Easy Week, My Ass

 

 Man, this week turned sucky on the work front. Most of my team IS off, but the brainiac isn't. This guy's by far the best developer on our team, and one of the top guys in the company. He knows EVERYTHING. It's insane.

Anyway, he pushed two very hard tickets into the lane, and of course they land with me because the other tester...well, she's not great.

The only thing bad about this developer is that his documentation on stuff is THE WORST. These two complicated tests have a grand total of three paragraphs of information in his documentation. Most documentation comes with step-by-step instruction on how something's supposed to work, then you go in and figure out ways to break it.

So I had to take DAYS to figure out what these processes are supposed to do. Then I get hit with a question by my superior--hey, can I show another tester how to do this stuff, using these tests? Man, don't wanna do that, but can't really say no. It's just going to slow me down.

---

We're all sort of bored, so I booked a hotel down at the beach for New Year's. Got a separate room for the kid. He can go swimming, we can do other stuff if you know what I mean and I think you do. (Joe Bob!)

There might be fireworks at the beach, so maybe we'll do that if we can stay far enough away from the crowds. Don't really want to catch the bug. My brother Mike has suddenly gotten "a cold", and thinks he might have it now. Doesn't have a test kit to find out though, and he's not going to the doctor.

Anyway, just going down for the night. I've sort of come to hate New Year's. It was never a holiday I liked, but it just gets worse and worse. So Happy New Years to those who care.

Also, this will be my last post for 2021. If you're keeping count, I posted 82 times this year. Not a record, but it's the most I've posted since 2016(where I posted 97 times). 

How many will I post in 2022?

 

Another Xmas down...

 

 Let's get this out of the way first: Saw the new Matrix. Thought it was pretty bad. Over-long and full of repetition. Like, hey, you love the Matrix? We're gonna throw in a LOT of the same shit with nothing new other than a slight meta angle. And oh yeah, a really terrible Mr. Smith replacement-actor, like, the LEAST intimidating actor they could have chosen.

I stopped and started this movie four times before I finished it, which is a record.

Watched Krampus with my kid since he'd never seen it. Tried Silent Night, but it's a slow, overly talky movie that tries to be Last Night but fails pretty bad. (Last Night is a movie I've loved for years, under-rated and under-seen from 1998--you apparently can't stream it anywhere for free)

---

Christmas was lame as usual. I took a day off so I could have four days off in a row. Tried to get some sleep and just refresh my brain, but it didn't really work. The wife is particularly depressed because her parents are both in failing health and she's afraid this will be the last normal Christmas, that is, the last one with both of her parents alive.

So she's extra weepy. We went over there for Xmas eve, as usual, and exchanged gifts. Then came home and watched some various things. I'm so far off the diet that I'm probably going to gain everything back that I lost.

Because on Xmas, everybody gave me candy. I don't know what this shit is, but I got so much candy I could give it out next Halloween and never run out. Got some cool blus and stuff too, here's a pic:

 Back to work tomorrow, which sucks. Only good news is that most of my team is still off, so odds are good that no real work is going to get done.

Not sure if I ever mentioned that both of those places I'd sent my stories to last year declined them. Recently I saw that Weird Tales magazine was open to submissions, so I submitted both to them. I've been reading that magazine off and on since way back in high school and college, so it would be amazing to be in that.

---

I've nearly completely lost hope of getting that one actor in T3, so I guess I'm going to start a new draft of it with my backup plan. It's not going to be as strong on the emotional beats but it will be stronger on the dramatic irony. 

I also came up with a very very cool scene that I'm excited for involving my man S Jack. It's the kind of subtle, psychological fear that I enjoy.

Also, it's pretty crazy but my buddy's movie that I just submitted to that aggregator got approved within 1 day and then is ALREADY on Plex. It's insane. Clearly, no one else submits over the holidays. Go stream it once for fun--it's called Midnight Disease.

 

 

Not Much To Report

 

But I gotta find something to say so I can post these awesome Xmas pics, right?

Hey, know what pops into my mind on occasion? I used to have this dinosaur book when I was like 6 years old. Had an amazing cover on it that was bloody, a T-Rex fighting something. Couldn't remember if it was a Triceratops or a Stegasaurus. On occasion I would look for this book, for this cover, but I couldn't remember the year.

I finally spent some time and found it, found a decent copy on eBay and bought it. It got to my house, and I can see why I loved this book as a kid. Great pics, this probably helped my childhood obsession with dinosaurs. Here's the book, featuring that cool cover.

