Paranormal Activity and Hopeful Thinking....

It's Monday morning and I'll skip all the whining about how I wish the weekend was longer and how much I hate Monday mornings. This is no exception; the very first thing I discover when I get to work is that a project that I was told would be mine is, once again, now under the management of my coworker. I know I should probably be glad that this means I don't have to work as much as she does but when I go to your boss and tell him repeatedly that I really, really want more projects, it's very frustrating to NOT get new projects. I'm also trying not to take it personally but...well...we know that's not going to happen.

Thus, I'm going to continue with my attempt to be positive today even though the day has started a little on the sour side. It's not my coworker's fault: Either I'm too incompetent to be allowed to work on projects or she's just such a superstar they can't do without her. I'm going with the second option. It allows me to spend the time working on projects I can create myself. I don't need any guidance, right? It's all up to me. Uh, yay?

I did have a nice weekend, however. On Saturday, I decided to go to the movies. It's been a long time since I last saw a film in the theatre and that used to be my main form of entertainment. Since it's near Halloween, I saw, "Paranormal Activity." It's one of those Blair Witch type movies that's filmed with a "home" video camera and acts like it's all real. The reason I saw that one was because I haven't seen a really scary movie in a long time and that one was being hyped as 'terrifying'.

Well, I admit, there were some moments in the movie that were genuinely creepy. It's basically about this young couple who live in a really, really nice house. The girl is a student and the boy is a day trader. I don't know what kind of day trader he is but they live in San Diego and that kind of house is EXPENSIVE. Anyway, the girl has been hearing things in the house and strange things have been happening so the boyfriend goes out and buys a camera so they can record it. Because, you know, that's what you do when you think you're being haunted. You buy a camera. You don't, you know, contact Ghost Hunters or anything and watch them squeal with terror, even though they're supposed to be the experts. The whole movie is pretty much what they capture on camera, particularly while they sleep. As the movie progresses, more and more creepy stuff happens.

The problem I had with the movie is that it's the slow, small things that happen that are the creepiest. These things are doors moving by themselves, keys appearing in the middle of the floor...that type of thing. Yet, as the movie goes on, the creepy moments get bigger and grander and when you find out what's causing them, it's almost laughable. The couple are the only characters except for a psychic who comes in and some random friend of the girlfriend's. As the creepier things get bigger and more obvious, the boyfriend tries things like putting powder on the floor to see if there's footsteps or using a Oujia board to talk to whatever's causing the disturbance. Not, at any time, do they consider NOT sleeping in the house until the very end. NOT at any point do they consider calling someone who can help until they're at their most desperate. NOT at any point do they say, 'this is weird!'. I mean, they can see what's happening when they play back the video but even though the girl acts scared, she doesn't really seem THAT bothered. If she was, why does she wait until the last minute to try to get help?

The movie concept is that this is a real couple, not actors. This REALLY happened to them. It's creepy, I admit but, at times, it's just plain silly. As soon as I found out it wasn't just an ordinary haunting, I felt like the movie was ruined. I suppose they were trying to build the movie using classic structure- build up, action...climax. Except, I think it would have been more effective if you never found out what it was, it would have been more realistic if they made it more 'real life' and less "we're gonna scare the crap out of you." I don't know about you but there are often little moments when I've been in a house, apartment, wherever and I notice a door open that i don't remember opening or a light on that I don't remember turning on. Given my overactive imagination, that's enough to give me the creeps. I don't need some silly explanation or some major drama, a good old 'real' ghost is enough.

I'm trying not to spoil the movie in case you want to see it. I could comment about the silliness of the footsteps, for example or the Ouija board scene. I will say that, at one point, the girlfriend says, "it's no good! It can do whatever it wants!" or something to that effect. It does seem that the paranormal activity CAN do what it wants. The thing I wanted to know is WHY was it doing what it was doing? If what it wanted was what happened at the end of the movie, why the heck didn't it just do it in the beginning? What on earth did it gain from what it did?

I suppose, as I said with the zombies in an earlier post, I like to know why something does what it does. I just like my creepy creatures and phenomenons to have a purpose. Even if it had been to drive the annoying girl and her annoying boyfriend crazy, that would have been enough but, alas, we don't even know that much.

Anyway, aside from that, I spent the weekend carving my annual pumpkins and watching "Harry Potter," because that's what you do when you carve...you watch "Harry Potter." I did three this year since I found three different sizes and decided I needed a pumpkin family. I have a daddy who has a moustache, a mummy who's a vampire and the baby who has his dad's eyes but his mother's fangs. It was fun to carve them.

The rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful. Sometimes they're the best ones. I did, once again, secretly hope that something would happen and they'd have to close the office today but, alas, that did not happen. I do, however, live in hope and hope is positive and I'm trying to be positive. So, it all works out rather nicely. At least...in my head.

Happy Monday!

Carving Pumpkins...

