Thankful

I give thanks for:

Morning Dew
Baby Smiles
Brotherly Laughs and Hugs
Friends with senses of humor
Friends who know when I've gone to far but love me even after they have told me so
Parents who have seen almost 4 decades together
Stealing 20 years from extinction(and still counting)
Having the courage to stand my ground
Getting up after being knocked to it
Laughing in the face of end of the world predictions
Understanding that sooner or later one of them will get it right
Science that has made the world I live in easier than even that of my parents
The knowledge that we do not yet know all so there is still much to do and learn
Another day to go back on that work out plan I gave up on who knows how many months ago
Another chance to reconnect with old friends before I or they don't get another morning
The ability to see family in the best of times
The chance to be there for them in the worst
A chance to share a meal with many of those I love, and a hope to add more to the table next time.
an achy back, creaky joints and sore bones: memories of a life well lived
a cluttered mind, teary eyes and a furrowed brow:castaways of a head full of thought
Meeting many people who have added such joy to my life
The chance to meet even more tomorrow.

I am especially thankful for a moment, for no two are a like and each one has another chance to take your breath away.

late to the Party again

Okay sooo as I readied myself for bed last night checking up on an annoying PC that I am still in the process of finishing, bad hard drive as well as every reboot requires an f1 hit, I happened to catch the pilot episode of Fringe. Now before you say it, yes I have friends who are addicted to Fringe and have talked about how great a show it is which is all well and good. My thing was as I hadn't seen the pilot or any of the early episodes it was a lot of heavy lifting to try and catch up all at once to whatever season it is on now especially since I had no clue what the ORIGINAL driving factors are for characters. Even if you miss a few shows if you catch the first few and can get the starts of a lot of the back drop and back stories, at least in my mind, I believe you can follow along and kind of plug yourself in until you can go back and find whatever episode you are missing. I've also started a new new Anime(Don't know if I discussed Fairy Tail yet so if I haven't that is the old new one) called Soul Eater which looks like a sillier chibi version of Bleach, it's hilarious. I got a heads up to that one from Kitsune's  Dragon Ball Z Kai DVD's they had ads for it on there so I decided to check it out, looked like it had plenty of action and comedy in it.

Afternoon Ponderers

Seems like I have been getting a nice amount of traffic lately and I want to thank all who are coming through. I know I disappeared again but lets just say I had other things on my mind besides blogging. I know I talk about whatever but some days you just want to keep it moving and not get too deep into the details. So that's what I did, let's see what I have noticed lately welp my Eagles are sucking right now, I'm talking Dyson sucking, 3 quarter Car Wash sucking. It would be okay if the offense was stalling a little since you know Mike Vick is out and all, but our defense has forgotten what the word meant. We let RG3 slice us up, a rookie I mean come on Rookies used to hate having to play Philadelphia because their main view was gonna be turf. I understand that yeah maybe Juan Castillo wasn't aggressive enough for some people but he's been gone for a couple of weeks now, whats the new guys excuse. This is Philly you want us to give you some breathing room:Blitz, Blitz some more, Blitz one more time and if the so happen to get the first down, Blitz them again. They have a mobile quatertback let's see how fast he really is. Let's see how accurate he can be after he has been sucking wind for a quarter trying to evade the blitz.

The twisted tale of Hostess

As I am sure all have heard this week, the Twinkie is about to die. Well not literally it will probably be bought by some other snack company and sold off with the same name, but the company that makes it Hostess, is going out of business. And it seems that Hostess was extremely in tune to our last election: a company that went into bankruptcy twice, was taken over by wall Street restructuring firms, racked up a lot of debt, asked employees to take a pay cut and possibly had management take a pay raise. Sounds like Romney vs Obama all over again huh.

Now me personally, if a company is asking for employees to take a pay cut I think that MANAGEMENT should face the first axe. The CEO and board should take a year of pay cuts (anywhere from 10-30%) and if the company is still in trouble as they hopefully re-invest this money into the company then come to your employees. This way you show them that "yes I have skin in the game, I was willing to bleed for our company first, but now we need more blood." I think if CEO's took this approach it would probably be easier for them to get concessions from the workers. The approach that probably isn't going to work is to take a pay raise right before you file for bankruptcy as a Forbes article I read claims. In the comments somebody documents what they think is the current pay structure and pay increases but I didn't get a chance to look them up yet. I might but hey this isn't a "business blog" just a "Hmm why fancy wanders across my mind" style thing. I don't know about you but I think somebody making upwards of $1,500,000 dollars can afford to lose $150,000-450,000 a lot easier than somebody making $40,000(on average most of the salaries I could find Glassdoor were between $29,000 to just under $49,000) can give up between $3,200-12,800. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure that while it might take a little belt tightening a guy/gal making a million dollars or more a year has some investments that will help him buy that new car he wanted. somebody making sub $50,000 is now trying to figure out which bill they can afford not to pay this month.

Tick, tock, tick tock

One of the lasting images of "Election day 2012" will of course be the outrageously long lines. I remember 2008, I think I waited in line for an hour and a half or possibly two to vote. It was a proud time, usually I go off to vote by myself but I was able to vote with both of my brothers and my parents. It was a fun time, granted we had waited til election day so of course we were forced to wait in those long lines to make sure our votes counted. This time around we were a little more spread out, so while me and my parents went off to vote together my brothers were still at a job site somewhere.

