Sometimes I Think I'm the Smartest Person Ever

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

While reading Bram Stoker's Dracula I was surprised when I read, and thus re-remembered what I had forgotten- that Dracula feared garlic. Seems pretty silly for an un-dead blood sucker with razor-sharp teeth, and super-human strenght, the ability to turn into a bat and walk through walls to be afraid of a common cooking ingredient.

But I progress....The logical benefit of such information is to eat a LOT of garlic on Halloween night. Like a lot. Preferably raw. Then whenever a vampire trick-or-treater comes to your door, you can breathe in his face, naturally warding him off, saving yourself a mini candy bar or roll of Smarties for your troubles. "Hhhhhappy Hhhhhhalloween!!" oughta work nicely to convey your breath.

Or maybe you can use your newly aquired garlic infused respiratory artillery to scatter those Goth kids loitering outside of your local coffee shop.










That's how I roll.

It's October and you Know What That Means

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


...at least I hope you do. Because I don't.

But I will make two recommendations.

1) Great time to start reading Bram Stoker's Dracula to get ready for Halloween. Great book and much better than I thought it would be- and I'm not a sci-fi kinda guy.

2) Gotta start thinking about Halloween costumes. The great ones never come to you when you are trying to think of them. Luckily for you, this year I wrote down all my favorite ideas throughout the year. Here's what I have so far:

Haloween costumes

Bernie Madoff- in that quilt coat and Penn(?) hat
Billy Idol
Sarah Palin
Dudes going as Rachel Maddow
Katy Perry
John Edwards and Rielle Hunter
The Obama girls
ike and tina
peg and al bundy- (All could wear his "No Ma'am" shirt)
yacht owner(s), or at least cheesey boat owners






That's how I roll.

Where Awesome Happens Book Review

Butterfly in the sky? I can go twice as high!



By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com




Where Awesome Happens Book Review: Bram Stoker's Dracula



Bram Stoker's Dracula kicks effing rear. The reason I felt obligated to call it "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and not just "Dracula" is to indicate that Bram Stoker's is the original Dracula. Stoker made up Count Dracula and vampires. Since then, as you know, there have been countless other stories about Dracula, and I wouldn't want you to be confused as to which book I was talking about.

The book was a lot different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be more of the horror/action genre where a group of guys were always getting attacked by Dracula, or there were a lot of physical encounters. It turned out to be much different than that. Since this was the first Vampire book, it assumes the reader had no idea what a vampire was or who Count Dracula was, or what they did. So the bulk of the book is about a group of 5 people trying to compile all the their facts about this shady Count Dracula character, and see how they can put an end to his misdeeds before it's too late.

Stoker's writing style for the book was as original as his subject. The entire book was written as a compiled series of diary entries and letters of correspondence, among his 4 most main characters. That convention heightened the urgency for the reader since the reader was able to know exactly what the characters knew or didn't know. I found that convention to be much more original and dramatically exciting than the often used omniscient narrator. Being that the book was mostly written as diary entries, it provided great characterization in a short amount of time, and let you in on the characters secret fears regarding Count Dracula that they dare not let on in front of their friends.

Dracula, was also a much faster read than I had anticipated and wasn't at all burdened with the usage of any kind of Dickensian-era English whatsoever.


As far as recommendations go, I can recommend this highly. I'm not a big horror/sci-fi fan, so it certainly helped for me that I read it right before Halloween. But after having read it and being surprised at how un-horror-y it was, I think anyone could enjoy it at anytime of year. I was very impressed by this book.