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As the weather turns colder, and the leaves turn colour, people turn their attentions to mums and pumpkins, Halloween and Thanksgiving.  The holidays are coming.

For many, Halloween is a month of scary decorations, scary and silly costumes, candy, masquerades, and trick-or-treating.  The funny thing is, as I finished writing that previous sentence, AMC aired a commercial for its Halloweenfest ’09.  Six days of horror movies, ending with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.  A classic horror film that, sadly, I’ve never seen.  Perhaps this year, I can change that.

Now I’m sure we all have traditions that we make sure to observe every year.  Be it movies to watch, haunted houses to visit, stories to tell, or friends to scare.  Jenn (my wife) and I have been to the haunted houses.  We even went to Spooky World eight years ago now.  We met David Carradine, stood speechless before him, and got a picture of him from Kung Fu signed.  I remember him looking old, kind of bored, and smoking a cigar.  He is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of that place.  Upon further pondering, I inevitably remember more bits and pieces of the place.

For those that don’t know, Spooky World is a Halloween theme park.  It was originally at Foxboro Stadium in Foxboro, MA (former home of the New England Patriots).  It boasts I believe 8 different haunted attractions, and always has at least two celebrity guests.  Cain Hodder who played Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th series was always there.  The other that I remember being a frequent guest was Lou Ferrigno.  People would pay somewhere around $35 to get in to the park which would let them access all of the haunted houses.  The attractions were rated on a fright scale of I believe 1-5, with 5 being the most scary.  There were also concessions with hot chocolate, hot cider, and hot coffee to help keep you warm.  I’m pretty sure they also had food like popcorn and candy/caramel apples.

I think it was somewhere around the middle of the month, so it was still quite cold.  The parking lot used to be grass but now was mostly just hardened mud and dirt.  The grounds themselves were dirt with hay thrown here and there.  We got some hot chocolate, and went through a couple of the houses; they were probably rated 3 or 4.  Not scary at all—to us at least.  There were of course, plenty of people screaming around us when ghouls, ghosts, and various hideous-looking undead things popped out from the darkness.  We just laughed at them; the actors and the screamers.  That was the only time we went; mostly because of the cost and travel time; also, because I believe a year or two later, it closed down.

Now the fact that Spooky World had closed was not really a problem.  There were plenty of locales we could go to if we wanted to have fun.  One year we went to Winnekenni Castle in Haverhill, MA.  That was truly a fun time.  The castle had a big bonfire out front for people to keep warm in the chilled October nights.  There were several “exhibits” to have fun with, but the one that I’ve always remembered was one that started in the castle, but took you outside.  We got to walk through the woods (which wasn’t that scary, even for the regular people) and through some nifty tunnels.  At one point we ended up crawling up a small hill through a tunnel, and I was grabbing my then-girlfriend’s bottom.  She kindly yelled at me in that way that lovers do, and of course I played innocent, pretending to not know what she was talking about.  Then I looked behind me and saw a couple of people laughing at our antics.  I love my wife.

We went back last year and met up with Jenn’s sister, her boyfriend, and the two girls she used to babysit that lived next door.  Sadly things had changed over the years.  The bonfire was still there, the creepy characters were still roaming about the grounds stalking, staring and scaring people.  Still, it felt like something was missing.  I think it was partly the company, and partly the fact that the employees didn’t seem to have their hearts in the spirit of things.

None of the actors seemed to be really enjoying themselves.  The hayride we went on was very tame; the only down side was two guys with chainsaws that followed us the entire way, smoking us out with the exhaust.  They had a laser tag game in a tent outside where the guns barely worked.  And there was a walk through the forest and into the castle where you needed to use 3-D glasses at certain points.  The effect was kind of cool, and the only disturbing part was walking through a pitch section inside the castle.  You literally could not see 2 inches in front of you.  Other than that, it was really quite boring.  I’d say the most fun we had was sitting in front of the bonfire keeping warm and eating some rather unpleasant apple crisp.

