Archive Page 2
Just trying some Spanish out. Learned papitas crujientes today off a can of Pringles. Potato crisps for those wondering.
Life is good. All is well.
tp, out.
Filed under: Life | 1 Comment
Fanatics… Unite!
I consider myself a tolerant person, especially on the subject of religion. I think this may come from being one of three Catholics among my peers growing up, they being mostly Protestants. Children can be pretty hateful, and I remember some extreme little “Churchies” (Thanks to Spicy for that one) who literally avoided me like I had the black plague because I was evil… apparently. OK, so I might be just a little evil sometimes, but it’s definitely not because I’m Catholic.
I’m also an analyst: I contrast and compare aspects of religion. I especially like to see what they have in common. I’m pretty sure I embarrassed my mom debating with the young padawan priest who helped teach my Confirmation class, but I just wanted him to admit that at their hearts, religions are based on what seem to be myths (The link is a definition to be sure we’re clear on what myth means, despite pop culture’s misuse). That is not to say that the Bible and/or the Qur’an and/or the Tanakh, etc. aren’t the word of God. A word is a sign which conveys a meaning. And myths do indeed carry meaning. My Catholic Bible is extremely clear that the Bible is made up of works written in various literary forms which should be interpreted by the believer. Which is a problem in its own, of course. The Nazis used Deuteronomy 20 to legitimize their final solution. The KKK used their “translation” of the Bible (They believed the King James version to be mistranslated). And there’s the translation issue. But all this is not the point of this post, but it does help illustrate the harm which intolerance and religious fanaticism, coupled with Anthropomorphism (Voltaire: “God created man in his image, and man has more than reciprocated.”) can lead to.
My point is this: I have little knowledge of the Islamic faith, but that’s not reason enough to be intolerant. As a human being, this predisposes me to an array of fears (The “Unknown”). However, I’ve had my share of history classes and done enough research to know that Islam has many things in common with many religions, including a certain malleability when it comes to literal interpretations, fanaticism, and fundamentalism. I’ve also noticed that the resources I’ve come across who say Islam is a religion of violence or “more than a religion” (What the West Needs to Know) tend not to cite or quote; Those resources which try to explain why Islam is a religion of peace usually supply quotations and evidence along with at least a small amount of context. That doesn’t mean their aren’t fanatics who scan their respective religious text for quotes to support their claims… but giving citations and quotes and whatnot… letting me know where I can go and actually get the quote in context is important to me.
I don’t get upset about a lot of things. I’m pretty laid back and have to try hard to avoid becoming complacent. But I find it difficult taking ignorant people seriously. People who don’t take the time to figure things out for themselves and simply believe what other people tell them to believe piss me off. People who throw blanket generalizations about a religion, or any group of people, based on what the people in power do piss me off. There’s a reason ignore is part of the word ignorant. I can understand a person being ignorant because they are ignored. But there is no reason for Americans to be ignorant about religion. The information is freely and widely available. There are several versions and translations of the Qur’an and the Bible on Project Gutenberg alone. Don’t ignore it.
While I’m talking about generalisations, it’s worth noting there are a number of different Islamic sects (a few here, here, here, you get the idea, eh?) as there are a number of Christian sects and Jewish sects and… whatever other religion you want to talk about: There are probably sects within them as well. So, be careful of that when you use limiting language. I have friends that do this all the time, and I’ve been guilty of it myself: “The Islamic people are violent” “Mexicans like burritos.” Unless you’ve met every Mexican… you don’t know if they like burritos or not.
So, tolerance; being informed; contextual information… my rant today. The umbrella point: Think for yourself. Don’t take my word for it. Take the time and get informed about something. Don’t have time? Remember that next time you’re bored, or forwarding the latest myspace bulletin, or sitting in a traffic jam, or watching reality TV, or sitting in the pool… whatever.
Now, that’s a good conclusion, but I totally got off on a rant and I did want to share what little I’ve been able to learn about Islam today. Since I’ve been fascinated with the Dune series of books by Frank Herbert, I did a little digging on the word “jihad.” Think about what you think this means.
Holy War, right? That’s what I always thought. Let’s take a look at the Islamic dictionary on www.yourdictionary.com:
The word jihad actually means “struggle, strive.” The Arabic root of the word is jahada “to strive for.” (The Arabic word for war is “harb.”) Of the two types of jihad, the lesser type is the struggle against religious or political oppression, the second and greater is the soul’s struggle with evil. Moderates think that while “jihad” might refer to an active war against an oppressive regime, such a war may be waged only against that regime, not innocent people. Radical Islamic fundamentalists assume that a jihad is a war without constraints.
