Bunches of Fun on Periscope with Liv and Barry

Hi Internet People,

Yesterday I mentioned that @AuthorChrisVale was doing a live reading of his iZombie/The Flash fanfic on Periscope.  I’d never taken part in anything live on Periscope before, though I had watched some interviews that had been filmed on it so I had a vague idea of what it would be like. By vague I mean I knew that comments would appear on screen, but beyond that I had no clue what I was doing. I did figure out how to make hearts appear, you tap the screen, it’s apparently like favoriting or liking. We got into a bit of a heart war, I called it a heart attack, during the live read so Chris should have quite a few.

It was really fun being able to interact with other members of the fandom in real time, which we have sort of done on Twitter with live tweets, but this was more conversational. I had read Chris’ fanfic when he first put it up online and it was great watching and listening to him act out the story. He did different voices and his Ravi and Clive were fabulous! He also did some hilarious voices for characters named after people from the fandom. Not only were there voices, but he had a bunch of props, that were provided by his lovely wife throughout the evening. His first prop was a banana that he used every time a character got a phone call, which was hilarious! The banana turned into this huge joke during the 2 and a half hour event and when it was ultimately destroyed in a fit of hunger, we might have threatened to mob. There was also a lemon that periodically stood in as a phone and pizza, which made an appearance after the great morgue pizza incident of season one was mentioned. Chris is considering doing more Periscopes in the future and I’m super excited for them! I’m down for anything that he plans, even if it is eating all the poor banana phones. If you want to check out the live read you can find it on Chris’ Periscope account, @ChristopherVale

Now that I have a Periscope and a general idea of how it works, I’m still not entirely sure I get it, but I’m sure I’ll eventually figure it out, maybe, I’m wondering if I should use it for more than just watching other people. If I decided to do some Periscopes would anyone be interested in watching them? I’m not sure what I would do yet, maybe just babble about shows or answer random questions from people, but I think it could be fun. Let me know either in the comments or on Twitter if you’d be interested in watching me probably, no make that definitely, make a fool of myself live on the internet. If enough people are interested, I’ll do it.

Remember, a banana phone is always appeeling,

Katherine

An iZombie Quickie

Hi Internet People,

Want a quick bite of iZombie today? Well, I have just the articles to sate your hunger. Over on the Nerdy and Worthy blog I’ve been working on I posted an article about the iZombie season one dvds, https://nerdyandworthy.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/some-info-to-feed-your-brain-before-you-buy-izombie-on-dvd/ and the lovely Erica, also known as @quietlikeastorm on Twitter, has a post all about season one that you should totally check out, https://nerdyandworthy.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/87/ (be careful if you haven’t watched season one yet because while awesome her post is definitely in the “here there be spoilers” territory).

Besides articles over at Nerdy and Worthy, if you have Twitter, @iZombieObsessed is running a season one dvd giveaway, sponsored by @AuthorChrisVale. All you have to do is follow both of those accounts and retweet the original tweet with the rules. I retweeted it out yesterday so if you have a hard time finding it, you can totally just scroll through my tweets from yesterday night.

Tonight there is some iZombie fun taking place on Periscope at 9 pm est. Chris Vale will be reading his iZombie/The Flash fanfic to a live audience, with a suggested drinking game. All you have to do is sign up for Periscope and follow @ChristopherVale.

Now with all those updates I have one more quick thing. I finally got iZombie merch this week! I’m really excited to finally have a way to show off my favorite fandom so here’s a pic of me in my brand new shirt from Hot Topic.

Remember, zombies are a girl’s best friends,

Katherine

A Very iZombie Sunday

Hi Internet People,

Over the weekend I had the rare privilege of being able to take home the iZombie season one dvds from work at #magicalmysteryvideostore and yesterday was my first and only chance to rewatch everything. Tomorrow I’ll be posting about the dvds and their special features on nerdyandworthy.wordpress.com, but today I wanted to share some of the random things that I noticed on this rewatch that I hadn’t noticed before.

Admittedly a lot of these are from episodes near the middle and end of the season because I was watching those by myself and later at night when the house was a bit less active. In Mr. Berserker when Liv is drowning her sorrows, the name of the bar is The Fourth Estate. It does sound like a charming bar, but the fourth estate is also a way to refer to the press. I honestly hadn’t even realized it until last night, but Liv on alcoholic reporter brains is drinking at a bar named after the press. Very nice easter egg iZombie team! On another alcoholic note, when zombies are casually drinking in the series bloody marys seem to be the drink of choice, especially when Lowell is involved. Not only does he drink them with Liv, but he also drinks them with Blaine in Patriot Brains. I’m just going to assume from now on that anyone drinking a bloody mary is obviously also craving brains.

