Various And Sundry Bits

[ladysprite]

True love is having a husband who, when you climb into bed at 2:30 in the morning (two hours after said husband crashed) after unexpectedly prolonged online roleplaying sessions and other miscellaneous babbling, not only doesn't scold you, but moves over so you can put your cold feet on his shins. Truly, I am blessed - both in my friends and in my choice of significant other.

In other news, I am tired.

CNN just had a news piece about yet another person writing a book about yet another person who Really Killed Kennedy, And This Time It's Really Him For Sure. And all I can think of is that I really want there to be a Mary Celeste-style LARP, set on the grassy knoll and in the book depository, where every single damn character is there to shoot JFK. Or prevent his shooting. Including aliens, an alternate version of Kennedy himself from a dark future, and Jack the Ripper.

I also plan on making a deathbed confession that I shot JFK. Just so y'all know. It seems to be the new trendy thing to do, and hey, it guarantees that someone will write a book about me.

Normal people never have to ask their spouses, "Honey, what do you think would happen to a vampire in a sweat lodge? Would it work at all?" Of course, normal spouses wouldn't give the question the serious consideration it deserves.

The new Strawberry Santa Shower Jelly I got from Lush yesterday really does look alarmingly like a baby-sized version of The Blob from that horrible 1950's horror movie. Perhaps I should wait to use it for a day when I'm not quite this sleepy.

Don't do a Google search on 'The Blob' to find out the year it was made. Just don't. It's not quite as bad as the time I wanted to look up the name of the Japanese luck goddess and couldn't find my copy of Deities and Demigods and stupidly decided to search on 'Japanese Goddesses,' but.... it's close.

I had something else to say here, and it was quite profound, but it has been lost in the fog that is my brain this morning....

Comments

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

yeah I agree - i assumed if they sweat, it would be blood, in little tiny droplets, perhaps with some clear liquid.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Why assume they would sweat blood? We don't. Nor do we sweat hamburgers, french fries and pizza (or whatever else we've been eating). Sweating blood makes very little metabolic sense -- there is too much in blood that is too valuable to lose that way.

I was thinking temperature control -- we sweat to try and maintain a temperature. Do vampires need to maintain a temperature? If so, what temperature? Is the range wider or narrower than for humans?

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

probably because in some lines of vampire fiction - they bleed tears, and are more empty vessels with no fluid. It depends on how you view the vampire, and the amount of phsyiology versus magic/occult you include.

As for temperature control, the same thing applies - why would a vampire need to control its temperature if it isn't really alive. The problem here is applying living physiology to something that is more classically seen as undead.

Now with the above and sweating, I could also see a breakdown of the bloods component parts, and their being something more aking to water if they did sweat.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

Exactly -- how is the metabolism explained? Is it biological, mystical, or what? Do they have or maintain a body temperature? And so on. Before you decide on what (if any) effect a sweat lodge would have on a vampire you have to decide how your vampire works. Lots of different fiction postulates different ways -- though many bits of fiction don't try for, or at least, don't achieve a coherent or self-consistent set of rules.

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

you see part of the problem with the idea is vampires are in some traditions always cold - so if they have sweat they should either be running at a constant lower temperature (compare us with say cats), covered in a fine sheen of sweat a lot in hot conditions (slimey vampires....ewww) or maybe panting, or well yeah..you get the picture.

I still say they don't or if they do its the answer above. your interpretation may be massively different, and that's fine.

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

Or to put your analogy to work - we don't sweat french fries but we do sweat the component parts of salt and water.

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

We sweat the major available liquid - salty water - minus the (biologically) expensive bits. Sure that does come in through our mouth, most everything in our body is ingested. (Well, some of the water probably comes partially from being breathed in, but that's not the issue.)