Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Asks: What Are You Doing For Hallowe'en?
Hallowe'en is my favorite holiday: I like seeing costumes (and walking around in my own), and seeing what people do to decorate their houses, yards, etc. For the second year in a row though, I've failed to come up with a really good scheme for making my own place appropriately spooky. So, in hopes of loosing some inspiration for myself and others, I ask today what you're doing to spookify your surroundings (or your person) tomorrow, especially if it means using technology in interesting ways. Sensor-activated scary sounds or lights? An Arduino or Raspberry Pi-controlled costume? Elaborate trap-door? Infrasonic hackle-raising subwoofer install? Maybe one year Alek Komarnitsky will switch to Hallowe'en instead of Christmas, and offer a webcam-equipped remote-controllable haunt.
ping pumpkins. First post!
Hookers and blow :D
Hallowe'en?
Going to wear a dress shirt, slightly unbuttoned, with a Superman t-shirt underneath, and go to Lucha Vavoom in Los Angeles.
It's gonna be awesome.
was... um... was I supposed to say I'm staying home and programming? Cuz... no way.
-
i spend my halloweens hunting and killing people who write hallowe'en
I have some prereq classes I'm taking, so Halloween is out for me. The joys of switching disciplines ...
That said, whatever you do, don't look under the North end of the Aurora Bridge if you're in Seattle from 5:30 to 9:30 on Trolloween night, cause there's definitely nothing there.
Really. Even if you hear music and voices and see lots of fun, it's just a trollish figment of your imagination, and has nothing to do with the Fremont Troll.
(this post has been sanitized for your protection by the NSA)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
and hitting on girls a decade young than me in short skirts.
Try to take over the world
crazy dynamite monkey
and when little kids walk up, I'll leap out in my Conan the Mathematician costume and roar out the skull-splitting multiplication rules for Quaternions.
but it's a fine night for an Halo Win...
I will be yelling in the streets telling everyone who will listen that's there's no reason to put an archaic apostrophe in the word Halloween.
I walk around with an (unloaded) pistol on my hip.
Scaring little kids is easy, I go for scaring the adults.
My neighbour likes abducting unattended kids who knock on his door during halloween, haven't they outlawed this stupid sugar fest yet? do people even trust their neighbours anymore?
... knowing the NSA^H^H^Hspooks are watching my every move.
It's an every-day activity for some of us, with the scare being when the mask comes off or her hand goes into the treat bag.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
...but not "trick or treat"
(Hey, you gotta earn your treats!)
"She's furniture with a pulse"
I threw a Halloween party last weekend. Tonight? Battlefield 4
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
Being Australian? I can go grumpy old man on those few kids that usually go trick or treating. It's always fun watching blank stairs of incomprehension as I tell them that their mums and dads are bad parents for indoctrinating their children with an Americanized handout mentality as well as bad neighbours for expecting me to cross-subsidize their efforts with candy.
Get off my lawn. Clean up those eggs and toilet rolls.
Our local non-fiction group of the Writer's Guild is meeting at our secret undisclosed location.
Time Bomber the Book coming soon.
I have a few Smart Phones i am not using so i Downloaded a few apps and things to make the Cells make Spooky Noises when one ditects sounds. and another phone set closer to my door where it detects movement (using fishing line attached to the phone and the other side attached to a moving lawn spider i have, he is 8' and has moving legs but now when he moves it makes cool spooky noises ) My Sony Smart watch as a live view finder for my other non used Smart phone allows me to see kids coming up the drive way so i can be perpaird to make the fog machine spew out thick fog. I did make a Green Laser Vortext this year too.. Green Laser & small motor to make a mirror spin & Fog Machine & a small fan makes some of the coolest effects. So now i got Two green, two red, and two blue lasers for this halloween haunt going. FYI - blue lasers are great as Super Black Lights!!!!!!! man they make glow in the dark things bright!
I have to work you insensitive clod!
... the kid in the LED suit on youtube has already won
What am I doing on "halloween"? Nothing. Im not American and I dont live in America, so "Halloween" has absolutely no cultural significance to me in any way, shape or form. TBH, I cant wait for it to be finished, as im sick of haloween themed crap on all the American based websites and TV shows.
