BOOKSHELF: A Booklover’s Legacy

Book shelves are simply a space to collectively place the books; from History to Religion, English to French, Physics to Psychology, all beguiling additions worth decorating a bookshelf. It adds convenience to your reading habits by picking them out easily and then placing them back when you are done. Nowadays bookshelves are taking many new forms according to the design and comfort for the reader.

Book lovers and specially book worms are obsessed with having a nice and pleasant book-shelf in their rooms. No matter how big or small it is, the one who feels never ending love for their books takes special care to their book shelves.

 

Have you ever thought of a bookshelf with a bench? Yes, it is actually available in the market. Off course, you require a sofa or a chair or even a bed to lie on and enjoy reading. What if your bookshelf is designed with the most comfortable bench that fulfills your need of comfort as well as allowing you to leave your room more spacious? For me, it is like a dream come true.

Apart from the creative designs, I saw some really simple yet attractive bookshelves while I was hunting for a suitable bookshelf for my room. One of them was hanging book shelf where you just have to hang the books in the hooks just like you hang your clothes. It is available at a very low price and you can place two or three shelves together to increase space.

Invisible bookshelf is a new addition in the bookshelves category. It’s like a magic that books are clinging to the wall but nothing is visible to support them. Only a genius can found such simple and workable idea for placing books. These shelves, when placed on your room’s wall give an illusion, as if the books are afloat in the air. Only a steel mounting hardware is required, that’s it! You can imagine the share of your wallet you need to spend on it and the time required to clean it regularly.

Tree, spiral, staircase, bookman, happy face, pyramid are some of the shapes available in the wide range of bookshelves. Whatever the style and design of the bookshelf is, a book lover is actually mad for his books and so tries to keep them in a more stylish and suitable way as possible. I hope you will continue reading good books.

 

Enjoy reading as

“For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offers an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

― Louis L'Amour

Colleges are going textbooks free….

With the continuous lick of changing world, education is not an exempt and so textbook. Traditional pen and paper seem to convert into binary decimals. No wonder if textbooks are programmed in the students’ brains only after few years.

It is reported that an Indianapolis charter high school is set to be managed as textbooks free and tablets are provided to every student. $400,000 of the grants is used to get 700 tablets. Though it sounds weird to spend that much amount at once but if you compare per annum expenditure on textbooks with these electronic devices, you will be amazed with the fact that they are almost same. In case of a tablet, one-time expenditure is bearable when you are going to save huge prices of textbooks for the next few years.

Pros and cons are attached with every phenomenon and so with Electronic Readers too. Buying a tablet is not an end. You can enjoy multiple options to acquire textbooks on internet like buying textbooks online, use open source textbooks, opting for e-books etc. On the other hand, students may find it questionable to get each and every textbook online.

Another initiative taken by some states like Washington State is that they managed to handle an Open Course Library. Open textbook is an elegant way to pave the path for higher education of Americans. These free textbooks can be reached on mobile phones and tablets. California has also signed bills to release free and open access to good quality learning materials. 

It seems that US is working to catch a spirit for fabricating college education easily accessible to every student at this crucial time when affordability to higher education is at the head in election campaigns debates. Tuition fee, textbooks prices, dorms expenses etc are few of many issues facing by students nowadays. Working on student loans only cannot lend a hand in figuring out this issue. Steps towards online access to textbooks can create an immense divergence.

Electronic readers are the next targeted destination for American students. It can be a great opportunity for e-reader’s manufacturers to hook the consumers at this peak of time. Launch of mini iPad, Kindle, Nook and others can set another podium in the journey of dreaming up colleges as textbooks free.

Chasing your Idyllic Self…

What do Socrates, Lincoln, Mother Teresa and Warren Buffet have in common? They discovered "themselves" and got in touch to the apex in high heels.

It’s true that most of us do not try to unfold our own selves. Self Analysis is thus beneficial to study and comprehend one’s own personality, emotions and behavior as “he who find himself, loses his misery”.

The first step in the quest of your Ideal Self is to know your strengths. I think it’s imperative to recognize our own internal landscapes and how our strengths can be improved in the presence of others with gracious talents. It is a known fact that every person has some weaknesses against strengths. You must analyze your personality traits suspiciously and then plant it in the right column of strength or weakness. 

SWOT analysis is highly beneficial where you be able to place your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a matrix. Although you will mark in the box of weaknesses a feature of yourself that is lacking in strength but do remember that there is no such thing as “weakness”, you can always convert them into opportunities. Threats can also be minimized using strengths. So, the most influential of all is STRENGTH. Do concentrate on the stronger element of yourself.

Steve Maraboli once said,

"When you are living the best version of yourself, you inspire others to live the best versions of themselves."

