Stuff for Halloween

[altivo]

OK, so I've decided on the Red Knight from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. In Sir John Tenniel's illustrations, the red and white knights wore helmets that looked like horse heads. I just happen to have a (plush) hat that I made three years ago that looks like a horse head and is red with a white blaze and black mane. The knights carried clubs (in Alice's verbal description) or maces (in the illustration) and the rules of engagement according to Alice seemed to be that they took turns hitting each other, and after each stroke both must fall off their horses. Then they would climb back on and strike again.

I have my horsehead staff to serve as a club, and can dress almost entirely in red. That will have to do.

Other staff members are coming as Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter books, Daisy from The Great Gatsby, a Yupiq eskimo from a children's picture book with which I'm not familiar, and as Laura Ingalls Wilder from Little House on the Prairie. I guess we're having our picture taken together, each holding the book from which he or she comes, and it will be made into one of those "READ!" posters.

Got the web browser (a port of Mozilla) and PDF document viewer (Ghostscript based) installed onto OpenVMS. It's starting to resemble a working system, though I'm still fishing on Ebay for a suitable graphics card. At present I'm running client programs on OpenVMS but making them display on a Linux terminal. That could be workable long term except that without a graphics card to connect a monitor, switching the boot on the Alpha between Linux and OpenVMS requires connecting a terminal emulation program to the serial port via a null modem cable. I've been using my Amiga 3000 to do that, since it's conveniently located. But the need to boot up the Amiga in order to boot the Alpha, while amusingly similar to the way in which supercomputers like Crays were operated, is just a d*mned nuisance. With a graphics card, keyboard, and mouse connected directly to the Alpha, boot commands (and debugging) can be run directly on the machine itself.

Comments

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

I guess Hallyween is just lost on us in Australia, although it seems to be gaining a foothold in a couple places in Asia :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think the weirdness of Halloween is mostly a US thing. And like many "holidays" in the US (though this one is never a holiday in the sense that businesses close down or the mail stops) it is largely driven by commercial interests that have mesmerized children into perpetuating it. The goal is to sell huge quantities of cheap candy and poorly made "costumes".

In other countries that don't have the powerful Calvinist/Puritan influence we still suffer from here, there are celebrations too. Mexico has Dia de los Muertos for instance. But they are connected with religious festivals in some way, and not the bizarre and isolated commercial holiday found in the US.

If you don't have it in Australia, you're not missing much, though it is fun to have an excuse for just dressing silly.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

That Calvinist/Puritan influence is what makes the existance of Halloween even more strange :) Although I know it originally derived from a harvest festival ...didn't it?

Dia de los Muertos is similar in a way to Japanese O'Bon :) Honouring the dead. I may have mentioned that in my blog awhile ago.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The American Halloween (Hallow E'en) comes from "All Hallows Eve" or the night before the feast day of All Saints in the Anglican and Catholic churches. It is supposed to be the night when restless and presumably evil spirits roam the earth. It is also associated vaguely with the pagan cross-quarter day of Samhain, a witches' sabbath. I believe the latter is a harvest festival, yes, and also celebrates the time when the god takes over supremacy from the goddess and begins to lead the wild hunt.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Hooray at least I knew the All hallows eve bit.

It has a pretty rich theological history to it, it seems :)
I do wonder how the Jack-o-lantern evolved though.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Someone decided it was too much trouble to make pumpkin pie so they wasted the pumpkin by chopping holes in it. ;p

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Strange, Jackolanterns look like a lot of work too :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Some of them are works of art. No question about that. Most are not, though.

[typographer.livejournal.com]

In Ireland the turnip carving tradition goes back to at least the 15th century, and that seems to be where the pumpkin carving came from.

Also, since English Reformation documents (16th Century) include proclamations banning several All Hallows Eve practices, including the tradition of going door to door singing for cakes, I don't think you can really blame it on the American Candy Industry.

:P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I can still blame what it has become on the American candy industry, just as I blame the commercial nature of Christmas celebration on the merchants. It takes many years of hard sell promotion, but they have essentially created several holidays: Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day; and reshaped others in a more marketable image: Easter, Christmas, and Halloween.

