Outside magazine has a department, that I LOVE, called “Destinations”. In it different places and activities are featured and this is usually the place where I come up with my dream vacations. In the March issue they did this really cool story where they listed some different outdoor activities people do in certain places and listed everything you could need and how to do your trip. I think that this is why I love Outside so much. Not only do the minds behind the magazine want to tell you about adventures, they want to help you make your own. When someone gives you everything you need to know about an excursion, all you need to do is get the money and time off and you’re set! I wish I had the money to go to all the place and do all the activities Outside features. Adventures are what Outside magazine are all about and having feature stories like this is exactly why they are so successful.
Magazine Post #1
So, Outside magazine is a great publication. I respect it, I’m inspired to be active by it, and I really enjoy the gorgeous pictures. But sometimes it makes me rage. I received my February issue as usual, and before I could get my hands on it my brother grabbed it and started drooling over the cover. Lolo Jones, Olympic hurdler, was featured on the cover. But rather than a compelling action photo, she was wearing a skimpy excuse of a bathing suit. I opened the magazine hoping to find some shot of her skills, but only found the same outfit in a different color with Lolo in a different pose. I understand that she had to give consent and agree for the photos to be taken, but this makes me very upset. Outside magazine falls short in featuring female athletes doing athletic things. I believe it was a year ago that they pulled something similar with a female snowboarder. In the January issue an Ironman man was featured but there were action shots of him and other triathlon people. I feel like this is where Outside needs to step up its game. If it wants to be a men’s magazine, then it should be one, but right now it feels like it is just pretending to cater to women as well. And again, I do love the magazine anyway.
Sarah Lightle- Writer Post #2
http://digitalnomad.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/30/my-cape-town-favorites/#more-4061
I have to start this post with the same thing I started the last with: Andrew Evans has my ultimate dream job. He gets paid the organization that cultivated my childhood travel dreams, Nat Geo, to go see all the things that anyone could every want to. I can only dream that one day I’ll get to do something as enjoyable as that…
Back to real life. His latest trip was to South Africa, one of the many places on my ‘To See’ list. The main thing that I like about experiencing this trip through his blog was the absence of tour guideness. He didn’t tell readers that they MUST see this and that constantly. Instead, he focused on the people he was interacting with and the culture he experienced. Then, in his last entry about his visit, he finally gave readers somewhat of an outline of his favorites. In the very opening lines he explains why he avoids being like a tour guide which only makes me appreciate (covet) his writing (his life) more.
He discusses his points as a few of his ‘favorite things’. Not as an exhaustive list of things visitors must see, but simply what made him happy while he was there. I like his honesty about being subjective and it makes me value his opinion of those suggestions even more.
Writer Post #2
I really like how Downey pulls the reader into her story with a personal story. She does a good job of bringing pertinent information to the table while also being a person the reader would like to talk to. She just feels like a really smart friend who can keep you up to date on education. That’s another thing I love about her writing. She’s not distant or cold, she exists. She’s present. That’s what I love about informational blogs.
Honestly if this were a simple newspaper article I doubt I would be able to keep myself interested. Education and policy is not exactly the most thrilling subject, but Downey finds a way to make it interesting. Her writing just feels close to home.
Sarah Lightle- Magazine Post #2
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/04/titanic/sides-text
In National Geographic’s April issue the feature story is about the latest dive to the Titanic. After 100 years, scientist and researchers are finally able to compose the most intricate and complete image of the wreck yet. The images were taken by three robotic vehicles that used sonar and cameras to capture the wreck’s every detail. Now ‘with the swoop of a mouse’, we’re able to every detail of the ship in high definition. This is the first time that all the pieces have been put together.
My favorite part about the article (the print version at least), is the amount of interactivity it allows. I’m sure the online version has even more capabilities but I feel that the magazine itself allows for a lot of exploration. It provides pictures from the era or artifacts and the ship itself, new high def pictures taken by the robots, and my favorite feature, a pull-out diagram of the ship as it sank to the bottom and what occurred on the way down.
