Halloween

To me, Halloween is mostly just candy and pumpkins. And that's what it's been like this year. In fact, stores were selling Halloween stuff at the end of August, two months in advance. Now that stuff will be replaced by Christmas stuff. In the days leading up to Halloween, I ate some candy corn, a caramel pumpkin and Halloween Tic Tacs as well as some homemade Halloween cookies.

This evening I was supposed to go to a Halloween party about 20 miles from my house, but this morning it was canceled for unknown reasons. That was a bummer because I was going to eat even more junk and take pictures for this blog post and Flickr. But this meant I could relax at home. I got to listen to trick-or-treaters come and go, and eat some candy out of the bowl that my mom was giving to kids from. We had a lot of leftover candy, as we do every year. That enabled me to continue the sugar rush I started the day before. Yesterday and today I ate some Skittles, Starburst, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, Kit Kats and Snickers. I'll admit that the candy is why Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year. But that's not to say that I don't like the pumpkins and ghosts and all of that stuff.

This year we just set out some smaller pumpkins on the porch instead of carving and lighting one or two bigger ones.

I went through two big bags of candy corn in three days.

This is supposed to be a ghost hanging from above the porch but it looks more like some sort of angel.

On my latest pack of Starbursts I decided to eat one flavor at a time. These are the lemon and orange Starbursts after I had eaten the strawberry and cherry ones.

My mom was giving out chocolate candies like Milky Ways and 3 Musketeers. These were among the leftovers.

Weather radar picks up Wallops Island rocket explosion

The explosion of the Antares rocket seconds after takeoff from the Wallops Island base on Virginia's eastern shore was strong enough to show up on several weather radars centered on the area. A series of radar images from Tuesday evening shows what looks like a thunderstorm, but is actually a plume of smoke moving northeast toward Maryland and over the Atlantic Ocean. Some weather radars can pick up things other than precipitation through the use of dual-polarization, which sends out both a signal for precipitation and one for non-precipitation, and this was the case with the Wallops Island radar site.

NFL showcases classic rivalry on Monday night

This week's edition of Monday Night Football featured one of the National Football League's best-known rivalries, that of the Dallas Cowboys and my favorite team, the Washington Redskins. It was the first of their two annual meetings and was played in Dallas, meaning their second game against each other this season will be in Washington.

The Cowboys and Redskins traded the lead throughout the game, whose highlight was arguably a touchdown by Washington's Colt McCoy, who passed for a total of 299 yards. and the fourth quarter ended in a 17-17 tie. Washington then took a 20-17 lead with 9:43 left in overtime courtesy of a field goal by Kai Forbath, and Dallas's final possession yielded nothing special, clinching the win for Washington. Ater the game, McCoy was denied an interview by an agent, who remarked "no means no", and also tried to high-five coach Jay Gruden but ended up just hugging him.

This game didn't change things much. Dallas still leads the NFC East division, and Robert Griffin III of Washington is still out with an injury that he got during Week 2 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. But I'm just glad that the Redskins defeated their biggest rival in that team's stadium on a Monday night in a nationally televised game. It's not often that I'm happy about a football game.

I'm increasing my social media presence

I used to shy away from major social media sites, and for a few years all I really cared about as far as top websites was YouTube. Then in the fall of 2012, I joined Tumblr and Twitter. This was followed by Flickr the following April and Pinterest in May. I made this blog last July and my NASCAR blog this June. And this month I've started to go all out.

A few days ago I uploaded three pictures to my Instagram account that I made in March; in the past I've done just one picture per day. I've also started posting regularly on Facebook, which I first joined in 2010 with an alternate email address, then re-registered with my primary email, but never used until just recently. I also took a hiatus from Tumblr to concentrate on my two Blogger blogs but today I went back there as well. And I do the occasional Google+ posts, mainly pictures for Google Maps and sometimes my Blogger posts. I also started posting to my second YouTube channel in May, although I created it last fall, but didn't have any use for it at first. I guess it would be good if I got out this much in real life.

It feels like autumn

The Northern Hemisphere is one month into the season of autumn and it is truly in full swing here in Maryland. A couple of weeks ago there were a few remnants of summer left. Now we're in classic fall mode with leaves changing color and falling, days getting shorter, temperatures no higher than 55 degrees and Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff along with "fall-flavored" foods and drinks like pumpkin spice in stores. Some people say that autumn is that slow downward spiral from the joy of summer to the bitter cold of winter, and that is pretty much true. But it's also a season in its own right with things that make it special, like the aforementioned Halloween and Thanksgiving and colorful leaves.

