I'm famous...On Reddit

I woke up this morning, delighted by a two hour delay due to snow. Even though I woke up two hours later than I usually would, I still felt tired and just hung out in my bed for about a half an hour before I was able to get out and get ready for the day. While I attempted to wake myself up in that half an hour, I checked my texts and was suprised to see I had nine text messages. About six of them were from Twitter, which I just kind of neglected, although I had three from some of my friends that mentioned something about Reddit. Now let me be honest, before that time I had never been on Reddit before, ever. I've heard of it, but it had never crossed my mind to get on it, because if I were going to find random links it'd be dedicated to either Stumble Upon or Pinterests. Anyway, my friend mentioned I had been featured on the front page of Reddit and I was #4 most viewed of that day. I was in awe. I jumped out of my comfy bed, typed in the link: Click here for a shortened version and was really confused.

What they had found was a link from my Yahoo! Answers account (which I had an addiction to during my 8th grade year and Freshman year of high school). It was one of the first times I had chosen to be a Yahoo! Answers troll and it turns out that it worked, incredibly well.

I wrote this with a friend of mine during Torch class out of pure boredom of that day and it somehow followed me. It turned out that this acquired 315 comments and 55% likes on Reddit in a matter of hours. It was definitely cool to see one of my most random works of art become an overnight phenomenon (even though it lasted 10 seconds, they aren't kidding about the 10 second of fame thing) and it was even more hilarious that the week before, I had re-subscribed to Netflix since the last of my free trial of Netflix.

Overall, it was hilarious and I can't believe that anybody found that. I was strangely proud of myself and thought that it was funny that so many people saw my random act of trolling. Now that I pay for Netflix, I'd love to have a lifetime supply of it. You know what, I think I might just blog about Netflix! Just wait until March.

Fashion Trends: Le Cord Du Roi

One thing I've always liked is fashion. Whether it'd be looking at the Quarterly issue of GQ or growing up seeing my dad wear suit after suit and wishing I could somehow, someday, pull off some of the styles he could pull off so well. Lately, I've been diving into the world of Pinterests, on the Men's Apparel section and one of the newest old trends I've seen is corduroy pants. This surprised me, because for the longest time corduroy pants, were definitely out of style and really apart of a dying style that once had potential in the late 80's through the 90's (I remember growing up my older brothers had corduroy's and they were a huge trend). It's always funny how trends make their way back around, and I'm definitely glad that corduroy's (otherwise known as cords) have made their way back into the lives of many.

I'll admit it, I was a little late on getting into the corduroy trend, regardless I really liked the looks of them. Earlier in January, I was a store when I was at the mall, and said I'd try on a pair for the S's and G's (Shits and giggles) but to my surprise I looked great in them, and they fit amazingly. Being as broke as I was at the time, after Christmas, I decided that one day I'd come back and get the pants that have treated me so well. A few weeks ago, I came back to that very store, to find to my surprise spring clothes. I was incredibly pissed, mostly because there was still snow on the ground and the amount of pants on display was very little. I asked one of the employees and he helped me find one of the last clearanced pairs, which was lucky because they were in my size. My mood took a complete 180, especially the fact that they were half off since the last time I was there. I now have two pair of cords and they are now my favorite pants (I put a few of my pairs of jeans aside).

Some of my favorite styles are now becoming revolved around my cords, and with the addition of my cords has allowed me to experiment with some new styles, I'll share a few of my favorite.

Old Navy Grey Cords

Urban Outfitters Western Plaid

Tom's Grey Bota's. 

This is one of the exact outfits I like to wear, the greys of the cords and botas go incredible well together (regardless you wouldn't think, the cords are a little darker than the picture). The shoes are interchangeable with any pair of non-sneakery type shoes. The plaid is really interchangeable with any long-sleeved shirt with color, anything plaid, or flannel goes really well. For more on these styles, visit their websites here: Tom's, Urban Outfitter's, and Old Navy. Beware: Cords are currently very hard to find, since spring is just around the corner.

