It’s Halloween (Part Three(eek!)

Posted on October 30, 2023 by geelw

Ever have one of THOSE days?

Yes, I’m still here, folks. Just a bit too occupied with real life these days. Now, where were we? So, The really funny thing is, I actually found some folks to give my most awful candy to and it was quite by accident. Previously, what you got was a total surprise and I’m sure kids got what they wanted more often than not while most of the adults who picked out their own treats seemed pleased, although on a few occasions, some parental units actually asked for the “worst” candy I had because they had a kid that had misbehaved in some way and they wanted to prove that The Great Pumpkin was cut from the same fictional cloth as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or whomever. I had previously made a separate bucket for the oddball candy and usually had enough to hand out later in the evening, but one year, an elderly gentlemen popped up beside me and asked if I had any Circus Peanuts (oog) because he and his brother loved them back in the day, but his strict parents despised Halloween and wouldn’t let them go celebrate the holiday for whatever reason.

“Sometimes, you feel like a nut…”

Sometimes, a little sugar therapy goes a long way and when I told the old man that not only did I have a bunch of sealed bags of Circus Peanuts, he was welcome to as many as he wanted, he surprised me by rooting carefully through the buckets and grabbing all of the pesky peanuts, stopping every few seconds to ask me if it was OK that he was taking them. “Sure!” was my response, as I knew I’d have issues getting rid of all those so-called “peanuts” when trick or treaters would come around later in the evening. Yes, I did mention to him to go easy with all that candy, and while he cheerfully munched on a handful, he smiled and said “It’s a good thing these last forever!” and “You know, these aren’t bad STALE!” which made me gag a little, I’ll admit. The next year. I remembered to deliberately by two of three bags just for him and he was too happy that I remembered and even the Security guards didn’t mind if there was a Halloween or two with bad weather and I left a few bags in the security booth for him to pick up later. One year, I recall telling him I had a few sealed bags of candy corn left and he laughed and said “What am I supposed to do with that?” My personal (and yes, snarky) recommendation was to make some sort of “fancy” holiday candy “salad” and share it with friends, but I already have enough trouble with friends who actually follow my often bad advice, let alone nice strangers who I’ve recently met.

I’ve only been egged once while handing out treats, and it was thanks to some Catholic school punks (it’s always the “good” kids, right?), but I was more annoyed at having to rush home, take a quick shower and change than getting overly upset at some teens having a bit of stupid fun. That said, the perks of this gifty gig have outweighed the few bad spots. On a few occasions, people have surprised me with their generosity. I still recall all those free cups of coffee from the diner across the street from the park and the server from the diner who’d show up in costume and joke around with us before or after her shift. One year she was dressed as Flo from the old TV show Alice, one year she was a somewhat spectacular Bride of Frankenstein (her daughter did a great job on her hair and makeup) and she really got into the spirit of the season with her other costumes. As most of her customers were older residents, she’d sometimes take requests and dress as characters from old films or TV shows, sometimes with costume changes mid-shift. One chilly Halloween, she popped over to drop off a few orders of pumpkin pancakes with bacon (they were awesome).

You never know who you might meet…

This may be the last year I’ll be able to do this, given the current world situation (Where’s that damn asteroid? It’s a bit late, you know?). But I’ll be my normally sunny self until that day comes or I decide it’s a good year to go on an actual vacation. My doctor made me laugh a few weeks ago when he said his own kids noted he’s in his YOLO phase about a few things. Yeah, me too (sound of bones creaking and other old coot stuff)… Happy Halloween!

That sound was my back going out.

-GW

It’s Halloween (Part Twoooooo)

Posted on September 26, 2023 by geelw

Gotta love those classics.

