Happy Halloween!

It's trick or treat time.

Be careful out there

You never know what might be around the next corner.

Is that a Cthulhu purse on your hip...

... or is the dark Lord  Cthulhu erupting from your pelvic area?

I can see why they chose a red shirted dummy for this.

Learning Cthulhu

What did we learn here?

My last poll is over and what did I learn?

The first thing I learned is that almost no body participates in my polls.  I had three votes and one of them was me.  Now I know I send the link to at least dozens of people through facebook, and I email the link to about 6 people.  Also I have two followers.

One vote was that the person had read all of the stories.  That one was mine.  One read some and one read none.

Well, I'm nothing if not persistent.  I'm going to put up another poll despite the low turnout for this one.

I want to put checkboxes under each post so you don't have to comment to participate, but you still can and I hope you do.  I can put several checkboxes and I think 4 would be a good number.  They can say just about any one or two word thing.

I've always hated that facebook only let's you "Like" something and doesn't give you any other options, like "Dislike", "Agree", "Respect", "I agree that is terrible, I don't like it, but I want to show that I am like minded with the original poster," things like that.

I'll put up a pole with as many things as I can think of, and you will be able to choose as many as you want.

I know this is an obelisk and not a pole, but it's the best I could find

Can't Decide

Guess Cthulhu can't decide either

I can't decide what to Trick or Treat as.

I went to a party on Saturday as a Rugby Zombie and Mrs. Prop went as a Rugby Widow.  That went arye when the makeup ran down in to my eye and stained my contact blue.  I don't want to do that again.



I don't think there is anything wrong with my eye



I went to a party on Sunday as a blind soccer referee (thankfully not because of the makeup from the previous night), but that was really really cold with the shorts and I'm going to work tomorrow so I have to wear something appropriate.

I was thinking something with a suit.  I've gone as a Man in Black before.  I thought maybe this year I could go as Pee Wee Herman, or maybe Buddy Holly.  I think if I went as H.P. Lovecraft then no one would get it.

Puny God!

I'm guessing that the Incredible Hulk is hot on his tail here.  Ha the joke is on the Hulk, if he tries to grab the Great Cthulhu he will only come up with a giant green hand full of extoplasm.

Cthulhu is not of this Earth puny "super" hero, ha ha ha ha ha...

Speaking of Hulks and heroes, I think I started P90X today.  I wasn't planning on it, but this week I can't ride my bike to work and today, out of the blue, Mac hand delivered a copy of the set to my door.

What a guy (thanks again man)!  The least I could do was to start exercising.  I did day one and I went really light so make sure I started out slow and with correct form.  The Ab Ripper TORE ME UP.

I took a before picture, but well, I think HPL said it best, "a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline,... rubbery-looking body.... This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence..." (from the short story, "Call of Cthulhu").

Let's hope I didn't bite off more than I can chew, like the Avengers did when they decided that the stars were right.

Flamethrower!

Quick MacReady, get the flamethrower!

No, not the flare, the flamethrower, man, the flame-thrower!

Too late.

Mysterious Contest

This site gave this object as a prize to the first person who could answer the Cthulhu trivia question.

The strange thing is, I don't see any question on the site.  I wonder if the question and the answer had to come to you in a sick and twisted dream-vision.

Guess I'll never know.

...And He's Watching It!

This reminded me of the previous post.  It looks like the little girl had a friend racoon who is now watching what she has given rise to.

I suppose the little girl was consumed.

Actually this is a still from a South Park three-parter that presumes that by causing the spill in the Gulf of Mexico BP has released Cthulhu.

She Did It!

Wasn't me, I had nothing to do with it.  It was her, she did it, that little girl.  She brought about the end of the world, don't blame me.

Suffer the Children

All I can say is that I would NOT want to play here.

Don't Do It Bro!

I recently got a spam comment on this post.  It was pretty well done so I didn't recognize it as spam until I had clicked on the "Publish Comment" button.  This brought to light two things.

