Angela L. Das

For a national writing month, NanoWriMo sure is getting a lot of attention this year. Living in a cave (I mean, office) most of my adult life, this is the first year that I’d heard about it. But the ongoing news updates on the site announced on October 27th, with just four days to go before kickoff, visits to the site were hitting the big time: United States 673,795, UK 83,107 and even down to 256 Croatians who are up for being the next Vladimir Nazor or Dubravka Ugrešić.

I think it is entirely possible that I will not write 50,000 words this month. Probable, even. But I do intend to keep both of my blogs happily updated and to learn to categorize my own epic creations. I can think of no better challenge to better myself and my own organizational skills than to do this, and it will certainly be interesting to see how many words I actually produce, even if it’s not within the perimeters of NaNoWiMo’s rules and regs.

Along with over two thousand Singaporeans and 612 Argentinians, I’m logging in and checking it out. Who knows, maybe one year I will write that novel. Just not this year.

I love getting into the holiday spirit by “watching” movies in a hidden window while I’m working. This Halloween, I happened across a bunch of great links to watch feature length movies, old television shows and cartoons online for free, so I thought I’d share it with all (2? 3?) of my readers…Enjoy! And feel free to add to my list using the Comments below.

Child-Friendly and Nightmare-free Halloween Flicks:

• Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas – Netflix users can watch this on Watch Instantly, or on YouTube here, divided into 8 parts.
• The Halloween Tree – Too cool, somebody made a compilation of all 8 parts from YouTube and put it on one page. The author just asks that you click on an ad or two.
• It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown - Halloween just wouldn’t be a holiday worth looking forward to if it wasn’t for Charlie Brown.

Halloween For the 80’s Kid In All Of Us:

• The Pit and the Pendulum – The face of Vincent Price etched itself into my nightmares for years following this 1961 classic. Why is it in this category, you ask? Well, I first watched it in the 80’s, that’s why. Here’s your Trivia of the Day to make up for this categorization: You now know that Vincent Price and Christopher Lee were born on the same day (27th May) and Peter Cushing was born on the 26th. *Twilight theme song, please*
• Teen Witch – This one is broken into 9 parts, but you may be thankful for the breaks. Alternatively, check out the classic clips from one of the corniest movies of all time here!
• Teen Wolf - OK, not strictly Halloween-y enough, but after Teen Witch you’re going to need a really good movie! Fluffy Michael J. Fox is just the ticket. Teen Wolf Too is available to ‘Watch Instantly’ on Netflix, for those of you who need more. And if that’s not enough, YouTube offers clips from the popular cartoon series.

Timeless Halloween Loveliness:

• Bewitched TV Series – Nose-twitching witchiness from TV’s best newlywed couple to date.
• The Addams Family – Full episodes from the television serious, plus the cartoons are available on tons of sites, but YouTube has a good selection here.
• The Munsters – Begin at the beginning again with the bright and chirpy Munsters family. Very tough to find the old episodes in their entirety online – all I kept finding was The Munsters Today, which was a bit rubbish, IMHO. If you get tired of the canned laughter, head on back to The Addams Family and prepare yourself for Christmas.

Halloween Horrors that Have Horrid Storylines:

• The Island of Dr. Moreau – not much like the book at all, and makes half as much sense. When you get bored, turn it off and read H.G. Wells’ ‘The War of the Worlds’ instead. Or read about how when the story was broadcast on the radio in 1938, listeners actually believed Wells’ fantasy was fact. Yes, H.G., you did much better things than The Island of Dr. Moreau, but this movie at least has an attractive cast (including Fairuza Balk of Return To Oz fame…too scary to add to this list, but yes, Youtube has it, here).
• Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers – Odd Nordic vampires who are distant descendants of cats. Warning, pet lovers, there are some pretty creepy scenes with cats in here.
• Bram Stoker’s Legend of the Mummy – Shortly after renting this one year, my parents actually cut up my Blockbuster renters card as though it was a credit card and I was forthwith banned from choosing movies for family movie nights. You’ll need a Hulu account (but it’s ok, it’s free) because of the “mature” content.