The next day, it was back to Deal$, where I purchased $5 worth of paper Halloween bags with Happy Halloween and Trick or Treat printed on them in orange and green ink, a dozen smaller plastic pumpkin buckets, four packages of Halloween confetti (bats, cats, ghosts, skulls and such; each bag came with a free pack of Halloween glitter), a few packs of giant Halloween stickers, a few glow sticks and a box of aluminum foil sheets. The previous night, I’d painted the buckets with the black enamel paint, adding large pumpkin faces to each bucket and using the orange fabric tape to cover up some misprinted text. The tape wasn’t exactly the same color as the buckets, but those Halloween stickers were quite handy in covering things up when needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32PWuX_BMCY

Warning: flashy lights alert!

I dumped a bag of confetti and glitter in each bucket, then cut open four of the huge bags of mixed candy and poured the entire bags into one bucket. Then I started sorting the candy by type. Hard candy in one bucket, chocolate in another, gummy candy and small boxes of miscellaneous treats went to a third bucket. The funny thing was, there were also small sealed bags of mixed candy corn, a few rolls of Necco wafers, a lot of Smarties and (EEK!) a few sealed bags of Circus Peanuts. Those went into bucket four (the Trick bucket). Then I opened up a package of the paper bags and filled about 20 or each with a mix of every type of candy so when a bag was handed out, each person was guaranteed a little of everything. The small pumpkins were for carrying six bags each and I brought two buckets (one small, one large) to the security booth in the Oval to show to the guards on duty that afternoon.

Everything was approved, but one of the guards told me my skull mask was a bit too scary (boo!), so I pulled out one cute alternate I’d brought and got a thumbs up from him. Another more senior guard told me to just wear whatever I felt like (I’d planned to bring both masks anyway) and to just have fun. The next few days before Halloween was just me deciding what to wear and when to show up. The final outfit was a heavy orange sweater with an orange sweatshirt underneath, black sweatpants and a pair of black Chuck Taylors, plus the two masks, one of which was stored in one of the large buckets. As far as those buckets went, a few of the aluminum foil sheets went into two of the large buckets along with a few glow sticks. I’d remixed the candy selection to be a mix of everything, stuck a few sheets of foil in the bottom on top of the confetti, crinkled the foil a bit and put a few glow sticks in the bottom of the buckets so when it was getting darker, I’d use the glow sticks to give off a little extra light. The crinkled foil made for a nice effect.

Cute alert!

Halloween was the next day and I decided to head out around 1:30 PM with two big buckets of mixed candy, some loose paper bags and four smaller bag-filled buckets. The plan was to hand out filled bags and hand out empty bags to those who wanted to take a chance at picking their own goodies. I lived about three minutes away, so if I needed a bathroom break or to get more treats, it was a short walk to get home. When I got to the park, one of the security guards told me I was a bit too early, but I told him we’ll see what happens as it happens. There were smaller pumpkins loaded with paper bags of candy all set to be grabbed from a table when I returned home for a break.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZstmON4va0

Just may be a future wife.

I still remember my first “customers”. At about 1:45 or so, A dad pushing his daughter in a kid-sized wheelchair walked up to me. He wore a harness with a toddler securely strapped in. The younger child was fast asleep. “Is that candy free?” he asked. “The freest!” I responded. The security guard gave me a thumbs up (He was munching away on a bag of candy I’d given him earlier) and nodded as I handed the dad two bags of candy to inspect. He want through both bags and said “Okay, this looks fine.”, before handing one bag to his daughter in the wheelchair. She wore a pink sweater under a small puffy jacket, pink tights with big stars on them and was holding onto a plastic wand of some sort. When she got the candy, she smiled broadly and said a quiet “Thank You.”. I smiled back, leaned forward a bit to ask her name and then, *BOOP!*, she reached out and conked me on the head with the plastic wand she was holding. “Trick or Treat!” she laughed. Her dad laughed as well, as did I.

