Ray's X-Blog

The MailBoX: Message From A Floridian Luddite Just received a bit of snail mail from Jim Moseley, perpetrator of the zine, Saucer Smear (PO Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041). Jim is not one to get caught in The Web (to use the appropriate pun). I’ve always contended that one of the signs of the Apocalypse is the reception of email from Supreme Commander Moseley. Anyway, here’s an excerpt from his handwritten missive dated 7/24/06: “I now see more clearly than ever how good it is that I never allowed myself to be sucked into the Internet. Identity theft, scams of every conceivable kind, viruses, etc. – I just don’t have the fortitude to be up with it. All I get now is telemarketers, and I just hang up! Keep ‘em frying! Jim” Well, Jim, the Internet is like dating: you have to be wary of some women or you’ll get your identity stolen, and also end up being scammed out of your money. And let’s not talk about viruses! (My perfect woman would be one with a “Restart” option.) As I’ve mention...

Do You See What I See? Take 2 OK, let me try another one. This image has been Photoshopped, but only to remove the distracting background and to smooth the edges of the subject. For some reason this looks darker than it did in Photoshop. If it's too dark, let me know and I'll zap the brightness and contrast some more. So, does anyone see what I noticed in this tree trunk?

Do You See What I See? Sometimes I like to shoot abstract images. Admittedly this is a photo of a freshly painted wall reflecting a large window and colored lights. But to me it seems to form a pattern. I’m wondering if anyone else sees the same image within the image. No, this isn’t a put-on. I will share my take on this shot later to find out if anyone agrees with me.

A Different POV I respect Mac Tonnies and his views over at his blog . But occasionally he becomes a little too pessimistic about global warming. He picks articles and images that imply the world is going to concurrently burn up and flood over. Yes, we’re facing a problem with climate change. But I’ve lived a little too long to accept the worst forecasts without question. During the Cold War the end-of-mankind doomsayers predicted the superowers would inevitably wage World War III, radioactive craters dotting the earth’s surface. In the 1970s the environmentally-alarmed doomsayers proclaimed that the planet would be blanketed by a sea of air pollution before the 21st Century, that by now we would be choking on our own wastes. The problems of nuke warfare and pollution remain with us. But the worst forecasts have proved so far to be wrong. There’s a difference between worry and concern. Worry is the onus of the pessimist. He has decided the game is up and the clock is ticking d...

When UFO Ain’t UFO Search engine. Keyword: UFO – as in Unidentified Flying Object. Now here’s a story on the Web saying that 60% of Brits saw an UFO last year. OK, take a look and find out that UFO in this case means unforeseen financial occurrence. It’s a business news item, talking about people who become strapped for cash when something bad happens like a boiler breaking down. Not an article related to strange objects in the sky. Try again. Here’s a hit about former NBC-TV News Anchor Tom Brokaw talking about an UFO. Strange title: “The UFO Hovering Over 2008.” Access the hit, peruse a piece about the next presidential race, people speculating on who will run and win. But Brokaw says it’s too early to say how the race is shaping up because one key event can change the whole political landscape. UFO, explains Brokaw, is short for the unforeseen will occur. Politics is an alien subject to me. Try again. What’s this? A woman has a pile of UFOs in her house? Yup – except th...

Alfred T. Lehmberg Is Real? Is Alfred Lehmberg an actual entity? Or is he just a fictional character, a complex put-on? Once upon a time there was a comic book opinion column written by a Mr. Sidney Mellon. Sidney was an enthusiastic young lad who had a unique style when it came to logic. For example, how can you decide which comic book is the best? Well, Sidney, a big fan of The X-Men , had a simple method. The title that sold the most copies each month had to be the best. Of course, that meant The X-Men had the most artistic merit. QED. Sidney Mellon was a put-on created by an adult writer (a somewhat jaded writer, of course). I quickly realized that it was a joke, but one of my friends didn’t get it. I had to point out certain passages that indicated that Sidney was too good – I mean, too bad – to be true. Me, I use a pseudonym and I do joke around, but for the most part I am real. What you see – in this case, read – is what you get. My put-ons are usually obvious – well,...

Mystery Image I take two types of mystery images. One type is an image that a viewer has to puzzle out after it’s taken and displayed. The viewer asks: “What is it?” The second type is during the creation of the image. People look at me and think: “What is he doing?” The above shadow image falls into the second category. I was sitting with a couple of friends at a coffeehouse when I noticed a shape being cast by the evening sun on the opposite wall. I got up, moved a chair out of the way, composed, and shot at a few different angles with my compact digital camera. Then I put the chair back in place, sat down with my friends who didn’t ask what I was trying to do. On this occasion the friends sitting at the table happened not to be science fiction movie fans; they were unfamiliar with classic SF films from the 1950s. I could have mentioned The Day The Earth Stood Still and drawn blank stares. But a few of you out there know what I saw in that shadow shape.

Another Plattsburgh Celebration? One of the special events during the summer for Plattsburgh, NY is Mayor’s Cup Festival, complete with music, fireworks, and fighting drunks. Now there’s a rumor the city might start up another event to keep the tourism dollars flowing in. One problem: the person they want to memorialize is on the run from the law. Arthur Pope has been trying to stay ahead of the feds since he blew up a napalm lab during the Vietnam War. His life is the basis of the movie, Running On Empty (1988). Pope was born in Plattsburgh on July 16, 1944. Some are advocating that his birthday should be remembered as part of the tragedy that was the Vietnam War. Well, they do honor abolitionist John Brown, who is “a-mold'ring” in his grave in the greater Plattsburgh area, despite the fact that his actions were considered criminal at the time. But I wonder how Pope –- a lefty radical of the 1960s –- would appreciate his birthday being turned into a materialistic, money-cent...

