FamuBookSwap- Another Successful Skoolboy Production

Famubookswap.com is a website created for FAMU College of Law students to buy/sell law school textbooks and more. The website has been a great success and we hope to expand it to other law schools in the near future. If you are interested in adding your lawschool to the site, feel free to comment here. This is a great resource for all law school students.

FAMU BOOK SWAP

Summer Update

Skoolboy is expanding! We are working with other businesses such as Winchelle's Collection. Winchelle's Collection features beautifully crafted custom jewelry pieces. If you are interested, please feel free to stop by the Facebook Page at Winchelle's Collection

In other news: Skoolboy is planning to transition into a website consulting business. We want to recommend individuals to web designers that have been previously verified by us.  We work alongside these web designers to help our customers get the best prices.

Failed Simulation Effect

Read this article about the Failed Simulation Effect which essentially is about how certain students who may seem less qualified get into great schools just because others are unable to imagine themselves doing the same type of extracurricular activity.

Study Hacks

No Parent Left Behind Part 2

We did not make this up. These are real notes from parents from a Memphis school district.



1. Dear school: please ecsc's john being absent on jan. 28,29,30,31, 32 and also 33.


2. Please excuse gloria from jim today. She is administrating.

3. Please excuse roland from p.e. for a few days. Yesterday he fellout of a tree

and misplaced his hip.

4. John has been absent because he had two teeth taken out of his face.

Movie Recommendations for Spring Break! Part 2

The next movie everyone should see is....

A Prophet- It is foreign film with a gangster twist.

Source: RottenTomatoes.com

Consensus: Featuring an impressive star turn by newcomer Tahar Rahim, A Prophet is a French gangster film filled with arresting, immediate details.

Synopsis: At age 18, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is just beginning a six-year prison sentence in this drama from THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED director Jacques Audiard. Though he cannot read or write,... At age 18, Malik El Djebena (Tahar Rahim) is just beginning a six-year prison sentence in this drama from THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED director Jacques Audiard. Though he cannot read or write, Malik soon figures out the politics of the prison system, giving him a prime spot in the power struggle between two battling groups of prisoners. THE PROPHET reunites Audiard with two of his stars from THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED, Niels Arestrup and Gilles Cohen, as well as that film’s director of photography, Stéphane Fontaine, and its composer, Alexandre Desplat.

Movie Recommendations for Spring Break! Part 1

Long time no Review!

I finally have a little free time, so let me present 2 movies to check out.

Source: RottenTomatoes.com

First recommendation is Ghost Writer, although in limited release, it received a really good rating and is well cast.

Consensus: While it may lack the revelatory punch of Polanski's finest films, Ghost Writer benefits from stylish direction, a tense screenplay, and a strong central performance from Ewan McGregor.

Synopsis: When a successful British ghostwriter, THE GHOST, agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister ADAM LANG, his agent assures him it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. But the... When a successful British ghostwriter, THE GHOST, agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister ADAM LANG, his agent assures him it’s the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start—not least because his predecessor on the project, Lang’s long-term aide, died in an unfortunate accident.

The Ghost flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, to an oceanfront house on an island off the U.S. Eastern seaboard. But the day after he arrives, a former British cabinet minister accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA—a war crime. The controversy brings reporters and protesters swarming to the island mansion where Lang is staying with his wife, RUTH, and his personal assistant (and mistress), AMELIA. As The Ghost works, he begins to uncover clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA—and that somehow this information is hidden in the manuscript he left behind. Was Lang in the service of the American intelligence agency while he was prime minister? And was The Ghost’s predecessor murdered because of the appalling truth he uncovered?

Resonating with topical themes, this atmospheric and suspenseful political thriller is a story of deceit and betrayal on every level— sexual, political and literary. In a world in which nothing, and no one, is as it seems, The Ghost quickly discovers that the past can be deadly—and that history is decided by whoever stays alive to write it. --© Summit

No Parent Left Behind Series

A twist on No Child Left Behind. Take a look. (Note: These are real notes written by parents in the Memphis school district.)

Disclaimer: Skoolboy is merely reproducing these notes [sic] verbatim and does not imply anything about parents in Memphis.

1.

My

son is under a doctor's care and should not take PE today.

Please execute him.

2.

Please

exkuce lisa for being absent she was sick and i had her

shot.

Coffee versus Tea Division!!!!

