Tumultuous as Late

Hi guys,

I just wanted to take a moment to explain what all has been happening on this side of the monitor. It seems like, with The OddBlog in particular, every time things fall into place - we get into a groove and hits go through the roof - I stop posting for a week or two and cool everything off, and I just wanted to let you all know that is not at all by design.

I want this blog to be as popular as it can be and I believe it deserves to be more popular than it is. The problem is largely medical. I have a serious medical condition - it isn't life-threatening (not necessarily, I mean... I suppose something could happen because of it that could be devastating, but it would be something worthy of inclusion here), but it can certainly be debilitating. Many times when I disappear for a short time, this is to blame. In this particular instance - the past week or two - it had to do with a connectivity issue, the cause of which I still have not isolated.

I am working to move away from the horrible town in which I live. There are just too many social, legal, technological... this place has issues. Moving closer to 2009, in general, will eliminate many of my problems. In April (hopefully before), I begin regular treatment for my condition which will alleviate a lot of the problems keeping me from working more regularly. And I hope to get caught-up financially (also related to my health) soon, as well.

With these things out of the way, everything will be easier. Of course, there will always be setbacks and things which come up that will keep me away for a while here and there, but the last year or so has been particularly difficult for a number of reasons.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Slow Start

Hi all. I actually set my alarm for way early this morning. The plan was to get up super early and start scheduling posts for the rest of the day, since I have to be up super early tomorrow for an appointment (as much to acclimate myself to the change as anything else - so it wouldn't be so hard tomorrow) but it was so cold and the bed was so warm... it just didn't work out the way I'd planned it.

Anyway, I'm up now. Just working to get my coffee and all in my system and the sleep shaken from my eyelids. See ya shortly.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

We're Ba-ack... Almost

I have one more medical appointment this coming Tuesday which I am 100% certain will prompt yet another, though I obviously have no idea when that will be. I was away from home all last week and had company all this one, so I'm still getting back to my normal schedule.

To make up for all the lost time here lately, I have an entire week's worth of posts for you today (and through tomorrow), but then it will probably slow back down for a few days. I don't know just yet. I know I've been telling you this for a while now, but you know how it goes - it just bes that way, sometimes. There is so much happening on the personal front that it's almost impossible for me to say exactly when things will calm back down.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Technical Difficulties

Sorry. You may have noticed the last post that was here was removed. There was nothing wrong with it, it just did not go here... apparently. I was away most of the day to a doctor's appointment and there are several more coming up in the next few weeks, but it should not affect us too badly. The problem will be if I have to have yet another surgery. But we'll take that as it comes.

Anyway, there will likely be something coming later tonight, this has just been bill-paying time and all such as that and I have been busy running-around the last week or two. We'll get some more coming your way shortly!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Blecch

Sorry guys. I woke up last night with a stomach ache and ran back and forth to bathroom nearly all night.

I am not 100%, but I realized the bread I bought the other day was hard on one side and when I looked closer, it has some kind of yellowish "ring" around the inside of it... first time I noticed it. I don't know if that's what did it or not, but I hadn't eaten any since that afternoon - hours before! Still, they say food poisoning takes a few hours to set.

The only other thing it could be is this anti-inflammatory medicine they gave me for my wrist, but I have been taking it off and on for about two weeks without any real trouble. Of course, like the food thing, they say it can take a while for side-effects to set-in, as well.

Anyway, I have been so hard at work on the site that the blogs have been neglected. However, I have been bookmarking stories as I come across them, so many of the stories I'll be bringing you the next few days will likely be from several days past. Still, if you haven't read them, they're still news to you!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Downtime

I have been working so hard lately that I just had to take a few days off. It has been rainy lately and that has my neck hurting. I have some medicine that helps with the swelling, pressure, and pain, but it makes me sleepy... just exhausted, really.

Anyway, I'll be working throughout the weekend and depending on how I feel later, may have a few words to drop about tonight's Ghost Adventures.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Finally, Some Sleep!

I finally slept last night!

As I reported yesterday, it was the first time in literally two or more weeks that I actually slept more than an hour or two. I feel refreshed, though still a bit worn-out. I figure it will be a few days before I truly get caught-up on my sleep and actually feel normal.

In the meantime, I will be bringing you some older stories throughout the weekend that I bookmarked but did not post when I came across. I'm sure some new stuff will pop-up along the way as well. But this is also the first of the month, which is bill time, so I have a full agenda with that alone.

The website will start seeing new stuff, as well (beyond the blogs), with a major release of new content on Halloween. This has been a tradition for The Weirding since our inception and one I plan to continue. Don't forget the site is comprised largely of blogs - check out the rest of our offerings!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Sleepless Nights

This has been a weird week so far - an odd several days, actually:

My house is infested with fleas. I vacuum about twice daily and stripping the bedding and vacuuming it and the bed, then treating everything with Raid, has become a daily routine. Doesn't matter - within an hour of lying down, I am itching all over. If you have never dealt with this, I assure you, it is miserable. Just. Fucking. Miserable!

