Big Fun for the Halloween Holiday! Presenting my annual Halloween collection...http://www.catay.com/cat/halloween2001/. A bit later than usual, but *aaack* work has been nutz! Have more treats than tricks!!

• Joy Ride-- Oh, my gawd, what a fabulous suspense movie. Unnerving, spooky complemented with well oiled performances. If you're looking for a movie that will scare ya on Halloween...go to this one! A
• K-Pax-- It's sweet and inspirational, but not overwhelmingly so. I think I was supposed to be crying at times, but it just didn't move me *that far*. It's not a fantastic movie, but probably worth a couple hours of leisure time. B

On a non-review sidenote about K-Pax...is it just me or do ya think "Kotex?" "Tampax?" "Kotex?" "Tampax??". When I was trying to find the link to the official movie site for K-Pax, I found a television station from Montana -- KPAX. Do you think Kimberly Clark pays them extra advertising dollars when advertising women's hygiene products during the news casts? "KPAX brought to you by Tampax?" :-)

Two-Second movie reviews:

• From Hell -- It's Johnny Depp and spooky it can't be *that* bad from the get-go. :-) The beginning of the movie seemed quite disjointed and poorly timed. As the film trudged on, however, it was tighter and far more enjoyable. The overall "feel" of the movie was good...dark and gritty. Not a bad selection for a Halloween flick....just don't expect *fabulous* or jump out of your seat scary. B-
• Bandits -- Billy Bob was a hoot in this somewhat predictable, very funny movie about the "sleep over bandits". Bad guys are nice guys, right? :-) B+

Blizzard Conditions -- Just so ya know, this is what living in Minnesota can be like at times. Brrrrr. I'm not ready for this sort of thing yet. It's still October, right?!?!

Northwest pulls sweeteners from flights after substance scares -- Ugh. No more Equal or Sweet N' Low on the flights, people. Yeah, as if the worst fear about flying is killer artificial sweeteners...or even the potential for anthrax. Why would a terrorist bother putting anthrax spores on an airplane? Unless he's loaded up the plane with tons (literally) of anthrax spores and is planning on crashing it...that might be of a concern, but really...there's very little that can be done with a sugar packet full of anthrax. C'mon! The scaredy cats are takin' over.

Interactive Pet Robots. They're not available here yet, but don't they sound cool? They "understand" human behavior and respond differently depending upon your mood. I think it would be great to have this for my cat. He could use some daytime companionship while I'm at the office. From what I've heard these things are running about $1500 dollars. Not *that* much, right? ;-)

Oh, another new thing at catay.com -- my webcam is back. It's not the coolio streaming video that I was using. Rather it's the old fashioned "auto refresh every minute" kind of thing. I'll be on from time to time. Watch for me here.

Look! A new feature of the "Cat-a-Blog" thanks to the geniuses at Blogger: now you can comment on my posts, my reviews, my opinions. Think I'm full of shit or freakin' brilliant?? Lemme know. You can add your comments to individual posts when you click on "Your comment?" found at the bottom of each post. Easy squeezy. Remember that these are not private messages, but rather public commentary. Play nice or I'll have to take 'em away. :-)

Four Two Second Movie Reviews. You've got better things to do than wade through verbose reviews, right?

• Training Day -- High stress, high violence (I didn't think it was that violent at the beginning of the film, but by the end, oh yeah, baby...violent!) thriller about a cop on his first day of training to be a narcotics agent. Performances by Denzel & Ethan were fabulous. If you like violent, stressful movies, this one is for you!A-
• Zoolander -- Silly, fun and a wee bit funny. If you're expecting high brow humor, don't see this movie, on the other hand, if you're looking for a goofy flick at a matinee which pokes fun at stupid people and the fashion world, you'll probably enjoy this one. Scene not to miss -- the gas station hijinks. Pure stupid fun. B-
• Serendipity -- A simple, sweet, charming romantic comedy. Somewhat predictable, but I'm in favor of well played expectations. Love John Cusack...he rarely disappoints. A-
• Don't Say a Word. --Tightly woven, but I have a feeling I'll forget about this one and blend it in with all of the other forumulaic kidnap thrillers. Not *bad*, just not oustanding nor particularly interesting.B-

Popcorn plant workers develop rare disease; artificial butter flavoring is blamed -- ewwww... I always thought there was something not quite *right* about the smell of the fake butter coming from the work microwave. Methinks employers should give gas masks to those employees near the microwave at break time. Oh, yeah...in the article it says, "...no danger to people who microwave the popcorn and eat it at home." Uh...yeah... miraculously fake butter becomes safe when transported to the suburban landscape. If you're looking for butter flavor, people, please use real butter. It's expensive lately due to some sort of milkfat shortage, but c'mon it's better than getting lung replacements later on.

It dawned on me earlier today that everything I am wearing has Lycra in it....shoes, tights, underwear, bra, skirt, jacket and top...all containing Lycra. Pretty amazing since Lycra hasn't been around *that long* in the grand scheme of the world...and in the beginning, you'd pretty much only find it in work-out or swim wear. Things have changed! I decided to take a peek at their site to see what was new and *BOING* there was this....Leather with LYCRA. Huh...who'd have thought? No more overstretched leather pants for the rockstar set. Oh, and this: Lycra Gloves Can Lycra condoms be far behind? You could put it on long before necessary and grow with the moment. ;-)

Stop the hatred now! I just received this in an email. I'm sure it was supposed to be funny, but it made me nothing but angry and repulsed:

New York - Year 2032
A father and his son are walking the Manhattan streets when the father stops at a vacant lot takes a deep breath and tells his son: To think that at one time here on this very lot stood the Twin Towers.
The son looks at his father and asked: Dad, what are the Twin Towers?
Father says: My dear son, the Twin Towers were two tremedously tall buildings with lots of offices that was the heart of the United States, but approx 31 years ago, several Arabs destroyed the buildings.
The boy then thought for a minute and then asked his father: "Daddy what are Arabs?"

Ha, ha. Cultural/racial annihilation is oh, so funny. I suppose trying to wipe out the people of Jewish faith was funny to the Nazi's too. Ick. Ick. Ick. I urge each of you to respond unfavorably to humor of this type if you receive it in an email. Silence is acceptance in these matters.