I am more and more worried that the actor I need for T3 is pissed at me for some reason, because he's not responding to any calls, texts or posts on his FB messages(and he's posted AFTER I posted). If I can't get him, it puts a huge crimp in my plans. However, the subconscious came up with a backup plan, though it's not quite as good from an emotional standpoint, it still works.

---

I took off tomorrow, and am off Xmas eve, so I have four days off. That'll be nice.

 

 

 

Taxes Are Bullshit

 

So had my review with my supervisor this week. I had filled out my review with a LOT of details this time since the first review said I was working "up to expectations", and let's face it, that's horseshit unless they're expectations were sky high.

We went through the sections and at the end she said I was "Exceeding Expectations". I don't know what you have to do to get Outstanding, but I imagine it involves oral or something.

So she tells me the bonus I'm getting. It's $1100, plus I'm getting a raise of like $5K starting on January 1st. I don't know whether that's a good bonus, as I've never gotten one before. My point is, it arrived today and somehow has been turned into like $681.

They took out 38% in taxes. It's fucking insane. It's hard to keep from being enraged at how much we pay in taxes and how little we get out of it versus how much is wasted by politicians. 

---

Went to see the new Spidey last night. It's fun. Too many spoilers to discuss yet. The movie theater was PACKED, and this is one of the few movies I'd go to with packed houses. Went with the wife and kid, and my brother and his girl.

---

Have been working out some preprod stuff on the segment for T3 that I'd written a few years back. If I'm going to shoot in late March or early April, I really have a lot of stuff to pin down, but it's hard not knowing where the country is going to be re: pandemic in a couple of months.

Haven't watched any Xmas horror yet, but JB has his new special on tonight, and I have a couple others lined up. I did see episode 4 of American Horror Stories(most of these are one-off episodes) and it's a Xmas episode featuring Danny Trejo as a killer Santa. It's fun enough, but not amazing or anything.

 

 

December Sucks

 

 You know it, it just does now.

I've bought some Xmas gifts. Still have some to do, but it's such a foreign feeling to be able to buy stuff for people. Most Xmases are me just standing in the background with a vague sense of embarrassment that THIS is the only thing I could get that person, if I got them anything at all.

However, my savings have taken quite a hit as I caught up on bills this month, bills that my wife had neglected to pay because she's still off work. Did she tell me she'd stopped paying them? No. So I had to find out through other means that got me pretty angry and yelly.

Anyway, have been keeping busy in the background on T3 and have reached out to even more people about coming back to act in it or be crew or what have you. Most seem excited, but one of the main guys from T2 still hasn't gotten back to me. He hasn't responded to my texts or my calls, or posts on some of the social media we're on.

Like, if he was mad at me(for a reason I couldn't fathom), wouldn't he block me on everything? I dunno, I just don't get it. If he won't do it for whatever reason, it'll put a big crimp in my plan but the crazy part is that my subconscious apparently went to work on that issue and came up with a decent backup plan. 

However, I don't want to have to write two versions of the script, so I'm temporarily on hold while I have a mutual friend reach out to this guy to find out what gives. Hell, I know where he lives and it's a ways out, and it's probably a strange move to just go out there and surprise him by knocking on his door and asking what's his problem, but I might not be above that.

---

Watched a flick called The Alpinist based on my brother Mike asking about it. It's pretty good but certainly takes a leftfield turn at the end. (it's a documentary a lot like Free Solo)

Have started the Wheel of Time. First episode isn't great, but it gets better. I read the first 5 books in the series WAY back when it first started but it became repetitive, which is insane when the books are like 800 pages apiece.

Finished the new season of Titans. Not bad again, though they all seem to end on a weak note.

 

Buddy Work

 

So I worked on a buddy's trailer because this was their original trailer, and I think you can probably see why most people wouldn't watch this after seeing this trailer.

I'm not quite done, but it's close, and this is what it looks like now. 

Now, I'm not in love with it. It was pretty hard to do because the movie's not shot all that cinematic, so finding good shots was hard. I showed it to Malf and he liked it but said "Doesn't really fit with the tone of the movie", and I was like, "That's a good thing."

The co-director on it saw it and liked it a lot, so we're going with it. I've been messing with a poster but having mixed results on that, so may have to pass it to someone a little better at that than me. We'll see.

--

I'm actually trying to remember what I did last weekend. Oh, yeah, went to that asylum where I wanted to shoot a flick a few years ago. We got out there and parked a short ways away in front of a new neighborhood where they're showing off houses. Hoped we didn't get towed.

