The Introverted Detective

It's terrifying, but what is it? If you've experienced sleep paralysis you know how bad it is. Is it a brain glitch? Is it a spiritual attack? Let's find out. Courtesy of Pinterest Sleep paralysis is the feeling of being paralyzed while dreaming. For instance, if you are unable to move or speak while in a dream. It occurs as your brain is transitioning into or out of sleep. In this case, your mind is moving faster than your body and it is out of synch. Commonly, people with irregular sleep schedules get hit by this. It is related to being sleep-deprived and can happen to anyone. There is no cure. Basically, just sleep on a steady schedule and you can generally avoid it.  It is more than just feeling paralyzed, however, and comes with intense fears, feeling of choking, or hallucinations (possibly like shadow people). It happens often when someone has narcolepsy. It is more frequent between ages 20-30. The intense dreams go in three categories; intruder in the room, someone o...

 There is a fine line between horror and suspense. Some books straddle that line. Others are one or the other. Some forms of media make you question which genre they fit into and might be both. Let's take a look at the differences.  Photo courtesy of Illustratedfiction.com Three sub-genres/genres that are hard to separate are mystery, thriller, and horror. The trouble is, what are the differences between these subgenres? Today we use Jurassic Park to illustrate this conundrum. While labeled a thriller and technically science fiction, it can fit into either horror or thriller (in my view). There is one more category called suspense that gets thrown in with thrillers. Today we'll find out if they are the same thing.  General Guidelines A mystery has a clear puzzle or crime involved. In suspense, the main character is in danger from the start. A thriller is all about action and danger, which overlaps right into suspense territory. Horror focuses on scares and is generally mo...

 What do this movie and graphic novel series have to do with emotional abuse? A lot! Take one look at Ramona running from Gideon and tell me what you see. Today I'm going to talk about why this series and movie do an excellent job of illustrating emotional abuse in a unique way I've never seen before. Photo by Pinterest The plot of Scott Pilgrim Vs The World is not all about Ramona because it focuses on Scott defeating her seven evil exes, yet the whole situation is clearly all about Ramona's love life and past. Gideon makes it impossible for her to easily move on with life after their break-up by contacting six of her exes (not ex-boyfriends, exes) to create a league. This league then has to be defeated by anyone who wishes to date Ramona (counting Gideon as the seventh ex).  This is what Scott runs right into when he meets Ramona and is enthralled by her. She has already run away from New York to Canada to avoid Gideon and her past. Still, we see it catch up with her all ...

 Just how much of our world do we pay attention to? Do we truly notice everything we should? Let's find out. Below is my research on this topic and how it impacts us.  Photo by Pinterest While technology does not help the lack of observation some humans show, it is not all to blame. Our psychological mind has to filter out what it deems unimportant or we'd be insane by now. You have to train yourself to remember observations like Shawn Spencer. It isn't all our devices' fault. Schools also don't put this at the top of the list sometimes, because even logical deduction is sometimes low on the list and the two do connect. To put it simply, our brains can't focus on everything at once. We filter out what is unimportant and prioritize even within our own minds. Sherlock is not neurotypical. If you wish to get some of his skills you have to learn logical deduction. He can pay attention to so much because he is not quite normal (making him a bit quirky). Most people c...

Researching characters using real people you know is a fine line and involves a lot of playing dumb, as well as making sure you don't smash that like button. Writers, we've all done it. Even people who aren't writers do this out of boredom. Let's look at where the fine line is - you know, the one you cross and people start suddenly screaming.  Photo by  Social Media Marketing - RG Pacific Stalking is defined as: 1. to pursue or approach stealthily (hunting and animals,  so unrelated to us) 2. harass and persecute someone with unwanted and obsessive attention 3. stride somewhere with a proud, stiff, angry manner ("she stalked off into the room.") Only one of those definitions should be avoided by researching writers. The online definition of this is getting hazy due to social media. You can now look months back into someone's profile in a mere click or two. Technically, it is public information if posted on a public profile. You don't need much more tha...

 Shaping devices are nothing new. They were also complicated. Some people also misused them or gave them a bad name. Not everyone tight-laced and most did not. After some deeper research on the topic, I'm going into the upsides and downsides of corsets. I did some deeper diving into this. While there are downsides to this type of support, they were not as toxic as some humans portrayed them. Part of the reason for this is that we see people in edited photos and forget that padding was sold for body shaping. Also, women-owned businesses were often in the fashion industry and men going against suffragettes did not like that. That doesn't mean all women liked corsets, but those going against them screamed their message to the world.  Modern corsetry is careful to size corsets to you, but way back when they sized them, too. Waist training is common now. Wearing corsets for cosplay is also common. Cosplayers will tell you to only wear them for so long. People with back problems wea...

 Life below the stairs during the Victorian era was not glamorous. If you think working for the public in a restaurant or store puts you in contact with ungrateful people, consider what the servants of the ungrateful rich dealt with. Service jobs were done by "inferiors" who were supposed to be invisible unless needed. If you were treated well you were lucky, but not everyone worked for people as nice as the Bridgertons.  To be clear I am not talking about slavery. This is paid servanthood that is not forced. This is comparable to being an employee in personal maid services or a kitchen worker (though today you won't be treated like you are inferior unless you have a crappy boss). The rich employed people to bend to their every whim. While Cinderella may have technically been a slave, most domestic servants were paid money. If they weren't it was slavery. The Roles and Duties The wages of servants were different based on roles. The butler had the benefit because he ha...