Any dark or colorful graphic T, Old Navy Spurs.

511 Levi's Khaki Cords

Van's Slip-Ons, in various colors depending
on the graphic t.

This is one of my favorite simple styles that comes with the cords. Any graphic t-shirt (one that has something more retro-y works well, old school rap, old school sports teams, etc.) works really well with the cords. The shoes as with any style can be varied, but something simple such as Van's works well, especially with the folded up cords. To see these visit: Urban Outfitter's Levi Cords, Old Navy NBA Graphic T's, Urban Outfitter's Van Slip-Ons.

Le Cord Du Roi, are among some of the best pants I've ever owned (with that most comfortable and a lot more stylish on days where you aren't feeling the jeans) and are one of the coolest old new trends. Even though, winter is almost over, they'll be a good investment now more than anytime (especially since most are on clearance) and will be good for those cold, depressing, spring days and probably would be very wearable through spring and especially fall.

Torch February Issue

February Cover of the Kennedy Torch.

To read our February 17th issue of the Torch, click here: Torch

Some cool reads:
-Love vs Lust, page 14
-Teen Mom, page 10
-A Different Perspective, page 19
-Looking to Relclaim State, page 30

Please check out this issue of the Torch! Definitely some cool stuff. If you read my February preview you heard that I'd be setting up my new journalism portfolio, keep waiting patiently, that'll be around in March.

Jeremy Who? Jeremy Lin! Lincredibility

Photo by streamball.com

#Linsanity. Jeremy Lin is the basketball player out of Harvard who is currently playing for the New York Knicks has been making noise out of the NBA in the past seven games for the Knicks. Not only is Lin, one of the craziest stories out of the NBA in a while, he has become a cultural phenomenon that has brought not only noise and excitement to MSG, but has become a sports icon (somewhat like Tim Tebow in 2011). Not only is Jeremy Lin showing himself as a basketball player, he has an exciting story behind him and is now the NBA's newest star.

If you want to know more of the story behind of Jeremy Lin, check out this story from the New York Times: Here.  One of my favorite things about Jeremy Lin, is that before his first start with New York and before the Linsanity started, Lin was a player on the verge of getting dropped off the Knicks roster (after getting moved up from the NBA D-League) who was living on his brothers couch. Within 2 weeks after his first start, Lin has molded himself into a 14 million dollar brand, where Knick's jerseys embedded with Lin's 17, t-shirts, and other memorabilia has been created turning sales of Lin products by 3000%. Lincredible. Not only are sales increasing by the minute, his fanship is as he is currently owned in 100% of Yahoo and ESPN fantasy basketball leagues, which is rare for any player midway through the season.

One of the biggest questions in the sports world right now is will this Linsanity continute to be what it is, where he is putting up high numbers and killing it night after night. I believe so. Jeremy Lin isn't just an overnight fling (regardless on 2k11, I would've never given him a start on the Golden State Warriors but would now put him in my top 10 players in the NBA right now).

Jeremy Lin's most impressive aspects in my opinion right now, is the fact that he sets up his team with such a brilliance that is giving the Knicks an edge in almost ever game. One of Lin's biggest strengths is the fact that he sets up his two big men (Amare Stoudamire and Tyson Chandler) with such grace and is currently averaging 9.8 assists in the past five games. With that he adds in his points per game, where in the past five games has averaged 23.6. That in my opinion is incredible, while throwing in another 4.2 rebounds per game in the past five games and a 38 point game on February 10th, the man knows his baksetball.

I believe that Linsanity will continue to play with the caliber that he is. But with all good streaks you eventually slow down. I have a feeling that Linsanity has made a place for himself apart of the Knicks, and will no doubt be the starter until Iman Shumpert, Baron Davis, or Toney Douglas can prove that they can play better than him, although, all three of those options are incredibly doubtful. With the addition of Carmelo back into the line-up, I think it only adds some intensity (while taking off some stress) because he'll be able to efficently assist a guy who can put up as big of numbers as Lin has had lately and will give the Knicks the scoring and team play they have lacked.

