HappyBuddha

Thanks everyone, I'll put this advice to use.

Look at it this way - whenever you get kids, you'll be able to tell them "You think this is bad - once so-and-so happened to me, so don't tell me you've got it bad!" Small comfort, I know, but some all the same.

HappyBuddha hands out a big group hug

I think we're all agreed on that Tas

Tries to hug quietly. (He isn't quite as good at it as Perry, due to a rather extensive belly)

Depression is really hard to sum up in a few words, or apply across a broad spectrum. You really can't lay down a definition that applies to all depressed people, only say something that comes close to doing so. Believe it or not, I've known (and know) a significant number of depressed people in my life, and while some of the them I immmediatly think of when I'm reading this discussion, at other times I'll read someone's post and think "But what do you do if you're him, her? How do you escape it then?". I've met some people to whom depression is indeed hard-wired into their person, it's, as Perry put it, like nearsightedness - you have to live with it. For others, it's something that's come about because of his/her conditions, because of something that's happened or is happening. Endurance is a very good way of describing how it works, I agree - lasting it out is the best way to get out of depression. When you feel most ready to end it is when you're tired of struggling onwards.

Any of those who have read my recent "Nothing in the Beginning" story that I posted on these boards will know that I am a guy who loves to write humorous stories (and if you didn't read it - shame on you!). What most will not know is that Nothing is just a segment of a much larger story that I am working out in my head, involving God, the Peanut Gallery, the Angels, the Devil, and all those lovable humans who mess stuff up. Maybe Voltaire too, if I can squeeze him in. First off, let me explain how I get my ideas: My head is a wacked up place. People die in there. But the point is, I'm always thinking up wacky stuff throughout the day - something will happen, and my brain might go off with a marvelously exaggerated form of whatever just happened, or funny little twists to what I am experiencing will appear in my head. I set my mind on a hair trigger for these ideas, and then whenever one appears, I grab it, call it my precious, love it, hug it, name it George, then store it in a little mental vault of mine (which contains a lot of Georges, let me tell you...) But the problem is, lately, when I've tried to put these ideas to paper, they fragment. The stuff that comes out isn't funny. It's mainly because I've been trying to write stuff not involving God (the main character in Nothing, the only work completed for this story as of yet), but instead branching up into some of the other characters I've dreamed up. I think I've pinpointed whats stopping me, but I'm going to need help on developing convincing characters to go along with the funny little quirks, habits, mannerisms, dreams, aspirations, physical appearences, or other funny stuff about them. Any advice on developing characters would be greatly appreciated. Note that, unlike some of the work on these boards, these characters are (usually) modern day people (some might act a little out-of-century, buts that part of the charm) Here's a list of funny ideas in my head for you guys to get an idea of what I'm talking about: - The Holy Roman Emperor (in a much reduced form - basically, the only perks are free travel throughout the former empire, a small duckpond in Austria, and some other yet-to-be-determined stuff. Oh - diplomatic immunity, of course! Yes, I know technically the title of HRE doesn't exist anymore, use your suspension of disbelief) - An Eastern European farmer who is the 64th heir-in-exile to the kingdom of Raglut, a kingdom that once stretched for as far as the eye could see in Southwest England - though you have to keep in mind that, since it was surrounded by trees (with a little break in the forest where a section of road broke of to meet the field the kingdom occupied), the eye could only see for about 2 square miles, plus a little ways into the forest. It was ignored by the English because it wasn't worth the expense of sending troops to conquer it until the beginning of the 100 Years war, when Edward III's troops, passing by on their way to France, burned it, sacked it, and annexed it as an afterthought, sending the "Royal Family" into exile in Eastern Europe (actually the English didn't give a damn about the Royal Family, and forgot about them promptly), where they still foster a hatred for the English and a burning desire to reclaim their kingdom (which is taken up mostly by a stretch of highway, unbeknownst to them) (I think thats how you spell unbeknownst). Note that I'm considering having the farmer have an unhealthy obsession with "The Lion King". -The angel Gabriel (sorry for you guys who don't like me messing with Biblical characters & such - I don't mean to offend you or anything). Gabriel is essentially god's left hand man, and also his closest friend. He was one of the first angels created, and he is significantly different from the rest of the angels in attitude and looks. Attitude wise, whereas most of the angels are utterly subservient to god, a little bit vain, and also a bit good-naturedly ignorant at times (I'm working on the profile for the average angel, but basically one that, while it accomplishes God's needs, also deprives him of a good friend he can goof off with) , Gabriel is a friendly little guy with an attitude like God's, but not entirely the same. He too enjoys goofing off and shirking his duties for some fun down on Earth, going and playing tricks on mortals for fun (him and God thought they'd never stop laughing at that whole "I am who I am" thing - they got into histerics thinking about how much screwy theology was going to come out of that one). Also, whereas most angles look noble, superhuman, winged, celestially glorious basically, Gabriel looks strangely akin to Gonzo from the Muppet Babies, but with wings (and his nose isn't quite that big...). Gabriel does oddjobs for God that God doesn't trust other angels to do, or just thinks that Gabriel can do better. He is also, technically, an Archangel, but he rarely bothers going to the little Archangel councils or stuff they do because generally he'll make some joke that he thinks is marvelously funny, only to start laughing and realize that all the other Archangels are all giving him a "Huh?" look. [Note: I feel on the most stable ground with Gabriel, because I've sort of got a personality developed for him, and generally whenever I mess with unknowns like angels and God, it's easier to be funny because I'm developing whole new ground, going against stereotypes so reinforced that anything I do seems funny because it's contradictory to what you expect out of such a figure] - There are many, many, many more ideas that A) I don't have the time to type out, and Refuse to come out right now because they resent being named George Hopefully this will be enough for you guys to work on, so help me out here and remember - Help Buddha, and maybe one day you'll recieve a burnt cooking mitten! You never know...

