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halloween

Halloween and the Christmas Creep

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This was intended to be finished and post yesterday, but by the time I got home, I had come down with a case of the yucks. I spent my evening infront of the fan and a brief time outside to take in some cool air. Thankfully I am feeling better today.

Has anyone noticed that in the last few years it seems like Halloween is getting more and more diluted with the Christmas Creep? My years in retail always killed holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving because the focus was on Christmas, but it seems like every year, Christmas starts popping up earlier and earlier. I remember as a kid everyone on my street would get into Halloween. Candy, decorations, the whole nine. People would come from other parts of the city to trick or treat in my neighborhood. But I have noticed in the last few years that people don’t really decorate anymore, and last year we had 1 trick or treater at our house. Are people giving up on Halloween? Is it because of the economy? Are people too caught up in Christmas that they don’t mind bypassing my absolute favorite holiday?! Here are a few things that I love about Halloween

1. Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen one?
I do believe in ghosts. My next door neighbor when I lived in LA had one in his house. You could sit in the large armchair in the living room and occasionally an overwhelming scent of ladies perfume would fly past your face, despite his wife moving out about a decade before I experienced it for the first time.

2. Favorite candy?
Reese’s peanut butter cups, Milky Way Dark, Payday, smarties, and gummy bears.

3. What did you dress up as when you were a kid?
I think the most memorable was the clown I dressed up as when I was about 5. My mom still has the costume in the box that it came in. I also dressed as a witch, Cleopatra, and a fairy a few times.

4. Parties or Trick-or-Treating?
I only recall going to one Halloween party as a kid (the same year I dressed as a clown). I’ve always been partial to trick-or-treating.

5. Have you ever carved a pumpkin?
Quite a few. I always become over ambitious and want to create designs that I end up regretting in the end. Some of my favorite pumpkins have been the Nine Inch Nails logo NIN and Link from Legend of Zelda.

6. Worst thing you’ve ever gotten trick-or-treating?
One year my friends and I picked a neighborhood that was a real dud. We received walnuts, pennies, and raisins from people. Awful!

7. Best costume you’ve ever seen?
For the last 4 years (this year will be 5!) I have been working the Exotic Ball in Sacramento, CA. They have a $5,000 costume contest, and some of the entries are incredible! My favorite thus far has been the man riding a HUGE tauntaun that he made himself . It was mechanical and awesome.

8. Favorite ‘Halloween’ monster?
I think I would have to choose witches.

9. Favorite thing you’ve dressed up as?
A couple of years ago I dressed up as Steve Zissou from the Wes Anderson film – The Life Aquatic. Only one person knew who I was, but I didn’t care, because it was awesome.

10. What are you dressing up as this year if you’re dressing up? What would you dress up as if you aren’t?
I more than likely will not dress up. But if i had to choose anything, it would most likely be something from a video game.

11. Do you like going to haunted houses?
No, I absolutely hate being scared and startled.

12. Haunted woods?
See above.

13. Ever worked in/hosted a haunted house/wood?
I participated in a haunted house one year for a youth group that I was part of as a kid. I scared myself more than anyone working there.

14. Do you decorate your home for Halloween?
When I lived in LA we would decorate a lot – but we havn’t done more than pumpkins and lights in the last few years.

15. Favorite decoration?
Lights!

16. Got a favorite spooky tune?
After having worked retail the last 10 years, I have been completely burnt out on Halloween music. If I had to choose one “Halloween” song, I would pick…

17. Any wardrobe malfunctions?
None that I recall.

18. Scariest Halloween moment?
Trick-or-treating on the block behind my old house, the owner whipped open the door and scared the living daylights out of me and I took off running down the street.

19. Best Halloween?
I love every Halloween! I can’t pick one off the top of my head though.

20. Worst Halloween?
Last year I slept through the entire night after getting home from work. Thanks for that depression!

So there are a few of my favorite things about Halloween. Stay tuned for some news that I will hopefully announce soon! It involves a new project I am working on.

17 October, 2012
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Costume Quest

Posted in Video Games by

First off – Happy 10/11/12 day!

I know this game came out in 2010, but I just got around to downloading it yesterday after a recommendation from Richard. I played the demo and decided I could not live without it and punked down the 800 points. Dear Microsoft, why do you make it so easy to buy points? My bank account hates you. Sadly I played the demo on Richard’s Xbox, so I was unable to unlock all the achievements I gained while playing the demo, and had to start completely over on my own system.

The game takes place on Halloween. Fraternal twin siblings Reynold and Wren are new in their neighborhood and are asked by their mom to use their trick-or-treating to make new friends in the neighborhood. The player at this point chooses which sibling to play as. The two dress in their costumes, with the non-playable character dressing as a piece of candy corn and the playable character dressing as a robot. A monster with a sweet tooth sees the non-playable sibling, and kidnaps him or her. The player character must now save their sibling in time and be home before curfew.

I have a bad habit of skipping through story lines in games, so when I found out that I could not power through the dialog in the beginning, I found it rather frustrating, especially because I had to do it twice. I was quite delighted to find that my original starting costume is a ROBOT, heck yes! I find the flow and game play of the game a little clunky and jerky, and I find the turn based fighting a little weird. I also wish that there was map feature because as stated before, I am a completionist and want to make sure that I have explored every nook and crany of the game. All in all, I have only been able to invest about 2 hours into the game, and I am head over heels for it. I love the styling of the game, and the hoarder in me loves collecting candy and battle stamps. I can’t wait to check out Happy Wars that comes out this Friday for free for gold Xbox Live members.

Image is property of Double Fine Productions

11 October, 2012
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