Google Search: Halloween

I don't have much to say this time around. 

At first, I was wondering if I should do a google search about google search, to basically explain what's changed regarding search and search engine optimization. How so many businesses depend on it more than ever, and how the algorithm landscape has changed as Google's become even more dominant than ever before. 

Then, I realized, I don't think people super care about that.  Halloween is just around the horizon. And I should probably be focusing on that instead...

I should stress that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Yet this year, I'm not entirely thrilled or in the spooky mood for Halloween. I think the world has become a bit of a scary enough place on its own. I'm also not seeing too many great Halloween-themed series. Minus some TV series such as Dahmer, and I guess if we're going there, The Midnight Club (though I think Midnight Mass was infinitely better). 

I'm at a bit of an end regarding what to say. Because I was assigned a google search, and so I figured, why not just see what shows up on my first five search trends, as a way of fulfilling that I did something posted on here regarding google search, while also, having celebrated the spooky scaries. 

So here goes.

Halloween Ends:    

The newest and final horror movie in the Halloween series. I don't really know what happens, but also... I don't really care? I do find it strange that Mike Myers has failed to kill his teenage sister 50 almost fifty years later. I also find it strange, given how many times he's been shot and stabbed and blown up to kingdom come, that he doesn't have some sort of arthritis or health problems? He doesn't seem like a person who's in good health given he probably has, for likely the entirety of his life, chased a singular idea. So I can't imagine he's too good up there.  

Halloween Costumes:

I've actually never really bought costumes before as an adult. I sort of stopped in my childhood and in college and didn't really attend as many Halloween parties because I was mostly focused on school. I did, however, buy one for comic-con recently, where Mary Fan and I dressed up as Boba Fett and Fennec. Which was neat.

Halloween Date:

I don't have one but I do plan on being at DerpyCon, which will be my last convention of this year. I also haven't told most people yet but there's a pretty good chance it's my last convention for a while, as I'm sort of doing a life change pretty soon.

Halloween Kills:

Is another Halloween movie that came out, I believe, just last year? Whereas 2021 made sense given everyone's reluctance to be a person again, 2022 is completely different in that I think everyone is mostly all for going back to normal. Besides that, I just know of it as yet another Halloween sequel in the series.

Halloween Movies:  

There are a couple of good ones out right now such as Smile, Nope, Werewolf by Night, The Watcher, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and Prey (technically a horror movie). In terms of revenue, horror is absolutely slaying it as the low-cost and high-profit margins make it a pretty solid genre, despite the lack of accolades. Still... I wonder when we'll get a real true horror movie that wins an Oscar again. 

And that's all I have. I'll try and do something stuffier for Thanksgiving.

 

 

 

Oh, the haunted places we will go

Happy Halloween, folks! Halloween's on a Saturday this year. Whaaa? That seems weird to me.

Halloween has become kinda lame, hasn't it? Even kids nowadays miss out on the pure essence that is October 31st. You know -- going to school in your costume, walking in the Halloween parade, having a party of cupcakes and candy before heading home and climbing the walls before your parents came home to escort you trick or treating. My son isn't allowed to wear his costume to school. And in my rural area, there's so many Trunk or Treats and harvest festivals that by the time actual Halloween rolls around, everyone is costume and candy'd out. But, I digress.

In the spirit of Halloween, I thought I'd share some of America's most haunted towns. It'll be a fun, frightening trip. Off, we go.

Key West, Florida -- I'm not being specific here because the whole damn island is haunted. The Hard Rock Cafe's second-floor ladies room is supposedly haunted by a wealthy man who hung himself in, what was then, his house. *shudder*. Take a haunted ghost walk when you're there and you'll hear all the stories including Robert the Doll -- the original Chucky.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania -- Next year, my husband and I plan on going to Gettysburg for a few days for our anniversary -- sans kids. I want to do all the spooky stuff and I can't drag my three kids, who get scared of the Minions movie, along. Gettysburg, most notable for being the sight of the bloodiest Civil War battle (over 50,000 soldiers died) and the Address, is a hot bed of paranormal activity. Maybe I can convince my husband to stay at the haunted Lightner Farmhouse, which was once a hospital for wounded soldiers.