I live in one of the safest cities in America. It's extremely clean, too. And no one trick-or-treats. The significant other and I did up our entry way and had candy on hand for 3 years running before we just gave up.
It's the safest city partially because everyone is so afraid of everyone else. We've never known our neighbors and we've lived in this city for 13 years. Neighbors just come and go. It's "nice", but it's weird, too.
So, to answer the question, we're doing nothing special. We'll likely have some wine, watch a movie, and spend some time in Norrath.
Unless some dinky laboratory mice with modified DNA beat me to it. Poit!
For some reason I got the bug to try to wire up LED pumpkins and build a flashing LED circuit. I've not done much with electronics, so I got the alternating flashing antennae done properly after some work. But, I also wanted the mouth to have Knight Rider-style chasing LEDs. I found a circuit diagram, but for some reason the lights run for 10-15 seconds then stop with one light on. Go figure :/
Here's the circuit diagram I'm trying to copy.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Living in one of the +150 countries where it's just some crap kids saw on TV I just hang my big sign:
'Halloween, no thanks'
'armed response'
on the door.
I forgot Halloween was almost here!
Have to run out to buy some apples and razor blades!
Trolling is a art,
so I can get some treatment for my samhainophobia, you insensitive clod
The local festivities were Sunday for me.
One piece of awesome was a robot, really well done, but the kid wearing it broke his arm a couple days before... tore the plastic duct work arm apart, jammed in some stripped back network cable and an old ribbon cable to be a "disarmed" robot.
Laugh, it's good for you!
I'm *always* in PEND_EXAM study state.
I'm putting a bowl of candy outside and retreating to a back room to continue my week-long biochemistry cram session.
If I had to go as something, I would go as a ROS: those oxygens with unpaired electrons will fuck you up...
One option is to trick-or-treat in a shopping center. I was set to play a character with no legs wandering about a local strip mall. Literally. But this year, trick-or-treating is going to be rained out throughout Indiana.
They always get creative. They got tall coconut trees about 6 or 8 in a line near the diamond-link fence. One time, there was a huge spider web strung up between 2 of them, and a simulated 'copter caught in that web, with the pilot lying there on the ground, against a tree, legs splayed (really a dummy all suited up) with a reflectorized visor on his helmet.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Me as a digital pirate - http://i561.photobucket.com/albums/ss59/neghvar/12938_1278603487446_1300795023_8062.jpg?t=1256949602
Here in Vancouver, it's traditional to light off fireworks on Halloween. Fireworks are legal on Halloween night, firecrackers are not (Nevertheless, there are a lot of illegal firecrackers going *BANG* as well....)
Usually starts off quiet, but by the time the teenagers are out at 9pm it's a bit of a war zone, with our dog cowering in the basement.
For Halloween, I'm electrifying my doorbell. Not too much, not fatal or anything, but just enough to singe a few wee fingertips.
I watch from the second floor window and laugh and laugh. Watch for the videos on youtubes.
Personally, I hate Halloween. I have enough identity issues that I don't need to be wearing costumes and masks. The only time I put a mask on these days is when a safe word is involved.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Nine bucks a bag.
printf("He^Hallo ^Hworld^H^H^H^Heen!\n");
Frighten everyone with what an uber-geek you are and put up your Christmas lights - you can then explain that Halloween and Christmas are mathematical equivalents: oct(31)=dec(25)
Some chick in North Dakota is giving out letters accusing parents of contributing to childhood obesity. If I were a parent and got one of those, I'd help my kids TP that house. We'd be going down to costco for the industrial-sized crate of TP.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
My wife and kids will be gone .... I will shut the blinds and turn off the lights
AND NO, I will not masturbate. Have to work on project.
Windows XP CD's...
In fact, forget the blackjack.
