Randy Pausch Gives Exuberant "Last Lecture"

Randy Pausch:

Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don't achieve theirs, and I think that's a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I've actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU's Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how *you* can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.

Fantastic Lecture.

Watch here.

Muslim Player Thrives With Nourished Spirit by Neil MacFarquhar (NYT)

Old, but whatever.

Link.

Highlights:

“I have had some of my best games during Ramadan,” [Hamza]Abdullah [of the Denver Broncos], a 24-year-old safety, said in an interview. “I got my first and only interception while I was fasting.”

It does not work for everyone. His teammate Ryan Harris, 22, a rookie offensive tackle from Notre Dame, lasted only six days, saying he decided to break the fast between a heavy workout in the morning, when he repeatedly bench-pressed about 275 pounds, and an afternoon practice.

“When your stomach is full, you get tired and lazy and too relaxed,” said [Hakeem] Olajuwon, who retired from the Houston Rockets in 2002. “You get tremendous energy from fasting. Everything is crisp. When your stomach is empty, you get a lot of oxygen and you can breathe.”

Abdullah credits the whole idea of Ramadan with helping push into the background all the distractions from daily life that might interfere with his concentration while playing. “You are focused on the things that matter in your life,” he said. “You are not worried about extracurricular activities with the guys that you usually get caught up in. I don’t hang out at all hours of the night, I don’t listen to music and play video games.”

The hardest parts of the day come during lunch time, he said, when he heads to the locker room to hang out while everyone else is in the cafeteria eating, and between afternoon practice or a game and sunset. To help make the time pass, Abdullah sits in a cool tub in one of the therapy rooms or goes home early to play with his young daughter.

Abdullah was born into a Muslim family, as was Olajuwon, but Harris converted in the eighth grade, drawn to the humility that is a key tenet of the faith, he said.

Islam teaches that if you cannot fast for some reason, you can either try to make it up some other time or pay for food for the hungry. Abdullah pointed out that Harris has been helping to support meals at a Denver homeless shelter.

“When you fast, you feel a sense of being part of a community, you are part of something bigger than yourself,” Harris said. “You learn how unbelievably lucky you are to be able to have a meal.”

"The Content of Character" (Part 7)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

last part:

---

120. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "He who sins laughing enters Hell crying." [Abu Nu'aym]

122. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Whoever pleases his parents has pleased God, and whoever angers them has angered God." [Ibn an-Najjar]

123. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Anyone who sees a believer degraded, and, being able to defend him, does not, is degraded by God on the Day of Judgement."

124. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "One aspect of manliness is for a fellow to listen attentively to his brother should he address him." [Al-Khatib]

129. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "God removes faith from one who engages in illicit sex or consumes intoxicans just as a man removes his shirt when pulling it over his head." [Al-Hakim]

All of The Daily Show. Ever.

http://www.thedailyshow.com

Which means I'll have to go back and update my old links pretty soon. I love it. Love. Heart.

Source: Sahar via New York Times

"The Content of Character" (Part 6)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

---

103. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "The most complete in faith are those best in character and kindest to their families." [At-Tirmidhi]

105. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Speak the truth even though it be bitter." [Ibn Hibban]

107. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Fulfillment is not plenty of goods; rather, it is self-fulfillment." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

108. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Gentleness never accompanies anything without enhancing t, nor is it ever removed from anything without demeaning it." [Al-Bayhaqi]

110. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Never do in private what you would conceal from others in public." [Ibn Majah]

115. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Beautiful Islam entails minding one's own business." [At-Tirmidhi]

117. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Whoever does you a favor, repay him; and if you are unable to, then at least pray for him." [At-Tabarani]

119. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "A person who teaches goodness to others while neglecting his own soul is like an oil lamp, which illumines others while burning itself out."

Chad Ford Revisits PeacePlayers

http://www.playingforpeace.org/

Henry Abbot of TrueHoop talks about how awesome it is.

And it is, in fact, pretty awesome.

I love it. Go give them money.

The Hanukas

I thought I had written about at least Tomer Hanuka before, but apparently not.

Israeli identical twin brothers Tomer and Asaf Hanuka co-create Bipolar for Alternative Comics. I have no more insight into anything comic related.