Around 3-5am, the cats get up, because I usually have to retreat the bedding around the same time, and tear up the house until I give-in and throw the outside cat outside. I have gotten into the unfortunate habit of getting up around then, having a cup of coffee, and starting my day. Around 9am, I go back to sleep until mid-afternoon before I actually get out of bed. If it sounds "nice," I assure you, it isn't. I'm run-down, tired, and perpetually sleepy.

The entire house is a wreck because I simply have not had the energy to clean it. But that has to change tonight - all of it does - and that is why I am writing.

I'll go ahead and get several things out to you overnight for you to enjoy whenever you get the chance. I won't be working on anything technical because I plan on cleaning this entire domicile by the end of the week. This means the days will probably be slow for the immediate future, but if I can manage an all-nighter, I should get back on-schedule.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Agenda

Ever since I decided to take weekends off here, I've managed to get one weekend off here... but things have been hectic.

I am going to be moving the site this week and next, which should not really affect you at all. You may have some issues getting here for a day or two, if that, but they should quickly be rectified. Of course, all this work necessarily means things will be slow.

However, since I missed a good 2-3 days this week, I decided to go ahead and get a few things out today and tomorrow. I am not sure how this will affect next week, since I am not going to rely on scheduled posts because of connectivity issues while changing hosts.

Anyway, whatever I manage to get to you today and tomorrow will probably have to suffice through at least Monday or Tuesday. So read s-l-o-w-l-y.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Agenda

I know this week's largely been a bust. I had a lot of personal stuff to get to and my sleep schedule is completely off-kilter. I don't care how early or how late I go to bed, I end up tossing and turning until the wee hours of the morning, usually watching some old horror flick on Chiller and drifting off midway through.

No matter because I have yet to sleep for more than about 3-4 hours straight through. Whether I simply wake up, the cat wakes me up, or the neighbors manage to disturb me, I have been fighting to stay awake basically all week long. Today, in particular, I finally got to sleep around 4-5am and was woken at 10am. All I've done since then is lie around. It's really all I can do; I'm just worn-out.

So I will likely get some of the posts I have ready to go out to you overnight, or schedule them for release tomorrow. I could force myself to work through the rest of the afternoon, but as we all saw the last time I did that... it didn't work. I don't want to spend all afternoon cranking-out typo-filled errors as posts because I'm just going to lose more time to correcting them.

So, just enjoy the archives for now and I'll get some new stuff out to you either tonight or tomorrow. Sorry for the delays. If things don't improve in the sleep department by tomorrow, I'll go to the drugstore for some sleeping aid.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Still Around

Hi guys. I know some people think excuse posts signal the imminent demise of a blog, but nothing could be further from the truth here; as regular readers well know, these excuse posts are fairly regular here, unfortunately. You've nothing to fear - The OddBlog has been around for a few years now and we're not planning on going anywhere.

Of course, it is run by one person and IRL sometimes gets a little overwhelming. My sleep schedule got turned-around this weekend and I'm still reeling. I managed to get a few posts out to you over the weekend, which I keep saying I'm going to stop doing, but ever since I've said it, I've managed to do it anyway. I just couldn't sleep and had to do something.

Anyway, I am taking it easy today, but I thought I'd drop you a line just to let you know what's going on and assure you there's nothing wrong or any reason to worry. Depending on how things go, I may drop some new posts on you overnight, but hopefully I can get through the evening and everything will be back to normal in a day or two.

Meanwhile, enjoy the archives!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

A Little Wistful Rambling

This is going to be a bit... something - I don't know what until it's done, but I know it's kind of silly. I just wanted to put this down because it has been on my mind a lot lately.

I am watching Back to the Future (great flick) and recently saw a documentary featuring the Bad Brains, and both have positive messages which have to do with one's mindset or outlook. In the movie, the message is "you can do anything if you put your mind to it." The Bad Brains generally espouse the philosophy that if one keeps a positive outlook, positive things will happen.

Now I applaud the efforts of both and want to believe in this philosophy, but is there really any merit to it at all?

I have often tried to have a positive outlook, but the truth is that I am a pretty cynical young man. Cynicism aside, I like to think of myself as more pragmatic. Maybe bitterly pragmatic is a better way to put it, but it's a pragmatic outlook moreso than "negative." But my outlook has never really helped me, so I would love to change it.

However, my outlook has often prepared me for disappointment. Not to say these things were inevitable or anything like that, just that, had I maintained a positive outlook, I believe several things in my life would have come as greater, more crushing, blows than they did because they would have been largely unexpected.

