Category: Take Up a Cause

The Lost Art of Winning an Argument

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The Lost Art of Winning an Argument This is going to be a short post, but an important one. I have noticed a disturbing trend, especially in how it relates to how humans interact online and in person these days, where arguments are formed on the basis of pejorative name calling and ill advised blanket statements that come from group think and not a place of informed study. Perhaps because I had four years of competitive debate under my belt at a young age I learned the art of winning an…

Actor Casting in Beloved Franchises: The Thousand Pound Gorilla in the Room

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Actor Casting in Beloved Franchises: The Thousand Pound Gorilla in the Room The announcing of casting for a beloved character in popular franchises, especially in those based on comic book properties, is a highly anticipated event. It’s damn near a spectator sport. Although, unlike going to something like a baseball game, watching the reactions to these casting announcements is more akin to watching the Christians being thrown to the lions. You never really know what kind of reaction you are going to get, and yet somehow the reactions seem to always…

On the Topic of Voting: Every Vote Counts, Yes Even Those Votes… #VoterRegistration

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On the Topic of Voting: Every Vote Counts, Yes Even Those Votes… Before you get bent all out of shape thinking that I am about to go on some partisan political tirade telling you why a candidate sucks and why you should vote Candidate X. Stop! Get a hold of yourself. Take a deep breath and relax. This is not one of those kinds of posts. This will be a brief little blurb about the importance of being registered to vote and why your vote matters (even if you don’t…

Let’s Celebrate #GlobalJamesBondDay By Ranking All The Bond Songs! @007

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Let’s Celebrate Global James Bond Day By Ranking All The Bond Songs! October 5th has been Global James Bond Day since 2012. In that time, it has been customary for the production team behind the 007 films to release the theme song for the next Bond flick, starting with Adele’s Skyfall. Being as the latest Bond film has not started filming yet and as such there will be no new theme song unveiled this year, I thought it might be a good bit of fun to rank the Bond songs in…

Westworld On Film & HBO’s New Series: Why You Should Be Watching #Westworld

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Westworld On Film & HBO’s New Series: Why You Should Be Watching #Westworld Yesterday marked the debut of HBO’s re-imagined Westworld television series, and to celebrate the launch I sat through the classic film Westworld and then watched the series premiere on HBO Now directly thereafter. Hindsight being 20/20, I feel that this was probably the best way I could have experienced the premiere. There is a foundation that is superbly laid down by the feature film, which gives a clear vision of what the company Delos Destinations is, how…

Packy Smith – Submissions for the BioWare #ExplorersWanted Contest #MassEffectAndromeda #space

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Packy Smith – Submissions for the BioWare Explorers Wanted Contest – Mass Effect Andromeda Howdy to all Bioware employers and fellow blog readers alike! Today I am blogging for an exceptionally important reason, and I couldn’t be more excited to share with you what I am hoping to accomplish. However, I am not frog and you are not a bunny, so before we jump too far ahead of ourselves, let’s slow our roll just a touch to give me a brief opportunity to explain myself. Recently, video game developer BioWare,…

And Now For Something Completely Different… The Olympics! #rio2016

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And Now For Something Completely Different… The Olympics! #rio2016 Some folks love Baseball, some prefer Basketball, and a healthy amount eagerly await the Football season like a pack of wild ravenous hyenas looking for freshly grilled meat to eat on their tailgating excursions. Me? I don’t watch any professional sports anymore. I was a huge supporter of baseball in my youth, and I even occasionally enjoyed some basketball, but much like the Star Wars films, as I get older I find that there is no valid reason to keep supporting…

Open Letter to @SEGA – Here’s the Plan #Phoenix #VideoGames

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Open Letter to SEGA – Here’s the Plan! From the Ashes of the Past 15 Years: A New SEGA Can Be Born! Full Disclosure: I love SEGA. As in from my first SEGA Genesis in 1990 all the way through to my Dreamcast console that saw its run end in the early 2000s, I hardly played any other gaming platforms. I never owned a SNES or an original Playstation while they were popular, I bought them used many years after the fact. SEGA was my home, and at the time they…

Essential Listening: Christopher Anton #payitforward @Chris_Anton

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Essential Listening: Synthpop Christian, Christopher Anton! Reach Out And Touch Faith! For the entire month of June I am “paying it forward” to a handful of creatives that I believe truly deserve some recognition. I’ve covered a lot of different acts, primarily rock artists, and one awesome country band. Now it’s time to get your feet moving with some hard hitting dance beats! Bringing this week of musically themed celebrations to a close, I felt that it would feel good to end on an upbeat and inspirational note. Christopher Anton…

Essential Listening: The Mavericks #payitforward @MavericksMusic

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Essential Listening: Defiantly Independent Country Band, The Mavericks! Fine Providers of Music For All Occasions! The last couple entries have been rock n’ roll bands, so today we are going to go a little country. Although, to be fair, it would be a tad disingenuous to call the Mavericks purely a country band. They are one of those 1 in a million bands that started out definitively as one thing, and then reemerged on the other end as something else (and frankly far better) altogether. I find transformations like their’s…