Friday, February 27, 2015

Who gets to chose who will be the lucky and the unlucky in life?



This is something I have always pondered, I know people that literally fell from one good job to the next without even trying, they would be hard pressed to ever put out a dozen applications in their entire life. There are people that really do not know what it is like to ever be broke down on the side of the road, who married their highschool sweetheart and had love for 60 years. I ponder what that must be like, as it sure as hell has not been my life.

When the Movie "Pure luck" came out my sister called me up and said "They made a movie about you" indeed they did, I watched the movie and it was about a guy who broke everything he touched. I could relate to the entire movie.

Overall opinions have varied for me, sometimes people think I am lucky, usually those who sat across from me on the poker table or playing dice, or those who think I am unlucky, which was love and work.

I find it a compromise, I believe there is some luck to gambling, however luck runs out and I will take skill any day of the week, understanding the odds I always created my own luck. But I had my down time as well, all gamblers do, I had a few months that were so rough, a local table owner actually told me to just give it up for a month or two, yea pretty embarrassing lol.

On the flipside in love I tried my ass off for twenty years before finally finding a woman who wanted to truly be with me, and indeed, I am very fortunate to have her, but the wait did suck.
I have broke down alongside the road so many times, I literally lost count how many times it has happened.
I am so unlucky with electronics I lost count of how many people told me just do not touch anything, cause shit does break around me on a monumental scale. DO you see me wear a watch? Nope that is because they burn out in a year or so, hell sometimes days.

Now all that is really very trivial as I know I am not alone in those problems. Millions of people struggle to find love and often never will. Billions I dare say try their luck at gambling never to know what it is like to be in the black and others life simply kicks so hard they end up living under a bridge someplace after life simply gave up on them.

So who determines the luck? Really I never really believed in luck to much, but it has to be there.
Someplace there must be a system who decides what can or cannot work right for people.

In Buddhism it is believed that your previous life dictates your next life, if you were a bad person, you will have a bad next life, if you were murdered in your previous life, you will suffer Ill again. Holy crap that is depressing, but Christianity and Islam are not much better, in both those you have to behave or your afterlife will suck, or be wonderful.
There has to be some truth to it all someplace, there must be something with the stars that matches what we are, who we will become, and how your life will end up being.

Now mind you, there are choices, I think like most people I look back at a list of opportunities that I just flat out blew, and I mean I blew some big ones. Who hasn't? I guess that is where the saying "youth is wasted on the young" comes into play.
Really there is no reason to obsess over it, I will just put one foot in front of the next and keep trying to make my own luck, but as I age it seems that luck gets harder to come by, and opportunities certainly begin to disappear.
Like the 75 year old man who stands before the judges on Dances with the stars, hoping for life to give him that one break, he is let down, doomed to walk the hall of failure for the last time, despite trying every avenue that existed so is life, the end for all, but a grand life for many.

For me I will continue to put out applications for work, which now number in the hundreds until that one good job finally comes my way. Hell maybe at some point one of my inventions I submit will finally be recognized, I dono.

My parents were not particularly lucky people, they struggled constantly trying to make life a better place, but then again, they had it pretty damned good. Mom got to do things most only dream of, hell she even lived in a Buddhist Camp overseas for months, not once, but twice!
Dad got to explore most of Montana the way he wanted, by horseback.

And hell, I have got to tick off many of my dreams, My dream car is in the garage, bought back when I had luck lol.
Wonderful wife, kid on the way, and a small chunk of the world ticked off.

I sit right now and wonder, have I been lucky? Well I am looking at being locked out of yet another account that refuses to recognize my ID and password, something that happens to me at least weekly, it is annoying, but nothing more.
I still think I am lucky where it matters, I can deal with that little trivial shit as annoying as it can be, its the big things that matter. It is the huge second chances I have gotten in many areas.
It is being in that riptide and still managing to swimming to the boat, it is walking away from that car accident that would have ended most, and hell, how many people can say they had a bullet bounce off their head?
Some are reading thinking, how can you be lucky having went thru that, I ask, what would it have been like for you? Many do not get second chances, that is not fair.

I am lucky in a sense and I hope I am even more so in the future, not just for me, but for others.

I think most people who have bad luck tend to be good people for some reason, and I think that aught to end.

Those of us who are good people will do good things, not so much for ourselves but others.