Like I said, there's nothing new to any of this and it isn't some personal revelation - just something on which I've been musing a lot lately and wanted to open up for discussion. It doesn't just affect me; the current state of the world is pretty bleak, so I'm wondering if an overall change in outlook would do all of us any good. Obviously, I am not going to chuck it all and become some sort of "Have a Nice Day" guru or start preaching the values of a happy mentality to the world at-large, but I am interested in hearing what others think.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Hello-o!

Sorry guys, this has been a colossally bad week so far. The only good thing about it is that it's nearly over, but there's still today and tomorrow to go, so I'm tempering my excitement.

Plenty to get out to you throughout the day and I'm going to go ahead and employ the "future posting" bit so that you don't go without, in case I get busy elsewhere. In fact, given my current position, I am going to have a busy weekend, because I am not sure I will even have Internet come Monday.

Long, angry, frustrating story that I simply cannot get into right this minute due to the fact that I don't want to give myself a stroke!

Anyway, let's get things underway.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Agenda

Hey there, spooky people!

I know I have been absent a lot lately, but I have medical issues which have kept me from my usual breakneck pace and there's simply nothing I can do about that. Luckily, I got some medicine which is supposed to help and then I go to a specialist the next couple weeks to see what the prognosis is and what comes next, so all things told, it's going to continue to be slow for the immediate future, but will pick back up shortly.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that The Weirding still needs to be upgraded and that is becoming more and more important with each passing day - particularly since I've had to sit so many out lately. That's going to get more attention in the coming weeks, which means less attention will be here.

You will notice some changes around here as well, though. I changed the blog templates several weeks back and then gave them some time to work-out the kinks. The OddBlog template performs beautifully and I love it! However, I have to be a bit more creative with the advertising, due to limitations with the layout, and I am not pleased with what I currently have, so I'll be moving things around and changing stuff.

I would really love to hear more from you guys! Honestly, I don't know who reads The OddBlog - what your ages are, what you do, what else you're interested in - I don't even know your gender! And that works against me on so many levels, but particularly with the advertising. Regardless of whether or not I make money, the ads I choose to feature are supposed to appeal to you - hopefully introduce/direct you to other products, services, and sites that you'll like. Not knowing much about you means I have to just guess. So I really wish y'all would get more involved.

The upswing to all of this is that I have had more time to read and research, which means more keystone paranormal posts are on the way, but there is no ETA. In the meanwhile, we'll have more odd news as usual, a little humor, a little weirdness, and all the usual.

Oh! And I am going to start focusing more on food. When you think about it, what we eat, how we prepare it, and everything else cuisine-related is so important on so many levels that I can't believe I didn't consider it before. It relates to history, society, psychology, occupation, religious/spiritual beliefs - it is so crucial to everything that something as simple as a regional recipe can form the foundation of research. We Southerners have black-eyed peas for New Year's in order to ensure good luck, while the Germans eat sauerkraut, and one's diet is the basis for much of Chinese medicine.

Very broad, interesting, in-depth subject that we will be delving into more and more. It will be useful too, since I'll be imparting all kinds of recipes along the way.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Agenda

Sorry for the absence as of late. As I discussed over to The Rundown (as I've said before, if I'm not found here, you can usually find the reason over there - it's really the flagship blog of the site), I have been on Other People's Time basically since Friday, so I'm not in full control of my own life and how my time is spent at this point.

Even today, I have to run errands that I have been trying to get done since Monday - well, Friday really, but Monday specifically. But since I have to rely on someone else for a ride, I can't say when I'll be leaving, when I'll be returning, nor anything else; we'll just have to take it as it comes.

Unlike the past two days, I am not abstaining from doing the things that need to be done around here, simply because I don't know when she's going to show! I hate stopping right in the middle of something because, given my personality type, said things are rarely finished; I'm one of those "inspired" people who has to have some thrust to finish projects and when I stop them in media res, I rarely return to them right away... if ever (might as well be honest). I hate that about me and am working to improve it, but it is me, and I can't fight it too much.

Anyway, let's get into it...

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Ready to Get Odded-Out?

Er... yeah, okay - I was stuck for a title.

Anyway, in order to make up for the lack of content the past two weeks, I am going to drop a series of posts on you over the weekend. I know I said I was going to get back into the paranormal more in the future, and I still have the notes from the research I did before everything fell apart a couple weeks back, so I will, it will just be... in the future. Most of what I have for you this weekend falls in the realm of "weird" news and straight science. It's news pieces and stories I've collected over the weeks and I'm just going to get them out of the way before I get into a few keystone paranormal posts. Obviously, the latter take longer to accomplish and since they will be referred to often, I have to make sure they are well-written and -edited.

