In Praise of Amazon

Just after christmas, I ordered a copy of a book by my favorite Czech magician Frantisek Bardon called The Universal Master Key. It is an interesting new book that is highly recommended and has only recently appeared. Whether it really is by Mr. Bardon I am not so sure but many people believe that it was. Having made my order, I sat back and waited. January 28th, the supposed delivery date came and went. No book. By mid-February, I decided to let Amazon know that my book was missing in action. I got no response. February 28th came and went and that was 1 full month after supposed delivery date. Last night, I decided enough was enough and I went on Amazon.com, found my order and then engaged a customer

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A Yorkshire Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent collecting Ammonites on a cold, blustery but magnificently beautiful day on the Yorkshire coast. We found lots of these whirly fossils in the lower Jurassic of Ravenscar and the walk down and then back up the cliffs was refreshing and invigorating. This experience was topped off with a delicious cream tea at Raven Hall Hotel. It couldn’t have been any better. As the three of us trooped down the muddy path, I reflected on the many trips around Yorkshire fossil hunting I had done with my late Father. Not only did we hunt fossils but we explored the area in depth. Roman roads, ancient burial sites, viking villages. You name it, we did it. We even found a whole bunch of iron age pottery that we

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Christmas is Just Silly!

Christmas has many facets. One of them is the never ending commercialization of what really should be a simple family Christian religious celebration. Of course, christmas has in its central theme, much for non-Christians to peruse and consider in terms of its greater spiritual meaning and in terms of other non-Christian celebrations at this time of the year. However, the endless commercialization has really spoiled for me what used to be a happy and beautiful time of the year. In the Czech Republic, christmas decorations generally still go up around the 1st December. Some of the chain stores with HQ’s overseas start earlier though. In other places like the US and the UK, christmas basically now starts in October or even earlier. It is no longer a religious holiday unless

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The Meaning of Christmas – A short Story

The scene was a familiar one. The street was filled with people hustling and bustling and jostling with each other from time to time. Their breaths hung in the freezing air like little trails of smoke. The street was lit in the darkness of the winter’s late afternoon by the colored christmas lights hanging from each lamp and in the shop windows. With just a few days left until the holiday, these were the last minuters – those who were ever increasingly desperate to grab their last few bargains and presents. Phillip watched in silence. The scene had a surreal quality about it. The anxious faces of people who in some instances, could ill afford the presents and gifts they were trying to purchase. He watched with increasing understanding of

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The Devil Rode Out

When I was a teenager, I was experiencing all kinds of strange things that really scared the hell out of me. I have documented a lot of that in my book – Inner Journeys: Explorations of the Soul including the poltergeist-type activity and the visitations by some ghostly presence. It’s all in that book! However, I remained really interested in magic and the so called ‘occult’ at the time devouring many books on the subject. In the midst of the activity and the interest, I watched a film on TV one christmas that both enflamed my interest but also scared me very deeply. Looking back on the movie now the effects are pretty poor by comparison to modern movies but back then – wow! More important though was that in

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The Lord of the Elements

Last night I reached the milestone of 10,000 words written for my new novel – The Lord of the Elements. I guess then, I am about 1/4 done with the first draft but I do hope to make more progress on it this month and perhaps complete the book by end of September. It would be good to have it out and ready for christmas. The Lord of the Elements is the prequel to The Last Observer and features Edward primarily. It starts with Edward as a young student with a strong interest in mathematics and the occult and follows Edward as he discovers a long lost manuscript written by an initiate named Gallivar in the late 16th Century. In his attempt to decipher the book, Edward comes into contact

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Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

Since I quit smoking I have gained weight at an alarming rate. A few months ago I decided to try to address it and I quit sugar and cut down heavily on sweets. Since this seemed to have no impact at all, I quit breads and anything wheaty. Still, no impact. I increased my exercise levels a bit with longer and brisker walks….. no impact. I cut out a lot of milk. You guessed it – no impact. I went out and bought an exercise bike and started doing 20 minutes everyday…..yes no weight loss at all…..So after christmas, I cut alcohol. At the same time, I have changed my diet and eat less fats and carbs but focus on proteins. I have eggs for breakfast, a salad at lunch

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