Picking Up An Old Hobby..... D&D and Magic The Gathering Past and Present

A while back I decided I wanted to start playing, and collecting, Magic: The Gathering again after almost 17 years of not touching a deck, let alone buying a pack of cards. this was pretty much an impulse buy. I had bought the new Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition core books, luckily getting them with a $10.00 discount each, but still feeling a pain in my ass check where my wallet was on fire! $120.00 dollars, just for the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, and Monsters Manual, and if I hadn't have gotten a discount from the local shop. (thank you Moes at the intersection of Rt. 160 and Hw. 80 in Knott County, Ky)I eventually bought the box set for learning and teaching 5th Edition, and the DM Screen which was probably on of the best and most useful items, but still very overpriced compared to what the games USED TO cost. Yes, D&D was also me attempting to pick back up on an old hobby. Knowing what the 2nd Edition stuff cost, and working at Comic Universe my teenage years, also knowing the discount that TSR then Wizards gave on D&D merchandise, the price hike from $20.00 per core book and for most box sets, to the $50.00 per core book price is uncalled for and, to me, could limit the number of new players or players wanting to return to the game.
I don't know what the discount is NOW, but back in the 90's-early 00's, the discount was %50 on most TSR products! So when your local games shop owner gave you $5.00 off each book, reducing your core price from $60.00 to $45.00, you felt good, and they knew that if you became hooked, they would more than make up for that $15.00 with the first two Campaign or Adventure Box Sets you purchased. Everything after that, they where more than likely doubling their money on, and this enabled them to give heavy discounts and move large amounts of product while making the customer feel like they got a really good deal. The entry level money was not out of the range of the average teenager, especially if you worked like I did, and could purchase much of your gaming collection at cost or just above.
The cost of this new set only makes sense if the discount is still %50 for retailers. Then it reflects a company wanting to make 20 or 25 dollars per book as manufacturers. This would allow the retailer to still give a discount for even the newest materials, however it does make it much much harder to hook those players who are completely new to the tabletop RPG experience. If I had never played 2nd Edition and wanted to teach my daughter D&D I would never have paid such a high price per book for the newest version of a game where I can almost repeat every rule from 2nd Ed from memory after a decade of not even picking up a set of polyhedral dice. EVEN A BIGGER KICK IN THE NUTS! I have yet to put a group together to learn and begin playing 5th Edition..... Hopefully that will all change soon but that is another story.
So after buying the new D&D Edition, I started to think back to my days at Comic Universe and the good times I had playing, selling, trading, collecting, and deck building/testing my Magic: The Gathering cards back in the day. I had seen on Vice News a short documentary on the popularity of MTG now days, especially tournament play. It seamed that the hobby was bigger than ever, and at its core remained the game I had loved almost 2 decades ago. My first play at MTG with newer rules came from my PS3. 2014's Duels Of The Planeswalkers, it showed me the core of the game had remained like I thought, pretty much unchanged except for some new rules in the way of abilities that they didn't have years ago, and the renaming of some abilities over the years. This got me wanting to play the real game against a REAL PERSON again. So I went out and over the course of the next month or so I purchased a couple of pre-built decks, one of the Gift Box sets that Wizards produces now, several packs of cards, and a couple of boxes of commons/uncommons and lands for an extremely low price. I even found a pre-built deck from back when I played at a yard sale for just a couple dollars. I got The Swarm deck from the Tempest expansion in 1997 for a couple dollars and it was in like new shape. Obviously someone had bought it and never gotten to play it.
I am determined to teach my daughter to play, if only to have someone to play and collect with since nobody that lives close plays. I was surprised after my D&D experience with Wizards of the Coast pricing now days, that MTG pricing for packs and cards hadn't really went up all that much. A person could spend $20.00 and have two decks that were well balanced, and competitive against casual players.
Those last two words are important. As I looked more and more into MTG now days and tried to build a decent deck from my cards, I wondered about the local gaming scene and what it took to actually play in the tournaments that took place regularly at the bigger stores in Perry and Pike County. That's when I found out about WotC prime money making strategy, and how/why MTG prices where still fairly reasonable, while D&D prices had been jacked threw the roof. It comes down to the two products and how game play with each is different both in tournament and casual play.
D&D, as a game, could be played with nothing more purchased besides replacement dice for the ones you throw, and loss, after a bad roll with just the purchase of the core books and nothing else ever. If you had a good imagination, and didn't want to play pre-made adventures, all you purchased where those three books named earlier, and nothing more, ever. Which most players do pick up additional books, weather it be for rules enhancements, campaign settings, or a really really well constructed adventure module, the likes of which from the 80's and 90's names have become legendary among players. Even then, if a person didn't want to buy the books, but wanted the material anyway, piracy in the form of .PDF files is rampant across the internet and you can have every book WotC produces the same night they come out to scroll threw and play if you wanted. The DM need only have a laptop sitting in front of him instead of a stack of books.
MTG is completely different. The entry price is much lower, however, to remain competitive among more serious players, one almost has to buy the newest expansion. At least until the player has whatever cards they want to build the deck in your head. But where the real MUST BUY for the newer expansions comes in is from tournament play. To play in MTG tournaments now days, you have to have a deck built from only the latest core set, and or latest expansions. You can play "Unlimited" tournaments, but these are much more rare, few and far between. Even then, and I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure the word "Unlimited" is not completely true, the cards in your deck still have to be from the Magic expansions released since a certain date.
That, and the fact that you just can't pirate MTG cards, makes it a bottomless pit of a hobby if you actually do start playing it as a "hobby". A hobby, meaning something that you keep up with and play fairly frequently and competitively at least among your friends. It's easy to pick up a pack of cards for $4 or $5 bucks, and before you know it you've spent a couple hundred dollars, and look only to see ANOTHER new expansion has just been released and you are still searching for a choice few cards from the last one to complete your deck. Of course then you hear about the awesome new cards and reprints of rare cards from previous expansions coming out in the NEXT Expansion..... you start chasing the dragon.... literally.
And just like real drugs, MTG is addictive. I would sell anywhere from $100, to upwards of $300 dollars a day in high school of packs of Magic cards. This was every day. I had a separate locker for boxes of cards, and usually kept 2-4 different expansions on hand with the older packs selling for $5 or $6 dollars a pack. It was the best seller of any kind of collectable cards that I sold, and I sold everything from baseball, and basketball cards, to sets of cards put out by different comic book companies back in the day. I even had porno cards for the likely not to loss their virginity any time soon. (Keep in mind this was the late 90's when access to porn wasn't as readily available and most people who did have the internet only had 28.8 kbps modem, or if they had a high end comp. a 56k modem. So video was not easily streamed even if you could find it) When MTG outsells PORN to HS boys, you know it is hitting the reward center of the brain in some way, and if you have ever pulled a really rare, and expensive card from a random pack you KNOW it slams that reward center with a sledgehammer!
An example is a friend of mine bought a pack of 5th Edition cards from me one day. Back then core sets weren't re-released as often, and when they where there was always a few rares that were cycled in and out. One of those every player wanted in my day was the red powerhouse Shivan Dragon. It was, at the time, a BEAST of a card, that made your red deck a step above others if you could draw it. Most people didn't have the money to afford more than one, especially having to get it in a pack at random, and back then even hobby shops for the most part didn't deal in singles unless it was something extremely valuable like the Black Lotus and Mox(gemstone) cards from the earliest sets. SO one day when my friend bought a pack I reached in the box, handed him the un-open pack a few packs down from the top and just said in jest, "That's got a Shivan Dragon in it." Not thinking twice I turned to the next customer and asked what they wanted. The next thing I knew my friend started cussing in a "Holy shit!" way. It caught my attention as he turned around and held up his newest prized possession.....a mint Shivan Dragon. He immediately bought 3 more packs and everyone started asking me to pick their packs for them instead of them picking it out, which most liked to do just as a superstition. I sold out of 5th Edition that day, and sold the next two wax boxes I got at a record pace.
When I decided to get back into MTG I told myself, you are not going to get into this hobby like you used to. At most, I told myself, I would only buy a couple packs or pre-made decks from the new expansions when it struck me as being really worthwhile, or if I wanted to compete in a game night and needed a deck. I don't think I could ever collect to the point of actually being able to compete in the serious level of MTG play. I have other things to spend my money on that are more important, like any parent worth a damn will admit. If Madison started to pick up the hobby, certainly I would spend more, but until she does all I can afford is the few and far between deck, and impulse purchase pack of cards here and there. My point is that now that I have seen the two different strategies from WotC, the price hikes of D&D over the years make a little more sense. TSR was always in financial trouble, they where releasing new material ALL THE TIME, but much of it was not really high quality. They would release entire campaigns and support them with modules, box sets of lore, books of alternative and optional rules for every conceivable thing a persons imagination could wonder about. To get retailers to even hope to keep up they had to offer the huge discount, and players where inundated with shit they never would play. Who ever actually got a campaign of Red Steel, or Birthright off the ground?
During the days of 1st Ed. the adventure modules where pretty sparse as far as fleshing out the dungeons the presented. They expected players to use their imaginations to build upon the material they where provided with. That's why no two players ever had the same experience! Because the DM, even if he started with a well known module such as White Plume Mountain, or The Tomb Of Horrors, would all have their own style, and ways of making the material come to life. TSR however noticed that with a product this popular among cash strapped high school and college kids, that they couldn't raise the prices much. Since they couldn't raise the price of material, when 2nd Ed. came out and hit big, the strategy changed to releasing more and more campaign settings, which allowed for more adventures and accessory books to "flesh things out". Which is why it rubbed many 1st Ed AD&D players wrong and many refused to buy more than the core rules, or at most a box set for their favorite campaign setting such as Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft. They got the games, they weren't about filling up shelf space, they where about having an imaginative, fun, exciting, game nights with your buddies. If you had a good DM, they wouldn't need more than the campaign setting and then only if they wanted to run the setting something close to what the novels and such presented. So with the flood of shitty worlds and CD adventures hitting the shelf, players (CONSUMERS!) lost confidence. TSR lost money, and after awhile it got so desperate they where bought out by WotC. Over the next two editions Wizards had to learn just what a hole TSR had dug themselves into.
At first WotC thought simply issuing a new edition was enough. Of course along with the new edition came new versions of almost every book produced in 2nd edition that was worth buying. They killed some worlds but still produced far too much material. 4th edition was slightly less overwhelming as far as the sheer amount of stuff on the store shelf, but by then many players had quit, and new players where fewer and further between.
This is where the newest edition comes in and the price makes sense from a corporate level. They have to get new players, and entice old players to come back. So instead of half assing a new version of the game, and vomiting it all over the place, they worked on the rules, they refined the system to make it both refreshing and new, but familiar enough so older players weren't intimidated. They would not just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. This was all done, I hope, to regain the confidence of players in the quality of material they paid their hard earned money for. Books may cost more, but they were better, both in written quality, and material quality. The whole reason I purchased it myself was that I heard it was a return to form for all the players who used to play, and had said "Fuck this shit!" since 2nd Ed. So what at first seamed like a really bad idea, and something that would hinder new players coming along, I can see now that it is a must to keep the game alive in any form. If they couldn't charge enough to make it worth their time to write, print, advertise, and distribute, then D&D would die. Without flooding the market, or having a product like MTG where buying a pack of cards is relatively cheap, but something you will do over and over and over again, they had to make the entry price pretty high. You only buy rule books once, unlike chasing the newest high powered rare from each expansion that comes out, or just to keep a game like MTG new and exciting.
D&D is a more immersive experience, MTG is more strategic. Two different games, two different market strategies. While the barrier to entry is certainly higher than it used to be, if that means what is released is much better, and worth your money, then in the long run a player or DM, may only buy a couple books a year because they are given the tools to use their imaginations and build their own game world from the very start. I've even seen WotC release a lot more FREE material via their website. Including a crossover D&D/MTG setting, where the rules of D&D were expanded upon to bring the world in which the newest MTG expansions story is set in. It's almost a steampunk version of D&D, and they released it for free! Instead of being a teaser, or lower quality than the material produced for the retail market, it seams to be very well written and thought out.
Are they a gigantic company, who's goal is to make money? Sure. They seam to have finally understood the difference in the minds of people who play only tabletop RPG's, verses those that play CCG's. For those of us who want to play both, it can still be a expensive proposition, but its down to the individual to police themselves and only buy what they can afford. Now we can be a little more sure that what we do buy, as far as RPG material is concerned, will at the very least be useful and contribute to the DM's attempt to build his own world. With a pack of cards, your chances of finding cards you will find much use in is up in the air, while if you have looked at a D&D book prior to purchase at all, you know weather it is something you are going to use or not, and you can base your choice of what to buy on that.
It's very refreshing from the RPG viewpoint, and with all honesty more frustrating if your a person looking to start playing MTG. I can see their side of things however, and while I disagree with one from the consumer point of view, the other I agree with. It may cost me over double the price for a core book as it did 20 years ago, the game material in those books is a whole lot more useful and instead of keeping rules out, so they can print "The Complete Book Of (insert gaming term here), they give you everything you could possibly need to know to build or expand upon any world you could possibly want to build.

