Wrangle on in

If you are looking for a good pizza buffet to try out, you should take a short ride on west on interstate 74 to a small the small town of Morton, IL. Located right off the interstate, Pizza Ranch, is a small pizza buffet that offers a wide variety of pizzas along with fried chicken, homemade potato chips, and garlic flavored mashed potatoes complimented with homemade chicken gravy. The outside and inside of the facility gives you the feel as though you stepped into the Wild Wild West. The restaurant is decorated with cowboy boots, spurs, ropes, and old wooden wagon wheels. At just $10 per person, you have complete access to the salad bar, pizza buffet, and fried chicken with sides you want. They also offer personalized pizza order that they deliver personally to your table allowing you to take as many pieces as you would like before putting the remaining amount on the buffet for other customers to enjoy. The food on the buffet is always fresh and hot.

One reason why I enjoy visiting this food establishment is that it is owned by Christian faith people. Anyone wanting to purchase a portion of the franchise must go through an extensive application process. The corporation will then choose who they allow to represent their name by their responses on their application. They do not just let anyone to represent their name. They also allow churches, schools, and other organizations to hold fundraisers to earn extra money for their cause. The give a portion of their sales to the organizations and allow members of the organization to bus tables and attend to guest needs in order to receive any tips left at the tables. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who is looking for a good pizza buffet to try.

Wreck it Ralph a Hit??

Wreck- It Ralph is an animated film based on an old childhood video game. In this animated film, Ralph is tired of being a bad guy. After being left out of the good guy celebrations and gold medals, Ralph decided to game hop to different games so he too could get a gold medal and be considered a good guy. Little did Ralph know that his game hopping would cause devastation among all the games in the arcade. Hoping to save the day and bring back Ralph before their game would be canceled, Fix it Felix attempts to fix the situation and follows Ralph by the trail of destruction he leaves. It is soon discovered that not all of Ralph’s actions leads to destruction. He soon befriends a young racer and helps her break an evil spell that the characters in her game are under. In the end Ralph saves the day and receives his gold medal and is considered a good guy among all of the other game characters, especially the ones in his game.

I would give Wreck- It Ralph, 4 out of 5 stars. This movie has something for everyone at all ages. It has the cute cartoon characters for the children as well as a little adult humor and mild action to entertain the older crowd. At only 93 minutes, this animated film offers a great story line, action, humor, and an ending that would tug at anyone’s heart.  The different video games featured in this film relates to everyone from many different generations making the movie attractive to all.



Click on picture to view preview



Safelite to the rescue

Recently I went to Chicago for a full day of fun. Unfortunately, after arriving to my first destination, my full day of fun was halted after my car got broken into and my driver side window was busted out. After calling the non-emergency number for the local police station, I used my phone to get online to look up window auto repair businesses. The first business that popped up was Safelite Auto Glass. I had not experience with them, nor have I known anyone who has ever used them. The only knowledge I had of them was the memory of their T.V. commercial and their catching tune. I soon found that access their website was really easy. Their general 1-800 number was listed under their contacts page and was easy to get to on my phone. As soon as I called the number I was put in contact with an actual person and was able to make an appointment with the operator on the phone. I found the operator to be very friendly and helpful. He told me what stores were located close by to where I was at and was able to make an appointment for me that same day. Before the cop arrived to prepare my incident report, I had an appointment made, a quote of how much the replacement window was going to cost, and an address to the nearest Safelite Auto Glass. The operator did give me the option of onsite repair if I requested it. As soon as I walked into Safelite, I was greeted immediately. The receptionist showed me where the waiting room was and offered me coffee while I waited. Before the technician started working on my car, he took me out to my car and told me in detail everything that they were going to do to my car step by step. After the window was replaced, they vacuumed out my car and cleaned all my windows on the outside. I would have to say with Safelite’s fast and friendly service, they turned my unpleasant day into a pleasant one. I would recommend Safelite Auto Glass to anyone who is looking for a window replacement or repair. I would say this company went above and beyond to help me with my unfortunate situation.

Picking The Right Dealership

Picking the Right Dealership

               Over the past week, I have spent a lot of time going from dealership to dealership looking for the perfect car for myself.  One aspect of car shopping that some people do not consider an important aspect of car shopping is finding the right dealership. By finding the right dealership, it can put some ease on the stressing that car shopping can cause. There are many things that I look for when searching for the right dealership to purchase my future cars from.

1.      It is important to find a dealership that does not have pushy salesmen. Purchasing a car is a big and long term decisions. It is defiantly not one that you want to be rushed into just because a salesman wants to make a sale. If a salesman is pushy, that is an indication that you should keep looking.

2.      It is also important for the dealership to make sure their cars are priced appropriately. One way to check to see if the price is set right is to see how much the car that you are interested in. You can do this by checking the value of the car on kbb.com (Kelly blue book). Kelly blue book will give you the retail price, trade price, and the certified selling price. The dealership should also be willing to negotiate with you.

