Some treats from BooTube

Here are some Halloween-ish videos from YouTube for your viewing enjoyment. Some of them may not be suitable for all ages.


Thriller^
"Souls don't exist. That's just something they made up to scare kids, like Michael Jackson and the Boogeyman."



Maximum Overdrive Trailer^
This movie actually scared me as a kid. To this day, whenever I walk around parking lots, I have a slight fear that the cars will come to life and back over me.


Montage- graphic! ^
This one is definetly NOT for kids. It's a bunch of clips from different horror movies, and made me squirm a little. Click at your own risk.


The full transformation scene from An American Werewolf in London. A) because it's awesome b) because it helps you (and me) get prepared for Wolf. Watch the above, and imagine it happening to a BUNCH of people at once. Bloodbath!!
It is pretty graphic, though, so, again, viewer discretion is advised. (heh)

I was going to include a bunch of others, but ran out of time. (Plus, finding good stuff on UTube lately has been difficult. Lousy copyright laws.)

Have a great Halloween, everyone!

Fire bad, tree pretty.

Brain guh.

Camping cold. Fun, though. Bad headache. Not much sleep. Cold. Pretty. Nights were cold, though.

Halloween tomorrow. !!!!!!

Now, starving. And tired. Time change messed with my head. Again. Need food. More later.

noise-quiet-noise

Hi.

I want to take this moment to just say thank you.

There's a lot of noise on the internet, so it means a lot that you are taking the time to decide to listen to some of my chatterings.
I feel the need to apologize for the poor quality of posts lately.
We are going out of town tomorrow for a few days - a chance for us to get away from the noise of Las Vegas - and I suspect (hope) that doing so will help me recharge my mental batteries and when I get back, I'll be more inspired. (Which will coincide nicely with the start of Nano)

I had more to say, but I can't seem to articulate it properly (too much mental noise going on right now) and I've really said it all already anyway. So, in conclusion, let me just say again, thanks for reading.

Church Sign Wisdom 8

About time. They've not changed it since August!

SIMON SAYS TO PETER:
WHEN THE ROOSTER CROWS
YOUR GOOSE IS COOKED

And then Homer says: Mmmmm. Cooked Goose.
And the cheerleaders say: How funky is your chicken? How loose is your goose?
And Alice in Chains says: They come to snuff the rooster.


Other side:
MANY FERTALIZE GRAPE
VINES WITH THE RUNOFF
OF UNTAMED TONGUES

My first reaction was "WHAT??", then I realized that it was a commercial for New Wild Tongues Fertalizer(TM) and was okay with it.
"Wild Tongues Fertalizer will make your grape vine grow like nothing else! And that's not BS." [/announcer voice]

belly empty, brain full

lots of stuff happened today. but can't you all just be telepathic and read my mind instead of me having to type it all out? It would save all of us a bunch of trouble.

Bah.

I'm too hungry to blog. Not too tired (although I am that). Not too bored (although I am that, too). I'm too hungry. That might be a first.

Oh, okay. I'll be brief:

Rememember that movie I blogged about a few weeks back with David Carradine (Future Force) [imagine I linked to that entry in the previous sentence]? Well, there was a sequel made. Future Zone. And we have it in our library. I watched it today. It's just as bad, although I got to give it points for having a marginally better plot.

We made the best Deal (or no deal (ha!)) EVER today. Somethign that was normally 150 dollars was purchased by us for 38. WOO!

I'm starving. STARVING!!!! (Yes, it's funny. But it's funnier when it happens to other people.)

Um. Other stuff must've happened too, but the lack of nutritents in my body is causing my mmory to fade. I'm going to go get something to eat.

Stop and smell the smoke

Didn't blog yesterday. Blogger was down for a good portion of the day, so it's not (completely) my fault. (They were also having problems on Friday, which explains the slowness I complained about. I guess they're systematically changing people over to the beta version (YAY!) but they haven't yet gotten to mine (BOO!).)

Anyway.

I'm now through May 2003 of my archives in the delete-o-rama. I don't know what I'm going to do when I get to 2005. That was, you may recall, the year that I attempted to blog 200,005 words within the year. There are many many really long (and really boring) posts in that year. Should I delete any of them? Because if I do, it will alter the word count. But, on the other hand, it will free up space on my blog (or, um, on Blogger's servers, I guess), plus, it's not like anyone really reads any of the archives anyway. But, I mean, do I really need to keep the list of 1,001 movies? Probably not.

I guess I'll decide when I start reading the 2005 entries and go from there.

yawn

too tired to blog, really.

even if i weren't, i have nothing to say right now.

tomorrow, the sun will come out. and hopefully i'll be in a more blogging mind-set.

My brain is working faster than the internet

And that's saying something.

The internet is being s-l-o-o-o-o-w right now especially blogger, but all sites have been sluggish.

It's taken nearly half an hour to get to the point where I could blog. But I did not give up! Go team persistence!

Anyway. Not a lot to say, but I did want to blog so as to continue my participation in Blogtober.

Miranda's youngest had her birthday party today, and so we all went down to the Las Vegas Mini Gran Prix, and had a pretty good time. There was something in the air, apparently, because first Steph got a big whoppin' case of deja vu, and then, once hers was over, about one minute later, I did. It was completely bizarre. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that we went there for Saren's 8th birthday party.

Or maybe we're time travellers.
Or maybe the Matrix was being altered heavily.
Or maybe we think alike and were on the same wavelength.

N-E-Way.

The party was fun - despite the fact that Steph's camera batteries were dead and Saren is now officially too big to drive the kiddie-sized go-carts (they let her go anyway, but this was the last time she'll ever get to) and the woman at the top of the jumbo slide tried to give us grief about me going down the slide with Harper. Despite all that, a good time was had by all.

PLUS!! Miranda's husband has his pilot's license and (I believe) his own private plane. I spent a good 45 minutes or so picking his brain and finding out a lot of really interesting information that will help my NaNovel have a more authentic feel to it. That was totally awesome. Hell, even if I don't use any of the stuff he told me, it was still neat to find out about. Sure, I could probably have just looked the stuff up online, but there's something just... better about learning things from a real live human being. (No offense, internet.)

Today was apparently my info gathering day, because in addition to the pilot-talk, I conversed with Jupe about a good many things, such as blood type and food and terroristic attacks. (Hi, government!!)

Now, hopefully, I'll actually move beyond the 'research' stage and actually do some writing.

devilstuff

There are certain things that, for whatever reason, just rub me the wrong way, and I will stubbornly refuse to have anything to do with them. Just because. They are generally quite popular, and I find that if I ever do cave in and actually try them, I enjoy them. (But then get upset at myself for caving.) But my dislike of these things results in me calling the item a "tool of the devil". Because it is. And people should just realize that, and agree with me and stop being dumb and life would be better.

Examples:

American Idol. Never seen an episode. Never want to. I could not identify anyone who has ever won this show, nor any of the winners "songs" or even tell you when it is on. (Other than the Bimpsons, I don't watch Fox at all anymore. Weird.) American Idol is a TV show of the devil.

Cell phones. Ugh. UGH!!! Cell phones are the freaking tool of the devil. They are so damn annoying. The people who use them are so damn annoying. The commercials are so damn annoying. I don't know how many times I've been in public and heard someone say, "Hey.", think they were talking to me, and turn to realize, "Oh, they're just on their goddamn cell phone."
And, of course, the idiots who use them while driving. It doesn't help matters that they're idiots before they begin talking on the phones. (Most people seriously don't know how to drive very well. I fall in this camp too.) Adding a cell phone into the mix, and my blood is just starting to boil already.

What makes them worse is that I have one now. I don't know when we bought it (I could check my archives and find out, I guess) but somewhere along the way we became one of the herd. And now I never go anywhere without it. I've become what I hated.
But cell phones are still the tool of the devil.

MySpace.com. Never been there. I'm sure that it's a great site and all (I mean, can 40392603468 gabillion people be wrong?) but even without having visited the thing, I just know that it's the fracking tool of the devil. Goddamn MySpace.

DVDs. Heh. Remember when I felt this way about DVDs and DVD players? Okay, I am a big enough person that I can admit when I am wrong. I may have been wrong about DVDs, and partly wrong on cell phones, but I'm not wrong on the other stuff. MySpace and American Idol can go to hell where they belong.

And many more!

Today is my blog's birthday. 4 years old. It started out at a different address (pshift2.blogspot.com) and with a different name (Patent Ambiguity) and with a different look (honestly, I don't remember, but for a long time it had blue lines...you can still check out pshift2 if you are really curious. I don't know why blogger hasn't deleted it off the internet.) but it's always had the same old writer.