If there are any good spirits out there still watching over, I ask you but one thing, help me find that elusive success with anything, be it my writings, inventions or even gambling, help me score big, and I will put smiles on those poverty stricken kids in a manner that makes Bono blush.

That really is all I ask, a chance for those of us with big hearts to make even bigger hearts in the future.

Regardless how my future ends up, I already found the woman, and as with the movie "Pure Luck" I will simply keep on smiling, not really knowing anything different, and enjoying every success, as it comes.










Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The Time Travel Photos and Videos explained

I had seen the 1941 Time Traveler photo a couple times and it always intrigued me, but I thought it just a hoax, turns out it was a real photo taken in 1941 at the reopening of a bridge in BC. The individual in the photo certainly is out of place for the time however everything is easily explained. The Sun glasses were available at that time and to me they look like motorcycle goggles common in the 30s, that makes sense if you look at his hair which looks somewhat windblown. His shirt is odd as there were not print Ts in the time, many hypothesis remain as to what exactly it was, a Maroons Hockey Emblem? screw that I say Marvel FTW!



The next video clips truly are amazing, and logical explanations abound.
The Chaplin Film Footage truly is interesting as it shows an old woman clearly talking on something.


Popular thought is that she was using a hearing aid device.
Ok, so lets think about that for a minute, why the hell should she be using a hearing aid device to talk to herself?
That makes about as much sense as thinking she traveled back in time. This shall be somewhat solved after I address the next video which is related.

Next we have the 1938 footage of another, which is clearly a woman talking on something.
Apparently it was a 17 year old woman working at a communications factory, she claimed she was talking on a new device to a scientist. A cell phone? Possible, but looking at the two why is it not possible there was some sort of communication device, possibly a Radio of some sort of which the technology was lost? Although this is unusual as the first portable radio was not used until 1941, and it was huge.
Probably some technology which is known, or simply just being tested, God knows much has been lost in fires etc. I honestly think that makes more sense than time travel, although it is a Romantic notion and I have to admit she is pretty hot, I may have to jump in the old machine and court her before she gets old and saggy :D
Which brings up the next point about this video, clearly she is the most attractive girl of the bunch, maybe the scientist simply gave her something he said was the latest and greatest simply for a chance to get to know her.



Clearly Time travel is not something which is happening, however I do again find it interesting as to what was going on in the two above films especially.
All things IMO are logical explained, although sometimes we have to wait for the proper explanation longer than we would like.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Where is the Physical Evidence of Sasquatch?

First off I will say with all honesty, there is none, however I think this is something of a loaded question and really not so easy to give a definitive answer, I will attempt to address many of the common questions.

Why are the photos or videos shaky or blurred?
Well you have a couple of seconds to get a photo of something that just surprised you, how stable will you be?
Next you have to get that camera out, turn it on and then find the target. After fumbling around in my pack or pocket I end up losing the vast majority of decent pictures or even any picture of wild animals. Professionals make it look easy, but they spend hours upon hours and even days trying to get one good clear photo of an animal who's habits they are familiar with.

Up until the last decade taking pictures was a fairly complex task, you had to turn the camera on, bring it up and focus on your target. Those that did not require focus were fairly grainy anyhow. Think back to your old family photos, how many heads were cut off? people on the left or right? it seemed nearly impossible to get proper photos, and these are people standing perfectly still.
Further most Cameras lack a decent zoom on them, that is changing now, however up until the last couple of years you were stuck with minute zooms, how well do you really think you would get a picture of an animal several hundred yards away? Probably not at all and especially nothing identifiable.

Now with modern technology it is easier to a point, however auto focus still tends to focus on that branch in front of you and not the target behind. Lets say you have that camera out, now you still are left with the problem of the creature behind the bush and are screwed, not to mention at this point anyone with a legitimate sighting is scared out of their wits and wants to go home :P

Shaky video makes sense as well, ask any hunter how bad he shook at the first deer he shot at and he will tell you he was shaking like a leaf. Hell Elk still make me nervous as hell, buck fever does come into play.

There is also the inevitable of people do not know what the hell they are looking at, sadly this is true. If we watch break downs of photos or videos despite logical explanations as to what is actually being seen, people simply will argue that they are indeed seeing Bigfoot when in reality, all they are seeing is some sort of a fake or miss identification.
This is not limited only to Bigfoot or UFOs, people fabricate in their minds as well which is why eye witness testimony is notably unreliable in court.


