Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s The Great Pumpkin Spice Latte Charlie Brown!

At this point, I’m not even sure people remember the Peanuts cartoons. Although, in doing “research” for this post I discovered that there was The Peanuts Movie in 2015. I’m sure that totally resonated with kids. Good grief, as Charlie Brown would say.

I was also going to name this “A Pumpkin Flavored Phil Factor”. It’s that time of year, again. Sigh.  It has begun. Pumpkin flavored everything is back in stores! WTH? Seriously, are pumpkins such a wonderful delicacy that we have to flavor EVERYTHING with them? Why pumpkin? Is there any other time of year where a flavor takes over the country for a couple months? Around the winter holidays why isn’t there nog flavored everything? Around St. Patrick’s Day we’ve got our Shamrock Shakes, but that’s about it. How about this? I’m going to give you a list of ten pumpkin flavored items below and you try to guess which one isn’t real.

1. SPAM

2. Twinkies

3. Donuts

4. Candy

5. Soda pop

6. Potato chips

7. Pasta

8. Cookies

9. Vodka

10. Hamburgers

Guess what? They all are real! That’s too much pumpkin flavored stuff. What’s next, pumpkin-flavored fish sandwiches at McDonald’s? This time of year it’s actually an effort not to accidentally eat something pumpkin flavored. This madness must end!

When I’m elected President, or Sexiest Man Alive, whichever comes first, I’m going to pass a law stating that any company that produces a pumpkin flavored food item has to have it approved through a special sub-committee and if it is just too stupid of an idea they will not be allowed to sell it. If you know of any other odd pumpkin flavored foods or drinks please share them in the comments.

As always, if you enjoy what you read at #ThePhilFactor and want to support my bid for President, or Sexiest Man Alive, please hit the Facebook share button.

Have a great weekend! ~Phil

Psychic Predictions for the 21st Century and Beyond

Yes, of course that’s me

Usually I only do psychic predictions year by year, but lately some visions of the distant future have been appearing in my brain.

Michel de Nostredame, aka Nostradamus, a French pharmacist, doctor, astrologer and future seeing psychic is renown for his cool name and predictions of the distant future. That’s never really been my thing, but lately I’ve been seeing glimpses of a future that may be very different than we might think. So, as a psychic, I’d like to leave a legacy like #Nostradamus did. Should I call myself Philstradamus from now on? Who am I kidding The Phil Factor is a great #psychic name!

Prediction #1: Aliens! In the not too distant future, the human race will learn to communicate with #aliens AND we will discover that the visitors in UFO/UAP spacecraft are not aliens. They are humans from the future. Physicists will discover that time travel is possible and the aliens are evolved humans from the future returning to learn about their history in much the same way that we do archeological digs. 

If he was really psychic, he’d have known what a tragic fashion choice that hair was

Prediction #2: Parallel universes? Prediction number one may be slightly wrong. The aliens might be time traveling humans from the future, OR the present.  We (and when I say we, I mean physicists) will discover that there are actually #parallel universes, and occasionally the fabric of reality between two universes wears thin or develops a hole, and things like UFOs and strange cryptid creatures may slip through and get stuck in our universe. 

Prediction #3 Is it time to move?  Weather phenomena, aka #climate change, will continue to result in more and more areas of the world becoming inhabitable to humans. Several countries will reinvest in their neglected space exploration programs in an effort to find places where the human race can survive. The first will be an attempt to set up a permanent base on the moon with regular ‘shuttles’ to and from Earth. It will be first manned by only NASA/military personnel, but will eventually begin to work in civilians. 

Image from Bloomberg

Prediction #4 What becomes of Russia? Sadly #Russia will eventually win this never ending war in #Ukraine, but not long after, Vladimir Putin will pass away under suspicious circumstances that will never be clear to the western media. Following a Russian cheer similar to “Ding dong the witch is dead,” the Russian government, at the urging of it’s citizens and the United Nations, will begin to craft itself  into a democracy over the next few decades, and Ukraine will be restored whole as a sovereign nation.

Image from People Magazine

Prediction #5 The Royal Family Look, I enjoy the soap opera that the British royals have put on forever, but by the end of this century they will be phased out. People will care less and less about bloodlines and more and more about breadlines. Normally I might throw in a few jokes about the royal family being aliens, but I’m making serious predictions here. Although, if #King Chuck lives as long as his mum, we may want to check to see if they really are aliens. 

Image from Quora.com

Prediction #6 Us and them? In the distant future, sometime after 2060, the Earth will be split into two kinds of people. There will be the Techies, who embrace all that technology brings us, sometimes to the point that they give up their autonomy to the A.I. machines. The second kind of people will be the Green Earthers. They will shun most technology, with the exception of solar electricity and will try to live their lives the way people did before technology controlled everything. 

Just because I usually make jokes, that doesn’t mean that I can’t be serious about these #psychicpredictions. Psychics can have a sense of humor too! In the comments, I’d love to know you’re thoughts on these predictions.

Have a great Saturday! ~The Phil Factor!

Scotland: The Florida of the United Kingdom?

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I sit here on a beach in America on the tailgate of my pickup truck gazing out across an ocean.  I’m not sure which one, but because I’m in America, it must be the biggest one. I feel secure because I have a beer in one hand, a gun in the other, and beef jerky in the other. I also feel secure because Scotland is on the other side of this great big ocean. I’m not sure what Scotland is, but I’m pretty sure it’s not good. I watched Braveheart for the first time last night. It’s a documentary about Scottish culture.

Knowing me, you may be thinking that I’m about to write a sarcastic, mocking piece about the fine country of Scotland. Wait, country? Is Scotland a real full-fledged country or is it just an odd redneck region of England the way Florida is in the United States? As I said, you probably think I’m going to make fun of Scotland, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m 1/4 Scottish, so it would be blasphemy to degrade my own heritage.

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Rather than highlight the oddities that make up the whole of Scottish culture, I thought it might be more educational to highlight the ignorant beliefs that us ‘Mericans have about the Scots. So to do some research, I recently decided to visit the delightful island nation of Scotland. Ok, I didn’t, but if the Scottish board of tourism wants to sponsor me I’ll be happy to write a factually accurate piece on Scottish culture.

Scotland is an island: Shame on you my fellow ‘Muricans! Ireland has their own island while Scotland is a landlocked few acres surrounded entirely castle walls.

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Donald Trump is not Scottish: Guess what everyone, Donald Trumps mum was Scottish. Considering that Scots are often thought to be an aggressive bunch, that explains a lot about the Donald. It also gives us a place to deport him to.

Scottish men only wear kilts: That’s not true. They also wear high socks with their kilts.

The Loch Ness Monster is just a myth: Ha! Check out this picture taken two weeks ago:

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This is what all Scottish men do for a living: 

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We don’t know why they toss logs, or how they make a living at it, but they do. When I visited I spent half my time outdoors looking up to ensure I wasn’t killed by a flying log. Sadly, two in my party were lost, and that was just at dinner in the hotel.

Every building in Scotland is an old castle: Ok, this one’s true.

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Mel Gibson is their President: You Americans are idiots. The Scots don’t have a President. Mel is their king. Yes, because Mel was in Braveheart, Americans think he’s Scottish.

Scots don’t subscribe to The Phil Factor: That can’t be true, can it?

You’ve been a wonderful audience. Drive safely. Thanks for reading! ~Phil

Who Are You? Who, Who? I Really Wanna Know

The Who song quoted in the title was very apropos for our high school reunion weekend for two reasons. 1. The Who was the first concert that I ever went to, and 2. We had a high school graduating class of nearly 500 students and I thought that I knew and could put a name to a face for every one of them. Maybe I could back in the day, but…

Before we all got our name tags on, as I mingled and moved about the bar Friday night, occasionally popping into groups of former classmates, I’d hear the same question. People all over the room wanted to say “Who are you? to so many people. Is it because we are getting old? No, of course not. It’s because we were drinking! We’ll officially be old at our reunion in ten years. We’re not there yet.

“Count your age by friends, not years. Count life by smiles, not tears.” ~John Lennon

This was definitely a weekend of counting our age by friends. I’ve never been any where with so many smiles and hugs before. Even if we hadn’t seen each other in decades, everyone was greeted as if they were best friends just returning from vacation. And that is how I like to think of my high school graduating class. We’ve just taken vacations from the people who were like family during the five days a week that comprised every week of our 19 school years together.

You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.” ~Lyle Lovett 

That Lyle Lovett quote hit me Saturday night at the formal reunion dinner when I was sitting at a table with some old friends and one of them said to me that in the weeks leading up to the reunion he found a class picture from kindergarten, when we were four or five years old, that included him, myself and a classmate of ours who had passed away. It had never occurred to me before that I had known this guy almost my entire life.

“Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been” ~Jimmy Buffett

Yes, there were more wrinkles than the last time I saw all of you, but there were also more smiles too.

I have to give a big shout-out to the committee that organized our reunion. I’ve heard about other peoples reunions, and nothing compares with what these women did. Months of planning, effort and time turned into two nights that were enjoyed and memorable for so many people. Your efforts are appreciated by all. Because of our wonderful planning committee, we all know that we again beat our rival high school across town who chose to have their reunion the same night.

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I chose to be stupid with my old friends. As I said, it was a 1980’s themed reunion, so of course we had to have an air guitar contest, which I happened to win. Thank you to Kym who caught the shot of me jumping off the chair!

All the fun and camaraderie were great, but I want everyone in my high school graduating class to know this next part. Back when we were in school, we did something good without even knowing it. There was one person at the reunion festivities, whom I shall not name, that came up to talk me. That person said that they had transferred to our school for their senior year after having spent their previous years in another school district.

This person said that at their previous school, everyone was in cliques. Most people at this persons school only socialized with the people just like them. The jocks hung out with the jocks. The band people with other band people and so on and so on. This person felt like they weren’t allowed to fit in at their previous school. This person said that when they came to our school, it was like a whole other world. They described feeling welcomed and wanted by everyone regardless what their interests or groups were.

“They have accepted me as an individual, as a personality, as an entity. I belong! I am important! I am somebody!” ~author Beatrice Sparks, Go Ask Alice

We did that. That’s who we are. Even if we don’t know “Who are you? Who, who?” we’re going to welcome you into our world.

It was wonderful seeing all of you this weekend, and I’m proud to call you my friends forever. ~Phil

Please Let It Be Haunted…

Amityville Horror House

You may be asking yourself, what do I want haunted and why? First of all, why are you asking yourself that? You don’t know! I do and I’m going to tell you.

For the fifth time since The Phil Factor began in 2005, I’m moving to a new residence. Other questions you might be asking yourself are as follows:

1. Why does Phil move so much? 

2. Could he be trying to stay one step ahead of the law?

3. Could he possibly be a secret agent for the FBI, CIA, or MI5?

Was that a poltergeist, or just really kick-ass hi-def tv?

Never mind those questions. They are irrelevant. I’m moving again, and I’m hoping for a haunted house. I’m not hoping for just any run of the mill ghosts who make little noises at night. I want the full on Amityville Horror haunting. I want poltergeists out the ying-yang!

My last home, before the one I’m in now, was lightly haunted and it was enjoyable. I don’t want lightly haunted. This time I want the full on Stranger Thingsmy son is in the upside-down” kind of haunting. I want to see my dog walking on the ceiling and not knowing why. I’ll be running around the house with my cell phone recording myself Blair Witch Project style, only to find myself in the closet facing the wall.

Is this bad mojo to put this idea out into the universe? Probably. Will I regret it? Also probably. But, imagine how great all my paranormal blog posts will be when I’m reporting from my own home! I’ll have video and audio, and I promise I won’t be shouting about orbs. Zak Bagans is a clown. After about ten years he suddenly needs gigantic glasses? Did he go blind because he got an orb in his eye? SMH.

For cripes sake Zak. If you’d stop yelling all the time we might be able to hear the ghost talk in those crappy, static recordings. Every week you act like you’ve never seen a ghost before. And if you want to fight me Zak, I invite you to have your say on my blog and if you’ll invite me to follow you on one of your “investigations”, I’ll write about it. Sounds fair, right?

So here’s my question for you my readers: Answer in the comments, would you live in a haunted house, maybe if it was only lightly haunted?

Have a great Sunday and thanks for reading! ~Phil

STOP THROWING THINGS AT PERFORMERS!

Just the other day Harry Styles, a supremely talented performer, was hit by an object thrown by a fan. What is wrong with you people? I’d like to say this didn’t happen back in my day, but it did happen then as well. (Meat Loaf) As I was researching for this post, incident after incident came up.

People who want to be part of the show are the dumbest people I’ve ever seen. I’ve easily been to over 100 concerts and I don’t think that any concert ever has been made better by an audience member who thinks that because you paid for a ticket you have a right to insert yourself into the performance. Whether it’s a comedian or a musician, inserting yourself into a performance never makes you look good in anyone’s eyes. Dudes, seriously, your dumb ass buddies may laugh at your little prank until the cops take you away, but more importantly, the ladies are not impressed by stupidity.

Singer Bebe Rexha. Pic from Latestly

Yes, I know I sound like a crotchety old man, but inserting yourself by heckling a singer or comedian is idiotic. You are impressing exactly no one. Trying to agitate a comedian is ridiculously stupid. Don’t you realize that they have been on stage for years and are ten times as quick witted as you are dumb.

And why are you idiots throwing your cell phones? They only cost you about a thousand dollars/900 Euros. The celebrities are definitely not going to call you. You just gave them your phone! How smart is that? Now that security has your phone, they can track you down and arrest you. If you want to throw away a thousand bucks, just look up my email in the contact info and send it to me.

Eventually there will be consequences. The ticket prices will rise to weed out the riff-raff. (Yes, sadly I just said riff-raff. I’m getting super old) There will also be barriers. If objects continue to be thrown, they will put up plexiglass barriers between the performers and the audience. How fun will that be?

Remember how during COVID we would get our foreheads scanned when we entered some offices or businesses? If only they could do that but to weed out the dumb asses before they get into concerts.

Any way, that’s my rant for today. If only one of these dumb asses read my blog and learned, I might have made the world marginally better. Sadly, I’m pretty sure the dumb-asses aren’t big on reading. If you dolts want to heckle someone, come here and do it in the comments!

Have a great Tuesday! ~Phil

Interview: An Evening at Macri Park with Sean Barna

I travel for work. Back in March, after a long day of driving, I was in Erie, Pennsylvania. I got to my hotel room, dropped my stuff and headed to the hotel restaurant for a beer and dinner. I sat at the bar so that I wouldn’t be taking up a table all by myself.

As I was finishing up my dinner, two guys came in and sat down at the corner of the bar. They talked loudly, laughed and bantered with the bartender. I had spent my work day having had about six 5-minute conversations. That was it for my socialization for the entire day. So, I picked up my beer, moved down the bar and inserted myself into their conversation.

If I was a musician, my album would be An Evening at The Hampton Inn. Doesn’t have the same ring as “Macri Park” does it? That’s how I met Sean Barna and his music producer Dave. A little over two months later Sean released a new album, so I thought I’d ask him a few questions about it.

TPF: Sean, your album “An Evening at Macri Park,”  is named after a bar in Brooklyn. How did that particular bar earn the honor?

Sean: There are, as you can imagine plenty of queer bars in NYC. Brooklyn nightlight and queer culture has historically been a bit more underground and a bit more envelope-pushing than what you will find in Hell’s Kitchen or Greenwich Village (I mean, of course, in the modern era of queer culture and art — not 1969).

Macri Park, at the time I was a regular, embodied this spirit more completely than some of the other spaces, in my opinion. I was a regular at a Monday night drag show, “Mondays on Mondays (on Tuesday Morning),” where I met such an eclectic and fabulous group of creatures and characters. The third set, which usually happened around 3am, featured an “open stage”… any drag queen could perform. This was beautiful in a way: a more well-known queen might stop by after their gig and give a show, and then some queen trying it for the first time might go on. Really a cool, welcoming place.
TPF: You have a unique voice and your music has a unique sound. Who were some of your influences?  Is there an artist that you grew up trying to emulate?
Sean: The only time I tried to emulate anyone was as a drummer, especially in high school and early in college. I was and remain, first and foremost, a drummer. I did not write any complete songs until I was 25 years old. This is relevant because I think emulation is more of a young person’s thing — I have no interest in sounding like anyone, at least on purpose. That being said, I started writing songs because I saw Counting Crows on August 18th, 2007. By this, I mean I started writing words down and exploring the possibility of vulnerability. Adam Duritz has since changed my life many more times — singing on my first album, CISSY and now on An Evening at Macri Park, as well as bringing me on tour as his direct support for two months.
TPF: Your identity as a member of the LGBTQ community is a big part of who you are and how you market yourself.  How did that evolve for you?
Sean: I am a musician, first and foremost. I resented having to “announce” queerness. I resent that society has created this situation where this has to be a main subject. Of course I understand why you are asking, but is me being queer anymore who I am as being straight is for a straight person? Sexually, no. But culturally, queer people are forced to announce it. And so, yes, of course it is relevant.
THIS ALL BEING SAID, every statistic that illuminates an ill of society is worse for queer people, but it becomes worse still for queer people of color, and much, much worse for trans people of color. I am one of the least vulnerable queer people on the planet. White, straight-passing if I want, masculine, from the United States.  All of this is to say, if I had a microphone and chose not not speak up, how dare I? That would make me a joke.
TPF: On your album you have two songs with Adam Duritz of Counting Crows. How did that partnership happen, and will there be more in the future?
Sean: Actually, he is on six songs. He sings lead vocals on two: Sparkle When You Speak has a chorus that just sounds better in his range, and let’s me do Madonna improvisations over the top. Be a Man, which I wrote on his piano while I was cat sitting, is my song, but I asked him to write his own verse. He sings background vocals on a few others.

Sean and Adam

ANYWAY, he hosts and is lead-organizer of a festival called Underwater Sunshine Festival (previously Outlaw Roadshow). Basically, he gets bands he and his friends like together for a weekend of music and laughs and beer. I played one of them because one of the organizers let me play. He saw me play my song, “Cutter Street“, and he and I have been in touch ever since. Now, however, he is one of my best friends and I would do anything for that man.
TPF: You’re signed with the Kill Rock Stars (https://killrockstars.com) label. You had to be super stoked to be working with them. Were you aware of their legacy going back to the 90’s?
Sean: I was vaguely aware. In the 90’s I was listening to classic rock. In the 2000’s, I was listening to classic rock and jazz, and eventually classical. I do not focus on legacy and I am not sure they do either. I told Slim, the owner, that I wanted to make a “fucked up bluegrass record” and he was stoked. So, I found my family pretty quick. Nowhere I would rather be.

Sean and his music producer Dave Drago of 1809 Studios

 TPF: You’ve been a musician your whole life. What is the best “rock and roll” moment you’ve ever had? 
Sean: Anytime you can headline a sold out show, regardless of the venue size, and get assholes kicked out for yelling over the band or being dicks in some other way… that’s a good day. Most rock and roll however would have to be when three guys wanted to take me home on the same night after a show and I went with the guy who would let my band come too so they had somewhere to stay. I refer to this briefly in my song, “Naked Heart.”
TPF: So apparently groupies is still a thing. And for my readers under 18, The Phil Factor is not encouraging wanton sexual behavior, but hey, if you’re over 18, have at it!
Thanks again to you Sean. I’m honored to have met you and more so that you took the time for this interview. For my audience, you can find Sean’s album anywhere you buy or stream music. You can follow Sean through his website and he’s a great follow on IG as SeanBarna.

