We’re going to start off today by covering a rather rude response from the original site that the “ghost” photos came from. I’ve been accused of “plagarism” which I feel compelled to point out is actually spelled plagiarism. Let me just say that you shouldn’t use big words that you don’t understand. It doesn’t make you look any smarter when you do this and when you misuse them, well… I think that speaks for itself.
Now, Webster’s defines plagiarism as “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own”. I’ve not made any claims about these photos or any of the statements being mine. I’ve gone out of my way to point out that they are, in fact, not my photos. I have also included links back to the original site. I fail to see how any of this qualifies as plagiarism.
I have, however, pointed out how easily these photos are explained with simple, rational explanations. I have fairly extensive experience in a darkroom, shooting photos, etc. I’m a semiprofessional photographer and I’m quite familiar with the things that can go wrong with film, developing, environment, lighting, etc. This makes me uniquely suited to explain the images that these folks are claiming as “ghosts”.
Obviously, this particular person is irrational enough to want to believe that everything in the world is evidence of a ghost. This is sad, since there’s no telling what else they are irrational enough to believe. I do wish that they’d believe that they should send me their life savings in exchange for proof of the afterlife. Frankly, I find it disturbing that these people are allowed out of the house by themselves.
Speaking of being allowed out of the house, when did it become common practice for minivans full of children to descend upon your neighborhood to demand candy? I don’t mind handing out candy to kids from our neighborhood, but it’s becoming more and more of a financial burden as the number of children continues to increase exponentially. I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to do our normal Halloween thing. We probably had somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-400 kids come past our door this year.
The thing that really irks me is that NONE of them live here. Most of them don’t live within five miles of us. (I know because I started asking). They arrive in a minivan and get dropped off at the corner. The parents don’t even have the respect to walk the neighborhood with their kids. Instead, the minivan creeps along behind them effectively blocking the street. This makes me think that these are the same double-wides that do this on foot at Wal-Mart. Now, if it’s only one group of kids, this isn’t so bad. When you have 10-15 groups all at the same time, it becomes a nightmare. It’s impossible to get out of your own driveway and even harder to get to anywhere else since the entire neighborhood is clogged. God forbid an emergency vehicle should ever need to get through.
It makes me sad to say it, but I think next year we will NOT be decorating the house and we’ll go stay at a hotel instead.
Musings 