10 ways you can 'fake it'

Faking it.  You know.  Trying to seem in the know when you really aren't.  Sometimes it happens when you are at work, sometimes at home.  Most of the time, it's not bad, it's just you trying to keep your little mental boat afloat when it seems to have been caught in an eddy.  Some people are SO good at this, they achieve middle management, where they are either forced to get IN the know, or move themselves from job to job every time they are found out by someone with more authority than they have.  Here is your guide for faking it in all kinds of situations.

10.  Half hearted laugh - the half laugh is not really a laugh at all in the humorous sense.  It's either an indicator of association so as to say 'yeah, I've been there' or it is a sign of derision to say 'I know exactly what you are talking about, that sucks'.  You use it when you come into the middle of a conversation that people think you are somehow included.  Rather than uncomfortably leaving, you snort your acceptance and listen on hoping to get some inkling of what is going on.

9.  Bold Bluster - Risky.  VERY Risky.  When you see your authority being questioned and you aren't sure how to save face, you bloviate about how there is no organization from within the ranks you command.  More organization!  That's what we need!  Better signals people!  Where is our follow through!  More of these semi-sport related management phrases that seem to apply to the situation.  What's the real problem?  Who cares.  If you say one of those three things and look carefully at who nods (a junior faker).  You'll be able to find who you need in meetings to continue to support your fraud.  WARNING.  If you pull this in a situation that calls for none of those things say for example a blatant sexual harassment suit that is looming, you will find yourself encouraged to find new venues for middle management.

8.  Uh huh - vague acceptance.  Best on the phone for conversations that you really haven't heard or don't care about.  the Uh huh is the sprinkling of water on the dying plant of your conversation that will keep it alive just long enough to keep you out of trouble.  Warning.  Uh huh does NOT work when you are suddenly asked a question like 'So what did he say to you when I left?' after the story I told that took the last 20 minutes?.  Unless, of course,  you are really looking to shorten the conversation.

7.  Ask and Answer - Sure you can't use it in a court of law, but in the court of faking it, ask and answer has a lot of value.  You ask yourself a vague question and then answer it.  It is best used in the course feigning  trying to understand a subject so that your counterpart will either catch you up because you 'misunderstood' or will agree with you affirming that you are in the know.  Example:  'So you're saying he completely decided to cut you out of that loop? or...' , 'No, what I'm saying is that he lied about the whole thing'  'OH!, I see now, yes'

6.  The catch up - Thanks to the cell phone we have an instant excuse to turn a minor faux pas into a major faking it win.  If you've been dozing off in the meeting but you need to know what's up, you pretend that your phone has been silently ringing and announce to everyone that you have to get this.  You then come back and inform the meeting that you apologize and please get you up to speed.  This is a double bonus because you look REALLY busy AND you just get the high points of the meeting.

5.  Wolf amongst sheep - So you are at a party with some friends and you quickly realize that you are the only conservative amongst liberals, or the only DC comics fan amongst Marvel fans.  This is about not completely alienating friends until they see you as a friend with a different opinion instead of one of 'them'.  The key here is common ground and distraction.  We'll use the Conservative amongst Liberals example. Them: 'So I really think Obamacare will fix what's wrong with this country, I can't believe those republican's can't see that'.  You:  'Yeah, it's pretty amazing that most of it was taken from Utah and Massachusets...pretty wierd'  as you turn to the chip table and grab a generous handful of chips and dip and keep your mouth full of corn instead of words.  Bottom line, find your common ground and give nothing more.

