So Tina over at fidlet.com has recently written a blog entry addressing the depiction of vampires in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". She writes:

It is repeatedly said in the show that vampires (and other demons) do NOT possess free will. Why is that? Well, it seems to be due to thier intrinsically evil natures. That is, humans have free will because they have a soul, which gives them a conscience: so they have something within them that pulls them towards the good; there is some motivation in them, intrinsically, to do the right thing. Vampires do not have this: there is nothing in them that motivates them to do what is right...

Yet, while the characters recognize that vampires don't have free will, they nonetheless seem to hold them morally responsible for their actions. Buffy has no problem killing creatures that simply cannot help doing what they do. But she will never kill a human being, on the grounds that they do have a soul (i.e., free will). This seems rather mysterious to me: so you willingly kill those that had no freedom to anything but evil, but will not kill those that freely do evil.

So being something of a Buffy "expert", I wrote up a comment to post over there. And then it ended up being so lengthy that I figured I'd just post it as a blog entry. Be warned, I'm kinda exhausted (it's past 5 AM...), so it's probably not the best example of my work, but it should make sense. So Tina, this one's for you. 🙂 (more...)

So it's up -- I had no idea how looooong it was turning out to be until I finished writing it and said, "Bloody hell, that's long!" So I posted it in my writings directory, since it's way too long to call a blog entry. Click here to open it up in another window and give it a read. Feel free to comment right here, though, assuming you have any comments. If you've got lengthier remarks to add, e-mail works too.

And if you read through the entire thing, treat yourself to a batch of Chocolate Chip Cheese Cookies, eh? 😉

A Crayon Haiku #10 is up. Enjoy.

Apparently lost power tonight for a split-second, so the machine went dead and I lost a bunch of crap that I had in open unsaved windows on my desktop. Ugh. The good news is that I'd apparently saved the long Christianity post recently, so that should be up once I write a suitable introduction for it. Shooting for sometime this evening.

Weird thing? Tonight was the first night in ages that I ever fell asleep watching television. And apparently the power went out around the same time that I did.

Coincidence? Did the split-second of inactivity on the screen cause me to pass out? Or was it the work of aliens? I DON'T KNOW.

Also, today happens to be my sister's birthday. She doesn't read my blog (at least that I'm aware of), and she's told Mom that Scary-Crayon is the work of a madman, but I'll wish her a happy birthday here anyway. Happy birthday, Kristen.

FIN.

Still working on a response to Mac's three posts (one-two-three) that addressed my previous entry entitled "Why I am not a Christian (in part)". From the part that I've written so far, it's shaping up to be a lengthy amalgamation of my thoughts on the matter rather than a sustained and pointed reply, but it should be a good read for those of you interested in the subject. I should get it up tomorrow, but if not, Sunday for sure. In the meantime...

Yep. Totally awesome. The Man of Steel sandwiched in between two boxes of the greatest cereals ever -- Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles. I'm stoked and quite pleased, too. (more...)

First off, thanks to all who commented and e-mailed me in response to the recent posts regarding Christianity. Mac, by the way, has written two additional posts in response to that other one and some of the comments that I've posted here and on his site, so give those a look if you're interested in the discussion. I plan to respond to both of those (and a number of the comments therein) in one more big post to cap off this present discussion, but not tonight. I was thinking I would, but I'm exhausted. Maybe tomorrow. And then we'll go back to the wacky and the usual exploits of my life for a while. I was digging through some of my old blog entries -- like, way before Scary-Crayon and this current blog -- and there's a lot of stuff in there I'd like to post again for the current audience. Like really freaky dreams and stuff.

Anyway. Tonight, a few brief notes on stuff. (more...)