Here's an article from 2 years ago by someone in the same county: http://cerritos.patch.com/groups/opinion/p/is-trick-or-treating-down-halloween-trends-decline-in3eafc90da4
"Over the past few years Iâ(TM)ve noticed a similar trend in the decline of trick-or-treaters going around the neighborhood. At first I thought maybe this was just me, and maybe everyone else had different experiences, but after talking to many residents from Cerritos, Artesia, and other surrounding cities most had similar experiences on Halloween."
I really like being frightened on Halloween so I'm planning on watching some scary things I've tivo'ed.....
Frankenstein
Dracula
The Wolf-Man
Kathleen Sebelius testifying before congress
You know, the really scary ones.
-- L8R, guitardood
It was written by Timmay :D
In the past, I used to go on Ghost Hunts. Yes, you read that right. But now its all heavily commercialized and genuine researchers are being forced out. Damn you "Most Haunted" and your cheque-book negotiation tactics; now placed don't allow access unless you wave a big cheque under the owner's nose!
My web domain.
I'll be hiding away in my apartment, hoping no kids come to show their costumes off, because I flat out can't afford candy for them.
On the flip side, at least this year I won't be *eating* a couple bags of candy (and gaining appropriate weight) because I didn't buy any. It seems the only time kids ever come to my door are the years I didn't buy anything.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Hang a sign over your front door that says "NSA Headquarters".
Fog: Either dry ice in water, or a fog machine.
Maybe a Plasma ball
Various chains have some potentially amusing decorations.
Some grocery chains are currently featuring what for most Americans would be exotic fruits, such as dragon fruit, Buddha's Hand, horned melons, rambutan, and others. A number of things you could do with those. If you eat them, make sure it's the right part. ;)
Maybe some Halloween Sound Effects
Remote controls - always handy.
Perhaps some party lights.
Remote speakers.
Have fun.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
THEN, i'll bring the Big Screen outside....just like an old Drive-in Movie.
everyone can watch the Scary Cardinals DESTROY all of Boston.
HEHEHEHE
I went to Oklacon 10 in Watonga, Oklahoma. 5 days, 4 nights of drinking, dancing, fires, costumes, and Cards Against Humanity. I went as Billy Bob Brockali of the Rock-afire Explosion. And, damnit, nobody who was there seems to have posted photos of me yet!
Furries make the internet go.
You used the word "loosing" correctly. May I bear your children?
Beats the lack of work.
Stupid kids and their hope.
Telling people to fuck off, cos its got nothing to do with Australian culture.
You want to stuff your kids faces full of candy? Fine, go right ahead. Just don't knock on my door demanding I add to your child's obesity problem.
I'm not a Halloween kind of guy and kids keep knocking on the damned door wanting candy, so I just take my notebook to the bar.
Free Martian Whores!
I'm going to turn the lights off, sit in the bushes with a gun, and blast the first motherfucker with an egg in his hand.
Trick or treaters can go get fucked
It's an annual thing.
Also hand out candy to kids, accompanied by my friendly hellhound, plus atmospheric music and lights.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
How about just putting up a sign that reads "NSA processing center"?
Should scare the bejabbers out of the adults. Or, being Aussie, maybe a sign that says "flyback processing centre"?
Turning off the lights and letting my big black dog bark all she wants at all the little mooches.
Ill be handing out candy to all the young boys and girls. It's the one time of year you don't get arrested for doing that.
--- Always remember. 99.36% of all statistics are inaccurate.
I simply don't answer the door.
In the UK, It's only kids (and their parents) who watch too much American crap on TV, who do it.
Personally, I despise this ridiculous 'holiday'. The last thing we need are more shipping containers, full of Chinese plastic crap arriving at Felixstowe - being imported and sold by the supermarkets - who are desperate to encourage a new yearly orgy of consumerism.
Modern Halloween is yet another bewildering American concept, borrowed from traditional European practices (mostly from Celtic Samhain, some early Pagan/Christian crossover, bits of Roman stuff), but distorted grotesquely by the lens of capitalistic greed.
Bonfire night is so much more fun - and I mean a proper bonfire. The fireworks are, and should be, a sideshow. A proper echo of Samhain etc. - the celebration of the end of harvest and the start of a risky, cold, non-productive season. There is something wonderful about a good bonfire on a crisp Autumn night.
