The Power of Dogs of Instagram by Tris Dickie

Dogs have always had a special place in my heart, and I never seem to get enough of them! Like us, dogs face challenges of finding homes and fighting sicknesses. Social media makes it easier for people to share a dog’s story and to spread awareness of the problems dogs encounter. As a community we can come together to help our furry friends! Dogs of Instagram, founded by Ahmed El Shourbagy and Ashley Paguyo Shourbagy, is an extremely effective way to help the dogs that we love so much!

            Dogs of Instagram began as a way to give dog lovers their daily dose of cute puppy faces, but has evolved into something much greater with every new follower. I found this adorable account in the midst of its growing fame. “Ahmed thought it would be fun to create an account to celebrate people’s passion for dogs,” writes Baldwin Cunningham in his article, What Dogs of Instagram Can Teach You About Millennial Business. This account has become affiliated with many organizations such as Susie’s Senior Dogs, which helps find homes for orphaned and abandoned elder dogs. With the help of Dogs of Instagram, they can reach out to over 3 million people through the internet to give a dog their forever home. This account has become so large that they have made their own business called Lucy & Co. Their business sells products for dogs and gives their proceeds to help fund these awesome organizations so that they can continue changing dog’s lives. I personally felt good about spoiling my four-legged baby knowing that I was also helping pets in need! Blogger Baldwin Cunningham writes about the amazing business Dogs of Instagram has developed. He says, “Dogs of Instagram is a story with immense lessons for companies trying to understand and adapt to a new type of relationship with their customers.”

            All kinds of different people around the world are drawn to Dogs of Instagram because of their common interest and passion for dogs. Their account makes it fast and easy for people to help pets from many different locations. The account's simple format and cute captions attract even more people, and is the epitome of their fame. So many Instagram users love it so much that they will tell their friends about it or tag photos of their own dogs to share with all of the dog lovers, including myself. I decided to join in on the fun and made an account for my photos of my dog (shown on the left) to share with other dog lovers. I have come to know other people with my passions and have seen them featured on Dogs of Instagram occasionally. I have even developed a love for photography through this! Dogs of Instagram is definitely an account that I recommend people should check out because they have a great cause. If that’s not enough, go for the adorable puppies!

For more insight, check out Baldwin Cunningham’s article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/baldwincunningham/2015/11/19/what-dogs-of-instagram-can-teach-you-about-millennial-business/#43a6b6a07bd3

The Master Up Front by Calvin Macklin

Video games have come a long way in their rise to greatness. One marvelous masterpiece in specific shows just how far the gaming industry has come along. The game that speaks louder than all of the others is Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved. The entire game generates much excitement from beginning to end. The gamers that have been thirsty for a first-person shooter and immense graphics can end their search here.

Halo is played through the helmet of Master Chief, a super-soldier trained as a child to become a top-tier soldier in the military. The story starts off in an intense space battle in the year 2531. The United Nations Space Command or UNSC is desperately trying to flee from the oncoming foes called the Covenant. They are an alien species who are after an ancient artifact on an artificial ring-shaped world called Halo. You are the one that has to stop the Covenant from achieving their goal.

During the conquests between the two sides, the UNSC gradually learns that the artificial ring is a weapon, called a halo. The UNSC knows they have to find it before the Covenant does. This is similar to the space race that took place between the USA and the USSR with the goal to get to the moon first. The only difference is that while in Halo, the mission is to get a hold of this mysterious weapon.

The Master Chief does not fight alone as he is accompanied by an artificial intelligence (AI) that was created as a flash-cloned copy of the smartest UNSC scientist, due to the risk that the Covenant may capture the scientist. This AI goes by the name of Cortana, and she has ideas and knowledge of what to do. She is the partner in battle that instructs the Master Chief in order to help complete his objectives. This is an example of the brain and brawn working together, where Master Chief is the brawn and Cortana is the brain.

