I learned today that a friend of mine who had been waddling, pregnant and radiant, around our office for months, miscarried earlier this week. Cord around the boy's neck or something similar.
That's just about the saddest single thing I can imagine.
-Rich
Friday, August 05, 2005
Monday, August 01, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Seek First to Understand
I know it's been a while since I've posted. There hasn't been any particular reason, other than despite lots having occurred in my life, I haven't particularly wanted to spout off about it all. I may get into some of it later, though.
Right now, I'm studying up to read (an English translation of) the Koran.
I've done lots of thinking over the past few years (you know the ones) about the current State of Things, and that it's looking increasingly like the primary sociopolitical concern of the next century is going to be how Islam and the rest of the world come to terms with one another.
I feel like I've got a decent bead on how the dominant forces of the Judeo-Christian Western world function and interact. There are, of course, those who will disagree on that point, but I've grown up in the Western milieu, so it's familiar, and can at the very least look around and see when something confuses me.
I do not, however, understand the Koran (Qur'an/Kor'an/Quran) and how its contents mold the minds of its followers. Not in the slightest. There's a great deal of bluster these days in the conservative circles I frequent regarding what the Koran teaches, and my suspicion is that there is much repeating of hearsay and taking of tidbits out of context, though it's always possible that there are kernals of truth in the accusations as well.
For these and other reasons, I'm no longer content to go with pundits' quickie "analyses," or to risk parroting nonsense through simple lack of checking.
So tonight I picked up The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Koran, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam and Islam for Dummies for the Cliffs-Notes, twenty-thousand-foot view, and two English translations of the Koran itself. After an hour with The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Koran, I can see that I will also need to procure translations of the Sunna and the Sharia, and I plan to try and find some other exegetical texts--it would be tricky, for example, to come up with a thorough understanding of Christianity and all its schismatic history simply by reading through a copy of the King James Bible.
It promises to be a fascinating ride, and I want to find out what the apologists, apostates and opponents alike think. At the end of it all (if there is an end, which I doubt), I want to try and answer the question for myself: is Islam the problem? Certainly, the hellholes of the world, from Africa to the Middle East into Asia and Indonesia, seem to be disproportionately Muslim. Still, as I discussed with Matt earlier this evening, does this mean that Islam causes hellholes, or that hellholes attract Islam, or something else entirely? Also, there are some primarily Muslim regions that aren't pits of repression and suffering--what's different about them? And what bearing does being or not being Arab have?
I'm excited and slightly daunted: it's a lot of material, and of course not knowing Arabic I'm condemned to perceive a lot of things through translators' perceptions and prejudices, but one of the things that niggles at me most in life is not knowing, and Islam's place in and relationship to the world is no longer one of those areas in which I can allow myself to persist in ignorance.
That said, does anyone have books they'd like to recommend? I'm pretty much a complete tabula rasa on the subject.
-Rich
Right now, I'm studying up to read (an English translation of) the Koran.
I've done lots of thinking over the past few years (you know the ones) about the current State of Things, and that it's looking increasingly like the primary sociopolitical concern of the next century is going to be how Islam and the rest of the world come to terms with one another.
I feel like I've got a decent bead on how the dominant forces of the Judeo-Christian Western world function and interact. There are, of course, those who will disagree on that point, but I've grown up in the Western milieu, so it's familiar, and can at the very least look around and see when something confuses me.
I do not, however, understand the Koran (Qur'an/Kor'an/Quran) and how its contents mold the minds of its followers. Not in the slightest. There's a great deal of bluster these days in the conservative circles I frequent regarding what the Koran teaches, and my suspicion is that there is much repeating of hearsay and taking of tidbits out of context, though it's always possible that there are kernals of truth in the accusations as well.
For these and other reasons, I'm no longer content to go with pundits' quickie "analyses," or to risk parroting nonsense through simple lack of checking.
