Writing by vitulli on Tuesday, 16 of October , 2007 at 10:00 am
**Note: below is an entry I made on a friend’s blog but I wanted to post it here too.
Halloween (aka John Carpenter’s Halloween) is my favorite scary movie of all time and recently I had the opportunity to watch Rob Zombie’s interpretation. It was not terrific, but neither is the original, and through the experience I learned that I do indeed have a scare limit. Neither film is for the faint of heart, let me tell you, but for those of you who don’t know, the scare is more psychological than supernatural.Rob Zombie amped up the terror of the original by making Mike Meyers a giant, impenetrable column of a man but added some personal details and psychological traumas to aid in our understanding of the monster within. This film opens with Mike Meyers as a child, right before his first killing, so we can watch his full transformation into a psychopath. For those of you who have watched the original film, there is also more explanation into his slaying of his family and why he comes back for his sister. An intriguing and effective film, I must say, and yet I have no desire to see it again. But I do cherish it for all it has taught me.
Everything I Need to Know about Horror Films I Learned from Halloween
1. When dealing with a psychopath, don’t talk to him, just run.
2. Never go upstairs to avoid being killed; go outside instead.
3. Don’t have sex. Sex kills.
4. Babysitting is no good either.
5. Underage drinking is detrimental to your health.
6. Don’t taunt the man in a mask.
7. If there’s a scary house on your block, around the corner or even next door, avoid it at all costs.
8. For heaven’s sake, don’t hold parties at the scary house in your neighborhood. See number 7 if confused about this point.
9. Psychopaths move quickly and always know where you are.
10. Don’t pick up the gun unless you know how to use it.
11. Your slutty friends are already dead, let them go.
12. Tears don’t scare psychopaths, so shut up and run.
13. When hiding, don’t make a lot of noise by screaming and crying and such. This alerts the psychopath to your location.
14. Even when you think you’ve killed the psychopath, shoot him, stab him, kick him one more time to be sure.
15. Psychopaths never stop coming after you.
Category: daily
Writing by vitulli on Saturday, 25 of August , 2007 at 6:31 pm
My friend Milan asked me one day, “What would you do if you knew you were going to die in a month? How would you spend your remaining time?” These were not surprising questions coming from him, my reflective and analytical friend. They were prompted by a previous conversation between him and our friend Valarie in regards to a family friend of hers who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. This lady was spending her remaining days with family and shopping. Yes, shopping, and in a big way. Spending money on all the things she had never felt free enough to purchase when there was no time line to her life. Enjoying the fruits of labor that were now coming to an end. Prettying up her world, so to speak.
This was an easy question for me to answer. Especially because shopping has never been important to me. I would quit my job, cash in my retirement, and blow through my savings. I would travel the world, doing all the things I have never done, but have always intended to and rack up some amazing debt doing so. I would visit my family, of course, but I would spend most of my time ticking off the items on my life list that had been ignored.
I would skydive; a pretty common life list item but something I have wanted to do since I was kid. Money is what has always stopped me from doing it. With no worry about where the money would come from, I would be free to throw my body into the vast and open sky. To feel more alive as I fall from an airplane, than I ever did safely secure on the ground.
I would travel to all the countries I have never visited. France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Greece, India, Africa, Vietnam, Japan - my passport would be filled with stamps. Again, money is what has always stopped me from visiting these places. It is not cheap to travel the world and I have yet to come across a job that lets you take 6 months off without pay and guarantee that there will be a position for you to come back to at the end of your travels.
As I started listing off the ways I would spend my remaining days, Milan looks at me and says, “So what is holding you back? Why don’t you do those things now while you can enjoy them?” And I had to think about my answer. It didn’t come to me as readily as the items I would accomplish. I consider myself to be a person who lives freely, not caring about the trappings of life, and constantly moving in the direction the signs of my life point to. Trying to live authentically, so to speak, but his questions gave me pause.
It occurred to me that the hesitation comes from an uncertainty about money. Specifically, an illusion of time as pertains to money. We make choices in life based on the illusion that time is on our side so we need to take necessary fiscal precaution and heed the sound advice of financial planners.
Now, that is not to say I am saver. Far from it. I live paycheck to paycheck but I do contribute to my retirement. And I put money from every paycheck into savings. The rest I blow on dinners out and drinks with friends at local pubs. I work everyday at a job that offers me free healthcare benefits. And contributes 10% of my salary to retirement. I live in a cheap apartment so I can have more money to travel and hang out with people who are important to me. I stay here in this situation because I have the illusion that I will live to 80. And with that much time ahead of me, I need to lay down a solid foundation for myself.