Hmmmm… War is a type of struggle for sure. But the greater struggle is the soul’s struggle, a war within. OK, so, I’m sure you can read, I won’t summarize more. However, I will note that one of my sources which actually cites information reinforces this view. You can check that out here. It’s The Institute of Islamic Information and Education’s explanation of jihad.
OK, hang with me here. Now I’m going to summarize what has been presented to me in philosophy class. I don’t have any quotations or evidence to back this up, but my professor wrote a book on the subject, so… I guess he has a little credibility.
First, a little etymology:
- jihada – verb – to struggle, battle, fight
- jihad – noun – struggle against evil
- mujihad – noun – one battling evil (mujihadin – plural)
Four types of Qur’anic Jihad:
- jihad of the heart – The inner struggle against sin and temptation. This is considered the most important of all jihad.
The next three are considered the “lesser” jihad:
- jihad of the tongue – Two types
- Speaking out against injustice: Tyranny, hate, etc.
- Teaching principles of Islam: Opening the way, Inviting others to Islam. The Qur’an actually does explicitly forbid coercion. This I actually do have a direct quote from [2.256] in the Qur’an, “There is no compulsion in religion;truly the right way has become clearly distinct from error;…” I’ve taken it out of context, of course, and I encourage you to read the whole section here, or any other copy of the Qur’an.
- jihad of the arm/hand – “non-violent effort to correct injustice.” Charity, etc. I actually forget the exact placement, I think I read it in the IIIE article on jihad, but in Islam you are supposed to use these types of jihad first to “win” over your “enemies.” I believe it also says that physical war is only permitted in defense or when non-believers are in your “Holy” land. That’s a whole other topic I’m not even going to try to touch right now. You know, there’s that big area in the Middle East that’s “Holy” to like… everybody.
- jihad of the sword – The least of all jihad and the last resort. All other forms must be exhausted (Note subjectivity) before the sword can be used, and then there are many rules of engagement… so to speak. “Rules are made to be broken” and all that jazz. Here’s one view of justification for use of the “sword.”
Here are three justifications for violent jihad my professor (A Presbyterian minister btw) provided:
- Protect one’s self.
- Protect those who can’t protect themselves.
- Protect right to worship your God
I think I’ll stop with that (finally!). Thanks if you actually read it. Double thanks if you feel like commenting or informing me of errors or other resources which might be beneficial.
Religions do not cause violence. People’s misuse and ignorance causes religious based violence. If there was no religion, we’d probably still be violent. But that’s just my opinion. Use your brain. Think for yourself.
Oh yeah, I’m still Catholic. 
:: Related Extras ::
- The Koran (Qur’an) – Searchable online version of the Islamic holy text.
- Islamic Justification of killing non-combatants – when interpretation of holy texts becomes dangerous
- Jihad – from the IIIE – Provides sources
- What the West Needs to Know – A movie which says Islam is violent. Website supplies no evidence besides “The Qur’an says this.” type of thing with no actual citation. The movie is not available on the site or in theaters.
Filed under: Random Musings | Leave a Comment
New feature – Contigo
You might notice a new link up on the navbar (You have noticed the navbar before, right?). Contigo. It’s Spanish for “with you.” Those of you with some Spanish knowledge might be thinking “I thought ‘con tu’ meant with you?” Well, literally, you’re right. However, contigo is the correct form. Conmigo is “with me.” Quieres beber la cerveza conmigo? That’s something every college student should know.
Anywho, I had thought of calling the page “Conmigo, Contigo” but that was getting way too cheesy, not to mention it made me think of Whoopie Goldberg in “Corrina, Corrina,” which I never saw. Seriously.
Now that I’ve bored you to tears… The whole point of the new page is for me to share something with you that I’d like to stay separate from the blog so it doesn’t get buried in the other nonsense I write. What I hope is to share something that is thought provoking and hopefully stimulate a bit of a dialog on the subject. Not that I’m all that wise, but I’ll share this little tidbit I gleamed from paper by a professor… which he got from the Persian poet Kahlil Gibran’s work The Prophet:
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
I share with you because I have faith you can learn; I share not to make you think like me, but to inspire you to think.
And now I can stop being a pompous pseudo-intellectual and introduce the first installment. Which is Anton P. Chekhov’s short story “The Darling” which I got the full text from Project Gutenberg. Go ahead and read it… Think on what it means to you. Don’t research Chekov or look at Cliff Notes. I could have told you all that here, but it defeats my purpose. For the same reason, I’m not going to tell you what I thought the theme was. Go ahead and leave a comment with your thoughts.
