Happy Halloween- Any plans?

[Lumen Miner]

Halloween has always been, a superficial holiday in Australia. It is bad enough in the US, let alone here. I never went trick-or-treating as a child and hence never had much interest in it.

However the previous two Halloweens in Sydney, have opened my opinion on the subject.

Last year I went to the extent, of creating a somewhat plausible giant spiders web enclosing the whole on my front entrance.
There was a fake spider,eggs, fingers, toes, active background noises (screams,shouts from computer aided sound etc.), and a scary costume.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Giant_Venomous_Extinct_Arachnid_Fou nd_surviving_i/

The night before Halloween last year some inventive little girl, was obviously having a conversation with her parents, on the fact that Halloween is not a celebrated event here, yet she still wanted to go.
She went around the immediate streets and put flyers in everyone's letter boxs. They read-

"Happy Haloween! We realise not everyone celebrates this event and we would like you to put out some orange, to let the kids know whom not to bother.
Thankyou."


Needless to say my orange went out straight away, so did ever other house on the street. Even the old grouch across the road put out orange.
The community spirit was amazing that night. I have never met many if any of my neighbours. That night I did. Not only was is a great bonding experience, it was something out of the ordinary.

The fathers of the children obviously got to take them after work and you could see how happy they were trying to convince their young ones to venture into the webbed trap.


So I was wondering, are you doing anything? Will you hand out candy? Will you avoid the whole event? Do you think, we need our own national event, in which we as a neighbourhood can interact?

What are your thoughts?
As much as I dispise Halloween US style, kids simply want to have some fun. I am not going to take that from them.

I am off to think of a last minute costume (I am good at that), not doin' the house up this year, so the costume needs to be scary good and big... I am thinking a giant paper-mache spider that I can get inside and move..



Thanks Guys and Gals, look forward to your thoughts.


If anyone is looking for some last minute decent wound fx, to go with their costume try my "Last Minute Laceration" easy instructions, made with products around the home. http://www.instructables.com/id/FREE-Wound-FX-at-Home-Last-minute-arm-laceration/

[erick]

Have fun.

I will completely ignore it as usual.

(just remembered - my wife and I are treating each other to a Salsa concert that evening!)

[DavidU]

I like this pic from your link Mitchell, a DIY taxidermy video LOL
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FMO/VCCZ/QAJEWZMHRAJ/FMOVCCZQAJEWZMHRAJ.MEDIUM.jpg

I'm with Eric !

[matt]

Isn't it tomorrow night??? Oct 31???

There's a bit of a street event planned over at Manly here on the Bayside.

They close the whole street off and put on some stuff. We're actually planning to head over for an hour or so and check it out.

[Lumen Miner]

Will do, yes I too ignored it for years. I guess now I am just a lil' bit more sadistic and love seeing the kiddies kid scared. ;)



LoL, yes we are an interesting but at I'bles.com . Those taxidermy I'bles are one of the top rated. "Mouse mouse" is awesomely creepy!!




Yep, it is tomorrow. Bit like Christmas, you could say "Merry christmas" the day / week before.

Street event hey? Sound great!!

[Lumen Miner]

Sorry forgot the link to "Mouse mouse" http://www.instructables.com/id/Mouse-Mouse!/

[lacad01]

My street is having a BBQ hosted by one of the neighbours and we've stocked up on treats to give out to the little monsters.:)

[Lumen Miner]

Getting dressed up at all? Costume wise that is.

[lacad01]

Don't have to, I'm scary enough as it is ;)

[Ric]

Probably wont see much out my way, there's about a half to a kilometre gap between neighbours so the poor kids will have to do a lot of walking.

However they will probably be inventive and get around on their horses or trail bikes.

[Nightskystargaz]

Mitchell,

We have a lot of kids going trick or treat here, I hope that I don't run out of candy, since it is on a week-end.

:thanx:,

Tom

[Ironbird]

I wanted to share a Hallowe'en trick that the little gaffers pulled on this old troll. Usually it's the other way around - but not this time.

