Husky Life

One my friends shared this video with me. It’s about a month old, but quite entertaining…

With the semester coming to an end, many students wonder what they should do with their old textbooks.

Here are some options:

*Many companies, including the UConn Co-op, “buyback” textbooks.
*Sell books on a marketplace such as Amazon.com or Half.com
*See if any of your friends are taking the same class that you took this semester and offer to sell them your books. Or post your textbook list on your Facebook account.

But I never thought of selling books to an on-campus organization. Here’s an e-mail I recently received:

MyBookCart.com will be hosting a textbook buyback event at UConn in the Student Union on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 from 9am – 8pm and on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010 from 9am – 4:30pm. Students can sell back their textbooks for cash. This event benefits the UConn Marketing Society.

If anybody knows of other UConn organizations who are using textbooks as a fundraising tool, drop me an e-mail (jay.polansky (at) uconn.edu) and I’ll add to this post.

A post on a website dedicated to UConn sports asks students and recent alums why they should win a trip to the Fiesta Bowl.

With the help of donations solicited in the message, the message board poster hopes to at least defray some of the costs of one student’s trip to Arizona.

Why?

I remember when I was in college, no way I could afford a trip to Phoenix. So, let’s pay it forward and sponsor a student or students to Uconn’s first BCS bowl.

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/hTrbZj. Deadline is Monday, according to the post.

Seen: The men’s game @ the XL where Kemba Walker reached 1,000 career points. However, the student section didn’t really go crazy. One of my friends posted on her Facebook status, “dear xl center you suck for not being more excited.”

There was a lot of hub-hub around a young boy who took his shirt off and started dancing. Many people in the student section pointed at him in hopes of getting the attention of the video crews.

Seen: A cadre of dudes walking around campus. One Twitter user said, “those guys were so well dressed…. like a brooks bros catalog.” Anyone else see them?

Seen: The UConn President’s holiday card:

The university makes one every year. What do you think of this year’s?

Seen: I enjoyed my Thanksgiving morning at my alma mater, Greenwich High School, sitting in the marching band section with other alums. The clarinet player featured in some of the pictures is an GHS marching band alumnus.

Unfortunately, we lost to our archrival Staples, but as one fan said, “there’s still a lot to be thankful for.”

Happy belated Thanksgiving…

Read: Last week, the Hartford Courant posted an editorial which pointed out some issues with the new UConn advertisements played during football television breaks:

The ad consists almost entirely of inanimate objects being painted blue while music plays. Incomprehensibly, one of these objects is the Golden Gate Bridge.

Perhaps you will be surprised to learn that the Golden Gate Bridge is not located in our fair state, but in California, 3,000 miles away.

Read: A couple months ago, one of the Daily Campus’ sports columnists wrote:

The Golden Gate Bridge is not in Connecticut. It is 3,000 miles away. I have been to San Francisco, and if you asked people on the street what UConn was, half of them would probably answer with a territory in Canada.

Background: The commercial does briefly highlight Horsebarn Hill and Wilbur Cross, the old library. But it also features a woman carrying a surfboard, which is not exactly a Connecticut image.

For the record, I’m seriously thinking of getting a UConn license plate.

Sound off: What do you think?

Read: About a week ago, HuffPostCollege published a blog post summarizing college admin reactions to FourLoko, a drink which combines alcohol and caffeine.

This past week,  a  Daily Campus reporter interviewed a UConn health official to ask about the issues surrounding the drink:

“This makes it very seductive to someone who is drinking for intoxication purposes,” said Dr. Beth DeRicco, director of Wellness and Prevention Services at UConn. DeRicco said that the caffeine increases physical signs of wakefulness, while the alcohol has the opposite effect, as it is a depressant.

A Boston Globe staffer took a different approach to the articles detailing the dangers of the drink by offering his opinion of the drink’s taste:

“Sickly sweet with a metallic aftertaste, Four Loko is a dreadful concoction, an acidic swill of artificial flavors chased by a sting of malt. I had looked forward to the chance to drink on the job, so to speak, while I watched a football game.”

However, I can think of many college students who disagree. And, besides, many students don’t necessarily drink for the taste — there’s a “Four Loko Challenge” similar to “Icing” with Smirnoff. So what’s you opinion? Do you like the taste? Do you think it should be banned, or can people drink it responsibly?