I give my eternal gratitude to the following individuals and companies who helped me and my family in our Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts. Some helped by running my websites in my absence and spreading the word of my plight. Others helped me and my family financially or helped replace items that were damaged by the flood waters.

I truly appreciate all of the support everyone has given me, financially, physically, emotionally, and otherwise. I like to publicly acknowledge all of the support given to me as it's the least I can do to show my thanks. That said, if anyone that I've publicly thanked does not want to be publicly thanked, just let me know. I respect the privacy of others.


INDIVIDUALS

• Matthew Jordan - for helping me to get messages out about my plight while my family and I were living for six weeks in a Red Cross emergency shelter, and updating the Spook Central site and Facebook page when I couldn't do it myself for lack of a computer and a home.

• Doreen Mulman - for the donation of $50 and for helping me to get messages out about my plight while my family and I were living for six weeks in a Red Cross emergency shelter.

• Raffaele Ruffaldi - for helping me to update the Spook Central site when I couldn't do it myself for lack of a computer and a home.

• Robert Als - for helping me and my family to move what little undamaged belongings we had in the old house into our new house.

• Alim Gafar - for helping me and my family to move what little undamaged belongings we had in the old house into our new house.

• Dan Schoening - for the donation of $350 as a result of a special Ghostbusters #9 comic book he auctioned off to raise money for me and my family. (Thanks also to Tristan Boutros for placing the winning bid on that comic.)

• Katrina Lynn and all of the guys and gals from EctoCon - for the donation of $128 as a result of eight donated items auctioned off at the EctoCon 2012 event to raise money for me and my family.

• Chad Paulson - for the donation of $150.

• Randy Baer (aka RD Reynolds) - for the new copies of the "WrestleCrap: The Very Worst of Pro Wrestling", "The WrestleCrap Book of Lists!", and "The Death of WCW - 10th Anniversary Edition" books (all signed) to replaced the unsigned copies that were destroyed by the flood; and the new copies of the various Wrestlecrap DVD sets (with autographed case liner) to replace the autographed Worst of RD Reynolds DVD liner that was destroyed by the flood.


COMPANIES

• TimeLife - for the new copy of The Real Ghostbusters Complete Series DVD box set (Steelbook edition) to replace the one that was damaged by the flood. (Thanks specifically to Jeff Peisch, head of video)

• Warner Brothers - for the new copy of the Tales From The Crypt: The Complete Series DVD box set to replace the seven individual season sets that were damaged by the flood. (Thanks specifically to Sherri Bogard)

• MPI Media Group - for the new The Beverly Hillbillies: The Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 case art, liner books, and cases to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood. (The discs were fine, but everything else was trashed.)

• Capcom - for the new copy of Dead Rising 2: Off The Record (PS3) to replace the one that was damaged by the flood, plus the bonus DR2:OTR "I Got Probed In Uranus Zone" purple alien t-shirt. (Thanks specifically to Alicia Kim, Senior Director of PR and Community)

• Electronic Arts - for the new copies of these PlayStation 2 video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: The Godfather (Limited Edition)(2 Discs), James Bond 007 in Agent Under Fire, Mercenaries 2: World In Flames, and The Simpsons Game. (Thanks specifically to Crystal Clark from the Customer Relations department)

• Ubi Soft - for the new copies of these video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: Large Winch .// Commando Sar (PS1) and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (PS2); plus the bonus Splinter Cell games: Blacklist (PS3), Pandora Tomorrow (PS2), Chaos Theory (PS2), and Double Agent (PS2). (Thanks specifically to Dave from the Support department)

• D3Publisher - for the new copy of Flushed Away (PS2) to replace the one that was damaged by the flood; plus the bonus games: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (PS2), Astro Boy (PS2), Despicable Me (PS2), Turbo: Super Stunt Squad (PS3), Ben 10 Omniverse (PS3), Ben 10 Galatic Racing (PS3), and Rise of the Guardians (PS3). (Thanks specifically to Michael Cerven, Publicity Manager)