Too much liability exposure having people come to the house, and even more in giving away food. God forbid little Johnny's mom is convinced he has a gluten or peanut allergy and decides to sue me to satisfy her Munchhausen's Proxy Syndrome when he gets nauseated after eating a mini Mr. Goodbar (not that eating 5lbs of candy in one night had anything to do with it).
feral little miscreant spawn - thank heavens for a 55+ community - nice and quiet without the screaming little ankle-biting yard monkeys and their insipid twit spoiled parents
Hallowe'en is my favorite holiday...
You sound like one of my wiccan girl friends (I was some how gifted with three without really trying). Boring. If there were a higher power it should be noted that it left the building millenia ago. Halloween, great if your a kid. A waste of time if your an adult with an ounce of brains.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Halloween has crept into New Zealand in the last few years, with a small percentage of families out trick or treating. However, there's no perceived meaning to it, and as far as I can tell it's just retailers pushing it as an excuse to sell more crap. To avoid dissapointing the few kids that are about, I lock the gate when I get home from work.
It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said.
Other than watch TV. I'm 24, I'm not about to go Trick-or-treating and there's no way I'm gonna waste my time, and money, going to some party for what is essentially just another day. Grow up.
Guising...... but not "trick or treat" (Hey, you gotta earn your treats!)
Are you Scottish or Irish? I'm Scottish, and that's what we called it when I was growing up and celebrating Hallowe'en (*) in the early 1980s.
:-)
While that's undeniably a long time ago now in some ways (i.e. 30 years, a generation or so)- it actually seems bizarrely recent when one considers that in the era of the A-Team and Knight Rider, of Reagan and Thatcher, we still called it guising (and felt obliged to perform some sort of routine), dressed up in home-made costumes and went around with lanterns made out of turnips, not pumpkins.
This wasn't done with the intent of being "traditional" and I was never aware of it seeming forced- that's still how it was then. I'd probably heard of "trick or treat", but would definitely have been aware of that as being an American (i.e. foreign) thing. Ditto pumpkin lanterns- I knew of the association, but while I wouldn't swear that I never saw a real one growing up, the things me and my friends trawled around the streets *were* mainly turnip based. (**) And there definitely wasn't the associated hype or paraphenalia in the shops.
I say "bizarrely recent" because while one could have imagined the traditional Scottish Hallowe'en remaining relatively pure into the era of my Mum's childhood (i.e. early 1950s, most people didn't have TV, US culture was less influential), for it to have survived into the heyday of VHS, home computers et al is sweet, but also quite strangely anachronistic. I'd say I was probably lucky to have experienced that- 15 or so years later, I think the US influence on Hallowe'en *did* start becoming very influential to the point that the idea of a child today having a turnip lantern would seem unusual (and probably get strange looks from his/her friends).
Strangely, despite the fact that Scottish culture became increasingly Anglicised (as part of the UK) during the 20th century, one thing I didn't realise when I was growing up was that guising wasn't a UK-wide thing, and the English really didn't celebrate Hallowe'en at all then. In fact, I only found this out recently, and ironically that was because they *do* now celebrate it... but they view the increasing prominence of Hallowe'en and its customs as an example of the influence of *American* culture!
Which, of course, it is- but the "American" Hallowe'en was brought there by Scottish and Irish immigrants, and still retains some (if not all) of its original celtic form. I honestly can't see them going around with turnips though.
And that *might* be why guising and turnips lasted as long as they did- in the UK, and especially in the 20th century, mass culture came to the "provinces" (*cough*) through the London-centric, Anglo-centric media, and they didn't care about Hallowe'en. So in a sense we were insulated from both the US influence and commercialism and kept our individuality a bit longer. Now we've lost it for a related reason- we're getting the American model via the same Anglo-centric media and retailers who don't have their own traditional Hallowe'en anyway so don't moderate it in the same way they would if they had their own tradition to defend.
I think I said a lot more than I was originally planning to there...
