Here is a clip from Nightmare Theater in Seattle.

In Utah, we also had Nightmare Theater on Channel 4 KTVX. I’ve talked about it before here:

• Pick Me! » Nightmare Theatre

There was also a Nightmare Theater in the early 80s in Fort Wayne. Here is an audio clip from The Shroud, the host of that show:

I know I didn’t imagine it, because other people remember it, even though there is nothing on YouTube documenting it. I found this website, E-Gor’s Chamber of TV Horror Hosts. One fan, Steve Anderson, talked about Utah’s Nightmare Theater:

I grew up in American Fork, Utah and I remember clearly watching “Nightmare Theater” each Friday night. The host (voice only) was Fireman Frank. He got the name from an early morning cartoon program he hosted for the same television station (KCPX, Salt Lake City). Each morning he came out and introduced cartoons and had a firehouse set. Many of the fans of Nightmare Theater didn’t even know it was the voice of Fireman Frank. During the mid-sixties KCPX had a program called “The 10:15 Double Nightmare.” Later, about 1966 it switched to the “10:20 Double Nightmare.” I will try to find out his real name and let you know. Great to see someone besides myself remembers this program.

I didn’t watch Nightmare Theater that early. I believe I watched it with Dr. Volapuk in the mid-70s. David Hall had a little information about Ron Ross, the man who played the host:

As Dr. Volapuk, he wore a ghoul mask and a cape over a Dracula-like tux. The background was mostly dungeon-like, and the whole scene was lit with eerie lighting. Then to add to the cheesy effects, the contrast adjustments on the cameras were set too high, so there were lots of weird shadows and odd lights. Most of what he did for Nightmare Theater consisted of voice intros following commercials, and announcements of next week’s shows.

I remember desperately trying to stay awake to watch the entire show, but falling asleep during commercial breaks almost every week. Even though I’m prone to nightmares, I never got one from the movies (or host intros) on Nightmare Theater. In fact, the host intros always made the movie seem so much cooler than it was. I tried to stay awake just for the host because that was a lot more fun than the actual movie.

I suspect that in the future, we will be able to have hosts who heckle scary movies, kind of like Mystery Science Theater 3000. You will just start the movie, they specify, and play them in conjunction with it. I suspect Attack of the Crab Monsters would be a much better movie with a Nightmare Theater Host, heckling it.

I think they showed that movie a hundred times on Nightmare Theater. Now, I can watch it on YouTube any time of the day. I just wish Dr. Volapuk was there to introduce it to me.

This is only a taste of the beautiful watercolor Randy K. Milholland posted the other day. It’s called, “The Last Trick-or-Treaters.”

You can see the whole thing, and the story that goes along with it, here: comics: rhymes with witch.

I love to see how much of a costume can be made or broken by makeup.

All of these makeup jobs are AMAZING, but I wonder how long they would last.

Remember, when you go to a Halloween party, the makeup needs to last all night, through Red Solo cups and lots of yummy food.

Past the hugs from friends and the unintentional touches from your own hands and fingers.

You even have to worry about your costume rubbing it off.

I ALWAYS do a test run with my costume AND makeup to make sure that they will last the whole party.

Remember, with all of these photos, you just need to click them to go to the original websites where they came from.

Happy Haunting!

Of all the printable downloads available from Matthew Mead’s Halloween Templates, I like this treat box the best.

To make it easier to print, I created one with two:

If you print that one up on an 8 1/2″ X 11″ cardstock, sized to fit, you will get two treat boxes per sheet.

Each box will fit a fun size candy bar and one other small candy. They’re just perfect for an extra touch. I think I’m going to personalize mine with our name. So excited!

Via: 20 Free Halloween Printables – Tip Junkie

I have to interrupt this Halloween coverage, because Swatch sent me an email announcing the Deep Shine Collection.

DEEP SHINE COLLECTION: GLITTER, GLOSS & EYE-POPPING COLORS

A colorful set of five glittery, high-gloss watches. With the holiday season and the New Year just around the corner, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate.

The five models in the Deep Shine Collection make the perfect wrist candy, with trendy colors and high-gloss surfaces littered with glitter that sparkles and shines.