If blogger ever gets around to making the beta version available to everyone, I'll be doing a major overhaul to my blog. As it is, I'm (slowly) going back and deleting old entries that are just boring nonsense. (I've deleted two so far. Woo!)

In other news, but still related to the title - today, supposedly, was the birthday of the 300 millionth United Statesian.
I say "supposedly" because I don't trust the accuracy of census...es. (Censi?) What about people who have gone missing? How long must a person be missing before they're considered dead? What about fake IDs? What about people who don't have Social Security numbers at all? What about people who were born at home and/or not in a hospital and have not gone "on the record"? (Granted, that's probably a very small number, but I know of at least one.)
What about people who lie to the census takers?
What about the people who drop off the grid altogether (by choice)? And what about undiscovered indigenous tribes (okay, there are probably NONE left in the US, and very very few anywhere in the world, but they do exist)?
All of those people who aren't being counted (or are being miscounted, maybe) means that we really don't know how many humans there are in the US or in the world, and we never will.

That being said, 300 million is a lot of people.

Oh, and courtesy of Anthropik's article on this matter, here's The Daily Show's take:

I'm afraid I did Nazi that movie.

I amuse myself greatly.

Anyway. Today's movie answered the question, "How do you make a boring movie about Nazis, secret Hitler plans, and conspiracies to infilitrate the White House?"
The answer is, you get Alan Thicke and um.. that one guy... oh, right, his name is Kyle MacLachlan to star in The Windsor Protocol.

The movie is, like I said, about a document that Hitler supposedly drew up in his last days, placing a bunch of money in secret bank accounts. Given the name the Windsor Protocol. It was lost, then, 50 years later, rediscovered. And some Nazis (now old men) who have been waiting for it to show up, I guess, put their plan into motion. (Their plan has something to do with getting Alan Thicke - a senator - to move up the ranks of the US Administration.)
Agent Cooper (heh) is there to stop them.

It could have been interesting, but it wasn't. Just kind of... there. Oh well. At least Alan Thicke was getting work again. Or, you know, back in 1996 he was.

ANYWAY. This made me think of all the movies that have involved everyone's favorite villains, the Nazis. And, so, just like we did with nukes a few weeks back, now's the time when you list all the tv shows and movies that have had Nazis in them.
I'll get us started with the most obvious:
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Apt Pupil
The Rocketeer (The rock-a-who?)

dreamy

Yeah, I know, dream entries are boring. The rule of thumb is, "Dreams are boring unless I'm in them."
But. I just woke up, and so the memories of this one are pretty fresh (although they're fading as I type, of course) and it's been ages since I've blogged about a dream I've had. Hell, it's been ages since I can remember having a dream. Also, this dream was just intensely detailed.

The Tribe of Anthropik invited me, Steph, and the girls over to their house for dinner. !!!!
As we were walking to their incredibly nice home, we passed a lot of open desert where there was construction going on. A crew was sitting in a half-completed building that would eventually become a Wendy's. They watched us as we passed and said some stuff to us in Spanish that I did not understand. (Although my brain at the time knew that it was really Spanish and not just garbled language. Which makes me wonder if my brain really does on some unconcious level understand Spanish. Hmm.)

Anyway. We got to the place where Jason Godesky and Giulianna Lamanna were staying, and it's a beautiful, huge house that was semi-built into the surrounding trees, and even had a small stream running through the entrance way. I wish I could explain it better, but I don't really remember the details other than having an overwhelming sense of awe at the whole structure.

When we get in, we're told that they are "playing Buffy" and we are welcome to join if we want. I was pretty excited, so I said, "Sure." and was handed a samurai sword just as an overweight black woman stepped into the clearing. She had on a 'vamp' face just like the vampires from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I think she may have had a weapon in her hand as well (some kind of short dagger).
She rushed me and I unsheathed the sword and began swinging it wildly in an attempt to defend myself.
Everyone else seemed to have vanished from the room, or were off on the sidelines watching.
At some point during the fight, I managed to slice the woman's arm, causing a large amount of blood to spray out and for her to scream in pain. As she was clutching her arm, I tackled her. When she was down on the ground, I jabbed the sword through her midsection, effectively pinning her to the floor. The entire time she was screaming at me, telling me how she was going to kill me when she got up and how I was in for a world of hurt.
Disturbing!

