WEBVTT

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This is an unusual story from Alex. It's really good, so let's jump

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into it. When I was young, we lived in Kernersville, North Carolina.

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It was a small town outside of
Winston Salem, and it is famous

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for being founded by little people,
the kerners We lived on the towns of

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Main Street, but we were far
enough from the middle of the town that

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there were only houses and fields cut
into the woods around us. Behind us

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was a large trailer park that was
surrounded by woods. I spent a lot

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of time in those woods, playing
games and exploring with my friends who lived

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in the trailer park. From my
earliest memories until we moved when I was

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fourteen, something would visit me at
night. It wasn't constant or all the

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time. Sometimes it would multiple times
in a single month, and then it

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wouldn't come back for several months.
I never mapped out the visits to see

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if it was coming more often in
certain months or during certain times of the

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year. I was just a kid, and I was terrified. The progression

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of these events before the experiences was
nearly identical over the years. I would

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wake up from a sound sleep for
no reason. It wasn't a slow awakening.

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One minute I'd be asleep, and
the next my eyes would be wide

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open and I'd be as awake as
if it were the middle of the day.

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Without understanding this, I would be
completely terrified. Anxiety and the flight

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or fight reflex would kick into overdrive. If I could have run somewhere to

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hide, I would have. But
no matter what I did, I couldn't

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shake the fear and I couldn't go
back to sleep. Within minutes, I

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would begin to hear tapping sounds on
the aluminum siding from outside across the hallway

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from my room. Our house was
a little L shaped ranch, and my

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bedroom was on the inside corner of
that L, next to the front door,

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and the tapping occurred in intervals,
tapping down the wall toward my parents

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room, and then back up the
side of the house back to my room.

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Once it reached the window of my
room, I could hear deep,

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heavy breathing. I felt like something
was out there, but I always slept

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with the windows and blinds and curtains
closed behind me. While I faced the

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opposite wall. I never saw anything. Hearing a heavy breathing always intensified my

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fear, which in turn kept me
paralyzed. Sometimes I would accuse myself of

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being afraid of nothing, and dare
myself to open the window and look outside.

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Just turn around, I'd tell myself, But I couldn't force myself to

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move. I finally, when I
couldn't stand it anymore, I'd scream as

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loud as I could and spring out
of run out of the room. My

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parents would always scold me for scaring
them and waking them up. It's just

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nightmares, they would say. Now
you're going to grow out of this.

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Eventually. I even doubted myself as
time went on. I doubted that what

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I was experiencing was real, no
matter how many times it happened. Well.

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This continued for all of my young
life until we moved. There were

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two occasions when something different happened.
They were the events that convinced me that

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it might not have been my imagination
after all. The first experience was when

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I was five. We had a
deep snow that night, so I was

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excited to go out and play in
it the next morning. But when I

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looked out in my bedroom window and
saw footprints ten feet away, I was

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disappointed and angry. It looked like
my dad had been out there walking around

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the house and ruining the pristine snow
while luckily put on my heavy winter clothes

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and I headed out, and when
I passed my mom and dad in the

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kitchen, I asked if anyone had
been outside. No, they answered,

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smiling at me, it's all yours. My mother called after me that I

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needed to eat breakfast before I went
out, but I couldn't wait. I

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couldn't let someone else have all my
beautiful snow. Well. I was perplexed,

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and it looked like my dad had
made the footprints. I followed their

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path around the house and I saw
that they went off into the field toward

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the woods. I went back to
the front yard to see where they had

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come from, and oddly, they
had circled the willow tree by the road,

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and from there it seemed as if
they came from the woods on the

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other side. I went back inside
to get my dad so he could see

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the prints, and he insisted that
I was the first one outside and that

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those footprints were mine. They'd been
watching me from the window. I did

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my best to convince him to come
out and look, but he said I

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was seeing things. But I knew
better, even though I was just a

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kid. I was much older when
the next event happened. It was about

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a year before we moved. I
woke up feeling that fear, and as

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usual, I couldn't get myself to
go back to sleep. I was determined

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to fight it, so I popped
up in bed and I looked out the

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window, but there was nothing there. I had to use the bathroom,

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so I stepped over my old English
sheep dog, Oliver, who was lying

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in the doorway with his belly on
the cool wall of the hall floor and