• TNA Wrestling - for the new copies of these DVDs to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: TNA Hard Justice 2005, TNA Genesis 2006, TNA Final Resolution 2007, TNA Hardcore Justice 2010, Best of the Bloodiest Brawls: Vol. 1, Best of the Bloodiest Brawls: Scars and Stitches, Sting: Return of an Icon, and The Best of Raven: Nevermore (2 Discs). Also, for the authentic hand-signed promo photos of these wrestling personalities to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: Dixie Carter (personalized), Robbie E., Gunner, Bully Ray, Devon, Kurt Angle, James Storm, Velvet Sky, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Jeff Hardy (facepaint), Jeff Hardy (2 copies), and Christy Hemme (7 copies). (Thanks specifically to Claire Surratt Francis, Licensing Manager)

• World Wrestling Entertainment - for the new DVD of WWE Night of Champions 2008 to replace the one that was damaged by the flood; the new DVDs of the movies Legendary and Knucklehead to replace the Blu-ray versions that were damaged by the flood; and the bonus DVDs: WWE Extreme Rules 2013, The Ladder Match 2: Crash and Burn (3 discs), WCW War Games: WCW's Most Notorious Matches (3 discs), Legends of Mid-South Wrestling (3 discs), The Best of WWE at Madison Square Garden (3 discs), ECW Unreleased Vol. 2 (3 discs), and Legends of Wrestling Collection: Lawler & JYD/Flair & Slaughter/Heatseekers - only the latter of which did I already own. (Thanks specifically to Sue Aitchison, Director of Community Relations)

• Sony Computer Entertainment America - for the new copies of these video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: MotorStorm (PS3), Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3), Twisted Metal: Head On (Extra Twisted Edition) (PS2), The Getaway: Black Monday (PS2), Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2), Ratchet: Deadlocked (PS2), and Secret Agent Clank (PS2); plus the bonus Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2) game (HSG Fore was the one that got damaged). (Thanks specifically to Jennifer Clark, Senior Director of Public Relations)

• Crystal Dynamics - for the new copies of these video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: Tomb Raider: Legend (PS2) and Tomb Raider III (PS1); plus the bonus copy of Tomb Raider (2013) for Xbox 360 (though I don't have that system), the Art of Tomb Raider mini-book and "Protective Survival Pouch" (both from the Collector's/Survival Editions of the game), and the Tomb Raider metal bottle opener/keychain. (Thanks specifically to Meagan Marie, Community & Communication Manager; and Justin Kranzl from Square-Enix's public relations department)

• Namco/Bandai - for the new PS3 video games: Armored Core: Verdict Day, Dark Souls, InVersion, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst, Ridge Racer: Unbounded, and Soul Calibur V. They didn't have any of the ruined games, but they were kind enough to send me these bonus games, which I greatly appreciate. (Thanks specifically to Nick O'Leary from the Public Relations department)

• Rockstar Games / 2K Games - for the new copies of these video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: Family Guy Video Game (PS2), Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (PS2), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC). Also the PC copies of Bully (Scholarship Edition) and Starsky & Hutch, which kinda replace the ruined PS2 copies. (Bully PC has more content than PS2 so it's actually an upgrade - just on a different system.) Also the PS2 Greatest Hits releases of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto Double Pack (III/Vice City), which kinda replace the ruined PS2 Original versions. Plus the bonus PS3 games: Grand Theft Auto V, Max Payne 3, 2K Rogues And Outlaws Collection 3-Pack (Spec Ops: The Line/Borderlands 2/Mafia II), 2K Power Pack 3-Pack (Darkness II/Bioshock 2/Mafia II), Midnight Club: Los Angeles, L.A. Noire, and NBA 2K14. In addition to the games, they also sent along a Characters of Grand Theft Auto V Sticker Pack, two Grand Theft Auto V/Five Logo Keychains, and a whole bunch of t-shirts: Rockstar - Mason-Style Switchblades & Needles (dark grey) (medium), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 10th Anniversary - Logo (black) (medium), (2) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 10th Anniversary - Infernus (light blue/purple) (medium), Grand Theft Auto V/Five Logo (black) (medium), San Andreas Federal Reserve System (light green) (large), Los Santos (white) (large), and Los Santos (black) (large). Click on the previous links to buy your own shirts via Rockstar's online store (all but the San Andreas Federal Reserve System shirt are available there). (Thanks specifically to Bella Benson and Adam Perry, whose names were on the two packages I magically received the day after I sent my last ditch effort mass e-mail)

