El Plaza De Yakima

Besides weed, the Yakima Herald Republic's favorite topic of discussion is the new plaza the city wants to build downtown in the Olive Garden/Capitol Theater/Orion parking lot. Judging by the number of obstacles they seem to be having, along with the large amount of letters to the editor condemning the project, you would think the plaza would be an impossibility. At some point in time, it seems like the plaza has ceased to be a question of "will they" and is now a question of "when will they."

Like most of the idiocy that goes on in this town (the underpasses, the backwards facing and far-too-small Red Robin) I'm not a fan. I'm not sure what exactly the city thinks this plaza will accomplish, but they sure want it bad. I don't see why. There's already a plaza that's been on that lot for 13 years that they plan on relocating to make room for the new one. Where they want to put the old one, I cannot say. There is literally nowhere in town I can think of that has the room for all of the junk "art" from the old plaza. If I were to take a guess, it would be that the city of Crackima is probably going to ruin one of my favorite parks by sticking it there.

If the city takes away that parking lot in favor of a canal and some concrete I'm gonna be pissed. It is already the hardest place to park in the entire town (need I mention that they just built another restaurant that utilizes the lot?). And I, for one, do not want to walk a couple of blocks, potentially in the snow or with my 89-year-old grandmother, just to get to get an overpriced raspberry lemonade. Anyone who thinks that spending at least $14 million on a plaza (you know they're gonna need more money) will be worth it is kidding themselves. A plaza will contribute nothing to this town, and the only people it will attract are druggies looking for a spot to make their deals.

-Matthew

The Great Uniform Debate

An interesting topic came up in Communications the other day. My teacher was trying to get us to talk about "controversial issues" but since my entire Communications class hates to communicate, no one really engaged in the discussion. That is, until she brought up the subject of school uniforms.

Now this is something I know about all too well. I wore uniforms for a whole 12 years. Pretty sure that's some sort of world record. Every day from 1st grade through senior year I was forced into the same clothes as everyone else by overlords who attempted to take overthrow the world my private schools. the grade school uniforms at St. Joe's were the worst. White polo and blue pants ugh. By the end of the day no one's shirt was clean. Sometimes the stains from the playground couldn't even come out so the little brats would be running around with polos that were a lovely shade of murky grey. Middle school got slightly better. We could wear 1 of 4 different colored polos (navy blue, green, white, or light blue), and either khaki or navy blue pants. Not sure why they waited until middle school to give us more uniform privileges. I liked to think of them as a slightly reward for enduring 5 years of torment. The worst part about the St. Joes' dress code is that we couldn't wear any cargo pants or shorts. Considering actual dress pants are expensive and not all that available in the boys' department at Target, my mom would just
~On a side note I still can't wear polo shirts without getting sick to my stomach.
 ~~On another side note the whole no cargo rule might be a factor in why I wear cargo shorts pretty much every day from March to October.

High school was even slightly less strict. At Westpark, we had to wear any color of  t-shirt, polo, or button down with the school logo on it (available exclusively through Lands' End). Naturally I stayed far far away from the polos and only got t-shirts. For pants we originally had to wear
khaki, black, or blue pants or shorts (cargo included!), but a lot of kids just wore jeans every day so Pastor Colleen changed the rule.

Despite what a lot of people think, uniforms weren't that bad.But do I think public schools should adopt them? Emm no. Most of the people who say uniforms should be instated probably didn't have to wear uniforms as kids. Wearing uniforms does not make all kids equal. Everyone still knows who the rich kids are and who's buying their uniforms from a Goodwill rack. Uniforms don't stomp out bullying or stop kids from picking on each other for things other than clothes. Dressing alike doesn't increase grades or stop little boys from harassing their female classmates. These are myths. If anything, uniforms are even worse for poorer families. Those lands end t-shirts were like $20 a pop! And even Wally World's dress pants ain't cheep.

Take it from someone who wore uniforms, and lived to tell the tale.

-Matthew

*note: I am in no way affiliated with St. Joseph/Marquette or Westpark Christian Academy and everything I say (as always) should be taken with a grain of salt.

Muffy=Me

Group Project Aftermath

I guess 2014 is the year of the group projects for me. I've had three so far in Psych and one in Communications. College certainly hasn't changed my opinions of them, I still can't stand them. For our group project in Communications we had to have a panel discussion about a "controversial issue." My group chose prostitution, and my job was to argue the cons of legalizing it. Researching the cons of prostitution was actually somewhat challenging because apparently most people think it should be legal. So anyway we do our presentation and I was up last and I thought I did a pretty good job. The goal of our presentation was just to show the two sides, not anything else. Well, somehow my highly opinionated teacher didn't get the memo. She gets up to the front of the classroom and starts trying to change my mind about legalization of prostitution and I'm just sitting there like what the heck. I'm just hoping this doesn't affect my grade.

