The Book Test

Gladys Osborne Leonard

Invented by famed English medium, Gladys Osborne Leonard (and her spirit guide, Feda), The Book Test was popular around the time of The Great War (WWI).  A dead "communicator" would send a message to the living by way of a medium, who would direct the listener to a book in a location to which the medium had never been.  The dead spirit's message would be found in the text on a page number specified by the medium.  Like many fads of the American Spiritualist Movement at the turn of the 20^th-Century, the practice was inauthentic and short-lived.

A 1921 analysis of The Book Test found no merit to the practice, though a handful of cases proved inexplicable.  Of 532 tests, 17% were successful, 18% were partially successful, but 38% were total failures.  It was dismissed as providing any proof of life after death.

Russian medium Nina Kulagina presented a unique twist on The Book Test phenomenon, by naming the first letter of each paragraph on given pages of randomly-chosen books.

© The Weirding, 2016

Where Even to Begin?

Okay, this is one for the books. It’s so... odd that I can’t even begin to get into it just yet.

It started with looking into a computer, then led to pulling out an old one to see if there was anything I could scrounge from it to fix the first one. Then it turned out the old one had a problem I had dealt with before, so I figured I would just swap out the hard drive in my computer (which is already screwed) into the new one... and it all went downhill from there - quickly.

Needless to say, I’m HOPING my hard drive still works, but I had to pull out the old 98 box standby to work on - which is what I’m using right now. Which is even weirder because it quit working sometime back and hasn’t worked at all until just tonight.

Long, long, long story I just can’t get into right now because I am simply too, too tired and flummoxed to even think about.

Even though I got this far with it.

Just need sleep. More tomorrow.

Negativity, Environment, and Brian Harnois

I don't really know where this fits. I'd say over to The Wording is probably best, but since the IP address is changing in the next couple of weeks, and I have known this was coming for several weeks now, I haven't been adding anything to that blog for a short time. I have a feeling it may just get started over from scratch (I will copy and paste a few of the more pressing entries).

But there's another reason I wanted to include this one here: because of the discussion regarding Brian Harnois and TAPS. As I reported, Harnois and a few other TAPS members recently left the group and formed their own little ghost-hunting organization.

So here's the thing:

You can't be around a certain mood, atmosphere, or person who fosters such without it affecting you. We can argue "Nurture" and "Nature" and all that nonsense until Doomsday comes, but it's really a basic fact.

I am poor. My parents weren't poor, but they weren't rich either; we were pretty much middle-class or even lower middle-class, if you please. And even though I have moved back into my parents' home a few times over the years, it isn't like I really unpacked or anything while I was there - it was more like I was just "crashing" for a while until I got back on my feet and moved out again. That being said, I have always been poor, thus I have always lived in areas where there are a lot of other poor people. The thing about a lot of poor people is that they tend to have given up.

Not all of them, mind you; there are many people who just happen to be poor. They are hard-working, upstanding people who just have too many bills or maybe children, go to school when they aren't working - whatever - and I like to think of myself as one of these. After all, I am skilled, they just happen to have outsourced most of the jobs at which I am skilled, so finding a job that earns me what I am worth is not so easy. Instead, I am eking out a living online, blogging and running a website that I have been having nothing but problems with since I paid for the damned thing!

But still, I really love what I do and, I must admit, had I not been more or less forced into doing it, I would probably still be doing whatever job I was lucky enough to have. So, for me, things seem to have worked out for the best (knock wood). But as for my neighbors?

Well, let's just say that, excepting the (very) few who are hard-working, most all are on drugs and/or drink everyday. Now, I don't do drugs, but I do drink, and I tend to drink more than I should at least once or more every few weeks, so I'm not judging that. Still, I obviously can't drink everyday and I can't afford to drink too heavily too often on the days when I do - I can't because I can't work drunk or hungover, not because I don't want to.

Most of my neighbors don't work and are not looking for work. Instead, they sit around, getting fucked-up, complaining about their lives and how they can't do anything to change it. That's the thing about people like that: they have just resigned themselves to being poor; they've become used to the whole thing and just don't mind it enough anymore to bother trying to change it. And after listening to them go on and on, day-in and day-out, you not only start to feel sorry for them, you start feeling sorry for yourself. It's just a matter of outlook and mood; even when I have wanted to chat with someone about whatever the hell Lindsay's up to or the latest movie release or some great paranormal account I just read about, they have no idea what I'm talking about and they're far too busy feeling sorry for themselves and complaining about the state of their lives to care.

Which brings me to Harnois and why, I think, it is best that he and his little crew left TAPS (at least for now): Brian was not that serious about the organization. I'm sure he was at one time, but he just hasn't been lately. And when you have one person like that in a group, he can bring down the entire group! It's like an infection of sorts - it's contagious, even if the person goes to extra lengths to avoid passing it along; you just can't be in an atmosphere like that for too long without it affecting you to some degree.

Everyone knows a "wet blanket" - like Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live - and even though you may truly like that person and consider them a friend, you don't invite them along when you want to have a good time because you know that, even if they don't actively do anything to ruin the mood, they just have that sort of air about them that brings others down.

Brian's constant relationship issues, his jealousy of Steve, and all the other negative things he brought to the group brought the group down. It wasn't just that he wasn't focused on his job, it was that, for the rest of the group to work with Brian Harnois, they had to work around him. And while I don't blame him for that so much, I do think it best that they have parted ways.

