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.

When I say “everything”, I do literally mean all things possible to google. Someone in my office asks what an obscure acronym means, and I’m the first to know. Mostly quiet and serious in the workplace, I can assure you this is a surface thing. Under the calm exterior is an avid googler, googling away at the speed of light and sound. In the process of writing this article, I have already googled four things, which I kept track of by opening multiple tabs in Firefox:

1. Recognizing that I am a Googleholic, I decided to google support groups in my area. Result: One poor Facebook page in Ohio called “Googlers Anonymous” that has only 26 members. These members seem more interested in new Google news than in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive Googling.
2. In choosing the title of this article, I was curious to know if anyone else had already written similar content. Result: No. But someone did hyphenate “Google-holic”, which lead me to my next search…
3. Should “Googling” be capitalized? Result: No. Google and “to google” as a verb joined the Oxford English Dictionary back in 2006, which again, I actually knew, but had to google just to make sure.
4. Googling again, I was lead to its first known usage, in a blogpost by Larry Page in 2006 which ended “…keep googling!”. Subsequently, I edited this info on Wikipedia.

As a former Google employee (where the office was open plan, if you were curious), I feel like I am somewhat justified in my manic obsession to Google things. I know it is the fastest, most efficient resource at my fingertips. I was an avid googler before working there (which is, in fact, how I got a job there, too). As an academic, I also understand that it’s like having the entire web categorized like a library at my doorstep, which I can visit any time of day or night, rain or shine, and regardless of whether or not my books are seriously overdue. To me, Google allows me to cross reference information at high speeds (since I type as fast as I think most of the time), and come up with well-researched information about anything from the best ways to grill toast (for my current job) to finding replacement shoelaces at bargain prices (which my husband needed).

A friend of mine on Facebook who was concluding her PhD at Oxford once posted that she was considering only limiting her internet time to an hour a day, including Facebook and Googling time. I thought she was mad until I realized I’d broken into a bit of a cold sweat over the thought of it. What would I do if I couldn’t Google? The anxiety rose up in my throat as I realized how many things I would just sit and wonder about, or if my teenage years were an indication, how many hours I would have to spend reading the encyclopedias in the library. Yes, if you didn’t know this by now, I am a true geek.

As I conclude this article, I’m resisting the urge to google many more things. I feel like this urge is exactly what makes me so good at what I do since I am updating myself daily on how search works, what’s new in the search world, and what’s new with Google. The point though is to understand that if you have met me or work with me, or are thinking about working with me, this is one of my quirks and one of my strongest selling points: I am a googleholic.

It takes great cahones to play Macbeth: to begin a
Shakespearean play as the title character, strong and noble
and to end a blithering, blundering fool, slain and head
mounted on a spike. Andrew H. Leman did wonderfully. His
intonations were expressive, varied and he was majestically
complimented by McKerrin Kelly as Lady Macbeth. In her interpretation
of the role it became clear to me for the first time how brimmed
with sexual persuasiveness her character has been written with.
The words of Lady Macbeth have always seemed convincing enough,
but in Kelly’s delivery, i grasped how manipulative she could be using
her feminine guile.

The special effects were just plain great. For Geoff
Hoff at the LA Theatre Review, who clearly expected a
multimillion dollar production and who says of the three
apparitions, “One looked like nothing but an aborted fetus”,
that’s what is was meant to be, dude. The set designers truly
maximized the space, using good lighting techniques which
illuminated the face of kings behind the Stonehenge-like
pillars when I least expected a new use of the stage space to occur.

It never hurts to read a play before going to see it, but in
case your Shakespeare is rusty, Theatre Banshee has cleverly
anticipated needing to hold your hand and provided a scene by
scene synopsis at the door. They also took care in the
programs to explain their unusual choices: to use an
Aboriginal didgeridoo during scene changes, to use a set that
resembles Stonehenge. Good work, guys.

I wish I’d been sitting in the front row. The reasons, for
brevity’s sake, I’ve listed below:

* Because in the opening sword fight breaking though the smoke
machine’s mist, I’d have been right in the thick of it.
* Because then I would have been perfectly positioned to thump
the loud and innappropriate Loud Laugher in the front row who
let out a hearty chuckle at nothing in particular, periodically.
* Because I wouldn’t have had to have been subjected to the
elemental torture of sitting directly under a fan (with wet
hair, since i left the house in a hurry).

Therein lies my strongest criticism of the production, which
for someone as critical as me, is really saying something. The
theatre is small, and has two powerful fans over the heads of
the audience. I understand these are necessary for temperature
regulation, moving the smoke machine mist out of the way, etc.
But hey, I shivered under 3 coats.

I love this play, I loved this production. Go see this play.
You won’t regret it, just sit in the front rows.

Theatre Banshee is located at 3435 W. Magnolia in Burbank, CA
91505 and this play is running until April 26th with performances Fridays
at 8pm, Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm.

Ticket prices: $20.00, $15 for Students/Seniors. Goldstar
members can also get discounted tickets.

Reservations can be made online at www.theatrebanshee.org or
by phone on (818) 846-5323.