What interesting things are happening in the world these days? Well, for starters there is an excellent movie out called The Obama Deception , that you can see in 12 parts, over at You Tube.  A must see, for anyone who wants to know some of what is going on with our new “president”(?), and those he is connected to.

Criminalization of The Honorable American

Along the same lines as the above, is an article entitled “Americans Denounced As Terrorists While Criminals Embraced“. This is an interesting piece regarding Virginia’s take on ‘terrorist’ threat assessment. Do not think these perceptions are only limited to the state of Virginia, indeed they are the basis for many governmental acts occurring during this time period.

“The report smears anyone who is “anti-government,” “anti-abortion,” as potential terrorists, equates people who enjoy rifle shooting practice and hunting with terrorists, and demonizes the use of the Internet and websites like You Tube, Fark and Slashdot as terrorist tools. The use of “e-protests” is also talked about in the context of terrorism.”

Tired of Blocked Phone Numbers?

I had a pleasant surprise today, when I inadvertently came across this wonderful site called TrapCall. This YouTube video shows how blocked numbers can be unblocked with TrapCall, and reveal the number of those calling. I tried out their free service today, and it actually works! In the FAQ it stated those using T-mobile and some other services could not use this service, depending on various factors. I was supposedly one of those people who could not use the service, as I am on T-mobile’s family plan, but it seems to work just fine for me! I would seriously give it a try!

Growing Your Own Food Illegal?

Here is an article regarding the proposed Congressional Bill HR 875, which would place restrictions on small farmers to the point that organic foods would be virtually illegal, and perhaps, even small farming itself.  These regulations are proposed by such corporations as Monsanto, who would rather you follow their guidelines, rather than nature’s. This bill would pose a great danger to the American food supply. Be sure to read all the way through the page, as Dr. Mercola covers a lot of areas regarding the implications of this bill, such as:

• It includes small farmers who just sell their fruits and vegetables at farmer’s markets
• Anyone engaged in food growing, or “holding food for consumption” in the U.S. would have to register annually, and create and maintain extensive records of the foods they grow and/or store
• The definitions of who this law pertains to are so broad and loosely defined that they could potentially even include your personal backyard fruit or vegetable garden, even if you don’t sell anything but grow them for personal consumption.

Read More Here.

What Are They Doing In Iraq?

About two weeks ago, I was hitchhiking to a club, and was picked up by one of the local military. He had just recently returned from Iraq, and was going to be returning in about a month. He told me that before he left, they were physically limited to their camps, and were not allowed to leave their military compounds. Prior to this he said they left and traveled about daily, which of course was the reason for the death of so many American soldiers. Now he said, since they were not allowed to go anywhere, recent deaths were down to three, all due to misuse of weapons, or “stupidity” as he put it. He said it was quite difficult, not being able to leave the compound, and had no idea why he was returning…or why America is even there.  According to his report, there is absolutely nothing going on. Wow, all that money to let soldier’s sit on their asses, with nothing to do…amazing.

And Now For the Good News…

Some would not call this good news, but I find it to be quite liberating. Phoenix police have tried to take down a blogger and his friends, but have it seems only dug themselves a deeper hole.  Jeff Pataky, the blogger in question, says, “We have about 50 to 100 retired and active cops who provide us information.” His blog,  BadPhoenix Cops, led police to confiscate “three computers, routers, modems, hard drives, memory cards and everything necessary to continue blogging.”

Read more here…

Not only is Norton difficult to remove, but, I had a virus within the first week of using the system! It was one of those lethal viruses, and we were forced to format and reinstall. I decided that Norton must go, so that I could install my beloved Avast. I remembered however that quite a number of years ago, we stopped using Norton, as uninstalling it was an absolute nightmare…and if anything, it has only gotten worse over the years.

I think that perhaps these companies make it so difficult to remove their software, because their product sucks…and they know if you could remove it, you would. Why would an excellent product need to latch itself into your system, with the malicious intent of never letting go?

My friend informed me of an excellent program, that can remove literally anything, including resistant programs that come standard with windows. The program is called Revo Uninstaller, and I must admit, it is an absolute gem! It comes with quite a number of features, which can be found here. From giving you easy access to Windows system tools to scanning and deleting unnecessary files from your computer, Revo Uninstaller is quite handy!

