LASIK Eye Surgery

Since most of us spend HOURS a day staring at screens, our eyes are gradually turning to crap. Personally, I spend about $300 a year on contacts and I buy a new pair of glasses every few years.

This is why LASIK eye surgery is becoming more popular - you pay a (hopefully) certified optometrist a bunch of money (usually between 1 and 2 thousand dollars per eye) and your eyes are cured! Essentially, you're investing in your future, right?

However, there have been complaints - some complain of tunnel vision, headaches, and other persistent annoyances. Thankfully, a new Lasik surgery has been created.

New LASIK is more advanced - often, you require an ophthalmologist, who uses "wavefront-guided LASIK" to form an optically perfect eye. Some ophthalmologists promise super vision - greater than 20/20. This usually isn't true, but wavefront-guided LASIK certainly has better results than regular LASIK has had in the past.

For those who freak out during surgery, LASIK would be an uncomfortable experience. The patient is awake for the procedure, although they are sometimes given sedatives like Valium and, obviously, a local anesthetic is applied to the region. Your eye is held in place and the doctor slices a flap in your cornea, giving access to the parts underneath, which are then modified by lasers. I got goosebumps just writing that.

Anyways, LASIK is something I'd be willing to try in the future...hesitantly. It's worth looking into.

Summer School?

Don't worry, I'm not failing. Rather, I was thinking that taking a couple courses during the summer would set me up nicely for my final year.

Rather than taking 5 upper level courses each semester next year, I can take 2 courses over the summer and drop that down to 4 and 4. Less stress = better marks = more time to make money.

I haven't taken summer school before, mostly because I thought there was a stigma about it - it's for losers who have failed a couple classes, or Asians whose parents are making them take every possible class (I have a friend who has been forced into summer school every year since grade 11). The stigma should be that it's for smart people who want to put themselves ahead of the game.

The sun will be impressed with me

Class runs three days a week for a couple hours, so I will still be able to work full-time and make some money online. I think it will work out well.

Also, my city is a tourist hub in the summer because it's so sunny and warm, so I'll finally be able to experience the best my city has to offer. Sweet!

Who here has taken summer school?

Disregard that last post and read about computer science

Seems like some people have IRC channels going, which work a lot better.

Anyways, I'll make this post about my possible changing minor degree.


I'm a little tired of my 'useless' bachelor of arts degree. I'm in my third year, and there are a lot of useful courses - economics and politics is always applicable in the real world - but so much of it is pointless information. I've been thinking more about minoring in something that will actually get me a job, like computer science.

To get an arts degree minor in comp sci, you only need 12 credits (4 courses) of upper level comp. sci. I figure with one extra semester of school, I could add a significant selling point to my education.

I've always enjoyed computers and everything about them, but I don't know much coding beyond HTML. I did really well at math in high school, and I'm sure I could do a comp sci degree fairly proficiently.

How many readers are comp. sci students or video game designers? I'm intrigued.

Maybe I'd even live my dream and get a job desigining video games!

http://s4.zetaboards.com/Bloggers_Anonymous/index/

Need a place to advertise the hard work you've done on your blog? I know I want more people to read what I'm writing.

So I started a little forum, and there's a thread there where you can post your blog title, link, and description,and hopefully follow some other blogs that interest you. Check it out!

The more people get on board with this, the more we all benefit.

ROTP and End of Vacation

Do you want a $100,000 scholarship? All of school, housing, food, and spending money covered for the next four years? If you don't say yes, you're an idiot. But yeah, there's a major catch.

Regular Officer Training Program (ROTP) is the military's program for training officers by sending them through a four year bachelor's program at either a domestic or military university.

After you complete your education, you owe the military a certain number of years of service, usually between five and eight years. However, this could be a pro - you are guaranteed a job after school, which has been hard to find for certain graduates lately.

ROTP isn't for everyone, but it's certainly good to have alternate options. ROTP also pays you about $20,000 a year (on top of paying for your school and living expenses)

Also, apparently having military education and work experience on your resume is a huge plus for any employer. Just thought I'd throw the ROTP option out there for everyone!