Knock knock trick or treat! was heard at the open front entrance way .. they had quietly made their way up the wooden stairs leading to the front door. "Trick or treat everybody!" I said; to the two little gaffers standing in their clown outfits (you know the kind - standard one piece jump-suit idea - probably sewed from old bed sheets) with the standard Hallowe'en pie-plate type face masks on.

Trick or treat the little gaffers whispered - oh well I thought ... cute little kids - can't expect too much from these little guys .. I'm probably a pretty scary old troll - glad they put in an appearance ... so their they stood .. trick or treat Mister! with their goodies sack outstretched before them.

Well here you go gang .. a little something for you and a little something for you and now boo! run along and have a safe Hallwe'en. They laconically looked into their sacks and said (quietly) "thank you Mister" and ran off down the stairs - ran off backwards! Hello ??? WHAT ARE YOU GUYS THINKING?? YOU'RE GONNA BUST YOUR HEADS OPEN - RUNNING BACKWARDS (Without having turned around) DOWN THESE STEEP STAIRS ... :eyepop:

Well I think you're starting to figure things out - the gaffers had snuck up the stairs and then stood 'facing' me with their backs turned and the cheesy Hallowe'en masks placed backwards on the backs of their heads :)

I saw the parents having a good chuckle - out on the street .. I still chuckle over it. :rofl:

One bigger kid and their younger brethren. Candy well-spent. Almost gave me an infarcation - sneaky rascals. :thumbsup: Thnx for sharing ;)

[Enchilada]

Aren't we more intelligent in Australia than to follow the lame brain American culture?

:scared2: :scared2: :scared2: :scared2:

Why do we promote something that represents the perpetuation of conformity in human cultures rather than establishing and celebrating the unique diversity of all world cultures. In OUR southern hemisphere, we should out and celebrating the coming of summer, where the winter chills are forgotten, and we can all be out in the open air, enjoying our skies and country. :stargaze:

Bugger the yanks!

I ask you...Where is the old venom of Midnight Oil and Peter Garrett when you need them? I.e. In the lyrics;

"U.S. Forces, give the nod…
It's a setback for your country…."

or the "Sell My Soul Lyrics;

"America’s great now, if you don’t talk back…
Celebrate, I just want to celebrate
I’m not going to sell my soul to him!!" :prey2:

Damn right !

:cool: :rockband: :party2: :party: :party: :painting: :jump2: :jump2: :cool:

Now I need a bex, liedown, and a nice cup of tea…. :help:

[mithrandir]

Halloween predates the USA. They just turned it into a sales opportunity.

Quote:
Halloween has origins in the ancient festival known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sau-an), which may be derived from Old Irish and may mean roughly "summer's end", but see also Samhain. This was a Gaelic festival celebrated mainly in Ireland and Scotland. However, similar festivals were held by other Celts - for example the festival of Calan Gaeaf (pronounced kalan-geyf) which may similarly have been held by the ancient Britons.

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year".

And:
A time of pagan festivities, Popes Gregory III (731-741) and Gregory IV (827-844) tried to supplant [Halloween] with the Christian holiday (All Saints' Day) by moving [All Saint's Day] from May 13 to November 1.

[Enchilada]

Yeah, you are absolutely right.

That is exactly why I said "In OUR southern hemisphere, we should out and celebrating the coming of summer, where the winter chills are forgotten, and we can all be out in the open air, enjoying our skies and country."

However, my grip is that the Americans who have wantonly commercialised it! We never celebrated Halloween in Australia because we are not going to the darkside, nor do we need "stand between the candle and the flame". We are really rapidly approach the light!

In the southern hemisphere, we should be dancing 'round the maypole, not celebrating the misery of the coming of winter. Really dressing up in black as if we are ready for a funeral, when the world around me is buzzing with life and energy.

We should join with colourful Flora, and NOT with those bloodsucking Vampires !

Forget Halloween. let's do something else and something original, like those Irish and Celts, but do it the Australian Way and not copycat others.

As for the Celts…. I think I'll celebrate playing some music by Enya or Clannad the rest of the day!! :eyepop:

Note: You remind me of the beautiful Enya song "Once You Had Gold". The lyrics in the second chorus is;

"Now you can see
Spring becomes autumn,
Leaves become gold
Falling from view.
Ever and always.
Always and ever.
No-one can promise a dream come true,
Time gave both darkness and dreams to You."

