This is that time of year when it seems to take FOREVER for my W2 to arrive. As usual, I don't have quite enough money to pay everything that needs to be paid. UNLIKE usual, however, there's that promise that my tax refund is coming...
...sometime...
...just right around the corner somewhere...
I just learned about Lolcat, which is that weird, cutesy language used to caption pictures of cute cats doing (or appearing to do) quirky things. If you haven;'t already encountered this phenomenon, you can see examples at ICanHasCheezburger.com. (Here's one that made me laugh. It doesn't utilize lolcat (or "lolspeak"), but it's cute.)
There's no point to sharing this information with you, lol. Just sharing. It's one of the things that has seized my imagination for the time being.
I finally broke down this morning before bed and bought Dirk Gently: The Long Dark tea-Time of the Soul.
I listened to most of it as it aired on BBC Radio 4, but their "Listen Again" system wasn't working quite right, apparently, so I missed Episode 4, then heard Episode 5, but then for whatever reason I missed Episode 6.
So I'm unwinding after work, listeing to the Primary Phase of the original The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and as bad-ass as that is -- even after having listenened to the first 2 series again and again for somewhere around 24 years now -- it made me really, really want to hear the entire second series of Dirk Gently.
So I bought it.
I ended up crashing agter the first 2 episodes, so I get to listen to it fresh as I work tonight.
Like I said, I heard Episodes 1-3 and 5 as they aired, but whenever Dirk Maggs releases a Douglas Adams series on CD or audiobook form, he always includes scenes that were trimmed or cut for time -- to run within the allocated timeslot. So it will be like hearing the entire series for the first time.
Plus, as I've demonstrated, I can listen to Douglas Adams stories over and over and over and over and over, etc. without tiring of it, lol.
I don't think I meantioned it previously, but I finished Allison DuBois' third book Secrets of the Monarch -- actually, I finished it before I started on the Conversations with God series -- and so I have moved on from deep spiritual reading to light-hearted, irreverent comedy while I work.
Again, no particular reason I'm sharing this information with you... Just am, lol.
Hey, speaking of work: I should get back to it.
PEACE!!!
:D
WAIT! Before I sign-off, I have something to say:
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SPOOKY SOUTHCOAST!!! :D
They're starting up their 4th year on the air! I've been listening since 2007, so I guess this is going into my 3rd year as a fan.
If you haven't checked the show out yet, check out their archives or check them out on iTunes. If you're a fan of the show but haven't heard any new episodes this for a month, I've been keeping up-to-date from this awesome cat's site! (He's more regular about posting the shows than the Spooky Crew is, lol)
This is the podcast that got me so hard-core into the paranormal (I was a great deal more passive in my research before I started listening to Tim and the Matts (and also Jeff, once a month)) and these guys are the reason I first checked out Ghost Hunters -- allow me to be clear: I WOULD NOT have watched my first episode of Ghost Hunters if Spooky Southcoast hadn't had so many members of TAPS on their show as frequently as they did, and therefor I probably would not be in Texas Spirits right now, gearing up for my first investigations -- so I just wanted to give a shout-out and a plug. ;)
As lame as this sounds, Spooky Southcoast has really had quite an impact on my life! I never realized it, actually, until just this moment, writing the above paragraph. I kind of owe quite a bit to those guys!
THANK YOU, SPOOKY SOUTHCOAST!!! Keep up the excellent work!
:D
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Not Quite Getting My Feet Wet Yet...
...but I am standing at the edge of the pool in my swim trunks! :)
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
I am officially a member of Texas Sprits Paranormal Investigations now! YAY! :D
I'm not up on the Team Members page yet, but then I've only recently received my team email address and calendar of upcoming investigations and stuff. I'm one of a decent-sized group of newbies and there is a lot of administrative things that must be happening all at once right now.
I EVEN SIGNED A CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT!!! :D
Now, you may ask why I, a writer/blogger/general storyteller would be so excited to sign a document that distinctly and legally restricts me from creating fiction based on or blogging about my experiences on cases with TSPI. But the answer is simple:
It makes it all real! :)
When you're 15 or 14 and your dad let's you drive in the parking lot of a Walmart, you don't really feel like A Driver because you don't yet have a drivers license. You know what I mean? Sometimes it's the restrictions, the boundaries that makes an experience feel authentic.
Like watching Ghost Hunters: If every time TAPS investigated a case they came away with video of a clear, full-body apparition, the show just wouldn't have that ring of authenticity. It wouldn't feel real. The fact that in actuality, sometimes TAPS comes away with nothing, or next to nothing, makes to easier to believe the evidence they do gather and present.
In fact, if entities were seen/heard/felt by anyone and everyone, there wouldn't be "ghost hunters". It's really the elusiveness of the experience that captivates us, I believe. The "restrictions" or "boundaries" of the paranormal experience, if you will. (Otherwise, it would be simply called "normal".)
So signing a confidentiality agreement was kind of cool! made it all feel just a little bit more real.
It's so exciting!!!
Plus, I have a couple of long-time friends who have something going on in their houses, and they've both said that Brian and I can investigate sometime. So if I need inspiration I can draw from them.
