Fanart Friday: Halloween!

Everyone is a fan of Halloween, and the best thing about it is no one owns the copyright and the possibilities are limitless. So long as they are spooky. Limitless spookiness! Today I just want to direct you to the galleries of artists who specialize in ghosts and goblins.

To me, the best Halloween artist is Sideshowmonkey, David Hartman:


And Bryan Baugh is just as kickass:


Grimbro is a guy who pretty much lives for Halloween- I think he emerges from the grave for 13 nights every October to paint one spook a night. This year's theme is Batman but check them all out.


Grant Gould is no stranger to FF, but did you know he wrote a 3-part illustrated poem for Halloween this year? Hopefully part 3 is up sometime today.


And then there's SavageSinister, who has some beautiful pumpkins amongst other things:

I like to celebrate Halloween with some hallloweenish writing- poetry or story or whatever. This is what I came up with this year- not really truly spooky halloweeny, but definitely in the vein. Can you tell I've been reading Wicked?

Statues are, by statute
somewhat stationary
By law they all must stand mute
with no vocabulary

This state of affairs
is fair to most sculptures
You think Thinker cares
about noisy adventures?

But a murder of crows
knows to ignore
the scarecrow that shows
less zest than a door

And so we propose
if Your Honor is willing
to allow all scarecrows
the option of killing

To murder the birds
Who eat all the crops
and steal from the herds
dropping their drops

With weapons of fright
Free scarecrows to fight
At least give them this right
On Hallowe'en Night!

These little guys came trick or treating today- actually they are old friends. Why are whiskeyjacks so unshy? They are like keas in that way. Though I'm not sure I'd want a kea flying on to my hand.

I think the scariest thing for me this Halloween is my bus driver. For some reason, finding a good bus driver for us poor coal miners has been problematic (as I've talked about before- and the suicidal driver we had? Yup, he finally succeeded but at least he did it in private). This one we have now is whiny and annoying, but if he could drive I wouldn't mind. He hasn't figured out how to regulate the heat in the bus; he drives with his window open, dusting us out, so he doesn't fall asleep (a prudent safety measure but not one that inspires confidence); he won't let you have your reading light on in the first four rows; he has the two-way radio way too loud . . . like I say, annoying but I could live with it if he could drive.
Tonight he almost rolled the bus when he pulled over to let someone off and went into the ditch. Luckily it wasn't icy so he was able to get out without killing us all. He laughed and said "Sorry guys" like it was no big deal but no one else was laughing. Someone called out to a fellow passenger, "Hey Pete, maybe you should drive!", and the bus driver says, "What? You want more heat?"

So our new shovel has finally started arriving. Here they're just putting it together. We would have gotten it a lot earlier in the year but it was at a mining convention in Las Vegas or something. Oh yeah- here it is. This one is a hydraulic shovel- more like a backhoe than anything else. Our other shovels have power cables and I spend many many hours coiling, reeling, moving and otherwise ensuring they don't get wrecked. Despite my vigilance they are still wrecked way too often. So it'll be nice having a shovel sans cable. Running it will be fun too, at least until the novelty wears off. That usually takes a couple of hours.

Fanart Friday: Elphaba

So I am finally reading Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Pretty good so far, though I have never read any of L Frank Baum's Oz books, and the last time I saw the entirety of The Wizard of Oz was likely in 1984 or so.
Here we have some art by lsyw, ArtNerdEm, MontyGog and mizuai respecitvely. As always, make sure to visit their galleries and give them some love.

You know, Empire Strikes Back is kind of hazy on chronology when you think about it. How long was Luke training with Yoda? Didn't seem like very long and then he was off to Cloud City to try to save the day. But then, how long was the Falcon drifting through space to get to Bespin? Thinking of these deep questions made me envision a touching scene wherein Luke Skywalker is communing with the spirit of his father Anakin.

Spirit of Anakin: So you're a Jedi already, eh? How long did that take?
Luke: Not long. Like, a few weeks.
Spirit of Anakin: A few weeks?? It took me ten years of training under Obi-Wan!
Luke: Well, you killed Obi-Wan before he could really teach me anything.
Spirit of Anakin: Ah. Well, he chopped me into pieces and left me to burn to death last time I'd seen him so he kind of deserved it . . .
Luke: But you chopped my hand off!
Spirit of Anakin: Yeah, sorry about that. Uh, so . . . got a girlfriend?
Luke: No. I was pretty into Leia at first, she even kissed me once, but that was before I knew she was my sister.
Spirit of Anakin: What? You kissed your sister?
Luke: Well, like I said, it was before I knew she was my sister. I mean, what were the chances?
Spirit of Anakin: You are no son of mine! Luke, I am not your father!
Luke: Noooooooo!

Hey look at me go! Pooing in the Woods is now 6 years old. Hard to believe but at least the blog is finally the same age as me (mentally).
Lots has changed- I have less hair and more wives and children. Uh, make that exactly one wife and approximately 0.6 of a child. Few more months and that will be exactly 1 child!
And for those of you who have been here since the beginning and miss all the talk of poo, don't worry- when the cub gets here there will undoubtedly be plenty of poo talk!

