Alien Journial - Who Nose

     I have decided that the nose is the ugliest part of the human body. A floppy protrusion of cartilage right in the middle of the face. And then when I heard that the human nose never stops growing even as people get old, I couldn't help but cringe. What a visual. Most people's noses are too big for them to start with!

     Also, some are crooked, some are blobby, some bulge out, some are greasy, and some get warts on them. Did you ever notice that if someone gets a zit on his nose, you find yourself looking at it more than you would if it was on the side of the face? And some men get hair growing out of their noses! No, I don't mean a mustache. I mean dark hairs that look almost like a mess of eyelashes growing out of the inside of the nose. One man I know trims his quite often. Gross.

     And then there's mothers telling their children to blow their noses instead of pick them. Why do noses get boogers anyway? Are they somehow connected to burgers? And then when someone gets sick, it's either a runny nose or a stuffed up one. And bloody noses are common too. So many problems with having a nose!

     Hair, mucus, blood, sneezing, sensitivity, bad smells, allergies, connection to the eyes, ears, and throat - and some people wish he could change his nose with somebody else's nose? Really? The only redeeming quality about having a nose is that it would be next to impossible to breathe without one. And breathing is kind of important.

     And there's a lot of jokes out there about the nose. Maybe it's not such a bad thing after all. Who nose?

A. L. Yan

Supernatural

     Supernatural. A vaguely specific term. Soul, spirits, the dead, forces, invisible powers, miracles, ghosts, angels, demons, God, gods, visions, fortunetelling, tarot cards, incantations, afterlife, prayer, sins, rituals. These things are, or tied to, supernatural. Most dictionaries define it as not physical. Something to do with something there yet not there. Invisible power affecting everything around us. Unexplainable by natural law or phenomena. Out there. Alien. Unearthly.
     Almost everyone believes in some form of supernatural. Many believe in God or pray to another deity. Psychic mediums claim to speak to the dead. Thousands of stories and people claim places - homes, ships, lands - to be haunted by ghosts.
     There are millions of examples of miracles across the globe. Religions explain them. Scientists study them, hoping to see if there is truly divine intervention. If the supernatural is really there. That in the end can it be proven?
     Countless ghost stories and horror movies desensitize children and adults alike to the "inner feeling" of evil powers in the world that are beyond our control. Ancient myth and superstition taught that some garlic and a crucifix kept vampires and demons away. That crossing yourself and spitting on the ground protected you from all sorts of things. The jack-o'-lantern was originally intended to ward off the spirits of the dead. Hallowe'en is a huge holiday in America. But at the end of the day, most people don't give a second thought to anything but their physical day-to-day survival and pleasures.
     For those of you who have read my previous posts, this will surprise you. But I say this: there is no supernatural.
     Let me explain.
     Whenever you put "super" in front of a word it means you found something "above or beyond" the original. But my beef is that angels and demons are natural. (We could argue about them being normal: standard, common, average, and discuss super-normal vis-à-vis abnormal but what about natural?)
     There's quite a few angels and demons. Very busy beings. As they have been for a while. Being a person who believes that there is a God who created everything on this planet, I also believe He created very powerful beings to be His messengers - and some of them rebelled so He punished them by kicking them out of heaven - to "down here." Some call them demons. I prefer the term evil spirits. Demon has become a word of yesteryear. It means all kinds of things nowadays.
     Anyway, they have become the norm down here. They're all over the place causing trouble. How do we know? Now this is really going to cook your noodle. Forget for the moment I said that they're not supernatural. What is associated with supernatural? Seeing something that others don't. Feeling something there when no one else seems bothered by it. Hearing voices. Always (it seems), when dealing with the supernatural, those "in tune" with or in the presence of said spirits, one or more of the five senses is heightened (to become what some people call sixth sense, though I'm not sure I buy that story).
     People claim to see ghosts, have visions, dream dreams with meaning or telling the future in them. This is probably the most common. There are countless examples and documentaries and shows about ghosts and ghost stories. But anyone can pretend to see something and quite a few drugs can cause hallucinations.
     People claim to hear voices. Dead loved ones, spirits talking to them and telling them what to do. Or God speaking to believers. One example is Joan of Arc. A heroine who believed that a group of voices led her to lead the war. To tell you the truth I don't know what to think about that one. God does indeed speak to some people directly, but again a lot of people have claimed to hear divine words across the centuries.
     People claim to feel when a presence is in the room, to sense things of the spirit world. There are several religions that have unique people who "can" do this. Lucas Film's Star Wars had something called "the Force." Again, it could be argued that people lie about what they feel or are drug-induced. But I'm not going to argue over cases either.
     Sense of smell? I've heard of dogs following the scent of ghosts, and I know this is one fellow who had unusual reactions to different people (he claimed he was sensitive to poor hygiene) but (pardon the pun) it smelled fishy to me.
     Taste? This is the rarest one. I've had to this day not found one example of a person claiming to taste something of the supernatural.
     But for me personally, it's none of the senses. It's emotion. When I'm in God's presence, I have immense joy and peace. I want to laugh and dance and sing and sit quietly and dizzily happy all at once. I can't describe it. It's beautiful. But when there is evil working on someone I know or trying to get at me and God is warning me - I have this feeling of dread. Not anger or hurt and not exactly fear either. Dread is about the only word that can describe it.
     Call them what you will - evil spirits or demons - they are here. God made them but they chose the wrong way to go. They are natural. It is natural to feel temptation. It is natural to deal with the problems of good and evil. And evil spirits like the two extremes - to be obsessed with them and witchcraft and death or to deny their presence completely. Yes they are powerful and we cannot stand against them alone. But God is more powerful. He made them and gave them power in the first place. In the end He will end their freedom on Earth. He is above them.
     I guess I just refuted myself. I just said there is nothing supernatural. Then I said demons are natural. And God is above them. So God is Supernatural. The One who made "natural" what it is. Now that's a supernatural idea isn't it?

