Here's the actual full tiered list of all MCU movies as of 2021 - Which tiers would you place them?

Beyond The Trailer recently released a video in which all Marvel Cinematic Universe movies (MCU) are ranked from 1 to 27 (there being 27 movies as of the end of 2021).  I didn't agree with her list nor the method used to rank the movies.

I don't think such an ordered ranking is possible for the Marvel Movies.  There's just too many of them now.  Additionally, my favorites are too different from one-another to try to compare them to each other.  So, instead, I created a tier list, from "Favorite" to "Ugh".

The movies are tiered based on how much I enjoy watching them and how often I will rewatch.  I'll rewatch Favorites endlessly.  I regret ever watching Ughs even once.  My tiers may differ significantly from others.  In particular, I prefer Avengers: Infinity War over Avengers: Endgame.  I also list Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp higher than other fans.  However, this is my tier list.  You can make your own!

Create your own tier list from this template on Tiermaker: https://tiermaker.com/list/marvel-dc/actual-list-of-mcu-movies-as-of-the-end-of-2021-874581/1858535

Telegram is still a thing, and it's an interesting holdover

I recently made a Facebook post about the pager network.  I pointed out that the Flex and reFlex protocols used by the pager network will still be running long after 2G, 3G and 4G are gone. (See below for the sunset schedule.)  It's weird that this old 90's tech will still be in operation after several generations of the cellular network are gone.  (See Old School: Pager Code for look-a-like codes and Beep Codes list for common standard 3 digit codes.)

What's weirder than that?  Telegraph networks are still operating.  That means a system originally started in 1840's will outlast several generations of the cellular network!  Wow!

Now, I must admit that I recently discovered telegrams are still a thing in the 21st Century from a Youtube video.

So, you know what I did?  I sent a xmas message via telegram to my friend.  And, I learned a few things about the process along the way.  Despite operating completely through a website (as all things must), it appears the process still has manual nuances.  For example, any type of special instructions must be typed into the either the address field or other special field, in specific ways.  There's no website checkboxes for many types of instructions, such as stating a delivery date or specifying to only deliver to the addressee.

My friend's telegram was sent by me in November, and slated for delivery yesterday.  However, it appears to have been delivered a day late.  I guess there's numerous possible reasons for the one day delay.  Either way, my friend is very delighted by this unique gift (well, unique for the 21st Century).  

Now, I didn't use iTelegram, which apparently is the successor to Western Union's telegraph service.  I think if I need to send a telegram as a legal document in the future, I would use iTelegram since they provide substantial proof of delivery.

In other news,

Upcoming cellular network sunsets from T-Mobile (some of these services have already been shut down by other carriers): [Edit: this schedule is outdated, as end dates have been pushed out.]

• 2G was already dropped most major services some time ago, but still hangs on with T-Mobile.  They'll be shutting it down in 2023.
• 3G is actually getting shut down before 2G, at the end of 2021.
• 4G is also getting shut down before 4G, sometime during 2022.

For Elite Dangerous, see inside carrier interiors, including sounds that are already working!

You can see your own carrier's interior, but it's not easy. Here's a tour, including sounds such as corridor announcements and pilot welcomes!

Ten Commandments are not so simple - several traditions, and the actual list which is often sidestepped

It's just ironic how adamant people can be about putting up monuments to these things, and it's not even clear what they are talking about.  Even more ironic is that all these traditions ignore or sidestep the actual 10 commandments that was placed within the Art of the Covenant, found at Exodus 34 (shown in last column in the table above).  [Originally created by me and posted on Reddit.]

UPDATE: I've updated the Ten Commandments spreadsheet based on corrected information provided by this video, 7 Secrets of The Hebrew Ten Commandments.  From here on, the Ten Commandments table will be provided on a Google Sheets spreadsheet.  I haven't updated the image above, so the Google Sheets spreadsheet should now be used as the primary reference.

This will soon be the closest I've ever lived to an In-N-Out Burger location

 Coming soon to Thornton, CO:

Look who's moving to the neighborhood!  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CW1ibS9lRPN/?hl=en

Trail 2 - City Park in Lakewood

Belmar Park is listed in the book 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Denver and Boulder as Trail #2.  However, this park is really just a well designed city park around Kountze Lake in Lakewood, CO.  There is a paved trail and several dirty offshoots with varying sizes.  A combination of paths allow you to walk around the lake.  The various dirt trail widths allow for simple walks (narrow), walking your dogs (two-way), and riding your horse (wide).

 

On this day, the lake served as a respite for a bunch of geese as they head South for Winter.  Even though this is late Fall, the afternoon was warm and pleasant.  

