The End, or Just the Beginning

I am in no way a gamer, but when a game takes over the world it is hard to miss. My first interactions with the game Fortnite was actually on a football recruiting visit to John Carroll University (who coincidentally we play this weekend). Fortnite took the world by storm no that is not a typo I do not mean the gaming world. I can safely say this because of one thing. My parents knew about it! In recent news around the game of Fortnite it blew up. Unannounced and unexpected keeping with what has made the game so popular, being different.

Fortnite is free. In the world today anything being free is unheard of. That is how the game got its initial take off. Free grabs attention! When a game you can play with all of your friends is free it speaks for itself. Currently around 250 million people play Fortnite. At a single time over 10 million people have played at once. In its most popular month Fortnite had over 80 million active players.

Epic Games the creator of Fortnite sensed a drop in popularity for its once star game. Their fears were confirmed as reports came in showing for the first time since the games creation decrease in popularity in the month of August. How do you respond? You blow up the game of course. 5.5 million people watched as the Fortnite shut down. For two whole days the game wasn't available.

Fortnite had the attention of the world again. Trending on twitter and even becoming the talk of my dinner table this fall break. Perhaps that is the genius behind it all doing things that have never been done before. Creating talk and marketing they don't even have to advertise. So far the perfectly executed end and then beginning has done just what Fortnite needed reawakening the gamers who had let the game slip their mind.

The end, became the new beginning.

New York Times Article

The Most Watched Event This Year

CNN Article

McAda

As I pulled through one of the most hopping dining spots in the bumping town of Ada, OH. I followed the line that crossed out in to main street. To the road that then funneled into the drive through lane. I put in my order as well as for my two friends. We all have usual orders that each of us know by heart.  For myself gourmet chicken nuggets and two steaks with buns. Dom a deluxe chicken sandwich with shredded potatoes. Austin chicken pieces with a honey barbecue side sauce.

When we go for a meal depending on our schedule we will dine in and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere on main street of Ada, OH. Or we will ride through the drive through with great service no matter the line they always get us our food fast.

I looked into the history one of Ada's finest establishments and learned that it opened in 1955. Students are a main source of income at this local eatery with stops throughout the day between classes, as well it being a frequent for late night meals. Serving over 140 items and annually making over 2 million dollars a year this staple of Ada will be here for years to come.


Now for all of you who are just dying to come drive through the small town of Ada and try out all the food stops Ada has to offer there will be a lot of options. With local pizza shops and our very own improved Chipotle (Jalepeno's) there are countless places to indulge your taste buds. The stop you just won't miss however is the fine dining establishment under the golden arches!

There Go the Leaves

As I walked the half a mile from the Dial-Roberson Stadium to my apartment I noticed one little thing had changed in the past day. No it wasn't a crack in the sidewalk or that the ducks were gone. It quickly became a dark and gloomy day when I looked to my left and saw a tree with a leaf turning a shade of yellow.

While fall has never been my favorite time of year. I will always prefer 90 degrees and sunny over 60 and leaves falling. People love this time of year. As spooky season, and the beginning of the holiday season comes near. You can see autumn lovers looking to the trees as the leaves change to reds, oranges, and yellows. For those of you who would consider this your favorite time of year. Here is a list of what might make it your favorite.

1. Staying inside all day as the temperatures drop and the cold rains roll through nothing wrong with a great day inside wrapped up in a blanket.

2. Doing anything involving apples, eating apples, picking apples, drinking apple cider, one way or another apples are a sure fire way to start your fall off right.

3.Doing anything with a pumpkin, going to a pumpkin patch, picking a pumpkin, carving a pumpkin all ideas to get you in the fall state of mind.

4. Anything involving leaves never has anything been more applauded for dying. Every year we celebrate the death of all the leaves around us. Whether we are jumping in them or just admiring them leaves have become a celebrated hero of the fall.

5. In many homes the start of fall is the undocumented permission to start having fireplace fires. In my home as soon as it drops below 70 degrees fires are permitted but that comes down to personal preference.

6. Sweater weather, every where you look it seems everyone has found new sweaters left and right. Somehow people don't have to repeat sweaters for weeks.

7. Another unwritten permission of fall, hot chocolate is now available in all shapes and sizes in all kinds of restaurants and cafes.

8. It is officially L.L. Bean season! To those of you who don't live on a college campus or in the presence of those who own these boots I have attached a link. If you go outside after the first inkling of fall weather I promise you half the people you will see will have these boots on. The crazy part is they are not worn before fall then boom it all happens at once. Besides the leaves changing L.L. Bean season might be the best way to tell when fall is coming.

