My Huckleberry Friend

The Rules

2010-08-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

I've heard mention of rules lately, especially with a group of friends the other night. Over the past year I've started to develop my own set of rules. I first got the idea after watching an episode of NCIS where the main character Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon) had a list of rules which he lived by. I liked the idea and looked up on-line to see said list of rules. I decided to borrow some as they made sense, but most of these are of my own that I learned from experience. One through three I follow the most (the third one is from NCIS), but I quote Number 12 quite often (which is also from NCIS with an amendment by me) as it should be followed to avoid drama in life. Now Gibbs has fifty one but I'm stuck on twenty nine.

Here they are:

Rule #1 Always treat others as you would have them treat you.

Rule #2 Never assume others will follow Rule #1

Rule #3 Don't believe what you are told. Double check.

Rule #4 Never be unreachable.

Rule #5 Best way to keep a secret is to keep it to yourself.

Rule #6 Never say you're sorry, it's a sign of weakness.

Rule #7 Always be specific when you lie.

Rule #8 Never take anything for granted.

Rule #9 Never go anywhere without a knife.

Rule #10 The less that is said, the better.

Rule #11 When the job is done, walk away.

Rule #12 Never date a co-worker or a mutual friend.

Rule #13 Never discuss religion or politics at the work place.

Rule #14 No matter how good you are, eventually there will be someone better.

Rule #15 Always work as a team. No one person can do it alone.

Rule #16 Respect my personal space.

Rule #17 Always be aware of your surroundings.

Rule #18 It's better to seek forgiveness then to ask permission.

Rule #19 Learn to anticipate. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Rule #20 Keep your mouth shut at all times less you make an ass of your self.

Rule #21 Never let anyone tell you that you cannot do something.

Rule #22. Always be the better person. you will always come out on top in the end.

Rule #23 Never mess with my coffee.

Rule #24 Respect is earned, not given.

Rule #25 If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Rule #26 Never let fear control you.

Rule #27 It's over when you say it's over.

Rule #27 Always have a back up.

Rule #28 There is no such thing as coincidence.

Rule #29 If it seems someone is out to get you, they are.

Iron Man swede

2008-08-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

There's a film festival coming up next Saturday and part of it is having people submit sweded movies. What a sweded movie is, is a reanactment of a movie or scene in your own vision. It comes from the movie Be Kind Rewind where they had to create movies with very little resources.

I decided to do Iron Man as I wanted to do something recent and something that hadn't already been done on YouTube. Sure there's a sweded trailer and someone sweded the first part, but mine is the only complete film, including the after credits part. The movie had to be under five minutes and I'm pretty proud that I was able to get the entire movie done with two seconds to spare.

Gotta thank my sister Brittany and her friend Katie, they helped me with filming and acting most of the parts out.

With out further adieu here's the swede.

National Weekend

2008-07-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well the weekend is winding down even though I have Monday off. Friday the 4th was pretty uneventful. Since my girlfriend had to work both that day and on Saturday I decided to make use of a free movie pass and go see Iron Man for the fifth time. I mean it was a pretty American film of sorts. I mean rich billionaire playboy creates his own exo-suit to kick ass, how much more American can you get? I was suprised the theater was about half full. I was expecting to just be myself (which I was hoping).

Saturday was much better. I had won four tickets to the Fresno Grizzlies game on Sat. and I invited two of my girlfriend and I's friends whom we hadn't seen in a while. The game was good, bit boring though as it was a pitcher's duel and all the runs were scored off home runs. The best part was afterwards there was a fireworks show. This was especially nice since I hadn't seen any fireworks on the 4th. I took a bunch of photos, I'll try to post them in a different post as soon as I am done sorting them.

Today I haven't done much besides play World of Warcraft and watch an internet broadcast of a haunted investigation they do every Sunday from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm PST. The site is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-wolfe-show.

Tomorrow I may see Wall-E with my sister. Waiting to hear back from her.

I wish I had a life.....two years later

2008-07-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I'm fricken addicted to World of Warcraft. Which is even more sad since the major craze was about two years ago. But of course I had dial up for so long I couldn't get it. So I've spent the last week or so playing at least 4 hours a day (well except for last night cause I was with my girlfriend). Even worse I created a character with her name. Yeah I'm sad.

Blah Blah Blog

2008-06-28T12:51:00.000-07:00

Don't really have a subject for this post, but I'm trying to stay in the habit of writing to this blog. Past few days have been both good and interesting.

First off the Fresno State Bulldogs won the College World Series which is great for both the school and community. The school had been hit with some huge sexual lawsuits lately from former coaches and it was such negative news, that hearing Fresno on ESPN in a positive way. Things did get a bit out of hand though, people calling it the greatest upset in sports ever (um Miracle on Ice anyone?) and there was an interesting debate on the Fresno Bee's website about this. It remained mostly civil (note I say mostly).

Friday I took my sister to see Indy, as she had been wanting to see it for a while. I was afraid I wasn't going to like it that much the second time, as it didn't really meet my expectations the first time. Suprsingly I enjoyed it again, watching it for what it was, a popcorn flick.

After that I went back to my mom's to watch Be Kind Rewind with my sister. There is a chance of a swede film festival in August and I wanted her to get an idea of what a swede is. I've been working on banging out a few ideas for X Men.

Not sure about today. Just playing WoW and maybe seeing my girlfriend later.

Underdog Wonderdogs

2008-06-24T23:37:00.000-07:00

I'm not much of a college baseball fan, but the fact that Fresno State is in the College World Series final has me watching the games. They are playing the University of Georgia. State lost yesterday, but today came back and destroyed Georgia. Which means tomorrow is game three and it's all for nothing. It would be one of the biggest upsets in NCAA just due to the fact that State isn't even ranked and weren't supposed to win their regional, let alone get this far.

It's nice for once for Fresno State to be getting some positve publicity. They are the talk of ESPN right now and it's been all positive. I hope Fresno win tomorrow, but I know I speak for everyone when I say that I'm proud of them for getting as far as they have. But I know they will win. Go Dogs!!!

Bye Chris

2008-06-23T23:44:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda bummed. A good friend of mine is leaving for New Jersey at the end of the week. It will be good for him as he will be near both family and friends as well as having his job in Philidelphia. Thankfully though we'll still keep in touch, both on phone as well as e-mail. I also decided to get World of Warcraft (since I know have a high speed connection) so we can do some on-line gaming. Who knows, maybe he'll come back one day. Still good luck Chris, I'll miss ya.

Saturday night recap

2008-06-22T17:50:00.000-07:00

I was at the haunted Wolfe Manor (formerly the Andleberry Estate) on Saturday helping with a paranormal class. It was soooooo damn hot while I was there (from around 9:00 to 11:00), especially inside the house. The house is old, was built around the 1920's with no insulation and old style windows. Was at least 90 degrees in there, probably worse on the second floor where I was actually sweating. I don't really think anything happened, I still need to go over the photos I took so who knows. It was so damn hot in there that something may have happened and I just didn't care. Though I thought I did see something out of the corner of my eye, a figure, but like I said who knows.

I left around 11:00 as my friend Chris, who is moving away, is having a going away party over his friend Ron's house (it was his birthday as well). Didn't stay too long after Chris left. I'll probably do something with him this week before he leaves.

Swede!!

2008-06-20T22:12:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Be Kind Rewind, which didn't have much fanfare when it hit theaters early this year but it's been getting a lot of buzz (at least around home) lately. The plot of the story is that Mos Def's character works in a VHS rental store owned by Danny Glover. Glover goes on away on a sabbatical trying to figure a way to save his store from demolition and leaves Def in charge. Unfortunately Def's best friend, played by Jack Black gets magnetized and erases all the tapes. So for most of the movie they remake movies that people request in their own way. It's called sweding, because they are from Sweden (they take a long time to make and are expensive). Well apparently the concept of sweding is catching on and even one of my co-workers has been in one.

I mentioned this to my sister and of course she was gung ho to do one. We want to do Lord of the Rings, but that's too much for a first time. We thought about doing Breakfast at Tiffany's as we both love the movie, and she has a dress similar to Audrey's famous little black one. We decided to do X-Men as it's a movie we both love and feel it would be a good first time one. Now I have to watch the movie a few times and try to block out the thing. Hopefully it won't take to long.

I left?

