The last thing I had submitted to YouTube before writing this article was a defamation complaint, at which point they directed me to contact a lawyer to press charges against the uploader directly, or else to use their Safety Center to file a report. I'm really not interested in turning this into a big legal battle, so I picked the latter option, even though I had already done this before. I checked the uploader's channel again tonight and the video was no longer there. A search yields the above link. So all in all, I'm now a pretty happy camper. Okay, now you can read the backstory drama if you wish.
I'm pretty good at embarassing myself. It really doesn't take a whole lot, basically it occurs whenever I violate one of my own personal principles. I managed to do that over the holiday, more than once, and I'm pretty much fed up, not just with myself but the entire situation. It's hopeless, I feel helpless, I made a crapload of mistakes in the process and I don't know exactly what to do anymore except nothing. Doing nothing seems to be the only smart course of action.
It's hard to do nothing when video footage of your kids is being portrayed in a less than friendly manner, and YouTube's staff does not appear want to do anything about it.
So to give you the back story - my wife and I like to post videos on YouTube discussing somewhat esoteric subjects. She studies religion, I study the nature of reality, and the two of us make a pretty good team. Over the Christmas break my wife decided to upload footage of the kids opening their Christmas presents from their Nana, and we didn't think a whole lot about it. 20/20 hindsight has since told us the video should have been marked private while it was being uploaded, but there's not a whole lot that can be done about that now.
About a week ago a YouTube user posted a somewhat mean-spirited comment on one of my wife's videos. Me being me, I responded with a quote from the Knights who say Ni in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That seems to have been the wrong thing to do. This same user modified a still image from one of my videos, posted it online, and in a return comment accused me of using (I'm not making this up here) shape-shifter camouflage technology that had a glitch.
This user appears to either be a troll with a perverse streak, or someone with a severe case of paranoia, or both. He has regularly posted videos of people in media and also other YouTube users, representing them as being some sort of alien hybrid reptilian species that are using some sort of high-tech camouflage equipment to hide among the "real" humans.
I'm generally not the kind of person to back off from a troll, even though I really should know better. I've been a 'Netizen since before that term was even coined. But I sometimes get a perverse streak in me as well; when I see what I consider the behavior of a bully, my natural inclination is to stand up to the individual and not let them get away with it.
I responded with a statement along the lines of "Hey Time Pirate, the Spanish Inquisition ended in 1834. You need to update your travel logs. Also, you should take a look in the mirror. Clown shoes, they are upon you."
Both of my responses to this individual were intended to be light-hearted mocking of their behavior, which appears to have been the wrong thing to do. I also was a little annoyed that someone would take the time to take an image of me and manipulate it in such a way as to make me look like something evil or scary, so I did a little basic internet sleuthing with Google and turned up a possible real life name for the individual. I deleted my Time pirate comment, and replaced it with "All you need is love, [real first name redacted]."
I then created a YouTube video which indirectly mocked this user, by wearing a reptilian looking mask and making clicking sounds and waving my arms around on camera, before taking the mask off and explaining that everyone has a "reptilian" brain according to medical science.
In hindsight, both of these were bad moves on my part. I had violated YouTube community guidelines, which explicitly states that you should not use a user's real name, regardless of what the other user had done. This immediately put me on shaky ground when trying to deal with what happened next. I had also baited the troll, which does not make them go away.
The following day we found a video uploaded by this same user titled Reptilian Family with my wife and my YouTube usernames in the title. Adding insult to injury, it first they show me listed as "Reptilian Dad", followed by my wife as "Reptilian Mom", and then shows "Reptilian children" with the footage of our daughters opening their Christmas presents.
My immediate reaction was shock and rage, which was fed by similar reactions by my wife, which led me to make my next big mistake. Again, against YouTube Community Guidelines, I used my channel which had over 80 subscribers to enlist help among our friends in the YouTube community to get this video removed by posting a bulletin. Other friends on the internet jumped to help. Unfortunately, things got very ugly in the comments section very quickly as arguments broke out among our friends and other YouTube users who thought there was nothing wrong with the content in the video.
All in all, this turned what could have been an easy to fix problem into a big dramatic event. The reason I know this could have been fixed easily is that a copy of the offending video was uploaded again on another YouTube user's account the following day. Instead of reacting the same way by calling everyone's attention to it, I flagged it, reported the video as a YouTube privacy violation and a YouTube safety violation, and it was taken down within an hour. The original video, however, remains available on YouTube for anyone to see it, almost a week after it was uploaded.
I attempted to reason with the individual by creating a reaction video asking him to take the offending video down. It was ignored. I left a couple comments making the same request which were also ignored. These behaviors were acceptable under Community Guidelines, but were ineffective.
I reported the video to YouTube again, hoping perhaps by re-reporting it someone else would review the issue and take it down with no success. I deleted my YouTube channel and the twenty something videos I had uploaded hoping perhaps vanishing from the site would accomplish something. My wife was upset, I was frustrated, so I did something I'm deeply ashamed of. I created a new YouTube account with the express purpose of trolling the users who were (in my opinion) attacking my family.
I left a comment on another video uploaded by the same YouTube user, which was accusing another member of the YouTube community of being a reptilian / human hybrid for the second time. The comment stated that both the original uploader, and the user who uploaded a copy that was later taken down, were actually the same person using multiple accounts. I also accused the uploader of being a Golem, figuring if he could call me a reptilian then it was only fair that I be able to call him something that was not human also. I was upset at his lack of morality, compassion and even simple reason, so I was reduced to lashing out.
My comment was deleted. This had not happened to anyone else's comment before, so I got excited, thinking perhaps I was finally striking a nerve, and thinking perhaps if I applied the correct pressure he would take the video with our kids in it down on his own.
No such luck. He deleted the next comment I left, but then ignored the rest.
Still angry, I created a video mashup in a meme style of the dual personalities of the character Gollum from Lord of the Rings. I stated that his user account and the second uploader reminded me of the character, and created written lines of dialogue between the two dual personalities in a (pathetic) attempt to show how ridiculous their behavior was in a comedic light. Then I left a comment on his channel letting him know it had been uploaded.
