Venmo- Final Draft

November 24, 2020

“Just Venmo me.” A common thing you hear now when people don’t want to do a separate the bill.

Venmo is an app that enables sending money easily to friends, family, and strangers. You do not need a credit card, wallet, or have to worry about cash. All you have to do is download the Venmo app and connect your debit card to it and you are good to go.

“Venmo is a very quick, convenient way to transfer money to whoever I need. Everything is just at my fingertips”, said Payton Leavitt a Senior at Morningside College.  “I also like going on Venmo after a weekend sometimes just to see who people were hanging out with and what they were doing but the descriptions of the transfers.”

This app is also like a social media platform. When you send money to your friends you put a description of what the money is going to. Your friends can scroll through the app and view people’s activities. (As shown below.)

Venmo allows you to pay and request money from friends. Users can have fun while doing the exchange of money by using emojis to describe what the payment is for. It takes the awkwardness out of asking back for money for paying the tab at the bar, or vise versa. 

“I use Venmo at least three times a week”, says Morgen Maher. “I think it is a fun easy way to transfer money to someone because of the little emojis you put on the message, and I don’t have to worry about cash.” 

If you have a lot of transfers coming through to you then you can sign up for a Venmo debit card. This is a covenant way to access your money so you do not have to keep transferring money to your account. 

“My Venmo card comes in handy a lot when I go out and only want to spend a certain amount. Or when people send me money and I don’t have time to transfer the money to my bank account I just use my Venmo card.” Said Morgen 

A lot of people ask what is the difference between Venmo and Paypal,  Venmo is restricted for personnel use and can be used as a digital wallet or a social media feed which is why more younger people like it because it is what they are used too. Paypal is normally used by businesses and charges fees for transactions. 

Hannah SIbbel, another Morningside College senior doesn’t have a Venmo account. “I always say I need to make one because that’s really all my friends use but I never get to it. I always get scared hooking things up to the bank account that I am not sure of and leaving me with uncertainty.”

Venmo’s target audience is 18-34 years old. This age frame is used to everything being convenient and having at their fingertips.

You can sign up for a Venmo account without having to hook up your bank information on the app. If you do thins you cant make transfers from your bank the money will just stay in your Venmo account. 

Venmo is a huge trend right now for millennials. Left your wallet at home but want to go out to eat with your friends? That’s okay just transfer money from your Venmo to your friends. Your friend forgot to pay you back from a night out? Request money on your Venmo to remind your friend. “Just Venmo me.”


Rivethead Tales from the Assembly Line- Non-fiction text #2

November 23, 2020

Rivethead follows the memories of Ben Harper and his experience with the assembly line for General Motors.

Ben Hamper’s spent ten years in the ‘70s and 80’s on a General Motors assembly line in Flint, Michigan as a “shop rat” like his careless father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

Hamper told himself that he wouldn’t be an autoworker but soon after high school he got married and had a child, he needed a steady job and that’s what General Motors offered him.

Not only did Hamper work in the same place that his father did, but he also develops some of the same habits as well such as drugs, alcoholism, and slacking off at work.

At this assembly line Hamper thinks the work is boring, the bosses are stupid, and the workplace regulations are stupid and pointless. He thinks that all of it seems like a dead end. He doesn’t like the repetition of this job the most.

In the story, something that makes Ben keep going is that he made a lot of money and he pretty much did nothing for that money. He goes through his workdays because of the drugs and alcohol, and he doubles up on his really easy job with a partner of his so that they can alternate days working.

When he gets laid off of this job Jimmy Carter came up with a bonus program because of the unfair competition from the Japanese that ends up paying him more than when he was actually working.

This book is about a study of why the American industry had to be downsized. Hamper did not write the book because of this reason. He just wanted to show the GM was horrible and to make up feel the way he does.

This book to me was more about how Ben could get out of work and still get the money and mope around all day. Something that I wish this book would elaborate on is more information about the assembly line work and how the plant operated.

Something I really liked about the book is how it shows the worker’s point of view and showed the “shop life.”        

