This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video is a review and reaction to Ultimate Invasion #2 by Jonathan Hickman and Bryan Hitch. In this issue, the Maker starts remaking a new Marvel Universe. But in doing so, he invites serious blowback that requires him to seek help from an unexpected source. Enjoy!
Ultimate Invasion #2 Review: Making (And Breaking) A New Universe
Filed under Jack's World, Marvel, YouTube
An Important Message To The Winner Of The $1 Billion Powerball Jackpot (Or Any Lottery Winner)
On Wednesday, July 20, 2023, a very lucky individual in California found out they won the $1 billion jackpot. It is one of the largest lottery jackpot wins in US history. And whoever is the purchaser of that ticket, their life is about to change immensely. I know a lot of people dream about winning the lottery and what they would do if it ever happened. But for this individual, it’s no longer a fantasy.
Now, setting aside for a moment the collective envy we all feel for lottery winners, I do want to convey an important message to this and all future lottery winners. Please note that this message isn’t from me. It comes courtesy of a famous post on Reddit that is frequently re-visited every time the lottery jackpot gets very bit.
What it says and what it reveals isn’t just important for lottery winners and non-winners alike. It adds a critical perspective that supersedes any fanciful dreams about wealth and money. Enjoy.
Congratulations! You just won millions of dollars in the lottery! That’s great.
Now you’re fucked.
No really.
You are.
You’re fucked.
If you just want to skip the biographical tales of woe of some of the math-tax protagonists, skip on down to the next comment. To see what to do in the event you win the lottery.
You see, it’s something of an open secret that winners of obnoxiously large jackpots tend to end up badly with alarming regularity. Not the $1 million dollar winners. But anyone in the nine-figure range is at high risk. Eight-figures? Pretty likely to be screwed. Seven-figures? Yep. Painful. Perhaps this is a consequence of the sample. The demographics of lottery players might be exactly the wrong people to win large sums of money. Or perhaps money is the root of all evil. Either way, you are going to have to be careful. Don’t believe me? Consider this:
Large jackpot winners face double digit multiples of probability versus the general population to be the victim of:
- Homicide (something like 20x more likely)
- Drug overdose
- Bankruptcy (how’s that for irony?)
- Kidnapping
And triple digit multiples of probability versus the general population rate to be:
- Convicted of drunk driving
- The victim of Homicide (at the hands of a family member) 120x more likely in this case, ain’t love grand?
- A defendant in a civil lawsuit
- A defendant in felony criminal proceedings
Believe it or not, your biggest enemy if you suddenly become possessed of large sums of money is… you. At least you will have the consolation of meeting your fate by your own hand. But if you can’t manage it on your own, don’t worry. There are any number of willing participants ready to help you start your vicious downward spiral for you. Mind you, many of these will be “friends,” “friendly neighbors,” or “family.” Often, they won’t even have evil intentions. But, as I’m sure you know, that makes little difference in the end. Most aren’t evil. Most aren’t malicious. Some are. None are good for you.
Jack Whittaker, a Johnny Cash attired, West Virginia native, is the poster boy for the dangers of a lump sum award. In 2002 Mr. Whittaker (55 years old at the time) won what was, also at the time, the largest single award jackpot in U.S. history. $315 million. At the time, he planned to live as if nothing had changed, or so he said. He was remarkably modest and decent before the jackpot, and his ship sure came in, right? Wrong.
Mr. Whittaker became the subject of a number of personal challenges, escalating into personal tragedies, complicated by a number of legal troubles.
Whittaker wasn’t a typical lottery winner either. His net worth at the time of his winnings was in excess of $15 million, owing to his ownership of a successful contracting firm in West Virginia. His claim to want to live “as if nothing had changed” actually seemed plausible. He should have been well equipped for wealth. He was already quite wealthy, after all. By all accounts he was somewhat modest, low profile, generous and good natured. He should have coasted off into the sunset. Yeah. Not exactly.
Whittaker took the all-cash option, $170 million, instead of the annuity option, and took possession of $114 million in cash after $56 million in taxes. After that, things went south.
Whittaker quickly became the subject of a number of financial stalkers, who would lurk at his regular breakfast hideout and accost him with suggestions for how to spend his money. They were unemployed. No, an interview tomorrow morning wasn’t good enough. They needed cash NOW. Perhaps they had a sure-fire business plan. Their daughter had cancer. A niece needed dialysis. Needless to say, Whittaker stopped going to his breakfast haunt. Eventually, they began ringing his doorbell. Sometimes in the early morning. Before long he was paying off-duty deputies to protect his family. He was accused of being heartless. Cold. Stingy.
Letters poured in. Children with cancer. Diabetes. MS. You name it. He hired three people to sort the mail. A detective to filter out the false claims and the con men (and women) was retained.
Brenda, the clerk who had sold Whittaker the ticket, was a victim of collateral damage. Whittaker had written her a check for $44,000 and bought her house, but she was by no means a millionaire. Rumors that the state routinely paid the clerk who had sold the ticket 10% of the jackpot winnings hounded her. She was followed home from work. Threatened. Assaulted.
Whittaker’s car was twice broken into, by trusted acquaintances who watched him leave large amounts of cash in it. $500,000 and $200,000 were stolen in two separate instances. The thieves spiked Whittaker’s drink with prescription drugs in the first instance. The second incident was the handiwork of his granddaughter’s friends, who had been probing the girl for details on Whittaker’s cash for weeks.
Even Whittaker’s good-faith generosity was questioned. When he offered $10,000 to improve the city’s water park so that it was more handicap accessible, locals complained that he spent more money at the strip club. (Amusingly this was true).