Back for Now

Well, it's been a minute, hasn't it? I can't get into the whole thing just yet, but I got arrested trying to do the right thing. Of course, in this Bible-thumping, Southern shithole, that's a lot easier to do than it ever should be.

I was popped for Disorderly Conduct after I called 911 for child endangerment on a girl who has been reported for that at least a half-dozen times! The 911 operator was giving me a hrd time, then the cops showed up here and arrested me for disorderly conduct. Now that I'm out, it turns out they told my parents that I had called 911 five times, they told the landlady I'd called twice and cussed them out, and the fat bitch I called them on told everyone I'd come over there and kicked over her kids' bikes and stuff - the kids I called 911 to report being endangered!!! The kids I have been taxiing around to doctors appointments, dentists appointments, getting enrolled in school!

Anyway, I was taken in for a 12-hour charge and not released for 7 days! Everyone I have talked to around here has basically told me that's just the way it goes - "You're not from here. That long hair don't help none. That's just the way they do things." Everyone I've talked to that's not from here has been absolutely infuriated (as am I)!

Still, that's where I have been for the past week. Sorry for that, but there isn't much I can do about it; what's done is done. I am trying my best to move forward, but I am not about to plead guilty to it. I am going to set up a PayPal donation thingy if anyone would like to grant me some much-needed help, but I have so many ads to get out in such a short time, that it may be a day or two before that gets going.

Still, we'll get right into it...

Sicko

When it rains it pours:

I may be sick. I got a cough and have just been feeling run-down and like I just can’t do anything lately. I kept chalking it up to the pain from my neck and shoulders, etc., but that didn’t really account for the cough. So I had a friend come over to help me out, but she has an infant, so even though it was nice to have someone to help wash dishes, pick up around the house, and run to the store for me when I needed it, I ended up chasing after the baby and cleaning up more than I would have had they not been here, so I sent them home.

But not before the car broke down.

The battery cable snapped and I had to get a ride to the auto parts store and get a new one. Then my credit card was declined and it said I had a balance of like $5.00 on there... which makes absolutely no sense, seeing as how I had a balance of $75.00 Friday. I don’t suspect my friend at all; I suspect I either did my math wrong or the company didn’t credit the account in time or something. After all, she’s been here all the time because the car was down and my card has not left my wallet.

At any rate, I know I missed some deadlines for some of our sponsors and I apologize for that. But I think my past record speaks for itself; I have rarely missed deadlines without good reason, and this time, there were about ten good reasons.

I still feel like I just can’t get up and going, but - oh yeah! - we figured out that there is a gas leak in the house! That’s a good thing about having a girl around, even for just a few minutes: she actually lifted the stove to clean under it and discovered a pilot light was out. I have lit and relit that pilot light and everytime someone comes in, they claim it smells like gas, but I’ve gotten so used to it that I don’t notice. Still, that is likely why I am coughing and feeling so run down, so I have to put in a work order to have the maintenance folks come check it out.

Anyway, I have things to get to, including the library, so we’ll be back to normal here this week. Better, in fact, since I have a whole lot of business to take care of, meaning I will be making a lot of posts - most likely a lot of classic paranormal cases, just because I want some of those accounts on here.

Goings On

I posted about my brief encounter with a deer over on The Rundown, which left me without a car. And, of course, I stayed offline all day yesterday waiting for people who were supposed to come by and help me fix it to call - and they eventually did - at about 12:30 at night, to say they’d “fallen asleep” or couldn’t find the part, etc.

And I think I may be coming down with whatever it is that has been going around here lately. I got sick for a day or two last week (well, two Thursdays ago now) but thought I’d shaken it. Then I watched a neighbor’s kid while she went to the doctor’s the other day and I think I caught it again.

And, of course, now it’s raining. Hasn’t rained more than an inch all summer, so it will probably choose today - the one day I need to be outside under the hood of the car - to pour. Either way, I lost an entire day’s worth of work, not to mention that I haven’t gotten one damned thing done around this house either. So, rain or shine, I have just a ton of stuff to do today that I simply cannot put off.

I do have some posts here to make, but I have a veritable ton of stuff to get to on The Rundown, plus I have got to do something about this car, the trash, these dishes, and my clothes. I guess I can work naked - it’s not like anyone will notice - but checking the mail will certainly be interesting.

Dragging Ass

I know I haven’t done much lately and I wanted to drop a line and let you know why:

If you read some of the other blogs, you know that I have a bad neck. The thing with a bad neck is that it really affects a lot more than just your neck; it hurts my shoulder, my hands, sometimes makes my chest hurt when I breathe, etc. You may also know that the doctors I have have been shipping me around to this specialist and that one, ordering test after test to “confirm” my injury, even though it has been “confirmed” for going on four years now. What they won’t do is give me proper pain medication, and I am quite sure it is due to my appearance (what with the long hairs and all), so I finally got the nerve up to get mouthy with them the other day and they simply hung up on me. I spent the rest of the day calling lawyers to see what my options are.

So, aside from being in general pain and just not feeling well, I was also in a very bad mood Thursday and Friday and simply could not focus on anything. Also, when this flares up, I can’t stand to sit here for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. I have CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) too, which bothers me every now and then and adds to the general pain and discomfort when it does (like last week).

The other thing is that I am actively working on the site (S.A.F.E., in particular) and my time has been divided between that and blogging. Still, the book I checked out is due back Monday, so I’m going to try and get as much out of that as I can before I have to return it, which means there may be a lot of entries this weekend (but I can’t promise anything).