Cortana isn't the only ally to the Master Chief though. They are both aided by the UNSC marines. I see Halo as having the main genre of action and adventure, however there are occasional humorous moments where many of your allies reveal that they have all heard about you, yet you don't know much about yourself. Some lines include, “Glad you showed up here, Chief!” and “We were worried before you arrived.” The marines feel relieved when the Master Chief joins in, so we know he is widely known. There are multiple events where Cortana is calculating a way through a problem and the Master Chief urges the delightful idea of brute force. 

Halo helps us visualize how much of an effect two characters working together can create as opposed to separately. I've seen a math equation at school saying 1 + 1 = 3 which, mathematically, is incorrect. However, when the 1's are people and the 3 is the productivity, it makes much more sense that working together will help you achieve more. This is definitely the case in Halo.

The Master Chief and Cortana are not the only ones who cooperate well together. Their enemy, The Covenant, also have great teamwork.  Whether or not you try to sneak your way through the dark or blast your way through the battlefield, these fearless alien species are tough. They have their own strategies. The elites, the most common soldiers of the Covenant, lead and fight with their allies as well. Multiple pathways in this game lead to different actions by these elites. The Covenant's weapons are different than the UNSC's because they follow the stereotype of futuristic weaponry. Lasers, plasma, and energy based weapons are all included in the vicious beasts' armory. Their futuristic style is also shown in their vehicles. The aircraft as well as land vehicles levitate with ease. Their futuristic weaponry make some epic visuals too.

Clearing the path through this game has little downtime. In every moment, every mission, and every objective there is plenty of exciting action to take place. Fans that have many interests in first-person shooters will be blown away by this blunder. It's hard to say that this game solely focuses on being just a first person shooter, but it’s also a great game in general. This game is one of the best to ever come out on any platform.

For another review of Halo, try this!

Contouring by Cassie Gault

On almost every social media outlet you can find hundreds of accounts created for makeup tutorials. A certain trend throughout these accounts is mainly blowing up our feeds: contouring. If you ask around, there are lots of mixed opinions on contouring. They aren’t necessarily good or bad opinions, but more optimistic. After surveying a handful of people in my classroom I found that few guys even care, and most girls contour themselves, but also wouldn’t judge a girl if she did. I think this trend is so popular because the videos are fun and interesting to watch, and if a girl does want to contour it really does make a big difference.

Here is a common example of something you might see on your feed. Contouring the face seems to be the most popular form of contouring, but other types are possible. For example, some girls contour their legs, chest, and collar bones. Contouring is all about the enhancement and transformation of parts of your body. You can use it to make your chest look bigger, your collarbones look sharper, or your cheekbones higher. The main goal when contouring your legs is to make them look more toned. Some might say people are taking it a bit too far, and others might see a simple solution to avoiding the gym! Regardless of what you think it’s hard to not be entertained by the detailed contouring tutorials you see so often now!

Celebrities have helped the trend spread by showing themselves using the technique and giving tips and tricks to attentive makeup fanatics! To the right is the esteemed Kim Kardashian. Kim gives her fans tips and tricks to contouring by sharing her makeup routines along with her favorite makeup products. Contouring is something everyone can try even if they don’t necessarily plan on showing anyone. All in all I approve!

To view a blog about Kim's contouring click here

Do Fad Diets Work? by Isabella Mitchell

More than half of adults consider themselves overweight. Typically, when people want to lose a few pounds they turn to diets because of promised results and advertised success stories that can be seen in different media sources with before and after pictures of people who took part in the diet. Those results, which only show the success stories,  entice people to sign up for name brand diets such as Weight Watchers or take up other popular diets like becoming gluten free. These diets can show results, but are not guaranteed to keep off the weight, nor do they mean having a balanced diet.     

Diets, such as Weight Watchers, will allow you to lose weight fast at first, but it typically does not last long term.  If you stop the diet, you will most likely resort back to eating the way you did before. This will lead to gaining the weight back that you lost. It is also proven that if the diet is continued for 2 years, you can gain the weight back and then some more. They replace sugar with artificial sweetener (typically aspartame) which is worse for you because it tricks your body into storing fat. With normal sugar, your brain releases dopamine which eventually tells your brain you are full once you’ve eaten a certain amount of calories. When you eat something with no calories and only the sweet taste, you continue to have cravings and feel hungry.

