~Seryan~

LJ20

seryan — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 21:15:10 GMT

You can get your own card here!

#LJ20

So it's an anniversary, just not a happy one

seryan — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 16:36:33 GMT

One year to the day since I was laid off, and I'm still unemployed.

Kind of surprised something like this hasn't happened before, honestly

seryan — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 02:24:20 GMT

Playing D&D tonight in the game store, I finish killing the leader of the group of whatevers that was attacking us and feel a tap on my shoulder. Bear in mind I'm not naturally diplomatic.

"Excuse me," says a random man politely, "but could you tell my wife that gaming really is fun for girls, too?"

"Well, obviously," I said, once again making it clear a career in diplomacy is not for me, "I'm here!"

The woman just kind of rolled her eyes and walked off. But the man thanked me and told me to enjoy the game.

Which I did. (Nat. 20 and two insta-kills, plus compliments from another player on the dice bag I knit myself.)

I'm kind of wondering how many other women he asked, because I wasn't the only one gaming that night, just the only one playing D&D. Hopefully if any were asked they all gave similar answers.

Once again, the First Lines meme

seryan — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 16:22:33 GMT

My holiday traditions are pretty much 'terrible movies' (this year's was Silent Night, Deadly Night 2 and due to financial constraints I didn't even get drunk) and this meme.

January: Okay so I basically have one New Years tradition and it relates to LiveJournal.

February: I got laid off today.

March: [No entries]

April: Exploring Halifax’s secret underground world | The Chronicle Herald

May: Cleric: I don't think we should touch the weird rift th -

June: And you know, my first thought was to laugh, but last night my d20 kept giving me crap rolls and finally I put it in a container for a time-out (in fact, a party joke is that that set of dice is curséd) and threatened it with said shaming if it didn't behave.

July: Look, the decision to put the female lead in four inch heels for the entire film in Jurassic World puzzles me too.

August: Phone scammers. "The VISA and Mastercard Company" my ass.

September: Or, Star Trek II in under 2 minutes, in opera form.

October: Hey, it's October! Time to watch a horror movie a day again.

November: I went outside earlier to dig over the vegetable garden and the compost before winter hits.

December: I came across a listing for "a shitload of free ereader fairy tale books" earlier today and once I'd finished downloading them all decided to share.

Hey, free books!

seryan — Sat, 05 Dec 2015 01:10:43 GMT

I came across a listing for "a shitload of free ereader fairy tale books" earlier today and once I'd finished downloading them all decided to share. This list is for the Amazon.ca links, since Amazon.com keeps directing me back there. (Presumably weird copyright issues since even though these are free and public domain the rule seems to be a blanket one for the entire Kindle store.) If you need the US links, go here. Like the original poster, I've just collected these links and haven't read any of the books yet (except Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Dracula, and Frankenstein, but not in this format) so I can't promise quality.

If you don't have a Kindle you'll need to download the app. If you don't want to do that, these are public domain so you could probably find them on Project Gutenberg. (I haven't checked.)

Here are the links for Canada:

Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights
Heroes, or Greek Fairy Tales for My Children
Russian Fairy Tales A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore
Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends - Not available free on Amazon.ca.
English Fairy Tales
More English Fairy Tales - Not available free on Amazon.ca.
Canadian Fairy Tales
Gawayne and the Green Knight A Fairy Tale
Irish Fairy Tales
Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks
East of the Sun and West of the Moon Old Tales from the North
The Magic Bed A Book of East Indian Fairy-Tales didn't appear on Amazon.ca in eBook format.
Indian Fairy Tales is currently unavailable on Amazon.ca.
Japanese Fairy Tales isn't available free on Amazon.ca.
Tales of Folk and Fairies
Aesop's Fables; a new translation isn't available for free on Amazon.ca.
Czechoslovak Fairy Tales
The Laughing Prince Jugoslav Folk and Fairy Tales
The Cat and the Mouse A Book of Persian Fairy Tales isn't available free on Amazon.ca, and Amazon.com shows me a listing for paperback copies only.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland [illustrated]
Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson isn't showing up on Amazon.ca.
The Master Key, An Electrical Fairy Tale Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity
The Blue Fairy Book
Dracula
Frankenstein

Two that weren't included on the original list:
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry
The Shoemaker's Apron A Second Book of Czechoslovak Fairy Tales and Folk Tales

Enjoy!

