51st Street Speakeasy

Often lovingly referred to as 'The Speak' or 'Speakeasy', this will soon be your next favorite hangout. Located between Western Ave and Classen Circle, the Speakeasy is convenient and close to other bars, should you happen to want to bar hop.

• No Cover
• Smoking and Non Smoking 
• Different Rooms and Bars throughout 
• What I love about the Speakeasy is that there are different rooms one can explore upstairs and down, including the 'Couch Room', a room full of plush couches that are almost always taken. 
• There are 3 different bars, making it easy to get a drink on a busy night. You can also tab out at any bar, meaning, if you start a tab at the main bar and then want to tab out upstairs, it's no problem.
• Friendly bartenders 
• Trivia, Live Music 
• Patio 

Be sure to go on a Thunder game night - whether home or away. There is always a large projector screen set up in the non-smoking bar, making it convenient and comfortable to eat food and chat with friends or make new friends at surrounding tables. 

Also, try the veggie quesadillas. You will not regret it. 

Click here for more information 

Assignment - 10 Secrets for Writing Good Blog Posts

For todays assignment, we were asked to find a site that will help us improve our blogs. I get overwhelmed by reading long posts. I like bullet points and stuff that is quick, simple, and to the point. The article I found was just that. You can look at it by clicking here, but for this purpose of this assignment I will summarize it.

1. DO write about what matters to you.
2. DON'T take a too-formal tone.
3. DO edit yourself.
4. DON'T use tired cliches.
5. DO spell check your posts before you click 'Publish Now."
6. DON'T forget basic principles of good text layout.
7. DO use lists. Most blog readers skim copy rather than read it all the way through.
8. DON'T use the same format in every post.
9. DO create descriptive headlines that let readers know what to expect from your posts.
10. DON'T sweat it.

I plan on using this information, along with the information provided to me in our class lecture today, to improve my blog.

Information Overload

A CLASS-REQUIRED BLOG THAT IS NOT RELATED TO THINGS TO DO IN OKC. 

For class, we looked at the website technorati.com, and read the 'State of the Blogosphere' report from 2011. It was interesting at first, however, it soon became information overload. I enjoy looking at graphs and charts, as I am a very visual person, however, I think I may have looked at about 300 and I still can barely remember what they were all about. They had studied different types of bloggers, whether they were hobbyists, entrepreneur, corporate, etc. I think the thing I found most interesting was the time that people spent blogging. Typically, for a hobbyist (which I guess would define those of us taking this class), the average amount of time spent blogging was 1 to 3 hours a week, and they would post up to 3 blog entries a week. It was interesting to see that those who blogged full time for a corporate (which, I didn't even know you could do that. Please sign me up for that job), spent up to or even over 40 hours a week blogging. Also, studies showed that most who were blogging for a business felt that it tremendously helped the business out. Most bloggers are also male, which was a surprise to me because of the blogs I've heard about or have read, most have been directed towards females. Bloggers were also typically college graduates (which will be me in a few months, thank God). I've often thought about how it would be fun to get paid to blog, but most showed that they would not get paid for advertisements and for product reviews. Another thing I found interesting was that some felt they would only allow advertisements that were in line with the values of their blog. If you ask me, that's just dumb. Money is money, and, no one looks at advertisements any way. Somewhere in the 90% range of bloggers said that if they were reviewing a product, they disclosed that it was a sponsorship or that they were getting money. The other 10%, I'd like to know where there ethics are. Surely they aren't the ones who are concerned with who advertises on their sites - Heck, they'd probably even allow the Westboro Baptist Church or Satan to advertise. 

In all, I felt that the graphs were too much to understand, and, oftentimes, too boring to care, but I'm glad that the information is there and that someone is probably happy with it all. One more thing that I found interesting on the site was the top 100 blogs. Most were corporate, the Huffington Post, or TMZ (gag me with a spoon) but some were blogs that I think belonged to normal people who blogged about their normal lives, and that gives me hope! 

The Other Room

Located next door to the Picasso Cafe in the Paseo, the Other Room offers guests a contemporary lounge-like atmosphere.While it is not very large, as it literally is just another room, guests can feel like VIPs in their own private lounge areas complete with curtains. If you're just wanting to watch the game or grab a quick drink, the bar is also great, with friendly bartenders and fun drinks. On some nights, there is a live band outside in the enclosed patio that connects The Other Room to Picasso Cafe, and guests can warm up by the Chiminea. Be sure to try the large selection of vintage cocktails. Also of interest, the old Egyptian decor left behind by the Hookah bar that once accompanied the space. There is no cover, and the average price is about $4-$6 for a drink.

An Introduction

This blog is a requirement of my 'Blogging for Journalists' class. I'm a Senior Broadcasting student at the University of Central Oklahoma, and after my summer internship with Discover Oklahoma, I've found that my passions lie in exploring the world around me. As a college student, my friends and I don't always have as much time or money as we'd like, so this blog is dedicated to finding those cool (and cheap!) college hangouts. They don't have to be any place fancy, and they certainly aren't in the likes of 'CityWalk' or 'RokBar'. Most of the time they are just hole-in-the-wall hangouts, smoky pubs, or even family friendly spots. If you're a hipster, you'll surely want to follow this blog, at least until I get really popular as a blogger, and then you'll have to stop liking me.