ScareFest 2008 Lexington

This tiny news advert caught my eye last week.

MrsCopilot is quite the Horror buff, with bookshelves stuffed and straining under the weight and bulk of the almighty Steven King and a DVD collection of blood, murder, mayhem and pychotics. ScareFest 2008, Seemed like just to thing to spring on her as a surprise. Stars of Rob Zombie's "The Devil's Rejects" (one of her favorite feel good flicks.) Sid Haig and Bill Mosely are scheduled to appear.

Off we go for a spooktacular Saturday afternoon. Lexington Convention center. Check.
Yep that's a Good sign,
this appears to be the place.

Inside was as advertised.

Creepy Artists and Collectible merchants crammed side by side with psychics and mystical crystal salesman,
With back area lined with genre celebrities available for autographs and pictures.

What better way to spend an afternoon than celebrity gawking and rampant discretionary spending. Admission, Tarot Reading, T Shirt, Autographed Photo, a few nick nacks, etc. There were also Panel Discussions and film Screenings in two other halls we did not attend. Haunting the floor were the assorted monsters and ghouls only too happy to mug for the camera. The weekend events included a costume contest and a Friday the 13th cast reunion and Screening. Upon entry, a small reminder is posted informing you that entering the premises gives Paramount permission to use your likeness in an upcoming Anniversary DVD re-release of the classic. The event was sponsored by Ghost Chasers International, but they were kind enough to invite the competition, Ghost Hunters International investigator an TV star Shannon Slyvia. Nice lady, sold me a shirt. The guy who drew the longest line though was definitely Sid Haig. Small Children (under 6 admitted free) were in line to have their picture taken with him. Just down the Aisle his cast mate from Devils Rejects and House of 1000 corpses were also popular. CandyMan, One of the guys who wore the Jason mask, Tom Savini and Pluto from The Hills Have Eyes (Micheal Berryman) were talking with fans and signing autographs, showing little wear from the VIP party at the hotel the night before. What frightened me more than the Zombies, Spirit Photographers or Mystical Crystal Vendors (I just love saying Mystical Crystals) was the line that did not exist in front of David Naugton. This guy transforms "in camera" into the baddest werewolf captured on film, while at the same time manging to make us laugh all through the movie. Here, see for yourself. That deserves at least a 2 person deep que. All of the emo, goth and teens of the damned seemed more interested in mindless serial killers than one of the greatest wolfman thespians of all time. I would have asked him too, how he feels sitting across the room from the line formed in front of Captain Spaulding, but I was too busy standing in that line to get Sid Haig's autograph. I've been to my fair share of conventions, Comics, Star Trek, Sci-Fi, Electronics, Embedded, Microsoft, AMD, Linux etc.. but somehow I had never made one of these. I had no idea what to expect, but was eerily unsurprised by what I saw. We skipped on a lot of what ScareFest had to offer, I hear there was even a UFO panel. Next time it comes around, maybe we'll attend the whole weekend, and catch a few panels. All in all, a fun day, and it certainly surprised MrsCopilot, and in a good way. MrCopilot

Easter Eggs

Linux and Free Software is written by clever programmers. As such, undocumented features creep in to the most mainstream of applications. We call these Easter Eggs, because you have to hunt them.

Here are a few of my favorites.

From the terminal:

ddate

apt-get moo

aptitude moo -v

aptitude moo -vv

aptitude moo -vvv

etcetera and so on

Take a break from all that number crunching and enjoy a few games in Open Office Calc

Open a new Spreadsheet

In Cell A1 type =GAME(A2:C4;"TicTacToe")

or

In Cell A1 type =GAME("StarWars")

A couple more Open Office Easter Eggs

In any Calc cell type =TTT() to get a random smiley.

In any Calc Cell type =STARCALCTEAM()

In the Help->About OpenOffice.org Screen Press CTRL-S-D-T


Skype Hidden Chat Emoticons
(I know its not "free", but it is available for Linux, so there)

(london) (mooned) (bandit) (finger) (toivo) (rock) (smoking) (tmi) (heidy)

(poolparty) (bug) (fubar) (drunk) (headbang) (flag:US) (myspace)


Last but not Least, The Best Linux Easter Egg Ever

That's enough for this year. Have a Happy Easter! Feel free leave your favorites in the comments.

MrCopilot

South Park Studio

I enjoyed the Simpsonator, I had not seen this one though. South Park Studio.

Used Successfully by Gabe Schwarzer to create this little Gem