So not much news to report. I went out looking for movie editing software, only to come home empty handed not knowing which one to buy. I researched the products on the net and am glad I did, the one I was going to buy is apparently crap! I also downloaded a trial version of another one I saw (Sony Vegas Movie Studio) and am going to give it a try and see how easy it is to use and stuff. I have found the webcams can be a problem, sometimes the audio doesn’t want to sync with the video. I’ll have to experiment with that, killing background processes on the laptop and other open applications to see if that helps. Hopefully if I can make something I’m happy with (yeah right) I’ll get it up soon!

In other news, my mom sent me this link to Travel Channel’s “Most Haunted” website. You can download their “Ghost Detector” on your phone. Of course she didn’t know it’s 99 cents a month. I got it anyways, hell it’s 99 cents a month (plus data rate charges, but I have a media package add on I hardly use aside from the text message park, so I’m fine). I wanted to see how it works. It of course works on the principle that ghosts give off electromagnetic frequencies, and phones can pick them up. Honestly I don’t know if I REALLY believe it works all that well, but it does seem to register the normal hot spots in the house from time to time (IE the upstairs area!). To be really accurate I probably need to shut down the computers, routers and anything that gives off a wireless signal (not easy since we have a wireless alarm system in the house!) I’ve been trying to film it to put online, the problem is every time I start talking about it and how it works, mentioning ghosts and hauntings and stuff, it goes off

-Dustin

I had terrible dreams last night, ones that don’t foretell a good future for me. For some reason I kept dreaming the ghost in the house was after me, wouldn’t leave me alone. At one point I remember them materializing in front of me just like in a Hollywood movie. I remember screaming at him to leave me alone. I kept waking up, and no matter how hard I tried to force myself to dream about something else, I kept dreaming about that damn ghost! Of course every time I woke up, I was paranoid and looking around the bedroom, sure he was in there.

Needless to say I’m even more anxious about next Tuesday night when I’m going to be home alone!

Because I have had some questions, I dug up a post from one of my old blogs about the house and the ghosts I updated it a bit as well.

The house is haunted by at least three ghosts. A little bit about the history of the house . . . . . Okay I don’t know much about it. It is a Craftsman Cottage and was built in the early 1900s. However the house next to it dates back to 1631 (I know this cause they have a little signpost saying so) and the house across the street, the BF’s family house, is an old Quaker house, so it’s pretty old too (1700s).

Anyways the one known ghost is a teenage boy who used to live here. His name is Michael something, I forget the last name. He committed suicide. He didn’t do it in the house though, he did it outside in his car (carbon monoxide). He haunts his bedroom upstairs, the guest bedroom. He also wanders around the house every now and then. The creepy thing is, he used to date the BF’s sister and was the BF’s brother’s friend. He’s very acting when the BF’s brother is here. Generally he just makes the environment really really cold, sometimes he brings a breeze with him. Princess doesn’t seem to like him, when he comes around she growls. People have tried to get him to “cross over into the light,” but for some reason he doesn’t want to go. For whatever reason he doesn’t want to leave. When I moved in we made a deal, he could stay and do as he pleased as long as I didn’t have to see him. Yes, he has been seen by others! Unfortunately the other day I think I got my first glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye.

The other two ghosts are actually small children, and it is believed they may haunt the house next door or a house that may have possible been here at one point. Nobody knows much about them. They have been seen, once as a reflection by a former house tenant. You know when they come around. They like to chase the cats, and the cats go nuts when the kid ghosts come to play. They also have a habit of playing with clocks or anything digital. The kids don’t seem to sleep as they often come late at night when nobody is downstairs. You can hear the cats running all over the place, and sometimes you can hear giggling! One night the BF and I were upstairs watching TV and a laughing sound could be heard downstairs! I asked what that was . . . he said either the cats or the ghost children. The ghost children was the wrong answer!

This is a picture of the upstairs of the house and the two bedrooms. The bedroom on the left is the guest bedroom where the one ghost dwells. I took this photo late one evening after the sun had set. It was actually pretty dark upstairs, so there wasn’t any odd sunlight to cast reflections or make weird things happen. Notice the orb in the doorway! Yeah yeah, it could just be a particle of dust or a drop of moisture in the air. However click on the photo to enlarge it and look closely at the orb. Is that a face in it? I have looked at the photo full sized and the face is there, it is not a re-size/sampling fluke.

Woke up this morning and looked at the clock, thought to myself "No it’s too early to get up, maybe in an hour." I then rolled over to go back to sleep.

Woke up a bit later and looked at the clock and thought "No, it’s too early to get up, maybe in an hour." Then I realized the time hadn’t changed since the last time I looked at the clock and thought that.

