Stephen King really sucks

So for the past few weeks, I've been seeing ads for "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King." Supposedly an epic miniseries event with some big name actors and freaky stories. Last night, I was flipping channels and came across this series. The verdict; it really sucks, isn't scarry, drags on too long, and in general, is just a big waste of time.

I caught bits and pieces of an episode Nightmares and Dreamscapes involving some guy being attacked by toy soldiers and fighting them off. Cross between the children's movie and Jay Mohr pile of dung film called "Small Soldiers," and an episode of the Twilight Zone. Stupid and pointless, with a miniature nuclear bomb going off at the end. Fails to scare or even unnearve.

The second episode was truly an hour of my life that I could have better spent staring at my forearms. It was titled "Crouch End," about a newly married couple honeymooning in London, to be invited to one of the husband's associate's house for dinner. But the place they're supposed to go is in a bit of a shady neighborhood, with crossings between dimensions or some crap like that. Completely idiotic. Worse yet, the acting and character development was horrible, with the characters way too cliche and predictable. The plot also reaked of crappiness. Overall, I came to the conclusion that as a horror writer, Stephen King, despite his reputation, completely and utterly sucks. His one saving grace is the fact that he wrote the short story "The Shawshank Redemption," which was turned into a movie I really liked.

I'm a fan of horror movies and shows. The problem is that today, very few movies are truly scarry. Most of them try to be gory, or rely too much on building up tension only to disappoint at the climax. (Which is why I think M. Night Shaymalan also sucks royally. Sorry if you liked the Sixth Sense, I thought it blew). Stephen King's movies fail to scare.

Although I did like the Stanley Kubrick version of the Shining, from what I hear, it's very different from King's original version. During the filming, King reportedly walked off the set. They made a tv miniseries version of the Shining, more true to the book some years back, which I can easily say, sucked completely.

I remember when I was young, I enjoyed some horror movies. One of the few that truly scared me was "Candyman." The rest were just crappy gorefests. I'm hoping one day hollywood will produce a good horror director or writer, because honestly, the only scarry thing coming out of hollywood right now is the idea that M. Night Shay-whateverhisnameis-man and Stephen King are actually quality movie makers.

Random Thoughts and Ramblings

It's been a while since I've updated this thing. For some reason, I just havn't felt like writing. But on the overall, things are pretty decent this summer. Working at the Fed has been awsome. I've never worked anywhere before where people are genuinely happy with what they do. I have yet to come across anyone who complains about working here. I only wish in the future sometime I'd be able to work somewhere like this.

So I learned some really random crap lately. People always teased me for knowing all sorts of trivial stuff that is of no consequence to anyone... but fun to know nonetheless. Here's some stuff:

The word "salary." It comes from the same root word as 'salt,' the latin word salarium. Back in the Roman days, soldiers were sometimes paid using salt as a medium of exchange, thus the word salary.

The south is known as dixie quite often. Nobody knows for sure why, but one theory is that way back before we had a national currency, each state had its own bank notes and bank laws. Louisiana had particularly strong bank laws and a stable currency, and one of the most common notes was the Louisiana $10 note. Since it has the french history, the note has the French word for ten, or "dix," printed on the back. They were so common here they contributed to this place being called the land of 'dixie.' That's according to the Fed money museum downstairs.

Lastly, "I heard it through the grapevine." Strange Marvin Gaye song and California Raisins cover. Also a term about gossip. It stems from the civil war. In NY, in what is today a part of Chinatown, near Chatham Square, there was a tavern known as the 'Grapevine," which was a popular spot for Union Officers to go drink. It was also a popular place for journalists and Confederate spies. Everyone knew that they were being spied on and whatnot, so many rumors originated there. Thus the term, "I heard it through the Grapevine."

Completely unrelated to anything, I've now been living in my apartment for more than a year. I remember living there last summer, wasting away. Now this summer I'm still wasting away, but undertaking some home improvement projects while I'm at it. But this summer I've noticed how strange some of the people in my building truly are. For one thing, there is a woman who lives there who has a beagle. Cute looking dog at first glance, until you realize this dog is completely psychotic. Makes these weird hacking noises and aggressively barks and antagonizes anyone it comes across. I want to kick that dog sometimes.

Secondly, the children in my building are really obnoxious. See previous post "Little Kid Lost." There's an Asian family in my building with a kid who is about 5 or 6 years old. In the elevator last week, I accidently hit both the ground and lobby buttons while alone. As the elevator stopped on another floor and this family got in, the kid went over to the button panel, gave me a really dirty look, and said, "Why'd you press boooooooooooooth?" I want to kick that kid sometimes.