15 Years and still going strong

This is going to a blog post about my best friend in the whole wide real. She is more like a sister to me and like the title says we have been friends for 15 years.

We met when I was in the third grade and she was in the second grade at Watterson Elementary School. We both were real shy at first and barely talked but still was friends. We remained friends through out elementary school even when we was not in the same class. In fifth grade our class was right next to each other and we even had the same recess. 

After Elementary school, we went to the same middle school which was Myer's Middle. In 6th grade we was on the same team but not the same class. We got close because we both was in band together. In 7th grade we got put on two different teams which was sad. But still had band together which was good because it meant that we still had at least one class together. Then in eight grade we became even closer. We was on the same team and finally was in the same class. Both was in an honors class. But the regular class on our team was so bad that they eventually switched the two classes up and mixed the honors and regular class. Some how Kari I was put in the same class. That year we had band together and both were teachers aides for our band director. 

                           

Then high school started and that is when all the fun began or continued on. We both went to Seneca High School together. Over the summer we both started our high school band career when we joined the marching band at Seneca High School, and started band camp. Band was so much fun especially when we met a lot of the other freshman and became close to some of them.  Then cam 10th grade and we stayed friends and both still did band. Band consumed so much of our time that we was always together and our friendship never died down. The summer after our 10th grade year we went on the funest trip ever. I did a blog post about this trip so I am not going to go in to much detail but we went to the west coast, where we visited Arizona, and Las Vegas. 11th grade year we had the junior ring ceremony and the junior prom which was pretty funny. Kari and I got ready for prom together, and even went out to eat with my bf at the time and her parents and my mom and sister. We also was in band still and still did band camp. 12th grade year we got ready for prom and did band still. We even went to prom with a big group and rented out a limo. By this time we was on our third band director but fan was still fun because of all the senior activities we got to do and hanging out with our friends. Plus the pep rallies at school were really fun as well. Spring break of our senior year I got to go to Florida with Kari and her parents. That trip was so much fun. We went to the beach, we went to Universal studios in Orlando and Island of Adventures as well. I had so much fun on that trip. When we entered the 9th grade it was so funny because everyone thought we was twins, which clearly we are not twins at all.

After high school we went to college together. We started out at Eastern Kentucky University. We went there for about a year and liked it but I made some really bad choices and got married. I transferred to Morehead University and she went to the University of Louisville. We was only apart for one year, then my husband and I separated and eventually divorced and I transferred to University of Louisville and we was once again rejoined. The funny thing is we both started out with two different majors and ended up switching at the same to Communications. 

We have been to numerous concerts together. Such as 2 Taylor Swift, 2-3 Doors Down, Niclkleback, Daughtry, Kenny Chesney with Sugarland, Miranda Lambert, Montogomery Gentry and Lady Antebellum, Sugarland, Brad Paisley with Darius Rucker, The Wanted with Carley Rae Jepson, Dustin Lynch, Love and Theft, the Comedian Jeff Dunham, and probably others that I can't remember right now. 


We have also been to many amusement parks together. We have also been to three Colts games as well which have been a lot of fun!!

Now days our friendship is stronger then ever. We both are about to graduate with Bachelors degrees. Both active members and officers of I-COMM, and both interested in basically the same things after school. We know we want to eventually opening our own video production company. 

Our friendship even goes into the sports world. We both love Kentucky Wildcats fans and in foot ball my first team is Colts, and her is dolphins but she likes and cheer for the Colts as well.

Well I have plenty more I could say about our friendship but if I keep typing away Ill be here all night typing and you all will be there all day tomorrow reading. Hope yawl enjoyed it. 

Thanks,
Brittany

Reflection!!

It is so hard to believe that this semester has flown by so quickly. Still feels like it is the first week of school and we are going over everything from our blog assignments, to twitter assignment, to the social media campaign and everything in between. In just a few short weeks I will be graduated and barking on a new chapter of my life.

I would be lying to everyone and myself if I said this class was easy and was not that much work. Because lets face it, this class took a lot of work to complete and it wasn't difficult but wasn't easy either. But I am so glad that I took this class because I learned a lot that I wouldn't of necessary known about. For example: before this class I knew nothing about HootSuite or Tweetdeck. I am still getting use to HootSuite but I LOVE Tweetdeck. Makes keeping up with this class hash tag so much easier. 


