Nightmare-Free Horror Show Viewing (Warning: Slasher Spoilers)

Those who know me well know that scary shows aren’t really my thing.  As a teen in the 80s when watching horror shows at slumber parties was all the rage, I mastered the art of falling asleep during them. Why?  Because while they don’t really bother me while I’m awake, I generally get nightmares for six to eight weeks afterwards.  Losing that much sleep is just not my idea of a good time.  

Given this, you may be wondering why I would even try to watch horror shows.  I mean, given the above information, why not avoid them altogether?  It’s not like watching them is necessary to living daily life.  Well, the answer is simple, if not a bit odd.  My favorite actor, Steve Byers, is known for filming a large number of horror and/or otherwise scary, suspense,  thriller-type series and movies and was even nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Program or Limited Series in the Canadian Screen Awards.  As a huge fan, naturally, I have long wanted to watch Steve in it. The problem?  I really didn’t want to have him haunting, and hunting, me every night in  my dreams.  Moreover, I  really value my sleep!

Previously, I didn’t want to publicly admit that I hadn’t seen Slasher.  I mean, who in their right mind would tell the world that they hadn’t seen their favorite actor in one of his most well-known roles? Now, however, that I have found a way to remedy the situation, I don’t mind sharing how I did so, or my thoughts on the matter.  Some people will find this humorous and perhaps others will find it heartwarming.  You could, however, just find yourself amongst those who just think I’m strange, and that is okay too!  After all, normal is overrated.

How did I do it? What did I do to be able to watch Slasher nightmare free?  Well, part of it was in how I watched the show, using a creative approach. The other was in my mindset after the show. That really helped a lot.

I took a multi-pronged approach to watching Slasher.  The first step was turning off the volume of the show completely and using closed captioning instead.  Not hearing spooky music really helps lighten the mood.  Second, I sped up the viewing speed to 1.5x. Things look less scary when people are moving quickly. This allowed me to follow the story without being spooked. Then when Steve Byers’ non-scary character, Cam Henry, came on screen, I turned the volume up and slowed the speed down to normal. After all, I had to see his acting and hear his lines as they were meant to be heard and viewed.

Next, as a soon as the show was over, I turned on music— not my favorite music as that is K-pop but I don’t speak Korean so I can’t sing along to that. Nope, I turned on the cheery, funny music that I enjoy, laugh to, and can sing to because I have all of the lyrics memorized.  I chose the music which was most likely to get stuck in my head—the music of Weird Al.  “Party in the CIA” came on.   I listened and sang, poorly, but I sang. Then I crashed. 

I was very pleased when the Executioner did not visit my dreams. In fact, pleased doesn’t cover it. I was over the moon! Did I wake up before my alarm with a vision of Steve wearing that dreadful mask in my head? Yep. But it wasn’t a problem. I was prepared and I had thought this through. 

I had decided that what I really needed to do was focus on who was in the costume and not on the character. When I woke up with Steve’s face, completely obscured by the dreadful Executioner mask stuck in my head, I did what I do best—I decided to think about it.  A lot. I’ve been told that I ‘overthink’ most things, but in this case, doing so was called for.   I started wondering how he could breathe in that mask. I mean, I made my own for cosplay and mine fits very loosely below the nose so I  can breathe. Even so, it can still be hot to wear. How on earth could Steve breathe in the mask he was wearing on camera? I don’t know. Maybe he will share that information sometime. 

Then I wondered what the weather was like during the filming of Slasher, season 1. As Cam, Steve is walking around in short sleeves, supposedly comfortably given the weather, but I know that Steve Byers is a great actor so it could be subzero temperatures and he would still look comfortable on camera even if he was losing feeling in his extremities. In that case, the Executioner costume would be a welcome thing as boots, pants, a cassock, gloves, a mask, and whatever shirt was worn under the cassock, would be much warmer than the short-sleeved police uniform. If, however, the show was filmed in the heat, then the Executioner costume would be pretty miserable to wear. I wore my cosplay version around for short periods of time only and I know it must have been much cooler than Steve’s on-screen outfit. I was sweating buckets, and I’m sure Steve had to stay in his for long periods at once. Naturally he looked like it wasn’t a problem when watching him on screen because he’s very good at his job.

