Oh no you didn’t

This commercial has been stuck in my brain for 2 days now.

As I’ve mentioned before, I do like to play video games occasionally. While typically these games end up being either some version of Civilization of Guild Wars, the original Mercenaries was so darn fun, I not only played it through 4 times or more, but I even used it as the basis of forming a Mercenary Team in the Civ IV demogame.

Not normally my kind of game, no thinking involved and all, it was a jolly romp through every Rambo and/or Schwartzenegger film ever made. Made playable for your enjoyment. Complete with one liners.

And, while I had been patiently awaiting the release of Mercenaries 2, I really haven’t paid close attention to it. So, when seeing the commercial Monday night, during a documentary on the Discovery channel of all things, I quickly hit the rewind button and hollered at the boys to come see (love TiVo).

However, the result has been this dang song, so annoying at first, getting STUCK IN ME BRAIN for 2 days now! THAT is some good marketing. Surely, we’ll be getting Mercenaries 2 when it comes out. And, if I see any trick or treaters dressed as Mattias, they’re sure to be getting an extra piece in their bucket.

Update:

They’ve released a full version of the wonderfull song, with a ‘making of’ video to go along with it.

Enjoy the full song stuck in your brains now…

Hail to the King

A glorious day.

It was about 10 months ago now. Halloween had just ended, the last remnants being packed away into their boxes, and stored away neatly in their resting places. There, a little styrofoam wig head bounced around on the garage floor.

Now, I had promised Jen, no halloween from Nov 1 through Jan 1. And so, hatched the plan. I’ld work on CHRISTMAS. By making a Jack Skellington. Hey, it’s not “Halloween”, it’s Christmas with a Halloween mix.

However, my searches of every store, every 2nd hand store, every good will store, and the internet yielded NO DVD copies of the Nightmare Before Christmas. Well, unless you felt like spending $50+ on one, anyway. And so, I was left reviewing what still photos I could find, and hooking up our VCR to see our old VHS copy.

Today, that changes.

Nightmare Before Christmas is released on DVD today. All hail the Pumpkin King!

And yes, that is just a taste for you of what is coming up after Halloween and into Christmas. But, there will be plenty of time to talk about that later.

"Overcome by events"

So much for plans.

I had Friday off, and had this great plan to get the graves done then…

HOWEVER. See, there’s this little teeny tiny problem that comes with 600+ people stomping across your yard in a set path every year. That path tends to…stick around. Not as green, not as dense, etc. However, we had good results last year with a fertilizing schedule, so we’re copying it this year, and that dictated that I needed to fertilize Friday.

So, mowing, trimming, fertilizing, and watering took up the morning, and into the evening. With the water going, that rendered the lawn off limits for a workspace, that left the driveway. And, with watching the kids, by the time I was free, it left little light. So, 2 grave caps got the next step. That’s where we left off. Not all 7, like I had hoped.

Saturday, I had planned to make skulls all day. Well, Emily just HAD to go and tell me about the super duper sale over at Old Navy Saturday morning. Kids pants for $7. Thus I found myself standing outside the local Old Navy 20 people back in a 200+ person line. I will have MUCH more to comment on the big sale shopping later in the year, but suffice it to say, Kyle had 3 new pairs of Jeans (stupid 3 per customer limit) within a minute of opening, I was back in the store for Alec in under 5 minutes, but EVERYTHING in the boy’s section had sold out. This store had virtually no selection there to begin with.

THEN we had to pick up Indy from the vet, after being neutered and de-clawed. There, they sprang upon me the fact that, oh, by the way, he’s going to need a special cat sand for the next few days. Didn’t they go over that with you? Uh, no.

So, drop him off at home, confiscate the cat sand, replace it with newspaper, grab Talia so Jen can get some sleep, head BACK out the door to the pet store for special cat sand.

‘Course, Talia has to go and fall asleep on the way home, destroying her normal nap schedule. Get home, get the cat sand in, feed the kids, hey, guess what. We need to get to the grocery store because we’re out of everything. And, I had forgotten about the special um…”salad” I was going to make for a pot luck.

So, with Talia’s schedule shot, it’s 4PM before she wakes up, get to the store, and come away with enough to get us through to the major shopping day, and the ingredients for ‘salad’.

