calliopes_pen

I have now received my assignment for the intoabar ficathon. The Tenth Doctor will walk into a bar and meet...Louis Tully. That’s bound to be one interesting meeting. And I feel like he would find a way to ask the Doctor who does his taxes at some point in the conversation. I’m just trying to decide if it would be better to set it after the first movie, or the second movie.

Zombie Walk related: I managed to find more footage of last year’s zombie walk. This time, it wasn’t in black and white, and I was able to confirm that the person in the jacket wasn’t me. It was someone in a green jacket, while mine was red. And I don’t wear bell bottom jeans.

San Diego Comic Con will not be moving anywhere—a new deal keeps it in San Diego through 2015.

x_journal related: After a question of what each character's theme song would be, I started searching around to figure out what would actually be a good one for Meggan. And to that end, what sort of music would be more her style. I suspect she would like silly songs like YMCA, Rock Lobster, Macarena, Walk Like An Egyptian and Dancing Queen--but the main genres she would always go back to would be soothing like jazz, New Age, R&B, or indie pop. I still haven't decided what her song would be, but at least I know one or two (I barely know anything about music) singers she might like.

This week was Banned Books Week.

Stephen J. Cannell has passed away, due to complications from melanoma. May he rest in peace. He created or co-created many shows, including The Greatest American Hero and The A-Team. Have one last playing of Believe It Or Not for the road. I’ve heard that so many times thanks to it being The Cinema Snob’s theme song.

The Star Wars Saga (episodes 1-3) is getting another release this time, it’s in 3D.

According to moviehole, Back to the Future will be back in theaters. Unfortunately, it will only be 158 theaters in select locations.

Sherlock Holmes 2 has found its Moriarty.

You can watch the BBC Drama Autumn/Winter trailer here You get a very brief glimpse of the Christmas Special with Matt Smith.

Den of Geek discusses Marty and Doc’s friendship.

Bryan Fuller and Guillermo del Toro are reportedly teaming up and remaking The Munsters.

Found via yendi: How to change IMDB back to how it looked before the upgrade, when you’re logged in.

Since October is only a day away, I’m checking around various sites to try to find out if anything Halloween related is going on around here this year. Maiden Alley Cinema hasn’t put up their horror movie schedule as of yet. However, I did find out that there will be a Second Annual Zombie Walk in downtown Paducah.

And then I found footage of last year’s Zombie Walk—I think I accidentally ended up on camera. It looks like my hooded jacket and the back of my head--Mom agrees. Chris (friend of Dad’s) was standing behind me as we watched other zombies coming from another way—it looks like the back of his head. Dad would have been a few feet back, so he’s not in the view. It’s a split second at the 1:20 mark, on the right side. Zombie with “Join Us!” sign, and then presumably me, closest to the camera. Brown hair. It’s a blink and you miss it sort of thing since the camera shakes right then, unless you hit pause at the right moment.

I remember seeing the guy with the camera wandering around, so it's feasible.

ETA 1: Okay, showed it to Dad--he pointed out that it wasn't quite where we were standing. A bit of shrubbery was near us. And a church. But it's not quite the right spot for where we were standing. While there was a dark car beside where everyone stood, it was a different type, and a little bit further back. Basically, the zombies were coming from two directions. So there's someone out there that looks almost like me from the back, and that's wearing my jacket. Heh. Mom still thinks it was me, so we're having an ongoing debate.

I just had a weird idea, that I thought I would pass along to those that write Merlin fanfic. Arthur and Merlin accidentally get sent by a sorcerer to the present day—on Halloween night. Just imagine them trying to attack the monsters, and being horrified that children would pretend to be demons.

BBC America will air Waters of Mars on December 19th.

Last night, we actually got a few trick-or-treaters—the last few years we didn’t get any, but this time we had 7. Most of which weren’t wearing costumes--one little one was wearing her pajamas from what I could tell. For all I know it could have been something to do with a cartoon, but it looked like her pajamas.

