To the Death...

As Americans, we have a reputation.
It's not a very nice one, it's sometimes something we probs should be ashamed of.  But I didn't contribute to it and I can't change it.
The best I can do is accept it for what it is you know.
When the world sees another crazed American with guns shooting and killing, they think "ah, those stupid Americans again" eh.
I can't blame 'em for assuming, it's usually a pretty safe assumption.

When or if, knowledge comes to light that it was a foreign attack, an act of terrorism, someone else's "crazed bad guys", I don't expect an apology for the implications that everything was our own stupid faults (again).
I can't defend my country or it's idiots at all, I won't even try and that's quite a statement from a guy that honestly enjoys challenging himself at every opportunity.
To jump on the other side of the fence feels so much easier but it's not very positive huh...
Yes Americans are stupid, lazy, violent, primitive.  Yes there is a large population of people that probs belong in a mental hospital of one type or another.
Yes, we have some bad guys that we can't seem to fight.
But then, other places in the world have those too right, "bad" guys..?

And if we're in the discussion that it is "the bad guys" versus "us", could we study the issues a little further if we tried..?
Challenge accepted.

Brush aside the religious aspect for a moment, nutters are going to be nutters.
Push the wealth perspective out too, yes some people will always be the haves and some the have nots, I get it, it sucks (I happen to be one of the have nots...)
Cross of the mental handicaps, some people are just broken that way it seems (I could blame some parents here but humans are, after all, only human...)
Eliminate the "everything" until we get to the real roots of the junk.  There are people with weapons and they want to hurt others.

These are people who have fought and killed their entire lives.  Think about that for a second.
Children who watch adults beat and rape each other on the side of the road while walking to fetch water from a dirty river.
Children who are forced into combat as soldiers.
Children who grow up with only an estranged god on their side and if somehow they do survive, they are anger filled puppets with no real knowledge of an alternative.
This is their life.  Fight and kill or be killed where you stand.
It is a war and believe it or not, we are already included by default.

A bad person (a truly sad person) has a weapon and wants to hurt you, your family members, your loved ones.
These people break every rule or law in their path, to achieve their objectives.  They will not stop until they are dead or imprisoned (and even then, they'll work really hard to break out and fight some more).

So you want to protect yourself and the ones you care about.  You might not want to fight back, but a solid defense is definitely desirable huh.
And you want to protect yourself with, brace for it, here it comes and it's gonna be a biggie...
More rules and laws.

You want to fight the bad guys, the people who already ignore every law and rule (rule number one:  Don't kill your fellow humans!)
With more "regulation" and laws..?

As my British friend recently pointed out, our government has a history of making laws regardless of what it's people want.
We thought at one time that alcohol was bad, we made a law and you know what happened?
People wanted their alcohol and they got it anyway, they ignored the rules (some even carved their own little empires out of prohibition...)
So after realizing our mistake, we changed the law to allow alcohol to be "legal" again.
We also tried (and are still trying) to outlaw drugs of all types and kinds and you know, that one's still not working very well.  Our people still get what they want don't they.

And really, when a population wants to break the law and the government wants to force them, what happens?  Our prisons fill to the bursting point and "somebody" has to concede.
Remember that reputation of Americans again, well we seem to have a big problem conceding "anything" to anyone, like ever right.
I spoze it's a good thing that we've got lots of space just layin' around, we should probs build a wall around Montana and just make it the new Australia prison state...

People, we're trying to fight the rule breakers with more rules and hoping that will work.
Is there anyone out there that honestly thinks this will work or accomplish anything real?
Please, I'm lookin' for an alternative here and if anybody has one, do type some stuff in the comments section..!

Otherwise the decision is fairly clear to me as it should be to many others.
There is no room for "talking", there is no negotiations, no "deals".
We must fight gun wielding idiots with vigilance and guns of our own and no pity filled emotions.
If we gave every bad guy a choice between fighting their enemies or putting down their weapons and actually trying to work towards something productive, how many would choose?
How many already have.