-Matthew

October 13th Update

Might be a strange entry from me, but I figured I should update. As much as I wish I have been coming on here to write, I haven't been. I could tell you I have been super busy with school, but that would be a lie. No, the real reason I haven't been posting is because of severe sleep deprivation and all the wonderful side effects that come with it (i.e. headaches). Going to the doctor tomorrow, hopefully that will help somehow. When I don't sleep I can't focus on anything. Makes homework impossible and paying attention in class almost as hard.

I'll be back soon

-Matthew

I Be Done

Last day of summer quarter was today. I call it summer quarter because that is its proper name and "summer school" sounds like I was being punished instead of choosing to be there..... Anyway, I take my final on Tuesday and then I am free until school starts in late September. School took up a lot of time, but it's better than cramming another class into next year's schedule. I will be continuing at YVCC and I'll be taking psychology, art appreciation, and communications (necessary for AA :P) for fall quarter. I am still trying to figure out what career path I want to take, but no education is ever a waste and an AA degree allows me to go in whatever direction I choose. Thank you everyone for any support you have given me in my first year of college. The transition from high school to college was easier than I expected, but that doesn't mean I didn't have my share of late nights, early morning cram sessions, high levels of caffeine consumption, and feelings of complete loneliness. But at the end of the day it was a great experience for me, and it has been the first thing in my life that has ever truly felt like something I have accomplished all alone.

-Matthew

Deal With It Jerry

Yesterday I was driving home and this guy in a black car (I'm calling him Jerry) was tailing me. The speed limit was only 25 mph and he was at least going 30, but boy did I stick it to him. Instead of speeding up and letting him get his way I kept on going 25. There's no way I'm just gonna let Jerry get his way and risk a ticket just because he was in a bad mood. The worst part was he kept on following me and then another car got behind him, and for a second I thought they were either undercover cops out to get me or recruiters from the Illuminati. What I really need is a device on the back of my car that projects messages via telepathy so I can tell people like Jerry: "I'm not gonna slow down deal with it."

Score:
Matthew - 1
Jerry - 0

My Photo Blog

I started a second blog where I can post some pictures that I take that I don't consider good enough to put anywhere else. I believe deviantart would call these "scraps." Anyway, you can find me over at: http://matthewsphotoadventures.blogspot.com/ take a look.

-Matthew

Root Beer

1 hour later.......
and I still haven't got my root beer.

Art Show Mishaps

Last quarter at the end of drawing class we all had to submit a picture we did during the quarter. I was going to put in one I did of this girl that actually turned out pretty good. When I pinned it up to the board my teacher told me to submit my self portrait instead because it had more "character." Because of finals I wasn't able to put much work into the self portrait and it shows, big time. The eyes are too big, the lips are too small, the hair has absolutely no texture, it's a mess. The only good thing about it is that I decided to include my cat Ariel in it and she actually turned out pretty good. One of my photographs did make it in too and I was proud of how well that looked, but I'm still embarrassed over the whole self portrait thing.
Oh and my teacher told me about a punk band called Fartz.

-Matthew

Nothing Feels Better Than Feeling The Love

Sitting here procrastinating doing my homework and I have that song from That's so Raven that Cory's band sang that went "Can you feel it? Can you feel the love? Nothing feels better than feeling the love?" When I start my record label, the first thing I'm going to do is sign a James Brown-esque soul singer and have them cover that song. Instant hit I can just feel it.

I have to read The Aneid by Virgil for my Roman Civilization class and it is seriously freaking me out because I thought I would be done with long-winded "classics" after I managed to get out alive from Pastor Gary's class. At least this one is semi interesting (here's looking at you Red Badge of Courage). I wish there was a movie version so me and Amanda B could watch that, fill out Mr. Walker's questionaire and be done with the thing. Oh well.

On a side note my grandma has a case of bronchitis and when my dad told me I started laughing and he freaked out at me and started telling me how serious it is and how she could get pneumonia and die. She's almost healed by the way. When I told Angelica she thought I was joking. No one else will admit it, but I know she got bronchitis from when the Westpark chimney exploded a few months back. The smoke probably got her back then and slowly worked its way into her lungs. It better hurry up and go away because she ain't got time for it.

-Matthew

Taryn's Senior Pictures

Last Wednesday while I was on spring break, I had the honor of taking Taryn's senior pictures. Taryn is the lone senior this year at WCA. She is one of the kindest and strongest people I know. We were really limited on time and only went to 2 locations: Randall Park and the Harmond Center. My friends Allie and Angelica did her hair and makeup and were my henchmen for the day (even though they spent most of their time frolicking around the park).