One kid was dressed as a pirate. A little later, I looked out the door and saw a golf cart (with a horrible muffler or something, since the thing was loud) driving down the street. The kid that got out was dressed as Rainbow Brite. Rather than say trick-or-treat, she said “Happy Halloween!” And when I gave her the candy, she curtsied and said “Thank you!”

Every few seconds, I kept seeing flashes of light—turned out the parents were taking pictures, most of which were blocked by our van. After she got back in the golf cart, the flashing started again. It was completely dark, so I doubt the pictures will turn out for them.

Shortly before the trick-or-treaters came, Toby escaped. He hadn’t been interested in escaping since the cat had died, so I assume that after a suitable period of mourning, he wanted to check things out. He reappeared inside his fence just when I was about to give up on finding him.

The Trunk-or-Treat thing at my church got 500 trick-or-treaters. So I guess that's where they all go.

And lastly, a meme—taken from about half my friends list.

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

My Doctor Who fanfics are all at Teaspoon, over here. Any other fanfic can be found through the “fanfic I’ve written” tag.

The Scary/Funny History of Horror Comedy.

Over at doctorwho, there’s a question about who would do what if everyone in the series went to go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I can picture the Ninth Doctor brooding in the corner, while simultaneously keeping an eye on Jack. Who would be dressed as Rocky. I can picture Martha surprising everyone with the fact she is a closet Rocky Horror fan, and knows every word in the movie. I can see Donna surprising people (especially the Tenth Doctor, who would be in awe) by flawlessly doing the Time Warp.

Today’s Halloween related poll over at polloftheday was asking what your favorite Halloween songs are. Mine are Thriller, Bad Moon Rising, the Ghostbusters theme (of course), and The Monster Mash. If I Put A Spell On You is the same song that was sung in Hocus Pocus, then I love that one, too.

Mom’s been going through some old pictures she found, and we found a picture of me the final year I went trick-or-treating, when I was either 7 or 8. I was a pirate, without the fake earring, since it pinched too much. I’m standing in a yard filled with fake tombstones, made by a neighbor. All the names on it are people in her family that were still alive...and Dracula.

We also found a picture of White Cloud, the day she came to us as a kitten. And another taken one month before she was killed—so now we know how long she was here. About 3 years--we hadn’t been sure until now. We found various other pictures of her, all of her asleep. Which is pretty much the only thing she ever did.

( Beneath the cut, I answer five questions from Azriona, for a meme. )

As there are Trunk-or-Treats being done at four different churches, as well as a fall festival at another church, I don’t expect to see any trick-or-treaters. I actually haven’t seen any trick-or-treaters in this part of the street in 2 or 3 years. How many do people on my friends list normally get?

NBC is ordering six more episodes of Chuck, in addition to the 13 already ordered.

What If Zombies Ate Most Of The Mystery Team? Apparently, the only survivors would be Velma and Scooby. You need to read the comments as well--if you can’t see all of them, you’ll have to go to the bottom of the page and click on Show Hidden Threads.

Syfy plans to do an American version of Being Human. That can’t end well.

The 15 Cursed Movie Objects You Never Want To Own.

18 Movies That Genuinely Scared Us. I don’t believe I have seen a single movie on this list.

From Cracked: 7 Horrific Boogeymen Used To Scare Kids Around The World.

Yuletide news: If you defaulted or were banned in previous years, you are now allowed to participate this year, as they are extending amnesty. As long as you write a story this year, you will still be allowed to join in on Yuletide in the future.

( And now, answering some questions for neadods, from a meme. )

First, the fandom meme:

1) Post a list of up to 20 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/bands [fannish etc.] that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.
2) Have your f-list guess your favourite character/member from each item.
3) When someone guesses correctly, strikethrough the item and put the name of your favorite character next to it.

1. Doctor Who
2. Torchwood
3. Ghostbusters
4. Dark Shadows
5. Firefly
6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
7. Angel
8. Highlander: The Series
9. Merlin
10. Veronica Mars
11. Castle
12. Being Human
13. Eureka
14. Hercules the Legendary Journeys
15. Xena: Warrior Princess
16. Monk
17. Psych
18. National Treasure
19. The Mummy (the three movies)
20. The Addams Family

I have to recommend a Merlin fanfic I just discovered, that is utterly hysterical. Zombies, Like Ninjas, Make Everything Better, written by netgirl_y2k. Zombies attack Camelot. Merlin isn’t allowed to carry a sword, and instead carries a ladle and wooden spoon, with a pot over his head at one point.