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his head on the carpet in my
room. In the bathroom, I was

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still gripped in fear, but I
forced myself to look out the window as

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well. There wasn't anything there either. Now back in my bedroom, I

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did my best to shake the fear, but it wouldn't let go. I

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glanced over at my window as I
climbed into bed, and all I saw

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was the light of the moon shining
through the curtains. I was determined to

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force myself to fall asleep, but
within a few minutes I heard a commotion

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outside. Our outside dog was a
black lab Terrier mixed named Zip. It

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sounded like she was chasing something.
She wasn't barking, but she was growling

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and running around like she did when
she was chasing stray dogs out of the

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yard. And whatever she was chasing
it sounded like it was moving around on

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two legs. She'd run in on
it, snarling, and then I could

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hear it stomp off. I was
terrified, beyond my limits, and there

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was no way I was going to
get any sleep, so I got out

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of bed. Oliver was on his
haunches with his head up and his ears

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ray, staring toward the window at
the sounds. Instead of going to the

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window, I walked down the hallway
towards the sliding glass door on the back

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side of the limbering room. There
was a small window to my right that

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was on the same side of the
house as my room, and as I

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passed by, I dared myself to
look out. There was nothing opened the

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door, and I called zip.
She came running towards me from directly in

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front of me, not the direction
I expected, and it made me wonder

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if she was still the one making
all the noises. It had to be

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her, what else could be making
all those sounds? She sat guard in

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front of me As I scanned the
woods looking for the source of the noise.

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Go to your house, I told
her. Zip was my best friend.

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She followed me everywhere. I knew
her very well, and every time

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I was upset with her and told
her to go to the house, she

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wouldn't go. Instead, she'd sit
there and wag her tail and nuzzle my

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hand for attention until I turned around. Only then would she do what she

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was told. But she didn't do
it this time. She went straight to

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her house and a flat run and
I closed the sliding glass door, and

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I forced myself to look outside one
last time before walking back to my room.

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I gave Oliver a pat as I
walked by, and in response,

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he laid his head down on his
paws. The clock read one forty three

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am, and I laid down,
but I couldn't sleep. And then the

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tapping started like it had so many
times before, and I covered my head

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and I wrestled with my fear as
the tapping moved around to the back of

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the house. Oliver's dog tag jingled
as he raised his head, and then

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his claws made a scratching sound on
the floor as if he was backing up

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into the hallway, and then the
breathing started. I was terrified. I

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knew it was real because Oliver knew
it was there. I hoped it would

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go away, and when I couldn't
stand it any longer, I screamed.

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My parents rushed into the room and
I looked at my clock and it was

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two twenty eight am. My parents
were angry and accused me of watching too

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many horror movies, but that didn't
matter to me. After that night,

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I knew there was something out there. We moved away from Kernersville to a

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house in the country south of Nashville, Tennessee. I didn't have those experiences

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for a long time. I thought
I could forget about them. I did

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for many years, and it simply
didn't exist anymore. I still enjoyed the

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outdoors, and when I was young, I spent as much time as I

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could outside, playing and enjoying nature. All animals seemed to take to me

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more than once. I petted and
played with dogs whose owners were surprised.

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I came home from spring break once
when I was in college, and I

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spent an evening out with my friends, and when I pulled in around midnight,

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my headlights lit up a pen in
the backyard, so I could see

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the eyeshine of my two dogs who
were in their house. They were strays

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that I had adopted, and the
neighborhood rules dictated the I had to keep

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them in a pen at night.
Usually when I came home, they would

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get up and walk around, and
they'd wagged their tails, whining until I

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came over to pet them. But
on that night, as soon as I

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got out of the car, that
old fear hit me again. It was

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like being punched in the gut and
then falling continuously. My stomach jumped up

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to my throat and it wouldn't go
away. I stared at the pen,

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and the dogs stayed put in their
house. It was completely silent. Not

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even the crickets were chirping. I
knew they could feel what I was feeling,

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and I started to walk toward the
house at a normal pace. I

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was a grown man now, there
was no fear. This was crazy and

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it shouldn't be happening. I opened
the back door and I stepped calmly inside,

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but I couldn't resist shutting the door
as quickly as possible. I went

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to the restroom, still perplexed that
this was happening, and I looked out

