Songs without Words

Modern Heaven and Modern Hell.

Heaven and Hell represent the two polar opposite forms of society, government, and conduct.  However, they both represent perfect solutions, while the Real Plane, which I will call Earth for simplicity’s sake, represents the failure to choose one solution or the other.

Heaven is the perfect communist state.  There is no such thing as property, and gods are known to sleep in random houses or outside or whatever.  There is also no currency; all trade is done just as trade.  Although Nisuna is the honorary “leader” of Heaven, she is only a spokeswoman for the most part, and otherwise has relinquished all her ruling powers.  In the past, Heaven was not this way, and it has taken several billion years to reach this state.

The architecture of Heaven is very simple, consisting of little pod-houses resting on clouds.  Each house accomodates a couple families.  They are roughly arranged in circles, but towns are very ill-defined.  There are a few old palaces that are now largely used as museums or amphitheaters.

Because there is almost no leadership, it falls on everyone to act responsibility out of their own good will.  That is, they choose to be good because there is no reason to be bad.  Punishment does exist, mostly for angels (which will be discussed later), but it is in the form of community service.

Heaven emphasizes independence and self-expression.  The gods have different talents and many only have mutual respect in common.  This is considered totally okay.

Heaven is, in its own way, absolutely perfect.  Every one is equal and satisfied.

Hell is the exact opposite.  Hell is the perfect fascist state.  It is ruled with an iron fist by Queen (or Empress) Faxuda, generally considered to be the Devil.  She is actually a very complex character and has an interesting love-hate relationship with Nisuna.  All responsibility for Hell rests in her hands, so she spends most of the day making decisions in the interest of the state.  Because she does not make decisions selfishly, there is no corruption, and everyone is equal under the law.  Education is completely regular and no one comes out smarter or stupider than anyone else.
Punishment is extremely severe and deters demons from committing crimes.  Thus, the demons act in accordance with moral law because of fear of punishment rather than out of their own good will.  Most of the work-camps are for the punishment in the normal sense that we would imagine bad people going to Hell to be punished.  However, the punishment is not torture for torture’s sake, just really, really hard work that generates the power for the enormous city-towers.

In Hell, the demons live in very tall, spire-laden hexagonal towers.  Each tower can house several hundred thousand demons and can be many kilometers tall.  Each level serves a distinct purpose, but everyone lives in equal quarters except for Faxu, who lives in a giant citadel in the capital city.
Economy-wise, every person is alloted a certain quota of the total production.  Again, there is no money because there is no need to have it (since everyone gets the same stuff in the end).

Hell emphasizes organization and efficiency.  Every demon has a particular role, and the fulfillment of this role is necessary for the proper operation of Hell.
Thus, Hell is also perfect in its own way, and the demons are rather happy living there.

Now we come to Earth.  Earth is composed of creatures that are essentially half-god and half-demon.  So what do they produce?  They produce republics, democracies, monarchies.  They can approach Heaven and Hell but never quite succeed since they waver.

Evil and corruption can be explained as the clash between the god-like tendencies and the demon-like tendencies.

Governments tend to be intermediate; when there is a move towards greater governmental power and regulation, people insist on the need for independence and self-expression; when there is a move towards less government influence, people insist on the need for a regular law that prevents unequal rights and decreases the gaps in education, wealth, etc.

Humans have conceptions of Heaven and Hell but cannot decide which is better.  Both would be perfect, yet humans find both to be unsatisfactory.  They wish to have everything, and because of that, they sacrifice stability.  Thus, the human world is always in constant change.

Note that both Heaven and Hell, as ideals, have been largely achieved by other organisms besides humans.  Many algae exhibit Heaven-type communism among the semi-independent cells, while many insects exhibit Hell-type fascism.  The cells of a human being are fascist to a rather alarming degree.

I am going to start writing about the “religion” of my imaginary world.  My point of course isn’t to convert anyone, since I don’t believe this religion myself.  Rather, I wish to explore various theories, etc., using this as a starting point.