I am very sorry, I don't want to be the bad guy for my words.  I don't want the giant target on my house...
If any bad people out there can justify their actions and explain to me just what the crap you're fighting so hard for, hey, I'm here, I'm waiting and start typing.
Otherwise, I think it's clear.  Bad people, whether foreigns or domestics, need to go.  The tainted part of their religion needs to go.  Their children need to go and we need to set such a horrific example here that all others considering the life of a bad person need to see what we are capable of when it comes to cleansing our species.
I am not racist.  I am not sexist.  I don't look down on any religion or political belief except when they are tools used to hurt with.
I am actually a very humble, very caring guy but if you want to shoot people for whatever reason, you are my enemy and I only fight in one fashion.

Smiles Part Two...

The following is a direct response to what was written here...

http://www.nicolavincent-abnett.com/2015/12/mass-shootings-part-ii.html

Wow, it is a personal honor to be mentioned, words can't describe.
I feel like such a little spec on the huge scope of the world sometimes that, to be typed about, yep, it makes little goosebumps run up the back of my neck, 'tis...  humbling.
I have to go on record to say that everything that Nik types, I agree with.  My comment was "Much applause" and here I am again, standing and golf clapping in a generally easternly direction.
It's a big topic and there is lots of room for discussion, I applaud all that want to contribute.

I should probs declare my political "stance" at this point, it seems to be an important aspect to my perspective and oh, I feel such pressure sometimes...
I cannot support the American government.
It is overblown, inflated, pathetic, I vote that we scrap the whole thing and "revise".  I am a non participant.
We can't crank out laws to govern internet gambling in a timely fashion, we can't get right with a national health care system and the web site's a complete disaster, we can't globally "police" anywhere because every citizen in our country can illegally download movies and video games, not to mention music and books.
Our system of government is as stagnant as the Catholics.
We refuse to learn, refuse to change, we fight ourselves when there's no one else.
Our ability to adapt with the times is less than satisfactory.  Will we ever be better at adapting?  Only when we're forced out of our lazy habits.

I think I only have about seven to ten readers of this blog site, I cherish you all by the way and thank you for considering me in your reading habits.
If you wanted to send me and mine some plane tickets someday Nik, we would love to have lunch with you (and Dan) and talk about all kinds of stuff but I enjoy the exchange nonetheless...

I support intelligence for everyone.  If this means you know how to acquire a gun and use it for your defense, I support you.  Weapons do not hurt people, ideas kill people and I want you to question your ideals for a moment and ask yourself, "am I doing what's best for all?"
Because if you're not, if you're hurting people for no reason other than "an ideal", please know that what they promised you is a lie and doing good in this world is so much better rewarded than doing bad.

There is a point where religion and political beliefs are used to shape us and it is not an easy one to recognize.  Our media shows us one window but it is not the only.
Your job as a human, is to look at the other side before committing to violence of any kind, you must see how your pain does not contain innocents.
Let it be known, that anyone can take the life of an innocent.  It is not a heroic or "prime time" event.  Anyone can smuggle a weapon into a movie theater, a church or a school.
Anyone can fight at the weakest element and win and it can be viewed as pathetic, pitiful, cowardly.
If you want to fight, hit where it matters.
You have to fight dirty to be celebrated in the news..?
Let's make a pact and say, no more media on the shootings...
This way, we're not giving them what they want, the attention.
No "news" channel shall promote or run a story about gun violence hurting people.
Do the rest of us "miss out" on our news cast when there's no news of a mass shooting?  Do we hunger for that type of news story..?
Do we "feel good" about telling the story of a bad guy, do we embrace it?
Do we want to know because it will cause us to get off our lazy butts and want to vote against gun rights..?
Or hand grenade rights, nuclear backpack rights, drone anthrax sprayers...
Humans being humans...