Having exhausted that train of thought, yet still being awake at an insane hour, unable to get back to sleep, I moved on to the next part of my thought process. While I don’t know a great deal about Steve’s wife, I would be willing to bet that Slasher is something she could really, wholeheartedly enjoy watching with him. So yeah, at 5:00 a.m., not very long before my alarm for work goes off anyway, I was envisioning my favorite actor and his wife in front of a roaring fire (Canada gets cold so you’d have to have a roaring fire, right?) with a fuzzy blanket and a massive bowl of popcorn (the only right way to eat popcorn) watching Steve pretend to be all evil on television.  I found this heartwarming, so the whole ugly mask thing and terrifying character was no longer scary.  It was sweet—like a scene out of an old Cary Grant movie or a Hallmark Christmas special, but starring Steve and his wife. Which, incidentally, since she is an actress as well, would be a pretty cool thing to see.

To sum things up, my mindset enabled me to envision that hideous costume and smile, rather than being afraid, because I really love watching my favorite actor on screen and as much as he makes me smile, if I genuinely think a role was perhaps a great deal of fun to for him play or watch at home, that makes me happy. As does the fact that I have finally figured out how to watch some of his well-known work that I previously hadn’t seen.

Horror will never be my favorite genre, but now at least I can appreciate what may be some of the upsides of it for my favorite person to watch on screen.

Joy in Doing Things at Which You Don't Excel

 I’ve found great joy in doing things poorly.  I’m not talking about intentionally doing things poorly, or in doing things sloppily. That’s not what I mean at all.  What I mean is that, in the recent months, in my interactions with people, it has become increasingly obvious to me that many people seem to shy away from activities they enjoy because they can’t do them well.

Now, of course there’s a time when you need to do things well. At work for example, I need to do my job well, very well.  I strive to do just that and I would say that usually I succeed.  The same holds true of educating my children.  I’m a home educator so this is particularly important.  If  I drop the ball I could ruin my kids’ hopes for a good future.  Of course I do this to the best of my ability and given how I have one kid who successfully completed university, three more currently enrolled, all with various levels of academic scholarships, and one still in high school who has already made A’s in two community college classes, I’d say I do at least relatively well as a home educator.

No, I’m talking about the activities we do in our free time to improve ourselves or enjoy our lives.  I have a lot of outside interests.  I love to try new things.  I realized just last night when talking with some acquaintances that they thought that since I did all of this stuff that I was actually good at it.  Nothing could be farther from the truth!  For example, I”ve been training jiu-jitsu for years.  Am I very good?  No, not really.  Am I a great deal better than when I started years ago– absolutely!    I advance much more slowly than anyone I began lessons with years ago, but I don’t let that drag me down.  I keep plugging along.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and I can most definitely say I”m a great deal better than when I started.

Do I like writing funny song parodies for certain occasions and putting them online?  Yes!  It’s a blast.  Am I vocally talented?  Absolutely not.  However, if I can make someone else smile, it’s all worth it and I have great fun. 

It’s okay to try new things and do them poorly.  It’s okay to enjoy drawing, singing, knife-throwing, etc., just for yourself. You don’t have to do things well to enjoy them. Get out of your comfort zone and try something new just to try it.  If you’re terrible, but you enjoy it, keep at it anyway.  Have fun today.

Far Cry 5, Nick Rye, & Playing Creatively

I know Far Cry 5 has been out since 2018, but not being a gamer myself, I didn't try the game until last weekend.  I'm from the Pac-Man and Dig Dug era.  I'd never held an X-box remote before, much less tried to play a three-dimensional, first-person video game.  In fact, when playing Mario Kart with my kids, I've often been known to fall off of the road, and when playing Kirby, I have a knack for dying by falling in pits...even when I'm playing as Meta Knight who can fly.  My kids don't see how I can die by falling but, well, it happens.  I hit the wrong button and it's curtains. Given all of the above information you may wonder what on earth possessed me to try the game a full six years after it's original release.  It's simple.  My favorite actor, Steve Byers, is the voice of Nick Rye. 

Image of Nick Rye from Steve Byers' IMDB page Steve Byers' IMDB page.

So, why the long wait?  There were several reasons.  First and foremost, I didn't own any type of electronic device capable of playing the game, one of my kids told me they thought I'd hate it because it's so violent, and at least three more of my kids told me it was going to be very challenging for me to play based upon what they'd seen of my video gaming skills up to that point.  (Author's note:  I have six kids.)

At this point, I've already watched practically all of the stuff Steve Byers has starred in and a good deal of shows in which he had a smaller role.  Therefore, I decided it was time to take the plunge into the video gaming world!  

Additionally, I was spurred on by an online acquaintance who, having played the game himself, but having most likely no idea of my sub-par gaming skills, assured me, "You'll be great at it...just have fun with it!"  And if you are reading this, and you know who you are, thank you for the words of encouragement.  They were most welcome and appreciated!

