Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Of pumpkin carving related injuries

Not like I stabbed myself or anything, but I have painful bruises on my right wrist from rubbing my arm against the rims of the pumpkins I gutted last night. They are beginning to darken.

Who's hardcore? ME.

Of 40 foot Jack Skellingtons

Found this awesome house in Seal Beach California. I saw this house out of the corner of my eye, and I literally told my husband to stop and turn the **** around, because I saw a Jack Skellington siting on a house.

How fricking awesome is this? Person who made this: you are 15 kinds of awesome.
I wish I could have gotten some night shots. 
Image By Strublay


 Image By Strublay
 Image By Strublay
Image By Strublay

Monday, October 29, 2012

Of Halloween Horror Nights

Well, we did it. Mr. Strublay, The Brother-In-Law, and I all went to Universals Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. First things first: To all the actors who got frustrated that I didn't get scared, I'm sorry. All of the haunted Houses were very well done, the makeup alone is worth going for, and the terror tram is extremely cool. Most of it was really good, but it did have its weaknesses. The scare zones were very limited (one, the Silent Hill one in the lower lot, wasn't even active), they relied heavily on gore, and I believe Universal has missed some really great opportunities to do some really amazing stuff like Treehouse Of Horrors takes over the Simpsons Ride.

All in all I highly recommend going.

At the bottom I have posted a Video of the Terror Tram night hike. 


Image by Strublay

Daytime

 Entry way, Day Time: Image by Strublay
 Klowns scare zone area during the day, Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay
 It was a wonderfully cloudy day, Image by Strublay

Tram Ride
 
Entrance to King Kong 3D, I like the skulls. Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay
Whoville was Hijacked for the Terror Tram, as such there were CDC vehicles and zombies standing about.
Image by Strublay
This is the side of the Bates Motel
Image by Strublay
Even though the 747 crash is a creepy scene to begin with, adding zombies is scary.
Image by Strublay


Image by Strublay

Night Time!


Entry Way: Image by Strublay

Klowns Scare Zone
Image by Strublay 
Clown Dancer, she was nice enough to pose for me


The fires went all night, even after closing. Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay

Studio Tour 
Image by Strublay
 If I have anything to give you advice on it is this: Go to The Terror Tram FIRST. Then go down to the Lower Lot and move your way to the front.
Image by Strublay
  When we got there it was a 4o minute wait, and I don't think it was even that long. The wait was 100+ for the rest of the night

Twist: You get kicked off the tram and walk.
Husband wasn't expecting it, I was (from seeing the sets earlier) Both of us were thrilled.
Image by Strublay
Bates Motel, the one shot I could get, it was cool to be that close to this legendary set.
Image by Strublay
Bates home, after the dark hike.
 
Image by Strublay
There was a Picture opportunity here, I wasn't in to the line. 
Image by Strublay
These were just standing there. 
Image by Strublay
The Airline crash.

Other Scare Zones:
Image by Strublay

Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay

Monsters Remixed:
This was interesting, dubstep + classic monsters. 

Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay
Image by Strublay

Sound-scape video from the Terror Tram, "filmed" by Strublay



Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Of witnesses.



Paranormal Witness is on Netflix. 
I squeaked out in happiness upon finding it, the entire neighborhood heard me I think. 
Do NOT care.

Of Candy, or how to win a childs heart through bribery.


Direct link: Linky! LINKY!

Because I am a wonk. Enjoy.

Hard candy for douche-bags, Reese's for everyone else (and me.... sometimes), Smarties for me and the Gluten Free kids!
Weeeeee!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Of acquaintances and villains

 Image from the Mouth of Sauron from the Speical Extended Edition of the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, as found on The Movie Prick

An acquaintance of mine from Cali, who here we will call only by his pen name, The Movie Prick, has a little blog about movies, and during October he does Villain of the Day, which this year seems to have a geeky bent, but it looks at the antagonists in casual detail. It's fun to see what he picks from day to day, and his rants about bad movies are pretty funny.