I don't think there's a way we can stop hurting ourselves.
I think it may have been programmed into the emotions.
To take away the random sense of violence, to make us all feel "safe", it is anathema to our cores.
We are a violent people and we will always be I think.

Live like it is your last day here.  Cherish the people around you as if you had to spend your whole afterlife with them.
I cherish our exchange Nik, big fat thanks and if we never meet, I hope we can hang out in the afterlife (with Dan of course).
Smilesies.

Equal Power for All...

The following is a direct response to what was written here...

http://www.nicolavincent-abnett.com/2015/12/san-bernardino-mass-shooting.html


Boy, does it feel like the Thanksgiving season to you too..?
I think I might be full believe it or not, my stomach's so full of these beefy topics lately, I don't know if I can handle one more...
Mabes a quick undoing of the ole pants belt, ah, yeps, okay, I'll cram one more in there but that's it 'til New Years alright?

The Guns Issue, where would we be without it.
Yes we have a culture, I'm an American born and raised by the way, yes it's a fairly unique culture full of bad guy heroes.
Yes we have some emotional issues, some neglect for our kids and their feelings and some people that just want to hurt others for attention.
Yes as well, the people that commented on your blog Nik, Dave and Jeff (I especially liked the kids on the playground analogy, woopt!)
Well they made great points and I can't help but agree with most of 'em.

But we're forgetting the scope of this mess, it's probs too big to really ever fully imagine, even if we're trying really hard.
We're assuming that "one day", "someday", the people of our world will "wake up" and realize that they don't want to live in fear forever.
Or that if there's enough bloodshed or enough fear, that people will change or stop or mabes, I know right, "learn".
But humans don't work that way and there is no "limit", no finish line where the change must occur (look at the holocaust and how that continues to happen in some parts of the world today).

We have kids that grow up in gang cultures listening to pro violence music and desensitizing videos (video games too...)
We have people who have nothing to lose and will fight for even the most stupid, meager possession.
And, if we could step back for a second, we could realize that it takes a ton more energy than we are willing to spend, to properly care for the world's children.
How's that for you, how does that sit in your species' pride?  We can't even be bothered enough to raise our own children properly.
And honestly, if we can't educate and care for our own children, how can we ever expect to "control" something like a deadly weapon (might as well throw in deadly drugs too eh...)

We can't.  Plain and simple.
We could, take away every gun from every citizen everywhere, every time we found 'em.  We could dump every gun of all size and shape in a giant incinerator, we could "outlaw" them.
Then all the bad guys would have guns and hence, all the destructive power they could ever want while the rest of us have nothing.
But that's one side of the fence huh, take away all guns.
The other side, well it would involve giving every citizen their own gun and a year's worth of ammo.
Every child past the age of six gets their very own gun, it's got their name on it, it's even got a thumbprint identifier on the handle so that if the proper owner is not holding their thumb to it, the gun won't fire.
Every old person has their gun, again, name's inscribed with gold lettering on the barrels, thumb id print activator.

Then, think about it for a second.  Every single person you see has a gun on them.
In schools, in churches, in stores, movie theaters, your own living rooms.
In fact, the only people who didn't have guns were those that chose not to.  Praps their gun is upstairs in their closet or mabes they stuck it in a safe in the basement.
But their right, their protection, is always there.  You have the right to be as powerful as your attackers, if possible.

My kids have a school handbook that describes in detail, every illegal object that is not allowed on school property.
After looking at it for a bit, my twelve year old son says, "so, they don't have crossbows on the list".
Meaning, of all the things, you could walk into the front door of your school with a fully loaded quarrel and crossbow and no one could tell you it was "against the rules".
More fully meaning, rules will always be rules and people will always be people.  And well, people are pretty good at finding ways around the rules right.

