What is it? :D It's an event. :D ....In May! ::very helpfully:: :3 <3

It has items! And more, different sorts of items! Boy items and girl items! And there's a subforum to chat in! :D And Staff is running event stuff! I think you can win things too... >_> But shhh. :3

*tease* :D

That's really cool, Paprika. XD I wasn't able to be as active during the Earth Day Event as I had intended... Too much angst and drama in my work-life. XD; Boo. But awesomesauce for being chatty. XD And congratulations on winning those prizes. :3

Yeah... unless you have a mule you can store some gold on, you're probably going to be tempted into spending during the May Event... (At least, I hope you're tempted... or I didn't do my job properly. 8D ) Particularly considering half-price for many of these items will be an extremely good deal. XD

But, still... 500 gold spent during an event won't have set you back too much on your Quest for the belt. XD You probably chatted enough making the deal for the artwork and thanking the person as you did on the actual art. XD And that shirt you're wearing is beautiful (I miss ChibiTotoro222's work! So detailed! Not that our other pixelists can't do as good a job, but everyone agreed that ChibiTotoro's work was superb!) - I own it too. :3 And it matches your theme very well. XD So, worth the purchase. :3

But I would totally recommend Jurupamae's Quest Raffle... I haven't participated yet, but I think your chances of getting the belt that way are far greater than getting it from someone on the Exchange. XD;

Oh, the bitter hag/luuv guru and the True Love and Regret wings will be back - there's a storyline thing that is involved, but I honestly don't know when that will be released. It was supposed to be done during the Earth Day event, but things were delayed and the the software switched and now things are chaotic. u_u;

But - woohoo! - spending money during the May Event. :V

(I'm sure Mama Jurupamae-Bot will open her different opportunity threads back up after things have settled down... I'm betting it won't be until after the May event, but that depends entirely on when Juru-bot gets done with the things she can do.)

XD Yep! Flat-out evil, that's me. >:3 ::said completely without shame:: :D

At least with the games, you can earn gold faster. XD; Or, technically you can. :B

And woot for Mama Jururu-boo! I'm looking forward to when I'll be able to put my very first Quester's Raffle ticket in. :B

Yes CK is evil in fact! :lol: She made me save gold for the may event...and I am itchin to spend it cause I don't know when the event is!

I will type up the story I promised ya tomorrow...my finger hurts tonight. I cut it gardening earlier.

Boo for gardening boo-boos. >_<; My mom's outside gardening right now, in fact. (As random as that comment seems to be. :B ) I'm happy to wait on the story. :3 I'll write my own in return!

And of course I'm evil! I delight in it! I have to take my frustration out on someone. XD So why not make people build up tons of gold to spend and imply they shouldn't spend any of it until a mysterious event?

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THERE IS REALLY AN EVENT? PERHAPS IT IS JUST MY CUNNING PLAN!?!

(No, there's really an event.)

((Or is there....?))

This crazy software stuff is delaying many of my thingies. :x But at least they will arrive at some point. XD Just not on the schedule originally forecast.


Officially Official Quest Update
It is officially May the first! May Day!

...And I am just shy of one-third of my goal. ._.; (As of this post. I hope to get to at least 3,000 gold before I have to leave for work.)

If I were really desperate to reach my goal by today, I would have failed. XD Thankfully, I have until the actual event to meet my goal. And I can now not post my projected earning rate to achieve that goal. :X But it's doable.

Particularly if I finish a commission before then. :O

Ok, I promised you story time! So here we go!

I live in a nice house in a normal neighborhood. I house hunted for two months and I never found another one that I wanted. So after almost not getting it, we finally did and we moved in.

At the time we had an Akita. Sheba liked to stay up with me for about an hour and then she liked to go into the bedroom and sleep with my husband. He goes to bed at night like a normal person, as you know I don't! :sarcasm:

Anyway when he goes to bed he closes the bedroom door so that the noise and light from whatever I am doing doesn't keep him awake.

