“This North Island brown kiwi hatched at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., this week-only the second of these rare birds to hatch during the zoo’s 116-year history.
“Kiwi chicks hatch fully feathered with their eyes open and begin foraging for small worms and berries after their first week of life, since they receive no help from their parents.”
Isn’t it cute?
My new books were delivered today! 
I’m kind of upset that some of the good ones that I ordered got canceled (lack of funds). I wish they had been more selective with their canceling. It seems pretty random. For example, I ordered the Runaways graphic novel series, but they canceled volume two. So, we’re stuck with vol 1, 3, and 4! I’ll have to find more funds to purchase those books. I also ordered two Peyton Manning books, and they both got canceled.
In all, I think I spent about $3,500 (yes, it was fun), but to all you non-Librarians: No, that’s NOT a lot of money. In fact, that’s practically nothing. We need a LOT more books.
Anyway, I cannot complain, alhamdulillah. We’ve got a good bunch of books this Quarter.
Zahra seems to be somewhere between the human realm and the baby realm. She talks non-stop, but most of it is unintelligible. She knows a lot of words, and ever so often, she’ll inject them into her baby realm language, but usually it’s just gibberish. When she wants something, however, she suddenly becomes very eloquent.
It makes me wonder. Is there truly “another” language that babies intuitively have from birth but lose as they become children? Your thoughts?
I had a dream about this last night. So, bear with me…
Mace Windu (Played by Samuel L. Jackson): “We have to get off of this planet!”
Padawan: “Yes, Master…Wait a minute! I thought you were dead?”
Mace: “I don’t have time for this now.”
Padawan: “No No, I’m sure of it. You were dead. I saw you fly out of the window in Episode III. That was quite a dramatic scream.”
Mace: “This is before that”
Padawan: “Before what?”
Mace: “This is before Episode III”
Padawan: “Master, how is that possible?”
Mace: “The ways of Lucas, I mean the Force, are unknown to many. This is before. Episode III was then.”
Padawan: “I thought Episode III was now?”
Mace: “No, now is now. Episode III was then.”
Padawan: “I thought now was before?”
Mace: “Before IS now!”
Padawan: “Well, when will now be then?”
Mace: “Soon. Now, let’s go.”
Padawan: “But Master, if this is before Episode III, and Episodes I and II were also then, what is now?”
Mace: “This is Episode 0.1″
Padawan: “Master, how is that possible?”
Mace: “It’s a prequel.”
Padawan: “But I thought Episodes one, two, and three were the prequels?”
Mace: “And this is the prequel to the prequel, now get in the ship!”
Padawan: “Yes, Master.”
(The Padawan boards the ship).
(Master Yoda enters).
Yoda: “Full of questions, the young boy is.”
Mace: “I don’t trust him!”
After several hours of trying to get Xgl to work, I’ve concluded that people like me just aren’t supposed to have cutting edge technology like Xgl until it’s officially released. Either their instructions are ridiculously deficient, or I am incredibly stupid.
I admit defeat.
I got my tire fixed, and it only cost me $10! Alhamdulillah. When I was outside in the parking lot changing the tire, it was about 20 degrees outside, and I had not eaten all day. My arms and legs were shaking, but my S-Dad showed up to help me.
Anyway, when I was changing the tires, I was glad that I don’t have hubcaps. Those things can be nasty to have to pop off, and when you put them back on, you have to make sure they’re on well so they don’t go rolling down the street (not to mention that, in the neighborhood where I park, they get stolen all the time). I have some killer mags on my car (I’ll post a picture soon, insha’Allah). They’d have to steal the whole wheel to get them.
It was brought to my attention that certain groups organized by the Iranian government recently cracked down on a Nimatullahi protest in Qom. Not having all the facts at my disposal, I can say that there are a number of problems with the reactions to this development (both by the Iranian government and by Muslims and non-Muslims around the world).
1. The Iranian government has developed a history of suppressing demonstrations and protests, even those sanctioned by the government (this can only be characterized as either paranoia or serious control issues.