To chose a perspective that is anywhere in the "middle ground" here is total stupidity.
Imagine a person walking into a school and simply drawing their handgun.  As soon as that thing's raised, everybody else in the room has pulled theirs and two old ladies have accidentally fired, killing the original gun drawer before they had time to speak.
Imagine a world where we don't need police officers because the people solve their own problems.  All we'd need is extra body-carry-outers and some clean up details.

But okay Bishop, I hear your logic but won't that kind of world be extra painful on everybody, all that death and tragedy..?
And my answer, yeps.  It sure will.  I might shed a tear or two in anticipation right now.
But I would also feel a sense of hope.  Because after the world has cleansed itself, perchappers there won't be a need to hurt each other with violence someday.
Perhaps our kids will see how truly horrible real blood and guts on the streets is, and change their perspectives.
And just mabes, "somehow", the bad guys will grow a sense of fear because they now longer have all the power.  Or they'll all be shot to death.

Ponder this for a moment while I load my knock out punch...
Any messed up kid looking for attention and wanting to hurt people so they get noticed, "glamorized killing", would have all of about three minutes worth of attention before they were shot to death.
No media circus, no pictures on every tv, no Oprah show interviews.
If you want to hurt someone and you think shooting is the answer, you will be shot to death by your peers and fellow humans.  The second after you shoot your gun in anger.
No hostage situations, no negotiations, no struggles and arrests, no trials, no lawyers with plea bargains of insanity, no airplane hijackings, no jail time...
Just a big fat firing squad from all directions as your body is shredded by hot metal.  The end.
And by the way, there's so many cleansing killings right now that your name isn't made famous, you're not even a single line in the outdated newspaper, you're not a fly on the wall nor a mention at the local church you used to attend.
Just another human life that needed to be forgotten for all time, goodbye.

Now did that soften you up a bit, 'cause I've got my big guns ready.  I vote that if we give every legal citizen a gun on their sixth birthday, people would think twice about kidnapping and raping a poor little girl on her way home from school.
People would think twice about driving recklessly for fear of another driver's retaliation.  The humans would slowly grow, ready for it, friendlier.

Crime would crawl to a halt, cheating spouses would cease altogether (because even if your significant other "suspected", you would be shot while eating your tv dinner...)
Punishments would be quick and final, education would be easy (you mess up, you get shot, it's not a big equation).

When my sons were younger, occasionally they would fight over the video game system, the computer or the tv show they wanted to watch.
If I heard the argument, I would not take a side.  I'd simply say, "figure out how to share or I'm taking your power cords."
And they soon figured out that if they couldn't work it out by themselves, that I'd leave them with a tv that couldn't turn on, a computer that wouldn't power up, a game system that was more like a paperweight.
Because the penalty was so severe, the compromises were achieved.
Fear is a great motivator but we're trying to use it on people who are already scared.  We need to take the fear to the bad guys as in, you mess up once and you're shot.

But hey, I'm a fairly smart guy, I can see the path we're going down huh...
I propose that when the fear wears off from the "everybody has guns", we give everyone a hand grenade or seven.
Then mabes it could become a mini-nuke backpack with a thumb depressor that would level a whole city block should someone feel upset or hurt.

I would like to thank everyone for reading what is a very difficult topic, for me, for you and for everyone else.
I would like to send my honest feelings to anyone who has lost a family member or friend to gun violence.  I would be fine with my sons being shot to death if it would be in the hopes of the world becoming a better place.
After all, we send our soldiers to fight the enemy overseas, why should I feel any different about fighting on our own soil.
I don't.  Dying is still dying but can't we do it for a truly good reason once in a while.

I am also encouraging anyone out there, to comment and show me where my flaw is, poke holes in my bubbles, criticize and critique, please.
If we could somehow get the rest of the world on the same page, just mabes we can make an actual difference.
Share this article with people, point them at my words and challenge them to dispute my logic, please, I don't get paid a single cent for this web site, there are no ads here.
I have no motivation other than the need to make the world we live in, stop hurting ourselves.