Whittaker invested quite a bit in his own businesses, tripled the number of people his businesses employed (making him one of the larger employers in the area) and eventually had given away $14 million to charity through a foundation he set up for the purpose. This is, of course, what you are “supposed” to do. Set up a foundation. Be careful about your charity giving. It made no difference in the end.
To top it all off, Whittaker had been accused of ruining a number of marriages. His money made other men look inferior, they said, wherever he went in the small West Virginia town he called home. Resentment grew quickly. And festered. Whittaker paid four settlements related to this sort of claim. Yes, you read that right. Four.
His family and their immediate circle were quickly the victims of odds-defying numbers of overdoses, emergency room visits and even fatalities. His granddaughter, the eighteen year old “Brandi” (who Whittaker had been giving a $2100.00 per week allowance) was found dead after having been missing for several weeks. Her death was, apparently, from a drug overdose, but Whittaker suspected foul play. Her body had been wrapped in a tarp and hidden behind a rusted-out van. Her seventeen-year-old boyfriend had expired three months earlier in Whittaker’s vacation house, also from an overdose. Some of his friends had robbed the house after his overdose, stepping over his body to make their escape and then returning for more before stepping over his body again to leave. His parents sued for wrongful death claiming that Whittaker’s loose purse strings contributed to their son’s death. Amazingly, juries are prone to award damages in cases such as these. Whittaker settled. Again.
Even before the deaths, the local and state police had taken a special interest in Whittaker after his new-found fame. He was arrested for minor and less minor offenses many times after his winnings, despite having had a nearly spotless record before the award. Whittaker’s high profile couldn’t have helped him much in this regard.
In 18 months Whittaker had been cited for over 250 violations ranging from broken tail lights on every one of his five new cars, to improper display of renewal stickers. A lawsuit charging various police organizations with harassment went nowhere and Whittaker was hit with court costs instead.
Whittaker’s wife filed for divorce, and in the process froze a number of his assets and the accounts of his operating companies. Caesars in Atlantic City sued him for $1.5 million to cover bounced checks, caused by the asset freeze.
Today Whittaker is badly in debt, and bankruptcy looms large in his future.
But, hey, that’s just one example, right?
Wrong.
Nearly one third of multi-million-dollar jackpot winners eventually declare bankruptcy. Some end up worse. To give you just a taste of the possibilities, consider the fates of:
- Billie Bob Harrell, Jr.: $31 million. Texas, 1997. As of 1999: Committed suicide in the wake of incessant requests for money from friends and family. “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.
- William âBudâ Post: $16.2 million. Pennsylvania. 1988. In 1989: Brother hires a contract murderer to kill him and his sixth wife. Landlady sued for portion of the jackpot. Convicted of assault for firing a gun at a debt collector. Declared bankruptcy. Dead in 2006.
- Evelyn Adams: $5.4 million (won TWICE 1985, 1986). As of 2001: Poor and living in a trailer gave away and gambled most of her fortune.
- Suzanne Mullins: $4.2 million. Virginia. 1993. As of 2004: No assets left.
- Shefik Tallmadge: $6.7 million. Arizona. 1988. As of 2005: Declared bankruptcy.
- Thomas Strong: $3 million. Texas. 1993. As of 2006: Died in a shoot-out with police.
- Victoria Zell: $11 million. 2001. Minnesota. As of 2006: Broke. Serving seven year sentence for vehicular manslaughter.
- Karen Cohen: $1 million. Illinois. 1984. As of 2000: Filed for bankruptcy. As of 2006: Sentenced to 22 months for lying to federal bankruptcy court.
- Jeffrey Dampier: $20 million. Illinois. 1996. As of 2006: Kidnapped and murdered by own sister-in-law.
- Ed Gildein: $8.8 million. Texas. 1993. As of 2003: Dead. Wife saddled with his debts. As of 2005: Wife sued by her own daughter who claimed that she was taking money from a trust fund and squandering cash in Las Vegas.
- Willie Hurt: $3.1 million. Michigan. 1989. As of 1991: Addicted to cocaine. Divorced. Broke. Indicted for murder.
- Michael Klingebiel: $2 million. As of 1998 sued by own mother claiming he failed to share the jackpot with her.
- Janite Lee: $18 million. 1993. Missouri. As of 2001: Filed for bankruptcy with $700 in assets.
So, what the hell DO you do if you are unlucky enough to win the lottery?
This is the absolutely most important thing you can do right away: NOTHING.
Yes. Nothing.
DO NOT DECLARE YOURSELF THE WINNER yet.
Do NOT tell anyone. The urge is going to be nearly irresistible. Resist it. Trust me.
1. IMMEDIATELY retain an attorney.
Get a partner from a larger, NATIONAL firm. Don’t let them pawn off junior partners or associates on you. They might try, all law firms might, but insist instead that your lead be a partner who has been with the firm for a while. Do NOT use your local attorney. Yes, I mean your long-standing family attorney who did your mother’s will. Do not use the guy who fought your dry-cleaner bill. Do not use the guy you have trusted your entire life because of his long and faithful service to your family. In fact, do not use any firm that has any connection to family or friends or community. TRUST me. This is bad. You want someone who has never heard of you, any of your friends, or any member of your family. Go to the closest big city and walk into one of the national firms asking for one of the “Trust and Estates” partners you have previously looked up on http://www.martindale.com from one of the largest 50 firms in the United States which has an office near you. You can look up attorneys by practice area and firm on Martindale.
2. Decide to take the lump sum.
Most lotteries pay a really pathetic rate for the annuity. It usually hovers around 4.5% annual return or less, depending. It doesn’t take much to do better than this, and if you have the money already in cash, rather than leaving it in the hands of the state, you can pull from the capital whenever you like. If you take the annuity you won’t have access to that cash. That could be good. It could be bad. It’s probably bad unless you have a very addictive personality. If you need an allowance managed by the state, it is because you didn’t listen to point #1 above.
