Pictures in a Book

We've recently found out that some more pictures of the family have been published by La Leche League. This time, the pictures appear in a rather prestigious book, perhaps the most famous book that La Leche League puts out: The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (Seventh Edition).

There's two pictures of Renee and Aidan (those two pictures are of Renee laying down with Aidan -- the captions on both of those pictures are in chapters about "illness"; apparently Renee seems to be "sick" a lot in this book...)

Another picture in the book has the three of us (Aidan, Renee and myself); we are on the title page for "Part Four — Life as a Family"; as you can probably tell, we are quite proud.

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The Wild Divine Project

Wow. This is really, really cool. If I still played games on the PC, I might consider this... Heck, I may still consider this...

Basically, The Wild Divine Project is a video game, but with a different set of controllers than the typical video game. It has biofeedback controls. This means that you control events on the screen based on how the sensors read your respiration, heart rate, etc.

Check it out.

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The Sentimental Web

Webmonkey, the goofy and oddly useable reference that many, many beginning HTML junkies used as a reference and guide is no more.

This, oddly enough, actually affects me in some sentimental way....

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A Ghost Story

I first heard about this story from my friend Tom's site, but this has apparently been going around the Web for quite some time (the first mention of it that I can find is in June 2003).

Here's some back story: It looks like someone sold an antique wine cabinet on eBay back in June 2003. Maybe the wine cabinet was in really bad shape and there was no other way to sell it without creating some incredible story to go with it, thus increasing the intrigue of the item and additionally increasing the value of the item. Later in this post, you'll see the best image of the item that I could find....

Seemingly, the person was able to sell it. But now the "new" owner doesn't want it anymore — I know this because it's up for sale again on eBay. It seems that the new owner is just as freaked out about the item as the first owner.

And now, the newest owner, the one that won the most recent eBay bidding, will be receiving the item (assuming all financials and inspections are accepted). The winner of the bid (agetron is the screen name) seems to be the curator of a museum.

Anyway, here's the story, as was told to eBay (and retrieved from Ghostbusters.net)....

The first part is from the First Owner....

Dibbuk Box / Antique Wine Cabinet
All of the events that I am about to set forth in this listing are accurate and may be verified by the winning bidder with the copies of hospital records and sworn affidavits that I am including as part of the sale of the cabinet. The winning bidder will also be able to contact most of the persons mentioned herein for the purposes of verification, corroboration, and to gain insight into the full scope of… whatever it is.

During September of 2001, I attended an estate sale in Portland Oregon. The items liquidated at this sale were from the estate of a woman who had passed away at the age of 103. A grand-daughter of the woman told me that her grandmother had been born in Poland where she grew up, married, raised a family, and lived until she was sent to a nazi concentration camp during World War II. She was the only member of her family who survived the camp. Her parents, brothers, a sister, husband, and two sons and a daughter were all killed. She survived the camp by escaping with some other prisoners and somehow making her way to Spain where she lived until the end of the war. I was told that she acquired the small wine cabinet listed here in Spain and it was one of only three items that she brought with her when she immigrated to the United States. The other two items were a steamer trunk, and a sewing box.

I purchased the wine cabinet, along with the sewing box and some other furniture at the estate sale. After the sale, I was approached by the woman’s granddaughter who said, “I see you got the dibbuk box.” She was referring to the wine cabinet. I asked her what a dibbuk box was, and she told me that when she was growing up, her grandmother always kept the wine cabinet in her sewing room. It was always locked, and set in a place that was out of reach. The grandmother always called it the dibbuk box. When the girl asked her grandmother what was inside, her grandmother spit three times through her fingers said, “A dibbuk, and keselim.” The grandmother went on to tell the girl that the wine cabinet was never, ever, to be opened. The granddaughter told me that her grandmother had asked that the box be buried with her. However, as such a request was contrary to the rules of an orthodox Jewish burial, the grandmother’s request had not been honored. I asked the granddaughter what a dibbuk, and keselim were, but she did not know. I asked if she had the key and if she would like to open it with me. She said that the family had never been able to find a key among her grandmother’s belongings. She did not want to open it, as her grandmother had been very emphatic and serious when she instructed her not to do so, and, regardless of the reason, she wanted to honor her grandmother’s request.

