Halloween season

Well folks it's that time of year again. Time for me to review the venues in the New England area. I've got four places lined up for your reading pleasure. Stay tuned, it all starts next weekend.

God has is really been THAT long

Well folks if anyone still comes here, I guess I should update what's been going on in my life.

Guess the biggest news is that I've had a girlfriend for the past 2 and a half months. This marks the first REAL girlfriend since college for me. It's actually been pretty easy to balance my work life and my social life since Shelly actually works more then me (if you can believe).

So back in February I had a committee meeting covering my behavioral studies. Three hours later, they told me that I could probably graduate by May 2009.

I've co-written a paper that's still in the editing process, but soon it will be published (my first Brown publication on my thesis work). Speaking of papers, I've just been published a second time with our collaborators in China.

I'm also going to my first Science Conference since I've been at Brown in November in DC. Now I just have to get the work done.

I've got a Leadership Alliance Student this summer. This is a program where they let undergrads from across the country come to Brown to learn research. It's been fun, frustrating, and time consuming but it is a much needed distraction from my own failed experiments and writers block.

I'm flying home to AL on Thursday to go to two weddings. Tony Mason's in on Friday night, and Adam Isbell's is on Sat. One high school friend and one college friend. Man I'm gonna have a busy beginning of vacation.

Horrorfest why?

So like last year they are once again doing the 8 movies to die for. Lots of problems I have with it this year. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that they do it, I'm just a little angry with HOW they're doing it. First there isn't a close location for me this year. Maybe I was spoiled since it was at the theater a couple miles down the road from my place. I have to drive to Lincoln, RI. Not terrible, so I don't mind too much. What I DO mind is that they are only showing the movies from 6pm on. That means no matinée prices. Many of the movies are also only being shown once in the middle of next week. Since last year all 8 movies came out on DVD, I think I'll pass this year on Horrorfest (as much as it pains me). Besides, last year I couldn't get a single person to come to even one movie with me and the in between movie times drove me insane. So I say "boo" to you Horrorfest. Next year make it closer, show the movies more often, and keep them during the day so I can actually afford to go.

Operation: Busted

So I've had some time to stop and reflect on everything that happened this past weekend. Better to write after cooler heads have prevailed.

So last Sat I was supposed to go to Salem for the day and then go to Spookyworld that night since it's on our way home. I planned the trip and then my first set of friends dropped out of the trip. OK no big deal, I still have a bunch of people going. Well by the time everyone is ready to go it was too late to get started. I was very upset, but we agreed to go to Spookyworld later.

We make it to the Expo parking lot after a little traffic going into Boston. I noticed I hadn't pulled in far enough into the parking space, so I get back in my car to pull it up. Boom! the car doesn't start. Dio gets in and tries to get it started....no go. The lights are flickering on inside the car and my gauges are all wonky. I called AAA and they said the tow truck would be there in less then an hour. Seeing as it was Sat night, I knew I was going to have to get it towed back to RI, but I brought a car full of people, so they needed a way back too. Dio called his brother to come and get the rest of the passengers. It had been more then an hour so I called AAA again and they said that the tow would be there in 20 mins. After an hour Dio's brother had arrived and still no tow. I called AAA AGAIN and they said it would be there in 10 mins.

After 3 hours of waiting, we decide to see if we can jump my car. It started, and I drove it around a little to see if it was highway worthy. We decided to caravan back to RI. As I was driving I noticed my headlights and dashboard were flickering. I could feel that the car's electrical system could cut out at any time. We get into not one but TWO traffic pile ups. The second one in Providence closed ALL four lanes. I was SO nervous the whole time. I finally get around the second pile up and my car dies no more then 40 yards from the accident. I manage to somehow get to mildly safe ground (the shoulder between an on ramp and the main highway, so I had cars wizzing by me on both sides).

I call AAA again, and after transferring me to two wrong states I finally get to the RI people. They sent out a tow immediately, and we got dropped off at Dio's house and the tow was going to "dead drop" my car at the shop and drop my key in the overnight slot.

So no Salem and no Spookyworld...also Field of Screams got rained out again on Friday. All in all NOT a good day. Stay tuned for my review of Spookyworld....

Factory of Shit

This weekend we went to Factory of Terror. Let's just jump right into shall we?

