Speaking of the Dark Ages...

     I can still remember being eleven or twelve and seeing an Intellivision console for the first time, at a local K-Mart. Oh, the awe with which I regarded this wondrous machine. This, my friends...this was the powerhouse of home gaming at the time (1982?) - edging out Atari console slightly, from a graphics standpoint.
     By edging out, what I mean to say is that instead of playing rather simplistic games involving four or five colors and extremely-boxy graphics, the priveledged owner of this new system was instead thrust,headlong,into the hyper-realistic, immersive universe of eight or nine colors and slightly less boxy graphics! After a year or two, they even released an add-on that would give this monster system the power of garbled, computerish-sounding speech. Those wonders, however, were still merely crazy, fanciful dreams, bouncing around in some Mattel programmer's imagination. Perhaps that was for the best, as I'm not sure that my young mind could have bore the weight of such excessive sensory stimulation at the time.
     I remember just standing there in the electronics aisle, gawking at it, like some mesmerized caveman would observe a flashlight...anxiously awaiting my turn to play the store's demo model, then, finally, thrilling to the incredible realism of Space Battle's impressive, eight-bit explosions and boink-boink sounds for the ten or fifteen minutes before my mother ushered me away from this astonishing monument to mankind's technological progress. "Could gaming get any better than this?", I asked myself, on the car ride home...
     I never did get an Intellivision, but to this day I still resent the kids who did, even though I can play the games on my computer. In retrospect, they kind of suck.
     Note to my younger readers: in answer to the question that surely must be running through your minds - yes, we were all morons back in the old days. In fact, before the Intellivision and it's forerunner, the Atari, children simply stood around in circles on a playground, comparing rocks they'd found, sometimes throwing the rocks or rolling them for an added dose of excitement.

Still More Uses for the Cube

     I've posted articles pertaining to a lot of Rubik's Cube stuff so I may as well post this one, featuring various artworks made by arranging groups of the famous puzzle-toys to form images and shapes, like the Pac-man mosaic above.

Hubcap Creatures

     Amazing-looking sculptures of fish, made from...well...hubcaps. Not much else to say, pretty neat handiwork, though.

Lord of the Peeps

     Someone went to an awful lot of trouble to act out The Lord of the Rings with marshmallow peeps. What is it about those little peep things people on the net find so intriguing?

False Advertising

A large gallery of advertisment parodies.

Clonaid

     Well, cloning is back in the news as some nutty group claims to have produced the world's first human clone, a female, identical in every respect to her 30-year-old mother. I think just the fact that the organization is named "Clonaid" should make all this very, very questionable. Still kind of spooky, though, as I'm sure someone's going to do it soon, regardless.

'Tis the Season...

     Well, I guess you noticed I couldn't resist tossing up some cheesy javascript snow on the old blog, just couldn't help myself, what can I say? I'm like one of those guys that goes nuts and turns their home into a zillion-kilowatt spectacle, like this guy, at heart. What the heck, it's only for a week or two and I used as much restraint as possible. I mean, I could have went full-on yuletide fever, with some awful Jingle Bells midi and blinking christmas tree lights draped all over it, so give me points for having a little restraint, at least.

Kiss Your Face

     I can't tell you how completely worthless, yet good, it is, that someone took the time out of their existence to photoshop the band KISS's makeup onto the faces of other, sometimes not-so-obvious celebrities, as well as the obvious ones. Kiss Your Face does just that and though - unfortunately - they don't do requests, if seeing Andy Griffith and Jean Simmons wearing the K.I.S.S. Army warpaint doesn't give you pause, I don't know what will. Jean Simmons, her face done up as "The Demon's" was pretty clever. I have to give it up for the guy who made these.

Flatbed Florals

     Artist Katina Matson's beautiful imagery, created by arranging flowers on a flatbed scanner, then fine-tuning and printing the resulting scans with inkjet printers. The originals must really be something...the examples on her page are referred to in the introduction as "low-res", but are still nice-sized pictures, full of depth and color and life.

