Writer’s Block: Ghost Story

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I’m skeptical, to say the least.

I do believe that there are things just outside of our perception that we know little to nothing about… but find it doubtful that ghosts (at least in the most commonly believed sense) exist – I feel pretty confident that most orb photography is dust motes or water droplets reflecting, and that all of the “ghost photos” I’ve seen were either occlusions on film or frauds.

That said – who knows what’s out in the dark? Since I have severe doubts about the existence of a soul and spirit that continues after death, what else might it be?

I believe that people have powerful wills, strong subconscious fears and imaginations – that’s probably where the bulk of most “ghosts” come from. I’ve seen things moving in the dark, been spoken to in my sleep, seen light switches flick on and off of their own accord and been sure of an unseen hand on my shoulder. All of which spooked me, none of which seem to actually contain substance outside of my noggin after looking at things in a more rational manner.

Rather than sentient beings roaming the earth, trying in vain to talk to us, I rather fancy the idea of a place or an object being psychically charged as a result of a particularly exciting and death-related event, like a war (civil war ghosts are all the rage in Maryland, it seems), murder, suicide or a mother losing her child… an imprint that replays a scene or vision over and over on a fixed location or item… or family. I feel that it’s simply fanciful thinking, no more true or likely than my having a yeti spirit guide that helps me to make the better decisions in life.

I love the idea of the ghost story, but feel in my mind and my heart that no phantoms exist outside of the minds of the living. I fear dangerous living things far more than a hand reaching out from beyond the grave to exact communication or misguided vengeance upon me or mine.

Of Course… Walpurgisnacht (Freinacht or Drudennacht) is coming, and who am I to say if the veil between our world and another won’t be made thinner at that time?


1 year ago – celtic fest w/ pics, social contract

2 years ago – poem from mm, audio books, business meeting, hand pics for BHK, sketch up, earth-friendly grenades, questions meme

3 years ago – Met the centale folks, tiki night, Laos Zombies, Country Fried Hot Rod, Nazi Monkeys, balance, courthouse disco-effect

4 years ago – playing with virtual post-its, andy back in jail

5 years ago – Free sticker, timeline post, first day at jkg, back tweak

6 years ago – newt bips a skeleton, bali music, milkshake flavors, going to the grove, Charles Bronson thoughts, breasticle nectar satisfies for only about 2 hours, going back to bus from taxi, SOP

7 years ago – Lexie is so cute!, schedule change last minute, missing her, birthday toys, BlowGeotarget

9256 – sunday

In considerable pain today, the ol’ back is acting up, and meds are making me sleepy, but not soothing much… possible making me more irritable, as well. I’m glad tomorrow at work will have the bulk of senior staff off site, depending on my mood. I suspect some of the fresh pain might be due to the changing weather… lots of rain tonight and last.

BHK took great care of me today – we watched Sweeney Todd over leftover cabbage soup and toasted cheese bagels (bhk opted for leftover Mexican food), prior to that, we did a little pre-planting of our garden – seeds of broccoli, bell pepper, zucchini and pumpkin are in small covered racks under our bench in the living room… hopefully away from prying kitty paws.

Last night’s episode of SNL noted some pretty glaring aspects of Greased Lightning (click link at own risk) – look up the lyrics to it, if you’re wondering why so few schools perform it.

BHK is making some surprise supper… smells good, but I have no idea what it is yet. [Update – it was veggie brats, kraut and green peppers! victory is mine!]

Closed the night watching a special on Pixar – how they got started, Disney issues, etc… pretty good! I knew the bulk of the tale, but it was interesting to see clips of the animations and add faces to the names I knew. BHK pointed out that Brad Bird does look a lot like the bad guy in the Incredibles – I doubt that was a coincidence.

We missed Maryland day on Saturday… so much for one of 50,000 cupcakes ! I bet Adam had a grand time, though.

Random silver spring pictures from the pda – I should’ve used this on the get-together!

