Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Welcome Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode, as we head into a new year, I thought it'd be appropriate to make something old, new again. It's a story I shared many years ago in the podcast and I really enjoyed narrating it. Plus, it's very appropriate for the day. The story was written in 1880 by Grant Allen. It's titled, My New Year's Eve Among the Mummies. If you're new here, welcome to the show and if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen. And please, leave a rating and review in the podcast app you're listening from. Doing these things helps the show to keep growing. And while you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter to connect with me on social media and more.  I've been a wanderer and a vagabond on the face of the earth for a good many years now and I have certainly had some odd adventures in my time. But I can assure you, I never spent 24 queerer hours than those which I passed some 12 months since in the great unopened pyramid of Abu Yillah. The way I got there was itself a very strange one. I had come to Egypt for a winter tour with the Fitz-Sinkinses, to whose daughter Aditha I was at that precise moment engaged. You'll probably remember that old Fitz-Sinkins belonged originally to the wealthy firm of Simkinson and Stoco, worshipful vintners, but when the senior partner retired from the business and got his knighthood, the College of Haralds, opportunally discovered that his ancestors had changed their fine old Norman name for its English equivalent, sometime about the reign of King Richard I, and they immediately authorized the old gentleman to resume the patronymic and the armorial bearings of his distinguished forefathers. It's really quite astonishing how often these curious coincidences crop up at the College of Haralds. Of course, it was such a great catch for a landless and briefless barrister like myself, dependent on a small fortune in South American securities, and my precarious earnings as a rider of burlesque to secure such a valuable prospective property as Aditha Fitz-Sinkins. To be sure, the girl was undeniably plain, but I have known planer girls than she was, whom 40,000 pounds converted into my ladies, and if Aditha hadn't really fallen overhead and ears in love with me, I suppose old Fitz-Sinkins would never have consented to such a match. As it was, however, we had flirted so openly and so desperately during the Scarborough season that it would have been difficult for Sir Peter to break it off, and so I had come to Egypt on a tour of insurance to secure my prize, following in the wake of my future mother-in-law whose lungs were supposed to require a genio-climate, though in my private opinion they were really as creditable a pair of pulmonary appendages as ever drew breath. Nevertheless, the course of true love did not run so smoothly as might have been expected. Aditha found me less ardent than a devoted squire should be, and on the very last night of the old year, she got up a regulation lover's quarrel because I had sneaked away from the boat that afternoon under the guidance of our dragamond to witness the seductive performances of some fair Guaji, the dancing girls of a neighboring town. How she found it out, heaven only knows, for I gave that rascal Dimitri five piaustras to hold his tongue. But she did find it out somehow and chose to regard it as an offense of the first magnitude, a mortal sin only to be expiated by three days of penance and humiliation. I went to bed that night in my hammock on deck with feelings far from satisfactory. We were moored against the bank at Abu Yillah, the most pustiferous hole between the cataracts and the delta. Mosquitoes were worse than the ordinary mosquitoes of Egypt, and that is saying a great deal. The heat was oppressive even at night, and the malaria from the lotus beds rose like a palpable mist before my eyes. Above all, I was getting doubtful whether Aditha Fitzsimkin's might not, after all, slip between my fingers. I felt wretched and feverish, and yet I had delightful, interlusive recollections in between of that lovely little Gujjaya who danced that exquisite, marvelous and trancing delicious and awfully oriental dance that I saw in the afternoon. By Jove, she was a beautiful creature. Eyes like two full moons, hair like Milton's pinciroso, movements like a poem of swine burns set to action. If Aditha was only a faint picture of that girl now, upon my word, I was falling in love with a Gujjaya. Then the mosquitoes came again, buzz, buzz, buzz. I make a lunge at the loudest and biggest sort of primadonna in their infernal opera. I kill the primadonna, but ten more shrill performers come in its place. The frogs croak dismally in the reedy The night grows hotter and hotter still. At last, I can take it no longer. I rise up, dress myself lightly, and jump ashore to find some way of passing the time. Yonder, across the flat, lies the great, unopened pyramid of Abhugila. We're going tomorrow to climb to the top, but I will make a turn to Reconoidr in that direction now. I walk across the moonlit fields, my soul still divided between Aditha and the Josiah, and approach the solemn mass of huge, antiquated granite blocks standing out so grimly against the pale horizon. I feel half awake, half asleep, and altogether feverish. But I poke about the base in an aimless sort of way with a vague idea that I may perhaps discover my chance the secret of its sealed entrance, which has air now baffled so many pertinacious explorers and learned Egyptologists. As I walk along the base, I remember old Herodotus's story, like a page from the Arabian Nights of how King Rampsonetus built himself a treasury, wherein one stone turned on a pivot like a door, and how the builder availed himself of this his cunning device to steal gold from the king's storehouse. Suppose the entrance to the unopened pyramid should be such a door. It would be curious if I should just chance to light upon the very spot. I stood in the broad moonlight, near the northeast angle of the great pile of the twelfth stone from the corner. A random fancy struck me that I might turn this stone by pushing it inward on the left side. I leant against it with all my weight and tried to move it on the imaginary pivot. Did it give way a fraction of an inch? No, it must have been mere fancy. Let me try again. Surely it is yielding. Gracious Osiris, it has moved an inch or more. My heart beats fast, either with fever or excitement, and I try a third time. The rust of centuries on the pivot wears slowly off and the stone turned ponderously round, giving access to a low dark passage. It must have been madness which led me to enter the forgotten corridor alone without torch or match at that hour of the evening, but at any rate I entered. The passage was tall enough for a man to walk erect, and I could feel as I groped slowly along that the wall was composed of smooth, polished granite, while the floor sloped away downward with a slight but regular descent. I walked with trembling heart and faltering feet for some forty or fifty yards down the mysterious vestibule, and then I felt myself brought suddenly to a standstill by a block of stone placed right across the pathway. I had nearly enough for one evening, and I was preparing to return to the boat, a gog with my new discovery, when my attention was suddenly arrested by an incredible, a perfectly miraculous fact. The block of stone which barred the passage was faintly visible as a square by means of a struggling belt of light streaming through the seams. There must be a lamp or other flame burning within. What if this were a door like the outer one, leading into a chamber perhaps inhabited by some dangerous band of outcasts? The light was a sure evidence of human occupation, and yet the outer door swung rustily on its pivot as though it had never been opened for ages. I paused a moment in fear before I ventured to try the stone, and then urged on once more by some insane impulse, I turned the massive block with all my might to the left. It gave way slowly like its neighbor, and finally opened into the central hall. Never as long as I live shall I forget the ecstasy of terror, astonishment, and blank dismay which seized upon me when I stepped into that seemingly enchanted chamber. A blaze of light first burst upon my eyes from jets of gas arranged in regular rows, tear above tear, upon the columns and walls of the vast apartment. Huge pillars richly painted with red, yellow, blue, and green decorations stretched in endless succession down the dazzling aisles. A floor of polished cyanite reflected the splendor of the lamps and afforded a base for red granite sphinxes and dark purple images and porphyry of the cat-faced goddess Pashed, whose form I knew so well at the Louvre in the British Museum. But I had no eyes for any of these lesser marvels, being wholly absorbed in the greatest marvel of all. For there, in the royal state and with mitred head, a living Egyptian king surrounded by his coiffured court was banqueting in the flesh upon a real throne before a table laden with Memphian delicacies. I stood transfixed with awe and amazement, my tongue in my feet alike forgetting their office, and my brain whirling round and round as I remembered it used to whirl when my health broke down utterly at Cambridge after the classical tripos. I gazed fixedly at the strange picture before me, taking in all its details in a confused way, yet quite incapable of understanding or realizing any part of its true import. I saw the king in the center of the hall raised on a throne of granite inlaid with gold and ivory, his head crowned with the peaked cap of Ramsey's, and his curled hair flowing down his shoulders at a set in formal frizz. I saw priests and warriors on either side, dressed in the costumes which I had often carefully noted in our great collections, while bronze skinned maids with light garments round their waists and limbs displayed in graceful picturesqueness weighted upon them, half nude as in the wall paintings which we had lately examined at Karnak and Syene. I saw the ladies clothed from head to toe in dyed linen garments sitting apart in the background, banqueting by themselves at a separate table, while dancing girls like older representatives of my yesternoon friends, the jazwi, tumbled before them in strange attitudes to the music of four-stringed harps and long straight pipes. In short, I beheld as in a dream the whole drama of everyday Egyptian royal life, playing itself out anew under my eyes in its real original properties and personages. Gradually as I looked, I became aware that my hosts were no less surprised at the appearance