2008-06-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah I know I know. I never write on this damn thing and blah blah. But I'm serious about this, this time. I've been posting on a few Fresno blogs and I think I would have more "cred" if I had a blog. So time to revive this one (I still have the one my mobile phone posts to).

Not sure what I am doing tonight, probably go see Iron Man by myself (loser much?) as I have a free ticket. Was supposed to do something with my sister but my mom said she had plans with her. Whatever.

Classy ghosts

2007-09-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ok so I know I don't post as much as I should, but I'm in my group leaders paranormal class right now and thought I would post something. The class isn't bad, right now Jackie is going over the basic stuff of a hunt. What they need and how to do it. I am fricken tired though. Was over at Casa de Crashley™ last night doing some game stuff and I didn't get home till like 1:00 or so and didn't go to sleep till 2:00. So yeah I'm tired.

I think after the class we (Jen, Terry, and myself) are taking Jackie out to lunch for her birthday. After that she has some stuff to do in the Tower district. Not sure if I am going to that or not.

Ok, time for sleep. That's where I'm a viking!!!

Fresno Protest

2007-08-05T12:51:00.001-07:00

Fresno Protest
Originally uploaded by Stormwysper

Normally I don't post political things, but thought this was interesting. I was driving down Blackstone in Fresno on Friday and as I hit the intersection at Shaw I noticed the typical protesters that have been here on and off again since the Iraq war started. What was interesting is that the anti-war protesters were around two dozen while the pro-war protesters numbers were around five (the were on the opposite corner). I found this interesting because a few years ago when the war started the numbers were inverse with more supporters then protesters. Fresno is a conservative town in a liberal state. I know a few protesters isn't a good reflection of a city's politics, but I think even conservatives sick of this war.

Bigfoot news

2007-07-09T23:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really into the paranormal stuff. Ghosts, UFO's, Bigfoot and other crypto's, pretty much anything outside of normal science. I tend to focus on the ghost stuff as it's the "easiest" to research, but I saw this article on-line and wanted to post it. Here's the story:

Researchers convene to weigh evidence of Bigfoot
By GWEN MICKELSON
Sentinel staff writer

FELTON -- They're said to have a weakness for cinnamon graham crackers.

True or not, tidbits such as that, along with stories, sightings, theories and thoughts, will join more serious study when researchers, field investigators, eyewitnesses and others convene in Felton and Santa Cruz to discuss evidence that the much-fabled -- and ridiculed -- Bigfoot exists.

For the county's first-ever Bigfoot Discovery Day on Saturday, associate professor Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University will present evidence from tracks, skin ridges on the soles of the feet, film footage and DNA, which he compares to primate and various other species.

Meldrum, a professor of anthropology and anatomy, has never seen Bigfoot, "but I've seen fresh footprints," he said in a phone interview. "Everything is relative to what your expertise is, and to my eye these footprints were almost as good as seeing the real thing because of the details and the message there in that trackway"

Local Bigfoot advocates say sightings and Sasquatch-related incidents have occurred in the Santa Cruz Mountains, both recently and in past decades, and the search for Bigfoot nationwide seems to be intensifying.

Researchers will visit Michigan next month to search for evidence. The expedition will center in eastern Marquette County, following the most recent Bigfoot eyewitness account, said Matthew Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

In all but three of 30 expeditions in the United States and Canada, Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization investigators have either glimpsed Bigfoot or gotten close enough to hear the creature, Moneymaker said.

Grover Krantz, a scientist specializing in cryptozoology, believes Bigfoot is a "gigantopithecus," a branch of primitive man believed to have existed 3 million years ago.

But mainstream scientists tend to dismiss the study as pseudoscience because of unreliable eyewitness accounts and a lack of solid physical evidence.

Rather than trying to convert anyone to a certain belief, Meldrum's new book, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science," approaches the question of Bigfoot as a scientific hypothesis -- what if there were Bigfoot creatures? What would it take? What would be the implications of the discovery of such an animal? What is the nature of the evidence?

The book features a front-cover endorsement by renowned primatologist Jane Goodall and is a companion volume to a Discovery Channel documentary.

"For me, it's a way to increase the level of dialogue, the level of discourse, because frankly I'm one of the few professional academics who speaks publicly on this subject," Meldrum said. "I hope that if I'm talking about this it will give some pause to other academics who will say, 'Hm, I know Jeff's work in paleontology and physical anthropology, maybe there's something to this.'"

Meldrum, who is also affiliate curator at the Idaho Museum of Natural History and has made many appearances as a featured expert on TV and radio, including the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the National Geographic Channel, the "Today Show" and National Public Radio, speaks on the topic regularly.

He was invited to speak locally by Mike Rugg, proprietor of the Bigfoot Discovery Museum in Felton.

"We want to educate the populace that people are seeing these things and they're out there," said Rugg while standing next to a life-size diorama featuring two large and impassive Sasquatch mannequins staring out from between a couple of fake pine trees. "So what the heck are they?"

Rugg, who's been researching the lifestyles of the big and hairy for more than 50 years, said he had a Bigfoot sighting himself at age 5, along the banks of the Eel River. The results of his efforts, both humorous and serious, are on display at the museum on Highway 9 he opened with wife and fellow Bigfoot aficionado Paula Yarr in 2004.

Of course, said Meldrum, he hears from critics and those who take exception to some of his evaluation of the evidence.

One of Meldrum's most vocal critics, Benjamin Radford, managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, said he sees the "legend" part of Meldrum's book, but not the "science"

"We're dealing with stories -- not plant leaves, not bones, not teeth, stories of something people saw in the wilderness and they can't explain," said Radford, who works out of Albuquerque, N.M. "Anyone familiar with scientific processes and methodologies, that should raise a big red flag"

Bigfoot researchers don't have remnants such as bones and teeth. "They don't have a live one, they don't have a dead one," Radford said.

For Carla Benejam, an instructor of anthropology at Cabrillo College and a Sasquatch enthusiast, Bigfoot Discovery Day sounds like fun. She plans to go with a colleague to check out what Meldrum has to say and hear some Bigfoot stories.

"I think as long as we have myths, we have hope -- that's kind of what the human condition is," said Benejam. "I'm all for it"

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Gwen Mickelson at gmickelson@santacruzsentinel.com.

It's interesting how science is starting to delve into what was once considered psuedoscience. Though I know most of the scientific community views this as nothing but a joke, the fact that some are taking it serious is a good thing.

Weekend recap

2007-07-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

Well vacation is winding down, it's Sunday and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I don't really mind, five days off and I tend to get bored. Not that I didn't do anything. Friday I went out with my girlfriend for a bit, she had a headache so we didn't do much, just went to Barnes and Nobles and then Rasputin. I didn't buy anything at either, though I did buy a Transformers toy (Bumblebee) and she fell in love with it and now wants to see the movie. I have no problem going for a third time.

Saturday was a bit busy. Jackie had her last class and I decided to go. There wasn't much evidence presented, but we went over what was there. Some people still thought the banging wasn't normal. Tried to explain it again but it fell on deaf ears. Some also had some evp with a voice they didn't reconogize. Turns out it was me. I'm not sure if the person was joking or not, but they kinda blamed me. They might have been joking, but despite that they should have analyzed their stuff better. After everyone had gone over everything we finished the class. I went home in hopes of taking a nap, but no chance. Reason for the nap is I had a game that night and knowing Ryan it would last late. Which it did. I think we finished around 1:30 am and then went to Denny's to eat. I didn't get home till I think 3:00 and woke up today at around noon.

I don't know what I will do for the rest of the day, probably just relax.

More than meets the eye

2007-07-04T14:58:00.000-07:00

Saw Transformers last night. Holy fucking shit. What a badass movie. Was exactly what a summer action movie was supposed to be. Huge explosions, giant robots, and no fucking love story. I post a lot on rottentomatoes.com and people are bitching about it because the director is Michael Bay (Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbor). I don't understand people, it's a popcorn flick. What did you expect?

I have the rest of the week off which is nice. Today is the 4th of July and I should be going over some friend's house with my girlfriend. Tomorrow I'm taking my sister to see Transformers. Probably go out with my girlfriend again on Friday as there is a game on Saturday I want to go to.

The Hunt

2007-07-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well I did the investigation last night in Fresno (can't say where as the clients want to keep it quiet). Wasn't a typical investigation though as my group leader Jackie was teaching a class focusing on photos and evp and this was the field trip. But since we haven't investigated before, this was new for us as well.

From what we were told, people had seen two figures on the second floor, both kinda in the same area. When we started we split up into two groups and mine had the first floor and the other had the second. My group decided to investigate the area on the first floor that corresponded to where the activity occured on the second. Not much really happened, but we spent thirty minutes walking around and taking photos and video. We took a break and met back up with the other group. They said they heard tapping in the supposed active rooms, so we decided to go there first.

When I first walked in the room, I didn't like what I was feeling. Jen, who was also in my group, felt the same and she said it felt like someone was watching us. I didn't feel that, but I knew I just didn't like the room. I took both video and photos of the room. I didn't hear any tapping like the other group had said and wondered if it wasn't just nerves or maybe the AC was on (we were told it was off.

We walked into the adjacent room and I felt the same bad feeling. Jen felt the same and we wondered if whatever it was, was following us perhaps. Did more photos, videos, and this time some evp. After ten minutes or so we left the room and headed towards the opposite end of the building. We started hearing banging coming from the ceiling, but it had a metallic sound so I figured it was the HVAC system and the ducts were making the sound. We headed back downstairs after this and met up with the other group again.

I decided now that I wanted to film the other group so I followed them for a bit. I followed them back upstairs and heard the same banging noise again. They thought it was paranormal, and when I tried to explain it to them for whatever reason they wouldn't listen. I guess it's a difference of ideals. I try to rule out anything natural, and then whatever is left is then supernatural. But I guess some people want to believe so bad that there are ghosts everywhere. Whatever. At least Jen agreed with me, and so did the rest of my group. Just not the students.

We ended the night by doing an EVP session in the room where the banging was going on. I guess the clients had heard this and the students got over excited and didn't put two and two together and thought some activity was going on. We went back up there and heard the banging. Once again I said it was the ducting, but people were disagreeing, saying the air was off. I mentioned that most buildings have the HVAC do the ventilating also since the windows don't open. I think that might have sunk in, since it was happening so much and most paranormal activity isn't that frequent. Still we did some recording.

Honestly I don't know what to say about the place. The groups were all over the place and then they stuck to one area for two long so it was impossible to get a feel for the place. If there is anything there, it's those two rooms where I felt uncomfortable. I'm not too sure about the rest of the place. And I have a feeling we won't have a chance to go back. Oh well. Next thing is back at the Sierra Sky Ranch and that's always fun.

Fuck me and my beard.

2007-06-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

I saw Knocked Up tonight with the girlfriend. It was good, but from what everyone had told me I figured it would have been better. It was a tad bit too long, felt they could have cut out about 15 minutes.

I'm glad this week is over. Money has been tight and I've been cutting back as much as possible. Tomorrow shouldn't cost me much, have an investigation and Jackie usually pays for dinner (thank you Jackie!!). I don't know what to think of it, I know that I have to be part of one of the student groups and investigate like I normally do. It will be interesting in that I don't have to "guide" the group around like I did for the basic class and I tend to be a hardass. This should be fun. :D

I am also glad I decided to skip out on the class tomorrow morning (it's from 9:00am to 12:00pm). Not that I don't like the class, just it's such a small turnout and with Jackie and two other CCPI people there I don't feel that I'm needed. Plus they are doing EVP and that's not really my area. And I just need some sleep, especially if we are going to be at the site late. I wish I could say where it's at, but they owner(s) want to keep it quiet. This is pretty normal, so I can't refer to it by name and have to be a bit vague. Hopefully something will happen tomorrow night.

Eight month recap

2007-06-27T22:14:00.000-07:00

Fuck. I can't believe I haven't posted in six months (barring the post I did like ten minutes ago). And here I was bitching that my life was boring and reading the last post a lot of shit did go on. So here's the recap. By month.

November.

KSEE 24 ran the story and it was ok. They played some cheesy music and had James Randi on there to "debunk" us as the editor felt the story was favoring us. Whatever. Regular people saw it and thought it was cool, so that's what matters. Unfortunately they didn't plug our site (which is good cause we soon changed it to .net). The rest of the month was bad. Really bad. My step-grandfather (whom I never considered a "step" passed away Monday of Thanksgiving (it was a tough week in that an uncle in the same family also passed away) week after a long battle with cancer. He fought so hard and survived way past what the doctors said he would. Eight months later and I still miss him. He was one of those people who had a great presence, and family functions haven't been the same since. Funeral was moving and it wasn't sad, it was a typical Irish wake and we all remembered Bob as a wonderful person.

December.

Typical Christmas stuff. Office party was ok, did some Greek restaurant. Best part was when someone tried to do my "fallafal" joke, but said "this is awful" to the chef. Ah good times. Christmas was good. My mom got me a shiny new white DS lite and my girlfriend got me Guild Wars Nightfall (I even created a char that looked like her and gave it her name).

January.

January was relatively quiet. No investigations, though that would pick up in the following month.

February.

Jackie had yet another paranormal class and I helped with that one, this time going to all six classes. I hate to say this, but those people really looked up to me and my ego got WAY huge. But it's shrunk down to my normal cocky levels. We also went back to Sprinville Inn and this time we got something. I chalk it up to Jen, Jackie was doing EVP and asked Jen if she would sing. On the recording we got a "Yeah." This was in the first floor which we pretty much ignored the first time, but Jen felt there was something there. Then there was my sister's birthday. Mom got her a car, and at dinner with the family she said she felt bad she never got me one (my dad did) so she offered to pay for most of my girlfriend and I's wedding. Problem though, we aren't engaged. Oy...

March.

Ugh what a month. It started off with another trip to Sky Ranch, but this class was annoying in that the kitchen was swamped with a birthday party and we had to eat in the lobby. Well the class was acting like they were owed everything since they were up there to look for ghosts. They were rowdy and unrully. To settle them down Jackie asked which group was Group One, and the group responded. She then informed them they had me as their "guide". So they said I was going to not like them, blah blah blah. I warned them not to call down the thunder, but they did. I was tough the entire night as I know they were trying to push me. Of course I pushed back even harder. Overall it wasn't as good as the previous class trip. Jackie did ask two of the students to join CCPI, Terry and Shamallah, and they have been a good addition to the team. But here's where the month sucked. Near the end of the month we had a investigation down in Santa Paula at the Glen Tavern Inn. This was a major one and I was looking forward to it. Well my knee started hurting. Bad. Apparently the tendon connecting my lower leg to my kneecap was inflamed and I could barely walk. So of course dumb ass me decides to go (Terry and I had split a room and I didn't want to flake). I won't go into details now, but in future post, but I had a horrible time. My knee finally healed six fucking weeks later and only when I started taking Tylenol PM as I couldn't sleep and therefore couldn't heal. Godbless the person who invented that shit. Once I started taking them the majority of the pain went away. I have never been in as much pain as I was for that.

April.

Spent most of the month recouping from the knee pain. Pretty much I had it from around 3/24 to 5/1. It sucked major balls. I was cranky and didn't go out much. Jackie even called asking if I was upset over anything. I guess I was in more of a bad mood on 3/31 then I thought. I was able to go on an investigation on 4/28 but my knee began acting up so I sat out most of the night.

May.

Finally got over the knee pain and all was back to normal. The month was pretty uneventful. Celebrated my three year anniversary with my girlfriend which is a huge milestone. I've never been with anyone that long and I'm extremely lucky to have her. Plus she got me an RC truck. :D

June.

The start of June was hell. I had a project trying to be completed but both Madea County and the client were being unreal. Finally got stuff done, but I nearly lost it. My mind that is. Did a residential investigation which was rather interesting, but I can't say anthing due to privacy. That and Jackie is doing a Paranormal 102 class with the investigation this weekend (6/30) so I'll post more about that.

Back from the Abyss

2007-06-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

The funny thing about blogs is that if you don't post for say a week or so, you get used to not posting and that week turns into a month and then six months, etc. That or my life is just so damn boring that I just have jack shit to write about. Feedback is always nice. I guess I could post on that atrocity that is MySpace, but I'm not in the mood for feedback to be "omgz!! Dats so funny dat hppend 2 ME 2!" or some fucking bot trying to get me to view their webcam (that's what my girlfriend and a camera phone are for). So I'm here to stay for the zero people who read this.

So I don't have cable. And the summertime is shit for tv shows. So I'm watching American Inventor. It must be a fad or something, but there is a snooty British guy on the judge's panel. What the hell? America's Got Talent also has one. Why are snooty British guys judging us? Bastards.

Ok I'm watching the credits for the American Inventor and it was created by Simon Cowell. Hence the British guy. Nice.

Back at the Ranch

2006-11-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

Was back at the Sierra Sky Ranch last night for another ghost investigation. This one was different. It wasn't a class field trip like last month, though we did have a few students, whose names we drew, also with us was KSEE 24 who was filming us. My friend Rom produces the 11:00 news there and he had asked me a few months if he could do a piece on us for the November sweeps.

Tom and I decided to drive up together, made more sense to take one vehicle and save on gas. I always like the drives to and from these things with him, our conversations are always interesting. We got there around 6:00 or so and met up with the group and students. We decided to have dinner and it cracked me up how the waitresses remember Tom from the previous week when we went up there for the KISS Country promo.

Dinner was ok, I tried the chili for my soup and it wasn't that good. I had the rib eye again as the menu doesn't have much on it and before an investigation I always want a big meal so I have enough energy for the night. Once again I didn't try the deep fried cheesecake. I wonder if it's fate's way of saving me the heart attack?

Right after dinner Ron and the news crew showed up and I introduced him to Jackie and the rest of CCPI. I told him we were going to do our meeting and they were welcome to join us and watch. He wanted to film so we wound up doing that. I introduced him to everyone and the cameraman was filming Jackie talk and I was talking to the reporter telling her what we do, some of the equipment we use, and a brief history of the group. Before heading out both Jackie and I made it very clear that this was a serious investigation and everyone must be on their best behavior. This was really due to one person and I hated to punish the others but I didn't want this thing with 24 fucked up. Seems fate was on my side and nothing happened.

I'll spare the details of the areas we investigated, they were the same as when the class was taken up there. Though we did go up to a two story building that seemed to be the center of some negative energy. One of the students, Jennifer who is a bit sensetive, was feeling pressure on her body. She really couldn't explain it but you could tell she was uncomfortable.

I wasn't able to take many photos (yet again) since there were ten other people on the investigation and it was all one group since Jackie wanted to make sure the students behaved. That and 24 was filming and I didn't want to be on camera. I did go into the pantry area of the kitchen and did a few minutes of evp recording, but I'm still going over that.

Overall I was happy with everything, and was very thankful that 24 was up there. Hopefully the piece will be good. I was told it will air sometime this month and when it does I plan on recording it and posting to YouTube. From there I'll post here.

One more note. The team decided to ask Jennifer to join. This rounds us to eight and I think she'll make a great addition. She is extremely enthusiatic about this and I know she will make a good addition to the group. Our next investigation will be that office we missed the first time around. This time I hope we can get in.

My Eleven Year High School Reunion

2006-10-15T13:40:00.001-07:00

I graduated from high school in 1995. Last year was my ten year reunion but I didn't go for two reasons. One was that tickets were $65 a person, so my girlfriend and I would have cost $135 for dried up tri-tip and a cheesy band. Two the people that I keep in contact with since school was over are Tom and my cousin Keith. I really had no desire to see anyone else.

Yesterday I was at a family function (Oktoberfest) and Keith was there. He got a call from an old friend who was in town for his ten year high school reunion. He came by for a bit and we caught up on old times and said he would give us a call when the reunion was over. Keith had to run some errands to kill some time, so I decided to help him.

Keith got a call around 9:30 or so from Jeff (our friend) and he was still at the reunion drunk off his ass and needed a sober driver. He also needed help as this one chick and her sister were all over him and he needed to be saved. That and a few of Keith and I's friends, who lived out of state now, wanted to see us. So I follow Keith over there and we get to the parking lot and Jeff is outside. We go inside and see another old friend of ours, Ben, who wants to buy us shots. He gets tequilla from the bar, and it is the cheapest shit I have ever had. It wasn't his fault, but the reunion was at a country club so you think they would have better alcohol. Just then the chick mentioned earlier comes up to Keith, and as I see her turn sideways to me I noticed she had gotten new breasts (she had boy boobs in HS). She starts yelling at Keith to get her sister so they could leave. I had no idea what the fuck this was about and just wished I had more alcohol.

Keith comes back after a minute and says lets go outside to find Jeff. As we head to the smoking area, this girl in a black dress starts flirting with Keith and follows us out there. Of course I told him to give me the sign if he wants me to leave. So we get outside and see Jeff, but he's talking to the guy who bought us booze, and his wife. So we are talking with this chick and she is flirting with Keith and I'm keeping quiet, when she asks his name. He tells her and she says "No way, I live next door to you!" I start cracking up cause Keith can't figure out what the hell is going on, when she explains that she lives in the house south of his parents. She told him her name and we were both shocked as she was fugly in HS, but looked damn good now. So they talked a bit more and she went back inside.

We then wandered over to where Jeff was at and these two girls start talking to us. One is talking to Keith and the other is talking to me. She asks me my name and of course I had no desire to say I graduated a year before, so I said my name was Alexander Sullivan. She introduces herself and she said she was class president, blah blah blah. Of course I had no fucking clue who she was and I told her I was into drugs heavy in high school and didn't remember much. I was clean now and was good. She bought it until Keith said to the girl he was talking to "Oh that's my cousin Mike." I tried to weasel out of this, but they found me out. Thankfully they were too drunk to really care, but still was funny as shit.

Not much really happened after that, I convinced someone I was a director for porn movies so hopefully that rumor got passed around. Another thing that cracked me us is I saw a friend there who graduated two years after me. Keith said he saw him at our's last year and we came to the conclusion that he is a reunion crasher (we had an excuse, we picked up a friend).

I was amazed at how many people looked the same, and more amazed they acted the same. Half didn't recongize me (probably helped witht he fake alias). I remember one chick came up to Keith and started talking to him. I remembered her, but apparently she didn't me. Keith reintroduced me, but she didn't remember. As she was leaving she hugged Keith and then said to me "It was nice seeing you again even though I really don't remember you." The asshole in me said "Don't worry I don't remember you already." It made me laugh as she was really cute back in the day but really let herself go.

Everyone was leaving and heading out to a bar called Casey's. I had no desire to go, but went anyways. Once there I was bored out of my mind and remembered the only reason to go to a bar was to get laid. It was loud and obnoxious in there and I commentated to Keith about how many extra-marital affairs were going to occur tonight. 1:30 hit and I decided to leave, it was so loud in there that I couldn't hear Keith or Jeff talk. So I said my goodbyes and took off.

I can't wait until their twenty year reunion occurs so Keith and I can crash that one as well.

Ghostly Ranch

2006-10-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

The lobby at Sierra Sky Ranch

Did an investigation of sorts last night, but wasn't the typical type. One member of my group is teaching a intro to the paranormal class at the Adult Ed. school in Fresno and part of the course is to go to an actual haunted location and put to pratice what they learned in class. Since the class had twenty students, the rest of the group was needed to make sure everyone followed the rules and lend any advice if needed.

The place is called Sierra Sky Ranch and it's up above Oakhurst. The history of the place begins in the 1850's as a cattle ranch. During the 1940's it was a TB sanatirium. From this period it seems where most of the ghosts came from. There is a nurse up in the loft, two men in the kitchen (one was a cook there), and another in the honeymoon suite.

I left home around 3:30 and drove an hour or so up into the mountain where the place is at. I told Jackie (the person teaching)that I would meet her around 4:30 or so, that way we could do a daylight walkthrough. I had been at the place before, but that was at night and since I was leading a group I needed to know the lay of the land, so to speak. After that the group then met to discus the night and assign groups. We decided not to do the loft above the lobby (even though it's a hotspot), as one person would not be able to go up there and we felt it wasn't fair to exclude just one person.

We met for dinner around 7:00, and most of the class was there. I chatted with a few and was trying to get a read off them. I was impressed with everyone's knowledge, and attested it to their teacher. Dinner was good, I had a rib eye (they had no fillet damnit) and it was good, had a good spice to it. Mashed potatoes were ok, they were called garlic but I couldn't taste it. Green beans were different, they had a sweetness to them. I think it came from the carmelized onion. I wanted to have the deep fried cheesecake, but had no stomach room so I had to decline. We are going back in November so I will order that first.

