8B/S
MANUAL
DOING WITHOUT // LYING
> Absence makes the heart grow ... ?
I never lie.
OK, I'm lying. Here's the deal: I lie more often than I'd like to admit. Sometimes I lie about small things — what I really think about how you look in that dress, for example — and sometimes I lie about bigger things — why I'm late to class or blew off an important meeting.
blew off an important meeting.
I usually don't think twice about these slips.
In response to the occasional white lie, society today seems to look the other way; a little fibbing is even expected under certain conditions: faking orgasms or saying you're sorry even if you're not.
"We sometimes lie to prevent hurting people's feelings and make things go well socially," Glenn Adams, KU associate professor of psychology, says. "Sometimes lying is a way of being nice to people."
Dishonesty is a part of life — a part that I've given up for the past week.
For that reason, I found myself avoiding situations in which lying might save me from social catastrophe. I avoided talking to friends who I consistently placate with small, kind fibs. I managed to avoid a single "How's it going?" when I was having an agonizing day at work. Sex would have to wait a week.
When I couldn't avoid it, I stated the truth bluntly. I came face to face with my inner bitch, the one who tells it like it is and doesn't flinch afterwards. Interestingly, I found the experience freeing. I suddenly had nothing to hide.
This reaction flies in the face of Adams' opinion that "people lie to make themselves feel good." I feel great. Honestly. (And I wouldn't wear that dress again if I were you.)
// LINDSEY SIEGELE
Photo by Lindsey Siegle
White lies: For Lindsey Siegle, giving up lying
meant giving up her ability to censor herself.
ESSENTIAL LIFE SKILLS // USING EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES
> In case of emergency, read quickly.
Photo by Lindsey Siegle External safe guard: Backing up your work on a hard drive prevents future hassles.
A college student's computer holds her entire life:her favorite photos, iTunes library and that term paper she spent the better part of a semester perfecting.
Unfortunately, her computer and yours aren't invincible. Enter the external hard drive: a clever device for backing up your work (and everything else) that could save your sanity when the unthinkable happens — a total computer meltdown.
For the most storage space and dependability, George Marakas, KU professor of information systems, recommends external hard drives over flash drives. "I generally
shop for price versus size," he says, noting that some hard drives contain as much as 1 terabyte (that's a trillion bytes) of storage space and sell for around $100. "You will never, ever generate that much data as an individual."
that much data as an individual James Field, Denver graduate student, relies on a 640-gigabyte Maxtor to protect himself from lost files and says research is important when choosing an external hard drive. "Approach it as a business decision," he says.
Once you've purchased a hard drive, the process of backing up is easy. Marakas says. You'll need to connect the drive to your computer through a USB port. Some drives come with additional software for automating your backups. Then, follow the manufacturer's instructions, which are usually very straightforward. Marakas says you should back up your most important, irreplaceable files first.
tant, irreplaceable lives in it.
For the ultimate in data safety, backing up often is a good idea. "I'll back up once a month," Field says. "I should do it even more often."
// LINDSEY SIEGELE