GHOST HUNTERS

For our own entertainment, enjoy these deja vu classics... ( Breakfast Fact or Faked Club ) ( Scooby Fact or Faked Doo ) ( check the beginning--I'm thinking Fact or Faked might be The Goonies revisited ) ( so, whatcha think? Inspiration from the movies? ) I love FoF, so I am having fun with them because I do that when I adore something. They do make me think of Goonies or Gilligan's Island maybe... Okay, another episode of FoF is under our belts. The opening episode only teased us with what the season might be like. Now, we're into it. What did you think? I will expose my opinions in the comments with y'all. Here's what I'm curious about: Do you think they picked good cases? Do you think the right people were on the right cases? Were the results clear-cut to you? Come on, let's begin the review process...

You know what this means? Tomorrow morning review of Fact or Faked ( yes, and the tank top shot ).

( my hair says it all--I'm a scrambled up, going in 8 directions at one time, bright and shiny mess ) Well, what's up with the wacky redhead and her buddy companion, Julie ? Yes, it's actually a "quiet" time for us. Right! In early April we will be cemetery attendants at the yearly Cemetery Crawl event in which teams of 3 hit the road in an Amazing Race format across the AZ desert to crazy and lesser known cemeteries and lots of crazy stop-overs to unbelievable sites to do certain tasks. We're staying in the WigWam hotel in Holbrook and that'll be fun sleeping in a giant tee-pee shaped room. Expect the both of us to do lots of picture taking and video. I am hoping to start hosting more videos of our crazy jaunts and ghost hunts and starting a ghost hunting theories channel on YouTube to make it all easier to find and enjoy. ( the 2009 Cemetery Crawl event above ) Julie and hopefully will be joining two others we have met through blogging in Tucson and hit

This is my new series to keep us perpetual nerds up-to-date on trendy things. Mash-Ups Mixing two songs to make a new one. This one is not only popular, but there are amazing music videos mashed up to make something that takes music from kind of 2D to 3D. Often, they take two bands that are completely unrelated and once mashed up, they actually make sense together! ( two of my favorite bands, Black-eyed Peas and Kings of Leon ) I get my fix every day on my favorite mashup blog, Mash It Up - The Music .

( Another episode of my tween'ish I-gotta-mad-Beiber-crush-on-Josh-Gates Journal ) Tonight Josh is going to go to check out an abandoned mining town in Nambia and some kind of creepy monster! OMG! I don't know how he does it all! Some day, he'll have to settle down and start a family. I mean, he's totally awesome, so why not??? But, it's really important someone that smart and cute marries the right woman to make babies, right? LOL. He has a duty to better mankind with his totally adorable kids. That had me wondering, what would Josh and I's kids be like? I Photoshopped them, Josh. Won't our son and daughter be so cool? They're adorable! I'd be so proud to be their mama, Josh! (dreamy sigh) QUIZ: Josh ran into some physical obstacles on one of his adventures, was it... a. Got bit by fire ants and his hand swelled up. b. Got sick to his stomach and vomited a bunch. c. Fell off a rock face and injured his knee. d. Gashed his head and bled pretty na

Haunted caves are not that old a concept. Why would caves be haunted? Well, why not? Here are some factors working in favor of caves being haunted: 1. Geology. Hauntings are often times associated with places that contain granite, quartz, copper and limestone. Mining towns are especially haunted. Perhaps geology and haunting conditions are codependent. 2. History. Caves have been used by tribes, miners and people seeking shelter in tough times, all situations that might have involved death, as well as ancient burials of family members within caves. 3. Reception. The reasons we hunt at night for ghosts? Because of lack of outside interruptions and stimulation. The lack of sensory input makes your senses more keen. Ever notice how a dripping faucet or one bit of light can keep you up at night? A cave is an ideal place completely devoid of human interventions and outside interruptions. 4. Feng Shui. It could be that the very weaving passageways could help to contain energy and hold it

Cameras and spiritualism--cool combo. I adore the turn-of-the-century Victorian era and the steampunk movement that has developed from it. To that end, my dear buddy at Gnostalgia sent me a link that fascinated me so much that I printed out four of the pics, tore their edges, decoupaged them to a canvas painted black and hot glued a rusted sprocket in the center to make my own creepy nod to horror and steampunk.

