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fictionz · 2 years

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New Fiction 2022 - July

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "1 Paralipomenon" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

More begetting children and all their names before coming back around to more of David's reign. So many chapters are just appendices to previous events.

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "2 Paralipomenon" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Two Paralipomenon, say that five times fast. So now it's on to Solomon and his riches (again), Roboam talking about how his little finger is bigger than his dad's dick, and Jeroboam getting whipped with scorpions all the way to the fall of Jerusalem. It's basically another look at what we saw in Kings.

Dracula Daily - "July" by Bram Stoker & ed. Matt Kirkland (1897, 2021)

Dracula’s finally outta that musty old castle, though leaving Jonathan in the lurch is quite the cliffhanger. And that poor, poor captain.

Bad Hare Day by R.L. Stine (1996)

A mish-mash of various ideas from earlier books. It has the vibe of Haunted Mask and stealing secrets from weird adults, the experimenting with illicit stuff from Monster Blood, animal transformations from various books, bratty younger sister who bullies the protagonist, a Slappy-like snarky villainous character. It’s too much of a remix and more slapstick than horror.

Egg Monsters from Mars by R.L. Stine (1996)

A decent creature story, but the latter half kind of sags with the protagonist spending a lot of time just trapped in a freezer and struggling to stay warm. The villain is genuinely frightening but also one-dimensional and doesn't really explain his motivation well. And there's not enough of the egg monsters. It's close to a top tier book but just sputters too much along the way.

"Bathtub Mermaid" by Edith Zimmerman (2022)

Someone has to hear about the doll thief.

"its time for… the dark cabinet" by itstimeforcomics-blog (2015)

When you least suspect it.

Lost Highway dir. David Lynch (1997)

One can see the continuation of a theme in Lynch’s work since Blue Velvet. Does he want us see the darkness or the light?

Mad God dir. Phil Tippett (2022)

If the journey ends for you, it doesn’t mean it’s the end.

Mr. Malcolm's List dir. Emma Holly Jones (2022)

British accents always class up the cruelty.

Thor: Love and Thunder dir. Taika Waititi (2022)

Whoof, what a drop from Ragnarok.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers dir. Akiva Schaffer (2022)

A reflection of a reflection that is unaware of what it sees.

Where the Crawdads Sing dir. Olivia Newman (2022)

Pump up the volume on the mystery, tone down the romance.

Nope dir. Jordan Peele (2022)

The most fun take on Jaws since the original. A real hoot and also really fucked up at times. An understanding of horror by someone who continues to bring cool ideas to movies.

Vengeance dir. B. J. Novak (2022)

You get awful close but you shouldn’t have been the face of it. Now we ask, what did we learn?

Fear Street Part One: 1994 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)

Really going for it right out of the gate. I’m in. Now I need to know if I should go back and read Fear Street after reading this bunch of Goosebumps books.

Fear Street Part Two: 1978 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)

Even the devil craves a kind word.

Fear Street Part Three: 1666 dir. Leigh Janiak (2021)

Legacy is mankind’s ruin.

Goosebumps - "Bad Hare Day" (1996)

Erf, the book was rough, and the episode doesn’t do itself any favors by leaning into the snarky villain.

Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (1988-1990)

A nostalgia bomb like every one of these 90s cartoons tends to be, though the tropes eventually wear thin when watching it all in one go. Monterey Jack may be what crystallized my appreciation of cheese.

Better Call Saul - Season 5 (2020)

This show... it doesn’t build the way Breaking Bad builds. It’s more of a roller coaster with the sense of hitting the same drop a few too many times. This season is a bookmark in place while you wait for the extra season that should have been season five.

The Book of Boba Fett (2021-2022)

I feel bad for the actors and crew of this ostensibly standalone TV show. Your makers should have had the fortitude to stick the vision.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Better, but only because it is exactly what I remember. It’s comfortable, like an old pair of socks.

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mmwm · 2 years

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LINK FEST: 19 JULY 2022

Links that may or may not be related to gardens, food, travel, nature, or heterotopias and liminal spaces but probably are. Sources in parentheses. comic: bathtub mermaid (Substack: Drawing Links/Edith Zimmerman) 4-min video: watch Sad COVID Boy Hank Green Eat Foods He Hates but Can’t Taste (YouTube/vlogbrothers). Pickles, blue cheese, blue cheese-stuffed green olives, black olives, black…

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#1800s #19th century cooking #amontillado #assateague island #cocktails #comic #cooking #Covid-19 #drink #edith zimmerman #horses #link fest #links #mermaid #park ranger #sherry #state park #taste

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jkottke · 5 months

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I’m traveling for a few weeks and Edith Zimmerman is going to be guest editing the site while I’m away. Welcome, Edith!

