The 31st Halloween has come and gone again, and this year was another good one. The weather was mild but it rained a bit so it probably dropped the trick or treating level. It made for a spooky night though, and I did manage to get about 55 kids or so which is pretty good. I had the Jack-o-Lanterns set up with candles lining the windows of the porch. The fog machine was going full blast, as was the soundtrack from The Shining. I was in the Mr. Dim costume again and would stand as a black silhouette in front of a strobe-like video on the TV while holding a little Green Goblin-esque pumpkin. Quite a few people seemed to appreciate the effort which is always nice. I just like doing it to have fun. To see a short QuickTime movie from the inside of the porch just click here (1.1MB). After curfew hit I went over to Tyler's to eat lots of candy and chocolate after I had already eaten lots of candy and chocolate to begin with. Someone should have been giving out insulin. Melissa was dressed up as a geek and it was pretty disturbing to see her looking so, well, male and unattractive. Her pants were hauled up high, pens lined her shirt pocket, taped-up glasses, a slick part, unibrow—the works. The 30th I put on my best suit (ha!) and some crappy makeup just for some fun tonight before I went out for pre-Halloween celebrations. I wanted to look like one of those zombies who looked like they turned undead on their way to the office. But I looked more like I belonged at the wake so I figured I might as well just be the person that people would be visiting in the coffin, except I'd be upright and walking about. I went to Nick's for a while and hung out with some people and then with Georgie for a while before I went down to The Heritage with Tammy and Mike. The band sucked, it was way too hot and I couldn't hear a damn thing so I decided to call it a night. Some people had some really good costumes down there though so at least there was a little bit of eye candy and amusement. Yesterday afternoon I headed over to New Brunswick with Tyler and Melissa. We hit Shediac first because there was this great café Melissa wanted to go to called Café André where you could get, well, a Café André. The food was really good and the coffee was by far some of the best I've ever had. I'll be going back there next time I go to Shediac which will be…when the hell am I ever going to be in Shediac again? After that it was on to Moncton to go see The Sadies play at The Manhattan. Unfortunately, we had a long wait before they actually played so we had to kill some time and drink—what I could quite possibly without a single doubt call—the absolute WORST coffee in the world. You would probably find a warm cup of soya sauce and molasses more appetizing. Around midnight after an opening acoustic act, The Sadies hit the stage and blew me away. The sound alone was so loud that was enough to do it but they rocked so much. Within the first 4 songs both guitarists broke strings. They were absolutely smoking and the stand-up bass and drums were tight as hell. Dallas Good has one of the coolest voices ever while his brother Travis, the other singer/guitarist and fiddler, seemed to be just plain nuts. He reminded me of one of The Meat Puppets. They played their own tunes for about an hour and half or so to a packed club and then jammed with the opener after that. Their set was nothing but great tunes, pretty much all of my favourites, and it was well worth the wait. If they play anywhere near here again I'll be getting another ticket for sure. The 28th So I was supposed to be going to see The Sadies play tonight but it turns out the guy who gave me the gig info had the wrong day. Thankfully it's tomorrow and not the 27th. I'd have been really pissed then. At least I had the sense to double-check today before we left instead of driving there and finding out bridge-fare-and-frustrating-embarrassment later that we were a whole day early. Of course, I should have checked 2 days ago when I made the plans with Tyler and Melissa to go. The 27th I went to see The Grudge for real last night and decided not to walk out after the first scene. I'm glad I stayed this time. The movie had some pretty scary and creepy scenes. A lot of it was really messed up but I didn't find it as good as The Ring. There was just something lacking in this film that seemed to leave things feeling unfinished or something. But for a good scare, an interesting story and for some extra creepy visuals it's definitely a good one for the watching list. Tomorrow I'm going to Moncton to see The Sadies with Tyler and Melissa. Or at least that's the plan for now. I don't get to see bands I like play live very often, especially living here so it will be good to get away for the night. I'll have to listen to the last couple of albums again before I go. I just got 3 at once a few weeks ago so I still haven't really let them soak in yet. The 24th Last night, Catherine and Tanya had a bunch of people over to their apartment for dinner and pumpkin carving. They ended up being the only people to carve pumpkins but we all did lots of eating. They had all of this good stuff like stuffed phylo pastries, veggie pizza, borscht (beet soup), and Dave Gould even brought over a pork roast. Other people make