The corporate media is once again lavishing the “Coffee Party” with favorable coverage after having demonized the Tea Party as racist extremists for nearly a year, proof positive that the much vaunted new movement, which is run by an Obama campaign operative, is nothing more than a front for the establishment.

Prepare to be Violated!!!!!!!

President Obama has given the Ok to install body scanners at the airports. Not shocked? The scanners can see your naked body with clothes on!!!!!! Yeah . . . . Clothes ON!!!!! Check it out!!!

Click on the title of the post to Read the Article about Body Scanners.

Movie Recommendation for the Week!

I am really liking these International films. Everyone needs to check out...

Ajami

Film Synopsis thanks to Film Forum:

The film is the debut from Israeli and Palestinian co-directors Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti, whose location filming, use of nonprofessional actors and balanced perspective lend a palpable authenticity to a complex, cross-cultural drama -- set in Jaffa’s multi-ethnic Ajami neighborhood, home to Jews, Muslims and Christians. The repercussions of a revenge killing reveal the cultural and religious tensions simmering beneath the surface: two young brothers fear assassination after their uncle wounds a local criminal; a young Palestinian refugee works illegally in Israel to finance his mother’s surgery; an Israeli woman and her affluent Palestinian boyfriend dream of building a life together; and a Jewish cop is obsessed with finding his missing brother.

Note: Here is a trailer but there are no subtitles. Still, you can feel the tension and the richness of the material.

Haitian Relief Effort

Hello Everyone,

I just would like to say that Haitian people are still suffering and they need your help. I am Haitian and feel a personal responsibility to ensure the posterity of Haitian people. If you want to help, there is a great organization named HaitiHelpMed.Org. This organization is based in Central Florida and they have been established and helping Haitians for years. They are already on the ground right now in Haiti. Here is a list from the website of supplies they really need:

Your donation of small items like the following will go a long way in helping:

• Sterile & Regular Gloves
• Antibiotics (cephalosporins, cillins, cleocin, etc.)
• Betadine (povidone-iodine (PVPI) topical antiseptics)
• Gauze
• Bandages
• Tape
• Topical Wound Care Items (Silvadene, Bacitracin, Neosporin,
  or Xeroform ointments)
• Small Flashlights
• Tums
• Motrin
• Vitamins

Donations can also be made on the website. If you know any doctors or nurses, please ask them to get in contact with this organization. They really need nurses to take care of patients after they have been treated by a doctor.

Please Help.

Respectfully,
Leonard
Co-Founder of Skoolboy.com

Book Recommendation: The Happiness Project

The author of this book spent a year testing different theories about happiness.

Here are a couple reviews of the book:

“A cross between the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, and seamlessly buttressed by insights from sources as diverse as psychological scientists, novelists, poets, and philosophers, Gretchen Rubin has written a book that readers will revisit again and again as they seek to fulfill their own dreams for happiness.”
— Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want

“This book made me happy in the first five pages. And the more I read it, the happier I got. It’s filled with great insights that have changed every part of my life, from love to money, from work to play, from writing to Diet Coke.”
— A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically and The Guinea Pig Diaries

“Happiness is contagious. And so is The Happiness Project. Once you’ve read Gretchen Rubin’s tale of a year searching for satisfaction, you’ll want to start your own happiness project and get your friends and family to join you. This is the rare book that will make you both smile and think—often on the same page.”
— Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind

“The Happiness Project is a wonderful book. Gretchen shows how you can be happier, starting right now, with small, actionable steps accessible to everyone. Among her many attainable strategies, her discovery of the connection between inner happiness and outer order is spot on!”
— Julie Morgenstern, Organizing from the Inside Out and SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life

Courtesy of the happiness-project.com.

Movie Rant

I have heard from a good deal of people that the Book of Eli was not good. Is that true?

Feel free to rant about your experience.

Movie Recommendation for the Week! Late Edition...

Important Note!!! If you are reading this from the Facebook Page or other applications, make sure to click on view original post.

Go See...A Room and A Half (Foreign Film by a Russian Director).