Sometime during our first two years together, we made a visit to Hammond Castle.  Yes, folks, here on the North Shore of Massachusetts we do have castles.  Three come to mind.  Maybe I’ll go into that in a later post.  Now a quick history on Hammond Castle:

John Hays Hammond, Jr. built his medieval-style castle between the years 1926 and 1929 to serve both as his home and as a backdrop for his collection of Roman, medieval, and Renaissance artifacts.  In addition, the building housed the Hammond Research Corporation, from which Dr. Hammond produced over 400 patents and the ideas for over 800 inventions.  Second only to Thomas Alva Edison in number of patents, John Hammond was one of America’s premier inventors.  His most important work was the development of remote control via radio waves, which earned him the title, “The Father of Remote Control.”

That is taken directly from the website, by the way.  So you can be assured I’m not making things up.  The castle itself is really quite amazing, and it’s currently being worked on so they can open up more of it.  We’ve been to the castle twice for Halloween; once last year, and once many years prior.  Yes, we did a lot when we were dating.

Now there is a very small parking lot that will hold about 20 vehicles.  They advise parking at Stage Fort Park and taking a bus to get to and from the castle.  I imagine this was our mode of transport that first year.  Now this place is very, very popular, and is only open for a short time in October.  Because of this, you can sometimes wait outside in the cold for up to an hour just to buy your tickets.  Don’t worry, though.  It’s not that boring.  Once you get down the stairs that lead to the castle itself, they have some vendors supplying hot chocolate, pretzels, and kettle corn.  I think they might have a couple of other things to eat, too, but can’t remember anymore.

Now it’s quite cold here in late October, and the house is right on the Atlantic Coast (just to give you an idea).  If it’s a very busy night, you can be standing outside for at least an hour before you get “into” the castle.  When you actually in the courtyard waiting to buy your ticket (and waiting to get in after) there’s an amusing little man wandering around, pretending to be Dr. Lecter.  It’s funny.

Now, I could go on about what it was like at the castle, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who might come for a visit.  You get lead through the castle by silent, undead guards.  They take you through almost all of it (they were working on some last year to prepare for this summer’s opening), where ghouls, ghosts, and other creeps scare the unwary.  For those who are scared easily, it’s a really fun time.  The bonus is also the castle.  They keep the medieval décor, so even without the Halloween, it’s still a really fun and interesting place to visit.

Then there’s Salem: one of the oldest and most famous cities in the entire country.  Known mostly for its witch trials, there are several museums dedicated to them, and monuments all over town, reflecting the original Puritan settlers.

For Halloween, the entire town turns into one giant party.  The museums are open, stores are open, and people are walking all over the downtown area in costume.  There are parties everywhere, and tours for everyone to take.  There are vendors of all kinds selling food and souvenirs.  If you like crowds and massive parties, then this is the place to be on Halloween.  Sadly, we are not really into that sort of thing.  We went a couple of times—once with friends, and once with her sisters, and we really didn’t have that much fun.  But that’s just us; we’re old and boring

Well, since it’s Halloween and it’s now 9:00 PM, I’m going to wrap this up.  As a bonus, here’s a link to some pics I took this evening.  I hope you enjoy, and don’t worry there’s more of those to come.  I’d actually wanted it posted weeks ago, but life gets in the way sometimes.  See you all next month.

Just a quick post to let people know I have three items for sale on Ebay. Dell Latitude Docking Monitor Stand–http://bit.ly/2oyaBP, Ballistic Nylon Laptop Case–http://bit.ly/Mpfm7, , and lastly a Dell OptiPlex 170L computer case–http://bit.ly/3JNJwR.

If anything strikes your fancy, please feel free to bid.  Better yet, go ahead and buy.  You know you want to.

I don’t know if this happens every season, or if it is just that I am noticing it now (which actually ties into this-insert link-post), but it seems that there is a theme of plants this past spring and summer.  Now I’m not just talking about the usual collection of mums and other plants one usually sees in gardens.  What I’m referring to, is a select few plants and flowers that seem to be predominant this year.

I speak of Hosta, Daffodils, Tulips, and Lillis.  I grew up with a hosta on the side of my parent’s house, so I’m familiar with their big “bushiness” and the long stalks that come out of them to bloom into lovely purple flowers.  The condominium building I live at replaced last year’s plants with hosta this spring.  The office building I work at planted daffodils everywhere they could.  They also planted two cherry trees outside the front doors of the main building.  As my wife and I drove to and from work every day, I saw lilies in people’s yards.  The theme of the warm weather months for this year is cherry trees, hosta, daffodils, and lilies.