Getting It Straight About Sarcasm [S] It seems that around 50 per cent of the time people misunderstand statements in e-mail, not realizing whether a particular sentence is meant to be straight or sarcastic. So indicates a study discussed in an article by Teresa F. Linderman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Entitled E-mail writers often misunderstood , Linderman explains how e-mailers assume that they’re getting their message across in proper context, but the person on the other end is thrown off by the lack of body language, gestures, tone of voice, etc. involved in face-to-face conversation. I know my own humor at times is so droll that people miss the point. Of course, one could always add the universal smiley emoticon-- :-) --to indicate sarcasm or humor, but I prefer the more direct [G] (for grin) symbol. But even that is not precise enough. So I’ve created a pair of symbols to indicate whether I am being serious (straight) or sarcastic in a humorous way. When making a seri...

Blogspotter Profile: Rear Admiral Zorgrot This is the third in a series about other writers at Blogspot who share my interest in the Uncommon and the Unusual. The subject of the above photo is purported to be an extraterrestrial visiting this planet as part of a birdbrained mission. At his Blogspot site, Zorgrot Quacks – I mean, Speaks , this avian alien details his exploratory exploits. In the company of one Paul Kimball –- Documentary Maker and Overgrown Adolescent –- Rear Admiral Zorgrot has decided that all human males should elect goddess Carmen Electra as supreme ruler. Recently Saucer Smear editor Jim Moseley sent me an article that explained that terran mallards during mating season undergo certain biological changes, specifically their testes grow three times the size of their brains. After reading some of posts written by the Rear Admiral, you will agree that due to his otherworldly physiology, Zorgrot’s testes and brain are the same organ. His unresolved lust for model Ca...

Blogspotter Profile: Mac Tonnies This is the second in a series of articles about other writers at Blogspot who share my interest in the Uncommon and the Unusual. Mac Tonnies lives (or did live) in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri. He hates the suburbs there. (Mac, try living in Plattsburgh, NY for a year. You’ll kiss the suburb ground in your locale after returning from a twelve-month stretch here.) Author, essayist, blogger, and purveyor of cheesecake photos, Mac holds forth at his site Posthuman Blues . Seriously, Mac does a lot more than bitch about the suburbs and upload cheesecake. He has been offering segments of his ongoing project dealing with his IH (Indigenous Hypothesis) theory of UFOs. No, he doesn’t believe that UFOs are flying saucers piloted by Nazis hiding below the South Pole. He speculates that we might be sharing our planet with a shadow race that is able to manipulate the minds of lesser humans. I say “lesser humans” because Mac theorizes this shadow ra...

Blogspotter Profile: Paul Kimball Since I started my site at Blogspot, I’ve notice that it’s like living in a new neighborhood. I’ve met a few interesting neighbors along the way, albeit online only. This is the first of a series of profiles about other Blogspotters who share my interest in the Uncommon and the Unusual. Like uncle, like nephew. With an UFO researcher in the family, it was obvious that Paul Kimball would find himself intrigued by the mysterious world of aerial phenomena. Paul does point out that he does have his differences of opinion with Stanton Friedman, but he still remains on good terms with his uncle. Too many in the UFO field with conflicting viewpoints can’t separate a person from opinion. Paul prefers the term UFO researcher in regards to his interest. He doesn’t consider himself an ufologolist; there’s too much baggage associated with that word. He is the open-minded skeptic who doesn’t open his mind so far that his brain falls out. Also, since UFO usuall...

Double Dog Star Dare Ya! As detailed in a previous post, I sent a copy of an article I found on the Web that I thought James Moseley, perpetrator of the zine Saucer Smear , might find to be of interest. It dealt with an X-ray of an injured duck that seemed to show an alien face within its gizzard. This shocking find was made by the staff at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in California. After Moseley published his take on the item, he sent along another article about the same incident, this one written by Peter Fimrite of the San Francisco Chronicle . Moseley added this handwritten note: “This version beats yours in one respect –- see third page . Unfortunately, I didn’t read that part of the story till it was too late to use it for “Smear.” “I dare you to use it in your next issue. Wheee! ” So here’s the paragraph that the Supreme Commander has dared me to print: Unusual characteristics are commonly on display among male mallards during the spring mating season, acc...

Worst Alien Story Of All Time? Well, unlike James Moseley and his zine, Saucer Smear , I’ve never won any polls. Recently Supreme Commander Moseley’s zine was voted Best UFO Publication over at The Other Side Of Truth , Paul Kimball’s blog. So when someone recognizes me for a special achievement, I take note. On occasion I pass along news items to Moseley; he’s always looking for oddball tidbits to pepper Saucer Smear . I sent him an article I found on the web about a bird rescue center in California that ended up with an intriguing X-ray from an injured duck. Part of the image seemed to form the face of an alien, right there in the misfortunate mallard’s gut. Apparently its last meal, corn and grit, settled in such a way to produce a large-eyed visage familiar to SF fans and UFO buffs. The staff at the International Bird Rescue Center in Vallejo didn’t question its good – but weird – fortune. It has printed up t-shirts with the alien face accompanied by the words, “In space no o...