Halloween, and why I love it

Halloween has always had a special place in my heart. At what other time of year can you let your imagination run wild? And the candy's not bad, either ;)

I think I can remember every one of my costumes. Some were handmade, or assembled from pieces bought at Value Village - which I still count as 'handmade', because they weren't packaged costumes. I've been a clown, Sailor Moon (made by Mom), Pebbles (from The Flintstones - also made by Mom), Baby Spice (of the Spice Girls, of course ;D), a ladybug, a witch, an angel, a kimono-clad Japanese lady (which was tricky to emulate, as I didn't have a proper kimono - I used a housecoat-type garment), and a kind of haphazard sorceress. The only packaged costumes were the ladybug, the angel and the witch - I'm not sure about the clown costume.

And then there are the experiences. Like when I went trick-or-treating with my brother, my sister, and one of my sister's friends, and our neighbour's son had scared us by hiding in a pile of leaves and jumping out. That same year, my brother decided he was too tired to do another street, so we went without him and gloated about our massive amount of candy.

Of course, I'm too old for trick-or-treating now. But I get to hand it out, which is fun because I get to see some cool costumes. I was thinking of dressing up as the Tenth Doctor (from Doctor Who) to hand out candy, but I don't think anyone in my neighbourhood would 'get' it.

Still, I can have fun by watching Halloween movies and handing out candy. I've got Red Riding Hood out of the library, so I might watch that. And maybe Hocus Pocus, if I can find the DVD - I own a copy, but it's hidden somewhere. I watched a bit of The Rocky Horror Picture Show last night, which was fun, as always.

Speaking of movies, I'm going to follow the trend set by my fellow bloggers and compile a list of my favourite Halloween movies (year made and rating are in the parentheses):

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, R) A cult classic. To explain the plot would not be doing it justice. Stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meat Loaf, and Richard O'Brien (whom also wrote the original stage musical), among others.

Hocus Pocus (1993, PG): A fun movie about three witches who are resurrected after centuries. Stars Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker.

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966, family-friendly) I know it's not actually a movie, but it deserves to be mentioned. I love all the Charlie Brown TV specials, especially this one.

Ghostbusters (1984, PG-13) I couldn't find an MPAA rating for this, so I used my best judgement and put down PG-13 (IMDB just says TV-PG, so I'm not sure what that means). This movie is awesome, plain and simple. Stars Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.

There you have it. Have a happy Halloween! :D

Halloween, NaNoWriMo, and other happenings.

Wow, I haven't posted in ages :p I never did write a Halloween music post. Sorry! I'll try to remember to post Halloween songs next year.

First, I'll write about Halloween.

My Halloween was a little different from last year, because I went to a coffee shop in the afternoon for the local NaNoWriMo kick-off party. I hadn't seen some of the local NaNo'ers in two years, so it was cool to see them again; and a lot of the folks at the party were unfamiliar to me. I brought my handknit eyepatch with me, but it was a pain to wear because I made the patch part a little bit big. I had a lot of fun at the party, and came home with an awesome party bag (with chocolate in it!).

We had a timer set up to change channels to America's Funniest Home Videos that night, so I didn't get to put on Rocky Horror at 7:00 on Treasure HD. I put it on halfway through, at the 'Touch-a Touch Me' scene, but then my dad changed the channel and pretty much hogged the TV for the rest of the night, so I couldn't put my Rocky Horror DVD in :( I did listen to the soundtrack later that night, though, and I did the Time Warp :D

We didn't get a lot of trick-or-treaters - about 42, I think, was our final count. One of the kids that came to our door was adorable - she got her fairy wing caught on our screen door, and said, "My wing is caught AGAIN! It keeps getting caught on things!" It was really cute :)

The only problem with having very few trick-or-treaters is that we have a LOT of Tootsie Rolls leftover. I'm pretty sure I'm going to OD on Tootsie Rolls pretty soon.

And now, for NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo (short for National Novel Writing Month) started on a Monday this year, and a lot of people on the boards felt a lot of pressure because of it. I was all right, though, because I'm not enrolled in school right now. I have been neglecting my GED work, though :p I started out with a pretty good word count, and now I'm at 11,904 words. Needless to say, I'm pretty proud of myself :)

I really like how my novel is going so far. Last year I wasn't too happy with my novel - it felt a bit like a silly soap opera. I really liked how my novel from two years ago turned out, though. I totally didn't know what I was doing with my idea, and it kinda morphed into an urban fantasy. My novel for this year is a werewolf urban fantasy, which I find is easier to write than vampire urban fantasy because there's less lore to memorize.

