A long time ago, Freakville (an affectionate name self-bestowed by Jacksonville locals) had a decent radio station: Planet Radio 93.3, now 107.3. When it launched, the DJs were cool, the music was new, and the sound was alternative. For a town with no college stations to shatter the airwaves with non-studio tracks, Planet Radio was our last, best hope.

Over ten years later, the play list has barely changed since then, yet the new Planet 107.3 still calls itself “the new rock station” (?!) while great shows that used to be on like “Forbidden Planet” have long since disappeared.

Bleh. Is it any wonder that the target audience for non-pop, non-twang, real alternative radio prefers to haunt “teh internets” and mix their own play lists? Why can’t you push a button on the dial while driving and hope to discover something new anymore?

But there may be hope: Alternative X102.9. Already comparing themselves directly to how lame Planet Radio has become, they are actively using the word “alternative” and “the REAL new rock station.” The website is pretty threadbare, but the tunes are pouring in. Dare we hope for change? And, if anything, will Planet bother trying to keep up once cash-cow Lex & Terry finish their morning show?

Here’s hoping it’s bloody and sounds good.

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Orignal From: Jacksonville Radio X102.9 Alternative?

I started thinking recently about how much I’ve changed since half a lifetime ago. Doesn’t seem like much, but you never know when you might want to reflect. So here goes the first in what may be a series.

Half a Lifetime Ago: Three Thing I Miss

1. Being able to eat anything I wanted, as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted.
2. Having so much extra energy I didn’t know what to do with it all (being tired really sucks).
3. Being able to make up for a week of early mornings and/or late nights by sleeping in on a single Saturday (see above).

And that reminds me of something that I saw on a episode of “American Dad.” Does anyone else hate having to sleep because it’s time they could be doing something else? Forget diet pills and stem cells; give me something so I never have to sleep again (without all the requisite negative effects) and I’ll be the happiest of campers.

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Orignal From: Half a Lifetime Ago: Three Things I Miss

I’ve mentioned before around here that my day job is conveniently location across from a rather large hospital. In fact, as soon as they finished the branch that doubled its size, they started building another branch on the other side that’s just as big. I’ve been at universities that were smaller.

Anyway, not once but TWICE now, employees have either been approached by or chased down by mental ward escapees from the hospital who either were trying to hitch a ride or enter our building, prompting our management to recommend a buddy system with regard to leaving the business late at night.

I suggested a more reasonable approach. On the path by the lake that links the two facilities, we should put up a sign that says “Institutional Psych Ward & Electroshock Therapy Building.” That should send the escapees (read: mentally-challenged individuals who might do harm to themselves and others) running across the interstate for freedom, right?

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Orignal From: Please Don’t Feed the Escapees

There was once a village that settled around the largest source of water in the territory. To protect their source, a deep and wide well was built. To watch over it, a family of tenders was tasked. The tenders had one sacred law: never drop stones into the well.

Over time, the village prospered. As it grew, more and more water was drawn from the well. Some, like the farmers, required more water than most, and late at night after a long day and the well ran low, bargains were made with tenders to walk away for a while. The following morning, there was still plenty of water for all, or so it seemed.

Droughts did occur on occasion, and when this happened, water was borrowed from neighboring villages, but most of the time the village shared their well water with others since their source was the most plentiful. Then one day, the villagers started to notice that it was taking longer to draw their water from the well and began to complain. The tenders also noticed the level of the water in the well wasn’t replenishing as it used to. All of this was taken to the village leader.

Upon investigation of the complaints, something terrible was discovered. Whenever the farmers would take extra water, the farmers would drop stones into the well to raise the water level. And after the farmers would leave, villagers would sneak back to the well before the tender returned, taking more water for themselves and also dropping in a few stones as they had seen the farmers do. And in spite of the water lent in times of drought, the neighboring villages claimed they had no water to spare for the village well.

In a private meeting, the eldest tender met with the village leader to discuss their options. It was then that the tender revealed a secret remembered only by the tenders: if too many stones were in the well, the path to refilling it might be blocked forever. When the village leader asked what needed to be done, the tender confessed that they needed to either carefully remove all the stones one at a time to prevent further blockage or begin digging a new well in case the old one stopped filling.