One night I went to let Sheba in and when I opened the bedroom door this little...cloud or puff of smoke rushed out of the bedroom right at my head. It made me jerk back it scared me so bad. Sheba saw it too, she jumped up to try to catch it and then chased it all the way through the living room. I could see it moving and it was going fast.

I told Russell about it and he and I searched for any type of possible answer as to what that night have been and we could never find a thing.

There has been a few other instances too...voices...once a voice very clearly said his name while I was making the bed. I was the only one home and it was a male voice. Once a framed picture flew off the TV, but it was behind some other pictures I had and it didn't knock any of those down. I saw what I think might have been a shadow person once too but I can't swear to that one. There was a red light traveling through the house one night, almost like a laser pointer, but it went up and downstairs and in different rooms and it was free floating. Just weird stuff.

But if you will remember when I told you the story about Basil, the reason I had the house blessed in the first place was because the avon lady told me that members of a satanic cult lived here for a while. So who knows what effect that might have had.

But I don't really believe in ghosts in the conventional sense. So I don't think that is what it is...I have theories. ;)

@Paprika - No worries. XD There will be an Announcement about a week before the event actually goes down. XD If you spend in increments you could make up in a week, you should be fine as far as finances go. X3

The only reason I am resisting temptation to purchase clothes to go with the new Contribution items is the knowledge that I haven't been getting online as long lately as I used to, so I can't make back up the gold as quickly as I want. And having seen the items coming out for the May event... I'd much rather be able to purchase more half-priced commons than older commons at full price. XD; (Particularly since some of them will be my designs. :B )

Wak wak wak. ::repeats herself endlessly, but not intentionally. just really wanting this event to get a move on and arrive already!:: >_<


@Blondheart - LOL yes - I know what you mean about people going to bed at normal hours while you and I don't. XD I'm lucky enough that I rarely have to wake up before noon, and I've been a night owl since I was a child. I wonder if it has something to do with natural biorhythms, considering I was born at about 3pm in the afternoon. But I've always preferred sitting in a quiet place in the dark and reading or writing or playing on the computer or watching movies. I got grounded more times as a kid for staying up late and reading than I did for anything else.

Anyway. >_>

Oh... that's really creepy - some of those bits of the stories. o_o;;; Since you're not sure you saw a shadow person, that story doesn't creep me out nearly as much as the red light. D: The smoke story is really strong - but unless it made you feel threatened or Sheba felt threatened, it doesn't worry me so much.... Did these things happen before or after you had your house blessed?

I think my theories on ghosts are probably pretty close to how the Ghost Hunters feel. That there are different kinds - the residual, the intelligent, the animal and the inhuman. I don't know why these are or what their purpose for being around is. I just strongly feel there is something to it. I want to know more about it, but not to the point of actually joining a ghost hunting team. I don't worry half so much about something happening to me during the investigation as something following me home afterwards. D:

All of my paranormal stories are kind of long and I'm not sure what you're 'comfortable' with. What are your thoughts on psychic phenomena? And past lives? (Not that I feel like I've experienced one - but there are instances in my family that make me believe in it.)

I have:
- Work ghost stories.
- My ex-boyfriend's house and the shadow people.
- Family psychic phenomena stories.
and
- Family past-lives stories.

And then my dad says he saw Big Foot, but I haven't heard that story in quite awhile and that's about all I can tell you other than I believe it happened when he was a military policeman up in Pennsylvania about twenty years ago. XD; (I know it was when he was an active military policeman, which was when I was a child or before I was born, anyway.)

I am comfortable with whatever you want to tell. I can expound on my own personal views and a little science to explain those views, but again my wrist is sore at this point so that long post will have to wait until tomorrow. I have had carpal tunnel syndrome for years so by the end of the day my wrist is usually hurting.

The smoke and red light was before the house was blessed, the voices...after.

