I recently watched The Guns of Navarone (1961), a movie that inspired the FALLOUT 3Operation: Anchorage DLC (2009), specifically the “Guns of Anchorage” quest, and the original CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN (1981) video game by Silas Warner and Muse Software for the Apple ][ computer.
According to Digg, Warner mashed up the arcade game BERSERK and the oafish Nazis in The Guns Of Navarone to create a game of maze navigation with stealthy combat.
CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN was one of the first PC games I ever played, on a computer with a green screen monitor that belonged to one of my dad’s friends. It wasn’t until almost 40 years later that I played WOLFENSTEIN II: THE NEW COLOSSUS, and now here I am watching the movie that sparked it all.
Also, now I understand now why Jules said “You’re gettin’ ready to blow? … I’m the guns of Navarone!” in Pulp Fiction.
~ J.L. Hilton
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My entry “Memory Lane” tied for 1st place in the NARRATE YOUR OWN TWILIGHT ZONE COMPETITION 2021 sponsored by the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation!
Winning entries will be performed by actor and Rod Serling impersonator Stephen Dexter.
I only found out about the contest a week before the Halloween deadline. At the time, I was in the middle of running the Fallout Scavenger Hunt, participating in the “Falloween” (Fallout + Halloween) photo challenge and celebrating my favorite holiday and month of the year with my family.
To enter, I had to write an opening and closing narration for an imaginary episode of The Twilight Zone, in the style of Rod Serling.
These were the rules:
Maximum word count, excluding titles and labels: 150 words total, both narrations combined.
Maximum entries: 2 per person. (I only had time to write the one, “Memory Lane.”)
Title and Narrations only. Any additional content will be ignored.
Deadline: Halloween 2021 (October 31)
Entries were judged by Rod Serling Memorial Foundation board members, based on these criteria:
Originality
How easily we can imagine Rod speaking your words
How well your narrations suggest the imaginary episode
Twilight Zone marathons every Thanksgiving & Twilight Zone Magazine in the 1980s were a huge influence on my desire to become a writer and to write speculative fiction, and probably no small influence on my personality, if I’m being totally honest.
Though The Twilight Zone began more than ten years before I was born, I was such a big fan of the show that I had a Twilight Zone sign on my bedroom door. As a little joke, my dad took black electrician’s tape and covered the “Z” so it said “Twilight one” because I was such a weird, imaginative kid.
“The Night of the Meek” Christmas episode that originally aired December 23, 1960, starring Art Carney, is my favorite holiday program and I watch it every year.
But I never imagined I would someday be a small part of the Twilight Zone. What an incredible honor!
Rod Serling was the head writer for the original series but several episodes were written by Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson and Earl Hamner Jr. Matheson wrote for many other TV shows and his books and stories have been made into the movies I Am Legend, What Dreams May Come, and one of my childhood favorites Somewhere in Time. Hamner went on to create the popular and long-running TV shows The Waltons and Falcon Crest. One 1962 episode, “I Sing the Body Electric,” was written by Ray Bradbury and became the basis for his 1969 short story of the same name.
There are several versions of The Twilight Zone, including the original TV show that aired from 1959 to 1964, Twilight Zone: The Movie produced by Steven Spielberg and John Landis in 1983, a revival of the TV series that ran from 1985 to 1989, a UPN series that ran from 2002-2003, and a series developed by Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez for CBS All Access that ran from 2019 to 2020.
I’m a fan of the original series and have only a vague memory of the ’80s movie and TV show. I haven’t seen the other versions but I highly recommend the older episodes. They used to be on Netflix but are now available on Hulu and Paramount+.
The Twilight Zone episodes typically include one or more elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror and supernatural, but at its heart it’s a show about the things that make us human, things like love, death, fear, humor, nostalgia, hubris, temptation, regret, good and evil.
~ J.L. Hilton
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Anyone who thinks there’s a “war on Christmas” has clearly not been on hold with Best Buy customer service listening to Jingle Bells for 12 minutes & 44 seconds on November fucking 12th
To celebrate 10 years of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, I thought I’d share pics of several Skyrim items around my house.
These include my Dibella shrine, bowl of moon sugar, the Stone of Barenziah beside my bed, a Teldryn Sero doll in my studio, replica septim coin, apothecary’s satchel, a mini light-up hearth with tiny mead bottles, pint glass, holiday sweater, a Skyrim wallet, key fob and hoodie I’ve been using for years, and more.