          Becoming gluten free is another common diet people go to. However with many new gluten free products on the market, they are now just as processed and sugar packed as foods with gluten. Companies also add sugar to make the food taste better since gluten free products typically aren’t as good. Living gluten free can be healthier and result in weight loss if you do it correctly. However, replacing regular cookies with gluten free cookies is not the way to lose weight. Instead you should avoid the cookies altogether.        

  If you want to lose weight, fad diets are not the way to achieve your goal. They are a fast way for people who do not want to put the time into creating new eating habits. Instead you should begin eating healthier. Eating healthier should become part of your everyday life instead of being called dieting. That makes it sound as if its abnormal. Eating better should become a habit. It does not mean you have to cut out everything that you enjoy, it just means limiting it to every once awhile in smaller portions. It may take work in the beginning, but eventually it will become part of a healthier lifestyle.

For more information on the truth about fad diets go here

Super Heroes Need Help Too

by Luke Buckner

I’m sure you have heard of Marvel’s The Avengers and its its multiple superheroes. They are the Earth’s national defense from foreign and domestic threats. They work as a team, and function as a single unit to overcome forces, including entire armies. This team of super humans each have a job to make this possible. They have a spotter, leader, muscle, and a motivator. With all of these characteristics and compliments you would think that they work well together. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Like all people, they are not perfect. They, just like all of us, have their trials and obstacles. In the end, destiny causes them to come together and be earth’s mightiest heroes.

            The movie, The Avengers, starts off in a top-secret laboratory holding one of the seven infinity stones. These stones hold power that is impossible to contain. Thor’s brother, Loki, has turned evil and wants to steal the infinity stone to bring his evil army down to reign on earth. He performs a surprise attack and succeeds in stealing the infinity stone. That’s when a man named Nick Fury comes in and brings the Avengers together. He recruits the super heroes to join his team and defeat Loki. At first they do not get along. For example, the Hulk is a man named Bruce Banner. Most of the time he is a normal human being, but when you make him angry he turns into a unstoppable green monster. Loki targets the Hulk and tries to infuriate him in order to destroy the team. This evil plan does end up working, temporarily separating the super team. Loki brings his army down and guess who is waiting? Earth’s mightiest heroes overcome their difficulties to save the world and defeat Loki.

The way this movie was made and the bringing together of a certain group of people contributes to the viewing experience. The directors made the stylistic choice of having a slow rising action. The lengthy climax following this slow build up features multiple action-packed scenes, along with a hint of comedic dialogue to reel the audience back in. This style they use helps bring the movie together to become one of the greatest box office hits to hit the big screen.

            This movie was expected to be very climactic, suspenseful, and in general, awesome. The Avengers fulfilled and even exceeded these expectations. The directors did a great a job at introducing the characters from their original movie into this one and having them, in the end, work together. For example, Captain America is fighting Loki, and just when Captain America is about to be defeated, Iron Man comes and joins the scene in a powerful and motivational way.

             I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to have a fun, action-packed evening. It will leave you wanting more and will make you feel like a superhero too. Before you watch this movie, however, I would recommend that you watch other Marvel Movies to get the full understanding and backstory of why these events happened. As a personal opinion I would give this movie a well-deserved 5 star rating.

To read another Avengers movie review click here

Is Arabic Music the Tongue of the Heart?

by Jake Abdu

Music is a universe in which, no matter where in the world, our ears and hearts become one. Notes and rhythmic lines become feelings that one cannot fathom to express in words. Cultural music is a large portion of how certain melodies or chord progressions relate to feelings. In Arabic music specifically, it is the cherishment of the history of music, the theory behind the music, and its impact on the youth that associates what our ears hear with what our hearts feel.

