P1.

                I don’t think I watch more or less television than the average person. I watch the most TV when I get home from school. On most days I come home at around 4:30 or 5:00, sit down, turn on the TV and start my homework. I don’t pay much attention to the TV when I do my homework though. It’s really just on to break the silence. After I finish my homework, I watch Comedy Central for a while. On weekdays they always play It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Futurama, South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report. My favorite shows they play are definitely The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. It’s hard to tell which one is better. The correspondents on The Daily Show are quite funny, but I like the persona of a bigoted ultra-conservative that Stephen Colbert has fabricated. My favorite episode of The Daily Show was the one where Jon Stewart told Bill O’Reilly to go do something that cannot be mentioned in this blog, with the backup of an entire choir.

                On an average day, I would say that I watch about three to four hours of television. This is not very surprising, given the fact that there are six televisions in my house. There is one in my basement, one in my living room, one in my other living room, and one in each of the three bedrooms. Three of the six TVs are flat screens. We recently upgraded from those old box TVs. The day we switched TVs, I discovered what I was really missing. The picture on the new ones is so much better.

                Some positives associated with watching TV are that it is a good way to gain new information and it is a good way to relax. Also, if you watch enough of The History Channel, you will be an excellent haggler. There are often more negatives associated with watching TV. One of those is that if you watch it too much, you may be distracted from schoolwork or your social life. Also, watching shows like Honey Boo Boo will probably kill most of your brain cells. I saw one episode and instantly felt stupider.

O1.

                http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/21/us/massachusetts-fcc-ortiz/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

I got this article from www.cnn.com. It is called ‘Ortiz of Boston Red Sox tosses F- word, FCC doesn’t complain’. This article is about a pregame speech given to the fans watching the Red Sox- Royals game by David Ortiz, just days after the explosions. Ortiz was quoted as saying, "We want to thank you Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick, the whole police department, for the great job that they did this past week. This is our f***ing city. And nobody's going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong”. Normally, the FCC would be all over this incident, issuing fines. However, the chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, decided that, given the circumstances, to let this one go.

                Personally, I think that it is extremely cool that David Ortiz was able to drop the F- bomb on national television. I would pay a lot of money for that opportunity. Also, I am very glad that the FCC did not decide to fine him for his colorful language. I found his speech to be totally appropriate and actually quite inspiring. What happened at the Boston Marathon was a horrible tragedy that shocked everybody. If his use that kind of language gave reassurance to the people who were affected by this, then that is fine. I think sometimes people (and the FCC) are too squeamish when it comes to vulgarity. This is why I’m glad they stretched their rules and allowed his use of the F-word to pass without any trouble.

On a related note: I just want to say that because of the events of this past week, I have a whole new respect for Boston and the people who inhabit it. With that said, I am not now, nor was I ever a fan of the Boston Red Sox or the Patriots. 

O3.

                The other day, I watched Django Unchained for the first time. I have to say, it was one of the best new movies I’ve seen in a while. I chose to watch it because it is a Quentin Tarantino movie, and I am a fan of his movies. Some of my favorite movies that were directed by him are Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds .

                Django Unchained is a Spaghetti Western about a freed slave who teams up with a German bounty hunter to save his enslaved wife from an awful plantation. The movie is set in the south in 1858. The two men find themselves in Texas, Tennessee, and Mississippi, taking lives at each stop.

                My favorite part of the movie was the scene where a local mob chased after the protagonists for killing three white plantation workers. This was a five minute scene in which the members of the mob laid down the ground rules before capturing them. What started as a simple speech given by the leader turned into a huge argument amongst the whole mob, regarding the size of the eyeholes on the white bags they wore over their heads. I thought it was funny because of what they said, and because they wasted at least five minutes arguing over something so stupid when they should have been chasing Django and Dr. Schultz (the German bounty hunter). I’m also a bit curious about that scene. For some reason, Jonah Hill was one of the men in the mob. He got about four lines all together and didn’t play a significant role in the movie. He was just kind of there for no reason. I thought it was weird. Anyway, I liked this scene because it brought a little bit of light to a rather dark movie.

                I’m glad I invested 2 hours and 45 minutes into watching this movie. It took the classic western and gave it a more modern spin (and more violence). That is why I will forever be a fan of Django Unchained. 

