Decemystery (2023) 31: That Time a Russian Managed to Noclip Out of Reality

 

Salutations, dear reader. Welcome back to my blog for the final time this year. This month has been filled with the wildest, strangest, and most unbelievable stories I’ve ever written about in the five years that it’s been around. Or, well, four years if you wish to pretend 2022 didn’t happen, given I only wrote a single movie review that year. Thank you, COVID brain fog, for robbing me of a year of my life.

But I digress. When I put the two Decemysterys together, the capstone entry for 2022.3 remained the same; the Professor Oak story was always what I had in mind. However, the one for today was not what I originally had in mind. I won’t spoil what it is since I’m hoping to use it as next year’s capstone entry, but I will say that I began work on it earlier in the year. I believe in June. I can’t remember precisely because of just how much I wrote in such a short amount of time.

However, I ultimately decided to hold off on finishing it because it would have been disgustingly long. It’s a case that’s extraordinarily personal to me, and I believed that if I’d rushed it, I would have felt so disappointed in myself for not giving it the proper love and care that I believe it deserves. So, that left me in limbo for a bit; I wasn’t sure what I’d use to end this absolute beast of a month off.

The biggest challenge in finding what I believe to be a truly worthwhile case was that this month was a never-ending one-upping of strangeness. Almost every story was just pure, unadulterated: “What in the world!?” through and through. So, in order to find what I felt was a proper capstone entry, I went looking for something that was not only weird but also encompassed everything that made this month special.

That story came to my attention a few months ago, in October, when I was looking at sustained_disgust’s Obscure Unsolved Mysteries Iceberg. We started out this month over there, and we shall end it off there. So come along, dear reader, as we end off 2023—and Decemystery—with That Time a Russian Managed to Noclip Out of Reality!

Separate Ways, Worlds Apart

This story is on the aforementioned Obscure Unsolved Mysteries Iceberg under the name “Basement Noclip.” The source cited for this is Patrick Gross’ website “ufologie.” Though the original source was “a Russian UFO website.” I believe that it’s “X-Libri,” or “X-Files.” I can’t vouch if that’s the proper translation (it’s what Patrick says it means), nor did I check the site myself. It’s listed at the end of the article, so I’m inclined to think that’s the “Russian UFO website” he was referring to.

Anyway, onto the case itself because it’s a wild one. It took place on January 14, 1978, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Now, as a minor disclaimer, Russia is a gargantuan country—the largest in the world. It also extends from eastern Europe into Asia. Rostov-on-Don is in Europe, so I’ve tagged this case with the “Europe” tag. In the future, I’ll be tagging any case from Russia with which continent it occurred—just a heads-up.

It was 6:00 a.m., and three men—Mikhail Babkin, Nikolay Leontyev, and Vitaliy Kravchenko—were “at the local sports complex,” one named “Oktyabryonok.” I decided to look this place up, and to my surprise, it has a Wikipedia page. Known as “Little Octobrists,” it was a youth organization for children ages 7–9 during the Soviet era. So, I’m guessing it was kind of like the YMCA. For the sake of consistency, though, I’ll refer to it as Oktyabryonok since it’s what Patrick referred to it as initially.

Now, from the sounds of it, the sports center was still in use. Presumably, it was also open to older folks because Mikhail, Mikolay, and Vitaliy were all 18 years old. Regardless, the trio visited the complex to “celebrate the passing of the old New Year.” For those who don’t know, Russia has two “New Years,” with “Old New Year” landing on January 14. So, no, they weren’t celebrating the traditional New Year thirteen days after it had passed.

This celebration consisted of champagne, steam baths in the complex’s sauna, swimming in the swimming pool, and “eating mixed with some vodka.” It’s not a story out of Russia if vodka is not involved, is it?

