The Interstellar Housewife

Happy Holidays!

(to those who deserve them)

-Deirdre

It (almost) never ceases to amaze me how quickly a minor comment will snowball into something huge. For instance, this whole WikiLeaks / Assange UFO statement. What Julian Assange actually said was:

"Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the Anti-Christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant," he wrote when asked if any of the documents he had received referred to extraterrestrial life.

"It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs."

That's a fairly tame statement, one which says to me that the references are nothing more than off-the-cuff remarks or part of a general discussion. When you take into consideration the preface, "Many weirdos email us about UFOs...", it becomes more difficult to believe that any major or shocking information will be disclosed. Now, if Assange had worded it like this:

I want to express my thanks for the support I’ve received regarding the kooky, yet entertaining attempt at an assassination piece (UFO Mag Columnist is an Insult To Readers) written by David P. Kuhlman in UFO Digest. Extra-special thanks go out to Lesley Gunter for her write-up on The Debris Field, and of course, Regan Lee for her hilariously wonderful article “Brazen Hussies Invade Earth! Serious UFO Research Attacked!" (with the delicious subtitle: “Cigarette Smoking Woman Single-handedly brings down UFO research! In her slip, no less!").

A few people have asked if I was going to respond to the original article by my admirer, Mr. Kuhlman -- but what is there to really say that wasn't already addressed by Lesley and Regan? I dunno, I'll give it a whirl anyway:

"UFO Mag Columnist is an Insult To Readers"

Beautiful post over at UFO Digest about yours truly. Take a peak!

http://www.ufodigest.com/article/ufo-mag-columnist-insult-readers

Apparently, I've helped tarnish the good name and respectability of UFOlogy.

PS the lipstick is actually Rimmel shade 136 Balistic.

Another "Downfall" spoof, this one illustrating Hitler's frustration with UFOlogy. Found it via UFO Blog.

Made me laugh -- especially the bit about analyzing photos.

I'm just finishing up my next column for UFO Magazine. Got to it a little late, as my world has been nothing short of strange and chaotic since mid August. But Autumn is here, my mind has calmed, and I'm looking forward to the colder months with what remaining leaves there are on the trees, followed by the onset of Winter (I am hopeful for a decent amount of snow in Portland, this year).

I'd been out of touch for the last few months, as noted, and so the the last couple of weeks have been spent catching up on all the UFOlogical zaniness I had missed. Not a whole Hell of a lot has happened (much to my unsurprise). There were some predictions, some more sightings, some speculations on the possible rocket launch in in Southern California, the failure of Jeff Peckman's kooky ballot measure and such, but that's been about it.

Dennis Rano has added another female UFO enthusiast to his portfolio. This time it's the lovely Ms. Tina Sena.

For more caricatures and info on Dennis, check out his website, The UFOlogists. You can also read my December 2009 interview with the artist.

Thanks to Lesley for the head's up, via The Debris Field.

As most of you have probably heard, J-Peck's Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission ballot failed with only 15% of the vote. I know some of you are shocked - shocked - that the measure failed. After all, with this kind of logic, how could it possibly have received so little support:

"It [the Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission] is important because if you're driving down the highway and you saw a crash of a small spaceship and a car or a bus full of kids, you really wouldn't know what to do," Peckman told the Rocky Mountain News. "Do you wait for the hazardous materials experts to show up because of potential contaminants from another solar system? What do you do? People really don't know."

Just a few lines to let you know that my first column, Saucers, Slips, and Cigarettes (which is really just an introductory piece) is now available in the latest edition of UFO Magazine (Vol. 24 No. 1, Issue #154).

If you pick it up, be sure to also check out the columns of Regan Lee & Lesley Gunter, not to mention the piece Aliens vs. Predator: The Incredible Visitations at Emma Woods, by Jeremy Vaeni!

I haven't gotten around to the other articles and columns yet, but I'm sure there are more great pieces in this issue. Give it a go!

Thanks for reading!

~Deirdre

I've been gone a while. Without getting into the details, I'll just let you all know that I have been coping with a breakup, and then most recently, the death of my dog 'Tuff' who passed on yesterday afternoon. He was such a darling little man, and I miss him terribly. My heart is broken.

I feel horribly out of the loop, and there are 175 emails in my inbox, all labelled 'UFO'. I have a lot of catching up to do and hope to be writing more again within the next week or two. I have updates to add to UFO Mag blog, WOE, Queeranormal, and of course, here at IHW. I should also probably get on my next UFO Magazine column.

Yeesh! I fucking hate falling behind!

That's all for now. Take care and see you soon!

~Deirdre

I've had a busy month - some of which has even been UFO related.

I have 2 book reviews in the newest issue of JAR Magazine #9, which came out a 2 weeks ago and I have also been working on the re-design of JAR's new website which should be launched within the month.

The biggest news, however, came unexpectedly a little over a week ago. Nancy Birnes contacted me and asked if I would be interested in having a column in UFO Magazine. I gladly accepted this offer and have already sent in my first piece, which is basically an introduction. I think she is is gearing up to put it in the next issue, so if you are a subscriber, check it out!

More soon!

~Deirdre

A popular discussion for many years has been the acceleration of technology and our dependence on that technology at the cost of less human memory usage. This is not a new take on the idea that we are losing some of ourselves to an increasingly gadgetized world, but rather just my input, which tends to fall on deaf ears when discussed with most people.

