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Hey everybody, Thanks to Troy for allowing me to join you. I'm Veronica G. Henry and I'm an author. I've written 4 books so far, all listed in my bio. My latest release (March) is The Canopy Keepers. It's a genre-bender with something for everyone. Literary fiction fans, climate fiction, a little science and fantasy mixed in. It's the first of a duology (A Breathless Sky is scheduled for a Dec release - pray for me :-)). I would be honored if you would give it a read. Sequoia National Park, a black fire station chief, and an environment (and their champion) ready to fight back.

topics The fifty-second of the Cento series. A cento is a poem made by an author from the lines of another author's work. In the series I place my cento and a link to the other authors poem. Mother of the Wasteland- photomanipulation Fractal Lens - fractal generator on Black games elite Dates IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR: WCL - CPU Opponents Update ; mechanical woven origami ; Book of Clarence from Movies that Move We ; Toulouse Lautrec showing ; Cheynader q&A ; hilarious trick from a wife ; jesse washington 1916 URL https://rmnewsletter.over-blog.com/2023/10/05/19/2024-rmnewsletter.html

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Yeah, it is very much "south park" like in humor @ProfD, but south park is, if you can believe it, less base. Like South Park there are celebrity appearances Trump. Elon Musk, one of those rich white girls, maybe Paris Hilton (or it could just be the archetype). At any rate, the series if humorous and I'm not offended as the show does not reflect me or Black people in general. it is playing on exaggerated stereotypes. It has nothing to do with the original Good Times thought there are some references to it that would go over anyone's head who did not see the original. Any white person stupid enough to think this is an accurate reflection of Black life was already lost. Any Black person offended can cancel their Netflix subscription and watch something else. In 2024 there are many programs offering a realistic and intelligent representation of Black life. Most comedy will offend someone, that is the nature of the art.

Juneteenth as a holiday was a bone thrown at Black folks because we don't have enough holidays. IMO, it will be harder to get traction for Kwanzaa because it's not popular among most AfroAmericans.

Admittedly, I haven't watched any of the Good Times reboot. But, it reads like a South Park knockoff using Black imagery. The open letter to Netflix is the 1st step in protesting this foolishness. Next up, for those to whom it matters, start canceling subscriptions.

Juneteenth ,The. End. Of. Slavery. ,In. Texas. ,The. End. Of. ,Slavery ,In. This. Country. ...Why. Is. Juneteenth Celebrated. ,Not. Kwanzaa ?.Black. Community. Enslaved. Each. Day. .Crack. Houses. ,,Pimp ,Houses. ,The. Churches. .Black. People. Paying. For. Their. Enslavement..Black. Politicians. ,Care. More. About. Ukraine ,,Israel. ,,Palestine. Than. Their. Own. ,People. ..Black. Politicians. Support ,,Billions. Of. U. S. Money. Going. To. Ukraine. And. Israel. ,,No. ,,Money. Going. To. Poor. Inner. City,. Communities. To. Build ,. Better, ,Schools. ,Create. Jobs....Kwanzaa. , Maintaining. Unity. In., The,,Black. Communities. ,.,Families. ,,Race. ,,Purpose., ,Responsibility. ,..White democrats. Will. Support. Juneteenth ,,Black Democrats. ,NAACP. Not. Organizing. Kwanzaa. ..........Where. Is. Black. Lives. Matter. ????. Slavery. Has. Never. Stopped. ,The. ,Chains. Are. Off. ...Drugs. And. Guns. Dumped. In. Black., Communities. For. Enslavement. And. Genocide. ...Bible. ,Jesus,,,Enslaved. Black. People. ...Willie. Lynch. Letter. ,,How. To. ,Make. A. Negro. Christian.........Black. Democrats. Controlling. Black,,Votes. Have. A. Comfortable. Living. .......Neither. White ,,Democrats. Or. White. Republicans. Want. Black. People. ,Organizing. Kwanzaa. ..Black. Unity.....

