I'm recently just had a friend of mine offer to host a blog for me outside of the web community. Even though I don't have a lot to say just yet, I thought I'd at least point you over there.
I dunno what's worse for me Post-Halloween Blues or Post-Christmas Blues. I would probably lean towards Halloween. Honestly the blues start at clean up of my Halloween Party. My mood does go up right before I take my daughter out trick-or-treating. But then crashes hard after I put her to bed.
Ah well. Like I had stated yesterday in my post that was never seen, this season overall was a pretty darn good one. Halloween Horror Nights was a blast. We were able to get 13 people in a house for a weekend and no one managed to kill anyone else. As a matter of fact it was really a good time.
We did a weekend at the pumpkin farm which was good. Heyrides, apple fritters and pumpkins as far as the eye could see. And the best broccoli I've ever had!
It wasn't looking good for the party at first. What is usually the climax of my favorite season was looking like it was going to be a bit wet. But the weather actually did cooperate this year and it ended upbeing an extremely mild evening with an outdoor drive-in, campfire, good food, good friends and lots of drink (something I am going to seriously consider cutting down on next year )
I just realized that my blog from this morning never got posted. Well shoot. Nevermind. I just wanted to thank everyone who made this season as fun as it was. To our great time down in Orlando through to the party this past Saturday. This was a good one. One that makes me flash-foward to next year faster than I have in the past. I can't wait.
I will end with this card I am sending to myself in honor of this year's party.
Of course, as predicted the service was still up when the tech came out yesterday. And that was the other thing. After telling the guy on the phone numerous times that I wouldn't be available during the day yesterday, I get a call at noon from the tech wondering when I was going to be home. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!
Now, mind you I understand this is not the tech's fault. He just picked up the ticket that said I had trouble and that's all he knows. I explain to him my situation and he tells me that he is going to try and get some overtime anyway and could probably make it over to my house once I get off work. Fantastic!
So he made it over, and I sheepishly told him the network was up fully expecting him to throw his arms up and drive away. However, this was not the case. He seemed unfazed and said he was going to go through and check everything that could be the problem and fix it. This included replacing all kinds of old things (ie splitters) with new one and so forth.
Long story short (too late) its been good to go and I am back happy again. Woopie!
You know that law that says if your car is making a noise and you take it into the mechanic it is NOT going to make that noise until you bring in home after the mechanic has told you there is nothing wrong with it? (wow there's a run-on sentence for ya)
Well that law applies to most everything. And for me, its been my internet service. I have DSL service through Verizon. I've had it for around 5 years. If I were to look over the course of that time its really not been that bad. I ran into one problem that they eventually did solve after much hastle but they fixed it and its been running pretty smooth ever since.
But for the past, say 6 months, I'm had some disruptions in service that don't seem to have any rhyme or reason. I had lightning strike the back yard early in the summer. We had someone come out (eventually) and did find a problem with crossed wires. Good, problem solved. Then about a month later, I found that I would lose service intermittently. I found that if I swap out the phone cable for a new one, it would fix itself. (for a couple of weeks). Then it would start up again. Eventually after many calls and arguments I decided it was my modem. It was old and probably should have been upgraded. So I get them to send me out a new modem. I hook it up and viola, fixed. Until yesterday. I lost service, swapped out the cable, got service, and then lost service again 5 minutes later.
I called my 'friends' at Tech support. I give them credit for a least not having me jump through 1000 hoops before the guy said I needed someone to come out and look at the line. Great. Of course I also had to get into an argument when the guy wanted to send a technician out today between 8am and 7pm. With the fact that I work for a living, it was just not possible. Its near the end of the year and I couldn't just take a day off to wait for them. So I requested a Saturday. I wasn't promised one, but said he would try. There is an alternate day set for next Friday since I already had to take off that day. *sigh*
Of course the end to this story is that I woke up this morning and we had service. You would think I would be happy. But no. You see I don't like things breaking and then magically fixing themselves. Sure its possible that the problem was on Verizon's end and they fixed it. But thats not how this stuff works. How it works is this: Verizon will test the line one more time before they send a tech out, they will see that service has returned, they will cancel the mantainence request (because they can't senf someone out to fix something that is not broken) and then and ONLY then, will I lose service again.
