This is a video featured on the Revenge of the Sith DVD that’s due out tomorrow.

The video is of the little Jedi Master, Yoda, rapping and strutting around while a few Clone Troopers stand in the background trying to look like Run-DMC.

I don’t know whether to laugh or just sit there dumbfounded in disbelief.

I love Halloween. It’s by far my favorite holiday, simply because it doesn’t try to bullshit you. It’s all about excess and commercialism and gimme, gimme, gimme.

And one of my favorite parts about Halloween, is coming up with and creating a costume. Last year I was Alvin, from Alvin and Chipmunks. However, it was the Alvin of today after his career died in the 1980′s and he turned to drugs, alcohol and loose women to dull the pain. This year, though, I decided early on that it was going to be my first year going as something scary. Believe it or not, but I have never dressed up as a vampire, Frankenstein, or a machete-wielding, hockey mask-wearing maniac before. So I went as a zombie this year, mainly because I love zombie films like George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead”, classic Italian zombie films like “Zombi”, and, of course, Peter Jackson’s splatstick classic “Dead Alive”. And, of course, I wasn’t going to half-ass this costume either.

I bought an old, wool suitcoat, polyester pants, and a white shirt at the local thrift store and tore them up pretty well with a pocket knife. You have no idea how hard polyester pants are to ruin. I could barely cut the material, let alone rip it with my bare hands. I couldn’t even make it dirty or stain it in the mud. It might not be fashionable, but – damn – did that stuff hold up. I used an old pair of thrift store wing tips that were, unfortunately, too uncomfortable to wear every day. I ran out and bought some liquid latex, some corn syrup and red food coloring, and some make-up from Dallas & Company. I got everything sufficiently dirty, stained, and bloodied a few days beforehand, and I was getting pretty excited. Andrea did my makeup for me and I couldn’t have been happier with the results.

Once we have kids, I really hope that we can pass our love of Halloween on to them. It’s just a fun excuse to play in a fantasy world for a night. And I think we could all use a break from reality at least once a year, don’t ya think?

To check out pictures from the Halloween party at JK and Ellen’s, click here

I don’t remember where I got this link, but it’s very, very cool.

Zoomquilt

(Recommended only for high-speed connections…or very patient dial-up users)

True story: Way back in the late-90′s, when Ben and I were roommates, we seriously considered driving to Springfield, IL to buy a used defibrillator for $25. We saw an ad for it in the Thrifty Nickle and thought, “That could be fun.”

Now, thanks to the folks at Amazon.com, you can own your very own “Automated External Defibrillator (AED)”.

It’s a little bit more than the $25 we weren’t even willing to spend, but then again, this one probably works.

There’s a woman that comes into City Hall from time to time and speaks with various people regarding a situation here in our fair city. I’m not going to say what her problem is because, frankly, that’s not important. What is important is that this woman has been coming in every few months for the last two or three years, complaining about the same problem. She will sometimes bring in photographs she feels proves her point. I’ve heard of video being introduced as evidence. She’s contacted various government agencies ranging from our municipal government, all the way up to federal departments, in an effort to find a solution to this problem.

Thus far she has been unsuccessful.

Now I ask you, “What kind of a person does it take to continue to fight such a losing battle?” Is it because she really believes her complaint is valid? Does she believe that these authorities are involved in a massive conspiracy to hide the truth from the public? Is she mentally unsound? Has she been personally wronged by those she accuses of these violations? What is her deal, man?

I wish I could figure out what drives our own Chicken Little, but I’ll probably never know. I guess it’s between her, the massive global conspiracy, and the sky, which is bound to fall on us any day now, I’m sure.