Silent Knight from Haunted Holidays: Deadly Christmas

Silent Knight from Haunted Holidays: Deadly Christmas

Jingled Bells

Jingled Bells

New Album Release! Haunted Holidays: Deadly Christmas

Hi Everyone!

I am proud to announce my latest album, Haunted Holidays: Deadly Christmas.  This is a collection of classic Christmas songs retold as Halloween stories.

Track List:

• 1. Jingled Bells
• 2. Away with a Stranger
• 3. It Played Upon Your Deepest Fear
• 4. Silent Knight, Dreadful Night
• 5. I Saw Three Ships (The Bringers of Death)
• 6. Last Dance of the Sugared Plum Fairy
• 7. Jesu Joy of Man’s Beheading
• 8. Auld Lang Syne (Until next Year)

• Beautiful artwork by Kelly @ OutsideTheBox.Photo and haunted lettering by Rebecca at Dreams2media

Want a full audio preview?  Sure!

Soundcloud Preview

Where can you find it, you wonder?  I have answers!

iTunes Music

Amazon

Google Play

What Happened in Vegas… Part Deuce

The next part of the journey has arrived!  450 more random things I have actually heard people say while walking down the Las Vegas Strip.  Along with those are 100 new photos just as random as the phrases themselves.

Here are just a couple examples of what you’ll find inside:

“I know I lost the bet but you guys are still going to pay for my hooker tonight, right?”

“Three things I cannot forget:  my bag, my passport and my baby.”

“Well, if it says Sophia on the body bag, it’s probably Sophia in there.”

These and so many more!  Read it cover to cover or just pick it up and open it to a random page when you need a smile.

Available on Amazon in both print and Kindle.  At some point, the below links will likely be merged but, for now, here they are:

Print

Kindle

Enjoy!

- Scott

Sacred Space?

A few days ago, I was searching for something on YouTube.  For those of you that don’t know, I have a channel there with some videos for Mental Sauna music, some videos about my app and some of the short films I composed the music for.  Anyway, I am digging through videos and I stumble across a beautiful picture of a waterfall and the caption told me it was a video about the sound of the water accompanied with gentle music.  Since this is my field, I was curious and clicked on it.

The music, while not quite my style, was enjoyable, though not particularly relaxing to me but the waterfall was stunning and I was curious as to where this was.  Checking the description, I saw it was not listed so I thought that perhaps the answer may be in the comments.  I never got far enough to find out.

I couldn’t even tell you exactly how it happened but it went from a few polite comments supporting the video to a hateful political rant that went on and on with several people bashing each other about who even knows what.  There was name calling, arguing and opinions dramatically stated but, as usual, no one seemed to be listening to what anyone else was saying.  They were too busy shouting to get their point across.

Is there nothing sacred anymore?  Are there no forums safe from people’s hatred and having to show everyone how they know better than everyone else?  The whole point of posting a video such as the one I stumbled across was to be able to escape, reset and recharge.  How can anyone do that with all the noise in the world?

It isn’t a matter if whether we can do better than this or should do better than this.  We HAVE to start doing better than this.  This is something I address in my forthcoming novel The Universal Court.  Hopefully, we can start turning the tide and be able to find more sacred places where we can go to escape all the hatred and anger that is solving nothing at all.

My old blog used to get hit with all kinds of spam so I moved it here to BlogSpot and it has been much better.  However, be it here, my website, YouTube page, Soundcloud, etc., anytime I see something negative (not talking about constructive feedback but anger, hatred, etc.), I immediately delete it and block the user.  I will always do what I can to keep my world as peaceful as possible unless using it as an example, as I have done here.  Hopefully, together, we can all make a difference and drown out all the noise with joy, respect, consideration, peace and love.

What about you?  What is a sacred place that you go to, physical, internet, music, meditation or somewhere else?

Let’s make the world better!

For those that are interested, here is my YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottHaskinMusic

Cheers,

Scott

Serenity

What If We’ve Got It Wrong?

A few days ago, I had a thought.  I am not exactly certain where it came from but I let it carry out a bit and decided it was interesting enough to me to share and maybe someone else would find it interesting as well.  I remember a few years ago, reading one of Masaru Emoto’s books on water crystals, he told a story about a diseased lake.  A bunch of people got together and united to clear the lake of the disease and it worked.  They were all focused and concentrated on one thing, all together, and they solved a problem.

