UFO Sighting - Eugene, OR

I find myself fascinated by the supernatural, aliens, and the cultures surrounding them. But never in my life, until this weekend, had I experienced a convincing UFO sighting myself.

Friday night around 10:45 a friend and I were driving down 13th street heading East when he says, "Do you see that orange light?"

"Yes," I say to him, unimpressed. "It's a plane."

"Pull over."

"I am not pulling over to look at a plane."

"Pull. Over."

So I pull over and we get out of the car. At this point we're standing on 13th and Hilyard looking almost directly North, just a tiny bit NNW. There's a bright orange point of light in the sky about halfway between the horizon and zenith. And it's moving, so it's not Jupiter or Venus, but it's moving more slowly than you usually see a plane move. Then again, direction and speed are subject to a lot of illusion at that distance. A plane high in the sky headed directly towards or away from you appears stationary, a plane near the horizon moving directly towards you appears to shoot straight up. So, yeah, I'm still thinking it's a plane.

"Have you ever seen a plane that color?" J asks me. "And planes are supposed to have flashing lights on them."

"Well, maybe it's a satellite." I'm still unimpressed.

We watched it for maybe three or four minutes. Then the orange light starts to blink a little bit. Moving behind some clouds, I think, though at this point I am pushing the bounds of skepticism. Friday was beautiful and clear.

And THEN....

1... 2... 3 points of light separate from this original orange light and start slowly falling towards the horizon. The original point of light disappears entirely and then the three others fall behind the trees and out of our field of vision.

And we both start freaking out, drawing some quizzical looks from other people on the street. And then we called our friends and convinced them we were insane.

Did anyone else see this or have any idea what it might have been? I'm completely dumbfounded.

 

UFO sighting

GEIPAN

I need to brush up on my French. The French government has made its equivalent of Project Blue Book available online - all their collected UFO sightings and data. Check it out here: GEIPAN

Has anyone got an English mirror of this site? Of course, the French might find such a suggestion kind of insulting. ;) There is a kind of summary site available in English, though: CNES

 

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UFO sighting?

Could it be true? On his blog, Kevan Smith shares an account related by his friend Richard of a UFO sighting over Shreveport-Bossier last Thursday night into Friday morning.

Triangle Craft Over Shreveport

Now, I ask you, how could I possibly have missed this? I'm shaking with disappointment. Did anyone else hear, or perhaps see anything?

 

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True Stories

I discovered a very cool site on blogspot - Aura's Encounters with the Unexplained. I sent her the story about the weird ball of light my family encountered in the desert one summer, and it's up on her site right now. Go have a look, and let me know what you think it might have been. Other cool sites I've found in the same vein: Andrea's Ghost Stories and Rand's My Paranormal Life.

In other news, my story "The Loan" has been published in Corrosive, a small zine from Wisconsin. Dorothy should be sending both the December and January issues any day now. Maybe I'll scan and post a little of that then. I'm also looking to get some other items published, so once again, if there are any recommendations for sci-fi and dark literary zines for me, please let me know. You can email me if you don't want to leave a comment.

 

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Collette's Sleeping Disorder

Originally posted on 3/22/06

I just want to wake up, she thought. I just want to wake up so I can live my life. Some kind of life besides sleeping and spacing out.

Collette had tried everything. She'd tried willpower: nada. She'd tried music, scary movies and exercise: nothing. She'd tried all kinds of chemicals. Caffeine, Sudafed, Dexatrim, Ritalin, Red Bull, and a dozen herbs and homemade concoctions. She'd scheduled appointments with a psychiatrist and a couple of specialists but slept right through them. Everything left her more and more exhausted.

And even though it had been months since she'd felt fully awake, it also felt like months since she'd gotten a good night's sleep. She'd lay her head down after work, around 8:00 or 9:00. Instantly, she'd hear her alarm singing it's unhappy tune. Evening became night became morning became day, and she had missed it all.

She had no answers, didn't know the cause or the cure, and was becoming desperate.

And so when JT came by with some suspicious-looking meth, she coughed up some cash along with a tongue-in-cheek prayer. Let something work. Anything.

She'd been wearing dirty clothes for two weeks. Couldn't stay awake long enough to move a load from the washer to the dryer. Couldn't get her term paper done - hell, couldn't get it started. The house would have been a mess, if only she'd been up to making a mess. If she could, she'd stay up all night reveling in actual activity.

---

Around 11:30 that night, Collette offered up a prayer of gratitude to no one in particular.She sat on the front porch, happily observing the night activity she'd been oblivious to for so long. As she watched one street cat chase another into the gutter, lightning turned the entire scene bright blue.

Not lightning, she thought, her stomach twisting. It's not quite right. And yet... it's so familiar.

The lightning flashed again, too silently, lingering too long. The tougher street cat had joined its foe hiding in the gutter. Nothing else seemed to be moving.

The next flash of lighting came from behind her - inside the house? - tumbling her bizarre, elongated shadow down the front steps. I remember this. I had a nightmare about this. But she was fairly certain she hadn't dreamt in months.

She was still trying to piece it together when her visitors found her outside and took her into the sky again.

 

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