We hustled up and into the woods, and the trail is still pretty dicey. No leaves, mind you, but sticks criss-crossing the path so bad they'd whip you as you pushed through them.

At the asylum we noticed something very quick: Someone has been opening up some of the other buildings that weren't open before. We only had time to check out one before we had to move on, as we got there around 3pm and it would be full dark by 6pm.

Also, I forgot to bring my regular glasses. Only had my prescription sunglasses, which made it hard to see anywhere inside the buildings, but would also make driving home super fun in the dark.

We got some decent pics, though I've only color corrected these so far:

 This last one was where I had a red light at the end of the hall and wanted to see if I could make it look interesting. But as I'm doing this, my brother comes hustling back into the building. "Security saw me."

A second later a truck comes rumbling by, slowing down, but it kept going. We don't want to wait to see if the cops are gonna show, and I don't have my glasses to see so well anyway because the sun is almost down.

So we took off. Got back to the car just as it was full dark, and I drove us to BK and then home.

----

Wife had surgery again. Same arm, but up at the wrist. It's been getting numb and also very painful, and they said she had advanced carpal tunnel syndrome. The surgery took less than an hour. She's home now, so hopefully it all heals up and she can go back to work, because me paying for everything is getting old.

 

 

Getting serious about T3

 

 Things are starting to get serious about T3. The more I work on the main script, the more I want to finish the whole thing, and I think, "In X amount of years, I am not going to be able to make any no-budget movie simply from a physical standpoint", so I might as well get out there and do it.

I used to say "This is going to be my last movie," on pretty much every movie since GOH. That would have been a decision made based on my wants. Like, I don't WANT to lose any more money making no-budget flicks.

But I'm at the point where "This is going to be my last movie," may be forced upon me based on what I can physically accomplish. Running 10-14 hour days where I'm lugging gear and holding a camera all day are simply things I probably can't do any more. Certainly not for a week's time, like on the T2 wrap.

Anyway, am making good progress on it, just trying to figure out how to tell everything I want to tell and still keep it under 50 pages.

Have begun reaching out to the actors I'd had involved in the Door segment to see if they're still around and interested. Also listed T3 on imdb, though you can't see it unless you're Pro because it's in Development status.

---

I did go to my mom's for second Thanksgiving. The wife and kid had tickets to some concert so they couldn't go. It was fun and turkey was good, and I killed my diet again for a couple of days because two days later we went to that restaurant we love that's closing.

It wasn't busy at all because it was the Monday after Turkey weekend. They sat us at the exact table that I proposed to my wife at(without us asking), and she immediately starting getting teary eyed, had to go to the bathroom.

Then I hit the menu and discover that the fish I get EVERY time I go there is gone. I ask the waitress about it and she's like, "They had to take some stuff off the menu so they wouldn't have a lot of food left over when they closed."

Now I want to cry. But hey, every time we go we joke that I should try something different, so I guess now's my chance. I order the filet mignon, which is pricey--$45, and doesn't include any side. I order some sides and my meal is like $60. Whatever.

It was AMAZING. Cooked perfect, tasted great. We had some pictures taken, but we're still going to get back one more time before they go. Hopefully the wife can keep it together.

--

Had a dream last night that I was doing a comic book show for the first time in years. I was trying to figure out what to price things at because I hadn't been in comics for so long, and didn't have a new price guide. 

And then the regular shit was happening, like, I got there late so the dealer next to me was partially using my table and I had to get him to move his shit.

I'm glad the dreams of me owning a store have mostly dried up. It sucked being back in that and knowing I'm behind in rent, and how much I had to somehow figure out how to come up with, and then I wake up and think, "Whew, glad that's over..."

 

Dreamin' and Schemin'...

 

Night before Thanksgiving, the Malf and I met for beers where the old Bateman's was. That's where I first met him for beers, and it became our talk-hangout, because nobody was ever there. I have no idea why it went out of business.

Now it's a JBs, whatever that is. We ate and had some beers. The menu's good, but the food wasn't amazing. Decent enough, but the fish and chips were my favorite kind of fish so I expected it to taste better. They over-peppered it, which is really becoming a problem with restaurants lately. They DO know that there's pepper on the table if I want to make my food taste like ass, right?

The crinkle cut fries were excellent. Anyway, after a few beers we retreated back to Malf's for a firepit talk which, as always, went all over the place.

