[TV]-Supernatural

I'm hoping to watch the last two again tonight so I can do my Tart stuff, but ]I agree with Sarah's observation, and I don't know so much about the 'quality' of the souls being an issue, but more the quantity. HOWEVER, I can't help but wonder if Mother is in there somewhere, and how much influence she might exert.

I, too, am peeved at Dean for being a hypocrite when it comes to behavior. I think he's spinning out of control in his own way at this point -- killing the Phoenix (there had to be another way; think about what the myth is!), mindwiping Lisa and Ben, ultimatums with Cas (because that worked SO WELL with Sam -- I get that he was betrayed and hacked off, but to tell Cas to stop "just because" with no other rationale or options given: dumb, Dean).

And balls! I liked Balthazar!

 

^^me too Q, but then is anyone ever really dead?

 

Y'know what? We didn't see his wings.

 

I'm a slacker.

6.17 http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=1994

6.18 http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=1995

6.19 http://www.sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=2007

 

your not a slacker you just been preoccupied with other things. Thanks for the update...you rock.

 

Hey nnay, was there a link for buying that shirt? It does look cool, and I'm looking for shirts...

Edit: nevr mind. I tracked it down. Oy. For all that they have a billion options there (once you figure out how to find them), they actually don't have a tank or spaghetti top, or babydoll shirt in black. And the red design looks so much better on black. :/

 

I really like these designs, but I could wish that a) the tank top came in black, and b) the graphic spread out in a natural shape rather than being cut into a square. The square looks too cut-n-paste out of place to me. But man, very pretty graphics... love the colors and the blending of images.

 

I decided it was time to quit whining about what I'd like to see on t-shirt images and start attempting my own. So this afternoon/evening I sat down for a few hours to try to learn image processing and programs, something I'd never really gotten into before. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but here's the result of today's lessons. The concepts and implementation aren't original, but I really do like the flame motif and anti-possession charm, so it seemed like as good a place as any to start. I'd like to get the blending/fading to black at the edges to do better, so that the image looks more like flames over a natural black than a square image. I managed to do it once somehow, but couldn't repeat it and couldn't get that version to work with other parts.

Trial 1

 

Guess what? The hotel I just moved to for SDCC is supposed to be haunted. Horton Grand Hotel. They say the ghost(s) are friendly, so I won't need to worry about checking a rock-salt shotgun on the plane. Zoo pointed me in the direction of an app for turning my phone into an EMF detector. I might still look into a <$10 homemade detector as well, 'cause my iPhone has trouble as it is with the whole 'finding north' concept.

- will pick up regular salt at the store in SD. Ghosts are suppose to be friendly, but better safe than sorry?
- 1 each iPhone/Android phones ==> tricorder EMF detectors (roommate is SPN fan as well)
- homemade EMF detector? (youtube video tutorial)

What else do I need? Q, any suggestions on items, preparation, what to do once there...? I had a couple of random questions as well:

- We always see the boys laying down open-to-air salt lines. Is there a reason for this? Or can the salt be contained? What about filling a flexible pastic tube and laying that down? Or taping down the salt with masking tape? Less messy, and less likely to be disturbed, yes?
- Does the salt have to be in crystal solid form? What about dissolved in water? Would it be effective? 'Cause a spray bottle could go on the plane, or even a water gun... make salt water, and voila! Salt water gun.
- We've always seen the use of salt or iron for ghosts. But if salt is about purifying... would holy water do anything for ghosts? My roommate wanted to go out to the Mission in town the first afternoon anyway.
-Speaking of iron... I can't remember, why does it work against ghosts again? (Iron is heavy to lug down to the con. Might stick with salt, much lighter.)

 

i want to be there with you!!! how cool would that be!?!?!?!

i those designs...i am with you T. I wish there was a way not to have them as a square...if that makes sense.

i wonder if we could get some made....

 

I have always thought filling plastic tubing and sealing the ends would be awesome for the boys... also, salt filled hulahoops... personal portable protection circle.