My First Solo Paranormal Investigation: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I have been on a paranormal investigation before. Communicated with some ghosts, and enjoyed the vibe. Over the month of May, I featured posts here focusing on the paranormal. Ghosts, psychics, witchcraft, UFOs, and demons. As I researched for my posts and interviewed some of the best paranormal people out there, I started to think to myself, “Maybe these are my people.”  Don’t worry, I’m not turning The Phil Factor into a completely paranormal blog, yet…

I enjoyed my month of learning how wide-ranging the paranormal specialties are and how often paranormal things intrude into our world. I decided that when I travel for work I’m going to look for opportunities to find the paranormal in the towns and cities I visit.

Watertown, NY‘s Thompson Park is located about a five-hour drive upstate from New York City. Watertown is a small military base city that is literally just a short drive from Canada.

The interesting paranormal phenomenon that allegedly occurs in Thompson Park is that people believe there is an interdimensional vortex. People have reported instances of losing time, getting disoriented, disappearing from one spot and turning up in another, or not turning up at all…

Science fiction has been rife with vortexes or portals since the genre originated. People have long fantasized about a doorway to another place. Teleportation if you will. Is there any chance something like this could be real?

Plasma physicist and NASA-funded researcher Jack Scudder from the University of Iowa has figured out how to find these portals. “We call them X-points or electron diffusion regions. They’re places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the Sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from our own planet to the Sun’s atmosphere 93 million miles away.”

 

Thompson Park has a long history of paranormal reports that real paranormal investigators like Greg Neukerk have checked out. Investigators have found very high electromagnetic fields, which are often typical in areas of high paranormal activity. If you look back at the comments from the NASA scientist, he mentioned the magnetic fields of two places connecting. What if some localized electromagnetic fields connected? Couldn’t that create a short portal or vortex phenomenon?

Do you know what is also often found in close proximity to paranormal events? Military bases, like the one in Watertown, New York. Even more odd is the fact that the government’s code name for the infamous Area 51 in Nevada is “Watertown.”  I don’t suppose that’s an accident. With New York state ranking 5th among the states for UFO/UAP sightings, maybe something interesting is going on at the Fort Drum military base that may be bleeding over into the park.

Picture from Lite87.com

So this evening, I’m going to walk around Thompson Park and see what happens. Then, when I get back to my hotel, I’ll sit down at the hotel bar and chat up the military contractors that are always there, and ask them if they’ve seen anything unusual when they’re at the base.

Also, I’ll come back here and add an addendum to let you know that I returned safely from the vortex. If I disappeared after writing this blog post, how weirdly creepy would that be?

Addendum: I made it back safely without teleportation. Look tomorrow morning for my write up of the “investigation”.

Thanks for reading and wish me luck! ~Phil

Legendary Creatures & Cryptid Stuff with Author JW Ocker

You might be asking yourself, what is a cryptid?  You may not know the word, but you have definitely heard of specific cryptids. Does the name Bigfoot ring a bell? How about The Loch Ness Monster? Those are the big name headliners in a field called cryptozoology. To borrow from JW Ocker’s book, “a cryptid is a creature or species whose existence is scientifically unproven.”

Author JW Ocker does not take cryptids as seriously as cryptozoologists do, but he’s all in on the fun of the possibility of cryptids, and I’m with him on that! Wouldn’t it be a wonderful, fun world if all those legends like the Mothman, The Jersey Devil, and the Loch Ness Monster were all true?  Let’s get on with the interview!

Picture from CNBC

TPF: How did your interest in the paranormal begin?

JW: As a kid I liked monsters and I was also raised religious, so soul-deep in gods and demons, but it wasn’t until college or thereafter that I really started digging the strange in a real way. Probably at that moment when I got my first real job and a place all my own and was supposed to start getting serious about life. I looked out at that landscape and realized, “Ah. The regular world kind of sucks. Guess I’ll be spooky instead.”

TPF: Which of the creatures you wrote about is your favorite, and why?

