Short Scary Story- Charlotte

When I was 8, my family moved into an old Colonial that was built in 1810. My father still lives there. Until I was 17, every before I feel asleep, I would feel pressure next to me as if someone sat down on the bed next to me. This would always be accompanied with a feeling of increased pressure in the air. Although I knew this probably didn't happen to everyone, I didn't think about it much.
Until I got a cat. He was a present for my twelfth birthday. Each night, he would sack out on the bed near my feet. Each night, he would bolt from a dead sleep and glare at something in the doorway before hightailing it out of there. A few moments later, the pressure would return.
Again, while this was a weird thing to happen, I didn't really question it. Maybe the cat was just neurotic. I didn't talk about this nightly occurrence to anyone. However, I did refer this feeling/presence/what have you as "Charlotte." I don't know why.
So one day in the summer when I was thirteen, an elderly man and his middle-aged daughter pull up to our house and explain that the father lived in the house with his aunt while he was a boy and that he raised his family there for a few years. They had been visiting family in the neighborhood, and they wondered if they could take a tour for old times' sake. My mom said sure. She, my sister and I led them around the house, and they recalled different memories.
Afterward, my mom asked them if they remembered strange occurrences or stories about the house. "Like ghosts?" the old man asked and chuckled. His daughter became very quiet and said firmly, "It's not funny, Dad." The man explained that everyone who slept in one bedroom felt a little unsettled, and his daughter interrupted to say that she always felt as if someone sat on the edge of the bed and she tried to go to sleep. Her father said they used to joke that it was just his aunt looking out for them—his Aunt Charlotte.
This confirmed what I had never admitted to myself. I had a freaking ghost that basically tucked me in at night for the previous five years.
Still, going to bed was never freaky or scary. I just tried to ignore the feeling when it came.
Until one night when I was 16. My parents had been going through a weird patch in their marriage, I was feeling depressed, and in general, it was a weird year. I went to bed; after about 20 minutes the cat took his typical bolting exit from the bed, and I felt the familiar pressure on my side.
Then I felt a hand brush through my hair.
Then I ran straight downstairs to the living room where my mom was dozing. She woke up when I burst in the room, saw my face, and asked what was wrong. I told her I had a nightmare and left it at that.
I spent a week sleeping in the guest room. When I got the nerve to go back to my room, I was nearly asleep when I realized I didn't feel the pressure next to me. I did feel pressure in the air. I rolled on my back and saw the figure of a woman in her 60s, wearing a housedress, her hair pulled back in a bun, with her arms folded. She was looking right at me, very concerned. When I found my voice, she disappeared. I said out loud, "I don't care if you stay, but I can NEVER, EVER, EVER see you again." I never did.
However a few years later, after my parents divorced and my dad moved in his girlfriend and her 4 year old son, I wasn't really surprised when she told me her little boy said a lady named Charlotte told him stories at night.

Short Scary Story- Colonel Walker

My mother worked in a daycare that had taken over the wing of an old school and the building is notoriously haunted with the ghost of the school's name-sake and founder, Colonel Walker. The attic of the building was used as storage for the daycare and many people reported small, fairly unobtrusive events while being up there, things like boxes shifting around behind you, drawers opening on the other side of the room where you were, curtains suddenly moving, the feeling of someone else being in the attic with you. But the kids were the most in tune it seems. I know that lots of the kids talked about "the old man" at the daycare (which was staffed entirely by women), and I have definitely seen the kids react by all at once looking to the door as if someone entered the room when no one had. Personally, I always felt as if someone was walking directly behind me whenever I had to go from one end of the hallway to another and sometimes I would hang out in the kitchen waiting for my mom to finish up work for the day while I finished my homework or something, I often felt like someone was there with me (I spent a lot of time there, especially in the summer when school was out, helping around the daycare). The most famous piece of evidence of Colonel Walker's ghost was a picture taken at Halloween of all the kids in their costumes. Right in the back, standing behind the children and looking straight at the camera, is the watery and somewhat blurred face and upper body of an older man. Like, you don't even have to squint or tilt your head to make out that it is there. Now I know that it could have been some bleed from some other photos or something, but I think, given all the other evidence it seems they got the Colonel on camera.

