Leaderboard

No, earlier I mentioned that I was bullied throughout school by someone named Justin, to the point where the name is a reminder and I have to tell myself that not all Justins are like that, Tony is more representative of the Justin I knew. I guess I was more in Tedd's position, but not exactly. I've had similar experiences as well, but I haven't seen Justin since highschool, I've seen his mother around, heck his grandmother lives a couple of apartments down from me and his cousin stops by from time to time to help her with things, I guess there could be a number of reasons he's not in the area, I haven't thought the need to ask. Oh of course, Diane certainly stuck her foot in her mouth there. I'm pretty certain that's why I enjoy it as well, many times I've wished that people could stop treating others like crap just because they look different or have different interests or preferences or whatever. EGS helps keep that hope alive.

I do not recall what prompted it, but I've been thinking about this lately. What is existence? Can you say that a fictional character, such as Diane exists? My take on it is that in some sense she must, else why are we able to discuss her. She exists in Dan's mind, who is using his vision of her personality to write her into his comic, and she exists in his community of fans; she even has a few works of prose on the web describing her. Yet clearly, she does not exist in the same sense as a real person. Your forgiveness/unforgiveness can affect your neighbor. It will never matter to Diane. My dad passed away a number of years ago. Is he a real person? He obviously was a real person, he's not fictitious, but today he shares many characteristics with web comic characters. He, like Lincoln, Napoleon, or Guy Fawkes, exists primarily as a memory, or as a legend. My youngest kids barely remember him. What about my hypothetical descendants? Do they exist? They will exist (presumably I'll have at least some more), So it seems they are also not merely fictitious, but they have only a potential existence at this point. Even among fictitious characters, there seems to be a hierarchy of realness; how fleshed out the character is, how well presented, how memorable. "Is often discussed" seems to be an observable aspect of this, or "Is often reused", like Sherlock Holmes. Actually, since a character can be viewed as property, it has a legal existence. You could also make a case for people, as personalities, only exist in their own and other people's heads. To be fair, you could record details in a notebook, you could create a fictional character with perceived similar characteristics, and that personality will play out through the actions of that person's body to affect the physical world around them, but in a very real sense, the actual person is the neural software running on the meat based computer. Heh, I get what you are saying. I like and subscribe to the turn the other cheek philosophy, I have seen situations defuse by one party taking it upon themselves to not pursue a conflict, and it seems healthier. But there does seem to be times when you pretty much have to stand up to the bully and let him know you won't back down. <shrug> I'm no oracle, with an infallible sense of right and wrong. I think for me, sometimes missing a third option has been more of an issue.

BOOO!

Well, you can say this for Mr. Phelps. That was practically a Mission Impossible.

And, of course, I did a thing:

I've had fun with the thought that maybe everyone in Moperville is hiding the fact that they have magic or someone they know has magic...