Monthly Archives: October 2014

Talk Nerdy to me

When I think of nerds I have small flashbacks of younger self repeating phrases or ideas that I used to see in the television that made fun of nerds or underestimated their potential. I also have small flashbacks of television shows depicting nerds as skinny ugly looking, big glass wearing stereotypes that people bullied. Additionally, I have memories of people referring to nerds as an outcast of society that, at times, where so alienated that the “nerd” ideal became a stereotype itself. The nerd stereotype has survived numerous paradigms shifts, or social changes, through dated and contemporary television shows, like Saved by the Bell, Doug, Greek, the Big Bang Theory etc. In addition to the television, the nerd stereotype look has survived due to the constant recreation of the nerd look of celebrities that are always seen with nerd fashion trends like Taylor Swifts with nerd glasses and Bruno Mars with suspenders. Nevertheless, as our world becomes more modernized and new principles and fads emerge, the “nerd” phrase has acquired a different meaning and quickly changed it from a negative connotation into a compliment and has additionally transformed the nerd attire from unappealing to desirable.

This is my introduction, I really do not like it. I feel it is very dull and broad in comparison to what I am actually trying to express before my reader reaches my body paragraphs. I am having a lot of trouble trying to present my main case, if you have any ideas of how you can help me improve my main ideas (the nerd stereotype has survived mainly because television shows and fads, but it has completely reached another meaning, before being a nerd was undesirable, today being a nerd is a compliment). Please give me suggestions of how you think I could express these ideas more efficiently.

Trick-or-Treat in a cup

What’s a better way of celebrating Halloween than by uncovering a spooky drink from the secret menu? The wired zombie tea is the drink to have during the trick-or-treat season since it preserves the smooth, yet refreshing taste of the Starbucks Green Tea, but looks festive with vibrant red and green colors that peek through the Starbucks see-through plastic cup.

The Wired Zombie tea is a mixture of Starbucks Valencia orange refresher, green tea matcha, green coffee extract, raspberry syrup and classic syrup. Therefore in order to purchase this beverage, you will probably irritate your barista since you will ramble different ingredients and measurements, depending on the coffee size you choose, for a while. On a brighter side, if you choose to recreate this beverage, you could easily follow the steps you dictated your barista and create your very own Wired Zombie tea (all you need to ensure is that you follow a recipe that is meant for a cup that is proportional to your own cup).

If you wish to purchase your Wired Zombie tea on a tall, or small, cup order a regular Valencia Orange Refresher with light lemonade and no water. Then add one scoop of matcha green tea powder, ½ pump of classic syrup and ½ pump of raspberry syrup, and you will receive a Halloween looking Starbucks beverage. Similarly, if you wish to purchase your wired zombie tea on a grande, or medium, cup order a regular Valencia Orange Refresher with light lemonade and no water. Then add two scoops of matcha green tea powder, one pump of classic syrup and one pump of raspberry syrup, and voila. In order to purchase the wired zombie tea on a venti, or large, cup follow the same steps of a grande wired zombie tea, but add 1.5 pumps of classic syrup and 1.5 pumps of raspberry syrup. The wired zombie tea can also be purchased as a trenta, or extra large, beverage. In order to purchase the trenta version of the wired zombie tea simply change the measurements of your matcha green tea powder to three scoops, change the measurements of the classical syrups from 1.5 pumps to two pumps, and change the measurements of the raspberry syrup from 1.5 to two pumps.

The Wired Zombie tea tastes incredibly good, since the beverage has the texture of a tea, but tastes like a Slurpee. The beverage also has extremely vibrant colors that will guarantee you a handful of “what is that” eye staring and questions about your drink. Trust me, just like a Halloween costume, you will dress up your Starbucks cup and celebrate Halloween with a delicious drink from the Starbucks not so secret menu.

