Transformers: The Last Knight

Have you ever wanted to see the last 5 years of major blockbuster films amalgamated into one solo movie, but done as mediocre as possible?

Then you chose the right place to go with Transformers: The Last Knight!

This piece of scrap that doesn’t even deserve to be called a film will take you on the most boring, trivial, and explosion filled roller coaster ride that you’ve seen 20 times before; you only keep going because the children with you haven’t yet seen the gears past the magic.

The plot, which there is, is about another mcguffin of absolute power that could destroy earth is there from the 1000’s of years previously that it was first discovered, landed, or given. The flavor of mcguffin for this movie is the staff of Merlin, which was given to him by transformers to help King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table destroy the Saxon threat in the early middle ages. Yes, we just added more fictional characters to fictional history.

The opening starts with a battle between the Saxons and English and is probably a better King Arthur movie than others. Then again, it’s not hard to make a movie better than that when your director was set to make a King Arthur movie before. Despite the era not really having any explosions and gunpowder and other things weren’t discovered till much later, Micheal Bay somehow finds a way to include explosions all during the opening.

Before we get into the band things of the movie, we’ll start with the good. The movie is extremely colorful. Michael Bay is known for a particular type of movie, and the previous films have favored extremely gritty and dark shadows cast over most of the movie. The villains are a boring gray, that doesn’t allow you to really know who is who in the battlefield. The Last Knight does not suffer this. Even though the action was mediocre at worst and decent at best,  I could always tell who was a good guy and who was a bad guy.

Then you get to the rest of the movie. The plot is a plodding course of patience, with bad jokes dispersed between the major “story” beats. The whole back story of “The Last Knight”, the history of Cybertron to Earth, and all of the transformers histories on the planet is relegated to a single info dump given by Anthony Hopkins character who is apparently part of the family of people who are connected to the Transformers. It seems strange though, as they retcon the whole idea of the transformers appearing in 2007, which is what the FIRST MOVIE SAID.

If anyone else has seen other movie series like Fast and Furious, it seems like the latter half of the series just switches from its previous themes, almost like a soft reboot of the franchise. If you take this in lieu of the changed canon to how the transformers came to being on earth, and the expanded “Knights” theme that the movies have taken on, the story sits at this strange uncanny area outside of the series’ norms. Whatever those are.

Transformers the Last Knight is not worth the money that was spent to see it. I don’t even think it’s worth your time to watch. Finishing at 2 hours and 30 minutes, the movie isn’t the longest of the films, but it still drags (The last half of the movie feels like another whole hour, and it’s only 50 minutes). Characters are inconsistent, the story is not really up to snuff for any need to view it in theaters, and the action is decent at points, but will never really get to the same level of gross fun destruction of the FIRST film.

Side Note: If you’re still thinking of seeing this movie because Optimus is “evil” I’ll spoil that for you and tell you it’s not for long. He’s out of the movie for most of the plot, and then shows up near the end, fights Bumblebee and the way they explain his heal turn back to good can only be described as the “Martha” moment from Batman vs. Superman. In fact, arguably Batman vs. Superman had a better overall fight between two good characters than this movie did, and that movie was the king of disappointing big fights.

Final verdict: Don’t pay to see this movie. Don’t even look in the room that’s showing the movie. Don’t even pay to go into a theater that’s showing the film. It’s so bad that it would ruin any other good film that is showing there. Go see Wonder Woman again.

The New Year

 

Most years I spend New Year’s Eve just waiting it out. New Years have never been something that I look forward to, because nothing really changes. Last year’s people aren’t going to randomly transform into better or worse beings. There is no “Next time” transitional cut. There is just the night over, and the the subsequent restarting of the calendar on January 1st. On a standard year, I’m indifferent, but this New Year is changed for some reason.