of their anachronistic guest than was the guest himself at the strange living panorama which met his eyes. In a moment music and dancing ceased. The banquet paused in its course and the king and his nobles stood up in undisguised astonishment to survey the strange intruder. Some minutes passed before anyone moved forward on either side. At last a young girl of royal appearance, yet strangely resembling the jaziah of Abu Yillah and recalling in part the laughing maiden in the foreground of Mr. Long's great canvas at the previous academy, stepped out before the throng. May I ask you, she said in Ancient Egyptian, who you are and why you come hither to disturb us? I was never aware before that I spoke or understood the language of hieroglyphics, yet I found I had not the slightest difficulty in comprehending or answering her question. To say the truth, Ancient Egyptian, though an extremely tough tongue to decipher in its written form, becomes as easy as love-making when spoken by a pair of lips like that pharaonic princesses. It really was very much the same as English, pronounced in a rapid and somewhat indefinite whisper and with all the vowels left out. I begged ten thousand pardons for my intrusion, I answered apologetically. But I did not know that this pyramid was inhabited, or I should not have entered your residence so rudely. As for the points you wish to know, I am an English tourist and you will find my name upon this card, saying which I handed her one from the case which I had fortunately put into my pocket with conciliatory politeness. The princess examined it closely but evidently did not understand its import. In return, I continued, may I ask you in what August presence I now find myself by accident? A court official stood forth from the throng and answered in a set, heraldic tone, in the presence of the illustrious monarch, brother of the son Thomes, the 27th king of the 18th dynasty. Salute the lord of the world, put in another official in the same regulation drone. I bowed low to his majesty and stepped out into the hall. Apparently my obiescence did not come up to Egyptian standards of courtesy, for a suppressed titter broke audibly from the ranks of bronze-skinned waiting women. But the king graciously smiled at my attempt and turning to the nearest nobleman, observed in a voice of great sweetness and self-contained majesty, this stranger, Ambus, is certainly a very curious person. His appearance does not at all resemble that of an Ethiopian or other savage, nor does he look like the pale-faced sailors who come to us from the Achaean land beyond the sea. His features, to be sure, are not very different from theirs, but his extraordinary and singularly inartistic dress shows him to belong to some other barbaric race. I glanced down at my waistcoat and saw that I was wearing my tourist's checksuit of gray and mud color, with which a Bond Street tailor had supplied me just before leaving town, as the latest thing out in fancy tweeds. Evidently these Egyptians must have a very curious standard of taste not to admire our pretty and graceful style of male attire. If the dust between your majesty's feet may venture upon a suggestion put in the officer whom the king had addressed, I would hint that this young man is probably a stray visitor from the utterly uncivilized lands of the north. The headgear, which he carries in his hand, obviously betrays an octic habitat. I had instinctively taken off my round felt hat in the first moment of surprise when I found myself in the midst of this strange throng, and I was standing now in a somewhat embarrassed posture, holding it awkwardly before me like a shield to protect my chest. Let the stranger cover himself, said the king. Barbarian, in truth, I cover yourself, cried the herald. I noticed throughout that the king never directly addressed anybody, save the higher officials around him. I put on my hat as desired. A most uncomfortable and silly form of tiara, indeed, said the great Thomis. Very unlike your noble and aspiring mitre lion of Egypt, answered Ambus. Ask the stranger his name, the king continued. It was useless to offer another card, so I mentioned it in a clear voice. An uncouth and almost unpronounceable designation truly, commented his majesty to the grand chamberlain beside him. These savages speak strange languages, widely different from the flowing tongue of Memnon and Cisostris. The chamberlain bowed his assent with three low genuflections. I began to feel a little abashed at these personal remarks, and I almost think, though I shouldn't like it to be mentioned in the temple, that a blush rose to my cheek. The beautiful princess, who had been standing near me meanwhile in an attitude of statuesque repose, now appeared anxious to change the current of the conversation. Dear father, she said, with a respectful inclination, surely the stranger barbarian, though he be, cannot relish such pointed illusions to his person and costume. We must let him feel the grace and delicacy of Egyptian refinement. Then he may perhaps carry back with him some faint echo of its cultured beauty to his northern wilds. Nonsense, a tossu, replied Thomis the 27th, testily. Savages have no feelings, and they are as incapable of appreciating Egyptian sensibility as the chattering crow is incapable of attaining the dignified reserve of the sacred crocodile. Your majesty is mistaken, I said, recovering my self-possession gradually and realizing my position as a freeborn Englishman before the court of a foreign despot, though I must allow that I felt rather less confident than usual, owning to the fact that we were not represented in a pyramid by a British consul. I am an English tourist, a visitor from a modern land whose civilization far surpasses the rude culture of early Egypt, and I am accustomed to respectful treatment from all other nationalities as becomes a citizen of the first naval power in the world. My answer created a profound impression. He has spoken to the brother of the sun, cried Ambus in evident perturbation. He must be of the blood royal in his own tribe, or he would never have dared to do so. Otherwise, added a person whose dress I recognized as that of a priest, he must be offered up in expiation to Amun Ra immediately. As a rule, I am a decent, truthful person, but under these alarming circumstances, I venture to tell a slight fib with an air of nonchalant boldness. I am a younger brother of our reigning king, I said, without a moment's hesitation, for there was nobody present to gain say me, and I tried to salve my conscience by reflecting that at any rate I was only claiming consinguity with an imaginary personage. In that case, said King Thommys, with more genealogy in his tone, there can be no impropriety in my addressing you personally. Will you take a place at our table next to myself, and we can converse together, without interrupting a banquet which must be brief enough in any circumstances? Hattasau, my dear, you may seat yourself next to the barbarian prince. I felt a visible swelling to the proper dimensions of a royal highness as I sat down by the king's right hand.  The goblets went round once more, and a comely maid soon brought the meat, bread, fruits, and date wine. All this time I was naturally burning with curiosity to inquire who my strange host might be and how they had preserved their existence for so many centuries in this undiscovered hall, but I was obliged to wait until I had satisfied his majesty of my own nationality, the means by which I had entered the pyramid, the general state of affairs throughout the world at the present moment, and 50,000 other matters of a similar sort. Thome's utterly refused to believe my reiterated assertion that our existing civilization was far superior to the Egyptian, because, he said, I see from your dress that your nation is utterly devoid of taste or invention. But he listened with great interest to my account of modern society, the steam engine, the permissive prohibitory bill, the telegraph, the House of Commons, home rule, and other blessings of our advanced era, as well as to a brief resume of European history from the rise of the Greek culture to the Russo-Turkish war. At last, misquestions were nearly exhausted, and I got a chance of making a few counter inquiries of my own account. And now, I said, turning to the charming Hatasu, whom I thought a more pleasing informant than her August Papa, I should like to know who you are. What? Don't you know? She cried with unaffected surprise. Why, we're mummies. She made this astonishing statement with just the same quiet unconsciousness as if she had said, we're French or we're Americans. I glanced round the walls and observed behind the columns what I had not noticed till then, a large number of empty mummy cases with their lids placed carelessly by their sides. But what are you doing here? I asked in a bewildered way. Is it possible, said Hatasu, that you don't really know the object of embalming? Though your manners show you to be an incredible and well-bred young man, you must excuse by saying that you are shockingly ignorant. We are made into mummies in order to preserve our immortality. Once in every thousand years, we wake up for 24 hours, recover our flesh and blood, and banquet once more upon the mummy dishes and other good things laid by for us in the pyramid. Today is the first day of a millennium, and so we have waked up for the sixth time since we were first embalmed. The sixth time, I inquired incredulously, then you must have been dead six thousand years. Exactly so. But the world has not yet existed so long, I cried, in a fervor of orthodox horror. Excuse me, Barbarian Prince, this is the first day of the 327,000th millennium. My orthodoxy received a severe shock. However, I have been accustomed to geological calculations and was somewhat inclined to accept the antiquity of man, so I swallowed the statement without nor ado. Besides, if such a charming girl as Hatasu had asked me to turn Mohammedan or to worship Austeris, I believe I should incontinently have done so. You wake up only for a single day and night, then? I said. Only for a single day and night after that we go to sleep for another millennium. Unless you are meanwhile burned as fuel on the Cairo railway, I added mentally. But how, I continued aloud, do you get these lights? The pyramid is built above a spring of inflammable gas. We have a reservoir in one of the side chambers in which it collects during the thousand years. As soon as we awake, we turn it on at once from the tap and light it with a Lucifer match.  