I had seen them on Second Watch and they looked much better:

• Swatch Glitter Collection | SecondWatch Blog

My first instinct was to buy them all for their glittery goodness, but upon closer inspection, they’re just normal watches with glittery bands. The bands always break on me within a couple of months, so I think I’ll pass on these ones.

Shucks, I was so excited about them when I first saw them…

When I saw this picture on Pinterest, I thought it was such a clever idea. It’s a pumpkin puking guacamole. It has the makings of a Halloween potluck winner: gross, yummy and Halloweeny.

I thought it was a unique idea until I found SO many of them. (Continue Reading…)

Just as every year, all of October on Pick Me! is dedicated to Halloween. If you like the holiday, feel free to enjoy. Otherwise, I’ll see you in November for my regularly scheduled musings.

To kick off the month, I’ll direct you to my Pinterest board for the holiday:

• Laura Moncur’s Halloween Pinterest Board

There are lots of ideas there for you to peruse, some of which will be covered here in more detail later in the month.

Happy Haunting!

Mitt Romney thought he was off the record when he went on a rampage about the 47% of the United States who don’t pay taxes. He said that they were entitled, believe that they are victims and that the government has the responsibility to take care of them. You can see him say it here:

He literally said, “My job is to not worry about these people.” Here are the people Mitt Romney has written off: The Disabled.

Our Soldiers:

Our Children:

Our Elderly:

Our Students:

Our Working Poor:

His own father:

I had no idea how entitled Mitt Romney was, but that video shows just how heartless he is. Hey, Mitt, guess what? The job of the president is to worry about the ENTIRE nation, not just the people who vote for you.

Via: Issues of Epistemology – FU, Mitt.

I’m doing a presentation at WordCamp SLC today talking about when I had writer’s block and how I got past it. You can download my slides here:

• Get Your Mojo Back: How To Be Creative When You Can’t Create Anymore by Laura Moncur

If you came to WordCamp SLC and have any questions about my presentation, feel free to leave comments, ideas or questions below.

I have been shockingly pleased with the Sinful Colors Black on Black nail polish. It goes on well and covers much better than an inexpensive polish should. I bought it at Walgreens for only a couple of dollars, so I expected far less from it. It looks especially good highlighted on the tips with the Jordana glitter polishes.

I really did this manicure as an experiment. I was going to try to do a matte black with shiny tips, but at the last minute, I chickened out and just did glitter tips instead. I’m glad I did, because I’m really pleased with this manicure.

Black is such a hard color to work with and if I mess up at all, it’s really hard to get off my cuticles and skin. I think I’ll try this kind of manicure with a softer color and see how it turns out.

I’m surprised at how fun just playing with fingernail polish can be. It feels like a little bit of art that I get to do and enjoy for the brief moment before it is obliterated by all the physical things I do with my hands every day.

Sorry, no matching pedicure this time…

My manicure this week is pretty simple. It’s called Rusted Bronze.

I did a base coat of Bronze by Love & Beauty at Forever 21.

Over the top of that, I put one coat of Rust by Love & Beauty.

Here’s the matching pedicure.

Despite two coats of OPI Top Coat, I had chipping on the manicure within a couple of days, so I guess the OPI Top Coat isn’t quite the miracle worker I thought it was. The polish HAS last almost a week with touch ups, so that’s pretty good for a three dollar bottle.

I wanted a simple manicure after all the fancy stuff I’ve done lately.

For a base, I found this Wet ‘n Wild Megalast polish called On a Trip (213C) and I have been VERY happy with it.

I am SO impressed with this polish. It was only three bucks, had a nice, large brush inside and the coverage is wonderful. This polish is as good as the Sally Hansen Salon polish. In fact, I liked it as much as OPI polish and has lasted just as long.

Even though the polish looks great all by itself, I wanted a little pizzaz, so I put on one coat of the Jordana Glitters polish in Celestial (12).

I expected this polish to be pretty subpar because it cost less than a dollar at Kmart, but I am so happy with it, I’m going back to buy the other Glitters polishes. I love the different sizes of the glitter. It makes it look VERY textured.

Here is the matching pedicure.

