Simple America

There are so many good colleges that my daughter is considering. But the out-of-state tuition for some of them is unreal. Even in-state tuition is costly for those institutions. With my missus working out of her office, we have a lot of flexibility. This means we can easily move to another state and gain residency status to pay those lower tuition rates.

A move means selling our home and buying a home in the new state. So I will need to find some help locating a good deal in the real estate market. I hate moving. But I hate spending a ton of money too.

It is that time of the year again. Halloween. Tonight little goblins are going to invade the neighborhood and steal my candy stash. Vampires will want to suck down all my punch. Must remember to find my stakes before it gets dark.

Movies really make this a fun time of year. I’m talking about the scarey films. So as part of the Halloween craziness I would like to create a tag. This is just a list of flicks that scared the bejeebers out of you. What are your ten scariest days at the movies? And you can count television too. No limits!!!

1. Zombie movies. I think the zombie movie that scared me the most was one of the first. Night of the Living Dead frightened the heck out of me as a teen. Watching it late at night with lights out. Remember the little girl chowing down on her parents. What a shocker!
2. Vampire movies. There are so many vampire flicks. As a boy I loved the old Hammer flicks with Christopher Lee. But Stephen King wrote one of the best vampire tales ever, Salem’s Lot. The televsion adaption of this was well done. Really kept me on the edge of my seat and for more than one night, since this was a miniseries.
3. Halloween, the original movie, with Jamie Lee Curtis scared the heck out of me. I watched it when I was working at the DMZ in South Korea. We were on top of a mountain in the middle of no where, so it became even spookier. This movie scared me so bad I could not watch it again or any of the seqeuls.
4. Devil’s Rain is an old movie that I caught on television when I was in high school. This was damn eerie with Ernest Borgnine playing the devil. Would like to find this and see it again. Probably will look cheesy considering all of the passage of years and better technology. I remember the people melting under this devilish rain. Gives me the shivers still.
5. The Omen, original of course, scared me a lot too. I saw this in Germany during my first tour there. This film made you scared to look at photographs. It emitted an evil feeling that lured me on to the sequels that were also good creepy flicks.
6. Carrie is another Stephen King adaption and very well done. Really had some excellent actresses working this film with Amy Irving and Sissy Spacek. You can even catch a young John Travolta playing the dumb boyfriend. This is another film I saw in Germany. The ending is quite an eye opener too. It literally brought all of us to our feet with the shock of it. If you have not seen this one, FIND IT, WATCH IT!!! Do not leave the room until the credits roll.
7. Let me throw in another Stephen King tale. The Shining is a great haunted hotel story. Stephen Kubrick directed the original with Jack Nicholson, who plays a crazy man so well. His acting makes up for a lot of the old technology. They remade this movie as a television miniseries a few years back and it followed the book more closely. Both are good, but you have to see Jack Nicholson in this role.
8. The scariest movie in my high school days is The Exorcist. After we watched this film I could never eat pea soup again and I stayed away from Ouija boards too. So damn scarey and eeeeevil!!! This was a real head spinner of a movie.
9. In recent years I have not watched a lot of scarey movies. As a writer I don’t want to taint my idea pool. But I did watch The Ring and that really freaked me out. Makes you want to be very careful with what you watch on video.
10. There is one movie that scared me more than any other film. That movie is Alien. I remember the advertising slogan, “In space no one can hear you scream.” And the music they used really pushed you to the edge of your seat. The composer based it on a heart beat and I think my heart matched pace with it. When it was not stopping from fear that is. I so thought I was gonna die. The stupid thing about this flick, is I read the comic for this movie and I did not even realize it until I went back and read it again. I wish they had done a better job with the recent Aliens versus Predator. I read the books and they were so much better than that film. The alien creature is so scarey. Whenever I have a stomach ache I wonder if one of those critters is eating its way out of me. Eeeks!

Okay there is my list. I wish I would have done this sooner. But I did not. So I want to know about what movies scared:

1. Huei
2. Sila
3. Hisham  It will be interesting to compare brother and sister. 
4. Nicole
5. Hijack Queen

Happy Halloween everyone. Look out for the little goblins when you are driving tonight.

No one ever likes to talk about death. But should a tragedy come is your family taken care of? While a loved one is never replaced by money, when someone passes away those left behind are going to need cash. Especially, if the deceased is the bread winner.