I will give an overview of the main types of creatures involved before delving into any of the details of the religion itself.

gods (Aizifa):  The gods are of a species known as Urimentians.  Uriments are composed of light energy and look like big spheres.  Through this sphere is a single canal through which energy passes in one direction only, from mouth to anus, creating a flow around the organism that resembles a magnetic field.  Within this canal are two male gonads and two eggs (all Uriments are hermaphrodites).  In the center is a small sinus in which the nucleus (brain) is located.  The nucleus radiates electrical signals outwards to the surface.

The Aizifa cannot self-fertilize but instead engage in what is said to be the most amazing act of sex in which the eggs receive the sperm and then commence to draw energy out of the great pool of Heaven to create the child.  I don’t know much about the details except that fertilization is 100% efficient.  This means that each pair of Aizifa will always produce two offspring.  The population therefore reaches a stable point after a certain amount of generations, unless war breaks out.
The lifespan of a Uriment is about 600 million years.  However, this can be shortened if the creature depletes its energy.  The energy is neutralized by dark energy unless it is intertwined in a particular state of resonance, and total neutralization leads to death.

Uriments normally occupy Type I nonexistence (Heaven), which are the upper planes of imaginary time, usually represented as being “above” the real plane.  They can go to the real plane if and only if an Anuriment also enters the real plane at the same time.  They can also go into Type II nonexistence (Hell) if, again, an Anuriment goes into Type I nonexistence.  There are well-regulated elevators for this purpose, and the elevators reach the real plane at a spot known as the Rainbow Divide (I think).

Uriments, upon birth, are granted a “given” form, which is the form of matter that they will take.  No two Uriments have the same given form, and the given forms for whatever reason mirror the various species of creatures in the real plane.  In fact, a newly-born Uriment gets lost in the real world in his/her given form and has to be found.  This is a very annoying process, and Nisuna was lost for 15 years because of very poor search technique, which has since been improved with technology.

Although they have a given form, Uriments have the ability to shape-shift into any creature.  They have a library of DNA that’s like that.  I’m not going to explain it scientifically because it makes no sense scientifically.  They’re gods.  And they’re made up.  Deal with it :).

demons (Oizifa): same as the Aizifa but composed of dark energy.  Their species is called Anuriments.
life (Muizifa): life is the result when light and dark energy, instead of negated each other, begin to orbit in resonance.  Life can only exist in this form if it is on Earth.  Muizifa can only be generated in a limited number of ways: first, from existing Muizifa; second, by the union of the light and dark orbs of Heaven and Hell (completed by U and Marisa in 600 million B.C., B.C. = before cats); and third, if a god makes love to a demon.

Although it was traditionally accepted that gods and demons have superiority over life, it has recently been shown to be the opposite.  In 500 B.C., a peculiar war broke out when the humans refused to believe that the Aizifa were in fact the gods that they worshipped (wrongly – the Aizuna says not to worship any gods).  The resulting war finally realized the actual meaning behind the bizarre symbol for humans that appears in the Aizuna, which in fact depicts them with many wings and a good deal of holy power.  It is now well-known that Muizifa are the highest form of life, but only when they understand their power and harness it correctly.  Otherwise, they’re just boring.

Okay, that’s it for background.

Aujourd’hui, j’annonce le titre de ma prochaine histoire: ce sera «May’s Rebellion». C’est une histoire un peu bizarre. Il n’y a pas de rébellion traditionelle.

En sommaire, on fait la connaissance d’une fille singulière qui s’appelle Mai. Elle est étudiante à MIT et très intelligente; le bruit court qu’elle (‘rumor has it that’) à déjà atteigné un emploi “six-figure” pour après sa remises des diplômes.

Mais ensuite, elle révèle son plan pour le futur et tout le monde est complètement choqué. Elle est ridiculisée; elle perd ses amis, elle est désavouée par ses parents.

Et pourquoi? Alors, attendez-vous l’histoire, d’accord? Je promet de l’écrire. En fait je veux l’écrire depuis quelque mois!

