Archive for June, 2005

Counting every Grisbi

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005

These days, I am SO liking Grisbi (http://www.grisbi.org/). 
I use it to keep track of my finances, and this post is my free
advertisement in favor of it.  It's free software, of course, so
I'm not making them any money.

First of all, let's talk about the interface.  It's GTK2, which
beats Gnu-Cash's old GTK1 interface that they'll someday get around
to updating.  It fits in perfectly with my QT/GTK themes. 
(Yes, appearance is important for someone like me who can easily forget
to balance my checkbook).

Secondly, the name is much better than Quicken, MS Money, Gnucash, or Kmymoney.  It just sounds better.

Thirdly, it comes with a ton of categories already assigned.  You
can add categories just by typing them in, and it remembers prior
transactions as you type them so that you can just press enter to
repeat a transaction.  This is helpful for bills, but you can also
change the amount if it fluctuates from month-to-month.

It has all the other stuff that I don't use, like financial reports,
scheduling, etc.  I'm not saying the best accounting program ever,
but it's certainly the best for personal finance.

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Vacation

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2005

Bismihi ta’ala,

Today is what you could officially call the beginning of my summer vacation. I have so many things to do, but Allah only knows what I’ll actually accomplish.

I’m working on a number of books and essays, including the following topics:

  • Perennialism (that is, the validity, or lack thereof, of all religions)
  • Reason and its place in al-Islam
  • The modern application of shari’ah

and a highly requested book about my life as a new Muslim.

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Affect Change

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

This is my motto for this upcoming school year (and henceforth). 
I'm hoping that it will catch on with the kids once I explain it to
them. What you see below is kind of for the benefit of the
post-intellectuals.  The pre-intellectuals will need something a
little more digestible.  This is copyrighted to yours truly, but
you may freely use it according to the Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org) license listed
at the bottom of this page.

The path to peaceful felicity begins
with dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction leads to the desire for
change.
The desire for change leads to the
formulation of resistance.
Resistance leads to counter-resistance.
Counter resistance leads to resilience.
Resilience eventuates change.

Think, Exist, Plan, Act, Affect Change

Think,
because without thinking, one does not exist.
Exist,
because the road to any destination must begin with realization.
Plan,
because one who acts without planning ceases to exist.
Act,
because planning without action is a tree that bears no fruit.
Affect Change,
because one's actions must produce a positive effect.

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Early testing

Tuesday, June 21st, 2005

Bismihi Ta’ala,

It’s 4:59 AM, and I just finished making this blog. I’m using Wordpress, for obvious reasons. We’ll see how this works out. I’m typing this in Firefox, for reasons I will not explain now. I should probably get to bed. I’ve already prayed Fajr, and I have to go to work at 8:30.

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Patriot Act Gets It

Thursday, June 16th, 2005

This is too significant not to post: WASHINGTON – The House (http://searchmiracle.com/search/search.php?qq=HOUSE) voted Wednesday to block the FBI and the Justice Department from using the anti-terrorism Patriot Act to search library and bookstore records, responding to complaints about potential invasion of privacy of innocent readers. Full Story (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8234242/)

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