But I doubt I will. There is a universe of characters and themes and situations to explore -- paranormal and not -- that exist all around us. Plus, the best stories are often the personal ones... Like Michael Crichton's Travels...
So I've also been voraciously filling my consciousness with information. I can't seem to get enough! I've read all 3 books in the Conversations with God series (which I highly recommend to anyone contemplating matters of spirituality), then I picked up and have been re-reading Michael Crichton's collection of essays called Travels, all the while keeping up with my paranormal podcasts (too many to link to) and the concepts contained therein.
AND, I've made a friend who has a lot of experience with Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and Instrumental Trans Communication (ITC)! She has her own meetup group at The Austin Audio & Video ITC-EVP Meetup Group. She -- Surreal, the creator of the group -- has been very generously answering my questions and sharing her insights with me via email. :)
So I just keep receiving more and more information to stuff into this hungry mind of mind, hee-hee. :)
Jumping back and forth between paranormal studies and spiritual studies, I noticed an odd truism: It appears that Truth best serves us when we disbelieve it.
What I mean is that it seems the best way get to the truth of a question is to have the skepticism and willingness to not believe it that causes one to poke and prod and measure and contemplate, while possessing the open-mindedness to accept the eventual answers, however fantastical or unbelievable they may turn out to be.
An easy illustration is the TAPS approach to paranormal investigation: TAPS (and all TAPS Family members) set out to debunk claims of paranormal activity. Debunk.
Why? If an organization hopes to document and capture evidence to prove that the paranormal exists, why actively try to debunk it?
Because if you go into a "haunted" location and try to disprove every experience that may be considered paranormal, and you come away with evidence of a few things that you simply can't disprove, no matter how hard you try, then you just may have actual evidence of the paranormal!
And I believe the same can be said of all matters that Science has yet to classify and quantify. It seems that when we find something "supernatural" in our lives, rigorously trying to explain it away through normal occurrences doesn't always make the experience go away. In fact, it seems that the more we try to explain away some experiences, the more wondrous and awe-inspiring they become!
It seems to play into that whole theme in human existence that the reality of a thing seems to be somehow defined by its limitations or boundaries.
Or, it seems that way to me, anyway, lol. ;P
Speaking of wondrous and awe-inspiring phenomena: Shout out to my lady love, Her Great And Awesome Gnomey-ness!!! :D xoxoxo (Btw, she said it was okay for me to go into haunted houses and hunt ghosties, so YAY!)
And I hope that your day presents hundreds of reasons for you to scratch your head in wonder, and maybe even provides evidence that there is more going on in this life than we can yet explain!
:)
Metaphorically speaking, of course.
I am officially a member of Texas Sprits Paranormal Investigations now! YAY! :D
I'm not up on the Team Members page yet, but then I've only recently received my team email address and calendar of upcoming investigations and stuff. I'm one of a decent-sized group of newbies and there is a lot of administrative things that must be happening all at once right now.
I EVEN SIGNED A CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT!!! :D
Now, you may ask why I, a writer/blogger/general storyteller would be so excited to sign a document that distinctly and legally restricts me from creating fiction based on or blogging about my experiences on cases with TSPI. But the answer is simple:
It makes it all real! :)
When you're 15 or 14 and your dad let's you drive in the parking lot of a Walmart, you don't really feel like A Driver because you don't yet have a drivers license. You know what I mean? Sometimes it's the restrictions, the boundaries that makes an experience feel authentic.
Like watching Ghost Hunters: If every time TAPS investigated a case they came away with video of a clear, full-body apparition, the show just wouldn't have that ring of authenticity. It wouldn't feel real. The fact that in actuality, sometimes TAPS comes away with nothing, or next to nothing, makes to easier to believe the evidence they do gather and present.
In fact, if entities were seen/heard/felt by anyone and everyone, there wouldn't be "ghost hunters". It's really the elusiveness of the experience that captivates us, I believe. The "restrictions" or "boundaries" of the paranormal experience, if you will. (Otherwise, it would be simply called "normal".)
So signing a confidentiality agreement was kind of cool! made it all feel just a little bit more real.
It's so exciting!!!
Plus, I have a couple of long-time friends who have something going on in their houses, and they've both said that Brian and I can investigate sometime. So if I need inspiration I can draw from them.
But I doubt I will. There is a universe of characters and themes and situations to explore -- paranormal and not -- that exist all around us. Plus, the best stories are often the personal ones... Like Michael Crichton's Travels...
So I've also been voraciously filling my consciousness with information. I can't seem to get enough! I've read all 3 books in the Conversations with God series (which I highly recommend to anyone contemplating matters of spirituality), then I picked up and have been re-reading Michael Crichton's collection of essays called Travels, all the while keeping up with my paranormal podcasts (too many to link to) and the concepts contained therein.
AND, I've made a friend who has a lot of experience with Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) and Instrumental Trans Communication (ITC)! She has her own meetup group at The Austin Audio & Video ITC-EVP Meetup Group. She -- Surreal, the creator of the group -- has been very generously answering my questions and sharing her insights with me via email. :)
So I just keep receiving more and more information to stuff into this hungry mind of mind, hee-hee. :)
Jumping back and forth between paranormal studies and spiritual studies, I noticed an odd truism: It appears that Truth best serves us when we disbelieve it.