Brrr... the smoke and red light bother me. I'm glad they haven't come back though. :x Brr. Just brr.

Yikes, carpal tunnel syndrome. >_< Do you have a wrist brace for that? D: And an ergonomic keyboard and mouse to help? >_<;

I'll start with the first story, then... ::scrolls up:: Ah - work ghosts!

Where I work is very close to the "historic" district of the city. The city is an old one and not really what you think of when you hear the word "city". No skyscrapers. Tallest building is like... ten stories. And there are only a few of those and they are banks. Anyway, an older area, run down now.

Behind our store used to be these really old houses. (There still are some old houses on the street behind - small Victorian style houses - but these weren't Victorian style if I remember correctly - just built around the same time as the others.) About a year ago, they were purchased and then torn down to make way for a cancer hospital of some sort. As soon as they started getting torn down, things started happening in our store.

Actually, things would sometimes happen before then, but not very frequently. But during the deconstruction phase on the houses and for a few months after, things would happen. And I've never, ever had something happen when I worked with a guy - only when I worked with another girl. (Same holds true for all the other females in the store who've experienced something.)

The first major incident was when I was working with a girl named Autumn. We were closing. The store was locked and we were the only ones inside. We were ahead of schedule so we were chatting in the back of the store. I was by the freezer, checking the to-do list and she was at the sinks washing dishes. She and I were talking about something and she broke off in the middle of what she was saying and jumped about a foot to the left (away from the passage way between the front of the store and the back of the store.)

Autumn: Did you see that? D:
Me: What? ::notices schedule on the wall flapping, but doesn't think anything of it at the moment, more concerned with what Autumn saw. glance down the passageway. can see the drive-thru window from this angle::
Autumn: Someone just looked around the corner at us!
Me: ::confused and thinking she meant through the drive-thru window:: Oh - well, we're cl- ::pauses:: ..do you mean inside the store?
Autumn: Yeees...! ::trembling voice::
Both: *freeze............*
Me: Are you sure? .... *nervous giggle*
Autumn: Yes...! He looked around the corner at us and moved away really quickly! Did you see the schedule moving???
Me: ...yes... >_>

(The schedule, by the way, only does that if someone goes around the corner. Autumn couldn't have done it as she was stationary at the time. It's vaguely possible that the wind could have blown itself under the crack in the drive-thru window and done it - but if so, I would have heard the window squeaking, because that's what it does when there's high winds.)

Me: ....I guess I'll go check. ::waits a moment. then goes around the corner. glances behind the counter. walks around the counter and looks into the dining area. goes around to the end. steels herself and checks the two bathrooms. in short, has checked every area in the store someone could hide and found no one::

(For note's worth: there are two entrances/exits to the store in the front and one in the back. Both have electronic bells on them. Both were locked. The one on the far side of the store, next to the bathrooms, is actually a door + a lobby + a door. So all three doors were locked. I didn't hesitate long enough that someone would be able to unlock a door silently (there is a way to do it silently, but it takes practice and luck and is much harder to do leaving than coming in) and slip out and lock it again.)

I came back and we were jumpy the rest of the night. We might have heard things after that, but nothing very significant. She described a sort of older man without hair - which of course does not match the description of any of the male employees of the store - including our boss. XD; )

---

A different major incident. (I'm not mentioning incidents that were just minor, "I heard something.")

We had a store meeting early in the morning. Around 9am-ish on a Saturday. Josh, Beth, Delany, Justin and myself showed up. We had our meeting and then everyone left after helping me get the store opened because it was my day to open the store. We'd just been told that we weren't allowed to do anything like read, draw, write, play games, etc. Just work and work only. (That didn't last long. LOL.) So I was like, "okay, I've got about 30 minutes before I can open the store and the store is done being 'opened' already... I guess I'll polish the machines... ._."

I kneel down and start polishing the machines when something (I don't remember what - it was probably something simple like the need to get something from the back) made me stand up and glance at the topping bar.

