Rascaduanok

Victorian Squid: James Dean Driving Experience. Complete Recordings.

2011-09-17T10:37:00.000+01:00

Victorian Squid: James Dean Driving Experience. Complete Recordings.

In Tribute for those who Lost their Lives and Loved Ones on 9/11

2011-09-11T10:23:00.004+01:00

Enduring Spirit of the Twin Towers

Does My Blood Thus Muster To My Heart;

2011-09-05T17:13:00.002+01:00

From today I start my new exercise plan. Simple really: I work my way to one hundred press–ups in a row and two hundred sit–ups. The sites contain a plan of how many to do, and suggest I perform each exercise 3 times a week. I shall perform the press–ups on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the sit–ups on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This leaves me Sunday to ‘recover’.

Tonight my list runs thus:

DAY 1 REST 60 SECONDS BETWEEN EACH SET (LONGER IF REQUIRED)

SET 1			10
SET 2			12
SET 3			7
SET 4			7
SET 5			max (at least 9)

Tomorrow my sit–ups look like this:

DAY 1 REST 60 SECONDS BETWEEN EACH SET (LONGER IF REQUIRED)

SET 1		9
SET 2		9
SET 3		6
SET 4		6
SET 5		max (at least 8)

I hope things go OK!

A la pointe de mon pinceau…

2011-08-06T22:05:00.002+01:00

So I have started painting in earnest, having never really handled a brush for artistic painting since high school. In fact, I recall enjoying drawing at school (though I could not manage it very well), but disliking the painting because I would inevitably spoil my nice drawings.

I have taken up using acrylics, though I have had a go at watercolours too, and even some oil pastels. I have painted a few pieces, but I suppose it takes hard graft and practice to achieve decent results.

Currently reading: Quick and Clever Acrylics by Michael Sanders. He believes I can learn to paint!

Wisdom of the Sphinx

2011-07-31T15:11:00.009+01:00

(With thanks to Matthew Stover.)

You are your gift and you can’t give you back.
Resign yourself to your situation, and console yourself that it is only temporary.
The final gate is merely the midpoint for the Seeker who passes through.
The only way to reach what you desire is not to care if you make it there.
Seek what will take you the rest of the way.
Start in the middle and work your way outwards from there.
There is no Power save Desire.
Happiness is a betrayal of Desire.
Desire only gets in your way.
When courage transcends discomfort, pain is merely treatment.
Become who you are; deny who you know.
Note facts without consideration of coincidence or teleology.
The opposite of Existence is not Non–Existence; it is Insistence.
Reality is not what we want. It is what is.
Illusions deceive only those who think not, nor know how, to look for them.
Reality bears no relevance.
Perception means everything.
When confronted with something you do not understand, do not dismiss it as irrelevant, misconstructed or damaged.
Inveigh not against the pointed daggers of Truth.
To convey Truth, create Illusion.
Be as open and innocent as you can conspire to display.
A thorny union of Truth and Honesty births graceful Flattery.
Truth is, after all, solely Fact.
Know the abstract and see the specific. Comprehend the difference.
The measure of Character lies not in how powerful you are, but in how you use the power you have.
Taunting the helpless is the province of the unfit.
Manners cost nothing, yet their values outshines even gold.
Manners are derided by those who have none, education by the ignorant, refinement by the coarse, and intellect by the stupid.
Patience is not Virtue, Patience is nature.
Do not expect; allow for the possibility.
See the future, not with prescience, but with experience.
Blessèd are those who break the rules.
A brief inspection reveals faults and fissures.
Take a moment or two to refine your responses in your head before letting them pass your lips.
Show others one thing they have never seen, and remind them of two things they already know.
One answer resolves three questions.
When one is made of glass, everything looks like a stone. This does not serve as a commentary on courage.
Creation transcends creator.
Experience discomfort without attempting to ease it.
Pain is simply an artefact of construction.
Analgesic treatment will only hasten your demise.
‘Yes’ is the word to everything — to imprisonment, to torture, to death and destruction.
Your veto power is limited by circumstance.
Beweep, then embrace, the unalterable. Then arise with wisdom.
The Arrow of Time pinpoints us all.
There are no maps, and there is no reliable measure of distance.
The ability to choose between realities can disconnect you from all of them.
Can is not synonymous with will.
When creation falls, build anew.
Reliability is a measure of superior design.
Mercy is the greatest Virtue.
Do not forgive.
Intellect is the only useful weapon.
Appreciate the power of precisely applied violence.
Blood vendettas are of use to no–one but your enemies.
It is never a question of whether you are paranoid, it is a question of whether you are paranoid enough.
Mere insanity is not enough to impeach one’s account.
Evil unchallenged? Evil sanctioned!
Liberty requires not only effort, but great risk too.
Not everyone willingly embraces Liberty.
Some view their fetters of subjugation as protective armour.
Suffering is not a Virtue.
‘Yes’ is the word to everything — to liberty, to harmony, to peace and construction.
Even doing nothing represents an active choice.
You cannot win if someone lost. Never.
The only appropriate stance is unconditional solidarity with all victims.
Dwelling on failure gives rise to diversion, distraction, and moulds an excuse to lose.
A riddle is nothing more than a trap. A trap for small minds. A trap baited with the promise of understanding.
What if I am insane?
What if I am insane but also right?
Departure, be cut shorter. Exit.

Day after Day…

2011-07-29T00:34:00.003+01:00

يومًا فيومًا

I sneak up and hit you like a fuckin' tornado.

2010-09-23T23:04:00.001+01:00

I sneak up and hit you like a fuckin' tornado.

Answer here

What's one food you'll never eat again?

2010-09-23T23:02:00.005+01:00

Poohnut butter.

Ask me anything

How would you describe your personality?

2010-09-23T23:02:00.003+01:00

With words.

Ask me anything

Would you rather vacation at the beach or in the mountains?

2010-09-23T23:02:00.001+01:00

In the mountains. Lots of lovely cool atmosphere, and you can shout: “Look, ma, I’m on top of the world!”

Ask me anything

Why are you an idiot?

2010-09-23T23:01:00.001+01:00

Because I don’t work in public office. (Origin:
1250–1300; ME < L idiōta> < Gk idiṓtēs private person,>).

Ask me anything

Shadow of the Colossus

2010-09-21T21:11:00.003+01:00

I absolutely adore Shadow of the Colossus, and would name it as one of my most favourite games ever. In celebration of the upcoming PS3 release of Ico & Shadow of the Colossus packaged as one game, I thought I’d write down my notes I made during playing this magnificent of games. I recall when I started it I experienced frustration, mainly at the camera and some of the controls: Agro, Wander’s horse for example. Then I came to appreciate Agro moves like a real horse and that I control Wander and not Agro. So I had to learn to use Wander to make Agro turn or gallop, and grew to like this.

As you may know, you have to climb onto each colossus in order to kill it. They have hair or fur in order to facilitate this, but the effect made me realise that Wander had taken on the quest of murdering gigantic living creatures. Sure, they look made of stone — but they have HAIR! They live. Perhaps they would have lived for thousands of years if he hadn’t killed them. And all for what? To bring back a dead woman who won’t even live a hundred years? So he failed her the first time in some way, I assume, and now wanted to make amends. Not heroic as much as anguished, desperate and regretful.

Also, how did he know that the voice hadn’t used him to destroy its enemies without giving him anything in return? Perhaps she wouldn’t come back to life. It felt so malignant, especially when Wander revived in the temple each time only to hear Dormin’s voice intone: “Thy next foe is…”

I also noticed that after each colossus’s death, an extra shadow appeared to look at Wander as he lay there on the floor of the temple. After the first one a single shadow looked at him, then two, then three. So the colossi’s souls or spirits as black shadows look down on Wander as he lies there about to embark on a quest to kill more of these unique creatures.

The way each colossus toppled and fell in slow motion with the distant camera shot and achingly beautiful music really got to me. My sense of elation after my first kill quickly ended up replaced with a feeling of… wrongness. A sort of nausea that I’d killed something whose territory I’d invaded.

The game has made me think deeply about the morality of killing game characters far more than randomly shooting innocent NPCs in Half– Life, for example. It feels awful to do that, despite the triumph of managing it, and yet the game FORCES me to do it. Without it I have nothing to play except wandering around and riding Agro while standing. Devious…

By the time my Wander murdered 12 of the colossi he looked very haggard. I suspect all those black tendrils entering him took their toll. I also found myself growing more & more attached to Agro. What a lovely horse! So superbly animated, so realistic in its behaviour, so caring of me, coming to my side all the time. Very sweet. I liked the fact as well that you could pet Agro if you pressed Circle while standing next to it empty–handed. I loved riding around standing up, and you could even ride hanging off the side of the saddle! Hard to manipulate Agro’s direction like this but lots of fun. Even discovering I could control which side of the saddle I dismounted from gave me some delight.

At one point, after quitting my game, I let my console lay idle. Suddenly the game treated me to a beautiful cutscene of Agro going into a gallop and exploring the area on her own (I like to think of Agro as female, Black Beauty, etc. etc.)! And, as with all the cutscenes, I could control the camera during this. I then realised that she didn’t simply gallop around, she actually showed me where to go next. Awesome.

Also I discovered, purely by accident while leaping from Agro while riding at full speed standing up, that if you hold down R1 in the air and the Attack button Wander does a Link–style downward thrust with lots of force. It does tonnes of damage on a colossus if you hit a weak spot with it. Seems like an ordinary fully–charged sword strike!

I then reached a point, however, where the game grew more and more… burdensome, I suppose. Emotionally strenuous. I felt like a proper villain. Although certain I did it for the right reasons (to bring back a dead love, though the game has not made clear whether a lover, a sister, an unrequited love, whatever), it felt worse and worse with each colossus. Part of it came from the colossi growing more powerful and attacking me with projectiles. The 11th, though small, proved extremely dangerous. I honestly thought I’d die because it would knock me over, putting me into stun animation. As soon as I recovered and got up it would knock me over again, giving me no chance to get away. Repeatedly. The shit.

You know what made it worse? As I travelled the vast landscape I saw these pillars of light reaching from the ground to the heavens. I’d never really noticed them before, and they put me in mind of other games, I can’t think which. Possibly Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. And then it hit me: those pillars of light emanated from the colossi themselves. The ones I’d slain. Almost like a guilty sign, a cry for help, “something evil keeps killing us”, I don’t know. But without setting off to each colossus and killing it I’d have no game. Like the game forced my hand and made me do this incredibly morally ambiguous thing. But I did have a choice. I could either carry on, or simply stop playing.

For a long time I stopped playing. I even restarted the game and simply rode around everywhere, exploring, saving at temple ruins in order to see the names of the areas (such as Half–Moon Canyon, for example, how evocative!). Then I went on to finish the game. And it took on an even greater meaning for me, and excited and delighted me to the point I couldn’t put it in words.

I suppose I want to say: Give it a go. You may not like it (I’ve read some very negative reviews and opinions of it, some even rather well–written), but if you want to experience something deep in this life that means something personal to you, then give it a go. You may like it. You may end up hating it. You may fall madly in love with it and enthuse about it at every opportunity. But you owe it to yourself to GIVE IT A GO.

What are you most excited about right now?

2010-09-21T19:59:00.003+01:00

Scars of Mirrodin (Magic: The Gathering) pre–release this Saturday!

Ask me anything

If you could be invited to one person's birthday party, whose would it be?

2010-09-21T19:59:00.001+01:00

Yours!

Ask me anything

If you could have invented one thing, what would it have been?

2010-09-20T20:47:00.003+01:00

eBay.

Ask me anything

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

2010-09-20T20:47:00.001+01:00

The ability to Quicksave and Quickload real life.

Ask me anything

“…is a kiss from a sleeping child.”

2010-09-18T21:08:00.001+01:00

Corafus wrote:
“I hate to let my extremist side show, but I want them to get more than caught. I want to brutally torture and kill them in a public display. And not just them, all who are biologically related to them. The theft gene needs to be exterminated.”

This. This. Exactly this. Well, perhaps not the extreme prejudice part, but definitely the brutal torture. My mother came to me as I lay listening to Happy Hardcore. I don’t why I lay listening to that trash, but I found a CD of it in my Dad’s car after my brother–in–law borrowed it. I liked one of the tracks on it. Well, the start.

Aaaaaaaaaaaanyhoo, my mother came into the room. I asked: “Wassup?”, to which she replied: “Nothing.” Then sat down next to me and burst into tears. Yes, folks, not all muslims burst in explosions of flames, burnt meat and bits of grenade.

The cops had, apparently, told her today that they were closing the case as they couldn’t take it any further. They couldn’t do jack with the fingerprint they found.