3.       Lastly, it is also important on how the dealership treats you after the sale is made. A good dealership would offer you some kind of perk, like a gas card or a thank you card in the mail.

These are just a few things that I look for when searching for a dealership to purchase a car from. If a dealership treats you well, they could gain a lifetime customer.

How to purchase a car.....

How to purchase a car…..

Purchasing a new car can be a fun and exciting experience. But it can also be a stressful one. There are many things that you need to consider when purchasing a car.

1.      First, you should figure out what your budget is. It is best to start with writing all your monthly bills down on paper and comparing it to your monthly income. You should also factor in the amount that you would be paying for gas and the increase in your insurance that may occur when choosing a new vehicle. After writing down all of your bills, you should be able to reach an amount of money you could afford to purchase a car for.

2.      Second, you need to think about your finance options. You could choose to get preapproved from a bank of your choice or you could choose to apply for financing through the banks the dealerships work with. Both finance options have their own pros and cons. Getting approved through the bank of your choice could secure financing for a car. Choosing a bank that the dealership of your choice works with could secure a better finance percentage rate.

3.      After figuring a budget and choosing a finance method, you need to do a little research on what kind of a car you would like. One helpful site is Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com). It allows you to see what the trade in value, retail price, and the certified used price of a car is. It also allows you to see what your car is worth as a trade in.

4.      After all your research is done, it is time to seek the car out you would like to purchase. You should visit the dealership, test drive the car, and take it to your local mechanic to see if there are any issue with the car.

5.      Once your mechanic gave the “ok” on the car of your choice, it’s time to make a deal. You should never pay sticker price for a car. Bring whatever research generated to use as a bargaining tool. Once a price is agreed upon, you can purchase your new vehicle.

'Ah' to be a Wallflower

'Ah' to be a Wallflower

       Based on the book written by Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a movie about an introverted freshman trying to find a place in high school. Having a hard time following in the footsteps of his two older siblings and recovering from a tragic year, Charlie, played by Logan Lerman, finds condolence and friendship in two senior step siblings played by Emma Wattson and Ezra Miller. In a series of letters written to a secret pen pal, Charlie describes his experience that he had throughout the school year with the two siblings that included the heartbreaks of relationships, the ups and downs of friendships, and the struggles of growing up and leaving home. Charlie is forced to face his past when his newly founded friends leave for college that puts a light on the thoughts, feelings, and flashes of memories that puzzled movie views throughout the movie.   

       I would give this movie 4.5 stars out of 5. This move seems to have it all, a strong story line with a little bit of humor and emotion. The author found a way to capture a character everyone could relate to and that reminded them of their high school days. The main character, Logan Lerman, makes you feel as though you are experiencing each emotion and feeling with him. In this role, Emma Watson plays a more serious role from her well known role in the Harry Potter series. From this role, she has proven that she could break herself away from Hermione and play a more serious character. This movie is defiantly one that should be seen in theaters and even seen again when it come out on DVD.

Click on photo to view movie trailer

11 Things I Learned....

A few things that I have learned so far in my ACC 255 class:

1. That I could create a website for free. (Always thought that I had to pay for a site.)
2. How to set up different pages with in my website
3. How to place link buttons on my website that would take you to another page on my site
4. How to create/setup a blog.
5. How to create products from my own mind and put them on a website made available to the public for purchasing.
6. How to set up a Gmail account without linking it to my yahoo mail account.
7. How to write a sneeze blog and link different blog postings in the sneeze blog
8. How to link my blog on my web page so that if someone was viewing my web page they could click on my blog and be directed to my blog site.
9. How to create a privacy policy.
10. How to create a widget so that if someone wanted to contact me they could use that instead of my personal email.
11. That I should not wait until the last two days to do my milestones, since there is a lot of work involved in them.

Reviews, Reviews Reviews......

Reviews, Reviews Reviews......

It seems that with everything we do in our daily lives we tend review everything in some sort of way. Whether it is how we feel when we wake up, how we decided what to wear, another person’s outfit, a movie we watch, which way were are going to take to school, or what we think of a lecture that was giving in a class we had in school today, we are always reviewing something. So that is why I decided to create a few blogs based on reviews I had made on the places that I attend and the thing I do on a daily basis. The most recent review I did was on the movie that I recently watched; ‘House at the End of the Street’ a bore?? In my blog posting, I went into detail about how I felt the movie was and my review of it. Another recent review that I conducted was on blog that sole purpose was to provide readers of the many different fun, silly, unique facts about pop culture, movies, and cartoons. You can read my thoughts about the blog and get a little bit of background of the blog by clicking on the link; A Fun Fact Site.  What would be the purpose of giving reviews, without a blog telling you how to receive a good review?? In 5Ways to Receive a Good Review, I gave readers some ideas and suggestions on how to receive a good review.

