Monday, May 19, 2003

Lurkers!  I know you're out there.  I was looking over my comments, and noticing again that all of my comments come from my friends.  I know the bulk of my consistent readership is friends and family, but I'm getting between 150 and 250 hits a day, and I don't think that's entirely friends or people doing searches like "What Is A Hyperbole?" or "Tunisia + farm hotties + mother of all blowouts".  But I don't mind.  Lurk away, just keep on reading.  You're always welcome here. 8:09:37 PM    Let's hear it. []

Scary Movies This weekend Melissa and I watched the movie "Signs", which is the third film by M. Night Shyamalan. He's the guy who made "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable", both of which I liked quite a bit. "Signs" stars Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix, and is, loosely speaking, about an alien invasion. It falls into the classic horror movie pattern of having a truly bad ending. That said, this movie absolutely scared the living shit out of me. Two nights of bad sleep. The suspense-building is masterful, and the acting is pretty good, in that standard Shymalan downplayed sort of way. It has this particularly freaky scene where an alien is caught on tape at a Brazilian kid's birthday party, and the tape is presented on the news as part of the "We can't believe the aliens are actually invading us" coverage. It's one of the more effective scare scenes I can recall. I can't get the image out of my head. Which brings me to this question: why watch scary movies? Melissa said afterwards that she has no interest any more in watching them, because either they really suck, or they work, in which case they create a lasting impression that she just doesn't want to bother with anymore--too much other stuff going on in life. Since, between the two of us, I'm the one more likely to be freaked out by scary films, I thought this was interesting. Is there a point in one's life when scary movies are no longer worth it? Probably. Sleep is tough enough with two kids under 2 1/2 years old. 11:32:19 AM    Let's hear it. []