Why not let the state just handle it for you and give you your allowance?
Many state lotteries pay you your “allowance” (the annuity option) by buying U.S. treasury instruments and running the interest payments through their bureaucracy before sending it to you along with a hunk of the principal every month. You will not be beating inflation by much, if at all. There is no reason you couldn’t do this yourself, if a low single-digit return is acceptable to you.
You aren’t going to get even remotely the amount of the actual jackpot. Take our old friend Mr. Whittaker. Using Whittaker is a good model both because of the reminder of his ignominious decline, and the fact that his winning ticket was one of the larger ones on record. If his situation looks less than stellar to you, you might have a better perspective on how “large” your winnings aren’t. Whittaker’s “jackpot” was $315 million. He selected the lump-sum cash up-front option, which knocked off $145 million (or 46% of the total) leaving him with $170 million. That was then subject to withholding for taxes of $56 million (33%) leaving him with $114 million.
In general, you should expect to get about half of the original jackpot if you elect a lump sum (maybe better, it depends). After that, you should expect to lose around 33% of your already pruned figure to state and federal taxes. (Your mileage may vary, particularly if you live in a state with aggressive taxation schemes).
3. Decide right now, how much you plan to give to family and friends.
This really shouldn’t be more than 20% or so. Figure it out right now. Pick your number. Tell your lawyer. That’s it. Don’t change it. 20% of $114 million is $22.8 million. That leaves you with $91.2 million. DO NOT CONSULT WITH FAMILY when deciding how much to give to family. You are going to get advice that is badly tainted by conflict of interest, and if other family members find out that Aunt Flo was consulted and they weren’t you will never hear the end of it. Neither will Aunt Flo. This might later form the basis for an allegation that Aunt Flo unduly influenced you and a lawsuit might magically appear on this basis. No, I’m not kidding. I know of one circumstance (related to a business windfall, not a lottery) where the plaintiffs WON this case.
Do NOT give anyone cash. Ever. Period. Just don’t. Do not buy them houses. Do not buy them cars. Tell your attorney that you want to provide for your family, and that you want to set up a series of trusts for them that will total 20% of your after-tax winnings. Tell him you want the trust empowered to fund higher education, some help (not a total) purchase of their first home, some provision for weddings and the like, whatever. Do NOT put yourself in the position of handing out cash. Once you do, if you stop, you will be accused of being a heartless bastard (or bitch). Trust me. It won’t go well.
It will be easy to lose perspective. It is now the duty of your friends, family, relatives, hangers-on and their inner circle to skew your perspective, and they take this job quite seriously. Setting up a trust, a managed fund for your family that is in the double-digit millions is AMAZINGLY generous. You need never have trouble sleeping because you didn’t lend Uncle Jerry $20,000 in small denomination unmarked bills to start his chain of deep-fried peanut butter pancake restaurants. (“Deep’n ‘nutter Restaurants”) Your attorney will have a number of good ideas how to parse this wealth out without turning your siblings/spouse/children/grandchildren/cousins/waitresses into the latest Paris Hilton.
4. You will be encouraged to hire an investment manager. Considerable pressure will be applied. Don’t.
Investment managers charge fees, usually a percentage of assets. Consider this: If they charge 1% (which is low, I doubt you could find this deal, actually) they have to beat the market by 1% every year just to break even with a general market index fund. It is not worth it, and you don’t need the extra return or the extra risk. Go for the index fund instead if you must invest in stocks. This is a hard rule to follow. They will come recommended by friends. They will come recommended by family. They will be your second cousin on your mother’s side. Investment managers will sound smart. They will have lots of cool acronyms. They will have nice PowerPoint presentations. They might (MIGHT) pay for your shrimp cocktail lunch at TGI Friday’s while reminding you how poor their side of the family is. They live for this stuff.
You should smile, thank them for their time, and then tell them you will get back to them next week. Don’t sign ANYTHING. Don’t write it on a cocktail napkin (lottery lawsuit cases have been won and lost over drunkenly scrawled cocktail napkin addition and subtraction figures with lots of zeros on them). Never call them back. Trust me. You will thank me later. This tactic, smiling, thanking people for their time, and promising to get back to people, is going to have to become familiar. You will have to learn to say no gently, without saying the word “no.” It sounds underhanded. Sneaky. It is. And its part of your new survival strategy. I mean the word “survival” quite literally.
Get all this figured out BEFORE you claim your winnings. They aren’t going anywhere. Just relax.
5. If you elect to be more global about your paranoia, use between 20.00% and 33.00% of what you have not decided to commit to a family fund IMMEDIATELY to purchase a combination of longer-term U.S. treasuries (5 or 10 year are a good idea) and perhaps even another G7 treasury instrument. This is your safety net. You will be protected… from yourself.
You are going to be really tempted to start being a big investor. You are going to be convinced that you can double your money in Vegas with your awesome Roulette system/by funding your friend’s amazing idea to sell Lemming dung/buying land for oil drilling/by shorting the North Pole Ice market (global warming, you know). This all sounds tempting because “Even if I lose it all I still have $XX million left! Anyone could live on that comfortably for the rest of their life.” Yeah, except for 33% of everyone who won the lottery.
You’re not going to double your money, so cool it. Let me say that again. You’re not going to double your money, so cool it. Right now, you’ll get around 3.5% on the 10-year U.S. treasury. With $18.2 million (20% of $91.2 mil after your absurdly generous family gift) invested in those you will pull down $638,400 per year. If everything else blows up, you still have that, and you will be in the top 1% of income in the United States. So how about you not fuck with it. Eh? And that’s income that is damn safe. If we get to the point where the United States defaults on those instruments, we are in far worse shape than worrying about money.
