27 June 2008

Glamorous Ghost Hunting

It’s a Wednesday night and you’ve tuned into the Sci-Fi channel for a Ghost Hunters fix. Jason, Grant, Steve, and the rest of the team show up at an old, historical building somewhere in New England, set up their cameras, and begin their investigation. You see 20 minutes of the six investigators walking through the property, EMF detectors, digital audio recorders, and temperature probes in hand. Every now and then, Jason and Grant head through the various rooms with a Flir thermal camera (worth about $12,000). After 20 minutes of highlights, of Grant hearing a knocking from a far corner, Jason seeing a shadow, and Steve pestering Tango, they break down their equipment and head off into the sunrise. After the commercial break, we see Steve and Tango happily going over evidence. They’re watching the infra-red camera recordings and listening to audio. For five minutes, you see them catch a sound or two or shadows on the screen. The final five minutes are taken up with Jason and Grant revealing the evidence, or lack thereof, to the client.

What you don’t see is me, Heather, novice ghost hunter, watching six. mind. numbing. hours. of video for our Georgia group. Video of a bonus room. With a futon in the middle of the room.

Six hours.

Mind-numbing.

The futon never moved, dammit.

No ghosts dancing across the screen for my entertainment. No investigators performing mime. No family dog sauntering across the screen to lick itself. Just a futon and a bookshelf and the intermittent investigator walking in and walking out.

You also don’t see novice Heather nodding off and pausing the recording for 15 minutes to wash dishes. Then going back for more until the numb sets back in and a 15-minute break is needed for some Hairspray action. More futon excitement for an hour until I nod off and decide I need to read some blogs for a few minutes. I’m pretty sure Steve and Tango take frequent breaks to watch Die Hard or back episodes of Sesame Street. Maybe they even do interpretive dance. Or, maybe not. Maybe they watch all six hours straight with no breaks. Maybe I’m just a loser.

Crap.

13 comments:

.:| Melissa.Mizladytaz |:. said...

yea, I was quite sure there was LOTS of boredom going on while reviewing the "evidence"!

I've watched Paranormal State (on A&E) more than I have Ghost Hunters. I think I've only seen two or three GH shows. And now (on A&E), they've got a new show about the psychic kids. I really liked that one! And I SO love Chip Coffey!

I love watching these shows so much, but damn if they don't have me all freaked out the rest of the night! And even a night or two after, sometimes! I HATE that part!

Oh, and I had a nightmare the other night!! I woke up and said: "Fucking clock!" *giggles* It was a nasty nightmare though! :0( My nightmares can sometimes be premonitions. I HATE that. So when I do have one, It'll bother me for a while. Especially when they involve my loved ones, as this one did! :0(

Bucky said...

I love to watch Ghost Hunters, and I wish that just one time they would catch something that was truly amazing.

You're part of a ghost hunter group in Georgia? That must be exciting as hell, well, until you get to the review part. I've always wanted to do some ghost hunting work, but unfortunately there are no groups close by me so I to get my fix by watching others do it.

Anonymous said...

Boredom or not, I'm so completely jealous that you get to do this. I have my own ghost stories I'll share with you someday.

Avitable said...

That has to be absolutely boring when they're going through 8 hours or more of different types of evidence.

Did you see the thermal evidence of the head peeking down the hallway? That was crazy!

Expat No. 3699 said...

So, it's kinda like watching paint dry?

I'm curious, did you rewind and watch the parts you missed because you were nodding off?...'cause that would reaaly suck if you actually watched five hours and 45 minutes and something happened during the 15 minutes you missed.

Toodles~

Expat No. 3699 said...

R.E.A.L.L.Y. that's what I meant to say, not reaaly...really I did!

Not Afraid to Use It said...

I love that you are saying it just goes to show all the background that goes into things--that it isn't all instant gratification. Great post.

Molly's Mom said...

I always figured it would take them a LONG time to get through all that video...and setting up/breaking down the equipment? That has to take forever. I wish I had the 'nads to go on a ghost hunt, but the first noise or sign of something weird and I would be hauling serious ass out of there. I can't even go through a cheesy haunted house w/o getting freaked out.

I love when they catch EVPs or something on the thermal, and OMG that stuff they caught on the thermal in Delaware was so weird!

RiverPoet said...

Uh...yeah. I'd find watching grass grow even more exciting than that :-) But hey, that's just me.

I'm baaaaaaack...

Peace - D

Donna said...

I'm a firm believer that you can sense presence before seeing it, even if it's not present at the time. Then again, maybe that has to do with intuition.

I don't watch the show because I often wonder how much is 'set up' and my husband doesn't like anything that's ghost related.

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Melissa - Ghost Hunters has never freaked me out. Paranormal State has managed to keep me awake a few times.

Bucky - What they found in Delaware was pretty awesome, as well as the brewery in Savannah, Georgia. Pretty awesome!

MommyCosm - Share away, baby!

Avitable - Yeah. I can't imagine going through evidence for all the rooms recorded. Ish. And yes! The thermal stuff from Delaware was KICK ASS!

Linda~ - Yes. Paint drying. Just about. :)

NATUI - Exactly! All those out there who would want to do this, would they truly do it if they had to go through the boring evidence review?

Molly's Mom - Actually, setting up and breaking down equipment isn't all that bad. That goes pretty quickly unless something is broken and it's amazing what doesn't scare you when others are around!

Momma - Yeah! Glad you're back, hon! :)

Donna - Very true. But, I think I'm paranormal-intuition deficient. While others on the investigation were feeling things, I was all "What?"

Bimbo Baggins said...

OMG, I am such a huge ghost hunters fan...I blog about it all the friggen time!

I have to be gay and ask...do you know Steve? I love that man...I would let him do dirty, nasty things to me...*sigh*

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Dirty Pirate Hooker - Nope. Never met anyone from the TAPS crew, although our founders are good friends with Jason and Grant and speak to them on a daily basis. Me? I'm just low ghostbuster on the totem pole. *Sniff*