Attending A Cosplay Convention

By: John Smith

When attending a cosplay convention, or similar gathering, there are simple unspoken rules or guidelines that you should be aware of. These are things that for the most part I have learned for myself as a veteran convention participant. Relying on general guidelines helps to give structure to an otherwise "chaotic" event.

Firstly use should be aware of the cosplay is. Cosplay is the practice of wearing costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific fictional character. Cosplay applies to any costume roll and venues apart from a stage performance. Material sources include comic books, cartoons, video games, live action films and TV series.

When preparing to attend a cosplay convention, you should plan to get there as early as possible. You will want to register your ticket, which is highly recommended you by beforehand, and get your badge from the staff. If he had not purchased a ticket for the event before registration starts, chances are you on the longer be able to get one online. That means having to wait and an even longer line for an even pricier ticket. The lines sometimes circle around the building if you aren't careful to get there with in plenty of time. Once you have your badge, you can enter and exit the convention at your convenience.

Bring a camera, bandages, and over-the-counter pain medicine. You want to remember the experience with photos of the amazing cosplays. The Band-Aids and over-the-counter pain reliever are for your feet and headache. The conventions are loud, so loud that quiet shouting is an acceptable tone. Your feet will be killing you by the end of the day from wanting to see all the panels to be offered.

When cosplaying, you should always be prepared for the absolute worst, but hope for the best. You should test your cosplays resilience before I'm wearing it to a convention. This means it should hold up almost as well as normal clothing when worn for an extended period of time. Try to remember you will be moving in this. As resilient as a cosplay may be, accidents do happen. Bring everything you could possibly need with you to repair your costume. Be a pessimist when it comes to packing. It is inevitable that something will fall off, come unglued, or a strap will break. Safety pins, glue and scissors are your friends!

As far as props go, most conventions will have rules about what is allowed in and what is not. You should try as hard as possible to adhere to these rules. Most of the time you will have to have your props that appear to be weapons checked by damages staff. This means they will check and see if it is threatening to you or others and then secure a piece of tape to it and make sure that he will know it is not an actual weapon. Making them lightweight and durable is key to an enjoyable at convention experience. You do not want to haul around a large, heavy and half broken prop all day. Remember accidents do happen to bring supplies for repairs.

A very important unspoken rule is to not be a creep. The event center is not your home. Sleeping in the hallways, leaving your bag unattended, hogging the restroom to change costume, and walking around without footwear are all highly frowned upon. Act like you would anywhere else. Just because you are in costume for the weekend and are there to enjoy yourself around people like you doesn't mean relaxing the point of rudeness. It is encouraged that you be friendly and comfortable with the people around you. However, please be courteous.

There will be people asking to take your picture if you have chosen to dress up. You can however decline their offer. Cosplay doesn't equal consent. Some patrons have less than peering tensions, and because of this, it is understandable why you wouldn't want your picture to being taken for fear of where it may end up. If you don't want your picture taken and someone has cited to take your picture anyway, reports that immediately to the convention staff. Most conventions have a very specific laws and the rules about this, and they will be ejected from the convention without a refund.

When cosplaying, you will notice that people tend to get excited when seeing you. They will want to hug you. However, as I stated before costly does not equal consent! You may not want to be hugged. You don't know these people, and these cosplays are fragile. You have put a lot of time and effort into this and you wanted to stay in one piece!

More important than anything is general safety. Your cosplay should always have enough room for you to breathe in, and have enough visibility that your senses aren't compromised. Never except food or drinks from strangers, followed them to places you aren't familiar with, or invite them back to your hotel room. Remember, when walking to the convention center or hotel, baby traffic rules and try to use sidewalks and trolleys when available.

Ultimately, what do you want to take away from this is to remember to have fun, be safe, courteous and prepared.

For more information about this subject visit:

http://www.animedetour.com/faqsurvival

http://ifanboy.com/articles/what-is-cosplay-and-why-do-people-do-it/

My Summer Road Trip

By: Caleb Underhill

            I would like to share my personal experience of road tripping with my family to Las Vegas this past summer. I will also include things that you may expect on the way, as well as what you may want to think about ahead of time.

My grandparents decided to take my parents, my younger brother Logan, and I on a cross-country road trip to Las Vegas. This is something they used to do every summer, but as they have gotten older, they have had to go less often than before. However, they wanted to share a trip with us for many years, and my grandpa finally planned a trip. We stopped at many historical landmarks and cool places along the way. It was a lot of fun, but you have to really love your family to be crammed in a vehicle and hotels for two weeks!