How I wrote what amounts to an essay this length about the different market strategies and my view point of the modern products, coming from a background two decades old, I'll never know. It is something I have thought about a lot since trying to get back into things. I miss the old days, but more than anything I think I miss the newness of playing these games all those years ago. I want Madi to have that experience, and her imagination to be blown like mine was. Maybe after I get to play some and eventually DM some, that creative side of me that would sit and build a game world all night long, drawing maps, writing lore, designing adventures will be sparked again. If that happens, no price is too high..... That's the whole reason I want Madi to learn, her imagination is already going full steam, to expand upon that could lead her to even greater heights. Completely priceless.
As for MTG I would want her to pick up that to learn the advantage of thinking strategically. Something that a ten year old just doesn't grasp or appreciate. Having her think along those lines could also lead to a big advantage in how she sees multiple aspects in her life. ALSO PRICELESS.....
So take what I have written to heart but make up your own mind. Before you buy the 3 core books of D&D, buy the Starter Set. Before you buy a wax box of MTG's newest expansion, buy a couple of pre-built decks. To play in tournaments is not something the casual player is going to be able to do anymore, but that doesn't stop you from playing with your friends, and holding amateur tournaments at your local game shop.

I've babbled on enough, if you agree with me, please feel free to comment. If you don't feel free to as well :) For all the people wondering about that cross platform WotC online D&D source book, here is the address http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/plane-shift-kaladesh I hope you like it and get some use out of it!

GAME ON MY FRIENDS!!!!

Jakob Nowell's LAW - Ebin Live 7-4-2016

NEW FICTION! The Witch Hunter!

This is just the start of what I hope can lead to a well constructed long story with a deep world, and deep characters. It is AN EXTREMELY ROUGH DRAFT! I have not even spell checked or looked it over at all for grammar, which i admit, is not my strong suit. So please just read this sample page, and give me some feedback if you think it could lead into a good story, or is it just trash, not fit for a 30's pulp magazine. Have fun and please write me on here, or on facebook, and tell me what you think. All feedback is appreciated and listened to seriously.


