Photo Finds

Found some photographs this week when fussing.  Amazing what you will find with you take the time to look.  These are photographs of my parents Tony and Tressie.  They were pretty awful images (photography wise) but I scanned them in and edited them a bit.  I think they came out quite nice.

My father died in 1989, I was 27 but really too immature  to understand adulthood.  I know that is really odd to say as I was a mother myself of an 18 month old son.  But I didn't think of my parents as "people" like myself, with hopes and dreams, embarrassments and the possibility that they might not be around for the rest of my life.  My parents were not the affectionate type at all. I'm pretty shocked to see this image of them hugging in one image.  So glad I've found this image.

I and my two siblings look nothing like my father.  (always wondered ;-)) we are  pretty much clones of our mother.  Blue eyes, crooked smile and everything.  But I did get a lot from my dad.  He loved to read and read.  He collected encyclopedias (I still have them all) which might be one reason I'm so fascinated with Wikipedia.  The idea of having all knowledge in your home was a very tempting one.  In the 1970's when I was growing up this seemed to be a popular trend, that the encyclopedia sales people took advantage of.

My dad had an odd hobby when it came to the encyclopedias.  He would color in the photos on the margins of the books.  So now of course I have all these sets of bulky books I can't bare to part with.  Thanks dad!  Couldn't you collect something smaller?

Here he is playing the guitar.  Damn he played all the time.  He wasn't good, played the same tunes over and over again.  I wish we had thought to have made some recordings of him playing.  Maybe stored somewhere we have a cassette with some of his music.

Next to him you can see our poor piano.  I took lessons for years (always beginning over as a new student) I never managed to pick it up.  I, like my dad used to hammer out the same tunes over and over.  Another thing we have in common (didn't think to record myself either) Gave away that piano when I moved my mom out of the house.  I could not keep both the piano and the encyclopedias.  

Here is a grainy photo of my dad wearing his nerdy glasses and one of several flannels.  I have several of these still and have been known to wear them.

My mom wore this outfit all the time.  Polyester bright red pants.  Wow!  At the time this was very fashionable and practical.  No ironing and it held its color wash after wash.  As I said, it is very odd to see them so affectionate.  

Here is my mom pretending to talk on the phone.  She started selling Avon when I was a teen, (my father didn't want her to work) and she excelled at it.  She was a very good saleswoman (I followed in her footsteps) and she kept very organized and had a large group of customers.  She was always winning things (like this phone which we all hated to use) from Avon.  My garage rafters are packed with free glasswear, engraved "President Club Winner" silver trays, ugly milk glass dishware, and microwave safe cooking dishes.
Every so often I attempt to sell off some of it on Ebay or a garage sale.  We tried to sell it when she was still alive, but my mother would not sell the items for low prices.  She said "I paid $5 for that, I'm not letting it go for under $4.25" in other words we have a ton of this stuff.  I'm just slowly trying to use it in my own home.

Doubt that phone is going to get much use.  I still hate it.  

The 40s are officially over

So I feel like I've just had my tubes tied. I just sold my Harley. Emptied the garage of everything motorcycle related. All I have left is some gloves, boots and chaps. I'm sad that that part of my life is over. I will never buy another bike, and probably never ride again. I loved it, loved my Sportster and have some great memories and photos.

But it is dangerous, too many close calls (that were not my fault, which is the problem). Mark Edward and Stirling Gerbic-Forsyth didn't want me to ride anymore. And I don't really have anyone to ride with locally. All the groups ride on the weekends, and I either work on the weekends or am out of town.

One of my fondest memories is from the last time I rode. It was a warm day and I was all by myself. I rode to Castroville and then to Monterey.   Strawberries were in full bloom and it smelled wonderful. The sunshine felt amazing on my leather jacket, and it was a very powerful and empowering feeling. I really felt alive. I think other bikers will understand how that feels.

