Rampaging Blog
The meat of our sandwich, the Rampaging Blog is dedicated to stories, research, and interviews. It may also contain rampant musings and uncontrollable tangents.
Rampaging Manifesto
Are you passionate about stories? Research? Facts? Are you interesting? Join the rampage! We have cards and secret handshakes and everything.
Writers and Storytellers
A list of all of our current authors, writers, researchers, and storytellers. For now.
Adventure on a grand scale, part four!
Waking up at Phantom Ranch didn't bring any surprises of the reptile variety, although we did find that the ring tails were significantly more agile than we gave them credit for. The third day dawned beautiful, as always. Despite the fact that dad's pack was on a nail...
Adventure on a grand scale, part three
Waking up after my first night on a backpacking mattress was a little interesting. I'm not talking about the stiffness in the legs or back, although there was a little of that. Neither am I talking about the beautiful scenery. Although there was a little...
Adventure on a grand scale Part Two… this time with pictures!
Due to the drive on the first day we got started on the trail around 8:00. Little did we know that this would be the latest that we would set out for the rest of the trip. I knelt down so we could see the picture behind us, but it turned out to be harder than I...
Adventure on a grand scale
Well I'm back in the mist-drenched northlands, giant bag in tow and- as of yet- still unpacked. It was a bit sad to come back to a chill in the air and the morning commute, but at the same time it's nice to spend the night in a bed again. But how was the canyon...
Failure to launch
Yesterday while working on my blog I was all set up for an article on theLost Cosmonauts. It's a pretty interesting story, and one that makesperfect sense given what a counselor told me at the Huntsville Space Center.*The idea is that back when the USand the...
Off to the Grand Canyon!
No updates this week, although I suggest that you check out mysteryseeker.com or 9gag.com to keep you suitably entertained in the mean time.See you next week... if I live through this!
Off to the Grand Canyon!
So no updates this week! If only because it is hard to type and hike at the same time to say nothing of the lack of service. I'll let you know all about it next week... assuming I live through the experience.
Running around and around and around
I don't quite know if I'm ready for the Grand Canyon, but I think I'm as ready as I'm going to be. The weird thing is how my body is reacting to all of the stair climbing, weight carrying, and long distance walking that I've been doing. My weight hasn't changed...
A Deadly Haunting Part Two
How much truth is there to this story? It's hard to be sure. Most of the documented evidence comes from a diary written by Richard Bell. Richard wrote the diary more than a quarter of a century after the events occurred, and he was only six at the...
A Deadly Haunting- the Bell Witch of the Tennessee frontier
When you first come across references to the Bell Witch it is easy to confuse it with a certain shaky-cam movie from the nineties. That is, until you look at the details. Here is a legend from the frontier, back when Tennessee was on the edge of the unsettled...
On the subject of words…
I think I spend too much time thinking about language. I like thinking about how words fit together and how they evolve in usage and meaning. In fact one of the best things about my recent reading of literature from the 1920's is seeing how words like "decadent"...
Sometimes technology hates me…
My main computer is currently down for the count, leaving me with a tablet that is a tad hard to type and do work on. So today's post is going to be a bit threadbare. However, I've been interested in radioactivity recently and have a couple of great...
Interesting article from the Opinionator
I love the Opinionator in general, but this article from yesterday is a little frightening. It's a review of Last Call by Daniel Okrent, but it's also a look at how modern politics mirror those at the time of Prohibition. But the film and book are much...
The problem with ebooks
I believe that I've mentioned my love of my Kindle here before. It's an amazing device that allows me to never, ever be without a book. (On a related note, I find that I also never have to talk to anyone on the bus if I don't want to. Like I said,...
Citizen Science and Unidentified Bluey Stuff- the Voorwerp
Too often science seems like a lofty ideal, a great and impossible muse that only those with years of education and impossibly high IQs (or at least a copious supply of white lab coats) can actually commune with. But then something like Galaxy Zoo comes along to...