It broke my mother’s heart.

She was literally wracked with sobs. I’ve encountered that phrase before but only understood it now. It was awful. I didn’t know what to do or say, so I hugged her tight and kept kissing her tear–streaked face. Between sobs she cried out about what had happened, and asked how allah could do this. What lesson could it possibly have intended? “They’ve taken everything!” she cried, referring to all the memories associated with the huge amounts of money the jewellery was worth. The last remaining memorabilia of her long deceased parents, expensive things my father gave her on their wedding, sets she wanted to give my sister when she gets married. Every fucking thing.

I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t exactly tell her allah did nothing because allah doesn’t exist, could I? So I said nothing and carried on hugging her. Eventually I spoke about how lucky it was that we hadn’t walked in on them robbing the place — we would have had my sister not suggested going to my other sister’s house after our trip back from the restaurant — we would have gotten beaten down by the robbers as they tried to make their escape. Perhaps they would have killed my parents by bashing them over the head with the safety deposit box whilst trying to open up an escape route.

So eventually my mother concluded allah may have wanted to ‘save’ us, ‘save’ our lives. Pretty sadistic way to do it, though I never voiced that thought.

She’s ok for the moment, but it’s almost like she’s grieving as though experiencing a bereavement. Ultra–harsh.

“The only thing worth stealing…”

2010-09-09T10:33:00.001+01:00

Last night, my parents, my youngest sister and I went out to a restaurant for my sister’s birthday anniversary. She had come up from London for a couple of weeks, you see. We had some fun, then went to my other sister’s house to play with her son, and have a cuppa. When we returned home I went into the kitchen and noticed that the back door was open.

My father started shouting that someone had left it open, even though I had seen him walk out of the kitchen, and he very meticulously checks that all windows and doors remain locked prior to leaving his house. As my sister went to close the door, I suddenly saw that the lock outside had snapped off.

“We’ve been robbed!” I yelled, and ran back to the main room: TV and video still intact. Hmmm… Strange. I pegged it into the sitting room: computer and monitor still there. Nothing touched. Strange. Then I went upstairs.

There it was. My parents’ room an absolute shambles. They’ve emptied the cupboards and nicked my mum’s jewellery! It’s as if they’d known they’d find something there. Weird thing? My mum had fairly recently taken the jewellery out of the bank in safety deposit box. I know, because I had accompanied her to do it. Turns out the solid, 24–carat gold jewellery amounts to approximately £18,600. With the £845 in cash they also took, they got a motherfucking good haul.

My parents don’t usually have large amounts of cash or jewellery at home, so we suspected something dodgy afoot. The cops, however, don’t seem to think so. They suspect Asian burglars who know that Asians invariably keep jewellery upstairs. We simply happened to have taken that stuff out of the bank at a bad time, sighs abound.

For my mother it all has sentimental value too: she had a lot of the stuff since her wedding (more than 35 years ago now), and wanted to pass items on to my youngest sister when she eventually gets married. My mother felt absolutely distraught. My mind can’t even comprehend that we’ve had close to ￡20,000 stolen from us!

I keep thinking about what my mother must have felt seeing the room in its devastated state. That palpable horror which accompanies the dawning realisation that one of your worst nightmares has come true. For me, I felt impotent rage that some cunting SHIT scumbags could have the audacity to violate the sanctity of their home and steal what took my parents DECADES to build.

Purexed

2010-08-22T01:42:00.000+01:00

Winds of Plague

2010-08-20T02:12:00.001+01:00

Blogging the Qur'an - Part 2 - al-Baqarah

2009-04-26T17:29:00.018+01:00

The Cow

And so we continue with the second surah of the Qur’ân, the longest, and possibly most boring introduction to the Qur’ân ever. The compilation of the Qur’ân consists of the longer revelations received during Muhammad’s stay in Yathrib (known later as Madinah) at the start, with the shorter, more mystical revelations from Makkah (Mecca) towards the end. So if you want more of a decent experience perhaps you should read the Qur’ân backwards…

It opens with three ‘Arabic letters: alif lâm mîm. It has an asterisk next to it, linking it to a glossary at the back which states that “Twenty–nine chapters of the Qur’an begin with the names of Arabic letters in various combinations. These are the so–called ‘mysterious letters’ of the Qur’an whose meaning, according to most exegetes, is best left with God.” In other words, you can theorise, but muslims don’t have the slightest clue what they mean!

A Qur’ânic dictionary I have, compiled from various sources by ‘Abdul Mannân ‘Omar, differs in opinion on this. The entry for ‘alif lâm mîm’ refers to it as an ‘abbreviation for Anâ Allâh ‘Alam’, which means ‘I am allah the all–knowing’. He cites 13 different Islâmic scholars by name and claims they ‘all agree in interpreting the abbreviated letters’ in that way.

I have happed upon much more convincing theories, however. Theodor Nöldeke refers to the compilation of the Qur’ân’s bits and pieces by Zâid ibn Thabit into a structural form. Nödelke calls the letters monograms of the people from whom Zâid obtained the portions prefixed by them. E. H. Palmer (whose translation of the Qur’ân I’ve mentioned previously), notes this and adds in a footnote: “They may have been mere numerical or alphabetical labels for the boxes of scraps on which the original was written”, something I believe carries merit.

Most surahs which come prefaced with ‘mysterious letters’ start with a triumphant declaration along the lines of “By the Book!” or “These are the glorious verses sent down”, or something similar in sentiment. Perhaps the scraps belonged to various people (surah 42 carries two such monograms, the first of 2 letters, the next of 3 letters), and each featured a written introduction of some kind about it as a revelation from god that will prove the truth? As a quick couple of examples:

Surah 10 — Alif Lam Ra Behold the revelations of the Wise Book!
Surah 26 — Ta Sin Mim Behold the Revelations of the Manifest Book!

So… on with the whole surah! As I have mentioned, the layout in paragraphs of various lengths and styles makes it very easy to read, as does the language which sounds modern, and certainly doesn’t try for the mock–KJV thing a lot of early translations of the Qur’ân tried for.

Already I run into problems when it comes to ayat (verse) 2:26 (I think — he doesn’t have completely consistent numbering, unlike in the Bible {or Muhammad Abdel Haleem’s translation of the Qur’ân}, but numbers some of the verses every 5 or so). It discusses disbelievers, then goes on to add:

God thereby leads many astray,
And guides many.
But the dissolute alone He leads astray.

Do you see the problem with this? Despite repeated talk about the whisperings of Satan influencing people, this particular passage marks the start of many which clearly state that none other than allah leads disbelievers astray! Other passages talk about allah sealing up people’s hearts and eyes, and suchlike, to compound their error. Yes, occasional passages do mention how people deceive themeselves. Others say that false idols lead them astray, but many others claim that those who reject allah have no other patron or helper. Which should, of course, completely absolve unbelievers and apostates of their actions of disbelief.

This sort of Calvinist, predetermined future means that allah cannot possibly justify torturing people forever in Hell for something that it made them do, and definitely cannot hold them responsible for actions of kufr (disbelief)! Mind you, I believe that any god who would burn and torture people literally for all eternity (especially for something it made them do) cannot represent justice and most certainly cannot epitomise mercy in any way, as claimed otherwise repeatedly throughout the Qur’ân.

2:109 — “Forgive and pardon — that is,
until God reveals His command.”
This really struck a note with me because it sounds extremely sinister to my mind. And god certainly did do that later, what? Asking people to forgive… until it revealed commands of death and slaughter, such as Surah 9 opening without the basmala and an actual declaration of war against unbelievers present at that time.

2:111–2 — “He who surrenders his face to
God in all piety shall receive his reward from his Lord.”
I note that Tarif Khalidi has used the literal translation of the ‘Arabic when he mentions surrendering your ‘face’. It marks an idiom wherein the face represents the whole of the person. If you think about it, it does act as a conceptual metaphor for the rest of you. If someone says they will show you a picture of their child and presents you with a photo of someone’s knee, you wouldn’t feel you’d really seen that person, would you? Yet if you see a picture of the child’s face you feel rest assured that you’ve seen him or her.

For me, however, this phrase marks another thing prevalent in Islâm: slavery. I don’t refer to humans owning slaves, but humans themselves as slaves. ‘Islâm’ comes from a root word meaning ‘submission’ (not ‘peace’ as some claim). You see it in the first chapter of the Qur’ân where the faithful declare: “You alone we serve/worship”, in ‘Arabic iyyaka n‘abudu.

As you may well know, muslims must pray certain ritual prayers 5 times a day, more if they have to make up for missed ones (which usually happens because you have to start praying without missing any from puberty onwards), though they can appeal to allah with supplications (du‘a) at any time and in any language (though ‘Arabi remains the preferred option, naturally).

These prayers, called salah, exemplify the attitude of complete subservience and, rather more menacingly, engender this as a mindset through years of the same ritual repeated over and over again. I would go so far as to call it an insidious form of brainwashing.

The opening sections of the salah feature ritualised supplications to allah followed by a series of bowing and prostrations. The bowing (rukuu‘) almost makes you feel as though you bow in honour to the superiority of allah. You repeat a specific supplication 3 times (subhana rabbi al–‘azeem = How perfect my Lord is, the Supreme), bowing, humbled before the awesome power of god.

The prostration itself, the sujuud, I would liken to experiencing allah in all its majesty. You prostrate and surrender your face in front of the one who created it, and press it into the ground. The true might and majesty of allah forces you to obliterate your face completely and, like the masses around you, degrade yourself into nothing in front of your Lord: complete islâm, the ultimate in submission, and marking yourself as an ‘abd–allah, nothing more than a slave of allah without personal identity of your own — because the ready–made Islâmic answers to all queries must suffice as hallmarks of your own identity. I call this the epitome of abasement. And this applies to every single muslim who takes part in this ritual.

I don’t believe in it, and have certainly never experienced any such might or felt the presence of god, even when performing salah. As a brief, but related aside, Edward Said springs to mind in his essay ‘Consolidated Vision’ from his book Culture & Imperialism. From a section entitled ‘Narrative and Social Space’ he has this to say:

Redemption is found in the self–justifying practice of an idea or mission over time, in a structure that completely encircles and is revered by you, even though you set up the structure in the first place, ironically enough, and no longer study it closely because you take it for granted.

Coming across that really made me think of salah and what Muhammad made it into. Indeed, what every single muslim who partakes in it makes it into. This notion of ‘redemption’ goes a step over and above salvation. You don’t simply feel ‘saved’ by it, but you feel that you actively save yourself through repeating a ritualised structure over and over again… eventually purely for its own sake.

2:124 — Remember when his Lord tested Abraham…
If this represents allah speaking to someone about itself in the 3rd person it certainly does sound bizarre!

2:126 — Sanctify My House for those who circle around it…
This refers to the ritual of circumambulating the K‘abah, but the verse marks allah speaking to Abraham to go to Makkah to sanctify its special mosque. One question springs to mind: although a very old ritual that pre–dates Islâm, did people really circumambulate the K‘abah in Abraham’s time? In which case why did he need to go and sanctify it? The common legends of Islâm state that Adam built the K‘abah first, on god’s instructions, but it ended up damaged after the Flood (something from the Jewish and Christian stories, and actually based on Sumerian mythology), and so Abraham had to rebuild it.

To me this clearly sounds like a later interpolation retconned to the time of Muhammad to show that he simply followed in the tradition of Abraham.

2:138 — The hue of God is upon us! And what better hue
than God’s?
It is Him we worship.
OK, these words CLEARLY don’t come from god now, do they? Or has god decided to worship itself while crying out about how god’s hue has descended upon it? These sound more like the words of muslims, or perhaps even angels. Again, the word used for ‘worship’ comes from the ‘Arabic word meaning to ‘serve/venerate’.

Now here comes an interesting section! Passages 2:168–9 and 2:172 refer to dietary laws. Interrupting them, though, lie 2:170–1 and 2:173–6, which deal with suppressing god’s laws and following the wrong commands that your ancestors did. The passages as I’ve numbered them make complete sense when taken together as above, but when read in the context of the Qur’ân you have something about dietary law, then following the wrong law of your ancestors, then back to dietary law, then spiel about suppressing god’s law and going to Hell for it.

When I used to follow Islâm I would explain it as a majestic intrusion, a reminder of god’s power to strengthen the food laws. Seeing it now with a more critical eye, especially in light of Khalidi’s lovely prose and poetry paragraph–based arrangement, it seems obvious to me that the food laws intrude unannounced due to some human (and not divine!), rushed cut–and–paste job when piecing the verses together.
2:178–9 — O believers, retaliation for the slain is ordered
upon you…
The prospect of retaliation saves lives.
This, to me, sounds like using capital punishment as a deterrent. I can’t recall what the tafsir (interpretation) of the verse actually says about it. I’ll have to look that up I suppose, but for the moment I simply want to log my reactions to reading this translation of the Qur’ân.