We certainly love our devices. Our phones, our laptops, our Global Positioning Systems, and the myriad softwares available for each. Our phones process faster than all of NASA’s computers during the age of the Space Race, our laptops packed with more punch and much less size than a 386 IBM circa 1996. We carry with us music studios, vast music libraries, and thousands upon thousands of photos & documents. The total collection of each of our lives, comfortably fitting on a handful of gigabytes with room to spare. These are, of course, amazing and impressive things, but what price have we paid beyond dollars?

How many of you could tell me 5 of your friends phone numbers without referring to you cell phone’s contact library?

I can barely remember my own, let alone the number of anyone else. I’d be proper fucked if I had to make an emergency phone call, sans cell phone. Yeah, I could try 411 if anyone I knew was listed.

It's July 19th, and while I'm unhappy that we're officially in the Summer-zone, I'm glad May and June are over. Not that May was a bad month. In fact, it was one of the better months I've had in many years.

A lot of change has happened (and still continues to happen), that really began to show form in early May and carried on through until the end of last month. As anyone who has gone through significant life changes can attest to, it can be positively exhausting! I've not written much anywhere in the last few weeks -- been too busy fighting through the cloudiness and disorientation that often travels with discovering new perspectives... but I hope to be coming out of that haze sooner rather than later.

I've been thinking a lot about my voice (however small it is) in UFOlogy, and it's been occurring to me that I pick on so many topics, that some of you might think I don't believe in anything. I even began to wonder if I was looking like a debunker more than someone actually interested in sorting out the un-sortable mysteries of the world.

Just a quick message to let people know that I have started a new blog called Queeranormal. It will mainly be a place to write about my experiences and esoteric interests outside of UFOlogy.

I'm not ditching IHW -- not at all. It's been a slow Summer for UFO crap, and believe it or not, I do have other interests!

Take care,

~Deirdre

As sick as I am hearing about Roswell, I think I’m more sick of people talking about how sick they are of hearing about Roswell.

And of mysterious alien technologies, too.

There’s a lot of people swearing by extra terrestrial technologies that could be made available to humanity that would cure cancer, solve our energy problems, and cleanup the BP oil spill. Boy, ‘those aliens, sure do have everything, don’t they!

“Commander Zorlagh, it looks like those neurotic ape-people have fucked up the ocean again. Better pull out the ol' OS Raygun.”

Jeff Peckman, the godfather of Metatron Technology and the Extra Terrestrial Affairs Commission, has told the Denver Daily News that if we made contact with ET, they could fix that big BP mess right up:

Damn. People are still pretty bent about that Hawking's statements from the first episode of his new series Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking. I thought it might settle down once everyone actually watched the episode, instead of taking the statement out of a 45 minute context, but what the fuck do I know? I wonder what pissed people off the most -- was it painting extra terrestrial biological entities in human shades? Was it upsetting the folks who have spent an awful lot of time concocting their elaborate little universe, which has been fictionalized and knocked-up for so long that it has blurred the dividing line between perceptions of reality and make-believe? Maybe they just hate motorized wheel chairs.

Who really knows why everyone spit up their Gerber at the idea that an alien civilization could have it in for humanity and our little blue world. Sure, you can run your formulas, pour over philosophical ramblings, and imagine every scenario your limited mind allows, but when you're finished, you're still gonna know jack-shit -- until you come face to face with every alien civilization out there. So, kick back, take a pill, and STFU for a bit. There's certain to be more coming out of the science and paranormal communities to enrage and disgust you, soon enough!

Nor have I left 'the field'. *wink*

I would have made more of a joke of that, but as they say: "It's too soon!"

Never mind.

Still here and still kicking! Inadvertently took more than a week off of writing due to a number of appointments, social engagements and of course, work.

I'm finishing up and article for Women of Esoterica, and then a new article will appear here shortly thereafter.

Hope all of you have been wonderful!

Take care,

~Deirdre

Paratopia, the show many of us have come to love and cherish, is at an end. It's not a permanent end, but it is an end of sorts. Jeff and Jeremy have officially changed the format of the program and it will no longer feature the dynamic duo as a team. They have mentioned that in the future, they may do specials in which they both will appear, but overall, the island we set up camp at each Friday will all but disappear beneath the waves.

In it's place, a new resort -- one that is listener-driven. That's right: long time fans and listeners will now take the hosting seat, providing a voice for many who might otherwise not have one, allowing them to interview new and returning guests alike.

So stay tuned for the new wave, but for now let us pause and give thanks to Jeff and Jeremy for an often invaluable program with intelligent discourse, countless laughs, and much appreciated company once a week.

You can check out the last official episode via iTunes or here:

Paratopia - Episode 70

The message boards will remain intact, so please join us over yonder for continued discussion, fun and frivolity!

Just a quick note:

Erik Stitt is calling it a day in regards to the paranormal. I waited a while to see if he would change his mind, but alas, it would not be so. Therefore his site Contact will not only cease in updates, it will cease to exist period. In fact, this is already the case.

Please join me in wishing Erik the very best in his future endeavors, that he finds a way to return to his much-missed homeland, and back to the good things in life.

Thanks for the brief but wonderful contributions you've made, for your friendship and for your support. Though I will always be in touch with you, I know you will certainly be missed by many.

Take care, darling!

~Deirdre

PS If you come back after I've written all this, I will probably choke you.