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the window but didn't see anything unusual, and I brushed my teeth and I

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went to bed. My window was
open outside, the blue green light of

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mercury vapor street light illuminated everything,
and my clock was flashing twelve midnight in

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red on the TV stand. I
hadn't bother to reset it. I lay

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down on the bed, and when
I was younger, I always slept facing

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away from the window that was on
my right side, and I've always slept

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on my right side, and with
the way my room was situated, that

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meant I was facing the window now. So I closed my eyes and then

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I opened them. The red light
of the clock flashed against the floor like

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a neon roadside diner sign. I
told myself that this wasn't possible. I

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was in another state. I shouldn't
be feeling this sphere now. I mentally

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searched for some psychological explanation. This
couldn't be real, I thought, well,

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I believed it was when I was
younger, but it wasn't real.

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It couldn't have been. I closed
my eyes again, but I couldn't keep

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them closed, no matter how many
times I tried. I just couldn't fall

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asleep, and I looked outside for
a long time. The last time I

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opened my eyes, all I saw
was black. And at the same moment

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I opened my eyes, I felt
a sort of pressure over my entire body

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from every point around me. It
pushed inside my head, on my brain

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too, and I squeezed my eyes
shut in defense. And then I noticed

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my legs were moving off the side
of the bed, like I was being

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forced to get up. I clenched
every muscle in my body to fight against

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whatever was controlling me. Something was
telling me to get up and go outside.

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I imagined myself walking outside and I
fought hard to stay still, but

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my leg was slowly moving to the
edge of the bed and I kept it

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from touching the floor. But I
was really straining to hold myself still.

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As long as I focused on my
body, I could remain still. But

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the second I had to take a
breath, it moved against my will.

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Well. I didn't know what to
do. I didn't think I could fight

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it much longer, and I started
praying our Father, who art in heaven,

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how I would be thy name.
It seemed to have a slight effect,

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just a little, but I felt
I would be protected if I had

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faith. I knew that God would
save me, and I prayed again.

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It was hard to say the words
while straining every muscle in my body,

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and I felt like whatever had me
was trying to keep me from speaking well.

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I prayed a third time, and
before I even finished, it was

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all suddenly gone. And I opened
my eyes and I could see the blue

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green light in the yard and the
flashing of the clock face on the floor,

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and I felt like a wave receding
back into the ocean. I was

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immediately relaxed and the fear had gone, and I finished the prayer as I

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stared out the window, and then
I ran out of my room, shutting

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the door behind me, and I
fell on the floor and my entire body

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was covered in sweat despite the coolness
of the night, and all my muscles

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were sore. There were no windows
I could see out where I sat,

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but I felt it was safe,
so I grabbed my cigarettes from my own

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room and I went outside. The
sounds of the night had returned, and

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my dogs came out of their house
and walked around their pen, and I

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finished my cigarette and I went back
inside. That was the last time something

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like that happened to me. I
don't know what it was. I feel

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sure it wanted me to go outside, and I don't believe the outcome would

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have been good for me. I
think that fear I felt is the same

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fear some people who had bigfoot encounters
feel. And I've told the story a

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few times, but nobody has ever
taken me seriously. I don't know what

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to blame for all this. Is
it a demon, a dog man,

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a big foot? I can't say. All I know is is that what

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I saw was complete blackness, and
what I felt was an absolute invasion of

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my mind and body. I think
God saved me. My faith chased it

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away. The instant I began to
pray, I knew I was going to

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be okay. And maybe there are
other people who have experienced this. My

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heart goes out to them. It's
terrifying not to have control of your own

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body. There are accepted psychological explanations
for what happened, but I don't think

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any of them fit what happened to
me. If I know I'm going crazy,

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then I must not be insane,
right, Ah, very good story.

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There's no creature in this story.
It is a psychological event in this

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guy's life. It has to be
because he never saw anything, although he

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did see tracks and he heard sounds. But this is creepy, and you

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know it's some kind of haunting or
who knows what it is. But I

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love this story, especially the way
he wrote it. He's very clear and

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concise, and I really appreciate it. So thanks Alex for sending this.

