Spooky Stories

In line with the holiday spirit (HA!), I thought it would be great to sit down this spooky season and tell a couple of scary stories that have happened to me that I can remember.

Yes, I believe in ghosts. I believe they are around us at times. I believe places are more haunted than others. Some might say what I saw could be easily explained by science, facts and other environmental variables within the stories. I will leave the stories open for your interpretation.

One of the most haunted places I ever had to be in was my first radio gig. Located in a really bad area of El Paso, the station used to be many things in its really long history. It started off life as a two story house. Soon, it turned into a two family apartment. Then, after decades of vacancy, it turned into a church, back into a vacant house and finally a radio station (which a new one sits now). I worked at the first incarnation of the radio station and have some rather interesting stories to tell.

Lets build an image of the intimate studio area for you. To gain entrance, you have to park in the rear of the building and walk down a flight of steps to the basement level. Once in, this small area (5 X 10) held a small desk, file cards filled with music and a portable FM radio playing the music the station played. Off to the left wall was the small studio. The studio (8 X 8) had the basics. It held a simple 8 channel audio board, microphone, minidisc player (used for commercials) and two turn tables (seemingly inoperable) set up in a "U" formation. Once seated, you had a window directly ahead into another studio and a smaller window to the right that looked into the studio from the small entrance area and flight of stairs.

With this in mind, lets continue.

The station held its CDs in a rack that was located behind the door to the studio, so the door had to be shut to access the CDs at any given time. The room was large enough for two people to comfortably stand inside and pull and return CDs. One of the most quirkiest things about the room was it had a Plexiglas message board suspended from the ceiling by two chains. Any touching of the board would cause it to rock back and forth. I remember this because when I first started, the guy who I would take over for would have a pet peeve about keeping that board still as possible. I remember one day watching him steady it after removing his playlist. We turned our attention to the CD rack and started to pull and return CDs.

We chit-chatted for a moment, getting the gossip of the building, telling jokes. We both finished at the exact same time, turned to the control board to see the Plexiglas message board swinging wildly back and forth on its chains as if someone pushed it with force. The two of us just stood there and watched it for about two swings. The DJ looked at me and asked if I did that. I said no. I said I watched him steady it, then turned to the CD rack at the same time he did. He reached out, stopped it then we both stayed in silence for about an hour.

Before you say "the AC turned on", it didn't. If it did, all of the papers left on the board would have flown off. The A/C doesn't move an object one full foot to make it swing wildly.

So after this, I eventually got placed on a different shift. I had inherited the closing shift, 3pm - 11pm. I was all alone in this building which I was so psyched about. Then, the noises started. It started with a loud "whumph" against the walls. It usually didn't occur more than once, but it was enough to make you start wondering what the hell it was. Then, more noises started to come about. Noises you couldn't ignore. Sure, old buildings "settle" and they "creak", but are they supposed to call out your name?

I was sitting in the studio, talking to my friend James. It was around 7:45 that night and I had just about every light in the building turned off. I had the stereo in the entrance area turned pretty low so I could hear when someone entered or knocked. I had the studio door closed and the heaters kicked on (it was a cold night) and was just enjoying the intimate studio time. I sat down with the phone in my right ear (which to the right is the door to the studio) and to the left of me was the wall with turn tables. I sat back and was talking when out of nowhere, in my left ear, someone loudly whispered "Michael".

First, no one calls me Michael. Management at the radio station and at Sonitrol don't call me Michael. Only one person calls me Michael, and that's Ivette. I didn't know Ivette at the time.

I froze.

I sat there with about 10 minutes of dead air and James nearly calling the cops to see if I was ok. When I was able to talk again, I told him what happened and he dismissed it by saying it was the song I was listening to.

Lyrics? On a Kenny G song?

Well, after telling management about this, they moved me to my final position at the radio station. I had the weekend job of 11am - 3pm. I loved this shift. Especially on Sundays, I was alone. This didn't mean that I truly was alone. During this shift I heard a lot of the noises from the overnights. I heard the bumps, the creaks, the moans (yes moans) and more importantly, the footsteps upstairs. If anyone has ever stayed in or been in an old house of said vintage, they know that you can hear people walking up stairs clearly. Soft padded flooring or not, you could hear footsteps during the daytime and at night.

After investigating many times the sounds of the mysterious walking person upstairs, I retreated to the studio to voice another commercial break. I gingerly walked down the stairs, entered the studio, closed the door, placed my headphones on & turned on the studio microphone. I gathered the papers together on the Plexiglas message board so I could announce who was coming up next when out of the corner of my eye, someone came from the entrance area, stopped at the window to my right, stared at me for a moment, then turned around and walked halfway up the stairs before disappearing before he hit the landing.

