Hottest #HashtagTrends

Like potatoes, you can make a hashtag out of anything. These are 3 of the highest trending hashtags in the United States right now.

#EmojisIStillNeed

Just when you thought Apple gave us everything we might ever need to fully express ourselves, they left out a few. I looked at the last 100 tweets and these were the most requested:

• Fingers Crossed: This would replace having to text: “I hope so,” or, “Wish me luck” before an exam.
• Shrug: IDK too much these days? Bam! 
• Face Palm: This would work for the following: Friend says or does something stupid? Read the wrong chapter for the quiz?

#TacosIn5Words

I made tacos for dinner before I read this one, mmm indeed.

How many can I eat?
Chicken, beef, chorizo or beans?
Is there a bathroom nearby?

#UFC205

I don’t think I’ve mentioned how much I love watching UFC. My husband has been a fan a long time so it just fell into my life unexpectedly. I’ve learned so much about MMA that now I just enjoy learning about the fighters and watching them compete. If I had to think about my three favorite fighters to watch, they would be:

• Ronda Rousey
• Nate Diaz
• Daniel Cormier

Just like every other sport, these athletes have stories that compel you. UFC 205 is huge because it’ll be the first fight card hosted in New York. MMA just became legal this year in The Empire State with four title fights and an impressive undercard lineup. It’s happening at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 12.

— Sandra de Arrigunaga

Four Crossed Logs intern

professional communication major

Student Government Council to host elections Oct. 4-6

Student Government Council WANTS YOU to vote for your student representatives Oct. 4-6.

Voting stations will be set up in the Holley Academic Center each day along with FREE food and drinks for participants.

Voting will also be available via web-link that Student Government Advisor Mike Smith will send out each morning.

Get to know your candidates! Flyers will be posted around campus with information about each candidate, and posters will be on display near voting stations.

— Camerin Hatcher

Four Crossed Logs intern

professional communication major

Alumnus to discuss importance of adventure, travel

FSU Panama City alumnus Pope Thrower will present “From Panama City to Pakistan (and a few places in between): The importance of adventure and travel for future careers” during a Nole Talk at noon Thursday, Sept. 29, in Holley B212.

Thrower is the press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam. Since joining the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service in 2010, Pope has served in Islamabad, Pakistan; Chengdu, China; and Washington, D.C.

Before joining the Department of State, he spent two years in northeast China teaching English language, public speaking and communication theory at Dalian University of Technology and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics.

Thrower, a Panama City native, graduated from Bay High School and completed his undergraduate studies in professional communication in 2005 at Florida State University Panama City.

The event is free and open to the public. Free pizza will be served.

For information, call Special Events Coordinator Casey Lathem at 850-770-2168 or email clathem@pc.fsu.edu.

What I learned from the freshman year ... of life

When I graduated high school in June 2000, I was ready to go to college — or at least I thought I was. I was ready for something new and exciting. I moved to Austin, Texas, with only $374 and a strong will never to return home unless I was visiting. It seemed simple: find a roommate, get a job and enroll in school.

I found a roommate, someone I went to high school with who was one of my best friends. Turns out people aren’t the same after you live together. (Same goes for relationships, but that’s another article.) There always seemed to be some sort of catastrophic event – you ate some of my cereal, you drank some of my milk. The small arguments turned into resentment for the other; suddenly the friendship became a lesson.

The job search has always been easy for me. The lesson in work ethic that I gained throughout high school actually added value to my real-world experience. Imagine that.

Enrolling in school was easy, but knowing that college didn’t have mandatory attendance made it easy to sleep in after a long nights’ work. I didn’t really appreciate college until my late 20s. Years of commitment to the same job was the ticket to my maturity and academic success. I was told that school would give me the tools in order to become successful at work, but I have only benefitted from this lesson in reverse. Having jobs that I didn’t enjoy very much gave me the motivation and desire to make something more of myself, a lesson I will forever be grateful for.

Your freshman year of anything will always be full of lessons. It’s important to welcome the mistakes and learn from them. You will fail tests and relationships and that’s okay; it’s what’s going to make the rest of your experiences worthwhile!

— Sandra de Arrigunaga

Four Crossed Logs intern

professional communication major

FSU Panama City to host Writers’ Workshop

FSU Panama City will host a Writers’ Workshop from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30, in the Bland Conference Center.

Karen Zacharias, author of “Mother of Rain” and “Rain,” will present a special session on “The Magic and Mystery of Writing.” Whether writing fiction or non-fiction, writers must commit to a variety of daily practices. What are those practices? How can they help you? How can you incorporate them into your life? And what part does inspiration play in writing?

Zacharias also will be the keynote speaker during lunch, presenting “The Seer’s Gift.”

Also presenting will be Mark Boss, author of “Robot Revolution,” with “The Craft of Strong Sentences.” Using Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story” as a foundation, the session will focus of writing strong sentences. Like atoms and molecules, sentences are the building blocks we use to build stories. The group will discuss rhythm, flow, pace, clarity and how to bring them all together in a story.

Milinda Jay Stephenson, author of “Annie Laura’s Triumph,” will present “Let’s Talk about Story: Memoir Writing and Harry Potter.” In this workshop, Stephenson will help writers convert family stories to marketable fiction using plot tips from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling series. Writers will practice creating conflict, building tension and creating an engaging cast of characters.

General registration is $20. Registration for FSU students with a valid FSU ID is $10. Lunch is included with registration. Payment may be made the day of the event with cash, credit or check made payable to “FSU PC Foundation.”

To register or for more information, call special event coordinator Casey Lathem at 850-770-2168 or email clathem@pc.fsu.edu.