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All Right, this is gonna be
a little different. I get several emails

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throughout the year, people asking me
specific questions about different things, and a

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lot of them I don't know how
to answer. Most of them are about

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Bigfoot, What I think about Bigfoot? What I think about this or that

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regarding these mythical creatures, and I
don't have an answer for that. To

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be candid, I don't really care. I could care less about Bigfoot or

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dog man or ghosts or UFO.
I'm kind of caring about UFOs. Those

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are kind of interesting, and all
the other topics are interesting as well,

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but I just don't have any skin
in that game. I don't I've never

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had any interest in does bigfootage exist? Does he not? Anyway, I'm

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kind of rambling on, but some
of the questions I get are pretty interesting,

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and this one in particular, I
thought I would take a minute and

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answer. The woman that sent me
an email is saying that she's been told

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she has a nice voice. She's
done some recordings for phone answering machines and

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things like that, things that you
might ask someone in an office to do

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if they have a pleasant tone in
their voice and they speak well. But

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she was asking about getting into voiceover
work, and right out of the gate,

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I'm gonna say I don't know anything
about that. However, I can

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talk about my little sphere of the
audio things that I do, which are

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just fictional and non fictional stories.
I'll tell you what I think about the

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few facets of the voiceover business,
and they're just element triological conclusions I've come

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to just by reading and watching as
I kind of moved through this. I

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guess it's an industry. I don't
know. Let me give you an example.

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If you were interested in narrating audio
books, I'm gonna tell you right

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now, there's no money in it, especially if you let's here's the deal.

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Like, for instance, ACX,
there are over a million registered producers

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on ACX. In other words,
people looking to narrate audio books at any

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given time, there are about probably, let's just say, for an average

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number, twenty thousand titles open for
audition. So you do the numbers that

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how competitive that is. I have
audition for no less than a dozen audio

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books. I got real excited about
it because I thought, well, people

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on my podcast say I do a
pretty good job, maybe I could get

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some audio books. And I have
done a dozen or so audio books,

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but they're through people that I work
with through the Dixie Crypto Channel and the

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Steve Lily Channel. But I never
got selected for any of those auditions.

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A matter of fact, I got
some critical notes back. They're constructive criticism.

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I never took them to heart.
I just listen to what people say

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and they're like, oh, your
voice is a little your accents a little

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thick, You're you know, blah
blah blah, and I'm like, okay,

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cool. I mean, when the
author writes a book, he wants

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absolutely the narrator who he thinks or
she thinks will do the absolute best job,

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and that's their prerogative, and I
totally support that. I would be

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the same way. But the point
is is, regarding audiobook narration, it

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is extremely competitive, and if you
do get a book and it's not a

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If you do get hired to do
a book and it's not a best seller,

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you're probably gonna be hired with a
royalty split. In other words,

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you're going to get a little bitty
piece of each sale, which, believed

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me, it's not much. And
if the book is not a major best

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seller, that that money adds up. You can work eighty hours, eighty

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to one hundred and twenty hours to
do an eighty thousand word novel and you

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may make two hundred and fifty three
hundred bucks off the whole gig. So

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it's just not you know, you
can do the math on that. What

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is that per hour? It's very
hard, very hard to make money in

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the audiobook narration thing. When I
got into this, I didn't have a

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plan. I just kind of just
started throwing up stories on YouTube. I

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didn't think about it, I didn't
do I didn't know anything about it.

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I just thought it would be a
fun thing to do. I didn't know

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many I didn't see many people doing
it at the time, so I didn't

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have many go buys if that means
if that makes any sense. But so

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anyway, all that to say,
the narrat the narration audiobook thing is competitive.

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You've got your voiceover work where you
can do commercials and things like that.

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I don't know anything about that.
There are channels out there that explain

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that, and they do a good
job without how to get into that.

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You go through fiber and up works
and it's not a complicated process to get

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into it. You need some equipment. You need to be good at what

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you do. I would never do
I don't think I would ever get selected

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for anything like that, so I
don't do it. Let's see, there

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is podcasting now. Podcasting is where
there are some promising prospects. The podcasting

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industry is growing by leaps and bounds, and if you get into it,

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you want to make some change with
it. The CPMs on just the podcasting

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and I'm talking about the podcast that
go out on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts,

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things like that. The CPM is
much higher than it is for YouTube.

