Trap Music

Trap music Recently I’ve noticed a lot of kids who are letting music based out of Chicago gangs affect the activity they do out of school. Trap music, a form of rap based in Chicago has become a trend amongst kids all over the U.S. but I believe it is having a harmful effect on certain students. It encourages gun violence and illegal activity by making it look interesting and fun. The reason I think this is such an issue is because of how close we live to Chicago but how very different our worlds are. Many people who have been listening to trap music don’t understand that the reason that these artists in Chicago are talking about this is because that is what they’ve actually been through. It is not a glorified life and should be taken very seriously because I’m sure that’s what the artists are aiming for. Artists like Lil Durk have came out speaking about how they want to stop the violence in Chicago through this music. He stressed that he doesn’t even want his own children growing up because of how scary a place it is. He stated that in his own music, when he talks about killings and drugs and real life struggles he isn’t saying it so people think it’s cool and go out and do it. He’s stressing that he wants people to avoid lives like these because he’s seen such horrible things from where he’s from and what he, himself has been through. None of the rappers in Chicago would be satisfied if they heard that kids have taken this idea of trap and turned it into games such as robbing each other, and other illegal activity. Most to all would be upset with a fact like that. There is honestly no room in society for it. If it was up to me I’d let everyone who listened to trap music realize that it is just like reading a book. It is appreciating the stories that these rappers let us hear and learning from their experiences and realizing we need to help end “wars” like this in our own country. I think it’s important that more of the chicagos rappers reach out and let people know what it’s like and that this is something that shouldn’t be going on any more and it seriously needs to end. I think they can do it. (402)

Kid Cudi- Changes

Kid Cudi – Change This year, the artist Kid Cudi plans on coming out with the 4th Man on the Moon. For people who are unaware of Kid Cudi’s music history, in the past few years he has had a struggle keeping his loyal fans happy with his music. Lately, many have complained that his style has changed since he stopped smoking marijuana and that it’s not as good as it simply use to be. Over the past year kid cudi has bee on multiple tours with multiple other artists announcing that this year he will be releasing and important album that will make up for the past couple of years where he also feels as though he hasn’t been living up to his fans expectations. He’s been on social media connecting with his fans daily, being very open about his struggles with the relationships in his life and his struggles of making music and sticking to who he is as a person and not changing through the journey. He was very open the other day explaining his problems with record labels in the past trying to change his style and how he chooses to create his songs and albums. Kid Cudi, also known as Scott has been very clear that although he loves making music, his number one responsibility in his life is being a parent to his child. Although his fan bases has completely changed, he believes he will still be able to keep the same numbers, with maybe even more with the new album. This march he produced a song titled “Love” and got emmence feed back from fans saying how much they enjoyed the new song. Cudi replied to fans on social media saying that it was only a sneak preview to what he has planned for the album. Cudi stressed that his next album he has been putting much time and hard work into making it exactly what he’s wanted. He has been talking about how excited he is. I have to agree that I am also excited because I was severely disappointed with his last one. Although I’m a faithful fan I’m still hoping that he continues to do what he chooses but really hoping it sounds good. I respect him as an artist because you can tell he truly cares about what his fans think and if he’s pleasing them but also makes sure he realizes who he is at the same time. (409)

Keeping up with the Kardashians

The Kardashians My opinion on the Kardashians is that although they are very successful they are extremely overrated. I’m still not sure why they are as famous as they really are. It doesn’t make sense to me really. I understand that they are not talentless and they have business deals going for them but what I am trying to say is I think that the success they have accomplished thus far has been much more than any of them really and truly deserve compared to all the hard working individuals out there in the entertainment business. I believe they are famous based on luck. All sisters were born into a family of two already very successful parents, who had connections with famous people as well. After all, their father was the lawyer for OJ simpson during his infamous first murder trial. Although their father later passed away due to throat cancer, their mom, Kris then moved onto another very successful man, Bruce Jenner. Although Bruce might not have been the most famous person or with the best connections he was still a public figure that caught the attention of many people and then eventually E. Of course, we can’t forget about the sex tape that Kim produced when she was dating the famous Ray Jay at the time. Which she ended up eventually making money off of then boosted also her fans. Then, caught the eye of the TV network, E. From then on the Kardashian fan base grew and grew, helping them expand not only their business deals but also just their fans in general. For what? Now I understand that all 3 daughters are very beautiful, but currently they are in the spotlight of our society and I’m starting to wonder if that makes any sense at all. As a guy I get how many people fantisize over their bodies, girls too. But I don’t think it’s worth it at all. I think they do lack at least a little talent when they’re making money amounts compared to oprah and some of the most successful people in the world. To me, their fame is more of an interest in a hollyood family and the basis of people constantly wanting to know what theyre doing just because they have that risk factor because it seems as though you really never know what the Kardashians are actually going to do. That is simply where their fame comes from. (408)

