Otterly Ridiculous

If you are like me you are not very good at carving pumpkins. Between the spherical  nature of the pumpkin itself and my fear of cutting my hands with the knife I am yielding I never end up with a good pumpkin. If that sounds familiar you are in luck! I have compiled this list of easy alternatives to pumpkin carving to make your porch a little prettier this Halloween. Confetti Pumpkins This DIY comes from MadeAnADay.com and I think it is just adorable, take a look at their easy tutorial . Nail Polish Dipped One of my favorite Pinterest projects are these nail polish mugs. These pumpkins work the same way! BB-8 Arguably this pumpkin may be almost as complicated to make as carving it would be, but just look at it. I think it would be worth any Star Wars fan's time. Glow In The Dark These are just about as easy as it gets. All you need is your pumpkin and some paint for your porch to ...

As a part of my social media class I made a tutorial on calligraphy using supplies everyone already has. Modern calligraphy is a big trend and it is something I really enjoy, my hope with this video was to take the fear of art away. So grab a pencil, paper, eraser and pen. Get to work and tag me in your creations! Here is some of my work and my Pinterest if you need inspiration!

On October 21 I had the opportunity to go to the opening of the "From Picas to Pixels" show at the Elzay art gallery on campus. This show features alumni work from all over the country. My favorite pieces included work done for The Candle Lab , the Columbus Museum of Art and The Body Shop . The best part about this particular show is that showcases just how good our design program is. I highly encourage every Ohio Northern University student to stop by and look at the work, it will be up until November 18, the gallery is open Monday through Friday 1-4:30 p.m. Be sure check out my live-tweeting from the event on my Storify !

 Alright Pinterest users I need your help. In my “ Social Media Marketing Workbook ” it says that it is a good thing to use hashtags on your posts because it makes them easier to find when searching. In my last textbook, “ The Art of Social Media ”, it says not to use hashtags of Pinterest because “people hate them there.” Personally I agree with Guy Kawasaki from my first book, I do not like the look of hashtags on Pinterest. Even though these are not official rules there are definitely assumed guidelines online. Both of these views come from social media professionals who are very knowledgeable in their fields, so which philosophy is correct? I am turning to you, what do you think? Do hashtags annoy you when you are pinning or do you think they belong there? Let me know by voting on the right.

Losing weight is a part of life that most people will struggle with. I am not a healthcare professional or even a health nut, but I made a major change for myself about 7 months ago and I am happy to say I have lost the freshman 15 and then some. So for this post I want to share the most important lessons and tricks I have learned.   Ditch the attitude When you reach a point where you decide you need to lose weight you can feel like a failure, but you’re not. Before you can make any progress you have to get rid of the idea that you have done something wrong, you are not a mistake and you can make a change for yourself if you try. Overcome this hurdle and it will be much smoother sailing. Track yourself I started really pushing myself when I got my Fitbit , but you do not need one to make a change. Even a cheap pedometer or an app will help you see where you are starting. These allow you to see if you need to be more active or if what you eat is what is hold...

At times when I get on Facebook I am very disappointed. Nothing too terrible happens, but I see yet another terrible hoax going around, recently it claims that there has been a change in the Facebook privacy policy. If you fell for it do not feel too stupid because thousands of people do every year. That is why I am here to help, here are the most common online hoaxes you should stop reposting. Protecting your privacy This is the post currently plaguing the internet. The basic idea is that you must copy and paste a post in order to protect what you post, the problem is that the people of Facebook do not care. This is a hoax set up just to flood your timeline, it is not an elaborate scam to take your money and the sole purpose is to annoy people. Facebook will always be free Look at the homepage if you do not believe me, Facebook is not going to charge users for service. The only way you will ever spend money on the site is if you choose to. The company knows that m...

Anytime you create content online keywords are important. These are the terms that best describe your post and lead people to it. For example, this blog post covers the use of keywords on YouTube so the most important keywords would be “keywords” and “YouTube.” These go along with one or two more that link to my blog as a whole. When it comes to YouTube keywords are vital because of how much content there is to sort through. Without the use of good keywords it is almost impossible for your post to gain a significant amount of views. At the same time, you should not have an overwhelming amount because it does not look professional and it may pull viewers away if they are not accurate. When uploading a video include no more than five relevant tags, these should be the most important points and showcase what your video is about. All of your keywords should be mentioned in your content, just saying the words helps view count through voice recognition software. Subtitles are availa...