1.  We all do foolish things

2.  I had started talking religion quite a bit here and then I stopped.  There is a good reason I stopped, but I never gave it here.  The reason is because I found a forum where that type of discussion is common and the members have similar views to mine.

Actually their views are not necessarily similar, but their method of discussing their views is similar to my method.  In other words, although we all have different opinions we all speak the same language there.

The site is Positive Deism.  The people there are very nice (that is the positive part, they are positive, friendly, and constructive in their discussions).  The concept is that mostly when you hear people talk about Deism it is in negative.  Deist's don't believe that God reveals himself, they don't believe this they don't believe that.  Also, most Deists are formerly from other churches and became fed up in those churches.  They are angry and sometimes lash out.  That is not the way of Positive Deism.  They may disagree, but they never lash out.

It is worth a look and if you were interested in my posts on that subject you can find that I have expounded on the issues to a great length there.

"You fool, Warren is DEAD!" from "Statement of Randolph Carter" by H.P. Lovecraft

Happy Birthday Mac

Happy Birthday

ugnh

Happy birthday

ugnh

Misery is in the air

People dying everywhere

Happy birthday

ugnh

Happy birthday

ugnh

PS.  I guessed on the age

Waters of The Deep

Do you know what vodka means in Russian?  It means, "little water."

How appropriate that the Great Old One imprisoned beneath the seas would have his own brand of this devil's brew.

Writing Conversation Part 7 and Final

I'm going to cover the last two points that Mac made in his very thoughtful and helpful comment from a while back.

Mac wrote:

6. If you do want to create a complete world/universe with loads of detail, maybe you’re pursuing the wrong avenue. How about finding some players and you become the “DM” of your own designed and flushed out world. I bet you can find players on the Internet, and there are numerous game systems already made that you could use. Keep notes on the adventures that you run, and then turn them into written sci-fi stories?


7. Life is short, be sure to spend time doing what you love.

The main problem with #6 as Mac should know better than most is that players very often do not do what you expect or want (see today's pic).

Role Playing Games are often described as cooperative story telling.  I HATE cooperative story telling.  I mean that I don't like those exercises (or games) where one person starts a story and then hands it off to the next person and it goes around the room with everyone telling part.  This is not exactly what RPGs are because it is more of a give and take, but the point stands.

When I write or tell stories I want complete control.  The only one I want to influence me when I tell stories is the characters themselves.

It is a fault of mine, I know.  Almost exclusively I cannot use story ideas from others.  When someone says, "You know what you should write about, you should write about..." I just simply cannot write that story.  There is something in me that shuts down when I get intended input.  I can take random input, in fact that's often how I work, but when someone deliberately suggests something I have a very difficult time taking that and working with it.

This is not to say I don't like RPGs.  I do, but it is from the other side.  I like being able to influence someone else's story.  That's something in my makeup as well.  When I experience someone doing something and I think I could do it too, or do it better, I have a very strong drive to jump in and do it.

Actually RPGs are great because I use their material all the time to do world building and character building.  That was always my favorite part of playing RPGs when I did.  I use that material, but I'm reluctant to hand what I have built over to someone else.

I know that often the group is greater than the sum of the parts and I could get things from group input that I never could on my own, but if I am unable to use that material no matter how good it is, simply because it came from someone else, then what good is it to me.

On the other, and final hand, I do find great inspiration from doing the opposite of what people tell me.  If they say that you can't tell a story a certain way then I want to tell it that way.  I remember at least two times in school that I wrote papers exactly on the subjects that were forbidden by the teacher.  The first was when my professor said that we could not write a paper on museums on Mars and the second one was when I had to design a camping program and we were told not to base it on Elvis.

So, thank you so much Mac.  You made many comments and observations that I did not agree with, at least at first blush.  It made me think, it made me write.  You helped me do one of the many many things I love and life is far far too short.  Thank you very much.

Moving AGAIN!

I have to move at work again.  We were temporarily moved to a room while they did some mechanical repairs to our old room.  Supposedly they were updating the sprinkler system in the ceiling.