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Poetic mish – mash
I am not poetic. I took a poetry class last spring and it was pretty easy until I actually had to write a poem. All I had to do was emulate a poem out of our anthology. I ended up with a terrible poem; but the title, and its sexually suggestive pun, illicited one of the best receptions any piece I’ve written has ever gotten. It may have been because the class consisted of mostly females. And no, I am not going to put the title here.
But I am not poetic: I have no rhythm; no sense of meter, and now that my once “above average” vocabulary is fading into that foggy void some like to call the brain, I’m like a kid with a 20 piece Lego set. All yellow pieces. And I don’t have the patience to sit and try to learn these things. I’m like Robert Downy, Jr’s Harry Lockhart in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: I don’t finish a lot of things I start. That’s mediocrity. It sucks.
And I am not poetic, but I found a cool website where I can try to be, with a little help from the rest of the world… or at least those lucky enough to have an internet connection. And that’s the real point of this entry.
http://www.poetc.com/ is a writing inspiration website/pseudo-community which gives you the last couple of lines that other people have written which you have 60 seconds to add 10 words or less to. The idea is everyone writes a line of poetry which forms this Frankenstein-ish amalgam of words. The idea is to give writers a swift boot to get over writer’s block and whatnot, but sometimes the poems evolve quite nicely.
So… head on over there, or to the other sites and join in the fun.
:: Related Extras ::
- http://oneword.com/ – Same deal as poetc.com, but you get one word as a prompt.
- http://www.onecaption.com/ – ditto, ‘cept with a pic. You supply the caption.
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The Guilty Innocent
I don’t usually read contemporary fiction, but I read a recently released novel Suspect by Michael Robotham. It’s one of those rare books that you could probably sit and read in one sitting if it was healthy to do that sort of thing. Robotham has spun one of the most polished plots I’ve read in a long time, and this is only his debut novel.
To summarize the… summary on the dust jacket: Psychologist Joe O’Loughlin’s perfect life is deteriorating along with the slow bodily decay brought on by Parkinson’s disease. Police ask for his help in a murder of a woman they assume is a prostitute, but who turns out to be a former patient. Joe suspects another of his patients, but the police begin to suspect him.
In the BOMC interview (Second related extra), Robotham has this to say about his novel:
It’s not a book about some rock-jawed impossibly handsome hero; or about a burnt-out, twice married detective with a drink problem. Joe O’Loughlin is just an ordinary guy who makes a mistake. The result is all the more frightening when afterwards you say to yourself, ‘That could have been me.’
However, this is not a story centered around an “everyman.” Joe O’Loughlin can be a frustrating protagonist, and does some pretty unbelievable things, but Robotham eases it off at all the right moments. The line between good and evil are blurred… Well, I could go on describing the book, but that would risk giving too much away and ruining the experience.
If you like psychological mystery thrillers with ethical and moral issues, as well as really intelligent (possibly too intelligent) protagonists, this is for you. It kept me guessing until the last page, and I don’t think it’s because I’m a total dullard.
:: Related Extras ::
- http://www.michaelrobotham.com – Robotham’s website
- BOMC Interview – After the debut of Suspect.
- More – Suspect on Amazon.
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Colores del alma
I found some interesting websites on color while looking for ideas for website color schemes.
http://www.viewzone.com/luscher.html - Max Luscher, a psychologist, did a lot of work on people and colors. That’s what this website is about. It has a color test in which you select between several colors, basically making a list of the color you liked most, to the color you liked the most. Then, using Luscher’s data, you get some psychological information back. Mine came back pretty much inline with my own self-evaluation. Not that I’m a psychologist. I just try to be honest with myself… maybe. Anywho, if you use anything other than Internet Explorer, you’ll have to do the manual version. These guys apparently haven’t figured out how to code cross-platform.
http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/ – a graduate or doctorate project which outlines the various things we associate with colors. You know: red with hate or romance, blue with sadness or technology, etc. The movies get a little redundant, but it’s fairly entertaining. High speed connection recommended.
My favorite color is still blue by the way.
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Vader; Doom…
Watch these. Even if you’ve seen them.
You’ll feel better.
Probably
These links, except the last one, go to videos on youtube.com, so… high bandwith is a must.
And you thought I was going to say something about offensive content, didn’t you?
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wGR4-SeuJ0 – Chad Vader
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUjFRKWk6gQ – Zidane headbutt vid
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG4ztixR2KM – The “Scandinavian” way to open a bottle of beer.