(asterisk) means I'm watching it MONDAY: *Discovery Channel: “Mysteries and Monsters in Alaska” (from UFOs to monsters) Syfy: “Being Human” TUESDAY: *Syfy: “Destination Truth” (an abandoned town & a monster) “Marcel's Quantum Kitchen” (sweethearts engagement party) WEDNESDAY: *Syfy: “Ghost Hunters” (“Frozen in Fear”) and “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files” (Ghost in a theater and strange lights in the sky) History Channel: “Ancient Aliens” THURSDAY: AMC: “Secret Window” (Johnny Depp movie) FRIDAY: Travel Channel: “Ghost Adventures” marathon Bravo: “Ghostbusters” (movie)

Julie and I had started the Hug-A-Blogger project as a proposal for a book. We would drive across the country, meet and hug bloggers, get an anonymous looking picture of us (to keep up with the online mystique for everyone) and feature them and their blog in a chapter of the book, discussing how it changed their lives, what they expected going into it and how it paralleled what was going on in their own lives. Being cost prohibited, publishers were not jumping on-board. But, a few days ago, it struck me like lightning! HaB must continue on--the idea is a good one. Julie and I not only became good friends and sisters, road trip buddies, explorers and adventurers, ghost hunters together, but we also published a book together. So, we wanted to make a social site where people could write in what their experiences have been; some got jobs, some were inspired by someone's example, some found friendship, pen-pals, romance,and met in real life. We want to hear about it and promote a place

(Eric from Bubba's place thanks for this pic, we don't get snow in Phoenix) ( a coming haboob--duststorm ) ( atomic sky ) When asking yourself what kinds of adventures you can partake of, I have a lot of things the regular person who is not a Josh Gates can do to liven up an otherwise routine life. It's also free or very low cost. We've talked in the past about exploring cemeteries and watching documentaries, photographing abandoned sites and doing your own ghost hunting. Today, let's talk about a couple of interesting things that you might be equipped for right now if you own a cell phone or GPS and a camera; geocaching and storm chasing. You don't need to live in Tornado Alley to appreciate chasing a storm. Getting some rain coming your way? Get in your car, go to a high place and get a good view of its arrival. How about icicles hanging from an eve? Snowflakes silently dropping against a floodlight? A tree bending in the wind? Take photos of people's r

So, I was contemplating it early this year: What is the ideal Halloween night? For decades I imagined the ideal Halloween night while married to someone who hated costumes, horror, and anything Halloween. I daydreamed about doing fun and creepy things, being in the middle of the atmospheric time of the year, enjoying the carnivals and festivals, chili and beerfests, haunted attractions and pumpkin patches. Well, weather is not at all accommodating in the freaking desert, so it's very hard to get into the mood while waiting in line for a Haunted attraction while it's still in the 80s in the nighttime. So, I fantasize about the ideal Halloween... I've always wanted to be at an autumn forest clearing bonfire on Halloween with a group in costumes, drinking beer, and having to creep into the dark woods to take a leak. Perhaps some unplugged musicians and an all-night fest. Maybe I'd like to go to some kind of giant Wicker Man pagan ceremony with a burning effigy and crazy da

( one of my early paintings in the mid 80s--how I saw the beach where I lived ) When my ex would come home from work, he would begin with the criticisms immediately. He'd grumble about the traffic, complain that the neighbor's tree was growing over the property, point out the dust ball in the far corner of the kitchen where no one ever went, tell me that the food smelled like I put onions in it, did I put onions in it? By the time he actually got into the meal that was awaiting him on the table, he would have voiced on average 5 complaints. No "hello, honey" or kiss. No sense of he's glad to be home. Never asked how my day was. Completely self-absorbed and tightly wound. When I came home, I saw my haven, my family, and wanted to know all about their days. On the road, I dodged the stupid drivers and sang to the radio. I genuinely cared how my family's day went. What you focus on, your world becomes . Do you find what's deficient in your day? How other pe

Residual Haunting (defined by Wikipedia): Repeated playbacks of auditory, visual, olfactory, and other sensory phenomena that are attributed to a traumatic event, life-altering event, or a routine event of a person or place, like an echo or a replay of a videotape of past events. PLEASE, SLOWLY RE-READ THAT MEANING ABOVE . I think I might have a case for residual hauntings of the living. See if you might have some other examples that fit that meaning... Is it just me, or do they make you feel like you're stuck in a freaking time loop as if they are the only characters left in the entertainment world? DON'T FORGET LONELY ON A FRIDAY NIGHT TONIGHT AT 7 PM EST HERE ON THE BLOG

Y'all know me well enough to know that I'll get you from A to B safely, but the ride might be kind of wild. Don't close your eyes, though, cause you might miss some very important points of interest along the way and scenic views you never would have braved before. So, what does squirrel wrangling teach us about ghost hunting? Picture if you will, a squirrel gets into your house when the patio door is open. Other than running around screaming and opening every door and window, how do you get the little rodent out? You grab a sofa cushion and maybe start wrangling him towards the door. What does the little devil do then? He climbs atop your TV armoire. Okay, so you start nudging him down. Now that he's down, he darts off deeper into the house. What do you do next? You chase after him again, huh? You poor stupid sap! The squirrel could freaking do this all night long. He's not even working up a sweat like you're doing. In fact, he's probably laughing at your

**you might have noticed a button on the right-hand side for my author's blog . I figured I should have a place for my writing world to stand on its own. Check it out and follow.** (I'd like to thank Barry from Gnostalgia for helping prompt me with ones I hadn't thought of) You like to read... Edgar Allen Poe Mary Shelley H.G. Wells Charles Dickens Arthur Conan Doyle Bram Stoker Robert Louis Stevenson Mark Twain H.P. Lovecraft You admire... Nikola Tesla Thomas Edison Harry Houdini Wilbur and Orville Wright Samuel Morse Your style tends towards... gadgetry safari victorian angliophile pipes and reading jackets pocketwatches and hats You love these movies... Sherlock Holmes Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Sweeney Todd Sleepy Hollow Edward Scissorhands Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Journey to the Center of the Earth The Time Machine 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea The City of Lost Children Van Helsing Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events Hellboy The League of Extraordi

Wahoo! New season and, yes, new tank top shots. Answer is still the same--fact! I have been waiting for this season to start forever! It moved back with GH, probably to save the old show's sagging ratings. So long as they keep it on, I'll watch it when I can get it. I have always said the premise for this show is fantastic, and I hoped that between season 1 and 2, we might see an evolution into something more endearing. Endearing? Well, we fell for Jason and Grant and their Skipper and Gilligan relationship and we fell for Josh Gates and his eccentric bunch of team members. Though I readily admit a monster crush on Ben Hansen (his brains and his looks, people!), I would like to see something that makes me come back week to week. A well-matched team could study a Triscuit cracker for a full hour and we'd be entertained to hear them speculate how they make it so airy and yet so weighty, so woven and yet so fragile. The truth is, they are likely to run into nothing terribly e

Hey, I thought every now and then, I'd do a post "Don't Be a Dork!" Helping us to stay up on something we hadn't heard about before. We'll always be dorks, nerds and dweebs, but perhaps our eyes won't glaze over when people talk about current trends we didn't know about. Today, it's a class of music referred to as trip hop/electronic rock. Did you like the Eurythmics in the 90s? Well, there's something just as equally synthetic sounding and intriguing. This band, Phantogram, is a great example of trip hop/electronic rock. Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music. It began in the mid-1990s, growing out of England's hip hop and house scenes, including that of the Bristol underground. It has been described as "Europe's alternative choice in the second half of the '90s", and a fusion "of Hip-Hop and Electronica until neither genre is recognizable. Electronic rock, also commonly referred to as ele

Email me if you want the transcript from the Q&A with Devin and Ben from Fact or Faked at psychic62@hotmail.com The second season of "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" begins! DO NOT MISS THIS ONE! They will be handling exciting cases including Battle LA, a 1942 incident that activated the military and had enormous amounts of witnesses, as well as a case on the Queen Mary. For the review tomorrow, I have a new tank top shot. I'm debating whether I should show it. It's rather risque. Oh, I probably will. I don't know. Maybe I can be convinced... Tonight, Syfy we have "Ghost Hunters" and they're finally getting smart and bringing a dog on the investigation-how long have I been touting that? Our dogs at Aspen Grove were extremely aware of the activity and they were an early warning sign like the dogs in LA that barked like mad before we had the 6.0 and gave me enough warning to get into a safe spot. Besides, something tells me the conversation with t

Here's the question Julie and I are asking in our upcoming book "Spirit Vessels: Why Some Buildings Are Haunted" What did the ancients know about stones that we don't seem to recall? My buddy in Tucson contacted me about his recent desert hike and finding of circles of HoHoKam grinding stones. This brought back the question of circular stands of stones, sometimes toted long distances to build sacred structures found in places like Egypt, the UK, the Americas, Easter Island and more. When wood was easier to use and more convenient, many cultures demanded certain structures be stone and specific types of stones. To that end, Julie and I are planning to hike with our buddy in Tucson to do some research for the book in such a sacred place. We will also perform some experiments and look for phenomena. I am strong with theories, but I also like to go out in the field and test them. Here's how I see it; certain stones, put into the right formations become ideal spirit ve