My dog, Toebzilla, typically barks at everything.  However, on this nice afternoon, we passed by cackling children, several big dogs, geese and even horses (which he particularly hates when they show up on TV).  He didn't bark or even look as though he wanted to bark.  He was very interested in the horses and their smells, but he wasn't nervous by their presence. 

Much of the park's trail network runs through other areas, including a significant section that traces a nearby stream called Weir Gulch. 

The park is surrounded by homes and businesses, and this fact is obvious as you peruse around.  As mentioned above, this is a city park.  There are other trails in the Denver Metro Area that would be much closer to what one might call "trails".  I enjoyed walking here.  My dog also seemed at ease.  However, it's a bit of a stretch to call this a location for hiking.

One added word of caution about the name of the park.  The name of the park is Belmar Park.  However, the name of the neighborhood around the park is also called Belmar Park.  If you look this place up in your navigation app, make sure it's taking you to the park and not to the center of the neighborhood.

The patient's condition has been upgraded from animal to human! (Oct '14)

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVI8jLnlEFN/

Awesomeness, lobster dinner

Allie, her father and I enjoying lobster at New England Lobster Market & Eatery

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWPSYHTFZ6Z/

Totally Epic, with mustard and ketchup, kinda

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVa-Y0EF-fj/

Glazed and chocolate yeast doughs, double-chocolate cake donut, and an apple fritter

 

From original The Donut House in Aurora, Colorado

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVX9woJF3nZ/

Pastrami and mustard on French Roll with Ruffles and Coca Cola for lunch

 

I love pastrami sandwiches. The shown fountain drink cup is of such quality that I'm actually able to reuse it after multiple washings. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVX8opuldr2/

The purpose of this blog has changed a bit over the years

The purpose of this blog has changed a bit over the years since Feb 2002.  Early on, I was fascinated by the idea of having an online outlet.  At the beginning, there are literal log entries about what was actually going on in my daily life.  After while, I started covering news items and provided my opinions about stuff.  All the while, there was some self-reflection as well.  I also started a few other blogs that were more focused, including the exploration of alien life, poetry and even my car.  

All of these other blogs have since been retired.  I took postings from those and placed them on this blog.  All but the poetry blog have been deleted.  In fact, around the time I closed down those other blogs, my interest in maintaining a blog waned.  During some of the biggest changes in my life is when I posted the least. 

Then I started using Instagram.  All of a sudden, it was much easier to post about my daily life again, but in a much different way...in the form of images.  Instagram and IFTTT combined allowed me to post every IG image directly onto my blog automatically.  The number of posts increased 10 fold.  I prolly posted text based entries even less than before while I flooded my site with stylized photos.  This continued for several years until IG locked down its API...and then even a bit after that until my other methods of automatically uploading IG posts vanished.

I still post on IG frequently.  Now, to get IG photos on my blog, I actually have to manually add the posts with those photos.  This has actually caused me to post less frequently on IG.  Often, when I transfer the photos, I'll combine related images into a single post on this blog.

In addition to IG, I posted my review of scientific papers about the likelihood of life outside of Earth within our Galaxy.  These posts were very popular and still attract a lot of attention. However, my two most popular posts (that still top my list of activity for this blog)?  Beeper Codes and the related Pager Codes. There's a lot of nostalgia about these codes for some reason.

I'm not writing this post for contemporary consideration.  I absolutely know that this information will not interest anyone today.  But, this ties back to my first sentence above.  The current purpose of this blog, and the one that will stand for here and on?  A while back, I realized I have recorded a snapshot of almost the entire 21th Century to date.  If I keep this blog going (assuming Google continues to support Blogspot), this blog will represent almost the entirety of the first half of the 21th Century.  Nature allowing, I'll try to keep posting until 2052 for a full fifty years.  Although my life may not be very interesting to contemporaries, it may be more interesting as this Century becomes ancient history.  300 years from now, this blog may still be available in some manner within whatever form the Internet will take.  Maybe electronic archeologists will discover my musings buried in archives.  Or, if the world purges the old in such an electronic realm, then this blog or portions thereof may be discovered on some derelict server by dirt-digging archeologists of the 24th Century.  Either way, this is my experience for you.  Yup...you, Magnolia, et al. 

I know the likelihood of the images being kept intact with this blog for a long time are not great, given how Google and other services store them.  I know the likelihood that videos being kept intact are even slimmer.  Here's to hope that somehow forces beyond my control will allow most (all) of this blog to be preserved as a glimpse into the early years of the Information Age.

Insurrection is a good movie with a bad rap

A movie in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) theatrical series that often gets derided as being bad is Star Trek IX: Insurrection (STIX).  In my opinion, STIX is actually a very good movie.  The movie doesn't have anything egregiously wrong with the story, acting, setting, special effects or any thing else artistic or technical.  Of course, one could still knit-pick many things within the movie.  STIX is not perfect, but its also not in the same class of movies such as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier or even Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  It seems that STIX is disliked because its predecessor set a certain type of expectation for Star Trek movies.  That previous movie, Star Trek XII: First Contact, is an action movie.  Arguably, it is an excellent action movie.  

