October 6
On today's episode of DC Kids Show, Jett and Analei tried on DC Halloween costumes. I always enjoy watching those kids geek out over comic book stuff, even if the show is basically just an advertisement. So anyway, I decided I'd use the episode as an excuse to start my Halloween journal for the year. I suppose I could have even started it earlier, because over the past month or so, I've watched several horror anthology webseries (including Bloody Cuts, Crypt TV, Sleep Tight, and Witching Season Films; Childrin R Skary is one that I watched a few years ago). I also watched The Craft like a week or two ago, and I should be watching more Halloweenish movies throughout the month. Ooh, also awhile back I got some pumpkin spice Werther's soft caramels. Those are pretty good. And for the past I don't even know how long, I've been adding various links to my Halloween links page. And the other day I added a Disney Jr. video ("HalloVeen") to my Halloween videos. And... I fear I'm likely forgetting things that I might consider worthy of mentioning here, if I thought of them. (But I'd probably be wrong about that, so whatevs.)
Oct. 7
I watched Girl vs. Monster, a Disney Channel Original Movie from five years ago that I never got a chance to see before now.
Oct. 8
Tonight is the second episode of the new series Ghosted, and it's set on Halloween.
Oct. 9
Started reading "Dracula" for the first time. I hope to finish it before Halloween. But I'm a slow reader, so we'll see.
Oct. 12
I got some Booberry cereal, but I'm not sure when I'll start eating it. Also, I watched I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Oct. 13
This was Friday the 13th. I suppose it's always sort of interesting when that falls in October. Um... I watched the second episode of True Blood on Amazon. I had previously watched a few episodes when it started in 2008, but didn't have the chance to see more of it. But earlier this month I discovered I could watch it on Amazon, so I started over from the beginning, and this time I hope to get through the whole series, though of course I can't do that by Halloween. Maybe I'll get through the first season, though. I also watched the first episode of a new Amazon series called Lore, which is based on a podcast I've never heard. It's a sort of documentary about real events that border on the supernatural. I didn't really like it much, mostly because the narration kind of sucks, but I may watch more of the series.
Oct. 14
Started eating the BooBerry this morning.
Oct. 15
Awhile back, probably in early October but possibly late September, I saw a short film on FOX that was part of a series presented by various Mars candies (this one by M&Ms). Today I started a page about the short film series, which is called Bite Size Horror. I haven't managed to see any other films on TV, but I did watch two more online. Hopefully by Halloween I'll get to see at least one more. (The ones I've seen so far, aside from the M&M one, were presented by Skittles and Starburst, and I know there's supposed to be one presented by Snickers. But there could be more than that, I'm not sure.)
Oct. 17
Watched the latest installment of Crypt TV, KinderFänger, which I added to my page for the webseries. (I don't add every short film in the series, just the ones I rather like.)
Oct. 20
Saw this comic in my facebook feed, added it to my Halloween comics page. Later, on today's episode of DC Kids Show, Analei and Jett got shrunken down and trapped in a haunted house toy set. Because of course they did.
Oct. 21
For months (off and on), I've been looking through Dread Central's list of reviews, because their URLs have changed, which means I need to change links to their reviews in my reviews. It's also a chance to learn about movies I might want to check out someday that I might not have known about, especially short films. Sometimes I add something to a list of things I want to see, other times I actually watch the film online right after reading about it. Such is the case with a film called Theodore, which is more weird than actually scary, but I liked it. Also today I watched a new music video by Whitney Avalon, called Uninvited, in which she plays Maleficent (as she did a couple years ago in an installment of Princess Rap Battle). This is something she did, apparently, as a sort of Halloween treat for her fans. I didn't love it like I do most of the things I've seen her do, but it was fairly enjoyable. Later, I watched a TV remake of The Watcher in the Woods, on Lifetime. Since we don't get Lifetime at my house, I came over to Grandma's house to watch it. And I watched the Snickers "Bite Size Horror" film, "Live Bait." Also this evening, my cousin Torrin shared a pic of Jack-o-Lanterns he and his girlfriend Christina carved:
Oct. 22
Tonight was the Halloween episode of "Bob's Burgers." Linda and the kids went out trick-or-treating, with no luck, but then started hunting a wolf. Meanwhile, Teddy nursed Bob, who had broken his leg. But the pain meds made Bob think Teddy was a werewolf. Then there was The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror XXVIII. Then a non-Halloween episode of "Ghosted," though of course every episode is sort of Halloweenish. And then I watched The Shining.