Overall, I think that it was an interesting book to read and makes me want to ask questions about the industry. I would give Rivethead Tales from the Assembly Line 3 out 5 stars.


Angry- end review

November 16, 2020

Senior year. The year where everything is supposed to be smooth selling, all your hard work is about to pay off. BOOM. Coronavirus. 

I didn’t know what to expect from my senior year of college. I would just imagine going to all my classes, getting to go out with my friends, going on spring break, go to sporting events, and just simply enjoying my last year in college. The normal activities a senior would do.

That all changed when coronavirus hit. I will not get to experience what the past seniors underwent. And that makes me angry. 

It is no one in particulars fault that this happened, it is just bad timing. 

Instead of doing all those activities, we have to suffocate in masks, stay 6 feet from each other, and try not to be in large crowds. I never in a million years thought this is how my senior year would go. 

Not only do I feel bad for the seniors, I feel bad for the freshmen. This is the year where freshmen learn who their friend group is, go to your first college party, stay at the cafe and talk, and hang out and play games in the lobby of the dorm hall. 

With coronavirus, it is hard for people to meet new people let alone make friends with them. People also are not allowed to gather to mingle so it makes it hard for them to get out of their shells and encounter the “college experience”. 

I think it is essential for college students to get to encounter things that they normally wouldn’t experience on a daily basis at home. This is the time for us to find people we can relate to and be ourselves. 

These things are all very difficult to do, due to the coronavirus. This situation has made me angry in 2020.


#4 Trend sketch

November 11, 2020

“Just Venmo me.”

Venmo is an app that enables sending money easily to friends, family, and strangers. You do not need a credit card, wallet, or have to worry about cash. All you have to do is download the Venmo app and connect your debit card to it and you are good to go.

Venmo is a huge trend right now for millennials. Left your wallet at home but want to go out to eat with your friends? That’s okay just transfer money from your Venmo to your friends. Your friend forgot to pay you back form a night out? Request money on your Venmo to remind your friend.

Venmo allows you to pay and request money from friends. When using Venmo you have to put a description or an emoji when paying your friend or if they owe you money, it is an easier way instead of dealing with cash.


Holidate Review

November 5, 2020

Holidays can be hard if you are the only one in the family that doesn’t have that special someone.

Sloane (Emma Roberts) is tired of her family always committing how single she is, and how she needs to find that special someone. Inline to return Christmas gifts at the mall, she meets Jackson (Luke Bracey). They start talking and both of them realize they don’t have dates for New Year’s Eve.

They both come up with this wonderful deal that they will be each other’s dates for the holidays so they will won’t lonely and stop having people bug them about being single. They decide it will be easier to just have a date for the holidays instead of going on actual dates and worry about commitment and the baggage that comes with an actual relationship.

This film reminds me of a typical Hallmark Christmas movie with more rated R sense to it. If you like a good, funny rom-com this is for you!

I would give Holidate a 3/5.

If you don’t have a date for the holidays take notes while watching, this movie might be helpful! 😉

To get a good glimpse on the basic of the movie 1:03-4:04.


My America

November 5, 2020


The Cafe Culture

October 21, 2020

When going to eat at Wikert Dining Hall the culture can be scary if you are an outsider, but once you are in the system you know exactly where you belong. 

As a freshman, Hannah Sibbel was unsure when walking into the cafe at Morningside. “You could tell there was an arrangement, but I couldn’t pinpoint it right away.” 

After Hannah met people, she quickly learned the system and where to sit. “I was taken back because people were at specific spots and I didn’t know that was a thing in college. Each sport had a spot.”

Emma Schmitz, a senior at Morningside, describes the cafe as “family-oriented in a weird way.” She likes how it has a system so you know where everyone is going, “Everyone has their own system and it just goes together, making it feel more homie like.” 

Hannah describes the system to the cafe as “assigned seating that’s not assigned.” She describes what table belongs to who:

When walking into the cafe there are low circler tables, which is normally where band people sit.

The high tables next to the band people are where RA’s sit. 

The long table by the salad bar is the soccer table.

The big, long table in the middle of the cafe is where the football team sits.

The circle tables in the middle are where dance and cheer sit normally.

