Is This The End?

For my final blog post required for our blog project, I am going to leave you with creative facts I discovered about my topic. I have enjoyed this assignment and I am going to continue using Blogger whether it is for work or leisure. Deciding on a topic was the most challenging part for this assignment. Beer may not be the most professional topic, but it helped me get an idea of how Blogger functions and how I can utilize this for my future.

 

TEN CRAZY BEER FACTS:

 

1. Cenosillicaphobia is the fear of an empty glass.

 

2.  At spas in Europe, you can literally bathe in beer as a physical and mental therapeutic treatment.

 

3. George Washington insisted his continental army be permitted a quart of beer as part of their daily rations.

 

4. Coined in the early 1900s, the word "alcoholiday" means leisure time spent drinking.

 

5. The Code of Hammurabi decreed that bartenders who watered down beer would be executed.

 

6. A Buddhist temple in the Thai countryside was built with over a million recycled beer bottles.

 

7. In one Japanese city beer ad hanging Matsushiro that when an earthquake measuring up to three points (on the Japanese scale), the client receives a free beer.

 

8. Light is what makes beer go bad.

 

9. Egyptian Pyramid workers were paid with beer: 1 gallon (4L) per day.

 

10. BEER & MARIJUANA are cousins: beer's hops are in the same family of flowering plants as marijuana.

 

 

Read more beer facts here:

 

http://mentalfloss.com/article/52941/25-amazing-facts-national-beer-day

 

http://oddstuffmagazine.com/10-facts-about-beer.html

 

http://www.factslides.com/s-Beer

 

 

 

 

 

Post Party

Although I did not get the opportunity to attend the annual "Pig Roast" this year, I did hear a lot of interesting stories that occurred during the day-long event. One issue I feel that Slippery Rock faces when they allow students, clubs, and sports teams to host events that involve alcohol off campus is the aftermath. 

I am a resident at the University Village. The spring concert was yesterday, Sunday April 27th, and University Village hosted a "Spring Fest" party before the concert. As you all know these parties are monitored by the security on duty where the event is hosted. However, police are not there unless they are called. This allows underage students to come and and enjoy the festivities. The one thing that I dislike the most about parties is the mess from everyone who is not a resident. 

This morning I had to clean my car off because it was covered in beer cans. This post is a rant and reminder to those attending these events. It all fun until someones car is covered in Natural Light cans. Clean up your mess!!

Alumni or Die

Attention everyone 21 and older: If you enjoy watching drunk parents dancing to Pit Bull and Ke$ha then you need to be at Ginger Hill this Saturday night. This upcoming weekend is our Slippery Rock Women's Volleyball Alumni Weekend. I am very excited to finally be considered alumni and get to play volleyball all day for fun. 

Every two years my coach hosts a weekend for current and former players to play volleyball all-day long. We will be scrimmaging against the girls who will be returning in the fall and it is always the alumni's goal to beat them just to let coach know that we aren't out of shape! I am excited to see everyone but I am more excited for the reception and all the free beer!! 

Parents visiting = FREE BEER! This blog is more of a warning for those of you who are planning on going to Ginger Hill after the annual Pig Roast. Caution: My parents will be there and they WILL be embarrassing me. Have a great weekend! 

Because It's The Cup

This may be a little off topic but...DID ANYONE WATCH THE PENS GAME LAST NIGHT?

If you did, I hope you were watching it at an exciting location and enjoying it with friends! Hockey season should be named, "National Beer Drinking Season" in my opinion anyway. The best part about watching sports are all the beer specials! Ginger Hill helps out my empty bank account by giving us sweet deals to get drunk and watch sports.Even if you aren't big on hockey, that was a great game last night that I hope you got to witness.

War Eagle

Last week I visited one of my best friends from high school who now attends Auburn University. I have lived in Texas for 3 months but nothing could have prepared me for this trip. Roughly two months ago me and three of my friends decided we would make a 4-day trip to good ol' Alabama and attend our first rodeo show. Professor Keppel if you are reading this then I know what you're thinking. No, this was not an educational trip.

 

This was a rodeo qualifier for young adults to compete trying to become professionals. The events went on throughout the day beginning at 11 a.m. and finishing up at 4 p.m. During that time I watched young boys attempt to hold on for dear life while they were thrown off wild bulls. We also watched brave women dress goats in bathing suits, milk them, and drink the milk all just for front row seats to the Alan Jackson concert at the end of the night.

