Z is for Zombies

Zombies: they are the in thing. They are everywhere. Books. TV shows. Movies. T-shirts. Halloween costumes. 

Basically, there are two kinds of zombies. The first are zombies that rise from the dead. These are the undead zombies. The second are zombies that are the result of a virus and spreads, such as the book and movie World War Z. 

Well, that’s it. I’m spent. Thanks to everyone for participating in 2015 Blogging A to Z Challenge. You are truly champs! I know people are busy. They get sick. Their PCs break down. But through it all you came through and made it to Z. Congratulations and I hope you'll continue to stop by my blog and say hello!

Tremp’s Troops: A special big round of applause to the amazing ladies who helped make A to Z possible: 

Barbara at Barbara in Caneyhead 

Betty at Views From Benches 

Chrys Fey at Write With Fey 

Corina Carrasco at Wasted Days and Wasted Nights 

Holly Jahangiri at Writer, Wife, Mom, and Tree Climber 

Jennifer Garcia at Italian Brat’s Obsession 

Samantha Dunaway Bryant at Balancing Act 

Susan Sapsed at Daily Waffling 

The A to Z Team: And thanks to the creator behind the madness and genius of A to Arlee Bird and the rest of the team who can be found by Clicking Here.

A to Z Gear: Yes, there is a T-shirt to commemorate your blood sweat and tears and enduring A to Z. Checkout this awesomely cool T-shirt by Clicking Here. 

Weekend Follies: And to cap off A to Z, here is a deleted scene from one of the most popular TV shows ever, The Walking Dead. Enjoy! 

Y is for Yahweh

Yahweh: The name of the God of the Bible practicing Jews and Christians acknowledge and follow. Yahweh is the proper name of God in the Old Testament. There are other names for God such as Jehovah (along with many derivitives) and Elohim and El Shaddai. 

He is called by Father in the New Testament among other names and titles. I trust my life in the God above. 

Other people believe in something else that helps explain the universe and their place in it. There have been many religions and beliefs since mankind first walked the Earth. I have numerous friends who belong to Alcoholics Anonymous and all they are required to believe in is a higher sources that is bigger than them and can help. Same with the Freemasons as many believe in a Supreme Being of their choice. 

Still, others do not believe in anything at all. This life is one and done. We as a human race are nothing special and once we die, that is all. Nothing else. Zero. Zilch. Nada. 

My theme for A to Z has been The Paranormal and the Supernatural. I hope I’ve presents interesting topics. Some may be controversial, but that’s okay. More fuel for the fire for open dialogue. 

Tomorrow: Zombie 

Question: Do you believe in a higher source?

X is for Xenoglossy

Xenoglossy: a paranormal or supernatural phenomena where a person or a group of people speak or write in a language entirely unknown to them. 

Many people have never heard of this term. But you have seen or read it in popular culture. In the Bible in the Book of Acts on the day of Pentacost “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” 

This is an example of Xenoglossy. 

In is a movie, I forget the name, where a possessed person in speaking in Latin. Backwards. This person in the film would not know Latin, let alone speak it backwards. 

There are accounts of people waking up from a coma and speaking a foreign language. Skeptics are quick to debunk such claims because the person speaking is not fluent in that particular language. The speak in fragmented sentences, but it is still a known language, just not to the speaker. 

Honorable Mention: Are you kidding. This is the letter X. Slim pickings here. 

Tomorrow: Yaweh.

Question: Do you think it’s possible to speak in a a completely unknown language?

W is for Window and White Noise

Window: A window area is a region with an unusually high number of paranormal/UFO reports over a significant period of time. Area 51, The Bermuda Triangle, Any corn field in Iowa. The creepy old house or cemetery at the edge of town. That place you always leave your car keys but the turn up hopelessly lost. 

Area 51. This Is As Far As You Go.

If you listen to certain groups, or simply make a few connections yourself, it seems there are places on this Earth where strange things happen in high frequency. These can be actual physical locations where planes and ships mysteriously disappear without a trace. The Bermuda Triangle is popular, but the truth is there are far more dangerous shipping lanes across the globe where strange things happen to aircraft and ships. 

White Noise: A repetitive sound (usually static) used in an attempt to hear spirits. There are tools and electronics paranormal investigators use to record white noise. Related to this topic is EVP, or “Electronic Voice Phenomenon,” This is the process of capturing messages from the spirit world, including our loved ones in Heaven. 