such good food, unlike myself who makes pretty much the same thing over and over. Oh well. I'll let them experiment and I'll be the guinea pig. Tonight I carved a pumpkin and a big pumpkin-y gourd. Both turned out pretty well, so much so that I made a cheesy animated GIF to celebrate their creation. I took the pumpkin's seeds and roasted them in butter and brown sugar. I haven't had them like that since I was a kid. I think my friend Cameron's mom made them that way and every Halloween since I've craved them. So I looked up a recipe and voilà. The 22nd I went to see The Grudge tonight with Nathan and Sharon to find that the thing was sold out and that we were sitting amongst an audience comprised of, I'd guess, 95% teenagers. How old do you have to be to get into an AA rated movie anyway? I didn't really want to go tonight because I knew it would be packed with idiot kids but I figured what the hell. My mistake. Besides sitting through a few cool previews for 3 more potentially scary flicks, I only watched about 42 seconds of the movie before I decided it was time to leave. (SPOILER, KIND OF) The first scene involves a guy falling from his apartment balcony and landing in a crumpled heap on the street below. His wife/girlfriend watches in horror and rushes to the balcony. Suddenly the audience breaks out in laughter! I've witnessed this sort of behavior before when the Exorcist was re-released so that didn't really surprise me. What surprised me was the number of people that laughed. Instead of a few obnoxious teens it seemed to be practically everyone. It's like teenagers don't know how to react to shocking situations properly and decide that laughing is the best reaction? What?! Then they show the guy lying there with a puddle of blood growing underneath him on the pavement. The crowd laughs even louder! That's when I got up, left the theatre, got a refund and walked home. I just can't understand reactions like that and it completely takes me out of the movie. It's like watching Seinfeld when Kramer barges into Jerry's apartment but instead of cheers, laughter and applause the audience decides to boo and hiss. Not the right reaction at all. It's just plain rude and is really a perfect indicator of how much different young people are today than from when I was a teenager. And that was only 10 years ago! I'll admit I was an idiot teen too and I know of one instance where inappropriate laughter at a movie caused people to get frustrated but I think it was only one time. And I know for a fact that it was from a scene much, much more shocking than someone falling from a window. I don't even completely understand it but at least the rest of the time I was polite, quiet and didn't find someone plummeting to their bloody, crushing death amusing. What is it that has changed the attitudes of kids so much in the last decade or so? I'm inclined to say it's the media because of all the sarcasm-drenched TV programming on every channel, the attitude filled music that exists in practically every genre, and undoubtedly a general attitude shift in the North American society altogether. That probably only scratches the surface but all I know is that I really can't stand the majority of teenagers that I meet in public. It's as if having no identity of their own, being so caught up in plastic-pop culture, and having an overall snot-nosed rudeness about them are only just a few things that drag that generation down and make it seem so different from my own adolescence. And I don't pretend to be an angel or that a lot of the same traits don't exist in each generation, it just seems extremely acute in the kids that grew up in the 90s. The 20th A few weeks ago I just happened to be channel surfing when I hit ABC right when their new show Lost was starting. I had heard a little bit about it but didn't think to myself that I should watch it when it premieres. Besides, I've been doing pretty well the last year or so in reducing the amount of TV that I watch. Well, it started off with such intensity and looked really well done so I watched the pilot episode. By the end I was completely hooked. At the time I had thought it was a mini-series so I figured watching a 2 or 3 part series wouldn't be so bad but then it became pretty apparent that it was a new series. So just great. Now I'm back to watching primetime TV again. Practically every episode ends in a damn cliffhanger so there's no way I can stop myself from tuning in. Plus there's the right blend of mystery, weirdness, and drama that is infectious. But damn them! Plus so far it's a really great show but I just keep cursing because TV has managed to snag me in again. Oh well, at least it's not some mind-numbing reality show that will turn my brain to goo and eat my soul. The 18th I got some pictures back the other day to find a few in the set that I didn't take at all. In fact, it would appear that I got someone else's vacation photos or something mixed in with mine. These people on the right…no clue who they are. Thankfully all of the photos I took were there and not in someone else's hands. A little while back I had to ship some stuff Purolator via the post office. Forms were filled out, payment was made, and the shipment arrived. Last week, I got an invoice from Purolator