Thursday, January 15, 2015

Put Up Or Shut Up


Health care update: I got my refund check from Mutual of Omaha, along with a letter confirming the termination of the accidental death coverage I never wanted in the first place. So that’s over with. I’ll be keeping a close eye on my checking account balance around the first of February, just in case. The arm of the octopus that goes for the money may not have gotten the memo. I still haven’t gotten any paperwork from Highmark. No policy number or ID card. I’ve been having throat problems and would like to take advantage of the co-pay, but first I need a way to prove I have insurance. I could always show the doctor my bank statement with the withdrawal Highmark made back in December. Think he’d buy that?

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Earlier in the week the History Channel ran the finale of their Curse of Oak Island series. Supposedly, centuries ago some mysterious bunch buried a load of treasure at the bottom of a booby-trapped 300-foot shaft. I don’t know all the details because I was never a regular viewer. I’ve only seen snippets. I do know this one crew’s been looking for the treasure, or any proof such treasure exists, long enough to squeeze at least three seasons out of this concept.

I tuned in because a) nothing else was on, and b) all the promos promised they were finally going to solve the mystery of the island. Like I said, I was never a regular viewer, but I’d seen enough off and on to be curious. I wanted to find out what’s down there too.

And did we? Welllll …..

Here’s the recap. I skipped the first half of the show. It sounds like they sent a couple divers down the main shaft, but they hit a thick slab of debris and couldn’t get to the open chasm where the alleged treasure chamber was located. However, there was a second, narrower pipe that went all the way to the bottom. They lowered a sonar device and took readings. (Why not a camera with a light on it? They’ve got all sorts of camera equipment, filming them and their efforts. You’d think there’d be a handheld camera around they could tie a line to. Maybe I should have watched that first half hour.)

At any rate, preliminary sonar readings did show possible other openings, possibly manmade. They decided to send the divers down the second shaft for a first-hand look around. Then they changed their minds. Too much chance someone could get stuck in the narrow pipe, too much risk to the divers. The second dive was scrapped, along with any chance of true verification.

\As for the sonar readings, an expert verified the existence of at least two chambers branching off the chasm. One of these had a square opening, which suggests human creation. “Nature doesn’t do square,” one expert said. Other square readings turned up on the sonar, and a pillar of some sort that could have been a beam. Or a tree. Sonar doesn’t give you photos, only shapes based on echolocation. A square shape can be a box, a treasure chest, a concrete block, or somebody’s old TV. Why the hell didn’t they try lowering a camera down the pipe?

Because a camera might have actually showed them something. And once you find something, the mystery’s solved and the series is over.

The upshot: human activity may have once taken place in the chasm. There might be something down there. Is there treasure? No way to tell. The crew vowed to keep excavating. That was how the season, possibly the series ended. No big discoveries, no real answers. The mystery is still intact.

And I was pissed.

This is the problem I have with all these shows, like Finding Bigfoot and Ghost Hunters and Monster Hunters and their ilk. Some of them have been on for several seasons. They’ve got a team toting cameras and night vision goggles and all this state-of-the-art equipment. They’ve spent hours tramping around in remote locations recording every little rustle in the bushes. And they still can’t find anything.

Reminds me of that Supernatural episode where the UFO hunter proudly tells Sam, “I have over 30 years of collecting eyewitness accounts.” Actual, concrete proof? Not so much. “Did it ever occur to you,” Sam says, “that maybe you suck at hunting UFOs?”

You’ll have to forgive Sam; he had no soul in that episode. But I know where he’s coming from. I’m getting tired of blurry photos and blobby thermal images and indecipherable murmurs on a tape recorder. I want bones. I want DNA that doesn’t match up to anything known on Earth. I want deer hunters posing with a dead Velociraptor. I want ET photobombing a wedding. I want absolute proof.

I want to believe. Shows, you’re not helping.

