Hey gang, there's a new app for mobile devices called ReFace and it is amazing! You shoot a selfie of your face and from there it places your mug practically seamlessly into footage from television or movies or whatever. Thought for Halloween that I'd share this one of me channeling Jack Nicholson from The Shining. All work and no play makes Chris a dull boy, after all...
Dad used to tell me that he didn't want to study our family tree too much. "There's going to be someone there who wore a rope for a necktie", he would say. In most part Dad was content with knowing his grandfather, Samuel Knight - born in 1887 - and not much further.
(Samuel's wife, Maggie Warren, was born in 1880 and died in 1979. I'm old enough to remember her in her final years... and that's a pretty neat thing, to have known someone who knew Civil War veterans and was a young lady when the Wright Brothers flew their plane.)
With not much else to do with my own time these past several months, I thought it would be intriguing if I started to research our family history. Quietly praying that there wasn't some scoundrel of ill repute back there anywhere. And now I can say that ours does go back quite a bit and they left a trail behind them.
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| Knight family cemetery, Rhode Island |
Richard and Sarah had six children. One of them was David Knight, my grandfather eleven times removed. And it turns out that many of Richard's immediate male descendants were blacksmiths by trade.
Huh.
Dad was a knifemaker. He put together most of his equipment, including his forge and his power hammer. He even welded together the anvil that he would bang and shape the blades on. He made a lot of knives, more than we realized at the time of his passing.
And now it turns out that though he never knew it, he was following in the footsteps of our remote ancestors.
I've been finding information about some others along the family tree. One grandfather was Thomas Jefferson Knight, born shortly after the Revolutionary War. At least one family member fought in the American Revolution itself. Thomas' brother, Absalom Knight (is that a bad-a$$ name or what?) took part in the War of 1812. To the best of my research, one of my direct ancestors owned a slave: name unknown. He willed the slave to his wife following his death. So, there is that tidbit. I haven't found any indication that anyone in my direct lineage fought in the Civil War, but it wouldn't surprise me if someone along one of the branches participated. I say that because North Carolina sent more soldiers than any other state in the Confederacy, and Rockingham County provided more than its share of those soldiers. So the likelihood that I've an ancestor who fought in the War Between the States is moderately high.
And it all goes back to Richard the Carpenter. Who came to the New World and it sounds as if he lived an interesting life.
Who knows. Maybe some bit of prior research eludes me. And that it may be possible to take the lineage back even further. But if not, I'll be content to be the scion of Richard the Carpenter.
I hope he would have been satisfied that I've tried to live a life even a little bit as illustrious as his.
Well, it happened. But from the looks of things I am in plenty of good company.
Last night I made a tweet on Twitter. The now much-beleagured company that along with Facebook (is that a possible RICO charge?) has been censoring any mention of yesterday's New York Post story about Joe Biden and his son Hunter and their dealings with Burisma. Among other things.
There is a photograph of Hunter Biden using a crack pipe. Or maybe meth. I don't know. Meth would be a lot nastier. But I know this photo exists. I know because I have seen it.
So last night I made a Twitter post, along the lines of "the question that should be asked of every journalist, news outlet, and social media giant: Why should we trust you?"
Below that I added: "P.S.: there is a photo of Hunter Biden with a crack pipe."
I just checked my Twitter page. That post has vanished. Without warning or notice.
It's possible that a Twitter employee deleted it. It's also possible that they have adjusted their algorithms to automatically search and destroy anything negative pertaining to the Bidens.
However or whatever happened, it's not that big a deal. I'm actually rather honored that of all the zillions of tweets flying right now about Hunter Biden, that mine was apparently targeted for termination. The Twitter account page itself is still there (at twitter.com/theknightshift) but I wouldn't be surprised if that went MIA without warning sometime either.