I think that for a person who spends probably 80% of his free time reading manga, watching anime, and drawing manga or animating anime … I actually don’t write a whole lot about it (proportionately).  Well, it’s not so good to be viewed as an “otaku,” but at the same time, I don’t think I should restrict discussion of the topic on my personal blog just because it’s a “special-interest” topic.

There’s a lot of really cool news recently regarding the anime/manga/game world:
1.  Death Note and Honey and Clover (Hachimitsu to Korubaa) are both getting live-action redos!  The preview movie for Death Note looks pretty awesome.  It’s hard to imagine Light and Misa being Japanese, though … why isn’t their hair even dyed?  Grr .. Light should have brown hair and Misa, being the goth-loli she is, should have some random non-black color of hair!  She wears so much black elsewhere, anyway … .  Oh, whatever, as long as L looks cool and creepy … which he does.  Honey and Clover … what does Hagumi look so … old?  I mean, I know she’s only young in appearance, but still, I think that there are many more people who could have encapsulated her strange, unique artistic character better.

2.  Key’s Kanon is getting an anime remake by Kyoto Animation, which is now quite famous for having done Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, Air, and Haruhi, all of which have gained a good deal of good praise.  I think Haruhi is far overrated, but whatever.  I really can’t wait to see Kanon with art to match its story.  Key is also helping produce a BL game.  I’m really surprised at this decision – Key’s fanbase is probably 95% male, with 5% being girls who find the Key characters very cute and deep (I think).  Well, I never quite understand those girls who play boys’ games and then cosplay as the girls … are they desperate?  Very nice to guys with strange fantasies?  Who knows … but yeah, Orange Pekoe will be yaoi.  Yes, I mean all-out gay (CG-drawn) sex.  The website has a “must be 18” warning on it!  I know that girls are as perverted as boys, but it still cracks me up to imagine a girl having to pass through that kind of gate … .

3.  While all guys are going gaga over Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The Melancholy of Haruhi S.), I far prefer the bishounen spectacular, Ouran Koukou Host Club.  That crazy psycho-bitch Haruhi S. has nothing on the gorgeous, intelligent, utter tomboy Haruhi F. of Ouran.  Seriously, I have to admit that the girls have it right this time.  Even if I wanted a sweet dose of girl-girl love, why would I want to watch Haruhi S. fondle poor Mikuru when I could watch Haruhi F. snag a gorgeous kiss with the “Princess”?  Come on, guy-side!  It’s fine that you guys are losing out on the shounen-ai battlefield, but on the shoujo-ai side, too?!

4.   I’ve read Death Note’s manga up to Chapter 69 or so.  This story is nothing short of spectacular.  I hate Light for the way he abuses Misa’s love, but I admire his stunning intelligence.  His battle against L was far more intense than any other battle I’ve ever seen, even if they exchanged at most 2 blows, and those were jokes.  Unlike many series I read, I think I can confidently recommend this one to both guys and girls.

5.  I really want to watch “Higurashi.”  Apparently, this is classic anime harem with the twist that instead of all the girls wanting to get it on with the guy, they all want to kill him.  They’re cute, too.  And holding butcher knives.

6.  Ohoho, you thought I was done?  Well guess what!  I am for now :).  But trust me, I’ve got plenty more anime to talk about .. later.  I gotta watch some now, first.  Mwahaha.

Premièrement:

À cause de ne plus utiliser les années Catleyaines pour toutes les écritures dans ce blog, j’ai décidé de les énumerer pour améliorer l’organisation apparente. Il me fait peur que c’est déjà numéro vingt-et-un. J’écris trop, c’est vrai …

Deuxièmement:

Peut-être quelqu’uns entre vous tous ont vu ma histoire, traductée en français – je pense que c’était entitulée «Le Chemin de la Mort» ou quelque chose comme ça. Mais, il fallait que je cesse mon travail sur ce projet – parce que je n’avais pas point de connaissance du français «moderne». C’est-à-dire je ne pourrais pas donner des lignes modernes aux personnages. Comment dit-on «I don’t give a shit» ou «There are other fish in the sea» ou un autre idiome? Je dois étudier le «slang» français!