TisMO. Cheers!

(i still need a Bex!! :lol:)

[Enchilada]

I also thought of Enya's song. Flora's Secret, which sums up the passing of winter…

"Some they know as passion
Some as freedom
Some they know as love
And the way it leaves them
Summer snowflake*
For a season
When the sky above is blue
When the sky above is blue."

* Summer snowflake or "white violet", is a bulbous fragrant flower that blooms in early spring in the far northern countries. (See attachment)

Perhaps instead of Halloween :mad2:, we should all celebrate the colourful the blooming of the purple Jacaranda Trees, like they do in Brisbane, Grafton NSW, Pretoria in South Africa, etc. (though those poor flowers in Grafton on the NSW northern coast recently were mostly destroyed by the rainfall!)

Give them young kiddies something that mark the southern seasons, and not just copy those northerners unrelated festivities - which have little meaning to us. :thumbsup:

Note: As to the mythology legends of Flora, which is the name of the eighth discovered asteroid in 1847. There is a good summary, that appears on the webpage http://homepage.mac.com/andjames/PageFlora000.htm . The mythology is discussed in the latter half of the webpage

Hope this is of interest!

[Enchilada]

Sorry, I sure probably killed this thread… (really sorry Lumen Miner!!) :sadeyes:

[matt]

You might also want to apologise to our numerous American IIS members while you're at it:whistle:

There were some fairly anti-US sentiments expressed in here.

I know you were aiming your comments more at what you see as an American tradition, but comments like "bugger the yanks" and "Aren't we more intelligent in Australia than to follow the lame brain American culture?" don't come over too well.

We celebrate plenty of our own traditions, by the way. There's no reason we can't embrace a few more even if they're not 'our own', if just for the fun of it.

Just my 2c worth:)

[citivolus]

Halloween back in rural Canada has turned into an even which I hope to never see here. The amount of vandalism and random acts of defacement that happen on that night is truly appalling.

From what I recall of the Halloweens that I was in California for, it isn't as bad there, but my memories of the post-halloween clean-up have spoiled the whole thing for me and leave me with no desire to introduce my children to it.

[matt]

Bet you're glad you introduced this thread, Mitchell?:lol::lol:

[Outbackmanyep]

Any kids coming up to trick-or-treat are gonna get the hose!

[snowyskiesau]

I like the sentiment :thumbsup:

I live on a busy main road so don't expect any little freeloading visitors but might get the pepper spray out just in case ...;)

[seanliddelow]

Im 14 but I dont really trick and treating. I just scare the hell outof other kids with a scream costume :lol:

[Enchilada]

??? Apologise for what?

I was trying to make a point about celebrating our traditions and values. Why does the local media, especially when aimed at young children, need to perpetuate the need that somehow American culture is somehow superior than our own. One has only got to listen to the current television ad on the Walt Disney "A Christmas Carol", which is blatantly said as being "Disney's A Christmas Carol." The story was written by Charles Dickens and is considered classical English literature. My jaw drops every time!

As to Halloween, just type in google "Halloween in Australia" as see how many hit you get. For instance, the site Halloween Australia (http://www.halloween-australia.com/), which says;

"Halloween is fast becoming a popular occasion in Australia, with regular Halloween events, parades and fetes at schools, house decorations, parties, and groups of children and teenagers dressed up in Halloween costumes, trick or treating through local streets."

Sinking of other peoples cultures by misleading the young is a common form of subversion. IMO it should be avoided, not because someone else is doing it - if they want do it that's their business. however, it should not be a part of Australia, especially because its origins are related to us at all.

As said in the news.com.au article; "Should Australians be Hallo-weaned off Halloween celebrations?" http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26283533-421,00.html

As Andrew Banks says;

"I'm not bothered whether we have a proper Halloween or not, but sooner or later Australia has to decide: are we in or are we out? Do we drop the whole idea or do we embrace it properly?"

My opinion is we should dump it, even by law, and we should all publicly say so!