White Noise the Movie (2005): Starring Michael Keaton. An architect's desire to speak with his wife from beyond the grave, becomes an obsession with supernatural repercussions.

Honorable Mention: Warp, Werewolf, Wicca, Witch, Wraith 

Tomorrow: X is for Xenoglossy 

Question: Do you believe there are areas where condensed paranormal or supernatural activity occurs such as the Bermuda Triangle? Can we communicate with the dead? I think T-Mobile now has a service for that.

V is for Vortex (In A Paranormal Supernatural Kind Of Way)

Orbs. I've Seen These Quite A Few Times

Vortex: In a paranormal or supernatural sense, a vortex is anomaly that appears in photographs. They can be orbs or shadows or the shape of humans.

Some people interpret these background images as ghosts, angels and demons, aliens, beings from another dimension, or a portal to another dimension. 

Weird Ectoey Plasmaey Things

I’ve seen, or at least I think I’ve seen, all of these in real life. Glimpses of lights and orbs and even angels in the flesh. On top of that, the Bible says in the book of Hebrews to be nice to strangers because we can be talking to angels and not even realize it. 

First Pic from Mars Voyager

During my life I’ve had that very strong feeling deep down in my inner self after meeting a stranger and thinking by golly by gum that was an angel. I wish I would have been a whole lot nicer to them. 

Honorable Mention: Vampire, Vex 

Monday: W is for White Noise 

Question: Have you ever taken or seen a photograph were there are strange happenings in the background that probably should not be there?

Unicorns and Other Legendary Beast. Do They or Have They Existed?

Unicorn: a legendary animal that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. 

UFOs. Aliens. Dragons. Mermaids. Loch Ness Monster. Fairies. Elves. Gnomes. Big Foot. Vampires. Zombies. Larger than life sea serpents. El Chupacabra. Abominable Snowman. Witches. Scooby Doo. The Boogie Man under our bed.

They and more have captivated our attentions since we were a youth. And we swore they were real. But or they, or have they, ever existed?

Question: Do you believe mythological creatures such as this have lived during our life time? Even if it is only one of them? 

Weekend Follies: I’ll bring back the Weekend Follies one time during A to Z. The NFL Draft is almost upon us. And this is a skit done by Frank Caliendo in conjuction with ESPN and Todd Shay. 

If you don’t know who these people are, that’s okay. Mel Kiper Jr. is the target of the spoof. Frank is an impersonation comedian who portrays Kiper. And McShay in real life is Kiper’s most capable antagonist regarding the NFL draft. Enjoy!

 

T is for Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Teleporation. A Triple Treat for Thursday!!!

I can Read Your Mind. Can Not. Can Too. Not. Can.

Telekinesis to the Extreme!

Telepathy: User can read/sense another person's thoughts and/or communicate with them mentally.Telepathy falls into two categories: Telepathic Communication, which is the ability to transmit information from mind to another, and Telepathic Perception, which is the ability to receive information from another mind. 

Telekinesis: The power to manipulate objects with the mind. Mind over matter A person can bend things or move them. 

Teleportation: A method of transportation in which matter or information is dematerialized, usually instantaneously, at one point and recreated at another.

Honorable Mention: Time Travel, Touch Healing, Tarot Cards, Trance.

Teleportation

Tomorrow: U is for UFO.

Question: Do you believe some people have the ability to do anything with Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Teleportation.

Signs and Symbols Answers: Most from yesterdays post are well known. The fifth symbol is for the Freemasons. The seventh with the two keys is the symbol for the Papacy. The Red Lion flies on the banner for the Lannister Family for Game of Thrones. This was for the fun of it. As was the crop circles. 

Signs and Symbols

Signs and Symbols: Where do we begin? They’ve been around since mankind first walked the Earth. They’re on flags and banners and T-shorts. They herald something people can flock to, associate themselves with, and form an alliance. 

At it's core, signs and symbols simply stands for something, anything, and can represent religions, nations, cultures, armies, factions, and causes. They can illicit emotion that cause people to draw a line in the sand and take sides. Even fight, kill, and die for. 

Here in the U.S. there are signs and symbols in abundance that the builders of our country have attached to our society and culture. Just do a Google search on the dollar bill sometime. They way cities are laid out. Architecture. Dan Brown made a pretty darn good career out of signs and symbolism.

