KALEJA

eenage boy science fiction geek (Russell) meets girl science fiction geek (Anji). They fall in a state of accelerated hormonal influence. To pass the time between bouts of nookie, they start writing a science fiction story together, alternating chapters. Alien languages are invented. In the story, boy from starfaring culture A meets girl from starfaring culture B, they hate each other, they learn to understand each other, they fall in a state of accelerated hormonal influence, they have a kid. The kid is named "Kaleja", (kah-lay-zha), a word which means "synergy" or "fusion product" or "the part left over if you subtract 'the whole' from 'the sum of the parts'".

philter of /mBack in the real world, Russell and Anji break up, Russell starts hanging around on BBSes, needs a handle, picks "Kaleja", uses it ever since.

Too much information department: As Russell in his 20s experiments with what I'll call "modal self-consciousness" (kind of like voluntary schizophrenia?), Kaleja becomes a sort of alter ego or label that represents a feminized version of Russell in a sort of "state of grace" -- having gone through rough times, but come out the other side stronger and calmer for it.

 

jug of /btthApparently kaleja is Nepalese for "liver", or close to it...

And some polish guy named "Arkadiusz Kaleja" sent me email a while back, but nye rozumiem po'polsku, so I have no idea what he said.

And there's some hank williams song "Kalega the Wooden Indian"

-RB