Life as a Journalism Student

Life as a journalism student at the University of Florida has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  Earning a degree in Journalism is a unique process that can not be found in any other atmosphere.

While most degrees require countless hours of reading and homework, Journalism students learn about our future field through hands on experiences. We actually spend the majority of our time working in radio and TV stations on campus, recording stories out in the field, and editing pieces together to actually be aired for public viewing. There is no other major that allows its students to gain so much hands on experience.

At the University of Florida we are even more spoiled because we have a new, fabulous Center for Media Innovation and Research. This area allows students to try out their skills and experiment with new mediums and ideas. This area has also been the birthplace of exciting projects like new apps for phones.

We also have the Innovation News Center where radio and TV shows are produced daily and operate exactly like a professional news room. Through this center and my classes I have gotten to report about a Supreme Court Justice visiting Gainesville, interview our Governor, report just yards away from a fire, as well as have many more opportunities.

As a journalism student I have learned so much about how to work in the journalism field and about my community of Gainesville and Alachua County. I am so thankful for this

The Tipping Point

     The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell is truly fascinating. Through school we learn about epidemics, such as the Black Death. Through life we see trends come and go, such the toy craze of Beanie Babies or fashion styles like the outrageous clothing of the 80’s. I think we all assume that trends and epidemics result from a mass movement, or we never think about their initial occurrence.  Gladwell, in The Tipping Point, discusses the beginning of ideas, trends, and behaviors that spread worldwide.  What I found most interesting in this book was Gladwell’s discussion of the causes of the syphilis epidemic in Baltimore in the mid-90’s, the discussion of how television became educational through “the stickiness factor”, and the case study researching teen suicide in Micronesia.

     In the first chapter Gladwell discusses the Syphilis epidemic in Baltimore in 1996. What I find interesting are the three very different theories he examines while trying to determine what caused the exponential increase in carriers of the disease.The first theory was produced by the Center for Disease Control. This theory claimed that an influx of the use of cocaine was the cause of the Syphilis epidemic because drugs, like cocaine, lead to illicit behavior. A second theory was presented by John Zenilman, who claimed the rapid spreading of Syphilis was caused by breakdowns and budget cuts to medical centers in the poorest neighborhoods. John Potterat presents the third theory. Potterat claims the epidemic began as a result of the demolition of two huge high-rises that housed 100s of families and also served as centers for crime and disease. What I find fascinating is that, as Gladwell points out, none of these theories are dramatic; in fact all three are very subtle in nature. I find it very interesting that something so deadly and quickly spreading can result from a minor change in the behavior or conditions of a few residents.

     Sesame Street is a childhood favorite for many in my generation. We grew up loving Big Bird, the cookie monster, and all the while being educated. I think it is interesting that Gladwell points out that Sesame Street was engineered around one insight, “if you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them”. While this does seem obvious, Gladwell goes on to explain that it is not. He points out that researchers discovered that children actually do not simply stare at the Television screen; instead, they divide their attention between multiple things at one time.  Their breakthrough discovery was that children watch TV when they understand and look away when they are confused.  This breakthrough provided the “stickiness factor” for Sesame Street. The “stickiness” was enhanced through distraction testing done at Harvard. For instance, in one study researchers concluded that Oscar the character was “sticky” but the lesson he was teaching was not because Oscar was distracting the children from learning.  After much research and trials producers of Sesame Street finally found a perfect balance and Sesame Street, as well as its lessons, stuck.

     Finally, I found the case study on suicide in Micronesia to be fascinating and morbid. Suicide is such an uncommon thing here in America and is severely frowned upon. It is often even associated with mental disorders or extreme depression. But, as the study points out, suicide in Micronesia is a very common practice among teenage boys, as there are 160 people who commit suicide per every 100,000. It is also rare because suicide in Micronesia can be set off by something as simple as not receiving a few extra dollars from parents or seeing their girlfriend with another boy. What is also unnerving is the idea that in Micronesia children often imitate suicides at ages as young as five years old. Gladwell points out that based on suicide research, in some places committing suicide can be contagious.  David Phillips, a sociologist, explains that this contagion is not like a disease or in any way rational, it is more like imitation, imitating a person who provided permission to perform some kind of deviant act.    

     

Health in Every Day Life

Food is Great! But, being healthy is more than just eating healthy, it is a way of life which involves the mind, body, and soul. 

I am very health conscious and so are some of my class mates. Check out their blogs, take their advice, and improve your quality of life. 

Courtney Allen provides some great advice for being healthy in soul and mind. Courtney loves to write and is a very uplifting person who cherishes her voice more than anything.