After some of the biggest political blunders in history, 2017 doesn’t feel like the end of the world. This isn’t the first time that the United States has chosen less than ideal candidates, nor will it be the last. We’ll make it through 4-8 years of this like the last time, and hopefully less millions of people will be killed due to idiocy. And how does this at all make my mood happy, you ask? Well it’s more for the show. I think life is an extremely fun show to watch. (Which explains one of my favorite activities is to just people watch.) Think of life as the channel with American politics is probably the best reality television comedy that has ever existed. So I can’t wait to hear the bad speeches, horrible arguments, and questionable lines, barked at us by people who barely know what they’re talking about. It’s gonna be good!

2017 brings me joy from more personal growth that can come from here than anything. This April commemorates my induction into the greatest fraternity known to man, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. (Blu PHI!). This fall will also be leading into my senior year of college, which has me looking forward to grad school and becoming a teacher in the future. 2017 will be the year that I turn 21. Which means despite my lack of any interest in drinking, it’s becoming more apathetic as it gets closer, I can attend more events that are not barred by my age alone. 2017 is the year I plan to get my drivers license, and be able to take myself virtually anywhere a minimum wage job worth of gas, and my truck that’s over 12 years old can take me.

While 2016 was a worst year for many people, especially celebrities, I would hope that they would look back at the year as one of growth and mistakes. Life’s full of them, and one thing I learned last year, that I’m taking into this year is to not fear my own failure. It happens. But focusing on our falls and trips won’t make us any better. Learning from it will.

Mafia 3 – A repetitive mess

 

They called me the “N-Word”

Imagine yourself, walking into a store. The store says “No Colored’s Allowed”, but you decide to go in anyway. The store owner greets you with the threat of calling the police. You take his threat, and you decide to choke slam the white owner, but also every white person inside of the store. And you walk out, feeling as though they will remember the black man that choke slammed them all.

This was the experience that made me love Mafia 3.

THEN imagine you’re completing a mission taking out waves upon waves of incoming Italian mobsters. You’ve almost completed your objective, and you notice you have one left. You search for this “last man standing” (As you assume he’s weeping in the corner about his incoming doom). And instead you find that he has glitched himself into a building where you cannot hit him, nor can he die or hit you. You have to reload the game, and completely break your immersion.

This was the start of my decline into contempt for Mafia 3

Mafia 3 is an Open-World Sandbox game released on Friday October 7, 2016, to Xbox one, PC, and PlayStation 4. The game goes over the tale of a Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam War Special Ops vet, who is betrayed and loses everything to the Italian mob. Having survived after being left for dead, he decides to begin the war path to efficiently and brutally take over the grimy underworld of New Bordeaux (New Orleans) from Sal Marcano.

That’s about all the set-up you need, because that’s all the story you’re going to get. Mafia is a painfully by the numbers revenge plot, with nothing to keep itself fresh other than the interactions Lincoln has with the other characters. There are no real special twists, no turns, no sudden changes of heart, the plot is literally “Kill Sal Marcano”. And for some readers, and some players, that’s fine. It’s about the fun of the game play to get to that part.

Here’s where I stop you.

Firstly the positive: Mafia 3 has possibly the most expanded game play out of all the games so far.There are a multitude of weapons, grenades, and other ways to kill your targets as you take on another district underling’s goons. The Open world is massive, much larger than Empire Bay from Mafia 2. There are multiple missions, which you don’t have to do in any order. The driving has the arcade like mode, which is fun and unrealistic, but you can also initiate a more “realistic” driving mode if that peaks your fancy. Those are the goods.

“Cruisin down the street in my 6… What is this car again?”

Now here’s the bad:

This game is the most repetitive mess I’ve played in a while. While you have multiple missions that you can do in the game, there are almost no changes from the type of missions that you’ll be doing. Here’s the order of operations for missions:

• Meet Donovan, your handler.
  • He’ll tell you about 2-3 contacts in the district that will know about how to pull out the under-boss’ to the lieutenant or Capo in the area.
    • Meet those contacts
      • Be given 2-3 tasks that will be repeated in different locations, to do fiscal damage to the underling.
        • Complete those.
          • Find Under-boss, either kill or spare him.
            • Place district quarter into one of YOUR Under-boss’ hands.
              • After completing the whole district operation, you’ll take on or meet the ACTUAL Lieutenant.
                • Kill or persuade them to help you.
                  • Assign WHOLE district to one of your under-boss’
                    • Repeat in the next district.

