Personal Entry - 2

Seriously. I felt very zen the whole time I played it. I found half the charm to be that at first I didn't know what to do. You evolve, stuff unfolds...it's fantastic. It's linked over at PA as well.

I thought I could do it, but I just can't. I can't maintain the story while teaching full time. I will continue to try to write, but I am not going to start posting again until I'm sure I can get some continuity going. I'll post everything I have so far, and then the girls will be off for a sun-drenched holiday in Majorca.

You may or may not know that I've worked and volunteered for various vet clinics and animal shelters, and over the years have been a halfway-house for many homeless pets. I've had a lot of experience with really bad people. One variety of these is the type of person who wants to purchase your pet for a voodoo or satanic ritual. Yes, people do this. I've had teenage boys tell me very bluntly that they wanted my black cat for a satanic sacrifice. However, the more common and subversive type of bad person tries to get your pet so that s/he can sell it to a private lab for experimentation. I recently received an email from just such a person over our cat Prosper. This is what it said:

Hello Dear Sir / Madam,

Good to meet you, My name is (deleted), I saw that you are will to place your pet been adoption and immediately, I got so fascinated about having the pets. I am an honest, caring Woman with the utmost fear of God. Having the Pet is like owning a fortune and the thought of the Pet makes my vein leap for joy because i really Love Pets.

I will have my International Shippers Company comes for the Pick-Up.

(shudder)

So I read an article on CNN about the recent seance with John Lennon, in which his voice was allegedly recorded saying "Peace...the message is peace." This, of course, reminded me of several nearly-hysterical episodes with Wren in which we listened to various EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) examples on the internet, looked at several horrifying photographs of ghostly phenomenon and, to my everlasting regret, watched...videos. (shudder)

You can look at some examples of EVP at http://www.aaevp.com/

If you're fearless (which, by the way, Ray Bradbury equated with a lack of curiosity akin to a coma of the soul) you could also watch the Urban Legends series, which I can't link to due to the silly webnanny here at school.

There is also a lively (no pun intended) movement of "ghost-hunters," especially here in Utah. Video, voice recordings, and photographs of their outings can be found here

I believe in ghosts--several varieties, in fact. I believe that places can have memories, especially when something extreme has happened there. These residual sounds and impressions are not the presence of a real entity, but merely a place where space-time got...wrinkled, perhaps? due to the experiences of people living there/then. Like a psychic scream, perhaps.

I also believe in life-after-death, that spirits of former living people can visit this plane. I don't know whether it's possible for them to get "trapped" here, though, as that idea is extremely depressing and disturbing to me. Watching a video clip of a shadow circling a car in which people had died earlier that day makes me think that perhaps when we die, we can't easily let go of our fears, worries, etc.

And lastly, I believe in demons. Demons are everywhere. They can indeed possess people, if allowed, and can perform extremely accurate impersonations as well. In fact, the reason that Ouija boards and other methods of contacting the dead (including EVP) are dangerous is that I believe that demons enjoy preying on our hope to see or hear from our loved ones again. And, once you invite their presence, it is difficult to force them to leave.

What do you all think?