Choosing the Right Affiliate Program

Choosing the Right Affiliate Program

Soon after a bloggers site becomes successful and has a large amount of followers they should find ways to bring in some extra income. Choosing the right affiliate program is essential in generating profit for a bloggers website. Whether the blogger is expert or just starting out it is essential for them to do a little research on the many different affiliate programs available to find one that will accommodate their niche. A good way to start out is by accessing the Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks.  Once there any blogger can find the highest rated networks based on platform strength, support quality, international capabilities and many more qualities. For experienced well known bloggers, I would recommend well known affiliate like Google Affiliate Network. Google Affiliate Network is a pay-per-action network whose goal is stated on their site to “help advertisers increase online conversion on a performance basis and enables publishers to monetize traffic with affiliated ads.” Pay-per-action means that it pays commission to its affiliates for driving conversions (sales or leads). Google Affiliate Network just requires the blogger to set up a Google AdSense account. For novel bloggers who are still establishing their audience, I would recommend ClixGalore. ClixGalore is an Australian pay-per-action affiliate network that has offices in the United States, along with 2 other countries. It offers various types of programs, including pay-per-impression, pay per lead, pay-per-sale and pay-per-click giving novel bloggers more options on ways to bring in revenue.  Once the blogger chooses the right affiliate program that best fits them they could choose what kind of advertisement they want to display on their blog and generate revenue.

                 

‘House at the End of the Street’ a bore??

‘House at the End of the Street’, is about a mother and daughter duo looking for a fresh start after Sarah, played by Elisabeth Shue, gets a divorce from her husband. Hoping to reconnect and mend her broken relationship with her daughter Elissa, played by Jennifer Lawrence, the two moves into what they thought was their dream home in a small upscale, rural town. Soon after moving in, the two find out about the mystery behind the house next door and the tragic story of the family that had once lived there. About 10 years earlier the family who lived in the house next door was brutally murdered, leaving the only brother behind. Elissa soon takes interest in the sole survivor Ryan, played by Max Thieriot, and finds herself reveling secrets that were better left kept untold.

I would give this movie 2 stars out of 5. Although there were some suspenseful moments and the ending was almost unpredictable, the acting was what killed the suspense. There was a slight love story and it almost made you want to root for Elissa’s and Ryan’s relationship to progress even though he had a dark past. Just like your typical horror movie, it contained scenes that would make you jump, followed by the climax where the true story is reviled, followed by a main character getting hurt but not enough so that they couldn’t save the day, and lastly they “bad guy” is killed, or is he. In my opinion, this is defiantly a movie that should be rented. Viewers should not waste the money it cost to view it in theaters.

Click on picture to view trailer

My Personal Critique

My Personal Critique

 If I were an outsider reviewing my personal website, I would come to a fast conclusion that it was a very new site and/or still under construction.  Although some of the content is not added yet, the overall appearance would lead me to believe that the site is organized, simple and created by a girl. There are a lot of soft colors and clean space. There is the option to contact the website creator and an area where you can learn a little about her. The site contains a privacy policy and purpose page to clearly give any visitors who were unsure of the purpose of the website some insight.  The website also includes a mission statement to give the visitor a clear view of what the mission of the website creator is. The topics that seem to be covered on this website are reviews of places visited in everyday life. The one main topic that is being ignored is that there are still not reviews posted yet. There is no advertisements listed on the page or any areas where a reader can subscribe to the website, however under the links section you can find a link to her personal blog. My overall thought of the website would be that the design of the overall website is simple but organized. There is still more content that would need to be added and maybe an advertisement to make it look more official.  There should also be an area where readers can subscribe or leave comments.

My first Link Post

My Link Post

                At first, I was unsure of what blog I could write a link post on. After thinking of some things that interested me I went on line and decided to use a well-known resource to search for a blog that sparked my interest. I decided to keep my search within my niche and searched for reviews. I soon decided to search for reviews on books, because let’s face it, who doesn’t like a good book?  The most recent book I read was the Fifty Shades trilogy.  I found the perfect blog on US Today’s website. The article was entitled, 10 reasons ‘Fifty Shades of Gray’ has shackled readers.  This blog gave a little history of who wrote it and a general idea of what the trilogy is about. It also lists reasons why this trilogy has become such a success and why women and men everywhere are drawn to the book and can’t put it down. I learned from this article that it has many of the same ideas about the book and that some of the reasons listed are reasons why I could not put the book down. The blog states in its number one reason that it’s not about the sexual nature of the book, but more about the love story, I would have to fully agree with that. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the blog itself created a lot of responses, even though it has 100 comments, but the trilogy itself did. As long as someone blogs about a controversial topic, people are going to respond to it.

