Season finale #StrangeNewWorlds

 I think it was a strong episode. It was a retelling of the original Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror" except we see Capt. Pike officiate a wedding between two crewmembers - just as Capt. Kirk had. He's in command of the Enterprise seven years from Season 1. In this retelling he had to deal with the Romulan incursion and of course he does it with tragic consequences.

Oh and while I don't consistently follow any rumors about the series I do already know that Kirk is expected to make an appearance in season 2. He makes an appearance in this episode, but remember in "Balance of Terror" Kirk is supposed to be in command matching wits with the Romulans.

So Pike is going forward in time still gripping with the knowledge of his future. The future we already know from the original Star Trek he's disabled due to his heroic actions saving as many Starfleet cadets as he could severely scarred and unable to communicate.

So anyway Kirk is on board an assisting vessel the USS Farragut which gets knocked out in a Romulan attack. We get a few other "easter eggs" and of course we see why Pike shouldn't be in command of the Enterprise in "Balance of Terror". Kirk was the one telling Pike as a fellow captain to go in and fight, and even after everything falls apart still tells Pike to go in and fight. We find out that Spock is an essential factor in the future of Federation/Romulan relations.

Of course in knowing this Pike realizes he has to accept his fate. He can't escape or even warn those future cadets of their fate. He meets one in this episode just a child who aspires to join Starfleet - as one may aspire to join today's US military - and sadly he knows this child's future fate.

In the reviews of this episode some like it one guy says it was a weak episode. Personally I like it, it made a bit of an impact on me. It was nicely shot especially the scene in the sickbay near the end of the episode. The camera focused on Pike as he rolls through the scene almost like the scene where Malcolm X is rolling ever so slowly to his fate. I almost wondered if Spike Lee directed this episode.

I look forward to more James T. Kirk in season 2 whenever that drops...

Saw #JusticeLeague this evening

[VIDEO] I'm going to let John Campea do more talking about this movie. If I had seen the above video before seeing the 6 PM show I'd know what he was mostly talking about.

Since the start of the DC extended universe in 2013 with Man of Steel it seems the new series of films had starts in fits and starts. Man of Steel was OK there were some parts of the movie that threw me and basically they killed off Zod from Kryton so early.

Now I liked Batman vs. Superman though the whole film wasn't that good. Batman to me stole the show though in reading other reviews many had a serious issue with Batman as a cold killer. The Dark Knight or Caped Crusader showed he was a bad man in facing down the hoodlums of Gotham and Superman. It was a bit goofy how using Martha - the name of both Clark's mother & Bruce Wayne's - stopped the epic fight between DC Comics two most iconic superheroes.

I also liked Suicide Squad also problem is they threw in the Joker. I recognize that they threw in the Joker because Harley Quinn was in it - because she's been introduced to the main DC universe and is no longer exclusive to the DC animated universe. The first part seemed to have been humming along, the second half well I didn't get it. And again we get a glimpse of Batman & The Flash with a special appearance by Bruce Wayne near the end seeking to provide Amanda Waller cover.

The next movie changed the direction of the DC extended universe, Wonder Woman. Using the Great War (The first World War) was a nice touch that worked and contrasted with the canonical second World War origins of the superheroine. She fought the German Empire as easily as she fought the Nazi's Third Reich. It was quite an introduction especially if her introduction into Batman v. Superman wasn't as satisfying.

Finally we have the long awaited Justice League. Ah the Easter eggs I want to talk about we seem some hints of other DC super heroes in this one though nothing from them yet - and yes there will be other movies about these other characters. It was great to see Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg interact with each other. At first there was some hostility, then eventually they came together to fight a common antagonist. We even see a certain superhero who died in Batman vs. Superman return to finish the fight.Yeah I know a bit of a spoiler but if you've been paying attention to the trailers you already know Superman is coming back.

Just like Wonder Woman, the audience applauded and I missed the scene after the credits. There was a mid-credits scene that I saw, however, since I was at the movies far later than usual it was time for me to go. I may go see this film one more time to see this final scene. Although they could've ended this with the mid-credits scene which was very satisfying...and the audience also applauded that!

BTW, DC extended universe films aren't known for these end credits scene are they stealing a trick out of the page of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I could like without it though only provided if they advance the story of the DC universe.

Also, I've never caught a midnight show, however, I've noticed over the years that they have slowly fallen out of favor. Basically if a blockbuster is expected to come out on Friday - in general - you can be amongst the first to catch it starting at 6 PM on Thursday. Of course this depends upon the venue where you seek to watch the movie. All the same I enjoyed this experience although a long way from saying this is something to do again. Perhaps for the right movie - the right geeky movie!

