Life after death?

I think everyone wonders what really happens when we die. Most of us, however, are content to only daydream and think in very general terms of the afterlife. That definitely describes my thought process up until about two years ago. I'm not really sure when or why I became interested in the paranormal, but it has become more than a passing fancy. I think it all started when I happened across a little TV show on the SciFi network.

Ghost Hunters. This show has done so much to open my eyes to the possibilities that there might be something after death. It is produced professionally with the goal of their team being to disprove a haunting. That was refreshing to me after seeing so many shows before try to sensationalize any bump in the night as paranormal. Plus the people on the show are just everyday folks and are (to quote Jodi Foster in Maverick) just so like-able! :)

My favorite all-time Ghost Hunters episode is still the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida. They captured an apparition on film that to this day still gives me goose bumps from head to toe. (iTunes has this episode available and it is definitely worth the $1.99 fee.) There have been so many moments that have made my hair stand on end and made me want to kiss the person that invented the DVR! Amazing stuff!

I have yet to have my own "personal experience" with anything concrete and visual. And its not for lack of trying. My husband and I have collected a modest kit of ghost hunting tools and paranormal equipment. We have ventured in to a few sights hoping to capture something in audio or video format. To date, the best we have done is an interaction through a flashlight.

We were investigation in a friend's house that has been in their family for four generations. The house is thought to have been built with the wood from an old school house, if not actually just an add-on to the school house itself. The family that resides in the house has had numerous experiences with noises as well as full-bodied apparitions. Needless to say, we were ecstatic to get an opportunity to play around in that house.

My husband had set up a video camera in one of the upstairs bedrooms so we decided to investigate there first. We decided to use one of the Ghost Hunters' tricks. We unscrewed the end of our flashlight just enough to break the contact for the battery, leaving it in a state so that if you put any pressure on the end of the flashlight, it would light up. We placed the flashlight on the bed next to the video camera and began to ask questions and try to make contact with the spirits the owners felt shared their home.

About five minutes into the questioning, our video camera inexplicably turned itself off. The battery was completely drained. Just over 60 seconds later, the flashlight on the bed flickered. I grabbed my husband's hand and lost my breath for a few seconds. My brain could not comprehend what I was seeing. We began to ask questions and each time we stopped speaking, the flashlight would flicker in response. It seemed very measured and did not occur while we were speaking, but appeared to be in direct response to our inquiries.

This went on for just under three minutes. It was an amazing experience! My only regret is that we were unable to capture it on video. Our audio recorder captured our shock and disbelief at what we were seeing, but like every good skeptic... seeing is believing. Audio isn't quite good enough. Next time... next time... :)



"Houses are not haunted. We are haunted, and regardless of the architecture with which we surround ourselves, our ghosts stay with us until we ourselves are ghosts."
~ Dean Koontz, Velocity

Crossposted at theparanorm.com

So... can YOU dance?

I was sad to see American Idol come to a close. Not because I wanted to hear more Adam-worship. (If I had to hear the judges rave even one more time about yet another kooky, loud performance from Adam, I might have gone crazy. Er... craziER. :) No, I was sad to see it end because I knew it would be a few weeks of crappy filler shows from Fox while they prepared to launch their summer hit So You Think You Can Dance. The show that has made me appreciate contemporary dance (that prior to SYTYCD, I described as uncoordinated people rolling around on the floor.) and has made ballroom dancing cool again.

But... I was pleasantly surprised to see that SYTYCD was debuting the week after AI ended! Woot! Someone heard me complaining and decided to end the pain. (The pain of those listening to me whine, of course. heh)

Unlike AI, SYTYCD only tortured us with two weeks of episodes with the people who only THOUGHT they could dance, but in reality were just a trainwreck waiting to happen. It amazes me that there are still people who go on these shows without, at the very least, recording themselves 'auditioning'. I guess that would require them to be honest with themselves when watching the recorded performance ... and that's not going to happen either. *sigh* Oh well... I guess that's part of what makes these shows entertaining. The deluded people who think that they really CAN dance.

So here we are now, three weeks into the show, and tonight we will be watching the top 20 contestants perform for audience votes for the first time. Some of that will almost certainly include watching ballroom dancers murder a hip-hop routine, or a hip-hop dancer destroying a jazz number. But, if the past few years have been any indication, we will also be witness to some amazing talent! The kind that knocks your socks off!

Last year's winner, Joshua, was a great example of someone who was just born to dance. That guy could do ANYTHING! He was amazing to watch ... and holy cow... could that boy jump! And from season 2, Benji! He was a west coast swing dancer and the son of a former West Coast Swing champion. He is the first dancer that made me want to go out and sign up for classes. He always looks like he is having so much fun!

So I will be watching tonight, hoping that somewhere amongst this top 20 we will find another Joshua. Or Benji. Will you be watching? And what's your favorite part of the show? Do you LIKE the trainwrecks? :) Or tolerate them to see the real dancers?

PS... All that jabbering and I didn't even talk about the choreographers. I'm sure this won't be the last time this season that the focus of the blog will be about SYTYCD. Maybe next time it will have a more choreographic focus. =P

World of Warcraft

After watching an episode of South Park entitled Make Love Not Warcraft, my husband and I decided to enter the world of online gaming. Upon visiting WorldofWarcraft.com and reading several reviews, I remember being pretty impressed by the graphics and storyline. Coming from the world of Nintendo, adventuring with Zelda and Link, the new graphics and play-style were amazing! However, after reading a few blogs, I was hesitant to join what I was sure were going to be mobs of pimple-faced teenagers that were too nerdy to make friends with "real" people.

I have to admit, stepping into a new world, even online, was a little intimidating, but I persevered and soon learned that the online gaming community is just as diverse as the real world. I've played with a 16-year-old high school student from Canada, a 34-year-old nurse from Illinois and a 70+ retired gentleman from England. I have made friends with people I have never met face-to-face. We've shared laughs, got mad and frustrated in tense situations and shared jubilation when we conquered a tough dungeon boss.

WoW players have a language that is all their own as well. And... I found this out while trying to explain the game, and my passion for it, to my friends at work. Heh heh. They all look at me like I have four eyes when I brag about my new mount or venturing in to BRD for a holiday achievement. They all have just learned to humor me by nodding and pretending to get it.

So two years later, I have an 80 arcane mage, an 80 dual spec'd priest (shadow and holy) and a 74 destruction warlock. And still loving the game! Which I think is quite an accomplishment by Blizzard. To design a game that keeps a 34-year-old career woman intrigued for over two years is a pretty impressive feat!

I would love to hear anyone else's opinions or experiences with World of Warcraft. ... ... Its kind of like having kids. If two women (complete strangers) are in a room and they have both had kids, then they will have no problem making conversation. Its the same with WoW. If you play, you can always have lengthy conversations with complete strangers... as long as they play too. :)



"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."
~Walt Disney

The First Post

Short and sweet.... Welcome to my blog. :)

I look forward to discussing everything from family (I'm a mother of four) to politics to shopping to World of Warcraft to traveling... and everything in between. It always interests me to hear other people's opinions on varying subject matter.

And, please be respectful of other people's opinions. Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't mean they're 'wrong'. As it says on the front page of the site, sometimes we have to just agree to disagree. :)



A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
- Sir Winston Churchill