For those who care - I've made some modifications to the design of this site. A lot of the layout is intact with a few minor changes, such as line-height and the angled corners of the columns, as well as the main navigation tabs. But the most significant change is with the header image.

While I liked the previous design, after a while I wanted something that reflected my own personality better, and was a bit more 'fun'. So, I began brainstorming a few new ideas about a month ago. Finally, after tossing out some not-so-snazzy mock-ups, I came up with the current header design.

I may be tweaking things here and there, with the overall site and header itself, but I think it will probably remain pretty close to the what you see as of the date of this post.

Every so often something comes along that really just makes my day. It's usually never as grand as this, but whether it's a poorly planned hoax or an alien wearing Bermuda shorts, a good laugh is always a nice change up from the usual stream of garbage and drudgery. Such is the case of the freshly pickled Pickerings and their mysterious 'Source A' disclosure agent, now revealed as one Richard Theilmann. If you haven't read this beautifully executed exposé, do yourself a favor.

Let me throw a bit of the back-story at you (though I highly recommend reading the entire piece written by Stephen Broadbent):

Shawn and Clay Pickering have been milking a story about a secret inside-source who divulged information regarding alien contact with the US government, having been a liaison officer to these very extra terrestrials. Known only as 'Source A', this man was touted as having a very illustrious career in the Navy of which he still claims active-duty. Source A, a.k.a Richard Theilmann, a.k.a. Chaps McGee, confided in the Pickerings not just that extra terrestrials were in contact with the government, but that these beings were actually involved with the government. Nothing too shocking there - we've heard this story a bazillion times before. But on April 9th of this year, Clay Pickering attended an event that would, within a month's time, pull the rug out from under his feet (as well as his brother's), tearing off the shroud of secrecy covering their mysterious source in the process.

I just got finished telling Erik (at some point we're going to have to stop mentioning each other all the time) that I was going to review Colin's Paratopia appearance as well as his blog before writing up my piece about his presentation this past Saturday at the UFO Fest in McMinnville, Oregon. However, after mulling it over, I was concerned if I waited too long, I'd forget some of the intensity I experienced -- not only with Colin, but with the weekend in general.

I had an idea of what to expect with Mr. Colin Andrews, but I really wasn't prepared for the full impact of his presentation. It started off a little rocky for me, as he divulged to us (apparently for the first time) that he had undergone hypnotic regression in the past and that he had 'hidden' memories of being contacted, citing "little men" as part of this experience. You know how I feel about hypnotic regression as it applies to abduction, so it was difficult for me to roll myself over that first hurtle. But he then went on to explain that during this regression he recalled a specific location from his childhood. Upon returning to the location that was brought forth through the regression, he discovered the 'remains' of an old crop circle, one that was formed in his youth, and where the ground is still scarred to this day.

Well, that was unexpected! I had a great time at the annual McMinnville UFO festival, in McMinnville, Oregon! Oh, it wasn't so much the festival itself that was grand -- I mean, it was filled with your usual nutbaggery and abundant silliness complete with grey-type alien faces galore *shudder*. No, the best parts were the times Maggie and I spent with Erik Stitt, Regan Lee and her husband, James Rich.

Regan is an amazingly cool woman! I was very happy to finally meet her in person. We all had some great conversation the first night, nestled into a quiet corner in the always-overpriced McMenamin's. For those of you who aren't familiar with McMenamin's, it's a company that buys up old landmark buildings and converts them to restaurants, pubs, hotels and so on. This particular McMenamin's was a bar/hotel, but featured the same inflated prices and overrated consumables you've come to know and love from the chain. Despite this, I very much enjoyed myself.

Sadly, Maggie wasn't feeling well, so I drove her back to our hotel a couple of miles down the road and put her to bed, before I headed back to the pub to continue on with our conversations. Regan and her husband eventually called it a night and ascended up to their room, while Erik and I closed the bar -- and then some.

I'm really bad at promoting myself. I usually do all the necessary links to stuff I write elsewhere and so on, but don't do much beyond that. I think it's my "Who the fuck do I think I am?" mantra that rings in my head, preventing me from pelting you with how awesome I am. *cough*

That said, I'm going to mention this next thing:

I will be attending the McMinnville UFO Festival in McMinnville, Oregon next week, barring any anxiety/panic attacks -- I suffer from severe anxiety and also do not fare well in the sunlight either (it's Oregon so the latter might not be an issue!). Since it's Mothers Day, I'd like to take this time to thank my mom for the wonderful genes I received from her. *sigh*

Anyhoo, I'll be in McMinnville from Friday night through Saturday night (the 14th & 15th). I'll be the taller chick sporting reddish-brown hair with a blond stripe. I also have a lot of tattoos if that helps... unless you're a stalker, in which case, I have platinum-blond hair and no tattoos.

I'll be meeting up with one of my close friends, Erik of Contact as well as another friend, Regan Lee, who will be (unless anything's changed) interviewing both Erik and myself for her upcoming Podcast, Cafe Esoterica.

I think that's about it - more soon!

~Deirdre

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update to let you know I have a new article up at the UFO Magazine blog: Miss Sakamoto and the Commotion of Spheres.

I'm hoping to have something up here soon, as well as something on Women of Esoterica.

Take care!