2. The reaction from the non-Muslim world is predictable (blaming the entire Iranian government, the Islamic revolution, and “Islamist” movements in general).
3. The reaction from Sunni Muslims around the world is very short-sighted. They immediately associate an Iranian backlash against sufis as a Shi’a backlash against Sufism.
Again, I can only go by what I know and what I’ve heard from the many people I’ve known who live in Iran and were even in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
1. Like most new governments, the Iranian government certainly has paranoia and control issues and over exerts the “required patriotism” that is commonplace in all nation states. That’s not an excuse for their actions. It must change, reforms must happen, and protests must continue. That, however, is no reason to trash the regime. If it was, then the American government and it’s disgusting racist white slave masters should have been the first to be “trashed” by Native Americans and African Americans. But we have persevered with kindness and hope for the future, because we know that the average patriotic white American is not representative of the government. Similarly, many of the Iranians, even those who started and perpetuated the Islamic Revolution, have the sincerest intentions and goals. And the constitution of Iran is one of the most Islamic and just in the world. It is up to the people to make sure that their government lives up to it, as it has been in America and elsewhere.
2. There’s really not much to say about this. Obviously, “Islamists” can be good or bad. It is not the goal of spreading Islam and living by Islam that is the problem. It is those who seek to sabotage for their own material gains.
3. To answer my Sunni brethren honestly, sufism is not alien to the Shi’a school of thought. In fact, it was only through our Imams that it even survived. And the proof of that is that 90-something percent of sufi tariqas trace their chains through Imam Ali (peace be upon him). Also, many of the ahadith that sufis hold dear are scrutinized by some sunnis (and all salafis), but our Imams have upheld them and verified their authenticity.
If it were not for the Imams of Ahlul-bayt, Sufism would have ceased to exist. Nevertheless, the Imams always strove to preserve the Shari’ah and ensure that people would not deviate from the path under the guise of Sufism. Even the most intoxicating experience (I mean this in terms of religious intoxication) is no excuse to do or claim anything contrary to the Shari’ah, and I’m sure most Sunnis will agree with that.
Finally, these are the kinds of issues about which Muslims should pressure the Iranian authorities, to live up to the high standards and aims of the Islamic Revolution. The politics of Iran’s nuclear program should not be our concern. Our concern should be with upholding justice and Islamic ethics. I do not believe that Iran owes the western world’s governments any kind of explanation, but as Muslims whose fellow Muslims (the sufis in question) have a right over us, we have a right to know what is going on and an obligation to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.
It has been confirmed. Last night, we had a tornado. For those of you who do not live in the “Midwest” United States, yes, that’s unusual in February. In all of my life, I’ve never heard of a tornado in the winter. I don’t know if this is a sign of strange things to come, but I wouldn’t be too surprised.
Well, maybe not, but my tire is. It looks like I’ll miss Salatul-Jum’ah this week. Americans put the strangest things in the road, you know; matresses, 2×4s, toys, shoes, pets…and, in this case, nails.
My days are now passed on the camel’s back…
I think simplicity is SO underrated. In the software world, people are always complaining about how complex things are. Being someone who “unofficially” provides tech support for an entire staff of teachers, I cannot tell you the number of times that people have tried to send e-mail attachments and failed.
My wife, who is no idiot, but who is certainly not a techie, needed to send a picture of herself to her father. Of course, she is running SuSE Linux 10.0 on a laptop, with KDE as her default desktop. She had Digikam open, looking at her picture, and she asked me, “How do I make this an attachment in my e-mail?”
At first, I was going to explain to her how she can go into the menu in Kmail and click, “attachment” or something like that. But then I thought, “Why make it hard, when KDE makes it easy.” Everything is integrated so well in KDE. So, I said, “Why don’t you just try dragging it?” (having NO idea whether or not that would actually work).
She clicked and dragged the picture from digikam into the e-mail that she was preparing to send to her father. Poof! A little message popped up and asked if she was trying to make an attachment. She clicked it, and voila! Who said things have to be complicated to be good?
