Hugs

A hug is perfect for any emotion. Whether someone is sad or happy, a hug could always make somebody feel better. However, have you ever thought about the health benefits that come with hugging? In an article called "The Health Benefits of Hugging" by Stacey Colino from the U.S News, she talks about how hugging actually has health benefits. This article is to educate the reader on the benefits of hugging that most people do not think about. The article discusses how tight hugs releases oxytocin and reduces stress. The article also says, "There's also some evidence that oxytocin can improve immune function and pain tolerance." So the next time you give someone a hug, you can think about the benefits that you and the person you are hugging are receiving.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/articles/2016-02-03/the-health-benefits-of-hugging

A Parrot May Be a Witness to a Murder

After I read the article about the twins, this article was a suggested article. It was titled, "Their son was killed. They believe his parrot is telling people who pulled the trigger." This article was written by Peter Holley from The Washington Post. This article tells a story of a 45 year old man who was shot and killed in his home. After the bird was given to the man's ex-wife, she noticed a phrase the bird kept saying. The bird kept saying "Don't f-ing shoot" in the man's voice. Relatives say the bird is very quick to pick up words, so they believe those could have been the man's final words.

This is an interesting article. It is scary to imagine that the bird, who is still living, may be repeating what this man's final words were. This makes the article pull emotion. It also educates the reader by sharing the story and saying that they do not think that the bird is eligible for evidence in the crime scene. This article is an unusual and upsetting story.

The Tragic Story of a Set of Twins

The other day, my mother told me a story she heard on the news about a set of twins in a car accident. Interested in the story, I looked up an article myself. I found "After twin sisters plummeted off a Hawaii cliff, one died. The other was charged with murder." The article's title immediately catches my eye. Apparently, the twins were arguing while driving and the one sister sped up and purposefully drove off a cliff. The car was crushed, one sister died, and the other was in critical condition. Then, the sister was charged of second degree murder, which she later was found not guilty. Not only does the article talk about the initial accident, but also informs the reader on what their life like was before the accident and their relationship.

This article educates and pulls emotion. It educates the reader by telling them about what happened to the twins in Hawaii. It pulls emotion because it is such a horrific story. Not only does that pull emotion from the reader, but also because they have direct quotes from two witnesses.The article says, " 'You could tell she was very violently swearing at somebody else in the car,' Lau told KHNL. 'She was mad and when she took off, it was in a rage. So she floored it and was in a rage as she sped past us.'" This only makes the reader feel emotion and picture the scene for themselves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/07/after-twin-sisters-plummeted-off-a-hawaii-cliff-one-died-the-other-was-charged-with-murder/

Bargains Over Brands

For this week's blog, I read an article about this year's Black Friday. I got it from The Wall Street Journal. The article was called, "On Black Friday, Teens Prioritize Bargains Over Brands," and written by Khadeeja Safdar and Sara Germano. This article talks to multiple teen girls Black Friday shopping and asks what they are looking for this year. Surprisingly, it is now more about the deals than the "popular" name brands. The responses from the teens about not caring as much about the brands is surprising because the stereotypical teenage girl loves to shop for what is the newest trend in the best stores.

This article is just a lighthearted, quick read. This article seems to mostly educate. It informs the reader as to what is going through the teenage girls' mind this year while Black Friday shopping. It also proves that teens do not care about clothing as much in years past because it says, "U.S. teens between the ages 13 and 17 spent $18.8 billion on apparel in the 12 months ending October, a 2% decline from the prior year, according to market researcher NPD Group Inc." The article did not only talk to teens, but also broke out statistics, too. So, this article, in my opinion, mostly educates the reader.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/on-black-friday-teens-prioritize-bargains-over-brands-1480096531

Pokemon In the Wrong Places

Over the summer when Pokemon Go became popular, I heard that people played it at the Holocaust Museum. I was dumbfounded that this was an actual problem, but did not think much of it. Well, now I am going to the Holocaust Museum myself on Thursday, and this article resurfaced while I was looking around for information about the museum.

I found the article on The Washington Post by Andrea Peterson. It is titled "Holocaust Museum to visitors: Please stop catching Pokemon here." The article is used to educate the reader. The museum is trying to get the word spread that people should not play in the museum. The article talks about how there are "..three PokeStops associated with various parts of the museum." The museum is trying to remove itself from the app. Once I read this, I was shocked towards the end when a player said "But gotta catch em' all." This article educates what is going on with the app and how some believe they have taken it too far.

Hopefully when I go, I will not see anyone playing on their phones. This article was published over the summer, so I hope they reached a solution. I understand games are fun, but I do believe that people should know boundaries out of respect for what the Holocaust Museum really stands for.

1010!

