eCampus Blog

Holiday season is here and it’s always important to stay environmentally friendly. Here are a few ideas on how to go green this holiday season and how to make some cool holiday decorations from stuff you might usually just throw away. 

 Buy a REAL tree, it might not be cost effective to buy a real tree every year, however, it is environmentally friendly. Christmas trees are grown on tree farms and don’t have an impact on national forests. When the holiday season is over go to earth911.org to see where you can recycle your tree.

 LED Lights are one of the coolest new things in Christmas and holiday decorations. They are much brighter than the conventional Christmas light, smaller, 90% more efficient, and the bulbs last an average of 2 times longer. 

Try using an old light bulb to create different kinds of ornaments, they can be painted to look like anything and they are light enough to hang on your Christmas tree. I had a Christmas Tree last year decorated with Red Bull cans, you don’t always have to buy something new. 

Empty out that shoe box full of old Christmas cards and make them into a wreath. Cut out the cards with a holly leaf stencil and attach them to a Styrofoam wreath from your local craft store.

And if you dont celebrate christmas you can always follow Sienfeld's lead and have a "Festivus Holiday Pole" Festivus, its for the Restivus.  

-Sean The Intern 

Anthony Bourdain, now famous for his hit show No Reservations, has been around the world with the sole purpose of filling his stomach with the most delicious food he can find. Tony’s love for cuisine comes out strongly in his book Kitchen Confidential:Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. The book talks about his childhood growing up in France and learning how important food would end up being in his life. The story continues to follow Tony during his experience working at various seafood restaurants through college. Tony tells stories throughout the book as an attempt to let you into the life of a struggling but determined line cook. Sex, Drugs, And the Kitchen, Tony is a party animal. While Tony is telling stories of his craziness he always finds places to impart amazing restaurant wisdom. He explains why you should never eat fish on a Monday, ever, and why you should always be careful when ordering a special on the menu. This book is a must read for anyone who has ever worked in a restaurant or ever plans to. READ THIS BOOK

-Sean The Intern

 

How To be a CheapSkate

 

As I’ve finally reached my senior year in college I get a chance to look back at some of the extremes I have gone to save a little extra cash (anything helps!). I’ve always made any effort to save that seemed like a decent option. With that said I’ll let you in on a few tips for making it out of college with some cash.

 

Firstly, don’t eat out if you can avoid it, you can save tons by just going to the grocery store and you can create anything you want.

 

Buy or even rent your textbooks online at www.eCampus.com you can often save over 50% and you never have to wait in a line or even leave your couch.

 

Ride a bike, don’t get caught spending 200 dollars for a parking pass when you can ride, get exercise, and usually park right next to the door you’re entering.

 

Find the cheap or free entertainment options around your campus. Concerts, comedy shows, and free movies are often part of your campus’ activity schedule. Also rent movies if your trying to save its either $9 a person or $2.50(or FREE from your library!) for the movie, you decide.

 

Use Freeware instead of paying for software when available, programs suites such as OpenOffice (similar to MS Office) are compatible and work well. Downloading freeware can be dangerous though so research thoroughly before downloading

 The best tip I have to offer any college student trying to figure out money problems is to BUDGET. Set a plan and stick to it. Try something like Judy Lawrence’s The Budget Kit: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook.

 It will help you get your spending under control and create a budget, and trust me the sooner the better.

 

 -Sean The Intern

 

Today is ECampus.com's Ten Year Anniversary Celebration! How the time has flown, it seems like just yesterday that we first sat down, January 20,1999 to be exact!, and discussed the possibility of opening a company like Ecampus.com. We began writing code in February and the rest is history! Check out the story of our company and learn more about where we came from at our Help/History page. Also, if you are wanting to play one of the games developed by ECampus.com or watch some of our old commercials, make sure to visit our Anniversary Celebration page! Thanks for helping ECampus.com stay alive for all these years!!

 

 

 

With all the tricks and treats in store, why not cozy up with a good story? Whether it is a chilling ghost story or a blockbuster slasher film, ECampus.com has everything for your holiday needs! 

 Halloween Books & Movies 

When I was in college, I ate ramen (chicken and spicy beef, none of that shrimp chili stuff) and left over pizza. According to this LA Times article, college student Saul Sutcher is eating much better than I did - butter poached lobster tail or pancetta-wrapped quail anyone? Maybe I didn't know how to cook, or maybe I was too busy searching for pennies hidden the couch.

Either way, Megan Carle's College Cooking: Feed Yourself and Your Friends is a great resource for college students wanting normal meals. No butter poached lobster in this one, you'll have to head home for mom's cooking for that one ;) I suggest you check it out and let us know how the cooking goes. And remember gentlemen, ladies love a guy who can cook, trust me...    

Congrats, Ashley - You have won the first ever eCampus.com holiday decorations contest! Ashley won with a whopping 61% of the votes!  See below for the winning picture as well as the runners up.

 Winning Desk!

 

 Runners Up!