R.I.P., Emily Post

     My friend Phil and I are in a chicken joint in Guntersville the other day, right? We're getting the stuff to go, so the waitress gives us our drinks and we sit down and have a seat on this large bench in front of the register. I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper out of one of those big, white, styrofoam cups - with no top on it. I planned on grabbing one and a straw on the way out and I mention this detail only because it's intregal to the rest of the story.
     So we're sitting there on this bench, which is right there to your left as you walk into the place and I've got my Dr. Pepper, holding it in my hand, when in comes this young family of three - dad, mom and an adorable little blonde-headed girl of about four years of age, I suppose. They're smartly dressed and attractive, your basic All-American nuclear family, the kind you see in the picture that comes with a new frame at Wal-Mart. They stroll up to the counter and place their order and then the waitress comes around from behind the counter to lead them to their table.
      Well, I look up at this scene and I'm thinking to myself, "gee, don't they look like a happy little family, I sort of envy them", right?
     I'm idly reflecting on this thought as they pass us by when the little girl, all dressed up for dinner out with the family in her little dress and bows in her hair and whatnot - this precious, smiling little angel - turns her head towards me and before I can even think "awww, how cute...", she cuts loose this big, fat, spraying sneeze - right into my Dr. Pepper and all over my hand and trots on by without missing a beat.
     So I'd just like to say - Mr. and Mrs. Perfect of Guntersville, Alabama - if you happened to notice a brown-headed guy in a ball-cap and black suede jacket sitting on the bench and drinking a Dr. Pepper as you as you were ordering your chicken Friday night at The Chicken Shack - you owe me 99 cents for my damn soft-drink and please teach your little snot-slinging germ-factory some basic social skills, okay? Otherwise, just leave her home at the barn next time you go out.
     Thank you.

Hef: Tthe Videogame

     Well, sounds like a good enough idea to me. In a planned videogame (likely to come with an M rating), players will be able to take on the persona of Hugh Hefner, Playboy magazine magnate and perennial partier, as they build up their own magazine empire and strive to live out "the ultimate Playboy lifestyle".
     No word yet on whether gamers will collect Viagra power-ups or magical smoking jacket armor upgrades, but I have to admit, shallow fellow that I am I gotta have this game 'cause the guy's my hero. What other seventy-year-old could get away with the stuff he does and not be pilloried by society?

I Thought This Had Already Happened

     Spam estimated to overtake real email in 2003. Speaking as someone who gets about 50 pieces of utter garbage in my inbox everyday I would have figured this was already the case, guess I'm just unlucky.

Quoth the Raven...

A really original 404 page.

Lights Aren't Just for the Tree Anymore

     If you really want to impress your holiday guests this year, how about some Litecubes? Litecubes are plastic recreations of ice cubes with cooling gel inside that lights up like a glowstick and illuminates your drink. They come in various colors and, Lord knows why, I thought they looked pretty cool, though.

Belter

A spiffy, full color version of the arcade classic, Asteroids.

  

A Little Holiday Cheer

     Here's a few obligatory seasonal posts. First off, I made a couple desktop designs in the spirit of the season, pictured above. If you'd like to use them, just click here for the one on the left and here for the one on the right. They're both 800x600 but I may put up other resolutions in a day or two, so if you're on a different resolution just mail me and I'll try and resize them for you if you can't do it yourself.
     In case you were wondering, NORAD is tracking Santa, so if you and the kids want to be posted on his whereabouts, click here. Who is St. Nicholas, anyway and are he and Santa the same? Discovering the truth about Santa Claus.
     Well, there are still seventeen days till Christmas, so maybe that'll hold you over for right now, I'll be sure to post some more yuletide stuff as the days go by.

Did I Post This Already?

     After a year of blogging stuff like this, sometimes I ask myself that question, when posting things. What the heck, I will again, it's kinda cute. A Flash kitten that's really curious about your cursor.

The Life Waste-O-Rama Quiz

     I normally don't link to a lot of quizzes, but this one was pretty out there...this guy hates tv and his quiz makes some dramatic points. I love the theme music, it gives it this weird air of sincerity. It's a must-see.

This is Kind of Tasteless, However...

     It was also pretty funny :P Elmo's Got a Gun.

Superfood

     Who could ever forget grocery items like Captain America bottled water? Huh? Oh well, this, and an assortment of other superhero-themed snack treats can be found here.

Wind Walkers

     Strange, esoteric sculptures that walk when a gust of wind comes through, modeled on computer by the artist before being built, these wooden legs and bodies will soon be walking on their own, he hopes, by saving the energy so they can walk regardless of windspeed.

Super Monitor, the Future of Procrastination

     If anyone has twenty grand laying around, please, feel free to send me one of these 180 monitors...the thing's huge and shaped to immerse you in your pc and hooks up easily to any computer.

