Chrstmas Break Time!

I'm so happy! I'm FINALLY done with Fall Quarter. It seems like it went on forever, but at the same time it's all kind of a blur. I don't have my grades yet, but I feel like I did pretty good in all of my classes. Honestly I'm shocked that I did as good as I did, considering I haven't written a research paper since 8th grade and that's also the last time I did any kind of math with a "real" teacher or actual homework. College is nice. It's very quiet. I was back at Westpark today filling in for my mom for art and I forgot how noisy it was there! Except for maybe the hub (which I try to avoid as much as possible) I can actually hear myself think. I love going to the library, I wish I could eat my lunch in there then it would be perfect!

I definitely liked English more than I thought I would. I was with a great group of people, who I was really starting to like. It's a shame English 102 was all full :( I wrote a paper on bullying that I'll post up on here if I remember to. I feel like I did a pretty good job, especially compared to some of the papers I proofread... Math was math. It wasn't awful, but I'm glad I'm done. Photography was really fun! I took so many pictures that I love, especially the shoot I did with my brother and Alissa. It was also great to learn a little bit more on how to use my camera.

I signed up for my classes for next semester a few weeks back. I'm taking poetry, drawing, math 95 (still not actually counting towards my degree :/), and "survey anthropology." Anthro is the one that's worrying me. I have a cousin who majored in anthropology so hopefully she'll be of so,e help to me if I need her. My friend Sam told me he didn't like his anthro class so I'm really not sure what to look forward to :P Poetry too kinda has me a little concerned. I've tried writing poems before and they always sound extremely cheesy or just downright stupid. Hopefully the class will allow me to hone my skills and unleash my inner Robert Frost.

It's definitely going to be nice to be on break. I don't think people realize how many hours I've spent on homework and studying the past few months! It'll be nice to drink cocoa, bake Christmas cookies, and not have to factor anything. I'm going to try to start drawing again too. I have a little "project" I was working on but never got very far on that I would like to work on. We'll see how that goes.

-Matthew

November 30th Playlist

Since it's the end of the month I thought I'd post a little playlist with everyone.

1. On Your Own-Green River Ordinance
2. Wish you Well-Katie Herzig
3. I Believe In a Thing called Love-Darkness
4. Dancing On My Own-Robyn
5. Screaming Infidelities-Dashboard Confessional
6. Let Her Go-Passangers
7. Ain't No Reason-Brett Dennen
8. Paradise by the Dashboard Light-Meatloaf
9. Just Another Girl-The Killers
10. Into Your Arms-The Maine
11. Hate (I Really Don't Like You)-Plain White T's
12. Homeward Bound-Simon & Garfunkel

Hope you all had a pleasant November. I'm all excited for snow and Christmas :) Bring on winter!

-Matthew

Bye Bye Blockbuster

Blockbuster Video is closing its doors forever. The end of Blockbuster signifies the end of video stores forever. I know, I'm crying too.Video stores were a huge part of my childhood. It was always such an exciting moment when mom or dad would tell us we got to go to Hollywood Video to pick out movies. Of course, the new releases were more expensive so we always got older movies. Me and my brother rented every single Pokemon video in that place (some of them multiple times). Because of video rental stores I was able to walk around the store and look at all the covers, read the descriptions, take way to long with my selections, and have my mom yell at me to hurry up. I got to discover Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in a time when Wild Force was on the air. We found a lot of great "hidden treasure" films by browsing the shelves of Hollywood, and before that its predecessor Crazy Mike's Video. Crazy Mikes was probably the most magical place on Earth. I can still remember the way it smells (I'm not creepy I swear). When we would walk in there were rows and rows of videos. The new release wall always had the newest Land Before Time movies and in a time before the internet, running over to that shelf was always how I'd check if there was a new one out yet. I also loved the song "American Pie" and I always wanted to rent the movie because I thought it was associated with the song, but for some reason dad never let me get them. My dad and me found two series of dinosaur movies that I was in love with and rented over and over again: Walter Cronkite's A&E specials, and another one hosted by Gary Owens. I remember the constant pestering to rewind our movies. I remember how the Charlie Chaplin movies were in the back of the store. But most of all I just remember how exciting the feeling of going to Crazy Mike's was. It's a shame my children will never get to experience anything like that. And while it may seem stupid for me to be emotionally-attached to video stores, it reminds me of my childhood and all the incredible memories I have of picking out movies on a Saturday night. So while my family never actually joined Blockbuster, I am sad to see it go. It represents the end of an era. An era that I will always remember fondly.