 

How does this relate to my topic you ask? Beer plays a huge role in my post for today. In the morning we planned on leaving and heading to the rodeo at 8 a.m. but did not arrive until noon due to all of the traffic. We were at a dead stop in the middle of the road sitting in the back of a truck along with hundreds of other people in their trucks waiting in line for the rodeo. Traffic was backed up for miles down the road. There were people playing corn hole, bonging beers, and playing dizzy bat while other cars drove by. I have never seen anything like this before in my life. If you didn't have someone in your group with an American flag you were not welcome.

 

We had purchased a parking pass to secure a spot for us at the rodeo. However, as we made our way down the road we began to see cars and trucks full of people turning around. There were police officers every couple miles trying to control the traffic and chaos going on throughout the day. One officer informed us that they had overbooked parking at the rodeo and that we had to turn around and take a shuttle. I hopped off the truck to inform the other trucks lined up behind us. That did not settle well with them at all. I literally watched countless shirtless men approach the police officer threatening him saying they would drive their trucks through the barbwire fences because they paid for their spot.

 

Wondering how this conflict was solved? A lot of angry people ended up throwing full beer cans at police officers screaming to let them in. This is not a joke. I have never experienced such determination to get in to an event. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences I have had in my lifetime. I hope that they are better prepared for next year's rodeo. Advice for today; Beer can and WILL be used as a weapon when necessary.

 

If you think I was exaggerating about the traffic, here is your proof!

Playing Harder Than You Work

I'm sure each of us has heard the phrase, "work hard play hard" before in their lifetime. We define ourselves by how much effort we put into something and reward ourselves when we succeed. Each and every one of us has had a moment in our lives when we've felt that we deserve a treat. Whether it is celebrating after a midterm or final, or nailing an interview for a job or internship. There has been a time when we let go and become carefree.

As college students, we understand what it is like to put ourselves through days, weeks, and months of work to get the grade that we deserve. We start to enjoy napping again after pulling back-to-back all-nighters to study as much as humanly possible to get an A on a final. But when we become the legal age to drink in the United States, does alcohol become what we turn to as a reward? TV shows, movies, and even real life situations I have witnessed adults to turn to alcohol as a reason to celebrate or relax after a long day of work.

I don't think that alcohol should be mixed in the work place. As we get older we begin to move on with our lives and become part of the working class. We will graduate eventually and be tossed out in the real world to find our own way of income which can become extremely difficult if you are not prepared. My professor Dr. Laux once told me that you should never drink alcohol during an interview or any meeting with your boss, fellow employers, and certainly not an interviewer. Wise advice. You will come off as someone who will fall into the peer pressure category and maybe one day leave for happy hour with your friends and come back to work unfocused and extremely unprofessional.

I understand that my blog has come off as a fun and easy topic for college students to relate to but I want to stress that I know how to have a good time but I also know when to say no. I do not believe that it is appropriate for an employee to be drinking during a workday. I experienced something similar to this topic over the summer at my internship. I was invited by my supervisor to a staff happy hour just down the road from the office. I was the only intern who showed up to the event. It was very informal but I felt that if I did not go I would be sending the wrong message. It also put pressure on me to drink. Although I was 21-years-old at the time, it was discomforting to be the youngest employee to attend.

I encourage the entire class to continue reading my blog posts each week; however, I do not want you to get the wrong idea about me or what I believe in. I do enjoy drinking beer and I did want to pick a fun topic but now looking back on this blog I can tell that not everyone can relate to my theme and for that I am sorry. I will try my best to have posts that are educational while entertaining at the same time.

The Creativity of Advertisement

After reading a very inspiring post from one of our fellow classmates, I decided that I will have a post of short videos of beer advertisements. I want to focus this post on creativity and just how simple or complex and advertisement can be. I want to share powerful advertisements used to sell different types of beer. These are often presented during the Super Bowl and other mainstream sporting events.

 

I am going to post my top 3 favorite videos. I encourage you to watch them and hope that you enjoy my sense of humor.

1. Budweiser

2. Hahn

 

3. Guinness

 

Shinny Summertime

It has not been the easiest winter for us Slippery Rock students. This has been the coldest winter I have experienced at school over my last four years at SRU. As you can see on any weather app, channel, etc, it seems that there is hope for Slippery Rock to start warming up this upcoming week. One of my favorite things to do when it is nice outside is grill. 

Over this past summer I had an internship in Austin, TX. If you have not been to Austin or even Texas, I recommend you make a trip at least once in your lifetime. Before accepting my internship I did a little research on Austin to see what kind of trouble I could get myself into. Shiner Bock is a Texas beer and certainly one of my favorites. This information popped up often during my search for food and various hot spots to attend. 

