Salt City Ice Cream Recall

***IMPORTANT NOTICE TO SALT CITY ICE CREAM CUSTOMERS***

It has been determined that our “Syracreamsicle” ice cream flavor may contain salmonella. As soon as this was discovered, we issued an immediate recall for retailers and stopped production of ALL of our ice creams. A full inspection of our facility will be done to ensure that all of our products are safe for our customers.

While no one has been affected, we urge our customers to take precautionary measures to ensure their safety. We ask those who have bought one of the potentially contaminated products to bring them back to a retailer for a full refund. 

We have been working with the FDA ever since we discovered the problem to correctly address this issue and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Our greatest concern is our customers’ happiness and health, and we apologize for putting that into jeopardy.

Salt City Ice Cream strives to provide our customers with products that are of the highest quality and we are sorry for falling short of this mission. If you have any questions or further concerns, please e-mail us at info@saltcityicecream.com or call 1-800-555-1234.

 

Genealogy with Angela Persico

Angela Persico is a fellow blogger who blogs over at http://angelablogslibraryschool.wordpress.com/. Her blog is about genealogy and she posts lots of helpful tips on how to get started! I got the chance to ask her a few questions on how she got started with her own genealogy conquests and what she’s found so far from it.

What got you interested in genealogy?
A: I kind of got interested in genealogy by accident. Both of my grandfathers were full-blooded Italian, so Italy has always been a dream destination of mine. I was looking into how to become a dual citizen and found that in order to do so, your ancestor(s) must not have been naturalized after coming to the US (thereby giving up their Italian citizenship). My father is less than interested in genealogy, so I decided to look into my mother’s grandfather who came to the US from Alberobello, Italy. We had no idea if he had been naturalized, so I ended up joining Ancestry.com to see if I could figure it out. We also had no idea what year he came to the US, so I had to figure that out first. His whole life then became a really fun mystery to solve, because it turned out that we knew hardly anything about him except for some less than credible stories passed down by his children. After just a few searches on Ancestry.com I was hooked.

How long have you been interested in genealogy?
A: I became interested in it about 2 years ago. I had just graduated from college, had no job, and was looking for something to do! I’ve had my ups and downs with it and have given it up for months at a time out of frustration or because I thought there was nothing more to learn, but whenever I come back I seem to find something new about a family member that I never caught before. When I get sick of working on my own family history, I try to work on my friends’ who seem to have more interesting families than I do!

What have you learned while tracing back your own family?
A: Just in general, I’ve learned that I have Italian, Slovak, Polish and Swiss roots. Unfortunately, I don’t appear to be related to anyone famous…All of my ancestors came to the US in the 1890s-early 1900s and seemed to stay in the same general area their whole lives. Aside from them being my family, they aren’t all that interesting, but there have been a few scandals. My great grandfather (whom I mentioned previously) owned a restaurant in Utica, NY and I’ve found newspaper articles of him being arrested 2 or 3 times for selling alcohol during prohibition. Another good one is an article I found about my great grandfather having my great grandmother arrested on the night before their wedding because she stole $75 from him. And they still got married! On my mother’s side I’ve managed to trace my family back to the 1700s in both Italy and Slovakia (thank you, FamilySearch.org and the local Family History Center!), I believe something like 11 generations for one line. So far, they have all come from relatively small towns and stayed in the same place for centuries, making them pretty easy to trace. But while my great aunt swears we come from Italian royalty, I’ve yet to find any truth to it.

What do you hope your readers will get out of your blog?
A: One of the main reasons I want to blog about genealogy is to discuss my family and my research and hopefully connect with distant relatives or people with ancestors from the same towns as mine. I plan to discuss my experiences, my triumphs and disappointments in my research, as well as tips and suggestions for doing your own genealogy research. I hope that readers will find it an interesting and enjoyable read, but also feel like they’ve come away with greater knowledge on the topic of genealogy that can be applied to their own research. I would also love for there to be a sense of community and have it be a place where readers can come with questions and concerns about their research and be able to provide advice to me and others. Basically, I hope that we can all learn from each other and become better genealogy researchers because of it.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found out while doing genealogy research?
A: I’ve done a pretty extensive family tree for my boyfriend and have traced his surname back to the 1630s when his 10x great grandfather William Godfrey came to Watertown, Massachusetts from England. Shortly thereafter he helped settle the town of Hampton, New Hampshire. While that is definitely interesting, the coolest (and perhaps creepiest) thing I’ve ever found was in an old book about Hampton, where it discussed how one of William’s grandsons Moses Godfrey was killed by suspected witchcraft as an infant in 1680 and the investigation that followed. We’re actually going to visit the town next week to see what else we can learn!

