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By Jackelyn Velilla and Amos Patterson
Aug. 27, 2020
Trumped-up terror is big business. According to Zombie Buzz, haunted houses scared up nearly $700 million in ticket sales across more than 5,000 U.S. commercial attractions in 2018.
So it’s no surprise that investors are drawn to the spooky festivities, attracted by a lucrative seasonal industry that’s as reliable as pumpkin spice.
I’m no professor of natural sciences or anything, but that’s not really the point. I think everyone will have different answers, and it’s a hell of a fun icebreaker.
My guesses are below. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Anyone who remembers how to play a certain family card game named the Spanish word for “one” will enjoy my hacky version that I posted a few years ago to GitHub.
ANGEL: You’re dead.
ME: …
ANGEL: Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but yeah. As a door nail.
ME: So…
ANGEL: You have two choices. You can move into a higher plane of existence where all is energy and light, all paradoxes are collapsed, and all mysteries are resolved. Your true human potential—nay, the cosmic destiny of all humankind—will finally be within reach. Even the face of God Itself…
ME: What’s the other choice?
I recently found myself wondering how artists like Autechre, Richard Devine, and Aphex Twin came up with their insane song titles. I mean, just look at some of these:
I’m a software engineer. Been doing it for about four years. I work on large, old web applications. Working on large, old web applications, even if you’ve been doing it for decades, is one of the most insanely daunting things a human being will ever do. This is true: the most complex structures ever created by mankind are computer programs. The large hadron collider at CERN is a distant second. To say the learning curve at software jobs is immense captures neither the scope nor the horror of the experience, so I figured I’d come up with a metaphor.
Only what metaphor? What image could convey this Lovecraftian terror, this yawning chasm of insanity into which only the maddest of us are brave enough to gaze, to laugh hysterically until we choke on our own tongues and die?
Jason Herrboldt 