Sherlock Vs. Doyle Continued, Spirits and Skeptics
The beginning of the movement is traced back to a young Andrew Jackson Davis who published a book called The Principles of Nature, but he didn’t claim authorship. No,...
Spontaneity failure
I think that I've discovered something about myself. It's probably not that earth-shattering of a realization, but whenever someone figures out something about how their mind works (especially if it's not precisely in line with how they previously saw...
Sherlock Holmes Vs. Arthur Conan Doyle
It’s strange to face the mental pictures that we make of our favorite authors. We each have certain expectations about the people who wrote the books we love: assumptions about how they lived their lives and the...
New story…
I seem to have a habit of writing things that I don't really want to post up here on this blog. But I'm going to be featured on the BePreparedPeriod.com blog within the week with a story about, you guessed it!, periods. So... yeah. The blog is meant to be...
Nappers delight!
Perhaps one of the universal constants of any young adult's life is napping. Between parties, working to pay for school and pulling all-nighters, it's no wonder that almost any walk through a college campus reveals students stretched out on the grass and benches....
Dancing in the dark
What do you get when you take a sleepwalker, download the complete works of HP Lovecraft into her Kindle, then have her train for the Grand Canyon and hike until she falls asleep the second she gets home? Interesting dreams to say the least. I recently found that the...
Sanity or Insanity: a tenuous line
We like to believe that there’s a clear line between “sane” and “insane,” that people who are one are clearly not the other. Part of the reason is the sheer social damage that a label like “crazy,” “schizophrenic,” or “mentally disturbed” can wreck on an...
Sorry, I’ve been a bit sick and sleepy…
So I haven't updated! Actually, I thought that I had one update in my automatic updater, but apparently 8:00 came and went without that showing up on Wednesday... leading me to give you a rough post, now! So, I just finished reading Memories of the Future by the...
Lammas: crazy ye olde funtimes
Today we descend down a different rabbit hole: that of modern paganism. Often derided and poked fun at, there’s actually something refreshing about a religion that embraces an anti-hierarchical format and a return to nature. A religion that seeks a simpler...
Thankfully it’s sunny in Seattle..
Because once I finish my July NaNoWriMo this is what I'll be doing: Well, that and practice hikes. Anyone got any ice packs?
Cooking with Rhubarb
I love having co-workers who have gardens. Why? Because occasionally one of them will hand me a bag of something like this: That's a bunch of rhubarb, and I honestly had never seen rhubarb in real life before that moment. My only real knowledge of it...
Short Bits
I’m busily trying to match my word count for NaNo, so this week’s post is made up of several topics which just weren’t long (or weird enough) to fill an entire article.How do ads on the internet know where I am?Have you seen those banner ads that seem to know exactly...
Seattle Street Art
Mister Dragon greets you all, and offers you some Seattle street art to get your weekend started right. Is this spray can drawing dirty? I honestly can't decide. Have a great weekend everyone!
Futuristic video time!
So the following video from Corning has been making the rounds and while I'm completely enamored of the idea (I love the tables that pull data off of the phones, whether they are video chats or projects, and of course the minority report-like glass screens are a...
Birthday!
Behold! I am another year older! Credit I honestly wasn't going to make a big deal out of this one, really. I figured that it was an odd number and I had meetings that day any way, so what did it matter? Unfortunately for me (fortunately?) I apparently...
Synchronicity- More than just a Police song
I came up to Seattle last year to join City Year, an Americorps group that is working to address the dropout crisis in our public schools. It’s a great organization but, like any group of people working together, participants found things to complain...
NaNoWriMo is kicking my butt
Oh good gracious, writing right now is not making me happy. On one hand, I've got a new byline in a magazine. Whoo for the Mountaineers! On the other hand, upon re-reading it I don't like the article at all. They printed it as is, and as is...
Essex Mountain Sanatorium- A strange, sad place
There’s something intensely creepy about abandoned places. Perhaps it’s in the look of a place that is no longer lived in but has instead died and begun to rot, something that seems to push visitors away even as it draws them in. An atmosphere that almost...
