Happy Holidays

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and has a happy holiday weekend. I have already taken down the Thanksgiving and Fall decorations and started with the Christmas bits, but I'm nowhere near where I will end up. I am not setting up the tree this year because of the kitten, who I'm sure will knock it over or at least make it a trial to keep standing upright. I'm not fighting with her over climbing the stupid thing all month long.

Anyway, happy holidays!

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Mad-Gassers

I'm researching a piece on the Mad-Gasser of Mattoon and the story is a lot deeper than I thought, or was ever reported. There were similar attacks in a small town some ways away a little before with eerily similar circumstances and clues. I have no idea if they are connected - I suppose no one does anymore - but these attacks did occur near war-time and it would not surprise me in the slightest to learn that some escaped Nazi or sympathizer was at work on some kind of super-agent anymore than it would to learn that our own operatives, or some homegrown would-be hero "scientist," was behind the whole thing.

Of course, neither would it surprise me to learn that it was all the work of a couple of dorks who were just plain nutter. Or that little to none of it happened at all. However, there is a lot of information out there on the subject and it can get hard to sift through the wheat and chaff, so that's been keeping me busy lately.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Clearing-out Bookmarks

I mentioned on The Cyberculturalist that I was going through bookmarks recently, so you will be seeing some older posts that I simply never got to at the time. A lot of them have expired, so I either had to go searching for alternate sources or go on what I knew of the story, so there may be some inconsistencies. If you notice any, please comment and correct me!

Thanks!

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Skull for Sale on Craigslist

Authorities seized a human skull thought to be from a child of 12 to 14 -years-old from an owner who was trying to sell it on Craigslist back in September of 2011. Children are not usually expected to die from natural causes, so the state wants to be certain the skull is not evidence in a homicide of which they were unaware (or one that has not been closed).

The owner claims to have purchased the skull from a garage sale for $1.00 and was asking $300 for it on the popular trading site. Placing a skull for sale on Craigslist is likely to attract some weird potential buyers. As well as police.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Gay Penguins to be Separated

The Toronto Zoo is separating two male penguins who seem to have developed a homosexual relationship. Because both penguins have great genes and the species is endangered, zookeepers hope to pair them off with female penguins with whom they will mate. However, penguins are known to mate for life so the plan has met with its detractors.

The older penguin is expected to do well, as it already had a female lifemate and managed a few eggs. The younger may not fare so well. One spokesperson noted that the two had been kept in captivity for some time and that may have forced the homosexual relationship.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Woman Dies from 15-Year-Old Gunshot Wound

A 34-year-old Washington state woman died from complications due to a gunshot wound she suffered some 15 years previous. Authorities are now investigating her death as a homicide. 

The gunshot wound left her paralyzed and suffering from "pressure ulcers." One of these ulcers became infected and that is believed to have caused her death.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Ogopogo Caught on Film?

A visitor to Lake Okanagan believes he may have captured Ogopogo, the creature said to live in the lake, on film. Detractors note that it looks like the wake from a boat out of frame, and that really only water can be distinguished from the shaky video which is a brief 26 seconds. Ogopogo has been spotted numerous times and is called "Canada's Loch Ness Monster."

Note that I linked to the Slate video coverage because it has the stills from the eyewitness video along with some background information on the legend of Ogopogo.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Ghosts Bang Around Ohio Home

An Ohio woman claims her house is haunted by the ghosts of children, phantom smells, slamming doors, and men and women having sex in her living room. And she has the pictures to prove it!

The unidentified grandmother who lives in the house with her daughter and granddaughter says the family has become accustomed to the ghosts, though the dog avoids the basement after a peculiar event. However, she admits to being scared whenever she is alone in the home.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

IRL

Thought I'd touch base with everyone for just a second and let y'all know what all I'm doing on this end so you don't think I've forgotten you:

My dog had to have an operation and I've been stuck caring for him. He appears to be doing somewhat better, but I still have to medicate him twice a day and will for the rest of the week, when I expect more company. With the holidays, I expect company for at least the next two weeks and I had company all but one week out of October, so it's been trying.

I got a new computer for the bedroom. It's mostly for use as a backup in case anything happens to this one, but it's also supposed to make things easier and thus me more productive. So far, this hasn't happened -- but then, I have 100 other things going on and I've only had the new computer for a few days.