My #1 reason for getting together is that I've come up with a really good idea for a movie or TV show and wanted to throw it by him. His agent's been wanting him to pitch a new TV show and he doesn't have any current new ideas. I actually had this idea a while ago and shelved it, but recently remembered it, and my subconscious is dying to get on it.

It's very high concept, which is always an obstacle to get Malf on board with. He's a deep character guy, always goes for character over plot, which makes his books very good, but they don't turn into easy pitches because the plots don't sound all that involving.

At first he was a little reluctant on it. I think he was trying to dig into what the characters were about, but I haven't fleshed any of them out because I wanted to do that together, rather than get married to an idea that he doesn't like. I gave him the one character that I'd came up with and described.

A couple of hours later and I can tell he's starting to think about it. He's throwing out a name and a backstory for the one guy, and we're starting to toss ideas back and forth. I told him to think it over and get back to me. If he doesn't want in on it, I'll just go write it as a script. High concept is always king in hollywood, so I might have a shot at getting this noticed.

We also talked band stuff, music stuff, book stuff, movie stuff. I tossed some of my T3 problems past him to get his angle, and as usual, he's got some very good ideas and I'm gonna use one of them.

I was drinking the beers, he was drinking the whiskey. I stayed pretty good, and didn't go home until about 2:30am--after the cops and their roadblocks would be gone, just in case.

 ---

Thanksgiving was as usual. I had the over-under on the N-word from the father-in-law at 3, but he blew that out of the water at 9. He's gotten REAL bad the past couple of years, physically and mentally. He tells the same story to you and two days later will tell it again as if he's never told it to you.

It gets pretty tiresome. Then he complains that me and his actual son are on our phones scrolling while he's talking to us, but he's been talking for like 30 minutes at that point. I've got nothing to say, and I don't wanna hear his "blacks are taking over everything" speeches.

Turkey was good though. I think tomorrow I'm going to my mom's house--my older brother went to his inlaws on T-day, so she didn't do anything then. So basically, my diet is out the window until Monday I guess. I haven't weighed myself since that first time, so will be curious to see what Thanksgiving did to it.

Premieres and Diets

 

 Went to the premiere the other night. First I met Cutting and a friend of his named Lee for dinner. We ate at a place I used to eat at on occasion called Swallow at the (last word in Legend of Sleepy _____). Burger was great, since I was cheating on my diet.

Sidebar: Weighed myself on Thursday and I was down 6 pounds, so that's 6 pounds in 4 days. Not bad, so I guess the diet's back to working. I had a Slurpee on Saturday because I woke up late and wasn't going to get in enough calories, so instead of waiting until Sunday(when I had planned to get one), I just got it early.

Anyway, at dinner we chatted and I gave Cutting some early pages of T3 to take a look at. Then, off to the premiere.

It was pretty crowded. I met the guy who shot the movie, a guy whose name I've seen before on FB--we have a lot of mutual friends. Seemed nice. Told me they shot with three Black Magic 6Ks. He got me on the red carpet photo thing with Cutting so we got a pic taken.

As you can see, I'm real dressed up.

Anyway, we watched the movie. I try to judge other low-budget flicks with a lenient eye but this one was hard to do. The writing was BAD. Like, everybody talks to themselves, saying things nobody would say to themself, but things the writer wants the audience to know.

The sound seemed unmixed. Hard to tell if it's because of the old Senator speakers or what, but there was background music by local bands playing in many scenes, but it was so overbearing that sometimes you couldn't hear what people were saying.

There are other little things. The dude playing the sheriff was this good-looking guy with not much acting ability. The sheriff's office looked like it was on the stage of a high school, which I'm guessing it was. (complete with a poster behind the Sheriff that said Wanted: Books).

And Cutting's character appears and disappears a couple of times in the movie, as if he was a figment of one of the character's imaginations. I asked Cutting what was up with that and he said "I have no idea." So they didn't even explain it to him.

Afterward, went back to the bar from the other night for the afterparty. Stayed later than I thought I would--Ryan was there, so we chatted some, plus some new and old people, and then the owner, named Poe, showed a couple of us this back bar section he keeps closed--the wall slides open and you can walk in, and it's AMAZING. Vintage shit everywhere, cool lights and decorations.

Would love to shoot something there. Poe was up for it.

Anyway, was pretty tired the next day at work, as I only got about 4 hours of sleep.