Sure, I could quit my job. I could cash in my retirement. I could blow through my savings. I could leave today. But today turns into tomorrow and the day after that and what do I do six months from now, when I return from my world travels, penniless, homeless, jobless and with the illusion of my whole life in front of me? If I am not dying in a month, what am I supposed to do about retirement? What about life insurance and savings accounts and health insurance? To quit my job and travel the world only works if there is nothing to come back to. Otherwise, the trappings of life become necessary and make things much more comfortable for the long term. Cause if I live to be 80 but have no retirement money to live off of, those skydiving jumps and airline travels to France, Africa and Germany are not going to pay the rent.
It is the illusion of time that keeps me grounded.
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Category: daily
Writing by vitulli on Monday, 6 of August , 2007 at 8:22 pm
Here in Sacramento, the city sponsors an event to get more folks biking during the month of May.
I committed to biking 200 miles for the month of May. What was I thinking.
And why was this post in my draft folder for 3 months?
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Category: Uncategorized
Writing by vitulli on Tuesday, 1 of May , 2007 at 6:24 pm
As the semester winds down (way too slowly), I am once again looking forward to the long, lazy days of summer. I say that as if I’m not working 40 hours a week. But then again, only being committed 40 hours a week sounds like a treat. Without going home to hours of Statistics homework. Or staying up late to write speeches. Or attending class at 7:30 am three days a week. Or attending the Math lab for some much needed assistance with Statistics. Or practicing extemporaneous speeches that must be between 4-5 minutes long. Did I mention studying Statistics? With 6 students failing, 3 getting D’s, 4 getting C’s, 3 getting B’s and only 1 student getting an A, I need all the help I can get in this class. Not that I’m failing, but honestly this is the hardest class I’ve ever taken. And I hate it. I digress.
The Summer of ‘06 was officially dubbed the Summer of Vitulli because I opted not to take any classes. For the first time in 3 years. And I spent the summer finding my Mojo. Which had been lost somewhere between paying off $28,000 of debt, going to school and working full time. In hindsight, I did find my Mojo but didn’t realize it fully realize it until the Fall.
In anticipation of this summer, I’ve already got the theme picked out (thanks Bellow!) and activities a plenty. Below is a short list of items on the summer agenda:
-Biking along the American River Trail
-Scavenging the neighborhood garage sales for furniture to redecorate my apartment
-Visiting my friend Johanna in Albuquerque
-Driving up the Pacific Coast Highway, visiting breweries along the way and camping en route to Portland, OR
-Spending time with my brother who is supposedly coming out to visit
- Watching as much of my newly acquired cable TV as is worth the $39.99/month bill
-Updating this site and learning more WordPress
Other ideas? Submit them now!
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Category: daily
Writing by vitulli on Friday, 6 of April , 2007 at 10:18 am
When using public restrooms, always check for toilet paper BEFORE sitting down on the toilet and not after you’ve already peed.
Love,
The Vitulli
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Category: quips
Writing by vitulli on Wednesday, 28 of February , 2007 at 2:10 am
In case you missed it, Sunday was the Academy Awards Ceremony. I am a huge fan of the cinema and once again I was privileged to attend a FAB-U-LOUS Oscar Party hosted by my friends Hope and Tim. Those two really know how to show a girl a good time. Food, drinks, laughter and some good old-fashioned competition provided the landscape for the evening. Competition, you say? Indeed. Every year, we complete an Oscar ballot casting our vote for the nominee who will win and the nominee who should win an award. They are not always one and the same and sometimes it just feels good to cast your vote for the nominee who really deserved it (and couldn’t afford to pay off the Academy to get it). The participant who guesses the most right in the “will” win category, goes home with a prize. Simple, straight forward competition. After all, not a one of us is a rocket scientist.
Last year, for their inaugural Oscar party, yours truly was the big winner. <Technically, Hope won as she had more correct, but being the gracious host that she is, prior to casting the ballots, she established that she could not win the competition. Lucky for me!> Yep, people, I wore the crown. And it was a good crown, with jewels and sparkles and stuff. This year, however, things did not pan out in my favor. Despite vast research (I’m not kidding) and correctly guessing 17 out of 24 categories, I lost my crown to a fellow competitor. Good thing he likes pink sparkles!
