Ch 022
13 0 0
X
Reading Options
Font Size
A- 15px A+
Width
Reset
X
Table of Contents
Loading... please wait.

And now a word from our sponsor:

 

Running out of cloth to keep your keister clean?

 

Tired of wandering the frozen Hellscape that is the aftermath of our shattered society and having to wipe with rolled up newspapers?

 

Are you looking for a new kind of toiletry that is both effective, economical, and dignified?

 

Then look no further than Harlequin brand Toilet Tissue!

 

Harlequin is the finest tissue matches can buy here on great bear island! The secret to Harlequin Tissue is that it is not one... not two... but three... count it...

 

Three... HUNDRED ply toilet paper!

 

Not only does Harlequin Tissue work well for getting those hard to reach places, but it also includes vibrant, thought provoking, and multilayered stories that really suck you in and transport you away to another time and place. A much needed relief in the stressful life of your average survivor.

 

And when you are done, it's great for getting into every nook and cranny!

 

So forget bandages!

Who cares about newspaper?

and birchbark? UGH!

Splinters. Am I right?

 

No. CLEARLY There is only ONE tissue for the discriminating survivor in the Aurora Age!

 

Harlequin Tissue: It's like wiping your ass with a paperback novel. LITERALLY!

This has been a word from our sponsor.

 


 

This is going all house of zone. I'm serious. I need to know EVERY STEP of this. And we need someone else independent to corroborate. I don't think you truly understand what this means. It means that the literary world will explode. Your documentation needs to be perfect on this. The hand writing is correct. It matches his style perfectly.

 

But if you are correct, and we can find someone independent to confirm what you claim, then we're going to be famous. It also pisses me off. Any clues as to the point of origin of the paper and/or ink? We need to figure out the source of this forgery.

 

[SEE ATTACHED]

 


 

We cannot call ourselves a hero. A hero is something someone else calls you. A fan seeks out the ideal of a person, not the person themselves.

We only see a snap shot of someone's life when they do something amazing. A sliver of someone's existence. The object of our praise knows his full life. For him, that slice you admire so much is just one note in a symphony. It's why so often someone who finds themselves being the subject of hero worship doesn't understand it.

How can I be worthy of being called a Hero? Do you have any idea what I've done?

We need heroes. They give us hope. We are grateful to people who have done great things and we want them to know it. Frequently they reject the praise because they feel unworthy. The fan doesn't understand why he's rebuffed. The Hero doesn't understand why anyone would care.

I don't know if I can be a hero. I was to someone once, maybe I can be again. I can't do anything amazing. I can't change the world. I'm not really anybody special. If anything, I'm more broken and screwed up then most.

I was once told,  "It doesn't matter what you say. What matters is what your audience hears." I thought I understood what she meant. But I didn't until today. Not really.

When we communicate. Whenever we say, do, gesture, or commit any form of communication, we create something. We send it out into the world. With luck, someone receives that thing.

We are responsible for that thing.

I know of a message.  The message was fear and pain. The creator let it go wild to run amuck across the world.

I sit here with my pen and I ask myself what can I do against such hate? How can I fight something so inhuman and cruel? I feel helpless. Like last time.

As I watched I realized I COULD do something.

I am a storyteller.

It told its story, and now I will tell another. I will stand at the edge and stare into the Abyss and it will blink. I will give you a message created specifically to protect you. I will send it into the world and while few will hear it, I know that I am not alone. Others will tell stories as well. And when enough stories have been told, its' story will DIE.

I will howl into the darkness.

Hopefully my story will lead you back into the light.

 


 

S-F: gyorgyca-21220622034412

 

[Begin Transcript]

 

B: You there?

 

C: Hey. What you doing up this late?

 

B: Was surfing the net. Saw your post. Was wondering how you were.

 

C: Oh. - I'm Fine.

 

B: Really?

 

C: Yeah. As opposed to course. To be honest, I make lousy sandpaper.

 

B: I'm serious.

 

C: And I'm not. Don't worry about it. I'll survive.

 

B: Yeah. You talked about that on your show.

 

C: You listened to it? That's embarrassing.

 

B: If it's embarrassing, why did you make it?

 

C: Because I didn't think anyone I knew would listen to it, much less figure out who I was. If you'll notice, I never used my real name. How'd you find out anyways?

 

B: I'm as big a fan of QM as you.

 

C: Ah. Well It's - just a bad yesterday.

 

B: Want to talk about it?      

 

C: It's nothing. I don't know if you really want to hear me whine.

 

B: I'll serve it with some fava beans.