Being a student, it is of very prominence for us to do our self-assessment before choosing a particular field of study. Whether we could do justice with the subject or not! A lot of psychological and social theories are trying to furnish the answers to your self-analysis questions but none could compare the efforts you put in yourself for the sake of discovering YOU. But the journey does not end here, only telling you what you are is not enough to break the seal. 

It is all that you tell to yourself about your own self! But there is a lot of disparity on what we think about ourselves and what other people feel about us. The solution is not to keep a balance, but to answer finally what kind of person do I want to be?  SWOT analysis has told you what you are according to your perception. To know about others’ opinions and judgments on your personality, you can create a short questionnaire inferring from the strengths and weakness you have already listed. Compare the resulting statements with your own judgment and then only you can get a proper dimension.

Now you are in an explicit position to compare and contrast among your self-concept, your true self and your ideal self. What you want to become is what you idealize to be. Play with your strengths and opportunities more, to be your Idyllic self. Now just swim upwards, work on yourself, and be a person you want to be!

World Education University (WEU).....The Review

The economic crises that all the world adhered to is still burdening a lot of people till now, day by day the economic and social responsibilities are not letting people be at rest, Students are no exception, most of the students in States are in debt because of their college fee and thus have to work part time, which in turn affect their performance in college and that is the reason many get kicked out of the colleges. But as a wise man said once, when there is a will there is a way. If the students have the will and dedication for knowledge and the quest for being on the top, serving their self and the country through the enlightening knowledge and be an opportunist, then here is a way out for all the young souls out there, which in itself is a break through, a great epilog that is over whelming the world with it’s existence.  

World Education University (WEU) is an institution with a slogan “Pay it forward”. Make sense? Let me elaborate a little, this institution is facilitating a lot of students by giving free education. Their concept is to make the world a better place to live in peace and prosperity, by providing education was the only lasting and effective way anyone can think off. So, WEU is enrolling people across the globe, all they have to do in return is to spread the good around in their social horizons by whatever means appropriate.

"Scott and I are both from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds and products of free college education," says Pickering. "It was only because of an athletic scholarship in my case and the Air Force Academy in Scott's that we were both fortunate enough to have access to higher education. We profoundly believe that everyone should have this same opportunity."
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1jESY)   

These are the words of the CEOs of WEU. Indeed a very bright thought and a resource-full thinking. Apart from the dazzling concept they have even more practical and unique strategies for the better learning of their students, they call it PALs (Pinpoint adaptive learning system). This system is based on different assessments taken from the students and then deciding what way of learning would be better suited for an individual.

Many universities are approaching towards free online courses as well; these courses being offered free give a cushion to the students for buying the books that are mentioned for the readings. Many corporations are working for the cause to lower the overall prices that are related to the reading material, Flat World Knowledge Inc., for instance, bills itself as "the world's largest publisher of free and open college textbooks." And so is Amazon and Bookgator.com working to provide cheaper text books. Apart from that Student governments in U.S are also working for resolving issues related to student bodies of different universities. SG has given a platform to Courseeasy.com for helping the students manage their courses more effectively.   Nothing will serve any one better than a bright secluded thought process; education is an only medium which entails the desired goal the best.    

A Hearty Hello to the Day for Students…

Breakfast often becomes a victim of the time pressure in the morning. Being a student it is very vital for you to begin the day with a healthy breakfast food, because it sets the trend for the rest of the day. Developing unhealthy eating habits, especially in the morning, certainly leaves serious marks on your health. The following will help you understand why having a smartly-chosen breakfast is vital for your overall health.

Breakfast is essential for your Physical Fitness:

Having a proper wholesome breakfast will lend a hand to stay fit. Daily nutritional needs cannot be fulfilled if you are not taking proper breakfast, no matter how much healthy you are taking in the rest of the day. Skipping breakfast and snacking later on is the poorest idea you can ever have. You may not be able to locate appropriate time for gym and exercises in your student life, but your diet in the earlier part of the day plays a key role in achieving your fitness goals.

Proper Breakfast for your Psychological Health:

Not even the most genius student could concentrate during study while facing mood swings, lethargy or drowsiness. This will happen if you have not taken balanced breakfast or ate a very heavy one. Having whole grains, fruits and veggies etc in your morning time meal, can serve as the best source to remain consistently dutiful with your studies.

Using Breakfast for Your Future Life:

After a good night’s sleep, your body needs proper nourishment, plus it can help keep your heart healthy too. You can use breakfast for attaining your healthy future life. For instance, you can reduce the total intake of sugar if you go for taking some of it in the morning time. In this way, it will not be stored in your body completely to let you suffer from cholesterol and heart problems. It will rather metabolized and fulfill your body requirements escalating your overall stamina for your aged span.