The best for last.

9. Flannel, plaid, anything that makes you look like a lumberjack is officially fair game once the leaves change colors.

Now you may wonder why this list is only 9 things when most of the time I do top 10s. The answer for that is 9 is a scarier number than 10 and it is officially spooky season and this is how I get in the spirit.

Technology.

Technology makes life easier. Technology makes things possible today that 15-20 years ago were not even thought of. Connecting with friends and family is easier than ever. Communicating across the globe is instantaneous. Technology is easy but is easy always the right way? I recently spoke to 800 middle schoolers. All of which had cell phones, social media accounts, and most likely Ipads or computers.

These kids have grown up with social media and technology. They have never known a time when they did not have a screen around them or in front of them. Parents are now more likely to hand kids and Ipad or mobile device to entertain them, than any other toy.

Over two thirds of the world's population have mobile cellular devices. Half of the world population uses social media. Technology is an ever evolving and changing market with new concepts and products out almost every six months.

Society's ability to balance the ease of technology and the part of the world that makes us human could determine whether or not society continues to grow or we end up like the civilization in Wall-E

Is technology really the future of connectivity?
Or the end of it?

Telling Time

It's 7:55 a.m. in Ada. As I make my nice half a mile walk to my 8 a.m. class something dawns on me. I can tell that we have moved in time. I don't have to look at a clock, I don't have to look at a calendar, and the weather has not changed enough to spark anything. It is the students.

It is a nice 75 degrees out nothing to out of the ordinary for a September morning. I am wearing a sweatshirt and the same sweatpants I slept in the night before. The strategy behind this outfit is to maximize sleep. Not caring what other people think of me or what they think about what I am wearing. As my eyes scan the tundra and then the sidewalks to the Dicke College of Business I realize I am not the only one with this strategy. There are freshman girls you can tell have been up for hours to get ready and do their makeup. Most however have adapted the week four I don't care strategy. 

Walking down the small campus of ONU students have adjusted to college life. No longer do you see these well thought out outfits looking to find their college sweetheart. Now it is how can I roll out of bed the latest and get to class on time. You see more sweatshirts, hoodies, sweatpants, joggers, and leggings than ever before. You see less curled hair and makeup and more hats and messy buns. 

It is the middle weeks of the fall semester at Ohio Northern University. I did not have to look at a calendar to know that. Just look to the sleep deprived students across the campus and what they are wearing to their first classes in the morning. It is amazing how much you can learn not from looking at a clock, or a smartphone, or a watch, but looking at the people around you.

10 Interesting Facts about the World

While I struggle for things to write about this week. I looked at what I would read if it popped up on my screen! I found this article from North South Travel. 

10 Interesting Facts about the World

1. France is the most visited country in the world

2. Surprisingly Australia is the most obese country in the world as of 2012 with a 26 percent obesity rate

3. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos

4. Honolulu is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace

5. Spain is considered the most mountainous country in Europe and has over 8000 km of beaches

6. The United States has no official language

7. One third of all the airports in the world are located in the US

8. Mexico City is sinking at a rate of 10cm per year, 10 x faster than Venice

9. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world not to have any rivers

10. It has been rumored that the Great Wall can be seen from space, but in actual fact it can not

This is one link that caught my eye. It is crazy how fast the human mind can be focused on one thing to another. The average human attention span is 8 seconds. It is also scientifically proven that subject lines with top lists are shown to draw more attention to their posts. The next time you are scrolling try to keep in mind how often your attention is changing.

Is it Raining Yet?

A category 5 hurricane. Hurricane Dorian has become a weather anomaly that can not be figured out. I have always had the thought that a meteorologist is the only job on the planet where you can keep your job even if you are always wrong. This storm is an exception though no one knows what it is doing.

Striking fears as recently as a few days ago that it would hit the main land of Florida at a category 5 or 4 hurricane it stopped moving!

I was born in Florida, I grew up in Florida. I have seen my fair share of hurricanes they don't just stop nor do they move as slow as Dorian has decided to. In recent forecast it Dorian has dropped to a category 2 hurricane and it looks like it will go up the coast off of the United States Mainland.


The Bahamas however took a beating. Hurricane Dorian has dropped over 30 inches of rain in the northern parts of the Bahamas with winds over 100 mph. With a death toll of five along with 21 other injured civilians. The rescue and recovery effort in the Bahamas has begun. The United States Coast Guard has sent 7 helicopters along funds being donated from multiple organizations including The Walt Disney Company. Rescue efforts have struggled through the flooding throughout the island nation.


For those in the path of Hurricane Dorian stay safe!