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2wyhgP0FVo – Kitten Doom…
- http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/325960 – What real Chess games are like.
Yep… I got a giggle or two.
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Recently, I read Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, her ode to Man’s Self. I was a little apprehensive about reading a book exalting the ego of Man, fearing it would be saturated with overtones of narcissism and self-worship: Qualities I believe lessen a human being by limiting their ability to transcend their individuality. Equality 7-2521, Rand’s protagonist, lives in society in which individuality is literally a sin. “I” is no longer in their vocabulary, and everyone speaks in the first person plural. It is the epitome of the “WE” which Rand feared most. It was a tough sell, but the revelation within Equality 7-2521’s discovery of the word “I” and what that meant to his relationship with Liberty 5-3000, a woman he fell in love with even though love is forbidden (Love exalts the loved over others, and is thus evil), put any reservations I had to rest. While Equality became extremely strong willed, he had a desire, and possibly a need (Though Rand would have denied it), for others. This type of balance has always seemed the key to a proper lifestyle: Contentment without apathy or complacency, maintaining the “I” without egotism or narcissism, loving life without clinging to it (acknowledging death as a natural event), etc.
Finding this balance does not necessarily require religion or mysticism, and one may be able to find it in complete isolation (Though many philosophers would argue this would prevent “transcendence of self,” one of the human attributes which, supposedly, differentiates us from animals). The Human Predicament is varying degrees of suffering, such as loneliness or loss and the various emotions we experience due to them. At the root of this suffering is desire, though one must be careful to avoid villanizing it. Desire for companionship, for a loved one who has passed away, that German cookbook you couldn’t get because you were 100$ in the red and didn’t know it: I’m sure many others would come to mind if you thought about it. And these lead to feelings of doubt, fear, and anger. And, as Yoda would say, these lead to pain and suffering: The Dark Side.
This suffering shouldn’t be denied, and it’s nigh impossible to avoid. It’s necessary for our growth, and how we deal with suffering acts as the catalyst to the changes which occur through life. Humans need change. Our case of ADD runs deep. When we’re at war, we protest for peace. In peace, we clamor about minimum wage or some other injustice. And if all those problems were solved, we would complain about how utterly bored we were. We’re all two year olds at heart, we’re problem solving creatures. Sure, we’re imperfect and many of our “solutions” lead to worse problems. To paraphrase some of Frank Herbert’s philosophy (at least I think that’s where I got it): Answers only lead to more questions; It’s how we move between them which makes the difference. That is, our ability to mitigate and adapt to our suffering is how we grow.
To bring this whole rambling monologue back to Ayn Rand and individuality, let’s look at the Buddhist view of the human predicament. And rather than me stumbling through an inadequate explanation of something I’m not very familiar with, I’m going to my philosophy professor’s explanation:
Buddhism teaches that individuality, the Western Self or Soul, is only an abstraction of a collection of energies and activities. In other words, there is no enduring Self or Soul that passes beyond the barricade of death. The true, eternal Self is the “an-atman,” the “non-self.” On this point, Buddhism differs radically from Western religious thinking which affirms the survival of an individual Self (Soul) after death.
Because the true Self is the an-atman (non-self), Buddhists understand the root cause of human suffering and anxiety as attachment to the illusion of individuality. The Buddha’s first teaching, the Sermon at Deerpark, affirms four Noble Truths. The First Noble Truth recognizes that from birth to death, suffering and anxiety are constant human experiences. The Second Noble Truth recognizes that the root cause of suffering and anxiety in life is the “thirst” for individuality. The Third Noble Truth asserts that by eliminating this thirst, that is, recognizing that there is no abiding personal Self, one is liberated from attachments to worldly things. The Fourth Noble Truth outlines a path, The Noble Eightfold Path, which leads to liberation from attachment, that is, from suffering and anxiety.
In short, a Buddhist’s goal is to deal with the complexities of life in a healthy manner and achieve serenity. Interestingly enough, ignoring the differences in after-life (Individuality vs the an-atman), the true Christian seeks a similar serenity.
When the New Testament was written, there was no word in Greek (The language of choice) for sin. So, the writers adapted an archery term which means “missing the mark.” And that’s a pretty good idea of what Christians mean by sin, the “mark” being what God intended humans to be, which no one but a very select few people have hit apparently. But why do we deviate from the mark? Our desires which deviate from God’s will, or in the society in Anthem, the will of our brothers.
From the front cover of Anthem, one can infer what Rand thought of all this:
I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.