Do do Do do Do do Do do

Dustin 

The following are ghost stories from my family, just in time for Halloween! They may not be the spookiest, but hey, they are true.

The first two stories come from my mom and are from her childhood. They take place at my great-grandmother’s home. A bit of background here. My great-grandfather built the house and when he dug the foundation for the house he came across civil war artifacts and bodies! The Smithsonian was called in to excavate and it turned out the land was once the headquarters of a Civil War general named Mosby who lead a pack called Mosby’s Raiders. The Smithsonian took the bodies and most of the artifacts, leaving some of the poorer preserved rifles with my family. On Sundays when the family would gather at my great-grandma’s and the kids would all play war with these rifles.

Anyways, one Sunday as everyone had gathered for lunch, the kids were outside playing as usual. Suddenly the attic window opened and someone, or something, threw an ugly witches mask down at the kids. The strange thing was, nobody knew where the mask came from and all the adults and kids were accounted for!

In another story from my great-grandma’s house . . . . My great-great-grandma Mimi lived in the house until she died. Every night she would get up and walk down a long hallway to the bathroom, take her medicine out of the cabinet, and then walk back to her room. After she died, my mom, uncle and aunt were spending the night in the house. Late at night they heard the all too familiar footsteps of great-great-grandma Mimi walking down the hallway, opening the medicine cabinet, and walking back to her room! They thought it was their uncle playing a trick on them, but it wasn’t!

This quick story comes from my grandma. She told this to me when I was in undergrad and we were watching a program on ghosts. Shortly after my grandfather died she said she woke up one night and saw him standing at the end of her bed looking at her. She felt it was his way of telling her everything would be okay.

The following two stories come from my mom. Last year my grandmother passed away after a battle with cancer. On the day she passed, the family had gathered to be with her. My mom and the woman who was my grandmother’s caretaker were sitting with her in her room. Suddenly the door to my grandmother’s room opened and then closed, as if my grandmother’s spirit had got up and left to see what the family in the other room was up to. She passed away in the evening, and that night my mother instinctively woke up in the middle of the night to check on her, as she usually did. She found that the light in my grandmother’s room was on!

So there are the ghost stories from my family, that I can recall. As I experience more ghost stories in my house I’ll be sure to let you know about them.

Dustin

This morning as I lay in bed there was a pounding sound from behind the bedroom wall. Later when I went into the bathroom to take my shower I heard a very loud banging noise, almost like someone was banging on a pipe. I left the bathroom to see what was going on, thinking a cat was up to no good. I found nothing. As I stepped out of the shower I heard a mans voice call out “Dustin,” but it sounded like it was muffled and coming from far away. I went to the back door to see if someone was there shouting through it, but nobody was.

True Story! Happy Halloween!

Dustin

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays since I was a kid. I used to enjoy decorating our house with all sorts of spook things. I would put flashing or strobe lights in the windows as well as hang skeletons, ghosts and other spooky things in them. Basically I made sure our house stood out from the rest of the houses on the block.

I also love Halloween because it’s a spooky time of year that invokes images of ghosts, goblins and the boogieman. Many people believe Halloween is satanic in origin. This belief, while widely accepted, is incorrect. While the holiday is pagan in origin, Satan is a completely Christian belief and not part of pagan religions. The holiday actually has its origins with ancient farming communities. Halloween was the time of the year when the last of the crops were harvested and a long, cold and dead (nothing grows) fall/winter commenced. It could be a time of uncertainty for them based on how well they did with their crops, and thus death was always a possibility.

I like Halloween for the scariness of it though. I’m trying to pull together a Halloween party/get together for my friends. I’ve actually stated my intentions to do this for the past three years, but never have. This year I’m trying my best to throw the party, which will consist of watching only the scariest of movies and then taking a trip through a corn maze in the pitch black of night (after my guests have consumed alcohol!) The corn maze is across the street, so we don’t have far to travel to get to it (ie no driving drunk).

If I can pull it off, it should be a blast

Dustin

Another one from Dustin’s Spooky Files! This one really isn’t as much of a ghost story as it is a psychic dream. I do have more ghost stories to tell, as our family seems to attract them
When I was in the 7th grade, my grandparents went to New York to visit relatives up there for Christmas. Being a kid, I didn’t think much of the fact that they had been gone for awhile. One night however I had a strange dream. I walked out of my house and in the middle of my street stood my grandfather. He looked at me, clutched his head, and fell to his knees. He said something about his head hurting very bad, and then fell completely to the ground.

The next day my mother sat me down to have a talk. Grandpa was very sick, and the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with him. He had been in the hospital for some time, and they believed he was probably going to die. My mother and father had known about the illness for some time, but had not told my brother and I. My mom was telling me know because my father was preparing to head to NY to be with my grandfather, and she knew I would ask questions. I told my mother about my dream, I was certain the cause of the illness had to do with my grandfather’s head. My mom said the doctors had checked him out completely, nothing was wrong that they could find. All they knew is he had come down with pneumonia and rapidly gotten sicker.