I certainly hope that is all they put in the ceiling.  I would not want something unspeakable to fall on my head.

Writing Conversation Part 6

I want to continue with my discussion about writing, as prompted by my friend Mac.


5.      KISS – Keep it simple stupid. You seem to spend a lot of time on detail and historical background, like you’re making a complete role-playing game world/universe. I’d suggest keeping your writing short and simple for now, especially if the story is in a genre that is not interesting to the reader. I would be more likely to read something that I’m not very interested in if it was short. Also, there are many very fine stores that are short (Shane, Lord of the Flies, Of Mice and Men, most of Howards “Conan” stuff, ect.). I think a very good example of what I’m driving at is “Beau Geste” by P.C. Wren. If you haven’t read this book, look it up and give it a go. It’s pretty short, a very easy read, but well written, good plot twists, and with interlocking characters in a unexpected fashion. I think it was written in a society and place that the author knew very well. Very much KISS in my opinion. One of my favorites. By the way, don’t read the Wikipedia or other reviews, they have spoilers in them. Just read the book first.

 Good main point always.  It isn't bad to think of that as a life lesson.

Another thing I want to say is that I have not read the work he suggested, "Beau Geste" by P.C. Wren and I probably should.  I cannot comment on that work at this time, but I will take his advice and read it.

Now, my contention with this comment is that he has missed an important point, two points really.  The first is that what you see here in this blog is not a balanced representation of my writing.  Mostly what you see here is the guts of the machinery.  The finished product, the outer shell, the ready for public consumption part is not what you find here.  I usually try to send that off to be published elsewhere.

The second and probably more important point that he missed is that I enjoy world building.  I would and do, world build even when there is no story to put in that world.  In fact I often have to admonish myself to find some story to put in the worlds I like to build.

On top of the fact that I just like it, world building gives me a certain power that even writing does.  In world building at this level I get to decide everything.  I have the power to make the worlds that I create obey me absolutely.  I enjoy that.

This is certainly not to say that I am megalomanical, but there are some things in the world that just can't be fixed and it is because that is not the way this world works.  I like to play in worlds where that IS the way they work.

It is not that I want all the power, but that I want to be able to fix things.  I want us to go back to the moon, I want people to realize that 2% of the US Federal budget is not too much to pay for space exploration.  I want to play in a world that has cured cancer.

Those are two sides to the same coin I use for world building.  There is another coin that I use and it too has two sides.  It is a negative coin. 

First, I never feel confident that I know enough about a real place, person or thing to not be caught being wrong.  If I make a whole world up who is to say I'm wrong.

Lastly, most of the time I don't want to sully the things I love in the real world with my own silly meanderings.

I will agree that I too often suffer from what's called Analysis Paralysis.  I get to much pleasure, to apprehensive about production, to actually bring the story itself to fruition.  I should take note of that and take it very closely to heart.

Hot Lunch Planet

They found a new planet right up close to Alpha Centauri B.  It's so close -
How close is it?
Glad you asked.  It is so close that the surface on the star side is probably about 1200oC.

I know that's not a joke, but consider this, if there are Great Old Ones out there and some of them devour planets doesn't it make sense that sometime they might want them to be cooked a bit?

Uh, No, Just No

I found this here.  I HATE that thing where people add crazily misspelled captions to pictures.  I have trouble enough spelling myself without someone making fun of misspelling and deliberately doing it.

So, my last act of defiance (though it's certainly not my last) is to scratch off the caption, which Blognomicon did not add (but did perpetuate).

I know it is fruitless and hopeless.  I will never turn the tide in the vast ocean of the Internet, but like fighting unnameable horrors from beyond, I can't help myself and it does give my soul a bit of a lift to know that I went down fighting.

Not to say I've gone down, or that I'm done for.  One of my favorite admonitions is a quote from Jack Dempsey: "A champion is someone who gets up when he can't."