Also, in case you're wondering just what kind of messed up human the Bishop really is, I want to tell you that I have never owned my own gun nor do I plan on it, ever.
A gun to me, is too easy to place in my mouth and escape this funked up world with so I distance myself from them in order to remain here, fighting the good fight.
I fight with my words.

The Burning Option...

The following is a direct response to what was written here...

http://www.nicolavincent-abnett.com/2015/12/sometimes-good-men-do-bad-things.html


Crikey, what a topic..!
I think this one's probably had dictionary-sized books written about it, possibs by your Oxford people...
Probs by people who are much smarter than us, who have spent lifetimes trying to understand why humans do and act, the way they do.
And the final chapters in all those books, probs say something sorta like this:
Our language is too simple to explain the way humans work.
Think about it.
We have twenty six little letters and words that mean more than one thing to more than one group of people, always.
How can we "get on the same page" and understand any type of explanation?  How can we accept any excuse or reason?
We can't, don't even try or you will spend your whole life trying to learn something that can't be learned.

But let's imagine we could actually understand each other for just a minute.  I mean, I'm game, it's a rainy Tuesday and I've nothin' better to do for a bit eh.
Let's pretend that two people who have known each other their whole lives, two people that have spent every minute together, have shared every thought together, could not be on the "same page" any more...
Let's pretend for a minute that this perfect pair exist and that they can, with a simple gesture, communicate their thoughts and feelings, to each other, perfectly.
But real quick like, did you picture this couple as a man and a woman, two women, two men, an adult and a child, two old farts in an old folks home..?

It doesn't really matter because this super duo would be way beyond anything the rest of us could ever accomplish.  And they'd want to share their super powers, they'd want to tell others how they did this and their ability to communicate on a heightened scale would be off-the-charts, exceptional.
It would spread, mabes slowly at first but it would, like enhanced evolution.
There would be the people of "one mind" and those "all alone" and "eventually", the one-minds would overpower the rest and god herself would descend from heaven and declare the game officially over huh.

So we're humans, I'm sorry.  We're "single minds", yeps.  We're stuck with a horrible representation of a language and we don't really have many people who want to be better, to learn more or to "try" harder.
We're sorta stagnant in our laziness, praps we don't feel like we have to work harder because hey, what do I want from my life..?
A soft couch to sit on, a big tv to stare at, alcohol and drugs to numb me, pizza delivered to me and a toilet built in to my sofa so I don't have to move, mabes a vibrate function...
Why should I, or anyone else for that matter, want to work real hard to make the world a better place for all those lazy humans out there..?

But let's go a different route for a little bit, you're depressing me with your negative perspective there Bishop...
And okay, let's see...
Humans like to judge, it's important for us.  If a fire will warm us but also burn if we're too close, we need (and want) to judge that fire "harmful".
If another human approaches and wants to be warmed by the fire, we will yell out "hey, watch out, that fire will burn you!" right?
If there's some skepticism, mabes we'll offer a clarifier in, "you know, if you get too close."
But how close is "too" close?  Does it translate to inches or those funny centimeters..?
Does it matter if the direction is from the side of the fire or directly on top?
And if you can step back a second and really see my analogy for what it is, can you see that we'd need to write a healthy sized book containing all we know and suspect about fires if we wanted to protect someone from being burned?
And, just for hypotheticals, wouldn't it make slightly more sense just to let that human touch the fire and get burned a little, you know, instead of writing the book?

There there, not as depressing right?  Now step back from my fire, I'm gonna do a little dance and it should be entertaining, you know, as long as I'm not bumping you into that fire.
Let's assume for a minute that someone out there, let's say "me" for example, just for a second...  Let's say I have already written a book about how to tell if people are "good" or "bad".
I've dedicated a couple of years of my life, described in horrific detail the meanings of the words "good" and "bad" (because even they aren't the same to every reader...)
I've broken down every single little step about how to "read" people, including the distances required and the angle of interceptions (really, just like my fire remember?)
So here it is, it's massive, I wrapped it in the world's biggest tortilla and dipped it in melted cheese in case you get hungry while cuddled up with it in front of the fireplace some night.
On the cover is the suggestions "Ages 13 and up" (you know, 'cause there's some adult content) and "Estimated length of reading, 2 years".