• Activision - for the new copies of these PS2 video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: Shrek 2, True Crime: New York City; plus the bonus copy of Call of Duty: Ghosts (PS3). Also, thanks to GameStop (whom Activision contacted for additional help) for the new DISC ONLY copies of these PS2 video games to replace the ones that were damaged by the flood: Over The Hedge, X-Men: The Official Game; plus the bonus Harry Potter Baggage Cart Lego Mini-Kit, and the Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise Kre-O Mini-Kit (photos of the GameStop items are below). (Thanks specifically to Mike Mantarro from the Public Relations department for really going above and beyond the call of duty - pun intended - for tracking down copies of the PS2 games, and contacting Jackie Smith [public relations] and Sarah Trigg [Corporate Giving and Community Relations Coordinator] at GameStop for an assist)

• Highspots - for selling me at cost ($2 for the discs only, plus $3 shipping) the 2-DVD set "The Best & Worst of Alexis Laree: The Making of Mickie James", and the free "Wendi Richter Shoot Interview" (January 2005 at WrestleReunion) disc, to replace the discs that were damaged by the flood (the Wendi disc was rendered unplayable); though I wish he would have also sent new DVD liners to replace the wrinkled and warped ones the hurricane left me with.

(Banner Image Source: BethelBulletin.com)

Updated on March 10, 2017

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UPDATE - In an effort to make the photo documentation of the house trips easier to find, here are the quick links to all Facebook photo galleries about the East Rockaway house. The November 2, 2012 gallery is NEW (posted July 17, 2013), as I have finally decided to make public all of the photos I took on that first visit back to the house after the storm. Previously, only four of these photos were made public.

• Fri. November 2, 2012 (first visit to the house since the storm)
• Wed. April 10, 2013 (first time inside the house since Jan. 22nd)
• Mon. May 27, 2013
• Fri. June 28, 2013
• Fri. September 13, 2013
• Fri. November 8, 2013 (high resolution)
• Fri. May 23, 2014
• Fri. March 13, 2015
• Wed. June 10, 2015
• Wed. October 14, 2015
• Wed. December 7, 2016
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If you came to this site on April 1, 2013, you would have seen this Spook Central Elementary replacement main page instead of the Ghostbusters fansite Spook Central. The Spook Central Facebook page was also altered, too. Clicking on the link at the bottom of the replacement main page would have taken you to this blog post displaying the message below.

Major thanks to Tim Tilley, creator of Spook Central Elementary for not only allowing me to use his creation as my April Fools Day prank, but for getting in on the fun by posting kayfabe messages about it on Twitter and Facebook.

---

No, the Ghostbusters site you've known and loved for over 16 years isn't being replaced by a children's book series. This was just my little way to celebrate the pranking holiday known as April Fools Day. While I may or may not be 100% back to my old computing life thanks to Hurricane Sandy five months ago, I didn't want to pass up on the chance to pull this prank, which I've been planning for a year now.

That said, Spook Central Elementary IS a real thing; and the logo, character images, and description you read on the replacement page are 100% real. They were all created by Tim A. Tilley, an author and artist, who has been trying to get Spook Central Elementary made into a children's book series, or a comic book series, or a series of novels for the better part of a decade now. Heck, I even wrote about it on The Real Spook Central (colored uniforms coming soon) back in 2008. Sadly, as of today it is still unpublished in any form. I guess it's hard to get anything published these days if your last name isn't Rowling or Meyer.

Anyway, Spook Central Elementary (and Tim Tilley) has a pretty substantial presence on the internet, which you can check out at any of the urls below.