Getting solid proof can be done. I’m reminded of an incident about two years back. Some guy was up in the Rockies or somewhere else inaccessible, dressed like a mountain goat and following a herd around. He’s out in the middle of nowhere with a goatskin on, no other humans present. Except for the hiker who spotted him. And took pictures. They weren’t blurry, either. The guy was outed and had to go public. That “mystery” was over in a matter of days.

There you go. Some amateur found and exposed Goat Guy without any trouble. And yet the "experts" can’t find Bigfoot after years of searching? Did it ever occur to you that maybe you suck at hunting Bigfoot?

I’ll give ‘em this: they can’t find irrefutable proof that ghosts or Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster exist. On the other hand, they can’t disprove it either. Just enough is left unexplained to keep the legend alive. Because once you solve the mystery, there goes your job. And your paycheck.

I think I’ll jump on the bandwagon. What the hell, I’ve got nothing better to do. I’m going to hunt for the reptile people. The ancient, possibly-alien race that inspired Quetzelcoatl and Kukulcan and the Biblical Serpent and dragons. I’m thinking of writing a YA book about a girl who discovers the existence of shapeshifters who turn into dinosaurs. This will be part of my research. Whatever “proof” I find I’ll hang onto until right before the book comes out. Who knows? I might get a show on the History Channel. I hear the camera crew from Curse of Oak Island might be looking for work.

5 comments:

Savanna Kougar said...

Oh, Oak Island is absolutely REAL... I've studied enough, and listened to REAL experts enough to know that... it's related to the Templars and Solomon's treasure... however, obviously the goal for the show WAS NOT to solve anything, just like that whole idiotic pyramid scheme by the now deposed Egyptian antiquities director long years ago.

Also, there's a WHOLE lot of real DNA proof about Bigfoot tribes now, but the establishment keeps sabotaging the evidence, and demonizing the researchers. So there ya go.

And on and on... come on, by now, we know ghost phenomena is real.

Glad the check came through... and hope you get the insurance straightened out... if you want to email me, I 'might' be able to help with your throat situation.

Pat C. said...

Any reason given for the establishment hiding the existence of Bigfoot? I can understand them wanting to keep the lizard men under wraps.

My throat thing may be a bit of chicken bone. The problems started immediately after I ate some fried chicken. I even felt something funny go down my throat at the time. This was almost two months ago and it still feels funny. That's why I'm waiting for proof of insurance. If I get X-rays, I want someone else to pay for it.

Or it could be tonsils. God, I hope not.

Savanna Kougar said...

Yeah, the Lizard Guys are being kept under wraps too. Red Elk is a medicine man, and the Keeper of Certain Knowledge... I forgot his exact title. Anyhoo, he's had a few encounters with the Lizard people living underground, including when he was a child before he knew anything about their existence. He's half white and was being raised that way at the time.

On the Bigfoot question, for one thing I believe they didn't want general knowledge of their existence... until this point in time. Also, there's been scuttlebutt about their genetics being harvested by black ops scientists for super soldier types. When Mt Helen blew its top, I forget which year, a man who lived in the area witnessed special ops teams retrieving dead bodies of Bigfeet, who'd been killed by the volcano. Given Bigfoot is considered to be another type of human, and superior in some ways to us, then we're not at the top of the pecking order, are we? That trashes a lot of the science crap that says we are, a lot of social implications there. But that's conjecture.

NOT GOOD about the bit of chicken bone, if that is the problem. You might think about getting some Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar... not that expensive... putting a teaspoon in water, then sipping it slow... the acid could over time dissolve the bone bit. There might be a better solution however... have you done a search on the net for solutions?

Pat C. said...

I'll try the apple cider vinegar. We have enough country stores around here that it shouldn't be hard to find. That sounds like it would work faster than waiting for a huge corporation to send me paperwork.

Savanna Kougar said...

If you do try that, I would suggest sipping on water with the organic apple cider vinegar in it, all day, and letting it sit in your throat as much as possible. At least, it won't hurt you, and apple cider vinegar is good for your health, anyway.