Gray Beard Nerd
Bio
A nerd who is into cars, video games, movies, book and more. I love to write and hope to share what I have written with others. Please enjoy!!
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What if Sharon Carter has always been the Power Broker.
In a previous article I expressed some distaste for the implementation of Sharon Carter in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It stemmed from how her path to evil began with her being seemingly abandoned by Steve Rogers after Civil War and how I felt that was inconsistent with Steve's character, defined as a person who always comes through for his friends, see Bucky and the other avengers stuck on the raft. I could only conclude that Steve could not find her because she did not want to be found and I did not feel like that sentiment was earned considering how little time they were separated before the events of infinity war. If she was not turn to dust in the snap, surely Steve could have used her expertise if nothing else to help during the crisis. Also the time frame feels really tight for her to leave the US and become the dominate force in Mandripore. I know she is portrayed as very capable, but that is a heck of a feat. Or is it? What if she had more time and a little help setting up her contacts? As she walked down the stairs after the hearing during the post credit scene in Falcon and the Winter Soldier a thought struck me, could she have been the Power Broker all along?
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Geeks
Alien Day Short: (4/26/21)
Jacob woke early in the morning as the lights slowly came on in his room. Every morning they were set to come on slowly at six thirty in the morning. His room was small, consisting of only his bed, a small table, a shelf with a few books, a door to his closet and a slit window that let the sun light in but only just. That is during the months of the year when the sun shinned. Currently the slit window served little purpose as it was the dead of winter, and the sun had dipped below the horizon months ago and would not return till the beginning of spring. During the summer it would never set but in the depths of winter it would never rise. The darkness was oppressive and affected everyone’s mood after a while. That said artificial sunlight was projected by the dome during the winter months to light up the settlement, but nothing could ever truly replace real sunlight.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Futurism
Heavy Chevy
In 1998 as the century was about to turn, I was enjoying the ultimate expression of freedom available to a member of my generation, having a car. Yes, I indeed come from a simpler time. I did not yet have a cell phone and my computer looked like a man in a space suit sitting on the floor of my room and desk. The Hewlett-Packard tower had 1.5 GB of storage and I could manage with my “highspeed connection to download four songs every night while I slept over a period of six hours. So yes, in my day the ultimate expression of who you were was the vehicle that you drove and well for me I was struggling to find something that fit me personally. I had been through a couple of vehicles, an old Chevrolet and then a Ford Ranger Splash but I was still not quite complacent. That all changed in May of that year.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Wheel
A Little Ray of Sunshine
The year was 2006. I had been married for two years and my wife and I were expecting our first child. I was officially an adult. I had a family and was knee deep in my first career. I was working at a chemical factory in a lab doing product testing. Pretty much what I had always dreamed about doing right out of college. The only real problem with the job was the hours. The plant never closed, running 24 hours a day for most of the year. Which meant for me anyway 12-hour shifts, two weeks days and two weeks nights. After several months of working there I was exhausted, and I needed a break. My wife decided to plan us a surprise miniature vacation. During one of my weekends off I came home to packed bags and we went and stayed at a local hotel, just disappearing from the world for two days. It was a huge relief for me even though it was literally just down the road and was great fun. It also led me on a path of self-discovery that I did not realize I needed.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Gamers
Front Mission 3
A few years ago, when the first fire emblem games started coming out in the US a lot of people were telling me to try them out. They said things like, if you love RPG’s, you will love turn based strategy RPG’s. So, I rented the Gameboy Advanced version and, it did not click with me. It was not the perma-death I just would get bored. The fights take a long, long time and being thrown into the deep end with large units, you spend half an hour fighting a battle and then loose and have to start all the way at the beginning of the battle. I tried other games in the genre thinking I was just missing something. Like Phantom Brave or early Sega Shinning Force games for the Genesis, but it just never clicked with me. That was until I played Front Mission III. What made the difference for me? Why did it click when all the other games simply did not?
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Gamers
The Missing Link
Several weeks ago, I encountered an article praising a modded version of Ocarina of Time and logged it away as a curiosity in my mind. But like a lot of things that get logged in the back of my mind it continued to pester me until my curiosity got the better of me and I looked into what it would take to play this game for myself. I will not bore you with details as they can easily be found on the game’s website. What I will say is that with little effort I soon found myself pleasantly playing a new/old title in the storied Nintendo franchise. So, can the game live up to the giants that are Majora’s Mask and Ocarina of time? Is it even fair to ask it to do so? Let’s find out.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Gamers
Donkey Kong Country 2
This is my favorite classic SNES game, but probably not for the reason that you think. I know all of you reading this are likely aware of the legendary status of this game. Nintendo was behind in releasing their new console, the Ultra 64, and they needed to release top quality games on the SNES to compete. There long-time rival, SEGA and a newcomer competitor Sony had both brought new more powerful 32-bit consoles to market the Sony PlayStation in particular was turning out to be a real success. Nintendo needed to convince consumers that their older and less powerful console was still a competitor in the market. Indeed 1995 would see the release of some of the best games to grace the hardware in its history. Games like Yoshi’s Island, Chrono Trigger and of course Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Gamers
Depressed Does Not Mean Unhappy
What I am about to say stems from years of experience dealing with depression. I am not a clinical professional, but I felt the need to share my experience related to this topic because there seems to be a lot of confusion related to it. Over the years I have heard people use the phrase unhappy and depression interchangeably, but I wanted to take a moment of your time to explain why these two words are not the same.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Psyche
Cool Spot!
The 80's and 90's were a time of excess and colorful marketing. Seven up was no exception and the soft drink company invented the mascot cool spot. A living representation of the red dot on the can there was a time where he was literally everywhere. Video games, commercials and bill boards he was as unescapable as the California raisins and the Noid. But one place you may not have expected to find him was in your sports car. Yet that is what almost happened in 1990.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Wheel
Hurricane "Cat"trina
The year was 2005 and for those of us who lived through it we could tell you stories that rivaled the terror of 2020. Especially if you lived in South Mississippi and Louisiana in August. Katrina was a category five storm that rocked the whole nation as people watched on television the devastating flooding in New Orleans and the twenty foot storm surge pick up huge hotels and casinos and carry them out to sea on the Mississippi coast. But, particularly for those of us who experienced, it we all have our own Katrina story if not several. One of mine is the story of Ginger, the cat pictured in the photograph. In the days after the storm my wife and I slowly made our way back out into the community picking up the pieces and helping others clean up and rebuild after the disaster. We live about sixty miles from the coast so the storm had weakened to a category three hurricane by the time it reached our home and we were fortunate that we received only minimal damage. The same could not be said for the Dental Office where we both worked. The old office had been converted from a two story home and my wife and I had actually met there for the first time only two years before.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Petlife
Did Sharon Replace Shelby
Is it just me or did anyone else notice how clunky the scene with Selby from the Falcon and the Winter Soldier played out? In case you missed it obviously watch for spoilers. In the scene things are progressing smoothly until Sam gets an unexpected phone call from his sister. It is a great device to create tension but when Selby insists that Sam, in disguise as Smiling Tiger, answer on speaker it caught me off guard. Is it against the rules for him to receive phone calls? The scene could have had an equal amount of tension if she had just casually, instead of accusingly, told Sam he could answer. Sam would have still had to remain in character, and we could have had some more development between Sam and his sister as he verbally berates her over the phone to stay in character that could have been interesting for their subplot. If it was meant to be rude or inappropriate for Sam to get a call during the meeting, then it should have been hinted at beforehand in a previous scene. As it stands in the current cut there is no established precedence for Selby’s reaction.
By Gray Beard Nerd5 years ago in Geeks