• http://twitter.com/spookcentral
• http://twitter.com/Spook__Central
• http://www.facebook.com/spookcentralseries
• http://www.facebook.com/spookcentral
• http://www.myspace.com/spookcentralelementary
• http://www.youtube.com/spookcentralseries
• http://spookcentral.tumblr.com
• http://pinterest.com/spookcentral
• http://timtilley.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=Spook+Central
• 11/18/2004 Initial Designs on Anglefire

If you ever wondered why I use "spookcentralgb" as my url on social media, now you know why. As you can see, I won't be able to use "spookcentral" on Tumblr or Pinterest either :-)

Back in November of last year, as I was languishing away in a Red Cross emergency shelter, due to my family's home of 23 years being taken away from us by Hurricane Sandy, several Ghostheads put forth charitable efforts to help me in my time of need. One of these fine folks was renowned artist "Dapper" Dan Schoening.

As mentioned in the blog posts here and here, which were posted on Spook Central in my absence, Dan auctioned off a copy of IDW's Ghostbusters #9 RIB variant, with the winner getting to decide what Dan would draw on that blank cover. This was significant for the fact that all of the other hand-drawn covers for this issue were drawn by Tristan Jones - including the one I bought for Spook Central. This would be the only one to be drawn by Dan Schoening.

The eBay auction ended on (or about) November 16, 2012. The book sold for $380 with 32 bids; which was $350 after eBay fees. The winner of the auction was Tristan Boutros, who had Dan draw one of the most awesome covers I have ever seen for the entire Ghostbusters series. I dare anyone to try to name everyone that appears on the cover.

[UPDATE - Mrmichaelt commented below that the entities seen on the cover are Slimer, Sandman, Wat, Samhain, Grundel, Hob Anagarak, Boogieman, Zunk, Slug, Snarg, and the Big with Mean Teeth Ghost from The Real Ghostbusters intro sequence. Plus the blaster chair from Kenner's Ecto-1 toy is on the roof of the car, and the firehouse is in the background, of course. Tristan himself commented that the people in/on Ecto-1 are himself (the Ray lookalike), his wife (the Agent Ortiz lookalike), and his son (the boy on the roof).]

I'd like to express my eternal gratitude to Dan Schoening and Tristan Boutros, for helping me and my family. Mere words can't express how I truly feel.



While I'm on the subject of IDW comic book covers...

A few months ago I asked my long-time friend Doreen Mulman for a favor, since she knows voice artists Tara Strong (Kylie in Extreme Ghostbusters) and Laura Summer (first Janine in The Real Ghostbusters). Doreen, with a big assist from our mutual friend Nora Salisbury, managed to make it happen! And what, you may ask, was that favor? Well, take a look for yourself...


It's okay to be jealous :-)

[UPDATE - 3/26/2013]
The two signed comics arrived in the mail today. They are even more beautiful than they are in the photos seen above (taken by Doreen before she sent them out). I couldn't help but also notice how fitting it is that (A) there's a Real Ghostbusters back-up story in the book (though Janine isn't in Part 1), and (B) there's an ad for the My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle mini-series in the back of the book (Tara voices Twilight Sparkle on the television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic).

In the late 1990s Spook Central moved around quite a bit from free webhost to free webhost. As a way to give the site some stability, and prevent my regular visitors from having the hassle of constantly updating their bookmarks, I signed up for a free URL Forwarding/Redirection service from CJB.net. Instead of wondering where the site is now, visitors could bookmark SpookCentral.cjb.net and always be taken to the site no matter where it technically was located.

Over the years there were many annoyances that came along with the CJB.net service, such as pop-up ads being forced upon my visitors, or an interstitial "waiting" screen before the redirect, but for the most part the service was good. It even allowed me to set up forwarding urls pointing to specific pages and files, such as spookcentral.cjb.net/website_archives_paul.htm.

Within the past year or two, the company who runs CJB.net started a new annoyance, but this one was for me alone. Every 90 days I would be required to log in to the site and "renew" my CJB.net subdomain name. Mind you, I've been a loyal user for OVER 13 YEARS, and thus shouldn't have to be bothered with this annoyance, but I was willing to do it in order to keep the spookcentral.cjb.net url active, especially since there are still a lot of old links out there pointing to it.

On March 1st I received the usual "Your CJB.NET account will expire in 30 days!" e-mail. In the past (such as with the last e-mail on December 1, 2012), I would click on the link provided in the e-mail, log in, and the url would be renewed for another 90 days. This time, however, when I clicked on the renew link in the e-mail, it took me to PayPal where I was asked to pay $19.99 for a one-year renewal!!!