Let's start with the line/outside attractions. I was very happy with these things. They had a vampire magician that went around performing tricks. There was also a zombie Slash walking about. He would bang on the Port-a-potties when people were going to the bathroom. It was hilarious. The most fun one can having waiting in line. That only covers the line to buy tickets. After you buy the ticket there is another line you wait in to go through the factory. This room was full of fun, but cheesy Halloween thing. There was an animatronic undead band that puts Chuck E. Cheese to shame. The music outside and inside were both mood setting, which was nice. There was a painting that would disappear and a skeleton would give this scary speech. I tried to take a picture of the talking skeleton, but when it took, it only got the painting....creepy.

Alas, all this set up and no delivery....Once inside, the only feelings I had were disappointment, angry, and annoyance.

First off. I like a theme or some sort of back story for my attractions. Just random shit isn't scary...there should be some sort of flow to these things. There was zero story to this place. There were several themed based rooms. Look we're surrounded by pirate skeletons....now we're in a butcher shop? Wait, now it's a jail? The fuck? This is a factory...why are there pirates in a factory? Ugh....

There were too many actors for this place too. Most didn't jump out at you. Most were just wondering around in silence. They would walk by you and just look at you. NONE of them talked. What's the point? Only a few jumped out at you, but they wouldn't get close to you and they didn't touch you or talk. Maybe they'd scream, but that didn't even happen all the time. They overall just became annoying. No one did anything original. Everyone acted the same way. Also their choice of using only young adults for their costume people was bad.

The spacing of the groups were HORRIBLE. Like the Haunted Forest walk at Trails of Terror, you get broken up into small groups to go through. Wouldn't you know it, we were at the VERY front of the group again.....but this only lasted about 3 mins. We ended up getting bottlenecked for most of the walk. It ended up being back to back people and moving at a snails pace. Nothing was scary at this point, because if someone was going to jump out at us, we'd see it FAR in advance since there were about 30 people in front of us. It also didn't help that there was a teenage boy (probably around 15 or 16) clinging to me the whole time in fear. Yeah that's smart kid, grab onto the gimp limping his way through the factory...I'm sure I can get you to safety REAL fast.

At one point we were in the "hall of nothingness." It was just a LONG hallway with nothing in it. Just a long line of single file guests since it was so narrow. This place too had the spinning vortex room. This must be a common thing. This one was a bit longer and even more disorienting. I'm always a big fan of it. I was also pleased with the music inside the factory...well at a particular place. It was very creepy. It was when you entered a room with a devil/angel skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

I think my biggest gripe though is just how short it was. For $20 I would expect at least two floors for scariness...but I guess it's for the best. I actually thought to myself that I just wanted it to be over...much like the remake of Halloween. Never a good sign. We were able to walk through the Factory, even backed up, in less then 15 mins. Boo...........Boo, boo, boo (This is not scary ghost noises, this is me booing the place).

Onto the stats:

Gore: 2/5 There was very little gore here. It was mainly just actors roaming and skeletons in various positions. Skeletons don't equal gore people...and not even scary.

Cheese: 4/5 I know I said too much cheese can be funny...but only if it's intended. Nothing here seemed at all authentic, but they were TRYING for it to be legit...Kinda like Snakes on a Plane. Would have been much better if they hadn't taken themselves so seriously. High cheese marks, but this is not a good thing.

Actors: 1/5 Bitch please. I crap scarier things then AND of these people here. At one point I scared one of the actresses. I stared her down until SHE ran away in fear. Unacceptable. No talking, and no jumping out. Also the costumes were shit. Why would the Crow be scary? He was a good guy. Go back to actor pool.

Gimp Friendliness 2/5 Well I knew it wouldn't be all that gimp friendly since I knew I'd be "walking" through the factory. I was pleased that they had hand railings on all the small stairways. Earns it an extra point.

Overall: 2/5 Thinking back on it after a couple days just makes me more angry. Waste of time and money. There's nothing scary there. All the cool stuff is BEFORE you enter. Stay away from this place. There are plenty of better places. I sum it up with one word: Boo.

Rained out

It rained all night last night so we had to scrap our plans of Field of Screams....maybe next Friday. But worry not, because Factory of Terror is tonight...and since it's inside...we're going rain or shine.