Around 9;00 the entire group met in the library. I need to backtrack for a second. The entire place has free WiFi and I was playing Guild Wars most of my free time. Makes me want broadband any more. But back to the meeting, Jackie was going over the rules of everything and introducing the class to the rest of the group. There were four groups and each one of us was paired off with one. I introudced myself and we headed outside waiting for the restaurant to close up.

We started at the back of the building and I just let the group wander around and take pictures. We did this for about twenty minutes or so and not much happened so we headed back to the library. Rested a bit then headed out to the front but not much happened there. I decided to do the lobby and the rooms that were open. Since that was near the library I fired up Guild Wars and let the group do there thing. After a bit I went to the lobby were they were and we decided to head to the kitchen since it was now closed. That's when the fun began.

We get in the kitchen and one of the members says someone grabbed their ass. They were all feeling a negative presense, for what it was worth. But then something crazy happened. One of them had their camcorder hanging from their neck and pointed downwards. The battery flies off and moves up and arcs down. There was no way for the locking device to have failed, even so the battery would have just fallen. Not much really happened after that, some had some weird sensations but I chock that up to nerves.

One final incident did happen. I was in the room of the group and one member was telling me a story. Right then a duffel bag on the bag fell over like it was pushed. I thought maybe it was just gravity, but the bag was light and it had moved as if something was pushed.

After that I returned to the library were everyone met to discuss what happened. Everyone had a good time which is always good, and I think this was more interesting then Andleberry as we actually had several incidents with different groups. Luckily CCPI itself is going back on November 4th to conduct a private investigation. I can't wait.

Hail to the King

2006-09-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Bruce Campbell and I
Originally uploaded by Stormwysper.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge B movie fan, and the king of all B movies is Bruce Campbell. He was doing a book signing Friday night at Borders for his new book, Make Love...The Bruce Campbell way.

I orginally wasn't going to go as I figured it would be a huge line, but Tom texted me and asked me if I wanted to see Jackass 2 (which wasn't as good as the first one btw) and to meet him at the IMAX theater around 9:00 and he would have a suprise for me. I had forgotten about the signing and headed on towards Borders where there was a huge line around the building at 8:00. I texted Tom to let him know parking was a bitch cause of the book signing when he called me back to say that the suprise was he bought me the book and was going to get it autographed. So I went back and stood in line with Tom and kept him company.

Finally got to the front around 11:00 and sat down with Bruce. Shook his hand and bullshitted with him for a minute. He was nice enough to take this pic. I give the guy respect. He was signing since around 6:30 and there was like 25 people behind me.

Weeeeeeeeeeoooooottttccccchhhh!!!

2006-09-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

I think I saw the worst movie of the year last night.

Even worse then X3. It was called The Covenant.

I wanted to gouge my eyes out five minutes into this piece of shit.

Was at a game yesterday when my friend Kenny called me. He and his wife Bonnie (whom I met the Bilf™ through) and he wanted to go see the above said movie. Two other couples were going as well and we would all meet at Riverpark at around 9:00. I had no desire to see this movie, but I felt bad as we hadn't done anything in a while so I bit the bullet (which I should have saved later for the movie) and agreed.

For some reason the concession lines were really long so we got into the theater late and had to sit three rows back. Normally I like to sit back farther, but I didn't really care. The movie started with a bunch of text trying to make a feeble attempt of a backstory. Upon seeing this I slapped my forehead (one of many times) as it showed how lazy the director was and didn't want to film this. That or they ran out of money after spending what seems 80% on special effects. After the confusion of the backstory was done, a remix of White Zombie's "More Human then Human" greated the audience at near deafening levels. I had my doubts, but I knew this was going to be a shitty movie. Loud music is played to drown out the lack of plot, acting, or in this case everything. I started riffing this motherfucker quickly, and my friend Kenny said he was going to hit me if I didn't stop (he said this laughingly so I doubt he would, but never know). I reminded him that it was his idea to see this piece of shit and this is my payback.

I swear for the first hour or so there was no plot. Just these preppy teens that were witches and how they bitched and whined and shit. There were people who were bad guys for a bit then just dissapeared. Then one of the good guys turned out to be a bad guy and wanted the boy witches powers. It was so convulated that I won't even try to bore the two people who read this with the details. So finally the final battle occured. The loud heavy metal music made sure I was aware of this. So they start fighting by throwing invisible balls that everyone can see at each other. Then comes the part where I nearly walked out. The bad witch says to the good witch "You're my weotch. You know instead of beotch." The fact they had to explain the joke was attrocious, but even worse my girlfriend snapped. She started going off on the movie and shown a nasty streak I hadn't seen before. Of course I was turned on.

Finally the piece of shit was over and it recieved well deserved boos from the audience. Of course my friends never cease to amaze me. My friend Bonnie goes "Well that was better then I thought it was going to be." I replied with "You polish a turd and it's still a turd." And of course I heard that Uwe Boll is doing another piece of shit. I should take Kenny to that one.

Five Years Later

2006-09-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

September 11, 2001. I'll never forget that day. I doubt anyone would. But I will not be political in my words here as it would disrespect those who have lost their lives on that day. All I can say is that they are in my thoughts and prayers and you are heroes to me. You showed bravery and courage that would make anyone proud. You are sorely missed and you will never be forgotten.

People suck ass

2006-09-10T12:13:00.000-07:00

Well last night sucked major ass. I meet the rest of the group for dinner at 7:00 at Irene's in the Tower District to discuss things for that night and anything else that might be coming up. Mostly talked about the office we were doing that night as well as the Sierra Sky Ranch trip next month. We were supposed to be at the office at 9:00 where we were to meet one person who seemed to be having the most experiences and another co-worker (apparently the rest of the office was to have a drawing to see who this person was).

We left around 8:45 as I thought it would be best to get their early, and it would also look more professional then arriving even a few minutes late. We got there around 8:55 and the places was still locked up. No big deal right? 9:00 rolls around and still no one. Then 9:10. Then 9:20. Then 9:30. Still no one. I was pissed at this point. And it's not like things weren't clear with the office. The head investigator had signed all the necessary paper work and told them we would be there at 9:00 on September 9. She even called them on Wednesday and left a message to verify. No one called back so she assumed that things were still on. She had thought maybe they had called her house after she left. But she and her husband left at 6:00 and calling after that isn't much notice and not professional at all.

She had asked me (and the rest) if we want to try to reschedule. I said if they have a legimate excuse as to why they didn't call, say like a family emergency, then I wouldn't have a problem rescheduling. But if their excuse was something like it just slipped there mind or they got tickets to the Fresno State/Oregon game (Oregon won, the fuckers) then that is bullshit.

What I am thinking is that the owners of the business were already a bit apprehensive that they might have ghosts and it would affect their business if the word got out. I think they just got cold feet and instead of being professional and calling us and letting us know, they had us waiting in a shitty part of Fresno at night. Not cool at all.

I'm curious as to what their excuse will be. I do want to go still, but not if we are not to be taken seriously.

Cingular Savior

2006-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

I went to the Cingular store today to fix my phone. From what I read on-line, I had fucked up the SIM card by trying too many times. So I went to the store and told the clerk, Lorainne, what happened. She said that I was going to need to need a new card (like I thought) and it was going to cost $25. She was about to charge me, but she paused and asked for my phone number. I gave it to her and she punched it into her computer and verified my account. And the next thing I know she hands me my phone back and it was working. I don't know what she did, but she saved me $25 and I am thankful for that.

I'm definitely in a better mood now and can't wait for tonight.

D'oh!

2006-09-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

I swear I am an idiot. I bought a Bluetooth USB adaptor for my laptop so I can use my cellphone to hook up to the net. I get home and am setting it up with no problems and it's asking for the SIM #. I forgot what it was and being the idiot I am I enter the phone thinking it will show it to me. After fucking around I lock the damn thing up. Now I get a message saying "Sim blocked". I checked the manual and it gives the default and that doesn't work. I couldn't remember if I changed it to match another password so I try that. Nothing. Try a few more. Still nothing. I go to Cingular's site to see if I can find anything and it says if I try more then ten times, the SIM card gets fried (I assume this is some sort of security anti-theft thing). So now I am fucked. My cell is my only phone, I unhooked the land line five years ago when I got it. Thankfully I have my old card and was able to get my phone numbers off the cell (stored them on the phone, not the card). So I will have to go to the Cingular store tomorrow and see what they can do. Hopefully it's not fried, but if it is then I have to fork over $25. I can't bitch, as I was the dumbass who did it. I just pray they have cards.

