Closest Anomalist no more?

Today marks a full week since I opened back up my Blog and attempted to write at least one post each day. And I am happy to report that I have been very successful. You know with the exception of some unexpected ‘downtime’ that occurred earlier in the week. So far I have put up a few posts each night that I don’t think sacrifice content by trying to write every night.

I have to say that even though I have only blogged seriously for the last week I can already see a big change in myself. First, I feel like my writing has gotten more coherent and also possibly enjoyable to read (hey a guy can dream). The old saying goes, of course, that practice can make perfect. So making myself post something to the blog each night has made me write a lot. I think that if you were to go back to my earlier stuff when I had first started this blog (back in October) you would be able to see a lot of improvement. It doesn’t hurt that I have also written a bunch of articles for my column, Fortean Ramblings, over at Binnall of America. Although only two have been posted up so far, I have already written something like 4 or 5 total.

The second change I can see is that I am becoming more confident in having people read my work. This is most evidenced by the fact that I figured what the hell why not send in some of my writing samples to see if a magazine would publish it? So far the response seems great, so now I just have to not be lazy (or worse procrastinate) and get the article re-tooled so that they can have it to publish. As of right now that‘s not looking so great, I am finding it terribly difficult to concentrate in order to write the article. As a matter of fact I am writing this post at the moment rather than working on the article which is actually open in another window. Oh well as much as things change some things always stays the same. Although after I post this blog my hope is to make a large dent into the article tonight, because as of Wednesday I will finally be returning to school to finish my Biology degree.

The final change that I have begun to see in myself is that I am starting to not be as hesitant about admitting my fascination with these kinds of topics. Or in other words maybe I am becoming less of a Closet Anomalist/Fortean. Just today at breakfast in a restaurant I found myself freely discussing what I think is the origin of at least some of the UFO phenomena (here is a hint as to what I think the origin is, they aren't from Zeta Reticula). The point being I didn’t lower my voice into a whisper as though I were discussing some kind of dirty shameful thing. After all if the visitor information that I have seen for my blog has told me anything, it’s that there is a worldwide interest in these topics. Why should I feel ashamed because I am interested in mysteries? I mean come on let’s be honest we are not talking about belief systems here. Although I loved David Duchovny’s character from The X-Files I don’t just ‘Want to believe’, I want to know or learn about these mysteries.

I think that was what had me being a Closet Anomalist in the first place. For the majority of people any interest in these kinds of topics, especially UFOs/Aliens, was automatically assumed to be a belief. Hell the question that a lot of people have asked me over the years is “Do you believe in aliens?”, as if it were a replacement religion of some sort (which I suppose for some people it is). But I don’t ‘believe’ in UFOs. I know for a fact that certain qualified persons have seen craft that they are unable to identify and which seem to perform maneuvers that are current technology are incapable of replicating. That doesn’t necessarily scream alien as the answer however.

I could go on and on about this part but I think I will save it for another post, and finish this one up by saying thank you. Thank you to whoever has been reading this for the last week, because of you I have been able to have a place to get out some of my thoughts and opinions on some Fortean topics. Also I have been able to get enough confidence to send some work to a magazine. And of course I will be continuing to do this for the conceivable future. Who knows maybe one of these day’s I will finally step fully out of the closet.