Monthly Archives: July 2014

80’s Music Wednesday

I dare you not to bob along to this fantastic 80's track. It deserves to be blared loudly and sung along to at the top of your lungs. Try it, you'll see what I mean. I present to you Brand New Lover by Dead or Alive.

Xfinity, no one likes you

So, my honey and I were out at breakfast this past weekend when we tried to connect to the wifi. We have been going to this place for years and they have always had unsecured internet access for people to use. Recently they have made a few upgrades and locking down the wifi was one of them. Not a huge deal, but as I am looking at the list of available SSID's available to connect to, I noticed an unsecured "xfinitiywifi". I showed it to my husband and he informed me that this was a common thing now. Comcast is using your modem to broadcast a signal so subscribers can sign in and use wifi where ever they are at.

This doesn't seem safe, or legal. When I got home, I googled a bit of information on it and came across this year old article on Ars Technica. The article states the good it could be doing, but it doesn't talk about the possibility for hacking. Also, when people connect they are using a piece of equipment on your network. Which means they are using your electricity. Will this increase your electricity bill?! Is Comcast going to put some money on your electric bill? Since they don't want to credit your bill when they have outages for days  (*cough polar vortex cough*) I am going to go with no.

I am going to set this on my porch

http://sprudge.com/20-tip-jars.html

This whole debacle fortunately does not apply to me and mine. We do not rent Comcast's shitty equipment, we purchased our own. But it is still truly concerning.

 

Do you have Comcast? Do you take advantage of the wifi access points from them around your town? How do you feel about it?

Thor Won’t Be Sashaying Anywhere Soon

 

thor-001_cover

New Female Thor Concept Art

Marvel Comics has certainly been the rage this week. Two large announcements shook up Marvel fans everywhere. The news was so popular that I even had to hear about the change on the E! Network, which made me stop and ponder life and where it was heading for a minute. Marvel announced this week that Thor would be a woman in an upcoming series, and Sam Wilson would become the first black Captain America. The announcements unfortunately had a flip side, there have been a lot of angry and upset people making ludicrous statements. Do you want to know something else that’s crazy about these announcement. Most comic book fans didn’t really bat an eye at it. They were more confused by the manner in which the announcements were given and spent some time schooling people throughout the internet hoping to calm the masses down.

 

 

 

Beta Ray Bill

Beta Ray Bill

So is Thor becoming a woman? Yes. Is that woman Thor? No. That doesn’t make sense, huh? Here is what is actually happening. Marvel is giving a woman Thor’s powers and abilities and she will probably be called Thor unless something has to change during the period of her existence. She is not Thor himself, just someone worthy of his power and some form of his abilities. This has happened already with the alien named Beta Ray Bill. Yes, that was typed correctly. He is a, for lack of better description, a horse faced alien that was worthy enough to pick up and use Mjolnir. Of course Thor eventually needed it back, so a new powerful hammer was forged by the dwarves so that this worthy being could continue his destiny as a hero in space. There is also a Thor Girl, but she never really went over well with the masses.  Beta Ray Bill has been around forever and has been romantically tied to Lady Sif in some books. Don't ask me about how that works, but love is love right? Looks like homegirl found a solution to not having Thor for herself and went and found the next best thing.

Thor Gil

Thor Gil

 

MikeFichera--Loki-Female

Loki as a woman.

Thor goddess

Thor as a woman.

Thor himself has been a woman before just as his brother, Loki, was. Unfortunately for readers, they were never at the same time. That might have allowed us to avoid the awkward flirtations by Loki. I know that Loki has spent his existence proving how he is not related to Thor, but that's your brother, man, woman....frost giant. Thor has also been a frog, but we rolled with it. The woman thing was actually supposed punishment by Odin in both cases. It is hard being a woman, but I don't remember Odin calling them out for objectifying.  Female Loki actually spent a lot of time in main comic world, but female Thor did not. Thor was a woman during an interesting comic storyline that was developed between two books called Earth X and Universe X. The whole series really took the Marvel world and did whatever they wanted. It was meant to be its own universe that didn’t affect mainstream Marvel comics.

