us. Whenever someone wanted to go out to get food or go to 7/11, they gathered a bunch of people to go with them.
• The second or third night we were there, we all found ourselves in the lounge just sitting around sharing cool stories for that summer and from our varying pasts. We all told something about our town or our lives.
• Everyone always had their door open (when they were there) and didn’t mind if anyone walked in and started a conversation.

Other dorms:

• Almost no one left their door open when they were there.
• Those who did leave their door open would get offended if you walked into their room without permission.
• Most people would be lucky to know the names of half the people on their floor.

Every time I heard another story like that about other dorms, I was shocked. It just made me more and more thankful that we had developed a great community during the first week we were there. People from other dorms loved our dorm because we were such a tight group. As time went on, people separated into cliques as you would expect, but the friendliness that everything started out on was always present.

#2 Organize Study Groups!

Study groups are amazingly helpful! Find two, three, or four other people who you have class with and get together before assignments are due. You assist one another, make suggestions and help motivate one another. I can only begin the name the numerous benefits! Here are a few:

• You can’t procrastinate your assignments or skip them entirely. If you have a set meeting time to do you homework or paper with the rest of your group, then you have no way to put it off.
• For math/science classes, it’s easy to get stuck on a problem and want to give up, but when there are others there to help you, you have no reason to stop.
• For writing intensive classes, brainstorming works wonders. Come to the study group with a few possible thesis statements ready and bounce them off your partners.
• Helping others on their homework helps you solidify your knowledge.

Here’s what you need to do: During the first week of classes, introduce yourself to the people around you in your lab or discussion classes. When you receive your first assignment, talk to anyone you’ve met (or just random people who look friendly!) and arrange a date a few days before it’s due to get together and do it as a group. After that, it’s easy! Now you know them and can continue organizing study groups!

#3 Study for tests!

Photo by Æ’reg

This may seem like an obvious one, but it’s also one of the most important. It’s easy to procrastinate anything when you’re in the dorms. There’s always someone to hang out with or somewhere to go. I don’t know about you, but I never studied in high school. That bad habit followed me into college. As I walked into my midterms and finals, I became really anxious and I realized what a bad idea it had been to only study for 15 minutes.

It wasn’t until finals of Spring term that I realized how extremely helpful it was to put a sincere effort into studying. I got an A on all my tests that term. Midterms and finals are worth a majority of your grade in most classes, so that’s where your efforts should be focused. I studied a few hours for each test (with my study groups *nudge nudge*). When I walked into each test, I was no longer anxious because I was confident that I knew most of the answers. Part of the reason I was so confident is because I knew what kind of tests the professors were going to give, so I knew how to study. Some of my finals were just a combination of the questions from the midterms.

#4 Get involved

I spent most of my freshman year giving free hugs and it was fantastic, but I sometimes wish I had done more. Obviously the opportunity to join clubs and attend events will always be there, but freshman year is the ideal time to start. There are always tons of events on the bulletin board in your dorm. Some are specific to your dorm/complex, some are specific to a certain club and some are for everybody. Find some that interest you, grab some friends, and go to them!

#6 If you don’t like your roommate, switch

You may come across as rude, but I watched people suffer for nine months with a roommate they despised, and it’s not a pretty sight. Don’t be too hasty to switch roommates though. College is about new experiences, so if you think you could learn something new from staying with your roommate, then tough it out. If you know you’ll never be able to stand them, then switch right away.

#7 Go to sporting events

I’m not into sports and I didn’t go any of the games last year. In hindsight, I really wish I had. I definitely plan on going to some this year. Most colleges will give you tickets for free if you are student (U of O does!). The only catch is that you usually have to wake up early to stand in line to get tickets for the good games, but that’s half the fun!

#8 Figure out housing for the next year

Decide if you want to have a house or apartment for the next year. Start looking for people you think you’ll want to live with. After you get back from winter break, ask people if they want to room with you and start looking for the place you’ll want. That’ll give you plenty of time to make arrangements with your future landlord. Don’t wait until the last minute.

If you’re looking for an apartment, check out this nifty tool that searches craigslist and displays the results on a map for you.