I personally think that Shiner is not advertised enough up North. There is a large amount of seasonal beer such as Leinenkugel Summer Shady. I don't think that people utilize season beers enough. I can understand that we are only college students trying to get by with a case of Natty Light, but if you appreciate the taste in beer then you should invest in something with better quality. This picture was taken when my parents came to visit me during the summer. Starting from the left you'll see my dad's glass is full with Shiner Bock, followed by my mothers elaborate Bloody Mary. And lastly...I am the only family member who chose to have a sober breakfast with my black coffee. 

Flight Friendly

On this lovely Wednesday evening I have been given the opportunity to exercise one of my favorite hobbies - people watching. As I sit in the Pittsburgh airport waiting for my 7:05 flight I am blessed with a gate that is directly across from a sports bar. It is truly one of the best hobby that I have picked up as an adult because I am no longer embarrassed to sit alone and make eye contact with strangers. 

My topic today is about how there is a large amount of travelers, from my observation, who feel the need to drink before their flight. I can understand if you have a long layover, but there are some people who depend on alcohol to get them through a plane ride. Is it because they are afraid of flying? It could be. Is it because alcohol makes everything more enjoyable when you're on vacation? It all depends on your personal preference. All I know is there is nothing more entertaining than watching strangers bond in such a short amount of time and knowing they may never see each other again. 

If you have ever traveled then you've witnessed the wide variety of travelers. For example, the grumpy and impatient person waiting behind you for the enormous security line or an entire family running from gate-to-gate to catch their flight. Each scenario is amusing, until you are one of them... Unfortunately I do not have a picture for this post. I think it would be a tad bit creepy to take a picture of the two older gentleman taking jäger bombs.

Birthday Bash!

In honor of my brother's birthday today, I decided to dedicate my post to him. My brother Zach (the same sibling featured in my previous post) is turning 25 today! Time seems to be flying by and as we all age I start to loose the feeling of being the youngest child. I believe one of the best parts of growing up is the ability to enjoy a cold beer. Those of you who are already 21-years-old you know this feeling... 

Birthday's are both good and bad. On one hand, many of you are racing to reach the age where you can enjoy happy hour specials, celebrate birthdays legally, and most of all the convenience of purchasing your own alcohol. However, you do have to keep in mind that you ARE aging...scary thought! I consider birthday’s to be a holiday. The best part about a holiday is the celebration!

Downfalls of LEGAL birthdays include:

• Expensive drinks (so many shots…)
• That one friend spilling those expensive drinks
• A Deathly hangover the following morning

 Perks of LEGAL birthdays:

•  Friends/Family buying those expensive drinks
• Attention all on you and your friends
• That 'loving life’ feeling 

Since it is “Thirsty Thursday” go out, let loose, and have a great time! Only of course if you are of the appropriate age. If not, hopefully you’re eating cake and celebrating a birthday of your own. As usual I will end my post with a photo. Compliments of Compadres delicious margaritas I may have to go get one tonight...who's with me?

Beer For Thought

Hello and welcome to my blog!

My theme is simple, beer. I have grown up in a family of beer drinkers and have learned that a cold beer can come in handy when necessary. I am from State College, Pennsylvania and many of you know that is where Penn State University is. Our house is conveniently located just two blocks from main campus. It is a beautiful place to live and the nightlife is always fun. For those of you who have not been, I strongly recommend you visit in the summer or fall, giving you more options to explore the town in reasonable temperatures.

It is safe to say that State College is overall a college town with an mass amount of school spirit. My oldest brother has been working at a beer distributor for over 25 years and it is always nice to come home from school and enjoy a quality beer for half the price...because I am now of legal age to consume alcohol. 

Every Penn State sporting event that I have attended had students or locals tailgating before the game. Rain or shine...or in our case, snow! There are always dedicated fans supporting the team with a little liquid courage to get them through the game. That being said, I have witnessed good times as well as bad times from beer consumption. I am simply here to give my two cents about how delicious beer can be. 

Over the next few weeks I want to touch on more than just taste. The beer industry alone is an overwhelming and interesting topic in itself to discuss, however, I am not going to bore you with statistics. I encourage feedback from my viewers on topics they wish to learn about! My goal from this project is to highlight different types of beer, drinking issues, and places I recommend for a quality beer tasting experience. 

Since my first post was generally about my family, here is a photo of my brother and I at my senior night last fall. We LOVE beer!!