Otterly Ridiculous

I am not crazy, I promise. I have a defense for what I am about to say and I will only freak out momentarily if I am crossed about the very touchy subject I am going to elaborate on. Yes, I know there are more important, pressing things in life, but I cannot help it. There is a plague among us and it must be stopped. I am talking about Comic Sans. If you do not know, Comic Sans is a font that I absolutely cannot stand. Albeit irrational to most people, I am not alone. In fact, I present you with the greatest thing I have seen on the internet today: Why do I hate Comic Sans you may ask, it is just kind of terrible. I am a graphic design major so I deal with type a lot. Typefaces, type families, serifs, san serifs, type anatomy, every detail you can think of with lettering is what I am learning about. And Comic Sans breaks the rules. The biggest problem is its overuse. It is a typeface that most people are familiar with and it makes it comfortable. When the average person s...

Using Facebook at work is something that most people are not supposed to do. But yet everyone knows a coworker who sneaks on throughout the day and somehow gets away with it without getting in trouble. This now classic scene may be coming to an end, however, if Facebook plays their cards right with their newest venture, Facebook at Work . The name is short, sweet and to the point, Facebook at Work is a new platform designed for the workplace. The goal is to combine the same look and tools as the public website, but tailor it to company needs. This means that employees will be able to create their own profile and interact with their coworkers while on the clock. This is the company’s attempt to show the world that social media is possible to be used as a legitimate business tool outside of just advertising. So why not just use Facebook? Easy, it is so distracting. This new format is designed to help people get work done, not lead them to the next viral video or recipe clip. ...

Facebook is the largest social media platform in existence. But this is probably not a shock to most people since it has over one billion users, it might even be where you found this blog. Have you ever thought of it as a party? How about a step further, a social scrapbook? Jason McDonald, the author of the “ Social Media Marketing Workbook ” explains his reasoning behind this. Facebook is a 24/7 party in McDonald’s eyes because of the constant activity that goes on. At any point there is something is happening on anyone’s timeline (where everything is compiled for the user to see). It is a place for sharing, socializing and fun, very reminiscent of an actual party. But in reality, that party is turning into a digital scrapbook. I have to admit, I hate scrapbooking. It takes so much time and effort and my perfectionist ways make me way too particular to get anything done without taking forever. That is why the idea of this digital scrapbook makes a lot of sense to me. Thin...

Have you ever thought about how much lettuce you have eaten over the course of your life? As of yesterday I can say I have. In fact I became so interested in the answer that I came up with a way to figure out your (approximate) lettuce count. Here is what I did. First I found out what the serving size of lettuce is. Since there are so many different kinds I decided to use romaine since it is a good middle ground between iceberg and dark greens and I have eaten a variety. It turns out that a serving size is two cups. There are six cups of torn romaine in one head, and there are about 10 leaves per head. This means that a serving size is actually 1.66 leaves. I approximated that one leaf is broken up into seven pieces, so there are about 23.33 pieces of lettuce per entree salad. Or 11.66 pieces in a side salad. Now for the less complicated part. I would say that between the ages of five and 12 I ate a side salad about twice a week. From the age of 13-20 I would say I eat an e...

Twitter is making a small change this week involving one of their most iconic features. Most Twitter users are familiar with the 140 character limit on tweets, but the company is expanding their rules slightly. According to this article usernames used in reply to a tweet will no longer be counted in the 140 character total. Neither will media attachments. This includes, polls, videos, photos and GIFs.   According to Fortune .com the change started on September 19 th when they released the feature for photos, videos, polls and GIFs. All of which use to take up 23 characters. That does not seem like a lot when mentioned as a number, but when there are only 140 characters to work with it suddenly becomes a substantial increase. This change will help users say more and be less constrained when drafting a tweet. There have been reports of more changes coming to Twitter in addition to this new feature. One report suggested that there could even be 10,000 word tweets. T...

For the last four weeks I have been reading “ The Art of Social Media ” by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick . You can see my favorite passages from my required reading throughout my blog under the title The Blue Highlighter . I finished the whole book last week so it is time for an overall review and an insight to my favorite aspects of the reading. This book is easy to read. It flows very nicely and the chapters are a nice length, they provide information but are not too long or overwhelming. I also enjoy the way they move from one subject to the next. There are many aspects of social media and breaking it up step by step helps the reader to focus and understand the points the authors are making. One of the only things I did not enjoy about the book is how extensively it promotes using Google+. Although it is a valid form of social media and it has interesting features I would have rather focused on another platform more. Overall this book has useful tips on how to i...

