Mark Wesley Pritchard

For the last year or so, I’ve been running across different terms on social media and in articles such as nonbinary, genderfluid, and genderqueer. I’ve never understood what they meant, never heard of them before, and assumed that they were just fads. Most people would argue that there’s only two genders: male and female and there’s no such thing as nonbinary. Unfortunately for some of the skeptics out there, there’s more than two genders and nonbinary is a thing and also, it exists.

Greetings, Vocal readers. This week is very special to because my birthday is in a few days and I'm eager to enjoy my birthday week with friends and everyone on social media. Yes, I'm a Scorpio and love celebrating my birthday. With that being said, we’re all fans of something: a TV show, movie, or even a video game franchise. I’ve been hearing the word “fanboy” for the last several years and as I’ve gotten older, it’s a term that I personally dislike. Before I go any further, let me say a few things to everyone. I have no personal issue with what you choose to like and who you support. As long as it makes you happy and not hurting me, by all means, knock yourself out. I understand that you have your reasons of using the word fanboy, but for me, I prefer using the word “enthusiast,” rather than “fanboy” for a couple of reasons: I don’t live vicariously through famous people and they’re just regular people just like us. They don’t owe me anything, nor should I be entitled to have or receive anything from them. I love and support the stuff my favorite actors, actresses, voice actors, and so on that they’re in and that’s about it. If they do something unbecoming I don’t agree with, I’m going to call it out. I refuse to make any excuses for them, like most people do.

It's Morphin Time! Greetings, Vocal readers. The month of November has arrived and it's also my birthday month. In fact, my birthday is coming up in about a week. So I'm looking forward to seeing another year. In this article, I'm talking about Power Rangers, specifically #MorphinMonday. This hashtag, which has well over 1,000 posts on Instagram, holds true to Power Rangers fans everywhere. About two months ago, I attended Arkansas Comic Con and Jason David Frank was one of the guests during that weekend. I was fortunate enough to not only do a photo op with him, but also shook his hand and said it was nice to meet him. Before attending this con, I've never met any Power Rangers star, but I did just that and knocked off an item from my bucket list. It was an exciting experience, because this was a guy that I grew up watching. In case you haven't seen my Arkansas Comic Con review and how my meeting with Jason David Frank went, I'll post a link to it at the end of this article so you can read it yourself. I'll be meeting David Yost, who played the Blue Ranger, at Galaxycon in Louisville, Kentucky two and a half weeks from now. I'll have my Legacy Blue Ranger figure with me for him to sign and going as Lord Gyaradrakkon.

Greetings, Vocal readers. It’s been a while since I’ve done a perler bead DIY. The last one I’ve done was the Nintendo logo, which was about a month ago. In case you haven’t seen it, I’ll post a link to it at the end of this article. In this article, I’ll show you how to make this rider that you see above from Excitebike. This game made its debut on the Famicom in 1984 and as a launch title for the NES a year later. When I first played it on the NES Classic a couple of years ago, it wasn’t like any of the other racing games that I was used to playing. Every time I would jump over a ramp, I would fall off my bike. So long story short, I placed 23rd in a race and haven’t played that game since. Hopefully I’ll play it again someday and improve.

You run into an article about a transgender person either being killed or brutally attacked by a complete stranger or acquaintances. In most of these cases, they are often misgendered by the media, police statements, and other professions. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), 26 transgender people in 2018 have been killed. The majority of whom were black transgender women. This year, the lives of 23 transgender people were lost at the hand of violence. That’s a 1.1 percent decrease from last year, but more needs to be done to protect them from any further attacks.

In the fall of 1985, a video game console that would end up being popular to not only kids, but also adults was released. That game system was the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES for short. Every kid on Christmas wanted one, and I have a story to tell about the NES that took place almost four years later, but before I share it, here's a fun fact about it that would surprise you. These are the three best-selling NES games: