Halloween: Barometer of Life Fun

So it's Halloween! Short entry because I have to go work out.

My costumes the past couple of years have been small-time. Peanuts. Il Last-Minuté.

One of the barometers of fun levels in your life should be how much fun you have, and how awesome your costume is.

Next Halloween, I should make a point of general increased awesomeness. Creative costume, etc.

How's Halloween for you?

The Other Way of Work

From the Onion AV Club this week, an interview with artsy people (an actor and a director in the Chicago theater scene):

Q: (irrelevant)
A: I guess it's both the blessing and the curse of the business. You're not a nine-to-fiver, slaving away at the same office or whatever every day of your life. You have a different environment and a different family every time. That's the really exciting thing. But then at the end of the run, everyone goes their separate ways.

Versus my situation - nine-to-fiver (actually closer to eight-to-sixer) in an office, same people, health insurance, budget spreadsheets instead of creating art. I'm tired of my setup.

What do you prefer? If you're lodged in one, would you prefer the other?

DVD Chapter Titles - No Longer Boring

Most people who read this will probably already know that I am a big fan of zombies. The walking dead, be they fast or slow, tickle a special nerve in me. They're big fans of me, too, in an arrangement whereby the special nerve they'd like to tickle in me is my brain, and they hope I don't mind terribly if they do the tickling with their teeth.

That weirds me out a bit.

Anyway, short of letting them eat my brains, the best way I've found to commune with zombies is to watch the movies in which they so ably steal scenes.

To that end, I bought 28 Weeks Later* and a colorized version of Night of the Living Dead.

The DVD issue of Night of the Living Dead that I got has some lovely chapter names. You know how they're usually silly, like "4. Xanthar and Auron At The Used Car Lot"? Here's a sample of much better chapter names from Night of the Living Dead:

3. Zombies Hate Clotheslines
4. Fun With A Tire Iron
5. Let The Board Nailing Begin!
10. Barbra's Still Out To Lunch
12. Barbra's STILL Out To Lunch
15. Dad, Your Arm Tastes Great!

With chapters like these, I can hardly wait to pull out the movie and see how it looks in color.

I did finally watch 28 Weeks Later, and I enjoyed it. I think it's worth a second watch and then a third with the director's commentary. Very effective, nasty movie.

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* Yes, I know they're not technically zombies in the 28 series. No, I don't care. back

I live... again!

I suppose I think I'm so clever, not writing anything in my blog (henceforth referred to as my "blog") for months and months. I suppose I think that people are all sitting about their dens in their smoking-jackets, stroking their chins absently as they wonder whatever became of that smashing chap Matthew, and his continuing adventures. I suppose I think that concerned groups of fans are even now retracing my last posts just as a jury now follows the path to the spot where Diana Spencer's car crumpled to a rest.

Well, I'm here to set myself straight. None of these things are happening.

These things, however, are:

• I have joined a flag football league. It is mostly gay men, which kind of freaked me out at first (have I ever been a minority in my life? I don't count American-living-in-France). The guys don't give me too much flak for being straight. I have settled at quarterback, and I really love it. So far I am throwing more touchdowns than interceptions, so woo hoo! This makes me wonder how I would have done if I'd joined the football team in high school.


• I have joined the local gym. I am eating much better than I used to. I am running probably five days out of seven. I have a bit more energy than I used to. It makes me feel stronger and faster.


• Cathy is posting enormous amounts of Japan to my "blog".


• I am itching to begin something else with my life, something more useful, something I'm more interested in doing long-term. Start with grad school, maybe? Or possibly a service organization. Something that matters to the world, though.


• If all goes well, I'll be attending the Packers-Redskins game at Lambeau this weekend.


• I noticed tonight that I enjoy pop songs that build themselves up at the end. Radiohead's Let Down, Weezer's Only In Dreams, and the troublesome twosome of Fake Empire and Mistaken For Strangers by The National all exhibit this ass-kicking quality. Download, all ye faithful.

I need a mission in life. Doesn't that sound like a good thing to have?