The Move Blog

The Movie Blog

The Movie Blog is a blog that coves movies from all aspects. The blog contains reviews on current movies, provides trailers, posters and interviews with actors and directors of movies.  It also addresses the latest movie news and rumors in Hollywood pertaining to up and coming movies.  Reviews, trailers, posters, interviews, and movie news are being posted daily, sometimes more than once a day. The Movie Blog is an advance blog site that has been around since 2003 and has a small staff that writes all the reviews and posts.

                The review blogs seem to generate the most comments from readers. Many comments posted are readers’ own opinion of the movie or their thoughts.  This site seems to openly accept any comments a reader feels about the movie and its review. The blog also allows readers to share the review on all social media sites from twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn. It also allows the read to email the review and gives them over 350 other ways to share it.

                The impression that I got when I looked into this blog was that it was very organized and professional. The layout of the blog is well organized and contains a neat background that contains little pictures of items involved in making a movie.  The blog contains some advertisement, but it is not overdone or annoying to the reader viewing the blog. The advertisements are discreet and are not overpower the blot. It allows readers to search within the blog so they can find any review on a movie that they desire. The blog gives readers the option to follow them on twitter or like time on Facebook.

A Fun Fact Site

 A Fun Fact Site

                If you are looking for something to pass your time away and to find out unique fun facts, The Fact Site Blog is for you. This blog has something for everyone no matter what their interest may be. It is full of silly facts about Pokémon to scientific whacky whale facts. You can also find out interesting facts about music performers, movie starts, or even movies. One fun blog recently posted, Movie Goofs A-Z. In this blog, readers can read about silly mistakes or “goofs” made in movies. The blog lists movies titles in alphabetical order, stating interesting and “goofs” made while filming or mistakes that can be seen in the film.  

A little history:

Stated back in 2009 as a funky fact blog, it has grown quickly to become one of the best sites in its online category. The creators of the blog consist of two individuals, Luke and Jamie Ward. The owner of the site, Luke Ward, is a 20 year old college student who lives in Lincolnshire England. His partner, Jamie Ward writes blogs from time to time but is mainly focused advertising and the graphic side of the blog. They have currently expanded their blog to be available on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Soon to come, an Android app so you can get wacky facts anywhere.  Currently they are seeking to expand their site by looking for anyone who is willing to blog their own interesting facts.

Fun for all

                This site is sure to have something for everyone who is interested in finding out some fun facts to start up any conversation.

               

5 Ways to Receive a Good Review

5 Ways to Receive a Good Review

1.       The first impression is everything. The old saying will always be true, the first impression is everything. When a potential customer enters your establishment it takes only them only a quick 20 seconds to make a judgment.  It is important to create a clean atmosphere and friendly service.

2.       Great customer service can make or break a business. Customers want to feel like they are the only ones who matter. When I enter an establishment that I am going to review, I look to see whether the employees take the time to greet me. Throughout the whole transaction, I look too how attentive employees are. It is important to make every customer feel special.

3.       Keeping your word. It is important for company to keep its “word”. Things I look for when I review an establishment is whether or not their product is what they advertise. For example, if a restaurant advertises great food quality, then they should follow through. If they have the best coffee in town, I expect to have a good cup of coffee. If a company claims to offer the best customer service in town, it is essential for the company to follow through with it. Besides customer service, there is nothing more damaging than when a company cannot keep their word.

4.       Price. Another criterion that I have when I review an establishment is the cost of product. The cost of a product is an important factor. It is important to make sure the price of a product equals the value of the product.

5.       The product. Whether it is a movie, restaurant or play, the product is what brings the customer in. It is important to deliver a quality product to keep customers coming back. The most important part of my reviews is the product delivered. In order to score high on my reviews the product should be of high quality and satisfying.  

All About Me!

Hello! My name is Amanda Cochran. Currently I am a senior at Illinois State University, majoring in Business Administration. Besides going to school full-time, I also work at a casino as a Cage Shift Manager and intern for Software Company based out of Massachusetts. I grew up in Pekin, IL and graduated high school from Pekin Community High. I have kind of a small family compared to most. I have two older brothers and two nieces and one nephew. I have two cats named Albert and Merlin and one dog named Missy. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, traveling, and catching up on my favorite T.V. shows. What I would like to do after college would be to become CMA certified and get my master’s degree. At this point, I am unsure of what I would like to get my master’s degree in, although I have narrowed it down to either education, because I would like to teach someday, or obtain an MBA. Whenever I do finally make a decision about what I would like my master's degree to be in, I plan on attending a different college besides ISU, so I can experience the different types of teaching methods that are available. I hope to one day achieve a job position that allows me to travel so I can see different parts of the world. I am a very hands on type of person and enjoy being where the action is in business. I cannot stand to be confined to a desk in front of a computer all day. So this is a little about me and a little about where I would like to go in life.