Ready For Tha 'Ween! :)

The above phrase actually means nothing, lol. Just looking for a title that sounds cool. But I'm ready for Halloween from January 2nd on, lol.

With occasional breaks in the year, such as Towel Day and International Talk Like A Pirate Day. :)

I don't have huge plans this year.

I've taken Halloween off, but Brian works until 10:30 pm Wednesday. Plus I haven't heard of any cool parties that really spark my interest. And I don't have any money so spook houses, movies at the cinema and even drinking if out, lol. So I will very likely spend Halloween watching scary movies.

Which I've been doing for a few weeks now, lol.

But that's cool! I can never watch too many scary movies!!! :D

This is a nice weekend for me... Brian & I got toasted Sunday night and conversed for hours and hours. Then I woke up (oddly) a little after 9:00 am. Brian was in SecondLife, so I popped in Disc 1 of the Steven King mini-series NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES, which is the first 3 episodes. That was really cool!

That was the first 3 episodes of the series, and when it was done I had the strong, STRONG need to DESTROY ALL HUMANS (2), hehe. So from about 2:00 pm to sometime after 8:00 pm I played that game.

My hands were gnarled claws when I finally turned the PS2 off, lol!

Then I popped in VACANCY -- GREAT flick!!! -- and watched the first 15 or so minutes with Brian until my body told me to go lay down.

Then I woke up about 1:00 am.

And now you're caught-up. :)

I think the need to destroy humans as an alien comes from the book I'm reading, HOW I CONQUERED YOUR PLANET by John Swartzwelder. It's hysterical!!! It's inspired non-sense! Whimsical lunacy that keeps picking at you until you laugh out loud -- whether you want to or not!

Part of Swartzwelder's approach to his novels is to just keep hitting you with comedy, paragraph after paragraph. And he doesn't seem to worry too much about the story. Or common sense. Part of what's so hysterical about his sense of humor is that he'll surprise you with the physically impossible. I can't give you an example (I believe quoting even a sentence violates the copyright) but Amazon.com has sample pages for his books, so you can see for yourself what I mean. :)

But in this book, Swartzwelder plays on all the fun cliches about Martians and alien invasion fiction in Pop Culture, going all the way back to H. G. Wells' 1898 novel THE WAR OF THE WORLDS! And a lot of those cliches come from the 1940s-1960s Sci-Fi flicks, which is where DESTROY ALL HUMANS gets its inspiration.

It's kind of cool, because it's sort of Halloween-y to me. I can't say why, but for some reason I associate old b/w Sci-Fi flicks with Halloween. And the novel -- while wildly hilarious and not the slightest bit scary -- has that b/w Sci-Fi sort of feel to it.

You know what? I think the association is John Carpenters doing! In the movie Halloween he and Debra Hill throw in EVERYTHING they could think of that they associated with the holiday. One of those things is, apparently, old b/w Sci-Fi flicks! Remember the scene where Laurie Strode is watching THE THING FROM OUTER SPACE with the kids? (While her friends are off getting laid and getting offed by Michael?)

I'll bet that's it.

Because as a kid, I don't remember local TV stations playing '50s horror movies. In fact, as a kid I'd watch Carpenter flicks on HBO, lol! One very cool memory is video-taping HALLOWEEN at my then-girlfriend's house, lol! (That was Network television. HBO had THE FOG or HALLOWEEN II or HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH or a FRIDAY THE 13th installment. That sort of thing.)

And our local TV stations also didn't have a Late Night Horror Movie show. :( I never got to watch some local TV personality dress up in a cape and fangs and intro old horror flicks, making lame jokes just before the commercials aired.

An outrage, I tells ya!!!

I think I was born a decade too late for that. Or just born in too small a town.

Anyway...

Luckily, I've got a VAST library of horror flicks on dvd, so I don't need to rely on a TV station for my Halloween entertainment! :) In fact, I could watch almost all the HALLOWEEN flicks back to back, lol!

Or, instead of going to a spook house, I could spend a few hours playing some of my survival horror games! I haven't picked up any of them in a while. (Believe it or not, I've been a bit too scared to, lol.) RESIDENT EVIL 4 and SILENT HILL 4: THE ROOM both have a tendancy to creep me out real good, lol. :D

OOH!

It was SO COOL waking up tonight! I woke up, checked the date to see if it was Monday still or Tuesday -- my usual habit when I wake up on Tuesday night -- and when I discovered that Sunday and Monday were both, indeed, behind me I realized that I'm off Wednesday too!!!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!!

After 2 days off, I still have 2 days off!!! :D

Not to rub it in to those of you who are just looking at another Hump Day.

ESPECIALLY my Gnomey Goddess, who is working a 60-hour week! (I'm so sorry, baby!!! xoxoxo)

Ooh! Another cool thing about this Halloween...? My baby's going to a party in a skimpy red vampire dress, and she promised me pics!!! :D

How GREAT is SHE?!! :D

OH, HEY! Here's a Halloween-ish treat I stumbled onto a few nights ago: 26 animated episodes of Roman Dirge's LENORE: THE CUTE LITTLE DEAD GIRL!!! These are short and cute. The animation isn't the greatest, but it's in keeping with Dirge's style, so they look pretty. I think sometimes the animator steps on the punchline, but you can get the overall flavor of Dirge's humor.

In case you don't know, LENORE is a Slave Labor Graphics comic book, usually made up of lots of 1-page to 6-page comics. But it's got that "Underground Comics" feel, very Goth. Along the lines of Jhonen Vasquez books like SQUEE or JOHNNY THE HOMICIDAL MANIAC. In fact, Dirge was one of the writers on Vasquez's TV show INVADER ZIM! So they have a (generally) similar humor.

The toons are shorts, so you can watch a bunch of them in a sitting.

Also, if you're in the 'Ween mood -- or want to get into it -- don't forget Homestar Runner!!! They've released this year's Halloween toon!!! :D And it's ALWAYS a blast to go back and watch the older ones!

In fact, I'll link to them individually, to make it easier on ya:

Homestarloween Party (2000)
The House That Gave Sucky Treats (2001)
Pumpkin Carve-nival (2002)
3 Times Halloween Funjob (2003)
Halloween Fairstival (2004)
Halloween Potion-ma-jig (2005)
Happy Hallow-day (2006)
Jibblies 2 (2007)

Also, if you go here you can see what's new on the site. Click on the "Holiday" button on the remote control and you can watch a Fluffy Puff Marshmallow Halloween commercial, or an old-timey short "That Darn Ghost" or see some Halloween costumes made by fans.

AND... Don't forget that the first 2 years, The Brothers Chaps included games to can play while you wait for the toons to download! I guess Net connection speeds significantly increaced by 2002 becaused they stopped doing it. (Or maybe they just got tired of it, lol.) But I have killed hours at a time playing those games before the cartoons, hehe. :)

You know what I could use right now? A few hours of zombie slaying in EVIL DEAD: A FIST FULL OF BOOMSTICK! :D That's a cool, moody game! Not as intense as a Resident Evil or a Silent Hill, but just fun and Halloween-y! :)

Better go limber up my game claws...