From Cracked: 6 Popular Monster Myths (That Prove Humanity Is Doomed). And The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth.

For those interested, the mods of yuletide have decided that Babylon 5 and Crusade are eligible after all. I only watched a few episodes of the former on the Sci-Fi Channel a couple years ago, so I won’t be signing up for either one. The US version of Life on Mars is also now on the eligible list, while the UK version is not.

Everyone needs to read this obituary in The Paducah Sun. It’s hysterical--I think someone just went insane. Just let me know if you can’t see it--it wasn’t something where you had to log in, so it should be fine. Mentions of underwater basket weaving, and other weirdness is in there.

From Io9: When Monsters Change Sides: 10 Horror Icons Who Turned Good. Real Ghostbusters gets a mention in there.

31 Classic Halloween TV Episodes and Specials

( Beneath the cut is a question and answer meme—answering questions from Persiflage_1, and also an icon meme from Ithildyn. )

Also, Mom would like to know what you can do to kill ladybugs, or get them to leave everyone alone. In the last three days, they’ve taken over. One step outside, and you are covered by ten, at least, with more diving for you. The entire front of one neighbor’s son’s house is covered in them, and he can’t walk outside right now. It’s only our side of the street in our neighborhood—Nellie’s house is fine, as are a few others on that side.

And is anyone else having trouble with logging in to AIM today?

ETA: After reading my friends list, I see that at least a few people are having issues with AIM being down, so it's not just me.

In other news, when Mom got the mail, she discovered a sympathy card from her brother. To all of us, about the cat.

First, a meme, taken from senmut:

Take any fic I have ever written, link me to it, and ask "What if you had changed this moment?". I'll either explain, or maybe even write the What If.

I was taking a look through the Yuletide fandom nominations and spotted that someone had nominated The Last Vampire, by Christopher Pike. I’m very grateful to whoever did that.

I watched the series premiere of White Collar, and I think I like it. I’ve never liked Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, but she somehow works here. I'll definitely be watching the next episode...and I agree with whoever it was on my friends list that says Matt Bomer looks a little like Nightwing.

And found via Io9—you can watch the first 8 minutes of V here. It looks a bit like Independence Day. Which is something that at least one character commented on, too. I’m not sure on whether or not I would like the series based on that tiny bit.

I’m trying to think of something to write for the doctor_donna Halloween Fanfic Challenge, using the Halloween prompts here. So many good ones. Throw out an idea using one of those, and a situation for the Doctor and Donna to be in, and I’ll see if I can write it.

ETA: Thanks to scotchsour for mentioning the fact that Dick Durock--the man who played Swamp Thing in both movies--passed away on September 17th, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. May he rest in peace.

Yes, I actually went to the Zombie Walk of Paducah immediately following the showing of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Maiden Alley Cinema. When I mentioned that we would miss the zombies by 30 minutes (leave at 5:30 after the movie, the Zombie Walk is at 6 PM) Dad decided to drive us to where the zombies were.

We parked the car at a Methodist Church, along with about 60 or 70 other people, and stood at the side of the road, and waited. Some people brought their own chairs.

They started about 5 minutes late, since they had to get the police to block the area for a little bit. And then, they came. Zombie pregnant women with an undead baby arm that could shoot out, zombie babies, zombie toddlers, zombies with signs that said "Zombies Are People, Too!" and "Will Work For Brains!". A guy with scissors stuck in his head, and his undead client from a hair salon--with curlers in her hair. An undead bride and groom...undead businessmen.

About 5 minutes before they started walking, Dad called his best friend and dared him to show up, thinking he wouldn't. Guess what? He showed up, and tried to sneak up behind us--Dad saw him, though. And across the street were a few other zombies, one of which Dad used to know from work. Cue Dad screaming to him, "I know you!" And the other guy said, "Oh, no! Shuffle faster, people! SHUFFLE FASTER!"