Everywhere we went, we saw at least two of this flora.  The cherry trees were being tortured in my opinion.  They were small, no more than four to five feet tall.  They had their tops cut flat, and their branches trained to be drooping down.  Their trunks were as close to perfectly straight as they could be, and they were completely bare.  If any branches had dared to grow on the first 4 feet, gardeners cut them off.  If any branches dared to grow that they could not train to droop, they cut them off.  They look like large wooden umbrellas, and it kills me to see them like that.  The way they were grown is of course, just my opinion based on observation.  I have no idea what really happened to them before the garden centers and farms received them to sell.  However, if you were to see them daily and as closely as I did, you might feel the same way.

Now the hosta that I grew up with at my parent’s house was only about 1.5 feet across, and I never really gave it much thought.  To me it was just this mass of green leaves with some lovely purple flowers that lived in the little “garden” outside my bedroom.  However, that changed this year.  I started seeing them everywhere.  Moreover, they are getting big.  I think there is a plot by the hosta to overtake our planet, and I for one, welcome our new plant overlords.  One house is down the main street our street is off, that has their entire front yard lined with hosta.  Now the yard isn’t very big, but it is close to 20 feet long and maybe 10 feet deep.  The hosta run along the street, turn a corner, and there are a few along the property line next to a hedgerow.  My building has about 10 along its driveway, and maybe another 10 dotting the mulch along the front.

Oh, the lilies; they have been here since sometime this spring, and they are everywhere.  I don’t think I’ve seen so many lilies around before.  We would have the obligatory Easter lilies at Easter in Church, and my wife and I would give one to her mother.  Other than that, I never really saw lilies in the wild (And I don’t count pond lilies.  Sorry, kids.)  This year, I’m seeing some kind of orange lily almost everywhere.  Countless homes have them growing in their yards now.  One apartment (which is more like a house) at the middle of our street where it is bisected by the main road, has a very lovely garden of flowers along its front.  Several of these giant lilies are growing there, and they’re about 4 feet tall.  Even on the driveway, across from the hosta, are about 20 large lily plants.  However, now that the season is over, and the days are getting colder, there is nothing left but tall brown stalks and green/white/brown leaves.

Then, in the beginning of the spring, and into the beginning of summer we had the daffodils and tulips.  Typical plants of the spring season, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many.  There were big yellow daffodils at work, and tulips of many colours.  Almost every house we passed each day, on our ways to and from work, and even when we were out for other reasons, would have daffodils and tulips in their yards.

The daffodils always reminded me of those poisonous plants you see in movies and fantasy series.  You know the ones, who always spit poison needles at you that either paralyzed you so something else could eat you, or would kill you outright, put you to sleep, or make you hallucinate.  Sometimes, they would let loose a puff of toxic smoke that would do the same things.  There really wasn’t any variation in the daffodils.  They’re just yellow everywhere, but they are pretty to look at.  In addition, they’re one of the traditional signs of spring.

Now the tulips on the other hand, they were a sea (or sometimes river since it was a row of them) of colour: red, yellow, orange, or some combination of the two or three creating a pretty garden.  It seemed as though the whole purpose of the tulips was to make more tulips, and see how many different colours they could combine.  They were very pretty and they were very much everywhere.  Almost every house had tulips in its yard.  I never had tulips growing up, and the condominium didn’t have any, but everyone else did, and I always enjoyed seeing them.  Now looking back, I look forward to seeing them next spring, too.

I am curious now to see what the cherry trees look like next year.  In fact, one of the trees in front of the office, I think died this year.  Yes, they were new trees, but one of them was losing leaves, and most of them were turning brown after about a month-and-a-half.

Now, I could probably go on for quite some time about the cherry trees, so I’ll end this little post here.  I hope you enjoyed reading it.  Even if you didn’t, please let me know what you think.  Thanks for reading.

Yes, I know I haven’t posted anything in a couple of months. I’m sorry. I do actually have ideas running through my head of what I want to say. It’s just a matter of finding the time and more importantly the motivation to actually post what’s up there.

Hopefully sometime this month, there will be at least one real post. So, please forgive the silence. I’ll be back. I promise.