Oct. 23
I finished adding Dread Central links to my reviews, finally. (It would have taken even longer, but a little while back I decided to stop adding links to my "movies I want to see" pages, and just concentrate on changing links in reviews I've already written.) And then I added links in my reviews to a couple of other horror movie news & reviews sites, iHorror.com and ModernHorrors.com. Both of those went by much faster than the Dread Central links. (But again, it would have taken longer if I'd added them to all the things I want to see someday.)
Oct. 24
Tonight I watched a new Halloween episode of "Fresh off the Boat." Then there was "Blackish," but there was just one Halloween scene tacked onto the end; most of the episode was just about the family playing Monopoly. Still, it was cool that in the final scene they were all dressed as Star Wars characters. Bow was Leia, which I thought was neat because someone was dressed as Leia at a Halloween party in tonight's "FotB," too. Then there was a Halloween episode of "The Mayor." Sadly, if anyone was dressed as Leia in that show, I didn't notice. But I did really like Courtney calling the community party he was planning "City Hall-oween." Also, today's episode of SciShow Kids was about dissecting a pumpkin.
Oct. 25
Watched new Halloween episodes of "Speechless," "Modern Family," and "American Housewife."
Oct. 26
I started watching some short horror films last night (after midnight, so technically today) on Fun Size Horror. Hopefully I'll get to the rest of them soon. And today I finally got around to watching last week's episode of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," which was the Halloween episode. The "heist" competition they have every Halloween is always awesome, but this one ended in a truly special way that made it so much more awesome. Later today I watched a new episode of SciShow Kids in which Jessi and Squeaks had just gotten back from trick-or-treating, and Jessi explains how chocolate is made.
Oct. 27
Today I started a new game of Pokemon LeafGreen, with the primary goal of catching a Gastly and evolving it into a Haunter. (I don't have the option of evolving Haunter into Gengar, of course, but I like Haunter better, anyway.) I started the game with a Squirtle, which I named Champ. Then I caught a Rattata, which I named Chomp. And a Mankey, which I named Chimp. I thought I might try to name as many pokemon as possible with names starting with "ch" for no particular reason. But I soon changed my mind. I'm not sure what I ultimately want my party to consist of, aside from Haunter, which I plan on naming "Torrin" (for a reason you can easily guess if you've been reading this page). And I have caught a Zubat that I named Vlad. I might want that to be one of the pokemon I keep in my party, because bats are Halloweeny. Anyway, I'll update you as the game progresses. Because I know you're all so totally interested.
Also today, the latest episode of DC Kids Show featured Halloween Hacks. And there's this Dial soap dispenser that looks like a black cat, which Mom must have bought at least a few Halloweens ago, but no one ever used. I started using it today. Also, tonight's episode of "Once Upon a Time" was a Halloween episode. I think it was last night that I started a page for the short films I'd be watching on Fun Size Horror. (In yesterday's entry here, I just linked to the actual site, but the link in today's entry is to my page.) But it was late at night when I started it (unless I started it this morning, I really don't remember). And I believe the only film I put on the page at the time was one from "volume two," because... I didn't really know much about Fun Size Horror yet, and I was just watching videos kind of randomly. But now I've looked into it, and tonight I watched all the "volume one" short films on Amazon Prime, and added them to my page. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get around to the rest of the volume two films (and see if some of the films on the website haven't been released yet as part of any volume). But anyway... now it is once again quite late, and time for sleeping.
Oct. 28
Well, I caught a Gastly this evening. I decided not to name it Torrin, after all. I considered maybe Pumpkin, or Jack (as in O'lantern), or Rick (as in Rick Gastly). But finally I chose to name it Boggy, after my Boglin, Bog-o-Bones. And later I watched Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls.
Oct. 29
Eh, I spent most of the day playing Pokemon, I guess. But at night I watched Urban Legend.
Oct. 30
I've been depressed all day and night, unable to really do anything. Depression sucks. But finally I did watch a weird little film on Amazon called A Little Halloween. It was kind of neat, I guess. Then I watched the shorts from volume two of "Fun Size Horror."
Oct. 31
Well, the actual day is finally here. I slept alright, and woke up feeling not so depressed. We'll see how long that lasts. I started the day with a bowl of BooBerry, then a cup of coffee and a dark chocolate pumpkin biscotti. And sometime soon I should go in town for awhile. I had expected to do that yesterday, but a storm that knocked out power everywhere nixed that plan. Meanwhile, Google has a very sweet doodle today.
