Sep 22, 2018
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4 new weird stories for this episode:
- Austrian Man tries to board train with horse. https://bit.ly/2nZmWlw
- Drone footage captures tribe which has never had contact with outside world. https://bit.ly/2BK7vXQ
- AI painting for sale. https://bit.ly/2BqMrWe
- A baby with a brain tumor underwent a miraculous recovery after a kiss from Pope Francis. https://yhoo.it/2vWfsUB
Avengers Forever-Comic Book Review
There is an affiliate link in this article.
Avengers Forever graphic novel review. There are spoilers.
-Big action comic book.
This is the equivalent of an event film spanning multiple timelines characters old and new, big action sequences.
-Loved the time travel aspects.
Traveling into the future, the old west, the 1950s investigating Immortus’ machinations to undo history and create new timelines. When time-travel is involved in a TV show or a movie, I’m in.
-Kang Vs. Immortus.
Or should I say young Kang vs. older Kang. I liked this. The younger Kang disliked his future self. Meanwhile, Immortus feels he knows best for himself and the future existence of humanity. Kang fights his future self and wants to prevent becoming Immortus. This book is essentially their story.
-I didn't care for all the explanation and minutiae when I initially read this. Now going back for this review the comic shines here. The details regarding how Immortus has been involved throughout the Avengers history was fascinating. He had his hands in Scarlet Witch and Vision's relationship, the Fantastic Four's dealings with the android Human Torch, the Kree-Shi'Ar War to name a few events.
- The time plucked Avengers.
Many of the characters had their own story coming into this team. Captain America with his issues regarding his faith in the U.S. government. Songbird being a former foe of the Avengers but a member of the group in the future. Yellowjacket's company amongst Wasp and Giant Man(an older, saner version of the same man-Hank Pym), and Captain Marvel & Songbird's romantic ties. Yellowjacket and his interactions with the others were the most interesting. His polarizing nature and flip-flopping between good and evil was a highlight.
-Running into other characters from other eras.
An older black panther, a pregnant Moondragon, Rick Jones with a beard and missing a hand. Kid Colt(which I enjoyed as a marvel comics deep cut character first introduced into comic lore in the 40s), and more!
-The Avenger armies.
In multiple panels, the Avengers were fighting off hordes of enemies. The character designs of these futuristic Avenger armies where a combination of knights in armor with flairs of Iron Man's armor or Thor's costume. Cool stuff.
-The Skrulls seem to have been impersonating major historical figures for years, but the Space Phantoms were doing the same!
The phantoms are random species from other planets held prisoner in Limbo(Immortus' base of operations) and forced into servitude.
- Rick Jones was the main character but...
It sure didn’t feel like it. As I mentioned above, this was Kang/Immortus' book. I loved Kang's backstory, which is the equivalent of the man who has everything and is looking for adventure. Not in a noble way. This man conquers planets, kills and enslaves its people. Also, Rick Jones being unable to walk then he can. I didn't fully understand his Destiny Force power.
This was a great book. Recommended and a decent read. I discovered this story through listening to the Geek History Lesson podcast. Check them out. They said that this was one of the best Avengers stories ever.
Links
Geek History Lesson: The Avengers Top 5 Stories https://bit.ly/2DrM4f6
Avenger Forever, check it out here https://amzn.to/2xyTpEv
43rd Birthday Reflections
Thank the good lord above I'm able to see my 43rd birthday. Similar to year-end observations on my life, I feel a birthday serves as much. What lessons have I learned or reinforced since this same time last year? Let's get into it!
-Therapy is great!
During an argument with my Mom early this year, she said I should seek out therapy. Why? She said I have issues with her, since my parent's divorce. I took her up on her advice. It was one of the best decisions I’d ever made. Being able to talk to someone, a neutral person and tell all has been a godsend. The therapist makes great suggestions on how I should approach situations. The best moments I’ve had with my therapist have happened while I'm talking and realizing self-reflection taking place. I recommend therapy for everyone.
-Journaling and book reading has been a game changer!
I keep saying it but reading(listening to audiobooks as well)has helped me with being better equipped to deal with the world. Journaling has helped with working through my own issues. I feel it's even improved my writing. Journaling I’ve done on and off for years but in reading Anne Lamott’s ‘Bird by Bird’; it showed me a different angle for jotting things down. Mentally, it gave me permission to write about my day’s events, how I’m feeling, what’s on my mind.
-Compounding small actions truly does lead to completed projects.
I believe the habits you have during your work week are so important. I have and I am continually working on strengthening my habits. I may spend more time procrastinating in a day than working on content for the blog and podcast. But working a little bit 5 days a week on a drawing, an article, a video leads to completed projects. This is how I get a lot done.
-If friends aren't going to a party I might not go.
Is this a sign of me getting older? There are great parties happening on my days off(from work). More often than not I choose not to go. Mainly because my party friends won't be there. When I was younger I’d get up and go to any party that would peak my interest, but now I don’t mind staying in and waiting till the weekend when my friends may or may not join. Am I losing my sense of adventure? 5 days a week I’m running into NYC for work. I'm not always motivated to run into NYC on my days off. That's already part of my work schedule. This normally happens during the winter time, but it happened a number of times during the summer.
-Seeing sex workers is fun but can be expensive.
I’m coming to an annual anniversary of seeing sex workers and the experience as a whole has been positive. But man can it be expensive. Seeing a sex worker each time can be anywhere from $200+ . If I do this weekly is it still cheaper than having an actual girlfriend? I’m starting to wonder.
-Porn watching and masturbating to porn all those years has messed up my ability to get an erection.
Listening to a recent episode of Pornfree radio there was a discussion regarding a term I hadn’t heard before called PIED(Porn Induced Erectile Dysfunction). Where the habitual watching(and masturbating)to porn diminishes one's ability to get excited for real people in real sexual situations. This has happened to me. I blamed it on age initially. But it’s been happening to me for the last few years. Truly must leave the porn alone or really minimize watching it.
-I'm noticing that I can have my fill of things. Even partying, or seeing sex workers.
Two of my favorite activities is going to parties and seeing sex workers. I have my times when I'd had my fill of both. Similar to eating a favorite snack for 6 days straight, then you're in need of a break. This has happened to me. This isn't a bad thing. It's nice to take a break from anything. I like missing people, things, activities. It gives me excitement to revisit those situations when the need arises.
-Winter time is the time I enjoy traveling and playing video games even more so.
Spring, summer, fall I like being in the northeast. Outside events, parties, yoga outside, walking, movies in the park, swimming in outdoor pools. With this outlook, I think it’s going to be a great winter. I like nesting during the winter and to me, that means staying inside and working on various projects.
-Turning off my mind when my thoughts and emotions are all over the place, is a great tool.
I learned this technique through listening to several audiobooks recently. 'Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle drives this point home best. With this technique, my jealousy, my ego, negative self-talk; the volume of all those emotions have been turned down. Those emotions can have their benefits, but I tend to criticize myself more often than not.
-Allowing people to be free, to find themselves make their mistakes and learn from them, is better than trying to control them.
Letting friends, families, co-workers be. So many times I try to egoistically control others. I learned this from Marianne Williamson’s 'Return to Love' book. She says allowing people to be free helps them to find their own answers. I’m also ok with people asking me for advice. This goes hand in hand with something I learned from Simon Sinek 'be the first to listen and the last to speak.'
-I’m happy when helping others.
I notice this most at work. When I’m being helpful to guests, co-workers, managers it makes me feel good. I always remember to take care of my needs first. I like helping others but I'm not a doormat either. Helping others makes me feel great and the other person as well. This is a win-win.
-Truly settling in and allowing myself to express my emotions and not dwell in that negative place. A work in progress.
I don’t always give myself space to feel/get the anger out. I quietly go through it then it settles. I must practice letting it out, and that’s walking away, going someplace to yell or kick a box or get that energy out some way.
-Investing in stocks, saving 2% of my paycheck every week.
There was a temporary co-worker who introduced me to how easy this process can be. He’s been investing for the last 7 years and his stock portfolio looked impressive to me who doesn’t have anything in terms of savings or investments. I started trading with TD Ameritrade and it’s been easy and slowly building so far. His key advice was to invest in the products I normally use. I started saving as little as $20 a week as well. This is 2% of my paycheck. Working for 27 years and I don’t have much to show for it. Let’s build something for the next twenty years and live decently later.
-Everyone should have an eBay store.