Even more disturbing, was that I just left her there. Jason called me (and everyone else) over so he could show off this... I don't know WHAT it was (although, again, I did at the time of the dream). It was some sort of folding sword weapon that when completely opened, looked like a Klingon weapon of some sort, but when you contracted the blades, fit nicely into the palm of your hand, and resembled a Swiss Army Knife.

There was a big long section of the dream where Steph and I talkd with Giulianna, but I don't remember any of hte details of that, sadly. We were talking about rewilding and unschooling and civilization in general, and I'm sure in real life it would've been very interesting (it was in the dream) but I just wish I could remember what was said.

As our discussion was finishing up, Miranda was there in the kitchen, offering to serve up ice cream. There was something about me speaking like Yoda and how the vanilla ice cream would help cure that. (Dreams are weird) and the girls were really excited to have dessert.

After that, we all walked outside and talked about the approaching construction. As we were walking, a bat flew overhead. It glided down toward us and landed on Saren's outstretched arm. Jason and Giulianna announced that Saren was [some term they used that I don't remember] and said that that meant that she was a very special person. Saren asked if we could keep the bat. We told her that it should live outside, and we'd come back so she coudl see it often, and as she let it go, I woke up.

I know that overall, the dream was just an amalgamation of events from the past few days, but it was still pretty cool. It's always odd to dream about Internet Weirdos that you've never really met in person. I mean, where is my brain getting information on how the Anthropik Tribe actually speak or live? (I'm sure that the house they really live in is nowhere near as elaborate as the one I dreamt about, but I can totally imagine them speaking in the way that they did in the dream.) And why? Does it have any deeper meaning, or was it just a bunch of thoughts that my brain strung together in an attempt to make a story? Who knows?

Water, water everywhere

I can not hear that phrase and NOT hear Homer's "So let's all take a drink" right after. Just another instance where the writers of the Simpsons have occupied some more memory from my brain.

Last night, into this morning, the rain storm from yesterday continued. Hard core. We lost power around 8am this morning, for about half an hour. There were at least two instances where the thunder was hard enough to cause the house to shake. The street we live on was essentially a river this morning, and when we went to drive out this afternoon after the storms had cleared away and the sun was shining, the streets were all covered with dirt and debris and looked semi-apocalyptic.

It's sprinkling outside now, but I think the majority of the storm has passed. It was pretty impressive while it lasted, though.

In other news... I don't think I have other news. Sorry folks. I guess to make it more interactive, I'll open up the floor to the P@riots out there to tell me about the weather where you are.

Sex chicken

Man, it has been a long freaking day.

Went to the ren faire. I wonder, sometimes, why we do that each year. It's interesting, but there are many many problems with it. Like 80 dollar cheeseburgers. Without fries! And bees. And everything costs more money than anyone who actually lived during the Renaissance ever saw.
But, anyway. Fun.

We didn't stick around for the entire time, though, because around 7 pm, it started raining. Sprinkling lightly at first, and then, in a matter of minutes, it began pouring. It's 9 now, and I think it just now let up. Crazy.

I had a more gimmicky type of entry planned for today, what with it being Friday the 13th and having gone back in time and all, but I'm too tired, so I'll save said gimmick for another day.

In conclusion, Have Fun Storming the Castle! HA HA HA HA.

unorganized

No real central topic, just a bunch of random thoughts.

I really do need a haircut.

Tomorrow is the Ren Faire. Huzzah! We're going for free! Huzzah!! My work is one of the sponsors and provided free tickets, which is pretty cool. Incidentally, my work is asking for volunteers to help man the booth that we will have set up there. I feel sorta bad about not signing up to help out, but, come on. I spend too many freaking hours there as it is. And I get paid for those. They want me to fritter away my precious few weekend hours doing work for them as well? And NOT get money in return? HA HA HA!!

I was going to post that Futurama episode, but I'm not really in the mindset to do that yet. Maybe I never will be.

Apparently, it's Bring A Weapon to School season here in the states. Seems like the past week or three, there's been a shooting and/or a person with a gun at a school somewhere in the country everyday. A few days back on the bus, some boys got on - they were probably jr. high students, maybe freshman in high school. Anyway, one of them mentioned that he heard (on the news?) that now teachers are thinking of bringing weapons to protect themselves.
Just another brick in the wall.