We borrowed Allie's leather jacket.

 

There they are. I'm no professional, but I still like to dabble. Hope everyone enjoys.

-Matthew

More Bad Casting More Angry Matthew

So since the whole Ben Affleck thing (which is still awful and I'm really sorry because I feel the quality of that post was quite low) there have been tons of new casting announcements for different comic book movies. Let's not waste any time and dive right in!

To start off we have Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I just wanna ask why they are cramming Wonder Woman into a Superman/Batman movie? If you're gonna do Superman and Batman DO Superman and Batman. If they wanted to make a Justice League movie they should have made a Justice League movie. Up to this point Wonder Woman hasn't had a major big-screen adaptation and she has one of the best origin stories out there that (unlike Bats and Supy) has not been explored all that much. As for the actress, I haven't seen her in anything, so I can't judge her acting skills. I guess she could look the part in costume. Although I am afraid what they'll do to the costume.....

Next on the table is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. This one really baffled me. Lex Luthor is supposed to be an older, successful, very muscular supergenuis. Jesse Eisenberg played the lead in the Facebook movie. Let that sink in. I think there are a lot of great older actors out there who could've played Lex *cough* Bruce Willis. I even heard Denzel Washington (Lex was totally a brother in the Justice League cartoon). I wouldn't even be opposed to this unlike some race swaps, but we'll get to that later.... Overall though, I don't think he'll be able to pull it off. He just doesn't scream supervillian to me. I'm seriously not sure what the people behind this movie are thinking.

Third we have something that's been sort of under the radar because of all these other announcements (and the one I was most excited about): Ant-Man. Simply put Ant-Man is my favorite Avenger. Yes, you hear me. Not Hulk, not Iron Man, not Squirrel Girl, Ant-Man. He has such a great story with his mental health struggles, his relationship with Wasp, creating Ultron, etc. On a side note Ultron will unfortunately apparently have something to do with Iron Man :/ Well instead of going with the original Ant-Man they are instead focusing on the 2nd Ant-Man Scott Lang. The original Ant-Man will still be featured and will be played by (get this) Michael Douglas. I'm hugely disappointed in the direction they are taking, but I'm also hoping they don't give attributes of Hank Pym to Scott Lang.

We have now come to the Fantastic Four. I am starting to think the people behind these movies actually WANT to make people mad. I'm not even sure why they are rebooting the Fantastic Four in the first place. Yes, the first one was pure camp and the theatrical reboots a few years back weren't the best. But those films are still fairly recent in everyone's mind. There are so many comic book characters out there that haven't even gotten mentioned in a film or only played a small part. Aquaman anyone? I don't see why it is even necessary to reboot a superhero film franchise, especially in the middle of the hugely successful Marvel Cinematic Universe. Anyway, the cast is full of a bunch of people I've never heard of. The part that everyone is picking up on is that the Human Torch is going to be played by a black man. Now, comic movies do this all the time for example Nick Fury and Kingpen. It has bothered me to some extent, not because I'm racist, but because I am a source material purist. But the part that bothers me the most about this is that the Invisible Woman and Human Torch are brother and sister. Are they going to be adopted? If they do that they'll probably hook up or something superawk which will make Stan Lee cry. I don't understand why they didn't cast a black woman as the Invisible Woman. On top of that I read somewhere that the woman playing the Invisible Woman wasn't even that great of an actress.....
Anyway.... that's all for now.

-Matthew

MY Top 13 Worst Songs of 2013

I know.... it's really late.  Everything is 100% my opinion.

10. Jay-Z & Justin Timberlake - "Holy Grail"
9. Blake Shelton feat. Pistol Annies - "Boys Round Here"
8. Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - "I Love It"
7. Migos - "Versace"
6. Miley Cyrus - "We Can't Stop"
5. Major Lazer feat. Bruno Mars, 2 Chainz, Tyga, & Mystic - "Bubble Butt"
4. YG feat. Jeezy & Rich Homie Quan- "My N****"
3. Robin Thicke feat. Pharrel & T.I. - "Blurred Lines"
2. Maejor Ali feat. Juicy J & Justin Bieber - "Lolly"
1. Will.I.Am. feat. Justin Bieber - "#thatPower"

I'm Back at School and Amy Rose is Still Loca

Well today I went back to school after about a month off. Going back to school at college is kind of weird because unlike high school, you don't just go back and everything's the same you have to start all over. New classes, new teachers, new people. Luckily, I have Amanda B (sadly the B does not stand for Bynes) in Anthropology with me. I gotta say I think I'm gonna like Anthropology. The teacher has a large glass case full of skulls so there's that... I went to the book store during break, spent 10 minutes looking for my books, then wasted 30 minutes in the world's longest line, just to get to the register and forget my card number. That was not a pleasant experience. I start Art tomorrow, kind of nervous and excited. I hope it isn't too hard. I also don't have any supplies for that class yet so I hope that works out. Gotta brave the book store again tomorrow grr...... Better get back to my homework and listening to Simon and Garfunkel.

