When will people stop referring to reality show participants as “stars”? These people are not celebrities. They do not belong on The Surreal Life or Celebrity Poker Showdown. There should not be a “Battle of the Network Reality Stars“. Just stop it. Enough, already.

It begins…

Have you ever talked about something for so long that, even when you finally go to do it, it doesn’t seem real? You don’t actually believe that you’re doing it, because it couldn’t possibly be real. It’s always been theoretical or “in the future”. Well, I’m finally building the movie theater in my basement. I’ve been talking about it for a while, and it was always, “When I have my theater….” but I guess I never REALLY thought I’d do it. Now that I’m doing it, things have happened so quickly that I just really haven’t accepted that it’s happening.

I have 90% of the equipment here. The contractor is supposed to begin some time this week. It’s really happening.

It’s been a good year for me. I’m really happy with that. Business has been good, and while I can’t guarantee that it will be the same again next year, I’m in a place where I’m worrying less, and that’s a very good thing. So I’m going to try to enjoy this while I can, and still be smart and realistic about it.

Anyway, I’m hoping to do some before, during and after pictures of the whole theater process, but we all know how bad I am with pictures (both taking them and posting them), so don’t be surprised if they never emerge.

It’s that time of year again, folks. That time when I try to convince my three readers to go to this site and make a donation. The link is for the Child’s Play charity, which is run by the guys over at Penny Arcade. Part of the reason this charity was originally started was to show that gamers are, in fact, a good bunch of people who give back to their community. The first year they did it, all of the donations when to the children’s hospital in Seattle. The response was overwhelming. It was far greater than the guys running it expected and they found themselves innundated in toys and games that they had to warehouse and deliver. It was quite a task, and in the end they had donated a very large sum in cash and toys, and 100% of the proceeds went to the hospital. They didn’t take anything out in administrative costs or anything else. The next year, they added a few hospitals to the list, and again the response was amazing. This year, they have added many more hospitals, both in this country and internationally. One of the hospitals on the list, in fact, is right here in New Jersey. And they’ve made it so easy. All you do is go to the site, click on the hospital you want to donate to, and it will open a window with an Amazon wishlist for that hospital. From there, it’s just like shopping at Amazon.

Now, really people. They’ve made it SO simple for you, and in the end you get to know that you did something good for sick kids. Sick kids, people. If there is ANYONE in this world worth helping, it’s children. I’ve said this in previous years, but I’ll say it again. You all know that I’m not exactly fond of people. But when it comes to children, I see that they still have potential. When they grow up and become people, well, then it’s fair game, but when they’re still children, they’re still learning and they’re still innocent, and for god’s sake, people, if they’re sick, we should help them! It’s not hard. It’s not expensive. And it probably means a lot to these kids. I know a lot of my friends don’t have a lot of extra money this year, but some of the things on that list are just books. It’s a few bucks. Please, just go and donate something. Look…if it’s a choice, this year, between buying something for the sick kids or buying something for me, I’m begging you to please buy something for the kids instead. I feel that strongly about this particular charity, and you all know how much I love getting stuff.

Today is my brother’s birthday. Besides my own, his is the only one that I’ve never had any trouble remembering. Those of you who read regularly or who know me that he and I don’t speak anymore. I don’t really know why, but I haven’t spoken to him in probably 5 years. I used to send him cards and sometimes presents on his birthday. I couldn’t do that if I wanted to this year. I don’t know his address and have no real way of getting in touch with him besides maybe asking my parents for his address. But if he wanted me to contact him, he would have made that known, so I’m not going to. I’m 99% certain that he doesn’t read this, but I’ll wish him a happy birthday here, anyway.

He really wasn’t such a bad big brother. At times he was pretty good. When he was in college and then when I was in college, I can remember things that he did that seemed like he was really looking out for me. I appreciated that. I’d really like to be able to end all of this. As far as I’m concerned, it’s in the past. I could start over tommorrow if that’s what he wanted. There’s so much that’s happened in my life that he may not even known about. Heck, he has a niece who is going to be turning two soon that he’s never even met. It doesn’t really seem right.

So anyway, I hope he has a happy birthday.

I sat down last night to watch Seven Samurai at around 9 pm. Around 10:30 I started thinking that I had no idea how Kurosawa was going to wrap this story up within the next, let’s say, 40 minutes. Around 10:40 I started thinking that it was getting late, and while I was enjoying the movie, I was hoping there wasn’t too much more. At 10:45, the words “Intermission” came up on the screen. Turns out there’s another hour and a half or so to the movie. Talk about prolific…

Y’know what the strangest thing was that I saw last night as we were out trick-or-treating? Parents walking around with their little children (as good parents should do) who were drinking. That’s right. They had either cans of beer, or in the case of this group of women we saw, full-on bottles of hard liquor. That seemed wrong, somehow. I’m told that it’s a very upper-middle-class (white) thing to do, but I still don’t get it.