Archive for July, 2015

  Ok, I’ve been watching the old X-Men animated series at the same time Antonio is knocking off season 5 of Babylon 5.  That combination watch has made me not ice something I have not seen before.  

Is it just me or had anyone else noticed the similarities between Lyta Alwzander and Jean Grey? 

 The Lyta from The Gathering and pre-Vorlon version were middling enough, though admittedly not as annoying as Jean.  Though my wife does point out that if you include Talia, the theory is right on target.  The. Once the Vorlins get hi, she becomes this enhanced super-guardian of Light.  

But what really tipped me off was now in season 5 where Lyta is going all Dark Phoenix on us.   Heck, Pat Tallman could have easily play Jean Grey in the movies.  

When you consider JMS’ fondness and relationships with comics, is this just s coincidence?  Admittedly, Lyta hasn’t been killed as much as Jean, but then who has?  I can’t hp but wonder. 

What are your thoughts on it?

X-men evolutionYou know?  I was rather disappointed.  My wife and I just finished the entire 4 seasons of X-Men: Evolution and they didn’t kill Jean Grey once!!!  I mean, seriously?!?  How can it be X-Men without her being deceased.  Even the movies had the decency to kill her twice.

Other than that, it was actually quite enjoyable.  There were some significant shifts from canon.   The Wolverine-Cyclops tension is missing and it did annoy me a bit that they wrote out Nightcrawler’s devoutness.

Still, it was really well done.  The voicing is much better than the old ’94 series.  Kitty seems most unchanged from the original material.  There was a very nice tip of the hat to the Rogue-Gambit relationship.  Storm was seriously badass and had the long flowing hair.  No short crop or mohawk.

It looks like they were setting up the Phoenix story at the end.  I would have been nice if they had been able to do it.  If for no other reason than to get Jean killed at least once.

More Apple News

Posted: July 7, 2015 in Tech
Tags: , , , , ,

Apple Watch sales bottoming out?  Well, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Market Watch is reporting:

Apple Watch May Not Be Ticking With Customers

I have yet to find a benefit of doubling the price of my phone for a piece of tech that will be obsolete in 6 months when the Apple Watch 2.0 comes out.

I’m still trying to figure out who the buyers for this are.  So far all I can come up with are the ridiculously rich, tech reviewers, patrons of the Church of Apple or “kids” who still have mom and dad paying their bills.

It is open season on Catholics and Evangelical Christians.

Source: Oregon silences bakers who refused to make cake for gay wedding | Fox News

I’m really getting tired of being right on things like this.  The basics of this story is that the bakers were fined $135,000 for refusing to bake the wedding cake for a gay wedding.  From everything I’ve been able to learn – and I’ve followed this story since it originally broke, this particular case, at least, is a real religious objection.

In addition to the fine, though, Oregon slapped a gag order on the couple prohibiting them from even talking about the case.  Yes, not only the religious liberty side of the First Amendment has been compromised, but their free speech rights have been excluded as well.  In this case, there is no compelling interest for shutting them up except that it is politically embarrassing for the State of Oregon.  This is the precise reason that the First Amendment exists.

That we even know about this, means that they have obviously violated the order.  The good news is that according to the couple God is providing for them.  However, they have had to ask themselves will they be willing to be jailed for their belief in God.  Their answer is, “Yes.”  What’s yours?

 

IPhone6_silver_frontfaceIf you use Apple’s Home Sharing do NOT upgrade to the latest iOS update (8.4).  Home sharing has been removed.  Your options now are to pay Apple for Match or pay for the family plan on the new Apple music service.  If you have the technical expertise and resources to set up something like a Plex server or move your library to OneDrive or GDrive, you can take those options, as well.

Fortunately for me, most of my music is ripped either lossless or at high nitrates from my extensive CD collection.  Even most of mp3’s come from private purchase and not iTunes.  Why in the world would I pay for Match?  It doesn’t give me anything I don’t already have.

Outside the home, I put what I want on my device at the time.  Most streaming is blocked at the office and why should I burn my data at work or in the car?  Beside, I’m rural enough that it’s not unusual to not have bandwidth available for effective streaming.

If you’re a kid that has mom and dad paying your bills, this might be good for you.  For many of the rest of us?  Not so much.