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Horned Wampus

@hornedwampus-blog / hornedwampus-blog.tumblr.com

We are a studyblr made up of two college students!
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“In Nepal, 150 people have been killed and 90,000 homes have been destroyed in what the UN has called the worst flooding incident in the country in a decade.

According to the Red Cross, at least 7.1 million people have been affected in Bangladesh - more than the population of Scotland - and around 1.4 million people have been affected in Nepal.

International aid agencies said thousands of villages have been cut off by flooding with people being deprived of food and clean water for days.”

* these go into an emergency fund ** for residents of india. otherwise you have to input passport info

edit: updated links

please add any other ways to help

that article is from 5 hours ago. to date this post, it is 8/30. your support matters /now/

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asteroiideae

HEY FLORIDA.

The governor just stated if you can’t get out of any mandatory evacuation, whether for fuel or any reason at all, call 1-800-955-5504, right now! The’ll help if you don’t have money, if you have pets, etc. They want you to call NOW because there is time to help you. (I guess signal boosting this is an upside to being subjected to the weather channel while living utterly landlocked.)

Tolls have been suspended. Real-time traffic information and evacuation routes is available at www.FL511.com

Miami-Dade has buses set up to help evacuate those with special needs, and Broward County has buses on standby.

A list of all open shelters will be available at www.floridadisaster.org/shelters.

The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has released September SNAP benefits to current recipients who have not yet received them.

my sister in largo had no idea where to go or what to do until i sent her this post. if my followers could reblog this itd mean the world to me and help a lot of people

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Regarding Hurricane Donations:

I’m going to provide some links to get you started in terms of donation resources that are available at this time for regions affected by the hurricanes that have passed through or will be coming soon. Feel free to add on.

Houston:

Antigua and Barbuda:

St. Martin/St. Maarten:

The French and Dutch Red Cross organizations are seeking donations at this time for their respective territories  on then island (do research on any organization you are curious/ wary about before donating, as the Red Cross track record isn’t so hot)

Haiti:

Dominican Republic: 

Puerto Rico:

US Virgin Islands:

Florida:

This is just a starting list. As said before, please feel free to add on.

It goes without saying but if you cannot afford to donate, share the information so someone who can afford to help has some options or a place to start looking if they’d like to help

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Hello everyone!

I’m back on this blog, which I had left to wampus for a while due to...ah, mental issues and the lack of ability in myself.

But I decided to go ahead and start taking responsibility as another admin again, and since a new fall semester has started not long ago (not that we had many classes, what with Harvey), I’d thought I’d help with some more stuff!

Some of my availability and such has changed, so you can check out the things that have been updated.

Some personal updates for horned serpent solely: is that

  • I’ve started therapy! If you have any questions about college counselors, I can help.
  • I’m now taking a few online classes, so if you have any questions about that, you can ask me.
  • I don’t live on campus anymore, but I have a year of that under my belt and I’m currently living with a roommate instead of back home. So if you have concerns about that, come to me!
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Preparing for Irma

Evacuation (Recommended)

“If you still need to get out of Florida:

  • JetBlue is reducing their fares. Remaining seats will be between $99 - $159. 
  • American Airlines is capping the prices at $99. This is for standard cabin fare and means that prices will not exceed this cost. 
  • Delta is capping their prices at $399. This also means that prices will not exceed this cost, however this also includes first class so standard prices will be lower than $399.”

(source & post from @justsomeantifas)

GasBuddy has an app and a website that can be used to track gas availability at Florida stations. This website provides a list of the 10 cheapest gas prices in each city.

Recommended Packing List:

  • water (1 gal/person/3 days)
  • food (lasting 1 week)
  • pet care items (if applicable)
  • toiletries & first aid supplies; blankets & pillows
  • flashlight & batteries, phones & chargers; cash & cards
  • documents (i.e. passports & birth certificates) & other portable valuables

Preparation

If evacuation is not possible, be sure to keep track of loved ones and make some calls (or any other form of contact) while you still can.

Check with your insurance about all else. Most stores in Florida are going to be low on supplies; if you can catch a plane & visit other family, do so.

For those who are staying, be prepared for the long haul. If possible, talk to people who have hurricane experience (Wilma 2005). If you’re on the coast, board up your windows, and be sure to be stocked up on the items above. Cover A/C units, trim branches, and store all yard equipment inside. Follow local weather updates. Keep a list of emergency contact info.

Helping with Harvey

Donations

  • American Red Cross is accepting monetary donations (x)
  • Public Good will also take donations (x)
  • Save the Children is asking for donations (x)
  • Donate blood:
  • Texas Residents
  • Non-Texas Residents: contact the Red Cross, AABB, Armed Services Blood Program, & America’s Blood Centers
  • If you can, feel free to host a blood drive -- or urge your school/university/workplace/religious center to do so (x)
  • Feeding Texas is accepting food donations [Texas Residents Only] (x)
  • For those outside TX, the San Antonio Food Bank recommends donating money and spreading awareness (x)
  • Texas Diaper Bank is looking for diaper donations (x)

If you want to find another place to donate, please be wary of scams. The New York Times provides some advice (source). Take a look at the cited sources for more ways to help. If you can think of a verified donation organization or another way to help those affected by Harvey and those who will be affected by Irma, reblog this post and include your addition.