What I mean is that it seems the best way get to the truth of a question is to have the skepticism and willingness to not believe it that causes one to poke and prod and measure and contemplate, while possessing the open-mindedness to accept the eventual answers, however fantastical or unbelievable they may turn out to be.
An easy illustration is the TAPS approach to paranormal investigation: TAPS (and all TAPS Family members) set out to debunk claims of paranormal activity. Debunk.
Why? If an organization hopes to document and capture evidence to prove that the paranormal exists, why actively try to debunk it?
Because if you go into a "haunted" location and try to disprove every experience that may be considered paranormal, and you come away with evidence of a few things that you simply can't disprove, no matter how hard you try, then you just may have actual evidence of the paranormal!
And I believe the same can be said of all matters that Science has yet to classify and quantify. It seems that when we find something "supernatural" in our lives, rigorously trying to explain it away through normal occurrences doesn't always make the experience go away. In fact, it seems that the more we try to explain away some experiences, the more wondrous and awe-inspiring they become!
It seems to play into that whole theme in human existence that the reality of a thing seems to be somehow defined by its limitations or boundaries.
Or, it seems that way to me, anyway, lol. ;P
Speaking of wondrous and awe-inspiring phenomena: Shout out to my lady love, Her Great And Awesome Gnomey-ness!!! :D xoxoxo (Btw, she said it was okay for me to go into haunted houses and hunt ghosties, so YAY!)
And I hope that your day presents hundreds of reasons for you to scratch your head in wonder, and maybe even provides evidence that there is more going on in this life than we can yet explain!
:)
Friday, January 09, 2009
Just Got Back From My First Paranormal Meetup Meeting!
This wasn't an investigation, mind you, so I haven't seen dead people, lol. But I got to meet a very cool group of smart, like-minded people, many of whom have had some really cool (depending upon one's perspective, naturally) experiences!
And DUDE! You would not believe the cross-section of folks involved! I sat next to a nurse who is currently in hospice care, I sat across from an ex police officer, one young lady is a creative copywrighter, just a smorgazbord of bright folks who want to better understand some of the stuff that mainstream science isn't interested in even acknowledging.
Side Bar: Speaking of mainstream science and the paranormal, that book I'm reading -- Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum -- is amazing!!! It's a history of the Society for Psychical Research and, as I had hoped, it provides a wide-ranging overview of the history of the Spiritualist movement, mediums and the scientific study of what we now call the paranormal, BUT... It's also an entertaining and compelling read!
I should explain that I adore acquiring knowledge, but I am a slow and largely disinterested reader. I always do audiobooks if they're available to me, because it takes me 3x longer to read than it does to listen.
There are few authors that I can read read (and then re-read). One of them is the late Michael Crichton, whose novels always blast past me like I'm watching a movie rather than reading a book. But even Mr. Crichton killed me with Eaters of the Dead: He chose to re-tell the Beowolf story as though it were an historical account, and to make it feel authentic he wrote it as though it were a historical document -- with footnotes and everything! It read like a friggin' text book!
Now, that's the effect he was going for: He wants to lull you into a sense of the security of reading a stuffy old historical text, then shock you with the increasingly exciting supernatural events of the story. And it works quite well!
But I'll never read that thing again, lol!
By contrast, Blum's book actually is a non-fiction historical account, but it reads like a really good novel. :) Similar to Crichton's work, some readers might get bored with the scientific theory throughout the story, but it's conveyed in such a way (again, like Crichton) as to be accessible to anyone.
And I'm just speculating here, but I think the over-long title might be a bit of an in-joke: The scientists who started the S. P. R. -- the "heroes" of the story -- all wrote books, and the titles are as awkward and lengthy as this book's title. (Except the original S. P. R. members wouldn't have utilized any phrase as sensationalistic as "Ghost Hunters" in one of their titles, lol.)
So if you have any interest in where all this ghost-hunting stuff that seems to be so popular now came from, I SO recommend Blum's book! :)
...End of Side Bar.
So the meetup group I met up with tonight...
The founder of the group is the director of Texas Spirits Paranormal Investigation, Austin's local TAPS Family Member group! Which means that if you live here and you thought your place might be haunted and you were really concerned about your safety and the safety of your family, and you went to the TAPS website and looked up the TAPS Family Member group nearest you, you would find a link to TSPI! And in addition to the director of the group, 2 of the other TSPI members were there tonight!
Very cool! You know... in a fan-boy kind of way, lol. ;P
I was talking to and interacting with the Austin branch of TAPS and I didn't even realize it until I came home and looked at the website (in preparation to write this blog entry).
So when I do go on my first investigations, I'll be learning from, like, "Austin TAPS", if you will! :D
A nerd just couldn't be any happier!
And they're looking for new members... so... There is a possibility that...
One step at a time, of course. I'm beginning to realize that I have a really weird schedule, as far as actually interacting with other people. In the past I kept myself hunkered down in the apartment, writing when I wasn't at work (and, naturally, was supposed to be a rich and famous writer by now, setting his own schedule), and so it's only this last month or more that I've been confronted with how truly inconvenient my schedule actually is.
