It's Over! : (

Well, the Pumpkins were thrown out last night, leftover candy was sent off with my brother-in-law as a reward for his students, and One Ring is moving into her favorite holiday time of the year (Thanksgiving - apparently no gifts, no decorations, and working towards minimal drama makes it number one with a bullet). As for me, I'm in mourning.

It's not just that Halloween has passed us by for another year - and was once again almost eclipsed by the Christmas decorations which have been smuggled into just about every store I entered this month. It's just that, well, I think maybe I should have started the celebrations sooner, so I could have gotten more worked in. As it was, I spent most nights coming home from work, crashing, and thinking of what I would do if I had the energy, money, and time. Curse you, need for employment! You cause such a massive buzz kill!

So, I figure I'll do what other blogs seem to be doing in honor of the sad times: create a "best and worst of" list and talk about what I'd like to do if I get a promotion that's being talked about in mythic terms (It's coming, but we don't know when!). Here goes:

Best Movie: Trick 'r Treat. Close second, 1408. Both are scary without being gory -we don't do splatter horror. Unlike the chaplain with whom I work, the Saw movies are verboten in my house. Honorable mention goes to Ginger Snaps and Dog Soldiers. Both, in case you haven't heard of them, are werewolf movies. Le Pacte de Loupe (aka The Brotherhood of the Wolf) and Sleepy Hollow are also on my fave list, although I didn't get to them this year.

Worst Movie: Carnival of Souls. We actually saw this a few years ago, but it remains the worst horror movie I've ever intentionally seen during the Halloween season. The worst one we saw this year was The Innocents, followed closely by Let's Scare Jessica to Death - it was the ending that sent it straight into this category. Dishonorable mention goes to The Ninth Gate. Again, a confused ending and incredibly goofy glasses worn by the villian - played by Frank Langella - did this one in.

Geeky villians are so not scary! And his demise was one of the dumbest things I've seen in a horror movie.

Things I'd like to see more of in future Halloween celebrations: Better decorations. Yep, I'm one of those people who want people to decorate their yard in themes. I don't want to see someone's house look like a Big Lots truck overturned in their driveway! If you're going to have zombies come out of the ground, don't put a smiling scarecrow right next to them. And if you're going to spend the money on realistic looking headstones, try to make everything look realistic, and not place them side by side with cheap plastic ghosts.

I'm loving what people are doing in the DIY world of Halloween decorations (see links on the right), and part of the reason I love the Haunted Mansion in Disney World so much is that it's themed, and the quality of the displays is consistent. I think people should do the same. If you want a light-hearted theme, stick with it. Ditto with the gore factor.

Things I'd like to see less of in future Halloween celebrations: Ridiculous reality ghost hunting shows. Ghost Hunters (on the newly renamed SyFy channel) has been dinged repeatedly for faking hauntings, and I can only assume that all the other similar melodramatic programs - Most Haunted is by far the worst in my opinion (Hey, let's scream for no reason! That will help our ratings!) - pull the same stunts. Now we have Paranormal State and, get this, Extreme Paranormal, to add even more cheesy infrared camera shots and overblown stories of tragedies to our television diet.

Honestly, these shows come on every week, and every week they find "evidence" of ghosts and hauntings. Doesn't anyone out there find this suspicious? Sure, I could be swayed if evidence was found in one or two places every now and then, but everywhere, every time? With that kind of record, it stands to reason that ghosts and goblins and every other kind of supernatural being are crammed into every building, graveyard, nook and cranny of the world. Every person alive should be running into hauntings all the time. But we aren't. Which makes me wonder, with a very cynical mind, what's really going on here?

So let's tone those down, okay? And let's have the writers for those cheesy shows (and they do have writers, by the way - hmmm, wonder why?) create some scary fictional programming for us to watch. Just a thought.

Unfortunately, I need to get back to work. More later.

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Best Horror Movie List EVAH!

Only a couple of minutes before chaos once again consumes my office and my day, but I had to post this ASAP. I heard a piece about this horror movie list today on NPR during my morning commute and decided that linking to it was a must. Why? Two words for you, my friends, "Martin Scorsese." This guy is so cool he even turned a top ten list into a top eleven list! How anti-establishment is that???

Anyway, courtesy of The Daily Beast, is the list to end all lists. Enjoy.