I was going to write something about the Larry King Live alien debate that aired on Friday. This show came about due to the overwhelming response Stephen Hawking's 'alien statement' received. That statement was lifted from the first episode of his new series called Into the Universe on the Discovery channel, and appeared in the last 3 minutes of that program.

Having finally had a chance to watch the actual episode with the 42 other minutes no one bothered to mention, I am even more baffled by the amount of anger it has been met with.

Anyway, I realized that I really had nothing important to add regarding King's latest round-table, and so I've decided not to bang on that drum.

Nah, I'm just screwing with ya.

Seriously, what the fuck was that?

... but my opinions on the Larry King Show from last night, forthcoming.

Jesus what a piece of work.

This initially began as a response to comments on a post here, at IHW, as well as an article posted by Erik Stitt of Contact, and is in regards to Stephen Hawking's recent opinions on the nature of extra terrestrial life. But once I'd posted it thought it might make for a good piece on it's own, after elaborating on some points and cleaning it up a bit.

With Stephen Hawking's latest statement on extra terrestrial life, their arose the question of anthropomorphic tendencies among some physicists. Of course, this isn't anything particularly new. It's human nature to project human qualities on other forms of life and sometimes even on inanimate objects. These peculiar inclinations of ours provide a lot of interesting questions and has produced some awful literal representations. But when it comes to inserting our qualities into the mind of an intelligent alien life form, when does it become overly presumptuous, if not completely presumptuous from the start?

I have mentioned in past articles that labeling the possible actions of an extra terrestrial civilization with terms like 'good' or 'bad', is a bit ridiculous because it assumes that all intelligent beings would act more or less like us, portraying the same kinds of emotions and have the same ideas of what is considered 'right' and 'wrong'. So, when science speaks up and theorizes that contact with EBEs may be to our detriment because they could live a malevolent existence and seek to conquer us, it gives the general public the impression that life really is like Star Wars and that it might not be such a slick idea to set up base on Hoth.

My friend Allen just sent me this so I thought I'd post it here:

Hawking: Aliens may pose risks to Earth

Excerpt:

Hawking claims in a new documentary that intelligent alien lifeforms almost certainly exist, but warns that communicating with them could be "too risky."

The 68-year-old scientist says a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth would be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."

I received a mysterious email after watching Pan's Labyrinth tonight.

Well, it wasn't all that mysterious. Anyway, someone decided to send me 2 'curses' via PinStruck.

The first one I read was addressed to "BunnyCuny" which I presume was intended to be "BunnyCunny". With the words reversed, that would become "Cunny Bunny" which is apparently a reference to a slutty lesbian. I chortled a moment and thought "Aww, Some little homophobe doesn't approve of me kissing the carpet."

"Cuny" Heh. Gotta love the attention to detail.

Just wanted to give a quick plug for Speculative Realms. Gary Haden has been blogging about the Emma Woods and David Jacobs chaos for a few of weeks now. I find myself very much enjoying his writing and his perspective.

He has a fairly recent article that takes a break from that whole affair, called The Argument from Ignorance and Skeptical Omniscience. In a nut shell, it breaks down the various kinds of arguments that you run up against when debating paranormal topics with those who have not had experiences themselves.

Anyway, check his site out!

Just letting y'all know I have a new article up at the UFO Magazine:

The Art of Chasing Tail

It delves into the question of why I am interested in UFOlogy and what I hope to gain from my involvement. And no, I don't really come to any solid conclusions *wink*

A new IHW post will be coming up shortly, so stay tuned!

When my girlfriend and I are watching movies that have some pretty far-fetched plot changes in a seemingly realistic story, she often comments on how completely unbelievable it is. I usually counter that by replying, "Suspension of Disbelief, dear". More often than not, this receives a playful, mocking impression of me, waving her hands all about like a kid who's had too much Lik-M-Aid, exclaiming, "Suspension of Hoodely-Hoo! Suspension of Hoodely-Hoo!"

I was thinking about this last night while watching some old Star Trek episodes (TOS) and it occurred to me that the kind of off-the-wall claims present within UFOlogy are not too unlike a B-movie plot that requires a healthy serving of Suspension of Disbelief. Then there are those like myself, shaking there head at the screen mumbling "Like that would ever happen".

Calling UFOs or referring to UFOlogy as 'science fiction' is nothing new, but still, it is depressing that so much of it plays out like an old Buck Rogers episode, and that so many would be willing to stave off reality and common sense for the sake of a few thrills they can cling to in opposition to the monotony that is most of our lives.

My first blog post is up at UFO Magazine - It's really only an introduction and a lot of it you probably already know -- but if you want to read it, here it is:

The Girl Who Talked Too Much: An Introduction

You'll be happy to know that I mention wine at least once.

I work a lot with WordPress. A lot, a lot. It's the software of choice for most people & businesses looking for a CMS. It's functionality is pretty damn sweet and with it's standalone package available for running off your own hosted account (and the fact it is almost completely customizable), WordPress is a no-brainer... except for one thing:

I have this secret love affair with Blogger.

While many moved on past Blogger once they became more serious bloggers, and took up residence at sites like WordPress and Live Journal, I've stayed here (I do briefly mention UFOs here, eventually). It hasn't always been easy, and there have been some major frustrations with it over the year -- namely, the use of Google's own propriety code which is not compliant with W3C standards. Not too big a deal for most, but for me, compliancy is a necessary evil that I have to tend to often, when designing and building sites for clients. Nevertheless, my attraction to Blogger has withstood it's sometimes not-so-minor issues.