If you are really paranoid, you might consider picking another G7 or otherwise mainstream country other than the U.S. according to where you want to live if the United States dissolves into anarchy or Britney Spears is elected to the United States Senate. Put some fraction in something like Swiss Government Bonds at 3%. If the Swiss stop paying on their government debt, well, then you know money really means nothing anywhere on the globe anymore. I’d study small field sustainable agriculture if you think this is a possibility. You might have to start feeding yourself.
6. That leaves, say, 80% of $91.2 million or $72.9 million.
Here is where things start to get less clear. Personally, I think you should dump half of this, or $36.4 million, into a boring S&P 500 index fund. Find something with low fees. You are going to be constantly tempted to retain “sophisticated” advisers who charge “nominal fees.” Don’t. Period. Even if you lose every other dime, you have $638,400 per year you didn’t have before that will keep coming in until the United States falls into chaos. Fuck advisers and their fees. Instead, drop your $36.4 million in the market in a low fee vehicle. Unless we have an unprecedented downturn the likes of which the United States has never seen, should return around 7.00% or so over the next 10 years. You should expect to touch not even a dime of this money for 10 or 15 or even 20 years. In 20 years $36.4 million could easily become $115 million.
7. So you have put a safety net in place.
You have provided for your family beyond your wildest dreams. And you still have $36.4 million in “cash.” You know you will be getting $638,400 per year unless the capital building is burning, you don’t ever need to give anyone you care about cash, since they are provided for generously and responsibly (and can’t blow it in Vegas) and you have a HUGE nest egg that is growing at market rates. (Given the recent dip, you’ll be buying in at great prices for the market). What now? Whatever you want. Go ahead and burn through $36.4 million in hookers and blow if you want. You’ve got more security than 99% of the country. A lot of it is in trusts so even if you are sued your family will live well, and progress across generations. If your lawyer is worth his salt (I bet he is) then you will be insulated from most lawsuits anyhow. Buy a nice house or two, make sure they aren’t stupid investments though. Go ahead and be an angel investor and fund some startups, but REFUSE to do it for anyone you know. (Friends and money, oil and water – Michael Corleone) Play. Have fun. You earned it by putting together the shoe sizes of your whole family on one ticket and winning the jackpot.
Filed under Current Events, psychology, real stories
The New “The Marvels” Trailer Is Here (And It’s Marvelous)!
It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited for a movie. But “Captain Marvel” remains one of my favorite movies and Ms. Marvel is one of my favorite characters from the comics. So, seeing them together in the same movie is just so perfect! This trailer, complete with a banging Beastie Boys soundtrack, delivers everything I could’ve hoped for and then some. Now, it’s just a matter of waiting until November to finally see it.
Filed under Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, movies, Ms. Marvel
Jack’s Comic Gems: Thanos Wins
This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This is video another addition to my “Jack’s Comic Gems” collection. And this gem is dark, in many ways.
In a story by Donnie Cates, we get a vision of the worst possible scenario for the distant future of the Marvel Universe. In that future, the Mad Titan, Thanos, that has unleashed such fear and dread…wins. But what does it mean for Thanos to finally mean? And what are the larger implications in the past, present, and future of the Marvel universe?
These are heavy questions that help make this gem as compelling as it is dark. Enjoy!
Filed under Jack's World, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, YouTube
A Brief Message/Warning To The Writers And Actors On Strike
Firstly, let me go on record saying that I fully support the WGA and SAG’s strike. I’ve said before that we should support them as they fight the very powerful, very well-funded Hollywood studios who profit from all their hard work.
The fact that both the actors and writers stand united in this strike for the first time since 1960 is promising. As I write this, pretty much every major movie production has shut down. The studios could only do so much without their writers, but they literally can’t do anything without their actors. That likely means highly-anticipated movies will be delayed, but it also means the people actually making those movies might actually enjoy some of the profits.
That shouldn’t be such a radical concept, but that’s where we are right now. You need only look at many of the recent testimonies to attest how poorly compensated some people are compensated.
However, this brings me to the second reason I’m making this. Because I’d like to offer what I feel is an important message to both the writers and the actors on strike right now. It happens to involve artificial intelligence, something I’ve written about before and something that happens to be a major concern for this strike.
There’s a lengthy list of issues associated with AI and how it may impact the entertainment industry at large. I’m not qualified to go over all the particulars. So, here’s a video I found that should help break it down.
With that out of the way, the first part of that message goes to the actors. Their concerns about AI might not be as significant as the writers, but I strongly believe they’re not showing enough concern. And even if they don’t understand the true impact of AI, I hope they at least heed this critical message.
Do NOT under any circumstances sign away your likeness, voice, and persona to any studio without retaining some measure of control and an appropriate structure for long-term compensation.
Seriously, I don’t care how big a star you are or how well-off you might be. Do not give any studio, large or small, the right to use your voice and likeness at the moment. The current laws are not at all equipped to protect against the never-ending efforts by studios to exploit the hell out of any star, franchise, or intellectual property.
This is not a popular novel, character, or fairy tale for which copyright laws were intended to protect. This is your name, identity, voice, and brand. Giving any studio complete or even partial control over that right now is akin to giving every hacker on the Dark Web your tax returns and credit reports for free.
I don’t know when or if the law will ever catch up to this. Right now, your best bet is to make sure your next union contract addresses this issue and ensures at least some level of control. Because I promise the technology to fully render someone in a way that’s indistinguishable from reality is coming within our lifetime. You need only look at the current state of deep-fakes to appreciate why this is the time to act.