Everyone loves their games on their phone to keep them busy. Personally, I do not play many games on my phone, but I do have one game on my  phone. 1010! It is a simple game (similar to Tetris) where you have to fill a 10 by 10 grid up with different shapes, and once you fill an entire row, it clears which gives you more room to work. This game is fun, but do small games like this affect our lives?

I read an article by Jim Edwards called, "This mobile game is so addictive it is ruining people's lives and destroying their sleep cycle" on businessinsider.com. This articles definitely educates and makes the reader feel emotion. Right away, the article comes off by scaring the reader by saying, "If you don't know what '1010!' is, then click away from this story right now. This mobile phone app from Gram Games is so addictive it will ruin your life and make your friends hate you." This makes the reader worried about what type of game this may be. Even though it is an innocent game, the author makes it sound as if this game is a serious problem in the world. The author then supports his claim about the game being addictive by quoting tweets people have said about the game. The article has a negative tone throughout the beginning.

Then, the author does a complete turnaround. It starts educating the readers. Towards the end of the article, it gives readers who download the game tips on how to do well. He says things such as "avoid leaving single spaces and single unconnected boxes." So, the game cannot be that bad if he teaches the readers how to play the game towards the end. It is a fun little game, and like any other game, can be a little addictive.

http://www.businessinsider.com/1010-tips-tricks-and-strategies-for-a-high-score-2015-11

Evolution of Halloween

Next to Christmas, Halloween should be a child's favorite holiday. They get to dress up as anything in the world and get to show it off while getting free candy! How could it get any better? However, these past couple of years I have felt as if the number of children I get at my door have drastically decreased. So, I looked up an article by Jeff Wilkin called, "Tricks, treats, and the evolution of Halloween fun." This article discusses what Halloween was like in the 1930's and how it is today. He also shows a few quotes about people's Halloween's experiences these past few years.

This article mostly educates. It informs people on how different Halloween is today compared to the past. An example of the way the author educates is when Wilkin says, " The streets really became crowded after World War II. With rationing over, mass-produced candy was in abundance for kids masquerading as witches, tramps, ghosts, and cowboys." This articles educated me about when Halloween really became popular. 

If interested in Halloween, this may be a fun little article to read to learn more, not only about today's trick-or-treating, but the 1930's as well.

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2016/oct/23/treats/

Reflection Over the Profile Process

For my profile essay, I wrote about my uncle. I see him once every couple of months and it is always just like any other daily conversation you would have with someone, so I really did not know him or anything regarding his background. The interview process really allowed me to dive deep into finding out every detail about him. It is crazy to think that all this time, I never knew how much his childhood affected him and shaped him into the person he is today and how much famous history he has lived through. I think most people forget that adults were children once, too.

We met at Rip Rap Roadhouse, of course, since that is his favorite place to go and I can always find him there. The interview process felt difficult because I really had to pull to get information out of him. That is surprising, however, because he is always a chatterbox. Once the interview was over, it was time for me to think of what to do with all of the information I just received.

It took awhile for me to see where I wanted to go with the paper, but after analyzing every piece of information and what it gave me, I came up with the idea of writing the paper about his relationship with his father. This idea was difficult, though, because I did not want to word anything wrong or misinterpret a major and important aspect of his life. It took a lot of reading over my notes and listening to the interview to make sure I achieved what I wanted this paper to be.

Once I returned the paper to them, I felt nervous since he was reading his life on paper told by me. He smiled and chuckled throughout reading it and told me that he felt "cool" since out of all people, I wanted him to be the one I interviewed. Overall, it was a mildly difficult essay, but I think I pulled it off and it was worth it to see everyone who read it happy about it, too.

Live Hail Mary

This past Sunday, I got to go to my first NFL game. I am a fan of the Bengals and my friend is a fan of the Browns, so this was a perfect game for us to attend. We sat very close to the field and witnessed a Hail Mary with A.J Green receiving the pass. It got me thinking about how a Hail Mary got to be related to football. I looked up some information and found "How 'Hail Mary' Became Inextricably Linked to American Football" by John Walters. In this article, Walter defines what a Hail Mary is and how it made its name in American football. It even goes on to give examples of famous Hail Mary's.

This article mostly educates. Discussing the history of it all, defining Hail Mary, and giving examples of them is all to educate the reader. For football fanatics, this could also be considered an entertaining read.

Whether the team is on the winning or losing side, they will remember if a Hail Mary occurred during a game they once played. However, for the Browns, I am sure all their losses are meshing together, so they probably are not sure what happened during which game anymore. I cannot say too much though, considering my Bengals are only 3-4. Maybe executing more Hail Mary's will help.


http://www.newsweek.com/2016/10/28/theres-something-about-hail-mary-510723.html

Christmas in Amsterdam

Every year, my mom and I have a tradition that for every Christmas we go on a vacation. My mom believes since I have everything I need, the best gift for her is to give me memories that I can have forever. I know some people may prefer gifts, but we both love to travel, so I think this tradition is perfect for the two of us.

