Uh oh. Braves eliminated? Or just lost a crucial game?

Putting on some PC Gourmet Medium in the coffee pot. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Black Currant. Cold bevvies are refreshed.

Later, alligators.

Unsweet. Better to be able to add sweetner to taste. The iced teas up here all tend to be sweetened to the point of being tea-flavoured pop so one of my favourite things about travelling in the US, esp. the South, is getting unsweet iced tea.

Podcasts or music in the car?

Quote by gillianleeza
curried butternut squash soup

Excuse the puddle of drool on the floor. Butternut squash soup is stunningly yummy to start with, but add curry? Never had it, but I anticipate a good time if I ever do. Our favourite local buffet had butternut squash soup on their soup table for their combined Moon Festival/Thanksgiving menu.

Yawn. Sorry I'm late but it seems quiet here anyhow. PC West Coast Dark is in the coffee pot. Teas are Assam and Irish Breakfast. Pitchers are washed and refilled.

Later, alligators.

Going back a bit further in Post's long career (he won his first Grammy at the age of 23 for doing the instrumental arrangements for Mason Williams' famed "Classical Gas").

Apparently he was so busy scoring TV shows during the peak of his career, Post actually employed a staff of other composers who did a lot of the actual writing for specific scenes and episodes.

Spat - Scat

Spam - Span

Plain tea (except oolong, which goes good with cream of all things)

Bag or looseleaf?

Got something new for folks to try. S'Mores Chai Tea. No, really. That's what it is called. It is basically chocolate chai made with Chinese Pu'erh tea. Not a fan myself. David's Tea sent me free samples as part of a program to try to get my business back. They could have done better. At least I can get 20% off my next order from them if I decide to order from there.

On the coffee front, there's President's Choice Great Canadian Medium Roast. Besides the (gag) S'mores Chai, I made a nice, normal English Breakfast. Cold beverages are mixed up in the pitchers. Soda stock is checked and replenished. And with hot chocolate season definitely in the air where I am, there's cocoa mix on hand and the first load of mini marshmallows is stored.

Later, alligators.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Just a little reminder (as if any were needed) of the situation in Ukraine.

Actually, Israel is overshadowing them a bit right now so not a bad reminder. Within Temptation apparently addresses the Ukraine invasion a lot on their upcoming album and Sharon was waving a Ukrainian flag on stage at Hellfest (and presumably other dates on the current tour).

Was listening to my old favourites the Moody Blues this afternoon. I've created a playlist on Amazon Music that has everything from the 1967 to 1972 incarnation of the band, which produced their best work IMHO (not that the 1980s-90s version is terrible or anything, they put out some great music in that era, too). So for my walk today, I just put my buds and hit Shuffle on that list.

My favourite Moody has to be the late Ray Thomas. Best known as their flautist and backing vocalist, Ray got to sing lead a few times per album back then and his songs are often real gems.

Horror story is just moving along. Even with my tendency to anal, perfectionist editing I am at the point where I have it in Drafts with a cover image in place (thanks to my AI of choice for the latter). Probably will let it simmer now but maybe in a day or two if I don't find a major problem. Goes very, very dark, moreso than I was originally thinking it would.

grabs a turkey and a pie

Oddly, we are having cassava chicken soup, something my wife picked up when we were in Panama just before the pandemic.

Quote by verbal
The Black Beacon Book of Horror

As I commented elsewhere, great title, even if Black Beacon is actually just the publisher.

Quote by verbal
we are off to Albuquerque to see the eclipse on Thursday

Enjoy. I saw one from Bryce Canyon, Utah several years ago. Didn't plan around the eclipse, just worked out that way.

And every time someone talks about Albuquerque, I think of Bugs Bunny's line, "I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque."

I have not actually been to New Mexico yet. My trips to the Southwest have covered Nevada, Arizona, and Southern Utah so far.