And now, Other Happenings.

Aside from NaNoWriMo, not a lot has happened. My sister came up to visit, and my brother and his girlfriend came up as well, and we ordered Chinese take-out for dinner. We had fun chatting about cats and other stuff, and we had fun teasing Steph (my brother's girlfriend) about going back for seconds, because she's really tiny :p

That's all, folks. I'll try to post regularly, but I might not post a lot because NaNoWriMo takes up a lot of time.

In which Merenwen goes bowling, knits a fishnet-like wrap, and eats Halloween candy early

I haven't posted in a while, because my computer is sick. It's at the repair shop.

On Wednesday I went bowling with the youth group. It was pretty fun. I had a headache (I get weather headaches), which was foul, but I dealt with it. We all went in two cars - I was in Riley's mother's car, along with Riley, Adria (Riley's friend), Laura and Peter, who is our new advisor. Or soon will be. What was funny was that we wanted to pass Stephen's car, and when we did Riley rolled down the window and yelled something at them. And we did beat them to the alley - me and Laura even ran to the entrance! ;)

My wrap is done, which makes me happy. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get the pics put up on Ravelry, but I did. Huzzah!

And the other day Mom sent me down to get the Halloween candy (a box of Reese Peanut Butter Cups, Reese's Pieces, and Oh Henry! bars), so we were snacking on a bit of Halloween candy. And me and Mom watched most of Rocky Horror yesterday - we put it on just as Magenta yells, "YOU'RE lucky, HE'S lucky, I'M lucky, WE'RE ALL LUCKY, HAHAHA!" It was greatness. And we might watch Hocus Pocus tonight. Because I have the DVD.

Knitter's elbow and connection loss

First of all, yesterday morning, my computer worked fine. Then in the afternoon, it wouldn't connect to the internet.

I haven't posted in a while because I'm trying to give my wrists a break. I pulled muscles or tendons or whatever in my left arm. I noticed it on Monday, and now it's Thursday and I don't think I'm gonna be able to knit quite yet. And, dammit, I'm used to an ergonomic keyboard! And Firefox! Ugh...

Mom and I watched Shock Treatment and The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Monday, which was fun. Tuesday was boring. Yesterday was youth group, which was okay. Elyssa was there, which annoyed me (I had hoped she wouldn't show up), but Riley also came, which was nice, because I hadn't seen him for a few weeks.

Because I'm in the Halloween spirit...

The Time Warp




The Monster Mash




I would have put Thriller in here, but the embedding is disabled. Instead, I'll provide a link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xs9OQHpwDE

We didn't have that many kids coming to our street this year. Oh well, more fruit candies for us! :)

Happy Halloween :)

Crows and Columbia

I'll start with Columbia.

I finally got to see the end of Rocky Horror on Super Channel. Such a pity that Columbia got zapped.

Now, the crows.

There are crows near my house, sitting in the trees in the alley. They were cawing a minute ago. We've seen some crows in the neighborhood before, in groups, cawing at something. Dad thought it might've been because an owl was in the area, but I don't think that's it, because we never seem to have owls. Toads, yes. We've even had a bat in the city once, but not in our area. We live in the 'upper half' of the city, and the bat was in the 'lower half' - we were at a homeschooler group meeting thingy, at a church, and the younger kids were getting balls out of a storage bin and a bat came out, if I remember correctly. We got rid of it safely, though.

Lazy week

I have been ridiculously lazy this week... then again, it hasn't been the happiest week for me.

I did get some reading done. I finished Artemis Fowl, and I've probably read a quarter, or nearly a quarter, of Twilight. I have even more things to pick up from the library - two knitting books (!!!), the Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Irelend (that'll be cool), a Historical Atlas of Toronto, a book on the Great Depression (by the one and only Pierre Berton!)and three CDs (a Bryan Adams compilation called So Far So Good, a Pink Floyd album called Ummagumma, and the Monterey International Pop Festival album). I also have another knitting book in transit.

And I'm still waiting on that darn Peter Gabriel album! Whoever has it out is taking their sweet time.

I watched a documentary I'm borrowing from the library. It's about the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour. I thought it was the actual film I was borrowing. But the documentary was okay. It and the Elton John DVD are overdue, so I have to go to the library tomorrow.