You can only stealth kill a guy but so much before it gets boring…zzz

As previously stated, there are no changes, twists or turns in the plot. This fact is true for game play too. It stays this same course throughout the whole game. The gun play is OK, at first, but then after a while you start to want more from the game. Different play styles, different objectives to make your experience more refreshing. And the game fails to deliver on that front. Instead it just gives you more guns, more weapons, more grenades, and all without substance. It’s quite sad. This game was handled by a different developer from Mafia 2, but it still has the same issues as its predecessor with being unable to offer real game play changes.

Graphics are muddy and look like the game is still in a late alpha early beta stage. The game has no real weather effects, either the sun is too damn bright, or the rain looks like pixels falling on top of your head. Apparently there are the only 2 ways that New Bordeaux looks. Either rainy or too bright. Day-to-Night transitions are strange.

The sky doesn’t even move. Ocarina of time had done better in 1998

There is no in game clock to tell you the time, but they seem to randomly change through out. Textures look like they’re from an open world game that was in the early Xbox 360 days, and the game is so poorly optimized for PC, it’s barely playable. My laptop that I use is no beast, however it meets the specifications to a tee, and should at least be able to play the game without the game eating up all of the PC’s CPU. And I’m not an outlier, several cases have been noted in other reviews via steam user reviews and even YouTube reviews.

The sad truth is, that the PC version is a console port, through and through. The game was released with a 30 FPS cap that was patched out day 2 of release. The game is so improperly optimized it’s going on Batman: Arkham Knight levels of ridiculous. And the game uses controls that were not designed with a PC gamer in mind.

It’s sad that Mafia 3 is as mediocre as it is, as there is so much potential. After certain story beats that game has a black power radio station that plays, and he speaks about issues of the government, corruption, and black america. The parallels to the modern times, considering this game was set in 1968, are unsettling. When the police are called on you, in a minority area, the dispatcher will say “I guess you should go check this out”. The cops

Lincoln walks with the swagger his game’s lacking.

will take their sweet time making it to the scene, and the investigation will end within seconds of them finding nothing. When you’re in a white neighborhood however, the dispatcher will say that the police are needed with urgency, and the cops come out there DEEP. At least 4-6 cars, and the area of effect is greater (where you can’t go into it or alert the police to your presence), the investigation time is almost twice if not three times as long and the police are very quick to fire and question you later.

Mafia 3 is not a bad game. With the encouragement from the developer to continue to update the game post launch, and listen to community feedback, there is hope for the game to be better. However as of launch it is an OK game at its best, and downright mediocre at it’s worst. I bought the game for $50, with an Amazon Pre-Order, and I feel slightly jilted for my money. Until it is updated with its promised changes, I recommend no-one buy on PC, and beware on console. Definitely hold your dollars to buy DLC, until the game has been made into the game that we were all promised in those trailers and game play demo’s we watched over the last year.

I will give Mafia 3 a 5 out of 10.

Rating Scale:

1-2: DO NOT BUY; Waste of all money.

2-4: Below Average, maybe redeemable

5: Average, Good and Bad

6-7: Slightly Above Average. More good than bad

8-9: Above Average and A bit beyond, overall a quality product

10: Near Perfection, issues are negligible and the game is overall one of the best.

Child Abuse and the District of Columbia

Rebecca, 22, is a survivor of sexual abuse.

Her sexual abuse story has a horrid twist, in that she was abused by her own brother. Her brother, who was not interviewed for this piece, spent much of their early life abusing his little sister in a number of ways. It began physically, with her being beaten by him when she was younger.

“Usually children, especially ones that are few years apart will sometimes fight and rough housing can be fun and build a connection, but what he was doing wasn’t rough housing, or fun, it was hitting and kicking. I remember a time where he once led me into a run, and then hid behind the door. After I walked inside, he closed the door, and then hit me in the back of the head with a tennis racket. After each altercation, he would give me these hollow apologies and my parents would try to punish him, but his aggression got worse. At some point when he was 15 and I was 13, he began the sexual abuse,” she said.