I was also interested in the response of a "doolie of perth, who said ay 3.37pm (well after my original post here;

"Very sadly we are becoming Americanized to the extent that even TV adds have fake yanks doing their thing. Get rid of all of this Yankeeism now before it's too late. We do not want to be perceived as arrogant, overbearing and as ignorant of worldly affairs as they are. Keep Oz for Ozzies."

The poll results on this site, with 6447 votes at the time of writing said to the question ; "Should Australia ditch Halloween as an event on the calendar?" Guess what. 84% said "Yes. It is totally irrelevant!"

Only 15% of people agreed with it, and I'd assume most of them probably were the kids doing the door knocking.

Let the Americans have their Halloween - and I hope they enjoy it - but don't expect me or our Australian children to be subverted by a cultural celebration that is unrelated to another country.

My suggestion was only to encourage another reason to celebrate our own worthy cultural values. They killed "Guy Fawkes Night" because the kiddies my get hurt be the fireworks around this time of year, so perhaps we should do something else?

The question i want to know is the Halloween drive being driven by deliberate subversion though the media (foreign and domestic), or is it symptomatic of the long-term rise of American culture in the minds of Australian.

Should we be expected to conform to the extent of also celebrating "Thanksgiving" or even the "American Independence Day" (and never do "blackface again' ;) ) to appease American sensibilities? I know already, they would never embrace Australia Day or ANZAC day. :question:

That my "buck-o-nine's" worth… :lol:

[dpastern]

We had 2 boys trick and treating earlier, I didn't have any sweets, otherwise I'd have freely given to them.

Whilst I'm not a fan of the good ole US of A as a general rule, I see no real issues with celebrating Halloween in Australia. True, it's really the wrong time of the year from a seasonal perspective, but the original tradition is seemingly long since lost. Shall we discontinue Easter and Christmas because their original meanings are lost (they were pagan holidays LONG before Christianity came along)?

Oh, and it's not just the US that celebrates Halloween, Canada and the UK do as well.

Thanksgiving and American Independance day are US specific "holidays". Halloween is NOT. It would have been brought to the US when many Irish emigrated to the US during the potato famine.

Dave

[Enchilada]

Interesting idea, but treating little kids that way probably will deemed as some kind of abuse.

Perhaps the best way is to just challenge the ankle biters with a open tête-à-tête. This was the response my mother was told to do and still make your point.

When they say "trick or treat", ask them a question

"Are you American?"

When they say, no, you then say.

"Well, as far as I know, they only celebrate Halloween in America? Aren't you Australian, because you must come from another country?"

Usually the response is pure terror, because it questions their loyalty to their own country. Considering schools focus very much on Australian culture and values, if several people did this it might make them question why they are doing it,

Just simple reverse psychology!

[Enchilada]

Dave I agree. All I was questioning is how far do you go?

Again. I don't understand how this relates to Australia? Should we have events like the tomato throwing that happens each year us Spain Bunoi in Spain, or celebrate Chinese New Year, and give out little presents in red boxes of money?

As for my kids doing it, well I'd certainly tell them NO. I'd be worried some nutter poisoning the candy!

Is it odd that nearly all the $2 shops have the paraphernalia for Halloween.

"There's just one thing, yes there's just one thing
Who can stand in the way, when there's a dollar to be made?"

Who can stand in the way.
Midnight Oil : Red Sails in the Sunset

Positively shameless! :question:

[dpastern]

But - does it really do any harm? Kids going out (supervised of course), enjoying themselves, one night a year. Dressing up, having fun.

Dave

[matt]

Well...first of all for the fairly shockingly selective editing (hatchet) job you did on my post and your subsequent quoting of me.

You conveniently left out the part where I referred to: but comments like "bugger the yanks" and "Aren't we more intelligent in Australia than to follow the lame brain American culture?" don't come over too well.

That's a couple of examples of comments which I think are fairly contemptuous and rude toward our American cousins.

Answer your question?:)

Anyway...Xmas is not too far away. You can really go to town on that one with some Bah-humbug!!!!! And then you can get stuck into Easter and a few other annual cultural traditions which have been introduced from 'other' cultures.