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So there's a chance to make a
little money there if you did start

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a podcast, no matter what it, no matter what the topic is,

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whether you're doing the kind of things
that I do, or whether you're doing

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interviews, pick a topic, go
with it. Sorry, I had to

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pause my wife. My old lady
walked in and interrupted me. I might

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have to She's only going to get
one scoop of macaroni tonight for doing that.

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Anyway, I encourage anyone to.
If you feel like a podcast would

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be fun, I think you should
do it. And if you want to

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do exactly what I'm doing, I
think you should do it. I don't

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see people getting into this as competition. I see it as entertainment that I

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might enjoy. So if you do
decide to do a podcast in any format,

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whether you're political, or whether you're
just kind of you know, in

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the middle of the road doing stories
like me, or if you're doing a

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podcast on you know, things that
young mothers might want to do. You

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can do a cooking pot, you
can do just pick any topic, any

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history, anything you want to pick, and you can do a podcast.

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It's easy to do. It's easy
to upload, find a podcast host.

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If anybody's interested, I could do
another. I could do another little Q

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and A on that and explain what
I know about it. But it's easy

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to do, and you can find
out how to do it. Everywhere you

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record it. You find a podcast
host, find one that will pay revenue

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split don't get in one of the
ones that you have to pay for and

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you don't get anything back out of
it. It doesn't mean you're going to

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make much money, but at least
you're not going to be paying money.

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The podcast hosting business is migrating to
that. Matter of fact, I think

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you'll find very few that it used
to be you had to pay them to

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put your podcast up. Now they
pay you. So it's changing. They're

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seeing the revenue possibilities there and they're
making it easy for podcasters to migrate to

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their platforms. I use Spreaker.
I love the people at Spreaker. They've

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been very supportive with me, and
so that's how I blast out my podcast

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to all the podcast apps. And
then I YouTube is a separate thing,

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and I have a few videos up
on Rumble, but I think I've got

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by I don't know, one hundred
and twenty seven views on twenty or thirty

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videos. Rumble is a political platform. All the free speech people have gone

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over there, with people who have
been canceled to have gone to Rumble,

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and it's a great platform. It's
a place you can go and listen to

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people say whatever they want to say
within the rent within the boundaries of decency.

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And I thought about trying to really
push my Rumble account, but I

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just don't have much there, and
it's again it's mainly for political and it's

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a big gaming platform. Actually,
I never saw the head an interest in

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that. I don't like playing video
games anyway, and I can't imagine sitting

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for hours watching someone else play a
video game that could that's some I don't

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know nothing against the guys that do
it, but it just seems boring to

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me, kind of like golf.
So yeah, if you are interested in

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doing it, if you've been told
you have a nice voice and a pleasant

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way of speaking, you can buy
some equipment. As far as equipment goes,

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if you have any questions, just
send me an email and I'll tell

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you what I have. I'll tell
you what I have now. I have

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a road I think it's called a
Roadcaster Pro. It's just box with a

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big red button on it, and
it's got little meters and you have to

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00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:45.519
work with it a little bit to
get it set like you want it,

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and then you have Then you need
a mic or with a mic stand or

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a mic boom. You need a
chord to connect into the Roadcaster blaster thing

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00:25:57.079 --> 00:26:00.880
I have here. It's a record
everything on an SD card. Then you

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00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:06.599
transfer it to your computer, and
then then we get to the editing software.

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I use the Adobe Suite and the
audio is done in Adobe Audition.

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I do the videos on Adobe Premiere
Pro. I do my thumbnails in Adobe

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00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:25.319
Photoshop. But you can find all
of some You can find similar editing software

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00:26:26.240 --> 00:26:30.920
somewhere out there on the internet free
and it's easy to download. You may

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00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:33.559
have to put up with some ads
and a lot of emails, but it's

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free. My rig probably I bought
it about three years ago and I'm still

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using everything I bought. I think
I put about six or seven hundred dollars

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00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:49.359
in it. Now it would probably
be close to You could probably get by

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under a thousand, but it might
be more expensive than seven hundred. However,

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00:26:55.839 --> 00:26:59.400
you can do. You can set
up a podcasting rig. A hell

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00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:03.839
of lotser than that. You can
go buy some of these Zoom products like

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00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:07.000
they have the I don't know.
Just look at the Zoom website. You

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00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:11.160
can see all kinds of things.
And on Amazon you can buy total kits