Stay safe, everyone, and good luck.

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jxhn-mulaney
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nyctaeus
punchbuggydragon:
breelandwalker:
irontargaryen:
*cracks neck* my time has come
Okay, first? Pay off all your debts. Take out a small loan and pay it off right away.
Buy several hundred vacant houses. Schedule repairs for said houses with reputable contractors and make sizable down payments in advance. Get everything in writing and hang onto those deeds.
Buy a large open parcel of land that is being auctioned for development. And when I say large, I mean LARGE.
Sink millions into paying off people’s Kickstarters / college loans / medical bills / mortgages, and give generously charity organizations. That alone will carry off a lot of money.
Once you’ve got things down to a reasonable level, say $1m, buy yourself a house, furnishings, appliances, and a dependable car. Pay everything off so that you own it free and clear. Purchase about $200k worth of something easy to liquidate (i.e. gold, gems, bonds, stocks). Put the rest onto prepaid credit cards and wait for Monday to roll around.
NOW THE FUN BEGINS.
You now have commendable credit and a shining public reputation.
Fix up and flip those houses, sell them for fair market value or below to families who need them, or create non-profit homeless shelters. (After all, it’s not like you need to “make” money, this is all running on the proceeds from the property sales.)
Sell the parcel of land to developers, or donate it to public works as a park or open space. Have them name it after you.
Retire to your fully furnished home. Liquidate your extra assets, or leave them to appreciate in value for a later date. Make Christmas epic with those gift cards. Keep the extra money in the bank and keep your day job.
And don’t worry about taxes when return time rolls around, because you’ll be able to write off several millions’ worth of charitable donations.
Basically this
This is someone who paid attention in finance class. 

As a business major, this made me smile.

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boomeyer

Do yourself a favor. Learn to code. Here's how.

I’ve said this to my non-techie friends countless times. It’s no secret that being able to code makes you a better job applicant, and a better entrepreneur. Hell, one techie taught a homeless man to code and now that man is making his first mobile application.

Learning to code elevates your professional life, and makes you more knowledgeable about the massive changes taking place in the technology sector that are poised to have an immense influence on human life.

(note: yes I realize that 3/5 of those links were Google projects)

But most folks are intimidated by coding. And it does seem intimidating at first. But peel away the obscurity and the difficulty, and you start to learn that coding, at least at its basic level, is a very manageable, learnable skill.

There are a lot of resources out there to teach you. I’ve found a couple to be particularly successful. Here’s my list of resources for learning to code, sorted by difficulty:

Novice

Never written a line of code before? No worries. Just visit one of these fine resources and follow their high-level tutorials. You won’t get into the nitty-gritty, but don’t worry about it for now:

w3 Tutorials (start at HTML on the left sidebar and work your way down)

Intermediate

Now that you’ve gone through a handful of basic tutorials, it’s time to learn the fundamentals of actual, real-life coding problems. I’ve found these resources to be solid:

CodeAcademy - Ruby, Python, PHP

Difficult

If you’re here, you’re capable of building things. You know the primitives. You know the logic control statements. You’re ready to start making real stuff take shape. Here are some different types of resources to turn you from someone who knows how to code, into a full-fledged programmer.

Programming problems

Sometimes, the challenges in programming aren’t how to make a language do a task, but just how to do the task in general. Like how to find an item in a very large, sorted list, without checking each element. Here are some resources for those types of problems

Talentbuddy
TopCoder

Web Applications

If you learned Python, Django is an amazing platform for creating quick-and-easy web applications. I’d highly suggest the tutorial - it’s one of the best I’ve ever used, and you have a web app up and running in less than an hour.

Django Tutorial

I’ve never used Rails, but it’s a very popular and powerful framework for creating web applications using Ruby. I’d suggest going through their guide to start getting down-and-dirty with Rails development.

Rails Guide

If you know PHP, there’s an ocean of good stuff out there for you to learn how to make a full-fledged web application. Frameworks do a lot of work for you, and provide quick and easy guides to get up and running. I’d suggest the following:

Cake PHP Book
Symfony 2 - Get Started
Yii PHP - The Comprehensive Guide

Conclusion

If there’s one point I wanted to get across, it’s that it is easier than ever to learn to code. There are resources on every corner of the internet for potential programmers, and the benefits of learning even just the basics are monumental.

If you know of any additional, great resources that aren’t listed here, please feel free to tweet them to me @boomeyer.

Best of luck!

I’d also like to add some more specialized resources!