Then I started feeling really bad inside.
Here I was, behaving just as badly, if not worse in some ways, than this troll. Against all of my own personal principles, I was listening to my base urges and following through on them. This guy was winning just by doing nothing. He wasn't commenting, he wasn't communicating to me directly, and he wasn't doing what I wanted. He wasn't taking the goddamn video down. And in the process, I had become just like him.
So I deleted my troll channel and its single video after it had only been live for about an hour.
I just want the video footage of my young children taken off the internet. I understand that the nature of the internet is permanent, and even if I manage to get this video taken down it could be easily uploaded by anyone who has a copy, even the original user. But that doesn't change how I feel because my little kids are involved in something they should have no business being involved in.
I don't know why it's so hard for this user to understand this. But aside from taking direct legal action I don't know what else I can do. I took a bad situation and made it worse by overreacting. So, for now at least, I'm going to ignore it and hope that a kind-hearted staff member at YouTube gets a chance to take a look at this video and then realizes that it needs to be removed.
It's been about a week since NaNoWriMo ended, and I had the opportunity to spend time with my father face to face for the first time in years. On November 30th I had 38046 words written in The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow, leaving 11954 in order to meet the 50,000 word goal. If I had ignored everyone on November 30th I know I would have met the goal, but in my opinion family is more important than completing a 50,000 word challenge.
The time it took to develop the basis for the story, location, characters, plot and so forth was actually quite small - the entire premise occurred to me during one of many outings running errands, probably while picking up groceries. I also managed to get sidetracked by a cool project involving the acquisition of a 1982 Pole Position arcade cabinet, and did not commit time to write each weekend like I had initially intended to do. Again, time spent with my family came first. Everything else came second, writing came third.
That's not to say I've given up on the project - quite the contrary. I have, however, decided to take a short break from writing. In the meantime I need to go through the 23 chapters that I have completed so far and look for inconsistencies and loose ends. I'd like to establish a timeline, a character map, and some key points to the story in order to drive the thing home. Upon completion, the next step will be the editing & revision phase, where I flesh out the story and include more detail, and possibly drop or rewrite the weaker chapters. Once completed I am reasonably certain that I will be in excess of 50,000 words.
Here's where I'm torn. I've intended The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow to be the first novel of a series. However, in light of the rapid shift from mainstream books towards digital with the influx of iPads, smart phones and eReaders, I am reluctant to head in the direction of traditional publishing. This reluctance is what inspired my making this novel available to anyone who chose to read it for the duration of NaNoWriMo, while it was in progress. However, the reality of copyright theft is what inspired me to disable that free access once November came to a close.
So what happens next?
I need input - anyone out there who wishes to weigh in on this is welcome to leave a comment or contact me via email.
I am thinking about making this novel available for digital download free of charge, from here, Scribd, Google Books and Project Gutenberg, assuming the last two will permit my submission. The format would be ePub and PDF for the best cross-device compatibility. I also want to make the novel freely distributable with no restrictions except financial gain without my approval. I'm not sure what would be the best license to use for that purpose - Creative Commons springs to mind but I'd like other suggestions to review before I settle on that.
My intention is to a) determine whether anyone likes the novel and cares to spread it around and b) based on interest or lack thereof I will either start the experiment all over again with a completely different story and characters, or start sequels with the intention to monetize them. Again I'd be focused on digital format primarily in the event that I do choose to monetize sequels, and most likely as inexpensive as I can price the book ($0.99?) depending on the venue(s) I decide to use for distribution.
Again, input would be awesome on this from anyone out there who has done this, is doing this or is researching how to do this.
In the meantime, friends and family are encouraged to contact me if anyone would like access to read the work in progress here on the website.
Before August 29th, 2005, if someone asked me what I immediately thought of when I heard the name Katrina, I would reference the Walt Disney animated short film, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and say that the name always made me think of Katrina Van Tassel, daughter of the wealthy Baltus Van Tassel. Following the hurricane, for the next five years I would immediately reference Hurricane Katrina upon hearing that name.
I've noticed lately that I've started thinking about Katrina Van Tassel again. I think that's a good sign.
In four days it will be the 6th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and we presently have Hurricane Irene bearing down on the eastern coast of the United States, expected to make landfall in North Carolina. I sincerely hope no serious damage results and nobody is harmed by the hurricane or its aftermath, in North Carolina or anywhere in range of Irene. To those of you in this region, my heart goes out to you and I hope you and your loved ones remain safe.
I still get depressed. I used to tell ghost stories for a living, and I did it well. Well enough to support a family, and live in the old French Quarter of New Orleans (albeit sans automobile). Well enough to live where walking out the front gate would lead to Royal Street, where a jazz parade might be passing by. Where down the street one could find an old French patisserie, a cafe or a famous bar. Where further down musicians might be performing on the corner, where people dressed up like statues would be posing, and nobody worried too much about how you looked or the way you chose to dress as you wandered through the streets.
Where I used to be easily recognized by a fairly significant number of locals. Would they still easily recognize me today? I'm not so sure.
But overall...life is good. I can easily acknowledge that now, and feel it. I used to talk about how lucky we all were to have survived the entire ordeal.
An apology and condolences to anyone with friends or family who were or are still in New Orleans
September 2nd, 2005 9:45AM
I am drafting this while waiting for my family's flight to our new home in Ohio tomorrow. We've just come through hell and high water (literally) just to reach a point where I might fire up this notebook and draft anything. I've already been composing an outline and notes. Enough has happened to us since last Saturday that I can probably write an entire book. We are extremely lucky to even be alive. Watching the news makes it clearer how unbelieveable it is that we are safe and sound. I know I said I don't watch the news. Currently the news is my only source of information, and after seeing everything for myself firsthand, I know this time they aren't exaggerating. If anything, there are a few officials and media representatives who seem to be trying to paint a prettier picture than the truth. Make no mistake, these liars are condemning survivors by giving them the false hope that if they hold out long enough New Orleans will somehow be fixed. Trust me, from first hand experience, based on what I saw New Orleans will not be an operating city any sooner than six months from now, and that is an extremely optimistic appraisal. I'm not sure if New Orleans will ever recover.