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00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:14.640
where you get the recording box.
It's a little bitty box it's a very

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00:27:14.680 --> 00:27:18.400
powerful and you stick an sty card
in it, and it comes with microphones,

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00:27:18.599 --> 00:27:22.279
mic stands. It comes with the
chords that connect to the little box

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00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:27.640
and you just turn it on and
set your game settings and you you know,

355
00:27:27.640 --> 00:27:32.319
if you want to do a podcast
with four I like a roundtable podcast

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00:27:32.400 --> 00:27:36.599
with four dudes or four women,
or two dudes and two women whatever,

357
00:27:36.799 --> 00:27:41.039
talking about a particular subject. You
can stick a microphone in front of airbody's

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00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:45.599
face and record the whole thing.
And I'd love to do something like that.

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00:27:45.880 --> 00:27:48.000
I just I live out in the
middle of nowhere, and nobody around

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00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:52.200
here. Hell, most people around
here can't even speak English, so I

361
00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.079
don't really have a pool to choose
from a people to get together and talk

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00:27:56.119 --> 00:27:59.799
about stuff. You can do that, and you can get into it,

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00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:04.279
probably for less than three hundred bucks
that way. So thirteen minutes in,

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00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:08.440
I just thought I would answer that
question to the woman who sent the email.

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00:28:08.519 --> 00:28:12.680
Thank you for that. I've had
several other people sending emails along the

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00:28:12.839 --> 00:28:15.960
same lines, and I tell them
the same thing. Go for it,

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00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:19.559
absolutely, go for it, find
out if you like it. If you

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00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:23.200
like it, stick with it and
just hammer away. And if you have

369
00:28:23.240 --> 00:28:29.880
any specific questions, just send me
an email and we'll get on the phone

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00:28:29.920 --> 00:28:32.720
and I'll kind of walk you through
what I think. I don't. I

371
00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:37.720
love helping other people do this stuff, and I'm by no means an expert,

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00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:40.559
and I just learned it all the
hard way, just kind of pecking

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00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:47.279
and punching and figuring out audio and
figuring out what you know, what sounds

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00:28:47.319 --> 00:28:49.720
good to me. So yeah,
go for it. If you want to

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00:28:49.720 --> 00:28:56.000
start a podcast, don't look for
any payback. It's a long run.

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00:28:56.319 --> 00:29:00.240
It's a long game, and to
get into it, it takes a long

377
00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:03.720
time to build an audience. And
if you don't you know, if you're

378
00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:07.279
in it for the money, you're
after ears and eyes. You want ears

379
00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:11.480
and eyes on your podcast, and
you want them to be listening to the

380
00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:15.519
ads so that you get paid for
those ads. Running. It's a long

381
00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:18.279
game, and so you kind of
got to love it to do it.

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00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:25.680
You would do You would make more
money immediately working at a convenience store or

383
00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:30.200
at McDonald's or at a Walmart.
Trust me, you would. There's just

384
00:29:30.359 --> 00:29:33.960
not much money in this, so
again, you just have to really enjoy

385
00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:37.519
it. And I hope some of
you who have been thinking about this,

386
00:29:37.640 --> 00:29:42.200
will take the leap and do it. And if you have any other questions,

387
00:29:42.240 --> 00:29:47.079
I'll do this once a month and
stop and ask answer a question.

388
00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:52.200
I cannot imagine what about me you
would want to know. Again, don't

389
00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:56.079
send questions about bigfoot because I'm just
going to ignore them because I don't care.

390
00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:02.519
Don't send me blurry pictures. Don't
send me the glory videos or things

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00:30:02.559 --> 00:30:07.400
you think are bigfoot. I think
that's great that you have those, is

392
00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:11.200
just that me personally, I'm not
interested in that. I think I talked

393
00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:15.279
about that before I got into all
this podcasting thing. So anyway, I

394
00:30:15.400 --> 00:30:18.839
just doubled the size of this podcast
by really talking about nothing. But I

395
00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:22.200
thought I would answer that lady's question. Thank you, ma'am for sending it.

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00:30:22.400 --> 00:30:25.640
All Right, that's gonna wind it
up for this one. Hope you

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00:30:25.640 --> 00:30:27.519
guys have a good weekend and we'll
see on the next one. Thanks