I’ve been quiet lately, haven’t I?  Between selling our house and all the sundry events that go along with that (checks written and cashed, final inspection reports read and responded to, etc., etc.), getting ready for National Novel Writing Month (and don’t forget to sponsor me, of course), and a massive upgrade of Moodle at work, I’ve just been a tad busy.  I’ve also taken on a couple of writing projects, including a Sekrit one, so most of my spare time is taken up with those.  I’ve also been re-reading The Return of Deacon Dread from last year in an attempt to get ready for this year.  And heck, I even turned off the auto-post from Twitter, just because I accidentally posted something there that shouldn’t be showing up here.  Oy.

Expect sporadic updates throughout November.

And, of course, it’s Halloween.  The NaNoWriMo kick-off party is tonight in Dixon (contact me if you plan on going and don’t know where it is or why), and the theme is "Come Dressed As Your Villain".  My villain, unfortunately, normally manifests as a giant jellyfish, so I haven’t been sure how to pull that off.  Then I remembered that my villain also manifests as a giant black spider in a vacant field, surrounded by barbed wire.  THAT I can pull off.  Pictures might be posted.

Finally, I present this video for you.  Are you a girl?  Is it Halloween?  Check out this video!  (NSFW language, be warned.)

Have you all seen the movie Mean Girls with Lindsey Lohan and Rachel McAdams?  Generally a pretty forgettable movie, but there’s some fine commentary about the expectations that girls find themselves trying to live up to.  There’s the brilliant Halloween scene where Lohan’s character, having spent most of her life outside of the United States, discovers that Halloween for girls is the time of year when they dress up really sexy, even if they normally do.  "The most extreme girls," she says, "just dress in lingerie with some kind of animal ears."  Lohan’s character dresses up as a zombie bride (it’s a very effective costume and quite spooky), and is mocked for it.  And recently I’ve met more women who find Halloween uncomfortable or annoying because they can’t, for various reasons, pull off the sexy devil/witch/ghost/frog costume that the costume shops seem to think all adult women want to wear.  This video mocks the trend, and I approve.

Anyway.  Have a great Halloween/Samhain.

Support Me in the 2007 NaNoWriMo Write-A-Thon

(More Info Here)