Unlike my situation of not having a way to play the game back in 2018, there's now a community gaming area where I live.  They were greatly amused when I called about "Far Cry 5" because, though I'd gone there many times to take my kids to play games over the past four years since they opened, I'd never once done any gaming myself.  Additionally, I'm considerably older than most gamers, so I think they were tickled by that.  

Many things in life are more fun when done to the extreme so I headed to my local thrift store, found a blue t-shirt the same shade as Nick Rye's and also purchased a red and black flannel button-up shirt, from which I removed the sleeves.  I paired these with some light jeans and boots.  Then I traded the baseball cap for a bandana tied it in my hair (I have braids so baseball caps don't work well) and off I went.

Now, I'm terrible at the game...but that's okay! I had a really hard time getting the controls straight.  Nonetheless, I had a blast!  I played for seven hours over two days.  After about three and a half hours someone walked by, excited to see what I was playing.  I invited him to take over for 40 minutes and that was a fantastic decision!  He explained a lot of stuff about the controls that I had not understood and since he was so much more proficient at the game, he actually got me to where Steve Byers' character was located.   This was significant progress.  I got "greeted" by Nick Rye in the game and then went off to clear the area and try to find his plane.  

Back on my own again you can imagine how that went--I wrecked a large number of vehicles in-game and died a lot.  Eventually it was 11:00 p.m. and I had to go as I work very early in the mornings before Sunday worship service. Undeterred, and much to the amusement of my family, I retuned to gaming the next night.  

While the game is fun, I believe that I already stated that I'm not generally a gamer.  Somehow, and I have no idea how, I got off of the mission of finding Nick Rye's plane.  I eventually completed what was apparently a side mission of saving the Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival, and I had hoped the game would tell me what to do to find that plane so I could see more of Steve Byer's character, Nick Rye.  Nope.  The game didn't do as I had hoped.  

I was beginning to wonder if I'd have more luck standing in a random square or park in Toronto, Canada and hoping to accidentally run into the real Steve Byers than finding the character in the game.  Then it occurred to me-- this is a really, really well-programmed game.  Could I treat it like a real search and rescue mission?  Or like the holodeck on some of the new Enterprise models in Star Trek?  

When you are looking for a missing person, you start where they were last seen, so I decided to go back to where I had last seen Nick Rye.  Would the NPC be just "hanging out" where I'd left him last time before clearing the area?   Being terrible at driving and sick of being shot at (yes, it's a shooting game but I was tired of shooting--LOL) I decided to follow the map and walk through the forest.  For me, this was a very sound choice.  I encountered some wild animals but I can shoot at a bear.  It's several people at once coming at me that causes me issues!  

Eventually I made it back to Rye and Sons Aviation and sure enough, Nick Rye was right where I had seen him before! I hit the "talk" button enough times to hear all of Steve Byers' lines from that location and then I decided I had to try to get the game to put me back on the mission to find the plane so that hopefully I could interact more with Nick.  A quick Reddit search indicated where Nick Rye's plane was supposed to be on the game map.   So I walked off merrily (again ignoring all the available vehicles) tromping through the forest.  It's kind of relaxing when no one is shooting at you.  Almost like a nature walk.

When I got near the river, characters found me and started shooting again. The game reminded me that I was supposed to take these guys out, but I'd decided to play the game on my own terms.  I jumped in the water and swam, staying submerged as long as possible.  I got shot at a lot, but didn't get hit and made it to the location where the plane was being kept.  Success!

Okay, partial success.  I got myself back on the mission I wanted, so that's a win.  I died twice tying to liberate the plane, but I'll do better at that next time!  (Probably this evening.)

All in all, I had a great time playing Far Cry 5 and I'm so glad I tried it.  No, this is NOT for children.  It's extremely violent and full of language kids should not be exposed to, but for an adult who wants a  game to play, it's a great deal of fun!  Hopefully I'll liberate the plane soon and get to interact more with Steve's character, Nick.

Life with a Wookie

Rover cries when his dad leaves for work, when kids go off to college and don't come home all the time like he expects, and maybe even when I leave the house, but since I'm not here to hear it, it's kind of hard to tell on that last one.  

When I say that he cries though, it's really, truly that sorrowful, mournful sound that you hear coming from Chewbacca when Han is in trouble.  I've tried to record this sound, but to no avail. Rover just isn't predictable enough about when he will make the mournful alien cry for me to catch it.  I'm sure the sound guy for Star Wars had to have a recorder going for days to catch such a sound to use in the movie track, if  I am, in fact correct about where the noise came from.  

The sound isn't the only thing Rover and Chewy have in common though.  Nope.  They both are a bit hard on their toys.  I mean, with Rover, most of his toys last about thirty minutes tops in recognizable condition.  That's okay though.  I still love the big goofball!