[typographer.livejournal.com]

I won't debate the underlying issue, but I have to point out that Valentine's Day has also been around--as a traditional day for people to renew their pledges of love--for centuries (declared a Saint's Feast in the year 498, and nearly a thousand years later [1415] referred to in a letter from the imprisoned Duke of Orleans to his wife on that date lamenting the fact that he couldn't pledge his devotion to her in person on the traditional day for doing so). And Mother's Day was created by a woman with a lot of unresolved guilt about her relationship with her own mother in the late 19th Century. I'm not saying that necessarily makes it any better, but...

Let me repeat, I'm not debating your opinion, just pointing a few facts.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

And I'm not denying that there was an underlying observance. But the commercial interests are the ones who blew it up into a huge money-making thing that literally lost sight of the original kernel.

This horse happens to like dragons :P

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

American tradition casts a decidely unpleasent view on anything not obligatory Christian- and spirits not conform to Christ definitly fit that... just as gays fit not conforming to their male/female/"be fruitful & multiply" attitude.... I'm often reminded of dragons- who in the Orient, are symbols of strength and nobility- but in this land of backward fearmongers- they are the opposite in this culture. Gawd, sometimes our ancestry & tradition really annoys me :/

Re: This horse happens to like dragons :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The scary dragon who steals cattle and sheep and destroys farmsteads and villages is a European idea, probably of Teutonic/Norse origin I think. He isn't a Christian thing either, and therefore the Christian culture painted him as even more terrible and wicked. Like the snakes that Ireland never had, England's dragons were supposedly all killed or banished by a saint. It's an allegorical story representing the Christian Anglo-Saxons driving the Danes out of England, in theory. The Vikings put dragons on the prow of their ships, and I think the English legends about dragons are really about Scandinavian raiders.

Re: This horse happens to like dragons :P

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that about figures... like how most Godzilla movies are about how bad we Americans are, according to the Japanese >_>

[schnee.livejournal.com]

switching the boot on the Alpha between Linux and OpenVMS requires connecting a terminal emulation program to the serial port via a null modem cable. I've been using my Amiga 3000 to do that, since it's conveniently located.

That's rather cool, actually. :) Although I can see why it would get annoying after a while, too, yes...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The Amiga doesn't take that long to boot up, actually. But getting to where you can communicate with the Alpha involves a repetitive series of timewasting click-and-wait steps. I agree that using an Amiga for this rather than a more modern machine is kinda cool in a rather perverted way. Hmm. Maybe I should use a TRS-80 instead. I have two good working ones. Or even better, that CP/M based "portable" LCD computer...

[schnee.livejournal.com]

MMmm. You do seem to have quite a collection... ^^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We rarely discard stuff that still works. Though when we moved from the city to the farm I did dump about a dozen ASCII terminals (Televideo clones) and a truckload of S-100 bus equipment (Compupro 8/16s). That hurt, but we had no more room and no one wanted it. They were office salvage, obtained for free on the terms that we had to take all of it if we took any. The original cost of that stuff during the 1980s was probably a quarter of a million dollars, but it had long been depreciated for tax purposes and was considered totally obsolete. It worked. I had some of it set up and running a dialup BBS for a while, and three nodes connected via ARCnet. (ARCnet is really weird, not recommended.)

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* Mmm, ARCnet... I vaguely recall that (i.e., I vaguely recall having heard about it; I never used it myself, of course).

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Coax cables and star hubs. ;p Only 255 nodes permitted on a network. Linking additional subnets requires special routers that do address translation. I'd like to say it was cheap and simple, but it was anything but that.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* It's really hard to imagine nowadays that there ever used to be many different competing network architectures like that. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh we still have plenty of competing hardware architectures. Most of them seem to be wireless now, but good old ethernet itself has branched and divided into several incompatible forms. Then there's the token ring, which still seems to be hanging on.

ARCnet was popular with schools for setting up computer labs. I think it is soundly dead now. The cabling requirements for a multiple room office building are as bad as an IBM mainframe. Well, almost.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

Token ring's still being used? Wow. Anyhow, yeah - wireless is another matter, and an area I didn't think of. There's also still other cable-bound[1] network architectures like FDDI, of course, but if you want to build a regular LAN these days without resorting to wifi, you'll never use anything but Ethernet.