So a few weeks ago, I had the wedding-related task to search for Thank You cards for my wedding shower. I was hoping to find charity cards where at least a portion of the proceeds would benefit a cause instead of filling Target’s big, jolly red pockets. I didn’t think this would be so hard: in every post office, museum shop and local supermarket in the UK you can find packs of cards which benefit charities — and not just UK charities, but global causes as well.

But it would seem out here in the US, we’re are only interested in donating or buying charitable gifts when it suits our taxes. I could only find Christmas cards, and expensive ones at that.  What I didn’t expect to find was an endless array of beautiful handcrafted goods. I do mean beau-ti-ful crafts that you would consider placing right in the center of a mantelpiece (or, at least, I would if I had a mantelpiece).

I’m used to finding gorgeous handcrafted goods on Etsy, and they do have their very kind Pay It Forward scheme, although as I understand it, it benefits sellers more than impoverished children in the Sudan. If you love Etsy half as much as I do, you’ll understand why I felt the need to list some of the beautiful handicrafts I found on my mission to buy charitable Thank You cards. Obviously, I am not looking in the right place for these cards, and when the wedding is all over and done with I’ll return to my sightseeing adventures to museums and the like, find the cards, and kick myself for not looking there earlier.

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iGoogle wants you to be paranoid.

My iGoogle page today held this gem for me under my Daily Shakespeare Quote. I don’t recall ever seeing ads on this app before, but if this is new is someone having a laugh?

As a PPC specialist, I’d like to know what keywords triggered the appearance of this ad. Was it the “loving friends” or the more complicated notion of our friends being representative of ourselves? Either way, I think Google AdWords/AdSense is getting a bit too clever for comfort here.

I’m impressed with the hold Harry Potter has on movie audiences. Last night as I walked out of the theatre, I noticed a lot of tired faces. This was not a movie with a clear beginning, middle and end. This was not a feel-good movie either. Or a Christmas movie, although in years to come I’m sure it will turn into an annual December-time marathon in my household. This is a “middle arch movie”, to fill in the story for people who have not read the books. What I think audiences are hungry for now, is the finish. The end of Harry Potter’s story, with the closure that entails, has yet to be delivered. Last night, the audience’s reactions reminded me of the Greeks who would travel miles to experience the catharsis of the epic journey of a hero once a year.

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The brave Iraqi journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, famous for throwing his shoes at W’s head has been sentenced to jail for three years. A bit harsh really, unless it’s because he missed.

I’m feeling genuinely torn about this. I’ve thrown softer objects at the television or radio whenever I heard ol’ Dubya open his mouth. He was a terrible embarrassment to all Americans on a global scale. He made it significantly harder for any American to be respected overseas and repeatedly answered pressing interview questions with an “i don’t care” shrug, as though he’d simply inherited a bad world and didn’t care to change it much. (more…)

It’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s the most gorgeous comet flying right over our heads. Is this something straight out a comic book, or what? How inspiring.

In truth, I wanted to post the transcript of President Obama’s speech yesterday. This man knows how to work a room. I love his powerful, hope and awe-inspiring rhetoric. Big pat on the back for his speech writer. Now, let’s just hope he’s sincere.

I have high hopes for this guy. I like what he’s saying so far, and I especially like the way he’s saying it. Can he keep this country from an economic disaster of astronomical proportions?

Last night, my dream was truly bizarre on a variety of levels. Firstly, the place I’m about to describe where I was in my dream is a place my brain seems to have created for me to visit on the special cases when I eat unusual food late in the evening. SO I’ve been there before (1 point for Weirdness). (more…)

Acquaint yourself with my alter ego, Trikki Motiv. Created in 1996, Trikki has been writing creative content for the web for over a decade and has firmly established herself across message boards and social networking applications.

Visit my site to keep in touch with my whereabouts, find recent postings, and all the “fun stuff”. For the more serious side, stay here. (Just so you know, I’m the one who wears glasses.)