Go see Justice League, it gets a thumbs up from me!

#JusticeLeague is a winner not bad for watching the first showings of this film. Excellent! 👍🏾 pic.twitter.com/4RECjsI3wb

— Levois J (@levois) November 17, 2017

Adventures in getting connected online...

I like to state that I've been fooling around with the internet for many years in the pre-Facebook - Twitter - Instagram - Myspace years. The internet of the late 1990s was so low-tech I often wondered if my teenaged-self head would explode with what the internet offers day.

Most people years ago connected via dial-up and only recently did my home get connected with DSL broadband. Dial-up was cheap broadband wasn't and thankfully DSL prices went down - even if introductory - to the point where I felt comfortable going for it.

All the same that doesn't mean things don't happen to the point where you'd have to call for help. I'm learning that even DSL is headed towards being obsolete. Since my DSL service is through AT&T now I'm learning about U-verse which is supposed to be fast internet as opposed to DSL although Uverse is DSL of some sort.

Anyway it's a bit of a hassle to even get tech support via AT&T because if you have a problem with service as I have then they might decide well that's an opportunity to upgrade. The only thing is all you want is the possibility of a restoration of service. In that instance even getting a new modem seems out of the question as I had been told.

So regardless after seeing how difficult it can be to get through the AT&T sales pitch and finally get some internet service restored and was told finally that we should just get another DSL modem for now. It took time to get service back and while I'm confident in my ability to do things on my own I was forced to call AT&T to get my new modem up and running.

I'm really glad I did and after almost three days offline I'm back on the web. All I needed was to use the correct password to get back to where I wanted to be. That means more activity on the PC and away from my various mobile devices.

The weather

On my Instagram account I have the tendency to post screencaps of the temperature and weather radar. Sometimes because it's of interest and mainly because I want to show the weather here in Chicago at any given time. Besides I've always been interested in the weather.

I used to say warmer weather is just around the corner and now it's here. In fact summer is this month, we've had a very harsh winter this year with temps going often below 0 that I'm sure many of us were wondering if the winter is over. Well it is over and many of us have survived.

Now we may be dealing with higher food costs because of this. Heh, this is where I only wish I had a better grasp of economics and the many forces that affect an economy. Of course there are probably other after-effects of this past winter to be concerned about.

In any event, summer is around the corner and unfortunately here in Chicago warmer weather means more crime because local headlines are already showing the violent incidents occurring in my fair city. While we should always remain safe, I'm still glad that this harsh winter is behind us. May there be peace during the course of this summer!

Check out this spam comment

I took a screen cap of this comment to my recent post about Arsenio Hall. Needless to say I was amused by it. Needless to say I marked it as spam but it did get posted to the blog. lol

Proofreading

Something I like to pride myself is being a good writer although at times my writing isn't as clear as it should be. Sometimes I go through past posts and see where the grammar and the meaning of sentences could be improved. Often times I just simply change them long after the fact.

I'm usually prompted when finding that old posts recieves visitors although the main thing about blogs is that they're constantly updated. For the most part a blog reader isn't exactly going through the archives thoroughly. They're reading for the more recent posts and the blog must be constantly updated.

Reading one of the more recent posts one morning there was one mistake that certainly changed the meaning of what was supposed to be said. It was the post about the state trooper who took a phone call answering questions about a newly enacted law his agency was expected to enforce. Seeing the mistake although days after the fact, it was important to make a word substitution to make clear the point of the necessary statement.

Acknowledging that as a blogmaster that sometimes writing mistake are made, it's time to do better within that regard. Perhaps it's time to do some proofreading before hitting publish. Even better perhaps the post need not be published when done writing, but can be scheduled so that there is time to properly proofread. Or at the very least leave the post as the draft so that it would get one more proofread before publication.

With that being said, I shall do better in the future!

Epiphany on social networking sites

facebook.com

I've reached something of an epiphany recently. Actually when you think about it, it seems there are epiphanies about anything with me. In any event, I've come to a conclusion about social networking.

Believe it or not, I've been using Facebook since it was brand new. So brand new in fact that when a user registered they must have a college-issued e-mail address. It wasn't as wide open as it is now.

Never would I have ever imagined that there would be other ways of distracting ourselves online - such as Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat - during the course of a given day. In fact now these sites have evolved beyond the PC which was the only was to access sites such as FB years ago. Now we can access these sites via cell phones or a tablet device.

So getting in touch with our friends and more random people via these various sites are easier than ever because now we can use cell phones and tablet devices. You don't have to wait until you get to a PC to utilize these sites.

