Ghosts of Gettysburg

Today Sarah and I took a quick jaunt out to Gettysburg. It's just over an hour away and seeing as how we're huge fans of Ghost Hunters, we couldn't resist checking out a couple of ghost tours. I did a Google search for "ghost tours gettysburg" and Ghosts of Gettysburg was the first place to pop up. Their website stated they were voted the #1 Ghost Tour last year, so I thought what the heck. We weren't disappointed. The staff was very friendly and their tour guides were top-notch. They have five different tours to choose from; This blog is based on the Carlisle Street Tour. Afterward, our tour guide told us she'd never seen a ghost while working that specific tour, but said she'd seen one four times while giving the Baltimore Street Tour. So guess what Sarah and I are trying to squeeze into our calendar.

As we walked the historic streets of Gettysburg, Sarah was particularly attracted to the alleys, and every time we would walk by one, this is basically what would happen:

As the day turned into evening and it got darker outside and the ghost tours continued, Sarah kept on snapping shots. A lot of the pictures she took contained what a lot of ghost fans call "orbs," small circles of light they believe are actual ghosts (or their energy) trying to manifest itself. Sarah and I tend to think it's just the reflection of the camera flash hitting dust, bugs, or something similar. Here are a couple of the most orb-filled photos, taken on the Gettysburg University campus:

Again, "orbs" don't really do anything for me, but there you are.

Our ghost tour ended around 10:30pm in the Gettysburg square in front of what we were told was the oldest building in the square. Our tour guide thanked us for coming and our small group dispersed. Sarah immediately went to the front door of the building where we stood (a store that, naturally, was closed at the time) and took a photo through the window in the front door.

As we walked away, she showed me the photo and I froze. I've seen a bunch of photos that include "ghost faces" and I hardly ever see what I'm supposed to be looking at. But this jumped out at me. Upon first glance, it looked like there was the figure of a woman dressed all in black with the collar of a white shirt poking up out above her long black coat, her black hair pulled back in a tight bun browsing the shelves in the store. It was really weird.

Can you see it? Maybe? Here. Maybe this will help.

I'll be honest. The picture looks a lot different on the computer screen than it did on the tiny camera display, but still....

Sarah ran back to the storefront and took another picture. Like the first one, she took this one with the flash turned off.

It looked like she was still there browsing, this time in a slightly different pose.

The inside of the store was dark and it was hard to see what might be in there, so I asked Sarah to take a picture with the flash on so we could see what might possibly be in there that would appear to make the shape of a person.

As you can see, there's nothing there.

On a whim, I pulled out my Flip camera, placed it against the window, and filmed for a few seconds. In one of her trademark goofy whispers, Sarah asked the mystery lady to show up again ("Lady....come baaack"), and then tried to remember what the tour guide had told us the original owner's name was.

Elated that we thought we might have photographed a ghost, we made our way back to the car and headed home. A few minutes out of town, I told Sarah she should watch the Flip video to see if we caught anything and, as she played it, we freaked out. I say "we" freaked out, because although I wasn't watching the video (see what a safe driver I am?), I could hear it.

I assure you, Sarah and I did not hear that sound when we filmed it. Our lack of response bears witness to the fact that we didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. Yet it appears Sarah got a response to her plea for the lady to return. We listened to it over and over again, and it sounds as if something inside the store is moving. I ran the video twice in the above clip, the first time as I filmed it and in the second pass I lightened the picture a bit in an attempt to see if I could find what is moving or making the sound.

I didn't see anything.

So, did Sarah and I catch something? We don't know. But for a few minutes our hearts raced at the thought that we may have. Either way, it was a lot of fun.

August 22, 2010 - Sarah and I returned to de-bunk Mrs. Pickering...and we were successful! Read about it HERE.

Bears With Sticks: Just As Impressive as Avatar

This video is a lot like Avatar. At first I was like "Wow this is amazing!" And then I was like "Is this all that happens?" And then I gave up and quit watching before it was over.

Chelsea Clinton's "Wedding of the Century"

Apparently Chelsea Clinton is getting married and it's a big deal. To be honest, that's about all I know because I only read the headline. Chelsea Clinton is so low on my radar - just a bit lower than Erin Moran and Mr. Belding - I couldn't be bothered to read the article.

Yahoo News is calling her nuptials the "wedding of the century."

Seriously. Please media, I beg of you, do not try to make Chelsea Clinton into our version of Princess Diana. Just don't. Please.

And how cocky are we to call this event the wedding of the century? We're only 10 years into it. How belittling is that to everyone else who comes along in the next 90 years? Our apologies, future people of note who get married. Sorry, Celebrities-of-2088. I'm sorry, Dude Who Invents Monkey-To-English Tranlsator Voice Boxes. I understand you're all pretty important and prominent, but you seem to have forgotten that back around 2010, 2011, Chelsea Clinton got married.

Who?

She's the daughter of one of our presidents.

Huh? You mean other presidents' kids have gotten married, too?

