Steven Helmer Publications

My wife wasn't feeling well last night (breathed in too much dust while cleaning) so I wound up watching a re-run of the movie Tremors, or at least part of the film since it was halfway over by the time I found it.  While the movie has too many comical characters for me to be able to consider it a real horror film, I have concluded the film's monsters, the Graboids, may be one of the best horror movie monsters ever invented, especially if you ignore the sequels that added somewhat ridiculous traits that diminished them a bit. Here are five reasons why they excel in the horror movie monster status: There is a great deal of mystery surrounding them. The best horror movie monsters/killers have a limited backstory because the less the other characters know, the harder it is for them to figure out how to kill them. All we really know about the Graboids is they are a prehistoric creature. Their vulnerabilities are to-be-determined. They can be killed, but not easily. This is a health...

I finally got around to picking up a big bag of bird food so I could fill all my feeders (and have some left to re-fill them as needed). It didn't take long for the birds to flock to the front yard to take advantage of that, so I grabbed my camera and got photos. Here are some of them: ____________________________________________________________ Here are some of my previous bird feeder photos: Bird Feeder Photos (9/7/2026) Just a Random Bird Feeder Photo Some Bird Photos from Around the Yard Bird Feeder Photos 4/28/2018 and 4/29/2018

Synopsis: Agatha Raisin has grown enamored with her handsome and harming gardener, George Marston. However, she isn't the only one and has competition from many of the village women, including newcomer Jessica Fordyce, a beautiful television actress who spent time there on weekends.  When George doesn't show up to a ball Agatha only sponsored so she could share the first dance with him, the detective goes in search and finds him in a pile of compost with a bag over his head she later learns once held venomous adders. She is hired by George's sister to track down the killers, but her investigation immediately turns up one thing that leaves Agatha heartbroken - George was a philanderer who had multiple affairs around the village even though he ignored her attempts to throw herself at him. Review: The book I have on reserve at the library wasn't available yet so, while waiting, I stuck with something familiar and checked out Hiss and Hers to see what happened next in th...

My youngest daughter is taking a film & theater class as part of her senior year of high school and needed to watch and analyze a movie mentioned in one of her lessons. Jurassic Park was one of those films and as part of helping her out, I wound up getting an opportunity to re-watch it for probably the 100th time. Here are some of the thoughts I had while doing so: John Hammond's (Richard Attenborough) choices in experts is puzzling. I'm not saying a paleontologist, paleobotanist and chaos expert aren't good choices. I'm just surprised he didn't bring in an expert on zoos and living predators versus two scientists who only know about dinosaurs from fossils. Plus, if I were his insurance company, I'd be questioning the use of two experts who rely on his funding. Oh, and why are his grandkids there?  Do their parents want them to get eaten? OK, so I am going to admit, the first scene with dinosaurs is cool.  Like I told my daughter, it is hard to believe this...

It was our fall bulk pickup week so, after spending a chunk of my evening hauling an old couch and some other furniture, we no longer had room for to the curb, I was tired out enough to not want to do much else. As a result, I wound up re-watching Child's Play for the first time in about a year before calling it a night. Here are some of my thoughts from that movie: Why did Chucky ( Brad Dourif ) stay in the box? To recap, murderer Charles Lee Ray, or "Chucky," is shot by Detective Mike Norris ( Chris Sarandon ) inside a toy store and uses a spell to cast his soul into a doll that is later purchased from a homeless guy by Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) for her son, Andy ( Alex Vincent ).  So, with that mouthful out of the way, why not just break out of the box before the homeless guy even came into the picture? Was there a delay on the spell taking effect or did he have another reason for waiting until he was in a child's possession (other than the plot, of course)? ...

I don't know if it's just the time of day or the fact the park has been slightly busier than usual, but I haven't had a lot of success getting photos the past couple days. Everything is either hiding or skittish to the point they flee the second I'm within range.  I did, however, manage to get a couple blue heron photos while I was out today. I'm not completely sure if it is two different herons or the same one in different spots but here they are: ______________________________________________________________ Here are some of my previous heron photos: Heron Photos Some Heron Photos Heron With Breakfast