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