First of all, you need to start out with an actual plan listing the dates and places you will stop and see on the way. My grandfather had this down well considering they have seen just about anything you could see, but he chose certain places that he felt my brother and I would enjoy.

While on a road trip, you are in the car for most of the hours, so you will certainly need to prepare for your entertainment and simple things to pass the time. I prepared many movies, mainly movies that were a series such as “Back to the Future” or “Star Wars”. We also played various games we used to play on the road when we were younger traveling on vacation, and you can easily make up games or things to watch and count. You also need to bring a camera because the world is beautiful, and it is great to be able to look back at the amazing places I have been to.

Below is the Rio Grande River.

Below are pictures along Route 66.

Here is a Gypsy Man in the historic town of Tombstone, Arizona.

The one thing I really wish I had thought about bringing was EAR PLUGS. I hadn’t thought about how my brother and I wouldn’t have a room to ourselves. As a result, we had to choose to sleep in my grandparents’ room, where my grandma sometimes talks in her sleep and my grandpa is a snorer, or my parents room, where my mom sleeps through anything and my dad is the loudest person I have ever heard snore in my life. It got to a point where I said I was buying my own hotel room because I couldn’t sleep. Luckily, that night was our last stop before Las Vegas. Logan and I got to share a room there because of a timeshare we owned.

Meteor Crater

Another thing to bring is money. There are many places very different from what we had been accustomed to. With these weird and different places come some very interesting and cool stores with things you don’t see every day at home so you might like to purchase souvenirs or anything else. One purchase I made was a poster of one of the Eagles tours in the 1970’s. It says, “Purchased on the corner of Winslow, Arizona”, referring to their hit “Take It Easy”. Below are pictures as well as a picture of the painted desert which is close by.

You would also need money to play games in Las Vegas, if you are 21 or older of course. Since he has been to Las Vegas so many times, my grandfather knows where to go to play games, as well as cheap activities you could check out such as “The Freemont Street Experience,” which is in downtown Las Vegas. My Papa insisted that the best place to gamble is in downtown Las Vegas, or the older part. He claimed the slots were looser, meaning you were more likely to hit on those machines than you would be hitting the slots in the large, newer casinos. Well he was right. On the third, day we had plans for all of the family to go to an old casino downtown, called The El Cortez,  to just play games all day. Many people become addicted to gambling and use all of their money, but we know it is just for fun, and we actually had good luck (knock on wood)! I started with $50 and walked out with over $300 on just slots and black jack. My younger brother walked out with a jackpot of $527. He was 19 years old at the time, which brings me to my next point. Not only were we winning more downtown, but obviously the security was very, very laid back. It was funny when Logan hit big, he brought me the winning ticket and jetted to the car.  Also, everything in downtown Las Vegas was much cheaper and less crowded. “Freemont Street”, as mentioned before, is the big attraction in the old part of Vegas. They have many stores and free shows going on. The whole “Freemont Street Experience” is famous for an overhead display covering all of the street. Four times a night you are able to see a 15 to 20 minute show right above your head, usually illustrating bands playing along with their music. Las Vegas is 110 years old and consists of mainly a poor to low-income population. While driving through the city, one may not realize how poor the population is. The many tourists almost mask the real citizens who call Vegas home. Therefore, you may have to stay closer together here due to it being an older and poorer part of town.

Here is our hotel view.

The last, and most important, thing I would say to prepare for, or bring with you, would be love, consideration, and patience. This trip really tested my patience because even being with the people you love things can get heated. A little argument can lead to a big fight. But you have to think of the big picture. You are all in the same boat together. Why not put yourself in everyone else’s shoes and consider what they would like to do too. You can’t do everything you want to, so try to make the best of everything you see and enjoy the time you have with your loved ones.

Here we are at the Alamo and the Beatles show LOVE.

I must say this was the best trip I have ever been on and highly recommend doing this to anyone. Maybe this will help someone to be more prepared about doing this or maybe even more informed if they are thinking about it.

For more information about Las Vegas, visit www.LasVegas.com

DirtyKicks and Customizing Sneakers

By Drema Copeland

         

           Your shoes are your canvas. It is up to you to decide what style of shoe best fits the image you want to produce. White sneakers are the simplest to customize. Choose a sneaker made of either leather or vinyl. A canvas shoe may also be used but could prove to be a much trickier surface for a beginner. If you are familiar with the many different types of paints and how they are applied to different surfaces, steer clear of canvas for now. Before you do anything, it is best you devise a rough sketch of your plan.