Their celebration was cut short, though, when a watchman came by and suggested that the three boys get going. It’s worth noting that in the actual article, it’s said that the watchman came by at 6:00 a.m., so exactly when the trio arrived at Oktyabryonok is unknown to me. I’m guessing it was hours beforehand because if it wasn’t, they arrived, did all of this partying, and were immediately told to leave. That sounds like me whenever a fly enters my room.

Presumably, the three boys didn’t put up much of a fuss and were accompanied by the nameless watchman “to the rear exit of the building.” The path to said exit was “located in the basement area,” and went “through a long and very narrow corridor with concrete walls.” It also had no windows. This was said in the original article, so I’m including it.

Now for one of the story’s more odd details. It specified the walking order the four were in. I feel now is the perfect time to mention that on Patrick Gross’ site, there’s an email that contains this case (which was given the name “Into Another Word”). The email was from Aileen Garoutte to someone named Iren Czajka. At the end of her email, she thanks “Albert Gonzales.” More on that later.

According to Patrick’s article, Aileen’s email was sent via a “public mailing list” called “Prepare4contact” from a group on Yahoo. This was in 2007; at the time, I was 11 years old, and I didn’t really bother with the Internet anywhere near as much as I do nowadays. So, I’m guessing that somehow, Aileen caught wind of this case and wrote about it.

Now, getting back on track, said walking order was as follows: the watchman took point, followed by Nikolay, then Mikhail, and last but not least, Vitaliy. They were making their way down this dark corridor when, all of a sudden, Mikhail “seemed to trip.” This was in spite of “the smooth concrete floor deprived of potholes.” I just want to say that if he was inebriated, he might have just stumbled and tripped over his own feet. They did have vodka and champagne, after all.

What can’t be explained away by drunkenness was what Nikolay saw when he turned around, having been alerted by his companion’s scream. Reportedly, he saw Mikhail’s “shoulder penetrate into the concrete wall.” Shortly after, the entirety of Mikhail vanished into said wall. Now, he’s just another brick in the wall!

This magnificent disappearing act naturally shocked the three men. They quickly got to work, trying to see if the wall had “any doors or openings.” Alas, all they were met with was concrete. Don’t worry, guys! The feeling of concrete becomes normal once you’ve been to New York City as many times as I have.

Now, in both Patrick’s article and Aileen’s email, the story was told a bit backward. You see, after Mikhail vanished into the wall, we’re told what he saw. I know, I know; that’s a major spoiler. Well, too bad, now you know he wasn’t eaten by the wall, nor did he fall into the Michigan Blue Hell (more on that bad boy later).

As much as I love creative storytelling, I cannot stand it when it’s done like this. I prefer my stories to be chronological. So, for this write-up, we’ll defy our sources and tell it like a normal story instead! Did this really warrant two paragraphs’ worth of text? Don’t ask questions that you know will have a stupid answer.

The exact details of the watchman, Nikolay, and Vitaliy’s search aren’t given. All we’re told is that they spent “about an hour running across the complex in complete despair” as they searched for Mikhail. Eventually, though, they found him.

Apparently, Mikhail was found “screaming inarticulate remarks” and believed that only five minutes had passed. Time passing differently in different realities isn’t unheard of. I have no idea why because I can barely comprehend time as is.

Anyway, at some point (we’re only told that it was “later”), Mikhail told his companions what had happened. His story was, and I mean this in the kindest way imaginable, absolutely bonkers. Everything I’m about to tell you is what’s written in Patrick’s article. I did not make any of this up.

Mikhail claimed that he “had suddenly entered a small and dark room.” He guessed that it was the “fourth-story floor” of whatever structure he was in. This was quite alarming given he was, you know, just in the corridor of a basement.

Now, I do want to note that the definition of a “story” (or “storey” for my British readers) is different in various countries. Assuming that Mikhail was abiding by the European way of labeling floors, this would be the fifth-story floor he was on. If he were going by the American way of doing it, it’d be the fourth-story floor. I figured I’d just include that since I mentioned the differences back when I covered The Gargoyle at the Window earlier in the month.