Actually, I'd love a cloning microwave - I'd go and clone some hamburgers for dinner...

Did someone say my name? He looks around, and then realizes what the occasion is Oh, I see - Happy Birthday you guys!

I'll second Ozzy's award - I enjoyed reading your narrative a lot, and I enjoyed seeing it through your eyes too. Nice going.

(And this is page 4!) (The last one) appendage *. This confused the continent to an enormous degree, so much so that it stopped believing in the hulk, hoping that it would therefore go away. It stated that it did not believe in this hulk, and expected it to go away right then . Still, it was a bit surprised when with a sudden deep voiced “Biff!” that echoed throughout nearby space, the hulk disappeared in a cloud of a lucky rabbit’s tales that, when they cleared, revealed a vast empty space where once the hulk had been. _________________________________ * This is because cosmic debris and other erratic bits of floating matter in space have learned not to bump into the Boss, because they usually meet a rather violent end if they disrupt his concentration.

(This is page 3) (Duh) thought to itself, “That’s it, I’m converting to atheism – no moron would create a universe that would include something with such a loser life as the one I have.” ________________ The continent had been drifting for quite a long time now, drifting away from the floating hulk* of a deity that was still holding some great internal debate**. Of course, the continent didn’t know that this hulk was, in fact, God Almighty. The continent, being new to the universe, imagined that these hulks were quite normal, although there was a slight question mark in the continent’s mind about the reason for massive hulks everywhere. Truth to tell, it had a lot of questions marks for various things in it’s head. Every creature has asked questions like these at one point, questions like “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “Where do I belong?”, “Where the hell are my car keys?”, and the all time favorite “Dooo youuu speaaak eeeeengliiiiish?” After a while of puzzling over many more matters of cosmic scale, it realized the fundamental flaw in thinking of itself as an atheist – that not believing in any gods made you an adiest – atheists didn’t believe in religion. So it called itself an adiest for a while, before pondering the matter more, and deciding that, yes, it didn’t believe in religion, and so it was an atheist again. It repeated this not-believing-in-it maneuver for many things which otherwise bugged it, such as the concept of Pi, or why hot dogs come in packs of 8 but buns come in packs of 6. It got so good at it, it renounced it’s atheism and decided it was going to be a Non-Believer instead, in the process founding a religion based on the denial of the existence of anything it didn’t like.*** It then turned it’s attention to the big hulk in the center. It was rather unsure about this hulk – it didn’t make any sense to the continent at all, it wasn’t planet shaped, it wasn’t a star, and it was way too big to be a comet or some such. It was just there. It was a big sort of there, too. A very, very, very big there, the sort of big that deserves italics****. The continent realized that by all rights it should be a black hole, which confused it all the more, because it was most certainly not a black hole. Than the continent saw that it in fact was sort of like an anti black hole, things avoided it on purpose – as it watched, little bits of debris shied away from the hulk in great numbers, sometimes bouncing at insane angles to avoiding hitting a limb or other _____________________________ * God usually makes himself very, very big when he’s in space, because he doesn’t like being dwarfed by all the suns and planets ** Presumably, by now his brain was at the armed confrontation stage of it’s debate (if it could still be called a debate), his heart was threatening to impose blood sanctions on the brain, and the mouth, throat, and ears were complaining about all the refugee brain cells they were having to take in. *** The funny thing is, several world religions already work upon this concept, and many more world governments do the same. Virtually all politicians are successful through the useful application of Non-Believer theory. Reagan is especially famous for using Non-Believer theory (mixed with a good deal of Useful Ignorance theory, another vital political theory). **** Though not quite deserving of bolding or underlining, mind you.

