Author: Chanel Hand

From vampires to witches, demons to ghosts, Halloween is packed with all sorts of spooky stuff. All of which is old as probably not Hell, but yknow, a couple hundred years old. Or just like 90 years. But hey, I got a little bit of information and free time to kill.

The mummy is much older than Halloween, the earliest ones dated back to around 5,000 years, and then raided by British archaeologists and stored somewhere in a museum. So how did they become staples of Halloween? They don’t have major costumes, there’s no name attached to them, and yet they’re one of the main centerpieces of Halloween monsters.
So how did it get there? I actually looked into it (just for this blog specifically.)
Excerpted from, Halloween Monsters: Mummies, Abigail Owen states, “In 1903 Bram Stoker (of Dracula fame), wrote The Jewel of the Seven Stars, a first-person narrative of a young man pulled into an archaeologist’s plot to revive Queen Tera, an ancient Egyptian mummy.”

So 1903 was the first major example of a mummy being a monster. Cool! It also aligns with a lot of pop culture depictions of mummies, of a guy in an explorer’s hat exploring a mummy’s crypt.

29 years later, the Mummy idea would be face greater publicity with the release of the 1932 movie The Mummy by Boris Karloff where a team of British archaeologists discover the mummified remains of an ancient Egyptian prince. It actually looks like it has a lot more plot than that, the mummy returns to life by reading his “ancient scroll aloud” and disguises himself as a richman ala Frankenstein, but the production was a hit, thus solidifying mummies into the Halloween monster lexicon and most probably where you got it from, Halloween merchandise. (I swear there’s gotta be a catalog for these things.)

(Sheet) Ghosts

Now, I am not able to succinctly pin down “ghosts.” I can tell you that much, especially in a six hundred word cap. However the idea of sheet ghosts are interesting. This one’s a bit macabre, but you’re literary art students.

Before coffins, the dead were wrapped in burial shrouds, or from poorer families, their sheets from their deathbed. This goes back to the 1300s, where ghosts were often skeletons draped in their shrouds. Ghosts were thus often connotated of being draped or clothed in white, so much so people were mistaken for a ghost or shot at because of it.

This depiction of ghosts made its way into the theatre and Victorian photography, where often to imitate ghosts people were dressed in white garbs from head to toe. By now, bedsheet ghosts were less of a scary omen and more of a laugh, but what really changed and cemented that idea was children’s programming. I’ve actually seen a couple of these myself, The Lonesome Ghosts from the Mickey Mouse cartoons, Scooby Doo and The Phantom Ghost, along with Casper. By now, ghosts are more prominently portrayed as clips. Little pieces of the living that are no longer preserved and will disappear in front of you.

So yeah!

sources are Halloween Monsters: Mummies by Abigail Owen and Why Ghosts Wear White Sheets (And Other Spectral Silliness) by Rae Alexandra

Tw: child death

I think one of the seniors did this last year, but they actually knew the lore. I don’t 🙂

I’m FNAF adjacent if anything. If one of my friends talks about FNAF, I pick up on the lore, if I find tidbits of it, I might read more, and I’ve watched like two or three game theory videos. Surprisingly, I came out of it with a lot of lore. That said, summarizing the first three games and a little bit of franchise lore, let’s see if I can cap at 600 words and string together a plot line out of this mess using a series of crumbs and loose canon!

Somewhere, in the 1970s or 80s but definitely BEFORE 1983, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria opened its doors. A children’s playground, it spread across America, or something, amassing a franchise of animatronic bears, chickens, and bunnies. Or maybe it didn’t! Maybe it was one little murder hut where a bunch of kids got killed and someone in the FNAF universe said “hey that’s a great idea!” and they kept bringing the place back over and over again or maybe William Afton had a ton of money and he kept rebuilding the place? After.. Not getting caught for all the definite corpses in his restaurant? Something like that.

Oh yeah, the owner of Fazbear’s Pizza is William Afton.