The primary purpose of this post is to apologize for my previous post that I have since removed even though it was written before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. It was written with a cocky, "you don't know what you're talking about" kind of attitude, and I have since been forced to eat those words, almost died multiple times, and put my family at the same risk because of them. I am not the only one who believed that if New Orleans survived Camille it would also survive Katrina. But we were wrong. Whoever left the comment telling me we needed to get out was right. By staying I put my family through much greater danger than was necessary.
I was correct in my assumption that Katrina would not hit New Orleans directly. In fact, as of Monday night, once the storm had passed, it appeared the worst damage that was suffered were trees being uprooted and power being unavailable for at least a week. We had running water, telephone, enough food to survive at least a week, longer if properly rationed, a gas stove, and the basic necessities for survival. What I was not expecting was to get woken by Brigitte because she could hear someone get shot, and several other gunshots throughout the night. I wanted to stay awake with her, but could not - I had stayed awake the night before through the entire storm.
The next morning I saw a flooded front lawn that had previously been dry after Katrina had passed. We learned a levee had broken and Lake Pontchartrain was emptying into the city - as predicted in the links provided by the anonymous comment on the pre-hurricane assumptions post. Nobody expected it. We had thought Katrina had passed, we were safe, power would be restored in about a week, and we would be able to get back to our French Quarter apartment, live poorly until the tourism kicked back in just in time for the Halloween season, and everything would be hunky dorey.
With the breaking of the levee, it slowly became clear that the city was doomed. Plumbing had been torn up throughout the city by the roots of trees knocked over by Katrina - we had running water for a few days but it was compromised - the sewer system of New Orleans had also been torn up by the same trees. The levee could not and still has not been properly sealed, the last I checked. Because we were on high ground we understood that if we were seeing flooding, the water was already too deep to wade through in some places. We were trapped in my employer's home by the rising waters.
By nightfall the first floor of Sidney's home was beginning to fill up with water. We noticed gas was leaking and were forced to shut off the gas lines, taking away our ability to boil the tap-water to make it safer to drink, and taking our ability to prepare much of the food we had stockpiled. The phone - our only communication to the outside world - went dead sometime after midnight thanks to the rising water short-circuiting the phone jacks on the first floor. The water had oil in it, and sewage. I had to wash my feet in the bathtub each time after I went downstairs to retrieve something and bring it upstairs. The only benefit of the flooding was that it made it harder for the looters to come out again, although we periodically heard gunshots in the distance after the sun set.
The only beauty in all of this was being able to see a clear starlit sky and the Milky Way for the first time in the entire seven and a half years I've lived in New Orleans. This was only possible because there were no city lights drowning out the stars by reflecting off the layer of haze constantly over New Orleans.
We escaped only because someone or several someones were watching over us, making sure we were in the right place at the right time to receive help from complete strangers to make it to the next step.
But I'll save that horror story for later.
For now, please accept my apologies. I have been deeply humbled by my experiences, and am incredibly lucky to be alive and well, with my pregnant wife and daughters. At this time I still have no idea whether the others we stayed with have survived and/or escaped since we were rescued by two men in their canoe (we were with Sidney Smith, owner of Haunted History Tours, Inc, Adele, her mother, and our pets). I can only hope that somehow they managed to escape and survived the process, just as I hope that all who were not as fortunate as us managed or will manage to survive and escape New Orleans, and find their loved ones if they were separated in the process. Our prayers go out to you all.
There are a few different references out there about everything going to black, or everyone being covered by darkness, during the apocolypse. There are also many people who think that is what happens when you die, athiests chief among them. For most people this is a frightening concept. In a brief discussion with Brigitte, however, I came to the sudden realization that the loss of sight would be of great benefit in the long run to human beings as a species, provided that this loss is accompanied by the acquisition of another sense, empathy being my preferred sense among the possibilities out there.
Empathy is the ability to sense the mood, feelings, and presence of others around you. In my mind, this would be superior to sight, which is fallible to distraction, manipulation, and misinterpretation, which causes all sorts of problems. To be clear, I'm not ready to lose my sight, because as we all know there are certain significant benefits to vision that I'm not quite ready to give up just yet. But to reiterate - it is much easier for someone to be fooled into believing that they saw something, when in fact they did not. Performing magicians exploit this regularly through their performances, using a variety of techniques designed to fool someone's vision.
Empathy, however, would be beneficial to everyone because it would permit them to have a closer understanding of the world around them and everything in it. People would not be as interested in inflicting pain because they would be forced to share it. People would have a greater sense of other living things, and even things that are believed to not be alive, yet still possess a certain level of sentience. You would be aware of your environment in a way that no human currently is - you would "feel" the trees, the plants, the rocks, and all the various animals, insects and other creatures around you, in addition to all of human kind surrounding you.
With this level of connection with your surroundings, nature, and "fellow man", it would be difficult to continue our raping of the earth. We would be less inclined to strip mine, to deforest, to pollute. We would be less inclined to hurt, maim or kill. We would have a greater understanding of one another, without needing to use words to explain to each other how we feel. And it would be impossible to use words in deception - it would be impossible to tell a lie.
I believe empathy is the best path of human evolution.
To skip to the latest video on this topic, click here.
Just to warn the average reader this is probably going to read a lot like science fiction. I don't really expect anyone to believe any of this, but at the same time I cannot completely disregard my observations because there is enough supporting evidence that I have come across during my lifetime to make this theory plausible. Bear in mind I used the words "theory" and "plausible".
For a moment, consider the idea that time is not merely linear, travelling from point A to point B, but rather turns as a steady spiral, much like the coil of a spring or the shell of a snail. Unlike the diagram presented here, showing the various geological eras of Earth's history in a steadily rising and outward spiral - our "linear" time travels inward, reaching a finite "end point" beyond which nothing continues. This point could be considered the end of time, the point which Meat Loaf cannot wait to reach after scoring.
Now, imagine if you will, that humanity has realized the end of time is imminent, and the advance of technology has reached a point where it can not only conclusively prove that there will be an end of time, it can also measure how much time is left before the end. With such technology comes additional technology providing humanity with the means to travel through time via the fourth dimension, which permits crossing the bands of each loop in the time spiral. These crossing "windows" would need to be similar to the "windows" the NASA space shuttle uses to reenter Earth's atmosphere and return to the planet's surface. So it would not necessarily be possible for a time traveller to access any point in history at will, but rather only certain timelines that aligned with the one they currently occupied.
Knowing that time is about to end, and possessing the technology to travel backwards through time, humanity might choose to survive the coming armageddon by taking advantage of their time travel technology and jumping into the past. Thus surviving their doom, they would also (with great probability) introduce a schism into the time line, branching off from the original with potentially catastrophic results.
Anyone who has seen the film Back to the Future Part II should be familiar with the concept of alternate timelines. By travelling back in time and changing the course of history by interfering with a series of events as they played out, subsequent events will then change. This idea was previously introduced by the short story A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, where a time travelller inadvertently steps on and kills a butterfly during a hunt to kill a Tyrranosaurus Rex, and in so doing returns to a completely different timeline than the one he had left.
Should a significant number of humans (significant being more than two or three) travel to a point of time in the distant past permanently, or even should they travel to different points along the timeline, there would be an unbelievably different series of events that would unfold from that point forward. There would also be a significant increase in human population upon the planet, because I highly doubt that these time travelling humans would choose to sterilize themselves in order to reduce their impact upon the timeline. Humans are way too ego-centric to make such a decision for themselves.
However, I am a great believer in fate. As a great believer in fate I would state that certain events in the history of humankind upon the face of planet Earth are bound to repeat themselves, even in these alternate timelines. Therefore I would propose that as this new timeline created by the time travellers approaches its own end, a new group (and significantly larger number) of time travellers would choose to avoid their fate by travelling back in time. Due to this repeat event, the original problem (of a markedly different timeline being created by the time travellers) would be compounded by the new batch of time travellers, alongside perhaps some or all of the original time travellers from before who are now replicating themselves along this third newly created time line.
Before this gets far too messy to comprehend let me sum up:
Earth⍺ (Earth alpha, or original Earth timeline) approaches the "End of Time" and → human time travellers "cheat Death" by escaping to the past, which then creates → Earth¹ (first alternate timeline) with greater population than Earth⍺ and a completely different series of events of history, but still approaches the "End of Time" resulting in → more human time travellers who "cheat Death" by escaping to the past, including some or all of the original time travellers from Earth⍺ which creates → Earth² (second alternate timeline) with a greater population than Earth¹ including duplicate humans as a result of time travellers from Earth⍺ also present in the Earth² timeline. The Earth² timeline also approaches the "End of Time" resulting in → even more human time travellers who "cheat Death" by escaping to the past, including some or all of the original time travellers from Earth⍺ and Earth¹ which creates → Earth³ (third alternate timeline) with a greater population than Earth² including duplicate and potentially triplicate humans from the Earth⍺ and Earth¹ timelines respectively. And so on, and so forth, potentially to infinity.
Does your head hurt yet? If not, keep reading.
Does string theory, or the theory of multiple dimensions start to make a bit more sense now? It should. Each variation of these events can be simply explained by time travelling. Certain people and places will exist in multiple timelines, but not in all. Certain events will take place in multiple timelines, but not in the same way, and not with the same results, with the exception of the "End of Time". Also, unless these time travellers are able to return to their original timeline in order to warn their brethren of the mistake they are about to make by embarking upon their journey, there is no way to prevent history from repeating itself, in the future.
Okay, that last sentence made my head hurt, but it's the best I can do with this limited vocabularly called English.
One congruency that I can assume exists across all timelines would be the Georgia Guidestones. These mysterious stones appeared in Elbert County, Geogia, upon the request of a mysterious uknown person by the apparent pseudonym of R.C. Christian.
Most tellingly, in eight different languages the stones state the following:
Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
Unite humanity with a living new language.
Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
Balance personal rights with social duties.
Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
Assuming I were a time traveller and wished to avoid repeating my mistakes, yet I was unable to pass the message to the source of the problem, because that source was far into the future, this is the best possible idea I can think of - create a monument that will hopefully survive intact to reach the future in order to warn time travellers of their folly.
Looking for answers in the wake of today's tragedy prompted me to make some realizations on the way to work this morning. There are a lot of shocked and upset people, and an outpouring of sympathy and support for Japan in the wake of the 8.9 Richter scale earthquake which spawned a devastating tsunami that struck the island nation, sweeping away houses, cars and more in its wake.
There's more than enough media coverage on this at the moment, and as someone I follow on Twitter pointed out, watching some of these videos is akin to watching a snuff film. While I would hope the majority of humanity is not taking pleasure in watching the tsunami footage, the point is still important - help is more important for Japan right now.
Japan, as a nation, is filled with strong people who are survivors. Any country that could overcome two nuclear bombs detonated on major cities (courtesy of the United States at the end of World War II) can survive almost anything. But this tsunami is just the start. A nuclear facility no longer has functioning cooling as a result of the earthquake, and has had to evacuate the immediate area. They have no immediate solution to address this problem. There are going to be infrastructure problems leading to loss of communication, transportation and therefore food and supply shortages, especially in heavily populated areas that were affected. Many people are lost or otherwise unaccounted for. This tragedy will continue for months to come, and will be a part of Japan's memory for generations. They need help from the rest of the world.
I know this, because I experienced the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I was trapped in a flooded building with my family and very limited supplies. We had to take significant risks in order to escape the city. The danger was not just the flooding, but also other people who were desperate enough to do whatever they thought was necessary to survive, regardless of the cost to those with whom they came in contact. And we were the lucky ones - there were many who lost their loved ones, were brutally attacked, raped, or murdered, or simply couldn't survive the lack of supplies combined with temperatures above 100 degrees F and insufficient shelter.
I don't expect that sort of behavior from the people Japan, but rest assured there will be a period of chaos and danger. There will be some who will take advantage of the current situation.
The biggest factor in all of this, however, is that this is just the warmup. You may be sitting in the US right now, not at all worried because you are nowhere near Japan. But that doesn't mean that we will never see similar activity, in our country. I predict we will notice an increase in seismic activity in the US over the next several months. There are two major fault lines that run through the US, one along the west coast and one from the south through the mid-west. There are volcanoes in Washington, and there are already earthquakes being reported in Arkansas - not just in California.
If you follow the news you already know that New Zealand has suddenly had significant increases in their earthquake activity as well.
There are no 100% safe places, but that doesn't mean you cannot be prepared. Stay informed, keep supplies handy and have an escape route planned in advance. Keep the gas tank full if you know something might be coming. Make sure you have enough cash for when the power goes out, the phones don't work and the banks are all closed. Above all else, don't panic.
I'm disregarding my personal advice, even I've long known that the internet can be the worst possible sort of forum for sharing anything about religion, dogmatic views, and so forth, because people feel free to be complete jackasses due to the anonymous nature of the forum. I'm disregarding it because I've learned too much to not share, even though knowing that 99% of those who read this will either become deeply offended or otherwise blow it off. I'm disregarding it because that 1% who find this information useful are well worth the likely troll swarm that I will soon be up against upon publishing this.
What also doesn't help is the vast amount of 2012 controversy that has reached epic proportions, spawning a disaster porno and various films, documentaries, books, websites and more, to the point that anyone even remotely interested in the subject will immediately be inundated with "We're all gonna die!" screams by those who have spent way too much time obsessing the subject. I'm also of the opinion that the Mayans are being given way too much credit in terms of knowing exactly when the exact moment this End of Times is due to begin, the fateful date of December 21st, 2012, which only invites ridicule from those who have already been plagued by the Year 2000 Bug end of the world controversies that yielded no such thing, and countless other accounts by Doomsayers that, "The End is Nigh".
That said, please bear in mind that you are now reading a site that has been titled "Fated to End Sometime" since its inception back in ... 2004 I think. I don't know for certain because the site has gone through transitions and a complete purging of old articles. But since I have owned a blog it has been called Fated to End Sometime, because I've known at some point I would stop contributing to it, and the reason for this would most likely be something outside of my control. Regardless it's a website that has known that it is doomed to end. That doesn't mean there won't be a new beginning when this happens. I just like to be up front about these things, and since I'm a cup-half-empty kind of person I tend to lean toward the less optimistic outlook. I tend to get less rude awakenings that way.
Also, for those of you who pay attention, you may have noticed that there are runes in the sword blade at the top, taken directly from the Norse Elder Futhark. In Norwegian, these runes roughly translate to "Ragnarok Approaches" (I apologize in advance to anyone who speaks/reads Norwegian and finds fault in this translation - after all I used Google Translate which is known to be fallible). The image of the sword blade is 1680 pixels wide, so if you are using a screen smaller than 21" you may not be able to see the entire thing, plus part of it is covered by the amber gemstone with another rune in it that one typically will not find in the Elder Futhark. But that's another story.
My point is, I've been thinking about the End Times quite a bit over several years, and as the seasons do not change as expected, and trees begin flowering in Autumn when they normally only flower in Spring, and the hot summer seems much hotter than before, and the cold winter seems much colder than before, yet in both seasons less precipitation occurs than used to fall when we were children, when the clouds in the sky have been replaced by the trails of exhaust from jet airliners, and when birds and fish mysteriously fall from the sky or rise up from the bottom of the river, dead, for reasons nobody can explain, it is plain to see that something is not quite right.
So I've finally come to the conclusion that I may as well provide my personal ideas as to what will be next in the following months, as we enter 2012, pass into the chaos to follow in 2013, and begin to get used to things after the dust settles in 2013, to those who are interested in what I might have to say.
When this begins, we are going to start seeing some spectacular things. We are going to think we are hallucinating, and as far as scientists and medical professionals are concerned, we will be. The source of this will be the combination of our planet's shifting magnetic field as the north and south poles approach the equator and complete their reversal. The reason it will affect us is because the magnetite attached to our pineal gland and found throughout our bones will change with the earth's magnetic field, and this will directly impact our perception of the world around us.
This is the part of this article where I start to go off "the deep end" so to speak. But please bear in mind in our news reports, as the poles have already begun shifting, the dramatic increase of incidents of violence, especially where the violent crimes were committed by someone who was later not understanding how or why they committed the misdeed. People on this planet are already affected, especially those in Egypt who have been suffering under the same regime for thirty years and are only now resorting to violent revolution in order to bring down those in power.
I have long believed in elves, fairies, dragons, werewolves, vampires, valkyries, gods and goddesses, magic (not just the sleight-of-hand kind, though they are related) and various other things that people profess to know are "NOT REAL". I believe in angels and demons, the bogeyman, ghosts, aliens (although I'm not sure that they are really little green men from Mars), UFOs, Bigfoot, the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster and Champ, telepathy, telekinesis, out of body experiences, and much much more.
I keep an open mind. I do not dismiss out of hand what other people dismiss because they can find no evidence for the above, or not enough concrete evidence to feel comfortable supporting these ideas. They do not want to be thought crazy, or stupid, or both. I risk these things by publishing this statement, but at this point in the game I really don't care so much about what other people think of me, so I'm letting it ride.
This is not superstition, this is not hearsay, this is not how I was brought up. This is the culmination of decades of information and personal experiences that cannot be easily explained.
Why can't we see these supernatural beings all the time? It is my opinion that they are visible only to those who are able to see their frequency of vibration. Similar to how a dog can perceive sounds that the human ear cannot, and yet very different, these beings are in our world enough to affect it, and enough to be seen in glimpses out of the corner of your eye. They do not fully occupy our world, and are separated from it by what has been long called "the veil".
With the changing magnetic fields and the shifting poles comes the dissolution of this veil, or at the very least our ability to see past it and perceive these otherworldly beings. Simultaneously they will also be able to see us. It can be assumed that many of these beings will not be friendly, and some will most likely be openly hostile, angry with how the humans have treated their Mother Earth.