This random connection is also from Patriot Brains and has to do with the name of Lowell’s band. Blaine says that Lowell is letting him listen to Pocket Dial’s newest album. During the evening on the roof Blaine’s phone rings and triggers a vision about Jerome that leads Lowell to act like a hero and leave us forever (He’s just on tour, he’s just on tour, that episode has all the feels guys). While it isn’t a pocket dial something phone related triggers Lowell’s big attack scene with Blaine.

The movie Vertigo gets referenced a few times within the series, Ravi even plans a fabulous weekend with Peyton involving a Vertigo tour. I thought that this reference was there because iZombie is a Vertigo comic and this was a cool way to hint at the origins of the tv series. I noticed a couple other connections between the movie and the series during my rewatch though. Jimmy Stewart’s detective character in Vertigo is named Scottie and Major’s friend who knows about zombies is named Scott E. Not just that, but in Vertigo Scottie falls in love with a woman and then believes she has died, only to meet a woman who looks exactly like her later. That’s a really brief and sort of meh summary of the movie, you should totally watch it, it’s a really good movie, but I think it connects well to Major. He fell in love with Liv, she died (even though he doesn’t know that) and came back as a different person. Even though he still has feelings for her she isn’t the woman he initially had feelings for, even though she is technically the same person.

The last thing is just super random and full of weird nostalgia for me. The song Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog was playing at Meat Cute in Astroburger and it instantly reminded me of middle school. In seventh grade we dissected frogs and we were supposed to name them. My partner and I decided to name ours Jeremiah and strangely enough the fact that that song was playing where Blaine and his henchmen dissect bodies put a bit of a smile on my face. So that’s weird, but I thought I would share it anyway.

Be on the lookout tomorrow for more iZombie posts!

Remember, you sometimes are what you eat,

Katherine

Blogging with Benny: Lazybones

Hi Internet People,

I present to you the first Benny photo shoot! After getting home from work I decided I would document the lazy Sunday that Benny and I are both having this week. While I got up early for work a certain skeleton made of lazy bones slept in, and even took over my bed after I left.

Totally left my bed a mess, but he insists that skeletons shouldn’t be expected to make the beds, especially if they were just napping.

After he roused himself from my bed, Benny joined me for some iZombie marathoning. Since he hadn’t seen it before he wanted control of the remote, just in case he needed to rewind something. He also grabbed some snacks because he thinks he needs to get some meat on his bones.

We took a quick break from iZombie to take a quick photo of Benny in this great crown I got at Burger King earlier this week. Yes, I know the crowns are for little kids, but it had bones on it! Behold King Benny!

After letting me take some slightly posed photos, Benny decided that he wanted to edit everything himself. Totally hijacked my laptop. but shush, I snapped a pic of him while he was distracted. I’m sneaking it on now that he’s back to watching iZombie.

With the first Blogging with Benny done, I am ready to take this show on the road. Benny and I will be running some errands and going out and about after Monday, so be on the lookout for me and my bony buddy next Sunday.

Remember, Sundays are skele-fun days,

Katherine

What Do You Do After a Virgin Lights a Candle?

Hi Internet People,

My younger sister is home for the weekend from college and we decided to bond and watch some of our favorite Halloween movies. We started with Halloweentown High, because I’d watched the first two already and my sister wanted to borrow them in October, and then moved on to the much beloved Hocus Pocus. While we were watching it I remembered that there had been an announcement about a possible Hocus Pocus 2. I have no idea if this is actually happening, but I started guessing what might happen in this possible sequel and I thought I would share my thoughts with all of you.

With the black flame candle burning out at the end of the original I’m wondering how a sequel would even start. My first thought was that the Sanderson sisters graves are disturbed and somehow that triggers a second Halloween of the witches. If they don’t have actual graves, Salem could be doing some construction and accidentally unearth them when they start trying to build something. If not that, maybe some unwitting virgin does something dumb that summons the sisters, maybe there’s a spell in the book that they get dared to read or something like that.

Since Max, Allison, and Dani have already saved the children of Salem once, I’m guessing they wouldn’t be the heroes this time around. I can see Max and Allison being married with a couple kids, I’d like it to be an older sister and younger brother to change up the save the sibling dynamic from the last Hocus Pocus. It would make the most sense to me that their kids would somehow be involved in stopping the Sanderson sisters. Since they’ve probably grown up in Salem I’m thinking a new kid would become friends with Max and Dani’s kids and they’d all team up to stop the witches. Dani I think would still be interested in the Sanderson sisters and since the museum still exists I think she’d be a perfect director and historian on Salem witchcraft. When the sisters come back her niece, nephew, and their new friend could go to her for help with a plan, especially since they wouldn’t have the help of Binx.