My father currently signed up to get a knee replacement was allowed to go first since he did have proof of his disability. Me and my mother on the other hand waited in the Vorgon's cue a never ending serpentine of people. We went to pick up my mother slightly after 5 pm, and within 15 minutes got to a polling place, this year we decided to early vote just in case something was incorrect. By the time we finished it was well after 7 pm because they had required us to file through a room in the church building that housed the voted machines so that they could TRY and shut the doors. It was a futile attempt, people had been pulling up in cars ever since we got there and it was a good sized line(longer then we realized) when we got there. For a while me and my mother thought we were getting close when we made it into the hallway, little did we know it was more subway tunnel then it was foyer. we started joking after hour two because there was nothing else to do, we refused to get out of line we had toughed it out that long and if there is one thing I know I came by my stubbornness honestly. I believe when my father was finally able to retrieve us it was somewhere around 8 pm(might have even been 9 pm, I guess I could check my tweets from that night). And I was happy I had done my civic duty, added my voice to the masses and was prepared to wait til election day to see how it had worked out.

Men by nature are Pro choice

Yes I said it, now I am sure right now I am getting a bunch of people coming over here to tell me how wrong I am. Well since you are here, let me explain it to you. You ain got to agree but when I get done you may still disagree but I am pretty sure I will make a damn good case.

First and fore most one of the greatest male privileges of all is that we can choose WHO to pursue, I mean yes in this day and age some women may ask the guy first but usually the guy chooses to either leap to the highest heights or else dive in to the deepest depths. Doesn't matter my size, my shape, hair style, clothes, intelligence level. It doesn't matter if I am a 2 or a 10 I can walk up and try to talk to whoever I want to. Yes the woman can reject me but even if some may say I had no chance I will get points for even attempting it. You know that lovely thing about being the under dog and having heart, taking a swing, being the little guy, or the loveable loser. Yeah there are a bunch of cartoons about that type of dude, save Velma on Scooby Doo(and even Velma Dinkly has fans as well as has gotten a sexy make over in pop culture as of late) how many completely useless, non hottie cookie cutter, super intelligent, main female characters have we had? Now yes as women begin to take an even larger role in the creation of pop culture(or guys who have great friends who do not fit the normal stereotype start adding their friends to it) that will most likely change. Granted this probably doesn't seem like a strong case for me saying guys are by nature pro choice huh, let me keep going though follow along.

A letter to conversatives

Hi, how are you. Seems you just lost an election, badly, I know you probably don't want to hear from me because I didn't vote for your side. Thing is there is a reason I didn't vote for your side, but I am getting ahead of myself I should do an Introduction.

I'm Tommy, a 37(soon to be 38) year old black male. I was born in this country(in the north east to be exact, pretty much right in the path of Hurricane Sandy), and have lived here the entirety of my life. In that life I have gone to school, worked a few jobs, graduated, gotten a drivers license, registered to vote, and voted in 4 presidential elections. I don't always hit the mid terms, but thanks to 2010 yeah I will be paying more attention to them too.

Polical thought dump

We just had an election, but unlike most elections where we get the discussion of high minded ideas, lofty goals, and bright futures this one was tarnished by the constant undercurrent of hatred for OTHER. Now while some may have only focused on the other of RACE/SKIN COLOR, there was also the other of GENDER, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS, and SOCIAL STRATA. I do not claim to be any kind of political wonk, but I do enjoy the political process in my country except for this year. Oh there are plenty of times when I have had political discussions with people where I have had to face, debunk, or shout down ridiculous stereotypes or mental infections that people may have had, I just never had to look at what should be a serious situation and see it reflected at the highest levels.

It doesn't take a Genius when you have 30 of the Top 50

In having a conversation with a friend about the NBA of the recent past I realize something, David stern gets a lot of credit for being lucky not smart. Hear me out.

David Stern is the commisioner of the league in a time perioed where Doctor J, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkely, Micheal Jordan, Reggie Miller, Tim Hardaway, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dennis Rodman, Chris Mullins, Detlef Shrempf, Allen Iverson, Shaquille O'neal, Kobe Bryant(I may not like him, but I will respect his work ethic.), Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnet, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, John Stockton I mean do you see a pattern here? Save Doc the beginning of that list is the damn dream team(minus Patrick Ewing who I did not mean to omit but hell once you add his name it becomes even worse). How can you NOT be successful with players of that caliber out on the world stage?

Maybe your favorite player isn't up there(I have more in mind some tired guy, this dude who collected rifles I think, hyper aggressive man, some angry rocket, somebodies granny but seriously it's like the list that never ends the 80's and 90's were basketball gold) which is why they make a comments section, but Stern had all these great players. Then he was around for the video game revolution, I remember when Lakers vs Celtics dropped, and NBA JAM that was so much exposure. And he had balance, High flyers, shooters, imposing low post presences. Now it's like everybody wants to shoot the ball.

Yaaaay the real refs are back, now get ready to boo

Don't get me wrong, I am happy the real referees are back. I am saying now get ready to boo NOT because I expect them to be inept like the replacements but because no matter what you will ALWAYS feel your team could have gotten a break. A holding penalty is gonna be missed, a Helmet to was it his helmet or his shoulder and did he duck his head changing the trajectory is gonna be called.

Here is the thing they are calling THE RULES, some of the rules many of us grew up not ever seeing be used so they are new and seem so touchy feely. Some of them you will feel are biased because(say like Donovan in his Philly hey day) not everybody is as well protected. I do know one thing, when it is time to spot the ball, it won't take 3 committees. And then afterwards they still blow the whistle and move the ball. Yes the real refs will make some mistakes, but they won't be mistakes because they don't know the rules, it will be a mistake because they are human. The human eye can't catch everything, and on some instances it may be close enough where it just depends on interpretation.

Pay the DAMN REFS

Okay, I never thought I would say this but they need to pay the regular Referees in the NFL. If the Eagles vs Ravens game is any indication of exactly what kind of stupidity we are dealing with this year as much as I complained about the striped shirts before "I want that old thing back." I swear it was almost like I was watching the Keystone cops out there, except the Keystones were actually trying to be funny. These guys were serious as they screwed up the rules repeatedly, I mean if nothing else have the "spotting of the ball down."