The Lost Letters of Annabelle: Seventh Letter

June 4, 1813

Dear Kitty,
     I know you have pressed me on and on to tell you more of Matthias. You complain every time I write and fail to mention him. To tell you the truth Kitty, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about him. I have tried to forget him, but the harder I try the more he comes to mind. Yes sister there was not a happy ending. I shall explain in a moment.
     In the market, in the square, and in the papers I manage to catch little things about him from others. The news trickles in and how my heart beats in different times! My emotions - since the event that lost him from me - for the longest time have been in disarray. That is one of the reasons why I did not tell you anymore of him for a while. I could not understand my own feelings and thoughts, let alone voice them.
     I have felt them all Kitty. First the feeling of betrayal - oh how I abhor this emotion! - the pain inside was enough to kill one. And sorrow is an illness that robs the body of want to live. Anger is a poison to the soul - it stole my heart out from under me, and yet made my mind all the clearer in intellect.
     Darling Kitty I mentioned Matthias not because every time someone spoke of him or I thought of him I battled a monster within. All I wanted was him. I always got everything I ever wanted or knew to be content without it. Not with him. I wanted him. So terribly. I want him still. And the knowledge that I must not, can not have him fills me with such selfish pain. My flesh screams out for an embrace that must never come. I must never give in.
     I played with fire. It was warm, it was bright, it was exciting. But if I let myself too close, I will burn to ash.
     And yet I praise God. This is the peak of learning who I am. What I am capable of. Where there is weakness on my life. If I had learned of womanly lust as an older woman, independent and without guiding parents and loving cousins and sister, I might have been persuaded to take the wrong path. The hand of mighty God has held me back, has taught me of strength as this young age to face my life with my head held high because I have denied the flesh. And as long as I cling to the Almighty I will remain victorious over all desires.
     Yes, Kitty. Matthias is gone. Tension arose between myself and Mother and Father. And Matthias would wait no longer for me. He found another woman. He has moved on. And he is happy. Lord be praised, for I could not bear it if he was unhappy because of me. Has Matthias forgotten me? I do not doubt it. But I am pleased for that. Let there be no unhappy memories. I am hurt. It was to be expected.
     I am to blame for all this. But I do not regret it. Is it wrong for me to think this? We ought to say so. And yet, had I not made that "wrong choice" to encourage Matthias' affections in the first place, would I not still be as naïve of such matters of relationships as I had been? Yes. Though ignorance and naiveté be a blissful state. You and Mother and Father and Aunt tell me of the world outside that I had been so carefully guarded from and only told about. And yet I stepped outside.
     You know me Kitty. It is so unlike me to do such a thing as to be involved with a heathen man. And that is putting it delicately. If Mother and Father tell anyone of my falling in love with Matthias, my reputation shall be in ruins, for everyone would assume that I had gone the whole way - committed an unpardonable act of today's society. You know what I speak of Kitty. You know I have not done it. Though in my monstrous state I spoke of I almost wished it.
     Though no one is happy the way things are now, now that I know that this - though perhaps not the best way - is what is meant to happen. Things had to take their due course. Praise God. I am whole again. I am well. I have learned of life. Though this was a hard lesson to learn, this is the better path.
     God watched over me. I have grown again. I am at peace once more.

