I’m back to noticing I tend to share quick little things with the good folks on Facebook rather than more substantial things (or even silly little quickies) here with the ol’ bloggy blog. Sorry, blog peeps.
We’re busy right now with the annual halloween/birthday party for my daughter. My son usually has a friend over too and they run around the yard and the woods trying to scare the older kids. Last year was a ‘generic’ halloween theme – standard scary stuff – titled “Lucky 13″ for her 13th Birthday. This year it’s a research lab accident/mad scientist/shit has gone bad theme. We did invitations that we’re all official sounding – as if you we’re privvy to inside info. Very subtlely at the bottom in small font we put: www.researchfacility14.com password:number14
The kids seem to dig it. We’re in the process of setting the garage and deck up and getting it all into theme. Hopefully, I get some photos or video or something. The bad news is that the Camaro doesn’t get to sleep in the garage for the next 4 nights.
I’m also semi-simultaneously working on this year’s DVD set for the football team. Last year’s was such a hit that I think I’ve become the guy who does this for the team. Recording the games is cool and I know the coaches use it as a tool, so I’m contributing in my own special way. The parents and boys love the DVD’s. The entire season’s games are on there along with highlights, music videos and more candid stuff. It’s my job to make 10 year old boys look like rock stars. Amazing how some decent football plays edited in sync to some pump-up music can achieve this to great effect. I have less than three weeks to deliever a finished product to everyone at the end-of-season party. The weird thing is that I actually feel some pressure to up the ante, so to speak. You kinda have to outdo the last one, right?
Then it’s Thanksgiving…and holiday shopping and X-mas and New Year’s and stuff.
Halloween is an interesting time in that it gives you a chance to see how different people are. Halloween can range from the silly fun of a child trick-or-treating all the way to the most fucked up and vile shit you can imagine.
I, personally, don’t understand the concept of going ‘too far’ with most things and Halloween is certainly not the exception. Hell, it’s the rule. It’s the one time when it’s kind of okay to go a little too far. What can I say? I like things to be all or nothing.
We had heard a lot about a Haunt in Columbus called the Haunted Hoochie. The idea whas that it’s a bit more extreme than your standard Haunt fare (which is usually midly humorous at best). Here’s a quick video:
Honestly, the video show the best of it all. That’s not to say it wasn’t cool. It was. But I think I had myself expecting a little more. On a scale of 1-to-10 with 1 being family friendly and 10 being the extreme end of things, I’d put this in the 5 or 6 range. Crazy stuff. The actors touched you, which was neat. I think a few with the chainsaws were getting kind of ‘friendly’ when the girls came through too…and I think that’s all totally cool as long as you understand as a visitor what you’re getting into.
For comparison, the average theme park haunt stuff is probably a 2, maybe 3 for the better things on my scale.
Like, really. I don’t get the idea that this stuff is any more than silly, forgettable fun. We kep saying we’d like to see someone really push it and do an 18+ haunt and really fuck with you. Face it, as an intelligent adult, nothing they do can truly ‘scare’ me. It’s a show. I’m not a moron. But you can do things that will stick with me. Show me fucked up stuff. Or totally fuck with my head. A friend on Facebook recently posted a promo video for a Haunt in NYC that seems to be taking the latter approach and really trying to mind fuck people:
It’s cool because there’s a set of rules attached to visiting:
1. YOU MUST WALK THROUGH ALONE.
2. You must be over 18.
3. Stay on the marked path at all times.
4. You will be prompted to do certain actions. Please do exactly as you’re told. This is for your safety.
5. There is absolutely no speaking allowed inside. You can, however, scream as loud as you’d like.
6. Do not ever touch the actors.
7. Do not ever touch the walls.
8. You must wear a protective mask and carry a flashlight at all times.
That’s a pretty good start. Although I think my approach would be almost entirely the other direction. I’d want to leave you with imagery that would take a while to shake.
Interestingly, we’ve started a yearly tradition with a Halloween party for my daughter’s birthday and we hope to keep doing it for my son once she gets too old. I’ve been checking out different forums for ideas, inspiration and tips. One post caught my eye recently on one forum that was titled, “Over the Top? WARNING, graphic image”
I clicked eagerly thinking this was my kind of thing and it might be something I could incorporate for our party. So I click it and what do I see? This:
Whadda you think, is this over the top? I don’t mind pushing the comfort zone, but there are limits.
For real? On my scale this is a 1. Completely harmless, silly and forgettable.
The most interesting thing were the replies. Oddly enough (to me, at least), there were people who thought this was too extreme. No one seemed to find it uninteresting, boring and trite as I thought.
Then today on Facebook, Cedar Point posted something about their Halloweekends event and one of the replies to the photo posted (of a character getting makeup done) basically complained of the actors getting too close. I’m thinking, “My God. The experience at Cedar Point is as tame as it gets. It’s a fun, silly vibe that I’m totally ok with taking my kids through.” and here’s what I believe to be an adult saying they feel like it goes a little too far.
I have no point really – that’s the case with a lot of crap I post here. Just a random concept. An idea. A realization. It’s funny how different we all are and where we draw those lines.
…and, how fucked up am I really?
Or more correctly – how fucked up is everyone else?
A report by the conservative Heritage Foundation notes that when most Americans hear the word, they think of people who routinely can’t afford the basic staples of life: nutritious food, shelter and clothing. In reality, data from other federal surveys suggests that’s not the case for most poor people. And thanks to steadily increasing living standards, many or most poor Americans have things such as internet service, cable TV and dishwashers–not luxuries, to be sure, but not the picture of destitution that the word poverty often brings to mind.
As the report’s authors, Robert Rector and Rachel Sheffield put it: “[T]he actual standard of living of America’s poor—in terms of amenities in the home, housing, food consumption, and nutrition—is far higher than expected.”
This is something I struggle with a lot. I don’t mean to trivialize living in poverty, but our expectations are pretty high.
When I hear people saying they’re ‘hurting’ because they didn’t feel comfortable taking a vacation this year, I know our priorities are out of whack.
If you have cable TV and internet service, you’re not poor. You may be living at a lower standard than those around you based on the curve, but you’re not poor. Being poor or impoverished to me is the inability to meet basic life necessities. Beyond that, everything else is gravy.
This is always the time of year where it feels like real life gets overwhelming and I don’t have much time or energy to give to things online.
School starts and there’s a million and one things to keep track of as we fall back into the school groove. My son’s football season takes a little chunk of our time and it doesn’t help that I tend to stay involved on a greater level with game video, DVDs, intro music and such.
It’s also when things really start to kick into gear with planning my daughter’s annual Halloween/Birthday party. I’ve been slowly putting things together for a while now, but these last few weeks before October, we really start finalizing stuff. Lot’s of great ideas for this year so I hope we’re able to capture the vibe in photos or videos.
Also, I’ve been tending to share the smaller, sillier and more random things on Facebook rather than here on my blog. For example, last night I posted a GIF that involved nudity, bodily functions and a live octopus. Just easier to corrupt lives, scar psyches and lower the bar on Facebook than here sometimes. Still struggling with what to share here with the world and on Facebook with less of the world. Everything doesn’t need to be both places and yet sometimes it feels like it should be. Not sure how I feel about all the ‘social’ stuff online. Meh.
So that’s what’s going on. Thanks for stopping by. Now get the fuck out.
