Frustrations Of The Paranormal And My Return To Blogging

Hi, if this is your first time here then welcome, if you've been around these parts before, howdy, it's been quite awhile hasn't it?

I think the reason I stopped blogging was out of frustration, I felt confined by my lack of knowledge on certain subjects and I didn't like what I was starting to realize about exploring the paranormal. I figured I needed a break, time to expand upon my understanding of things, I just hadn't planned on it being for so long.

I'm not sure I could have learned what I have these past three or so years if I had continued blogging, my concern for how I would present things on the blog was quite a hindrance for me, and it just felt great learning for the sake of learning.

I'm over my frustrations now and I think I'm in a position to start blogging again, I think I'm going to take things slow, but we'll see how it goes.

From Wordpress To Blogger

Wow, it's been awhile, years even, hello!

I thought I'd do an update just in case anyone's out there, I recently moved Paranormal Activities from Wordpress to Blogger. The move was fairly hassle free once I figured out the process, the only downside is I couldn't keep the URL structure I had over on Wordpress and I imagine a lot of people are arriving at empty pages.

I would like to start blogging about the paranormal again, not sure if I will, but I want to and I've kind of got the blogging bug again, so who knows.

Paranormal Activities may be no more in a couple weeks

It's been a long time since I've regularly posted here on Paranormal Activities, the main reasons for this is I lost the passion and action to keep blogging about the paranormal. I had no shortage of vision for where I wanted to go, but without the passion and action nothing was going to ever get done.

Now it's that time of year where I need to renew my hosting and I'm disappointed to say that I just can't afford to renew it, so I'm going to let this incarnation of Paranormal Activities go.

Where to from here, well I'm in the process of moving all posts from Wordpress over to good old blogger, minus all the great comments everyone has made, which is a shame, I couldn't find a way to move comments as well as posts. When that's done and my hosting runs out, I'm hoping to move the paranormalactivities.net domain over to blogger as well, so Paranormal Activities should still be alive, just not in the form you see now.

If the site goes down in the meantime I will be keeping everyone updated over at My Paranormal Life.

Thanks everyone for the support over the years, maybe one day I'll get the bug back, but hey, there really isn't a shortage of great paranormal bloggers out there to keep y'all satisfied.

Sooo... Where have I been?

So it's been about several months since my last post here on Paranormal Activities, worst part is I didn't even give an explanation as to why.

I'd like to say I've been out busting ghosts, searching for the elusive Moa and swimming with a fearsome Taniwha, truth is procrastination got the better of me.

Before I knew it 3 weeks turned into 3 months and by that time I just felt guilty, so I ended up avoiding anything that related to blogging, especially my contribution.

I don't know where I'm going from here with Paranormal Activities, I know there's got to be a mountain of videos and news from those several months, so I may just try to catch up on it all.

Changes to the Site

Hey folks, sorry about the down time in posting, it's been a few weeks since my last real post and that isn't a good trait in a blog and blogger, just been distracted and a little unmotivated. I've been shuffling things around a bit with the site and all and I've actually got a schedule for posting that won't tire me out, should be able to deliver all kinds of interesting paranormal news for y'all every day of the week.

There's a couple things I should point out in the changes I've made with the site. I've totally reorganized the category structure and how they are displayed in the navigation bar at the top of the page, it should be a whole lot easier to find what you may be looking for, a lot more organized and clean.

I've also added a shop featuring a few things I own, I'll be adding to it whenever I buy something, but that may be a ways off, I don't really buy much stuff.

The more substantial changes I've made are the News page and I've scrapped the old blogroll page in favor of an updated Directory page.

The News page features a few of my favorite sources for odd news, I'll be adding to it and hopefully others will find it useful. If you're blogger or webmaster and want your feed added to the News page, just leave a comment on that page asking to be added to it.

The Directory is totally automated, if you're a blogger or webmaster just head on over to the page, click on Add URL, enter your sites details and it should appear in the directory right away, a lot more convenient I think.

