Check it out:
Euro Milliones Lottery-Soccer World Cup 2010 Promotional Draw
1550 Princess Street Kingston,
ON, Canada, K7M 9E3,AFRSA680
Ref: EAAL/851OYHI/07 Batch No. Ontario 49. http://www.canada.com/findit/lotteries/results.aspx?id=8
Attn: Winner,
The Canadian Government sponsors of this lottery for the promotion of the 2010 Soccer World cup to be hosted In South Africa. We happily announce to you the draw of the Euro-Afro-American Sweepstake Lottery International Programs held on the February 14th 2009 in Essex United Kingdom and Ontario Canada. Your email address attached to Ticket Number: 050-074-702-279, with Serial Number 73632 drew the winning Numbers (15 19 27 28 35 46 ) with a bonus Number (10) for Ontario 49 under the choice of the lottery in the 2nd Category of bi -weekly six.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$950,000.00(Nine Hundred And Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) in cash credited to file EAAL/9080118308/07.
This is from a Total cash prize of US$11,100,000.00 Million dollars, shared amongst the first One Hundred and Thirty (130) lucky Winners in this category Worldwide.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our Afro booklet representative office in Spain as Indicated in your play coupon, because this particular draw was selected to promote the 2010 World Cup to be Hosted in South Africa hence your winning information must be kept to enable you participate in our subsequent Draws which will see 500 participants traveling on an all expense paid trip to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup 2010. In view of this, your US$950,000.00 (Nine Hundred And Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) would be released to you by an accredited commercial Bank in Spain.
Our Spanish agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact our Spanish Agent's office.
All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draws system and extracted from Over 10.000,00 companies and personal e-mails. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by unscrupulous elements. Please be warned! To file for your claim, please contact our corresponding Agent in Spain immediately you Read this message for quick and urgent release of your fund, Contact information is as follows:
EL PEREZ SEGUROS S.A
Dr.VA OS SENDER,
FOREIGN SERVICE MANAGER
ADDRESS:AVD.DEL PETROLEO 222,POLIG.
MADRID SPAIN.
TEL: +34-660972206
E-MAIL:elbaco22@gmail.com
To avoid unnecessary Delays and complications. Please quote your reference numbers in any correspondences with our designated agents.Congratulations! Once more from all members and staff of this program that has ensured that you won this Competition.
Thank you for being part of our Promotional Lottery program.Furthermore,should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.
Mrs. Johanne brunet
(Lottery coordinator)
Can you believe my amazing luck?!!
And to think... My silly email program stuck this very important email in my Spam folder! I might have missed out on my US$950,000.00 if I hadn't chanced to check my Spam folder just to make sure an old friend hadn't sent me an email.
But wait, there's something puzzling that I don't understand...
It appears this blogger received the EXACT SAME EMAIL.
Hmm...
Puzzling. Especially since we both seem to have the exact same winning lottery numbers, and the exact same serial number (an item that one would imagine would be unique)!
But wait a minute...
The URL up above says it's linking to www.canada.com/blahblahblah, and yet if you click on the link it takes you to www2.canada.com/blahblahblah.
Why would the URL, the link that's going to reassure me this isn't the latest variation on the old International Lottery Scam say it's taking me to one site, but actually take me to another?
Curious...
Anyway, I'd better contact my Agent in Spain before time runs out!
;P
Btw, I'm not supposed to tell anyone about my winnings until after I've claimed my prize, so sshhhhhhh...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
5 MORE DAYS...!!!
This Saturday, my li'l bro' Brian and I will be in Yorktown, Texas!
"Why," you ask?
WE'RE INVESTIGATING AN ASYLUM!!! :D
Yes, our first actual investigation will be Yorktown Memorial Asylum and Hospital! More exciting is the fact that we will be trained on-the-job, so to speak, by TSPI! My first investigation, I'll get the benefit of learning from a group as reputable as TAPS themselves! I feel comfortable saying that because Texas Spirits now has a North Texas chapter! In fact, if you go to TSPI's Investigations page, you'll see that they've not only investigated all around the Austin area, but some of the famous haunted locations like Waverly Hills and the Stanely! AND THIS IS WHOM I'M LEARNING FROM!!! :D (Um... maybe it's "from whom I'm learning"... you get the drift.)
And check this out: I just added a new podcast to my list: Hollow Hill podcast. (How many people do you know that can skillfully use 2 colons in such a short sentence?) I was searching for yet another paranormal podcast to supplement my voracious thirst for knowledge, and I discovered this podcast by a Fiona Broome. The clincher, though, was that a couple of the podcasts are about AUSTIN! And I'm like, "Hmm... What are the odds...?"
Then the name tweaks my memory...
Fiona Broome is the author of my Austin ghost-guide, Austin Ghosts: Who They Are And Where To Find Them!
She's got a podcast!
And what's even cooler is that most of the podcasts seem to be aimed at beginning-level investigators. There are several that answer some practical questions I've had this past few days, as I ponder what the Yorktown investigation will be like. I don't mind being the newbie and asking what may turn out to be dumb questions, but ya know... If I can find the answers myself and spare my teammates the headache, so much the better, lol. ;P
And I'm telling you, as someone who doesn't believe in "coincidences" (other than the mathematical meaning, which is the quality of occupying the same position or area in space, lol) this choice to actually full-on get serious about exploring the paranormal seems to be the right direction for me. Okay, first off, I mentioned my two long-time friends who, after I tell them that I'm seriously investigating the paranormal, reveal to me that they have "something" in their homes. Then there's my friend, who manages hotels, who reveals that both the hotels he's run have had multiple entities. Well just this morning a co-worker that I rarely see mentions "You're taking next week off, right?" And I tell him it's just the weekend, and that I'm going ghost hunting. And that opens the door to this very deep, very earnest conversation about his personal, spiritual experiences! You work with someone for a decade or more and you get the sense that you know them... Then you tell them you're studying the paranormal, and the share this whole other side of themselves!
So much has happened in this very short span of time since I decided to turn my armchair study of the unexplained into an active exploration!
And I'm not even in Yorktown yet! :D
Not to hype my first investighation too much, though. Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson (among others, but I'm a fan-boy by nature and I'm definitely a huge TAPS fan!) have stated repeatedly that about 20% of locations reported to be haunted have paranormal activity. And a TSPI teammate equated ghost hunting with fishing -- you cast your line, wait, reel it back in, cast it again, wait, and so on until you get a bite... if you do.
What I'm excited about here is the opportunity! :D
I've been in "spooky" places before. In fact, I clearly recall visiting my grandparents, and debunking my first ghost! The adults were all gathered around the front porch of "Gramps & Big Mamma's" old Bronte, Texas home. I'm maybe 11. Some of my younger cousins and I are creeping around the outside of the dark house with a flashlight I had probably just gotten for Christmas or my birthday, and we stop at a side window. I shoot the flashlight beam through the dusty pane, shining it throughout the living room of the house. The beam scans the chandelier, the walls, the floor, then I raise it up higher to find...
A PAIR OF BLUE EYES RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, STARING RIGHT AT ME!!!
I jump and scream, and all us kids scatter!
As they all giggled and chattered at our little horror adventure, I think I remember swearing that I had seen a pair of eyes...
...and then it occured to me what had happened...
The light had bounced off the glass when the flashlight beam hit a certain angle, and reflected onto my own face. I can remember that image perfectly vividly to this day, and the eyes that scared the bejeezus out of me are, without any doubt, my own eyes, lol. Down to the last eyelash.
But the point is that every time I've been in one of those places that gave me the creeps, I was always seeing them through either the eyes of a guy who was afraid something might jump out at me, or the eyes of a man who knew there was nothing that could jump out at me. This will be the first time I'm seeing it through (in a sense) both sets of eyes.