We all have stuff to get rid of. My eBay store went from a potential way to work from home full time to simply getting rid of my stuff I’m not using and having extra cash on the side. We all have hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of stuff we no longer use in your closet, attic, garage. Sell that stuff and get some extra cash in your pocket. I did and it’s really pulled me out of tight financial situations in the past.
-Feeling less anxious and more comfortable with my dancing
I’m starting to come into a groove with my dancing. A comfort level where I don’t always have to follow other people. A realization that I am enough as I am. That's not saying that I'm not open to learning new moves, but it’s allowing oneself to finally be the star of your life movie. Accepting yourself as you are. This is liberating!
During your last birthday did you have any realizations about yourself you hadn’t noticed before? Please let me know.
Links
Pornfree Radio Episode https://bit.ly/2DrM4f6
Mixtape Magic September 2018
- ‘My Boy’ - Wale
- ‘Xtacy’ - Kanye West
- ‘I Love It’ - Kanye West
- ‘Lover’s Rock’ - Estelle
- ‘Pretty Girl’ - Stefflon Don
- ‘Kosher’ - Stylez
- ‘Bottles & Crate’ - Mr. Chumps
- ‘Trending’ - Squash
- ‘Puff Smoke’ - Shane-O
- ‘Let My Gun’ - Popcaan
- ‘Londontown’ - Mr. Eazi
- ‘079Me’ - B Young
- ‘Amaka’ - 2Baba
- ‘Jeune Femme’ - Links First
- ’Splinters’ - Shal Marshall
- ‘Dynamite’ - Brave
- ‘Split in the Middle’ - Freezy
- ‘Best Hugs’ - Dram
- ‘Drunk & I Miss You’ Kiddo
- ‘Way Down’ - M0
- ‘Flying Octopus’ Rezz
BlackKlansman Movie Review
Black klansmen review. There are spoilers.
-John David Washington sounds just like his dad Denzel. He looked cool and clean cut throughout the movie.
-The movie had a lot of comedy which made it difficult for me to take the more dramatic parts seriously.
- This movie taught me that the FBI/police infiltrated the KKK. I thought that was reserved for the Black Panthers or other radical minority groups at the time.
- At some point, some group has been ostracized by another group. White-black, black-white, Russians-Germans, Germans-Russians, Jew-Catholic, Catholic-Jew. This is not exclusive to race or religion. This film reminded me of this.
- I thought of Spike Lee's Malcolm X while watching BlackkKlansman. The connection I made with these two films; the central leader of the main organizations portrayed aren't infallible. In this film, it was David Duke being genial one moment then saying goofy, hurtful, racial, insensitive things the next. In Malcolm X, it was Elijah Muhammad’s infidelities. Varying imperfections but you get my meaning.
-Spike Lee signature shots, in the first half during Corey Hawkins character's speech(faces in the crowd shot)and in the final act with JDW and Laura Harrier(the floating shot).
-Solid performances throughout. Corey Hawkins (from Straight Outta Compton)was a nice addition/cameo. Laura Harrier(from Spider Man: Homecoming), was she too young to be the love interest for JDW? With her previous performance in the Marvel film, this is what came to my mind anytime they were on screen together. The police supervisor with the glasses(Ken Garito)and the evil cop(Frederick Weller)were over the top. Other standouts; Jasper Paakkonen (from Vikings) as Felix was great. Topher Grace as David Duke was smug. Repeat casting from Spike Lee's filmography included Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Sheeeee-itttt!)and Nicholas Turturro. My favorite character was Ivanhoe(played by Paul Walter Hauser). The way he laughs and looks. A caricature of a goon without much brains. When he was on screen I would laugh.
-How did Stallworth know who the bomber was? I was lost here.
-The end of the movie with modern day footage of the KKK marching and rally tragedy in Charlottesville. My prayers go out to the victims' families and all that were affected. My thoughts; I don't think having pride in your race is bad. But if your hurting other people, using racing slurs, putting down other groups, that's bad.
-I dozed off for a bit while watching this.
-Below is a link to NPR article which interviews the real Ron Stallworth. This is not a Trump friendly story.
Links
Ron Stallworth NPR interview https://n.pr/2y0lx5R
Ron Stallworth's book which the movie was based on https://amzn.to/2xyRv6v
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