Not a job but at least it's a title?

seryan — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 02:49:52 GMT

We're talking about something kitchen-related, I can't remember what. I enjoy cooking, Steve's not really interested in doing it, so most of it falls to me for those reasons and because I hate having to share my cooking space and tools. (Worst part of having roommates, over and above trying to get people to clean per the schedule, I swear.) Anyway:

Me: *asking a question about whatever it was we were talking about*
Steve: Yes. Because you're the food wizard.
Me: What?
Steve: You're the Executive Food Wizard.
Me: If I'm a wizard, I should have a wizard hat.
Steve: It's backordered.Should be here in a few weeks.

Still waiting on that hat...

Late fall gardening

seryan — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 00:12:43 GMT

I went outside earlier to dig over the vegetable garden and the compost before winter hits. I have an eight by six garden with roughly half given over to compost and the other to plants, and I rotate sections year by year. Just at the edge, the border between soil and compost I found a few dozen beans plants sprouting.

This time last year we had just over a foot of snow on the ground, this tyear I've got bean plants sprouting - on their own, no less, they're the result of some beans pods that got buried in the compost - and the parsley, thyme, and kale are still going strong. I've got a few carrots left in too. Apparently carrots will self-seed, so I'm leaving a few in the garden and seeing what happens. Someone told me that if you let carrots grow wild they'll push out the weeds and I would rather have the carrots.

I think some of the hostas are trying to make a comeback too, but you can't kill those so they don't count.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): We Are Still Here

seryan — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 23:26:20 GMT

We Are Still Here

In the cold, wintery fields of New England a lonely old house wakes up every thirty years - and demands a sacrifice. (IMDB Summary)

Oh man, a friend recommended, and loaned, this to me and it was worth every minute. We Are Still Here covers both the haunted house and town with a dark secret tropes and it does so very, very well. From the same group who brought you The House of the Devil, We Are Still Here is set in the late 70s and could also easily be mistaken for a period piece. The cast is mainly composed of older adults who never really make poor decisions, making it a refreshing change in a genre filled with improbably well-off college students dying rapidly in foolish ways, or families refusing to leave their haunted homes.

The movie revolves around Anne and Paul Sachetti who have moved to a new house in a small town for a fresh start after the death of their adult son Bobby in a car accident. Anne is certain that Bobby has followed them and claims she can feel him in the house. When a friend of the family performs a seance they don’t make contact with Bobby, but one of the angry former inhabitants of the house who leads them to an even deeper menace.

We Are Still Here moves the story along steadily, without rushing the audience, and the final confrontation is genuinely tense and gripping. Definitely recommended if you’re looking for a genuinely frightening film, or a change from standard fare.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): The Purge

seryan — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 22:18:57 GMT

The Purge

On the one night a year the government allows violence, a family finds themselves terrorised in the home they thought they’d made safe.

The Purge tries to be both social commentary and a horror movie about home invasion and fails at both. It could have been much better, it just doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up. You can certainly combine genres very successfully: Evil Dead II and Little Shop of Horrors are both successful horror/comedies, for example. Those films use balance, intermixing one with the other. The Purge, although at first glance seems like it might, does not and it suffers for it, not helped by a dubious premise that is never fully developed. What they’re trying to achieve by using the extremes shown and discussed in the story needs a lot more background given to us before it can be believable. TVTropes has a more in-depth explanation of the problems on the film’s page under the Artistic License - Economics and Hollywood Psych sections.

Unfortunately, The Purge doesn’t follow up on its promise of social commentary mixed with horror, turning into a pretty standard home invasion horror flick with the obligatory twist ending. None of the characters are developed enough to give them any depth, and as a result The Purge fails to become what it clearly wants to be.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Halloween III: Season of the Witch

seryan — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 14:33:33 GMT

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Every kid wants a Silver Shamrock mask for Halloween, but the toy company hides a horrifying secret behind its consumer-friendly image.

Yep, watched it again this year. Well. 'Watched' might be a strong word: the friend with the yearly rewatch had a housewarming party and I may have been distracted by booze, a drinking game, and kittens. One of them was so small he fit in my hand!

Anyway, because I watched this last year and everything from that recap still applies, I'm going to be lazy and just paste last year's text here:

It took pretty much the entire evening to get the Silver Shamrock jingle out of my head. Then I started on this and it came back. Dammit.

