Hey all! As you know I LOVE to draw and am hoping to make a career out of it. Part of this journey is drawing art for my board game
The Spalding Inn is FOR SALE
It is with heavy hearts that we announce we will be selling our beloved Spalding Inn.
When we first saw the Spalding Inn, we fell in love with it, but it was dying. It needed help fast or it was going to be gone forever. We put in a lot of time, money and energy bringing it back to life. Now that it is resurrected, we have come to the conclusion that we simply do not have the time to run it. We are looking for someone to take it from here and keep that beautiful building alive.
The location is stunning, serene, beautiful, and full of character. It has a rich history that is alive in the architecture and ambiance of the locale. It deserves owners as caring and understanding of the property as we were, but who have the time that we simply did not.
Here is the MLS Listing: http://www.nnerenmls.com/nne/maildoc/gru0888_1362692583-Mar-07-2013-4_43_03pm.html
If anyone is seriously interested, please contact:
Kay Gruwell – 603.391.5156 of the Bean Group – 800.450.7784
Why I Left the Show
CANCER!
DIVORCE!
FAKERY!
All of the above!
JUST KIDDING! My, how the rumors fly. Everyone insists that something devastating had to happen to kick me off of TV and back into the doldrums of normal everyday life. Everyone aspires to be on TV right?
Well, it is far less complicated and dreadful as all that. I have no regrets and I loved doing it. It was just time to move on.
We were filming for nearly every week of the year, Monday-Friday, sometimes more. I felt that after eight years, I had sufficiently reached my goals in spreading awareness and acceptance of the paranormal. Those eight years on the road were kicking my butt and I was ready to be back with my family and pursue other aspects of my life.
That’s it. Simple, right?
The rumor mill is quite the efficient machine.
Here are some other reasons:
1. Life in a Box – You spend most of your life in a box; house to car to airport to plane to car to hotel, always in a box. I am an outdoor guy. My idea of a temple is being on top of a mountain. I remember on one occasion I arrived at my hotel by night and went right to bed. When I awoke, I ripped open the curtains to see the view I had. The only non-man-made thing I could see was the sky. Ugh… Give me the woods, please.
2. Sleep? What’s Sleep? – When you are on the road you are at the mercy of airline flight schedules. When you are a paranormal investigator you go to bed at ungodly hours. The combination is devastating. One night you go to bed at 6:00am. Then, you wake up at 2pm looking for breakfast. Then you have to go to bed that night at 9pm to catch a flight at 7am. Ouch. Eight years of that, and you just give up on sleep. Giving up on sleep isn’t good for your health.
3. Fine Dining – Eating out is fun and a treat for most people. When you have to eat out for every meal is destroys your health. No matter how healthy you try to eat, you always feel like crap.
4. Halloween – My kids are growing up really really quickly, (if you are a parent you know exactly what I mean.) While filming the Live Halloween Show was always a challenge and lots of fun, I want to spend Halloween with my kids.
5. Super Dad/Husband – It was really hard to come home from a whacky week of sleep schedules, bad meals, and boxes and snap into a normal-life routine. It was not easy to get all of my face-time in with the kids and my lovely and ever-patient wife within two days. Not to mention missed concerts, sporting events, art shows, date nights. Bleh…
So, at the risk of sounding like a whiner, that is just a quick glance into some of the reasons it was tough and why I made the decision to move on. With each year, the effect of the above situations magnified. I wish the show the best and hope it is successful for many years to come.
As for me, I will be wearing the biggest smile on my face as I dive head-first into art, music and writing.
Thanks for sticking by me through this.
(Oh, by the way, I haven’t been wearing my wedding ring because my wife surprised me with a beautifully custom made ring that I love, but my finger has a reaction to it. We are trying to figure out a solution.)
- Grant 
Help Support My Art
Hey all! As you know I LOVE to draw and am hoping to make a career out of it. Part of this journey is drawing art for my board game company, Rather Dashing Games.
It is a new company and small, but we have huge ideas! More ideas than we have capital for.
One of these ideas is an extensive line of games starting with Dwarven Miner. I am pouring my heart and soul into the artwork because I truly believe this product has amazing potential.