Paint: Some paint markers release very fragile paint and some are tremendously watery. These types don’t work well for sneaker art. Make sure the markers you choose have the thickest consistency for the finest results. Paint markers are available in various tip sizes: Big to small. Based on your sketch, choose the proper tip sizes for your image. You want to be able to control lines, fill in spaces and define curves. The thinner the tip, the easier it will be to draw details. The thicker the tip, the more paint you can spread to large areas. Spray paint can also be used. If you use spray paint as a base, make sure you get skinny caps to keep the aerosol from covering detail you want to show.

You need to have all the correct materials to do a proper custom job. When painting on leather, the only paint recommend is Angelus paint. You also need acetone, rubber gloves, cotton balls, a glass that's not made of plastic, medium and liner paintbrushes and an airbrush, masking tape, an x-acto knife, a matte finisher and a hair dryer.

Take the cotton balls and soak them into the acetone. Rub the cotton balls until the coat is off the leather. Coating may leave a muddled residue when it comes off. You'll go through a lot of cotton balls if you're doing this properly. The leather will turn grey now that the layer is off. Running your finger over the surface and if it's still really smooth you haven't taken the layer off completely. This process may take between 30 and 40 minutes. Then cover all the areas that you may not want painted. Use an X-Acto knife and cut along the edges.

When applying paint, paint in lightly to avoid thin layers, streaks, and cracks that look like there painted. All colors aren't opaque like others. You may need more coats to achieve a leveled finish like red or yellow. Make sure the layer dries before applying the next coat. You can use a hair dryer to speed up the process.

A small liner brush can be used when cleaning the edges and small details along the shoe. Take your time. Once the shoe is completely dry, take off the gloss paint leaves off so it looks more factory. There are tons of finishers out there, Angelus also makes finishers.

 You've now effectively made a custom shoe. You can begin to lace them.

For more helpful information please visit:
http://sneakers.about.com/od/howtocustomizesneakers/ss/Customizesneaks.htm#step3

Cars and Coffee

By Edgar Perez

FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Every Saturday morning between 8 and 11, the event Nashville Cars and Coffee occurs in the Carmike 20 theater parking lot in Franklin, Tenn. The first Saturday of the month is “exotic”, meaning you get to see some of the fastest cars in the world, like Bugatti, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Ferrari’s, and many more.

This is an entertaining event to watch because it shows how much people love their own cars. It shows how passionate they are. You get to experience new things with each car. You get to see what type of work owners put into their vehicles.

 

A lot of car sponsors come to the event, including BMW and Nissan. Last time I went, Firestone Tire Company was changing tires for free for anyone who had poorly conditioned tires on his or her car. During the event, the people who host like to give out doughnuts and water to attendees.   

            The Lamborghini Aventador is a sports car produced by an Italian manufacturer. It was launched on Feb. 28, 2011. The Aventador was named after a fighting bull. The base price of the Aventador is $393,695. The engine is the best thing it has for its performance. It has a V12 engine weighing 235 kg. Its top speed is around 215 miles per hour. This car is very attractive to me from the way it looks and performs on the streets.

 

“It’s an amazing experience to get to meet exotic owners and to get to see the best and most expensive cars with your own eyes!” said Runne Gutierrez, a car enthusiast. The Cars and Coffee event occurs at 633 Frazier Drive in Franklin, Tenn.

The gathering is a very loose and relaxed event run by the car community, drawing an array of people. Some old timers, kids, and even teenagers like me attend. It’s straight forward. Bring your ride, exotic, specialty or any motorized transportation and show it off to the group and onlookers.  

If you are a car enthusiast, I would recommend you mark your calendar and check out the Cars and Coffee event. If you do not have a sweet ride, no worries. Come enjoy your Saturday morning with some coffee and view some amazing vehicles.    

For more information, visit http://carsandcoffeefinder.com/cool-springs/.