Most of the items are either official merchandise or made by fans. I made the Honningbrew bottle, the Stone of Barenziah and the Stormcloak pendant myself.
~ J.L. Hilton
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While watching a YouTube video about the making of glass marbles, the narrator just said “the senior blower is back at the glory hole with his rod…” and I’m dying.
Actual marble maker making marbles, presumably
“That is a very important lubricant for the blowers hot tool…” and they started playing slow jazz music.
It seems like some kind of parody but it’s presented as a legit BBC show, on a YouTube channel that is all about how things are made. This is real.
“The snapped end forms a lump called the nipple…” I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP
“With great skill, they stretch and twist… longer and longer it gets…”
My mind is primed for innuendo but c’mon now.
~ J.L. Hilton
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I watched Dune and The Green Knight this weekend. They were both visually stunning films with intense, compelling lead actors, and both based on stories I read years ago. But one of them I liked much more than the other. Care to make a guess which one?
~ J.L. Hilton
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FALLOUT (video game franchise) + HALLOWEEN (holiday) = “FALLOWEEN“
The FALLOWEEN photo challenge was issued by Mrs P on Twitter. There were spooky prompts for each day of October, inspiring players to take screenshots in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter and Fallout 76.
Fall is my favorite time of the year and Halloween my favorite festival, so I set myself the goal of posting at least one picture for every day of the month.
OCT 25: TWILIGHT Sunset over Kiddie Kingdom and Rose the Raider in her blue quantum power armor, Nuka World, Fallout 4OCT 26: TRICK OR TREAT Hancock and Fiona hand out candy at Kingsport Lighthouse, Fallout 4OCT 26: TRICK OR TREAT Kingsport Lighthouse’s outdoor shops are a safe place for the children of the wasteland to go trick-or-treating, Fallout 4OCT 27: CANDY Careful, too much can cause tooth decay! Fallout 4 Oct 28: OWL Far as I know, there aren’t any owls in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas or Fallout 4. I’ve heard there are owls in 76 (?) but I haven’t played that one. So instead of an owl, here’s a “seaghoul” in Salem, Fallout 4.OCT 29: COSTUMES Hancock and Fiona as Jack Skellington and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, using the “ripped shirt & socks” and “fancy suit & tie” outfits from Nuka-World. Fiona also has mouth stitch face paint. PS4, no mods, Fallout 4OCT 30: PHOBIA Hemophobia, fear of blood, Fallout 4OCT 30: PHOBIA Aquaphobia, fear of water, Fallout 4OCT 30: PHOBIA Nyctophobia, fear of the dark, Fallout 4OCT 31: HAPPY HALLOWEENFallout 4
~ J.L. Hilton
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FALLOUT (video game franchise) + HALLOWEEN (holiday) = “FALLOWEEN“
The FALLOWEEN photo challenge was issued by Mrs P on Twitter. There were spooky prompts for each day of October, inspiring players to take screenshots in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, Fallout Shelter and Fallout 76.
Fall is my favorite time of the year and Halloween my favorite festival, so I set myself the goal of posting at least one picture for every day of the month.
OCT 18: SPOOKY That time Hancock vanished… his clothes were all there but no face, Fallout 4OCT 19: CAMPFIRE Cricket and her caravan guard at Abernathy Farm, Fallout 4OCT 19: CAMPFIRE Remembrance altar at Nuka World Red Rocket settlement (headcanon some of my settlers are former raiders), Fallout 4
OCT 20: SPIDER Since there aren’t any in-game spiders and I don’t use mods, I made a Lord of the Rings / Fallout crossover. “May it be a light to you in dark places…”
OCT 21: MASK Ghoul mask is best mask because I can be friends with ALL the ghouls, Fallout 3OCT 22: SCARECROW County Crossing corn field (and a little photo manipulation on a settler wearing in-game clothing and hood, no mods, PS4), Fallout 4OCT 23: CANDLES Children of Atom, Far Harbor, Fallout 4OCT 23: CANDLES Halloween window decorations with candles, Sanctuary Hills, Fallout 4OCT 24: PARTY A festive Halloween in Fallout Shelter
~ J.L. Hilton
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