Assigned Entry #6

The Atom

Where can the internet take you? From your room to outer-space. The amount of information provided is beyond imaginable. Sharing your thoughts brings happiness, sadness and sometimes anger. Digging through other people's mind can be interesting but searching through your own is more challenging. Fingers idle on a keyboard is like holding a pencil on a blank piece of paper. And sometimes it is hard to overcome a blank piece of paper and screen.


This is writing. This is the world wide web and blogging is just a small piece of that world. Incredibly small. Pretty much micro small. Like looking at an atom that is how small. But like an atom it is useful. Companies use it to post up and coming events and information. Everyday users post anything from useful information to children's photos.


Blogging is fun, no doubt about it. I enjoyed it. But I could have done more research and time into it.  I enjoyed last semester's blogging more, but may have been because all that I needed was at my fingertips. For this semester blogging I took a bite too big to chew. Originally I wanted to personally take photos, ask people out on the street and even the people behind the counter. But instead I ended up not having time for that, or even going out. Which is what my blog centered around.  I am going to miss blogging and this class. Farewell, goodnight and I hope to run into you again sometime.

A Little Shot of Java

 The best places are hidden in a little alley way, in a lesser known place. Like the pizza place, that was one of my first entries, Slices, Shot of Java is hidden away. Tucked into an alley. But it has the best chai tea that I have ever tasted. Yes, I have tried Starbucks. I have tried tons of other places tea but none compare. Not even homemade. This is the perfect little shop to relax and have a drink. All the art in the shop is from local artist that are for sale. All the pastries are from local businesses.

On Thursday nights there are open mics, which is more like karaoke. The owner of the shop is normally behind the counter making, ordering, and ringing up the costumers. She is extremely nice and very connected with her community.

Every time I go in there I always tell her that I wish that she had more coffee shops, because she, in my opinion has the greatest little coffee shop ever. She just says, "Someday" with a big smile. I truly hope someday comes soon.

Assigned Entry #5

I Am A Mother Father, Post?

A hundred years ago this kind of music would be banned. In fact more then half of our music would be. Modern music has a huge influence on today's younger generations. And their parents are not helping, I see all to often parents purposely telling and making their childern say/ see/ do very adult things that will cause a psychological issues is the future. Why is there this need to have the most famous kid out there on the internet? Or belief that it is cute when a baby's first words are "fuck?"

 What brought this to my attention, besides working with the general public is when I happened across MattyBRaps Cover of PSY's Gentleman. Thankfully his parents (or he) was wise enough to change the lyrics to the song.

  Although the song is originally in Korean the song talks of some pretty disturbing things that young ears should not listen to. Take a listen to many of the songs on the radio, they too are probably not acceptable. IJustine from Youtube has make a video giving some of the original translated lyrics from Gentlemen.When looking into the lyrics myself I found to be what IJustine found to be correct to the best of my knowledge. You may look for yourself of course. Here is the website I found.

 

 This is the original video.

As I said before it is not only music that is the problem. Some parents practically encourage their children to use profanity like there's nothing wrong with it. Parents rarely discipline their kids when these words are used in school. You can see in this next video of a parent taking no notice that their child is using such words.

 

 In the past parents spanked and put soap in the mouths of their children when they swore. I am not encouraging abuse or anything like that. But when I grew up we had a jar where if any of us in the household cursed then we would have to pay the jar; and who ever cussed the less got the money.  My parents at the least were trying to be role-models, not hypocrites. Which is what we need much more in society. I am not saying ban the music. I am saying set an example that they would want to follow, that will lead them to a path of success.

Con_ NIchiwa!

Conventions are always fun, no matter how interest you are into the subject that is at hand. Well unless it is a business convention. There conventions for everything and some are huge. The largest of them all is Comic Con. But there are others some more general, others more specific.


Welcome To Con_nichiwa!


A Japanese manga and anime convention. Taking its place in Tuscan, Arizona; it is a nice little get away. One thing you should know about cons, it is always better to dress up as something rather then nothing. Though this was a anime convention, many still dressed up as something else that was still dear to a nerds heart. Video games, legends of comic books even stormtroopers and mermaids come out for the event.

