A different kind of spectrum: GHOSTS in BOOKS

For whatever reason, I recently read 3 out-of-copyright ebooks on the Project Gutenberg website, all fictions about ghosts. They all took different approaches to the subject:

A Master of Mysteries by Robert Eustace and L. T. Meade – PG ebook 22278. One reviewer described this as being at the “Scooby-Doo” end of the spectrum because all of the storys have a natural cause (often malicious). John Bell investigates and solves. My favorite of all of these is “The mystery of the Felwyn Tunnel” – you may feel yourself inching close to the answer like I did. I got the concept of the solution right, but the details wrong. Has strong similarities to Charles Dickens’ “The Signal-Man” (story 3 here).

Carnacki, the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson – PG ebook 10832. In between John Bell and Flaxman Low is Carnacki: some of what he turns up are real ghosts (he is more specific than that) and others are not. At least 2 are both.

Flaxman Low, Occult Psychologist by E. and H. Heron – PGA ebook 0605881. On the other end, all of Flaxman Low’s storys involve “psychical” beings. Worth noting is that he has a systematic taxonomy sort of thing for these. That is, there is variation of types of spirits, what causes them, how to deal with them. This is similar to what Elliott O’Donnell did/tried to do.

Parking lot optical illusion

Ever since I was able to drive a car on my own legally, and I think before that also (not sure tho), I noticed this in parking lots for “strip malls”.

I park somewhere, a certain distance to the entrance of the store in one of the “aisles” and walk in. When I walk out, the location I parked feels different. It has always felt further away, even if I did not buy anything and am not carrying anything that would make the distance harder to walk. I sometimes get a spot almost right in front of the store (never exactly at the head of the aisle because those are reserved spaces for people with physical handicaps) and even those look and feel further away when I’m returning v. going in.

Someone of this may be from the stores’ having different exits than entrances, but when I’m parked far away, the difference in real distance is probably < 5% or even < 1%.

Trash rack victory!! Half price monitor and memory of a free one

Someone threw out an HP Z27 monitor for the understandable defect of something having struck the upper left of the screen and ruining it there. I bought for about half the cost of the original monitour a replacement LCD direct from China for the thing, which arrived to at work. After doing some real botchwork with a sewing machine on a skirt I sortof succeeded in altering, I reassembled the monitor and it works now. 3840 × 2160 and I have to run it at 25/100 brightness (via OSD) to be able to look at the thing.

A few more cables removed

Not alot to mention – I went trash picquing – minimal result. Stopped in 2 stores: a job printer and one of those crystal places. Both of them are far too alluring so I only stop there occasionally. The print place especially since it has all manner of paper and unique shapes that give me ideas … that I would let go unpracticed, so I don’t buy the paper to waste it. Still enjoyable.

Wandered around the place I used to live in, it is a quiet place it seems, tho I was in the “nice” part of town I think. Also it was Saturday, and there is an Orthodox synagog there, so any one who was keeping it as a day of rest would have been not in the bustle of business I’m certain. There was an old dude reading on his porch – he said hi or something.

I did pick up some litters, and then found an empty pineappl/cottage cheese tub, so I put them in it and then put some more in. Stopped at a bakery I used to frequent and bought a pinappl (thought it was going to be lemon) danish. I was going to leave the change in their tip jar but they took it away when I wasn’t looking – I think because they thought I was a SUSPICIOUS PERSON. I was miffed so I left the change where it had been and left the litter-containing tub also so they could throw it out. >:/

In the later parking lot of a big box store, there was a really old and rather beaten up car. The registration sticker on the windshield said “1967”. When I was walking into the store, a dude who had been backing into a parking place shouted out and then asked what year it was, so I called back. He seemed satisfied at that – I suspect he was talking about it with his partner in the front seat of the car.

After returning home, and still not finding that HEAVY old radiator I think someone walked off with, I did some other things. Finally I used some pliers to remove some coax and telephone cables the old owner ran along the skirting boards in some rooms. I meant to do other things, but small victorys are worth while.

The neighbors have a new deck installed – it is better than mine just because it isn’t crap. I took more of that nasty rusty shed floor and foundation up. There was a white thing underneath it, like a snake or something, that disappeared when I wasn’t looking. I need to find out from the neighbor if those 2 lawn mowers were his.

Some more Home-News

Unpacking it taking forever, but O well I have been doing other things.

Still here

Not writing much lately. Which is a let down for some people I am sure. I have not finisht unpacking (my parents took 10+ years to do it in the house I grew up in). When you’re in an apartment, it feels like there’s no point to unpacking when you will have to move again. In a house, it feels like there is no need to unpack because you will have no deadline to do it by.

Of the 3 sheds this place had in the back, 2 are gone. First was a prefab steel sheet and frame thing that started to collapse from snow, so I had to get rid of before it fell onto the neighbors land. The entire thing I took apart by kicking it and stomping it. The pieces I am slowly taking to be recycled. The other was a play house type thing that had been used to store garden supplys in it. That one came apart with a hammer and some pulling/pushing. The wood I will have to deal with as “C&D” waste I’m sure.

The last 1 standing is a maybe stolen “U haul” trailer covered with some textureboard (“texture 1-11”) and a roof to look legit. After I have attended to the wreckage of the other 2 (somewhat neatly piled in places) I will empty this one, remove the disguise, and report it. If it is not stolen I will still get rid of it. This is the one with very dubious wiring. I’ve found where it was taken from (back of a garage) and disconnected it and removed all of it in the trailer.

No chickens yet, tho with high-path avian-influenza I am better off right now that way.

Bank-teller wiring

I’ve found some doozys in the electrical work at this place. The ones I remember:

Brings Joy to the John!

Now that I’ve got you wondering about such a thing, let me post the image and then link to the source:

A long empty space – the other end

So you know, the reason I’ve not posted lately @ all is because I have seasonally influenced tiredness and low moods, and I bought a house.

The second one started in June or July and finisht earlier this week. SO, I now have to moove everything over there slowly. I took 2 days off for that but slept through almost all of 1 of them because it is so very overcast here.

On getting the house, the first major thing I did was replace 2 iffy old light fixtures with new LED ones that let you change the color temperatures!! The second major thing was remove many of the IMO ugly old curtains/valences.

Of course, here is where I have to remember to notify EVERYONE that I need to (and avoid those I don’t) my new address. The postoffice doesn’t deliver mail, so I have to have a PO box, which makes me frown >:(.

I fixed the phone!

A Kellogg / IT&T branded Western Electric 500 deskset wouldn’t dial out right because the dial wouldn’t return after a high number (if you dialed 0 it would stop spinning back at about 7).

I took the top off, then removed the dial from its holding bracket. I removed the clear plastic cover, and disassembled the entire gear thing and cleaned up all of the contact places. No surprize most were dirty some how and many were very black with spent oil. Cleaned all that up, used some PTFE-based lubricant I had for something else, reassembled it, and it didn’t work.

Spent the next ~2.5 hours fixing the problem I made when I bent the contacts while cleaning them. I had a Bell System WE500 off to the side to compare mine to. Finally, it works properly. I dialed the operator, my work-issued phone, a relative of mine, and the office I work at. Everything went fine.

Aside: a friend of mine calls these “spin phones”.