Stay Tuned

I'm not going to one but TWO attractions this weekend.

For those that don't know I busted my right foot this week, so I'll be adding a new category in my review: gimp friendliness. Trails of Terror would have failed this, since there was a Haunted Forest Walk.

I'm looking for costume ideas that incorporate limping.

Trails of Terror

Here we are at awesome Halloween time. I've taken it upon myself to go to as many Halloween attractions as I can this year in the RI/MA area. This weekend we went to Trails of Terror in Wakefield, RI.

So let's get to it. First off, as you walk to the ticket booth there's a bakery on your left. Cause what haunted forest walk would be complete without a bakery? Tickets were reasonably priced coming in at $18 for both the Haunted Hayride and the Haunted Forest.

My first complaint about this place is the sheer lack of mood music while waiting in line. Disco and novelty Halloween songs do NOT put you in the right mood for what's to come. Seriously, would it kill you to play something creepy?

The Hayride was pretty cool. I really have to give it up for tall blonde girl though. Our car got alot of attention because of her. I didn't catch your name, so I'll just call you Kate. She freaked out at EVERYTHING. She screamed alot and the actors payed her special attention for it. It was most hilarious. The actors DO touch you, so be prepared. That's right hot dead chick that grabbed my ribs, I know what you were doing. I'm more then just man meat for your dining pleasure.

What I liked about this Hayride over others was that it was themed....all the way through. Many places fall short on this. They start with an idea, but want to throw random things that don't belong there. This was Cirque de Slay. I also liked that there were internal speakers that narrated things. We actually stopped at the various spots instead of driving right through. There was this awesome mirror trick that the Ring Master has at the beginning, but I won't spoil it. I was afraid at first since the first stop was something REALLY lame. The guy didn't turn on his chainsaw (it was recorded sound) and the "blood" from the assistant was clear like water. You can imagine how this set things in my mind. Luckily everything got much better. The actors jumped in the car with you...the ringmaster actually started rolling around ON the people to my right.
This brings us to the Haunted Forest walk. This too was themed: Grim Fairy Tales. They break you up into small groups of about 10. They give you no direction on what to do, which adds to the creepiness. It starts you off all disoriented. You have to walk through a "vortex" that transports you to this magical land. It's a room where everything is spinning. I challenge anyone to be able to walk that path without holding on to the railings for dear life.

Unfortunately, Dio, Rossy, and I were in THE front of the group. This meant that I had to guide the group. Gotta say I was actually fairly spooked at that. Now I knew that I wouldn't be getting most of the scares since they'll wait for the majority of the group to enter an area, but there were several things that jump out in front of the person in front. When it's pitch black and no one is in front of you....damn it was fun. When we went into Hamlin, there were real rats...wonder how they got the permits for that. It was a nice touch.

I personally like to try to break the actors character or stump them somehow. By the end the whole group joined my way of thinking. Other then the first person we ran into, everyone was pretty unflappable. Think I really connected with the little dead girl in the graveyard. She introduced me to her daddy.....well his head anyway.

I was a little confused on some of the "tales." I got the piped piper, Hansel and Gretel, and little Miss Muffit, but I didn't know which fairy tale had a dominatrix.

Let's get to the ratings:

Gore: 3/5 Children do come to these things...in fact I think I was the oldest person around WITHOUT a kid with me. Thus the gore was toned down a bit. There could have been alot more.

Cheese: 2/5 Some cheese is good, but too much is funny and enjoyable on a different level. There were only a couple of incredibly cheesy things, but they were overshadowed by many cool thing. Sure the buildings look they belonged to a HS prop department, but damn that goat-devil thing more then made up for it. Low cheese is definitely a good thing in this case.

Actors: 4/5 Gotta give it up for the actors. They got up in your face...hell they'll touch your face. Most stayed in character and couldn't be shaken. They hired pretty people, and not just prepubescent boys.

Overall: 4/5 I thoroughly enjoyed Trails of Terror. Definitely worth your time and money. I would totally go back.

Remember that Bakery I told you about at the beginning? It's a very smart idea. And good prices.

New England Halloween Attractions

I'm starting the Halloween Attraction circuit in the RI/MA area starting this Sat. I'll be documenting the places and posting reviews. Stay Tuned....

Has it really been a month?