 

 

 

 

 

'Jurassic World': Dinosaur Movie, Not for Dino-Fans

By Sidney Smith

Since "Jurassic World" came out to DVD recently on October 10th, I made a point to finally sit down and watch the movie. I didn't get a chance to see it while it was still in theaters, so the past few months I'd been avoiding reviews and posts about the movie to make sure I didn't spoil anything for myself. Like many others who were looking forward to "Jurassic World", I've been a longtime fan of the “Jurassic Park” franchise and those movies were some of my childhood favorites. I have a lot of fond memories watching through them all with my father, and I was really hoping that "Jurassic World" would successfully reboot the series and bring all those good memories and nostalgic feelings back.

Unfortunately, the movie I saw felt lost, and lacked the love and care that made the first film so special. I'll go ahead and say that this review will contain plenty of spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie for yourself, I suggest you stop reading now. Also, this "review" will likely sound unfortunately passionate, so if you're opposed to reading zealous ramblings on a dying movie franchise, you'd best stop reading, too. So, now that that's out of the way, let's get started!

The first thing about the movie that killed the mood for me was the park itself. This is the first time in the series that we see the park open to the public, and yet I could never get a feel for the layout of the place. That might not seem like the biggest problem you could possibly have with a movie, but with the original film, the park had such a clear layout. Locations were visited several times throughout the story, and it gave you a real sense of the place. It made the park seem real. Like something that could actually exist (even while it's full of extinct creatures) and, for a child, that's something magical.

But it's different in "Jurassic World". So much of that movie takes place in ambiguous forest settings, and you never see proper transitions from attraction to attraction. It makes the park feel disjointed, confusing, and more importantly, impossible. I know that the official Jurassic World website has a map of the park layout, but that's something that I want to be able to see from the movie itself. I don't want to have to go to the website in order to fill in the gaps when those gaps shouldn't have been in the movie in the first place. It feels lazy, and it speaks for the uninspired feeling that the entire movie gives off.

A map of the island, taken from the movie's elaborate website.

Speaking of uninspired, that brings us to "Jurassic World"'s second offense: the characters.

I know the most outspoken complaint about the movie's characters has been claims of sexism regarding the leading lady of the film, Claire Dearing (played by Bryce Dallas Howard). People have complained that Claire falls into one too many female stereotypes or that she's poorly written and shown as completely incompetent throughput the movie. But I think it's just the opposite. Claire might not be a well-rounded character, but she is practically the only person in the film to show any sign of character growth. Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) on the other hand is your typical static hero-guy. Everything he does is super cool, and that's it. Hoskins (Vincent D'Onofrio) acts as the movie's human villain, and everything he does is super misguided and bad. And then there are the kids, who just do whatever they need to do to advance the plot.

The main characters of "Jurassic World". 

I don't want to be unfair though, so I'll admit that this isn't the first movie in the series to have unbelievable characters. The "Lost World" and "Jurassic Park 3" both had their issues with coming up with unique characters. Perhaps even worse because both movies featured returning characters, and the poor writing brought down some of the already established characters in the franchise, like Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm. So while the cardboard characters aren't new with "Jurassic World", I was expecting a little more from the movie after all the advertisements hyping it up.

Another issue I had with the movie was simply the pace that everything happened at. Several story arcs were introduced throughout the film, but beyond the "dinosaurs killing everyone" theme, none of these arcs are ever expanded on. Nothing was ever explained. For example, during the scene on the monorail, the youngest child, Gray, tells his brother about their parents' impending divorce. The two of them are very noticeably upset; Gray's crying, and Zach is refusing to accept that anything is wrong. It's meant to be an upsetting scene, likely to try and make you sympathize with the children and their situation more, but it's so sudden and forced feeling that falls flat in its delivery. After the monorail scene, we don't hear about the divorce again; not even when the parents are shown together at the end of the movie, after the survivors have been brought back to the mainland. Are they going to stay together for the sake of the children, who have just survived a traumatic dinosaur-themed nightmare, or are they still getting divorced? After the monorail scene, the film just sort of forgets to answer these questions.

And this isn't the only example of loose ends and unexplained plots in the movie. It's never explained how they reclaimed the island from all the dinosaurs in the first place, or how the "mad scientist" Dr. Wu survived the original park disaster. It's not even clear on who Mr. Masrani (Irrfan Khan) is and how he's related to Hammond (the park's original founder). Again, more of these loose ends and plot holes are developed on the movie's official website, but it's the same lazy, uninspired solution. It feels like the screenwriters couldn't be bothered to find a way to give this information through the movie itself.        

     

And lastly, the greatest issue with the movie is the star itself; the new hybrid dinosaur, the Indominus Rex, and everything it represented within the film.