-Matthew

P.S. Be kind, please rewind.

College Update

Hey everyone! I thought I would just give y'all a little update on my education. I am almost done with my first semester of college. Crazy right? Photography has been a great experience and I am loving studying the works of other photographers, the inner workings of the camera, and developing my own personal style. I am struggling to bring myself to edit my images though. When I take a picture, I like it to look the way it does when I first shoot it, not like its been Instagrammed. Also, Lightroom is confusing. Math is well...Math. It is actrually easier than my Math was in high school. I love having a teacher again, and I feel like for the first time in my entire life I am really getting these concepts. The homework load is MASSIVE though, and some problems take forever to solve, but I am getting a pretty good grade in the class by my own standard. I am worried about the final, I've never done finals before. English has me writing a lot. Lots of questions to answer and essays to read, but I do enjoy the weekly seminar discussions as they allow me to get a new perspective on the topics at hand. Over the past few weeks, I've been writing a large paper on bullying. it's been fascinating to read some of these stories and statistics, but also quite sad. I am liking college, though I do miss my social life and I am definitely very excited for Christmas break (if that's what they call it here). Well that's all for now, until next time.

-Matthew

Photo Shoot with Joe, Alissa, and Katherine

Yesterday, for my photography class, I went out to Randall Park with my brother and my friend Alissa to take some pictures. Along with me I had a copy of the book Katherine and an umbrella. I had so much fun, and it was definitely much-needed. Here are some of the pics we took.

Searching

 

Peace

  Looking up.

 

At this point my brother suddenly remembered he had "Umbrella" by Rihanna on his phone. Naturally we played it and took pictures with the umbrella.

My teacher loved this one

 

Glamor shot

Thanks for taking the time to look at my photos. And thanks again for Alissa and Joe for being my models. I owe you one :)

-Matthew

You Won Nothing

It bugs me so much when people say "we won the game!" There is no "we" in sports. Unless you are actually a current member of the Seattle Seahawks, you do not play for them and you can not win or lose a game. I know people are fans and they get really into it and they throw parties and watch all the games and buy jerseys and stuff, and that's great. People do deserve to have hobbies and if watching sports just happens to be theirs than good for them. Just don't say a victory was a collaborative effort between you and whatever team you like because it wasn't.

First Day of College and Plain White T's

Sorry, a few days late!

Today I had my first day of college. I was pretty nervous starting out, I mean it's a complete 360 from Westpark Christian Academy. My first class was photography. Everyone seemed just as into taking pictures as me. I really liked the class and I can't wait to learn more about takin' pictures. It's awkward waiting between classes because you don't wanna make eye contact with anyone. So I either texted my 3 friends at college, or pretended to text when they wouldn't respond. Then I went home for my 2 hour break, had lunch, then went back to campus. Kind of awkward because I saw a bunch of people I went to grade/middle school with (worst experience of my life). Luckily I avoided making eye contact with any of them. Math was, well it was Math. I'll leave it at that. Basically it's a harder version of what I did back in middle school. I kind of got tired halfway through. Then I went to English, I like the teacher, he seems nice. I think I'll be doing a lot of writing. After school I did my 49 Math problems then I went over to the fairgrounds to wait for my friend Angelica to finish up at the Bible story booth she was volunteering at. While I was walking around the fairgrounds waiting for her, I tried to take a picture and I realized my camera was broken! SO I had to go the whole night with just the crappy camera on my phone. AND I didn't get any up-close pictures of the concert. Which, by the way, was awesome. I completely freaked out when they played "Our Time Now", and not much can top hearing "Hey There Delilah" live. So yeah... that was my day.