So I'll take it investigation by investigation, see how helpful I can be, and see where this path leads me.
Oh! And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I'm not the only person who hasn't had a personal experience with the paranormal in the meetup group! In fact, at least one of the members of TSPI says she's still waiting for her first personal experience.
(An interesting fact: Jason & Grant state often -- in the TV shoe, on their radio show and in their book -- that 80% of their cases don't yield paranormal evidence. So it's, apparently, not unusual to go to a "haunted" location and discover it's not haunted -- or, if it is, not capture evidence of paranormal activity while you're there. What is unusual is that TAPS can capture enough evidence to keep Ghost Hunters on the air. ...but they've been at it for a decade or two...)
Also, to clarify, TSPI is a separate organization from the meetup group I'm a member of. The meetup group is an informal "recreational" paranormal investigation group. It's folks who simply want to explore. That group is called Texas Spirits Research Team and I joined them through Meetup.com, if you're interested. I just wanted to emphasize that TSRT (recreational) and TSPI (TAPS Family Member) aren't the same entity, and I'm not really a "ghost hunter". (Yet, lol.)
Just want to be clear. I was a little confused when I first started looking into investigating here in Austin.
Blah.
Okay, so I'm starting to come down off the excitement, and I think I'll go enjoy the rest of my night off.
LOVE TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!! xoxoxo :D
And I hope you have a magnificent day/evening/night/ whatever-time-it-is-when-you-read-this!!!
:D
And DUDE! You would not believe the cross-section of folks involved! I sat next to a nurse who is currently in hospice care, I sat across from an ex police officer, one young lady is a creative copywrighter, just a smorgazbord of bright folks who want to better understand some of the stuff that mainstream science isn't interested in even acknowledging.
Side Bar: Speaking of mainstream science and the paranormal, that book I'm reading -- Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum -- is amazing!!! It's a history of the Society for Psychical Research and, as I had hoped, it provides a wide-ranging overview of the history of the Spiritualist movement, mediums and the scientific study of what we now call the paranormal, BUT... It's also an entertaining and compelling read!
I should explain that I adore acquiring knowledge, but I am a slow and largely disinterested reader. I always do audiobooks if they're available to me, because it takes me 3x longer to read than it does to listen.
There are few authors that I can read read (and then re-read). One of them is the late Michael Crichton, whose novels always blast past me like I'm watching a movie rather than reading a book. But even Mr. Crichton killed me with Eaters of the Dead: He chose to re-tell the Beowolf story as though it were an historical account, and to make it feel authentic he wrote it as though it were a historical document -- with footnotes and everything! It read like a friggin' text book!
Now, that's the effect he was going for: He wants to lull you into a sense of the security of reading a stuffy old historical text, then shock you with the increasingly exciting supernatural events of the story. And it works quite well!
But I'll never read that thing again, lol!
By contrast, Blum's book actually is a non-fiction historical account, but it reads like a really good novel. :) Similar to Crichton's work, some readers might get bored with the scientific theory throughout the story, but it's conveyed in such a way (again, like Crichton) as to be accessible to anyone.
And I'm just speculating here, but I think the over-long title might be a bit of an in-joke: The scientists who started the S. P. R. -- the "heroes" of the story -- all wrote books, and the titles are as awkward and lengthy as this book's title. (Except the original S. P. R. members wouldn't have utilized any phrase as sensationalistic as "Ghost Hunters" in one of their titles, lol.)
So if you have any interest in where all this ghost-hunting stuff that seems to be so popular now came from, I SO recommend Blum's book! :)
...End of Side Bar.
So the meetup group I met up with tonight...
The founder of the group is the director of Texas Spirits Paranormal Investigation, Austin's local TAPS Family Member group! Which means that if you live here and you thought your place might be haunted and you were really concerned about your safety and the safety of your family, and you went to the TAPS website and looked up the TAPS Family Member group nearest you, you would find a link to TSPI! And in addition to the director of the group, 2 of the other TSPI members were there tonight!
Very cool! You know... in a fan-boy kind of way, lol. ;P
I was talking to and interacting with the Austin branch of TAPS and I didn't even realize it until I came home and looked at the website (in preparation to write this blog entry).
So when I do go on my first investigations, I'll be learning from, like, "Austin TAPS", if you will! :D
A nerd just couldn't be any happier!
And they're looking for new members... so... There is a possibility that...
One step at a time, of course. I'm beginning to realize that I have a really weird schedule, as far as actually interacting with other people. In the past I kept myself hunkered down in the apartment, writing when I wasn't at work (and, naturally, was supposed to be a rich and famous writer by now, setting his own schedule), and so it's only this last month or more that I've been confronted with how truly inconvenient my schedule actually is.
So I'll take it investigation by investigation, see how helpful I can be, and see where this path leads me.
Oh! And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I'm not the only person who hasn't had a personal experience with the paranormal in the meetup group! In fact, at least one of the members of TSPI says she's still waiting for her first personal experience.
(An interesting fact: Jason & Grant state often -- in the TV shoe, on their radio show and in their book -- that 80% of their cases don't yield paranormal evidence. So it's, apparently, not unusual to go to a "haunted" location and discover it's not haunted -- or, if it is, not capture evidence of paranormal activity while you're there. What is unusual is that TAPS can capture enough evidence to keep Ghost Hunters on the air. ...but they've been at it for a decade or two...)