When I went to remove all of the items associated with Norton, I found I had difficulty with two of the files. However this was solved by doing three things. First, I went into run, services.msc, and then disabled and stopped all running services related to Norton. Then I went into run, msconfig, startup, and unchecked anything related to Norton. I then of course restarted the system. This dealt with one of the difficult files, however, I had one that remained.

This is rather embarrassing, but I will relay it anyway. I was advised when using the highest level of removal, to just delete all files and folders related to the item. However, as I scrolled down and looked at the files to be removed for my resistant item, I realized some of them were critical system files! This was how I discovered that Revo Uninstaller will not allow you to remove anything critical from the system! As soon as I unchecked these files, the item was removed immediately!

I went on a rampage with my new friend Revo, and cleaned my loaned system up with no problems. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Revo Uninstaller an 11! A must for your system! Oh, and the best part…it’s FREE!

Almost every journey that I took from this age onward that was not a local expedition, began to see a running theme. Each long distance journey that I took, at one point or another, I found myself being picked up by an agent of the U.S. Government.

Now some would say that this was perhaps just an incredible ongoing coincidence, but there were times that this most clearly was not the case. Most often it was someone from the CIA, or Military Intelligence, and within five minutes of my entering the vehicle, they would announce this to me.

Never once did any of them say they were ’sent’ to give me a ride, but told some story of their just ‘happening’ along, toward a variety of destinations. Once, while traveling with a friend from Northern California to L.A., we were followed by a black van, with darkly tinted windows.

In the latter case, we had secured a ride through the L.A. area, and our hosts had decided to pull over onto the shoulder of the freeway. Immediately, the black van followed in suit, and also pulled over. We almost lost our ride, as our hosts realized we were being followed, but we were able to convince them to take us a bit further.

Each and every time this odd phenomena would occur, the conversation was most fascinating, as they would share with me little tidbits about their employment, and I would share with them my own experiences/knowledge regarding the government.

For those of you who have read my blog for some time now, you may gather ‘why’ this phenomena was occurring to me. For brevity’s sake however, I will only say, that yes, there were reasons for these events, and they were definitely not random. However, I have never fully understood the actual purpose behind them. Recently however, I do believe I have gained some small insight into this phenomena.

Approximately 4-5 months ago, I was living in the city of Denver. I was invited to an event in Colorado Springs, which was approximately an hour or so away. I had not hitchhiked any substantial distance in quite some time, and decided that instead I would put up an advertisement on Craig’s List. I requested that whoever offered a ride, include their name, and the purpose of their travel. This was to limit the many flakes who will offer rides in hopes of such benefits as sex.

An older gentleman wrote me, and told me he was heading that way for the purpose of looking at land in the area. He sounded quite genuine, and I accepted his invitation. I met him in a parking lot not far from my home, and we headed toward the Springs.

It was as usual, not five minutes after I had entered the vehicle, that he informs me that he is a Homeland Security officer. What are the odds? Let us just say, I was not surprised.

He was an incredibly fervent fundamentalist Christian, and seemed non-plussed by anything about me. He also claimed to be anti-government, and told me that his search for land was so that he had a place to hoard guns/supplies when everything ‘fell apart’, and he needed to defend himself against the government. When I tried to help him out with his search for a piece of land in the Springs that met his supposed needs, he suddenly seemed disinterested, as if this was completely meaningless to him.

As many of you know, I have recently gone on a new journey, in which I was to land in Seattle. I once again decided to place an ad on Craig’s List, and I did indeed receive a few replies. I however was not happy with any of the offers that had been placed on the table, and decided we would hitchhike instead.

My daughter Raven and I journeyed forth heading toward the nearest freeway exit, hauling our baggage with us. We stopped across the street from the exit, and sat down at a local bus stop. I went inside a nearby grocery store and got myself a fresh bottled water while Raven awaited me outside. I returned, and we crossed the street. I said to Raven, “Don’t be surprised if an agent of the government picks us up.”

We stopped in front of a Starbucks, figuring it was an easy place for a ride to pull over, as Denver is pretty strict on hitchhiking laws. We stuck our sign out, which proclaimed ‘Seattle’, and a white cargo van with Oregon license plates immediately pulled over, the driver motioning us toward the parking lot. We headed toward the vehicle, and a black middle aged gentleman jumped out of the vehicle. He asked us where we were going(duh?), and we replied Seattle. He acts all surprised, and says that he just came from there, having just arrived the night before.