According to Entertainment Weekly's interview with Colin Trevorrow (1) (the film's director), Trevorrow said, regarding the Indominus Rex, that "we’re surrounded by wonder and yet we want more. And we want it bigger, faster, louder, better." And I think that right there sums up the issues with the movie and the attitude it enters the franchise with. While the movie's plot and writing criticize consumers who always demand more, the film falls into its own trap. It becomes a generic action movie, showing explosions everywhere and brutal fighting scenes between man and monster, with each scene always trying to be "bigger" and "cooler" than the last. It's a movie about dinosaurs where the message is "dinosaurs aren't enough".

Even with all the time spent on the film's hybrid, camera angles often only show claws and teeth.

What the film misses completely is the sense of wonder and magic that the original "Jurassic Park" had. Yes, the first film had plenty of tense action scenes, but it also took the time to properly establish what made the park so great; the celebration of the dinosaurs themselves. That's what made that movie so amazing to me as a dinosaur-obsessed child. Even the "harmless herbivores", like the triceratops and the gallimimus, got a good chunk of the limelight in the first movie, and that's what really sets it apart from "Jurassic World".

A scene from Jurassic Park. Photo by Universal Pictures/Getty Images

It's no secret that "Jurassic World" was in development limbo for over ten years, with the fourth film being officially confirmed in 2003 (2).  Through that time, the plot details and casting had changed dramatically while the team behind the movie tried to figure out how to bring the franchise back in full force. And after so much work and time being put into "Jurassic World", the end result felt very forced. One of the biggest problems with the film is the fact that it feels like a sequel, rather than a natural continuation of a story: it feels like the crew behind the film spent all of their time trying to fit in similarities and details from the original park, and they didn't leave themselves any time to focus on the actual content of this new movie.

To clarify, I'm not trying to convince you that "Jurassic World" is a bad film. On its own, "Jurassic World" provides plenty of entertainment. The setting and colors in the film are gorgeous, the CGI and dinosaurs look very convincing and the acting is great, even making up for the writing at times. If this movie had been marketed as a generic monster movie, completely detached from the original trilogy, this would be a very different story. But what "Jurassic World" lacks in heart and creativity, it tries to make up in nostalgia by including constant throwbacks to the original park throughout the entire film, and unfortunately nostalgia alone just isn't enough to save this confused story from itself.

For more information, visit the Jurassic World Website.

References

1: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/25/meet-new

2: http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/07/11/sam-neill-confirms-jurassic-park-iv

Who is Jim McElwain?

By: Jeremy Mason

 

            “I got to tell you something now, what an honor, how humbling it is to be a part of one of the greatest brands in all of college athletics, to have the opportunity to be a part of something that's real special.”  You look out and you see that stadium, you think about all the great players, people, tradition that has been built at the University of Florida.  That's something that is so exciting.  I grew up in Montana.  These are things you dream about.” Said Florida’s new Head Football Coach. Indeed it is! Jim McElwain is just an average guy of 53 years of age who grew up in the small city of Missoula, Montana. There is no doubt that Coach Mac has always had football in his roots. After being an all-state Quarterback at Sentinel High School, Jim went on to play college football at Eastern Washington from 1980-1983, and then from there began his coaching career.

            Jim McElwain started off as a graduate assistant coach at Eastern Washington before becoming the Quarterback/Wide Receivers coach in 1987. In 1995, he left Eastern Washington to become the offensive coordinator at Montana State. So far, you can definitely tell that Coach Mac had his start at the lower-tier teams before getting some pretty good jobs. Jim went on to coach WR’s at Michigan State and Louisville after his stay with Montana State. Notably, he went on to be the QB coach for the Oakland Raiders.

          After that came his best job and what people know him best, being the offensive coordinator for the Alabama Crimson Tide. Being under Nick Saban was the unquestionably biggest stepping stone in McElwain’s career, helping the Tide win two National Championships in 2009 and 2011. His offensive mind and craft helped develop Greg McElroy and A.J. McCarron. In May 2015 at the annual spring football meetings for the SEC, Saban was very high on McElwain and made it clear he thought he’d do a great job at Florida.

          "Jim did a really fantastic job for us," Saban said. "First of all, he's a real quality person. Players really respect him and like him. He's a really good teacher. He's innovative in terms of things that he does that create problems, and I think he really has the best interest of the player in mind — and the game.”