Also, to clarify, TSPI is a separate organization from the meetup group I'm a member of. The meetup group is an informal "recreational" paranormal investigation group. It's folks who simply want to explore. That group is called Texas Spirits Research Team and I joined them through Meetup.com, if you're interested. I just wanted to emphasize that TSRT (recreational) and TSPI (TAPS Family Member) aren't the same entity, and I'm not really a "ghost hunter". (Yet, lol.)
Just want to be clear. I was a little confused when I first started looking into investigating here in Austin.
Blah.
Okay, so I'm starting to come down off the excitement, and I think I'll go enjoy the rest of my night off.
LOVE TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!! xoxoxo :D
And I hope you have a magnificent day/evening/night/ whatever-time-it-is-when-you-read-this!!!
:D
Thursday, January 08, 2009
Joel Barker...
Just before crashing this afternoon -- the end of my2-day Coast to Coast AM marathon -- I was treated to an INSPIRING 3 hours with business guru Joel Barker! Check out the episode for yourself!!! :D
It's a bit ironic, because when Art Bell started collecting predictions for 2009 -- for 2 nights, no less; that's 8 listening hours! -- followed by an episode of "professional predictions" I was just about ready to try to find a way to blast off this soon-to-be-nuked planet straight into the no-longer-active sun! (You have to hear the 3 episodes I'm talking about to know what I mean.)
Just straight-up DISMAL listening!
THEN...!!!
Joel Barker comes on, and suddenly Life looks more like the experience I recognize! :) Suddenly I am again able to believe we just may not turn this planet and all humanity into a smoking crater!
Listening to this guy talk about the bad-ass inventions and innovations that are about to happen got me thinking in a new way! I don't just mean that I'm a positive person, then overloaded myself with the negativity of others, and then was inspired back into my default setting. I mean that this cat got me thinking in a more efficient, more anything-might-be-possible way! :D
Don't believe it's possible? Check out his blog, Joel Barker's Good News!
If you find his info as inspiring as I do, be sure to go down to the bottom right of the blog and subscribe. (I did!)
PEACE!!! :D
It's a bit ironic, because when Art Bell started collecting predictions for 2009 -- for 2 nights, no less; that's 8 listening hours! -- followed by an episode of "professional predictions" I was just about ready to try to find a way to blast off this soon-to-be-nuked planet straight into the no-longer-active sun! (You have to hear the 3 episodes I'm talking about to know what I mean.)
Just straight-up DISMAL listening!
THEN...!!!
Joel Barker comes on, and suddenly Life looks more like the experience I recognize! :) Suddenly I am again able to believe we just may not turn this planet and all humanity into a smoking crater!
Listening to this guy talk about the bad-ass inventions and innovations that are about to happen got me thinking in a new way! I don't just mean that I'm a positive person, then overloaded myself with the negativity of others, and then was inspired back into my default setting. I mean that this cat got me thinking in a more efficient, more anything-might-be-possible way! :D
Don't believe it's possible? Check out his blog, Joel Barker's Good News!
If you find his info as inspiring as I do, be sure to go down to the bottom right of the blog and subscribe. (I did!)
PEACE!!! :D
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
Huh, Wha...?
Man, have I had a slothful weekend, lol! ;P
After a week's vacation, I sort of thought I'd probably be productive in some way these 3 days off.
However...
I spent Sunday morning/Monday night watching Total Drama Island, which was fun! (Still haven't finished the first season, though I've re-watched a few of the episodes. I tend to fall asleep to it, wake up to it, then have to back up and re-watch episodes I've slept through, lol.)
Then Monday night I scored a handful of Coast to Coast AM shows: December 23, 2008 to January 3, 2009! I haven't listened to that show since Art Bell was the host (I think), so it was really cool to be able to sort of catch up a bit. It was kind of cool, too, because the topics and guests sort of allowed me to re-experience Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year's Eve & New Year's Day (sort of). In fact, I'm just about finished listening to Part 2 of the 2009 Predictions show.
I haven't finished The Shining yet, and my friend Lisa loaned me Conversations With God, Volume 1 and a couple of Wayne Dyer CDs, The Secrets of the Power of Intention and The Secrets of an Inspirational (In-Spirit) Life, none of which have I gotten to yet. (I dig on Dyer! He's got a really bad-ass book called Change Your Thoughts -- Change Your Life in which he lives the Tao Te Ching for a year and writes essays about how his life was changed by it. Very cool!)
I also scored a copy of a history of the movement to study parapsychology called
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. Believe it or not, I didn't accidentally buy this book thinking it was a TAPS book. I figure if I'm going to explore the Other Side, it might be wise for me to know about the history of the field. (It is said that if we don't learn about our history, we are doomed to relive it.) The field has always been filled with fraud and charlatans, so it's a good idea to learn what was has gone before. Also, it's best to know what has been tried in the past and either failed or succeeded! Sometimes the best knew idea or approach is an old idea revisited with a new perspective! :)
Also, sometimes the best new fiction is a retelling of an old, forgotten story... So knowing the history of paranormal investigation could, at the very least, inspire some ideas along the lines of "What if there were a Modern-Day 'Fox Sisters' who claimed that they could communicate with the Other Side and an up-and-coming paranormal investigation team...?" I mean, I doubt I'd use the Fox Sisters because they're too well-known, but maybe there are some obscure footnote characters/incidents that could be updated into a contemporary story.