BTW - a large section of our (Australian) society does celebrate Chinese New Year.

[dpastern]

Well said Matt. Well said.

Dave

[Zaps]

One of the reasons I headed south was to escape c**p like Halloween. Another reason was to escape religious losers. It would be really disappointing to discover that the northern religious losers had managed to export c**p like Halloween down south. So many Australians seemed absolutely fixated upon becoming American, and I just cannot understand why! Aussies in general are way better people than that.

[mithrandir]

We had one group of three primary school age dressed for Halloween. While I was out picking up take-away I saw another group of four high school girls in their witch's gear. It's a bit late now to expect any more.

[dpastern]

Hang on here - Halloween doesn't really have anything to do with religion, unless you are a pagan like me. True, the Christians took the original pagan holiday and adopted it to keep the pagans happy and help convert them to Christianity, but it never was really a major Christian holiday imho, not like Christmas or Easter. As an aside, are you saying that we should drop Christmas and Easter as well? Or are you being (incorrectly) one eyed and blaming Halloween on the Americans? If so, I suggest that you do some research and you'll see that Hallowen did not originate in the US of A.

In your opinion it's crap, in others views it's a bit of harmless fun. The world could do with more fun imho.

Dave

[dpastern]

Yeah, it's probably a bit late now to expect more as well. One of the 2 boys made an effort to dress up, the other one didn't. They were in their early teens I'd say. Both were very polite and well mannered.

My friend from work, Meg, has made a nice costume (was a backup costume, as her dress didn't arrive in time :( :( ) and will dress up tonight and do the makeup thing as well. She even made this very cute doll, which was awesome! She cosplays, so she loves this sort of thing. I think it's great that people are getting out and relaxing and dressing up and just having fun.

Dave

[Enchilada]

I didn't answer this deliberately in wanting to stir the pot any further. In the end, I think you are taking me well out of context..

What I said prior to saying "Bugger the yanks", was;

"Why do we promote something that represents the perpetuation of conformity in human cultures rather than establishing and celebrating the unique diversity of all world cultures. In OUR southern hemisphere, we should out and celebrating the coming of summer, where the winter chills are forgotten, and we can all be out in the open air, enjoying our skies and country"

Here I was referring too the homogenisation of culture being consumed and conforming to someone else ways instead of forging a path defining our own culture. Clearly the concept of Halloween is about the change of seasons going into winter (as stated so eloquently by mithrandir.)
In the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed. My solution is to instead to add something new to our Australian way of life . Bugger the idea of being mere followers of another foreign country, lets follow our own destiny and celebrate aspects of OUR culture.That's is all I said!

As me saying "Aren't we more intelligent in Australia than to follow the lame brain American culture?" Well considering the number of people seemingly here willing to follow the cultist festivals, well perhaps Australians are equally as lame brained as the American culture!
IMO, Halloween as celebrated by the Americans IS lame brained - and I think some American folk agree also with me! It seems an odd mixture of paganism, commercialism and propaganda to serve the Hollywood film machine to impose American culture on the rest of the world - as already established at least since the 1950s.

Frankly I want my cultural background to become more Australian. not less! "Halloween" is being export to Australia based on the American culture through the television media.

Ever wonder why the majority of TV each week is American? Have you thought how this impacts Australian culture, especially by targeting our children, and now consequentially, Halloween is being propagated through the schools. This is the same methodology as the blitz on advertising done by McDonalds when first establishing its operations in this country.

Ever wondered why the morning programmes flog Hollywood gossip as news or morning new programmes on nearly every commercial Australian networks? I.e. Sunrise and Today?

Why do the TV stations do this. I.e. What is their motive? Clearly they rely on American productions to fill in the airways, with the carrot being discounts on packaged studio-based a whole gambit of good and bad material. We buy the product, they fill our heads with mostly propaganda.
Perhaps instead of calling them lame brain, I should have called it as it simply is - media brainwashing. Rule #1. Get the little kiddies first. Works a treat everytime.

No wonder 84% of people in that poll I linked are against this event!!

As for those appearing as American apologists - well that another story! :help:

[DavidU]

Ah yes, Aussies love an extra public holiday.
Give it a decade more and Halloween with be yet another day off.
Queens birthday? that's good ! A horse race? GREAT, Moomba?????:shrug:

[matt]

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Too funny

[Enchilada]

What's Moomba?

Didn't they first do that in Sydney at one time? ;)

[Enchilada]

Personally, I think that the reverse is quite true…

53rd or 54th State anyone? :shrug:

[matt]

:lol::lol:

Someone get Harry M Miller on the phone.

[dpastern]

1) with regards to TV - blame the politicians. They allowed this to happen.

2) are you going to say the same about copyright laws, dmca, software patent agreements that we have with the US as well? I mean, we've adopted all that American crap here now...

3) are you going to complain about Australia sending troops to illegal invasions of sovereign non US territories in Iraq and Afghanistan to aid the US?

4) what about all the spying our government does on us now, a la CIA, NSA, etc? Habits picked up from our American bretheren...

All of the above do far more harm than the harmless fun of Halloween. And again, you seemed to have picked on the US of A in this respect when other countries participate in this festival just as much. If you want to be really fair, pick them too.

Dave

PS I'm certainly no US of A lover by any means, anyone who knows me knows how I feel about that particular country.

[casstony]

Halloween is not worth getting upset about; you can ignore it, or use it as an excuse to party on - whatever suits.

Something that does irritate me is the degree of commercialism surrounding Xmas - ten presents for each kid just from the parents, then ten more from the rest of the family. The kids madly unwrap their gifts, barely appreciating each one - not teaching good values.

[GrahamL]

That looks like a lot of fun matt, bet the kids enjoyed themselves

yeah I didn't know it was halloween untils some kids knocked at the door late last night, though I guess it explains why an order I was trying to place with a US retailer seemed to dissappear into the sheen
thursday afternoon..long weekend eh?

[jjjnettie]

I was having a quiet night with my sister and Mum. I had just commented to Anne that it looked like we weren't going to have any spooky visitors when that very second I heard a group of kids coming down the street.
About 9 or 10 of them, ranging from around 6 up to 14yrs old.
Mum was waiting on the front curb, stubby in hand.:lol: (this is Kilcoy)
Lucky I'm a sugar addict so I had plenty in the cupboard to go around.:)

Nice to see the kids having fun with dress ups and such.

[stephenb]

We only had one group of young 'uns knock on our door, probably sue to the inclement weather. We honestly did not have anything to give them, but we apologised, wished them well and an enjoyable evening.

Our family has never "celebrated" Halloween because it has no relevant in Australian culture or history.





I agree. On the broader issues of Xmas, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Easter etc, next time these events are approaching take more notice of the commercials on both TV and radio. It's all push, push, push... buy the next big expensive appliance for Mum/Dad/the kids etc... We feel the need to buy the biggest and best products for these events.

I have no problem with making events "special" for young children but as adults it is totally over the top.

[DJDD]

i was having a nice quiet evening playing Halo 3 with a mate who, remembering it was Halloween, brought over a pack of chocolates for the kids. we only got one big group of monsters at our door, which is good because any more would have been a distraction from killing aliens...

I think halloween is stupid but when a bunch of kids are at your door (mostly dressed up) and the parents are on the nature strip watching you, you can feel a bit of a grouch if you do not have anything to give them.

still, as long as they don't throw eggs at my house i will grit my teeth one night of the year since it is here to stay now...


Greg & Donny Ep. 09, Trick or Treat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7wv6CUvHi0

[Outbackmanyep]

Halloween is celebrated in Canada and the U.S.A. and other areas around the world, i thought it was an Irish tradition?
As for that hose issue, i didnt have to use it last night......if i did i could always say that i was threatened with harm if i didnt comply with their wishes, little urban terrorists!

[joe_smith]

My wife celebrated Halloween as a kid in Wales it was a big event for the whole town. Its makes me laugh that people think Halloween must be from America if its celebrated there. I got no problem with people celebrating Halloween if it brings people into contact for a happy and joyful experience, as that is good for the community as a whole.