Also spotted a few cameras following the zombies. One obviously got bored, and started to interview one. He asked what it felt like to be undead. The guy screamed "BRAINS!" in response, and moaned a bit. A few feet away, there was a guy that let loose a horrible scream, just trying to be part of the fun.

All in all, I would say it was about 200 zombies. Not counting the three we saw at Maiden Alley Cinema. And one guy carrying a bowl of fake blood, that Dad says was accidentally sloshed in the men's room.

And just a note: There were only five people there to see Jekyll and Hyde, counting Dad and me. The guy that took our tickets also gave people popcorn, and was in charge of the projection area.

For those that are interested, you can watch a quick 30 second fall preview for Masterpiece Contemporary, here. Hosted by David Tennant.

I found an interview with Carey Mulligan, thanks to almost_unknown. You can watch it here.

From Cracked: 5 Myths That People Don’t Realize Are Admitted Hoaxes.

Io9 tells Where To Start With Young Adult Science Fiction. Basically discusses how to get your child interested in science fiction. There are some great suggestions.

The Six Types Of Brains In Jars.

For those that want to keep track of what Halloween specials will be shown over the next few weeks, there’s the Halloween Forum. Specifically, this thread—scroll to where it says October 19–25. Quite a few of the higher up channels aren’t listed. Cinemax, TMC, and Starz are, but I can’t get those channels.

adaliafic has made The Pumpkin of Rassilon—as well as a Cookie of Rassilon. Gorgeous.

yuletide fandom nominations end in just under a day and a half. As of this moment, there are 3404 fandoms nominated. Going through the list before it’s cleaned up, there are quite a few I could write for. Someday, I’m hoping someone will nominate either Justice League International (the comic) or The Last Vampire, by Christopher Pike.

I requested a hold on Stephanie Brown/Spoiler over at that DC/Marvel RPG I mentioned previously. Found out yesterday afternoon during everything that I have a hold on her until the 22nd. After spotting a couple other suggestions for PB’s, I’ll probably start another poll soon.

John Landis confirmed it. David Tennant will play William Hare in Burke and Hare.

doctor_donna is hosting a Halloween challenge. I'll probably try to participate.

And now, a meme, taken from othercat:

Quote a bit of my writing at me? Find that one story of mine that you really like, and find a sentence or a paragraph that presses your prose-buttons in the right way, and comment here with it, no matter how long or short.

Then copypasta this into your journal, and we'll all have a big love-in!

In other news, it’s been settled. Dad and I will go see the 1920 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Maiden Alley Cinema on the 24th. I then realized something else moments later. We get out at 5:30 PM. The sun will have set a little bit before that, in all likelihood. At 5:30 PM, the Zombie Walk in Paducah begins. The zombies will be slowly shuffling their way towards the Maiden Alley Cinema. So...if it’s too dark, we might run over a zombie or three.

Or the camera crew following them, since they’re apparently filming the zombies for a special horror movie. Or the local news, since they might be following behind them.

Dad was horrified, and added, “We might be extras, driving away from the zombies!”

A DVD version of David Tennant’s performance in Hamlet will be released by the Royal Shakespeare Company on January 4, 2010. No word yet on whether or not that includes American DVD’s, but I don’t think so.

Found via noscans_daily: There’s a Marvel quiz, where you have 15 minutes to figure out 100 secret identities of both heroes and villains. I got 88/100. If anyone wonders, there’s also one for DC. With that one, I got 94/100. Would have been 95/100 if they had said Eel O’Brian, rather than Patrick O’Brian, when it came to Plastic Man. I never knew Ambush Bug’s real name so I didn’t recognize it, nor did I know what Jimmy Olsen’s codename was. He’s had so many powers given and removed from him.

worlds_finest is taking sign-ups for The World’s Finest Gift Exchange. The form is here, and you e-mail it to the mods.

