Nick's News

 Christmastime is one of my absolute favorite parts of the year. With the festivities, music, food, gifts (of course), and atmosphere, you really can't beat it. When it comes to holiday shopping, I tend to get pretty carried away. I am almost always smart with my money and at times reluctant to spend it, but Christmastime is much different.  When it comes to holiday shopping, I typically do half of it online and the other half I go to stores and check out their inventory. A majority of Americans, 60%, prefer to do their holiday shopping entirely online, so I am an outlier when it comes to this statistic. I've found that whenever I visit a store, I tend to spend a lot more compared to browsing an online site, mainly because I get to see the item with my own eyes and there's no guessing whether a shirt fits or if a pair of joggers is too baggy. I do have to watch myself, because I tend to buy a lot of what I want compared to what I need. For example, I own many hoodies. I don...

    I've had enough with my local McDonald's, to put it mildly. There never seems to be a time when the ice cream machines are operational, the workers are highly inefficient, and the place isn't open 24 hours as advertised. Luckily in America there's an overabundance of McDonalds's locations that I could go to as an alternative, but this particular location is pretty unreliable.      Whenever I'm craving a chocolate shake or M&M Mcflurry, Bartlett McDonald's never comes through for me. The machines are always "broken" no matter what. This happens so often that I go out of my way to the neighboring town to their McDonald's location. It's truly infuriating, because this other location always has their ice cream machines operational. I did some research, and a source attached below informed me that McDonald's ice cream machines require specifically trained people to fix these machines, which could take months. Whether that's true ...

      It's hard to believe my first semester of college is just about over. The fact that I've been here for roughly 4 months already is a crazy statistic, and before I know it spring will be upon us and I can start thinking about summer. One thing at a time though. The end of semester isn't a time to coast and relax, it's a time to grind and lock in. With finals week finally here, I need to be productive and finish strong.          It's easy for me to quickly get stressed out and overwhelmed with my workload from various classes, and these past few days have been no exception. However, this is great experience for what will become the norm for the next 3 years. Finals week has taught me just being productive is the most important thing I can do. I read a quick article, attached below, which gave the advice of conquering the harder/important tasks first, before jumping onto smaller ones. I tried this out, and it lowered my stress level and a...

 Thanksgiving truly is one of the greatest holidays, and I honestly don't care what anyone else says. But since I'm writing this, obviously I do. Far too many people dump on Thanksgiving for whatever reasons they have ("the food is gross") but many times when pressed on why they dislike it, they struggle to come up with an answer. Keep in mind these are largely the same people who consider you immoral if you utter anything negative about Halloween, which is overrated by the way. Thanksgiving is unique and happens once a year, so let's all just enjoy it. I will concede and admit I understand the perspective that the food isn't the greatest (I still disagree) since I'm a picky eater, but we really only have an excuse to stuff our faces with turkey, potatoes, mac n cheese, ham, and desserts once a year. Can you think of another holiday when it's acceptable to consume that much food? No! And if you don't like the food and it's an issue, by all mean...

 As I continue to form a draft of my rational argument essay, it's refreshing to write about something that I have interest in, which is why people swear. I was never really into psychology, but this topic grabbed my interest when I wrote about it in my micro theme. So, I thought I would keep writing and build on it. Just doing a little bit of research, studies have shown, which I have attached below, state that swearing conveys emotions in one of the most effective ways. Whether someone is angry, overjoyed, or surprised, swearing makes it incredibly clear. Profanity is, to put it simply, powerful. We're taught at a young age that swearing is "bad", and because of this negative view pushed on us, we have an aroused or alert response to when we hear profanity; it's why this language is so effective when it comes to communication. Swearing can also enhance humor, as rarely are things funny without an f-bomb dropped at the right moment. We do have to realize that peo...

Last week, I attended a presentation in the library that highlighted what makes a source credible, and where to find them. In today's day and age, there are thousands of articles on various sites, and it can be difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.  Considering I will need several credible sources for my research essay, this presentation was beneficial to my writing outline and my overall understanding of sourcing information.  When analyzing a source, it's very important to take into consideration possible bias. For example, bias is very prevalent in the news media. Understanding that bias has the power to portray information in a way that can deceive must be noted. Adding on, when looking for credible information, citing a study can be more effective to your argument, ensuring that you can identify possible bias, and the study's relevance to your topic. Studies that are over 10 years old should be reexamined as it could potentially be outdated. Also, being able to d...