Anyway, I'm still on my Coast to Coast AM marathon, so who knows when I'll get to any of these new books. But I am enjoying a nice back-and-forth between Spirituality and Paranormal! Which, I think, is healthy. When you're studying paranormal subjects, it's so easy to get sucked into the dark side, demons and other non-human, negative entities. So looking at it from a spiritually enlightening perspective is refreshing. PLUS... It gives you a perspective to take back into the paranormal studies that can offer new theories that might help you understand what you might be dealing with.
Blah.
SHOUT OUT TO THE AMAZINGLY SEXY GNOMAGE!!! xoxoxo :D
Dude! This woman owns me, lol!!! I can't get near enough of that Gnomey goodness! <3
(Blogger should get emoticons... That "<3" heart symbol is just almost too geeky even for me, lol.)
Okay, back to my audio cave.
I'm hoping I'll be able to report some actual accomplishment of something soon, but no promises. I'm sort of "flowing" into this New Year, feeling it out. I spent a lot of last year proclaiming that 2009 was going to be my year (well, one of them...) but 2008 kind of had some teeth! (I mean, does anyone have a disposable income anymore? lol ;P ) So I think I might sort of let myself slip into the groove of this year for a week or two before I try to start asserting my will upon it.
You know what I mean, right?
PEACE!!! :D
After a week's vacation, I sort of thought I'd probably be productive in some way these 3 days off.
However...
I spent Sunday morning/Monday night watching Total Drama Island, which was fun! (Still haven't finished the first season, though I've re-watched a few of the episodes. I tend to fall asleep to it, wake up to it, then have to back up and re-watch episodes I've slept through, lol.)
Then Monday night I scored a handful of Coast to Coast AM shows: December 23, 2008 to January 3, 2009! I haven't listened to that show since Art Bell was the host (I think), so it was really cool to be able to sort of catch up a bit. It was kind of cool, too, because the topics and guests sort of allowed me to re-experience Christmas Eve, Christmas and New Year's Eve & New Year's Day (sort of). In fact, I'm just about finished listening to Part 2 of the 2009 Predictions show.
I haven't finished The Shining yet, and my friend Lisa loaned me Conversations With God, Volume 1 and a couple of Wayne Dyer CDs, The Secrets of the Power of Intention and The Secrets of an Inspirational (In-Spirit) Life, none of which have I gotten to yet. (I dig on Dyer! He's got a really bad-ass book called Change Your Thoughts -- Change Your Life in which he lives the Tao Te Ching for a year and writes essays about how his life was changed by it. Very cool!)
I also scored a copy of a history of the movement to study parapsychology called
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death. Believe it or not, I didn't accidentally buy this book thinking it was a TAPS book. I figure if I'm going to explore the Other Side, it might be wise for me to know about the history of the field. (It is said that if we don't learn about our history, we are doomed to relive it.) The field has always been filled with fraud and charlatans, so it's a good idea to learn what was has gone before. Also, it's best to know what has been tried in the past and either failed or succeeded! Sometimes the best knew idea or approach is an old idea revisited with a new perspective! :)
Also, sometimes the best new fiction is a retelling of an old, forgotten story... So knowing the history of paranormal investigation could, at the very least, inspire some ideas along the lines of "What if there were a Modern-Day 'Fox Sisters' who claimed that they could communicate with the Other Side and an up-and-coming paranormal investigation team...?" I mean, I doubt I'd use the Fox Sisters because they're too well-known, but maybe there are some obscure footnote characters/incidents that could be updated into a contemporary story.
Anyway, I'm still on my Coast to Coast AM marathon, so who knows when I'll get to any of these new books. But I am enjoying a nice back-and-forth between Spirituality and Paranormal! Which, I think, is healthy. When you're studying paranormal subjects, it's so easy to get sucked into the dark side, demons and other non-human, negative entities. So looking at it from a spiritually enlightening perspective is refreshing. PLUS... It gives you a perspective to take back into the paranormal studies that can offer new theories that might help you understand what you might be dealing with.
Blah.
SHOUT OUT TO THE AMAZINGLY SEXY GNOMAGE!!! xoxoxo :D
Dude! This woman owns me, lol!!! I can't get near enough of that Gnomey goodness! <3
(Blogger should get emoticons... That "<3" heart symbol is just almost too geeky even for me, lol.)
Okay, back to my audio cave.
I'm hoping I'll be able to report some actual accomplishment of something soon, but no promises. I'm sort of "flowing" into this New Year, feeling it out. I spent a lot of last year proclaiming that 2009 was going to be my year (well, one of them...) but 2008 kind of had some teeth! (I mean, does anyone have a disposable income anymore? lol ;P ) So I think I might sort of let myself slip into the groove of this year for a week or two before I try to start asserting my will upon it.