The day is filled with panels that either educate, have contests, evoke debate on a subject or to just have fun. Which it is all fun. There are dances at night, the pool is cool and welcoming and the people are just as friendly. This one come once a year for a weekend. But there is others, many others. There is another anime convention coming up at the end of August, called Saboten Con. This one is bigger and is a lot closer to home. In fact it is right by the Cardinal's Stadium. And I would like to say hey come on over to step out of reality and into fantasy.

Assigned Entry #4

It is pretty amazing what America has come to. I do not believe George Washington would have ever expected it. He expected other things like if there were ever political parties that people will vote for the party not the idealism of the people that are running it. But not this. After watching Capitalism A Love Story by Micheal Moore, one really gets to see how messed up America is. Some things are just beyond common sense. Our country is not billions of dollars but trillions of dollars in debt. 59 trillion dollars in debt as of today and is increasing second by second. Some of it is us as, citizens, spending money on things we can not afford. Then there company bailouts. Which is ironic. Capitalism is supposed to this ideal system where people has a chance to try and make the best thing out there and if they do then they will become rich doing it until someone else makes something better. This is a system that is supposed to encourage growth in both better products and encourage people to be the best one out there. One of the natural things that is supposed to happen in this system those who get beat by another are to fall. To fall because they did not adapt to the new need of the public. But that is not what is happening today. These business have gotten so big, greedy and controlling that when they fail our government bails them out. Bails them out because supposedly without them we would be worst off. But why is the government meddling with this system? If these companies are not able to handle their money wisely and each time they fail our government bails them out then what is stopping them from not trying to succeed in being debt free? They get basically free money when they choose to be careless with it. Why are we promoting this? In just bailouts alone we are 9 trillion dollars in debt. Would you keep letting a friend borrow money from you, knowing they will never at least try and pay it back? I hope not. This film is filled with facts of how America is tainted. This was something that bothered me, but there is certainly more bothersome things that happen in there. And is why I am asking you to view this film, critically (because everybody has a lean on something), and start changing how you look and the businesses you go to and the in debt government that pays them to keep their doors open.

Huzzah!

One of my favorite times of the year is not Christmas, nor is it Easter. It is the Arizona Renaissance Festival.

Far, far away in a land filled with turkey legs and oddities. There was performers and acted their part to symbolize and romanticized version of the renaissance. Dressed all up and in the best of moods they helped the people of this day and age escape. Escape into great food, great entertainment and some of the best handmade stuff out there.

It is nice to step into one of the most romanticized time periods. Not only all the staff dress to fit the 1500s, so are some of the costumers. Including me. To me it has always been more exciting and interesting to dress the part then to dress in "normal" clothes. But the clothing is just the icing, in fact it was just me getting ahead of myself. This festival has a permanent structure that is stylistic the time period.Venders come in each year to sell (normally) hand crafted items including, corsets, goblets and wands. But there are many, many more. The are a verity of acts that go on through the day; my favorite is Hey Nunny Nunny and the the last jousting of the evening.  But Some of the most popular ones are the Dead Bob show and Barley Balanced. This place is filled with magic and a great time, and I would recommend it to anyone. Because with all the stress of the real world it is nice to get away.

Assignment #3

Crashed Course

 Arizona State University is to offer more short classes. A crash course of a semester. Many fear it, some recommend it.  But ASU is not the only campus to do this. Both Grand Canyon University and Glendale Community College offer these classes. To me I believe it is excellent for students to have a choice. I currently have two of my close friends, Amber and Emela, attending GCU and are both taking these short classes. From what they tell me they like how they only have to focus on 2 to 3 classes at a time and because it is half the time, one semester is 5 to 6 classes.But having jumped right into this style classes, both have never experienced a full "normal" course of college. But when hearing of my "normal" classes in college, Amber stated, "I think I would prefer to take the short semester classes because even though they are

compact I only have to worry about a few at a time, instead of taking four to five at one time and trying to keep up with all of them." In some ways this is something that I might prefer as well. I have heard many talk of how a shorter course and a faster graduation will make the students from college less ready for the"real" workforce then the regular set of students. I disagree. The schooling process for a lot of colleges is not what it needs to be. The students coming out of the short classes should be the same amount of unprepared as the other students. Although the crash course semester is getting a larger amount of classes done in a shorter amount of time, it does not mean it is a shorter amount of school hours worked.  Each person should know which would be better for them and whether or not they can handle it. To each their own.

