Happy Halloween, everyone! As always, I’m not dressing up for the occasion since I’m only going to be staying home giving out candies to the young ones (or the “young once” ). On the other hand, I thought I’d celebrate a bit in going back on an Arashi fandom hiatus for a month to concentrate on NaNoWriMo. However, hopefully I’m not going back from Arashi fandom hiatus forever because I found someone who I became writing buddies with whom I can cling on to so I don’t lose my sanity on being an Arashi fan. Please do support us, DesTi and me, as we embark on our literary abandon goal of 50,000 words.

I’ve got the tentatively official title of this year’s NaNoWriMo novel: Midsummer by the Sea. It’s technically somewhat of a rewrite of The Photojournalist and the Red Ribbon, but this would be more of a teen love story with probably a touch of mystery thrown in to it. And like the previous one, this is also somewhat tying in to my ongoing fiction project, Freedom Sky Mysteries. I put it on hiatus for now to work on AMNOSnet, but it looks like I’ve been distracted too much with other things that I could not even keep myself in focus on one thing. Dang video games and J-dramas… gah.

Yesterday on the History Channel, I saw a documentary about exorcisms. I know most of the world today don’t believe in this ancient practice of driving away evil spirits from troubled humans, but I really do believe in them. Usually exorcisms are associated with the Roman Catholic Church, however there are other Christian sects (ie. Orthodox Church, Anglican Church/Church of England, Protestant, Lutheran, etc.) who also perform exorcisms as well. I also think there’s also forms of exorcism in other religions, such as Judaism, Islam, and probably Buddhism.

I also believe in ghosts and evil spirits, but not to the point where I think that every single “bad” person or every person has committed many mistakes are possessed by the devil or anything like that. Back then every single “uncommon” behavior among people was considered the work of the devil. Today, exorcism is being practiced sparingly as behavioral sciences such as psychiatry, psychology, etc. are more commonly used among people. Also today, when someone is behaving strangely and differently from the way they usually behave, concerned family members would go to a psychiatrist first or even a doctor. If medical attention and behavioral science, even at the highest level, are unsuccessful, then this may probably be the time to go for spiritual methods, such as exorcism, as the next option.

Don’t get me wrong. I have not seen the movie The Exorcist at all because I’m terrified of horror movies in general. I have not seen The Exorcism of Emily Rose or Requiem either. And no, it’s not because of my being a Catholic that I believe in demonic possessions (in fact nothing of that sort is ever discussed or brought about in my weekly church or occasional Bible discussions either). I watched news, documentaries, read books and articles, just my daily news and reading routine. I’ve also heard stories from people I’m close to as well, experiences with other people who had to go through.

Well, since this is a hodgepodge entry, I’ll cut this short. I don’t want to scare anyone or even make the skeptics become more skeptical and call me insane. I’m not enforcing my own beliefs on those who don’t believe, as long as they don’t do the same with me.

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