 

The second announcement from Marvel stated that Sam Wilson, best known as the Falcon and one of Captain America’s sidekicks, would be taking up the mantle of the shielded warrior with the blessing of Steve Rogers himself. Sam Wilson is considered one of Steve Rogers most loyal and best friends, right up there with Bucky Barnes. Him taking over, isn’t a shock. This isn't the first time that Rogers has stepped away from the role. Bucky Barnes actually took up the star spangled uniform a few years back in the wake of Steve Rogers supposed death at the end of the Civil War storyline. Once it was revealed that Rogers was still kicking, he actually encourage Bucky to stay in his place, so he could go do some incognito work to uncover all of Norman Osborn’s grand and terrible plans during the Dark Reign arc.

samcap

Concept art for Sam Wilson as Captain America

To those who were so shocked and angered by these announcements that they took to the web to state explicitly their outrage, please, calm the hell down. The world isn’t going to end. Everything will be okay. Marvel has several universes in its comic world. They are usually called Earth and some number. We have the main universe that is the most common and universes where writers and artists are allowed freedom for a bit. They also create these storylines to breathe new and modern air into the characters. This allows the characters to never age by giving them a new background that is not only relatable to new readers but believable. These changes can be a gamble. If the entire story bombs they will just create a new universe for it and act like it never happened. If say a character works out, but the rest of the storyline may not be strong enough to take over the mainstream universe, they may pull the character only into the mainstream universe. This kind of happened with Nick Fury. Nick Fury actually became a black man in the Ultimate universe books for Marvel. This character was so popular that he has practically replaced the original version while the rest of the Ultimate didn’t quite make the cut, although it had a pretty decent following. They have explained away current Nick Fury's race as him actually being one of his seemingly large mass of illegitimate children. Seems like a stretch, but when you factor in how old the original Nick Fury is, his R&R activities were bound to lead down that road.

Two things. Yes, Thor really was a frog once. Second, whether or not Disney owns ABC and Marvel, why the hell they felt the need to have the Thor announcement come from The View,  beats the hell out of me.

frog thor

Frog Thor

Basically Marvel isn’t going to do something crazy just to piss you off. They still have to make money, therefore your opinion is important. Just give these changes a chance, and if you don’t like them, then simply say that. Marvel’s ear is already on the ground waiting for your reaction. The anger and slander is unnecessary. Marvel will change it back if enough people don’t like it. All they are asking is for a chance. The world didn't fall apart over Nick Fury. True the change didn't win everybody. If you feel passionate and head strong about your loathing with that change, I invite you to make that statement directly to Samuel L. Jackson's face. If you survive that, then your opinion will be considered valid....maybe.

80’s Music Wednesday

Thought it was time for a little hair band rock. While I love Def Leppard, this song will now and for always remind me of Dean Winchester. If a car could saunter like its owner, that's what it would have been doing when he jammed this song as he rolled up to interrupt probably the biggest the world had ever seen, but that's why I love that man. Enjoy, Def Leppard's Rock of Ages.

My Top 10 Podcasts – Part 1

Two years ago, I did not listen to podcasts. I had heard of them, but I never really paid attention. That all changed a year ago.

"Give me some of your favorite podcasts!" One of my Facebook friends posted. In 15 minutes she had a resounding list. One kept popping up over and over and over again. "Welcome To Nightvale" I decided to check it out. I started at the very beginning and was hooked after one episode. I started at the beginning, and was done in no time. I began searching for other podcasts to listen to while I was waiting for an update to WTNV. It just kind of snowballed from there.

Let's start with how I listen to my podcasts. Podcasts are called such because of Apple. These types of broadcasts have been around forever, but Apple made it simple (as they do with most things)  to get all of these in one spot. I am not an Apple product user. I never have been. I find it amusing that even when I was all about trends and trendiness, I never had an Apple product.

My current smart phone is an LG Nexus 4. My phone is great, however I got the low end of the memory when I purchased it. I know now that my next phone will have the most memory I can get.

The application I use to access podcasts is BeyondPod for Android. I tried other applications, but they didn't feel as user friendly to me.  There is a free verion and a paid version. I used the free version for a while then switched to the paid one. According to the website, the Lite (free version) has the same features of the Pro (paid version) except the following:

  • You will be able to update only one feed at a time.
  • You can download only one episode at a time.
  • You can play episodes only at normal speed.
  • Chromecast support will be disabled.
  • Scheduling of automatic updates will be disabled.
  • EpisodeSync will be disabled.