Subtweeting is a rampant problem plaguing the internet. The unofficial definition is “Indirectly tweeting something about someone without mentioning their name. Even though their name is not mentioned, it is clear who the person tweeting is referring to. ” If you have any form of social media, you have probably seen this happening on many social platforms, you may have even been a victim of it. It is what I consider the most common type of cyberbullying, and as much as I enjoy almost all forms of social media it has definitely changed how I feel about my life online. In my opinion, when you have been subtweeted it is one of the lowest insults you can feel. For the past three or so years I have dealt with this problem on and off, and I think it is important to speak out about it. What it says is that the person who is doing it thinks that drama and making a scene is more important than respecting you. It says that the world should know about your problems, and it is more important ...

According to this article on Mashable.com, we may soon be able to buy movie tickets on Snapchat. The Fandango president, Paul Yanover, hinted that his company is working to create a way to merge tickets with Snapchat just like they have done before with Facebook Messenger. This quote from The New York Times shows the status of the idea, “A Fandango interface designed for Snapchat (again, allowing users to buy tickets without toggling between apps or leaving the platform) is on the way. ‘This is about Fandango appearing in these environments in an organic, natural way — the way people communicate with each other now, the way they actually discover, plan and buy,’ Mr. Yanover said. ” The companies experimented with the concept for a few days in May with the new X-Men movie, for a limited time users could buy tickets through a movie ad. This is a step further into Snapchat’s e-commerce initiative, the ultimate goal being to turn the app into a shopping experience and go pu...

Twitter is just like microblogging. I would be willing to bet that you have never heard that before, I had not until I was reading the Twitter chapter in my “ Social Media Marketing Workbook .” Blog posts take a process to create, first you must come up with a topic. For Otterly Ridiculous I have set guidelines for my posts every week. I must have a post about social media, one about my life, and one about my book reading, such as the one you are reading right now. While most blogs do not have such set rules, every post must start with a topic. A tweet works the same way, to start you must think about what you want to convey with your tweet. The next step to creating a blog post is to create a headline and the content itself. These are always related, the headline should show the reader what the content is going to be about. Almost like a preview to what you will say. Since tweets are only 140 characters long, the pieces of this step get put together into your tweet content, ...

Some of my favorite posts right now are the ones showing better names for things. If you have not seen them it is when people rename everyday objects, animals, etc. in a hilarious and interesting way. I decided to take this concept and apply it to school, I give you, better names for college things. 8 a.m.s - Expensive Naps Cafeteria - Student Trough Keurig - Fountain of Life Sticky Notes - To Do Posters Black Swans - Lucifer Birds Planner - School Bible Textbooks - Debt Bricks Ramen - Desperation Noodles Snow - Frozen Tears Yik Yak - Campus CNN Student ID - Discount Card Exams - Stress Bombs Library - Tear Center Pepper Spray - Clown Seasoning Do you have something to add? Get creative and let me know in the comments.

YouTube was launched on February 14, 2005 leaving 11 years for a lot to happen. As one of the most popular social media platforms it is almost impossible to avoid which video is trending at any given moment. But that is not all YouTube has to offer, here are 10 interesting facts you may not have known about the website.  A third of the world YouTube has over a billion users, meaning that over one third of the internet world’s population is on YouTube. Half of users are mobile Over half of YouTube users access it through a smartphone or tablet. Thank Janet Jackson The founder of YouTube created the site after Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl in 2004 during half time. After the event Jawed Karim thought there should be a platform where people could find the video if they wanted to, giving him the inspiration for the platform. Mystery YouTuber One of the most popular channels on YouTube is FunToyzCollector and nobody really ...

LinkedIn is a professional social network that started in 2002. It has many of the features that Facebook does but it is designed to connect users through employment. Throughout recent years it has become a necessity for building relationships. These tips from the “ Social Media Marketing Workbook ” will help you take your basic profile up a notch and make you stand out from the online crowd. Your Public Resume LinkedIn has both personal profiles and public pages. Individuals have profiles which act as a public resume. If your settings are set right, anyone can see your profile, which is very important if you are looking for a job. Make sure your profile information is kept up-to-date so when potential employers see it they know exactly what your experience and skills are. Search and Trust When you want to know more about someone what do you do? Google it. This is what employers do too, so it is important that you keep your keywords relevant. When setting thes...