Kanye

• I don’t think Kanye West has ever got the respect her deserves. Although most people would disagree with me and say that he is cocky, rude, etc. Etc. I disagree. I think there are a lot of ways that Kanye is contributing to not only the entertainment business but also, the fashion industry and amongst other things. When you glance onto Kanye’s Wikipedia page it pulls up the fact that he is not only a musician but also a Rapper • singer • songwriter • record producer • director • fashion designer • painter • entrepreneur Let’s start off with the fact that Kanye just in the past 2 years has gone from just a rapper with his own label to a multimillion dollar fashion icon and producer. Working with companies like Adidas and also Ralph Lauren, none of which are small names especially in the fashion industry he has made his own name. Of cource we all know that Kanye is a song writer, his latest song her produced on his own was “only one” which he wrote about his mother and his daughter north that was supposedly what his diseased mother had said to him in a dream he had. Kanye’s mother was always apart of his growing process when she was alive and now he continues to involve her name in almost every project he does. Who knew he was a director? I didn’t. But facts show that Kanye has directed almost half of his music videos which not many artists can even do on their own while writing their own songs, and also producing them on their own with very few people helping him, which is honestly very amazing to me and completely impressive. A painter? This is a shocking thing to me but on certain websites it states that Kanye sells his paintings regularly for thousands of dollars, on websites like Ebay where he sells his other merchandise. It was figured that Kanye would be an entrepreneur. This wasn’t a shocking fact to me, because I was aware of the numerous fashion designers he had been helping in the past year and even creating and running his owner charity organization for the kids of Chicago. It also surprise me because his wife is Kim Kardashian and the amazing amount of money they make through deals that they probably do together, because we are all aware of the power couple they are. Over all Kanye deserves endless amounts of respect and will be a legend. (412)

Bulls and Cavs

Bulls vs. Cavs Because we are entering the 4th playoff game in the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chicago Bulls 7 game series both tied 2-2 I thought it’d be important to analyze the reasons that the Bulls deserve to win this series completely. Although I’m not saying that Cleveland is at all a bad team in any way because of course you have to obviously be a good player to even be a part of the NBA. Beside the point, there are critical reasons that the Bulls deserve the ring over Lebron in the series. It really all makes sense to me. First off, the bulls have had a critical season not full of ups and downs, but strictly ups due to the fact of how well their team full of all-star players work together, it’s actually really amazing. Drose, Joakim Noah, and Jimmy Butler are some of the best players I’ve seen working together on the bulls in a long time. There isn’t a dominant player that keeps the fans of the Bulls focused on the team, it’s a joined thing lead a little by Derrik Rose. But of course Derrik Rose is not the only thing you think of when it comes to the Bulls. When Lebron left Cleveland in the first place before he came back… who really payed attention to the Cavaliers? Not me. Who payed attention to the heat when Lebron moved their? I sure did more than I was even looking at Cleveland at at because they are simply now just a one man team. That one man decides how many people pay attention to them together? And you’re telling me they deserve a ring? Of course this all sounds a little cynical and ignorant, and maybe I am a little too much of a bulls fan to make these decisions or opinions but it’s just what I believe. If I could have it my way for the next 3 games, it would be nice for Derrik Rose to get his time to shine after facing so many criticisms of how many times he’s been injured after so many have made the assumption that he is just strictly not going to make it because of his injuries. I think this is his time to get back at all the people who’ve doubted not only him but Chicago as a team. It is just simply their time to prove where they stand. (406

