Creepy Pumpkin Head Thing is International

     As of this writing I have 485 page views for this blog. Not really much considering some blogs have numbers into the thousands, even millions. To be completely honest, about 30 to 50 of those views are from me check the site till I figured out how to turn that feature off. (I have since forgotten so don't ask.) Since I don't post much I think those numbers are not to bad.

     What I am really impressed with is the number of different views from other nations.  You can see in the picture, I have views from all over Europe, Canada, and United States.
     As I kept track of the page views, I was surprised anyone would be interested in what I have to say. I thought is was odd I was getting views from non-English speaking countries. I did not think too much of it though since I know many around the world study the English.
     Of course there is a the possibility there is only one or two people in each country view my blog multiple times. I doubt there are 44 Germans interested in what I have to say. Unfortunately, I don't know how to check to see how many views are from the same person. There may be a option for that but I have yet to figure it out.
     Upon closer review though, it would seem most people are not interested in my views of books, my reading list, or my random thoughts. (See picture below)

     That's right. Creepy Halloween Baby Pumpkin Head Thing is by far the most popular blog I've written. I posted it on October 6th of last year as a joke. My aunt has a Halloween decoration of a pumpkin with a face of a baby. Really creepy looking. (See picture) I think viewers are looking at the pictures. Even if they don't understand English, the pictures are pretty compelling, in a disturbing way.

     So I think I need to post more picture of the pumpkin. I'll have to wait for my aunt  unpack it during Halloween. I think I'll take pictures of it outside.
     Thank you you for visiting my blog.

Blogging to blog and my random thoughts.

   
     Have not blogged for awhile. Thought I better write something. Especially since I looked at my audience tracker and saw I have had view from nine other countries.
     I was planning to go into a in depth look at all the books I mentioned in the Fall/October reading list, but I really do not think I need to do so. Needless to say I enjoyed them. I will say The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury is not as good as Rise of the Governor, but it is still good and would recommend it.

Two of the book I received for Christmas.

    Another blog I was planning was a winter reading list, but to be honest the books I plan to read are too many to list. For Christmas my wife gave me five books and since then I have bought three more. On top of those, I still plan on reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series again. These books alone will take me well into 2014 and I'm sure to see even more books that that I'll want to read. I'm a slow reader so this will take awhile. I enjoy reading and wish I could read faster so I could read more.
     Not only do I have lots to read, I really need to start writing. I always wanted to write a novel and one of my New Year's resolution is to actually do it.  Having someone in my life (My Wife) who is encouraging and who believes in me is very helpful. I never had someone in my life like that.
     I have many story ideas. Some of them are so big it's intimidating. The story I am writing now is on a smaller scale and I am actually having fun writing it. It is too early to know how and when this will be published.

     In the effort to stay focused, I will have to budget my time a little more. Which means less time online blogging and Facebook. This is why I started Facebook Purge 2013. I don't want to deactivate my account because I want to keep in contact with and I admin a couple of Pages for friends, so I have removed much of the content, going back as far as 2008. Next step will be to reduce the number of pages I have liked. Finally, I will reduce the number on my friends list. There are many on the list who I never actually met. I only know them through games I no longer play. Some I have known and just do not talk to anymore. Many I have actually met but do not communicate with. I think Facebook is keeping me "friends" with those neither them or I would have normally not made an effort to be friends.  I have considered closing out the account and starting a new one. An option I am still considering.
   
    Some think of big mansions and/or huge yard, swimming pool or tennis court with they think of their dream home. For me I have been think about having small cabin, near a lake surrounded my snow. I often show my wife online photos of log cabins and ask, "Wouldn't you like to be in here all snuggled up?" She would. I think when we go to buy a home we'll try to get a small cozy house if not an actual cabin.

   
      Best I probably stop here as much as I like writing, I have probably rambled on long enough. Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment.  

My Favorite Vampire Books.

     It's October and as always I celebrate Halloween the whole month. Scary movies and books are all on tap during this month. With the third season of  "The Walking Dead" back on TV, I'm as giddy as a school girl on spring break.
     To help celebrate this month I thought I'd share my favorite vampire novels in no particular order. Although I'll try to avoid spoilers, if you have not read any of these books and plan to you may not want to continue.

     "Abraham Lincoln-Vampire Hunter." by Seth Grahame-Smith is not really hard to explain. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, discovers that vampires are not only real, but are planning to take over the country. The Civil War was really a plot of the vampires to take over and slavery was established to provide a food source for them. This novel is written as a biography of Lincoln based on his secret diaries he kept during his life long battle against the vampires.
      I enjoyed this book. It was fun to read. As I walked around with it, I was asked questions about it. I know I had three or four people interested in reading it after seeing my copy. There was a movie made from the novel. Some have told me it was not very good, but as of this writing I have not seen it.

      "Salem's Lot," by Stephen King is his second published novel in 1975. In the story a writer, Ben Mears, returns to his home town to write a story about a spooky house only to discover the new owner, Kurt Barlow, is a vampire. Barlow begins feeding and turning others into vampires. Pretty soon most of the town has become vampires.
     The only reason I even bothered to read this book was because the character, Father Callahan is featured in the last three Dark Tower novels. So I wanted some back ground on the story. To my surprised, I really enjoyed it and it is one of my favorites. Unlike other horror novels, this book actually gave me the creeps. While reading at night I made sure all the windows and doors were locked. I did not invite anyone in my house after dark.
     I think this book is one of King's finest. Unfortunately, the two made for TV movies failed to capture the novel in my opinion. Not that I thought they were bad.

     "Dracula," by Bram Stoker is an 1897 horror novel that introduced the classic character Count Dracula. The story is about Dracula's attempt to relocate from his home in Transylvania to England. Dracula battles a small group led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing. The novel is written in a series of documents, such as letters, diary entries, ships log entries, etc, etc.
     I've read this book twice already and I added it to my reading list for this October to read for a third time. I really enjoyed the way it was written though letters and other documents.
     "Dracula," has made many appearances in movies and television. In my opinion, non of those appearances even come close to capturing the novel. Even the 1992 film fails to even come close to being as good as the novel and I actually really like that movie.
     The film based on the novel I really enjoyed, and still do, was  Nosferatu made in 1922. Even though it was a silent film, it was scary. See picture at the top to see the vampire from that film.

 
      If I were to rank all these vampire books I think the first three of the Danilov Quintet by Jasper Kent would be number one. I'm including all three since it's all part of the same story. Kent story is historical fiction mixed with horror and vampires.
     "Twelve," is set in Russia during the year 1812. Napoleon is about to invade Russia. Aleksei Ivanovich Danilov and his comrades ask twelve mercenaries to help. Danilov discovers he and his friends released something far worse than the invading French.  He learns the twelve are voordalak or vampires. There are some of plot twist which kept the story interesting. When I started to read the second book I really thought, no way will this be as good as the first, but I was wrong.
 

 "Thirteen Years Later," is about the events surrounding the mysterious death of the tsar Alekzandr I and the Decembrist uprising.

  "The Third Section," takes place in 1855. Russia is once again at war. Danilov's son Dmitry, and his daughter Tamara face the threat to Russia their father had face in the previous novels. 

     If you read any of the books I have mentioned, I recommend you start with Twelve. I enjoyed all three and I'm eagerly waiting for the next two.

     That's it for now. Thank you for reading.

     Have you read any of the books I've mentioned? What did you think of them? What is your favorite vampire story?

   

Creepy Halloween Baby Pumpkin Head...Thing?

   
     My sister was visiting with my aunt and took the above photo and posted it on Facebook. As you can see it is kinda creepy. The fact that it looks like an actual baby head turned into a pumpkin is bad enough, but the two tears on the cheek is really that makes it disturbing. In the picture she took the pumpkin baby is crying and the regular Halloween pumpkin in the back is smiling as if it is for some reason enjoying the baby's tears. Very creepy and very disturbing!

     We asked our aunt where she got it and she said she bought it at a garage sale. She and my mother believe that it is "cute."  I took several pictures of it. No matter how I took the picture, it was still freaking me out.

     From below the baby looks distressed. A little less disturbing, but not by much. I kept holding it up and pretend that it was talking. "Hey! I going to eat your soul," it said, and "I'll be watching you sleep tonight."

     From above it looks like a little old man. A very creepy old man. I really got to wonder how one can sleep knowing this thing is in the house. Even when it's pact up the rest of the year, you'd still know it's there...waiting.

      Putting a hat on didn't help. Now it kinda looks like a gang member with prison tear tattoos signifying how many people it's killed.

     A profile picture makes it look worse than little old man baby demon Satan carried around in the movie "Passion of the Christ."

From the movie "Passion of the Christ."

See what I mean?    

      Turning it on it's side just makes it look like a severed head. Imagine rolling over and seeing this thing staring back at you on the next pillow.

     Thanks for taking the time to read this and remember, baby pumpkin demon head thing will be watching you sleep tonight!

Fall/October Reading List-2012

                                                       

     As October arrives I like to prepare a list of books to read during the month till Halloween, maybe though the first week of November. Of course, these books are usually horror and this year is no different. All but one is horror. Below is a list of books I hope to have read at the end of October.

   First book I've actually already finished. "Karna the Kathorian" (The Kathorian Chronicles) by David Graves. It's a Kindle book and is the first e-book I've read. I still prefer an actual book, but I think I'll begin enjoying more e-books. Below is a link if you wish to learn more about "Karna the Kathorian." (The Kathorian Chronicles) I wrote a review for the book on Amazon.

Karna the Kathorian-The Kathorian Chronicles

The book I am currently reading is "Rot and Ruin," by Jonathan Maberry. It's a post zombie apocalypse story. I saw Jonathan Maberry being interviewed on the History Channels, "Zombies, A Living History" last year. So far I am enjoying this book. I actually wasn't planning to read this, however I was at the book store and had to buy it. Due to this impulse buy I've had to rearrange my list a bit.

     October 16th is the release date for my next book I want to read. 'The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury, by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. This is the second novel based on the comic series created by Robert Kirkman. I enjoyed the first novel,"The Rise of The Governor," by the same authors, so I'm looking forward to this one. Wish I could tell you more about this book but I have not done any research other than the release date.


                                                                                                                               

    After two zombie books I'll break it up by reading "Dracula," by Bram Stroker. I've read this classic novel before and enjoy it again every couple of years. I have a copy and downloaded a free copy on to my phone. Not sure which one I'll read. I'll probably choose the e-book version just to switch it up.
 














   I've also downloaded "Frankenstein," by Mary Shelly and "War of the Worlds," by H.G. Wells. I doubt I'd have time to get to them by November.
 
   Usually, I also have a list of horror movies I plan to watch, however now that I have Netflix, I'll just pick a new movie every other night.

   So am I the only one who put this much planning in reading? Do you plan this far in advance or do you just read one, then decide what to read next?