The Bucket List!

As residents are moving out and the countdown to graduation reaches a week, it's time to reflect. It's time to think both of things we have done and things left to do. One of the best ways to do this is by creating an Ann Arbor bucket list! For the past few weeks I have been working off other people's lists, but now I am creating my own. I encourage you to do the same, except avoid the time crunch like I did, create one as early as possible and work your way over time! For the meantime, here is my list, you might consider adding some of these!

Activities:

• Attend a football, basketball, hockey game -- DONE
• Attend a midnight movie at the State Street Theater -- DONE
• Attend a non-revenue sporting event (anything besides football, basketball, hockey) -- DONE
• Break into the Big House (this is an old one that people used to do when it was under construction my freshman year, its a lot harder now) -- 1/2 DONE...
• Check out Mock Rock -- DONE
• Farmer's Market in Kerrytown
• Follow Michigan to an away game
• International Tea at Martha Cook -- DONE
• Paint the Rock
• Participate in a Flashmob (this isn't Ann Arbor specific, but everyone should try to do it!) -- DONE
• Playing on the Wave Field -- DONE
• Play on an intramural sports team -- DONE
• See a performance at Hill Auditorium -- DONE
• See a school of Music, Theatre and Dance performance -- DONE
• See Michigan beat Ohio State at Football -- DONE
• Sex with someone in the stacks at the Grad (during finals is preferable...)
• Spin the cube
• Sledding in the Arb
• Sit in on a class you are not registered for (in fact, do many of these!) -- DONE

Restaurants: 

• Breakfast at Angelo's -- DONE
• Breakfast at Broken Egg
• Cupcake from the Cupcake Station -- DONE
• Eat a Collider at Rod's Diner -- DONE
• Eat at Frita Batidos 
• Eat at Jamaican Jerk Pit -- DONE
• Eat a sandwich at Zingerman's (hey, even President Obama did this one!) -- DONE
• Eat at Seva (different from SAva's)
• Friday Morning breakfast at Selma Cafe
• Grab a Burger at Blimpy Burger (refer to this page for instructions on ordering first!) -- DONE
• Grab a coffee at Comet Coffee -- DONE
• Ice Cream from Stucchi's -- DONE
• Sit on the patio at Charley's -- DONE

Nightlife:

• Dance at Blind Pig's Big Bang
• Hippie Hash at Fleetwood Diner -- DONE
• Karaoke at the Heidelberg
• Martini's at Rush Street (21+ please!)
• Midnight BTB Run -- DONE
• Sip Sangria at Dominick's (21+ please!) -- DONE
• Try a new beer at Ashley's (21+ please!) -- DONE

I will be spending the next week working diligently away at this bucket list, and in the meantime, if you have not started, you should! Also, feel free to send me more suggestions if you think there is something I am missing.

If you are interested in checking out some other bucket lists, you can take a look at these:

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/bucket-list

http://lauragrai.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/ann-arbor-bucket-list/

http://liveinthelead.com/archive/11/bucket-list-aa-addition/

Good luck. GO BLUE!

AirRide – A New Airport Option

I wrote a post last October about different ways of getting to the airport. Each of the ways had some pros and some cons, but were good options. Now, I have found what I think to be the best option, AirRide. AirRide is a partnership just started between the Michigan Flyer shuttle and the AATA (Ann Arbor Transit Authority) that allows for a bus ride to Ann Arbor. 

The ticket is $12, $15 if you want refundable (though for the first four months it will be $10 and $12 respectively), and the bus leaves from either the Blake Transit Center, CC Little or the Kensington Hotel just off campus. You can also take it from Detroit-Metro Airport back to any of these locations. The nice thing about this is that it is cheap, and it runs on a schedule (which means you are never waiting on anyone else). The bus itself is a coach bus with free WiFi. You must, however, buy a ticket in advance! You can do that here. 

If you are ever looking for a ride to the airport, I highly suggest checking this one out!

Movies at Michigan

It's a Thursday night, at the end of exam week, and I can tell you I am now exhausted. After a week of sleepless nights, caffeine dependence and knowledge overload all I want to do is to relax with a good movie. Lucky for me I have several options. Here are some of my favorite ways to watch movies on campus.

RHA Movie Channel. For those of you lucky enough to still live in the ResHalls this is a fantastic resource. Channel 56 is kind of like a campus HBO. Just this month there are multiple 2012 Oscar nominated movies and some great guilty pleasure movies. You can find the schedule here.

Askwith Media Library. This is probably my favorite resource on all of campus. I call it the campus Blockbuster. It is located on the second floor of the UGLi and it is completely free to students. You can check out movies for three days Sunday-Wednesday, for the entire weekend starting Thursday, and over the major breaks. They also have everything from new releases to old TV shows at Askwith for you to check out. You can find their site here.

Mflicks. Run through the University Unions, Mflicks offers several free screenings of movies a month. Sometimes they are more mainstream, sometimes a little more out there, but it is a great option if you are looking for something to do on a Friday night, you can check out the schedule on the website here.