Why is it that all my library holds are arriving in groups of at least five lately?!

As I mentioned in my latest Facebook note, I find it funny when the music I'm listening to goes good with the book I'm reading. Like today, I was reading Twilight, and at the part where Bella is in the forest behind her dad's house, I'm listening to R.E.M. I also find it funny - and odd - that I tend to listen to the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack when I read Twilight :p

Do I really need a title today?

Today has been a pretty good day. Except for the fact that I didn't eat breakfast. I didn't have water, either, which I should have had this morning. But I ate an instant kimchi noodle bowl, with sour cream to cut the spice and prevent heartburn (HATE heartburn!). Then I ate a mini Moon Pie (Dad got a box of them in the mail from someone). Then my mom and I had tacos, which were pretty good, even though the shredded pork my mom prepared was a little dry.

I worked on my story about the teenage ghost hunters. I had written a seperate draft to add in later, and I added that in today. I hope it flows well. I've decided to do all my writing in Google Docs, since Microsoft Word '07 likes to delete files without telling me. Although, I did check some of my Word files, and they're working. So far so good. But it's only a matter of time 'till things begin to disappear.

My photos are gone. Good thing they were mostly Dan's photos, even though I kept some of his photos because they were cool. So, my wallpaper is now stonehenge instead of the wallpaper I had up - I think it read, 'I'm not completely stupid, some parts of me are still missing'. Or something like that, something charmingly sarcastic. My dad has a similar saying on a t-shirt.

The learning software was working yesterday, although I didn't try the US Government one. My dad had it in his head that my mom and I had installed the programs wrong, even though they DID get installed properly. So there :D

But seriously. If things go haywire again, we're either wiping the hard drive or taking it to the computer place we take our computers to and have someone there give it a check for faulty guts. Mom said it might be a fried motherboard.

Since one of my Ravelry friends has been posting random videos on her blog (I didn't watch them, though), I think it's time I put some time-wasters on here...




This one you might not get unless you watch Gilmore Girls...







I know I've already put the Time Warp on here, but once more won't hurt :)



edited to fix spelling mistakes.

Microsoft Word '07 and Rocky Horror

A peculiar combination, yes. Allow me to explain.

I can't trust Word 2007. For some strange reason, it deleted my Word documents. How weird is that? Dad thinks it's because stuff was updating, but I highly doubt it, because this computer has no antivirus. I mean, it wouldn't've killed my dad to say, "Don't go on the internet until we download AVG." But no. So I have to do it myself, with help from Mom. I don't know for certain if there's a virus. It might have been the updates that mucked around with my documents. Emphasis on might.

I listened to a few tracks from the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, and Wise Up Janet Weiss isn't on there! And the Time Warp sounds different - Magenta doesn't shout in her part like she does in the film. How weird is that???

At least Sweet Transvestite and 'Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul' are complete...

I got a computer for my birthday!!! And Toronto FC tickets!!!

The computer isn't brand-new (although Mom wanted to get me a laptop), but it's in great condition. The CPU used to be Dan's (my sister's boyfriend), we got the monitor when Nathan was supposed to be giving me his old Pentium 2, the speakers are from our very, very, very first computer, and the mouse and keyboard are new. I'm still breaking in the space bar on this thing :P

The match in Toronto is tomorrow. I'm excited. Mom even got rain ponchos, just in case it starts raining during the match. It's Toronto FC vs Chivas USA. I also got a sticker, a 'crying towel' and a Toronto FC scarf! :D Other things I got for my birthday were a book of writings by young feminists, the soundtrack from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and a three-disc copy of Rocky Horror on DVD - I think it has Shock Treatment included.

We went to Mandarin for dinner. Mandarin, for anyone who doesn't know, is an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. They have sushi there too, so my dad got a plate of sushi. The first thing I got was a bowl of won-ton soup. I love that stuff. Every time I go to Mandarin, I have to start with won-ton soup. After that I got a plate and filled it with stuff like Singapore rice noodles, teriyaki meatballs, torpedo shrimp and calamari rings. I actually had room for dessert after letting my stomach sit for a little bit after eating. Mom and I went to the dessert table, but Dad was too full. I got some trifle, a nanaimo bar, a strawberry or two, a chocolate-covered strawberry, a cream puff and some Jello. Next time, I might eat ice cream there. Katie and I had ice cream for dessert there once, and we loved it. They have stuff like mimi M&M crumbs to put on it.

edited because the title was 'Shock Treatment', not 'Shock Value'.

