Ill Logic Board

So, my computer picked a fairly inconvenient time to fail me. Last night the screen began to flicker wildly and then froze. After a restart, the display no longer came on at all. Luckily, my model happens to be covered under the iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program, and will be repaired free of charge by Apple.

Tonight I wrote a paper with a pen, on paper. It was weird.

Beh Loghmân pand âmukhtan

Quite possibly the funniest dictionary entry ever written:



UPDATE!

I had no idea that "teaching one's grandmother to suck eggs" was an actual English idiom. The Persian phrase in the dictionary (Beh Loghmân pand âmukhtan) means "to give Loghman advice", which corresponds to the English idiom's meaning, which is to offer advice to an expert.

Teach not thy parent’s mother to extract
The embryo juices of the bird by suction.
The good old lady can that feat enact,
Quite irrespective of your kind instruction.

Ladrones Desnudos

Something rather amusing happened in El Salvador. The funniest part (to me at least) is that both of them have Ninja Turtle names.

I was pretty proud of myself last year when I figured out that Miguel Ángel = Michael Angel = Michelangelo.

the valley of misery and shame

Despair/Hope

Quotes About Men

There were a few nice quotes of the day on my personalized Google homepage today:

"The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it."
- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be."
- William Hazlitt

Patriotism / Prejudice

So we ended up going last and were cut way short on time and our presentation was wholly inadequate.

(In my Honors seminar we did group presentations about "cultural events". My group attended a performance dealing primarily with the question "What is patriotism?")

So we got up there and the projector was halfway-functional and we got through maybe half of what we spent several hours planning. It was the last ten minutes before Thanksgiving break, so you can imagine how engaged the rest of the class was at this point.

It's ok, though. At least it sparked some good thought and discussion, even if only within our group.

After class the three of us talked about racism and prejudice and how manifestations of these show up in so many places (for example, the presentations that preceded ours).

I'm sure that anything of the sort was completely unintentional and due to ignorance. And I think this is the case with the vast majority of people - racialized ideas and attitudes are present on an other than conscious level and are not usually malicious or intended, but rather inherited from society.

Everyone has prejudices. Overt racists aside, there are basically two groups of people: those who claim to be unprejudiced and pretend there is no real problem, and those who recognize that they are a product of society and do have these prejudices, and who make a conscious and concerted effort to overcome them. We must strive to belong to the latter.

WANTED

Check out this great image Scott made me for my birthday:


The text to the right reads: "WANTED: Daniel "Kool-aid" Mark Greuel in Lourdes, Colon committed crimes of aggravated homicide. He has dark hair, brown eyes, and white skin. HE IS HIGHLY DANGEROUS.", then asks anyone with information to report it via anonymous phone call. Towards the bottom it says, "Let's keep this murderer from killing again! With your help, Swift Justice will be done."

You can also see the original, if you're curious.

Seeking Truth

I was in bed, but could not sleep. I am troubled.

I spent the afternoon reading assignments for my Jesus in History course. It is a challenging course on many levels. Until now, I haven't really felt the effects of this personally, but now I certainly do.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge pointed out, as I posted on another blog recently:

Those who begin by loving Christianity more than truth, proceed to love their sect more than Christianity, and end by loving themselves most of all.

Am I seeking truth, or self validation? That, my friends, is a deeply troubling question to ask yourself.

A large part of teaching others about the Baha'i Faith is challenging them to question their previous assumptions and beliefs. And that's good; it's the only way to get to the truth. But how often do we challenge our own?

Baha'u'llah says:

O My brother! When a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge...He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth.

Wow! Do you know how incredibly difficult that is? I love the Baha'i Faith, I loved the person who introduced me to the Faith, I love being a part of the Baha'i community, I love Baha'is. Am I being blinded? I have acquired knowledge, and interpret things based on it. Is this obscuring dust or revealing light? How am I to know?

What's an interrobang‽

It's pretty much my favorite punctuation mark. It's like a question mark and an exclamation point mixed...bred for its skills in magic.