Viking Vibe

Since 1994, Nas has been a talented and influential rapper. Creating songs with life lessons, other than degrading messages, he has inspired many people through his music and has created a successful career for himself by doing so. Even now, Nas’s music is still listened to by many.

Recently, it has been made public that the rapper owes money to the IRS, and not just a small sum. The total amount is $3,365,671.26. Clearly, an investigation is being conducted and something will have to be done to correct the problem. But the question that many are asking is, “What is the IRS waiting for?

Do celebrities get special treatment, even fron the IRS? I think it’s absurd that such a thing is happening. If a normal person owed this amount of money, it would be taken care of almost immediately. But the media is all over the fact that it is Nas who owes the money, and they’re making it a source of entertainment! Published on BET.com, I think this matter is personal, and serious enough to be left out of the media.

All in all, I think financial problems such as this are not a valid source of information to publish on an entertainment website. Also, it makes me wonder how seriously the IRS is taking this, being that Nas has owed this money for quite some time now. He has been rapping for over 10 years, shouldn’t he have made enough money to pay up?

-AWixx

Working in Retail:  No the customer is NOT always right

By Devin W

I have been working in retail for just about 15 months, so I’ve seen my fair share of crazy people, stupid people, ignorant people and nice people (rarely). Most retail employees are young adults, mostly students,  looking to make some extra cash.

When you first start, you really don’t mind helping customers and you actually may approach a customer and say “May I help you?”.   Trust me—that doesn’t last long. The company you work for pounds its way of working into your head again and again until it’s second nature. Some people would think it’s easy work and it is, if you work at the right place that doesn’t require product knowledge. But in my line of work, you have to know what you’re talking about.

If you come up to me and say, “I want that one”, that’s when I start my sales pitch. It would go something like this:  “Well, that’s a nice laptop; what do you plan to use it for?”  Then you might say,  “You know normal stuff.  I’m replacing my old one.” As soon as you say you’re replacing an old one, that’s when I really become a salesman.  

I would start by asking about what happened to the old one (this really engages the customer since everyone seems to be chomping at the bit to tell his/her story). You might respond that your hardrive crashed and geek squad wants 400 to fix it, so you figured you would just buy a new one.   And that’s when I would start to offer you the most stuff:  protection plans, computer set-ups, operating system back-ups, and all that good stuff.  It’s not that you don’t need it, but it costs a lot. Here, the costumer is inclined to respond negatively to most of this. But, with a combo of experience and computer knowledge, I would incite you to buy it.   After all, I’ve sold most likely over a thousand computers, and this is most likely your 1^st time replacing one.  Therefore, I have the upper hand.  Score a sale for me!

P.S.  If you buy a MAC just get a protection plan, but if you get anything else added on, you’re an idiot.

At&T’s IPhone is becoming more popular as time passes. More and more people love the IPhone for its unique capabilities, fun games, and interesting applications. App makers have been on top of the game with designing new and useful apps, but a new one called TigerText will shock anyone with a significant other.

The app was designed to make privacy even more accessible. When a text is received from a sender that has to be kept a secret, a prompt to download the application is displayed on the receiver’s IPhone. Once they download TigerText, they can read the message… But there’s a catch. The sender has the capability to decide how long the text can exist. Settings can be changed so that the scandalous text message will never be read again: by the sender, the receiver, the cell phone company, or the press! It also works with phone calls; essentially all evidence can be erased. The words can be deleted anywhere from one minute to five days, concealing all doubt that something sneaky is going on.

This application was clearly designed by a very smart, but also not very loyal, person. The efforts to cheat successfully are only rising as time passes. And what scares many people is the thought of What’s next?!

-AWixx

Being on your teacher’s good side is always beneficial.  There are many different ways to go about accomplishing and maintaining this goal.  Here are some critical pointers:

1. You should be a couple minutes early or at the very least on time to class every day, as well as not be absent frequently.
2. When you’re in class,  participate, always be on your best behavior, and always have all your books and homework.
3. Bring a cup of coffee to your teachers you have morning classes with and bring your afternoon teachers another treat.
4. On holidays bring in cards and/or a tiny gift.  This shows them that you may actually care about them or at least appreciate them.
5. Compliment them if you notice they got a new haircut or are wearing a nice outfit.

Follow the actions listed above and throw in some ideas of your own and you’re sure to become a “teacher’s pet”. (Well that’s if your teachers like you and you do it right!)

-Brianna F.

          The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is very intriguing, with its exciting twists and controversal plot. In this tale, supernatural predictions, murder, and deceit take place.  Predominantly, Macbeth is about a young man who wants to be king who will do anything to get there.

While reading it for the first time, Shakespeare’s use of irony and persuasion had me feeling anxious to turn to the next page. This play is filled with drama and action and is ultimately interesting, even though the story-line is a little bit confusing at times. Moreove, the dialogue is unique, especially if you’re usually not the type of person to read old English. Overall, I this work is a great read and I would recommend this play to anyone who wants to learn about Shakespeare’s era and the historical context it offers.

~Angie (:

The following is a satirical piece.  In no way does this writer intend to insult the visually impaired, or realistically incite anyone to harm any blind people.  It is important to note that no blind people were hurt before, during, or after the writing of this article.          

Well, hello there. I am going to walk you through step-by-step how to anger a blind person. If you choose not to perform these simple steps, and you know of a different method, knock yourself out.

     Step 1: You can start off by telling him/her to read this article, telling him/her it’s about him/her.

    Step 2: Tell your blind buddy that you were just messing with him and then ask him ( we’re just gonna assume this blind person is a dude from now on) to watch TV with you, but move the couches.

    Step 3: Once he gets up tell him it was a joke, and suggest he uses the bathroom, but make sure you have previously covered the bowl with Saran wrap.