Project 3 ideas

When I first heard about the paradigm shift paper we have to do (project 3) I had no idea what I wanted to write about. In fact, the only idea that came to my mind where the different paradigms that exist in world politics. Nevertheless, I did not want to write about these shifts, since they are not the most interesting topics to write about and I would probably bore myself to death by the time I finished writing a page or two about idealism or realism. However, after ten minutes a couple of ideas came into my head mainly by realizing how some of my childhood memories have somewhat change over time.

As a little girl I though of vampires as scary blood-sucking creatures that used to haunt people. In fact, till date when I think about vampires I imagine a small black and white television depicting a guy with short black hair and big fans wearing a suit, pants, white long sleeve shirt, and a cape biting into a woman’s neck. Today vampires are considered to be extremely sensitive and good-looking citizens that want to escape some sort of past that haunts them. It seems to me that this shift occurred after the young adult trilogy Twilight became popular. Ever since the trilogy, television has been drenched with series and movies that depict this new identity of vampires and werewolf’s.

Another idea shift that I noted that I find pretty humorous is how women have completely changed their hairstyles through time. Women have literally gone from slick straight short hair to spongy hair Afro’s. Even though this shift is somewhat more in the trendy style and if I decided to do my project based on this hair trend I would probably have to reference to the time period that this hair brought upon us. However, I would try to ensure not to go to deep into the time period and focus more on how these 360 iconic changes occurred.

Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato

I am a huge macchiato drinker, and because it is fall I thought it would be fun to reveal to you guys The Starbucks Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato! The Starbucks Caramel Macchiato is perfection in a cup; it is rich in flavor, creamy and perfectly sweet.

Macchiatos are a mixture of milk, espresso, and some sort of syrup or sauce and can be ordered as a hot beverage or a cold beverage. Because Macchiatos are made up of soft and tasteful ingredients, they are a customer’s favorite. However, Starbucks offers only three types of Machiattos in their “visible” menu: The Hazelnut Macchiato, The Caramel Macchiato and the Vanilla Macchiato. Nevertheless, you can make them taste differently all year round just by asking your barista to drizzle a different flavor of syrup on top, for instance chocolate sauce rather than caramel. Even though this Starbucks life hack is available all year round, the Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato is available only during the fall, since it is the only time of the year Starbucks offers pumpkin spices.

The Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato is created as easily as any of the other Macchiatos Starbucks has to offer. All you do is follow the Caramel Macchiato recipe, but substitute the Vanilla Syrup with Pumpkin Syrup and top your beverage with pumpkin spice. In other words, during the fall you can just ask for a Caramel Macchiato, substitute the Vanilla Syrup with Pumpkin Syrup, and ask for the Pumpkin Spice topping. The Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato is available in four sizes, short (or extra small), tall (or small), grande (or medium), and venti (or large), and is consisted of a decent amount of calories, anywhere between 200 to 500 depending on the size of your cup and the amount of syrup that was drizzled.

As you can probably guess, recreating this beverage is extremely easy. All you’re going to need is milk of your preference, 1-2 shots of espresso (this depends on the size of your cup & coffee tolerance), pumpkin syrup and some pumpkin spice. However, if you want to recreate the cold version of the Starbucks Caramel Macchiato make sure to have around ¼ of a cup of ice. Once you have all of your ingredients you are going pour about 1/3 of a cup of milk into a pan and allow it to get warm. Then you are going to pump two to three pumps of pumpkin syrup into your cup (two if it’s a regular sized cup and three if it’s a relatively big cup). It is important to keep in mind the size of your cup when pumping the syrup because if not you can make your beverage either to sweet or too bitter. Once you milk is all warmed up simply pour it into your cup and sprinkle some pumpkin spice. If you want to go all out with your drink you could first add whipped cream and them sprinkle your pumpkin spice. In order to recreate the cold version of the Starbucks Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato, all you need to do is add the ice before you sprinkle or top your beverage. Eve though it may seem unnecessary to warm up your milk since you will be cooling it off later on, it is important for you to fallow this step since warming up the milk is what adds that bold creamy flavor to your Macchiato.

