If you've looked at my 88 in 888 list, which I hope you have, then you may recall #18, Get an object to bring with me on travel to take pictures of.  It's certainly not an original idea.  I saw one guy at Machu Picchu taking pictures with a little stuffed Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  My girlfriend has a stuffed monkey that always travels with her for pictures.  It's just a fun little activity to do while you are seeing new things.  Whenever we travel, we all like to show off our pictures.  Well, it's never as exciting for those who weren't there with you when you took the picture.  I find it amusing when I see pictures with little travel companions.  It is with this intention that I am looking to have a little buddy of my own.

I would like to post some candidates on here and have people vote for their favorite.  I want this to be an interactive blog afterall.  Just leave a comment with your favorite from the below candidates.  I've grabbed some options that were lying around the house.  If you don't really like the current choices, just pick one and hang on for more to come.  Here is the first head to head match-up of Round 1...

I also want to offer some of the stickers that I created.  If you would like any free stickers, please let me know.  I have some prototypes for the personal stickers, and there are also extra Zissou stickers from the Vegas trip if anyone wants some.  The below logos are JUMP! designs I currently have available.  The stickers will be round, not rectangular.

This is a long blog entry.  I've got a lot to talk about that I've accomplished from the 88 in 888.  I need to start putting in more smaller entries.  Oh well, hopefully you can make it through this one...

It's now the end of a hectic Halloween weekend.  I didn't really do much, but there was still plenty going on.  I decided since it is Halloween that I wanted to watch some scary movies.  As an adult, Halloween has been more about parties than anything else.  So this year, partially due to how tired I am because of my busy schedule, I made my decision to only attend one party over the weekend.  This made room for two nights of movies.

The first was on Friday night, when I watched The Thing with a friend of mine.  It has always been a personal favorite of mine and he had never seen it.  If you haven't seen it, it's a remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World.  This 1982 version was directed by John Carpenter, who is responsible for other greats like the Halloween series, The Fog, Escape from NY/LA and Big Trouble in Little China.  The Thing is about a research team stationed in Antarctica that gets infiltrated by a copycat alien.  The creature can mimic it's victims and take their form perfectly.  With factors like isolation from the outside world and not knowing who is the enemy, there are some terrifying elements to this film.  The special effects used to create the creature at various times and stages of mutation were unique at the time.  In a time of CGI, I believe the effects in this movie are still effective.

 #39...1/10.  Host a movie night at my place at least ten times

On Halloween I hosted a movie night the attendees won't soon forget.  We didn't do any special themes like I sometimes enjoy, but instead just watched an outrageously original movie.  The film is Hausu, or House, a Japanese film released in 1977.  The film only recently showed itself in the United States and was just released for the first time on DVD and Blu Ray on October 26, 2010 (last week).

I first saw House at the Guild, a little independent theater in Albuquerque.  They show a lot of independent, foreign and unusual films.  It's really hard to describe House.  The story is about seven schoolgirls who go to stay with one of the girls' Aunt for a vacation.  What they don't know is that the Aunt is actually a monster that eats young girls, which makes her stronger.  That is about the only thing straight forward that can be said.  Everything else about the movie is so far out and wacky that you just have to see it to believe it.  It is described as "fantasy horror," but it is nothing like a traditional horror film.  Every camera trick imaginable is used for a series of crazy effects.  The girls are named based on their personality traits (Gorgeous, Sweet, Fantasy, Melody, Kung Fu, Prof and Mac).  There are dancing skeletons, furniture that eats people and a cat that seems to be responsible for everything.  The film itself might not make a lot of sense, but it is great fun.  If you appreciate original cinema (as opposed to all of the remakes and reimaginings and sequels these days), then do yourself a favor and experience House.

#4...1/3.  Animate three Lumkins cartoons

The Lumkins is an orignal comic strip written by my good friend Matthew Kelly.  I have been telling him I'd like to animate them as a little side project, and I have pretty much completed the first one.  I have asked him to provide a score, and I will probably add a short title sequence and credits.  For now I just want to share the animation.  The Lumkins are aliens who have come to Earth in search of butter.  Their mannerisms and understanding of life around them is very child like.  Below is my first Lumkins animation, based on the comic strip Lumkins #3.

A couple weekends ago I went down to San Antonio to visit my girlfriend for the weekend.  We had the weekend packed pretty tight, first going to Austin on Saturday for the University of Texas vs Iowa State football game.  It was my first college football game and I had a good time.  The game wasn't too exciting and UT lost the game, but the stadium is impressive (especially for someone who went to a Division III school).  There were over 100,000 in attendance! 

Oh, and in case you were wondering about Halloween, I went as Nitro (with my partner Admiral Spaceship) from the SNL skit Laser Cats!