College Mixer: Weekly Roundup of Awesome 8/2

Happy August, everyone! Can you believe it’s August already? Summer’s almost gone (so sad). Lucky for me, I still have NYC’s Summer Streets to look forward to, as well as the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival. But onto College Mixer and the awesome posts I’ve found this week!

For Design N00bs: Creative Nerds Shows You 45 Ways to Use Illustrator

So many industries nowadays look for people with a little technical skill in design tools like Adobe Creative Suite. And yes, it is expensive to buy it upfront (this is where you can consider practicing with Adobe Creative Cloud, since it’s only $29.99 a month for students to use all Adobe products on the cloud instead of taking up all the space on your computer).

But think of it this way: it’s an investment toward your future. Especially if you want to excel at branding yourself, like Adobe Days taught us. And if you have no idea where to start after making the investment, there are tons of tutorials everywhere. This list of tutorials will definitely keep you busy for the rest of the summer.

For Goal Breakers: Lifehacker Outlines Ways to Make Intentions Stick

The problem a lot of us have when making grand schemes for ourselves is that we have a problem sticking to it. Remember your new year’s resolutions? Was it something along the lines of losing weight, making Dean’s List, etc.?

…Did you accomplish any of those goals?

That’s why I like this article by Lifehacker so much. It gives you a basic guideline to approaching your grand goals, and perhaps even sticking to them. We all need our big picture ideas broken down into pieces sometimes.

For Grazers: Caveman College Provides a Guide to Snacking

My coworker came across this site and brought it to my attention (thanks, Talia!). Caveman College was started by two recent high school grads (and incoming freshman!) who are looking to spreading the word about succeeding with the Paleolithic (“Caveman”) diet (if you haven’t heard about this, I don’t know what rock you’ve been lurking under…) and surviving college at the same time. Some pretty cool stuff, considering how new they are!

So not only does the blog give a pretty comprehensive guide to making the switch to the Paleo diet, but articles like this really answers a lot of college students’ questions as to why they are packing on the pounds!

For Workaholics: That Girl Mag Discusses Jobs in College

That Girl Mag makes the list a second time with her hilarious writing style! This time, a discussion on the pros and cons of having a job in college. If you’re considering that off-campus job for your first semester, there are some considerations you need to make. Do you have the time? Do you really need the extra cash, or can you get by on an allowance and a really rich boyfriend/girlfriend? (I’m kidding…. not really). Take a look at the other stuff she has to say as well. It’s pretty damn funny.

And if you haven’t been keeping up with Surviving College (and if you haven’t, shame on you!), here are the articles we posted this week!

• 4 Tips to Study More Effectively
• 5 Lessons to Learn from Ryan Lochte at the London Olympics
• How to Save Money on Textbooks
• Robbie’s Introduction: On Getting Involved in College
• Quick and Easy Meals Part 2: Breakfast!

That’s it for this week’s edition of College Mixer! What’s your favorite highlight?