 

C: Heh. :Smiley Face: Okay. Yesterday was VP-day and I went through the whole day and never thought about it once. Usually there is an email at work, or someone writes Never Forget on the daily log book or you hear something on the radio or the news. But somehow, I went the entire day without hearing about it once. And I just didn't remember.

 

B: It was 15 years ago. It's okay not to think about it. Was it a bad day for you? I mean It was a bad day, but, extra bad for you?   

 

C: You could say that.

 

B: So say it. I got time.

 

B: ?

 

C: Sorry. Drying towels. Okay. Well, I was working at a hole in the wall collection agency full time because being a researcher doesn't pay squat in Hawaii. It was about six months before I got transferred to the DDD department, where careers go to die. It's where they send people they want to make so miserable that they quit so the company didn't have to pay unemployment. Nobody made money working for DDD. I had made such a stink about wanting to be a manager, they made me the manager of DDD.

 

My department was Nikki, a bulimic stripper with horrible teeth. I'm talking Portugal bad. Aaron was a blond haired white supremacist who was a whopping five feet nothing with a twenty foot chip on his shoulder and Goldstein was a pathological liar and the only two things I knew about him for certain was he was a hoover here on a work visa and that he was Jewish. He would have quit if he didn't need the job to stay in the country.

 

However, I have a gift. I can find patterns in things that other people miss. My mind just breaks things down very quickly. It looked like that I was doomed until I started reading the files and checking the transfer of funds.

 

You see, DDD was a loan company that dealt with primarily commercial paper, but also worked with insurance brokers. I noticed a loop hole in the system. It was possible for a broker to, on behalf of his client, borrow money and if anything happened, the broker's client was the one left holding the bag. HOWEVER, when the deal is canceled and a refund occurs, the refund goes from the insurance company to the broker, not to the finance company.

 

B: I don't get it.

 

C: Okay. Ever get vehicular insurance? You have to pay up front for at least six months. Even if you are making payments. So what happens is that in house, your insurance company loans money from one department to another in your name. You don't even see it. That's how you can pay up front and make payments at the same time. However, if you deal with a broker, that loan doesn't have to be in house. You can get insurance from one company, the broker is another company, a finance loan from another company. Done right, it CAN save you money. Done wrong, the broker borrows money in your name, and if you cancel early, the refund goes into his pocket, and you are left holding the bag. The FULL amount of the loan is due and you owe it.

 

B: So the broker steals from you?

 

C: Technically, the broker owes you. He's just holding your money for you until you ask for it, which you don't know you can do because he never told you he had your money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars past due and all these suckers didn't understand why they owed so much. It's why nobody ever paid.

 

So I got it organized. I handled the paperwork to prove that the brokers were ripping people off. Goldstein was good with a legal talk off and he got people riled up to go stomp down to the brokers and demand their refund. If they got it, I settled the debt for whatever was left and the matter was solved.

 

If for some reason, that wasn't going to work, I gave the paper to Aaron and he just verbally beat the crap out of them. I think the guy was on crack. ACTUAL CRACK. He knew someone who managed to reverse engineer the drug. He was one motivated bill collector. But, if he couldn't get someone to pay, I'd send it over to Nikki, because she was just too nice and she sucked as a bill collector. But after Aaron pissing the debtor off, she was so nice, she could usually set up a payment arrangement. It was sweet. We all agreed to work everything like an assembly line, pool our bonuses, then split it evenly. We crushed our third month by six hundred percent of our goal. We broke the bonus structure. They rewrote it just for us.

 

B: You are sad about that?

 

C: No. I just want you to know what I had. On VP-day, I was working. We all were. At first we thought it was a horrible accident, then the reports started coming in. My client's main office was mainland downtown at ground zero to the attack. They never made it out. The people we called were all in the greater coastal area or just outside it.

 

B: That's sad.

 

C: No. What's sad is The owner wouldn't let anyone go home. He said, "Yes, It's horrible. But we still have a job to do, so get back to work." But there was no point. Every phone on the mainland was calling somewhere and the phones were jammed. Every call was a busy signal.

 

You have to understand. We were all friends. We hung out after work sometimes. Yes, even Aaron, the guy who's favorite song was, and I quote, "If I knew you were coming, I'd have baked you a Kike." Was friends with Goldstein, and vice versa.  It's amazing what a boat load of money can do to change a person's attitude. They both insulted each other constantly, but it was a friendly exchange. Goldstein called Aaron, "The only good Nazi." Aaron said Goldstein was the "Best Jew Money Could Buy"

 

So we were just sitting around chatting, because there was nothing to do. By noon a quarter of the people had left. The boss required people to use sick time and it would count against their maximum number of times you could call in sick for the year. So  everyone in DDD stayed because they couldn't afford to take the time off. I stayed because I was a department manager.