He tells us he will take us to a better offramp, where we will have higher odds of getting a ride. He then proceeds to tell us that he had seen us on the opposite side of the road, and wondered why we were on the wrong side of the road hitchhiking. This was odd, as we were not hitchhiking at all on the other side of the road, and wondered how he would know we were headed the ‘wrong’ direction?

He loaded our stuff up into the back of the vehicle, and we climbed inside. For the sake of this article, I will call him ‘Fred’. Within five minutes of us being in the vehicle, Fred announces to us he is a Homeland Security officer. No, I was once again, not surprised.

Fred claims immediately before we have said anything about ourselves that he is anti-government, and begins to tell us about the evils of the U.S, government. He at one point even claimed to be used as a guinea pig of the government, as I had also been. Fred also is a hard core fundamentalist Christian, and carries with him, several versions of the bible.

As we are driving along, Fred tells us that he had come to Denver for a job interview with a company, as he only works for Homeland Security when there is a job available through the security companies he works for. He claimed that he was currently homeless, and only possessed $1300 to his name upon leaving Washington.

We are driving for about twenty minutes when I ask him where he is going to drop us off at. He tells me not to worry about it, he is driving us all the way to Seattle, and he doesn’t really want to be in Denver during the Democratic convention anyway. Yes, I am completely serious. The man claims he just got into Denver the night before, and is now driving all the way back to the Pacific Northwest, for two strangers he has never met before.

On the long drive to Seattle, which took a total of three days, Fred shared with us many stories and tales of his adventures in Homeland Security, and within his life. However, it was obvious, Fred’s situation was not what he professed, as his stories were filled with holes and contradictions. After some time, Fred changed his tune, he turned out to be completely pro-government, and had no anti-government inclinations at all. Why had he claimed so upon us entering the vehicle?

Though he claimed to be very poor, he paid for us two nights in a motel room, bought us necklaces at a convenient store along the way, and gave us $40 upon dropping us off in Seattle. He told us off and on during the entire trip that he had nowhere to be, and nothing he needed to take care of, and took his time along the way. He acted as if serving our needs, was his only purpose.

During the trip, Fred acted as if he was a security guard on duty, never allowing us to leave his sight. At one point we stopped to get a nap at a rest stop, and I told Fred we would be kicking back in the grass. He was very nervous, and begged us to stay closer to the van. We refused, and he cut the whole nap thing quite short, saying we would just go stay in a motel.

At one point Raven had gone back behind a store to make a private phone call on her cell. Fred came outside asking where she was, and I at the time had no clue. He went into a full blown panic, saying “Your daughter could be kidnapped!”. I assured him that Raven was fine, and she could take care of herself. I yelled out her name, and she appeared within moments from around the corner.

Truth be told, there was nothing normal about our trip with Fred. Off and on he would jokingly talk about throwing us out, and there were times we really contemplated just ditching him for another ride. It was quite obvious that Fred was very annoyed by me, and really wished he did not have to deal with me. I knew that if he had the choice, he would have dumped us out the first day, but no, this man was on a mission.

At times I disturbed him so badly, he would play his Christian radio station as loudly as he could, cut me off from speaking, or let me know he did not want to hear anymore of what I had to to say. Oddly enough when he dropped us off in Seattle, he acted really torn up over the situation, and asked for our email addresses and phone numbers. I told him we would be changing numbers in a couple days, but we could give him our email addresses. We have been landed a couple weeks now, and no letter from ‘Fred’ has arrived. Kind of odd, for someone that acted ’so concerned’.

One of the most suspicious things about Fred involved his cell phone. Though he had talked about how close he and his daughter were, and his relationship with his 6 children, ex-wives, etc., he never once received any phone calls or text messages. For a three day trip, that is quite odd. At one point we had landed at a motel, and were hauling our stuff inside. Fred told me not to worry, he would carry my other bag inside.

I waited inside for about ten minutes, yet Fred did not appear. I went outside to go grab the bag myself, and found Fred hidden behind the open van door, and in the process of texting someone. I grabbed my bag, and he seemed very upset, letting me know he would have carried it in for me. He was oddly taken off guard, and seemed quite nervous. Raven reported to me that she had seen him texting someone once, but once again there was nothing incoming.

I have pondered these many occurrences over the years, and as anyone would wonder, asked why? Why would the government send someone to accompany me on long distance journeys? What would be the purpose?