 

My Heart Scare

So I thought turning 50 wasn't a big deal.  I accomplished that task in early August and didn't think much of it.  I'm extremely healthy, tons of energy and still feel like I have at least 40 more good years left.

That notion got slammed Friday night when I got my first health scare.  I have been experiencing rapid heart rate all week.  The first time it happened I was at work and I couldn't get the rate to go down, other than that I felt fine.  I went home and laid down for about 20 minutes and finally it went away.  Stirling and I went to the movies and saw ParaNorman (which was a cute film BTW).

All week I noticed that my heart would start quickening up but it went away pretty suddenly as well.

So on Friday when my heart started quickening I thought "that's odd" and went to get something to eat.  I'm sitting in my car eating my PB&J when I notice that the heart rate isn't slowing down and I'm starting to faint.  I was totally aware, and awake at the same time that it went totally dark.  Odd feeling, like someone turned out the lights but you are aware that the lights are out, not like a real faint.

So I went inside and called my doctor's office (I haven't visited them in 3 years) and they kept trying to get the doctor on call to tell me what to do.  Finally the doctor said to go to the ER as it could be serious. 

I got to the ER and one of my long-time customers was handing the incoming people.  She took my pulse and next thing I knew I was in a wheelchair headed to a gurney.  All this time I wasn't taking it very seriously.  I laughed because one of the ER people recognized me but could not place me.  My customer told him where I worked and he said "hey, you took our family portraits a couple years ago".  That was pretty surreal.

I also had a laugh when they put me on the gurney and I realized that my characteristic miss-matched socks probably looked very strange to these people.  They probably though that something was wrong with my vision or my mind.  I looked at my one dark blue sock next to the hot pink one with pretty hearts on it and laughed.

They put the sticky EKG things all over my chest (I found some on my ankles later) and I got an IV and about 5 people descended on me.  One VERY southern nurse came over and asked my religious preference.  I said "I'm an atheist" very matter of fact and she answered "An atheist?" like she had never heard that before.  I started to get very worried, why would they need to know this? Did I need my last rites?

The ER doctor came over and held my hand and asked me lots of questions about my lifestyle, caffeine (almost none), drugs, medication, alcohol, allergies and so on. The answer to everything is "none." She gave me a drug that shocks the heart into a natural rhythm, she said it is going to make me woozy but it was used a lot and I will come out of it quickly.  At this point I really got scared, I thought my son is going to me very worried and Mark will be angry because I didn't tell him I was experiencing this all week.

I started to cry, not the bawling type of cry.  The kind that just has tears pouring out of you eyes and running down your cheeks, but you can't wipe the tears away.  Everyone was busy around me, and the doctor was holding my hand and telling me everything would be okay.  She smiled at me but which helped a lot, she kept asking me questions and I was completely coherent the whole time.   Finally the drug kicked in through the IV and I felt really faint again, within seconds my heart was back to a normal rhythm. 

They explained that a normal heart rate is about 90, if you are working out then it may go up to 120 or so.  Mine was registering at 208 - 220.  That was why they were so concerned.  My blood pressure was fairly normal the whole time.

They ran a bunch of tests and gave me a medication to keep my heart rate lower, the doctor said that it was something that happens more often that you would think.  Probably it had nothing to do with my lifestyle.  She wrote superventricular tacycardia on my paperwork and referred me to a cardiologist for further tests. 

She said that I held up really well and for a long time (the heart was beating like that for about 90 minutes before I went to the ER) and that I will probably know if it is starting to happen again in plenty of time to get back to the ER. 

By this time I had calmed down and was able to text a few people from bed.  Stirling called Mark who was upset with me for "being so darn stubborn". 

Then something really scary happened, being that the battery was so low on my phone, and having nothing to read and not feeling sleepy at all, I listened in to the southern nurse and the people in ER next to me.