Sometimes I hate fact checking
I hate it because I find something really interesting, like this: The US standard railroad gauge is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number.The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd...
Well, I’m sort of settled…
Haha, well I am moved. Whoo! I'm also passed the worst of my sickness, which means that I'm only hacking up lungs now, not my entire system. *cough cough HACK* Moving was a bit of an issue, however, as I was running up and down ramps, driving u hauls,...
Why is the internet filled with cats?
What is the internet? Is it a communication platform? A learning tool? A self-publishing forum? An AI in the making?No. It's a vehicle for cats. The best line is in the beginning: "A phone this powerful can do almost...
Nemesis looming?
Essentially the Nemesis theory comes from research done by David Raup and Jack Sepkoski. Back in 1984 they published a paper claiming that there was a statistically relevant periodicity over the last 250 million years. Basically they identified 12 big...
*Cough cough hack*
Apparently there was some kind of virus incubating in my room that I've disturbed with my packing, perhaps hidden twixt the pages of seldom opened books, or perhaps napping against the window on the bus exposed me to a previous passenger's infection. In other...
Changing times
It smells like change. I'm not sure what it is, exactly, perhaps it's just that with the warmer weather there's a hint of humidity in the air, a bit of mugginess that seems to bring with it the smell of home right before a monsoon rushes through and wipes the...
Nemesis- Is there something beyond our solar system?
It sounds like the plot of a bad thriller. A scientist, alone in his lab, is busy examining the archeological data when he notices a strange pattern. He flips back through his pages, unable to believe his eyes and hurriedly pulls out a calculator to...
Update delayed…
In the midst of all the moving/flash mobs/Pride/get togethers that this weekend was full of today's update is delayed until later tonight. But fear not! I have a wonderful link for you all to follow- from one of my very favorite websites. "Not...
Romeo is an idiot- there, I said it.
There’s a song that’s been on the radio that I hate- not because it’s a bad song, but because it draws on a story and tradition that I absolutely detest. Now, there are few things I can say that I actually actively hate, after all, my momma taught me not to say you...
Solstice Festival- Naked Bike Ride!
Note: This entry will not feature any pictures of me in said festival for obvious reasons. Instead, please enjoy classy pictures of cats in hats. All pictures link to their original source. Credit The more time I spend in Seattle the less I find that I measure...
Color Theory- apparently the real reason you can't get anything done
Most of us tend to believe that our moods are based on real, tangible things. Things like our commute, the amount of money we have, how we’re feeling, or whether or not the weather outside has finally changed to something associated with...
Rocky Point Pictures!
And Sarah's pictures are finally up from Mexico! Check them out, she's an amazing photographer currently living in the Chicago area. As I said, our patio at the Sonoran Spa in Rocky Point was gorgeous. I almost couldn't breathe the first time I saw...
Rocky Point- Sol, Mar, Familia, y Musica
I have returned from the dusty Mexican borderlands my hair a shade lighter and my skin several redder (I don’t get darker… at all). And while not all of Rocky Point is as pretty as this, the place I stayed with my parents was pretty damned gorgeous. Oooooh,...
The Shadows of the Internet
It's probably no secret to anyone on this website that I enjoy researching strange topics. Heck, most of the reason why I started this blog in the first place was because I realized that I was starting to annoy my friends/relatives/co-workers/fellow passengers...
Things I’ve learned in the last couple days
I don't understand all those self-help books and articles that promote life-long learning as if it's something special. How can someone continue living and not continue learning? Every day seems to be filled with an adventure of new things to learn. ...
Frivolous Names and Scientific Labels: Pretty Pretty Lights Edition
To continue last Monday’s discussion on names, scientists get a bad rap for not being creative. Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist once told the following story:“I have a friend who's an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don't agree...
The Old Leatherman: Mystery and Peculiarity
“Occasionally, legend and reality unite in the form of some remarkable soul who, through peculiarity or chance, assume a role resembling the mythical characters we read about in childhood’s fairy tales. The Old Leatherman was one of these.”-Researcher Allison...