I had to read Dracula this summer, and guess what??? HE DOESN'T BURN!!! It only said that he could change from human-ish form to bat to wolf or whatever other animal under his command from sunset to sunrise (the night), but from sunrise to sunset (the day), he had to keep whatever form he was in when the sun rose. He doesn't have to sleep during the day, he just does.
During the night he can grow smaller than the eye can see, or become a gathering of dust particles in the moonlight, or change his shape. He can control the wind and fog whenever, but only if he's nearby the affected area. He can't cross running water of his own accord (meaning someone has to carry him, on say, a boat) unless the tide is high or low or something.
But seriously, he appears a couple of times in the sun. It makes me wonder where the old story came from. Perhaps from the nosferatu myth? I always thought that Dracula was where it originated from. Go figure.
Also, the characters in the book are sexist!!! Yes, I know the thing was written forever ago. Late 1800's early 1900's. But still. The main female protagonist (Mina) is praised for having a "man's brain" because she can have common sense and deductive skills. She really is very smart, and most people probably wouldn't have been able to discover what she did. It just is annoying to have the smarts department taken over by men. Yes, I know it was the common view back then. I just like to rant.

I went to the Orlando Anime Festival this year with my friend, my sister, and my parents. My sister's ten and she cosplayed as Karin from Bleach. I kinda felt bad for her, because the thing was more structured for teens. My parnts looked pretty out of place. My mom was wearing her casual church clothes and my dad was wearing a polo and shorts. It was kinda funny. My friend was dressed in a school girl outfit and I just wore an eveyday outfit with a cat-ear beanie thing. What do you call those anyway? My sister begged me to cosplay, but I'm broke and have no sewing skills to speak of. I couldn't think of a character that wouldn't require either of those things.
We went to a couple events (boards?). We went to a gameshow thing that was hilarious and an angry gamer board that had me and my friend in hysterics. The Angry Gamer Board was focused on tv series spawned from video games. It was shortly discovered that none of them really made any sense. Now the thought of the Legend of Zelda cartoon makes me think, "Well EXCUUUUUUUUSE ME, princess". This phrase is used about four times per episode. It was great fun. We also went to a Japenese TV board that my parents liked. Hoooooo! *Ahem* We saw some great cosplayers, including an Orginization 13 slumber party group. Sadly, we didn't get a picture.
The 'shopping center' was by far my friend's favorite. She wanted so badly to get these lacy, frilly, vaguely gothic bracer things, but her mother told her she could only get something reasonably priced that she could wear to school. Her mother has never been to an anime convention. She got a string of prayer beads instead. I tried to get her to get the frilly arm decorations but she said she couldn't wear them to school because everyone would think she was an even bigger nerd than she thought she was already. She refused to give in to my argument of 'Who cares?'. She was also disapointed she couldn't find Petshop of Horrors at the manga stand. Apparently Tokyo Pop is going out of buisness, or that's what the guy at the stand said. I find that hard to believe. I think it's just too old. I'm also rather ticked off at the manga stand dude, because I picked up a copy of Get Backers only to find the pages were all out of order.
All in all, however, we had a great time. By the end of the day, I had an Akasuki cloak, an awesome pair of cat ears, and a caricature of my friend and myself. My mom stole my cat hat and bought an extrordinarilly well-drawn picture of Namine from Kingdom Hearts. Considering my mom's never played the game, that's really good. I also bought a couple of buttons. I am still paying off my debt to my dad.
After my friend had gone home my family and I went to dinner. I wore my cat ears in and got a couple stares. It was fun.

It was really funny because the year before some guy followed my dad around the convention hall for a while holding his phone to my dad's face. I think my dad threatened bodily harm. Since that incident my mom has jokingly referred to otakus and other people who attend the conventions freaks. I pointed out that I was part of that crowd (granted I'm not quite as obsessed as other people, but still). She bluntly yet affectionally stated that I was a freak. She said that "the people who attend those conventions aren't normal". I told her normal people were boring. She agreed. I love my mom.

If you actually made it here by reading all that, kudos to you. You need a life. Anyway, I suppose my sporadic rant is done. Have a nice week and-a-half till school starts. Ugh.

Ja ne.