Be sure to check out Angela’s blog and start your own genealogy journey! 🙂

5 Things To Engage and Grow My Community

My topic is baking, of course! Here is what I propose to do to engage my audience and grow my community on this blog:

1. Consistently post good, quality recipes, as well as tips on methods, tools, etc., including pictures.

Photo Credit: Food Network

2. Ask my fans what kinds of recipes they’d like to see, either via a survey or asking them to comment, and then deliver those types of recipes! I’d like to have them feel involved and considered.

Photo Credit: Shiny Moon Studio

3. Reader Recipe Day! Every week, I’ll ask my fans to submit recipes of their own and then I’ll randomly choose one to try and  post about it on the blog.

Photo Credit: Gooseberry Patch

4. Share recipes, articles, etc. on social networking sites. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr. I’ll use them all!

Photo Credit: Customer Insight Group

5. Utilize categories linked for different types of dessert recipes (cookies, cakes, etc.) so that readers can more easily find what they’re looking for.

New Clues in Amelia Earhart’s Disappearance

The question of what happened to aviator Amelia Earhart and her plane may be answered with new clues that surfaced from the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery. According to them, 57 previously dismissed radio signals have been found to be credible as coming from Earhart’s aircraft. Earhart attempted an around-the-world flight in 1937 and mysteriously disappeared that July.

Photo Credit: Biography.com

The announcement comes with a theory that Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan, and her aircraft landed on Nikumaroro Island (previously Gardner Island). It is suggested that Earhart landed on the island and would have made distress calls, but her plane was swept away by the tide. Earhart and Noonan are thought to have parished as castaways on the island.

According to the theory, the U.S. Navy flew over Nikumaroo Island, but gave up on the area after not seeing Earhart’s plane. Distress calls made after the search were dismissed as bogus and ignored until now.

An expedition to Nikumaroo Island is set to depart in on July 2nd of next year, marking the 75th anniversary of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. It will be the ninth expedition for the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery.

Source: CNN

Fourth of July Recipe Round-Up

Summer is approaching fast in all its humid glory and before you know it, the 4th will be upon us! Of course you’ll probably attend cookouts and see some fireworks, but have you thought about what you’re going to bake? Don’t worry…I got you covered. Here are links to some great Independence Day-themed recipes!

Hidden American Flag Cake

Photo Credit: ePhemora Studio

This is probably one of the coolest cakes I’ve ever seen. So crafty!

Blueberry Raspberry Pie

Photo Credit: Betty Crocker

The perfect patriotic pie!

Fireworks Cookies

Photo Credit: Martha Stewart

These look pretty, festive, and delicious. It’s a win-win…win.

Bomb Pop Cupcakes

Photo Credit: Confessions of a Cookbook Queen

Remember Bomb Pops? They are a staple from my youth and I still love them to this day! A summer classic turned cupcake. 🙂

4th of July Cake Pops

Photo Credit: My Juice Cup

Little bite-sized cakes decorated with festive red, white, and blue accents…or strategically placed together to make a flag!

Giant S’Mores Cookies

Photo Credit: Picky Palate

We can’t forget about the chocolate goodies! S’mores are a perfect and classic summer treat. Make them in cookie form for an interesting twist!

Classic Flag Cake

Photo Credit: Smitten Kitchen

An oldie, but a goodie. This cake is super simple to make. Just bake and then decorate with berries!

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There you have it. Some awesome recipes to help you celebrate the 4th! Enjoy. 🙂

5 Twists on the Chocolate Chip Cookie

Who doesn’t love a classic chocolate chip cookie? I know I sure do. But there may be times when you want to add a little something extra into the mix. And so, I bring to you…

Five Twists on the Chocolate Chip Cookie

1. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yeah, that’s right. You heard me. One of the most divine combinations known to mankind in the form of an alternate chocolate chip cookie. Take your basic peanut butter cookie recipe and throw in some chocolate chips!

Photo Credit: verybestbaking.com

2. Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

If mixing mint and chocolate is your cup of tea (it’s definitely not mine), then here is the perfect cookie for you. Take your standard chocolate chip cookie recipes, but then add in some mint chips!

Photo Credit: bradleykitchen.blogspot.com

3. Chocolate Chip & Oats Cookies

Oats make me think of oatmeal, which makes me think of breakfast. So putting oats in your chocolate chip cookies means it’s that you can eat cookies for breakfast, right? I think that’s pretty sound logic. Add in some oats for a slight and crunchy twist to your average CCC.