Of Haunted Farms

 Haunted Overload is, by far, the best haunted attraction I have ever been too, and I would be going this year if I wasn't 2793 miles away right now. If you live anywhere near Lee NH, you owe it to yourself to go take a walk through this awesome haunt, and to send me pictures, so I can be relentlessly jealous.
All pictures in this post are from The Haunted Overload Site




I wish I had been there for the snow storm...


Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Of returns, and flame-less candles.

I'm back, it's been a crazy few months, but I'm here, with the cats and the husband in tow. Look out in the next few weeks for a photo-shoot featuring monsters skull, me figuring out my theme this year (Yeah... IDK... I just don't.), Grainy f'ed up pictures from Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood, Las Vegas' unique Halloween environment, and lots of random Flickr Pictures. There will be many, many references to Ray Bradbury this year as I will quote The Halloween Tree liberally. We are going to have an awesome Halloween this year folks.

Image by  Sabrina Pierantozzi Found on Flickr,


So, where to start: In the category of cool things I've found... Pier One, purveyor of cheap imports at steep price tags, has finally created something I can get behind: Consumer level remote operated flame-less LED candles. Not only is it cool for outdoors, it seems like a really cool idea to freak T.O.T's out... I mean, push a button and they all turn on.... that would be cool... Imagine witch jars, Luminaries and others turning on when you walk up... with a shrouded figure sitting before you... that would be creeeeepy.

Also I think it would be cool for weddings, bride walks in and BAM fairy jars light up (mason jars with no coating, basically the witch jars with no witch.)

Link: HERE

Now, They are expensive... prohibitively so, but I'm wondering if we (the collective haunt community) could figure out a cheap hack-together version of this... I might be buying one and pulling it apart to figure out how it works. Good project for next year I think.
Yes, I will post notes, and give my version of it. 

Alright, see you tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Ray Bradbury

Found at Rue Morgue blog

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Thank you for helping to define my idea of Halloween.



Friday, April 27, 2012

Loki and Panther

So, everyone, meet our boys! Oreo, my old friend, passed away a year ago this month, and in November we finally went and got a couple of cats to add the chaos factor back in the house. 
We got that. 
About 40-45 lbs of that. 
Our boys are huge, and you'll be seeing a lot of them over the next few years.
"HEY! HEY DOG! YEAH YOU YOU YAPPY MUTT! SHUT UP!!!! JUST SHUT THE #%@$ UP!!!!!!!" Loki and "Dude, chill." Panther

First up is our "distinguished" old man, Panther. VERY long haired, all black, de-clawed in the front, and all attitude. Talks to you when he wants things, if you ignore him you get nipped. Hes fun, and cuddly, and his fur is getting so LONG.... He had been shaved prior to us getting him because his mattes were so bad. He has a gray undercoat, but his long top coat is all black... right now hes a funny shade of charcoal with a black Mohawk running up his back. It's a little bad-ass. 
Most fun are his moments of crazy energy, where he has a fit over a toy and bats it around like an idiot.
There is a likelihood that him and Halloween will go together well... 
Surveying my domain, Panther

"Give me attention, ma'am" Panther

And then there's LOKI. Our fuzzy god of Chaos is a lynx point 6 year old that is around 20lbs of super soft fur, muscle, and energy.  He lives by the motto of "brute force and ignorance" (he's busted out of TWO cat carriers, MID DRIVE!) Oh and did I mention this cat has a foot fetish? I kid you not, I walk in the door, kick off my shoes and I have to stand there for 2-3 minutes of Loki having a snuggle fest with my toes. If hes grumpy, we offer him a foot, and he immediately purrs. This cat is a freak. A gentle, cuddly, lynx-y freak.
He's really nice though, those lethal claws of his never get used on us, he just whips them out on Panther from time to time. Who obliges with a Bite and a glare at us. We called Loki the grumpy roommate for a bit after we got him. Thankfully the two are getting along now.
 And he is now SHAVED (see the bottom picture, taken three hours after his shave job).

"Hey look! I found a perch!" and blissfully unaware of impending shave job Loki.

"If you didn't feed me, I'd kill you. Stop taking pictures." Loki.

So we got a basement cat and a god of chaos. Fantastic.