Honorable Mention: Séance, Shaman, Specter, Spirit, Spiritualism, Supernatural 

Tomorrow: T is for Telepathy 

Question: How many of the signs and symbols below can you identify?

R is for Reincarnation

Reincarnation: is the religious or philosophical concept that the soul or spirit, after biological death, can begin a new life in a new body. This doctrine is a central tenet of the Indian religions. There is birth, death, and rebirth. 

But other religions and philosophies believe the soul or spirit are eternal and we will live on once our earthly bodies die. It can be back here on Earth, stuck in some type of purgatory, or moving on the heavenly bliss or eternal damnation. Then there are those who believe this life is it. One and done. We are no one special and the universe doesn’t owe us life beyond what we now have. 

Honorable Mention: 

Tomorrow: S is for Signs and Symbols

Question: Do you believe there is life after you die? Do you think you lived in a previous life?

Ummmm .... no.

Q is for Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental branch of physics which deals with physical phenomena at nanoscopic scales. At the turn of the 20th century we figured out classical mechanics isn't correct. Physicists trying to understand the behavior of matter at microscopic levels concluded that the rules would have to be overturned, and replaced with something else. Enter quantum mechanics, arguably the greatest triumph of human intelligence and imagination in all of history. 

Yet, for nearly a century, “reality” has been a murky concept. The laws of quantum physics seem to suggest that particles spend much of their time in a ghostly state, lacking even basic properties such as a definite location and instead existing everywhere and nowhere at once. Only when a particle is measured does it suddenly materialize, appearing to pick its position as if by a roll of the dice. Reference 

Quantum mechanics is downright weird. Scientists interpret quantum mechanics to mean that a tiny piece of material like a photon or electron is both a particle and a wave. It can be either, depending on how one looks at it or what kind of an experiment one is doing. In fact, it might be more accurate to say that photons and electrons are neither a particle or a wave -- they're undefined up until the very moment someone looks at them or performs an experiment, thus forcing them to be either a particle or a wave. Reference 

Huhn??? 

Honorable Mention: Quabbala (also Cabbala or Kabbala) 

Tomorrow: R is for Reincarnation 

Wednesday: S is for Signs and Symbols

Question: Can you explain quantum mechanics? If you can, you;re first in line for the Noble Peace Prize for Physics.

P is for Paranormal Vs. Supernatural

Google Paranormal and Supernatural and you’ll get a wide range of definitions. The terms are not synonymous, although many like to blend their definitions and borders in popular literature and entertainment. 

I'm reading the Percy Jackson Series

Paranormal Activity is phenomena popular in culture and often refers to vampires, werewolves, and ancient gods rearing their heads today (Harry Potter, Twilight, and Percy Jackson). The protagonists have magical powers that help keep the evil forces at bay. It’s not something that needs to be explained scientifically. Romance is often introduced into this genre. Sex can sometimes be to the extreme. 

The Supernatural would also indicate no explanation by normal or scientific means. However, the activity is attributed to a supernatural source such as God, demons, angels, and so on. The supernatural has a spiritual tone and was once a part of our world and had a place in it. 

But it has transformed itself and returned to our world to defy it. There is a fear brought on by something like a housing development built on an ancient Indian cemetery (Poltergeist) or someone sees dead people (The Sixth Sense) or something traumatic has happened like a murder of an innocent person with more murders on tap (Ghost). 

Because Poltergeist (Noisy Ghost) Was Runner Up Today

The supernatural often has the element of horror (Pet Semetery and The Shining) but it's not necessarily a staple (Field of Dreams). Behavior and events have been influenced by the intervention of supernatural beings with secret powers that influence earthy affairs. 

But the emphasis is mainly on suspense rather than horror, although there can be some horror in the story. A paranormal setting is usually less violent and often relies on a romantic theme. You won't find too much of the latter in a supernatural thriller. less violent and often relies on a romantic theme.

The Blending: Today, we see a blending of genres. That's the norm. And it's okay. It's not critical to draw lines in the sand and say this is paranormal and this is supernatural. Hollywood liberally slaps the word "paranormal" on a movie that is really a supernatural thriller. But it is important to draw at least a few distinctions so we can write better stories and know when it's appropriate to combine these genres and when to differentiate between them.

Question: What are your thoughts regarding paranormal and the supernatural genres?

Honorable Mention: Poltergeist, PAN (Paranormal Activity Network)

Monday: Quantum Physics