Here is a Synopsis from Film Forum:

Joseph Brodsky, the Russian-Jewish-American poet, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1987 and was made poet laureate of the U.S. in 1991. Given that he was expelled from the USSR in 1972, it’s not surprising that much of his writing deals with themes of exile, loss and memory. An imagined return to the parents he never saw again and his childhood home of St. Petersburg (“a city whose color was fossilized vodka”) is the essence of this wonderfully nostalgic, whimsical movie. Made by famed Russian animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky, A ROOM AND A HALF recalls the glory years of a much-loved child and the particular absurdities and indignities suffered by Jews under the Soviet regime in the ‘50s and ‘60s. The filmmaker’s light touch – his use of animation, stills, archival footage, and scripted, dramatic material – melds the sophisticated surrealism of Magritte with the folk mysticism of Chagall.

Here is a Trailer (It is in Russian)- If someone finds the English version, please let me know. I think the movie has subtitles though.

Movie Recommendation for the Week!

The film is.....Fish Tank!

Another Foreign Film with some real gritty material. It is a British Film and revolves around a girl whose life changes when her mom brings home a new boyfriend.

Enjoy!

A Must Read Blog- Study Hacks

I stumbled upon this blog just moments ago and read an entry about what it takes to become an expert or very good at something. It is really thought provoking and worth the read. Take a look and make sure to subscribe.

Study Hacks

Help Support Your Favorite Websites!

To do this, we recommend you visit Sprinklepenny.com which helps to do this. I am not saying that you should support Skoolboy even though we would appreciate your kindness :) Regardless, it is an interesting website and if you feel there is a great business out there and you would like to see it succeed, sprinkle a penny or more!


Sprinklepenny

Great Blog for Entrepreneurs

If you are thinking about starting a business or just would like to read very insightful information, this is the blog to read. There is a specific post that was written recently that lists the top 30 young entrepreneurs blogs. It is highly recommended that you take a look at these various blogs. I personally have read a couple of them. One of them I was very impressed by was Neil Patel who writes on QuickSprout.

Here is a link to the post that lists the top 30 young entrepreneur blogs of 2009.

Unstrappd

Sneak Preview of Inception: Awesome!

This is pretty cool. It comes out Summer 2010.

Book Recommendation- Daemon by Daniel Suarez

Here is a review of the book by Robin Cook (who is a doctor and author of such titles as Coma)

Daemon is an ambitious novel, which sets out not only to entertain, which it surely does, but also to challenge the reader to consider social issues as broad as the implications of living in a technologically advanced world and whether democracy can survive in such a world.

The storyline portrays one possible world consequent to the development of the technological innovations that we currently live with and the reality that the author, Suarez, imagines will evolve, and it is chilling and tense (on www.thedaemon.com the reader can find evidence that the seemingly incredible advances Suarez proposes could in fact become real). Daemon is filled with multiple scenes involving power displays by the Daemon's allies resulting in complete loss of control by its enemies, violence with new and innovative weaponry, explosions, car crashes, blood, guts, and limbs-cut-off galore.

As far as computer complexity, Daemon will satisfy any computer geek's thirst. I was thankful for Pete Sebeck, the detective in the book whose average-person understanding of computers necessitates an occasional explanation about what is going on. I came away from the novel with a new understanding, respect, and fear of computer capability.

In the end, Suarez invites the reader to enter the "second age of reason," to think about where recent and imminent advances in computer technology are taking us and whether we want to go there. For me, it is this "thinking" aspect of the novel which makes it a particularly fun, satisfying, and significant read.

Here are some reviews:

“Daemon does for surfing the Web what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

“Daemon is wet-yourself scary, tech-savvy, mind-blowing!”
—Paste Magazine

“This is a techno-thriller with a healthy dose of techno but absolutely no letdown on the thrill.”
—Slashdot.com

Movie Recommendation for the Week!

Movie Recommendation for the Week is Police,adjective or also known as Politist, adjective.

It is a foreign film from Romania. It is about a Romanian cop assigned to a minor drug case who debates the meaning of justice with his boss.


I thought I mix it up for the New Year and broaden the scope of films recommended here on the blog. Enjoy!

Here is a Trailer or I guess a snippet of the movie.

Are you Bored? Listen to Tiger Slow Jamz- lol

Are you Bored? Palin- 2012= Hilarious!

Some Websites to Check Out in 2010

Happy New Year!

Here are a few websites that I found interesting and sugggest you check out to kick off 2010.

1. Flixup.com= reviews of movies on Twitter

2. Schoogo.com- great if you are searching for public/private school for your child/children

3. Ajaxo- website that helps you find deals on food in your zip code area.

4. Myitemtracker.com- tracking items on Amazon by price (Great if you are looking for cheap textbooks to buy before the semester begins)