2:183 — O believers, the fast is ordained upon you, as it was
ordained upon those who came before you — perhaps you will fear
God.

2:185 — The month of Ramadan is the one in which the Qur’ân was
sent down.
These two, in fact, mark very accurate translations of the ‘Arabi. I know that for 2:183 a lot of people translate ‘perhaps you will fear/obey’ as ‘for self–restraint’ in reference to fasting but the literal doesn’t say that at all. In fact it doesn’t even say the word ‘god’, but certainly implies that through its absence.

I picked these two lines because I used to believe one thing as a muslim, but now as an unbeliever I see these in a different light. I used to take the reference to ‘those who came before you’ who fasted as indicating Jews (who also fast). Now, though, after reading much of the Qur’ân’s canonical compilation probably taking a couple of hundred years, it sounds like a later interpolation to me. Certainly post–Muhammad. 2:185 give this away for me. I grew up amongst an Islâmic community hearing a lot about how allah sent down the Qur’ân during the month of Ramadan, hence why muslims hold it so dearly and fast during it.

As I learnt more about Islâm and read into it, asked questions, and so on, I discovered that the Qur’ân didn’t descend as a magical book in a month, but piecemeal, a few passages at a time, over a period of almost 23 years — and I sincerely doubt that all these revelations only took place during Ramadan!

So to me it sounds like a reminder of the religion of Islâm back in Muhammad’s time, and how people at the time of the passages quoted above should now fast as muslims used to do after the sacred month of the complete Qur’ân.

2:186 — I answer the prayer of him who prays when he prays to
Me.
Oh really? Then why doesn’t allah ever heal amputees?

So let them obey Me, and believe in Me —
perhaps they will be guided aright.

To me this sounds distinctly dodgy. Purportedly the words of allah, the passage deletes the speaker in the second ½ of the declaration. They will magically ‘be’ guided aright? Who guides these people? According to various passages of the Qur’ân, none other than allah guides people. So it leaves room for the possibility that those who believe in allah and obey it may receive guidance from allah… or indeed, they may not! Pretty fickle and random, I’d say. Surely if you give your all to your Lord and do everything it asks for then you should have proper guidance? Yet with Islâm it seems that you could still randomly go to Hell. Some ahadith (traditions) of Muhammad feature him quaking in fear and fervently praying to allah lest he go to Hell himself. You know, a chosen man of god, and yet fearing he may go to Hell? Doesn’t make sense to me.

2:191 — Apostasy by force is indeed more serious than slaying.

This passage ties in with 2:256’s declaration about no compulsion in religion. However, as attested by the contexts of the revelations, these lines actually apply ONLY to muslims, and how other people shouldn’t try to force them to abandon Islâm! They do not in any way endorse freedom of religion for everyone, and certainly do not allow a former believer to abandon Islâm.

At this point I would like to jump a few verses forward to #217 because it ties in very closely with the extract from 191 quoted above:
2:217 — ‘Forcing people into unbelief is a graver sin than
slaughter.’
I would like to point out that in both instances this refers to people trying to force muslims to give up Islâm (and not, for example, furnishing any rights to a muslim who wants to convert to Christianity) and also gives muslims the right to defend themselves to the death if people try to make them abandon their religion. The conclusion to ayat #217 goes like this:
He among you who retracts his religion and dies an unbeliever,
these are people whose works shall come to nothing in this world and
the next.
These are the people of the Fire, in which they shall abide for ever.
This mentions the muslim apostate, the murtad, literally one who ‘turns away’. As an ex–muslim, this remains a sore point with me because the supposedly merciful and just allah will banish me and others like me to eternal Hellfire simply for my beliefs, my thoughts. I don’t even have to have murdered or raped anyone, I will repeatedly die and come back to life, only to die again in eternal torment for what amounts to thought crimes and spiritually disagreeing with Muhammad’s view of god and how to live a morally sound life. Which, to me, makes the Islâmic hell nothing other than a political prison.

The line about how apostates’ ‘works shall come to nothing in this world’ carries a sinister edge to my ears. You could almost see in that room for punishment on earth, which means that in this sense you could view the Qur’ân as sanctioning execution of apostates from Islâm (something which the ahadith most definitely do).

Back to the ordered programme:
2:194 — A Holy Month will substitute for a Holy Month, and sacrilege
calls for retaliation.
I had to look this section up in an ‘Arabi Qur’ân (Khalidi’s version contains no actual parallel ‘Arabi text) and yes, the bit about calling for retaliation does represent a literal and accurate translation. A lot of muslims accuse those criticising the Qur’ân as taking verses out of context (though they think nothing of doing so themselves when it comes to the Jewish and Christian holy books), but if fundamentalist muslims took this out of context they could use it to… I dunno, politically assassinate poets who satirised Muhammad, or something.
2:195 — Do not, with your own hands, hurl yourself into
destruction.
Well, there we have it. One of two places in the Qur’ân that — at least in this (so far) excellent translation — sound like they condemn suicide.

2:196 onwards then refers to the Hajj, or pilgrimage that each muslim must make (if they have the capability to do so) at least once in their lifetime to visit the K‘abah in Makkah. However, the rules on what to do (fasting, not shaving your head until the animal sacrifice, etc.) end with this line: “So fear God and know that God is severe in punishment.” This represented a real WTF?! moment for me. It sounds like an utterly random and downright ludicrous conclusion on a discussion of pilgrimages. It makes the preceding rules EXTREMELY important, doesn’t it? Better get that head–shaving thing spot–on first time, eh?
2:201 — “Lord grant us good in this world and good
in the world hereafter, and spare us the torment of the Fire.”
Khalidi has written this section in quotation marks to denote it as something that allah sent to muslims for them to repeat. When I followed Islâm I used to love this phrase and recite it over and over again. Not for its meaning, no! When I fell in love with it I didn’t actually know what it meant. I learnt that later when I took more of an active interest in the Qur’ân and in the ‘Arabi language. No, I loved it for how it rolled off the tongue, with all its vocal assimilations and other effects. “Rabbana atina fid–dunya hasanata wa fil–akhirati, hasanata waqina ‘adhabannar.”
2:212–3 — For those who disbelieve, the present life has been made
to appear attractive… God bestows His bounty on whomsoever He wills,
uncountable…
Then God guided the believers to the truth regarding which they
differed, by His leave. God guides whomsoever He wills to a path that is
straight.
This almost numbed my mind. Not only do you encounter another passage in which allah freely admits to guiding people at random without consequence, but 212 actually states that allah actively makes this present life seem attractive to those who do not believe! Why would a just and merciful deity set out to deceive its own people (whose hearts none other than IT has sealed up!) like that? It makes no sense.

The latter ½ of verse 2:231 and all of verses 2:238–9 represent more random anomalies that don’t sit right in the context. They refer to the ritual salah prayers, but appear suddenly within passages referring to laws on how to enact divorce. It seems as though someone didn’t know where to put these passages so slotted them in a convenient place.

A theory I prefer, however, features the possibility that the intruding passages ended up written on the backs of the leaves/shoulderblades/whatever that had the divorce verses on them. So when canonising the work, they copied out a portion on divorce, flipped the page over, copied out the passage on prayer, went to the next page on divorce, etc.

I actually need to get to bed. I’ve worked on this since yesterday, actually, and I’ve flagged for quite a while now! Don’t worry, however, since Surah 2 marks the longest surah in the entire Qur’ân — it should gradually get shorter from here on out!

I’ll end with a few quick comments. As I’ve noted earlier in this post, 2:256, one of the most quoted passages in the Qur’ân, refers to muslims having the right to keep to their own religion without others trying to convert them, NOT the other way around! “There is no compulsion in religion. Right guidance has been distinguished from error.”

2:263–4 — A kind word followed by magnanimity is better than
charity followed by rudeness…
O believers, nullify not your alms–giving by demanding gratitude or
causing offence, like one who spends his wealth in order to flaunt
it.

I give the above passage a five star rating! In terms of its message, this represents the best thing I’ve encountered in the Qur’ân so far. It says, in other words, when you do a good deed, don’t take the piss! Don’t help someone out and then keep reminding them of it, making yourself out as some awesome hero. Better to give a kind word and then treat the other person graciously. Why don’t more passages like this appear more often in the Qur’ân?

I will conclude this section with the final words of the second Surah:
2:286 — Our Lord,
Take us not to task if we forget or err.
Our Lord,
Do not lay upon us a heavy burden, as You laid upon those who came
before us.
Our Lord,
Do not lay upon us what we have no power to bear.
Pardon us, forgive us, be merciful towards us.
You are our Patron, so grant us Your support against the
impious.

Now tell me… Do these sound like the words of god? Or of mortal man?

Blogging The Qur'an - Part 1 - al-Fatihah

2009-04-26T15:17:00.003+01:00

The Opening

We start! Tarif Khalidi has rendered the opening basmala rather poetically and very generously, conveying the deeper meanings of the ‘Arabi words. He opens thusly:

In the name of God,
Merciful to all,
Compassionate to each!

This sounds rather good and certainly brings out the implied sense of the words ar–Rehman and ar–Rahim. However, as we shall soon discover as we travel through the Qur’ân, allah really doesn’t show compassion or mercy to all, despite repeated protestations that it does.

Since the surah itself consists of but a few lines I shall render the opening here:

Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds:
Merciful to all,
Compassionate to each!
Lord of the Day of Judgement.
It is You we worship, and upon You we call for help.
Guide us to the straight path,
The path of those upon whom Your grace abounds,
Not those upon whom anger falls,
Nor those who are lost.

Sounds lovely and a bit like the Lord’s prayer, doesn’t it? Yet herein we already encounter difficulty and trouble. The orthodox Islâmic view on the Qur’ân maintains it as the literal word of god. allah’s own words directly transcribed. As I explained in another, earlier post of mine, it actually amounts to third– or fourth–generational hearsay because allah told Gabriel to tell Muhammad, who then told his followers to memorise the passages or write them down on scraps lying around, which after Muhammad’s death the Khalifah (Caliph) had collected, and an official canonical copy made under the auspices of the 3rd Khalifah. So… not quite the direct word of allah.

As we shall discover, numerous passages sound as though Muhammad himself stated them. Others have little hedges and additions that try to circumvent this. Later redactors must have added words like “Say:” to the start of certain passages because they would otherwise sound like the words of a man, and not god itself. You can tell these form later interpolations because they sometimes missed a few, which I shall discuss in due course. You can usually identify those passages in English translations because the interpreter writes ‘say’ in parentheses, to denote the original ‘Arabi does NOT contain that word.

This opening represents a great summary and table of contents for the rest of the Qur’ân, and forms one of the passages that muslims who pray the ritual salah prayer recite at least 17 times a day. It OBVIOUSLY does not come from god, but marks a prayer that a human has recited with which to worship god. And yet the orthodox view consists of the fact that allah ‘sent down’ this prayer to give muslims something meaningful to recite over and over again. Sounds a bit arrogant, doesn’t it? Here, I’ll send you something with which to remember me, and it goes: “Praise to you, god of all the worlds!” Sheesh, how much of an ego trip can a divine entity go on?

Mind you, it actually sounds rather decent in this translation to me, and can sound extremely beautiful when recited. However, the last lines mask a veiled attack against other religions. You see, the otherwise normal–sounding plea to have allah guide muslims to the straight path and not the wrong ones refers in fact to Jews (upon whom god’s anger falls), and Christians (who have lost their way after deifying Jesus). Already you have hostility against other monotheistic religions, and stereotyping of peoples. What a start to a Holy Book…

Blogging the Qur'an

2009-04-25T12:39:00.004+01:00

So I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon of blogging the Qur’ân, which a lot of folks have done and continue to do. I had ordered a specific ‘new’ translation of one version for fairly cheap from amazon.co.uk by a chap called Tarif Khalidi. He wrote a book called The Muslim Jesus, which collects sayings ascribed to and actions by Jesus as perceived in Islâmic history down the ages. His introduction repays careful reading and approaches the subject in a very objective and secular, yet respectful way.

And so I decided I would like to blog my reactions to the Qur’ân, note my thoughts on it, and suchlike as per this particular translation. It looks beautiful in hardback, by the way:

I have only started reading its introduction, and already it has impressed me with its detailed history of the context of the ‘revelations’, and the fact that Khalidi does point to certain problems with the traditional muslim narrative about the Qur’ân’s descent.