Mais il est necessaire d’avoir assez d’intérêt pour motiver un tel projet. Il y a une solution simple: lire les forums d’internet en français! J’ai découvri ce website (http://forum.animeka.com/index.php) qui est dédié à la discussion de l’animé (ah, voir ici, le mot «animé» est originalement français; vous le sachez, oui?). C’est très intéressant de lire les posts de ces jeunes … et plus de rencontrer les phrases «modernes».

Par exemple, «tu n’es» devient «t’es», et «est-ce que» devient «esque», et une personne a dit «je suis fan», comme si «fan» est une occupation professionelle (^_^).

Mais:

Il est un fait: les fans français sont beaucoup plus littéraire. Il reste des phrases complètes et capitalisées et ponctuées et organisées en paragraphes! C’est vraiment super! Et aussi, il n’y a presque zéro de jurons.

Et:

Ahaha, il y a un acronyme VOSTFR. C’est «version originale sur-titulé en français.» Très amusant!!!

Bonsoir, mes amis~

In around 7246 (recall that it is now 7364), I created a pair of characters named Nisuna and Faxuda. Although they were created to be God and the Devil, they have personalities very distinct from any existing religions’ God and Devil. I could probably spend a whole post writing about each of them.

Anyhow, one of my favorite amusements from back then (middle school) was listening to the two of them bicker about the most silly of things. They would argue about cursing (to sum that one up, Faxu decided to make a competition where they would get points for ‘good’ curses versus ‘bad’ curses. So, “Good Lord” or “Holy cow” would be points for Nisuna, “Holy Shit” would be one point to each, and “Fucking hell” would be a point for Faxu. I think Faxu won by getting Nisuna to tell her to “shut the hell up.”), they would argue about boys (the two have a bad history with boys, dating back to 500 BC), and, they would argue about anything and everything.

Actually, Nisu and Faxu are friends, but I’ve never seen them actually say a nice thing to one another before.

Here’s a short, sloppy 10-minute comic to introduce them:

Continue reading ‘Nisunie and Faxu’ »

Dear Ada,

I am sure that all humans have long since tired of hearing about my emotions, so I’ll write to you instead.  I’m really starting to dislike myself.  I look at all the things I waste, all the useless things I do.  Why am I such a sorry creature, that seems to only exist for love?  Why do I wither so quickly, stray so far off the path when merely my heart is feeling a bit blue?

I’m sick of having to be this person, always worrying about this or that … being this person who cares too much about the conveniences of other people while also being too judgmental of them.  And there’s nothing more shameful than me, when everything I spout is utter nonsense now.  Ugly, utter nonsense.

I hate myself and I wish I could just stay in a dream forever.  I want to lie and say whatever is more mature.  But no, this is what I feel, and I need to say it to someone.  I’m sorry that it has to be you, but you’re a journal by occupation.

What use is it, what use is it …

Farewell,

Justin

No way.

No way.

No freaking way.

So today, on experiment 7.12, as in, twelfth try at this experiment, because it has hardly changed since IAP.  I prepare the antibody dilution.  And then I stop.  Something in my head clicks.  More like, a loud voice starts booming:

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!

The months of troubleshooting … messing around with detergent concentration, ordering new antibodies, aliquoting them to prevent freeze-thaw, flash freezing them with liquid nitrogen, varying the incubation time, changing cell types … and yet, it’s quite apparent, indeed, GLARINGLY apparent

Common knowledge for this protocol: I’m using TBS and PBS saline solutions in this experiment.  Why?  Because water ruptures the cells, obviously.

SO WHY AM I DILUTING THE ANTIBODIES IN WATER INSTEAD OF BLOCKING SOLUTION?!