4.  Sport guy - According to beer commercials and the Internet, all men should inherently know about manly sports.  Inside this means intimate knowledge of Football/Basketball and sometimes baseball.  Outside of the US it means knowing about Soccer and Cricket.  The key here is knowing some of the buzz words and a little bit of derision in your voice.  Let's make football our example.  They guys are talking about 'the game' complaining about the play.  You listen for a blank spot and then you say '[Team A] really needs to be more organized in the Secondary, they just let too much get away'  Much like 9 the bold bluster, you are now using business terms to augment your appearance in football knowledge.  90% of the time any team will need the same kinds of things that business needs.  This is really going to be the same for any of the other sports, you just need some very spotty knowledge of the sport and apply a business metaphor to it.  Bang!  you're in like flyn.

3.  Getting Clarification - You're in the company, but you really don't know how to do what you've been hired for.  In fact you know it will take you so long to get up to speed, you need a real boost but you can't ask anyone there because it got out that you are actually getting paid for this job and you aren't an intern.  You casually go to the person that you estimate has the most knowledge about the thing you need to do and casually ask 'So on this project, what's the standard operating procedure?  How do we do it here?'  Nobody could possibly be expected to know what happens in a specific situation.  You get an example of what needs to happen and boom, you get a road map for what you should be doing.  The danger here is going to the well too many times.  You really can't play this card too many times before you are found to be a fraud, so make it good.

2.  The OTHER family wingman - You are at the other family reunion.  You've been a few times, but honestly you still really aren't sure who is who.  They know you and they have you at a disadvantage.  Some are gracious and continue to introduce themselves, others just talk to you like you should completely know who they are.  At this point your best bet is to not let your better half out of your sight, they are now your wingman.  That way they can make the absolute naming reference to each of the relatives while you quietly re-assert the association, and all you have to do now is take the association to indicate that you are aware of them and care.  Example.  Wingman 'Oh Uncle Frank and Aunt Gladys, it's so great to see you this year!' YOU: 'Great to see you Frank, how is ice road trucking treating you?'

1. TV Talk - Often at the office the TV shows of the prior night will make or break your banter relationship.  Early on there was literally no way to include yourself into the story arc because the only way you could gain entry was to borrow videos from that one guy that video taped everything.  Yeah how's that guy feeling now?  Kinda dumb because you can watch just about everything now just by having the internet.  So once you realize the you've missed the boat you just pull up the old episodes on the internet and catch up so that by next week you're wondering what the writers were thinking like you've been there since the pilot.  Technically you aren't faking it here, you are just catching up but close enough.

What, you think I missed something obvious? Ok, I'll admit, this whole blog is probably faking it.  But the day has not yet expired and I made my self imposed deadline.  Give me 15 days give or take, and I'll give you 10 things.

10 ways to convince people you've seen a ghost

I've said it before, I'll say it again.  I don't believe in ghosts.  But I really like the idea of ghosts.  It's very entertaining.  The whole idea that you can come back and annoy people when you are no longer alive is really very appealing.  See the world, get revenge,  find out secrets.  A whole world of amusement is open to the dead.

I realized that getting people to believe that you have seen a ghost requires extra things that will sway them to your ghostly point of view.  These are tips that will help you convince other people that you have seen, are seeing, or will see ghosts.  Maybe you'll get your own cable TV show, who knows?

10. - Yell a lot - Nobody will believe you saw a ghost right then and there unless you yell like you've just been stung by a giant bee.  Say things like 'Holy crap, did you see that?' and 'I can't believe what I saw'.  Then tell them whatever you like about the ghost you just saw.

9. - Claim to be a skeptic - This is such a weird phenomenon. For some reason we are more likely to believe someone that is unaffiliated with the thing they are talking about.  So if you are trying to convince someone that you have seen something otherworldly you should establish that you are a skeptic beforehand.  It's advisable to set this up with enough distance between you and the ghost story that it wouldn't be considered a preface.  Otherwise you risk them not believing you to be a skeptic and therefore believe that you are just another flighty ghost story person.