It BEGINS! Preparations have been going on for a couple of months now, but this is the time when things truly start to move. One week from Saturday, Count Jergula (with his lovely Countess) is hosting the annual Halloween Gala. It is the bookend to the Halloween season that began with our Halloween Horror Nights trip at the beginning of October. I'm a bit more excited this year than last. For some reason there was some vicious wind the night and I think it scared people away. The turnout wasn't nearly as high as I like to see it and I don't blame them. Plus I was premiering the latest upgrade to my party, the outdoor movie theater! I had pinned a white tablecloth to the back of the tent set-up the was outside. Not only did the wind keep people from congragating outside, but it also managed to ALMOST blow the entire tent away. So this year I'm having a friend build me a movie screen out of stronger materials. Of course the tent blowing away wasn't nearly as nerve racking as having a fire pit in the back yard with flying embers whipping around people wearing highly flammable costumes.
Now I pray to the god of Halloween to give me a calm clear crisp night. I only truly ask for it one night a year. Please?
I was just commenting to my wife that I need to start blogging more often (again). I just ran across an old blog from two years ago and I was pretty cool seeing where I was in my life only two years ago. Things that are now old habit were brand-new and anxiety producing. So here I am, blogging some more.
There certainly has been lots to talk about. I've been back from Orlando for over a week and a half and have yet to talk about it. Strange, considering I had an absolute blast. This year we went a different route and decided to rent a 7 bedroom house. It was awesome. It had a screened-in private pool, big screen TV, game room with pool table...everything we could ask for! Plus it was a good bit cheaper than the previous year. After the whole reason for going was our second annual trip to Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights!
The was a solid event this year. The houses were all wonderful in their own way, with our favorite being the clown house in 3D. We did have to deal with some downpours on occasion, but that didn't ruin our fun in the least. In fact it cleared the park out a bit which made it better to go through the houses. I even got to relive a bit of the college days when we attended their Rocky Horror Picture Show tribute. I was distraught to hear from my cousin Travis (who does freelance work for Universal) that the show has been getting lots of complaints because of content. Even though the event itself is catered more toward adults AND there is a BIG warning before entering the show that its of an adult nature, you still get people taking their kids. I'll never understand why they are shocked and dismayed when they see men running around in fishnet stockings, but for some reason have less of a problem with a man running around in a mask made of human skin disembowling a screaming victim.
The rest of the week was spend swimming, playing Guitar Hero and watching horror films. I also thank my cousin Justin for introducing me to my first episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We watched the emmy-nominated episode Hush, featuring some of the most disturbing characters every created, the Gentlemen. Although if you wanna see something really disturbing, watch this:
Wikipedia defines fanboy as: a term used to describe an individual (usually male, though the feminine version fangirl may be used for females) who is utterly devoted to a single fannish subject, or to a single point of view within that subject, often to the point where it is considered an obsession. Fanboys remain loyal to their particular obsession, disregarding any factors that differ from their point of view.
Those who know me know that I have a love for all things Halloween. It is my favorite holiday, that also happens to fall in my favorite season. Its is also one of my favorite films. Let me be more specific. John Carpenter's Halloween released in 1978 is one of my favorite films. Not horror films...just films. I also want to make it clear that it not my favorite horror franchise. I find the Evil Dead Trilogy, Romero's Dead Films and even the Friday the 13th films to be a more entertaining GROUP of films.
But I consider the original Halloween to be just tops. (I do have a lesser love for part 2)
So everyone around thought I would be quite excited to know that there was a new Halloween movie out. *sigh* No. I haven't been excited about a sequel since part 4 and that's only because it had been 7 years since we last saw old Michael. And after that I wish we would have never seen him again. As much as I felt the sequels continue to hurt peoples view of the series, I knew that as long as they made money and were cheap to produce, they would continue to be released. And I was ok with that.