The more that Twitter and the other "Big Tech" companies pull stuff like this to an increasing number of people, the more they are looking at having their protections stripped and being broken up. It happened before with the phone companies. It could happen again. Nothing is "too big to fail". I've wondered if anyone has considered that Facebook and Twitter have become means of communication between people, companies, and organizations like churches and civic groups. Depriving people of that or banning them from participation is almost tantamount to obstructing delivery of the mail service. Or denying phone service on the basis of personal political beliefs.
And of course, Twitter and Facebook are behaving not so much as platforms as they are publishers. There is a vast difference between the two. Big Tech is trying to have it both ways. And it's wrong.
Well, as I said: it's no skin off me if the post was deleted or even if my entire Twitter feed is destroyed. Who knows: maybe there's a class action lawsuit that could come of Twitter's antics. I wouldn't mind getting in on that action.
EDIT 10/16/2020 8:26 am EST: The tweet is back where it was. Oddly, I looked at its interactions and it has only been seen twice. The other night it got up to around 200 or so within a short period of time. Not speculating, just making a note of that.
For the vastest part I have moved on past video games. These days if I play any game at all it's going to be something like a rewarding round of Go against a human opponent, or the miniatures game Warhammer 40,000 (either of which provides for keen exercise of the tactical mind). You know, something physical with tactile sensation. A few months ago I reviewed Gears Tactics, but then again Gears of War for me isn't so much a game franchise as it is an epic tale (along with the BioShock games and Halo). And that came when we ALL needed something to keep from going totally bonkers from COVID sequestration from society...
But about that same time came word of Star Wars: Squadrons. Electronic Arts' foray into what seemed like the first truly dedicated Star Wars flight sim since perhaps X-Wing: Alliance all the way back in 1999. Oh sure, there have been others involving an element of space warfare. But the still much-beloved X-Wing series went beyond "aiming and shooting" by adding power management, ordnance selection and other elements that made it truly feel like you were responsibly flying a real ship. And then there was how 1994's TIE Fighter somehow made you glad to be blasting those Rebel insurgents into space dust!
No Star Wars game like that has come about in the more than two decades since X-Wing: Alliance. In fact, the entire flight sim genre has seemed pretty much dead or at best in deep coma. Would one be welcomed with eager arms today?
Based on the wild reviews and raving word of mouth about Star Wars: Squadrons, the answer to that question is an emphatic "Yes!". So yesterday evening I took the plunge and bought the game.
And now? I have felt like a 20 year-old kid all over again, that very first night when X-Wing installed on my MS-DOS machine (running on a 486-SX CPU with 4 megabytes of RAM and a 70 megabyte hard drive... yes, I'm ancient).
Maybe I'm missing it so far, but the ONLY aspects from the X-Wings series that I've found absent from Star Wars: Squadrons are the ability to direct more power to front or rear shields, and getting to cycle lasers between one blast or the (slower but more powerful) four blasts at once. Or maybe they're in the game and I've missed them. If it hasn't been implied enough already, I've felt like a wide-eyed kid in a candy store playing this game. It's been reliving a phase of my life that was well before all of the griefs and heartbreaks came over the years since.
Who'd have thought that a video game could make someone feel so spirited again?
There is the single player story mode. There is also a multiplayer cross-platform function, which I haven't tried yet but some friends are due to be getting Squadrons soon and we'll likely be playing it together. Which, I'm looking forward to hooking up with them and shooting those Rebel scu... errr, Imperial swine out of the sky. Until then, there's plenty of time to practice with the single-player campaign.
Game studio Motive deserves a heap o' praise for not just delivering a solid combat flight sim, but making what some are hailing as one of the best Star Wars games in a very long time. And from me especially, they get mega high marks for tapping into the vein of the X-Wing series and bringing that same spirit back to Earth for a new generation of gamers to discover and enjoy.
X-Wing: Squadrons is available now for XBox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows. I know it's on Steam for PC users and it may be for sale on the online stores for the consoles. It's perfectly playable via keyboard and mouse but for a more realistic feel I'll recommend a moderately priced flight stick. I'm using an older Microsoft SideWinder Precision joystick and it works perfectly fine.