This manicure has lasted me a full week with very little chipping. I’m beginning to believe that I can make ANY manicure last two weeks as long as I have two coats of the OPI top coat.

I also bought the Wet ‘n Wild Megalast I Need A Refresh-Mint (218A). I can’t wait to use it on my next manicure!

I got the news a while ago, but I’ve had a busy couple of months, so I’m finally getting around to telling everyone that I’m speaking at WordCamp SLC 2012. I’m so grateful to the WordPress community for creating such a great blogging platform that I wanted to give back to them a bit.

My presentation is called, “How To Get Your Mojo Back.” I created it over a year ago when I had so much trouble writing and finally was able to get past it. I want everyone who is experiencing writers’ block to learn how to heal from it and write regularly again.

After the presentation, I’ll post the slideshow here. Hopefully, someone will film it and put it on YouTube so everyone can see it.

Why do I love the NASA mohawk guy so much? It makes no sense to me! This video just makes me laugh!

I was completely unable to get excited about the Olympics, but the Mars Curiosity Rover is just my favorite right now!

Via: ‘We’re NASA and We Know It’ Parodies Curiosity Mission, Mohawk Guy | Underwire | Wired.com

The Historical Society of Princeton has provided this photo of Einstein wearing fuzzy slippers for your enjoyment.

I forget that even a genius needs comfort from amusing and fluffy things.

Via: Albert Einstein in Fuzzy Slippers, c. 1950s | Retronaut

This performance of “William F-ing Shatner” is freakin’ hilarious!

I have READ this entry online AND in his book, but seeing him perform it made it SO much better. I laughed out loud at the 5:04 mark when Wil just pauses while the audience laughs and he says,

No, no. I’ll wait for you to finish laughing at my pain.

If you have a half hour, it’s definitely worth a watch!

I did my nails last week and never posted the picture. I’m quite proud of how well it turned out. I call this manicure, Hibiscus and Tulips.

Here is the matching pedicure.

I used the OPI 2012 Holland Collection, Kiss Me On My Tulips nail polish as the base and the Bundle Monster Plate BM-313.

I love how well it turned out and that it has lasted over a week without major chipping. A perfect manicure for the end of the summer!

Wil Wheaton posted some old teen heart throb photos of himself from back in the day. He prefaced it with the caveat:

There’s a whole lot of “didn’t have a fashion advisor” going on here.

This photo grabbed my attention. Here he is AGAIN with his Big Eclipse Swatch.

Now, you might think that we couldn’t possibly identify the exact watch he was wearing in that photo based on that picture, but I have TWO other promo shots of him with the Big Eclipse, so it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s the same watch.

If you’d like to enjoy all of the Swatchy Goodness Wil Wheaton had to offer, you can see the others here:

• Wil Wheaton Loves His Swatches
• Wil Wheaton and Big Eclipse Swatch
• Wil Wheaton with a Tonga Swatch

The fact that Wil Wheaton didn’t have a fashion advisor actually makes me quite happy. All of his teen photos are like a snapshot into the late 80s and early 90s. Todays heart throbs are so manufactured that it’s like they are mannequins instead of real people. I predict there will be a backlash because of this and all the teenaged girls are going to start swooning over unfinanced YouTube stars and teen bloggers in a desperate effort to fall for guys who are REAL instead of plastic.

Here’s to Wil Wheaton! One of the first unadvised teen heart throbs!

Anyone who ever loved Bob Ross will absolutely ADORE this video:

Bob Ross is one of those people who helped me through tremendously hard times. Every Saturday morning on Channel 7, I could depend on his calm voice and positive outlook to get me through the hard week. I am so grateful that he was on television when I needed him.

Via: Bob Ross: The Remix – Cheezburger – BETA

My Commander-In-Chic Manicure lasted almost two weeks, but it was time to change my polish. I call this one Flowers in the Quicksand.

Matching Pedicure:

Continue reading for the tutorial: (Continue Reading…)

We went to the Downtown Farmers Market to find Armenian cucumbers and we ended up with a kitten.

She looks so much like Maggie and is a very snuggly kitten, so I immediately love her. I had no choice. She’s three months old, so that would make her birthday April 14, 2012.

