It’s been a while since I wrote a church post, so here we go.  A while back I mentioned the 4th and 5th grade moving into a new room.  The old one was getting kind of cramped and so when the church redesigned the area in the front of the church, adding a mini-café and some TV screens for the live video feed from the worship center, we were able to take the room where the live video feed was.  This room doubles as a junior high room on Sunday afternoons and has a large portion dedicated to games.  There are four TVs for video games, thankfully not used for our group.  There are also two carpet ball tables, four foosball tables (not all in good shape), two air hockey tables, and one of those mini-basketball games.  Now you may have heard of most of what I listed, but you may not have heard of carpet ball.  This is a game that uses ten pool balls plus the cue ball.  each player gets five balls.  The field is long and narrow (about one foot wide by ten feet long) and the object is to knock your opponents balls into his pit (each side has a pit).  The picture above shows a game in progress.  No, the kids aren’t from my church- I just grabbed the pic off the web.  As you can imagine the kids love these games.  Of course it makes the parent’s job harder, peeling them away at the end… 😀

Besides the games, the new room has a divider that cuts off the games during the main time, a projector hanging from the ceiling that broke down this weekend, a better sound system than in the old room, and some couches to sit on during small group time, though some groups leave the room to hold their small groups.  We did this in the old days too when we had this room, before we were moved upstairs when the upstairs was new.  The teaching and worship area is larger as well.  Large enough that some forward-thinking person decided to set up the chairs in three sections.  You see, in the old room we only had room for two sections which kind of became the “boy’s side” and the “girl’s side,” distinctions we never had in mind.  The first day one of the leaders was watching the kids as they claimed a chair and commented on how it was fun watching them try to puzzle out which was the boy’s side and which was the girl’s side.  🙂

The student from Moody Bible Institute who was a leader a few years ago when he was in high school and now came back as a study for his class, taught today at the second service and recorded himself for his class.  He was a little nervous at first I could tell, but he got into it and did a fine job.  One of these days I’ll get a chance to teach in the new room, but the children’s pastor, Steve, wants me to record the kids and make weekly shorts to show at the beginning of class.  I did a little too good of a job on the DVD I made for my cabin… 😛  As soon as he gives me a camera on which to do it, I will, probably in two weeks as I am doing drama next week.  The camera I used at camp really isn’t good enough as it was made to be a still camera first.

The calling idea is working well too.  I have called at least the parents of each member of my small group once so far and I should be giving another call either this or next week.  There is one student who gave me an unreadable number so I haven’t been able to call him yet though and I totally forgot to ask him this weekend about it.  I hope I remember next weekend.

Well, I think that’s enough for now.  Until Tuesday most likely.  Due to small group, Monday is a bad time for me to post.

Ever since Fox network acquired the rights to the World Series, the Treehouse of Terror (aka The Simpson’s Halloween Special) has been pushed to the first weekend of November.  The annual episode is actually three terrifying yarns told to send chills through the hearts of audiences.  Ironically, my favorite to date is the original, particularly the Simpson’s unique spin on Edgar Allen Poe‘s classic, The Raven.  In it, Homer is driven insane by the raven which strangely resembles Bart.  It also featured the first appearance of Kang and Kodos, alien invaders from Rigel VII.  In their first episode, the beings were not bent on world domination; however, Lisa’s suspicions got the better of her and the alien’s left in disgust.

SPOILERS AHEAD: Tonight’s episode featured three new tales.  My favorite was the final homage to another classic Halloween special.  The names were changed to avoid any lawsuits.  Milhouse and Lisa sat in the pumpkin patch awaiting the arrival of The GRAND Pumpkin.  Only in this tale, the creature comes alive after poor Milhouse sheds a tear after he is abandoned by his love.  After witnessing the torture pumpkins go through for Halloween (turning into jack-o-lanterns, etc), the giant gourd vows REVENGE. Most of the other aspects resemble the Peanuts special (even down to Bart’s holey Charlie Brown ghost costume and Ralph Wiggum’s cloud of dust as Pig Pen).  The Grand Pumpkin also featured the annual appearance Kang and Kodos.  And in yet another nod, Marge practiced her trombone which simulated the adult voices of the Peanuts cartoons.  While not as memorable as past years, I never miss a Treehouse of Terror.