But now there is a more distrubing trend. Call them reimaginings, reboots, whatever. They're remakes. The idea of remaking an older film is nothing new. Its been going on since the invention of film. John Carpenter himself remade The Thing and not only wasn't I bothered by it, I actually love that movie. But when I heard Rob Zombie was going to helm a remake of Halloween, I was neverous but also intrigued. As news of the cast started to spill out I was hopeful. Brad Douriff was to play Sheriff Brackett. Cool. I like Brad Douriff. Great actor. Loved him in Deadwoood. And Christ the guy is Chucky. OK. Nobody else really mattered to me except for one. Donald Pleasance cemented himself as one of my favorite actors of all time when he donned the trechcoat to play Dr. Sam Loomis. He did so many other wonderful things before that but if he had only ever played Loomis, he would still be one of my favorite actors. So when I heard the Malcom McDowell was going to play Loomis. Honestly I started to get a bit excited. Maybe, just maybe this could work.
But then, I started to hear things. People were getting a hold of the script and started posting script reviews. I normally stay away from them but why should I care about spoilers? I know this movie backwards and forwards. As I read the reviews the smile on my face started to fade. Mr. Z was removing everything I felt made Halloween what it was. He was elaborating on Michael's childhood. He was giving him the standard 'broken home'. He was giving him a stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold Mom and a foul-mouthed redneck father. He was turning Michael into a sympathetic character. He made him into any disturbed individual you might see on the nightly news. For all intents and purposes, he unmasked the boogeyman. He turned the lights on in the house, so that we could expose this 'evil' for what it was. And by doing so, removed all the fun from the movie.
Let me borrow a passage from a review I read recently:
"There's a great track on the new album by Patton Oswalt that's all about his disappointments with the STAR WARS prequels, and I think it's one of the most succinct explanations I've ever heard anyone offer. He doesn't wail about his raped childhood or anything else like that... instead, he imagines a conversation with George Lucas circa mid-1990s, as he's gearing up to write the stories.
George Lucas - "You say you're a STAR WARS fan. Do you like Darth Vader?"
Patton Oswold - "I fucking love Darth Vader, man. The helmet and the cape… with the sword. That's great, man! Is he in the first movie?"
GL - "Uh, yeah. In the first movie, you get to see him as a little kid."
Patton tries to take it in stride, but Lucas continues, telling him about the second film a bit.
GL - "Well, hey, don't worry, cause guess who shows up in the second movie. Boba Fett."
PO - "Very fucking cool! Boba Fett! Yes! With the helmet, and he's a bounty hunter! That is so cool!"
GL - "Yeah, and in the second movie, you get to see him as a little kid."
You can sense Patton's growing exasperation.
PO - "I do not give a shit about that. I could not care less."
GL - "Well, in the third movie, guess what shows up? The Death Star."
PO - "Oh, that's... what is it doing, George?"
GL - "They're just building it."
And that does it. Patton just finally snaps, ramping up to the realization that pulls it all into focus for me.
PO - "I don't give a shit where the stuff I love comes from! I just love the stuff I love!"
Part of what made Michael scary was not knowing why. Why does he do these things, what is his motivation. Dr. Loomis tells you from the beginning and constantly reminds you throughout the film.
"..because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply...evil."
That was it. No further explaination. He didn't say because he daddy beat him. He didn't say because him mommy didn't love him. He didn't say because his creepy Uncle touched him. He was just evil. End of story. Now before you get all crazy on me and say "Carpenter showed Michael as a kid too!". Let me explain why. It was to further the belief that this kid was just like any other. He didn't look unhappy. His parents looked normal. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Something in this kid just snapped. For no reason.
Just a couple more points and I'll leave you all in peace. Remakes like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead. I know I know I'll get crap from people saying, 'the remake of Dawn of the Dead was great!'. Shut up. Yes, it was a well done zombie film with some good scares. But I ask you, what was the point in calling it Dawn of the Dead? Couldn't it have been called something else and been passed off as original? Honestly apart from zombies in a shopping mall, the story shares no similarities. It could have picked a different location and not had that tag of remake forever hanging over its head. But no. Some execs has to sit around a table collecting millions of dollars for saying "hmmm, kids like zombies, Dawn of the Dead was a good zombie movie. It took place in a mall. Kids like malls. Hey Snyder, make us a Dawn of the Dead but with quick cuts and rock music" I don't fault Zack Snyder. The guy had to start somewhere and he is a very talented director (can't wait for Watchmen). And as we get further and further along the more people will forget the original even existed. And I think that's what is bothering me the most. See, these movie are making money. So the remakes will continue to be churned out.
