Let's Talk About Captain Marvel

The big buzz these days is the theatrical release of Captain Marvel. I don't really want to talk about how the movie did (Saw it, liked it.  Not great, but not bad either). I want to talk about how Captain Marvel represents a turning point in the comic book superhero movie genre. It's something that kinda got left behind in all the controversy.

Think back to all the comic book superhero movies you can think of (I know, there's been a lot). What was the first movie all about? This is a no brainer: It's the origin story.  It's been done to death.  Even the X-Men origin movies, where the characters got their powers by BEING BORN THAT WAY do an origin.

This is where Captain Marvel kinda breaks away from the pack.  Y'see her origin story...is kinda blah.  That's not her fault.  Most origin stories are kinda blah.  I mean you can only have so many radioactive spiders, gamma bomb explosions or super soldier serums.  Her origin is so blah they even changed it for the movie.  It's all about how this story is told.  The big origin is mostly kept a secret until near the end of the movie because it's instrumental to the "twist".  If you've seen it, you know it but I'm not going to spoil it here.  I'll just say it's not very interesting and not fully explained (unless you were paying attention).  So instead of building up that origin we get a functional character codenamed Vers fighting along side her fellow Kree until a mission gone wrong lands her back on Earth and chasing her own identity as a result.

Personally, I liked this direction.  Let's face it, the slow build up to the introduction of powers was getting old.  Then we get a whole second act of learning to use said powers and finally a third act where the powers get to shine.  Captain Marvel pretty much changed up the first two acts.  The character has power from the beginning and is actually more powerful that the other Kree, but we soon come to realize that her time with the Kree is really all she knows.

Will this method of storytelling make it into future movies? Probably not.  Despite breaking a box office record the movie was still badly to moderately reviewed.  A lot of  hype was that this was a prelude to Avengers: Endgame, a movie every MCU fan is practically foaming at the mouth for. We all know Captain Marvel will play a huge role in it and we watched this movie to get filled in.  I feel that alone cast a long shadow on this movie.  Unlike Black Panther, this movie wasn't made to stand on its own. Even Spider-Man: Homecoming escaped this because even though it was tied to the MCU and even featured another Avenger the story didn't affect the overall Avengers plot line. Doing double duty as introducing this new character and providing the bridge to Endgame was too much. That doesn't mean a lot of MCU fans weren't hyped for this movie based on its own merits though. The film has some great and inspiring messages.  It even has that one scene where the main character rises above all odds and gives us that tingly feeling.  Overall, the movie is a C+. Not bad, but also not great.

Did you see Captain Marvel?  What did you think?

Outsourced vs. Outsourced

I think everyone on my Facebook feed knows that one of my favorite movies is Outsourced. For at least a couple years it's been a mainstay on my Netflix "Watch It Again".  I think I'd be embarrassed if there was a way to actually see how many times I've watched this movie.  Yes, it is my favorite romantic comedy of all time and I'm a sucker for a good romantic comedy.

Turns out they made a TV series based on this movie and I didn't know until I recommended the movie to my Facebook friends.  It wasn't until Netflix pulled Outsourced (September 2, 2018) (PLEASE COME BACK SOMEDAY!!! 😭).  It was only then I turned to Amazon Firestick's search feature and that's when it happened: I found the series on it was on Hulu.

So here I stand, having finished the one and only season of Outsourced and ready to compare.  Let's get to it!

 

VS 

1. The Plot

There are some slight differences in the movie and series plot.  In the movie, Todd Anderson is the top salesman for Mid America Novelties and one day he report to work and he's the only one there except for his boss.  His boss explains that they've outsourced his department to India and they want him to go set it up and train the guy who'll eventually replace him.  Naturally Todd protests but his boss dangles his stock options and a bad job market over him so Todd relents.  From here the storyline focuses on Todd trying to get the call center MPI (minutes per incident) down to 6 minutes. 

In the series, Todd (Dempsy in this version) just finished management training and learns that the job he trained for has been outsourced to India.  He's told if he wants to keep that job he has to go there and manage the call center.  In the series, this is the job.  There's no coming back unless he gets transferred.  The plot of the series centers around helping the call center employees get familiar with American culture while learning a few things about Indian culture.

2. The Characters

In the movie, there were only a few stand out characters but even fewer got regular roles in the series. Besides Todd, only Asha and Manmeet made the cut.  Puro in the movie is replace by Rajiv and they're polar opposites.  While Puro was attentive and eager to learn, Rajiv was manipulative, overbearing and constantly plotting to oust Todd despite actually needing his teaching.  Asha doesn't hold the same authority as she does in the movie and Manmeet quickly assumes the best friend role...until Todd meets Charlie.  He operates another call center.  I believe his character was based on Bob in the movie (he only showed up for a brief scene where Todd thought he could get a cheeseburger).  New characters include Gupta, Tonya and Madhuri.  It was pretty cool that they could make the show diverse but still feel wholly Indian.