Apparently a daughter (also a nurse at that same hospital) had brought in her mother (about 85) and they were waiting for tests to come back.  They were taking about the presidential election, both were agreeing that they were not excited about the candidates.   I think they thought Obama was just "too slick" the daughter preferred Romney.  She called him a "self-made man" and then said, "I don't know how Obama managed to become President when he can't prove that he was born in the United States."  The nurse replied "He was just in the right place at the right time."

Talk about my heart rate elevating again!  That was just unbelievable.  

So, I'm home today feeling just a little weary.  I feel fine other than that.  Mark is calling me every couple hours and Stirling was hovering until he had to go to work.  I know I'm 50, and before last night I really didn't think much about my age.  I also know that probably everyone reading this has had worse scares, this was just my first.  I shared many many visits to that ER with my mother.  I thought it would be many years before I would be the one on the gurney.  Surprise!

I know that I'm doing everything right, weight hovering around 150, keeping myself active and healthy.  But even doing the right things might not be enough.  Hurry up medical science and start fixing all these things we have no control over.  Instead of prayer I think we should combating pseudoscience so we aren't wasting our time and money on areas that have a nil chance of panning out.  Instead, we need to support people to go into the sciences, and support science education and good legislature.  Make sure we hold our government responsible for making well informed choices, and support our children's teachers (and not just science teachers).

Going to need all your help people.  You or someone you love might be next on the gurney and I'm sure you will feel a lot better if they are discussing what Curiosity just discovered on Mars than Obama's nationality.   We all need to find our path and passion to helping make this possible.  As Stirling was telling me this morning, more people are interested in what's new with Lindsay Lohan than whats happening on Mars. I hope he is wrong, but I suspect he is right.

Fat I Have Known and How I Lost it

 I've been wanting to write a blog for some time now about my weight loss.  I'm a factual kind of person and okay with the idea others are going to know my business.  Oh well.  Anyway having come across this photo of me Xmas 2007 last night when I was uploading pictures to my Picasa site I just knew I had to save it as a reminder to myself.  Years ago my sister told me when she was trying to loose weight she would put the fattest picture she could find of herself on the refrigerator.  I guess this is the equivalent of doing so, now everyone reading this blog has to promise to remind me of what I'm writing if I ever start looking like this again. Promise!

I think in this image I was about 195, thats the largest I've ever been, I'm about 5'3" and I was 45.  I didn't feel bad, no health issues and very energetic.  I think I wore size 16 pants.  I haven't always been this heavy, I think I was normally about 185ish.  Also remember that it is the camera angle, no makeup and harsh lighting that are making this image even more awful.  A good photographer with the subject dressing up with makeup and hair can really improve this image.

I also don't want to insult anyone who thinks 195 isn't fat.  I totally understand that it is all relative.  What is important to me in this blog is that I was unhappy with that amount of weight on me.  Some people might think that the 148 I'm at now is still overweight, some might think that anything under 200 is okay.  Again this is about my opinion of myself, my personal blog I'm sharing with you. 

Okay enough disclaimer, on to what I learned about myself.

At this time I wasn't unhealthy, but I noticed that I didn't like to shop for clothes (not that it is a favorite task, but at this time I REALLY didn't want to shop).  I also got winded going on walks I used to love.  I found myself eating out 3-5 times a week, and my bank account was really suffering.

What to do about it?  Okay here is what happened.  I realized later how much being in a relationship with the wrong person affected my weight.  My BF was (and suppose still is) a very good person.  But he liked to eat.  He loved candy and big meals.  When we got together he was about 220 at 6'.  Being with me he got down to about 190.  Talk about relative, being in a relationship with me, he lost weight because he drank waaaay less beer and cut back on the dinning out.

He had to go.  Not because of the eating, but because we weren't communicating.  Now that I'm wiser I call it Double AC.  Attention, Affection and Communication, this is what is important to me.  I realized later that he and I rarely talked.  About the only time we did was when we went to dinner, we would sit across the table from each other and talk about things, I enjoyed this so much I wanted to linger.  In order to do this I would eat more and more, maybe even desert.  He also had this thing about candy, after every holiday he would go to the store and buy many bags of candy at 50% off.  Bring it home and it would be laying all over the place.  I know, I didn't have to eat it, but there it was all yummy and looking at me.  I was able to resist it somewhat, but still indulged at times.