Now, then, back to the story. To the left of Mikhail was “an object like a medical examination chair.” Meanwhile, ahead of him was “a slightly opened door.” Near it was “a narrow window,” where he could see “treetops” that were “covered in dense green leaves” that moved due to heavy wind.

The vibrant foliage surprised Mikhail since it was the middle of winter in Russia. Yet, here, it looked like it was summer and daytime outside. It sounds like he’s at the dentist’s office I used to visit when I lived in New York. He ought to see if the elevator works because the one there sure as heck didn’t!

In a trance-like state, Mikhail went through the door that lay ahead of him. It led to a room that, much like the first, was in dire need of some sprucing up. It, too, was a rather depressing sight to behold.

On the ceiling was a “round platform” that emitted “a faint light.” Just like the previous room, there was another “medical chair,” which was against a wall. Unlike the previous room, this one lacked any windows. So, there was at least one difference, and it was arguably the worst possible one. No windows? Man, the interior designer for this place sucked*!

* In the interest of fairness, I would do no better.

Mikhail went on to say that he “felt very lightheaded” and moved “like a robot” toward another door. This one led “into the strangest room yet.” I wish I could say that this room resembled something out of an M.C. Escher painting, but that was not the case. Instead, it was “absolutely dark, with some bright areas visible in the inky darkness.” That doesn’t sound like it was absolutely dark, but who am I to judge?

The light that was scattered around the room “seemed to hypnotically influence” Mikhail, who’d become “numb” and was “unable to look away from the lights.” Out of curiosity, I decided to look up if light can actually be hypnotic. To my surprise, a quick Google search told me that, yes, it is possible. I feel like I might have known this at some point but forgot because it wasn’t necessary information. Still, reading it is a bit surreal.

Anyway, hypnotic lights (which are later described as “pulsating patches of light,” despite them not having been described as pulsating beforehand, but whatever) weren’t the only things in this room. No, there were other entities in the room. Five of them, to be exact.

Now, how these entities got into the room is a bit vague. Patrick Gross’ article says that they “appeared” in front of Mikhail, which makes it sound like they manifested out of thin air. This would make a lot of sense—in my opinion, anyway—given what they’re about to do. They sound like interdimensional beings more than extraterrestrials.

At the same time, I have to wonder if they were already in the room, but Mikhail didn’t notice them at first; the lights illuminated them, and his sudden realization that he wasn’t alone made it seem like they’d appeared. The only reason I’m harping on this is the wording genuinely threw me for a loop, and I’m curious if pointing it out will lead any of you to feel the same.

Now that I’ve shined a pulsating spotlight on that wording choice let’s get back on track. These beings were described as being “black” and “humanoid.” Their height and build weren’t given, which makes me think that Mikhail didn’t get a good look at them. This, to me, is a major letdown because of the next detail: the shape of their heads.

Anyone who’s read this blog before will know by now that we’ve discussed some really wild-looking aliens. Robotic alien flowers, giant brains that had telepathy, arboreal monstrosities (twice!), alien penguins, and many other aliens that I can’t be asked to list off. My main point is that we’ve discussed some really bizarre-looking beings that truly redefine the word “strange.”

The beings here may or may not have been extraterrestrial. Really, based on how Mikhail got there, I’d say it’s safe to say they were interdimensional in some way, shape, or form. However, given the prevalent theory that aliens are interdimensional beings, I feel that I need to say this right now: I’ve never heard of aliens like this.

You see, these aliens—or whatever they were—had heads that “appeared rectangular in shape.” This makes me think Mikhail fell into the world of Hey Arnold! Well, great. Now Helga’s going to start stalking him around Moscow or wherever in Russia he resided. I know I said he was in Rostov-on-Don at the start, but I don’t know for certain that he lived there. For all I know, he could have been on a road trip with his friends.

I feel like nobody who’s not around my age will get that reference. God, I feel old.

