You know Vampires really are becoming far too much of an “in thing” when even Microsoft have gotten on to them for the purposes of advertising.

No, I’m being serious.

By now, if you don’t live under a rock or own an iPhone, you will have heard of MS’ latest search engine called Bing. They’ve been going on an insane spending spree advertising it, spending about six times as much as the actual development costs so far, according to some rumours. If they have to pay a licensing fee for this atrociously b-grade knock off of True Blood, I think I’d believe that.

On the bright side, they get some points back for this hilarious knock off of The Shining.

With all that said, having used it a bit, it’s actually a pretty decent search engine if you’re looking for something to purchase or pay for, specifically. It definitely seems geared towards commercial transaction over “imparting knowledge” or “the end user experience”.

Oh, and happy halloween folks…

This particular drink turned out to be a lot more difficult to make htan I thoughtit would be and unfortunately, if you’re wanting to make this for this year, it’s way too late for you.

You see, I made a fatal error.

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Or, for those that don’t speak Yoonilecchoorese “Vampires suck”…

But why am I expressing this in even wankier, more academically clouded, terms than usual? Because the Australian Center for the Moving Image is having a series of academic talks about the place of vampires in modern popular culture:

http://www.acmi.net.au/studio_vampires.aspx

I don’t know if I actually have the time to get there, but I’m definitely interested in going. Edutainment at it’s finest, after all.

I should point out that Dr Walton, the chair of the discussion panel, is one of my more enjoyed academics thanks to a paper of hers I saw earlier on the year in regards to animation, which you may read here.

Traditionally speaking, Halloween was a time when spirits would come back to visit families, before they were dragged back to wherever they were from on All Saints Day. The costumes worn are, presumably, so that the vindictive bastards from Hell would assume you were a pack of demons and leave you alone, to find some other poor bastard to unleash their hellish wrath upon… At least, in the Christian supplanted version at any rate.

It was also the end of the good weather, and people would spend the time curing fruits and meats for the coming winter… but while they still had an excess of food before the harsh and bitter winter, they’d piss away as much as possible, not thinking about the consequences. Hence the treats in trick-or-treating. You’d give the neighbours nice things in return for them not calling you a witch that year. But what better way to waste good food than with games?

Games such as bobbing for apples were very popular.

And it’s with that in mind that I bring you this week’s drink.

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