With Halloween coming on strong, here’s some tips to help keep yourself organized and make the most of the craziness:

• Photojojo offers some great tips on Halloween photography. Favorites: Take costume pics at dusk, before the light disappears and the sugar rush kicks in making clear shots impossible. Light the outside of your jack-o-lantern with a flashlight to highlight its outlines. Stick a orange or red gel over your flash — they recommend this for external flash units, but I see no reason not to do this with a point-and-shoot; just cut a tiny piece of gel to cover your flash. Try putting a piece of matte cellophane tape (the kind that “disappears” when you wrap presents) over the gel to diffuse the light a little — point-and-shoot cameras ten to have terrible flashes and produce harsh lighting).
• ParentHacks offers an easy way to remember next year how much candy you actually used this year. Open bags one at a time and keep track of how many you open; then stick the number in your clanedar under “October 31″ with a record of what the weather is like, so next year you can look back and compare how many you’re likely to need.
• Cool Mom Picks points to the Baby Candy’s generic Halloween costume for a stylin’ getup. The front of this plain white onesie says “This is my ________ Halloween costume”; you fill in the blank with a Sharpie. Ironically, to get this last-minute costume you’ll have to order now, or it won’t get to you in time for Halloween.
• While I’m on the subject, my recent piece at lifehack.org, Don’t Panic! Stop Worrying and Enjoy Halloween looks critically at some of the scary Halloween myths that have essentially ruined Halloween — trick-or-treating at the mall?! No thanks! Fortunately, there’s little to be so worried about — nobody’s ever tried to poison neighborhood kids with tainted Halloween candy, and there’s little to fear from needles or razor blades, either. The one Halloween poisoning incident in history was a father who poisoned his child to collect the insurance, hiding the poison in the Halloween candy so nobody would suspect him. Almost all the needle and razor incidents have been pranks carried out by family or friends, too, and nobody’s ever been seriously injured.

Have a happy Halloween — I’ll be back with more as I come across it.

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