(*) I'm so used to the apostrophe-less form nowadays- probably another example of increasing American influence- I'd almost forgotten that this was a quite common spelling when I was a kid. Anyway, any Slashdotter that gets so annoyed by that spelling *deserves* to be annoyed, so "Hallowe'en" it is
(**) I mentioned this to my Dad recently, in a nostalgic way, and he complained about the amount of work it took to hollow out a turnip(!)
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Just got my head shaved, to go with my goatee and the kevlar jump suit and respirator. In other words I'll be going to work as Walter White.
This ended up scaring my own children a little more than intended.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWx48BG86xo
Sprint planning meeting with our China team. No candy for me.
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress
But I will still be :~( because of my recent grand(male delate/king/pa)'s death.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
NIN w/Gary Numan as the opening act are playing at the Amway Center in Orlando, FL.
See if you can top this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKFavAv1UO8
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
...for the existence of a Halloween-specific word that's the equivalent to Christmas' "bah humbug".
The best I've come up with so far is non-verbal: turn off the lights and ignore anyone knocking on the door or ringing the bell, but I like to use my words when I can.
We do not celebrate Halloween in my country, you insensitive clod.
Next up: Xmas!
Me? I just get drunk and write shit on slashdot like you lot.
LETS GET DRUNK! :D :D :D :D
Home made Spicy Pumpkin Soup, a bottle of Dark Rum and Edgar Allen Poe on Audio Book.
I don't speak Gaelic dialects, you see, so I don't see a reason in English to stick a seemingly-random apostrophe in the middle of the word.
Teal'c is not amused.
---
DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
Why, hanging stockings and singing carols, of course. Damned pagan festivals.
"and he complained about the amount of work it took to hollow out a turnip(!)"
Much easier to hollow out a pumpkin. IMHO it's the increasing supply of pumpkins carrying the US Halloween virus that brought the contagion to England.
This:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RHq0U91YQk
My Monster Shooting Range, featuring a number of robotic Halloween props, some fabricated from scratch (12' black hairy spider alert!), some bought from a store and made to move with a nifty $15 mechanism I came up with. All trigger automatically with light and sound, and you have to kill each monster using a laser tag gun that I hacked the targets for... The system runs off the new BeagleBone Black which for my money knocks the socks off RPi or Arduino. I am using relays to trigger the Try Me features on the props, DC motors, AC lights and sound, and the whole thing is wired with stranded CAT5. That's a lot of soldering! And I finished it with 15 hours to go before the kids start showing up... More video at http://youtube.com/user/psyclopz
Nick Donaldson mailto:psyclops@psyclops.com Bit Wrangler Extraordinaire! http://www.psyclops.com/
It's no mistake that Zombies and Halloween go hand in hand. What better way to spread the pathogen?
Much easier to hollow out a pumpkin.
Oh, I've no doubt that it is- but pumpkins (AFAIK) aren't grown in the UK and even in my childhood wouldn't have been anywhere near as readily available as they are today.
IMHO it's the increasing supply of pumpkins carrying the US Halloween virus that brought the contagion to England.
FWIW, I don't want to overstate the case that the English didn't do the guising/trick-or-treating and lanterns thing *at all*- it did apparently gain some limited popularity there during the 20th century, and I recall seeing an episode of "Bottom" in the mid-90s where the (adults) dressed up and went out "trick or treating" (I think they referred to it as).
But from what I understand it's only in very recent years that it's become a big thing there (*), and I'm pretty sure that *is* down to the influence of US culture (even if the origins of guising and lanterns are Scottish and Irish)- along with increasing commercialisation (i.e. excuse to fill in the sales gap before Christmas (**)). Unlike Christmas- which was already pretty commercialised when I was a kid (and is just obnoxiously more so now), Hallowe'en (in Scotland and the UK) has gone from very little commercialisation to its present state in a generation.
The lack of commercialisation until very recently might also explain why- unlike Christmas- the more traditional aspects survived homogeneity longer.