Think of it this way: You remember your first kiss? Well what would the experience be like if you could go back, understanding now what you so did not then and re-experience it? Imagine you could not just kiss better, but you could savor the significance of this very moment, the person who shared this with you, the You that you would never know again... I've been reading, writing, watching Horror since I was a teen, but never able to recapture the magic I felt reading my first book of True Ghost Stories. My first investigation will, I suspect, be some sort of seminal First for me. It almost has to be more boring than I imagine, and also probably more exciting, but in different ways than I can anticipate. But imagine experiencing a personal First with the life-perspective to truly appreciate it!
The closest I've come is watching "old" movies with my daughter when she was younger. (Most of the things you do with your kids give you a glimpse of that.) You know this flick backwards and forwards because you loved it so much and watched it over and over again. But seeing it with your child, for her first time, it's almost like you get to see it for the first time again. It's not the same, because you know she comes from a different world from you, and is experiencing it differently than you did. But it's still a First. :)
But skulking through an asylum that was closed back in 1986 with the eyes of an explorer searching for information for the FIRST TIME... Especially after reading about other Indiana Jones-es for 27 years! Now I'm actually going to be out there doing it! I will actually be a part of it!
I don't expect to find the Holy Grail, but the SEARCH will no doubt be AMAZING! :)
Buddhists don't believe the destination is the Way, because the destination is almost always in the Future. Buddhists believe that the PATH is the Way, because the path is always, always NOW.
And (drastically shifting gears)...
To tide me over until Saturday night is Now, I have an incredibly geeky thrill...
Tim Weisberg of Spooky Southcoast gave me a shout-out Saturday night!!! :D
I kid you not! He actually said "I wanna send [a shout-out] to our friend Ray Jay"!!! You can hear it for yourself here, the 2-21-09 broadcast, about 50 or 55 minutes into the show! (After that, go to the show's Archives page and listen to the episode from December in which they discuss their investigation of Fearing Tavern! Very cool!)
This is just ridiculously cool to me!!! In 2007 when I got my iPod, I discovered that you could acquire INFORMATION to listen to any time/any where. And some of the information I wanted was about the paranormal. I wanted me some true-life ghost stories to hopefully inspire some scary tales of my own. (I was all about writing Horror at this time, viewing the supernatural as a possible premise for a fictional story.) It didn't take many episodes for me to become addicted; I needed my SSc fix! So I plowed through the podcast archives, enjoying marathon sessions of past episodes to tide me over until this week's episode hit iTunes.
And how could you NOT love these guys?!! You have Tim Weisberg, the "everyman" host who acted the roll of just some guy who happens to be into the paranormal, lucked out, and got himself a radio show on which he could entertain his curiosity. But when the conversation gets heated, you realize he knows a LOT more than he takes credit for; in fact, he's read everything YOU have, AND THEN SOME, lol!
Then there's the "Silent Assassin", Matt Costa. He's too cool for words, lol. He doesn't say much, so when he speaks, you listen! He's apparently the Man Behind the Scenes, the guy who somehow makes it all happen. AND, he's also the skeptic! The fact that Tim believes it doesn't mean Matt's buyin' any of it. This creates an intriguing dynamic, because the Silent Assassin wouldn't be there if he weren't open to the ideas the show broadcasts; and yet, he isn't necessarily "a believer"... Hmm... You almost HAVE TO tune in every episode! Will Tim and Matt agree or disagree? Whose argument will win out? (I'm exaggerating the drama, of course, They're both gentlemen and -- like us and our friends who have differing views -- could never come to blows over something as insubstantial as an idea, lol.)
But let's not forget Science Adviser, Matt Moniz! He, too, is the silent-and-mysterious type. He's the rock-star guitarist to this figurative Alt band. (The Spooky Crew might prefer to be compared to a Punk band or a long-lasting Metal band, but it's my blog and I like Evanescence, so what can you do?) If the Silent Assassin is both the drums and the bass, and Tim Weisberg is the lead singer, then yes, Mr. Moniz is definitely the lead guitasrist. He let's Matt and this week's guest vocalist (to continue the metaphor perhaps a bit too far) belt out the episodes anthems, but when the time is just right, the Science Adviser belts out his solo, then is quite again! lol :D (Okay, I should probably be embarassed now at how ridiculous the metaphor has gotten now! But it still holds up fairly well, lol.) Matt Moniz is a research scientist who has also seriously researched the paranormal for a couple of decades. He's a serious researcher with some serious experience, and when he steps into the conversation you get a glimpse of just how much this cat really knows! And yet, you also get this sense that he doesn't spend his life in a lab coat or in a library vestibule. You almost get a mental image of Matt Moniz browsing a Kindle 2 as he scarfs down a greasy cheeseburger on the back of his Harley somewhere in between Pheonix and Roswell, lol.
All three of these guys seem to play themselves down while, when the conversation gets going, they reveal hints of their true depths.
Throw in, on top of the thoroughly likeable Sppoky Crew, enlightened examinations of Cryptids, UFOlogy and all things paranormal, and how can you NOT become addicted to such a show?!
But the best part: It's REAL! Not "Reality TV" real, but REAL! These cats did an uncensored episode from Tim's backyard wherein they just lay themselves bare, say "This is who I am" and it syncs with who you suspect they are from their on-air "personas". These are just dudes interested in what you're interested in, and they want to give you the information they, themselves, want to hear!
So Spooky Southcoast was my main life-line to the Unexplained for a while (and still my favorite). And they kept having these guests from this group called The Atlantic Paranormal Society. And, it seems, these TAPS cats were on this TV show that more and more of my friends were talking about. You may have heard of it?
So I decided to watch the show.
And before long I was a fan-boy of Jason & Grant, as well, lol. ;P Dude, ALL of them! Steve, Tango, Brian, Dustin, Kristyn and Kris, Joe, Britt, Barry, Carl and Keith... ALL of them! (Well, you know... all of them that have appeard on Ghost Hunters or Ghost Hunters International... There are a lot of TAPS members who just work cases, out of the spotlight.)
But it was like these people who have spent years of their life researching a field were, unlike most purely academic types, not merely lecturing to me, they were inviting me -- insignificant ME -- to come join them in the research! COME! Join the fun! I'm not just talking the Sppoky Crew here, but also TAPS and many, many of the guests on Spooky Southcoast and Beyond Reality Radio. It was as though the "old pros" were inviting me (much like the Budha, come to think of it) to not simply take their word for it, but come see for myself! :D Just bring your common sense and your own perspective/experience to the party, and let's exchange notes afterwards.
And now I'm gonna investigate a haunted asylum, lol. ;P
Dude! I DID NOT mean this to be an Epic here, lol. But it's my "Friday" (I have the next 3 days off work) and I can go to sleep whenever I want and stay asleep as long as I like, so what the hell, right? ;P
Listen, if you've stumbled onto this blog and haven't heard Spooky Southcoast yet, I promise you'll have a good time! And these guys care about their fans!!! The very first time I blogged about them, Tim left me a comment on my blog entry thanking me for the kind words! I mean, Me! My blog! I'm not famous, I'm not "important" in anyway! I'm just a fan-boy type who dug on their show and wanted to spread the word! But the "lead singer" (going back to the previous, already over-wrought metaphor) dropped me a kind word in person!
By the way, I just feel I should state that the above fan-boy worship of Spooky Southcoast isn't an attempt to get my name on the radio again, lol. (It's recorded, I have it on mp3 and can listen to it as many times as I want, lol.) It's sincere appreciation of some hard-working folks who do an amazing job! (Plus, I admit, now that I know Tim's Google Reader will likely flag this entry, I'm kind of hoping to give him and the guys a chuckle, lol.) But every word (and exclamation point and smiley-face and parenthetic aside) is heart-felt.
And for what it's worth...
If there's something out there calling to you to get involved, my humble 38 years of life-experience suggests you go do it.
Like, NOW, lol!
:)
"Why," you ask?