The main things that I needed from Pro were the first two on this list. I have a lot of podcasts...as well as feelings.

It is user friendly and the only thing I wish that it had (and this is totally superficial) is the ability to change the color of the application. The only two color palettes you have are a khaki color or dark. Boo.

So that is the hardware my podcasts run on. Lets jump into the podcasts. These are my top 10 in no particular order. I like them all equally.

1. Welcome to Nightvale

We've already talked about this in a previous post. Perfect Carlos, Cecil, The Old Woman who secretly lives in your home. They are all amazing characters. This podcast is delightfully weird and is an absolute joy to listen to. I wish I lived in Nightvale. I would happily join Tamika Flynn's band of mercenaries.

2. We're Alive - A Story of Survival

I discovered this podcast roughly a year ago. I don't remember how, and I do not remember why. But I was hooked instantly. It tells the story of a hodgepodge of people, banding together as the Zombie Apocalypse is in full effect. There are a lot of twists and turns along the way. This podcast has been going since 2008 I do believe. Sadly, it is coming to an end. According to the website the finale premeres in LA on July 19th in a live performance. It is killing me that it is ending, as I have grown to seriously care for some of these characters. It feels like it did when Harry Potter ended. I have thrown absolute tantrums on twitter about characters and they have responded. Observe:

  And

As you can see, I love this podcast. And I love that they interact with my crazy butt.

 

3. The Read

I don't even know how to begin with The Read. Let me start at the beginning. I live for Kid Fury. I originally started watching his YouTube videos when he talked about the drama he had when trying to get home to watch Scandal:

I was in TEARS of laughter from the jump. You'll notice in this one he briefly mentions the podcast him and Crissle do.  I went ahead and checked it out shortly after that.

Bruh. Bruh. Honey, Linda, listen to me right now. If you love Beyonce, pop culture gossip, ratchet music, and just straight silliness. You must listen. There is swearing on here. Please keep that in mind. I don't even care. I'm grown.

4. The Leviathan Chronicles

From my list so far, you can kind of guess that I enjoy podcasts that tell a story. I am an avid reader. I have never really used books on tape (or cd, or whatever medium you want), but this is what some of these would be. Leviathan Chronicles are no different. It tells the story of an immortal population with a twist. This took some getting into. I think it was roughly the third episode before I was actually invested.

They currently have up to the first half of season 2 out. There have been multiple setbacks recently and the owner (Director? Writer?) Christof Laputka has a State of the Union that has been out there for a while explaining the delays. Christof,  if you read this please know that there are people who enjoy this podcast who would have no problems donating to a Kickstarter fundraiser for you. I need to know what happens to Tulley. I also want to punch Maccallen in the face.

5. Blerds on Nerds

BoN holds a special place in my heart. They reached out to us on twitter. Matt lives in Indianapolis (like me!) and Llana lives in LA. Kind of like how Blondie is in Vegas and we co-write on here! For those of you that do not know, a Blerd is just a Black Nerd. Growing up, I didn't run into many Blerds and it wasn't until I was a full fledged adult that I truly let my Geek Flag Fly. BoN talkes about the things that we all care about, such as E3, Comics, Gaming, and more. I appreciate what they do, and hopefully maybe we can collaborate on something someday!

6. Stuff you Missed in History Class

I am going to be honest with you when I say history did not capture my attention in High School/Junior High School. I always made it a point never to fall asleep in class, no matter how tired I was because I snored like a bear back then. To this day, 9th grade world history is the only class I have ever fallen asleep in. Seriously passed out on my desk. I got detention because it is pretty much impossible to discretly sleep when you snore like a damn bear.

I felt like adding this podcast to my roster was going to be a mistake. I figured I would try one and delete the stream if I did not like it. This particular podcast has over 600 episodes. I started with number one. I believe this podcast started in 2008. I am currently in the year 2009. I've listened to over 50 of them. One of the hosts has changed so far and it looks like both will be changing the later I get into them. My favorite podcast is where they talk about Australia's Stolen Generation . I had no clue that this had happened. I spoke to some of my Australian friends and they gave me the breakdown on how the impact of the stolen generation reverberates today in Australia. It is crazy.

 

I did not realize my countdown was going to be as wordy as it is. So I am going to save the last 4 for a Part 2!

