Crocheting/Bumps in the Night

Pictures are working again; ok, so this isn't the best picture of me ever, but I made that hat. I have also since made a scarf to go with it. I am now working on a 1940s crochet design for a long snood, with a more modern yarn. So I can consider myself a crocheter, I think. I'm still not very good, but the motions are much easier now.

So, now I'm sitting here watching the weather map, and a storm/rain system I was sure was going to hit us looks like it's trying to divide and break apart in the center...it's going to be close, but I think it will still get us at least a little, and if it can do anything to make it cooler, I'm all for it. My apartment is...unthinkably warm. I keep waking up in the middle of the night feeling ill, and I think it must be from heat, even though my fan is on me.

Also, I think I'm hearing noises...my fan occasionally makes a strange click, but I'm quite certain these noises aren't that. I was getting out of the shower last night when I heard it, which scared me, because I thought it was my door, even though that was locked. I walked the apartment and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, then went to bed...and heard it again. It was a sort of noise like someone putting something like a pot and lid away close to my wall in a neighboring apartment. Those apartments are empty, though. I thought it might be an animal, but I don't know...it it's on my side, I haven't heard it anywhere else but that one spot, and if it's on the other it sure is picking its times to make the exact same noise pretty oddly. I suppose it could be pipes reacting to the heat. I'm pretty sure I'm not haunted.

The only problem with all this is that I watched When a Stranger Calls Back on tv the other night. For those of you unfamiliar, When a Stranger Calls, the original, is one of the scariest movies of all time (#28 on the Bravo list), about the old urban legend of the babysitter getting scary calls that turn out to be coming from inside the house. I refuse to see this movie because that really does scare me (I refuse to see the remake from this year, but mostly because I've heard it's not good), but I thought the sequel would be okay. In truth, it was. It was creepy but not really scary to me; however, when you're alone in the house, creepy is really enough to get you going. It was that way with 28 Days Later, too. I wasn't scared watching it, just a little grossed out, but it was just creepy enough to make me jumpy later that evening. Thus, in a way, my desire not to see the original Stranger is supported, because I would almost definitely need to be with people and my mind would return to it when I wasn't.

I do love scary movies, though not so much the gory ones. I've been trying to figure out for some time which scary movies I like and why, to see if I can find a pattern to help me choose new flicks for rental. I can, but there are exceptions. Jaws has always been one of my favorites; I can see why people are terrified by that movie, and I might be if I swam a lot in the ocean. Actually, I've never been swimming in the ocean but I think I'm more afraid of jellyfish. Anyway, I love creature flicks in general, counting Jurassic Park, even, in that category, and also ghost movies (but not Ghost) and sci-fi-related thrillers, except I often don't find scary what others do. Poltergeist doesn't scare me at all...I love it, but my Mom refuses to watch it.

Generally, It seems like it's the movies where man is chopped up by man that I don't like as well, unless they are supernatural in some way. For instance, I don't feel much desire to see any Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie, or a movie like Audition, which is just too much. I like Scream, though. And for some reason I favor the Halloween series over Friday the 13th, even though both have a supernatural element. I don't mind Nightmare on Elm St movies because they have nostalgia value, though they fall in the realm of too much gore for me (I stand by my Fear Factor-related rampage that fear and disgust/nausea are not the same thing. Sitting in a pile of cockroaches while someone looks for something by hand is thus more acceptable than eating guts. Fear can make you nauseous, but nausea in itself is not fear. Bad taste isn't scary, it's just bad taste.). Thus, when I'm in the mood for horror/fear I go for something involving supernatural creatures or space (even if they're terrible...watching Event Horizon is better to me than risking Audition); I'm more reluctant when a film involves just people, unless it's a suspense movie rather than gore or similar discomfort. Even then, I have to make sure it's not a situation that I experience (like being alone in a house), or I'm in for sleepless nights.

So, to sum up a little---

• Yes to House on Haunted Hill, no to The Last House on the Left.
• Yes to The Birds, no to Cujo (no, no, no to Cujo).
• Yes to anything in the Aliens franchise, no to Evil Dead (I think...gore factor)
• Yes to Wait Until Dark (unless I go blind), no to Fatal Attraction (I tried to watch this once, I actually rented it, but then I just didn't feel like it. I wasn't interested).
• Yes to The Omen, no to The Game (seen it. Bored)
• Yes to Silence of the Lambs, no to Deliverance.

(Secretly, I cherish the dream of watching When a Stranger Calls, but it's going to be a while before I'm ready.)

And now, it says it's 77 degrees outside and light rain, but that storm did in fact fall apart completely and the most we'll get is probably a mm of rain. Boo, unless it really is in fact 77 degrees, in which case I could go home without melting.