Sage is also supposed to be very cleansing and keeps away bad spirits. You can get some smudge sticks, but if the hotel is non-smoking I don't know how they'd feel about that.

You're lucky! Although I don't know how much rest I'd get in a haunted hotel by myself. If I were with someone it'd be ok, but I tend to get freaked out if I'm alone in places like that

 

Yeah, that's where I got the idea for using flexible plastic tubing, as a similar extension of the hula hoop. This would be more for securing a location than a personal shield. You could lay it across any door or windowsill, and conform it to any shape desired. It would also be easy to coil and pack up for travel.

I was talking with my sister the other day, and she apparently already has the ghost detector app for her iPod! I thought that was funny. She also reminded me they have a ghost at her house. I'd forgotten that she mentioned it a long time ago; apparently it doesn't do much often. She said he likes to do things like fiddle with the stereo volume, though. Someone will say that they like a song or don't like a song, and the volume will suddenly turn way up or down on its own. (She says she lost the remote years ago.) The TV will also turn on or off on its own, without anyone near the remote or the TV. They call their ghost 'Phantom Dennis', after the character from early seasons of Angel, because he seems like-wise harmless. I suspect she doesn't entirely truly believe it's really a ghost, or she wouldn't be so blase about it. One that does freak her out, though... one time when he was a lot younger, my nephew apparently saw something near the family cottage on another part of the island. He didn't seem to realize it was (potentially) a ghost, describing it to my sister as a weird man in a funny tall hat, and saying he didn't like him because he was 'bad'. My sister and mom had lived at the cottage one winter, and heard all sorts of weird noises and stuff, so this freaked her out.

Of course, I used this as an opportunity to tell her this was why she really needed to watch Supernatural - if she did, she would learn much more about how to deal with ghosts.

 

I just downloaded the Ghost Radar app (first app I've paid $ for!) and it's sprouting random words at me...?

 

Erm, I suppose that depends on your intent. Do you want to hang out and talk with them? See if you can communicate? Or are you more interested in keeping them away...?

Some protection goodies:
- Rowan (twigs),
- Sage (don't burn it in the hotel, like Sarah said; it can create a lot of smoke and is usually pungent. I found out the hard way that my sister is allergic.... You can use it as a barrier, like salt. And if you feel "weird" after an encounter you can use it in a bath. Or if you're back home you can burn it and pass the smoke over you.
- Lodestone (magnetite)
_ Salt, of course

Repelling:
- Agate, bloodstone, jade, jasper, malachite, onyx, obsidian

As far as if you want to talk to them, I'd say "Hello, do you wan to talk?" I'm kind of of the "ghosts are people too" mindset. Sarah may have more info for you.

If something happens that freaks you out, either take a bath (with salt and sage if you want) or burn a candle and warm your hands with it, really focusing on the heat. These things will help ground you again and bring the calm back. And of course line your room with salt.

- The salt thing, it's got to be open to the air (combining elements). You don't have to lay it on as thick as the boys do, though. Just a solid thin line is fine; it doesn't have to be three inches thick and an inch high.
- Salt water also combining elements, so that should work just fine. Not as high-intensity as a shotgun, but effective at short distances.
- Catholic holy water actually contains salt, so you're extra good with holy water. Just take something with you to the mission to put the water in. Some more touristy places sell it bottled, but most places you just fill your container and go.
- Iron. I suspect that SPN is using the old fairy lore about iron. Iron is like poison to fairies. They won't touch it if they can help it. (Iron likely being a symbol of man's technological abilities taking him further away from nature.) I really wouldn't trust it against ghosts, though.

 

More Tart, on 6.20: http://sequentialtart.com/article.php?id=2008

 

i have some news to report....

Jana has become one of us!

 

does anyone know where I can see the finale from last season or when it is airing again? I have yet to see it and its driving me nuts!

Also - with the using a hula hoop or tape - that also breaks the barrier created by the salt when you use another object. It would be like putting a stick through the line of salt.