My favourite English translations of the Qur’ân come from Muhammad Abdel Haleem, which remains eminently readable, filled with detailed notes and discussions on the meaning of words, as well as a few corrections of misinterpreted words, and one by E. H. Palmer, which captures something of the fierce eloquence of the ‘Arabic original (though sometimes renders it incomprehensible).

I’ll see how I go with Khalidi’s version!

The origins of Mehrab

2009-04-18T03:32:00.001+01:00

More references to Islam’s cribbing of the culture and religion of ancient Persia.

clipped from www.experiencefestival.com

Ab-e-Hayat or Ab-e-Zendegi (Persian) (from Persian ab, Avestan ap, Pahlavi av, water, purity, brilliance, honor, bliss, fortune)

The ancient Iranians believed that the first created was Mithra (Mehr), the
reflection of Being, the essence of light, in the water of life; so the creation
was the synthesis of these two, named Mehrab. Mehrab later became the sacred
place of worship in mosques among Moslems. It is noteworthy that the same
letters are used in the words Abraham (ABRHM), Bahram (BHRAM), and Brahma
(BRHMA).

Allah has said…

2008-10-25T07:19:00.003+01:00

challengeyoursoul.com wrote:

allah has said

Let me stop you right there. Of course people say that the Qur’ân represents the true word of god but it clearly doesn’t. Plenty of passages obviously come from a human since they talk about allah in a reverential way. Even if they didn’t (which they do), you still can’t say ‘allah has said’ because allah has not said. The correct phraseology would go a little something like this:

“Allah told Gabriel told Muhammad to have his followers commit this passage to memory or write it down on the scapulæ of oxen or the shoulderblades of camels until a committee appointed by the third rightful khalif could collect it in order to stem the spread of alternative rescensions.”

Once you start to use that phrase every time you want to write ‘allah said’ (all of it factually accurate according to muslim sources) you will see how the Qur’ân sounds less like the word of allah and more like fourth generational hearsay.

Another Personality Revelation…

2008-08-17T22:14:00.002+01:00

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive.

Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men
You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Kamui on Kail

2008-03-29T01:25:00.001Z

Kamui critiques SEXGOD KAIL’s DMC3 abilities…

clipped from devils-lair.org

Kamui

He's actually a terrible editor. I really don't think that just changing the tint on your videos counts as being the best editor out there. Honestly, make more than one or two vids and I can assure you that you'll not only have better editing skills, but DMC3 skills that blows him right out of the water.

His editing consists of three things:

1. Boosting the speed.
2. Adding in retarded tints to give Vergil a red coat and Dante a bluish one.
3. Looping Kamelot songs over and over.

Nothing really else. Even with his limited combo potential he never once bothers to mix up his clips in a good order to give it any semblance of variety, which is a fucking terrible thing when his videos are 30 fucking minutes long.

Don't sell yourself short. Just about anyone can match up to him pretty easily.
_________________

Devil May Cry 3 — Juggling

2008-03-23T23:55:00.001Z

The best weapons for juggling opponents noted:

clipped from www.youtube.com

alexxshadenk (1 year ago) Show Hide
Marked as spam
Reply | Spam

Moreover, Nevan has the highest rank in crowd control and juggles (not counting with Vergil). Pickup Nevan, Spiral, Artemis and Gunslinger, and you'll step into Juggle Township.

This is what Religion does to People…

2008-03-10T23:35:00.001Z

:-s

clipped from forum.challengeyoursoul.com

i just need help what to do with my evil thoughts.

every time i do good
thing i keep thinking about it, i know it is bad and it will lead me to jahannam

Even my family is muslim family my father start to pray 4-5 years ago
and he had changed a lot, my brother doesnt pray and my mom neither i start to
pray 2-3 weeks ago and i m doing quite fine with time and amount of pray my
father told me that i am very good son and good person. no no no and i start to
think that i am special. i really wanna do good things to people and then when i
have done it i feel so good and wanna do more and then my thoughts tell me "stop
that's it , that's enough" and then i think yeah that's enough i am doing enough
i am a good person ( i am afraid i am starting be arrogant and start to think
that i am special ) may Allah forgive me , astofurlo surely i am in trouble i
was crying and repending to Allah , i dunno i really dunno what to do i dont
wanna be in Hell please can anyone advise me what else i can do

How Myth Endures

2008-03-01T17:45:00.001Z

This refers to urban legends (more specifically the mistaken belief that humans only use 10% of their brains), but it seems to me that it applies much more widely, especially in matters of religious faith, religious conversion (muslims converting to Christianity, for example), etc.

clipped from www.snopes.com

Part of the reason for the long life of the myth is that if one variant can be
proven incorrect, the person who held the belief can simply shift the reason for
his belief to another basis, while the belief itself stays intact.

Tattoos Gone Wrong!

2008-02-28T00:35:00.001Z

Oh dear… In line with various sites which display gross incompetencies in Hebrew tattoos, I found this picture of a woman with the Arabic word for family tattooed on her neck… But written left–to–right instead of right–to–left! Oopsie…

clipped from www.checkoutmyink.com

arabian "family"

This tattoo is set to Public

Islam Is…

2008-02-18T22:36:00.001Z

clipped from www.ummah.com

mastralvarado
اللّٰه = יַהְוֶה

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Guatemala
Posts: 483
Reputation:points: 1327 / Rep Power: 14

Re: do you know the essencial meaning of islam???

I think Islam is essentially Abraham (PBUH) about to smite his son.

Babylon

2008-02-17T21:24:00.001Z

Written here as the technically correct ‘Babilum’ (Akkadian) or ‘Babilim’ (Babylonian), meaning Gate of the Gods.

clipped from aycu01.webshots.com

Islam and Extremism

2008-02-07T23:05:00.001Z

And here we go. Posting, as I do, on various forums online — this one populated by muslims who arrogantly proclaim me a liar, that I had never followed Islâm in the first place — I happed upon a thread detailing that the Danish royal library in Copenhagen plans on ‘preserving’ the caricatures of Muhammad in a gallery.

And the very first reply to it goes a little something like this…

clipped from forum.challengeyoursoul.com

Danish library plans to house cartoons of prophet Muhammad

kareemabdullah

Muslim

Gender:
Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 67

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject:
if they dare do that they are asking for trouble, we will bomb the librairy

Political Hell

2008-02-05T00:12:00.001Z

I read an extremely interesting article on the duality of Religious vs Political Islâm, with emphasis on the Political. This section interested me a great deal, mainly due to discussions on other forums on the nature of Hell and reconciling the concept of eternal punishment for a finite lifetime of sin and that of an all–merciful and just god.

clipped from www.politicalislam.com

Even the concept of Hell is
political, not religious. There are 146 parts of the Koran that refer to Hell.
Only 4% of the people in Islamic Hell are there for moral reasons, such as
murder, theft or greed. In 96% of the cases the person is in Hell because they
did not agree with Mohammed. This is a political charge. In short, Islamic Hell
is primarily a political prison.

Zodiac Mindwarp: ‘Prime Mover’

2008-02-04T22:38:00.001Z

EVERY WORD OF THE COMMENT SPEAKS THE TRUTH!

clipped from www.youtube.com

Zodiac Mindwarp Prime Mover video

Hair8Metal8Karen (1 week ago) Show Hide Marked as spam

Aw man! This is quite literally the greatest video EVER MADE!!!!! I mean it has everything that qualifies a good video (spaceships, lasers, slutty Catholic schoolgirls, dancing on a tank, exploding nuns.... f**k me!) AND the song's excellent..... what a kick ass band! Doesn't get much better does it?

My Net Worth

2008-02-03T20:45:00.001Z

So it transpires that a ransom on me would fetch $1,519,062 which sounds a heck of a lot! It transpires, though, that at the current exchange rate on xe.com I wouldn't even fetch a million quid. £772,564.55 in fact.

Still more than I expected… Hah!

clipped from http://www.humanforsale.com

You are worth exactly $1,519,062

Checkout CadaverForSale.com!

A Treatise Against the Punishment and Execution of Apostates

2008-01-24T23:03:00.000Z

1. A person forms a belief when (s)he reaches a conclusion after a specific observation of events, ideas in action, natural phenomena, and suchlike. This person does not form this belief purely out of spite, vindictiveness or immorality, but by sincere contention. I therefore consider it unreasonable, unrealistic and utterly fascistic and totalitarian to punish someone for a conclusion they cannot help but reach.

2. Deciding that Islâm carries as much truth as any other man–made religion, and thereby labelling it ‘false’ after believing it as true, represents nothing more than a change of belief.

3. Agreeing with the concept of execution for apostates means advocating (state–sanctioned) murder of people who reject what they now believe as nothing more than legends, fairytales and ancient fables.

4. Receiving punishment for changing your belief means that an ex–muslim ends up compelled by force to remain — at least for show — in that specific belief. This I would describe as nothing other than compulsion, and renders the famous ayat at 2:256 in the Qur’ân patently false.

5. Death for apostates merely extends the charade of Islâm — utter hypocrisy, and the Qur’ân itself denounces hypocrisy. Killing in the name of hypocrisy simply turns fundamentalism into another idol, and sacrificing apostates to this idol represents ‘shirk’ — worshipping others as God, and effectively dismantling the tawhîd of Allâh.

6. Punishing someone with execution for apostasy from Islâm (or any other cult) remains, in my opinion, a fundamentally despicable concept. It displays a complete and shocking lack of empathy and understanding as to what motivates someone’s convictions (in other words, something they cannot help but believe, and not necessarily a free choice).

7. This makes it a complete attack on freedom of thought, on freedom of speech and as such we, as rational and straight–thinking people, must speak out and act against it wherever we encounter it. It deserves nothing else but utter contempt and scorn.

8. Brutally murdering a murtad does not prevent harm in the slightest. The affected victim’s family and friends, his/her workplace, and so on, all lose someone dear or essential to them simply because that person had the audacity to believe something and change their mind.

9. Additionally, how does this affect a person’s position in the (I believe non–existent) Afterlife? Executing the apostate will not absolve him/her of supposed sinfulness, which means (s)he will not go to heaven. Threatening someone with death does not cause them suddenly to change their deep–seated philosophical views. Any claim to the contrary by the apostate in question amounts to blatant insincerity and, therefore, we can discard the sentiment as meaningless.

10. I submit that to label a change in a belief as commensurate with treason represents the height of illogicality. It indicates nothing other than a dismissal of a previously held philosophical position. When comparing apostasy to treason, the only proportionate analogy comes with a person renouncing his/her citizenship of any nation — hardly an act worthy of capital punishment.

11. A final point, in the form of two queries: in a secular and liberal democratic society (in which the general belief and value of democracy and libertarianism binds the state together), does a person disagreeing with democracy or libertarianism constitute having committed treason? Should such a person suffer threats of capital punishment?

Against Bigotry

2008-01-24T21:28:00.000Z

People must, as a general rule, always speak out in the face of bigoted intolerance. In your personal life, never give a platform for someone to mouth off with hate–filled, racist, narrow–minded and contemptibly intolerant diatribes, whether or not you know the person or his intended victim.

People must band together to defeat such prejudiced and primitive mindsets through effecting an unwillingness to engage with the person any longer, and denying such a person the personal space to express such despicable shit in their presence. Although people may believe they have an inalienable right to freedom of speech this does not give them the right to violate an innocent bystander with erupting, geysering volcanoes of bullshit. Actively opposing racist bigotry by going cold on one presenting no rationale or reason for their abhorrent and spiteful belching marks the only way to defeat this malaise — as long as the one doing so expresses in no uncertain terms that they do not welcome such behaviour in their presence.

The source matters not: whether a hilariously wild–bearded, doddering, old, vicious, 60–year–old ex–military white man in a dirty suit and grimy trainers spewing forth invidious tirades; black ‘gangstaz’ gibbering about ‘white devilz’; or muslims casting aspersions on kaffirs, murtads and Jews.

To do so, actively and positively, would mean we achieve something positive in this life, for society as a whole and, by extension, for the good of Humanity.

Zoroastrianism & Islam (again)

2008-01-18T00:43:00.001Z

More on the influence of Zoroastrianism on Islam. I didn’t think that Muhammad had directly encountered Zoroastrianism during his lifetime. Indeed, later rulers had to add Zoroastrians to the accepted list of ‘People of the Book’. I had thought that Muhammad took a central view between 3 prayers of the Jews and 7 prayers he’d encountered from another religious sect (possibly Christians prevalent at that time).

clipped from 64.233.183.104

The Muslim institution of five daily prayers also has a Persian origin. Muhammad
himself, at first, instituted only two daily prayers. Then, as recounted in the
Koran, a third was added, giving the morning prayer, the evening prayer, and the
middle prayer, which corresponded to the Jewish shakarith, minkah, and arbith.
But on encountering the religious fervor of the Zoroastrians, Muslims, not
wishing to be outdone in devotion, simply adopted their custom; henceforth,
Muslims paid homage to their God five times a day, in imitation of the five gahs
(prayers) of the Persians.

