I'm too old to trick or treat, too young to die.

Fortunately I don't have to go door to door anymore. With kids, I just levy a hefty "Dad Tax" and I score some sweet chocolate bars. We're talkin Snickers, 3 Muskateers, Hershey, etc. Oh yeah it's good to be the king.

We had a surprisingly light crowd this year, just over a hundred Pirates, Witches, Mass Murderers, and several "I have no idea what you are supposed to be." Kyle was a Toy. Sherriff Woody. Ryan was a defender of the galaxy, a Jedi Knight.

CATastrophe

Well I thought I picked out a clever pattern for this year's pumpkin carving. I found a cute cat face to scribe my gord with.

Unfortunately the critics, ergo Ryan and Kyle were quite unimpressed. Apparently if it's not a fiendish visage from the bowls of perdition, these tikes are uninterested. Oh well maybe next year I can find a pattern of Martha Stewart in prison....now that's scary.

Happy All Hallows Eve

I'm sittin in my driveway handing out candy and blogging. The scary soundtrack the neighbors are playing down the street serenading me while I type. Lyn has the kids out with some friends of ours. I have a couple of pumpkins here to keep me company. Oh hang on, here comes a witch. "Skittles for you my pretty! And your little dog too!"

The Women of Oz

I thought I wouldn't have anything to blog about today. I was WRONG. At the last minute, mom sent me pictures of my sister dressed as Glenda the Good Witch and her daughter, Rachel, as the Wicked Witch. Hilarious! I haven't stopped laughing yet.

Spooktacular

Knoxville, TN - Halls High School - It is said that in the late 1970's a young girl was having a fight with her boyfriend at the top of the stairs by the office when he pushed her and she fell to the bottom of the stairs. He left her to bleed to death. When the boyfriend got nervous, he went back to where he had left her and she wasn't there. No one knew where the girl had went. She was filed under "missing persons" and no one ever found her. One year later on the day of her murder, the boyfriend was on his way home from a party when he was stabbed and killed and left for dead. No weapon was ever recovered nor was anyone ever convicted. It is said that it was his high school girlfriend that came back from the dead to avenge her murder.

Supposedly, many strange things happened in that stairwell that caused the school board to close it up. The doors are locked and it now leads to nowhere cause it has been built up at the top. There are many boxes of storage in there and no student is to be allowed in there at anytime. At night it has been reported that janitors can hear arguing, and sometimes you may even hear something falling down them.

I went to Central High, but Halls is just down the road. Scary.

BOO!

Z is for Zorro!

I enjoyed the long awaited sequel to "The Mask of Zorro" (1998) this afternoon. The new film, "The Legend of Zorro", reunites Catherine Zeta-Jones (Douglas?), Antonio Banderas (He was born for this part), and director Martin Campbell.

I love Zorro. He's like a Spanish Batman with his sword, whip, stirrups, and mask. Tornado, his powerful black stallion is of course the "Batmobile." The sequel was as charming as the first. Catherine and Antonio have great screen chemistry even though early in the film their characters are in conflict with one another. In this film, instead of Anthony Hopkins, Mr. and Mrs. Zorro have a mischievous little boy, Joaquin (Adrian Alonso). He provides some comic relief, but I think Zorro's horse stole the best comedic bit parts. (pardon the pun). The film runs a little long, but with all the excellent sword fights, action stunts, and energetic performances, it is worth it! I will have to rent the first one and watch it again.

I snuck some chocolate into the theater. Is that like downloading music from the Internet? Anyway I got it all over my shirt. Serves me right.

Check out The Legend of Zorro!

A Bright Yellow House

As a combat engineer in the 48th Brigade, Spc. Mathew Gibbs would scout patrol routes in a hulking armored vehicle the Army calls a "buffalo," designed to sniff out bombs before they kill other troops.

On August 2, the 21-year-old factory worker called his wife and family in the rural, southwest Georgia town of Ambrose. He'd been assigned to a new duty, manning checkpoints.

The next day, a suicide bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives at the checkpoint Gibbs was guarding with two other soldiers.

