I'm getting pretty tired of seeing the blog updated only during the weekends, so I can imagine how some of you might feel.  So look!  Tuesday update!  Don't really have much to say, but…TUESDAY UPDATE!  Oh yeah, I updated the Kool-Aid Section with a shortie on Kool-Aid Kool Pumps, a Sharkleberry Fin-flavored treat offered at Burger King restaurants in 1991.  TUESDAY UPDATE!

I hate to be a redundant broken broken record record, but I'm reallllly getting psyched for the Halloween season.  I do this to myself every year.  Trust me, it's a lot different when your holiday seasons are spent writing about holiday seasons everyday.  I'm toying with the idea of doing the Halloween Countdown every other day this year, but I hate to break tradition like that.  We'll see how it goes.  Actually, this is a good question to ask — which would you prefer?  Updates every other day, or updates on every weekday with the weekends off?  Perhaps the latter makes the most sense.  It would be ideal for me to have Sats and Suns to write the following week's worth of entries.  It's a lot to do in a weekend, but I'd rather have the extra time and have them come out the way I'd like than write them all when I get home from work.  We'll see.  I may still end up doing them everyday, because in my mind, that's the tradition and it should stay.  Especially because I've already collected better loot for this year's extravaganza than the past two years combined.

Also on that note, I may need a good hand to help out with a few graphics for this year's Countdown.  Nothing too fancy, but if you've got serious skills, send me an e-mail.  You'll need to be able to do stuff as funky as what's on the main page of the site.  Haven't thought about what this would pay.  Not much.  Consider it a labor of love.

Surrrrvey Sez! If you could only have one candy bar for the rest of your life, what would it be?  I'm going with Snickers.

Buncha buncha updates.  First up, the Kool-Aid Section inducts Mountain Berry Punch, one of the true powerhouses of the lot.  I can't say it's a must-have favorite of mine, but I appreciate that it is for many of you.  Dig the package art, though.  Also, finally got around to doing a few updates to the Cereal Prize Project, and now that I'm over that hump, perhaps it can return to a more regularly updated glory.  Group 013 and Group 014 have been posted!

EDIT: Group 013 of The Cereal Prize Project has been posted.

Finally home.  Toronto was great — the city is insanely clean compared to what I'm used to, and the people I was working with refused to believe that it wasn't uncommon for people here to go to a drive-thru fast food joint and just throw their garbage out the window when they were finished scarfing.  Seriously, there wasn't a single piece of trash on the ground anywhere, even at the coveted corners where streets met sidewalks.  Pretty amazing for such a busy city, but maybe I'm just bias, my hometown being a reeking filthhole and all.  A couple of things I learned about Toronto…

1) 10% of the population have at one time starred on Degrassi.
2) All that stuff about "aye" and "oot" isn't a myth.
3) Clamato is very, very well liked.
4) It ain't soda.  It's "pop."
5) You can't buy Marlboro Lights.

The hotel I stayed at was really purdy — the kind of purdy that can only be attained on a business trip where you're not paying.  When I checked in, the front desk lady insisted that one of the hired hands give me a tour of my hotel room.  My basic instincts were crying out for me to tell them that I was in a rush, but they looked so happy about this damn room tour…I had no choice.  So began a fifteen minute exploration of my hotel room — a room that was certainly nice, but in no way, shape or form needing fifteen minutes worth of explanation.  "And here's the switch that opens and closes your curtains."  "And here's the switch that turns on the floor heaters in the bathroom, though those only work in the winter."  "And here's your phone.  And there's your other phone."  "And that's your bed."  "And these are your sheets and blankets.  On top of the bed."  It was endless, and if I'm being honest, I'd drank about fourteen cups of coffee before boarding the plane, and by this point, getting those fourteen cups out of my dick tube before it exploded seemed a lot more important than floor heaters.  I hung in there for as long as I could, finally succumbing and shoving a cash tip in the guy's hand as a very polite way of saying, "GET THE FUCK OUT I NEED TO PISS RIGHT NOW."  He took the hint, but not before reminding me that the room's included mini-bar worked on the "honor system."