Then it hits me, it's cool to be able to use these various platforms to communicate with a number of people. We could reconnect with childhood friends, classmates, family, or even make new friends. It's as useful as the many uses you can make of it however you choose.

At the same time there is a dark side to using such sites. Like any tool, if you use it the right way it will prove to be beneficial. At the same time if you use it the wrong way, then it probably will cause more harm than good. You can use such a site to project yourself as you are until you find someone who decides to mess with your reputation using online sources. And unfortunately it seems a lot of people put a lot of their lives online.

Then here comes my epiphany....there's got to be better ways to pass that time than on a PC or a mobile device. This should be time connecting with our friends and family offline and perhaps taking them to a movie or to a restaurant. That is being truly social with them in the real world.

While, I'm a long way from ever removing myself from these various sites perhaps it's time we consider how important our time is with the people we do care about. And anything else that happens online whether wanted or unwanted is at some point merely noise.

I felt the bite of a "polar vortex" this week...

Temp on Monday

Had myself an interesting week. The weather has finally warmed up earlier this week the temperature was as low at 16 degrees below zero. I still had to work that day which was Monday and I was feeling the cold for certain.

It was not long after the snow had ended and because I had to work not enough time to really dig out which I eventually did on my day off. And at that school was out for the last two days in light of the weather although at first it seemed CPS was willing to stay open and force students to get out here in the elements.

Well, there are no complaints on my end, I stayed as warm as I could getting outside. I survived and hopefully many others did. And for Chicagoans - polar vortex or no polar vortex - weather like this is nothing new. Thankfully while we have at least two more months to go for winter, we should remember that spring is just around the corner.

It seemed that one or two days of very low temperatures was only temporary and it was. It seemed in spite of all the concerned, things got back to normal quickly. Even better the weather will warm and and all this snow and ice that accumulated will melt in the future.

BTW, sometimes I just get lazy to shave it coincided at the right time with the weather. The fuzz on my face kept it warm because once I had shaved and my face felt the bite of the cold. Though thankfully on that day it wasn't as cold as it had been on Monday. Still now, I'm glad to have shaven it off! :)

Sometimes when I get to thinking...

At work one day I picked up a business card and flyer for a cinematographer. The flyer was for a project that this individual had done for a film festival. Then it got me thinking.

I often note the works that were produced and exhibited online from either Brain Terminal or Protest Warrior that partially inspired this blog. There was a time that I wanted to match some of the work they did although what could be done differently by me than they did.

There are always projects that are worth doing if you require the services of a cinematographer. There is always something at least worth making a documentary about. There's always something out there you want the general public to know about.

And let me add, the many videobloggers I followed over the years. It seemed for the most part that activity has died down, but what they did to me was very ground breaking. Many of them really just wanted to show us the world as they see it. It something I'm interested in and still do it in the form of photography or even on social media.

Still when I saw the card for the cinematographer, for second my thought became what could be the use of such a skilled person. What project could be created that would justify having him work on my project?

Recently I talked with a friend having shared with him some posts from my other blog - The Sixth Ward. He had a much larger vision for what I'm doing there than I really did. He thought about flyers, t-shirts, he thought of ways to make money while pursuing a story, and much more.

Then in thinking of this, I recognize that sometimes there are moments like the one I described in the first paragraph of this post is the kind of out of the box thinking that necessary. It just lets me know that there are always projects that needs to be done and hopefully the world can only learn about something I'm passionate about!

Guess what this is?

This thick stack are all the comments on It's My Mind since October of last year. I counted just over 40 pages of comments. It's a very respectable stack. I don't think that I could even hold a candle to this if I was to say have posts from the first two years of posting.

I went to a Catholic Church for the first time...

On Wednesday night I went to St. Elizabeth Catholic Church located in the Bronzeville (also known as the Black Metropolis because it is a historic black neighborhood) neighborhood at about 41st & Michigan Avenue. And don't think I went to mass, it was actually for a memorial service of a family friend. And I thought it was nice.

The church was a lot more intimate than I'm used to. A nice pit with a table where the candles were lit and the podium in the background with a water fountain in the back. A big chair for the pastor. The benches were arranged in an unusual pattern that created a pit. It was arranged in the usual two rows of pews with a center aisle and outside aisle. I'm think I should find my way to a Catholic Church service one day.

I want to share this song that we sung during the memorial service there. It was nice.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

What a fellowship! What a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms!
What a blessedness! What a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms!

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms

Leaning, leaning leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arms!
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting arms! [REFRAIN]

What have I to dread? What have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on th everlasting arms! [REFRAIN]