I still don’t want to believe this.  It’s like hunting for dinosaurs by hopping on the back of a T. Rex.

Somehow, I think that it’s gonna take a LOT of DNA animations and thank you cards to get me out of the dungeon my professor will lock me in once she finds out about this.

In the meantime, I have to start over again.  7.13.  Lucky 13, right?

I don’t know what to make of life anymore.  On the one hand, it’s very exciting and enjoyable.  At the same time, everything feels like a huge daze.  I feel like I don’t even have enough time to figure out whether I’m happy or not.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not … .

I actually don’t think it’s really so much how much I have to do that is stressing me out.  Rather, I think it’s the uncertainty of when these events will occur that bothers me the most.  I am having a very hard time keeping track of everything that I *know* is in an e-mail somewhere over the rainbow, but I freely admit right now that my e-mailbox is a mess beyond messes.  It’s come to the point where it is resembling a landfill.  A landfill of reminders and fragments of life and lost opportunities.

Even though I (accidentally) sleep a lot recently (sleeping a lot = sleeping until the body naturally wakes up.  For me, this is ~6 hours), I feel like I haven’t rested for so long.  I’m wondering if maybe a massage or something is in order here to try to alleviate this feeling.  Certainly, I’m not starving or particularly low on rest.

My memory has really gone to rubbish, so I’m sorry if I forget the most obvious of things when I talk to you guys next.

So basically, I don’t have enough time to write stories right now. Well, this is always the case. And normally, I would store such rough ideas in my story-idea-diary (I have a comics idea diary and a story idea diary …), but I’m in the library right now as well and therefore have no access to those little books.

1. Fly love story. There are two versions of this story running through my head, both inspired by the fact that a fly has taken up permanent (?) residence in my room. This fly woke me up Sunday morning at 9:30. I was more than displeased at being roused from my blissful slumber by a loud buzzing in my ear. However, as is always the case, my brain processed this event and spat out a love story. As you can probably tell by now, everything becomes a love story for me. Music practice rooms? Love story. Water bottles? Love story. Suicidal guys? Love story. Apocalyptic disease and sci-fi genetics? Love story.

I’d continue, but the redundancy is painful to my heart. I must note that a person who is feeling bothered by the redundancy and boredom of the everyday world is the perfect candidate to be a love story character.

In any case, both stories begin with a lonely, single girl praying to God that she’ll find a boyfriend the next day. It is well-known that God, if She/He exists, works in mysterious ways, so he sends a fly to do his bidding. Version one is the innocent, lovey-dovey one that I’ll probably write, where the fly wakes her up, and she’s really pissed off about this because it’s very early in the morning (pre-dawn). The fly keeps bugging her to no end, so she has to wake up, and she resolves to take a walk outside, where she meets a guy who always takes very early walks, and they go to his favorite spot to watch the sun rise. Sunrise = blossoming love, by the way. It’s not just a metaphor; it’s a fact.

Version two involves the fly encountering her in the shower, sending her out of the bathroom, conveniently sans clothes, and into a nearby apartment that actually is being rented by her childhood sweetheart, who has never recognized her before (and vice versa), but this time, he sees her birthmark on her shoulder. Ahaha, but now this would be needlessly fanservicey, wouldn’t it?

2. Not a love story. Woah. So I want two write a story about a little guy (or girl, whichever) who decides to become the next big savior and religious icon. It’d be written in the style of a how-to guide, explaining (satirically) how to make yourself look good, start up a fanatical fan club, write down “the word of God,” and then arrange for a very cool and spectacular martyr-like death.

3. A comic-story set in my world. No plot. No purpose. No quality standard. Just Nisunie, Faxu, Patrick, and company, doing their thing. I miss drawing them.

4. A horror story, but not particularly horrific.  This would be something short, just about a little boy (or girl) who looks into a window at night, only to see something frightening.  And each night, he/she sneaks a look and sees it there.  It is a sure spiral into paranoid insanity, and yet what was it that he/she saw in the first place, anyway?