Tina Sena of Y.Ufology has an excellent follow-up article to Bruce Duensing's piece "Does Ufology Have A Future When It's Non-Existent?" (also a great article). As you might surmise, both discuss the sorry state of UFOlogy today (and probably yesterday, too).

Some of the expected points are made, such as how those who use UFOlogy as some kind of quasi-celebrity vehicle, are helping to slowly kill the entire 'field', and how Science is still donning the gloves of elitism, denouncing paranormal claims as hogwash, simply because the existence of bizarre phenomenon is (currently) void of anything scientifically plausible. And they are good points -- but my favorite part is Tina's argument that the world we live in just isn't as cool as a lot of the UFO Yo-yo's and knuckleheads prefer to believe.

And she's right -- Fiction and Reality have been merged in the minds of the overly-wishful, most probably out of a need to believe that there has to be more to life than work, sleep and fucking (though I am rather fond of the latter). They dive into UFOlogy and start to build their case for the existence of a galaxy crammed full of extra-terrestrials, playing out some geek's elaborate Star Trek fantasy.

With your head stuck shoulder-deep in the quicksand of UFOlogy, it's sometimes easy to forget that most of the world goes about it's merry, ignorantly blissful way, void of paranormal concerns or interest. Such is the life of my family and friends. I'm the quirky, left-of-center girl they have come to love, but probably think of as a bit of a space cadet -- no matter how skeptical natured or grounded I may appear to be. And if anything esoteric pops up in discussion, they usually have no fucking idea what I'm going on about.

This has been my relationship with people most of my life. I understand that the majority of society is wrapped up in survival, socializing, leisure and the various goings-on of day-to-day life. I'm wrapped up in those things as well -- I think most everyone is -- but where they are primarily aware of what they can see and are told, some of us have a different kind of awareness - or maybe it's an 'extra' one. Having experienced my past 35 years as a continuum of strange phenomenon while most of my acquaintances have not, the differences between us and them are often in sharp contrast. One might assume that interest in the Strange is directly related to those having experienced such, but this isn't quite true. There exists a decent chunk of people within UFOlogy and the paranormal fields who have had no paranormal experiences whatsoever, yet are still deeply intrigued by the prospect of the Unknown. But what about the rest of the world? Why is the interest often lost on them?

For those interested in the recent Abduction Hypnotherapy debate, The Paracast is hosting an 'Abduction Round-table' this Sunday, April 4th.

Fom The Paracast website:

Coming April 4: Gene and co-host Christopher O’Brien present an “Ultimate Abduction Round-Table,” featuring Budd Hopkins, Dr. David M. Jacobs and Kevin D. Randle. This is an episode you won’t want to miss!

Jacobs refused to come on the show if Paul Kimball was involved, which to me says that he won't field any confrontational lines of questioning. Kimball has agreed to step back for the sake of the show. I have a feeling it will be a telling interview, regardless -- if you listen between the lines. Of course, as Jeff Ritzmann pointed out, Randle will be there, so some more direct questioning may still ensue.

I began writing this article in early March but had trouble with the ending. Prompted by Regan Lee, and because of the interview with Emma Woods that aired on Paratopia yesterday, I decided to buckle down and finish it up.

If you haven't caught my post from a couple of weeks ago, The Underside of Abduction Hypnotherapy, it was a brief update regarding an episode of Partaopia in which they aired a recording of a phone dialog between Emma Woods and David Jacobs. As you might imagine, it has stirred the emotions and opinions of many people on either side of the hypnotherapy argument, causing the Paratopia forum, as well as a few others, to erupt with some pretty strong opinions - the main arguments being whether or not abduction scenarios are created during hypnosis sessions by the hypnotist (in this case, David Jacobs), either intentionally or unintentionally, and whether Jacobs acted poorly in his dealings with Ms. Woods.

I just posted my first Women of Esoterica article entitled Get Ahead, Go Figure, Go Ahead and Pull the Trigger. It's my take on the 2012 thing, brought on by a curious question my girlfriend asked me this evening.

I have an article for IHW in the works that I'm hoping to finish tomorrow. It's about all of the lunar and planet anomalies Hoagland pulls out of his magic ass -- so keep an eye out for that. Or don't.

And I still have to finish 2 other articles I have been promising to finish for over a month now. *le sigh*

Somewhere between the treadmill and my first glass of wine, I decided to -- whoops! Silly me, I went and left my wine on the kitchen counter!

Ok, back! I didn't just get off the treadmill, for the record. That happened around 5. Afterwards, I spoke with a friend online regarding some interesting info, which then lead to a 45 minute roast of paranormal television and nutty exopolitical leaders. I think I even mentioned David Sereda's name, which is a rarity. That reminds me -- Joseph Capp of UFO Media Matters just posted a new article called UFOs: Deconstructing Sereda. I think a few of you just might enjoy this, so give it a read if you've got the time (and lets face it, if you're reading the crap I'm writing, you've certainly got the time.

Speaking of crap I write, I finally broke down and purchased a domain for IHW. I wanted to break 6 months to see if it was actually being read or that I actually kept maintaining the site before doing so. And while it will probably affect my page ranking, I figured I might as well do it now rather than when its way too late. So, the new official URL is: http://www.interstellarhousewife.com/

Here's something interesting from space.com -- Some scientists are speculating that the rapid speed of galaxy clusters into the depths of the observable universe maybe be due to the tug of objects beyond the observable view, or possibly an object in another universe 'bubble'.

