Your own personal mysteries.

[IslandMama]

I've heard of people who cause street lights to go out when the person approaches.  This seemed to be pretty common (well, more than one person claimed to have this happen, anyway) on the forum where I read about it.  I forget which forum it was, but it wasn't about a supernatural forum or anything.  Has anyone had that kind of experience?

Happens to me all the time. I can be walking or driving, and watch the lights go out as I approach, and on as I pass. It's not just streetlights, though. At my old cubicle job, the light above me never lasted more than a week or so before the flickering started. Another week and it would burn out. They replaced the...ballast?...thingee, but it made no difference. I finally asked maintenance to just not replace it, as the flickering drove me nuts. I can't wear digital watches, as they all die within two days. We had touch lamps in the living room, which I used with no problems for a few months. Then one day I went to turn one on, and it's mate across the room turned on, then blew, as did all the lights in the kitchen. Years later there was a touch lamp in the bedroom. I turned it off, left the room. A few minutes later I smelled something burning. The lamp had somehow shorted out - and burned a spot on the dresser (photo available on request). We still have one touch lamp, but I refuse to touch it.

I dismissed most of this as coincidence for a long time, but it's been happening to me for 21 years now - it started when I was pregnant with DS. I don't tend to ascribe it to anything supernatural, just figure some people have weird electrical fields or something. Over the years I've known others with similar stories. The one thing we seem to have in common is the digital watch failure.

My wonky electrical field does something to jewellery.  I only wear my wedding and engagement rings when I leave the house as rings tend to ripple on me - the backs of them (palm side) form ripples and then a big chunk of the ripples will fall out and I"ll lose the ring.  Watches - doesn't matter if they're digital or analogue - screw up if I wear them for more than 12 hours in a 36 hour period.  Digital ones stop working, analogue ones will start going backwards.  Earrings can only be worn for about 12 hours, if I leave them in overnight I end up with bits of earring under my pillow.  For a wedding that I was a BM in the bride's brother (who is a jeweller) made my necklace especially and strung the beads (or whatever) on five separate strings and when he checked it at the end of the wedding reception there was one string still holding it together... and then it snapped overnight while sitting on my bedside table. 

As much as I love jewellery I just don't wear it.  My family has given up buying it for me and I look longingly in the catalogues and jeweller's windows but know that it's not worth spending money on.

[lady_disdain]

IslandMama - could you send me a picture of the rippled rings? As a metalworker, I am very curious!

[Bijou]

I've heard of people who cause street lights to go out when the person approaches.  This seemed to be pretty common (well, more than one person claimed to have this happen, anyway) on the forum where I read about it.  I forget which forum it was, but it wasn't about a supernatural forum or anything.  Has anyone had that kind of experience?

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/966/can-some-people-extinguish-streetlamps-by-means-of-their-bodily-emanations

Interesting stuff.  Thanks for posting the link.

[Bijou]

I've heard of people who cause street lights to go out when the person approaches.  This seemed to be pretty common (well, more than one person claimed to have this happen, anyway) on the forum where I read about it.  I forget which forum it was, but it wasn't about a supernatural forum or anything.  Has anyone had that kind of experience?

Happens to me all the time. I can be walking or driving, and watch the lights go out as I approach, and on as I pass. It's not just streetlights, though. At my old cubicle job, the light above me never lasted more than a week or so before the flickering started. Another week and it would burn out. They replaced the...ballast?...thingee, but it made no difference. I finally asked maintenance to just not replace it, as the flickering drove me nuts. I can't wear digital watches, as they all die within two days. We had touch lamps in the living room, which I used with no problems for a few months. Then one day I went to turn one on, and it's mate across the room turned on, then blew, as did all the lights in the kitchen. Years later there was a touch lamp in the bedroom. I turned it off, left the room. A few minutes later I smelled something burning. The lamp had somehow shorted out - and burned a spot on the dresser (photo available on request). We still have one touch lamp, but I refuse to touch it.