Elvis has spent all his time stalking her and hissing. Nina has just avoided her as much as she could. I’m sure she’ll fit in this household just fine, she just needs to find her place.

I wasn’t too excited about seeing this new Oz movie from Disney until I saw the trailer.

James Franco as the great and powerful Oz looks wonderful! I can’t wait!

I redid my nails last night and I’m pretty pleased with the results.

I took Sally Hansen’s Commander in Chic polish and put on two coats.

I used the Konad black polish for the stamp.

I used the Konad stamping plate #M24 for the stamp.

I’m surprised at how good it looked and I hope it lasts as long as my last manicure.

I’m feeling a little excited about my patriotic fingernails I did today, so I wanted to share them with you.

If you’d like to read how I did them, there’s more after the break: (Continue Reading…)

These video skits from SNL are spot on. It shows exactly what it’s like to have a friend who is obsessed with Japan.

J Pop America Funtime Now with Katy Perry

There is also a skit with Jonah Hill that was hilarious as well, but I can’t find it online.

Why is the funnest thing I can do with my Xbox is tease my cat with it?

He is fascinated with the DVD tray that opens and closes. It has gotten so bad that he comes running whenever he hears me turn on the console. This is the cat that I thought was deaf because he wouldn’t even acknowledge my screeching at him to get off the counter. He’s definitely NOT deaf. That big boy can hear the sound of the Xbox powering up no matter where he is in the house.

I saw this episode of TableTop and it really made me want to try the game Castle Panic.

So, I bought it and we all played it last Sunday. It was a lot of fun and I’m so impressed with the game mechanics. There are some bad guys who are stronger than others and the way they deal with their “hit points” is really ingenious.

The biggest flak I got from Stacey, Dan and Mike was about the cooperation. They immediately started quoting the Incredibles line.

Everyone’s special, which is another way of saying no one is.

They argued that if we all win, that’s like no one winning. And they kept arguing that until we lost our first game.

“Should we play again?” I asked, tentatively. I had introduced this game and they had all complained heavily about it.

“Yeah! We gotta win this thing!”

So, if friendly competition in your family has gotten a little out of control, maybe a cooperative tower defense game like Castle Panic is just what you need.

Mike and I have finished our epic journey with the Teardrop American Outbacker. I talked about it ad infinitum on Starling Travel. You can read all about what we saw here:

• Starling Travel: Moncur Epic Journey May 2012

Over the course of those 3000 miles, we had a few mishaps and troubles, so once we got it home, I had a huge job cleaning and fixing them up.

The first problem we had on the road. Our taillights shorted out, which burned out our brake light indicator on our Prius (instead of just blowing a fuse). So, we replaced the taillights on the trailer and that $250 part on the Prius while we were in Little Rock. Many thanks to North Point Toyota and Charles at Mobile RV Service (501-681-5593) for taking such good care of us. (Continue Reading…)

Nina does this about once or twice a day, but every time I try to film her, the noise of getting the camera always wakes her up. Today, I was able to catch her in the act.

She is such a light sleeper, I would swear she was a cat, not a dog.

After watching this trailer, I’m so excited about this show: Revolution – NBC Official Site.

Of course, I’m still angry at J.J. Abrams for not finishing what he starts, but I’m willing to try once again.

I came across some photos that I took last winter in the middle of my “I Want To Go Camping So BAD” phase. It was dark and cold last winter, so I pulled out my Barbies and took them camping on the kitchen table.

THAT’S how desperate I was for some sunshine and outdoors time.

Here is the storyline I composed in my head: (Continue Reading…)

I love Moby and his music. I love Swatch watches. So, you’d think a Moby Swatch would be a sure thing for me, right? Unfortunately, wrong!

Not quite Keith Haring. Not quite Pearls Before Swine. It’s just not doing it for me.

I love you, man, but I just can’t buy this watch, no matter how many poorly drawn aliens you put on it.

Via: Swatch Moby Special | SecondWatch Blog

The sock puppet who was the star of the Pets.com commercials was my absolute FAVORITE part of the the First Dot Bomb. Just in case you don’t remember them, here is a medley of some of their commercials.