A preview of the box for Dwarven Miner
We put the project up on Kickstarter.com which allows people to preview the game and pledge money to support it. But the pledges aren’t empty. We offer great rewards based on how much you pledge. Rewards include, the game, exclusive game cards, Reaper Bones Minis, a stainless steel chain mail dice bag, a hand crafted wooden dice tower and, my favorite, prints of my artwork showing various stages of the process, all with free shipping. If we meet our goal, then and only then, the money exchanges hands. If we don’t meet our goal, it’s like you never pledged a dime.
An example of the prints available.
We really need your help and we promise great things should we succeed.
Please, have a look at the video and help us continue to provide even better games for the world.
Click on “Kickstarter” below to check it out:
Thank you so much!
- Grant
Why Investigate in the Dark?
Ok, so the latest rabid question demanding an answer is…
Why do you investigate in the dark?
Good question. Here are several good answers:
1. Request – This is the time of the day that our clients experience activity. When our clients experience activity during the daytime, we do our best to investigate then too.
2. It’s a Hobby, Man! – We are normal working people. Most of us have families. Therefore, a weekend night tends to be optimal free-time for both the client and us.
3. Gotta Catch ‘em All – Through our experiences investigating the paranormal, we have discovered that there are two types of anomalies we run in to. There are anomalies that seem to emit light, and others that are dark grey or black, shadowy type shapes. The only way to effectively capture both types of anomalies is to eliminate all light and film with infrared cameras. This, in effect, allows even the weakest of all light-emitting anomalies to appear easily, while also making the dark shadowy ones easy to see.
If you were to film during the day, you would easily catch the shadowy ones but the light-emitting anomalies would be harder to see. If you were to film at night but with a normal camera, then the light-emitting anomalies would stand out while the shadowy ones would be impossible to see.
You get the best of both worlds.
4. Awareness – Probably the weakest of the reasons, but still a good one, is the idea that you are in a slightly hightened state of awareness when you eliminate your main sense; sight. Now, I’m not talking about oobie-doobie psychic-type awareness, I just mean that your hearing, sense of smell, and even primal feelings of another presence can seem accentuated. Can’t prove that it happens but it sure feels like it does, lol.
So there you have it. We don’t do it for the spooky factor for TV. That’s the way we have been doing it for years and it works.
Piano FAQ’s
People have been asking a lot of questions about my piano songs. So…. Here are the questions and the answers (if you care) lol.
1. Is that REALLY you playing?
- Yes that is me playing on my piano.
2. Did you write those songs?
- Yes, I wrote all of the songs that are up on my soundcloud page:
3. Do you have more?
- Heck yeah. I have many more songs that I am working on recording.
4. Are you making an album?
- I am working on it. I can’t wait to share it.
5. When did you start playing?/Did you take lessons?
- I have not taken lessons on the piano. I had a lot of free time when I was 13/14 and there was a piano in the house. So, I started figuring out how to play songs by ear. I used to play for hours and hours every day. Then I just started writing my own stuff. Before I knew it I had enough for an album, but didn’t have the ability to make one. Now I do… so I will.
6. Did you write them down or are they just in your head?
- I keep them all in my head, which is kind of scary. If anything happens to me, the songs die too. Hence why I am trying to record them.
7. What inspires you?
- Primarily the feeling I get from being home with my family. (After all, that is where my piano is, lol) Spending time with them and watching us all grow and learn are usually the themes of my songs. I also gain inspiration from the natural beauty of the four seasons.
8. Do you have lyrics for them?
- No. And that is intentional. My songs are specifically created to evoke feelings. Feelings that are better expressed with music than words. The songs are meant to allow you to find those feelings on your own, and in your own way. I only offer a simple title as a hint of my intentions. Poetry needs no explanation.
Well, there you go! Thanks for the interest and all of the compliments. That gives me the strength and confidence to actually try and get an album out there to share.
Once again… THANK YOU for your support and showing interest in the “Grant” beyond the show.
Getting Started in the Paranormal
Ok, I am drowning in the emails asking questions like:
“Grant, how do I get started in the field of paranormal research?”
or
“I am starting a group, man. You got any tips?”
or
“I toootally wanna b a ghost hunter. If U can tell me were 2 go 2 school 2 learn dat, dat wood be gr8.”