3. The Verdict

I like both.  The series is not nearly as complex as the movie but it makes for good comedy.  I'm actually sorry the show didn't survive to a second season but I think the whole Todd/Asha dynamic would have been hard to maintain.  So it's definitely worth checking out but I don't feel like it has the same re-watch factor as the movie.

Virgin Islands Information and Communications Technology: What We Need

Yesterday morning I woke up to a question in Messenger.  When I saw it I immediately responded that I would need some time to think about it.  The question was what kind of support is local and federal government not giving to the Virgin Islands Information and Communications Technology community?  It's an odd question for me to think about because I've been technically out of the IT game for the last 8 years.  I still do some IT-ish things but it's not a specific job role.  I do however keep up and I'm still very observant. Okay so let's brainstorm!

FEDERAL

Well we've got viNGN. I consider that a win even if it's an underused resource.  It's availability has proven valuable after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.  The literacy programs from viNGN are also handy. And from what I hear there's a huge amount of funds coming to help repair and expand our telecom networks.  Hopefully that comes with stringent federal oversight.  I can't anything else on this end.  I think most of our issues lie with how we approach ICT locally.

LOCAL

1. There's no real strategy for linking every VI Government agency under the banner of the Bureau of Information Technology.  Sure there's one in the legislation that creates the office but given the myriad of duties the office needs to perform it is underfunded.  What's more, since the office is directly under the Office of the Governor, BIT tends to end up directing most of their resources there.

The history of BIT is why the problem has ballooned.  I like to tell the anecdote of how St. Thomas ended up flooded with cars and ultimately traffic.  Way back when the bus company was privately owned and was notorious for shrinking their fleet due to maintenance issues.  As a result, public transportation was erratic and this affected people's ability to get to work and make a living.  The car dealerships swooped in to fill the void of shoddy public transportation.  By the time the VI Government implemented a public transportation system it was too late.  Now imagine BIT as the privately owned bus company and everyone with their own cars and the government offices that couldn't rely on BIT so they went and got their own.

The few agencies that have their own IT staff loves that they have qualified people ready to assist their agency and their agency alone.  The agencies today that don't have IT staff have to put in a request with BIT and wait in the queue for services.

2. I don't know if there is a natural disaster emergency plan for the US Virgin Islands but I can guess if it does exist it's probably outdated and doesn't address ICT needs.  In the aftermath of Irma and Maria, we were lucky enough that WSTA was able to stay on the air but what would have happened if we lost them?  During the recovery I heard a lot of top officials claiming you can't plan for 2 Category 5 hurricanes.  To that I say bullshit.  You can ALWAYS plan for the worse case scenario.  We lost power (expected), landlines, cell service, pretty much EVERYTHING and the only thing we had in terms of communication is people delivering information BY HAND to the only working radio station.

3. While there are some education opportunities related to ICT and use of computers, there aren't a lot of them and VI Gov. employees aren't really encouraged to attend these trainings and seminars. Way back I used to be part of a Train The Trainer program when tech savvy individuals from different departments would learn advanced productivity software and bring the knowledge and training materials back to their home agencies.  They seemed to really have trouble recruiting trainers and the trainers in turn had trouble getting their fellow employees to attend a training session.  This problem still exists today.  Even for a time when I was formerly working in IT I tried organizing simple training sessions.  They were so poorly attended after a while I stopped having them.

That's all I have for now but if anything else springs to mind, I'll be sure to add it to the list.  As usual, if you have any feedback for me be sure to leave a comment.

Cutting The Cord: Disaster Edition Follow-Up - The Battle of the Cable Replacements

So since my last post I've embarked upon a mission to see what these Cable TV replacements could offer.  Here were the contenders:

PlayStation Vue wasn't even worth my time.  I tried to get on on their free preview weekend and it consistently didn't work.  A brief search showed that I wasn't the only one that had that problem.  Sony has some really wonky hangups depending on which Internet provider you have.  Even the PSN gives me issues a couple times a year.  I'm struggling to even call this a contender because frankly, this didn't even show up to play.  DISQUALIFIED!