 

 

Fatty Gotta Lose Some Weight

 

 I forgot to mention, the diet started on Monday.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that for about the past year, I have had a Slurpee at least 5 days of every week. It's the thing I look forward to every evening. I put in my day of work, play some video games, do some writing, and snag a Slurpee.

This may also not surprise you, but you actually gain weight by doing this. I could tell I'd been gaining weight, because comfortable T-shirts were all of a sudden too tight, and I was back to not buckling my jeans, just use the belt to cinch it.

So I got on a scale Monday morning to the expected news of 218 pounds. That's right, about 12 pounds away from my fattest.

Back to the shakes, and I gotta hope they work this time. They didn't last time, which was the first time they hadn't, and if they don't show promising results right away, I'm going to do the HARD CORE version of the diet, which is to ONLY have the shakes. I have never been able to stay on that version for more than a week.

I'm going to weigh myself on Friday and see what's happening. My knees have gotten progressively worse, so I figure it can't hurt to knock off twenty pounds so they don't have to carry so much weight.

---

Tomorrow there's a premiere with some of my actor buddies at the Senator, the theater that's hosted four of my premieres. Cutting is coming into town, so I'm going to meet him for dinner and check out the movie with them.

That has me going back to the same exact place in Towson that I was just at. (they're having the afterparty at that same bar I was just at)

After that, I'm done with Towson for a long time.

 

Friday Fun Returns Plus Return To An Old Stomping Ground

 

 An actor I've known for many years who moved to New York was back in town, so Zig organized a Friday fun so we could see him. He was in the first Ttory movie(he's the hunter in the "Siren" segment).

I had worked extra hours last week anyway, and I worked a few on Veteran's Day so I wouldn't have to use PTO to take off Friday. I went over early, but turns out the buddy had car trouble so he didn't end up showing up until about 8pm. We played another game of Trivial Pursuit, the horror edition, and just chatted about shit. 

We didn't end up watching a movie, but that's probably for the best, as we were really just catching up on what's going on. The actor buddy's going to be in the new show by the guy who created the Wire, and he's got a legit part in it now. Not one of those extra roles he mostly gets.

Big stuff for him.

The next night Malf had a concert in Towson, and it turns out that he's playing at a location that I used to drink at three or four times a week in college when I lived up there. It's not called the same thing any more.

Going back to my old college stomping grounds always makes me feel...bad? Not the right word. But it brings back memories I would rather leave. Not because I didn't have a great time back then---man, did I ever--but I definitely sort of pine for those days when I was young and sociopathic, and my body didn't hurt, and the responsibilities of being a parent were as foreign to me as the planet Pluto.

Things have changed in that town quite a bit. The bar is now a weird Tex-mex restaurant on one half, small concert venue on the other. There were four bands total, and they were all good. I didn't drink that much, since I had to drive home, but I stayed pretty late. They were all still there when I left at 1:30am though, which is weird. The young people tending bar there didn't seem to give a shit about last calls and whatnot.

Some convention friends from Michigan had come all the way down to see the concert, so hung out and chatted with them. Had a good time, and bought them some drinks. Didn't think it was gonna be that expensive, but one of them ordered three drinks that cost $27--that's an expensive drink.

--

Watching Squid Game. Definitely a good show but has one big problem I'm having a hard time figuring why nobody's mentioned.

That is this: A bunch of people join this game where they know at the end they get a bunch of money. Only thing is, nobody asks how many games they have to play to win the money. Do they have to play until there's only one person left alive? Or a set number of games? Nobody asks, and it seems like a stupidly-obvious question--and many of these people seem smart.

 btw, we had this exact refrigerator when I was growing up.

 

 

Work Stuff. Will Prolly Bore You.

 

 So last week was interesting. I was offered a promotion at this job to Functional Analyst, which means a pay-raise of like 20K-30K a year.

Sounds cool, right? I'll put it out front that I turned it down after a couple of days of thought.

Reason being that that title does what I do now, plus some other stuff. They SAID it wouldn't mean more hours, but I don't believe that for a second. And right now, I've got enough money but never enough time.

So I'll keep it in my back pocket--I can take the position any time, as they're in desperate need of GOOD analysts. Nice to be asked though, after only being at the company for 7 months.

This was also a long week, being that I worked M-F at the regular job, then Sat-Sun at an auction, then back to work today. However, it appears that Thursday is a day off(fed holiday) and I think I'm taking off Friday because I put in a lot of hours last week so I can either work a couple hours on Friday, or just take a couple hours of PTO.

