Archive for October, 2009

Walmart = Complete Waste of Time & Money

“Save money.  Live better.”

If I recall it correctly, that’s the current Walmart advertising slogan.  The company tries to show how they are compassionate and honestly care about its customers.

The sad truth is that it’s the complete opposite the moment you walk into a Walmart store.

My recent experience today is concrete proof about how the company as a whole makes idiotic decisions and cannot handle the most simple of requests, and it ended up costing me time (I was there to supervise) and my dad his time and money.

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A Pleasant Fall Day

After quite a few days of rather cold weather, we finally hit 70 degrees again here in the Atlanta metro area.

Hooray!

This is only a temporary increase in temperature as we have a band of showers approaching.  The weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and slightly cooler temperatures over the weekend.  But looking ahead to the first few days of the next week, the weather again may turn out to be very pleasant with highs in the upper 60s and lows in the mid 40s.

When it comes to everyday life here at home, this is nearly perfect weather.  Not too hot in the daytime and cool enough to help fall asleep at night.  I am looking forward to seeing if we receive any snow or ice this winter.

It’s only more fitting that we’re in the middle of the college football and NFL seasons, and Halloween is just around the corner.

This is without a doubt one of my favorite times of the year.

“Extreme Paranormal” – Another Ghost Show on TV

The other night saw the premier of Extreme Paranormal, yet another ghost hunting show to premier on a cable TV channel.  This one can be seen on A&E along with Paranormal State.

So what exactly is Extreme Paranormal?

Apart from the documentary-style of the supposedly investigative show, I would best classify Extreme Paranormal as a cross between Ghost Lab and Ghost Adventures.

The unique angle in this new show is the usage of an expert in the occult, and said person is there to basically help stir up paranormal activity.

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“Destination Truth” – Chullachaqui and Bermuda Triangle

The recent episode of Destination Truth took the investigators deep into the Amazon jungles in Peru and then off the coast of Florida into the Bermuda Triangle.

Like with the investigation of the alien mummies in northern Chile, the trip into the jungles of Peru was also straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.  I was almost expecting to see hostile jungle natives or booby traps attack the research team as they ventured deeper and deeper into the hot and steamy jungle environment.

This was not a place to underestimate or take lightly.

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“Ghost Hunters” – Fort Henry

The latest episode of Ghost Hunters involved the investigation team doing a full investigation of Fort Henry in Kingston, Canada.  The entire episode was dedicated to investigating the historic fort.

Perhaps a better name for this episode would have been “Spooky Sounds and Scary Doors.”

The episode itself wasn’t bad, and the moving door caught on camera was certainly interesting.

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“Ghost Lab” – Tombstone

Tonight’s new episode of Ghost Lab involved a multi-day investigation into paranormal activity within the town of Tombstone, Arizona.

Tombstone, as we all know, was one of many “wild west” towns that had its share of violence and mayhem.  The town reached stardom (or rather infamy) as it was the site of the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral back in 1881.

The various spots in Tombstone have also been investigated by the crews from Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures.  From what I recall, neither of those two shows had any significant, credible evidence of the paranormal.

So now it’s time for the investigation team from Ghost Lab to give it a shot.

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10-07-09 Episodes of “Destination Truth,” “Ghost Hunters,” and “South Park”

I must say that last night was a real treat for those of us who enjoy shows about the paranormal and unexplained events.

Last night were the premiers of new episodes of Destination Truth, Ghost Hunters and even a ghost-themed new episode of South Park.

But were all three of those new episodes any good?

Let’s take a look and see.

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A Look at “Ghost Lab” – A Brand New Paranormal Investigation Show

Less than twenty minutes ago I finished watching the premier of the new paranormal investigation show, Ghost Lab.

This new show takes place on the Discovery Channel (as opposed to the SyFy Network for shows like Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth, A&E for Paranormal State, or Travel Channel for Most Haunted and Ghost Adventures) and the latest to join the rankings of the other paranormal / docudrama / reality shows.

Overall, this show wasn’t bad.  It certainly wasn’t great, but it also wasn’t a horrible show.

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“Destination Truth” – Ghosts of Chernobyl and Sal’awa

This week’s new episode of Destination Truth again followed the paranormal and cryptozoology pattern set by this season’s previous episodes.

As a whole, I enjoyed both investigations in this episode of the show and the paranormal evidence collected in Chernobyl certainly looked interesting.  The encounter with the unknown creature in Egypt was also hair raising, especially when the team believed to have it surrounded and you could hear it growling in the sugar cane field.

I’ll have to say that watching the team explore the deserted town of Pripyat in Ukraine itself must have been one of the creepiest things that I’ve ever seen on TV.

In this case you had a city of around 50,000 people one day and to have it literally empty from a period of around April 27-29, 1986.  It instantly became a ghost town as the radiation let out by the number four reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant saturated the surrounding area, contaminating the ground and buildings.

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What Happened to Global Warming?

How warm did it feel in your area this past summer?

Did you have the blistering hot and humid days (well, at least for us down here in the south) like normal, or did it feel a not so bad?

To me, it felt like our summer was a little bit cooler than usual.  We had an intense heat wave back in early July, but besides that it really didn’t feel as hot as it did previous years.  I spent a few days in Detroit at the end of August, and my great aunt was talking about how much warmer it felt for them this summer.  In fact, she’s convinced that the high summer temperatures in Detroit were a result of global warming.

In actuality, the overall heat experienced in Atlanta, Georgia from January 1 through September 30, 2009 was roughly the same as what we experienced last year, while those people living in Detroit, Michigan actually experienced a significantly cooler year compared to last year.  In fact, most of the continental United States experienced a generally cooler summer this year, especially in the upper Midwest and northeast.

a colder than average year

The problem here is that people tend to have a short memory when it comes to remembering how warm it really was last summer let alone a month or even a week ago.  It’s also a matter of having the right perspective and looking at long trends versus short patterns.

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