April blog

This month I did a ton of work. I spent huge swaths of time working on this project. But not quite on the parts of the project that was originally slated to be worked on. After a long conversation with my project advisor, Joshua Cutchin, we decided since I do not have a ton of time left and I have an enormous amount of work left to do, to focus more on having a product or two for the end of the school year. Basically so I can have something to point to and say, "see, I did do stuff this year!" We decided to bring back something that I touched on earlier in the year but never really continued: lists. I have been making detailed lists of specific creature archetypes since I started working in the paranormal field. I have a formula for making them which allows me to make the detailed listing at a high quality in a short amount of time. Joshua and I decided I should start working on some of these lists concerning cases that I have collected throughout the project. This helps me solidify my ideas, organize my thoughts, and will lead to the writing of a better book. I have two that will be done before the end of the school year, and the possibility of a third before then, too. This month, I also attended the X-Filers Convention in Rhode Island. Joshua was actually there and we got to meet in person and hang out for a bit. The project was definitely the main topic of conversation but it was a good time regardless. 

I think the biggest example of some initiative being shown was concerning the shifting of focus for the project to my lists. I was the one who came to Joshua and told him that I did not think the plan of getting a manuscript done was even remotely possible. I also came up with the solution of working on the lists.
The highlight of my month was probably attending the X-Filers Convention in Rhode Island. I got to hang out with Joshua and several other close friends of mine who I have known for years. The event was small which allowed us to spend a good amount of time hanging out and chatting about different ideas and theories.
I think the main thing I learned this month is that there are way more ghost lights in the United States of America than I previously thought. Ghost lights are one of my favorite topics that I have been researching for my project and I always assumed they were few and far between, but it is looking more and more like there are tons in the country. More than I could ever accurately and satisfyingly catalog. I also got several interesting leads about other aspects of the project at the X-Filers Convention. Greg Newkirk, who runs a small occult museum with his wife, and Paul Eno, who does a radio show on the paranormal with his son, both gave me some interesting tidbits of information concerning electrical interference and road encounters, while Joshua and Timothy Renner gave a joint presentation where they suggested a link between Women in White stories and Bigfoot encounters, both of which tend to occur near roads.
A challenge I really faced was the motivation to work. A lot like last month, I have been getting a bit tired of this project and these subjects. I am still interested in aspects of them, but not nearly like I used to be. The decision to shift slightly to focus more on the lists really helped with that, I love making them and they are always rather interesting to work on. Concerning the ghost lights one, I noticed something that was not quite apparent to my original investigations: there is a distinct connection between ghost lights and railroads. Even the lights that appear along regular roads tend to have a railroad connection of time kind. Like I said, I love making these lists and I always find some interesting tidbits along the way. The Women in White list is what I am working on next and it should be extremely interesting.
The main thing I am looking forward to next month is APEX night. I have largely enjoyed the project overall, but I think I need a bit of a break from the road stuff for a bit before I actually work on writing the book itself. It will be nice to present all this stuff.