You know what I mean, right?
PEACE!!! :D
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Paranormal Weather...
I found this new site called Paranormal Weather, and I'm really excited about what this implies about the future of human evolution!
Mainstream science refuses to acknowledge things that go bump in the night. Many of the loudest detractors of paranormal phenomena have never been on a single investigation.
However... :)
Since you don't need a degree in physics to investigate, there are many, many smart cats out there studying the paranormal anyway, and many of them are gettin' creative! :D
There is a theory in the field that lightening storms and the like makes for more paranormal activity in a location that is normally active. The idea is that entities (ghosts or whatever) draw energy from their surroundings -- and this theory may be the explanation for the fact that batteries in flashlights and recording equipment tend to go out just before something paranormal happens, and it also may be the explanation for what are known as "cold spots," free-floating areas of surprisingly cold air that appear briefly (and often just before or during paranormal activity).
So a very clever man, Mike Hildenbrandt (not sure I spelled his name correctly; apologies if I didn't), set up the website with programs to monitor the global weather as another tool to help paranormal investigators analyze their findings!!!
Steve Gonsalves wrote an excellent article on the TAPS website called "Guarding Against Skepticism" that lays down the basics for the effective collection of evidence, and in it he points out that simply recording the same experience with more than one instrument helps to substantiate a personal experience. For example, if I'm in a reportedly haunted location and I think I feel a cold spot, that's simply a "personal experience", which translates as a cool story to tell. But if I happen to have a thermometer and record the temperature fluctuation, now I've got some evidence to back up my personal experience! If I happened to have recorded an EVP at that same time, NOW we're cookin' with gas! :)
So having a website that monitors the weather across the country (or the globe? need to check that out) can, perhaps, add yet another instrument to help investigators either verify experiences or -- hopefully -- better understand the nature of paranormal phenomena!
Friggin' BRILLIANT!!! :D
Like all things regarding the paranormal, this weather stuff is just theory at this point. (But if you talk to enough "legitimate" scientists you'll discover that mainstream science itself is still largely a collection of theoies; so hmm...)
I found out about the site from Todd Sheet's excellent podcast The Nightwatch Show. Here's the link to listen to the show online, but if you're interested you'll want to visit soon. The podcasts aren't permanent and the shows tend to go away. (They may remain available longer on iTunes, but I'm not certain.)
This news excited me, so I just thought I'd share. :)
Mainstream science refuses to acknowledge things that go bump in the night. Many of the loudest detractors of paranormal phenomena have never been on a single investigation.
However... :)
Since you don't need a degree in physics to investigate, there are many, many smart cats out there studying the paranormal anyway, and many of them are gettin' creative! :D
There is a theory in the field that lightening storms and the like makes for more paranormal activity in a location that is normally active. The idea is that entities (ghosts or whatever) draw energy from their surroundings -- and this theory may be the explanation for the fact that batteries in flashlights and recording equipment tend to go out just before something paranormal happens, and it also may be the explanation for what are known as "cold spots," free-floating areas of surprisingly cold air that appear briefly (and often just before or during paranormal activity).
So a very clever man, Mike Hildenbrandt (not sure I spelled his name correctly; apologies if I didn't), set up the website with programs to monitor the global weather as another tool to help paranormal investigators analyze their findings!!!
Steve Gonsalves wrote an excellent article on the TAPS website called "Guarding Against Skepticism" that lays down the basics for the effective collection of evidence, and in it he points out that simply recording the same experience with more than one instrument helps to substantiate a personal experience. For example, if I'm in a reportedly haunted location and I think I feel a cold spot, that's simply a "personal experience", which translates as a cool story to tell. But if I happen to have a thermometer and record the temperature fluctuation, now I've got some evidence to back up my personal experience! If I happened to have recorded an EVP at that same time, NOW we're cookin' with gas! :)
So having a website that monitors the weather across the country (or the globe? need to check that out) can, perhaps, add yet another instrument to help investigators either verify experiences or -- hopefully -- better understand the nature of paranormal phenomena!
Friggin' BRILLIANT!!! :D
Like all things regarding the paranormal, this weather stuff is just theory at this point. (But if you talk to enough "legitimate" scientists you'll discover that mainstream science itself is still largely a collection of theoies; so hmm...)
I found out about the site from Todd Sheet's excellent podcast The Nightwatch Show. Here's the link to listen to the show online, but if you're interested you'll want to visit soon. The podcasts aren't permanent and the shows tend to go away. (They may remain available longer on iTunes, but I'm not certain.)
This news excited me, so I just thought I'd share. :)
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Good Start for 2009...
My sleep schedule's been off a bit, so here's how I rang in the New Year...
I found myself wide awake around 3:00 pm New Year's Eve, and Brian & I were already in the midst of a hard-core Ghost Hunters marathon (we were watching all of Season 3; we've since moved on to the first half of Season 4), and we elected to go ahead and start our drinking early. (No plans to drive anywhere, so why not?)
I ended up crashing around 5:45 pm. But I was able to leave a message on Gnomey's voicemail, since her New Year officially began a mere 15 minutes or so later.
Brian, apparently, crashed maybe an hour later, lol.
But that wasn't the end of our New Years adventures...
