Incomplete story

She stared at the creature, hoping and praying that it would disappear below the water again, but it didn't go away.  Instead, its mouth opened wider, and it inhaled, sucking them into its cavernous mouth.
Darkness descended upon them as they sailed inside, and despite all their desperate magic and frantic paddling, they saw a set of immense teeth clamp down, extinguishing all the remaining light.  Peapod and Freak, having exhausted their magical resources, could only produce a feeble light to illuminate their surroundings and the visual turned out to be unhelpful, just a dark wall of red flesh that changed in appearance as they sailed deeper into the interior.

Incomplete Ghostbusters fanfic

Dusk had fallen.  Grass on the curb along the sidewalk danced in a light breeze.  Behind a fence, a chunky African American noisily scrubbed his barbecue grill.

A squinting Shibu Inu slowly trudged behind its owner, an unsmiling old maid with artificially colored blonde hair cut in Doris Day style.  The wind blew through the woman's little red jacket, fluffing her starchy tan slacks. 

"We make quite a couple, don't we, Bear?"  she muttered to the dog.  "You go ninety percent blind with your glaucoma, me with my arthritis..."

The dog suddenly stopped, growling in the direction of the curb.  The woman stared in that direction, but could see no cause for the disturbance.  Nobody stood around the houses in that direction, nobody coming down the adjacent blocks.  She didn't even see a car.  And the barbecue guy stood *behind her.

She shook her head, tugging the mutt forward.

The dog wouldn't budge, now baring its teeth and snarling...at air.  It barked.

"Oh you silly thing!  You can barely see anything, what are you getting all worked up about?"

The man with the barbecue grill let out a horrified scream, and suddenly vanished.

Moments later, so did the woman.

The dog remained, snarling and barking at air.

(I stopped here because my ghostbusters concept was to `spin off' into a Kansas City franchise with a couple recognizable characters.  I tried this once before at Fanfiction.net, but people didn't seem to like it).

Questions about Ghostbusters Afterlife

(Spoilers).  I had questions about this Ghostbusters film.  Probably everyone else had the same thoughts:
*I could have sworn I heard Bill Murray say "We're closed" in the previews, but they never used the scene.
*You could do a drinking game with the phrase "Dirt farmer."
*It would have been nice to see a different villain besides Zool.
*What, no Slimer?
*If you're going to ignore the PKE meter, why even have it in the plot?
*I wish this film featured Luis Tulley.  Why wasn't he in it?  I always liked Jeanine.  It would have been an interesting plotline.
*Funny to list Sigorney Weaver in the credits when she only appears for a minute.  But I *did like the bit with the cards.  I suppose Venkman deserved it.
*How do Phoebe and Podcast know how to use all the switches on the Proton pack and not blow themselves up?
*For a dirt farm, there sure is a lot of crop to joyride through.
*If the firehouse got turned into a Starbucks, why does it look abandoned and dusty at the end of the film?  Was that just a story?  Also, if it were* bought out, why didn't a barista go downstairs at some point, push a button, thinking it's a trash compactor or a coffee machine, and let all the ghosts out?
*They didn't really explain why Ivo Shandor looked so healthy in that glass case.  I guess you might argue something about Lenin.
*Why didn't Egon's ghost show them the fault in the giant capacitors?
*Being a gatekeeper has its perks.  You get to keep the magical wardrobe.
*If Ivo Shandor's name is on everything in town, why isn't the school more centered around him, showing more of his history or something?  Like Ivo Shandor day?
*Phoebe can pick the lock, and is a genius, but cannot pick a police contraband locker.
*I really didn't get a sense of time.  Was this summer?  Where was the principal?
*Interesting "summer school?"  You get to watch Cujo and Chuckie?  Really?  I'm wondering why the kids looked so bored.  Did they watch those movies last year?
*This is the first major motion picture where my car gets important screen time.  Now I'm thinking about driving my Corolla with no windshield and how unpleasant that would be.
*Finn Wolfhard doesn't have much charisma.  I expected more from a character that's supposed to replace one of the originals.
*Phoebe really steals the picture.  I couldn't tell who she was related to.  Kinda wished there was a Bill Murray type of child.  Not enough sarcasm.
*Didn't get a sense of any of the characters, really.
*I always pictured Egon being an Atheist.  What's with all that bible stuff outside the ranch?  Guess it kept you guessing about his identity, but it's out of character, and we already know nobody else is that clever with scientific stuff.
*What was Phoebe doing with that wall outlet?  Was she stealing electricity?
*At the burger joint, which is the boyfriend that owned the jacket?  We never find out.
*You have a Proton Pack.  Why do you never bring along the PKE meter?  You would have avoided a lot of close calls.
*Did Podcast know how to use the trapdoor in the Ecto 2?  Or the remote control?  
*I think the Proton Pack should have thrown Phoebe across the field.  Also, she has considerable muscular strength to carry that thing around.
*She was lucky not to have the building collapse on her head when going after The Muncher.
*Phoebe's banter with Mr. Grooberson was great.
*Turning an entire property into a ghost trap?  What's to stop it from sucking the soul from your body, or trapping Egon's soul?
*What happened to all the cops in the police station?
*I appreciated the mold collection and the Twinkie.
*Baskin Robbins product placement - boo.
*Effective job bringing Harold to life.  Good move to make him not talk like they did in Rogue One.  Let the dead rest, man.
*I knew someone was going to call the number for the Ghostbusters sometime, she has no other special phone number, and yet they felt the need to repeat the fake commercial, I guess for people who never watched Ghostbusters 1?
*Surprisingly low key reaction to seeing the Ecto 2, considering their recent studies on the subject.
*In life, Egon did everything he could to stop the apocalypse.  After death, he tells his granddaughter how to find an ecto trap, without warning her that opening it would doom humanity.  Mind you, I'm talking about supernatural warnings, and not talking.  You know, like throwing her across the parking lot, shorting out the trap's release mechanism.  That kind of thing.
*Someone should have come after Mr. Grooberson about the buses.  Of course, it explains the horror videos.
*Also, if Pheobe's classmates are "stupid" and he plays those movies for them, what does that say about horror fans?  Or maybe the fact that it bores them is a sign of their stupidity?  I don't know.
*The "Giant dog" actually eating dog food?  It ate people in the first film.
*Why does the demon dog need to possess a person to become itself again?
*Zool's costume seems better this time around.  The first film...It looked like a guy who had just stepped out of a bubble bath.
*Why does Mr. Stay Puft act so suicidal?  They seem to enjoy being toasted.
*Where did the other Ghostbusters get all the proton packs if Egon took all of them to his dirt farm?  Surely they can't build the things themselves...right?
*I wish they made more use of the Death Whistle.
*The gatekeeper and keymaster didn't have memorable dialog between each other, but I think a lot of parents will be using "There is no mom, only Zool" from now on.
*Winston has aged the best of all the Ghostbusters.  They basically proved that their chemistry cannot be replaced.  Great lines.
*Clever, jumping through the smashed windshield.  But not the best plan if you don't immediately pop out the door, or hit the gas pedal.