STIX is not First Contact II, which seems to miss the mark with fans of First Contact.  This has harmed STIX's reputation much more than any actual issues with quality.   Taken in isolation as a TNG adventure, STIX is actually very entertaining and more in line with the feel of the TNG TV series than any other TNG movies.  While First Contact is an excellent action movie, STIX is a good adventure movie.

Regarding the rest of the TNG movies, I feel that Star Trek XI: Generations is a jumbled mess that is a cross between Search for Spoke and The Motion Picture.  Additionally, Generations delves deep into space magic to unsuccessfully tie up massive plot holes.  Star Trek X: Nemesis is a movie that seems to shoehorn the TNG characters into a Star Trek: Deep Space 9 (DS9) story.  What I mean is that the story of Nemesis is darker, with more pew-pew.  It also has multiple unrelated or barely-related subplots that are better suited for a season of TV rather than a 2 hr movie.  Additionally, Nemesis seems to be written by writers who forget they could build upon already well-established Romulan lore from both TNG and DS9 for a much more cohesive and succinct story. Nemesis is a bad movie that has a good movie buried somewhere deep within it.  For more on this, see the video called The Amazing Star Trek: Nemesis Theory You've Never Heard Of.

tl;dr: Although STIX is often listed lower on many ranked Star Trek movie lists, or it's outright called "bad", I feel this is not deserved.  STIX is a good movie that got a bad rap because expectations set by First Contact.

Haunting version of Losing My Religion

Bellsaint has created a haunting version of Losing My Religion.  I don't think anyone can truly say this version is better than REM's original.  However, Bellsaint has taken a unique spin on this old classic which transcends the concept of "cover" to become its own brilliant song.  For me, I'll listen to the original REM song when I want the gritty and off-beat 1990's feel, and I'll listen to Bellsaints version when I want melodic and haunting experience.  This newer version by Bellsiant is distinct enough to allow one to listen to both versions back to back without any boredom or feeling of repletion.  I don't know much about Bellsaint's other releases, but I love this particular song, which is why I added it to my digital music collection.

Bellsaint's Losing My Religion 

Patents issued, so far

A while a go, I realized that there's events which I've added to Facebook but not my own blog.  Anyway, I'm going to add some of that now.  Here's a list of my issues patents so far. (Not included are international patents for the same inventions.)

Generation Of Section Views Cutting Lines With Automatic Constraints

United States 9,465,894

Issued October 11, 2016

Intuitive method to create section views on CAD drawings utilizing inferences and indicators at various locations to automatically generate and constrain the section view cutting plane.

Patent link

 

Creating a broken representation of a computer-aided design model

US Patent number: 9,870,436

Issued: Jan 16, 2018

Inventors: Matthew Lorono, Robert Siegel, Sachin Darwatkar, Rupesh Kumar

A computer-implemented method and system create computer-generated three-dimensional (3D) models in a broken state (broken view representation). To create a 3D model in a broken state, an area of the 3D model in an unbroken state is removed to create the 3D model in the broken state and a mapping between the 3D model in the unbroken state and the 3D model in a broken state is implemented to enable operations performed on the 3D model in the broken state to utilize data defining the 3D model in the unbroken state. The mapping maintains a relationship between data defining the 3D model in the unbroken state and data defining the 3D model in the broken state.

Patent link

Annotating Real-World Objects

US Patent number: 10,013,506

Issued: July 3, 2018

Inventors: Blake Reeves, Eric Hasan, Matthew Lorono

New patent has been issued for Blake Reeves (first-named inventor), Eric Hasan and myself. The basic concept is the ability within augmented reality environment to interact with a real-world object by using its 3D model counterpart. This allows the user to add annotations on-screen that appear attached to the real world object, but are based on the 3D model counterpart.

Patent link

 

Automatic Generation Of Dimension And Tolerance Information For Fastened Components

US Patent number: 11,163,916

Issued: Nov 2, 2021

Inventors: Todd Jarvinen, Clay Tornquist, Matthew Lorono

Given a source component with dimensions and tolerances, the dimensions and tolerances are automatically applied to mating entities of a target component such that fit is insured without interference when the both components are manufactured at worst case, or at the extremes of their tolerance zones.

Patent link

My first two design patents have been recently issued for ornamental design of the user interface for feature control frame fields within a computer-generated tool used to create and edit computer-generated representations of GD&T/GPS symbols.

US Design Patent number 1: D941,861 / Patent link

US Design Patent number 2: D943,619 / Patent link