One of these beings was “slightly hunched over and appeared to be working some kind of device that gave off light,” though it was later said that it “did not illuminate the surrounding area.” I find this detail rather interesting, though I have to wonder if maybe the light was just dim.

Besides producing a light that produced no light (now there’s a sentence), this device was “not big” and looked similar to a “corncob.” If you have no idea what that looks like, here’s an image of it.

Clearly, these beings had just discovered popcorn and were trying to figure out how to replicate their newest discovery.

All joking aside, the device had “a pointy end,” and was aimed at Mikhail. Before he could contemplate what it may or may not do, he “heard a male voice inside his head.” It had one very simple yet ambiguous question to ask.

This one?

A second voice then spoke in his head. This one’s gender wasn’t given.

No not him.

This response was truly horrifying to me because it forgot the comma after “no.” I cannot think of a more terrifying phrase that could be spoken.

Upon realizing that their guest wasn’t the “one” they wanted, the first voice spoke back up. This one was, presumably, also inside of Mikhail’s head.

Memory erasure is necessary.

This, unsurprisingly, terrified Mikhail. Whether by the power of those amazing things called “survival instincts,” divine intervention, or Red Bull, he “seemed to snap out of his confused state” and bolted for the door he’d come through.

Upon going through it, he found himself back in the corridor he’d been in earlier. Behind him, a “door closed” with “a loud slam.” When he looked at the wall, he noticed that the door had vanished. I was originally going to ask if the beings he saw gave chase, but I feel this answered the question before I could ask it (that being a rather amusing “yes”).

That, much to my disappointment, is where the story ends, and it’s at this point Aileen’s email ended by thanking “Albert Gonzales.” Patrick Gross mentioned that this was likely meant to be “Albert Rosales,” whom I’ve brought up a few times this month—not to mention in the past. He wrote a series of books on Humanoid Encounters that’s incredibly fascinating and well worth reading.

Patrick’s main reason for suspecting that Aileen meant Rosales was due to “the format of the story,” including an “HC Addendum,” which Rosales usually included in his writings. I don’t exactly know what that means off the top of my head, which makes me feel rather dumb.

Patrick went on to note that Rosales’ recounting of the story was a fair bit shorter. In it, he nixed “any mention to the fact that the alleged witnesses had celebrated” on the Russian New Year. He also didn’t mention that they’d consumed any champagne and vodka. Should Rosales’ version of events be accurate, that means we have no idea when this event took place, which makes things infinitely more difficult.

With that said, I did try to look up Mikhail Babkin for additional sources. To my delight, I found one article on Phantoms and Monsters, but it was the same story with no additional information. It did, however, mention something called “Unknown Worlds” by a writer named “Alexey K. Priyma.” I attempted to find anything else online but to no avail. Apparently, some other articles cited the book, so I’m inclined to believe that Alexey is a prominent paranormal researcher.

Beyond that, there’s no other information on this case. There could be some that I overlooked, but there’s one tiny issue. Mikhail Babkin is the name of a Ukrainian author. That makes finding information about the Mikhail mentioned in this story a whole lot more difficult. In fact, it was to the point that I thought this story may have been outright fabricated, and someone picked that name, thinking nobody would recognize it.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself. Given that the story is now done, and I can’t find any other paths to go down, it’s time for us to jump into the theories for one final time this month—not to mention this year. So, come along; let’s speculate on what, exactly, the truth of this case was!

Theories

1. Mikhail noclipped out of reality

Oh my goodness, this theory’s going to give me a migraine by the time I’m done with it. I’ll try to keep it as short as possible because I could be here for quite some time; heck, I could do a second write-up if I had the time and patience. Why? Well, because a very prominent Conspiracy Iceberg entry is tied to this theory.