Very likely not. There are more things in heaven and earth, safrenes, that are dreamt of in your philosophy, as the bard of Filaya puts it. Further inquiries brought out all the secrets of that strange tomb house, and kept me fully interested till the close of the banquet. Then the chief priest solemnly rose, offered a small fragment of meat to a deified crocodile who sat in a meditative manner by the side of his deserted mummy case, and declared the feast concluded for the night. All rows from their places, wandered away into the long corridors or side aisles, informed little groups of talkers under the brilliant gas lamps. For my part, I strolled off with Hitasu down the least illuminated of the colonnades and took my seat beside a marble fountain, where several fish, gods of great sanctity, Hitasu assured me, were desporting themselves in a papyri basin. How long we sat there, I cannot tell. But I know that we talked a good deal about fish, and gods, and Egyptian habits, and Egyptian philosophy, and above all, Egyptian love-making. The last named subject we found very interesting, and when once we got fully started upon it, no diversion afterwards occurred to break the even tenor of the conversation.  The more we talked, the more desperately did I fall in love, and the more utterly oblivious did I become of my duty to Aditha Fitzsimkins. The mere ugly daughter of a rich and vulgar brand new night foresooth to show off her heirs before me, when here was a princess of the blood royal of Egypt, obviously sensible to the attentions which I was paying her, and not unwilling to receive them with a coy and modest grace. Well, I went on saying pretty things to Hitasu, and Hitasu went on depreciating them in a pretty little way, as who should say, I don't mean what I pretend to mean one bit. Until at last I may confess that we were both evidently as far gone in the disease of the heart called love as it is possible for two young people on first acquaintance to become. Therefore, when Hitasu pulled forth her watch, another piece of mechanism with which antiquaries used never to credit the Egyptian people, and declared that she had only three more hours to live, at least for the next thousand years, I fairly broke down, took out my handkerchief and began to sob like a child of a five-year-old. Hitasu was deeply moved. Decorum forbade that she should console me with too much impressment, but she ventured to remove the handkerchief gently from my face and suggested that there was yet one course open by which we might enjoy a little more of one another society. Suppose, she said quietly, you were to become a mummy. You would then wake up as we do every thousand years, and after you have tried it once, you will find it just as natural to sleep for a millennium as for eight hours. Of course, she added with a slight blush, during the next three or four solar cycles, there would be plenty of time to conclude any other arrangements you might possibly contemplate before the occurrence of another glacial epoch. This mode of regarding time was certainly novel and somewhat bewildering to people who ordinarily reckon its lapse by weeks and months, and I had a vague consciousness that my relations with Aditha imposed upon me a moral necessity of returning to the outer world, instead of becoming a millennial mummy. Besides, there was the awkward chance of being converted into fuel and dissipated into space before the arrival of the next waking day. But I took one look at Aditha, whose eyes were filling in turn with sympathetic tears, and that look decided me. I flung Aditha, life and duty to the dogs and resolved at once to become a mummy. There was no time to be lost. Only three hours remained to us, and the process of embalming, even in the most hasty manner, would take up fully two. We rushed off to the chief priest who had charge of the particular department in question. He at once acceded to my wishes and briefly explained the mode in which they usually treated the corpse. That word suddenly aroused me. The corpse, I cried. But I'm alive, you can't embalm me living. We can, replied the priest, under chloroform. Chloroform, I echoed, growing more and more astonished. I had no idea you Egyptians knew anything about it. Ignorant barbarian, he answered with a curl of the lip, you imagine yourself much wiser than the teachers of the world. If you were versed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, you would know that chloroform is one of our simplest and commonest anesthetics. I put myself at once under the hands of the priest. He brought out the chloroform and placed it beneath my nostrils as I lay on a soft couch under the central court. The tossu held my hand in hers and watched my breathing with an anxious eye. I saw the priest leaning over me with a clouded vial in his hand and I experienced a vague sensation of smelling myrrh and spikennard. Next, I lost myself for a few moments and when I again recovered my senses in a temporary break, the priest was holding a small green stone knife, dabbled with blood, and I felt that a gash had been made across my breast. Then they applied the chloroform once more. I felt a tossu give my hand a gentle squeeze. The whole panorama faded finally from my view and I went to sleep for a seemingly endless time. When I awoke again, my first impression led me to believe that the thousand years were over and that I had come to life once more to feast with a tossu and thomis in the pyramid of Abu Yillah. But second thoughts combined with closer observations of the surroundings convinced me that I was really lying in a bedroom of Shepard's hotel at Cairo. A hospital nurse lent over me instead of a chief priest and I noticed no tokens of Aditha Fitzsimkin's presence, but when I endeavored to make inquiries upon the subject of my whereabouts, I was preemptorily informed that I mustn't speak as I was only just recovering from a severe fever and might endanger my life by talking. Some weeks later, I learned the sequel of my night's adventure. The Fitzsimkin's, missing me from the boat in the morning at first, imagined that I might have gone ashore for an early stroll. But after breakfast time, lunch time, and dinner time had gone past, they began to grow alarmed and sent to look for me in all directions. One of their scouts happening to past the pyramid noticed that one of the stones near the northeast angle had been displaced, so as to give access to a dark passage hitherto unknown. Calling several of his friends, for he was afraid to venture in alone, he passed down the corridor and threw a second gateway into the central hall. There, the fellow hin found me, lying on the ground bleeding profusely from a wound on the breast, and in an advanced stage of malaria's fever. They brought me back to the boat, and the Fitzsimkin's conveyed me at once to Cairo for medical attendance and proper nursing.  But she found that my delirious remarks, besides bearing frequent reference to a princess with whom I appeared to have been on unexpectedly intimate terms, also related very largely to our casus belly itself, the dancing girls of Abu Yillah. Even this trial she might have borne, setting down the moral degeneracy which led me to patronize so degrading an exhibition as a first symptom of my approaching malady, but certain unfortunate observations containing pointed and by no means flattering illusions to her personal appearance, which I contrasted much to her disadvantage with that of the unknown princess, these I say were things which she could not forgive, and she left Cairo abruptly with her parents for the Riviera, leaving behind a stinging note in which she denounced my perfidy and empty heartedness with all the flowers of feminine eloquence. From that day to this, I have never seen her. When I returned to London and proposed to lay this account before the Society of Antiquaries, all my friends dissuaded me on the grounds of its apparent incredibility. They declared that I must have gone to the pyramid already in a state of delirium, discovered the entrance by accident, and sunk exhausted when I reached the inner chamber. In answer, I would point out three facts. In the first place, I undoubtedly found my way into the unknown passage, for which Achievement I afterwards received the gold medal of the society K.Aviol, and of which I retain a clear recollection, differing in no way from my recollection of the subsequent events. In the second place, I had in my pocket when found a ring of a tassus, which I drew from her finger just before I took the chloroform and put it into my pocket as a keepsake. And in the third place, I had on my breast the wound which I saw the priest inflict with a knife of greenstone, and the scar may be seen on the spot to the present day. The absurd hypothesis of my medical friends that I was wounded by falling against a sharp edge of rock, I must have once reject as unworthy of a moment's consideration. My own theory is either that the priest had not time to complete the operation, or else that the arrival of the Fitzsimkins scouts frightened back the mummies to their cases an hour or so too soon. At any rate, there they all were, ranged around the walls, undisturbed the moment the fellow had entered. Unfortunately, the truth of my account cannot be tested for another thousand years. But as a copy of this book will be preserved for the benefit of posterity in the British Museum, I hereby solemnly call upon collective humanity to try the veracity of this history by sending a deputation of archaeologists to the Pyramid of Abuyila on the last day of December 2877. If they do not then find Thomis and Hitasu feasting in the central hall exactly as I have described, I shall willingly admit that the story of my New Year's Eve among the mummies is a vain hallucination, unworthy of credence at the hands of the scientific world. Thanks for listening! If you like to show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments through the website at WeirdDarkness.com. That's also where you can find all of my social media, listen to free audiobooks, shop the Weird Darkness store, sign up for the newsletter to win monthly prizes, find my other podcast, Church of the Undead, and more. Plus, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story. The fictional story, My New Year's Eve Among the Mummies, was written by Grant Allen. Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions. Copyright, Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Psalm 96 verses 1-3, At the dawn of the new year, I'm filled with hope for what is to come, and I have thankfulness in my heart for what has already passed. I pray that I will keep my focus where it needs to be this year and that we all have a year filled with joy, love, and happiness. And a final thought from Brad Paisley. Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.


