Sharing your data and media with the public

There are a lot of options on the internet for displaying your life, your profession, your hobby. There's Youtube for videos, Soundcloud for audio, Pinterest for images, Facebook for social networking, Blogger for blogging, as well as many others in each category, and of course personal and business web sites for gathering all the above media in one place via links and embedded code.

With a website you can post all the above items while skipping embedded links altogether if you're a pretty good programmer or have a good written script that can handle images efficiently, load and play videos seamlessly, play back audios, all while allowing blogging and social networking.

There are also other options that you may not have thought of.

I use nearly all of the normal web sites I listed above for my images, videos, blogs, audio files, and networking, but I also use some others too, like LifeAfterLiving.com, a paranormal based community, YoureOn.net, a media based community, and Laughshop.com, a humor based community, to supplement all of my media presentation needs.

YoureOn.net and LifeAfterLiving.com are both scripts from PhpMotion that allow me to customize how they look, feel, operate, and I can tinker with the script all I want. If I break the script it's on me to fix, usually with help from a great community of fellow script tinkerers.

Both YoureOn.net and LifeAfterLiving.com are free scripts that allow me and my users to post videos, mp3 audio, images, blogs, play games and do some social networking. YoureOn.net takes it a little further and allows people to broadcast their radio shows, and both sites are totally free to use.

Laughshop.com, our oldest humor site, runs on the Dolphin platform from Boonex, and apparently based on the Rayzz platform. Boonex is a Russian script that, while feature packed - and some of the features actually work - is far and away the better looking script of the two. Dolphin is also "free" to use, but to unlock all of the script's potential you must pay upwards of $800 (and more). Yes, most of the key items work right out of the freebie box, but again, to make the most of the script you will pay, and pay, and pay. However, Boonex is a VERY robust script.

For example, with PhpMotion there are a ton of hacks you can edit in that extend the usefulness of the script. This php scipt is pretty straight forward in its labeling, in it's language, and the community of script tinkerers is both quite large, friendly, helpful, and is free to access. Access to the Boonex community is free as well to read, but if you want to ask a question about your particular site or script, you're going to have to pay. Perusing the replies to help questions, I have also found responses that are in Russian or broken English. Not tons by any means, but enough to make you question whether the advice given will actually work. There's also a fair number of snarky, rude replies too. Granted, sometimes you find those sorts of replies in the PhpMotion too, but the PhpMotion community as a whole polices itself really well, whereas it seems less so in the Boonex forums.

Editing the script is generally easier with PhpMotion than with Boonex, at least for me, but this is largely due to the fact that I have been editing the PhpMotion script for a long time, and the Boonex script is just less familiar to me.

There are other alternatives too, like ClipBucket, which was the first CMS I used. It too was fairly simple to use, looked good, was robust and totally free, but a few things made it not useable for me. When I swapped to PhpMotion from Clipbucket, it was because I wanted to be able to host audios too, and at the time Clipbucket was not capable of that feature. It is now.

I have considered switching back to Clipbucket, but there are other issues now. The basic script is free, but they have now added a lot of "Gotcha" items that simply cost nothing at PhpMotion.
Clipbucket is a Pakistani written script, and while I don't know about now, back when I first used Clipbucket the instructions and community help areas had a LOT of slow replies in queries for help, and when people would complain they were basically told that hey, it's a free script, we'll help you on our time and when we get around to it. Not cool.
Also the replies were many times in not very good English, so it made it harder to follow for a mono-lingual person such as myself. There was one other thing that made me turn away from the Clipbucket script too, and that was the script writers apparent loathing of Internet Explorer, much of it based on the archaic architecture of IE versus Safari or Mozilla. Yes, IE lags behind Mozilla and Safari browsers in my opinion, however, I think that they just did not want to deal with making the script completely IE compatible, and honestly, why in the world would the end user of a script want to alienate the people who do still regularly use IE? Seems a silly thing to do.

There's also Joomla, which I have tried but I just couldn't make it work right, as well as Clipshare, which I know almost nothing about. Joomla has a lot of users, but in my tinkering I simply found it too difficult, too time consuming to manage. I think Joomla is a good choice for people who want to geek out over having complete control over their media presentations.

What's in it for you?

I've been musing for quite a while how so few people seem to understand the concept of doing something for someone just because you want to, with no thought of recompense, no expectation of pay back. Sometimes when people inquire on having a paranormal investigation at their home or business the "What's this cost?" question comes up, and of course there's no charge. We do because we love the field, and our compensation is getting to go into cool new places and (hopefully) capturing good, compelling evidence. Or when I send a referral to someone for a choice gig and they either view it as their birthright, or that I want something in return, neither of which is true. I do only because I choose to do, period. There is no expectation of anything in return. A thank you, or a wave from a distance would be nice, but I made the choice to do, thus it is isn't required. Then it occurred to me that perhaps these folks think that I'm angling for something in return do so because that's what they would do, that maybe they are the type to operate in that manner. Or maybe it's that cynicism has become so deeply engrained into society, that pervasive cynical thought that everybody must be out for a buck. That just may be the sad truth, that altruism is dead.

When did Claranormal Begin?

I spoke with a reporter the other day who seemed to have a problem wrapping his head around reconciling the creation date of Claranormal.com with our hunt/investigation tally. Pretty sure he's going to try and make that an issue, lol. The name Claranormal was registered as a "dot com" in 2008, but the group itself, the name Claranormal, came into existence in 2007, and it's members had been investigating under experimental names up until then. Ghost Emergency, lol, Ghosts R Us, and a few others we tried out but felt the names either didn't "gel" with our mission, or really didn't identify us. Then one day it hit, Claremont Paranormal, Claranormal. Considering that many of us had been experiencing paranormal activity in Claremont, myself included since moving there in 1997, it was sort of a duh moment, the name not coming sooner. On our tally. When you first start "ghost hunting," like anything new to you, you're at it at every opportunity, 2, 3 times a week if you can find enough places and participants. That's where our tally really expanded, but over time I learned that twice weekly, weekly, or even bi-weekly investigations really are difficult to pull off unless we were going only for the "wow" factor, the thrill of it, and were unconcerned with the evidence itself, or had no lives or jobs outside of the paranormal field itself. I learned that too many hunts at a time meant that we would get sloppy. I learned that proper preparation, researching a location or a person/people, takes time. Gathering not only people, but the right people, takes time. The investigation takes time too, but that's what you're there for. Most importantly, evidence review takes time. A lot of time! I have learned first hand that for us weekly, even bi-weekly investigation are really not conducive to quality evidence gathering, and it really does the clients and the field more harm than good to rush from one place to another with a backlog of under-reviewed or un-reviewed evidence, so now we may do one investigation every two week, or one a month, one every couple months. Bottom line is that I have learned that there is more to life than looking for dead people, that life really does belong to the living, so we take it as needed. On our group: We also have been investigating as individuals for, well, literally decades. I myself have been going to supposedly haunted locations as early as the mid 1970's, but never actually "hunted a ghost" until about 1990. All excursions prior to that circa 1990 event were for much the same reason that one rides a roller coaster: For the thrill of it. Go to the rumored to be haunted cemetery, or the house on the hill for the thrill of being frightened, the chance of seeing something unworldly, getting a taste of something "supernatural," for much the same reasons that many of today's novice ghost hunters get into the field. I just happen to predate them by decades. However, the first time I actually went someplace to "hunt a ghost" rather than going to a place for the "fright factor" of it, that is, to try and find, see, experience, capture evidence of a spirit or a ghost (there is a difference), as opposed to going someplace for "jollies" was after watching Chuck Henry do an "Eye on L.A." piece on the Queen Mary being haunted. I had never heard of it being haunted, never gave it any thought, so this surprised me. I had always been drawn to that beautiful ship, so I had to see this "haunted" business for myself. I have been a huge fan of the Queen Mary ever since going to visit her on a school field trip in about 1972 or 1973, and as an adult I used to visit her every couple months or so from about 1980 on, and never saw or heard anything out of the ordinary, although I could always sense the history and importance of this treasure. I and a few other like minded people I knew couldn't wait to go aboard and find more information about this, and go to the actual places where all these eyewitness accounts occurred. Within a couple days we were organized and on our way, hoping to either disprove or disprove these stories. We called out for the "ghosts", in the supposedly haunted areas, spoke as if talking to an actual person who just happened to be invisible. We took with us film cameras and that's all, and we caught absolutely nothing in pictures, saw nothing, heard nothing, so as far as I was concerned the QM was not haunted. Ah, how much we learn over time. Like a lot of novices, we made the arrogant assumption that just because we didn't experience anything this first time out at a "haunted" location, it must not be haunted. In 1996 the Queen Mary being "haunted" came to be a reality that I can not discount, as I saw my very first full bodied apparition down in the engine room, and he looked as solid as you or I. That is until he vanished. Up until then I was a full on skeptic, and always said I'd believe ghosts, spirits existed when I saw one for myself. I saw. I do.

Ghost hunts versus Paranormal Investigations

Ghost Hunt vs. Paranormal Investigation. Each should be undertaken with the utmost respect for the law (no trespassing signs obeyed) for people and their property, and for any spirit which may have stayed behind. The term ghost hunt and paranormal investigation are used interchangeably because saying "I'm going on a ghost hunt" is easily understood and less of a mouthful than "I'm going on a paranormal investigation", but they are actually different from each other. Ghost hunt conveys a particular clique in the paranormal field dealing with ghosts and spirits versus UFOs, Bigfoot, Zombies (lol!) etc. Ghosts and spirits also carry different distinctions. Going on the ghost hunt basically means you're going out into the field to a location which may, or may not, have activity, to see if you can catch an anomaly. You can do this by yourself or with like minded people (never hunt solo!) who, for various reasons hunt ghosts too, reasons like the thrill of the unknown, something to do, wanting to help people - alive or post-life, curiosity, etc. Generally you gather your equipment and go. Paranormal investigations are more involved and generally require much more work. Historical record searches, perhaps museum visits, site checks, planned camera angles, gathering eyewitness accounts, corroborating these accounts, comparing them to the historical record, writing reports, meticulous review of evidence. The bottom line on each is respect for property, laws, people (living and post-life), and integrity. 1st step in any investigation is research, checking claims and stories of activity against facts, history of the location (what has occurred at this location and when?), who was involved, who owns/owned the location? These answers can many times fill in a lot of blanks, prove or disprove stories, and generally help you focus the scope of the investigation. If you don't love history, paranormal investigations may not be for you. 2nd step (preferred) A walk through. We usually do this in daylight, and you can do it several days in advance, or arrive early enough to document your findings for later. What's the layout? What are the conditions in normal light? Are there energy surges from appliances or nearby power lines? Are there any hazards you need to be aware of in advance that could cause injury to you or a team member? What's the ambient noise level and light level while the world is abuzz? Are there nearby loud sounds that could be mistaken for anomalies, like like barking dogs? Use this data to compare against the ambient noise and light at the time of your investigation. 3rd step The investigation. Here is where so many teams vary, and I'm not here to say any way is right versus wrong, but more to say how we generally, but not always, approach a case. The prior walk through gives you a good opportunity to decide where you would like to set everything up based on the layout, eyewitness accounts and historical data. This includes your camera positions, ops area, sound capture devices and other equipment. Even though you have already decided these things in your prep work, you could very well find that the areas you targeted are vastly different in a night environment than they were in a daylight setting, and that you'll have to adjust. That's ok. No plan survives intact the application of reality. From here I'm not going to give out much, because each case is different, but there are some general rules that I find helpful. Document everything on video. This has solved so may false positives over the years for us. Examples (which are very close to examples I have personally witnessed, and do still posses) "I caught a goblin in a photo!" Um, no, it's your own hand, as seen on video. "The ghost says it wants to stick things in my butt on the EVP!" Well, no, it's your own team mate saying this is a lot of fun, as seen on video. EVP sessions. I have done marathon recordings, 30, 40, 90 minutes, and have seen others do it too, and in my opinion there is nothing more likely to burn you out than really long sound recordings. I did it, even knowing better, a couple months ago, and it literally took me weeks to get through the recordings. The sheer amount of time it takes to properly review sound recordings is mind boggling. I was talking to someone some time ago who said "....well, if we have 1 hour of recording, it takes us an hour to review it. Funny, we never catch anything (Loud buzzing sound!) Oh, I'm sorry, the answer we were looking for is 1.5 to 5 times the total time of the recording. That is, to - properly - review sound recordings. Finding and clarifying a sound recoding takes time, and lots of it. You can expect to spend 7.5 to 25 minutes (and sometimes longer) on a 5 minutes recording from a genuinely haunted location. Take an hour long recording and you're burning 90 to 300 minutes reviewing it properly. And that also means you'll have to stay completely, 100% focused that whole time. Speaking only for myself, I can not stay that focused for that long. Meters. Personally I prefer to use them as verification tools when there is activity. If we hear a voice or a noise and the meter signals an unnatural increase in the localized energy, this could be considered verification, but only if other items are ruled out. For example, a refrigerator kicks on in the next room causing an electrical flow through the area you are stationed at the same time as the noise, then the meter reading is probably not verification. In fact the noise might have also been the fridge kicking on. Paranormal evidence. Always, always, always default to a terrestrial explanation first for a paranormal event. Look for it, assume it is first and foremost a terrestrial event. Only after you have absolutely exhausted all possible terrestrial explanations should you consider that you may have a paranormal event on your hands.