There’s three things you need to know about William Afton: he has three kids, he runs the pizzeria franchise, and he loves child murder. He’s Papa Louie except with lots more death, OSHA violations, possible lawsuits, and mascots. Why he murders the children, aside from pure evil and a growing urge to kill, is unknown, although the sixth game hints that it may have something to do with his dead daughter, who was possibly the first child death? Or maybe he killed her first? Or maybe his wife died before that? No direct links have been drawn between these two events.

Supposedly, while running the children’s pizzeria, Afton would take children into a back alley and kill them. Supposedly, this was his “night hobby.” Afterward, to dispose of the evidence, their dead bodies would be stuffed into animatronic suits, and there, their ghosts would bring the animatronics to life. The dead children, now unable to function normally, work for the pizzeria in the daytime but when nightime comes, they become volatile, hunting security guards and anyone deemed a threat. William Afton, to escape this, dresses up as Springtrap, a mangled bodysuit. Somehow by game three, he’s fully possessed Springtrap. That is just William Afton in a bunny costume (no shame.)

Now, instead of various enemies of chickens animatronics, Fredbears, and whatever the Hell (captilized because Hell is canon to the FNAF universe) the rest of them are, your primary villain in FNAF 3 is William himself, haunting the now defunct original Freddy Fazbears along with phantom versions of the animatronics. Congrats!

Welcome to Five Nights At Freddy’s 🙂

Very long title but yeah, that’s exactly what it is. My other option was reviewing the Papa’s ria games, and while that would’ve been fun it would’ve taken a while. So this works!

2000s Mix: Dear Maria, Count Me In 

Found this one around summer of 2022, probably one of the only songs I found through shuffle around that time and enjoyed. I vibe with All Time Low so I didn’t mind the song, even though the song itself never enticed me as much. The song follows a Hollywood agent down on his luck probably somewhere in Los Angeles. He’s down on his luck after screwing over one of his talents, Maria, who he basically bled dry of fame and success by whatever story she had. Not my favorite, but a good listen!

Moody Mix: Cigarette Ahegao

Penelope Scott goes hard so this is already an A off the bat. Yeah, this probably isn’t a school appropriate song, (I made the mistake of nearly defining the title, don’t be like me,) but it’s incredibly enjoyable. It’s all about what a college student’s like looks like in America, as it follows the idea of someone trapped, needing an escape, but there’s no real time or place to do it, so you end up just coasting along. There’s also a very heavy theme of smoking, as the speaker is implied to be a smoker but not brave or “bad” enough to follow up on it. Definitely enjoyable, I would’ve gone mad for this in 2021.

Happy Mix: I’m Not Ok

Same guys as Happy Pills, this song is like the antithesis Cavetown? Both follow themes of mental illness and acceptance, but where Cave is quiet and soft, almost the kind of music you listen to while going to sleep or nights where you can’t handle things, this song is bursting with energy. It’s kind of ironic, the way the song calls itself “messed up” and “has no excuse,” but it’s not sad. It asks you not to blame it for the mental illness, just asks you to accept it. That’s kinda cool. Also this song would rock hard for an animation.

Indie Mix: Call Me What You Like

I think it’s kinda funny how in the music video you have everything in total chaos and then just have the singer staring into the camera while the chorus starts.
Anyway, yeah I like this song. It’s not one of my favorites of Lovejoy’s, but it’s pretty good! Got a simple premise as it follows someone in a relationship who’s unsure of what the relationship really is. It’s someone else’s favorite, but I’m not big on the sound, and that’s okay.

Punk Mix: Teenagers

Even if I don’t listen to MCR, this song is fire. I actively turned up my earbuds to listen to it just for the shuffle. It’s loud, it’s bombastic, it’s angry, definitely not school appropriate, but who needs that? The song is exactly what it sounds like, teenagers are loud, angry, and emotional, and they scare the fire out of adults. Am I the exact demographic of an angry teenager the song is looking for and am I definitely biased? Yeah. Still rocks though. Top tier song, I would listen to it a bunch of times, but I have still not listened to MCR.

and there! Five songs off my Spotify explained to you poorly. I actually had fun with this one, so might do again!