The high tables in the middle are where swimmers sit.

The tables by the sandwich bar are where the baseball team sits. 

On the far back wall near the door is where you can find the wrestlers.

And the far back corner is where the track team always sits. 

A former Morningside student, Alex Schmitz says that the culture of the cafe has been the same ever since he was a freshman. Alex graduated in the year 2018. 

“I don’t know how or when the system all started. I thought it was weird when I came to Morningside. I started to like it the more I got used to it.” Alex was a wrestler for Morningside. “Right when I entered the cafe I knew exactly where to sit, it is the same spot where the wrestlers sit to this day.”

Emma explained what it is like if someone sits not in their “assigned seat.” “If people outside of their sport and sit at another table people will look at you weird. And the sport that normally sits there will sit around you and make you feel unwelcome”, says Emma. 

When sitting back and watching how the system works at the cafe, people from different groups mingle for a short amount of time but not long enough to sit down. 

“It’s like going to a restaurant”, describes Emma. “When you go to the restaurant with your family and if you see someone you know at the restaurant you say “hi” and then go back to your table where you belong.” 

While sitting at these specific places in the cafe people mingle about what the plans are for the weekend, what interesting things happened at practice, and catch up on the latest gossip.  

“While I’m at the cafe, that is really when I connect with my friends,” said Hannah. “I get to know the people I’m around better, sometimes we just sit there for hours just talking and laughing about different things.”

As a freshman, Hannah Sibbel was unsure when walking into the cafe at Morningside. “You could tell there was an arrangement, but I couldn’t pinpoint it right away.” 

After Hannah met people, she quickly learned the system and where to sit. “I was taken back because people were at specific spots and I didn’t know that was a thing in college. Each sport had a spot.”

Emma Schmitz, a senior at Morningside, describes the cafe as “family-oriented in a weird way.” She likes how it has a system so you know where everyone is going, “Everyone has their own system and it just goes together, making it feel more homie like.” 

Hannah describes the system to the cafe as “assigned seating that’s not assigned.” She describes what table belongs to who:

When walking into the cafe there are low circler tables, which is normally where band people sit.

The high tables next to the band people are where RA’s sit. 

The long table by the salad bar is the soccer table.

The big, long table in the middle of the cafe is where the football team sits.

The circle tables in the middle are where dance and cheer sit normally.

The high tables in the middle are where swimmers sit.

The tables by the sandwich bar are where the baseball team sits. 

On the far back wall near the door is where you can find the wrestlers.

And the far back corner is where the track team always sits. 

A former Morningside student, Alex Schmitz says that the culture of the cafe has been the same ever since he was a freshman. Alex graduated in the year 2018. 

“I don’t know how or when the system all started. I thought it was weird when I came to Morningside. I started to like it the more I got used to it.” Alex was a wrestler for Morningside. “Right when I entered the cafe I knew exactly where to sit, it is the same spot where the wrestlers sit to this day.”

Emma explained what it is like if someone sits not in their “assigned seat.” “If people outside of their sport and sit at another table people will look at you weird. And the sport that normally sits there will sit around you and make you feel unwelcome”, says Emma. 

When sitting back and watching how the system works at the cafe, people from different groups mingle for a short amount of time but not long enough to sit down. 

“It’s like going to a restaurant”, describes Emma. “When you go to the restaurant with your family and if you see someone you know at the restaurant you say “hi” and then go back to your table where you belong.” 

While sitting at these specific places in the cafe people mingle about what the plans are for the weekend, what interesting things happened at practice, and catch up on the latest gossip.  

“While I’m at the cafe, that is really when I connect with my friends,” said Hannah. “I get to know the people I’m around better, sometimes we just sit there for hours just talking and laughing about different things.”


Culture article sketch

October 14, 2020

“The Cafe Culture”

You think you would get away from “cliques” when coming to college. Wrong. Morningside is known for its sports cliques.

You don’t really notice these cliques until you go eat at the cafe. There is an unwritten rule about where to sit at the cafe.

