Favorite Things: October (Birthday Edition!)

I had a birthday this past weekend filled with fun times and a lot of food. Seriously... a lot of food. And cake. It was wonderful and I'm probably going to blog about it soon. And since this is my blog and it was just my birthday, I'm going to talk about things I like... because I can! So here are some things I liked that I got either around or for my birthday.

Things I got that just happened to be around my birthday

Lootcrate
This month's Lootcrate theme was "Survival" and it came with this spectacular "Ewoking Dead" shirt from GraphicLab Tees! They have them on the site still but they're limited edition so hurry and get one!

 I love both Ewoks & The Walking Dead

so I was gleeful to get this! GLEEFUL!

It also came with the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (who also wrote the book World War Z).

Mental gifts to myself

Go Mighty
There is a lot of stuff I want to try and this helps me keep track. So now every time I think "hey I'd like to try/do that someday" I can just add it to my list- simple! Plus I can remember to blog about it after I check it off! Check out my list here and offer suggestions!

Organization
Buttoned Up is a great website for organization! They even have free printouts so I can get all organized without having to buy things to help me get organized. I love free things.

Things I'm buying myself

Books
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh came out on October 29th (which I'm hoping to get in the mail soon). Allie Brosh is a blogger and the great thing about Allie's stuff is that I liked it even before I knew what it was. Allie is the creator of the "ALL THE THINGS!" meme I've seen all over the interwebs. Her blog is hilarious (the drawings really make it) and I can't stop myself from giggling every time I read it.

Locke & Key: Welcome to Lovecraft is a graphic novel I've heard a lot about so I finally decided to check it out- I ordered it the same time as the other book mentioned so I hope it get them soon. It's supposed to be creepy and since it's Halloween time and I like to read scary stuff, it seemed like a good time to read it.

Video Games
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. I get to be a bad-ass pirate. Isn't that enough!? Seriously though, I just started playing it yesterday and it's awesome! I'M A PIRATE!

I'm on a boat!

Stuff I got from other people

Doctor Who
My sister knitted me the 4th Doctor's scarf, which will be extra warm in the winter but nearly impossible to wear (it is, like Tom Baker's scarf, ridiculously long). She also sent me a TARDIS mug that will be kept full of warm liquids this winter. It's shaped like a TARDIS and everything!

My friend at work (Thanks, Ashley!) also got me a TARDIS travel mug (among many other cool things) so I can take my warm liquids to go!

T-Shirts
My husband ordered me a couple of shirts from shirtwoot! that I was very happy with. One was the "Wishful Thinking" t-rex and "It Came Out of Nowhere" (car from Back to the Future crashing into the TARDIS).

Wishful Thinking

Happy end of October! Now I have to prepare for the dreaded "No Shave November". I hate it so much.

How Chucky Ruined My Childhood

Once when I was younger my parents were watching Child's Play. I'm not sure why since it still doesn't seem to me that it would be something they would enjoy. But it was the late 80's so I'll let it slide. I was supposed to be in my room being a good child while they sat uncomfortably (I would say entertained but I don't think it's accurate) through the movie.

I, being a curious and daring child, decided I needed to see what this weird doll movie was all about. So, peeking around the doorway from the hall to the living room, I watched parts. I got caught a couple times and was told to go back to my room. But I would not stay there... oh no, I had to watch it. Sitting quietly on the horribly awesome green, yellow, orange and brown shag looking carpet, I peeked around the corner again to watch more. Which is when I'm assuming (my memory blocks that part from me) someone was horribly murdered by a doll.

Horrified with what I had seen I ran to my room that, much to my dismay, contained a massive amount of dolls. You can imagine my terror at this point. I was surrounded by possible murderers!

This lead me to two different conclusions. 1- that I was done with dolls and didn't want them in my room anymore. They were to now live in a garbage bag (or a safe if we had one... we did not) in the basement; And 2- Dad was terrible at making me feel better. This is the fun part, kids...

He gave me a scenario and asked what I would do. This scenario did not help lessen my fear. He asked something along the lines of "what would you do if the cat (who I was sitting by at the time) kept coming back to life, etc" and he basically proceeded to tell me the plot of Stephen King's Pet Sematary. Really, Dad? How is that supposed to help in this situation? Of course, I didn't realize what he was telling me until many years later when I was actually old enough to watch scary movies. And then I felt a little upset because Dad had ripped off the plot of a Stephen King movie.

I think he's forgotten he did that but I am still afraid of Chucky and have yet to go to him again when I was scared of a movie.

Happy Friday!

Homeowner Anxiety

We closed on our house this month! And now I'm having anxiety... I'm going to give myself an ulcer or something. Most of it comes from the fact that it's a duplex and we're renting out the other side. There were renters that were already living next door that decided to tell us the night before closing that they were moving out. Great! After 2 years they decided to leave when we need renters the most. Ugh.

 I'm freaking out!

On the plus side (trying to be positive) we get to start fresh. The expensive part is that the rent we got was going to cover mortgage payments and there is a lot (A LOT) of work to be done because they weren't exactly easy on the place and it has needed maintenance for a while. We have to completely gut the bathroom. Down to the studs! EEK! And we also need to get some newer kitchen appliances... and flooring... and every room needs paint. So hopefully when we're done it will be one f*#king FANTASTIC looking place!