#9 Don’t buy books until you need them

Photo by Vaedri1

Every term, you will usually need to buy $50-$250 worth of books. At the end of each term, I realized that there were some books that I hadn’t even opened once. During my last term, I decided not to buy any books until I needed them (I already had the math book that I needed). I waited until the professor required (not suggested) a reading out of the book. I ended up only buying one book that term and I split the cost with one of my dorm mates who was in the class with me.

Take this advice with a grain of salt. Obviously you need to buy math books to do your assignments. Some books sell out and are hard to get a hold of, so you might not want to wait on all your books. Also, I don’t do as much of the reading for classes as I should, so my definition of needing the book is probably different than someone more studious.

When you do have to buy a book, split the cost with someone in your dorm and share the book when you have to use it. This will save you a bundle of money. Always buy used books when you have the option.

That’s all I have! If you find this useful, leave a comment and let me know. If you have some of your own tips for dorm life or for college life, please share them!

Be on the look out next year for a Sophomore version of this blog about how to live in a house or apartment and deal with bills/rent, parties and neighbors.

Update: I’m as perplexed as the rest of you about where #5 disappeared to. Perhaps it’s absence is just another lesson: Don’t write papers at 4 in the morning the day before they’re due (because that’s about what time I wrote this blog).

I have been a nerd my entire life. I started designing websites in grade school and I have only been sucked further and further down the rabbit hole since. I have been part of the online nerdy community for quite a while, but it’s not too often that I get to interact with my geeky brethren in person. This past weekend was my first excursion into that community and I must say that I had a blast.

My boss, Jon Steinhart, has a party at his house every summer and invites all of his friends, coworkers, etc. Little did I know, Jon has built up quite a list of contacts in the tech world in his time.

I brought my friend Kris with me to share in the nerdiness. We got to the party early and helped Jon fuse some fireworks for the big show later that night. People showed up slowly and after the fireworks were done, Kris and I took a walk around Jon’s property and vineyard. By the time we got back to the house, there were around 60 people there!

Jon loves to talk about our project and he kept pulling me into conversations as he was telling people about it. That lead to me meeting some very interesting (AKA nerdy) people.

QuarkXPress guy

The first guy I met was actually the father of a girl who is going to the University of Oregon next year. After talking to them for a while, I discovered he used to be a developer on QuarkXPress, a page layout program. It turns out he was the programmer who put a well-known easter egg (hidden/fun feature) into the program. The easter egg involves pressing ALT+CTRL+SHIT+K and a little alien comes out and blows up your box for you (sound effects included!). It has been well documented. Adobe’s page layout program even paid tribute to this with their own alien spaceship easter egg.

In later versions of the program, a bigger alien comes out and blows up your box and the littler guy. After talking to this guy for a while, I found at that his son had drawn both aliens. He said his son was even in a QuarkXPress class in high school and he tried telling his classmates that he was the artist, but no one believed him!

Ronabop: Original Developer of PHP

The QuarkXPress guy had carpooled with Ronald Chmara. After talking for a while, Rob told me he was one of the thirteen original developers of PHP. PHP is the programming language I use every day and the same one that generates a majority of the websites you view on the internet. To get an idea of what kind of a guy he was, let me just say that he was wearing a kilt and told me at one that he usually dons a trench coat. Better yet, here are some photos. He was a cool guy and after his fourth cup of wine, we had some good discussions about the programming language.

The Apple Guy

There was a guy there who said he worked at Apple on iWeb, their WYSIWG website creation tool. He was, of course, sporting a brand new iPhone. He was practically a walking advertisement for it and was throwing out packaged statements like “you can also view your online photo albums. You know, for when you want to show off pictures of the kids.” I must say though, the iPhone looked pretty cool.

Saul Wold: Senior Staff Engineer for Sun Microsystems

Saul Wold is someone I’ve actually known for a while. We met in a chat room during a Woot!-off and he introduced me to Jon in the first place. Saul works for Sun Microsystems and previously worked on the Java Virtual Machine. Java is the programming language that most universities use to teach computer science to students (including myself).

People I didn’t meet

There were a few people I didn’t meet, but that were there. Most notably, Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the wiki, was there. I also saw young, hip tech guy from Mozilla.

All-in-all, I had a great time! I have no doubt that I’ll know just as many semi-famous nerds when I’m having summer parties years from now.