My Top 20 Spaghetti Westerns

Here is my list of my top 20 Spaghetti Westerns (as of now)

01. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
02. For A Few Dollars More
03. Fistful of Dollars
04. Once Upon A Time In The West
05. Django
06. If You Meet Sartana, Pray For Your Death
07. Death Rides A Horse
08. The Mercenary / Companeros
09. The Forgotten Pistolero
10. The Return of Ringo
11. Blindman
12. The Big Gundown
13. Run Man Run
14. The Great Silence
15. The 3 Sabata movies
16. The Grand Duel
17. My Name Is Nobody
18. The 2 Trinity Movies (tied)
19. And God Said To Cain
20. Keoma (crappy music and all)

Spaghetti Westerns!

It's funny, but I sure do enjoy a good spaghetti western. Been watching them again lately. I like the cheesy dubbing, the odd sound effects, the simple yet strangely beautiful Almeria settings, the faux Mexico trappings, the sweat, grit, mud, blood, and violence. I love the simple revenge story lines. Where everything breaks down into black and white. Sometimes the good guys are bad, and vice versa. It is a beautiful thing.

Skinhead John

The Moon Hoax Hoax!

The whole Moon Hoax thing is itself a bad hoax. Check this link out and be amazed. This guy NUKES the tired old "We didn't go to the moon" garbage. I may have posted this material before, well, if so, here it is again.

The world as "Village of 100" concept

(This will help you visualize this ol' world of ours...)

If our world of 6 billion was reduced to a village of only 100 people...

52 would be female
48 would be male

60 would be Asians
14 would be Africans
11 would be Europeans
8 would be Latin Americans
5 would be North Americans
1 would be Australian or New Zealander
1 would be "other"

17 people would speak Mandarin
9 people would speak English
8 people would speak Hindu or Urdu
6 people would speak Russian
6 people would speak Spanish
4 people would speak Arabic
The rest would speak Bengali, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French and 20 other languages!

30 would be Christians
17 would have no religion
14 would be Moslems
13 would be Hindus
12 would be Buddhists
9 would be Confucian and Shinto
4 would be Animist (traditional)
1 would be Jewish

70 would be unable to read and write
80 would live in substandard housing
50 would be malnourished with 1 dying of starvation
33 would be without access to a safe water supply
39 would lack access to decent sanitation
24 would not have any electricity
7 would have access to the Internet

1 would have a college education
1 would have HIV

2 would be near birth; 1 near death

5 would control 32% of the entire world's wealth

20 would be able to drive

My Political Blog

I try to keep politics out of Dark Alley. But, if you are curious to read some of my views on politics, I have a whole other blog for such matters. It's called "The Center Right Loft". It can be found at:

http://thecenterrightloft.blogspot.com/

Hope you like it.

Chess!

I have never been very good at Chess, but I have always been intrigued by it. I am into it right now. I have a computer game called "Chess Titans" that I am enjoying. It is very hard for me to win, but I have won a few, and stalemated a few more. I have always held it as one of my goals to become a better Chess player. I guess now is the time!

The FOJ is on the way!

Have you ever heard of the FOJ? Otherwise known as the Followers Of Jesus? I guess not. It is a secret society. It's a fraternal organization whose members boast some of the finest credentials in business and social life. In their charter is a fanatical dedication for goodness and decency. They are basically real-life super heroes. At their meetings they all gather to recap the good deeds that each has done. This is to encourage one another, not to seek the praise of men. Out in the world, they are the ones you can turn to for help, guidance, and encouragement. They will never let you down (on purpose), nor will they cheat you, or steal. They understand the true meaning of being a regenerated Christian. But they also know that this is a battle for the lives on planet Earth. Their enemy is the Evil One (known as Satan, or The Devil). The Evil One is bent on destroying every Christian and taking every unsaved human soul into Hell. The FOJ will resist to the end.

My Own Paranormal Experiences #2

This happened one day inside the fourplex at 538 Dukeway "C" in Universal City in 2007 or so. 

My cell phone rang. The phone ID the call as coming from my Dad. I answered the phone and said "Hello?" but there was only silence. Then I heard a very sad and mournful voice say "why? Why now?" It sounded like the person either was crying or had been crying. It didn't really sound like my Dad, but the thought occured to me that maybe he was hurt or something. I thought maybe he had picked up the phone out of desperation. My pulse began to increase. "Dad? Are you alright? Dad!?" and then the phone hung up. So I dialed him back and he answered. I asked if he was ok and he said yes. I briefly told him what had just happened. He said I had called him and he could hear me plain as day. I can't for the life of me explain what happened that day.