And tomorrow night is the ghost investigation and I try to remain as stress free for those so my mind is clear and I am in control of myself. So I need to get this taken care of as soon as possible.

Crickey!!

2006-09-05T22:09:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone has heard it by now being twenty four hours later, but the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, died yesterday when a sting ray's barb pierced his heart and he died. He didn't pull it out as rumors are saying. I think those are just trying to show how manly he was. But no urban legend is needed, the guy was a stud. I remember him going into a rattlesnake cave and yelling to his wife to fetch him a stick. The guy had some huge balls. He will be sorely missed. I'm posting a video clip from YouTube below. It's from an episode of Southpark where the kids where watching an episode of Croc Hunter. Yeah it's fiction, but it sums Steve up pretty well.

RIP mate. You'll be missed.

Sweet Fantasy 'o Mine

2006-09-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

So the fantasy football draft went pretty well last night. I had to change my strategy in the first round (20 overall) as ten people drafted running backs ahead of me and I felt that my first round pick wasn't worth spending on a lesser running back, I picked up my number one wide reciever. Then second I got my number two quarterback. It seemed everyone was picking running backs to trade later (what trade a RB for a RB?) so I started taking the rest of my number one's (which happened to be a lot of other's number ones as well). Picked up the number one defence and tight end as well so I think I did all right. I'm curious as to how the trades are going to work out. Here's who I have and in what round I got them. As the last rounds came up I started taking gambles (like a running back that is out for at least six weeks) just to see what would happen.

Round 1: Marvin Harrison, wide reciever for theIndianaplis Colts.
Round 2: Carson Palmer, quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Round 3: Tatum Bell, running back for the Denver Broncos.
Round 4: Antonio Gates, tight end for the San Diego Chargers.
Round 5: Carolina Panthers defense.
Round 6: Frank Gore, running back for the San Francisco 49ers.
Round 7: Antonio Bryant, wide reciever for the San Francisco 49ers.
Round 8: Ben Roethlisbergr, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Round 9: Laveranus Coles, wide reciever for the New York Jets.
Round 10: Lendale White, running back for the Tennessee Titans.
Round 11: Antwon Randel El, wide reciever for the Washington Redskins.
Round 12: Mike Vanderjagt, kicker for the Dallas Cowboys.
Round 13: Bubba Franks, tight end for the Green Bay Packers.
Round 14: Bobby Engram, wide reciever for the Seattle Seahawks.
Round 15: Chris Brown, running back for the Tennessee Titans.
Round 16: Kansas City Chiefs defense.
Round 17: Joe Jurvicius, wide reciever for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Round 18: Priest Holmes, running back for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Round 19: Jabar Gaffney, wide reciever for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Round 20: Zack Crocket, running back for the Oakland Raiders.

I'll post the weekly results. Hopefully my picks will do well.

We secretly replaced his nachos with crazy chicken nachos. Will he notice the difference?

2006-09-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

The Bilf™ and I went to dinner and a movie last night. We were going to see the Illusionist, but at the last minute she wanted to see Snakes on a Plane. Who am I to turn down some more cheesy snake goodness? The audience was much more fun this time, even though some security came to tell some screaming teenagers to shut up. I saw some big thuggish guy reach for something and I swear he was going to pull out a gun (gotta love Fresno), but I guess he was just adjusting himself. The Bilf™ really liked it and was laughing about as much as I was, though she did jump at a few spots. I didn't but I had already seen the movie (though I did jump at them before). She did roll her eyes at a few of my riffs, but I was going for bad.

Since I was still owed a birthday dinner we then headed on over to Elephant Bar. I hadn't been there in a while and had forgotten how loud it is and it was nealy impossible to hear my girlfriend when we were talking. I had blackened catfish with jambalya and it was really good, really spicey. The Bilf™ had a kung pao chicken and it was ok. It tasted like they didn't cook the chicken in the kunk pao sauce. It had a grilled taste to it so I think they just grilled the chicken then put the sauce on it before serving it.

I'm going over Tom's soon. He wants to do a fantasy football draft so this should be interesting and fun. Last time I did it was when I still worked at Darden's. What I really liked about it was you followed the games your players were in since you now had a vested interest in them. And since I'm not sure how well the 49ers are going to do this year I may need several reasons to watch football.

Tom just called me so I better go shower and head on out. I'll post my roster for anyone who cares.

Another Ghost Story: Part 2

2006-09-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

As I said last night Tom was calling down to us, they had found Charlotte's grave. It was around 11:00 or so and Scott and I made our way up to the top of the hill. We found Tom and Fred by a grave that I assumed was Charlotte's. I noticed that the moon was shining down straight on it, as it was underneath a clearing in the tree canopy. The scene had a surreal feeling to it, the moonlight was too bright and everything was really quiet. The name on the grave was a Charlotte Sitter and right next to it was her husband. To her right was the graves of two children, both young and with the same last name. All died in the 1800's.

As we were looking at the grave and taking pictures I asked Tom and Fred if they had come down to where we were at, and if so why they didn't say anything. They said they didn't and Scott and I told them about the footsteps we kept hearing. Tom's reply was "You heard them too?" I asked him what happened and how did they find Charlotte's grave as it was out in the open and no way we could have missed it. This is his story, how he related to me.

He and Fred began looking from grave to grave when they started hearing footsteps. They also thought it was us at first coming back up, but no one appeared. They kept hearing the steps and could tell it wasn't an animal. Thinking someone was trying to sneak up on them Tom called out and said he was there on a scientific investigation and that we had permission to be there. Still no one would appear but the footsteps stopped. The two began searching again still not finding anything when the footsteps showed up again and this time it sounded like there was more then one pair. They would sound like they were walking at one instance then the next they would take off running. What's more is that there seemed to be several "sets" of footsteps and not all would be running or walking at the same time. Again Tom annoucned who they were and what they were doing there, but the footsteps quickened their pace and now seemed to be running around the two. Both Tom and Fred begin shining their flashlights around trying to see what was out there, but there was nothing to be seen (this is when I saw the lights moving around wildly). Tom then shone his light on Fred, who was standing next to a grave and noticed a shadowy figure move off into the trees. Tom immediately went over to where Fred was at to see what had caused that when he noticed the name on the tombstone next to Fred. The name on it was that of Charlotte.

The rest of the night was uneventful. No more footsteps were heard and we couldn't figure out what caused the ones that Scott and I heard or the ones Tom and Fred heard. We think it may have been the spirits of Charlotte and her children, but that's just speculation. The figure that Tom saw was even more interesting. He thinks it was Charlotte trying to show him where her grave is at.

Ever since that night I've wanted to go back, but a few months later we disbanded as a group as there were too many things going on and we couldn't give enough time to the group. Last year I joined the group I am with now and mentioned the place to them. One member happened to be going to Paso Robles on business and offered to go by. He got some information and his wife contacted the person who was in charge of the place and they unfortunately said we couldn't go back to investigate. Apparently the place had been trampled in the years by film crews, other paranormal investigation groups, and curious teenagers. Some vandalism had occured and they decided to not let anyone go on the property anymore at night. They did tell us though that every October and May they have volunteers clean up the area. Since it was mostly families cleaning their relatives graves and Charlotte has no family in the area, they asked if we would like to come up in May to do it (October will be too busy with at least two investigations). I thought it was sad that Charlotte didn't have any family so I said yes and the rest of the group agreed with me. So hopefully we can go up in May.

Still out of all the investigations I have done, this is one of the most memorable just because of all the things that happened.

Another Ghost Story

2006-08-31T23:27:00.000-07:00

This happened back in August 2000. I bought a book that listed haunted locations through out the nation, seperated by state. I found a story of a small cemetery outise of Paso Robles, Ca. It was called Adeliada Cemetery. Story goes that in the late 18oo's a woman killed herself as she was distraut as her two young children died in a dyptheria epedimic. The story continues to say that on every Friday night between the hours of 10:00 pm and midnight the woman would appear and places flowers on her children's graves.

My friend Fred did a bit of research and called up the Paso Robles Cemetery District to find out more as well as get permission. He talked to someone there and they gave him a first name of Charlotte. They couldn't tell him where the part of the story of her showing up on Friday's but we thought this would be the time to go and made preparations and went one Friday night.