Paranormal field de-evolving!

When did aberrant behavior become an "acceptable alternative norm" in the paranormal field? If you're not in the field to help others (both sides of the divide), and/or yourself by fulfilling a need to know what happens after death, or to further expand and help with scientific explanations on the question of hauntings, or even as a cool hobby that you really enjoy while still taking it very seriously, then you're in the field for the wrong reasons. You can still have these goals (core beliefs) even if you're writing a book, or doing a TV show about the paranormal field, it just means you're being paid to do what you love. However, I feel a bubble is going to burst, that credibility is going to take a header, and that worries me, because of the folks looking to cash in sans any real belief in the field, the people just looking to make a quick buck or two, or to be a groupie of one making said buck. The more we commercialize the paranormal field, the closer it gets to that bursting point, and it is going to be due to a few disingenuous people. The light will shine on them, and the field will suffer as a consequence, and of course they will whine that they are being singled out, victimized, because that's what disingenuous people do. It is never about their behaviors, oh no, the whole world is wrong and they are right. Drama seems to forever follow them around, so is it them (yes) or the rest of the world? (no). The TV shows, so lets see, hmmmm, they seem to find something at EVERY location EVERY time? Anyone who has been in this field for any amount of real time knows that just doesn't happen. Does this further the field or hinder it? I believe it seriously hamstrings the field because newly minted investigators then think that they must find something every time too, after all, the TV shows do, right? So the dog barking becomes "Get Out," all orbs become spirits instead of dust, a photography issue such as camera shake, shutter stutter becomes spirit anomalies. "Open mindedness is great so long as it isn't so open our brains fall out." Unkown. Now, back to my bouncy castle...

Upcoming presidential election

Am I excited about the upcoming election and all the political posts people put here? No! Anyone who'd actually want the job of president ought to be looked at as a kook. Even at the current pay level it's a WAY under paid job for the responsibility, so what other reason is there to run for it? Prestige, sure, it's a very small number of people who have held the office, and who knows, maybe your one day your pic will be on a bill or a coin or name on an aircraft carrier. Live in a cool house, the White House? Yeah, definitely cool, but you don't live in the whole thing, and have guards and such around all the time, so you lose virtually all your privacy. The world's attention is on you? You're very powerful? Ah, there it is, the two reasons right there. On the former, if you need massive attention, the whole world watching you, I think that says a lot about your mentality. On the latter, you crave power, yeah, I think that says a lot about your mental make up too. So to recap, you get paid good money by average joe standards, crap money by CEO standards, great benefits, a good pension and benefits for the rest of your life, but even with all that you're a seriously underpaid egomaniac with your finger on a button that can end millions of lives, and about half your own countrymen will love you, about half with loathe you, and the rest of the world will try and make you bow in submission. No thank you. If you want that job, you're a kook. And no matter which candidate you post in favor of here, you gotta understand you're really not going to change anyone's mind.