Between the good and bad, that's where you'll find me, Reaching for Heaven

I've been erratic about posting lately, due in part to Reading A Lot of Books Lately and Watching a Lot of Things Lately and to having erratic sleep patterns caused by critters. The woodpecker has been up to his tricks, hammering on the white trim of our house (which my dad has recently just repainted). I've been sticking my head out the window or running outside and yelling at him. It seems the best way to drive off Woody, according to various articles I've dug up online.

Finished reading "The Help": usually I tend to steer clear of Very Popular Books since all too often they seem to end up Not Worth My Time, but then I cave in to See What All The Excitement Is About. This time, however, the pattern of Popular Book Turns Out To Be Crappy has been broken: It's very good, like a combination of "The Remains of the Day" and "To Kill A Mockingbird" with a whiff of "Mississippi Burning". I totally relate to all three of the main female characters: like Aibileen and Minny, I work a thankless job where I don't get a lot of respect (though my lot isn't as hard as theirs, of course), but like Skeeter, I'm still trying to get my feet under me and find my niche in life. Dare I say, I'm tempted to bring Skeeter or Aibileen to a certain Mansion, since I need more Normal People on my roster.

Speaking of which, I'm going to RP Hell: I'm putting Alice the sparkle-pire on reserve.

Also have been reading several Doctor Who novels I've picked up here and there: found one set at Halloween in a New England town (featuring Ten and Martha). I think I know what I'm reading for October!

Ordered the next volume of the classic penny dreadful Varney the Vampire, though I probably should read the first one.

Have been watching The Gates, courtesy of AJ at carpe_ooc: it's kind of like Desperate Housewives meets True Blood, but still fun to watch. Also had a "Hey It's That Guy" moment, when I realized Paul Blackthorne, aka TV verse!Harry Dresden has a role in it.

Also, I'm staying on top of episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day. I can't say why, at least not right now, but I have a bad feeling about a main character, but I'd have to post a whole entry about my reaction to the series. I'm gonna wait till after this Friday before I jump to any conclusions, though.

Just up after a fun filled Halloween evening. Unfortunately, it was too cold and windy for us to have our annual bonfire and Halloweiner roast, so we lit the fireplace and had an indoor barbecue. We had six trick or treating goblins show up, as well as a few people who just wanted to take pictures of our Jack o'lanterns -- ninety-five all together. It didn't seem like many people in the area decorated their yards as much as they usually do, and even we didn't put up as much as we usually do, since we've been busy moving stuff in the house, getting ready to have new windows put in. Plus we're getting our roof done, so we haven't been putting many decorations up close to the house.

Also, I ended up not going trick or treating: the wind kept blowing off my witch hat, when I stepped out into the yard. Pretty hard to hold onto your hat when you're wearing a bed sheet. But I had fun reading ghost stories and spooky poems to my folks.

Also watched the classic 1931 version of "Dracula". Brrr... Great atmosphere, and I can see why Bela Lugosi is the iconic Dracula: his presence is wonderfully chill-inducing! (Take that, sparkle-'pires) And on Saturday night, I found "Nightmare Before Christmas" on YouTube.

In which I've been working, planning our annual Hallowe'en trip to Salem, MA (which will be taking place next week, when Dad and I have some time off from work), digging up more lights and things for our Hallowe'en yard haunting, poking at various fanfic projects (which I should type up), watching various anime or TV serieses online (currently "Castle" and "Yu Yu Hakusho") and tagging carpe_ho_ras RP threads.

Re: Fanfics: I'm slowly poking away at the 31_halloween fics, but it's rather slow-going, as I'm writing YnM fics, and Hallowe'en is a fairly recent import to Japan (from what I've heard), so I've had to handwave a few things in order to make some of the prompts work.

So, just got a start on bringing out some of our crazy collection of plastic jack o'lanterns to put them out in the yard. We're getting the roof reshingled and our windows replaced, so things have been a bit chaotic and my dad hasn't had a minute to dig out our Hallowe'en stuff. Only catch is, a lot of the Jack o'lanterns are stored out of my reach, making it hard to reach most of them, but I made a good start, which is what I'd hoped to accomplish.