But hey, if you want to really crank that puppy out in six months, well it's possible if you don't need to sleep right.
So here it is, the answer to one of the toughest questions on the planet AND..!
It's free!  The best part huh, no need to indenture your future children, no loans from banks or mortgaging your boats.
I'm giving it away because I want the people of the world to be better to each other, I want them to have better, happier lives and produce better children so that someday we can all "graduate" when the universal gig is up.

So...  the only real issue left is...  will you read it?
Well of course you will right?  You're reading my words right now aren't you..?
But okay, I'll concede for a moment and let you hear from others who have read my work.
The "others" that have read my work have claimed it to be brilliant.  It's funny, it's honest, it's crucially informative and it makes a great wrecking ball if you ever need to do some home remodeling, knock down a wall for "an addition" you know.
But they all say the same thing happened, in the end.  Having all that information and experience handed to them, well...
They looked and looked and couldn't find a "good" guy or a "good" girl.
With my best descriptions and explanations and "excuses", no humans fit into the "good" mold.

So you might be better off getting burned.  And you might have to lower some expectations.  And this is getting depressive again isn't it...

We need to judge, it's important.  We want to judge and tell others our judgements.  We really have to judge and we can never honestly stop.
But we have to also remember one really significant concept for a bit.
Good people, doing good things, are completely invisible upon a first glance.
In fact, there might be good people all around you right now, doing good things and you don't even notice 'em.  And the sad part is, you haven't noticed 'em in a long, long time.
Because our minds are "problem based".  We look at the flaws, the faults, the errors with a microscope.  We get excited when we can firmly place blame and we line up to watch heads being chopped with a guillotine.
Can we really blame those that want to stay home glued to their couches watching tv their whole lives?  Can we really tell them to come out and play with us heartless bastards who just love to throw stones?

Not too often is someone's good deeds studied with a microscope.  Sometimes a human will do something amazing in soldier combat and we hear their stories in our news, they're given medals or recognition and fancy ceremonies.
Because they saved some fellow soldiers or they sacrificed or they killed a bunch of other humans fighting what our government has labeled "the enemy".
How many times do we see on the Oprah show, a married guy that went to a local bar, had an opportunity to cheat on his wife with three strippers and, declined.
How many times do we celebrate a single father who refused to send his child to day care so that he could spend real quality time with his offspring, teaching 'em and honestly caring about them?
How many times do we stop a vehicle on the road to thank them for handing that homeless guy on the side of the road at the previous intersection some money?

If you're looking for good people and can't find them, you're probably not looking very hard.
If you're looking for bad people and they're everywhere, well you're probs looking too hard.
If you think you know a good person, explain how you measured and display your proof.
Explain how you've witnessed this person doing good things when given an opportunity to do bad when no one's watching.  Or how you know that when they dream at night, it's not about having sex with others or fighting someone.

There's an expression that describes not judging someone until walking a mile in their shoes.
But I think in order to truly "judge" in the fullest sense of the word, we have to walk every mile in their shoes.

We can't live without others in our lives, those couch potatoes trying to live through social medias are not really, sadly, living.
We can't live without fire and we'll never take away it's ability to burn us.
The best we can ever really do is try to maintain a positive perspective, try to be understanding and sympathetic to others.
And enjoy some warmth before the burning.

Worlds to Live in...

We live in many worlds.
I look at one of my personal typing heroes, Mr Dan Abnett and what he created, little universes of his own playgrounds, and if I met him one day I would have to ask, how do you "exist" in multiple places at the same time on a daily basis like that...
Or a George Lucas when he was dreaming up Star Wars, how do you "live" in this world, with the rest of us, and still occupy enough of "the other world", in the same lifetime..?
How do you squeeze it all in or, if you or anyone else could claim, how do you abandon your fleshy person in sacrifice for the non fleshy person for a while.
But I think I already know the answer.