The Halifax Explosion

     Approximately 9:04 on December 6th 1917, in Halifax, Candada, the Imo and the Mont Blanc, both carrying explosives for the war effort in Europe, brushed into one another and set off the second-largest man-made explosion history, with deference to the bombings in Japan.
The explosion and resulting tidal-wave caused the destruction of a fifth of the city and resulted in the loss of around 2,000 lives and nearly a thousand serious injuries, in one of the most tragic days in the country's history.

The Gumball Bandit and Other Tales of Idiocy

     I love the stupid crook stories and it seems there are always plenty in the news. It's funny, because not only is some criminal-type always out there getting caught doing something stupid, without fail it seems that someone always comes along to top the last one in terms of sheer foolishness.
     Here's a perfect example: Terry Hubbel and his driver, Jared Poindexter were arrested in a New Hanover when Hubble attempted to make off with a gumball machine, in a courthouse swarming with police officers, who were in full attendance, due to the swearing-in of their Sherrif.
     Then there's folks like Steve Brasher, 42. Steve was handed down a life sentence today for shooting and killing his friend Willie Lawson, 39, in a dispute over Lawson having drank his last beer. I recall mentioning this incident last November, when it occurred and I still think a good chewing out would have been more appropriate, or, at most, a sound ass-kicking. Probably Brasher feels the same way, since cold store-brought beers are probably one of the harder things to come by in prison.
     In other stupid news, 19 year-old Aaron Bell isn't the brightest bulb on the tree, either. Always remember, if you're going to rob a place, especially a place you work at, it might be a good idea to wear as mask. It gets better, though - Bell didn't even get any money from the robbery and in an act of supreme dumbness, the cash-strapped would-be robber actually showed up for work for his shift just three days after the incident. The cops were called and arrested Bell as he was changing into his KFC garb.
     Just goes to show you don't have to be some young herion addict to flip out and do dumb things - a Welsh grandmother was banned from bingo, after punching and giving two black eyes and a broken nose to a lady who'd taken her "lucky chair".
     Finally, I almost feel sorry for this guy, just because he's so lame. Forty schoolchildren chased down and caught the theif, who was too winded to go on. Time to stop smoking, buddy.

Blammo!

     If there's anything cooler than high-speed photography of bullets plowing through various types of objects, I've yet to see it. Some good stuff here, like the above pic of a .444 Marlin blasting it's way through a Coke.

Ultimate Go-Kart

     Okay, I really want one of these - go-karts fitted with gas turbine engines, another idea whose time has come.

Catch Michael Jackson's Babies

     Michael's flipped out and he's tossing his kids off the balcony, how many can you catch? Don't let Wacko Jacko distract you by acting weird and throwing records at you.

I'd Like to Be Under the Sea...

     Some really pretty vr panoramas from the ocean's depths. Requires Quicktime and may take awhile to load, dial-up folks (doesn't everything, these days?).

UFOs in History

     I'm not sure I'm a believer in UFOs one way or the other, but this is pretty interesting stuff, anyway. Old master paintings depicting unidentified flying craft? 16th century woodcuts depicting strange glowing spheres in the skies above Basel, Switzerland? Freaky stuff.

The Color of Money

     Well, doesn't seem like that long since they gave our U.S. paper money denominations makeovers and they're already at it again - this time they're adding some color to the Jacksons, with Lincoln and Franklin next in line for the updated approach.
     Better hang on to a few old ones if you still want to be able to do the 9/11 $20 dollar bill trick. You know, I almost forgot about that trick...I remember posting it several months back when it was a fresh meme and all of the sudden I went from my usual 30 or so hits a day to 600-700 hits in one 24-hour period, due to referrals in search of it.

Don't Refresh That Webpage! You're Liable to Miss Them Filing for Divorce

     Ah...Las Vegas. Just when you think it's as gaudy and tacky as humanly possible, they raise the bar another inch. Now, not only can you have a quickie Vegas wedding, but you can do it on webcam, so the entire internet can watch you make what could possibly be the stupidest, most impulsive mistake you've ever made while you were drinking. I wonder...do webcam viewers qualify as witnesses? If so that would cut out some of the overhead at these chapels and they could afford an even better class of Elvis impersonator to marry these folks, really make it something they'll treasure a lifetime, you know?
     Suppose anyone will ever get married via webcam? I imagine it's only a matter of time and if they do, it's a sure bet at least one of them will be from Las Vegas.