Dad then asked if I could give him an extra bag for his son, who was arriving via school bus about a half hour later, and of course, I did. I also asked if he wanted to grab a bag of candy for himself, but he declined, saying he’d swipe a little from the other bags. A few minutes later, a person dressed as a clown arrived and joined me. The security guards all knew her well and introduced us. The clown wore blue overalls with multicolored stripes, a blue shirt with stars, a blue fuzzy jacket and a huge blonde Afro wig. The first thing she did after shaking my hand was mime a big sneeze and gold colored confetti flew out of the wig, landing all over the place. “Does that every year” One of the guards said, laughing. “Oh, the team from Maintenance just loves November the first” another guard joked.

(To be concluded… next time)

-GW

It’s Halloween (Part One)

Posted on September 21, 2023 by geelw

Even with all my current health issues, my favorite holiday is coming up and I’m very likely going to to once again take part in an annual Halloween candy giveaway. A few residents have been doing this for about a dozen years (some for much longer) and it’s always rewarding to see those smiling kids, some of whom have popped up over later years as teenagers and young adults to grab a bag or two of treats (or a few bags of treats). Meeting all those parents over the years has also been rewarding as I’ve found a whole lot of parents who like not having to take their kids again out unless it’s to a Halloween party they’ve been invited to later. (but not too late).

More like before midnight, honestly.

One early October morning in 2012, I went to the management office and inquired about handing out candy to kids in the complex. There was yes, a full background check.They also checked my state and city ID and address to see if I was a resident here. The process took about a half hour or so but it gave some of the staff something else to do other than whatever other tasks they did. Then, a security officer went over a few basic ground rules with me. I had to be inside the Oval area (an outdoor oval-shaped park open to residents), sit on a bench near the security booth, stand near the booth or both (the security guards were more or less protecting me from any rowdy antics). I was told not everyone celebrates the holiday and to be respectful and don’t “force” fun or candy on anyone if they refuse. I also had to let security search the candy I was giving out and it all had to be sealed. They also wanted to see what I intended to wear on that day. If the mask and/or costume were deemed too frightening, I’d need to have a backup handy.

I got a rock (and a roll- that’s a sandwich, right?)

The next day, I did some shopping. The first stop was Deal$, which is now a Dollar Tree ($1.25 Tree, actually), where I bought $40 worth of bagged mixed and wrapped Halloween candy and a few $1 Halloween masks, which were simple pull over the head masks with mesh faces. I bought three with skeleton faces. three with Ghostface inspired images and four cuter cartoony masks, just in case. Then I went down the street to a small thrift store and bought a few irregular orange sweatshirts (3 for $5). The shirts, I found out later just needed to be laundered and were “irregular” only because they were labeled incorrectly by the manufacturer.

Got milk?

To store the candy, I found a great deal in Summer 2011. A local hardware store had a special on what they called “DIY” Halloween buckets, which were large orange buckets, some of which were unpainted or were misprinted on one side. “How much for a bucket?” I asked. “Tell you what” the clerk said. “it’s a slow day. so buy $10 worth of stuff and I’ll thrown in two buckets for free”. That was too hard too pass up, so I asked if the store had cloth tape in orange (I needed two rolls) and some black enamel paint. The clerk (he was actually the shop owner) pulled a drawer open and and picked two rolls of orange tape out, then from behind the counter, he produced a medium sized can of black enamel paint. “Just opened this yesterday. My son painted that sign.” He pointed at a sign for the buckets. It was $11 for the tape and paint but the owner added four more buckets for a buck each. He rang me up, then wrote me a receipt on a small pad and tore off a copy, placing it, the tape and the can of paint in one of the stacked buckets. “Thanks for the business” he nodded and flashed a wide smile as I nodded back and left the shop. There was still a lot of work ahead for me…

(To be continued…)

-GW

Ruh-Roh!