One of my proudest achievements from this class is actually getting HootSuite certified earlier then I had to!! 

I also love having all of our wonderful speakers come in and speak about many different and wonderful topics. Any where from Crisis to social media to analytic to sports to broadcasting and everything in between. 

My favorite part of this class is defiantly blogging. I have grown to love blogging and am going to try really hard to keep blogging after this class. Blogging has inspire me to keep talking about things I love such as sports and social media and video production. I haven't really talked much about video production here but it is one of my interest that I am going to talk more about in the future.

I also love the hands on experience working with actual clients. I have not ever took an internship before but working with Terri and Cheryl are giving some experience that some people do not have the pleasure of getting. Especially if they do not take an internship. Terri and Cheryl are really awesome and really helpful. I also got the pleasure of meeting a real children's book author. Since she is basically are client as well since we are helping her with her children's book "Boss Paws"

This class has taught me so much about social media. I was all ready using many social media sites before this class. Such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. I also had a blog that I had to do for another class but did not really like that blog so I never kept up with it. This blog on the other hand I really like and plan on continue it. Since this class I have learned many great things about proper social media etiquette. Such as limit your hashtags. Too many hashtags get real annoying and alot of them is real distracting. I also learned, well actually kind of all ready knew is to be careful what you post. Because posting things you wouldn't want your future employer to see could limit you from a job over someone else.

Another thing I learned about was Klout. I really like Klout am really want to get my Klout score up. I want to be one of the known presence on Social Media that people talk about or like the things I post, and want to read more or follow me. 

Well that is my semester in a nutshell. Hope yawl enjoyed. Until next time. 

Thanks,
Brittany

My Best Vacation Ever!

Kari and I.. We look extremely young

The summer after my freshman year of high school I was fortunate enough to go on an amazing three week trip with my bff Kari and her family. The trip was for her moms 40th birthday party. We went to many great places and  through many great states. The paragraphs that follow this one will be about the places that we went.

To start off we to Cincinnati to drop off her two doggies at her dad's parents because we was going to be driving for a great while. Kari's mom's parents was meeting us up there. We was going to leave in the morning. It wasn't as easily to get there because there was a big hail storm and and a two hour trip took more like 4 hours because it also rained really hard and there were times we had to pull over. 

The next day we would be starting our trip to Arizona and Nevada. We would also be stopping in Texas because some of Kari's family lives there and we was also going to visit them as well. We stopped at many hotel rooms to stay the nigh instead of driving through. Can't really remember right off hand where all we stayed. One place I do remember getting off the exit is in Oklahoma. The reason why I remember that is because we only got off the exit to go to Walmart. I bought this shirt that doesn't fit me anymore but on the shirt it said, "Silly Blondes Brains are for Brunettes" I thought that shirt was hilarious. 

Picture of the Grand Canyon with the Colorado River going through it. 

We finally made it to Arizona. We first stopped in Flagstaff because at the time Kari's aunt lived there. But we was heading towards the North Rim Grand Canyon first. SO after we left her aunt we headed towards the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was amazing. Like nothing I have ever seen before. I'm not going to lie getting close to the edge was kind of terrifying because if you fall, well your pretty much dead. We developed many jokes on the trip as well. Back then I was really gullible and believed almost anything any one told me. I asked her grandparents how was the grand canyon was made? Well her grandma was quick to answer and said people with spoons dug it out. Needless to say I had a really big blonde moment and said "Really?" They laughed for like five minutes. 

Then after we left the Grand Canyon we went to Las Vegas and stayed at this hotel called Circus Circus. It was more orientated for people under 21 that couldn't gamble. It was pretty awesome those. Except for the fact Kari and her grandma got sick. They said that there was something going around Flagstaff that was some kind of stomach virus and I think they caught that stomach virus. Luckily it only lasted about a day or so. The next day Kari and I went to explore and saw that they had an arcade, Like two swimming pools, a McDonald's for kids.   They even had an indoor theme park which was really awesome. One of the nights in Vegas we went to the MGM and saw an awesome play. The play we went and saw was Mama Mia. Ever since that play her family and I was hooked on it and was so excited for when the movie came out. We also went down the famous strip. It was alright, just really hot and muggy. We spent about 5 days at Las Vegas. 