Well, the wife and I just saw Transformers: Rise of the Fallen last night.  Now this review is for the regular version.  We are going to see the IMAX version tonight.  Now don’t get me wrong, I really liked the movie.  To twist Elvis Presley, this movie needed “a little less action, and a lot more talking please”.

It was good; it could have been better.  At first, I thought it was longer than the first one from 2007, but it apparently was by only 10 minutes.  It didn’t feel long watching it though.  Like I said, it was a good movie, but it could have been better.  Rotten Tomatoes apparently did not think too highly of it, though.  Apparently, others were not too happy with it either.  As BigFreakinRobot.com was, I too was surprised at some of the audience that was in the movie.  There were an awful lot of small children…and I mean kids that were under 10 years old.  There were a few that were probably around three or four years old; and I can’t imagine why as the movie was rated PG-13.

Like I said, I did enjoy the movie but they could have done it much better.  There was too much action.  It started essentially from the beginning, and did not let up.  In the first one, the pacing was good; lots of action, with good dialog during and between the action scenes.  In this one, there was not very much dialog between action scenes.  It seemed as though when things started to slow down they tossed in another chase, or another fight for fear the audience would get bored.  The audience will not get bored between fights and chases as long as the dialog is well scripted and well paced.  There was some plot in there, it was just very tough to find.

One scene they could have cut without affecting the movie is part of when Sam’s parents are dropping him off at school.  The beginning and the end of that scene, they could have kept and the story would have been just fine.  Another scene that they could have cut short is the chase during the final battle.  They spend a good 10 minutes following Sam and Mikaela running through the ruined village trying to get to the soldiers.  They could have cut at least half of that, and the movie would not have suffered at all.

Then there are the “Autobot Twins” 2 idiotic robots that are about half the size of Bumblebee.  They are useless, and serve only to entertain small children, and adults with low IQs.  One of them even has the stereotypical buckteeth with one being gold.  The only thing they actually did that served a purpose during the entire movie is battle that giant Decepticon that is inhaling the sand in the trailers.

On a side note, that Decepticon was cool.  They called it Devastator, which is odd, because the tank in the first one they also called Devastator.  They got this one closer to the cartoon original.  There were a few new Autobots this time around whose names I did not catch.  I can’t remember if they did not tell us what they were, or I just didn’t hear it over the explosions and fighting.  I don’t want to give too much away, but three of them are motorcycles (female), and they reminded me of the Transformers from later in the series when they were spending a lot of time on Cybertron.  In fact, I think they took Perceptor from the Autobots in the original cartoon, and made him a Decepticon.

In addition, it seriously irks me that they made Megatron subservient to someone.  In the entire history of the original cartoon, Megatron bowed down to no one.  It was not until Unicron gave him a new body did he have anyone resembling a “Master” to him.  Heresy and blasphemy.

There were also VFX elements that didn’t make me happy.  They actually stole robots from two other movies.  One is the female Terminator from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and the other is from The Matrix.  I could not believe that they put those two in the movie, and called them Transformers.

Lastly, there was some of the comedy.  It was extremely lowbrow and crude.  It seemed like 10-year-olds or young teenagers wrote some of the jokes.  There was also a lot of swearing in this movie.  Nothing severe, since it has a PG-13 rating really, I did not find it necessary, and it didn’t seem to fit the movie, either.  Not to mention, what they did with the parent’s characters.  They were much better in the first one.  This time, it seemed like they were trying too hard to make them funnier.  No, that’s not right.  I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I just didn’t like the way they wrote them.

Now, again, we did like the movie, but I suppose that it’s because they deviated so much from the original cartoon, and even the first movie.  Therefore, as an action movie, it served its purpose, but as a plot-driven film, it failed miserably.  I seriously hope the next one they do will be more like the first.

As for my review of the IMAX version: Big.  Loud.  Rumbley.  We likey!