"She is not a witch." The Hunter said as he walked out of the door which lead to the basement that the "witch" was being held in.
"But she has the devils mark! She confessed!" Gurik shouted, following close behind Markus The Hunter.
"She has a mole and I'm certain she may be a cranky and apparently tough old bitch if she lasted as long as you say during your , interrogations. But after days of torture people will say anything. Everyone has a breaking point, all you did is find that poor old woman's. You sir, " Marcus turned quickly his cap whipping around and nearly slapping Gurik in the face. He looked down on the short Gurik. "You, are no witch hunter, you are either a fool, or depraved and enjoy hurting the defenseless. If I had the authority I would drag you to the gallows and not that one legged old woman that because of her cantancurus attitude, has been put threw hell. Or is it the money? Is that why you tortured a old woman for days? Because ," He stepped forward backing Gurik as his anger grew, "That is something I can I can take you in front of the Marquis for? I tell you this, you will either release that woman, and you, no other will pay her the reward you would have gotten if she had been a true witch. If you do not do this, and from this day forward treat that woman as an honored member of the community, I will come back here, and I will either press for the Marquis to throw you in Statehell prison in a cell so deep you will never see sunlight again, or, " He slowed his speech and said every word as if it where scripture "Or, I will, come back here, and I will see what your breaking point is, and remember this, I have the Kings privilege to do what you did not. You won't last a day. "
Gurik by this time was shaking all over, scared and humiliated, he was the town Magistrate after all and was given due respect by all. However the Hunter, was by the Kings decree, above all law in his search for the Howling Coven. Gurik knew that Amy , the 64 year old, one legged, widow and by all accounts a cranky old woman , was not a true witch and the towns leaders had all decided to get her to confess and take care of her as a problem in the community and put some gold in their pockets in the mean time. Now he would have to go to the other village leaders to put together the 500 gold that he had to pay the wretched Amy. Guriks life just went from fairly good, to really bad in less than 5 minutes. How did the Hunter know? How did he know she wasn't a witch after just a few minutes of watching her and only asking her two questions? Questions Gurik couldn't even hear as the Hunter had whispered them in Amy's ear.
Marcus was furious, another false lead and another woman beaten, sleep deprived, stripped and shaved by a bunch of other women who hated her anyway and enjoyed every minute of "looking" for the Devils Mark. If only he could tell them what he knows, and how he knows it, would they even believe him? Or would they decide he was a witch as well?



I hope you enjoyed it, I got the idea after watching a great series on netflix called Witches: A century Of Murder. I suggest it if you like documentaries as much as me, and if you like the slightly weirder things in life as much as me. It is a very intense show for what it is, and you really get a feel for what these poor women went threw. Anyway I am signing out, peace, love, happiness, forgiveness.... ANd yes I will do it all the way till the election, so please if you are a Republican, and you are thinking of voting for Trump, please please, look up the truth on the man, HILLARY IS CERTAINLY NOT PERFECT BUT SHE AT LEAST KNOWS HOW TO BE A POLITICIAN! This is what I don't think people get about the possibility of a Trump win.... the man can't even run his businesses without getting taken to court hundreds of times, filing for bankruptcy several times, and who has the demeanor of LBJ on METH! And remember what happened when a cunning businessman who has the manners of a pig last got in the white house..... We ended up in the Vietnam war and became a country divided. AND THAT MAN KNEW HOW TO BE A POLITICIAN!.... Now imagine someone with the demeanor of LBJ who doesn't know how to be a politician and what it takes to deal with other countries in a diplomatic way, who doesn't understand what he is doing, how he is doing it, he's a complete moron and does not know how to do this JOB! and we must remember, it is A JOB! Hillary does at least know how to deal with world leaders, how to stroke their egos when its needed or to be stern and straight forward when its the right time. Hillary is cunning, and smart, and while I don't agree with all of her policies, at least I agree with her continued existence. We can only hope Trump pops a blood vessel and falls over dead during a debate when he finally snaps and lets loose with the crazy fully turned on, instead of his horrible attempts to hide his crazy, stupid, uninformed and regressive views..... AHHH it just makes me almost manic when i write about it. Its one of those things that I don't know how I can SHOW YOU PEOPLE , that we are in a race where we HAVE to take the lesser of two evils. But the choice should be simple since one of the evils is stupid enough to to say the things and do the things Trump does and has done in the past. I mean if you believe his ex wife he had a botched hair transplant and because it was botched he came home and aped his wife very angrily for suggesting the plastic surgeon.
I just hope Canada our peaceful, semi socialist neighbors to the north will accept the mass of refuges, hoping for a home in any place not ran by Trump. Honestly, if he wins, I am trying to sell this property and my whole family will move up north and file for citizenship. This is a promise, because I REFUSE to live in a country that is stupid enough to elect that man, I put up with Bush TWICE, but I just can not handle Trump as our commander and chief. IMAGINE WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THEY TELL HIM WAR HELPS BUSINESS!!!!

Do You Feel Like I Do????

As we draw closer to the election, a few things I have to say openly come to my mind, and they make me sad. I AM a liberal, I AM a Democrat, and I have Socialist leanings. The good thing about 2016 is that a person can say the words Democratic Socialist and not be called a Communist, and targeted by everyone from the CIA to the local Sheriff as a Red Commi Bastard!
At least the world has grown enough to realize there is a difference in all these political systems.
What came to me, and made me sad this evening is the thought that, while I am a Democrat and I hope Hillary wins, it is not because I love Hilldawg, she's not Bernie Sanders, who I would back with all my heart. Right now I am more passionately AGAINST TRUMP, than I am for Hillary. Does that make sense to anyone. Hillary is fine, she's most certainly not my first pick, BUT compared to TRUMP, she is JFK, Thomas Jefferson, FDR, and Bill CLinton all rolled into one awesome presidential beast!
Its not that she is great, its that he is sooooo fucking horrible. I mean the man quoted Mussolini! Not exactly the kind of person you want to back as a leader of the free world. I will admit this however, the first time I ever heard the quote I heard it from Jimmy Page, and the quote is not a bad quote...... however POLITICALLY and said in a political meeting, the history of the quote outweighs the words themselves. The quot was something like " I'd rather live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb." Which coming from Jimmy Page in his Aleister Crowley phase during the 70's, it is fine.... He was probably on acid and people knew that, all he had to do in l;ife was make music, so quote whoever teh fuck you want just record Stairway To Heaven and have another hit.
It's all about context. Said by a musician in a drug haze while creating art in his home, those words are just inspiration for the art. However used in a political context, on a stage, as a candidate for the person who controls the entire USA those words have a completely different meaning.

Heres the problem..... While Trump says things that are truly terrifying as a liberal, my passion is focused AGAINST HIM and not FOR HER, however she gets my vote as part of the being SO PASSIONATELY AGAINST TRUMP!.... I wish she would say something tat blew me away, that made me love her the way we loved her husband. I was born in 82 and the two best presidents we have had are Clinton and Obama. As soon as the reigns get handed to a Republican the same thing happens each time. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and war is always on the table for some country. Not because we really need top, but because war s big business, and everyone is getting their share.
When Hillary gets in there she is gonna have a hell of a job.... She has to deal with both Russia and North Korea, BOTH OF WHICH HAVE COME OUT IN SUPPORT OF TRUMP!.... wonder why??? Its simple... MONEY.... they know Trump is not going to be worried about rights, liberty, genocides, land grabs, its all a deal to him.
Life is not a business deal.
PLEASE VOTE DEMOCRAT! HILLARY MAY NOT BE THE BEST BUT AT LEAST BILL WILL BE BEHIND HER, AND AT LEAST SHE ISN'T LOVED BY EVERY EVIL DICTATOR IN THE WORLD!

I'm really in a weird place right now, but no matter what happens in the election, I love everyone, and if Trump wins and I do move to Canada, I will document the move on here with pics and video. I CAN NOT and WILL NOT live in a country that is stupid nough to actually vote that creature called Trump in top the most powerful office in the world.

I'm Back.....

I am a manic depressive.... with all the stigmas and hell o iving that comes with it....... I don't talk about it to strangers much but i am going to make a video and open up more in depth soon

Sometimes I shut down, sometimes the mere thought of answering a phone is panic inducing. And the scariest part is ..... I just don't know why. I know I'm manic and that's why I am afraid but what is there to be afraid of.. A video will follow son as ai get a space made to shot against.