Thank you and thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk about these use cases on Microsoft Cognitive Services. Just to give a quick introduction about myself, I have been working with Microsoft for about 15 years on different technologies and today I am going to talk about Cognitive Services which is quite interesting and why it is interesting is because of these three things. The first one is about the compute and this is under AI track so I want to talk about that. The compute is available today with different cloud companies coming out including Microsoft, we have Azure and then many many others like Google and Facebook and others were building on top of it so the compute is easy, scalable and we have powerful algorithms which has been developed for quite some time now so including on top of it we have this massive set of data. So what is Cognitive Services? It is essentially built on this three core which is around AI services or APIs which allows you to build applications very very fast using AI and all these interesting part of it. So I am going to talk about different touch vision, speech, languages, knowledge services, speech and search and labs. There are few of these categories I am going to talk about and I have some demos which I will walk through very quickly in this timeframe. So let's start with what exactly what we provide in vision and other scenarios. So while I wanted to come back to the slide, let me start with some demos and then I can come back to the slides and talk about those quick cool things. So let's start with a very quick demo and most of these things are available online on GitHub and I have kept that in the slide so you will be able to get to these code available and play with yourself on this particular Cognitive Services scenario. So let's get started. I am going to get started with a very quick face recognition part which is very very common but at the same time what it brings and entails interestingly is that it is being used by some of the cop companies and some of the startups and most of the middleware companies who are using it internally in their products. So let's get started with the face part very very quickly. It's a very standard system. If you notice there are a few things which will be happening. Actually my webcam is predicting and it's also looking at the projection and it will be finding me out. So I take a quick picture of myself and it will tell me who I am of course and it also predicts age which I would love to be at 33 but I'm not but it also tells me it's a 77% accurate. So it's not fairly 100% true but it's taking care of the false positive and other scenarios. So this is a very basic thing which I think most of the people have out there. Now let's get started with where it could be used. So in retail scenarios for example where we are using it and we are intending to use it is to look at footprint counts. So maybe I request a few of you to come here if you can please. If you notice what is happening here is it is telling me who I am and how many person it has been recognized. Now it is able to recognize the host as well. And if you notice if I smile or if I make a sad face it will go ahead and tell. So there will be a marky at the bottom which will tell you what emotions it is. Thank you. It will go ahead and tell us what kind of emotions. So it is not just about face it's also about emotion and where it has been used. So in Singapore we have been working with sync polls which is to look at people who are real and be able to register them especially for citizens and PRs because gambling is restricted and it's also legal but for a certain point of time. So what we would be needing to do here is to be able to identify those people and there are a few categories through which we are able to identify. So I'm going to stop this application for now and run another one which we have created and come back to the slides a little later. Just wanted to give you a perspective of how we are able to identify different users and some of these services as I said is built on top of computer vision. One was face I showed emotion. Let me talk about and show you a quick demo on the OCR piece of it. So there is this nice small sample code which I'm running around BOT which will be able to OCR your ICs and just to do that very quickly let me just go ahead and connect. So there's this tool called BOT emulator. Alissa who's here did a nice talk last night on BOT framework and I think you know it's recorded so you'll be able to see that. I'll just quickly go ahead and talk about it. I'm not touching based on BOT but I'll really say hi to this BOT just to say you know what it can do. It will tell me that you can attach an image and it will do it will find words in that images. So just to give a quick perspective of it, let me try to do this. I have few images of some of these ICs and if you notice what will happen is it will go ahead and connect to the cloud service. It's basically calling a computer vision OCR service and it does OCR for me so it tells me it is Singapore identity with the identity number and so on like all the details of it. So it's quite easy now you can actually go ahead and take this. You not only are able to verify the person and because we have a face ignition so you will be able to catch who the person is but you also get the data and then you can validate the data. Now on top of this we have another service which can use to customize this to find out if this is really a Singapore IC or not. Is it something belonging to some other country? So what I've done is I went ahead and trained a service into this. It's called custom vision service. Instead of using ICs I use passports just to give a quick demo of this. So this service is also available. It's free for now. It's in preview mode so you can just type in customvision.ai and you'll be able to find this. What I did was I just used some images online and trained some of these guys. So I trained for Malaysia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore passports. The minimum category you would need to, a minimum number of photos for each category would need to have is five so it will be training itself. Notice what it is doing is these images are not really properly scanned.  What I did, I already trained it to save time but it takes only a few seconds or a minute maybe depending on the size of the images. So I don't need to train this anymore. It's trained already. So I'll go ahead and take a quick image and show you how it functions. So I'll go ahead and take an image which is for test scenarios. I have kept some of them in my folder. Let me just go ahead and take it out and show you in custom vision, test images and let's take this picture. And this picture is not there in the trained image set. It will go ahead and tell me different predictors. It tells it's about 31% Singapore passport. Notice what is happening here is because the passports are not scanned properly. It is just an image. However, it will still tell you what probability it is. And if I have had more Singapore passports trained, I would have got a better result out of this. So now imagine a framework which could happen. A framework wherein you automate this authentication processes. So you have face recognition. I talked about documents. You can actually validate the document automatically and then scan those documents. So you're not able to only validate by the photo but you are able to look at the content inside those photo and validate that as well. And then of course we can take entries of that and make an entry as well. At the same part of time, what I wanted to show you here is I'll go back to that demo which I did before and talk about this kiosk application which is also very interesting. Let me just close this first. And I'm going to go ahead and take that application back because there are a few more interesting part of it which I wanted to cover before we go back to some slides and talk about those. So talking about vision, another scenario where we have been using this computer vision is at some of the malls and including companies like S&S. So if you notice what is happening here, if I'm in front of this kiosk, it identifies me right away. And to be able to do that, what I have done is I've used this computer vision API and I've just used the keys which is on the cloud. And I'm using those keys and I've trained myself very quickly. So there is a setup which you can do. This application is also open source completely on GitHub. You can go ahead and find it out as intelligent kiosk and you'll be able to look at it. So I've trained myself here. I've added some pictures. In fact, just two pictures out there. But if you can add more pictures, you'll be getting much better result. The advantage of this is that even I don't really look at the camera, facing the camera, I can actually look left, right and it will still tell me who I am and what kind of image I'm looking at, like who I am and am I authenticated or not in this case, right? So a quick example of this where we also used, in fact, my colleagues who worked on this project are also here, Alyssa and James, sitting there. We have this very interesting video analytics part as well. So we can not only analyze the photos and this is a real use case where we used in Sabana Jurong. This is a lift and there are a few of the colleagues from Sabana Jurong and some employees out there. If you notice what is happening here is that, and I'm running this on a phone network, so this is connected with a phone, it will still go ahead and tell me, identify who the people are by processing the frames and then what are their emotions and also predict some image, you know, age and other scenarios. So some of the use cases here, which could be around just using these cognitive services and we could build applications very, very fast, is if a person who is known should be within the compound or not, if a person who's blacklisted should be within a compound or not, like the moment you identify the person who is, and in fact, in this case, we have not trained the pictures of the person, but we are able to train the pictures, like just give photos of people who should not be in the compound. We can easily notify right away the security team that, you know, these are people who should not be there and should be escorted out, right? So some of these are very, very interesting to be able to use and build quickly. Just to give some more perspective on this from the vision perspective itself, I wanted to add a little bit more on this chart scenario, which is also very interesting. So we do a lot of work in office and we use different charts and graphs. So let's look at quick example. I'm taking a quick sample of this, right? I'm putting an image of a chart and what it'll be doing is it'll be analyzing this chart and it can read it out as well, of course. So let me just point it out to machine. A pie chart title most popular dog breeds with six slices. Shepherd at 30%, Beagle at 18%, Labrador at 17%, Retriever at 15%, Bulldog at 14%, Poodle at 7%. So it's quite interesting to look at, right? In terms of charts, you can leverage this as well in your offices. These services are built