A Message from the Editor

     Hi there. I didn't really have anything important to say, I've just always wanted to use the phrase "a message from the editor" on here somewhere - it sounds so official.
      I was just thinking I'd start using spaces and write in normal paragraphs, instead of just hitting enter and moving on to the next block of words. I mean, it takes maybe three seconds of extra effort, since there's a "non-breaking line space" menu item on w.bloggar, so why not go that extra mile and do things right, huh?
     I thought it might be a nice touch and wanted to see how it would look, figured I'd mention what was up so I could ease you guys into this, so as to avoid a panic or even conspiracy theories: "I'm telling you man, that's not the real Olsen, he doesn't write like that...he's probably dead. Obviously someone wanted him shut up for good and so they've killed him and replaced him with some kind of agent, to feed us disinformation!"
     Never fear, though - rest assured, nothing has changed. You can still expect the same sort of quality entertainment/crap you've grown accustomed to over the past year and I'm alive and well.
     I realize sometimes it doesn't seem like I do, but I still care about this blog and the handful of people who drop by, I just haven't had the time or the desire to post as obsessively as I had been up until the last couple of months. Wipe away those tears, though, dear reader - for this is a time for rejoicing! Now that it's wintertime I'll have even less incentive to go outdoors or interact with other human beings...so with a little luck I'll be rat-a-tat-tatting on this keyboard like a man possessed for the duration of the season and you - lucky you - will be bombarded with more posts and links than you can shake a mouse at.
     You may now return to your regularly scheduled reading, thank you for your support.

'Cause There Can Never Be Enough Flash Mini-Golf Games

Here's one more, from Nabisco.

Some Software Is Better Left Unwritten

The folks at Something Awful Photoshopped these funny, fictuous, rejected software packages.

Match Head Artworks

I was looking at Boingboing awhile ago and they'd posted this site. Pretty neat, the guy makes sculptures out of match heads and then sets them ablaze. His website includes pictures of various things he's done as well as clips of the actual lighting of the sculptures.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Here's hoping all of you reading this have a happy turkey day and don't get too drunk and fat. Might I suggest a turducken?

Here's a Couple of Flash Games for the Heck of it and Because I'm too Tired to Blog Right Now

Crab Ball and Tempest 2000.

I Feel Good!

Domino Art

Making portraits and pictures (custom, if you like) out of dominoes.

It's the Virtual Drinking Buddy!

Nobody to bend your elbow with? Never fear...

Farmsluts

Okay, this one's not for the dial-up people, so much as the broadband folks. Being one of the downtrodden souls in the world without cable or DSL in their homes, I wouldn't even have seen this myself, but for the fact that by the time I'd realized it was fifty megs in size, the first few minutes were loaded and it was just so hilarious I had no choice but to finish downloading it and save it.

It's a Quicktime movie short from Fox Searchlab, exploring the dark comedic twists a man's life takes when a buddy emails him a "not-safe-for-work" url. It was well worth the wait.

Oh...by the way - despite the title, it's not explicit or anything, I'd give it a PG, so don't sweat it.

Neil's Mame Cabinet

Yet another do-it-yourself M.A.M.E. (multiple arcade machine emulator) cabinet. It's a nice one, too, this guy's loaded for bear. Neil takes you through the step-by-step process he went through on the road to perfecting his ultimate arcade dream machine. I'm drooling here, it's been so long since I played a decent game of Robotron, with the right controls for the job.

We Didn't Start the Fire

A Flash tribute to the Billy Joel song, with illustrations and a heartfelt plea by the author to "please not sue" him. Hehe.

Full of Shat

"Another William Shatner Worship Page" diefying everyone's favorite starship captain and dotcom pitchman, brought to you by the Fellowship of the Shat.

Evil Goatees

In the world of television, from Star Trek to Knight Rider, evil twins abound. Whether they're from other dimensions or simply siblings who've gone taken the wrong road in life, all are marked by one distinguishing trait. They look exactly like the hero, but for the fact that they're sporting the "evil goatee", the only thing that physically sets them apart from their clean-shaven (and thus non-evil) doppelgangers.

One word: Ouch.

Okay, there's been so many crazy things going on in my absence I don't know where to start.

First off, an important public service announcement...despite the extremely horrifying nature of this story, if it saves one person out there reading this from suffering a similiar fate, it's worth posting this. If nothing else, everyone should be informed.

Be careful and use that laptop responsibly. Specifically, don't use it while it's in your lap or you might wind up like this poor, poor scientist, who burned himself in the worst possible way by doing just that. The victim was wearing his pants and writing a paper for two hours (uh, yeah) when he noticed a burning...well, if you want to know the rest you can read about it here, don't worry, there are no pictures - however, words like "crusted" and "wounds" are bandied about, so you may want to put down that donut.

