Disclaimers


1) Plagiarism:

Please be advised, that while I will never outright accuse anyone of having it in mind to steal another's ideas or works,  I'm also not the sort of person to think that my ideas are "so ZOMG awesome" that people will be overcome with the desire to take them as their own.  But, I am paranoid, and have had a brush with plagiarism once before.  It was a terrible, disheartening experience that I would like to never again encounter. Seeing someone try to claim accolades for your work is soul-crushing.  Quite simply, I would love to just be able to share my ideas and have them enjoyed and appreciated for what the are, but I am well aware that there be some unscrupulous types roaming the interwebs.  That being said, I must state that any of my literary ideas that may be shared in this, or other, venues by me are dated & backed up in multiple locations.  I make detailed notes, including dates, times, and with whom I've personally shared the information, I also email myself information on literary projects and keep those emails filed safely away for the sake of having electronically time-stamped documentation.

2) MA Content Warning: Unless otherwise specifically stated directly on a work/link featured on this site, assume all stories shared here to be for Mature Readers [18+] only.

3) Ghost Story Thursday!:

I'm not a frivolous believer in the paranormal.  I don't believe strictly that every so-called haunting is fact. I do not believe that every flash of light across a wall, every 'unaccountable' noise, nor every feeling of a unease, or a 'chill' up the spine is an indication of something 'supernatural' occurring.  In fact, those who run about claiming everything 'ooky' that happens is a sign of a ghost (like those fools who claim every lighting defect in a picture is an 'orb') irk the ever-loving crap out of me, because they only accomplish one thing- and that is to make the entire community of paranormal believers seem like irrational, gullible whack-jobs.

On the same token, I take offense to the 'professional skeptics' who go to a handful of 'haunted' locations, find logical, natural explanations for the reported phenomena at those places, and thereby declare that ALL hauntings, everywhere, are hoaxes, intended or not. However you look at it, dismissing a significantly larger 'concept' based on a mere fraction of data is foolish from either end of the spectrum.

I believe hauntings should be investigated by open-minded skeptics.  Period.  Hard-core skeptics will almost never believe in the unexplained, even if they come across something that they have no explanation for, and hard-core believers will never be swayed by a skeptics presentation of 'irrefutable data' from a handful of locations simply because there are hundreds of thousands of locations in the world with haunting claims, so in a way, they're almost more logical than the skeptics for not buying that.

So- it is my personal belief that hardcore skeptics are fools for dismissing things out of hand, and hard-core believers are fools because they accept everything without proof (and you make anyone that believes in the paranormal look like a moron, thanks so much, now stop it.  I'm serious).  Skeptical believers and open-minded skeptics are the way to go :).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Note About Social Anxiety

Recently, I thought I'd been making strides, but then something happened that made me realize I hadn't come nearly as far as I'd believed. I received a very nice message from a book group, asking me if I'd like to add my book to their list, which was fine, but then the woman went on to talk about a possible opportunity to organize and lead book discussions. And I froze . That was it, that was all that happened. I thought about talking to a group of people and my heart was in my throat, my stomach twisted up in the most gods awful knot, and I had to remind myself to breathe. Social anxiety is not just shyness, it's not "oh, you're just introverted, lots of people are." I've spent my life with people telling me to get over it, or that it's in my head, it's not a real thing . In fact, when I didn't know what it was called, I used to try to explain it away as shyness, myself, but my friends (the people who really knew me) didn't
Read more

Friday Flip-Out: 50 Shades of WTF IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

I want to preface this with 2 points. (1) I am not trying to hate on E.L. James- she had an idea, she went with it and it worked . . . quite likely much better than she'd ever thought it would, good on her. (2) I don't say things to pick fights, set people off, or otherwise 'troll'. I simply say what's on my mind- everyone is entitled to their opinion, and this is mine.  I will not begrudge a fan their love of the 50 Shades trilogy, in return, I expect not to have fans begrudge me my dislike of it.  Simply put, if you don't like what I have to say, then don't read it. The best way to do this is to simply graft in here blurbs from an email exchange I've got going on with a writer friend, in which I laid out a lot of what it was that bothered me in my attempt to read 50 Shades of Grey. Now let me just say- some of this comes across as angry, it's 'cause I was venting mid-reading-attempt.  I couldn't make it past about chapter 7.  If you'
Read more

Friday Flip Out: Twilight & the Kristen Stewart Fiasco

I'm going to get this out of the way now. The things I say when I 'flip out' are not intended to piss off others, stir up reaction or pick fights. For this reason, my 'complaints' may seem a little rambling, because I don't merely rant and vent, I tend to preface things by explaining where I'm coming from on the issue. And, on occasion, a single sentence is too simple for defining my feelings about something. Now, to the topic at hand #1: Twilight . This may come as a shock to those that have read me ranting on FB about this, but I don't hate Twilight .  Now, I'm not a fan of it, either.  I don't like it, that's all there is to it.  I read it, and not with the fixed notion in my head of "Gods, I'm going to hate this."  Quite the opposite; I cracked open the book with the belief that I was probably going to end up loving it in spite of myself. I simply hadn't enjoyed it. So, again, I do not hate Twilight , I do not hate S
Read more