I know nothing about ships or sailing and my extent of knowledge about the Titanic came from the movie. But after reading this article I feel like I can grasp how important it really was and what impacts it had for society. Despite the fact that the event occurred 100 years ago, the implications of the event are still seen today in things like the importance of ship safety protocols.
Nap Time: Curing the Zombie March
By KAELA BURNS
I’m tired. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t tired. Between being a full time student at UGA, working at least 30 hours a week at two ice cream shops, and desperately trying to maintain a social life, I get no sleep. I feel like a zombie dragging through life, but instead of having an unearthly hunger for brains, I have an overwhelming craving for sleep.
The cure to this zombie ailment is nap time. As children in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten we were given a designated time of day in which we were able to close our eyes and slip into sweet slumber. I, and many others, took this for granted. I remember getting in trouble day after day because I refused to lie down and sleep. I wanted to stay awake and talk to my friends or just do something. I thought nap time was stupid. I mean, they gave us snack time, which usually involved sugar-packed treats and drinks, and then they expected me to lie down and sleep? There was no way I would comply to that.
If I only I knew then what I know now. As I have gotten older I have realized what a gift nap time was. Even as adults, nap time should be a mandatory part of our schedule. The older people get, the more they have to do, and the more exhausted they become. Pulling late hours at work every night, and balancing work with family, results in a lot of sleep loss. But when do people get to make up for that loss? Certainly not the weekend when we have to catch up on what didn’t get finished during the week. We’re so tired, we don’t have the energy to live.
I never have any energy by Friday night. When I should be going out and living it up while I’m still young, I’m curled up in front of the T.V. in my monkey snuggie, watching movies and completely vegging out, savoring every idle moment and then going to bed earlier than I would on a weekday.
I barely have the willpower to have fun anymore. Only one thing will cure my broken mojo, and that is daily nap time. It should occur around 2:00 pm daily for every college student. There should be no classes at this time, no work, only the unrolling of adult size nap mats and the sweet hum of the masses breathing deeply as they surrender themselves to sleep.
Think of all the things that sleep depravity can cause. Drivers experience road rage or get into accidents. Students miss out on notes and fail tests. Being tired at work can put someone in a bad mood, and they could possibly get fired for poor customer service. Even worse, you could miss a deadline because your face fell onto your work and by the time you woke up the office was empty and the words on your paper had melted onto your face. Maybe you were at a party and fell asleep and your so-called “friends” decided it would be funny to cover your exposed skin in inappropriate messages written in sharpie.
But, alas, nap time for grown ups does not exist here. All we can do is hope that someday, we will be given the power naps, or five hour naps, during the course of a day. We shall assent to rely on multiple cups of coffee, getting the jitters only to crash later, and the zombie march through life will continue.
They’re Allowed to Cut Down the Nets?
By Grace Trivett
“I can’t believe he’s pitching a perfect game so far. Stephen’s going to be mad he missed it,” my boyfriend Matt commented, referring to his brother. The two of us were at an Atlanta Braves baseball game on a date this past June. His parents are season ticket holders, and both sons like to go as often as possible. Usually, either Matt or Stephen will go with their father, but on this particular night, he got both tickets and invited me.
While Matt had been looking forward to the game for a week, I drank a Red Bull right before the game to ensure I wouldn’t get drowsy sometime during the fifth inning. I thought nodding off might come across as rude. Being at a game is much better than watching it on TV, but I’m by no stretch of the imagination a sports fan.
“No he isn’t, that last guy hit it,” I responded, wondering if I had seen something my boyfriend didn’t.
“It went foul. He didn’t get a hit,” Matt said.
“What? He made contact with the ball, he hit it,” I said, confused.
“There’s a special definition for ‘hit’ in baseball,” Matt said. He went on to explain the baseball definition of hit as well as the difference between a no-hitter and a perfect game.