There are some different commercials in this video and the end shows the Pets.com puppet in the Macy’s Day Parade.

Of all these commercials, I haven’t been able to find the “Where’s the love for the ferret?” commercial that Mike and I used to quote all the time. We loved that little puppet so much that we bought one. He still looks at us from the kitchen shelf every day. I took him down from the shelf to take some pictures of him.

I can’t believe that Pets.com had enough money to make the sock puppet when they shipped fifty pounds of aquarium gravel to us for FREE. No wonder they went out of business.

They even recreated the watch on the puppets “neck.” It’s set to 8:00 on the 11th every day.

His microphone is even taped to his hand, just like in the commercial.

They even recreated his uneven eyes.

In the end, Pets.com went out of business because they spent money on Macy’s Day Parade balloons, prime time commercials and free shipping without boundaries instead of focusing on fulfillment and adding to their warehouse locations. It was a business that could have really worked if they had stayed “small” for long enough to survive the Dot Bomb. The cost for those prime time commercials were what made us love them, but at the same time, it’s what killed them in the end.

That’s why the Pets.com puppet stays on our kitchen shelf, looking down on me. It reminds me to remember the mistakes of the past and make sure we don’t make the same ones.

When Mike and I lived in the Sugarhouse House, we lived in an 873 square foot house. Sometimes I miss the simplicity of that house, especially when I’m trying to keep up with the house cleaning.

Watching this video made me think that we could go even smaller.

I loved the perfect simplicity of the couch/guest bed at the 6:52 minute mark: YouTube – Shotgun shack redux: mortgage-free in 320 square feet 6:52 minute mark

We had something very similar in our living room, a futon. Unfortunately, a futon isn’t a very comfortable couch and doesn’t provide a lot of storage underneath because of the opening and closing mechanism. That couch is much more efficient.

Their workspace is in an entirely different building, but they also have a teenage boy living with them, so the thought of living in 320 square feet suddenly sounds possible. The thought of living mortgage free sounds even better.

When Carol died, this drawing went to her sister, Pat. I was so sad that I didn’t get a chance to properly photograph it, but Pat was nice enough to let me borrow it so I could get a good photo.

Not a week goes by when I don’t think about Carol and how blessed I was to have her in my life. I thank the day she moved in with us because our home-life became much more sane with her present.

I’ll always remember her looking like this.

I LOVE this video!

It’s EXACTLY what it feels like to go to IKEA. Lucky thing they have a food court there or people would STARVE before they found their way out!

This video literally had me crying my eyes out. Amanda had been deployed for six months and her husband filmed her return.

He said:

“I filmed this when my wife came back from a 6 month deployment last fall. Our beagle was still a puppy when she left, and was full grown dog by the time she came back.”

Just hearing her dog, Daisy, yelp and whine at Amanda’s return, I felt every moment of her absence from the family. How do dogs do that?

We didn’t win. We didn’t get second place. We had a ton of fun!

I think Geeks Who Drink is so much fun because it makes me feel dumb. I know that’s a paradox, but I love it when I find that there is a gap in my knowledge. I’ve learned that I need to be able to name more than three Supreme Court Justices.

Ironically, we would have been tied for first place if we had just trusted our instincts and written Clarence Thomas down, even though it seems like he was just instated yesterday. Now that I think about it, though, I was working at K-Mart putting myself through college when the Anita Hill thing blew up, so he has been on the bench a LONG time.

I think the best part was that our friends came to compete as well.

They held onto the third place spot for most of the game, but in the end, none of us won.

Next week, however, we’ll see…

This animated GIF a strange optical illusion that I can’t quite figure out. Stare at the cross in the middle. Really focus on it. When you do, the faces on each side start to appear horribly disfigured, but when you glimpse over at them, they haven’t changed at all.

As far as I can tell, staring at the center cross makes our mind try to merge the two faces, just as it would in a stereogram with the right focal distance. Because the two faces are vastly different, they appear disfigured because our mind has made an amalgam of the two.

Via: What is This Sorcery?! – Celebrity Pictures, Lol Celebs and Funny Actor and Actress Photos – ROFLrazzi