Cliffhanger for the Sega Genesis

Although the graphics are nice looking, it's still a boring beat-em-up that doesn't seem to go anywhere.  Endlessly rehashed scenery, repetitive fights with the same looking characters.  Every time you walk a couple steps, the same enemies come out and attack you.  You end up feeling like Stallone, fingers weakened by all the abuse, and about to let go and fall off a precipice.  You're better off throwing throwing this game from the side of a mountain and climbing to safety.

Nintendo Power's Zelda Strategy Guide

The Nintendo Power strategy book for Legend of Zelda is okay for completing the first quest.  It doesn't tell you exactly how to get the heart pieces or magic sword, but you don't need it.  It didn't tell me I had to burn the bush along the row of trees to find Dungeon 8.  The map is a little misleading.  It makes it look like the tree is alone in the middle of the woods.
You need to buy meat at E-5 for one of the dungeons, but they don't tell you that.  A moblin will block your path and go "Grumble grumble" until you give him the meat from one of the shops.
They also don't tell you that you need a red power bracelet to move rocks, they just tell you "move the rocks".  I wasted a lot of time on that one.  
The guide tells you you have to defeat all the enemies around a specific stairwell to go in, but it's not just that one.  Every secret area in a dungeon requires you to destroy all enemies in that room before the secret passage will open up.  
It says you can defeat the bunnies with the flute, but I've never been able to make it work.
If you stop time while Digdogger is big, you can never defeat him.  You have to play the flute first.  So cheating there doesn't help.
I don't know why they say you can defeat Pols with a flute.  It doesn't do anything.
Gannon is the only thing your stop time Gameshark cheat cannot protect you from.  Watch your health, keep hitting the dark area with the sword until he becomes visible and shoot him with silver arrows.
Second quest:
Here is where the strategy guide breaks down.  I guess they didn't expect you to get that far or something, so they slopped through it.
First of all, the yellow circle on the map that says "push tombstones" is pretty much the same color as "blow the whistle."  Gold.  That means I spent about twenty minutes trying to push open a grave to get to Dungeon 6.  A lot of other websites don't explain what you have to do, they even suggested you needed twelve hearts and a power bracelet to move the grave.  Nope, you need a friggin' flute.
The hungry Moblin in Dungeon 3 came as a surprise, but I was able to find a shop with meat a short distance away.  
The instructions about pushing blocks for Room 7 is a little confusing.  You don't have to defeat the grabbing hands to open the secret passage, though it might help you save hearts.  Try pushing all the blocks on that vertical column.  
When the guide says you can pick up a key with a boomerang, it's a damn lie.  I tried it.
"Don't go downstairs link" item 20 on Dungeon 7:  I pushed a block to open a staircase, and on the other side, I became trapped in a room with those tumbleweed skull things.  The doors would not open.  The only way out was back the way I came.  I think the tumbleweed things are invincible.  I have no clue how to get past that area.
Dungeon 7-23:  I thought the stopping time cheat prevented the door from opening, but really you just have to push a block after killing Manhandla.
Dungeon 8:  The green "use candles" icon looks just like the aqua blue "use bombs" icon.  The guide says some of the blocks you can push at this or that angle, but in actuality, I ended up pushing one sideways into another block.
When it comes to Wallmaster rooms, stopping time can screw you up, because you have to defeat all of them to push the blocks to access the next room.  Make sure they're visible before stopping the clock.
If time is stopped, no flute usage will make the eye vulnerable on the boss.
In Dungeon 9, there's a room with a T shaped platform in the middle of the lava.  The map is wrong.  There's no left door.