The Fleetwood mobile home factory in Alma, where Gibbs worked building interior walls, stopped its fast-paced production line for a moment of silence.

Rae Gibbs asked her husband's fellow soldiers to tell all they knew. "They all assured me they didn't even know what was coming and didn't know what hit them."

Before he deployed, Gibbs planned to move his wife and daughters, ages 5 and 3, to a small house on his in-laws' farm. He had the restoration plans drawn up. He'd even picked the color -- bright yellow.

"He should have gotten to college like he planned. He should have gotten to watch his daughters grow up," said Lee Carver, Gibbs' mother-in-law. "He should have gotten to paint that house yellow."

I wish I were rich. His daughter's are close to my son's ages. I'd make sure they had the chance to go to college. And I'd paint that house yellow.

Broken Dreams

We all have our dreams.
Run over by the wheel of misfortune,
Squeezed by the thumbscrews of conformity,
Stretched on the rack of religion,
Skewered by the blunt lance of self censorship,
Burnt by the coals of higher education,
Devoured by the tumor of technology,
Seared by the corrupt breath of politics,
Served up on the platter of social injustice,
Sucked in by the illusions of the media,
Crunched in the jaws of corporate greed.
We all have broken dreams.
-TJ Taroo

The Paradoxical Commandments

• People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered. Love them anyway.
• If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
• If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
• The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
• Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
• The biggest persons with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest persons with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
• People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
• What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
• People really need help, but may attack you if you do help them. Help them anyway.
• Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

Written By Kent M. Keith in 1968

DOOM

I saw DOOM Friday. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. I have played all the DOOM PC games, but I didn't think it would make a good moive. I was happy to be proved wrong. The film stars The Rock, who is perfect for the role as the muscular space marine sargent.

The film makers altered the story line from the game a little. In the game you are fighting demons from hell. The monsters in the movie are just scientists that have been gennetically mutated. And so we are missing some of the original horrors like towering cyberdemons and flame-tossing imps. The main scientist is named Dr. Carmack which is a nod to the creator of DOOM and a co-founder of ID Software, John Carmack.

Another small let down was the weapons. The sarge finds the BFG (Big Freaking* Gun) but it is hardly used. *Insert colorful metaphor. Karl Urban, who played Eomer in Lord of the Rings, did a great job too.

Overall I enjoyed the film, the first person perspective segment at the end of the movie was great.

If you liked DOOM, you'll like the flick. Check it out.

UT Football

Sucks. nuff said.

Bears, Deer, and Spiders

We had a great hike to Laurel Falls (I didn't die after all). We ate lunch at the falls. Ryan was a great hiker.

Unfortunately the only wildlife we saw was a large wolf spider. We did stop at the visitors center where we saw a stuffed bear and deer.

See ya in the woods.

I hate networks.

Arrrgh! Three weeks till a new LOST. Why! Why do they torture their devoted fans? I'll end up getting out of the habit of watching and then miss the next new episode.

Oh well, my problems pale compared to Katrina victims and people in the path of Wilma.

Tomorrow Lyn, Ryan, and I are going to go for a hike to Laurel Falls, in the Smoky Moutains. He is out of school, so we took the day off. He has been begging us to take him hiking. If you never hear from me again. Start searching at the Falls. I won't be lost, I'll be passed out from the hike. I'm so not in shape.

Fortunately it is a short hike. The paramedics should be able to reach me quickly.

Remember, you're never lost if you don't care where you are.

Earl is Back

Another great episode of My Name is Earl, last night. It was quite funny and guest starred a major movie star, Giovanni Ribisi. He had a reoccurring role on FRIENDS as Phobe's messed up brother. But you have probably seen him in Saving Private Ryan, Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, Lost in Translation, Cold Mountain, and Flight of the Phoenix.

It's nice to see a big star like that come back and do some small screen stuff. In Earl, Giovanni plays an ex-con long time friend of Earl's who can't stop stealing. Jaime Pressly was also back as Earl's ex, Joy. Comedy is her calling, she makes the show.