I should be on schedule very soon, if not tonight, so i'll check y'all then.

Time wasting week in review 2

There's been quite a slump on the paranormal news front lately, especially decent enough videos. Hopefully with summer on the horizon in the other half of the world the cameras will be out and we'll see an influx of interesting footage. Other than that I haven't spent much time online, been soaking up the last days of summer. I have tied up a few loose ends with the design on Paranormal Activities, especially the images in the sidebar that didn't show in IE, I changed the nav-bars at the top also, looks a little nicer I think and I cleaned up some inconsistencies with fonts and colours throughout the site.

Other than that I've wasted the last couple weeks sipping on beers and hanging out friends, now lets see what the all seeing feed reader has on offer...

Time wasting week in review 1

What I enjoyed online last week is now called Time wasting week in review, I can't stick with anything can I, anyway, flows a little better and makes a nice acronym, TWWIR.

Most of these will not be related to the paranormal at all, but they did take up a substantial amount of my time, so I might as well get some use out it.

For Gamers
First up there's Noobtoob, a weekly video produced by a couple of video game lovers. Each show is about an hour long and they're jam packed with honest to goodness gaming love, lots of swears to. Just loading up the latest episode as write this post.


Survival Ideas
I have quite a thing for outdoor survival, nothing to extreme, but I do like to go out and collect food located around my area, freely available and delicious as well. I also like to see what others are up to and there's some very dedicated folks out there. I spent a good part of last week watching the videos of ryanjcus, who shares on youtube quite a lot on the topic, if you're interested in this kind of stuff his channel is a great resource.

For Film Lovers
Don and Murph also known as Shawn and M.J are a couple dudes who really love their movies. I've been following them on their adventures for quite awhile now, reviewing movies, sharing their DVD collections, watching them in their around the town vlogs and even seeing them be part of actual film productions. Their latest movie review is of the new Friday the 13th, reviewed in character as Don and Murph, spoiler alert, then again you ahould know what to expect from a Jason movie.


In a similar vein to Shawn and M.J, wetmovie1 is a movie lover who likes to make films. I started following him after seeing him in one of Shawn's videos, ever since I just haven't been able to get enough. Here he is in his latest short movie Night Owls 4. Warning not for sensitive ears.


Well that should do it, spent plenty more time last week wasting time, so much in fact, last week is now a blur.

Catch y'all soon with some spooky business.

What the hell am I doing (site update)

Maybe it's the heat, but I'm finding it really difficult to find my blogging flow lately, I'm concentrating on to much and as a result I get nothing done. I don't feel like I'm in the game like I used to be when it comes to the paranormal, news popped up back then and I was right on it, now I'm days late to blog it. I know I'm spreading myself thin, I run other blogs as well which takes up a good amount of time, though they're in really bad shape compared to Paranormal Activities

I'm just ranting here for my own sake, I should be getting this down on paper, but then again, maybe if I blog it I'll stick to it.

Original Content:

-Well, I've got loads more plane videos, very easy to get online.
-Expose myself on youtube, get your mind out of the gutter, get a vlog going.
-Film local haunts, tell the stories, day time, night vision sucks.
-Living off the land Kiwi Style, Bush Craft videos. Put together a list of topics, mostly wild foods, edit what I've got.
-Short movie, write script, gather props.
-Comic strip, get designs on computer, write a middle and an end lol.

Time management and other content

-Paranormal Activities is now my main focus, blog what I'd blog on my other blogs here, when they fit.
-Bulk bookmark timeless news, videos and content for scheduled blogging once a week.
-Blog timely news, videos and content soon as.
-Incorporate my time wasting internet activity into P.A, maybe a weekly post of what I enjoyed online during the week.
-make time for editing, uploading, filming, drawing.

Promotion
I'll get around to it.

What do you guys want?
-Constant flow of news?
-Constant flow of creepy videos?
-More community features such as contests, reader stories, user submitted news, links?
-More original content from me, I promise it'll be more interesting than just planes?