It’s known as the Michigan Blue Hell, and it’s been on my to-do list since Decemystery 2019. It is, to the best of my memory, the story that outright made me create the very first Conspiracy Megalist. It’s also been planned for every single Decemystery at one point or another—barring Decemystery 2023. The only reason it wasn’t planned was that I forgot about it until this write-up. Had I not forgotten, I may have tried to write it. I have a good feeling I would have foregone it, though.

God willing, I will cover it next year; for now, however, I want to quickly go over it so you guys have some context for this all. The Michigan Blue Hell is located in the state of Michigan—the state that looks like a pair of mittens if you don’t know which it is. In this very specific location, there’s a spot where you can “clip out” of reality and fall into an endless void of blue sky. It gets its name from the “blue hell” in video games; that’s the area you fall into if you clip out of the game’s map.

There is so much more to the Michigan Blue Hell that I cannot go over without making this write-up disgustingly bloated and difficult to follow. However, I believe it’s necessary that—at the absolute least—you know the bare minimum for this theory. As for the Michigan Blue Hell itself, I’ll try to get around to it next year. I make absolutely no promises, though, as I haven’t been very good at keeping them over the years.

This theory posits that Mikhail somehow, in some way, noclipped out of reality and ended up in another universe. He found the Russian equivalent of the above-mentioned Michigan Blue Hell. Only, instead of falling into an endless void of blue, he fell into an office building occupied by telepathic beings with weirdly shaped heads.

I genuinely don’t know where I stand on this theory. On one hand, I find it quite remarkable that the eyewitnesses would be willing to give their names; most people would never dare do something like that. They’d be ostracized from their community until they were lost in the Siberian tundra.

At the same time, I can’t find anything on Mikhail Babkin, which makes it very difficult to accept this story as true. And if you think that’s only exclusive to Mikhail, no, it’s not, but we’ll get to that in a later theory. Until then, let’s move on to the next theory—and let’s not let that fact blind us. Or, at the very least, let’s try not to let it blind us.

2. They just lost track of Mikhail, and he was knocked unconscious because he fell

Okay, I’m going to keep this theory short because there’s very little to it that wasn’t said in the name. This one posits that Nikolay and Vitaliy, along with the watchman, lost track of Mikhail, who at some point tripped, hit his head, and was knocked unconscious. They were alerted to his brief scream and began their search.

While unconscious, Mikhail dreamt the entire story up. I’ve heard far wilder stories from people who were knocked out; there’s a rather famous Reddit post from a guy who was knocked out in a fight and dreamt an entire other life. Now, granted, that story sounds really questionable to me, but I haven’t done enough research into it, and I don’t know enough about how the brain works to judge it.

This theory, in my eyes, could work if not for two things. The first is, as I said earlier, I can’t find anything on Mikhail and his companions; that’s really questionable to me. However, you can brush it off as him mentioning the whole “they said I tripped and hit my head” thing to other Fortean researchers and being dismissed. So, when he submitted this report, he excluded it.

Assuming that wasn’t the case, though, one has to wonder how the watchman wouldn’t have been able to find Mikhail unless he, too, was drunk. I guess Mikhail could have awoken far sooner but been wandering around in a daze. Though, you’d think they would eventually come across each other.

I’d also wonder how his friends never found him, but if they were heavily inebriated, I’m willing to bet they wouldn’t have been able to tie their shoelaces. Oh well, that’s this theory; I think it’s the second most likely. God, I can’t wait to be done with this; I want to sleep.

3. Delirium tremens

There was a theory put forward on Patrick Gross’ website about this being a case of “delirium tremens” (or “shaking frenzy”). They occur from alcohol withdrawal. I don’t know a thing about that, so I can’t say with any confidence if this happened because of that.

A quick visit to Wikipedia told me that they can happen after a month of heavy alcohol consumption. I’m not a doctor, and Wikipedia is a very unreliable source, so I don’t know how probable this could be. I don’t feel comfortable taking any guesses either; I don’t think it’s my place to pretend I know a single thing about doctor stuff.

One thing I do know, thanks to writing this month’s collection of mysteries, is that alcohol can cause hallucinations. Sadly, that’s about where that knowledge ends; apparently, we don’t know precisely why booze can make people hallucinate. If I’m wrong about this, I’d greatly appreciate any corrections.

Even if we disregard that, though, one has to wonder exactly how this could have happened without that watchman having notified the families of the boys. As Patrick said, and as I echoed, if the watchman had escorted them out, they were likely intoxicated. It’s hard to imagine they weren’t aware they were drunk by the morning.

Overall, I doubt this was the case, but I also don’t know anywhere near enough about the condition to properly judge it. From the sounds of it, though, it doesn’t seem that likely. But, again, don’t take my word as gospel since I’m not one of those smart doctor people.

4. Aliens

Just for kicks, I figured I’d include this. I’ve heard theories that aliens have set up shop here on Earth and have bases on it. This theory is that Mikhail accidentally stumbled into one of those bases.

I’m not really sure how likely this would be since, from the sounds of it, this definitely was in another world. I mean, the land outside of whatever structure Mikhail was in didn’t resemble Russia during the winter. Unless the case didn’t take place in January. In that case, that calls into question so many other things that I can’t begin to organize my thoughts properly. Look, I’m writing this the day before it’s going to be posted; all I want to do is rest. Please, don’t judge me too much!

Beyond the potential inconsistency with the date, not to mention my cries for mercy, I don’t really think this sounds like an extraterrestrial encounter. It’s far from the most outlandish and ridiculous, but it doesn’t really sound like a close encounter with our space-faring friends. Really, it sounds like Mikhail went to another dimension or world.

If there are encounters with aliens that involve falling through things and winding up in other places or worlds, then I’d reevaluate this theory. However, as it stands, it doesn’t strike me as likely, at least not with the minimal knowledge that I have. Remember, I may be fascinated by this stuff, but I’m not a guru. I’m just some guy with a blog.

5. A hoax

This is a theory that Patrick Gross put forward, and I honestly understand why very well. This is a very weird case; it’s one that I think requires a considerable amount of goodwill to believe at face value. I’m someone who’s definitely on the side of believing in other realities and dimensions, but this case is definitely one that leaves me asking tons of questions.

Of course, one must ask what there was to gain from making the story up. In fact, I have to wonder how it was first reported on; sadly, I can’t find that information (though that may fall squarely on me). Assuming it was reported to a ufologist like many fantastical stories of this nature are, one has to wonder if the eyewitness had some kind of incentive.

Generally, with reports like this, the incentive is virtually nonexistent. Unless they’re hoping for clout by promoting a book on the topic, they only have ridicule to gain from publicly talking about their experiences. While I doubt alien abduction a great deal, I cannot imagine anyone who genuinely believes a bunch of Greys abducted them will boast about it to everyone they know and love—unless they want to alienate said family members.

There is one thing that does make this case rather unique, though. The name of the eyewitness is publicly available. Of course, as I said above, I couldn’t find anything about him online. Still, I decided to look up the other two men; maybe they had some stuff on them.

Well, looking up Nikolay Leontyev gave me a result for a man named Nikolay Leontiev, who served in the Russian army and fought in the Russo-Japanese War. He was also an explorer, geographer, and writer. However, the Nikolay we were looking for doesn’t appear to have anything online.

Meanwhile, Vitaliy Kravchenko is a lot more interesting. For starters, there was an actor with the same name who died in 1966. There’s also a Russian minister who gave Church services; one of them was posted last week on YouTube and was entitled “The Interruption of Christmas.” The former was obviously not our man, and I have no idea if the latter was. It’s not like two people having the same name is an anomaly.

That does beg the question as to how no Russian ufologists or Fortean investigators ever attempted to track down these three men. Given the incredible nature of this case, you’d think someone out there would have tried to find them. Yet, as it stands, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

As a result, I’d say this theory has a decent amount to work with. But we’re not done with the theories; we still have a few to go. So, without further ado, let’s continue on to our final meme theory of the year!