Socks

My apartment is drafty.  I didn't know how damn drafty until Covid hit and they forced everyone to work from home.  As I sat at my cheap desk day after day, cold air would breeze under the door.  For a long time, I wondered if my circulation had gone bad, but then I wrapped a blanket around my feet and found that the blanket had become ice cold after awhile.  Horrible apartment.
Now, my job gave me Amazon giftcards as a sort of bonus.  One of my first real job related purchases involved ordering various types of socks and seeing how well they insulated my feet from the cold.  I have yet to find one that truly keeps my feet warm.  An electric heating pad actually served me best over these long cold days.
At any rate, I tried a lot of socks, and here's my review of each type I tried:

*Walmart Brand, Cable knit, woolen, unsure exactly which company made them:  A friend gave me a few packages of these.  They are by far the worst.  The cold air blows right through the little holes.  Not scratchy, but not warm.  Actually works best as a summer sock.

*Busy Socks-Thermal Socks: Average.  The toes have nylon or something on them.  I found my toes getting cold quickly.  The rest of my feet felt warm.

*DG Hill Thermal Insulated Socks:  Started out pretty warm, but then when your feet sweat, you start losing heat.  Layering it over a regular sock didn't help.

*Hymore Thermal Socks:  Traps heat pretty good, but makes your feet sweat *a lot, compromising the heat.

*Cordura Fiber Socks:  They brag about them being heavy duty, but the socks are thin.  I wore them on a hike up to the supermarket.  They seem to create heat by a friction, and being inside a shoe.  If you're sitting in one place for extended periods, however, the cold goes right through.

Magic of Scheherazade: The First Islamic Nintendo Game

I confess my fondest memory of the Nintendo Entertainment System was not, like many other people, The Legend of Zelda.  It was a video game with a title I couldn't pronounce until the librarian called my house to inform me it was overdue.  "Sheh-her-ezad."  It was addictive, it used passwords instead of the memory, which was great because I didn't actually own it.
I didn't think about how Muslim it was until much, much later.  It doesn't stop it from being a fun game.  Don't believe it's Islamic?  Here's a few relevant points:
1:  "MOSCOM":  I've never seen Aladdin go to a mosque.  This isn't just an Arabian knights homage.  Every time you return from the dead, want to heal, or get a password, you crawl, on your knees, up the staircase of a mosque.  There's an actual spell that you cast that makes a mosque appear anywhere:  MOSCOM.  
2.  Star and Crescent Motif:  Look around.  Lots of star symbols, moon symbols, crescent symbols.  The Star of David, in contrast, is a symbol for magic, and a Magician in this game is not the same thing as a Saint.
3.  Arabian names, such as Hassan.
4.  Turbans.  Enough said.
5.  Mashroob (not to be confused with mushroom):  The Arabic word for "drink".  I looked it up:  Apparently in the Islamic heaven, everyone drinks some sort of ginger smoothie.  I personally think ginger root tastes gross, but whatever.  The point is that it serves the same purpose as manna in other video games.  Although not specifically stated that it is, in fact, ginger mashroob, it probably is.
6.  Harem girls:  You're rescuing a group of women who wear face coverings and head coverings, in a world where women wear face coverings and head coverings.  Not only that, there's a character that thinks very poorly of you if you pick up a girl at a hamburger stand.  It seems that a noble prince of Arabia isn't supposed to date women who have jobs and maybe don't cover their head and face.  Or maybe it's because a noble Muslim woman wouldn't be caught making cheeseburgers because it's against Qur'an?  Okay, I'm reaching, but I still don't understand why the character has such a beef against burger joints.  If the prince is a generous tipper and the Red Robin waitress likes him, so what?
And you wonder why I was such a confused, mixed up kid.