See ya

This is a snippet of a much longer story that's not entirely fleshed out. Cheers!

I stumbled blindly through the yard, the open door swinging behind me, and everything was too loud.

“Nicky!” Sarah Ann called, joy ringing through her voice like a bell calling for its dog. “Where you going, Nicky?”

Punch dribbles from my hair, my shirt clings to my skin, and every breath I take feels like I’m gonna die.

“Is that even your name? Nicky?” She yells. “Because what I heard—”

“I don’t care what you heard!” Even I could hear the tremor in my voice, the way every piece of me rattled as I scrambled my way into the woods with my hands quivering and my chest filled with wasps. “Just leave me alone!”

I didn’t want to be here, I didn’t want to be anywhere, I couldn’t breathe right as everything was pounding on my skull like a drum and my chest was bashing itself in like the world was coming to an end and this was my final soliloquy.

I kept everything straight, had all my accounts locked, not even my best friends knew, so what could’ve tipped her off? How did she find out? Did she get into my phone? She got into my phone, and she saw it, that’s what happened. I don’t get to keep a single secret, and I trusted her, I really did trust her, why am I so stupid?

I should’ve realized I would’ve gotten lost when I started running through woods that weren’t mine. This wasn’t my house, this was some stupid dumb party I decided to go to and now I’m stuck here.

By now the wind was starting to get to me, and I knew I couldn’t run much further, so I stopped, the tired burn of my legs and the shake in my hands just another part of the noise.

“Nick?”

He found me. I didn’t turn around.

“I don’t wanna talk right now.” My voice cracks. “So don’t make me talk right now.”

He didn’t say anything. For once.

But I couldn’t, as my head ran a thousand different ideas about how I’m gonna die and how this is gonna kill me. “You’re not gonna fix this, Gray,” I said. “I don’t even know if you can fix this.”

I collapsed against a tree, my laughter hollow and my voice broken. “I know what’s gonna happen. The school finds out, calls my parents, and I’m out of Westerfield by next Tuesday. Or they’ll just call me—”

I stopped myself.

He didn’t follow up on that. I guess he knew he couldn’t. Instead he mutters, “I was worried you were gonna come out here and do something stupid when I saw you running.”

“With what?”

“I dunno..” He kicked up dirt.

“Well, I wasn’t, so.” I shrugged. I said it just to get him to leave, but he didn’t. I didn’t know why I wouldn’t just tell him to leave; it was like I couldn’t. Maybe I knew I would be alone if I did.

Local libraries are an incredibly important aspect to our communities and access to public information while also becoming an increasingly endangered species. And it makes sense! Why would we use libraries when compared to computers and smartphones, they do comparatively less?

Why, when I have my information right at home?

Problem solved, libraries already have computers, but that doesn’t really answer our question, the question why should we use libraries? Free things.

Honest to God, best answer. Public access to books, computers, and records is so important, something the library not just supports but is. It’s built on giving those without access, access to resources. The poor, uneducated, ostracized, anyone who needs it. The library is what the foundation of the internet is. But rocking the boat is gonna be the easiest wrench for people to get in and start restricting that kind of knowledge.

But that’s a case for why we need libraries to exist and how important they are. But why would we use them?

And honestly, I’m not gonna hide it, I’m an avid library enjoyer. Have been since childhood. And man, the library has been like such a positive experience in my life? It just fosters such a friendly environment, with librarians who make polite conversation with you, finding quiet space, and depending on what your experience looks like, making friends.

I can’t tell you how many days I’ve bonded with people at the library even if I never saw them again. Strangers of all kinds, the library is a hub for those types of people, whether they just be passersbys or regulars you’ve come to recognize.