I am also running Chill Online -- a free campaign for the Chill RPG, which is a modern-day supernatural tabletop roleplaying game. My interests in gaming and the unexplained are not mutually exclusive, but this is a straightforward roleplaying game. Even though some of the creatures and concepts are based on legend/lore from our own real world, they're intentionally changed and caricatured for gaming purposes. At any rate, this is important to me because I don't have satellite/cable and little money, and therefore have few entertainment outlets.

I just published More Things for Chill (and I implore you to all take a look-see, even though I'm still tweaking it) and will continue expanding it, but because I am running the game and have so many responsibilities, I'll be posting a lot of material I develop for the game on the site. So, in a very real way, I'm splitting my time in half on that front, then splitting my time in half from here in order to run the game.

I desperately need some Me-Time though, not just time off to take care of a dog or build a new computer, so things will continue to be a bit slow, but I'm still here. I love this stuff and find at least one or two things new every week to share, I just won't be able to do it daily for sure for the immediate future. And I know this has been the case for a while now, so there it is.

But please do stick around! You never know when I'll come across something cool.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Russian Historian Arrested for Grisly Display

Though the man has not been officially named at the time of this writing, a prominent Russian historian has been arrested by police for desecrating graves since 2010. Authorities say the 45-year-old man had dressed the remains of over 25 dead, young women in his apartment in some sort of bizarre display. He kept photographs of the women's nameplates and gravesites in order to better identify their remains and swathed them in clothes and cloth.

Those who knew him says he showed no outward signs of insanity, though he was "quirky." The historian had recently written and spoken about necrology, an interest in the dead, and said that his own interest was sparked at age 12 when a funereal procession forced him to kiss the forehead of a dead 11-year-old girl.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Reborn Lutz Recalls Amityville Horror

Christopher Lutz, who was only a child when the reported events at Amityville occurred, is finally telling his story and says the book and Hollywood got it all wrong. Lutz blames his stepfather's recital of demonic names in the house for summoning a full-bodied apparition which "scared the crap" out of the young boy. He believes the history of the site alone was not the only culprit - the previous owner's son had killed his entire family in the house.

Lutz says the book exaggerated events and Hollywood blew them completely out of proportion, into the realm of fantasy.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

New Computer

I got yet a new computer - this one for a backup in case anything happens to the one I'm on now - and am busy setting it up. It's been doing Windows Update for over a day now so I'm hoping that clears up soon. Once that is done, I have plenty left to update and install. I look forward to it being an ongoing project for the immediate time because I am not sacrificing an entire day to fooling with it.

However, things might get a bit hairy here and there, as I setup everything on that computer to work like this one (or close), including posting here and across the other blogs. Just a heads-up.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Python Had Eaten Deer

A Burmese Python found in Florida measured nearly 16 feet long and had recently eaten a deer weighing more than 70 pounds. MSN has pictures of the captured snake. These snakes and others like them are often kept as pets until they get too big and are released into the wild, or escape their owner's care.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Haunted House Hanger Doing Better

A 17-year old haunted house worker in the St. Louis area may have slipped from a tub and fallen into a noose. She was found hanging by a maintenance worker. Although the worker was not breathing at the time she was found, but was quickly revived and is now recovering in the hospital. She was listed as no longer in critical care at the time of this writing.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Easter Island Bodies

Image by Luis Valiente from Pixabay

The famous heads of Easter Island also have bodies, excavations have shown.  Here are some great pictures of the Easter Island statues excavated so far, along with people beside them to give an idea of size.

No one knows who carved the giant statues, which all face the same way, nor why.  In fact, no one knows how they were even created.  Discovering that the heads also have bodies attached to them adds a whole new facet to this ages-old mystery.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a great Halloween holiday. I suppose it's a kid's holiday in America and more fitting when it falls on a weekend, but I thought it cool that it fell on a Monday. I know hardly anyone got to take off work for it, but it definitely made it feel like a three-day weekend and I hope everyone got the most out of it.

This is a sketchy week, as I have a lot of decorations to take down and first of the month routines (bills, shopping, etc.) that befall a country home. I don't know what to tell you about it, though I can say I'll be here off and on at some point.

© C Harris Lynn, 2011