1. What is the opposite of "wireless", BTW? "wireful" sounds a bit strange to me... c.c

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'd use "wired" or "cabled" for the conventional non-wireless network.

In my experience and from many of the complaints I hear, wireless has a long way to go before it's as reliable and stable as the real cable connection. I understand the appeal to laptop users, but then I hear them bitching all the time about how flaky their connection is.

I don't know if new token ring installations are being made, but there are plenty still in use, yes. It's an IBM thing.

[schnee.livejournal.com]

*noddles* Yeah, wifi seems to be a technology that's still in its infancy. I don't use any wireless networking myself, but an acquaintance of mine who I've helped out with computer-related problems a few times does (she's got a laptop in addition to her desktop and uses a wireless router to share the internet connection), and she mentioned that it's rather unreliable at times, apparently - somehow, for some reason - failing to connect to the wireless network. It seems to happen frequently, but never for more than a couple of seconds, so it's not a big deal for her, but I know that if I had that problem, it'd drive me crazy. :P

[shadow-stallion.livejournal.com]

*blinks* TRS-80's? o.O *shudders* That brings back images of High School. Those were the pc's of the day when I was in school. I can't believe any of them are still in existence...AND...working.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There were Trash-80s and Better-80s. The earliest ones were pretty darned awful. The two I have here are about the last model Radio Shack produced, and therefore much better designed and made. These are model 4P, the portable Z-80 based computer that ran half a dozen different operating systems and had a "ROM image" that could be loaded from disk to emulate the older TRS-80 models. In fact, I once wrote an alternative ROM image file for them to make them do things never intended by the designers. It worked. They were built from industry standard parts and had metal shielding. Quite sturdy, though at 20 pounds they were definitely NOT laptops. And yes, they still work just fine. Never had a serious hardware issue with either of them, though the rickety external hard drive unit made by Radio Shack is kind of flaky.

Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Good choice, methinks... I always wanted to be the Jabberwocky myself *grins*, but those knights are SO you :)

Re: Jabberwocky

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You just can't resist a good vorpal blade.

Remember, though, that the Jabberwock came to a bad end:

One and two, and through and through,
His vorpal blade went snicker snack.
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy.
Oh frabjous day, callooh, callay,
He chortled in his joy.

Re: Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I think chopping off anything's head would kill it, so I don't see that as anything special :P But if you're implying I can't resist a "good sword", I'm inclined to agreed ;) from the tip to the hilt- my, I'm in a pleasent frame of my today :P

"Come to my arms, my beamish boy"

O_o Wow... more than a little suggestive; I didn't realize Lewis Caroll was into that kind of thing...

BTW- ever seen that 1981 movie, "Dragonslayer"? To this day, I think it's the best dragon movie ever :)

Re: Jabberwocky

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No, I don't think I've ever seen Dragonslayer, though I do remember the posters advertising it.

As for Lewis Carroll, some people accused him of all sorts of things, and especially when it came to children. He was a mathematics professor and a photographer, and his writing was just a side amusement. The photography aspect has sometimes generated a few raised eyebrows, but I don't think proof of anything inappropriate has ever been unearthed.

Re: Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

It's a good movie, and does a relatively good job depicting characters that act fairly realistically. The ending- which felt a bit tacked on in my opinion- is a bit too "happily ever after", but it really doesn't ruin the story or interfere with any of the story's climax. There's even sympathy for the dragon, as it is portrayed as an aging creature, in pain as its body ages and possibly even going senile, in dragon terms. A very impressive looking creature, and it gets some very nice scenes of its own. The sorcerer is downright cool, and while his apprentice- who's a little naive and perhaps a bit hesistant at times- is an acceptable lead character... oh, and one of the guys who played one of the older Doctors from the earlier Dr. Who series plays a real bully of a knight- nothing like your Halloween character at all, I'm sure ;) In short, I'd recommend it, and I wouldn't recommend too many movies to a bookhorse like yourself :P

Re: Jabberwocky

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*hmms at the hunky user icon*

I think I have the book adaptation lying around somewhere, but never managed to get through it. You're right, I rarely watch films and when I do I usually go for animations that were written for film, like last year's Wallace and Grommit film, The Curse of the Were Rabbit. I really hate what they do when they try to make a film out of a classic book, like The Lord of the Rings or even Harry Potter. I believe Dragonslayer was written for film though, so it might not be too bad in that respect.