An interview with Alexis Brown [ https://www.flickr.com/photos/199339334@N08/ } who is a member of Black Women Photographers [ https://blackwomenphotographers.com/] My favorite question and answer What type of gear do you use? The primary tool in my photography arsenal is the Sony A7iii camera body. When it comes to shooting events, my preferred lens is the Rokinon 14mm AF. This choice is complemented by the use of a direct flash along with a modifier. The combination of this lens and lighting setup not only allows me to capture the essence of events but also proves invaluable in maximizing space, transforming even small venues into expansively immersive environments. the photo i chose in her feature I liked most URL of the question and answer side photographic feature https://blog.flickr.net/en/2024/05/10/behind-the-lens-with-alexis-brown/

Interestingly I did not hear of this program until this campaign -- and I'm a Netflix subscriber (or someone in my family is...we share accounts) I just watched the first two episodes. Perhaps the most striking this was the use of the word "Motherf*cker" which I don't recall ever hearing in a cartoon. They have a bunch of Black comedians participating J B Smooth, Wanda Sykes... There was one Joke thar made me laugh out loud. I would not put this cartoon on the same level as Birth of a Nation -- on any level. I would not judge the series on a trailer either. However, if people feel strong enough to cancel their Netflix subscription I'm all for that, we need to be doing more of this thing. I think we should be boycotting McDonalds, Amazon, Newport, etc. It would be interesting to hear what anyone else who has seen this cartoon thinks.

An Open Letter to Ted Sarandos Co-Chief Executive Officer of Netflix CEMOTAP Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People 135-05 Rockaway Boulevard South Ozone Park, N.Y. 11420 (347-907-0629) Ted Sarandos Co-Chief Executive Officer Netflix Corporate Headquarters 100 Winchester Circle Los Gatos, CA 95032 Sir, the purpose of this letter is to express outrage at your ill-advised and ill-named release of “Netflix Good Times Reboot.” This insulting cartoon has only the most superficial and negative relationship to the original Good Times TV series. The claim by some of the creators that this is satire is so bogus as to not warrant response. The great satirists took on powerful people, not the people in the ostensibly less powerful position. When powerful people such as yourself and Seth McFarlane portray African people in this way you are ridiculing us not satirizing the powerful. Historically such ridicule has often preceded actual violence against the people ridiculed. Hollywood’s “Birth of a Nation” preceding the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan and Red Summer of 1919 in which more Black people were lynched in America than in any other year of its history, is just one example of that sequence. If you do not understand this reference, google it. It is not the purpose of this letter to educate you comprehensively. However, we will take the time to review with you seven of the specific offensive messages delivered in your trailer for this series. Message 1. Black People are Ugly: Portraying the father figure’s face with small cranium and wide jaw in such a way as to fit the template of Magilla Gorilla is not funny. It is a part of a longstanding trope of whites making simian references to African people. Ironically Thomas Jefferson made similar reference in his Notes on the State of Virginia. We would have thought you would not be guilty of the exact same hypocrisy. Message 2. Black People are Stupid: Having a father ask his son, is it possible for his daughter to get disability for her face is not funny. It is ridicule and in the tradition of another long-standing trope. Message 3. Black People are violent and criminal from birth: Portraying Black babies as selling drugs and shooting automatic weapons at each other is not funny. It is all too real. Message 4. Black People are rude, crude, lewd and hypersexual: Portraying a bug-eyed dog watch a man with the profile of a gorilla have sex with a Black woman doggy style while slapping her bottom is not funny. It is not satire it is ridicule. Portraying the Black teacher as an alcoholic (sipping from her flask), nicotine addict (cigarettes in her pocket), pedophile, making sexually loaded comments about one of her students (a child) is not funny. Message 5. Black People's Struggle for Freedom, Justice and Equality is a joke: Using Rosa Parks name as a rebuke is not funny. Portraying Harriet Tubman having sex with Gwyneth Paltrow as McFarlane did in earlier cartoons is not satire. It is ridicule and the recurrence of a sick McFarlane theme. Message 6. Black People are worthless: Portraying a Black Father telling his children he was dumb for not wearing a condom when his wife conceived them is not satire it is ridicule. Having your characters calling a Black woman the B word or a Black boy the N word is not funny it is offensive. Message 7. Black People have nothing sacred that whites are bound to respect: Superfluous reference to our ancestors, ridicule of Jesus portrayed as white, ridicule of Jesus portrayed as Black and ridicule of God with a Black voice portrayed with lavender and turquoise fingernails, superfluous reference to the Ancient African God Anubis and to Ancestor Rosa Parks is sacrilege to the main objects of worship of Black people in America. Please note that It did not go unnoticed how you did not make reference to Muhammad Ibn Abdullah or the God Allah in this trailer. You have obviously learned the lesson taught to Salman Rushdie in his ill-advised attempts at humor. True satirists don’t generally spare foes they consider dangerous. Bullies do. Since you have released all 10 episodes of this atrocity, already and appear to have the intent to leave them available to the public indefinitely. There is no room for negotiation. We are going to exercise our right as free people to withhold our dollars from your enterprise for as long as you show this outrage and to withhold our dollars for at least an equal amount of time after you stop. James C. McIntosh, M.D. and Betty J. Dopson Co-Chairs CEMOTAP

@Tesa considering the modern financial markets have so many uncontrolled/manipulated/manipulative sectors, it goes without saying

Without the Fed, control of interest rates will shift to the market. This will most likely lead to great uncertainty.