Tomer Hanuka (WARNING: cartoon nudity)
- i'm definitely a fan, especially of his "Life of Pi" drawings. Most of his work seems to be illustrations for novels or music, so it's amusing to pick out the inspirations.

Asaf Hanuka
- slightly different style, but they're both pretty similar to each other.
- labels his featured art a lot better than Tomer does

More on the Hanukas

Walmart to Pwn India

Source.

Highlights:

Thousands of shopkeepers rallied Wednesday here to protest the advent of large retail stores, saying companies like Wal-Mart and Reliance Retail would destroy their livelihoods.

“This is a do-or-die battle for us. Either they go or the small traders and farmers perish,” said Dharmendra Kumar, director of India FDI Watch, which is leading the campaign against the big companies that are trying to bring big-box style stores and supermarkets to India. He said 200 million Indians depend for their livelihood on the highly fragmented retail industry, which is dominated by about 12 million small mom and pop stores. Organized retail accounts for 3% of an industry estimated at $350 billion.

India FDI Watch maintains that the small fry are on track to lose almost 20% of their business to corporate retailers in the next four years.

In August, Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) launched a partnership with India's Bharti Enterprises to build a chain of wholesale outlets that would buy produce and merchandise from farmers and small manufacturers and sell it on to retailers.

ps - Newflash: Walmart's still evil. kbye.

Eid Mubarak!

Eid Mubarak everyone! Eid was awesome; shrimpy IHOP followed the prayer. Eid calls and Eid naps composed my afternoon a party at night and conversations with the parentals (and others) capped off the evening.

Hope all you stalkers' Eid was fun as well :) Call me, especially if we haven't talked in a while. Eid makes me social :)

Snooze or Lose by Po Bronson (NY Magazine)

Sleep is for the weak! *shakes fist at bed* or for the... week. I prefer the latter, but usually end up abiding by the former.

Article stole from Chen. Lots of highlights because I need motivation to move my laptop out of my room (and there, hopefully, sleep more).

Highlights:

According to surveys by the National Sleep Foundation, 90 percent of American parents think their child is getting enough sleep. The kids themselves say otherwise. In those same surveys, 60 percent of high schoolers report extreme daytime sleepiness. In another study, a quarter admit their grades have dropped because of it. Over 25 percent fall asleep in class at least once a week.

sleep scientists have recently been able to isolate and measure the impact of this single lost hour. Because children’s brains are a work-in-progress until the age of 21, and because much of that work is done while a child is asleep, this lost hour appears to have an exponential impact on children that it simply doesn’t have on adults.

The performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader.

Dr. Kyla Wahlstrom of the University of Minnesota surveyed more than 7,000 high schoolers in Minnesota about their sleep habits and grades. Teens who received A’s averaged about fifteen more minutes sleep than the B students, who in turn averaged eleven more minutes than the C’s, and the C’s had ten more minutes than the D’s.

Tired children can’t remember what they just learned, for instance, because neurons lose their plasticity, becoming incapable of forming the synaptic connections necessary to encode a memory.

The best known of these is in Edina, Minnesota, an affluent suburb of Minneapolis, where the high school start time was changed from 7:25 a.m. to 8:30. The results were startling. In the year preceding the time change, math and verbal SAT scores for the top 10 percent of Edina’s students averaged 1288. A year later, the top 10 percent averaged 1500, an increase that couldn’t be attributed to any other variable.

After the time change, teenage car accidents in Lexington were down 16 percent. The rest of the state showed a 9 percent rise.

Dr. Matthew Walker of UC Berkeley explains that during sleep, the brain shifts what it learned that day to more efficient storage regions of the brain. ... The more you learned during the day, the more you need to sleep that night.

Perhaps most fascinating, the emotional context of a memory affects where it gets processed. Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories get processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.

Dr. Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago discovered a “neuroendocrine cascade” that links sleep to obesity.

Sleep loss increases the hormone ghrelin, which signals hunger, and decreases its metabolic opposite, leptin, which suppresses appetite. Sleep loss also elevates the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is lipogenic, meaning it stimulates your body to make fat. Human growth hormone is also disrupted. Normally secreted as a big pulse at the beginning of sleep, growth hormone is essential for the breakdown of fat.

