Happy All Hallow's Eve

As promised, here’s my Halloween post about vampires.

First off, let me say that I now know more about vampires than I ever thought was possible.

The first reference I could find to vampires was a cave painting dating back to 3000 B.C. in Nepal which depicted blood drinking creatures. Ancient Indian holy writings (called the Vedas circa 1500 B.C.) depict the Rakshasas (or destroyers) as vampires. There are also tales of the vetalas, ghoul-lie beings that inhabit corpses, and a monster in India’s lore which hangs from a tree upside-down (like a bat) and is devoid of blood, called a Baital. The ancient Indian goddess Kali, with her fangs and a garland of corpses or skulls, was also linked with the drinking of blood. In Egypt, the goddess Sekhmet drank blood.

The ancient Malayans believed in a type of vampire called the Penanggalen. This creature consisted of a human head with entrails that left its body and searched for the blood of others, especially of infants. The ancient Greeks believed in the strigoe or lamiae, who were monsters who ate children and drank their blood. The ancient Peruvians believed in the canchus, devil worshipers who sucked the blood of the young. The Caffre, in Africa, believed the dead could return and survive on the blood of the living. Pottery shards from ancient Persia depicted creatures attempting to drink blood from men.

I could go on (and I probably will keep researching this for my own interest) but my original post topic from earlier in the month was, how did the vampire go from a creature of horror to a romantic hero?

The first literary reference to the vampire was not, as I believed, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897). A more charismatic and sophisticated vampire can be found in The Vampyre, by John Polidori (1819). This was followed in 1847 by the best-selling (in its time) Varney the Vampire, by Thomas Prest. That being said, Stoker's Dracula is still probably the best known.

But when did the vampire cross over from horror to romance? I think we have to side track to films for a moment. The first vampire movie was Nosferatu in 1922, followed by Dracula (starring Béla Lugosi) in 1936. In 1958, Christopher Lee starred in Dracula, which was so popular it was followed by seven sequels. Let’s face it, these were strictly horror movies.

Then we skip ahead to 1979, when Frank Langella stars in Dracula. He portrays the vampire as sophisticated, charismatic, and sensual. Suddenly, we’re rooting for the blood sucker to win! To me, this was the turning point for the vampire. Okay, so technically he was still a blood-sucking fiend, but he was a hot, blood-sucking fiend. Maybe even a misunderstood blood-sucking fiend. All he really wanted was to find his soul mate and live happily ever after. Sounds like a romance to me.

To be honest, I can’t really pin point to an exact book when the vampire became a romantic hero. My first exposure to the vampire in romance was in the Silhouette Shadows series. Sometimes the vampire was the seductive antagonist, sometimes the hero. But they were always good reading.

Today’s vampire is handsome, wealthy and seductive. He possesses superhuman strength, heightened sensory perception, the capacity to hypnotize his victims and, last but not least, immortality. He offers old-fashioned romance in the arms of an alpha male.

In the last five years the vampire as a romantic hero has really hit a boom. I, for one, hope it continues.

If anyone’s interested in vampire romances, there’s a great booklist HERE . Have patience with this site, it’s pretty graphic intensive and may take a while to load.

For other reading, we have:
The Vampyre; A Tale by John Polidori 1819 HERE
and Varney the Vampire by Thomas Prescott Prest 1847 HERE

It’s A Brand New . . . . Quiz!

I couldn’t help but notice it’s been a while since I last posted. Not that I really have a lot to post about this time, but when in doubt, throw a quiz at them!

Yeah, I know I’m pathetic, but it’s part of my charm.

Really it is.

There's a 48% Chance You've Been Abducted By Aliens

Maybe you've really been abducted by aliens... but probably not. Let's face it. You're just a little weirder than most people.

What Are the Chances that You've Been Abducted by Aliens?

Cam Again?

I’m not crazy. Just thought you’d like to know that.

I really did see snow flying yesterday, so did others. Many others. And today I had to go out to replenish my supply of gummi worms and I passed several cars that had snow on them, as in they had to scrape their cars off this morning!

*sigh* Guess it’s time to put away the patio furniture.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I get teased a lot because I love disaster movies. Dante’s Peak, Twister, Volcano, Deep Impact, Armageddon, Day After Tomorrow - I love them all. This led me to my very first web cam, the Volcano cam that’s trained on Mount St. Helens. I used to watch it faithfully and was sometimes rewarded by a wisp of smoke wafting up from the crater. Wouldn’t it be the coolest thing ever to be watching the volcano-cam and see the mountain erupt? Just sayin’ . . .