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1 year ago – silver surfer pics, hot fuzz good, cheeseburger cheeseburger, wtf psp, highland festival, fabfeaux,

2 years ago – mother’s day turtles, 2nd life, weeki watchee, newtcam advert, fox on a trampoline, 4 things, poem for me, (8324)

3 years ago – time machine desires, sun and moon, shatner video, famous last words,cute icon, Rosie O’Donnell & Andie MacDowell together in a TV show(urk), I talk to Kenny Rogers, palm doodle, tattered flag, dreadlocktopknot, bus pics, brain meme, Lake City was the Promised Land, (7334)

4 years ago – vanity, knotts kids, memory meme (6625)

5 years ago – free ice cream, X-men promotion, new nickel, Tron 2.0, corpse teeth in new dentures, juliabee research tree

6 years ago – cracking corn, cannibal science, subliminal ads don’t work, Russians doing laundry, seafood fest, mall of the dead origin photo, be a superhero, bottomless pit, learning through disagreement, Grand Funk Railroad

7 years ago – big bug, Freedom city story chunks, acknowledgment of an R-rating, net issues, car memeGeotargetVisitor Map


9255 – Saturday

Garage sale across the down today after shots… Our first blush on the way to the doctor wasn’t that successful.. saw old clothes and lots of little bits of junk here and there. Quickie lunch at Mexico and then back to the town to shop. 

Our hope was to find some good furniture – nothing amazing really stood out. BHK asked what I’d want to see at my ideal yard sale… my response was a mummified monkey head, some old heathkit robots maybe, and maybe a retired super-scientist’s collection of prototype death rays and forcefield belts. 

What we did was pick up a few dvds, more than a couple of “chick lit” books, wall art, a teaching chess set, two toy robots and A ROBOT MONKEY !

We didn’t spend more than $20 total for the lot – The ‘bots were the bulk of the cost, at $4.50 each. Puzzles were a quarter, dvds a buck a pop, and books were a big bundle for $3.

Came home, chilled out and enjoyed BHK’s nom nom nommy thai cabbage soup. 

Forgot to mention that yesterday also heralded the arrival of our blue robot boy to pair up with our pink robot hula girl. The girl is cuter, but they make a fine little dancing pair.


1 year ago – calvert coworkers, 6 months thoughts, palm doodles, mr mind, pollen

2 years ago – world history, folkvine, pocket charger, jw cordon

3 years ago – Egyptian origins, clown confession, big brown bear, trix returns to simplicity, hugs, fleet week, chitchat w myid8myego, kind entry, country bears movie, human gene in rice, funeral dance, FL gun law self defense, energy crisis, Cheney & Abadullah

4 years ago – Godchecker’s Mythology Encyclopedia, Andy Griffith factoid, CS out, Cute Newt Pic

5 years ago – seafood fest, gift exchange

6 years ago – Foomy goes poof, nifty human tricks, Quick little story, full moon thoughts, Prof. Eben Norton Horsford.

7 years ago – bricolage, misc news, email tags, lj burp, uck, how to catch a polar bear, prezziesGeotargetVisitor Map

9254 – Friday –

18 month anniversary today. After work, BHK and I headed out to Silver Spring to meet up with Sirenity, Leagle_beagle555 and Chrishaas. Friendly folks and meeting was long overdue.

I forgot my camera, so I’m depending on Sirenity for picture documentation later on. We had a nice time and conversation over supper – more to follow as I think of it.



Ultraportable / subnotebook comparisons



New back drugs are – Lyrica, Cyclobenzaprine and Nabumetone. I want to do a bit more research on ’em before I take them. Nabumetone in particular had a lot of nasty, scary warnings in the information text.

I am glad that they’re not habit-forming, and have a lot of pretty decent write-ups so far.


Dell will be offering Windows XP pre-installed on their computers past the June 30 cut-off date. Computers purchased with Vista Business or Vista Ultimate past June 30 will come with a copy of XP Pro. Dell plans to simply install that copy upon request to save users a step. Perhaps this will help Microsoft officials make up their minds about another extension.


According to F-Secure, over 500,000 webservers across the world, including some from the United Nations and UK government, have been victims of a SQL injection. The attack uses an SQL injection to reroute clients to a malicious javascript at nmidahena.com, aspder.com or nihaorr1.com, which use another set of exploits to install a Trojan on the client’s computer. As per usual, Firefox users with NoScript should be safe from the client exploit, but server admins should be alert for the server-side injection. Brian Krebs has a decent writeup on his Washington Post Security Blog, Dynamoo has a list of some of the high-profile sites that has been hacked, and for fun you can watch some of the IIS admins run around in circles at one of the many IIS forums on the ‘net.



I need to remember that free comic book day is coming May 3… next weekend! Will I forget? Probably. But it’s exciting to not write it down anywhere else and then rediscover. I wonder what loot Aardvark will have for us? I hope issues of Gumby and Hellboy (and maybe an Iron Man heroclix figure?) will be left.

I should scope out umbrella academy – probably my fave freebie book from last time – I could go for a trade paperback, if available.



Just so you know – I have never, ever pistol-whipped anyone, dear journal. Please don’t make me change that situation.


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