Also, for anyone that thinks I exaggerate about Amy, I don't. She likes to bang her head on walls just because. If she was a human, she would most definitely be institutionalized by now. Fortunately for her she's a cat so she ain't got nothing to worry about.

-Matthew

My Take On Bronies

If there's one phenomenon taking the world by storm these days it's My Little Pony. Everyone and their cat (not including Ariel, she's very anti-Pony) seems to be going gaga for these little creatures. My Little Pony has been around since the 80's, the franchise has spawned 4 television series', tons of toys, and the world's most annoying theme song. As a kid I never had any interest in them (shocking I know), but if I were to suddenly get sucked into the world of Ponyville today as a 19-year-old straight guy I wouldn't be alone. As matter-of-fact a large portion of the My Little Pony franchise today is made up of the demographic that I just described. Yes you read that correctly, lots and lots of teenage boys love My Little Pony. Dubbing themselves "Bronies" these fans make music, homemade toys, fan art, and even attend conventions wearing MLP t-shirts and costumes. Now, I'm usually not one to judge people based on their interests, but I have to say I don't understand it.

My Little Pony is made for little girls. When I say My Little Pony is made for little girls it is literally made for little girls. The maturity level of this show is slightly above that of Barney and Sesame Street. The characters names include Twilight Sparkles, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Additionally, there is not a single male pony among the main cast and hardly any in the show at all.
I'm not saying that it's bad to watch cartoons as an adult because I myself still love watching cartoons both current ones and classics from my childhood. However, I couldn't sit down and just enjoy a Barney marathon or an episode of Dora the Explorer because I'm not a part of the target audience. These shows are meant to entertain and teach young children, not guys in their late teens. One of the reasons people love the show so much is because it has "complex storylines" and "relatable characters." Exactly what about this show is complex or relatable? I guess having butt tattoos that's kind of complex right? I watched a short clip of the show and it was hard to get through. The dialogue is obviously written for very young children and I just could not find the show as watchable. Like I said before it is made for very young children so of course I am not going to enjoy it.

I will say this though, society tends to be nicer to girls who are into stereotypical "boy" things such as trucks, Power Rangers, and Transformers and not so nice to little boys who watch a show about the magical town of Ponyville. Which begs the question what about little boys, should THEY watch My Little Pony? Maybe. Honestly I don't know, not being a 4-year-old anymore I can't say how I would react to this show. 

I think there needs to be a better balance of shows for both boys AND girls. So many things have always been targeted at either boys OR girls. What is wrong with having an equal balance of male and female characters? Arther had a great mix of both male and female characters, the X-Men have always had lots of females in their roster. Even kids shows which have female leads such as Lizzie McGuire, Hannah Montana, or That's So Raven still appealed to me as a kid. Despite the main characters being female, they still went through things that I went through (except that episode of Lizzie McGuire where she proclaims to the world that she wants a bra). Lizzie was just an average girl, nothing spectacular, with a normal family and normal problems for a girl her age, Hannah/Miley (although incredibly whiny and selfish) was an interesting concept for a show and never did anything too deep in the realm of femininity to push me away from watching it, and Raven was just hilarious. But these shows also have something that My Little Pony doesn't: male characters. On Lizzie we would get to see her brother, her friend Gordo, and her dad have just as much screentime as she did. They had their own plots that were about things that guys went through at those particular ages. So even if you couldn't relate to Lizzie or Miranda, there were always the men in her life that boys could find entertaining. Same with Hannah and Raven. Both had a dad, a male friend, and a brother. They also taught kids that it was okay to be friends with girls, and that they weren't always so "yucky."

So about those Bronies, if they want to watch My Little Pony they can. if they want to dress up and go to conventions, they can. It's not a matter of life or death. Just because some men like a show about magic ponies doesn't mean the apocalypse will come or the population of the Earth will get infected with a disease. Does the show have any appeal to men? No. Is the show written for a very young audience? Yes. Is it weird that gown men would want to actually want to spend their time watching My Little Pony? Yeah, it kind of is. I'm not saying it because" boys should only like things made for boys," I'm saying this because the show does not do anything to appeal to adult audiences, especially men.

Oh, and in regards to the "Cloppers" you are sick sick people. Get help.

-Matthew