It began and then she said she was constantly harassed and assaulted by her brother until she was 17. When she eventually came forward to her parents, and the police, her brother was swiftly caught and prosecuted.

Child abuse, a touchy subject, doesn’t reach many as far as normal socioeconomic or social issue topics. However child abuse has many forms and affects people in all walks of life. The rich are not ignorant to it, nor are they kept; and the poor are just as likely to be abused. Whether emotional, verbal, or physical, abuse has its indicators and have been a problem for society for many years.

Child abuse is a problem that has been found connected to poverty, in many social contexts; however the numbers are commonly inflated. Poverty stricken people are commonly identified by child protective services as a threat to children and their safety.

However, a recent Cornell University study found that poor parents are more likely to be punished for either real or imagined child abuse, compared to rich families. This just means that the real reason for the assumption that child abuse is a poor person’s problem, is mostly due to money, like many other problems in society.

University of the District of Columbia student, Nathan McCoy researched the finances of people who live with some form of mental disorder. In his research, he found that people who were stigmatized to have some form of mental disability were not given the same opportunities and paid on the same level as their non-stigmatized co-workers.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) people who are usually abused as children, are more likely to lose wages, due to a lack of mental capacity. This can occur by having lower educational standards, as well as grades; conduct disorder; and memory difficulties.

Delonte Melton, a survivor of child abuse, talked about his experiences with a mother he said was constantly neglectful.

“I found that she in the long run, was just… lost. I think she would have been a better mother, but she let the overarching world around her lead her down a dark path,” he said.

Delonte, 36, lived in Northwest with his mother until the age of 16, when he moved out and began to live with his grandmother. He said his mother was a constantly relapsing drug addict who went in and out of rehab for most of Delonte’s life.

According to Delonte, she fell victim to drugs a few months after her son was born, due to her boyfriend (Delonte’s father) walking out on her. A victim of child abuse herself, with neglectful drug addict parents as well, she continued to cycle of neglect and abuse during Delontes life.

“I still love her, but I am doing all that I can to make sure that I don’t allow myself to fall victim to the same demons she had”, he said.

We did not reach out to Delonte’s mother for comment.

Neglect is the most common form of abuse, experts said.

Things such as leaving a child unattended, or allowing them to go without food for extended periods of time are common signs of a neglected child. According to the American Humane Association, neglected children make up 62.8% of the amount of mistreated children in the country, physical and sexually abused children coming in close second to the neglected ones.

According to the American Society for the Positive Care of Children (ASPCC), there have been studies done on the sexual abuse of children. 1 in every 4 girls and 1 in every 6 boys will more than likely be sexually abused in the United States, every year. These numbers/statistics do not go over things such as race, or social class, they’re across the board.

Deborah L. Shropshire, child psychologist, said the effect of abuse and neglect on the psyche of an adolescents is profound.

“If a child is abused psychologically, it can affect their education abilities, along with hurting their psyche later on in life. After many years of abuse, they’ll have a higher chance of developing problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and in the worst case scenarios, they’ll be more likely to commit suicide,” she said.

“Child abuse is a cyclical crime. Those that are abused end up having children, and begin abusing their children, who teaches their children, and teaches their children.”

“It is unfortunate that every 1 in 3 children will be victims of abuse”, she said.

Delonte said he views his mother as someone who was “lost”.

“I found that she in the long run, was just… lost. I think she would have been a better mother, but she let the overarching world around her lead her down a dark path”, he said

Police officer, Tajah Johnson said experiences impacted her with saving children abusive/neglectful homes. During her experiences, she found that homes she raided to help children of abusive parents were usually malnourished and the parents were in impoverished neighborhoods. However she found that they were all having issue with leaving their homes.

“It was almost like a form of battered wife syndrome, the children were so attached to their abusers that they didn’t want to leave. I remember a time a child was so malnourished that they were virtually a twig. Yet they left their homes kicking and screaming in some cases.  It was quite shocking to me at the time,” Johnson.

To combat the abuse of children, there needs to be a discussion about it. Like how people discuss STD’s and spousal abuse, abuse of children needs to become a social topic so that there can be changes made for the benefit of victims.