The great-granddaddy of contemporary shared universes has got to be H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (Classical Mythology is an even further back ancestor). Right from the start, Lovecraft happily allowed friends and even fans (Robert Bloch, best known for Psycho, started out this way) to write in and add to the implied setting of his universe. A name dropped in one story would become the gibbering cosmic horror of the next. Lovecraft appeared in a Bloch story (and died horribly), then wrote a sequel in which "Robert Blake" also died horribly.

And even after Lovecraft's death, horror writers kept writing Mythos stories. Even King has gone to that well a few times. There have been an increasing number of movies, some adapted from or inspired by Lovecraft, others original stories incorporating elements of the Mythos (e.g. Underwater starring Kristen Stewart ends with an appearance by Cthulhu itself).

My own relationship to the Mythos is a long one. I think I first encountered it through roleplaying. The Mythos appeared in the first edition of the D&D book Deities and Demigods before being dropped from subsequent editions for copyright reasons (Lovecraft's work had not leaked into the public domain yet). But that got my group and I interested, leading us to Call of Cthulhu, the first and still most popular RPG based on Lovecraft (though many more have now appeared since the Mythos went into the public domain).

And it got me reading H. P. Lovecraft himself, along with many of his heirs and successors. While Lovecraft is a problematic read today (racist, classist, something of a fascist, more than a tad sexist), the ideas stuck. My favourite horror writer Ramsey Campbell, along with some of his contemporaries have done a bang-up job of modernizing the Mythos and getting away from the problematic element.

So naturally I started toying with writing Mythos stories. At one point, I even toyed with my own "Mythos", trying to divorce myself from having to ape the structures of the original. You can see this in Voice of Ice, whose first draft actually goes back to that period in my life. Of course, I failed miserably at that divorce and the whole academic discovering horror from reading ancient books is alive and well in that story. My recent The Summer Beast is probably closer to creating something in the cosmic horror vein that is not really part of that lineage, but it is not really all that cosmic. Though if I ever get a sequel going, who knows where I would go with it? I never did establish where the beast came from in that story.

And so, right now, I am writing a story that will be consciously Mythos, or at least Mythos-adjacent. Old books, horrors from beyond normal space and time, and so on. But I am hoping to put my own spin on the hoary old tradition, too. We shall see if I succeed.

(And, yes, there's a non-zero chance I might end up having this, The Summer Beast, and Voice of Ice be in the same universe. After all, the Mythos was not really deliberately created, just evolved out of Lovecraft dropping the same names and obscure references over and over. Sometimes stories that were not meant as Mythos stories even got sucked in by Lovecraft's name-dropping, e.g. Robert Chambers' The King in Yellow.)

I blow hot and cold, mostly cold, on Icelandic singer-songwriter Bjork. Not sure why, but she's just never appealed to me even if I find her work interesting.

However, this cover of Bjork's "Army of Me" by Brazilian singer Violet Orlandi at least has Violet's lovely alto voice and some interesting imagery going for it.

Three Musketeers, assuming they still make them. Have not seen one in a very long time (mercifully for my glucose levels).

Adopt a kitten or a grown cat?

Quote by DenimAngel
Ape did the marshmallow dealer agree to the terms of cookies?

Indeed he did. No arm-twisting required, though I had the Bear standing nearby in case it was. I mean, seriously, who's going to play hardball with a gorilla and a polar bear?😋

Quote by gillianleeza
This year, I am trying to simplify the menu. I spend so much time prepping and cooking that I don't get to enjoy having my family visit.

Yeah, I have noticed that the few times we've done family get togethers at our place. Though with my uncle being a retired chef, he often ends up in the kitchen helping so the person cooking at least gets to visit with him.

Quote by gillianleeza
Now, all the mosquitos need to die.

They seem to be more or less finished here. I walked through the woods near my place recently and was not molested by the bloodthirsty little beasts.

And a hearty GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING! to y'all. Coffee is Fire Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Teas are English Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. Wash the pitchers and put fresh iced tea and lemonade in them.

Writing what I hope will be a spooky horror piece for Hallowe'en. Going Lovecraftian on this one, though I am not sure whether I will make it officially Cthulhu Mythos or just evoke that atmosphere.

