Driving as a Haunting Experience

I must admit that cars are not as interesting to me as they are to most people I know. I love my car because it gets me from point A to point B, and I can listen to music at the same time. As far as that goes, I'm easy to please.

But if you're going to talk about cars and scary stories? Hey, I'm all over that. And I'm not alone.
One of Stephen Spielburg's first movies was a 1971 made for TV suspense tale called Duel. It had about two lines of dialogue and featured a demonic black trailer truck chasing down a mild-mannered commuter.

Then Stephen King introduced the idea of a very disturbed car when he unleashed Christine on the public back in 1983. And he didn't stop there, either. Check out Dolan's Cadillac or From a Buick 8. Mr. King figured out a long time ago that cars and tales of horror can go hand in hand quite nicely.

Nothing makes a car more interesting to me than the idea of it being haunted, and there's any number of tales involving just that concept. Like the story of the driver who glances into her rear view mirror one night and sees the face of someone who is sitting in her back seat. Even though she knows she's alone in the car. Like the shock of the trucker who picks up a hitchhiker only to find that further down the road, his mysterious passenger has vanished into thin air. Or like all the drivers who pass a particular cemetery, who swear that at certain times their cars will lose all power as they pass the cemetery gates. Their lights will go out. The sound system will refuse to play. The horn won't work, and neither will the power windows. Fortunately, though, the engine keeps running. That way they can drive on down the road and find that the lights, the radio, and the windows work just fine once they're away from the graveyard.

I love scary stories, so when I was asked to blog about driving, I figured I'd throw a few ghosts into the mix to make it more interesting for myself. And hey, right now one of the best scary shows on TV features a 1967 Chevy Impala. Although as the picture at the top of this post suggests, I'm not sure the car is the only reason so many people are watching Supernatural...

Good Afternoon

Cruikshank, The Headache

Good Afternoon

I am going to pick up my car this afternoon. Today has been interesting.... It was a two car alarm night outside last night. It made me a little groggy. Combined with the car thing, I felt a bit disoriented this morning.

I got a notice in the mail requesting me to disband a corporation in New York State. I have to do it by August 28, 2008, or they will charge me an approximated tax. There is a sixty dollar fee for disbanding the corporation plus I have to fill out some corporate tax forms. I haven't done anything with it for several years. I am going to see an accountant, because it looks like it could be deadly if I make a mistake...

I formed the corporation in 2002 to see if I could show a business card and get a few part time jobs. Someone offered me some consulting work searching the internet for company information, people, and other things. Fortunately, I got my job at my current position. It is very easy to from a sole proprietorship and get a business card. I got my last batch of business cards at Vistaprint for the cost of shipping. Now, I find it costs as much to dissolve a corporation as found a sole propietorship. It is pretty ironic. It looks like a way for the government to generate cash like parking tickets.

I have done this kind of thing before. I did a little bit of human resource sourcing for someone. I can't say who because of disclosure problems. I also have done searching for information over the internet and magazine databases searching on a contract basis once or twice. It really is not that exciting looking for people or searching databases. I can do it, but it is not something I would want to do on a permanent basis. Books and graphic novels are far more interesting.

Anyways, I am trying to rest my brain a bit this morning. I am feeling a tiny bit under the weather, combined with the latest stressful events, I want to make sure I don't get very sick. This nursery rhyme from Mother Goose reminds me a bit of how I feel.

The Ten O'Clock Scholar

A diller, a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar!

What makes you come so soon?

You used to come at ten o'clock,

But now you come at noon.

I was looking around the internet a bit when I came across an interesting announcement, apparently Acacia Book One: the War With the Mein which I reviewed on this website earlier is going to be made into a movie.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117989641.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

I had an interesting afternoon. I went and picked up my car. They told me that I had to drive the car a lot more then return on Saturday to have them do another inspection. I spent four hours driving around the neighborhood. I drove to the Barnes and Noble bookstore in the mall. I stopped for a minute but didn't find anything I wanted. I noted down a few graphic novels. Then I drove to Target in another mall. Then I drove down to the supermarket and back. Then I drove down to chinatown. I had some noodles. I like to have specific places to go when I drive...

I would rather be at home reading than driving.

Sometimes, you want to figure out what happened. Apparently when you replace the battery in a car it resets the sensors for smog and other conditions. The battery was replaced before the New York state car inspection. This effectively set most of the sensors to zero. Now, in order for the sensors to test things properly, the car has to be driven under a variety of conditions. This includes hghway and city conditions. My understanding after reading various things on the internet, this might take a few days.

Today was an example of human folly.

Thoughts For Today

New York library on opening day, shot between 1910 and 1915 from the Library of Congress Flickr photoarchive.

Thoughts For Today

I read some more of The Public Domain on the train to work this morning. I also started reading Acacia Book One: The War With The Mein by David Anthony Durham. It is a fantasy novel.