One of the books I used for the ghost lights list

March blog

I have not done a ton this month. I know last month I was saying I was going to do an incredibly high amount of work, but I got a bunch of projects dumped on me this month and I have not had much time at all to work on the project. I did get my outline done this month which was nice. It was a lot of work and was incredibly frustrating when I had to begin work on it again after basically completing it a couple of months ago. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this project and my future in the field, though. I honestly do not think I want to continue working in the paranormal field once this book is completed. I have a few things I am required to do, such as a conference next month in Rhode Island (which my project advisor will actually be at which will allow us to meet for the first time so that is awesome) and a library talk in June. But after that, I think I am done. I started the field six years ago with the expectation that it would be this amazing academic group of fascinatingly eccentric individuals. What I have found is that it is a lot more like a high school. I am already in high school, I do not want to deal with it elsewhere. All of the infighting and arguing and everything has just made me less and less interested in the subject matter as well. I also began work on the book's introduction.
I can't really think of a good example of me showing initiative. I guess I did when I sat and did a bunch of soul searching over the course of this month to figure out whether or not this really is the field for me, and I have pretty much decided it is not.
A highlight of this month relating to my work in the field, in general, was a very close friend of mine and his wife got some incredibly good news. They found out she does not have cancer. The whole Centre for Fortean Zoology was really excited and celebrated. I've been worried for a long time about it so it was good to hear the good news.
This month I learned I am sick of the paranormal field and all of its subsections. I do not care for many of the people who frequent the conferences, many of my close friends in the field have either quit or have ceased going to events altogether, and I frequently get chastised, made fun of, or simply ignored for my opinions because of my age. The cryptozoological field in particular, when I started out was incredibly supportive and now it seems like everything has changed, especially because I do not agree with many of the conventional explanations or ideas in the field. I have been losing interest and have been feeling frustrated for nearly a year now and I have not known what to do about it. I am interested in so much more than supposed mysteries that no one actually seems interested in solving. I want to write comics, I want to do journalism, I want to do so much more and I feel like the field was just holding me back at this point.
The challenge I faced was actually doing something. I have not been that interested in writing the book in a while, I just kept lying to myself about being interested and excited and wanting to do this. I have not done a ton concerning the project. I will get my hour requirements and work hard while I am doing it but what I really want to do is work on this short story that has been rumbling around in my mind for a long time. And I have. It has been a challenge to actually sit down and do the 20 hours I did get this month because every time I sat down to work I ended up working on the short story instead because I am honestly enjoying it so much more. I am interested in what I am writing about for my book, I just feel burnt out about it.
I am looking forward to the conference I am attending in Rhode Island next month. In attendance will be some of my favorite people in the field and some who I have not seen in years. I think that it will be a good goodbye to the field, at least for now.

This is my outline

February blog

This month, I took a bit of a break when it came to working on my project. Last month I put in 76 hours into the project with minimal returns due to my outline kerfuffle. So, I was feeling a little down about the project. I was 30 hours ahead of where I needed to be so I really only needed to get an additional 10 hours this month. I got 13 which is not bad at all. Instead of working every weekend for 8 plus hours, I decided to enjoy myself a bit. I did get plenty of work done this month, though. I worked more on my replacement outline and am nearly finished with it. I also did a radio show interview and got to talk extensively about my research for the book. I have not done a radio interview in close to 6 months now so I had fun doing that and realized that I do miss doing interviews, even though they tend to ask a lot of the same questions concerning my work, who I am, and how I got started. This month was also a good time to take a bit of a break because my advisor has been extremely busy with his newborns which were brought into the world at the end of last month. Things seem to be getting more settled and everything, so next month should be a bit more busy on both sides of the equation, but I think I chose a good time to take a bit of a siesta.
While this may seem anti-productive, I think I showed a lot of initiative when I decided to take a bit of a break. I was feeling frustrated and that the project was futile. I cannot produce good work when I feel like that, so I needed to take a break to recharge and get ready for the writing grind.
The highlight of my month was probably going on the Spectral Wolf Pack radio show for an interview. I met the guys on the show a few years ago at the Mothman Festival and they have been asking me to come on the show ever since, but this month was the first time I was actually able to come on, and I had a great time.
This month, I learned that it is okay to take a bit of time for your brain to recharge. I was going a little crazy with the project last month and I could not imagine doing another 100 plus hours of the project. But I took a deep breath, relaxed, and did not break myself over trying to spread myself too thin when it came to working on the project. I did a few things that I had not had much time to do since I have been working on the project and I am extremely glad I did. I am actually excited about the project again and can't wait to get cracking with the writing. I am most likely going to finish up this blog post and dive straight into finishing up my outline that has taken entirely way too long to get done, finally. I am glad I relaxed.
My main challenge this month was actually taking time to relax and breathe. I can sometimes be a workaholic when it comes to my research. I get obsessed about a specific idea and I will not stop until I get a solid understanding of the idea and I essentially figure it out. This month, I was trying to breathe some and enjoy myself and not get caught up in all the work. And I did succeed, but it was difficult. I was planning on spreading out the 10 hours I needed to stay on schedule throughout the month, but I started working on it on a Saturday morning and just did not stop until that evening. I can be a little obsessive about this stuff. I actually have been thinking about backing off when it comes to the paranormal after this project, which only makes my obsessiveness worse because I want to make this project perfect.
Like I said previously, I am looking forward to actually writing the book next month. I know I have been saying that a lot in my previous blog posts but I really am looking forward to it. I love writing and I am getting burnt out on the preparation stage.

The logo for the radio show I was on this month.

January blog

This month, and Christmas break last month, I focused on working on my outline for my book. I did a lot of work on it. I began by narrowing down the list of potential chapter subjects that I worked on in November. After I tediously went through about 50 various potential topics and narrowed them down to only about 20 topics, I began to focus on subtopics for each chapter. I listed about 10 to 15 subtopics for each and then narrowed them down to five to eight in total. From there, I dug through my case listings and began to build a list of various possible cases to support each chapter, subchapter, and the arguments within each. This was quite a bit of work and it took me a long time. I got approximately 75 some hours this month and over winter break so I put a lot of effort and time into finishing up the outline. And then something terrible happened. Something absolutely horrendous... My laptop's hard drive decided that it was a good time to die. I had to wait about a week or so with no laptop and with getting no work done. Eventually, I did get a replacement hard drive and installed it. And as I was working on transferring my backed up files I realized something. I did not have my outline backed up. It was unfortunately lost to the aether of my dead hard drive, never to be retrieved again. I panicked. Luckily, everything is okay because I have enough handwritten notes and little tidbits strewn around my Google Drive that I can rebuild my outline, it was just a lot of lost work.
I think that I really showed a lot of initiative by working extensively throughout Christmas break. I put in several eight and ten hour days in order to get my hours up and my project advanced. Before break I was behind in hours by almost 20 hours, now I am 30 hours ahead.
A highlight of my month was (even though it made my lose my outline) getting my new hard drive. My computer works so much nicer and faster now. I know it is not necessarily directly connected to my Apex project, but getting the new hard drive has made digging through PDFs of files a lot easier and faster.
This month I learned to always always always always make sure that my work is backed up. And if I think that it is, I should double check, triple check, and quadruple check just in case. And maybe check once more after that. Jokes aside, I am now doing all of my work on either external hard drives with two copies in two different places or on my personal Google Drive. I cannot believe how stupid I was by not backing up my outline. I thought I had, but I did not. I am going to make sure I am much more careful in the future. I am lucky I write a lot of my thought process down on paper before I put it on a document because if not, I would be entirely on stage one now and I would be royally screwed. I am just really lucky and glad for my tedious thought process.
For the main challenge I faced this month, I would have to say it was my lack of wanting to work after I found out my outline was gone. Believe it or not, it was not even the outline missing that was the issue. It was my frustrated giving up on the project temporarily that was the main hurdle. I eventually overcame it by forcing myself to sit down, collect my notes and my thoughts, and type out the outline slowly even though I did not want to at all. I am not quite done with the outline, I am about halfway done with it, but I am done with my frustrated procrastination when it comes to the outline. I really want to begin the actual writing of the book. I have so many cool ideas for it and I do not want to waste any more time on the outline than I have to.
Like I said previously, I am looking forward to actually writing the book next month. I know I have been saying that a lot in my previous blog posts but I really am looking forward to it. I love writing and I am getting burnt out on the preparation stage.

This is the current form of my second outline.

December blog

Last month I spent most of the month working on my outline, and I was intending to spend most of this month working on my Ignite presentation. I have spent over 20 hours on it this month and it is basically done. I spent a lot of time on the presentation part of it as well as actually writing and timing a script which was an incredibly tedious task but I am glad I did so. I also practiced this a bunch of times in front of friends and family as well as alone to make sure it is perfect. I really really want to make sure the whole thing is great because I did not feel that good about my last Ignite presentation and I want to be really happy with this one. I did spend quite a bit of time thinking about my outline and I have a couple of ideas for the direction I want to take with it once I start working on it again. I am planning on spending quite a bit of time on the project when winter break starts (which is Thursday). I would like to spend approximately 50 hours on the outline and stuff during winter break so I am truly ready and have a plan for my writing when I begin drafting the book next month. I did not get to my targeted amount of hours yet, but will definitely by the time the month is over. Since it was accelerated term, I did take it easy.
I think my decision to work on the Ignite presentation early was a good example of initiative because I did not have to do it this early but since I have all of the break to work on the outline and my friends are around now and I could use them for practice, it made sense.
I did not really have much of a highlight of the month for my internship, but I did come in and teach a class on cryptozoology in Mr. Martell's Mythical Creatures and Conspiracies class. I had a great time doing it and hope that if he does the class again next year, I am invited to come back.
I learned that it is best to do your work early if it makes sense to do so. I feel really good about the fact that I put together my Ignite presentation so early. I really like how it turned out and I am actually looking forward to giving the presentation next month. I think that I will stop procrastinating with a lot of my work and will take full advantage of the time I am given to work on projects. It is kinda weird that it took me this long to realize the benefits of doing my work early. I have always been extremely bad about procrastination and not doing my work, but I really do think that I have learned that if I do the things I am supposed to do well before they are due, I can be much better prepared for whatever may come my way.
I think that a challenge that I encountered was the decision to work on my Ignite presentation instead of my outline. My outline could be done alone and in my room during winter break. As could the Ignite presentation, but it was better that I did it here because it allowed me to get helpful feedback from my peers on my timing and presentation slides. I really wanted to work on my outline more because I enjoy that type of work a little bit better than I enjoy working on a presentation (which I feel can be a bit tedious at times). And it was challenging to not work on the outline, but in the end, I spent my time more effectively by working on the Ignite presentation instead. I am really glad I did work on the Ignite presentation instead, as I have previously stated in my above remarks.
I am looking forward to finishing my outline and actually, finally, eventually working on my first draft for my book. I know that it will lead to a lot more work during the week and less time for me to spend as I like, but I really am looking forward to it.

Cover slide for my Ignite presentation

November blog

A lot of weird and varied stuff happened this month. I intended to focus my work this month on the outline for the book. I ended up putting a lot more effort into other parts of the project, but ones that were just as important. I did spend quite a few days adding possible subjects to the basic outline. I also broke down several other books I own that are concerning similar subjects and looked at how they were organized and how they approached different subjects. I got a lot of really intriguing data from doing this and now have a much better grasp as to what my outline should look like. I also spent the 10th at the Fifth Annual Old Mill ParaCon in Dundee, Michigan. That was a load of fun. I was there from 5 am until 10 pm. I gave my road lecture (which I actually had some changes specifically for the event put in), participated in a ghost hunt, spent some time in their records and files, hung out with other researcher and bounced my theories and ideas off of them, and sold some books. It was easily one of the best events I attended and really helped me with developing my theories and ideas into a more mature aspect. After the event, I began to try to track down a possible haunted road in Ohio that might have been the origin of several legends that I've found floating around while researching. I received this lead from another investigator at the conference. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find anything useful, and I doubt that the road that was mentioned exists or even existed at any point.
I think initiative was shown when I spent some time looking at the outlines and organization of other books that are similar to what I intend my book to look like. Without doing this, it would be much more difficult to write a cohesive outline with any flow between the different subjects.
A major highlight of my month was the Old Mill ParaCon in Dundee. I got to meet some researchers I grew up watching on television such as Dustin Parri from Ghost Hunters International and hang out with some old friends of mine such as John Tenney and Greg and Dinah Newkirk.
I learned a lot about how the paranormal field writes and organizes books. I also noticed the differences between different publication companies and how they layout books and how they want books organized. For example, Llewellyn Publications prefers their books to be divided into 10-20 larger chapters with about 20 smaller sections within each chapter. Contrarily, New Page Books prefers their books to be divided into about 15 chapters with very few different smaller sections expressly noted in the work. I examined books from ten different large to medium sized anomalous subject publishers and denoted the differences and similarities between their layout and outlines. I also learned quite a bit about various bridges in Ohio in my fruitless attempt to track down an anomalous bridge. Finally, I did some targeted research concerning haunted roads and bridges in Michigan for the Old Mill ParaCon. The legends in that state tend to be pretty similar to Ohio's, which is incredibly interesting.
A major challenge I overcame during the month was taking time to work on my project when I had absolutely no motivation to do so. I had quite a few massive personal problems come up during the course of the month and due to this I quickly lost any motivation to do any work. I managed to motivate myself by setting personal rules. If I did not get A or B done, I could not do C. I kept myself from doing nothing by playing video games and reading comic books with this method. I was just sad for a lot of the month and just wanted to spend all of my time in fictional worlds, doing no research or work. I am just now coming out of my funk and I am really looking forward to finishing my outline and to start working on the first draft of my book.
I am really looking forward to starting the first draft of my book. I am getting tired of the endless outline work and the endless research so the actual writing of the thing is going to be a nice breath of fresh air once I finally get to it. I expect I will have a lot more time concerning the project because of accelerated term.

The infamous John Tenney and I at the Old Mill ParaCon immediately after we realized we had never taken a picture together before. 

October Blog

This month was a little weird. I did not have a ton of specific things I needed to do because I was ahead of schedule so I focused on doing more in-depth research and all kinds of little tangents and avenues to look into. I had a good time this month. I have also been extremely busy this month so I ended up not hitting the exact amount of hours I needed to stay on track, but that's okay. With accelerated term and breaks coming up soon, I should have more than enough time to make up the needed and missing 10 hours. I did have two talks this month which were awesome. I ended up only counting one of them for hours, though because I needed to do new research for that one. The second talk (the new one) was about Ohio hauntings and a bunch of the included stories and cases were roads, bridges, or railroads, thus were relevant to my project. I gave the talk for the Ravenna Historical Society. They were extremely nice and friendly. There were cookies and hot cocoa afterward and they gave me a private tour of their facility and I got to spend some time in their library and files. There were a lot of old and weird maps (I love maps). I also worked on my spook light list some this month but ended up scrapping it because I was spending way too much time on it with no real use.
I do not really think I showed very much initiative this month because I did not get my required hours done. I did a lot of other things with much time such as play Magic the Gathering and watch tv. It was a long month and this is probably going to lead to me having a ton more work in the future, but I had a fun month anyway.
The second talk (the new one) was about Ohio hauntings and a bunch of the included stories and cases were roads, bridges, or railroads, thus were relevant to my project. I gave the talk for the Ravenna Historical Society. They were extremely nice and friendly. There were cookies and hot cocoa afterward and they gave me a private tour of their facility and I got to spend some time in their library and files.
I learned that I should really do my work instead of just screwing around. I am not looking forward to the extra work I am going to have to do because of not really doing a ton this month. I did get some great leads from the Ravenna Historical Society when I went and gave my Ohio haunted places talk for them concerning some specific history of certain roads and bridges I'm investigating. I also learned a lot about the habits of spook lights and how they can work within the realm of unidentified flying objects and parapsychology/ghosts. I also learned a lot about cry baby bridges and their lore and history. I always assumed the only legend behind them was focused on the death of an infant, but I learned that there are some places that attribute the hauntings to lynchings done by the Ku Klux Klan, gruesome.
I did not really encounter any challenge; I just did not do any work. Instead, I did a lot of other things with much time such as play Magic the Gathering and watch tv. It was a long month and this is probably going to lead to me having a ton more work in the future, but I had a fun month anyway. Maybe the main challenge was actually working on the project. If that is the case, I failed horribly and terribly. I did not his my recommended hour amount and didn't really do a ton in general. I am going to be fixing that next month, but that does not really help me right now with the writing of this very blog post. I had something to do basically every weekend and weeknight and foolishly played Magic the Gathering during school when I had gaps in my schedule.
I am looking forward to beginning my outline for my book next month. I simply adore making outlines. I like the simplicity of it. I like they organized part of it. They are just fun. And it means I am getting ready to write the book which is incredibly exciting. I love writing and I am greatly missing it.

Cover slide of my presentation from this month