Hasta La Gadget!

 Fitbit announced a few new devices, including the Fitbit Charge and the Fitbit Surge, both of which we’re excited about. Plus, HP is doing all kinds of weird things, not least of which is the announcement of an odd new computer, projector type device called the Sprout.
Plus, we’re still fascinated with the Apple Watch so we’re talking about all things wrist this week. Read More

One by one all six walked out the front door of the church that night. They were Glenn, acted by Steven Yeun; Maggie, acted by Lauren Cohan; Sasha, acted by Sonequa Martin-Greene; Abraham, acted by Michael Cudlitz; Michonne, acted by Danai Gurira; and of course Rick, acted by Andrew Lincoln. All six looked grim, yet silent and purposeful as they took their time leaving the church in a group, all sharing a resolve in the finality of knowing what had to be done. Which was, to kill the cannibalistic Terminans now living at a nearby abandoned elementary school.

Thirteen point eight million U.S. viewers on October 26, 2014, Sunday night, had watched their TV sets during The Walking Dead season five episode three titled, “Four Walls and a Roof.” And as they watched those six, let’s call the six ‘Team Rick’ as all carried assault weapons, the group seemed to gradually disappear into the night to the left of the image shown on the TV screen. Whereas a little off to the right of the full screen image, hung a white wooden church sign in the foreground that read, St. Sarah’s Church – Episcopal – West Poplar Creek.

The image, as the six had slowly vanished into the night at the left into the background, and with the hanging white wooden church sign in the foreground a little off center to the right, had paused. The image seemed to pause long enough, where a viewer may have expected a commercial break. Only this was obviously planned to build tension of whatever was expected to come.

But the patience of the 13.8 million viewers across the United States, and also around the world, as written about from my previous HuffPost blog titled, “The Walking Dead: Its’ Domestic and Foreign Fan Reach,” was rewarded. For now a different group of six gradually emerged from the right background of the night image, only now walking towards the church. Carrying also assault weapons, yet their resolve was far different from the previous group of six.

This different group of six, comprised of Martin, acted by Chris Coy; Theresa, acted by April Billingsley; Albert, acted by Benjamin Papac; Mike, acted by Chris Burns; Greg, acted by Travis Young; and of course leader Gareth, acted by Andrew J. West. And they were the Terminans.

Within the church were seven combined surviving members from both Rick and Abraham’s group since last season four. And they were Rick’s son Carl, acted by Chandler Riggs; Carl’s baby sister Judith; Tyreese, acted by Chad Coleman; Tara, acted by Alanna Masterson; Eugene, acted by Josh McDermitt; Rosita, acted by Christian Serrratos; and Bob the injured boyfriend of Sasha, acted by Lawrence Gilliard Jr. And it was the injured Bob, whose lower left leg was eaten by the Terminans at the abandoned elementary school earlier that night.

Those seven in the church were with another person, Father Gabriel, acted by Seth Gilliam, who harbored not only the secret of abandoning his church flock during the zombie apocalypse, but also had known about the people of Terminus. And those eight were about to be attacked.

In season one episode six of the fantasy drama Game of Thrones, master swordsman Syrio Forel of Kings Landing, hired by Lord Ned Stark, teaches Ned Stark’s daughter young Arya Stark the deadly art of swordsmanship. In that episode titled, “A Golden Crown,” while both practice with wooden sticks, he asks her, “Do you pray to the gods?” She then replies, “The old and the new.” He then says to her, “There is only one god and his name is the god of Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death… Not today.”

But to Rick and Abraham’s combined group, they all could have just as well not only have said, “Not today,” but also, “Not tonight.”

For nevertheless it was a short while ago when Gareth gave his monologue to the captured Bob, saying women were the best to be eaten. It was he who explained that perhaps women taste better because of their extra layer of fat… for childbearing, and that even skinny girls have it too. Then Gareth says, “Like that pretty one… Sasha. I think pretty people taste better too,” all while he and his group dined on Bob’s severed left leg at the abandoned elementary school. But then Bob lowered the boom, saying he’d been bitten. And that ended Gareth talking smack.