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oncomics · 5 months

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(via The Daily Heller: Introducing the Original Sikh Captain America – PRINT Magazine)

And if those strips by Edith Zimmerman I just ran aren’t unusual enough, at least for many of us here, fine, this.

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thelonesomequeen · 1 year

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What’s the interview where Chris was really flirty with the journalist and invited her out? Judith something?

Edith Zimmerman 🦎

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kheelcenter · 1 year

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Happy International Workers’ Day!

Happy #InternationalWorkersDay, a celebration of solidarity for the working class & the labor movement, and all of their past and future achievements! 🎊 Here's some photos of past #MayDay celebrations in New York in 1937. @cornellilr @CornellILR_News @CatherwoodLibe #ILGWU #IntergenerationalLadiesGarmentWorkersUnion #Cornell #LaborArchives #LaborHistory #ArchivesOfInstagram #AllLaborHasDignity #KheelCenter #ILRSchool #LaborRights #Strikes #Workers #WorkersDay @CornellTextileIndustry @CornellFashionCollection #Unions

The "Daily Worker" float makes its way through New York streets in the 1937 May Day parade.

Members of ILGWU, including Charles Zimmerman and Edith Ransom, march in the 1937 May Day parade.

Members of an ILGWU Local 22 athletic team march in the 1937 May Day parade in Union Square.

Edith Ransom and Charles Zimmerman (center) of ILGWU Local 22 march with others in the 1937 May Day parade.

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xtruss · 1 year

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Sleeping Late Isn’t a Sign of Laziness. Stop The Circadian-rhythm Shaming

Fellow night owls, take comfort: our sleep-wake schedule is part of our genetic makeup, not a moral failing

— Matthew Cantor | Monday 30th January 2023

A person’s daily sleep-wake schedule, called a chronotype, is genetic. And bias against night owls is ‘purely cultural’. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

It’s January, the month of new year’s resolutions and other doomed efforts at self-improvement. And what better way to make more of one’s life than rising earlier to seize the day?

At least that’s what the voice in my head says as I hit the snooze alarm for the 10th time at 9.30am. Then it’s time to get up, racked with guilt at my laziness, as if sleeping in were some kind of ethical lapse.

It’s not, of course. People’s sleep/wake cycles are inherently varied, and if you, too, are a late to bed, late to rise person, you’re simply a night owl – or, in clinical terms, you have a delayed sleep phase.

It’s time for this circadian-rhythm-shaming to end. It’s nothing new – centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin made the shockingly biased claim that “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. In a 2018 essay in the Cut, Edith Zimmerman wrote that “waking up early gives you a surge of power; you feel superior, smug”. More recently, a Reddit user put it simply: “Night owls suck,” the person wrote. “Your sleep habits are an [obstacle] in the path of every plan that constantly needs to be worked around.”

But night owls, take comfort: as Robin Williams once said to Matt Damon, it’s not your fault. Your daily sleep-wake schedule, called your chronotype, appears to be mostly genetic. Assessments of how common it is to be a night owl vary: experts who spoke to the Guardian had heard estimates around 15%, while a recent study in Finland found 10% of men and 12% of women to be “evening types”. A 2007 study found that the most common chronotype, accounting for 14.6% of people, slept from 12.09am to 8.18am in the absence of “social obligations” – but half the population slept later. In any case, night owls: you are not alone.

Our chronotype is “part and parcel of who we are”, says Dr Beth Ann Malow, a neurologist and sleep expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “It’s not something like: ‘I’m gonna choose to be a night owl, and I’m lazy.’ It’s a biological preference.”

Dr Phil Gehrman, a clinical psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees. Bias against night owls is “purely cultural”, he says, citing Franklin, who helped found his university. (Ben Franklin was also a proponent of something akin to daylight savings time, which is a whole other circadian mess.)

The 9-5 schedule might be good for earlier risers, but it works against those who need to sleep later. And that might not just be the owls: a 2014 study found that, in general, the later work and class started, the more sleep participants (who were not all owls) got. “It’s the combination of early work start and long commute that is driving short sleep,” the study’s lead author, Dr Mathias Basner, director of Penn’s unit for experimental psychiatry, division of sleep and chronobiology, wrote in an email to the Guardian.

The problem comes when we have jobs or classes that don’t align with our circadian rhythms. When the obligations of waking life clash with one’s sleep schedule so badly that it’s difficult to function, night owldom shifts from a tendency to a condition known as delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, in which one’s circadian rhythms make daily functioning difficult. About 0.2% to 1.7% of adults have this condition.

“What’s crazy,” Malow says, is that whether a person’s sleep habits are viewed as a disorder or simply a tendency “is going to depend more on their lifestyle and their employment than it is anything else.”

Malow says treatment often starts with seeing if people can adjust their work schedules to suit their biological rhythms. She describes a patient who struggled in high school but blossomed when he began working as a chef; or students who are able to sign up for late classes.

