Started doing some preliminary research yesterday. Started to see some patterns emerging. Why these folk figures hundreds of miles apart seem so similar. It's eerie.

I plan on unpacking those stored rar files pretty soon. See what kind of things I was leaving for myself.

Housekeeping

I'm going to try to wrest this back in the direction of using this blog for its intended purpose, namely that of a research blog. It's helpful to sort of have an autoethnographic account of my experience while I'm researching this, but let's be real, it's not exactly helping me with my studies.

Speaking of which, I got an email from my advisor today asking me about progress on my topic, and I kind of want to light myself on fire. It's doesn't help that I haven't disclosed any of the... problems I'd been having. I mean, it's hard to be seen as credible when you admit to being so paranoid that you move your living situation every few months in any field, let alone academia. 

Aside from going through all of that paranoid locked up bullshit from those .rar files, I need to recollect all of the leads I'd been going through.

So far, for this project, I've looked into the folklore figures of Old Nick and Old Scratch, and how they originated from the ancient European folk figures of the water demons (nykyr/nicors, from which Nick is derived), and the wood demons (skratta, or skrat, from where Scratch comes from).

I feel stupid for missing it in the first place, but my advisor also pointed something out to me.

What about boogeymen?

Both Old Nick and Old Scratch had cultural connotations that hovered between the actual form of the Christian devil, but also more pagan and just as feared figures of nature gods. And there's another constant theme: the idea of taking children.

And what is the biggest threat of the boogeyman in any culture? Stealing children. There's definitely a link here to be explored. I'm going to hit up the library today, see what I can find.

Maybe I can find something to link The Man in the Woods to these boogeymen figures. It's pretty clear that the Millpond Man was considered to be a child-stealer. Maybe I can find some kind of regional or cultural link.

Unfortunate circumstances

I can't believe it's been over a month since I came here. 

I wasn't entirely forthcoming, in my previous posts. At least now, I think I can offer up a little more information.

Partly the reason why I've been so scarce lately is that within the past year, I've up and moved my entire life half a dozen times. Each time partly fueled by the fear that I've been followed. Stalked, I guess you could say, if that doesn't sound cliche or overly dramatic.

So I guess it would be understandable that my focus is a bit fractured. I thought I was being followed, I was under a heavy work burden, and dealing with personal issues.

Except no one was following me. At least, no person has been following me.

I really don't see how I could have been so willfully blind.

I'm continuing on, anyway. With my research, with my life. I've got a new change coming, and I want to be able to be equal to it.

I plan on doing maybe a findings meeting soon. Last time was pretty informative, for me anyway, and maybe this time I can get some perspective again.

Stay in touch, guys.