My OPINION! FUCK TRUMP PUT YOUR GLASSES ON PEOPLE

What those of us with our eyes open see in a Trump Campaign poster. IF YOU ARE SERIOUSLY FOR TRUMP, YOU EITHER DO NOT KNOW POLITICS AND HOW SERIOUS THIS COULD BE AND IN THAT CASE JUST VOTE HILLARY AT LEAST DEMOCRATS ARE RUNNING ON DECRIMINALIZATION OF POT! THOSE OF YOU WHO SUPPORT HIM BECAUSE YOU AGREE WITH HIS VIEWS ARE BIGOTED, SEXIST, FASCIST, IGNORANT PEOPLE. When will you learn DIFFERENT DOESN'T mean better. And before you start going off on Obama and how bad a job YOU THINK he has done..... besides the drones, and the policing of the people like you would police in almost a riot situation, however the numbers speak for themselves. Scroll down my pain page and eventually you will see a Bush ?Obama with statistics and the crucial numbers that bush obviously thought where symbols of the devil , and ran away crying in Cheneys lap..... hmm looks like that guy you hate for his race has done pretty damn good.
But a good man in a job, that lasts 8 years at most, is only allowed so much power. Those lifers in the system are the ones who really are doing these things we all hate. The police with helmets that looked like they came from the German side in ww2, or the carriers that make us think of old Terminator movies, where the cops where never the friends of the people.....
Gone are the days of sitting on the porch, eating a piece of water melon, now we don't even have chairs on the porch, to much of a chance they will get stole. and what happens if you call the cops, because its a nice set of chairs you paid a good bit for when you got your check a week ago from ,we'll say , nursing school .The cop is writing and then suddenly " Ohhh whats that smell, " and a thief goes free while you go to jail because they smell pot you may have smoked hours ago, after a day of saving peoples lives. You never smoked before or during work, only in the evening, and not every day, just whenever the stress of the day felt so strong the tears in your eyes couldn't be held back because of the things a nurse sees EVERY DAY. So whats better weed, or months, possibly a year or two, of going on and off dozens of meds till they find the right combination to make you a zombie.
Each pill having its own horrific side effect, some dangerous to you, your loved ones, even your patients, and no chemist can tell me they know what is made of the chemicals once they combine to make new compounds in someones stomach......... Marijuana needs to and will be legalized, and slowly we can take this country back....... Despair ....System....Despair

Hey we all have to start somewhere and at least being a Democrat is a great start, you can work on being as off the wall liberal as me later.

Words of Misto.... Words, Just words....

This post was sent to me by a rather mysterious friend of mine on Facebook . They didn't exactly ask me to post it as much as tell me to post it.... and I felt compelled to.... People always say think out of the box.... with Misto.... there never was a box to begin with...



In the woods,there is a tree

Who appears to be as old as me.

He never moves, he's always still.

Even when the wipperwills, come and porch on his branches.

But they quickly fly away only to return.


I love Misto's writing.... it reminds me of mine when it was good.... before I started to suck.... BUT Misto will forever be a mystery. You can know who someone is and still not know THEM.... and Misto is that person.... but weather her words are harsh , beautiful, absurd, , they are always ART and ART is precious and should forever be saved.

CH CH CH CHANGES!

My life has been so stagnated for so long with only this blog and facebook as my main means of interacting with the outside world that it lead to a stagnation here at home too.
Some people would think its weird but I sleep in my living room on the couch. There is a bed, and a pretty good sized room I could lay in at the other end of my 1981 single wide trailer. But I lay on the couch. WHY? You may ask....
Well I stay in my living room because everything important to me is in here. My computer, my TV, game systems and collection of games and random STUFF. All my journals, notebooks, poetry, everything is in here. PLUS in this hollow (A hollow, or holler, as we in Eastern Ky call it, is a road that follows a creek between two mountain ranges) ANYWAY in this holler there is a certain few people that are plain thieves.... I have caught them looking in my windows at 2 in the morning and chased them off my hill and told them i catch them on my hill I would kill them. Because nobody will scare my lil girl and mom and not pay. So I stayed in my living room to be able to hear or spot anyone trying to sneak around the property.

BUT THINGS GOTTA CHANGE... I am making this a home instead of just a place I sleep and work on my writing at. I am making that back room a game/relaxing room. The middle room will be a normal bedroom of course. It just needs the care bear paintings on the wall covered up lol.

I Have a full size table that I am going to set u in the back room just in case I can get a gaming group together. Unfortunately it will probably BYOC..... Bring Your Own Chair lol, because that's one thing I am lacking in.

ANYONE who would want to play Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, Call of Cthulhu, or Magic The Gathering.... hit me up... I never get to play anymore...
Thanks for just reading my post basically about nothing.... BUT its a big change for me... especially when you have issues about CHANGE...
I think that's why I made this post... to get my fear out by talking about it... Change scares a lot of us. But sometimes its what you really need to grow as a person.

With All the Ways We Have To Kill Each Other.... Why do Countries Sill Want "The Bomb"

The following post has graphic historic photos from World War 1. Please be warned.


Part 1 : The Beginning
Before the United State Civil War, man had not really had the capacity to take down the numbers of men that constitute a casualty count anything like that of modern war. The guns where primitive compared to today. Repeating rifles, Gatling Guns, portable cannon, even hand guns had moved on in the last 50-75 years from black powder, one shot, then a lengthy reload time, then you shot again and would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn because many of the bores where not rifled.
But the Civil War was a war of seeing how horrible old tactics went up against new technology. Cavalry charges, or infantry charges where mowed down by entrenched men with the early wonder weapons of their day. It was a horrendous war , which produced massive casualties for the size of the battles, and those Generals which did not learn lost Regiment and Regiment to stupid , set piece battle moves which no longer applied in a trench war. This was the first modern entrenched war, while the movement that did happen made the horror to come in less than 100 years later during WW1 would really begin the research in killing men , soldiers, civilians, it didn't matter, they where the enemy. These weapons laid the ground work for the MADNESS of the cast of greedy, misguided, patriotic, cold, single minded , all the good, and the bad qualities of man are on display in this long tale.
The war that really makes the end of the old ways of war, and made it clear civilians where fare game, and while the "good guys" on both ides showed propaganda videos of themselves giving cigarettes, or chocolates from their kit, we , on both sides first started using video as propaganda during WW1, and as such a new technology, it made a major difference. I doubt countries would endure the hardships now that those countries, France, Germany, Russia, England to a slightly lesser extent, although their shipping lanes where ravaged, and even luxury liners which are so well no known no need be mentioned of them here sunk thanks to German sub attacks.
We developed the flame thrower, it was the first real use of the TRUE machine gun , the Maxim guns or the equivalent of each country could cover large swaths of no mans land and made charging nothing more than orders to die by the enemy. You may go over the top. EVEN SURVIVE NO MANS LAND! But then you would be in the enemy trench fighting hand to hand, killing the enemy weather he be English, German, French, or any of the other dozens of peoples involved.
WW1 taught us what the power of fire power could e, but it needed to be mobile. A war of trenches is a war of attrition and that means massive losses of life on both sides.
So there was only one thing to do. Find better ways to kill more of your enemy, break the line, and get the war moving again. So both sides set to work doing this.