In an ideal world, she says, we’d be less rigid about work start times – in health terms, the best-case scenario would be finding ways to adhere to our own body clocks. Instead of trying to match social demands, “I would much rather [patients] stay on a consistent schedule where they’re going to bed at two and waking up at 10 or 11.” Of course, many people aren’t lucky enough to have such shifts as an option – in which case the disorder can be treated with light exposure, melatonin and exercise. Such techniques make it possible to change circadian rhythms, Gehrman says, but people have varying success rates (he has coined a term for this: circadian flexibility).

But outside of concerns over work schedules, are there fundamental health benefits to waking up early? Research has, for instance, suggested a link between late rising and poor mental health or unhappiness. But according to Gehrman, the jury is very much still out on this.

“There are a lot of epidemiologic studies showing that being a night owl is associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety and all these things. But the open question is: is it the fact that you’re a night owl? Or is it the fact that most night owls are forced to follow a schedule that’s earlier than their circadian rhythm – what we often refer to as a mismatch,” he says. Recent studies have pointed to the latter, he says: “It’s certainly not conclusive, but that’s what we think is going on.”

The upshot is: if you’re a night owl, don’t feel bad about it, and if you’re an early bird, go easy on your night-owl friends. In fact, by painting late sleepers as lazy, you might just be supporting The Man: the British researcher Dr Paul Kelley has speculated that we stick to a 9-5 schedule because it suits fiftysomething bosses, whose age means it’s easier to get up earlier.

“People shouldn’t change their schedule because of the belief that following their schedule is bad for them,” Gehrman says. “As humans, we always seem to say if someone’s different from us, they’re therefore wrong.

“I think people should look at circadian rhythm differences the same way they look at any other differences between people.” So don’t come at us with your judgments – especially not before noon.

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stephanie-love · 1 year

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The Hairpin

New Year’s Eve the Slut, Sluttiest Night of the Year

BY EDITH ZIMMERMAN DECEMBER 20, 2010

“A survey from intimacy products manufacturer Wet has found that 33 percent of women admitted that they were more likely to have a one-night stand on New Year’s Eve than on any other night of the year.”

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accidentalharrie · 2 years

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I get what you’re saying about lack of flowing interview and it seeming somewhat disparate. But I do think when reading the article, even the line about “I’ve never publicly dated anyone” and what all that’s couched in…is understandable. But people are hell bent on twisting what he’s saying. Now, do I wish he would be 1000% clear so I don’t have to deal with peoples shit takes by saying “I’ve never used my relationships for public consumption by posting on social media or making public announcements” hell yeah 😂 I did roll my eyes a bit like you though…mostly out of the “welp, I know how this is gonna be twisted” but I don’t think I’d feel that way if, to use the same phrase again, this fandom wasn’t hellbent on twisting words

I agree that people are hellbent on twisting what was said, in really cruel ways. That's not my issue though - it's that, even in context, the idea that Harry has not "publicly dated" anyone is not entirely true (Carolina and Cherry would like a word, maybe Cinema too), and while I do understand his preference for interviewers who he knows or who he knows will respect his boundaries, I would personally prefer a little more Stern-esque pushback when he says stuff like that. It felt to me, again personally, that this most recent interview was starting to give Chris Evans/Edith Zimmerman vibes by the end.

That said, I *HATE* 99.99% of what I'm seeing on social media in response to this quote, so I don't want to keep adding to it. I love Harry, and his reticence on the topic is more than understandable, albeit at times frustrating to me, personally.

#i think it also hit me wrong because in this case his current private relationship #was on the record discussing their relationship/his fans #in the very same interview #anyway i really don't want to pile on he's getting it enough from every other corner of the internet #just wanted to explain myself a bit because my inbox is a mess #asks

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mariacallous · 3 months

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“I’m not a fan of AI,” Nebojša Vujinović Vujo says. The admission surprises me: He has built a bustling business by snapping up abandoned news outlets and other websites and stuffing them full of algorithmically generated articles. Although he accepts that his model rankles writers and readers alike, he says he’s simply embracing an unstoppable new tool—large language models—in the same way people rationally swapped horse-drawn buggies for gas-powered vehicles. “I hate cars. They’re making my planet bad,” he says. “But I’m not riding a horse anymore, right? I’m driving a car.”

I connected with Vujo after digging into the strange afterlife of indie women’s blog The Hairpin, which shut down in 2018. Last month, its website reawakened. In place of the voicey, funny blog posts it was known for, the site began churning out AI-generated, search-engine-optimized pablum about dream interpretations and painfully generic relationship advice like “effective communication is vital.” When I emailed an address listed on the zombie site’s About Us page, Vujo responded, claiming that it was just one of more than 2,000 sites he operates, in an AI-content-fueled fiefdom built by acquiring once-popular domains fallen on hard times. He’s the CEO of the digital marketing firm Shantel, which monetizes its AI-populated sites through programmatic ads, sponsored content, and selling the placement of “backlinks” to website owners trying to boost their credibility with search engines. He often targets distressed media sites because they have built-in audiences and a history of ranking highly in search results.

