Hey! Nobody Told Me About This!

Dammit! Regent Releasing should have called me about this months ago!

It looks like a modern adaptation of The Shadow Over Innsmouth and the wiki confirms. The basis is fairly loose and it has Tori Spelling in it, but what it does have going for it is an endorsement by T. S. Joshi, one of the foremost experts and biographer of Lovecraft. Just on that I can assume it's good, but the preview looks damn good, too. Read the reviews page, and it makes it look even better.

The thing that really pisses me off is that the last show in my area (Gloucester) is a date I have already set aside. All I can do is hope for a DVD or a wider release (doubtful).

Think I'm gonna' email and beg for more dates. Really, I can deal with Tori Spelling, especially if she gets eviscerated by Deep Ones.

Srsly. WHO THE F**K DROPPED THE BALL ON THIS ONE?!?!?!

Sumthin' from Nuthin'

Pushing yourself to write SOMETHING every day was good while the election was winding down, but now what? Guess I'll have to make some effort now. I really didn't have a plan for today, and since I spent most of the night wrestling with E-Vite to get news out about a party, well...I got nuthin'.

Oh, I did do something today. I was invited to my son's school for a Veteran's Day chorus performance. It was pretty good; several local American Legion bubbas, myself, and a bunch of school kids.

I really didn't want to go at first. I was still very conflicted inside; glad that my candidate won, but in a real way feeling disenfranchised from the party I used to value, and somewhat unsure of what lies ahead in the coming years for myself, my profession, and my service. But I felt I needed to go; things like this are important and a big part of my job is outreach.

Waiting for things to start, the principal asked me if I wanted to say a few words when things started. I said sure, if I knew what I was going to say, and he said just talk about these vets here and what they mean. Fortunately, things were running late so I had time to think.

First, I asked all the kids there if they thought yesterday was a special day for America. They all raised their hands and cheered.

I told them that every 4 years we have a very special day - it's the day when every American who wants to can tell the government "This is what I want us to do."

Now sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you don't (I could see some of the American Legion vets shifting uncomfortably - you can figure most of them voted McCain) but the important part is you get to do this.

Then I told them that a veteran is someone who says "I believe in this so much that I will defend it, and fight for it if I need to". I told them that because of the veterans that were in front of them, yesterday and every election day like it could happen, and that they should all stand up and show their appreciation.

The applause was deafening; I know kids can be loud, but damn!

The look on the vets' faces was priceless.

Made my day. Made me feel good. Put things in perspective for me as much as them, and I was able to go back to work. And holy crap, amid all this self-back-patting, I found a post.

My Voting Experience

Now that everyone's about to call the election for Obama, I'll go ahead with this old news.

I live and work in Boston, but vote in RI, so instead of voting absentee or early (don't even know if RI votes early) I like to take election day and actually drive to my polling place. Also, after 18 years of voting absentee, it's nice to vote in person.

I had intended to get to my polling place in Bristol at 0700 when it opened, but didn't wake up until 0600, so that went out the window. At 0630 I hopped in the car and headed south, sure that I'd be stuck in an around the corner line, like the ones that I was already hearing about on the radio.

The drive down was pleasant, as I sipped coffee and listened to NPR until I couldn't get WBUR any more, then switched to WEEI sports radio.

I did not go to my usual polling place - my usual spot was closed, but the new place (a local school) was easy to find. A bit of frustration with some roadwork blocking the access from the main road, but it was really a minor setback. There was a small but steady stream of people coming in, and only 5 or 6 people ahead of me in the line. As in the primaries, the "A-D" line was the longest, with almost nobody going into the other lines.

Still, it was a matter of a few minutes before I got my ballot. Interestingly, I did not need to show ID to get it, but I did have to verify my address...while the poll worker was holding open the voter registry with my address on it right in front of me. I guess if someone really wanted to and knew who I was and where I polled they could steal my vote, but it seems pretty unlikely. Still, I would have felt more comfortable if they had asked for an ID.

My ballot was a "broken arrow" design just like the West Palm Beach ballot. But since I read the instructions, I knew what to do and voted correctly. No x's, no circles, and no sympathy for people who can't be bothered to read and figure out a ballot.

I don't remember what voter I was. They had "I Voted" stickers, but I forgot to take one. I went about my business and headed to Newport. Unfortunately, I had to return to Boston early and was unable to meet my cousin James for lunch.

CNN has just called for Obama. America chose well. It was not easy for me - it hurt some. I needed to break with a party that I identified with for almost my entire adult life, and my vote was very much against them and a "base" that no longer defines me, as a center-right person. I think a worthy candidate had to "sell his soul" to them to have a shot at leading this country, and because of that I could not trust his administration. I only hope they can re-invent themselves and become a reasonable second party some day.

Whatever, I'm too distracted now to write much more.

36 Days to Stupid

The only reason I'm putting it here than on Regime Turnover is because it's NaBloPoMo.

You know you're having trouble when the main publication you rely upon to spread your word turns against you. Such was the case when, on 26 September, National Review columnist Kathleen Parker admitted that Palin is in over her head and should bow out for the good of the party. The Republican Party immediately shot back that the complaints were coming from so-called "intellectual" conservatives - not Main Street Republicans. So...intellectuals are not prized by the Republican Party.