So as the six Terminans entered the church, waiting after Rick’s group of six had left, Gareth taunted those hiding within, calling each by name, Tyreese, Tara, and the rest. He even called out to Father Gabriel, saying he could leave and take baby Judith. And then it all began to happen.

Of the six Terminans, Mike and Bob were hit first, killed instantly. The remaining four were startled as they turned around to see the front of the church, which was still dark. But all four heard that familiar voice out of the darkness, saying, “Put your guns on the floor.” Then Rick and his group emerged from the darkness.

It was then apparent, that Rick and his group had done a cunning dipsy-doodle. By neglecting to go to the Terminan lair at the elementary school, all six had reconnoitered back and hid, waiting together in darkness at a discrete yet observable distance from the church. Masterful!

“Put your guns on the floor… and kneel,” Rick said next, as he, Glenn, Maggie, Abraham, Sasha, and Michonne all emerged from the darkness with weapons ready. Of the remaining four Terminans, Martin remained deviant. Remember him? For it was he who threatened to snap baby Judith’s neck in the fifth season premiere, if Tyreese did not go out the cabin to face the walkers. Perhaps everyone was surprised Martin had showed up again, thinking he died in that episode, after Tyreese rushed back inside and gave him a pummeling. That episode, which could be called a ‘Magnum Force’ episode, drew 17.29 million U.S. viewers. The highest rating in the series thus far. But as Martin was deviant, Abraham changed Martin’s mind quick.

While channel surfing on a day off, I saw a classic western, Last Train from Gunhill. It began, when a beautiful Native-American woman and her son were riding in a horse and buggy through a wooded countryside. Two drunken cowboys saw them, with eyes on the woman. Of the two, one was the spoiled son of a prominent cattle baron, and he was the one that was lashed at with a buggy whip by the woman, before he and the other cowboy raped and killed her. The boy managed to get away and told his father, U.S. Marshal Matt Morgan, played by Kirk Douglas.

After retrieving the body of his beloved wife, Matt Morgan meets his Native-American father-in-law. About the two cowboys, he says to his son-in-law, “Kill them slow, the Indian way.” To which Matt Morgan replies, “I’ll kill them, my own way.”

“Still you could have killed us when you came in,” says Gareth. “There had to be a reason for that?” the leader of the remaining Terminans had asked.

“We didn’t want to waste any bullets,” says Rick. And then Rick hacks at Gareth, Sasha hacks at Martin, whereas Michonne and Abraham finish the rest as Glenn and Maggie watched. All was done, their own way, absent Daryl and Carol as both had driven off earlier to find Beth.

These devious yet marvelously creative writers, my guess, are hedging their bets by splitting up the group at the end of that episode. Still, I have faith in them. And despite the fact that this series still not has been granted any Emmy nominations now after beginning its fifth season, I still say The Walking Dead has high caliber writing, and high caliber acting. And I’ll even now say high caliber directing, and will continue to say it is Emmy-worthy.

October signifies Breast Cancer Awareness month, bringing a powerful annual reminder for women everywhere to pause their daily life and bring health to the forefront by scheduling a yearly mammogram.

Along with this, Breast Cancer Awareness month is a time to remember friends and family who courageously lost their ordeal with breast cancer. It is a time to support the warriors who are managing cancer so bravely; a journey that takes a toll on both the human spirit and the body.

For women who undergo mastectomies and breast reconstruction, they face a daily reminder of scars. For some, no nipples are left behind after surgery.

But now, many survivors are turning to tattoos to cover the scar with a beautiful piece of artwork.

P.ink is one organization changing the culture of healing for breast cancer survivors.

In 2013, Noel Franus founded P.ink, which stands for “personal ink,” an organization that helps breast cancer survivors who have undergone mastectomies and breast reconstruction by connecting them with a tattoo artist. The artist works with the survivor to create tattoo designs to cover and hide scar tissue from such operations.

Noel stops by to share his personal connection with breast cancer and the inspiration behind P.ink.

JB: What inspired you to start this powerful recourse for breast cancer survivors?