WE'RE INVESTIGATING AN ASYLUM!!! :D
Yes, our first actual investigation will be Yorktown Memorial Asylum and Hospital! More exciting is the fact that we will be trained on-the-job, so to speak, by TSPI! My first investigation, I'll get the benefit of learning from a group as reputable as TAPS themselves! I feel comfortable saying that because Texas Spirits now has a North Texas chapter! In fact, if you go to TSPI's Investigations page, you'll see that they've not only investigated all around the Austin area, but some of the famous haunted locations like Waverly Hills and the Stanely! AND THIS IS WHOM I'M LEARNING FROM!!! :D (Um... maybe it's "from whom I'm learning"... you get the drift.)
And check this out: I just added a new podcast to my list: Hollow Hill podcast. (How many people do you know that can skillfully use 2 colons in such a short sentence?) I was searching for yet another paranormal podcast to supplement my voracious thirst for knowledge, and I discovered this podcast by a Fiona Broome. The clincher, though, was that a couple of the podcasts are about AUSTIN! And I'm like, "Hmm... What are the odds...?"
Then the name tweaks my memory...
Fiona Broome is the author of my Austin ghost-guide, Austin Ghosts: Who They Are And Where To Find Them!
She's got a podcast!
And what's even cooler is that most of the podcasts seem to be aimed at beginning-level investigators. There are several that answer some practical questions I've had this past few days, as I ponder what the Yorktown investigation will be like. I don't mind being the newbie and asking what may turn out to be dumb questions, but ya know... If I can find the answers myself and spare my teammates the headache, so much the better, lol. ;P
And I'm telling you, as someone who doesn't believe in "coincidences" (other than the mathematical meaning, which is the quality of occupying the same position or area in space, lol) this choice to actually full-on get serious about exploring the paranormal seems to be the right direction for me. Okay, first off, I mentioned my two long-time friends who, after I tell them that I'm seriously investigating the paranormal, reveal to me that they have "something" in their homes. Then there's my friend, who manages hotels, who reveals that both the hotels he's run have had multiple entities. Well just this morning a co-worker that I rarely see mentions "You're taking next week off, right?" And I tell him it's just the weekend, and that I'm going ghost hunting. And that opens the door to this very deep, very earnest conversation about his personal, spiritual experiences! You work with someone for a decade or more and you get the sense that you know them... Then you tell them you're studying the paranormal, and the share this whole other side of themselves!
So much has happened in this very short span of time since I decided to turn my armchair study of the unexplained into an active exploration!
And I'm not even in Yorktown yet! :D
Not to hype my first investighation too much, though. Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson (among others, but I'm a fan-boy by nature and I'm definitely a huge TAPS fan!) have stated repeatedly that about 20% of locations reported to be haunted have paranormal activity. And a TSPI teammate equated ghost hunting with fishing -- you cast your line, wait, reel it back in, cast it again, wait, and so on until you get a bite... if you do.
What I'm excited about here is the opportunity! :D
I've been in "spooky" places before. In fact, I clearly recall visiting my grandparents, and debunking my first ghost! The adults were all gathered around the front porch of "Gramps & Big Mamma's" old Bronte, Texas home. I'm maybe 11. Some of my younger cousins and I are creeping around the outside of the dark house with a flashlight I had probably just gotten for Christmas or my birthday, and we stop at a side window. I shoot the flashlight beam through the dusty pane, shining it throughout the living room of the house. The beam scans the chandelier, the walls, the floor, then I raise it up higher to find...
A PAIR OF BLUE EYES RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, STARING RIGHT AT ME!!!
I jump and scream, and all us kids scatter!
As they all giggled and chattered at our little horror adventure, I think I remember swearing that I had seen a pair of eyes...
...and then it occured to me what had happened...
The light had bounced off the glass when the flashlight beam hit a certain angle, and reflected onto my own face. I can remember that image perfectly vividly to this day, and the eyes that scared the bejeezus out of me are, without any doubt, my own eyes, lol. Down to the last eyelash.
But the point is that every time I've been in one of those places that gave me the creeps, I was always seeing them through either the eyes of a guy who was afraid something might jump out at me, or the eyes of a man who knew there was nothing that could jump out at me. This will be the first time I'm seeing it through (in a sense) both sets of eyes.
Think of it this way: You remember your first kiss? Well what would the experience be like if you could go back, understanding now what you so did not then and re-experience it? Imagine you could not just kiss better, but you could savor the significance of this very moment, the person who shared this with you, the You that you would never know again... I've been reading, writing, watching Horror since I was a teen, but never able to recapture the magic I felt reading my first book of True Ghost Stories. My first investigation will, I suspect, be some sort of seminal First for me. It almost has to be more boring than I imagine, and also probably more exciting, but in different ways than I can anticipate. But imagine experiencing a personal First with the life-perspective to truly appreciate it!
The closest I've come is watching "old" movies with my daughter when she was younger. (Most of the things you do with your kids give you a glimpse of that.) You know this flick backwards and forwards because you loved it so much and watched it over and over again. But seeing it with your child, for her first time, it's almost like you get to see it for the first time again. It's not the same, because you know she comes from a different world from you, and is experiencing it differently than you did. But it's still a First. :)
But skulking through an asylum that was closed back in 1986 with the eyes of an explorer searching for information for the FIRST TIME... Especially after reading about other Indiana Jones-es for 27 years! Now I'm actually going to be out there doing it! I will actually be a part of it!
I don't expect to find the Holy Grail, but the SEARCH will no doubt be AMAZING! :)
Buddhists don't believe the destination is the Way, because the destination is almost always in the Future. Buddhists believe that the PATH is the Way, because the path is always, always NOW.
And (drastically shifting gears)...
To tide me over until Saturday night is Now, I have an incredibly geeky thrill...
Tim Weisberg of Spooky Southcoast gave me a shout-out Saturday night!!! :D
I kid you not! He actually said "I wanna send [a shout-out] to our friend Ray Jay"!!! You can hear it for yourself here, the 2-21-09 broadcast, about 50 or 55 minutes into the show! (After that, go to the show's Archives page and listen to the episode from December in which they discuss their investigation of Fearing Tavern! Very cool!)
This is just ridiculously cool to me!!! In 2007 when I got my iPod, I discovered that you could acquire INFORMATION to listen to any time/any where. And some of the information I wanted was about the paranormal. I wanted me some true-life ghost stories to hopefully inspire some scary tales of my own. (I was all about writing Horror at this time, viewing the supernatural as a possible premise for a fictional story.) It didn't take many episodes for me to become addicted; I needed my SSc fix! So I plowed through the podcast archives, enjoying marathon sessions of past episodes to tide me over until this week's episode hit iTunes.
And how could you NOT love these guys?!! You have Tim Weisberg, the "everyman" host who acted the roll of just some guy who happens to be into the paranormal, lucked out, and got himself a radio show on which he could entertain his curiosity. But when the conversation gets heated, you realize he knows a LOT more than he takes credit for; in fact, he's read everything YOU have, AND THEN SOME, lol!
Then there's the "Silent Assassin", Matt Costa. He's too cool for words, lol. He doesn't say much, so when he speaks, you listen! He's apparently the Man Behind the Scenes, the guy who somehow makes it all happen. AND, he's also the skeptic! The fact that Tim believes it doesn't mean Matt's buyin' any of it. This creates an intriguing dynamic, because the Silent Assassin wouldn't be there if he weren't open to the ideas the show broadcasts; and yet, he isn't necessarily "a believer"... Hmm... You almost HAVE TO tune in every episode! Will Tim and Matt agree or disagree? Whose argument will win out? (I'm exaggerating the drama, of course, They're both gentlemen and -- like us and our friends who have differing views -- could never come to blows over something as insubstantial as an idea, lol.)