The second part of my warning is to the writers. They are definitely more aware of how AI technology could affect their livelihood. They’ve all seen how products like ChatGPT can write a movie script in seconds. That’s not to say it writes those scripts particularly well. Most reasonable people can still tell when a piece of writing is generated by AI. And no skilled writer or studio executive will mistake an AI written script for the real deal at the moment.
But therein lies the issue that I’d like to highlight. So, to the WGA writers striking right now, please heed my words when I offer this important message.
Plan for the long term with respect to AI. Because it will get better over time. And at some point, it’ll be better than you at almost every writing task.
This is not a dire prediction. I’m not trying to be overly fatalistic, either. When I say plan for the long-term, I don’t just mean get a binding contract that gets everyone back to work for another decade or two. I’m saying the writers striking right now need to think much furthe ahead.
Right now, AI products like ChatGPT are a long way from replacing skilled writers, but not as long as most people think. I’ve heard a number of writers and influencers scoff at AI, saying it’s nothing more than autocorrect on steroids. Some even call it a script blender, which just takes a bunch of data from other writers and scrambles it like a blender until it produces something that just seems original.
If that’s what you’re thinking, then I strongly encourage you to find a better source of information on emerging technology. Because writing off the ability of ChatGPT to write scripts is like writing off the first iPhone because it just looks like an iPod with a call feature. You’re not seeing the forest from the trees.
The current AI programs we have right now are limited, clunky, and crude. They’re very much akin to the early models of the iPhone in that they are in the early stages of refinement. You could definitely make the case that early versions of ChatGPT were basically fancier versions of autocorrect blended with your standard virtual assistant.
However, the latest version of ChatGPT is much more capable in terms of scale and ability. To simply call it a more advanced version of autocorrect is like calling a motorcycle a more advanced version of a kids’ tricycle. And it will continue to improve. That is the only certainty we have at this point with AI technology.
That’s not to say it’ll become sentient and go full-blown Skynet on the human race. In fact, AI doesn’t even need to achieve human-level intelligence to be just as capable as any writer or producer. It just needs to be refined, capable, and developed to a point where it can “think” about entertainment on a level that’s better than any human being ever has or ever will.
That kind of AI might not be feasible now. It might not even be feasible this decade. But make no mistake, it will likely happen in your lifetime. And the studio executives you’re up against now would love nothing more than to see this technology perfected so that the process of creating hit shows and movies is as automated as a modern assembly line.
It doesn’t matter to them if it means putting you, the actors, or the many crews on movie sets out of work. It just matters that it turns a profit in the short and long term.
That means that when negotiating with the studios, it’s not enough to just think 10 years ahead. It’s not even enough to think 20 or 30 years ahead. This may very well be your first and only chance to get something in writing that ensures writers will have some stake in the creative process moving forward. And if you fail to achieve that now, then rest assure the studios will screw you over the nanosecond an AI can write scripts as good as you.
Don’t let that happen.
Don’t let the studios screw you like that.
Get something in writing that ensures or at least complicates those efforts as technology continues to change entertainment.
But if I have one final message to the actors and writers alike, It’s this.
You cannot stop AI from affecting your industry.
We’re past the point of no return on this. The genie is out of the bottle. Like smartphones and electricity, the technology can’t be uninvented. You’re not going to convince the studios to just ignore AI moving forward. That’s like trying to convince horse-and-buggy manufacturers to ignore cars.
One way or another, you’ll have to find a way to co-exist with AI. I don’t claim to know how this will manifest in terms of a contract or some sort of legal protection. I just know that in the history of any industry, fighting new technology is a losing battle.
We’re still with you.
We still want you to succeed.
Just don’t assume that the AI you’re concerned about now is anywhere near as disruptive as it’s going to be.
Filed under AI Art, Artificial Intelligence, Current Events, movies, technology, television
Fallen Friend: The Death Of Ms. Marvel #1 | Reaction, Spoilers, And (Uncanny) Speculation
This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video is a general reaction to the events of Fallen Friend: The Death of Ms. Marvel #1.
After the incredibly dumb events of Amazing Spider-Man #26, which resulted in the death of Ms. Marvel, this issue deals with the aftermath. And while there are certainly moments worth highlighting, there are also some hints and teases that have me making some distinctly uncanny speculating. Enjoy!
Also, I uploaded this video just a few hours before the news dropped from Entertainment Weekly about Iman Vellani writing “Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant.” So yes, I’m aware it hasn’t aged well already.
Filed under Jack's World, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ms. Marvel, X-men, YouTube
Why I’m Excited About Apple’s Vision Pro (But Won’t Buy One Just Yet)
Henry Ford did not invent the car, but he did create a model that made the car affordable, useful, and accessible to the masses. He was also despicable racist and bigot, but that’s neither here nor there.
Nintendo didn’t create the first gaming console, but they did create a model that made gaming fun, endearing, and accessible to the masses. Now, they’re so successful that they can make a billion dollar movie as a side-project.
I make this point because technology and the products created from it don’t always become successful by their creators. Sometimes, an advancement is just not adequately refined, poorly marketed, or just too ahead of its time. We can never truly know if some new technology is ready for the mainstream until we have the benefit of hindsight.
With all this in mind, I’m still comfortable saying with confidence that Apple’s recently announced Apple Vision Pro will be a game-changer on so many levels. And a decade from now, when I might be writing something like this while using one, we may see this announcement as important as the original iPhone.
I know that sounds like me buying into mindless tech hype, which is something I’ve been guilty of before. I freely admit that I am not qualified to judge what technology is overhyped and what will truly change the world. So, do not take me as an expert in that regard.
However, I’ve seen enough major technological changes and overhyped failures in my lifetime to see certain patterns. And with the Apple Vision Pro, I genuinely believe this will change how we see computers, virtual reality, augmented reality, and reality in general.
