Dracula @ MindSay

... indeed!

 

A few months ago I applied to be sent to go to a few courses to help me improve my teaching practices.

Last week I received a notice to attend one of them! It will help me create lessons to make my pupils use computers at the same time as they learn English!

I'm glad, because I’ve always liked using computers, and I will be able to broaden my skills. Hopefully it will be useful for my teaching.

 

What is more, today I checked the site on which I entered my wishes to attend courses.... and it looks like I have also been chosen to attend two more, one of which is ABSOLUTELY necessary for me as it will teach me how to use my voice without hurting it! (Yesterday, I was so tired and stressed that I "screamed” much more than usual.... as a result, I thought I was going to lose my voice...)

As for the second wish, I made it without much hope, as it is a conference about the book and movie of Dracula, which I love… I really did not think they would let me go... But it does look like I’m going! :)

Now, I’m waiting for my notice! I can’t wait!!!

 

What good news! :):)

 

 

Yep! In the last week's People Magazine there was a small article that Vlad the Impaler's Castle is for sale!!!

Why do I never have a spare $130 million when I NEED it?

Maybe whoever buys it will make it into a bed and breakfast!! What a place for a honeymoon :P !

I just watched an amazing documentary on Vlad Tzepes, the real man behind the myth of the Vampire.

"Bram Stoker penned his immortal classic, _Dracula_, basing his vampire on an actual historical figure. Stoker's model was Vlad IV Dracula, call Tzepes, pronounced tse-pesh; a fifteenth century viovode or prince of Wallachia of the princely House of Basarab. Wallachia is a provence of Romania bordered to the north by Transylvania and Moldavia, to the east by the Black Sea and to the south by Bulgaria. Wallachia first emerged as a political entity during the late thirteenth centuryfrom the weltering confusion left behind in the Balkans as the East Roman Empire slowly crumbled. The first prince of Wallachia was Basarab the Great (1310-1352), an ancestor of Dracula. Despite the splintering of the family into two rival, clans some members of the House of Basarab continued to govern Wallachia from that time until well after the Ottomans battered the principality down to the status of a client state. Dracula was the last prince of Wallachia to retain any real measure of independence and rulership."

Tzepes was also known as Vlad the impaler.

What a cool trip this would be.

I gotta say it again — I freakin' love Netflix. They seriously have EVERYTHING. It seems I have nothing else to talk about lately besides movies. It's probably not a good thing to have so much free time on my hands but eh.....screw it.

So anyway, I rented and just got done watching "100 Years Of Horror" hosted by Christopher Lee of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and has also been in several of the old Hammer Horror films such as Blood Of Dracula, Dracula A.D. and The Mummy. Over 2 hours, they covered a ton of various horror icons, films and actors. Everything from Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi to Robert Englund and Jaime Lee Curtis. Everything from the silent films to giallo to sci-fi and old monster movies. Overall, I thought it covered a lot of ground but then when it ended, it dawned on me that they missed A TON of material. In 2 hours, not ONE single mention of George A. Romero or any of his movies. Only one mention of the word "zombie", a short snippet of a mention of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. No Lucio Fulci, Takashi Miike, Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick, etc. As I realized this, I noticed that they spent most of the time covering the old Universal horror films and the Hammer horror films to follow. There was a brief mention of Suspiria and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but not much else. I was surprised that they even mentioned Mario Bava. I guess I was disappointed that they completely missed out on really digging into certain movies that completely changed cinema like "Night Of The Living Dead", "Suspiria", anything from Lucio Fulci or Joe D'amato or Jess Franco. They completely missed the boat on Italian horror, Japanese horror, film noir, zombies, Troma Team movies and even some of the blaxploitation entries like "Blacula" and "Blackenstein". Ehh....disppointed, I am. Still, it's worth seeing if you are at all interested in the origins of some of the most famous movie monsters in history. For example, the Werewolf myth came from some crazy European guy from the 1500's who killed, raped and ate his victims for almost 25 years. When he was arrested and charged, he confessed saying the he couldn't control himself because he was given a magic belt by Satan himself that turned him into a crazed animal who ate and molested people. Pretty funny.

My new layout!!!! How do you like it guys?

 I watched Dracula for the, dunno exactly..., 12th time, or something like that..., and then I've found this awesome picture of Gary as Dracula. *love that man*

  I think it looks great and it'll be my new header pic for the season. *winter ... brrr* 

         (blood...I need some.....*lol*)