In the 13+ years that I've been using the CJB.net *FREE* url forwarding service, not once was I ever asked to pay for the service. Up until a few years ago, I didn't even need to go through the annoying renewal procedure. I was never informed that the *FREE* url forwarding service would be discontinued in favor of a paid service. I don't even see a notice stating as such on the CJB.net website, though I also don't see the url forwarding service (free or paid) being offered anymore.

I e-mailed CJB management (cjb@cjb.net -and- cjb@cjbmanagement.com) a week ago, but have yet to hear back from them. Considering how hidden these e-mails were on their website, I probably won't hear back from them as they obviously don't want their users to ever contact them.

For what it's worth, it might be for the best that I'm losing the spookcentral.cjb.net url, as nearly every major site currently around blocks CJB.net urls. If you came here through the spookcentral.cjb.net url, or you have it bookmarked, change your links or bookmarks to SpookCentral.tk ASAP as the spookcentral.cjb.net url will cease to exist come April 1st. Talk about an April Fools trick!

Updated on October 1, 2014

As my family is now, for the most part, settled into our new home, and everything that was undamaged or salvageable has been moved from the old home, there are two main tasks ahead of us: (1) Try to salvage the damp stuff brought over from the old house, and (2) Get myself a new desktop computer. I am going to post my progress on each of these tasks in two separate blog posts here. This one will deal with the salvaging project.

FYI: You can use the url below to easily link to all articles here on Spook Central about my family and Hurricane Sandy:
http://tinyurl.com/rudoff-hurricane-sandy

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Updated on February 11, 2014

As my family is now, for the most part, settled into our new home, and everything that was undamaged or salvageable has been moved from the old home, there are two main tasks ahead of us: (1) Try to salvage the damp stuff brought over from the old house, and (2) Get myself a new desktop computer. I am going to post my progress on each of these tasks in two separate blog posts here. This one will deal with the computer.

FYI: You can use the url below to easily link to all articles here on Spook Central about my family and Hurricane Sandy:
http://tinyurl.com/rudoff-hurricane-sandy

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Updated on January 22, 2013

This photo shows some of the unsalvageable flood-damaged Ghostbusters-related items lying on the floor of my old house. Going from left to right, we see:

• Nearly 50 copies of IDW's Ghostbusters #9 comic book. You see the Winston covers, but the other covers got ruined, too.
  
  
• All four of the Titan Book TPB reprints of the old Marvel UK Real Ghostbusters comic books - "Who You Gonna Call?", "Which Witch Is Which", "This Ghost Is Toast", and "A Hard Days Fright".
  
  
• A factory-sealed copy of the original Steelbook edition of TimeLife's The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection DVD box set. You can see the top and bottom halves of the firehouse box, which is now falling apart. The still-sealed Steelbook volumes are in between the box halves.
  
  
• Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted (TokyoPop manga TPB).

Hiding there near the middle right side (just above the "A Hard Days Fright" book) is the back of a No Ghost logo t-shirt tag (black square with white circle on it). The shirt's fine, but the paper tag obviously isn't.

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Updated on December 31, 2012

Hi Everyone

Good news! My family and I are no longer living at the Red Cross emergency shelter at Nassau Community College. We spent six grueling weeks there, and we left nearly exactly to the day and time we arrived. We entered on Monday October 29th at 11:00-11:30 AM, and we left on Monday December 10th at roughly 11:00 AM.

We're now living in a small two-family house in Valley Stream - which is just two towns away from East Rockaway. The house is surrounded by parking lots - there's no front yard, no backyard, no grass to be seen anywhere! It's the only house on the block. On the other side of the block are the backs of the houses from the condominium complex on the next block over.

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Last updated on December 8, 2012

For previous updates, please see the "Spook Central On Hiatus / Making Ghostbusters PDF eBook Preserved" blog post.

This blog post contains the next set of updates. The last blog got way too crowded and so I got approval to start a second blog post. To keep things simple and to the point, I'll be simply copying and relaying Paul Rudoff's comments and news here on this blog post. - Matthew Jordan

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