I'm off work, it's late and my mind is wandering. I've been randomly searching the internet while watching The Black Dahlia.

My Google subject of the night: Paranormal Industries

You know what I mean, ghost hunters, ghost tours, hotels and businesses that are haunted.

First, let me say up front that I don't dismiss ghost sightings. I have a complex theory on why people see ghosts that I won't bore you with today. Suffice it to say, I don't doubt first hand accounts of people that don't seem to have anything to gain by witnessing a sighting.

However, my complex theory doesn't include ghosts as a physical entity. In other words, I believe that if you try to scientifically prove that there's a ghost in the room and you will come up with nothing every time. Okay, I admit, my theory is just as valid as the people who believe that every building on the ETSU campus is haunted, but at least my theory accounts for the lack of evidence and leaves me open to accepting proof otherwise.

Okay...back to my point.

Ghost Tours are generally full of crap. If you live in Boston or Tombstone, Arizona, then sure a ghost tour is a fun ride for the tourists, but a ghost tour of Johnson City, TN is really reaching. I've lived here all my life and for the last twenty years or so, I've studied the history of my hometown. I feel that I'm pretty knowledgeable of it's history. So when tours promote ghosts here and there that are based on hearsay and rumors, I get irritated. Make a buck off your tours, but damn, Sideshow Bob, let's at least get our HISTORY right! It's like feeding the marks merangue without the pie.

Paranormal Investigators are full of crap. Generally, to be a Paranormal Investigator, one has to begin with a belief that the paranormal exists and can be measured. Generally, (watch the load of poop that is Ghost Hunters on SciFi)these believers go in looking for evidence to support their conclusion because if they relied on the measurements and the evidence, they would close up shop pretty quick because they NEVER FIND ANY PROOF.

Haunted businesses are full of crap. Especially haunted hotels. When I was in high school, I ran around Jonesborough with a video camera and a notebook and tried to collect any evidence at all that ghosts existed. What I did learn from the dozen or so conflicting stories and rote recitations of phenomena is that haunted hotels attract customers (especially in Jonesborough.) Likewise, a haunted downtown attracts tourists to shops and a haunted landmark into a stronger tourist attraction.

However, in my curiosity, I've met many individuals with nothing to sell, nothing to prove, nothing to gain, that have described several things that I can't explain. Truly paranormal, unexplainable stuff from credible people that I've known for years. Still, I can't just accept it. I have to examine it, see proof before I ever become a Believer.

I want to believe their stories, their proof, but I can't accept anything without corroberation or evidence. It's just not in my nature to believe unconditionally, but I'm willing to investigate and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Link: http://www.myspace.com/bigbadvoodooman

Sadly, it's a promotional reality these days that if you want to promote something online, you've GOT to make a Myspace account.

This is too bad because Myspace is ass. 99% of the custom layouts screw up and require a monitor 3 feet wide to see the whole thing. Secondly, most of the sites are people who are either full of crap or are selling something.

Well...that's probably okay, but it looks like ass and is about the most useless format for sharing information I've ever seen.

Still, I made a site and decorated it with a bunch of H. Bosch and satanic imagery to titilate the kids.

I understand why I can't get anyone to use TechBo. People would rather use shitty commercialized dating sites rather than put some thought and time into a truly personalized site. The lure is unmistakable.

So far. Myspace has deleted 3 of my rantings there and they disabled comments for a time.

It's that kind of thing that's slowed my TechBo development to a crawl. I've put countless hours in to make a community for 3 years and only a couple folks seem to be interested. There has to come a time when I have to ask if I couldn't be putting my free time to better use.

The lads and I are in Cleveland, TN tonight on a three day work trip.

We were excited when we left, glad to get out of town for a break from the regular routine. After dropping off my dog and dropping a bill in the mail, I gathered Astrocomical and Metaphore and we headed out to Cleveland,TN.

Two hours and fourty five minutes later we reached the Wingate Inn in Cleveland, TN and checked in. Five minutes after that we were faced with the realization that there was nothing to do in Cleveland, TN. We looked at Google Earth's entries for the town and saw a mall and a couple restaurants. We decided to hit the road and find out for ourselves.

First, we found our way to the local mall. The Mall reminded me of Knoxville's West Town Mall just after it originally opened. The only store with any interest was Dicehead's Games. They had six or so game tables, comics, RPG games, a few card games and a whole section of tables set up for some 3d table gaming. The had a little of everything, even a wall full of arcade games. After that hiatus, we realized that we had seen everything there was to do in town.

We ate dinner at Applebee's making lots of jokes about how boring Cleveland is, then they slowly stopped being funny. After dinner, we drove back to the hotel and watched MST3K's "The Creeping Eye." I actually cheated and watched a half-hour ComicCon video from I Fanboy.

Now we sit here with another full day of cultureless drudgery. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow night and find the fabled "Bloody Mausoleum of Cleveland, TN."

Anyone with knowledge of things to do in Cleveland, TN, PLEASE leave comments!!

Pressure. My life is work sealed in a pressure cooker.

As the guy responsible for re-building 3 distance ed classrooms for ETSU, it's my responsibility to keep my crew on track to get a mountain of construction and wiring jobs done by the first week of August. At the same time, I have to put up with my co-worker's constant micromanagement and incessent adding of work requests that pull me away from the major job. The boss gives little, if any support and the university has screwed up the money accounts so badly that we have $3000 of money that can't be spent because the system has changed to a format that incompatible with it's own account structure. Purchasing actually has no idea what they're doing.

The guys that work for me are simply incredible. Those guys work their asses off and care that they are doing the job RIGHT. They put up with my nearly venting as the department jerks me around on a daily basis and my forgetfulness amid the storm of priorities and dozens of different projects that I'm constantly pushing them to finish as quickly as possible.

The stress makes me sick, the frustration of others belittling everything I do makes me sick, the constant threat of having everything in place except the actually equipment that will run the sites makes me sick, the fact that I'm going to have to work overtime in August and I don't get paid anymore for it makes me sick. In short, I'm in a very poor state of mind at the moment.

I'm $1700 in debt that I haven't paid on in a long time, and I don't have enough money to buy food this month, nevermind the $300 insurance charge or $120 I'll have to pay in server charges if I don't get the old site shut down and moved to the new server.

Once I cancel the old service, I'll be saving $50 a month! Then, thanks to my new work cell phone, I'll save another $50 a month once I lower the minutes on my personal plan.

The site is my sanity right now. The one bright spot of creativity that I can actually focus on right now. I'm working hard to improve it to make people want to share the thoughts and art of my friends. I know without a doubt that there are people who could enjoy this site, I just need to crack the code and figure out how to attract them.

I apologize to the one or two people who read this, I try not to post negative stuff or bitch about my personal life, but sometimes even I need to vent.

Thanks! More fun stuff soon!