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GamerGirl - Sophie Kruse

Gamer Girl: Mario Kart 8 is perfect for longtime game fans

By Sophie Kruse | Sep. 21, 2014

When the Wii U was announced, I thought it was the dumbest thing ever.I was a definite doubter. I thought the tablet was chunky and awkward, and I could only picture someone getting way too into their game and accidentally chucking the tablet through the television.I thought the tablet was unnecessary too: Mobile games should stay on mobile devices and console games should stay on consoles (with normal controllers).Once I actually tried out the Wii U, I discovered that I genuinely enjoyed it.I’ve only really played one game on the console, which to me has made it completely worth it: Mario Kart 8. I think I might actually be obsessed with this game. I’ve played some of its predecessors in the past, but this is truly a great version that I highly recommend to long-time Mario fans.There are a ton of different maps from all the previous Mario Kart games — including two versions of Rainbow Road.There’s a new, super awesome power-up in the game as well. It’s rare, and I’ve only ever got it when I’m lagging behind in the race. It gives you eight power-ups at the same time that you can use (including a banana, a red and green shell and a mushroom). Be careful, though. Opponents can easily run into you when you have this and make you lose certain parts of it.The online component of the game is also really fun. When your friends get tired of playing over and over again with you, you can easily connect with people online and play your heart out on there.The tablet makes this game fun because instead of looking at the television screen, you can just watch the tablet screen (if you’re lucky enough to be the one playing on it).I enjoyed playing this way online too, because you can play the Wii U without even having the television on. I could play Mario Kart just on the tablet and binge-watch something else on television — it’s pretty great.While playing the game, you get to unlock different characters, cars, wheels and parachutes, which makes it feel like more of a campaign game — or at least one where you have to build up to get better. They’re making a variety of new maps for the game as well. I’m looking forward to the Animal Crossing pack that will be released in a few months, which will have you racing as characters from the 3DS game and on different maps from it. And come on, who doesn’t want to combine Animal Crossing and Mario Kart?Sophia Kruse is a junior studying journalism. Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu. or tweet her at @kruseco.

Put It In Writing

Put It In Writing: Becoming a great writer comes with more than just writing

By Kirsten Saylor | Sep. 17, 2014

Many people want to become better writers. Being a great writer is something people should aspire to be. However, you’re not going to become a great writer just by writing. Yes, practicing will improve your writing to a certain degree, but it is not the only thing (or necessarily the best thing) to help you become a better writer. The best way to improve your writing is to read.  It may sound cliché, or maybe it’s something you’ve never really heard, but reading is the No. 1  way to improve your own writing. Reading allows you to explore different styles, words, structures and worlds that you may have never considered for yourself. Reading isn’t merely looking at the words on a page; reading is opening up your mind to a unique realm full of knowledge.Not only does reading allow you, as the reader, to discover what appeals to you, but it also exercises your mind. Joseph Addison, an 18th century writer, once said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” When exercising, you build resilience and strength in your muscles, keeping them fit and agile. Reading does the exact same thing, but for your mind. When you read, you are exercising your brain by mentally cataloguing dialogue and imagining scenarios through words on paper. This only goes to increase your intelligence, thus making you a better reader and a writer.Read everything you can get your hands on. Read full length novels of every genre. Read the classics. Read the newest releases. Read short stories by independent authors on the internet. Read Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories. Read newspapers, articles and essays from local providers and websites. Read poetry. No matter what it is, read it. It could provide you with insight that you may not notice on your own.Stephen King, the author of “The Shining” and “Pet Cemetery,” has a quote which goes well: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” You have to make the time to read in order to improve your writing. Whether you can only fit in one chapter of a book a night or if you can finish an entire novel in a few days, do it. Even 10 minutes of reading is better than not reading at all.Read when you can, write when you can and watch your writing improve before your eyes. It’s amazing how quickly you can progress if you continuously read and write. You will find what works for you through this process, and your writing will begin to feel like you. All you have to do is exercise your brain a little.Kirsten Saylor is a freshman studying English. Email her at ks749113@ohio.edu.

