Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

[CarlosTheDJ]

Was he doing something in the region of 88 miles per hour?

 

[uair01]

Urban collections of nothing.
Somehow I've been obsessively photographing urban objects. With more than 300 it's probably time to stop:

Balls in the city (spheres):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/sets/72157634735285612/

Omphalos - lingam (centerpoints and things pointing upwards):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/sets/72157634285676538/

There is some overlap between the collections.
Now I've gathered the raw data - how to analyze this? What conclusions to draw? What discoveries to make? :?

Note: the title is stolen from this really wonderful and even fortean book:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/437002.html

 

[Mythopoeika]

No! Don't stop.

Just curious - have you ever found an 'omphalos' with two spheres at its base?

 

[uair01]

Just curious - have you ever found an 'omphalos' with two spheres at its base?

Ah! I can do some data-mining for this.
I think this comes the closest:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/12571388003/in/set-72157634735285612

And this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uair01/14095275381/in/set-72157634735285612

And it's only after your question that I realised how Freudian the combination of the two collections is. It was never intended that way (at least not consciously).

 

[Mythopoeika]

And it's only after your question that I realised how Freudian the combination of the two collections is. It was never intended that way (at least not consciously).

:lol:

 

[Scribbles]

A large van disappeared from before my eyes the other day.

...

OK, so I'm sure that this van didn't really disappear, but I definitely didn't see it, on the roundabout or elsewhere, after it pulled in front of the UPS truck. To all intents and purposes, as far as my perception of events was concerned, it vanished.

I wrote a post on here once about a lorry in my drive that disappeared! Again, logically I knew it couldn't have done, but my perception that it did really freaked me out!

 

[ramonmercado]

A large van disappeared from before my eyes the other day.

...

OK, so I'm sure that this van didn't really disappear, but I definitely didn't see it, on the roundabout or elsewhere, after it pulled in front of the UPS truck. To all intents and purposes, as far as my perception of events was concerned, it vanished.

I wrote a post on here once about a lorry in my drive that disappeared! Again, logically I knew it couldn't have done, but my perception that it did really freaked me out!

I'll have no truck with that.

 

[Iris]

When something happens we don't expect it makes us think.
At shopping centre last week I noticed 3 girls going the opposite way to us. Two were teens and one younger and dressed in shorts which it was a bit cool to be wearing I thought.
Anyway my daughter and I continued to buy a coffee and sit at the food court, but as soon as I sat down to wait for her to order who should pass by but the 3 girls again.
I couldn't work out how they could have come so quickly after going the other way. We are not slow walkers and they were not going over fast.

 

[Scribbles]

A large van disappeared from before my eyes the other day.

...

OK, so I'm sure that this van didn't really disappear, but I definitely didn't see it, on the roundabout or elsewhere, after it pulled in front of the UPS truck. To all intents and purposes, as far as my perception of events was concerned, it vanished.

I wrote a post on here once about a lorry in my drive that disappeared! Again, logically I knew it couldn't have done, but my perception that it did really freaked me out!

I'll have no truck with that.

 

[Scribbles]

When something happens we don't expect it makes us think.
At shopping centre last week I noticed 3 girls going the opposite way to us. Two were teens and one younger and dressed in shorts which it was a bit cool to be wearing I thought.
Anyway my daughter and I continued to buy a coffee and sit at the food court, but as soon as I sat down to wait for her to order who should pass by but the 3 girls again.
I couldn't work out how they could have come so quickly after going the other way. We are not slow walkers and they were not going over fast.

Like the weirdly tall teenager one day in Prague that husband and I kept meeting walking towards us and we couldn't figure out how because he should have been behind us. Then I sat down in a square for a rest and hubby went to go look in some shops, and when he came back he saw the tall teenager sitting next to me! I was just staring straight ahead with a worried look on my face :shock:

 

[Frideswide]

Scribbles... he wasn't.... golem-like was he? :shock:

 

[dannyagger]

I used to have a friend who my other friends wouldn't hang around with, one of them said "she gets into your head". I thought this was complete nonsense and said so.

One day I was sat with this friend, and was thinking about the salsa I'd bought a couple of days earlier. My friend didn't know that I'd bought it and it wasn't something I normally ate, we'd never discussed it. My friend stared at me for a bit and then said, completely out of the blue, "how about some salsa then?" This was a long time ago when salsa wasn't in most shops here.

It scared the living daylights out of me. Undoubtedly a mere coincidence, but it was pretty freaky.

I find coincidences really fascinating. Another couple I had: I share a birthday with George Harrison. The night before he died I had My Sweet Lord continuously on loop in my head, couldn't get rid of it. This went on for hours. Turned on the tv later to find out he'd died.