It should be noted that at this time last year, some major stores were already selling Christmas stuff (I even saw one store start in late September), and this year I've noticed that the Halloween stuff is already starting to go away and get replaced by Thanksgiving items, despite there still being just over a week before Halloween. Or maybe everyone just decided to get their Halloween stuff early so they didn't miss out on anything good. But I don't think that takes away from the charm of autumn.

Ketchapp setting a new mobile game standard?

Ketchapp is a developer of mobile games best known for acquiring the popular game 2048, which was first released back in March. Their other titles include Don't Step on the White Tile, Swipe the Arrows and Stay in the Line, among other puzzle-challenge games, which are known to produce a "can't stop playing" mentality in players. The popularity of Ketchapp's games on mobile devices from top companies like Apple and Samsung have led to other game developers making their own versions of these games. This is why it's probably safe to say that Ketchapp is setting a new industry standard in mobile gaming with their unique brand of apps.

Fruit Ninja gets a Halloween makeover

Fruit Ninja has a completely new look for Halloween inspired by the 1984 hit film Ghostbusters, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. This version of Fruit Ninja has a predominantly green, purple and blue color scheme. It also has a modified points and rewards system, and additional screens for each mode (Classic, Arcade and Zen) providing game tips. There is also a new bonus in the form of a proton pack which, when sliced, spews out a pile of fruit. You can also cross knife streams to allow fruit to "explode" without having to slice them. This update is built on the rollout of version 2.0 of the game earlier this month. Although it looks dramatically different, this is still the same Fruit Ninja we know and love, but possibly even better.

Bermuda, Hawaii facing tropical threats

Major islands in both the Atlantic and central Pacific basins are in the potential path of tropical cyclones. In the Atlantic currently is major Hurricane Gonzalo, the strongest in that basin since Hurricane Ophelia three years ago. Gonzalo is on a path parallel to the U.S. East Coast, the same as every other named storm thus far in the basin this year except Dolly, a short-lived Gulf of Mexico storm. However, unlike the other storms, Gonzalo is threatening to directly hit the island of Bermuda possibly as a category 4 storm. The last hurricane to affect Bermuda was one-time category 5 storm Igor in 2010. The island is under a hurricane warning and Gonzalo is being taken as a serious threat there.

In the Pacific is Tropical Storm Ana, so named because it formed in the ocean's central basin, as opposed to the eastern basin. Like the eastern-central crossover storms Iselle and Julio in August, Ana is eyeing the Hawaiian Islands, although at this time it is expected to bypass the Big Island and have a greater effect on the western islands. Possibly as an act of preparation, a state of emergency has been declared in the state of Hawaii.

Peak tropical cyclone activity in these regions of the world usually occur during the month of September, although two landfalling storms in different basins is still entirely possible in October. While the eastern Pacific peaked in tropical cyclone formation to an extent last month, the Atlantic was surprisingly quiet at that time, presumably because conditions in that basin have "calmed down" after three straight above-average seasons followed by an average one.

So much for that Baltimore-Washington World Series

The wishes of some baseball fans in the Baltimore-Washington area to see an Orioles-Nationals World Series this year are over. The Nationals, the team I root for despite living closer to Baltimore, were eliminated last week in a National League Divisional Series loss to the San Francisco Giants, three games to one. The Orioles, after sweeping the Detroit Tigers in the American League Divisional Series, found themselves in the exact opposite position in the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals completed their sweep of the Orioles in Kansas City on Wednesday to win the American League pennant.

The Nationals and Orioles both won their respective divisions (NL East and AL East) this year. Both teams also went to the playoffs in 2012, when the Nationals also won their division, but the Orioles got in on a wild card berth. Both teams were ultimately eliminated after the divisional round. This time, even though the O's and Nats were both division champions, the hopes of a World Series featuring the two teams was probably just wishful thinking by fans whose expectations were too high. But the 2014 MLB postseason is still one to remember for Baltimore and D.C. fans, because it's not often that both of these cities have teams make the playoffs and win their divisions in the same year.

The original Charlotte Hornets are back

The NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, established in 2004, changed their name this offseason to the Charlotte Hornets, like the city's original NBA team was called. That team moved to New Orleans in 2002 and changed their name last year to the New Orleans Pelicans, leaving the Hornets name available to use. With Charlotte's name change, the history books have been rewritten a bit.

The new story behind the Charlotte and New Orleans NBA teams is that the former and current Charlotte Hornets are now the same team, which was established in 1988, then was "deactivated" for two years in 2002, came back in 2004 as the Bobcats and is now known as the Hornets once again. Meanwhile, the Pelicans are now considered to have been established in 2002 as an expansion team known as the Hornets, and then changed their name last year. In other words, the 1988-2002 Charlotte Hornets are now officially the same team that was established in 2004 as the Charlotte Bobcats, even though those Hornets are really the team that has evolved into the Pelicans. It's all pretty confusing, but the end result is that the people of Charlotte are happy to have their Hornets back.