PTO wins.

---

Work continues on the T3 script. The numbers have come down QUITE a bit on the streaming side, which seems strange. I would have expected the last week of October to be big, but it was so small I actually started doubting their accounting. 

I dunno, who knows, maybe only the well-known Halloween movies get any play that last week. Guess we'll see where it lands.

I feel like I should start the next novel/novella. Either go with that original idea that's been obsessing me(but is missing pieces) or turn one of my unfilmed scripts into a novella like I did with With Teeth. I've noticed a pattern in my writing(what would you expect from the dude that brought you HH?), and it's this, boiled down simply: Problems get solved by men with guns. 

It's easy to see why this is something I'm obsessed with. I grew up loving Westerns, which is that very premise. Then in my formative years of the 80's, that's all I watched. Stallone, Schwarzenneggar, all the others. That's sorta my thing.

I only bring this up because With Teeth follows that formula pretty closely, so I don't really wanna movie on to another novella with that. For instance, my killer-scarecrow screenplay is half not-that, and then the second-half is exactly that.

The script I've been writing for 15 years that's nearly finished(and involves an autistic boy) is NOT this, but it has issues that would be very hard to translate to a novel. Also, all my worries about people watching this as a movie and then getting angry at me for things that happen in it--those would be 1000% worse in a novel because I'd have to be putting out this character's inner thoughts. I know, I'm being pretty vague.

The movie I was going to shoot a few years ago when we lost the main location is about a girl who goes missing and a man is hired to get her back at all costs. And yes, he has guns. But this is the one I'm leaning toward. 

Don't know. I want to really start trying to get some of these short stories out into anthologies, plus I had a good idea for an anthology involving REAL authors. I tossed it by Malf the other night and he liked it. Said he'd be willing to put something into it, and thought I could probably get some bigger names on it too.

So I have to think about how to start putting a pitch together. See who's interested.

 

 

Welcome To The Suck Months

 

Here we are, Halloween is over, and we're about to head into the sucky cold months. The depression of Halloween being over is always rough, but it seemed to hit early this year. Like, on Halloween day I was kinda depressed already because it seemed like it was just getting started.

I DID, however, manage to finish that Halloween short story that I'd started the previous year. I put the last page off until the last minute, and the whole second half of the story needs some rewriting, but it's DONE, and that's the hardest part of writing. It came out to over 11,000 words, so it's not short.

--- 

The night before we went out to a bar I hadn't been to in a couple of years--we used to go there all the time for Halloween. It was actually a good time. A lot of people, but not so many it was uncomfortable. Half the bar is outside, so if you felt cramped you could move there--there's no divider or door outside, so you could still see the band play from there.

I went as a guy from Top Gun because it was an easy costume that my kid had, and it let me not put a mask on. (which is hard with glasses, and then makes drinking very tough) Also got to wear my shades, which is nice because some of the spotlights are blinding to my eyes.

They had some cool decorations too.This was also the first time I used that driver service that begins with a U and rhymes with goober. That worked out okay. 

We closed the bar down--my wife and her brother and I--and there's a 7-11 right there, so while we waited for our ride, we grabbed a Slurpee. 

 

-----

The night before that, I asked my brother if he wanted to go shoot some pics of decorations down there, and then maybe head over to the Ttory woods to shoot some pics for fun. My nephew went, which worked out well since he could be our model. I also took my big Sam doll and a few other props.

The terraforming of the area continues. It really will be pretty dicey shooting anything there now during the day, as I expect it's probably mobbed. It's like they want to turn it into a public park, when it's not.

Worrisome, part of me thinks, but part of me thinks it's doubtful I'll get the motivation back to go kill myself. I wish there was a way to show people just how physically and mentally draining it is to make a movie on a microbudget level.

I didn't shoot this one below, but I can't leave ya hanging with no sexy shots. (other than that sweet sexy shot of me above)

 

 

 

Halloween Screams

 

 So here we are, another October that seemed to go by even faster than the others. Why is it that time seems to move so much faster when you get older? It's a little weird, honestly.

Last weekend I bought tickets for the fam and some friends to go to Field of Screams. Had never been there and heard it was cool, so we headed out there. It was pretty packed. The web site directions are TERRIBLE. You order tickets and they say to show up like fifteen minutes before your "slot", but it turns out you should show up way before that because the time-slotted portion is the last thing you get to do--it's on the way out, so once you do it you can't come back in.