Vandewater analyzed the best large data set available, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which has extensively surveyed 8,000 families since 1968. She found that obese kids watch no more television than kids who aren’t obese. All the thin kids watch massive amounts of television, too. There was no statistical correlation between obesity and media use, period. “It’s just not the smoking gun we assumed it to be.”

Vandewater examined the children’s time diaries, and she realized why the earlier research had got it wrong. “Children trade functionally equivalent things. If the television’s off, they don’t go play soccer,” she says. “They do some other sedentary behavior.”

Sleep is a biological imperative for every species on Earth. But humans alone try to resist its pull. Instead, we see sleep not as a physical need but a statement of character. It’s considered a sign of weakness to admit fatigue, and it’s a sign of strength to refuse to succumb to slumber. Sleep is for wusses.

The University of Pennsylvania’s David Dinges did an experiment shortening adults’ sleep to six hours a night. After two weeks, they reported they were doing okay. Yet on a battery of tests, they proved to be just as impaired as someone who has stayed awake for 24 hours straight.

Chris Jordan Photography

I saw him on The Colbert Report (10/11/07) and adore him. Chris Jordan's work "explores the phenomenon of American consumerism." Definitely check out his website for more, but I think his Colbert interview (below) gives a better feel for scale. Also, he really DOES look like Clark Kent, which is fun to see. Superman hates consumerism.



Go recycle your... everything.

"The Content of Character" (Part 5)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

---

76. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "A Muslim never gives a fellow Muslim a better gift than wisdom through which God increases him in guidance or turns him away from harmful behavior." [Al-Bayhaqi]

77. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "If a Muslim consoles his brother during some crisis, God will adorn him in garments of grace on the Day of Judgement." [Ibn Majah]

81. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Veiling the faults of the faithful is akin to restoring life to the dead." [At-Tabarani]

89. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "If a man's actions slow him down, his good name will not speed him up." [Muslim]

90. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "A person's spiritual practice is only as good as that of his close friends; so consider well whom you befriend." [At-Tirmidhi]

97. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Recall the good qualities of your dead, and refrain from mentioning their shortcomings." [At-Tirmidhi]

98. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Do not drink liquor, for it is the key to every evil." [Ibn Majah]

99. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Never strike your maids over broken dishes, for dishes, like people, have pre-determined life spans." [Abu Nu'aym]

Empire State Building Goes Green for Eid

Source

:)

NEW YORK (AFP) - New York's iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said.
ADVERTISEMENT

"This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah," according to a statement.

Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending on when the new moon is sighted, and the city's tallest skyscraper will remain green until Sunday.

Built in the early 1930s, the 443-meter-tall (1,454-feet-tall) Empire State Building was first lit up with colored lighting in 1976, when red, white and blue lights were used to mark the American Bicentennial.

TIME - The Murals of Philadelphia

A public art project which encourages local artists to create works utilizing the city's architecture has beautified the City of Brotherly Love and created an enduring cultural legacy.

Photo Gallery

Our Moral Footprint by By Vaclav Havel (NYT)

Written by the former president of the Czech Republic and Translated by Gerald Turner. Coolies.

Article

Highlights:

"Maybe we should start considering our sojourn on earth as a loan. "

"Whenever I reflect on the problems of today's world, whether they concern the economy, society, culture, security, ecology or civilization in general, I always end up confronting the moral question: what action is responsible or acceptable? The moral order, our conscience and human rights — these are the most important issues at the beginning of the third millennium."

"The end of the world has been anticipated many times and has never come, of course. And it won't come this time either. We need not fear for our planet. It was here before us and most likely will be here after us. But that doesn't mean that the human race is not at serious risk. As a result of our endeavors and our irresponsibility our climate might leave no place for us. If we drag our feet, the scope for decision-making — and hence for our individual freedom — could be considerably reduced."

Tragic Retraction

Contrary to popular belief, apparently Baron Davis ISN'T shaving his beard. woo and such.

"I'm gettin' my beard lined up so when I grow it, it'll be nice and full" [Source, 10/3/07] (from the video)

FTB, def glad you respect my gridn and the old skool style, ya dig. I may rock a design in the beard this year…Let me know what I should do. Lol.