You'd think adding a poll to wordpress would be much easier, at this time of the night it ain't, need to look into it when I'm fresher.

Hmm, was good to get that all out, let me now what y'all think, I'm always up for a good critique.

Paranormal Activities in 2009

2008 was all about getting Paranormal Activities up and running, but in that process I've become a little disjointed, I'm not on top of the paranormal news out there, my posts are pretty infrequent and I feel I've become a little out of touch.

It's now a new year and I'm on a mission to get back to the joys I felt when I first started blogging to My paranormal Life. The joys of finding the latest news, creating content, sharing my art, videos, getting to know those who visit my little space on the web.

Pretty soon I'll be letting y'all know what I look like, what I sound like and this is actually a very scary thought to me, but with the direction I want head I have to do it. You see to justify my purchase of that pretty expensive camera I'm going the way of youtube, I'm gonna be vlogging my life, making short movies, sharing some of the local haunts, pretty much anything I can think of and hopefully people will find this interesting.

So, have a great 2009 and you'll see me in a video shortly.

I'm Back!

It's been just under a month since I decided to take a break from blogging, it's been good, not as productive as I would have liked, but it's been nice taking a step back from the paranormal world. For three weeks I didn't even look at a paranormal website, headline, anything, it was tough though denying my cravings. I wanted to start blogging again a few days ago but after logging into my feed reader it became apperent that it would take me a few days to go through all the headlines. 25,000 headlines later and I'm ready to bring it.

So lets get the mainpage filled with some fresh posts.

I'm Taking a Break

I'm Taking a Break from blogging for a few weeks, just need to refresh myself, get creative and complete some of the things I've started for this blog and never finished. I'll still be responding to comments and emails, what I won't be doing is what takes up the majority of my time and that's searching for things to blog about, taking a break from that should give me the time to get things done.

Other than that there's still the Paranormal Activities forums on offer, it hasn't really taken off, but I see some potential in it and hopefully after my break I'll have more time for it.

Also if you have a blog/site yourself you can always add it to the blogroll, plenty of room left there.

And as always feel free to contact me about anything, and remember to subscribe to the feed so you'll know when I'm back.

See y'all in a few weeks, hopefully with a load of original content.

Paranormal Activities Chat

Those of you who are regulars may have already noticed the gigantic chat box in the sidebar, it comes from a services called Chatroll, I really know nothing about it, except I'm really digging the service.

As well as the widget on this site you can also head over and use it on Chatroll where you'll be able to see in a nice tidy list all the links and videos that have been posted in the chat window and also the chat archives.

I discovered the service while browsing www.realufos.net and after singing up saw ufoblogger also had a chat thing, both of theirs are very active.

So please be my guest and join Paranormal Activities Chatroll, I don't even think you have to register.

Paranormal Activities - Fullscreen

I'm back and there's no sign of Elvis

Wow, it's been awhile since my last post, to long. I've just had a bad run of health, a cold and a stomach bug, left me feeling body dead and I just couldn't take sitting at the computer, feeling fine now and ready to go.

I'll briefly mention the Galactic Federation of Light's Announcement of first Contact on October 14, a few people contacted me abut this but in not so direct ways, it was like I was missing the punchline of some inside joke. I figured it out eventually by coming across the video and I just thought to myself "dang they're chatty", well the dates have come and gone with no signs of Elvis.

Paranormal Activities has a NEW forum

This is one of those recent distractions I was talking about in my previous post, the new integrated forums for Paranormal Activities, if you sign up here or there you'll be signed up to both sites instantly, your profile info will also be shared across both sites.

I hate to leave the old forums behind, but I created that for My Paranormal Life using a free service, it'll still be up for all that registered but I'd say I won't be around there to much anymore. The new forums are much more simpler than traditional forums and it's got a really nice laid back feel to it, all new posts, recently replied posts are displayed on the home page of the forums which I think is a nice convenient feature.

So if you have the time please give the forums a shot.

