not sure why that would be. it's just a direct link to the file on my server.
it looks pretty much exactly like the photo at the top of this forum page.
http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/59309/page-output-in-strange-characters
if i look at the page source code, it looks the same...no change. i am reading more about improper encoding being sent being a reason for random unicode characters being inserted into otherwise normal text. i don't know if something is changing the encoding completely through all the mess that's leaving me with that page.