#11 Civics- (new/revised), The Kids Aren't Alright.

  In recent years the interest that the youth of America has in politics and civics has gone down significantly. Children are becoming more flippant and blase towards important matters that ensure their rights and secure their future. One thing I will say is I don't blame them, politics now has a negative connotation with much of the younger demographic. While I understand their point of view but I also realize that knowledge is power. Being uniformed is just as good as being defenseless. 

Citizenship Practice Quiz

  As someone who has taken various civics and government classes I feel as if I know a bit about how the basics work but actual citizenship tests are difficult to say the least. As a natural born citizen I was lucky enough to only have to take one for fun, not to secure my entry into the country. In some cases new citizens have a better understanding of teens who've lived here for 18 years. Some states have instituted mandatory civics classes for middle school children. In Florida this is the case along with college students having to prove a basic understanding of civics. The Governor of Florida feels high school students need a refresher in the subject as well. While it will not be a graduation requirement it will be used to gauge their knowledge pertaining to our government and how it works. Personally I think it's a great idea. After taking a government class last spring I feel more empowered and I feel as if I can actually discuss more serious topics with newfound knowledge. All in all I see higher civics education standards as an absolute win.

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Visual Journalism.

  As a musician you tend to be your own worst critic and I'm certainly no exception. For my final project I wanted to find another artists on campus to do a brief coverage of but the ones I knew seemed to be feeling "shy". I however am beyond the point of embarrassment. I wanted to do a simple cover of one of my favorite songs but my throat felt hoarse and everything sounded wrong. I was at a loss for what to do so I sat down and started strumming like I do when I get stumped. I decided to take a chance, I hit record and did something I do all too often, I winged it. I thought up a title and started playing what came to mind. The music was choppy at first but then it started to slowly unravel and stretch out into something interesting. I left the video at one take. Often times I do songs in one take and the results vary. While I feel that my voice wasn't all it could have been I left everything as is. This speaks to who I am as a person, I'm not always going to be perfect, in all honesty I may not even always be good. The real lesson is taking your experiences positive and negative alike and learning from them. Throughout I've included other snippets of me playing. I also have a youtube channel with a few mediocre dorm room made songs on it.

Keep the Wolves Away

 On a less serious note I suppose I should tell about how I started doing music. I had always seen people play instruments growing up and wanted desperately to have that sort of talent. As a child with ADD, ADHD, and various other issues focus was not my strong suit. I watched a film called School of Rock and was mesmerized by the music abilities of the children in it, I wondered if I would be able to accomplish something similar. I picked up a guitar for the first time at around 8 years old.....and was instantly terrible. I'd like to say I was a child prodigy but in truth I didn't actually start playing till high school. Some friends wanted to start a band so I learned how to play bass guitar fairly poorly. After our band flopped I began to learn ukulele. After that I moved on to guitar. I've also worked on percussion and piano every once in a while. I would play at lunch during school with some of my friends and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. The biggest crowds I've played for were probably 100 people or less, the biggest of which being at a benefit for an extended family member who was injured in a car crash. Fun fact: I have never performed one of my own songs live. 

  I'll talk briefly about some of my inspirations. I draw on multiple genres and play whatever I feel like but I think I generally fall into a more folksy or alt-soft rock. Modern Baseball has been one of my main inspirations in recent years. Generally their songs are about a husky guitar player/singer who has bad luck with women so I relate. While I'm getting into fairly good shape, inside I still feel like that same chubby guy who wrote sad songs about girls who didn't like him in high school. I also like that the lead singer Brendan Lukens doesn't have a great voice but he makes what he's got work for him. Artists like Arlo McKinley have influenced my guitar playing and my singing on occasion. Around Texarkana I try to lean into the folksy side to cater to the large amount of country music lovers.

 In all honesty the only reason I've learned as much about music as I have is simply because I enjoy it. While I have no serious aspirations when it comes to making music, as long as I enjoy it I'll keep doing it.

You Don't Care Enough For Me To Cry 

#20- Wild Card, The Witcher is Coming

  Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of video games. I've been playing since I was old enough to hold a controller. One saga I've enjoyed over the years is The Witcher, gamers of all types enjoy the action packed game play of this series. I've played all three installments based loosely off of Andrzej Sapkowski's hit novels. Netflix has been teasing it's live action series based around the characters in the Witcher universe, and now as the release date grows near fans are thrilled at what promises to be a spectacle of Game of Thrones level proportions. The action scenes are rumored to be bigger then anything we've seen so far.

  Henry Cavill was cast as the iconic hero, Geralt of Rivia, back shortly after the project was announced. Graphic wizard BossLogics created a render of Cavill as Geralt and Netflix cited this as an influence on their casting choice. Cavill is a big name in Hollywood, known most for his role as Superman in Man of Steel, he's a sought after talent for his acting skills and his chiseled physique. Other actors were considered but Cavill seems to be a choice that Netflix and the fans are both satisfied with. The only complaint with the look of our new Geralt that fans seemed to have was that his iconic video game beard was not present. This is actually due to the fact that Netflix will be sticking closer to the books and in them Geralt is notorious for despising facial hair for some odd reason. Regardless of the beard situation Cavill looks fantastic

If you aren't familiar with The Witcher it's a story revolving around a monster slayer (a Witcher) named Gerlat. Witchers are highly trained an highly skilled individuals who are subjected to magical transmutations to give them unique abilities allowing them to take down monstrous foes. In the video games Gerlat is usually equipped with a silver sword (particularly effective on monsters), a steel weapon of some sort, a crossbow, an array of magical abilities and runes, and his ability to take on mutations to make him even more formidable.