I mean seriously I want somebody to go through and see how much time was added to the game as they had to blow a whistle, conference, and then respot the damn football after every penalty, dead ball situation or change of possession. Yes the game is fast paced, yes you have to remember the rule book as you attempt to judge the action to decide what is going on and if a foul happened. Seriously though you make a forward progress call when a guy is VISIBLY still in the air moving? The stretching of a jersey is a holding call on one side of the field but just let them play on the other(yes HOLDING happens on damn near every play in football, but seriously as chippy as that game was I think up til the 4th quarter there were only like 7 penalties)? They seemed to miss a lot of the "helpless reciever calls", I saw a few Eagles and Ravens players take shots to the head that should have been called. As well as a lot of out of bounds contact where last year we would have seen flags(granted on one of those plays I am glad they didn't call it, that would have extended a Baltimore drive). I swear it was almost like those phantom calls in a game of Madden where "it happened because we say it happened" not because you could actually see it.

Actions speak louder than words

As we all know due to some idiots movie trailer that makes fun of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad and portray him in some pretty disgusting ways there were protests and attacks at a few US diplomatic buildings in the middle east and north Africa. Due to these attacks and some spotty response from a few leaders it lead President Obama to state on Telemundo that he "Does not see Egypt as an Ally or an Enemy." While I have heard there has been some walk back on that Bobby Ghosh seemed to be extremely shocked that the POTUS would not see the people of Egypt as a friend anymore due to this incident and a lack luster response from Egypt's current President Morsi.

Here is my take on it, Mr. Ghosh in looking at all the film that was shown of the Protest in Egypt, I didn't see Morsi climbing those walls, I saw the EGYPTIAN PEOPLE. I saw them attacking our Embassy in Cairo, burning OUR FLAG and celebrating a victory over the ignorance of a few people at the cost of the safety of those in our diplomatic core. Now far be it for me to tell you the PROPER way to protest, but don't act like seeing a people come at you in a violent fashion shouldn't cause you to rethink your relationship with them. Yes I heard you speak about how the last more dictatorial regime would have resorted to beatings before the protests even got that bad so some of this may have been the Egyptian people enjoying the freedom to express themselves in a way they are not yet used to. The problem is just like you can condemn the acts of the idiot who organized the trailer(especially if some of the actor interviews are to be believed that the audio was dubbed over and the movie they made had nothing to do with Mohammad at all), he and we all can look at Egypt and say you attacked us we aren't going to be as chummy with you until you explain what the hell you were thinking and why.

And I've got nothing

Hey, how are you. Seems while I was gone 2000 or so people have come through and read a post or two. I thank you, I mean up to the Dark Knight Rises I have had a busy summer watching movies and things, just haven't been in review mode for any of them. Most of them I liked(Hell I even liked John Carter, it was just promoted wrong) just by the time I got home I didn't feel like logging in to say anything.

I could blame it all on work, being mentally tired, being on G+ waaaay too much, reading books, reading comics, watching anime, not playing my PS3 hell really being kind of boring but I won't. I haven't done anything over here mainly because once I get done it seems kind of quiet. No I'm not trying to change everybodies mind every time I put out a post, that would annoy the hell out of me. I have no problem stating my opinion, my point of view or even the facts that I have uncovered in my travels through this strange world of ours(and yes while the word FACT usually means set in stone if history has told us anything it is only set in stone until a new stone is turned over) that doesn't mean I don't want to hear yours. Granted I have been pretty damn quiet and not just on my own blog, other blogs that I used to comment on frequently, tumblrs, hell I haven't even played a FPS in months. I won't go into Lily Von Schtupp's "Tired" but yeah I need a kick in the ass.

Maybe things will pick up with Football season, it is hard to be dead to the world once football starts. Yes I am still an Eagles fan, yes I will continue to make Cowboys jokes and yes I still won't watch the Superbowl unless my birds are in it. It's a lazy Sunday in more ways then one, but the bar is still open, the glasses are still clean and if you want a drink I am still your bartender

Comic book movies I want to see made Marvel: X-men Pt. 2

The Why:

Everybody takes their bumps and bruises in the hero game, X-men actually takes the time to try and train the NEXT generation. They show young kids having to go through school, dealing with normal kid behavior, while sometimes enjoying throwing their powers around. One of the oft repeated panels are various games of baseball, where in the rules it's supposed to be POWER FREE and yet somehow somebody always catches a snowball, a shock, sometimes a psychic flutter. You also get to see the X-men being normal without having to wonder which one is the mask. I mean Cyclops wears red sunglasses when he doesn't have his visor on but no matter what he is Scott Summers he has a code name but he always has his powers, Wolverine/Logan/James Howlett III always has that adamantium skeleton and healing factor. Kurt Wagner is always blue with a tail, I know in one of the shows they gave him a holographic projector(and yes he has had one from time to time built by Forge the mutant with a power that lets him invent almost anything he puts his mind to) but around the team he is who he is tail and all, hell wolverine calls him a blue Elf half the time(which is hilarious since wolverine is shorter than Nightcrawler when he stands to full height instead of doing his demonic/gargoyle crouch). You also see that for the most part the Mutants at Xavier's school for Gifted Children accept each other for who they are, disembodied brains, blue furred beasts, demonic looking priests, Bugs, lizards, whatever if you are a mutant all are welcome and if somebody dares tease a fellow mutant for their mutation somebody comes to their aid.

Comic book movies I want to see made Marvel: X-men

I know somebody is gonna say but they made an X-men movie, they made 4 of them. No they made ONE First Class, but that isn't the X-team we marvel fans Know and Love. As for the Crap Brian Singer put out, yes it was nice to see SOME of my favorite mutants on the screen but he constantly Pooched everybodies abilities. Storm was a flier and so was Jean Grey, always having them on the ground when they were teachers at the school was an insult. If you wanted them to be just learning how to use their powers you should have reduced their ages to teenagers. Bobby Drake could "Ice Up" since he was about 12 years old, depending on which continuity you listen too Bobby Drake/Iceman is an omega level mutant who's powers manifested pretty damn early. So for him to ONLY Ice Up one time in the last movie for a 2 minute fight(which versus Pyro was 1:30 secs too damn long) was not only a waste but an insult. Hell he didn't even freeze anybody and HE WAS ON AN ISLAND. Bobby Drake can draw the water out of a fellow human being to create his ice, on an Island Bobby Drake is surrounded on all sides by water, you are pretty much fighting a God right about them he has all the ammo he needs. Hell it was one of the reasons why I couldn't stand X-2.

My New work Cell Phone: The Samsung Galaxy Note review

 This is my new work phone the Samsung Galaxy Note 4G Android Phone, Carbon Blue (AT&T). I say one/I because I have read rumors of a Galaxy Note 2 that is supposed to drop somewhere around October which means this may no longer be the only Galaxy Note in existence. For those who don't know what the big deal about the Note is, Samsung built this phone as an in between it's a hybrid phone/tablet that they have called a phablet a few times. The Note comes in at 5.3 inches and uses up most of it with the screen, I should have taken a picture with it lit up but when I do the blog about my new carrying case for it the Otterbox Defender Case for Samsung Galaxy Note. I have had this phone for a little over a week and so far I love it, the screen is bright an clear, the processor is fast, the 4G LTE network has me surfing webpages almost as an after thought.

The Note Has 2GB of onboard memory set aside for apps, 10GB for personal storage and you can insert up to a 32GB microSD card in it(I have an 8GB in mine for now though I am eyeing a 32 or 64 GB for later). It has a 2MP camera in the front and an 8MP camera in the back so it takes really detailed pictures as well as allows you to have a video chat conversation without your face being all blurry. Now for those with small hands this phone is huge you probably want to get a Galaxy S II or wait a few days and pick up the SIII.

Movies I want to See DC: Justice League pt 2

The why in my mind isn't so much simple as it is awesome. While these guys are all Alphas(not to be mixed up with the Syfy show) they seem to find a way for everybody to become a well oiled machine, using each others strong suits to get the job done. They may not be happy with each other afterwards depending on how things went down, but while they are going down once they figure out what you are doing, why and where the focal point is, look out. These guys are the Top Dogs in their city, their may be other heroes(especially in Metropolis and Gotham) but these are the guys who everybody else makes room for when they step through the door. And rarely do they need or ask for help, I mean Superman is nigh invulnerable, has moved asteroids to planetoids, can fly, run almost as fast as the Flash(technical comic book rule I will get to in a second), has super hearing, X-ray vision, heat vision, super breath of various kinds and has a 1 percentile intelligence when called upon(depending on storyline). Wonder Woman is an Amazon, look unless you lived under a rock for most of the 90's you saw Xena Warrior princess, you saw what many at the time called an Ancient Wonder Woman.

A fierce and fearless female warrior, unflinching in her cause, rarely matched in her skill. While blogging wasn't really that big in my life at the time if it would have been I would have said then "DC comics needs to stop whatever they are doing and tell the people at WB to sign her(Lucy Lawless) to a movie deal quickly and just put out a half decent popcorn Wonder Woman flick just to have SOMEBODY besides the big two on the silver screen." Because in all honestly all they have is Superman and Batman, which while they are great when your competitor has 5 block buster movies, one that is a Household name that just has a hard time living up to expectations(Hulk) but folks still

Movies I want to see made: Justice League

This one was obvious. The reason is also obvious I want to see the Best vs the Best. No their powers are not all the same, though some are similar, no their stories are not all the same (DC has a penchant for Orphans, while Marvel seems to prefer tortured souls out of place in either time or society), Their enemies aren't the same nor do they all live in the same place. But they are they best of the best at each of their respective companies.

The Justice league is pretty much every major DC hero(just like the avengers is pretty much every major Marvel hero) plus cameos of folks who either can't or don't regularly keep their own title running. The thing is though, while Marvel is a bunch of guys saving the world and then hanging out afterwards to enjoy each others company for MOST of my time watching Justice League on TV or reading the comics, for DC it's all about the job. I have often said one of the most brilliant things Marvel did was pretty much house all of it's heroes(save a few) in or around the city of New York, and if they aren't in one of the five boroughs they are inside the Empire State. Spider-man trips over The Human Torch, trips over Iron Man, trips over Captain America, trips over Wolverine/Luke Cage. You get in a big brouhaha and knock somebody through the wrong wall and you could go from being one up on a hero who's skills don't match up to well against you, to getting double teamed by guys bouncing around you and hitting you from both sides making you wish you hadn't got out of bed. So yeah I love the casualness of Marvels team ups/crossovers.

Comic Book movies I would like to see made.

Doing my little rant about all those DC fans Screaming "Young Justice" as an answer to Disney Marvel's the Avengers got me to thinking, "exactly which comics would I like to see translated into future movies from EACH company?" And you know what that is a valid question, not only is it a valid question but it is an excuse to release the entirety of my Comic Geekdom just for the out and out hell of it. Now I am saying BOTH but I may add in Image, Dark Horse and Top Cow comics as well. But much later down the line because there are PLENTY of DC and Marvel characters I think can do well on the big screen.

Okay so I'm saying I want to do it right, next is the how. The how will be a post on each comic, for each company and possibly on or at the start of a certain story line. In certain cases say like New Mutants/Xforce and Teen Titans/Young Justice (or even X-factor 1 and 2) I may do a couple of posts because I would like to see a sequel of movies. Also in the case of young Justice and X-force since there are a few iterations of each I also plan to make a case for each iteration. Now some may know about the Young Justice Cartoon having a different line up then the comic. But how many remember that the ORIGINAL X-force was not Cyclops' personal black ops team but Cable's mutant soldiers in training. Which is kind of funny since Cyclops is Cable's dad, whew the drama in that family I tell ya.

Young Justice, Really? Pt.2

Okay I have brought up a good number of Marvel super teams right, I have even discussed the super team that Most DC fans hope to see, but now lets get back to the big guns DC needs to bring out: The Justice League.

Green Lantern while not an out of the Ball Park hit, but neither was The Hulk, but he did build a better understanding to the fans especially when they did a much better SEQUEL. Unfortunately for DC Hal Jordan wasn't the fresh GL in everybody's mind. You had Jon Stewart scowling on TV screens on Cartoon Network every week and the hard nosed Green Lantern of the Justice League. And I like Jon, even Kyle Rayner the newest GL that was introduced during the Superman cartoon series was better known. Hal was straight Super Friends. What about the Flash, he had a TV show that was successful in live action for a few years, he's great comic relief too, why not make a movie about the Scarlet Speedster? Speed has been in lately, why not cash in on that genre?

Of course I am going to ruffle some feathers(especially since JW was attached to the project for a while) saying Wonder Woman, but just do it. Strong female leads are in, swallow the harsh pill go out there and put Wonder Woman on the silver screen, her original costume, her current abilities, Super Strength, Flight, Speed, the female version of Superman who can match strategic wits with

Young Justice, really DC fans? pt.1

I know my first blog in who knows how long and it's title is a question. Yup and shamelessly at that, I am a well documented Marvel Maniac I have been one for well over 3 decades. So after seeing the Opus that is The Avengers I have heard something coming from many DC fans that has to be considered laughable at best. They feel that DC's response to Marvel making a movie about their PREMIER super hero team should be to make a Live Action movie about the 3rd Robin's super team.

Yes I am calling you out, I should do this on wordpress so I can curse but no, I really do want to call you out here on the Ponderings. The Avengers is about Earth's Mightiest Heroes(in the Marvel U), that means their best of the best. The roster: Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Hawekeye, and Black Widow with SOME involvement by Nick Fury and his buddies at SHIELD. Now yes there are plenty of Roster changes that come along with The Avengers, quiet a few team members that I wish had been able to make it into the first movie but you have to go with characters people know about. Black Widow was introduced in Iron Man 2, Hawkeye was introduced in Thor(not as Hawkeye but as Clint Barton Hawkeye's real name, and yes I did a huge girl cheer when I saw him grab the bow in Thor). Now for me Hawkeye was the guarantee that yes an Avengers movie is coming, Hawkeye really doesn't exist anywhere else in the Marvel Universe except for in Avengers titles, so you see Hawkeye you know Marvel is about to bring out the big guns. And they did to what is apparently going to be Box Office Record DESTROYING results(again it's THE AVENGERS yes they could have screwed this up royally, but something tells me Disney, Marvel and Joss Whedon wanted this one badly) so if I were to bring out my big guns I would of course expect you to bring out yours.

Trailers for Chronicle

Wrath of the Titans

As a sign of ULTIMATE AWESOMENESS for this movie the official site didn't want to work for me, yup that's right, they have a site, it is up and I can't see anything but the 3D advertisement for Divx. I'm not big on this movie only because the premise and the name sound a whole lot like the Percy Jackson
series of books. The basic premise as shown in the trailer is that the Gods are losing their powers and the Titans are returning, so since the Gods can not do it they need the Demi Gods lead by Perseus to defend the world against their assault. SO Perseus once again grabs IO and a rag tag bunch of other demis to show the Titans what for and hopefully save the day, because by being half human the demigods may be stronger then they think.

Now yes I know it took all 5 books for them to get up to the actual God+Demigod vs Titan War, but it was still the Gods plus their DemiGod children versus the Titans, and oh what do you know there is a son of Poseidon on the quest too. The trailer looks to have a lot of action in it, many people did not receive the first movie too well but it did make enough to warrant a sequel so this one might do well, I just think they should have found a different premise. They are other quests the could have undertaken, I mean Perseus is a son of Zeus couldn't they have him undergo some kind of trials of Hera, could he have assembled the Demigods on a quest to restore humanities faith in the Gods? I liked the first one I will probably like the second one, that just sticks in my guy a little that it seems that ripped off the running plot from a teen fiction novel minus a few character and plot points that would have been chopped down in the movie anyway(as a lot of them were chopped down in Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief) but enough going off on this movie, it's only one of the trailers I saw Wednesday night(yeah yeah I got side tracked).

21 Jumpstreet

Ladies and Gentleman I like Channing Tatum, I like Jonah Hill(I still need to see The Sitter), and as both a rap and movie fan Ice Cube is the man, I hate this movie. No I'm not giving it a chance, I'm not saying this because I was a huge fan of the show, meh it never really appealed to me even with Holly Robinson in it and Johnny Depp. The show looked interesting but the movie looks like a train wreck waiting to happen, it's almost like the said "hey we have this old TV show that did kind of okay, and while we haven't had much luck with movie to TV translations at all why not brush the dust off this one and give it a shot?" I am not saying the premise is unbelievable, I know plenty of people with young faces who could pass for high school students, I know plenty of places where some intervention may be needed when it comes to curtailing the flow of designer drugs in the schools, and I am sure the police would love to have some eyes and ears inside. Unfortunately the Hollywood approach is making this movie a farce, I don't buy either of these guys as high school students.

And the worst part about it is JONAH HILL IS FAMOUS FOR PLAYING A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT, hello SUPERBAD that's where I first saw him, dude was hilarious he sold the kid who was amongst that whatever percentage of people who drew pictures of big veiny penises. And it introduced us to McLovin(come on twitter you know how many times you have used McLovin as a TT) come on now how can you take a guy who has the whole awkward outsider thing on lock, straight typecasting no matter what he tries and turn him into a joke in his signature role. And Channing Tatum is playing a jock role, that should be a cake walk too and he looks ridiculous, how could you screw that up? I mean how can you take two people who should easily be able to handle the roles and at least in the trailer make it completely un-entertaining, that has to be a talent, a skill, you had to mean to do that. Jonah's movie The Sitter had me dieing to see it, I just didn't get a chance, yes I called it "Adventures in Babysitting the redux" as a compliment, that was one of the movies that was a cult hilt when I was younger. It was that type of silly, mindless, unexpected fun that create cult classics so them remaking it isn't a bad thing in my mind nor something in that same vein.

Oh yeah the premise of the movie:two young undercover officers are sent to 21 Jumpstreet to go undercover in a high school to find a new designer drug that is making it's way around the campus. They get into ridiculous hijinx as they have a hard time fitting in as high school has changed so much in the few short years since they graduated.

The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen is a child of The Seam, the 12th district on the outskirts of the Capitol. Everyday she climbs under the fence to hunt with her long time and partner Gale but today is a special day it is the day of the Reaping. Today all children between 12-18 will be gathered together and 1 boy and 1 girl will be selected to enter the Hunger Games. The hunger games is a gladiatorial contest where 24 children a boy and girl from each district fight for survival in a tournament for the pleasure of the Capitol. For Katniss this year was the worst ever her sister 12 year old Prim was selected, each year you get one entry and somehow against all the odds Prim's name was selected and the only way Katniss can save her is to volunteer in her place. And now Katniss has to enter the Hunger games and hope to survive against all odds with a boy who she must kill but really doesn't want to.

I loved the books and I hope to love the movie to. As I have already done a review of the Book I don't want to mix the two together so I am gonna leave it off here, I can't wait to see this movie and hope it can at least capture the heart of the books.

3 Stooges

This movie follows the Hijinx of Larry, Moe and Curly 3 brothers who were left on the steps of an orphanage as children and are now out making their ways in the world as grown men. Yes this is the movie adaptation of the Slapstick comedy troupe from the 1930's-1960's, unfortunately reading the synopsis they are getting sucked into the reality craze I was kind of interested in seeing this movie but the trailer and the synopsis killed it for me. Hell color me crazy but the whole "to save the orphanage where they grew up" plot sounds a lot like the original Blues Brothers, without the good music or the funny.


Prometheus

They went out looking for our beginning and what they found may be our end. Prometheus is a prequel/reboot of the Alien series once again we are about to find facehuggers, spitters and aliens on a distant barren world. In space No one can hear you scream

Impatience thy name is Primal

 Now you can say it and you are absolutely right: "Didn't you say you would hold on to buy the 32GB microSD card with the Adapter because the 16 would be fine?" and yes I did say that. Here is what changed as sometimes happens in my day to day travels I happened to hit a few electronic stores looking for various parts, and while there I decided to check out things that just hit the shelves that I might want later:Phones, Sd cards, Games, Gaming Systems, newer versions of the tablets coming out, new laptops, what have you. The reason being is simple if I know what a customer may be about to purchase I at least can get a heads up on any issues that may run into either from trying to get the it to do something it can't or because they didn't read the instructions on how it can. So while making these rounds I happened to look in the Sd/flash memory section, remember I really wanted a 64Gb but the highest I saw on shelves was a 32 and I was noticing a pattern.

A memory card in hand should be purchased DOH!

What you see here is the new memory card for my tablet, for now. I say for now because I actually want either a 32 or a 64gb Sd card, and I actually had a 32GB microSD card in my hand at a Walmart out in Millington when I decided to wait and see what they had at Best Buy. And What dear friends did they have at Best Buy a Full SD 32GB card for the same price($49.99) as the mirocSD at Walmart with Adapter. Now since I found it at one Walmart me with my BIG BRAIN decides "meh I can go to the other Walmart by my house and pick up a 32gb micro and be done with it," except the Walmart by my house didn't have one. What it did have was this 16GB for $29.99.

Why I love those little throw away reloadable credit cards

Ever want to make a donation, make a payment, buy something online, but are wary that your information will get into the hands of people who will worry less about your altruism and more about running off to spend your money on whatever. Well if you give them your bank account number they have access to pretty much whatever they want, can cause you an overdraft fee and basically can make your life a living hell fighting to get your money back.

With one of those little Walmart, Rush, Nfinanse, Green Dot, Amex, etc cards you can make your online selection, if somebody  just so happens to get that number and want to go ham, cut it up never put another dime on it and call it a day. That's it that's all, unless they want to run and load money on it for you(which you either need the physical card for or else you need the password to log online and punch in the reload information) and of

Book Review: Catching Fire(Hunger Games book two)

The tricky part about talking about a sequel is depending on how far along someone is in the first book if they stop by to read a review of the next one, whether unintentional or not, a sequel is a huge list of spoilers. I am going to warn you now if you are in the middle of book one or near the end do not read this review. I pretty much stopped on the train in my first review because in my mind the train was the safest place not to ruin exactly how well Suzanne Collins had paced her book. For Katniss the small town girl on her way to the big city things never seemed to slow down once she left that train, everything was new, bright, and exciting, her life(if it continued) would be forever changed by the food, clothing, and amenities she had experienced, the people she would come to meet. And though she had not intended it, her world would be changed by the actions and determination she would show during the games.

A recap of the rules of the Hunger Games: 2 tributes from each district, one boy and one girl(12 districts 24 in all) would be selected each year to participate in the games. The games are to the death, each year there will only be one victor. Previous Victors from your district act like your lifeline to the outside world, they find you sponsors are allowed to send you gifts and train you for the 3 day period before the games. When first entering the arena you must remain one minute on the dais you were raised upon so that the land mines at your feet will be disabled(obviously they were tired of "False Starts").

There is a Cornucopia made of gold sitting to one side and the "arena" for that years games in the other direction. The arena changes every year, as does the terrain, the obstacles within the arena, the outfits you are initially equipped with and items stored within the cornucopia that will help you at least initially during the first phase of the games. Normally the Cornucopia is a blood bath. Careers, tributes who come from districts who have the resources to train their children from a young age to be prepared for the games, tend to form Alliances and wipe out any of the weaker tributes who are at the mouth of the Cornucopia trying to snatch anything to help them survive and they take the choice items for themselves as they hunt down the other tributes before they pick themselves off.

The Debt that can NEVER be Repaid

Book review: The Hunger Games

The world has changed a lot since the disasters long ago, Panem(the country formed out of what was left of North America) is a place of great struggle for some in the districts yet relative ease for those who live in the Capitol, it has been over 70 years since the rebellion and the 12 remaining districts must scrape by until it is time for the tributes to be gathered. To remind the districts of exactly how powerful the Capitol is, how utterly useless resistance would be and as a backdrop to the smoking crater that used to be District 13 each remaining city must submit two children a girl and a boy between the ages of 12-18 to participate in the yearly tournament. This is not just any contest no, it is to the death the winning District is showered with resources and praise, while the losers get to mourn the loss of two more pieces of it's future. 24 children in all one male and one female from every district but the Capitol, and since most have barely enough to survive they are aptly called

The Hunger Games

Katniss is a young girl from the Seam a part of district 12 that is usually home to coal miners. Like many she does not have much even less since an explosion in the coal mine took her father, but

The Sleeper has Awakened

In the past their battles had been in the shadows, Lycan versus Vampire. While humans had been the prey of both only those directly encountered knew the truth, either those humans who came in contact with one or the other were turned or slaughtered their deaths blamed on wild animals or roving bandits. Tales of Vampires and Werewolves(the human name for Lycans) ghost stories to scare children. Now the modern world knows, they do exist and an all out hunt for both sides has begun, the former Death dealer Selene the vampire and her Hybrid lover Michael Corvin heir to the Corvinas blood line have decided to escape and run for safety. They are hunted by both sides Michael by the Lycans because they believe his hybrid blood can strengthen their ranks and turn the tide against the Vampires and Selene because she has killed two elders and betrayed her Coven.

As Selene looks over a rooftop and sees vampires being slaughtered she has a rendezvous at the pier to make her escape with Micheal to evade the chaos being caused by marshal law. The humans are killing without quarter or mercy, united against the monsters that go bump in the night no longer do they assault each other the Vampires and the Lycans must be eradicated. A door opens behind her and an armed human approaches her demanding she turn herself in, his death is swift she has been killing

12,550+ hits wow where have I been

I know usually I commemorate every 1000 hits to the ponderings but as is known to happen I got a little tied up, a little busy, a little bored with writing and I hadn't been paying attention. So as I look through my published posts I noticed that hey the last one I recognized was the CLIMB up to 8,000, now I don't know about you but I remember the first few months and years if I got a hit or two a week I was happy. So to go from September having just under 8,000 to here in January(yes near the end but still impressive) have over 12,000 thats a little over 1,000 hits a month. Now to be fair a lot of these hits have come when I really wasn't creating any content people have pretty much been reading a lot of my old offerings, which is fine. I mean the fact that you see something I wrote in the last 3 months and decide, "hmmm I want to see what he was talking about 6 months ago, or what else has he tagged with this label" I personally find that awesome. I mean I do this as a hobby, for fun just to get random

The Diminutive Debutante or the Greeter

We all have our preferences when it comes to snacks, some of us like Lays, some of us like Vintners, some Ruffles same with snack cakes. Personally my tastes tend to jump brands for the most part down here I am a little Debbie fiend(yes that would be the Diminutive Debutante, oh you don't find that cute? Hater) especially in my more waist be damned days I would gobble up Swiss Rolls, Chocolate Chip Creme pies, Fudge Brownies and those little mini chocolate donuts. My reasoning besides price was(because you know little Debbie tends to be between 35-75 cents) I guess some of the cremes, coatings, and frostings tasted a little sweeter to me. I mean yes I like some of Hostess' fruit pies(thesauri people they exist both on line and in print) I used to love their lemon before they stopped making them(or at least I was told they stopped making them, but it could be like Sobe Black Tea just not working in this market) but past the pies while twinkies are okay you can only eat so much sponge cake.

The Trailers for Underworld Awakening

John Carter

An arena in some desolate location two beings are brought into an arena filled with a blood thirsty crowd. One is a tall, green, four armed alien, the other is an athletic man with scruffy brown hair, they are chained to a rock in what seems to be some sort of punishment/execution. A 6 legged beast is let loose and the brown haired man jumps at least 10 feet in the sky and moves like lightning. He lands grabs and weapon and slays the beast in one blow, his name is John Carter he is a stranger to this world but it will not beat him. It seems John Carter is from Earth but found his way into some strange new world, John has landed in the middle of a war, that he did not start but he seems fully equipped to end. The green four armed aliens may have thought they had a captive, but now they know they have a Champion.