I have his autobiography. One day it fell off my bookshelf on its own somehow, and when I went to pick it up, it had opened on the page with a picture of George's birth certificate...my birthday and his, albeit not the same year.

I know it's nothing more than coincidence but I find it interesting.

 

[RyoHazuki]

Many moons ago, when I was studying for my Btec in Engineering, I used to walk the couple of miles to college each morning, which took me around 20-25 minutes. There was only one practical route, which ultimately took me directly through the main (pedestrian) shopping area, and thence onto a hundred yards or so of footpath which led straight onto the campus.
One morning, I was walking through the shops, and saw a group of 4 students going into Woolworths; I didn't know them personally, but they were fairly distinctive in appearance, and I'd seen them almost every day as they were doing the same course, but in the year above me.
I walked straight into the campus, and headed directly for the classroom, walking past the glass-walled machine shop........... where I saw the same 4 students, wearing their brown tech overalls, fiddling with mills and lathes. There was no other route that would have allowed them to get there before me (even running flat-out), and they didn't come past me on my way in. I've never been able to get that event out of my mind, or even come close to explaining it. I could have just asked them I suppose, but I doubt I could have phrased it in a way that didn't make me look like an utter weirdo.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Many moons ago, when I was studying for my Btec in Engineering, I used to walk the couple of miles to college each morning, which took me around 20-25 minutes. There was only one practical route, which ultimately took me directly through the main (pedestrian) shopping area, and thence onto a hundred yards or so of footpath which led straight onto the campus.
One morning, I was walking through the shops, and saw a group of 4 students going into Woolworths; I didn't know them personally, but they were fairly distinctive in appearance, and I'd seen them almost every day as they were doing the same course, but in the year above me.
I walked straight into the campus, and headed directly for the classroom, walking past the glass-walled machine shop........... where I saw the same 4 students, wearing their brown tech overalls, fiddling with mills and lathes. There was no other route that would have allowed them to get there before me (even running flat-out), and they didn't come past me on my way in. I've never been able to get that event out of my mind, or even come close to explaining it. I could have just asked them I suppose, but I doubt I could have phrased it in a way that didn't make me look like an utter weirdo.

Good story but hardly minor! Should live in the glitch in the matrix thread.

 

[Ulalume]

Scribbles... he wasn't.... golem-like was he? :shock:

My most recent incident:
I have a divination deck that's a particular favorite, called the Russian Gypsy Fortune Telliing Cards. http://www.amazon.com/Russian-Gypsy-For ... 0062508768

Been using them about 20 years now, and have found that certain cards are extraordinarily accurate for me and other less so. In the past, the "Bouquet" card was hit and miss and anyway, I didn't get it all that often. But since moving to this county, the bouquet in the reversed position ("you will find a means of earning money"} has become a dead cert for receiving a jury summons the next day. 4 times now. :shock:

Makes me think I ought to broaden my chances of making a few bucks outside of sitting in a chilly courtroom for hours on end...:wince:

 

[rynner2]

Coming home from town this afternoon, I was on a bus that does a roundabout tour of the suburbs, and I saw two birds sitting on different roofs. So far, not very strange! But one was a heron and the other was a hawk of some kind, neither the sort of birds to commonly visit suburbia.

The 'heron' might possibly have been an outdoor ornament - I only caught a fleeting glimpse as we passed - but I've never noticed it there before. (I'll keep a sharp look-out next time I pass that way.)

The hawk was definitely real - I saw it turn its head. Knowing we'd pass the same spot about 5 minutes later, I got my camera prepared for a shot or two, but when we passed again the bird had flown.

(Some years ago I saw a duck perched on the ridge of a house roof in Falmouth! The house was on a hill, so it was quite a way from any water. It would have been interesting to see him land there! I did post about it then, but the post seems to have disappeared.)

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Ducks don't seem to require much water. Every year we two or three mating pairs at out work at the grassy circle near the main building. No water yet they raise their young here. I guessing it's safe from predators and people at work feed them. We have to cover the drains though so the little luns don't fall through the grate. :cry:

 

[uair01]

Nice blog post by my favorite artist:

http://openurbanism.blogspot.nl/2014/11/1258pm-time-for-irresponsible-disposal.html

The incorrigible hoarders that we are, we've been collecting them and reading the discarded papers of the city of London.

Don't worry, people who like to irresponsibly dispose of their documents, your papers won't be flying on the streets, they'll be safe and sound with people like us who will be collecting your sensitive documents as souvenirs, and then uploading them to the internet and blogging about them one by one.

 

[PeniG]

Urban hawks are quite common, actually. Lots for them to eat in cities - pigeons and rats, particularly.