Michigan Theater. A movie theater located in downtown Ann Arbor specializing in the "finest film and live entertainment available today." This includes mostly independent, art house movies, but there are still some more mainstream movies. It is also plays host to some great events like Sundance USA in Ann Arbor and live performances. The Michigan Theater is also a great destination for Ann Arbor locals. The website for the Michigan Theater can be found here.

The moral of the story is that there are a lot of options for movie options in Ann Arbor, if movies are your preferred of entertainment, you will never be bored here!

Friday Night - UMix

Imagine, its 12:30 AM on a Friday night (or I suppose Saturday morning), you are strapped for cash and you don't want to travel far to find food. Then you remember, you are in luck, UMix is tonight! No joke, this actually happened to me last week. 

What is UMix you ask? UMix is a series of late night activities, usually on Friday night from 10 pm - 2 am, put on by the University Center for Campus Involvement and the University Unions. UMix is held in Unions all over campus (mostly the Union on central or Pierpont on North). Many freshman will mock it as a lame alternative to partying on a Friday night, as a senior I will say I have made fun of it my fair share. That is, however, before I actually checked it out. I clearly did not know what I was missing. Developed as an alternative to drinking, UMix offeres activities such as arts and crafts, billiards, video games, movies, dances etc. I have even seen things such as karaoke and bumper cars. Oh, and did I mention the FOOD?! 

UMix is also differently themed every night. Last weekend was "UMix: Share the Love" where you could do things such as make Valentines Day cards for children at Mott's Children's Hospital as well as play the "roommate game" to test your knowledge of your friends. I had a lot of fun at this one! 

Center for Campus Involvement

Last weekend was "UMix on Ice" where they constructed an ice rink on North Campus! They had free skate rentals, a hot chocolate station, make-your-own snow globes, a screening of "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy" and more! Oh, and Food. 

Center for Campus Involvement

A lot of students will make jokes that the thing to do is to beat the system, to drink and then go to UMix. While I do not encourage this, I do encourage everyone to check out the night. If for no other reason than you are bored, hungry, or wanting to play free billiards, it certainly is a great activity for a Friday night!

For more information on UMix and a schedule of events check out the Center for Campus Involvement here. 

Campus Computing

Can you imagine going a week without a computer? Do you think it is even possible?

Unfortunately, last week I had to find out the hard way that it was. I found this out after accidentally destroying my hard drive (whoops) on my 4 year old MacBook. Through this week without a computer I learned a few important things about computing on the University of Michigan campus.

Firstly, I learned that it is possible to not have a computer. I live in a campus Residence Hall, which is lucky for me because all Residence Halls contain what is called a Community Learning Center (CLC). These sites are open 24/7 to residents of the building and are stocked with computers, printers, and during the day support offices. The CLC was where I spent most of my time doing work this past week.

Secondly, I learned a little more about the campus Computer Showcase (yes, this is the same place you got your i>clicker). There are two Computer Showcases on campus; one is located in the basement of the Michigan Union and one is in Pierpont Commons on North Campus. The showcase is an authorized Apple and Dell service provider (including repair services and sales). The showcase offeres not-for-profit academic pricing on both hardware and software, which means it would cost the same as (and in the case of software often less than) the educational discount at most stores. The difference is that the computer showcase is much closer than the local Apple store. The one thing to note about the computer showcase is that they offer three year warranties that are bundled into the price of the computers (these are the exact same warrantees you would purchase from the manufacturer and will work in all the same places). You must buy it with this warrantee, however, which might make it a tad more expensive than you want. I found, that after having to visit the showcase several times over the past years for various broken parts, I was happy to pay for the warrantee (Apple's Apple Care).

The Computer Showcase was able to both diagnose the problem with my computer (for free) and they offered to repair it for a fee. After a week of hemming and hawing over whether to replace an old hard drive or purchase a new machine, I was able to walk right in and purchase the computer and all the necessary accessories on the spot.

The take away from this experience, besides being careful about where you perch your MacBook (even 2 feet may be too high up), the University of Michigan is certainly friendly to those of all computer needs. Whether you need a question answered or a brand new machine the Computer Showcase can get you what you need and while you are waiting there are more than enough computer resources around campus to get you going.

The resources mentioned in this post are the Community Learning Center and the Computer Showcase.

Hidden Campus Events - UM3D

For those of you who have never ventured to the University of Michigan's North Campus, you should. If for no other reason then to check out the technology at the Duderstadt library. This is what I was able to do at the UM3D Lab Open House today.

The UM3D Lab is "an interdisciplinary service facility [that] provides the entire University of Michigan community access to high-end technologies and professional expertise in the general areas of #D simulation, digital fabrication, education, visualization, motion capture, modeling, animation and application development" according to the website. The lab has an open door policy encouraging the public to stop by and see the technology (which I have done) but every so often they have an open house in which you can see demonstrations of the technologies. They also produce small scale projects for free to students and faculty, and are used by various campus groups.