First, it does not seem it is for the purpose of gathering information. In fact, quite often, it seems to me they would like to know as little as possible. Secondly, in these latter two cases, these individuals were hired through private security companies, and were not expert agents of the government. They did their jobs very poorly, and seemed to have only have one function…security.

Third, there was always the announcement upon entering the vehicle, letting me know where they worked. This seems to imply, that ‘they’ want me to know what is going on. In the latter two cases, both individuals tried to make me comfortable, by implying they were anti-government. This would seem to be a ploy, to keep me in the vehicle.

There is a remote possibility, it could be to bate me into revealing whatever supposed ‘plans’ I could have. The latter I find not very plausible, or there would have been more effort to get me to talk. Quite often, the exact opposite occurred.

In the case of the latter two security officers, they both were extremely fanatical in the Christian faith. I pondered that this may have been for the purpose of making sure they would not be influenced by any of Raven’s and my idealisms.

So, after adding the math up, it seems to me there could only be one explanation…they were accompanying us for the sake of our security. This of course begs the question as to why they would care, especially considering I am one of their antagonists. I can only surmise that they feel us to be potentially useful.

I pondered whether I would even write this article, and I will admit it was a difficult decision. To be perfectly honest, I have pondered abandoning this particular aspect of my blogging because of these and other recent events. I have come into contact very recently with certain information that is quite disturbing, and even I have begun to wonder if I want to continue upon this path.

Well, stay tuned my readers, and I will share with you what I can, as I can.

Dream true,

ShadowMyth

Image can be found here.

For more from The Chronicles of ShadowMyth, be sure to visit my Myth section.

I like adventure, I really do, but not the kind of mundane adventure that is filled with petty and insane people, whose job it seems, is to make life difficult for everyone they encounter. Due to current circumstances, my daughter and I have been left with little choice but to leave our current situation, and head back to the Pacific NW.

We will be leaving this Wednesday morning, and hitchhiking our way across country, visiting and staying with friends and family along the way where it is available. It should be quite the adventure! No, no, do not worry about us, hitchhiking is something I/we have done most our lives, and we are still intact!

Unfortunately I will be required to leave my computer with someone, and will not be able to reclaim it for a month or two. Upon arrival to Seattle(or where ever we end up), we will be staying with whomever we can, or in a homeless shelter, so I am unsure of when we will have Internet access. I will blog when I have the opportunity, but it may be a bit before I am able to.

The economy is much better in Seattle/the NW, so we should be able to acquire work quite swiftly, and get into a place of our own, or roommate with someone. All in all though, it will be an interesting escapade!

If my readers would like to contact me in the meantime, you may do so via email, and I will respond whenever I have the opportunity/access. My address is shadowmythproductions@gmail.com . Thank you all for your support on Lockergnome, and I look forward to connecting with you all again soon!

Dream true!

~ShadowMyth

Picture from here.

As a young child, from the age of five, I was very interested in the idea of invisibility. I remember when my parents had company over, I would hide before they arrived, behind one of the big easy chairs. All evening I would sit there undetected, listening to wonderful adult conversation. When my parent’s would escort their guest out to their vehicle’s, I would quickly scamper back into my room, and into my bed, where I ‘belonged’. I enjoyed this privilege, until one fateful evening, when I was finally caught.

Right below our house was an awesome and very large pepper tree, with plenty of room for me to camp up in it’s large branches. Right below me was a neighbor’s house. I would often play invisibility games, and see if I could get away with being undetected when the neighbors were about.. What a wonderful thing invisibility was!

Time passes, and into my teenage years I continued with my fascination. One night when I was about 15, I attended a party with some of my friends, being held in a backyard. Little did I know at the time, as I drank my Jack Daniels, was that the house was occupied with unconsenting residents. Yes, if you can imagine, my idiot friends had decided to party in someone’s backyard!

Suddenly everyone was running out of the yard, and by the time my companion and I had figured out what was going on, we saw the flash of police lights. We looked at one another, and dropped straight to the ground. A hedge of bushes lay between us and the alley that the police car pulled up into. The hedge unfortunately did not provide complete cover, and they were very well trimmed at the base, leaving about eight inches of exposed area.

I whispered to my companion to be ‘invisible’. We lay there, flat as pancakes, and imagined we were invisible. Bright police flashlights flooded us, and we could see the legs of the police, as clear as day. They spoke between one another, decided there was no one there, got in there car, and drove off. We had seen the light directly shining on us, but we had not been seen.