And hey, closing statement: my opinion is not yours. Do whatever you want. Libraries are just a quiet space for people to hang out, and I’m entirely biased. But I’d recommend visiting once or twice. Keep the library system alive and all that. It can do wonders.

It’s been a couple years since you played Minecraft, but hey, you bought the game. What do you wanna do first?

Mine? Okay!

Let’s go down a couple Y levels.

You’ve mined below stone into deep slate at this point. It’s taken you a while, but you’re not very afraid. It’s still the same experience; you’ve been going through caves and making tunnels, but then you start to find these blue blocks. They’re really dark and look like a fungus, it must be a new update. You mine through. They drop a lot of XP. Sweet!

The entire area is shrouded in dark blue. I’d watch my step if I were you.

You take a couple careless steps forward. Nothing out of the ordinary.

You hear a sound you’ve never heard before to your left. What?

You don’t see what activated it, so you keep exploring. He’s not here yet.

You don’t hear the sound again, thankfully, and eventually get bored, take your XP and leave. You might come back later.

Congratulations! You’ve just avoided an encounter with The Warden! Presumably, if you would’ve run into it, The Warden would’ve immediately killed you and you’d lose all your stuff, but I’m here to explain how to not make that happen.

To preface, The Warden spawns in deep dark biomes, approximately anywhere below Y Level 0 and under a mountain. It has two types of attacks, ranged, and upfront. Ranged is what usually kills you.

When you are confronted with The Warden, you will notice cannot see players, only hear them, so any noise you make is to your detriment. If he does not find anything, he will start sniffing the air, and any nearby mobs, (including you,) he charges on sight.

The Warden doesn’t spawn the same way the Dragon or the Wither does. It’s invited. He spawns at the sound of four sculk shriekers, and if you’re not careful and counting for shrieks, you’re going to set it off. The sculk shriekers react to another block, sculk sensors, who vibrate if they detect noise or lots of movement, same as the Warden. Your goal is not those guys however, your goal should be the shriekers. Break them as quickly and as quietly as possible. Both blocks are going to be scattered all over the place, but they will be in range. You do not want to be loud.

By not setting off a shrieker, you should be able to get around the deep dark without much hassle.

But if you do manage to set off a shrieker four times, well.

You have 6 seconds to run.

GIF taken from GeekFlare's article: How to Defeat the Ultimate Mob in Minecraft: The Warden (no relation)

Far From Noise is sort of a bottle-nose game where the main premise is you, a girl presumably in her twenties is stuck on the ledge of a cliff after driving out to the coast, even as the game’s opening shot. Throughout the game, we never leave this ledge and are left alone with the girl, her thoughts, and the wildlife as she comes to terms with her situation.

As you are stuck in a car, the only choices you are offered are between different dialogue trains and how you want the story to unfold. Sort of like a visual novel, contained.

Being ‘stuck’ is a big theme in this game, as the main character is stuck not only physically, but in her life as well.

She’s come to a point as a young adult where she doesn’t really know where to go, but she can’t go down and she can’t go up. It kind of ponders the question, if you were at the end of your life, but you had time to just think, take in the world around you, what would happen?

The game doesn’t shy away from the fact you are about to die; it’s one of the main focuses of the story. But despite the setting and liminal environment, the game is incredibly calm. Just to be put simply. It takes you seriously, and it takes its message seriously, but there are many jokes to break tension or small laughs thrown in.

It evokes something simpler; that’s all it really needs. Because throughout the certain death and the existentialism, you’re taken slowly on a journey through this character and what her life means. And sort of, what it means to be alive.

The game doesn’t ask a lot of you, as you play it. It’s only about an hour worth, I think. And if you can’t sit around for a slow-paced, low mechanics narrative, or you hate existential stories, this game isn’t for you. That’s okay.

But if you have time to sit down on a Saturday and set aside one to two hours worth of this game or something quiet and philosophical, I’d recommend it. Like I said, it’s not a lot, but it doesn’t need to be.