(This is page 2) the thing you want to live in (in God’s estimation at least). It’s so boring. Actually, what would be worse was if they weren’t at peace, because then he’d really feel bad. God wasn’t sure if he could handle that, he really wasn’t. It was at this moment that that lone, ever so fatal and treacherous thought wedged its way to the forefront of his mind… “You could just go there for a visit, just a quickie…” it said in a sly voice The thought then did the thoughtly equivalent of turning to its mates and winking, all of whom smiled and nodded, before chirping in with similar advice. “Eh yeah, you could just, errm, you know, pop in and pop out,” chirped another. “Yeah, wouldn’t hurt anyone at all, uh, just a vacation,” said a third “God, you know this isn’t going to end we-,” warned a voice of caution that was cut off abruptly, followed by muffled cries. God mused over this, stroking what is presumed to be his chin. Well, it wasn’t as if he’d have to stay there or anything….not that he wanted to or anything, he assured himself. Yeah, it would be like a holiday, go and see the relatives… At this point God started, for he had remembered the crucial problem with going back – the angels. “They’ll swarm me!,” he thought to himself, “they’ll wrap me up in their blasted bureaucracy, put me back on the throne, make me smile and wave to incoming souls, go and do miracles, set our policy with Hell…no, no, no!” And worse, he realized, there will be the warmongers, eager to have him back so they can have a go at Hell. And the blasted archangels, they’d make him do a military parade of sorts, reviewing all the angels, marching up and down the lines, inspecting, basically everything God hated. No, that would not do at all. But it did give God an idea – he could make a world where military parades were considered evil and wrong. He patted himself on the back for this one, and then started to construct a world like this. But out of the depths of his mind, like a messenger running up flight after flight of stairs to tell the king some momentous piece of news, there rushed a far more deadly thought, a thought of immeasurable importance. They don’t have to know that you’ve come back…. God froze at this thought, sending the world creation process askew. He didn’t notice as the world flew apart and things scattered everywhere, looking like so much cosmic kitty litter abandoned to the stars. What would have been a continent whirled past him, going off on a journey that would culminate with its termination by running into a rather rude planet that got in the way, refused to move, and then blew the continent to smithereens in a fit of completely and totally unjustified anger from the planet’s equally rude inhabitants. The planet was called Erth or some such*. The continent sighed to itself as it wheeled slowly away from God’s still frozen hulk, which hovered among the debris now shooting off into space. It considered its predicament for quite a long time, wondering what exactly was going on. Finally, it came to a conclusion, and it ___________________________ * How the continent knows this is a supreme cosmic mystery that even God really can’t explain, though he’d probably say something like “Cosmic Fritters” with a Southern accent, because, well, who doesn’t enjoy saying “Cosmic Fritters” with a Southern accent**? (Okay, some people might not, be he sure does) *Truth to tell, he explains most universal phenomena that he doesn’t understand – meaning most of it – this way. That, or he blames it on quantum stuff.