very quickly again. I mean, few lines of code in fact to write this whole thing. So I quickly wanted to do a walkthrough of the code as well, right? And this is Xamarin application. Xamarin is again open source and available on all platforms. So if you look at it, what I'm trying to do here is basically call few services. Some of them are computer vision service. There is a face service and emotion service. All you need to do is like npm packages in Node. We have Nougats. So you can go ahead and use those Nougat packages out there. Some of them are here very quickly just to give you a perspective here. It's the face, emotion, and vision. And then there is a common API, a common set of API which I've included in this particular code. And then of course you have to use them. This is a bad way of programming. You don't have to put the configuration out here. Just I build this demo very, very quickly. So I put the code here. In fact, there is a good sample which I've posted in my GitHub. You can always find that out. In this case, I'm just looking for a picture, a camera button, and then upload the picture. What we're looking at is the face ID. This particular image will be returning us a face ID which is out here. So let me just open up computer vision face recognition API and show you exactly what it does for us. And I'll be running through some of these other samples as well because we talked about OCR and other stuff. So if you look at this, for example, I took a picture of Satya and if you notice it will tell me. So it returns these values in a JSON file. It also returns a GUID which you can capture and then you can validate. So for each faces or different types of faces, you'll be returning a GUID which you can validate to see if the photo matches or not. So just to give you a little bit more perspective on this, I'm going to run one more sample which is also on GitHub on the link. And I've added all of this here on my slide as well. So when the slide is out, you'll be able to find all those developer links. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to very quickly capture a face folder which has some of these photos and let's look at this what it does. So it will automatically arrange all my images with different types and so on. It will recognize all the faces. So if you have pictures of two people or the same person twice or twice, it will automatically be able to list out. But it not list out only with faces, you can also have emotions. So for example, I want the happiness people who are happy. You will be able to see all those pictures out there. If I want to say people with neutral faces, you'll be able to find that out as well. And of course, I want to look for animals. You can get those pictures out as well. So it does quite nicely recognize from the vision side. And I've been talking about vision for quite some time. Let me just go ahead and talk about a little bit more on the other aspects as well which is speech. I want to very quickly cover and then I also talk about video which is very interesting as well. So on top of what we have from vision and face, I wanted to talk about this new service called speaker recognition which is quite interesting as well. Because the way we talk, everybody has a pattern of speech and you can identify from speech who the person is. Of course, this is not 100% accurate. You have to train it more. But just to play this audio and quickly show you, these are for pre-trained audios. It should be, I think, let me just refresh this page. It should be able to play the audio and tell me who the person is. I think the audio is not coming out, but it's okay.  This is very much available on Microsoft cognitive services and speaker recognition part. Okay. What I want to do is I want to want to talk about this video indexer as well because video indexer is quite an interesting service which you have introduced recently. You can upload videos and then you will be getting all those metadata even without pre-training it. So in this case, I have not trained this video. I have just uploaded this video and I'm going to go ahead and play this video for a few seconds and then I want to show you what exactly we can do with this video. So while this video is being processed and what you can see on the right-hand side is a set of people who are out there who are in this video. So while this video is being played, and I know you can't hear the audio, it's fine. You see that there are a few things which are coming out. I'm going to try and replicate this. All right. I mean, so this video is being played. There was OCR text and then there are some people in this images. And what we are able to do is we are able to identify. I mean, I have not trained with this photo. Again, if you train with the photo, you'll be able to recognize who the person is. But at the same time, there are four people. You see that, you know, we are able to find out the keywords specifically and we can always go back to this location when it was. So what I'm doing is, right? And at the same time, you have annotations and then, of course, we also get the speech sentiments. From the speech, we can also find the sentiment analysis and we can say if it's positive, negative, neutral and so on. Now, I want to show you some more interesting stuff. So look at the transcripts. So we can generate the transcripts out of the box right away without pre-training the videos. You get the transcripts. In fact, the transcripts also have text which are OCR, right? So in the video, we have this separate layer for text and that could be OCR. You know, you will be able to find that out. And not just in English. There are many, many, many languages which are added out here. So I don't know how many of you speak, like, for example, simplified Chinese. Let me just go ahead and show you very quickly that. Right? It will go ahead and convert the whole text in near real time for you, including the OCR part and the text and you will be able to see this whole text quickly. Now, that's the power of cognitive services. Like, we have pre-trained set of APIs which you can directly go ahead and embed into your code by using some of these. If you are using Node, you can have NPM packages. If you are using Xamarin C sharp, you have Nuget packages. We also have these APIs available for other programming languages for Python, for example. People use it quite often. So these APIs are available on cognitive services. If you just search for Microsoft cognitive services or go for Azure and cognitive services, you'll be able to find these. All these are available on the link. And then on the GitHub, we have published it. So the slides will have it as well. So let me just go back and talk about this, wrap it up. I have already shown some of these slides. So I'm going to quickly say why cognitive services is very, very easy. It's flexible to use it in your code and has been tested out. So we have published it on GitHub, Stack Overflow, MSDN, and so on. So you'll find it out very quickly. Then the links are out here. So I've already done some demonstrations. The links are out here. You'll be finding it out in the slides. So you'll be able to take it up and build on top of it easily. So with that, thank you and have a wonderful FOSSAsia event. Thank you.


A quick video about torsion bar springs or torsion springs. Torsion springs are relatively simple. It's basically a bar or piece of round stock that you twist in order to store energy in the deflection of the material and, you know, then recover that, you know, like you do with a spring. And springs in general are elastic energy storage devices so we're storing energy in the rotational deflection of that spring. Torsion bar springs can be found in things like automotive suspension or like, you know, small doors or little doors that have a hinge that you want to automatically return closed because, you know, since it's just a bar, it's easy to just slide the spring into the hinge and, you know, it's relatively small, doesn't take up a lot of space. So just very briefly, basic principle of what we're talking about, we would have, as an example, a long piece of material, long and thin. One end here is fixed and this is just like a bent piece of material, another bent at this end and this end is, you know, the load is applied to it so it's twisted and it causes a twisting rotation around the long axis of that shaft and it's pretty straightforward then based on some of the stuff that we've already seen in that we can analyze it as a torsional stress, a shear stress. We can calculate torsional deflection using the standard equation and we can get a spring constant which is related to our geometric properties and our material properties using that. So again, stress, deflection and spring constant which, you know, typically is going to have Newton meters or foot pounds or inch pounds as units might also be called spring rate sometimes but that gives us a measure of how much force, you know, we can apply to get a certain amount of deflection out of it. So not too bad for analyzing, relatively simple, just a straight cylindrical rod that we twist, can look at the stresses in it.


Recorded Books presents an unabridged recording of The Plague by Albert Camus, translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert, narrated by James Jenner. This book was first published in French in 1947. This translation is copyrighted 1975 by Stuart Gilbert. This recording is copyrighted 2006 by Recorded Books. In Iran, a coastal town in North Africa, The Plague begins as a series of portents unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to the almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion. And now, The Plague. Part 1. The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 1940 something at Iran. Everyone agreed that considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. For its ordinariness is what strikes one first about the town of Iran. Which is merely a large French port on the Algerian coast, headquarters of the prefect of a French department. The town itself, let's admit, is ugly. It has a smug, placid air, and you need time to discover what it is that makes it different from so many business centers and other parts of the world. How to conjure up a picture, for instance, of a town without pigeons, without any trees or gardens, will you never hear the beat of wings or the rustle of leaves? A thoroughly negative place, in short? The seasons are discriminated only in the sky. All that tells you of spring's coming is the feel of the air, or the baskets of flowers brought in from the suburbs by peddlers. It's a spring cried in the marketplaces. During the summer, the sun bakes the houses bone dry, sprinkles our walls with grayish dust, and you have no option but to survive those days of fire indoors, behind closed shutters. In autumn, on the other hand, we have deluges of mud. Only winter brings really pleasant weather. Perhaps the easiest way of making a town's acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die. In our little town, is this one wonders an effect of the climate? All three are done on much the same lines, with the same feverish yet cat... Sample complete. Ready to continue?


