Cyber Seance

Moonwatcher · Post by **Moonwatcher** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 11:07 am

Cyber Seance

Okay, whit hiv wae goat ere en? Cyber Seance? Aht soonds a bit black magicish ah hear ye say. Ah derr say some eh the merr goadly among yiz urr gaspin in horror while ithers, gein tae leanins towards the occult, urr diggin oot eh tarot cerds an arrangin crystals close tae the keyboard. Well, ah'm gonnae disappoint baith perties. Let meh explain...

It's a new year. Ye probably noticed!

How many of you, over the years, have attempted to start a diary at this time. How many have succeeded I wonder? I remember as a kid receiving, as a stocking filler at christmas every year without fail, a diary. Not one of those big leather bound, lock and key jobs you understand. No, it was usually one of those wee pocket types, themed to take account of a boy's interests. You know the kind – The Boy's Own Diary, The Eagle Annual Diary, The Blue Peter Diary, The Full of Useless Information Diary. The actual diary part had a week spread over one or two pages with tiny sections per day for writing a few notes and informing you when the next full moon was due and what public holidays were being celebrated in Abu Dhabi. Anyway, every year I'd decide to 'keep my diary'. It would require great discipline, imagination and honesty, none of which I posessed in any great measure so, in retrospect, the project was always doomed from the start. I came across one of these diaries last year. How it survived I have no idea. Bridget Jones would not have been impressed, and there were no scriptwriters and film producers hammering on my door to turn it into a blockbuster, but it gives an incredible insight into my life at that early age, as the entry for January 5, 1962 illustrates.

'Got up, had breakfast. Went out on bike. Had lunch. Went out on bike again. Had dinner. Watched TV. Went to bed.'

I wont bore you with other enties, they read much the same. Sometimes it rained. Going to school featured a lot. Coming back from school featured even more. The whole thing fizzles out around mid February with the single sentence, 'Wrote my diary.'

So, I find myself all these years later wondering if I should try again. Assuming that the only people in the world likely to be interested in when I got out of bed, had lunch and went back to bed, probably inhabit yet unexplored jungles of Borneo, I needed to think about what I was going to record for posterity. Also, what medium to use. The wee surviving diary serves as a warning of traipsing off down that route again. So I turned my attention to the TSDG. With the Glesca Patter completing it's re-run by the end of this week, and the Echo 6 series having run it's course (last of six today), perhaps this was the way to go. Assuming you're not really interested in what I had for breakfast, I thought to myself, 'what if I started a sort of fly on the wall, offbeat, view of how family history research can affect a fairly ordinary bloke like me?' Hmm. That might work. There's nothing to stop me including other stuff as the mood takes me, like a wee bit eh the glesca patter, anecdotes, maybe even a wee poem occasionally. Worth a try I thought.

Next thing was, what to call it. Some time ago I did a wee poem on the Glesca Patter featuring 'Tam the Bam' and his encounter with a genealogy team from the future holding what I called a 'Cyber Seance'. This expression appeals to me. The thought of communing with unseen people over 'Cyberspace' and the obvious connection with our pursuance of tracking down the deceased and obtaining information about their lives and relationships seems appropriate. Cyber Seance. I like it.

So, see yeez aw nixt Sunday when ah stert mah weekly Cyber Seance. Perhaps it'll go well or mibby it'll just fizzle oot like mah diary of 1962. Nuthin ventirt, nuthin gaint eh?

Bridget Jones eat yer hert oot.

Bob.

nelmit · Post by **nelmit** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:21 pm

Looking forward to it Bob!

Annette M

DavidWW · Post by **DavidWW** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 3:27 pm

nelmit wrote:Looking forward to it Bob!

Annette M

You bet !!

Davie

AnnetteR · Post by **AnnetteR** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 4:18 pm

Canny wait Bob - get em fingers tappin

Take care

Annette

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:24 pm

Great idea Moonwatcher.Looking forward to it.
HK
ps I picked up a diary similar to the ones you mentioned in 1974 when I was visiting my Granparent's instead of going to school.(It was in Oct.)I can list all the same silly entries that you mention except for the nonsence from our trip to the Edinburgh zoo that took up a weeks worth of pages.But the reason I kept it all these years is I had my Gran and Grampa autograph it before I left to go back to Canada.They each put in a little message to me in the note section at the back.I look at it often and wonder still today what made me do it and how glad I am I did.It was the last time I saw either of them.My Grampa passed away shortly after we came home and Gran followed in 76.

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 1:32 am

Great Idea Bob

I was jist havin mair of them visions o' dancin lums mind ye. It is getting to be a bit of a worry though. The last time it also had an old wifey yellin at the lums about leaving soot on her clean stairs. Plus there were the wee chimney sweeps poppin out Mary Poppins style. I suppose I really should go and see the doctor and get some pills to help. Or is that some mair pills

Thanks goodness my colleagues never knew about my visions when I was doing psycho-educational group therapy

Moonwatcher · Post by **Moonwatcher** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 3:01 pm

' ...Some time ago I did a wee poem on the Glesca Patter featuring 'Tam the Bam'. '

I meant of course, to those who read the poem, 'Tam the Chancer'

Tam the Bam was his faither.

Bob

CatrionaL · Post by **CatrionaL** » Thu Jan 06, 2005 8:42 pm

Great news, Bob. Can't wait!

Catriona