READ: Skeleton Key to the Conspiracy: The Eriksson Twins

There’s a gang of YouTube videos out there “proving” that So-and-So is a shape-changing lizard alien, based solely on minor video distortions.  And (if you didn’t know) Paul’s bare feet on the cover of Abbey Road is proof that MI5 replaced him with a double when he died in 1966. Sometimes, the most innocuous event can be touted as evidence of a conspiracy.
And sometimes, the evidence supporting a theory will be so damning that it will push that theory into the realm of “fact.”  Like Snowden’s revelations, which proved what the Alex Jones crowd had been saying for years.
But somewhere in the middle, are those events which refuse to be either proof or conjecture.  Events that merely dull Occam’s razor, leaving you with only a slightly scarred hunk of rock-solid “what if..”

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READ: Robomancy: Technoccultist Joshua Madara on Arduino and the Future of Magick

Four hours of trudging through circuit diagrams and forum posts that read like Chinese toaster manuals, trying desperately to figure out what “Arduino” is.  I finally have a breakthrough realization: I may have reached the far end of my brain’s capacity to learn new things.

I am an idiot.  What a downer.

Luckily, I find a TED Talk by Massimo Banzi, an instructor at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Italy and co-creator of Arduino, an “open-source electronics prototyping platform,” which breaks it all down for me.  Through a haze of tears, I learn how a couple of nerds have managed to turn the world of interactive technology on its head while fooling around with toys and LED displays in their bedrooms.

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BEAUTIFY: Ain't Nobody Got TIME to Post!

Just in case anyone was wondering what I have been up to, the above photos just about sum up the most interesting parts of the last nine months I haven't written anything here!  Really though, it's been quite eventful lately and I wish I'd make more time to write, more often.  Maybe that can be a belated New Year's Resolution?

So I turned 30 this past year...  My mom wigged out that I was actually looking forward to it, haha!  It feels good to be out of my 20s, honestly- at times they seemed more annoying than my teenage years.  You think you've figured things out, everyone around you acts like you're a capable adult, but really you're still pretty naive about things.  Maybe it's just me.  

I'd like to think that I take every chance I get to grow and learn and play and love.  Lots of self-evaluation and listening to others helps me on this journey.  That's really been my focus lately, to be more self-perceptive and to listen better, to everything, everyone.  Seems simple, but really it's easy to miss a lot when you stop actively trying to do these things.  Love, friendship, health, family, creativity...  all these things need constant nurture.  Well duh!  But it's the "obviousness" of these things that makes us forget, makes us lazy.

I guess making time to write more would contribute to these aspirations.

Maybe tomorrow.

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READ: Dead Chickens and Santeria at the Romero Cemetery

The Albuquerque warehouse district is cold as hell at midnight.  And dark.  This little spot goes dead around 6 p.m. and refuses to drag its scraggly ass up until 5.  I’ve been sitting in the cold for two hours, cursing Matt Staggs and chain smoking.

A single tweet from Matt two week ago piqued my interest, beginning a chain reaction that ends with me on a wild chicken chase to find out who’s been leaving the corpses of black hens in a dusty family cemetery for two years.

A story that has been copypastaed ad nauseum around the internet for some reason, the last two weeks:

“KRQE-TV reports (http://goo.gl/XR9FZ8) that Michael Gabaldon, co-owner of Romero Cemetery, says for two years, dead chickens and chicken parts have been dropped off overnight.
He says the chickens have been left periodically from every day to every two weeks.  There also are bones or feathers scattered throughout the cemetery.
Gabaldon says he doesn’t know if the chickens are part of a religious ceremony, but he called the bizarre practice disgusting and creepy.
He says he hopes to put up a gate to keep cars out at night.”

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READ: Kill All Muggles

My wife had to explain to me that “muggle” is from Harry Potter. She claims she was reading it for the benefit of a friend. I’m not convinced. But don’t worry. The divorce papers have been filed.

It came up because my Facebook feed was filled with this video, last month. “Muggle” was being thrown around like whatever they throw around in that Harry Potter game. I know it as internet slang for those nerds who don’t know about magic. Christians and accountants, mostly.

The video is a short report from Colorado’s 9 NEWS, concerning the finding of an “occult altar” in a deceased man’s backyard shed. Amongst the paraphernalia was found human bones. Most likely, it was connected to Palo, a Cuban magical tradition.

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READ: The Miracle Staircase of Loretto Chapel

In the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico, stands the Loretto Chapel, home of a famous spiral staircase said to have been built by a divine stranger who was passing through in 1878.  Unsolved Mysteries did a piece on it, and there’s even a 1998 made-for-TV film, The Staircase. According to the legend, the chapel, which was stationed at the end of the Santa Fe Trail, was completed without a set of stairs leading to the choir loft.  The Sisters of the Chapel were uncomfortable with their practice of climbing a ladder to the loft before mass, as it allowed any passerby the opportunity to look up their habits.  Plans to install a standard staircase were rejected, since the chapel was fairly small, and space was limited as it was.
To solve the problem, the nuns began a nine-day novena to St. Joseph, patron of carpenters, in the hopes that he would give them some sort of solution.  On the final day, out of nowhere, a man with a donkey and a box of tools appeared, looking for work.

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READ: Hundreds of mourners bid farewell to Walter White

The first hint that the service Saturday at Sunset Memorial Park wasn’t a typical funeral came when eulogist Michael Flowers got cheers when he spoke of the dearly departed.

Another giveaway came from the prominent bright colors, T-shirts, sandals and ubiquitous black pork pie hats that broke up the typical formal black.

The funeral for Walter White, the fictional chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin in AMC’s television drama “Breaking Bad,” drew about 200 mourners to the cemetery after a funeral procession that rolled 80 cars deep down Second Street in the North Valley.

Leading the procession were a few Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputies, followed by a tan, beat-up RV made famous in the show, a hearse and then around 80 diehard fans. The procession shut down streets and took 10 minutes to pass.

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