The four of us (Tom, Scott, Fred, and myself) arrived around 9:30 to the cemetery. The place didn't look abadoned but you can tell it wasn't used much. There were some beautiful iron gates with the cemetery name on them that were locked. Luckily the pedestrian entrance was open (presumedly by the owners since they knew we were coming) and were able to enter. Walking around I got a better feel for the place. There was an abadoned building of some sort, but I couldn't tell what it was until closer inspection. There was also an old sign hanging from a tree with the cemeteray's name on it. The graves themselves were rather neatly kept, you could tell the families still came to the cemetery to clean up the family plots. We noticed that all the graves weren't older then the 1950's. This struck us as odd since the story of the woman mentioned the late 1800's.

We wandered around a bit more noticing that 10:00 was nearing. Tom wandered off to see what was on top of this hill. I'm glad he did as he found another group of graves, around three dozen or so and all from the 1800's. We felt better but had another question in our minds. We were searching for Charlotte's grave but no where did we hear that she was buried there. We decided to start looking for two children's graves that had died in the time period we were told as well as sharing the last name. It was now 10:00 and since the bottom cemetery hadn't been explored throuroughly Scott and myself volunterred to investigate that and Fred and Tom would do the top portion.

Scott and I headed back down and decided to first investigate the graves to see if we could find any children's. There weren't that many and all were relatively new (1950'sish). While we were doing this we heard footsteps.

Before I continue I should describe the place. The street portion of the cemetery had quite a few trees and despite it still being August, there were a lot of dried leaves and twigs on the ground. So much that whenever you stepped you would hear a crunching sound. On top of the hill was worse as the entire area was covered in trees and was like a canopy.

As I was saying we started hearing footsteps. Thinking it was Tom and Fred looking for us I called out to them but heard no response. I then asked if someone was there and stated what we were doing and that we had permission. Still nothing. Scott, being the skeptic he is, thought it was an animal of sorts but then it continued again and it definitely sounded like two footsteps and not four. We walked around a bit more and kept hearing footsteps. I know it wasn't ours echoing or something as we would be still and could hear the footsteps off in the distance. They stopped after about thirty seconds. Scott and I decided to investigate the abadoned building since we couldn't find any children's graves and then wait for Tom and Fred to come back down.

As we were walking over to the building I noticed that the flashlights were moving rather erraticly and I could hear loud voices but couldn't tell whose they were or what they were saying. I figured they were just talking and didn't really think any more of it.

We got over to the building and couldn't quite figure out what it was. The building was constructed of cement blocks and the door was hanging on it's hinges but still opened. I could tell at one point it held nearly a full length pane of glass as the jamb was still intact. Inside I noticed there were benches on either side of the building and assumed it was either a seating area or some chapel of sorts. On the outside on the far end I noticed two square rooms about 4'x4' or so with a small seat. I had no idea what these were for and just assumed they were storage. We went back inside once more to take some photos. When we walked back outside we started hearing footsteps again, this time a bit louder and a bit faster. Then they stopped and I could hear Tom's voice yelling for us.

They had found Charlotte's grave.

As it's nearly 11:30 here and I really need to go to bed I feel this is a good stopping point. I should be able to finish this either tomorrow night or the next day. Figured the finding of Charlotte's grave makes a great cliffhanger of sorts.

The Coast

2006-08-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Montery was a blast. I uploaded the photos I took and these are them. I've been using Tabblo lately as they have unlimited storage as well as a larger monthly download. The image you see below is a photo group, called a tabblo (orginal huh?). Click it and it will take you to the group where you can see the photos individually as well as others that aren't related to my trip.

Year to the Day

2006-08-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. I entered this world 29 years ago and it hasn't been the same since. Being a Wednsday today wasn't too eventful as I had to work today and will have to tomorrow. This weekend will be fun though, my mother is taking the Bilf™ and myself to Monterey as well as my sister and stepfather. Monterey is one of my favorite places and it's been a while. Hopefully I will get some good pics and post them here.

Work was ok, went out to lunch at Roundtable and had pizza. The entire office signed a card and for some reason one of my bosses was really dark. I think he was trying to be funny, but I was scared a bit. I'm trying to convince the office to do an intervention, should be funny if they fall for it. After work I had to kill some time till my girlfriend got off work. I went by the county library trying to do some research on a house but was told I would have to go to the planning department, then back to the library, then to the hall of records to find the info I need. What sucks is that the planning department and hall of records close at 5:00. So apparently most government services are not for people who work 8-5. Makes sense to me.

Went over to the Bilf's™ around 7:00 and she was tired and I felt bad about going out as work gave her yet another headache. We went to Circuit City as I wanted a dvd burner, but there wasn't really one that I wanted. I could tell she was tired so I said we could go back when she felt better and just do dinner another night. I felt bad as I know she wanted to treat me, I'm just being stupid for some reason. Hopefully this weekend I'll be in a better mood.

Take two

2006-08-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

I swear I hate this computer. I was nearly done with a post and it froze up on me and I had to reboot.

Anyways I was talking about how my sister and I saw Snakes on a Plane. Best. Movie. Ever. So many quotable lines and just overall cheese. I can't wait for the dvd to come out to I can try the SoaP drinking game. Everytime a snake bites someone, take a shot. Lots of alcohol will be needed.

My birthday is coming up and I still don't know what I am doing. I know Montery is this weekend so that should be good. Will be nice to go to the coast again since the last time I was there was when I took the Bilf™ two years ago. There is supposed to be a haunted restaurant nearby. Rather famous, it's called the Moss Beach Distillry and during the 1920's it was a speak easy and a woman was murdered there. So she is supposed to haunt the restaurant now.

Speaking of ghosts, looks like there is an investigation the second week of September. I really can't say much as it's a private business, but I guess they are having a lot of activity. Should be interesting.

My First Encounter

2006-08-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

People ask me what got me interested in ghosts to begin with and why I now investigate proposed haunted locations. I had always been curious about the unknown, beit ghosts or UFO's or something else that was unexplainable. Every journey has a start and this is the story of the first ghost I ever saw. It happened to be in the house my mom owned when I was a kid.

I was up late one night watching TV when I decided to go to bed as there was nothing on. As I walked to the back of my house down the hallway to where my bedroom is at, I passed my sister's room and saw something white move from her room to the bathroom right across from her's. I also heard the rustling of fabric on the hardwood floor. I assumed it was my sister sleepwalking again so I turned on the bathroom light to make sure she was ok. Upon turning on the light I saw no one in there and figured I was just getting a bit sleepy and that maybe she just moved from the bathroom to her bedroom. I turned on the light in her room to see her fast asleep and not wearing pajamas that would make a rustling sound on the floor (she was wearing the typical pants and shirt pj's). A bit creeped out now as I knew I saw something I went straight to bed.

The next morning I told my mom what happened and she surprised me by saying that it was probably the ghost of the previous owner of the house's wife. Apparently she died in the house and my mom even said she had seen a shadowy figure several times as well as odd feelings.

Unfortunately this was the only time that anything occurred. A few years later my mom sold the house. I drive by the house on occasion, perhaps hoping I'll see the owner of the house outside. Maybe strike up a conversation with them, saying how I used to live there, etc. Of course I would steer the conversation to the ghosts, hoping they have seen something as well. Of all the places I have investigated, my old house is one that I would like to add to it.

Weekend recap

2006-08-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend wqasn't too bad. Hung out with Ash and Chris all Saturday, then that night I picked up the Bilf™ and the four of us saw Tallegda Nights, the Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Movie wasn't that bad, though I was pissed at Ash cause she told me their would be plenty of mullets and I didn't see a single one.

Sunday was pretty uneventful. I tried watching Elizabeth, but my DVD player is being a bitch and freezing up on me. I should just tell the Bilf™ that I want one for my birthday, but I just don't feel right asking for a $75 piece of equipment. I know I am being stubborn and am probably being an ass but I never like asking for anything. I'll go through the Sunday sales and see if I can find anything.

This upcoming week should be pretty uneventful. But I've been known to be wrong before.

Speak and you shall be heard.