Amanda Di Lella provides great tips about really healthy foods and food habits that everyone should embrace. Amanda is a third year Telecommunications major here at UF. She has been passionate about news since she was little and has gotten extremely involved in the news program at UF. She is actually a specialty anchor on WUFT-TV. 

Ashley Goodus provides some great alternative ways to work out. Ashley is also a senior at UF studying Telecommunications. She is passionate about working out and loves to learn new things.  

Fresh Food Ideas

We are all different and we all have different opinions. This is why it is important to take advice from many different people, especially when it comes to where you should eat. Check out these other food blogs for new and exciting recommendations!

Shane Chernoff  is a senior Telecommunications major here at the University of Florida. He currently works for Gainesville's NPR affiliate station, contributes to Gainesville's ESPN affiliate station, and is a co-host of the talk show "Cheap Seats".

Talia Medina is a 5th year Telecom student at UF as well. After graduation she plans to pursue her aspirations in New York. I can't wait to try the French Toast recipe she has on her blog and I hope you all check it out!

Nick Swain takes a new approach to his food by explaining that we are what we eat! He is also a Telecommunications student at UF who has hopes of being a TV anchor one day.

Ashlyn Robinson 2

Between classes, law school applications, and interviews the food spectrum has again been relaxed.

Ill use this opportunity again to tell you a little more about myself.

I am from the small town of Plant City, FL. This is a very rural yet proud town. Plant City is the Winter Strawberry Capital of the world. Every winter we host the Strawberry Festival.

Currently, I am a student at the University of Florida. I am studying Telecommunications in the College of Journalism and I am a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. I actually had the honor of being crowned Miss University of Florida 2012.

As a senior I stay very busy. Especially because I am in the process of applying to law school. I spend a lot of time studying but I do find some time for fun. The activities I consider to be fun and relaxing are playing with my dog, Angel, and cooking.

Angel is a two year old chihuahua. She is five pounds and the most adorable dog I have ever seen. I will admit, I may be a little biased!

Cooking is a great release for me. Creating delicious meals and experimenting in the kitchen allows me to get in my own little world. But, when I am too tired to cook, or most likely too tired to want to clean up after I cook, i choose to eat out. Italian food is usually my go to choice for a delicious meal!

If you would like to know a little more about me, Ashlyn Robinson, visit my website and take a look at my resume!

Happy eating!

Ashlyn Robinson

This week has been very boring on the food spectrum. I have not eaten anywhere unique or cooked anything interesting.

I thought instead of discussing food, since I have nothing to discuss, I would instead let you know a little more about myself.

I am a student at the University of Florida and currently applying to law school. I am in a sorority, have danced my entire life, and compete in pageants.  

If you would like to know more about me, Ashlyn Robinson, please visit my website. 

Have a great week!!!

The Dillard House

The Dillard House is located in Dillard, Georgia, very close to the North Carolina boarder. 

This is a very unique restaurant, and trust me, you need to bring your appetite. 

When you are seated you are not given any menus, instead, the servers begin bringing out food. I was given three different salads, four different meats, and about eight different side items, as well as bread and dessert. 

I went for lunch today while I was traveling through Georgia and I plan on going back Tuesday for breakfast on my way back to Florida. I will let you know how breakfast is.

I realize you probably are not near Dillard, Georgia so let me recommend restaurants in Gainesville, Florida instead incase you just do not feel like cooking tonight. Both Bistro 1245  and Emiliano's 

are both delicious and will satisfy any craving you may have. 

Emiliano's

I have found a new favorite restaurant!

Emiliano's is a delicious, authentic Latin cafe in the heart of Gainesville. The choices are varied from mouthwatering cuban sandwiches to Tapas plates.

When I went I had the Camarones "Jerk"which are succulent shrimp sauteed in a sweet and spicy jerk sauce and accompanied with a roasted red pepper aioli...DELICIOUS!!!!

Along with my shrimp I also had conch fritters. These were so flavorful alone but to make them even better, they were topped with cilantro tarter sauce and served with a mango salsa.

Not in the mood for Latin but still want to go out? Check out some other great restaurants in Gainesville that I have mentioned in my blog already!

Happy eating!

Cultural Cuisine

 The best thing about food in America is the inspirations from many different cultures and countries!
    
Do you love to cook food with different flares but you aren't sure what ingredients to use? The food network website has great recommendations of various ingredients and flavors to add to your cooking to give your food flares from india, spain, italy, and more.

If you prefer to follow a recipe Better Homes and Gardens has various delicious Mexican Inspired recipes or Italian Inspired recipes depending on your mood. Also, I have a great meal idea on my blog for a meal with an Asian flare, including a fun Asian inspired dessert.