A few years later, I was to meet an interesting person in my hitch hiking escapades. This gentleman was a veteran of the Vietnam war, and told me that invisibility had saved his life more than once during his tour. He explained to me that it was a matter of just ‘not being’, not thinking, and just being completely invisible.

A few years passed, and I was married with a young baby. I went out into the yard of where we were staying, and climbed into a decent climbing tree, sitting on it’s largest branch. The tree was very sparse when it came to cover, and the branch was not up very high, probably no more than 5′ . My then husband’s car pulled up, and some of my in-laws came out of the house to talk to him.

I imagined myself completely invisible, and sat there for twenty minutes, while they chatted literally a few feet away from me. I could see them clear as day, and I knew that I was equally exposed. After awhile, my husband began to ask where I was, and the in-laws reported they had no clue. A search began, and they looked through the house, the back yard, and the front yard, in which I occupied.

They stood out in the front yard, talking about what they were going to do next. I finally decided I had probably taken this a little too far, and loudly announced myself. The expressions on their faces were worth all of my effort! They all were equally stunned, as I sat there, in clear sight.

Another experience was to happen a few years later. I was at this time living with my two children and husband, in I believe it was Colorado. I needed to run an errand, and got in my car to drive off. About two blocks down the road, I began to notice an odd phenomena. The cars that surrounded me, did not see me, and several of them almost drove me off the road. I could see the faces of the drivers, and they were looking straight through me.

I was rather mortified and confused, and pulled over, turning around to drive straight home. Upon arriving in one piece, I explained to my husband, what had happened. He then deeply apologized, and explained to me that due to our not being able to afford auto insurance, he had put up invisibility shields over the vehicle. He had though unfortunately not been specific enough, and instead of putting them up only for the benefit of the police, created a general spell, that made it so that no one could see me! He fixed the spell, and I was able to proceed to the store without incident.

I have had many experiences with invisibility, but I think my favorite, is the one where I wasn’t invisible! It was in my 19^th year(gads a lot happened that year), and I had been in the middle of a mental breakdown. I had gone down to the Bay area for a strange adventure, and was returning via a Greyhound bus. We had stopped along the way at a little convenience mart, and I was without money, and quite hungry.

We disembarked from the bus, and almost everyone piled inside the little place. I looked about at all the food I could not partake in, and decided that I was going to eat anyway. I imagined myself as completely invisible, and began to walk about taking whatever I desired, and throwing it into my open purse.

The funniest part is that everyone in the entire store stood there staring at me as I did so, openly and with slacked jaw. I was totally aware that something had gone wrong, and my spell was not working, but I did not falter in my actions. I piled a few things in my bag as I walked for the door, and smiled as I walked past the cashier who was halted in his motions along with the rest of the customers staring in my direction.

I exited the store, and sat on the steps, awaiting the bus driver to announce it was time to get back on the bus. One of my fellow passengers came out and sat down next to me. I opened up my purse and offered him a candy bar, but he politely declined. We returned to the bus without incident, and I finally had some food to fill my belly. I find this story much more amazing than if I had succeed in my invisibility!

Yes, invisibility is possible, and with practice one can develop a very useful skill. Try it out on your friends sometime, you might be very surprised!

Image found here.

I have looked forward to Firefox 3 now for about the last year, since I heard that the new version would be much lighter and faster. I am one of those people that loads a ton of extensions onto my poor Firefox, so it can get slow at times.

I had planned on downloading the new version on the now famous record breaking download day, but somehow it slipped by. I then heard about the vulnerabilities, and thought perhaps I would wait a bit. Finally though, I decided I just couldn’t wait.

I installed the new Firefox 3, only to discover that a very large portion of my extensions had not been updated, and I would temporarily lose the use of them. This wasn’t too bad, but, Tab Mix Plus was one of those extensions, and that, I could not live without. I uninstalled it, and went back to the older version.

A few days ago, I decided to do some research, and discovered that there was a developers version of Tab Mix Plus available, and decided I would give it a try.

I will admit, that upon my first exploratory session with the new Firefox, I was highly impressed with the speed. I wondered at the time if it was only due to the fact that 15 of my 38 extensions were disabled, until further updates by developers. However, I have to say that the speed is definitely awesome, and everything loads faster, including pictures and videos.