The only thing I don't want here from the USA, is their heath care system !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rhino1980]

My nieces/nephews went and had fun. Personally I think its just another step in the Americanisation of Oz and therefore, I will naturally continue to despise it.

[matt]

A lot of people, young and old, had a lot of fun here last night:)

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=52304

[Jen]

:hi:
I love Halloween its great fun dressing up the kids :thumbsup:
But this year i wasnt organised and i thought i have always wanted to cut up a pumpkin and make a Jack Lantern ;)
It turned out fantastic i was so proud of how it turned out and so it should have i didnt realise how expensive they were till i got up to the register and the check out chick said $24.00 :eyepop: I was going to put it back till my son gave me the sad eyes awwwwww (im a sucker for that) lol
Pumpkin soup anyone :lol: i now have plenty of it :D
Check out my pics i wanna keep him :thumbsup:

66456 66457 66458 66459 66460

[matt]

Wow!!!

Great job on the pumpkin carving:)

That one with the IIS beanie on is just too funny!!!

[jjjnettie]

Well done Jen.
Fantastic effort. Still have all your fingers and thumbs?
We were selling the same type of pumpkins at work for only $16.
Did you keep the seeds from your's???.

[Jen]

[/COLOR]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Thanks Matt i couldnt believe how well it turned out. Yep i think i have just been nominated the pumpkin carver for Halloween every year now :lol:
yeah i love the beannie the latest member of IIS :lol::lol:



:thumbsup::thumbsup: Thanks JJJ
:lol: yep i still have my fingers and thumbs lol neally had one close call :lol: :doh:
:eyepop:$16 dont tell me that dam safeway ripped me off :mad2:
Yes we kept the seeds ;)

[dpastern]

That's an awesome job Jen - very well done!!!

Dave

[Lumen Miner]

Interesting thread indeed.

Please remember guys I did ask for comments from everyone. I was expecting negative ones, that was half the point of posting.

It is interesting to see everyones point of view, not just mine sometimes.

I get what you are saying Enchilada, the bit that lets me down though, is what else can we celebrate? If not what, then how? Does the government have any plans in place for some new patriotic event, that we could call our own? If they do, then I would happily celebrate it.
The problem is they don't, we don't.

I think to be honestly accurate in an assesment of the event, you would need to take the time, to analysis what community benefits can be established via something such as Halloween.


I had over 60 children come to my house, I had fun, they had fun. I don't give a rat's if it is not our tradition and neither did the parents bringing the children. Why? Because they know I am happy to have people come around, no other time of the year lets me meet my neighbours and have a chat.


Even the gumpy old bugga across the street, stayed up and sat on his porch waiting to give the kids treats. He has no wife, little family and keeps to himself. It is also the one night of the year, I have any contact with him.

In all a very enjoyable night, no damage, no drunken fools (except perhaps myself) and a whole lot of fun had by everyone.

[Jen]

:thanx: Thanks Dave :D
My son is very proud of it too so he is going to take it to show and tell tomorrow at school :lol:

[matt]

That's very cool!

[dpastern]

And so he should - that's a damn well good looking pumpkin!

Dave

[Lumen Miner]

That's awesome Jen!! :D :D :D :D
I had to work until late, so I didn't get a chance to carve anything this year. Shame, I really enjoy it. :thumbsup:

[Octane]

This must be so excruciatingly painful for Enchilada right now seeing the lengths Jen went to to have fun on Halloween.

As for me, the only Halloween I know is, Helloween (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOAl0enE7kI).

Anyone remotely interested in thrash should check out Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part I. Michael Kiske had one hell of a set of lungs on him.

Regards,
Humayun

[kustard]

A friend and I had a combined 40th halloween party this year (though my birthday is not until December) and so we all dressed up...

Can you guess who I am?

http://www.kustard.org/images/stuff/IMG_0093_sml.jpg

[dpastern]

Awesome costume! One of my fave shows as a kid.

Dave

[lacad01]

Ha ha, I also loved that show especially as it annoyed the living daylights out of my older siblings :)

[Jen]

:lol::lol::lol::lol:
:thumbsup::thumbsup: