Things I Say You Should Like

Larry's Dog House is definitely one of my favorite places to go eat questionable meats in phallic form for a very reasonable price. I feel as if its one of the most over looked eating establishments in Athens and its right under your nose. Oddly enough, its located a few seconds past Lucky Dog on West Union Street, so you should definitely check it out the next time you make a liquor run.

They have a pretty standard menu full of things that make me proud to be an American; foot-long chili dogs, hamburgers, fries, fish, chicken in its many forms, hand-spun milk shakes, and even pork tenderloin. I have never ordered anything besides the foot-longs and fries but I would assume that it is all just as satisfying.



The thing I really like about Larry's is that I feel out of place when I go there. The crowd there consists mostly of locals and there's always tons of little kids and old people there. It definitely has a very down home, mom and pop kind of feel to it. Every Wednesday is Weenie Wednesday where you can get a hotdog for 99 cents. What a deal.

So, we all know that everyone loves to go to Stroud's Run during spring quarter but most people just go to lay out or play frisbee. I feel like people don't take the time to explore other aspects of the park like its shooting range, camp grounds, Indian burial sites and trails. The other day, some friends and I went adventuring to explore the woods around the park. It was great exercise, very relaxing and I felt like I did something with my life besides sit in the library.



I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived...Thoreau

It would seem to me that one of the more popular types of posts in the blogosphere is that of lists of helpful things to make your life easier. I am assuming that most of my readers are college students, perhaps journalism majors, and these are some sites that I find helpful in my life so I would assume they could help you too. Some of the sites are more for entertainment purposes, or just interesting articles you can throw into every day conversations.

1) Accessing Blocked Websites
-One of my favorite tips from this website tells you how to watch television shows online that are blocked because you don't live in that country. Oddly enough, I use it for the very reason they suggest, to watch episodes of BBC's Top Gear online.

2) Confusing File Extensions
-There is nothing more aggravating to me than not knowing how to do something on my computer, like finding the correct file extension to get in order to read a file. This website ended these problems.

3) Common Misconceptions
-This one just fulfills my need to know a bunch of obscure information that most people wouldn't bother investigating. But did you know that for the time period, Napoleon wasn't even short...that blows my mind.

4) Be Smarter and Informed
-I find news stations in the United States to be ever so annoying, so most of the time, I watch my news on BBC. They do a good job of covering pertinent things in the world today, and this podcast is a good supplement for that. I just subscribe to it with my iTunes.

5) Finding New Music
-This is a really fun and intuitive website that helps you find new music in an interactive way. I like to always be listening to things people have never heard of, so this is the perfect site for other music nerds.

6) Free Office Software
-My computer crashed not too long ago and I didn't have the installation disks for any of my Office programs so this came in very handy when I had to make presentations and use a word processor. It is completely free.

7) Never Register with a Website
-I hate giving my personal information to websites in order to view their content and this lets you get around that. Basically, people put their user name and password for different sites on bugmenot.com and you bypass the whole registration process. Pretty cool.

8) Text to HTML
-This does exactly what it sounds like, and if you blog, you could see how it could be useful.

9) Learn to Read Faster
-Spreeder is a website that allows you to paste whatever text you want into this program and it will display it to you at whatever speed you choose. This will help improve your reading abilities, which will make your studies easier.

10) Free Books
-I've taken many English classes and have had to buy many books that I later found to be foolish decisions. So many of the texts we read are available for free online if you only take the time to look. Even if you don't have English classes to navigate, this is great for casual readers as well.

Festival season is upon us in Athens, Ohio; a time in everyone's school year revered to be the best of the best. This upcoming weekend, we have both Ark and High fest to attend. We wait through our towns miserable winter to behold the beauty that is spring quarter; scantily clad women letting it all hang out, shirtless beer-bellied bros bonging beers, people spinning around playing dizzy bat and making some of the best worst decisions of their lives. The coup de grace of festival season is the final Fest of the year, this year being 7 Fest, as it is named for the subsequent number of years it has taken place.

Last year, students attempted to get Kid Cudi to perform at the festival but sadly, this never came to fruition. This year however, we have secured Mike Posner to perform at the end of the day long set of performances. In addition to Posner, local rapper Jesty Beatz will be performing earlier in the day.



Posner's music is what I would put in the genre of hipster rap/R&B, with his contemporaries being individuals like Drake, Cudi, Wale and Wiz Khalifa. I haven't really decided how much I like this musician, but I've been giving his music a listen since being introduced to him by one of my roommates. He has yet to release an actual album on a major label but has put out two mixtapes that have garnered him considerable attention. Though currently signed to J Records, he decided to return to Duke University to finish his education, finding time to record and tour on the weekends.



My favorite track off of his first mixtape is "Drug Dealer Girl," because it has become a staple on my walking to class playlist on my iPod.



My favorite tracks off of his sophomore mixtape are "I Don't Trust Myself" and "Don't Trust Me." I like the first because I find it a humorous counterpoint to the latter song, which features guest vocals from Kid Cudi.

I don't know whether or not Posner will have staying power but I am still excited to see him perform at the festival. Its not exactly my type of music, its the sort of thing I have on my computer to put on when I have drunk girls over at my house, but there's a time and place for everything I suppose.

As it stands right now, he will be performing at 8pm on May 22 at this years 7 fest. Many have said that this is too late for him to perform, mainly because most people will be beyond blacked out at this point, so I suspect that his time slot will be moved to an earlier time.

Instead of being held at the Big Red Barn as it usually is, this year it will be located at 7755 Williams Road in Athens, Ohio.

So if you haven't heard any of Posner's music, you should check out one of these mixtapes to prepare yourself for the show.

We live in an age where everyone is obsessed with what's new and cutting edge that we sometimes forget about the things of the past or what's going on in our communities. Living in Athens, Ohio ,gives you somewhat of a sense that you're stepping back into time with its brick roadways and buildings, some of which have been here for over 200 years. In a town like this, you can bet that there has been a lot of change and subsequently, there are probably lots of good stories to tell. The people who live here are proud of their towns culture and history, but as students, who are only residing here temporarily, we don't think to investigate these things. Many of us come from larger cities, many of which may not be much older than our grandparents. The city I come from, Mentor, Ohio, has only been around for 60 years or so and as a result, it doesn't have a very rich history for me to discover. Coming to Athens really piqued my interest because I knew that there had to be thousands of stories for this city to tell me. I love Athens culture, its reputation as being one of the most haunted places in the nation, our seclusion from the outside world, and a unique community of individuals I don't believe you could find anywhere else. In short, I want to show you all the things I find interesting in the world.