At the moment the vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris is going on. I'm sort-of listening to it, and for whatever reason tonight has me thinking back to the "debates" we had as school board candidates when sixteen of us were running for Rockingham County (North Carolina) Board of Education. Though I did not win a seat, I have always been proud of my campaign and there hasn't been a single moment's regret. I had way too much fun throughout the entire process than to have been the least bit bitter about not winning.
So that sent me hurtling into the Wayback Machine(tm) of this particular blog. Every step of the way during that run, I was chronicling it here. And more than ever it strikes me that maybe this is a resource that others could benefit from. I mean, there NEEDS to be good people willing to stand up and run for office in this land. Could it be you?
Possibly, you don't know how to start. Or it just seems too intimidating a task.
Listen, lemme tell you something: if an idiot like ME could run for office (and nearly winning), there is NOTHING that could or should keep YOU from running, too!
Here is the post that I made in February 2007. It's a compilation of links to the various posts I made from the start of the campaign, on through when it was closed out a few months after the election. There are also all the posts I made during that election day. What DOES a candidate do when his name is on the ballots being cast?
It is my hope that others might find this, and take from it encouragement. I was fortunate to have had friends (and some who became friends and indeed truly family) who "walked me through it". Maybe that can continue on to others, through this.
Here is the complete list of posts made regarding my campaign for Board of Education in 2006.
Tenet however, I might watch once or twice again. Three times tops. Just enough to try to figure out what the heck is going on. Because there is some Grade-A gray matter warping at work in this movie. The publicity for it has been clear that it's NOT a film about time travel. Instead it's about "inversion". Reversing the entropy of an object - or people - so that it appears that they are going backward when instead from the perspective of the object... say, a bullet... time is progressing forward linearly. And I can understand that much. But more exposition would have been appreciated.
It would have also helped matters if the sound wasn't overwhelming the spoken dialogue. Straining to make out what the characters were saying became an exercise for the eardrum. Was it deliberate? I mean, it's a pretty discombobulated plot to follow along as it is. Something about arms dealers and a fraudulent Goya drawing. Distracting it with sound and fury just made things worse, intentionally or not.
But if Tenet has something going for it, it's absolutely the visual effects. Nolan and his crew used a real Boeing 747 for this movie. And the battle scene toward the end is incredible to behold if also bewildering to keep up with. It's apparent that Tenet's production team went for practical effects whenever and wherever possible... and that's something I can definitely approve of.
I will give Tenet a score of 7 out of 10. For comparison's sake I would give Inception a 9.5 out of 10. Tenet is a strong effort from Christopher Nolan. Unfortunately this time he came short of making the mark. For further comparison's sake, a perfect 10 of a time-centric movie is the 2004 film Primer. Produced for a miniscule seven grand, Primer proves that a solid high-concept movie can be made without a major studio backing it with a few hundred million dollars.
Twice in the past week, during the course of conversation with other individuals the situation with Black Lives Matter came up. There was a lot that I tried - and failed - to convey, for various reasons.
But as it turns out, I really didn't have to try, because a mind far better than my own accomplished it with more weight and consideration than I could muster.
Here's the video. It's well worth your time to watch.
...Transplant, a Canadian-produced medical drama that's found a domestic home on NBC, has reeled me in as hard as any show has. Ignoring that many American folks will have a time translating from the metric system (the patient's temperatures aren't really THAT chilly) Transplant has a unique premise, intrepid plot, and a fine ensemble to carry it out.
Heading the cast is Hamza Haq as Dr. Bashir Hamed: a refugee from Syria's civil war who fled with his sister and is trying to resume life as a physician. The trek brings him to the emergency room of a major hospital in Toronto (following an incident that surely impressed his boss, but that's spoiler territory).
And it's solid, solid television. Last night's episode, the season's fourth, is the kind of thing that would be seen for in-class discussion in a course on ethics. Hamed is honest, almost to a fault. And he hasn't been willing to cut corners on getting transcripts from his university back in Syria: being an enemy of the state when you're at a state-run school kinda has its complications. Meanwhile a fellow doctor is confronted with a matter of patient confidentiality involving a drunken driver who killed a woman. And oh yeah, on top of it all Hamed is also Facetime-ing a how-to for a roadside amputation thousands of miles away.