Sailor Moon Crystal

Alas there has only been one episode of Sailor Moon Crystal, but it was effective none the less. Seasoned fans should have no fear of the new world presented by the original creator, Naoko Takeuchi. With only watching the first episode, I am confident it will only continue to satisfy.

Is there a difference between the beloved anime from the 90’s and the newest incarnation? As of yet, no, but there probably will be. The main purpose of the newest series is to devote itself to the original manga that inspired the 90’s anime. After watching the first episode of Crystal, fans will argue that it is virtually frame by frame the same as the first episode of the original show. There will be those moments throughout the newest anime, but the old anime jumped shipped and changed up the story more than a bit at times when compared to the original manga.

While the first season of the original anime followed the manga pretty closely, I suspect that we will not see a relationship between Zoisite and Kunzite. This relationship never existed in the manga. Some may be upset over this, but alas it is for the sake of continuity. The four Dark Kingdom Generals were originally the guardians and friends of Prince Endymion. Though never actually confirmed, they may have been romantically involved with the inner senshi. Naoko Takeuchi is the one that suggested the romantic relationship in the past lives of both the Earth and Moon warriors.

If the new anime makes it, and I cannot see a reason at this moment that it would not, the following seasons will probably be greatly affected. There will most likely be no Doom Tree storyline. While it isn’t horrible, it wasn’t really my personal favorite storyline. It just never seemed to fit with the rest of the show.

So what do I love about Crystal? The animation is gorgeous. It looks like it was ripped from the very pages of the manga. I know that there has been some groans about the unrealistic look of many of the female characters, but I don’t take it personally. It is a cartoon. In comparison to most of the other anime out there, Sailor Moon Crystal still wins for being less offensive. I cannot say enough about how much I love the art in this anime. The characters look so ethereal and magical just with this change. Basically someone came in and said we are going to redo your favorite cartoon, and we are going to clean it the hell up. They sure did, too.

All of the favorite characters are still back and at the end of the episode there was a silent nod to Ami, so maybe the next will be Sailor Mercury’s episode. Umino is back as well as Naru. They look exactly as they always have except they have that same finesse as with all the animation for the show. Of course, Mamoru makes an appearance and exactly as he did in the manga.

Mamoru is actually the character that I hope they get right this time around. I have found a way to ignore the awkward pedophile-esque relationship between Usagi and Mamoru from the anime with the knowledge that he was actually about seventeen in the manga and still in the high school. Why someone thought that it would be an awesome idea to suddenly make that man about twenty and in college when he meets and starts his relationship with Usagi is crazy sauce. He is way way more interesting in the manga and has better character development. Tuxedo Mask and Darien were my cartoon crush growing up. I wanted to be with a guy that always protected me just like him. Sailor Moon didn’t always needs saving, but he was there regardless. I also hope, they throw that awful green sports jacket away as well.

At the very least I am excited for this show, yes, even as a thirty year-old woman. This has always been one of my favorite love stories. I am a hopeless romantic, so a little bit of that hooks me well. This show depicts two people that have fought space, time, and death to be together. Edward and Bella have nothing on these two. Annoyed that I will only get a new episode every other Saturday, at least everybody will know what I will be doing next Saturday.

Magnificent Manicure by BruisedUpDollie

When I was but a young girl on the interwebz, I came across a site called Cybersocieties. It was a site similar to hot or not,with points that meant absolutely nothing. It also had a slew of characters. While CS still exists, it is a shell of its former self. We have a small group on Facebook that posts information, and a lot of us are friends on there. One of my dearest friends from that time is Lo. She is here today to show you how to put together a simple and cute manicure. Take it away Lo!

 

Heeey! I hope everyone is well. I'm super excited to be able to share a simple mani known as the dotticure. A manicure filled with polka dots! For this look I used I used a dotting tool but if you don't own one you can use a bobby pin, the end of a paintbrush or even a tooth pick. You'll also need two or more polish colors. I chose a white and a teal. 

So adorable, so simple!

So adorable, so simple!

I layered some of my dots with a smaller dot of my original base color to make O's while leaving some smaller dots just as they were. I think it came out pretty cute for being insanely simple. I hope you enjoyed this super simple dotticure! And I hope you try one out sometime. Also I want to thank Leslie for having me! Thanks doll you're awesome! 