Also during this time I was at SJSU in the Master's program and my mother lived with us because her health was bad and she could not live alone.  Both were very stressful.  Whenever we had to call an ambulance (several times a year) we would follow behind and stop at the store first.  (we knew there would be a long time before we could see her) And I would buy all my favorite candy for the waiting room.  I told myself "who cares, life is short".

Eating is such a social thing, even now that I'm less I still struggle trying to find activities that allow me to socialize and not eat.  Think about it, when you get together with friends and family doesn't it involve getting pizza or sharing a bottle of wine? 

One solution I came up with to feed my social needs and not overeat was to start playing pool again.  I love pool.  Not just the game or the skill but the people.  When you play in tournaments you are forced to play people who you would never have spoken to before.  I play 2 nights a week with people who were once total strangers and are now friends.  I don't drink or eat the entire time I'm there. (okay rarely I do)  I'm not really exercising, but movement is always good, especially when I'm not shoving food in my face.

I have been eating mall pizza or burger and fries for almost 30 years.  I have learned to get by on small portions, but still a single slice of cheese pizza and a Dr. Pepper (my drink of choice) isn't cheap (5 days a week) and it isn't healthy.  I was already starting to lose weight but knew I had to do something about my lunches.  This was a painful decision to make but I'm very glad now I did it. 

I started packing my lunch, it isn't very healthy but it is cheap and better than pizza.  Now I pack a lunch every morning and leave it in my car.  Then on my 30 minute lunch I go out to my car, pick up the newspaper I didn't finish in the morning and sit and enjoy the day.  Way better than the noisy food court with blaring videos and babies crying.  In the food court, every day was the same.  Now I can park in different places in the lot, and as the weather changes so does my view.  I also don't take the close parking spaces but opt for more of a walk.

I've also started taking my lunch at 2:00 instead of 12:00.  This made a big difference when I got used to the time change.  Now when I get home from work I'm not starving and shove whatever is near in my face. 

Another major change I made was to switch from orange juice and Dr. Pepper to ice tea.  I drink several big glasses each day, I make it at home so I'm saving a lot of money.  It is unsweetened and I just add Sweet & Low.  I went from 120 calories to Zero calories just from that one change per meal.

My Boyfriend Mark is diabetic and has really helped me make these changes.  He talked me into eating oatmeal with blueberrys and strawberries with some kind of fiber cereal every morning instead of eating 3 bowls of Capt' Crunch which I lived on.  Making my lunch was also a chore and I found an excuse nearly every morning why I didn't have time to make it.  So now I start out making my lunch before I start the oatmeal, this way I'm thinking how hungry I am and I better get the lunch made.  Its a routine that I've started and it works.

Lastly this tip is a big one.  I started buying very powerful breath mints (I like Listerine Fresh Burst strips) and pop those in my mouth every time I feel like I'm getting a craving.  They are pretty powerful and have almost no calories.  My friend Scott told me that this really helped with the cravings when he was trying to stop smoking.

Brushing your teeth has the same effect, after dinner its great to take my time brushing and flossing.  I don't want to eat anything afterwards.  The stronger the flavor I use the better, nothing tastes good after a powerful toothpaste or breath strip. The cravings really are cut back.

Soooo now I'm down to a size 6 in most jeans, 148 pounds as of this morning.  I'm happier and feel more active.  I can stay right where I'm at and be happy.  My body is accepting this a normal weight and it will take a lot more changes in my eating or exercise to move the scale numbers.  It would be awesome to loose even more but I'm not sure I can afford to keep buying smaller clothes.  I'm down about 40 pounds, only 10 a year so not even a pound a month.  That really isn't much when you think about it, but over time it is a big difference, plus since I lost it slowly I have a better chance of keeping it off.