Have fun cooking and try new things - You never know what you will discover and flavors you will love until you try different and exotic foods!

Gainesville's Best Italian

In the mood for Italian?

Gainesville has it's fair share of delicious "mom and pop" restaurants.

Below is a video that gives insight into some of the best "mom and pop" Italian restaurants around. These restaurants are authentic from the food served to the decorations and intimate feel.

I hope you are inspired to try one of these restaurants!   

Candy Sushi

Sushi is delicious!  But, let's be honest, many people do not like seafood, or do not want to eat raw fish. Also, sushi is often not a kid friendly food. 

What about dessert sushi? This is a fun, playful take on real sushi and is great for everyone, fish haters and kids alike! 

Below is a video giving detailed instructions on how to make candy sushi.

Enjoy!  

Not food - Web Design Instead!

     “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug was a very informative and interesting. It made many important points about developing a website that I had never thought about before.  The three aspects that I found most useful were the chapters on designing pages for scanning, omitting words, and usability testing.

     The chapter on designing a website is something every aspiring website publisher and designer should read. This chapter in some ways appealed to my common sense, but presented these very simple points in a way that made them meaningful and allowed a new perspective to be formed. There were five tips presented in this chapter: 1. Present a clear and visual hierarchy, 2. Take advantage of conventions, 3. Break pages up into clearly defined areas, 4. Make it obvious what’s clickable, and 5. Minimize noise.  There were two of these tips that really stuck out to me. First, using conventions are necessary. I often do not realize how much I rely on conventions. I also realized while reading this book that if I was designing a website the conventions are the things I would leave out. It also was interesting to me that conventions on websites should not be too unusual or unique, it is more important that they look like conventions and fulfill the purpose of such. The second point that stood out to me was that idea of making clickable links obvious. This struck me as interesting because as a web designer it is easy to think that by using common sense people will realize what is and is not clickable. This is not true. I never realized how much confusion could be created out of a link not being absolutely obvious! Ultimately, this chapter is a convenient and helpful roadmap to designing the layout for an almost ideal website.

     I also found the website about cutting down on the wording to be very helpful! I like to talk and I enjoy using very colorful and descriptive language, I know I would be one of the web designers who put too much information on a page.  I found it especially interesting that Krug recommended getting rid of instructions. The instructions are something that most of us see as necessary and in need of details, but this isn’t so. On page 48 Krug showed an example of how to effectively cut down the instructions given before a survey was to be taken. He cut the instructions down from 103 words to 41 words. Amazingly, the shorter set of instructions that Krug developed were much more effective! I probably got the best advice from this chapter. On page 45 Krug writes, “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of what’s left”. I think this is great information for developing a website and for writing in general as well.

     Chapter nine was also very informative and provided great advice for the future. Chapter nine discusses usability testing. This chapter provides a great layout for how to test on a budget. Let’s be honest, only big companies have the ability to test with a professional but the majority of companies in the US are small sole proprietorships that do not have access to the funds to hire professional testers. It was also interesting that Krug suggested not putting as much emphasis on making sure that every participant in the study fit within a specific target group. I would have bet that the specific user was crucial but this isn’t so, it is more important to have anyone look at the website. I also thought the timing of the testing was very important. Krug emphasized that tests should be ran early and often, instead of running a large test at the end of design and production. This is often a misconception as end tests are viewed as the most important test.

     Ultimately this book taught me a lot and provided important insights that I will apply to all of my future web designs.     

Asian Fusian

I love Asian inspired dishes! For dinner last night I made Asian veggie stir-fry, Cilantro lime rice, and spicy garlic shrimp...It was delicious!!!!

I began with the rice. I just used Uncle Ben's instant rice and made about a 1.5 cups. Once it was done cooking and sitting, I added the juice from three limes and about three table spoons of cilantro. This had a very strong lime flavor and, honestly, was my least favorite part of the meal. I was hoping it would taste like the rice from Chipotle...it doesn't! 

Next I made the spicy garlic shrimp. I found this recipe on pintrest and had to try it. I began with a pound of shrimp that had already been peeled and de-vained. Sit those aside while you make the sauce. For the sauce combine 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons chili sauce, 2 teaspoons of sesame oil, 2 teaspoons of Chinese rice wine (I used Sherry cooking wine), and a teaspoon of of sugar. (These ingredients were difficult for me to find in my grocery store but I finally found them in the "ethnic foods" aisle)

Once you have your sauce made set it aside and chop 4 cloves of garlic. add the garlic to two tablespoons of olive oils and let the combination simmer for about 30 seconds, until the garlic becomes aromatic.  Then add your shrimp and let them cook until both sides are pink. Finally add the sauce mixture and allow the shrimp to finish cooking. 