You can see migratory birds absolutely anywhere along the migration route during migration, and young adults looking for new territories almost anywhere - at the correct time of year. Also herons, ducks, and other waterfowl travel between waterways when there's call for it, which could be almost anytime they're not actively raising chicks.

Check with the local birders before declaring any bird OOP!

 

[Cochise]

I was overhauling the oddments drawer early yesterday evening and found a Zippo lighter. Been there since I gave up smoking, I expect. Anyway, I thought I'd see if it worked, I could use a lighter because I like to have some incense burning in the evening (I have used a gas lighter for ages but its seals have gone and now I'm on matches) , There was no spark, obviously the flint had gone. I put it down (I thought on the table by my chair) and went to get flints and a screwdriver, which did not involve leaving the room.

Sat down to fix the flint - no lighter! I've searched the room, tipped over the chair in case it was on the arm and fell inside, to no avail. Obviously the leprechauns (or whatever the Welsh equivalent is) have taken it.

 

[Iris]

When that happens to me I say the St.Anthony line and strangely it often seems to work.

 

[MercuryCrest]

Bear with me, this requires some explanation, but it just "finished" happening right now and I want to write it down while it's fresh.

5-6 months ago, I purchased the movie "Red II". I had seen it on a kiosk at Target for $5 and figured that the sequel (which I had not heard about prior) had gone direct to video. I liked the first one so much that I bought the second one without having seen it first.

Life gets in the way. Maybe 2 months later I go to watch it and it turns out that I bought the original "Red" instead. Well, I loved it, so that's okay, but that gets me wondering about the sequel. I saw "Red 2" on the cover when I went to grab it. That was the whole thing that brought me to that kiosk.

It turns out that yes, there is a sequel (which I hadn't seen advertised anywhere prior to searching for it online).

Okay, fine, I must have grabbed the wrong movie. I didn't think I had kept the receipt so I could check.

A few days ago, the strap to my bag (which kind of holds my world together; sketchbook, multipliers, flashlight, poncho, MP3 player, etc.) broke and I went and bought a replacement.

While swapping everything out, I threw out the accumulated garbage (including a handful of receipts) and transferred the good stuff to the new bag. Tonight, I looked through some of the business cards that I had moved to the new bag and noticed a receipt.

Here's the good part. Before unfolding it, I thought (not seriously at all) that wouldn't it be nifty if it turned out that that was the receipt from Target (which I was damned sure by this time that I hadn't kept) so I could check and see if I bought Red or Red 2.

Yes, yes it was. The original Red is what is on the receipt. I decided to put it in the DVD case...just because.

EDIT: Also, I'm just finishing reading R.A. Wilson's "Cosmic Trigger" which deals with a veritable plethora of synchronicities. I think he's laughing at me right now....

 

[CyberianTiger]

I rent a flat in the centre of Phnom Penh, near the riverside and Royal Palace. Last week was the culmination of the Water Festival, the major national holiday of the Khmer calendar. Literally millions of people come to the city from the countryside to view the boat races and events in the capital. My flat is next to a large park which was hosting various concerts over the two days, and all of this was contained within a traffic exclusion zone. During the evening, the crowds were so intense that I didn't fancy venturing out, and so watched the fireworks from my balcony, which has a prime view.

Anyway, on the second night, I was enjoying the pyrotechnics and music until quite late when the strangeness began. The entertainment went from live music to what I can only describe as Khmer pantomime. I couldn't see the stage from my balcony, but I've seen similar on TV and that's what it sounded like. I don't speak the language so I only got an impression of what it was about, but instead of the usual jovial subject matter, this one seemed to consist of a demonic male character terrorising a female character. It was dark and the voice was resounding and overwhelming, and the effect was creepy as hell. I'm also aware that the pagoda across the park is where Pol Pot was a novice, and this seemed strangely relevant and added to my sense of the spooky. Then, as if in answer to the demonic voice, first one bat, then several appeared and began swooping aggressively around me. By this stage I was pretty much crapping it and ran inside.

I admit I was slightly drunk, but I've been drunk thousands of times and never felt under attack by evil in this way. In my kitchen was a pumpkin lantern that I had made for Halloween a few days previous, and in my state of superstitious alarm, I realised this might work as a kind of magic weapon against the bats and 'evil vibes'. It worked of course. After placing it on my balcony, the bats were driven off and I felt sure the place was adequately defended from demons/ghosts. This must be exactly what my Celtic forefathers had in mind when making such lanterns, and I'm glad I happened to have one handy.

 

[Scribbles]

Well, I feel as bit daft posting this after such a superb creepy story of evil defeated by pumpkin, but I have a spare two minutes so I might as well go ahead anyway.