Anyway, I also have an event today that is going to keep me away from the computer for most of the afternoon, so I want to get as much of the easy stuff out of the way as early as possible to give you something to read in the meantime.

Enjoy!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

A Glimpse

Yes, I know I haven't been here much and that I have posted a few "excuse" entries along the way, but I thought I would share this little story with you, just to give you some idea of how my life has been going lately:

My pansy-assed mama's boy of a downstairs neighbor got into it with his live-in girlfriend over some dog she brought home or something, so I haven't heard her down there in the last few days. But ever the temper-tantrum-throwing wuss, he wanted to make damn certain we all felt his pain, and so has been waking at the bonnie hour of 4 in the AM all week long. Now this, in and of itself, is no big deal, but he has one of those home theaters, and he likes to listen to music and watch TV to start his morning off. Of course, he prefers the bass be very loud for this early-morning programming... of course. And, of course, this programming is bass-heavy, of course.

Today, I'm not sure if I beat him to the punch or he woke me as usual, but I got up around 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Luckily, Scream was on, so I watched that and smoked a cigarette or two and kicked-around a bit until he carried his sad sack to work at 7:00. I got back to sleep around 7:30 and slept until almost 10:30 and have basically been walking around in a fog for the last two hours.

In fact, what prompted this little essay on the sadness of my life is that I walked into the kitchen to see the pot of tea I'd made this morning and set to steep, still setting there. Now I'll have to throw the whole thing out and start all over because it's probably turned - no sense chancing it, either way.

This is a real event, but it's also the perfect metaphor for my life over the last two weeks: a lot of pointless running around simply because I am awake, accomplishing nothing - just spinning wheels - and by the end of the whole thing, I'm exhausted... and still completely behind on everything. All I've been able to do is lie around and try my best to catch an hour or two of sleep here and there along the way - to no avail.

So it isn't that I've lost my ambition or anything so much as I've simply had no time with which to be ambitious. Still, today's a new day and tomorrow will be as well, so we'll see how things go. I know I'll get a few things out today and probably throughout the weekend, so we're just taking it as it comes.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Back to the Action

Sorry guys - I wasn't exactly "sick," per se, last week, but I did have some medical issues that kept me couch-ridden the entire week. I could have gotten up this weekend, but I decided to stick it through until today, just to give it a little extra time. I'm still not 100% and won't be until I get this all taken care of.

Turns out, the growth or knot or whatever on my wrist is most likely a "ganglian cyst." It's probably just the location and the fact that I can't stay off the computer that's making it painful. That's part of the reason I decided to lie around all last week - and lie around I did - I didn't wash dishes, vacuum the floors, pick up anything; I did nothing the entirety of last week. And I honestly can't say how much I'm going to be good for this week, so we'll take it as it comes, but I can say that I am getting back into the swing of things, so there will definitely be posts throughout the week.

Hope everyone's doing well and wish we had more comments!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

A Day Late?

Well, Blogger's nonsense kept up off and on for the past few days - well, the entire week, really. I finally just gave up at some point yesterday. If anyone was having trouble logging on to the sites, this is why. It would load and load and load and load and sometimes come up, but just as often, say no establishment could be made.

Finally, I just got sick of it and gave up for the day. I would have gotten back to it later, but I got involved in cleaning and it slipped my mind.

You may have noticed a return to some of the more "scholastic" articles. I told you I was going to try and get back to those as I could. And since I couldn't do much else yesterday, I worked for a few hours on the St. Padre Pio post. I love these subjects and it goes without saying that I am an expert on such matters (to whatever extent such can be said), but while I can speak like nobody's business on the paranormal and cite case studies, etc., the truth is that, once I'm done, I tend to recall, "Oh! I meant Dr. Livingston, not Dr. Loudmouthingston... dang!" So when it comes to setting it to print, I always like to double-check before I publish. And I just don't usually have time to do that and keep up with everything else.

Still, I'm going to try to get back into it more often, which will likely result in fewer posts overall (per day/week - just generally), but those of a higher quality.

On a related note, thanks to all who have commented more recently. You haven't seen more of them because the majority tend to be spam.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

Agenda

A friend talked me into attending some kind of out-of-town seminar with her today. I'm scared it's going to be one of those where they try to get you to join their money cult or something, but it's free and tax-deductible, and it gets me out of the house, so I can't complain... yet.

I have tons of stuff I've been collecting this week, I've just been so busy with technical stuff and taxes that I haven't gotten it out to you yet. Depending on when I return, I'll be getting it out to you throughout the week. I may not be home tonight, but I will definitely be near a computer - just depends on how I feel. I'm taking some books along, just in case; I'm just not in any mood to join a cult today.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008