My only dispute is with #10 - The Innocents. Sure there were plenty of creepy moments, and I never read the Henry James novella upon which it was based, but there was a huge logic jump by the protagonist that was never explained - how did she figure out what was going on? - and the ending didn't make sense at all. I would have left that one off. But hey, I'm not Marty Scorsese

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Well, I DID Ask for a Quiet Day ...

Nothing going on. I'm all set for tomorrow's clinic. The only interesting thing is that Drink Man just IM'd me and told me that he was quitting to take a job in Charleston, SC. Of course, we've been on this road before and he's backed down / cooled off each time. So we'll see if he's serious. Probably be a good thing, since he's had a lousy attitude which has been bringing me down.

Nope, it's just been the occasional bit of paper work, getting ready for clinic, and this, which I guess qualifies as a different kind of paper work.

According to the book - Crane Origami (translated by Yoko Ishiguro) - this is a "good luck crane." Though, to be honest, I've seen similar designs referred to as peacocks. Oh, well. I made it and it's sitting on my desk below my small Buddha statue.

Time for some caffeine. Heading home in an hour, and One Ring informed me earlier that the in-laws made it into town. So I have to be awake and on my game when I get home!

Peace.

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Halloween Pumpkin Time!

I am at work, and for once there is nothing going on. And there is much rejoicing. The Doctor is off doing her thing, Annoying Coworker hasn't shown his face too much since our last email battle over policies and procedures, and the boss is off at meetings. Even Drink Man is not in; he's stuck at home waiting on a plumber.

So that leaves me free and (relatively) stress free to post pics from last night's pumpkin carving party. The party was a huge success, although attendance was minimal due to illness and torrential rains - one friend pointed out that whenever One Ring and I host something, it pours. Odd. Still, we carved some awesome gourds, if I do say so myself. But first, a brag from yours truly - The Haunted Mansion model is just about complete!

There are a couple of cosmetic details that need to be added, and it would have been finished in time of the party, but what initially looked like two steps turned out to be roughly 24. So obviously the roof metalwork and some of the masonry was not added. Still, I was able to bring it out and show off.

That being done, it was time to carve up some pumpkins!


One of our friends decided to go old school, as in pre-Christian Celtic tradition of using turnips(the tradition changed to using pumpkins for Jack O' Lanterns when the Irish came to America)! We thought she'd be in for a fight, trying to cut faces into the little things, but she came out with an awesome trio of retro looking jack o' lanterns.



After a minor setback involving the gross discovery that his pumpkin had rotted from the inside and was now populated by a colony of fruit flies and other nasties, another friend switched to his backup - a "ghost" pumpkin. I had never seen one of these carved. Turns out that the interior is a light green, almost melon color. I have no idea if it tastes the same as a traditional pumpkin, and I wasn't about to find out. He followed another tradition - carving a face free hand with only his imagination and a knife.

One Ring joined me in chosing a design from this year's Pumpkin Masters books. I thought she did an excellent job, despite having a massive pumpkin that had extremely thick walls. I like the topic, as haunted houses and ghosts are a few of my favorite things!

I had trouble deciding which design to use at first; this year's designs were really good and there were a few from books we had bought over the last several seasons that looked great, too. But I finally decided on this one, which I thought captured the spirit of Halloween. When I imagine what a personification of Samhain (pronounced "Sow-win") looks like, this is kind of what I see. Of course, others have depicted Samhain in similar ways, so it's nothing original. Oh, I deviated from the traditional by using a craft pumpkin, which is essentially a styrofoam shell spraypainted orange. It is very thin, so carving is easier. The only downside is that I can't use candles in it, since it's VERY flamable.

All of these pictures were taken with my cell phone camera, which explains the poor resolution. One ring took several with our digital camera, and those pictures came out great. They're on my facebook page at the moment, and I'll try to copy them over here if I can remember.

Well, back to the grind. Hopefully more will be posted later.

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Yes, I Am Still Alive

Insert apology about not blogging and using this site primarily to locate bookmarks to other sites here. Add excuse about being exceptionally busy due to increased work load, fighting with annoying coworker (including an email war that ended late yesterday afternoon), and too many after work activities to list. Include rationalization that it's easier to put things up on Facebook than it is here. And sum up with a short dismissal, such as, "Sorry, but that's just the way things are."

So, with that out of the way, let's get back to the world that I know - it's Halloween time!

Tonight is our annual pumpkin carving party, and we're busy decorating, crafting, and preparing the gourds for destruction. The Haunted Mansion model is just about complete, with only one more, barely necessary addition required before it goes on display. We're expecting 6-8 people, and I'll be posting pictures when they become available.

