Monthly Archives: February 2015

I Thought Ariana Grande Was a Font

A couple of nights ago I was scrolling down the home page of BuzzFeed and noticed a post in the bottom left side of my screen entitled “The Ariana Grande Frappuccino.” Millions of different thoughts rushed through my mind that varied from believing that this drink was a spoof to believing that this was another fake post created by a teen to get attention. After several thoughts and a couple of Snapchats sent I decided to run to Starbucks and order an Ariana Grande Frappuccino.

To order an Ariana Grande Frappuccino first you will need to order my personal favorite Starbucks Secret Menu Beverage the “Cotton Candy Frappuccino”, which consists of ordering a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino and adding two pumps of Raspberry Syrup. Afterwards you will need to ask for an extra pump of Mocha Syrup, some Mocha Chips, whipped cream and some drizzled caramel on the top. Please note that this is the order for a “standard” (Grande) Ariana Grande Frappuccino, if you wished to order a larger size you would need to ask for one and a half extra pump of every ingredient per incensement in cup size. As you guys might assume, I don’t want to know what the sugar content or calorie content this beverage contains.

My first impression of The Ariana Grade Frappuccino recipe was not as positive since it consisted in lots, perhaps too many, additional syrups and sugars that made me hesitate. After all, who would want to pay extra money for an item that they won’t like? However, that afternoon I felt adventurous and decided to try it. As expected, the beverage was pretty much drenched in sugars and syrups. The taste, nevertheless, was pretty delicious. The beverage resembles a diet or smoother cookies and crème milkshake texture. I think that the addition of the mocha chips in the beverage causes this since it gives the beverage that sweet “crunch” you find in tiny chocolate chip based foods, like in the Cookie Crip Cereal, or the Bitter Sweet Mint ice cream from The Creamery. I also believe that the Ariana Grande Frappuccino has a very peculiar taste, perhaps almost an acquired taste, since it has layers of different flavors. In fact, the way each ingredient fades in your mouth into the next, leading almost a harmonic burst of flavor reminds me of the way the trident layer gum melts in your mouth from flavor to flavor. Regardless of what I first thought about The Ariana Grande Frappuccino, after I tried it I must admit the beverage is pretty tasty. As BuzzFeed stated in their article The Ariana Grande Frappuccino is a “Disco Techno circus party in my mouth (Brantz, 2015).”

I guess the pop singer was right, now she has one less problem. She no longer has to worry about getting her name messed up at Starbucks.

Work Cited:

Brantz, Loryn. “This Is What Happens When You Order An ‘Ariana Grande’ From Starbucks. BuzzFeed. N.p. 23 Feb. 2015. Web. 24. Feb. 2015.

Starbucks Secret Menu. “Starbucks Ariana Grande Frappuccino.: Starbucks Secret Menu. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb 2015.

Dear Tax Payers & Students Thank You For Watching ESPN

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Universities across the nation always prioritize athletic scholarships over any other athletics situation that may emerge, and as a student, it seems that Universities also prioritize athletes by upgrading their campus experience by giving them elite treatment in campus commodity (USA TODAY, 2013). As USA TODAY notes “Public Universities competing in NCAA Division I sports spend as much as six times more per athlete than they spend to educate students… (USA TODAY, 2013).” Apparently by increasing University spending on the athletic department, Universities are ensuring athletic scholarships, money grants, popularization and revenue from all of the port related merchandise, games and admiration an athletic department may obtain (Mckay, 2014). Logically, one may assume that Universities create some sort of a cycle in which they “invest” on the athletic department in order to obtain revenue during and after the concurrent sport season elapses (McKay, 2014). However, recent statistics done by the Delta Cost Project showed that from 2005 to 2010 less than a quarter of the 97% of schools made some sort of revenue from their initial investment, yet the school’s increased their investment per athlete by 64% (Guillespie, 2013). How is it then that Universities continue to increase their expenses in the athletics department when the revenues are not exceeding the investments? Or better yet, how can Universities afford to increase these investments if they are not making sufficient money to create a self-financed athletic department?

According to The NCAA 82% of Public Universities use part of Universities budgets, that is tuition, and state tax revenues in order to maintain the athletic department (Guillespie, 2013). As if focusing the educational based money on the athletics department is not cursed enough for students, many Universities across the nation, like The Louisiana State University and The University of Alabama, use University affiliated money to aid foundations and organizations sponsor University staff (GUillespie, 2013). For example, on October 2014 the University of Alabama and the Clemson Tide Foundation helped pay off Roll Tide’s Football Coach, Nick Saban’s, $3.1 million 8,759 square feet house, in which Coach Saban will reside after his retirement (Guillespie, 2013). How is it then, that students that pay $12,475.00 a semester on tuition only get six times less attention by the University than athletes? As an article published in Time Magazines states: “…administrators plead poverty when it comes to resources for faculty… (Guillespie, 2013).” Have sports gone from being embedded in America’s pride to being taxpayers and tuition payer’s worst nightmare?