Photo Credit: athertonappliance.com

4. Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Are you a fan of chocolate-covered strawberries? Are you open to having them in cookie form? Honestly…cookies form is the best way to have things, if you ask me. Plus…they’ve got fruit in them, so that means they’re healthy, right? For these, you take a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and just add a tablespoon of honey and some freeze dried strawberries!

Photo Credit: bakingbites.com

5. Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is by far my favorite variation on the chocolate chip cookie. Two cookies in one?! Come on, people. It’s like going to cookie heaven with each bite. Make your cookie dough and then wrap some dough around the Oreos. But wait…why stop there? You can also stuff your chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter cups or any other type of candy! Note: They will be pretty big (but who’s complaining?).

Photo Credit: beckybakes.net

So there you have it! Five new delicious types of chocolate chip cookies to try. Good luck and happy baking! 🙂

Week 1 Assignment- Blog Platforms for Certain Businesses

1. A giant coffee retailer looking to connect with customers.

I would recommend Blogger or WordPress so that they can have a more professional look, but still have customers leave comments and even participate in giveaways. Because a lot of people already use Google, Blogger would work well for a big company. When logged  into Google, Google-using customers will be more likely to see the company’s posts since everything is connected.

2.A photographer interested in making their work go viral.

Tumblr would be my recommendation for this blogger. It is heavily image and graphics based, which is perfect for a photograph. Plus, its users are constantly reblogging and sharing the information posted in other people’s Tumblr blogs, so there is a high chance that the photos the blogger posts will go viral and be shared with thousands of readers.

3. A Syracuse Crunch hockey blogger looking to write daily updates.

This blogger will want something really professional and completely customizable, so I might recommend WordPress. WordPress also has thousands of widgets available (more than Blogger does), which would be beneficial to a sports-related blog. There are tons of sports widgets that can be incorporated into the blog which can give readers information than the average blog.

Week 1 Assignment- Compare and Contrast

Blogger vs. Tumblr

So after months and months of creepin’ on other peoples’ blogs, you’ve decided that you’d like to start your own and gain your own following of fellow creepers. So which platform should you use? Let’s take a look at two popular choices: Blogger and Tumblr.

Let’s start with Blogger…

A major pro of Blogger is the fact that it is free to use. It is fairly easy to use, with a user-friendly composing screen and process. It’s really easy to add and edit HTML coding and there are plenty of themes to choose from to customize the look of your blog.

Blogger is a part of Google, which comes with both some positives and negatives. The positive is that if you already use other Google products such as YouTube, Gmail, etc., then it’s a breeze to sync everything up and keep everything all in one place and under one name. The tricky part is when you don’t want to use the same name or e-mail for all of your different Google products. For instance, when I’m signed into Blogger to manage my blog, I can’t check my Gmail because they’re under separate accounts. Leaving comments on blogs gets a little glitchy too when Google wants you to sign in with your Google ID and then decides you can’t comment as your blog account…even though they are both a part of the same account.

One negative that I’ve found about Blogger is that if you run a blog that posts a lot of pictures, you’re going to run out of storage space pretty quickly. When this happens, you’re forced to either sign up with different image hosting sites until you run out of room on those, and then eventually have to end up paying for image hosting on sites like Flickr. (Trust me…I know). Another negative is the actual way you add photos to your Blogger post. You have to add them one by one. And when you add them, they all get uploaded to the same spot in the post, so you have to manually click and drag each picture to where you want it in your post. This sounds a little time consuming, but not that big of a deal, right? Wrong. For some reason, pictures like to decide to not move where you want them to or mess with your text alignment for reasons unbeknownst to you. This process is made easier when you add the pictures as HTML from other sites like Flickr, but even then you are still forced to copy and paste each code one by one and place them in the coding in the exact place you want them.

Now onto Tumblr…

Like Blogger, Tumblr is completely free to use. It is also easy to customize. If your blog is heavily picture or graphics based and you’re looking for a place that is really social and viral, then Tumblr would be a good platform to use. It’s super easy to upload pictures to Tumblr and if you’re looking to get your posts shared a lot, then it’d be a good platform to use. A lot of what Tumblr is is people sharing and “reblogging” other peoples’ content. For this reason, Tumblr is great for spreading your content. You are able to add tags to your posts so that they show up when people search for those tags (Blogger has this too, but there is a limit on how many you can use per post).

