Fantastic Lad's New Writeups

Cattle mutilation (thing)

2003-01-19T12:35:10Z

The first publicized case of animal mutilation occurred on September 9, 1967.

The victim was a horse named Lady (mistakenly called Snippy by the press), who was found in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. her body had been stripped of flesh from the neck up, with the rest of her untouched. There was no blood at the site. The cut around the neck was very smooth -- perhaps too smooth to have been made with a hunting knife. Her exposed skeleton was so white and clean, that it looked as though she had lain in the sun for days. But Lady had been alive and well only two nights before. Another odd thing was that, according to her owner, who found her, Lady's tracks stopped about one hundred feet southeast of her body, with no tracks of any kind between her and where she was found.
When Lady's owner returned to the site the following day, the soil beneath Lady was damp, and a medicine-like smell pervaded the area. Nearby was a bush that was flattened to within ten

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Florinda Donner (person)

2002-01-09T14:56:52Z

An anthropology student who wrote books describing sorcery and witchcraft in Mexico and Central America.

While writers of esoteric subject matter are by no means unique, Florinda Donner stands out in the field for three significant reasons. . .

1) She is apparently the second individual to publish works about direct experiences in dealing with the Yaqui Indian self-described sorcerer, Don Juan Matus, made famous by Carlos Castaneda

2) The way women approach sorcery is revealed to be extremely different from the way males do. Her descriptions offer a unique alternative view of the same world.

3) Her third book, "Being In Dreaming" is fascinating in that she describes Carlos Castaneda himself from her own perspective, (a literary first), having worked closely with him during her own introduction into the sorcerer's world. The difference between how he describes himself and the way Florinda does is notable.

--Castaneda writes of his…

crossword (thing)

2001-10-18T23:36:42Z

The following is a short essay I wrote about Cryptic Crossword puzzles. (Partly to exorcize the subject from my mind, as it had been rattling around for ages, and partly to see I could write about such a lack-luster subject in an entertaining manner.)

Did I succeed? You be the judge.

Okay. Here's a puzzle which has an answer.
"Contained park owner has no third to name." The answer has two words, one 7 letters long, and the other is 5. Go to it!

Well, if you're like me, then upon discovering that the answer is, "Bottled water," you'll blink and say, "Huh? 'Bottled Water' is the answer? How the heck is that? I don't get it."

You might even try to wrap your head around the logic, and again, if you're anything like me, you'll just get a headache. And finally, when you ask the smug ass who gave you the puzzle how the heck 'Bottled water' could have anything to do with some park owner who has no third name, or whatever, he'll tell you the following:

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SIGs (thing)

2001-04-18T09:28:34Z

SIGs are an phenomenon which came into early popularity with the advent of email and various discussion group functions available on the internet.

Designed to give a spark of extra insight into the nature and character of the individual writing, interesting SIGs have been created in the thousands. In an effort to preserve some of them, I spent a couple of years clipping them as they popped up. . .

The list follows. . .

If the marauding forces came today, how hard would you fight?
The only difference between advertising and insurance is that insurance is less expensive.
How can we expect people to use pipe bombs if we don't show how they're made?
Anarchy is nessecary when Order threatens Life. And vice versa.
Hitting the 'Mute' button during ads only remindes me that I'm staring at a flickering CRT in a dark room filled with pasty people.
"Let's see what the Tweedlebugs are doing today!" --Ernie.
--What if 'The Matrix,' was a piece of

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crop circles (thing)

2001-04-18T07:14:02Z

In researching what is known about the phenomena, I have arranged my findings in order of least to the most peculiar.

Proceed at your own risk.

To begin with. . .

As with all such paranormal phenomena, two schools of thought invariably form in regard to the question of the true origin and nature of an event. There are those who tend to believe in a fantastic or supernatural cause, and those who believe that such events have mundane terrestrial solutions. Specifically, Crop Circles are believed to be created by either advanced life forms 'not of this earth,' or by pranksters.

There is compelling evidence to support both arguments, and those arguments are quite furious.

One of the points made by those who believe circles to be of extraterrestrial origin is that it is unlikely that so many circles could be created world wide by hoaxers. Approximately 150 to 200 appear each year in England, and in the early nineties, the number was often between 250 to 350. While…

Harmonic belief system (idea)

2001-04-17T17:50:11Z

The Vibrational or Harmonic model of existence explains reality as being entirely energy based in a manner similarly described by Carlos Castaneda in his several books about the Yaqui Indian sorcerer, Don Juan and his lineage.

Unlike the far older Tibetan Buddhist insistence regarding reality, wherein nothing is believed to exist at all; that all reality is a construct projected outward by the perceiver, the Vibrational/Harmonic model, as well as the system written about by Carlos Castaneda, describes energy as being the basic, non-reducible canvas upon which our perceptions project the world as we recognize it.

According to the Vibrational/Harmonic model, the frequency at which this energy vibrates determines at what level of existence it is maintained. Defined by harmonic scales, when the energy which makes up an object or person vibrates quickly enough to rise to the next octave, it is believed to vanish from the perception of general life existing at the previous…