This "veil" has been addressed multiple times in folklore and in fiction, and even in modern storytelling, including the recent films Hellboy II: The Golden Army and The Spiderwick Chronicles. These films use artifacts or old-world devices to penetrate this hidden world, but there are other ways this might occur. For those who immediately disregard these statements because it is merely fiction and therefore not true, I would like to point out that in many cases fiction contains nuggets of truth, nuggets that might be otherwise considered dangerous information if it were not shrouded in the form of a fictional tale.
For those who do not believe, this will undoubtedly be a rude awakening as things they simply do not believe in are suddenly found in abundance everywhere they turn.
There will be chaos when the End Times approach, and not just because of our collapsing economies, the drastic earth changes resulting in cataclysmic events, the shifting magnetic poles and the threat of a planet-wide calamity caused by a severe solar storm striking and penetrating the Earth's weakened magnetic field. When the veil dissolves, we will suddenly be exposed to another world long hidden from us; a dangerous world filled with beings who will undoubtedly despise humanity for all of its ills.
There is more to be written on this subject, for this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any religious organization (including Atheism, which based on the zeal of its members falls under the category of one as far as I am concerned), nor do I belong to any other organization which deals in magic, the occult, mysticism, etc. I do, however, tend to think "outside the box" in terms of what is considered acceptable by certain popular religious organizations who will remain unnamed, and therefore if you are uncomfortable with this statement you may wish to stop reading right here.
After 35 years on this planet I would like to think I have a decent grasp on the nature of reality (I do not, by the way). Even though I continue to affect a stoic stance in the face of the unexplained, however, there are still things that keep cropping up that are somewhat awe inspiring.
Of late these events have been increasing in frequency of occurance, which to me implies that something is getting ready to happen. Precisely what that something is I only have the vaguest idea.
Bear in mind that we are rapidly approaching the end of the Mayan calendar, and while the idea is scoffed and ridiculed by the majority - and an entire movie was released recently in the highest form of satire by creating what can only be termed as "cataclysm pornography" - there is reason to believe there is some credence to the claims posed by those who believe December 21st, 2012 marks the beginning of the end of times. Bear in mind that end of times can also be translated into new beginnings.
In Tarot one of the most notorious cards is "Death", which does not actually mean that someone is going to die 99.999999% of the time (I suspect the 0.000001% of the time is what inspires all of those lame horror films). Rather, the "Death" card is a sign of dramatic change. Everyone (except the Atheists) believes that death is merely a transition to something new - an afterlife, a reincarnation, or some combination of the two. Therefore I tend to subscribe to the idea that the End Times (while likely to be a rocky transition period) are probably going to result in Better Times for those who make it through that transition. Boy I hope I'm not seriously, critically wrong there.
To get back on track - what originally sparked this post was the observation that has been postulated elsewhere that we are all living in a 3d holographic illusionary "matrix" for lack of a better descriptive term. Our existence is not exactly like the movie - but there are aspects that were brought up during the movie that seem to coincide with what we experience here, especially in the categories of the unexplained.
Scientists have recently observed a holy man from India who did not eat or drink for over a week without suffering from any of the expected ill effects. Even though "nobody believes in that sort of stuff" there are still rampant stories of UFOs, extra terrestrials, and older things such as the Mothman, ghost stories and more. These could all easily be explained as "glitches" in an otherwise perfect system.
What makes all of these observations paramount is that in our current society we are now using technology for the purpose of communication to a degree never seen before. Computers grant us access to email, instant messaging, and more recently social networking granting us immediate access to photographs and video of our friends and family members who are not necessarily close by. These computers are being made smaller and more portable all the time - with the advent of the iPhone and similar smartphones (my smartphone of choice is currently the Motorolla Droid), cellular internet access via tethering or data card, netbooks and the iPad for those who need something larger than a phone but not too large to carry around - we're all constantly connected and updated as to what is going on in our virtual ecosystem that transcends our physical ecosystem. People who do not live in the same state, or even on the same continent, can see what you have been up to almost in a real time basis.
So if we are already in a matrix, and we have found a way to utilize the matrix to our own design, because that is effectively what we have done - we have tapped into this virtual existence in such a way as to be far more aware of the entire matrix than we ever were before even with the advent of television. It's one thing to watch a news show on the television - it's another thing entirely to watch almost live video footage posted directly to the internet from a smartphone.
This is not just about entertainment, although that is a driving force behind the adoption of this technology. It is about the collective unconscious beginning to touch the surface of consciousness. The grid is lining up for something big. Make no mistake - it doesn't matter if it really happens on December 21st, 2012 - or earlier - or later. Something big is building up and anyone who notices that Spring doesn't seem to last as long and summer has been much hotter than it used to be and the trees are losing their leaves sooner than they ought to or are budding again with new growth when they should be losing their leaves for the Autumn season, confusing the wildlife that ought to be migrating south in anticipation for the winter, which for some reason no longer arrives with the same number of snow storms that this area used to experience - the grid is changing. The Earth is changing.
Fifty years ago we might not have noticed that it was a worldwide phenomenon and we would have huddled together in our small communities praying that it did not keep happening. Now we know that it is worldwide and possibly (debatably) caused by the industry that produces the technology that we use to keep tabs on how they are raping the planet. (make no mistake, plastic is an oil byproduct, therefore your iPad and your netbook and your PC and anything else in your home made of plastic which is a very long list of items is a byproduct of the oil industry)
Okay, so this has turned into a bit of an ecological rant - how do we change? The consensus is that to change we must give up our ways. Do I foresee 99% of humanity changing their ways back to the old way of doing things before the advent of the industrial revolution in the 1800s? Not so much. A good answer, yet an unrealistic one. Can we produce technology in a way that does not continue to exploit the planet's natural resources in a harmful and unsustainable manner? I think it is possible, but I don't foresee corporations who have a stranglehold on the government being willing to forego their usual profit margin in order to accomplish this goal. At least, not until it becomes profitable.
