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Finals have concluded. The seemingly endless stream of readings, papers, projects, and exams has ceased for the moment. Another term is behind the college students of America.

Some students will go home for the holidays. Some will stay in their dorm or apartment. Certainly, everyone will find themselves attending parties, catching a movie, stuffing themselves silly, or watching football until their eyes glaze over. At some point during the next few weeks, inevitably, the question will arise: "So now what?" For hard-working students used to having too little time, this question can induce uneasiness and even panic. For others, elation and celebration.

Should you find yourself with nothing to do- heaven forbid- over the break, check out my list below of things to do when you have nothing else to do over the holidays:

1. Test the matches-turning-into-the Eiffel-Tower thing.

Once upon a time, a well-respected scientist stated that the chances are higher that there is extraterrestrial life in the universe than if you threw a bunch of matches into the air and had them come down in a perfect likeness of the Eiffel Tower. This, then, begs the question: just how likely is that? Well, since you’ve got some time on your hands, you can do mankind a great service and find out.

It’s simple: just keep throwing those matches up again and again. Using a spreadsheet, keep track of the times they come down in the shape of the Eiffel Tower versus they times they don’t. With a little perseverance and a lot of time, you might finally solve this age-old mystery and potentially find yourself in the running for a Nobel prize next to Mr. Gore. With this vital information, we could finally get this space program thing moving. And you, my friend, would become the Columbus of your time over the course of one holiday break.

2. Break the record for number of times watching A Christmas Story in one sitting.

Every year, over one tortuous week, certain cable channels play the Christmas "classic" (which is code for "so over-watched that no one watches it") A Christmas Story back to back to back. So, just in case someone missed the first, second, or twelfth airing of the film, they can still catch it. So, it stands to reason that someone must have made a world record out of how many times someone has sat down and watched the cursed thing back to back.

Are you ready to have the title ‘World-Record Holder’ after your name? This task is not for the faint of heart. The human brain has a certain threshold for how many times it process that phrase "you’ll shoot your eye out" before it triggers seizures. Even the very cinematography of the film, with its holiday ’70s kitsch dripping from every frame, can drive one to near insanity over several viewings. If you are to attempt this feat, please do some preliminary exercises. Your warm-up films should be appropriately cliched, annoying, and kitschy. Some great warm-ups are The Wizard of Oz (1939), Annie (1982), and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).

3. Attempt the Leche Challenge.

For the uninitiated, this challenge consists of one person sitting down with a gallon-sized jug of vitamin D milk and attempting, over the course of an hour, to drink the entire gallon. Because of an adverse reaction between large amounts of milk and the stomach juices, most people find themselves too full after only half a gallon to finish the rest. The milk doesn’t digest fast enough to finish the entire gallon within an hour. I’ve personally seen people rushed to the bathroom as the milk runs out of space in the stomach. Nasty stuff!

But if you have a larger stomach than normal and you’re ready to be recognized for it, grab a gallon of Vitamin D milk (no cheating with that skim stuff), a stopwatch, and a friend, and get ready for an intense hour. Consider throwing in a wager for some additional excitement. You will return to school with a new badge of honor.

4. Create your own sequel to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Haven’t you ever wondered what happened to Rudolph, Clarice, Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, the Abominable Snowman, and all those crazy misfit toys? Does the yeti go berserk and start eating elves and reindeer, Jurassic Park-style? Does Yukon trick Hermey into a scheme to overthrow the Santa monopoly once and for all? Ah, the possibilities. That’s why it’s way past time for the beloved, stop-motion classic to be retired. It came out in 1964, for goodness sake.

The good news is, you can be the one to create the sequel. All it takes is your parents’ garage, some clay, a camera, lots of film, and lots of white powder. And at 24 frames per second to be created and shot (that would mean roughly 64,800 frames for an hour-long TV special), this would be especially time-consuming. But that’s what you were looking for, right?

5. Perform a random act of kindness.

Okay, so this what you really should be doing (as opposed to watching with glee as your friend throws up chunks of curdled milk). With some free time on your hands, why not help your elderly neighbor with their garbage? Why not stop to help that guy with the flat tire in the snow storm? Why not volunteer at a soup kitchen? The holidays are a great time to make the world a better place without people looking at you like you’re mentally disturbed. You may not get a Nobel prize or earn a new world-record-holder title, but this one’s guaranteed to be worth your time.

About the author

Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.

One of my favorite things to do is read the college police blotters. It seems that no matter where the college is located, how many students it has, and how "prestigious" it claims to be, no college can avoid being embarrassed by a few of its students (and its visitors). I found interesting police blotters from colleges all over the country, and I couldn’t believe some of the hilarious things that happen on campus. Here they are, in no particular order.