           Being so successful at arguably the most prestigious college football program in the country helped Coach Mac get his first head coaching job at Colorado State, where he developed a subpar program into a 10 win team in his last year there. McElwain went on to win the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in that same year, 2014.

           That leads us to now, October 28, 2015. Let’s start by what led up to the position he is now. University of Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley had one thing in mind when going on his coaching search: let’s bring the excitement back to Gainesville. Restore the order. That meant Foley had to go out there and get an offensive mind, particularly one that has made a knack for developing quarterbacks. Jim McElwain met all of that criteria and it also helped that Jim had previous SEC experience, winning those 2 National Championships on the way. Jim McElwain had a tall task at hand, and in the sports world nowadays, fans want results now. There wasn’t much time for McElwain to “rebuild” the brand and program that is the University of Florida, and fans wanted to see results now. They wanted that and by God, they got that!

          Florida’s offense in the past four years under former Coach Will Muschamp was dismal to say the least, boasting one of the worst offenses in all of college football. Now, by no means was Coach Mac going to have this team with this roster as a perennial powerhouse on offense the first year, but through seven games, the improvement has been substantial. This defense has been one of the best for quite some time, even under Will Muschamp, so all this team really needed was an offense with a pulse so to speak.

           So here we are, with four games to go and the annual World’s Largest Cocktail Party with Georgia coming up on Saturday, Jim McElwain has this team, who went 7-5 last year and 4-8 the year before that, 6-1 and one win away on Saturday from punching there ticket to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. 6 games into the year, starting Quarterback and Redshirt Freshman Will Grier was suspended for the remainder of the season for an over the counter PED. Some, including myself, considered this to be a huge blow.

          But with Coach Mac at the helm, this team and Sophomore QB Treon Harris is in good hands. Treon Harris isn’t what most people think is Mac’s typical QB. But no mistake about it, Treon Harris is a gamer, coming in last year and finishing with a decent 4-2 record. By no means do I believe in moral victories, but Coach Mac got this team up and ready to play in Death Valley with its backup QB. If not for a fake field goal and a couple defensive miscues, this Florida team could’ve walked out of Death Valley with a W. Unfortunately, the Gators came up short, 35-28, but the talk around the league was that the Gators were impressive in a loss. As Coach McElwain always preaches, you’re only as good as your next practice or game.
   
         When asked about whether or not McElwain had expectations to be in the position to win the SEC East, he said, “Well, of course. You don’t prepare as hard as we do to lose, we expect win here. They’re no participation ribbons in this business.” This season has already surpassed just about every fan’s expectation for the team. Even after the LSU loss, even after the lofty expectations and being picked to finish 4th and 5th in the SEC East, the Florida Gators control its destiny to Atlanta and can all but lock it up on Saturday with a win against rival Georgia. Take a bow, Jim McElwain.     

- For more information, visit www.gatorzone.com/football 

 

Our Trip to Panama City

By Cora Payne

            Ever since I was younger, my mom had promised me that she would take me on vacation. She had always asked me where I wanted to go, and I told her Florida. She had promised she would take me on my 16^th birthday, 17^th birthday, fall break, and graduation, but every time we tried to plan vacation, something always came up.

            The summer of my 18^th birthday, my mom had been talking about going to Florida AGAIN, but I never believed it would happen. In August, my mom’s best friend Kim had gone to Panama City, FLA. She called us and said, ‘You will never believe where we stayed.” My mom asked, “Where?” Kim said, “A TRAILER PARK!” My mom couldn’t believe that this was true. She found out the name of the place and looked it up. She started looking at the place and saw that it wasn’t run down or trashy. It was actually really nice. My mom then told me that we were going to be going to Florida for Fall Break and stay in a trailer park.

            When Fall Break came, I was excited that we were going to Panama City Beach. We couldn’t check into the trailer we were staying at until Saturday. We decided to stay at the Flamingo Motel, and we had an ocean front view! On Friday, we got into town about 5 p.m. We drove and walked around exploring the different things we could do. Dinner time was right around the corner, and I wanted some sautéed shrimp, so we went to Sharky’s.

            On Saturday, we enjoyed breakfast at Panera Bread. Then we went shopping. Later that day, we were able to check into the trailer park. When we arrived, a security guard met us at the entrance, and he checked us in. We then made our way to 362 Amberjack Lane. When we got to the trailer, we unpacked. We decided we wanted to go explore, so we jumped in the golf cart provided by the park and rode around. WE noticed that Venture Out had putt putt, shuffleboard, a private beach, a pier, two heated saltwater pools, a basketball court, a tennis court, and a playground for kids. By the end of the first day, my mom and I had fallen in love with the place.

