Zephaniah W Nash

First off, I'm a filthy, filthy skeptic, so I never expect to actually experience anything even when I can find a claimed haunted place. I didn't even see a monster when I visited Loch Ness, dash it all... I've actually been researching a bit, just curious about myths, hauntings, etc. in my area (west of Fort Worth -- since there've been a couple of other Texas posters on this thread). Can't find anything. I can only find two (one of several "glowing tombstones" and the Witches Tomb in Weatherford) mentioned online -- at least that I've ever heard of. I guess ghosts just don't like it 'round these parts. And a mention of the Crazy Water Hotel in Mineral Wells being haunted by a ghost or three (accounts vary). Being born there, I guess there could have been a ghost that I missed... Of course, one of my favorites that I found online some time ago (and can't seem to find again -- if anyone else has heard of this one, let me know) is the infamous herd of Devil Cattle around Weatherford Lake. Shudder. I grew up in the area, never heard of such a thing, but came across it online. Supposedly, there are ghostly, red-eyed, evil Devil longhorn cattle living in the huge swamps around Weatherford Lake. Of course, that doesn't really take into account that the huge swamps (as described on the website) don't actually exist. Maybe a swampy fifteen or twenty feet right after a rain, but... I even traded e-mails with the creator of the site, who -- from hearing from a friend of a guy who travelled through Weatherford once or something -- knew more about the area that I did.

The first thing I would have to do is jaunt ahead to next week to get the Lotto numbers to finance my further trips... After that: The GAoP -- no particular event or happenings come to mind right now. The Rennaisance -- ditto. Got to see what actually happened at the OK Corral -- and the standoff between John Wesley Hardin and Hickok. Those are off the top of my head -- I'm sure there would be many, many more places that occurred to me if I actually had the chance.

Lots of information to work with, thanks to all. What info I have had has primarily come from GoF' and kass' sites in the first place, glad I'm not missing any other particularly obvious ones... Particularly appreciate the Godwin link, always glad to have another option to choose from. Congrats to those getting married, we just hit our eleventh anniversary last month, and neither of us have killed the other just yet, so this whole matrimony thing ain't all bad. Will post what I come up with here as I get it happening...

It's possible this should go in Twill, but I'm going to be leading up to buying something, so I figured I should put it here. When making a decision about period shoes and going with tied or buckled, where is the more common breakover point regarding dates...? In other words, when did buckles become more common than ties on shoes? Also, are there any online resources about just how shoes would have been tied? I couldn't find a specific thread covering this exact point, but easily could have missed it. And now, to the Plunder-correct part of the post, would any of the more... um... affordable shoes (such as those from Jas Townsend or Fugawee) be appropriate for tying, or only for buckling? I find myself with a small bit of discretionary funding, and the need to expand my kit in a more historically-accurate direction (a string of performances ni the Fall), and I'm thinking of going with shoes, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

They would have to think, or just get friends that can't think too well... Personally, I prefer shambling, non-thinking zombies in movies -- but unless you get people who really want to play the part, you'd have to go with the remake Dawn of the Dead zombies: fast-moving, and at least semi-intelligent. Or, require the rapid downing of five shots of rum when you become a zombie. That would have its' own set of problems too, I think.

Which is why, for Halloween, we're planning a paintball zombie outbreak. Split about half the participants into survivors and zombies, give the zombies paint-covered gloves and give the survivors a limited supply of ammo (with more scattered about in unlikely places, just like a video game). You get a paint handprint on you, you have to become a zombie. Can't shoot the zombies in the head, of course, so we're thinking a limited target area on the chest. May be fun, may be a bust, but I will post the results...

Well, we survived it, with some good news and some bad news... The good news was that we got some biopsy results for my wife -- she's fine. We knew that was likely the case all along, but 'til you know, it's always a worry. The bad news was that the adoption my sister has been working on for months fell through. A family member heard there was to be an adoption, and suddenly, out of nowhere, decided that she could raise the two little girls. Now, that's fine and all, but where was she the last year and a half the two girls (ages three and four) have been in the orphanage? Plus, this is the third adoption that has been pulled out from under her. Not the makings for a happy day...

Much the same here, I got my wife onto the whole pyratical bent, and often her gear turns out to be rather more expensive than mine. I expect that out of clothes now and then, but her taste in steel tends to be a bit more... indulgent... than mine. I like plain and functional, she tends toward a bit flashier. Although, she's less enamoured of things that go "boom" than I am...

Just saw this headline linked, and thought... Hmmm... Pirate visits Paris.

Everyone knows where the only authentic Pyrate Katanas come from; you must travel to the mountain kingdom of Bhutain -- you must travel by foot for three weeks, until you reach the hidden monastery which you can only see in mid-winter, wherein dwells the Brotherhood of the little blue fear-inducing flowers, and impress the fake Rhays-Al-Ghul... Oh. Wait. Wrong movie. My bad...

My thoughts -- including a few spoilers, but nothing that hasn't been spoiled earlier in the thread, so not too many worries there... Loved the movie overall. Liked it better than #2 (thought that one came across as too much a bridge movie, ala The Empire Strikes Back, just something to take you from one movie to the next. Now, for my money, I can never see too much Barbossa time on screen. As some have said here, he dang well should be the captain! I'm quite fine with getting rid of Elizabeth and Wil. They were okay, but... Okay, they really weren't all that okay. From reading the earlier posts, I am glad I wasn't the only one with that The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly moment on the sandbar. Great minds think alike, eh Rumba...? Nice tying up of loose ends, but... Norrington actually became cool in #2. Guess it just wore off... Calypso. Um... Okay... Kinda came outta nowhere, really, but... that's fine... I guess... I do have to disagree with a couple of folks less impressed with the swordplay. I just saw it as a different style, in which more is left for the mind to fill in, rather than showing each stroke. Just a different cinematic choice, I thought. Again, overall, loved the flick, and will likely see it at least one more time before the DVD comes along.

Now, this is by no means high literature. More along the lines of... a B-movie. Y'know, where most of the budget is burned up on creature makeup. The late, late show... Always willing to hear constructive criticism...

Sometime this week, I may even videotape sworplay along with the Barbossa-esque limping. We have to get into shape for a show later in the month... Plus, the deer and the cat are actually starting to behave around each other: They'll even groom each other a bit -- at least 'til the cat decides the deer is a big toy to chase about. Eventually, she'll be too big for such nonsense. Then, methinks the cat best be careful...

No house yet -- still looking. Even had we found one already, though, there would have been no way of moving it in. Seems like the four-year drouth has decided to break in the last four months. We've barely had enough dry weather to cut a little hay, otherwise, no new critter... I'm not against a bit of dry weather, but we'll take the rain while we can get it -- even if it looks like it may dampen the holiday weekend. Apart from that, not too bad around here. A couple of appearances lined up, and I've been recovering from a slipped disc (but, to the good, I've been walking like Barbossa the last month or so).

Once they get old enough, they tend to go back into the wild pretty easily -- no more problem with having been around people than, say, a cow going back into a herd. They'll keep coming back to visit for years, even if only at a distance. The last we raised came back for at least two years, and would always respond to her name, but never came up close to visit after she had her own baby. The only real danger is that they lose their fear of people, and then hunting season rolls around. Doesn't usually become a problem, because I've never seen one not stay very, very skittish around people they don't know. Plus, they've been cracking down on deer hunting hereabouts lately, shooting a doe will get you jail time, weapon and usually vehicle confiscated, so anyone who would risk it would shoot her in our backyard. Will post some regular updates as she comes along... Expecting thunderstorms today, we'll see if she gets upset by thunder and lightning (the cat hates both).

The cat has already pretty well calmed down about it, they'll sniff and circle each other, and he wouldn't mind a bit, if the faun didn't insist on trying to suckle his nose now and then. I'm waiting 'til he calms down enough to get that picture of 'em curled up together... When she gets too big to live inside, she moves outside. Usually, they'll come and go once they get old enough -- right up 'til they start having their own, even then they'll still come by and check up on you... This is the third I've had a hand in rescuing and raising, my parents another half-dozen at least.

My dad brought an orphan home from the hayfield the other day -- all the activity and equipment ran her mother off, and with all the grass cut down and bailed, there's no way she was ever coming back. It's just lucky the hay cutter didn't hit the baby herself... Just calling her "Baby Girl" right now, 'til something more appropriate shows up. We're bottle-raising her (not the first time I've been through this, by any means) until she's old enough to take out on her own. Deer, unlike many wild critters, don't need to learn much of anything to survive on their own, it's all instinctual with them. Of course, though, sometimes they never really leave, so we'll just deal with that as we get to it. It was pretty entertaining, though, seeing Beastlie the cat get used to his new room-mate...

I've posted a couple of those, but I was actually looking for (and specifically requested) constructive criticism. I don't have that many people to ask opinion on nearby, apart from basic craftsmanship (if it don't break, it's at least built well). At least, that was the case for the leather stuff. A couple of swords I posted just to show 'em off -- I like 'em. A lot of that sort of post, though, seems more like people sharing a new acquisition with the others hereabouts...

Hopefully we'll be skipping the showers, but with any luck, I'll be an uncle two times over very soon. My older sister is in Russia (and the reasons she's doing it there rather than here could fill a short book) right now meeting the two little girls (ages three and four, by the time all the paperwork will be done) she's been in the process of adopting for some time now. If all goes according to plan, she'll be coming home next week, then two or three of us will be flying back in another month or so to bring 'em back. I'm scratching a stay and touching wood and keeping fingers crossed -- the whole process has been pretty rough on her, but maybe things are going her way finally. And no kids for us, I'm just gonna be the crazy -- I mean, eccentric -- uncle that dresses strangely and spoils 'em.

Well, Eric, not to be argumentative, but I'll play Devil's (Congress'?) Advocate for a moment. Firstly, even if they did vote to authorize war, they were lied to just as were the rest of the American people. Yes, they do have access to a lot more information than the rest of us do, but that does not change the fact that they were manipulated like everyone else. Secondly, the authorization to go to war with Iraq was given as a last resort, to be tried if diplomacy and the new inspection regime failed. Neither diplomacy nor the inspections were given time to work, so what was meant as a last resort became a first resort. Of course, those two points being the case, the authorization should have been rescinded as soon as we knew we were lied to, or impeachment procedures should have begun -- but, of course, there was not then, and is not now, enough of a Democratic majority for either to succeed. So, to sum up, yes, Congress has some of the burden to bear here, but it still seems to me that the greatest fault lies squarely upon the Executive branch of gov't. Just my thoughts, at any rate...

What was really getting me going the other day was that there were TV pundits and "experts" making arguments either for or against gun control in between the two seperate incidents on Monday -- and of course it was even worse by the afternoon as things played out. Whichever way you lean on the issue, I personally don't approve of those using such an incident to further their own political agenda. And this is in no way aimed at anyone here sharing their views, of course, just those in the mass media who have appointed themselves to think for everyone else. Gun control is an issue on which reasonable people can disagree -- it's the unreasonable ones (on both sides of the issue) that make it turn into arguments, rather than debate.

That's likely it. It's not asking for a full URL, just the first part of what you want your URL to be... Not unlike the personalized address on MySpace. And I prolly confused Rumba even worse with my response...

Rumba, I guess I passed right over any request for a URL to join, but managed to do so anyway. It asked for an e-mail addy, of course, but that's about it, as far as I saw about online stuff...

I'm there myself, mostly because I had a slow afternoon. Lots of trouble with the service, hard to keep connected and do uploads and such. I would say it's me, but everyplace else is working fine today... Anyways: capnzeph.renspace.com

No worries, Rumba. We realize we're not quite up to them fancy blankets made by them what know what they're doing. Drab or not, we still loves ya...