I don’t know if I really want a sequel or not, I would totally go see it because Hocus Pocus guys, I’d probably even wear a costume to the theater, but I don’t know if it could match up to the original. I would expect at least one wonderful dance number at a Halloween party with the Sanderson sisters enchanting everyone with some sort of fabulously spooky song.

What do you think about the idea of a Hocus Pocus sequel? Would you see it? Let me know either in the comments or on Twitter.

Remember, don’t go lighting random candles,

Katherine

I’ll Just Be Over Here Waiting For Professor X

Hi Internet People,

If you’ve seen my Twitter you might have noticed some pictures of my ear. During the summer my sister and I both got helix piercings done by a friend of mine who is a tattoo and piercing apprentice at a local tattoo parlor. If you don’t know what a helix piercing is that’s totally understandable, I honestly didn’t even know what the piercing was called until we went to go get them. Instead of trying to describe it, here’s a pic of my ear from a couple weeks ago.

That picture isn’t actually the original helix piercing that I got during the summer. The first time I got it done I loved the piercing and made sure to clean it and do everything that the directions told me to do, but something weird started to happen. After a little while I started to notice that my earring was super loose and that the skin felt super dry. The even creepier part was that I could literally see the earring through my skin. Gross I know, but I thought okay maybe the skin is just dry. I added a little bit of neosporin, I think that’s how you spell it, to the outside of my ear and went to bed. When I woke up in the morning I was astonished when an earring fell onto my chest when I sat up. The creepy dry skin had literally vanished during the night leaving me just a notch in my ear. You can actually see the notch in the picture I posted. My friend offered to redo the piercing because her shop has a thirty day guarantee on any work you get done there so I got repierced.

Well, you would think that would be the end of it right, but nope not yet. Wednesday night I noticed my new piercing felt really weird. The skin was dry and felt almost flaky. I spent a lot of time staring at in the mirror and took a couple pictures of it and realized that I could see my piercing through the skin again. I was really worried that the piercing would fall out while I was sleeping like it had the last time so I took it out and cleaned the hole. I went to bed and when I woke up I immediately touched my ear. I was expecting to feel a hole or a notch, but I was surprised to just feel raw skin. The last time my ear rejected the piercing my skin healed relatively quickly, but I hadn’t imagined my hole would close in less than 10 hours. Where I used to have a hole is now just a small circle of raw skin, that I’m guessing will scab. I even tried to put an earring in it and I can guarantee you that it is solid ear again. There may have been a lot of wincing.

Most people would have stopped there, but I paid for an extra hole in my head and I’m going to get my money’s worth dang it! Late last night I went back to my friend and, because my right ear refuses to cooperate, she gave me a cartilage piercing in my left ear instead. I already have a cartilage piercing in the upper portion of that ear and I never had problems with it like this, so I thought the change of ear and location would give piercing attempt number three a fighting chance.

What I think is weird about this hole situation, yes that is supposed to be a terrible pun, is that my left ear just kept forcing earrings out and healing the holes so quickly. My friends and family all agree that this is super weird, especially since I’ve never had this problem before and I’ve had seven other ear piercings done. My dad said that my ability to regrow skin reminded him of the way geckos can grow their tails back. I already thought I was a mutant when the first piercing came out and now I feel like having it happen twice proves I should join the X-Men, though admittedly my version of a healing power is pretty lame in comparison to Wolverine’s. If I do get a visit from Professor X, I’ve already decided my code name will have to be Gecko, though I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be in a fight. I mean, if we come across a renegade piercer, I can totally save the day, but against Magneto, nope, I’d doom us all. Well, I’m back at 8 holes and hopefully this one doesn’t decide to close up on me again.

Remember, anything can be a superpower no matter how unsuper it is,

Katherine

I Don’t Feed Them After Midnight or Watch Them Until Christmas

Hi Internet People,

#magicalmysteryvideostore is getting ready for Halloween, which meant I started pulling movies for the special Halloween section yesterday. I had fun seeing which movies my store had and compiling a mental list of what I want to rent while I get ready for my favorite holiday. While I was adding orange and black stickers to all of the rental boxes, I noticed a movie that I’ve never really considered Halloween themed in the stacks, Gremlins.