The foundation of that business is a long-established practice known as domain squatting—buying up web domains that once belonged to established brands and profiting off their reputations with Google and other search engines. Lily Ray, senior director of SEO at the marketing agency Amsive, calls it “the underbelly of the SEO industry.” But Vujo is part of a wave of entrepreneurs giving this old trade a new twist by using generative AI.

It’s dusk where I live in Chicago when I talk via Zoom with Nebojša Vujinović Vujo. (Although that’s the name he gives me, he has sometimes gone by just Nebojša Vujinović, including on the registration information for some of his domains.) It’s midnight in Belgrade, Serbia, where he lives with his girlfriend and their toddler, but he’s wide awake and chatty. Vujo attributes his erratic sleep schedule to years of late nights working as a DJ and still makes music—he likes to mix pop with Balkan folk and is working on a new song called “Fat Lady.” But right now he’s eager to talk, human-to-human, about his AI-fueled hustle.

He gets why writers are unhappy that their work has been erased and replaced by clickbait. (The Hairpin’s founding editor, Edith Zimmerman, calls his version of the site “grim.”) But he defends his choices, pointing out that his life has been tougher than that of the average American blogger. Although ethnically Serbian, Vujo was born in what is now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, and his family fled during the breakup of Yugoslavia. “I had two wars I escaped. I changed nine elementary schools because we were moving. We were migrants,” he says. “It was terrible to grow up in this part of the world.” He says his economic options have been limited, and this was simply a path available to him.

Vujo also insists that he does have editorial standards; although the majority of the blog posts he publishes are created with ChatGPT, he employs a staff of about a dozen human editors to check its work to avoid anything outright offensive. “Maybe it would be better for you that I’m a bad guy,” he tells me. “Better for your story. But I’m just an ordinary guy.”

Easy, Fast, and Insane

Vujo’s first big domain squatting victory came in 2017 when Italian chef Antonio Carluccio died, and it appears someone forgot to renew one of the websites associated with him. Vujo still talks about his good luck in scooping up the domain and turning it into a cooking-themed content mill. “It’s mine now,” he tells me cheerfully. “He almost invented carbonara—he’s a big celebrity!” Vujo has since also picked up Pope2you.net, formerly an official Vatican website meant to connect Pope Benedict XVI with younger believers, and TrumpPlaza.com, named after residential towers in Jersey City, New Jersey, codeveloped by former President Trump.

Vujo says his most significant—and consistently profitable—purchase is women’s media outlet The Frisky, which he acquired not long after he scored the Carluccio site. “It cost a lot—all the money that I had—but that was my opportunity,” he says. “It was life-changing.” (BuzzFeed News reported on the purchase in 2019.) Vujo says the site generated over $500,000 in the first year he bought the domain. In addition to healthy income from ads and clients willing to pay for backlinks, the brand was a magnet for companies willing to pay for sponsored posts. Because the outlet had long embraced risque topics, Vujo says sex toy companies are eager to do business with him.

Vujo initially hired human writers to create his SEO-optimized articles for The Frisky and his other site, sourcing from gig-economy platforms like Fiverr. In 2023, he saw that the advent of generative AI allowed him to shift his business into a higher, more people-efficient gear. Vujo estimates that his editorial staff is now around a tenth of what it once was. “We create the same amount of content, but my expenses are less,” he says, calling it “easy and fast and insane.”

To many in the media, that business model can feel offensive—especially when the AI-generated articles are posted at a domain where you used to write. For Vujo it’s not personal, though. “I’m just one guy who, yes, in business I am using AI to create shitty content on the internet to earn money or a fortune,” he says. He’s not a mustache-twirling supervillain, chortling as he spews journalism-killing AI slime. He’s an affable young dad who wants his kid to have a nicer childhood than he did.

That doesn’t make the collateral damage of the AI clickbait business any less unsettling. In April 2021, Jimmy Lai—a strident critic of the Chinese government—was sentenced to 14 months in prison in Hong Kong for participating in protests. A few months later police raided the headquarters of his pro-democracy tabloid newspaper Apple Daily, arresting several top editors. “Shutting down Apple Daily was an attack on the free press; closing and then confiscating the newspaper was an attack on the free market and property rights,” says Mark Simon, a former executive at the newspaper, via email.

Vujo snapped up the Apple Daily domain in 2023. The site no longer offers anything resembling news or that might be perceived as a threat to the Chinese government. It’s now a catchall SEO-bait website proffering headlines such as “45+ Happy Birthday Wishes for Teacher” and “40+ Romantic Happy Birthday Wishes for Lover- Happy Birthday Jaan.”