Because Tumblr is highly social and features a lot of regurgitated information, it may be hard for people to actually find your posts amongst all the hullabaloo. Like Twitter, Tumblr has a feed that is constantly updated. It is easy for your post to get lost in the mix of it all.

So which should you use?

If you are more of an entertainment-based blog and are looking to just post funny or inspirational images, Tumblr would be the best place to do it. Tumblr is big on things like themed blogs and memes. The Tumblr audience is looking for these types of posts that they can reblog and share with their friends and followers. More images, less text.

Blogger is directed more towards the serious blogger. It offers more advanced editing tools and customization options such as widgets that can be added to your layout. The Blogger community is still social, but is not highly based in being a social network in the way that Tumblr is. Bloggers that use Blogger are not particularly looking to regurgitate information and share posts from other blogs, they are more likely trying to run a blog that displays and advertises their own content.

Some examples…

Here are some examples of Tumblr blogs. You can see that the content has been reblogged hundreds of times and is likely not the work of the blogger who runs the Tumblr page. They are very graphics based with mostly pictures, gifs, and the like featured.

http://frickyeah1990s.tumblr.com/

http://feckyeahmemes.tumblr.com/

Here are some examples of blogs run on Blogger. They are usually more rich in content and more likely to contain original content written by the blogger his or herself.

http://www.beautifully-pure.com/

http://www.jennifhsieh.com/

Week 1 Assignment

1. Bill’s Bakery: Bill’s Cupcakery, http://www.billscupcakery.com

Because the name of the bakery is just Bill’s, I thought it’d be pretty hard to find a domain name and blog title that wasn’t already taken. I decided to use a somewhat made-up word instead of something like bakery or cakes to set the blog aside from other places that may have similar names. Cupcakery is catchy and stands out, so that makes it easy to remember, especially when the bakery specializes in cupcakes.

Pros: Name of blog and domain name match and are both pretty short in length, making it easy to remember and providing consistency. They do not contain articles or superfluous words. Cupcakery is a made up word, so it sounds a little different, but you still know what the blog is going to be about and what the bakery specializes in. 

Cons: Location is still a mystery until you actually read the blog. It may also be assumed that the bakery only makes cupcakes and nothing else.

2. Fang Films: http://www.fangfilmshorror.com, Fang Films’ Horror Studio

I chose to be pretty basic and somewhat generic with this one because the genre of horror is so vast that it’d be easy for the company to get lost amongst it all. The name of the company should be in the domain name and the blog title so that people know which studio the blog is for. If it didn’t have the company’s name, it’d be harder to recognize what exactly the blog is going to be about – horror movies in general, or horror movies specifically from this studio?

Pros: There is consistency in the domain name and the blog title. It is pretty obvious what the blog is going to be about from the title, so the reader is not necessarily surprised. Both the domain name and the title are easily remembered, especially since they have the company’s name in them.

Cons: The titles are pretty boring, and not particularly catchy.

3. Happy Pup Doggy Day Care: http://www.happypupsathappypup.com, Happy Pup Doggy Day Care

I chose this domain name because I like the repetition of “happy pup”. It makes it a little more catchy than just the name of the company and also hints that it’s a positive place to take your pet to. I used the name of the company for the blog title just so that people know it’s for Happy Pup Doggy Day Care and not another company.

Pros: The domain name is a bit catchy and also includes part of the company’s name. It suggests that the customers’ dogs will enjoy being at the day care. The title is the name of the business to be sure that the reader knows where their pups will be happy! 

Cons: It may be a little easier than usual to misspell the domain name. It can be confusing to tell to people, which could lead to them hearing it wrong and typing it in wrong. 

Why Am I Taking IST 400/600?

Welcome! My name is Sara, and I have way too many interests to count. To narrow it down a bit, I’ll just name a few. I enjoy fashion (particularly vintage fashion), photography, writing, and baking. I actually started off as a creative writing major when I started my undergrad career in college, but ended up switching to psychology. I have been running my own personal lifestyle and fashion blog called Swing The Day Away since 2010 where I am able to combine all of my main interests and hobbies. I post about my daily outfits, adventures, and baking recipes using both text and photos.

I decided to take this class because I am a blogger and am always trying to learn how to be a better one. I’m always trying to improve my blog in any way I can. I just recently had a major makeover done to the layout of my blog and have been taking on sponsors! I find the blogosphere to be such an inspiring and amazing community and i love being a part of it, so of course I’d love to learn even more about it. I’d like to learn techniques for helping a blog continue to grow and adapt. I’d also like to learn more ways to earn money from my blog.