In a nutshell here is what I learned. 

*There are reasons why I overeat, once I had a nice talk with myself about these reasons I was able to address the problem.  Socialization seems to be my problem area.  If I want to hang out and eat with my friends, I need to cut back someplace else during the day, or just don't pig out when I'm with them. 

*Excuses are not healthy, if you really want to do something then make a plan and do it. 

*Take it off slowly, so it stays off.  Plus little things do matter.  Walk a bit farther, eat a bit less, it all helps. 

*I hate exercise (without a purpose).  No gyms for me, but I will put on my headphones and walk the mall listening to podcasts.  I will also garden and listen to a book-on-tape (Love Agatha Christie murders).  Exercise with a purpose can be fun. 

Now that I'm public with this blog I really have to keep this up.  I would feel totally stupid if the numbers start climbing up again knowing that I wrote this blog.  They say that when you are trying to make a life change like this, you should tell lots of people.  I guess it is peer pressure or guilt that makes it work. Whatever makes it happen. 

 


 

Haunted Historical Sites + and -

The love for historical knowledge and preserving historical sites has been one of my passions my entire adult life. While most people are visiting Disneyland, sunny resorts and beaches I dragged my family through restored historical homes. I completely understand the financial struggles historical sites must contend with, volunteers and members are the life blood to keeping their doors open. Restoration as well as normal upkeep does not leave a lot of extra money for publicity and freebies.

I have been perplexed with the paradox of how a historical site balances trying to encourage visits with the desire for tourists to want to visit haunted places. Years ago I visited the Bowers Mansion in Carson City. The restoration is wonderful, volunteers dress in period costume at special events throughout the year and the price is cheap. In the last room of the tour there is a spirit photograph from the woman that lived in that time period. I have no argument with that photo as that was common for that era. What bothered me was the statement that the docent made, "this shows a picture of Eilley with her dead child, this picture was taken before double exposures were invented." Leaving the guest to believe that the picture is truly a spirit photo not the historical fact that this was a fraud common to the era. I have visited this site at least 3 times and each time the guide mentioned this. Why didn't I speak up? Lets just say I was a lot shyer back then.

Winchester Mystery House, who hasn't visited San Jose and been mesmerized by the stories of this strange woman and her home? I think this place is amazing, yet all through the tours the tour guides pepper the history with spooky tales. Halloween season is a big hit for the Mystery home with midnight flashlight tours through the rooms.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado spends an great deal of energy focusing on the ghost element of the hotel. They have a fabulous tour full of history of the Stanley Steamer car, amazing place and views.

All of these places fall into the ghost trap, focusing more on the ghosties and less on the history of the site. My friends Baxter and Bryan tell me that the Stanley Hotel "borrowed" the ghost stories from another building down the street when that place was knocked down. The main tour guide has hundreds of autographed postcards of himself in ghostlike styles in the gift shop. In fact one thing all these places have in common is that the gift shop always has one or two "Ghost Books from the area" for sale in the gift shop.

So what does this all have to do with today? Why am I writing about this tonight?

This weekend, Caspian, Stirling, Mark Edward and I drove around Monterey and stopped in the Point Pinos Lighthouse museum. Mark always thinking of ghosts and seances asked the volunteer if the lighthouse was haunted. The woman rolled her eyes and said, "are you are one of those people that is trying to find something I'm sure you will find something" Mark said later that he wished he had a camera when she said that cause her look was amazing, Caspian said that it was the "perfect rolling of the eyes expression" after that he didn't need to finish listening to the answer as he knew where she stood.

The woman, said that once a man came in all wooing and stated that he could see Francine standing "there". She told the man that the woman who lived here years ago might had been named Francine but she was never called that, everyone called her "Fanny" and if you could see her you would know that. She said that they are always getting people who are trying to make a name for themselves come in and see ghosts, hoping to land on the news.

