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Here’s the latest list of 10 travel deals for this week. Many of these links lead to offers with a very limited shelf life, so if you’re interested, act quickly. But don’t act so quickly that you miss the fine print. Spring Travel Deals aren’t quite so fleeting, and are also worth a look. Among this week’s deals: A sale on TGV Premier train tickets in France, a $500 resort credit for travelers to Mexico and May discounts for student travelers.

For all you multilingual wonders, be you an international student, business person, traveler, or spy, you may find yourself wanting an office suite in a particular language.

This week, I’ve added two additional language lists to check out:

• Office Software Suites and Apps in Arabic
• Office Software Suites and Apps in Chinese

You can also check out these languages:

• Office Software Suites and Apps in Spanish
• Office Software Suites and Apps in French
• Office Software Suites and Apps in German

I add to these lists continually and would also like to create them for more languages, so please send me word if you are looking for a certain language. Have a great weekend!

One show I always like to catch on MLB Network is “Prime 9,” which is a countdown show with a subject and then nine answers, such as the nine best second basemen of all-time, the nine best teams of the 1990s, etc.

A fun one I saw recently was the Top 9 Could Have Beens, with guys like Bo Jackson, Tony Conigliaro, Herb Score and Pete Rieser, whose travails earned a modern day comparison this week from several sources.

When the Washington Nationals’ Bryce Harper ran face-first into the Dodger Stadium wall on Monday night, it was a scary sight that reminded people of Rieser, who was also one of the best young hitters in baseball in the 1940s, but played with a reckless style in the outfield and often ran into walls in much the same way as Harper did on Monday. Harper needed 11 stitches and felt a little woosy; Rieser’s promising career with the Brooklyn Dodgers, which began with a batting title at age 22 in 1941, never hit full stride.

These days, warning tracks are pronounced and walls are much softer than in Rieser’s day, but there’s still a lot of damage that can be done. Harper’s play on Monday night is also a reminder that Harper didn’t play a lot of outfield as a youngster — he is a converted catcher — and perhaps that is a factor.

As ESPN.com’s Buster Olney wrote: “Harper is a student of baseball history, admirably, and knows a lot about Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth and others, and if he’s too sore to play Tuesday, he might want to take a few moments to read about Pete Reiser.”

May’s security updates involve the Microsoft Word Viewer, Windows Essentials, and an array of other fixes. In particular, Microsoft Word, Publisher, Lync, Visio, Communicator, and more.

For full details, visit Microsoft’s Security Bulletin site, but first, if you haven’t already, be sure to evaluate your 3 Options for Keeping Your Version of Microsoft Office Current.

From a trends standpoint, Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface RT tablet users also get a bunch of updates this Patch Tuesday. Microsoft’s tablet represents the company’s continuing move toward hardware which best integrates with its powerhouse software ecosystem. As you may already know, Microsoft even has specific versions of Office for some devices:

• Microsoft Office for Windows Phone 8
• Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 RT

When thinking about borrowing for a large purchase, you’ve probably noticed that interest rates can differ quite a bit not only across time but also across people and types of borrowing. This makes sense, since interest rates not only compensate lenders for making their money available but also protects them against default (i.e. borrowers not repaying). Therefore, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that loans that are less likely to be paid back come with higher interest rates.

Recently, Senator Elizabeth Warren has criticized the government for the large spread that exists between the interest rates that it charges banks and the interest rates on student loans. While the difference is fairly substantial- expected to be 6.8 percent for students versus 0.75 percent for banks starting in July- it’s far from clear that the difference in interest rates represents some sort of favoritism towards banks as opposed to good, old-fashioned default risk and lack of collateral. (It’s not like one can give back an education if a student loan is defaulted on, after all.) In fact, economist Joe Stiglitz gives us the following data:

Some 17 percent of student-loan borrowers were 90 days or more behind in payments at the end of 2012. When only those in repayment were counted — in other words, not including borrowers who were in loan deferment or forbearance — more than 30 percent were 90 days or more behind. For federal loans taken out in the 2009 fiscal year, three-year default rates exceeded 13 percent.