5 ways to make a retail worker cry

Schedule a closing shift and an opening shift back to back

One of the most depressing feelings is the one that comes from realizing you not only are closing the store Thursday night but you have the privilege of coming back bright and early Friday morning to open. Let’s face it, just because the store closes at 10 p.m. by no means guarantee you’ll be in bed by then.

Asking for the Manager

When you’ve tried so hard to be kind and attentive to a customer and their impatience gets the best of them, it can be rough. Often retail associates do their best to please their customers and try to handle situations on their own because it looks better for everyone. Many don’t realize this, but just because a customer asks for the manager does not mean they are going to get what they want.

Not picking up after yourself

This picture says it all.

Adjusting Prices for customers

Let me clarify. I’m all about helping a brother/sister out. Changing a price for a customer isn’t the issue. If the sign said $5 instead of the $10 it’s ringing up as, I am more than happy to adjust that for you. I just sincerely ask that you remain patient while we go verify that the sign says what you said instead of shooting me dirty looks for waiting for that approval. 

Working Black Friday

Working Black Friday (Thanksgiving Day evening these days), you more than likely will experience all of the above in some way, shape or form. Black Friday is the day most of the frustrations retail associates encounter throughout the week are experienced on the same day. It’s no one customer’s fault in particular; it’s just the nature of the beast that is Black Friday.

— Nick Alexander

Four Crossed Logs intern

professional communication major

How I Became a Formula 1 Fan

It was one of those nights randomly flipping through the cable box for something to watch when I came across a movie called “Rush.” I am one of the movie geeks who goes to the Flixster app to get the scoop on the ratings. I am usually up to watch any movie, no matter what it’s about, if it’s highly rated. When I searched for “Rush,” a few things piqued my interested:

1. It was rated high with 89 percent by critics and 88 percent by users (main priority) 
2. It starred Chris Hemsworth (MARRY ME!)

And that basically sums it up. I could tell from the movie info that it was about racing, but I had never heard of Formula One. (What is that? Maybe it’s another term for NASCAR.) I didn’t know but decided to give it a watch, and I’m always intrigued by a true story.

After watching this film, I was feeling knowledgeable. Formula One isn’t like NASCAR, nor is NASCAR another word for Formula One. F1 is the highest class of single-seat auto racing and holds worldwide races called the Grand Prix. These cars are the fastest road course racing cars in the world, reaching speeds up to 240 mph. I was on a high after watching “Rush,” searching everything possible about F1 racing and the crazy stories behind the lives of the drivers from the movie.

Never did I think I would get the chance to go see a Grand Prix race until I went to my first one in Italy with some friends in September 2015.

At the Grand Prix in Milan, Italy, in 2015

At this point, I didn’t know who I would be cheering on to win. It was my first race, and I didn’t know anything about the drivers that season. My friends enlightened me that they were team Lewis. Lewis Hamilton is an English Formula One racer for Mercedes AMG Petronas, and at the age of 31 is a three-time F1 World Champion. He sounded pretty cool, so from this point on I was team Lewis. Lewis Hamilton is fierce and isn’t scared to be dominate or overtaken on the track. Not only did he place first at the Italy Grand Prix in 2015, he now holds 49 wins to date.

Feeling like Lewis Hamilton

Not only am I an avid Lewis Hamilton fan, I enjoy watching the Grand Prix. If you are interested in attending a Grand Prix, don’t hesitate because the United States Grand Prix is around the corner. It’s held in Austin, Texas, the weekend of Oct. 21 with a special concert on Saturday by Taylor Swift. I highly recommend trying to go because this will be a Grand Prix you won’t want to miss.

— Brittany Sowell

Four Crossed Logs intern

professional communication major

Fact or Fiction: The Arranged Marriage

I work in a retail store. One day while I was working I was going about my business walking around the store to try and straighten things up before closing. As I am doing this I hear a muffle in the ear piece of my radio and hear my manager ask, “Nick, can you cover the break at customer service?”

Truth be told, I really did not want to work at the service desk because not only does it limit me to a confined space, but I’ve met some characters while working customer service — characters who have screamed in my relaxed, “I don’t care if you yell at me, I still can’t help you with what you’re asking” face. But not only this, weird things tend to happen at customer service because you never know who is going to come talk to you. I honestly didn’t know if I was mentally ready for the task. But I wasn’t about to tell my boss “no” so I just had to roll with it.

I walked to the service desk, and things were going great for the first 10 minutes during the break I was covering. By great I mean, not a single customer walked up to the service desk.

As a matter of fact the only other people around was a female co-worker of Middle Eastern descent and her cousin. They were off to the side talking to each other, and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. However, I did notice that they began to focus their attention on me as they would occasionally glance at me and then begin to laugh to each other. I didn’t know what they were going on about, but I didn’t really care. I was just looking forward to getting off work.

Before my co-worker and her cousin began to leave, she turned to me and asked, “Hey Nick, are you Lebanese?” I stood there for a moment puzzled, wondering why this question had come up but before I could say anything she added, “This is my cousin, and she’s wanting to know if she can give you to her daughter.”

Selected by freepik

At this point I was so confused the only words I managed to get out were, “I’m sorry. I’m half Mexican. I don’t think I can help you.” I don’t even know if that made sense at the time, but she and her cousin seemed to laugh about it and walk off.

After they left I realized they were just messing with me — OR. SO. I. THOUGHT.

Not but 47 seconds later her cousin reappears alone and walks right up to me. I asked, “Is there something I can help you with?”

“How old are you?” she asked.

“20”

She didn’t say another word. She just smiled at me and ran off to my co-worker to giggle about how I apparently had their approval. But did they have mine?

Fact or Fiction?

— Nick Alexander

Four Crossed Logs intern

professional communication major