I finally ended up offering to let her keep what seemed to me to be a sentimental keepsake. At that point, she was very insistent and said, “No, no you bought it!”

I explained that I didn’t want my money back, and that it would make me feel better to do what I thought was an act of kindness. She then became somewhat upset. Looking back now, the way she became upset was just plain odd. She raised her voice to me and said, “You bought it! You made a deal!”

When I tried to speak, she yelled, “We don’t want it!”

She began to cry, asked me to leave, and quickly walked away. I wrote the whole episode off to the stress and grief she must have been experiencing. I took my purchases and politely left.

At the time when I bought the cabinet, I owned a small furniture refinishing business. I took the cabinet to my store, and put it in my basement workshop where I intended to refinish it and give it as a gift to my Mother. I didn’t think anything more about it. I opened my shop for the day and went to run some errands leaving the young woman who did sales for me in charge. After about a half-hour, I got a call on my cell phone. The call was from my salesperson. She was absolutely hysterical and screaming that someone was in my workshop breaking glass and swearing. Furthermore, the intruder had locked the iron security gates and the emergency exit and she couldn’t get out. As I told her to call the police, my cell phone battery went dead.

I hit speeds of 100 mph getting back to the shop. When I arrived, I found the gates locked. I went inside and found my employee on the floor in a corner of my office sobbing hysterically. I ran to the basement and went downstairs. At the bottom of the stairs, I was hit by an overpowering unmistakable odor of cat urine (there had never been any animals kept or found in my shop). The lights didn’t work. As I investigated, I found that the reason the lights didn’t work also explained the sounds of glass breaking. All of the light bulbs in the basement were broken. All nine incandescent bulbs had been broken in their sockets, and 10 four-foot fluorescent tubes were lying shattered on the floor. I did not find an intruder, however. I should also add that there was only one entrance to the basement. It would have been impossible for anyone to leave without meeting me head-on. I went back up to speak with my salesperson, but she had left. She never returned to work (after having been with me for two years). She refuses to discuss the incident to this day. I never thought of relating the events of that day to anything having to do with the cabinet.

Then, things got worse.

As I already indicated, I had decided to give the cabinet to my Mother as a birthday gift. About two weeks after I made the purchase, I decided to get started refinishing it. I cut off the little padlock and opened it. I was surprised to find that the cabinet has a unique little mechanism. When you open one of the doors, the mechanism causes the opposite door, and the little drawer below, to open at the same time. It is very well made. Inside the cabinet, I found the following items:

1 1928 U.S. Wheat Penny;
1 1925 U.S. Wheat Penny;
One small lock of blonde hair (bound with string);
One small lock of black/brown hair (bound with string);
One small granite statue engraved and gilded with Hebrew letters (I have been told that the letters spell out the word SHALOM);
One dried rosebud;
One very strange black cast iron candlestick holder with octopus legs.
I saved all of the items in a box intending to return them to the estate. The family has refused the items, so they will be included in this sale of the cabinet.

After opening the cabinet, I decided not to refinish it. I cleaned it, and rubbed in some lemon oil. It was at this time that I noticed that there was an inscription in Hebrew carved into the back of the cabinet. I have no idea what it says or if it is significant. I have included a picture of that inscription below. On my mother’s birthday, October 28, 2001, my mother called to tell me that she was going out of town with my sister for three days, and we postponed celebrating her birthday together until she returned. On October 31, 2001, my mother came to my shop. We were going to have lunch together, but before we were going to leave, I gave her the wine cabinet. She seemed to like it. While she examined it, I went to make a phone call. I hadn’t been out of sight more than 5 minutes when one of my employees came running into my office saying that something was wrong with my mom. When I went back to see what the matter was, I found my mom sitting in a chair beside the cabinet. Her face had no expression, but tears were streaming down her cheeks. No matter how I tried to get her to respond, she would not. She could not. It turns out that my mother had suffered a stroke. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance. She ended up suffering partial paralysis, and losing her ability to speak and form words (she has since regained the ability to speak). She could understand things being said to her, and could respond by pointing to letters of the alphabet to spell out words she wanted to say. When I asked her the following day how she was doing, she teared up and spelled out the words: N-O G-I-F-T. I assured her that I had given her a gift for her birthday, thinking that she didn’t remember, but she became even more upset and spelled out the words: H-A-T-E G-I-F-T. I laughed and told her not to worry. I told her I was sorry she didn’t like the cabinet, and that I would get her anything she wanted if she would promise to get well soon.