As far as my developer’s version of Tab Mix Plus, it works just fine! I lost the use of the following extensions at this point: Allow Right Click, Bookmark Duplicate Detector, del.icio.us, Enhanced History Manager, Ext2Abc, Fasterfox, Firefox Menu Buttons, Generate Numly Copyright, Google Photos Screensaver, OpenBook, Save Image in Folder, ScribeFire, StumbleUpon Addon, UI Tweaker, and UnPlug.

Now, out of the above, there were only a few I was upset over losing, Enhanced History Manager being one of them. Using this extension, I can bring up the history in the sidebar, and go through it day by day. In the basic Firefox history manager, I was unable to do this, but, there was a work around. I went to ‘View’, then ‘Sidebar’, and then ‘History’, or Ctrl+H. This looked pretty much like what I was used to!

The loss of OpenBook was kind of annoying, as I am used to the ‘bookmarks’ folder always being open, and easy to access. Now, it is required of me to click the window down, and then scroll through till I find what I want(yes, I have a lot of bookmarks). It is cool though that it now has a tags feature.

The loss of allow right click, UI Tweaker, and UnPlug is also a drag, but I suppose I can live without them for now. With the new Firefox 3, I certainly seem to have no need for Fasterfox, and the rest of the extensions were occasional toys anyway.

I went over to the main Firefox page, and was checking out what new ‘features’ they were announcing, and read through what was ‘new and improved’. Two of the additions to the upgraded browser, oddly enough had no obvious documentation or user interface. This was the new ‘zoom feature’, and ‘color management’.

I did some research, and it turns out that some developers were kind enough to make some extensions, that gave each of these additions a UI. It is incredible to me that Mozilla bragged about them, but enabled no way to use them, unless you are more of an advanced user. I tried out both extensions, and was quite pleased. If interested, be sure to check out Color Management and Full Page Zoom.

To be perfectly honest with you, not a whole lot has changed. I went and checked out the ‘Options Menu’, but little had changed there. There is a ‘Most Visited’ feature on your Bookmarks Toolbar, which is kind of cool, but I really do not need it. There is a somewhat improved drop down feature from the search window, but I honestly think I like the older one better. The older one was basic, and quick to locate what you were looking for, while the newer one takes up more space, and you really have to look to find what you are after.

Most of the changes seem to be internal, and to do with operational improvement, which is fine with me. I honestly love the faster speeds, and the fact I can go collect up more extensions! Lol! I honestly do not think I will have any problem with the ‘vulnerabilities’ that have been spoken of, and I am glad that I changed over. So, what do you think of the new Firefox 3?

Matt Cutts

Dexter is an awesome show. The first season starts out a little bland, as the stage is set for the character to begin developing something he truly lacks…emotion. Dexter is a serial killer, who only kills other serial killers…a hero of the people, as he sees himself.

Dexter is played by Michael C. Hall, and he does a wonderful job! Originally the show had a lot more gore and expletives, but due to public outcry by conservative groups, this was greatly limited. It however is a very adult show, as one would imagine. Not your typical serial killer, and very well worth the watch. The beginning of the 3^rd and final season will air this September 28^th on Showtime.

The 4400 is I have to say, one of the best TV shows I have EVER seen, and it has been cancelled, after it’s 4^th season. Fans were left hanging, and like unto Twin Peaks, we shall never know what happened in this incredible mind bending series. 4400 people from several time periods are taken into the future, and suddenly reappear in the Pacific North West.

As time progresses, these individuals develop super powers of a wide variety. The show focuses on the returnees, and Homeland Security, the latter of which is portrayed in an incredibly truthful light. I assume this is why the show was canceled, as the 4400 were winning against the forces of Homeland Security.

This show is incredible, and you will never know what is going to happen next…absolute cliff hanger!

Heroes is somewhat akin to The 4400, but with a slightly different twist. I do believe it has continued to air, due to ‘the enemy’ not being government based. In this show, people with special genetics acquire super powers, and their enemy, is a group of people who also possess these powers. Some wonderful characters in this show, excellent acting, and leaves you once again…on the edge of your seat!

Season three of this show will begin September 22, 2008, on NBC.

Avater:The Last Airbender is an anime, three seasons long, containing 61 shows. It features a group of young people in an alternate world, that is balanced by the elements. The kingdom that rules over fire has become power hungry, and has been taking over and destroying the other races of the world. Aang, who is one of the great avatars, must master his abilities, to defeat the great Fire Lord. He does so with the aid of his friends, and an incredible assortment of adventures. Excellent for all ages.