Distant galaxy clusters appear to be zooming through space at phenomenal speeds that surpass 1 million mph. The clusters were tracked to 2.5 billion light-years away – twice as far as earlier measurements.

Crazy, eh? We're at a very interesting point in our development and understanding of the universe. The last few years have been a whirlwind of new discoveries. I think we're going to be seeing some major text book changes in regards to the physical universe, soon.

And without getting into the controversial topic of String Theory, it's interesting that multi-verse dialog is beginning outside of the fringe:

The researchers think dark flow may be caused by structures that lie beyond the horizon of our own universe. As odd as that may sound, some cosmologists think that our universe is actually only a bubble of space-time that was created during a period of rapid cosmic expansion, called inflation, after the Big Bang. Other bubbles may also have been created where inflation took place at a different rate, and perhaps something in one of the other bubbles is tugging at our universe.

Read the article

I'm all caught up with the current UFOlogy crap. Took a couple of hours, but I made it! Now on to the wine!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, my friends!

XOXO

~Deirdre

In case anyone was wondering, I'm still alive! I know I promised a new article a week ago, but I am stupid busy with work -- which is taking up my days and nights. *sigh*

I'll get around to something, soon!

Cheers,

Deirdre

I've never been much of a fan of Coast to Coast. I know that is considered blasphemy to some, but there it is. I found the show to be sometimes intriguing when I'd catch the odd episode, like the Titor one or the one where the guy calls from a payphone, claiming to have escaped from A51 saying that ETs are actually Inter-Dimensional beings. And lets not forget the guy who flew over A51 while Art repeatedly suggested he should maybe turn the fuck around.

But then came Snoory.

As interesting as any C2C episode might have been, it was mostly entertainment (to me, at least) and not so much a media in which I felt I'd receive quality info from. But I suppose that it was a staple for many before the onslaught of Podcasts, especially more of the high-brow shows like Paratopia, Paracast and Radio Misterioso (the latter of which is in dire need of an update).

New article forthcoming - more about the David Jacobs & Emma Woods impact crater. I still have to go through and edit it, so it may be another day or two. Until then, I thought I'd show you something:

Boobs!!!!

No, its not actually boobs (or is it?), but rather, the continuing escapades of Jeff Peckman.

Recently, Jeff hosted an official Welcome to Earth campaign launch, at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, in Colorado (personally, I'd rather it had been a Cheap Trick concert). For those of you who are new, Jeff has developed an Extra-Terrestrial Affairs Commission ballot initiative, in Denver. Basically this would create a non-profit commission to welcome extra-terrestrials looking to stop off for a quick tinkle and some beef jerky.

More on this later, but for now:

You have to check out this episode of Paratopia. It is sort of a second part to Episode 55 where they begin to expose hypnotherapy when used in possible abduction cases.

The current episode, Episode 57, deals with the recorded phone conversation between David Jacobs and Emma Woods (both were aware the recordings were being made).

Here is the brief summary Jeremy wrote on the Paratopia Podcast page:

Alien hybrids making threats over instant messenger. Hypnosis sessions conducted over the telephone. Boisterous, arrogant men talking down to a victimized female. This story has it all and then some.

Jeff and Jeremy dissect Emma Woods’ phone conversations with Dr. David Jacobs regarding the termination of their relationship. This episode asks the important question: Who presents the bigger threat to us, aliens or the researchers looking into them? Then we examine the wrongheaded and cruel response to Emma by UFO Watchdog. For her, the hits just keep on coming.

Take a drink every time we repeat this is just our opinion or beg Jacobs to come on our show in this, our most controversial episode to date.

This is, as the hosts point out, void of David Jacobs side of the story, and because of that, they cannot confirm 100% accuracy. You'll have to judge for yourself. They have invited him to be on the show to give his version, but so far he hasn't bitten.

Warning, the recordings are pretty emotional and this could upset some people, so be mindful if you're easily triggered.

I've got 2 long articles I can't seem to finish. One is for WOE and the other for here... I think. I've got a little bit of block and there hasn't been a whole lot of nuttiness going on as of late -- aside from MOD's order to destroy all future UFO reports after 30 days (to avoid having to release them to the public). Frankly, I'm surprised they released anything in the first place. So, with relative quiet on the UFOlogical front, there's not much to pick on.

Although I did hear someone use the phrase "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" for the 4th time in a week. It's a particular peeve of mine, since its a peculiar saying that tends to stand glaringly out when in use -- and it is in use a lot during paranormal interviews. And besides, I dislike children, so naturally, I would want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If anything, I'd be more inclined to save the bathwater. It's not unlike "having my cake and eating it to", though I haven't eaten any children (in case that wasn't clear).

My Good friend Erik is rebooting his website Contact with a new approach, and he's wearing his critical-thinking cap!

Keep an eye on it, as it's sure to produce some very interesting and thought provoking posts!

His latest article, Messianic Intergalactic Ambassador Asshats and Real Paranormal Investigating, asks questions like "What is support for some of these organizations really doing, aside from throwing money at Disclosure's 'ambassadors'?".

In addition to IHW, I will now be writing for Women of Esoterica on occasion.

Thanks to Regan Lee for the invitation! I look forward to be contributing alongside such notable women and am honored to have been asked.