But let's not forget Science Adviser, Matt Moniz! He, too, is the silent-and-mysterious type. He's the rock-star guitarist to this figurative Alt band. (The Spooky Crew might prefer to be compared to a Punk band or a long-lasting Metal band, but it's my blog and I like Evanescence, so what can you do?) If the Silent Assassin is both the drums and the bass, and Tim Weisberg is the lead singer, then yes, Mr. Moniz is definitely the lead guitasrist. He let's Matt and this week's guest vocalist (to continue the metaphor perhaps a bit too far) belt out the episodes anthems, but when the time is just right, the Science Adviser belts out his solo, then is quite again! lol :D (Okay, I should probably be embarassed now at how ridiculous the metaphor has gotten now! But it still holds up fairly well, lol.) Matt Moniz is a research scientist who has also seriously researched the paranormal for a couple of decades. He's a serious researcher with some serious experience, and when he steps into the conversation you get a glimpse of just how much this cat really knows! And yet, you also get this sense that he doesn't spend his life in a lab coat or in a library vestibule. You almost get a mental image of Matt Moniz browsing a Kindle 2 as he scarfs down a greasy cheeseburger on the back of his Harley somewhere in between Pheonix and Roswell, lol.
All three of these guys seem to play themselves down while, when the conversation gets going, they reveal hints of their true depths.
Throw in, on top of the thoroughly likeable Sppoky Crew, enlightened examinations of Cryptids, UFOlogy and all things paranormal, and how can you NOT become addicted to such a show?!
But the best part: It's REAL! Not "Reality TV" real, but REAL! These cats did an uncensored episode from Tim's backyard wherein they just lay themselves bare, say "This is who I am" and it syncs with who you suspect they are from their on-air "personas". These are just dudes interested in what you're interested in, and they want to give you the information they, themselves, want to hear!
So Spooky Southcoast was my main life-line to the Unexplained for a while (and still my favorite). And they kept having these guests from this group called The Atlantic Paranormal Society. And, it seems, these TAPS cats were on this TV show that more and more of my friends were talking about. You may have heard of it?
So I decided to watch the show.
And before long I was a fan-boy of Jason & Grant, as well, lol. ;P Dude, ALL of them! Steve, Tango, Brian, Dustin, Kristyn and Kris, Joe, Britt, Barry, Carl and Keith... ALL of them! (Well, you know... all of them that have appeard on Ghost Hunters or Ghost Hunters International... There are a lot of TAPS members who just work cases, out of the spotlight.)
But it was like these people who have spent years of their life researching a field were, unlike most purely academic types, not merely lecturing to me, they were inviting me -- insignificant ME -- to come join them in the research! COME! Join the fun! I'm not just talking the Sppoky Crew here, but also TAPS and many, many of the guests on Spooky Southcoast and Beyond Reality Radio. It was as though the "old pros" were inviting me (much like the Budha, come to think of it) to not simply take their word for it, but come see for myself! :D Just bring your common sense and your own perspective/experience to the party, and let's exchange notes afterwards.
And now I'm gonna investigate a haunted asylum, lol. ;P
Dude! I DID NOT mean this to be an Epic here, lol. But it's my "Friday" (I have the next 3 days off work) and I can go to sleep whenever I want and stay asleep as long as I like, so what the hell, right? ;P
Listen, if you've stumbled onto this blog and haven't heard Spooky Southcoast yet, I promise you'll have a good time! And these guys care about their fans!!! The very first time I blogged about them, Tim left me a comment on my blog entry thanking me for the kind words! I mean, Me! My blog! I'm not famous, I'm not "important" in anyway! I'm just a fan-boy type who dug on their show and wanted to spread the word! But the "lead singer" (going back to the previous, already over-wrought metaphor) dropped me a kind word in person!
By the way, I just feel I should state that the above fan-boy worship of Spooky Southcoast isn't an attempt to get my name on the radio again, lol. (It's recorded, I have it on mp3 and can listen to it as many times as I want, lol.) It's sincere appreciation of some hard-working folks who do an amazing job! (Plus, I admit, now that I know Tim's Google Reader will likely flag this entry, I'm kind of hoping to give him and the guys a chuckle, lol.) But every word (and exclamation point and smiley-face and parenthetic aside) is heart-felt.
And for what it's worth...
If there's something out there calling to you to get involved, my humble 38 years of life-experience suggests you go do it.
Like, NOW, lol!
:)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
It's A Good Weekend...
I don't think I can really ask for anything more from this weekend. I started it off with some valuable research my last 2 days of work. The research Sunday was interrupted by a pleasantly surprising visit from an old, dear friend who shared his personal ghost stories from the hotels he has managed! :D (If you're a fan of Fawlty Towers you know that one of the things you have to deal with when you manage a hotel is the corpses of expired guests; you may not know, however, that another thing you have to deal with is ghosts.)
Then I took a break and slept most of Monday, lol.
Had some homemade burritos Tuesday and got to watch the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still on my iPod. Then I wrapped yesterday up by staying up late, putting my 2 days of research to use and created 2 Central Texas towns (and their histories) and a ghost for my screenplay! :D (The ghost, by the way, is of my own creation, not inspired by my friend's true-life tales from his hotels. I'll use one of two of those in some future story, though, no doubt.)
Then today, the last day of my weekend, is close to half-over, and I've just finished Quantum of Solace which was really good. I mean, as my friend Lothar warned me, it's not Casino Royale, but I think it's really good. This new crew is concerned more with story than spectacle -- a new tack with Bond, and not unwelcome -- but they don't short-change us on the action!!! ;)
Very interesting flick.
I look forward to seeing where the Bond franchise goes from here! It's like they're carefully redefining the series, and I like the shape it appears to be taking.
Now I need to decide whether to return to Total Drama Island or maybe watch Groundhog Day, which I now have on my iPod, and which I haven't seen in YEARS.
I could do some writing, too... but we'll see. I've been not forcing the writing thing, and I really like what's been coming out of my keyboard. So we'll see where the creative "flow" takes me...
Meanwhile, have you seen Dollhouse yet? ;P
Then I took a break and slept most of Monday, lol.
Had some homemade burritos Tuesday and got to watch the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still on my iPod. Then I wrapped yesterday up by staying up late, putting my 2 days of research to use and created 2 Central Texas towns (and their histories) and a ghost for my screenplay! :D (The ghost, by the way, is of my own creation, not inspired by my friend's true-life tales from his hotels. I'll use one of two of those in some future story, though, no doubt.)
Then today, the last day of my weekend, is close to half-over, and I've just finished Quantum of Solace which was really good. I mean, as my friend Lothar warned me, it's not Casino Royale, but I think it's really good. This new crew is concerned more with story than spectacle -- a new tack with Bond, and not unwelcome -- but they don't short-change us on the action!!! ;)
Very interesting flick.
I look forward to seeing where the Bond franchise goes from here! It's like they're carefully redefining the series, and I like the shape it appears to be taking.
Now I need to decide whether to return to Total Drama Island or maybe watch Groundhog Day, which I now have on my iPod, and which I haven't seen in YEARS.
I could do some writing, too... but we'll see. I've been not forcing the writing thing, and I really like what's been coming out of my keyboard. So we'll see where the creative "flow" takes me...
Meanwhile, have you seen Dollhouse yet? ;P
Monday, February 16, 2009
DOLLHOUSE!!! :D
Okay, I am a card-carrying Whedon-phile. (Back at the turn of this century there was an official Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan club and I was a registered member. I have a card. I have changed wallets 2 times since I became a member and my card has been transferred to the new wallet both times. My membership number was 000402600000168. I shit you not.) I admit this freely and without being under duress of any kind.
I just saw Joss' new project, the pilot episode for Dollhouse, called "Ghost", and it is frickin' brilliant!!!
Better still, IT'S ON HULU!!! :D
Now, if you're not familiar with Joss' work, you may wonder what I'm going on about...
Joss Whedon is the creator of the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly as well as the writer/director of the amazing movie Serenity.
He is constantly referred to as a writing god, but he's more than that... He's a STORY-TELLING GOD! He knows not only how to write amazing characters in amazing situations, but he also knows how to translate those characters/situations onto the screen ("big" or "small"... or comic book) in a way that excites, entices and THRILLS us! :D
This morning I watched the pilot for Dollhouse starring -- and produced by -- Eliza Dushku, and I am THRILLED to know that the ride has begun again!!! :D
Here's the thing...