Still, I didn’t associate anything that had happened with the cabinet itself or anything paranormal. Frankly, I don’t think I ever even used the term “paranormal” until this last month.

I’ll try to make this short now. I gave the cabinet to my sister. She kept it for a week, then gave it back. She complained that she couldn’t get the doors to stay closed and that they kept coming open. There are no springs in the door mechanism and I have never found that the doors come open. I gave it to my brother and his wife who kept it for three days and then gave it back. My brother said it smelled like Jasmine flowers, while his wife insisted that it put out an odor of cat urine. I gave it to my girlfriend who asked me to sell it for her after only two days. I sold it the same day to a nice middle aged couple. Three days later, when I came to open the shop for the day, I found the cabinet sitting at the front doors with a note that read, “This has a bad darkness.” I had no idea what that meant. Anyway, I ended up taking it home.

Then, things got even worse.

Since the day I brought it home, I began having a strange recurring nightmare. Every time I have the horrible dream it goes something like this: I find myself walking with a friend – usually someone I know well and trust – at some point in the dream, I find myself looking into the eyes of the person that I am with. It is then that I realize that there is something different, something evil looking back at me. At that point in my dream, the person I am with changes into what can only be described as the most gruesome, demonic looking Hag that I have ever seen. This Hag proceeds then, to beat the living tar out of me. I have awakened numerous times to find bruises and marks on myself where I had been hit by the old woman during the previous night. Still, I never related the nightmares to the cabinet, nor do I think that I ever would have.

About a month ago, however, my sister, and my brother and his wife came over to my house and spent the night. The following morning, during breakfast, my sister complained that she had had a horrible nightmare. She said that she recalled having had it a couple of times before, and went on to describe my nightmare exactly to the last detail. My brother and his wife froze as they listened, and then chimed in that they had both had had the exact same dreams during the night as well. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck and still is. As we talked, it became clear that the common denominator was that each of us had had the nightmare during the times that the cabinet was in our respective homes. I called my girlfriend and asked if she could recall having any nightmares recently. She described the same nightmare, same Hag, everything. When I asked her if she remembered the date when she had the nightmare, she said she did not. Then I asked if it happened to be the night before she gave me the cabinet back to sell for her. She said, “Yeah! Hey, how did you know that?!!!”

Now then, since my family discussion, it seems like all hell is breaking loose. For a week afterward I started seeing what I can only describe as shadow things in my peripheral vision. In fact, numerous visitors to my house have claimed that they have seen these shadow things. I put the cabinet in an outside storage unit and was awakened when the smoke alarm in the unit went off in the middle of the night. When I went to see what was burning, I opened the door and didn’t see any smoke. However, I did get hit with the smell of cat urine. When I went back inside, the smell was there in my house. I DO NOT OWN A CAT AND I NEVER HAVE. I went back outside and grabbed the cabinet. I brought it back inside and tried to research it on the Internet. While I was surfing the net, I fell asleep and once again had the same freakin’ nightmare. I woke up at around 4:30am (when it felt and smelled like someone was breathing on my neck) to find that my house now smelled like Jasmine flowers, and just in time to see a HUGE shadow thing go loping down the hall away from me.

I would destroy this thing in a second, except I really don’t have any understanding of what I may or may not be dealing with. I am afraid (and I do mean afraid) that if I destroy the cabinet, whatever it is that seems to have come with the cabinet may just stay here with me. I have been told that there are people who shop on EBAY that understand these kinds of things and specifically look for these kinds of items. If you are one of these people, please, please buy this cabinet and do whatever you do with a thing like this. Help me.

You can see that I have no reserve price or minimum bid. If I can make things any easier let me know and I will do everything within my abilities.

One more note. On the same day my Mom had her stroke, the lease to my store was summarily terminated without cause.