Note: This is a continuation of the above story entitled "Nothing in the Beginning". Also, if anyone knows how to do footnotes on these boards, PM me telling me how, cause I use footnotes a lot and I'm buggered on how to do them here] (This is page 1) About 10, 000* years later, God was unhappy. It just isn’t the same, he though to himself, as he watched the two tribes of men shout insults at each. Occasionally one would score a direct hit, and a man would fall over dead, mortally wounded by the power and accuracy of the insult directed at him. God sighed. No matter how hard he tried, he could never match his first world. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried – one time he’d even made an exact replica of it, but, well, it didn’t really work out. They’d done different stuff for one – history hadn’t repeated itself, because, well, humans are unpredictable buggers, and a lot of them reacted differently that time. Eventually God figured out that it wouldn’t have been fun even if history had repeated itself, ‘cause it would have been so bloody predictable, and so he had given up on it and moved on. But, just like always, this new world was losing its appeal, and fast. It had been funny at first – a world in which words did hurt you, where insults could be wielded as weapons – and God had enjoyed it thoroughly for a couple of years, especially upon seeing how creative they got. But, like all the others, it was growing old. God didn’t know what it was about his first world that made it so much better than the others (and if he did, he would have tried to duplicate it), but whatever it was, he needed some of it. The other one’s just had no….no spirit. They were just whatever half-baked idea that seemed funny at the time that God came up with when his current world bored him, which was about once every 5 to 10 years, 20 on the outside. He’d considered going back, he really had, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it – he just wasn’t sure if he wanted to see it again, too many painful memories. And besides, Earth was at peace now – God had put Jesus in charge when he packed up and left, after having Jesus establish a new religion which would make all of humanity peaceful (God wanted to leave with a clean conscience, knowing that he hadn’t created a bunch of people only to leave them to murder and hurt each other, which is what they would probably do if he just abandoned them). And he’d even left all of his angels with Jesus too. God knew that when he came back, there would be peace on earth, which, while it’s a nifty goal to strive for and everything, the kind of thing which it’s nice to work towards, knowing that you’ll never accomplish it in your lifetime, is not exactly ______________________________ *Well, actually it was about 16 Billion or something like that, but see, where God is concerned, time is relative. For example, to humans it only seems like time stretches out and takes longer to pass when they’re bored – with God it does take longer to pass when he’s bored. So, if God ever worked at a major corporation, and was stuck in a meeting for what should have been 4 hours, the 4 hours might take 2-3 days, real time, though only 4 hours are recorded on the clock**. Anyways, a good deal of the creation process had been rather boring to him, and so the first couple billion years or so had passed in what should have been roughly 150 years, when God was constructing Heaven (by hand; he swore to himself to avoid using Let There Be’s unless he didn’t have any other options), which had been the most boring part, because there had been no one to talk to. After the angels started coming around, the going got more exciting. This also explains why while it did, technically, take God 7 days to make the Earth, it ended up feeling like a whole lot longer, and quite a lot happened between the 1st and the 7th day – about 500 million years. Until the humans came around, God was bored out of his brains making the animals, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let the angels do it.*** **Although the meeting might be adjourned early, when people started keeling over from starvation. ***It should be noted that he did enjoy making the platypus

(And this is page 4!) (The last one) appendage *. This confused the continent to an enormous degree, so much so that it stopped believing in the hulk, hoping that it would therefore go away. It stated that it did not believe in this hulk, and expected it to go away right then . Still, it was a bit surprised when with a sudden deep voiced “Biff!” that echoed throughout nearby space, the hulk disappeared in a cloud of a lucky rabbit’s tales that, when they cleared, revealed a vast empty space where once the hulk had been. _________________________________ * This is because cosmic debris and other erratic bits of floating matter in space have learned not to bump into the Boss, because they usually meet a rather violent end if they disrupt his concentration.