(*) The English more traditionally celebrated Guy Fawke's Night- in early November (complete with the bonfire and fireworks) and some apparently consider Hallowe'en to be a US usurper having displaced their traditional festival. When I was a kid (i.e. in Scotland) we celebrated *both* growing up- seemed fine to me; both had different things, and the bonfire and fireworks were just as much fine but different enough to keep the two separate. Of course, that was the 80s- I don't know if it was as big a deal in previous generations. I do know that- e.g.- Christmas, which was already established as the main winter event in Scotland long before the 80s- wasn't traditionally as important as New Year here, and even in my Mum's childhood that was still the case to some extent. I'd say *that* was more Anglicisation of Scottish culture than US influence, though.
(**) Shops *love* their big event festivals as an excuse to sell rubbish. I was in Tesco last Hogmanay (i.e. New Year's Eve, a week after Christmas) and I noticed they had bloody *Easter* stuff on the shelves already!!!
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Nothing. As far as I'm concerned, no-one over the age of about 11 has any business celebrating Hallowe'en (except parents of young children). So as a proud non-parent, I plan to stay at home and be glad I live in a gated block. But just in case somebody decides to buzz the gate for obnoxious kids, I shall avoid answering the door.
I like to get drunk and pretend I'm not a zombie.
I felt bad for the man who had no signature, until I met a man who had no comment.
play Team Fortress 2 Halloween special all week long :))
Orange or Green food coloring and This!!!
(**) I mentioned this to my Dad recently, in a nostalgic way, and he complained about the amount of work it took to hollow out a turnip(!)
I've heard that Halloween has even made some inroads in France lately*. Imagine hollowing out a mimolette!
*My reliable source is: "some guy I talked to on vacation".
I am not a crackpot.
I got married on Halloween so I'll be spending a quiet evening with my wife between bouts of handing out candy. It's tough to have a special day on a major holiday because you're always busy, but we knew that going in (Halloween is her favorite holiday). Still, we get to do some interesting stuff on our anniversary because it's Halloween.
I live in Pittsburgh, PA in the city proper and we have a very robust Halloween celebration here. Lots of haunted farms, hayrides, scare houses in the area. My neighborhood does trick or treating like pretty much everywhere in the city and suburbs. My wife and I are dressing up, we've got a big party space with friends and neighbors coming, lots of candy and decorations. The weather's going to be warm for the year and if it stays dry we'll light the fire pit out the back later in the evening.
Here in the UK halloween , and specifically Trick or Treat is little more than door to door begging. If you are lucky you might open the door to a hoodie instead of someone wearing a bin liner. No one in the UK bakes cookies or spends time organising the community like in America where the event is done properly. For this reason and not wanting to get my head kicked in by yobs at the front door I will just "be away from home". Camerons Britain - where at halloween local shops displaying signs noting that "eggs and flour will not be sold to persons under the age of 18"
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
I'll be dressing up as the Doctor.... Ok, I'm already dressed as the Doctor even though I'm at work.
Most of my costume includes pieces that I either bought (red suspenders) or already owned. However, the bow tie and fez I hand sewed myself. (Not high tech, I know. If I call it "old school" does that make it sound cool?)
After I get off work, I'll be taking my kids trick or treating and then it's back to the everyday tasks of making and serving dinner, getting the kids to do their homework, and getting the kids in bed. Of course, I'll keep my Doctor outfit on (including the bow tie and fez because they're cool) to greet any trick or treaters (who will no doubt have no clue as to who I am).
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Running Headless Horseman event ONE MORE TIME on every character eligible, then weeping inconsolably and raiding the kids' candy buckets when I don't get the Horse of the Headless Horseman mount in spite of over 50 attempts. Because World of Warcraft is fun!
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
you insensitive clod! Have some respect for the pagans and stop ringing their doorbells on a religious holiday.
Reformation Day.
I'll probably play Planetside 2 and watch a scary movie.