for the shipping even though I have a receipt for the shipping. So what gives? Turns out the post office screwed me over by not putting the price on the shipping slip. Hence the bill from Purolator. So because of the post office's mistake I had to make two phone calls to the company, spend 20 minutes on the phone straightening everything out and I still might have to field a call from a customer service rep at some point to confirm the information and get the invoice cancelled. Back in July I ordered 40 6-CD jewel cases for a boxed set I'm working on. It was later made clear to me that a 6-CD case won't hold the necessary 8 CDs. Don't ask me how I made that stupid mistake. In any case, I managed to get them sent back after paying the return shipping costs and I exchanged them for a bunch of 4-CD cases instead. No problem. I ssimply sent them a fax with my credit card info to cover the difference and shipping. It seems like it took forever to get them but they finally showed up today. However, there's only 22 instead of 60. Again I ask, what gives? It would seem they didn't get my fax back in September with my payment information and they just sent me like-value instead. I don't know how the hell they didn't get my fax so now I'm stuck with far less cases than I need and will no doubt have to pay to ship the rest my way. Why the hell does everything have to be so difficult? The 13th There's nothing quite like driving an hour to Charlottetown on a miserable morning at 7:30am after getting only 2 hours sleep. But it was for a good reason in the end. I met Celestia and Rob as they disembarked from their cruise ship and I became their tour guide for the next few hours. I have been talking sporadically with Celestia for the last few years through email and designed a few things for her but have never met her in person. The two of them were taking an Atlantic cruise for their honeymoon and it just so happened coincidentally enough that they were docking in Charlottetown. We went for breakfast at Cora's where I ordered this foolish apple waffle that was of illegal proportions. A small bit of sightseeing and souvenir shopping followed and then they were back on board after a few hours on land. It was cool to hang out with them for the morning and get to meet them both. Coming from Las Vegas, they were apparently not bothered by the drizzly, cool weather because it was "exotic" compared to the desert heat and the months of sun and drought they were accustomed to. After that I got to check out the Graphic Design course's new digs at the ATC. It's a pretty spiffy spot that seems much more suited to that course than the old brick and linoleum of the Grafton Street building. Though, the old place had its charm. I ran into Ken too and he showed me around the basement where Power Post exists. I sat in the studio while Chastity Frizzard recorded some demo material and basically drooled over all the high-tech gadgetry and 5.1 surround-sound theatre. Take-out sushi was a good way to wrap up the day too. The 11th I would like to know why some part of my brain farted this evening and produced the chorus from the Laverne & Shirley theme, allowing it to repeat over and over and over in my head, and basically drive me crazy until I could find some real music to block it. You'd think I would consciously be able to drown out "We're gonna make our dreams come true, Doin' it our way" but that wasn't the case. That thing just had a stranglehold on my cerebellum or something. The 7th Ah, Thanksgiving. Do you know what I'm thankful for? I'm thankful that I have a travel mug that keeps my tea so insulated that it stays scalding hot FOREVER! On my way up to my grandparents' for dinner I took a sip of my tea a little too prematurely and managed to horribly burn both of my lips, my entire tongue and the back of my throat with magma-grade tea water. But I was still able to taste enough of my dinner to know that it was good. My grandmother's pumpkin pie is always good. My mom and her sister brought the puppies up to visit as well and all they did was harass each other and act nuts. At one point when they were off their leashes in the yard they decided to wrestle in the garden and cover themselves completely in dirt. I bet Mom was glad she gave Winnie a bath right before we went to dinner. The 5th I've waited 10 years to get my license because I do not like being in moving vehicles. That and it didn't make much sense for a person who barely goes anywhere to pay for a car with insurance when he would hardly use it in the first place. In any case I've had my beginner's permit for a couple of months now and today I took my second driving lesson with my mom. It's not terrible but it will be a while before I hit the open road. When I was 16 my grandfather took me driving on the old airport runway which was grown over quite a bit. After taking a corner at 80km/h (granted I didn't see it because of the tall grass), we went home. It was a short lesson to say the least. In those 10 years since, I still do not like driving a car. I'm either going to drive like an old woman for the rest of my life or I'm going to end up in a ditch, on the front of a transfer truck or over a cliff before the lamination on my eventual driver's license completely cools.