| Table of Contents |
|---|
| Introduction |
| Preparing for the Search |
| Getting Started |
| The Ghost in the Window |
| My Strategy |
| The Results |
| Shadowlands Ghost Stories |
| Evaluation and Epilogue |
Those ghost hunting days were fun. Okay, okay, so maybe I did back out on many of our voyages, and maybe I was relieved when the ghost searches we did embark on seemed to be in vain. Still, nothing feels more exciting than the visceral sensations caused by a good scare (of course, when it really does happen, I always curse myself for ever having said that). If we hadn't all gone our separate ways for college, it is highly likely we would still be searching for ghosts.
This report is also about searching for ghosts. However, instead of looking for them physically, I will be looking for them--well, how should we say this--Cyberspatially, on the world wide web. When I say this, I mean hearing other people's ghost tales, learning about what kind of ghosts are in what regions of the world, and discovering different ways people tolerate or coexist with them.
Back to the top?
To the bottom.
There were topics such as Moments to Remember, Business Improvements, and Relationships. As I got further down the page, I came across the topic of Spiritual Experiences. I was elated! Maybe they might have something in there about ghosts!!
Under the topic of Spirituality, there were about five or six headings, such as Conrad Moreno's In Meditating and Reflecting, and Jason Tabudlo's In Reading or Studying. Each of the entries sounded interesting, but for purposes of my report, I clicked on only one of them: Heather Roylo's In Doing and decided to explore the others later. I figured her topic was the most related to mine and it had to do with channeling, out-of-body experiences, and other extraordinary phenomena that may include ghosts.
Back to the top?
To the bottom.
I thought the section on Dream Interpretations sounded fun, so I stopped over there despite my initial search for ghosts. There was a section about dream interpretations, and I wondered if I could find out something about the dream I had where I was trying to eat a pinata that was tied around my waist. I took too long to find anything relevant to my dream and I finally decided to leave when all sorts or exhibitionists began sharing their stories.
Back to the top?
Go to the bottom.
So I decided to use the search engine, Yahoo I've never used that search engine before (or any of the others, for that matter). Search engines was something completely foreign to me. The first time I heard of them was when I took Dr. James class. Prior to that, I had always wondered how the heck people found things on the web. Now I know.
Having not heard of search engines before, I did not know where to find them. Luckily, on Dr. James's home page, an option called Dr. Nahl's favorite search engines appeared at the bottom. I scrolled the page, figuring I did not have to read all of the text. The many words that appeared on the screen was just too overwhelming for me, and it seemed confusing. Somewhere on the end had to be a list of the search engines and I would simply need to select Yahoo, I thought. I realized that I was being lazy and impatient, so I went back to the top of her page and clicked on Starting Point.
Dr. Nahl's page was interesting, and although I didn't get to read much of what she talked about, I vowed to visit those areas sometime soon. I appreciated her page being there, otherwise I never would have found out how to start (I failed to notice the Netsearch button at the top of the screen). Also, because it was very intriguing. I didn't keep any notes or bookmarks (oops), I only copied the address for Yahoo, because I was excited to precede with my search.
Back to the top?
To the bottom.
I did not have any notes to help me decide what to type in the
search window. After clicking onto Yahoo, I simply typed "Ghosts". I
decided to type ghosts, rather than spirits because spirits could imply
that the person is still living. Later I typed "Poltergeists" and
"Demons". I considered typing witches or vampires, but didn't want to
run into too many fiction stories or religious practices. I worked all
of these words into my mind, rather than writing them down, and did not
consult anyone or any source.
I felt pretty confident that "Ghosts", "Poltergeists", and "Demons" were
good words to type in the search window. They seemed to relate a lot to
what I was interested in, and what my friends and I in high school and
elementary used to look for. My overall plan was to go through all of
the results. If there was nothing that suited my likings, I was going to
ignore them and use a new word. If the new words still did not satisy
me, I was going to just write about another topic.
