Got A Hatch Sunrise Alarm Clock?

I didn’t even know these clocks existed until I read about them on the phone during a jog. All in all, this seems like a very first world problem complete with hysterics, considering all that is going on around us, but these clocks might frighten a person of faith. (So do they understand what faith literally means?)

Christian Influencers Are Throwing Their Hatch Clocks in the Trash

The popular sunrise alarm clock company stirs up controversy with its horror-themed Halloween ads and programming.

Few sunrise alarm clocks have reached the level of popularity set by Hatch, the combination light and sound machine designed to help support natural circadian rhythms. Which is why I was surprised to notice it trending on TikTok, not for its gentle sunrise light feature or recently released Hatch+ programming—but for being a symbol of the occult.

The problem began, innocently enough, with an anti blue light promotional campaign, released by Hatch on October 13 and titled “Goodnight, Phone.” It consists of a one-minute, 30-second Hollywood-esque trailer starring actress Kiernan Shipka, who delivers a convincing scream-queen performance with the theme that blue light exposure after your bedtime can lead to nightmarish sleep. The trailer is, admittedly, a bit PG-13—Shipka pulls a long, bloody phone cord out of her mouth, and is attacked by a zombie version of herself in bed.

“It’s Time to Sleep”

With a Hatch device and a subscription to Hatch+, users are able to change their alarm sounds, from white noise and ocean waves to the “hoa hoa hoa” introduction from the vampire classic Twilight, and Hatch+ is also promoting its library of Halloween-themed bedtime stories, like a narration of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

For some, the creepy trailer and vampire-themed Hatch+ programming were a bridge too far, and by October 24, according to Hatch, the brand found itself trending on “DemonTok,” the TikTok hashtag for discussions of monsters, demons, and related subjects.

As “Hatch demonic ad” and “Is the Hatch alarm clock demonic?” quickly became top search terms, several users posted videos of themselves throwing their devices into the trash in protest, including TikTok Christian influencer Charity, who goes by the username “CharityIsMe.” (snip-there is MORE)

For Those Who Observe,

or just wish to know a little more! See history and more on this home page; beneath are some snippets.

Day Of The Dead

What Is Day of the Dead

Here in the USA, we mourn our loved ones when they pass with funeral services and wearing dark solemn clothing. It’s usually a sad time in our families when we have to say goodbye to grandpa forever. Different cultures grieve and treat death differently with traditions that have been around for centuries.

One culture that has created a unique and interesting way to face death and the deceased is Mexico. Mexico is colorful, noisy, and lots of fun. The people, the food, and the celebrations are bright, loud, and unequaled. So when it comes to death, in true Mexican style, Mexicans celebrate with color, food, and music.

Day of the Dead is a 2-day celebration where it is believed that the passageway between the real world and the spirit world is open so our deceased loved ones can come back to visit us. What do we do when grandpa comes back from the land of the dead? We make his favorite meal and we offer him his favorite drink. We sing, dance, and rejoice before he heads back to the underworld for another year.

When Is Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. It is sometimes confused with Halloween because of the symbolic skulls but is not related at all.

It is said that on November 1st the children who have passed come back to visit and celebrate as angelitos and on the following day, November 2nd, it’s the adults (Difuntos) turn to show up for the festivities.

Family members prepare for several weeks in advance for the tradition by creating altars, decorating burial sites, and cooking specific Day of the Dead food. (snip-MORE)

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Day of the Dead Traditions

Ofrendas

In the weeks leading up to the holiday, Mexican families will begin to decorate their homes for the holiday. The centerpiece will be the Ofrenda, or Altar de Muertos, a display meant to commemorate the lives of loved ones. This tradition can be traced back to the Aztecs, who would place offerings for the dead, including food and flowers, on tree stumps on their days of remembrance.

The traditional Ofrenda is divided into various levels to represent the various stages of life and death. There can be two levels, representing heaven and Earth, three levels, representing heaven, Earth, and the underworld, or seven levels, representing the seven stages souls have to cross to reach eternal rest. It is decorated with purple and orange, the traditional colors of the holiday, and often adorned with papel picado, a popular Mexican paper craft that is made up of ornate cut-outs. The papel picado used for the holiday will feature specific images and motifs associated with Day of the Dead, such as sugar skulls and dancing skeletons. Traditional Mexican oilcloths are commonly used to drape the surface of the Ofrenda. (snip-MORE)

Calavera: Sugar Skull

Skull Imagery in Mexico and its History

Skull imagery has a long history dating back to the traditions of pre-Columbian civilizations. The Aztecs had several festivals of remembrance where they would worship the Goddess Mictecacihuatl, ruler of the afterlife and keeper of the dead. Mictecacihuatl was often represented as a skeleton, adorned with a crown of flowers and skulls. For many pre-Columbian cultures, human skulls or skull motifs were used as decoration on walls as a sacrificial offering to the gods. These are commonly referred to by the Nahuatl term Tzompantli. Some of these, such as the Mayan Chichen Itzá Tzompantli in Yucatán, and the Aztec Huey Tzompantli in Mexico City, remain to this day and can be viewed by visitors.