So, I hope you will forgive me for not being able to take the time to reply to them all. I try to make time to help but the time-making skill is rapidly escaping me. Therefore, I must kill 326,456 birds with one preverbial stone.
Here’s the stone:
1. A career?
Paranormal investigation doesn’t pay squat. In fact it costs a lot. Equipment, gas, tapes, batteries, cool jackets with your group name on them, etc. So, don’t expect to get into the field to get rich.
2. Schooling
If you want to take up paranormal investigation as a hobby, then go to school for something that can pay the bills, AND be of use in the paranormal research field. Forensic science, psychology, or construction are some good ones, along with maybe some computer, film, or, heck, even plumbing knowledge will give you the skills that will both, put food on the table, and make you valuable to your group.
2. Grave Stomping
Sure it seems logical that ghosts would be found in graveyards…. I guess… but often people make the mistake of thinking that if a lot of people died in a location that there HAS to be ghosts. While that CAN be true it isn’t a fact. Here’s a question: How many people do you know that have actually died in a graveyard? Not many. Most people are dead for around 3 days to a week before they are buried.
3. Stay Legal
Most of the time, it is illegal for anyone to be in a cemetery after dark. And just because no one lives or works in a building, doesn’t mean it is fair game for investigating. If you get caught trespassing, your time as a respectable paranormal investigator is over.
4. How Do I Start?
Since graveyards are out, then how the heck do you get started? The best way is to find a friend or a relative of someone in your group that feels they might have a haunting. This is ideal because you can practice your techniques without having to worry about screwing up and upsetting a client. If this scenario is not available to you, then find another group in your area and see if they are willing to have you shadow them on a few investigations. If you do this, remember that it is THEIR case and you are just a fly on the wall. If THAT is not available then there are often public places that are known to be haunted where trespassing is not an issue. Also, there are some places that will allow you to take a “ghost tour” for a nominal fee. This is the last option though, as you often have to weed through a lot of oobie-doobie spookie nonsense, but at least you get the chance to try out your equipment.
5. Equipment? What Do I Need?
Don’t get blinded by the equipment you see us using on the show. All you really need to get started is a camcorder with nightshot or infrared. An additionl infrared illuminator that attaches to the top of the camera will help out greatly.
An audio recorder of any type will help too. Make sure that if you get an analog recorder (one that uses a tape) that you also purchase an external mic. Otherwise you’ll get some nasty noise from the gears in the machine.
What? No EMF detector? Nope, that can wait. EMF detectors don’t find ghosts. They find false positives. We scan areas that claim to produce spooky feelings with an EMF detector in order to find a legitimate electromagnetic field. Fields with a really high reading can produce effects in people that mimic paranormal activity. For instance, paranoia, dizziness, nausea, and that general creeped-out-I-don’t-wanna-go-in-there feeling.
Aaaaand no still camera? Camera’s are great and all, but claiming you have paranormal activity caught in one still photo is like reading one paragraph of a book and pretending you know the whole story. You just don’t know what led up to that picture being taken.
6. Pick Me!!
How do you get your name out there? Well, most importantly, by doing a friggin good job. If you are professional and down-to-earth your name will spread fast enough. Other than that, make a well thought out web site. One that is professional, not filled with bloody fonts, creepy music and flaming skulls flying at you. Think about it, if you were genuinely terrified in your home and you needed help, do you think you’d be comforted by a barrage of flaming skulls?
7. Salt, Lots of Salt
Don’t believe everything you hear. There is very little fact in this field. It is populated primarily with theories. Face it, you can’t recreate this stuff in a lab, yet. So, you have to study it when you can, and that is not often.
Therefore, there really aren’t any experts. There are a lot of people who will claim they are experts, but that is another story. We just can’t guarantee that there is one person who is doing it 100% correctly. In other words, gather information from where ever you can, filter through your own ideas and ideals, take the good and leave the bad. And take it all with, not a grain, but a huge friggin’ block of salt.
Well, there you have it. Some decent tips to get you started in the field of paranormal investigation. I hope they help you out.
Rock on, and please do everyone, who is already out there investigating, proud.