For one, this is not Elon Musk claiming that we would have a full self-driving car by 2017. This is a real, tangible product created by Apple, a company with a proven track record of disrupting major areas of the tech industry for decades.
Apple didn’t invent the personal computer, but they were among the first to create a user-friendly model for the masses in the 1980s.
Apple didn’t invent the smartphone or the MP3 player, but they created products that were so superior to the competition that they fundamentally changed the industry around them. If you need proof, just try finding a Tower Records in your area.
This is not a company that regularly to create strange, ambitious products that the public has never seen before. This is a company that sees what’s going on within an emerging industry, poaches the talented individuals working in that industry, and creates a product that goes onto dominate that industry in its own unique way.
You can certainly make the case that Apple’s tactics in this endeavor aren’t always ethical. They’re a multi-billion-dollar tech company. You don’t have to look hard to uncover some of their less savory practices.
But when it comes to producing a product that works better than anything that came before it, Apple is second to none. And I’ve been hoping for years that someone would find a way to perfect the many flaws in the virtual reality and augmented reality fields.
I may be dating myself here, but I remember years ago when Nintendo tried to create a VR gaming console called the Virtual Boy. I even tried it at a toy store a few times. I thought it was amazing, even though it was uncomfortable at times and gave me a headache. I genuinely hoped it was the start of a new trend.
But it didn’t happen.
Over the years, other companies tried to make better VR and AR hardware. I’ve used products like the Oculus Rift and the Playstation VR headset. They’re both good, but limited. They don’t do much other than run a few niche programs and games.
But Apple’s Vision Pro promises to do so much more. It won’t just run a few distinct programs. It won’t just be a novelty meant for a few specific tasks. In the demonstration Apple released, this product promises to integrate multiple features from multiple fields, from the stuff you’d usually do on a desktop to immersive gaming to watching 4K video content.
Even if you’re very skeptical about VR and AR technology, you can’t deny that’s a very different approach compared to others in the field. And you also can’t deny that Apple has a proven track record of making clunky technology work.
Watching this demonstration, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to watch a football game with this thing. I also imagined what it would be like to play a game like Skyrim, interact with friends and family, or just relax in my bed while enjoying beautiful scenery and music.
I want to try this thing.
I want it to succeed on the same level as the iPad and iPhone, two products that have been a huge influence over my everyday life.
However, I’ll also go on record as saying that I probably won’t buy this first model and not just because the price tag is $3,500. But my reason for that has little to do with my faith in the technology or Apple. This is just how I usually approach embracing new tech gadgets, in general.
I was not among those to buy an iPod or iPhone when it first came out. That’s because I prefer to wait until the early kinks and bugs are worked out. And even for Apple’s most successful product line, there was a refinement period. Just go back and look at the features of the original iPhone. It was pretty limited in many ways. It also had its share of growing pains.
But over time, with further investment and refinement, it became more polished. By the time the third generation came along, it was so polished and so well-developed that that the value was immense, despite the inflated price. When I finally bought my first iPhone, it worked so well that it felt like a massive upgrade by default.
That’s what I hope will occur with the Apple Vision Pro. It may take several years. But eventually, it’ll get to a point where the software, the hardware, and the experience are such that it’ll exceed any alternative, present or future. When that time comes, I will gladly buy in.
Yes, I realize I may still end up paying a hefty price for the experience.
But if that experience means watching the Super Bowl in an immersive, 4K experience or reading comics on a screen that feels like IMAX, then I say that’s a price worth paying.
Filed under futurism, technology
The Dragon Prince: Claudia’s Evolving Villainous Side (And The Implications)
This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video explores the villain’s journey of Claudia in “The Dragon Prince.”
It was an unexpected journey at first. In the early seasons, Claudia came off as outgoing, bubbly, and creative. She also demonstrated a strong love and loyalty to her father, as well as her kingdom.
But after the events of Season 4, it’s clear now that Claudia has fallen down a very dark path. And Season 5 promises to be even darker as she willingly plays into Aaravos’ plans. Just how villainous will Claudia become in that process? Only time will tell.
Filed under Jack's World, The Dragon Prince, YouTube
Sexy Short Story: Nameless Hookup
The following is a sexy short story inspired by a few stories I heard on Reddit from people about some of their random hookups. Enjoy!
Marianne Mason had been a good, upstanding woman for her entire youth. Being the oldest of five children in a prominent family, she set a high bar for her family and her community. That was what had been expected of her. In her small tight-knit community, her family held significant status.
Her father was a prominent businessman who was heavily involved in the local church.
Her mother was a teacher who also taught Sunday school.
Her aunt and uncle were very active in state politics, having managed multiple campaigns for some prominent conservative candidates.
This was Marianne’s world. And she was a byproduct of that world. She genuinely that that world was good, genuine, and honest. When her father said they lived by the morals she preached, she believed them.
Then, she learned the ugly truth. That was why she found herself in a crowded bar in a city 200 miles from her hometown at two in the morning.
“A true den of sin,” Marianne said upon entering. “It looks so…inviting.”
Her words would’ve horrified her just a few months ago. That was when she was still living in that world of lies, playing the part she’d been expected to play.
She had just graduated high school at the top of her class. She had just had a fairy tale wedding with Malcolm Grant, the son of a prominent church leader and aspiring conservative politician. Her parents basically set them up to be married in middle school. And she went along with it.
She didn’t know at the time that this was largely a power move by her father, hoping to establish a strong connection between her family and the Grants.
She didn’t know that her mother manipulated her principal at school to ensure they had classes together.
She also didn’t know that Malcolm Grant just happened to be a sex-crazed pervert who wanted to bed every woman he found marginally attractive.