So, I carved my annual pumpkin last night. It's a Halloween tradition for me. Growing up in the UK, Halloween wasn't much of a holiday. In fact, aside from making paper witches out of construction paper, lolly sticks and glue, we really didn't do very much. Trick or treating wasn't allowed and so, at most, there would be halloween parties in which games like bobbing for apples was the main focus. I know, in recent years, the UK has become very influenced by the U.S. in regards to Halloween and nowadays, the traditions are similar between both the U.S. and the U.K. But, back when I was a young 'un (not too many years ago), we used to emphasis the spooky rather than the sweet taste of a bucketful of candy.

I think the reason we never cared is that on November 5th, we'd have Guy Fawkes night, a deliciously pagan holiday that I'll blog about on November 5th.

But I do remember when I was really young that I believed in Halloween. I truly believed there were witches and wizards flying around at night, that the dark, chilly night was full of ghosts and demons, all celebrating the fact that this was their night, a night in which they were allowed to be scary and crawl out of the shadows. I had an overactive imagination which, naturally, led to a lot of nightmares and having my parents leave the light on while I slept. Yet it seemed right, for Halloween. It made sense. As I got older, I stopped being quite so literal but I still let myself imagine those covens of witches, celebrating their night, Macbeth style.

So, when my siblings and I moved to the U.S., our first Halloween was a bit of an awakening. It was freezing, for a start, and so even though the kids had dressed up, they had to wear big coats over their costumes which took away from the effect, somewhat. Then they'd go beg for candy. No one ever really thought about the trick part or trick or treat. I always thought that was a shame. It was such an accepted thing that people would willingly give out candy that there was no opportunity to concentrate on the darker side of the trick or treat ritual. Ok, so there were a few kids who would toilet paper (t.p. for short) people's houses but since they did that year round, it didn't mean much. I think I saw eggs on someone's car once or twice but, again, there were quite a few mean kids in the town where I grew up and so that wasn't limited to Halloween either.

Not that I'm endorsing property damage. I don't. For the record. It's just one of those things...trick OR treat. I did trick or treat exactly once in my life and had enough of those revolting peanut butter kisses and Tootsie Rolls (which, in my opinion are nothing but Imposter Chocolate and will never, ever be real chocolate and thus they are worthless) to last me a lifetime. Everyone gave out treats, there was no need to trick. It seemed odd. It still does, a little.

So, I started my own traditions now that I'm older. I never get trick or treaters because I live in flat that has a locked entrance door. So, on Halloween or a day or two prior, depending on my schedule, I carve my pumpkin.

Last night was that night. For the first time, I actually splurged and bought a carving kit. Normally it's me, some knives and spoons and my own creativity. By the time I'm normally done carving, I have a spoon that is bent at a 90 degree angle from scooping, assorted cuts where I got a bit too enthuastic in my carving that haven't quite stopped bleeding yet and a lopsided yet well-meaning pumpkin with face of some sort. This year, armed with my kit, I was ready to go.

Before I could begin, there were other things I had to do. I always make a baked sweet potato for dinner with sausages and a vegetable on carving night. Last night, it was baked asparagus with garlic and parmesan (I'm trying to be better about cooking). After I'm done eating, I pop in "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" and begin carving.

I had lit my pumpkin spice candle. I drink pumpkin ale. Yes, I'm a bit into this pumpkin thing. Ironically enough, I don't like pumpkin pie. I do, however, like the flavour of pumpkin pie stuff. I still have yet to get my hands on the Dreyer's Pumpkin Pie ice-cream but the Baskin Robbins stuff is fantastic. Pumpkin ale is awesome.

And I carved. I used a pattern this year. I've never really done that before. I'm not sure I'd do it again. The kit supposedly had an ingenious little tool you'd roll on top of the pattern to transfer it to the pumpkin. The tool is, literally, miniscule. It's made for really, really little people, maybe the size of a smurf. My hand cramped up. I was going to carve some howling wolves but the pattern transfer thingy didn't work and I knew it'd never turn outs. I know my limits of carving skill. So I went for this weird owl-ghoul-thingy. It came out ok. It looked like the pattern. It just...lacks personality.

I should probably tell you that normally, my pumpkins represent what I'm into at the time. For three years running, I carved pumpkins that looked like Frank the Bunny from the movie Donnie Darko. Another year, it was a pumpkin that blazed the Harry Potter logo on one side, Green Day on the other. Another year, i did an evil pirate. Another year a skull and crossbones. All done, relatively, free-hand. They might have been a bit lopsided but they meant well.

This year, my pumpkin is...boring. It was almost too easy. And when it turned out, instead of what I thought was an owl, it was some weird monster with folded arms. It looked like an owl until I put the candle in the pumpkin. I'd paste a picture but due to the fact my camera has no batteries and that my cell phone camera takes pictures the size of a postage stamp, you'll have to take my word for it.

On the plus side, I did roast the seeds. I like to catch some of the flesh between the seeds, salt that and roast it. Delicious. Along with the beer and the softly scented candle, it was still a lovely, tranquil evening.

I just wish my pumpkin was less...generic. I'm debating doing another one. After all, it's Halloween tomorrow and there's still some time.

But this time, I'm not using a pattern. There's a lot to be said for the enthuiasm of creativity, even if it doesn't turn out perfectly. Using a pattern is simple but it's much for fun to go outside the lines and start carving away. Maybe I'll stick to using the tools that came with the kit though. There's a lot less blood that way.