Yea, but...well...this is happening now.

You're Fine At That Size

While perusing the web today, I came across an article about Kate Gosselin. I couldn't help but notice, directly under the photograph, was an option to enlarge the photo.

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Seriously? You honestly think that, given the choice, I would willingly want to see an even bigger photo of that thing?

Will you also be providing sticks to shove into my eyes afterward?

These Are the People in My Neighborhood

Today on the way to a dentist appointment, I stopped at the apartment to drop a few things off. I parked behind a red Tracker and didn't pull up as close behind it as I usually would since I knew I'd be zipping away again in a few moments. As I got out of my car, a large, older lady came waddling up to the Tracker and proceeded to make mean faces and complain about how I had boxed her in because I parked so close.

So I went inside, grabbed my camera, and took a photo of how much I (and the car in front of her) had her blocked.



Seriously, lady, if you can't get out of that parking space without working up a sweat, then you deserve to drive a Tracker.

Bad Ad

How do you know when All Access, a radio-industry website, should be more careful about the placement of their ads? When an ad showing a man dead in the road pops up next to a news article reporting on someone's memorial service.

That's when All Access should be more careful about the placement of their ads.



Seriously. This has not been altered, Photoshopped, tweaked, or otherwise manipulated in any way. This is an actual screen shot. I mean come on, I'm not that sick.

Bad form, All Access. Bad, bad, bad, bad form.

Those Colorful Musicians

I'm writing this blog from my hotel room after Day 3 of Creation 2010. The Creation Festival is a yearly music festival nestled in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. The easiest way to describe it is to call it the "Christian Woodstock." The radio station I work for goes up each year, we set up inside a trailer, and we try to get as many of the performing artists to pop in for an interview as possible. I'm always in charge of filming the interviews and then I spend the next few weeks at work editing them down and posting them on the station's YouTube page.

This year we did something a little different. For those of you who don't know, I enjoy drawing doodles. This year I doodled all of the artists appearing at the 4-day festival (43 of them in all). We compiled the black-and-white drawings into a collection we called the Creation Coloring book. Then, we brought the book with us and when the artists came through for their interview, we had them color and autograph their page in the coloring book. We'll be posting the book on eBay and donating all the money received from the auction to Compassion International. You can see all of the doodles in the coloring book (before the artists colored them) by clicking here.

I gotta tell you, it's been a blast so far. Not only has it been fun seeing the artists react to their doodle, but it's also been fun hanging out with them for a few minutes. I've captured some really cool moments on video so far, and we still have one more day to go.

Here's a brief rundown of some highlights the first few days:

• We got to meet Carlos Whittaker, who's just as much fun to be around in person as he is to read his blog.


• We got a chance to hang out with our pal Bob Lenz, an amazing speaker who has one of the biggest hearts around (maybe because he's also one of the biggest guys around)


• As far as pure hilarious moments go, I never thought we'd be able to top David Crowder yelling out the trailer at a kid with "Jimmy" printed on his shirt. Chris and Conrad proved me wrong.


• Mark Gungor, one of the most excited and excitable guys I've been around, gave some great insights into marriage that were so simple I was a little embarrassed I hadn't thought of them already


• We have a Wii with MarioKart in our trailer. It's a nice break for the artists from the usual standard radio interviews they probably go through and it's fun to see their faces light up when they see the Wii waiting to be played. Of all the bands at Creation, you probably wouldn't have expected that the band who had the hardest time tearing themselves away from the Wii was Casting Crowns. True story.


• DecembeRadio really seemed to enjoy their doodle and they were a lot of fun to joke and hang with


• B Reith sat down and really took time to color his doodle while Kristi Leigh interviewed him. He said he would soon be switching his Facebook profile picture to his doodle. Nice!


• Chris Tomlin was very kind and friendly and seemed to genuinely enjoy his time in the trailer.


• Thi'sl and J'Son were simultaneously hilarious and moving. Watching them film each other with their iPhones as they colored their doodles was entertaining to say the least.


• It was my first time meeting the guys from House of Heroes and it was worth the wait.


• It was good to see Matt MacDonald from The Classic Crime once again and when he realized we were the guys from last year who had the Wii, his face lit up and he was ready to race once again.


• Both We As Human and Abandon went all out coloring in their doodles and we were quite impressed with their style.


• Best of all, though, had to be the opportunity to once again see and hang out with a couple of friends from my time in Nashville, John and Gabe. Man, it was good to see those guys again.

There was more, but...well...I'll let you see for yourselves. Starting next week I'll begin posting the videos of our time at Creation so you can see some of it for yourself. Unfortunately we weren't able to catch up with the Newsboys or TobyMac or our old pal Trevor from Thousand Foot Krutch, but we're having a good time.

When you see some of the videos, you'll get what I'm talking about. Until then...well...here's the David Crowder video from 2007 I mentioned earlier. The one where he yells at the kid with JIMMY on his shirt. Still cracks me up.