And sorry for the length.  I guess I got carried away. :}

This is going to be a short one, so please indulge me. For those of you who read this, I apologize for the large gaps between posts.
For a mid-morning snack at work, I’ve been eating a bagel every day. Now since I don’t have any butter or cream cheese, I’ve been spreading peanut butter. I have a jar on my desk that I use for my apples. It’s quite yummy.
Well a couple of weeks ago, I took my bagel and peanut butter into a coworker’s office. She told me I should put banana on it. Now I’ve eaten many a peanut butter-and-banana sandwich in my time (they’re oooooh so yummy!), so I told her it sounded like a good idea. We went about the business I went in there to take care of, and I left with my food, completely forgetting about her suggestion.
Well last night the wife did some shopping before she picked me up from work. She bought a bunch of bananas, so I brought one for work today as a snack. I planned on having it in the afternoon, but after I finished my first half of the bagel, I decided to try the banana too. The banana had been tempting me all morning, and I finally gave in. But now, as I start writing this again, I wish I still had it. I need food. I’m starting to feel a little loopy.
Anyway, back to the story. I cut half of it off, then cut those lengthwise. I put them on the bagel half, and it was delicious. I miss peanut butter-and-banana sandwiches. Peanut butter-and-pickle is good to, but that’s another story for another time. After a couple of bites, I realized I could eat it like a sandwich. It was so good, I’m going to make myself another when I get home, but with bread and a tall glass of milk.

I hope you don’t mind the silly rambling of this post. It’s been a while since I put anything up, so I figured this short one would be nice for now. I do have quite a few that are waiting to be finished, and some that are waiting to be started, so hopefully I can get a few more up before the end of the month. As always, thanks for reading.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed an increased presence of Flickr® on the web…at least in my little corner of the Internets.  Danny Choo, Fred Gallagher, Hawk, Dancing Queen all use Flickr®.   Then there are Photobucket, ImageShack, and DeviantART.  I am sure there are others out there; I just don’t know what they are.  I always figured Photobucket and Flickr® to be for photos, and the other two for CG, drawings, sketches, and other forms of non-photo art. 

I posed this question to Twitter sometime last month, and only got one response from Sareth, who told me to get a DA.  I looked at it, and did find quite a few photographers there.  Not quite satisfied with only one answer, I started this post.  I got a Photobucket account to post my photos on my MySpace page.  Sorry kids, you’re not getting the MySpace address, because it will be gone soon.

I am looking for a place to display my amateur photography, and I think I’m getting a little bored with Photobucket.  I’m cheap (or poor) and only have a free account there.  The free one does have some limitations on image sizes, and it automatically resizes large images.  The Pro account is too expensive for my taste.  I looked at Flickr®, and it seems reasonable for the free account.  It is certainly better than Photobucket, and the upgrade cost and benefits seem to be better than Photobucket. 

Now as for ImageShack and DA, DA seems to be the more open of the two.  What I’ve seen of DA, it looks like a nice friendly community, several of my fellow MegaTokyo forumites have accounts there, and its yearly subscription cost is relatively cheap.  ImageShack touts itself as a “media hosting website” so it puts no limits on how much space you can use.  However, it also has the highest cost for a year’s subscription. 

Now keep in mind, these are only my opinions and based on a little research from the FAQs on each of the sites.  This is where you come in.  I’m looking for your input on these sites.  Which do you think are the best, the worst, the one I should go with?  On the other hand, if you don’t agree with those four, feel free to add your own suggestion for a site.  Incidentally, I’m also considering getting my own site to host my media (artwork, photos, and videos), or putting them all on my own server here (which I am building, and will eventually have for home use).

In short, what do you think?

I just wanted to tell everyone about something wonderful.  Now, I’m not a coffee drinker (never have been and never will be), but this is something that you coffee people will definitely benefit from.  You can add it to your coffee if you want (make sure it is decaf), but I assure you that you will want to replace your coffee with this.

Surrounded by coffee drinkers, I see how cranky they are in the morning without their mug/cup/extra-large from Dunkin’ Donuts ™.  Especially the ones that need several coffees during the day to keep themselves going. 

Most of the time by 9:30 in the morning, I’m yawning and starting to feel tired.  When I get in the car to go home, I’m practically falling asleep.  It’s a good thing I’m not driving.  :>}  I started drinking MochaTonix last week, and I’m wide-awake, full of energy and in a good mood until I go to bed. 