NF: It started when my sister-in-law Molly told the family she had breast cancer and was getting a double mastectomy. She asked friends and family for clever nipple-tattoo ideas, since her originals were going away, never to return, and she wasn’t interested in the doctor’s version of a nipple tattoo. Unfortunately there were no resources for someone thinking of doing anything different; despite the fact that millions have to deal with nipple replacements and mastectomy scars, there was no one place online for survivors and others to explore options other than traditional reconstruction. So I thought P.ink would be an effective solve for this unmet need. I brought the idea for P.ink to CP+B (the advertising agency I work at based in Boulder, Colorado). And then we got to work; our goal was to bring design to this underserved audience by showcasing mastectomy tattoos as an accessible, viable option for taking back some of the personal property that breast cancer can steal. That’s the kind of brief that most creatives love to dig in to, so we attacked it.

As for Molly: she’s great. She’s now one of our local leaders in L.A. We’re so proud we were able to connect her with Colby Butler, who is a fantastic artist, and that Molly was able to bravely share her story with so many people.

JB: Did you find it easy to find tattoo artists who were skilled in tattooing over scars?

NF: Many artists cover scars but few have mastectomy experience. And skin that’s been exposed to radiation can be a unique challenge. We’ve spent many nights and weekends looking for artists experienced with mastectomies, whom we trust. Just two years ago it was a lot harder to find them than it is today. And while a few of the heroes of the mastectomy tattoo universe are now easier to find online, not everyone can travel across the country or around the world to visit them for a mastectomy tattoo. So we’ve been searching for local, regional, national and international expertise. Fortunately this is slightly less burdensome now that artists are hearing about P.ink — more of them are reaching out to us.

JB: You recently held P.ink Day 2014. Please share more about this special day and how survivors and volunteers can get involved in P.ink Day 2015.

NF: P.ink Day has grown into something very special in a short amount of time. We’ve managed to seed a movement that’s grown from one location and 10 survivors in its first year to 12 locations and 38 survivors the next. (And in fact, we had to turn down about 40 potential locations this year for one reason or another — lack of an experienced artist, lack of a truly organized ground team, we didn’t have the largesse to support such a massive effort, etc.)

What’s made P.ink Day unique is that it’s never just about a free tattoo; it’s an all-out gift of a day, an outpouring of love, facilitated by local leaders and supported by dozens of other individuals working to make things just right. The tattoo is of course the pinnacle of the experience, but everything has to be incredibly well orchestrated, from the first moment we introduce the artist to their survivor, to the pre-party the night before, to the cheering squads applauding survivors in the morning, to the lunches, the tattooing and anything that follows.

I’m sure we put that pressure on ourselves, perhaps more than is necessary, but the thing we’ve always tried to do with P.ink is show an expertly focused lens on these survivors who often slip outside the limelight; they’ve beaten the disease, but still have to live with what it left behind. I don’t much talk about them during the pink-cleats NFL games or the pink products being advertised every October. And yet they deserve our best efforts. This ethos drives everything P.ink does. The Pinterest boards are a deliberate act of curation and taste. The artists we’ve selected to feature and work with isn’t a group of lightweights. The Inkspiration app wasn’t something we cooked up overnight. So we try to reinforce that P.ink Day is a radical act of love, care and reclamation. And anyone who wants to help make a P.ink Day happen in their community must be incredibly motivated, clever and exceptionally well organized to pull it off. There’s just no other way to go about it.

As for next year: we’re taking a breather at the moment and we’re cooking up plans for 2015. We try to keep things creatively fresh. Last year we ran the crowdfunding campaign–we loved the idea that anyone could invest in healing art that’s now walking the earth–and this year we drafted a playbook and coached local leaders as they made things happen. Stay tuned for our plans for 2015.

We encourage individuals, donors or other partners that want to help to reach out, email us at help@p-ink.org.

JB: What kind of feedback have you received from the women who have received tattoos?

NF: “I’m finally comfortable looking in the mirror again.” “I’ve got my sexy mojo back.” “I might just start marching around topless.” Those are my favorite quotes from survivors we’ve worked with or heard from.

Each survivor wants a tattoo for a different reason. While some, like Molly, just didn’t like the idea of a doctor-created circle, others tried it and the work went south. Others tried reconstruction and it didn’t take. Others felt newly awkward in the locker room with missing or scarred breasts. Others might have had a prophylactic mastectomy. And many others still felt like their sex appeal had disappeared. Some simply felt mutilated. To hear these unique stories, followed up with these quotes after all they’ve been through… and now they’re stepping up and owning it… that’s incredibly profound. It’s very gratifying to be a part of this.

