Its now Boxing Day 2015 - the 26th December. We had Xmas lunch at the Antlers on Christmas Eve, the 24th.  Walked over - couldn't get a taxi. Lied to by Don. Pleasant lunch. Gillian also walked - was a bit late - I had been early, so was on my 3rd straight Bombay by that time.  Taxi'd back to Grianan with Mr MacLeod, Gillian got out to collect her presents and taxi'd on to Matheson Place.

Xmas day - jersey and two jackets from the Murrays - and a welcome cheque; a chocolate bar and a huge piece of Home-made Xmas cake from Julie, and what I really need - a diary from Gillian, a calendar from Jeff in New Zealand - he's just had a heart bypass - so appreciate this even more this year.

Prior to this had carried out experiments with Prof. Talbott's source sounds. Very prolific. Mimics the speech spectrum to a large extent - including the period of silence allophones. Unfortunately has a harsh spectral peak - a broad peak - possibly due to room resonance at Talbott's point of origin.

So did a lot of spectral normalization - and divided the frequencies by 2 across the board. Improved listenability.

Did a compare with a jury-rigged version of the AIS  - got a couple f interesting ones - 'Why wait - telephone God.' Sent copies to Julie, Victoria (Talbott) and Todd Moster for verification.

Did not get my books downloaded - was quite demoralized for 2 weeks earlier - shouldn't happen - but it did.

Hope to take most of the time till January 7th, tidying up, getting the place at least looking comfortable - and to use the time on two prototypes - with the aim of raising funds.  With a lack of money problems - the work could speed ahead. The next thing would then be to keep the funds out of the grasping hands which ruined me before.

We had one overnight storm on Tuesday - violent hail - like sand-blasting the house - great flakes of paint have fallen off and the skew needs repair.

Another is forecast for the coming Tuesday/ Wednesday.

OK - about to switch off and go downstairs for coffee, get warm, and bed.

12 December 2015
Today, here -it was cold but dry - and sunny.

Xmas cards - one from Ian and Caroline and family - and one from Berta.

Walked over the village - people on the street were saying, 'What lovely weather' - to post a letter for Julie, but the Post Office was shut from 1 till 2. So put it in the nearby pillarbox, and went over to the Coop to get bread, cheese and £15 cash-back. Coffee in the Antlers - and a fruit scone - arranged the taxi for Monday morning for the dentist - dont worry - this will not last - just practicing blogging!

Sun behind the hill, Cruacahan, on my way back - getting colder.

Its time for the lights.

https://youtu.be/i2-Q_ObdE-4.

Not getting anything done. Demoralised - perhaps SAD effect - though never had it before. Poison in my ear. Drip drip drip.

Time for a new perspective!!

Here, (Portree, Skye) the winter continues, though quieter today. So far.

Just running this in - never done a blog before.

A friend, Joe Palmer (Professor of linguistics) ended this life - from cancer - on the 5th December 2015. We were born within weeks of each other - he called me his long distance twin. The 5th was my friend Gillian's birthday - and the planned meeting never happened - and there has been an atmosphere of general despair and gloom here.

I first met Joe at the EVP convention in Fairfield Indiana put on by his (then) multimillionaire cousin Dale Palmer, who had started an organization called the Noetics Institute.

After that we corresponded on a regular basis and Joe was one of the panelists in the evaluation stage of my key experiment - "03-03-03-03" carried out in California.

The night I heard about his death, Tuesday the 8th, I re-assembled the rig for a quick experiment - about 4 minutes long. It sounded promising, but on going through it afterwards - the only mention of the word, 'Joe' was a quick, quiet voice saying, 'Joe is history.'  That was very late and so I tried again next day - Wednesday the 9th.

Nope. Nothing relevant. Two New Zealand things, 'New Zealand - Sir John Elliot's failing to run.' and 'Jury - New Zealand puts up.'

One of Gillian's Xmas presents arrived from Amazon yesterday and is now waiting to get wrapped.  About time to get started on my "tea" - more of my own mushroom soup, and then either a Tesco Mediterranean Cous Cous or a Bisto Cottage Pie frozen meal..

OK - tonight, got to download the Limited Edition of Paranormal Voices to Create Space, and - if time - the re-issued EVP Research, Spirits Aliens - or Something Else, also.

OK - bye for now, hope this blog works and there aren't mases of "trolls" lined up to tear it to shreds.

Alexander