The measurements are 12.5" x 7.5" x 16.25"

ALL OF THE ITEMS THAT I ORIGINALLY FOUND INSIDE THE CABINET ARE INCLUDED IN THE SALE AND WILL BE DELIVERED WITH THE CABINET.
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On Jun-12-03 at 02:15:30 PDT, seller added the following information:

There is no way that I can respond to all of the e-mails I've received since I put this thing on-line. I'll try now to update and answer the most common questions I've been receiving.

1. No, I am not religious.

2. No, I do not wish to have or participate in any sort of exorcism, or case study, or photo sessions at my home.

3. No, I will not sell any of the individual pieces which were originally found seperate from the other pieces and the cabinet.

4. No, I do not speak Hebrew nor do I know what the word "keselim" means. I don't know that the word is even a Hebrew word.

5. At the end of the auction, I have decided to take an opportunity to speak with the winning bidder for two reasons: a.)To make sure that the winning bidder is a serious adult who has employed some valid reasoning skills in making the decision to accept whatever this is. I will not be judgemental. Do whatever you want or need after the sale. b.)To offer full details of the events that have transpired. After I have carried out those responsibilities, and upon payment, I will have the cabinet and its contents delivered by U.S.MAIL, FED-EX, or UPS to the winning bidder. At that point, I will have no further involvement with the matter in any way, shape, or form. Period.

6.) To all of you who have offered to pray, I may not be religious, but I am certainly open to the possibilities --no matter what your religion might be. THANK YOU!
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On Jun-14-03 at 05:216 PDT, seller added the following information:

Here is another update for everyone following this listing.
NO! No, I will not circumvent, or make any deals outside of EBAY - EVEN FOR MORE MONEY THAN THE FINAL AUCTION PRICE!!! If you want to win the auction and have the kind of money some of you are offering, there shouldn't be any reason why you cannot simply place your bid in an open honest fashion. I'm sure you can understand why I might be suspicious.

ALSO....

For those of you wanting to know if I am still experiencing anything out of the ordinary, I thought everything was going OK until I got home on Friday - the 13th of June - and found that the fish in my fresh water aquarium - all 10 - were dead.

I'm still hoping that all of this is coincidental crap.
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And that is all from the first owner. The new owner (eBay screen name of spasmolytic) added this to the posting of the item....

I bought the box from the first sellar above in the Ebay auction around June of 2003, out of curiosity about the 'haunted' box. After receiving a deluge of e-mail about the box, I set up a web site to answer some questions, which I stopped updating in September and haven't updated to this day because I didn't want to talk about it with anyone.

For the sake of information, I found that a dibbuk/dybbuk in Jewish folklore/mythology/teaching/whatever is a misplaced spirit that can neither rise to Heaven nor descend into Hell, essentially stuck in Limbo or purgatory. Here's another definition I found: 1. (Jewish folklore) a demon that enters the body of a living person and controls that body's behavior. Synonyms: dybbuk. 2. Evil Spirits, that cause mental illness, rage and changes of personality. The spirit or soul of a dead person that inhabits the body of a living one, with sometimes evil, sometimes positive results.

If you believe in paranormal phenomena, the box contains or is possessed by at least one dibbuk, possibly two, as the grandmother stated: a dibbuk, and a keslim. Keselim is a term similar to a turkish word that means "priest." This would probably correspond to the pair of wrapped strands of blonde and brown/black hair.

The Hebrew carving on the back, to my knowledge, is a relatively common Jewish prayer: Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Blessed is the name of his honored kingdom forever. Said frequently at times of fear, death, etc...

I was doubtful of the 'haunted' box, and I still don't believe in the paranormal. What happened in August and Septemember is likely coincidental, so I will relate it as I originally wrote it down in a log.

Sunday, 31 August 2003 Over the last week some interesting, though possibly coincidental, items of note have come up. Firstly, I share a house with six other people; we have been taking turns sleeping with the box in each of our rooms.
Two people are now complaining of burning eyes, one is listless and depleted of energy, and another became spontaneously sick. [In retrospect I would say it was alergies.]