Lights Camera Ashton

Lights, Camera, Ashton: Comedy becoming too self-aware to be funny

By Will Ashton | Sep. 17, 2014

Anyone who is knowledgeable about comedy will tell you that it is subjective. Different people just laugh at different things. There is no right or wrong answer to what someone finds funny.I mean, sure, it’s easy to get mad at someone who keeps sponsoring Adam Sandler’s half-assed attempts at comedy, or Melissa McCarthy’s tired overweight routine. But they are not wrong per se. That’s just their preference. Personally, I like my comedy dry and witty, dark or absurd. But I know for a fact that there are things I find hilarious that many people look at with a blank, confused face.With that in mind, however, there’s definitely something to be said about how comedy weaves itself through culture. Vaudeville led the way to silent comedy and slapstick. The invention of sound in films led to quick-witted humor and mile-a-minute joke telling. Later, comedies like There’s Something About Mary paved the way for seemingly thousands of R-rated comedies involving different bloody fluids.Nowadays, there seems to be a new trend in pop culture comedy, but it may be one that comes at a price down the road. It’s self-aware comedy; comedy that prides itself in not only knowing it is a joke, but making a joke of how much of a joke it is.When applied well, there are certainly times where this works. Looking at some examples from the past few years, 21 Jump Street capitalized on the crappiness of its genre with fast wit and tongue-in-cheek aplomb, while The Cabin inthe Woods is, in my opinion, one of the better horror comedies to grace the screen of late—if just for its delightfully gory third act.But now, it seems that any and every (successful) movie with comedy has self-referential comedy in it. There was The Lego Movie, which — to its credit — needed this awareness and still serves as the best comedy of the year. And then there was Muppets Most Wanted, which was fine, solely because the Muppets have always been self-aware, and are funny about 95 percent of the time anyway.But after those, it started to get a little irksome. Just this summer, there was Neighbors, A Million Ways to Die in the West, 22 Jump Street, They Came Together, Let’s Be Cops and Guardians of the Galaxy —all of which took pride in saying over and over, “Oh, don’t worry. We get the joke.”For the most part, the strategy works for most of these movies, which makes criticizing them something of a bizarre, backhanded compliment. But it’s not about the films so much as it’s about the approach. The reason why self-aware comedy worked in its traditional sense was because it dealt with a select few being aware of the joke.It was like the one guy in class who was able to see through the BS and get away with sarcastically making fun of it. But if everyone is laying back and being sarcastic, there is no rhyme or reason to everything. There’s no joke, because nobody is out of the picture. It’s just preaching to the choir, and then it is no longer self-aware comedy. It’s just the norm.So, perhaps this isn’t a criticism but a warning: Slow down on the self-aware stuff. It’s cute, but the wear and tear is starting to show. If you don’t slow it down now — and considering how much money some of these movies made, they won’t — comedy is going to become stale.But hey, maybe that will be when self-aware comedy will be funny again. Someone will finally see the joke within the joke within the joke.Will Ashton is a senior studying journalism and a writer for The Post. Email him at wa054010@ohio.edu.

In The Know With Meg O

In The Know With Meg O: Libraries not on the outs in the States

Sep. 17, 2014

A Pew Research study published this week reports that libraries are not, in fact, dying.The study finds that Millennials are just as likely to have visited a library in the past year as their older counterparts and, additionally, are more likely to have visited a library’s website.The study also reports that how Americans use libraries is just one part of a broader social view. According to the report, “As a rule, people who have extensive economic, social, technological and cultural resources are also more likely to use and value libraries as part of those networks. Many of those who are less engaged with public libraries tend to have lower levels of technology use, fewer ties to their neighbors, lower feelings of personal efficacy and less engagement with other cultural activities.”In short, those who go to the library may be more engaged and involved citizens.While I am happy to read these findings, I’m pretty shocked.When I was younger, I went to the library every week to check out books and movies (and to sneak a peek at People Magazine … I was such a rebel), but I rarely have gone since I got a Kindle for my 17th birthday.I am an independent bookstore’s least favorite person. While I used to be an avid bookstore-goer (though it wasn’t independent, I cried actual tears in high school when the Borders by my house announced they were going out of business), when I got a Kindle, I just didn’t go anymore.However, my mom goes to the library almost once a week and just picks up a book that looks interesting to her. I haven’t done that in years. I figure that I should be up to date on bestsellers if I want to talk to any of my peers about a book we read for pleasure.I love being recommended a book, reaching into my backpack, typing it in and clicking pay. I could start reading a book days earlier than I used to, but I totally bought into the instant gratification that Amazon and other e-reader services provided, even though I was aware that it was being criticized as consumer censorship.So here is a shameless plug: visit your local library if you go home this weekend, and if not, stop by the Athens Community Library and pick out a book that looks interesting, not just the current number one book on Amazon. Apparently, that will make us a whole lot more engaged with the world around us.