Wow. Sometimes time just whooshes by. Can't believe it's been a month since my last post. In some ways my life has changed alot....others, not so much. Still wanted to get out of grad school ASAP. I've found that my hatred of the North is getting strong every day. I need the lifestyle and people of the South.

I'm coming home for a visit next weekend, so I'll get a small break.

The Writing Blues

So I've been working on this paper all we with Tanya. I've pretty much ONLY done that this week. I'm getting tired of all this "writing" and "reading" stuff.

It's been a long time

For the few people that actually READ this, I haven't disappeared. I've been very busy. Alot has happened since I last posted:

I went home for a week

My new journal article is now published and available online (5th paper published 1st at Brown):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=17558449&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

I wrote and presented my research proposal. I passed with "flying colors."

Now that it's over, I need to focus on writing the next paper and getting my experiments done so I can graduate.

Starting to plan our trip to Maine. It could be as soon as next weekend.

Happy Birthday Brett

Happy B'day Vet boy. Hope you're planning on a huge celebration tonight.

Crashes

So my life has been full of crashes lately. First off, my sister got into a car crash over this past weekend. She's alright, but the back of her car is all smashed up.

My energy level crashed this past weekend as well. I've had zero energy all week and it's made me cranky and unpleasent to be around. It also doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping well.

My desktop computer at home crashed in a way. I got kicked off my internet server again....I think I've finally found the culprit. The last thing I did before I got kicked off was add songs to my playlist on Itunes. The last time I got kicked off I had downloaded some song and added songs to Itunes as well. There must be something in there that's causing all this mess. Only problem is, they may refuse to allow me back on the server. They reserve the right to refuse service to me according to the man I called last time. Looks like I will not be opening itunes ever again in RI. I think I just need a new desktop computer.

Lastly, I get to work and the computer that I use to collect data crashes EVERY time I try to open up the program.

Dirty Dancing: The Video Game

OK, this is just wrong. They've made some pretty stupid games out there, but this is just crossing the line. They should have just left Baby in the corner this time. I wonder if they'll get Patrick and Jennifer to do voice overs.

Graham's BBQ

I should really start taking my camera to things like this. Graham and Kris had a BBQ yesterday in honor of Memorial Day. How else better to honor our fallen kin? With a Fajita party :)

I was told to bring my famous beandip in advance, so it made it easy to know what to bring. I met a lot of cool new people (Graham's old college friends and Kris' friend). Several people from my department came too, which was cool since none of my close ring of friends (other then Graham and Kris) could make it. There was a definate segregation of people during the party until most people left. I had tried to bridge the gap, but eventually gave up and retreated to my scientific buddies. Once a fair number of people left though the two groups merged. Slowly, groups of people left. I had planned on leaving fairly early because I'm at work today, but I ended up being the last of the department to leave at a little past 9pm. Overall a fun afternoon/evening. With any luck I'll being seeing some of them again, though most do live in Mass.

Farewell Katy

So Katy is leaving RI today. It's a sad day and she will be missed. But all is not lost. She is moving on to bigger and better things. Good Luck in Nashville!

Mouse King

Since Tuesday I've been running our lab's mouse colony. Setting up breeding cages, sexing, tail clipping, ear marking, weaning. All the fun stuff. It's a big job and I can't afford to screw up since everyone's experiments involve these mice. Probably wouldn't be so bad if there weren't so many mice. We've probably got close to 1000 mice down there. With new pups being born every day.

Happy Birthday Greg

So it's Greg's birthday today. Hope he's enjoying it. Happy Birthday buddy.

Moving Day

So on Saturday I helped Amanda and Leslie move. They lived on the third floor of a house with very narrow and twisty stairs, so getting heavy and large objects out was not the easiest. Luckily for us they were moving to the first floor. There were only three grunt wokers and the five supervisors. Dio, myself, and Ryan (Leslie's brother-in-law) were the grunts. A fourth guy would have been REALLY helpful, but hey what's done is done. It was the most organized and prepared moved I've done in a LONG time. People weren't sitting there still packing boxes as we were lugging things away. Everything was ready to go. We took our payment in pizza and beer. Had a slice of potato pizza. That thing is really heavy. My arms are still a little sore this morning (since I'm out of shape), but my legs never hurt....not even my knees which amazes me. Sorry I don't have any pictures.