 

About two in the afternoon The owner came storming over and yelled at us, saying, "Why aren't you making calls?" And I told him our debtors were primarily mainland. He said, "SO?" And Goldstein chimed in, "Hundreds of people just died over there! The Phone lines are all jammed up! It's nothing but busy signals!"

 

My boss got right in his face, pointed one of his fat, sausage-like fingers right at Goldstein's nose and said, "Then I had better find three hundred busy signals on your phone report tomorrow!" Then turned so fast he knocked over the cubical wall before be fumbled with it, then just ordered me to fix it before he went to his office.

 

Nikki ran out of the room crying. Aaron tried cracking a joke but Goldstein just glared at him. Four thirty was quitting time. Goldstein walked up to me and said, "I'm calling in sick until my sick time runs out. Then I quit. Can you do that for me?" I said yes and he said, "Tomorrow this will all sink in for these people. Right now it's not real. But I can't work here another day. I'm know that means my visa will expire. As soon as it's safe, I'm going back to my home." And he shook my hand. I said goodbye. He never did.

 

The department never recovered. It might have, but the next day we found out everyone in the client's office was dead. The company who subcontracted us eventually went under, they broke up the three of us remaining and I went back to medical billing. About a month later I got a job working for a bank in for their late stage department for their in house credit card.

 

B: That's... horrible.

 

C: You don't know the half of it. After that I was angry. I mean, really angry. A whole lot of issues came back. I hated everyone. I made it my job to make as many people miserable as possible. And I did. I wound up just being a total asshole and tortured people for the next three years before I finally got my shit together again. That didn't happen until I finally got tenure.

 

B: I'm... sorry. I suspect... well. I don't know what to say. I know you always complained when I brought it up, but you aren't a bad guy, just because you did bad things. Remember what the Manager would say, "A pile of good things, a pile of bad things blahblahblah."

 

C: Please don't.

 

B: You restarted My HEART. That makes you a hero!

 

C: I'm no hero. Trust me.

 

B: You saved my life.

 

C: You were already in the hospital. If I hadn't started CPR, someone else would have. I was just by your bed. You only flat lined for like, three seconds. If I had gone to the bathroom, it would have been someone else.         

 

B: But it wasn't someone else. You also volunteer down at the hospital. You do a lot for the community. You are an amazing writer!

 

C: Last week I was helping someone at the hospital, an older guy. He couldn't talk and was in his own little world. I was helping him get to the bathroom when he freaked out, dropped to his knees and punched me so hard in the balls I crapped blood and was laid up in bed for three days on painkillers and muscle relaxant to prevent getting a hernia. The man didn't even know my name, or his own for that matter.

 

B: I. Fuck. That sucks. I didn't know that. That sounds horrible! I... You... didn't say anything.

 

C: Why? I don't mind. He couldn't help it. He freaked. He was having a panic attack. He couldn't help himself. So why take it personal? I wish the company would reimburse me for the protective cup I bought, but ever since the new govcare changes, nobody in the system has any money. It is what it is. Moving on.

 

B: ... I don't know how to help you.

 

C: You're the one who wanted me to talk about what was on my mind. Don't blame me if what I say bothers you.

 

B: That's not what I meant. :Frowny Face:. I just don't know what to say to make you feel better.

 

C: Who said I was sad. I'm just... melancholy. It's a mood. I'm enjoying being depressed. I'll get over it. I just get into this mood sometimes. I'll get over it. Especially since I declared my show finished. I'll have so much more free time. It's all cool. I'm good. Don't worry about it! :Smiley Face:

 

B: You should finish the show.

 

C: It is finished. I ended it. Episode seven ended on a happy note. It's as good a place as any to stop.

 

B: I found your old post. The one you deleted. You promised ten episodes. It's what you said.

 

C: Okay... Now you are getting all stalker. And I made two bonus episodes, so technically it's nine episodes. Close enough.

 

B: I listened to it. You need to finish it. You need to make the last episode.

 

C: WTF? Dude. It's a happy ending. So everything isn't wrapped up. Who cares?

 

B: I care. It was good. Really really good. You cried one episode. You can't fake that. It was good and I want to know how it ends. How it really ends. Please? You owe one more episode.

 

C: I DON'T OWE YOU JACK!

 

[18 minute delay]

 

C: I shouldn't have typed that. I shouldn't have slammed my JM shut and I sure as hell shouldn't have ignored you. I'm sorry. That was wrong of me.

 

B: I'm sorry. It was my fault. I'm not good at expressing myself. I have been doing some research. I found something. Something in one of the stories that The Manager wrote. I found evidence the story was tampered with.

 

C: What?