JB: This has to be a powerful day for the artists as well. What feedback have you received from the artists?

NF: Great question. In our experience, most artists love this work. Two reasons why: 1) they’re artists, so their empathy levels are often naturally through the roof; 2) this work elevates their role. This is the end of a long saga, one in which doctors, nurses, surgeons and other specialists shuffle you from one hospital room to the next over the course of years — and standing at the end of this healthcare experience is who? A tattoo artist. There’s the hero. That flips the broader cultural perception of tattoo artists on its head.

Yes, there are many reasons why tattoo artists are often seen as the cultural rogue–sailors and riffraff and testosterone-fueled tattoo shows on TV only add to the cutting edge. But we’ve uncovered at least one of probably many reasons why the world sometimes needs to celebrate that cutting edge. And tweaking those cultural perceptions is part of what makes this so fun.

JB: What have you learned about the human spirit through this experience?

NF: I’ve learned that most people respond enthusiastically when you can tap into their talents to help change a life. That’s not always easy. Over the years I’ve found that volunteer work doesn’t always demand your best. It often requires only your time, your thinking, or your hands. That’s never not important. But I think P.ink gives us who are creatives, designers, writers, coders and others a chance to do what they love to do, in an inventive way, and to make life better for someone else. That’s probably why we’ve had so much great help from the people at CP+B in bringing this to life.

JB: Over the summer, you launched Inkspiration, an app women survivors can download onto their smart phones. How does the app work?

NF: We created the app to address the single biggest question for someone considering a mastectomy tattoo: what will this look like on me? When you download and use the app, you’ll have a very specific answer. To use it, simply open it up; choose from a variety of body types or take a picture of your own chest; and then select a tattoo from our gallery. And you’ll see what it looks like on you. And perhaps that encourages you to get a little more creative, tap the “find an artist” button, reach out to a nearby artist who can help, and the two of you can make some real magic.

JB: What are your biggest needs in moving forward with P.ink?

NF: Thank you for asking. Just like any growing enterprise, our two biggest needs are talent and money.

First, talent: If more people knew the role that tattoo artists play in the healing process, we wouldn’t need to exist. What if these skilled artists–the really great ones–were as findable as the really great doctors in our lives? They’re not, and we need to change it, and our small team of volunteers needs help finding them. So I encourage people to dig, find those great artists who do have mastectomy experience and let us know. We’ll feature them in our directory. Contact us with your gems: help@p-ink.org.

Second, money: P.ink Day is great. But that’s only once a year, and there’s a huge unmet need the other 364 days of the year. And while our hope is that people find us online, find what they’re looking for and then hire an artist, there are still many survivors who don’t want to take this step without some help. So we’ve started the P.ink Fund; we’re working with a small, elite team of artists around the U.S. and Canada whom we implicitly trust, and we’re seeking donations to pay those artists for their best work. To date more than 350 survivors have asked to be beneficiaries of either the P.ink Fund or P.ink Day. When there’s money in the bank we tackle that list on a first-come, first-served basis. But there’s a lot more demand than there is supply. So we encourage donations online: http://p-ink.org/give. And for survivors wishing to sign up as a potential beneficiary, visit: http://p-ink.org/signup.

JB: Where can our readers learn more about P.ink?

NF: We’re at p-ink.org. Our always-growing collections of P.ink Day images, tattoo ideas and artists with mastectomy experience are at Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/personalink. And we also have a robust community of survivors at https://www.facebook.com/personalink.

For those looking to get more involved, email us at help@p-ink.org. Donate here: http://p-ink.org/give. And sign up for the P.ink Fund or P.ink Day here: http://p-ink.org/signup.

The blood of the queer martyrs is the seed of the queer Church.

As we enter the season of remembering saints (11/1) and departed souls (11/2), including transgender people murdered in hate crimes (11/20) and those who died of AIDS (12/1), these words keep coming to mind, paraphrasing the cherished phrase of Tertullian, declared a heretic yet celebrated for this observation about the paradoxical flourishing of Christianity under Roman imperial persecution in his time.