The Necessity of Rational Thinking

2008-01-10T18:06:00.001Z

clipped from www.faithfreedom.org

Julian Baggini, in “A walk on the dark side?”, wrote:

We are not purely rational. It is not just that we are often in the grip of irrational or non–rational forces and desires, it is that our thinking is itself infused with emotion. These feelings shape our thought, often without us realizing it…

I am also aware that we do not approach such rational discussions with blank, open minds. We come to them with prejudices, fears and commitments. Some of these are not founded on reason and that confers on them a certain immunity to the power of rational argumentation…

This is important because such associations can interfere with clear thinking, leading us to prejudge issues and reject arguments without good grounds.

Zoroastrianism & Islam

2008-01-10T03:23:00.001Z

This made me sit up and take notice. One of the more hellish Islamic tales that did the rounds while I grew up featured the person having to cross a razor–sharp bridge. Of course, a true mu’min (believer) would cross it safely. The kafir would plunge to their doom into eternal Hell. Now I see it, like quite a few elements, could possibly come from Zoroastrianism.

I must look into this further…

clipped from debatingchristianity.com

The chinvat bridge is another Zoroastrian concept that after death the soul
crosses a razor sharp bridge that could mean one would fall from... YOu either
meet a beautiful maiden or a hag on the bridge depending on your life in this
world.

The word "Paradise" we use comes froman ancient Persian word meaing walled
garden and so even our concept of the after life owe much to Zoroastrianism.

“Happy New Year!” (from a Muharram Murtad)

2008-01-09T01:41:00.000Z

1st of Muharram 1429 AH — the start of the new year according to the Islamic calendar. Though, of course, due to bickering between parties and inability to resolve sightings of the moon it could take place tomorrow… At any rate, New Year, New Attitude, New Resolution, New Actions. I figured it would prove the perfect time to announce my apostasy from Islam. I went onto my favourite muslim forum (mainly due to some of the posters there), Ummah.com and announced I had turned murtad.

I simply don’t believe. Not only in Islam as a divinely–sanctioned religion, but in divinity altogether. I have read too much, seen too much the manmade origins of each religion, felt no divine presence throughout my life, seen the way nature doesn’t need a conscious guiding hand… I have seen and felt all this too much to give any credence to commonly–held notions of Divinity and Theism.

Some of the members there expressed sadness and shock, others incandescent rage and sneering hostility — and most of the latter came when I pointed out that the founder of Islam, Muhammad, sanctioned the death of apostates from Islam. At that point people acted as though I’d ‘done a Rushdie’ and one of the moderators closed my thread quicksmart. It interests me that the ultimate act of betrayal and evil (I had announced I do not believe in God) met with some shocked reactions, but only when I mentioned Muhammad did the moderator close my thread. Odd, that, don’t you think?

Only one of the members really touched me with her passion, her sincere regret, and her gentle and patient responses to my posts. A pity none of the others acted more like she did.

I don’t regret leaving Islam: I realise that I’d never lived particularly religiously though I’d tried damn hard over the past few years — but not hard enough. I didn’t pray the mandatory Salah prayers 5 times a day. In fact, I used to joke about myself as a ‘2 Salah Man’: ‘Eid–ul–Fitr and ‘Eid–ul–Adha! Needless to say, comments like that have never gone down well. Of course, I did used to preface any act of eating by reciting the basmala, and I catch myself occasionally doing so now, but those acts simply represent phrases and actions I’ve inculcated in myself but wish to abandon now.

A chap on another forum has tasked me with a list of actions I should complete in order to continue moving on in my life, eg. making a pot of chili and eating it, watching the sun rise, and suchlike. None of it far removed from the way I’ve lived my life normally — but I suppose working through the list will provide me with something specific to look forward to and even push me out of my comfort zone (one of the items involves telling an attractive stranger on the street that I think she looks beautiful).

I suppose I feel a loss of group identity in that I’ve grown up in a quite secular but nonetheless Muslim South Asian community, but I shall dig deep inside me and try to transcend that loss by relying on the force of my own beliefs and personal identity.

On with the programme…

Against Religion:

2008-01-08T02:56:00.001Z

AC Grayling contributes a simple and well–written but deep (as usual) article, this one at last speaking out against the claim that any particular religion merits special attention or privileges.

Highlights:

clipped from richarddawkins.net

It is time to reverse the prevailing notion that religious commitment is intrinsically deserving of respect.

to believe something in the face of evidence and against reason - to believe
something by faith - is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant, and merits the
opposite of respect. It is time to say so.

it is time to demand and apply a right for the rest of us to non-interference by
religious persons and organisations - a right to be free of proselytisation and
the efforts of self-selected minority groups to impose their own choice of
morality and practice on those who do not share their outlook.

But no organised religion, as an institution, has a greater claim to the
attention of others in society than does a trade union, political party,
voluntary organisation, or any other special interest group - for "special
interest groups" are exactly what churches and organised religious bodies are.

Atheism vs Restrictive Cultures

2008-01-05T18:36:00.001Z

clipped from indyblogs.typepad.com

most of the Atheists I know that came from religious backgrounds didn't give a
care about restrictive cultures that much, we just didn't buy into the tripe we
were being fed.

Fathoms Deep Plunge The Oceans Of My Erudition

2008-01-03T23:04:00.000Z

Knockout!

2007-12-09T14:54:00.000Z

“Break their bonds asunder…”

2007-10-17T00:34:00.000+01:00

Each radical religious break from convention has come due to social, economic, political, and other factors at that time. This makes each such religion a contextually grounded, living, breathing response to the circumstances from which it emerged. Sometimes it drew upon and added to thoroughly documented traditions of the time (Judaism, for instance, with the God of Micah seen as the same as the God of Noah despite hugely differing portrayals of the Deity). At other times these religious responses arose from and then broke away completely (such as with Christianity), or emerged from totally different circumstances and drew upon elements already present (such as Islam).

Jews documented their nationalist history extensively (though most likely from their captivity in Babylon onwards, and thus drawing upon Babylonian myths and legends too) and certainly knew their religion thoroughly. They proved eloquent in these matters and consummate at exegesis, midrash and religious debate.

So when people presented Yeshua‘ (Jesus) as THE Messiah expected by the Jews they had a fight on their hands, not least of which because nothing in Judaism predicted a messiah who would die before emancipating them. Earliest Christians naturally came from Jewish stock. Accordingly they drew upon Jewish history (they had to so that others would engage them in debate). Gentile Christians, therefore, had to subsume the entire Tanakh as their Old Testament in order to establish Jesus’ place within history — only to break him away from it.

Of course, Muhammad had a much more radical, even grandiloquent, solution: simply to declare that the Jews and Christians had corrupted their holy books and had strayed from their true path. Therefore he had no need to argue with them on their own religious grounds.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within — Did You Know…?