Wonderful! The woman (who was also named Francine) gave us a nice tour of the oldest still working lighthouse on the west coast. No mention of ghosts or deaths, just hard working people who kept the light flashing saving lives.

My point, if there is one, is that we need to support our historical sites. And for the reasons that they are historical sites. Volunteer, Donate, Visit and tell others. Buy a postcard or two. Maybe if we support these sites for their historical value to society they can ease off the ghost stories and hauntings.

Oh, By the way...as I was buying my postcard at Point Pinos I noticed two books on Ghost Stories of Monterey Bay on the shelf. Oh well...

Gary Schwartz Review

I first met Dr. Gary Schwartz at the Eugene Skeptic Toolbox in 2001. Actually I didn't meet him but was introduced to his “research” by Ray Hyman who runs the Toolbox every August. Hyman had been invited to spar with Schwartz at his lab at the University of Arizona1 where Schwartz is a tenured professor. Which means he can not easily be removed from the teaching staff. Schwartz and his wife, Dr. Linda Russek run the Human Energy Systems Laboratory (HESL) which is a fancy name for laboratory looking for mediums. A part of the Toolbox involves workshops that read and discuss themed assignments. That year the theme was Talking to the Dead & Other Transcendental Seductions, Hyman used the current published journal articles that Schwarts and Russek produced in 2001.

We spent many hours tearing though the papers and frankly were shocked at the naivety of the researchers. The mediums that were being tested were clearly in charge of the testing. Some lived with Schwartz, socializing with the sitters, and in full contact with the other mediums. The controls were anything but. It was a total embarrassment for the University of Arizona and for paranormal research.

Now fast forward to 2009 and I am introduced to more recent work by Schwartz and his assistant Dr. Beischel by a supporter called “MrEvidential” on Mark Edward's Skeptologist blog.2 I was really pleased to see Hyman's nemesis is still healthy and active, enough so that his supporters are pasting his journal articles on skeptic blogs. I wondered if I might take a stab at understanding all the interest?

So before I read anything negative or positive about the publication I thought lets see if I can discover the problems that are sure to be inherent.3


ANOMALOUS INFORMATION RECEPTION BY RESEARCH MEDIUMS DEMONSTRATED USING A NOVEL TRIPLE-BLIND PROTOCOL4


Really cool title don't you think? I especially love this word that was used ad nauseum throughout the article, “discarnate”. Which seems to mean “dead person”5 This idea of “other fit” or “fit with interpretation” that seems to be a general catch-all. Here are a few things that jumped out at me...

Skeptics and non-believers were not allowed to participate as sitters, not sure why that would have any relevance, but it was included in the document.

Then there is the bigger problem of how this was supposed to work…let me just quickly explain how this experiment was done. They call it being triple-blinded…

16 sitters are selected (believers or semi-believers all undergrad students) half have had a parent die, the other half had a close friend die. The dead (called discarnates)were grouped together by gender.

The “medium” was at home on the phone.

The place-holding sitter is selected to just sit in the lab.

Everyone has no idea who anyone is or anything about the dead person who is trying to be reached. The people in charge are also blinded.

The medium calls the lab, is given the first name only of two dead people (one is a parent of the sitter the other a friend of the sitter) Remember the sitter is at home doing whatever (they could be cleaning the house or asleep that is not clear) The medium is “talking” to a place-holding sitter at the lab (the place-holder knows nothing about the dead persons except the first names). The medium gives a reading about both dead people.

The reading is transcribed and importing telling info is gleaned out (info that would give away age, location ect.) then both readings are given to the sitter. The sitter selects either reading A or reading B as being closest to their dead person.

The conclusion the researched is that more sitters selected the correct dead person’s reading than by chance.

————-

Here’s what I’m really having problems with, maybe you can help me here…

The medium is “reading” a name given to them that is the true name of someone dead, Mary or Alice or something. The sitter to which the dead person is connected is not on the other end of the phone, they are off somewhere else possibly bathing their dog. So explain how the medium is doing a reading without a subject and without an object or anything to latch on to? How are they not just doing a cold-reading? I just don’t get it.