IHW is my first love, and will most certainly not be neglected. I will continue to post here just as regularly as I do now.

I also want to thank the people who read this blog, especially the regulars. It means a lot to me to have your support, and in many cases, friendship.

You're all lovely. Really.

~Deirdre

I thought this might amuse some of you while being somewhat appropriate. I found this on Tim Binall's forum a few days ago:

About half-an-hour ago, I received a comment response notification to a post Regan Lee made about my article "Alien Healthcare and How I Got a Unicorn".

Yes, I was criticized by someone (not Regan, to be clear) who used Mayan Prophecy as part of her argument.

I'm not even kidding.

I was a little surprised, to be honest because the post hit me for having an opinion that was the same kind of “non-productive 'Lets trash Salla and Greer and Wilcock and and and' bile that gets spewed around on any of the male-dominant sites.” Because, you know, I'm not allowed to agree with boys about anything. Not only is it the Women in UFOlogy code, but also the Lesbian code (of which I have probably been in breech of for years) *laughs*

Oh, this is priceless:

What I thought was going to be the beginning of a long, well done analysis of a photo over at Black Horizon, ended almost as soon as it began -- without even having to adjust the first set of levels. The photo was purported to be of an extra-terrestrial coming through some sort of ... dimensional-wormholey-something-or-other during a recent annual event at Joshua Tree National Park in California. The 'contact event' was hosted by none other than CSETI (if you want to see the original images, go find their site).

Shocker.

Well, the analysis didn't get very far because the first step that was taken to study the photo's integrity was it's undoing. Leftover EXIF data from an image overlaid with the original image cracked this brief case. Yep, that's right: It had the dates to two separate images encoded in the file.

Hoax. Weeeeeeee!

What do you wanna bet there will be a forthcoming excuse that will contain the word disinfo?

I saw this film last night that was fucking awesome, called MaLice in Wonderland. It was a very unique take on the old story of Through the Looking Glass. All of your favorite characters were there, sometimes played as parts of a few different characters. It had a very Guy Ritchie feel, but still had it's own flavor, and was quite a visual and audible trip.

Anyway, in the intro credits, I noticed Danny Dyer was listed, and I was like "Hey -- I've been seeing a bunch of stuff about him and UFOs lately". So after the film I looked him up and checked out the UFO Special he did called I Believe in UFOs. I was worried, but overall, I liked it. It amused me.

Why was I worried? Because I kind of love that guy -- I never really knew his name before MaLice, so when I realized it was him, I was kind of excited to see him looking into a topic I'm deeply interested in. I had to keep in mind that unlike a lot of us, he doesn't sit at home all night reading every imaginable article on UFOs and/or Abduction. I cut him a healthy dose of slack, and was very happy to see that when he left Stan's house, he second guessed his initial feeling of the footage being legit (yes, Danny got to spend a few hours with Stan Romanek and saw the footage before it was released to the public). At first he was all kinds of amazed, but after he left and had time to process it all, he said he was skeptical because -- and I paraphrase: "He has an agent... and he is asking for 50,000 for the footage". *heart*

What shall we discuss today? Certainly not Disclosure. And I haven't had fries in a while (unless you count two nights ago in which I doused a small batch with salt and malt vinegar), so that's no good. Stan and Jeff haven't done anything particularly zany in the last couple of weeks, either, so this is one of those slow news periods.

Recently, I received a copy of Bill Konkolesky's book Experiencers which I am suppose to write a review for. One of the state directors of MUFON pointed me to JAR Mag's website (JAR is an acronym for Journal of Abduction-Encounter Research) because he noticed they were looking for someone to help them with a re-design, as well as maintain the page. This was a volunteer opportunity and since at the time I was looking for another addition to my portfolio, I shot them an email. This was 4 or 5 months ago now, and I have still not had the time to work on a re-design (so don't go thinking the current incarnation is my doing!), though recently I have had a chance to begin working on some mockups.

Update 2.14.2010:

Ok, so I lied.

Not really.

I had every intention of getting something up by now, but the truth is, I went on a wild tangent (more than usual) with the article. I finally got it to around 3 pages and am just finishing up the trimming and condensing -- so I'll probably have it posted by tomorrow! I was going to do it tonight, but I'm really kind of out of it for some reason. God knows why. I did fuck all today but sit around watching movies while waiting for a pot roast to slow cook.

I will be posting something here (that is not about homos) in the next day or two.

It will probably include something about The Exopolitic Movement, Breasts, 10 Foot Tall Aliens, John Holmes, and Dental Care.

~Deirdre

This isn't really about UFOs, EBEs, Abduction, or the Universe, but I really liked this article and wanted to mention is here for my readers. It comes from one of my favorites bloggers, Robert Barrow and has to do with the recent discussion of nixing the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, and letting gay men and women serve openly.

As some of you are aware, I am an openly gay woman, so this is certainly not an anti-queer piece. Quite the opposite. Here it is for anyone interested:

Can't Shoot Straight
By Robert Barrow

It's way past time for modern military forces to take a tip from ancient armies -- the gay thing was always there. Imagine the countless numbers of gay people who served and died in wars for this country. Why should they be forever invisible and unacknowledged? Thank you for your service, but you don't exist, nope, you were never here, couldn't be, we don't allow those kinds of people into our ranks. Why, it's just not compatible with our religion (our religion?)...