It takes a lot... and I mean a lot... for a series to convince me that it's worth my valuable time to watch. I used to be that way with The Walking Dead but I lost track of that show (blame real life matters throwing a monkey-wrench into the works). Before that it was Lost, and I don't think there's been anything else new since then. But I've become rather enamored with Transplant. Looking forward to seeing how this series develops.
Transplant is on Tuesday nights on NBC. Next new episode airs October 6th.
EDIT: I should have mentioned Star Wars: The Mandalorian, but that was a given anyway. And it took getting every season on Blu but I did finish up Game of Thrones. Which if anyone asks, I thought it had a perfect ending.
Just one of the reasons why I have not and can not jump on the big bandwagon issue these past several months. There were a LOT of organizations of various sorts that came out with broad statements of support. I knew all along that it was foolish to make a statement about ANY political issue. Due legal process has not run its full course. Many have yielded to the moral outrage of the moment, without weighing whether it was wise.
There is a rumor... rumor mind ya so take this with an industrial sized salt lick... that somewhere in the Disney Vault there rests a cut of Star War Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker that is drastically different and better than what was released theatrically last Christmas. This cut was allegedly assembled by George Lucas: the Maker himself. This edit supposedly adds new material, removes several elements we saw in The Rise of Skywalker's theater version and perhaps even has a new ending. The result is a film that is at least forty percent altered from the original cinematic release.
It is supposed to fix the problems that The Rise of Skywalker has, as well as many of the problems that the entire sequel trilogy is rife with.
I bring up the Lucas Cut rumor because I am increasingly finding myself hoping and praying that it's true. And that it will get released. And that it is just as magnificent as it's being made out to be.
Because at this point that's what it's going to take to make me respect the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Yes folks, there it is. I am going to always and forever be a Star Wars fan. But going forward... I'm going to try to forget that Episodes VII, VIII and IX ever happened. Because there are substantial problems with what should have been a final fulfilling arc in the Skywalker saga. Problems which can not be ignored any longer. As far as I'm concerned the Skywalker tale on film ends with Vader's redemption, the Emperor's death and Luke's reunion with his friends amid the celebration on Endor.
Because it is now abundantly clear that Disney had no idea what it was doing when it produced the sequel trilogy.
It was Daisy Ridley's comments this past week that made the kill shot. It seems that even after the cameras stopped rolling there was indecision about Rey's parentage. At one point or another she was related to Obi-Wan Kenobi, or was Palpatine's granddaughter, or just what Kylo told her in The Last Jedi: "no one". I wish she had been nobody special. It would have made Rey a much more potent character. Better than that: it would have reinforced the notion that the Force belongs to anyone and everyone. That it was not the sole provenance of favored lineages like the Skywalkers or the Palpatines. One of the major themes of A New Hope was that a hero can come from the most humble of beginnings. Rey was set to follow that theme. And then they made her a granddaughter to Palpatine...
Did these people seriously understand Star Wars at all? Did they even care?
Blame can be assigned across the board. I'm not going to bother divvying it up. But mistakes were made. Atrocious mistakes. The components were there for a majestic trilogy, the one we had been long promised but had come to believe would never be made. All of the pieces were within ready grasp. They even had the cast of the original trilogy willing to sign aboard for the project.
The sequel trilogy had everything going for it, seemingly. And they messed it up.
Personally, what was most unforgiving about what happened in the sequels was how Snoke was treated. Here was a new character - a fantastic character - perfectly set up to be a truly horrific and fascinating villain. Snoke brought about the reaction that Darth Vader evoked during his first onscreen appearance: even without knowing anything about him, we knew he was evil. And we hated him for it. And we wanted to see more of him. Snoke had presence.