CPM

FUN FACT: The word macchiato means marked.

Reference: “Caramel Pumpkin Macchiato”. Starbucks Secret Menu. Starbucks Corporation, n/d Web. 15 Oct. 2014

 

Choose Your Side Draft 1

On a late September night I found myself hungry at the Southern parts of The Pennsylvania State University, so I decided to walk to “The Mix” and purchase food. As I waited in line to input my order, I realized two Fruity Pebble cereal boxes standing next to each other. One of the cereal boxes was advertising cocoa cereal with a colored male and the other was advertising the original Fruity Pebbles with a caucasian male. At first glance, the two cereal boxes seemed like an honest mistake someone had committed by placing them adjacently. In fact, up to a certain extent the mistake seemed humorous. However, after a while my intellectual curiosity kicked in and I launched a quick search on my phone and realized that the cereal boxes were no mistake. Both cereal boxes were part of a new campaign that Post Foods had just launched specifically with their cereal Fruity Pebbles.

In Fall 2014 Fruity Pebbles cereals launched their new “Choose Your Side” campaign, in which the company displayed the face of world famous wrestler John Cena on the box of the Fruit Fruity Pebbles, and the face of professional basketball player Kyrie Irving on the Cocoa Fruity Pebbles box. The “Choose Your Side” campaign had as a main goal to tally Americas favorite flavor of Fruity Pebbles, Fruit or Cocoa, by allowing the clientele to purchase their favorite flavor and later on vote online at www.teampebbles.com for future company purposes. Unfortunately, instead of polling America, the “Choose Your Side” Fruity Pebbles campaign failed to persuade the public by embracing the racist system in society, bringing colored stereotypes into display and asking the public to “choose a side”.

When displayed, the Fruity Pebble “Choose Your Side Campaign” seems humorous; two cereal boxes next to each other with opposite races advertising opposite flavors. However, when analyzed the Fruity Pebble Choose Your Side Campaign is depicting an ideological world in which racism exists. In other words, by allowing Kyrie Irving, a colored basketball player, to advertise the chocolate cereal and John Cena, a caucasian wrestler, to advertise the original flavor racism is being portrayed. In fact, a race stereotype is also being implied in this advertisement, since the colored man is a basketball player and the caucasian is a strong male. Even though the profession depicted by each person is their legitimate job, it is a way in which Fruity Pebbles is embracing a living stereotype that exists in our society; all tall colored males are basketball players and all strong cacasian males are fighters. Curiously, Post Foods decided to depict The Flintstone’s main characters, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, to also mimic the strong versus athletic stereotype.

Thus, the racism and stereotype may have agitated the public with controversy, but Fruity Pebbles are rewarding those who encourage segregation by raffling prices through their websites if you “pick a side”, or submit a picture of you with your Fruity Pebbles using the hashtag “Team Fruity” or “Team Cocoa”. According to polls, as of October 6, 2014, 55% of the population has voted team fruity and 45% of the population has voted team cocoa. These numbers represent the world that this campaign is aiming for, a world in which racism exists and for voting for the better “team”, black or white, which you will be rewarded for. The logos behind this campaign are a reflection of the numerous race problems society has faced, since it is not the first time in history that society will get voting by voting for a specific race.

Food brands use characters and celebrities like, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, and John Cena and Kyrie Irving, in order to persuade their audience into purchasing their product or participate in their event. Acknowledging such, it is easy to perceive the negative use of ethos in the “Choose Your Side” campaign since by using world acclaimed characters and celebrities Fruity Pebbles is manipulating a younger audience to vote for “a side”, which in reality a race. In a way, this campaign can be perceive as if Fruity Pebbles is asking children to vote for a race by covering the polls with professional athletes and cartoons, which means that Fruity Pebbles is encouraging racism and encouraging children to take a vote on racism.