We did get there early though, and we blew off our time slot since it didn't seem like they were checking it. We went through the first little haunted house thing which was pretty lame. The "carnival" part was just goofy and took a lot of time. You could throw axes and bean bags and little hoops, and win worthless shit not even as good as the local carnival.

My brother won on the bean bag toss, I won on the throw a brain into the skull, and I think my wife won on the ring throw. The axe throwing was amusing as nobody was all that great at it. (I think I got 3 out of 4 axes in, but only 1 in the bullseye)

Then we got some snacks. The girl serving us was clearly fed up. We ordered like ten items that were between $3-$5 apiece, and it somehow came to $19. We stood around one of the firepits so Zig--who'd forgotten his coat--could warm up, then we got in the line for the trail at about 9pm. (our slot was 8pm)

Took about 20 minutes, then we were ushered into the trail. There were warnings about not taking pics and whatnot, but I never listen to that stuff anyway. Snapped some pics when I could.

                                                    This is the entrance to the trail.

                                    This room was very cool. Like a thin layer of laser light.

 The first house had a super dark spot where the wife and I lost everybody else, and then inexplicably, my brother just kept going without looking behind to see if we were still with them. I had to call him to find out he'd kept going.

The trail was cool. Would be a cool place to shoot a flick. I prolly wouldn't splurge on the expensive package next time though--the trail's really the only cool thing to do.

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Been trying to play catch up on watching horror flicks, so here's what I watched since last I posted:

• Urban Legend 1&2
• Fear Street 1-3(with the wife and kid)
• Trick R Treat(with the wife and kid)
• The Fog
• Exorcist The Beginning
• Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie
• Trick or Treats(had never seen this one. Fun seeing all those old Halloween decorations like the Beistle cardboard cutouts) but what is this?  Some wife locks her husband up in an insane asylum in the first scene even though he seems perfectly sane. He breaks out and comes back to his house for revenge years later? Thin thin plot with the most ludicrous-ending ever.
• Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill - it's on Plex.  Not great.
  
• First episode of the new Chucky TV series. You know what? I kind of dug it. The CGI didn't bother me so far, and hearing Brad's voice as Chucky again is nice.
  

 
 Tried a couple of other Halloween themed movies on tubi but they were so bad I turned them off after a few minutes.

Still not sure what we're doing this coming weekend. The wife wants to go out Saturday night, so maybe we'll do that. Friday looks like Friday-fun at Zig's. (would also like to see Edgar Wright's new movie)

Double Three-Day Weekend

 

 After the Columbus day holiday, I still wasn't really feeling the work. The PTO has been stacking up, so I said screw it, was taking off Friday too.

Decided to go see the new Halloween flick,which pretty much sucked, and then went over to Zig's for some Friday fun. I also took over the horror-themed trivial pursuit that the wife had given me for Xmas, but I hadn't opened yet.

We decided to play that first, and Zig's wife also played. She started first and pretty much had 4 pies before the rest of us had any. It was a little embarrassing since we're supposed to be the horror experts.

Anyway, by the end of the game it actually came down to me with all the pies having to answer one last question in the middle. Got it wrong once, but next turn I got it, and then Zig was the only one who could tie me on one last turn but he didn't.

So I guess I lucked out and get the crown for now. Honestly the questions range from embarrassingly easy to obnoxiously hard(What's the name of the asylum in season 2 of AHS?). It's mostly luck on who gets what question, and what they roll to get to the correct colors.

Then we watched a pretty bad movie called Twice Dead. Typical Friday fun stuff. Prolly should have watched something Halloween based, but whatever.

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The three-day weekend went by too fast. It was a warm weekend, especially for October, but all of a sudden the cold has hit. Like 12 days away from the holiday, and I'm still not really feeling it.

Physically, I'm shit. I've gained some weight back--hanging somewhere around 215--and my knees have gotten really bad. When I walk up the stairs, they CREAK. I've gotten some compression legging things but so far they're not exactly doing anything that I can tell.

 The wife has decorated the house nicely, so that's not an issue. Here's some pics:

 She'd mentioned maybe trying to have a pumpkin party. Part of me is like, that might be fun, but the other part is like...there's no kids any more in the family, and many of our family/friends who used to participate are dead now, so is it just going to further the sad curve?

I think she's probably not going to try it.

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Forgot, the Thursday night before Friday fun, went over to the Malf's for beers and chat. We hadn't done it in quite a while. Ordered some pizzas from the place over there where I always get 'em during shoots for Ttory. 