Video games:

Easy game engines (virtually no coding): 

More difficult game engines: 

  • Unity (lots and lots of platforms; C# and JavaScript script; 2D, 3D, VR; free and paid versions)
  • Unreal (specializes in graphics; C++ and visual script; 2D, 3D, VR; free with a royalty on successful products)
  • CryEngine (Lua script; 3D; paid subscription and full license versions)

Mobile game development: 

  • Corona (free and paid subscription versions)
  • SpriteKit (2D) and SceneKit (3D) which are built into the official compiler to create iOS apps (see iOS apps for more resources)
  • also all of the above game engines (cross-platform)

Game console development: 

  • Game Maker Studio (with a paid subscription)
  • Unity
  • Unreal
  • CryEngine

Note that games can also be created on more general platforms like iOS and Android apps, but the resources listed above are specialized for game development.

iOS apps:

In order to develop iOS apps, you’ll need to purchase an iOS developer program membership for $99 a year, which requires an Apple account. Here are some general resources:

iOS apps are developed in the 2 official languages of Apple: Objective-C and Swift, the latter of which is newer and generally much easier to learn.

Objective-C resources:

Swift resources:

Xcode also has SpriteKit, SceneKit, and Metal built in, all of which are incredibly useful for creating apps that require elaborate graphics, particularly games.

SpriteKit resources:

SceneKit resources:

Metal resources:

Also, in order to publish iOS apps, you’ll have to juggle certificates, app ids, and provisioning profiles. This process can be convoluted at times so here are some resources:

Android apps:

In order to develop Android apps, you’ll need to register as a developer for a one-time fee of $25. Here are some general resources:

Android apps are developed in Java and the layout is coded with XML.

Java resources:

XML resources:

For publishing (which is somewhat easier than publishing iOS apps):

3D modeling/animation:

  • Blender (can also be used to create games; Python script; free and open-source; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)
  • Maya (specialized script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux to an extent)
  • 3ds Max (Python script; free trial, free 3-year student subscription, and paid subscription versions; can be installed on Windows and OS X)
  • RenderMan (specialized script; free for non-commercial/educational use and pay-per-license for commercial use; can be installed on Windows, OS X, and Linux)

Misc. resources:

Stack Overflow is an ask-and-answer community for programmers. It’s amazing and will save your life. Sign up and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Github offers a student pack (here) if you create an account and prove you’re a student. This gives you free access to a bunch of great programming resources for free for a certain period of time, such as Unreal Engine. Also, Github in general is a site that you can host your code on. Other users can see it, and “fork” it to make a copy of your code and modify it.

Parse is a backend service that allows you to store data in databases it hosts on its own servers. It lets you use push notifications, create users, store and retrieve data, etc. It’s compatible with iOS apps, Android apps, Windows apps, Xamarin, React, Unity, OS X, Windows, JavaScript, PHP, .net, Arduino, and Embedded C. It’s free up to a certain limit that depends on the services you use.

Cloud9, Codebox, and Squad are online IDEs that allow for real-time collaboration and support a variety of languages, so they’re useful for team projects.

And some general advice:

  • Your program will not work right away, 99% of the time. That’s okay. Do your best to figure out where the error is. Here is some advice on debugging (written for PHP but the methods can be generalized).
  • If you’re stuck, Google. Google like there’s no tomorrow.
  • Ask questions on a community like Stack Overflow.
  • For that matter, browse relevant Stack Overflow questions. You can probably find some solutions there.
  • Don’t be afraid to copy and paste.
  • Take breaks sometimes if you’re getting burned out. But don’t stay away from your projects for too long or you’ll lose track of its status.
  • Backup your code. On the cloud, on a USB drive, wherever. If your IDE has a backing up feature like snapshots, use it whenever you hit a milestone.
  • If your project is big, split it up into milestones and set goals. Don’t tackle everything at once.

Like the OP said, coding isn’t just for professionals and “geeks” anymore. Anyone can learn it if you really try, and with the rapidly expanding tech industry, learning coding can really broaden your opportunities.

If any of the links are broken, or you have a question or some information/resources to add, you can contact me through the askbox or the OP through his Twitter (as mentioned in his post).

If you’re interested, try some of these out and best of luck!

Great work expanding on my humble list to include a much fuller collection of resources for learning how to code! Cheers!

As an Information Systems major, I had to signal boost this.

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Thank You and RIP Chester

This message is a little late, but in light of the news from yesterday, I just wanted to say rest in peace, Chester Bennington.

I know a lot of people have poked fun at Linkin Park and/or turned it into a meme band, but angsty or not, they were still a big part of my adolescence. For me, LP was the band that literally started it all -- the reason I listen to music as much as I do today is because of them. I still remember how I discovered these guys -- when I was 12, my brother and I were huge fans of the first two Transformers movies (especially the soundtracks), so we looked the tracks up on YouTube and found LP that way; "New Divide" was the first song I heard. They were the first band I ever voluntarily listened to, and through them, I found other bands, kept listening, and developed my music taste into what it is today. I went through some rough times in my early teen years, and bands like this one got me through it. I'll be eternally grateful for that.

On that note, if you guys are ever stressed with school and/or going through a rough patch in life and need some advice, you’re free to message me. I can’t guarantee that I can help you, but I’m still there if needed. And if you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, here is the number for The National Suicide Prevention Hotline in America: 1-800-273-8255

- Wampus

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