This past summer, we were having problems with fruit flies, so whenever we weren't using the fruit toppings, we left the lids on them. In fact, I hadn't taken the lids off of any of the toppings yet. Last I had seen, all the toppings had been covered.

But the top for the blueberries was off.

Not only that, but it wasn't anywhere on the topping bar at all, or on the floor or under the counter. Confused, I walked into the back to see if it was on a table there, or even over the sink on the shelf where we put the topping lids when we take them off. Not there either. I looked and couldn't find the lid for that topping. (It eventually turned up, since we're not missing a topping lid but...)

I was locked into the store and I swore that I'd last seen all the lids on. The only possible way for me to have been wrong was if I'd seen the lids before the last person left and Justin was the person. So when he came into work later that day, I was like, "Out of curiosity, did you eat some blueberries before you left?" and he's like, "No - I don't even like them. o_o; " and I'm like, "Did you take off the lid of any of the toppings before you left?" and he was like, "Noo.....?"

So I'm convinced our ghost did it.

---

The next major incident was when Tiffany and I were training a new girl (who replaced Delany). We were telling Brianna of all the spooky stuff that had happened. (I can only assume that minor incidents must have happened around Tiffany for her to feel free to tell the stories, but I don't remember any in particular that I think are significant. Tiffany is a girl who thought she saw a ghost when it was her own silly self's reflection. *rolls eyes* XD )

We were all three in the back, the doors were locked. The chairs were on the table. And then we distinctly heard the sounds of someone getting up from the table and pushing their chair back. It is a very specific sound - one that anyone who works in our store knows apart from the sounds the machines make or any of the other little sounds we train ourselves to notice so we can sit in the back and read or draw or do homework or eat dinner and not have to keep an eye on the front every minute.

We stopped talking and looked at each other. The children (well, they were 16 - 18 at the time, I can't remember exactly - either way, about 10 years younger than me. :B Children! :V ) were scared and happily so, so they were all, 'ehehehee ghost!' and I was like, "eh..." and peeked around the corner.

As I had remembered - chairs were on the tables. So there was no reason to make that noise. I'm pretty sure I checked the bathrooms again and listened to the machines. But the sound didn't repeat. I shrugged and went into the back. As soon as I came around the corner and looked at the girls (who were motionless), the sound repeated itself. Twice. Louder.

I looked around.... nothing. They looked around and tittered and were happily scared. They were actually getting on my nerves. XD; So I was like, "Ignore it and it'll stop." But while we were doing things in the back, it kept happening and every time they'd squeal and whimper about being scared. And I was getting irritated. XD; They didn't want to go out front and I wasn't going to spend the rest of the night huddling in the back of the store, afraid to go home. *rolls eyes*

So I walked out to the front and very loudly addressed the ghost. I can't remember exactly what I said, but I think it was along the lines of, "I understand you think it's funny to make us jump and squeal and all that, but I want you to stop immediately. Knock it off. I'm serious. You can make as much noise as you want to when we're not here, but you're going to stop now."

Then I got the trash together and left to take it to the dumpster. When I came back, Tiffany and Brianna told me it'd done it again, louder. I thought it was really funny, and said so. Then it made the sound again and I came around the corner and was all, "What did I tell you??" and it didn't make the sound the rest of the night. XD At least, not that I heard. I think they claimed to have heard it. LOL. But I don't really know if I trust their reports 'cause they overreact.

Anyway. The girls told me that I was stupid or brave or whatever for challenging the ghost. They said they did that once and the haunting experience got worse for them. And I was like, "Well, okay. I'll deal with that if it happens."

When I got into the car that night, I felt like someone was with me and there was this strange smell in the car with me. Like an old barn or something. It made me really nervous, like I was taking the ghost home with me. I started talking to what I felt in the car and I told it that it wasn't welcome in my home, and it was better off staying at the store if it wanted company because I didn't want it around.

