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So, how have the versions of vampires changed?
On the whole, it boils down to this: Modern vampires are humanized, whereas with old vampires such as Stoker's Dracula, there is absolutely no question that the vampire is a monster, and there is little effort made to portray them as a being with human emotions or human morals. There are some similarities, though; for instance, both "old-style" vampires and modern vampires are sexualized. On the other hand, the divide is very strong. Rice's vampires, as well as Twilight vampires (as example) are illustrated as persons, are given emotions and (usually) logical forms of reasoning, and moral codes that at least somewhat resemble human patterns. They are people who happen to suck blood and occasionally have somewhat animalistic tendencies. This is not present in Dracula at all; there is no question of him being a monster. The same thing goes for Nosferatu, as an example -- have you seen that movie? It's excellent.

The vampires in my mafia story were closer to the Rice variety than they were to Dracula, though I tried to avoid doing the whole whiney emo thing. In some ways, though, I'm rather glad I never finished that novel, as I started when I was about halfway through highschool and it probably was not anywhere near as good as I wanted to think it was at the time.

Now, on the subject of fic - Ahh, yes, that's the one. She isn't the only Finnish fic writer I've come across, but of the ones I've read, she's the best, and has written the most (thus far). And, saaa. I wanted to read her latest right when it was posted, but I didn't have the time... I've learned that with her writing, at least, I like to read it when I can savour it, and afterward think up something resembling an insightful comment. I'll probably get to it sometime today....

In any case, I've taken to saving up bookmarks of fics that I need to read as well, though my list is kind of scattered. Sometimes when I'm looking for something to read I head over to Fyretoppaaa's bookmarks and browse through to see if there's anything of interest.

Anyway. When it comes to the worry thing... yeah, you've probably said it before, and you're definitely right. I try not to worry, and yet... well. There it is. I do work on it, though. I can't recall reading the post that you mentioned, though. I might have to go and look for it. Maybe I did read it, but just don't remember. One of these days I'll get around to posting fic, though. Originally I wanted to go in with a bang and post the Union fic, but it'll be a really long time before that one is finished. I think the most likly candidate is 'Tea and Memories', that short Nor&Ice brotherly thing I did a little while back. Not much of a plot, but I do like it. Needs some cleaning up first though.

My books - yes. When I moved back home from Nova Scotia to Fort Mac, we were flying. I sent some packages ahead on greyhound, but I was limited in what I could send because of money, and a lot of the space in those boxes were taken up by things like winter clothes and stuff. Books were low priority. Then when flying back, of course I was limited only to things that could be taken on the plane, and there wasn't anyone who could mail my things to me, so I did have to leave them behind. But I managed to keep the few rare books that I had, so at least there is that. Epics like The Iliad are easy to replace.

Now, to Middle English. Well, when you think of it, the special name is rather fitting, isn't it? As it's a transition period between Old English, which is absolutely nothing like what we speak now, and Modern English ('modern' being Shakespeare and afterward). Now, I keep harping on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but in this case I think it's fitting to mention it again. The text for that is much unlike the ones I gave examples for previous examples. Take a look:

þen commaunded þe kyng þe kny3t for to ryse
and he ful radly vpros and ruchched hym fayre
kneled doun bifore þe kyng and cachez þat weppen
and he luflyly hit hym laft and lyfte vp his honde
and gef hym goddez blessyng and gladly hym biddes
þat his hert and his honde schulde hardi be boþe