Breakfast To Stay Energized Throughout The Day:

Breakfast kick-starts the body’s metabolic processes and guarantees the realization of the needs of every organ. This is akin to starting your body’s engine every morning. Make sure that you have included everything imperative for a healthy body like proteins, carbohydrates, fats in your morning meal. This is like an energy shot that helps to get the day started with a rejuvenated feeling.

Breakfast for a Sharper Mind:

You need to employ your brain at the optimum level in your student life. For that you must avoid skipping breakfast that low-energy feeling or achy head that hits you two or three hours later after starting of your college. Balance carbohydrates, protein and healthful fats in the morning will ultimately plant seeds in your brain for a proper functioning. You will feel attentive and alert during class lectures and will be able to recall everything discussed by the professor later. This is why students appearing in examinations or the employees working in stressful conditions, are strongly recommended to have a proper breakfast.

Breakfast for Wight loss:

Usually we opt for taking a very lighter breakfast in order to avoid weight gain but due to lack of a satisfying breakfast, you become more prone to nibble throughout the day. The findings of a stud at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, England,  revealed that, “those who ate a greater proportion of their daily calorie intake, by eating the best breakfast, gained significantly less weight than those who tended to skip breakfast and eat later in the day” (American Journal of Epidemiology). So eating right at breakfast facilitate you in losing weight.

Eating a good breakfast sets the theater for developing a healthy lifestyle. The next time you’re in a hurry in the morning, remember that you probably miss out the most important meal of the day.

“A HOBO BOOK READER”

There are times when you want different things to satisfy your needs, your basic needs are often given the first preference, but can you think of someone who would give preference to a habit and a passion, rather than the basic needs, or what we call the basic needs?

Now here comes the story of a man who re-defined the basic needs for himself, his definition was to satisfy the need for living, his quest for knowledge gave him the satisfaction that no materialistic thing would provide, for him that was his whole world, he used to say; World its self isn’t that real how a book is, as books are narrated and the world is a just a perspective. You perceive what is projected, and what is projected, are the ideas of different people having different motives behind. This man used to live a life on a train station, spending nights travelling illegally and eating out off trash cans. And find a place where he can peacefully read whatever he wanted, people used to look at him and questioned him if they get a chance that why isn’t he trying to make his life better than wondering here and there reading, and he would always just smile at them thinking, that this is what he is doing and they are unable to see. That was exactly what is didn’t wanted for himself, “things happening in front of his eyes and still he not being able to understand”. 

And finally he wanted the world to know what is behind that entire crazy act. He had a philosophy that wealth firm believes on certain things that needs to be explored on a broader horizon. And living like a hobo is helping him understand things in a way that are not influenced by other believes, though he was a millionaire he preferred living like a hobo instead. (Based on a true story)

Now we don’t find many people like that but there are people who are keen for knowledge and have a quest for fame, just like our college students and helping them would serve the purpose equivalent to the MR Hobo’s motive, which was “To understand the things in their real perspective”. 

“Student Government” A Celestial Accomplice

The workings and achievements of SG’s all over the nation are admired enormously by our youth, which is amongst the reasons why Student Government is so popular in States. Apart from curtailing the basic education problems of the students SGs are also providing a platform for the students to actually grow and practice the real world challenges that a professional would be dealing in any respective career path.

SGs are helping the students both ways, directly and vicariously as well, as the members of the Student Government are elected by the students so this kind of act gives students the prospects to learn how a democratic solution for the problems are to be concluded.

A Decorum that is adhered by every SG also gives a feeling of unity and synchronization that in term gives an impact of a very well disciplined and institutionalized body. So, people will be proud to put their names with their SGs.

All the SGs across the nation gather to summit on yearly bases in order to revise the proceedings and to enhance the quality of work so more customized resolutions can be a part of the SGs. Most of these workings are done by carefully managing the funds. And all this is done by the students who were elected through the popular vote and became the member.

Student governments are making strategies for Academic as well as off academic businesses, promoting ideas and developing easy communications between the responsible bodies and the students them self, as that is the only way things and problems can be identified and resolved with mutual understanding and benefits. For example ESTERO, Fla- Students at Florida Gulf Coast University and their SG is having issues related to library hours and the negotiations are being frame to come to a mutual beneficial agreement. It’s not only the FGCU Student Government that is dealing with such situations, SGs all over the nations are facing such situations and are making regimes to resolve them for the mutual benefit.

We can say that Student Governments are the bodies that not only working for the betterment of the whole but also, is striving for improvements by inculcating into the situations adhered and also training the students by giving them the real professional touch through the workings of the body.