“That doesn’t seem right. You can’t call it a perfect game if a batter is able to make contact with the ball. A perfect game would be nothing but strikes,” I said. My thinking seemed logical, but apparently it was not.
Matt chuckled and said, “Oh, girly-girl,” a nickname he uses especially when I’ve done something that reveals my almost complete lack of sports knowledge.
When I was a kid, I didn’t have anyone in my life who placed a strong emphasis on athletics. I was more likely to be found with a book than any type of ball. My two brothers and I would play together by acting out scenes in movies. When my pilot father would return from a trip, he was always much more interested in catching up on the news than catching the latest ESPN SportsCenter. It wasn’t until late elementary school I realized how many people played sports. I got involved in a couple of church leagues, but the rules and an intense competitive drive never took root.
Growing up, I always thought my college boyfriend would be kind, funny, intelligent, attractive, and on the nerdy side. I thought we would passionately discuss the intricacies of Harry Potter and debate which of the seven was the best book.
And then here’s Matt, who is everything on my old list— if you replaced nerdy with sports nut. He grew up playing soccer, basketball, and baseball. His family considers Braves spring training games part of their vacation, a good birthday gift between him and his brother are tickets to the Hawks basketball game, and he frequently wears one of his many GCSU Intramural Sports Champions T-shirts on our dates.
There are certain challenges that come from dating someone who cares about sports when you don’t at all. Hanging out with him and his friends, it is often like I am listening to a strange language. Drew Brees, Dwight Howard, and lesser known athletes are mentioned so casually it is like they are referring to personal friends, and many times I don’t even know what sport they’re talking about.
Matt and I typically hang out on weekends, because he’s been living in Atlanta this past year and I in Athens. There have been several occasions where I find I’ve been signed out of my Yahoo! e-mail account so he can set his rosters for fantasy football or basketball leagues, which to me seem about as pointless as Farmville.
We also had to negotiate a compromise on a TV schedule on fall Saturdays. He could pick one football game to watch in its entirety, and only 30 additional minutes from another game. This way, we were still hanging out, I had my sanity, and he was able to watch football. During football time, I usually joked about corner routes, the one football play I know. I learned it from watching Modern Family after seeing the character Mitchell in a similar predicament.
Matt has had to make adjustments as well. While hanging out with his friends, they make an average of (I’m guessing) five sports references in a night. However, he’s learned not to bother making them when we spend time together. He also has to explain what’s going on and why when we do watch sports together.
Like during March Madness, after a team just won some division or title. A player started cutting a net with scissors, and I gasped a little.
“Aren’t they going to stop him? Isn’t that vandalism?” I asked. As it turns out, it is a tradition for basketball players to cut and keep parts of the net after certain big wins.
I’m sure Matt doesn’t enjoy always being forced into a teacher role, but he handles it patiently, after a little laughter in that particular scenario.
I have had to grow accustomed to these little quirks, but I wouldn’t change them if I could. It would be boring if we had the exact same interests and passions. I take pride in the fact my boyfriend is athletic, and it just so happens his GCSU 2010 Soccer Champion shirt makes for the perfect pajama shirt.
Magazine Post #2 Climbing Magazine how-to vids.
The website for the magazine I follow, Climbing, released a series of “how-to” videos for climbing techniques and technical management of gear. They are informative and promote safety for the average climber who wants to get out there, but has limited experience. This is a cool idea for a number of reasons. First, from a business perspective, it gives the magazine more of a web presence and a way to increase web site traffic. In addition, as I’ve said before, this magazine does a great job of catering to its entire readership. Readers of the magazine range from world class climbers to people just trying to break into the sport or to simply try a new activity.
http://www.climbing.com/photo-video/av/rock_climbing_basics_tying_in/
This link is probably the most basic video, but the content is the foundation for literally everything in climbing. That being said, I really hope beginners don’t watch these videos, feel like they have the knowledge to be safe and then miss an important detail that could result in tragedy. I would hope that people would have the sense to consult another source before getting out there, but you never know. Other than that, I think it’s a great way for the magazine to reach out to readers of all skill/ability levels and readers of all technical gear knowledge. Especially for the content being shown, it is better to see the action than have it described; that is the whole point of multimedia in my opinion.