A few days after these ongoing annoyances started, the air outside our house was filled with small bugs for several hours (a Friday). [Weird summer stuff?]
Last night (Saturday) we discovered that the box, now located in the back corner of the house, had come mostly open, though it had been shut and it seems unlikely that anyone could or would have touched it.

Wednesday, 10 September 2003 Though it seems impossible to prove that the box is a direct cause of misfortune, we have definitely seen a tidal wave of "bad luck."

Strange odors now permeate the house, the dumpster out back overflows with trash and decay, one roomate suddenly got bronchitis, and I broke a finger.
Several mice have died in the engine of one car, and more electronic devices seem to be dying everyday: xbox, toaster, t.v., and watches.
------

I don't really want to talk about anything between September and January, so I'll just say that I'm selling the box now for a couple reasons:

Around October 6th, I started feeling bad, with trouble sleeping. This problem has persisted through today.

I live alone now, and as of late I have noticed replacing a lot of burnt out lightbulbs, and getting many unusual car repairs (transmission fluid was burned out of the reservoir.)

I've started seeing things, sort of like large vertical dark blurs in my periphreal vision. I smell something like juniper bushes or stingy ammonia in my garage often, and I have no idea what from.

Most disturbingly, last Tuesday (1-27-2004), my hair began to fall out. Today (Friday) it's about half gone. I'm in my early twenties, and I just got a clean blood test back from the doctor's. Maybe it's stress related, I don't know.

Anyhow, for personal reasons I very strongly do not want this box anymore. I hope there's someone on Ebay that will take this thing off of my hands. [I would just throw it away in the woods or something, but I know there has been some interest in it in the past.]
========================================

And that, as they say, is that. I know nothing more about this item or what has happened to any of the owners. I was able to (sort of) track the sale of the item, as I mentioned above to a musuem.

It turns out that the winning bidder (agetron) posted a comment on the item on another site (you can read that comment near the bottom of this page ). So, it will be interesting to find out if this item comes back on the market or if the new owner will post any other messages. Perhaps we'll hear from it again some day....

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Reading in Bed

As is probably evident by now (as I've mentioned it in several previous posts on this site), our bedtime routine basically involves me reading to Aidan and Renee as they lie in bed. Last night, we changed things up a little bit.

Aidan had been sick the last couple of days, which resulted in a rather grumpy and tired little boy. But, just as we were to try to put him to bed, he began to get some energy back. He was running around, dancing, jumping, having great fun. But it was his bedtime, so we tried to encourage him into bed. I told him that, if he got into bed, I would read him a book. But Aidan thought of another idea.

Aidan pointed at the bed and said, "Dadda, bed." So, I got into bed. He found one of his favorite books (Foxwood Tales), got up in the rocking chair I usually read from and started reading — out loud.

"Smle smli plu," Aidan read (or something like that) as he dragged his finger across the page.

Aidan continued reading in this style for a little while. However, I felt that it was time for Aidan to try and sleep (it was already relatively late), so I asked him if he wanted me to read to him. He looked at me, furrowed his brow and pointed at the bed. "Dadda, bed," he said.

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Silence isn't Free

In case you're regularly listening to some overtly loud music (maybe like some screaming Finns), and you are looking for something to cleanse the palette, I do have a suggestion for you: You can buy "silence" from Apple's iTunes.

From CNET News:

As [iTunes] notes, Apple treats the silent songs just like their more musical counterparts. The silent tracks sell for the same 99 cents as other songs, feature free 30-second "previews" and are all wrapped in Apple's usual digital-rights management software to prevent unauthorized copying.

... three of the tracks--all titled "Silent" and all by hip-hop group Slum Village--are labeled as explicit, even though there is only silence. For those who worry that the lack of sound will be too racy, iTunes offers "clean versions" as well.

I guess all you need now are noise-canceling headphones to make the experience complete.

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Bread and Religion

"Feed us first, then ask for virtue."
— Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

I heard a tale on KUT this morning that reminded me of the above quote from Dostoevsky. It goes a little something like this ...

God called three people to Him. "I want you to go out and gather some rocks for me; as many and of any size as you wish."

The first person felt that it was a time-based test, so he ran out and grabbed a pebble and came back quickly.

The second person was gathering rocks for several hours and came back with a wheelbarrow full of various sized rocks.