Torchwood is another one of those very cool shows that has been canceled, along it seems with it’s origins, Dr. Who. The last show of Dr. Who did a crossover between the two shows, supposedly ‘wrapping it up’. The quality of Torchwood is far superior to the oftentimes hokey Dr. Who. It’s popularity in America, was probably due to this fact.

Torchwood is an agency, created by a queen of England, to monitor extraterrestrial activity within the region. The first show may put you off, but be sure to continue onward…very well worth it. It’s cancellation could very well be attributed to it’s blatant sexuality, homosexuality, and use of expletives. From my understanding a lot of the English were greatly offended over the show, as it was not a ‘family’ show, as was it’s predecessor Dr. Who. (Please see comments below for some excellent news, which I did verify with Wikipedia…how did I miss that?)

Well, there you go, some excellent shows to check out! I’ll be waiting on the edge of my seat for this September!

Gathering and Listening:

*Station Ripper will allow you to rip music off of the Internet radio stations for your own musical collection. There is the free version, and of course, the upgraded versions which cost $19.99 to $29.99. The basic version works just as well, but requires a little more work on your part.

*SHOUTcast is my favorite resource for Internet radio. I was paying for Live365, but the quality of the music had begun to pale in comparison to what was available for free. Though there are some stations available on Live365 at 128k, most come in around 64k. I like high quality, and most of what is offered at SHOUTcast is 128k, and as high as 192k!

*PANDORA is very cool, but does have it’s limitations. It works by creating a station based off of a favorite song, or artist. This is very neat if you are in the mood for one particular kind of flavor. However, the problem arises if you are wanting to listen to anything independent, as most of their music is pretty mainstream. If I create a station for example based off of Type O Negative, I will have a very limited selection of music, because most gothic music is independent. They will often throw in a bunch of music that does not fit the predominantly independent genre, because there is a limited supply under that category.

*FilterMusic does not have the quantity of stations that SHOUTcast has, but all of the stations they do have, are guaranteed to be 128k or higher.

*Last.fm is a music social networking site. You download their software to create your own stations, load music to your iPod, etc. It specializes in independent music artists, and when I looked up ‘goth’, I got 982 results, and, I found my favorite music artists. I have never actually used this service as of yet, but it seems pretty cool.

Fun:

Tony-b Machine is just a fun little online toy to make your own music. Nothing fancy or for the expert, just a little amusement for the novice out there.

Music-Map will aid you in mapping out similar artists based on one particular band/singer. Merely type in the name you are interested in, and a map will arise, showing you artists with similar styles. I typed in Grace Slick, and got about 40 results.

Musicians:

*8notes has a wide variety of sheet music for every musical instrument you can think of, and lessons.

*Gootar has a chord generator and lessons.

*Fretplay has bass and guitar tabs, plus lessons.

*Metronome Online has a program to help you keep your beat.

*Cyberfret gives free guitar lessons in a wide variety of styles…lots of information!

Lyrics:

To test how good these lyrics sites were, I typed in Jack Off Jill, if I didn’t strike gold, I left it out of the list.

*Metrolyrics

*Lyrics Directory

*Lyrics A*Z Universe

*Lyrics

I hope you enjoy these resources, and if you have any to share…please do!

Picture by Angel-13

On my journey for example, I have owned a lot of ‘things’ off and on throughout the years, but traveling made it so I had to let them go of them at times. It was kind of fun though, because I got to collect up more, and discover new worlds that I perhaps never would have known, had I not had the time/room for them.

Sometimes we just grow apart, or maybe we really were never on the same page. It is hard sometimes when you like people, but things aren’t really right; but such a relationship deserves a parting.

In my personal situation I am just ‘way’ too different for most people’s taste. I tends to intimidate a lot of people because I know so much, or they follow me around like puppies, calling me their guru. I never seem to not make some kind of impact on people’s lives, and I have had many people run as fast as they could from me, regardless of how much I really love them.

Now there are those who have stuck around, but these are few, and I cherish those of them that are true. I must admit, I am not always the easiest person to be around for very long, and those who can handle me 24/7, they are incredible people. I figure if I have a lot of friends, then I will have only enough time around each one of them, that I will never drive any of them away…lol.