 

B: That's why I want you to do one more episode. I have something HUGE. Something so mind breaking huge that it will shatter the world! I really wanted to release it myself, but I'm a nobody and you're a famous professor! I just want my name on it when you tell everyone.

 

C: Stop buttering me up.

 

C: Fine.

 

C: Send me what you got.

 

[End transcript]

 

 


 

"...baccalaureate thesis, De Principio Individui (“On the Principle of the Individual”), which appeared in May 1663, was inspired partly by Lutheran nominalism (the theory that universals have no reality but are mere names) and emphasized the existential value of the individual, who is not to be explained either by matter alone or by form alone but rather by his whole being (entitate tota). This notion was the first germ of the future monad. In 1666 he wrote De Arte Combinatoria (“On the Art of Combination”), in which he formulated a model that is the theoretical ancestor of some modern computers: all reasoning, all discovery, verbal or not, is reducible to an ordered combination of elements, such as numbers, words, sounds, or colours."

"...in 1675 Leibniz laid the foundations of both integral and differential calculus. With this discovery, he ceased to consider time and space as substances—another step closer to monadology. He began to develop the notion that the concepts of extension and motion contained an element of the imaginary, so that the basic laws of motion could not be discovered merely from a study of their nature. Nevertheless, he continued to hold that extension and motion could provide a means for explaining and predicting the course of phenomena. Thus, contrary to Descartes, Leibniz held that it would not be contradictory to posit that this world is a well-related dream. If visible movement depends on the imaginary element found in the concept of extension, it can no longer be defined by simple local movement; it must be the result of a force. In criticizing the Cartesian formulation of the laws of motion, known as mechanics, Leibniz became, in 1676, the founder of a new formulation, known as dynamics, which substituted kinetic energy for the conservation of movement. At the same time, beginning with the principle that light follows the path of least resistance, he believed that he could demonstrate the ordering of nature toward a final goal or cause."

 

"...development of Leibniz’s views, revealed in a text written in 1686 but long unpublished, was his generalization concerning propositions that in every true affirmative proposition, whether necessary or contingent, the predicate is contained in the notion of the subject. This notion seemed to imply determinism and thus to undermine human freedom—as did Leibniz’s conception of monads, the soul-like individual substances that make up the universe, as in a sense “containing” all of their pasts and futures."

 

"...understand what a monad is by beginning from the idea of a complete concept. As previously stated, a substance (that is, monad) is that reality which the complete concept represents. A complete concept contains within itself all the predicates of the subject of which it is the concept, and these predicates are related by sufficient reasons into a vast single network of explanation. So, relatedly, the monad must not only exhibit properties, but contain within itself "virtually" or "potentially" all the properties it will exhibit in the future, as well as contain the "trace" of all the properties it did exhibit in the past. In Leibniz's extraordinary phrase, found frequently in his later work, the monad is "pregnant" with the future and "laden" with the past. All these properties are "folded up" within the monad; they unfold when they have sufficient reason to do so. Furthermore, the network of explanation is indivisible; to divide it would either leave some predicates without a sufficient reason or merely separate two substances that never belonged together in the first place. Correspondingly, the monad is one, simple and indivisible."

"...analysis of space and time Leibniz argues that all relational predicates are actually interior predicates of some complete concept, so the monad's properties include all of its relations to every other monad in the universe. A monad, then, is self-sufficient. Having all these properties within itself, it doesn't need to be actually related to or influenced by another other monad. Leibniz writes:

 

    So if I were capable of considering distinctly everything which is happening or appearing to me now, I would be able to see in it everything which will ever happen or appear to me for all time. And it would not be prevented, and would still happen to me, even if everything outside me were destroyed, so long as there remained only God and me.

 

Thus, just like space and time, cause and effect is a "well-founded" illusion. According to Leibniz, causation is to be account for by saying that one thing, A, causes another, B, when the virtual relation between them is more clearly and simply expressed in A than in B. But metaphysically, Leibniz argues, it makes no difference which way around the relation is understood, because the relation itself is not real."

Selected Quotes from Maximillian Ivanov's "The Subjectification of the Objective" concerning Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and the parallels between the modern memetic universe theory and Monadism.

 

EDITOR: These quotes are believed to have been plagiarized from recovered hard drives found at the NSA internet backup facility as part of "Project: Recovery" in the city formerly known as Lebanon, in the former state of Kansas, in the former country of the United States of America. Attribution of these quotes are to The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Mr. Ivanov continues to categorically reject all claims of plagiarism and refers all other inquires to his legal team. Frankly, the evidence is irrefutable.

 

The big question is, of course, "How did Maximillian get access to the project's data a full 12 years before its release to the general public?"

 

0