Witcher Trailer

  As a fan of the series I'm particularly excited to see it brought to life. The show releases on December 20th but Netflix already has plans for more seasons on the way. They anticipate massive success and based on the source material and Netflix's knack for cranking out hits I believe they have a reason to. If you're a fan of the fantasy or action genre this series would likely be a good choice for you. The cinematography looks absolutely fantastic so far and the production quality looks like what I would expect a quality Netflix original to have (much like most of the Marvel Netflix series). While disappointment is possible I have extremely high hopes for this series, come December 20th I suppose I'll see what it has to offer.

#19- Classmate Blog Critique, Interactive and In-Depth

  I'm a busy person, a college student who works a job on the weekends. While I do tend to do deep dives into certain topics I also appreciate brevity. Sometimes I'm just eager to get to the point like many of us get from time to time but when it comes to quality work I don't mind reading a bit. My classmates do fantastic work that is often filled to the brim with interactivity and information. Elizabeth Nalley delivered consistently strong work and had a fantastic layout for her blog.

https://mm2003elizabethnalley.blogspot.com/

  One thing I appreciate about her work is the various range of topics she chose to cover. From popular country musicians, to hit films, and politics. I didn't find repetition or pigeonholing which I myself an often times guilty of. I particularly enjoyed her piece on the youth and their opinion towards voting, her writing style was concise and easy to take in. I thought she acknowledged both sides of the argument but still made it known what her opinion was. As a young potential voter I identified with this feeling of "why bother" when it comes to elections.

   Another solid example of her work that I liked was her post on the new Joker film. Her use of interactivity throughout added another dimension to the text. As a film devotee and an avid DC fan I always love to see the success of comic book films. I feel like Elizabeth's use of box office facts, current news (police at the showings), of course the memes, made this a very good read. I enjoyed the abundant visuals which accentuated the tone of the story nicely. Overall I would give her a 9.5/10.

https://camcarterscorner.blogspot.com/

  Another student who's work I thought deserved a quick shout out was Cameron Carter. I've had classes with Cameron before and I've always enjoyed her presentation style. She always delivers clean and concise opinions which leave no question how she feels. I find this kind of genuine honesty refreshing. Overall I'd say 8.5/10, the only clear issues I saw were tech related and not her fault.

#18- News App Critique, Friend to the Fans

  Fantasy sports took the world by storm in the 80's and has become a past time for people all over the world. As a relatively seasoned fantasy player I can tell you that it's massively important to keep up with news in your leagues. In the past people would have to rely on newspapers and sports broadcasts exclusively to help pilot their fantasy team but in the age of the internet it has become considerably easier to keep yourself up to date. Other issues were management of teams and drafting. An app that combines streamlined news about specific players and sports leagues with a system to draft your teams and compete against friends seems like a dream come true. A few years ago I found out that the ESPN Fantasy app seems to be exactly that.

  "Does this technically count as a news app?". Since this is my blog I'll give myself a pass. To be fair this app is saturated with sports news. Personally I only play fantasy basketball but I can attest to the saturation of information on the other sports as well. ESPN devotes resources to keeping this app as up to date as possible. If your were to check a player's performance after a game on your team you would likely see a fairly in depth summary of their last game. You can check their stats and get the fresh opinion of sports analysts about nearly anyone in the league. While there is generally more info available on star players, anyone putting forth strong performances are sure to be covered. This is a more reliable way to scout players because the mainstream sports news platforms are flooded with the same handful of stars every week. How is someone supposed to scout lesser known player? The ESPN Fantasy app.

 
  Above is an example of a lineup from the app. If you'll notice the red icons by the names of the players they serve a very important purpose. Clicking said icons brings up the previously mentioned summaries which include things like shooting percentages and points per game, basically any stats that factor into their fantasy score. Another useful touch to this app is that the writers usually give predictions on how the players will perform based on their current performances and suggestions on whether the player will be worth keeping or trading. Another feature is league news, anytime someone has a breakout performance you can find the details and highlights on the news feed. I know for a fact that it's useful to use this feed to see just how badly your friend's players are stomping your team into the ground. Speaking as someone who uses this app as my primary source of game scores and player statistics I think it accomplishes the goal of bringing sports news to fantasy consumers in the most efficient way possible. As an official ESPN app expectations for it are set high to begin with and as far as content it meets those expectations. My only complaint would be the occasional crashes that the app experiences. Overall I would give it an 8.5/10 as a sports news source.

#9- Public Records State (revised), Protection or Secrecy?

  Back in March Arkansas law makers decided to put more limitations on what was available for public record. In this situation these changes could be seen as positive. While some may see this as an effort to deprive people from free information it seems to be a way of protecting certain groups. These changes could be considered a threat to the Freedom of Information Act.

  Some of these news changes include protection of the name's of those who've won the lottery. This actually makes sense, unexpected wealth can also come with unprecedented danger. On the other hand it will make things more difficult to determine if there were any unusual connections to a lotto winner and the lottery itself. Another change was a vote towards keeping the ingredients of lethal injection drugs a secret. Again this seems to make sense. While I do see how some people think that if you give the government an inch (in the ways of repression of information) that they'll take a mile. In some cases this is likely true.

  The need for transparency of public records is self explanatory but there are some things that are better left a secret. Generally, the word "secret", has a negative connotation but that shouldn't always be the case. Whether it be for public safety or the safety of individuals some information should be withheld, and I believe that's justifiable. 

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