From Middlesex County College:

Keep your parents on a very short leash! Police had to issue a defiant trespass ticket to a student’s father after the man became agitated because he was not permitted to obtain a sticker to update his son’s student ID card (only the son, who is an adult, by the way, had authorization to access his file). The father became so angry that he made terroristic threats, harassed a staff member, and was cited for disorderly conduct.

From Dartmouth:

Don’t get too desperate to find a date. A 28-year-old man who was visiting the Dartmouth campus was swimming in a local swimming area frequented by Dartmouth students when lifeguards noticed that he appeared to be drowning. After swimming out to help him, several students and lifeguards realized that the man was not wearing a swimsuit and was not drowning, but instead was pretending to drown so that female students would swim near him.

From Morgan State University:

Don’t let classes stress you out too much. After bookstore clerks asked a student to check his backpack (which is mandatory in most college bookstores), the man became highly agitated and began yelling profanities at the clerk. The student continued to ignore the clerk’s request and use profanities until police arrived and issued a judicial citation.

From Weber State University:

Make sure to take Driving 101: How to apply a parking brake. When a student returned to his parked car, he noticed that someone else had parked extremely close to him. In fact, the bumper of the red Volkswagen bug was touching the bumper of his Honda. The man got into his car and began to drive away, but then he realized that the Volkswagen was rolling with his car. The other driver had not used the parking brake, and the Volkswagen was only staying in place because of the student’s Honda. An officer secured the car and helped the student drive away.

From the University of Texas at Dallas:

Don’t drink if you’re underage. After an underage student cut himself on a beer bottle while playing around with his friends, he told the college staff member who was administering first aid that it was indeed a beer bottle (instead of just saying a "bottle"), and instead of just getting reprimanded for rough-housing with glass bottles, he was also issued a citation for consumption of alcohol by a minor.

From California State University:

And you thought you had weird neighbors! A student called police after noticing a suspicious-looking man staring at the stoplights at a street intersection and then sticking broken tree limbs in the cracks of the sidewalk. The person who called police went over to ask the man if he was OK, but the man would not respond.

From North Carolina State University:

Want revenge? Apparently, using your backside is the new fad. A man visiting the campus was issued a trespass warning after police caught him removing his pants and underwear and rubbing his buttocks on the hood of someone else’s vehicle.

From Dickinson College:

Don’t burn that food! After a fire alarm was set off by food left cooking on a stove, police discovered a number of other violations. They found four underage students who were drinking alcohol, others who possessed drugs and drug paraphernalia, some weapons violations, as well as health and safety violations.

From Rutgers College:

When pulling a prank, make sure it’s not on yourself! A male freshman decided it would be funny to pull the fire alarm at in a building on campus at 3:30 in the morning. After police apprehended him, they not only charged him with fraud for setting a false alarm, but they also discovered he had a fake ID and wrote him up for that as well.

About the author

Marcus Varner earned his BA in English from Brigham Young University with a Creative Writing emphasis. He is currently in his second year at BYU’s lauded MBA program studying Marketing. He blogs, writes fiction and screenplays, loves movies, and can’t resist playing superheroes with his kids.

The fact is, you can actually design your homeschooling program in order for it to come free. By ‘free’, we mean that you won’t be spending an extra buck aside from the regular crayons and pieces of paper that a regular school kid would need at the start of a school year.

The key to getting homeschooling ‘free’ is taking advantage of the resources around you.

The most obvious obstacle in beginning to homeschool your child is the need to create your own homeschooling curriculum. You may opt to purchase your own books to go over possible material, hire a professional to assist you in the creation of this curriculum, or better yet, go online and find a suitable free home schooling curriculum. Online home schooling support sites actually have various options for home schooling curriculum for you to choose from. Because these are all online, you are not likely to spend on transportation, professional fees, and even purchase of books you may not use when you decide you don’t want them in your curriculum.

Carrying on with a homeschooling program does not have to be expensive either. If you prefer buying books, you can contact local book dealers. Dealers of book sets have various discounts for home schooling parents like you. The benefits of getting your own book sets include the convenience of having these books in the comfort of your home. The costs of purchasing the books will be well worth it because your succeeding children can make use of these same books when they reach the same educational level.

Otherwise, you can opt to take advantage of something closer to home—your town or city library. Your library will likely carry a huge wealth of books (some may no longer be sold in your regular bookstores!) that you can borrow when you need them. Your regular school field trip can easily be replaced with the fraction of the cost. You can opt to see sites within the proximity of your home. Your city and your state may offer you a rich array of cultural and historical sites to visit. You can also opt to tie in education with whatever family trips and vacations you’d be making. Taking a trip to Lourdes? Build a lesson around the family trip so that you can use this time and the money you spend in homeschooling your child as well.

With some careful thought and innovativeness, you can easily make home schooling free—both financially and effort-wise. Don’t be afraid to ask around and look for ideas online from other homeschooling parents.

Find free home school resources in the free ebook "The Parents Guide to Home Schooling" at ChildrenLearnMore.info.