Even though most Universities have not been so successful in creating a solid economical base for their athletics department, few top sports universities have luckily been able to break even in profits (McKay, 2013). Polls from 2010 and 2011 show that twenty-two of the top 120 Universities of the country manages to obtain some sort of profit, or at least create a self-sustained athletics department. However, as noted by The Daily Bantler, because such a small number of Universities were able to gain revenue a sort of sport, mainly football, hierarchy is forming among the top sport centered universities in the nation (McKay, 2013).

Even though American Universities are best-known world wide by its incomparable education and school pride, many studies show that today Universities are beginning to disperse their money to other areas of the school that perhaps don’t need as much concentration as the Universities perceive. After all, Universities are viewed as a mean to acquire education, whether it is by rights or by opportunity, education should be prioritized and distributed to all students –athletes or non- athletes equally—prep rallies, clubs and sports related programs and department should be handled form second hand perspective (USA TODAY, 2013). As former Professor and Co-Founder of the Coalition of the Intercollegiate Athletes, John Nichols from The Pennsylvania State University states: “the growing reliance by sports departments on University funds can mean in many circumstances one more assistant coach and one less English Professor teaching Shakespeare (USA TODAY, 2013).”

Work Cited:

Gillespie, Nick. “Football: A Waste of Taxpayers’ Money.” Dec 6 2013. Time Magazine. Web. Feb 25 2015.

McKay, Tom. “Upon Further Review, College Football Is a Giant Waste Of Money For Most Schools.” Oct 29 2014. The Daily Banter. Web. Feb 25 2015.

USA Today. “Division I Schools Spend More on Athletes Than Education.” SA TODAY. Jul 14 2013. Web. Feb 25 2014.

The London Fog

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On Valentine’s Day my Boyfriend and I were walking around Downtown when we suddenly saw a huge foggy-like cloud behind us. By the time I pointed it out to him, we had turned our heads to admire it (both of our hometowns are in Central America so snow is new to us). Suddenly a huge airstream of snow, wind and extreme cold hit us. We both ran to the nearest Starbucks (the one locates behind Mclannahan’s) and I thought it was the perfect time to try something completely new from the Secret Menu. I quickly fired up my phone, searched for something that would catch my eye and found “ The London Fog Tea.”

London Fog is based on Earl Grey Tea Semi Dry Misto, which is basically brewed grey tea with half steam milk and little foam, two pumps of Vanilla Syrup and two pumps of Caramel Syrup. Note that this is the recipe you would give to your barista for a Grande London Fog, in order to order your beverage in a bigger size you would have to order the drink with an additional one and a half syrup pumps per cup “upgrade”. The London Fog Tea is quite tasty, it reminded me of a vanilla-foamless-latte because of its smooth texture and lightly sweetness. In fact, the beverage itself did not taste like tea. If I were to try it with my eyes closed I would of most likely confused the beverage with a Vanilla Latte, so if you’re not a big tea drinker or you don’t like overpowering tea flavors I would highly recommend ordering The London Fog during these cold days.

Sadly though, The London Fog is not as healthy of a beverage as I wished it were because of its Earl Grey Tea base. According to the Starbucks Website, a Grande London Fog Tea contains 180 calories — from which 40 are from fat—, 2.5 grams of Saturated Fat (12%), 150 milligrams of sodium (4%), and 30 grams of sugar. Overall, from a nutritional perspective, The London Fog can range any where between 100 and 1250 calories, and can contain up to 18% of saturated fat, depending in the size of your choice. Even though The London Fog is technically a tea, this beverage does contain 40 milligrams of caffeine, which means that you will still feel that energizing “boost” you get after drinking a cup of coffee. Nevertheless, I would describe this tea as a calmer one since the amount of caffeine in it is somewhat balanced. In other words, you would feel a relaxing walking sensation, rather than the boost you feel when you order a Macchiato, which contains two espresso shots and gives you a 5-hour energy booster sensation. Overall, I think The London Fog Tea is a great way to keep warm and awake during this cold Central Pennsylvania days if we disregard, or keep track, or our daily calorie consumption.