Through history it is easy to acknowledge that kairos is always present when in reference to race. It is inevitable not to talk about society without pointing out racism and its stereotype, however there are always different levels at which it is touched. For instance, in the “Choose Your Side” racism is observed in its blandest form, but what would have occurred if John Cena and Kyrie Irving switched boxes? Would there still be controversy? Would people point out the fact that it was done in such manner because if not racism would have emerged? Even tough these questions cannot be answered assertively because none of these were the case in this campaign, the one thing we know for sure is that the “Choose Your Side” campaign is encouraging our society, mainly our younger generation, to vote for a race. By embracing stereotypes and allowing color representation, Fruity Pebbles is depicting a world that the United States is trying to over come, a segregated world. Through a series of pictures, polls and teams they are ineffectively experimenting America’s flavor preference, but effectively promoting racism.

CYS

***PLEASE HELP***

-Title ideas please

-If you think I forgot to analyze something

-Any mistake you see

 

Hot Chocolate? Coffee?

My guilty pleasures are sweets; whether it is candy or chocolate, I absolutely cannot stop myself from having them on a daily basis. Similarly to sweets, I cannot go without having at least one cup of coffee a day, which is why recently I have been trying to tackle down both of my guilty pleasures with one item. This item is the Salted Caramel Mocha.

The Salted Caramel Mocha from Starbucks is like the hot chocolate item of the menu, since it has more of a chocolate texture and flavor than of a coffee. The sweetness of this beverage is just like a caramel filled chocolate; the first kick is rich and creamy, but then a caramel explosion occurs in your mouth. However, because of the sea salt that tops your beverage, the Salted Caramel Mocha is not too sweet.

The Salted Caramel Mocha is probably one of the most, if not the most, inexpensive and easiest Starbucks drinks to recreate since it is based on eight ingredients, from which only five are essential. In other words, if you wished you could recreate this drink by only using five of the eight ingredients and it would taste exactly the same. The five essential ingredients are a shot of espresso, mocha sauce, milk (any type you wish), caramel syrup and sea salt. The other non-essential ingredients, that will make your beverage tastier, are whipped cream, toffee and hazelnut syrup.

Once you have all of your ingredients ready, you will first put about 1/3 of a cup of milk to warm up until it begins to obtain a creamy and bold texture. When the milk reaches this texture add about 2/3 of a cup of mocha sauce, or extract if you wish, to the milk and mix the ingredients together. As you mix, you will notice that your drink will begin to appear like a warm version of a chocolate fountain; when that texture begins to form you will add your espresso shot. It is important that you wait until the “chocolate fountain” texture appears to add your espresso shot because if not the coffee taste will chop out the rich chocolate taste. After you’ve added the espresso shot, you will need to pour your coffee into a mug and add caramel to your preference. Technically after this step your coffee is done because if you don’t want to craft an over the top Salted Caramel Mocha you can just sprinkle a little bit of sea salt and enjoy your coffee. However, if you are feeling somewhat more crafty you can first add some whipped cream, then you would drizzle some hazelnut syrup, and to finish you would sprinkle some toffee and sea salt and voila!

As implied by the name, or the ingredients, the Salted Caramel Mocha is not the healthiest of coffees, which is why I wouldn’t recommend purchasing any size bigger than a grade. The short (8oz) version of the Salted Caramel Mocha contains around 240 calories; the tall (12oz) version of the Salted Caramel Mocha contains around 340 calories, the grande (16oz) version of the Salted Caramel Mocha contains about 430 calories; and, the venti (20oz) version of the Salted Caramel Mocha contains about 520 calories. However, keep in mind that these calories will vary depending on the ingredients you use. Avoiding the whipped cream and toffee, for instance, will result on a “healthier” version of the Salted Caramel Mocha.

scm

Works Cited: “Salted Caramel Mocha.” Starbucks Coffee Company. Starbucks Corporation., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.