A few days after my dad had gone to NY, my grandfather miraculously did a 180 and was awake and getting better. Again, the doctors did not know what was going on.

My grandfather soon became ill again very quickly, and within a few days passed away. The doctors never figured out exactly what happened to him, but apparently there was something amiss with his brain. He had a cancer like virus of some sorts that they had never seen, and they believe his pneumonia triggered it. They claimed it was probably something he had had for a long time but was dormant, and the pneumonia brought it out of its dormancy. Hooky I know, but that is the best reason they could give.

Dreams, they are weird and mysterious things. This was not the only time I had dreamt something that was to come true or really happening, but it was the most significant. Often my dreams give me signals of seemingly pointless events that happen a day or two in the future, and I usually don’t put it together until the event occurs. The only time it has really come in handy was when I dreamt the questions on a history test And no, I have no way of controlling this, it just happens. I’m also no Allison Dubois. I can however control my dreams if I choose to.

Dustin

So awhile back I revealed the house I lived in was haunted, and said I’d tell the story another time. Well, here it is! Though come to think of it, it isn’t much of a story as an explination.

The house is haunted by three, possibly four ghosts. A little bit about the history of the house . . . . . Okay I don’t know much about it. It is a Craftsman Cottage and was built in the early 1900s. However the house next to it dates back to 1631 (I know this cause they have a little signpost saying so) and the house across the street is an old Quaker house, so it’s pretty old too (1700s).

Anyways the one known ghost is a teenage boy who used to live here. He committed suicide. He didn’t do it in the house though, he did it outside in his car (carbon monoxide). He haunts his bedroom upstairs, the guest bedroom. He also wanders around the house every now and then. I actually have a feeling he is here with me as I’m writing this! Generally he just makes the environment really really cold, sometimes he brings a breeze with him. Princess doesn’t seem to like him, when he comes around she growls. People have tried to get him to “cross over into the light,” but for some reason he doesn’t want to go. Maybe he’s Catholic and thinks he’ll go to hell or something? I don’t know. But for whatever reason he doesn’t want to leave. When I moved in we made a deal, he could stay and do as he pleased as long as I didn’t have to see him. Yes, he has been seen by others! Fortunately I haven’t seen him. Well, except, more in a bit.

The other two ghosts are actually small children, and it is believed they may haunt the house next door or a house that may have possible been here at one point. Nobody knows much about them. They have never been seen, but you know when they come around. They like to chase the cats, and the cats go nuts when the kid ghosts come to play. They also have a habit of playing with clocks or anything digital. The kids don’t seem to sleep as they often come late at night when nobody is downstairs. You can hear the cats running all over the place, and sometimes you can hear giggling!

The fourth possible ghost has only been felt by myself (cause you know, I have a little bit of Celeste in me, seriously). I have only felt it twice, and honestly I don’t know if it was real or my imagination. This ghost I sensed late at night as I was waking up from dreams. This ghost is dark, and I don’t like him at all. I’m pretty sure it is a man, and he has a dark presence about him. The first time I felt him I was waking up and couldn’t breath! It was like I had lost my breath, but I felt as if something dark was trying to suck my soul out of me. The second time I felt him again I was waking up and felt a dark presence in the corner of the room. Scary! Like I said, I don’t know if it was genuine or dream influenced. The little bit of Celeste in me often works through dreams

This is a picture of the upstairs of the house and the two bedrooms. The bedroom on the left is the guest bedroom where the one ghost dwells. I took this photo late one evening after the sun had set. It was actually pretty dark upstairs, so there wasn’t any odd sunlight to cast reflections or make weird things happen. Notice the orb in the doorway! Want to be even more freaked out? Click on the photo to enlarge it and look closely at the orb. Is that a face in it? Update! I went back and looked at the photo full sized, and the face is there! You just have to back away from it a bit to make it out. CREEPY!

This is not an uncommon occurrence, I have some other photos of this room with orbs in it. Always this room, I don’t have any other photos from the house with orbs. Of course Sylvia Brown claims orbs are angels. If that is the case then I guess there are a lot of angels trying to persuade this kid to go to the other side!

So that does it for this edition of Dustin’s Spooky Tales As we are nearing Halloween I’ll try and tell some more ghost stories. Here is a sneak peak of what I have to offer . . .

Grandma’s Visit
Grandpa’s Ghostly Visit to Grandma
Ladies in the Mirror and Talking Dogs
Dustin’s Dream about Grandpa, and Grandpa’s Floating Head
Great Grandma’s House

Dustin