At work, we have somewhere around 300 movies in our library. For the past two and a half months (or so) I have been working on a complete overhaul of it. Each movie will eventually be put onto one 120 minute tape instead of being on two 60 minute tapes. And, each movie will be re-timed by yours truly. It's a truly daunting task, but I've done about 118 so far. Plus, I get to watch some really horrible movies in the process. yay!
Today's movie was another David A. Prior masterpiece, Raw Nerve. Traci Lords was in it, and sadly, was probably the best actress in the movie. However, I have to say that the "twist" ending wasn't what I expected. (I figured it would be the police chief doing the killings, which would've made more sense.)
Yesterday's movie was Little Kidnappers, a hokey TV movie with Charlton Heston and Bruce Greenwood (Nowhere Man) and people with Scottish accents. ("Ack. Don't ye know anything aboot beebies?", "I'm afeard!!") Not a bad movie, overall, but nothing really memorable, either.

I forget what else I was going to say.

Hey sexy mama, wanna kill all humans?

Man, Bender was smooth. That's the greatest pick-up line ever.

Speaking of Futurama, I need to get my thoughts together for a post that I've been meaning to make ever since the Conference in regard to a particular episode. I just need to find it online, and then determine exactly what I want to say.... (Probably tomorrow.)

In TV news, I watched (most) of my very first episode of Veronica Mars last night.
I... um.... fell asleep.

But in the show's defense, I was pretty tired. And, VM seems like the type of program that you need to watch from the beginning to enjoy fully. But the whole sociology class experiment, where the one guy went all control-freak in a matter of minutes? Didn't really buy it.
And Veronica's undercoverness getting into the sorority seemed... I don't know. Predictable?
Plus, the guy from Just Shoot Me kept bugging me because all I could think was, "Hey, it's that guy from Just Shoot Me!" everytime he was on.
Eh. Like I said, I was pretty tired. I should give it another chance. Although next week's previews don't look all that promising.

Um. I had a rant/anecdote (rantecdote?) about work, but it wasn't all that interesting, so nevermind.

10 10 day

Woo! Four years from now, it'll be 10/10/10. Oooh. Binaryesque.

Currently - 630pm - I am home alone. Woo! I'm gonna cause physical harm to would-be burglars Joe Pesci and that narrator from The Wonder Years, and then put aftershave on my face and scream comically. AND I'm gonna spawn 3 horrible sequels.

Oh. Um. SPOILER!! (Pretend I said that first.)

Okay then.

Oh, right. As I was saying, right now the rest of the family is out, having dinner with Miranda's family. So, I've got the house to myself. What do I do? Blog. I should totally be having a kegger right now, man. Alas, it is not to be. Maybe next time.
Instead, I think I'll just do some chores and straighten the place up a bit. That'll be a nice surprise for Steph to come home to. (The not so nice surprise she gets to come home to is the pile of freaking bills we got in the mail today. Jesus Christ, bill people - do you all have to demand money at the same time??)

You know what's weird? Three weeks from now it will be Halloween. Three! Er. I mean, weeks!! No, I mean, Halloween!!!
Dear Time,
stop going so damn quickly.
Thanks,
P@.

A few weeks back, I was thinkign to myself, "I wonder how different Harry Potter would be if Stephen King was the author."
The first major change I thought of was that there would be a lot higher death count.
Also, a lot more swearing.
And I bet Hogwarts would be in Maine somewhere.

Well, I should get to doing the cleaning if that's gonna happen. Before I go, I wanted to mention the movie I watched today (except for yesterday, I've watched at least one movie at work every [work]day in October so far. Yay!) - Future Force, which is by the same director of White Fury. (David A. Prior) Future Force was bad - nearly as bad as WF - but it was at least semi-enjoyable in that 'bad movie' type of way. It had David Carradine as a cop with a robotic arm in the future. (The future being 1993) The movie started with "In the year 1991, violence was out of control in America." Hee.
Anyway. The two awesomest parts
SPOILER!! (see, I'm learning)

were when David Carradine is bringing in a reporter who is under arrest for "treason" (she is being set up because she has an incriminating video [on a huge ass, ancient three quarter inch tape - lol] of the police chief) and she says, "I bet you think this is funny."
Carradine says, "So far, I haven't laughed once." and gives this look at the camera that totally lets you know he's in on how bad this movie is, but that he's at least having a good time.