It is true that the Germans used real life threatening Chlorine Gas first, while the french had used tear gs, but the battles of Ypres have went down in the history of war as the first men to see what poison gas attacks look like have become the stuff of legend. Never before had men fought smoke. Other men, gun to gun then trench club to trench club, but this, this was dirty pool.
That was the Englishes view of this horrible new weapon in its news papers. Although with a very short period they had their own poison gas division. And the poisons would simply get worse and worse, and their deliver systems more and more sophisticated.
The planes had ,mainly been held to a recon use, however many dog fights did happen as the plains guarded large blimps meant to drop bombs on London. The weapons where essentially ineffective and would be much ore advance during the Blitz 30 years late. But I truly believe that our obsession with finding a way to kill more people more efficiently started in WW1. With of all people a small bi-speckled scientist named Fritz Haber. A Jewish man who had converted to Christianity he devoted himself to the a war effort and finding these gasses and ways put them to use on the field.
His wife, also a scientist and the first female ever to receive a degree in chemistry fro the prestigious school she attended hates his use, and what she saw as perversion of science. To Fritz he was known to have said " In peace time science belongs to the people but in war to the state."
After many months and an accident that killed one of her good friend. She killed herself with a pistol shot to the chest. No longer able to live with what her heart told her was a perversion for science. This may have upset him but it did not stop his research and soon he had Phosgene and Mustard Gas wreaking mayhem on the field.
The guns got bigger.... the bodies and mud mixed together to be cooked in the horrid rain. It was a war were 100 thousand dead in one day in one battle was not an uncommon thing. We were getting better at killing in large numbers. But he war that his war lead to, will really show man start to get on his killing game.

This Forest Needs To Be Clear Cut

A couple of years back I watched a documentary on Aokigahara Forest in Japan, widely known there as the Suicide Forest. It was only a little over 20 minutes long but it did leave you with a very heavy vibe. This is a forest where those who are so lonely, so depressed, so tired of the rat race that is Japan in the 21st Century, all go to contemplate and possibly commit suicide, or in many cases they simply go in knowing full well they going to go threw with it. Those who aren't sure often tie a ribbon , or a string, to a tree when they enter and in case they find some reason to live they will have a way out of the forest. Because this forest is BIG, dark, and very deep. Even going in for a hike one would either need a guide or stay on the designated trails and not go off in the untamed wilds at all.
This documentary was very powerful and I KNEW from the moment I saw it someone would make a horror movie about this. When I saw the previews for this movie, while knowing almost every movie based on something like this is just a cheap cash in, i felt like it had a chance with the right writer and director at the helm. Weeeeelll my hopes where certainly dashed all to hell and they weren't that high to begin with..... I never knew your hopes could be dashed below the bottom line, but its possible.... that's the movies one surprising thing in this whole films tools box.
OK the set up Sara is a twin, and she gets a call from Japan telling her that her sister has possibly committed suicide and is missing. Naturally she goes to Japan to find her sister because apparently twins have super powers and just KNOW when the other dies. Sara is adamant that she feels her sister and she is not dead, she must be lost in the Suicide Forest.
She meets a writer in the bar also interested the forest and who wants to do a story on her and the search for her sister. This writer Aiden, played by Taylor Kinney, is about as shallow as a puddle and only serves to add someone Sara's character can play off of as the Forest drives her crazy and makes her paranoid, finally convincing her that Aiden had something to do with Jess's death.
Cheap scares that fail to produce even the smallest of jumps or even a deep breath. There is one key point to the plot that is so insulting to the audience that I will only say this much about it.... they have Sara tell why Jess is depressed and has tried to commit suicide before. The story is told in a flashback that INTENDS to be a little of a mystery, because Sara never seen what Jess did and Jess never told her. When they show the rest of the flashback later in the movie, they must have truly thought the viewers had not figured out what happened.... Its confusing I KNOW but if you watch this abortion of a movie you will see what I mean. It insults the audience to use a twist so obvious from the very second you see the set up.
Anyway the biggest part of the movie happens in the forest after Aiden and Sara agree to spend the night in case Jess was lost, kinda stupid since people all over the forest have been in there with fires burning while they contemplate death and she hadn't been to any of them. Its really just a stupid premise, but it gets even more idiotic.
Sara sees a girl in Japanese school clothes and she eventually catches up with her, where upon the girl tells Sara not to trust Aiden. (Like we didn't see something like that coming) So from then on she is a bitch to Aiden in every single way, constantly accusing him of killing Jess etc. The plot is so simple from there I could write it on a business card ...
Forest drives Sara crazy, she tries and eventually kills Aiden, then she sees what really happened to her parents what Jess had seen and what Sara had thought was a car wreck caused by a drunk driver. The scene of her mother and father both dead in a murder suicide performed by her father. Which we already knew from the earlier story of Sara telling Aiden how her parents died in a car crash and Sara had seen it. In the scene she is running down stairs into a ROOM WITH CARPET... not a garage or a door that opens to the outside, its obviously the stairs that lead down to a basement wreck room. THEY EVEN MENTION AND PLAY TWO LOUD BOOMS THAT WHERE OBVIOUSLY SHOTGUN BLAST! But their twist is Sara learning this, and knowing why Jess has always been so depressed. I honestly checked out right there.... They have one good character in the entire movie, Yukiyashi Ozawa plays the Forest Director Michi who tries to speak common sense to Sara and who knows about the forest and how it can use a persons pain to cause them to go insane and do horrible things. There are many many little things that are never explained, the Japanese School girl, random scary old people, honestly the main characters have a back story that can be written on a napkin. I commend the actors for doing the best with what they where given, Taylor Kinney does his best to get threw the lines, and you can tell he is a competent actor and has a bright future. Natalie Dormer however.....ohhh god.... what can I say about her and her acting.... maybe horror just isn't her genre. I have seen that before, where actors who can play very well in drama, or comedy, just can't play in a horror film because they can not emote enough to portray fear, confusion, dismay, all the emotions that come with a good thriller. Her acting is just stiff and not once did I truly see her show the amount of fear and just plain terror that any normal person would in a forest full of fucking ghosts and even having halucinations which cause her to mutilate herself doesn't seam to effect her . I didn't know full frontal lobotomy patients where so easy to find now days but apparently they come in the form of a actress who's performance is so forgettable, and so plastic, I thought a talking barbie had been CGI installed threw half the movie.
Maybe it is not Natalie Dormers fault however because the script was certainly no masterpiece of dialogue. The writer, or shall I say writers, Ben Ketai, Sarah Cornwell, Nick Antosca, have used their talent to no doubt earn a quick buck and leave town before they notice how bad it really is..... Of course this could have been the case of one writer working a while, he/she gets canned, and another one comes in, and its always harder to finish another writers mystery. I am not sure of the process they used here.... If it was all three at once bouncing ideas off one another then MY GOD , someone should have shit canned all three and hired one of the boys from the mail room because he probably could have done better. IF .... and that's a big IF, its the other reason, a writer having to try and finish another writers work, then I can cut them a little slack. Its not like collaborative fiction where people work together, its being told here's 20 pages, finish the rest,and I can really feel sympathy for any writer in that situation.
BUT no matter who or how it was written, it still is one totally shit script. Its the type of script that if a big actor where signed on, they would have walked off the set first day and said "Fuck this I'd rather do a Fast and Furious sequel than this shit"
Unfortunately our cast here was not so influential. They struggle threw it, they try, but in the end, the movie is just a bomb..... not the bomb... a bomb.... as in it sucks, the effects are shitty, the story isn't even scary, its predictable, its a rip off of a 20 minute documentary that is way better than the 10 MILLION they spent on this turd.
The director Jason Zada, is the man who unleashed that horrible Elf Yourself app onto the world, and a far as I can see, his greatest contribution to society has been that Elf Yourself marketing campaign, then somehow that makes him eligible to take 10 million bucks, a actress from Game of Thrones, and what could have been a SUPERB supernatural thriller with a very real look at depression and the darkness that many of us carry in our hearts every day but fight to keep tings together for one reason or another.
I suffer from Manic Depression, dark mania at that, which means when I go manic I shit down, i don't want to talk or see anyone, i just felt like the idea of talking to anyone is almost panic attack inducing. With this kind of mania comes thoughts of suicide and I have thought about it very deeply. I have got my daughter however and I could never put her threw that. I will not be like my father was, I will always be here for my daughter, I may be having issues, but noting comes before her.
This movie could have really showed the pain of someone who is on tat edge, who feels like the world is caving in, the past, the present, and worst of all the future are all out of control, and the chances to stop this speeding train to suicide station are almost all gone...... Instead, its a standard ghost story, and not very good at that either. I tried to make this review as spoiler free as possible but some things had to be talked about to be understood in their review. In all honesty if you want to see a good film about The Suicide Forest of Japan, watch the Vice Documentary below. It is respectful, and true to the nature of Japanese culture, and their respect for the dead,its also haunting and hopeful at the same time. A combination hard to pull off.

TIME FOR THE SCORE! I give this film 3 stars out of a possible 10. And those three all go to the setting, and to the one actor who is partially believable, and who should have been a major part of the film but instead did his job as the token "Wise Japanese Dude" Yukiyahi Ozawa did a good job of really playing his character in a believable way, you KNOW he is right, you KNOW he has seen this forest swallow people up by the dozens, but like all the people who always try and warn the teens about to camp, the guy about to fish in the ocean, the man staying in the hotel for the winter, all the foreshadow men in the entire history of movies.... of course.... he is ignored. To me he was the one character I wanted to see more of, the rest was just filler and cheap jump scares. Stay far far away from this turd and watch the documentary below instead.



Thanks for reading this, the first of hopefully many movie reviews. Have you seen The Forest? leave a comment with what you think, was I wrong? To hard on the actors or the director..... i have to force my fingers to write director when your claim to fame is a fucking app that lets you put your face on a dancing elf.... WHY HOLLYWOOD WHY? Hell if that talent less ass can get 10 million to make that shit fest of a movie give me 5 and I will make something at least better than that!.... not five million 5 bucks lol Peace out my friends, and remember love one another, even if the other guy sucks! :)

True Friend, True Fighter , True Hero

UPDATE Tookie is going in soon to have the plate put in his head, which will help him feel more confident and normal, after that will be INTENSE physical therapy. PLEASE I MAY BE AGNOSTIC BUT IF YOU RE A BELIEVER I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF GOOD VIBES AND GOOD THOUGHTS SO SEND THEM TOOKIES WAY , WEATHER ITS PRAYER, MEDITATION, OR JUST GOOD OLD FASHION WISHING HIM WELL, KEEP TOOKIE IN YOUR HEARTS AND WE ALL HOPE FOR A SPEEDY RECOVERY WE LOVE YA PAL! JUST THINK NO MORE BLUE HELMET ! :)

Tookies Story


We see scenes of destruction all day on TV. drone strike here, a bombing there. But what if the tragedy is purely by chance. What if this life changing accident just HAPPENED. And suddenly , you are Humpty Dumpty. BUT FUCK THAT NURSERY SCHOOL BULLHIT! YOU WILL REBUILD YOURSELF YOU WILL MAKE IT!


This is the story told in short chapters of the tragic accident that befell one of my best friends. A man I had known since I was old enough to, see he is a few years older than me and back then the older cooler kids where never me , at least when I was young. No I got to know Alvin "Tookie" Jent when the comic book, and toy shop I was working at suddenly had pool tables and a different crowd than the normal nerds. Good enough by then the owner had ran the place into the ground. Nerds who came to buy the latest issue of Super Man didn't quite mesh with the loud rowdy crowd in the back playing at the two tables. I realized slowly the dream of a comic book store where over. BUT a new adventure had begun.
We knew each other casually of course. Hell we live in the same holler and this was years before Anky took us building fence and getting paid in typical Anky fashion..... late and light...... But those are other days. Our days playing pool is where I really met Tookie.
Over the next few years Tookie, Me, and Anky where always going somewhere , weather its arrowhead hunting in the plowed fields, or go down to the Devils Backbone..... a place so magnificent..... I only wish i had my camera then. We worked for Anky's fencing company ..... if you could call it that. We were the people you called when you couldn't afford anyone else...
we fished, although the fights he had to get to go where more epic than any fish we ever caught. Tookie always went...... usually to a torrent of screams, but hey cat fish await.
But Tookie loved one thing that damn near killed him and has put him on a long road to recovery.They had said he would be about the level of a two year old and he was basically gonna be a vegetable.
What was that thrill that caused him part of his life...... Speed..... and yes we love it, everyone has a road they know and can drive it FAST, and especially at night when you can see if somethings coming you fly. I did it right where he did, I hit 60, in a 96 Cavalier 2.2 on Mill Creek in the middle if the night. But as Tookie hit the stretch of the holler, the place where everyone lays it down, he had to have been going close to 50 when what would happen but a totally suicidal deer jumped in front of him. Causing a major crash, A crash that will change the life of one man. A man of many personal passions, A man with a 14 month old son who I thought...................would never really know his father. Fucking the deer didn't have to worry about his cheating wife anymore, in all seriousness...... a freak accident has change one mans life into a struggle to become his own elf again. and Tookie is damn near dead.




BUT HE MADE IT OUT OF THAT HOSPITAL BED. HE MAY HAVE ONE AT HOME BUT HE'S ONLY USING IT TO SLEEP IN BECAUSE OF THE STRAPS....
YES....I SAID STRAPS......
YOU SEE TOOKIE, WHILE HOME, AND ABLE TO TALK, RECOGNIZE PEOPLE, REMEMBER THINGS ITS A STORY THAT NEEDS TO BE IMMORTALIZED IN PICTURES AND SOON FILM. THE MAN I KNOW, TRULY KNOW AS TOOKIE IS IN THERE. I SEE IT WHEN WE TALK, AND I KNOW I AM THANKFUL HE'S ALIVE


But back to the straps, it seams that tookies life has turned into a life of straps. His head, his bed, his arm, because its been dislocating . The right side of his skull is gone about an inch deep as you can see in the pictures. LUCKILY it did not cause major damage to the parts of the brain that control your heart , breathing, memory , etc.

This is just the introduction to the Alvine "Tookie" Jent story. I am going to do a video soon and follow his life, and his plans for rehabilitation now that he is out. For someone they thought would be either a vegetable or reduced to a child like state, I am not jumping on the DR.'s for being wrong, with the brain, YOU NEVER KNOW....... a hit to the head can change peoples entire personalities. I'm not an atheist, I'm Agnostic, but if there is a "God" or whatever you want to call it, he took Tookie in his hands for those first few weeks and while he may have went threw hell, now theres nothing in life left to scare you really...... I thank whoever, what ever... YOU BIG THING THAT MAY OR MAY NOT BE THERE!..... THANK YOU IF YOU ARE! Because you saved the life of one of the best people ,one of the most kind hearted and charitable people I have ever known.

British Politics.... Best Reality SHow EVER!

Right Wings Getting Clipped, But Hey The Bird Can Still Walk , and Peck I Guess.


I am not a supporter of any Far Right group, I am in all forms a Liberal, a Socialist Democrat with some Indie leanings on certain issues. This group had their license taken away because they where stupid enough to not even pay a 25 Pound registration fee. That being said the British establishment has, and does try and silence any resistance to its views and policies, much like the American Gov. Voltaire said I might not agree with your views but I will fight tilll the death for your RIGHT to say them." (or something close to that lol) But ending on a serious note, I think the Far right are a bunch of Racist loonies who unfortunately also pull in the common folk because of their extreme NATIONALISM.... people WANT to believe their Country matters and has a stake in the world. Their right to run as a party was rightly taken down . :) (If you don't get that one you don't get this post anyway) But their right to express their views and vote for whoever believes as closely to those views as possible has not been infringed. Let them spout their bullshit eventually they will be like the KKK, a group that has a few followers but no real POWER , they can spout their crap. march all they want because the counter marchers are always twice the size, And as a just in case thought for here in America, if we do ever have a zombie attack at least we will have those gun toting rednecks cleaning up the mess like in Night of the Living Dead. ;)

http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/britain-first


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-national-party-removed-from-official-register-of-uk-political-parties-for-failing-to-submit-a6802621.html

What Should I Say? How do I say it? Help me!

I know I don't post enough and I am going to try and change that. My life has just been a mess as of late. What I wonder.....is if I should tell you my friends, the WHOLE story. If I did write it all, and tell you hwo I ended up in the condition I am now, how would I write it. Do I just start when things go all to hell in 2008 or so? Or do I go back..... tell how I was raised, of the Great Man who took the place of my father, how he tried to shape me, about the Evil Witch that served and my granny. Do I tel of how he used to keep me with him , doing the work he was doing, letting me help, showing me how things work, I never realized it at the time, but later my mind told me the truth. He wasn't just keeping me with him because i was wonderful company..... NO NO NO He was keeping me away from her. Because he KNEW how she was. She beat her children, one uncle of mine took a beating for eating a hotdog that a neighbor gave him while he was at a cookout. Papaw knew that with my hyper lil self I would get whipped and whipped A LOT.
He was right of course, he did his best but of course I came under the gaze of the Witch too. My legs where tiger striped at least a couple times a week, and the blood ran from me almost weekly.
My life has been a Comedy of Illusions.
And I do not know how to write such things. I find when I do I end up skipping around telling this story or that story out of order but relevant to the current point I would be making. What do you think??? SHOULD I DO IT. Dive in and start a series that will be my TRUE , one and only autobiography. Saved on a blog page, instead of paper and pen .....
I want to talk to you all ....... I want to tell my story. Even if nobody is listening.
Maybe I could do it as a webcast. If I had enough readers to send questions I could answer them on a video.
There are a lot of options, but mark this dear reader, I WILL tell my story. And you will see me for what I am . Simply A man. For all I have endured, If I died tomorrow, all I will be , is just another man. One of billions. BUT MAYBE, just maybe, my words will reach someone, ONE person, that's all, if I say something that helps one person I have done more in my life for that man than i can even do for myself. Living with Manic depression has made my life a ship going from rough to calm, clam to rough waters on an endless voyage. I can tell you stories of Doctors who didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground, one tried to even give me prozac......something HORRIBLE for manic depressions because its known to bring on manic states in bi polar people.
I just want to write....... but I know not what to put down. BUT I GUARANTEE THIS I will tell my story one way or another. and you will see how to create a monster. Not a great beast , tearing things down and killing all who pass by. No this is a hunchbacked, mongrel man of a servant, If you have ever played Dungeons and Dragons then you know what I mean. They are a group who are cursed with features from all over. They may have a lobster claw, a arm like an ogre, a head like a pig, legs small and bent backwards from some unknown beast. But all these pieces, all these opposing things make up one individual.
I take my life in that way because each period is so different than the last its adapt or die here. And the one thing I may be good at , I can adapt. I can live anywhere. And I have lived in some hard places. But would anyone even want to hear about it???
Ohhhhh how I wish I could get every person who has read my posts and tell them mystery in person. But I shall do it here. I will make many mad if they ever knew, but most of them do not read much so my worries aren't to high. Family secrets are a weird thing, they are usually horrible things that the family just white washes then tries to forget and hide. And I am going to tell those thing.
I may not be a popular man when I get done.




I don't feel that I will live to be an old man. Its just not in me to be elderly, so I will tell it all I suppose. I love you readers, and I hope you stick with me threw this convoluted story that in the end equals A MAN.

Until next time, stay true to yourself, and since I don't pray, feel free to pray for me. Heyit could never hurt, hedge your bets right???

PROJECT SALVAGED WINDOWS! Spread the word, and mess with MICROSOFT!

 This is a repost from my facebook with my address added at bottom. Please read if you have ever had to deal with the giant turd in the bunchbowl of life that is Microsoft.

Anybody that read my comments earlier on Facebook,  knows I AM EXTREMELY pissed at Microsoft and their greedy high handed tactics to ensure they HORDE! as much money as possible from every PC made............... I know I can't hurt their wallet, or their name................. but I have thought of something on a grass roots level I am going to add onto my blog in the coming week I am calling Project Salvaged Windows..... The idea is simple, a lot of people have old Windows XP, Vista, and all iterations of Windows disks along with the obsolete, or broken computers which they came installed on. Many of those computers came with the CD Key for the Windows disk as either a sticker on the computer tower, or on the envelope the CD/DVD came in. If you have one of these old disks and the alphanumeric key to unlock it, please send it to me, as I plan to collect, and redistribute these old disks and keys to people who may need them for one reason or another. Since their (Microsofts), argument was that since I wanted to install my legal copy onto more than one computer, even though it was my own copy, and the computer was a piece of junk I was able to cobble together enough for my 7 year old daughter to learn Windows basics, internet safety, and it provided her with a way to speak to her mother who lives in Ohio, to Microsoft........that was piracy. Even though I was not selling the OS, the computer, making money with the computer, or installing one legally purchased copy to a room full of my secret minions (haha but that's how Microsoft can be.... over the top to the point of hilariously greedy as a 90's Mike Myers movie villain.)   
     Thats where Project Salvaged Windows comes in. Well these disks are coming from computers which are no longer functional, and just like they are idiots for thinking they can stop the reselling of games, we will show them that they can not stop someone who wishes to gift their license over to another individual, so that they may get some use out of what Microsoft internally considers useless junk and a barrier to people who may have to buy the newest pile of garbage they wrapped in a nice clouds and rainbow colored box. 
     Will it hurt them, probably not much, but considering the abysmal sales of Windows 8, if we can stop even a small amount of people from buying the over priced piece of bloatware that the newest Win. OS has became, then I think we have done something good for the planet by reusing instead of trashing, and we have helped each other , and anyone involved in Project Salvaged Windows to keep a few less dollars from their pocket, and a good chunk of change in our own. PLEASE PASS THIS AROUND I WILL PASS THE ADDRESS TO WHICH ANYONE WHO WISHES TO CAN SEND THEIR CD AND KEY CODE TO THE ADDRESS AT THE END OF THIS MESSAGE. 

     And before anyone starts to worry and think I'm crazy............ no, I am just pissed that I couldn't even put a copy of a program I OWN, onto a computer I OWN, for my daughter..............who cried because she so looked forward to having her own working comp. I will never, buy a Microsoft product off the shelf ever again. And I beg with anyone else who is on the fence to find other avenues to buy what you need, without lining the pockets of a company who has more many than God.

PLEASE MAIL ANY WINDOWS DISK WITH THE PRODUCT KEY PLAINLY VISIBLE ON A PAPER OR ENCLOSED LETTER, ANY AND ALL MICROSOFT PRODUCTS WILL BE ACCEPTED AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN WORKING ORDER! Please include in your package a letter and signature stating you transfer the license of your product(s) to :

Michael R. Wallen
P.O. Box 176
Leburn, Ky 41831     
     
     Together, we may not make a dent, but if we can get this out there, and let enough people know, we can make a few people mad, or possibly appear foolish in the eyes of those who just never took the time to look before. THANK YOU ALL AGAIN! 

Lifes To Short

     I wonder if anyone would even care if I made mine shorter.............. I'm just so tired of struggling, of being let down, of being taken advantage of, or of showing others care, love, compassion, and sacrifice on my own behalf to help people who consider anything that would require effort on their part as just too much to do. I've been let down by the ones I love, betrayed and even physically attacked by people I have trusted, and all around gotten my ass kicked by God since birth. Before people get the wrong impression and try to have me committed, NO I am not attempting suicide. At least not in the physical since. However the old me is on death row. It has to be. He's too weak and empathetic, too caring of others and selfless. Michael is being cancelled. Stay tuned for further programming.
     Expect more posts, with a possible different vibe. To those who care, REALLY care...... I thank you, for everyone else, OH WELL!

Couple New Pics, Messing Around With B&W

Photogasm Episode 1

Mind Parachutes Part 1

 

     The wonderful, wild, world, of the web can be many many things, The two it is the most seam to be fascinating, and confusing, and sometimes in widely unequal parts. I watch so many Youtube videos of lectures given by researchers and authors ranging from the completely cracked and easily debunked by a first year archeology, history, science, or theology student. Not to say they aren't interesting to say the very least, and many of even the most outlandish have sprinkles of truth, and partial truths mixed in that can add a crucial piece to another puzzle one may be pondering.
     I love history, science in almost all its disciplines, theology and mythology, alternative and hidden history, which I truly believe much of has been hidden and repressed by such organizations as the Smithsonian and as a quick example their complete collecting, and hiding of the giant skeletons said to have been found all over America throughout its early histories and well up into the early to mid 1900's.
    To add to the problem of too much information in the form of modern conspiracy theory videos, documentaries, and sites devoted to this topic, or that topic,, and all regurgitating basically the same information over and over again. What I am trying to do, and will continue to add in future posts, are sites where you can download, or view online large amount of data that may be somewhat hard to find at a modern library.
     IN NO WAY am I saying all of these information sources are 100% reliable. I can say with certainty that they all provide some very very interesting and engaging materials. Some may be Youtube channels, others online databases full of out of print and hard to find books in text format. With the decline ine reliable photographic evidence because if the digital age we live in, I will probably not focus very much on anything visually oriented unless I find the sites reputation unusually reputable.
     I will try and give a short description of the site and its contents for each entry in this list which I hope to expand over time so that almost any topic one wants to find information on there is SOMETHING on TCY to help in your journey of discovery.

1. The Internet Sacred Text Archive : One of my new favorite sites! Over 350 different books in .txt format for ease of use. The books range from the classic of UFO culture Flying Saucers Are Real, to religious classics such as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. The Mahabharata, TONS of public domain, HARD TO FIND (many long out of print with copies going for big money to collectors) books on everything from the occult, Masonic secrets, UFO's., any theological, or esoteric subject, I assure you , you will find tons of information at your fingertips. While the files aren't large, being simple .txt files. The only download I can see is that the download is simply labelled with the titles initials. Which requires opening the file, copy, and pasting the proper title spelling and renaming each file. STILL the wealth of information makes it worth the trouble. A few broken links but of the 20 or so files I have downloaded I may have found 2 broken links. Sacred Text Archive HOMEPAGE http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm STRAIGHT TO THE DOWNLOADS! http://www.sacred-texts.com/download.htm


2. Where Did The Road Go Radio  : What to say about WDTRG?.... While I don't always agree with their point of view, how many people in this world do we ever fully 100% of the time agree with? What I do agree with is their wide variety of guests, on many many different topics and view points, sometimes directly opposite the hosts own. The conversation stays lively, but never goofy, or jokey to the point that your not being informed on the topic of the day. I very much enjoyed the Aleister Crowley historian interviews which helped show some of the other, oft forgotten facets of a very interesting and outlandishly mysterious man. YOUTUBE PAGE : http://www.youtube.com/user/WhereDidtheRoadGo?feature=watch


3. Joseph Farrell  : This is Josephs Youtube channel featuring his frequently updated show, New and view from the Nefarium. Josephs book credits are many, all very well researched, with many sources sited, always a plus. He specializes is Nazism, its secret survival and deep influence on our current state of affairs, as well as the geopolitical game being played out between the European Nations, North America, whatever else Henry Kissinger is plotting up ;) First check out his YOUTUBE PAGE : http://www.youtube.com/user/JosephFarrell1?feature=watch  Next check out one of his most interesting lectures. Most certainly not your typical UFO Conference presentation, as Joseph starts letting his timeline and data build, and the pieces which had to have painstakingly pieced together over much research in documents. Often hidden, almost all in German, or even Russian. But by the end of his presentation he may just have you second guessing your notions of technology which may right now............... be gathering dust in some dusty corner of a burried bunker along side all other technology deemed to disruptive to the status quote for public consumption. But may someday be useful  in building weapons of war. Check it out. Very historically informative. Dr. Joseph P. Farrell - The Nazi International IUFOC 2009 Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd_sUOvR2vY
Dr. Joseph P. Farrell - The Nazi International IUFOC 2009 Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15EuY98gCUk  I admit again, I don't believe everything ANYBODY says....... HOWEVER , further research of my own has proven that much of his information is factually, and historically correct. Hope to pick up some of his books some day if I can ever get out to a REAL book store.......... Kinda hard when you never leave the house taking care of family responsibilities. Maybe even some day get to watch Joseph live and get an autograph. But nody ever speaks in Eastern Ky....... I wonder wehat he would cost to get to speak at Alice Loyd. 


4. VerseByVerseBT :  this Youtube Channel could cause me a lot of trouble for posting. The guy definitely has a Christian stance in videos which deal with Christian and religious controversies. Apparently he was a devoted follower of the Sitchen "scam"........... LET'S FACE IT AS A GROUP SITCHEN WAS A SCAM ARTIST WITH A GREAT IMAGINATION. Ahhhhh don't you feel better now. Thats not to say his general theory isn't a possibility. Many other cultures have similar story of such things as heavenly bodies mating with mortal women, or the great flood (my view of which can be seen on my second video) But fact remains, TRUE ANCIENT LINGUISTS such as the brilliant Michael Heiser, have not only done the research to prove that Sitchen was a base novice at best , and a true fraud at worst in his ability to decrypt the ancient Sumerian Texts which where the foundation of his theory. Heiser had a truly revelation when re realized................. "HEY! All these texts are now online thanks to some dedicated archeologist and college teams. AND they aren't just translated, they can be searched for any and all appearances of a searched words or texts....." So he did just that. Finding that Sitchen truly had duped a public that , until the age of free knowledge over the web, faced an almost impossible task of learning, and finding these texts on their own...............short of earning a Dr. . Michael Heiser has just that, and MANY of his videos are featured, especially during the 3 hour plus "Ancient Aliens : Debunked" A documentary that while not refuting the meta, the spiritual, and religious, they do tackle with a fair amount of the physical evidence. Evidence held as cornerstones of the ancient astronauts theory. The main host, and his oft guest Heisergo about as in depth and scholarly in their debunkings as anyone could. But surprisingly, never denying their own belief , openness to UFO's and EBENS. Anyway, it may have been a long introduction but cutting out some of the more "Christiany Pieces" and you have a great set of videos. Here you go. YOUTUBE HOMEPAGE :  http://www.youtube.com/user/VerseByVerseBT Be sure to check out the links to Michael Heisers personal pages. Full of 100% Pure Pharma Grade KNOWLEDGE. 


5. Vice Magazine :  The last of this weeks sites with truth, news, and a complete brutal, uncompromising eye on the world. Be angered, shocked, depressed, giggly, horny, ever emotional both internal and spiritual, or physical and primal. ENJOY VICE HOMEPAGE :  http://www.vice.com/en_us

A TASTE of whats to come...... Welcome to Crazytown.

     Another video........ I know what your thinking, wow, that was a quick follow up. I PLAN (and we all know how WONDERFUL my plans usually work out) to post on a more frequent basis, and do a lot more videos. Just tell me what you want to talk about  and I'll talk about it. I would love friends to get together and talk and post videos of us just talking, debating, picking, fighting, laughing, or crying. The only thing that is a constant is I WANT TRUTH. I want people to see who we are when we let our guards down and really talk to one another, weather it be a spouse, close friend, family , whoever, the human condition is covered up way to much. So here's a look into the mind of a guy with "issues" a guy who gets UBER pissed because when people see you as crazy they automatically think your stupid. And the only thing I could ever be vain about is that I do not think I am stupid. Can I do calculus? Nope..... Could I sequence a genome? Nope.... BUT I can read, and I can process information and form an informed opinion on whatever the subject may be. We live in an area often stereotyped, and when your from this area, AND have "issues" , your basically FUCKED lol But yeah enjoy the madness..... I do.

     As always, like, hate, comment , I would love to hear your thoughts . I'm sure they will be quite interesting lol Please share with anyone you think is interested in these topics. I am working on a list of useful, good links about all these subjects with a real focus on trying to find FACTUAL information sources. Thanks ya'll.