As for now, Jeremy Lin has been an incredible addition for the New York Knicks, and out of nowhere has changed the Knicks team that has been struggling off and on this year. Even as the Lin trend wears out into the future, I believe that he'll be a big part of the Knicks (or in the NBA) for a long time as he is a true point guard, that truly makes his team better. He has also become one of my favorite players as of lately (regardless I'm a definite Spurs and Dwight Howard fan over anything) Lin will be the third thing of the NBA that will be in my attention.

Check out, the highlights from Lin's 38 point game against the Lakers here:

Check out his incredible game against Toronto, where he showed his assisting strengths putting up 11 assists and hitting a game winner with a game where he put up 27 points:

Facebook February Update

At the beginning of the month, I said about every week I'd do an update, well that really hasn't happened so I decided I'd do a halfway through the month post. Since it's my second year doing No Facebook February, it really isn't that hard, but I haven't seen any astonishing results (like last year) aside the fact that I've cut down how much time is spent mindlessly searching on my computer.

The first few days were pretty tough, since I was actually looking forward to looking at pictures from a concert that I went to as well as wanting to chat with other editors about the Torch. As the month progressed it became less and less of a want to get on, and as of now I really haven't got any huge urges to get on. Although, the other day at Torch work session, a friend of ours who isn't apart of Torch who had never used the computers got on Facebook somehow. We were in amazement, until we realized that all the journalism computers had Facebook unlocked on them, and as everybody was procrastinating diligently on Facebook, I was left working on my pages like the utmost productive child that I am!

Fifteen days in, I still haven't used it and am trying to be more productive with my school work instead of mess around on Facebook.

In other news, this post means it's halfway through February which means that I should probably give an update on blogs I'm working on. Expect 2-3 album reviews towards the end of the month (the next two Tuesdays, I'll be releasing some album reviews) so expect those. Also, I just started working on my Finals blog that I promised back in November and I'll be sure to get that out.

Thanks for checking in! Be back soon.

Grammy Recap

What a crazy night of music. Between the great performances, the werid ones too (yes Nicki Minaj I am definitely talking to you), and a hell of a lot of awards being awarded to Adele. If you watched the awards you'll see that Adele walked away with pretty much every award she was nominated for. While there was no underdog winners in this years Grammy awards, we can say that 2011 was truly dominated by Adele.

Early this month I posted some blogs about the Grammy's that gave my predictions of who'd win what awards, who in my opinion should win if you'd like to see those posts click here and here.

Let's recap what I said, and see how well my predictions actually were true of what happened Sunday night.

Record of the year:
My prediction: Rolling the Deep
Winner: Rolling in the Deep

Album of the year:
My prediction: Adele, 21.
Winner: Adele, 21.

Song of the year:
My prediction: Rolling in the Deep
Winner: Rolling in the Deep

Best new artist:
My prediction: Bon Iver
Winner: Bon Iver

Best alternative album:
My prediction: Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Winner: Bon Iver, Bon Iver

Best Hip Hop Album:
My prediction: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy/Watch the Throne
Winner: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Even though I only selected a few awards to view, as you can see the Grammy's are incredibly predictable. Not only predictable, but bias, several times onto a commercial break where they'd mention "Stay tuned for album of the year.." Adele would be playing. The Grammy awards are one of my favorite award shows, but year after year they become more biased and have nominations that could be reconsidered. If I'm still blogging next year, I'll make my own Grammy awards. So stick around!

Podcast Update

It's been a while since I've talked at all about the podcast, but it's been a great success. Before this year, our school didn't do much with video journalism but it has generated so much attention lately that is one of the coolest things to me. I was at a basketball game earlier this week, when a camera man taping for one of the local channels that the schools basketball game was broadcasted on stopped me and said "I really loved this weeks podcast." I didn't know who the guy was, but we proceeded to having a conversation about it, and it was one of the coolest feelings that somebody that was generally associated outside of the school loved our podcast so much. It's also awesome to see that so many people watch the podcast and when our videos get over 1000 views in Youtube in the first 2-3 days, it is one exciting feeling. So, I would definitely like to thank everybody whose allowed the podcast to become such a hit and would like to say that we only hope to make it better from here on!