True Happiness

True happiness flows from inside out, not outside in. This is how the world gets very mixed up and confused. Many miserable people think if they can fill their lives with possessions they will then be happy. BUT after doing this they find they are still miserable. That is because their misery is portable. In other words they are miserable from the inside out. Usually the people around these individuals are also miserable thanks to the misery they are constantly beaming out through word and deed. These people are constantly saying "I wish things were better."

People who are truly happy, however, are happy from the inside out. That means no matter their circumstances, they find the good in it and focus on that. They generate happiness from somewhere deep inside their own personality. Even if they don't have alot of possessions, or money, these people are happy with whatever they do have. They choose to think "Well, it could be a lot worse."

Will you allow your happiness to emanate from within?

"WWJHMD"

Do not compare yourself with other people saying "Well I'm better than Mr. Jones.", or "Mr. Smith is a lot worse than me". This is foolish. If you feel you must compare yourself with someone to guage the level of your sinfulness... there is only ONE we are encouraged to compare ourselves with. And that is: Jesus himself. So next time you feel like justifying your sins by comparing yourself to sinful man, compare your sins to Jesus and see how it goes. Remember "What would Jesus have me do? (WWJHMD)" is the question which should precede EVERY choice we make.

My Own Paranormal Experiences #1

Let me say first off, I am a total skeptic when it comes to the paranormal. But I have had a couple episodes that seem to defy, in my mind at least, explanation. I call this experience "Out of the Corner of My Eye". 

It happened at 538 Dukeway "C" in Universal City Texas, back around 2007. I was standing in the bathroom brushing my teeth and looking into the mirror. The bathroom door was standing open and I was just casually going about my business. It was rather late at night, I'd say around 11:30 pm or so. Our bedroom was down the hall and around the corner to the left from this bathroom. A few moments before I had seen my wife laying in bed seemingly asleep. It's a short hallway. The light from the bathroom extended more or less out into the hallway but beyond that, where the living room and front door area was, the lights were off. While looking in the mirror, I thought I saw my wife tiptoe quickly past the end of the hallway (left to right) toward the front door. She used to sometimes playfully pop out and startle me as a joke, so I turned and thought "aha! Caught ya!" and I walked quietly down the hall to surprise her instead. When I popped around the corner, expecting to see her there waiting to pop out at me, there was no one. Very strange. There would have been no opportunity for her to go back toward the room because I had turned the moment I thought I saw her out of the corner of my eye. So, I turned and went to our bedroom and there she was in bed, covered up. I said to her "Hey, were you out here by the front door just now?" She was obviously asleep and she said "no. I've been here." I had distincly seen in my peripheral vision a smallish figure with a head of black hair jump, or skip, or hop past the end of the short hallway. So who, or what, was it I saw out of the corner of my eye that night? Who knows?

Addendum. Here is the body of an email I sent dad and John on 10/3/15.

Do you guys, remember my famous story about how I "saw" a figure out of the corner of my eye one night while at Dukeway, the first place me and Izzy lived, back in 2007 or 2008? Remember I said I thought it

was her running past, but it turned out it wasn't? You may recall I said I saw her run past the end of the hallway... remember that?

Well, while surfing You Tube one night I stumbled over a scene in a video clip that seemed VERY similar to what I perceived. The only difference is the direction the figure was running. At Dukeway the figure went from left to right, while in this clip it goes from right to left. The video is fake, but very well done.

Anyway, skip to 1:20 and let it roll to about 1:28. What you see in this clip is almost exactly what I perceived 8 or so years ago, and believe me, it wasn't Izzy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ncI4zBG0nc

For years now I have racked my brain to explain what I "saw" that night. To no avail. I can only conclude that it was a demon, or an angel. I swear I "saw" it. Just like in the video above. The figure I "saw" at Dukeway also made NO SOUND which was odd because I would have easily heard it's footsteps as it was no more than 9 feet away from me. Very strange.

Thinking back on our time there, I did occasionally feel a bit uneasy if I was there by myself (which wasn't very often it turns out). I chalked it up to living independently for the first time in my life. But in retrospect, I think it was something else. I NEVER feel scared here at Lee Hall, nor did I ever feel scared over at the Loma Linda property. Interestingly, I asked

Izzy about it and she said she never felt scared there even though she spent quite a few nights there alone. Nor does she recall any strange occurrences happening to her. So there you go.

Anyway, I thought I'd share.

-Mike