After we left Las Vegas we went back through Arizona and back through Flagstaff and visited her aunt again. We was headed to the Southern part of Arizona to the South Rim part of the Grand Canyon. That one was different then the first and it was cool. We got to take a train ride down there. The only draw back was on the way to the South Rim Grand Canyon I got sick. The same stomach virus that Kari and her grandma got. One thing I remember in particular was that the squirrels and the deer were so fat. They said the reason that was because the tourist would feed them. They was not shy at all, they would come right up to you and if you weren't paying attention and was eaten they would take your food right out of your hand. Another one of the jokes came from Kari's grandpa. On the top of this ledge in the distance during the Grand Canyon her grandpa told us there were buffalo up there and we believed him because from distance they looked liked buffalo but when we looked through Kari's binoculars they were just trees. Well a little big later we cam across some antelope. Well her grandpa told us they were real but I didn't believe him because of the buffalo issue and they actually turned out to be real. 

After we left the Grand Canyon we started heading the dreaded drive back home. I was so sad to be leaving because I had such a great time and did not want it to end. For anyone that is thinking about going to Vegas or the Grand Canyon. DO IT!! You will not regret it. I do remember we went through and stayed in Albuquerque New Mexico. They had this cute little diner that was really good as well.

Well hope yawl enjoy my post on my vacation to Arizona and Vegas. I really enjoyed riding and it brought back many great memories. 

Thanks,

Brittany

My favorite time of the year!!

This month is one of my favorite months of the year. Not just because March happens to be my birthday month but also because of March Madness. I love the first two days of the tournament the best because its literally like almost 24 hours of basketball. So how could it be wrong? Right? lol

I am extra happy this year because my team UK actually made the tournament. Thank God. and we are playing are rivals in the sweet 16. Unlike the final four when I was extremely nervous this year I am really excited!. One reason is because UK has nothing to loose. It's like the roles has been switched around compared to the final four. In the final four UK was heavily favored and if we lost it would be so devastating. 

       

I really love it this week as well because of the #LouisvilleHateWeek, and all the trash talking both sides do. And also because since the SEC tournament UK has turned a corner for the good and I love it!! We are the most underrated team in the tournament. The section committee gave us an 8 seed that we didn't deserve, and we are sticking it too them. Especially when we beat the number one seed in our region. I really think the section committee did a horrible job with a lot of the seeding this year. 

Its so funny every time someone ask me when my birthday is and I say March there always like so your a St. Patrick's day baby and I am like umm nope I am a MARCH MADNESS baby!! 

Not only is the City divided between UK and UL fans what I like even more is the two Coaches; Coach Cal and Pitino can't stand each other what makes this rivalry even better!!! 

Also we can't forget the great social media usage of March Madness as well. UK and unfortunately UL both have a pretty big showing on social media accounts especially on Twitter with their hashtags. For UK its probably #BBN and for UL probably is #L1C4. But even NCAA as a whole has some Twitter Trends. For example the biggest one is # MarchMadness. 

So my prediction for this game is of course I am picking UK over UL. Going to be 65 to 55. GO BIG BLUE!!!

Hope yawl enjoyed my post on March Madness. Until next time.

Thanks,
Brittany

I want to Move to Another State!!

                   


 So spring break I traveled to the good ole Sunshine State Florida. It was so inspiring, and I didn't want to leave. The weather was great pretty much all week, and I had a hard time leaving. I could handle sunshine weather all year, and not have to worry about that fluffy white stuff most people call SNOW!!! I am so sick of snow.

With that being said I have a plan to move to Florida in some time of 2015. That is the goal that I have set for myself. I want to move to either Orlando, or some where on the beach on the gulf side like St. Petersburg, or Tampa. Going from Tampa to St. Petersburg is pretty awesome because you get to travel on this bridge that is in the middle of the Gulf. I am not one who likes to go over bridges but that was pretty awesome. We went to Ft. De Soto, which is why we went from Tampa to St. Petersburg. 