The queer martyrs — nonconforming in gender or sexuality (or both), cast out of the visible church of the saints

…those who dare not approach the Holy of Holies, are unwelcome in both the Court of the Men and the Court of the Women, not even permitted to stand with God-fearing Gentiles in what passes for the Temple today…

Outside of the shelter of privileged entry to the Temple and its courts, we gather.

Bloodied in psyche and even body, outcast, untouchable,

…our marriages an “abomination” — our love declared to condemned both partners to Sheol.

Even after death, having left behind these bodies deemed by the righteous to be “disordered,” these self-righteous lovers of Law keeping casting stones at our fallen (John 8.7).

Gather in the shadow of the Temple with us. In a parking lot, on a downtown city street closed for a parade where we can celebrate our queer love, our queer bodies, we take the cup of Thanksgiving together and remember the broken body of our risen wounded Teacher as we share bread. Dare to see the invisible queer Church sitting next to you in your visible church, hiding behind a name we don’t use for ourselves, wearing clothes that don’t fit us, because we have more compassion more for the discomfort we might cause you, the “weaker brethren,” than we do for ourselves — even though the shame and discomfort we thus internalize may drive more than half of us to attempt suicide.

Believing God’s answer to who we are can never be yes (as queer poet James Baldwin described it), we still gather to worship the same God proclaimed by those who see us as less than human. Nothing is left to gain for those who believe the lies that we are hell-bound, that the God who made us hates us. What kind of faith is this but the same adoration embodied by the hemorrhaging woman who only wanted to touch them hem of Jesus’ garment — not even knowing if she would ever be healed. To be close enough to adore God in the presence of those who love God with us — with no promise of healing or salvation, we gather.

The queer saints gather to break bread together, to keep Sabbath, to pray, to watch and witness, to hope, believing in the Beloved Community of unconditional grace that we have not yet seen in fullness — only in a glass darkly in our queer koinonia. This is true love for God, without self-interest, with nothing left to gain — no gold ticket to heaven in the next life, only justice and equality and grace-filled love in this one. If God our Maker has made us profane, to be an abomination to God’s chosen people, still we gather and still we love God. If God casts us out of God’s presence into everlasting torment (as others proclaim) for celebrating our marriages faithfully as a grace-filled sacrament, still we gather, and still we love God. This is a divine, unconditional grace that cuts both ways, in every direction from divine to human and back again. Do you love God this much?

Who dares to condemn this boldly selfless faith as heresy? If you have cast out these faithful lovers of God or stood by in silence as we were cast out, “agreeing to disagree,” you have departed from the true and Invisible Church. Only now, in the queer Body of Christ, wounded and yet alive, disgraced and yet glorifying God with a depth and intensity of grace seen nowhere else, we can see our queer God face to face: The One whom Jesus called God Abba (Daddy) yet Who boasts of birthing creation from His-Her womb (Job 38.29). Queer Christ is known by the wounds in His Body (John 20.24-29). See and believe the invisible Church in the church visible. Glorify God whose living grace is proclaimed in the continued presence and witness of the queer saints.

It does feel as though the pressure to roll out the world’s thinnest smartphone is telling, especially among the various smartphone manufacturers. The folks over at Oppo certainly made the world turn on its head earlier this week after lifting the veil on their smartphone that measures all of just 4.85mm, which is roughly 0.19” in thickness. Apparently, that particular mantle is not going to remain with them for long, as their rival Vivo could be working on something that is slimmer, and we are talking about a rather considerable margin here.

Just how much slimmer will it be? Apparently, an image of the upcoming handset was posted on Weibo, China’s very own social network, earlier this week, where it depicted a thickness that is roughly half that of the iPhone 5s. In other words, we could be looking at a potentially new champion for the world’s thinnest smartphone at 0.15” or 3.8mm thereabouts, which would certainly smash Oppo’s record by close to an entire mm, now how about that?

Apart from the apparent thinness of the handset, nothing else is known about the phone where its hardware specifications are concerned, so we do hope that with the passage of time, more details will be revealed.

Vivo Could Have World’s Thinnest Smartphone Soon

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