Don’t get me wrong, I love those furry little mogwai, but I personally think Gremlins should be considered a Christmas movie and not a Halloween movie. In my Tim Burton blog I mentioned that I don’t really watch Nightmare Before Christmas around Halloween, even though I listen to the song This is Halloween. I listen to a bunch of different versions, one of my favorite covers is by Marilyn Manson. I have this thing with watching or listening to Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving. It’s one of those weird things about me that I’m pretty sure drives people crazy.

Honestly the reason I see Gremlins as a Christmas movie is because the entire setting is Christmas time. There are decorations, trees, lights, and even snow. Plus Gizmo is being given as an early Christmas present to Billy. At least I thought that he was. Kate even has that super dark story about why she hates Christmas which provides a very depressing tint to the normally happy holiday. The first time I watched the movie I remember being shocked by the time she finished the story. It didn’t seem like something that would ever be written into a movie about cute and fuzzy little things like Gizmo. Admittedly they do morph into scaly green gremlins once they eat after midnight, but even then I still think they are kind of cute. Stripe has that little mohawk and even though he’s super evil, that hair is adorable.

I get that most people associate monsters with Halloween, but I love my monsters all year round. Gremlins 2: The New Batch is more like a Halloween movie than the original, mainly because Christmas isn’t part of the plot. I like the original more, but if I were going to suggest a Gremlin for Halloween I would go with the sequel.

As a side note, does anyone know where I could get a plushy Gizmo? I tried to win a Stripe plushy at the county fair this year, but couldn’t pop enough balloons. Well, really I just didn’t pay the guy running the booth enough money. I popped more than enough balloons for Stripe, I just didn’t want to argue with the guy when he said I only earned a small prize. I’d still really like a gremlin of my own though.

Remember, don’t get Gizmo wet,

Katherine

Are You Pledging Kappa Kappa Tau?

Hi Internet People,

Last night was the two hour premiere of Scream Queens, and while I didn’t watch it at premier time, I gave it a watch before heading to bed. My gut reaction to the show was that it was exactly what you’d expect if Glee and American Horror Story: Coven had a baby. If you watched the episode the whole baby connection might have been born out of the intro scene, ba dum tiss. I don’t want to give too much away because I know a lot of people who were planning on watching the show and might not have watched the pilot yet. So minor spoilers ahead, but I will do my best not to ruin anything

My favorite aspect of the show is the level of camp. Everything is just so ridiculous, but in a way that makes you not want to look away. The very first scene has a girl apologizing for having a baby and asking for gatorade so that she can bounce back and get down to the massive party going on downstairs. After that there is a time jump to the modern day and the introduction of Emma Roberts as Chanel and the rest of her Kappa Kappa Tau ladies. If you watched Coven, Roberts’ character is pretty much the same, still a mean girl and still obsessed with her image. I absolutely love Jamie Lee Curtis so far. As the Dean her level of disdain toward the students, especially the Kappas, was great. Roberts and Curtis I felt were the most developed characters so far, with the other characters just existing to move the plot forward. I honestly don’t even remember the main character’s name, she looked cute and apparently likes Twilight. That’s all I’ve got, but she wants to secretly uncover information about the Kappas so I started calling her Baby Lana, like the character from Asylum.

I actually wasn’t sure I would like Scream Queens after the last two seasons of American Horror Story. I know, I know everyone loved Coven, but when I watched it on tv I don’t know if it was the commercials or what, but I just got remarkably annoyed by all of the plots. I liked some of the characters, but they never really seemed to develop or if I thought they were developing everything I watched happen completely flipped by the end of the series. I’m looking at you Madame Delphine LaLaurie plot line. Then Freak Show happened and I had such high hopes, but the connection they made to Asylum and the finale just felt so strange. I also fell in love with Twisty and things happened and I’m still not okay with how his story line ended. I also might have dreamed up this connection to Murder House that I thought would be so cool, but sadly didn’t happen. I know I’m not in tv writing so my plot ideas don’t count, but come on Tate totally could have been connected to Dandy. Both pretty, both crazy, it would have worked dang it!

Okay, that turned into a ramble fest. Sorry about that, but it saves you from reading it later when AHS: Hotel comes out. I’m going to keep watching Scream Queens because that level of hilarity just needs to keep happening in my life. I’m also going to watch Hotel because Lady Gaga is pretty much a vampire and I just can’t not watch it.

Remember, I’m trusting you here Mr. Murphy,

Katherine

Maybe I’ll Just Wear a Costume Every Day in October

Hi Internet People,

This is a bit of an update to my original Halloween costume post because I really wanted to share the suggestions I received on Twitter. I also thought of some more ideas myself, which might mean I have a costume problem. There are too many ideas and not enough days to wear them! Sigh, the struggle is real.

Here are the awesome ideas I got from Twitter:

Edward Scissorhands from @quietlikeastorm: I could outfit some tight black pants and a top with buckles and other shiny accents to get something close to Edward’s fabulous outfit and frizz up my hair. I know the hair thing won’t be a problem, I’ll just need a lot of hairspray. The scissorhands might take some time, but if I put my mind to it I could figure out a way to make something that I wouldn’t cut myself with. I totally still need to schedule the live tweet of this movie by the way.

Ra’s al Ghul from @ImmieBroods: This takes me back to my childhood and I would love to play the immortal master who frequently works to best the detective. If I did this costume it would give me an excuse to rewatch a lot of Batman: The Animated Series because I would totally go as that Ra’s. I’d have to practice my disdainful voice and find a way to mimic his hair. There’s an episode of Batman Beyond where Talia al Ghul is somehow actually Ra’s al Ghul, so I could do that and really confuse people if I wanted too.

Undead Leslie Knope also from @ImmieBroods: I love Parks and Rec and being Leslie would be so much fun! I could totally find a pantsuit at the thrift store and give it an undead makeover. I would also get a chance to experiment with prosthetics/makeup additions to give myself a really creepy look. I’d also make waffles to share with people so it’d be a win/win costume situation.

Disney Princess from @ejb3214: I haven’t done a princess costume in a really long time, but I think it would be fun to find a way to go as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She’s my favorite princess and I could carry books in a basket and if I get bored I could just whip the books out and read. It’d also let me annoy people by singing all the songs from Beauty and the Beast the entire night.

One of the Synths from Humans also from @ejb3214: I think I could pull of the detective synth, I can’t remember her name, but she looks the most like me out of the synths. I could attach a cord to the bottom of a baggy sweater and pretend I was looking for a charging port all night. I could also pretend to have a British accent, which admittedly might get me made fun of, but I think my accent sounds at least decentish.

I’m going to save my random ideas for other costumes for a later post, but I really wanted to let people know about the cool suggestions I’ve received so far. If you have more please feel free to let me know either in the comments or on Twitter.

Remember, you can be whoever you want to be on Halloweeen,

Katherine

Oh Wine, How Could You Wound Me So?

Hi Internet People,

Last night I decided to relax after five very busy days at #magicalmysticalvideostore with some wine and the hilarious series, Black Books. I had changed into my comfy black hoody and a pair of Doctor Who boxers and went to get my wine for some binge watching in my bed. I put the corkscrew in and twisted until the little wings popped up. The cork, though, only came out halfway. I put the corkscrew back in, tried to pop the cork again, and it still didn’t budge. Abandoning the corkscrew, I starting yanking on the portion of the cork that had come out of the bottle. After five minutes, I didn’t think it was budging, but I swore I saw wine on the cork. Thinking I had at least gotten the cork out a little bit farther, I kept prying. After five more unfruitful minutes, I stopped messing with the cork and when I looked down I realized it wasn’t wine I had seen.

There wasn’t very much of it, but I definitely had blood on my hands. I was shocked, I’ve never been injured just trying to open alcohol. I’ve injured myself in a number of other ridiculous ways, but never this ridiculous. I had apparently sliced the tip of my left index finger on the metal seal around the cork. What made this even more ridiculous was that I still hadn’t been able to open the impenetrable bottle. My dad had seen me struggling and once I said I was bleeding, he took over trying to pry the cork out. While I performed minor triage on my wounded finger, he worked some sort of magic with the corkscrew and managed to get it out of the bottle. The cork was completely torn up from the corkscrew and he almost cut himself on the metal seal too.

I finally had my wine and spent the rest of my night watching the first and most of the second season of Black Books. If you haven’t seen it, the series is about Bernard Black and his bookshop Black Books. Bernard hates people and doesn’t really care about selling books, he mostly just wants to smoke and drink and not be bothered by anyone. He hires a man named Manny, who eventually moves in and pretty much keeps the book shop and attached living quarters from falling apart. The men are friends with Fran, who used to own a shop next door, but now sort of does whatever she pleases. The show is hilarious and I am so glad I was finally able to find it on dvd. I’ve been looking for it ever since Netflix pulled it. If you like Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, or The Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, World’s End) you should try and find this series.

Remember, wine can make you whine,

Katherine