The 2-Minute Survey to Benefit Black Authors: https://qualtrics.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eh543jnw9wZUveS (survey closes May 22, 2024) The survey results provide crucial insights and interesting disparities within the publishing industry. For example, full-time self-published authors invest three times more in marketing than their traditionally published counterparts. Download survey results: https://aalbc.com/pdf/Authors-Guild-AALBC-US-Published-Black-Author-Income-Study-12072023.pdf

example- have fun getting images factor .425 Restrictions repetition None No Restrictions axis Not bottom right Restrictions coin toss None

I like the third. A few things I would change. I wouldn't say neat. @aka Contrarian I have a read a lot of books about Astrology Numerology and Tarot. A few books about time and numbers. After a bout two decades and few languages I created to do reading, it jelled into not just reading a person but reading time as well. Like a person time has moods which vary. I have just found a way to quantify those movements.

The 1st and last versions read more like a human wrote it. That 2nd version, even based on the parameters provided, reads like a robot wrote it. @Delano, please let us know which one you decide to use.

Basically I use words to read the subconscious mind and time itself. It isn't that complicated, I was fortunate to find\develop the techniques.

That is a high compliment. i haven't taught you anything> I have just described things that you knew intuitively and had experienced

@DelanoThat's really amazing. Not only the content but also how AI assembled it. I had no preference as to which version I liked better. As you know, I have always had trouble wrapping my brain around your recreating the past through numbers, but Chat GPT did make it a tad easier to understand.

@Delanoyour feedback was very on point and relevant. I did get very creative with the crystals I encircled my little pyramid with because I wanted to align them with the energy pyramids supposedly radiate. Also, I chose the screen names "Cynique" and "Contrarian" for a reason. I have always had a compulsive tendency to take the opposite and often unpopular view during discussions because I fancy myself an iconoclast. Maybe it is more to it than that. As you speculate, my unorthodox views might stem from meditation during which Ive gotten into the habit of thinking on another level. And, yes, I was excited after I got my Canon desktop word processor way back in the '90s, wĥen I purchased it on a whim after I had just acquired an OfficeMax credit card! I knew zilch about this device but gradually through trial and error I mastered it, becoming very attached to it, loving how it enabled and facilitated my book writing aspirations. It was almost like an alter ego... You have always been my Guru, Del, the "teacher who appears when the student is ready", and I thank you!

Zhe second one I wanted it to be more conversational. The second one I asked it to drop words that were superlative. So I was looking for tone and content

The last one seems more natural and I it like it the most. The first one is ok and sends most informative, but reads more like something from Chat GPT based upon word choice. The second version I do not like at all. what was the difference in the prompts @Delano?

from the contest As a person of color, how do you represent your utopia in writing? This can be done through poetry, prose, short-story, fiction, non-fiction in 500 words or less. Writing hint: Do you have a special place in nature that you like to go to? Do you wish you had/dream of a special place in nature? Is there something you love to do outdoors? Do you have a story of a time outdoors when something special/magical happened? from me I submitted mine already , you only have till the end of the 15th of may. URL https://amsterdamnews.com/reflectionssubmissions/

I wondered the same thing about my old school, the University of Illinois. No demonstrations taking place on the campus of this huge midwestern college which is typical of the Big 10 designation it is a member of. Unlike its fellow Iliinois members, the University of Chicago and Northwestern, who have both staged protests, not a peep from the U. of I. Located in central Illinois, drawing students from all over the state, Illinois has always been a meat znd potatoes institution, its student body middle class, both urban and rural . Most interesting is that it has always had a substantial Jewish enrollment. Whatever the case, as ProfD and Troy have suggested about other schools, the "fighting Illini" apparently have more pressing things to command their attention.

Right. One of those pressing personal matters is being able to get a job after graduation.