At today's open ouse we got to see demonstrations of M.I.D.E.N. (formerly the cave), which is a virtual reality cave in which designers create environments and put them into a software to create a real virtual environment that moves as you move. This technology is used for everything from architecture to medicine and more. We also saw the Tiled Display, a 16 monitor wall. This provides way to visualize scenes on a large scale.

Probably my favorite thing we saw today was the motion capture. The use of 8 cameras to capture and compile the motion of a figure in a computer program. The demonstrators explained how this technology was not only used for Hollywood (where they use up to hundreds of cameras at a time), but also for medical purposes. This particular team was from a movement science class in the school of kinesiology and studying momentum.

There were, of course, several more things to be seen at the UM3D lab open house, but the moral of the story is this: there are so many things to explore at the University of Michigan campus. Of course, I would suggest the UM3D lab, but there are also classes (movement science for example!) and events that can open your eyes to the rest of the world. You never know the opportunities that may await you or what you might learn. So what are you waiting for, get out there and explore!

For more information on the UM3D lab, refer to their website here.

PICKING CLASSES!!

Happy post-Turkey day! As the food digests and the football commences, now begins one of the most exciting times of the year...class registration! As a final senior I have finally managed to reach the holy grail of registration (a first day registration appointment), but as it extends over the next two weeks here are some resources that you might consider in helping to create your schedule. We will divide this up into two components: advice and scheduling resources.

ADVICE:

Advisors. I cannot say enough how important it is to check in with your advisors. I try to do it at least once a semester, but you should do it as often as you feel comfortable. It is also important to distinguish between general advisors and concentration advisors (both are important). You should make sure to check in with your general advisor to make sure you are taking care of all of your distribution requirements and your concentration advisor to make sure you are satisfying all of your concentration requirements. DON'T GET CAUGHT FORGETTING ONE. You do not want to get to second semester senior year and realize you still have several semesters of requirements left to fill!

Information on general advisors can be found at respective schools' websites. LSA's information can be found here, honors advising can be found here, Engineering can be found here, and Ross advising can be found here.

MSA Advice Online. At orientation they may have showed you a site you sort of understood, and kind of liked, but wish you could remember, that site would be MSA Advice Online. According to its website MSA AO is an "online system that provides students with access to course evaluation data".  It takes the feedback students give at the end of each semester and gives a numerical rating to each question. Nice resource, but as should all feedback, should be taken with a grain of salt. It is also a tad bit outdated, but the website says they are working on updating. It is also a great way to see things like average workload for a class. You can find the site here, but you must have a UM Login to be able to access it.

Ratemyprofessors[dot]com. DISCLAIMER: This is the site that professors hate and students continuously misuse, BUT if used correctly, it can be very helpful.

Ratemyprofessors.com is a database of student ratings for professors across the country. It gives students a fourm to both rate and describe past professors. The site must be taken with a grain of salt, as these types of sites often get people who are only commenting on the extremes (ex. they absolutely love or are completely frustrated with a professor). It is important to look at the whole picture when using this site. These include things like how many ratings have been posted for a professor, how recent, how consistent are the posts, and what they say. I tend to look mostly at the comments for each professor, taking into account not just the rating, but why. If I find that someone's grievance is not something that concerns me (ex. lots of reading), it may not be worth being as concerned about. Also, precaution about posting on ratemyprofessors, professors can see what you write. It is helpful to provide feedback, but this is NOT an appropriate forum to bash, humiliate or embarrass professors. That is feedback that belongs in your semester course evaluation. The site can be found here.

Friends. One of the best resources you have for classes is people who have actually taken them. At a university such as Michigan you are most likely not the only person who has taken a class. Tap into your large network, ask your friends for class suggestions, engage people in not only what they liked, but why. Then, of course, be sure to check in with your advisor about the feasibility of recommendations.

SCHEDULING:
Ok, now that you know what classes you kind of want, how can you schedule them. The University of Michigan does not provide an "official" schedule generating resource, but several people have created useful alternatives using the Michigan courseguide.

Mschedule. One of the popular sources is Mschedule. According to its website, mschedule is a "FREE service that helps you to share your class schedule and find people in your classes. It also gives you a visual representation of your schedule". It helps you generate possible class possibilities based on classes you select. Pretty cool resource. Mschedule can be found here.

Schedulizer. This is another independent resource that uses the Michigan courseguide to generate possible schedules. It has been created for several schools across the country. I have never used it myself so I cannot comment on how it works, but it is certainly an intriguing option. Schedulizer can be found here.

Microsoft Excel. My personal favorite thing to do is sit down with the courseguide, Wolverine Access and an excel spreadsheet and create several possible schedules by hand. Maybe I am strange in that I find this fun, but it is quite exciting to be able to work out the endless possibilities for next semester.

The bottom line is this: picking classes can be fun, it can be intimidating and it can be frustrating, but there is always help around you. After you check out these resources if you are still having trouble ask for help! Advisors and University support staff are truly the best resources if you need help, but stick with it and you will find the schedule that is best for you. Now good luck, and get registering!!