 

Do any of you do nail art? Lo is amazing, and as a matter of fact, she designed a manicure for me to use on my cruise. However the nail shop I went to failed horribly at it. I didn't even bother taking a pic of the one the manicurist did. Like I had to come home and redo my own nails, it was that bad.  Here is the one Lo did for me:

 

This is adorable, and I die.

This is adorable, and I die.

 

More of Lo's manicures can be found on Facebook and Instagram!

https://www.facebook.com/BruisedUpDollie

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered (not in a good way)

Humans are weird creatures. Some of us are loud and combative while some of us are soft spoken and passive. We are all different and that is great. It makes the world a more interesting place to live in. Sometimes we don’t know how to deal with the actions of others or situations that our environment have put us in. Instead of making changes and doing big thangs, a lot of us put our heads in the sand and bemoan our fate. I am guilty of this quite often. There is a saying that is attributed to several different people; Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Sometimes it is hard to make that first step to change. This is why I am writing this. A change will do you good, as it sort of did me. Here are the steps I follow and questions I ask myself when I am truly unhappy with something for the examples, I am talking about my former job.

1) What exactly is making me unhappy?

When I first started my old job, I was ecstatic. I had been out of work for two years, and before that, nothing I truly did was IT. This job promised to change that. I learned a lot, and as time went on, things were becoming old hat. By two years in, I had surpassed my current job position. But there was no where for me to go. Remembering the arduous job hunt from two years prior, and how hard it was to get this job, I floundered. I stayed miserable far longer than I should, telling myself that I should be grateful to have a job.

What I didn’t realize was that in two years the game had changed. I was a big fish in a rapidly shrinking pond at my job. I wasn’t learning anything new, and I wasn’t going to be allowed to pursue the career path that I wanted to in IT in this job. Another thing I did not realize was that yes, my job hunt was difficult prior but I had nowhere near the skills or the resume that I did now.

2) Is there anyway I can become happier in my current position (current relationship, etc.)?

The straw that broke the camel’s back  as far as my old job went was the very last review I had there. My boss gave me a glowing review. He was happy with all aspects of work that I was doing. During the portion of the review where he asked if I had any questions, I asked “Is there anyway that I could get promoted with job title and pay?” I was straight up told no. My old department ran incredibly lean. There was no place for me to go, and my boss wasn’t even trying to keep me. This was going to continue to be a miserable place for me as long as I stayed there. It was time for me to go.

3) Where to boss?

This is rough. You need to sit down and think what do you want out of your next situation. For me, I wanted a place that once again I would grow with. I learned so much from my old job. It made me more than a tech: I am an IT professional in all aspects of the word. I don’t just look at the problem and figure out how to solve it. I look at all aspects of a situation to prevent the issue from cropping up again. I wanted a place that would help me onto the track that I wanted to be on. I knew my end goal was to become a DBA. I knew I was not at that stage in my career at all. I wanted some place that would put me on the right track.

4) Let’s do this!

I knew what I wanted, I was ready to hunt. Dozens of resumes were sent out, interviews were given. For the first time in my life interviews didn’t phase me. I have all of the soft skills that IT people are always pushing. I have the technical skills as well. Why should I work for you? Tell me about your company. The interviews never felt one sided. We were testing each other out. Are you a good fit for me? I already know I am a great fit for you. Eventually I happened upon a company that is a great fit for me.

So that is where I am at now. The company I am currently at is as enthusiastic about me as I am about them. My department is another story. There is a lot of things going on that make me doubt who I am and what I am trying to become. It is dragging me down quite often. I am not in tears like I was at the end of my last job, but I am slowly losing steam. So I started looking at my list of questions again. I am on question #2. There is a way for me to become happier. and I am working on it. If you have a full time career a lot of your time is going to be spent doing this job. While it should not be the end all be all of your happiness, if you are able to you should at least not want to huddle under your bed crying when it is time to go to work. I recently took a step that should change how I feel about everything and continue me on my path to who and what I want to be.

What do you do when you are unhappy with a current situation? How do you handle it?

80’s Music Wednesday

In honor of the recent Transformers release, here is a look back at Stan Bush's The Touch. This little beauty never made it into any of the recent film incarnations. I had hopes for this last movie, during the ending credit scene, but it was not to be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKpByV5764

80’s Music Wednesday

What's better than George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne? Answer, a band with all of them together. May I present the Traveling Wilburys and End of the Line.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwqhdRs4jyA