My love,
Annabelle

The Lost Letters of Annabelle: Sixth Letter

April 16, 1813.

Dearest Kitty,
     Joy of all happy moments! What a man, what a man Matthias! He tells me we are just friends, and what does he do but the next week appear again to dazzle this girl with his handsome face and mannerisms! To leave the shop and walk among the gardens again. I admit it Kitty, I was so infatuated with him because of his surprise affection that I took his hand as we walked. I am embarrassed to speak of it now of course, but foolish as I was I had no thought of who might be watching as we went along.
     Oh Kitty I must be in love. How else to explain my behavior? My listening to him speak, holding his warm and gentle hand - a little bony too, but are not most hands? - just absorbing all of him with me eyes. Oh Kitty Kitty what has happened to me? I am in ecstasy.
     Am I like a pup with an adopted mother to think this way? All day long I think of him. Matthias. Oh how I long to call him mine. Might it happen one day? Oh that such a man might one day call me his woman?
     And then I think of what you would say to me. I know my dear. I am a foolish woman. Oh you would not say that, of course. But it is foolish of me to hope to ever love this man. And what if Mother and Father find out? It would all be doomed. But don't you see Kitty? That's the excitement of it! It is my big secret. The worry of being found out mixes with my happiness every time someone speaks his name. Oh the emotions of my day swing so!
     Not to mention that it all has happened so fast! To think, that only a few short months ago we had met! I know, I know Kitty. There are no faeri stories in life. Eventually I will be found out. But still! The excitement! The thrill! These are days I shall never forget, though they fly by.
     And who knows? I just might get that happy ending. I do not see it, not with the trouble I would be in, how that could at all be possible. I walk the edge of a knife. And still I battle myself how I am to win his soul. But oh the pure pleasure to receive attentions from this man. Things cannot go on like this forever, I know. But how I wish they would.

Annabelle

Alien Journial - Stupid Is...

     Evolution, evolution, evolution. What are these humans thinking? Don't they realize that they were plopped on this on purpose? If they do, they refuse to believe it. They think that they were smart enough to mutate faster and better then everything else.

     If anything, humans are de-evolving. What with all this "smart" technology, humans get stupider every generation. Nobody knows how to fend for himself anymore. Or as somebody in a movie - I think his name's Forest Gump - said, "stupid is as stupid does."

     Man oh man, humans are stupid I tell you. On those little packets of nuts on their aeroplanes the tiny print says Warning: contains nuts. And that big can of nuts in the grocery store warns that it was processed in a factory that handles nuts. You would think that humans would know that without having to be told! And what is it with a lot of people being allergic to nuts anyway?

     Then there's American TV. It's full of reality shows and comedy shows and movies where people talk and act with minimum intelligence and logic.

     Top that off with the decaying grammar of the English language and "texting." You know, before there were voice recorders, if someone wanted to remember everything someone said, there was this thing called "shorthand:" basically a bunch of squiggles and humps and lines representing whole words and phrases. Now, everything's digital and we have texting and something called "twitter."

     One example that I find funny and yet peculiar is LOL. Everyone tells me it stands for Laugh Out Loud. Someone else told me is means Lots Of Love. But my favorite one is the one my mother told me: Little Old Lady. I love to LOL about LOL antics of the LOL. LOL!

     So there.

A. L. Yan