As that thought carried out, it made me think of all the people I see, friends included, that work hard to raise money to cure a disease or to prevent something like animal abuse.  Personally, I applaud anyone who fights for something to make the world better.  Whether I am able to participate or if it is something I believe in or like the way it is done, I support all of it on one level or another.  I’ve seen so many attempts to raise funds for research, prevention, and so on but what has it accomplished?  What has been cured?  Has abuse stopped?  No.

Maybe the problem is that everyone is so disconnected.  Everyone is fighting for their own causes, along with whatever group also supports that same fight, alone or separate or with smaller groups.  Maybe that only equals one or two people at that lake, with little power to make change.  Maybe it is like throwing a handful of water at a forest fire or like crushing an aspirin and only throwing a couple grains at a headache.  Not effective.  I’m not saying this absolutely is the answer but what we’re doing doesn’t seem to make much difference, does it?  At least not by the way people complain on social media and the fact funds are still being raised in mass quantity.

So what if we’ve got it all wrong?  What if we’re so busy doing what we know how to do that we’re missing what we could be doing?  Instead of attacking each of the individual problems, what if the answer were broader?  What if we focused on global health instead of breaking off into less powerful; groups attacking each individual issue?  What if we all gathered around the problem, held hands and could make an impact like that diseased lake?

Just like anything in life, when what you are doing isn’t working, you have to start looking for alternate solutions and giving things a try.

Like I said, I am not saying this is absolutely the answer but, what if…?

What do you think the solution is?

Cheers,

Scott

A Simple Thing That Has a Positive Impact

A couple years before I moved to Las Vegas, I decided to try an experiment on one of my visits.  The deal was that I was going to make an attempt to actually interact with everyone I came into contact with.  If I went to a sundry shop to get a bottle of water or with the desk clerk when I checked into my hotel, I would attempt to have a genuine connection and see what happened.

In general, we say certain things when we are in a position to interact with strangers, especially in the retail world.  “Hi, how are you?”  Oh good, yeah, me too.  Have a good one.”  Sound familiar?  Probably the same conversation you have with most people you are not friends with.  A brief, considerate, nearly scripted conversation.  But what if it was taken to the next level?

Going from the Phoenix airport to my Vegas destination, my efforts were not proving fruitful.  There was little time to take advantage of and people in some of those positions seemed to be strongly focused on their work, not leaving much opportunity for interaction.  I didn’t give up, though.  I knew there was more room for opportunity.

Once I arrived at my hotel, I found my first opportunity at the check-in desk.  The young lady that waited on me seemed genuinely surprised when I said, “You are YOU doing today?”  It wasn’t just the words but the honesty in them.  I knew I was just another face to her that was either making her do work or helping her pass the time, depending how she looked at it.  Either way, it was more the way I asked than the words I used.  There were probably other factors such as my demeanor, expression and whatever else.  In the end, she seemed to relax her shoulders and go about her work and got me checked in much more quickly than I was used to.  I told her I hoped she had a wonderful rest of her day and moved on.

Later that day, I wanted a snack so I went to one of the hotel stores and made a purchase.  Same thing with the cashier.  I had heard her greet a couple customers in line before me.  Plain, cursory conversation as she probably sees a few hundred people a day that could care less she is there as long as someone rings them up.  Same line, “How are YOU today?”  This time met with a huge grin as she stood more upright and relaxed her muscles.  We shared a quick but warm exchange and, as I walked away, “I hope you have a great rest of your day.”  She replied “You too!”  The best part was, as a made sure to fumble a bit getting my receipt into my wallet, I heard how warmly she greeted the next customer.  I made an impact!  It may not last long or it may but, at the very least, for a moment, I made a positive impact.

The rest of the trip continued that way but the journey home was the best of all.  It was a fairly slow day at the airport and I was getting my boarding pass.  The lady there warmed up when I offered my caring phrase and we started talking which brought a heart-warming story out of her.  She told me about the time one of her co-workers had been left at the counter, alone, and was overwhelmed with customers but management wouldn’t send anyone to help her.  Her cash drawer ended up being over $100 short and she was getting hysterical.  She was sure she was going to lose her job and the customers overheard her telling her boss.  They took up a collection and paid the missing money for her.  People joining together to help a complete stranger just because they could see what she was going through and wanted to help her feel better.  Amazing!

So try it for yourself.  Genuinely take an interest.  It doesn’t have to turn into a life-long friendship and yes, sometimes, you will get people that are happy to keep talking beyond what you wanted.  But take an interest.  Show someone you are glad they came into your world.  Maybe they will treat the next person they see a little better and that person will also.

Every little bit of joy matters.  Let me know how it goes!

Cheers,

Scott