Theater Galore

Whether it was the fact that I grew up sitting next to my father watching movies both at home and in a theater; or the fact that I love movies so much, that the institution that movies are shown in are just as interesting and sacred to me as much as the movies themselves are.
Because of this I subconsciously made note on what I liked and did not like about movie theaters around the state. And here is a review of them.

Harkins

Born and raised in the Arizonian sun, Harkins is a native of our little dust bowl. Which may have impacted their way of thinking. The company fully understands their customers.
My reasoning? Besides the basics that every company needs (cleanliness and friendly attitude), They understand the movie addicts and the typical Arizonian. For the movie addicts they have a deal where if one wears their t-shirt they will receive a free medium popcorn and if the customer brings in their souvenir cup then they will receive a refill for just one dollar. This dollar refill is why I say Harkins had it right with the desert people of Az. The the dry heat of this state alone is enough to get one thirsty, not to mention the snacks on the side.

As for the theater itself, well I love it.
From movie marathons, midnight showings to the everyday run of the mill afternoon showing.
The popcorn is not the best but I would rate it 2nd in the state. But I would beware of the butter, when ingesting it, I have know some to become physically ill.

The best of movie marathon going in the state and that is not even the half of it. Normally for a movie marathon Harkins stops at no costs.The tickets themselves will only set one back around 40 dollars. Providing outside air conditioning on hot days, free water, and best of all... The Harkins marathon backpack. Inside of it (normally): one souvenir cup, assorted candy and a souvenir pertaining to the movie (ex. Harry Potter, HP style glasses and Avengers, a comic book). Not to mention free popcorn passes. Even a lanyard to help with easy recognition for the employees and safe keeping of the ticket is thrown into the mix.

AMC

As a child I did not pay much attention to this theater, but in later years I realized faults that put any and all of their theaters on my last resort list.
Although I have never encountered a horribly dirty theater or an unpleasant worker the rest of it bothers me. The popcorn tastes like it was cooked a week ago, and even something like pizza is barely editable. The seats, though new and crushingly, are too stiff are ridged for my liking. Not to mention the combos do not save anyone money.

Curious about their new dinner theater, my family and I went to test it out. Seats better then the regular one. The dinner food? Average and over priced. The popcorn?  Just as terrible as their normal theaters.
One benefit of the theater though is in the matinee (early afternoon) showings only charge five dollars and for 3-d they charge seven.
And one last thing, if one is attending the IMAX theater of theirs, their chai tea is in my opinion, the best item on the menu.

Studio Movie Grill

This theater I really have no complaints, except for their price. The food is great, but is served in very small proportions for the price of a full meal at a steak house elsewhere. I have not tried the popcorn, but hope it is as good as their real food.  To help with the cost of this one I recommend going through groupon to buy their tickets. (The deal is expired now, but I would not be surprised to see it pop up ever once and a while.)

Super Savers Silver Cinemas

This theater is old school, very old school. Stationed in an old run down strip mall,in a corner that no one would find, if not for the very popular Santisi Brothers was not located next door


Walking inside one would see lights both working and worn out of use hanging from the ceiling. Games outline the lobby which is circular just like the concession area itself.  The walls either have working lights or non working, and the plan ones have vintage mirrors that really pull the theater together. And finally my favorite the hallway to the theaters themselves. Some describe it as the twilight zone or even compare it to Star Wars when the ship jumps to light-speed.