Kehlani

Kehlani The artist Kehlani is becoming one of my favorite artists in the R&B industry. She just recently published her first album titled “You should be here” which is exceptionally good. “You should be here” was Kehlani’s first album on her own. Although she recently just signed a record deal to also create her own label, her first album remained number one on itunes for over a week which is actually really impressive thing for an artist just first entering the music business. Although she’s been on tour with famous artists like G-Easy, this Oakland seems to be focused on more than just creating music, on social media she tweets constantly about her goals of changing females in the music industry and how people view them as people and their art. One of her main themes in her music is self-reliance and confidence. Her first album tells the story of all the situations in her life where she’s loved and she’s lost. Each song tells a different story. Starting out with the intro of her producer talking to her a while songs like “ The Letter” talk about her struggles with the fact that her mom was never truly involved in her life which has always hurt her. My favorite song on the entire album is called Alive. The song Alive goes into detail about how you can invest so much time into multiple people and be hurt so many times but it will never effect you until you learn to invest time in yourself. The best part is when it says “It’s like something has to die, to make you realize,” saying that bad things have to happen in life for you to realize that there are also really good things happening in life that need to be appreciated as well. In the song she goes on talking about how thankfully she lost a few people in her life on her way in the industry and also in life in general because it has completely made her stronger and I completely respect that. The best part that separates Kehlani from most female artist is her intellectual lyrics and her consistency on staying true to herself no matter what label she signs to or what happens to her along the way she still plans to stay the tom boy she started out as who just rapped and sang about her real life situations. She’s really a great artist. (407)

Mac Miller

If you've ever heard of Mac Miller you probably either think he's some shitty white rapper, or that he was a very gifted rapper who fell off. Personally I think both of those statements are the farthest thing's from the truth. Without a doubt Malcolm McCormick "Mac Miller' is my favorite artist of all time. I first heard a Mac Miller song when I was messing around on youtube in 6th grade. The song was "Nikes On My Feet" and at the time had a little over 10,000 views. Now some 5 years later when I go back and look that same video I watched as a young kid just starting junior high has 43 million views. When talking about Mac Miller there is much more than meets the eye. If you saw current picture of him you would probably wonder why some chubby homeless with a scruffy beard and bug eyes is wearing such expensive clothes, but I promise you that ugly man is a genius. Just like anyone else thrust into stardom at a young age Mac has made a lot of dumb mistakes and done dumb things but he is still someone I greatly look up to and idolize (312)

Social Media

Recently at school we had an incident involving social media that I'm sure most if not everyone is well aware of. We spent a whole class period discussing it and knowing how quickly word travels in the high school world you probably heard about it even if you weren't in class that day. This post is not meant to bring up that particular situation or any individual problem that anyone has had with posting things on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or Instagram. It's just meant to warn you that what you post on the internet really does matter and can follow you down the road. Now I know I probably sound like some parent lecturing their kids about the dangers of the internet and all the negatives that can come from it, but they really do speak the truth. For me personally I've never had any issues with things I have posted and I truthfully credit that to my Grandma. For two years of my early life I lived on my grandparents farm sleeping on a cot in a cramped bedroom but I know for a fact that I learned the most in my life by far during those two years. Everyday my grandma was lecturing me over something different whether it was "Don't get to close to the microwave; they cause cancer! Don't overuse the word 'like' it makes you look less intelligent!" or "Be very careful if you ever get a Facebook, kids get in a lot of trouble with them!" Being young some days I didn't want to hear what she was lecturing me about. But everything always stuck with me. That's why to this day I keep all of my social media accounts on private and still avoid posting anything that can be taken in any negative way. I recently deleted my Facebook, but before I did I got on one last time and scrolled through all of the posts of my 'friends' that I had and actually got a great kick out of it. I honestly could not believe the audacity some people had with what they posted. Talking about all of the drugs, drinking, and sexual activity they partake in just made me sit back and laugh. While kids in our age group are out there posting stuff like that on their unprivate social media accounts you and me can really look forward to our future job interviews feeling like a million bucks while our future employer is scowering through posts, pictures, and tags finding nothing but positive things. (424)