The other great part was near the end with the robotic arm and a remote control. Carradine was fighting a thug and getting his butt kicked, when he pulled out the remote control for the robotic arm. Thug says, "What are you going to do with that? Change the channel on me?" (see, it's really bad dialouge)
He pushes a button, and the trunk of the car that has the box with the arm in it opens up.
He pushes the same button and the box holding the arm opens.
He pushes the SAME BUTTON and the arm levitates into the air.
He pushes the SAME BUTTON AGAIN and the arm rotates in mid-air.
Yet again, pushing the same button, and the arm begins to fly toward the thug.

The flying robotic arm begins to beat up the bad guy. (I'm assuming that David Carradine kept pushing that one magic button) When it was done, the hand formed the OK sign and then flew back into the box.
Hilarious shit.

Oh, and the end was great too. David Carradine and the woman get into his car and drive off. The camera sits in one location and just waits and watches as the car drives down the road, to a stop sign. The blinker comes on. The camera still sits there. Several other cars pass in front of it. Nearly 50 seconds pass, with Carradine's car just sitting at the intersection and nothing else going on. As he begins to turn, the credits finally roll.

Seeing really bad movies like that give me hope. Because if someone can get nonsense like THAT made, then I have a chance at getting something I create out there, too.

Okay. Now I really do need to get to cleaning.

Nothing much happened today.

When I was younger (12? 13? 14? somewhere around that age, I guess. Maybe even younger.) I kept a diary that I wrote in everyday.

I remember looking back at that diary several years later and being dismayed by how many entries were simply "Nothing much happened today." Day after day after day, that would be all I would write as a record of another passing of the precious few hours I have on earth. "Nothing much happened today." Gah. Something always happens. It's only how it's filtered through our perceptions as to whether or not it is of interest.

I kinda wish I still had that diary. It would be interesting to see how many of the days of my youth "nothing much happened" on, and also, what things I did report.

Anyway. I was reminded of this little factoid about my life when I sat down to blog today, because, really, nothing much happened today.

Except, of course, stuff DID happen. I just have to stop being boring so that I'll stop seeing things through a bored-filter perspective. Ya know?

The point I guess I'm trying to make is that I want to be able to rememeber more of my life, and to LIVE more of my life and ...um. Something. You'll have to forgive, me, I'm really very tired and not thinking clearly. So. Yeah.

It occurs to me that this entry doesn't really detail anything that DID happen, and it is kinda just a big long way of saying, "Nothing much happened today", but at least it is minimally LESS boring than that. Hopefully.

In conclusion, today I:
- rode a double-decker bus for the second time in my life
- conversed with a friend I haven't seen in about 3 months
- did NOT have any Pepsi, despite REALLY wanting to
- worried about the future of humanity
- thought about Wolf
- thought about a possible spin-off of Wolf (or maybe just a separate chapter or 5)
- washed a sinkload of dishes
- spent 9 hours of my life at a building I really didn't want to be at
- continued working on my pet project at work (the movie library overhaul)
- woke up way too early
- remembered that life is short, precious, and incredible, even when it can also drag, be annoying, and overabundant.

random thoughts

if i ever had a suitcase full of money, say a million dollars or more, and it was supposed to be given over to the mob, I'd steal 30 dollars out of there. Just to see if they'd count it all and notice.
Plus, with 30 dollars, I could totally go out to dinner.

I miss Ragu. He was a lizard that lived in my Geo Metro way back then. He was plastic, so technically he didn't live there, but I miss him nonetheless.

I need a haircut.

We are going to watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang now now.

Where the devil is.

I've decided to rework Wolf, and have it be my NaNovel this year.

The idea of a werewolf epidemic came to me yesterday and it's been spinning in my brain ever since. This thing could be big, if I do it right. (So, um, maybe NaNo isn't the right format for it, but who knows.) I haven't been this excited about a story idea since my (nonfinshed) Perth story of years gone by.

But.