   Step 4: Once he is all cleaned up, apologize to him, make sure you tell him to look you in the eye.

  Step 5: Take him out somewhere, maybe a zoo, does not really matter. From time to time yell out,” Whoa, DID YOU SEE THAT?!”

  Step 6: Drive in front of a random house telling him that your home, in hopes of him letting himself into said random house.

        Well at this point, he most likely won’t be talking to you anymore, but it’s your choice to do this or not. Enjoy.

Sometime in September 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration placed a ban on cigarettes with flavors such as fruit, candy, or clove. The ban is part of a national effort to reduce smoking in America, which is the leading preventable cause of death. The ban is designed to reduce the number of children who start smoking: this  is based primarily on the premise that flavored tobacco is more appealing to young smokers and therefore, a gateway to full-flavor and menthol cigarettes.

Do I agree with the FDA’s ban on flavored tobacco? No. The people of America should be able to smoke any flavor cigarette they’d like. And if the youth want to smoke, they will, whether the tobacco is candy-flavored or not. All of these bans on different things are taking away the fundamental freedom to make choices. Tobacco isn’t marijuana, it isn’t a mind altering drug, it doesn’t impair your senses.. yes, it is deadly, but people make that choice when they start to smoke. And it should remain their choice to make.
–Victorious

The Tonight Show with Who?

By Devin W.

 The Tonight Show on NBC has been America’s number one late night program for years. It first aired in 1954 and has been going strong until it hit a speed bump in 2010. When host Jay Leno announced he would be leaving the show in June of 2009, NBC turned to long-time host of the late show Conan O’Brien to take over Leno’s role of The Tonight Show.

 Conan O’Brien 1^st started to work with NBC in 1989 when he was a writer for Saturday Night Live. In 1991 he began to write and produce The Simpsons. In 1993 he was approached by NBC to have his own late night talk show that would appear after The Tonight Show. Conan worked on his Late Night show for over 15 years with very funny ongoing jokes and characters such as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Conan resembling  the first female President of Finland, Tarja Halonen (look it up— he does), and of course hornymanatee.com. When asked to host The Tonight Show, Conan couldn’t refuse. He moved himself and all his staff members who worked on the Late Night show from New York to Los Angeles. Conan began hosting the show in June of 2009 and was out in January 2010.   NBC had asked Conan to move his show to 12:05 so they could move Jay Leno’s new show to later at night to help his low ratings.  Conan released this statement “I sincerely believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t The Tonight Show.”  Unfortunately, just 10 days after he released his statement he was out and Leno was back in.

 But Conan didn’t leave empty-handed;  NBC gave him 45 million dollars to end his contract early. Conan gave 12 million to the families of staff members that moved with him to work on The Tonight Show. Conan went out with a bang— the final Tonight Show with Conan aired January 22, 2010, featuring guests Tom Hanks, Steve Carell , Neil Young, and Will Farrell. The show ended with Conan playing guitar and Farrell singing Free Bird.

Farewell to a great comedian and entertainer!  Godspeed.

Starcraft

By Devin W

Starcraft is widely known as the best RTS of all time. For those of you who don’t know what an RTS is it stands for Real Time Strategy. Starcraft was developed by Blizzard;  Blizzard is best known for other games like Diablo and World of Warcraft. Starcraft is my personal favorite computer game, even though it was released in 1998.

Twelve years have gone by,  but Starcraft is still the industry standard for a great RTS game, probably the best ever at this point. Starcraft has sold over 11 million copies and is still in production today.  In fact, you can pick one up at Best Buy for the low, low price of 19.99.

Starcraft is based around three races: Terrans, the Zerg, and Protoss. Each race has its own unique talents and abilities and they rage war against each other. The Terrains are the human race of the future. Considered an adaptive and mobile species, the Terrans are noted in the game for their ability to quickly access and drain a planet’s resources. The two basic units for the Terrains would be the Marine and the Siege Tank. The Marine is the most common unit for the Terrans they are good defenders and you can build them pretty fast. The tank is the best defensive unit;  they just sit in one place and blow crap up — awesome! The Protoss are alien-like creatures with the technological advantage. The Protoss are depicted as a physically strong species with access to advanced abilities. The Zerg are insect alien things to put it best. New users are drawn to them because their units are cheaper to build as well as built faster. They don’t use technology—they use sheer numbers to overwhelm their opponents.

 Blizzard is the best video game developers ever, only they can release a game twelve years ago and still make money off it. For those that play World of Warcraft you know how addicting their games can be. Starcraft 2 was announced almost two years ago now; the people at Blizzard are dedicated to putting out a good game because they work on them for so damn long. Starcraft players excepted to have them game Christmas 08 but it was pushed back then again and again. Now they’re saying it’ll be ready sometime in March, but God only knows. Every day I wait for that game I die a little on the inside.

Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are just a few of the many popular social networking sites people all over the world use today. Many members join to keep in contact with family members and friends, and some are just looking to meet new people. But how do you know if the site you are joining will benefit you?

Some Pros of social networking are: efficiency in making plans with your friends, expanding a small business, an escape from boredom, and a chance to converse with people from around the world about trendy topics and/or points of interest. Althought this may seem appealing to a person of any age, there are many bad things about these sites as well.

Identity theft and fraud are two major problems that face users of social networking sites. The Internet has always been known to be a dangerous place where personal information is not safe, and these sites only make these problems worse. Also, social networking sites can also be a tool for stalkers, pedophiles, and just plain creepers, which worries many parents in today’s society.

If joining a social networking site has crossed your mind, or you already belong to one, being smart about the information you post, whom you talk to, and what you choose to do on these sites is pertinent. These sites are for mature people who realize the severity of the dangers they present.

-AWixx