Mega Cat Brings The Halloween Freaks Out, Retro Style

Posted on October 29, 2019 by geelw

Want some classic-inspired Halloween fun? Mega Cat Studios has you covered like a freshly found corpse with these two games that look and play like NES classics of yore, but are available on Switch (and NES of you happen to own one or a compatible system). Fist to face combat, pixel pushing goodness and fun time await with this pair of titles:

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First up, is Creepy Brawlers ($4.99, eShop), an homage to the classic Punch-Out!! with a horror theme, monster and alien fighters and quite familiar (albeit very tough) fun. While it’s a single player only game, it’s cool enough that you’ll be passing around a controllers so everyone can get a turn. There’s a physical cart version for the NES if you have access to one and can run it without issues here.

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Next up, is HAUNTED: Halloween ’86 ($9.99), a side-scrolling platforming, beat-em-up adventure that’s kind of like the classic River City Ransom (Downtown – Nekketsu Monogatari) but with a horror vibe. Also single players, the game recalls the look and feel of classic NES games and is pretty much guaranteed to have you burning with nostalgia throughout. This one is only currently available digitally (it was initially released in 2016 as a cart version), so get it now if you like what you see.

Oh, and make sure to check out Mega Cat’s recent blog post on scary retro games and their free ebooks selection, as they’re more than just some folks who cook up a witch’s cauldron of retro games.

-GW

Review: Into the Dead 2 (Switch)

Posted on October 20, 2019 by geelw

Well, it’s a good thing that forklift isn’t a zombie. Uh, that’s a Killdozer reference, sort of.

Confession time (again!): I’d never heard of the mobile game or its sequel here until I fired up the review code I got for Into the Dead 2 ($34.99 digitally, base game), but that really made a difference when it came to my overall enjoyment of what’s here. Developer PikPok and publisher Versus Evil’s game is a pretty good one overall, with simple to grasp mechanics, great looks, plenty of levels and a few modes to kick back with for endless zombie-killing fun. The removal of the F2P elements is also a big key here because despite the cost, it’s actually a case where one is getting a better value on the Switch once you whip out a calculator and tally things up.

Yes, on mobile, it’s a free to play experience… at least if you want to play wthin the limits imposed on you and buy in for more weapons and content with cash. From a few spins with the mobile version this week thanks to a friend who’s got it on his phone, that mobile game jumps on your face with ads and offers for new content (as mobile games do to get you to spend more than that “free” you didn’t spend). Argh, but so goes some mobile gaming on devices.

“Hold up a sec, pal! I’m NOT a zombie – I just spilled my coffee before I could even take a sip!”

The Switch port drops this in favor of unlocking content as you go with no payment needed (outside the 2 DLC packs) and you can play all 60 story missions and 36 side missions as as the previous areas are cleared, In Arcade mode, 21 levels await getting a set number of kills per mission to proceed. The two spends for digital users are the optional Night of the Living Dead and Ghostbusters-themed missions ($4.99 each), but those come in the physical version as part of the package for $39.99. You can actually save $5 by not buying the extra content separately and buy the $39.99 Bundle that has both the game and extra DLC as a digital or physical version, if you like.

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Stuff I Need to Play 1: Mary Skelter 2

Posted on October 15, 2019 by geelw

It’s allllmost here…

Oh, it’s a long list, but let’s discuss what I’m thinking of at the moment. Yes, this will come in a few parts over the month, so bear with me as I go through my overstuffed inbox. I loved the first Mary Skelter enough to play both the PS4 and PC versions. so the inclusion of the first game for free in the Switch-only sequel has me wanting to play it all over again. Well, after the sequel, of course.

From the just released gameplay trailer, the game looks great and the oddball beautiful ugliness of the creatures your party will encounter as friend and foe look great (with the assorted Nightmares shown so far being especially Yeesh-worthy, Yes, the gals are cute here too, but that’s expected in a game like this. I’m moe (ha, I left a typo in because it fits!) thrilled by the dungeon crawling, what’s probably going to be a tougher game and any endgame content that this has. But I fully expect my poor Switch getting a workout from the main story alone.