I walk my dog every morning in a local park, it's quite large with woodland bits as well as main pathways. It was once the grounds of a mansion that has long since been demolished (the house called itself an Abbey but it was a private house with no nuns or monks in it). I always feel safe there, always plenty of other dog walkers around, all types, chatty seniors, women with pushchairs, young men pretending to be on their mobiles so they don't have to say hello to anyone. I often find myself walking part of my walk with another dog walker as our dogs run around together. It's the only place where I quite happily chat to people I don't know.

Coming to the end of my walk the other day and heading for the car park, I spotted a chap and his dog walking through a wooded bit that used to, I think, be a little garden. I often walk around that bit myself because its private and feels a bit enchanted with its old stone paths and broken wooden fences, so there was nothing wrong about him doing this. However I didn't get a nice feeling spotting the bloke and had a distinct idea that I should avoid him. I reckoned I would meet him as his path joined the main path I was on and I didn't want that to happen, so I hurried up a bit. I wasn't really questioning my behaviour at this point, just thinking about getting back to my car.

Anyway, I did get ahead of him only that's when I started feeling really uneasy because now he was walking behind me. Bearing in mind, I had hardly seen him at this point, my impression was only of a smallish man dressed in black, it didn't make much sense that I was wary of him. My dog is by now playing with his dog, a beautiful white and tan staffie, and now this is normally the point that I turn and acknowledge the other dog owner but I couldn't bring myself to do it!

I'm on the car park now, and because I've been hanging back keeping an eye on my dog, the man has nearly caught up with me, then I realise he's trying to give me something. It's a ball my dog found earlier and must have dropped when he started playing with the staffie. The man doesn't say anything, he's just holding out the ball to me. I can see now he's a slightly older guy, a face older than his years maybe. I'm not any happier about being anywhere near him. In fact, this all feels unsafe. I feel unsafe. I make a forced attempt to friendly, explain about the ball not being my dog's (though my dog came and took it out his hand!), and tell him he has a lovely looking dog. I don't think he's going to reply for a moment and the idea pops into my head that he's not used to people being nice to him. He does reply though, telling me in a rough voice that it's not his dog, he's doing a mate a favour.

I get my dog on a lead and take him around the other side of the car, just as a new car is coming into the car park. The man attempts to call the staffie off the tarmac onto the grass out of the way. The staffie however wants to carry on playing with my dog, her new mate, and dances about a bit, wanting to obey, yet not wanting to say goodbye to her new friend. This is when the man grabs the dog by the collar, drags her into the grass and belts her!

I was really upset to see it and I call out to him, "There's no need to hit her! She's doing what you've asked!" He must have heard me but now he's shouting at her, red faced and frothing at the mouth, telling her to do what she's told, pointing a finger in the dog's face as she playfully tries to bite it. "She's just playing with you!" I call to him, "don't hurt her!" I must say the only thing that made this scene bearable was that the dog didn't cower, in fact she treated the whole thing like a game. Eventually she followed him off wagging her tail. I can only assume the actual owner of the dog doesn't mistreat her.

I know that this is essentially a 'dog walker sees man being nasty to a dog' story, but the bit that interests me is my instinct upon first spotting the man. Despite not getting a clear view of him or seeing anything at all that should've worried me, I knew he was someone to be avoided. His instant rage at the dog disobeying him was really something to behold.

 

[Iris]

Don't they say that those who mistreat animals are more likely to graduate to being murderers?

 

[PeniG]

Childhood cruelty to animals is one of the traits that serial killers have in common, along with bed-wetting and arson and a couple of others I'm blanking on.

But it's not predictive. Not all children who display all these traits grow up to be serial killers. It's just that all the killers interviewed by the inventors of criminal profiling shared these traits.

 

[Scribbles]

I can't account for him being a serial killer, obviously, but I would put my house on him having a police record for violence.

Something has occurred to me since writing that post, that although I don't remember seeing him before or recall any other upsetting incident at that park, maybe I had seen him in relation to something and my sub-conscious remembered. If so, yay for my sub-conscious.

 

[Naughty_Felid]

Apart from broken glass, items of clothing and shoes, I'v noticed a small number of tape measures getting dropped along the side of a road
.
Whilst cycling along in the last 6 months I've spotted 3, including one of the huge 50 meter jobbies.

I wonder what makes tape measures so droppable?


And why the tons of shoes? Both pairs and singles?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Evidently, there have been lots of careless workmen in the area.

 

[Cochise]

The lighter reappeared. It fell out of the bottom of the chair yesterday. This is the chair which I had taken the cushions out, turned upside down, and also searched underneath (its an old chair, the underneath is not fully covered}. Goodness knows how I missed it.