 

Varza, 6.21 "Let it Bleed" and 6.21 "The Man Who Knew Too Much" are up at the CW site here:
http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/supernatural

I know my computer has difficulty streaming, so there are "other ways" if you need something else....

 

d'oh I always forget about the channel websites. Thanks.... feeling kinda out of it.

 

I know how that goes.

 

Hmm. Good question. I think we hadn't thought that far ahead, being too busy going squee over the idea of the haunted hotel and laughing our asses off that 'there's an app for that!'.

I'll have to consult with my roommate, but for my part, I think we'd want a combination of both. I'm sure we'll have great fun going through the halls with our cellphones-turned-quantum-flux-detecting-tricorders and homemade EMF detector. So part one would be looking to see if we actually find anything. From everything I've read so far, the ghosts (one main guy plus occasional sightings of other unidentified people) are friendly, as far as these things go. However, watching 6 seasons of Supernatural has taught me that one should always be as prepared as possible. So just in case, part two would be taking precautions and having safety supplies on hand. I imagine we'll probably want to lay salt lines in the room, partly because it's a good idea to play it safe and partly because we'd get a kick out of it.

Oh, cool! Rowan rings a vague bell (I must have read about it somewhere before), but I wouldn't have remembered that on my own. Now where to find Rowan twigs? It looks like there is a variety that lives in Calif. Not sure if I'll have time to track one down, though.

Sage - is any variety good? Any particular part of the plant? Should it be fresh or dried? Would sage picked up at the grocery store produce section work?

Magnetite - ok, here's where my inner science geek comes out. Magnetite is, well, highly magnetic, as the name would imply. Does that have anything to do with it having an effect on ghosts? Like, if ghosts have an effect on EM fields, is there some interaction there? Plus, magnetite is a form of iron oxide. Could this be another potential reason for the use of iron to repel spirits in Supernatural? (for either the magnetic properties of iron, or just that iron is more familiar to the viewer than iron oxide?) </science-geek> Anyway, how would it be used? Similar to how we see them use iron on the show? I'll have to look and see if I have any. I have several small bags of crystals and polished rocks packed away, but am not sure if lodestone is in there. Unfortunately the new-agey supply store down in town closed a year or two ago; otherwise I imagine I could find some there.

Cool. I'm pretty sure I have some of these in the aforementioned stash. I think I've probably got some agate, and potentially some of the others. Huh, some of these look kind of similar, though. I'm not sure on correctly IDing them. I know I have a jade necklace (carved budda).

What is the difference between protection and repelling?

Bummer. I was thinking it would be really easy to pack up the salt-filled tubing for transportation. Plus, less messy in the hotel room. I guess it has to be open air, rather than having the tube partially filled with some air inside there? (though that would bring up the potential for a break in the salt line depending on how the s

 

Ok, so I have to share my amusement over this 'ghost radar' app. When Zoo first pointed it out to me, I was too busy laughing and squeeing to read the description carefully. I assumed it turned the phone into an EMF detector - made sense, given the phone has a a compass in it. But... having gone back and read the description now... and here's where the laughter really gets going... they say it isn't an EMF detector, but rather a 'quantum fluctuation' detector.

Don't get me wrong. Quantum flux, for all that it sounds like something out of Star Trek, is actually real. Yay, Heisenberg. This goes back to the familiar (to a physicist) basic concept that you can't know both the exact position and exact velocity (energy) of a particle at the same time. (And this, btw, is why Star Trek transporters need the 'Heisenberg compensator'. Handy things, somehow allowing the transporter to somehow get around the problem inherent from the aforementioned physics, and re-assemble your molecules properly. Hopefully.)

But as for how my iPhone could detect quantum fluctuations? Yeah, I'm not really sure about that. I'll do some reading in case I'm missing something, but until then, I'm not sold.

So, I'm back to thinking of making a home-made EMF detector. We can use both, I guess.

Oh, here's an amusing bit of sarcastic fluff on quantum flux.

 

SDCC goodie....

 

ALISON!!!! CAN YOU GET ME ONE??? PLEASE? I have been watching from day 1. hehehe