Freaked doesn't begin to describe that feeling. I saw that my music stopped well over a minute ago, so still in shock, I just replayed the same song one more time. I left the studio door open from that point forward. I marked the last day of my radio career at 89.5FM KXCR rather uneventfully. I had then accepted the job at Western Playland Amusement Park, so I was onto other (paid) gigs.

Tomorrow, I will recant the ghosts that walk the building of KTSM Television and others I have encountered.

Tis the season!

Whoa...

Weird, isn't it?

Good for him though.

PS, no, his hand wasn't on my ass.

White Sox Win the WTF of the Year award

Well, like the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox won their first World Series in like 80-some-odd years. How do you think they celebrate?


*click pic for story*

WHAT THE FUCK?

All I know is Ozzie Guillen on the left has realized the camera was there one second before the image was taken. Its obvious the guy on the right doesn't care.

Did I go too far?

Is there such thing as too far?

All I did was say what really annoyed me about weather coverage.

I am surprised friends of mine in the news media haven't commented on that.

Hurricanes & Reporters

Now, before you get all pissy and in my face I just want to say that when you read this, remember that I used to work in a news room as an assignments editor for the NBC affiliate in El Paso.

What the fuck is it with every news agency sending out their reporters to stand in the middle of a deadly-as-sin hurricane attempting to stand in (DUH) 100mph winds and rain that (when hitting a stationary object) feels like sharp needles piercing the skin with ever strike on the body?

I mean really people. Are we as a collective audience so fucking vapid that we don't have a fathomable idea what a penny flying at 100+ mph does to a plate glass window? Do we not know what a building roof does when it encounters a strong wind? I am watching FOX Newschannel and I am seeing some poor bastard standing outside their hotel, microphone in hand, windbreaker jacket being torn to rags and the rather heavy mic cord literally blown off the ground and is not helping this poor TV underling stand up to this wicked weather.

The cameraman isn't that far from danger either. Wielding a 50+ lb. camera, gear, and listening (in vain) to cues from a director -- usually hundreds of miles away from danger mind you, this poor guy has a blind spot where the camera rests on his shoulder. That 100mph flying penny striking the side of his skull will certainly cause him to wonder if he is paid enough to go through that shit. Which brings me to my point of rant.

Is this entertainment to us? It's news, not fucking entertainment! It could only be considered entertainment if the reporter on scene is some buxom bombshell wearing only a white t-shirt watching the fabric on her shirt become soaked and watching her head vibrate as the air that passes between her empty skull hits a terminal velocity and slowly makes her implants shake loose and fall to around her ankles.

You see, theres a difference between news and entertainment. News is reporting that the hurricane is hitting the city. Entertainment is watching the poor bastard try and stand up in the rain.

Just once, I would love to watch a noted TV anchor, reporter or TV personality who is stupid enough to listen to their director to stand out in one of these Cat. 3 - 5 hurricanes and -- live on TV, get some sort of flying debris to strike them DEAD on live TV.

You heard me.

I want a nice chunk of street sign, some tree, or in a nice irony, a piece of tech equipment to just whip around and bean them good. If they're out by the ocean, maybe have a shot of the cameraman trying to pull the carcass of the recently deceased away from the encroaching tide.

Yes, I worked as an assignments editor. Yes I have had to send the reporter and cameraman out to fucked up locations for (at times) pointless video. I objected to it, but because it was what the director wanted, I complied.

As a viewer of television, I can tell you that I don't want to see a reporter (Geraldo OR Anderson Cooper) out in a hurricane reporting on the obvious.

Hmm, lets see. Hurricane = strong wind.

Ooooh, look! It's the eye of the hurricane! Lets go run outside, establish a link to someone who is being paid more to be safe and secure in a non-weather hit location and report on the devastation so far. Maybe we can get a look at the eye wall as it suddenly slams into the rest of whatever might have survived the initial onslaught and possibly dodge the bullet and run back inside the small alcove that served as a slight sanctuary from the first time.

Don't get me started on the spectators who stand out in the hurricane as well.

All it takes is the death of a beloved TV reporter to make sure all of the other TV producers keep from sending out their newsies. Maybe Sheppard Smith or Matt Lauer. Yeah, a brain-spattered beachfront condo would make one hell of a front page.

... Come on road sign...

The rabbit hole is really deep...

I don't know what it is about me, but I have to sit and ponder about the stupidest things at 4:40am. I started to bring cereal and milk to work with me in the mornings because I can't really eat anything at home because I don't get up with enough time to eat there.



So, I pour the first pack of cereal and scarf that down, then open the second box.



I then start staring at the box and wonder as I am crunching the sugar encrusted non-marshmallow bits just what the fuck they are? There are X's and spades and indeterminable shapes that make me wonder what sorts of "charms" are in Lucky Charms cereal?

So I venture to the General Mills website.