                                                                  

Florida has a great atmosphere, and I really think I would love living there. Plus there is a lot of great job opportunities that is in the field of what I want to do in my future career. There are a ton of sports teams, which I wouldn't mind working for and doing something with social media, or even working on video producing projects. Also they have a lot of theme parks I could work for rather its, Disney, Universal, Island of Adventure, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Legoland. 

The only bad thing about moving to Florida is I will miss my family a lot since I am really close with them. I would definitely come back and visit them a lot. 

Well hope you all enjoyed my blog post on where I plan to move within a year. I loved every minute of Florida when I was down there and can not wait to move back. Until next time.

Thanks,
Brittany

HOOTSUITE CERTIFIED!!!

It's been along time since I have done a blog post and I am trying to get back in gear and stay on top of it. After a wonderful Spring break, then starting school with five more weeks left has given me major senioritis. Well this week I am going to blog about my accomplishment with HOOTSUITE!! 

One thing I manged to do before spring break was, I was able to complete my Hootsuite certification and I am so Happy that is one less thing off my plate. To me it wasn't really all that difficult, and I was able to do it basically in one day. There were like two other days that I watched a couple of the video sections.  

I honestly that it would be more difficult then it really was. I got a 98% on the test and passed. 

Well hope you all enjoyed my post on being Hootsuite certified. I am really proud of this accomplishment and think that it could help me after college when I branch out into the professional world. Until next time.

Thanks,
Brittany

My college career!

I have always wanted to go to college for as long as I can remember. Throughout High school I have changed the major I wanted pretty much every year. I started my college career at Eastern Kentucky University. I loved it there. The campus was awesome. Then I thought I met the LOVE of my life; moved in with him and his mom and transferred to Morehead State University.  Morehead was alright, then we split up and I moved back home to Louisville, Kentucky and that is how I ended up at University of Louisville. On a side note I went to Morehead State when they beat UofL in the NCAA tournament. As a UK fan I really loved it and as a Morehead State student I loved it even more and was good for the University. 

This is a picture of EKU's campus.

Some of the majors I wanted to pursue in college  were journalism, Pre-law, fire fighting, detective. Then when college started I was so set on being a Pre-med major. I wanted to be a pediatrician  and eventually open up my open children's hospital. Then that dreaded biology class happened and I just couldn't hack biology and switched to communications. 

Ever since I switched to communications I have loved every moment of it. The professors are amazing and really helpful. 

When I first became a communication major I wanted to be a sports reporter. Now I have changed it and want to either do something in social media, or directing, or video editing or producing. Thanks for inspiring me Dr. Freberg and Merkel and also Thanks Dr. Ashlock for helping me decide what I wanted to do and being an awesome ADVISOR!1 I graduate May 10, 2014, and have mixed emotions about it. I' really scared because I have only known school and nothing else; but I am also excited because I will finally have a degree and be able to make my FIVE years in college pay off. 

I can honestly say that UofL has a nice campus but I don't like the athletic teams; that's just me being a UK fan. 

It's been along journey from kindergarten until now, and I am proud of how far I have came along.

Well I hope you enjoyed my blog post on college, probably the best decision I have made in my entire life! Until Next time, have a great day!

Thanks,
Brittany

Do you know how to monitor your social media sites?

Social Media is a big trend now days; and a lot of people and companies are turning to social media. Rather its a business or sports team, a campaign, a brand (i.e. Doritos). Every one is using it. But manage multiple social media accounts can kind of be a pain. Luckily there are several sites you can use to manage your social media sites. 

My favorite site is probably Hootsuite. Even though I do not know much about it, I like it because they help you get certified and how you how to do basically everything on there. Also Hootsuite can monitor pretty much all your social media sites at once.  https://hootsuite.com/ That is the link to start a Hootsuit account but does cost money to get certified. 

This is an example of what TweetDeck looks like with multiple columns. 

Another site to use just for twitter is TweetDeck. I love TweetDeck because I can pick the hashtags that I want to monitor so I do not have to go through my news feed all the time. For instances I use TweetDeck when I am on my laptop because I can see our classes tweets and its a lot easier to post by tweet up dates for the class and also a lot easier to post my blog. 