No doubt the Buddhist after-life would be the epitome of Hell for her.
This is all leading up to some thoughts on “race conciousness” or the “collective brain,” but droning on philosophically gets to be pretty dull for everyone, so… maybe I’ll come back to it later.
:: Related Extras ::
- Buddha – at Wikipedia
- Christianity – Ditto
- Judaism – Wikipedia again
- Stoicism – Links are from Wikipedia unless noted… jeez
- Objectivism – Ayn Rand’s Philosophy
- Ayn Rand – Bio
- Islam – Although the neutrality of this article is disputed, there may be some truth to it. Hey, it’s the internet .
- Ayn Rand Institute – Website for an organization dedicated to furthering knowledge of Ayn Rand and her ideals.
- Anthem – on Amazon
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Tabs? No, I do layers.
I’ve been using Opera 9 for a while now, and I now use it for most of my web browsing needs. I still fire up (pun intended) Firefox to make sure I’m not missing anything and to log in to various accounts (auto-complete in opera is a little quirky, but works… but firefox already has all my accounts). I do a bit with IE7 every-once in a while when I encounter a site which isn’t up on Mozzila-esque browsers. But for the most part, Opera works for me. Especially with the small amount of customization I’ve done.
So far, I’ve been very casual at customizing my experience. The major change has to do with the “tabbed” browsing feature. Of course, I prefer tab browsing to the old “28 windows open on the status bar” approach of old. Being slightly knowledgeable within the realm of memory management, it logically makes more sense to me. But in following this logic, I’ve always felt that tabs in themselves are wasteful: They’re always there, even when you don’t need to see what you have open. After fiddling with Opera’s Appearance settings, coupled with my newly discovered (new to me) mouse gestures/navigation between tabs, I’ve come up with a web browsing strategy I’ve dubbed “Layered Browsing.”
This is not a major change, I simply turned my tab bar off at all times in Opera. Instead, I’ve come to love the “Hold-down-right-mouse + roll-mouse-wheel” method, which brings up a list of tabs (Oops, I mean “layers”) open in the middle of your window, no matter the location of your mouse. Simply release the right mouse button, and you’ve selected a new tab.
I’d be a liar if I said this was problem free, but thankfully, the problems I’ve found thus far are more design oversights rather than methodologically unsound. The main issue for me has come from Flash sites… you know, the ones that are like full screen flash elements. These muck up mouse gestures which I use to open/close and otherwise control tabs. Not to big an issue: Simply click above the website (such as within the address bar) and apply downward pressure on the ctrl (or apple) key + w, the tab killswitch.
Some improvements I’d like to see include adding in close functionality to the “layer list” so I could close a tab without having the tab selected. Also, an option to overide that stupid flash right-click menu so it doesn’t interfere would be nice.
It’s not really a technological leap I’ve described here, just a slight modification (see: Slightly modified perspective) on an existing technology. It’s probably not for everyone, and apparently not for a certain keyboard lover, but the fact that Opera allows me the choice to do this, and Firefox does not (even in the new 2.0 beta, Bon Echo) calls for mad props to the Opera crew… Yeah, I said it. It’s not really a breakthrough like tabbed browsing was, so I don’t see it as a major feature in browsers of the future, but my superiority complex enjoys the knowledge of coining the term “Layer-browsing.” At least, as far as I’m aware. I’m not too worried about it. I’m no software designer.
The “Layer” menu at work. A website titled “INERTIA” is highlighted for selection.
:: Related Extras ::
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The Final Countdown
Yep, it’s that time again. Classes are winding down and the pressure is on. The Final Countdown has begun. And you have no idea how much this ’80s pop culture reference is costing me. Especially since I actually found the video for the song and now its excrutiatingly immortal synth lines are even further ingrained in my memory. “dadadaaa daaa dadada da daaaa….” Sorry.
Putting the “final touches” on projects has never really been my thing; I never really finish anything. Sure, things get to a state you could classify as “done,” but I like to constantly revise certain projects I do. This doesn’t necessarily apply to some common life skills such as dress… or… organization… but when I do school work, write music, play games… whatever, things tend to stay in a constant state of change. The trick is knowing when I have to consider a thing “done” because continued focus might have a detrimental effect on other tasks.
Anyways, I’ll be glad to get these classes behind me. They’ve been enjoyable, but it’s time for a change.
:: Related Extras ::
- Europe – The Final Countdown – The video
- Europe – The Final Countdown – Lyrics… if you can call them that.
- Europe – The Final Countdown – on Wikipedia
Filed under: School | Leave a Comment
