Halloween, and Into a Swan

Regarding tacky contemporary Halloween decorations, this from sovay:

Our neighbors are decorating for Halloween. This means giant inflatable ghosts, mummies, pumpkins, green-faced witches, vampire Winnie-the-Poohs, snowglobes full of mylar bats, et cetera, several of which glow at night and all of which are tasteless to the nth—yards full of this stuff, it's unbelievable. It makes me want to put up Halloween decorations of my own. Corn husks, dog skulls, knots of old ribbon, branches of turning leaves. You know. Normal things.

And I'm also kind of annoyed I haven't had time to put together an Elphaba Throp costume for this year.

Also, this video from the new Siouxsie album:

My thoughts are with friends in southern California, from LA south to San Diego. Be safe as you are able. A shame my rationalism won't allow me to believe in a special hell awaiting arsonists...

But gravity always wins... (again)

On Monday, I wrote 1,249 words and finished "The Bed of Appetite." Which makes my tenth story completed during this so-called (by me) "dry spell." I think that I am pleased with the piece. I read it to Spooky Monday afternoon and she cried, which I always take as a good sign. In this case, it surprised me.

Yesterday was declared a Day Off, so we went to a matinee screening of 30 Days of Night. I suspect that Mother and I are still collating, but I can say that I didn't hate it. And that I can't shake the feeling that it might have been better, though I'm not sure just how. As with Resident Evil: Extinction I went in with zero expectations, as I'm learning that helps, especially with "horror" films. Sadly, no Milla Jovovich, but I very much liked the vampire design (thank you again, Weta Workshop!); quite marvelously creepy, quite alien. The little girl vampire (with her Einstürzende Neubauten tattoo) sort of stole the show. Josh Hartnett was an unfortunate bit of casting, but then he usually is. But Melissa George helped make up for Hartnett. Nice score. Mostly, I have a suspicion that, somehow, the location's potential was never fully realized. I will say more when I see the inevitable "unrated cut" DVD, whenever that may be.

The next few days will be a little weird. Jada's coming in from Little Rock on November 2nd, and we haven't actually had a house guest here, ever. So, there is much to be done in preparation. I'm also going to be doing some more reading for Joey Lafaye and letting the prologue come together in my head, so that as soon as Samhain has come and gone, I can get this thing started. New year, new book.

Well, this is a shorter entry than I expected it to be. But there you go.

Addendum: Couples questionnaire

Because I am bored and in an ill mood, I will now subject to the following thingy (though, since I have placed it behind a cut, you'll really be subjecting yourselves to it), snurched from docbrite:

( Couples )