You Decide Your Own Level of Involvement

The backlash against HBO's upcoming show Confederate isn't about being offended for the sake of being offended.  It's about not legitimizing the idea that the idea of the Confederate Army was on the right side of history.   I think the showrunners got the idea from The Man in the High Castle was written in 1962 and it is very much understood that the Nazi's were wrong.  I'm sure if you asked someone what's the first thing they think of when they hear Nazi they think Hitler if the world evil doesn't come first to their minds. The Man in the High Castle is moderately successful because it's deeply rooted in science fiction.  The hope that an alternate reality in where the Nazi's lose is what keeps the main characters going and what keeps you rooting for them. When I hear, "let's do a show of where slavery still exists" that gives me and plenty of other people pause.  That doesn't tell me what the story line is so it makes me th

Alexander Steele is a private detective turned night club owner in the city of Philadelphia. Steele and his longtime girlfriend Shakia's plans for him to retire are derailed when his cousin brings him an encrypted travel drive. The drive is opened by Steele's hacker friend Stan. A few days earlier every transformer in Canada had been shut down by the terrorist. The drive in Steele's possession gave details as to how the event would happen. What made it even more frightening was that the documents on the drive were created 3 months before the actual event. Steele finds himself drawn into the well-crafted mind games of a madman known as Chameleon an American terrorist. His goal is to shut down the country by collapsing the economy of the United States. From the snow cover streets of Montreal to the tropical beaches of Nassau Steele follows a trail of clues and dead bodies. As he gathers more puzzle pieces Steele inches closer hoping to reveal and thwart the plot to bring

Let's go to conspiracy theory land for a moment.  I had a discussion with my brother a couple of months ago about American Gods.  It was about how the gods don't exist if people of that land didn't believe in them. Source He and I began to discuss how the media is set up.  We talked about how the media is owned by a few networks.  And we talked about who controls what we see in the media and online.  It's made me wonder what affects seeing all of these shootings and murders have been affecting the nation. The conundrum is problematic. We can't shut off the images.  We can't unsee the murders and the death of people who could be easily him, I or another loved one.  Who's next?  Becomes the question.  What can you do?  Turning off the images won't make the problem go away.  But what does the watching those videos do to us?  As a community?  What does it do to our mental health? Like I said, we're in conspiracy theory land.  What if we are c

Arya's Revenge. That is one of my most favorite scenes.  Right up there with Arya killing Walder only because of the stories that she and Bran would listen to as children. Foreshadowing is great when it's done like that.  It's even more chilling because she's a child but let's remember all of what Arya has been through and Sansa for that matter.  Arya was always just coming up at the very last minute just to have her hope snatched away. I know we have a lot to jump into but when the guy that's in charge at the wall (I never learned his name I expected him to be dead by now) asks Meera and Bran how do they know they're telling him the truth Bran just lists off places he's been and that's about it.  If I say prove to me that you are who you say you are and the person says, last Wednesday you were at the grocery store at 11 am that doesn't help me believe you.  But that's nitpicking to the highest degree. "I don't plan on kni

Despair is killing the African American community.  Hopelessness is more than just when you no longer have any hope.  It is when you feel like things will never get better no matter what you do.  It is when you are put into a dark place of never having any expectations that your situation will change for the better. The feeling of despair is a huge issue because it's endless.  It is when you feel like you're climbing up a hill and strapped to your back are weights of your race, your finances, where you live and where you come from.  It feels like you're climbing a steep hill that becomes steeper the further you climb it. There is no generational wealth to draw back on.  There is no grandma or grandpa to call for help.  You got the education you were told you needed to get.  Fried your hair in just the right ways to assimilate so that when you go to an interview you fit the part and look like you will "be a good fit." But it doesn't happen and it doesn

Supernatural used to be my favorite show.  And then Dean went to Hell.  Thank you writer's strike.  A lot of story lines were thrown into flux and there was a convergence of things that happened over the years.  Kim Manners passed away.  And couple of seasons later Eric Kripke left to do Revolution and Timeless and I don't know, enjoy his money.  I'm not sure. And there were so many things that I liked that when they started to do things like change the filter and brighten up the show and then by season seven Sera Gamble and Jeremy Carver left, writers and producers who, in my opinion knew what to test the viewers with and what not to. And that sounds about right to me because season five, again this whole post is my opinion, was the last really good season and here we are going into season 13 that will probably start filming this month and there's so much that I wish they would stop. 1. The look and feel of the show.  It's not gritty and horror film like an

Smash Up is a game my brother found while stopping by the local comic book store in South Charleston (the one in WV) Lost Legion Games and Comics Smash Up, designed by Paul Peterson, is the Shufflebuilding game from Alderac Entertainment Group.  In Smash Up players draft two faction decks, such as pirates, ninja, robots, zombies, and more, and combine them into a force to be reckoned with! My brother had told me about this game before and it doesn't mean anything to me until he buys it and asks me to play it. Ok fine. 1. This Is Not a Drinking Game There's too much math involved for this to be a drinking game. Mostly just lots of addition which isn't hard just a pain especially when you have cards that power up other cards or cards that take away other cards (or minions I should say) powers. 2. Two people can play this game and it'll still be fun. Because there's one base extra than the number of people playing depending upon your strategy two

The next podcast for School's In is on a topic I'm kinda excited for because it's something that we all need to be aware of and that's cultural appropriation.  I've seen enough history specials and read enough history books to know that black people created their own culture when our culture was taken aware due to slavery. And I feel the need to say here that because people mention slavery it doesn't mean that anyone is blaming any one person walking the earth today for slavery. No, slavery is no one's fault but we're living in a world where African American women feel the pressure of straightening their hair to seem more acceptable with harsh chemicals and heat to assimilate into the culture they were brought up into. Look up Jessica Sims who became a discharged Navy vet because of her locs. Melphine Evans ,  Farryn Johnson  who was fired because she had blonde hair and "black people don't have blonde hair", and the story that stan

I did a big little chop on June 12.  I had so much heat damage and I just had these limp ends.  I cut a bunch of it and now I'm struggling for styles. (I cut all of that damage off) In an effort to throw away as many bottles as I can I'm going to get my routine down to just a few products.  I used to be a product junkie and this is because I could never figure out what worked for my hair so I would spend and spend and spend trying to figure out what works just right. Carol's Daughter Curl Souffle and Aussie conditioner and Carol's Daughter Jamaican Black Castor Oil line seems to give me what I need.  It's so frustrating because my hair gets so dry so easily and we all know that's what breaks it off Not to mention how thick my hair is.  I know some people aren't into hair typing and I get that because it leads to the belief that one product only works well with this type of hair and how it categorizes and separates women with curly and natural hair

Who does that?  Who just throws a pig head into the ground like that?  Did he throw it down and pick it up or did he have someone else pick it up?  OR did they just leave it there?  These are the questions I have during the commercial break. Oh and Ophelia is back, yay. I'm kinda sad that no one is happy to see Ophelia I mean, Travis is dead she obviously knew what the right call was. But anyway Alicia agrees to stay behind for...reasons.  I guess she can't explain to Jake's dad what a parlay is so she decides he'll agree if Jake explains.  Which makes no sense, Jeremiah would be more likely to agree if it was his son that was in danger, not Madison's daughter. Wait.  Alicia tells Walker that he killed a family member and he's all good so you can know how I feel.  What the heck kind of an answer is that? The rescue mission is underway for Alica because...don't get me started on how American television is but this is also Madison who does dumb