Remove all the stones? Dig a new well? Such things took too much time, and the village leader knew little about water levels and stones and wells. After a time, he decided to go with the only thing that had ever worked, but he rationalized that if a little was good, a lot must be better. There was only one solution that made sense.

“Drop a couple of boulders into the well,” the village leader ordered. “If we’re lucky, they’ll crush the smaller stones, raise the level, and keep the water flowing for everyone.”

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Orignal From: “Never Drop Stones Into the Well” (a parable)

There was a film back 1981 called The Entity, reportedly based upon a true story. It starred Barbara Hershey as a woman being haunted, stalked, and periodically raped by an invisible entity or spirit. Whatever this thing was, it was obsessed with the person, not a location or object.

I was reminded of this on Parahub.org last week. Listeners heard the story of a woman and her family who are either being followed by a spirit or manage to keep finding them where ever they go. Speculation is that there is either an object or person this haunt is bound to or that one or more members of the family are drawn to haunted places.

What was striking about the interview is that the woman sounded genuine and down-to-earth throughout the interview, a mere mortal dealing with a supernatural situation. The practicality in her voice belied the seriousness and potential danger of the situation. Not being an investigator or particularly religious herself, she was dealing with the haunting as any rational person would: asking for help from anyone she thought could provide it.

In contrast, by this time in a movie or television show, someone would have discovered what the spirit wants, how to appease it, or what might drive it away. But for these real-life people, being haunted is a fact of life, and not in a friendly “Ghost Dennis” kind of way. Of course, my thoughts on the subject is, a spirit able to manifest itself to people who keep ignoring it is only going to make it mad… wouldn’t YOU be?

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Orignal From: Prone to Being Haunted? Don’t Ignore It

If you’re living hand-to-mouth and saving nothing, or if the credit cards are maxed out and you constantly find your wallet empty once you’ve bought food, paid bills, and made minimum payments, it only takes one unplanned expense to cause everything to fall behind. Meeting these obligations feels great compared to the dread of deciding what bill waits until later, but the temptation to splurge on yourself as a reward with any extra money left over is even harder to resist (especially when prodded by retail advertisers to “save more by spending more.”)

This is inter-workings of the credit trap, forsaking preplanned purchases for spontaneity. While there’s nothing wrong with an occasional splurge, whenever I set aside some discretionary funds for the future, I inevitably get talked (or talk myself) into eating out, buying some small something, whatever. While all the bills are being paid, not much can get saved when all these small purchases add up.

Taking a cue from my roommate/landlord, I decided to try something new. For a two-week pay period, I planned out every purchase I was going to make: every meal, gas, entertainment, you name it. Then I counted out what I needed and threw the rest in savings just to see if I could make it. After buying a couple bags of groceries and such, I settled in to force myself to do what I once HAD to do out of necessity: make due on exactly what I already had (but without the worry that anything has gone unpaid).

By way of contrast, my roommate can go out, buy a whole turkey, cook it, and eat on it every day of the week. Not me; no way. I need a little variety, so I usually get canned goods and things that I can make 3-6 meals from and spread those out a little. The first week was fine, but when faced with what was left in the freezer and sitting idle on the cupboard shelf, the mind inevitably starts thinking about how nice a hot Arby’s roast beef and cheddar sammich would taste (and not having to cook).

Long story short (too late) is that I made it, and the hardest part was changing my mind. The whole “I want it right now because I can afford it and I deserve it, dammit” rationalization doesn’t hold a lot of water when you’re hoping you have enough gas to get through to your next payday. I intend to make this a lifestyle change because it’s a smart thing to do these days and because it’ll help me delete my existing debt all the quicker. Then, maybe, I’ll treat myself to an Arby’s sammich… I think I’ll have one on the 20th.

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Orignal From: Not Treating Paydays Like Holidays

I saw a bumper sticker on a car today that read plainly, “War is not the answer.” That seemed like an unrealistically blanket statement to me. Surely I could come up with at least a few instances when war might be the answer, right?