Again, this study means nothing unless it can be replicated by other experimenters. I would also like to see how the transcripts were gleaned for info. It almost sounds like the sitter had a 50% chance to select their reading? Arn’t those pretty good odds?

Oh yeah, I’m not sure these comments are fitting of PhD's doing real science, “Moreover, given the controversial nature of mediumship and the survival of consciousness hypothesis as well as the unexplored biases of most traditional scientists regarding concepts that do not adhere to conventional theories, it is understandable why such studies are rarely reported in conventional journals.”6

So now there are my comments, not exactly amazing. But then again I'm not a scientist (nor do I play one on TV). There are more scientific minds out there, so with a few keystrokes I found a critique on the Skeptic's Dictionary.7 Carroll calls his review, A Novel Way to Make an Ass of Yourself: Gary Schwartz Rides Again. Touching I think.

Apparently Carroll knows something I don't about this experiment I don't know, “Schwartz avoids one common criticism of his past experiments: the mediums do not come in contact with the sitters. But the mediums, he says, feel comfortable with somebody on the other end of the phone line when they do their readings, so he incorporated "proxy sitters," namely himself and his assistant. The proxies ask questions of the mediums during the phone readings. What part of experimenters should not participate in their own experiments because they might bias the process doesn't he understand? “8

So as I mentioned earlier, “Interesting concept: a student who has lost a parent is given a pair of readings to rate, one for his parent and one for a "peer" and the one for the peer is a "control." Each student reviewing the readings given to them (count two readings) has a 50% chance of getting the correct reading. Hum. Carroll also points out that 1,600 students were gleaned for the the chance to be a sitter, only believers or sorta believers were allowed. Were these people biased towards psychics? Sounds like bias to me.

In conclusion, I don't know what to think. Sounds like the experimenters still don't have a sound protocol despite having done a triple-blind study (whatever that is supposed to mean). Carroll clearly has knowledge beyond what I read in the article as I didn't get that the “stand-in sitters” were actually Schwartz and Beischel. I must have missed something about the odds, the real sitters were only given two choices to pick from which is a 50% chance of getting it right or wrong. I can't imagine the Keystone Cops being that inept, feel free to point out the error of my ways....

Susan












1From what I understood then the University of Arizona is extremely embarrassed to have Dr. Schwartz on their campus and use a disclaimer on their website that they do not support his findings. I'm too lazy to see if this disclaimer still exists.

2http://skepticblog.org/2009/08/25/everbodys-an-expert/#comment-11974

3Yes, yes I know. I'm supposed to be open-minded about paranormal research. But based on Schwartz's track record and the added fact that CNN had not announced that science as we know it has not been overturned I felt that there would be problems somewhere.

4http://www.windbridge.org/papers/BeischelEXPLORE2007vol3.pdf Beischel, J., & Schwartz, G. E. (2007). Anomalous information reception by research mediums demonstrated using a novel triple-blind protocol. Explore: The Journal of Science & Healing, 3, 23–27.

5Even this spell checker never heard of the word discarnate.

6How many studies would there have to be published to have rarely used?

7http://skepdic.com/essays/novelway.html

Toilet Training the Cats - Day One

Well today's the day. I love cats but hate cat boxes. I have 4 cats and I don't plan on spending the rest of my life cleaning out boxes. Caspian has been doing it all this time, but he isn't going to live here all his life.

So I watched a few YouTube videos (I love the Internet) and think I can do this my own way. We shall see. Ariadne really needs to go, she is trying to get back to where we used to keep the cat box, but she can't (I've taped it all up) They have all seen where the box is at, (inside the toilet). I've cleaned everything really good so now it is a matter of wills.

They have to go sometime, at the moment they are all holding it, they keep drinking water though. Who will be the first?

This may be a nightmare or the smartest thing I have ever done, we shall see. Do you wanna take bets?