Tuesday, February 23, 2021

Anti-paranoia

 If there is something comforting—religious, if you want—about paranoia, there is still also anti-paranoia, where nothing is connected to anything, a condition not many of us can bear for long. 

...

Either They have put him here for a reason, or he’s just here. He isn’t sure that he wouldn’t, actually, rather have that reason…

 - Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow 

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Quote: Yano Kentaro - On dedication to the craft

KENTARO:  Furthermore, let me ask you... What will you do if you can't become a manga author?

HONOO:  I'll become an assistant for Mr. Ishimori, and help complete the unfinished Cyborg 009 Angels arc!

KENTARO:  Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, ha!

KENTARO:  Anyone who considers what will happen if they can't make it...

KENTARO:  Won't make it!

KENTARO:  Listen well. I am the president of CAS, Yano Kentaro... Age-wise, I'm 22 and should be a fourth-year...

KENTARO:  But I've really repeated 2 times in a row, and am still a freshman!

HONOO:  What!?

KENTARO:  Do you have that kind of resolve, my boy?

KENTARO:  For you see... if I can't become a manga author...

KENTARO:  I am completely doomed!

- Aoi Honoo - Episode 2

Sunday, July 17, 2016

The Creation - James Weldon Johnson

 I remember a book my parents bought us when I was very young, probably right around 1980 of the creation, with lush photos of astronomical and geological processes to the very edge of each page.  And a few lines of the poem it contained stuck with me over the years, though I had no idea where it was from.

Recently occurred to me to try and track it down.  Turns out James Weldon Johnson wrote it.  And here it is:

AND God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
“I’m lonely—
I’ll make me a world.”

And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.

Then God smiled,
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said, “That’s good!”

Then God reached out and took the light in His hands,
And God rolled the light around in His hands
Until He made the sun;
And He set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said, “That’s good!”

Then God himself stepped down—
And the sun was on His right hand,
And the moon was on His left;
The stars were clustered about His head,
And the earth was under His feet.
And God walked, and where He trod
His footsteps hollowed the valleys out
And bulged the mountains up.

Then He stopped and looked and saw
That the earth was hot and barren.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world
And He spat out the seven seas;
He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed;
He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled;
And the waters above the earth came down,
The cooling waters came down.

Then the green grass sprouted,
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around His shoulder.

Then God raised His arm and He waved His hand
Over the sea and over the land,
And He said, “Bring forth! Bring forth!”
And quicker than God could drop His hand.
Fishes and fowls
And beasts and birds
Swam the rivers and the seas,
Roamed the forests and the woods,
And split the air with their wings.
And God said, “That’s good!”

Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that He had made.
He looked at His sun,
And He looked at His moon,
And He looked at His little stars;
He looked on His world
With all its living things,
And God said, “I’m lonely still.”

Then God sat down
On the side of a hill where He could think;
By a deep, wide river He sat down;
With His head in His hands,
God thought and thought,
Till He thought, “I’ll make me a man!”

Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled Him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of His hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image;

Then into it He blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Another Story

"Wake up," said the Ape. "I want to tell you another story. But first, give me a drink. I am exhausted."
 - The Arabian Nightmare, Robert Irwin

Friday, January 8, 2016

The Road of Kings

 I took a deep breath and stood up.  Turning to Boltar I said, "How do I find the Road of Kings?" He smiled at me and said, "You have just set your foot upon it."
   - The Road of Kings, John Boyle (Gloranthan Visions)

Friday, January 1, 2016

Mobs Inc.



Mobs, Inc. is a beautifully crafted little brawler where you play a minor dungeon baddie hopeful of quick promotion. As with most brawlers, game's a little frantic for my general tastes, but the pixely aesthetics are beautiful.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Spoon of Prosperity

Princess Bubblegum:  (deadpan)  Peeps will never starve in my eternal empire.
- Adventure Time, Red Starved