For Rebecca, the trauma of abuse is something she wants to move beyond.

“Though my experience has traumatized me, with my brother, and I never want to speak to him again, I am not going to let it define my future.” Rebecca said.

Sexual abuse or neglect of children is never ok. If you know of a child that has or is being abused, then please call your local abuse center to report it. 

 

Laliguras Review

Laliguras is a very frustrating restaurant.

Laliguras has a very small decor. With no real employees, the restaurant attempts to service large groups of customers; which were mostly students, when I went. This could be due to a lack of a real customer base. The restaurant being small + the employees few could be interpreted as a real lack of business. Which leads to the next issue with Laliguras:

The food is too expensive.

Van-Ness Street is not known for low costing food, however, there is no place for a place of such menial business to have exclusively premium prices on its menu.

This could be fitting into why many restaurants fail, while trying to gain business on the very busy street.

My food itself was mostly a rice bowl, with chunks of lamb inside of it. However, the problem that plagued my plate was that there was A.) more rice, than lamb. and B.) the lamb was too large.

Instead of cutting up the pieces of the lamb small enough to be enjoyed with the rice, the lamb comes in these giant pieces the size of two of my fingers.

The server was not extremely swift. Which is quite puzzling as when

my class went into the restaurant there really wasn’t anyone there to take up their time, until after we had already ordered.

Unfortunately Laliguras fails to impress. I feel as though they need to do a major renovation and re-evaluate their menu to not have overpriced food, compared to the quality of the food. More servers that can get the table going faster. And better decorum to allow me to feel the Indian base of the restaurant

Laliguras reserves a 2/5. 

 

 

Daredevil Season 2 (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Daredevil Season 2 goes through the motions of setting up a larger mythos, however the 13 episode season leaves much to be desired for viewers/fans of the property.

Daredevil Season 2 begins with the murder of several gangsters in Hell’s Kitchen New York. In the wake of the Kingpin, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onfrio), imprisonment at the hands of Daredevil/Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, at the end of Season 1. Season 2 begins with a The Dark Knight esque opening. With he Devil of Hells Kitchen, now roaming the streets, being a beacon of hope for many in a time of corruption and danger, there have been copycats that also want to dish out their own form of justice. The “copycat” that this season pseudo-focus’ on is Frank Castle/The Punisher, played by The Walking Dead alum Jon Bernthal. Unfortunately while The Punisher adds to the show with much grittier and violent fight scenes, he also adds to the confusing myriad of world building in this season.

Season 2 can be thought of in several acts, that are all connected by the fact that Daredevil is in all of them. Frank Castle terrorizes the show for the first few episodes. Then Daredevil’s old love interest comes back to introduce him to a ninja element. Frank Castle returns as a victim of corruption by the D.A. in his criminal trial, after being captured, meanwhile Daredevil is learning about an ancient ninja war his former master stick, started. And then there’s something about Elektra being “The One” for the bad ninja’s, and the war was lost, but then it wasn’t and… It’s a mess.

Too many themes and not enough time is what this season brings for fans of the show. The show works off of the Frank Miller run of Daredevil, which was a bit more realistic, and much more grim, than any other run previous to this. However, Frank Miller worked with Daredevil to expand his mythos in over 100+ comic books. This season is trying to cram in major elements of that into one 13 episode season.

I believe that the problem actually stems from the season being only 13 episodes. While some shows have a habit of spreading little drama over too many episodes, Daredevil tries to cram too much drama into too few episodes. The best example of this is Matt Murdock’s back and forth relationship with Karen Page. Matt had just started dating Karen, in episode 3. By episode 7 they’ve already gone through, girlfriend-boyfriend relationship and lack of communication drama, and are broken up. That’s a 4 episode relationship, which in the show’s own timeline was only a week or 2 in time. That’s hard to swallow that the same adult, logical characters, could spread the entirety of a “will they, won’t they” relationship from the first season in 4 episodes.