If you're not familiar with the awesome power of the Whedon, you could (conceivably) watch the pilot, "Ghost", for Dollhouse and wonder "What's all the fuss about?" In which case I would ask if you had watched the series Firefly on DVD, including the 2-hour pilot.
See... I felt the pilot (called, interestingly enough, "Serenity") for Firefly was rather a long-ish, drawn-out way of introducing the characters and situations... But only compared to the following episodes (and feature-length film) themselves. The show Firefly is AN AMAZINGLY MOVING AND THRILLING journey through a possible Future Life of humanity!
So now, when I watch a Whedon pilot episode, I can see not only what is before me -- in the case of Dollhouse, this is an enthralling story with characters and actors whom I LONG TO continue watching -- but also the potential for what probably lies ahead! :D
I'll be honest... I ADORE J. J. Abrams... I loved Felicity, Alias, LOST (which so rules the world!!!) and Mission Impossible III. (And I, like all loyal Trekkies, can't wait for the latest installment of Star Trek!!! Abrams was probably the PERFECT man to helm this flick!!!) But I watched the first 3 or 4 episodes of Fringe and I haven't been drawn to watch another episode since. The actors are AMAZING and the writing is solid... but...
Look, let's be real... I wasn't into the pilot episode of Alias because it took me to a place I had no interest in being. And the next few episodes didn't make the same "mistake" (I put that word in quotation marks because the enjoyment of a story is so subjective as to, functionally, negate any judgement passed by any viewer) on the next handful of episodes. But it wasn't until about the half-way mark of Season 2 that Mr. Abrams blew me completely away and made me a die-hard Alias fan.
That considered, I have no doubt that when Fringe comes out on DVD I'll watch it and become addicted (that's a prediction, mind you; please feel free to check back in 8 months or so and see if my blog entries aren't all about the god-hood of J. J. Abrams) to the show.
However...
Mr. Whedon's track record is much more clear.
Give him a pilot episode (preferably a 2-hour pilot story, granted) to warm you up and he'll have you eating out of his hand until the Network cancels the show or the cast's salaries become too high, lol!
So my prediction is that by Episode 4, Dollhouse will be the buzz, and everyone will -- once again -- be worshipping by the Whedon alters, lol. ;P
I had fun watching this show!!!
I was thrown into a very confusing world, compelled by the sheer beauty and acting prowess of Ms. Eliza Dusku, and by the end I was THRILLED by the story possibilities that lay ahead!
All in approximately 45 minutes!
So, if you haven't seen Dollhouse yet, please follow this link and check it out for yourself! :)
If you're really unsure, wait 2 weeks so you can watch several episodes at a time. I seriously doubt you'll be disappointed! :)
One more thought...
To My Gnomey-Goddess, who has made my Valentines Day and the past 3 years an AMAZING JOURNEY: I LOVE YOU SWEETY, AND ALWAYS WILL!!! xoxoxo :D (My god, this woman is ASTOUNDING in so many ways! I kid you not!!!)
Now, go watch Dollhouse and have yourself a GREAT TIME! :)
I just saw Joss' new project, the pilot episode for Dollhouse, called "Ghost", and it is frickin' brilliant!!!
Better still, IT'S ON HULU!!! :D
Now, if you're not familiar with Joss' work, you may wonder what I'm going on about...
Joss Whedon is the creator of the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly as well as the writer/director of the amazing movie Serenity.
He is constantly referred to as a writing god, but he's more than that... He's a STORY-TELLING GOD! He knows not only how to write amazing characters in amazing situations, but he also knows how to translate those characters/situations onto the screen ("big" or "small"... or comic book) in a way that excites, entices and THRILLS us! :D
This morning I watched the pilot for Dollhouse starring -- and produced by -- Eliza Dushku, and I am THRILLED to know that the ride has begun again!!! :D
Here's the thing...
If you're not familiar with the awesome power of the Whedon, you could (conceivably) watch the pilot, "Ghost", for Dollhouse and wonder "What's all the fuss about?" In which case I would ask if you had watched the series Firefly on DVD, including the 2-hour pilot.
See... I felt the pilot (called, interestingly enough, "Serenity") for Firefly was rather a long-ish, drawn-out way of introducing the characters and situations... But only compared to the following episodes (and feature-length film) themselves. The show Firefly is AN AMAZINGLY MOVING AND THRILLING journey through a possible Future Life of humanity!
So now, when I watch a Whedon pilot episode, I can see not only what is before me -- in the case of Dollhouse, this is an enthralling story with characters and actors whom I LONG TO continue watching -- but also the potential for what probably lies ahead! :D
I'll be honest... I ADORE J. J. Abrams... I loved Felicity, Alias, LOST (which so rules the world!!!) and Mission Impossible III. (And I, like all loyal Trekkies, can't wait for the latest installment of Star Trek!!! Abrams was probably the PERFECT man to helm this flick!!!) But I watched the first 3 or 4 episodes of Fringe and I haven't been drawn to watch another episode since. The actors are AMAZING and the writing is solid... but...
Look, let's be real... I wasn't into the pilot episode of Alias because it took me to a place I had no interest in being. And the next few episodes didn't make the same "mistake" (I put that word in quotation marks because the enjoyment of a story is so subjective as to, functionally, negate any judgement passed by any viewer) on the next handful of episodes. But it wasn't until about the half-way mark of Season 2 that Mr. Abrams blew me completely away and made me a die-hard Alias fan.
That considered, I have no doubt that when Fringe comes out on DVD I'll watch it and become addicted (that's a prediction, mind you; please feel free to check back in 8 months or so and see if my blog entries aren't all about the god-hood of J. J. Abrams) to the show.
However...
Mr. Whedon's track record is much more clear.
Give him a pilot episode (preferably a 2-hour pilot story, granted) to warm you up and he'll have you eating out of his hand until the Network cancels the show or the cast's salaries become too high, lol!
So my prediction is that by Episode 4, Dollhouse will be the buzz, and everyone will -- once again -- be worshipping by the Whedon alters, lol. ;P
I had fun watching this show!!!
I was thrown into a very confusing world, compelled by the sheer beauty and acting prowess of Ms. Eliza Dusku, and by the end I was THRILLED by the story possibilities that lay ahead!
All in approximately 45 minutes!
So, if you haven't seen Dollhouse yet, please follow this link and check it out for yourself! :)
If you're really unsure, wait 2 weeks so you can watch several episodes at a time. I seriously doubt you'll be disappointed! :)
One more thought...
To My Gnomey-Goddess, who has made my Valentines Day and the past 3 years an AMAZING JOURNEY: I LOVE YOU SWEETY, AND ALWAYS WILL!!! xoxoxo :D (My god, this woman is ASTOUNDING in so many ways! I kid you not!!!)
Now, go watch Dollhouse and have yourself a GREAT TIME! :)
Saturday, February 14, 2009
HELP! Toss A Rope Down The Rabbit Hole...!
I got this inspiration earlier this evening...
I simply sketch out the storyline for 4 major characters in the screenplay Brian & I are developing. That way I know what moments have to be in the script, and I can thereby compose the overall structure of the story.
My Genius Friend Dave (an animator) compares it to Key-Pose animation that allows me to then animate Pose-To-Pose. It's an excellent description! It's a little like putting together the corners and then the border of a jigsaw puzzle, then working on the inside of the picture. (That's a much weaker analogy, but it's more universal.)
Easy enough, right?
So I create my files for each of my major characters and get a paragraph or two written to start myself off...
Then I hit one technical detail in one storyline that needs a bit of research...
2.5 hours later, I don't have the technical answers I'm looking for, but I know a great deal more about peripheral topics pertaining to my specific subject matter.
:(
I mean, the peripheral knowledge will probably serve me well sometime in the future. But I feel like I sort of lost 2 1/2 hours, lol. And I didn't gain the specific knowledge I set out for!
Bleh... what are ya gonna do?