It's because we all do it, everyday of our lives, all the time.  We "compartmentalize" is that what they call it?
We take little emotions and events and we put them in little imaginary boxes in our noodles, then look back on them fondly or negatively (sometimes neutrally).
Now that I think about it, even if I take the "writer" out of myself, I must still live in about six worlds, possibs seven.
Let's see if I can list them all...

I have a real sexual style that has it's own playground, not to mention the sex with my wife so there's two right.
I have a world where if I'm sittin' on the toilet, I'm readin' a book for a minute or two and if my current book's any good, well I'm in there right, "somewhere" it's in my mind, three eh.
I have, believe it or not, a whole separate world dedicated to the Ohio State Buckeyes and their methodic system of annilating their competition, yep there's a whole world there I think...
I also have a very competitive side that seems to have it's own world because when I watch a very popular UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, lose her first ever in Australia well, I cringe inside, she was so awesome, did so much, rose so high and to see that, yep, I'm a long haired man and I can be quite a hard ass on my kids sometimes but I can admit it, I do have a soft side that died a little bit on my insides you know.
I can also side with all her haters who just had to throw their two cents in, to the whole negative side of the scales, it's important for some people to criticize a dominant, glowing figure I get that but I'm not countin' it as one of "my worlds" huh, only five so far.

I think my sixth world, and these were never in order of "importance" right, my son and his mother and how I handle our day to day lives, they're important, bills must somehow be paid and all.
I'm quite a video game player and when they unleashed the Fallout Four, well it's a wishing well on top of a pool of quicksand to me, I fall in and it's hard to escape in the next seven months or so, that's gotta be seven huh.
I sometimes think I might be an alcoholic but mabes I won't count that one.

Maybe the question is not, to our universe-creating-heroes or our spouses, how many worlds are you living in...
Perchappers the question is, which world are you living in right now.

The Place for Links...

Okay, I know, I know, I've been sorta busy, I'm sorry...
Reading Nik's self published book Addled Kat has left me with some, ahem, stuff to do eh...

I've been inspired though, now if I could just turn it into some motivation...
Until then, I thought I'd self publish some of my older stuff, you know, just in case you were bored and needed something new and interesting to read.
These are two blogs I started oh, mabes a year or two ago.  They're both fairly "different" and were part of my "oh let's see if we can make this work" phase...

The Movie of All Movies...
http://movieofallmovies.blogspot.com/

Crazy Sense Time...
http://crazysensetime.blogspot.com/

With both of these sites, you have to look for the little button "Next" at the bottom right (or, you know "More Crazy")...
I tried to make these buttons bigger, more stand outty but couldn't figure it out and left it huh.

Modern Day Heroes...

The following is a direct response to what was written here...

http://www.nicolavincent-abnett.com/2015/11/avengers-age-of-ultron-and-bechdel.html

I feel a little weird admitting this but I didn't actually watch the Avengers movies, either of them.  I tried watching the first one but it was long, I didn't like what I saw in the beginning and assumed the end would be more of the same.
But I should throw out my disclaimer..!
I grew up with a grandparent named Stan Lee, he's like the godfather of the Marvel universe.  I watched the cartoons on Saturday mornings, I borrowed my dad's comic books and read every Avengers starting from numero uno, I read every XMen and everything else I could get my sweaty hands on.
I loved the characters, I loved the art, the stories, the conflicts, you name it, I lived, breathed and died, Marvel.
On occasion, when I wasn't a little boy in a winter jacket for Halloween, I was Captain America with my cardboard shield or Spiderman with the fake web stuff.
No one could claim they loved Marvel more than I, how's that for a disclaimer..!