6. The world from the Take on Me music video

Now, with 100% fewer pencil sketches and 101% less amazing music! Oh, the interdimensional humanity!

My Take

I lean very heavily toward this being a hoax solely because I can’t find anything on the eyewitnesses. Their names are readily available, yet there’s nothing about them. Seriously, no prominent Fortean investigators, ufologists, or anyone decided to go and pay them a visit? That’s absolutely mind-blowing to me.

Now, of course, I do accept that it’s possible they maintained a low profile throughout the years. That’s extremely plausible and wouldn’t shock me. Plenty of people who have had unexplainable experiences aren’t going to be happy to blabber about their ordeal.

The issue I have is that we do know their names; they’re right there. If they were pseudonyms, then I think that should have been specified. Otherwise, I expect that these folks were comfortable with their identities being public knowledge.

Yet, apparently, they weren’t comfortable enough to talk to anyone else outside of the person who originally wrote about this (assuming it wasn’t one Mikhail who wrote about it originally). That’s some bizarre logic to me, but I suppose I can’t judge too much. I’d probably do something odd like that, too.

Aside from that fact, the other big thing that makes me question the veracity of this case is the sheer wild nature of it all. A guy claimed he fell through a solid concrete wall and into another world. That’s not just weird; that’s absolutely mind-altering insanity. That’s the kind of thing that would make me wonder if the eyewitness had dropped DMT and seen some Machine Elves.

It’s one thing when I read about a “Time Slip” or something else enigmatic like that. Sure, I’ll be skeptical, but there’s a lot that you can make an argument for. Maybe timelines got a bit wonky, or something caused time to become a bit distorted. Will I believe it? Eh, it’ll depend on how well you can sell it to me.

With this case, though, there’s no way you can sell me on a man falling through solid concrete into nothingness. That’s just pure, unadulterated craziness. That just strikes me as a few dozen bridges too far. Am I willing to listen to those who believe it? Of course, I like to maintain an open mind when I can. However, as it stands—with the way this was presented to me—this is absolute nonsense. Though I must admit, it’s entertaining nonsense.

Conclusion

And so, with that, Decemystery 2023 comes to a close. This was an absolutely colossal undertaking of a project, one that I hope to never again do in my life. As much as I love writing and all things unsolved, Fortean, and strange, doing this amount of writing—almost all of it from July until now, the day before this goes up—was nightmarish. I wrote over 270,000 words across all 64 write-ups. That number is almost certainly near, or over, 300,000 if we count the write-ups I began but didn’t finish.

Writing all of these write-ups one after another, with little to no break in between, was like running a never-ending marathon. I cannot, for the life of me, do it again if I tried. I wouldn’t want to even try that. There comes a point when I have to wonder if what I’m doing is even healthy. A fair number of my friends repeatedly told me to “take breaks,” which I did, albeit usually only for a day or two.

It wasn’t until this past week that I finally began to seriously unwind. Prior to that, I think the longest break I took was in August when I had my health scare, which was caused by my blood pressure dropping due to an accidental medication change. That was something I hope to never again experience. Especially since I had to go to the ER.

Anyway, I digress. Now that I’m finally done with all of this writing, I am going to take a break—a very long one. No, I won’t abandon the blog like I did last year; God willing, that will never happen again. If it does, I’ll be heartbroken like never before. 2022 was an absolute nightmare of a year for me, and I don’t want to have another year like it ever again.

Now, for what I intend to do to start my 2024. For the next few weeks—maybe two or three—I’m going to just relax. I’m going to take it easy; I’m going to recharge and, as God is my witness, make 2024 the biggest and best year for this little blog. Until next time, though, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading! And have a happy, healthy, and amazing new year, dear reader!

Credit to my friend, 2001 Honda Civic, for this little image.