Vampires: a modern trend of idolisation

I‘ve just had a long chit-chat with my friend about our infatuation on vampires, and how the teenagers and young adult nowadays are dying to be bitten by century-old vampires Edward Cullen, Damon or Stefan Salvatore. Almost instantly, vampire books and movies became a new trend as the perspective towards vampires changed. The fictional creature vampires are no longer described as horrific but rather as mysterious, god-like, alluring beings. The writer behind this phenomenon is Stephenie Meyer, who was successful in transforming the image of vampire in her novels the Twilight Saga.












While being the first in describing vampires as sparkling and hard as marble, Twilight was not the first novel which illustrates modern depiction of vampires. At least two authors L.J Stine (Vampire Diaries) and Charlaine Harris (True Blood) had had their novels published long before Stephenie Meyer did, but Twilight got the most acknowledgments worldwide. The predecessors were later read - in my opinion - as the impact of the Twilight Hype, when people can’t get enough of Twilight and alternatively read other books in similar genre (or run to Twilight fanfics *grin..grin*). I was one of those people (yep, I did read fanfics), and now having watched two seasons of True Blood and half-season of Vampire Diaries, I was wondering what has made Twilight outshine the other two, any why the world is in Twilight fever but never in Vampire Diaries or True Blood fevers.

The three vampire stories: Twilight, True Blood and Vampire Diaries share similar theme of star-crossed love triangle, all of which described the leading roles as male vampires who are gorgeous and irresistible, who fell irrevocably and inexplicably in love with a human girl. I have to say that in comparison, Twilight has a rather simple plotline. The problems always revolve around vampire Edward and human Bella with little development on other characters (except werewolf Jacob who became Bella’s temporary love interest). This is probably because the author wrote it in first person’s point of view (Bella’s most of the time) and so being omniscient is quite unfeasible. However when it comes to the film-series and movies, both Vampire Diaries (being only in half-season and progressing) and True Blood (2nd season, so far) are a lot more interesting in some extent: the stories and the characters seem to be layered, each of which is revealed as a twist as the stories go.

So, while her plotline is relatively flat, Stephanie Meyer’s biggest success is perhaps in presenting the characters of Edward and Bella. This is proven significantly by the universal popularity of both Edward and Bella (and other characters as well), compared to the recognition of Stevan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert (Vampire Diaries), or Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood), whose characters were not renowned before the films were aired.

In one of her blog post The Hype of Twilight Saga, my Twilight-buddy Aini gave a scrupulous enlightenment on Edward and Bella. I do agree with her that Bella represents a big percentage of women around the world: plain, an outcast; and Edward is prince in shining armor, sweeping Bella from her dull life and promising an unconditional love for eternity. Edward is described as a flawless guy, besides his lacking of vampiric traits (no fangs, no monster face): out-of-this-worldly handsome, forever young, smart, rich, and committed only to one girl, Bella. The character Edward Cullen alone is described as if the author literally and intentionally shouted the traits of a perfect guy, and it echoed around the world. Hhm, how many women have lost their mind because of Edward Cullen?

Close the toilet lid when flushing!

Have you ever realized the importance of closing the toilet lid when you flush? Lots of people don’t. A close friend of mine once told me about the importance of closing down the lid but I never took it seriously, as it comes from the person who always overstresses in sanitation by bringing her own tissue and toilet-seat paper and gel-cleaner whenever she feels the urge to visit a public restroom. She claimed the bacteria could fly up to 6 meters, leaving the walls of the restroom full with the bacteria of our crap (including on the paper-toilet provided in the cubicle). Hmmm, she’s exaggerating, I once thought.

So, I did a little research on the net myself, and the result is quite surprising. In Mythbuster episode 12, it was proven that the toothbrushes hung everywhere in the bathroom are with specific bacteria found in our ‘disposal’. Ugh, gross! I just can’t imagine brushing my teeth with an extra ‘toilet ingredient’!

In this matter, it’s true then that hygiene begins from the bathroom. Health-freak might bombard himself with lots and lots of expensive vitamins and precautions to keep healthy, but might neglect the necessity of closing down the toilet lid. Come to think of it, why bother consuming tons of megavitamins if you’re sprinkled with mushrooms of toilet-germs at least three times a day!