Ok. I am done marveling over the looks of the place, lets talk about how it is there. The bad? Aging has not been kind. The theater is old and it shows it.  Having said that the seats are out of date to our society now; a bit small compared to our modern over sized world.  The movies are only shown on film, which gives it more of an authentic feel as apposed to the digital age. Which to me is actually a benefit, but for some is an annoyance. Because the theaters only have film projectors showing a 3-d movie is physically impossible.

Now for the good. The popcorn. Seriously, the best popcorn I have ever had. Cooked right in front of your eyes the popcorn is almost always fresh. The tickets are only three dollars, and even better on Tuesdays they are $1.50. The concessions are just about the same price as Harkins, but for things like the large popcorn, the price is the same, but this little theater has a bigger size. Unlike AMC though, the combos that Super Savers offers are actually discounted and even more so on Tuesdays. The theater itself is actually a second run theater. Meaning that once the bigger first run theaters like Harkins and AMC are finished with a movie then this little theater receives it. Sometimes taking a few weeks to obtain the movie or even months to finally show it. This works out for some because this is the theater that everyone falls back on when the film is no longer in main theaters.

What I recommend is to see all the films that are high in special effects at a theater like Harkins. Maybe catch a movie at the Studio Movie Grill for an expensive date. But when time runs short, money is low, or needing something different then the stepford giants, I fully recommend this little theater, Silver Cinemas.

Assigned Entry #2

Cunning, is it not?

Slander and propaganda is all around us today. Every country seems to has their own way emphasizing certain aspects of a topic to highlight or shadow the facts of the story. Countries, news stations and people in general like to slant their words in the hopes to gain the listeners attention and control what they are thinking about the particular topic. I often find that I can learn more about my country through BBC the I can through news stations from my own country. There are times with I look at a local news station and the majority of the reporting is entertain based reporting. When I look at BBC, I see very little slant and more hard hitting stories of many different states in America; often times giving a more insightful look into the story as well.

Bashing on news stations and media in general is not something I like to do because I believe that all of them are guilty of slander and propaganda.

Here is a comparison of the two big news stations, known for being informative and highest of the high. BBC and CNN.

CNN:
       Being a sworn enemy of North Korea, one would think that an American broadcasting corporation would provide a more in depth investigation and news broadcast. But instead left the subject to be just under 40 seconds; and when restated later on in the day gave the same short information. The happy, peppy music in the background of the original attempt to inform give me the impression of the need to move on to what they consider a story more interesting, something that would not scare or even bore the nation with one of the shortest attention spans.

BBC:  
        On the other hand, Britain, one of our most beloved allies, reports over 3 minutes of the same subject. Giving an in depth look at the issue at hand. Showing us why we should care at all about North Korea. Giving us the history of the country, opinions the new leader, and why there is so much concern and controversy on the matter.

What bothered me was the difference in “celebrations” that Korea held. CNN said that people were dancing in the streets- while BBC gave the look of the straight faced soldiers listening to the speech of their leader. Which one was true? Were they both true? Or did both news stations forget a part of the news? Did they do this on purpose to slant the news to the way they wanted it to sound like? Or is it remotely possible that they just did not know?

When it come to news I usually watch a man who goes by the name of Philip DeFranco. His reporting is more bold in his beliefs- not trying to be sneaky in convincing others to believe in what he believes. His show is more about his opinions in what is happening in today’s world. He has the sources of the stories he talks about in the description and if one feels inclined to research further or obtain a different perspective than himself he leaves them there in the hopes to gain credibility and the opinion of his audience.

Here is The Philip DeFranco Show.
    (He is employed be doing this show so just like any tv station he has to advertise to stay alive. Jump to 35 seconds if you do not want to watch advertisement. Jump to 4:36 of the video if you just want to see his opinion of North Korea. Be advised, foul language is sometimes involved in his broadcasts.)

Again this is his opinion of North Korea. The circumstances for the reporting was a little bit different from that of CNN and BBC. But they still relate back to North Korea’s nuclear testing. DeFranco flat out told you his fear and what he believes as opposed to giving suggestive and slated speech to imply a certain opinion. You either agree or disagree with him. Yes it was shorter than CNN, but he still gives the link you the on the site in which you can if you want to go in depth.