I also watched the special features on Disk 2 of the deluxe edition of Batman Begins. All I can say is; when I win the lottery, I'm buying a Bat Mobile.

I'm Batman!

Alright I admit it. I'm a Gotham City fan boy. What little boy isn't? I collected the comics and even watched the campy Adam West Batman. KAPOW! ZAP! So I was thrilled when I heard they were going to make a Batman movie on the big screen. Starring Micheal Keaton. WHAT? Holy Mr. Mommy! Not Keaton. He's... He's Beetlejuice for goodness sakes! He can not be Batman. Jack Nicholson as Joker? Perfect.

Surprisingly Keaton pulled it off rather well. In fact in my opinion he was the best Batman of the series of Batman films. The ones after Batman Returns were almost as campy as the TV show.

So I was a little skeptical when I heard they (Hollywood) was starting a new set of Batman movies with Batman Begins starring Christian Bale. I again was pleasantly surprised. The new movie was awesome. It was dark, focused, and a decent story. Gary Oldman did a good job as Jim Gordon, same with Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Jedi Knight Liam Neeson was excellent as the arch villian, Ra's Al Ghul, and kudos to Michael Caine as Alfred. Katie Holmes was the only character that I thought was miss cast.

Batman Begins is out on DVD today. Buy it!

Pumpkin Patch

We went to Oakes Farm today for a hayride and to pick out a pumpkin. The boys had a blast climbing through the tangle of vines hunting for the perfect gourd.

Kyle found one that had a lovely shade of green. After finding a gourdgeous pumpkin, Kyle rode a large white horse. It was tethered with two smaller ponies, but Kyle told the man he wanted to ride the big horse.

Ryan wants to carve the pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern today. We told him he had to wait till closer to Halloween.

Cya.

Bomb, James Bomb

Well it's a sad day for me. I just found out Daniel Craig is the new James Bond.

Can you tell I'm not happy? I had heard rumors that the franchise was not doing as well as the producers would have liked. I had also read that they felt they needed a YOUNGER, more "hip" bond to draw in the younger crowd and create a whole new generation of Bond fans. While I can agree and understand that line of thinking, how is choosing a blonde, blue-eyed, Daniel Craig that looks older than Pierce make sense? Look at that receding hairline! He's anything but young and hip. I thought they'd find a British version of Matt Damon (Bourne Identity) or even Leo Dicaprio.

Very disappointing. Especilly since Pierce Brosnan was still willing to carry on in the role. Well I hope the new guy bombs at the theater. Then maybe they will listen to me! Will I go see the new movie when it comes out? Oh yeah.

U2 - My Favorite Band

Yard Work Stinks!

I just got through spreading fertilizer all over my yard, my pants, my arms, and my shoes. I really don't know why. I can hear all the little blades of grass and weeds chanting, "You just wasted 90 dollars at Lowes!"

I hate yard work. I don't have a green thumb. I'm a geek, a gear head, a nerd... ok maybe not a nerd. But I know I don't like gardening. I can stand in the shade doing nothing and I start to sweat like my uncle Andy in church. So I am drenched when I get out in the sun and do something.

I tried to keep the yard up when we first moved in. I seeded, aerated, fertilized, and limed the yard. But the weeds came, the earth is red clay, and sometimes I just couldn't spend the money on grass and weeds. So the yard is what the yard is and at least I can say I tried something today.

Au revoir

Google it!

Google is just exploding with all kinds of cool sites and products! Are they on the way to becoming the next "evil tech empire" like Microsoft? I don't know but for now their stuff is really cool and really free! You should be using it. You can personalize your own Google Home Page, by adding content and even dynamically dragging it around the page.

You should also sign up for a free Gmail account. Your Google home page will display any new messages in your inbox. Picasa is awesome for organizing your digital pictures and touching them up. Google Earth is mind boggling satellite imagery of the planet with spatial data overlays. Google maps for great directions. Hate pop-ups? Their toolbar does the job. Below is a list of Google Sites and Products. The products you install on your personal computer.

Sites:

Google

Froogle

Google Maps

Google News

Google Video

Products:

Google Earth

Picasa

Google Toolbar