Weekend Odds and Ends

More odds and ends…

• Last week I dealt with a snarky IT contractor regarding an issue with a training database. I’ve been complaining about an issue with him for over two weeks, even going as far as sending him screen shots of the issues and the error messages. I’ve done this sort of help desk thing before and I know it’s usually helpful. He finally IM’d me and I described what happened (again). He tells me that I need to update “A” and then “B.” Having used and trained others on this system for 18 years, I explain to him that “A” and “B” are updated on the same screen, which causes an error when put in an update mode. He then quotes me some stupid Zen something or other, followed by a snide comment. That’s the issue with these contractors, they really don’t know the system they’re supposed to be supporting. I’m sure I’ll be dealing with him again this week.



• My phone call with Mom yesterday was less than fun. Her fascination with NASCAR continues and she always tells me the “racin’” is coming on. When I tell her in a flat, monotone “… great…,” she responds fully-knowing that I couldn’t give two $#!+$ for it. Then she proceeds to talk to me about it for ten minutes, about Richard Petty and how he won some stupid race 40 years ago and his nephew won the same race on the very day Richard Petty retired some 40 years ago and how Richard Petty’s wife passed away but he was still a great racer and how these new kids have no idea what it’s like to race like that… blah… blah… blah… She broke stride just long enough to tell me that my sister and brother-in-law were traveling to Atlanta to see his grandson who turns two and she hopes that they won’t leave him in the car in the hot sun, as people have been doing that and their kids are dying. She’s a bucket of laughs, my mom.



• I saw a fun horror movie yesterday called “Kiss of the Tarantula.” An early 1970-something flick about a young woman who has a fascination with spiders. Her father runs a funeral home and when some high school thugs break in to steal a coffin on Hallowe’en, one of them kills one of her pet tarantulas while threatening her. She then uses the spiders to get revenge on the high school jerks, such as setting them loose in their car when they’re on a double-date at a drive-in. What’s unusual (and somewhat humorous) about it is that these people end up killing themselves essentially out of panic over the spiders. In trying to kick and fight their way out of the car to escape, they basically tear themselves apart. Now I don’t have a huge fear of spiders, but I know others do, so it’s not so far fetched.



• Okay, it’s Monday again… yay… Hope it’s a good one for everyone, or at least not a bad one.

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The Howling (1981)

Tonight, I settled in after my workout and dinner to do some inking of some comic pages. I looked through my DVD's for a movie to watch. I selected The Howling (1981).

I remember watching the movie when I was a kid and I remember it being thrilling. As an adult, I admit that the movie has aged a bit, but it's still a pretty good movie and story. A news reporter (Dee Wallace) is nearly killed by a serial killer while working on a story. Rattled and suffering from post-traumatic stress, she agrees to go to a psychiatrist's compound called "The Colony" to recover. While there, she starts to realize that something is very wrong as there are werewolves running about the Colony.

The movie has quite a list of stars -- Christopher Stone, Patrick MacNee, Slim Pickens, and John Carradine. It's been a long time since I've watched the movie, so what I didn't realize was the future stars who were in the movie. The late Meshach Taylor was there as a police detective and Robert Picardo, the actor who is best known as the holographic Doctor from "Star Trek: Voyager," plays serial killer/werewolf Eddie Quist. It was fun to see them both young and in early roles.

It was nice to see Christopher Stone in his prime and showing off his body, so it hits many fun points for me. The special effects were especially impressive, especially for the time. The were done by then 21-year-old Rob Bottin (left), who could have very easily passed for a werewolf himself, with that hair, beard, and chest fur.

It definitely made for a good choice tonight.