I don’t know what kept me from seeing The Incredible Hulk when it was in theatres last summer.  Maybe it was the fear of being disappointed a la the original film.  More probably, it was the fact that I was in a show and was really busy, because I read some reviews and got excellent work of mouth.  However, seeing it on video I was FAR from disappointed.  The sequel had EVERYTHING the first film lacked in abundance.  It was almost a marriage of the comic book and the television series with homages paid to both.

The Incredible is so much closer in tone to the series while at the same time remaining faithful to the comic book.  Bruce Banner is on the run forever searching for the cure to his transformation into the not-so-jolly green giant. However, he may just come to realize that curing it is not necessarily the answer.  Along with him is his former fiance Betty Ross daughter of General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross.  General Ross is bent upon capturing Banner and using his alter-ego as a military weapon.  Another important figure derived from the comic series, Major Emil Blonsky (a rather power driven soldier) is introduced.

Yet, what made the movie so special (in my opinion) are the gentle nods to past incarnations of the character.  In most Marvel Superhero movies, Stan Lee (creator of The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, and a whole list of other heroes) makes an appearance.  Lou Ferrigno (the ORIGINAL, original Hulk) has a cameo as a security guard as he did in the first film (and in a very cool vocal appearance).  There is also a nice reference to Bill Bixby (the original Dr. Banner) near the beginning of the film.  There is also a cameo of the original closing theme of the television series (“The Lonely Man”) .  Plus a mention of a certain investigative reporter.

Everything about The Incredible Hulk made it so much better than the first movie.  Everyone involved knew exactly what they were doing and made one monster of a tale.  It even included a cameo from a character  that  foreshadows a follow-up feature film.  So much for fans of the comic as well as those who remember the television series of the 70s-80s.  An Incredible film.

Thursday was an interesting day.  I subbed for the gifted teacher at a middle school.  Fir some reason this teacher has only five classes instead of the usual six.  Two each of 7th and 8th grades, one 6th grade.  Now what happens when the reason for the teacher’s absence is because she took the 8th graders on a field trip?  Five – two = three.  Three classes, and a full days pay.  Wow.  To be fair I did check around for extra work, but none was to be had so I pretty much spent the rest of the day reading my book.  Friday I had a full contingent of classes though.  It was 7th grade math and the teacher was in the building helping with a tour of kids from the local Japanese school (school originally made for Japanese families who would be in the country for a year or two and didn’t want the children’s education disrupted from the normal Japanese school routine).  However, the tour didn’t start until the end of third period, so he was still around for the first classes.  The rest of the classes had me doing no teaching- he set them up as a homework day so they could independently work on a long assignment he gave them.  More book reading… No, not really.  I walked around and helped a bit, and more than once headed up to the board to go over some common problems I was getting a lot of questions about.  Not a bad day.  I will be at their rival school on Monday for 8th grade math.

So, not much excitement, and no- you may not have your minute back that you spent reading this post. 😛

Our trick-or-treating was actually on Thursday, and we had lots of fun.  It’s a darn shame though that we lost our camera along the way, and even after numerous calls to the police station, it hasn’t turned up.  But after trick-or-treating, we went to our friends’ church party, and they took a Halloween picture of our whole family.  I wonder if they’ll sneak it into the newspaper next year to advertise their party.  They did that this year – imagine my surprise when I’m flipping through the paper the other day and there’s a picture of us from Halloween last year, dressed as a fish with my husband the monk beside me holding Pebbles Flintstone.

I just hope there wasn’t anything else too important on that camera.  Also, it was an expensive camera which my husband had won, not to mention the fact that we’re now without a camera.  We had to finish the rest of our Halloween celebrations without taking any pictures.  On tap today was the community Halloween party at the ice rink – there’s no ice in there yet.  Instead, they set up carnival games, bouncy castles, a cardboard box maze, and face painting for the kids.  They have hay (straw) rides through the “haunted” fields, and each kid that attends gets a bag of popcorn and a trick-or-treat bag to put their candy in when they win it from the games.  It’s very cool, and the best part is that it’s all free – including hot dogs and punch for the whole family.  For some reason, this year’s turnout was a bit lacking – less than 1/3 of the people from last year I would estimate.  I guess it’s because they had it after Halloween this year?  I don’t really get why that would scare (haha) people away – a free fun thing for the kids including dinner?  It’d be hard to keep us away!  Since I only have one Halloween picture of the kids and they’re cute, I’m reluctantly sharing the whole family’s Halloween picture, myself included – I love dressing up for Halloween and wanted to get more mileage out of my less-than-$5 80’s costume.  One of the funnest things about dressing up is being creative and finding things that make a costume for a bargain.  Next year I want to be Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, so I’ll have to be on the lookout all year for a dress and shoes I can use.  Here is a list of people and costumes from this year:

Taylor – almost 9 years old – a costume she put together herself involving a dress, a cape, and devil horns
Sammie – 4 yrs – a princess
Disney – 2 yrs – a unicorn
Christopher – almost 3 mos. – a lion cub
Dad – an escaped inmate
Mom – a time traveller from the 80’s

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

The big film style from the 40’s, 50’s and even into the early 60’s was the Musical. Just did some background checks on Musicals in Film history.

In the 2000’s only one musical won best picture (Chicago 2002)
In the 1990’s there were no musicals winning best picture, If you count Disney’s Beauty and the Beast only 1 musical was nominated.
In the 1980’s none and I didn’t see any nominated
In the 1970’s none, I counted 3 nominations.
In the 1960’s there was West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), and Oliver! (1968) with many others nominated
In the 1950’s there was An American in Paris (1951), Gigi (1958) and again many others nominated
In the 1940’s Going my Way (1944) again there were many more nominated.

Now I realize that Academy awards are not a good indication of all the films made, it makes some logical sense to me that if more musicals are being made more will end up in the nomination process. That is just everyday statistics. So, I’m wondering, What happened to the musical? I may have to explore this when I have more time. The other question is, why do local community theaters always have to put on a musical? Never mind on that last question, there isn’t a budget for big special effects and action movies, I mean plays.

Post Script…
Fascinating sidebar for me. I started thinking of musicals was when I was discussing Fred Astaire with one of my daughters. I made the comment on how he made all of his dance partners look good, even the inanimate ones.

AH…… HALLOWEEN HAS COME (and gone for another year by the time this post is complete).  I love this time of year.  Some of my cousins (on my Dad’s side) actually operate a small family-friendly attraction.  They charge absolutely no admission and get lots of visitors every year.  At the end of the haunt, Ed and Barb have goodies as well as plates of cookies to take home.  It is really neat, but they always insist upon having no money given.  I believe taylhis has posted about the site on her blog.  Unfortunately, I cannot find the exact post, but you can read her posts as well.  I’m sure she would enjoy the traffic.

Tonight, the gang made its third and final trek to ScreamAcres.  I just had to go in costume.  Justj also came dressed in the very authentic attire of the world’s most reknowned archaeologist. If I could not be a scary clown for the theatre’s PLANNED haunted attraction, then I would at least dress the part for the evening.  I think I scared my own nieces more than I scared the other children I encountered.  However, the makeup must have created a nice effect under the black light of the haunted maze.  Some of the employees at the farm were especially nice as they recognized us each time we arrived.  Wouldn’t it be fun if some of them remember us when we return NEXT season?

Following the final foray into the darkness, we returned to watch a suspenseful movie.  Phone Booth stars Colin Farrell as Stu, a troubled Manhattan publicist who just happens to pick up the wrong ringing telephone in one of the last remaining booths on the isle.  The rather sadistic caller makes the young man play his game or if not places  the lives of Stu and others in jeopardy.  I actually enjoyed the picture-in-picture motif shown throughout the film letting the audience know what was going on surrounding the main action.  Very entertaining movie, but not one I would recommend to everyone.  The language is a problem.  But let it be noted, ifr you ever come across a ringing phone booth, be mindful or you may get someone you might not wish to speak to.  There was a two-year-old lying on the floor who we thought was sleeping becoming engrossed in it.  Uh,oh.

Blockbuster.com

Considering the topic of this blog one could assume that I am about to write a post about a Bart Simpson-esque student deciding to pull the fire alarm or set a trash can on fire for a gag, then get caught by police and dragged before a judge to learn that the story dad or grandpa told him about the things he did in his school days are not just considered not funny these days but actually a crime worthy of a hefty fine and/or community service.