My first blog was about my online love, Pinterest . Today I would like to share with you my all-time favorite projects that I have tested and approved. Turn any craft paint into fabric paint When I read this article I was positive that it was too good to be true. The next time I was at Hobby Lobby I picked up a bottle of fabric medium and gave it a go. The project I decided to work on was upcycling an old pair of jean shorts. They are the most comfortable pair of jean shorts I own so naturally I have worn them to death for the past two years. They started to show their age and had weird stains that I did not think I could get over. I seized the moment and turned my old, worn out shorts into something more unique. This process was very simple. Just add half of your paint choice and half fabric medium and paint it on. I let it dry completely and then washed them in cold water. I have worn them quite a few times and I have had no problems with paint fading, ble...

For my social media post this week I am doing something a little different. I made a podcast! It is all about the easy things you can do to save money. It is geared toward college students, but I feel like everyone can learn something. Enjoy! How to save money in college Key Notes Do not carry around much money Look for the best textbook prices Use online coupons Take advantage of free stuff Shop smart Always ask about student discounts Get creative with your meal plan Upcycle Keep your eyes open for opportunities Resources I mentioned: Slugbooks ThriftBooks BookScouter Half.com Dollar General Digital Coupons Walmart Digital Coupons Kroger Digital Coupons Freakin Freebies BzzAgent Ebay ThredUp Amazon Progressive Student Discount Canon Student Deals More Student Discounts RSS Feed

It is time again to pick up a few social media tips and tricks from “ The Art of Social Media .” This will be the last installment of The Blue Highlighter since I will be moving on to my next textbook and I plan on switching to yellow. That being said, lets learn a little more about social media and the ways to use it effectively. Chapter 11 shared a variety of tips that most people have never heard of and they might be a little surprising. The first is the ability to stylize text in Google+ posts. This adds drama and is easy to do. The commands are simple and easy to remember.             Bold by adding asterisks on each side: *text*             Use italics by adding an underscore on each side: _text_             Strikethrough by adding a hyphen on each side: -text- The next tip is effective fo...

If you attend Ohio Northern University or have ever set foot on campus you might have noticed that we have a lot of ponds. With the ponds come ducks, geese and even a few swans. They are infamous and have found a way to hiss into our hearts. So much so that I have even heard a speech about them. They have their own dedicated twitter account, and everyone sheds a small tear when they go away in the winter. They are an ONU icon. I remember the day I moved in freshman year my RA commented that she would sometimes let bits of food get stale so she would just have to feed it to the birds at the pond beside our complex. I quickly learned that it was the norm to take your extra food to them. At all times throughout the day you may stumble upon someone hanging out with the birds. If you ask an ONU student or alumni chances are they probably have a story or two about them. It could be that a black swan chased them like this woman. Maybe a goose hissed them for a while. A little duck c...

A few days ago I did something I never would have dreamed of this summer, I deleted Pokémon Go . It was a hard decision when I considered how many hours I had invested in it, but it was crashing too much to be worth my time. That got me thinking about what I have seen around campus since I got back. In the beginning of the summer I expected there to be people all over catching Pokémon and going to Pokéstops at ridiculous times but that is not what I have observed. So I decided to investigate to see if I am the only one who has decided to jump ship. According to this article from “International Business Times,” I am not. As a matter of fact around 15 million less people are playing regularly. It is still extremely popular with about 30 million daily users, but that is a drastic drop compared to where that number was at the beginning of the summer. I am curious to find out from those around me if they are still playing or if they have chosen to abandon the game too. Even tho...

It is time once again for The Blue Highlighter , my weekly post about what I have been reading in my textbook “ The Art of Social Media .” Like last time I will be sharing my favorite pieces of my assignment. This post is over Chapter 7 and Chapter 8. Pick a Short Hashtag Chapter 7 was all about how to socialize events through different media channels. One of the most important takeaways in my opinion was to use a short, but effective, hashtag. When planning an event it is important to come up with a hashtag that will put everything posted in its own place for people to view during and after your event. It completely makes sense and is such an easy thing to do, there is no reason not to try implementing it at your next event. Make an Event Page Making an event page is so important these days. It is a great way to get the word out about what you are doing and it will even send a reminder to everyone invited the day of. I have been invited to a lot of events this ...

I have been at school for a little over two weeks now and I can already tell that it is going to be completely different from freshman year. I am a little older, a little wiser and I have a lot more happening. I feel like all freshman must go through a period of figuring out how they want their college experience to play out. You do not really narrow down what to be involved in until you have experienced an entire year. This time around I am going to be a lot more involved and have a lot more responsibilities. Recently I have decided that this is all part of a new piece of life that I like to call adulting. What is this made up term you may ask, it is my way of explaining all of the new responsibilities that come with growing up. I had my next phase of life realization while standing at Dollar General with my roommate. We had gone to buy the random necessities we forgot in all of our packing to come back to school. Mainly the items we needed to clean up our mess after mud volle...