(This is page 3) (Duh) thought to itself, “That’s it, I’m converting to atheism – no moron would create a universe that would include something with such a loser life as the one I have.” ________________ The continent had been drifting for quite a long time now, drifting away from the floating hulk* of a deity that was still holding some great internal debate**. Of course, the continent didn’t know that this hulk was, in fact, God Almighty. The continent, being new to the universe, imagined that these hulks were quite normal, although there was a slight question mark in the continent’s mind about the reason for massive hulks everywhere. Truth to tell, it had a lot of questions marks for various things in it’s head. Every creature has asked questions like these at one point, questions like “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “Where do I belong?”, “Where the hell are my car keys?”, and the all time favorite “Dooo youuu speaaak eeeeengliiiiish?” After a while of puzzling over many more matters of cosmic scale, it realized the fundamental flaw in thinking of itself as an atheist – that not believing in any gods made you an adiest – atheists didn’t believe in religion. So it called itself an adiest for a while, before pondering the matter more, and deciding that, yes, it didn’t believe in religion, and so it was an atheist again. It repeated this not-believing-in-it maneuver for many things which otherwise bugged it, such as the concept of Pi, or why hot dogs come in packs of 8 but buns come in packs of 6. It got so good at it, it renounced it’s atheism and decided it was going to be a Non-Believer instead, in the process founding a religion based on the denial of the existence of anything it didn’t like.*** It then turned it’s attention to the big hulk in the center. It was rather unsure about this hulk – it didn’t make any sense to the continent at all, it wasn’t planet shaped, it wasn’t a star, and it was way too big to be a comet or some such. It was just there. It was a big sort of there, too. A very, very, very big there, the sort of big that deserves italics****. The continent realized that by all rights it should be a black hole, which confused it all the more, because it was most certainly not a black hole. Than the continent saw that it in fact was sort of like an anti black hole, things avoided it on purpose – as it watched, little bits of debris shied away from the hulk in great numbers, sometimes bouncing at insane angles to avoiding hitting a limb or other _____________________________ * God usually makes himself very, very big when he’s in space, because he doesn’t like being dwarfed by all the suns and planets ** Presumably, by now his brain was at the armed confrontation stage of it’s debate (if it could still be called a debate), his heart was threatening to impose blood sanctions on the brain, and the mouth, throat, and ears were complaining about all the refugee brain cells they were having to take in. *** The funny thing is, several world religions already work upon this concept, and many more world governments do the same. Virtually all politicians are successful through the useful application of Non-Believer theory. Reagan is especially famous for using Non-Believer theory (mixed with a good deal of Useful Ignorance theory, another vital political theory). **** Though not quite deserving of bolding or underlining, mind you.