2007-07-03T21:16:00.000+01:00

Although a primary sword weapon initially, the wooden stick ends up relegated to a secondary weapon once you pick up the Spider Sword — but only if you don’t already have a secondary weapon at that stage. Although a weak weapon it had great durability. Until the Prince carries it in his left hand. Then it becomes as fragile as any of his secondary weapons and breaks after a few hits.
The Wooden Sword Secondary suddenly takes on the same striking properties as a Mace!
When you acquire the Spider Sword the cutscene shows The Prince menacingly wielding the new sword, and his original wooden stick as a secondary weapon — even if you’ve picked up a mace from one of the Raiders you defeated on your way in! Of course, when the fight starts you have the mace (if you picked it up) and a quick Orontes’ Grudge ([] /\) will knock everyone around you down.
Even taking the crazy combos and mental fighting style of Dante from DMC3, the Prince fights more aggressively than any other swordmaster. And his left arm seems much stronger than his right. You can tell this by the fact that his secondary weapons break so easily. Official sources would have us believe this comes from shoddy weaponry work on the Island of Time, but notice that the Empress’s minions can attack the Prince’s block all day and never wear down their weapons. They can hit him and each other many times, yet every time the Prince picks up their weapons they have full charge. And then it breaks with only a few uses!
When you come to a curtain, the game engine will treat any instance of the Prince touching the curtain bottom as the equivalent of a full slide. When you reach the central area at the start (after defeating the 1st Crowmaster completely) and the door shuts behind you you can jump straight to the bottom of the curtain. It saves time and lets you make a stylish shortcut to the floor. (This works best in T2T though).
After sliding down a curtain, if you rewind time, the curtain still remains sliced.
You can actually jump onto ledges (balance beams) from a fair height provided you land squarely on the flat part and don’t enter ‘falling’ animation. For example: the area above the platform you fight Shahdee #2 on just after the save fountain (where you use a rope to wallrun to a ledge) — you can leap from the top to the ledge on the other side. Similarly in the Clockwork section when returning from the highest points after the traps. You can do a massive jump to the elevator–type platform’s ledge.
One more applicable to speedrunning: the spiked logs and rotating blades DO provide some form of horizontal collision boosting. In some cases that can offset time involved in waiting for a gap and standing after getting knocked down. This seems a bit random, though, so will only work in a segmented speedrun.
More of a battle and speed movement tactic, this one. When you do a vertical wallrun and automatically flip off, you can perform a forward roll the instant you land. Aside from this, however, the Prince has a short recovery period. If you have your weapons drawn when you do this, though, you can perform any of the Prince’s dodges and rolls the very instant his feet touch the floor. This includes side rolls and backflips.
This applies mostly to FFFS (Free Form Fighting System)–related goodies: in the midst of battle the Prince can pick up a secondary weapon without exposing himself to the vulnerable frames during his ‘kick up the sword’ animation. Simply roll over or next to the weapon (side or forward roll) or even backflip over it and press the pickup button. The Prince somehow grabs it with no animation. This includes during the backflip where he has no hands on the ground.
When the Dahaka breaks through the wall and leaves you a ledge to jump to, you face some raiders and blade dancers before running up the wall and jumping from wall–to–wall. You experience a camera cutscene just before to show you where you need to go. If you stand at the very edge of the platform next to the wall you can run up it without ever triggering the cutscene.
The second Shahdee battle features her doing an animation where she entices you by slapping her bum if you move far enough away from her. She cannot cancel that animation and must complete it. During this you can perform a rolling slash, which hits up to a maximum of 3 times.
Battle #1 with the Empress of Time features her declaring: “I had hoped the Dahaka would kill you,” but in the good ending, when the Dahaka appears, she shouts: “What is that thing?”
The teddy bear 2ndary weapon (that does insanely tiny damage) returns health to you if you hit anything breakable with it — not only enemies!
If you time bringing up the pause menu right, you can bring this up between a battle cutscene (such as a decap) and when you can control the Prince again. You can then play the game for a short while with the pause menu still onscreen and active. So if you move around the various options will highlight with your movements.
Probably well–known, this one, but when the Prince declares: “It’s time to find a way off this rock” after the first Empress fight, he stands at the bottom of the area where you wallrun to get into the castle at the start (by shimmying up some pillars). In fact, he tries to escape towards that way before the Dahaka grabs him.
After you flee from the Dahaka after the above point, you have to activate 3 waterfalls so you can stop the Dahaka getting into your chamber, giving you the time to pull out 3 blocks of stone. Each time you have to go up some stairs, turn right and wallrun, etc. At this point the Dahaka appears — but he actually comes from the same area YOU came from!
The Dahaka grabs the Prince on at least 2 occasions (once as the Prince and once as the Sandwraith) but doesn’t swallow him — he throws him away instead, even though he wants to ‘remove’ the Prince.
You can’t memorise the sequence for the time portal trigger switches because they change randomly each time! Sometimes you can activate the first one if you run up it twice.
If you time your jumps accurately enough while triggering those switches you can activate one and jump to press the one on the opposite pillar. I’ve done this numerous times, though not necessarily activated them successfully.
When the Sandwraith first chucks the axe at the Prince, you can see the Prince actually look behind him as he dodges the axe. Yet when you as the Sandwraith throw the axe, the Prince does NOT look behind him, and therefore does not see the Blade Dancer who tried to kill him, and whom you killed to save the Prince’s life!
The Sandwraith actually throws the Spentas Axe at the Prince, an unbreakable secondary weapon. If used by the Prince it unfortunately takes life from the Prince with each successful hit. You can find one in the weapons rack in the area where you face the Thrall Boss. It will instantly decap any non–Boss enemy it hits if you throw it (including the Executioners upstairs — provided they don’t roll out of the way).
During the battle with the Dahaka you can opt to do nothing by letting him floor you, and then lying there with your guard up. If you do this, you get treated to a Dahaka Chase Death–style cutscene with the Dahaka suddenly sucking the Prince up and removing him from the timeline.
You can actually attack, but not harm, the Dahaka without the water sword. When you run through a waterfall to reach a Time Portal, the Dahaka stands for a moment, then yells to the skies in anguish before disappearing. The instant he goes into his ‘Foiled again’ animation you can run out and start attacking him. Very occasionally, usually when kicking him, you’ll get a sound of striking flesh, but you mostly hear a clang and see the recoil of the Prince attacking an unbreakable wall. You can even combat rebound off the Dahaka during this.
In the Foundry, contact with the molten metal pouring down from the pipes will instantly kill the spiked hounds.
Throwing any enemy into a trap (such as floor spikes or rotating blades) results in an instant kill, even if the enemy previously had full health.
In some areas enemies can’t seem to follow you. At the top of the main castle steps you can cross over into the castle and stand at the border. The 4 opponents there throw 3–hit attack strings your way all day but never touch you. It looks hilarious in 1st person view, especially if you stand in the right corner because a Silhouette keeps throwing knives at them in his attempts to hit you.
The water tower’s first life upgrade: after you turn the lever to open the door and access this place you come to a small bridge. You can in fact leap from this bridge straight to the platform you need to drop down to from above. I did a roll as I hit the platform and took no fall damage. What a time–saver!
The Warrior Within features as a serial killing Butcher on the cover of an Arabic horror book called Euphoria of Hell.
You can actually get the Life Upgrade after the Central Hall — which you should grab after getting Eye of the Storm — before getting EotS by simply rolling up the stairs repeatedly and into the small hole in the wall that opens up.
The cutscenes prior to the Prince facing the Empress, the ones that take place in the Hourglass Chamber, sport some very minor and subtle differences. In his first encounter the Prince says: “Time is running low. You ready?” As he says “you ready?” he looks to his left at the Empress. After he returns to the exact same point following his Sandwraith adventures he says the complete 2 lines AND THEN looks at her. This shows us that he know her secret.
Another well–known one, but you can fight all the Boss battles without using your mega Sand Powers. If you have enough skill you can get away without even using Recall! (I can do them all except the Griffin: I have to use Recall for that one, but I’ve gotten a lot better.) Yes, this also includes the second Empress battle. You need to battle her near the ledge. Once she slows down time you can hang off the ledge and she won’t attack you.
If a Boss regains any health then you’ve done something wrong. You had the opportunity to kill them and messed it up in some way (I have the Thrall Boss and Dahaka in mind here, and the Griffin if you avoid it for long enough by running away from it).
If you have taken the Water Sword before becoming the Sandwraith, you still see the Scorpion Sword in the video…
“What do you want from me?” We hear this cry of the Prince’s twice: once as the Prince, and then as the Sandwraith. At this point the Prince suddenly has the same secondary weapon that you do. Easily noticeable if you’ve picked up the glowing Light Sword.
You cannot see the Prince as the Sandwraith in the hole where the Golem in the big fireplace throws him.
You CAN see some points where your actions as the Sandwraith have had an effect: most notably in the Library. When you come in, you have a great big barrier in front of the entranceway, but open access inside. You have to break down the wall, and turn one of the levers to move a bookcase aside. As the Prince you find no breakable wall there, and a bookcase partially blocking your access (a table prevents it from closing completely).
I think pretty much everyone knows this one: the game developers have backmasked the Dahaka’s speech. If you wait until he finishes saying something, then Recall time, you’ll usually hear him speak properly. Sometimes he says really cool and hilarious things like: “You are quick, mortal. QUICK TO DIE!” At other times he comes out with such mundane rubbish as: “You … will be … removed!”
As a neutral NPC, Kaileena has the same effect on the Prince as fire and water. After he activates one tower, he meets Kaileena in the Central Hall who gives him the Lion Sword. At this point you need the entrance to the garden area up, so activate the lever for this, or leave it alone if you’ve just come from there. Now climb onto the lowest level platform and jump onto Kaileena. You’ll notice that the Prince has the same reaction as though he’d jumped onto fire or a save fountain. You can also achieve this by vertically wallrunning up a pillar and jumping off onto her.
Why on earth does the Dahaka remove the Sandwraith in the past? And why does he accept the Prince’s unwilling sacrifice later? (I personally submit that the Dahaka ‘found’ the Prince in the past in order to prevent anomalies in the timeline by having one person in two locations at the same time, wreaking havoc through time travel.)
You can battle the Empress a second time even with full health upgrades if you simply forgo picking up the Water Sword. Sometimes it can prove a little tricky avoiding the trigger for it. The easiest way involves deliberately missing the life upgrade at the Prison (above the room with the Thrall/Stone Brute Boss), and picking it up later when you return through there as the Sandwraith. You trigger the “Time is running low…” conversation before you can reach the Sword, and when it finishes you find yourself upstairs, so don’t have to tiptoe your way around the Sword.
People refer to the Dahaka Boss Fight as the ‘alternative ending’, but in fact the lack of life upgrades leading to a second showdown with the Empress forms the true alternative ending, especially in the light of T2T.
Very few of the puzzles and platforming section require a mandatory use of EotS. Those that do include the walkway to the Garden (which needs you to use it twice), the first door–opening floor switch you encounter after getting the EotS sand power (which leads to the Southern Passage), one of the rising blocks in the mechanical tower activated by a wall switch, possibly the last life upgrade’s door activation switch, and the run to the Prison life upgrade.

Those that do NOT require use of EotS, despite what folks may think, include every spike/blade–based platforming section (yes, including the one in the Mystic Caves where you have lots of saws moving side–to–side very quickly on the ground), the corridor leading to and from the Mechanical Tower in the Central Hall (which you activate by wallrunning vertically and hanging from a platform), the wall platform activated in the save room where the Brute throws explosive dogs at you, and the section in the mystic caves where you activate a floor switch and then have to jump from stalactite to stalactite to reach the door you open.
As with most games of this type (such as DMC or GoW), the Prince has abilities in cutscenes that do not manifest in gameplay. This occurs more in T2T, but sections in WW include the ability to wallrun higher than ingame (see the cutscene where he tries to flee from the Dahaka after saying “It’s time to find a way off this rock” — you come to that area at the start of the Island section and cannot vertically wallrun to that particular ledge he does!), the front flipping jump before the final Boss battle, and the ability to survive huge falls (such as when the Dahaka throws the Sandwraith away — plummeting into water from that height kills the Prince ingame).
When going in to the final battle, before entering the cutscene go into first–person view so that you see the whole platform. No Kaileena there!
When coming out the mech tower as Sandwraith, you’ll have to go through the room where you fought the first Golem, and you will see another Golem now. If you ignore it and just continue on to the platform with 3 Keepers, you can look down from a window up there. You can’t see any monsters.
When you first try to pick up the Scorpion Sword for the first time, the Dahaka chases the Prince after knocking the sword into the pit, and the Prince escapes to a Portal Room. If you leave that room afterwards, and go to the room with the pit, you’ll see the Scorpion Sword still there on its stand even though it fell into the pit! You can run at it but the Prince will ignore it and never pick it up.
The game engine treats all voices in cutscenes (those that actually feature the Prince moving around or standing around, so this does not include him remembering things like when he killed the Empress, or recalling the Sandwraith getting removed by the Dahaka) as ‘music’. This includes speeches by the Prince, flapping wings and cries of the Griffin, etc.
Dante from DMC3 has instant access to his chosen weapons — on–the–fly switching. The Prince must go through the animation of unsheathing his weapons, but he has a form of Instant Holstering. If you wallrun or jump with your weapons out and ready, the Prince will suddenly have his weapons holstered the instant he catches onto a ledge without having to go through the motions of putting them away. Handy…

Sunset on Babylon

2007-06-09T16:08:00.001+01:00

The glorious shot of Babylon from the opening cinematic in Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Done by Raphael Lacoste and in hi–res, I now have this beautiful picture as my desktop wallpaper!

clipped from raphael.lacoste.free.fr

American Prophets and the Efficacy of Prayer

2007-06-09T00:57:00.001+01:00

It turns out that despite widespread atheism and agnosticism, people still do believe in the powers of petitioning God with prayer, and that God would act on the behalf of people in a war. Behold:

clipped from popuw.com

dude527

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:52 pm Post subject:

One last word about religion, I believe, no, i KNOW god and heaven and hell exists, its in the Bible, plus my country, United States, was mostly formed on account of prayer and half of the wars we won were because people prayed. For example, in the battle right before Gettysburg, Civil War, we were losing, then we ran out of ammo, Lincoln had everyone kneel in prayer to God that we might win and then a man riding a White Horse in a Revolutionary War attire jumps out of nowhere and starts riding ahead of all the battle lines, taking the fire from the southern america army because he could not be hit in battle. (That man fits the description of George Washington, our first president, and a very holy man, the Civil War was far ahead of his time so how could he be there?)
_________________
http://z6.invisionfree.com/Elder_Scrolls_Forums/index.php?act=idx

©2006-2007 dude527

‘Muhammad’ second most popular boy’s name in the UK

2007-06-07T21:20:00.001+01:00

£25K? I wish my parents had named me Muhammad…

clipped from www.tapesh.com

According to data from CACI Information Solutions

a man named Muhammad is most likely to be aged between 25 and 34 and to have an
average salary of £25,000.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within’s Free Form Fighting System

2007-06-06T01:14:00.001+01:00

Apparently, this chap considers WW’s FFFS ‘really lame’. A far cry from the wonderful and extensive discussions quite a few of us have had on the hidden depths of this game’s combat engine on Gamefaqs.

clipped from uk.gamespot.com

veringatorix

May 31, 2007 9:43 am GMT

Well, i have played all 3 PoPs and can say that i preferred the two thrones the most, as it had devious new additions to the platforming. Sands of Time was great too, and takes second place. i was disappointed in warrior within, because of the lack of innovation and really lame combat( comparing to dmc3/onimusha). i also didnt like the music in warrior within, but the environemnts were OK. the other 2 PoPs were much much better.
---

Lycanthropic Occupation

2007-05-29T22:15:00.001+01:00

clipped from www.google.co.uk

"Punching werewolves in the throat!"

I haven’t found that phrase through Googlesearch anywhere, and I wanted it to appear online. So I had to resort to desperate measures.

Power Crouch Stab

2007-05-13T01:34:00.001+01:00

And to think how long it took me when I first encountered this Boss…

clipped from video.google.com

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Power Crouch Stab demonstration - TSA

This is a demonstration of the "Power Crouch Stab" technique in
Zelda 64.

Mike "TSA" Damiani demonstrates this by defeating the game's first boss,
Parasitic Armored Arachnid Gohma, with a jumping Deku Stick attack and two Power
Crouch Stabs, taking about five seconds in total to defeat her.

Jihad and Religious Tolerance

2007-05-05T21:48:00.001+01:00

I have discovered a wonderful site, a website called Religious Tolerance, and I happed upon it by accident while looking for interpretations of and commentary on the book of Vayyiqra (Leviticus). It had an extremely thorough exposition of the section regarding homosexuality.

Then I saw its studies on Islam, and this remarkably open–minded explanation of Jihad. I have bookmarked the site now.

clipped from www.religioustolerance.org

THE CONCEPT OF JIHAD ("STRUGGLE') IN ISLAM

The conventional interpretation of "Jihad":

Personal Jihad:

Verbal Jihad:

Physical Jihad:

Other interpretations of "Jihad":

It would be quite possible to assemble
passages from the Bible

which are profoundly immoral by today's religious and
secular standards. If all one read of the Bible was a collection of such
passages, one might conclude that the Bible is an evil document that promotes
violence, unethical behavior.

Similarly, it is possible to scan the
Bible for passages

which promote a loving, moral and ethical life.

Which group of passages represent the real Bible? They both do!

The Qur'an is similar.

Some emphasize the earlier passages in the Qur'an which emphasize cooperation with the Jews and Christians -- the "People of the Book." They tend to interpret "Jihad" in terms of personal struggle towards purity.

Others emphasize later passages of the Qur'an which were received during a time of conflict. They tend to interpret "Jihad" as holy war.

Unicorn Rap

2007-05-04T22:10:00.001+01:00

What the f…ook?

