Blog #5

Nirmal Indian Restaurant 

Nirmal is located on Washtenaw in Ypsilanti Michigan. The restaurant offers several options of authentic Indian cuisine. It is a clean and quiet restaurant. The food is served in disposable containers and you eat with plastic-ware. The food is made fresh when you order off of the menu so it can take a while for your food to be ready, but when it is ready it is delicious and so flavorful. You order up at the counter and pick your food up there when it is ready. It is a friendly environment that would  appropriate for all ages. A lot of the food is very spicy so be careful of that. I give this restaurant 4 out of five stars.

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Blog#4

Product Reviews

MacBook Pro

I purchased my MacBook several months ago and have been nothing but impressed. It came with Mac equivalent of MicrosoftWord/ Excel/ Powerpoint. It has retina- display. It always works very fast and I find it to be much more user friendly than every one said it would be, a lot of people told me that it would be a hard transition from the PCs that I learned computers on, but with a little practice I have been able to get the hang of things pretty well. Virus sweeps are uncomplicated and fast, so that's also nice. I don't have anything negative to say about this product. It is perfect for students and adults, I would recommend this laptop to anyone 17 and up, or anyone that is looking for an easy to use laptop.

Tervis Water Bottles 

Tervis has a huge selection of reusable to-go cups. I have had three different designs and have loved two of them and hated one. Tervis is a high quality product and their water bottles come with so many different artistic designs from sports teams, to children's show characters so they would be ideal for a wide range of people of many ages. But the lids of the bottles leak with every drink. and are very difficult to open. They cost $25.99, I expected a much better product for my money. I would not recommend this product to someone. 

Unless it's someone I don't like, then I would tell them it is a great water bottle.

Checkerboard Slip-on Vans 

This is such a great pair of shoes! I have had my pair for almost two years and other than being dirtier and a little worn in certain places they are just as good as the day I got them. The soles are still thick and sturdy.  The tops of the shoes are made out of some sort of canvas material, it is slightly thin but I don't have holes in my shoes so it must be a strong material. But with the top being so thin they are not winter shoes, nor are they good for walks in the rain. They are very versatile shoes, I wear them with dresses or sweat-pants, and I see girls and guys wearing them and I think they look good on everyone. They are fun and different and classic,

 I would recommend them to anyone. 

Blog #3

  INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE 

The following three people are influential, inspirational, and powerful human beings. 

They each impacted me on different levels and in different ways. 

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On the day of my 12 grade orientation I got some sad news, my favorite teacher from the year before was no longer teaching a class that I had signed up for at the end of the school year. He was the reason I took the class and I had no interest in staying enrolled with a different teacher teaching it. So I quickly dropped the class and was put into the only other class that would fit into my schedule, drama 3-4. I hadn't taken drama 1-2 (which most people took before taking 3-4), nor had I ever had any interest in getting involved with the drama club at my high school. The class started out like every other class started off that year for me easy and not too serious. 

Literally in a matter of days, that easy class turned into 100% the complete opposite of easy.

One day the teacher of the class, Ms. Kinnell, also the director of the productions at my high school, asked some classmates and I to come back to the school later that night to help with building the set for the play. All of us told her we would be there, I was the only one who showed up. Ms. Kinnell and two of her friends, who work with set design and construction at a community theater near my hometown, worked late into the night for several nights that week. We built walls from random pieces of wood that we measured and cut ourselves. They taught me how to use tools that I had never even seen before.  It was hard work but it was fun and I learned a lot. I gave Ms. Kinnell an inch and she took a mile. The following week she asked me if I would be  told me that she was making me stage manager. I didn't know what that was or what it entailed so I didn't object, I was happy to help. I'm glad I didn't know exactly what she meant because I probably would have told her no and then never go to class again. The position that she entrusted me with was huge. Being the stage manager was easily the biggest commitment that I have ever made, and the most work I've ever had to do. I learned so much about working with other people and my own work ethic. Ms. Kinnell pushed me and encouraged me leaving my comfort zone, she made me realize I am more capable of getting things done than I thought I was.

Marybeth Kinnell

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You know the smiley face emoji with hearts for eyes? Well that's me when it comes to Nick Thomas. Not really in a fangirl, "I LOVE YOU NICK, MARRY ME!" type of way, but in a, "You are a lyrical genius, you have given words to feelings that left me speechless,  you have given me something to hold on to during the loneliest times in my life, and I am forever indebted to you." I really admire him.
Nick is the lead singer of the band The Spill Canvas, they have released 6 full albums together, several EPs, and he released a solo album as well. He has used his music to pull himself and hundreds of other people through hard times. He sings about sadness, happiness, love, betrayal, hatred, vampires, supporting loved ones, internal struggles, external struggles, self hatred, obsession,  feeling lost, broken, and hopeless; with so much music produced and such a vast and honest variety of topics there isn't much that someone can feel that they can't relate to a Spill Canvas song, I find this really comforting. He and his band don't have the biggest fan base, but people all over the world listen, and we all have about the same things to say about Nick, the band, and their music, "I started listening to The Spill Canvas when I was in my early teens.. Their music saved my life." I've heard these words from at least a dozen people that I have met at concerts, and I read comments like that on social media from hundreds of people. I think that the fact that it is a smaller-ish fanbase, with a few thousand people, it makes it all even more personal and connected. If I see somebody wearing wither a Nick Thomas or Spill Canvas shirt I make a point to go up to them, strike up a conversation, and usually end up with a friendship because the common ground that we have is so special and intimate. The Spill Canvas is more than just my favorite band and Nick Thomas is more than a guy with a pretty good voice that doesn't know my name, they're a lifeline.

Nick Thomas
Detroit, August 2015

Nick Thomas
Hugging me!
Utica, November 2014