I'd always heard about how bad a movie this was, but I was curious because the original idea behind the Halloween series - that each film would be a unique story centered around the holiday in question - sounds interesting. A friend of mine has a yearly watch, so I went over last night because horror movies, good or bad, are more fun in a group. It wasn't nearly as awful as I expected and I think it would have gotten a better reception released on its own rather than as part of the Hallowe'en series.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Night Wolf (2010)

seryan — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 01:12:35 GMT

Night Wolf

Sarah Tyler returns to her troubled family home in the isolated countryside, for a much put-off visit. As a storm rages outside, Sarah, her family and friends shore up for the night, cut off from the outside world. But something comes out of the driving rain and darkness. Something that holds a dark secret so devastating that, in one night, it could wipe out the entire family. (IMDB Summary)

I watched this movie, then had to head out to a party at the home of one of Steve's coworkers. When I got back, I had to go back to Netflix, which for some reason keeps things you've finished watching in the 'continue watching' queue even if you watched the credits all the way to the end, to see what the title was.

I remember it combines two common horror themes: partying teens/young adults set upon by something that kills them one by one, and; people buy an old house to fix up and are set upon by something that kills them. Partying teens/young adults in an old house that is being fixed up? Yeah, they're going to die.

This never happens to Mike Holmes. Or does it? Now I want a movie about a handyman whose work helping homeowners fix up bad renovations is just a cover for battling the forces of evil because they always show up. Making changes to a building is supposed to unsettle the resident spirits. (Or, more likely, make the building make new noises and give it new shapes that creep people out in the dark.)

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Shutter Island

seryan — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 01:12:56 GMT

Shutter Island

A U.S. Marshal is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient at a psychiatric hospital located on a remote island.

This movie will screw with your head. It's also nearly impossible to describe without using spoilers because most plot elements have meanings beyond the obvious; there's a reason most of the TVTropes page is blanked out if you have 'Show Spoilers' turned off. Watching it a second time doesn't really help you untangle things. Watching through, you know something is wrong beyond what is overtly being stated, but you don't know exactly what and in many ways the answers aren't really clear. If you like psychological horror, you'll definitely want to check this one out.

With the lights on.

Pretty much...

seryan — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:31:38 GMT

‘The Manatee’ translates New Brunswick job ads for you | The Manatee

(The Manatee, which I'm guessing doesn't get much press outside the Atlantic Provinces, is our answer to The Onion. Still, sometimes it's sadly on point.)

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): John Carpenter's The Thing

seryan — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:29:33 GMT

John Carpenter's The Thing

Alone in an isolated Antarctic camp a team of twelve men is being hunted by, and hunting, a bizarre alien that can imitate the form of anything or anyone. (Adapted from Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell.)

Because real life is once again refusing to cooperate, I rewatched The Thing. I have weird comfort movies, I know.

My favorite horror movie, hands-down. In my early teens I taped it off Bravo and would stay up late at night watching it and listening to it over headphones. Was not able to bring the VHS tape with me when I left my mom's house and couldn't find a copy on tape or disc for years. I finally got one on Blu-Ray about 2 1/2 years ago. I no longer watch it once a week, but it probably does average out to about once a month or so. And the blood test scares me every time still.(And the fucking spider-head thing god WHY? I don't mind spiders themselves but severed upside down heads that grow eight legs and eyestalks...yeuchh!)

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys

seryan — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 23:12:28 GMT

Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys

After chomping through the fish population, thousands of starved lampreys begin attacking the citizens of a sleepy lake town, and the community scrambles to stay alive. (IMDB Summary.)

It's from The Asylum. It's pretty much what you expect from the summary.

I'm semi-cheating listing this here, because I wandered off during part of the movie to peek at the cooked grapes I'm draining of juice for jelly. But again, The Asylum; you don't need to pay attention to plot.

And, please let there have been a fad in Hollywood for starring in terrible movies as a joke. Otherwise, poor, poor Christopher Lloyd. :(

seryan — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 17:31:40 GMT

The Pyramid

An archaeological team attempts to unlock the secrets of a lost pyramid only to find themselves hunted by an insidious creature. (IMDB summary.)