8. - Provenance is everything - I love the antiques road show.  watch it for any length of time and you learn that the story around and authentication of a particular item is at least as important as the item itself.  Got an old sword from the Civil war?  probably worth 500 bucks.  Got an old sword from the civil war that has DNA evidence of Robert E. Lee on it ?  now it's 50,000 bucks (the aforementioned example is not a quote.  Ask Lee's ghost).  So if you know who lived in a rickety old house and you can document that someone was murdered there or committed suicide then (for some reason) we know that it's much more likely to have ghosts in it and is therefore much more believable.  In fact, I don't know any of any haunting that doesn't have a good back story.

7. - Whisper - Ok, yes I did say yell a lot, but that was if you are seeing a ghost now.  If you are going to tell a story about a ghost you've seen before, you need to lower your voice to a hoarse whisper.  Give people a reason to listen.  Whispering ALSO has the added benefit of allowing people to hear background noises while you are telling your tale of the wierd.

6. - Don't play with dangerous toys, you'll see a ghost - For some reason ghosts and the devil seems to go hand in hand.  A ghost story gains stature if you were having a seance, or maybe playing with a oui-ja board before hand.  These tools of dubious effectiveness are often assumed to have at least a little influence in seeing something paranormal.  For some reason people still believe that devices will illicit connection to the spirit world and so if you preface your story with 'me and some friends were playing with a deck of Tarot cards one night...' Your story will have 7% more credence.

5. - Did you hear that? - I touched on this with the first element.  It's important to verify any ghost sighting with someone else to establish a witness.  Never say what you heard right off, let them say that so you can agree with it.  That way 2 of you have heard something otherworldly.  Open ended statements like 'Is it just me, or did it get colder in here?','Can you hear something?'.  On a side note, this is also a very good way to cover up intestinal distress...'I think I heard something.'

4. EVP - Electronic Voice Phenomenon is those ghosts trying to talk to you.  People have figured that Ghosts are trying to talk to us so as early as Thomas Edison there have been inventions to capture ghosts talking.   What do they have to say?  oh, lots of things like 'get out' and 'baloney' and 'your ratings suck'  Actually it appears that whatever they are trying to say is insignificant compared to what you think they said.  Go back to the old family tape recordings and you'll hear all kinds of background noise.  Isolate any of those noises and play with the speed and the frequency of the sound and eventually you'll hear aunt Tilley saying 'meatloaf' just to be part of the family reunion.  People LOVE these! and they add a lot to your story.

3. - Ghost cams! - Even more than EVP's people really love seeing things on camera's.  Since ghosts themselves don't like to show up on camera very often, we have a new video phenomenon called ORBS.  These are little balls of UNEXPLAINED light that float around in the picture.  Take a series of pictures anywhere with a digital camera and look at it on your computer.  Surprise, you'll find some little orbs in there somewhere in one or two of the pictures.  These are ghosts because they could not be anything else.  Of course if you can actually film a real ghost doing something like flipping you off that would be even more convincing.

2. - Temperature readings - Ghosts need power to operate just like we do.  Since they can't eat or get fat, they have to take the power directly out of the air.  When a ghost is getting ready to manifest itself, you'll feel the area around you getting colder as the ghost in question saps the area of energy.  Get some thermal readings of actual temperature around you and there is EVIDENCE.  If it gets colder around you.  It MUST BE A GHOST!

1.- Have a prop - I used to have a haunted TV.  It was freaky.  You would be watching TV and all of the sudden it would start changing channels and then it would stop on some other channel.  Sometimes it would re-scan the channels or turn the TV off all together.  I don't know what departed individual decided to use my TV as a conduit to the living, but it was really annoying.  Oddly enough, once they stopped construction down the street, my TV stopped being haunted.  So if I am telling a good ghost story while in the area of this TV, it might suddenly turn on or change channels and EVERYTHING would be immediately verified as true.






I'm not saying that any of these things prove or disprove the existence of spirits.  I'm saying that if you want someone to believe you about ghosts, you should use some of these things to help you.  This list is by no means exhaustive but try some out the next time you are out by a camp fire.