The Town of Pocahontas, Va. became famous last week when it was featured on a BBC America series, “The American Future: A History by Simon Schama.” The four part documentary was filmed during the presidential election of 2008 and takes a look into “the four critical issues facing the United States: war, religious moral fervor, immigration, and the relationship between the expectations of prosperity and the reality of economic and environmental limits,” says BBC America and producer/historian Simon Schama of Columbia University.

Aside from Pocahontas, another area that may look familiar is Doran, also located in Tazewell County. According to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, local historian Tom Childress reported the BBC production team visiting Pocahontas twice, and a small church in Doran once.

Why, you might be asking yourself, were these little towns of Tazewell County selected for a look into America as a whole? Well according to Childress, “They found it to be a place that showed the industrial development of the United States… There’s still plenty in Pocahontas to be saved.” To find out exactly what is to be saved, I guess you would have to have seen the show.

While I myself have not visited Tazewell County, I’m now thinking that maybe if I want to know what America is really all about, I should probably make the trip. Who knew Southwest Virginia would become so famous? Watch out Hollywood, here comes Tazewell County!

 - Kristina Ticknor  

http://www.bdtonline.com/local/local_story_019204350.html

I was recently intrigued by a blog that I found on the Roanoke Times website that discussed the new possibility of receiving coupons with your cell phone.  After my initial reading, I was led to believe that the coupons were “zap[ped]…directly to your phone,” but after reading about the process more on the company’s website I found that wasn’t the case.

The cell phone needs to have access to the mobile web, basically internet on your phone, unfortunately, that service tends to cost much extra.  I wonder why you can’t just have the option to print a physical copy of the receipt and use that at the store.  The only thing that the website says you have to do is show the clerk the picture of the ad on your phone.  There did not appear to be any barcode involved, and what’s to keep people from photoshopping their own ads and using them at these stores.

There is another option that doesn’t involve just showing the picture of the ad.  Kroger is one of the first grocery store chains to tie their savings card in with the website.  Apparently, you can send the coupons you find online to your card, and then they are applied from there when you check out.  I think while this could lead to success later, the process just isn’t mainstream enough for me right now and feels a little sketchy.

So while this particular use of cell phone technology doesn’t interest me, I am interested to see what else people will come up with.  One commenter on the post said that in Europe you could use your cell phone to make a purchase from a vending machine.  That one seems awesome to me because I’m never carrying around any change with me, and some days not even any cash.  I have also heard about saving airline tickets to your cell phone and then scanning the image to get access to your flight.

Maybe one day I will buy into one of these new services, but for now I’m content on waiting for my current cell phone contract to expire so I can more on to a new smart phone.

–Jonathan VanDerveer

http://blogs.roanoke.com/rtblogs/storefront/2009/01/15/coupons-move-to-your-cell-phone/

The Lyric Theatre brought the Inauguration in Washington to Blacksburg, as residents of the area and students of Virginia Tech exploded in excitement over the live showing of Inauguration festivities starting at 10:00 a.m. Located in downtown Blacksburg, the Lyric is a nonprofit theater that shows a mix of independent films as well as Blockbuster hits. The televised Presidential Inauguration was shown in return for donations of checks or non-perishable food items to the Food Pantry.

Had I not been at work and enjoying the live showing of the Inauguration from the comfort of my own computer, I would have loved to be a part of this event. It helps bring the community together to witness one of the most amazing landmarks in history, while at the same time giving back to the community. It seems only right that the profits of this event would be given with the same message Obama brings – that of hope to communities in need.   

According to the Lyric Executive Director, Susan Mattingly, more than 400 people were estimated to arrive by the time the festivities officially began at 11:30 a.m. I can only imagine the sounds of elation as the face of the 44^th President of the United States was broadcast to a packed house of Virginia Tech students, all of whom were excited for both the start of a new semester, but also the start of a new Administration.

Also of note is that one of Virginia Tech’s interpreters from the office of Services for Students with Disabilities was honored to be an interpreter today in Washington for the Inauguration. According to the Southwest Times, Jerome Thomas, a native of Pulaski County stood among the thousands as one of 30 interpreters for the day’s events. While I have seen the joy interpreters get out of interpreting for their favorite singer on stage, I can’t imagine the excitement Thomas felt interpreting the words spoken by Obama in what will be remembered as the inauguration speech of the first African American president to take the oath of office. Thomas also served as an interpreter on April 17, 2007 after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, and in February of 2008 for former president Bill Clinton at a political rally also on the Virginia Tech campus.

–Kristina Ticknor

I love it when January rolls around and my friends who go to the gym start complaining about how busy it was.  I always just tell them to wait until February and then everything will be back to normal.  It seems like I have that conversation every year, about how everyone is making their New Year’s resolutions and will fall back into their old habits by February.  The problem is that people just try to make too big of a change at once.

Keeping with the spirit of new beginnings, I found this article today on eating healthy.  Just while looking at the meals being described and I feel like I’m reading a starter’s guide to being a vegetarian, and since it’s resolution month, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of these kinds of events during January.  I’m all for eating healthy, but some things just go too far.  I feel like smaller portions of meat would be more approachable instead of grazing in a field.

The fact is that we live an increasingly sedentary lifestyle:  sitting in a car on the way to work, sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, sitting in a car on the way back to work, sitting at home and watching television, lying in bed sleeping all night.  Sure, this doesn’t apply to every single person, but I’d guess I just described at least 20 percent of the population’s schedule.

So while eating differently may be for some people, I’d rather stick to the food I enjoy and just find ways to be more active in life.

–Jonathan Vanderveer

With 2008 behind us, what better time to sit back and reflect on the important things in life like…what liquor we drank last year.  Last year ABC stores sold “9.2 million gallons of liquor… [or] 795,412,236 shots…enough to fill 14 Olympic-size swimming pools…and still have [some] left over.  Being a senior in college, I am contractually obliged by my stereotype to find this data fascinating.  But after reflecting upon my liquor bottle trophy case on top of my kitchen cabinets, I find that the statistics match up with me pretty nicely.

Vodka won Virginia with liquor sales by volume, and I certainly do have my fair share of bottles.  Aristocrat was the leading brand of vodka, which may be surprising since it’s the lowest on a tier of taste (at least in my book), but it is also the cheapest which definitely gave it the win.  You won’t find any Aristocrat in my trophy case, but I do have a modest mix of Skyy and Absolut (there would have been Grey Goose too, but I left the bottle in someone’s hotel room during summer vacation).

The winner in top dollars spent; however, goes to whiskey, with Jack Daniel’s (my other favorite) coming in first.  The article says that vodka drinkers tend to stay vodka drinkers, and whiskey drinkers tend to stay whiskey drinkers, and I guess that would be true with older drinkers, but I enjoy trying as many different drinks as I can find right now.  I even made it a point to ask for some bar tools so I could step my drinking game up this semester.

And with a new year beginning, I feel like now is the perfect time to start trying new things.

–Jonathan VanDerveer