Life insurance no medical is a good tool to have on hand when tragedy strikes. Make sure that your loved ones are adequately covered by a policy. See a financial planner as they can provide good advise regarding how much insurance your family requires.

Cannot believe that my daughter is sixteen years old now. Where has the time gone?

The big day was Monday, though we gave her a present on Sunday. Guitar Hero 3 went on sale that day and she loved Guitar Hero 2 so how could I not give the new game to her? The latest game comes with a wireless guitar too. So she can play upstairs while I am hooked by cord to the Xbox downstairs with my guitar. Because the new game has a coop campaign I could not take any pictures. I was much too busy rocking with her. I play the bass or rhythm guitar on most songs for those curious types. 

She wanted Indian food for her birthday dinner. We visited Cafe India in Sugar Land to meet her demand. No pictures because I was so hungry when we arrived. Photos were the last thing on my mind. Good food though. My favorites were the lamb and naan bread which was so good.

The missus took the girl to get her driver’s license on Monday. So now she can drive by herself once we get her added to the car insurance. Scarey thought ain’t it. But it will be nice that I can knock 20 miles off my morning commute. Plus we save money as her brother does not have to attend extended day program at his school. She will pick him up when she drives to school.

Monday evening was college day for Catholic High Schools. We went to the gym at the boys school next door to her high school. Representatives from over a hundred universities were in attendance. She enjoyed talking to the folks from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. That is her reach school, or the one you have to stretch to attend. Maybe dream choice would be a clearer explanation?

I enjoyed talking to the service academies. All of the military services were present. We talked a lot to the Air Force and Army reps. The Army reps were interesting folks as they were parents of current students or graduates. One fellow’s daughter graduated and his girl was selected by both the Army and the Air Force Academies. When she made her choice her selection was based on her campus visits. This young lady noticed that the Army had statues of people everywhere, while the Air Force displayed air planes and other technology. She felt the Army related to people based on those statues and picked West Point. Interesting don’t you think?

Oh well, I have no idea what school my daughter will apply for. My goal is to facilitate her and make sure she is prepared for whatever choice she might take. Right now her focus is preparing for the SAT early next year. Once those scores come back she will have a better idea which school to apply for.

The worst is to come. A week from Saturday she will have a sleep over. I can hear the screams and giggles already. I predict a closed door and World of Warcraft on my docket.

Over the summer 12 to Midnight ran out of t-shirts. That is what happens when you go to the big gaming conventions like Origins. You encounter lots of fans and you try to have some nice swag and what is nicer than a cool tee shirt with our alien head logo on it?

We need to consider getting some new shirts for future promotions. Fortunately, we have some time before we have to purchase any. I just discovered customINK.com and they have some products that my partners might want to consider. They offer short sleeve, long sleeve, tank tops, sleeveless and casual polos. And there are all kinds of colors to select.

What I am going to need is the design online section of their website. With digital printing they can print a single custom shirt. They also offer screenprinting and embroidery for orders of six shirts or more. In the design area, the user can pick a shirt, color, add text and graphics, as well as adding names and/or numbers. I found the design area to be easy and had a reasonably nice looking polo shirt designed in fifteen minutes. You can even send your design to others so they can critique your design. This is perfect for me as I want my partners’ approval before making this purchase.

And there are a lot or uses for customINK.com besides business. Sports teams, company picnics, family reunions can be remembered long after the event with a nice shirt commemorating the day. So remember customINK.com for those special occasions.

I figured I better get this post up. I have been tagged on two occasions. First the Giddy Tiger saw fit to tag me. And then the mistipurple also thought I should be tagged. How can I refuse them?

Exactly!

I cannot. 

*******************Start copy************************
Instructions:
Title: The Age That I Wish To Go Back To
Requirement: Write about the one age that you wish to go back to and why?
Tag Mode: 5 bloggers
1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.
2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.

The Age that they Wish to Go Back to:
Amidrin wish to go back to age 22 to correct back some mistakes in life.
Lemonjude wish to go back to age 6 to enjoy kid’s life.
Hui Sia wish to go back to age 16 to meet her first lover again.
Giddy Tiger wishes to go back to a childhood life with no worries in the world.
Rinnah wishes she could turn back time to the happiest days of her life.
Ehon doesn’t wanna go anywhere.
Chen wanna go back to age 19 to take a different pathway in life.
Mistipurple wanna go back to primary school but trusts God knows better.
Simple American wants to go back to High School and be a braniac instead of a goof ball.

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And since I am so super late I am not gonna tag anyone.