Squirrel – KV
Everyone just tells me how dangerous riding a motorcycle is and how they could go out of control and that I could die.
What people don’t realize about riding a motorcycle, beyond the initial “serious risk of injury” reaction, is how rewarding it is to be so…..active.
Driving a car – sure, it’s an action, but it’s a passive kind of action, if that makes any sense.
The average American watches about 4 hours of television each day.
Now add the hours that you drive daily, because driving is just that: watching more TV.
You’re passively observing the frames go by and there’s this window separating you from whatever action there is.
There’s glass protecting you, keeping you inside the bubble. You wouldn’t want nature to get in the way of your hectic life, now would you?
But when you ride, you’re not just watching, because there’s really no frame – no protection.
“You’re completely in contact with it all. You’re inthe scene,”
(I found this in the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. - totally changed the way I view riding motorcycles and…life.)
The thoughts of being able to touch graphite if I put my feet down, or how I will launch forward if I let go of the clutch right now, or how these cars totally left me enough space to weave through half an hour’s worth of traffic (yes, this is illegal in Georgia -.- ) ….it all fascinates me.
I love the feeling of not knowing where I’m going sometimes. When there’s no GPS and the backroads and trees don’t care to differentiate themselves as well as the city trees do.
There is a difference, mind you, between what I just described and “getting lost.”
“Not all those who wander are lost”, after all.
We’ve gotten too busy as a people – always thinking about meetings, presentations, dinner plans, tests, attire…
I wander a lot, and yes, I’ll admit that it’s gotten to the point where, sometimes, I can’t get to a place without getting lost first..and recognizing that one building that I wasn’t supposed to see.
I sometimes give directions like this:
“Just go all the way until you hit the church on your left…then make a U turn…. “
I like to think that I’m giving them a tour, whether they…like it or not. Or have time or not.
I probably spend the most time in the morning figuring out what I should wear, planning accordingly to the weather.
Mornings are always cold, but wearing pants will suck because around noon, it hits the 90s or 100s.
Wearing a leather jacket is hot as hell and it’s so bulky to put in my bag..
Flip flops aren’t happening.
Must bring backpack because I need my camera today and both my laptop and camera can’t ride with me in my purse.
Rain sucks.
But see – it’s all about awareness.
Actively thinking and being aware of the day ahead of you.
which….will lead to
actively thinking and being aware of people and squirrels and potholes around you.
Being able to adjust to nature because trust me – she’s not trying to screw you over.
The roads and rain and trees aren’t dangerous.
Motorcycles aren’t dangerous, the people watching TV on the roads are.
And they are not aware of this.
Magazine Post 2_ Whitmire
http://espn.go.com/espn/commentary/story/_/id/7765998/for-athletes-sleep-new-magic-pill
Everyone knows that to be a great athlete you need to work hard and exercise. However in his column, The Numbers, Peter Keating addresses the need for adequate sleep to develop athletic ability. Keating discusses research done by Stanford researcher Cherri Mah. The research indicates that not only does less sleep lessen athletic ability, but that more sleep produces more HGH and leads to better athletic results. Besides Mah, he also quotes sleep specialist Mark Rosekind and president of Athlete’s Performance, Mark Verstegen. I think this article would be interesting to anyone who is trying to become a better athlete or searching for more ways to increase physical fitness. It is also an important read to those that are trying to get into shape, but also do not get the recommended amount of sleep. The piece is very effective in its current form, but could have also been done as a longer piece.
Sample Tweet: Study reveals that well rested athletes perform better
