The Weekend Past: ♫ This Is Halloween ♫

What a whirlwind weekend! Let's start, shall we?

Friday:

Friday was essentially an "Under The Weather" Day. The morning was fine, except for a slight sore throat/cough. The PR meeting was non-existent. As the day wore on, I started feeling a bit headache-y and such. Not necessarily a good sign. I then found out something about a friend that

I didn't know beforehand ... and it kinda brought me down a bit. I won't go into the details. I talked it out with another friend and it made me feel a bit better, like I got a bit of it off my chest.

I was feeling well enough to make my way over to the Nosferatu-Shadow of the Vampire double feature that the Cinema Department was showing as part of a semesterly film series. Nosferatu was interesting, primarily because of the similarities to Dracula, which (as you can so tell) it is based off of. The character of Knock showed similarities to the novel's Renfield. Hutter and

Ellen, his wife, showed similarities to the novel's characters of Jonathan Harker and Mina Harker. And Count Orlok ... yeah, that's a no-brainer. However, the detractor was that we saw a more or less fully restored version, so the overall color kept changing from yellow to a bluish tint to a red-ish/grey-is

h tint. And it seemed to drag on. And it also seemed to stray away from the vampire tropes, which I found intriguing. The two main points: traveling over water and invitations. One of the pivotal points of the film is Orlok's travel by boat to Wisborg. According to vampire lore/trope, vampires can't cross moving bodies of water (i.e., rivers, oceans). This, well, confused me a bit. And the other point is at the end of the film. Orlok enters the house of Hutter and Ellen to feed on Ellen, who sacrifices herself to save the town. And again, according to vampire lore/trope, vampires must be invited into a person's place of residence. Again, this did not happen. Shadow of the Vampire was also an enjoyable look at a "What if?" situation regarding Nosferatu.

I noticed it on one of the 7 or so HBO channels we get on campus a month of so ago and didn't think more of it until I saw it again on Friday. I didn't expect to see Eddie Izzard and Cary Elwes in it, honestly! They were warm surprises. Malkovich was also good, but his accent seemed to falter a bit. And

Dafoe essentially disappeared in the role ... although you could slightly tell that it was Dafoe under the makeup and prosthetic ears.

... Moving on! Enough of that vampire talk! Got back to the dorm after the flicks ended, got a Tempa Dot thing or two from the flu station in the RA office. Apparently, the campus couldn't get seasonal flu shots this year. :P Glad I got mine mid-October! I didn't have a fever, thankfully. I brewed myself some tea (which I've been doing for these last few days) and sat down to relax with some good friends. Overall, a decent Friday.

Saturday:

I woke up feeling slightly better. The cough and sore throat were still there and the headache was on the

back burner. Regardless, I soldiered on through the day, dressed as The 10th Doctor.

... The current incarnation of The Doctor. ... Are you still scratching your head? I hope to God not. ... *facepalm*

Okay, ever heard of a show called Doctor Who? ... Yes? Good!

Well, if you DIDN'T happen to know this, the show was revived about 5 years ago and it has been going

strong. The show is currently on it's 10th incarnation of the character, soon to be the 11th. That's who I went as.

I was recognized by ... around 10 people. 5 or 6 of them were Nerdfighters (People who fight for nerds and to

decrease world suck. And who would love to have puppy sized elephants.) who I met at the Wrock (wizard rock,

for those uneducated in the genre) show on campus.

Prior to the Wrock show, I hung around the dorm and the radio station, entering a costume contest at the book

store for a small shopping spree. Between that and the show, I went to a Halloween party in an adjoining dorm

building, where I met up with some friends, including a good buddy of mine, Jared, who went as a demon with a

Siamese demon named Bill (who was a puppet).

At the party, I also met someone dressed as House (minus the scruff and a bit of the essence of the character)

and someone dressed as Sherlock Holmes (minus the hat, the pipe, and the *coughcough* paraphernalia).

Candy count for the day: 1 small Hershey's bar, 1 small 3 Musketeers (my favorite), 1 Tootsie Roll, 1 Reese's,

and 1 Milky Way (Also a favorite. And a favorite of my grandpa's. He enjoyed his a bit frozen.)

Sunday:

The main focus of my Sundays, as it has been for the semester, was my radio show. I was originally planning on interviewing Stephanie, the main member of the wrock group (Tonks and the Aurors) that performed on Saturday, but plans kept changing, so we decided on a phone-in interview.

Then, while attempting to air the soccer game, I discovered that the phone section on the control board wasn't working. So we didn't air the game. So I kept my regular time slot, instead of taking what would've been the remaining hour of mine and all of Ari's show. This meant that the interview was essentially off because of timing and such. But thank God for e-mail and text interviews. I'll get on that tomorrow.

Anyway, the Halloween show went well, except for the fact that Thriller and The Sorcerer's Apprentice were SKIPPING! GRRRRRRR! I should've checked them beforehand! :P Oh well. It happens.

The rest of the evening was good. I made my way to the weekly meeting for the media arm of the Beyond Coal campaign that we're running on campus. Today was phone banking. I made ... 20 or so calls, reaching 2 friends from home who go here and one person from the Film Club, I think. All in all, a good night.

But before I head off for the night, folks, a few things (WHAT?! HE HAS MORE TO SAY?!?!). 1) Don't underestimate the power of a good cup (or cups) of tea! 2) Value the time you spend chatting with your friends. 3) Don't OD on candy/sugar/chocolate. You WILL get cavities. ... Unless you practice good dental hygiene. That includes flossing, too, mister!

Oh! Also! I'm one of 5 finalists in a video contest! You can view my video here and vote here. It'd mean a lot if you slipped my name in there!
And last, but not least, a joyful video to end the weekend!


The Return from Iraq - More free videos are here

From Neatorama

I'll be back on ... Wednesday with more. And I'll hopefully have the Halloween show up on the radio blog by the end of Monday.

Allons-y!