Before going in town, I realized I hadn't yet updated my site's calendar for November. Usually I try to get that done at least a few days before the new month starts, and here it is the last day of October. So I started working on that, but had to pause my work when we went to town. I bought myself a "make your own mixpack" including "Jinx" and "Lucky Kat", both from Magic Hat; "Winter Warmer" from Harpoon; "Limbo IPA"; Stella Artois Cidre; and Switchback ale. Also bought an 18-pack of PBR, so I should be covered for awhile. And while in town, I did some reading in Dracula, which unfortunately I haven't done much of over the past few weeks. So I'm far from finishing it, but I'll get there... probably before Thanksgiving, anyway. When I got home, I finished working on my calendar. And now I should try to watch some Halloween stuff soon.
First up, I watched the Halloween episode of the webseries Just Add Magic. The first season of that show was released on Amazon in January 2015, but I didn't have Amazon prime at the time, so I didn't watch it until earlier this fall. Then I waited to start season two until now, because the first episode was a Halloween episode. (It aired in October 2016, while the rest of season two didn't air until January 2017). So now that that's out of the way, I can finish watching the season whenever. But it's neat, because I was wondering how the next episode (the one I just watched) could possibly be set on Halloween, when the last episode of season one was set in the summer, and there was a cliffhanger that couldn't wait months to be dealt with. But now that I've seen the episode, it makes perfect sense. The girls had to use a spell to go back in time to the previous Halloween to obtain an ingredient for another spell, which they could only get one day a year: Halloween. So that was, as I said, neat. Later, I watched a new Halloween special on the DVR called Michael Jackson's Halloween. (It aired last Friday, but I didn't get around to seeing it til now, Tuesday night.) And then I added some things to my Halloween commercials. (Four of them are new, but I also added an old Pizza Hut ad from the 90s. And there was one Google ad from 2015 that had disappeared from YouTube, so I found it on iSpot. I also started a page in my commercials section for Creepy Kids, which formerly I just had as a playlist on YouTube that I linked to from my "creepy kids in pop culture" page. And I added a British ad to that playlist, which is a bit old, but I just discovered it this year.) Oh, also there's something I was considering adding to my Halloween commercials playlist and/or my social justice ads playlist, but I didn't. I thought the ad was okay, but... I dunno. I wasn't totally feeling it.
So... here it is, after 10pm, and I haven't yet started watching any actual movies. That's so wrong, but it's been a bit of a weird year, and particularly with having to go to town today instead of staying home watching DVDs all day. But now I'm ready to start.... First, I watched The Monster Squad. Then I decided to catch up on my YouTube subscriptions, and some of the things were Halloweenish in nature, but I needn't share all that. Though I will share this one SciShow episode about vampires. And then I watched Poltergeist.
Nov. 13
Beth had gotten a couple of pumpkins last month, potentially to make jack-o-lanterns, but that never happened. But the main thing she wanted them for was to bake pumpkin seeds. She's asked me several times to cut open the pumpkins for her (since she has pain in her hands or whatever, from like arthritis or something). I finally got around to that today, now it's up to her to extract the seeds and do whatever she wants with them.
Also, for weeks now I've been meaning to mention that Entertainment Weekly had a special Halloween double issue, which came out like two weeks before Halloween. I'm just such a procrastinator that I've kept putting off mentioning the magazine here. I had hoped to mention it whenever I finished reading it, which was probably by Halloween itself, but I didn't, and then more weeks went by. But I figure since I edited this page today to mention cutting the pumpkins, I might as well take the opportunity to also mention the magazine. Its longest article is about Supernatural, but I didn't read that, because I am like a few seasons behind on it, and I wanted to avoid any spoilers there might be. After that, they broke down the Halloween stuff into categories by decade. For the 70s, they had stuff about "The Stepford Wives," The Night Stalker, a book I'd never heard of called "The Pumpkin Smasher" (which I immediately added to my list of books to get someday), and a movie I'm not sure if I'd ever heard of called "Tourist Trap" (which I added to my list of movies to see someday), and an article about damned kids (which I just now scanned for my own creepy kids page). For the 80s they have an "interview" with Chucky from the "Child's Play" movies, stuff about the twins from The Shining, and "Evil Dead 2", something about a story from the "Sandman" comics, and the metal band GWAR, a severed ear from "Blue Velvet," and something about Little Shop of Horrors. For the 90s they had stuff about The Craft, and The Blair Witch Project, and Don't Look Under the Bed, and "Stir of Echoes," and Hocus Pocus. From the 2000s they had stuff about Scary Movie, and an episode of Psych called "Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast," and a Korean movie called "The Host," and the TV series "Hannibal," and the rubber suit from season one of American Horror Story, and Cabin in the Woods, and "Harper's Island," and Bates Motel, and "Freddy vs. Jason," and "Shaun of the Dead," and a preview of season 4 of "Black Mirror."
Dec. 17
Today I finally finished reading Dracula.