Whenever I am on the computer, I hate reading long instructions, so I
didn't feel the need to look at the instructions, partly because I felt
confident, and partly because I was lazy. Oh, and partly because it made
my eyes sore. Like I mentioned above, I usually consult my sister when I
have questions, because she's a long-time web user. I have learned a
great amount from my sister about using the web and when she explains
things to me, it's usually in a clear-cut fashion.
I didn't notice any other options, choices, or settings, and that is
probably why I thought search engines were pretty clear and easy to use.
There were no problems at all! I did not panic, I actually felt really
confident, especially because I had a whole list of words in my mind if
any of the three words above did not work. Also, I knew I was going to
have fun looking around for certain things on the web. I knew that even
after the report was over, I would have a ball wandering around on the web.
Back to the top?
As I scrolled down the list, several options caught my eye. These
included vampires, ghosts and tours, Strange Magazine, Ghosts and
Vampires in Entertainment, Kaukauna High School, and Shadowlands Ghost
Stories. I must admit I didn't spend too much time looking at the
results. I just skimmed the annotations and was eager to click on them.
I remember thinking, "This is so neat! I could spend hours on the web
just browsing leisurely." But since I was at school and I didn't have
much time before my next class started, I didn't bother reading many of
the annotations. I figured, I can always look there later.
The results were formatted in a way that made sense to me. I liked the
format. I thought it was very clear and organized and it made searching
easier and more exciting, even though I only looked at a few details
rather than try to interpret the whole thing. I didn't expect myself to
understand everything. Nothing was extremely puzzling, but I think if I
did come across something puzzling, I would explore it, rather than
ignore it. I couldn't believe that a computer search could make me feel
so excited and anxious to go on and click, click, click. I used to
wonder how some people can spend hours on the computer. I thought they
were wasting their time, but now I realize how addicting the world wide
web can be. It made me see computer-screen-kissers in another light.
Back to the top?
The first thing I clicked on was the Vampire and Ghost Tours. For some
reason, I overlooked the word "tours" and overzealously clicked on it,
expecting the web site to be about vampires and ghosts. When I found out
what this site was about, I naturally left and went on to the Anomalist I thought it
was sort of weird and yet intriguing, so I clicked there to see what that
was all about. It was rated the top 5% of all web sites, however it
seemed to take years to load. I was tempted to leave, but a nice lady in
the class gave each of us those candy pacifiers to suck on which put me
into a good mood. And so I didn't leave.
I thought the Strange
Magazine was going to be a magazine forum on the web, but instead it
was a subscription to the magazine, so I ran away from that too. When I
saw the Kaukauna High School option, I thought it was a haunted school in
Hawaii because the name sounded Hawaiian. Turned out to be a high school
in Wisconsin and the only reason it was pulled up in the search for
ghosts was because the students were called "The Galloping Ghosts".
Though I was disappointed that it wasn't a high school in Hawaii, and a
haunted one at that, it prompted me to see if my own high school had a
web page on the Internet.
Back to the top?The Search Window
My topic was spiritual experiences, specifically ghostly encounters or
sightings. My understanding of the topic was pretty vague. To me, a
ghost was a spirit of a deceased person, and any sort of encounter
between a ghost and a living person was good enough to qualify for my
search. I didn't
think about spirits of animals or poltergeists, or demons, at first.
Since my topic was still too broad, I decided to include those words in
my search as well.
Confusing!! But Fun!!
I wasn't sure about how to respond to "Describe the type of search you
made." How many different types of searches are there, I wondered. All
I did was type one word in the search window at a time. I later asked my
sister if she knew anything about what the question meant, and she wasn't
sure, either, but she said there are types of searches where you type a
word in a "this, but not that" format. I didn't do it that way. I
didn't know there were other ways of searching for words, but I realized
that it must be really convenient!
To the bottom.So I've typed the word "ghost" in the window. Now what?
When the list of options appeared on the screen after the computer
searched for anything relating to ghosts, I was overjoyed. The first
thing I noticed was that there were 24 options listed. Wow!
