1. Mindhunter: the only reason I didn’t immediately dive into this show as soon as Netflix released it is that I was focused on my one horror movie a day in October. Once I found some time for tv show watching, I started on this one, which literally could not be more up my alley (I have a master’s degree in forensic psychology and wrote my thesis on linking homicides…and of course I’ve read Mindhunter by John Douglas). I’m about halfway through the first season and am all in. It’s a little bit textbook for me at times, but it’s still fun to watch the origin of profiling serial killers at the FBI.
2. Murder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death: somehow, in four years of studying psychology in undergrad and two years in my master’s program I never came across this incredible woman. Her story is fascinating but I won’t get into details here—I recommend reading about her online. The Renwick is currently showing all nineteen of Lee’s crime scene dioramas that she painstakingly crafted in order to help train law enforcement on how to investigate crime scenes involving death. A friend and I went to the exhibit this week, and it is incredible. Photos do not do these dioramas one bit of justice, but below is one of my favorites. If you’re in the DC area and have any interest in true crime or miniatures, I cannot recommend this exhibit enough!
3. Side Yards: in the spirit of Halloween, I went down to Yards Park last Saturday to check out their sideshow attractions. They had a fortune teller, face painting, a photo booth, a DJ, aerialists, magicians, sword swallowers, and more. It was a fun, free pre-Halloween activity and I enjoyed seeing some of the visitors dressed in costume, particularly a very convincing Patrick Bateman.
4. Zombie Frappuccino: against my better judgment, I got one of these from Starbucks. I had gotten one of their unicorn Frappuccinos when they offered those for a limited time and it was overly sweet. But when you make a zombie drink, I gotta try it! Fortunately this one was a touch less sweet—though, let’s be honest, all Frappuccinos contain WAY more sugar than any human should consume in a day. The zombie concoction had a green apple flavor with a chocolate syrup swirl, plus the pièce de résistance: pink whipped cream as the brains. It didn’t taste awful, but I definitely didn’t want another.
5. Draconius Go: I recently heard about this new game, which is basically a ripoff of Pokémon Go. Seeing as how I’ve been bored with PG because I hardly ever encounter new Pokémon (and caught all the new Halloween event ones within the first 24 hours of their release), I figured I might as well try this new game as well. The creatures are adorable and they even have a couple very Halloween-appropriate ones that I caught for the first time on Halloween. The game actually has more activities (quests, hunts, finding a parallel universe) and more structures than their version of Pokéstops and Gyms. I haven’t delved too much into anything other than catching the creatures yet, but it’s fun to have new little monsters to find.