If you haven't caught any of our latest podcasts checkout these videos below:

Also, please check out the video by Jordan & Nick, which is some what of a theatrical trailer for the podcast:

Superbowl Sunday

It's that time of year again: The commercials that make you laugh, the halftime performances that no typical football fan would enjoy, and well to watch the same damn teams that are always in the Superbowl play each other. The Superbowl is known as one of my favorite American holidays, except this year I'm looking forward to everything but the game.

This year features the AFC's best record team the New England Patriots and the NFC's New York Football Giants.  For a brief history lesson, these are the two teams that played in the 2007 Super Bowl, Giants won by 3.



As exciting as the Superbowl should be, this year sucks in my honest opinion. Nobody really wants to watch these two teams play against each other. The only way that this Superbowl will be a maintainable watch is if and only if the commercials are good.

I'll be enjoying countless buffalo wings, smoked hot dogs in bbq sauce, and various other junk food tonight while watching some good commercials.

As for my game prediction being the typical sports nerd I am (when it comes to these two teams, I'm the farthest thing from a sports nerd though) I say Patriots win it 27-17, with Tom Brady being Super Bowl MVP (I'd say Rob Gronkowski but hes had injury trouble lately).

Farewell!

Update 9:20pm: Well that game was a miserable fail, the commercials were alright, the food was delicious as always, and the team I was rooting for ended up losing. Superbowl 44 is in the books and it's one I'll never turn back to. As a friend of mine on twitter said "Championships just mean your team used to be good."

Hope everyone has a lovely week, Go Bears!

How You Feel? Awesome.

A few months ago, I got news that a rapper that I started listening to a few years back was coming to town. At the time, I was pretty set on going to the concert, just because I'm quite the hip-hop head and I really liked his music. After downloading a few mixtapes, my opinion of the rapper became really high. XV, the rapper out of Wichita, Kansas has recently became one of my favorite rappers and seeing him on Saturday night furthered my liking for him. A friend of mine and I decided we'd buy tickets and go to the concert and every minute until we got there, our excitement rose and after the concert more excited than ever.

Saturday Night (2/4/12) we arrived in Iowa City at Blue Moose Taphouse. Blue Moose Taphouse is a pretty legitimate venue for concerts (I've been to 4-5 of them before) but the bar is split into two levels and both levels allow concerts. Every concert I had been to before had been on the lower level, this one was on the second level (which is much smaller, but is also super easy to get close to the artist). 

We arrived there after searching for a parking lot for 15 minutes of getting to downtown Iowa City and arrived at Blue Moose, where we met up with two other friends of my friend. We were anxious to get inside but had to go through the process of checking in our tickets, getting wristbands, and waiting in line for a bit. Once we got inside we immediately got as close as we could to stage and stayed put until the first group came on. 

The concert started around 7 and really had no energy (after 3 groups, trust me the mention I'm giving them right now is enough) until about 8:30 where a band from Cedar Falls, IA (which I was lucky to know one of the two front men rappers, since he graduated with two of my brothers) got the place going. The group is named "Skool'd Life". They got the place going and really we're great performers and had some really good tracks. Be sure to check them out on their website or Twitter. Currently they only have about six tracks online for free, of their older material but they will be getting out some new music!

Then about 9:10 or so, XV's crew started setting up and his DJ, Awesome Sound came out and got the crowd going from the people who knew of him. Then after what seemed the longest 10 minutes, XV came out from the back door in shades, a DOPE Couture fitted hat, and the crowd went wild. The four other people who I knew from the concert, were all in  the front row and all five of us were going crazy. 

XV opened up his performance and performed some his best tracks along side some of his #Squarian crew. He performed some of his most popular tracks, such as Awesome, U.F.C, Pictures on my Wall, That's Just Me, Mirror's Edge, and even some of his new material off his upcoming album The Kid with the Green Backpack.

