Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a good Halloween weekend and that today is filled with tons of candy eating and more fun times dressing up.

If you're in New York check out the parade because it promises to be a good time with plenty of cool costumes. If you're not then hopefully your area has something fun to do, or maybe there's some good haunted house type things to check out.

I'll be back after I wake up from my sugar coma.

Completed Pirate Amy Pond costume

And here it is! This post got a little bit delayed because my mom took some extra time to do some last minute details to the coat, and my shirt needed to be hemmed because it's a men's shirt. But it's finally finished!

So there's me and my costume. I love that without the pirate hat, coat and sword I can pretty much wear this to class. Which I am doing today.

Also, I bought a $5 wig so here's how it looks.

Considering how beautiful Karen Gillan's hair is at all times in this show I'm not sure how I feel about the wig. I might just wear my hair loose. Either way, after a long anticipated wait my costume is finally finished! I love everything about it. You can see what an awesome job my mom did on the buttons and what a difference the length of the shirt makes. Before it was nearly as long as the skirt. She also did a great job on the gold trim for the hat.

I am officially set for Halloween! Bring on the parade on Monday!

Pumpkin designs

Carving pumpkins for Halloween or just for fall in general is one of my favorite things to do in addition to the obvious dressing up aspect of this time of year. When I was a kid I just did the standard face, with a few variations over the years.

One year we used the pumpkin 'guts' to spread in and out of the mouth of the pumpkin to simulate it throwing up. That was probably my favorite pumpkin.

Last year I carved a pumpkin with the Rebel insignia in it.

This year because my Halloween weekend is so busy I doubt I'll get a chance to carve anything fancy, but here are a few cool websites I found in case you want to carve some cool pumpkin designs!

This site has a Boba Fett, Yoda, Jabba and Darth Maul carvings.

This one has David Tennant's Tenth Doctor with the Tardis.

And this one has some pretty complicated, but extremely awesome, instructions on how to make a Death Star pumpkin.

If you're looking for a cyberman, this site is the one to look at. If you're talented also check out the template for an Eleventh Doctor that last site mentions.

If anyone actually attempts any of these way cool pumpkins let me know! Or let me know if you find any other cool sites with more templates, I'd love to keep them all in mind to work on next year.

Halloween Music

For Halloween I always make a playlist of my favorite songs to listen to and put me in the Halloween mood. It's my favorite 'holiday' of the year. I don't have many of the popular songs like "Thriller" or "Monster Mash" (although my mom is insisting I purchase those) but I do have some favorite cds to listen to.

My first cd that I always put on is "Oculus Infernum" by Van Helsing's Curse. I actually came across this cd completely by accident years ago when I was doing a search for the soundtrack to the movie Van Helsing. I listened to a couple of the clips on iTunes and decided it sounded cool so I got it. Since then it's become one of my favorite cds even when it's not Halloween. It sort of tells a story set to music. Basically it's about this horrible, nameless evil that comes and starts attacking people and how the only person who can stop it is this little boy with the help of someone from the Van Helsing family line. It's completely worth a listen to and there's a website for the cd here: http://www.vanhelsingscurse.com

The other two cds I listen to come Halloween time are cds by the group Wednesday 13. Their cd "Fang Bang" is my favorite one. My friend introduced me to this group when I was in high school and pretty much my favorite song from them is "American Werewolves in London". Mostly because I really like the movie "American Werewolf in London" but the song is pretty awesome too. I love that part of the lyrics are "we're going down to Piccadilly Square to raise a little hell" which is a reference to the big scene at the end which takes place at Piccadilly Square. Little things like that amusement me. The other cd I have of theirs is "Transylvania 90210". I'm not as big a fan of this cd as "Fang Bang" but there's definitely some good stuff in there for Halloween time. Of course, listening to both of those cds assumes you don't mind plenty of cursing in your songs. If you don't mind that then I definitely recommend checking them out.

As I mentioned I'm also going to be purchasing "Thrillier" and "Monster Mash" because my mom insists those are important songs to have for Halloween. I'm not a big fan of either song but it's Halloween time and like with Christmas time sometimes you have to listen to some songs you just can't stand.

That's it for my Halloween music selection. If you have any favorite songs you listen to around this time I'd love to hear about it, so leave a comment!

Aside from that my Amy Pond pirate costume is in its last stages of development. The lining is getting stitched into my coat, the shirt is being adjusted because it was too long and I'm exchanging the brown hat I have for a black one that I can put gold trim on like Amy's. Yes, there will be a post about it when it's done!

Update: Amy Pond Cosplay/Costumes

I've been looking forward to Halloween more this year than I have in quite some time. The reason for that is because I'm crazy excited about being pirate Amy Pond this year.

It's a bit unusual for me because I never wear skirts. As in I can count on one hand the number of times I've worn a skirt in recent memory. However, Amy is just such an awesome pirate and it's a fun costume that I couldn't resist.

Reasons I Love theforcebook

1. All Star Wars all the time- This should be pretty obvious from the name but it's great to have a place to talk about the latest Star Wars news, the new episode of The Clone Wars, your action figure collection, comics books, novels, how none of your friends understand why Jar Jar sucks or even how much you're looking forward to the next convention.
2. The 'atmosphere'- I have yet to see people not get along on this website. Sure there are differing opinions, but everyone is respectful of other people's opinions and thoughts and sometimes you can even make someone see something about Star Wars they never would have noticed before. Even though everyone is of different ages it hardly matters because we all share an incredibly strong interest that brings us together.
3. The administration- John Doyle has done an incredible job creating this site and making it easy and fun to use with some awesome features like the ability to post pictures or photo albums or write articles. The moderators also do a good job of blending in and getting along with everyone and keeping things in check if need be. I'd just like to say thanks, guys!
4. Occasional fandom overlap- every so often I see conversations about other movies whether it be Indiana Jones, Transformers or some other movie or tv show and I think it's great because so many of us share other common interests aside from Star Wars.
5. It's hard to put this last reason into words but basically... everyone on this site is awesome. I've made great friends through the forcebook, and even some virtual siblings. It doesn't matter whether you're a Jedi, a Sith, a Light Sith, a Dark Jedi or a Mandalorian because we all love Star Wars and that's the most important thing.