Hulu Live was my first choice because I'm already a Hulu subscriber and it would be simple to add the Live TV option.  It would have been cost efficient since I'm not adding a new service; just expanding it (I'd be jumping from $12 to $40 but I'd get to try it for a week free).  It would have been convenient because Hulu is supported on pretty much every device I own.  But alas it was not meant to be.  Although the option for the upgrade was available I ran into my first hurdle: setting a default location.  This should have been foreshadowing for me but I remained hopeful. I managed to do it via the PC but it STILL didn't work.  So after a brief back and forth with customer support I got the news that it's not supported in the Virgin Islands.  DISQUALIFIED!

YouTube TV was my next stop.  I figured hey, they're developing a series as a sequel to the Karate Kid movies so I was looking to jump on YouTube Red anyway.  Like all these services they offer a one week trial.  It's $35 a month for their full package with isn't all that bad.  Well it's not YouTube Red but I did find out they shared a similar problem.  It's not available in the Virgin Islands.  DISQUALIFIED! (at least the app had the decency to tell me before I even tried to sign up)

Gotta give it to Sling TV, they gave me no issues signing up whatsoever.  I actually like Sling.  It has a decent selection of live channels, you can choose one of two packages (Sling Orange for $20 and Sling Blue for $25), you can combine both and save $5, and they have Add-On packages of extra stations. Keep in mind the more you add, the more it costs.  But if you get everything I think the price is $60. I'm currently on the 7 day trial and it has not been a bad experience.  Sling does have a couple issues though.  One of the biggies is that there's no CBS affiliate for them to use (they rely on what's local to get them).  It's really odd but if you want to add ABC you have to get the Broadcast Extra.  The premium channels cost about as much as their solo services (no need for me to drop HBO Now).  The Chromecast option is ATROCIOUS (as in it doesn't even work; not a biggie if you already have a device).  The search is okay but I can see it being a problem for people who aren't used to streaming services.  There's a learning curve there.  However, despite all of this I'm preemptively declaring Sling the WINNAH AND CHAMPEEEEEN!  The final contender, while not yet disqualified...y'know what?  I'll just get to it.

*sobbing* YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!  YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BRING BALANCE TO THIS FIGHT NOT LEAVE IT IN DARKNESS!

Okay, being serious again.  I had high hopes for DirecTV Now and it could have won because I know for a fact that the local AT&T is pushing this plan here.  So I get the app and start signing up.  Seems straightforward....until I get to billing.  It wouldn't take any of my credit cards and it won't take PayPal.  I keep getting a common error that a number of people online have complained about.  So I contact DirecTV Now Support on Twitter and I'm pretty sure I've been talking to a bot because the answers are sooo damn unhelpful.  However I did try signing in on a PC only to get that oh so familiar notice that the service isn't available here.  I'm looking for more info on it but for now I'm declaring DirecTV Now the grand LOSER of this competition.

There you have it, folks.  Have you had similar experiences?  Or maybe you know of a service I've missed?  Let me know in the comments.  Peace!

Cutting The Cord: 2017 Post-Disaster Edition

"So Hector, when I get my power back what am I going to do for TV?"

I've gotten this question more than I care to admit.  Considering the recent devastation of Hurricane's Irma and Maria, out one Cable TV/Phone Company fared about as well as our electrical grid.  Electricity is on track to be back for everyone by Christmas but Viya (that's the phone/cable company) has a much longer road to go in restoring services.  Fortunately, they do have a 4G LTE network for wireless phone and Internet...but I'll get back to that.  In this entry I'm going to go over what your options are now for entertainment in the wake of no Cable TV.

1. Live Theater

Bet you didn't expect me to go low-tech on my first option.  Yes folks, there is live theater available so check it out while they've still got performances going.  I'm not sure where you can go in St. John or St. Croix (if you know, leave a comment) but Pistarckle Theater survived the storm and they've got a showtime this weekend.

2.  Broadcast Antennae

Slowly building up to the higher tech.  Have you tried just regular broadcast TV?  I know I haven't but it's worth a shot.  Chances are you're only going to get a few stations in Puerto Rico (consider yourself lucky if you can somehow get English closed captioning).  WTJX was our local public broadcasting station but I don't think they're up and running just yet.

3. Satellite TV

Dish and DirectTV are both available here and if you already had either chances are you'll be ready to go when your power comes back (provided you stowed your dish somewhere safe for the storms).  I hear you can get a digital DirectTV plan at the local AT&T store.  Again, if you have details let me know in the comments.