(Enjoy this installment of my tween-like Beiber-crush'ish journals about Josh Gates and his fantastic show, "Destination Truth" and always shown with an appropriate pic of Josh and his necklace in keeping with the episode. Oh, and don't miss the trick quiz question at the end.) Josh Gates Journal: March 22, 2011 Josh is looking for the Ucumar in Argentina, a Bigfoot/Yeti-like creature. They will be poking around an abandoned prison. He's sooooo brave! ( heart beating fast ) I wish I could send Josh a protective cape like a superhero. OMG! He'd be so cute in it! I guess his totally cool necklace will protect him. ( dreamy sigh ) He better not go to any beaches down there. Those women in bikinis in Argentina are beautiful. What if he falls in love? What if he marries a supermodel? What if they have kids??? OMG! I'd be totally devastated! ( deep breath ) Just in case, I looked ahead in the TV guide and it doesn't look like he stops to get married along th

( Pretty accurate feel of what it's like to come across a place ) Urban exploration, without a more formal explanation basically means poking around abandoned places, whether it's sewers, houses, missile silos, asylums, you name it! It is something I absolutely adore and finding these places is not always that easy, although in today's world, it could be the house next door. Still, there are laws being broken to trespass into such sites. I always make it a policy that if it has posted signs, I won't enter. I'm not stupid. I have a perfect record and I'd like to keep it. Why do people do this? It's very hard to explain, but something happens when a home is no longer inhabited and weather and nature has taken over, rays of light shine through, random pictures still sit on wall. It's sad and lonely where once it provided shelter and joy. As a psychic and a ghost hunter, these buildings are precious gold and I just want to absorb everything inside of them,

*asterisk means I'm watching it . MONDAY: AMC: “Speed” (movie) Syfy: “Being Human” TUESDAY: *Syfy: “Destination Truth” marathon with new season episode “Haunted prison; Ucamar” **Followed by the first episode of my new favorite “Marcel's Quantum Kitchen” where he has to design a safari-themed party. WEDNESDAY: *Syfy: “Ghost Hunters” finally adds a new intelligent member—a dog. Following this is the mucha awaited Season 2 opener of “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files” with research into the Queen Mary and Battle LA. This is going to be awesome! Don't forget—tomorrow is my show review of FoF with the trademark tank top shot. I want your input. History Channel: “Ancient Aliens” and “Journey to the Earth's Core” THURSDAY: Syfy: “Saw II” and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” (movies) FRIDAY: AMC: “Predator 2” and “Terminator 2” (movies) Travel Channel: “Ghost Adventures” marathon History Channel: “Monsterquest”

Hey, I want to thank Timoteo for this concept. He said I should write an instruction book on females and their mysteries and I figured I have more secret knowledge about women than I'll ever have about the ghost world. Let's assume your purpose in understanding the female is to make a relationship and "get some" regularly, and perhaps not be in misery once achieving these goals. Here's what you need to know about the female before you go hunting: Your woman dresses up to go out. She does this so you know what a prize you have, but also because she knows you want to show others your status as the man who can get such a prize. If you tell her that she needs to dress down because you want to wear jeans, don't expect to get any that night. If you forget to tell her that she's so hot you don't know if you want to share her with the world, don't expect to get any for the next week. If you DO tell her that she's so hot that you don't want to shar

( At a desert dump, I found some nipples. Most folks walk past them. Not me, I think, "Hey nipple shot!" ) I remember the day I packed away my Barbie dolls when I was turning 13. I looked at them and sighed. It was sad. No more make-believe. No more trying out real life scenarios in the safety of a Barbie townhouse. Now I had to live in the “real world.” Well, one thing I've found about ghost hunting and exploring the world of the paranormal is that there is no need to grow up. As adults, we have a lot of responsibilities. Really too many, but we do miss those days when we had summer off and our biggest concern was whether we'd hear the ice cream man when he cruised too fast by our houses. The last frontier for those of us who want to stay young for life is to explore. To ask questions. To seek knowledge. To go on those adventures I'm always pushing on my Adventure Sunday posts. Ask my dear friend Julie and she will tell you that I am a big excited kid. I want to

Another installment in my Saturday inspiration series. I had a friend talking about fate and it's a weird thing. I don't believe in fate. I believe life is what you make of it. Here's an example. An artist looks up at that sky (picture above) and sees the sun setting in stormy weather. He stops and pulls out his paints and his easel and canvas and begins to paint. Was the artist fated to see that and paint it? No. Did he notice the beauty in the world and decide to act upon it? Yes. So, his future was changed by inspiration and action. So, if people refer to fate, to me it is: Inspiration and Action. Same with the concept of "signs" which I covered in my book "Was That a Ghost?" Signs are something we notice when we're looking for them. Beauty and opportunity is something we notice when we're looking for them. In a married relationship, if you remained loyal, you probably met dozens of people who could have been considered fated for you, but you