Malf had a fire pit and we chatted over some of the Ttory 3 script issues I've been considering. He had a good idea for one of the main issues I'd been having, so I'm going to incorporate it. He told me about how he's done some massive changes to his new book, the one I'd read, and he has to turn it in very soon.

Malf's brother came over and talk turned to the band. I heard some new songs, which are very cool. Still, there was one song Malf had played for me a LONG time ago and it's a fuckin hit song. But some of the bandmates wanna tinker with it, which is a TERRIBLE idea I think.

We talked about concepts for the next music video they wanna do. I think they know that I'm not really interested in shooting it unless it's something that interests me. I'm not shooting them separately on a green screen this time, I can tell you that.

Anyway, had a good time and ended up chatting until nearly 2am, which was longer than I'd thought.

Also of note, I am almost finished that Halloween short story that I started last year. It's ending up longer than I thought, over 10,000 words. I have a lot of re-writing to do on it, but the hardest part is always getting it down at all.

 

It's just crazy how time is going by now...

 

I came over and looked here--and it's been a week since I did this? It seems like two days. It's crazy how fast time is whizzing by. 

Had a nice bonus this past week as I didn't realize we were off on Monday. I hit my brother up to see if he wanted to go out and shoot some photos Sunday night, since I hadn't been out doing that since I got this job.

I have had a crazy idea for a while that I'd like to go to that cliff we used in the end of T2 and shoot some time lapses off of it at night. Not exactly legal, cuz it's super dangerous. Hell, it's super dangerous when it's broad daylight.

But since when does danger bother me? We headed up in the day to see if there was an old creepy house up there that I'd seen like 5 years ago. Thought I could get some good photos, but it wasn't there any more.

So we headed to another spot in this park where there's a waterfall and took some shots. I also took some iphone videos also while I was shooting other stills. Here's some of those.

It was overcast all day, kind of cool temperature. We started making our way out when a young Ranger came out. The park closes at sundown, but the guy assured us we weren't late, he was just checking to make sure things were okay. 

His name was Ranger Ricky, and he was nice. I used the time walking back to chat him up and find out whether they worked all night--because we were about to go up to the peak in the dark, and wanted to know if we could expect one of them to catch us.

He conveniently let me know that they were done at sundown. 

So my plan became, wait until they were all gone, then head up to the back trail and walk it until we get to the cliff, then shoot some pics.

There was a church near there, so we went there and shot some pics and videos. It started raining pretty good too.

We headed to the trail. I'd only walked this trail once--like ten years ago, and I remember how brutal it was. It's quite a steep trail up for like 20 minutes, and I'm older and in even worse shape.

It was not fun. We stopped a couple of times to catch our breath. This is a pic of both of us stopping.

As you can see from the umbrella, it was still raining off and on. We eventually made it up there and it was fucking PITCH BLACK. Because of the cloud cover, there was no moon or stars. This made it near impossible to get a good picture, because if you did a long exposure so that you could see the rocks, then the sky was so bright it just looked like a day shot. 

If you exposed for the sky, the rock was pitch black. These were a couple I got--had to try to use the flashlight very briefly to put a little light on the rock.

This is what it looked like from my iphone with the flashlight, and yes, I went out a decent bit on the rock. My brother wanted nothing to do with it, didn't even get up on that rock at all.

I also texted Cutting with this picture and told him to picture himself out there at night for T3, and that I was writing a scene for him. A total lie, but it was fun to watch him freak out a bit.

We prep to leave, and I check to make sure I've got everything. Wait...where's my wallet?

You might remember that the last time we went out I used my wallet to prop my camera up out on this beach, and I accidentally left it, had to run all the way down the beach praying it hadn't fallen off the log into the water.

I lucked out that time, and vowed never to use my wallet as a prop again. But I also remember, at the church tonight, saying "I'm not gonna use my wallet as a prop!" but then I did use it.

I'm freaking again. I go check the cliff and whatnot, just to be sure it didn't fall out of my pocket when I pulled my phone out. It's not there.

We hightail it back to the parking lot. I thought I'd used it to prop the camera up in the parking lot, but it's not there. I'm really starting to panic inside, though you'd never know it. Then I get lucky again--it's over by the statue that you see in the pics above.

That nails it, though.  I'm getting a mini bean bag so I can prop my camera up without using my wallet.

Trying to get some horror stuff in, but not doing too much. Am planning a trip to Field of Screams though, but the logistics of getting people together for it is rough.