Skizzy Mars Concert Part 2

Much earlier in my blog posts I wrote about one of my favorite up and coming artists, Skizzy Mars. I was lucky enough to go and see him in concert back in October and it was an awesome experience. Now more recently I was lucky enough to go to yet another concert of his in Iowa City. The concert was originally supposed to be on a Friday night, and practically everyone I talked to in Cedar Rapids had a ticket. Unfortunately about 4 hours before the concert Skizzy sent out a tweet stating that he would not be able to perform due to an illness he had and would not be able to perform until next Wednesday, which pissed a lot of people off to say the least. After the first cancellation basically everyone got refunds and I really thought about it, but I decided since he was one of my favorite artists and I had two days until Spring Break I would still go. It was not worth it. When we first got there it was about 10 minutes until Skizzy came on, expecting the place to still be pretty full. To my somewhat pleasant surprise we were able to waltz our way right to the second row because the venue was only about a fourth full. (356)

NFL Pro Bowl

The National Football League's reward or recognition to the best players in the league every year is a game at the end of the year known at the Pro Bowl. This is kind of like the Major League Baseball All-Star game, except the MLB all-star game has some sort of a meaning in it unlike the NFL Pro Bowl. Whoever wins the baseball all-star game, will get home field advantage during the World Series that year. But, with the Super Bowl it really has no sort of real meaning to the players as the Super Bowl is played at a neutral site every year. Also, with football being such a physical and violent sport, the players really can't risk injuring themselves in the middle of the year so the game must be played after the regular season is over. It used to be played after the Super Bowl so that the players who were participating in the Super Bowl could compete, but there was almost zero interest from fans now that the actual season was over so they actually moved it to the weekend before the actual Super Bowl itself. It also used to be the two conferences would compete against each other but now even that interesting part of the game, as they now just get two retired NFL stars and draft the players from a big pool of all the Pro Bowlers. In my opinion this has really taken any sort of competition between the two conferences out of the game. It is practically like a touch football game out on the field as most of the players are much more concerned about not hurting each other or themselves, more importantly. Which I completely understand as they really are just looking out for their own careers instead of risking their entire livelihood and job on a silly all-star game that in the long run really will not even matter. That really is the problem out of the entire event, how are they able to make things more interesting unless these players are willing to go all out and risk themselves just for the entertainment of NFL fans and viewers. Also, I think another reason why very few people are interested in the Pro Bowl is because it is just at the end of the season kind of to cap it off and really has no meaning on the actual meaning of the season.

American Sniper

American Sniper has been probably the most anticipated movie of the new year. This movie personifies and captures the life experiences of the most decorated sniper in the American military of all time, Chris Kyle. Mr. Kyle is supposedly known for having almost 100 documented kills in battle across the world within the Iraqi and war on terrorism in the Middle East. There have been plenty of mixed emotions on this movie, most controversial. Some people coming from military backgrounds completely love the idea of this movie and celebrating one of the greatest veteran's Americans have ever seen. Now some people who are completely against the idea of war and killing would much rather have peace. They then condemn what Chris Kyle was doing and elect to either not see the movie or have taken to social media to voice their opinion or disgust of what is going on across the big screen. I actually just saw two of my peers who go to Kennedy arguing the other night on whether what Mr. Kyle was doing was acceptable and should be viewed as an American hero or a man who was killing innocent people half way across the world behind the cover of the United States Military. Another thing that the people who disapprove from the film is that there are things in the movie that have been speculated and haven't been proven, in fact they even have been proven to be false. This was also a part of his book that he said, things such as when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans him and a few other elite snipers were reportedly sent to station themselves on top of the New Orleans Saints football stadium and pick off or kill any looters going around parts of New Orleans. This was proven to be completely untrue and just a plain lie by the soldier himself. That being said, in my own opinion I believe every American who enjoys their freedom and walks around United States soil freely should appreciate what this man has done for his country, whether the truth has been stretched about his accomplishments or not. Chris Kyle was killed by a former soldier suffering from post traumatic stress disorder while trying to help veterans at a firing range. He has also guest starred on many different television shows such as top shot, a show where veterans and police officers to compete to see who is the best marksman. (410)