Maui

And now for a post on a completely different topic....

I'm in Maui (Hawaii). Who has been there and what should I do? I will post pics as proof!

How to write a resume

I attended a resume-building session at my university the other day, and I wanted to pass on some information to my readers.

First of all, get rid of your 'objective' statement at the top (if you have one). A more popular option for today's employers is to have a 'profile statement', which provides a succinct, one-line statement of who you are. E.g. Detail-oriented biology graduate with a passion for educating children.

Next, rather than diving into your work history, provide a quick summary of the highlights of your resume with a "Summary of qualifications" header. This introduces the most relevant and impressive information about you. The key here is to make impressive statements.....which your work history can then back up.

As you may have heard, employers are beginning to look for "quantifiables" on the work history part of your resume. E.g., if you have reduced theft at your liquor store, find some sort of number with which to quantify that - say, Reduced theft by 85% over the six month work period. If you want, make up some numbers. At least it sounds good!

Remove the references section - apparently employers now assume that you will bring about three references into your interview, so having "References available upon request" is redundant.

Don't list your entire work history, or every activity you've ever done. Keep it short and sweet. Employers don't have time to look through 3 page novels these days. Most importantly, sell yourself - don't be modest!


I, for one, had many of these errors on my resume. Hopefully, with these tips I've learned, I'll be able to get in for at least a few interviews. Good luck!

New Design and Facebook

I just integrated a new template. Do you like it? It's a lot cleaner looking, and I'm definitely a fan (that's why I chose it)

More importantly, I created a Facebook fan page. If you look to the right of this post, you'll find a like button. Do me a favour and show some support! I'd love to see what all my fans look like =)

I also added a contact me tab. If you have any questions, or want advice (ha!), I'd be happy to help. E-mail shelbys.shells@gmail.com 

What do you guys think of the new design?

Laser Hair Removal

Hairy? Don't have a razer? Bathroom is clogged with your nasty, hairy residue? Well do I have a solution for you!

Laser hair removal is a quick way to never have to worry about hairy armpits again. For a nominal fee, a trained professional uses selective photothermolysis to permanently remove hair follicles.

Laser hair removal isn't for everyone: as of now, lasers can only remove black and brown hair. Often, customers have to return for several more sessions to complete the procedure.

Laser hair removal works by burning skin tissue. Obviously, there are dangers: your skin can be severely burned, discolored, or infected. However, these are generally treatable.

Check it out, my hairy followers!

Canadian Couch Potato

Don't know what ETFs are? Ever heard of dividends? What are index funds and how much money can I make from them?

I used to ponder these questions too, until I stumbled across a useful (Canadian!) investing site called Canadian Couch Potato. As the name suggests, it is about building a good, low-management portfolio that will make money for you while you sit on the couch. Gotta like that eh?

The articles are written in a straightforward, un-patronizing way so newbies can figure out how to make money, too (without feeling like they're newbies).

Check it out! There's no better profit than the money you earn while sitting on your couch.
http://canadiancouchpotato.com/

Search Engine Optimization

A lot of people are making money from Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Essentially, there are people you can pay who will get your blog/website to the top of all search results, which obviously generates traffic to your site.

SEO is as old as the internet, but it has gained popularity in recent years as more and more people are starting up 'SEO consulting businesses' from their own homes.

There are both good and bad ways of SEO. Tactics such as 'spamdexing' (which is pretty much spamming the same word on your page over and over so it gets a lot of traffic from the search engine) are unpopular with Google and they sometimes file lawsuits against these SE optimizers. Other people have filed lawsuits AGAINST Google because they didn't think Google had the right to disable their spamdexing business.

Anyways, I'm not sure if it's something I could learn. But if I was sitting in a basement for an entire summer with nothing to do (like many of you =P) I think I would get really good at something productive and profit-generation.

SEO - look into it. Good luck