Hot Patootie, bless my soul!

Since the song mentions Saturday nights, I think it's quite fitting :)

I had a really weird dream...

In my dream, my dad and I were on the front porch, and he was telling me that he found out that the guy he's sending a package to is a professional hockey player. Then he said, "Oh, Jimmy Page!" I looked behind me and saw Jimmy Page backing out of a neighbour's driveway!

Now I'm a little freaked out, because I watched the 'Sweet Transvestite' scene on YouTube, so does that mean I'll have a dream about Frank N. Furter?!

So, just for fun...

So much for regaining lost sleep...

I couldn't drift off again, so I put on my R.E.M. CD and went through some of my knitting magazines, looking for baby patterns. I'm hooked on baby knits. They're just so darn cute! The cardigan I'm working on is coming along nicely, although I'll have to block it because of some loose spots. I finished the increases, and next I have to cast on some stitches (eight, I think) on each end for the cuffs. Yep, it's knit in one piece.

My mom and I keep quoting from Rocky Horror. Like the other night. Mom was cooking dinner on the stove, and I was heating up some leftover pork chop to go with my potatoes - mom was cooking the rest of the pork chop pieces in saurkraut and onions, and I don't like saurkraut and onions most of the time, so she set aside some meat for me to heat up in the microwave. I can't remember what we were talking about, but I said, "It's ASTOUNDING..." and she continued, "Time is FLEETING..." Also, earlier tonight, I was talking to her about something (again, I can't remember what... maybe something knitting-related???), and I began, "I remember..." and my mom added, "Doing the TIME WARP...." It was so funny.

And since my mom has corners of her Flair board on Facebook devoted to certain themes (like Meatloaf and Rocky Horror), I decided to do the same thing with my Rocky Horror Flair and my Robert Plant Flair.

I hate it when I feel tired, but I can't go to sleep. Drives me nuts. I think it'll happen again tonight.

Hiya!

So I still missed bits and pieces of Rocky Horror, because the satellite dish kept cutting out. I think it may have been the after-effects from the storm we had. Mom reckons that wherever we get the IFC signal from (probably Toronto) may have had troubles.

I went to the local Unitarian church today. One of the girls from youth group said hi to me before walking over to the far side of the sanctuary to sit with her mom, which was nice. I hope that the youth group meetings will get better when we meet again in the fall.

I feel bad because I didn't pay as much attention to the service as I should have. It was about Unitarian Universalists (or UUs) taking part in the civil rights movement. Maybe I'll borrow the sermon cassette from the church library so that I can listen to it again.

I'll probably reserve Rocky Horror from the library once I've picked up my stuff. I can't reserve anything until I've picked up the stuff that's waiting for me at the library.

Okay, people, you know the drill...

*sigh*

So my mom and I were watching the Rocky Horror Picture Show today, but it started raining heavily, so we didn't catch the last half hour. So I thought, okay, it's on again at 5:00, I'll catch it then. So then my mom asks me if I want to go to the roller derby, and I told her that I wasn't sure. So she says, "You just said that you wanted to get out of the house more!" But I wanna watch Rocky Horror! COME ON!!!

So I'm going to watch the last half hour, 'cause Dad's watching a movie. So that means I'll be off the computer at 6:00.

I went a little crazy.... :D

So last night my mom was on her laptop, watching scenes from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and after that she moved on to Meat Loaf videos . Did she succeed in trying to embarrass me? Perhaps, because after trying to sing over top of her (and not succeeding), I went downstairs and put on Bryan Adams Unplugged. But after a little while, I figured that using the computer would be better.

So I fired up the computer and played the video of Summer of '69. Whether it was on my blog or on YouTube itself, I'm not sure. I later moved on to other songs - the Bryan Adams songs had to be played on YouTube, because I don't own any of his albums, but the songs by U2, Queen and Led Zeppelin were played on iTunes. By around 11:00 PM, my head and ears were aching. The upside, though, is that my mom sent me the link to the YouTube video she was watching, and she sent me the lyrics from The Lemon Song by Led Zeppelin.

Oh, and I created a YouTube account.

My head's a little bit achy right now, and I'm so bloody warm. I have to go change into something else.