The good news is, green is currently profitable. The market is making the switch, even though it is at a premium and they are often missing the mark. Not everything that is labeled "green" is necessarily safe for the environment. But it's a start. Can the green movement push us past the brink of self-destruction and anarchy? That remains to be seen - there are those who believe it is already too late.
But there is still hope. The technology is here, use it. Keep in touch with your loved ones, your friends and your family members who cannot be close by. Use it to determine when and how this change will occur. Be informed. Read the news, but keep your own council. Observe your surroundings, be thankful for what you have, and enjoy life to its fullest.
A Sunday morning fastly eroding and soon to be afternoon and it will be once I finish this composition of this missive.
The days, the weeks and months now just fly by. They say it has something to do with getting older, perhaps. I'm also hearing alot that time or our perception thereof has accelerated greatly as the vibrations in the universe increase and more galactic waves push through our galaxy in preparation for the paradigm shift. I've heard it said now that our typical day is now that of a 16 hour one. The clocks still measure the same 24 hour day, the sun rises and sets on the same times as it did centuries ago. Now if it feels like you can't get the same amount of things done in a day as you did 20 years ago??, this is why. I know I can't and no it's not because I'm moving slower with age, I'm not that old, yet! Time is basically all relative with just us humans really the ones that measure it out in increments and how our minds perceive it in this three dimensional realm within a multi dimensional universe or multiverse. Yes time has sped up and will continue to do so exponentially now.
As I compose this missive it's now past Mid August and my most favorite time of the year is rapidly approaching that being Autumn. I'm already planning Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas or the more Pagan variations thereof. Planning on how to observe it more in tune with my Pagan beliefs. Seems like last week I was out bike riding on Memorial Day weekend planning the 4th of July. Feels like a couple days ago it was July 4th, the day was filled with magic. I have the photos that captured that magic and it was one of the best I've had in my adult life. I always know that once the 4th of July passes the rest of the summer is a blur and such is being the case.
Labor Day weekend now just 3 weeks away. My favorite time of the year is autumn. Maybe I'm what is known as an "Autumn" Person. My favorite colors are Reds and Oranges, browns and yellows, I love the warm spices of cinnamon, allspice, cloves. Labor Day weekend I'll go to the shed out in back of house and lug out the autumn decorations and adorn the house inside with the festive colors of autumn leaves and dried floral arrangements.
Living in the Florida Keys the summers here are regarded as many northerners regard winter. Northerners are glad to see spring/summer after the drab, harshness of winter, the warmer days mean more activity outside up north in spring/summer. Reverse that for the Florida Keys. Summers here are wickedly brutal with torrid heat and humidity. Yes you can do everything out of doors but expect to be drenched with sweat, get dehydrated. We look forward to the cooler days of autumn and winter as folk up north look forward to the warmer days of spring and summer.
As much as I abhor commercialism and capitalism I still look forward to the store displays that mark the turning of a season none other than autumn. The first signs clearly evident with the Back To School merchandise but that's only a small part. Suddenly one day you go into the grocery store and you see those familiar orange, yellow bags of candy popping up in a display. It's just a small section at first. A closer inspection reveals this to be Halloween candy and that should start appearing in the next couple weeks if it hasn't already. Suddenly those candy displays and bags like a virus multiply. What was just a small section or two of shelf of a few assorted bags mushrooms and envelops an entire store aisle. Suddenly like mushrooms after a rain a store display erupts with candy and then Halloween decorations. Now the stops are pulled as commercialism makes the best of the coming months. It's all mental programming for the BIG HO HO (Christmas), get you in the spirit. Think about it. First the candy and then you start seeing Halloween decorations for sale. Suddenly you notice the baking supplies making a prominent feature on store end caps and eventually a section of store relegated just for the upcoming baking season. That is probably the most favorite for me of the season is the baking, I just love food and sweets and its all comfort foods.
Notice that one day in the coming weeks you will enter the grocery store and immediately your eyes will be greeted with the autumn decorations of the colors associated with the season. What is more noticeable is those Cinnamon scented brooms and that spicy aroma permeate an entire section of the grocery store. It more often burns ones nostrils and makes the eyes water it's so strong. Nothing gets ones mind thinking more about autumn and the Holidays than Cinnamon. It's my favorite smell on the planet. I keep our home filled with Cinnamon essential oils year round. I think because it's a strong comfort smell to me. Capitalism knows this also to use as a form of mind control basically to get you revved up and nostalgic. A building crescendo commences with the colors, sights, sounds of autumn. As days grow shorter, the nights cooler and the trees change. The stores proudly display the autumn harvests of colorful gourds, pumpkins. Entire sections are relegated to Halloween. You are thinking Halloween is still aways off but you notice something else that is looming amongst the autumn displays. This usually happens in the shopping malls first and like a plague it spreads into the chain stores. Suddenly trees sprout among the shopping midways adorned with the gaily colored lights of the upcoming Saturnalia still months away. The jolly fat man in the red suit starts appearing. You think to yourself. Gee let's at least get Halloween over with first. No wait. I'm still in shorts and sandals in New York let me have a couple more barbeques, a weekend out on the lake before I even have to think about Halloween that is still yet such a long ways off. Not in the accelerated pace of time. The youngins will be yelling trick or treat while you scratch your head thinking we just did the 4th of July and oh wait that pile of dirty clothes has my summer shorts still in it. Yep I better wash them before the whole damn laundry pile walks away on its own and put them away for the winter, clean?? that's an option.
I personally look forward to Labor Day. My mood and focus immediately shifts to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fall TV. lineup. It's the first sign that cooler weather will be coming. I look forward to the upcoming baking season, the house filled with the smells of baking and the colorful decorations that undergo the same process in our home such as the commercial stores. Some autumn decos festooned throughout, an explosion of Halloween adornments and even more so out in the yard. Quickly replaced by Turkeys, Puritan figures and cornucopias. That can't be swept away fast enough to get ready for the grand finale of Saturnalia, The Big Ho Ho or Christmas. We hold onto these traditions as they are comforts. Comforts to most of our youth, of happier and or simpler times.