Controller Zen, I loved all the films. My buddies and I would hotbox the car before going to the theater. The scariest part was walking through the lobby. All the employees were like ring ring that was about... I was afraid I'd find out and call the cops nice. I saw this thing at least a couple of times in the theater. Mushrooms. A fine guy. It was great. The first time I saw it, most definitely 100% on Fungi. And I saw it. I remember who I saw it with. The really good friend of mine and his friend. And my friend is no longer with us. Michael, rest in peace, brother. You're an amazing human being. And we both loved it. And we both loved it. And he didn't do Fungi. I did. I like movie theories on Fungi. I used to anyway. And man, poof. So powerful. Eateria. Oh my god. So heavy. Scary ring rings. Super 3D. Who needs glasses, man?


Hey everybody Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense. Today we're going to talk about neck knives. So I originally bought all these neck knives here on Blade HQ except for this one, this one I bought on Amazon and I was going to you kind of give them all a week trial and wear them around and see what I liked and then and then come Back to you with a result, but I kind of already figured out what I want to do. So here's the deal This one right here is the winner and I'll explain why in a second so what I wanted from a neck knife was a Backup option for a defensive blade, right? I'm not using it for utility blade I I carry a multi-tool for that, right? So I don't I don't need something that's a utility blade to cut boxes or whatever. I already have that I wanted a defensive blade that I can carry on my person and a neck knife seemed like an interesting concept But I wanted to try out so that that was my goal here. Okay, and that's what I'm going for That was my concept again not not a utility blade I'm never going to use it except if I need to save my life with it. Okay So this was the one I bought first that kind of started my quest here and this was an SOG instinct mini I Ended up really liking this one. This one's actually my second favorite of the ones on the table The things that I wanted were one a sure grip. These are all full-tang Construction design. I think this one might not be oh, no, this one is this one's all one piece So I wanted them all to be full-tang. Okay, so they all are that's not a big deal But I wanted a solid grip and purchase. I did not want to feel like my hand was going to slip off that blade That was one of my criteria. This one definitely fulfills that These are g10 like I don't know if they're actual g10 They might be handles on the side here and then when they have these little carbots or fingers I mean you get a solid purchase on that blade. It doesn't feel like my hands going anywhere Really like that one. It also comes in the sheath, which is pretty secure You can take this little belt clip off and it'll ride real nice around your neck. Okay? So that ended up being my second favorite one on the one on the table Couple of the gripes. This was a K bar. This blade was like ten bucks. I just it's not a real great grip. I Don't know. It's okay I could probably could probably paracord wrap it probably a little bit better Didn't come with anything to hang it on so you have to provide your own that was kind of obnoxious I haven't actually worn this one yet. I just haven't been that intrigued or interested by it This one I was excited about when I ordered but the grip itself I don't feel like I get a sure of a grip on it because it's so skinny There doesn't feel like there's a lot to actually grip on to there Additionally, I've caught myself indexing this blade incorrectly. So I pull this blade out I like to ride my thumb on the back which you could just say okay deal and don't do that Which is fair but a couple times I've just been playing with it and I pulled it out and I've accidentally rolled my thumb on the blade I haven't successfully cut myself yet But I just don't like that There's no clear index point because the handle is just the same either way So I can't tell which way the blade is facing by gripping the handle that was kind of a bummer on that one Also, I mean, it's like six or eight inches long kind of annoying But that's that one this one. I have a love-hate relationship with I do like the blade shape a lot The grip doesn't feel as solid as some of the other ones which I don't like. This is a CRKT Spew SPEW Big that's a wicked looking blade though. I really do like the look of that But it's solid enough this piece of little tail paracord actually makes a difference. So I'm glad they included that But I can't really get like I you know I get like three fingers on right my pinkies kind of hanging off and that's what that tail does make a difference But I don't know wasn't as big a fan of that the sheath I'll talk about the sheath in a second. This one's an also also by CRKT Columbia River knife company knife something. I don't remember what that stands for you knife guys are going to be able to tell me a lot More this is the minimalist grip on this sucker is phenomenal. They have those deep carve outs your finger. You feel solid Thing I don't like about this. So the blade I really like blade some two inch blade This is only a 1.9. This does come in a larger blade design. So you can't get that just the instinct versus the instinct Mini but The thing I don't like about this knife is the sheath and these are both have the same sheath design and This one came undone on me once when I was wrestling with my kids Fell on the ground and stabbed myself in the foot.  It's one of those little cuts. It just hurts forever. You know what I mean? But after this thing came out of the sheath when I was just wrestling and playing around with my kids I wasn't a big fan of it If it's gonna come become easily disconnected Again, I don't if I'm keeping it for a defensive blade and it's gonna be able to fall out of its holster your sheath I just don't like that idea. So I haven't experimented with this one a whole lot But after that one came out I'm like I said, I'm really not interested in that anymore Because if it comes out with I'm wrestling with my kids is it gonna come out when I'm trying to wrestle someone It's trying to kill me, right? So didn't didn't like that not a fan of that which leads me to the cold steel The cold steel mini-tack now, this is the Bowie design They also make one with a tanto blade design, which I will probably get in the long run, right? This is a tanto blade design originally made for punching through armor, which is a cool idea. So Here's why this one's the winner. First of all, it's got a wonderful grip I mean you're in there solid. This has a deep carve out for your finger and these are g10 like g10 Handles again, don't know if they're actual g10 Phenomenal, I mean you you get a grip on there you ride it. I like to ride my thumb up again That's me all you knife-officially idols can tell me I'm right or wrong But I really like that. So I like the grip. It's a secure grip. First of all, second of all, it's a huge blade Right, I mean the only one other one that comes close is maybe this one But it's the probably the biggest of all the blades Maybe this little neck sword by Kershaw. Yeah, it'll be about the same, right? But huge blade Which I like and then most importantly in this case It comes in a secure X sheath and that sucker stays there. I haven't lost it yet Now maybe I will and that'll change but I really like it It's a little funny on the draw You got it used to it because you only get your bottom two fingers in here and then as you come out Your finger falls right where it should so that took a little getting used to the cup thing I was gonna cut myself, but it's actually really smooth once you get it drawn out So this one wins Again, it's the biggest blade. I mean, I feel like that's a solid blade You know, I can I can defend myself I need to with a solid blade the grip is just spot on and the sheath I'm not gonna lose it or at least I haven't yet So that's why that one is the winner for me This is the one that I will currently wear and utilize until I find something better But that's my defensive neck knife that I'm gonna carry So for what it's worth. I like the cold steel mini tech. It's like 22 bucks. I mean, you can't For 22 bucks. I mean, come on, right? You can't beat it. It's one of the cheaper ones on here This was like 25 26. I think these two might have been pushing 30 This was around 20. This was 10. This is the cheapest knife on here. So That's me. That's what I'm gonna do for a neck knife I'm gonna experiment around with that and wear that for a while and see if I continue to like it But I like the idea of being able to have a defensive blade and I already got enough stuff in my pockets So for me a neck knife is gonna be the way I'm gonna go for now and see how that goes for all of you guys who are much more knives than I am I'll be curious to hear what you think and Where you're out on the neck knife position. Apparently it's a semi controversial topic in the in the knife world Till then do brave deeds and endure


Looks are fears. Personality fears but challenge their fears as well.   I enjoy something that's a bit out of the ordinary. However upon careful inner examination I feel like I'm not reading enough weird books. Like I feel like I'm reading just mainstream stereotypical books.  Like it was weird to me like I don't know. I'm gonna read the weirdest books on my tbr so I looked at all the books I own that I haven't read and I believe these three to be the weirdest. I may be wrong. They're maybe one of them that's really weird and I just have no idea about it but I think these are the three weirdest books that I own. This also could be called a books and lala recommendations video since the majority of my tbr is that. Like that's just a coincidence. So the first book I picked up was Wilder Girls by Rory Power. Now I've heard a lot of people say this is a bit weird. Well I think that Megan, Megan found your words. So I think this is about girls where like a plague infects this school and these girls have like plants growing out of them and like weird shit happening to them and I think the plague infects each of the girls in different way but from what I've heard it's just a bit of a wild ride but I've heard a lot of people say that the ending is either really you know unsatisfying or like other people are okay with it. I'm so excited. This is one of the books which I've been most excited to read because a lot of you don't like it. It seems people love it or they hate it and I just want to know which of those categories I fall into. I think I'm gonna love it if I'm honest. I think I'm gonna love it. I think I'm gonna be obsessed with it and just think it's like the coolest thing ever but I could be wrong. So that's book one. Book two is Dig by AS King. From what I know this is a story about the family of potato farmers.   