I don't know if that was my imagination or not, though. But I never smelled that smell before or after in my car.

And, in fact, ever since I told the ghost off in the store, I hadn't heard or sensed anything spooky.

However, the other night I came to work and Tiffany and Autumn (who did not work at the store together until recently, since Autumn had moved away for about a year) apparently started talking about the ghost. Then they started hearing the table-and-chairs sound again.

So I guess it's still there. XD But I'm still waiting for it to start acting up around me again. XD

Brrr... Aliens are freaking scary. I don't like aliens. There are only two movies with aliens involved that I will watch: Independence Day and Galaxy Quest. And I don't even like watching Independence Day much. :x I saw Signs.... I did not like it. No sir. Not at all. Scary. *brr* (I don't consider, for some reason, "Star Wars" or "Star Trek" shows about aliens. I don't know why. Star Wars is very fantasy, which is probably why it doesn't bother me at all. I don't know why Star Trek doesn't do it to me. Maybe because there is some sort of metaphorical reason for why the alien looks the way it works most of the time...? And I guess the majority of them are just humans with fantasy appendages/features.)

Your haunted house story is odd, Paprika. >_<; I guess I could try to disprove some of the incidents with one reason or another for why they happened, but I wasn't there so. :x I'm always open to hearing stories of the paranormal. :3 But I'm not inclined to trust accounts from those who are prone to attention-seeking. XD

I think the May Contribution Items are a great investment. :3 They seem pretty popular overall and with ties to the storyline/history of Menewsha, they'll be something future users or users who come back to Menewsha having missed this month will likely want. :3 Besides - pets are generally well-received. XD

Waiting for the Quester's Raffle and/or when the Giving Back Auctions 2 gets under way is the best thing to do, I think. It's pretty unrealistic to expect any of the Valentines 2007 items to show up on the Exchange and not be sold by item trade or for exhorted amounts. Besides, the Quester's Raffle is a perfectly wonderful way to get things. :3

Wow those were great stories, I have some more to tell, but I will do it a little later.

Brr... At least your attic ghost was just matrixing, Paprika. I'd much rather see a shadowy form that looked like a person and find out that it was a pile of laundry than have no explanation for its presence. D:

The story of the women cemented into the walls is wonderfully gruesome... I Googled some key terms and didn't turn something up, which is disappointing. It's not like it didn't necessarily happen, but my Google-fu may be weak or it's not posted online. XD If you ever run across the article, I'd love to read it! I don't know what to make of the ghost story attached to it, though. It's very interesting, at the very least. :3 But I look at more as something you'd read in one of those, "101 Ghosts and Jeremy" books in the middle school library. XD

If it makes you feel any better, Paprika - the Ghost Hunters, at least, contend that there are very few ghosts that either can or want to hurt you. And I think they believe most hauntings are residual anyway. As in, just something repeating itself over and over again - a noise or someone walking from one place to another, for instance - and having no idea you are there. Like a tape playing itself over and over. It'd happen whether you were there or weren't. Intelligent haunts seem to be few and far between and I think they're more curious than malevolent. :3

Aliens... Aliens are creeptastic. There's no telling what they want or why. Visually, the look of "grey" aliens doesn't bother me so much (the ones in Independence Day are actually very neat looking - oh, and have you seen "The Abyss"? Great movie.) It's more like what do they want with me more than their actual alien nature. It all goes back into my fears of abduction and imprisonment and torture. :B

I will tell you the story about the monster in the back seat of my car...

Back in the 80's I played bass with a rock band for a while. (Yes I have had a very diverse job history.) No one famous, just a bar band. Anyway we had been playing quite a few nights in a row and were due for some times off. I decided I was going to go visit a friend of mine in South Dakota. We were in Minnesota at the time.

This was back when Sally Jesse was on at night, and I would watch her after we were done in the motel room. She was havin a weird week, talking about witches and aliens and crap.

