Halloween vs Thanksgiving

Halloween is without a doubt my least favorite "holiday" (if ever there was an ironic use of Holy Day, this is it) of the year; my only consolation is that Halloween is immediately flanked by Thanksgiving, which is undoubtedly my favorite holiday (no quotes necessary).

A number of my neighbors have symbols of death (primarily Grim Reapers) hanging at their doors; some are plain while others are rather elaborate. Who does that? Why? If anything, I could advocate the slutty direction of Halloween as preferable to the death side of things. Maybe one day the whole thing will go away.

I just buy candy for myself whenever I want candy. I don't rely on socialism to stockpile for the year.

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On another note, I'd like to go on the record as saying that optical drives are this generation's printers, scanners and fax machines[1]. I have no doubt that millions of people will only go kicking and screaming into the future, but eventually they'll give up their fixation on removable, mechanical media. It bloody can't come soon enough.

[1] I own a scanner, and no printers or faxes. I can turn paper into digital; and I can never turn digital into paper. As it ought to be....

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I've got an excursions page set up for my bike across america trip - complete with time frame, logistics, gear, route, etc. The only major gear purchase left is the tent.

The Spot Messenger people recently released the Spot Communicator which *finally* lets one send text messages via satellite, which is something I've been wishing and praying for, for years. Sadly, their implementation involves essentially replacing my GPS with a DeLorme, and since I don't like being lost, that's fairly out of the question. Maybe I'll reconsider for my next mountain climbing trip. I anticipate having cell service most days while cycling across the country, so it serves no immediate purpose; just a great device for future (and more rural) trips.