Short Scary Story-The Scary Room

My dad was dating a woman (let's call her Anne) in Rochester, NY. She lived in an old farm house. I don't even know where to begin with this place. Let's bulletpoint it out:
1) The basement looked like the basement in Stir of Echoes. Most of it was cement, except for "the scary room" which was a mound of dirt and sand. Weird and scary things would result if anything happened in that room, like having to run wires through it. Anne placed a chest-high piece of wood in the door frame to keep her animals from getting in there. It's worth noting that while her cat would go into the basement, her extremely loyal dog could not be made to go down the steps. That's when you know something's wrong. Anyway, Anne kept her cat's food dish on the top step to the basement. One day, she noticed a few pieces of the cat's food laying a couple steps down from the dish. Thinking nothing of it, she let it be. The next day, the food had moved down a step in the exact same pattern. Next day, same thing. Again and again until the food disappeared. Anne tried not to go into the basement as a matter of course, but had to soon thereafter to do laundry. She saw the cat food in the same pattern in the scary room. Blaaaagh.

2) Before my dad lived with her, she had a nightly routine. She would get in bed and read and then would turn on the t.v. (which was directly across from the bed) and fall asleep. Her dog would lie on the floor by her side. One night, she was reading and her dog jumped up and started barking at the t.v. Since her dog was generally hyper, she thought nothing of it—didn't even look up. But when the barking persisted, she looked at the t.v. The t.v. was off, but there were black and white images on the screen. They kept changing every minute or so—a church, a skull, etc. While she had experienced many scary things in her house, this freaked her out badly. She called my dad, panicking, and asked what to do. He said, "Take pictures!" She did. I've seen them. That t.v. was most definitely off and there were most definitely images on it. You can bet that when I stayed in their guest room for a Thanksgiving visit, I made sure the t.v. across from my bed was unplugged (not that it would've made a difference, but it made me feel better!), the lights stayed on, and the blanket was over my head all night.

3) Anne had a ghost travel with her to visit my dad one time. While it wasn't a mean-spirited ghost or anything, I still find that unbelievably creepy....so Paranormal Activity-ish.
4) I asked my dad what the scariest thing was that happened to him while living in that house and he said that one day, he was making a sandwich in the kitchen (which adjoined to the basement stairs, btw) and felt something hit his back and then heard it drop to the floor. It was a penny. "Weird," he thought. He started walking to the living room and something hit has back again. Same. Penny. Not cool, ghost. Not cool.

North Korean Officials Claim to Have Uncovered Secret Unicorn Lair – Seriously

Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).
This is really really for real serious in the eyes of the North Korean media. The Korean Central News Agency is the official news service of the DPRK. It is NOT like a Korean version of The Onion. Two, keep in mind that the North Koreans historically have gone to great and fantastic lengths to prove their superiority and the people of North Korea are expected to take everything that is released as gospel. Like the time when they claimed that Kim Jong Il went to the United States and won the U.S. Open by getting a hole in one on every shot.

It is also a “fact” that his birth was prophesied by a swallow and heralded with a double rainbow and a new star in the heavens.So, back to the unicorn. The reason North Korean officials have a vested interest in proving not that unicorns exist is because it would help to verify their legend about King Tongmyong riding a unicorn which somehow proves that Pyongyang is the rightful capital city of Korea. I don’t pretend to understand it all. From the article: The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom.Director of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences, Jo Hui Sung, explained to the KCNA that Korean history books point to the precise location of the lair and it was only a matter of time before it was found.

 

One such old book, ‘Sinjungdonggukyojisungnam’ (Revised Handbook of Korean Geography) complied in the 16th century wrote that there is a lair west of Pubyok Pavilion in Mt. Kumsu. The Sogyong (Pyongyang) chapter of the old book ‘Koryo History’ (geographical book), said: Ulmil Pavilion is on the top of Mt. Kumsu, with Yongmyong Temple, one of Pyongyang’s eight scenic spots, beneath it. The temple served as a relief palace for King Tongmyong, in which there is the lair of his unicorn. By the by, the Korean version of the unicorn (called a Qtlin) is slightly different than what is presented in Western legend. But, I can be forgiven for referring to them as unicorns because that is the exact translation that the KCNA uses themselves as you can see here. With that said, Korean unicorns actually look more like dragon-ish type creatures, or sometimes Bambi.Below is the picture of it.