Surely it was that kind of thinking that went through the mind of Norwegian sailor Gustaf Johansen wen he turned and rammed the Alert into Cthulhu.  Sure it was futile.  I think he knew it would be, but it was the only thing he could do and in the end it bought him the time he needed.  We are all still doomed, but as Buzz Lightyear says, "Not today, Zurg."

I'm doomed by these stupid captions, and facebook and reality TV.  Oh well, full steam ahead!

Happy Birthday Moby Dick

Google says that today is Moby Dick's 161st birthday.

Well good luck buddy.  All you had to worry about was a one legged man while some of your brother whales had to contend with other challenges.

Don't we all get a little hungry after sleeping a while.  Consider this Cthulhu's midnight snack.

Halloween in Innsmouth

Since my oldest is at school in Boston and won't be able to come home for the holiday (All Hallows' Eve that is) I thought she might like to check out the festivities in Innsmouth.

She always was a good swimmer.

World Food Day

Today is World Food Day, but who will be eaten and who is the eater?

The Love of Money Is the Root of All Evil

If this adage is true then no wonder the Great Cthulhu has gotten into merchandising.

Eat your heart out George Lucas!

Who Is Cthulhu?!

Anynomous asked, "Who is Cthulhu?"

Well!  I'll show you:
 Cthulhu is a character created by H. P. Lovecraft in one of his best, most seminal and most Lovecraftian short story, "Call of Cthulhu."

I've included some links above.  If you look at all my other posts you will get a sense of what he was supposed to look like, or so.

This picture is just a joke.

Not this

This one from Summer of Lovecraft is probably more accurate.

Welcome

Welcome to the Bahamas Mr. Columbus.

On this day in 1492 Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas.  Of course he didn't call it that though.

I'm not a Columbus basher, I think the guy did something that needed to be done.  I am sorry that so many people caught the short end of the stick.

Isn't it interesting that desease was the greatest killer of the peoples living in the Americas in the 16th century?  I heard on the Discovery channel last night that 95% of the population died.  That sounds like just the kind of pain and suffering that Cthulhu would have loved.

Happy Anniversary Apollo 7

This image of Cthulhu has nothing to do with the Apollo program, but it does remind me that I have to spin a giant web on the front of my house so I can be sure to capture entertain those little morsels children who wander around on the eve of All Hallow's Day.

Maybe we should carve a gourd to gather more children, I hear they are attracted to light.

Happy Double Ten Day!

Today is Double Ten Day in the Rebublic of China. 

Well, it's actually double ten day everywhere (10/10) except New Zealand who apparently are never on the same day as the rest of the world somehow (international date line or something).

However in ROC October tenth is celebrated as independance day.  Hooray.

The symbol for Double Ten Day is fairly inoccuous, here it is:

But what I find truly disturbing is that Google Translate says that there is a Traditional Chinese spelling for Cthulhu (I hope this stays in-font on everyone's browsers):

邪神

The Chinese came up with everything first!

Anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire

On this day in 1871 the City of Chicago began burning.  Some say it was Mrs. O'Leary's cow, but I have a different hypothesis.

What do you think?

Camping Plans

My youngest Prop and I are planning on going camping tomorrow with her Girl Scout troop.  I don't know if we will have a car capable of getting us there, but we are going to try.

Being out in the wilderness with my daughter's Girl Scout troop, I may not be able to post and get you the Cthulhu content you have come to expect and frankly deserve.  I will try to make up for that before and after the trip (if we make it).

At least I'm pretty sure we won't be stopped by these guys:

Zombie Letters from e-zombie.com

Good Morning Mr. Lovecraft

A nice person from the HPPodcraft.com forums told me that I could use some of the images from his photobucket.

One of our trips to Boston I have got to make time to run over to Providence my self, but for now I can look at the things I'd like to see.

I had thought that there was a tree growing very near this headstone.  Maybe there is and we just can't see it.

Speaking of headstones, I have written down, "The Night of the Purple Fog" and as we get closer to Halloween (or the anniversary, somewhen between October 16–28, 1962) I will post it.

School Daze

With my oldest "little" Prop off to school in Boston (Boston University) and my much more serious thoughts about getting a Masters in order to further my career, the idea of Miskatonic University is even more prescient.

I've found a web comic about just that very thing.  It is called Miskatonic U an it follows the school career of a very nervous young man and these two adorable abominations.

From the web comic we learn that, "Yithro, a member of the Great Race possessing an observitor species, is mostly eyes, and his 5 tentacles get to be arms, cheeks, an elephantine trunk, whatever! And there are even more options for ... Shog the shoggoth..."

I certainly hope BU is nothing like this, and I'm quite sure there are none of those kinds of things on the Internet, "where" I would be "going" to school.  Of course there are no terrifying, abhorrent, unnameable monsters lurking the Internet, how could there be.  Right?

So anyway, I'll tell you more about my career plans in later posts.  I think I have nailed down a medium range career goal.

Writing Conversation Part 5

4.      I’d suggest that you write about something you are extremely familiar with, maybe scouts or military, and keep it in the present day. Make up and develop a couple of interesting characters, come up with a plot twist that takes the reader in a direction they didn’t expect. If you get something good going, then maybe modify it into the future or into a alien world (Boy Scout camping trip in the future to an unexplored planet?). Or add the horror twist. Or both. Also telling the story non-linear might be a good gimmick (the movie “Pulp Fiction” or “Reservoir Dogs” style), an outline help’s this style to work. I think you’ll really need a twist or gimmick…

What is interesting here are three points:

1. Write what you know
2.  Write common place things and then develop them into uncommon things
3. Have a twist or gimmick.

 Write what you know is an well known adage in writing.  In Fantasy, SF and Horror is write what you know or write what you know no one knows.  In other words you can write speculative fiction if you write about things that MIGHT be true and about things that ARE true.  You can't write about things that CANNOT be true (or at least not about too many things that cannot be true).

What is important is to not limit yourself to only what you have personal experience in.  Case in point is Tom Clancy.  When he wrote Hunt for Red October he was a truck driver.  He had never been in the CIA or Navy and had never even set foot on a sub.  What he did was read and research.  I've heard that he researched so well that the CIA did approach him to ask how he got all that information.  It turns out that it was all on the web. 

The second point is just wrong thinking.  I'm sorry to be so blunt, but it is.  There are reasons I write in a particular genre.  I choose a genre not just because it seems cool, but because of the story I want to tell.  For instance, I wanted to explore the idea that sports really don't affect our lives as much as we think, but what if they did?

I took that idea and created a world and an intelligent alien that could only reproduce under certain sport related conditions.  I suppose I could have made it a fantasy story as well, but I was thinking about the REAL impact and therefore I didn't want to introduce any elements of magic.

The last point is wrong too.  Gimmick writing is old fashioned and most submission requirements warn against it's use.  Twist endings and gimmicky writing is just not marketable (Pulp Fiction not withstanding, but of course now that's been done and over done too). 

The thing that stories must have is a HOOK.  Stories must be able to grab you and pull you in.  This is different from a gimmick .  Stories should also be original or have an original twist on an old story.  This is different from a twist ending.

Star Wars is a very old story, but it certainly had a new twist on it. 

Bottom line, at least for me is, these are certainly all things to think about and to learn about.  I have, I know the rules and the standard modern forms.  The trick is to know how and when to break the rules.

Also, it is very good to go back and look at the rules you think you know, refresh them in your memory, relearn why they are rules and recommit yourself to them.

For that I thank you very much.

Καλή Μήνας Cthulhu!

I must appologize that I am a few hours late on this first post of the first of Cthulhu Month.  The excuse I'm going to go with is that the Bears game had me discombobulated.

So my friends, we kick off another month full of elderitch goodness [no]badness [no] chaos.

How fitting that in 2012, the year of ultimate doom, that we find Cthulhu at the center of it all!

I am going to post a Cthulhu / Lovecraft image and/or story each day this month, as I have for the past several years.  To make up for missing the first day I am going to double up today, so be prepared for another dose of cosmic horror.

Be afraid, be very afraid (and go Bears)!