There's not a whole lot of information here except for the point of focus which is the marshmallow anomalies. I mean really, WTF does a red balloon have anything to do with luck? I digress.

So, there's a link to LuckyCharmsFun.com.



Whoa. Didn't I see this on Lord of the Rings? It looks like they took some liberties with Harry Potter, especially with the whole flying bird delivering a scroll thing. The music is a bit creepy too, I might use it for Halloween or something else sinister. I still don't see anything as far as what the hell the non-marshmallow bits are and what they're supposed to represent. So, I click on what looks to be the cereal bits.



HOLY MOTHER OF GOD!!! THE MARSHMALLOW BITS ARE FUCKING DEAD!!!



How did they die? What supernatural force was behind their demise? Then, as I looked deeper I might have found the cause.



Deep within the bowels of this dark, rainbow road paved cave lies the secrets & lies of all major food chains. The mines. That's right, your favorite breakfast cereals are mined from secret enchanted caves and many a marshmallow entity is killed while trying to feed a nation with its sugar coated goodness.

Nowhere in any of the websites did I find the answer to the question of what the hell the non-marshmallow bits were, but I think I am raising more questions than answers.

Ain't it funny how a melody can bring back a memory?

I had bought the Greatest Hits of Queen (Platinum edition) on Friday and was anxious to play some of the songs that we don't have at the radio station. We don't have the song I Want to Break Free in the Bandit's music catalog and was really wanting to play it. Ralph has the music video on his computer and on our way to San Antonio/ Corpus Christi we watched and listened to it. Its so rare that it's played on any of the radio stations its sad. So I tore it open and started listening to it full blast in the Neon.

Then I saw the other song I hadn't heard in at least 10 years.

It's a Kind of Magic was a song I used to love listening to. I couldn't figure out why I loved it so much as a kid. Maybe it was magic how a song could trap me within its lyrics and superb synthesizers, or maybe it was what I associated the song with.

I used to work for Western Playland. I used to operate the Himalaya. It used to play music while the ride operated. I remember back in the 1980s listening to the music play. I remember as a kid listening to Queen. I remember listening to It's a Kind of Magic. I also associate this song with Magic Landing.

I can't prove it, but I hear it here.

Being sick sucks

Without going into detail, I was sick yesterday. Still feeling woozy today, but thats from not eating anything solid. Took the day off from work, which is rare for me. I am going back tomorrow. Oh well.

Will talk later with something of substance.

Wake up time

My grouping of alarms are set for 3:00am, 3:04, 3:10 and one for 3:20. You would think that these would wake me up, but there's one little snag.

I wake up an hour BEFORE these fucking alarms go off.

I lie in bed and think to myself its going to go off at any moment. The instant I look at the clock it will ring.

No.

The instant I try and resolve to get what remnants of sleep I can, the fucking alarms go off.

Yes, alarms. My cell phone and my desk clock literally ring at the same time. They're regulated by the Atomic Clock. Its happened twice in a week so far and its pissing me off.

ITS FUCKING OBSOLETE

GAAAH!!!

Son-of-a-bitch!!! I barely had the fucking iPod for one month and its now completely obsolete! Apple has pissed off a lot of iPod owners by introducing the iPod VIDEO.



Well, you all know I am gonna keep my 20 gig iPod photo and buy a new 30 gig iPod VIDEO...

YOU BASTARDS!!! THIS IS PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE IN ITS FINEST!!!

It was only a matter of time...

The Sony Playstation Portable (PSP for short) is one of the hottest hand -helds on the market since the original Gameboy debuted back in 1989. I want one, but I need to focus on some other things for now so the PSP is later on down the road. When I do get it, I will be hacking it.

Someone has already loaded an old version of Mac's O/S 7 and other than a 4 hour boot time, it actually runs!

They have a hack for the iPod to run Linux, and if you run Linux, you can still use your iPod to connect and transfer songs.

Sounds like sweet music to me!

I SO wish I was one of these testers

Everyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for the Gran Turismo franchise featured on the Playstation consoles, and everyone knows I can consume hours in front of the controllers playing till my thumbs are numb & raw (I have blisters on my thumbs). I bought into the hype about it being the "Real Driving Simulator". It's as close to the real thing as you can get.

Or is it?



I had always sat on the edge of my chair playing the game imagining what it would be like to actually take the corners at Mazda Raceway Laguna SECA and embrace the spoils of a race win. Imagine the challenge (HA!) of testing whether or not the videogame was EXACTLY like real life? Someone already has...

Just think, you're given the keys to a Ford GT, the track at Laguna SECA and a custom made Gran Turismo race seat for the videogame for one full day. You get tired of one reality and switch to the other. Then you switch again. Then again. Then another time.

Don't wake me up from this dream...

You're gonna have to face it, you're addicted to...

... The internet.