I’m up at about 5:30 AM, and get to work around 7:00 AM.  I usually finish a 10oz cup by 7:30 or so, and my girlfriend loves my good mood and energy I have until around 8:30 PM or 9:00 PM.  This stuff is amazing.  I feel great during the day, and don’t feel like crap by bedtime. 

If anyone out there drinks those ‘5 Hour Energy ®’ shots, ‘Red Bull®’, ‘Rockstar®’, or any of those other energy drinks, you really should try this stuff.  Trust me it’s amazing. 

It’s filled with vitamins, minerals, and other wonderful nutrients.  Not to mention, the natural energy this stuff gives you, boots your metabolism and even helps you lose weight.  It’s just plain good for you.

If it sounds like something you might be interested in, please let me know; just leave a comment below.

I wonder if networks will ever show the *original* Original Star Wars trilogy again.  Every time any of them are on, it’s always the “new” version that George Lucas came out with 12 years ago when he reissued it on VHS.

I suppose I’m somewhat of a purist or traditionalist, but I prefer the original versions to the newer ones, just a little bit more.  Episode IV is actually on TV right now and the scene where Han killed Greedo just played.  The laser blasts between the two seemed too computerized.  Later on during the skirmish in the detention center, there still seemed to be too many shots fired, and they felt over-done. 

I still think it’s funny that even in the new version he didn’t fix the time displays on the Death Star’s screen.  It shows counting down from 19 minutes to 18 minutes, then shows Governor Tarkin, while someone announces that they’ll be in firing range in 7 minutes.  Then someone announces, “Rebel base three minutes and closing.” While the timer on the screen shows 00:15:17…nice oversight, George.

Now I know that during the final battle against the Death Star, he added more fighters in the new version (and made the entire battle more to his original vision) and changed the explosion of the Death Star, but I still prefer the old way…at least the old explosion.  I think the energy wave that comes out is a little too much.

To change the topic, how much do you think George Lucas is worth?  I believe Warren Buffett is reported to be the richest person in the world right now, but where does George Lucas rank?  Lucasfilm, Ltd is not a publicly traded company, so he does not have to report his earnings to (anyone except for the government?).  How many film companies out there use Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) in their production?  Not to mention, THX.  If you check the credits on almost any action movie (not sure about comedy, drama, romance, or anything else) you will see one or both of those listed.  He really does have a hand in almost everything Hollywood, doesn’t he?

Well, it’s time for bed.  Thanks for reading.

 


Honestly, it never fails that when you are at work, you have so many things you can be looking at while you are on your computer.  Most of the time, you are looking at other things while you are on the computer.

You’re playing games (solitaire, minesweeper, FreeCell, etc.) surfing the web, IMing, or Tweeting.  The point is, even while you are working, you are doing something other than work while you are on the computer.  Infinite amounts of time can be wasted at work not doing your work.  Trust me I’ve done it.

Then you come home, eat some dinner and sit down in front of your mini (desktop) or portable (laptop) boob tube.  Then…nothing; you have no idea what to do.  You have all of this free time, no work to occupy it, no other responsibilities, and you can’t even think of what to do on your computer.

Maybe you look at a few web pages, start catching up on some of the comics you’ve fallen behind on, or start playing a game you’ve had waiting for you.  You stop.  Nothing catches your interest, so you give up and start watching TV.  You can feel the computer calling to you.  It wants you to come and play, and you want to play with it, you just are not motivated.

So, after a couple of hours of TV, you get bored with that, and go to bed, and that is where we find me right now.  Only I’m not sleeping (obviously), I’m writing this.  I have a whole bunch of links to throw up on the main page; links to very good comics that I read religiously.  They’re really quite good too, and I hope you enjoy them.

I just hope I haven’t scared anyone away with that first post I made.  Sorry if it was a little too heavy, but it is something that has been on my mind for quite some time.  Now, I don’t guarantee that everything will be that political (or political at all), or that everything will be light and airy like a clear, sunny day.  Just bear with me while I flex my creative muscles; they really are quite atrophied.

Have you any idea how difficult it is to type on a laptop that is sitting in your lap, at arm’s length, while you are in bed, in the dark, with the only light coming from the monitor?  It ain’t easy let me tell you.  Well, I’m heading off to bed.  See everyone in the future.

And I am trying different styles. Let me know what you think.

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