As I grow more in tune with my Pagan roots and beliefs I shift my focus more each year away from the commercialism and celebrate the season itself. I won't adorn our entire front yard into a massive spook yard. Awesome yes I must admit. Too much work and effort for just a dozen kids to come and see. Then I have to take all the crap down and put it away! I still have open plastic totes of unused fireworks from the 4th of July sitting on the treadmill and floor of the garage. My Excuse? It's just too damn hot to mess around sorting and organizing. I don't like going into our garage this time of year. Its average temperature hovers around 100.
I will still observe Halloween though but more along the lines of Pagan custom of All Hallows Eve or Samhain. I'll still buy some bags of candy just for us two adult kids in the house. I'll still carve a jack o lantern or two or three and sneak a few decos up in the yard. I just have to remember I have to take all that crap down!!!. Then Thanksgiving. Wow where else do you spend what you would on an entire weeks worth of groceries and more if you entertain for a meal that takes days to prep for, hours and hours to cook, minutes to eat and is all doing down the toilet the next day. We however give in and do it. Yes I do enjoy Thanksgiving it's on my list of favorite holidays, I enjoy it immensely. I keep saying each year I will simplify. Each year I try but it just don't feel right unless you go full tilt, overboard.
What gets me is the Thanksgiving turkey is not even cold yet and many Americans are heading out to the stores to stand in line all night for Black Friday. A Commercialism nightmare, one of the biggest snake oil scams the greasy wheels of Capitalism has going. You think your getting a huge bargain? Just remember where this stuff is made that cost pennies on the dollar to mass produce, has a HUGE markup then put the word "SALE" on it and sell it while still making a HUGE profit because now you are selling mass quantity. I have no part of that day at all. I have no desire to stand in line all night nor get mowed down in the screaming stampeded while going in the doorway. I don't live in the north so couldn’t imagine standing outside in 30 degree weather. Ya know I wonder though? That Thanksgiving meal folk gorged on?? A gut load of food now digesting. You know the saying, food in, poop out. You’re in line for the sale of the century. That Wii Play station that will be on sale for $50 bucks, the store only has a limited amount, Your freezing your you know what off and "Duty Calls" Most parking lots don't even have porta potties and you don't dare step outta line and loose your spot. Folk are out for blood for that SALE, that spirit of giving and being nice is already in the toilet ahead of your bowel movement when it comes to messing with getting that latest deal. I even hear of some "Hard Core" shoppers wearing adult diapers. I draw the line there. No Thanks. I'll stay at home and be very entertained by the You Tube clips of the fights breaking out, the mayhem, and the people squatting behind whatever gives them a sense of privacy to relieve their bodily functions for all to see on the World Wide Web.
Yep no thanks. My partner and I stopped buying gifts for that one day, spending money we don't have. Instead we have Christmas year round. You just surprise one another with something when you get a little extra money during the year. I think I will put up a small tree this year, one of those table top jobs just so I can puts some of those high tech LED Christmas lights on it. I used to go crazy decorating. It looked like Santa puked inside and outside the home of everything/anything dealing with Christmas. Talk about over kill!! I am a person that takes things to the extreme. I think the last time I put Christmas lights up outside I lost count when the lights got near the 100,000 mark. Let's see that would be 2006. Yep I remember. I almost burnt the garage down on Christmas when I overloaded the garage circuit trying to reroute extension cords. A line of thunderstorms was moving in. Most of my outdoor outlets were GFCI type. Rain, extension cords and GFCI's don't get along and not conducive for Christmas lighting. I was scared shitless when I saw the scorched outlet when I unplugged everything in January. I'm glad the circuit breakers in the main box kept tripping and I wasn't a fool to try and over ride that! Christmas night of 2006 our yard was mostly dark as heavy rains pounded, GFCI's had all tripped. Weeks and weeks of work putting it all up, fretting over burnt out stands in the meantime. All for one day and the night it was most important it didn't work. About had a bowel movement in my pants come January at the sight of the electric bill also. Then what goes up must come down. I think I wound up taking all the stuff down somewhere around Valentines Day or was it St. Patrick’s Day of 2007. As a matter of fact there are still about 800 white twinkle lights now a tangled mess in our orange tree as of August 2009, Screw It!!. I keep it there to remind me not to undergo the yearly madness of giving into the madness for just one day. Nope I look most forward now to having the Yearly Yule bonfire in the yard, observing the Winter Solstice rite with ritual, followed by some small feasting. This is where the whole birth of Christmas stems from even the birth of Jesus. Ask me sometime I've done the research. Halloween comes from Samhain and alot of lore, legend and tradition to get taken by the conglomerated, convoluted grubs of commercialism.
Nope this year I look forward to observing the true rites in accordance to my Pagan beliefs and Spiritualism, the way it's meant. Talking too and thanking the Spirits/Creator, keeping it simple. If I do want some nostalgia to remind me of my youth and bring some comfort I keep it small and simple. Remember... I have to take it all down!
It all seems so far off but really isn't, it's coming and very soon. I talk about this now because before I know it I'll have to write it in the past tense.
It's been about a week since NaNoWriMo ended, and I had the opportunity to spend time with my father face to face for the first time in years. On November 30th I had 38046 words written in The Soul Collectors of Ian's Hollow, leaving 11954 in order to meet the 50,000 word goal. If I had ignored everyone on November 30th I know I would have met the goal, but in my opinion family is more important than completing a 50,000 word challenge.
Looking for answers in the wake of today's tragedy prompted me to make some realizations on the way to work this morning. There are a lot of shocked and upset people, and an outpouring of sympathy and support for Japan in the wake of the 8.9 Richter scale earthquake which spawned a devastating tsunami that struck the island nation, sweeping away houses, cars and more in its wake.
Also, for those of you who pay attention, you may have noticed that there are runes in the sword blade at the top, taken directly from the Norse Elder Futhark. In Norwegian, these runes roughly translate to "Ragnarok Approaches" (I apologize in advance to anyone who speaks/reads Norwegian and finds fault in this translation - after all I used 
