r3fresh

3 Pranks for the New College Student

You’re headed up to school. You have your list made. You’re not going to forget you Xbox or your textbooks, but have you started to consider prank ideas for the upcoming school year? A big part of dorm life at any university is screwing with each other. I’ve had luck with these pranks, so go ahead and give them a try.

[Warning: It's not my fault if these pranks go terribly wrong, but if they do I would love to hear about it.]

Duct Tape Doors: Ask any of your roommates for a roll of duct tape and every one of them will have one. You should never go anywhere without one. But what are you going to fix? Your bike? No. Use it to tape up a fellow roommate’s door while they are sleeping. In the morning (or that night, if you can’t wait), watch their attempts at getting out of their rooms. Fortunately, the roommates I chose didn’t have anything to cut the sticky wall down and it was entertaining to watch them try to break the Gorilla Tape’s bond with the door frame.

I got this prank of video. It’s uneventful, but it looks cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2K4S2dBF0g

Cereal Box of Shaving Cream: Yes this actually works. Fill any cereal box with foamy shaving cream. Find a roommate who is in their room with the door closed. QUIETLY, flatten the open end of the box and slide it under the door approximately four of five inches. There are two ways you can go about doing this prank. 1: Just stomp on the box and run, leaving the room covered in foam and the roommate pissed. OR 2: Knock on the door, hope your roommate hasn’t heard of the prank, and then stomp. If your roommate is dumb enough to come to the door they’ll be hit in the face with some serious foam-age.

Axe Grenades: In an attempt to appeal to more college-age students, the Axe company decided to pass out samples of their body spray to any student interested. I, being the frugal person that I am, decided to take a whole box back to my room. Now, I grew out of wearing the Axe scent after 7th grade, but I found a much better use.

If you still have that duct tape handy, start tearing off 6inch long pieces. Attach one end of the tape to the side of a can and find your target. It’s best to find an open door with multiple unsuspecting people housed. When you have found your target, pull the other end of the tape over the spray button tightly and throw quickly. The best part is watching the Axe fill the room and your targets have no idea what is going on. Be careful though, an Axe grenade is usually the beginning of a brutal Axe war.

If you have any luck with any of these pranks or have some new pranks, please leave a comment below or tweet me with the video link.

May Your Online Shopping be Merry…and Cheap (AGAIN!)

This is a re-post of an article published a year ago. Tips are still current. Updated.

So called “Cyber Week” is here and it’s expected to set records in profit for companies like Amazon, eBay, and many popular online marketplaces. Here is a list of the best websites to find the best deals during this internet shopping week:

1. Amazon- The biggest online store on the internet, it has everything and it’s always cheaper than real stores. Another plus is that you don’t pay tax on the items you buy.
2. Dealhack- Not a store, but a blog of deals. Updated frequently Dealhack finds the best deals from all of the popular websites around the internet. I saved $150 on a monitor when I used Dealhack.
3. Buy.com- Think of it as the “Electronics” section of Amazon. They have daily deals that even beat Amazon’s pricing. And their shipping is fast and cheap, perfect for the cheapskate like myself.
4. eBay- I never considered eBay as a place to buy new items, but there are vendors selling items throughout the site. I was comparing prices on RAM and if I were to buy it on eBay I would save $25 bucks. Nice. I wouldn’t trust eBay with any of your gifts, better deals elsewhere.
5. Dell.com- Who knew a crappy PC company had such great deals. Xbox 360 accessories X% off, mp3 players for cheap, and shipping isn’t to bad either.
6. PayPal- Using PayPal on certain websites could get you 20% cash back on your purchase. Amazon’s not on the list, but Overstock is. *Looks like the deal is ending soon, many stores have already been taken off the list.*
7. Retailmenot.com- Every site offers a “Coupon” code or “Promotion” code box during checkout, but do you ever have a code? With Retailmenot, you can search for codes for all of the popular stores. I used a code on Finishline.com and saved $25 bucks on $110 Nike Shox, not bad. Checkout Black Friday Coupons.
8. Woot!- No selection, limited stock, but you might find the occasional deal. Be careful though, not everything is new, some items are refurbished. Be sure to check out Shirt.woot.com, Wine.woot.com, and Sellout.woot.com for even more deals.
9. Geeks.com- Great deals all year for the geek in your family. Items don’t always come in their boxes and manuals are sometimes missing, but that’s why it’s for the geek in your family.
10. Overstock.com- The Kmart of online stores. There is a lot of crap you’ll need to dig through to get to the good stuff. Strangely, Mothers seem to love this site the most. Overstock is offering 20% cash back when you pay with your PayPal account.
11. Beatmyprice.com- Think you’ve found a really great deal? Enter the deal you found into the site and find even cheaper prices.
12. JungleCrazy- At least 70% OFF or more on specific items at Amazon.

Tags: blogs, christmas, coupons, deals, electronics, holidays, money, prices, sites, store, web

5 Tips for One-Man Bloggers

I have no time anymore! School takes up my days, homework takes up my evenings, and sleep takes the rest, but when do I get to write? I’ve tried setting aside time to write, which often is lost in the hurricane known as college. I know I’m not the only one though, so many blogs out there have great potential, but end up faltering due to lack of time they have. Here are some tips that will help those one-man bloggers out there, I definitely need to follow these too:

1. Write in advance: There always seems to be a boring Sunday morning every so often where there is absolutely nothing to do…so why not write? Not just for that day, but for the whole week or even month. WordPress has a very simple publish feature that allows for a change in publishing time. Spread out the posts throughout the week and even pick the time they are published. It may be considered a really simple feature, but don’t overlook it. My “Wallpaper of the Week” section is often written two weeks in advance.

2. Offer guest posts: I just recently posted that I’m looking for some guest writers to bring r3fresh some much needed content. I’ve yet to receive any serious emails (no, I don’t want to write about your product) and I’m still looking. When looking for a guest writer, try to offer them something in exchange. It could be money, a gift certificate, or even a post on their blog. Guest writers are often the easiest way to get more content on a blog, without having to hire a staff.

3. Shorter Posts: Instead of writing lengthy posts that many will just skip through, try writing shorter (few paragraph) posts. Shorter posts mean less work and more current content. Instead of writing a huge post (like this one) try posting a video or a short opinion on something. On the other hand, quality content is better than quantity content.

4. Pictures: Everyone at some point will be lazy, it’s a fact. The big review on the surround sound you just bought is taking longer than expected and you haven’t posted anything in a while, what do you do? To give yourself some more time, take pictures of the speakers and post them. The pictures don’t even need an explanation, readers are smart and will know what they are looking at. Engadget does this quite a lot, especially on just released products (cough…Apple…cough). The pictures also prepare the readers for a review and will bring them back when the review is finished.

5. Long lasting content: A blog doesn’t have a concrete definition and can be about anything. What a blog isn’t is a place to blog other blogs information, it’s just garbage. Write long lasting content that will still keep readers interested sixth months after it was published. Use comedy and stay away from current news, which only stays current for about a week.

Picture by: John Scone

Tags: blogging, ideas, list, tips