Well, I’m not going to tell that story.  Instead this is about the trick-or-treaters who missed out on our house for the hour we took out of this evening to check up on my grandmother.  Things started out normal enough.  She called and the one she wanted to talk to was in the bathroom, so she said to have her call her back.  No problem, and thank– {click}.  Sigh.  My grandmother always hangs up immediately following her last word.  When she’s done, she’s done.  So, when the call is attempted to be returned- no answer.  Okay, maybe she’s in the bathroom this time.  Try again- nope.  And again.  Nada.  Keeps trying, and panic arises.  You see, my grandmother is 86 and I’m told was having some chest pains earlier today.  Okay, time to go over to her apartment to see if she’s all right, still attempting to make contact on the way.  We get over there and she is happily in discussion with a pastor who also sells household goods, I guess for extra income.  She loves the products he sells, or rather sold, as apparently he is quitting that line of business.

So, long story short (everybody now: TOO LATE! 😛 ) what happened is she unplugged the phone she had in her living room because it had too many cords and one of the buttons sticks.  That left her with her bedroom phone, which wouldn’t be a problem since her apartment is pretty small except she had the ringer turned off so she wouldn’t be woken up when asleep.  Doh!  We hooked back up her phone, explaining to her that she could still take calls even if she couldn’t dial any number with a 3 in it, and that I would be happy to get her a new phone ASAP.  No more troubles with not being able to call her I hope.

Okay, we return and only get maybe two more trick-or-treating groups for the rest of the night.  Where have they all gone these last few years, seriously?  Maybe scares like the latest one of tainted chocolate candy from China [don’t worry unless you’re in Canada, says the company]?

If you really want to hear about my jobs these last couple of days, I think I’m going to have to make you wait until tomorrow.  It’s 11 now and I’m tired.  Good night.

Turn out the lights, sit in the dark and watch these movies. By today’s standards, they are not scary. By the standards of the time, people screamed in the theaters.

Number 1 on my list, I’ve written about before. Dracula with Bela Lugosi, the first well know Dracula, and one imitated more often than any of the others. Lugosi’s vampire became the standard.

Number 2, The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr. State of the art special effects of the day when he changed into the Wolfman.

Number 3, Frankenstein with Boris Karloff. Created life goes out of control to destroy its creator and all the things the creator loves.

Number 4, The Mummy with Boris Karloff. Karloff gets to act in this movie and it is worth seeing. His voice and facial expressions are wonderful

Find them, watch them and enjoy.

Happy Halloween

I made an entry on another site yesterday and noticed a spike in my readers. There really was nothing new to this, the other site seems to be a curious bunch and when I post, my blog readership does spike for a day or two

I did something a little out of the ordinary for me, I begged for readers outside of my blog. Spike city, and I also got additional responses!!!

One of the reasons I started this blog, was a chance to communicate with more people. If nobody responds, I’m not communicating, just writing. So I welcome all newcomers.

For anyone new, most of the time I write about things that interest me. My interests vary widely and can be influenced by responses…. I’ve been into computer communication since the time of 300 baud acoustic modems. I started sharing Dungeons and Dragons hints and stuff like that in the late 70’s early 80’s. Then I got into it for work related functions and finally with this blog back to fun again.

Pick an interest, and I may write about it.

1) new/old movies tv shows (Things I’ve seen, or things I won’t and why)
2) Books (I like books, do you have any suggestions? I don’t read romance, just a quirk of mine)
3) Science News, mostly space related, but that is just a starting point
4) Odd News the odder the better in my book
5) cooking, I like to find new recipes. All sorts
6) Family – I have one and I like them
7) Friends – They are the family you pick
8 ) Hobbies and other pastimes
9) The trials, tears and other feelings about being a Widower and only parent
10) Life – thinking about it and living it

Notice I didn’t put up anything about religion or politics. I was always taught that it is almost impossible to have polite conversation in those areas, unless everyone agrees with my Father. Since he is no longer around to moderate those conversations, and I’m not in the mood to moderate them, I guess they won’t happen here.

Enjoy, and be welcome.