2006-08-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

An update of sorts. I went by the Meux Home on my lunch break. Before I go any further I will give a brief description for the 1 person who reads my blog and doesn't know Fresno (yes Meghan I am looking at you). The Meux Home is an old Victorian style house located in Downtown Fresno and is over 100 years old. Absolutely beautiful home, especially when it's decorated during Christmas. I had heard stories for years regarding that it's haunted, most had to do with little children. As I was saying, I went there on my lunch hour and actually screwed up enough courage to ring the bell. The tourguide lady asked me if I wanted a tour and I said no and asked if I could ask some questions regarding the place. I told her who I was and what I do and gave her a card. She was very polite and told me she hadn't seen anything since she has been there but to talk to one of the head people there as she has been involved for years. She gave me the woman's phone number and said if anything had happened that she would know. I asked her if she was receptive to these things and was told yes. So I thanked her for her time and promised to visit soon as I hadn't been there in over a decade.

I called the woman and left a message and figured she wouldn't call back. Well this morning I recieved a call from the woman and she was very nice and polite with me. Told me she hadn't seen anything, but remembers someone saying they saw a member of the family but didn't know if they were joking or not. She invited me to come visit sometime and talk with her about the place and mentioned that she will bring up my group at the next board meeting to see if we can do an investigation. I really doubt they will let us, as I am sure they don't want the public to know they are haunted but you never know. But I did talk to someone about this and got a positive response. I already have more that I want to talk to, just some are an hour drive from my house so I am weary. I would rather call but that hasn't been productive as of yet. Only time will tell.

Speak up

2006-08-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

So I need some advice/help.

Like I said in an earlier post (and mostly everyone that knows me) I investigate supposed haunted locations as a hobby. One of the things I have been wanting to do is to collect a list of haunted places in and around Fresno and either publish it or even do a haunted tour like in San Francisco. The problem though is that it's hard to find places. Getting the word out on my group has been hard. The public places we have gone to have either been investigated before or we contacted them and asked to perform an investigation. As for the private residences, we have done only two and they came about because one of the team members knew someone in connection the the residences. We have gotten some others, but they seem to be flakey and I really doubt anything will ever come to fruitation.

Our busy season, begins in September with a possible school site, but this depends on the people in charge. Then it's back to places we have already been to. Not that I am complaing as I hate it when I see other ghost hunters go to a site once and never go back. But what I am complaining about is we haven't gotten any new leads. Last year was great. Went up to Sierra Skyranch in July (going back there in Oct and Nov) then Hotel Jeffery in Coulterville twice, Andleberry Estate twice and Springville Inn in Springville, CA. Now it just seems like we are in a drought of sorts. I have a list of places I want to contact but here lies the problem and why I need advice. As much as it pains me to say this, I am shy and I have a hard time iniating the first contact. Given the almost taboo nature of the subject of the paranormal I am even more shy when trying to contact someone regarding their property. How does one start that conversation? I know others who do it and get a positive response, so why can't I? I honestly think I am worried about being rejected (took me four years to ask out my girlfriend) and being made fun of because I do this and this is considered a psuedo-science at best.

Well I could use some advice on how to approach people on this. But that being said I am going to the Meux Home in downtown Fresno during my lunch hour and just see what happens. I don't really care if they reject me and tell me to get the hell away from them. I think knowing that I actually did something will help me to gain confidence.

Tomorrow is going to be long though. It's a friend's birthday and he and his wife want to go up to Coarsegold to the Indian casino. Problem is that they want to go after the see World Trade Center so I don't know if we will leave until 9:30 or so. And with an hour trip it will be 10:30. And honestly there is nothing to do up there except gamble, eat, and to see if a show if there is any. But it's a friend's birthday and I will go.

We've got movie sign!!

2006-08-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Roman Holiday and falling even more in love with Audrey Hepburn. This was her first major role (which she won an Oscar for) and it's amazing how the elegance and poise was evident even more here, and not just because she portrayed a princess.

I have to give thanks to Netflix, if it wasn't for them I doubt I would have ever rented any of these jewels. Definitely has broadened my horizons with movies. Both good and bad.

You see I love bad movies. I think it started when my bestfriend Tom and I would rent cheesy horror movies and watch them. We'd laugh at the plotless stories, the horrible make-up and special effects, and just how bad some really wear (Forever Evil anyone?) Then I made one of those live changing discoveries one day, one that you know you will never be the same from again. I was flipping through the channels and I came across a movie with a silloute of theater chairs and three persons. One looked like a normal person, but the other two seemed to be puppets. As I watched I realized they were making fun of this horrible movie and I started laughing at this as I thought it was brilliant. I was just introduced to Mystery Science Theater 3000. I became a huge fan of the show and watched it until we got rid of cable. Even after I would always make fun of movies and just recently I found a bunch of episodes on DVD and the love has been reborn. Thanks to MST3k I have been privy to such horrors as Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Hobgoblins, Time Chasers, "Manos" Hands of Fate, and the ever banal Mr. B Natural.

What is even better is now my sister is just as addicted to me and we will constantly text each other with our favorite quote (Trumpy what do you know? Food. Eating. The theater.") and will riff (make fun of) on any movie we see (X-men 3 which we do not believe existed). And thanks to the wonderful invention that is the internet I have found that the writer for MST3k, Michael J. Nelson, has starting offering audio commentary for download on mainstream movies (is Road House considered mainstream?) where you just have to rent the movie, therefor avoiding any copyright infringement. This has given me the idea of my sister and I to do the same thing. From our favorite movies (Lord of the Rings) to crap (the aforementioned nonexistant X3) we plan on riffing as much as we can and sparing no feelings. Well except I refuse to make fun of any Audrey Hepburn movies. But that's just me.

Two Drifters

2006-08-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

I guess I should explain both the title of this blog as well as the address. Last week I had recieved Breakfast at Tiffany's in the mail from Netflix. Now normally I am not one for the classics, but one of the reasons for getting the service is that I could see a lot more movies and not spend $6 per rental. I recieved the movie on Saturday and since the Giants were losing yet another baseball game I decided to pop in the dvd. Now I was a bit familiar with the movie, I knew Truman Capote wrote it but that was all. From the opening scene of Audrey Hepburn's character of Holiday (Holly) Golightly at Tiffany and Co. in the morning until the end I knew I had a new favorite.

There was a song she sang (which I later found out was made very popular in 1961) called Moonriver. The way she sang was so lovely, but you could hear just a bit of sadness in her voice. This is going to sound odd, but at that moment I fell in love with Audrey Hepburn. Not THAT way of course, I have a loving girlfriend of two years, but just how she portrayed herself. Holly was an escort but was the most elegant person I had ever seen. Of course then I realized that was Hepburn in her natural beauty and she made Holly a part of herself. I loved how she had such poise and dignity and was graceful and even a bit of a brat. These were qualities I always found attractive in a woman but never could find. Then I realized I had, my girlfriend. I am not comparing the two, but my girlfriend has always had a grace and elegance about her that I had seen when I first met her over six years ago. It was one of the things that made me want her and pursue her. I just never really gave it a thought till I saw this movie.

After I finished this I became a huge Audrey Hepburn fan and chided myself on not seeing her movies earlier. I immediately added more of her films to my Netflix list (Roman Holiday should be here on 8/10) but still felt that wasn't enough. I read her bio on wikipedia and found out she had done a lot of work in the later part of her life with UNICEF as they had helped her when she was a child in the aftermath of WWII. I went to her charity's website and saw they took donations. I had just recieved a rebate in the mail for some software I had purchased months ago and had forgotten about it. I decided that starving children needed the money more then I did, so I wrote a letter (rambling a bit I feel) saying why I was donating the money. I think it was just me saying thank you though I hope they don't think I am TOO odd when they read it.

It's sad she died at the age of 63, but I was so impressed how she always put everyone else above her. Like riding in coach on flights as she didn't think she should be in first class or donating an expensive wedding gown to a poor italian family (who still have it) as she wasn't going to need it. She loved doing movies but I read her greatest joy was helping others. It's too unfortunate that today's starts can't follow this same mantra but care more about being on the cover of People Magazine. With the quality of movies (or lack thereof) today being what they are, I am glad I have Netflix so at least I can see something with class.

An Introduction

2006-08-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to do another blog, this time one for posting general thoughts as well as things that go on in my life. I will still be doing the mobile blog, just needed something to jot down my ideas and I have been looking for something to document all the paranormal investigations I have been partaking on lately. Since there are a few in the past I figured I would post those first, that way next month when the latest to happen everything will be caught up.