The other point I was going to make was about the remakes I enjoy. I can only half explain my hypocrisy.I can just say that its all about the story and how its approached. The attitude that sticks out in watching the new version of the film. Mind you a haven't watched Zombie's Halloween. Ordinarily I would shame anyone for ripping a film before you've seen it. But I refuse to pay money to further support the trend of these 'remakes for the MTV generation'.
Actually I did watched about 2 minutes of it. Someone sent me a link to it online and I watched the beginning. I didn't last long. Once I heard Mr. Myers (Michaels father) threaten to come across the table and skull-fuck Mrs Myers (Michael mom) I tuned out. It just didn't feel like Halloween to me. And it depresses me. Of all the remakes that have come out in the past 10 years, this is the one that angers, depresses and saddens me the most. Probably because its the movie I hold most dear.
Lastly, my wish on what I wanted to see happen with the series from the beginning. I am the firm believer of 'too much of a good thing isn't alway good' Especially when it comes to horror. Clive Barker said it best about his creation Pinhead.
"One of the obvious limitations is that the more often you see a villain, the less scary they are. It's the law of diminishing returns…. I'm very aware that that's a problem. Particularly the 'Hellraiser' series. You know, Pinhead is a plastic model, a jigsaw and a phone card - a very well exposed face. The first thrill you had of seeing that character in the first movie…has long since gone. And you can never really recapture that first encounter."
So I would have been more than happy to see Michael die along with Dr. Loomis in at the end of part 2. At that point Carpenter wanted the franchise to turn into an anthology based around the holiday. New stories every couple of years by new and talented writers and directors that had to do with the holiday of Halloween. Unfortunately Halloween 3 failed (unjustly!) and they went back to Myers. However I think this year we will get a look into what may have happened eventually if Carpenter had gotten his wish. Check out this trailer:
I think it looks like a ton of fun. Can't wait!
I do have a logical side though. Its whispering in my ear now saying, "Why do I care? What does it matter if a movie came out and people went to see it, and I don't like it. There are lots of movies out there I don't like"
Well.....because, I'm a fanboy.
UPDATE: I refer to the earlier scene in which there is the threat of a skull-f'ing as being Michael's dad. It is in fact the mother's boyfriend. Like it really matters, but I thought I'd add it in the interest of getting my facts straight.
Well as of today I've been at my current job for 7 years. Its the longest I've held a job since graduating college. Not that 7 years was the mark, I think I broke my record after 4 years (unless you count 6 summers at Friends Summer Day Camp).
As I write this from work, I think about how much the place has changed since I got here. When I came in 2000 it was a start-up company. I was just one of the many new hires that were going to be flooding in here over the next couple of months. We bought more office space and continued to cram more and more people in here. Then, just 7 months later, we had a huge round of layoffs. I didn't know what to do. I had never been through this before. Some of the friends I had made over those 7 months were leaving. Oh well, that was business I suppose. It just sucked.
Back to work. Then the following quarter, more layoffs. Not as many as the first time (because then there would be no company) but still more people I knew had to look for work elsewhere. This was puzzling because last time corporate came down here they told us that the first round of layoff had put us in a good position and we wouldn't need any further movement. I then learned my next big lesson.
Corporate lies.
This continued every so often off and on for the next two years. Then something changed. We started hitting our quarterly number. Something just clicked. The salespeople learned how to sell this product, the developers got better at making it and our staff was at optimal level. Woo Hoo! Things were good. Throw in a promotion into development during those years and you have were I currently sit now.
Of course when things are good, you then have another whole set of problems to worry about. Like have billion dollar companies interested in purchasing you. And thats what happened. That was over a year ago. Since then we've merged with another billion dollar corporation. Not much has really changed in day to day life but behind the scenes things are very different. Everything could potentially go south any day now but then again, maybe not. This is the problem being a pebble in an ocean. I still wouldn't change a thing (except maybe the commute).
P.S. I apologize for the boring blog today. I normally don't blog about work unless someone is gets punched or something. Was just reflecting.
P.S.S About halfway through the Potter book (and consquently half-way through Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s on Hard level) Both have brought me joy.
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angry