Orioles in a different series dynamic

The Baltimore Orioles, whose home city I live near, easily swept the Detroit Tigers in the American League Divisional Series. Now, they are halfway to a potential sweep in the other direction, that being a loss to the Kansas City Royals in the race for the American League Pennant and a World Series berth. The first two games were played in Baltimore and now the series is heading to Kansas City, meaning the Orioles will be without the support of their hometown crowd for at least two days in a row. The Royals also appear to have improved their game since their series with the Angels, who they also swept to get paired with the Orioles in the ALCS. Since I root for the eliminated Washington Nationals rather than the Orioles, this playoff series doesn't affect me, but it does affect many of my fellow Marylanders.

No food in the house

Whenever there's nothing good to eat in my house, I always like to complain that there's "no food in the house". My mom always says there's plenty of food, but I tell her there's never anything good. This is exactly the situation I'm in right now. I can't find any food in my house that I'm willing to eat. I keep repeatedly looking in the kitchen cupboards and refrigerator and freezer, which is pointless since nothing will just appear out of thin air for me to eat. So I will just have to settle with some boring, bland food.

Discovery Kids coming back - sort of

Discovery Kids was a television channel from 1996 to 2010 that a lot of so-called "'90s kids" have fond memories of. It was replaced by The Hub, a joint venture between Discovery and Hasbro, in October of 2010. Currently officially known as Hub Network, it may be best known as the home of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a show popular among not just its young girl target demographic but also with teenage/young adult viewers called bronies (or, in the case of some older females, pegasisters). One of these bronies is me, which is why I am doing this post.

Now, the Hub is being rebranded as Discovery Family effective on Monday. The reasoning behind this is that Discovery has taken over the channel's majority stake from Hasbro. Some of Hasbro's shows, like My Little Pony, will still be airing, but there will be more Discovery shows in the mix. This could be seen as a bit of a return to the Discovery Kids days, although it's not exactly the same channel it once was, especially with all of the pony stuff nowadays.

The "Arizona Coyotes"?

I was looking on the National Hockey League's website today to find out when the regular season starts and the first few games are tomorrow, although my Washington Capitals don't play until Thursday. But one thing that caught my eye is that the Coyotes, a team in Phoenix, Arizona, were referred to as "Arizona" rather than "Phoenix". I wondered if they had changed their name so I looked it up and sure enough, they are now the Arizona Coyotes. The name change became official in June, after the playoffs ended, but I missed the news on it.

The Coyotes had been known as the Phoenix Coyotes since 1996, when they moved to Phoenix from the Canadian city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. It seems like they want to be like other sports teams in the area, who are named after the state rather than the city. The only major league team that still has "Phoenix" in their name is the NBA's Phoenix Suns. The NFL's Arizona Cardinals came to the city from Saint Louis, Missouri in 1988 as the Phoenix Cardinals, and changed their name in 1994. Baseball's Arizona Diamonbacks have always used that name since the team's establishment in 1998.

College art

I am currently in an art class at my college which focuses on 2D design. I'm taking that class because it is the first class in the recommended course sequence for graphic design majors. I guess I'm doing okay in it but I could use work on some things. I have realized that I have a very abstract style in my works, and in this class I am for the most part encouraged to use this style, especially since some of our assignments are based on abstraction. Our last assignment was a monochromatic painting that was supposed to be a visual representation of a song of our choice. We had to mix black, white and the random color we got in our kits (mine was magenta) and use different shades and shapes that complemented the overall tone of the song. Our project this week is to create a self-portrait using holes punched from cyan, magenta, yellow and black paper, giving it a so-called CMYK scheme. I am looking forward to our other assignments for the year.

Maple bacon is a thing now

The latest trend in food right now appears to be maple bacon flavor. I was at work at my grocery store today and I noticed a number of maple bacon things, including maple bacon-flavored sugar cookies that had a fall leaf thing. The fusion of maple and bacon flavors in food is nothing new, especially in breakfast. But it looks like the flavor is only just now becoming popular in the commercial culinary world, for reasons I don't exactly know.

Severe weather strikes parts of Great Plains, South

An autumn severe weather event has produced several strong storms in the midsection of the United States, most notably in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, where significant damage took place. Close to one thousand flights in major airports in the region were delayed or canceled, some well in advance of the storms. In addition, an earthquake struck in parts of Kansas and Oklahoma, with a magnitude of 4.4. This was less than 24 hours after they got their round of severe weather watches and warnings. The storms are now moving into Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri.