Tag: ghost hunters

Dreamland Crocotta by Karl Pfeiffer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, TechLeave a comment

If you are a fan of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters Academy, then you are familiar with GHA season 1 winner Karl Pfeiffer.  He’s not just a famous TV personality but he’s also a writer.  He has written this short story called Dreamland Crocotta.

I didn’t know that he was a writer until he mentioned it on Twitter.  I found his book in the Nook store by searching for his name and he confirmed that this was his book.  It was only $1.99 but well worth the price for the 19 pages that it has.  It seems to only be in e-book format but sold on many different websites.

He used Smashbook to publish it but it’s sold on the Barnes & Noble website (through the Nook or the website), Kobo books (for the Kobo Reader) as well as the Diesel eBooks website.  If you have a Kindle, you might be out of luck as far as buying it through the Kindle store but you might be able to convert it to Kindle format in Calibre.

Synopsis:

“A short story. Overcome by insomnia and depression, Mitch Haloa passes his days alone in his neglected home until he begins speaking to a mysterious voice that creeps within the forest behind his house; A voice that soon haunts his every thought, that prods at the cracks in his already fragile reality; that calls for Mitch to lose himself, to leave one darkness in favor of another…”

It is listed in these categories: creature, dark, horror, insomnia, paranormal, psychological

It is pretty dark but as you read it more you will begin to understand Mitch’s plight, why he is so depressed and why he is hearing voices in the forest behind his house.  You will start to understand a little better why his life has turned in this dark direction.  It may be a short story but it is worth the read.  I applaud Karl on his efforts and look forward to more of his short (or long) stories.

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On a side note, Karl is who got me into wanting to learn how to make those Hemp beaded chokers.  When I first saw him on Ghost Hunters Academy I saw his choker and thought it was so cool.  It wasn’t until he was on Ghost Hunters International that I remembered his chocker.  That night I got on Google and started researching them; what they are called and where to buy them.

I found out that they were hemp and macramé so I started researching that too.  I went to several different websites with macramé patterns until I found a similar necklace.  Then we went to Michael’s where I spent nearly a fortune on hemp and beads trying to recreate his.  Although, it was nearly impossible since I had already forgotten what his looked like, I ended up making my own design.  I also learned how to make the rings and bracelets.  Pretty soon I started looking like a hippy with all my hemp jewelry on.  What I was missing was my tie dye t-shirt and my bald man hippy long hair in the back.

Anyway, I want to thank Karl for broadening my [craft] horizons by wearing his choker on Ghost Hunters lol.  If it wasn’t for him, I probably would’ve never had an interest in adding Macramé to my list of crafts that I do.

Cirque du Freak

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, Movies, NookLeave a comment

(This is not a book review)

I have wanted to see this movie since it was first released in theaters but since one us in the house doesn’t like horror, the other (me) never gets to see it until it’s either on DVD, HBO or Showtime. Although, I still have yet to rent it from the Red Box at the grocery store. I seriously don’t know why I haven’t seen it yet. But right now at this very moment as I sit here typing this out, I’m glad I haven’t seen it yet.

This morning I wanted to start reading a book and I had chosen to start reading the 2nd book of the Belgariad but then I decided it wasn’t going to fit with the theme of this very day, Halloween. I mean sure it has witches and lots of magic but is it Halloween worthy? I think not. I have a queue of books that I want to buy and read and so I searched through the queue and remembered Cirque du Freak.

I got on the Nook store and found the first book for $1.99 for the e-book version. Perfect! I don’t have that much money in the bank for another few days but I have just enough that if I could buy a few of these volumes at $2 each. But I only bought the first one which is called Living Nightmare.

I started reading it after breakfast. It has fewer pages than the paperback version does as mostly all ebooks do but it also had way less than my regular books do. I can usually read 50 pages of a book which probably equals out to 75-100 regular paper back book pages and since this one was 149 pages, I thought, this is going to take 3 days, no problem. If I read half of it then I can shorten it to 2 days no biggy. But, after the live Ghost Hunters investigation was over I figured I’d at least give it a shot and see if I couldn’t just finish this book. And you know what? I did.

The story reeled me in, hook line and sinker. Whatever that means, some fishing term I don’t know. Anyway I was immediately hooked.

Here I am typing this out so late at night after spending so many hours reading, my eyes are tired and blurry and I’m having to squint to read, closing one eye making it easier lol. But I want to make my point before I go to bed and forget about it in the morning.

It was the most awesome $2 book I have ever taken a full day to read. Actually, it’s the first book that has taken me a full day to read. I love it and I can’t wait for the next one.

I wonder though, should I just go ahead and rent the movie or read the next book tomorrow and can I read the whole thing tomorrow like I read today? And is this a new trend for me? Reading these books one a day? How many are there? Do I need to read the entire series before seeing the movie?

Ok I’m too tired for all these questions since it’s 1:30am. I need to rest my eyes. I just wanted to let it be known that my dyslexia, ADD and learning disability didn’t prevent me from getting through this book, well, it was touch and go but other than that it was pretty easy to read and that is the kind of book I like.

I will start with part 2 tomorrow and hopefully the DVD will either be at the red box tomorrow or I can go into the HBO or Showtime on Demand and find it. I like to watch the movie first, it makes voices in my head for each characters easier so I cam impersonate their accents easier.

To be continued…

Beast Legends at 1am?

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Every Thursday night I turn to the SyFy channel to watch Destination Truth then Beast Legends.  For some odd reason Ghost Hunters is on instead.  Last week Ghost Hunters took Beast Legends time slot as well and I thought something was very strange about that but I didn’t investigate it until tonight.

I went to the Beast Legends page on the SyFy website and the first thing that I noticed was the time change on the image (above) that says 1am.

1am?  Really?  Did it get that bad of a rating that they had to change it to 1am?  I mean sure, the fictional characters they are looking for are far fetched from reality but you could say the same thing about Destination Truth as well.

I wasn’t too impressed with Beast Legends but I did watch it because I thought that the 3D graphics they were creating to build the beasts was kind of cool.  Then they had the little 1 or 2 minute movie at the end which only reminded me of an original SyFy movie lol.

If they are moving it to 1am permanently then I’m not even going to bother watching it anymore.  Yes I’m usually up at that time anyway but I’m not going to watch it if it’s so bad that they had to move it to 1am.  I’m loyal to some shows but not that one.

It’s too bad because the concept of the show was interesting.

Bright House Cable Upgrade

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

A week ago I got in the mail a letter from our cable company “Bright House Cable” saying they are going to be making some changes to the system and to keep an eye out or something.  I don’t have it anymore and I don’t remember what it said.

Yesterday a 1-800 number called and I let the machine pick it up and it was Bright House calling.  It was a recording and I let the machine record it but before it hung up I picked up the phone to hear the rest of the message.  It said that it was going to be upgrading 1 of our cable boxes.  It didn’t say which one, just that 1 of our boxes is going to get the upgrade and the other one will get it in a few weeks.

It was the one in the living room and I am so glad that it was that one and not the one in my bedroom because Darrin would never let me live that down lol.  I have an HD box in my room even though I don’t have an HD tv set.  The cable company gave me the wrong one but I insisted that I’m going to be upgrading my tv anyway (which was a lie) so let me keep it lol.  I said that because some of the HD channels are eastern time zone and I like being able to see the shows 3 hours earlier so that I can watch my network shows when they come on at 8 and 9pm.

One of the reasons why I couldn’t watch Ghost Hunters many years ago was because the new episode always came on at the same time as one of my shows at 9pm but I didn’t know then that they repeat it at 11 lol.  Duh!  But that’s ok, I like to watch the new episode at 6pm even though I don’t have any other Wednesday night shows.  I get to watch the new episodes 4 times, 6pm and 8pm on SyFyHD and 9pm and 11pm on regular SyFy lol.

So I still have to wait a week to 3 weeks for my upgrade.  I was just looking at it and it’s not all that different.  Ok yes it’s really different but it’s not better.  It’s just eye candy is all.  I will record on my dvd recorder what it looks like normal then when I get the upgrade record it with the upgrade and put it on YouTube lol.

Ghostly Dreams

On By Michel McDonaldIn Dreams, ParanormalLeave a comment

ghostI’ve been watching all these ghost videos on YouTube that it has entered my dreams lol.

The one thing that I’ve learned from watching Ghost Hunters on the SyFy (formerly Sci-Fi) channel is that they can’t hurt you.  Well, they kinda can because Jason has gotten scratches and they show people with scratches on their back that they couldn’t have possibly done to themselves.  And there was that one Halloween episode where Grant was being held back and you could see the collar of his jacket being tugged on.  But is that really hurting?

The videos on YouTube that I’ve been watching have been that stupid “Pantry Ghost” video where you can see hands and a face through the glass but someone has proven that it is a fake by showing you how they do it.  So I don’t believe in that one.  This same person has also shot video of himself playing hide n’ seek with his daughter and at the very end you see what appears to be a ghostly apparition in the corner by the dresser.  Well, that could’ve easily been faked using the same techniques as the pantry video.  They also made a video of going into a room and seeing a ghost girl standing up and then another where he opens the board to theattic and he sees a ghost girl turning around to see the camera.  Those are all fake because you cannot see through the ghost, it’s a solid apparition.

I’ve actually had encounters with “ghosts” in my bedroom.  Feeling a cat jump up on the bed and walk around.  That happens sometimes but I’ve accepted that it’s a kitty cat ghost, it can’t hurt me so it doesn’t frighten me in the least.  And one night, this only happened once, I was laying in bed and I felt what seemed like 4 cats on the bed but then I felt as though someone just sat down on the edge of the bed.  The edge of the bed felt like it was pressed down.  You could feel someone sitting.  I didn’t move because I didn’t want to scare it, it didn’t scare me.  I even said hello to it.  I eventually fell asleep.

But last night I had this dream that there was this ghost in the house and it was stalking me.  I went to the front door and there was a piece of furniture sitting in front of the door and it was keeping me in the house.  But I can’t put any stock into that dream because some how our toy chihuahua dog “Flower” duplicated so I had 2 “flowers” lol.

It still scared me, I was frightened and basically just scared out of my mind.  But I know that it was just a dream, they can’t hurt me.  I have to just keep saying and thinking that they cannot hurt me.

I saw “ghosts” as a kid, so did my older sister, my mother told me that she sees them too and that if I feel scared then perhaps it’s not good, it’s “evil” and to say the “lords prayer”.  Well, personally I don’t believe in evil as in hell or the devil.  I do believe in evil as in people who are evil such as those who have murdered other people and laughed about it and don’t regret it or apologize for it.  So I guess if a ghost can be good as people can be good then a ghost can be evil as people can be evil.  It works both ways.

I think the only way to stop those dreams is to stop watching YouTube ghost videos that try to scare you lol.

Hump Day or Ghost Day

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

When I was in school Wednesday was hump day.  Well now as a grown up and as an avid Sci-Fi (now SyFy) channel watcher, Wednesday is Ghost day.

Today it’s not just Ghost Hunters though, from 8am to 4pm SyFy channel is airing Scariest Places on Earth. Then 4pm is Lost, 5pm is Stargate Atlantis, 6pm is Stargate SG-1 then from 7-11 is Ghost Hunters.  Well, they are adding Ghost Hunters but it’s mainly Ghost Hunters International.

I’m not too crazy about Scariest Places on Earth because I’m sure those are all rigged up because those people are just regular people who are spooked for no reason so they won’t know if there is a real ghost or if it’s string tied to a rocking chair and being pulled via remote control.  Plus they are always doing these rituals where they have to call the ghosts to wake them up.  Bullshit!  Also the guy at the beginning who tries to scare them by telling them just how haunted the house or mansion is.  Shenanigans!

I like Ghost Hunters because they don’t scream (Donna) or run (Brian).  They mostly stick around if something happens because they want to find it.  They usually run toward the activity instead of running away from it because they want to debunk it.  They have actually found speakers in this one place so they knew it was shenanigans.  And they also found shenanigans on the queen mary when someone pulled the covers and paused the tape.

What am I doing sitting here blogging?  I’m MISSING it!

Edit: What are the odds that I would blog about something this morning at 7:53am and it happens later in the day?  I said in this post:

“They have actually found speakers in this one place so they knew it was shenanigans.”

And that episode is on.  I’m watching the East coast SyFyHD channel so I’m seeing it 3 hours before it really should air in CA so it’s the 8pm episode called “Widows Watch”.  Jay and Grant just found the speaker in the ceiling of the ladies room, when you open the door there is a sensor that activates the speakers and there is also a mirror with a face behind it that illuminates when someone is near it so when you are looking at yourself you see another face over your own.

I had no idea that episode would be on when I posted that this morning lol.  I must have ESPN or something.

No Bike Ride Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

It is unfortunate but today I couldn’t go on my bike ride.  I’ve been waiting all day for our new tenant to bring the check to keep the house available for him.  He mentioned that he had an appointment at 9:30am and I figured well you know how that goes.  Your appointment is early but you could be there for hours and hours and hours.  I waited 8 hours at a county hospital once and I had an emergency.

So it’s now 1pm and I haven’t gone on my bike ride because I’ve been waiting on this guy.  I would’ve been gone and back 5 times by now.

Although, it is a bit cold out today and the wind is blowing something fierce so that’s another reason why I’ve been waiting for these people to show up before I go out.  But now it’s too late cause I got Stargate SG-1 on at 3pm then Ghost Hunters is on the rest of the night.

Well that’s OK, I’m just gonna say that I missed today for 3 reasons.  The first reason is that my body might need to rest from yesterdays bike ride which is the first in months.  When you are not in shape you aren’t supposed to kill yourself up front lol.

Second, I don’t want to get sick from the wind and the cold.  I’m afraid that the wind is going to blow on my sweat and instead of drying my sweat it will make me colder and then make me sick.

Third my allergies are bad this year.  With the wind blowing as it is, I’m sure a ton of weeds and pollen are going to be blowing in my face causing me to have to pull over constantly to sneeze and blow my nose.

So, because I can’t think of any more lame excuses, tomorrow…

Believe or Deny

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I know this falls under the category of something I don’t like to talk about but this is just something that has been bothering me for such a long time.

Why do people believe in something that has never been scientifically proven but yet they deny something that has been scientifically proven?

The people in the middle east deny the holocaust yet there are pictures, it’s in the history books.

Some people deny the dinosaurs because of their religious beliefs.  Hello!  Dinosaurs have been dug up.  They aren’t Styrofoam bones you know, they are real bones.  They weren’t faked.  Some people think they were faked but what would that prove?  Science has proven that the earth was hot and had to cool did it not?  I’m not an expert but I have seen a few documentaries on the Discovery channel about the big bang theory (no, not the TV show although I do like that one hehe).  But just because the dinosaurs were not in the bible doesn’t mean they never existed.

Some people deny the existence of ghosts.  There is indeed scientific proof of the existence of the afterlife.  I watch Ghost Hunters every Wednesday on Sci-Fi channel and they have absolutely caught voices of children, voices of confederate soldiers, voices in other languages (GHI) plus there have been images from the thermo-cam that shows heat.

Speaking of which, I was sitting in my desk chair and Darrin was laying in my bed and he asked if our cat jumped on the bed and I looked and said no, she’s out on the patio.  Then I asked “did you feel like a cat jumped up on the bed and is walking around?” and he said yes.  His eyes were closed.  I’ve felt that so many times.  I’ve even blogged about our ghost cats.

Yet even though all these things have been proven, the religious people whether they are Muslims (who deny the holocaust) or born again Christians (who deny dinosaurs and ghosts) absolutely will not believe in them yet they believe in a god that they have never laid eyes upon or have never had any scientific proof of “its” existence.  How can you deny something that is proven yet worship and swear by something that has never been proven?  I don’t understand where the logic is in that.

There has been discussion about how you can’t see god but you know he’s there.  You can’t see the air but you know it’s there.  You can’t see space but you know it’s there.  Uh, actually, yes you can.  That again has been proven.  You absolutely can see space through telescopes.  You can see the stars, planets, galaxies.  That’s another thing, people absolutely deny that aliens from other planets might exist.  Are people that arrogant to think that of all the galaxies and of all the planets in those galaxies that we are the only living breathing thinking beings out there?

I believe in ghosts, dinosaurs, the holocaust and aliens.  I’m sorry if that upsets people but that’s the truth.