4.  Streaming Services

Ahh, now for the fun stuff.  If you've got a decent wireless plan (wireless is all we've got now) you can sign up with one of a multitude of streaming services.  Heck, you can get all of them if you like. The big guns are Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime.  I'd recommend Hulu if you're into current TV.  Hulu's also good if you want to bundle in HBO and Showtime (of course this option was available well after I signed up for HBONow). Netflix gets them eventually so you Netflix is more for binging.  There's also free streaming services and network TV services.  Some (like CBS) are paid, some get new episodes the week after they air but give you access to all the previous episodes, etc.  You'll have to poke around a bit to find what you like.

Here's the kicker though: You're going to need either a Smart TV or a streaming devices to get to this stuff.  Playstion 3/4 and XBox users have access to most of this stuff but if you needs smaller (more inexpensive) devices you'll want to go with Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Firestick, or Chromecast.  Be careful with AppleTV and Amazon.  AppleTV is a direct competitor of Amazon so you can't play Amazon Prime on it.  And of course you can't rent AppleTV movies on any other device.  Don't want the hassle?  Well if your laptop has an HDMI port you can just plug that into the TV and use these services from a browser or app.  Take a look at this link for a roundup of streaming devices.

5. Cable Replacement Services

This is uncharted territory for me but there are some services that act just like regular Cable TV except it streams over the Internet. I've never tried them as they cost a bit more and the entire reason I have the streaming services is so I can watch when I want to.  However, this may just be the CableTV replacement you've been looking for.  Some examples are SlingTV, DIRECTV NOW (again, check with the local AT&T office for bundles),  YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue (I'm not sure this works here), and even Hulu (live TV is one of the available add-ons).

You can find a number of reviews for these services online, but check this one.  I used this heavily in writing this.

UPDATE 11/24/17
I attempted to upgrade to Hulu Live and found out it's not supported in the Virgin Islands. :(

Moving Forward in the VI

Hey Internets!  It's been a while, huh?  Well for the most part I just really haven't had much to say and the rest we've been recovering from being hit by 2 Category 5 hurricanes...like within 2 weeks of each other.  First Irma and then Maria. Imagine a petulant child spying an anthill and then just stomping the ever lovin' crap out of it.  That's pretty much what nature did with us. Wanna see a few pics?  I took these a few days (maybe a week) after Irma.  This was just a stroll through my neighborhood.

Yep, collapsed canopies, buildings torn in twain, massive trees toppled: this is just a taste of the destruction.  I'd post more but we're not doing so great Internet-wise.  This is actually where this post is going.

Our lives here in the USVI have changed for quite a while.  The question we need to ask ourselves is are we going to be working towards what we used to have or are we going to work for something better.  While we figure out where we plan to go we're all kinda getting used to the new normal.

Currently (This pun is intentional) St. Thomas is projected to be 90% powered by December.  I'd say right now that number is about 58% but that's just me guessing.  Restoration of power though opens to door all the creature comforts we used to have but now have to do without.  We were very fortunate some business were back on their feet within a couple weeks, but there are quite a few who need more time to get back on their feet and even those who have decided getting back in the race isn't worth it.

The most significant impact these storms had on us was destabilizing our communications systems.  Take as an example the local phone and cable company.  So many downed lines means rebuilding those connections starting with the landline phones.  It seems at the moment we're going with the tried and true lines on the poles (BTW many thanks to our linemen and the visiting linemen.  If not for them we've probably be about only half as restored as we are now).  In response to the lack of landlines, our local phone company has gone hard on wireless communications.  This response also includes Internet service.  Before the storm their service came through the same lines as phone and Cable TV.  With the estimation that Cable TV won't be back until late next year you can guess what that means for their other services.  I have a couple predictions for the future here.  Movie theaters would be a great boon here...except for the fact that the only theater on St. Thomas was damaged and is in need of major renovation.  I was even inspired to attempt to open my own small movie theater to fill the void.  It's not something I've quite let go yet; still rattling around the old brain cage.  I do expect that Internet service (and I mean QUALITY Internet service) will become the hottest thing to acquire.  Why?  Netflix.  Hulu.  Amazon. Heck, even Crackle.  People who can't go the satellite dish way or can't make it economically feasible will look to streaming services to fill the entertainment void as well as keep them in the loop on their favorite TV shows.  Streaming rental services will boom too.  It's sort of what PPV is for Cable.

The most significant impact these storms have had on the territory is the hit we're taking to tourism which is our #1 economy.  Many of the huge chain resorts have been forced to close for renovation.  Even the Marriott Frenchman's Reef, a mainstay on St. Thomas for many years and survivor of previous hurricanes that ravaged the territory, succumbed.  They're looking at over $400 million to repair and a downtime of a year and a half.  That means a lot of job losses around the territory.  We can get the cruise industry traffic back up as quickly as we can restore power but hotels were a major source of revenue.

