VIDEO: "Battle of Narendra III" - Yesterday's Enterprise

[VIDEO] Recently I ran into the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" where the current crew of a starship Enterprise encounters another starship named Enterprise. In this case the older ship went through a temporal anomaly and effectively changed the past in doing so.

The video above shows the battle that Enterprise endured before they enter this anomaly and then encountering the future Enterprise and then sent back into the past to continue their battle. What is shown here was made by a fan who did their own computer animation.

VIDEO: Whites Only Laundry

[VIDEO] This video is humor. Hopefully everyone knows not to take this very seriously as it was made by a sketch comedy group. It hit on the right chords.

Basically the guy we see owns a laundromat and he seems unable to correct himself with his silly mistakes. He names his establishment "Whites Only" then forced to change his name due to outcry it becomes "No Colored" and then after even more outcry it becomes "Uncle Tom's". It went from bad to much, much worse.

Even worse check out the third part of the video, the "Uncle Tom" portion. Who would come up with an idea of a seperate entrance with a seperate but equal landromat in the back of the establishment. If this happened in real-life this would prove this aspiring businessman clueless to America's racial history.

Now if I may offer another opinion, perhaps this commercial states the at times absurdity of America's racial insensitivity. There are moments where sometimes the outcry is correct and then there are moments when throwing the race card is inappropriate.

Perhaps with the first commerical there really shouldn't be an outcry. Besides the man's plan is to have a laundromat that only washes white clothing. Sounds like a good deal right, but all it would take is someone to read into it!

Either way this video is hilarious and shocking. Perhaps more than being funny it's making an important point. What do you think?

A friend suggested I make some shirts

This is what I come up with. My style is to keep it simple and I'm not sure if anything else will be added to it. Time will only tell and besides for now they will be limited edition shirts and intended for a particular occasion. Now to find out how to get these few shirts made!

BTW, if you want to know why burgundy, red-violet, or maroon look no further than Morehouse College as it's one of the school colors. Still this is not the final design to be used.

Should I photoshop more?

I need to play with photoshop some more. A few years ago, I made this image using some instruction I found online. Another piece of handiwork of mine you can see at my other blog The Sixth Ward where you will see the masthead that I made with minimal effort.

Why am I talking about this now? Primarily because I recently revamped my "must reads" section in my sidebar and I see how so many of the blogs that I have added to it have their own "icons". Is it time for this place to get an icon.

Frederick Douglass

The image you see to the left is one candidate, but I almost feel like it's necessary to be more creative than what you already see. Also you shall notice that many have their headshot for an icon. In my case, that's not likely to happen. Of course, I could always utilize good old Frederick Douglass for the honor!

Also over the years I've entertained possibly making a masthead for this blog. Not sure what I haven't so far, but just like for The Sixth Ward the masthead here would also be done with minimal effort. Besides in some respects photoshopping will be done in as close to a minimalist style as possible.

In any case perhaps in the near future, my artistic skills will allow me to come up with something that will prove to be appealing to any future reader to my humble blog!

Looks like the NHL will be back in 2013!

[VIDEO] At least the NHL won't appear to make a colossal mistake of cancelling the whole season as they did back in 2004-05. And again NHL is the only North American professional sports league to have had to cancel an entire season due to labor issues.

What you see above is a press conference provided by the AP. Now an AP write-up:

The NHL and the players' association reached a tentative agreement early Sunday to end a nearly four-month-old lockout that threatened to wipe out what was left of an already abbreviated season.

A marathon negotiating session that lasted more than 16 hours, stretching from Saturday afternoon until just before dawn Sunday, produced a 10-year deal.

"We've got to dot a lot of Is and cross a lot of Ts," Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

The collective bargaining agreement still must be ratified by a majority of the league's 30 owners and the union's membership of approximately 740 players.

Under the negotiated CBA, free-agent contracts will have a maximum length of seven years, but clubs can go to eight years to re-sign their own players. Each side can opt out of the deal after eight years.

The pension plan was "the centerpiece of the deal for the players," said Winnipeg Jets defenseman Ron Hainsey, who took part in negotiations throughout the process.

The actual language of the pension plan still has to be written, but Hainsey said there is nothing substantial that still needs to be fixed.

The players' share of hockey-related income, that reached a record $3.3 billion last season, will drop from 57 percent to a 50-50 split. The salary cap for the upcoming season will be $70.2 million and will then drop to $64.3 million in the 2013-14 season. All clubs will have to have a minimum payroll of $44 million.

After the sides stayed mostly apart for two days, following late-night talks that turned sour, federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh worked virtually around the clock to get everyone back to the bargaining table.

Time to get ready for some Black Hawks action. Besides, some team can unexpectedly win the Stanley Cup as the New York Rangers did in 1994 after a lockout that cost the NHL half a season.

A drive along 63rd - from Englewood to Woodlawn

Originally posted to The Sixth Ward on January 4, 2012 

[VIDEO] The vid above is from one of my long time YouTube favorites, artistmac. He takes a drive along 63rd Street  from Morgan Street all the way to Stony Island an sure to note how the individual neighborhoods once grew along that corridor.  63rd & Halsted was once a bustling commercial district in Englewood and then the area around 63rd & Cottage Grove was also a bustling commercial area in Woodlawn. Both areas are now mostly vacant lots although some redevelopment has occured in those areas.

In fact on East 63rd just past the Cottage Grove terminal of the CTA Green Line some single family homes have been built. Artistmac didn't want to get into the politics on the video of how the Green Line abruptly ended at Cottage Grove when it used to terminate as far east as Stony Island. Sometimes I wonder if cutting the L beyond its current terminus was a huge blunder!

On West 63rd, Kennedy-King College was built within the former 63rd/Halsted business district and is still waiting for even more development. While it seems more likely Woodlawn could be redeveloped given the fact that the University of Chicago is slowly but surely expanding south beyond the Midway Plaisance, time can only tell for Englewood.

Artistmac does provide one omnimous conclusion: "Unless those middle-class residents can be enticed to come back to Woodlawn, Bronzeville and Englewood, I doubt those neighborhoods, or any of Chicago's declining neighborhoods, can be brought back to life."

Since we were talking about Abraham Lincoln...

Especially since Steven Spielberg's Lincoln is currently in cinemas across the nation, we remember the Emancipation Proclamation. 150 years ago it was an executive order issued by President Lincoln that proclaimed that slaves that were held in the territory controlled by the Confederate States of America were freed. Now granted Confederate held territory not under the control of the Union this order didn't have any effect. It was on Confederate territory that were held by Union forces during the Civil War where this order took effect.

I'm only noting that because there are those out there who continue to argue that President Lincoln never freed any slaves. Surely there are others out there who are better able to argue that position that I'm able to at the moment.

In looking for materials on this subject I found this Forbes posting that asked one question, "150 Years After The Emancipation Proclamation, Are We Free?" It isn't so much an article that talks about equality amongst various "minority" groups in America as much as it is a philosophical argument about the freedom of the individual and its relationship with government. It notes the positives of the Proclamation even if while a segment of America's population were no longer enslaved they still had to fight for their freedom years after that fact.

Also you can read an article about the Proclamation courtesy of the Nation Archives.