[Source, 10/8/07]

--

Old news, on the beard front:

The boy who never troubled his grandmother is in a state of rebellion. She has pleaded with him, chastised him, told him how ridiculous he looks with that awful beard.

It's overgrown. It covers half his face. It makes him seem so menacing, she says. But Baron Davis isn't budging. He refuses to get rid of his "grind," no matter how much the most important woman in his life tells him to.

"She don't understand -- I'm in grind mode," Davis says. "It's what I do in the summer. I grind. I hustle. I don't have time to get no haircut."

Time for a haircut? Davis would sooner speed up his schedule than surrender his grind.

"I told him yesterday," [his grandma] says firmly, " 'Get that beard off.' "

[Source for the aboves, 8/25/05]

"The Content of Character" (Part 4)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

---


53. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Every Muslim has five rights over every other Muslim: The right to a reply, should he greet him; an acceptance, should he invite him; a visit, should he fall ill; a prayer, should he sneeze; a presence at his funeral, should he die." [Ibn Majah]

56. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "He who directs others to a good deed is as the one who did it; and, assuredly, God loves the act of aiding the distressed." [Ibn Abi ad-Dunya]

58. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Those who show mercy have God's mercy shown to them. Have mercy on those here on earth, and the One there in Heaven will have mercy on you." [Imam Ahmad]

62. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Prayer is the central pillar of religion; prayer is the key to every good." [Al-Hakim]

72. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "A believer is not one who eats his fill while his next door neighbor goes hungry." [Al-Bukhari]

73. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Whoever fails to care for our youth, respect our aged, enjoin right, and denounce wrong is not counted among us." [Imam Ahmad]

Jon Stewart Quotables

After seeing how warm and fuzzy inside this list of Jon Stewart/The Daily Show quotables made me feel, I had to go read both sources in their entirety.

Enjoy!

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/8174

Caring for Your Introvert by Jonathan Rauch

I didn't really consider myself an introvert until I read this (these?) article(s). I'm not highlighting, as I am very, very lazy.

Caring for Your Introvert by Jonathan Rauch

There's another article (Top 5 Things Every Extrovert Should Know About Introverts) that I actually preferred. This one I will highlight cuz I enjoyed it a little more and because I already highlighted in an email.

Extroverts on the other hand tend to have more activity in the back of their brain, areas that deal with processing sensory information from the external world, so they tend to search for external stimuli in the form of interacting with other people and the outside world to energize them.

There's a deeper science to this that involves differences in the levels of brain chemicals such as acetylcholine and dopamine in extroverts and introverts, but I won't get into that.

But I wanted to know more about that :-/

Because extroverts notice that introverts don't talk that much with other people. Therefore, extroverts assume that introverts think they're too good to talk to others, hence arrogant and that's hardly the case.

And what's more, introverts can do a lot of things extroverts are naturally good at - give great speeches, schmooze with everyone, be the life of the party, charm the socks off of total strangers - but only for a short period of time. After that, they need time for themselves

4. Introverts need time alone to recharge.

And for those interested in sports, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods come to mind as athletes who are introverts as well.

Introverts have a lot to bring to the table. They have an amazing ability to discover new thoughts, an uncanny ability to focus, to concentrate, to connect the dots, to observe and note things that most people miss, to listen extremely well and are often found having a rich and vivid imagination as well.

"The Content of Character" (Part 3)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

---


27. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "True spiritual excellence is devotion to God as if you see Him; and though you do not see Him, you at least know that He sees you." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

33. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Reliability enriches, and treachery impoverishes." [Ad-Daylami]

36. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "The servants God loves most are those most sincere with God's servants." [Imam Ahmad]

40. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "God loves a servant who, when performing a task, does so skillfully." [Al-Bayhaqi]

46. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Practice humility until no one oppresses or belittles another." [Muslim]

50. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers." [Imam Ahmad]

House Resolution Celebrating Ramadan Passes (also, Tom Tancredo is still a douche)

Via ThinkProgress.org

(I recommend reading the whole, short article). I know I should be upset about the Tom Tancredo thing, but this just got to me instead:

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution “recognizing the commencement of Ramadan” with 376 votes. The resolution sought to “demonstrate solidarity with and support for members of the community of Islam in the United States” during this Muslim month of fasting.

