Pods and Ends

 

A few things rattling around the ol' noggin.

Plus a bunch of extra pictures.

It says Three Musketeers, but there are really four musketeers.

What's up with that?

I'm trying to write things down more.

I have a thought or an idea while at work, and then don't write it

down and then get frustrated later when I have time to give attention

to my idea, but then can't remember the idea. So, I need to write things down more.

I've been listening to some podcasts at work.

To keep my mind busy while working on less-than-interesting things to type.

A short list of podcasts I recommend:

The Constant - Talks about the history of getting things wrong.

By people continuously screwing up throughout history, we

are able to discover the truth. The podcaster is a very funny guy

out of Chicago, who has a fascinating obsession with a mysterious

submarine found in the Chicago River, and has a bone to pick with 

f*#cking Aristotle and every topic in between. 

Medical mistakes, marketing disasters, engineering disasters, 

humans' many, many attempts at flying, and a wild art history story about violent art 

that is actually not art, but, no, it really is art?

Most of the time, the many errors lead to better solutions, either with safety,

functionality, or in the case of airplanes, finally figuring out how to

keep humans in the air long enough to travel anywhere beyond the cottage roof.

All presented in a well-researched and often very funny package.

Art Bell Tape Vault - broadcasts of the Art Bell Coast to Coast radio show.

I tend to like the 1990s shows better, but some of the later shows are

entertaining. The subject matter is sometimes repetitive, so I'll either skip

through an episode or skip the whole thing if it doesn't grab my interest.

Some of the broadcasts are legendary, like the man who said he

shot and killed two Bigfoots, the woman who made friends with a

Bigfoot, and the kid who said he built a time machine then got arrested for

stealing a transformer to build a bigger version of his time machine.

The Al Bielik Philadelphia Experiment interview starts off almost

believable, until he takes a sharp turn and goes into time travel claims.

Yes, I totally believe you travelled through time into the 1980s, then was

sent back to your original time, then your soul was transferred into a 

baby body, and you "remembered" your past life as a sailor on the

ship in the Philadelphia experiment by watching a movie about it in the 90s.

Totally legit.

The guy who survived a car crash in Hawaii, then managed to get on

to talk to Art about his plans to fly into the hole at the Arctic to prove the Earth is hollow.

Craziness from start to finish.

The best one for me is Mel's Hole.

Absolutely bonkers.

Another almost believable story until he starts making wild claims

about reanimated dead dogs, black lights in the sky, and being bribed

by the US Government to move away to Australia and give up his hole.

But then he comes back and finds a second hole that also has magical powers.

It's just a big bag of nuts, the whole ride through.

Horrifying History - Shorter form episodes of about 30 minutes or less, that

feature different topics on the outside edges of the newspapers. Supernatural,

unexplained, and explained but just weird stories from all over the world.

If you don't mind the sometimes very strange pronunciation choices of

names and places, it's usually a good time. Except for the episode about the

body broker who chopped up and sold corpses in an extremely 

unethical way, most episodes stay on the lighter side, without 

making the topics too sanitized. 

Creepy places, haunted houses and establishments, odd objects and cursed paintings.

All available for your brain to chew on while you work.

This is Actually Happening - I haven't listened to many of these, but they are interesting.

Each episode is a first-hand account from a person telling the story of their

extreme experience. Tales of abuse, accidents, trauma, and mental illness.

Some of these really do get a bit too intense for a workplace listen, so I'm

careful to choose from this list on days I'm feeling tougher.

An interesting episode I listened to recently was the story from

a woman who survived several years in an Iranian prison, just after the

revolution in the 1980s. It is gripping, thought-provoking story.

Just as frightening as her experience with her torturers is the transition

of power in Iran from a relatively free society to one that is controlled

by religious zealots, wherein women are subjugated and shoved back inside 

and people are no longer allowed to live the lives they choose.

A T-rex plays skeeball.

Can't....reach...the...ball...ungh

Thanks, buddy.

wheee!

A delicious candy apple for Halloween. Yum.

And, finally, stolen from the interwebs, a photoshopped picture

of Jareth the Goblin King offering you the leftover jack o lanterns to turn 

into pumpkin pies for thanksgiving.