I have been running around making sure everything was running right for the film we were showing today, Cars by Pixar. I had to switch the dvd players with the childrens room. Also, I asked a volunteer to buy soda and popcorn at the supermarket. We like to get the little single packets of popcorn because they are neater. This was billed as a family film for both childrens and adults. I ended up starting the film five minutes late. I think over twenty different people attended the film. This is actually a pretty good turnout for us.

I haven't done any ordering today. I have quite a bit of new reference books to look at to make sure everything is done correctly, and a number of looseleafs to file for the law collection.

I am waiting for them to finish process the manga and science fiction books which came in a couple days ago. I really want to look at the new Vampire Hunter D manga which came out last month. Also, Peter David did a mass market paperback novelization of the film Iron Man. I rather like Peter David's writing. He is entertaining and funny.

This afternoon, I did more looseleaf updating of the law collection. I replaced the supplement section for Basic Legal Forms With Commentary. I also put in some updated reference books in the reference collection. These are just everyday things that need to be done.

I also glanced through Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the New York Times Book Review. I will look through Library Journal tomorrow. There was one new title in Publishers Weekly which looked interesting, Sly Mongoose by Tobias Buckell. It is science fiction.

We also have been getting requests for Neil Gaiman books, especially, the Sandman series of graphic novels. Sandman is published under the Vertigo imprint of DC comics. I'll definitely order some of these in my next graphic novel order.

The book The Public Domain has a blog about copyright attached to it. http://copyrightfree.blogspot.com

Jumped!!!

So a friend of mine who is also my best friends nephew, got jumped last night. Yes, he walked his girlfriend home and was headed back to his car when he got jumped by 15 guys, who took turns jumping up and down on his head, as the girls went through his pockets and robbed him, THEN the skanks had the nerve to ask him if he had anything else on him they could take!! *shaking head*
Let me tell you this, when these no dick, saggy assed mothefuckers had to make themselves feel good to jump one kid who was doing no wrong, well that just shows the mentality of these wanna be "gangstas". Oh I heard, they all had handkerchiefs over their faces, like they gonna do something hard. Rob a bank? No. Rob a liquor store and run out with booze? No. What they fake ass, posin pussies did, was jump a sweet boy on his way to his car after he walked his girlfriend home. They broke every window in his car and caved the roof in and kicked in all the body panels. Then them trick ass fast ass bitches had to go and rob him of what little he had. I'm pissed, his aunt is pissed and it's just wrong. He has no hair on the side of his head where he was dragged and kicked into the pavement. His head is twice the size of normal and both of his eyes are swollen. He is lucky to be alive. Oh, and then...they had the nerve to put it all on video. So is this their thing? Is this what they do in their pitiful ass lives to make themselves feel powerful? hard? and the girls with them? How do they feel? Like they are a part of something? Like they have an important role 'cause their men are weak and this will make them feel loved? No...unfortunately, none of that is true. The men are weak and the girls are just punk ass bitches. These are people who are ignorant, oh hell that's to nice, they are stupid with no class and no morals. I heard how people were egging them on "kick him, hit him etc..." yeah, you wanna talk about weak? Weak people, say that shit. Weak people, can't think for themselves and weak people...did this to my friend. Oh, they strong in numbers, but let one of them, hell...two of them...try and pull this off alone, it would never happen. Hell, I wish I was there...15 or not, someone would get hurt, I guarantee you. So here's the thing, there is a reward for anybody who knows who did this...it happened in Stockton, between 2:30 and 4:00 a.m. this morning (Sunday), it happened at the library next to John Adams School on Inglewood and Ben Holt, behind the old Naughty Nicks. Come on somebody saw something. Do it for the reward, do it because it's the right thing to do, just do something. I also heard this is happening often in Stockton...let's end it now, before someone dies...as they left him to do. Oh, one more thing...for all you weak ass punk ass pussy motherfuckers who did this? It's gonna be on the news...4 channels. Scared yet? You should be, and if nothing comes of this post...if no one steps up and says nothing...for every person there. For every person who watched my friend get his head stomped on and his car kicked in, take a good look at your family, your parents, your grandparents, your friends...yourself. Because if I can't fix it, if I can't bring those who did this to justice, karma will. So when you're scared as you watch someone you love struggling for life...remember what you did and remember where you were. Fix it now, do the right thing.
p.s. yes, this is going on craigslist in stockton.

Is it wrong that this excites me??

I love cars by the way, I will read Road & Track before OUT or The Advocate. My bro sent this video to me, it's the fastest car in the world, it's a Bugatti Veyron with 1,001 HP! *shiver* it has a top speed of 253mph!! Insane! It is the fastest production car out there. Imagine burying the needle in that! Enjoy! ;-) peace