Re: Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

*strikes a pose and snickers* My ex sent me that, I think sometimes he views that way when we're both chatting happily online- yeah, there's still love there after 4 years of all sorts of odd things... but we really aren't together anymore, just close friends who every once in awhile get close physically- I guess I look like that *blushes* I am pretty lean and have a muscular frame like Kazuma- especially while I was in Pensacola- but I think my shoulders may be a bit broader. I think the personality fits better, despite my seemingly quiet nature to those who just see me standing alone, observing things- I'm a scrapper at heart, and that's mostly why I'm such a position in life, because I refuse to act as others would like. Funny thing, When my ex and I first looked at this picture, he misinterpreted it as pure beefcake anime shot, but I told him I felt it represented the inner beauty of a strongly indivdualistic spirit of maledom that is closer to the true masculine ideal rather than the brutally violent, border-line suicidal masculinity that our parents generation was plagued by... and Kazuma is often misinterpreted as a dumb tough who just likes to, as his rival Ryuhou puts it, "show off his power".

Like I said, if you give it a chance, you may just like the movie... it's pretty decent. I know that taking someone's word is like a small show of trust, so I wouldn't dream of leading you astray :) I've seen a lot of movies in my life, and I like to believe I have a reasonably decerning eye for them. You could give me another chance to test that belief *smiles and looks at gloved hand as I curled it into a tight fist* Confidence is built on strength of character, and all strength comes from learning/recovering/healing from experience. I suppose that will always be my greastest strength, no matter how big I train my muscles to be >_>

Re: Jabberwocky

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I gave up on anime. They just don't work for me. I don't understand them, I can't get into the cultural mindset to appreciate them, and generally the plots or storylines seem totally disconnected and irrational to me.

Re: Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand... I was referring to the Dragonslayer movie, not s-CRY-ed. No, I don't think I could get you to 'appreciate' anime without treating you like Alex from Clockwork Orange and making you sit straightjacketed to a seat with your eyes pried open :P Besides, that's why I explained it to you, so you would have to bother in the first place *bows* you're welcome.

(I grew up on Godzilla movies and was always fascinated with Japanese culture- I even took Japanese language courses in high school- but I acknoweledge it's very different from Western culture and leaves some people downright perplexed)

Re: Jabberwocky

[altivo.livejournal.com]

OK, I misread that and thought you wanted me to watch more anime. No, please, anything but that. The constant depressed, dark, nothing can ever be right viewpoint they take just makes me want to scream.

Re: Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

LOL *falls out of chair laughing* I... *gasps for breath* ...always felt... *sides ache from laughing so hard* ...that it was to imply the hopelessness of a world where an emotional, yet unenlightened mind tries to deal with the burden of an existence without a god security blanket- as most of Japan is basically non-religious. *shrugs* but yeah, that's the general misconception of it all... and yes, i know it's just my opinion, not the "right answer" :P

If you ever want to cheer me up, please describe more of what you view anime to be- that was a real kick :)

Re: Jabberwocky

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Ever read Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark"?

Re: Snarks and Boojums

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. In fact, I consider that one to be the very best of his work.

Re: Snarks and Boojums

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

*nods in agreement*

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Just don't scare the kids too much!

*imagines you with a costume* @.@

As for the Alpha/Amiga/Linux thing...

Oh just get Vista.

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Vista? Not a chance, ever. I use Windows 2000 or XP when forced to do so, but not on my own equipment.

Costumes are one of my interests. I even did a stint as a costume designer for a theatre group.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*imagines you in a costume*

"I Am the Alpha and the Amiga!!!"

No, never mind.

XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*bashes you with horse-head staff and promptly falls off his hobbyhorse*

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*gets the giggles*

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*staggers, rightly chastised, but gets you
a cold compress and some aspirin*