Again every news station has slanted and/or propaganda the only way for you not to be succumbed by it is to do the research from many different sources worldwide.

Out On Mill Ave

        I know. Those of you that have heard of Mill Avenue know. Mill has a bad reputation being the center of the party/club life for twenty-one-years in the state of Arizona. But there is more to do then that. I am not saying that it is a place to stroll a baby around, but this place is full of hidden wonders. Restaurants that serve off beat food and stores that sell eclectic items are what I enjoy out there, not to mention the verity of people.
         Trying to be reasonable with the price of gas my friends and I use the light rail to go all the way down to Mill Ave. Where we normally walk straight to our favorite pizza joint, Slices.
Supplying us with odd pizzas that include: buffalo wings, jalapeno, or my favorite the potato-bacon pizza.   This little pizza place is tucked into a little street just past Hippie Gypsy and Urban Outfitters. But is know for a good reason; their pizzas are amazing. I have definitely in the past (and even now) think it is well worth it to drive down there just to satisfy the craving of this odd, but delicious pizza. As for places to shop, it is best to wander about. I find Urban Outfitters as one of my favorites but there are so many small shops that have items that you will probably never find in an average store.  One thing that is nice about this place is, because there are clubs and similar stuff like that the metro train usually stays open longer and weekends allowing the stores and restaurants to do the same. So maybe if you ever feel like trying something new, something unusual come on down to Mill ave.

Assigned Entry #1

Something old. Something new.

To me blogs are something of the past that exhibit new information. Though they may come in handy for cooking and quick,  information that does not require a video. Which is great when one's computer may not be compatible with videos or even when one is looking for information in a situation where audio is disproved of. As of writing personal blogs I feel as if it has all been done before. Just like how it is depicted in this cartoon.

My favorite blogs would have to be the food related ones because not only are there usually pictures showing these scrumptious pieces of work, there is also detailed instruction and background stories to go with them. Here is one that I found particularly good. 

Brake or Bake

This professional blogger, blogs about family recipes in the hope to keep them in a sense immortal. Persevering them in the web where not only her own kin can access them but also sharing the kindness to the world.

  Then there is the the corporate one.

The one that not many like to read. The campaign for it is a bit out dated, but because there is a lingering few that have not fully converted to social media sites companies still feel obligated to keep one in running.

And worst yet, is the extreme personal one. Much like a reality tv show one is looking into the life of an individual. Their food, there activities and there everyday life. At least with a blog usually there is better camera work when compared to reality tv. for example...http://octopuscrumpet.tumblr.com/page/2

Despite having said that the best characteristic of a blog and style in my opinion is an informational personal blog. Mixing both substance and personality into one.

Greetings World

I have once said that I was built by those who are insanely nerdy- which is true. Even my friends walk with me down the same road of insanity. Our obsessions with movies, books and foreign media is some of the binding that keeps us together. But that is just the start. There is a whole world- or in this case, Arizona full of interesting places and activities (on accusation) to do. Some I admit are a bit main stream but others are only somewhat know. Thankfully, these places and activities help relax from all the pressures of school, work and family. The importance of this is critical in not only yourself but also in society. Imagine a world where people can get a chance to relax, distress and in turn become (hopefully) more patient and tolerant.
I am currently going to GCC to achieve an education in Ancient World History. I chose this degree to one day become a teacher of it. Though I love mythology more then the civilizations themselves that practice it, this is just one stepping stone that I am taking to gain knowledge in a plethora of subjects. Including not only mythology but also psychology and world religion. There was a time, however that I majored in computer science. Though mechanically,  I found the subject extremely intriguing, program wise I found it unforgettably frustrating; causing the shift in the major. The world was what I wanted, the ancient one. Though lower salary is a possibility, a higher personal moral and rewarding sensibility was present.  This is me, Madison and I would like to say welcome- welcome to taking life one step at a time.