This does bring me to another unorthodox cooking tip. Ever had trouble slicing tomatoes?

A few tricks I invented while working at Burger King, and having to manually slice ALL the tomatoes every day. 1st, tomatoes cut MUCH MUCH BETTER when chilled. So, since you gotta wash em anyway, do so in ice water.

Next, the hell with what the cooking books tell you…USE THE BREAD KNIFE. Makes nice, even thin slices, no troubles.

So, an easy “salad” to bring to your next pot luck. Slice some tomatoes, slice some mozzerella, alternate the two, and cover the whole thing with italian dressing. (green onions, thyme, parsley, etc optional too) Let sit overnight.

Needless to say, by the time this was all done, I had given up on the skulls. And instead settled in to watch The Ruins. Having read NOTHING on it previously, only knowing about the Mayan ruins holding something evil, I was interested.

Spoiler Alert:

However, as far as man eating vines capable of aparant intelligence and communication go, Audrey II is far more frightening and entertaining. Yes, the musical comedy version is more frightening. The Ruins had potential, and squandered it away by serving up a whole lotta cliche material and not exploring some of the more unique features, then neutering the ending. Much better “alternate ending”.

Grave business.

We’ve got all the Grave caps formed. It’s time to start thinking on how to finish them off. I got some ideas for that. And, we’ll get a good and proper how-to up once some are finished.

Red has won the popularity contest between the colors by a landslide. So, I gotta go get some more lights. And, since my shop vac decided to quit on me, I may as well turn it’s casing into a fog chiller.

3 more headstones also need their finish work done up now, and all of it will need some waterproofing. I think a nice, solid weekend of getting down and getting to work on this stuff is in order.

Maybe we need to throw in making some more skulls for good measure, I bet I could rip through the entire 14lb bag of plaster in a day or so, which would put us at well over 50 new skulls for the year.

Unlucky for some.

Fitting for today.

First thing this morning, a black cat crossed my path, and then sat staring as I passed.

How curious.

I’m not a superstitious person. However, who had not heard of a black cat crossing your path being bad luck?

Well, apparantly, to some it’s lucky:

Will you worry the next time a black cat crosses your path?
It may depend on where you live in the world. In Britain and Japan, having a black cat cross your path, is considered good luck, whereas if you live in the USA or several European countries, it is bad luck to have a black cat walk by.

Here are a few cat superstitions from various countries.
A strange black cat on your porch brings prosperity. – Scottish superstition
A cat sneezing is a good omen for everyone who hears it. – Italian superstition
It is bad luck to see a white cat at night. – American superstition
Dreaming of white cat means good luck. – American superstition
In the Netherlands, cats were not allowed in rooms where private family discussions were going on. The Dutch believed that cats would definitely spread gossips around the town.
In Egypt, it was once believed that the life-giving rays of the sun
were kept in a cat’s eyes at night for safekeeping.
To kill a cat brings seventeen years of bad luck -Irish superstition

Info from Petloveshack.

But, I found it most curious that today, of all days, it should happen.

August 19, 1692, 5 witches hung from Gallow hill in Salem. Among them, George Burroughs. Despite having no witches marks, and being able to recite the Lords Prayer, supposedly proof of his innocence, the former minister was hung as a witch.

I’ve always found the Salem witch trials a fascinating topic. And, in case you hadn’t noticed yet, bizaar research topics are something of a theme around here. So, for more information, a great place to start is over here.

Speaking of bizaar research topics, I’ld estimate anywhere from 80-90 percent of my ideas comes from some obscure research I do. I watch documentaries all the time, and you never know when some little tidbit there will make me go off in search of more info.

In the past, one of my favorite series for this was Digging for the Truth. Then Josh Bernstein left the show after season 3. And, the new host was a complete moron. At least Josh KNEW something about the stuff and would ask half-way intelligent questions.

And, the series fell flat in the 4th season. (Though the mummies of the clouds SURE has some Halloween potential…)

Last night, however, the Discovery Channel premiered Josh’s new series: Into the Unknown. I was hopefull it would be a decent replacement.

While last night’s show on Gladiators was of little value, and really shed no new light on the subject, a look at the episode guide reveals plenty more potential. Another look at the Cloud Warriors and New Guinea mummies among the potential additions to someone looking to bring a unique aspect to Halloween.