These are the only two I have really had experience with but I recommend both of them. 
Also it is good to sign up on Klout and know your Klout score. That let's you no your influence on social media. Meaning that what ever you do on social media can influence people especially if they do something with what ever you post. My Klout score is a 53, but I am trying to get that higher. 

Hope yawl enjoyed my blog post on Social media marketing. Stay tune for one of my interest or something I have done tomorrow!! :)

Thanks,
Brittany

Nick Stover +Social Media+Sports=Great!!

This is a picture that Nick Stover showed us in class of the events that he got to go to.

Nick Stover came to speak in my social media class today. It was real eye opening. I really enjoyed hearing his perspective of social media and sports. As a sports fan and a user of social media sites I really liked what he had to say. 

First of all he talked about Becoming an Expert on the Right platforms. I really like this point of view because not every platform will work for all your audiences so it is good to decide which ones will work and you may need to test it out see if they work or not. 

I also liked when he talked about Learn the Social Media Signs. He said it is really important to have good content. Rather its schedule, or campaigns. Some example campaigns he mentioned were the NCAA Tourney, Bowl Game and a Countdown. Also Programs.  Next he said Branding. Examples of this is Graphics/Logos, Video, Philosophy, National Presence. The last thing he said was support. Examples of this is the fans, Views, Partnerships, sponsorship's, and fundraising.

Lastly he gave examples of some of the things that he does for UofL. He does the Social Media Hub, Google Glass, Behind the Scenes stuff, Monetization and lastly his blog which is NickStover.org.

I really enjoyed his presentation today in class. It was right up my alley with my two favorite things- social media and sports.

If your a big UofL fan follow him on twitter @ULFlyingCard, he loves to have feed back on how to make your experience better with social media and sports games!

Hope yawl enjoyed my blog on Nick Stover!. Until next time. Have a great day. 

Thanks,
Brittany

UK ATHLETICS!!!!

As many of you all know I am a huge UK fan. I am not one of those "bandwagon" fan that many people think UK fans are. Trust me there are more true fans then many people might recognize. If we survived through the Billy Gillispie and Joker Phillip years then there is nothing stopping us! Big Blue Nation is the best fan base in the COUNTRY. The game day crew was amazed by how UK fans filled up RUPP for game day.They also mentioned that UK was the biggest game day crowd all year and that was still lower then the previous year. Oh yeah I forgot to mention we also survived the NIT year. I will always love my CATS and nothing will ever change that. I cheer for them in every sport and get really bummed out when they lose in any sport.


 

Our two most successful programs would be our basketball team and our cheerleading team. Our basketball has won 8 national championships; which is the second highest out of any team and our cheerleading team has won 20 national championships. Makes them the most successful cheerleading team in the country. 

This year our football program had it's best recruiting signing day in school ever. They signed 28 member and overall according to ESPN finished 20th, according to 247sports we finished 22nd and according to Rivals we finished 17th. Not sure who they go by but which ever one they do go by still the best record in school history. 




Our softball team are starting the year off right. As of right now they are 10-0 and are currently ranked number 6 in the country. The season just begin but GO CATS!!!!!



So I am a huge UK fan and I am not a bandwagon fan.. I cheer for them win or lose and nothing or nobody will ever change my mind. Hope yawl enjoyed my blog on UK athletics. Until next time.

Thanks,
Brittany

Funny Olympic Pick up lines!

This pick up online was really close to making my list of top 5 Pick up lines. 




With the Olympics you get many great things from it. Rather it is great or horrifying stories, maybe some puns, alot of coverage on it. But my personal favorite its the pick up lines in the Olympic context. Here comes the wonderful cheesy pick up lines. Here are my top five pick up lines for Sochi!!

1. I have been Russian into things, but would it be sochieesy to ask for your number?
2. It doesn't matter how you do at your competition, but you'll finish first after a night with me
3. Are you an ice skater, cause DAMN what a figure
4. Hey girl are you a skiing event, cause I would travel cross country for you!!
5. I;m no curler, but I think I could sweep yo off your feet. 

I really liked these Olympic pick up lines because to me they are cleaver and I like the play on words. Please they were creative on how they used certain sports from the Olympics in them. Also, if I was at the Olympics and a guy said these to me I would probably bust out laughing because too me there not suppose to me taking serious. At least that's what I think anyways. 