The aggressive banality of this new Apple Daily is no accident. Vujo, scavenger of dead journalism sites, has an editorial vision of his own and sees himself as apolitical. “War in Yugoslavia destroyed my childhood,” he says. “Because of all that, plus a hundred more reasons, I hate politics and all stupid things that separate people. We will not publish anything against anyone on Apple Daily, especially. I love and respect China too.”

Can Be Considered Spam

The way Apple Daily was so thoroughly emptied of the qualities that defined it makes the weak spot in this scheme immediately apparent. A plum domain’s initial benefit—a strong reputation with Google and a built-in audience—dwindles quickly as Vujo populates it with content primarily designed to snare search engines rather than interest people. AI content is successful not because it is replacing the work of human writers but because it coasts on the value created by their past labor.

“A lot of companies that have tried this did really well recently with AI content. They’d get crazy amounts of traffic, but then a few months later everything dropped down and died,” says SEO expert Barry Schwartz. “Google’s getting better at figuring out a lot of these techniques.”

Google’s role in directing traffic to AI-generated content is currently under intense scrutiny. 404 Media recently reported how automated knockoffs of its articles can be highly ranked in Google News. When asked about operations like Vujo’s, company spokesperson Jennifer Kutz maintains that Google has policies to combat them. “The tactics described as used with these sites are largely in violation of Search’s spam policies, and we have systems in place that specifically address this vector of abuse,” she says. “Our systems understand changes in ownership for a domain, and we take that into account when ranking pages. Automatically generated content produced primarily for ranking purposes can be considered spam.”

Whether it was because Google registered that the domain changed ownership or humans on the internet did, The Frisky’s readership has declined under Vujo’s stewardship. According to web-traffic analytics firm Semrush, the site could reach over a million pageviews per month in 2016. Now, it has been under 20,000 pageviews for the past two months. One of the top search terms currently drawing clicks is the seemingly mispelled phrase “a cup tities.” Vujo says The Frisky creates revenue of between $30,000 and $50,000 a year. Perhaps it will stabilize at that level, but to score another soaring success, he has to keep hunting for other distressed media properties with lapsed domains. “It’s like a drug,” Vujo says of the adrenaline rush of scouting potential squatting sites. “You never know what’s waiting.”

As he hunts, Vujo may find a more competitive field as the AI boom continues. While many people in the world of SEO loathe domain squatting and AI-generated content, others are embracing it. An emerging cottage industry of hustlers who make money coaching other people on how to squat and prosper with AI content appears to be expanding fast, says Lily Ray of Amsive. “It’s going to get exponentially worse.”

As AI text, image, and video generation improve and get much cheaper, can anything stop the internet from becoming carpeted with this content? Ray is hopeful that Google will eventually find a way to stifle the growth. “It’s going to take them a minute, but they’re working on it.” If Google can choke off the traffic that feeds operations like Vujo’s, what media outlets remain would face less competition in search results and other feeds from AI-generated rivals. Making a living, or a business, out of journalism would still be tough, but the fight might be fairer.

When I email back-and-forth with Vujo after our talk, he doubles down on insisting that his business model represents the internet’s inevitable future, like it or not. “I understand your position, AI is the biggest problem for content writers and journalists” he writes. “But just imagine how big a problem for the radio host was TV. Give up or UPGRADE, right?” It’s a punchy line but not a particularly convincing one. What feels like the evolution of the internet to a guy like Vujo looks to others like a loss, deterioration disguised as progress.

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shakespearenews · 4 years

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#shakespeare #william shakespeare #tempest #the tempest #shakespeare on film #ariel #shakespeare and music #full fathom five #comics #webcomic #Edith Zimmerman #Ariel’s Song

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fictionz · 2 years

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New Fiction 2022 - August

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "1 Esdras" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Alright so the Jewish people are free to leave Babylon after a bit more enslavement and the Babylonian kings want them back on the worshipping the Lord train. But as is the way, there are interruptions to rebuilding Jerusalem, and some light banishment of the wives and children who are not of the pure Jewish blood (yikes).

The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "2 Esdras" ed. Richard Challoner (1752)

Much ado about Jerusalem's wall.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The House of No Return" by R.L. Stine (1994)

The first is a simple story that sets the tone. This has the feel of a Tales from the Crypt episode.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Teacher's Pet" by R.L. Stine (1994)

Hm no, just not spooky or weird enough for me.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Strained Peas" by R.L. Stine (1994)

Another clunker. It feels like these needs more pages to up the tension a bit more.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Strangers in the Woods" by R.L. Stine (1994)

I like the build-up to the decent little twist at the end there.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Good Friends" by R.L. Stine (1994)

I appreciate what the setup attempts to do but the finale is so banal.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "How I Won My Bat" by R.L. Stine (1994)

Okay these stories are definitely going more for a Tales from the Crypt thing. This one was amusing.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Mr. Teddy" by R.L. Stine (1994)

You know the ending right away (because it's been done in Night of the Living Dummy), but still a good little story.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Click" by R.L. Stine (1994)

Here we go, I think I'm getting into these as they lean into the comeuppance finales.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Broken Dolls" by R.L. Stine (1994)

Another creepy doll story in one book, but this one's much better.

Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "A Vampire in the Neighborhood" by R.L. Stine (1994)

Hey I didn't see that coming when I should've. It seems like the best stories were saved for the end here.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Werewolf's First Night" by R.L. Stine (1995)

These shorts often have a role reversal for the conclusion, but they're so short that they lack the tension to set it up as best as possible. So when it happens, it doesn't hit as hard.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "P.S. Don't Write Back" by R.L. Stine (1995)

A well-executed classic camp spook. I'm surprised to see two camp shorts in a row. But then these anthologies seem to be microcosms of Stine tropes.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Something Fishy" by R.L. Stine (1995)

Stine just can't write something good with fish.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "You Gotta Believe Me!" by R.L. Stine (1995)

I don't miss the fifties alien sci-fi stuff, too much like Monster Blood. It's just played too goofy when Stine attempts it.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Suckers!" by R.L. Stine (1995)

A fun one with interesting weirdness and I'm a sucker for a comeuppance ending.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Dr. Horror's House of Video" by R.L. Stine (1995)

Another comeuppance ending and a fun little bunch of scenes from the days of video stores.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Cat's Tale" by R.L. Stine (1995)

I don't think we'd seen cat stories before this one, at least not in the main series until Series 2000.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Shell Shocker" by R.L. Stine (1995)

It just dawned on me that these are all summer vacation stories. (The cover with skeletons around a campfire should've also been a hint.) And this story is great, even if obvious how it's going to end.

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Poison Ivy" by R.L. Stine (1995)

How is Stine better at writing creepy plants than he is at writing creepy fish?

More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Spirit of the Harvest Moon" by R.L. Stine (1995)

Ooh a classic spooky story to end this anthology. The theme so far with these short story books is to wait for the last few to get good.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Chalk Closet" by R.L. Stine (1996)

A good story missing a solid final twist. As it is, it's just waiting for the inevitable.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Home Sweet Home" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Eh didn't work for me. Not spooky and another sense of an inevitable conclusion.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Don't Wake Mummy" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Oh heck yeah, there's the twist I've been craving.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "I'm Telling!" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Not spooky or tense but I like the ending.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Haunted House Game" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Oh wow, this is the best of these short stories so far, full stop. The ending is :chefskiss:.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Change for the Strange" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Animal transformation stories never work in Goosebumps, with the exception of Chicken, Chicken. The authors need to up the body horror factor.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Perfect School" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Decent but too much of the plot is hand waved away.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "For the Birds" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Whoof, two animal transformation stories in one book.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Aliens in the Garden" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Pure twilight zone, but not spooky or twisty enough.

Even More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Thumbprint of Doom" by R.L. Stine (1996)

A prank tale, but scare-free prank stories always feel flat.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Pumpkin Juice" by R.L. Stine (1996)

I wrote a story like this once, so I liked it. But I'm pretty sure it's about drugs.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Attack of the Tattoo" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Hm I was on the fence between a 1 or 2 rank here. Also this is another story about drugs.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Wish" by R.L. Stine (1996)

There we GO. We got a cautionary wish tale and the terror of the mob. That's the stuff.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "An Old Story" by R.L. Stine (1996)

So this is about child slavery in service of horny old people, but it gets played pretty spooky.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Scarecrow" by R.L. Stine (1996)

It builds in an interesting way but then just fizzles out.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Awesome Ants" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Another miss. Giant bugs could be scarier than this.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Please Don't Feed the Bears" by R.L. Stine (1996)

More uninteresting animal transformation tales.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Goblin's Glare" by R.L. Stine (1996)

Whoa what is happening. These late stories keep fizzling out.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "Bats About Bats" by R.L. Stine (1996)

I just... am not picking up what the author is throwing down with these late stories. Just not scary or interesting.

Still More Tales to Give You Goosebumps - "The Space Suit Snatcher" by R.L. Stine (1996)

I liked the kid in this story, but that's all the praise it gets. Another non-scary entry with a fizzled finale.

Dracula Daily - "August" by Bram Stoker & ed. Matt Kirkland (1897, 2021)

It feels like a lifetime since we heard from dear Jonathan, but Mina’s cool too.