Patriots Deflating Balls

Tensions are beginning to rise and blood is starting to boil as the 49th super bowl comes around on February 2nd with the Seattle Seahawks facing off against the AFC championship's winner the New England Patriots. New England has had to overcome a lot of adversity this year, trying out three running backs throughout the year and Tom Brady making comments about his team in a negative manner. Not to mention the Patriots were finally starting to break out of the spotlight that the Spy Gate scandal brought them a few years ago as the NFL uncovered them trying to steal the other teams plays and officials with binoculars trying to pick off signals of opposing teams. This seems to all have been brought back into speculation and consideration after the American Football League's conference championship, the game before the super bowl, as the Patriots were found to be deflating their footballs by a considerable amount in order to get a better grip on the ball, allowing Tom Brady to make much more accurate and precision passes. No one argues that either way the Patriots would have won that game, it was a complete blow out, but it is the thought of it that matters. Who knows? Maybe the New England Patriots have actually been doing this terrible thing all year and have been gaining a relatively large advantage against opposing teams. I definitely think it would be a good idea for the Patriots to lose draft picks within the next year, if not over the next couple of years. I hate when cheating is exposed in professional sports, fans pay huge amounts of money to see these athletes perform at their highest level and I think it is ludicrous for them to take an unfair advantage just for a few points. I was rather angry the first time this happened, why should the Patriots think they are good enough to cheat other teams. Who knows truly how many games they have won and other teams have lost from this cheating, but in the end of it, it's the thought that counts. If this was an NCAA ordeal or even a high school matter I think this would end up being a much bigger ordeal, definitely resulting in the loss of scholarships, or the taking away of wins and awards in high school. Maybe even the suspension of play and the death penalty for a serious enough offense. (408)

The Amanda Knox Story

The Story of Amanda Knox, one of the craziest and most mysterious murders of the twenty first century across the pond of America in the beautiful sights of Italy. Amanda is originally a resident of Seattle, Washington where her father is a very wealthy man excelling in business and trade. Amanda got very good grades as a high school student and with her family's wealth she was given the opportunity to study abroad for her first year of college in the amazing country of Italy. When she first arrived there it was everything she hoped it would be, she met an amazing boyfriend who had a nice apartment she could crash at whenever, the drinking age here was only 18 making it completely legal for her to go to a bar for a few drinks, and even marijuana is nearly decriminalized there making her college experiment a pretty good one. She moved in with three other roommates in a place known as the flats, kind of a townhouse that houses a pretty large amount of college students. Everything is going well until one day Amanda arrives home and it appears as though her apartment has been broken in to. She is frightened by this so she decides not to enter and goes to find her boyfriend who is much more fluent in Italian and they end up calling the police to report the break in. Once the police arrive things become much more serious, her roommates door is locked which seems unusual as she never does that. The police end up forcing their way into the Italian girls room and they are horrified at what they find, a young girl, extremely bloody, and dead laying in the middle of her room. At first, Amanda seemed very innocent but then things began to change, she seemed to have little remorse and was almost past the death of her roommate within days of the tragic event. She was going out shopping and joking around with her boyfriend. The police also found it strange that the attacker had time to clean up and they uncovered that the break in was actual staged, as they had to of had a key to get in the front door. Amanda kept changing her story and eventually her boyfriend even flipped on her completely contradicting her former alibi, forcing her to change her story again. To this day the murder is completely unsolved as there is no physical evidence to prove that Amanda was not there at the time of the killing leaving her out of reach from the police. (433)

Jesus Camp

The other night I was looking up some documentaries on the internet to try and find something new and interesting to watch to spice up my Friday night as I was sitting at home. Even though I don't really have any sort of opinion or practice any sort of religion, as I took AP Human Geography my freshman year and we had a whole unit on different religions around the world from different groups of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and many more. I saw one specific documentary that caught my eye called Jesus Camp, a film that follows a week long Angelical Christian church camp and what goes on within their time there. It starts off following a specific group of kids that are almost all homeschooled and how their life differs from the normal, public school going kid. One of the most interesting parts of the entire film is a mother having a talk with not even middle school age child about how ridiculous evolutionism is and how there really is no other answer to the creation of this Earth other than God himself and the idea of creationism. Being in public school my entire life ever since middle school science we have learned the idea of humans evolving from similar creatures, not the idea that God created our entire beings with one swift move of divinity. Things get even crazier once they actually get to the camp itself. They have some very extreme beliefs as they talk about how the devil is around us at every moment and how if Harry Potter was a real person, he should be sentenced to death by the hand of god as all forms of warlock and wizardry are forms of the devil. I think possibly the most ridiculous part of this entire camp is at one prayer they end up getting on the topic of George W. Bush, an Angelical Christian himself, also president at the time of this being made. They have a cardboard cutout of the man himself and they are practically praying to him as if he were the second coming of Jesus or something even though he is so well known for his mistakes while in office and putting the United States into its most recent war. With this film exposing the ridiculous practices of this church and basically making a joke out of the camp, it would be shut down and not return the year after the documentary premiered. (413)