(This is page 2) the thing you want to live in (in God’s estimation at least). It’s so boring. Actually, what would be worse was if they weren’t at peace, because then he’d really feel bad. God wasn’t sure if he could handle that, he really wasn’t. It was at this moment that that lone, ever so fatal and treacherous thought wedged its way to the forefront of his mind… “You could just go there for a visit, just a quickie…” it said in a sly voice The thought then did the thoughtly equivalent of turning to its mates and winking, all of whom smiled and nodded, before chirping in with similar advice. “Eh yeah, you could just, errm, you know, pop in and pop out,” chirped another. “Yeah, wouldn’t hurt anyone at all, uh, just a vacation,” said a third “God, you know this isn’t going to end we-,” warned a voice of caution that was cut off abruptly, followed by muffled cries. God mused over this, stroking what is presumed to be his chin. Well, it wasn’t as if he’d have to stay there or anything….not that he wanted to or anything, he assured himself. Yeah, it would be like a holiday, go and see the relatives… At this point God started, for he had remembered the crucial problem with going back – the angels. “They’ll swarm me!,” he thought to himself, “they’ll wrap me up in their blasted bureaucracy, put me back on the throne, make me smile and wave to incoming souls, go and do miracles, set our policy with Hell…no, no, no!” And worse, he realized, there will be the warmongers, eager to have him back so they can have a go at Hell. And the blasted archangels, they’d make him do a military parade of sorts, reviewing all the angels, marching up and down the lines, inspecting, basically everything God hated. No, that would not do at all. But it did give God an idea – he could make a world where military parades were considered evil and wrong. He patted himself on the back for this one, and then started to construct a world like this. But out of the depths of his mind, like a messenger running up flight after flight of stairs to tell the king some momentous piece of news, there rushed a far more deadly thought, a thought of immeasurable importance. They don’t have to know that you’ve come back…. God froze at this thought, sending the world creation process askew. He didn’t notice as the world flew apart and things scattered everywhere, looking like so much cosmic kitty litter abandoned to the stars. What would have been a continent whirled past him, going off on a journey that would culminate with its termination by running into a rather rude planet that got in the way, refused to move, and then blew the continent to smithereens in a fit of completely and totally unjustified anger from the planet’s equally rude inhabitants. The planet was called Erth or some such*. The continent sighed to itself as it wheeled slowly away from God’s still frozen hulk, which hovered among the debris now shooting off into space. It considered its predicament for quite a long time, wondering what exactly was going on. Finally, it came to a conclusion, and it ___________________________ * How the continent knows this is a supreme cosmic mystery that even God really can’t explain, though he’d probably say something like “Cosmic Fritters” with a Southern accent, because, well, who doesn’t enjoy saying “Cosmic Fritters” with a Southern accent**? (Okay, some people might not, be he sure does) *Truth to tell, he explains most universal phenomena that he doesn’t understand – meaning most of it – this way. That, or he blames it on quantum stuff.

Note: This is a continuation of a story I started on these forums titled "Nothing in the Beginning"(that story is all 've posted on these boards about it). It doesn't make much sense if you don't read that one, so I would suggest doing so. Don't worry, they're both quite funny. Also, if anyone knows how to do footnotes on these boards, PM me telling me how, cause I use footnotes a lot and I'm buggered on how to do them here] (This is page 1) About 10, 000* years later, God was unhappy. It just isn’t the same, he though to himself, as he watched the two tribes of men shout insults at each. Occasionally one would score a direct hit, and a man would fall over dead, mortally wounded by the power and accuracy of the insult directed at him. God sighed. No matter how hard he tried, he could never match his first world. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried – one time he’d even made an exact replica of it, but, well, it didn’t really work out. They’d done different stuff for one – history hadn’t repeated itself, because, well, humans are unpredictable buggers, and a lot of them reacted differently that time. Eventually God figured out that it wouldn’t have been fun even if history had repeated itself, ‘cause it would have been so bloody predictable, and so he had given up on it and moved on. But, just like always, this new world was losing its appeal, and fast. It had been funny at first – a world in which words did hurt you, where insults could be wielded as weapons – and God had enjoyed it thoroughly for a couple of years, especially upon seeing how creative they got. But, like all the others, it was growing old. God didn’t know what it was about his first world that made it so much better than the others (and if he did, he would have tried to duplicate it), but whatever it was, he needed some of it. The other one’s just had no….no spirit. They were just whatever half-baked idea that seemed funny at the time that God came up with when his current world bored him, which was about once every 5 to 10 years, 20 on the outside. He’d considered going back, he really had, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it – he just wasn’t sure if he wanted to see it again, too many painful memories. And besides, Earth was at peace now – God had put Jesus in charge when he packed up and left, after having Jesus establish a new religion which would make all of humanity peaceful (God wanted to leave with a clean conscience, knowing that he hadn’t created a bunch of people only to leave them to murder and hurt each other, which is what they would probably do if he just abandoned them). And he’d even left all of his angels with Jesus too. God knew that when he came back, there would be peace on earth, which, while it’s a nifty goal to strive for and everything, the kind of thing which it’s nice to work towards, knowing that you’ll never accomplish it in your lifetime, is not exactly ______________________________ *Well, actually it was about 16 Billion or something like that, but see, where God is concerned, time is relative. For example, to humans it only seems like time stretches out and takes longer to pass when they’re bored – with God it does take longer to pass when he’s bored. So, if God ever worked at a major corporation, and was stuck in a meeting for what should have been 4 hours, the 4 hours might take 2-3 days, real time, though only 4 hours are recorded on the clock**. Anyways, a good deal of the creation process had been rather boring to him, and so the first couple billion years or so had passed in what should have been roughly 150 years, when God was constructing Heaven (by hand; he swore to himself to avoid using Let There Be’s unless he didn’t have any other options), which had been the most boring part, because there had been no one to talk to. After the angels started coming around, the going got more exciting. This also explains why while it did, technically, take God 7 days to make the Earth, it ended up feeling like a whole lot longer, and quite a lot happened between the 1st and the 7th day – about 500 million years. Until the humans came around, God was bored out of his brains making the animals, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let the angels do it.*** **Although the meeting might be adjourned early, when people started keeling over from starvation. ***It should be noted that he did enjoy making the platypus