“How could I have been that stupid?” Marianne asked herself.
That question had been echoing in her mind almost every day since she found out. Fittingly enough, it had been an accident. She had been planning her and Malcolm’s honeymoon with her mother. She had been using her own computer for the whole process. It just happened to look exactly like her mother’s, which she worked on constantly.
But one fateful morning, while sitting in the kitchen of her parents’ home, she accidentally opened her mother’s computer instead of hers. Whether by accident or negligence, her mother hadn’t locked it, nor had she minimized her browser.
That was when Marianne uncovered along string of email chains going back years. They included detailed conversations about what had been going on behind the scenes since she was in middle school and possibly before that. They all documented a level of deviance, hypocrisy, and lies that made her sick.
For one, her mother had been having multiple affairs – and with both men and women, no less. She was bisexual, despite being a prominent member of an anti-LGBTQ+ parents group.
Her father was just as unfaithful. He had no fewer than three memberships to prominent dating sites. And he had been sleeping with multiple women, including a few other married women within the community. There were even graphic photos of him and some of the women, revealing that her mother clearly knew. And she clearly didn’t care.
It quickly became clear that her parents marriage was not built on love, faith, and devotion. It was just a business arrangement. That alone was heartbreaking. It was what she learned about the rest of her community that made her sick.
“Preach high morals by day…live immoral lives every night,” Marianne said as she navigated the crowded bar. “Hypocrisy at its finest!”
The vitriol in her words did not do justice to her disgust. It was hard for any words to match her revulsion to the rest of what she discovered.
It included detailed records of how they’d covered up her finace’s decadence, which included sleeping with underaged girls and multiple charges of date rape that they somehow got thrown out. Suddenly, all those past moments when Malcolm attempted to kiss her and feel up her skirt made a lot more sense.
It convinced her that her promise to remain a virgin until her wedding night had been a stupid promise from the beginning. It also convinced her to file for divorce that same day. But if that weren’t bad enough, another series of emails and pictures showed how the rest of her community lived the values they preached.
By the time Marianne went through the whole thing, she realized just how many lies she had bought into. Hell, she had a hard time finding just one family in their community that didn’t have some sort of secret sex scandal, drug problem, or dark secret. She felt like a true fool for buying into the lies. That led her to make what felt like the first honest decisions she’d ever made.
She packed her bags and left Malcolm with little notice. She quit her summer job at the church and withdrew her application from the prominent private school she’d planned to attend in the fall. She also left a scathing note for her parents, along with a warning about password protecting their computer. Then, after making copies of certain files, she left town for the nearest city.
She still planned to file for divorce. She also planned to expose her family and her community for the hypocrites they were. But first, she was going to do something that would forever sever ties with the lies she’d bought into.
“Tonight, I’m going to get laid,” Marianne said to herself in the mirror less than an hour ago. “Tonight, I’m going to hookup with a guy. We’re going to have lewd, immoral sex. And I’m going to enjoy it!”
She sounded like a completely different woman when those words left her mouth. She looked like a different woman too, having dressed in the skimpiest, sluttiest attire she could find on sale at a local store. This was the kind of immodest attire she used to protest against in high school. She would flat out scold women who even thought about wearing such clothes.
Now, here she was, strutting through a crowded bar, showing off her legs, cleavage, and mid-drift like a common harlot. Nobody ever would’ve suspected that she was once the soft-spoken, upstanding daughter of a prominent family who had only ever had sex with her husband after their wedding.
But nobody needed to know those details. Marianne wanted every man in this bar to think she was just another skank looking to spread her legs for any guy interested in a hook-up. Naturally, it didn’t take long for some young guy with long greasy hair, a dirty shirt from a local college, and over-worn jeans to hit on her.
“Hey there, sexy!” he’d greeted her. “Why haven’t I seen you here before? And when can I see you somewhere else more private?”
It was not the smoothest pick-up line a man could’ve used. The man clearly showed his age. He couldn’t have been more than a few years out of high school. No man over the age of 27 was that immature when greeting a woman.
Most woman might have rolled their eyes and told him off. Instead, Marianne locked in on him and decided that this was the man she would hook up with tonight.
“How about this?” she replied. “You buy me one drink. Then, we go to my motel room across the street. That private enough for you?”
The guy’s face lit up like he’d just won the lottery. Chances are he’d tried lines like that before and hadn’t had much success. Being young and horny, he hadn’t refined his approach. But that didn’t matter to Marianne. Being young and horny was enough.
He agreed to buy her a drink. But before they started chatting, she made one thing clear.
“Don’t tell me your name. I don’t want to know your name. And I don’t want you to know mine. Follow that rule and your dick will thank you.”
Again, the man’s face lit up. He truly was at a loss. But thankfully, he didn’t second-guess it. He just grinned like a goofy guy bent on listening to his dick and went along. Before she knew it, their drinks were done and they were off to her motel room.
“I’m really doing this,” Marianne said under her breath. “I’m about sleep with a man I just met…whose name I don’t know…and I don’t even want to know.”
It was so wrong, immoral, seedy, and crude. But that was exactly what made it so exciting. Marianne had been told all her life to avoid this kind of behavior. She’d even shamed and shunned others who did it. Now, she was entering a motel room with an unnamed man, flirtatiously clinging to his arm and pawing at his chest. And he was blatantly feeling up her skirt to crudely fondle her butt. She used to scold Malcolm for it. This time, she gladly let him do it.
Months ago, this sort of thing would’ve disgusted her. Now, it was actually turning her on. That was unexpected. She even felt it between her thighs, a strong heat building up within her loins. She didn’t remember being this horny on her wedding night. Then again, that had been a formality. She just did what she thought a bride was supposed to do – not what she wanted to do.