“I’ll squish your face like a zit
And leave you oozing down the mirror!”

clipped from www.youtube.com

Unicorn Rap

Ignorance & Tolerance — Islam

2007-05-04T01:14:00.001+01:00

Further to my previous post on the EvC Forum thread, some more quotes on Islam:

clipped from www.evcforum.net

title="Click for list of messages by jar (aka Orang, TrueChristian)">href="http://www.evcforum.net/cgi-bin/Threads.cgi?action=tml&mid=2094"
name=234>jar
Member

Religion, IMHO, whether Christianity or Islam or Judaism or Hinduism or whatever flavor, is most often simply a tool. Almost always the question boils down to "Who controls certain resources and power."

IMHO the greatest danger is Ignorance, just plain Ignorance. Historically, Islam has been as accepting of other cultures, perhaps even more than Christianity, than any other Theocratic Political movement.

When Christian Spain expelled the Jews, it was a Muslim Caliph that welcomed them and even sent ships to transport them away from Spain. It was the Islamic world that maintained knowledge and education during the period of the Christian Dark Ages.

Even under the Islamic Caliphate in Spain, Christian Monasteries continued to thrive, and it was in a large part, those monks and nuns that returned to more northern Europe from those monasteries bring back tales of indoor plumbing and clean streets and hospitals and schools that lead to the great awakening that followed the Dark Ages.

Setting The Record Straight

2007-05-03T21:56:00.001+01:00

Over at Creation Versus Evolution forum. An indepth discussion of the barbarity of early(–ish) Christianity, something a lot of people skimp over in their haste to denounce Islam.

clipped from www.evcforum.net

setting the record straight

Historically, Islam has been a religion of tolerance, while Christianity has been just the opposite, a religion of Intolerence.

As a Christian, I believe that we need to realize this failing in our Faith, and
to work towards making Christianity more tolerant. Christianity has a long
history of simply destroying other cultures and religions and in legally
mandating either conversion, expulsion or death.

Some examples:

when the conquistadors arrived in South America they burned all of the religious tracts they found and outlawed the practice of any religion except Christianity.

Jews were expelled from England in 1290 under the Edict of Expulsion. They were barred from the Isles until the mid 1600s.

the Crusades which were attempts to redirect internal violence towards a non-aggressive outside neighbor.

Faith's own post

describes the heart of Islam to be barbarity, even though the historical facts
do not support her assertion.

Ground Jump Boost (OOT Speedrunning Techniques continued)

2007-05-03T21:49:00.001+01:00

How to perform a bomb–based ground boost. Explanation provided by Erik.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Ground Jump Boost

Comments

PyRoTHPS

I did a ground jump, then let go of a bombchu in the air to give me a boost.

When you have your sword out, stand infront of the bomb, then hold L+R, and press A to grab the bomb. Your guy will put his sword away instead of grabbing the omb and you won't be able to move. Wait for the bomb to blow up, let go of L+R, then do a backflip.

Ocarina of Time Speedrunning Techniques

2007-05-03T20:07:00.001+01:00

SDA’s Fluffy_Kitten shows how to bomb jump (impact boost) the moat in Hyrule Castle in Ocarina of Time.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Hyrule Moat Skip With a Bomb

PyRoTHPS

It is very easy. Trick is to stand where I am, wait for it to start beeping fast, run off the ledge, then shield drop it in the air, then press B to jumpslash.

Opposing Force Speedrun

2007-05-02T21:12:00.003+01:00

Ahhh… I found it online! I have a high quality download of this from the Speed Demos Archive website, but this site has an embedded video of Spider–Waffle’s amazing speedrun of the expansion pack game to Half–Life. I prefer this one even to his awe–inspiring speedrun of Half–Life itself (posted elsewhere on this site)!

The page includes Blake’s commentary on his run. Go to it and watch. Download it from SDA and support the website!

clipped from www.archive.org

Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC) - 0:23:09 - Blake Piepho (2005)

Speed run of the Half-Life expansion Opposing Force on hard mode in 93 segments,
completed on February 12 2005.

Blake 'Spider-Waffle' Piepho

Proud, British and … errr … Muslim?

2007-05-02T20:20:00.001+01:00

Interesting. A recent Gallup poll has shown that muslims in London feel far more integrated than a lot of the ‘native’ population! Done, unfortunately, on a rather small cross–section of the population, nonetheless it shows great hope — and definitely smashes a lot of the talk on muslims unwilling to integrate with Britain…

clipped from www.themuslimweekly.com

Muslims Proud to be British

London Muslims are more proud of being British than their non-Muslim
counterparts, a poll revealed this week.

The independent survey by the Gallup Organisation found that the Muslim attitude towards the Government and Britain’s institutions is far more positive than other Britons.

Gallup interviewed 500 Muslims and 1,200 members of the wider population.

81% of London Muslims condemn violence even if used in a noble cause.

74% are loyal to Britain.

69% identify very or extremely strongly with their religion.

82% respect other religions.

The poll showed that loyalty to Britain was greater than the general public: 74 per cent as opposed to 45 per cent.

Superslide Trick in Ocarina of Time

2007-04-29T03:34:00.001+01:00

A super duper speedrunning trick which you can pull off in The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. The Tools–Assisted Speedrun (TAS) videos website provides this explanation of it:

Enemy + Interactive Object

Link must first find an enemy that will attack him. We will use the Peahats of Hyrule Field as an example. Surrounding these Peahats are bushes which Link can lift out of the ground. While holding Z and R, make Link roll into the bush while the Peahat is attacking him. Press A to grab the bush as the Peahat’s attack connects with Link just before he stands up. If done properly, Link will block the attack just as he is about to finish the roll (and while he’s still invincible) and that will retain the “picking up” action, and so the speed at which he is knocked back by the attack will remain constant as long as he has his shield raised.

clipped from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MaMNTZQo8&eurl=

Superslide off a Peahat

Fastest way to get to Gerudo Valley.

Dominant Left Side

2007-04-29T02:01:00.001+01:00

This discussion I found on Iain Abernethy’s excellent martial arts forum brought up a seminar by ‘jujutsu man Harold Howard’ detailing that humans present the left side of their bodies as the dominant one due to the right side of the brain controlling aggressiveness.

The chap who posted this up has hyperlinked further information so I’ll check up on that. It certainly gives fresh meaning the Boxing’s ‘Orthodox’ stance!

clipped from www.iainabernethy.com

I once attended a seminar where the instructor

went into a lot of detail about human dominance, aggression, and eye contact.

the ideas presented were based on the notion that the left brain is recognized
as passive, the right brain as controlling aggression. Since the left brain
(passive) controls the RIGHT side of body, the RIGHT side of the body is
'passive' to a degree, and vice verse for the right brain/LEFT side. So in a
nutshell, humans are wired to instinctually present the 'dominant' (left) side
of our bodies forward and make an effort to destroy the aggressive left side of
the defenders face to overcome him.

Since humans often make eye contact through one eye, strong left eye contact

can be perceived to be a threatening danger signal.

Funny thing is, I have experimented with this a little and found it to be true
in most cases where someone is giving you their best "tough guy" look

Fascinating stuff, thanks Mike!

Lawrence

US & Israel vs Iran = FIGHT!

2007-04-28T17:33:00.001+01:00

I saw this following poll on the excellent blog Palestinian Pundit, on whether people believe the U.S. and Israel will attack Iran in the current year (2007). The overwhelming majority (59%) have said yes, though thus far only 371 people have voted.

I voted yes, though I think it may even drag out into next year. But I believe an attack on Iran inevitable.

clipped from poll.pollcode.com

Selection Votes
Yes 59% 220
No 28% 105
Not sure 12% 46
371 votes total
pollcode.com free polls

Scrubbers!

2007-04-27T02:09:00.001+01:00

Up yours, grand–dad!

clipped from www.youtube.com

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Half–Hour Half–Life

2007-04-26T00:53:00.001+01:00

Definitely one of the coolest, awe–inspiring and riveting videos on the web at the moment. Spider–Waffle completes the original Half–Life game in under ½–an–hour using a cunning variety of techniques, scripts, shortcuts and sequence breaking techniques.

clipped from video.google.com

Calzaghe’s Boxing Career … Over.

2007-04-25T21:01:00.001+01:00

clipped from www.secondsout.com

Calzaghe told career is over by doctor

Super-middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe was given the fright of his life by a
doctor following his easy third round victory over Peter Manfredo in Cardiff
earlier this month.

Boxing’s longest reigning world champion, 35, once
again hurt one of his fists during a WBO title defense and sought medical
advice.

But the first doctor Calzaghe consulted informed the unbeaten
Welshman that the damage to his scaphoid bone (in the base of the thumb) was so
severe that he would be forced into retirement.

The article goes on to state that he went for a second opinion (always a wise thing to do in cases such as these), and received news that his fractured scaphoid bone will heal in time for him to fight in September of this year.

It makes me wonder which Dr has the edge in accuracy there…

“Make Spacious His Grave…

2007-04-25T20:56:00.000+01:00

…and illuminate it for him.”

— extract from a supplication to Allah for the deceased (technically only recited when closing his/her eyes).

Uncle dead. All gone now. Mother’s last remaining brother. Only one in England — others used to live in Pakistan. Family feud. Not seen him or his family in more than 6+ years. Sudden call around midnight today. Sudden? Well, 5 missed calls on my mobile and 4 on the house phone. Uncle remained in hospital since Wednesday the 18th, ill with heart trouble. 70+ years of age. In & out. Seemed recovered on Saturday. Then… gone.

My mother didn’t even know he’d gone to hospital. They hadn’t told her. Mind you, he’d never even told her when his daughter got married. She had to hear it from other people in our local community. When my mother saw his face (he lay on his bed in the hospital after having passed on), she burst into tears again (had cried as I took her and my Dad there by car) and screamed at him (I translate this from Urdu):

“THIS is it? You couldn’t even bring yourself to speak to me for the rest of your life, and now you call me? For … this??”

Today his son Naveed made the funeral arrangements, helped by a friend of his in the know. Islamically we bury the deceased within 3 days, usually within a day. No point hanging around, I suppose. When Naveed’s mate came into the room at the hospital last night and told my aunt that he’d sort the preparations and get my uncled buried the next afternoon she started, suddenly coming out of her bubble. “That soon?” she asked. Poor thing. I don’t like her, but she suffered from cancer these past few years and my uncle took complete care of her — he devoted himself entirely to her to the point he didn’t even leave the house for weeks at a time.

Her daughter, my cousin Sarah, sat there with her trying to convince her that he would never return. “He’s gone, mum!” she kept saying. “He’s not coming back!” My aunt hadn’t cried ‘properly’, apparently, and Sarah wanted her to let it all out so the grieving and healing processes could begin.

Naveed had to remain strong and take care of matters such as the funeral arrangements, as well as comforting the overwhelmingly large proportion of female members of his family. But a couple of times he cried out in grief and then quickly wiped his eyes.

The worst such incident came when we had to bathe my uncle’s body this morning at the mosque, in preparation for his Islamic burial. My cousin, his 2 brothers–in–law, and I lifted the enshrouded body onto the table where we would wash him. When we uncovered him (except for the obligatory covering of men from navel to knee) my cousin Naveed took one look at his Dad’s face and burst into tears. He quickly suppressed his outburst though, and we took to washing him all over. I helped out as best as I could (I even had to clean his genitals), and we included the ritual ablutions, as though preparing him for prayer.

His body felt so heavy, and cold (undoubtedly from his night in the mortuary). His head had gone purple from the ears down — all that blood pooling due to gravity and no heartbeat to circulate it all. Little holes in the table through which the water drained left purple marks all over his back. Marks which did not go away. The solidity of his body when I touched, cleaning him, his arms stiff and crossed over his chest (in Islam we bury people with their arms straight by their side), and remaining that way as we tried in vain to straighten them, all created a weird sort of bond between us. I can’t even get my head around it, let alone attempt to describe it.

After we cleaned him, put him in his coffin for the open casket viewing, we left to ritually purify ourselves before prayer. In situations like these we always have what we called a ‘Janaaza’, a funeral prayer. We do this with the casket in front of us, but we remain standing during the prayer; we do not bow as we do ordinarily when praying to Allah.

They buried him in a cemetary in Almondbury. I even helped to shovel in soil onto him. He has gone for good now. Until the Day of Judgement, so they say…

What now?

“Seek To Write Your Way Out Of Everything”

2007-04-24T02:03:00.001+01:00

clipped from www.beautifulislam.net

In one Hadith recorded in Mustadrak-e-Haakim, an explicit and clear order
of writing is given. The words are "Tie down knowledge", the Sahaabi enquired,
"What is tying down knowledge?" The Prophet (Sallallaahu Alayhi Wasallam)
replied, "It's writing." (Mustadrak vol. 1 pg. 106)

From an authentic, recorded tradition of the Prophet. I love the phrase ‘tie down knowledge’ in its sense of anchoring knowledge. That really appeals to someone such as I, who can express himself more eloquently in a written format than face–to–face. Tying down knowledge.