Ghost Rider:Spirit of Vengeance

Johnny Blaze is a former stunt rider who lives with a curse, no not alcohol, drugs, or women no his curse is the spirit of the Devils Bounty hunter, the Ghost Rider, who is locked within him and pulling at his very soul. Johnny has sacrificed a lot to bear the spirit of the rider and keep the devil from using him to hurt innocents but now he faces a big challenge. The devil is looking for a new form in the body of young Danny Ketch, and if the rider doesn't save him he will become the Anti Christ. So once again on his Hell Bike the rider is coming, and all those in his path will know no mercy, they will feel wrath, they will feel pain, they will know penance and they will suffer vengeance.

Resident Evil: Retribution

I want to say I love this trailer, it isn't long it starts off looking like a Smart phone commercial and ends with Alice kicking major butt as she fights off the zombie hoards and takes the fight to the Umbrella corporation(AGAIN). It seems that a lot of the characters from the game(in the actual outfits) were shown in this trailer. Oh I did find the "Official Sony Site" here, I guess since it doesn't come out til Sept they haven't really fleshed it out yet. Hoards of zombies and zombie hybrids, Alice and her friends and lots of innocent humans trying to escape and lead a normal life. Unfortunately when the rest of the world is full of zombies, exactly what is normal anymore?

2011 My year in Review pt.2

This is about to come out bass ackwards but I am about to talk about my e-book library, wait why is this backwards you ask? Because I did not start collecting or reading E-books(or digital comics for that matter) until I got my Toshiba Thrive 10.1 on Black Friday(pictured to the right. So since I have yet to do a review or even talk about said Thrive since I got it to talk about something I use an object for and yet not the object(at least in my mind) is a little backwards, maybe I will talk about the Thrive in my next post.

Okay enough stalling, after Black Friday I started what is quickly becoming a favorite addiction:Collecting E-books and digital comics. The reason this is my favorite addiction is because do you see that little beauty up there in the top right corner so far I have at least 75 e-comics and roughly 35 books on that bad boy. now I don't know what kind of comic book collector you are, but let me tell you I would need a steamer trunk to carry around all those comics and that just isn't convenient as compared to that barely 2 lbs of my Thrive. And now those long car trips I used to complain about back when all I had was my blackberry and some tunes have gotten a whole lot more interesting so without further adieu:

E-books and Digital comics

Book Review: Wicked

Everybody has a story, from the nicest person you will ever meet and love introducing people to, to the wretch you can't understand why the Earth didn't swallow up. And the question, no matter where they lie on the spectrum is always the same:Wow, what happened to make you turn out this way? Good or ill people always want to know so that they could either attempt to duplicate the process or else avoid making the same mistakes. Even when it comes to fictional character and iconic scenes you wonder how and why you get to such points don't you?
Wicked is the story of the "Wicked Witch of the West" from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
, what you never had questions? You didn't ever wonder if the "Wicked Witch" had a name? Why was she wicked? How did

17 months and what has happened

Atlanta Ga, lovely city I think I have been gone longer than I actually lived here. Officially moved to Atlanta in January of 06, moved back to Memphis in around February of  07 I last came here for vacation in August of 2010 it's now January of 2012. The delay was due to a rocky personal life, I mean I could lie on a lot of things but if I can spend high 3 figures on a laptop and buy a tablet money wasn't the reason I didn't come back. I didn't know if it was a good idea. When things get rocky we all wonder if closeness or distance will help the situation, once that decision is made you have to live with it you really can't take it back. Good communication can help a situation but as gifted as I seem with words sometimes even I often say the wrong thing sometimes, I make the hard decision just doesn't make it a good one, and I can be just as subject to emotional swings as anyone else.

2011 my year in review pt 1

I said I was going to do 2011 the year in review so let me go head.

This one is my "personal year in review". Personally 2011 SUCKED, all I did was work, come home, maybe watch a movie or two on the internet and then go to sleep at around 4 in the morning. The only travelling I did was for work, as much personal travel as I did in 2010 I never left Memphis unless it was for work. I did not step foot into Atlanta at all in 2011, and yes that means that me and my wife who happens to live in Atlanta did not see each other for the whole year. We talked on the phone, got busy, got annoyed with each other, and basically acted like we forgot we were friends for a minute okay a few months. A few of my older friends will tell you that somebody has two phones but still forgot how to call as often as he should(that would be this guy), and that his thumbs don't seem to work half the time either.

I didn't take a lot of me time, didn't do a lot of me things, and as far as ones "memoirs" would be concerned this would be the chapter that is like two pages long, I'm gonna make this about my REAL life not my DIGITAL one, because technically my digital life was kind of popping. Only the real world sucked for me this year. I mean yes I went to the movies, yes I wrote over 150 blogs last year, but seriously other than that short span with the power outage there was no real excitement. I mean I really don't have anything to report here soo I'm just gonna post this and say 2012 is going to be travel, meet and greet, and figure out my personal life.

The last place I expected to be

As of the moment I am writing this it is 11:48 central time, I am not writing this in a Casino in Tunica, I am not writing this in the Apartment in Atlanta, and while it was tempting I didn't take 240 to 55 and run to West Memphis. After dropping my youngest brother off to hang with some friends(a feat that took damn near 3 hours), I decided that if I can't go the first place I wanted, or the second and if my movies prospects were dashed by the fact that it was after 11 pm and personally why sign up for the heavy police presence, idiotic drunk drivers, falling bullets, and overly friendly strangers if I don't have to.

So I hopped back in the rental, drove to the house, and decided that I would do the one thing on New