XV ended the night with one of his most popular songs U.F.C, where he jumped into the crowd into the front row where the group of my friends and I were standing, as we huddled up together with XV himself and just loved every minute of the show. After the show ended The Awesome Sound played a few popular tracks as XV disappeared, but Sez Batters and The Awesome Sound stayed on stage and pretty much greeted everybody first row and had a conversation with a group of us.

We then got ready to leave after having one of the best times, when I saw Sez Batters going outside and asked him for a picture and was able to snap this photo with him: 

At that point, I was in awe, I got to get a picture with a rapper that was on tour with XV and I was ready to go home and just fall asleep.

Once we got outside, we noticed a crowd in front of the Blue Moose. When we got out there we saw @XtotheV, Vizzy himself talking to a bunch of fans who had stayed long after the concert ended in hopes of meeting him. The best part of my night, was when we walked up to him and he approached us and greeted us by our Twitter names. We probably had tweeted at him 20 times the night before (and after having a previous Twitter conversation with my friend, who he already followed) knew us was one of the coolest things ever. We proceeded to take pictures with him, talk about the show and the tour, make jokes with him and just got to spend time with the guy. One of the things that surprised me most, was the fact that he was so humble and just treated us as if we friends of his, rather than some crazy fans. The night was officially over after we had spent about another 20 minutes talking to him and we were on our way home (after getting lost 2-3 times). Once I got home, I got on Twitter to see Twitpics that my friend had sent to me, and when I went to my mentions I saw that XV had retweeted me twice.

The concert definitely will go down as one of the most memorable nights in a long time. The rapper that I had only listened to a little bit before the show, easily became one of my favorite rappers that night. XV was a humble man, and really just was different than anything I ever expected. His music, different from most really now has more of a sentimental value than every before and listening to his mixtapes now, compared to before just means a lot more. I will forever be an XV fan and a #Squarian, as that concert was one of the best concerts I had went to and leaves concerts to come with VERY high expectations.

A few friends and I with @XtotheV after the concert.

No Facebook Febuary (February Preview)

It's that time of the year, the time when lovers get excited, most people are getting ready for spring, and well...No Facebook. Last year, a friend and I were talking through Facebook Messenger, something that had become an afterschool ritual in time became one of our main modes of procrastination. One day in late January, we were talking and we decided, we really need to put this whole Facebook procrastination on hold, and thus we created a trend...No Facebook February. A lot of people once they heard the news followed and we inspired quite a few people to do it. No Facebook Feburary was a rather great month, without Facebook my GPA shot up by 0.30, I was able to complete more of my homework efficiently, and I was able to spend my free time working out, playing video games, and just being able to hangout with friends. No Facebook February was one of my best ideas. This year, I've decided to do it once again, and to use my blog as my way to almost journal my use of no Facebook. I'll probably post once every week of February as kind of a journal about not using Facebook how differently things are when one of the largest distractions/addictions of mine is completely taken out.

As for February, I don't really know what I'm going to blog about...Pretty much what I said about January, but I will be revisiting my Grammies post a little after the Grammy's to see how well my predictions matched up with how the awards really did turn out. I'm going to start doing album reviews again and will also probably try and crank out a few of my lessons that started the blog (regardless I changed the name, I'm going to continue doing them. I just wanted to change the focus and talk more about the world of sports, music, journalism, and well everything.) I will also be working on another blog through Wordpress which is my journalism profile of this year. Currently I have one through Blogger, but it doesn't really have the features I want to showcase my work through, so with any free time I'll be able to acquire I'll be switching providers and I'll be sharing that!

With February and the beggining of March, only 29 days away means that they're only 29 days until FINALS. I remember back in November I promised blog posts about my thoughts on Finals, but I never really got those through, maybe I'll try that again.

As for now, February is as unexpected of a month as ever. So be on the lookout for new blogs of mine.

Thank you, have a lovely month!