So basically, if you like Star Wars, go check it out. You won't regret it. 

Review: The Wedding of River Song

It's here! The season finale is here! I'm going to dive right into this review before I lose my mind from excitement and lack of words!

Amy and Rory FanFic

In previous posts I've talked about how I enjoy writing stories both on my own and with my friends. Lately I've been doing more writing on my own thanks to 750words.com. The other day I discovered this blog on tumblr devoted to Amy and Rory fanfic writing. It's a great blog and I really enjoyed the first story the author wrote but it made me think about how much I wanted to write some Doctor Who fanfiction but I couldn't think of a good story. I toyed with some ideas of creating some original characters, but lately I've been completely and thoroughly obsessed with Amy and Rory. When I re-watched "The Girl Who Waited" it occurred to me that it would be really neat to have a flashback of Amy and Rory's first kiss.

But that's not likely to come. So I went ahead and wrote my own version of it. Which I'm bravely deciding to post here. So if you're interested, then read on and let me know what you think!

On Amy Pond and skirts

I've recently purchased a mini skirt for my Amy Pond costume but have been wearing it just for fun. I'm still figuring out how she actually sits down in the damn things, though.

Oh, yeah. It's because they spend all their time running.

750 Words

I don't even remember how I came across this site, but I recently discovered the site 750words.com and have been enjoying it quite a lot. Basically, the function of the site is to provide people with a private place to 'free write' every day. The goal is to write at least 750 words, no matter what it's about. It's just meant to convince people to write every single day no matter what the content is or the grammar or spelling.

What makes it fun is that the site keeps track of things like how quickly it takes you to write the 750 words, how many words per minute you write and even how often you use certain words in a post. There's also a point system which gives you points every time you complete the goal. As you go the more points you get. If you can convince friends to get on the site and you want some friendly competition, that's a way to keep track of it.

The site also tracks a ton of other things that pertain to what you've written and can compare it to other days you succeed in the goal. It's a lot of fun to look at even if I don't always understand what the stats are for or how they are compiled. My favorite thing about it is that it helps me write every day because I like to see how how I can get my streak. It can be hard to remember, and after the first three days I completely forgot about it, but I try to make myself write even when I stare at the site and think about all the other things I'd like to be doing. I love that I can just write about whatever comes to mind because it's private. No one else is going to read it, and even I don't bother going back to check the jibberish I come up with. It's easy to just hop from topic to topic and not care that it doesn't all make sense or that I misspell plenty of words along the way.

Thinking ahead, I think it'll be a great way to keep track of my National Novel Writing Month stats. It's easy to see how many words you've written, and it saves the document every 10 seconds or so which means I don't have to be afraid of my computer crashing and potentially losing everything. I even love that every night it's just a fun way to organize my thoughts on what I did during the day and what I need to do the next day. Basically, 750words.com is my new favorite website, and if you're at all interested in writing or just want a new place to keep a journal then I highly recommend that you check it out.

Mandalorian vs. Jedi/Sith

Lately among my Star Wars friends there seems to be this divide. On one side there's the Force users whether they consider themselves a Jedi or a Sith, and on the other side there's Mandalorians. I think it's pretty clear where I stand in this divide, and it's rather nice knowing that the Mandalorian side is growing so much. However, because of this divide I think it's easy for people to think one is better than the other; especially when the topic turns to the ethics of the Jedi which is, I think, a touchy subject since the Jedi are meant to be the 'good guys'. But every time Jedi raising kids away from their families and possibly taking those kids in not so nice ways comes up that 'good guy' title gets a little murky. It also gets murky when the idea of Jedi essentially using a slave army to fight the war is mentioned. Because of the murky waters and many opinions I thought I'd go ahead and jot down my own thoughts on the subject.

Review: The God Complex

And finally here we are, The God Complex! Been looking forward to this episode for weeks. And let me just say right now, right here, before we go any further... it did not disappoint. It honestly didn't. Now, if by now you still haven't seen then you have two options: go watch it RIGHT NOW, or just leave and read another post that has nothing to do with how brilliant this episode of Doctor Who was. "Are you sitting comfortably? Then let us begin." (if you know what episode that's from then leave it in the comments and you'll win a virtual high five from me)

Tick Tock Doctor Who Poem

Tick tock goes the clock
And what now shall we play?
Tick tock goes the clock
Now summer’s gone away?

Tick tock goes the clock
And what then shall we see?
Tick tock until the day
That thou shalt marry me

Tick tock goes the clock
And all the years they fly
Tick tock and all too soon
You and I must die

Tick tock goes the clock
We laughed at fate and mourned her
Tick tock goes the clock
Even for the Doctor

Tick tock goes the clock
He cradled her and he rocked her
Tick tock goes the clock
Till River kills the doctor

- Doctor Who

Tonight's the night! The answer to our questions! Well, knowing Moffat we'll get some answers and a heap more questions to go with it. Although I hope it won't be too much of a cliffhanger considering it's the end of this season.

Also, thanks to whoever compiled the words to the poem and made it coherent. Because it certainly wasn't me. But I think it's brilliant. Right up there with the Demon's Run poem.

Courtesy of BBC America, here's a prequel video to tonight's episode! It's amazing.