I have read Please Ignore Vera Deets and Reality Boy by her. Loved Please Ignore Vera Deets get five stars. Didn't really like Reality Boy. I think it gave it two or three but I think that's kind of accepted to be her worst one. And I want to finally own one of her books because they were both an audio book and I feel like she's the kind of author I want to physically read not read an audio books so I think going forth I'm gonna try and own all her books but yeah Dig is like one of the most, as soon as I heard Kana talking about this like quite a while ago as well I was like wow. I have no choice but to read. I have no choice. Like it's not even a choice. We need this. This is essential. This is a crisis. The last book I'm gonna be reading I think is gonna be the weirdest one out of the three I think. I could be wrong but I think and that's Bunny by Mona Awad. So this is about a group of girls who call each other Bunny like the heathers but Bunny and I think it ends up being a bit of a cult. A bit of a horror you know. A bit of animal killing. A bit of just a bit of just to spice things up you know. I'm scared. I am a baby. I don't tend to read horror ever. Like I don't think I can't remember the last time I read something that could be considered horror. I read Drillers but horror is a different ball game I think and I don't really watch horror films either. I've watched The Shining. I'm trying to think of any other horror films I've watched. I don't really watch loads. I get scared easily. I have nightmares easily and so I think I'm gonna be having bunny nightmares. I need a bit of spice in my life. We're all not we're all in lockdown but I think the majority of us are in isolation. For me at least every day is the same. Like literally I'm doing the same thing every day and that doesn't bother me like that's pretty much my life anyway but I think it just feels especially pronounced during lockdown so I'm just trying to add a bit of spice. Just trying to add a bit of you know I don't know what that is and if Margaret Atwood blurbed this I just think it's gonna be a good time. I think I'm gonna start with Wilder Girls. I think I might love this book but I'm not sure yet.  I don't remember at all. I'm gagged. I'm gagged. This is a special book. I love how weird this is and it's pretty not even that weird but I just I can't remember the last time I read a book like this. It has such a unique setting. The school, the house they're at, the surrounding woods has such a unique atmosphere that your girl has just been craving in a book for so long. The characters very interesting, very multi-layered. We don't know everything about these girls yet. I'm not spoiling anything and I don't think this is spoiling anything but there's a part of the book with one of the characters and we're reading it from her POV and she's drifting in and out of consciousness and the way that that was written like super delirious, super all over the place which is so interesting and I was like this is what we need. This is the flavor, the flavor that we need in books today. Where's the flavor? Where's the flavor in this? I don't taste anything. I don't taste sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, nothing. It's just what we've been asking for and I don't understand why all of you hate it. There is moments where the way that it's written, the way certain things are phrased, I'm like what do we mean?  Like there are moments where I don't know if it's an intentional choice, those moments, or if it's just like weird writing. Has anybody ever told you that your skin is glowing? Has anybody ever told you that? No. Even in the nighttime like now with the moon shining. No one says no, no one said that. Someone explained to me, why does everyone not like it? Haven't got any predictions yet. You know sometimes we're like, I don't know if this would be classed as a thriller, I don't really know what this is classed as but with books like this where you've got something weird going on and you don't know why it's going on, usually I'm able to come up with a couple different theories or kind of like all the theories are presented to you in a way and then you whittle them down.  I ain't got anything. And like we're starting to understand that some of the good characters are maybe not good characters because we had good characters before that turned out to be not good characters but now there's even more good characters who may not be good characters. You get me? You get me? I have some thoughts. I love this book. I love this book. I love that drink. I love the atmosphere of this book. I love the storyline.  It kind of feels like I could I could have dealt with some more weirdness. Weird stuff happens but I wanted it to take a step further and that I think is the one thing about this book. I wanted everything to be taken a step further. I feel like it could have been maybe a bit longer, maybe a bit more complex but I did like all the reveals that we had. In the ending I get what people say. I thought something big was going to happen. I thought like and I kind of wish that had happened. Even miscalculating it. But if they weren't going to do that big big thing the ending kind of ended in another way. The story would have had to kind of go onto a different plot which I don't think it should have done. If I wanted it to be longer I mean just kind of more in-depth in the parameters of the story that we have already. I don't mean the story should have been extended. Does that make sense? And the story would have had to be extended if it was going to happen any other way. And I don't think that would have worked. There are faults with the ending and I get what people are saying now. I think it's like a 4.5. I really loved it. I get what people say about the ending but it didn't really hinder my experience at all. I didn't hate it. I quite liked the ending and I'm really glad I read it. And I don't understand why you all hated it. Like why does everyone hate- I'm gonna have to go watch some reviews and vlogs of people who did not like this book because I don't get it. Like I think it's a really good book.  And now I'm gonna start dig another- I mean this whole video is recommendations that Kayla gave that I'm reading just because she came. I don't know much about this plot. I feel like out of all of the three in the video this is the plot I know least about and so I'm excited to like get into it.  Like it's- it's- this is a weird book. I mean I've said that with other books but this- I'm not sure if my brain is ready to handle this. You can't skim read this. You have to read it very closely I feel for a while. I was thinking I don't know if my brain is going to be ready for this today. I don't know if I'm going to be you know ready. I think what's happening is we're following a lot of different grandchildren of a couple that we've met and so I think the story is gonna come together and they're all gonna realise that they're related and I think they're all potato farmers right? I don't really know. It took me a long time to get into this book. I feel like now I've got my head around it.  Okay I want to go read. I went into this thinking. It's about a story of potato farmers whatever.  There's another girl who has fleas who she runs a circus with and she imagines that she's in front of an audience all the time and everything in her life is like an act. This isn't a book about potato farmers which is why. It's about white supremacy, racism, privilege, ignorance about family secrets and how they can like rot away under a family. I did not expect the commentary that this was gonna give. Do you know what I mean? It kind of very much caught me off guard. There's a whole storyline in this that is going on from the beginning like the storyline is set up from the beginning but you don't realize until like I don't know I would say about there you know that that much through what is happening like you and then you go oh I think I'm gonna give it five stars. It took me I think because it is weird it took me like a good a hundred pages to get into the book. Like at the beginning I was like what is this? I didn't think I'd like it but once I got into it it is it is something so different to anything I've read. The commentary, the characters, the the heart of this story is just so good. I guess King is it isn't she? Like they've really got it going like they're wow. She's an icon, she's a legend and she is the moment. Now come on now. I feel like it's a very difficult book to write like I kind of don't know how I feel about it like I kind of think I need to read it again and it kind of detaches itself from you that like often when I give a book five stars it's because I've had a really deep emotional connection to it. I don't feel like I had a super deep emotional connection to this but I kind of think in some ways that's the point. I feel like it's supposed to feel separate but also very immediate but not something that you're I don't know. I think it's a very unique premise massively pulled off. So we're gonna start Bunny which is the final one. This is the weirdest one yet. I'm only 150 pages in it's been a bit difficult to like actually get into this but oh my god yeah this is this is this is messed up on a whole other level compared to the other two. By the way loving this. Yeah. Really nice atmosphere. In this we have character Samantha and she is observing the bunnies and like from chapter one she's like that can never be me but like by chapter four she's friends with them kind of like it's you know it happens very fast that's my only complaint so far is that I wish that didn't happen so fast we had a bit longer of her observing them from the outside because it kind of feels inevitable. Better this be worn for death be worn for violent deaths and not in the way you think. The way it's written from the beginning before even getting super weird is weird. Our narrator's voice narrators Naruto our narrator's voice is very strange. The it's one of those times the books where all the rules of logic are kind of going out the window. And you just put it on like that and tie it up like that. Our narrator is acting in really strange ways from the beginning like not just in her relationship with the bunnies but in the way that she talks to other people and the way she reacts to things it's very weird. It's very weird and I just really don't know how I feel about it yet. I don't know if I like it. I like how weird it is and like you've got to give it props for that because at least it's not just like a boring contemporary.    Self! I don't know what to tell you. I finished it. I think I told you this is the weirdest one out of the all and it is. It got weirder. They got a bit weirder. I think I'm gonna give it 3.5 stars. You can't win them all. I'm very sad. I thought this vlog was gonna be like a 4.5, a 5 and like you know another really high rating. 3.5 isn't that. In terms of the idea and I'm not just talking about the you know what you hear when they tell you the plot to begin with. I'm talking about you know the plot from beginning to end. The idea of the plot from beginning to end in terms of the vibe, in terms of the weirdness 5 out of 5. Like without a doubt 5 out of 5. But there were times when I was just kind of bored.  Do you see how that's incredibly offensive? Yes I do that's why I said it.  They're all saying the same thing and I just had enough.  I was just kind of bored with it. Does that make sense? I struggled to read this. There were like two days where I did not pick this up. I didn't want to pick it up. The idea of reading it I was just like ugh. I liked some of the reveals at the end. I think the ending was the strongest part of it. However I feel like with the bunnies there was an attempt to differentiate them from each other right? I went into this thinking they're all going to be the same. Carbon copies are one another. But there was some attempt to give them like unique characteristics but then I just I could never remember who was who and so I just got confused half the time and I think if you're gonna try to differentiate them it needs to be stronger. I think it's a good book. I think it's a weird like I'm so happy I read this because it's the weirdness I loved. Like it was a show. Do you know what I mean? But in terms of everything else it was kind of a bit meh. I hope you enjoyed this video. Let me know down below what's from the weirdest books on your TBRR because after this I just want to read weird shit all the time.  So let me know. Yeah I hope you're doing really well. Thank you very much for watching as always and I will see you very very soon with another video. Bye. I haven't learned anything but I've had fun and that's all that counts. See you later. Okay that was a long wave.