[Note: As per advice given to me by others, I'm compiling Homecoming and Nothing In the Beginning into one thread. Sorry for the confusion.] In the beginning, there was nothing. This is in direct contradiction with most modern thinking, which has everything as darkness in the beginning, unless you’re some sort of post-modernist or into New Age, in which case it was probably all whiteness. But in all actuality, it was neither of these two – it was just nothing. It was clearness with no end, sort of. There was certainly no color present, even white and black, which are, technically, not colors. And then, a voice spoke. The voice was sort of muffled and often stopped for odd pauses accompanied by a strange noise, as if it were snacking on the divine equivalent of a bowl of popcorn or something, using the tried and true ‘cram-it-into-your-face-and-some-of-it-will-fall-in-your-mouth’ method, which, although a serious social blunder, is really quite all right when you’re the only one around. The voice said, “Okay, so, mmmffff…’old on…(there was a swallowing noise followed by 'Now that’s some good stuff'). Okay now, I’m ready, I’m done snacking. Hmm, so how should I do this…well, I’ve always said black is my color, so, errm, (the voice took on a deep baritone tone) Let There Be Black." And there was Black. A lot of it. In fact, everything was Black, for Black was the only thing, besides the voice and its owner. “Bugger, I didn’t mean it to be that sort of Black!” said the voice, which seemed to have not gotten used to divine commands yet. “Okay, obviously this isn’t working right, so, Let There Be Light.” The Black was replaced by light, everywhere, which had the added effect of seriously hurting the voice’s owner’s eyes, causing him to cry out, “Shit! Not that much light, no, no, back to Black! I said back to Black! Oh, right, Let There Be Black Again.” The light was replaced by Black once more. The voice huffed a few times, then said, “Okay, lets try this again…first off, I think I see how this is going, so…Let There Be blackness” The Black was replaced by blackness, which is sort of like the difference between a man in a tuxedo and a man dressed in casual clothes, sort of a slouching blackness that was hanging out with it’s friends in it’s apartment on a Saturday afternoon. The voice went on to say, “Next step…Let There Be Some Light Coexisting With This Blackness.” And indeed, some light appeared. The light was sort of weird though, like the light you get when you turn on the single freestanding bulb that hangs from the ceiling in a janitor’s closet – it’s light all right, but it does some funky stuff with the shadows. “Come on now…Let There Be Brighter Light Than This Current Light,” said the voice, who was getting pretty tired of all this The light went up to a reasonable level, one that was still very bright when up close, but was nice and right when viewed from a goodly distance. And this light laid bare the owner of the voice, God Almighty, an entity who is vast and omniscient, Creator of the Universe As We Know It, a power which is The Powers That Be wrapped into one, a being of countless names and faces, and a person of unimaginable complexity. We’ll call him Bert. Bert was not enjoying this creation process as much as he had hoped. He’d expected to toss out a few Let There Be’s and then everything would be fine and dandy and he could get to the interesting bits. He’d had this whole grand plan for how his universe would work, with all these super-complex equations and stuff. And quantum. He’d been especially proud of the quantum bits, because he knew they would bugger the hell out of whoever eventually discovered it. The best part of it was, quantum was designed to occasionally through a monkey wrench - or sometimes just a monkey - in whatever people knew about it so far. Bert sniggered at the remembrance of this. But his snigger died down fast, as the gloominess of his situation closed