Hell I lost count of how many hours I spent in the woods, and I still see something in the distance at times that makes me look twice, and that was before I ever had my sighting. Since then little has changed, in the back of my mind I know it was a one in a billion thing, I hope, but I know I probably will never see anything like that again. SO that black stump in the distance is usually exactly that, a black stump and I do not assume otherwise and I always will remain skeptical using Occams Razor theory, the simplest explanation is usually the proper one.

What about tracks?
Well sadly most people have no Idea what they are actually looking at, bear tracks actually look very similar to human tracks, which is why they are often cast.

Trail Cams are becoming popular, between them and Drones at some point a legitimate picture will be taken and from there hopefully physical evidence will be gathered and found.

The Physical Evidence really needs to be done by professionals as the common person does not know what they are looking at or how to properly gather the evidence. This is also why the recent DNA gathering has turned up nothing more than common known species, such as horse, bear, dog etc.

Overall please stay skeptical, falling for hoaxes does nothing more than encourage more hoaxers and decrease the odds of science ever taking it credible as it is, and it already is next to Impossible.
This also does not take into account the hundreds of photos and video taken by people who had their one weekend in a lifetime out in the woods at a well traveled campground, but hey, they KNOW what they saw! *wink*

Only a handful of scientists actually still believe in it, one of the most famous being Jane Goodall who holds out hope to this day.

Sadly without science actively getting involved little more will come of this until some hunter manages to actually bag one.

I hope science takes a hard look at this, however if they do not, I completely understand.





Sunday, February 15, 2015

My Sasquatch encounter before it is lost from memory forever.

It has been over two decades ago since Three young teenage men were walking thru some light forest late at night being well, teenagers.
I cannot say exactly what we were doing, but we were not quiet, not looking for anything in particular we were just bored and finding entertainment as country boys will do.
We had walking sticks and clubs, and we were bashing the shit out of other sticks and generally being morons, laughing joking and telling stupid stories.
It was very late at night, around 1 AM if I remember correctly, the moon was out and it was mid winter adding to the ambiance of our hike.
We were going thru an area which we had traveled a million times, and hell an area I had grew up playing in and even sat next to the creek doing homework in my years prior to graduating.
We walked thru a clearing and I remember looking down swinging my stick at the tall grass and not really focusing on anything.
The individual on the far left looked suddenly left and explained "Hold on, what is that!" I looked and there maybe 30 feet away next to a willow tree was a big hairy man kneeling on one leg. It was white in color, with one arm draped over its knee as if it was simply observing. It was in the open, not really making an attempt to not be seen, but it had been holding perfectly still as any wild creature not wanting to be seen will often do.

We were dumbfounded, shocked and hell who thinks you are going to see a hairy ape man while you are out walking in the woods late at night?
It stood up in an instant, turned and ran, each moment its foot touched the ground it seemed to shake the earth, it ran straight thru the Trees behind it crashing as it went just wanting to get away.
I cannot tell you why, but we gave chase, yelling wildly and running after it.
We stopped at the tree line however, none of us wanting to venture into the thick brush where the only evidence something big had entered would be broken branches and twigs, almost making a tunnel if you will.
And there we stood, all breathing heavy, all of us kind of in a daze, then I said "What did you see?" there was a pause, then the individual who saw it first would say "well, I am not sure what I saw, what did you see?"
Individual number two "well what I saw is not supposed to exist"
"Yea I think we know what we saw, this is fucked" i would chime in.
There we stood still looking, our minds struggling to unravel the mystery before us.
I will not bore you with any real description of the beast as any hairy ape man with broad shoulder description will do. It was white, its eyes piercing and dark and its face now something blurry to my mind, there was no noticeable smell however.
There were sounds which now I can associate with what it is, chirps of a sort if you will, and there were several in different directions.
Maybe they were birds, I do not know, what I do know is we would walk to the middle of the clearing, our every sense on edge as our hair stood on end as if forming its own sort of radar hoping to detect that hairy beast.
We would sit there back to back in something of a Triangle so we could all see the edge of the woods, our eyes hurt from straining and tired, our bodies were cold as it was winter.
The moon would touch those three young men that night, adding to the shadows, but giving us just enough light to illuminate the clearing and keep the beast or beasts at bay.
We would wait until the sun peaked over the horizon to venture back to my truck, we walked as if on water on the path, hoping to see it again and confirm the mystery, yet hoping it would not appear to make the terror in our minds real.

