I've been ready for the beginning of October since the end of April. I'm no fan of the Mississippi heat and humidity. I wish I could just skip the summer months altogether. I was thrilled when the last couple days of September brought a taste of cooler weather, but I'm still ready to welcome October. I look forward to it every year. It has been my favorite month for as long as I can remember and remains so today.As I look to October of 2016, I'm not sure what to expect. It certainly won't be like the October of 10 years ago when I gave myself permission to indulge in watching way too many horror films. I'm far too busy with work these days to be able give up that kind of time. Work intrudes even on evenings and weekends, and the free time I used to have seems like a distant memory.
It will also not be like October of 2012 when the month was more than half over before it hit me that it was October. I've been looking forward to it for too long this year to miss it. And unlike last October when I had family in town and considered taking a month-long break from blogging (I did manage to take at least a week off), I am not expecting any guests this month.
My hope for this October is that I'll be able to find some balance between getting outside to enjoy the weather, getting some of the work done that I need to do, enjoying a few horror flicks, and finding some inspiration to write a few posts. Balance of any sort regularly eludes me, but that doesn't mean I'm going to give up pursuing it.
Of course, October also brings Halloween. And for the evangelical fundamentalist Christians who find the prospect of Halloween too evil (and the atheists who love to mock them for it), there is always JesusWeen. So yeah, October is a pretty great month!
As someone who writes an atheist blog, loves the horror genre while remaining a skeptic, listens to a steady diet of metal, and enjoys almost everything about October, I guess it isn't surprising that I've written quite a bit about subjects that seem appropriate to dig up each October. Examples include:
- Satanism and the various moral panics surrounding it
- Ghosts
- Horror films and scary Christians
- Demonic possession
- Good books for understanding skepticism and debunking paranormal claims
- Fear and death
- Christian beliefs