:) Thanks America! For recognizing that I'm American, too.

After the vote, Tancredo issued a press release decrying the Ramadan resolution:

“This resolution is an example of the degree to which political correctness has captured the political and media elite in this country. I am not opposed to commending any religion for their faith. The problem is that any attempt to do so for Jews or Christians is immediately condemned as ‘breaching’ the non-existent line between Church and State by the same elite,” Tancredo says in his statement.

Tancredo voted “present” and not “no” because “a no vote could be construed as not commending religion in general, which Tom is for,” said Tancredo spokesman T.Q. Houlton. Instead, Tancredo seems to only selectively hate religion. He had no problem voting for a House resolution celebrating Christmas.

TIME -- Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith

Article.

I thought this article was absolutely fascinating, amazing, and beautiful. The ability to glimpse into the mind and heart of someone who's so religious, yet actively struggles so hard (and for decades, at that) to maintain or attain some sort of connection to whomever they believe is god is... incredible. (Apologies in advance for the grotesque imagery, but) it's like peeling back the skin to reveal someone's inner workings... with all the beauty, ugliness, blunders, failings, solutions, evolutions, and more... seeing all of it, intertwined, struggling together harmoniously. The book is one which I'll regret not reading.

"Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let Him have [a] free hand."

The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by her church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she felt no presence of God whatsoever — or, as the book's compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, "neither in her heart or in the eucharist."

"The smile," she writes, is "a mask" or "a cloak that covers everything." Similarly, she wonders whether she is engaged in verbal deception. "I spoke as if my very heart was in love with God — tender, personal love," she remarks to an adviser. "If you were [there], you would have said, 'What hypocrisy.'"

Mother Mary Teresa, 36, took the 400-mile (645-km) train trip to Darjeeling. ... The goal was to be both material and evangelistic — as Kolodiejchuk puts it, "to help them live their lives with dignity [and so] encounter God's infinite love, and having come to know Him, to love and serve Him in return."

Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The Child of your Love — and now become as the most hated one — the one — You have thrown away as unwanted — unloved. I call, I cling, I want — and there is no One to answer — no One on Whom I can cling — no, No One. — Alone ... Where is my Faith — even deep down right in there is nothing, but emptiness & darkness — My God — how painful is this unknown pain — I have no Faith — I dare not utter the words & thoughts that crowd in my heart — & make me suffer untold agony.

So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them — because of the blasphemy — If there be God — please forgive me — When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. — I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul. Did I make a mistake in surrendering blindly to the Call of the Sacred Heart?
— addressed to Jesus, at the suggestion of a confessor, undated

Teresa reported on several occasions inviting a confessor to visit and then being unable to speak. Eventually, one thought to ask her to write the problem down, and she complied. "The more I want him — the less I am wanted," she wrote Périer in 1955. A year later she sounded desolate: "Such deep longing for God — and ... repulsed — empty — no faith — no love — no zeal. — [The saving of] Souls holds no attraction — Heaven means nothing — pray for me please that I keep smiling at Him in spite of everything."

There was one respite. In October 1958, Pope Pius XII died, and requiem Masses were celebrated around the Catholic world. Teresa prayed to the deceased Pope for a "proof that God is pleased with the Society." And "then and there," she rejoiced, "disappeared the long darkness ... that strange suffering of 10 years." Unfortunately, five weeks later she reported being "in the tunnel" once more. And although, as we shall see, she found a way to accept the absence, it never lifted again.

Page 4 has some theories as to why she would've suddenly had the feeling of losing god in her life.

...when [Mother Teresa] turned to [Rev. Joseph Neuner] with her "darkness," he seems to have told her the three things she needed to hear: that there was no human remedy for it (that is, she should not feel responsible for affecting it); that feeling Jesus is not the only proof of his being there, and her very craving for God was a "sure sign" of his "hidden presence" in her life; and that the absence was in fact part of the "spiritual side" of her work for Jesus.