JW: The Mothman. It’s got a great story arc (most cryptid stories peter out, but the Mothman story raises to a climax with the collapse of the Silver Bridge), but also because Point Pleasant supports its creature in a way that has become the template for all other cryptid towns. Plus, you can explore the TNT area where the creature was most often sighted and pretend it’s the late 1960s and it could pop up anytime with its glowing red eyes and freaky motionless flying.

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp-Pic from Redbubble

TPF: Which creature would scare you the most if you came upon it in the wild?

JW: The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp or, if you can count them, Gray Aliens. The former is because a humanoid reptile just sounds like it could mess you up more than anything else in cryptid lore (minus the water monsters, which is a totally different fear). The latter is mostly because of the movie Communion.

TPF: What did you do before you figured out that you could make a living writing about interesting oddities?

JW: Oh, I can’t. Not and keep my family in Bigfoot t-shirts. I’m also a strategist at an agency in Boston. That basically means I tell stories for businesses, which is a lot like telling paranormal stories except that the monsters all wear suits and I’ve got to pitch them to rooms full of people with “Chief” in their titles.

TPF: Those monsters sound scarier than anything else we’ve discussed here!

 

TPF: When I look at your collection of books, it seems like you’ve covered almost everything. Do you have a work in progress right now, and if so what is it about?

JW: I’m currently working on a book about cults that will come out next year. There’s still a ton of weirdness out there I want to tackle, but after my last three nonfiction books–cursed objects, cryptids, and cults–I might just be out of c-words.

Thank you for your time JW. I’m completely enjoying Cryptids and I’m planning some trips in hopes of seeing a Jersey Devil or maybe a Snallygaster! To my readers, JW is a fun follow on social media and has a website: OddThingsIveSeen.com which is always a fun read. You can also find him on Facebook. In addition to his paranormal subjects, he also has quite a few fiction novels for both young readers and adults. You can find his entire collection on Amazon!

Have a great Saturday everyone, and come back tomorrow for my interview with a demonologist who will be appearing on The Travel Channel in the coming week! ~Phil

Do Not Trust All “Psychics”

On Christmas I gave my gift to the world, i.e. my annual psychic predictions blog post. If you are too busy to read that now, I’ll tell you a little about it.

Annually I publish psychic predictions focusing on celebrities, the Royals, and big picture stuff going on in the world. Some predictions are intentionally funny while others are serious prognostications. This year I did something different at the end of my predictions.

What I did, that I’ve never done before, was to invite people to comment and ask me questions that they want me to answer psychically. I was expecting questions like, “Which team will win the Super Bowl?” or “Will Russia use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war?” or “Will I win the lottery this year?”. I was completely flabbergasted at the responses I got. Not because there was a lot of them, but because of the nature of the questions.

When I think I’ve written a good blog post, which I always think about my psychic predictions, in addition to publishing it to WordPress, I will share it to Twitter and my author page on Facebook. Facebook gives you the option of paying money to “boost” your post so more people see it higher up in their feeds. $3.00 I boosted my psychic predictions post for a day.

What surprised me was that a decent number of people messaged me through my Facebook author page asking me to answer very personal questions about themselves. Also, several of them sent me their full names with middle initials and dates of birth. Not only did they send me their information, some gave the same detailed information about other people in their lives that they had questions about.

If anyone reading this is considering speaking to a psychic on the phone, online, or in person, please do not volunteer that much detail and personal information until you have vetted the psychic. Check out their website and check out local Yelp reviews.

Also, here is a good article that can help you to determine between the good psychics and the scammers.

It is truly wonderful that so many people have so much trust in strangers on the internet, and I wish that all internet strangers were kind and honest. Sadly that is not the world we live in.

Yes, I believe that some people have psychic abilities, but there are also some bad people out there who are taking advantage of people’s hopes, dreams, and heartbreak. If you believe in the paranormal and psychic things, please be careful when you pursue answers and be wary of the people offering them.

I could answer peoples questions all day, but I think reminding people to be more careful with their personal information and money so they don’t get ripped off is the best thing I could tell anyone.

Have a great Thursday! ~Phil