I dismissed most of this as coincidence for a long time, but it's been happening to me for 21 years now - it started when I was pregnant with DS. I don't tend to ascribe it to anything supernatural, just figure some people have weird electrical fields or something. Over the years I've known others with similar stories. The one thing we seem to have in common is the digital watch failure.

Maybe it is some kind of electrical field or something.  That is an interesting story. 

[Bijou]

My wonky electrical field does something to jewellery.  I only wear my wedding and engagement rings when I leave the house as rings tend to ripple on me - the backs of them (palm side) form ripples and then a big chunk of the ripples will fall out and I"ll lose the ring.  Watches - doesn't matter if they're digital or analogue - screw up if I wear them for more than 12 hours in a 36 hour period.  Digital ones stop working, analogue ones will start going backwards.  Earrings can only be worn for about 12 hours, if I leave them in overnight I end up with bits of earring under my pillow.  For a wedding that I was a BM in the bride's brother (who is a jeweller) made my necklace especially and strung the beads (or whatever) on five separate strings and when he checked it at the end of the wedding reception there was one string still holding it together... and then it snapped overnight while sitting on my bedside table. 

As much as I love jewellery I just don't wear it.  My family has given up buying it for me and I look longingly in the catalogues and jeweller's windows but know that it's not worth spending money on.

Very strange indeed!  Even with string on necklaces! 

[Bijou]

IslandMama - could you send me a picture of the rippled rings? As a metalworker, I am very curious!

What do you suppose could cause something like this?  From doing wire work, I know it gets work hardened and brittle.  I wonder if this could be some kind of weird electrical thing that could cause that same thing.

[zyrs]

Has anyone had that kind of experience?

The lights go off as I approach and on once I am past them a certain distance.  But that is the only thing that has ever happened.

[lady_disdain]

IslandMama - could you send me a picture of the rippled rings? As a metalworker, I am very curious!

What do you suppose could cause something like this?  From doing wire work, I know it gets work hardened and brittle.  I wonder if this could be some kind of weird electrical thing that could cause that same thing.

I have no idea. For a test, once, I work hardened gold until it cracked and, believe me, it took a lot of hammering. I have never heard of work hardening by electricity, since current shouldn't alter crystal structure, which is what causes work hardening. The rippling puzzles me a lot as well, since it wouldn't be easy to ripple a gold or even a silver ring. That is why I would love a picture or a sample I could take a look at and show a few metallurgy professors.

[Bijou]

IslandMama - could you send me a picture of the rippled rings? As a metalworker, I am very curious!

What do you suppose could cause something like this?  From doing wire work, I know it gets work hardened and brittle.  I wonder if this could be some kind of weird electrical thing that could cause that same thing.

I have no idea. For a test, once, I work hardened gold until it cracked and, believe me, it took a lot of hammering. I have never heard of work hardening by electricity, since current shouldn't alter crystal structure, which is what causes work hardening. The rippling puzzles me a lot as well, since it wouldn't be easy to ripple a gold or even a silver ring. That is why I would love a picture or a sample I could take a look at and show a few metallurgy professors.

Their take on it would be interesting. 

[Kaymyth]

I've heard of people who cause street lights to go out when the person approaches.  This seemed to be pretty common (well, more than one person claimed to have this happen, anyway) on the forum where I read about it.  I forget which forum it was, but it wasn't about a supernatural forum or anything.  Has anyone had that kind of experience?

Happens to me all the time. I can be walking or driving, and watch the lights go out as I approach, and on as I pass. It's not just streetlights, though. At my old cubicle job, the light above me never lasted more than a week or so before the flickering started. Another week and it would burn out. They replaced the...ballast?...thingee, but it made no difference. I finally asked maintenance to just not replace it, as the flickering drove me nuts. I can't wear digital watches, as they all die within two days. We had touch lamps in the living room, which I used with no problems for a few months. Then one day I went to turn one on, and it's mate across the room turned on, then blew, as did all the lights in the kitchen. Years later there was a touch lamp in the bedroom. I turned it off, left the room. A few minutes later I smelled something burning. The lamp had somehow shorted out - and burned a spot on the dresser (photo available on request). We still have one touch lamp, but I refuse to touch it.