That convinced her that this was going to be different.
“Don’t talk. Don’t overthink. Just fuck me!” she said to the man. “Fuck me like the horny slut I am!”
Again, Marianne couldn’t believe she’d said such crude words. And yet, they felt so right. Hearing it in her own voice even turned her on a bit more. And the man certainly didn’t complain.
“Well, if that’s what you want…” the man said before trailing off.
The man kept grinning like a horny idiot as they shed their clothes. They were not gentle, romantic, or affectionate. One minute, they were just pawing each other’s bodies like hungry animals in heat. The next, they were completely naked – his hands all over her breasts, butt, and thighs – and lying on the motel bed. It was a far cry from the nice, clean bed at the bed and breakfast when she lost her virginity on her wedding night. But that only encouragd Marianne to make this better.
“Do me! Do me, you horny bastard!” she said intently.
Like a reflex, the nameless man obliged. Without a hint of affection, faked or real, he got on top of her, pushed her legs apart, and aligned his pelvis with hers. And with a simple, crude thrust of his hips, he entered her – his erect, rigid penis slithering into her vagina in an act of blind lust.
In that moment, Marianne’s eyes widened with a mix of discomfort and excitement. She hadn’t had sex too many times after she got married. She hadn’t even pleasured herself, having bought into her pastor’s lessons about the sins of masturbation. But that same pastor got arrested three years ago for receiving oral sex from an underaged boy. That told her all she needed to know about such lessons.
By casting them aside, the act already felt different. Whereas her nervousness caused discomfort during her wedding night, the initial sensations of penetration quickly gave way to a new pleasure.
“That…feels good. It feels…really good,” she said under her breath.
The feeling evolved quickly as their naked bodies started moving. Her nameless hook-up didn’t bother with finesse or technique. He just started humping and thrusting, using her for blind lust as much as she was using him.
“Damn!” the man grunted on. “You’re so hot and tight!”
If only he knew that this was her first time being so reckless with sex, freely and openly embracing her lust.
If only he knew he was only the second man she’d ever slept with, the first being a liar and a fraud who only went through the motions when it came to pleasing his wife.
That was still Marianne’s secret to keep. And as the sex unfolded, the true breadth of this new feeling took hold. Once she let go of any notion of propriety and traditional morals, it didn’t just feel good. It felt exhilerating.
“Yes! Ohhh yes! That’s it! That’s what I want” Marianne proclaimed with such glee.
What unfolded next was an overdue venting of lust, desire, and pent-up frustration. She wrapped her legs around his waist, raked her nails down his back, and licked around his ear as they humped, grinded, and undulated to every bit of exertion. The man winced a few times, but did not complain. He even seemed to like having his earlobe nibbled. That proved quite effective at motivating him.
As their sex played out, their movements got more chaotic. Unlike her wedding night, Marianne didn’t restrict herself to the missionary position – the only position deemed proper for sex by her community. They rolled around on the bed, ruffling the sheets and going at it in a variety of ways. She quickly discovered she liked being on all fours while being fucked from behind. The feeling of her breasts swaying while his balls slapped against her pelvis – that just did something to her that made her squeal in delight.
She also enjoyed being on top. She enjoyed riding a man’s cock, making her breasts bounce while he looked up at her in awe. It was goofy, immature awe. But Marianne still appreciated it, offering a flirty smile that got him thrusting a bit harder along the way.
Along the way, the sensations and feeling escalated. Small shivers of pleasure built up inside her, like ripples reinforcing one another with each sensual motion. She had felt this too on her wedding night, but only to a point. By the time she was on top, she had long since passed that point behind.
The end result was a powerful, hot, and incredibly satisfying orgasm. And that pleasure – that rush of heat that washed over her, causing her to close her eyes and cry out in delight – was a revelation.
“This is it…a real orgasm. This is how sex…good, satisfying sex…is supposed to feel. This…is what they tried to deny me.”
That profound feeling gave more weight to this random hookup than Marianne ever could’ve imagined. She wished she could’ve seen the look on her face – her O-Face, as it was called. She probably looked ridiculous, as though she had just discovered the joy of orgasms by accident. Perhaps that was fitting. It seemed oddly poetic, given what led her to this point.
Her climax left her in such a daze that she went on a sexual autopilot while the rest of the decadent act played out. Somehow, the final position ended with her on her back again, her legs hitched over the man’s shoulders while he thrust into her with extra fervor to get himself to the brink.
“Getting…real…close!” he grunted, his face tensing in anticipation.
When he reached his peak, it was somewhat chaotic. Just before he climaxed, he withdrew his cock from her vagina and aimed his throbbing member at her chest. Then, with a deep, satisfied grunt, he released his seminal fluid all over her breasts.
Marianne was a bit surprised at first and not just because pulling out was another one of those acts her pastor deemed immoral. The man shot out an impressive volume of fluid – thin ropes of cum splattering over her breasts, some of which reached her face. It was neither romantic nor intimate, but the sheer joy on the man’ face made it satisfying. She must have been possessed by some new spirit of debauchery because she ended up licking some of the fluid up with her tongue.
“Mmm…salty,” she found herself saying.
A strange sense of calm and contentment came over them afterward. The man whose name she refused to know let out a satisfied sigh and collapsed on the bed next to her. He didn’t even attempt to cuddle or embrace her. He saw her as just a meaningless fling and so did she. And as Marianne lay next to him – naked, disheveled, and reeking of sex – a new perspective came over her.
“No more lies. No more hypocrisy. No more fake morals, unnecessary restraint, and false piety. I had a meaningless hook-up and liked it. I had sex and enjoyed it. Moving forward, I build my own life. And I’ll make damn sure it’s satisfying!”
Filed under Sexy Short Story