A post by David Andrew made on UFO Chronicles came through my Alerts this evening. Apparently he had also caught the episode of Open Minds that I mentioned briefly in The Cold, Hard Truth About French Fries.

Here is an excerpt from David Andrew's The Stan Romanek Saga:

So, uh -- guess what I saw in the label when I opened this up a while ago?

This is a clear sign that I need a break.

And yes, it is terribly cheap vino. Hey! We're in an economic crisis!

What to talk about...

I could talk about the whole James Carrion incident, but I think the rest of the UFO websites have already bludgeoned that one to death.

I could talk about how Stan appeared on Open Minds Radio to discuss the vast amount of evidence he has for his abduction case. I could also talk about the laughable and (in my opinion) staged phone interruption with a 'mysterious' voice that said: "You need to learn to keep your mouth shut".

Yes. I shit you not.

More than just the voice, the rather ho-hum reaction by everyone on that episode was a little less than convincing. If you're interested, it's the show from 1.22.10 and the voice comes in at about 29:26, but you will probably want to go a minute or two before that to get the context. Although, I'm not sure that matters.

...that the ETH is still just a hypothesis.*

This was something I came up with while designing some other typographical art.

*After all, that's what the fucking "H" is for!

I was watching the 1984 film 2010 the other night. By the way, whatever happened to Roy Scheider?

Never mind. I guess he died in February of 2008. Way to start off, Deirdre.

Anyway, I was watching 2010 the other night and getting into it a bit, especially with Helen Mirren's screen time. The premise was interesting (well, the premise of both 2001 and 2010), but then about half way through, it got kind of silly. What follows is the story of one woman's struggle to piece together the events that transpired in the film, through a slight haze of Cabernet Sauvignon.

2010 starts off 9 years after 2001, (as you might imagine) and the Americans are considering building a new ship to go check out what happened to the first ship, Discovery One and it's crew. As it turns out the Soviets already have a ship rarin' to go, and they too want to check out Discovery, as well as the giant monolith, but don't know how to fix HAL. A deal is eventually worked out and the Americans are allowed to hitch a ride with the Soviets's aboard the Alexei Leonov, killing two birds with one giant ship.

MUFON's International Director, James Carrion, has a new post on his blog "Follow the Magic Thread" (or was it"Fallow" ? *snort*) regarding the threat of legal action by Stan Romanek towards MUFON.

Apparently Stan (or rather Stan's vocal chords, Lisa Romanek) are now claiming that James is lying - and that Stan never called and never mentioned legal action. Later on, she mentions that Stan did call the MUFON office (having previously said he didn't) and did ask for the legal department.

The new claim by Lisa is that Stan made the call after having read what James posted. The problem here is that the message was left at MUFON's office on December 28th, while James' article was published on the 29th. So, as Mr. Carrion points out, that would only be possible if Stan had travelled forward in time to December 29th, read James' article, then traveled back in time to December 28th, where he left the message asking for the legal department and where papers could be served.

Excerpt:
So let’s examine some recent events that demonstrate how off kilter you are about the Romaneks. On December 28, 2009 Stan Romanek called the MUFON office asking for MUFON’s legal department. On the same day a “recorded voice” called the MUFON office asking for MUFON’s legal address so that MUFON could be served papers. On the same day, Leslie Varnicle, MUFON Colorado State Director received a voice mail from Stan Romanek also asking for MUFON’s legal department...

Read the whole article

Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking!

Stephen Hawking has turned 68 today

From Neatorama:

Born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death, Hawking is a theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most intelligent men alive. He has published numerous papers and books on the nature and origin of the universe, the best known being A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Hawking also had a miniseries on PBS in 1997, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, as well as a long list of TV and movie appearances. He is renowned for making difficult concepts comprehensible to the average reader or viewer.

Atrueoriginall who runs Alien, UFO & the Paranormal Casebook is the victim of hotlinking and content-theft. We're not talking 1 or 2 images and some excerpts of text - no, we're talking about 25,000 images and a complete copy of her entire page!

Hotlinking has been a known issue since the dawn of time (or at least since the near-dawn of the World Wide Web), so it is completely amazing to me that people should still have to worry about hotlinking or warn others not to do it.

How does hotlinking affect a website owner?

The direct link to an image from Site A on Site B, causes the owner of Site A to accrue the bandwidth from not only their own site, but from Site B's as well! So, the person who is hosting the original image is not only paying for their bandwidth, but the bandwidth being used via the site hotlinking the image. If you have a well-viewed blog, this really adds up to some bucks.

How does content-theft affect a website owner?

I write a fair amount of my own content, and I sure as shit don't want someone leeching the entire article with no link-back or credit. When that happens, and the content-thief presents the material in a way that implies or misleads people into thinking they wrote it, it is plagiarism.

We (writers) don't spend hours writing original content to have it credited by someone else. It's like getting pissed on without the courtesy of handing us an umbrella.

So, what are the rules?

Well, in many cases, they aren't entirely clear. But for a good primer, read this article: "Excerpts, Scraping and Fair Use", from Plagiarism Today.

Within the article they offer some suggestions presented by Attributor.com

Excerpt must contain a link.
Excerpt must use less than 50% of the original content.
Excerpt must also use less than 100 words.

Thanks to Lesley of The Debris Field and Regan of The Orange Orb for drawing attention to this! You can also read the discussion that is currently going on over at The Debris Field, here.

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