The shrimp and sweet and spicy at the same time with very complex and layered notes of flavor. I will definitely be making them again. 

The Asian veggies are probably the easiest part of the meal. I bought a bag of the pre-cut vegetables that included broccoli, snow peas, cabbage, and carrots. I simply sauteed the mixed vegetables in olive oil until almost done and then I added about 4 cloves of minced garlic and about three tables spoons of soy sauce. I let the veggies finish cooking in the garlic and soy sauce for a few more minutes.

The veggies were crisp yet soft with a yummy soy flavor! 

This was a delicious, healthy meal that I will definitely make again, maybe minus the rice!       

Food Trucks

Food Trucks seem to be the fad right now. They are popping up all over the country, especially in the metropolises, and some cities have even created special parks just for food trucks. These trucks seem to create the most innovative dishes and can be found serving just about every type of food.

Gainesville has its own food truck industry that is booming!

I decided to check out this food truck industry this weekend and discovered a truck called "Go Stuff Yourself".

This food truck serves BBQ with a southeastern flare!

I had the BBQ pork sandwich. This sandwich was stuffed with pulled pork that was drenched in a sweet, tangy, smokey sauce. The pork was topped with a crisp slaw and there were jalapenos on top of that. It was delicious!

Bistro 1245

This post is the first of several about my dining out experience!

I tried Bistro 1245 the other night. It is in Gainesville on University Ave.

This is a quaint little restaurant with a very intimate feel. It is homey and wasn't very crowded so I didn't feel as if I was just another face in a crowd. 

The menu had a limited variety, it was mostly sandwiches with about six choices of entrees. 

I ordered the Spicy Shrimp Pasta

  

This was very good but it wasn't what I expected. The sauce was creamy with a delightful flavor but it wasn't spicy at all! The shrimp were my favorite part. They were buttery and rich and almost reminded me of miniature lobsters!

Overall I really enjoyed Bistro and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wanted a quiet, personalized dining experience! 

10 Minute Meal

So lets be honest, we do not all have time to create a masterpiece in the kitchen every time we need a meal.

Well today I am here to talk about a healthy, simple, and quick meal that is also delicious!

It is simply steak and broccoli with a 2-minute chocolate chip cookie for dessert.

This is so simple it honestly only takes ten minutes.

First turn your oven on high broil and move
                                           the upper rack to the second to
the highest rung in the oven.

While your oven is heating up season your steak. You can choose any cut of eat you want but I prefer a lean sirloin.

Begin by seasoning both sides with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Then lather both sides with regular mustard. Dijan can be used but I prefer regular yellow mustard.

Once you get your steak seasoned place it in the oven and allow it to cook about 5 minutes on both sides. This cooking time can be adjusted to meet your preferences.

While your steak is cooking it is time to prepare the broccoli. Cut the broccoli from the stalk and place it in a pan with about a table spoon of butter. Cover the broccoli and allow it to cook for 5 minutes, moving it periodically to keep it from getting burned. After the 5 minutes have passed and the broccoli looks almost done add a few splashes of worcestershire sauce and cover for about 3 more minutes.

At this point your meal is done! Except for the most important part, dessert of course!

In a bowl combine 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1.5 tbsp white granulated sugar,  1.5 tbsp brown sugar, an egg, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 5 tbsp all purpose flour, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and chocolate chips to taste. Once all is combined place in the microwave for two minutes.

This creates a chocolate chip cookie with a cake like consistency. It is sweet and melts in your mouth and is the perfect quick fix for those moments when you feel like you are gonna die if you can't get your hands on a dessert!  

Hi and Welcome!

My name is Ashlyn, and I am a foodie!

I love to eat, actually that may be an understatement, I may actually live to eat because food is so delicious!

Since I do enjoy food so much I have developed a love for cooking and experimenting in the kitchen. My favorite dishes to prepare are often very time consuming and involved. Those are often the best though because you appreciate the time an effort put into the dish as well as the delectable, mouth watering flavors.

I also really enjoy eating out. Now, of course your chain restaurants are usually a home run and get the job done when your hungry, but I really really really enjoy eating at restaurants that are unusual. You know the ones I am talking about... Your mom and pop restaurants that make the best homemade apple pie, or those small hole in the wall Italian cafes with the head chef who has only been in America for two years and cooks his food the way he did in his native land of Italy.

I want to share my experiences in the kitchen with you, as well as my dining out adventures.

I hope you learn something about cooking and discover something new!