ThinkingSkull.com

There’s been rumors persisting for a while now about those lucky people who are selected by the television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” that the recipients aren’t quite so lucky. Inflated property taxes, higher home insurance, and other expenses of going from a dilapidated double-wide trailer to a fully-furnished two-story home with three car garage and all the amenities.

Via my friend who works for a popular internet company, one such winner was ending their service due to preparing to file for bankruptcy. When asked about it, the caller confessed that they had been awarded the new home half a year earlier but had not yet received the paperwork proving actual ownership, so they couldn’t even take out an equity loan on their home to help offset the bills. In the mean time, the upgraded electrical system and power consumption for the home had caused the electric bill to balloon from $90 per month into over $700 per month (almost a house payment for a single utility).

Lesson learned: it still costs money to maintain a lavish lifestyle even if someone gives it to you.

Storm #21 ties the most active hurricane season on record set in 1933. Not only will one additional storm break the record but also be the first to use the Greek alphabet to continue naming storms (letters Q, U, X, Y and Z are skipped).

What REALLY sucks is that I’ve got tickets for Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights for this Sunday evening, so assuming that the storm forcast is correct, it doesn’t stall, it stays far to the south, nobody in Orlando panics and shuts down the parks, MAYBE I’ll still get to go. Just maybe.

Update: As of 7am EST on Wednesday, Oct 19th, 2005, the pressure plummeted to 882 mb to become the most powerful Category 5 hurricane on record . But how long can it hold?

Fear not; I’m just using ThinkingSkull.com as a test platform for a radically different design for MovieCrypt.com… one that is very nearly complete. People who frequent the ‘Crypt often have two complaints: reading articles are hard on the eyes, and the site looks too much like a horror site for people to realize we review more than just horror.

So, to address both complaints, MovieCrypt is going to get a bit brighter. Like something out of a fog or a ghost story, we’re designing a background for the top of the site to give it the creepy, supernatural feel without as much blood splatter. To be honest, this change has been coming for a while, because all horror sites are starting to look identical. Fortunately, WordPress Themes gives me the flexibility to do something more, and do it I shall!

A friend of mine working for a known internet company received a call from a customer. After their scripted greeting, the caller accused the consultant of not being who he says he was, that he’d asked somebody else and the number he was calling did not belong to that company. Unshaken by the accusation, the consultant jumped onboard and added, “My God! Who have I been taking money from all these years? This is just like that episode of ‘Alias!’ (whispered) What do I do? Who do I call? What if they’re listening right NOW???”

After the caller stopped laughing, the consultant explained that his company had been in business so long that there may be dozens of 1-800 or similar numbers that all route to the same place and that, in the future, to look up the numbers online if he didn’t trust any other source. Then the consultant asked, “After believing the number you had was fake, why would you call it at all?” After a moment of silence, the caller hung up.