The Beast from the East by R.L. Stine (1996)

Another monster adventure away from home, but also another underwhelming execution. I'm not sure if I'm souring on the tropes or if these stories are just getting too goofy for me to appreciate them as the horror stories I expect. The podcast commentary I've been listening to has noted that early Goosebumps is definitely scarier than later books. But it's also got good pacing and the monsters and setting are intriguing so I give it points for that.

Say Cheese and Die—Again! by R.L. Stine (1996)

I thought the final chapter about getting revenge on the teacher-bully might redeem this one but it just falls flat. It's a deeply uncomfortable book about body shaming and the "horror" of weight issues. And it's frustrating when the protagonists consistently fail to solve the problem that they already dealt with this in the first book. I finally realize why sequels like this, Mummy Returns, or Monster Blood are so annoying: it's the same protagonists but they repeat their mistakes from before. Like those aforementioned sequels, another hard pass.

Ghost Camp by R.L. Stine (1996)

Hey alright, back to classic spooks. But the scares are telegraphed way too early for them to be effective later. Or is this just a symptom of having now read close to 50 Goosebumps books and seeing the same setups and tropes? I welcome a return to regular ol' spooky stuff and there's sort of a twist in there, so a solid middle-of-the-road rating for this one.

How to Kill a Monster by R.L. Stine (1996)

Another classic monster story but it doesn't quite land at top tier for me. I thought there would be a twist where the kids are being trained to be monster hunters or something but the twists that do occur are more annoying plot obfuscations. The characters' actions just strain logic.

Legend of the Lost Legend by R.L. Stine (1996)

A tough one to gauge. Not as bad as many bottom tier books, and in the vein of some fantasy adventures I've liked such as Shrunken Head or Beast from the East. But it's too scattered and the adventure is not as interesting. The opening chapters in third person perspective made me miss the days when some books broke away from always being in the protagonist's head. This one just barely falls out of the upper ranks.

Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns by R.L. Stine (1996)

Holy WHOA this book goes places. The setup had me worried because it's a lot like You Can't Scare Me with kids planning revenge and repeatedly failing, as well as flashback filler like in Cuckoo Clock of Doom. But halfway through it gets legit scary and it's not clear where it's headed. The final twist is bonkers but then it leads into another final-final twist and I loved it.

Vampire Breath by R.L. Stine (1996)

Maybe I'm still in a good mood from the last book but I really liked this one too, even if the scares and twists don't hit as hard. It has the time travel element of Terror Tower that weirdly worked and a classic vampire setting in an old castle is great. Well-paced and fun all around.

Calling All Creeps by R.L. Stine (1996)

Dig the pacing, the creatures, and the overall arc to the ending. The protagonist is kind of a butt but his behavior is set up with all the bullying leading up to it.

Beware, the Snowman by R.L. Stine (1997)

I don't know what got into Stine in late 1996 but I'm glad he rebounded. If I was more dedicated I would research Stine's works in 1996 to see if he was busy elsewhere and had to just phone in the Goosebumps books from the first half of the year. This one telegraphs the finale fairly early but the protagonist's continual skepticism keeps the reader also doubting everyone until the final bunch of twists and reveals. It's a good build-up to a finale that has come clunky writing but fun turns.

Chicken, Chicken by R.L. Stine (1997)

The body horror in this is quite disturbing (in a good way). It's a better take on what Stine tried to do in books like My Hairiest Adventure or Why I'm Afraid of Bees. But I wish it had been the core part of the book until the end, without the magical shenanigans in the final chapters as they try to change back to normal.

Don't Go to Sleep! by R.L. Stine (1997)

An amusing exploration of the multiverse concept. The terror of the protagonist's journey never quite comes through, making it a more middle-of-the-road entry.

The Blob That Ate Everyone by R.L. Stine (1997)

An attempt at meta commentary about writing stories. It builds up in an interesting way and just completely deflates with several unsatisfying fakeouts.

The Curse of Camp Cold Lake by R.L. Stine (1997)

A tough one to place. Definitely at least a mid-tier book with lots of tension and messed up tween angst that leads to a horrifying near-death experience. I like the scary build-up, more serious than most of the goofy stuff going on in these late books. The ending kind of fizzles out but it doesn't diminish everything before it.

My Best Friend is Invisible by R.L. Stine (1997)

Better writing than usual, but it's just not an interesting journey until the final insane twist. This could've been a scarier book about the terror of an obsessive invisible person who can get away with dangerous stuff. And the scientist parents thing feels like it's going to pay off and just... doesn't.

Deep Trouble II by R.L. Stine (1997)

This book avoids some of the problems from other sequels, but it's not scary and the adventure is also not interesting. Another dud here near the end.

The Haunted School by R.L. Stine (1997)

If this is the last great book I read before the end then it singlehandedly makes reading the last few books a worthwhile journey. A spooky adventure in the tradition of the earliest books with some truly creepy stuff going on. The homage to "All Summer in a Day" is the cherry on top.