Oh, those foolishly trusting Canucks.  I emptied that bitch out and didn't tell a soul.  We'll see how this is reflected on my next credit card bill.

On the final night there, I couldn't help plunging into the hotel's own personal version of LodgeNet, and ended up seeing House of Wax.  You know what?  That's a pretty decent little horror flick, there.  Paris Hilton's role was more for the press releases than the flick; she's a total background character and her role could've been handled by any moderately attractive blonde.  If you're avoiding it for Paris-related reasons, you're cheating yourself.  Granted, I'm prone to like films like this more than the general public, but there wasn't a thing about House of Wax that I really hated.  It goes fast (but not too fast), has a good amount of gore (but not so much that it's reliant on it), and yes, it's actually creepy.  Hell, anything that's based on a Vincent Price classic is hard to fuck up on that front.  Totally worth your time no matter what you've heard.

This is your all-day Saturday thread.  Use it wisely.

This weekend, I saw The Omen for the first time, curious because a bunch of friends had been talking about the remake.  You know what?  I dug it.  Definitely dug it.  It's not the kind of digging/dugging that would inspire repeat viewings, but for whatever it is, it worked.  If you haven't seen it, it's the story of a high political couple adopting what turns out to be Satan's kid, and though that description paints a more action-packed kinda flick, this one is really driven by the suspense of kinda/sorta knowing what's to come.  There's enough fucked up death scenes to satiate our basic needs of a horror movie, but it's the concept in of itself that made/makes The Omen a hit.  Check it out if you're a first timer; it's not a great movie to watch with a boisterous group, but if you match my experiences with it (lazy Sunday morning), you shouldn't be disappointed.

Also want to say farewell to Six Feet Under, one of the most impressive shows in television history that totally did NOT flake or fizzle out in its final season.  Sunday nights won't be the same.

In more exciting news, today marked the start of what promises to be my most surreal workweek ever.  With unofficial confidentiality rules, I can only tell you that it involved a shoot starring six professionally trained dogs (complete with their equivalent of stage moms) doing everything from riding bicycles to jumping through hoops to pissing on each other.  I went home with a much bigger appreciation for Chihuahuas and fully confident that, if given the opportunity, a German Shepherd could easily kill five men in the time it takes for coffee to heat up.

Ahh!  I passed out from over-wineage early yesterday.  We'll have to do our next Saturday Night Thread next Saturday night, yeah.  Meantime, here's the All Day Sunday Buffet Super Special Thread.  I'm trying to make up for it, see?

Over the course of the next seven days, I'll be assisting on a shoot starring six professionally trained dogs, traveling to Toronto to the first time, and working extensively with interactive Furby dolls.  I'm kind of digging my job right now.

Wednesday Survey: To what level do you believe in the following: Ghosts, Space Aliens and Cryptozoology's Finest.  "Ghosts" being, like, yer dead mama, or his dead mama.  "Space Aliens" being, like, space aliens that have visited this here planet.  "Cryptozoology's Finest" being, like, Bigfoot and shit.

Also, sharing the things I love most, I remind everyone that you can still listen to Freddy Krueger's music album by clicking this old link.  I listen to it every night.  Please don't hate me.

As mentioned in the previous thread, I went to the drug store today and found no less than Halloween Popcorn Balls.  It's starting, and I am thanking God.  Let's celebrate the upcoming unholiness by busting out the spookiest Kool-Aid of 'em all — Ghoul-Aid!  You may remember my 2003 attempt to recreate Ghoul-Aid using existing Kool-Aid flavors, but this time, it's the real deal.  It's sweet, it's black, it's a Halloween mega attack.

But wait!  There's more!

I've mentioned the film often enough, so finally, here's the skinny on Friday the 13th: Part 2, an idiotically wonderful movie that makes its way to my sensory organs at least once a week on average.  It's the first onscreen appearance of Jason Voorhees (as an adult, at least), and it's amazing to see how much our pal changed through the years.  Article covers my ten favorite things about the flick, from Jason's house to the Pamela's severed head.  Enjoy.