Yes, I have had this problem my whole life. It became worse however at the age of 15, after my first acid trip. Mind you, it was quite a horror of an experience, but it opened me up on levels I had never known so deeply. Suddenly I could see into people, and into things…I could ‘read them’.

This was a problem. First of all, seeing people’s horrifying experiences before your eyes, and all they had been through was a little overwhelming, and at times I felt no internal privacy. The voices, the visions, I had no control over, and they were to me, nothing but a curse.

It was bad enough that I could see so clearly, but worse yet that those around me did not appreciate it. Things would just tumble from my mouth, or I would subconsciously respond to what was going on with them, and try to help. No, people did not like that at all. It had been a minor issue as a child, though a big enough problem for my mother to get a little upset over it.

As if it was not enough that I had this talent/curse, weird things happened quite often when I was present, or things that I was the ’cause’ of. Another strike against me. I will never forget when I was driven out of the gay crowd I hung in, for being a ‘witch’. It was quite a scene, I tell you what. It wasn’t that I was claiming to be a witch, it was just that they figured this must be the case.

I have had people call me a lot of things, and go running the other way. Some of the people I loved the most, have left me, never looking back to say good-bye, and all because, I am ‘different’.

You do not ‘choose’ who you are, you just are. At times I sacrificed ‘me’, so I would not alienate, or push others away, but what is one, if not one’s self? There is a fine art though, the art of learning not to speak, to listen, and not say what is on one’s mind. What law says just because you think it, it must be exposed?

So, I have learned not to speak, and to listen, and it is a wonderful thing! I learn the most interesting things when I listen, and I suddenly find myself asking why? Why would I want to vocalize my thoughts all of the time, when I could just enjoy and grok the thoughts of others. Then, I am so much more, than what I was when I spoke.

I am not saying I do not speak, but I have learned that it isn’t as necessary as it once was. I guess perhaps I have come to just accept and understand what I know, and no longer have the urge to speak it…just live it.

This art, is the best friend maker ever, everyone loves someone who really likes to listen to them. In fact the person who can listen, is usually the one that is most trusted and accepted. I have observed great adulation from people for my listening skills, especially those who are normally not heard. Everyone desires to be the center of the universe, the thing of desire everyone cherishes. Those who are hermits, often secretly desire it most, but are alienated from prior rejections.

So it was with me, and I hid away, not wanting to upset the reality of others, or suffer the pain of their eventual rejection. I turned the pain into a wall, an attitude, a way of thinking. No, they would not hurt me, and slowly, my heart began to close.

It took many years, but eventually, it was hard to feel anything at all. I still knew my path, I still was me, but my soul was not the light hearted creature it had once been.

I began that road frustrated, then pain evolved into anger, and the cycle continued onward. Why could I not have the one thing I desired most? Friends, lovers… parades of pain and frustration, my heart slowly ripped to shreds, until it was numb.

But then, amidst the war zone of my heart, there were a few, a few who stuck by me. By this point though, scar tissue layered my heart, and it was hard to find the passion, hard to find the happiness I had once felt within. Ah, to have traveled so far fighting for the love of life, and to end up unable to feel it…what a cruel thing it was!

The salve though, the salve of friendship, the salve of lovers making love….no heart is without the capacity to heal. Friendship, friendship is the most important thing…it is all we have really. Experience so empty, without others to share it with us! Cells alone cannot survive, and friendship is no more than cellular connection on a deep level.

Friends expand us, and make us more than we were, or less. They can alter our lives in profound ways. They introduce us to things we have never been a part of, teach us from their very example, and share with us the very fabric of their souls.

The walls come down when you are friends, and there are special privilege passes, depending on how deep your friendship goes. The complex world of friendship, at times so painful, but so very worth it.

I once burned my bridges, and many friends I have not spoken to in ages. A long path through my life, having known so many, but now know so few. No ‘if I hads’, no need to look back, but, so many, so many left behind.

Yes, friends they are important, no matter how painful the road may be….I love each and every one of them, and always will.

Dream deep, dream true, and always be you. The friends they will come, if your signature is truly yours, open up your heart, open up your doors. The path to life is connection, not who wins the election. In the end, it is all the same, the only reason to play this game…life friends, love, hate, connection… emotions gate.

Make your dreams come true, with all your friends standing beside you…success alone is an empty place. I will walk beside life, it is my closest friend. The road with my friend, difficult at times, but well worth the price.

Friends. They are worth your time.

Photo by vassiliki