            With this being my first trip ever seeing the Gulf of Mexico, I can honestly say I will not stay anywhere else other than Venture Out.

            There are many different things you can do in Panama City Beach. During my trip, I went and rode on an air boat, held a real alligator, went on a cruise, and laid at the beach and many other things. If you would like to visit Panama City Beach, here is a website to help plan your trip: http://www.visitpanamacitbeach.com/things-to-do/attrations/.

            If you would like more information about Venture Out Rental, you can visit their website for all the different rental trailers they have at http://www.ventureoutvacations.com/  

Becoming a Nurse

By Jaalah Verge

                                The beginning of my senior year on Aug. 7, 2014, I decided that I wanted to become an RN nurse. I had to second guess myself because I wanted to do something in the criminal justice field. When I kept thinking about nursing, I told myself it would be a great fit for me because I’m really good with people and kids. When I was little, I would always carry around my little nurse kit and try to practice on people. I started out at a young age wanting to be a nurse. Some of my family members would tell me they thought nursing would be a great fit for me. I love taking care of people and making sure they get the right kind of medicine to make them feel better.

            Nurses work closely with doctors and other health care professionals and serve as the advocates for patients and families. Overall, nurses can assess patient health problems and needs, develop and implement nursing care plans, and maintain medical records. Nurse practitioners (NP) work in clinics, nursing homes, hospitals, or private offices. They provide a wide range of primary and preventive health care services, prescribe medication, and diagnose and treat minor illness and injuries. For many entry levels for nursing jobs, applicants need at least a diploma from a nursing program by the National League for Nursing. However, most employers prefer applicants with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in nursing, along with a state license to become an RN. If you want more information, you can visit the following website http://www.learnhowtobecome.org/nurse/.

                        One day I had to job shadow my doctor and his nurse for school. It felt like I was the actual nurse. I had to check everyone’s blood pressure, ears, mouth, nose and heartbeat. The coolest part was when I gave a patient his or her shots. It kind of gave me chills, but I just kept doing what I had to do. I have realized that when working with little kids, you have to have a lot of patience with them. As for adults, it’s way different. They are really easy to work with and function with.

                        Every time I go to the doctor I just get this happy feeling because one day that will be me helping a patient. I always tell myself that I can’t wait to make good money and be able to help my family out. I can’t wait to become a nurse one day.

 

Books to Movies

By: Ashley Smith

            Everyone has had that feeling of excitement when they get word of their favorite book coming out as a movie. With that being said, everyone has also had that disappointing feeling when the movie of their favorite book doesn’t depict the book in the way they think it should. I know I have had that feeling more than once.

            I was always told that if a book turns into a movie and you want to eventually see the movie, read the book first to avoid confusion because movie producers are known to leave out minor, and sometimes even major, aspects of books when they are made into movies. My mom has always been a firm believer that books spark something inside of a person that a movie never could because books make you think and imagine so you get to build the scenery in your head rather than watching it right in front of you. I have also come to believe that books hold a certain magic that movies can’t live up to.

I have always done what I was told to do and read books before I went to see the movie. With this being said, I want to share a few examples as to where I have been disappointed of the way a movie was not help to the greatness of the books’ standards. The first two books that come to my mind when I think about the book to movie concept are Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Fifty Shades of Grey. I’m choosing these two as my examples because these books are the books that I feel like I invested myself most in. I purchased and read each book from each series in less than a week’s time.

The first and second books of the Percy Jackson series were both made into movies, but I have only seen the first movie, and this is because I was disappointed in the differences of the first movies and book. Even though I wouldn’t say there were any major differences, I found myself to be very focused on the minor differences considering I would wait and anticipate something that happened in the book that never came in the movie. One thing that really stuck out to me was the color of Annabeth’s hair. The book constantly stressed the fact that Annabeth has beautiful blonde hair and in the book, but her hair was the farthest thing from blonde. The fact of how Percy Jackson’s identity was revealed in the book and in the movie differed greatly. In the book, no one knew exactly who he was until the triton of Poseidon appeared over his head. In the move, however, everyone at camp half-blood already knew whose son Percy was.