I don’t know how accurate this experiment done by Mythbuster is, and many people claimed the germs should not be dangerous for human. But isn’t it something to brighten up your day to know you might actually live a healthier life (for free!) by doing an effort of closing down the toilet-lid? After all, closing down the toilet lid will leave you with lots of advantages. Apart from averting things dropping to the toilet (that's how my ex-student Vicky lost her cellphones - two times!), it’ll look prettier when the lid is closed, don’t you think? And in my case, it prevents Hazel drinking from toilet.

Woof! It's Hazel.

I was wondering if a dog could have autism, but if it could, then Hazel, our beloved Golden Retriever would be a perfect example. This five-year-old, one-balled adorable dog can turn into a Greek-hydra, having the time of his life decapitating all in his sight: balls, fish nets, slippers, you name it!

We all know that munching is a habit of a puppy, so I’ve found his way of expressing himself atypical. We had a professional dog-trainer train him when he was a year old, but little fruit can be seen now as the lessons seem to vaporize as he gets older. He understands the basic command ‘sit, down, sleep and stay’ and in many cases that is what you can expect from a dog. However, as a Golden Retriever, known as “pet with brain”, he’s quite a dim-wit. Well, munching being one of the many reasons. I wonder if it has anything to do with his being a one-testicle male. ;-) duh!

As an adult dog, he's often assumed as a one-year old, mostly by looking from his not so big bone structure and his lack of mane. His behavior doesn't help either: very hyperactive – a puppy character. He'll captivate everyone around him with his innocent cute Golden Retriever face, which I couldn't agree more, but again, looks can be deceiving. In this case, I think I'm one of the few people who can relate well to John Grogan, the author of Marley and Me. Marley was a wholesome, and Hazel is too: the attention seeker, very playful, ball-blaster Golden Retriever!

Putting all his misdemeanor would be an endless list. Maybe I should narrow it to what he did in this past week:
- stealing warm bakpaos (which were supposed to be our dinner) from the dining table in stealth mode
- drinking from our new fish aeration
- munching chocolate pie left-over from the coffee table
- lurking our koi fish and presumably swallowing a small one (as we found a fish scale in his mouth)
- snitching a sausage and fish from the kitchen table
- chewing a bundle of tissue from the bathroom
- blasting a neighbor's ball
- escaping from the window to another neighbor's house
- tearing two door mats to pieces

- scratching our livingroom floor with his gigantic paw nails (as a result of trying to dig a bone underneath, perhaps?)

As we live in a cluster-type neighborhood and so it's without a gate, we usually have him tied to a 40-kg block of cement in our garden. I'd love to see him unleashed at all time but unfortunately Hazel's wayward, fun-loving attitude made it impossible. He's easily distracted and will dash out of sight once he sees something interesting (that includes leaf falling from a neighbor's garden, cat passing or kid running). But, I really marvel at the power he possesses; he can drag the block of cement with him! There's this guy living in front of us, and he's always picking on our dog playfully, with a ball sometimes. Once Hazel chased him while being leashed, dragging the cement block to my neighbor's door for the chance of playing.

Like what Marley had done in John Grogan's life, Hazel has brought colors to our life; he's both a nuisance and blessing. He's may be a transformation of a hellish creature in a comical way, whose meal portion equals to that of five persons'. But for me and my husband, he's more than that. He's literally one of a kind son of a bitch, a happy-go-lucky furry friend who'd willingly serve himself as a living carpet and follow us whenever we're with food.

On the hindsight, the blame should not be put on him. Maybe this is the result of having lots of negligence since he was a puppy. He was originally my husband’s family’s dog and used to be put in the porch. He didn’t get many people to pet him, except my husband, who also spent limited time with him – after he got home from work. Now that he lives with us, we’ve been trying to make ‘talking to pet’ a habit, and have seen a good progress: when he comes to his senses, it’s really easy to communicate with him, though there are still times when he’s more than what we can handle. It’s frustrating for us and I know it’s also exasperating for him too, being talked in a stern way.

But then, how could you be really angry when he shows this face:

Assuming his hyperactivity is a gesture of attention seeking, I hope in the near future there’ll be time when it’s no longer impossible to put towels or food in his reach, without him trying to snatch it. Let it be soon, please..