Another motif that may have influenced calavera imagery as we know it today is likely a type of European art known as Danse Macabre. These paintings and engravings, often featuring dancing skeletons, were meant to represent the inevitability of death and were used as decorations in churches across Europe. It is probable that the Danse Macabre motifs were brought over by Spanish missionaries and later fused with Indigenous skull imagery. (snip-MORE)

And To All A Good Night,

being my final post for Halloween 2025. 🎃 🫥

A Flag, Sons Who Housekeep, & More, In Some Items I Read Yesterday

The items don’t have to do with each other; they interested me or looked like something I ought to know about, so I read them and thought someone else might like to read one or another or maybe all of them.

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What the Fascist Tech Bros Get Wrong About Prometheus

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Caught in Partition’s Violent Fray

Snippet:

The 1947 partition of the South Asian subcontinent into India and Pakistan led to the world’s largest mass migration. Populations from both sides of newly formed demarcations suffered in heinous riots. Women in particular were subjected to extreme violence. Yet, the severity of gendered crime during Partition wasn’t caused by an arbitrary upsurge of madness. Systemic patriarchy in South Asia had long reduced women to male-owned property. They were objectified to such an extent that a woman’s sexual “purity” became a metonym of her husband’s and kinsmen’s honor (izzat). In other words, male respectability was gauged by how successfully women’s bodies were regulated. With Partition, this dynamic became a forum for contesting powers and prestige at the communal and national levels.

To assert manhood and symbolize triumphal power over the enemy, rivaling sides opted for sexually charged violence, grotesquely marking, mutilating, and branding the bodies of women. According to historian

“[T]housands of women on both sides of the newly formed borders,” writes historian Urvashi Butalia,

were abducted, raped, forced to convert, forced into marriage, forced back into what the two states defined as “their proper homes,” torn apart from their families once during Partition by those who abducted them, and again, after Partition, by the state which tried to “recover” and “rehabilitate” them.

In the guise of celebrating independence from British rule, official narratives of nationalism largely omitted female experiences of such violence during the divisive convulsions of 1947. Among the earliest Partition texts that documented gory details which would have otherwise slithered into oblivion is Pinjar (which can translate to both “Skeleton” and “Cage”), a novella by Amrita Pritam that captures the cataclysmic years of Partition via a series of abductions.

*Amrita Pritam, New Delhi, 1979. via Wikimedia Commons*

A writer celebrated for both powerful poetry and prose, Amrita Pritam (1919–2005) is a well-known figure in South Asian literature. Inspired by real life, much of her work serves as testimony. Pritam witnessed firsthand the horrors of Partition—communal riots forced her to migrate to India from Pakistan in 1947 with nothing but her two small children and a red shawl. She never returned home. (snip-MORE on their page linked above)

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Designing Intersex History: Behind the Intersex Flag with Morgan Carpenter

The Intersex Human Rights Fund (IHRF) at the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is celebrating its 10th year of funding intersex liberation efforts across the globe. Join us in reflecting on the IHRF’s many accomplishments, intersex movement successes, and our vision for the future of intersex organizing.

Created in 2013 by Morgan Carpenter, an intersex man based in Australia, the intersex flag was intentionally designed to stand out, communicate values important to intersex communities, and be used widely and freely. The intersex flag has a simple design: a bold purple circle on a bright yellow background. The circle represents many things, including wholeness and bodily autonomy, while the colors yellow and purple both represent the strength and diversity of intersex communities while avoiding all references to gender.

(Snip-a bit MORE)

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Vacuuming, laundry, and doing the dishes: My life as a ‘trad son’

Plenty of us are living back at home, adopting ‘traditional’ duties in exchange for free accommodation – Charlie Aslet

When I read the term “trad sons” on my phone, I spat the hot cocoa my mother had prepared for me out onto the screen. “What fresh torture will the live-at-home generation be subjected to next?” I cried. It only got worse when I scrolled to see that mothers were calling their stay-at-home sons “hubsons”, a play on the word husbands. “Has the whole world gone Oedipal?” I exclaimed in horror.

Following on from the trend of the “tradwife”, the internet has coined the term trad sons for children who stay at home with their parents and adopt “traditional” sonly duties in exchange for free accommodation. (Snip-MORE, it’s not long)

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Chicago Is FED UP With ICE

From Jenny Lawson-

What Scottie’s has always stood for, too:

I thought you needed this. by Jenny Lawson (thebloggess)

It might be my compulsive thoughts talking, but here goes. Read on Substack

Dear friend,

This is the last week of October and so I drew you a Halloweeny sketch but then Sunday I had this really weird thought that someone out there needed to hear something specific and so I drew it up and thought I’d share it next week but my very compulsive mind is telling me that I need to post it now. This might just be my OCD winning but I also believe in following your gut, so next week you’ll get my Halloween drawing WAY AFTER HALLOWEEN and I’m so sorry I’m like this.

But…maybe you’re the person who needs to hear this today…

it’s going to be okay. I love you. You are doing amazing.

The world is hard at times and we’re all fighting so many battles, but you’re doing so much better than you think. You are making differences in the lives of people in ways you’ll probably never see. It’s easy to let the darkness around us overshadow the light, but your shine is integral. It may be impossible for your own eyes to recognize the glow you bring, but it is so gorgeously obvious to so many others.