Paranormal State

On By Michel McDonaldIn Ghosts, Paranormal, TVLeave a comment

I was laying in bed watching tv and I had the History channel on most of the day watching these shows about the universe, about space and technology etc.  But that marathon ended and I didn’t want to watch what was on afterwards so I looked at the guide and found Paranormal State on A&E so I changed it to that.

I think there was maybe 2 hours that I saw, 4 episodes.  It was ok, a bit too much for me though.  I much prefer watching Ghost Hunters and GHI.  At one point in the basement of a church this guy was in the bathroom and all of a sudden the guy fell, like he was pushed I guess, I don’t know but you could see the camera falling with him.  He was so freaked out that he couldn’t even speak when they asked him if he’s ok.

I’ve been there I guess, you are just in shock, you can’t move, you can’t even speak, your brain is working overtime trying to figure out what the heck just happened to me that you can’t form the words.  You just need a minute or 2.  I probably would’ve been all HELLO!  HELLO!  CAN YOU HEAR ME?  LOL I’m a jerk.  But if that happened to me and I couldn’t speak I’d actually like someone to snap me out of it so I can tell them what happened.

I guess it’s a good show, I just prefer watching Ghost Hunters.

Ghost Hunters Halloween Live

On By Michel McDonaldIn Halloween, Paranormal, TVLeave a comment

This is the 3rd annual live episode of Ghost Hunters.  It’s a 7 hour investigation beginning at 7pm and ending at 2am.  The following Wednesday night episode will be a follow-up to show the results of all the EVP and videos from the cameras and the flir.

Tonight the team revisits Fort Delaware in Delaware City to probe the former Civil War post. Guests Amanda Tapping and Mike “The Miz” Mizanin join the hunt. Hosts: Josh Gates and Steve Valentine.

So far after the first 6 minutes they already starting having issues with production.  All of a sudden the screen went snowy bringing back old memories of before cable was invented and you had to fiddle with the “rabbit ears”.  Also when Josh Gates was talking to Amanda Tapping and The Miz you couldn’t hear them talking.  You could hear Josh but not the other 2.  You could hear a lot of Josh’s voice echoing though and hearing Amanda talking sounded like an EVP, you could barely understand what she was saying.  The only people who were able to get what she said were lip readers.

It took about 45 minutes before they actually started doing their investigation which is fine because they showed the tour of the property and they showed how they got there which looks like it must have cost a lot of money, like you could probably buy a decent house in a rich neighborhood for the amount of money that they spent.

Once they went in the camera started messing up and they had just started.  It kept freezing up.  They could have switched over to Steve just until they got it all squared away but they kept going hoping it would clear up which eventually it did.

I also noticed on the Flir that they are 13 minutes ahead of us which means someone set the clocks ahead.  Of course I’m on the west coast so they are 3 hours ahead so it isn’t live for me but still, they were 13 min ahead for the east coasters too.

The cameras are messing up again.  It just happens to Jay and Grant but I think it’s because of the walls of where they are walking through.  They are after all in the dungeons.  You can’t expect good quality video down there.

Edit:  Sci-Fi channel keeps popping up these ads at the bottom of the screen.  Now I realize they won’t be showing a lot of commercials like they normally would, 15 – 17 min of commercials per hour, but the pop up’s are starting to get annoying.  I mean, they could make them smaller.  They take up 1/4 of the screen at the bottom every few minutes.  It reminds me of pop up ads on the internet except I can’t click them off.

I’ve stayed up for the entire 7 hour investigation despite the fact that I woke up at 4am and couldn’t go back to sleep.  I am sooooo tired lol.  I made a pot of coffee about 2 hours ago and of course I ran out of equal and sugar so this is my last cup.  There is only 20 more minutes left of the show so I’m going to tape my eyelids open, I got the tooth picks on hold just in case lol.

So far all that has happened is a strong authoritative male voice telling Jay and Grant “You aren’t supposed to be here”.  That’s all that I’ve noticed so far.  Josh said there were some other sounds like footsteps and knocking but I didn’t hear it.  I can’t wait to see the episode on Wednesday that will reveal all the evidence they found.