Last night, after doing my half of the shift, I let my co-worker take over the monitoring station and I took up position behind the computer in Central Station. I clicked on the Internet Explorer icon and nothing happened.

I click it again.

Same result.

I reboot the computer.

Click the Internet Explorer.

Nothing.

So I do the next, natural thing an I.T. guy does. I cuss at the screen. That yielded nothing more than a chuckle from my co-worker. Frustrated, I plug in my iPod, crank the volume and start playing Solitare, Spider Solitare & Pinball. Pinball was the most fun, it passed the time ever so slowly but effectively.

It was around this time I realized how addicted I am to the internet. I have a problem, yes I know.

Apple secrets you really don't know about!

Yeah, I know, I know. I've been a real glory hog showing off my collection that's slowly being amassed in the iPod (see right column for updated list) and I am toting the virtues of the iPod wherever I go, but a lot of people don't actually look at what the Apple website actually has. What it offers would really amaze some people into seriously looking at Apple products!

When you visit the Apple home page, click on the tab labeled Apple Store. From here, most people are enamored by the advanced computer technology being flaunted by extreme examples of minimalist advertising. Most people just click the pretty pictures and are waxed over by the text, go straight to the details of the electronics and not notice anything on the special side panels on the Apple Store page. If you read some of them more closely, you will see an unassuming panel labeled Great Deals flanked with a Red SALE tag. It's nearly at the bottom right above the Education Discounts. Click it...

-GASP-

Did you see what I saw?

They have iPod Shuffle for $79!

They even have other Apple products for sale at a discounted price. How can they do it? The discounted prices are for refurbished Apple products. I wouldn't care if I bought a refurbished Apple Mac Mini. They're on sale on this small portion of the Apple website for $399.

The internet is full of some false hopes and dreams, and tons of pornography (WOOHOO!!!) but often times, there are some really great things for the general populace to take hold of and really embrace.

*I cannot supply links to the sites, often times Apple's links have expiration timers to them. Going to www.apple.com and following my directions will yield you the same shocking results.

This laptop is now clean

Last night I tried to play a DVD on the laptop. Seeing that both of my Playstation 2's are inoperable, I popped in Austin Powers Goldmember because I can't get enough of Goldmember's Roller Boogie introduction which uses Earth Wind & Fires Shining Star.

Well, a long story short, it didn't work. I popped in another DVD, nothing. I re-installed the DVD software. Nothing.

So then I got serious.

I re-installed Windows XP & eliminated my dual-boot.

That'll learn it.

I have already finished updating the O/S, now its time to reload all of my programs. The 30 gigabyte HDD I have as my external backup is currently being used to house all of my exported files. I made sure I backed up everything. I won't miss a beat when I re-load the iPod software either. All the songs were saved so I don't need to reload every single CD.

I don't think I will do a dual-boot anytime soon. There were issues with Ubuntu & Kubuntu that I will mention in a later posting.

STRANGE FINDINGS FROM THE INTERNET LXIX

Papa Johns Pizza is (in my opinion) the best pizza I can buy (here in El Paso). It's even better that I can order pizza online and have it delivered pretty fast. In Des Moines, you can get it for free by letting the Des Moines Fire Department inspect your smoke detectors! I don't know if I like this, the unscrupulous people might use this to try home robberies by saying they're delivering pizzas...

Dumb kids, dumber parents.

You know you're screwed when the jury hears the words "I would have fired more bullets if my pistol hadn't jammed" in front of witnesses. I hate my neighbor playing loud music, but I'd at least pay a hitman to do the deed.

I have a Playstation 2. Well, I have two Playstation 2's and neither of them work (Sony has made one serious piece of shit) but I really like the XBox & Halo 2. It seems Hollywood likes it so much they're gonna make a movie with Peter Jackson producing it.

Holy embers Batman!

s l o w w e e k e n d . . . .

Yesterday just dragged like a Neanderthals knuckles. I finished reading Dan Savage's book, and after that, it just seemed to go so slow. I usually take the first half of the shift and let the second half be my rest time. Even though the pressure of the job (HA!) was off, I still stared at the clock wondering why it was so slow in getting to quitting time.

Its pretty bad when you think you're close to going home, then realizing once you look at the clock that barely a minute has passed since you last looked, and you swear its been a half hour. I am hellaciously tired right now. I wanna go home.

Definitely worth reading...

...but I need more books to read. Here at my second job I have finished reading Skipping Towards Gomorrrah - The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America by Dan Savage and I have to say that I really enjoyed his romp through the country finding average(?) Americans doing what they please to make the best out of life.

-Oh, and if anyone wants to know, I want to commit:

1. Sloth
2. Anger
3. Greed

Anyone wants to know WTF I am talking about needs to read the book.

I especially want to commit sloth...

PS... anyone know of any good books to read while I whittle away what little free time I have?
PPS... No, Ivette, I am not reading your books for you.