Halloween is one of those holidays that inspires dog owners everywhere to engage in animal cruelty for the benefit of sick bastards like myself who get a big kick out of it. My mother, who is largely responsible for this twisted sense of humor, forwarded a memo to my inbox yesterday. Some of the pictures just had to be shared. Not all of them are included in this post, I just wanted to share some of my favorites.

Words cannot express the sad state of the childcare industry today.

But the Onion sure can!

Report: Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas

Ex-‘Grey’s’ actor Washington, NBC in talks – CNN.com

Our country’s newest primadonna is the black gentleman who gained fame and furor by badmouthing gay showmate T.K. Knight.

This article reads as though he’s sitting around, fielding tons of offers… and hey, ya know, he’s just SOOO good that he “gets his pick” of anything he wants. Cough.

I predict you’ll be forgotten in a few years – maybe dead in an alley or something.

Yesterday, Kiddo and I got out to soak up Pirates 3. It was enjoyable, but it suffered from the same thing that plagued the second of the series. The writers allowed themselves to get bogged down by the apathetic nature of each individual player. By now, there are a lot of players – all of them with their own agenda. The midsection of the movie that was pure dialog as each person wheels and deals to get themselves into a golden situation for the final battle started to become a grueling exercise in keep-up.

Lost‘s season finale was absolutely a crowd pleaser. I was cheering from the couch – literally. Nothing made me happier than to see some ass kicking finally be delivered.

And I know the conspiracy theorists (including my wife) are really spinning about the flashb… er, flashes. Sorry, I don’t want to spoil it if you haven’t seen it.

Excellent, excellent show. This is filmmaking at its best. These people are to be applauded.

So, I’m thinking about doing a podcast about interesting IT jobs… not just IT jobs, but IT jobs of soldiers in the field at interesting companies.

I’ve had to fortune in my career to meet some interesting characters at large companies – characters that deserve some recognition and deserve to be heard. I’ve already lined up at least one possibility at Microsoft, we’ll see if I can pull off something with an Apple employee. This also goes for NASA folk and others.

Johnny Hart, creator of “B.C.” and co-creator of “The Wizard of Id” died in his home today. He was 76.

His wife, Bobbie, says he suffered a stroke while working at his storyboard.

I hope you finally get to see what’s on the other side of that ocean, Johnny. We’ll miss you.

Full story.

I went to school with this guy.

We were in the same drama class.

Here’s to you, Sandon, for keeping the dream alive and sticking with it until you got there.

**WARNING: POSSIBLE LOST SPOILERS BELOW. TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT.

**

An interesting turn of events on tonight’s Lost that left me agog… agasp… agape. There was a chance that at least two characters could get home and find help to return for everyone – those hopes were dashed by someone’s personal agenda.

It’s also interesting to see how this event has gotten back to the show’s original season one prognostication – that Jack and Locke were somehow destined to oppose one another. This latest twist has brought that old rivalry vibe back.

It’s pretty sad when you title a blog post just so you can jog your memory about what you’re going to say, just in case you go onto a long-winded schpeal (sp).

Exchange Tears

Okie, if you’re an Exchange admin – particularly an Exchange admin – even more particular an Exchange admin of a large enterprise – if you’ve not been paying attention to the disaster that Satan doth bring upon you known as Daylight Saving Time 2007, you should be fired from your job.  You should be setting expectations of your users right now.  Their calendars are toast, friends.  Toast.  Those three weeks during the delta period, they are toast.