8 Mile

8 mile is loosely based on the life story of Marshall Mathers known is the rap world as Eminem, and his troubles growing up in the streets of Detroit, Michigan the capital of car manufacturing at the time. The movie starts off with a young white man in an underground rap competition where rappers go to diss and battle each other and earn themselves some respect in the underground Detroit rap game and possibly pursue their lifetime dream of being signed to a label which will really get their career to the next level. His nick name in the movie is B Rabbit and in the opening competition he can't seem to get himself to compete on stage and ends up choking, in turn being booed off the stage. For the rest of the movie it follows this young man's struggle as he has to move back home with his alcoholic mom who has a boyfriend the same age of her very own son. He then has to get himself to his job at a factory with a rundown car that breaks down more often than not. Throughout the way him and his friends get into a bit of trouble as they shoot paintball guns at cop cars and try and run away from them until their car dies, try and do some good and burn down a rundown building in order to keep rapists from taking their pray to them except they have one problem, they forget that B Rabbit is upstairs in the house and he almost gets burnt up with it. The crew then gets into it with a cross town rival known as the free world, guns end up getting pulled, and one of B Rabbit's best friend's Cheddar Bob ends up shooting himself in the leg as he is not the smartest guy in the world. For the climax of the movie B Rabbit returns to the underground rap battle scene to try his luck yet again against his rivals of the Free World. He ends up destroying the competition gaining a huge amount of respect and even ends up getting the girl he truly wants throughout the entire movie. As many know Eminem is known as the most popular white rapper of all time coming out of the Detroit area in a side of town known as 8 mile He know has numerous hit singles and topped the charts with multiple albums touring across the world. (412)

Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy has been an FX Original show since around the start of 2008. It follows a no good biker gang within Charming, a made up town within central California dealing in the distribution of weapons, drugs, and killing their rival competitors. The main characters name is Jax, he is the vice president of the motor cycle club known as the Sons of Anarchy tries to balance his new life of a dad with his junky baby momma who would much rather feed her addiction to meth than focus on her new life as a mother and a provider. But, as Jax grows as a father he begins to question exactly what the club is doing with all of the gun trafficking and really wonders if it's the right thing to do and if he really wants his son to partake in the same activity once he gets to be of age to join the motorcycle club himself. Jax's father began the club at its origin but later was killed in action in honor of his clubs problems, his widowed mother than shacked up with the new president, a cofounder of the group and since then has had a few younger kids of their own. The Sons biggest competitors and rivals are the cross town Mexican gang where they battle for territory and business to try and be able to feed their families. One of the most interesting characters is a family man within the gang that is very good with pyrotechnics and does most of the fire and destruction work for the Sons of Anarchy. The problem is he just got out of jail after doing a long stint in the slammer for taking the charge on a big arson case that someone in the club was going to have to do the time for. After he got out he hoped to change his life and get on the right track but with his family struggling to pay their bills he ends up having to revert to his old ways and pick up some overtime work from the biker club. This is one of FX's most famous television shows of all time surpassing star shows such as Nip Tuck and Rescue Me. I think it will be very interesting where they take this show as I'm really starting to catch up on the entire series on Netflix TV. (400)