I woke up around 8:45 pm to the sound of fireworks outside. I was still way-drowzy, but I thought "Cool, I can still catch some fireworks before the New Year begins."
So I got up, went out onto the porch... And mostly heard the fireworks, lol. I saw a few, but the trees surrounding our apartments mostly blocked the view.
However, my getting up woke Brian up, so we watched a few more episodes of Ghost Hunters before crashing a second time. I also managed to get the previous blog entry up before I crashed this time.
I was awakened by the sound of fireworks one more time, around midnight. But this time I wasn't able to drag myself out of bed, lol.
Woke up around 7:30 pm New Year's Day and our friend Tommy was here! :) He had brought his Wii over and he and Brian were playing. I wasn't nearly conscious enough yet to join in the games, but Brian & Tommy having fun was a nice way to wake up. I warmed up some black eyed peas, which I forced Tommy and Brian to eat with me for luck in the coming year. (It's an Edwards family tradition.)
After Tommy left, more Ghost Hunters, and then I spent much of yesterday listening to an unabridged version of The Shining while replaying levels of Tomb Raider Legends. I also managed to score the entire first season of the original Canadian version of Total Drama Island, which I converted for my iPod. (I don't know how different these episodes are from the version that aired on Cartoon Network. They may be identical, for all I know. Still...)
So I fell asleep to TDI -- much like I had when Brian & I were in Louisiana for Thanksgiving -- and now I'm up and hope to actually watch the episodes. :)
Also, this could turn out to be an exciting omen if it is any indication of how 2009 is going to go: I may be ghost-writing a memoir for a friend of a friend! :)
Being a ghost writer, I won't receive any public credit for the work, but if it's published it will get my name into publishing circles! It means that when my novel is completed, I'll have at least one person in the industry that I can show it to!
Now, I still may end up mailing it off to strangers before one of them publishes it, but it'll definitely be helpful to be able to say that I've ghost written this other manuscript out there!
It's kind of the equivalent to having sold a screenplay that someone else rewrote and getting a co-story-by credit. If it wins the OSCAR, the screenwriters (I think) get the statue, but having your name attached still give you some cache.
Now, this is all speculation at this point, but the potential is exciting! :)
Okay, I've got some more TDI to watch, and I'm feeling a bit peckish, so food, then iPod.
PEACE!!!
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D
I found myself wide awake around 3:00 pm New Year's Eve, and Brian & I were already in the midst of a hard-core Ghost Hunters marathon (we were watching all of Season 3; we've since moved on to the first half of Season 4), and we elected to go ahead and start our drinking early. (No plans to drive anywhere, so why not?)
I ended up crashing around 5:45 pm. But I was able to leave a message on Gnomey's voicemail, since her New Year officially began a mere 15 minutes or so later.
Brian, apparently, crashed maybe an hour later, lol.
But that wasn't the end of our New Years adventures...
I woke up around 8:45 pm to the sound of fireworks outside. I was still way-drowzy, but I thought "Cool, I can still catch some fireworks before the New Year begins."
So I got up, went out onto the porch... And mostly heard the fireworks, lol. I saw a few, but the trees surrounding our apartments mostly blocked the view.
However, my getting up woke Brian up, so we watched a few more episodes of Ghost Hunters before crashing a second time. I also managed to get the previous blog entry up before I crashed this time.
I was awakened by the sound of fireworks one more time, around midnight. But this time I wasn't able to drag myself out of bed, lol.
Woke up around 7:30 pm New Year's Day and our friend Tommy was here! :) He had brought his Wii over and he and Brian were playing. I wasn't nearly conscious enough yet to join in the games, but Brian & Tommy having fun was a nice way to wake up. I warmed up some black eyed peas, which I forced Tommy and Brian to eat with me for luck in the coming year. (It's an Edwards family tradition.)
After Tommy left, more Ghost Hunters, and then I spent much of yesterday listening to an unabridged version of The Shining while replaying levels of Tomb Raider Legends. I also managed to score the entire first season of the original Canadian version of Total Drama Island, which I converted for my iPod. (I don't know how different these episodes are from the version that aired on Cartoon Network. They may be identical, for all I know. Still...)
So I fell asleep to TDI -- much like I had when Brian & I were in Louisiana for Thanksgiving -- and now I'm up and hope to actually watch the episodes. :)
Also, this could turn out to be an exciting omen if it is any indication of how 2009 is going to go: I may be ghost-writing a memoir for a friend of a friend! :)
Being a ghost writer, I won't receive any public credit for the work, but if it's published it will get my name into publishing circles! It means that when my novel is completed, I'll have at least one person in the industry that I can show it to!
Now, I still may end up mailing it off to strangers before one of them publishes it, but it'll definitely be helpful to be able to say that I've ghost written this other manuscript out there!
It's kind of the equivalent to having sold a screenplay that someone else rewrote and getting a co-story-by credit. If it wins the OSCAR, the screenwriters (I think) get the statue, but having your name attached still give you some cache.
Now, this is all speculation at this point, but the potential is exciting! :)
Okay, I've got some more TDI to watch, and I'm feeling a bit peckish, so food, then iPod.
PEACE!!!
And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! :D
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