Speaking of Halloween parties, if you get a chance, see Trick 'R Treat. I won't let on any more than this: we haven't been observing the holiday correctly, and Sam - short for Samhain, the spirit of the holiday - isn't happy. It's a collection of four wonderfully written intertwined stories that all have unexpected twists and turns. It's definitely the best horror film we've seen this season, followed closely by 1408 and Reincarnation.

I won't mention all the horrible films I've sat through this season, but I know I'm not alone in noticing that for every good horror film that comes out, there are hundreds of stinkers. Sad, really. You would think that film makers would invest in, I don't know, maybe scripts? Real scripts, written by writers who have talent? Doesn't seem to much to ask, but apparently it is. Oh, well.

Anyway, I'm going back to sharpening my sword, should Annoying Coworker decide to take another verbal swing at me. Just another day in paradise. I'll write more either today, should my schedule allow, or tomorrow, when I get the pictures of the party up.

Peace.

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I Want Another Adventure ...

... but I'm too tired!

Seriously, I'm exhausted. I guess I didn't sleep enough last night, or maybe the weather (rain and cold for the last several days) is finally getting to me. Either way, my productivity is way low and my desire to leave work early is way high.

There's a lot I could be doing - not all of it work related. I need to make a copy of the sheet music I've been studying for my guitar instructor (we're on the second solo of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb!). I also smuggled in an origami book, mainly because I'm in desperate need of business card holders and paperclip boxes here.

Of course, there's always closing my office door and snoozing the next hour and a half away!

Today's payday, too, so that means online shopping for important items such as candle making supplies and various non essentials. Plus there's a bottle of rum that I tasted during last weekend's adventures in rural Tennessee (yes, Tennessee has a rum distillery! Only one, though). Trouble was, they couldn't sell it to me there (dry county, just like the one where they make Jack Daniel's whisky), so I need to find a liquor store where they sell it. So far, no luck, as the one right by my house only seems to carry Captain Morgan's, Bacardi, and Sailor Jerry. And since I want to drink rum and not set anything on fire, that leaves the last two brands right out! So it's off on an after work expedition to a couple of shops that I do not frequent.

Outside of the rum, though, there's nothing even remotely pirate-y going on in my life. And that's just too sad for words. Oh, sure I could dress up as a buccaneer for Halloween, but I prefer more ghostly related things for this time of the year. Oh, well.

Speaking of Ghostly things, I am almost finished with the scale model of the Haunted Mansion! Photos to come.

In the meantime, I'm going back to killing time and seeing if I can get off work in 30 minutes or less. It's like pizza delivery, only much better!

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New Additions to the Link List

Today was pretty hectic in the morning, but starting at noon it slowed to a crawl. So, naturally, I found ways to amuse myself by surfing the net and finding new links to put up. I took down several that were no longer fun to look at or had apparently gone defunct (I'm looking at YOU, Supernatural News!). In their place I put up several Halloween related sites that I happen to think rock - especially you're into the decorating / creating a haunted house side of the holiday. If you're just in it for the candy, then I'm afraid I don't have much to offer.

Here are the new stars of my link list:

Carnival of Souls is a blog that is also home to an awesome program called "Imagineerieing." Basically they've created a computer / video program to allow us non-tech geeks to have "magic mirror" effects ("Mirror, Mirror, on the wall ..." type stuff) on video screens that are part of displays. They also have a lot of DIY stuff that is cool to peruse.

Halloween Monsterlist is just that - a HUGE list of links to all kinds of Halloween decoration projects. Want to learn how to create moving ghost window displays? It's here. Want to make a backwards running 13 hour clock? It's here, too. Bubbling Cauldron? Bottomless Pit? Magical Fire? Yep, yep, and heck yeah.

How to Haunt Your House is a website based around a book. Or maybe it's a book that was written after the website. Anyway, they've got a book and an incredible site with video instructions and great ideas. Anyone who wants to buy me this book will be my friend for a long time to come.

And last, but not least, Ravensblight brings a couple of my favorite things together, Halloween and papercrafts. If the designs on Paper Model Purgatory are too complex (it's year 3, and I'm still not done with my Haunted Mansion model!), then you might want to take a look at Ravensblight. They have designs for toys, games, and party fortune telling games. They also have music, art, and short stories - all horror related and all free. Not a bad way to spend some free time this month!

So there you go. Now get out there and start creating something scary!

Oh, and if anyone can find a website that has Halloween and pirates covered, let me know.

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