Beyond Scared Straight

A&E known for its famous mystery and murder shows has come out with a new series based around troubles teenagers whose parents hope to intervene and change their children’s behavior before they end up in jail, in the streets, or dead later on in life. From episode to episode the camera crew will follow a jail’s scared straight or straighten up program they run for young troubled kids in the hopes to straighten up their behavior before they are old enough to do real harm to themselves, other people, or more importantly their lives. Often times they will first go through the booking process that normal criminal would go through such as finger prints, an initial pat down, and then even switching into normal prisoner garb. The kids will then usually get a tour of the jail, and I mean the entire jail visiting some of the worst prisoners including killers, rapists, and big drug dealers many of which are in jail for the rest of their lives. In my opinion this is the portion of the show that really gets to and scares the kids the most, as they see all of these cold hearted criminals in jail who really will show no mercy to anyone if they actually ended up inside of that jail. In some cases the police officers really will get in the children’s face, scream at them, and even make them cry, anything to get through to these adolescents that this really is not the type of life they want to pursue and go through. Some of these people have been in and out of jail since they were just as young as the kids there to visit them. Physical discipline, running and endurance are often forced upon the teens by the officers to try and break them down before they build them back up. Usually towards the end of the tour the officers will bring in some of the prisoners who have been terrorizing the kids the entire time to talk one on one with the kids and show them some of their own experiences from within jail and showing these kids this is really not a place they want to go. After the tours and usually about a month after the visits the camera crews will follow up with the teens and see how they have changed or sometimes not changed from their criminal ways. Most times though the kids have tried to straighten up, stop doing drugs, and respect their parents to pursue a better life. (424)

Game Of Thrones

Game of Thrones is one of the hottest shows on television right now; airing on HBO now has four exciting and incredible seasons under its belt. This was first a very popular book series that has now turned into a show. I personally have not read any of the books but reading other blogs and through social media I found out that many of the book fanatics and readers were very concerned on how the show was going to end up portraying the book series. But, the show has actual little relevance and doesn’t follow much of the storyline that the book lays out, only the characters names, faces, and problems occur in both versions of the story. My outright favorite character would have to be Tyrion Lannister, who is a midget or also known as an imp in the show who is from the Lannister family, the wealthiest family in all of the seven kingdoms of Westeros, which is the sort of Earth of world that these made up families live on. All of the conflicts arise in a sort of medieval way with sorts of affairs, scandal, killing, and marrying between families. Almost all of the conflicts are settled in a medieval sort of way, war and killing. There are many people across the land who believes they have a right to the iron throne, or royalty across this massive area of land. Within Westeros the seasons last much longer than our seasons last here on Earth, sometimes for years and years a grueling winter will wage on, leaving many people with little to eat and many people to die. To the North is the great wall which keeps all crazier northerners from the more civilized South. Rangers are known as the protectors of the north where a man named John Snow resides, another big character of the show. From his point of view you will find out the struggle between man and nature every day that the people of the North face. The man who writes these novels, George Martin, usually come out with these novels every two years or so, but surprisingly it has been almost 6 years since the last novel was published. Many other comedy shows have taken own their own episodes of this show with famous cartoons like South Park, Family Guy, and even the Simpsons which is currently the longest running television show (401)

Iowa State Basketball

Iowa State Basketball, plays at one of the most electrifying and exciting gymnasium’s to step foot inside of in the entire country, formally known as Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State University is located in Ames, Iowa, a large campus but a small enough city almost dead center in the middle of Iowa to have a small and tight community feel about it. The Cyclones have been ranked in the top 25 college basketball teams for almost the entire year with a record of 16-4 on the year, playing against some of the top teams in the nation as they have big wins against Kansas and Kansas State this year. Heading into the final month of the regular season the Cyclones hope to only grow and improve their team chemistry as many of the starting players will return next year as long as they don’t declare for the NBA draft after the end of the season in March. Hilton Coliseum is such a crazy and enthusiastic place to play the players and fans have come up with an equally absurd reason, a thing known as Hilton Magic in Ames. The coliseum really only gets louder as the game progresses and the team warms up. It was on ESPN on a special feature known as the House of Hoops, a show that shows the greatest places to play in all of college basketball. As long as the Clones are able to avoid a disaster at the end of one of the best regular seasons this team has seen in a very long time, they will easily be put into the NCAA National Tournament and at a pretty high seed or ranking as well. Ever since Coach Fred Hoiberg, who as a former Cyclone player himself came to be the head coach of this team 3 years ago, has taken this program to completely new heights, making a name for himself with many transfers coming in from all of the country, players such as DeAndre Kane, Royce White who is now traveling around the NBA’s D League, and UNLV transfer Bryce- Dejean Jones. Coach Hoiberg is known as the “mayor” of Ames, a nickname he was given back when he played for the Cyclones a while back. In between that time and now he had a long stint in the NBA both as a player and in the front office for the Minnesota Timberwolves. (400)