Garnet, Montana -- This is a literal and figurative ghost town. Once a gold mining town that emptied out in the 1940s, the town is now run by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. In fact, the government offers volunteers free housing and a food stipend in exchange for running tours and managing the site. Just don't get freaked out if you hear unexplained piano playing in Kelley's Saloon or see apparitions in the street. Apparently, the ghosts are most active in the winter.

Salem, Massachusetts -- I've been to Salem and all I remember is a lot of kitchy, witchy touristy stuff. But in 1692, 19 people were executed for being witches during the Salem Witch Trials. It's reported that Gallows Hill, the site where many of the 19 were hanged, is haunted with the souls of the condemned. 

Athens, Ohio -- Ohio, a nice Midwestern town, and home to Ohio University and Athens Lunatic Asylum. The Asylum which operated from 1874 to 1993 is a gold mine of creepiness. The hospital performed many lobotomies in its day. Now owned by the university, students report lots of ghostly sightings including seeing faces in the windows and floating figures in the graveyards.

Have you ever been to a haunted city? Where? Give us all the spooky details.

Wimps Can Enjoy Scary Books Too!

If you're like me and scared of pretty much anything that goes bump-in-the-night, then Halloween might not be your favorite holiday. (But the fact that there's free candy and dressing up saves this holiday from being ranked dead last for me.) I hate being scared, I'm not a fan of horror movies, and I'm terrified of the dark and of spiders (both of which are pretty much synonymous with All Hallows Eve). And yet, I love books that are able to put me on edge. I haven't read many "traditional" horror books, but I have read a fair amount of creepy, thrilling, dark books that make you want to look over your shoulder or check under your bed. I'll call them horror-esque. And while some of them aren't considered horror, they still have that element of gore or scare, or "oh my gosh turn around it's right behind you TURN AROUND!" element to them. So here's a short list of books that I've read and liked (but aren't too scary for those wimps out there like me) that you might want to give a try:

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey (Aliens invade! But they look like humans.)

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton (People suddenly die from a mysterious cause.)

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (An environmental anomaly consumes all who enter.)

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (The only survivor of a mass killing tries to find the real killer.)

Day Four by Sarah Lotz (Cruise ship stops dead in the water. Very strange events begin to happen.)

Fiend by Peter Stenson (The only way to stave off the zombie apocalypse is with... drugs?)

Fragment by Warren Fahy (Jurrasic Park + Reality TV show)

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Young girl wonders why she's hated and why people suddenly smell so tasty.)

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (Based on real-life events of a close encounter with Ebola in the US.)

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (Family buys house. House reveals terrifying secrets.)

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Scandanavian child vampire seeks a friend.)

One Second After by William R. Forstchen (Scary-real account of what could happen after an EMP detonation.)

The Passage by Justin Cronin (Epic tale of how an immortality experiment turned most of the population into blood-thirsty killers.)

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (Exactly what the title sounds like. AI becomes self-aware. Decides to take over.)

The Three by Sarah Lotz (Three children survive unsurvivable plane crashes. That happen at the exact same time in different parts of the world.)

World War Z by Max Brooks (A "first-hand" account of the survivors of the zombie apocalypse.)

Out of these, I'd have to say that House of Leaves is the scariest one for me. If you've never heard of it, I urge you to go to your nearest bookstore and just take a look at it. It's unique in that there are stories within stories, footnotes that go on for pages, passages that are written in spirals (literally) and more. It takes commitment to read and is certainly not for everyone. It can be very confusing at times and gives the sense of what "going mad" must feel like. It's a book that stays with the reader (I'm getting goosebumps as I think about it) and has a cult following intent on breaking a supposed code that is written within the stories. It may not sound like a horror book from my description, but it leaves you feeling extremely uneasy every time you put it down.

Have you read any of these? What are some of your favorite horror books and why? What is the scariest book you've ever read?