The third person didn't come back until midnight, and came pushing a mountain.

From these rocks, God made bread; the first person had a biscuit, the second person had many loaves, and the third person received a bakery.

The next day, God asked the same three people to gather in front of him. "I would like you to gather some rocks for me again."

This time, the first person was out for many hours....

The second person again came back with a wheelbarrow full of rocks.

The third person again came back with a mountain.

However, they all waited a very long time for the first person to come back. They waited until midnight. They waited through the early morning. Finally, just about dawn, they felt the earth shake and heard a terrible rumbling. The first person arrived, pulling several mountains and throwing many, many rocks to the appointed meeting place.

God said to the three, "upon these rocks, I shall build my church."

"I'll be damned if you will," said the first person. "You're going to make bread today."

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Socialism for Computers

The idea of "sharing" computers has been around for a while. The premise is based on the idea that, if your computer isn't doing any computing for you, it could be tapped by someone else, with your permission of course.

One of the most popular examples of this is the SETI @ Home project, which allows SETI to compute information on your computer while you aren't using it (it comes on as your computer's screen saver). The cool thing about the SETI project is that you are donating your computer; no one is profiting on the arrangement.

Now it looks like Adobe is bringing this idea to the mainstream — and for profit. According to one news story, Adobe is putting this technology into their video effects software, After Effects Professional. Applying effects to movies can require lots of computing time (and raw power) and using this particular paradigm makes a certain amount of sense, in that it makes sense to use untapped resources.

It looks like Adobe's model is pretty cool, at least for them. Sure, Adobe designed the software to make it possible, but they are essentially renting my computer processor. What would compel me to pay Adobe to allow someone else to use my computer? Perhaps my own need to "borrow" someone else's processor?

I see a few pros and cons here; I'm not too keen on the idea of allowing my computer to line the pockets of some other company. At least with the SETI @ Home project, I could feel a certain amount of "civic pride," as I was donating my CPU to their organization; it is a relatively pure socialism.

But this Adobe model... there's something about this that I don't like.

Additionally, the license with Adobe "includes permissions to run the grid software on two processors of other computers besides the one After Effects Professional is running on." You have to spend additional money if you want to use additional processors....

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Let Go!

Aidan loves to help around the house. Renee was just lamenting about how difficult it is for her to keep the windows clean on one of our glass doors because, as she is cleaning it, Aidan is following right behind her mimicking her behavior, which really doesn't clean anything ...

Besides cleaning windows, Aidan also loves to help clean the floors. We had to buy him a little broom, so he could help Daddy sweep. Yet he also likes to mop and vacuum. So, we got him a vacuum (one that really works!). Yesterday was his first day with it, and it's been running non-stop since then (it runs on batteries, which I predict will run out by the end of today).

But Aidan doesn't really like to vacuum alone. While vacuuming, he'll say "Dadda ba-tu?"

The vacuum cleaner also comes with the full range of attachments, which are a little complicated for him to put on and take off.

This leads into another one of Aidan's current favorite sayings:"Let go." However, it usually isn't in terms of "get your hands off of me," or "let go of my toy." He says it when he's playing on the computer with the mouse, and he wants to take the mouse with him. Of course, the mouse is plugged into the computer. But Aidan wants the computer to "let go."

Thus, when one of the attachments is attached to the hose, and he can't get it off ... "Let go, ba-tu."

He is also just starting to say his name. For the longest time, if you asked him his name, he'd say "me." Sometimes, we'd try something like this:

"Aidan, whose that," I'd ask.
"Momma," he'd answer.
"Whose this?"
"Dadda."
"Whose this?"
"Me."

But recently, he has been trying to say his name, which usually comes out something like "Aithen." (Try to say Aidan, but with your tounge hanging out; don't try to move your tounge, and you'll have an idea of how he's saying it — visual and all.) Yet, he still doesn't like to say it too often. Usually, it's a once-a-day thing. However, yesterday in the car, Uncle Jeffrey asked him his name.

"Aithen," he answered. "Aithen, Aithen, Aithen." He paused, and then as fast as he could said, "Aithenthenthenaithenaiaiaithenthenthenthenaithenaithenaithenthenthenthen."

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