Armless Pianist Wins 'China's Got Talent'

A singer with no tongue might not get too far on “American Idol”.  But an armless pianist has emerged as the winner of “China’s Got Talent”.Liu Wei was born October 7, 1987 in Beijing. He is a Chinese disabled pianist from Beijing who won the first series of China’s Got Talent at the age of 23 by playing the piano with his toes.Liu Wei sealed his victory Sunday night in Shanghai by performing his version of James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” – using just his toes!

Wei lost his limbs when he was electrocuted at the age of 10.  Eight years later, he decided to pursue his love of music.  He uses his feet to get dressed, eat and brush his teeth.The show’s three judges applauded the Beijing native for his determination and encouraged him to continue following his dreams.His upbeat attitude towards life, despite losing both arms in an accident created millions of fans and followers. His worldwide popularity became evident when he was cheered by a SRO audience in Vienna, Austria, in January 2011, when he performed “The Butterfly Lovers “in the Wiener Musikverein during the first stop of the China’s Got Talent tour.

Liu first moved audiences during his audition for the show, explaining: “For people like me, there were only two options. One was to abandon all dreams, which would lead to a quick, hopeless death. The other was to struggle without arms to live an outstanding life.”
But accepting his “CGT” prize in front of a capacity crowd at Shanghai Stadium, the newly-minted star revealed his lighter side, telling the judges “At least I have a pair of perfect legs!”

10,000 STEPS A DAY FOR A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE'S

How many steps do you walk each day?

Maybe you have heard the recent guidelines about walking 10,000 steps per day. How far is 10,000 steps anyway? The average person's stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles.

A sedentary person may only average 1,000 to 3,000 steps a day. For these people adding steps has many health benefits. I have outlined the basic 10,000 steps program, but also added a commentary below.

A reasonable goal for most people is to increase average daily steps each week by 500 per day until you can easily average 10,000 per day. Example: If you currently average 3000 steps each day, your goal for week one is 3500 each day. Your week 2 goal is 4000 each day. Continue to increase each week and you should be averaging 10,000 steps by the end of 14 weeks.

Wearing a pedometer is an easy way to track your steps each day. Start by wearing the pedometer every day for one week. Put it on when you get up in the morning and wear it until bed time. Record your daily steps in a log or notebook. By the end of the week you will know your average daily steps. You might be surprised how many (or how few) steps you get in each day.

 There are many ways to increase your daily steps. Use your imagination and come up with your own list:

Take a walk with your spouse, child, or friend

Walk the dog

Use the stairs instead of the elevator

Park farther from the store

Better yet, walk to the store

Get up to change the channel

Window shop

Plan a walking meeting

Walk over to visit a neighbor

Get outside to walk around the garden or do a little weeding

Continue to track your daily steps and/or mileage; and keep notes on how you feel, how your body is improving, or other changes you are making to improve your health.

If you are in very poor physical condition or at any point you feel that you are progressing too rapidly slow down a bit and try smaller increases. If you have any health concerns seek your physician's advice prior to starting or changing your exercise routine.

How to solve a Rubik's cube

The riddle of how to solve the Rubik's cube stumps most avid game players, but there are seven steps that might help the conundrum a little easier to crack. 

 

 1. Get to know your cube. For example, you should know that centre piece colours are always opposite each other. White is opposite yellow, orange is opposite red and green is opposite blue.

2. Solve the white cross.  The Rubik's website recommends you aim to create a white cross on the top face of the cube first of all. This will make the next phase easier.
3. Solve the white corners. With the white cross on the top face, you must then solve the white corner pieces. Corner pieces will have one white side plus two other colours.

4. Solve the middle layer, so the bottom two layers of your cube match in colour.
5. Solve the top layer. The first stage of this step is to try and get a yellow cross on the top face of your cube. Next, you should try and get all the yellow on the top face.
6. Position the yellow corners correctly. Twist the top face, which should be yellow, until at least two of the corners are in the right location.
7. Finally, correctly place the centre pieces.

 
An international team of scientists and Google engineers discovered that there are more than 100,000 starting positions for the Rubik's cube and they believe each can be solved in 20 moves or less.
Invented in 1974 by Professor Erno Rubik, the Rubik's cube was an instant success when it was first exported from Hungary in 1980, becoming the world's fastest-selling toy.
The 64-year-old reclusive Hungarian professor has since seen his cube achieve 350 million sales in the three decades since.
Still obtaining a cult following, almost 40,000 entries on YouTube feature tutorials and video clips of quick solutions.