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Puppet Combo Has A Few Scares To Share

Posted on October 13, 2019 by geelw

This PC games set from Puppet Combo will set you back a mere $6.66 total (you can pay more if you like), but the scares here are worth a million bones, especially it you have a yen for intentionally crafted PlayStation 1-era visuals, grainy VHS filters for that extra layer of authenticity, like crazy and relentless to slow-burning horror games and can get used to the controls being so old school. Take a look at the game page (some imagery is a bit jarring, but you’re expecting it to be, right?) here. Or, you can go all out and get the bundle that includes this collection and much more here.

I want to see Puppet Combo a console dev kit of some sort, as these intentionally low-poly fright-filled short games would be perfect on whichever system they choose to port them over to. Hey, PC and Mac users shouldn’t have ALL the fun, I say.

Yeah, I’d watch this if it were a film, Horror Blanket and all.

-GW

Save 10% Off iNetvideo.com’s Scary Flicks (Or Else)

Posted on October 6, 2019 by geelw

Ooh, this is a nice deal on some frightening flicks for Halloween or for someone who likes the scary stuff any time of year:

Hop on over here and take a peek at many horrors old and new to pick up. You have 114 pages of films to peruse and choose, so get to it!

-GW

Preview- Daymare: 1998 Keeps The Old School Zombie Thing Alive

Posted on October 2, 2019 by geelw

So yeah, I’ve been playing Invader Studios’ (with aid from Destructive Creations and All In! Games) fun and scary Daymere: 1998 on STEAM for a short while and it’s pretty darn good (and thankfully, also coming to PS4 and Xbox One gamers at some point), although the story and character models could use a little polishing up. The game is so far, a decent enough mimic/response to Capcom’s much praised classic Resident Evil 2 so much so that it looks and feels at times like a newer entry, but intentionally filled with a certain old-school style that make it feel purposely nostalgic.

Here’s a game trailer to peruse:

While the human character models need a bit of work, the assorted undead are all appropriately creepy and the scares are timed to make you jump out of your skin when you’re caught off guard. There’s some method to the madness on display, as the game certainly gets the feelings of fright going on a few fronts. Granted, yes, it does start off initially slow as you get your bearings and yes, the UI could be a lot more intuitive. The game also has a few intentionally draggy moments in spots. But when you’re least expecting it (or because you will be), the tension is definitely there in the quietest of spaces when you think you can take a breather. Overall, it all blends into a horror-fest that’s pretty enjoyable, warts and all.

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The hammy voice acting is well done (funny how that works, right?) and I liked that some animations are a bit clunky, but these elements both fit the era in question. In it’s current form, it’s good, but a few patches away from greatness, I think. That and the game is in need of critical response that appreciates what’s going on here rather than attempting to bash the game for its particular weaknesses where an homage is clearly intended. As a fan of some horror games, this one’s not a bad way to whittle away a few hours on a rainy weekend with. Hey, I like this one a lot, stuff that needs work and all. The overall spirit is what’s important in a project like this and that’s going on in spades here.

-GW

Ghostbusters and Night of The Living Dead Hit Into the Dead 2 as Updates

Posted on September 30, 2019 by geelw

Nice. In addition to Ghostbusters getting a full-on remaster this year as an updated modern console game for PS4, Xbox One and Switch available physically via your local Gamestop or digitally via their respective online stores, (the PC version is currently only available digitally through the Epic Games store), the upcoming versions of Into the Dead 2 will also be receiving the same nifty time limited additions in the form of its own new Ghostbusters and Night of the Living Dead expansions when the game releases on PC and consoles on October 25, 2019. Check out both trailers above and below and yes, add this fun stuff to your wishlist if you like what you’re seeing (and own one of the systems listed, of course).

These expansions are also or will be available for the mobile version of the popular zombie game for a short time, but this one’s all new to me, as I don’t play games on my phone (Hey, the screen is too small and I’m too busy with console and PC games to have enough time for mobile games, sorry!). I’m guessing over 100 million downloads on mobile devices worldwide is a good thing, right?