Up early. We travel for scenery and sightseeing, not to party.

Paint your face for Halloween or wear a mask?

Hey there, everybody! Long weekend here in the Great White North. Happy Thanksgiving to any and all Canucks reading this.

Coffee is PC Gourmet Medium Roast. We've got Canadian Breakfast and Vinyl Cafe teas. Latter is named for a famed Canadian radio and stage show whose host sadly left us several years ago. Iced tea and lemonade are ready, soda stock is checked.

Good morning! Got some President's Choice West Coast Dark in the coffee pot. Teas are English Breakfast and Earl Grey Cream. There's fresh iced tea and lemonade in the fridge and the pop is stock up. Marshmallow stock has arrived as has our supply of hot chocolate so we are ready for winter. We'll getting down to hot chocolate temps here on the weekend, it appears.

Sorry I haven't been writing much for here. Another site has kind of occupied my attention of late. Soon, I hope.

A new entry on my favourite new albums of 2023 is A Dark Euphony by Dutch alt/goth-metal band Blackbriar. Their lead singer Zora Cock has a beautiful voice that is quite different from a lot of the metal queens and the songwriting here is terrific.

Soup - Soap (something you hope isn't in your soup)

Spain. I adore paella alone even without getting into other Spanish dishes. And, to be honest, I found French cooking overrated when I went to Paris.

Travel alone with partner or join a group tour?

Quote by gillianleeza
The first one is good, and they go downhill steadily after that.

Jaws ranks as one of my all-time favourite movies, clunky shark sfx notwithstanding. The performances of the shark hunting trio are fantastic. The first sequel was kind of meh and rehashed a lot of plot beats from the original but at least Scheider was back as Brody. When the next one came out in 3D I gave up. Until Avatar, 3D was pretty much a gimmick to try to sell crap.

Good afternoon, folks.

Ocean, though I wouldn't mind trying a river cruise on the Danube someday (my wife isn't crazy about the idea, though)

Visit lots of ports or spend lots of time on the ship?

Coop - Coup

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I have just discovered that Within Temptation also has a new album release on 20th October 2023.

It is entitled Bleed Out.

There's a couple singles out now. Sounding like quite the album. Sharon and Robert (the married couple who do most of the writing and are the band's founders) went quite political on this one, with a lot of focus on Ukraine but Bleed Out is about women's rights.

"Wireless" was the first release.

Quote by verbal
The High Lonesome

Sounds like a Western? Or maybe s-f?

I finally took the bait and started reading Saga last night. I've been hearing good buzz about it for years but have never plunged in. It's an ongoing comic series since 2012 (but with a hiatus from 2018 to 2022) about a mismatched couple from warring societies on the run from both their nations with their newborn in tow (who also narrates as an adult, giving the whole thing a bit of a flashback feel). Every bit as good as I heard. Good pair of lead characters, some humourous touches in spite of the general darkness of the setting (basically a galaxy in perpetual war with lots of nasty people around), interesting supporting cast including some seriously weird aliens. Even has magic which is why I class it as fantasy rather than s-f, even though it has lots of s-f elements. There's a compendium edition covering the entire period (54 issues) prior to the hiatus which is what I am reading now, then the ongoing comics get compiled into graphic novels every so many issues so I'll use those to catch up once I've finished the compendium. Authors are Brian K. Vaughan (writer) and Fiona Staples (Artist)

Brow - Crow

I've been hearing about Finnish metallers Battle Beast for a while now, but finally partook. Excellent band. Lead singer Noora Louhimo belts, shouts, and screams with the best of them.

Quote by verbal
Damned Thing

Possible title? 😉 I mean, it's not original (Ambrose Bierce wrote one called "That Damned Thing") but you could do much worse. 😋

So I awoke up at 2am, used the loo, and then barely slept after that. Feel like (censored) today. Don't even want to consume copious amounts of caffeine because that might disrupt me tonight.