Of course we all made it out safely with nothing more eventful of that night, save empty beer cans clattering to the floor as we talked about our good fortune and adventure.
We would venture again and again seeking to see once more, but no more sightings with those two fellows whom I will keep anonymous for now.
One is probably usless, as he seemingly cannot remember yesterday, and the other went somewhat crazy, although now that I reflect he always was.

I cannot explain fully why I did not attempt actual evidence, we did go back with a gun but decided we would end up shooting something that did not need to be shot. I also made a conscious decision to not gather hair or even make an attempt at photographs, hard as though it woudl have been at night during those days.
I guess we all decided sometimes a Legend was best left a legend. Science in all its glory simply would have located, poked, prodded and genuinely made something beautiful miserable. I did not want that suffering, nor did my friends at the time.

I will continue as to why it will be found and documented in my next blog.

A side note. I am not someone who is an occasional fireroads adventurer, I am someone born and raised in Rural Montana. I have spent my entire life exploring the wilderness around me, so I am well versed in animals and their sounds.
I know what I saw, as do those with me, it was beyond clear and ever so close.
So please, please leave the "well maybe it was something else" out, It was not something else, I know exactly what I saw as do my friends
thanks :)

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Go Pro, why the gush?

GoPro without a doubt dominates the HD camera market, and I suppose in its own right it has made a mark and arguably, brought attention to the portable cam nitch, but really why all the attention?

On a recent trip I wanted an affordable cam that was easy to operate with gloves, and also had water resistant abilities as I expected to possibly encounter very heavy rain, after some searching I purchased the ContureHD.

I would also buy used a first generation GoPro from a friend so I would have another camera angle as well as a backup camera.

The ContureHd Is very easy to operate, it has one big slide lever and a loud audible click so you know when it is on, is is in all aspects absolutely idiot proof.
It is waterproof up to six feet, and came with a waterproof plastic case for deeper submersion. The video is Identical to every other HD camera on the market which is 1080p.

The Go pro has a button and various modes to click on which is actually a bit confusing. It comes in a waterproof case and the GoPro itself, is not waterproof. I grabbed this camera for my recent Philippines trip and I was so disappointed that much of my video did not come out. It also had a problem with the HD cards and even though I purchased several other 2gb cards, I could only get one to work. Researching on the net concluded this was indeed a problem with early GoPros.

The GoPro sits in the closet now and will go on ebay for the next sucker. I realize there are now four generations of Gopro on the market, however with my initial problems and other more viable options on the market, I would not waste my money, not to mention other alternatives with the same 1080p capability are a couple hundred dollars cheaper.

If you want a good cam and bang for your buck, get something other than the GoPro, if you need to be part of that crowd, then well, pay your extra couple hundred dollar initiation fee.



Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Columbus is a victim of his own glory

The debate rages on as to the importance of Columbus. Many like to point out his human rights violations as to why he should not be remembered, and others point that he was merely lost, even more say how can you discover a people who were never lost to begin with?
First it is important to understand that as men went of that period, he was no better, or worse than anyone else, but he was driven. Despite the fact he was indeed lost, he discovered something which would shape the world, that in and of itself is pretty damn cool.
The argument that he discovered America by accident therefore it should not count holds absolutely no merit at all, most good things are discovered by accident and if that was the case then little would be awarded to anyone.

Natives are among the loudest against him, and like to point out that they were here first, but who is they?
We accept that yes they marched across frozen water and here they stand, yet there are many other theories how to other previous cultures have been here, so are they too ignored?

I think so long as the Natives have their hand out, they really have no say, and lets face it, despite their hatred of the Spanish, could you Imagine a picture of a native not mounted on a horse that would never have been here if it was not for the Spanish conquerors?
I honestly struggle with their hatred, my wife is a Pacific Islander and they readily welcome their spanish heritage, as well as their own, that is a good example of how all of us should be.


So if we go on that guideline, many say well the Vikings were here before columbus! well that is true, as were the Polynesians, and arguably the Chinese in their junks and who knows who else. What matters is what culture influenced its will and started the immigration to this area, and that award clearly goes to the Spanish.


History is sadly written by the winners, and our history, like it or not, is a part of that conquest.

So I say lets hold on with the crucifying of the man, and lets remember why the day truly is here, to honor a new way of life that would lead to our own, for better or for worse, it is our history and should not be forgotten.