The respect that is held for music of the past is beyond conceivable. Um Kalthum, one of the most respected artists of the Arab world, is still looked up to and her style is still taught in fine arts schools from Paris and London to Egypt and Lebanon. Many of these artists’ songs are still rejuvenated by current artists in the form of ‘mawal’, or free form poetry. We, as foreigners to Arabic Music in the same respect, look up to Mozart or even the more current the band, Queen. In Arabic culture, art is a part of everyday life. To the average person it is normal, but to the theorists it is a brave new world.

Europe and the Americas provide music full of major chords and symmetrically divided beats and rhythms, as opposed to Eastern music, which gives diversity. Arabic music composes itself of minor and major chords with strange, almost tribal-like rhythms. It all comes as a part of a musical revolution in the early 60’s that tried to recreate that traditional Arabic feel with a western influence. This caught along very well with the youth and has expanded the horizons of the music world, but it may have changed Arabic music forever.

With the Arab spring arising and the youth of these different countries revolting there is one thing they all have in common; music. Music has played a huge role in political issues of the Middle East since the 1920’s, when another popular artist, Sayed Darwish, started writing music to gather up the people against the British rule. Songs like “Biladi Biladi” (My Country, My Country) and “Tout Tout” (Train) by Darwish made people gather together and identify as the Egyptian people as a whole rather than sections of minorities among the British law. That now is the center of today’s uprisings in Egypt and the new music that influences our youth in our society.  One of the biggest figures in this movement is artist, Hamza Namira. Namira is an Egyptian-born artist that has brought new music styles to inspire the youth to dream and be themselves no matter what they are told. It is a story of inspiration and self-confidence that music has brought to this country in particular.

 You can listen to Hamza Namira’s “Wa Ollak Eh”(And What I Say) here
You can view similar posts here

Nathan Scott

by Claire Hairrell

Nathan Scott is, in my teenage, A+ binge-watcher opinion, one of the most dynamic television characters I’ve ever had the pleasure to know – courtesy of the countless hours I've spent drooling over the greatest show of all time, One Tree Hill. Undeniably, Scott’s personality transformation through the course of the show dramatically affects the series as a whole.

In the beginning, Nathan is no more than a jock with poor grades, forced to love the game of basketball by his overbearing father. Basketball was the only thing that mattered to him. He let the game define him because it’s all he’d ever known. Scott had allowed a game to become the root of all of his dreams and aspirations. Everything he had ever hoped for was riding on his talent. Nathan was living the dream – he was the star player on his high school basketball team. Unfortunately, the school decided to hit “pause” on his life (basketball) when his grades began to suffer. He desperately needed to find someone willing to tutor him, in order to become eligible to play again. Scott decided to ask for help from Haley James, the best tutor at Tree Hill High. After initially refusing to help him, she eventually agreed. Changes in Nathan’s character began to flaunt themselves almost immediately after his first tutoring session. Even though the alterations in his personality were originally minuscule, they were enough to be noticed. Perhaps Nathan's most important adjustment was towards his half brother, Lucas. This change is one of the most important shifts in his life, and we have Haley to thank for it. The only reason she agreed to tutor Nathan was because he agreed to leave Lucas, her best friend, alone. Thanks to Haley, Nathan and Lucas end up having a great relationship.

These changes in his life, even this early on in the hit television show, majorly affected the way his life panned out. The way Nathan recognized that there is more to life than basketball allowed him to be grateful for the things that really matter. In later seasons, we see that these things include his wife and kids that he is blessed with. Scott’s entire life is changed for the better because of one girl, one tutor. Because of Haley James’ gracious personality that overlooked logic, Nathan is able to live the life that he never knew he wanted. He is able to live a life that doesn’t revolve solely around his basketball career, but around his family and friends.

Although Nathan begins the show as an arrogant, ungrateful, and hateful young boy, he transforms into a smart, kind, thoughtful, successful, and respectable man. Who says one person can’t change a life (or television series) for the better?

To read further on Nathan Scott, check out this article here