The thing I like about web cams is that it allows us to experience things we might never otherwise experience. I’m talking about the wild life cams (I’ve seen eagle, falcon, otter), ghost cams, UFO cams . . . so get your minds out of the gutter people!

My favorite web cam of all time has got to be the Africam. I can spend hours watching this. You have your choice of two views, the Nkorho Pan or the Elephant Plains. I like Nkorho. The camera is set up to watch a watering hole day and night. To date I have seen an elephant, rhinos, lots of different birds, gazelle, a herd of wildebeast, warthogs, some kind of fox, and today there were monkeys.

Hey! It beats waiting for the snow to start falling.

Check it out yourself here: Africam

Seriously?

What kind of a cosmic joke is this? My last post - two days ago - pointed out that it was finally cold enough to make it officially fall. The trees have mostly turned, they’ve started losing their leaves, but there’s still a lot of green out there. My purple petunias are still blooming!

I was using the dining room table to sort the stacks of stuff I’ve removed from my office to “organize” before I move them back in and I looked out the deck doors and it was . . . snowing! Oh, how I wish my camera was working!

We’re not just talking a few flakes that could be mistaken for birch seeds, we’re talking serious white stuff here!

And you know what’s next, don’t you? Christmas!

I am so not ready.

It's Official

I finally had to turn the heat on last night. The frost was thick enough on my car this morning to require scraping (if I was going anywhere). It’s officially fall.

The leaves are still pretty nice, but not quite as good as they were last weekend. There’s a lot of them missing. In another couple of weeks they’ll just be a memory until next fall.

Yesterday I took the daughter to Port Huron to pick up her wedding dress. I swear, we spent more time at the border waiting to get into and out of the U.S. than we did in the U.S. But, the good news is, not only did the hot border guard let us back into Canada without paying duty on her dress, I got my potato peeler back!

Today I’d like to deal with a couple of the stacks of stuff I have piling up - folders and papers and notebooks. I also want to update my storage bin - the plastic bin I have to hold all my old files I don’t need close at hand, but can’t get rid of yet (tax forms, old bills, etc.) - and I’m going to gather all my miscellaneous files into another plastic bin. Right now they’re scattered all over the place.

Maybe by tacking the mess just a little at a time I'll eventually get the spare bedroom finished. Although the cats have been enjoying the pile of boxes stacked in the center of the room - more places to hide.

It would be nice if I had time to clean out my office supply cabinet (the cabinet I store all my paper, pens, binders, etc. in) but I’m not counting on it. I might, however, squeeze in some writing time though.

In otherwords, I’m planning a quiet day today, albeit a little on the domestic side.

Amuse Yourself

I've been sick the last couple of days. So instead of a post I'm giving you not one, but two quizzes to amuse yourselves until I'm feeling better:

First, we have: WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM?

You Are From Pluto

You are a dark, mysterious soul, full of magic and the secrets of the universe. You can get the scoop on anything, but you keep your own secrets locked in your heart. You love change and you use it to your advantage, whether by choice or chance. You don't like to compromise, to the point of being self-destructive with your pigheadedness. Live life with love, and your deep powers will open the world to you.

What Planet Are You From?

Followed by: WHAT PLANET SHOULD YOU RULE

You Should Rule Saturn

Saturn is a mysterious planet that can rarely be seen with the naked eye. You are perfect to rule Saturn because like its rings, you don't always follow the rules of nature. And like Saturn, to really be able to understand you, someone must delve beyond your appearance. You are not an easy person to befriend. However, once you enter a friendship, you'll be a friend for life. You think slowly but deeply. You only gain great understanding after a situation has past.

What Planet Should You Rule?

Happy Turkey Day

Today is the day that separates the Canadian from the American bloggers. Yes, I’m talking about Thanksgiving.

The American bloggers post on as ususal, but we Canadians are lucky if we get a word or two in just to let everyone know we survived the weekend. We’re too busy stuck in traffic, stuck in the kitchen, or recuperating from the weekend.

It’s pretty obvious we weren’t the only ones having their big dinner on Sunday, at least judging by the traffic, especially going through Toronto. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it usually is though, and we did make pretty good time to the daughter’s place in London. We were late, but that was because I had to check four different stores on my way out of town before I found the second last can of poultry seasoning in the whole town. This made us late getting away, which made me late getting the turkey in the oven, which made dinner very late . . . you get the idea.

