Random crap with Uno.

[Geo]

Spring has finally arrived?

[Bertilak]

Spring has finally arrived?

Spring got skipped over and bled straight into summer.

[Unorthodox]

Hell, monarchs are a fall phenomenon here.  We'll be getting multiple generations. 

[Unorthodox]

Mostly more of the same from the caterpillars, except for stripes. 

The headcap is gone, and he's laid down a silk mat, getting ready to molt to 3rd instar.  Look at his rear, and in the shadow he casts to see the silk. 

[Unorthodox]

The war this year:

Mild winter, aphids at insane numbers again.





But, thanks to someone releasing the ladybugs last year, and the mild winter, we already have a rather sizeable populations of the ladybugs out battling.





And some I'd never seen in the garden before, this is a tiger fly.  As the name suggests, predator.  Couldn't tell what she was chomping on. 

[Unorthodox]

I am a casting associate for an upcoming ABC Halloween Special. "The Great Halloween Freight Fight." From the producers of "The Great Christmas light Fight"
We are looking for four family's with amazing Halloween displays or walk through to compete for a $50,000 prize.
I came across An Unorthodox Halloween and believe it would be a great contender.
If you are interested I would like to get more information.
I am also happy to provide you with more information on the show and answer any questions you may have.
I am attaching a copy of our flyer to this message.

[Buster's Uncle]

And you're going to say no, which is sorta gonna be too bad - they'll end up with very creepy and foolish families, and make the hobby look bad.  However, I cannot recommend saying yes; not enough potential benefit v. too much potential trouble.

[Unorthodox]

I more said maybe.  Doubt our schedule fits with filming to air before Halloween, honestly. 

[Unorthodox]

Yeah... they want to shoot a fake Halloween in August for airing in October.  Uh, no. 

[Rusty Edge]

Interesting.
My initial reaction was "try it", not with the expectation of winning, but with the assumption that it might lead to something else.  Sponsorships, buyers for old props, volunteers, etc.

My second thought was that the publicity could lead to overcrowding.

Your hobby, your choice.

[Unorthodox]

I'm NOT getting in a costume in 100+ degree weather. 

[Buster's Uncle]

If you wanted to do haunts for a living or sell your art in a big way, I couldn't urge you too strongly to go for this --- but take it from someone who spent years playing semi-pro showbiz:  being famous is nothing but a pain unless it gets you laid or paid unless you're mentally ill or immature, and people who make reality shows are the scum of showbiz, by the nature of the thing.

You a decent family man (w/ eccentric hobbies), but they want freaks.  You DO NOT want to make your kids stars, on account of you love them.  They gotta go to school the next day.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, it wasn't a happy discussion with the guy, but not something I was just going to say 'no' to out of hand.

Here was my initial response:

I guess I need to know a lot more before I'd be willing to sign up for something like that. 

What, exactly, would something like this entail? 

If we were to enter, I'd be happy to just do what we normally do, but I'm not going to be one to attempt to one-up the next person in line.  Halloween, to us, is about bringing a community together, and competitions have a tendency to drive people apart.  If you're looking for teams dramatically rushing around trying to out-do each other and create drama, that's not us. 

He responded how this was a national contest and I wouldn't even KNOW the people I'm competing against.  I commented how in the day and age of the internet community is a global phenomenon, and I'm in contact with thousands of like minded individuals around the world, chances are, I DO know whoever they might choose.

Then the schedule was brought up, and that was that.  It would be quite literally impossible for us to do our normal thing in August, or do the "big reveal" like they were wanting to film.  I left them with a number of names that fit their contest better.  Several I know are attention whores...

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, w/o attention whores, there's no reality shows.  -So good fit, there.

And there's this:  I could easily imagine that in some cursory background research, they find out about your excommunication --- and proceed to trick you into talking about it on camera -they trick people into saying too much for a living- and then frame the entire coverage of you and your family w/ that - and the kids still would have to go to school the next day.

$50,000 is sucker money for all the grief potential there, if winning was guaranteed - and we know better than that in this stupid world.

[Buster's Uncle]

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