Pet Peeves #1
I used to post some of my pet peeves in the past on my old MySpace page. So, I thought I would re-post some of them and kick back up the tradition.
This is all in fun, mind you, don’t take me too seriously. These are a few of my pet peeves. You know, those annoying, yet somewhat meaningless, things that make you want to turn your face inside out and/or scream out loud in a stranger’s face, lol.
1. Restaurant ads on tables – Anyone who knows me will notice that the first thing I do when I sit down in a restaurant is to remove the obscene amounts of advertisements with which restaurants insist on cluttering the table. I mean, sure, they tell you what specials are, but you can’t order the dang thing because there’s no room on the table for it. Hotels have a bad habit of doing this too. I can’t set up my laptop without sweeping 18.5 tons of pyramid shaped ads, books, “please save water” notices, etc. right off the table and on to the floor.
2. Variable TV Channel Volumes – Who’s the idiot who made it acceptable for each TV channel to have a different volume? Hotels ALWAYS have this. There is nothing worse than cranking up a channel to hear a documentary and then changing to Adult Swim and having all the glass in the room break and your ears bleed, due to the bone-crushing shockwave. And if you want to flip between two shows, you have to turn the volume down and then change the channel. Major oversight by TV manufacturers, lol. Don’t get me started on the volume difference between the show you’re watching and the commercials… ugh.
3. Businesses Names with Intentional Misspellings - You know them: Kwik-e Kleaners, Hi-Tek Computerz, or Soopa Shooz. Ugh, puns are bad enough in business names but this is just wrong. How can you run a business if you can’t even spell the name of it right?
4. Sweatpants with pockets – Sure the concept is great: Extreme comfort + extreme pockets = perfect pants. Right? WRONG! They make you look like you have super-hips or you are an old time director, and if you put anything in the pockets, then the pants are on the floor.
5. McDonalds Advertising – Nothing says “we want dumb people’s money” like a McDonalds ad. For example: I pull up to a Burger King drive-through and I am informed by a pleasant sign that they are “Now accepting Visa, Mastercard, Discover,etc” I pull up to a McDonalds drive-through and see a sign with a similar message that shows a picture of the various credit cards and says “Yeah, we take ‘em”. Ugh, need I say more?
6. Soft Exterior of an Old Lollipop – Nothing smashes the dreams of one who hungers for a lollipop, than unwrapping one to find that it has that soft, chewy, somewhat sticky exterior that just screams “I was made for your father when he was a kid, and yet somehow his son is eating it”. It is the very antithesis of what a lollipop should be.
7. My Greatest Pet Peave: Ingratitude – It only takes a minute to say thanks, or to throw a smile or a wave. Everyone needs help in this life. Just accept it and give it on to someone else when you can.
Thanks for hearing me gripe. Long emails are a pet peeve too, so, thanks for hanging in there!
Wedding Ring Problems
Ok, I have had an on-going problem…
My lovely, sweet, wife of almost 16 years (in February) bought me a beautifully custom made wedding ring that I absolutely adore. One problem, when I wear it, it reacts with my finger and starts a rash that gets worse by the day.
Many people of course took this to mean that I had a troubled marriage, lol. Gotta love that rumor mill.
Thankfully, when I explained the situation, literally hundreds of you have given me the simple solution of coating the inside of the ring with clear nail polish once a month.
Brilliant!
So, thus begins Operation: “Nail Polish”.
I hope this works, because, apparently my marriage is in the crapper if it doesn’t…. Right, Rumor Mill?!?
Ugh…
Here goes nothing!
- Grant
Piano
Ok, wow, I am totally blown away with how well my piano tracks are being received. Thank you for that! It’s a huge boost!
I taught myself how to play when I was 14 and bored and I quickly found that I loved it. I was happy making my own little songs for myself. But then a few years ago I decided to share them in a Snocap store. To my surprise people liked them, even bought them. But alas, the store shut down and I was unable to share them.
Now, you all are adamant about getting them, which floors me. So, I am in the process of trying to find a way to sell them to you for a fair price. The less hands involved in the transaction the better, in my opinion.
So, worry not, I am working on it. And there are many many more tracks still to be recorded.
Thanks again.
- Grant