[own worst critic] I've noticed that 1) I do not give enough details. It's a huge flaw in my writing. Of course, the (start of the) story below is just a first draft, but last night (and this morning) all I could think was of ways to rework the paragraphs and sentences and make them...better. More detailed. More... alive. Or at least more detailed.
2) All my story ideas seem to be similar: Some supernatural crisis happens. People react and survive. Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se, but ...I don't know. Can't really pinpoint exactly what I'm trying to say. Maybe I'm just upset(ish) that I don't have the whole plot laid out. (I didn't with the Perth tale, either. It was more of a "Oooh. What would people do if this freaky thing happened?") Maybe I don't need to have the whole thing planned, but... I don't know.
3) Um. I forget. I think I need to stop worrying about if things will be good [on a side note, I obviously succeeded even with the rough draft, judging by Annika's comment. Wolf is going to be a very dark story, and hopefully will cause a few shivers along the way.] and just worry about it getting it out. I've found that when I was writing my Perth story, that when I told myself - "Don't worry about what others think, just write it." that I was pretty happy with the results. Just hard to keep that advice constatnly in mind, ya know?[/own worst critic]

In other news... er. I don't remember. There was something else I really wanted to blog about, and now it's completely gone. I just keep thinking about Wolf. [sigh]

Wolf

Wolf I am, Everything
in darkness Will be good
In light because Maheo
Wherever I search Protects us
Wherever I run Ea ea ea ho.
-- Song of a Cheyenne scout.


The thing was fast - they all were - but it was not fast enough to get out of the way of the Greyhound bus travelling to Las Vegas Nevada down I-15. The driver of the bus saw the animal mere seconds before his 45 foot bullet collided with it, producing a sickening squishing noise, and sending a jolt of adrenaline through Jason's veins. Many things happened at once, although to Jason's mind, time seemed to slow enough for them to take place sequentially.
1. Jason said, "Shit."
2. He stepped on the brakes.
3. He announced to the passengers, "Brace yourselves, everyone!"
4. He swerved in a last minute attempt to avoid the animal that had appeared out of nowhere in front of his path.
5. He glanced in the mirror to look back at his 28 men, women and children that he was responsible for.
6. He noticed that several (six, to be exact, some part of his brain realized and stored away) of the passengers seemed...ill.
7. He wondered if they had witnessed the animal he was just about to send to meet it's maker.
8. Squish. Thud. Crunch.

The bus was decelerating, and Jason was pumping the brakes and attempting to regain control of the bus and his rapidly beating heart. He was sweating and his mouth was very dry. Jason had been a driver for the past three years, and he had, until just now, had a spotless record. "Damn." he thought. As he pulled over to the shoulder, put on the emergency hazard lights and slowed the bus to a complete standstill, he was mentally going over the training he had gone through for just such an event. Rule #1 was to make sure that the passengers were safe. As he was turning around to get out of his coach-seat and ask how everyone was holding up, he heard screams.

What he saw would pale in comparison to the eventual nightmares he would witness, but at the time, it was the most horrific thing Jason Wolf had seen in his 33 years on earth.

The six passengers who had seemed sick while the bus slowed had all been replaced by beasts of some kind. Hairy, huge, snarling animals who were wearing the clothing that the humans who had been there just five minutes before. The people who had been seated near the transformed had been the ones who had screamed. Jason couldn't blame them. He felt like screaming himself, but found he was unable to do so. All he could do was stare in disbelief.

The creatures began to attack their surroundings. The animals seemed indiscriminate on what, exactly, they were battling. Human flesh, bus seats, empty air; it was all the same to them. They bit and scratched and snarled. The seat belts were - temporarily - restraining the beasts. Most of the remaining humans had removed themselves from their seats, and headed toward the front of the bus. Jason opened the door and began ushering people off quickly.

So Happy It's Thursday

It rained today. Resulting in a double rainbow visible on the way home from work. Neat. Steph took pictures, but she says her camera didn't really pick them up very well.

A good percentage of our Halloween costumes are all bought now, as well. It's been a while since I've really dressed up, so I'm pretty excited about this year. It'll be a good one. Saren looks great in her costume, too.

White Fury is one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Good thing we're running it at 2:00am, because if it were on at an hour when more people could actually be watching, they might tear down the station in angry protest.

Lost is back!

It looks like it's going to be a good season, too. I can get behind a season long arc of "There are four lights!"

At work, watched two semi-crap movies. Lying In Wait, with Rutger Hauer and Virgina Madsen, which was actually not bad. And Layover, which starred David Hasselhoff, which started off very intriguing, then ended incredibly stupidly.