This started out promisingly, with serious discussion of archaelogy and how it can be helped by emerging technologies. Sadly, that all goes right downhill when the unlikeable protagonists enter the titular pyramid, in defiance of all common sense. We're left with nothing more than a haunted house movie set in a pyramid. It didn't even make back half of it's gross budget, and it's not hard to see why. The treatment of Egyption mythology could have been better handled by someone remembering a book they read in third grade - or maybe that one Sesame Street movie - and the script is cliché to the point a machine could have written it.

The plot boils down to: unlikeable protagonists enter a pyramid and run around screaming and dying while being hunted by bad CGI and poorly composited special effects. There is a twist ending, and another.

I fail to feel badly for anyone involved.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): 13 Ghosts (1960)

seryan — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 00:57:22 GMT

13 Ghosts (1960)

A perpetually broke professor and his family unexpectedly inherit a large, old house - and the ghosts that inhabit it!

When the movie came out in 1960 it was played in theatres with the gimmick - it was a William Castle movie so of course there was a gimmick - intact. In this case it was the "Illusion-O!" glasses that would permit you to see the ghosts on the screen in different intensities. The ghosts were also visible to the naked eye, but if you looked through the red band of the glasses they'd appear with greater intensity, and if you looked through the blue they'd disappear. Lacking red or blue cellophane I'm not able to test how well this transferred to DVD.

13 Ghosts (it was the remake that spelled out the number and was also very terrible) hasn't really aged that well. You'll probably guess the plot from the beginning, and the ghosts are pretty obvious double exposures. I wouldn't call it frightening. It's just become a cute, fun, little ghost movie. It's still worth giving a watch if you're a fan of b-grade horror though.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): In Fear

seryan — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 16:57:02 GMT

In Fear

Driving to a music festival in Ireland, a new couple become lost and are then set upon by a tormentor with an unknown motive. (IMDB summary.)

Lucy and Max are in Ireland for a music festival as their first weekend away as a couple. While attempting to find the hotel they booked online, they become lost in the woods despite following the signs and soon realize they're driving in circles while an unknown tormentor or tormentors play increasingly dangerous tricks on them.

Ever been stuck in a car, in the dark, on an unfamiliar road while trying to find somewhere and everyone's getting increasingly snappy? Now add the feelings of fear and helplesness you'd get while there's a person or persons you can't see and you don't know doing everything they can to make you feel even more frightened and helpless. There you have In Fear, a surprisingly effective little horror film.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Deep Blue Sea

seryan — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 18:49:42 GMT

Deep Blue Sea

Searching for a cure to Alzheimer's disease a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the bait as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back. (IMDB Summary.)

Also known as 'the one where Samuel L. Jackson gets eaten by a shark'.

A group of scientists are experimenting with enhacing shark brains at a research lab set on an abandoned WWII submarine pen in the middle ofo the ocean. Those of you who aren't in the movie, didn't write it, and didn't greenlight it will recognize a couple of problems with this right off the bat:

You're going to make super intelligent sharks. Really, someone, at some point, even in-universe, should have at least floated this idea as a joke.

Submarine pens are designed to let submarines in, yes. They are also designed to let them out.

Those superintelligent sharks you're making are going to figure this out, and unquestionably faster than you will.

No points for guessing how the movie starts, or ends.

My considered opinion of this movie is that I'm on the shark's side.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

seryan — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 15:29:15 GMT

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D

When her father disappears, Heather Mason is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood. (IMDB Summary)

I haven't seen the first Silent Hill movie and I haven't played the games so most of what I know about them comes from popcultural osmosis. (This showed up in my Netflix suggestions and I went 'eh, sure'.) However, I think I'm still in the clear to say, this is a weird frikkin' movie. The visual and physical effects are extremely well done, as well as very disturbing, even though it's very obvious that many of them were done with 3D viewing in mind. There is a lot of nightmare fuel in this movie, but never fear, it's all contained between the beginning and end credits.

I'm not exactly clear on what's going on, but that might be my own fault for watching a movie in a 'verse I'm not familiar with. That's fine. See again my rant about making a film to appeal to people who aren't fans of that film type. It applies here too.

Has anyone here played through the Silent Hill games? Recommended, yes/no?

hey, surprises

seryan — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 03:47:06 GMT

First surprise is that one of the local cinemas sells burgers.

The second suprise is that, especially for theatre food, they're not priced excessively high.

The third surprise is that they're actually decent. I mean, I wouldn't assign it a Michelin star or what have you, but for fast food, yeah. Not regretting things.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): House of the Devil

seryan — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 02:13:50 GMT

House of the Devil

In need of money to pay for her new apartment, college student Samantha Hughes calls the number of a couple advertising for a babysitter on the night of a lunar eclipse. On her own in their remote house she slowly realizes they hide a terrifying secret.

A neat freak and germophobe sharing a small dorm room with a messy roommate, Samantha has just found the perfect apartment. Lacking the cash to make the down payment she tears a number from a flier advertising 'baby $itter needed' and makes the call, agreeing to meet the client on campus that morning. Initially annoyed when the client stands her up, when he calls back and offers her $100 for a night of babysitting, Samantha can't resist, even though her friend Megan insists things don't feel right.

Megan is routinely sensible. She wins the award, that I just made up, for Best Friend in a Horror Movie.

This movie was made in 2015 but is set in the 1980s, and the film makers did a magnificent job of making this look as if it were made there too. Everything from the poster to the style of the titles to the huge Walkman to the rotary phones is authentic. (Samantha's roommate sports some amazingly 80s feathered hair, too. A little more flexible than I remember, but she did have sex all night and sleep all day and even Aquanet had its limits.) The film not only looks like it was made in the 80s, it feels and sounds like it was too.

We don't get an exact date for when the movie takes place, but it's presumably sometime around Christmas because the campus seems mostly deserted and we hear church bells play a Christmas carol. Based on some of the music used (One Thing Leads To Another by The Fixx, One Of Our Submarines by Thomas Dolby and The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em) by The Greg Kihn Band) it seems to be sometime around 1983.

The film plays well on the unease you'd have spending hours alone in an unfamiliar house, and in fact a large part of it has very little dialogue and no characters on screen beside Samantha. It doesn't drag, but builds on audience anticipation of something happening. This one is definitely worth picking up and watching through.

Last election I wound up drinking for sorrow

seryan — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 19:17:12 GMT

This time it's for joy. Harper's gone!

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): Evil Dead (2013)

seryan — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 02:51:31 GMT

Evil Dead (2013)

Five friends spending the weekend at a remote cabin inadvertently release an ancient evil intent on possessing and destroying them.

This is actually decent for a remake, especially if you view it as an alternate history or alternate universe to the original, much like the remake of Fright Night. Whose to say something like the Book of the Dead can't exist across dimensions?

A lot of the criticism seems to come down to 'it's not as campy and funny as the original!' The thing is, The Evil Dead actually is a violent gorefest with very little humour. When people think 'campy and funny' they're thinking of Evil Dead II (pretty much a reboot of The Evil Dead) and Army of Darkness. This is much closer in tone to the first film.

That being said, there is some criticism I agree with, chiefly:

The tree rape scene. It didn't need to be in the original, and it doesn't need to be here, and it didn't need to be made more explicit. There are hundreds of other ways to show someone being possessed, use them.

Removing the face from the cover of the Book of the Dead. It does now look a lot more like an evil book, particularly the inside pages, but the book without the face is like Mike Myers without the mask.

Taking the gore wayyyy over the top and using gore just for the sake of gore. There's frightening your audience and then there's chucking fake blood and viscera at them till they just feel numb. Find a balance.

Overall, well, it's an Evil Dead movie. The original will always be best, but for a reboot this is pretty alright. Dialogue from the original movie plays over the end credits, which is a nice touch. Don't forget to watch for the stinger.

31 Horror Movies in 31 Days (2015): One Missed Call (2008)

seryan — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 00:31:10 GMT

One Missed Call (2008)

After the mysterious drowning death of a young college student, her friends begin to receive voicemails that seem to predict their deaths.

This movie was recommended to me by a former coworker. It has plenty of creepy effects and jump scares - and one that's supposed to be a scare and is just accidentally funny - but suffers from a) not knowing what to do with itself, quite and b) wanting to be for a broader audience than horror films usually are.

As a note, I'll never understand that. Why make a horror film to appeal to appeal to people who aren't horror fans? That's the kind of thinking that leads to things like the Star Trek reboot film series and that leads to - *spit* - Into Darkness. Which we will speak of no more.

Apparently this is a Hollywood remake of a Japanese horror film of the same name that spawned a successful franchise. I'll have to find it and compare.

If you want to sit down and be entertained by jump scares, this is a good choice. Otherwise, you may want to pick something else from the shelf/folder/Netflix queue.