It must be true, because we all know that 18 days later Christopher Buckley left the National Review (can we say "was run out of"?) after presenting a well-reasoned argument for supporting Obama.

And 18 days later the coup de grace..."Main Street, anti-intellectual Republicanism" comes on nation-wide display as Gov. Palin actually believes she is talking to French President Nicholas Sarkozy on a freaking cell phone because, you know, foreign heads of state just call people up out of the blue and all.

Just three little events that tell me I've made the right decision in not voting Republican for the first time in my voting career. Though I truly hope the party can recover from it's anti-intellectualism (and the host of other problems it has) sometime before I die.

Keeping Holy the Lord(Cthulhu)'s Day

Okay, so some time ago I posted about a band called The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets and linked to their song "Yig Snake Daddy". I've since bought their album "Cthulhu Strikes Back", the cover of which is a cool take-off on "Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back" and is full of great, sci-fi/horror/Lovecraft-based surf punk. One of my favorite pieces is an 11-minute audio feast called "Cthulhu Dreams". It's worth a listen, and headphones make it better. Particularly cool listening on a lonely, late night train from London to Portsmouth.

Anyway, this morning as I'm making breakfast for the kids, I have this song playing. My oldest, who has a vague idea of what Cthulhu looks like (enough to draw sketches and make lego figures) asks if he's some sort of "sea monster". Instead of saying yes, I tried to explain that Cthulhu and his merry band of beings are instead a sort of metaphor to demonstrate mankind's utter insignificance in the cosmos at large.

Surprisingly (or maybe not so) he got it, and the conversation carried on to using "scary stories" to teach morals, like "That monkey paw story you told me, or Frankenstein". It was pretty cool.

He told me he sort of likes scary stories, and maybe he'd want to read some of my H. P. Lovecraft books that he's seen down in the basement. I told him since he chose to read The Hobbit for his last independent reading assignment in school, I think he could take a crack at Lovecraft. He seemed excited.

Always happy to convert a new minion. In this case, it took a sort of catechism (or, Cthulhuchism) to make it happen. I always knew Sunday School had a place in the lives of children.

Decision - It's BloPo

Okay, so I've taken the easier path and decided to do NaBloPoMo vice NaNoWriMo - one blog post a day is a lot more manageable than 5000 words.

As this was a last minute decision, I didn't do any planning on what or even if I want to regularly post, if I want to take a day of the week and do the same type of thing, etc.

One thing I definitely want to do as I weed through my eclectic set of interests is post something dealing with Lovecraft and his mythos each week, so at least this thing may partially resemble it's name.

Okay. I have 13 minutes left in 01 Nov so I better post this so I don't blow NaBloPoMo on the first day. I know technically my last post counts for 01 Nov, but since I started it late 31 Oct, it doesn't count to me.

Wish me luck.

Luck, me.

Halloween - The Switch Witch?

Halloween where I live is interesting. The whole town pretty much gathers around the central monument here, holds a parade around it with all the kids (and some adults) in costume, and the kids trick or treat as they go. This is good because it's kind of cool to see the community come together and have fun like this. This is bad because they're all in one spot and when you're walking your small children from door to door, you have to deal with rude, inconsiderate, oblivious, pushy kids and the rude, inconsiderate, oblivious, pushy parents who raise them. This seems to be about 90% of the population here.

But we do have a few families here who are friendly to us (When you were not born here and did not grow up here, it takes a while to break the ice with the locals. Many people here still give us the "stink eye" ... there's a sort of Innsmouth Look to these people, but I digress.) and we managed to hook up with them this evening.

The talking was the usual stuff - how cute each others' kids looked, what a great time it was this year, how much candy they got - when one of them mentioned someone called "The Switch Witch" who may come later. When they saw the bewildered look on my face, they decided to explain.

Apparently, The Switch Witch will come later on Halloween night, and if the child wants to give some candy to the Switch Witch, she will leave behind a toy. The more candy you give, the better toy you get. I immediately wondered why someone would make this up.

My guess is this is done so the child does not have a lot of candy left, and therefore does not consume a lot of candy. Basically, bribe them out of their candy with a toy.

I guess that's one way to do it. We don't want you to over-consume, so we will try to get you to take less, and compensate you for what you give up. I'm guessing the McCain campaign and the far right would find some way to call this socialist re-distribution of candy the work of Barack Obama.

I'd rather let my children keep all the candy they get, and learn to moderate their consumption in a supervised way. For a few reasons:

1. I'd rather my children learn to responsibly handle incidences of "excess".
2. I'd rather they not develop the idea that candy and toys are fungible commodities and they need to get their hands on all the candy they can, so they can then immediately convert it into an equivalent value in toys.
3. They have enough damned toys between Christmas, birthdays, adoring grandparents, aunts, uncles, and "soft" parents. They have enough of an annual "expectation", they don't need any more.
4. The excess candy would just add pounds to my body and inches to my gut. C'mon, you don't think I'd throw it away, do you?!?!
5. For Chrissake, it's just CANDY. They're KIDS. They were meant to be together.

Then again, I could be accused of taking a joyous and wondrous thing for kids - an Autumn "Santa Clause" if you will - and ruining it.

Whatever. The Great Pumpkin never came to Linus, I don't think the Switch Witch will ever come to our house.