• When a bigger, stronger nation decides to invade and the United States has no vested interest in saving your ass, war might be the answer.
• When the neighboring state that you generously allow to live peacefully next door decides to launch rockets day and night into your territory, war might be the answer.
• And when a group of people refuse to see peace, compassion, or generosity as anything but a weakness and potential target, war might be the answer.

Anyone else?

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Orignal From: Actually, War MIGHT Be the Answer…

I’ve been looking for this word for a while. Pareidolia deals with the psychological tendency to recognize “self” in others and/or in other things. The ability for the human brain to do this may date back to a fight-or-flight instinct or a time when our eyes and ears were not so precisely developed. But as a wise old Jedi once said, “Your eyes can deceive you. Don’t trust them.”

This phenomenon weighs heavily on paranormal investigation. Ghost hunting, by definition, implies that you’re actively looking and listening for thing that go bump in the night. Photographic orbs, uncast shadows, and still watching figures are going to be harder to see in grainy images when high definition cameras reveal the truth. I personally believe that only creative people are ever afraid of the dark; who else could perceive a shadowy stalker in their dark bedroom when squinting at a coat thrown over a chair next to a baseball bat? Electronic voice phenomenon or EVP is even harder to prove in this digital age, especially when someone with an illegal CB booster could broadcast through a toaster (hey, you want some toast?)

My point is this: people tend to find what they’re looking for because they are looking for it. The ability of our brains to perceive false images, hear false noises, and even follow illogical threads of thoughts to reach false conclusions is wonderful for storytelling but detrimental to unbiased investigation. But with more and more things under constant surveillance, shouldn’t it only be a matter of time before something significant is recorded that can’t be just our imagination?

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Orignal From: Pareidolia: Seeing and Hearing the Familiar

I really enjoy a good ghost story. The very idea that something supernatural exists along side the natural (and unnatural) is spine tingling, and witnessing proof (or even the hint of proof) that what you believe or think you’ve seen isn’t just your imagination is nothing short of thrilling (or damnably frightening).

Special effects in film have also advanced at the same rate as portable filming equipment, meaning that the average YouTube auteur has access to nearly the same tool set as professional filmmakers. With only time, talent, and inspiration separating the two, the old question of “staged vs. real” comes to light: would you rather see good actors pretending to… well, whatever, or bad actors really doing it?

Two of my favorite ghost stories of late have been The Others and The Orphanage. Both films have similar themes and elements: century-old mansions, secret sorted pasts, creepy children, and centered around an estranged wife. All these elements contribute to the mystery, and as long it feels safe to stop anytime (as opposed to the only way to make it stop), the investigation continues in spite of what may come.

Semi-reality shows like “Ghost Hunters” appear to be about serious investigation of paranormal phenomenon, but the controversy over what is staged and what is real seems to hinge on anticipation. What if, after years of waiting to see something more than a jacket being tugged upon, you walk into your very own 1408, a location that defines haunting but defies classification?

Then again, if something looks too easy or too unlikely, we’re not going to buy it, either. It’s easy to fake a still image but much harder to rotoscope around an object to “prove” it exists, but computer imagery is making this a standardized trick in movies. Is it too much too expect that we’ll never actually see a Class 5 free roaming vapor, or are we forever doomed listening to static for the words, “Are you a god?”

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Orignal From: Theatrical vs. Paranormal

Forget what you’ve heard. The first executive order issued by Barack Obama was not to close GITMO or launch a new stimulus package. It was when he extended his hand out of reach of the shorter secret service agents, clutching his Blackberry as he cried, “From my cold, dead hand!”

It has now been reported that the new US president has won this little battle to keep his technology, along with a few restrictions towards its use and a few upgrades. Of course, what everyone else who owns one should be asking is, “Why can’t WE have a Blackberry fit for a president?”

If there are so many risks to the commander-in-chief having this device, what an opportunity for its makers to build one that’s virtually uncrackable! Crazy point-to-point encryption, true online stealth from triangulation location, and hells, make it bulletproof. If the leader of the free world can’t demand a cool and secure smart phone, what chance do mere mortal geeks have? And if they do make a phone fit for a president, can we have one, too?

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Orignal From: The Ocrackberry: Fit for a President?