Um. I was much more into blogging earlier, and I didn't, and now I'm all tired and nonthinkable. I know I keep promising that the next entry will be better, and then they keep...not being that way. But, hey, if I say it often enough, EVENTUALLY it will be true, no?

Take Take

The mediocre movie of the day was Double Take.
Not that Double Take.
This one.

It stared (starred? Gah. I hate when words look weird, and both spellings look odd to me.) Craig Sheffer, who has been in several of the movies we have in our library. Plus, he was on One Tree Hill (he may be still, I'm not paid to watch that drivel anymore, so I don't.) But I've always thought that he resembled David Boreanaz. (Heh. Apparently I'm not alone in thinking that.)
Anyway. In Double Take, his character's name is Connor. Hee! He even has the same hair as Angel's son. (er, sorta) And, at one point he hops onto a bus to escape. Never underestimate the power of coincidence.

In other news, ...I forget. There was something else I wanted to mention, but I really can't remember what. Eh. Maybe it'll come back to me so I'll have something to talk about tomorrow.

I'll add the title later

I just spent nearly twenty minutes trying to think of a title for this entry, rather than typing.
I was looking for an "anti-LOL" type of word. Like maybe MOL (Melancholic Out Loud) or something to describe this feeling I've had all day.
Oh. I know the word now. "Monday."

I started off the day eating a donut. Mmmm. Forbidden donut.
It was yummy, but donuts really should be shipped off to another planet or something. Because while they taste incredible, there is always a price to pay afterward.
Today, it seems, the price was to my mental well-being. All day long I've been feeling this ...glumness. This... Eeyoreosity.

Um. Blah.

I was going to blog about how I learned about Capital Gains Tax for the first time today, and how irritating it is. But, blah. Not worth it.

In other news today, there was possibly a shooting at a school in North Las Vegas and there definitey was a shooting at a school in Pennsylvania. Originally the reports on the tv were talking about the North Las Vegas shooting. That was then trumped by the Pennsylvania one. Later, the reports seemed to state that there wasn't a shooting here in Vegas, just a gun brought to school grounds, so I don't know what to believe, and I'm too lazy (and don't care enough) to google up the facts. The point is, during my darkest moments earlier today my thoughts on the matter were, "LOL, Columbine." (said in the same vein as "LOL, internets.", which is to say, extremely sarcastic.)
Um. I had some kind of point to make there, and I lost it. Actually, I don't think I did have a point about the shootings. Just that they are kind of a crap icing on a shit cake day.

Switching gears, I watched Grey Owl at work today. Not a bad movie. Not a great one, either, but I guess it's enjoyable enough that I'd recommend it. You know, if it's like, on tv or something.

The movie is based on actual events. The life of Archie Belany (played by Pierce Brosnan) is portrayed. He was an English-born guy who got adopted by the Ojibwa tribe(s?) in Canada and given the Native American name of Grey Owl. He began writing articles for a local magazine and eventually got noticed by a publisher who convinced him to write a book aboot life in the wild. All of this was taking place in the 1930s, btw.
Belany passed himself off as a half-breed to the world, including his wife. His book became super-popular and he went on a tour in England to promote it, and also to talk about conservation. Long before it was popular, he was pretty much one of the first environmentalists.
Meanwhile, in the movie, a reporter is investigating his life and eventually discovers that he is not what he is claiming to be. According to the movie, he holds off reporting the truth until after his death. Also according to the movie, the truth was printed the day after he died.
Sadly, once Grey Owl died, some of his books were no longer published and/or printed and his name became tarnished.

I'd never heard of him before, so it was cool to learn something new. But the movie also made me sad - or rather, I was still sad while watching it - because I knew that despite his best efforts and intentions, well...

Anyway. In conclusion, the day was meh but it's over now. Tomorrow will be better because it will be Tuesday, and because I won't have donuts for breakfast.

September Mileage

January - 730
February - 1357.8
March - 872.4
April - 1056.9
May - 278.3 (car, which is currently not running); 486.6 (minivan) --total for May is 764.9
June - car = 0.0; minivan = 1489.6
July - car = 0.0; minivan =1796.3
August - car = 0.0; minivan = 944.6
September - car = 0.1; minivan = 1725.3 - total for Sept. is 1725.4

Year to date - 10,737.9

And with that, I'm clear for today! Woohoo! Granted, it's not a very interesting entry, but when I agreed to blog everyday this month, I made no such promises. :)