For some that are little more risky to put in here and by risky I mean vulgar you can go to http://mashable.com/2014/02/11/olympic-pickup-lines/ 

Hope these pick up lines made you laugh as much as they made me laugh. Until my next blog post.
Thanks,
Brittany

Ice Dancing!!

So I am doing my required post for this week on the Olympics and one of my favorite events this year. I honestly prefer the summer Olympics better then the winter Olympics but I am watching a lot of the winter Olympics, probably more then I ever have.

This year I am really becoming fond of the figure skating, in particular the Ice Dancing. Even though Ice Dancing hasn't had it's individual competition yet just team I really like the two USA ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White. The way they flow together is so graceful. They said that they started skating together when Meryl was 7 and Charlie was 9. That is amazing to have so much chemistry and still be able to flow together.

This is a video of them skating in this years Olympics for the First ever Team Figure Skating Competition.

Another interesting fact that they mentioned during there performance was that there Mother's travel every where with them and are actually in Sochi Russia cheering them on. I think that is really cool because there mother;s are what got them dancing together.

Here's a few pictures of them:

 Meryl Davis and Charlie White when they won the Bronze in team competition!

On the left is when they first came out and on the right is what they look like now!

Their mother's that follow them every where and are probably their biggest fans, and supporters!!

If your still not sure what you thing about Ice Dancing- Figure Skating his is an article that previews the matches in the Olympics. Oh and by the way Meryl Davis and Charlie White are the favorite to win Gold in the individual competition!! Go TEAM USA!! http://bit.ly/1dpDSXC 

Hope yawl enjoyed my blog on Ice Dancing. Until next time!

Thanks,
Brittany

Best music Video ever-At least in my opinion

So for this week I decided to switch it up a little bit. I know many people out there probably do not like One direction but in my opinion they have one of the best music videos ever for their song "Best Song Ever" 

I love they way that each of the members play two people. They play there self of course then they play one other person as well. I love at it every time especially because they way they were transformed. It is a funny video in my opinion. I have watched the behind scenes of this video and it is interesting how they were transformed to other people. I also though it was interesting how they have them selves and the other person they played at the same time. I think I have an idea of how they did it from taking the UofL video producation beginning and now advance class.

In order of appearances




Niall Horan as Harvey the Studio Exec





Louis Tomlison as Johnny The Studio Exec    

                                                          Zayn Malik as The Sexy Assistant





                                                         
 Harry Styles as Marcel The Marketing Guy









                                    Liam Payne as LeeRoy The Choregopher    

                                                      












My best-friend and I tried to learn the dance in the video and it is really hard. Probably be easier if we had rhythm and could dance but we can't lol. 

Even if your not a big One Direction fan I would check out this video because you will get a good laugh out of it. Well at least I did any ways.

Hope you all will check out the video that I posted on here as "The Best Song Ever" by One Direction. Even if you don't listen too any of there music and won't watch this video again just watch it at least once. 

Thanks,
Brittany

Too hoot or Not Too Hoot?

So in my social media class this semester we have the opportunity to get certified in Hootsuite University for free which in my opinion is an awesome opportunity. The first time I got the e-mail from them to certify my account and logged on I was so confused. So I logged back on last night and watch the first intro video. I can honestly say after watching the first video I really like it.

It's really good especially if you have multiple social media accounts. Example: facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest and etc. What i really found fascinating was you can send a message on all your social media sites at once. When i saw that part in the video I was drawn in to Hootsuite.

It is a little confusing at first to get use to it and honestly I don't fully know how to use it yet but it's a learning process and I am eager to learn about it. I feel like if you own a business or control multiple social media sites it is a good investment. It does cost money but it's really not that much and it'll make your life a whole lot easier in the long run. Also there are videos on the site when you get certified to teach you how to use it. I personally will use it after this class because i really am starting to get it. For me if i don't understand how to use something I really initially go the other way with it and not even get in a chance. So I am glad I get this opportunity to try out Hootsuite!!

Hope yawl enjoyed my blog on Hootsuite!! I am still learning how to use it but I will eventually get it. Until next time!

Thanks,

Brittany