Free games!

So I'm going to date myself a little here, but here's your chance to score some free games!  Yes, they are a little bit old, but I just loved playing Zork on my Commodore 64!

Free $2 credit for Amazon MP3 music!

Get in on this quick!  This deal will expire at the end of tomorrow (6/30 11:59PM Pacific) so don't dawdle if you want to take advantage of it.

What is it?  Amazon is offering $2 of credit for MP3 music!

Maybe I'll see what $5 album I can get for $3... :)

How a busy rabbit doesn't lose all his carrots...

You may have noticed I haven't done much posting lately.  The problem isn't lack of desire; it's lack of time!  I'm taking two courses at college in the evenings and until recently, was finishing up an independent study class.  Just to show you what it's like, one of my weeks had a final on Friday, read a book and write a report for a class for the following Tuesday, and study for a midterm for the other class on Thursday.  All this while keeping up with class attendance, class reading, and doing assignments!  I'm amazed I didn't drop dead that week!

The only way I was able to keep things straight was to have all my assignment deadlines online and at my fingertips.  I could bore you with all the to-do list type applications that I went through or mention the probably hundreds that I didn't have time for, but I won't do that.  If you'd like to take your own journey through that vast field, just Google "to-do list applications" or "GTD" (Getting Things Done).  It'll definitely keep you busy.

For me, I just had a few requirements:

• online - I had to be able to access it from anywhere.
• easy - nothing complicated.  Just let me enter a task, a due date, and be done!
• quick - See "easy".  Quickly add a task and date.  Keyboard shortcuts are a real help here.
• flexible - But when I need it to do some more complicated things, those features should be available somewhere.  And nothing fancy either: recurring appointments, flagging tasks, stuff like that.

So after a bit of testing, I settled on... are you ready for it?... Todoist.  Like I said, it's nothing fancy, but it lets me do what I need to do to keep organized and on top of my homework quickly and easily and for free!  There's a monthly paid version, as well, with more powerful features which is probably worth it if you need those, but for me the free version is good enough.  

Right now, I'm just using it online, but according to their website they have both iPhone and Android apps available (third-party I'm assuming), and an API to extend Todoist's functionality.  Something I'll have to play with (once I have some time... :) ).

Microsoft Mathematics 4.0 for Windows for free!

Now that I've posted about how I'm not generally going to do this, here's a post I'm copying over from my tech blog 'cuz I think it's of general interest, especially to students...

Here's a freebie I found on Dealnews.  Download Microsoft's Mathematics 4.0 for Windows free!

If you don't know about this program (I didn't!), this is what Microsoft says about it: "Microsoft Mathematics provides a graphing calculator that plots in 2D and 3D, step-by-step equation solving, and useful tools to help students with math and science studies."

Sounds like a handy thing to have especially since I'm taking Stats (well, maybe it could help) and I'm planning to take an upper-division math class later this year.

Free entrance to the National Parks!

If you're a fan of the National Park system (like me), or just wanting to explore a new one, or you've never been, here're a few chances to do so without paying for it!*

The days in 2011 you can get into the parks fee free are as follows:

• Janurary 15-17 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend)
• April 16-24 (National Park Week)
• June 21 (First day of summer)
• September 24 (Public Lands Day)
• November 11-13 (Veterans Day weekend)

*According to the above web page, most of the 394 National Parks never charge an entrance fee, so obviously this only applies to those that normally do.  So what are you waiting for?!  Get exploring!