You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'ghost'

What kind of ghost would you be?

  • October 20, 2011 12:00 am

Death isn’t what frightens me. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that that’s not what most people are afraid of. No, people are afraid of what comes after. But what if it isn’t heaven or hell? What if it’s something much more mundane?

So maybe we become ghosts.

Everything I know about ghosts comes from pop culture. More often than not vengeful, murderous, or some unholy combination of the two, ghosts don’t get the best representation in the media. They’re often harassing, hunting, or otherwise harming the living. And in spite of being the aggressor, their existence is usually hinging upon some deep, unresolved pain.  Read more...

Why ‘American Horror Story’ Would be More Believable with an Asian American Family

  • October 6, 2011 10:40 pm

American Horror Story, the new TV series from Glee creator Ryan Murphy, premiered on FX last night. The premise of the show revolves around a family moving into a haunted house. Now, I love a great ghost story as much as the next guy, but I didn’t watch the show and I don’t think I’m going to.

Why? Murphy’s very talented and the cast includes such heavy-hitters as Jessica Lange so I’m sure it’s a quality program, but I have a big issue with the premise. It’s an issue that I’ve blogged about before and that other astute non-white people like the young and then funny Eddie Murphy have pointed out: why don’t white people who live in houses haunted by evil supernatural forces just move out?

With a TV series like American Horror Story, this issue is even more pronounced. It’s one thing to suspend disbelief and accept that a white family isn’t moving out of a haunted house in a 2-hour movie, but a successful TV show could run for years and years. Which means if the series is a hit, we could spend the next ten years wondering: why the fuck doesn’t that white family get out of the house already?

I’m sure the writers will come up with some clever ways to keep that family in that house, but I’m sorry—I’m not going to buy it. If that house is that haunted and that evil, no one will be stupid enough to stay there that long.  Read more...

What I Learned on YOMYOMF This Week – January 30 – February 5, 2011

  • February 5, 2011 8:55 am

So random going-on in the house of Jerome (well, technically, it’s my parents’ house but, you know, “house of Jerome’s parents” doesn’t really have the same ring and now – great! – this parenthetical has gone on too long):

I’ve been eating these protein bars for a while now before or after my workouts and they are pretty baller, even taste-wise:

The only person in the house that ever ate them was yours truly and they come in packs of 9 Peanut Butter bars and 9 Chocolate bars.  Both are rather delicious, especially considering that they aren’t just candy, but Peanut Butter – if you’re into that kind of thing – stands head and shoulders above the Chocolate variety.

My solution for finishing each pack was to switch flavors each day, so that I wouldn’t just have 9 Peanut Butter bars in a row and leave myself with 9 Chocolate bars for my mouth to trudge through.  Elegant, yes?

This week, however, there was a particularly long lull between meals for my family and they had a taste of these protein bars.  Now they have a taste for these protein bars.

But they only like the Peanut Butter ones so then after a long workout, I get stuck with the Chocolate ones!  Bummer, right?

What a hard life.

As we march into Hallmark’s favorite month, YOMYOMF verbs the adjective nouns like Suggestive Topic 1, Snarky Topic 2, and Outrageously Normal Topic 3.

Sarcastic punchline.  Read more...

FAMILY MATTERS: The Man in the Shadows.

  • February 1, 2011 1:11 am

One night a couple weeks ago, just as she was pulling out of her sister’s house, my mother thought she saw a man in the shadows of her backyard.  When she got home, she was visibly shaken and, fearing for her sister’s safety, asked me to go right back there and investigate.

My friend who was over at the time grabbed a bat; I grabbed these Filipino weapons my dad had laying around; and the two of us plus my mom made our way back to the scene of the sighting.

Said Filipino weapons.

As my mom sat in the backseat, my friend and I stepped out into the darkness of the backyard, backed only by the highbeams of our car behind us.  We had no idea what was waiting for us out there.

Images of crazed junkies and irate vagrants hopped around in my head and only served to exacerbate my already obvious shakiness. Both of us had our hard pieces of wood at the ready to whack the shit off anything that moved.

But, thankfully, there was nothing there.  At least, that was what me and my friend concluded.  My aunt was safe; we were all okay.

Driving back, my mom began to share her incontrovertible proof that something had been there (“There was a shadow!”) and started presenting various theories as what it could’ve been.  Of course, she touched back on the aforementioned addicts and hobos – I think she threw in a straight-up thief for good measure – but the possibility she spoke of with the most conviction was that it was a spirit.

She became extremely emotional as she confessed that it was probably her brother’s/my uncle’s ghost.  He lived in the same complex and passed away a couple years prior.  My mom quietly admitted that she probably saw him because our family had stopped visiting his grave as frequently as we used to.  Read more...

The U.S. Military’s Secret Weapon: Ghosts

  • September 28, 2010 1:00 am

Bullets and bombs aren’t the only weapons the U.S. military has used in its quest for victory. Ghosts, superstitions and even vampires (and not the kind that “sparkle” and won’t have sex with you) have all been employed to defeat our enemies on the battlefield.