But I did walk away a winner that night. While watching the Oscar ceremony, I had an epiphany about my future Oscar acceptance speech. Yes, I will win an Oscar someday and yes, I’ve already begun troubling over my acceptance speech. Never mind that I don’t act; I will find a way to win an Oscar. And when that day comes, I want to be prepared with an acceptance speech at the ready. ‘Cause no one wants to be caught like a deer in headlights with over 1 Billion viewers watching them. At least, I don’t. And now I won’t have to lose sleep over it anymore.
My epiphany arrived during the awarding of an Honorary Oscar to Ennio Morricone. He came out on stage, accepted his individually hand-crafted statuette from Clint Eastwood, and turned to the audience and held it out before him. As in the picture above. And I thought to myself (while saying out loud), wouldn’t it be great if he just held up his Oscar to the audience, said Thank you into the microphone and walked away? People, that is my future Oscar acceptance speech. And you can quote me.
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Category: daily
Writing by vitulli on Thursday, 15 of February , 2007 at 7:16 pm
Yes, I wrote the Unrequited poem. No, it is not recent. I wrote this poem during a sad time in my life when I realized the person I was head over heels in love with did not love me back. Writing has always been how I deal with my emotions, both the good and bad ones (although it’s much easier to write when I’m sad). Yesterday, I was going through some of my old writings and came across this poem. To me, it’s poignant and sad and since I happened to be reading it on the official Hallmark Holiday, I thought I would post it to share with everyone. I like the contrast of reading sad love poems on the official Hallmark Holiday, since it’s supposed to be a day of consumate and happy love. Consider it my way of sticking to the Hallmark marketers. Enjoy!
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Category: daily
Writing by vitulli on Thursday, 15 of February , 2007 at 2:32 am
Unrequited
Don’t know when you became so important to me
But I sit with one candle in front of me
Crying for the loss of you and what almost was
Such a strong reaction from someone so closed off
Can’t figure out where you came from
And how you snuck by the guards at the door
And why I want you to stay
When I wasn’t intending to let you in
Three and a half days alone and I won’t get to see you
Just once, just to see if it was real
You started something you never meant to see through
And now you avoid me
I tried so hard to stay away from you
I kept you out for so long
Yet here I am, crying over my love
And what never will be
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Category: poetry
Writing by vitulli on Tuesday, 13 of February , 2007 at 5:28 am
My web editor is on vacation for a month so the changes that I want to make to the layout and format of this site will have to wait until his return. Alas. But changes are coming, people, have faith. This site will soon look the way I envision it. With boat loads of functionality and barrels of useful information about thevitulli.
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Category: quips
Writing by vitulli on Tuesday, 13 of February , 2007 at 5:17 am
(via www.templecoffee.com)
In celebration of Lincoln’s birthday, I had the day off from work. This provided an opportunity to check out a new coffee house. New to me, mind you, not Sacto. Temple Fine Coffee and Tea has been voted a favorite among Sacramento coffee lovers and today I learned why. They offer an impressive selection of rare and delicious coffees from the top 1% of coffee growers worldwide. This is a very straightforward coffee house and functions the way a coffee house should; where coffee is the focus, and everything else is meant to complement it. Jazz music played out of the house speakers in perfect harmony with the warmth of the coffee and the quiet art by Joel Smith on the walls was the ideal canvas for highlighting the morning sunshine. The place was hopping, so the noise level was a bit high for those of us trying to study (and those of us that didn’t have an iPod to block out the background noise) but I enjoyed being distracted from Statistics homework to listen to three female engineers studying for a test and several community organizers plotting the revitalization of Sacto neighborhoods.
The morning began with a cup of organic brewed coffee from the Mexican Chiapas region. I drink brewed coffee as if it is water, and most of the time I hardly notice it, but this cup made me sit up and take notice. The smooth bite of caffeine hit my tongue with a hint of chocolate and fruit and I felt my tired body respond: synapses began connecting, blood started flowing, and my energy was instantly raised. After a 7:30 AM Statistics class, you can imagine how desperate I was for replenishment. Then came the cappuccino. While on the sacred ground of this coffee house, I had to indulge in my favorite coffee drink of all time. It didn’t disappoint. Perfectly balanced coffee, made from Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans (rare, people, RARE!), and whole milk foam (if you’re gonna do it, do it well) hit my lips and I didn’t want to stop sipping. Delicious and inviting doesn’t even begin to describe the experience. Scrumptuous and sensual comes close. Try one for yourself. What adjectives would you use to describe it?
Did I mention that all their coffees are available in french press?
There is a reason this has been voted a favorite coffee house by Sacramentans. Come election time, they will definitely get my vote.
www.templecoffee.com
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Category: coffee, daily