But a funny thing happened a bit ago.
Marvel started making movies about the characters that I had grown up with, that I had cherished.
I can clearly remember the first X-Men movie from way back in the triple zeros (that's the year two thousand for you old peeps).  I can remember loving it and thinking what an honor it was, to have lived this long, in this world, to be able to watch my favorite heroes come to life.
I remember loving Wolverine and his look, loving the way my son watched with fascination, 'twas a glorious time for all.
I couldn't wait for a sequel but there was a couple of niggling things in the back of my brain and I tired to shut them out but, there they were.
Little details about what I thought "should" have been, should have happened in the movie, that didn't.  I dismissed them and said hey, beggars can't be choosers and if I didn't like the whole movie, well I should get busy making my own, making a better one right.

But the sequel came and I watched with glee once again.  Except, there were even more discrepancies, even more flaws.
Iceman was an original "founding" member of the Xmen and here he is, supposed to be a new kid that came after Wolverine (and Rogue and Storm).
It stung, it really did.  It hurt my special place inside and I wanted to call my mommy and cry.
Why did they do this to these characters I love..?

And the best answer I could come up with, was that they did their best.  They were pressured by "somebody" who said hey, we can't do it this way and we need to change some things.
I chalked it up eventually, to them "trying too hard" to be liked by the new generation.
If the new kids don't care about stories and they just want to see big explosions, give it to 'em right.  They're the ones with the big wads of cash in their hands and hey, I don't have big wads of cash now do I...
So I forgave the makers, I claimed I understood and that was enough for the time being.
But it didn't stop there.
The monster money machine kept rumbling forward, the movies kept coming and the atrocities in my mind, kept doubling.

You can look anywhere on the big bad web for criticisms of the Marvel movies by "the old fans".  It's easy to criticize when it's not your paycheck on the line.
But do I want to watch these movies, do I feel I need them to teach me how to be a good guy, a hero, because they certainly try to hammer that lesson home huh.

Nopers.  I don't want to watch 'em anymore, possibs I'm old.
I'll hang on to the Jean Grey Phoenix I know and remember.  I'll savor Deadpool before he becomes Ryan Reynolds (who was also Green Lantern).
But I can't stop the movies from being made, I can't stop the new generation from liking them and begging for more.

All I can really control is my viewing habits and those of my kids.  When they ask why I don't watch the Avengers, I tell them that I've already watched the Avengers and that I don't want to tarnish that memory with "the new version".
I believe that in their "trying too hard" mode, they will slowly lose fans as more and more of the population understand that the makers of these movies don't really care about your favorite characters.  They don't care about the legacies of those who have come before them.
All they care about is your money and how they can get it from you, and into their pockets.  I explain this to my kids and hopefully they'll explain it to their kids someday.

Everybody with half a brain knows that Disney and (present day) Marvel are not the good role models that they should be.
We can all see how they could be making a positive difference in the world today but they're not because they choose to collect money instead of respect.
If you find that these movies have offended you, for any and all reasons, don't watch 'em anymore.  They're not going to "get any better", they're not going to up and change their positions one day.
They are going to continue their war against you and your money and the only way you can "win", is to not participate and to teach your children, instead of letting Marvel do it.

I fully support you Nik, I agree with your words and your stance on big budget movies slamming women.
But to attack them and to think that they'll ever change, hah, we might as well try to attack the porn industry while we're in "attempting to change things that will never change" mode.
The intelligent people from my generation and younger, well we don't look to Disney or Marvel to learn about how we should treat our women, we have our Dan Abnetts for that.
For all those kids out there that don't have intelligent parents, that don't have someone to teach them about right and wrong and how to treat women, well I wish I could help them, change some things for them but again, I might as well try to extinguish the porn industry or shoot webs from my wrists after being bitten by a spider.

Hey I had never heard of the Bechdel Wallace test, I had to look that one up so I feel like I learned something new today, genuine thanks huh.