Hey, My Genius Friend Dave tipped me off to a SPECTACULAR way to kill some time!!! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles online!!! You can read the ORIGINAL comic books -- those works of pure genius that started it ALL -- at NinjaTurtle.com!!! :D
See, you probably don't understand: The TNMT animated TV series (plural; '87-'96 and '97-'98), the resultant Archie Comics comic book series, the early-90s movies, even the very EXCELLENT 2007 movie ARE NOT the ACTUAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Although, the 2007 movie is the closest translation so far!) The REAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can only be found in the pages of the original Eastman & Laird indy comics put out by Mirage Studios!
I know. I am old enough to have been there from the start. I read the original issues long before the first animated series was created (which came before the first movie) and I remember the world of the Ninja Turtles before people started editing their language, changing the color of their masks (they originall all wore red masks) and just generally watered-down, dumbed-down and tarted-up the franchise.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that other interpretations of the TMNT aren't good, or don't at least have their merits (except for the TV series and the Archie Comics series -- seriously, wtf were they thinking?!!), but I definitely believe that reading the original comics has a spirit and entertainment value uniquely its own! :D
Like reading the original, Ben-Edlund-written The Tick comic books! The animated series was GREAT, as was the brilliant live-action TV series starring Patrick Warburton!!! But the original Ben Edlund comics (the first 12 issues of the series) were brilliant in a way that is unique, even to the other, Edlund-produced versions. (But New England Comics -- or Edlund, whoever controls the rights to the original 12 issues -- has yet to recreate the comics online, so I can't point you to a website for them. The only way to read them is to buy them, and in these times I'm not trying to persuade anyone to buy anything, lol.)
Oy!
With this blog entry, I appear to be slipping down a different rabbit hole, lol. ;P
I should wrap-up and get back to work.
If you have time, though, go read some of the original TMNT comics! I'll bet you're not disappointed! :D
I simply sketch out the storyline for 4 major characters in the screenplay Brian & I are developing. That way I know what moments have to be in the script, and I can thereby compose the overall structure of the story.
My Genius Friend Dave (an animator) compares it to Key-Pose animation that allows me to then animate Pose-To-Pose. It's an excellent description! It's a little like putting together the corners and then the border of a jigsaw puzzle, then working on the inside of the picture. (That's a much weaker analogy, but it's more universal.)
Easy enough, right?
So I create my files for each of my major characters and get a paragraph or two written to start myself off...
Then I hit one technical detail in one storyline that needs a bit of research...
2.5 hours later, I don't have the technical answers I'm looking for, but I know a great deal more about peripheral topics pertaining to my specific subject matter.
:(
I mean, the peripheral knowledge will probably serve me well sometime in the future. But I feel like I sort of lost 2 1/2 hours, lol. And I didn't gain the specific knowledge I set out for!
Bleh... what are ya gonna do?
Hey, My Genius Friend Dave tipped me off to a SPECTACULAR way to kill some time!!! The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles online!!! You can read the ORIGINAL comic books -- those works of pure genius that started it ALL -- at NinjaTurtle.com!!! :D
See, you probably don't understand: The TNMT animated TV series (plural; '87-'96 and '97-'98), the resultant Archie Comics comic book series, the early-90s movies, even the very EXCELLENT 2007 movie ARE NOT the ACTUAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. (Although, the 2007 movie is the closest translation so far!) The REAL Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can only be found in the pages of the original Eastman & Laird indy comics put out by Mirage Studios!
I know. I am old enough to have been there from the start. I read the original issues long before the first animated series was created (which came before the first movie) and I remember the world of the Ninja Turtles before people started editing their language, changing the color of their masks (they originall all wore red masks) and just generally watered-down, dumbed-down and tarted-up the franchise.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that other interpretations of the TMNT aren't good, or don't at least have their merits (except for the TV series and the Archie Comics series -- seriously, wtf were they thinking?!!), but I definitely believe that reading the original comics has a spirit and entertainment value uniquely its own! :D
Like reading the original, Ben-Edlund-written The Tick comic books! The animated series was GREAT, as was the brilliant live-action TV series starring Patrick Warburton!!! But the original Ben Edlund comics (the first 12 issues of the series) were brilliant in a way that is unique, even to the other, Edlund-produced versions. (But New England Comics -- or Edlund, whoever controls the rights to the original 12 issues -- has yet to recreate the comics online, so I can't point you to a website for them. The only way to read them is to buy them, and in these times I'm not trying to persuade anyone to buy anything, lol.)
Oy!
With this blog entry, I appear to be slipping down a different rabbit hole, lol. ;P
I should wrap-up and get back to work.
If you have time, though, go read some of the original TMNT comics! I'll bet you're not disappointed! :D
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
It's Friday the 13th!
Do you know where your carousing teenagers are? Mwu-ha-ha-haaa!
I probably won't be able to see this re-imagining of the '80s slasher classic until DVD, but it looks like a lot of fun! I'm excited, if for no other reason that I grew up with Jason Voorhees. Probably my best Halloween costume ever was this Jason outfit I threw together one year. (I paid maybe $5 for a white, durable plastic hockey mask and maybe $2 for red electrical tape to make the designs on the mask with. Then maybe another $1 for a bald wig. Try to put together a decent -- not even great, just decent -- Jason Voorhees costumes nowadays and see how much you spend. *sigh*)
Still, I'm having a great week so far!
Wednesday I got my official Texas Spirits work short!!! :D It's all official looking and pretty! :)
And then today, when I woke up, Brian had grabbed the mail and I had received our red LED conversion packs!
See, since TAPS Family member groups do things the TAPS way, that means we investigate with the lights off. But you need a flashlight to check out stuff, such as the readings on your EMF meter, or whether or not that was another investigator you just saw move in that corner over there. But -- and this is something I had never considered before, since I've never been ghost hunting yet -- you don't want to use white light, because that screws up your night vision. Your eyes have to readjust to the white light when you turn the flashlight on, then re-readjust back to the darkness when you turn it off. However, apparently, red light doesn't force your eyes to do all that readjusting.
So last Friday, I believe, I woke up 3 hours before I needed to be at work, so I ran around to all the nearest stores that might possibly sell red bulbs for MiniMags (2 AA batteries, easy to transport, reliable Maglight flashlights). I spent the 2 1/2 hours I had at my disposal and came up with NADA!
So after I got settled in at work, I went online to see if maybe I can find something for a reasonable price. AND DID I! For less than $35 I could have purchased a couple of LED flashlights that can alter between red, green and white light. I'd like to point out here that the difference between LED flashlights and halogen light (the type of bulb MiniMags use) is like the difference between your car's high beams and your car's low beams, respectively. LED is just a MUCH more powerful light. AND, ironically, LED bulbs require less battery power, and last longer! So I was willing to make Brian's and my MiniMags pointless by purchasing a pair of these multi-colored LED flashlights. BUT THEN...! I scroll down further on the page and find these little converter kits for $10 each! They replace the MiniMag's halogen bulb with 3 red LED bulbs! And in doing so, they extend the life of the 2 AAs in your MiniMag! So you get the reliability of the Maglight with all the bennefits of an LED flashlight!
And those arrived in the mail today! :)
So I'm a happy little ghost hunter. ;)
Also, this week's episode of Nightwatch is about H. P. Lovecraft during the first half, and the last half was an interview with David J. Pitkin, a very cool author whom I love listening to in interviews!
Now, if only I could find 3 friends who believe they may have a ghost in their house to invite me to investigate this coming Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I would just be a blissed-out mess, lol. Actually, I guess a single investigation on Monday night would be wise, because there is a rule-of-thumb equation for reviewing evidence which is: 1 hour of investigation time = 3 1/2 hours of evidence review time. So if we investigate on Monday, we've got Tuesday and Wednesday to review what we've recorded.
Blah.
Okay, just fantasizing now, lol.
DUDE!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!! xoxoxo
And Happy Valentine's Day to anyone reading this! I hope this Valentine's Day finds you feeling deeply loved and appreciated!!! I wish like hell I could spend this Valentine's Day with my True Love, but I know she loves me and I suspect she has an inkling of how much I love her! ;) But I hope EVERYONE feels loved this year! Whether you're with your loved one, whether you have a loved one, I hope everyone FEELS LOVED! Because I think we all are -- each and every one of us -- loved by many, many people, and we just forget it from time to time. So I'm hoping VD 2009 we all mysteriously, inexplicably FEEL how loved we are, even if we don't understand where that feeling is coming from!