Thanks to Mistytang for the Halloween Homie!
Hopefully everyone can see him at your different screen resolutions- he might be the headless Horsehomie at 800X400 or whatever.

Fanart Friday: Nightmare Before Christmas & Corpse Bride

This is Halloween! This is Halloween!
Boys and girls of every age
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Well then take a look at some fantastic fanart from Tim Burton's two stop-motion masterpieces. Make sure you listen to Marilyn Manson's version of the song while you do!


(From left to right, art by: cd-marcus, daekazu, spookychan, sonitweek.


(from left to right, artwork by: Washuuchan, Mrs Dalloway, Favius, Izabella.

A photo from my Flickr archives I forgot all about- kind of a Halloweenish looking tree, eh?
Here's another:



And what about this shot? Scary. Frost dryads live in there you know.

Remember the good old days last month when everyone thought the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck up the Earth from the inside (a la Dan Simmons' Big Mistake of '08 in Hyperion)? We were so naive back then. Who knew an economic black hole would cause a sucky implosion of an entirely different and less cool kind.
Certainly not Stephen Harper.
I bet you he wishes he could create a black hole to open a wormhole to last month so he could uncall his snap election. Oh well. Although my thoughts on the federal parties are largely unchanged from the last time I think I will still vote for him. Or at least, not for Stephane Dion. Dion's goofily endearing habit of giggling at his own jokes won me over a little, and that interview he was roasted for I thought was actually points in his favor- I speak English as my first language and barely understood that guy's question (if you used to be the prime minister today what would you have done differently yesterday to avoid the Hadron Collision scheduled for tomorrow? or something like that)- but I can't vote for a guy who thinks it's a good idea to raise my taxes and give all the money to Quebec and Ontario. Sorry- been doing that for years and it hasn't gotten me anywhere yet. Now is not a good time for new taxes. Just ask everybody.
I wish I could vote for Slipknot.
Anyways tomorrow is the day so get out there and vote for someone!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Although I am actually all alone this weekend, slaving away at the coal mine, I am thankful there is still a coal mine in which to slave away at. Also I'm thankful for the NHL season which is underway and the Oilers have their season opener tomorrow night.
And, let's see, I'm thankful for monsters and zombies and ghosts and sasquatches and stuffs like that.
Also my wife, who is in Calgary though. Just me and the zombie sasquatches out here in coal mine land.

Amidst the crashing of financial markets the world over I almost feel crass to tell you I have to spend a thousand dollars on personal health and wellness before the end of the year. But coal mining is an occupation that is especially vulnerable to the vagaries of the commodities market and this time next month I could easily be facing impending layoffs. So if my employer wants to give me a grand to spend on getting more healthy I might as well take advantage while I can. The question is how.
I already run, and that doesn't cost much money at all- just shoes every six months or so. I'm all geared up for hiking too though next year I might use this fund to get some new gear. But considering the time of year I am thinking of finally trying out snowboarding. Yeah I know- I grew up a half hour from the Rockies and have never snowboarded. Hardly ever skied either. But no one ever offered to pay for it before!
So like, do you just go buy a snowboard from the snowboard store? Or are there different types of boards depending on skill level and usage? Based on my ability to toboggan standing up I am already pretty much an expert. And I figure I'll probably need one that can do flips and shreds. Maybe ollies and hang tens too. So what brand is that?
Oh yeah, and I already asked- a Wii Fit is not covered.
Also I have a $50 gift card to Chapters- anyone got any book recommendations? I was thinking of getting The Art of the Force Unleashed. Because there is some beautiful artwork in there. But I'm open to other suggestions too.

I always feel like I'm coming up for air after a set of nightshifts. The world went on without me? Weird. Work was alright, nothing really unusual. My old buddy Leon lost his temper a little and barked at Graeme over the radio, much to everyone's amusement. "You keep doing like that I'll punch you in the face!" Even though threats of physical violence are contrary to company policy and even federal law, it's all in good fun at the ole coal mine. Oh well, at least no one got hurt. Or shot. One coworker of mine shot another ex-coworker of mine while hunting a couple of weeks ago, and as much as I'm dying to tell that one, it's not my place. But oh man! Crazy.
Anyways have you tried the Genius Playlist generator on the new iTunes? At this point it's more of an idiot savant, I'd say, with emphasis on the idiot. I put in Wanted Dead or Alive (Bon Jovi of course) and it came up with Metallica's Unforgiven- a good choice musically, especially if the song were about the Clint Eastwood movie (which it isn't); Pantera's Cowboys from Hell- a good fit subject-matter-wise at least. Not sure how "My Best Friend's Girl" (The Cars), "I Love You" (Sarah McLachlan) and Alanis's Ironic really fit though. Among others just as baffling. Here is my own Genius Playlist building from Wanted Dead or Alive:
Blaze of Glory- Jon Bon
Wherever I May Roam- Metallica
Farewell Ride- Beck
The Man Comes Around- Johnny Cash
Snake Song- Emmylou Harris
No Roads Here- Corb Lund
Cowbys from Hell- Pantera
Working Class Hero- Green Day
Redemption Day- Sheryl Crow
These ten songs are all brilliant and putting them together in one playlist is truly genius. If you are for some reason missing any of these fine tunes let me know I might be able to hook you up.