Neuner would later write, "It was the redeeming experience of her life when she realized that the night of her heart was the special share she had in Jesus' passion." And she thanked Neuner profusely: "I can't express in words — the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me — for the first time in ... years — I have come to love the darkness. "

"If I ever become a Saint — I will surely be one of 'darkness.' I will continually be absent from Heaven — to [light] the light of those in darkness on earth," [Mother Teresa] wrote in 1962.

But for most people, Teresa's ranking among Catholic saints may be less important than a more general implication of Come Be My Light: that if she could carry on for a half-century without God in her head or heart, then perhaps people not quite as saintly can cope with less extreme versions of the same problem.

Kolodiejchuk thinks the book may act as an antidote to a cultural problem. "The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on," he says. "And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn't 'feeling' Christ's love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, 'Your happiness is all I want.' That's a powerful example even if you are not talking in exclusively religious terms."

Dove's "Onslaught"

Video

Via Debbie Millman:

Dove's "Onslaught" features a close-up of a cute red-haired preteen girl to musical refrains of "Here it comes" from U.K. group Simian's "La Breeze," followed by a barrage of beauty-industry images and ads featuring booty-shaking lingerie models, cheesy direct-response-style pitches promising cosmetic miracles, scenes of plastic surgery, time-lapse effects of yo-yo dieting and bulimia, all leading up to the tagline: "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does." The video, like "Evolution," comes from WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Toronto. And it directly supports the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, which has set a goal to reach 5 million girls globally with programs by 2010. To that end, Unilever this year also will enlist yet-unnamed celebrities to appear at events to reveal how stylists, makeup artists, photographers and computer technicians produce their onscreen and on-page looks."

Via Kottke:

BTW, Dove's parent company makes all sorts of products that may contibute to the problem that Dove is attacking here.

Monkey on the Lam in Columbia, Missouri

Sad, that I'm a bit excited about this.

Ramadan Etcs.

Apparently I wrote this up, but complete forgot to post it a couple weeks ago.

--

I knew I had blogged about this awesome article on the meaning of Ramadan before and in fact, I had. Though it makes me a bit sad to see all these missing Daily Show videos in blog posts past. sigh.

Then I guess I can use this post to talk about the Prophet (saw)'s Khutbah for Ramadan instead:

Ibn Khuzaima reported on the authority of Salman al-Farisi that the Prophet (saaw) delivered a Khutbah on the last day of Sh'aban saying: "O people: You are about to enter the shadow of a great blessed month. A night therein is better than a thousand months. Allah (swt) made fasting during this month an obligation and encouraged people to perform extra prayers. during its nights. Seeking nearness to Allah (swt) through a good deed would be considered like performing an obligatory act of worship. In turn, performance of an obligatory act of worship during this month would be rewarded seventy times more than during any other month. It is the month of patience, and the reward for patience is Jannah. It is the month of comforting others, and the month during which believers would enjoy plentifulness. The Prophet (saaw) went on to say:" Make sure you frequently do four things, two of which would please your Lord and the other two are indispensable for your salvation in the Hereafter. As for the two things that would please your Lord, they are: testifying to the oneness of Allah (swt) and seeking repentance. And the other two are: asking Allah the favour of entering Jannah and seeking refuge in Him from the Hell Fire."

And here is another hadith worth keeping in mind, inshaAllah. The Prophet said, "Whoever does not give up false statements (i.e. telling lies), and evil deeds, and speaking bad words to others, Allah is not in need of his leaving his food and drink (fasting)." Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 8.83, Narrated by Abu Huraira.

--

I guess now you can use it as inspiration in the last 10 days :) salaams
f

"The Content of Character" (Part 2)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui


1. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Islam is clean, so cleanse yourselves, for only the cleansed shall enter Paradise." [At-Tabarani]

4. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Keep God in mind wherever you are; follow a wrong with a right that offsets it; and treat people courteously." [At-Tirmidhi]

6. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Love for humanity what you love for yourself." [Al-Bukhari]

9. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Should you become eager to mention another's faults, recall your own." [Ar-Rafi'i]

16. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "If your good deeds delight you and your foul deeds distress you, you are a believer." [Ad-Diyya]

22. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "Pursue knowledge even to China, for its pursuance is the sacred duty of every Muslim." [Ibn 'Abdal-Barr]

24. The Messenger of God (saw) said, "The most virtuous behavior is to engage those who sever relations, to give to those who withhold from you, and to forgive those who wrong you." [At-Tabarani]

I AM SO SMART! I AM SO SMART! S-M-R-T!

i mean S-M-A-R-T!

http://www.coudal.com/thefish.php

"The Content of Character" Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui (Part 1)

"The Content of Character: Ethical Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (saw)"
Translation and Introduction by Hamza Yusuf
Collected by Shaykh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui

First, jazakAllah khair to Huma for the book :) I love it! The book is mainly a collection of hadith about characteristics befitting of a Muslim. In the back, there's a section about hadith as well as short biographies of some of the narrators.

When I first started reading, my initial intention had been to mark off a few of my favorite hadith and post them here... but as I whizzed through the book, I realized there's usually 3 or 4 from EVERY page that I loved and wanted to share, but i know if I put them all up, barely anyone will take the time to read them all. Rather than dwindle those down even farther, I'll split up this post in segments. Enjoy and benefit, inshaAllah :)

Introduction (by Hamza Yusuf)

Can we change by listening? Can we be so touched and inspired by words that we are moved to renew and remake ourselves as better, nobler, and more merciful human being? the impact that good words have had on humanity throughout history resoundingly declares that we can.

"Whether you are a Muslim, a practitioner of another faith, or even someone who has no religious belief, these saying have much to teach us."

"Perhaps even more importantly for us as individuals, the hadiths are also a way to know our own selves better. They function as mirrors -- by looking into them, we may come to see ourselves more clearly. We may come to see our humanity, the best and worst of ourselves. And through this seeing, this reflection, we may be moved to change ourselves to be more conformed to principled behavior."

"Each saying is also a way to know more intimately the man who first uttered them. They can provide an opening into the one who, for Muslims is the embodiment of impeccable character; the Prophet says, "I was only sent to perfect noble character." These sayings are more than just words; they are the verbal expressions of his personal conduct. As one of his companions, 'Amr bin Al-'As said, "We saw everything the Prophet taught us embodied in his own character."

"Following the Prophet means following his kindness to animals, his gentleness with children, his concern for the weak and oppressed, his care of the orphan and the widow, and his deep practice of justice always tempered with mercy. It means modeling oneself on his character."

"Ironically, this dire need to listen to the Prophet Muhammad applies as much to some misguided Muslims as it does to peoples of other faiths and creeds. Perhaps if we in the West made greater efforsts to remove the historical ignorance we have inherited by taking the Prophet as seriously as he deserves to be taken, many people in the troubled East might reevaluate their own shortcomings in grasping his universal message of mercy and compassion. The 13th century Egyptian poet, Ibn al-Farid, said,

"If the fragrance of his remembrance radiates in the West
And a sick man resides in the East, he will recover."

"Read each [of the sayings] slowly, contemplatively, letting it reveal its wisdom to you. As the Prophet reminded us, "Consideration is from God, and haste is from Satan." Find one that speaks to you and listen to it. Let it permeate you, and then in the example of the Prophet Muhammad, try to implement it in your life. And then return to them now and again as continual source of guidance and wisdom."

Night of Power Dua (August, 2007)

okay okay, so the whole "Dua of the Month" thing didn't work out as nicely as I'd like... because I only did it once and that was 8 months ago. So... maybe this should be more of a sporadic dua thing.

Since it's almost time for the last 10 nights of Ramadan [which contains Laylatul Qadr ("The Night of Power") during which it's said that the Quran was brought down to the Prophet (saw) and worship in this night is worth the equivalent of a thousand months of worship], I figured this would be appropriate:

`Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) reported:

I asked: "O Messenger of Allah! If I realize Lailat-ul-Qadr (Night of Decree), what should I supplicate in it?"

He (PBUH) replied, "You should supplicate:

Allahumma innaka `afuwwun, tuhibbul-`afwa, fa`fu `anni
[O Allah! Thou art the Most forgiving, Thou lovest forgiveness, so forgive me.]."

[At-Tirmidhi].