I would sell an organ in a heartbeat even if I didn't need the money. I know that sounds weird, but let me explain. Since before I was born my Dad has been in and out of hospitals and dialysis. His kidneys had failed, so I grew up hearing about transplants, hanging in hospitals for days. I've been able to follow medical jargon on tv since I was 12. I aced my anatomy class with very little studying.

My dad was on dialysis for over nine years and had 5 transplants. Most people can only survive on dialysis alone for about ten years. Then a 18 year old boy and his 16 year old sister were in a car accident. When their parents arrived to the hospital, both were braindead. The parents took them off life support, even though they hadn't been on it for even a day, and they donated every organ that could be harvested. My dad got their eighteen year old son's kidneys. Because of those parent's selflessness, my dad is alive today. We owe that family everything, and I think about that often. When I went in to renew my driver's license on my 18th birthday, the first thing I did was check the box indicating I wanted to be an organ donor. Some religious nut once made the mistake of questioning my decision. I looked at him and said: "Because some kid checked that box, my dad is alive today. I will remember him forever for that, and I look forward to making a difference for a family in the same way".

Organ donation is something I feel very strongly about, and encourage everyone to give the ultimate gift to someone who needs it. You will live on forever in someone's grateful heart.

I love Halloween. Then I get to discuss things I love!

Anyway, to answer the question, no. A zombie is nothing more than a walking pile of meat. When a person becomes a zombie, they first die, and then lose everything that makes them....alive. Zombies have virtually no reasoning skills, no distinct personality, do not feel pain and do not need to breathe. They can walk (sort of, and depending on which movie you watch), they can see just not comprehend the world around them, and feel only the most basic instinct any living creature can feel: the need to eat. Technically, they don't even NEED to eat. It doesn't sustain them. But even when we're born we have the urge to eat. It's burned deep into us and can't be shaken. Perhaps the reason they seek out live flesh is that they've regressed back to a hunter mentality. Early humans were hunters; predators. It's in our genes. Of course, as we developed empathy and the like, we suppressed our need to hunt all the time and found other ways to get food. But zombies are stripped of empathy. They feel nothing, both mentally and physically. They ARE dead. It's just that their bodies haven't gotten that message yet.

"When There's No More Room In Hell, The Dead Will Walk The Earth" ~ Dawn Of The Dead

Aw yes, horror movies. My bread and butter. ^^ I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite. The Evil Dead is a good one, though I actually prefer Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness. Those two have a lot more impressive in terms of character changes in Ash. In the first one, he's kinda whiny and wussy, I'll be honest. Then in the second one we see that change into the awesome Dead hunter we all know and love. Then the third one has the ridiculously over-the-top moments that make it so wonderful. Also like SAW. It was a very interesting premise, amazingly executed by two newcomers who clearly had a love for the genre. Not to mention the fantastic acting of Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell. They had amazing chemistry, and managed to turn these characters who were supposed to be bastards into people we could empathize with. I never really got into the others' in the series, though. Of course I ADORE George Romero's Dead series. Especially the somewhat forgotten Land Of The Dead. It was fun to see the environment change into a apocalyptic future. Also adored the characters, which is what often draws me into a movie. Great chemistry between John Leguizamo's Cholo and Simon Baker's Riley. I was devastated when Cholo died, though. T_T It took me a while to really appreciate the Hostel series. At first I thought it was mindless, then I watched it again and really liked Jay Hernandez's Paxton. Halloween both the remake and original I enjoyed mostly for their use of music. Especially in the original, it was far less terrifying to watch in mute. Rob Zombie's remake skillfully used the music again, particularly in the scene where a young Michael Myers kills the nurse with a fork. As his mother and Dr Loomis run in, the music builds to a crescendo until you can't hear anyone else. Young Michael is held back by a guard, and when his mother nears him he screams at her, eyes wild. The image freezes, and the music cuts entirely. It truely marks the rebirth of Michael Myers, the very moment when he became a psychopath. Also, he never says another word the rest of the movie. And as for Mr Zombie, his first movie House Of 1000 Corpses and it's sequel The Devil's Rejects blew me away. The first gives us an introduction to the Firefly family and their deranged ways, giving us the sickest "family" since the Hewitt's. The second really intrigued me. It was focused entirely on the Fireflys as they flee from the cops, and by the end of it I found myself actually ROOTING for them! Even aside from the murder, torture and whatnot, we see that, in their own fucked up way, they loved each other. Again, in their own fucked up way. I was so amazed at how Rob Zombie could take antagonists and turn them into protagonists. 

I could ramble on for hours about horror movies (I've been subscribing to Fangoria for about five years now) but I'll just cut it short and make a few more suggestions:

 Thir13en Ghosts
The Thing
The After Dark Horrorfest series (though I haven't seen the recent six movies, and fuck Unrest that movie's crap)
Ginger Snaps
Shaun Of The Dead (while not technically horror, it's made by two zombie movie fanboys and is HILARIOUS!)

Last of all, for those of you looking for a new scary series, check out Supernatural. That show is soooo incredible. It's the first show to scare me since the early days of The X-Files, and the Winchester brothers, Dean and Sam (played by Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki respectively) are soooo HOT- I mean.....um.....good at what they do. ^^ It delves into every kind of horror, from ghosts to demons to things I've never even heard of, and also has a sense of humor. They even did an ep recently that was all in black and white, took place in a town that looked like a European village, and featured Dracula, the Wolf Man and the Mummy. I fangirl-squealed myself to death!

Anyway, I could easily make more suggestions, I'm already listing a bunch in my head, but I'll stop here. *sigh* Maybe one day I'll write a book or something on horror movies. Based on this ramble, you guys would read that, right?

Church and state should absolutely be separate. Growing up, I felt pressured to follow Christianity because that seemed to be what everyone, including my governement, followed. I tried to find solace in God and church, but I never felt anything. The more I looked for comfort, the more I found hypocrisy. I finally looked elsewhere and found Witchcraft, along with the spiritual comfort I'd been looking for. But the first time I tried to explain it to my parents, they asked if I was worshipping Satan. They were open enough to hear out my explanation and welcome my newfound religion, but I'm afraid of what others may do if they find out. The government long ago drilled "under God" into the public consciousness, and unfortunately that is still around. I hope that now, as my generation begins to have children, the idea of Christianity as the one true religion will start to wane, so we can have real religious acceptance in our country.

Damion Starr was the name of one of my characters. I watched 'The Omen' and liked the name "Damien", but wanted a way to feminize and take it away from 'Omen'. I changed the spelling, putting in an 'o' because it seemed more feminine (in my little world ^^;;). Starr went with the story, which was a sci-fi epic. (Yeah, that's right. EPIC) I chose a middle name only recently after I fell in love with 'Farscape'. I adored the name "Aeryn" as well as the character, so I adopted that into my name. I've been known as Damion Starr online ever since. ^^

Probably my strong sense of devotion. When my parents argued, I used to side blindly with her because she was my blood. I yelled at a good friend because he made his girlfriend, another good friend, cry. I have refused to watch Stargate: Atlantis because they got rid of my favorite character, Aiden Ford, after the second season. I did the same to The X-Files when Mulder disappeared for a season, and SG-1 because of Daniel. Those were still perfectly good shows, but my stubbornly devoted fangirl side refused to let me watch. T__T

 Probably my worst birthday was my 14th. All went well. I had a bunch of my friends over for a slumber party, and we stayed up late watching movies. The next morning my head was pounding, so after my friends left I just went and passed out in my room. By that night, I was puking my guts out. I developed a fever of 103.8 and had to be hospitalized for a few days. I missed a week of school. That was one God-awful birthday.    -_-;;