After the last set I hopped in my car and didn't tell anyone where I was going, I just took off for South Dakota. I had been drinking A LOT of coffee before I left. So I stopped off for more coffee and I had been driving for a real long way. I was in Iowa and it was still dark, probably about 3:30 in the morning.

So I went through a yellow flashing light on the freeway, and between being tired and drinking too much coffee I was startin to get kinda buggy. So I was thinkin about all the stuff I had seen on Sally. I was thinkin that if aliens swooped down right now and sucked me up no one would ever know what happened to me because I hadn't told anyone where I was going. I was kinda watching the yellow light in my rear view mirror when I suddenly noticed something moving in my back seat. :shock:

I was scary looking, and kinda hairy. Every time I would look in the rear view mirror I could see it moving, and I was afraid to turn around and actually look in the back seat. I knew there couldn't be anything back there, but I also knew that if I saw something I was just gonna freak out. So I drove down the freeway for about 20 minutes in absolute terror.

Every time I would peek in the back seat I could see this thing moving right behind me. Finally I couldn't take it anymore. I HAD to pull over, so I whipped over on the shoulder and jumped out of the car and looked in the back window and there wasnt' anything back there! So I was really confused? I thought I am crackin up. I get back in the car and start driving and sure enough there it is again...I looked over my shoulder...nothin...could NOT figure it out.

Finally when the sun came up I could tell what I was seeing...my rear view mirror was at that weird angle you can get where you can see a double reflection...I was seeing the side of my own head! :sarcasm: :headdesk:

...... ::dies a death, Blondheart. just... dead:: Oh my goodness... I am so sorry for laughing but.... LOL. <3 At least it wasn't really a monster? XDD <3

And I remember Sally Jessy Raphael! I used to watch all the daytime talk shows back in the day (before the internet). XD

I can't possibly tell a serious story in response. XD My brain's just not built to do that. XD So I'll tell a story that's not really in my list of stories that I can't explain away. I don't know that it's necessarily 'funny' but it's not scary, at least. XD;

A few years ago, I was living about a 30 minute drive from where I do now. The house itself was an older house and I didn't like going down to the basement level alone. Particularly not at night. And I didn't like going into the unfinished portion of the basement at all if I could help it. I just got a hinky feeling from it. But by and large I was comfortable in the house on the upper floor.

My parents had a pretty cool bathroom. It had a sort of powder room area that lead to a shower and toilet room. That way I could shower and get out and, during the summer particularly, not feel grossly overheated. So for awhile, I took my showers in my parents bathroom.

It was night time and I was either getting in or out of the shower when the lights in the bathroom just started dimming... I squeaked and they went back on. I stood there a moment, trying to decide what had happened when they went out again.

I very loudly said, "KNOCK THAT OFF and turn it back on!" And the light went back on very quickly and brightly.

I paused another moment. Then quickly gathered my things, exited the bathroom and stiff-backed left my parents room. Then I skittered down the hall to ask my parents if the lights had gone out earlier. They said 'no'. And so I told them my story, but they laughed and said the wiring was probably bad.

But it'd never happened to me before and never since so... I don't know. :x

The night before we moved out of that house, I smelled a very strong floral/rose scent and felt my chair shake. I don't remember how I reacted in response, but when I told the story to my parents, my mom said that it was probably the ghost(s) saying goodbye. XD;

I later smelled that same floral/rose scent in some carpet stuff we were using to make the carpet fresh for the owners, but it was strangely overwhelming when the chair was shaking so... I think it's interesting, at least. Even if I have to discount the experience some for it.

Oh it's ok to laugh, it was funny. I even thought it was funny at the time. I also felt like a moron! :XD

I will come back and tell another story later...it's a serious one though. But it has a funny part too. Right now it's pizza and beer time! Plus the Sci-Fi crappy movie for Saturday is about the Loch Ness Monster whis I LOVE! So be back later!