Season 2 suffers from a lack of direction with a villain to really keep the show moving. Technically the show’s main villain this season, is Nobu and The Hand ninja’s that Stick spoke of in Season 1. How does Nobu come back? He’s discovered immortality. I won’t take the time to explain why it is that he somehow got immortality, because the reason is extremely loose, magic mumbo-jumbo, and extremely glossed over. Nobu doesn’t have the “weight” that the Kingpin had when it came to being a good counter to Daredevil. Nobu is kinda just, the ninja. Think if Mario defeated Bowser, and then a random Koopa Trooper became the main villain of the next game.

Speaking of characters, this season seems to have a major flaw in all of them. They’re all listening to Matt Murdock. Matt Murdock this season is nothing more than a whiny child. He constantly puts those that he loves in danger, while also trying to push them away, to take them out of the same danger that he put them in in the first place. It’s unbelievable how Matt decides that “The Punisher can be redeemed” and then a few episodes later “The Punisher is dangerous and cannot be redeemed for his actions”. The amount of 180’s this man makes could cause whiplash.

In one terrible instance of this, Matt says to Elektra, “You should leave Stick. You’re redeemable, come with me and we’ll fight this war my way together.” Elektra then agrees and leaves Stick. Then after a fight with a teenage ninja of The Hand, that leaves Daredevil near death, Elektra goes back to her old way of killing and kills the ninja to protect Daredevil from being attacked in his home if the boy were to escape. Literally next episodes beginning, “You’re too dangerous, and you’re too stuck in your ways. Go away”. WHAT MATT MURDOCK?!

Other characters suffer from overexposure. Karen Page, who had a pretty good arc with Ben Urich in Season 1 is in every episode investigating The Punisher, and his history.

Unfortunately, like the comics, it’s just not that interesting.

After they try to go with a PTSD based origin for the Punisher, along with a bullet wound to legitimize his actions, the origin looses all flavour and becomes bland.

Other characters feel underexposed. Elektra and Stick both have large histories that are introduced in this season. However, the season closes so quickly that those histories are never giving the full attention they deserve. Stick and Elektra have a somewhat Father-daughter esque relationship, but that’s never given the amount of time that it needs to be fleshed out.

So when near the end of the Season, Stick feels he needs to kill Elektra, because she’s a world ending demon, or something like that, there isn’t much punch to it. If we had been hearing about this relationship from the first season and it was resolved in this one, maybe that would have been a better solution. In its current form however, there isn’t enough space for a possibly more expansive origins.

Elektra being “The Black Sky” seems like a c
op-out. It’s an extremely forced solution to a problem Stick mentioned in Season 1. And it actually feels like a retcon. The reason being that there was another Black Sky in Season 1. And Stick killed that one with extreme prejudice. But then that just begins a miasma of more questions than it does answers. “Why are there multiple black skys?” “Why could Elektra get away without being found out as a black sky for most of her life, when they’re such an integral part of the war between The Hand and the Chaste?” “Just how old are Stick and Nobu?”

The Season ends very anti-climatically. It seemed like they were trying to hint at the idea of The Punisher getting his own spin-off series, possibly a one off inside of the T.V. universe, and that there is going to be more to the end of The Hand vs. The Chaste arc, as Elektra, who died in the final battle with Nobu, was exhumed from her grave and placed into a giant coffin. As for Daredevil himself, he reveals his secret identity to Karen Page.

Woooooooooooo?

I’m not sure why Daredevil has the most anticlimactic ending in his own show, but he definitely needed something more than “Well, my law firm is destroyed. My best friend and I are no longer speaking. My ‘love interest’ is dead. Might as well reveal my not-so-secret secret identity to the girl I tried dating earlier this season.”

Despite the characters, the action in the show is still better than some movies and other shows on television. Fight scenes are brutal, with punches and kicks having the right amount of “umph” to make anyone wince once.

Each of the established fighting characters has their own style of fighting as well. The Kingpin overpowers his opponents, Daredevil uses his acrobatics, Punisher uses his guns and weaponry and Elektra uses her weapons along with her acrobatics and constant dodging. Because Elektra and the Punisher graphically kill their opponents, there is a lot more blood this season. Some of the kills are just so gruesome, you’re reminded of why this show could only really work on a platform that would allow such gratuitous violence. Does it sometimes go over the top? Yes, however even despite the Tarantino level violence, the show keeps a good level of consistency in its fight scenes.

Daredevil overall is still a good show. Things could have been improved on the topics of themes and motivations, but there were two new showrunners this season. It could be hypothesized that they’re just trying to make their mark on a very good show. Hopefully season 3 will bring a bit more cohesion to the plot, with a better villain, more action with high flying acrobatics, and more character development for our 3 main protagonists.

Personal Profile

I have had an extremely rocky religious relationship.

When I was younger, and even into my adulthood, I’ve had a very rocky feeling on faith based organizations like churches.

I wasn’t thinking of it on such a grand scale, but describing to me a person that I couldn’t see, touch, smell, or “hear” (you hear him in your heart), has always been a huge pill for me to swallow.

I’m a more logical thinker. I base opinions off of trends, and things that I see.

My beliefs are based on documented and re-searchable facts, which leads to more easy to understand  conclusions. Religion, or better stated faith, is a far cry from those things that are documented.

During all of my grade school education, I went to a christian school called “From the Heart Christian School”. A school half of the church, From the Heart Church Ministries, my school allowed me 15 years of Christian Private School education. The problem was the christian side of it.

I have a natural skeptical disposition.

I’ve always, since childhood, questioned everything. To the point of annoyance of my parents. But my questioning nature, has always stuck onto my spiritual beliefs. Similar to Langston Hughes, I go through “religious highs and lows”.

Some days, I feel that God is there, just looking out for me, and all of the Facebook posts that make you feel good about God just reach me so easily. Other days, I wonder if I’ve always believed in a charade, basing my life’s choices of of false-hoods and other things.

The other people at my school, didn’t seem to share in my skepticism.

Either it was that, or more than likely, it wasn’t as open and obvious as mine. Many of my peers were constant church goers. They were constant ministry leaders, youth leaders, and the like. To an extent I was more jealous than I was angry at them.

I was upset that I couldn’t really share in their blind faith. Their honest convictions and the fact that many looked to them as spiritual centers bothered me.

This is what I feel led to my out casting by my peers. I was a somewhat odd child, in my youth. Other kids had brothers and sisters in their age groups, boys were interested in sports, girls were interested in dolls, normal things for most children.

While things like playing video games and watching anime was standard for most boys in my age group, I was never able to really connect with the other guys in my class. I wasn’t a very active person, I was more of a loner. I would avoid crowds, avoid having to go to social events, and the like because I just naturally wasn’t interested.

Another thing that hurt it was my view of those that were more “christian” than I was, mostly because I didn’t go to church. I’ve never had the opinion that people can be “more christian” than others, because all people falter.

So many flavors, yet not enough to determine which is right.

If anything has been learned from just looking at catholic priests over the last 50 years, then that would show that anyone is liable to commit a sin. But my lack of commitment to the faith helped to marginalized me out.

This was extremely ironic considering the very same principles are to offer inclusion to any and all that come to hear. There isn’t a need to split up and divide ourselves as a people, considering that makes us extremely week by comparison to when we’re together. Numbers, lead to great victories, single persons lead to crushing defeats.

This led to a complex against churches and my own branching out. I can’t go anywhere else for church, but I can’t go back to my original church. Stuck in a constant limbo of belief

Now I currently believe in what I was taught by the pastor, but as of the writing of this journal, I haven’t been to church in going on two years. I’ve had times where I’ve possibly watched it via the From the Heart Church Ministries’ streaming service, but I don’t actively seek going to church.

Currently I don’t have regrets on that.

I feel I’ve met and continue to meet more genuinely nice people outside of churches, than in them. I feel that the spiritual background that I gained from being in that environment, surrounded by those people (both good and bad), was valuable. The lack of social skills that were created due to never really having friends, people to hang out with, or really any positive socialization until I got into my first year of college was a very heavy price to pay.

Jahwon’s Facebook

From the Heart Church Ministries 

Audio/Video version of Salvation

 

 

Profile for Shayna Hodge

A UDC track runner, Shayna Hodge speeds her way into excellence.

Shayna Hodge sped into her 2014 school year with a smile on her face, and excitement in her heart. A graduate of Duval High School, Shayna graduated with a 3.8 GPA. The second oldest in a family of 5, Shayna has shown as much care and love for her siblings, as she does for her parents, Mark and Jaqculine Hodge.

Born in July of 1996, Ms. Hodge was raised in River Dale, Maryland. At the age of 6, her family moved to Glenn Dale Maryland, where she spent the rest of her grade schooling education. Before she began her athletic career, shayna was a dancer. She gracefully completed ballet and tap performances. When she got to High School, she began her athletics and working with her school newspaper.

Shayna was a runner in the track program at Duval High school. With very good stats, she graduated winning several silver medals for her performances. Shayna’s more than just a track runner however. In high school she was also an honor roll student. While she might not have been the valedictorian, she was definitely giving them a run for their money.

Shayna is a multifaceted student. Her habits are watching tv, listening to music, reading, and writing. She stated that she loves to write more than read, but she hasn’t been able to write as much due to her busy schedule. Shayna hopes to take her love of writing to the work place, with a potential future in either a magazine or newspaper as a columnist.

Shayna is currently unemployed, but that’s due to her making swaths through the UDC athletic program. Currently a track runner for the university, Shayna has been described as a “quiet teammate, that’s great at sprints” by her teammate Brittany Okon. Shayna says the only thing that she doesn’t like about her HBCU, is that she wishes that the school had a larger campus life and school spirit.

Ms. Hodge is available to be followed on twitter @shaynaaaaa, and on instagram with the same name.Shayna’s Blog

50 Shades of Black Review

In 2015, 50 Shades of Grey was released to theaters across the world. Based on the book of the same name, the film attempted to retell the story of Anastasia Steele and her turbulent romance with the mysterious and seductive Christian Grey. Now what would happen if you took the plot of that movie, added gratuitous amounts of unfunny self-referential humour, and outlandishly out of place pop culture references and made the main two actors African-American instead of white? You would get the romance turned tragedy that is 50 Shades of Black.
This movie is not a parody. It can barely qualify as a film. It serves as an active and very vivid representation of the lost comedic ability of Marlon Wayans. This movie was only created to get a check from the fools that expect the hilarity of the original Scary Movie.
50 Shades of Black stars Marlon Wayens, and Kali Hawk, in the roles of Christian Black (Because he is black, and his last name is black. Get it?) and Hannah Steale (Because she’s a black woman, and black people steal. Funny, I know). Overall the movie follows the same-ish plot line of the original movie/book. Somewhat dopey looking Kali Hawk goes to an interview with suave millionaire Christian Black, and everything else you remember from the original continues. Which is the entire point of the parody, same plot but played for laughs. But the parody here fails by not being funny. Bathroom and  gross out jokes galore,  50 SoB caters itself to the lowest of the lowest common denominator. At times the movie tries to make references to current events, with as much failure as a penguin trying to fly.
A failure as a film, and an even bigger failure as a comedic film. 50 Shades of Black should not be viewed anywhere near a theater, unless you plan to take your 13 year old little cousin, that the movie caters to. Otherwise stay away from it with a 1,000 foot pole.

 

Pine and Maple Trees (In Progress)

A young farmer walked across his field. He observed all of the fruit and vegetables that his farm was producing for him. His biggest cash crop, maple tree syrup, was producing a large amount this year. He observed and stood in awe as the sweet, smooth, sap flowed out of the maple trees. The young farmer grabbed his buckets full of sap and took them back to his home so that he could get them ready for market the next weekend. He took good care of his Maple trees. Made sure each day they were watered, he fed them as much food as he possibly could, he even read to them, hoping that it would keep them giving him the sap he needed. He loved his maple trees.

During one of his mid harvest breaks, the farmer was sitting down drinking some met with a strange visitor. The visitor was clad in an all-black suit, with a red tie being the only other thing he had on. The suit was tattered, and slightly dingy.