To the bottom.My Strategy
My strategy was going to be to click on anything that sounded interesting
or anything pertaining to my report and to just keep on exploring. I
planned to explore the clicked areas more carefully and leisurely,
continuing my search every time we had to go to the lab. I was going to
bookmark and copy/paste whatever sounded interesting, as well as the
e-mail addresses.
Clicking on the Results--Finally!
I clicked on a great number of the results. I chose which results to
click on by reading the little descriptive captions after the headings.
For instance, I ignored the Ann Rice Tours because I did not think they
had anything to do with my report. I also ignored the Ghosts in
Entertainment option because I imagined it simply being about movies that
featured ghosts, like Poltergeist.
To the bottom.Shadowlands Ghost Stories
Out of all the results, the most interesting and related to my search was
Shadowlands Ghost
Stories. The web page was run by someone who called himself/herself
the Shadowlord and it was a compilation of (true) ghost stories from all
around the world. I clicked on a couple that sounded interesting, like
The Frail
Old Woman and Prom
Night Fright. The stories were nice and concise, as well as spooky
and entertaining. After reading some of the stories, my ghost-seeking
appetite was well fed.
Overall, I was pretty amazed at what I was seeing. I just can't believe the advanced intellect of the computer. How can it find so many things in such a short amount of time? The Search Engines on the World Wide Web is truly better than a library catalog system. Where libraries will pull up numbers that guide you to go and find the resources (which may not even be there in the first place), search engines directly pull up the wide variety of resources which is not only informing, but also incredibly beautiful.
Back to the top?
To the bottom.
1) What was the your overall level of self-confidence as a
searcher?
+3, high. I would say my self-confidence was pretty high. I'm the type
of searcher who doesn't like to be disappointed with results, so I will
keep on searching until I find something. I felt that it wouldn't be too
hard and I knew that I wouldn't feel displeased at the results. Even for
those results that I was a little disappointed at, I always knew that
there was another option waiting in line to be explored.
2) What was your stress level?
+2, relaxed. I can't say that I was very relaxed since I often got
impatient when something took a long time to load, especially when I'm
eager to go on. But I was not at all stressed about using search
engines. The only part that was stressful was writing this report and
posting it on the web on time.
3) How satisfied are you with the ease of using this search
engine?
+3, very satisfied. I found Yahoo to be extremely easy. Even elementary
school kids could use it. Also, it's formatted very conveniently. I was
undoubtedly content.
4) How useful to you were the results?
+2, useful. I'd say they were useful for this report and for my own
personal interest.
5) Did the results give you a better understanding of the topic?
+1, sort of. It was really, really interesting, but with a topic like
ghosts, there's not really much understanding involved in it. Either you
like to hear about them, or you don't like to hear about them. It didn't
change my mind or convince me in any different way about wheter ghosts
really do exist or not.
6) How likely is it that you'll find what you need in future
searches?
+3, very likely. Definitely, definitely I'll find what I need in future
searches. Sure certain words won't work, but others do. Once you learn
how to use a search engine, you never forget. It's like learning to ride
a bike.
Back to the top?
To the bottom.
Searching on the internet has taught me certain aspects of my personality I was never aware of before. I had always believed I was a patient person (too patient sometimes) but while I was searching, I realized the reverse was true. I would often get very annoyed when something took more than a minute to load. I often saw my hand moving the mouse to click on "stop". I would then precede to search for something else. I guess part of the reason is because when I'm excited, I am often very anxious and eager to find things. My face becomes animated like Barney, the dinsosaur's, and I don't want to wait!
I also realized that I'm the type of person who likes to take shortcuts. I sort of knew I was too lazy to read all the words on the screen. They're enough to cause a migraine. But I shouldn't always take the easy way out because sooner or later, I'm going to be trapped and my sister or teacher may not be able to help me. This inevitable misfortune could have been avoided if I had only read the instructions carefully.