I read the Fifty Shades of Grey series late last year and the first movie just came out at the beginning of this year. Fifty Shades become a very controversial series, but after I read the first book, I was hooked and continued to read the rest of the series. I was extremely excited when I heard that they were coming out with a movie to go along with the first book. I went into the movie with my mind set expecting the movie to differ from the book simply because of the story line, so when I did notice a few of the differences, I wasn’t as disappointed as I was after watching Percy Jackson. There was a small number of differences in this book and movie. One of the things I really noticed was that Ana’s character was a lot more awkward in the movie than I had pictured she was while I was reading the book. Another difference was that Christian and Ana’s characters didn’t “click” as well in the movie as they did in the book. Even though you depict how you want to think of the characters while you are reading a book, I feel like the producers could have found a way to show a stronger connection in the movie.

            When you allow yourself to become so invested in a book, it is very disappointing when the movie doesn’t portray exactly what you think it should. My opinion on books turned into movies could definitely differ greatly from other peoples’ opinions. My opinion is what it is because of the way I was raised. I am thankful that I was raised to believe that books come first.

            For more information on both of the books, you can visit http://www.5novels.net/billion/b4630.htmlhttp://www.5novels.net/billion/b4630.html or

 http://www.rickriordan.com/books/percy-jacksons-world/percy-jackson-and-the-olympians/the-lightning-thief.

 

My Workout Routine

By: Brendan Woods

            There are several different ways to work your body to gain or tone your muscles. There are trainers out there that will tell you if you are not using their routine, that you are doing it wrong. That concept is totally wrong. There are wrong ways to work out your body, but that does not mean that there is only one workout routine that works. I am not a trainer by any means. That does not mean that my routine is wrong.

            When I started going to the gym, I had no idea what to do or how to do it. All I knew was what I wanted my body to look like. So, I did what anybody in the world would do. I Googled workout routines. I came up with a giant search list for me to choose from. I saw a link that showed what the main character, Stephen Amell, from the television series “Arrow” did to keep him in shape. I have his body type and build, so I knew that was the routine I wanted to do. The more I went to the gym and the more weight I lost, I started exploring different machines and exercises. When I found one that I was interested in, I googled it once again, so I knew what muscles I would be working and how many sets and reps to do for the best results.

             My workout routine now is the same one I have been using for over a year. The only difference is, until this last June, I was trying to gain muscle. This means that I was doing high weights and low reps.  This is the best way to see results for muscle gain. When June hit, it was my one-year anniversary from starting the gym. I figured that a year of gaining muscle was enough, and it was time to tone all that muscle up. To tone up you can do the exact same routine that you were doing to gain muscle. The only thing that you need to change is, instead of high weights / low reps, you swap it to low weights / high reps. This means whatever you were lifting, half it and double the reps you were doing when using high weights.

            Here is my routine that I want to share with you. I work out five days a week. I go to the gym Monday through Friday, but you can do it any day, and you do not have to go all five days. I would say at least go four days a week.

Days 1, 3, 5 chest / arms (muscle gain): 

·         Flies: 4 sets, 8 reps.

·         Semi-vertical dumbbell: press 4 sets, 8 reps.

·         Flat bench dumbbell: press 4 sets, 10 reps.

·         Overhead Triceps Extension: 4 sets, 8 reps.

·         Iso-lateral press:  4 sets, 8 reps.

Days 2 and 4 shoulder / back (muscle gain): 

·         Low back rows: 4 sets, 10 reps.

·         Straight vertical dumbbell press: 4 sets, 8 reps.

·         Bent over one arm dumbbell rows: 4 set, 10 reps (each arm).

·         Standing barbell curl: 3 sets, 10 reps.

This is my five-day workout routine. When trying to gain muscle, get your weights as heavy as you can get while still being able to complete the routine. When it starts to feel too easy, increase the weight by 5 pounds. Just as a reminder, if you are wanting to tone up, just cut the weight you are using in half and follow the routine, but double the reps listed above. I will post a leg day routine later. I normally do not do leg day because my legs have always been in shape. But I know some people are not that lucky. So, keep posted for the leg day routine. If you live near Murfreesboro, Tenn. I recommend getting a gym membership at the MTSU Rec Center. That is where I go, and they have an excellent facility. For more information about the workout routine I started with and the gym I use, go check out Stephen Amell’s work out on http://www.fitmole.org/stephen-amell-workout/ and the MTSU’s rec at http://www.mtsu.edu/camprec.