Shahadah from a Jewish Perspective

2007-04-23T01:00:00.001+01:00

The Muslim declaration of faith (Shahadah = testimony, and from the same root as ‘shaheed’ which you can roughly translate as ‘martyr’) runs thus: “There is no divinity but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”. At one time I used to wonder about this — question why we took the name of the Prophet alongside that of God. Why, if we submitted to God, did we have to declare our allegiance to a man chosen by God to spread the word? It felt almost like ‘shirk’ to me (the association of partners with God).

Eventually I came to accept this as the best summation of our religion of Islam. We submitted wholly to Allah in the ‘latest format’ as preached by Muhammad . It suddenly made sense to me. We simply declared our worship of Allah and how it related to the final message delivered to the Seal of the Prophets.

But then I read this today, and some of the old thoughts (…and doubts) came flooding back:

clipped from http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99506&page=3

History
Yiddishe Kopf

Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: USA
Posts: 5,048

From this Jewish perspective, the elevation of prophets, and in Islam,
specifically of Muhammed, to a "superhuman" status (sinless, perfect, etc.)--the
elevation of his name to be said adjacent to Allah/G-d in the Muslim's
declaration of faith (i.e. "There is no god but G-d and Muhammed is His
prophet"), the examples of world-riots and deaths through perceived "insult" to
a man, even a revered man of G-d, is "associating partners with G-d",
is "worship", is blasphemous ("shirk"). Regardless of what is
claimed to the contrary, the actions of Muslims define their beliefs (which is
true of all human beings).

Always doubts. My entire life seems plagued with one consistency only: Doubt about everything. Does my entire life, my whole being, my religious feelings, my love for my family, my fiancée, my belief in myself… does all of it centre on an empty void of Doubt? Does everything = Doubt to me?

Boxing & Chess vs Islam = FIGHT!

2007-04-23T00:19:00.001+01:00

So it turns out that edicts issued by scholars of my religion, Islam, condemn my twin interests, that of boxing and chess, as ‘haraam’ (forbidden). After long discussion on one particular forum, someone concluded that the Prophet himself condemned any ‘sport’ which involved hitting the face, but endorsed wrestling.

My comments asking for further clarification re: the rules of and reasons behind wrestling have received no response. Almost a week later. Hmmm… (“Things that make you go—”)

clipped from forum.mpacuk.org

kashf al–Haqq

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peacenik
True wrestling … does not involve harmful injury to the other party.

Then what does it involve? Getting sweaty and touching other men, lying on top of them? True wrestling involves strikes and submission holds — all of which cause injury to the other party, or at least intended injury in order to force the other party to tap out or end up so beaten they can’t tap out (eg striking them to a point that you can pin them).
__________________
It is not the eyes that are blind, but the hearts (22:46)

Violence of the Lambs

2007-04-23T00:03:00.001+01:00

I saw this hilarious trailer on YouTube for a purported horror film from New Zealand called Black Sheep. I can’t tell if this film actually exists, or if someone made a riotously fantastic spoof of horror films in advert forms, but I love it! Were–sheep yet! The mind boggles…

clipped from www.youtube.com

Tea, Glorious Tea

2007-04-22T23:14:00.001+01:00

My email service conducts regular quizzes, which we can take part in or ignore. Today’s asked if we take any sugar in our cuppas and if so how many. I picked zero: I stopped taking sugar in my tea many years ago. 48% of 1598 who voted do likewise. That makes more than 767 people!

clipped from http://www.postmaster.co.uk/

Today's Poll

How many sugars do you take in your tea?
none		48%
1		17%
2		16%
3		4%
more than 3		2%
I dont drink tea		11%
I do not wish to answer this question		2%
Total number responded so far is 1598

For All These Times…

2007-04-19T02:51:00.000+01:00

I go to see lostprophets and Taking Back Sunday in concert tonight in Manchester. I can’t wait — I adore both of these bands, and get mocked by my Metalhead mates who despise them both. Awesome!

Rascaduanok

2007-04-13T02:16:00.000+01:00

Five Factor Personality Test

2007-04-11T21:39:00.000+01:00

Why do I insist in completing these things? I don’t even accept most of them as valid! This one, however, seems quite accurate (for me, at any rate)…

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion:

You have medium extroversion.
You're not the life of the party, but you do show up for the party.
Sometimes you are full of energy and open to new social experiences.
But you also need to hibernate and enjoy your "down time."

Conscientiousness:

You have low conscientiousness.
Impulsive and off the wall, you don't take life too seriously.
Unfortunately, you sometimes end up regretting your snap decisions.
Overall, you tend to lack focus, and it's difficult for you to get important things done.

Agreeableness:

You have medium agreeableness.
You're generally a friendly and trusting person.
But you also have a healthy dose of cynicism.
You get along well with others, as long as they play fair.

Neuroticism:

You have high neuroticism.
It's easy for you to feel shaken, worried, or depressed.
You often worry, and your worries prevent you from living life fully.
You tend to be emotionally reactive and moody. Your either flying very high or feeling very low.

Openness to experience:

Your openness to new experiences is high.
In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas.
You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits.
A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

“Peacemaker die … I don’t know why”

2007-04-06T02:46:00.000+01:00

— Extreme.

So I took another test today. This one claims to gauge my soul’s type. Behold:

You Are a Peacemaker Soul

You strive to please others and compromise any way you can.
War or conflict bothers you, and you would do anything to keep the peace.
You are a good mediator and a true negotiator.
Sometimes you do too much, trying so hard to make people happy.

While you keep the peace, you tend to be secretly judgemental.
You lose respect for people who don’t like to both give and take.
On the flip side, you’ve got a great sense of humour and wit.
You’re always diplomatic and able to give good advice.

Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul, Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

“Interesting…” (as Christian Bale once said in Equilibrium prior to hurling Brian Conley through a bookcase.) I think these sorts of tests attract me, if well–composed, purely because of the process of thinking about my own self when completing them. Sifting through the sands of my soul in order to extract what I feel pertinent when faced with numerous answers to a question.

Compatible with Warrior and Hunter Souls, eh? Sweet as a moose!

Arab Headdresses

2007-04-05T14:15:00.000+01:00

So… the Arabic, made–for–desert headdress — known as a keffiyah or shemagh — has now turned into a fashion.

I see folks here in England, both men & women, wearing it as displayed above in a scarf style. Cool, but it really feels weird that people have simply taken something used as a barrier against sand & heat and subsumed it into a fashion culture.

I wonder how many of them have any understanding of Arabs whatsoever…

Been Dazed & Confused for so long it’s not true

2007-04-05T13:33:00.000+01:00

Work = horrendous.

Feeling dazed & confused, but not over a woman.

Emails piling up with people making ridiculous demands.

No–one else handles delinquency so I have to do it. Today MKash sent me a spreadsheet with all the scum fund loans that needed chasing and guess what? 57 new ones I need to send off to our debt collecting company.

Boss bollocking me for arriving late today, then claiming I have done so consistently every Thursday for the past few months(!). Instantly felt like screaming: “You lying pissing BASTARD! I can see the nads in your mouth because every time you open your gob you spew up an enormous fountain of bollocks!” DIE! And then murder him. Well… you KILL the Boss at the end of the level, don’t you?

A Gift for Easter…

2007-04-04T19:30:00.000+01:00

And so a Malaysian newspaper has reported that Iran has decided safely to release the 15 British military prisoners it held, accused of straying into Iranian territory, as a gift to Britain for Easter. Read the article here. Great news, I feel!

I never once considered that Iran’s government held any malevolent intent towards them. Their proclamations (no more trustworthy than those of the British and American Governments, I personally believe, cf: Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction) that they did not hold them in exchange for the release of Iranian prisoners, treatment of the prisoners healthwise (in comparison to those at Guantanamo Bay), and suchlike made me believe they would not hurt them.

I cannot comment on the ‘confessions’, except to state that they did seem too … convenient to me. I kept thinking they must have ‘forced’ those confessions out of them in some way.

At any rate, the British media itself engaged in some wild propaganda of its own (something it accused Iran of doing). Referring to arrested personnel as ‘kidnapped’ and ‘hostages’ speaks volumes, especially compared to the coverage and treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay by Poodle Blair’s ally in George Bush’s TWAT (The War Against Terror), namely America.

The Arts & Farces of the Workplace

2007-04-02T10:58:00.001+01:00

We had new counters installed at work on Saturday. We had to close (we usually open Saturday mornings), and when I walked in to work today the single counter had extensions to it, and large glass counters replacing the previous unimpeded face–to–face contact we used to share with customers (whom we call ‘members’).

I took a picture of our new look counters and should upload that later when I install Bluetooth software onto my home computer. Alas my previous computer conked out, meaning I have many pictures & songs on there I can’t access; I never made a backup of them because my old computer didn’t have any CD– or DVD–writing capabilities. I realise I never took a picture of our old–style counter, so a pic of the new counter only looks impressive in context… Hmmm.

Other than that we have had numerous problems with our computing software, mainly due to us not taking the time out to iron out all difficulties prior to opening to the public. We should have closed until lunchtime, come in early and fitted all the computers, ensured they worked fine in conjunction with our server, and only then opened to the public — instead of all these farts & arses we’ve now had to endure.

Score: p00 out of 10.

“Time for everything/Time to reflect on me”

2007-04-01T21:56:00.000+01:00

— Aldo Kraas.

I don’t feel in control of my life enough to make this a reality. I don’t feel I can make time to reflect on myself, and things which take place in my life. When I find some respite in order to try and compose a few words regarding my feelings, or simply a description of events, too much time has elapsed and I can’t capture the moment.

Take this weekend. I had a big argument with my Helen, and it seemed to kick off about nothing (always a sure sign of deeply embedded issues & possible resentments), but I couldn’t take stock. As brilliant playwright Peter Handke once wrote: “Write your way out of everything”, but I couldn’t do it. So I had to bury my thoughts, which caused my feelings to take over and send me crazy. Collapsing to the ground, rushing around needing to get away (in the end I bolted and legged it for a tram and train outta there). Not good…

I think I stop keeping diaries for this reason. Too much time passes by, feelings grow stale and eventually it feels pointless to me to continue logging half–arsed attempts at a journal. Pah.

Currently reading: Colonialism/Postcolonialism by Ania Loomba. A well–written introduction to, and account of, colonialism and postcolonialism, their relevance in today’s world, and issues related to these (sexuality, racial divisions, capitalism, globalisation). I’ve only read a few pages, but it does read very clearly.

Alongside this, ‘lighter’ reading I suppose you could call it, I have picked up The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. I’ve never read it before. In fact, I don’t think I’ve even seen any filmic renditions of it — only the cartoon show Dogtanian & The Three Muskehounds as a child. All together now: “One for all and all for one, Muskehounds are always ready…”

I shall post thoughts on these books as I make further headway.

Predictive Txt and Its Many Wonders

2007-03-30T09:24:00.000+01:00

Well, I’ve decided to compile a list of nonsensical words created by typing an existing word into a mobile phone using its predictive txt function. I have discovered the following amusing alternatives to real locations in England:

Crafemse — Bradford
Sheddidle — Sheffield

More as I hap upon them.

Emo–ryuken!

2007-03-30T01:49:00.000+01:00

So I took a test supposedly measuring my Emo qualities, and it gave this as my result:

“You’re not the emo–est of quiz–takers, but you lean in an emo direction. You feel angry and passionate on a regular basis, but you also have an easygoing side that keeps you grounded. You’re naturally introspective, but you’re not compelled to analyze every detail of your life — sometimes you’d rather shrug your shoulders and get on with the day. You understand why your emo friends seem so sensitive, but you also get why that drives your non–emo friends crazy. You’re the happy medium of emo–ness!”

You know something, that doesn’t sound too bad at all. And I’d even go so far as to call it accurate on a fair few of the points. Except that I don’t have any ‘emo’ friends of which I know…

WTF

2007-03-30T00:23:00.000+01:00

No, not the World Taekwondo Federation. I simply wonder how I ended up with 3 blogs in various places. I use one currently over at boxingbanter.com (Kodanshi's Tiny Maps To Heaven) and I think I’ll stick with that one at the moment. I simply joined this in order to post a comment on someone else’s blog — a little ridiculous and an unnecessarily extreme measure in order to tell someone you like an article they wrote…