OMG! Look, He Updated His Page! It's Alive!!! It's Alive!!!
Hi there, folks, me again. I'm still trying to sort out that topsy-turvy, issue-filled, anxiety-riddled, daily beatdown that is my life world outside this glowing monitor, so, unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time and/or initiative to blog this motha out properly. Heck, I even managed to forget about The Ends' recent one-year anniversary without so much as crowing about it a little.

Tonight, however, I was sitting here, thinking of the frustrated looks on my readers' faces as they sat there at home staring at my page...day after day, week after week...compulsively hitting the "refresh" button on their browser in anticipation of my leaving a precious post or two to peruse and I said to myself, "What the hell, let's do that update everyone's been clamoring for!"
Hello? Is there anybody there? (sounds of crickets chirping in an empty theater)
Oh well, just in case there are still a few of you hanging in there, your patience has been rewarded. I've sorted out a few things, hopefully, and I feel a couple posts coming on...so let's get on with it and get this ball rolling while I'm still half awake, shall we?

Sorry Folks...

I apologize for the recent lack of posts, my dad's been having some pretty serious health problems. Things are looking okay now, though, so hopefully I won't have as much on my mind and can get back to posting more often soon.

Meanwhile, here's a link for the retrogamers out there - fond memories of Tron, the videogame. I really liked this game at the arcade, it's not as much fun on an emulator, unless you have the right controls, I suppose. Still, no replacement for that cool glowing stick.

Teddy Turns 100

The teddy bear is a hundred years old...and seeing as it doesn't talk, walk, read you stories or have a USB port, I predict it's iminent death.

In Search of...Historic Mickey

Is this 700-year-old picture found in a church fresco Mickey Mouse? His ancestor? A beaver? Decide for yourself...

Instant Atari

Avon's selling an Atari emulating joystick - there's no console involved, you simply plug the vintage-lookalike controller into the RCA jacks on your television and you're ready to play any of ten included games, such as Asteroids and Yar's Revenge.

Getting the Lead Out

Sculptor Dalton Ghetti makes intricate sculptures from the lead of pencils and for added difficulty level, he doesn't even use a microscope. Obviously, the process takes forever and the risk of destroying your creation is ultra-high, leaving you with a broken piece of pencil lead after all that effort. I find these kinds of artists, the ones who work with unusual/weird/difficult mediums really interesting, you have to wonder what makes this guy tick, what drives him to work years on one of these pieces.

Radial Pong

A JavaPong game with a twist.

The Steady Hand Game

Can you navigate the trail with your mouse?

Super-Small Tetris

A mega-tiny version of Tetris so small you have to watch on an electron microscope.

The Colossal Colon Tour

What better way to raise colo-rectal cancer awareness than by crawling through a 40-foot long, four-foot high replica of a human colon? Who needs Disneyland when there are attractions like this travelling the country?

Speed Cube

Video of a guy solving a Rubik's cube in 18 seconds. The whole story of the cube can be found here - apparently Rubik didn't really have a puzzle in mind, he was just playing around with geometric designs and when he'd built it, turned it a few times and realized he couldn't get it back to it's original state to save his life, he knew he was onto something.

Pavlov the Dog

Flash 'toons about a hapless lab dog named Pavlov.

Digital Charity

I think I posted this site already, long ago but it's certainly worth repeating and now that I think of it, worth putting up on my permanent links collection as well, which is an oversight I'll be sure to correct a.s.a.p. Digitalcharity.com is an easy way for you to give a little, with a bare minimum of fuss. It's a selection of sites that - with help from sponsor programs - will allow you to contribute to various charities simply and easily. Just pick a charity, click a link and you're done. In fact, I'd say it takes a total of 2 minutes (if that) to click through all the ones listed at the top of The Hunger Site page and they're all worthwhile causes. I particularly like the Animal Rescue Site - each time you click, sponsors pay for a bowl of food for a homeles, sheltered animal - but I'm making it a point to go there each day and click all of them since it's so easy, like I said, there's really no reason not to.

A more extensive list of charities like this can be found here on this page, which a poster on Fark owns and offered up in one of the forum threads regarding makethatdifference.com, yet another charitable meta-site.