I love the weekly discussion posts at betterwiththree. This week, it’s “If Jack stayed on the TARDIS with Ten, 10.5, Rose and Donna in the last ten minutes of Journey's End, how would the ending have changed? (Would Donna have retained her memories? Would Rose and 10.5 stay on the TARDIS? Would Jack go with 10.5 and Rose?).” Here’s my response. I can also see 10.5, Donna, and Jack teaming up, having various shenanigans, while Rose goads them on.

There’s a meme where you write a short fanfic based on someone’s icon after they comment. entangled_now wrote this for me. It’s cute.

Nominations for fandoms will be opening sometime this afternoon at yuletide.

The Maiden Alley Cinema now has most of the schedule for what horror movies they’ll be showing. As it only goes up to the 25th, I’ll assume it’s like last year, with more being added over the next week. I’ll likely go see Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--the 1920 version, with John Barrymore. I accidentally typed John Barrowman at first, which would be interesting to see, too.

Apparently there’s going to be a Zombie Walk through downtown Paducah on the 24th, from 5:30-6:00 PM, after which Night of the Living Dead will be shown at the Maiden Alley Cinema. Found out thanks to a mention of it here, at WKYQ’s website. I doubt I’ll go, but they will probably mention it on the news.

ETA: Ah--they start down by the river, and make their way to the Maiden Alley Cinema. I assume they are then stuck in the make-up and costumes, while they watch the movie, rather than washing it all off.

10 Reasons Not To Bring Someone Back from The Dead. Owen Harper gets a mention, as well as Buffy and the gas mask zombie (Jaime, I think)—and Pushing Daisies. Jack Harkness’ version of Immortality is only discussed in the comments.

And for those interested, for the spook_me fanfic I’ll be writing the one where the Doctor and Donna meet Mary Shelley. Or try to, without them getting thrown out for looking suspicious. (Or for the Doctor getting his tie eaten by a goat wandering the estate, after which he threatens it with a sonic screwdriver) For some strange reason, I didn’t have a copy of Frankenstein anymore, so I ran out and bought one.

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Unfortunately, I haven't dressed up for Halloween since I was maybe 7 or 8. There's really no point, since nobody does anything around here. That, and there's a distinct lack of trick-or-treaters, so there's nobody to scare.

In other news, the cat seems a tiny bit better. She jumped up on the table, and did something that looked like blowing on the back of Mom's neck to scare her. So she's well enough to jump.

She had three small plates of tuna, a bit of her dry cat food, a few drinks of water, and a tiny bit of her favorite turkey. Not all at once, but gradually. She also had a tiny bit of bread.

And then it was time for her medicine, since she didn't have it this morning. So she's not happy. She had enough energy to be very vocal about that, too.

The cat wasn’t eating or drinking yesterday and was acting strange—the day before yesterday, she was alert, and ran across the street, and stalked birds. So today, we took her to the vet to see what the problem was—we assumed diabetes, and that she would need shots. Apparently, though, it’s a slight bacterial infection, and not her diabetes acting up.

The diabetes, in fact, is doing better than it was. Because she hadn’t had anything to drink, she was a little dehydrated. So the vet injected 100 CC's of saline under the skin of her neck, to help with that, and gave her something with antibiotics.

She’s also doing so well with her heart, that for now we don’t need to give her the water pill. There wasn’t a trace of water in her lungs this time, and there wasn’t even a trace of it the last time. Her heart rate was a bit fast, but that’s because she was scared.

Currently, she’s traumatized and cringing from everyone—but she drank a tiny bit of water, and will probably rest once she calms down.

And for anyone that wonders how Toxic Halloween--that haunted house--went? Well, let’s just say it was a disaster. And I am glad that Dad went with me, and happened to take a light. The sort of thing that you can hold in the palm of your hand--used for disasters, with a battery that can keep it going for 3 days. And here, since the whole thing is long, I will cut for the sake of my friends list. I already told seandc all about it.

( Click here to read the saga of getting hopelessly lost, going off the trail due to a lack of light and accidentally feeling up a guy in a monster costume--possibly twice, it was hard to tell. )