HexagonSun

I like to think that he forgets, keeps trying and then makes a new post about it

To me “do you believe in ghosts?” and “do you believe in UFOs?” are basically the same question.

It depends how loaded the word “ghost” (or UFO) is in your mind.

Do I believe we have an immortal soul, or that consciousness can exist outside of a human or animal brain? Do I believe in angels, demons, spirits and entities etc? Absolutely not.

But do I believe that people who aren’t lying, and are being 100% genuine, truthfully report seeing things we cannot explain? Yes. Whether it’s pure hallucination of the human mind or something else that is genuinely being witnessed I don’t know and don’t suggest to know.

As proof that “ghosts” don’t actually need to be anything to do with the dead, I saw my mum at home once as a child, when she wasn’t really there at the time. She’s was wearing clothes she owned, but not what she was wearing that day. She was and still is very much alive. I’ve always remembered that I didn’t make this up, but the memory is too distant and vague at this point for me to put any real trust in it now.

Maybe I genuinely saw something unexplainable. Or maybe our brain hardware that generates the reality we perceive around us can occasionally vividly generate what isn’t really there. Who knows.

Jacob’s Ladder.

A largely forgotten psychological horror film from 1990 with Tim Robbins and Macaulay Culkin.

Saw it on TV once by chance and loved it ever since.

I’d say it’s must-watch for being influential despite its moderate success and being incredibly gripping as you try to get your head around what’s actually going on.

Instead of making me think about space, the solar system or the universe… this just gives me an existential crisis, visualising how few weeks are actually in a year and how brief a lifetime actually is.

Then I try to think about space instead.

I’m going to strongly assume you’re about 40 in that case haha

• The Simpsons: From seeing Season 2 episodes someone had recorded from Sky TV on VHS before it was on terrestrial TV, through to Season 9 when it stopped being good many years later. It was on all the time and we never got bored of it.
• Red Dwarf: The first TV show I was allowed to stay up “late” for, when it broadcast at 9pm. Felt like I’d entered a new stage in my life watching a late-night comedy show.
• The X Files: Similar to the above, this was the first serious, “grown-up” TV show I watched, and I was hooked. I thought anything with a paranormal tinge was awesome at that younger age (I guess I still do, although through an admittedly far more sceptical scientific lens these days).

Ghostbusters, Back To The Future trilogy, Terminator 2, Beetlejuice, The Matrix, OG Star Wars Trilogy, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Blade Runner, Goodfellas, Jacob’s Ladder, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Boogie Nights

Ed Balls

I find it insane that people somehow think they have to make that noise when they sneeze. It’s totally a learned and unnecessary behaviour. People who are born deaf don’t ever make that noise when they sneeze.

There Goes My Gun in my ass

Playing 2600 on original hardware is pretty awesome.

Probably up next on my retro gaming to-do list!