I can look past how Snoke was killed in The Last Jedi. What I can not look past is how sloppily it was made out to be that Snoke was just a puppet for Palpatine. It was complete laziness, and trepidation, and a failure to give Snoke the respect he deserved. He deserved much better.
Star Wars deserved better. It still does.
Could I somehow come to give the sequel trilogy enough lenience that it takes a rightful place with the six core saga films that came before? Yeah. Yeah, I could. And I think that many if not most of the Star Wars fans put off by the sequels - and there are loads of them - could accept the sequels. But not like this. They treasure this mythology too much than to accept second or third best. And Disney erred grievously when it took those fans for granted and saw their wallets more than their hearts.
If the rumors are anywhere accurate, there is a cut of The Rise of Skywalker that is a true chapter of the Star Wars saga. A film that addresses the problems of its immediate predecessors and not only complements them, it makes them better.
I hope that rumor is a true one. Because if Star Wars has taught us anything, it is that nothing is beyond redemption.
EDIT 09/14/2020: Had a moment of realization this morning. Obi-Wan Kenobi said that a ship the size of a TIE Fighter could not get so far out into space on its own. Yet in the sequel trilogy we see TIEs swooping in and out of lightspeed all the time. They even follow the Millennium Falcon, aka "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy". What kind of consistency is THAT?!?!?
Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Dune just dropped its first trailer. And it looks insane!! The film itself is due in December and here's hoping that the theaters (and everything else) will finally be wide open because this looks to be a movie screaming for the big screen experience. Love the reveal of the sandworm!
Turn your peepers toward this, ladies and gents:
Thoughts and prayers going out to you as Hurricane Laura approaches.
Longtime readers know how much hurricanes and other tropical systems interest me. This one already rivals Katrina. I hope this blog won't be as busy with Laura as it was with Katrina fifteen years ago.
(Has it REALLY been that long?)
Hurricane Laura as of 06:44 pm EST on August 26 2020
Something put together during the hour of the wolf: that time between 2 and 3 in the morning when you can't sleep and your mind is running through a myriad of thoughts all at once...
It goes like this:
America is thrown into turmoil as a result of a November election that sees no clearly declared winner and in fact is endemic throughout the country's state and local elections.
Factor in that the United States is still in the midst of COVID-19 and this does not look to alleviate anytime soon.
China takes advantage of the chaos in America and fully deploys its naval might in the South China Sea. Taiwan is invaded. American military along with Japanese and Australian forces engage.
North Korean hardliners in that country's army, frustrated with Kim Jong Un for various reasons, depose their leader and install Un's sister as the glorious new leader. North Korea invades the south with China's tacit blessing.
Meanwhile Beijing opens another front. This time in the west, against the Uyghur minority. This becomes a campaign of full-blown ethnic cleansing. And once the real horror of it becomes unavoidably apparent, interests to the immediate west of China become motivated to interfere.
This will be mostly lead by Turkey. And Erdogan, obsessed with restoring the old Ottoman glory (he's already converting Haggia Sophia back into a mosque) mobilizes against perceived Chinese intrusion but also begins his own campaign against religious and ethnic minorities. Armenians are once more targeted. Persecution of minorities spills over into northern Iraq. Once more the Yazidi are fugitives in their own land.
Russia is enraged by Turkey. God only knows what Putin would do. A "crusade" against the "infidel Turks" is altogether possible. There remains some bitterness among the faithful about what happened in 1453 when Mehmet and his boys took Constantinople. Expect sympathies from Greece and other Balkan states against Turkey.
Poland becomes the one really peaceful island in the midst of this. I say that for a number of reasons. I don't see Russia doing anything there. It's not like the Nazis are back and taking over eastern Europe.
Western Europe however becomes hit with numerous terrorist attacks conducted by radical Islamic groups. France is hit especially hard.
I can't figure out what else may be. It was already 6 a.m. when I first posted this to Facebook and my brain was frazzled after a marathon session of Fallout 4.
But to be succinct about it: the dominoes have fallen and World War III is now underway.
Like I said: a scenario. One of very many.