So if my blog posts start to look like I'm spending way too much time watching HGTV, it's probably because I am. Or if I don't post at all it's because I'm elbow deep in paint or other projects. I feel like I'm going to get crazy with stress until the work is done and the place is rented. I'm seriously losing my mind, guys. I about had a breakdown picking a neutral paint color. Why are there so many shades of white?! So I just gave up and picked a white because my brain was going to implode if I thought about it too much longer. And funnily enough the paint sample I brought back matches the color that's there almost exactly- so now I'll know what to get to refresh it the next time we need to. The stress fun of home ownership has begun.

Real Life Is Scary Enough Thanks

October is the month that a lot of people want to be scared because of Halloween and all that fun nonsense. But when you think about it, as you get older certain stuff just doesn't scare you anymore. I mean, spiders still scare me, but we have a history so that makes sense. And then there's zombies... I love/hate them.

You want some real life scary stuff? How about this: Taxes & audits! Mortgages! Late periods! A weird looking mole! Gray hairs & wrinkles! A dirty house and my mom is coming over!!! The horror! The HORROR!

So I don't watch a lot of scary movies, which these days seem more gore and violence than mental or anticipation. But Child's Play (click here to read about how Chucky ruined my childhood) and The Dark Crystal used to scare me so I'm not the best judge of what is scary. Except The Dark Crystal. Stupid freaky puppets.

Seriously... look at this thing!

Horrifying!

The weird part is, I like to watch and read scary(ish) stuff sometimes. The Walking Dead, Supernatural, and Resident Evil are some of my favorites, though those seem more suspenseful to me than deep-down terror that won't let me sleep at night. Then again I don't want that, so it's fine with me.

What scares you this time of the year? Mine is mostly the number of scantily clad young women on Halloween. It's cold out! You could get sick! Does your mother know you're leaving the house like that? What will the neighbors say? At least take a jacket with you, young lady!

Favorite Things: September

I'm slacking this month so I want to apologize for the lack of posts. I've been distracted and stuff lately. I blame work for making me so tired I want to do nothing but sleep and watch TV when I get home.

Throwback Gift
It was my husband's birthday recently and I wanted to take him back to his childhood so I got him a Big Trak. This was a toy he played with a lot as a kid (I had never seen one before) but when I saw that they had been made again I new I needed to get it for him. They are similar to the originals so even though they do cost a bit (about $60) I thought it was worth it to see the look on his face. Ah, childhood nostalgia...

Throwback Tees
Sticking with the "throwback" theme, check out 80s Tees- I'm a big fan of the 80's Movie section. Check out this awesome Uhura shirt! There's even 80s Superhero Shirts! I want them all!

Shopping
I love Sanshee for the accessories but they have a lot of great geeky stuff there too.

Early Christmas Shopping
And then of course I'm on Etsy a lot looking for unique presents for people. Christmas comes quick so I want to start shopping early! I'd tell you want I want to buy but I also don't want anybody to buy all the stuff before I can... so maybe after my shopping is done. I'm sorry, it's important! But I can tell you I'm buying more nerdy candles from Frostbeard Studio because they're awesome. So there you go... you get one.
OK, also check out my Pinterest Board for other cool stuff I want... mostly for me, though so I'm not sure what other people would like. Either way it's still cool.

P.S. If you come across any cool stuff you think I should include next month contact me!

I'm Suspicious of Chinese Vampires

I saw a news story on Yahoo this morning about a Chinese hospital wanting virgin female blood for research.

Quote from the news story:

"A Chinese hospital's request for blood from healthy female virgins for use in medical research has been condemned as insulting to women, state-run media reported Monday.

The Peking University Cancer Hospital said it needed the blood of 100 female virgins aged from 18 to 24 years old for studies on the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is usually transmitted through sexual contact, the China Daily reported."

So I read this and got all conspiracy theory and was like "what if that really isn't what the blood is for? Who requests the blood of young female virgins?! Wait... Vampires!" I mean, what would be the best way for vampires to get a certain type of blood? They can just fake "medical research" and have an in!

And speaking of vampires, I hope they look more like Jonathan Rhys Myers Dracula than Johnny Depp or 30 Days of Night vampires because 1) he's hot & 2) the others are creepy. But no Twilight vampires because they're all sparkly and weird. If I can't kill you with sunlight or a chunk of wood to the heart then you go against the vampire rules and should not exist you sparkly freak of nature! Whoa... sorry about that. I also get upset about fast zombies.

I was terrified by 30 Days of Night... nope nope nope nope

nope nope nope too scary I am crying!

So now I'm going to be questioning the motives of places that collects blood for any reason. Hello "blood research facility", are you using my blood for science or "science"? Because if you're using it for "science" I want to meet them so I know how afraid I should be and stuff. China got a bit too risky requesting virgin blood and gave themselves away. Everybody that has read any kind of vampire novel knows virgin blood tastes better or whatever because they believe in the myth that only virgin blood is "clean" blood. What a bunch of snobby vamps.

But of course U.S. vamps would buy from China because that's where most of our goods come from anyway. Why would blood be any different? Besides, we eat way too much fast food in this country. For example, I would probably have a slightly McDonald's flavor with a hint of Taco Bell. You don't want any of this, vampires. Plus I'm married so my virgin flavoring is all gone.

I'm still wondering how I went from possible Chinese vampires to convincing said vampires I would taste gross.... oh well. Happy Monday!