O4.

My mother is a very nice lady. There, my obligations for this blog have been fulfilled. Just kidding, I will keep writing about my mother. Could you imagine if I changed the subject completely? That would be outrageous. Oh dear… 300 is a lot of words. A LOT of words. Where to start? Where to start?

My mother’s first name is Anne. She has four children, including me. I can say with fair certainty that I am her favorite child. My mom is a part time bus aid for the school. She really loves her job. She likes it because she gets to work with kids. This is something that she is especially good at. I guess she has had a lot of experience with me, my brother and my sisters. She says that being a bus aid is the best job she has ever had. Another thing my mom is great at is cooking. I like it when she makes ribs, Shepard’s pie, macaroni and cheese, and steak. Yet my favorite thing she makes is apple pie. The crust is always crispy and delicious. She uses just about every kind of apples imaginable; Granny Smiths, Macintoshes, Courtland apples, you name it. It’s pretty cool when she skins the apples because she cuts off the skin in one piece. Unfortunately, she only makes it on holidays and birthdays.

My mom is a pretty great person, but I wish there was one thing she would stop doing. I wish she would stop mixing the Pepsi with the Diet Pepsi. Sometimes when we have both, there might be half of a bottle of the diet and about a quarter bottle of the regular and she will just dump one into the other! Who does that? Really, I want to know! Then she tries to tell me that it’s all the same. No it isn’t. Diet Pepsi is the worst drink ever. Even though she is not perfect, I love my mamma very much… now you know that.

O2.

I agree with this article completely. Going to college really is one of the best investments a person can make. More and more jobs are requiring a higher education, and even if it isn’t mandatory, it still could be the difference between getting the job and being turned down.

As far as college educations go, my family is pretty divided. My mother did not attend, while my father went to a two year trade school. Like my mom, my sister, Sarah, did not go to college. However, my other sister, Maggie, will be graduating from Niagara University this May. She went to school to become a teacher. As for my brother, he plans on going to college right after he graduates from high school.

So what will I do? I think that when I graduate, I will also go to college. I want to go because it will help me get a well-paying job. Also, my grandma really wants me to go. If there’s anything you should know about my family it is that my grandma has leverage over almost everything. If Gramma wants something to happen, it’s going to happen. That’s fine with me though because a college education is something I’ve always wanted to pursue.  Yet I have not decided what I would like to go for. I am thinking about going for something related to engineering, but I also find foreign affairs interesting. I’m not thinking about being an ambassador or anything. I would try to be something like a foreign affairs analyst. I have even less of an idea about where I would like to go to school. From what my sister tells me, Niagara University is pretty nice, but I don’t know what they offer. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m glad I’m only a freshman, because I have a lot of thinking to do about my future.     

O5.

                It is hard to describe the process that goes into writing an article. It’s not always the same and there aren’t a lot of distinguished steps that I take when writing an article. I guess the whole process begins on the first day of the week that nothing is due. My first job of the week is to think of an article topic and send it in to… you? Mr. Currin? I don’t know who I’m addressing this to, but that’s not the point. The point is that I think this is definitely the most difficult part of the process. Why it is so difficult to find a topic is because nothing really happens here. And if something does happen, I have to be the first person out of twenty-something to claim that idea. That means I have to be creative enough to think of a topic that is somewhat Alden related and that nobody has thought of. This brings me to my first and only step: procrastinate. Every time I turn in an article I tell myself ‘Ok, Matt, you devilish S.O.B, next time you’re going to think of a topic early in the week’. Yet, when it comes time to think of a topic I think to myself, ‘Screw it. That’s future Matt’s problem’. (And yes I do sometimes think in the 3^rd person). When it gets dangerously close to the deadline for our articles I hastily think of a topic. Once I actually know what I’m writing about, the rest of this process is quite easy. Normally, I will make either a rough draft or do some sort of research on my topic the night before its due date. Then in class I will read over those notes, start typing, make adjustments, have Phil look it over, think of a corny title and upload it with two minutes to spare. When it’s all said and done I pat myself on the back as I look forward to starting this vicious cycle of procrastination and regret that I let myself procrastinate so much, all over again.