Drinking Blood

For everyone that has been waiting for my Halloween pictures to be put up, they can now be found right here. I’m hoping to get a few others from a friend as well since I didn’t have that many. It’s hard to imagine that Halloween was almost two weeks ago already. The last 13 days have seemingly flown by faster than most, which is odd because I’ve definitely had much more to do lately than earlier this semester.

Yesterday was finally a chance for me to get everything squared away with my classes. I took about an hour in the morning and between four and five hours in the afternoon to read all of the assignments that had been given to me for today. I had a reading in Hume on his conception of ideas, impressions, and the nature of cause and effect which turned out to be somewhat interesting. That was the short reading. For the longer, more time consuming reading, I had a gigantic collection of articles to read on the interaction of religion and law. I find the topic extremely interesting, but I’m a little overloaded with it since we’ve had six decently sized articles to read in the last few days (about 100+ pages of pretty dense reading). Along with doing that reading, I’ve been working on a three-part essay for my law class on criminal law.

In the middle of all of that work, I’ve still managed to take a little time to enjoy myself. I’ve still been playing Mace Griffin for Xbox, which I have no trouble saying is one of the most frustrating first-person shooters I’ve ever played. There are a few reasons that I’m constantly ready to burn it in effigy to the video game gods, but the main reason is the AI. Enemies know right where I am, and have impeccable aim, as soon as I even partially enter a room. An enemy could be a virtual mile away and as I creep out of a ventilation shaft they’re already popping of rockets at me. There is also an abundance of enemy snipers that are always picking at me as well, but it is hard to tell where the shots are coming from. To make matters worse, there are also more than a few jumping puzzles, which don’t really make sense for a first-person shooter. The final issue that irks me is the extreme distance between checkpoints. If you happen to die (which does happen often), you have to start from the beginning of your last checkpoint, which you probably hit 15 minutes ago. I hate replaying levels over and over again simply because you can’t save it in the middle of a mission.

Even after being so frustrated so many times, I still keep playing it and I don’t know why. Maybe I just really want to beat it and overcome my frustrations. Maybe I’m just stupid. I don’t really know.

Yesterday I also sat down to watch Interview with a Vampire with Kristin. We had both been wanting to see this for a while so we finally decided to watch it. After seeing it, I am once again intrigued by the vampire mythos. You never age, never get sick, heal extremely fast, and are much stronger than an average person. The only downfall is that you must have blood to survive and can only come out during the night. I’ve always thought that I wouldn’t mind being a vampire, but it is a hard decision weighing the pros and cons of the vampire life.

Would I be willing to forego seeing the sun ever again except in movies and pictures? I think I could probably do without that. Would I mind drinking blood? This would be a little harder to do, but I think I could bring myself to do it. Supposedly, depending upon which vampire legend you subscribe to, animal blood can be used as a substitute. Would I ever kill? This I don’t think I’d be able to bring myself to do. I could never imagine ending someone’s life since my own is so precious to me. I would never wish for my life to be taken from me so I would feel completely hypocritical doing it to someone else, even if I felt they were a detriment to society.

The biggest drawback, especially in my mind, is not having to kill or drink blood or never see the sun again, but it is immortality—seemingly the main reason most people want to be a vampire. It would be nice never to have to experience the cold, icy grip of death’s hand, but that would not stop those around you from dying as you continued to live. I could not imagine having everyone that I have come to know and love eventually pass away while I never grew one day older. The constant changing of groups of friends and the longing for past friends and family might be too much to handle. As horrific as death seems, it is almost more dreadful to imagine a life where those around you can never truly stay with you. A vampire may be immortal, but within that immortality comes the price of isolation.

I can’t really say why this was really on my mind, but it was, and now that I’ve gotten it out, I can go back to writing my homework on Hume. Anyways, never become a vampire until you think about it. It’s like having a pet—are you sure you’re ready for it? Except pets don’t drink blood and kill people. Maybe people should just get pets instead of being vampires…yeah, that would probably take care of it. So next time you see someone on the street, make sure to convince them that it is better to have a pet than be a vampire.