I dismissed most of this as coincidence for a long time, but it's been happening to me for 21 years now - it started when I was pregnant with DS. I don't tend to ascribe it to anything supernatural, just figure some people have weird electrical fields or something. Over the years I've known others with similar stories. The one thing we seem to have in common is the digital watch failure.

My wonky electrical field does something to jewellery.  I only wear my wedding and engagement rings when I leave the house as rings tend to ripple on me - the backs of them (palm side) form ripples and then a big chunk of the ripples will fall out and I"ll lose the ring.  Watches - doesn't matter if they're digital or analogue - screw up if I wear them for more than 12 hours in a 36 hour period.  Digital ones stop working, analogue ones will start going backwards.  Earrings can only be worn for about 12 hours, if I leave them in overnight I end up with bits of earring under my pillow.  For a wedding that I was a BM in the bride's brother (who is a jeweller) made my necklace especially and strung the beads (or whatever) on five separate strings and when he checked it at the end of the wedding reception there was one string still holding it together... and then it snapped overnight while sitting on my bedside table. 

As much as I love jewellery I just don't wear it.  My family has given up buying it for me and I look longingly in the catalogues and jeweller's windows but know that it's not worth spending money on.

This thing with the watches?  That is exactly the same thing that happens to my stepdad.  He doesn't seem to have any trouble with jewelry, though, as there've been no problems with his wedding ring.

[IslandMama]

IslandMama - could you send me a picture of the rippled rings? As a metalworker, I am very curious!

Sorry, the only rings I have any more are my wedding and engagement rings and I don't seem to affect them - the last time I had a ring other than those was probably 12 or more years ago. 

The only way I can describe it is that instead of the ring being straight you can see it's a bit wavy or rippled and then eventually it just cracks from the stress, I guess.  I don't wear silver but tried several different varieties of gold and it happened every time... sometimes it was quicker than other times, usually when I was under great stress for some reason or another.  To make it weirder, the effects were stronger at certain times of the month.

[Reika]

Maybe it's a chemical thing with your body oils rather than electrical field?

[ShanghaiJill]

My friend's father couldn't wear a watch because they stopped.   He said this only happened after he contracted malaria in the army.

[kherbert05]

This quote from the I've got a question?! thread hit me like a lightening bolt

Just tell her.  I once worked with someone who wrote EVERY EMAIL IN CAPITAL LETTERS. He didn't realise it could be considered yelling he just thought it made it easier to read. When he was told he stopped straight away.

Dad always wrote in all caps - because it was easier to read. Makes total sense now.There are no mirror image letters/near mirror image letters in the capital letters. (I'm convinced from comments he and his sister made about him growing up that Dad was a dyslexic - so avoiding mirror and near mirror image letters (dbqgpce) would make sense.)

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

This quote from the I've got a question?! thread hit me like a lightening bolt

Just tell her.  I once worked with someone who wrote EVERY EMAIL IN CAPITAL LETTERS. He didn't realise it could be considered yelling he just thought it made it easier to read. When he was told he stopped straight away.

Dad always wrote in all caps - because it was easier to read. Makes total sense now.There are no mirror image letters/near mirror image letters in the capital letters. (I'm convinced from comments he and his sister made about him growing up that Dad was a dyslexic - so avoiding mirror and near mirror image letters (dbqgpce) would make sense.)

This likely explains so much about (non-legal) MIL. I never thought of it like that. Of course, for many other people, all caps is extremely difficult to read. Hmm… app idea: conversion from all caps to sentence case and vice-versa. Going to all caps is easy, but having decent real-language processing to avoid things like Macgregor is less easy…