( Cut for grumbling about a triggery author )

Just back from a dental appointment, followed by doing a little shopping with my folks, which ended up being a fairly lengthy trip: we started out going to the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop in Lowell... where I picked up something I had been looking for off and on since 2003:

A genuine, limited edition Matrix Reloaded tee shirt, featuring the title on the back and a key, which had been distributed only to cinema employees for the premiere of the film. I've seen this item on eBay off and on, running for as much as a hundred dollars. I got it for ninety-nine cents!

Also went to the K-Mart in Billerica, where I picked up a few Hallowe'en music CDs (never can have enough of those) and the two volume "Vampire Archives" anthology, which was likely a one-volume doorstop in hardback, but which got divvied up into two books as a mass market paperback. I have a thing for anthologies, since they're like mini-libraries, plus you can read at least one or two short stories in a sitting, and that gives one a sense of accomplishment. I'm looking ahead to next month and what spooky book(s) I'm going to read in preparation for Hallowe'en.

I think my bedsheet ghost costume was the hit of the neighborhood: I went for a walk about sundown clad in my costume and carrying a treat pail and a bag of extra candy to give to any little ones. I trailed behind one mom in a devil costume with a wee one in a dancer's costume: "Oh my, we've got a ghost following us..." At first the little one was a bit spooked by me, but after a while, she got used to me and started "whooo"'ing back at me. I picked up a few goodies -- including a few full-sized candy bars. I can remember getting the mini-size bars (as well as homemade treats like a popcorn ball or a goody bag of peanuts).

The great thing about a bedsheet ghost costume? No one knows if you're twelve or thirty under it, especially if you're careful to keep your vocalizations down to cute little "whooooo" sounds. I had folks driving by honk their horns at me; a couple people passing me on the sidewalk got comically spooked. A few teenagers let out exaggerated yelps.

Don't ask me what possessed me to do it, but as I was picking up a few last minute candles at the Hallowe'en stuff store in Burlington, I got a "V for Vendetta" mask. I half expected to get carded for it, since there's been some problems out in Groton with teenaged kids pranking each other with the mask and sneaking through people's yards while wearing it. Seems like an early Hallowe'en prank which went too far:

http://www.nashobapublishing.com/groton_news/ci_13560309

This year... I am dressing in that classic Hallowe'en costume: the bedsheet ghost. Only catch is, we don't have any white bedsheets to sacrifice, so I decided to make do with some white fabric from Wal-Mart instead. I was tempted to baste some black fabric spots on it so it kind of looks like Charlie Brown's bungled sheet full of holes, but I decided against it.

Also... not feeling too well, since That Time of the Month is upon me, and I have several fic chapters that are bugging me to be written, but I just don't feel focused enough to write them out without munging them. Though I *did* start creating my first CoH Architect Mission last night: it's a tribute to "Dark City", and I've been having a lot of fun retooling the story to fit Paragon City. I'm especially pleased at how well the custom spawn I created turned out. Will post pictures in due time...

Spent most of yesterday in Burlington: the Hallowe'en stuff store in one of the empty store fronts behind Kohl's is now open for business, so I had a blast browsing the costumes and the yard haunting stuff. I priced some LED candles/candelabra, including some LED pillar-type candles which had been molded to look like they'd melted down at the top.

Also found that I need to avoid Newbury Comics like the plague: I keep finding cool tchotchkes that I like, every time I pop in. This time, I discovered the Vertigo Tarot, which I'd been trying to track down for years. I utterly love the artwork (Dave McKean = genius; that's Card 0, the Fool -- recast as John Constantine -- in the icon for this entry); and to my surprise and delight, the introduction on the accompanying manual is by Neil Gaiman. Also got "Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth" for a bargain price; I know, most of the footage from it has been recut into the series to become the Director's Cut version, but I have an especial place in this movie: It's what inspired what has become "Neon Enoch Evangelion".

( Cut for length: here be a lot of background notes )

When I should be writing....