The reality of our situation is although help is on the way, we still need time to prop back up the infrastructure.  Now more than ever we're going to need to get creative on revenue generators and job creators.  In a time when we need to hear these ideas all I've been hearing is more of the same.  Getting us back to where we were isn't going to be enough.  We're going to have to try something new.

As for me, I was very fortunate.  I escaped both storms without major loss, I have power and something that passes for Internet service, I'm still employed and now I have karaoke.  Like everyone else, I keep looking for ways to contribute and make things just a little better for everyone.

If you're reading this and want to know how YOU can help with the recovery, just let me know.  I can put you in touch with people running distribution centers or I can simply distribute myself.  There's also a number of very popular Facebook groups that will put you in direct contact with people living in and recovering the territory.  Leave me a comment and I'll point you in the right direction.

DCUO: The Game Has Changed

If you've ever checked out my blog, you'll know that the one game I've been loyal to and have played for years is DC Universe Online.  I've been a player for 4 of the game's 5 year existence and I still have fun playing it.  I've played through tons of changes, added content, various leagues, etc.  Well this month, to quote the Joker, DCUO decided to "shake things up a little".

Introducing the stats revamp and let me tell you, it have changed the way people play this game SIGNIFICANTLY.  Check this out:

Now I've only had a chance to play with my main toon (as I usually do) and I've gone through the whole new stat redistribution so I'm going to try to take this piece by piece.

New Player Stats

The biggie here is the removal of the Combat Rating Differential.  How the game used to work is that your gear (and subsequently the CR you obtain by getting better gear) greatly affected how powerful your character was.  Gear is still important now, but with the CR Differential removed it's not as important as it used to be.  You need the higher CR to access the newer chapters of the game, but while you might qualify to enter content based on your CR you may find you might not quite be ready to actually play it.  More on that later.

New Skill Tree

THIS is where it gets really interesting.  In the previous iteration of the game your skill tree was tied directly to the weapons tree.  You used to put skill points into weapons just to unlock power buffs. Well that's gone now.  The weapons tree and the skills tree is now separate.  So that means you don't have to invest skill points into weapons you have no intention of using (you will have to though if you're focused on collecting styles for different weapons).  The skill tree now gives you a bit of focus and it's now a bit simpler.  It pretty much guides you to invest in skill trees based on your role.  It's simplified mostly for healers, controllers and tanks.  With DPS though it takes a bit of thought.  You have the options of focusing on your weapon, your superpowers or forming a balance between them. My healer has a DPS build and I chose a weapon focus (because controllers are really struggling now with their new role).  What I've found is while my DPS was pretty weak with the specs I had before the revamp, my new guy is kinda badass.  Of course, this all means that skill points are where it's at right now and the best players will be the ones with the most skill points.  Skill points were important before but now they're pretty much EVERYTHING.  I think the game has moved toward making sure people really go after those feats.  One of the first things I did when I saw my skill points needed to be reassigned was go after two race feats that I haven't attempted in years.  I actually got them!  LOL!

New Power Tree

More big changes here.  Playing the game from level 1 to level 30 no longer earns you power points which were necessary to assign powers for your character.  That's been replaces with a power tree that unlocks based on game progression.  Iconic powers used to cost one of those precious power points but now they're all in the skill tree.  Daybreak has been doing a lot of tweaking with the 1-30 mechanics before the revamp because they were trying to give new players a more rewarding intro to the game.  Hopefully this does it.  I'm kinda bummed that the weapon mastery got nerfed a bit though.

New NPC Stats

Another biggie.  It pretty much means that NPC progression is on par with your own.  As a direct result, NPCs from earlier content are no longer wimps to higher level character.  I get the feeling that the game devs looked at how the population of high level characters affected gameplay for lower level characters and decided that they really needed to limit the number of people getting "carried". I know up until now a lot lower level players have gotten undeserved feats as a result of this.  That said, here is where the recommended CR might not mean you're at the right level to complete the content.  If you were a player relying mostly on gear to get ahead you're going to have to go back to basics because as I said before, skill points are now everything.  This became obvious when I queued up for a raid I could easily do alone in 3 minutes before the revamp and it took the group a half hour (and that was with me doing more than 3 times the damage of the next best DPS in the raid).

Ability Balance & New Foundation

I wanna chalk this one up to minor issues and fixes.  Simply changing the powers to better mesh with the new revamp.

So are you playing?  What do YOU think of the stats revamp?  Let me know in the comments.