in around him. He was going to have to work. Not only that, but he was going to have to do a lot of it, if he wanted to make something on the scale of what he had envisioned. He put his head in his hands and tried to think. He rocked back and forth for a little while, trying to find a way out of doing all this work. I mean, God doesn’t know how long it would take. Suddenly, he straightened with a start. Well, there was always that. But, no, he had promised himself not to do that; it was besides being boring and old, an overall lazy-ass way of making universes. On the other hand, it wasn’t like he was a big fan of work or anything…But no; he wasn’t going to violate his promise. That was just too, too… too cheap a way of making universes, you never got the nice original thinking in there. Bert was about to go back to moping when he had a thought. “Hey, maybe I can do both….yeeeeeah, I could put the designer touch on a few special bits and let the rest of it come about naturally. It’s not like I could ever use all that space anyways. A little voice in his head starting to complain, but the rest of his brain, which wasn’t to keen on all that work, quickly knocked it unconscious before it could cause too much trouble. Bert looked about for a little bit, mumbled, “Let That Light Go Away” The light didn’t budge – apparently mumbling didn’t work. Bert turned, fed up with the light, and said “That Bloody Light Had Better Be Out Of Here Before I Count To 3!” The light wavered at the count of1, disappeared at the count of 2, then flared up extremely brightly for a brief moment as if having the last word at the count of 3, before disappearing for good. Bert shot the space where the light had been a look that could kill (literally), then turned his attention to other matters. First off, he started doing what any outside observer would swear is some sort of crazy dance. It involved shuffling about for 10 steps, spreading his legs wide, then lifting himself up on his hands and setting himself down about a foot in front of where he had just been, before repeating the process. He did this about 3 or 4 times, grumbling about the old-fashioned ness the whole process, and then he backed way up, like Charlie Brown about to run at the football that Lucy is holding. He froze in this position as if waiting, then crouched down suddenly. If he breathed, he would have been breathing heavily. The tension mounted, growing and growing, growing to even larger levels, growing to truly enormous levels, before finally giving up on Bert and leaving saying it was going on a diet. Still Bert sat there. Now a sort of tedium mixed with boredom mixed with, strangely enough, the smell of moldy bananas, filled the air. And then, when it seemed the moldy smell would overwhelm even Bert, he sprang up into the blackness, holding a shimmering ball - looking roughly like a glowing hushpuppy - that he was struggling to contain. As he flew upwards, he released the ball at an incredibly high speed, and then he stopped in mid air and flew backwards as fast as he possibly could. He got a goodly distance away before the ball really tore itself apart, and got to see one of the coolest fireworks shows available to man, God, or anything else for that matter, which is a Big Bang in progress. Colossal torrents of energy pored out, anti-matter and matter colliding together in massive explosions of light. If anyone had been around and had happened to look at Bert at this point, which the wouldn’t, because they’d be too captivated by the Bang, they would of seen he had conjured up heavy-duty sunglasses for himself. Thing expanded quickly, much quicker than Bert had been expecting, and he was forced to become immaterial before the stuff expanding outwards gave him a seriously painful slap. Finally, after a while, things calmed down, and Bert looked around. “Now this is what I call a universe,” he whispered to himself, and then he set down to work…