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The new, improved map of Milliways is up. (this thing is like the winchester mystery house!) It now includes the greenhouse, the location of the portrait which leads to

house_of_arch, and Lake Hogwarts/Shack/Willow. I haven't added the beer garden yet, but if Sir Gil would be so kind as to point out where he'd like it, I shall oblige :D

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Should point out that your greenhouse is walled in, and therefore shaded, on three sides. Most impractical.

XD

Eh, it was the only place it would fit. Considering the nature of the pub, I don't think anything needs actual sunlight to grow there :D

You know what the Winchester Mystery House is. You are kind of a dweeb.

((loffs you))

I've been there.

*facepalm* four times.

How CAN you??

It's SO COOL! And I had people from out of town who wanted to see it, and then we went for Halloween one year, and once for a field trip....

You are so completely insane. I've only READ about it, and I was jumpy for a half an hour!

well, it's a little mellower in person. I mean, there's all the Oooooh, Ghost Story! stuff, but I grew up on that kind of thing, I found the little details really interesting -- like she had banisters made out of this really expensive hardwood, but didn't like it, so she had them faux-paint it to look like a different hardwood. And it's really cool when you've been on the tour for like...thirty or forty minutes, and you finally reach the back-porch of the original house -- and it's INSIDE another room. :D

Oooooh, Ghost Story, indeed! *saucer eyes* I grew up in a haunted house. *random nonsensical words*

*is trying to resist the sway*

That does sound interesting. But in daylight, you psycho! *wibbles at Halloween Lone Ranger tour*

I'd been there TWICE in daylight already. Nighttime was much more fun :D

Four times? I've only been once and it creeped me right the hell out.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for Teh Creepy :D

Yeah, yeah. Well, I was only 10 when I went, and was utterly traumatised. Was convinced that she knew I'd been there and was pissed off about it. (active imagination?)

Maybe you could put it on the other side of Staff Housing?

Yeah, s'pose I could *makes note to shift it* good idea, ta :)

Don't talk about the Winchester House. That place is Teh Creepy.

I'm with you. Went when I was younger and had nightmares for weeks. *shakes off the bad vibes*

*raises hand*
What's the Winchester Mystery House?

It's a house in California that was built by what's generally accepted to be an insane woman. She thought if she ever stopped building on it, the ghosts of all the people killed by her husband's invention -- the Winchester Repeating Rifle -- would come to get her. She was heavily into the occult and very, very rich.

There are stairs that go into ceilings, doors in the outside of second-floors, windows ground to her prescription, seance rooms, you name it. Crazy, spooky shit.

Okay, that's pretty cool.

It's wicked cool. On Halloween they do a tour where you buy a penlight and they let you wander around without a guide in the "safe" areas, in the dark. It's an interesting study, architecturally speaking, and there's a lot of history too. It's not half the tourist trap it looks :D

You're crazy, Sam! You're completely and utterly mad!

Bring a halogen flashlight and a bodyguard is what I'd do!

Well, I did this report on ghosts once, and something always stuck with me from it -- I interviewed a ghost-photographer and a professional ghost hunter (oh, I know, how cheesy) and they both told me the same thing: Nobody's ever been killed by a ghost. :D

How do you do a report on ghosts? And how would you find people like that to ask?

The bodyguard would be to kill the spiders for me. *wink*

I admit it! I'm a complete coward! Let the lions eat my flesh, and so on.

LOL. Well. I had to do an "I Search" report, which is like a research report only it's based primarily on interviews. So I did some reading on the internet about ghost-hunters, and I did some reading at the library of ghost stories, and emailed one or two people who had written books or put up websites about ghost hunting. You'd be surprised how much information there is about it, especially "ghost photography". The two men who wrote me back were both very obliging, and answered all my questions. They had a lot of intriguing theories.

That?

Is SO. COOL.

Well, I'm sure the report was a rather sad affair, seeing as how I was a junior in high school when I wrote it, but it was a really interesting experience. I learned a bit about photography from it, too.

*applauds*
Nice usage of "wicked" there.
While I don't think I could actually go wandering around a house with nothing more than a pen light, it does sound like an awesome experience.

No. Scary. Dead scary.

*shudders*

It's a house in northern California built by the widow of the heir to the Winchester fortune (like, the rifles). Their daughter died, and he died, and she went, well. A bit mad.

Stairs to the ceiling, doors that open outside on the 4th floor, cabinets you can't put anything in. She was absolutely paranoid, as well, and in every room of the house she had a window that could be opened such that no matter where she was, she could hear what her servants were saying about her. She thought she heard voices that were telling her to keep building and building - that if she did that, the forces that got her husband and daughter wouldn't get her.

http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/ (http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/)

I've never gone, only seen a thing about it on TV and GOD. Bad vibes, indeed.

What was it like?

(mind you, I was 10 at the time, and posessed of a VERY ACTIVE imagination)

It was so creepy. Like the whole house was imbeded with the insanity. I left thinking it was perfectly normal to need to have windows in every room to hear what was being said about me. It felt like there was always eyes watching you...

Just, so creepy. *shivers* It was 14 years ago, and it still gives me the willies.

Of course, it's something that, if I'd first gone as an adult, I'd probably have loved it.

*roll eyes* I bet I could go at 44 and still think that. Jaysus.

Bleh.

Would you ever go again, just to see if you did like it?

I went at the ages of twelve, fourteen, fifteen, and seventeen, and loved it each time. It was less scary at seventeen, but no less interesting :)

You evil person have convinced me. I'll go on like my 18th birthday, and will focus on the intellectualism. The intellectualism, I say!

The many interesting historical factoids!

Er, you do live in CA, right? Otherwise it's not really worth the trip...:D

[home now, yay!]

Yeah, I think I would. Once, at least. I definitely have a different view now on life/death/spirits/etc. than I did when I was 10, so I think it would be interesting to see what my current reaction was.

Greenhouse! Hurrah! Fleur is going to have much fun with this. Thank you again!

Ooh, the Winchester Mystery House. Nice. I have wanted to go there for years. We're talking since primary school, here. At least now I can play like I'm there. ;)

Heh... so THAT'S where the bathrooms are!

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