So tonight I picked up The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Koran, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Islam and Islam for Dummies for the Cliffs-Notes, twenty-thousand-foot view, and two English translations of the Koran itself. After an hour with The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Koran, I can see that I will also need to procure translations of the Sunna and the Sharia, and I plan to try and find some other exegetical texts--it would be tricky, for example, to come up with a thorough understanding of Christianity and all its schismatic history simply by reading through a copy of the King James Bible.
It promises to be a fascinating ride, and I want to find out what the apologists, apostates and opponents alike think. At the end of it all (if there is an end, which I doubt), I want to try and answer the question for myself: is Islam the problem? Certainly, the hellholes of the world, from Africa to the Middle East into Asia and Indonesia, seem to be disproportionately Muslim. Still, as I discussed with Matt earlier this evening, does this mean that Islam causes hellholes, or that hellholes attract Islam, or something else entirely? Also, there are some primarily Muslim regions that aren't pits of repression and suffering--what's different about them? And what bearing does being or not being Arab have?
I'm excited and slightly daunted: it's a lot of material, and of course not knowing Arabic I'm condemned to perceive a lot of things through translators' perceptions and prejudices, but one of the things that niggles at me most in life is not knowing, and Islam's place in and relationship to the world is no longer one of those areas in which I can allow myself to persist in ignorance.
That said, does anyone have books they'd like to recommend? I'm pretty much a complete tabula rasa on the subject.
-Rich
Sunday, June 26, 2005
New Drawing Desk
Boredom is one of those things that can easily turn into frenzied activity in my case.
Some background: I was an avid sketcher on pretty much anything made of paper while I was growing up. I was actually thinking seriously about entering the comic book artist field at one point, but then my dad reminded me how "much" a comic book artist makes, which cemented my computing career.
Still, up through high school (and a much lesser degree, college) I did a lot of drawing. Some of my less demanding HS classes generated more drawings in my notebooks than actual notes.
So about a week ago I recaught the bug (which had been percolating for a long while, to be fair) to take up drawing again, but this time to do it right as regards equipment and time, and possibly go all the way to pastels and the like. You know, color.
So the photo here is of my shiny new drawing desk, canted to a nicely rakish angle. I woke up wanting to draw a black widow spider, and so, after a brief Google Image Search for a suitable photo, I did. :-D You've got to love a creative use for the laptop stand I grabbed on a whim a few weeks ago. Medium: graphite pencils for the black & white, and Prismacolor lightfast colored pencils for the admittedly less interesting color bits.
I hate my ankles, and they return the favor
On a less wonderful note, as I was unloading the desk from the Altima yesterday evening, I rolled my foot off the edge of the concrete slab that is the floor of my garage, and sprained my left ankle something fierce. Yes, Matt, just like I did back on Super Bowl Sunday in your garage, only more thoroughly.
The dogs look at me funny when I hobble around the house, now. I wonder if I look more edible to them...
-Rich
Some background: I was an avid sketcher on pretty much anything made of paper while I was growing up. I was actually thinking seriously about entering the comic book artist field at one point, but then my dad reminded me how "much" a comic book artist makes, which cemented my computing career.
Still, up through high school (and a much lesser degree, college) I did a lot of drawing. Some of my less demanding HS classes generated more drawings in my notebooks than actual notes.
So about a week ago I recaught the bug (which had been percolating for a long while, to be fair) to take up drawing again, but this time to do it right as regards equipment and time, and possibly go all the way to pastels and the like. You know, color.
So the photo here is of my shiny new drawing desk, canted to a nicely rakish angle. I woke up wanting to draw a black widow spider, and so, after a brief Google Image Search for a suitable photo, I did. :-D You've got to love a creative use for the laptop stand I grabbed on a whim a few weeks ago. Medium: graphite pencils for the black & white, and Prismacolor lightfast colored pencils for the admittedly less interesting color bits.
I hate my ankles, and they return the favor
On a less wonderful note, as I was unloading the desk from the Altima yesterday evening, I rolled my foot off the edge of the concrete slab that is the floor of my garage, and sprained my left ankle something fierce. Yes, Matt, just like I did back on Super Bowl Sunday in your garage, only more thoroughly.
