F.A.Q.
1 - Who are you?
Joe Parzanese, I use to live in New Jersey and in 1991 moved to the Central Coast of California. I'm a database engineer by profession.
2 - Where should I send submissions, information, pictures, fan mail, etc?
1778 Tonini Drive #22, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 or
Additionally you can leave comments on many of the pages here on this site
3 - Did you write some book?
No. The book you are probably thinking about is Weird California written by Greg Bishop, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci. I'm not that Joe. Nor do I have any connection to these three gentlemen. In fact until late March 2007, years after I began scouting out strange sites, I didn't even own the book.
Additionally, although I am originally from New Jersey, I do NOT have any connection to the Weird NJ guys. I have read several of their magazines and I do in fact own the book Weird NJ (a gift from my mother). Also my dear grandmother lives in Bloomfield where they are based.
I acquired this domain, weirdca.com, several several years ago. At least a few years, in fact, before the aforementioned Weird California book, and also before the Weird US book was published (and maybe even before the Weird NJ book was published). Regardless, you should go check out their works, I know the "Weird NJ" magazines and books are a very fun and entertaining read. The Weird California book by them is also a fun and entertaining read containing dozens of strange locals. It is a valuable addition to your Weird library.
4 - Are all the pictures on the site taken by you?
Unless other credit is given, yes, the pictures were taken by me or my fiance, Lauren Avjean. The only other exception is pictures or scans of drawings, post cards or brochures. Obviously I didn't take those.
5 - What is the "Add a Comment" link at the bottom of many of the pages?
This is where you can add a comment to the page. Have you been to the site? Have more information about the site? Had an interesting experience there or conflicting information with what was said about the site? Please feel free to add a comment. And since so far only a few people have submitted valid comments, you'll be one of the first commenters!
If you're asking a question or expect a response from me, it's probably best to leave an email address where I can reach you, but it's not necessary. I will also occasionally leave a comment after your comment as well.
7 - My comment hasn't shown up yet? What's up with that?
Comments must first be approved by the administrators - basically me. This is to stop inappropriate comments, disruptive HTML, or spam from appearing on the web site. This will usually take less than 24 hours unless I'm on vacation or otherwise indisposed. We've gotten a lot of Spam comments, and the approval process keeps these from cluttering up the site. Spammers should note that adding a comment to a page will prove useless as the comment and their spam will NEVER appear for others to see.
8 - There are pictures on many of the pages, including the front page, the Search page, the Request for Information Page, and the Recent Update page. They seem to be pretty random at times.
These are pictures randomly selected from a pool of approved pictures. They are all pictures of locations detailed here within Weird CA. They rotate to another random picture every 30 seconds.
9 - When I used the search form, it returned something called "Unfinished Topics". What are these?
These are topics or locations that are planned for investigation or write up in the future. Some will have pictures, links, and references attached to them. Some will even have a little information. They are not reachable from the main page and can only be found through the search form. I give no promise on when or even if they will ever be finished.
10 - What are outside references?
Just that, they are books or journals or magazines, etc, that talk about the subject matter. They may or may not have been consulted when writing the topic they are listed on. The appropriate page number for the topic is included for ease of lookup. All books referenced in these sections, and many more are also listed in the Books section. The Bibliography section lists all sites and locations within this website that are referenced in outside books. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive bibliography for this website. Information on this site could additionally have come from years of resource gathering including personal accounts, urban legends, folklore, internet sources, newspapers, magazines, etc.
11 - I want to visit one of the sites mentioned on the website. Can I?
Depends. Many of the sites are open to the public. These often have set hours and admission fees. Some of the sites are on private property. Please obtain permission to visit them. Weird California does not endorse trespassing. Aditionally Weird California does not take any responsibility if you get injured or thrown in jail (or for any other unfortunate event that may occur to you) while visiting any of the sites detailed here. Adventure at your own risk.
12 - Why do you not have a listing for a particular county?
Basically this may mean one of several things: 1) that so far I haven't been able to find any reference to anything weird in that county 2) that I have not yet had the time to visit and / or research anything weird in that county or finally 3) no book or person that I've spoken with has informed me about anything weird yet in that county.
That's not to say there's nothing weird going on in that county. In fact I'm sure there is. It's just that I have a real job outside this website, and only so much time on my hands. One day I hope to find, visit, and research weird locations and stories in every county in California. But for now, my time is limited, and sometimes I can only get so far from my home and place of work.
If a county is missing, and you know of a weird location or story in it, please let me know about it. If I can, I'll try and look into it and maybe one day have a full article on it here on the website.
13 - Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?
Winston Zeddemore: "Ah, if there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say." - Ghostbusters.
I believe in stories. Here at WeirdCA.com, it's not about if you believe or don't believe in ghosts, monsters, or legends. Why? because let's face it, they all make such fine fantastical stories. I'm not here to try and convince you to believe in ghosts or the boogey man. Just as I have my beliefs, I'll leave you to yours. And besides, for me, it's not about the belief, it's about the story, the tall tale, the legend, the fable, the history.
14 - How can I advertise on this site?
Currently almost all advertising on this site is handled by Google Adwords. Adwords allows businesses to advertise on any number of sites, including this one, regardless of the size of their budget. Ad campaigns can be set up to target based on keywords, geographical location of the visitor, and / or individual websites like this one. Google Adwords handles most common sizes of ads and allows text, image, and video advertisements.
Last Edited: 2011-08-13