My Way

My Way is a new internet portal that's out to compete with the big boys and really seems pretty worthwhile. While Yahoo!'s main and their "My Yahoo!" pages use Google, the results were filtered through the Yahoo! directory instead of just giving you the straight up results of a normal Google search, which bugged me. I couldn't configure my address bar to use Google as it's default, either, which also bugged me. Sure, I could just use Google as my start page but I also like having the news items and other stuff I have on my Yahoo! start page when I connect, so I can get a quick look at what's going on in the world and make sure there's no crazy smallpox outbreak, nothing's blown up, on fire or nuked as I drink my morning Mountain Dew.

My Way to the rescue. Not only is there a straight-up Google search bar, complete with the "I'm feeling lucky" button, but it's practically a carbon copy of Yahoo's main page - without all the extemporaneous junk they've started adding of late. My Way loads up superfast (up to 53 percent faster than Yahoo! according to their boast, which sounds about right) and I get my news and my handy Google search. Worth a look if you're a Google devotee and you want a good, fast-loading start page with google, news, etc. and a minimum of crap.

Halloween Leftover

Yeah, Halloween is over but this was just too funny not to post. A collection of mind-bogglingly cheesy kids' costumes from days gone by. Gabe Kaplan? Chachi? I pity the poor children that had to wear these monstrosities, especially the poor little guys whose parents bought them the Leather Biker Village People Guy costume pictured above. Probably they still bear scars from that one.

::bloggar.w

Is a sweet little blog interface that works with Blogger, Moveable Type, etc. My friend recommended it the other day and I've been playing with it. Easy to set up - just download the program, enter your Blogger name and pass as normal and you're ready to go. There are handy menu items for doing mundane tasks like inserting spaces, text color and other things.

Bugging You

A cute little Flash 'toon from Smilepop. The rest of their cartoons and e-cards can be found here.

Happy Halloween!

What with the trick-or-treat season upon us, I thought it might be nice to post a little spookiness in the way of Halloween-related websites. Since I have a little theme going here I'm doing this all in one post and will probably be adding to it in the next day or two, so if you were here recently, scroll down and there may be fresh sites added. By the way, the picture above is a thumbnail of some Halloween wallpaper I made in Photoshop awhile back. If you'd like to download it for your own desktop, click here for 800x600 version, here for the 1024x768 and here for 640x480 sized.



Bloody Finger Email

Send your friends a scary Flash e-greeting, written by a horrible, bloody finger.



Because Nothing is Scarier Than Clowns...

The Evil Clown Generator.



The Haunted Foyer

What's scarier? Jan's tour of the haunted house...or the midi music she liberally used on the page? You be the judge.



The Castle of Death

Real-life horror - the story of America's first recognized serial killer, H.H. Holmes and the house of murder he built in 19th century Chicago, where the depraved druggist practiced his horrific trade.

A Ben and Jerry's Halloween

Ah...I love a good bowl of Ben and Jerry's. The ice-cream making duo have loaded their website with Halloween-themed wallpaper, games and other goodies in honor of the season.

Scary Sounds

A big collection of spooky wavs - doors creaking, screams, sounds from horror movies and more.



Scary Movies

What would Halloween be without a good scary movie? There are TONS of sites on this topic, here are a few nice ones:

Upcoming Horror Movies is devoted to keeping you up-to-date on the latest fright flicks, with news, articles and trailers.

The simply named Horror Movies site is full of news, rumors and information for the movie-making insider as well as the fans, with message boards and other points of interest regarding the industry.

Horror Movies That Suck - for those who'd prefer something a little cheesier, with reviews of classics like Bride of Chucky and the forgettable Dracula 2000.

Pumpkin Carving

The how-to's of the art of making Jack-O-Lanterns, with instructions, tips and links for supplies and related sites.



Dracula Tour

For the really die-hard fright-fans among you, why not the ultimate Halloween vacation? A full-tilt week-long tour of Transylvania - complete with the focus on the real-life Count Dracula - you'll see his birthplace, his grave and get to inspect every nook and cranny of the Count's castle, made famous by the Bram Stoker novel, Dracula. With a masquerade ball, four-star treatment and a full-to-bursting itinerary of things to see as you trek across Vlad the Impaler's former haunts, this could be the best trip a horror fan ever takes.



Trick or Treat!

A short, funny little Flash 'toon about some trick-or-treaters getting the (ahem) crap scared out of them.

Well, that's all for now - if you find yourself in need of anything else - costume ideas, more Halloween websites, whatever - just go to Halloween Magazine for tons of stuff. History, links, costume ideas, recipes, etc. Don't pig out on too much candy, okay?