One turkey dinner down, one to go.

We got back from the daughter’s place 1:30 a.m. and I’m in the process of getting ready to go to my inlaws for dinner. This is not made easier by the fact that I left my uber expensive, sacred potato peeler in London.

I really hope Walmart is open.

NaNoWriMo

Decisions, decisions. Should I or shouldn’t I sign up for NaNo this year?

What is NaNo, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s the National Novel Writing Month and it takes place in November. You sign up for it HERE . The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You can do all your research and outlining before hand, but no actual writing until November 1.

You don’t have to write well, in fact it works better if you just start at the beginning and don’t look back. There’s no prize, other than your completed manuscript which you are then free to polish and sell.

So why do it? Well, because it’s fun! And people from all over the world participate. And you can check in on the website and see who else from your area is participating and make new friends.

My only problem is, when I already have three works in progress, do I really need to add another one? Call me crazy, but I’m thinking about it.

Seriously.

Hung Like an Elephant

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m as voyeuristic as the next person when it comes to the web cam. I check out Mount St. Helens on a regular basis via the Volcano-cam and every once in awhile I’ll think to check out the Leprechaun-cam set up in Ireland. But sometimes web-cams can give you a little more than you bargained for.

I’m talking about the Africa-cam . You actually have the choice of two web cams to view - the Nkorho Pan and the Elephant Plains. Having always dreamed of going on a photo safari in Africa, I love this site.

The Nkorho Pan is set up near a watering hole and obviously someone mans the camera because it can pan 360 degrees as well as zoom in and out. It also has sound, which today is a little annoying because it’s very windy over there.

Anyway, the sun sets early afternoon our time over there, so the first few times I watched it was evening. The very first animal I saw was an elephant who came to give himself a mud bath. So I’m watching him, thinking ‘how cool is this?’ and then I notice he seems to have an extra leg. And then I realize, that’s not a leg. It was like watching a train wreck - you don’t want to look but you just can’t help yourself.

Yeah, I know. I really have to get a life.

Post Delay

I had intended to post about vampires today because I’ve been on a vampire kick reading-wise lately. There’s just something about those blood suckers . . .

Anyway *wipes off drool* I just happened to notice the top shelf of the bookcase opposite my desk holds nothing but vampire romances. This is the custom built book case that’s 96 inches wide. That’s a lot of vampires. And that’s not counting the ones that are on the shelves upstairs or included in anthologies in a different bookcase.

I have actually read the original Dracula, and I really have to wonder, how did the vampire go from the horrific creature Bram Stoker created to a romantic icon?

This question intrigues me to the point where I’m actually going to do some research into it. I really want to know how this happened.

So, I’m putting off my post about vampires until later in the month. Maybe it would make a good Halloween post . . .

How Abnormal Are You?

It was a lonnngggg weekend my friends. Not long as in holiday weekend, but long as in utterly dismal that seemed to stretch on into infinity. So in honor of the weekend being over, I give you a quiz.

You Are 48% Abnormal

You are at medium risk for being a psychopath. It is somewhat likely that you have no soul. You are at high risk for having a borderline personality. It is very likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at medium risk for having a social phobia. It is somewhat likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at medium risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is somewhat likely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

Yeah, I'm aware the colours are a little on the sucky side, but I got tired of messing with the html coding. Just take the quiz!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

It’s cold and I’m tired and cranky. Did I mention it’s cold? My number one kitty minion is mad at me because I’ve shut the windows. Hello cat, that’s one of the reasons I built the extra wide bookcase in my office, so you guys could still lounge and look out the window when it gets cold out. Did you really think that window was going to stay open all winter?

I am so tempted to turn the heat on, but we haven’t had the furnace serviced yet. If it didn’t mean opening the Door Of Death (aka the craft closet door) I would root around for some knitting needles and some wool to knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves. With matching slippers. And ear muffs.

Did I mention it was cold?

On the other hand, this is the perfect weather to curl up with a good book. My “to be read” bookcase is overflowing with books. Something needs to be done about this. I should start reading all these books, not letting them languish, collecting dust and cat hair. It’s my duty to read them. And once I’ve cleared out my “to be read” bookcase I’ll have plenty of room for . . . uh . . . more books!