RedBlueandYou

Red, Blue & You: America needs to counter ISIS terror group

Sep. 17, 2014

“Mission Accomplished,” were the words hanging behind President George W. Bush on the USS Abraham Lincoln when he gave his infamous speech in 2003 announcing that, “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”What seemed to be the end of conflict in Iraq turned out to be nothing more than a 10-year pause when a new terror group started to gain power in the country.The new threat to peace in Iraq is known as ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).ISIS is an extremist terror group that aims to turn Iraq and the Levant (a region consisting of Lebanon, Syria and Palestine) into an Islamic state. The group was formed by Abu Ayyub al-Masri who had ties to Al-Qaeda. al-Masri was killed in 2010 and was replaced by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who leads ISIS today.The group started gaining attention in June, when they gained control of Mosul, Nineveh, an Iraqi province and Tikrit, another city in Iraq. Since then, ISIS has declared an Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria.Although the group’s acts in June did earn some national attention, nothing earned more of a response than the Aug. 19 video released by ISIS showing the execution of American journalist James Foley.The man who executes Foley in the video says that American journalist Steven Sotloff is also being held captive and will be decapitated if U.S. airstrikes continue. ISIS followed through with their promise Sept. 2 when they posted the video. Afterward, ISIS made another threat to British aid worker David Haines.On Sept. 10, President Obama gave a speech regarding what America’s plans were in handling ISIS. He said, “Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.”This had no impact on the terror group, who just three days after Obama’s comments, released a video showing the decapitation of Haines.Everyone can agree that something needs to be done to destroy ISIS and provide payback for the vicious acts they have done over the past several months. The only problem is that not many Americans think President Obama can get the job done.According to an NBC News poll, “70 percent of Americans say they lack confidence that the U.S. will achieve its goals in fighting the terrorist group ISIS.”There’s good reason to be skeptical about America’s ability to handle conflict in the Middle East — America has a less than stellar track record in dealing with the problems in the Middle East.We already know how things went in Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan seems to be heading in the same direction with a fear that the country will fall back into extremist control once the U.S. removes all troops in the coming years.The list goes on and on with examples of American intervention in the Middle East with what seems to be no real results or solutions to the problem. Acting as the world police in the Middle East is like playing a cruel game of whack-a-mole — just when it seems one problem is solved, another one pops up.It’s important to realize that the U.S. as a whole, not just President Obama, has had trouble dealing with conflict in the Middle East in the past.These failures should not scare us away from acting on a threat that would affect the safety of Americans and others across the world. The possibility of yet another terrorist attack on American soil may seem premature to worry about, but there is no telling what ISIS is willing to do in order to get their point across.But one thing is for certain. Whatever President Obama and the U.S. government decides to do regarding this new terror threat, the country, as a whole needs to understand that any form of action is a step in the right direction.

Jordan Williams

The Good-isms: Educational activists receives some justice

By Jordan Williams | Sep. 14, 2014

This week, something wonderful made its way into national news; one of my heroes (or she-roes, as I occasionally like to call them), Malala Yousafzai, was finally delivered some justice from the 2012 attack that brought her to the forefront of the international women and children’s education movement. On Sept. 12 CNN reported that all of her attackers were arrested at last.For those who are unaware of what transpired, allow me to summarize: Malala attended a school for girls (founded by her father) in her home of Mingora, Pakistan. Once a fruitful spot for tourism, this city’s prosperity gradually declined due to the increasing control of the Taliban. At the time, the Taliban was constantly terrorizing girls’ schools. At the young age of eleven, Malala gave her first speech, imploring, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” Less than a year later, Malala posed online as a BBC blogger to let the the world know how the Taliban was taking over and denying the education of young girls.When Malala’s identity from the blog was revealed, she immediately became a target of assassination. On the morning of Oct. 9, 2012, members of the Taliban stopped the bus headed to Malala’s school. One man entered and demanded to know where Malala was. The other girls on the bus looked in her direction, and the man shot fifteen-year-old Malala in the head. She survived miraculously, and soon after her recovery, her role as a women’s and children’s education activist began.With the full knowledge that she could be targeted again any day, she never gives up what she started before she was even a teenager. She published her autobiography, I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban in October 2013, a year after the attack. Malala has been nominated for multiple national activism awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. She has also developed her own organizations. Learn more at Malala.org and TheMalalaProject.org.I found it difficult to relate this topic to current happenings at Ohio University. However, when I read of the capture of Malala’s attackers, I just had to share her story. She is the epitome of what I want this column to be about. With Malala’s everyday fight in mind, let me say this: What I love about our campus in relation to this issue is that everyone truly does have equal opportunity. Just in the past couple of weeks, I have discovered countless organizations and honor societies for any student on campus from any background or anywhere in the world.From my own experience, I know that education is the most valuable thing that can be acquired. My education has always been of primary importance to me. Education does more than enrich your mind and future; it enriches understanding, compassion and the drive to be something more.Like Malala says, “Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”jw719111@ohio.edu

Zander Myers - Culture Shocked

Culture Shocked: Camping still worthwhile despite challenges

By Zander Myers | Sep. 14, 2014

The following statement may disappoint some people, especially since Athens is such an outdoorsy part of the country, but I feel very strongly about it and I feel that it must be said:I hate camping and other extended outdoor adventures.I do not make this statement lightly, and I really wish I did enjoy outings like this, but my reasons are very legitimate. Every time I have gone on an outdoor excursion, something bad has inexplicably happened. On my first weekend camping trip in seventh grade, I forgot that my very first cell phone was in my pocket (which I had only owned for a week) and I went swimming in the creek. Naturally, my phone was ruined and I spent the rest of the trip freaking out and worried that my parents would think something awful happened since they couldn’t call me.All in all, things worked out, at least until the next time I took another outdoor trip. In eighth grade, my class took a rafting trip; a tradition that the eighth graders do every year. It was a week-long trip and everyone always described it as a very enriching, life-changing experience. I was fated to be the outlier, apparently. After two days of general information about raft safety, environmental etiquette and such, we finally embarked on the river. Everything about the trip was exciting until my raft capsized and I was trapped under the water in a whirlpool. Being the third day of the trip, I was in no mood to step foot in a raft the next four days. Maybe it was the near-death experience, but I was 100 percent done.These trips would lull me into a false sense of security where I thought that the next time would be different…but alas, it never was. So, I decided just to give up and remain indoors.These aren’t the only two stories about how Mother Nature does not enjoy my company, but I will leave you with this: please, no one ask me to go camping or hiking or whatever-ing with you, because if you have read this, then you already know how I feel about trips of this nature (see what I did there?).One lesson I have learned though, is that in spite of how bad travelling and trips can turn out, we still embark, we take the gamble and roll the dice.Zander Myers is a senior studying English. How do you feel about camping? Email her at am154312@ohio.edu.

Sophie Kruse

Gamer Girl: iPod classic still reins supreme despite being discontinued

By Sophie Kruse | Sep. 14, 2014

I received some really bad news last week.Apple announced on Sept. 9 that they’re discontinuing the iPod classic—the original iPod created with the largest storage space available on their devices.To me, this news was nothing short of heartbreaking. My iPod is one of my most cherished devices that I can’t leave home without. Currently, it’s in great condition, but now I’ll be living in fear that anything could happen to it because I won’t be able to replace it.The first generation iPod was released in 2001 and was capable of storing 1,000 songs—making it have a 5 GB hard drive.Before the iPod, I did all my listening on a Walkman—forcing me to carry around all the CDs I wanted to use around with me. It’s safe to say the iPod was a big step up for me.The first iPod classic I bought was the 5th generation, released in 2005, when my pink iPod Mini met its fate. I loved my first classic until its death, which was when I replaced it with the 6th generation—the one I still use.There’s something refreshing about using a simplistic device like an iPod. There’s no touchscreen or fancy features—just the standard click wheel, a ton of music and even a few videos, if that’s what your heart desires.The battery life on the iPod is insane—I feel I can regularly listen to mine for a week or two before I have to charge it again.The main reason I’ve held on to my iPod for so long, instead of making the “sensible” choice to moving toward listening from my phone, is the battery life factor. My phone is used so much during the day that I end the evening with minimal battery life left. I really can’t afford much more usage on my phone. I also like having the devices separated. There’s been many times that my iPod has saved me from many long evenings alone in Alden—but also saved me from the distraction of constantly looking at my phone when the song changes.It also holds a TON of music. My current iPod is 160 GB, and I have 18,500 songs on it. It might sound like overkill, but I love being able to keep all of my music on it and not have to worry about going through and choosing a few to have on my device.The other thing I hate about streaming through a phone is that the ad-free, unlimited streaming apps (be it Google Music, Spotify or Pandora) cost money. Sure, it’s a small monthly fee, but I’ll just stick with my trusty iPod—it never charges me to listen.Sophie Kruse is a junior studying journalism and is a staff writer for The Post. Were you sad about the iPod news? Email her at sk139011@ohio.edu or tweet her at @kruseco.

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