Don't stereotype all of us south of the border in the same way. Hallowe'en seems pretty irrelevant where I live in west London. Having lived in the US and Canada from the age of 19 to 35, coming home I was astounded at how big Guy Fawkes Night is, with my re-introduction being a massive mid-week gathering on Clapham Common for fireworks and then a late on the beers. Maybe there is some interest in Hallowe'en in middle class child-rich suburbia, but it's nothing compared with N. America or the traditional British/English events. Quite frankly I'm looking forward to the anarchy, pyromania and chaos of the annual blood-thirsty torching of Guy Fawkes. Hallowe'en OTOH just seems childish, as seemingly do the adults that partake in it. Thank f*** there's nobody at the office today in a stupid costume: I didn't have to be rude.
This was from last year, the beginning/end of this demo video:
http://vimeo.com/53309957
has a floating skull that uses 4 different animation systems simultaneously. The skull's mouth movement and facial expressions are animated using audio data.
I had Don't Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult playing.
This is for TCS, a game engine built for controlling electronics (ship computers/interactive touchscreen interfaces for superhero lairs/awesome halloween home automation systems):
http://hyperplaneinteractive.com/blog
https://facebook.com/hyperplaneinteractive
Don't stereotype all of us south of the border in the same way. Hallowe'en seems pretty irrelevant where I live in west London.
I'm not sure why you're complaining about stereotyping- my comment was essentially that "until recently the English didn't really celebrate or care about Hallowe'en that much"... and your second sentence (and the rest of your comment) seems to back this up rather than contradicting it!
:-)
It's true that the "adults dressing up for Hallowe'en" thing seems to be more an American thing (or at least one would get that impression from watching US shows, which isn't always an accurate representation of reality). Even in 80s Scotland, adult involvement was mainly in making costumes for the kids and/or humouring their guising routines and giving them candy^w sweets or money.
Even nowadays, the more US-style Hallowe'en culture commercialised by UK businesses seems to be targeted mainly at children. It's still not really a big adult thing here, either in Scotland or England.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Perhaps I read too much in to your "until recently" and too far between the lines. Anyway, it's good to remember the old days, but I'm sure another 20 years culture will have changed even further and more rapidly!
Including this as much for my own reference, but I spoke to two people at work today; one was 32 (i.e. 5 or 6 years younger than me, probably guising in the late 80s/early 90s), the other was 21 (i.e. late 90s/early-00s). The 32-year-old shared my experience of turnip lanterns- the 21-year old did not, had a pumpkin and didn't relate to the turnip thing at all. So I'd say I was roughly correct when I pinpointed the 90s as when things changed- and within a relatively short period of time too, it seems.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I hype your kids up on sugar and caffeeine for days.
Cracking tales there!
I never thought of guising as being "tradition" - it was just something you did. And getting sparklers for Bonfire Night too!
When the sun rises about 8am, and sets around 4pm, then I suppose that makes for a lot of winter festivals to pass the time...
"She's furniture with a pulse"
I never thought of guising as being "tradition" - it was just something you did.
Well, to be fair, neither did I at the time- quite the opposite. As you say, it was "just something you did". That's why I mentioned in my original post that it wasn't something that was really "forced".
It's only in recent years, after I realised that something which I did as a kid- and which even lasted some time after that, little over 20 years ago- seems like something from a long past age. That would be understandable if it was a technological change, but it's not. (Though maybe the US influence was increased via greater penetration of the Internet?)
When the sun rises about 8am, and sets around 4pm, then I suppose that makes for a lot of winter festivals to pass the time...
Sad thing is I used to think winter, with its snow and dark evenings, was cool as a kid. (When I was in early school and had to go to bed not long after 7PM(!!), I *hated* going to sleep in summer with the sun brightly shining against the light curtains- ugh.)
Nowadays I don't like snow- it's not too bad when it's fresh, but a PITA when it turns to slush- or worse, isn't cleared and gets compressed and re-frozen into solid ice.
But as an adult, I find- as you say- the problem with winter, which has grown more obvious to me as I get older, is the lack of daylight. I'm not an especially "hot weather" person or into very bright sun, and never have been, but I do like having daylight well into the evening, or even just during the bloody daytime. As you say, in December and early January, the sun sets around (or before!) 4PM and my tolerance for that has gone right down.
Dammit, I'm really sounding old and grumpy now. >:-(
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