Work Cited:

Starbucks Corporation. “Earl Grey Tea Sweetened With Vanilla-Flavored Syrup and Steamed Milk.” Nd. Np. Web. February 18, 2015

Starbucks Secret Menu. “The London Fog.” Nd. Np. Web. February 18, 2015

Class Activity: Malcolm X & MLK Question’s

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Malcolm X Questions.

Malcolm X’s rationale for the creation of the Organization of Afro American Unity (OAAU) was to ensure that the African American population unified, obtained respect and re-created self indent through the OAAU charter – self defense, education, social and politics & economics. Through out his entire speech Malcolm stressed the importance and duty of the Afro-American Community to set a representation in he state without the help of the white population because the establishment of this community lied upon themselves not upon the white community. Therefore, by doing such the entire Afro-American community in the US would unite and recreate itself in order to establish representation among America and the rest of the world.
I think that the self-defense policy was a way of giving African Americans equality throughout the population and also a way of ensuring that African Americans gained the human rights they deserved. As he stated in his speech “If you have a dog, I must have a dog. If you have a riffle, I must have a riffle. If you have a club I must have a club.” Self-defense and equality go together, and in order for African Americans to reach that equality they wished they needed to establish a self-defense policy because in a world where no equality is found among the lines of protection, than there was no equality.
I think that education was a big segment of both speeches, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, because they both agreed upon the idea that you cannot emerge as a society without basic education of your ethnicity on both, national and community level. In other words, both of these activist’s believed that in order to allow African Americans to enter society they must educate whites about African Americans and educated African Americans as themselves. Also, Malcolm X stressed the importance of giving African Americans the respect they deserved in the educational system itself by allowing African Americans to enter the history books as more as just a “cotton picker”, and have African Americans professors. Malcolm X urged the need of entering the educational system in order to enter society and the system itself.

MLK Questions.

MLK began to refrain the discourse around his activities involving civic disobedience as a consequence of allowing segregation to grow as much as it has. I think that MLK’s argument is very similar to the argument that Malcolm X stressed with a small twist, since MLK approaches the situation in a subtler Christian manner by trying to find equal guidance among races. I also think MLK’s approach was somewhat smarter since he presented his argument with more sincerity and even gave an almost ironic apology at the end of his speech.
1. I think that the non-violence approach made by MLK was crucial since it truly allowed African Americans to rise above the violent approaches the white society was taking at the time. Therefore, he becomes more credible and sympathetic among society.
2. I think that both, MLK and Malcolm X, were trying to confront a movement that was composed of tensions. Thereby, I think that Malcolm X was more successful in reaching its approach because he was more direct and direct his message in a subtler manner for those who he was targeting. In contrast I think that MLK was successful in approaching the clergy men, which were the main audience, but not as successful to approach those side groups that could of also been his potential audience.

Red Velvet Frappuccino

College Major’s Influence Over Athletics

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Universities are always criticized under the notion that college athletes take easier classes, or major in easier subjects in order to keep a scholarship-eligibility business venture. In fact, this subject has caused so much controversy that it has motivated scholars to preform studies on college athlete majors, and has also forced sports organizations, like the NCAA, to pass new laws that ensure higher graduating rates and higher GPA expectations over athletes (USATODAY, 2008). Nevertheless, as this argument continues to expand many researches have found that perhaps the problem with the university – athlete feud is not the standards that the university implies on college athletes, rather than the small range of major choices that the university offers (Time, 2012). As David Pargman, a psychologist professor at the Florida State University, states on his article “End The Charade: Let Athletes Major in Sport”:

“Why do we impose upon young, talented and serious-minded high school seniors the imperative selection an academic major that is, more often than not, completely irrelevant, to at least inconsistent with their heartfelt desires and true career objective: to be professional athletes?” (David Pargman, Florida State University)

As Pargman goes to argue, perusing a degree on sports should be no different than perusing a degree in an art related field, such as film, music or dance. After all, in today’s society getting a job as an engineer is as competitive as getting a job as a dancer. Regardless of the degree you obtain, the likelihood of landing the job you desire is decreasing and therefore the likelihood of obtaining a job in a similar field of your specialty is increasing. Therefore, if statistics provide evidence that after graduation you will enter a job-seeking-lottery regardless of your degree, why shouldn’t Universities allow athletes to peruse a career in their main field of choice rather than an erroneous major such as fishery studies? For example, Luke Stocker (a former college football player from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville) majored in leisure studies in order to maintain his sportsmanship eligibility (WSJ, 2010). From a more professional perspective, world famous basketball player Michael Jordan majored in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill while taking classes such as tennis and elementary geography. As Syracuse University student Dylan Malagrin stated to USATODAY: “coaches and academic administrators in the athletic department might be strongly encouraging students to take easier majors or to chose an easy major.”

