Did I witness a bonifide UFO?

As a younger man I watched too much X-Files. Every Friday evening at 9:00 my father and I would turn the TV to FOX and watched as Mulder searched for the Truth and Scully called Shenanigan's. Outside of the show UFO's became my thing and by the time I was 17 I was one step away from becoming a member of MUFON.

In the years since, my belief in Aliens, UFOs, conspiracies and X-files type scenarios has waned some. I still believe that Aliens exist and honestly feel as though there has been some contact between them and us. I'm not fanatical or willing to bother others with my beliefs in this matter. It's simply something, much like God and ghosts, that I've come to accept as my reality. Could I be wrong? Yes. Yes, I can be very very wrong. If I am then oh well. Carl Sagan wrote in the novel Contact that there are literally billions of planets out in the universe and for there to be only ONE planet with life would be an awful waste of space.

So on with my story. As none of you know (since no one reads this thing) I'm one of the openers in the store in which I am employed. For apparent legal reasons I'm for some reason barred from actually stating this 'store' I work for. All I will say is that it is one of the oldest franchises in Philadelphia history, dating back 120+ years. Also, Ray Ramano's wife on Everybody Loves Raymond was our spokeswoman a few years back (hearing her voice over the speakers for two years is probably why I hate Raymond).

As an opener I have to be in the building by the time the store opens at 6:00 am. This means I must be up by about 4:30 am to be properly awake. Sure, I can be half asleep and still do a competent job but I actually like to be aware of what's happening. I need at least an hour to be a fully functional human being, so I set myself an hour and a half to wake up. This includes wakeup, shower, cereal and the trip to WaWa (or Dunkin' Donuts) for my morning nectar of life supplement- I mean cup of Iced Coffee. On some mornings I even get fancy and visit the local Star Bucks (to bother a good friend who works there).

This was one of those morning. While I'm waiting for Starbucks to open I often find myself driving, as I often do, to clear my head. I like to drive with the windows down and let the cool, fall air enter my lungs. On clearer nights/mornings  I'll pull off to the side of the road a bit and stare as the stars float above the farmlands near my house. This is an activity that started while attending Kutztown when myself and my best college friend Amber would drive nowhere in particular.

I was nearing the Morris Arboretum when I saw a bright light out of the corner of my left eye. The light was bright yellow, I mean sun yellow, and hung low in the sky.  At first I believed it could have been a star. I figured it wasn't as no star I've ever seen was as bright as this. Then thought it was maybe a plane, or perhaps the spotlight off a chopper.I quickly realized that there was no way it could be either since I couldn't see any other lights near it (I.E. lights on the wings of a plane).

Confused by this I pulled over the side of the road and studied this light. As I watched I could see this thing kind of go back and forth on a horizontal line. This went on for a solid ten minutes before I left it, still hovering on that line, and went for my coffee. As i entered the Starbucks I seriously considered telling Amy about what I had witnessed but with other patrons already inside I held off.

This is why I decided to bring this here, to you, the internet. I figure if I sound insane here I'll be one voice in a sea of similar thousands. Not so crazy when all the voices chant the same, right?

Personally, I don't know just what it was I saw. In all my years of looking to the skies I can safely say that I've never seen anything remotely like this before. Was it a UFO in the Agent Fox Mulder sense? Probably not. I doubt there were any little grey men piloting a shifting ball of light. Would I like there to have been? Of course I would, but most likely there was a logical (read: scientific) explanation behind what was there. All I know for certain is that I couldn't identify what I saw, it was flying and was clearly an object. I'd say that fits the description.

Frankenstein: The Story of Man

The following entry is actually a reworked term paper I wrote some four years ago. The class I wrote it for was called 'film and literature', which examined films based on how they were adapted from novels and plays. The book I worked with was, obviously, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein- which was one of my favorite novels at the time.

I'm posting this here because I feel that, while a few years old, this piece still accurately reflects many of my personal feelings and opinions on humanity. In this alte day I feel that many of my ideas on the state of human kind can be traced back to my youth and its interest in all things 'Monster' related; be it Ghostbusters, Monster Squad, or the various late night horror films I sneaked down to after the parents went to sleep.

Frankenstein: The Story of Man.

On the banks of a small lake in the middle of Europe a small girl is doing what small girls do, picking flowers. As she throws the tops of the pedals into the lake she is approached by a large, seemingly lost, man in heavy boots and a scarred face. For a moment the girl is afraid, but then calms herself and allows the man to approach, offering him flowers in friendship. In a moment the girl would be dead, thrown into the waters by her new friend.

From the start of the film it may have been destined that the Monster would go crazy on the townsfolk. The world he is born into is not the world that Mary Shelley created in her original text, which was filled with books and knowledge and learning. J. Whale’s world was one of darkness and destruction, from the moment of the monster’s birth he is tormented by the mean Fritz with fire. The Monster is chained to walls and when he finally is allowed to leave he is chased around by people with pitchforks.

In Shelley’s world, filled with knowledge, the Monster is allowed to mature into a free thinking adult man, perhaps aided by whatever knowledge his original brain stored. Sure, Frankenstein rejects him and goes off with his life, but it is in with this rejection that the Monster is allowed to go and learn. During his travels The Monster comes upon the family of the Delacey’s and proceeds to live in their cottage. It is here that he first views love and compassion from one person to another. On page 119 the Monster states “…how the father doated on the smiles of the infant, and the lively sallies of the older child; how all the life and cares of the mother were wrapped up in the precious charge; how the mind of youth expanded and gained knowledge; of brother, sister, and all the various relationships which bind one human being to another in mutual bonds.”

It is here that the Monster begins to wonder why if these children had parents and friends to look after him, why hadn’t he? He goes on to say “Where were my friends and relations?” and then “I had never yet seen a being resembling me, or who claimed any intercourse with me. What was I?” ‘What was I?’ it seems to be more like the questions of an orphaned teenager than a mad and evil undead man. Soon enough his journey comes nearly full circle when he meets Frankenstein in the mountains.. He finds Frankenstein somewhat spiteful of his creation, but despite this is willing to talk. It is at this point that Monster asks Frankenstein to create another one.

“At length I wandered towards these mountains, and have ranged through their immense recess, consumed by a passion you alone can gratify. We may not part until you promise to comply with my requisition. I am alone, and miserable; man will no associate with me, but one as deformed and as horrible as I would no deny herself with me. My companion must be of the same species, and have the same defects. This being you will create.”

Wale’s film also takes the ideas of the Monster’s innocent nature, this is where we have the scene with the small child and the lake. Unlike Shelley’s mature thinking Monster, Wale’s creates his version as one that resembles closely a mentally challenged adult. The Monster wasn’t evil, he just did not have the proper abilities to reason out his situation, his reactions to things were reasonable under this line of thinking. In the original trailer the announcer states the monster preys on young children against a clip of the monster holding hands with the girl. With the actual scene of the child and Monster throwing the flowers in the lake, one could see how the monster, lacking normal thought, could think the girl would float or at least swim.

All scenes of the Monsters humanization from the novel were removed from the film’s production. The Omission obviously created a more fierce monster, but also perchance created a more sympathetic version. His actions at the end of the novel, the killing of Victor’s beloved Elizabeth, were the actions of a man with reason. In contrast, the movie Monster does observe some actions of human life, but the majority of it is not good. In the openings of his life he is tortured by Fritz, the little man taunting him with fire when being unprovoked. The film version is ignorant of his actions because he does not have a working understanding of what life is, all he has known is pain and misery and so all he knows how to do is cause pain and misery. The novel’s version knows empathy, and indeed feels some toward the doctor as in the final chapters we see the Monster with his arms around the coffin of Frankenstein, mourning the death of his father as a son would despite the terrible relationship.

In the years following its release, the story Frankenstein and his Monster Frankenstein has been viewed as a source of fright and horror. With its themes of creating life from death, scenes of piecing together body parts from those stolen in cemeteries, and the awe inspiring scene in which the crazy doctor Frankenstein welcomes his new creation into the world would only serve as reason to. However, between the scenes of birth and death of the monster, we view scenes of the monster’s urge to forge friendships, his urge to find love and companionship. We see not a Monster, but a Man, trying to cope with what life has given

Insights into Writing: How Music Affects Creation

Right now I’m sitting in my living room floor, Indian style and hunched over the computer screen that is sitting on my lap. I'm in blue boxer shorts and a Battlestar Galactica t-shirt. My reddish blonde hair is messed up despite me having tried to pat it down after my shower (it's getting longer and to the stage where it's impossible to deal with). In my DJ style Headphones I’m listening to a local rapper named Big Chef.

So I'm sitting here trying to develop a mixtape to help me zero in on certain aspects of the different characters I'm working with in novel. I know to some of you that may seem rather weird but I assure you it helps with my personal process. I find music to be the ultimate creative catalyst for me when it comes to writing- it allows me to tap into the voice of the characters by imagining the style or type of music they listen to. Looking back on my notes from when I began writing I've always worked this way. In my plan sheets I had the usual shit of height, weight age color etc. but then I'd always have 'music' listed underneath all that.

In the case of Farcry I've mainly been working with the album Music for the People by Vast. It's what I listened to when I first began writing the original passages (the ones I’ve posted here) and it's allowed me to get into Pete's mind frame of his discussing his drug addictions and guilt over his inability to save his girlfriend. It's given Pete a voice.

Then last night I began plotting out the actual death scene of Melanie (if you read my stuff then you know she's dead) and the VAST music wasn't working for what I was going for. So I went to random and the first song it played set what I needed. The song was Within Temptation's Jillian (I'd Give My Heart) and (despite it being a female singer) it felt like the words were the character Pete discussing his loss and grief.

(Lyrics)

I've been dreaming for so long,

To find a meaning to understand.

The secret of life,

why am I here to try again?

Will I always, will you always

See the truth when it stares you in the face?

Will I ever, will I never free myself

By breaking these chains?

I'd give my heart, I'd give my soul.

I'd turn it back, it's my fault.

Your destiny is forlorn,

Have to live till it's undone.

I'd give my heart, I'd give my soul.

I'd turn it back and then at last I'll be on my way.

Jillian our dream ended long ago.

All our stories and all our glory I held so dear.

We won't be together

For ever and ever, no more tears.

I'll always be here until the end.

Yeah when I heard the lyrics I heard Pete, him talking and discussing the events surrounding Melanie's death and his pining for her back, his guilt that his actions directly affected her life and eventual death. So with these lyrics in mind I went at re-writing the scene and the result, to me at least, is much fuller of emotion than what I had prior- which felt more of a stating of events with an announcer than an actual peek into a broken man's soul.

For those who've asked whether I'll stick with this or abandon it all I have to say is this: I'm definitely sticking with this novel, at this point in my life I need to finish this. I need to prove to myself I can write a coherent novel with a decent plot and writing. I've found that there's a lot of old ideas and characters coming out in this one who I thought were lost or I'm reimagining in this. I feel my general writing ability is stronger and I'm able to carry things further than simply list a series of events. In other words I’m more confident. And I guess it's all you need, right?