Halloween Dreams...

Halloween is a bizarre time of year. We didn't bother with it this year, as we don't really know anyone this end of the country. So we had a nice treat of a big Chinese dinner instead! Look at it this way. These crocodiles weren't impressed. (Thailand has "panda fever" and is painting other animals to make a point that they're also endangered, not just pandas.)

Mind you, here's something I discovered a few weeks ago: Hereward Carrington wrote a peculiar book, ‘Death: Its Causes and Phenomena’, in which he reported body of a boy radiating a blue glow after his death of acute indigestion. It turns out this glow is quite normal (if an extreme version) even in live people, as Japanese researchers have discovered that the human body actually glimmers! The light we emit is about 1000 times lower than the naked eye can see and is brightest in the afternoon; interestingly, the skin around your mouth lightens most around this time of day too. Anna Monaro had asthma and for several weeks, a blue glow would emit from her chest while she slept... Which makes sense, as it seems certain chemical reactions and metabolic shifts cause a higher ratio of free radicals to be released and this is what they believe causes the glowing.

But it got me to thinking. Life is a pretty weird thing - and sometimes death can be a bit weirder still. But isn't the theory, it isn't what caused it - sometimes it's what happens after.

Mind you, even after you're gone, you have an ever-expanding range of options nowdays. Personally, I'd like to give a few of them a go if there's enough left after medical science has had anything it could find useful.

I've known for some time that you can be turned into a diamond, (and quite honestly, I'd love to be a warm red stone like this one - you can even do family plans!) and

I heard that you could be sent up as a firework but now you can even go up in a REAL rocket for a space burial! If being so far from home is a bit daunting and you want something more down-to-earth, you can even give something back and become a "reef ball". What a wonderful idea, to give safe homes to sea creatures and support corals with a sturdy anchoring.