The Introverted Detective

 We are no better than the Victorians. While our parlor tricks have turned into TV shows and ghost hunting, we are still doing them; the only difference now is we have paranormal science and gadgets, which are sometimes not even reliable. Lets get into it and dig deeper.  Courtesy of Pinterest If you asked Houdini (you can't, he's dead) where to find a non-fraud medium he'd tell you not to bother. Houdini put out a challenge way back when that stated any medium or psychic proving their power would win the grand prize of 10,000 dollars. Many tried, but none succeeded, and here we are still watching them on TV. What's wrong with us?  The Victorian era had a way of playing parlor games to contact the dead. Smart, no, but they sure thought it was fun. Not all these parlor games were about the dead (let's be real, some of them must have learned not to mess with it), but Halloween was all about the spooky. The innocent parlor games actually sound like boatloads of fun to ...

 We've all taken on more than we can handle at some point in time. We got too excited by our hobbies or thought we had more time than we did, but now we have to unburden ourselves from our projects one finished project at a time. Let's grab our shovels together.  Courtesy of design-fixation.com First, you will need an open word document, piece of paper and pencil, or excel sheet. Whatever you prefer to use to organize your thoughts will do. Before I talk about prioritizing and figuring out what to tackle first we need a comprehensive list of your projects. I'll start by giving you an example.  My projects: Freewriting Story draft - long range, commitment, unsure how close to end I am editing next book/novella - long range, commitment, unsure how close to end I am diamond dots painting - long range, leisure, about one fifth through it counted cross stitch - long range, leisure, about 90 percent through it playing dredge - short range, leisure, three fifths through the game...

 I now own both Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, specifically a modded Stardew Valley game file and Harvest Moon Light of Hope. I'd like to compare the two, which are similar and yet different.  Courtesy of The Xbox Hub If you don't know these games, I'll explain their basic premise. They are casual games that include rebuilding a community of people by doing their sidequests and restoring their physical buildings. Take Legend of Zelda and get rid of the main villain, leaving only sidequests, and you'll find something remarkably similar to Harvest Moon. Stardew Valley is a farming game with some battle opportunities in the mines, so still similar to Legend of Zelda, but with more farming and fishing.  What makes these different? Mostly artistic style and storyline. Harvest Moon Light of Hope is about saving the lighthouse and fixing all the ruined homes so villagers can return. Stardew Valley is about choosing between fixing the community center or supporting the major ...

 Today I am posting my review of Music Boxes , a middle-grade suspense/thriller. I'm going to start with a synopsis, so you know what this is all about. I'm doing this review spoiler free, which means you only get to hear about the ending once you check out the book for yourself (please do, it is worth it).  Courtesy of Pinterest This book is about a ballet dancer named Lindsey, who has been uprooted by her family's move to New York. She runs into a woman offering classes only if she performs in the midnight shows. There is a sinister twist to this offer. Madame Destinee, the teacher offering the classes, calls students to her office who never come back. After they aren't seen again, a music box with their costume and face is seen on her shelf of music boxes. Lindsey must figure out what is going on before she becomes a music box herself.  I give this five stars. Nothing bumped me out of the story. I read it in one shot. It took about three hours to read (give or take a...

We like to make fun of entitled people on Youtube and social media worldwide. What does entitled mean? Let's discuss. Courtesy of Odyssey According to the dictionary entitled means one of two things. Either you believe you inherently deserve a privilege or special treatment or are legally told you are entitled to *fill in the blank*. Better Help says this: "an unrealistic, unmerited, or inappropriate expectation of favorable living conditions and favorable treatment at the hands of others." Simply stated, you believe you should get special treatment and privileges, and you can be mistaken.  A great example of entitlement is shown in Charlotte Dobre's Youtube channel, which constantly reacts to Reddit stories of entitled brides, grooms, and the general population. It is fun to watch, but you do need to remember real humans lived these out. We are sheep, ladies and gents. Social media will also blast these people (Karens, if you will) who do behave badly in front of sto...

Today I want to lighten the mood and talk about four actors' voices. I'm speaking of the voices of Piglet, Frosty the Snowman, KITT the car, and Yzma. The actors voicing these characters are using their natural voices.  Courtesy of Eric Juneau Books Today's blog isn't complicated. I needed something quick to write up and thought this was rather fascinating. It still breaks my brain to hear the voice of KITT outside of the TV show Knight Rider . Without much introduction, I'm diving in.  KITT Anyone who isn't familiar with KITT the car never watched Knight Rider , or at least didn't watch more than two seconds of the show. The voice of the car is William Daniels, also known for TV shows Boy Meets World and St. Elsewhere . He's voiced KITT even up to the year 2020, according to IMDB. The video below is Michael Knight/Long being introduced to KITT in an unexpected twist.  Does that voice sound synthesized to you? It did to me too, but let me show you a cli...

 When you encounter someone who makes an uncomfortable, rude, or off comment it isn't uncommon to not know what to do. I dug into the research for you. We shall now dive into what an inappropriate comment is and what to do about it.  Courtesy of Evening Standard We all put our foot in our mouths, but I'm not talking about accidental insensitivities. I'm talking about the "do you hear yourself?" and "who didn't install a filter in this human?" level of uncomfortable. There are three scenarios to consider. The three categories are when you can leave the room, when you don't want to leave the room but are highly uncomfortable, and when you can't leave the room. All require different strategies.  But first, we define inappropriate. This is harder than you think. It depends on your relationship with someone, what your culture deems appropriate, and your friendship status. What you can and can't say to someone is determined by how relationally ...