What's going on at Paranormal Activities

If I haven't posted in a week I feel like I'm letting everyone down and I haven't posted anything substantial in a few I think. I'd like to say I've been busy, but that's not true, I'm procrastinating and distracting myself with other things, at least they're constructive.

Here's what I have been distracting myself with.

Paranormal Activities looking different?

So I thought I'd try something different here at Paranormal Activities, I found some code that cleaned things up a bit and I thought I'd try a lighter colour scheme. The previous colour scheme was causing major mental blocks with the imagery I want to use, with the lighter theme I feel the need to fill it up, so hopefully that will motivate me to get moving.

Needs a little more contrast and some added character.

Can I ask a tiny favor? I need some feedback

I've become a little paranoid after one of my friends visited my site and said he couldn't get beyond the homepage, so I'm a bit sketched out that maybe others are having the same problems. Plus a few other questions.

Drunk again

"You can't always get what you want" some of my family need to realize that, but "come on Eileen" give it a go, just "relax" don't do it, though give us a comment because "you spin me right round" baby right round. Though times haven't even gone past a "Vietnam War song", we haven't learned a thing. I've got the hiccups now but do y'all think we need to "Dream On" maybe even put a little "Sweet Emotion" into it. Why not "Take on me" and we can act like "Billion Dollar Babies", it'll make a change from "Eyes Without a Face".

I've thought "For the Longest time" that "We didn't start the fire" (I know Billy Joel) but it really means "Nothing to me" and I really "Don't worry about a thing" just like a "Buffalo Soldier" and it really "Don't rock my Boat".

Unexpectedly sometimes I do get a "Total Eclipse of the Heart" but not on Mondays, because "I Don't Like Mondays" but it's "More Than a Feeling" and it's "hard to say I'm sorry" though "Don't Cry" "if you Leave me Now" it won't be "Good Enough" just like the "Golden Years".

I feel like I'm "Under Pressure" a lot of the time but if you "Pour Some Sugar on me" I'll be fine just like a "Tiny Dancer" and "Cocaine" it's bloody "Epic" especially "When I Come Around" and I'm "The Passenger" in such situations "I wanna be your dog".

Right, time for me to pass out and on another note what the funk was all that. Well I'll have to ponder that when I wake up tomorrow/today.

Email Overload

Just to let y'all know that I have a case of email overload, not the good kind either. About a couple weeks ago I was being bombarded with spam comments, upwards of a couple hundred a day, I let it slide for a couple weeks and now I've got thousands of email notifications to sort through. Unfortunately the email reader that comes with my hosting isn't all that user friendly so I've been putting off cleaning it up, I want to take the time just in case I mistakenly delete legit correspondence.

Want to become a guest blogger on Paranormal Activities?

Do you have something to share? something to say? a story to share? an event to promote? need a platform? then why not give guest blogging a go. I'm opening up Paranormal Activities to anyone who would like to contribute blog posts, it's a simple process and you have total control over your content, you can edit it at any time, delete it if you like and you always retain copyright.

All you have to do is register and you will automatically be given the user role of "contributor", once registered you'll be able to access the dashboard, through which you'll be able to access the write post section where you'll be able to write a blog post and then submit it for review.

Right now the Guest Blogging feature is in testing, so I won't go into detail about how to use Wordpress, but if you have any questions about the functionality please feel free to ask, I'm here for ya.

Just a few guidelines.

- Anyone who registers can contribute posts for review.
- Not all posts submitted for review will be accepted.
- Content must be related to the paranormal, this includes UFOs, ghost stories, tales of Bigfoot etc and nothing to do with auto insurance.
- Content must be original, this means nothing already posted on another site, no copy and pasted material.
- Content must be owned by the contributor.
- Content is the responsibility and opinion of the contributor.
- The contributor owns copyright of contributed material.
- Some functionality is disabled from the contributor role, such as uploading pictures, videos and files.

Shiz that's a few more rules than I thought, I just felt the flow.

So other than that you're pretty much free to contribute what you want