I know, I sound all gay and stuff, but that might be a groovy, groovy experience, yeah?
I probably won't be able to see this re-imagining of the '80s slasher classic until DVD, but it looks like a lot of fun! I'm excited, if for no other reason that I grew up with Jason Voorhees. Probably my best Halloween costume ever was this Jason outfit I threw together one year. (I paid maybe $5 for a white, durable plastic hockey mask and maybe $2 for red electrical tape to make the designs on the mask with. Then maybe another $1 for a bald wig. Try to put together a decent -- not even great, just decent -- Jason Voorhees costumes nowadays and see how much you spend. *sigh*)
Still, I'm having a great week so far!
Wednesday I got my official Texas Spirits work short!!! :D It's all official looking and pretty! :)
And then today, when I woke up, Brian had grabbed the mail and I had received our red LED conversion packs!
See, since TAPS Family member groups do things the TAPS way, that means we investigate with the lights off. But you need a flashlight to check out stuff, such as the readings on your EMF meter, or whether or not that was another investigator you just saw move in that corner over there. But -- and this is something I had never considered before, since I've never been ghost hunting yet -- you don't want to use white light, because that screws up your night vision. Your eyes have to readjust to the white light when you turn the flashlight on, then re-readjust back to the darkness when you turn it off. However, apparently, red light doesn't force your eyes to do all that readjusting.
So last Friday, I believe, I woke up 3 hours before I needed to be at work, so I ran around to all the nearest stores that might possibly sell red bulbs for MiniMags (2 AA batteries, easy to transport, reliable Maglight flashlights). I spent the 2 1/2 hours I had at my disposal and came up with NADA!
So after I got settled in at work, I went online to see if maybe I can find something for a reasonable price. AND DID I! For less than $35 I could have purchased a couple of LED flashlights that can alter between red, green and white light. I'd like to point out here that the difference between LED flashlights and halogen light (the type of bulb MiniMags use) is like the difference between your car's high beams and your car's low beams, respectively. LED is just a MUCH more powerful light. AND, ironically, LED bulbs require less battery power, and last longer! So I was willing to make Brian's and my MiniMags pointless by purchasing a pair of these multi-colored LED flashlights. BUT THEN...! I scroll down further on the page and find these little converter kits for $10 each! They replace the MiniMag's halogen bulb with 3 red LED bulbs! And in doing so, they extend the life of the 2 AAs in your MiniMag! So you get the reliability of the Maglight with all the bennefits of an LED flashlight!
And those arrived in the mail today! :)
So I'm a happy little ghost hunter. ;)
Also, this week's episode of Nightwatch is about H. P. Lovecraft during the first half, and the last half was an interview with David J. Pitkin, a very cool author whom I love listening to in interviews!
Now, if only I could find 3 friends who believe they may have a ghost in their house to invite me to investigate this coming Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I would just be a blissed-out mess, lol. Actually, I guess a single investigation on Monday night would be wise, because there is a rule-of-thumb equation for reviewing evidence which is: 1 hour of investigation time = 3 1/2 hours of evidence review time. So if we investigate on Monday, we've got Tuesday and Wednesday to review what we've recorded.
Blah.
Okay, just fantasizing now, lol.
DUDE!
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!! xoxoxo
And Happy Valentine's Day to anyone reading this! I hope this Valentine's Day finds you feeling deeply loved and appreciated!!! I wish like hell I could spend this Valentine's Day with my True Love, but I know she loves me and I suspect she has an inkling of how much I love her! ;) But I hope EVERYONE feels loved this year! Whether you're with your loved one, whether you have a loved one, I hope everyone FEELS LOVED! Because I think we all are -- each and every one of us -- loved by many, many people, and we just forget it from time to time. So I'm hoping VD 2009 we all mysteriously, inexplicably FEEL how loved we are, even if we don't understand where that feeling is coming from!
I know, I sound all gay and stuff, but that might be a groovy, groovy experience, yeah?
Monday, February 02, 2009
HOLY SCHNIKIES...!!!
Did you see the Superbowl Halftime Monsters vs. Aliens 3D commercial?!!
Actually, when I arrived at work I had already missed Halftime, so I didn't see it...
...but...
Since I had the free 3D glasses, and since NBC programming is often repeated on Hulu, I decided to check the Net and see if maybe the 3D trailer was available...
I glanced through Hulu's TV directory and didn't see anything titled "Superbowl Spots" or "Monsters vs. Aliens Superbowl Spot" or anything, so I just Goggled "Monsters vs. Aliens 3D". This lead me to their site where the "New Superbowl trailer" was available to watch.
I got to the page, and the trailer started up immediately... but it wasn't in 3-D. :(
BUT THEN...
I noticed a button offering for me to view the trailer in 3-D!!! :D
I clicked it, and it took me to a page that blew my mind!!!
The page had that double-vision effect that let's you know you're looking at a 3-D image without your glasses. But what was curious was that I was looking at a YELLOW-ISH image overlapping a PURPLE-ISH image!
If you're a fan of 3-D you know that the 2nd oldest way to view a three-dimensional image is a process called anaglyph. (The oldest way is called "stereoscopic" and it works the same way View-Masters work.)
This process simulated the way our eyes produce the perception of depth -- one eye sees one image and the other eye sees a very similar but slightly different image, and the brain combines those two images to create an image in three dimensions (hieght, width and depth -- by overlapping a blue image over a red image.
The viewer then dons a pair of glasses with a red lense and a blue lense. The red lense makes the red image look white to that eye, and similtaneously makes all the blue in the image appear black to the eye. The blue lense does the oposite. Thereby, one eye sees one black-and-white image and the other eye sees a very similar but slightly different image, and the brain puts them together into a three-dimensional image.
... a black-and-white image three-dimensional.
This used to work just fine, because just about all movies and images were in b/w. People were simply used to looking at b/w photos and films.
When film went to color, 3-D film producers came up with a new way called "polarization". But the mechanics of this process don't work on a single-projector system, like a TV broadcast, so in the '80s when a TV network wanted to cash in on the 3-D revival, they were forced to broadcast b/w 3-D movies.
Because anaglyph 3-D only creates depth with b/w images. The only colors the eye can be allowed to view through the anaglyph glasses are white, blue and red. The reason is simple: Red colors are made to turn white in the red lense, blue colors are made to turn white in the blue lenses, and every other color does whatever the hell it's going to do in either lense.
So if you're looking at an anaglyph image that is created by simply putting a blue and red filter over the right-eye and left-eye images, you're actually seeing three images. All the additional colors create a third image that exists somewhere in between the right-eye image and the left-eye image.
In effect, the images overlap with the glasses on just as they do when you're looking at the image without the glasses. The only difference is that you get this sort of ghost of a 3-D image when you're wearing the glasses. It's like your looking at a 3-D image AND you're looking at a flat image AS WELL. If you have a copy of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D at home, you know the effect I'm talking about.
And at first TV stations understood this and only broadcast b/w 3-D movies like The Mask (the original) and Gorilla at Large. Bad movies, to be sure, and the 3-D never worked ideally because you could never get your TV's color adjusted to that color-synchronization screen they threw up before the movie, BUT... it was 3-D! :)
But then, apparently, folks just lost their damn minds, and TV started broadcasting "3-D" movies in color! It sucked the worst! It wasn't 3-D! It was lame it it hurt your eyes and it was just too annoying to sit through! I mean, I hear people complain that 3-D -- real 3-D, the stuff that works -- gives them a headache and just is too annoying to deal with. But I have never experienced such discomfort from an actual, effective 3-D process! But this anaglyph-from-full-color-images crap was just worhtless!!!
(Yes, I'm throwing a temper tantrum, but as a 3-D addict, I have every right to!)