If you play football you sit in the middle of the cafe at the “football table.” If you run track you sit in the back far corner of the cafe and sit at the “track table.” If you play soccer you sit at the long table by the salad bar called the “soccer table.”

If people outside of their sports sit at that particular table, people will look at you weird and the sport that normally sits there will sit around you and make you feel unwelcome.

There are tables at the cafe for people that don’t play a sport or not in a club. They sit in the booths or at the small round tables that can only seat four people or less.

The cafe is also known for the TVs playing Family Feud at supper time and getting all the details for the weekend plans. Sometimes people don’t even go there to eat, they just socialize.


Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America Review

October 12, 2020

The non-fiction book Nickel and Dimed focus on one main character Barbra Ehrenreich. Barbra is a successful journalist and decides that she wants to do a social experiment to answer the question, “How do poor people get by on minimum wage jobs?” 

Throughout the book, Barbra moved to three places around America to compare how people survive on minimum wage. She allowed herself to start out with enough money for an apartment and a car. 

She started her experiment in Flordia as a waitress earning $2.45 plus tips. Then moved to Maine working as a housecleaner for $6.65 an hour and on weekends for an old age home starting at $7 an hour. The final place she went for her experiment was Minnesota, working at Walmart for $7 an hour. 

Everywhere Barbra went she scrawled for affordable housing. At one point she was paying $245 (which was more than her salary) for a run-down motel that had no window screen or no lock on the door. 

When working these jobs she finds that her co-workers are hard-working people that a kind and generous. While working with them she tries to figure out where they are living and how they make ends meet. 

The author, Barbara Ehrenreich is a social critic, journalist, author, and activist. Barbra is most know for the book Nickel and Dimed. She is qualified to do this book because this was her own experiment and she was the one who lived through this experiment for three months trying to make it on her own with minimum wage jobs. 

Barbara wrote Nickel and Dimed for a social experiment to answer the question, “How do poor people get by on minimum wage jobs.” She hoped to answer the question as she went on a journey for about three months. As you will find in the book that is not doable. People cannot survive on minimum wage in America. 

Some methods that Barbra used in the book were interviewing, observation, and participation. Barbra was living the life of a “poor person.” while she was doing that when she talked to her co-workers about their life she would ask them questions. They thought she was just talking to them but she was secretly interviewing and observing them. Also, the whole time in this experiment Barabra was participating working her butt off trying to make ends meet. She gets emotionally involved in the story by living the lifestyle she is trying to figure out. 

I think Barbra Ehrenreich did a good job painting a picture in the reader’s head of what it is like to live as a lower class citizen in America. It made me open my eyes. I am normally usually aware of and gracious to the workers that I meet. But I will now be more aware of how much I tip and how the workers that are helping and tended to my needs are being treated because you don’t know their background.

Something that I think Barabra could have done differently in her experiment after she returned to her actual life, going back and visiting the places she worked at in those three months and talk to the workers she worked with to sit down and actually interview them to tell their real story. 

I would give Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America a 4 out of 5 stars. Worth a read!


CD Review: The Album by BlackPink

October 5, 2020

BlackPink has been around for a while. They are an iconic girl group from South Korea. The group contains four members: Jennie, Jisoo, Rose, and Lisa.

BlackPink just released a new album on October 2nd called “The Album.” This album makes you want to get up to dance and sing along!

With only 8 songs on the album, it is full of a variety of beats, raps, and collaborations with Selena Gomez (Ice Cream) and Cardi B (Bet you wanna) making the album even more exciting to listen to!

BlackPink is easy to listen to and sing along with. They have clear sing-along quality with a mix of Korean in songs, making them unique.

BlackPink’s first album “Playing with Fire” sold more than 2.5 million digital copies in South Korea and became Blackpink’s second number- one hit on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. This made Black Pink the first K-pop girl group to have such high demand.

After four years, fans have been waiting patiently for this girl group to come out with more. Even though only 8 additional songs in this album is disappointing, it makes people wanting more.

I would like to see in this album more emotion and slower songs. All the songs but “You Never know” are upbeat and fun.

I would give “The Album” by BlackPink an 8/10.

If you are a 14-19 year old female, this girl group is for you!