Given these numbers, I’m actually surprised that the interest rates on student loans aren’t higher. Ironically, Stiglitz uses the above data to implicitly argue for lower interest rates for students, when in reality interest rates on student loans that are on par with those charged to banks would represent a massive subsidy compared to what would transpire with market pricing of loans based on risk. Nonetheless, Elizabeth Warren introduced a bill that would set interest rates on student loans at the rate banks receive when they borrow from the Federal Reserve.

Many students feel stressed about tests–sometimes to the point of making critical errors that they would not make if they weren’t feeling the pressures of perfectionism and test anxiety! If you’ve been wondering how you can keep this brand of stress from throwing you off your game, I have some great free resources that can help.

First, I’m giving a free webinar on test anxiety and stress management for College Week Live later today! College Week Live is an online college fair that brings representatives from top colleges to the comfort of a student’s desk as they watch free live webinars from each of these schools. During this online fair, there are webinars from experts from many fields that are useful to students as well, including a free webinar on stress and stress management from yours truly.

Register for College Week Live and ask the questions you need answered, or watch recordings of these webinars if you can’t attend when the presentations are taking place live. There is easily accessed help available, so why not take advantage? It’s going on now!

About.com also has some wonderful free resources for students. The following are some of the best offerings from my site, and links to others that can help:

• How To Deal With Test Anxiety and Actually Do Better On Tests
• Low-Stress Study Tips
• Stress Traps To Avoid While Studying
• About.com College Life
• About.com Homework Tips
• About.com College

Below are some additional resources that can help with college stress and stress relief. Use them to take charge of your college years and make them the best they can be!

• Common Causes (And Effects) of Stress In College
• How To Reduce Stress in College
• Fox Business: Help, I hate it here! How Unhappy Freshmen Can Survive their First Semester
• The Root Cause Of College Sleep Deprivation
• College Stress Traps To Avoid
• The Freshman 15: What You Need To Know
• Fox Business: How To Handle A Difficult Roommate
• About.com College Life: College Time Management Tips
• Common Studying Mistakes People Make–And How To Avoid Them
Bio – Newsletter – Facebook – Twitter – Quizzes

Office.About.com Weekend Reading
A Review of this Site’s New Content, Every Weekend

This week I finished two lists to help you choose the right office software for you. These join three existing lists of types of office software. My goal is to make it easier for you to find the right type of software suite for you while also comparing suites from different office software companies.

• List of Home or Standard Versions of Office Software Suites and Apps
• List of Free or Open Source Versions of Office software Suites and Apps

For reference, here are the other version lists created prior to this week:

• Student/Academic Versions of Office Software Suites and Apps
• Business/Professional Versions of Office Software Suites and Apps
• Cloud/Web-based Versions of Office Software Suites and Apps

Thank you to all who have taken a minute to Nominate Office Software You Love – Readers’ Choice Awards 2013. Your nomination is very appreciated and this upcoming Monday February 11, 2013, nominations close at 12 p.m EST.

The James Dyson Award is an international student design award running in 18 countries. It’s run by the James Dyson Foundation, James Dyson’s charitable trust, as part of its mission to encourage the next generation of design engineers to be creative, challenge and invent.

I’m giving you guys the heads up on this award, since the registration process doesn’t officially start until March 14th for 2013. Read up and look at the previous winners for inspiration. Photo Courtesy of Dyson

• Additional Reading
• Sir James Dyson
• The James Dyson Award

Microsoft’s big announcement this week brought tons of new content around this site. Here’s a list of new articles that revolve around the new Office 2013 and Office 365.

About Office 2013 (traditional desktop version of Office):

All About Microsoft Office 2013

Office Home and Student 2013

Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 RT

Office Home and Business 2013

Office Professional 2013

About Office 365 (new cloud-based, subscription format for Office, includes additional services as well):

All About Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 Home Premium

Office 365 University

Updated:

Office 365 and Office 2013…What’s the Difference?

Cloud Computing and Hybrid Cloud Computing

Please also Nominate Office Software You Love – Readers’ Choice Awards 2013

Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Have a fabulous weekend!