Mutterings of a Mad Woman

Stumbled across some wonderfully disturbing photographs of Halloween celebrators from the early 1900's. I've posted 3 of my favourites, but encourage you to browse the entire set.

There are additional images from the WIRED magazine article, where they interviewed the the man behind the collection:

...people back then were probably on a more intimate level with death — and that would have affected the way they celebrated Halloween...I am really fascinated by how these photographs of people dressed in primitive, homemade costumes and memorialized in faded, black-and-white photos often seem to have a real sinister aspect to them. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but to me Halloween a century ago looks much scarier than it does now in digitalized color

I don't normally post images of myself on the website, but this time I couldn't resist.

I have to get some x-rays done today, which reminded me I had this floating around on my computer.

That's me. No foolin.

I had a bone scan done years ago, and this is a copy of it. I've been meaning to post it (and incorporate it into a Halloween theme) for a long time.

There's something humbling about seeing your own skeleton; of seeing past the flesh.

There's also something really cool about it. Is it me, or do I have a happy evil skull?

I've posted a larger image below, including the scan of me from the back. Enjoy contemplating your own mortality...or mine, anyway.

You know that feeling of accomplishment that follows the completion of a menial task? I'm talking about mundane things like cleaning out a closet or sorting out the overflowing junk drawer. No one else really cares that you've done it, but man, are you ever chuffed. And if it was up to you, you'd get some sort of reward like a gold star.

For me, it was finally getting around to fixing some small details on the website. For instance, I replaced the bullets in the menu. I'd always hated the ones originally there, but hadn't come up with a new image to replace them with.

There's a blog I've been meaning to talk to you about called Skulls and Bacon. The author is a big fan of - as you may have guessed - skulls and bacon (and muppets, but I suppose 'Skulls, Bacon and Muppets' is just too wordy a title for a blog). You can find some interesting blog posts covering items like a Skull Sensory Deprivation Chamber or the Skull Ring USB Keys pictured here.

The skulls offer 2GB of portable memory for ghoulish geekory. While the price tag is high ($204.60 on geekstuff4u.com), the idea is great. Perhaps someone will come along with a more reasonably priced version.

If you're not scared off by the price, you'll find an assortment of colours - from pink to pewter - to suit your personal taste.