Welcome to Gaia! ::

I am a man of many experiences. I have been a taxi driver, I have lived in Europe, I have managed to pass a class without handing a single thing in... the list goes on.
Here, I will recommend to you, and I encourage feedback, those things which I found most enjoyable, or the best for me. I will probably recommend against a small number of things as well.

McSweeneys Internet Tendencies this online publication updates every weekday (except holidays) with original, funny, and oft-times cynical writings from aspiring and established writers alike.
And it's absolutely incredible. I'm not lying. It's where I got the entire idea for this thread. I highly recommend last Friday's Naked Came the Beagle, an exceedingly noir look at one of America's favorite classic newspaper "funnies." If that doesn't hook you, I don't know what will. Maybe their incredibly informative (and sometimes cautionary) reviews of new food, or perhaps Dan Liebert's incredibly surreal verbal cartoons, or another personal favorite of mine, the reader-submitted lists which annotate every topic from alternate alphabets to Broadway musicals to STD medications.

No matter what you like to read, I promise you that if you have a sense of humor (and you'd better, if you're a member of LoSI) you will find something on this website that will make you laugh. A lot.

Thank you Nevi, that was pretty epic.

While we're on the subject of rock operas, though, I simply must recommend Southern Rock Opera by Drive-By Truckers. I know their name is difficult to take seriously, but this is not whiny my wife left me in the pickup truck with my dog country, this is pure southern rock, the likes of which we haven't heard since October 20, 1977.

The 20-song-long, two-disc album opens with a narrative called "days of graduation" which is the story of a harrowing car crash the night before graduation. Beautiful prose pierces this dark piece, and we are left with the knowledge that "when the ambulance came, the paramedics could hear "Free Bird" still playing on the stereo.
You know it's a very long song"

The album proceeds to launch into an incredible dissertation of what the south really is. Covering topics of race politics, and stadium rock, we the listener are left at once bewildered and enlightened. Forever changed in our opinion about this land which we hear so often lampooned.

The album ends as darkly as it begins, with the single most haunting song I have ever heard. This beautiful epic, "Angels and Fuselage" is an 8-minute long tribute to the tragic end of Lynyrd Skynyrd. As we follow the lead singer of a fictional band from his realization that "the trees are getting closer it seems" to his acceptance "we all know that we're going down" all of this overshadowed by his mounting fear of what's coming next.

This album has earned a place among the best song cycles of classic rock. It is the nearest thing that this new century has to their legend. It is fantastic, and I hope you all enjoy it as I have.

Going to College in a different state.

Sure, the education won't necessarily be different, and state university can be a heckuva lot cheaper, but you will never learn as much about yourself or the world as you will without family or friends for those first few (increments of time, depending wholly on how fast you make friends). Also, move off campus when you get a chance. It's a whole 'nother world.

Now, I only recommend loose leaf tea.

Naturally, I get lazy and use tea bags occasionally, but I don't recommend it, because it's the sucker's way out. For the loose leaf tea maker in the united states, I recommend first having the equipment needed to make loose leaf tea. Tastes vary in which way is best, and I don't honestly consider myself expert enough in this field to recommend any particular way (I personally use the Teavana Perfect Tea Maker, which is basically the iMac of the tea brewing world. Even an idiot can't mess it up too badly). Now for loose leaf tea, your best bet is to find a locally-owned specialty tea shop (there's a great one in my home town called the English Butler). You may not be so lucky to have such a thing wherever it is you live, but maybe you can find a suitable substitute. Teavana is a nation-wide chain of specialty tea. And the stuff they sell is good, albeit expensive (the price we pay, literally, for good things). Yesterday I bought myself a half pound of a Zingiber Ginger Coconut tea with real pieces of coconut and ginger that you can just eat out of the tea mix. Not to mention chocolate and orange shavings. It's intense. I got my girlfriend a half pound of Samurai Chai Mate, this stuff has dried fruit in it, 100 percent the caffeine of coffee, and smells like heaven.
Of course, a pound of this stuff, along with two (reusable, so I don't have to pay again for those) tins, cost me an arm and a leg, but it should last a while. Also, half of it was a present, so I don't feel that bad.
Good luck!
Also, I like the idea of asking for recommendations, I feel like an advice columnist (no relationship questions, please, I will ruin your life with my answers judging on personal experience), or an expert.

Thank god for Itunes gift cards! I finally got to listen to the Southern Rock Opera and it really is great. I recommend it to for anyone at all interested in good ol southern rock music.

What are your recommendations for cheap travel around Europe? Is there any specific method cheaper than the others and what is the cheapest way to stay in a certain place?

Excellent. I was up until 4 AM chatting with some of the people I'm going with, and there are a couple places we'd like to make it to. It'll be nice to see what we can do.

What is the best way of dealing with drunken idiots who try to break into your house?