According to this recent piece in io9, the U.S. military has used local supernatural beliefs as an ongoing part of a psychological warfare agenda against its enemies. Following are two examples of how this was done against our Asian brethren; in the Philippines during the 1950s and then again a few years later during the Vietnam War.

Major General Edward G. Lansdale spearheaded the aforementioned effort in the Philippines while fighting the Communist Huk rebels to make it seem as if an Asuang, a traditional vampire-like creature in the Filipino culture that can fly (she has wings) and has a taste for unborn fetuses, was present in the area. Yup, the big military strategy was to pretend there was a vampire lose. Here’s how Lansdale explained it:

 Read more...

How to Make a Woman Fall for You

  • September 22, 2010 12:38 am

Per Alfredo’s blog, it may be very easy to woo a man simply by offering up mindless sex. Women, however, are much more complex in the ways of romance.  After reading Alfredo’s other blog “Nicholas Sparks: Death by Cotton Candy,” I assume not many men have watched a Nicholas Sparks movie nor ever intend to, thereby missing all the great tips on wooing that these and other fine films that score high on the romance-o-meter have to offer.

So here are the top ways to make a woman fall for you, based on what I have learned from popular romantic movies.

(Spoiler alerts:  If you haven’t watched “Titanic,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “New Moon,” “A Walk to Remember,” “Love Story,” “Moulin Rouge,” “Dear John,” “Love in the Time of Cholera,” or “Cyrano de Bergerac,” chances are you never will anyway.  But you have been forewarned.)

 1. Be Incredibly Handsome

Unfortunately, the reality is, the number one common denominator of all romantic films is that the lead is incredibly handsome.  No need to elaborate here. 

2. Be Willing to Die for your Love

Dying is the most romantic gesture a man can make for his love. Just take a look at “Titanic” or any production of “Romeo and Juliet”. The act of dying will surely win any woman over.  Sorry you won’t be around to see the results, though.   Read more...

How To Survive A Phone Call From A Dead Person

  • July 21, 2010 12:05 am

Usually if I get a phone call at 7 AM, it means something is amiss. No one who knows me would call me that early because they know I probably went to bed just a couple of hours earlier and will be getting up a couple of hours later and that’s my prime sleeping time. So I knew I couldn’t ignore this call.

“Are you awake?” my friend Irene asks in a frantic voice. Well, I guess I am now.

“You have to come over right away,” she continues without waiting for a response. “I think my grandmother called me last night.” That statement wouldn’t be strange except for one fact: Irene’s grandmother had passed away a week-and-a-half ago. “Actually meet me at Alcove for breakfast. I don’t feel comfortable being in my apartment right now.”

So I meet up with Irene and she tells me what happened over a breakfast burrito and coffee. She had gone to bed at midnight as she usually does. At some point in the night, her cell phone rang. She opened her eyes for a second, decided that she was too tired to answer and went back to sleep. When Irene woke up the next morning, she checked her cell and the late night caller hadn’t left a message, but…the call had originated from her deceased grandmother’s home phone.

“Her phone was disconnected a week ago,” she said. “This is freaking me out.”  Read more...

My Top Ten Pet Peeves

  • July 20, 2010 12:02 am

Being the good guy that I am, I happily offered to pick up a friend’s son after his summer program when he found himself ride-less yesterday afternoon. The kid told me his instructor taught the students about pet peeves and their homework was to make a list of some of the things in their lives that they found annoying.

“Do you have any pet peeves?” The boy asked me.

“Of course.” I reply.

“Could you tell me what yours are? Maybe that will help me think of some of my own.”

Again, being the good guy that I am, I was happy to help a youngster discover the joys of education. So here, as my good deed for the day, are my top 10 pet peeves:

 Read more...

What Would You Do If You Saw A Ghost?

  • March 15, 2010 1:56 pm

A friend of mine in Korea sent me this link that’s making the rounds on the internet. I believe it’s from a Korean TV program where a woman dressed like a ghost tries to scare unsuspecting people. The last guy’s reaction is awesome…he definitely does what a Korean man should do in that situation. Happy Monday!

(Thanks to Sung Hi for the link)

True Supernatural Tales From Japan

  • October 31, 2009 12:47 am

kayako1The final entry in my month-long celebration of all things Halloween

The big night is finally upon us and that means my last Halloween-themed blog. I’ve always enjoyed reading about “real-life” stories of the supernatural so I thought it’d be a fitting way to end my series with a quick sampling of a few paranormal happenings from Japan—a country that definitely loves its ghost stories. Happy Halloween! Wishing everyone a fun and safe time! Don’t forget to submit photos of your costumes. Info here.

PSYCHIC PHOTOS

 

Nensha photo plates

Nensha photo plates

   Read more...