At only 23 years old, Mr. Beast aka Jimmy Donaldson is one of the most watched YouTubers out there. Known for stunts, his wide-ranging is reading every word in the dictionary to turning his backyard into a ball pit, to being willing to be buried alive inside a glass coffin. The single most important thing when it comes to creating content for Mr. Beast is to make sure that his videos are as good as they absolutely can be. Which is probably why he's done some insane things over the years. Such as spend more than $300,000 on a series of videos that he simply tossed away because they weren't up to his high standards of quality. To the slightly more practical side of things, like securing a massive studio located on 100 acres of land. With an estimated net worth of over $25 million, Mr. Beast is one of the highest paid YouTubers out there. I mean, he's gotta be loaded considering he's always giving away money. It's from within the halls of his massive studio located in the state of North Carolina that he operates his empire known as Mr. Beast Studios, and dreams up content for his over 53 million YouTube subscribers. Want a closer look inside? Then keep watching. Hey guys, it's Care The Vampire Slayer back with another exclusive house tour here on Famous Entertainment, or in the case of this video, a studio tour, checking out where Mr. Beast makes all his YouTube magic happen. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and follow me over on Instagram to chat, and now let's get into this video. As a kid, Mr. Beast grew up in eastern North Carolina in the city of Greenville. He attended Greenville Christian Academy, and during his tenure there, he began uploading content to YouTube under the name of Mr. Beast 6000. Mr. Beast would film the majority of this early content from the comfort of a computer chair in his own bedroom. In fact, that's the very spot where he recorded his first viral video, which dropped in January of 2017, and showcased him counting to a hundred thousand. At that point, Mr. Beast had already dropped out of college, and his desire to succeed as a YouTuber was so great that he spent 44 hours recording that one video alone. Just goes to show you the type of dedication that Mr. Beast has had from the get-go. Over the next handful of years, Mr. Beast would steadily increase the scale of his videos and contests, until they became some of the biggest stunts on the internet. Seriously, as he made more and more money, he not only increased the budget for each project, he decided to lay down a fortune to the tune of $10 million. Yeah, that's right, you heard me, $10 million on a key piece of real estate in North Carolina. Once he blew up in 2017, Mr. Beast had moved his productions into a smaller studio that used to be an old-school firehouse located in his hometown of Greenville, but he eventually outgrew that place as well as a further three studio rentals that the scope of his project continued to climb. Then in 2021, he moved to this new location, which offers much more room to breathe. So where is this paradise located? Well, as you might imagine, Mr. Beast is keeping the actual address of this place under pretty tight guard. I looked up his mailing address on South Glenburny Road, Newburn, North Carolina, but when I plugged that into Google Maps, all I got was a UPS address, which, you know, figures. If I were to guess, I'd say that Mr. Beast's studio must be pretty close to that location. After all, it's pretty unlikely that the man travels out of town every day to pick up his mail, unless he's only making that journey like once a month or something. Then again, during his recent interview with Colin and Samir over on YouTube, Mr. Beast stated that he's still creating all of his content from his hometown of Greenville, which Google claims is about an hour drive from Newburgh. Does he have a practical reason for sticking to his hometown? Of course. But my heart still goes out to the intern who has to make the trip to that UPS one town over on a regular basis. All right, now back to the studio. Located on more than 100 acres of land, which Mr. Beast plans on developing at some point for his future use, this place has absolutely everything you could possibly be looking for in a studio. That includes oodles of room, high ceilings, open spaces, and the peace and quiet of knowing you won't be bothered by people as your heart at work creating. As of right now, Mr. Beast's studio is divided into several different sections. Over in Studio One, primary sets are crafted on the main floor and upstairs, there are offices for the writers. Then there's the prop warehouse, which as you can no doubt imagine, houses a whole bunch of throwbacks for those of us who are longtime followers. Just north of the prop warehouse is a trailer that Mr. Beast uses for his gaming setup as well as his Beast Reacts videos. A short distance away from there is Studio Two, which is smack dab beside yet another building that's entirely dedicated towards Mr. Beast's philanthropic endeavors and houses all of the food that he gives away in his videos in a refrigerated space. Finally, there's Studio Three, which lays claim to being the biggest studio space on the entire east coast of the United States. Meanwhile, in an office across town, Jimmy's mom takes care of all the accounting and HR demands that a multi-million dollar business requires. Why the division of labor and creation of multiple spaces? Well, it really just comes down to the practical reason of needing as much real estate as possible to have multiple video projects on the go-out once, since each one, well, it can take months to create. Another reason that Mr. Beast needs so much space? Well, over the past couple of years, his workforce has grown substantially. All of this might have just started off with him by himself, but now Mr. Beast videos are created by a team of nearly two dozen people. A large percentage of his employees are said to be part of a network of friends, a family, and acquaintances, and their roles range from being writers to editors to production assistants who have to work tirelessly to do things like, you know, clean up after the construction of the two largest Lego towers ever. After stepping through Mr. Beast's studio, I think we'd all have to agree it more or less looks like the perfect place to work, right? Well, maybe not to all. In May of 2021, a shocking investigation into Mr. Beast's workplace had discovered that paradise isn't exactly the word many people who have worked there would use to describe it. In short, there were rumors spread that Mr. Beast created a hostile work environment and that he constantly made unreasonable demands. Honestly, I'm torn after hearing that. Sure, maybe Mr. Beast isn't the happy-go-lucky-giving person he shows on YouTube all of the time, but are any of us? Can't blame the guy if he's a perfectionist either. There's likely a reason for all of his global success. Either way, I highly doubt that Mr. Beast or his studio will be going anywhere anytime soon. If anyone on YouTube is too big to fail, it's definitely this guy. And now, with a studio space like that, he's got the tools to expand to even greater heights. From starting off in a tiny bedroom space to moving into a small office to now being the owner of a $10 million studio that's pumping out some of the most in-demand content in the entire world, it's pretty incredible to track Mr. Beast's career and see how far he's come. Alright everyone, I think we'll bring this latest house tour or studio tour, I should say, to an end right here. What did you all think of Mr. Beast's studio? Do you think it's the best YouTuber studio you've ever seen? Be sure to let us know down in the comments and don't forget to like and subscribe to our content while you're here. I'm Kara, follow me over on Instagram to chat and I'll see you all next time. Bye!