The dogs look at me funny when I hobble around the house, now. I wonder if I look more edible to them...
-Rich
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
In Other News...
I haven't undertaken a new quixotic, faintly counterculture endeavor for a while.
I'm seriously thinking about learning to type on a Dvorak keyboard. I learned how to tap-type pretty quickly with a Fitaly PDA keyboard a year or two ago, so in theory learning Dvorak might not be too bad. Lots of devotees say they have no trouble switching their typing from Qwerty to Dvorak and back after learning.
Why? Why does one make beer and wine, decide to pick up a new programming language, or learn how to shave with 1908 technology? I am, spiritually, bored. I guess this is the way I miss having Leslie around the most. I could never truly be bored hanging out with her. :-)
-Rich
I'm seriously thinking about learning to type on a Dvorak keyboard. I learned how to tap-type pretty quickly with a Fitaly PDA keyboard a year or two ago, so in theory learning Dvorak might not be too bad. Lots of devotees say they have no trouble switching their typing from Qwerty to Dvorak and back after learning.
Why? Why does one make beer and wine, decide to pick up a new programming language, or learn how to shave with 1908 technology? I am, spiritually, bored. I guess this is the way I miss having Leslie around the most. I could never truly be bored hanging out with her. :-)
-Rich
Beware the Busybody Matchmaker
A busybody friend of a friend of mine from work is attempting to set me up with a friend of hers tonight. It will be a group of five of us (the matchmaker, the work friend, myself, and two friends of the matchmaker's) talking over wine at a local restaurant.
Might be fun, might be a little oversaturated. We shall certainly see. It's been a while since I was introduced to a lady sight unseen. At least the restaurant is heavily reputed to be good.
-Rich
Might be fun, might be a little oversaturated. We shall certainly see. It's been a while since I was introduced to a lady sight unseen. At least the restaurant is heavily reputed to be good.
-Rich
Monday, June 13, 2005
Late Happenings
First, yes, I have survived the rampaging of Arlene, the non-storm. To be fair, she did knock out my power for several hours Sunday morning, which has never before happened to me in Alabama.
It's been a good few weeks. I'm still loving the Altima. I'm getting all sorts of use out of the XM radio I plugged into it, and discovering a love for Jazz that I didn't know I had.
Work has been sort of slow as deliberately, deliberately we circle the next big version of the application I've been working on: meetings, documentation, much beating about the bush. It looks as though we're finally going to get moving on it soon--here's hoping!
Life after Leslie has been...okay, actually. Things were up in the air between us for long enough that any shock at parting seems to have been absorbed long ago. I certainly have more time to myself. I've even been on a date or two! My first initial feelers into the Birmingham online dating scene were met with some enthusiasm, actually (it's nice finally to be on the positive end of the men-get-more-distinguished-with-age cliché), but it remains to be seen whether I've crossed quite enough post-Leslie water to be plying new relationship seas just yet. Still, it's good to be out and meeting people.
-Rich
It's been a good few weeks. I'm still loving the Altima. I'm getting all sorts of use out of the XM radio I plugged into it, and discovering a love for Jazz that I didn't know I had.
Work has been sort of slow as deliberately, deliberately we circle the next big version of the application I've been working on: meetings, documentation, much beating about the bush. It looks as though we're finally going to get moving on it soon--here's hoping!
Life after Leslie has been...okay, actually. Things were up in the air between us for long enough that any shock at parting seems to have been absorbed long ago. I certainly have more time to myself. I've even been on a date or two! My first initial feelers into the Birmingham online dating scene were met with some enthusiasm, actually (it's nice finally to be on the positive end of the men-get-more-distinguished-with-age cliché), but it remains to be seen whether I've crossed quite enough post-Leslie water to be plying new relationship seas just yet. Still, it's good to be out and meeting people.
-Rich
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