10/25/11

Annie's Top 10 Vampire Movies

During the Halloween season, I don't really like to watch scary horror films. I opt for the milder fun stuff like Tim Burton flicks and Hocus Pocus. Movies like Paranormal Activity, the Saw series or Texas Chainsaw Massacre don't really appeal to me. I don't like being scared out of my mind because I have a very active imagination. It's something I never grew out of, so it's hard for me to watch something nightmarish and then just turn it off in my mind. I'll think about it over and over until I convince myself that it's somehow real and I won't sleep (like after that time I watched Poltergeist). It's bad.

And zombie movies? No way. I can't do zombie movies. There's something about...

Posted at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

10/18/11

My 5 Favorite Famous People in New Orleans

People come and people go in New Orleans. People are always coming into town to film movies and generally take away all your parking when they film on your street. When I first moved down here it wasn't unusual to hear that Kim Kardashian was visiting for the weekend. Of course at the time she was dating Reggie Bush. My, how things can change in a short amount of time (I kinda miss you Reggie!). And way back when I first came to New Orleans on a family vacation to the French Quarter, Trent Reznor and Anne Rice both lived in the Garden District; but they have since moved on.

These days, we have a new influx of famous people along with the ones who are permanently woven into the fabric of this great city, and they're not going anywhere. And if you live in New...

Posted at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments: 3

10/11/11

Time to Put Away Childish Things

My first computer was an Apple II+ back in the early 1980s. The original 48k was beefed up to 64 with an expansion card. It was a sweet machine. Over the next few years I built it up even more and it eventually sported dual 5.25 inch floppy drives and an internal 300 baud modem. (Remember baud? I don’t even remember what baud stood for, except that it was a measure of speed.)

I taught myself Basic and coded with friends, even delving into "BBSs" - bulletin board systems which were the forerunners of today’s websites. For a while the II+ ran neck-and-neck with its arch-nemesis, the IBM PC, until its speed was eventually eclipsed by the latter’s monster 1200 baud modem.

Along with the coding, I played long-form games like Wizardry...

Posted at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0

10/04/11

Bah! Halloween Humbug