Werewolf Skin by R.L. Stine (1997)

Another return to form. A classic werewolf mystery that is perhaps too heavy-handed in its foreshadowing but still fun.

I Live in Your Basement! by R.L. Stine (1997)

What in the world. This one's barely a unified story, but I give it extra points for being so bizarre and gross.

Monster Blood IV by R.L. Stine (1997)

Hey one more trip through a third-person narrative! But I'm annoyed that they made this another Monster Blood book when it could have been a standalone. I'll be generous because we're at the end here and when I look at it as a story separate from the Monster Blood series then it's decent, something to mix in with the mid-tier reads.

Cry of the Cat by R.L. Stine (1998)

I was really into it until the final chapters where it just runs out of steam. The story should've ended at the cat house.

Bride of the Living Dummy by R.L. Stine (1998)

Apparently I watched the TV episode when doing that dummy research... but I remember nothing about it. Maybe a vague idea about the dummy trying to make a kid its wife? But holy crap, reading the book was something else. It's possibly the best Slappy book of the four I read so far.

"Venus En Route" by Edith Zimmerman (2022)

Sooner or later.

Goosebumps Night of Scares dev. Cosmic Forces (2015)

That goddamn clown.

Goosebumps: Escape from HorrorLand dev. Dreamworks Interactive (1996)

That period in history when movie magic was captured at 640x480 resolution.

Stray dev. BlueTwelve Studio (2022)

But they still look down on them in the sunshine.

Goosebumps: HorrorLand dev. Gusto Games (2008)

Your efforts are rewarded with doom.

Goosebumps: Attack of the Mutant dev. BlueSky Software (1997)

Reality is simply a sea of flat cardboard cutouts.

Bullet Train dir. David Leitch (2022)

The white westerner’s life.

3 Ninjas Kick Back dir. Charles T. Kanganis (1994)

Be a hero but never forget the big game.

28 Days dir. Betty Thomas (2000)

You almost had something but were too scared to stick the landing.

The Gray Man dir. Anthony Russo & Joe Russo (2022)

No peril when everyone’s the deserving villain.

Fall dir. Scott Mann (2022)

Nope.

Bodies Bodies Bodies dir. Halina Reijn (2022)

Have money, will live.

Three Thousand Years of Longing dir. George Miller (2022)

Trace the path of who you’re going to be.

Beast dir. Baltasar Kormákur (2022)

A refreshing bath in still water.

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween dir. Ari Sandel (2018)

In the spirit of the wackiest Ernest movies.

Goosebumps - "Say Cheese and Die... Again" (1998)

So many levels of failure to get here.

Goosebumps - "How to Kill a Monster" (1997)

The swamp hold a particular fascination for you, doesn’t it?

Goosebumps - "Attack of the Jack O Lanterns" (1996)

Ironic punishment division.

Goosebumps - "Vampire Breath" (1996)

Give me a hidden chamber in the basement any day.

Goosebumps - "Calling All Creeps" (1997)

Better to rule in school.

Goosebumps - "Don't Go to Sleep" (1997)

Finally, a chance for hockey.

Goosebumps - "The Blob That Ate Everyone" (1997)

A little too veiny.

Goosebumps - "My Best Friend Is Invisible" (1997)

White on the left, black on the right. (And vice versa.)

Goosebumps - "Deep Trouble" (1998)

Clumsy seaside science.

Goosebumps - "Werewolf Skin" (1997)

Removing the skin we show the world.

Goosebumps - "The House of No Return" (1997)

The dealmakers will always outwit you.

Goosebumps - "Strained Peas" (1998)

Demon children need the most attention.

Goosebumps - "Teacher's Pet" (1998)

The forest of an underpaid teacher.

Goosebumps - "Click" (1997)

Adam Sandler you coward, admit you stole the idea from a Goosebumps story.

Goosebumps - "Don't Wake Mummy" (1997)

But did you have to prove your superiority?

Goosebumps - "The Haunted House Game" (1997)

Whoof, read the story.

Goosebumps - "Perfect School" (1997)

Dolly kicked off a cottage industry.

Goosebumps - "An Old Story" (1997)

Horny is a state of being.

Goosebumps - "Awesome Ants" (1998)

We watch the watchers who watch us.

Goosebumps - "Cry of the Cat" (1998)

This thing’s just a Cardassian vole with two legs missing.

Better Call Saul - Season 6 (2022)

Rapidfire regrets and comrades falling by the wayside.

Keep Breathing (2022)

No easy outs.

Goosebumps: Chillogy (1998)

The padding is showing.

#new fiction #2022 #goosebumps #keep breathing #better call saul #the bible #dracula daily #edith zimmerman #stray #bullet train #3 ninjas kick back #28 days #the gray man #fall #bodies bodies bodies #three thousand years of longing #beast

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