Okay, so...
The Superbowl last night...
I go to the Monsters vs. Aliens website, and I see that the color image is made up of a yellowish image overlapping a purple-ish image...
:O
So I immediately throw my 3-D glasses on to have a look...
...and...
IT'S REALLY IN 3-D!!!
IT'S IN COLOR, BUT IT'S ALSO IN 3-D!!! :D
So I eagerly watch the movie trailer, and giggle with delight as I watch a 3-D trailer online!
The geniuses, these brilliant, brilliant people at Dreamworks have somehow figured out a way to use the anaglyph process with full-color images in such a way that each eye only sees a single image!!! The way 3-D works!!! :D
I watched the trailer maybe 5 times! :)
And then I had to come online and tell you about it!
If you haven't yet, get yourself a pair of the free 3-D glasses, then hop over to the Monsters vs. Aliens website and watch you a REAL 3-D movie trailer!!!
If you're like me, you may enjoy simply staring at the real 3-D image on the download page for a while, lol. :)
Actually, when I arrived at work I had already missed Halftime, so I didn't see it...
...but...
Since I had the free 3D glasses, and since NBC programming is often repeated on Hulu, I decided to check the Net and see if maybe the 3D trailer was available...
I glanced through Hulu's TV directory and didn't see anything titled "Superbowl Spots" or "Monsters vs. Aliens Superbowl Spot" or anything, so I just Goggled "Monsters vs. Aliens 3D". This lead me to their site where the "New Superbowl trailer" was available to watch.
I got to the page, and the trailer started up immediately... but it wasn't in 3-D. :(
BUT THEN...
I noticed a button offering for me to view the trailer in 3-D!!! :D
I clicked it, and it took me to a page that blew my mind!!!
The page had that double-vision effect that let's you know you're looking at a 3-D image without your glasses. But what was curious was that I was looking at a YELLOW-ISH image overlapping a PURPLE-ISH image!
If you're a fan of 3-D you know that the 2nd oldest way to view a three-dimensional image is a process called anaglyph. (The oldest way is called "stereoscopic" and it works the same way View-Masters work.)
This process simulated the way our eyes produce the perception of depth -- one eye sees one image and the other eye sees a very similar but slightly different image, and the brain combines those two images to create an image in three dimensions (hieght, width and depth -- by overlapping a blue image over a red image.
The viewer then dons a pair of glasses with a red lense and a blue lense. The red lense makes the red image look white to that eye, and similtaneously makes all the blue in the image appear black to the eye. The blue lense does the oposite. Thereby, one eye sees one black-and-white image and the other eye sees a very similar but slightly different image, and the brain puts them together into a three-dimensional image.
... a black-and-white image three-dimensional.
This used to work just fine, because just about all movies and images were in b/w. People were simply used to looking at b/w photos and films.
When film went to color, 3-D film producers came up with a new way called "polarization". But the mechanics of this process don't work on a single-projector system, like a TV broadcast, so in the '80s when a TV network wanted to cash in on the 3-D revival, they were forced to broadcast b/w 3-D movies.
Because anaglyph 3-D only creates depth with b/w images. The only colors the eye can be allowed to view through the anaglyph glasses are white, blue and red. The reason is simple: Red colors are made to turn white in the red lense, blue colors are made to turn white in the blue lenses, and every other color does whatever the hell it's going to do in either lense.
So if you're looking at an anaglyph image that is created by simply putting a blue and red filter over the right-eye and left-eye images, you're actually seeing three images. All the additional colors create a third image that exists somewhere in between the right-eye image and the left-eye image.
In effect, the images overlap with the glasses on just as they do when you're looking at the image without the glasses. The only difference is that you get this sort of ghost of a 3-D image when you're wearing the glasses. It's like your looking at a 3-D image AND you're looking at a flat image AS WELL. If you have a copy of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D at home, you know the effect I'm talking about.
And at first TV stations understood this and only broadcast b/w 3-D movies like The Mask (the original) and Gorilla at Large. Bad movies, to be sure, and the 3-D never worked ideally because you could never get your TV's color adjusted to that color-synchronization screen they threw up before the movie, BUT... it was 3-D! :)
But then, apparently, folks just lost their damn minds, and TV started broadcasting "3-D" movies in color! It sucked the worst! It wasn't 3-D! It was lame it it hurt your eyes and it was just too annoying to sit through! I mean, I hear people complain that 3-D -- real 3-D, the stuff that works -- gives them a headache and just is too annoying to deal with. But I have never experienced such discomfort from an actual, effective 3-D process! But this anaglyph-from-full-color-images crap was just worhtless!!!
(Yes, I'm throwing a temper tantrum, but as a 3-D addict, I have every right to!)
Okay, so...
The Superbowl last night...
I go to the Monsters vs. Aliens website, and I see that the color image is made up of a yellowish image overlapping a purple-ish image...
:O
So I immediately throw my 3-D glasses on to have a look...
...and...
IT'S REALLY IN 3-D!!!
IT'S IN COLOR, BUT IT'S ALSO IN 3-D!!! :D
So I eagerly watch the movie trailer, and giggle with delight as I watch a 3-D trailer online!
The geniuses, these brilliant, brilliant people at Dreamworks have somehow figured out a way to use the anaglyph process with full-color images in such a way that each eye only sees a single image!!! The way 3-D works!!! :D
I watched the trailer maybe 5 times! :)
And then I had to come online and tell you about it!
If you haven't yet, get yourself a pair of the free 3-D glasses, then hop over to the Monsters vs. Aliens website and watch you a REAL 3-D movie trailer!!!
If you're like me, you may enjoy simply staring at the real 3-D image on the download page for a while, lol. :)
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Superbowl Sunday 2009
My Sunday ("Friday night" for me, as I have the next 3 days off) is starting off quite nicely! :)
It started off with some LOST with Brian -- he's rewatching Season 3. He mentioned that at work this morning, someone asked him who was playing and he got "a feeling" that Pitsberg will win.
On my way to work I stop by the store, thinking about what I might buy to take to work to eat, and I get a call from my friend Delma telling me that there's plenty of food at work for me, and bring a drink if I want something to drink.
Free food... BRILLIANT!
I get into work and find a sweet spread with Fajita fixings and rosted things and barbequed things and tortillas everywhere...!
It was truly a beautiful sight for any Texas man! :)
Also, I get in and find that the Steelers are ahead! So Brian's "feeling" may prove correct! :)
I'm not a Sports Guy... Just never gotten into it... (Which makes me quite odd here in Tejas, natch, since we -- as a state -- are as fanatical about American Football as the rest of the planet is about their Football.) But the party spirit present her right now and the possibility of seeing my li'l bro's quasi-premonition come true makes this kind of a fun Superbowl. :)
Uh-oh...
I just heard a collective yell of triumph and looked up at the score, and the Cards are now leading the Steelers...
This could be interesting, hee-hee. ;P
It started off with some LOST with Brian -- he's rewatching Season 3. He mentioned that at work this morning, someone asked him who was playing and he got "a feeling" that Pitsberg will win.
On my way to work I stop by the store, thinking about what I might buy to take to work to eat, and I get a call from my friend Delma telling me that there's plenty of food at work for me, and bring a drink if I want something to drink.
Free food... BRILLIANT!
I get into work and find a sweet spread with Fajita fixings and rosted things and barbequed things and tortillas everywhere...!
It was truly a beautiful sight for any Texas man! :)
Also, I get in and find that the Steelers are ahead! So Brian's "feeling" may prove correct! :)
I'm not a Sports Guy... Just never gotten into it... (Which makes me quite odd here in Tejas, natch, since we -- as a state -- are as fanatical about American Football as the rest of the planet is about their Football.) But the party spirit present her right now and the possibility of seeing my li'l bro's quasi-premonition come true makes this kind of a fun Superbowl. :)
Uh-oh...
I just heard a collective yell of triumph and looked up at the score, and the Cards are now leading the Steelers...
This could be interesting, hee-hee. ;P
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