A study preformed by David Biderman to 1,104 college football players all over the country showed that the most popular major among athletes were found upon the college of Liberal Arts, mainly the majors that are relation to sociology. Also, as expected, most of the college athletes chose to major in a sport or health related majors, which only further proves David Pargman argument (USATODAY, 2008). Overall, the study showed expected distributed numbers among colleges of liberal arts. However the most sticking finding of this study was the fact that out of 1,104 college athletes across the nation only one Vanderbilt Student, Chris Marve, was perusing more than one major. At the time of the study, Marve was triple majoring in human & organization development, sociology and special education (USATODAY,2008). Then, if studies provide evidence that today the educational system is failing to stretch common grounds to athletes, why is it that they are not treating them as they treat art majors?

Currently, Universities across the nation grant students credits by completing physical education activities, like the tennis class Michael Jordan took at UNC, and require students to complete a General Education Health Requirement that can be fulfilled through physical actives. Today, Universities acknowledge the importance of physical activities and health related knowledge. Thereby, if the educational system is aware of such, the educational system should also be aware of the importance of allowing students to expand their passion over sports by allowing students, specifically college athletes, to major in sports the same way they allow a theater enthusiast to major in theater performances. Perhaps, if the educational system granted students with the sports major opportunity, the university-athlete controversy would not exist, more and lager scholarships would be granted and all students would be guarantee to graduate with a degree about a subject they truly love.

Work cited:

Biderman, David. “Why Football Players Don’t Speak Spanish.” WSJ. Np. 16 September 2010. Web. 07 Feb 2015.

San, Gregory. “Should College Athletes Just Major in Sports.” Time. Np. November 27 2012. Web. 12 Feb 2015.

Upton, Jody & Kristen Novak. “College Atletes Cluster Majors at Most Schools.” USATODAY. Np. 19 November 2008. Web. 05 Feb 2015.

The Breakfast Beverage

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Usually when I wake up, two completely different scenarios can happen. I both wake up and become a dream for the sugar-like-food-industries (like Lucky Charms or Coco-Puffs) or, I wake up and simply do not feel hungry, but binge eat sweets all morning long. Logically, when I saw that Starbucks offered cereal-like-flavors in its secret menu I absolutely lost it and decided to try one. The secret menu offers an abundance of cereal flavors, from captain-crunch to cookie crisp, I’m pretty certain you find almost any cereal you think of. Nevertheless, that morning I decided one of my all-time favorite cereal flavors as a beverage – A Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappuccino. At first I was somewhat scared. I mean, the idea of having a cereal flavored drink doesn’t sound very pleasing off the bat. However, what is life if you don’t do thinks outside of the box?

Let me tell you, this has been one of the best impulsive decisions I have ever made!

My first impression of the Frappuccino was that it seemed normal. When I read the recipe and knowing the texture of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal, I envisioned the Frappuccino as a hazel colored beverage that was going to be over-powdered on cinnamon sugar and drenched in sugar. Surprisingly enough this was not the case. The Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappuccino looks at first glance like a regular Caramel Frappuccino with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and no caramel drizzle. In fact, the beverage itself looks a little dull in my opinion (perhaps I think about it as dull because of image I had in my mind). Nevertheless, The Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappuccino taste is nothing but far from dull. The beverage itself if very rich in flavor and the way it’s prepared allows you to taste different stages, or layers, of the drink. At first, you taste that nice sweet smoothness you expect any Frappuccino to have. Second, you taste a very subtle cinnamon flavor that burst in your mouth and stays long enough for you to enjoy the taste, but not long enough for you to feel overwhelmed. In a nut shell, the Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappuccino taste exactly the same as the cereal, while still avoiding the overwhelming use of powder sugar and cinnamon sugar.

As if the taste wasn’t surprisingly enough, ordering this beverage is extremely easy as well. All you have to do is order a White Mocha Frappuccino, add Cinnamon Dolce Syrup (1 pump for a tall, 1 ½ pumps for a grande or 2 pumps for a venti), add Hazelnut Syrup (1 pump for a tall, 1 ½ pumps for a grande or 2 pumps for a venti), ask for some blended cinnamon sugar to be blended and, if you wish, top it with whipped cream and extra cinnamon sugar. If one day you’re feeling very adventurous and would like to have your breakfast as a beverage (literally) I would strongly recommend you to try the Starbucks Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappuccino.

Work Cited: “Starbucks Cinnamon Toast Crunch Frappucino.” Starbucks Secret Menu. Starbucks Corporation, n.d. Web. 4 February 2015.