What does that have to do with my article? Well, this year we are contemplating about going to Amsterdam. I started looking into it a little more since I do not know everything it has to offer. I only know of the typical tourist things to do. During my search, I discovered a short read called, "How to Spend the Perfect Christmas Day in Amsterdam" by Jane Szita. I was curious to see what this had to say since I may be in Amsterdam on Christmas. The article says a perfect day consists of ice skating, light festivals, church services, watching the Christmas Circus, and then seeing the Opera perform Hansel and Gretel.

For me, this article was educational, enlightening, and emotional. I learned about what typical people in Amsterdam do for Christmas, so I am now more informed and have a better feel for what it is like over there during that time. The reason this article was emotional was because it made me excited for the Christmas trip with my mom. Now, I just have to keep reading and see if this is actually where we want to go.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/Amsterdam-christmas-what-to-do

Unconditional Love

The article I read is called "What my disabled girl has taught me about life" by Ian Birrell. This is more of a personal piece written for the Sunday mail in October of 2011. Ian shares his story about raising a daughter with a disability. Birrell describes how "She suffers from a rare life-threatening condition that means she cannot walk or talk. She is blind, endures daily epileptic fits and needs round-the-clock care." Her name is Iona and she was born in the fall of 1993. Raising Iona has not been easy and they have struggled a tremendous amount with raising a child that will be forever dependent on them. However, Birrell says his and his wife's life would be so much poorer without her. The article discusses how Birrell and his wife found out Iona had brain damage, how they dealt with it while she grew up, and their thoughts now. The only thing that matters to Birrell is that he still has his daughter in his life and she brings so much joy to him that he never imagined.

This piece definitely hits a soft spot in my heart because I do a lot of work with the mentally disabled. So to me, this article educates, entertains, enlightens me, and evokes emotion. To hear their struggles on raising a mentally disabled child and still being positive shows how strong these parents are. They talk about her disabilities mostly, but also describe how shes just like everyone else which is very heartwarming. This article shows how much parents love and care for their child.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2049382/What-disabled-girl-taught-life.html

Forgot Again

So, for the past two weeks I have forgotten to do my weekly blog. I have an entire week to do it so why can I not remember to take 30 minutes (at the most) out of my week to do it? I thought maybe reading an article about the different theories of why people forget would be a good idea for me.

I read an article called "Forgetting" by Sam McLeod. In this article, he discusses forgetting from short term memory and long term memory. I remember  learning about all of this in a psychology class I have previously taken, but clearly I need a refresh. After this article educated me on the different types of theories for forgetting things, I believe displacement is the reason for me forgetting about my blogs. McLeod described displacement as, "...the information that had been in the short-term store for the longest was the first to be displaced by new information, similar to the way in which boxes might fail off the end of a conveyor bet- as new boxes are put on one end, the boxes which have been on the conveyor belt the longest drop off the end."

McLeod goes on to discuss and evaluate the popular theories such as trace decay, interference, lack of consolidation, and retrieval failure. Maybe after reading and being informed of all of these, I will step it up and do my blogs!

http://www.simplypsychology.org/forgetting.html#con

Easy A

Today I visited The Ohio State University. While on my way home, I remembered I needed to complete this blog by midnight. Since OSU was on my mind, I decided to find something to read pertaining to the school. I read an article titled " Ohio State University Student Sinks Shot to Win Whole Class an A" by Karan Farkas. How did all the students receive a 100% on their first organic chemistry class? Well the professor in the organic chemistry class, Christopher Callam, offers the challenge every year to his students. He says, "We are using the ball to help understand acid base chemistry, to understand proton donors and acceptors. The student can then try to make a basket to earn 100%(for the whole class) on the first quiz"(Farkas). The article was an entertaining and quick read. Small things like this article make me excited for even the little things next year.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/09/ohio_state_university_student.html

A Ninth Planet??

As I was browsing the internet, I came across an article from the U.S News titled Scientists Are Excited About Possibly 'New' Planet by Jeff Nesbit. Being as intrigued with space as I am, I obviously had to read it. 

This article is talking about how scientists may have found a ninth planet. The author's main purpose is to educate and inform the public about this new possibility. For people interested in science and space like myself, this article is also enlightening and entertaining.

How do the scientists know there may be another planet? Well, through the author I learned, " Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution for Science and Chadwick Trujillo from Northern Arizona University said Monday that they had discovered several objects we've never seen before at extreme distances from the Sun in our solar system"(Nesbit). It may be a few years, but another planet may have been discovered.

I am enlightened and excited about what the author has written because I have always been fascinated about the thought of life outside of Earth. I am very curious to know what else is out there, how scientists make the discoveries, and what they could mean.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-02/there-could-be-a-ninth-planet-and-we-are-not-talking-about-pluto?int=a14709

Test Post

test link