The two topics in this post are, to be clear, totally unrelated. I just wanted to remove any confusion before I moved forward at all. I will, also, be covering them in reverse order.

First off, I know I've made a post about it on my forums a few days ago, but I just wanted to point out that Happy Wednesday's first Live CD has been released. Live at No Brand Con 2008 was put together earlier this week and is now available for sale. It contains the entire performance from No Brand Con (click here if you want to refresh yourself on what that is like) along with three other Live tracks, and a bonus studio track. It's $8 plus shipping, and I think it's not a bad deal.

I wanted to put something out while people were waiting for the studio album we're about to start recording, so I hope you enjoy it.

Now, on a totally different subject, my website has been getting a lot of traffic directed towards a really old Flip Side article I literally wrote years ago. It's about the hidden dangers in a small city that get swept under the carpet, but one of the big things I talk about are the drowning deaths in Eau Claire and La Crosse, and I theorized that something sinister might be happening. I wasn't the first person to think that, but I hadn't heard anything new on the subject since I published that back in 2003.

Well, the subject is back in the news.

Two retired New York Police Detectives are convinced there is a serial killer at work in this area of the country. I'm not certain that I agree that all of the deaths are related, but I've always believed a majority of them seemed too similar to not be related. Of course, as to be expected, local police are doubtful. They usually are. From the article in the Leader-Telegram:

Two retired New York City detectives believe serial killers are behind the drowning deaths of 40 young men nationwide, possibly including three victims who died in Eau Claire.

But Eau Claire Police Chief Jerry Matysik has concerns about the detectives' claims.

"We would all like to have easy answers to these deaths," he said. "Believing in a conspiracy is appealing to many people because terrible events make us uncomfortable."

Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte, who have been tracking the suspicious drowning deaths of young men across the country ever since investigating the death of a college student who drowned in New York in 1997, told ABC News that the death of University of Minnesota student Chris Jenkins became "the link" connecting the drowning deaths of usually high-achieving college students in 25 cities in 11 different states.

I recommend reading it. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only one who looks at these circumstances and scratches their head.

We have a habit in towns like Eau Claire and La Crosse of wanting to hide ourselves from the dangers of the real world. We want to pretend we're safer than everyone else. Well, I go back to my original point: You're Not Safe, Get Over It. I'm not saying walk around like a paranoid git, but instead just be aware and take precautions. Just because you live in a town with only 60,000 people in it doesn't mean that the real world magically went away.